Master of Plagues, D. B. Reynolds [best books to read fiction .txt] 📗

“No, no, it’s nothing like that,” David disclaimed. “Two weeks before my graduation from NYU, right before I finished up with law school, me and several of my classmates pulled this horrible prank on this nerdy bertie type of guy.”
“What horrible prank?”
“First of all, this guy was a twenty-five year old virgin. He wanted to get laid and we were willing to help him out. The wealthy guy who planned the whole thing from the beginning, he rented out this crappy motel in the South Bronx. He and some others put this mechanical sex doll in the bed with a whole lot of maggots.”
“David!” Verna grunted. “You guys didn’t do such a thing.”
“Let me finish telling you,” David signaled to Verna. “Two of my classmates brought him to the motel thinking he was finally going to get laid. Anyway, he was led over to the bed believing that some gorgeous woman was underneath the covers. He pulled the covers back and found out that some mechanical sex doll covered in maggots was under there.”
“You guys were cruel, David. How could you do such a horrible thing?”
“Just having some fun before graduation. Afterall, you only live once.”
“You call that fun? Cruel and unjust is what it was.”
David giggled hard from just thinking about it. “Boy, we laughed our bones out of place.”
“Don’t you feel any type of remorse?”
“No, not really.”
“Where’s your standards of morality?”
David switched from humor to being serious. “Honey, I’ll tell you what I do feel. It’s a high level of curiosity. When we walked out the room laughing our heads off our shoulders, he warned us about something.”
“What’d he warn you about?”
“He promised us, that what we’d done to him, it would come back to bite us in the backside.”
“Did you take heed to what he said?”
“Not at the time.”
“Do you take heed to it now?”
All matters of seriousness faltered upon the face of David. “Yes, I believe what we did to him, it’d eventually come back to bite all of us in the backside.”
“Now, I’m curious.”
“About what?”
“What was your part in the prank?”
“I provided the soft love music to kinda put him in the mood.”
“Like the beautiful love music that we’re listening to now?”
“Exactly.”
“The nerdy virgin that you guys pulled the prank on, what was his name?”
“Stuart Duffelmeyer.”
“Jewish guy?”
“Bonafide Jewish.”
“Where was he from?”
“From right there in Staten Island.”
“So, he was a New Yorker?”
“That he was.”
“Honey, you look quite concerned.”
“What happened to me in my chambers has got me thinking.”
“Thinking about what?”
“What’s the chance of a tornado bursting into a judge’s chambers, then snatching you up and hanging you upside down by your feet?”
“Ask yourself this question: ‘What’s the chance of anyone believing your story in the first place?’”
“One in five-hundred million.”
“Yes, those are the odds.”
“Not to mention getting popped upside the head and face by baseball-sized hail. When that tornado slammed me against the shelves, then the sharp metal knobs piercing me in my butt, that gave me something to think about.”
“About what you guys did to that Stuart Duffelmeyer fella?”
“Yes, the biggest nerd of the Twenty-First Century.”
“Do you suspect he had something to do with the tornado invading your chambers?”
“Verna, if I could answer that question, I’d be the most brilliant man of the century. Strange enough, the tornado told me that it’d been sent by it’s master to plague me.”
“A talking tornado?” Verna snickered, feeling her husband might’ve been hallucinating.
“This crazy gust of powerful winds kept talking about it’s master.”
“Master? What master?”
“That’s the million dollar question that needs a billion dollar answer.”
“But, tornadoes don’t talk.”
“This one did.”
“You’re making it sound like some fanstasy story.”
“This was more like a reality story.”
“Your story couldn’t be no more crazier than the story in New York about the giant talking rats.”
“This story I didn’t hear about.”
“Well, a group of investment bankers claim that rats the size of football players attacked them inside a condominium in New York. Then, these gang members in Miami claim they were attacked by a buncha glowing killer bees from outer space.”
Every window inside the Nguyen home burst open with force. Brawny winds, David nor Verna not seeming to know where they came from, shot through at speeds of over a hundred miles per hour. From upstairs to downstairs, the winds toppled over furniture and blew photos and paintings off the walls. Door slammed back and forth. Fixtures on the chandeliers rattled. The Nguyen couple knew a force of nature had entered their home.
