Committed

COMMITTED by A.R. Kirby Episode 7 Turn out the lights, the party’s over. “Tal...” Liv said quietly. No response. “Tal.” A little more sharply this time, and slightly louder. Still nothing. Liv closed her eyes, lowered her head, and took in a deep, quiet breath. Raising her head again, she leaned in closer to her husband. She cocked her elbow and hissed “Tal!” into his ear, hitting him square in the ribs as she said it. “Ow!” Tal yelped, louder than necessary as he bolted upright in his seat and looked around to see a couple of hundred people feigning attention to Lester Lazenby’s forty-five-minutesand-still-going farewell remarks. He also saw a few people at the surrounding tables stifling giggles. He blinked rapidly several times and turned to look at his wife. “What was that for?” “That’s for falling asleep during Old Laz’s epic soliloquy,” she whispered intently into Tal’s ear. “If I have to stay awake during this, you damn well have to, too.” Deidre chuckled at the pair from her seat across the table. “Nice one, Tal,” she said, just above a whisper. “I wondered when you were going to start snoring.” Committed by A.R. Kirby Tal straightened in his chair and rubbed his eyes. “I guess the tequila didn’t really sit well with the material,” he said as he watched Lazenby. “I can’t believe he’s still going on,” he whispered to Liv. “You think this is bad?” Deidre asked. “You ought to hear him give the blessing before Thanksgiving dinner.” Most of the audience knew beforehand that Lazenby tended to be on the long-winded side, but this was new territory even for him. A few minutes later when Lazenby finally said, “in conclusion,” an audible sigh of relief could be heard from the crowd. It was a short-lived, however, as his “conclusion” went on for another twenty minutes before the old professor finally sat down to a hearty round of applause. “Thank God,” Tal said to Liv as he slid his chair away from the table. He scanned the crowd, watching as well-wishers moved to the front of the courtyard to give personal congratulations to Lazenby, with Paul Griffin leading the charge. Tal’s brow furrowed. “Are we done here?” he asked his wife as he stood, albeit a bit shakily. He glanced toward the bar. “I think I need one for the road,” he said, straightening his tie. “Oh, Tal.” Liz said as she gathered her purse. “Do you really think that’s necessary?” “You bet your ass it’s necessary,” he shot back. “This might be the last time I get the university to pay for my drinks.” “Whatever,” Liv said flatly. The perfect evening she had envisioned was quickly coming apart at the seams, and she was becoming increasingly aggravated. She tried not to show it, but her mood reflected in her voice. “Do you have the valet ticket?” she asked him icily. 2 Episode 7 Tal fumbled in his pockets, eyes screwed up, as he searched for the elusive piece of paper. With a mental “ah-ha!” he pulled it from his trouser pocket and handed it to his wife. “Thanks, babe,” he said as Liv looked at him sternly. Tal pretended not to notice. “I’ll meet you out front in five minutes.” Liv rolled her eyes and made some small talk with Deidre, who was trying (quite unsuccessfully) not to notice the tension between the couple. Tal turned away from the table and made his way to a final two shots of Jose Cuervo from the bar. By the time he shuffled back through the hotel lobby to the front drive, Liv was waiting for him in the Volvo. “Hi,” he said sheepishly as he crossed in front of the car, bruising his thigh as he stumbled into the bumper. “Get in,” Liv said sharply, and Tal slid in beside her. They both slammed the car doors shut and Liv pulled away from the hotel. The ride home was marked by a tense silence, broken only when Tal asked Liv to stop at the convenience store so he could by a pack of Marlboro Lights. When she balked at the idea (Tal didn’t smoke often, and Liv, being an ex-smoker, made no effort to hide her dislike when he did), he snapped at her. Neither one of them spoke when she pulled into the parking lot of the store, and the situation remained tense when he got back into the car. The fiveminute drive to the house seemed like an eternity to the both of them. When Liv finally, thankfully put the station wagon into park in the driveway, Tal got out without speaking, slammed the passenger door behind him, and stormed into the house. Liv stayed in the car for a moment, pondering what had just happened and wondering where the evening went wrong. This isn’t the first time, Liv thought, and it won’t be the last, either. When Tal drank (which wasn’t often, Liv admitted to herself), he tended to become morose and fatalistic. For the first couple of years they 3 Committed by A.R. Kirby were together, this behavior was a major concern to Liv. Back then, she was certain his depression was the result of issues between the two of them, and nights like this often turned into three-day fights. After a while, however, she learned that Tal had to look at things in the worst possible light before being able to deal with them. She knew now that as soon as the alcohol wore off, Tal’s bad mood would, too. With a deep sigh, Liv got out of the car and walked inside the house. Monica was still not home yet, and a note from Alice on the coffee table stated that she was spending