Chapter Nine: Exposure
Milwaukee Wisconsin March 26th: 2007
On a dark city bus a small light from a flip phone shined on Stella’s face. Jonathan had invited her to a poetry night at the Emporium where they had their first date. As the bus passed by the Emporium, she remembered how she had planned to go, but something came up, something she couldn’t get out of her mind the last two days.
“Just curious,” Stella texted, “did you say that comic book guy grew up in Milwaukee?”
Looking down at the phone lighting up the palm of her hand, she read the words. “You mean Harry?”
“Yes.” her fingers quickly typed back as the bus came to a stop. Now exiting the bus, her hand gripped her cellphone tight as she hopped across a small puddle as the spring showers sprinkled down. After opening her umbrella, she checked her screen again, he hadn’t texted back yet, but she kept her eyes on the small screen until her feet reached the edge of the curb.
“Dammit!” she said aloud as she hadn’t seen the puddle in front of her but now felt the cold splash as a car sped by, its tires tossing water onto her jeans like a mean prank. She stepped back and wiped herself off until the green blinking man began his dance indicating it was safe for her to cross the street.
Still gripping her phone once she reached the other side, she felt the vibration on her skin. Looking down at her flip phone Jonathan finally texted back. “He told me he grew up in Milwaukee, but I remember when we went out for my 21rst, we went to that German bar. Ever have their sausage? My friend Steve worked their last year and he said it was really good.”
Stella’s eyes rolled as she thought to herself, “He texts the way he talks.”
Finally, he sent the text she was waiting for. “Anyway, Harry introduced me to liverwurst, good stuff, you should try it. He mentioned he had family in Amherst. I said you were from there, but he didn’t say much after that.”
Standing before Deranged Comics and Games, its lights were still on, but she knew it would be closing soon. The electronic bell rang as she pushed the door open, and she entered to the sound of shouting.
Harry had enough of Richard’s’s shit. The store’s owner let Richard run a World of Darkness campaign at his store because he was practically an expert on the product, but his people skills needed work. Tonight, Richard admonished a young player who was trying the game for the first time, and Harry was sick of the attitude.
“He was an idiot.” Richard protested as Harry admonished him. “I’m sick of these stupid people ruining game night.”
“Oh, sorry Einstein, I didn’t know we were writing the unified theory of physics, I thought we were just having a role-playing session.”
“He’s a noob, you know how noobs are.”
“All he did was ask if he had a flashlight!”
“And I said, ‘I don’t know do you!”
“That’s not how you run a game!” Harry could feel his anger welling up within him, but his feelings rolled back with the sound of the door opening and the sight of a somewhat familiar face. “He’s a new player and he should feel welcome here.” Harry said, finishing his thought.
“Yeah, so you can make money off him!” Richard cynically said.
“So, he can enjoy the hobby asshole!” Every nerd thinks they can run a comic book and gaming store, but Harry knew that like anything else it takes work. “Until you realize that, you’re the one who’s not welcome here. Go spend your money somewhere else.” Harry didn’t need his business anyway. Besides, it’s not like he needed this store for his livelihood, which was a fact he never shared with anybody.
Harry knew he finally got through to this jerk as he sat there with that deer in the headlights look. Returning to the register, he saw Richard’s large frame stand up from his chair and storm out in a huff, saying nothing as he walked past Stella. Harry wondered if Richard even noticed her, as he wasn’t known for noticing anyone accept himself.
The bell rag again and the glass door swung closed at Richard’s exit. Harry breathed a sigh of relief and said to Stella, “Hey, sorry about that.”
“It’s OK.”
“Jonathan’s girl, right?” Harry said pointing to her.
Blushing, she nodded her head. The store owner thought to himself how those two were a cute couple. Jonathan was a super nice guy, but he just rambles on and on and on, and here’s his girlfriend who’s all quiet. Harry couldn’t help but find it amusing.
Reaching back to the small shelves behind him Harry pulled out a comic that was just delivered today. “Anyway,” Harry said, “I saved #6 of Rob Zombie’s Halloween for you.”
Stella wiped her hands on her shirt before reaching for the comic. “Oh, I’d forgotten all about that. Thanks.”
“No problem.” Harry’s voice betrayed a hint of confusion as he rang her up. She’d forgotten about it? What was she doing here on a Wednesday night in the rain if she wasn’t intending to pick this up?
“Got a chance to read it earlier.” Harry said, making small talk while he took her money. “Cool stuff. Makes you wonder, what if Rob Zombie would have made a Halloween movie.”
The girl simply said “Yeah.” As he handed over her change. Inside he laughed to himself again. She’s like Jonathan’s exact opposite.
“The name’s Stella, right?”
“Yeah.” She continued being a brilliant conversationalist.
Harry then looked at his watch. It was already past closing time. “Alright well thanks for stopping by, I gotta close up soon.”
Stella then suddenly blurted something out, something he wasn’t expecting, something that stopped him dead his tracks. “So, why did you pick the name Harry?”
“What?”
“That was your grandfather’s name, right?”
It was now a slight panic that his voice betrayed as he attempted to brush her off asking, “What are you talking about?”
“You told Jonathan you had family in Amherst. I think I was at your old house. I thought for a minute maybe someone hacked you up with a chainsaw.” She then laughed while Harry’s face froze. “You know kids party in your house now?”
“Look,” his hands slightly trembled as he raised them up in defense. With one last attempt to dismiss her, he said. “I think you have me confused with someone else.”
