COUCH MATINEES

“My name is Steven Harrison, and beyond all I’ve seen before, this was the worst.

I stared into those green eyes glowing out from under the hoodie. Standing back in the alley we were almost invisible in the dark.

I turned and got sick on the ground. He only laughed at me. When I turned back around he was gone again, like in the past.

“My name is Steven Harrison, and beyond all I’ve seen before, this was the worst.

I stared into those green eyes glowing out from under the hoodie. Standing back in the alley we were almost invisible in the dark.

I turned and got sick on the ground. He only laughed at me. When I turned back around he was gone again, like in the past.

We had met the first day of my senior year of high school. Up until that point, my family had moved 9 times in nine years. Because of that, I had never had any real friends. Kids are tough on the new kid and I was never one to go begging for friendship. This was the last move. Mom had promised. Now that dad was dead, we did not have to keep moving. I can still see his body, lying there on the floor the ax firmly implanted into his skull.

The police had looked for the killer, but they never did solve the case. As soon as mom could, she moved us back to the town she had grown up in. We got into our new apartment the day before school began, so that next morning I walked into John Tyler High. I should have known that a high school named after the first vice president elevated to the office of President, due to the death of William Henry Harrison, would be, as they dubbed Tyler an “accident.”

That day began badly. Two of the bullies immediately jumped on me and pounded me good. Though dad was not a very nice person, he had never taught me the art of fighting. After lunch, I was sitting in the library, my head in my hands when I heard his voice.

“So, you gonna let them pound you and not do nothin’?”

I looked up and standing a few feet in front of me was this string bean of a boy. He had to be 6’2” and weighed no more than 130 pounds. He wore a pair of jeans that were dirty, like they had not been washed in years. Then there was the hoodie. He was wearing a dirty gray hoodie that hung from his skinny shoulders. Long stringy hair oozed out from underneath the hood down to the middle of his chest. The hair was greasy and clumped together, obviously also needing a washing.

But the thing that hit me immediately was his eyes. I could hardly see his face, as it was hidden in a shadow underneath his hoodie. But the eyes, well the eyes were bright green and they almost glowed. They made a shiver run up and down my spine, those eyes did. I should have stood and walked out of the library, but I didn’t. And in that one moment my life changed.

His head was down, and he continued, “If you let them get away with it, they will pound you every day. You need to stop them now.”

“But I am not a good fighter. My dad never taught me how to,” I replied.

“Look, it is not about the ability to fight, it is about the element of surprise. I know these guys. I can show you where to get them when they aren’t ready.” Meet me in the locker room after school.”

I closed my eyes to think about what to say and when I opened them again, he was gone. But I could still smell him. It wasn’t a dirty smell, but more like that smell your attic has on a warm summer day.

After school, I went out to the locker room to tell him that I wasn’t going to fight. He was waiting outside the locker room. “OK, let’s take care of those two.” He whispered. “They are inside by themselves.”

“Wait,” I said “what the hell is your name”

He lifted his head slightly, those green eyes glowing from under the hoodie, “You can call me “Skeletor” that is what all the kids call me.

When we walked into the locker room there were the two bullies. Their backs were to us and there was no one else around, just like he had said. Behind me I heard his voice, low, barely a whisper, “There they are. Are you going to let them pound you again? The next time they will not stop until you are in the hospital. Believe me they did it to a new kid last year.”

Slowly, quietly, we walked deeper into the locker room. As we got closer, I could hear them talking. Talking about the new piss-ant they had pounded and how they would be waiting for him (me) the next morning for some more “fun.”

The one closest to me began to turn when the baseball bat hit him. The barrel caught him square in the side of his head and he was down. Then the bat swung the other way before bully number two even had a chance to turn. The bat caught him in the back of the neck and his knees crumbled, his body falling to the floor like a sack of onions. I turned in surprise. I hadn’t even seen Skeletor pick up the bat.

“OK, now, put the bat in the corner and wipe it off with this rag. We need to get out of here quick. Follow me.” We went out a back door and made our way into the woods behind the school.

When we finally stopped running and sat down near a big tree, I realized I was shaking like never before. “Look man, I never did anything like that before. I am scared of what is going to happen.”