the night at a friend’s house. Liv started to pull out her cell phone and call her daughter, then decided it could wait. She walked into the kitchen, pulled a bottle of pinot noir from the rack, and dug around in the drawers for the corkscrew. Finding it, she opened the bottle, grabbed a glass from the cabinet and headed into the living room to wait for Tal to get over his anger. She plopped down onto the sofa, poured a glass of wine, and started reading an article on global warming in an old issue of Harper’s. In the meantime, Tal slumped in a large Adirondack chair on the deck, miserable. He had stomped through the house when he got home, stopping only in the kitchen to grab a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale out of the fridge before heading out back. “Dude…”, Tal said softly to no one in particular and took a long pull on his beer. Normally, this would be Tal’s favorite time of day, sitting on the deck, the night air cool, a beer sweating on the table next to him. He and Liv had worked hard to make the deck an inviting, welcoming place for the two of them to relax, and they had succeeded. The deck overlooked their back yard, where Liv had made raised gardens. Potted plants were arranged neatly around the deck, and the numerous benches, complemented with tiki torches and candle arrays, made several conversational nooks. The couple often entertained on the deck, and Tal even built a bar for their summer parties. The place had a shabby chic air about it, decorated in a Howard Finster folk-art style, with lots of unpainted wood and several weatherproof pieces of art scattered about. 4 Episode 7 The centerpiece of the deck was the table which he and Liv made from a fully-functioning door. It was quite the conversation piece, with the glass view windows, hinges, knobs, and mail slot still intact. It didn’t make for much of a dinner table, and it was far too large to fit in the house, but it was right in place on the deck. In its first life, the door was a big, slightly oversized front door. Liv picked it up at a garage sale for five dollars, thinking it would make a good replacement for the back door of the cottage. Their two dogs, Gypsy and Nader, had chewed a fist-sized chunk out of the bottom corner of that one, allowing the occasional chipmunk or squirrel – usually frightened out of its wits by being chased by the pups – to gain entry into the house. Unfortunately, the garage sale find was too large to fit into the back door frame, and the door was eventually put into the shed at the back of the property where it remained essentially forgotten for quite some time. When Tal entered a woodworking phase a couple of years back, the door was remembered and hauled out of the shed. Tal attached a crude base and some legs to the backside of the door, and it began life anew as the deck table, most often serving as a receptacle for spilled drinks, ashes, and candle wax during the deck parties Tal and Liv held from time to time. But the purpose of a door is to open into something. Without a room to guard, this particular door had lost its purpose, and sought a new one; one that didn’t involve stale beer or bird shit. Thanks to the chance providence of others, the door was about to have renewed purpose as a means of getting from one place to another. A tiny yellow glow struggled to seep though the mail slot which had been dark for far too long, and a faint buzzing came from behind the closed slot. Tal didn’t notice; his attention was focused upon the dozens of thoughts whirling around in his brain. The one that stood out was how pleased he was that the day was finally coming to an end. It had been quite a day, without a doubt, and the events 5 Committed by A.R. Kirby replayed themselves over and again in Tal’s now-bleary head. Of course, the strongest feelings and thoughts came from the current strain with his wife. Then there was the ill-advised early-morning home improvement project he started right after breakfast. He knew he couldn’t get the tub in his daughters’ bathroom to drain properly before he had to be at work that morning, but he gave it a shot anyway. The result was a still-clogged drain and grease all over his tie. Then there were the test reviews he conducted in three of his classes that day, which made him generalize that all sophomores were idiots. Of course, the straw that broke the camel’s back was the discussion with Paul Griffin. Tal was already dreading the Monday meeting with the dean, when he would have to justify his position at the university. He took drag from his cigarette and settled back uncomfortably into the deck chair, then took another swallow from the beer on the door-turned-table next to him. He leaned his head back and closed his eyes. Too damn loud to be crickets, he thought as a summer symphony filled his ears. Wonder if I’ll find a cicada husk in the morning. His eyes opened slowly, and Tal found himself staring at the night sky, clear with a few wisps of cloud skittering noiselessly above him. A fingernail moon hung high, and the stars glittered. His thoughts turned to how insignificant he was in the grand scheme of things. From her vantage point on the sofa, Liv could see through the kitchen and out onto the deck. She could almost feel Tal’s thoughts shifting, and she