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

“Haven’t I already told you what happened?” John reminded his sometimes nagging wife, stirring his tea in angry motions.
“One of the nurses showed me your office after the rumbling in there. After I saw you later that day, I don’t know who looked worse, you or the office.”
“Thank you so much for the encouragement.”
“I’m not trying to be insulting. Did you get into a fight with someone?”
“Who would I be fighting in my office?”
“An old enemy?”
“My enemies are few and far and in between.”
“Your office tells a different story. The way you looked after coming out of there, makes me believe a different story.”
“Why don’t you drop it!” John thundered, pitching the spoon across the glass table.
“Alright, if you don’t wanna talk about it, then that’s fine with me.”
John cupped his hand over the shoulder of Susan. “Look, I’m sorry if I snapped on you. I believe that my past has come back to haunt me.”
“Haunt you how?”
“Karma is one bad motor scooter.”
“You’re saying that what happened in your office was bad karma?”
“In every sense of the word.”
“I don’t understand, John.”
“You wouldn’t, Susan.”
On one of the driest and sunniest days in Washington, D.C., water dropped through the ceilings of their condominium in tiny spurts. Through the cracks of the glossy hardwood floors, the tiny spurts turned to gallons. The windows and doorways were no exception.
“John, where’s all this water coming from?” Susan questioned her husband, hopping off the sofa and backing away into the kitchen.
“I don’t know,” John guessed. “Maybe our neighbors upstairs have flooded their place.”
“Impossible,” she rejected. “The apartment above us is empty.”
John stared out the window and looked up to the sky. “There isn’t a cloud in the sky. I don’t see a single drop of rain coming from anywhere.”
Winds at speeds of about a hundred and fifty miles an hour blew strong enough to knock over their expensive amenities. Every drop of water in their condominium clumped together to form a commanding hurricane. The slightest breeze came from nowhere outside. Susan held on for dear life to the side of the chef’s island in the kitchen.
Colonel Boaz made his presence known to the O’Connor couple. “John, have you not thought about the proposal I made to you in your office?”
“What proposal!” John forgot, gripping the edge of the sofa.
“It is an engraved apology that you owe my master.”
“Don’t play games with me. Who is your master?”
“He is one you are very familiar with. Because of your evil disobedience, you are indebted to my master.”
“Like in my office, you’ve come to my home to plague me?”
“Yes, on strict orders given to me. My master has ordered me to plague you once again.”
Colonel Boaz directed its powerful winds and commanding waters over at Susan. “Susan, have you not been told that your husband has been having an affair with another hospital employee?”
“Which hospital employee?” Susan inquired, trying hard to keep from crashing in to something.
“Does the name Marissa Halifax register with you?”
“Marissa Halifax!” she snarled, projecting her burning eyes over at John. “You’ve been having an affair with Marissa Halifax?”
“Susan, don’t listen to this big globbery hunk of wind and water. Somebody has put a voodoo curse on this apartment.”
“Screwing around with the head dietician, huh? Guess that explains why you’ve been coming home much later than you should.”
“Those are nothing but lies.”
“John, you’re nothing but scum!”
“Don’t be deceived by this raw sewage water from the gutters.”
Colonel Boaz pitched several liters of water at John and knocked him flat to the ground. “John, as mentioned to you before, you will come crawling on your hands and knees to beg for the forgiveness of my master.”
“Never, never, never will I apologize to your master. I don’t care if your master is the most powerful man on this Earth.”
“Have it your way, John.”
Colonel Boaz shot through the floor-to-ceiling windows and dissolved into the sunny Washington, D.C. skies. No longer did the strong winds knock over everything inside their condominium. The floors and ceilings were perfectly dry.
Susan released her grip from the edge of the chef’s island. “So, it took a hurricane to come into our home and tell me that you’re having an affair with Marissa Halifax. John, I trusted that you’d take your marriage vows seriously when we first got married.”