“Don’t worry about those two. They got what was coming to them. Bullies need to learn a lesson and we taught those two good. Now, bury that rag in the ground and cover it with leaves so no one can find it.”

I could not stop shaking and then I began to cry. I am not sure why, I guess it was just from fear of getting caught. I heard Skeletor laughing and was ashamed so I kept my back to him. I don’t know how long it took me to dig the hole with my hands and bury the rag, but when I looked up, it was almost dark and he was gone.

The next day at school everyone was talking about the fact that Greg and Alex (I realized I hadn’t even known their names), had been put in the hospital. The police were all over school and I had to talk to them, of course, since word had gone out that I had been beaten by them that morning.

They talked to me for over an hour asking all sorts of questions. Why had they beaten me up? Did I know who had attacked them? Did I attack them? Where was I when the attack happened?

I guess I convinced them that I had nothing to do with the attack because they let me go and never talked to me again.

I went to school each day looking for Skeletor and never saw him. People were not real friendly to me and when I asked them if they knew who he was, they told me they didn’t know who I was talking about and looked at me weird, so I stopped asking. I began to wonder if he even went to school there. After a month or so, I just decided to move on and forget about him.

Each night I would go home and then have dinner with mom. I had to get a job to help out with the bills, so I began working at the local burger joint, working in the back, cleaning. It didn’t pay great, but it gave us enough to make it by each month. Working the night shift was also great since I got to use her car to get to and from work.

Sometime around Christmas, I was just about finished mopping the floor when these two guys walked in. I told them that we were closed and one of them began to laugh. Then he pulled out a knife and told me to give him the cash. Mr. McGarrity, my boss, started yelling at them and the other guy hit him and kept hitting him. I yelled at them to stop, that I would give them the cash we had. As they were leaving they kicked at Mr. McGarrity again. When they were gone I called the police and they came along with the ambulance.

I tried to describe the two guys but all I could remember was the knife and the boots they wore as they kicked poor Mr. McGarrity. He ended up in the hospital and I ended up losing my job when the new manager came in. he said I did not fit the “style of the place”, whatever that meant..

Then about two weeks after the attack I was downtown, trying to find a new job, when walking out of one of the bars were the two guys who had robbed the restaurant. I looked around for a cop, but of course there were none to be found. When they got into a truck I began to follow them. They ended up at a house outside town. It looked like they lived there together. On the front lawn were two cars on bricks and a boat that didn’t look like it could stay afloat for long at all.

I sat there, looking at the house, getting angrier by the minute. I put the car in gear and drove to the police station. I told the cop at the desk about the attack and that I had found the guys and he sent me to see some detective.

I told my story all over again from the beginning and the detective just nodded his head the whole time. About a week later I went back to the police station and found the detective. He told me they had talked to the two guys and they both had alibis for the night of the robbery. I yelled at him telling him I know it was them, asking him if they had talked to Mr. McGarrity at the hospital. He told me they had but that he could not remember anything. The beating had given him amnesia.

As I walked out of the police station I looked across the street and there was Skeletor sitting on a bench. I walked across the street and sat down next to him. “So, I hear your boss got put in the hospital,” he said to me.

“Wait, where the hell have you been?” I asked. “I been around dude. I have things going on and can’t be holding your hand all the time,” he shot back.

“Man, I am not looking for a babysitter, I was hoping for a friend. Someone to hang with, that’s all, nothing more.”

“Look dude, I ain’t a friend kind of guy. I roll on my own without anyone else. Now, when you need me, I will be around, but I ain’t looking to sit around drinking soda and watching sitcoms on TV.” He turned his head slightly and looked at me. His eyes glowing out from under the hoodie. I tried to see his face but could hardly make out the features.

“Well, I could use your help. Those assholes who beat up and robbed Mr. McGarrity are getting away with it. They have some freakin’ alibis for the night of the robbery and the police ain’t doin’ shit about it.”

“Well, let’s go do something on our own then.”

“Man, Skeletor, these guys are a lot bigger than those two assholes from school.”

A low laugh came from out of the hoodie. My skin began to crawl as the laugh got louder and louder. People were walking down the street looking at me and shaking their head.

“Come on, before someone calls the cops on us,” I said.