“David, what’s going on?” Verna asked, holding on to the side of the living room sofa to keep from falling on her back.
“I don’t know, Verna!” David shouted over the howling winds, trying to keep himself from suffering further injuries.
A tornado took shape at the middle of the living room floor. The winds surrounding it swirled at high speeds. Major Joezer had made his presence known.
The middle section of Major Joezer opened up to form a mouthpiece. “David, have you not thought about the proposition that I presented to you in your chambers?”
Looking rather hysterical, David replied by saying, “Proposition? What are you talking about?”
“To apologize to my master.”
“Who’s your master?”
“You must be informed, the secrets of the Universe will not permit me to reveal who my master is.”
“Then, how can I apologize to someone that I don’t even know?”
“You know my master very well.”
David grabbed an expensive vail from the table. He launched it at Major Joezer. “You go to hell! I’m not apologizing to your master for anything. Now, go back and tell him what I said.”
Major Joezer caused a sudden downpour of basketball-sized hail. The huge chunks of hail pounded into the floor and walls. The impact caused considerable damage to their property. The ceiling suffered big holes from in the middle.
“Listen to me good, David,” Major Joezer spoke greatly with authority. “Before it’s all said and done, you will come crawling on your hands and knees to beg for my master’s forgiveness.”
“That will never happen,” David assured the mysterious tornado.
Major Joezer increased its winds to over two-hundred miles per hour. A big bolt of lightning crashed through the other half of the ceiling and caused further damage. In terms of dollars and cents, the Nguyen couple would be out of lots of money. Poor David just wouldn’t let go of his pride.
His stubbornness caused his family much pain and misery.
Major Joezer bolted through the front door and disappeared into the clear Chicago skies. Verna stood aside and watched everything. She heard every word spoken by Major Joezer. Did she now believe that tornadoes talked?
“Look at the mess in this house!” Verna complained, looking around at the serious damage.
“Never will I apologize to his master!” David stubbornly grumbled, angry since he couldn’t fight the forces of nature.
“Honey, the tornado destroying our house is bad karma coming back for you.”
David kicked the side of the sofa. “Look, I don’t wanna hear none of this witchcraft-sorcery crap! His master, I sorta got an idea who he is.”
“Who, Stuart Duffelmeyer?”
“Doesn’t matter to me. If my life depended on it, I’m never apologizing to anyone for anything.”
“Did you ever stop and think Stuart’s playing games with you?”
“So what if he is.”
“Did it ever occur to you that he possess powers to make your life hell?”
“It’s like a riddle he’s making me try and solve.”
David sure talked tough. If only he knew the mighty powers he came up against, he’d hurry up and offer Stuart the biggest apology. Time would be the only factor to determine if he’d loosen the grip of being bullheaded.


CHAPTER—40

BATS ON THE ATTACK

Prudence Cundy enjoyed many career options after she graduated from the NYU Steinhardt’s childhood education program. She also enjoyed life as a single woman with no children. The choice to stay single and childless was predicated on her ideals of self-sufficiency. Women having no desire to spend their lives with a man and raise children were commonplace in the Twenty-First Century.
Prudence often bragged to her lady friends how earning her master’s degree, owning a three bedroom home, a brand new car, having thousands put away in a 401K plan, and spending time with her four cats, was all she needed to make herself happy. Did lonesomeness strike on short notices? Not according to Prudence. She went to the movies and out to dinner all by herself. She shopped and traveled alone.
Her career as a fourth grade teacher at Fairview Charter School alleviated some of the loneliness she experienced at home. Working at a school where the parents gave it a five out of five stars brought a sense of pride into the life of Prudence. Fairview having active parent participation boasted an elementary school full of mannerable children. The school’s state standardized tests were splendid. The two thirty afternoon bell rung for classes to resume.
Inside a classroom at Fairview Charter