“I remember the first time I saw you.” Stella recalled. “That night in the theater, you were crying in your seat.” The man gave no reaction, but in his mind, he remembered that night where his dreams shined there, right in front of him, yet so far away. “I read later, that was your dream gig, directing Friday the 13th.”
“Everyone wants to direct Stella. Look it’s time for you to go.”
“You even named this store after that your first screenplay.”
“Who’s screenplay?” The man called Harry asked in vain, but he knew it was too late.
“George Kohler’s.”
He turned his head down in defeat as he left the register. He hadn’t talked to Franki since his father died, but he remembered the breathing exercises dad’s last wife taught him as he calmly walked towards the door. He remembered her teaching walking meditation, taking each step as if it’s both your first step and your last. He managed to block everything out until he heard the sound of the metal clicking as he locked the door and flipped the sign around to indicate the store was closed.
It was the girl who looked a little scared now as he turned back around to face her. He wondered what she thought he was going to do. What he did was ask one simple question. “What do you want? You want money?”
“What?” Stella appeared to have gone from fear to confusion.
“Well forget it. I’ll close this shop and disappear tonight. Is that what you want?” He pointed to the wall displaying pictures of the gaming club. “Where are these kids gonna go then?”
“I don’t want your money.”
“Well, what do you want then?”
Stella looked around at all the merchandise before answering. “I never thought I would really get to meet you, but I always wanted to thank you.”
Now it was he who was confused. “Thank me for what?”
“I lost a sister too.” Stella said. “She got in a car with her drunk boyfriend and got herself killed on 51.” Harry knew that road, the killer highway they called it. In fact, he thought he might have caught the local news report about that when it happened. That would have been during one of his visits to his father in Amherst years back.
“Everybody loved my sister.” Stella went on to explain. “She ran track, did good in school, did good with boys.” Her voice then trailed off as she added. “I was the weirdo sibling nobody liked.”
“Okay.” Harry nodded in understanding. His own sister was also popular in school back when he was a nerdy teenager. It took nearly a decade for him to realize that the reason people hated him back then wasn’t because he was fat or because he was a nerd, it was because of his arrogance, the same kind of arrogance his now former customer had. Looking at this girl before him, he could tell she had some real pain, and didn’t peg her as being conceited.
“Dad started drinking more, I got even more depressed.” the young girl continued. He may have understood her feelings, but he still didn’t get why she was sharing all this. Either way, he kept listening. “I remember my school had this art contest. My sister always encouraged me with my drawing, but now, I just drew a blank. It was right before your chainsaw movie came out.” The comic store owner hadn’t fondly remembered anything from his Hollywood days until just that moment. That was where his life peaked, being at the premier with his father and his sister, right before everything went to hell. “I watched a preview of it.” Stella recalled. “I never forgot the end. You had that image of the guy with the chainsaw spinning around in the field, it was amazing. For some reason it just stuck with me. I sketched a picture of it and submitted it. Figured it would be my last work.”
Harry was still listening, but in his mind, he was remembering that scene, as well as that maniac he spotted on the highway years ago when he was just a kid that inspired such an image. That last thing Stella said brought jolted him back to the present. “What do you mean, your last work?”
Stella answered by rolling up her sleeves. “I was pretty depressed even before my sister died.” The store owner gasped as Stella exposed old cut marks on her arms. He remembered girls he grew up with that did that, some of them didn’t survive high school. “Once she was gone everything got even worse; kids at school were on my case, dad was drinking more. One day he passed out and I took his bottle of whiskey, then I grabbed a bottle of pills and, well you know…”
“Oh my god.” Was all he could say.
“I mean, obviously I didn’t do it.” She said, half cracking a smirk. “I was just about to when the phone rang. I don’t know why I even bothered answering it, but I did. It was the school.” She then laughed, continuing, “You know I was actually a little annoyed, because I thought, God, now I have to go into school and get the stupid award and then off myself.” Stella stopped for a moment. The rain was still coming down outside. She slightly titled her head and shrugged her shoulders as a light thunder sounded in the sky outside. “But I stuck around.” She resumed. “Dad stopped drinking, I ended up getting a scholarship and, well here I am.”
That was a nice sentimental story, but it still didn’t fill the hurt he had inside. “I lost my family to all that shit. No offense but you think this is supposed to make up for that?”
“No,” she answered simply. “but my sister always encouraged my drawing. She wouldn’t have wanted me to stop. Would they have wanted you to stop?”
“If I’d kept my job in Pennsylvania, I’d still have my family.”
“Wow, being stuck in a cubicle, sounds like a great life.” The store owner’s sarcasm detector was going off the charts.
“Look, I’m not gonna tell anybody. I just wanted, I just wanted to tell you.” Staring at the door, Stella said “Now are you gonna let me out or are you gonna cut me up with a chainsaw?”
His heart pumped again as his hands frantically unlocked the door. He pushed the glass door open hard and his arm remained still holding the door open.
Stella laughed walked past him. “God, I was just kidding. You’re so serious.”
Harry was now long gone as the door closed. George breathed a heavy breath as he locked the door again. Somewhere in his gut he knew he could trust her. He knew she wouldn’t tell anyone.
Walking back to one of the comic book shelves, he gazed longingly at a Friday the 13th comic, and remembered that dream from so long ago. Flipping the wall switch the light’s dimmed while he walked back to the register.
Sitting down trying to close out the register, his mind was still in a fog. One thing occurred to him. She never asked what happened to his sisters killer?
Hard Coal Studios 