A Fairly Simple Pattern
“His mother died in childbirth.”
Trevor came from the reverie of his mind. The red dirt road passed beneath his car. His passenger was a black pistol in the seat beside him. Had he really just heard a man’s voice?
“He was five when Daddy got smashed,” a woman’s voice said.
He sighed, thinking this a likely time for going crazy. And the content of what the voices said made sense enough. His mother had died birthing him, and his dad had been crushed when a semi blew through a red light. The man’s voice was next.
“He was eleven when Jake got fried.”
Trevor shook. “Shut up!” How could they be so coarse when speaking of his brother’s death. “Stupid downed power line.”
“Eighteen when Sissy was murdered,” said the woman in a pestering tone.
Trevor touched the pistol. “Don’t talk about my sister! I’ll do it now!”
“Twenty-six when Wifey died,” said the man.
Trevor brought the pistol to the side of his head. “I’ll do it right here on the road, for whatever random passerby to find me.”
“Thirty-five now and thinks he has it figured out,” said the woman.
The man smirked. “Pretty easy pattern, really.”
“He thinks he can save his little girl by making sure he’s the next to die.”
“He can’t.”
“No, he can’t. Patterns cannot be broken.”
“Nope, but they can be stopped.”
“And they’re stopped when they’re figured out.”
Trevor gasped, and then he shouted, “I did figure it out! Five, six, seven, eight, nine!”
“It’s true,” said the man. “He’s got it right.”
“Let’s give him his new pattern,” said the woman.
He felt an icy hand on his shoulder. He no longer had control of his body. Something else willed the next set of movements. It made him set the gun aside, pull the car to a stop, and turn toward the back seat.
A man and a woman, hairless and transparent, sat there, smiling. The woman was holding something out. He wasn’t breathing, and his heart raced audibly, but he otherwise had control of his body again. He reached out and took what the woman had. It was a simple piece of paper, but he couldn’t feel it in his hand. The woman, the man, and the paper all disappeared.
He sat there motionlessly and nearly thoughtlessly for a time he could not sense, and then a sound brought him from this numb state.
His cell phone chimed in his pocket. He sucked in a breath and turned forward in his seat. His breath raced to compensate for the time he’d spent breathless, so he took a few seconds to get it under control. He dug out the cell phone and saw it was his sister-in-law, Carol. He answered it.
“Hello.”
“Trevor, where are you?”
“I… I… Never mind. How’s Tracy?”
“Why didn’t you come to the hospital?”
“Never mind! How’s my daughter?”
There was silence for several seconds, and then Carol said, “She’s fine. The doctor said she just passed out from the heat. He said to make sure she got rest and fluids.”
Trevor felt as if he could melt into his seat. “I’m so glad to hear that.”
“You didn’t answer your phone earlier, so I just took her to your house. I hope you don’t mind, but she played your messages on the home unit and I overheard.”
“Overheard what?”
“Well, maybe you shouldn’t hear it from me.”
“Overheard what?”
Carol was silent for another few seconds. “Well, it was someone at your company about a promotion you were up for. It sounds like you got it.”
Trevor’s felt himself shrug, as if someone were there to see it. “My interview was just a technicality. I was at the bottom…” He stopped. He remembered what the spirits had said. “Oh. My new pattern.”
“What?”
“Nothing. I’m coming home.”
