The Shop Keeper

The Shop Keeper (Chapter 1)

Chapter 1: The Journey


         Tick-Tock, Tick-Tock of the clock was the only sound throughout the house, until there was a loud bang. The bang awoke everyone in the house except, twelve year old Leroy aka Roy who slept on the second floor, third door on the right. The bang came from the first door on the right on the first floor. This is Celestra’s room; she is sixteen years old with big brown eyes and head full of deep auburn hair and is a scientist in the making. The family had become used to the loud bangs, but since Elvin’s accident everyone was on edge, except for twelve year old Roy.


6 Months Earlier:


Elvin’s accident came on a stormy night, Meyana had, had a bad feeling before Elvin had went out to see his girlfriend in the local high school production of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Nights Dream, she was to play the character Hermonia.


         “Elvin, I don’t know why I am feeling the way that I am, but is there any way that you can not go to the play tonight and then we can all go as a family tomorrow night?”


         “Mom, I love you and there is no need to worry, I will be fine. Tonight is the opening night and I promised that I would be there for Alyssa. She would be crushed if I wasn’t there.”


         “I know and I sorry, you are right, you should go. Alyssa deserves to have a wonderful performance with you supporting her.” 


         The sky was clear when Elvin left the house, but as the night wore on the lighting started flashing in the sky to warn of a summer storm that was fast approaching. The play had just ended when the storm finally occurred. Elvin and his girlfriend, Alyssa, ran to his 1965 candy apple red Ford Mustang. Alyssa was in the passenger seat playing with the radio knob, while Elvin was sneaking glances at his girl while driving down Hwy 91. The next thing Elvin knew was the car was spinning and he could hear Alyssa screaming.


         When Alyssa awoke, she found herself in the hospital with her leg in a sling with pins sticking out of a contraction, stitches in her face, neck and right arm and her left arm in a cast. Apparently she had been unconscious for three days. Alyssa’s mother was asleep in the chair when Alyssa awoke. She called to her mother with a voice of a child that was scared. Her mother immediately awoke and gave her kisses on her forehead. “Mom, Where is Elvin? What happened?” Alyssa’s mom told her that Elvin’s car had hydroplaned, the car flipped fifteen times down the cliff and landed in Farmer Bryer’s field. “Elvin did not make it sweetie, I am so sorry.”


         These words echoed in her head for the longest time. Her mother kept telling her how lucky she was to have so few injuries and to even to have survived. Alyssa didn’t feel lucky; she felt alone and confused. What would her life be like without Elvin? They had just gotten engaged two weeks earlier and were planning to move to Boston, Massachusetts, where Alyssa was planning to attend college.


         Meyana awoke at 11:55 pm with a jerk and cold chills; she knew something was horribly wrong. Images appeared to her, they were violent and strange to her senses. She immediately got up and ran to her art studio. She began to paint the images as she was seeing them. At 12:15 am the doorbell rang. Meyana was standing numb at the door with her husband by her side. Together they opened the door to greet the Sheriff.


         “Mr. and Mrs. Cranmer, I hate to have to tell you this” said the sheriff. “There has been an accident and your son did not make it. His girlfriend is being sent to Alpine hospital, her face and chest were cut extremely bad from the windshield, we are not sure if she will make it or not.”


         The next several days passed very slowly for the whole family. Roy was very close to Elvin. Elvin would allow Roy into his room sometimes when he’d get home from his classes at Rhine State Community College and look at the comics that Elvin had drew or they would just sit and chat about what Roy loved the most; art or what he hated the most; school.


  (Looking Back)


         Roy hated school, because his teacher treated him different than all the other students. Mr. Coolly did NOT like having an interpreter in his class. He called Roy “a 'gifted' retard who was too dumb to hear.” Elvin immediately comforted Leroy and told him he was the greatest artist he knew and his talent was greatly enhanced by his deafness.


         “Your eyes and hands tell better stories, than my mouth and ears could ever tell.” Then Elvin would draw a comic about Mr. Coolly and Leroy felt better. Elvin could always make Leroy laugh no matter how lousy he felt. Leroy’s family never treated him any different, nor had any of his other teachers. This was a first and because of it, he hated going to fifth grade, everyday.


         In the mornings Roy would hope that he would get sick before school so he wouldn’t have to see Mr. Coolly. If his parents ever said anything to Mr. Coolly about his inappropriate behavior then he would only treat Leroy worst the next day. Leroy learned that lesson the hard way, the first time he complained to them about the rude comments Mr. Coolly had said in front of the class. Elvin always made him feel better and there were never any harsh comments from Mr. Coolly for it.


         When Leroy left Elvin’s room, Elvin took out some special paper and began sketching out a darker comic of Mr. Coolly. (Leroy did not need to see the darker comic; it was for Elvin’s eyes only.) The next day when Leroy returned to school there was a sweet substitute whose name was Ms. Charles. She was 5 feet 4 inches tall with blue eyes, she weighed about 128 pounds. She said Mr. Coolly was sick and she would be filling in until he returned.


         Days turned into weeks and Ms. Charlie was still there. She arrived on October 31, 2005 to say that Mr. Coolly had passed away. That day in the newspaper the headlines read, Elementary School Teacher dies of strange disease, like one you would see in a comic book. The article described Mr. Cooley's face as swollen like a toad with blisters all over it. He had blisters all over his body stated a nurse that had worked with him while he was at Alpine hospital.


         Mr. Coolly did not stay long at Alpine the treatments they used were not working so he was transferred to Monte hospital which was known for its rare disease center. When Mr. Coolly arrived, the team was not prepared for what they saw. The doctors checked medical journals from over seas, while the nurses watched his condition around the clock. Every antibiotic they administered was not working and the Morphine was only briefly helping with the pain.


         The doctors discovered that there were only two other known cases of this type disease in the whole world, both cases were seen in China back in 1630 and 1852. The doctors only found drawings and scribbles next to each page describing the progress of the disease; they had received the images from a doctor in China. He told the American doctors that he only had pictures, there was no cure listed.


         The doctors were completely shocked when they viewed the drawings. “This is 2005 how can we have a disease that has only had two known cases and both were in another country? Where do we begin? The Morphine is not even allowing this man to sleep. He has never been to China and has not been around anyone or anything that he knows of that has recently arrived from China. I think we need to bring in a Havoc team, we may have to quarantine.”


         “We will also have to send another team to Mr. Cooley's apartment and quarantine that place as well.” The Doctors worked around the clock trying to find a cure or something that would relieve the pain. The emergency personal for quarantine were called. Mr. Cooley's apartment and the hospital ward were quarantined off, but after a couple of days the quarantine was removed because no one else had any symptoms.


         Everyone involved was confused, what had this man been exposed to? Why was he the only one affected? The doctors went back to the journal and noted that both cases lasted four weeks, ending in death for the victim. The head doctor turned to his staff. “Tomorrow marks four weeks for this man, if this is the same as the other two cases from China, then his suffering will end tomorrow with his death. All we can do now is just wait and see.”