smiled slightly, secure in the knowledge that he would soon come inside the house, hug her, and ask for her forgiveness. She put down the magazine, had another sip of wine, then got up and walked over to the entertainment center. She pulled out a CD and slipped it into the player. She sat back down and returned to her article as the first notes of “Miss You” by the Rolling Stones came from the speakers. “Shit!” she exclaimed as Toby leaped upon the coffee table, 6 Episode 7 knocking over her glass. Fortunately, she had not yet refilled it, so there was no red wine stain on the carpet. Toby sat contentedly in the middle of the table, watching Liv as she cleaned up the mess. “You fat bastard,” she said to the cat, stooping to pick up her glass. “Sometimes I wonder why we even keep you around,” she said as she picked up the bottle and poured herself another glass. “You’re not the only one, sister,” said a voice in a high, clipped, nasal tone. Liv looked around, startled. Tal still sat on the deck. She looked at the entertainment center, wondering if she had accidentally turned on the television when she put in the CD. Her initial thought upon hearing the voice was that she had turned on the Game Show Network to an old episode of “Hollywood Squares”, and Paul Lynde was responding to Peter Marshall for a block. The TV, however, was off. Slightly shaken, Liv started walking out of the living room toward the deck when the voice spoke again. “You know,” the voice almost sneered, “sometimes I wonder why I keep you two around.” Liv whirled around, searching for the source of the voice. All she could see was Toby, still sitting on the coffee table. “I must be going crazy,” she muttered under her breath as she took another sip of wine. “No, you’re not crazy,” Toby said, making Liv spew wine across the room. Her eyes widened as she took in the fat cat with an apparent new ability for speech. “At least not any crazier than any of the rest of the humans on this planet,” the cat told her. “Now have a seat. We’ve got some talking to do.” Slowly, and never taking her eyes off Toby, Liv made her way back to the sofa and sat down. She started to speak, but only 7 Committed by A.R. Kirby jumbles came out of her mouth. “And you say I’m retarded,” Toby said, and snickered. “Let me tell you, you humans are the most simple-minded creatures I’ve ever had the misfortune to deal with. But dealing with humans is apparently my lot in life, so here I am.” “What...,” Liv started, then stopped, shocked that she was trying to have a discussion with said cat. “No. I can’t believe this. You’re a cat, for god’s sake. Cats don’t speak.” “Well, I look like a cat, and I act like a cat, but I’m not a cat,” Toby said, irritation in his voice. “It’s a long story, and there’s not much time. Quit trying to wrap your head around it; just listen to me. And shut your mouth. You’re going to draw flies.” Liv was surprised to find her mouth agape, and quickly closed it, still staring wide-eyed at Toby. From the deck, Tal looked back over his shoulder into the house. He wondered why Liv was so pale, and why she was looking so intently at the cat. He shushed the dogs as they began barking from the yard, and looked back toward his wife. I swear, it looks like she’s having a discussion with Toby, he thought, and giggled to himself. I guess things are looking up. Tal got up from his chair, put his cigarette butt into the empty beer bottle, and completely did not notice the mail slot glowing brighter as he started back into the house. He could hear Mick Jagger singing “Imagination” as he walked into the living room, and stopped dead in his tracks when he heard an unfamiliar voice speaking to Liv. “You and the professor are, very literally, the two most important people this world has ever known,” Toby told Liv. “Things are about to start happening, big things, and you two are right in the middle of it all.” The cat turned and looked at Tal. “You want some meaning in your life, mister? You’re about to get it – in spades.” 8 Episode 7 der. Tal looked at Liv, who returned his stare with one of won- “Well, what are you waiting for?” Toby asked to no one in particular. Just then, the mail slot on the deck door-table burst open. A dazzling beam of golden light shot out from it, straight up into the night sky. After barely a moment, the beam made a ninety-degree turn from the slot and shot into the house, through the kitchen and into the living room. The beam first hit Tal, then it enveloped Liv as she sat on the couch. “What’s happening here?!” Tal shouted, just before he felt his body being pulled and stretched, becoming one with the beam. He looked at Liv, also enveloped in the golden aura, her elongated face twisted with shock and confusion. Consciousness left Liv and Tal as the beam, and their bodies with it, retreated from the living room, back out to the deck, and through the mail slot. Just as suddenly as it had burst forth, the beam disappeared, and the door over the mail slot swung shut with a click. Gypsy and Nader yowled from the back yard, and the cicadas continued their summer song. Otherwise, the neighborhood was as quiet and still as before, as if nothing had happened. Toby remained on the coffee table, cleaning his paw and chuckling slightly to himself. To be continued... 9