“Honey, you mean more to me than anything in the world,” John exaggerated, standing up to rub his sore backside for further comfort. “You gave me two wonderful sons. My happiest times are spent with you.”
“Then, why are you having an affair?”
“Are you going to believe a mix up of wind and water over me?”
“Stranger things have happened.”
John gestured for Susan to come over and take a seat next to him. “Darling, let me explain something to you. When I was a medical student at NYU, me and some of my fellow college students pulled one of the nastiest pranks you could’ve imagined on this one nerdy guy.”
“You’ve never come across as a prankster to me. What exactly was this prank?”
“I’m getting to that part. Before we all left the motel room where the prank took place, he told all of us that what we’d done to him, it would come back to bite all of us in the backside.”
“You’re dancing around the question, John. What did this prank entail?”
“We lured him to a skuzzy, stinky, rat-infested motel in the South Bronx. After we got him to the motel, we had him believing that he was going to get laid. A mechanical sex doll covered with crawly little maggots were piled into the bed. He pulled the covers back and saw that his supposed dream night turned into his worst nightmare. One of my classmates dumped more maggots on top of his head.”
“You guys were the cruelest of them all.”
“On the way out of the room laughing our heads off, he warned us that we’d pay for what we did to him.”
“How come you never told me this?”
“Because you never asked.”
“Oh, so I’m a mind reader or a fortune teller now?”
“I never told you because I didn’t think it never mattered.”
“Where’s all this leading to?”
“The reason why my office got wrecked was because of the hurricane.”
“And the same reason why you suffered the injuries.”
“Yes, it’s because my backside is also injured. The hurricane won’t stop plaguing me until I apologize to its master.”
“Its master being?”
“Possibly Stuart Duffelmeyer.”
“The guy you and the others pulled the prank on?”
“Yes.”
“Why do you feel he might be responsible?”
“There’s no logical explanation. But, he’s come back to get his revenge.”
From the opposite end of the sofa, Susan casted eyes of mistrust at John. “You suffering severe injuries on your backside, maybe there is some plausibility to what he told you guys before you left the motel room.”
“There has to be some credence to what he said.”
“Maybe it’s time for you and your NYU cronies to make amends with Stuart Duffelmeyer.”
“If we don’t, then we’re going to continue suffering these devastating plagues.”
“Have you kept in contact with any of your former collegemates involved in the prank?”
“Not since graduation.”
“Do you know the whereabouts of this Stuart Duffelmeyer?”
“Last I heard, he owned and operated a lot of pet shops and vet clinics in New York.”
Susan felt rather disgusted with her husband. “If you were smart, you’d get into contact with all the parties who participated in the prank. Every one of you guys should find this guy and apologize for what you did. I don’t wanna stay married to a man who’s cursed with a plague for life.”
“Our family doesn’t deserve this.”
“John, look me square in the eye and tell me that you didn’t have an affair with Marissa Halifax.”
John released a light wind and said, “No, I didn’t have an affair with Marissa Halifax.”
Surprisingly, he spoke with sincerety. He just told his wife one big lie. She looked into his eyes and somehow saw the glare of truth.
“Start looking up the numbers for your old friends so we can get this plague lifted off us.”
John wasted no time going to his computer to research the possible phone numbers and addresses to other seven who violated Stuart Duffelmeyer.


CHAPTER—45

CONSECRATED HIGH IN THE UNIVERSAL SKIES

Eight big cities and smaller towns in between after several months exhausted Stuart to the point of needing much rest. Traveling from one end of the United States to the next gained him a wealth of experience in his dealings with vast cultures. One thing he learned for sure, was how people were the same no matter where you traveled to. There were the good and the bad, the proper and the improper, and the considerate and the inconsiderate.
Being able to sleep in his own bed for several days felt so good. Being able to socialize with his neighbors in Arden Heights of Staten Island felt better. Ownership of highly-profitable pet stores and vet clinics made his parents as proud as could be. Harry Duffelmeyer