We walked to my car and got in. “Let’s go find us two shit-eaters,” he muttered. I drove out to the house, but it was dark and the truck was not there. We drove back downtown to the bar area and cruised the streets. Around midnight, I spotted their truck parked in an alley. We drove past slowly. The truck was empty.

“Why don’t you go check out a few of the bars and see if you can find them.” he growled.

“How am I gonna get into the bars?” I asked.

Once again that laugh began “Bwahahahahahahahahahaha, you ain’t ordering any drinks dude, just walk in and look around. If you see them come back here and we will wait.”

I went into the closest bar. I looked around and didn’t see them. It was the third place I went into that I saw them. They were sitting at the bar doing shots and beer. The music was playing loud and a big guy walked over to me. “You got ID?” he asked.

“Um, no I was just um looking for someone.”

“No ID, you get the hell out,” he snapped and pushed me toward the door.

I walked back to the car and climbed in behind the wheel. “OK, I found them, they are in that bar across the street, what do we do now?”

“Pull the car into that alley by their car and then we wait.”

I pulled my car into the alley, back behind theirs. We were sitting there for about 45 minutes or so. I tried to get him to talk but all he would do is hum. It was a weird noise he was making. ‘Ahhhhhhhh raaaaaa, Ahhhhhhhh raaaaaa, Ahhhhhhhh raaaaaa, Ahhhhhhhh raaaaaa’ over and over. It was giving me the creeps and at one point I turned to tell him to stop, but he was staring at me, the green eyes boring a hole into me when I looked into them.

Then I saw them coming. They were both drunk, staggering, laughing. “OK, what do we do now?” I asked.

“We go take them out. Make them pay for your bosses pain and suffering.” He said with a laugh, except it wasn’t a laugh, more like a giggle.

I wanted to make them give me back the money they had stolen, so I could get it back to Mr. McGarrity, maybe I could get my job back. It wasn’t much, but I liked the work, the solitude of it..

As I stepped out of the car, I heard the humming begin again ‘Ahhhhhhhh raaaaaa, Ahhhhhhhh raaaaaa, Ahhhhhhhh raaaaaa, Ahhhhhhhh raaaaaa,……’

“Hey! You two!” I yelled.

They both were about to get into the truck when they turned.

“Hey Joey, ain’t that the little pussy from that burger joint? How’s your boss pussy man? You looking to get some of what he got?”

“Yeah Billy Bob, I think the little pussy boy wants his ass kicked. Hey pussy boy, you put the cops on us? Well, it didn’ work.” The other said laughing.

“Look, you two give me back the money you took and I will walk away. I am not looking for a fight.”

Joey spoke, “Oh you ain’t looking for a fight huh? Well I think you found one anyway.”

They both stepped forward and I looked over at Skeletor. His head was down, but he tilted it to the side and I could see those green eyes glowing. They seemed to be glowing even brighter.

Then something else glinted and I saw the machete in his hand. I was about to ask where it had come from when one of the two hit me hard. I saw stars, but didn’t go down. I lashed out with my fists but caught nothing but air. Then they were both closer and I got hit again.

My arm swung out and at the same time I heard a scream. Then the night air was filled with screams. My arms lashing out, but I had something in my eyes and I couldn’t see real well.

At some point I must have gotten hit again and that is when everything went black.

When I came to, Skeletor helped me up. I looked around and beyond all I have seen, this was the worst.

I stared into those GREEN eyes glowing out from under the hoodie. Standing back in the alley we were almost invisible in the dark.

I turned and got sick on the ground. He only laughed at me. When I turned back around he was gone again, like in the past.

The machete laid on the ground and the two robbers were bleeding, an arm here, another over there, I think one of them was without a head.

That is when the police cars came into the alley. Lights flashing and sirens screaming.

The police had their guns out telling me to put my hands up. Their flashlights were aimed at me and I saw my clothes covered in blood.

But I tell you, it was not me. Skeletor had the machete. I was just fighting with my fists.”

I looked up at the detective sitting on the other side of the table. Tears flowed from my eyes, down my cheeks. I used my sleeve to wipe them away, there was blood on the material.

“You see, I don’t belong here. It wasn’t me.”

That is when he spoke for the first time since he came into the room and had asked me to tell him what had happened.. “Son, you can keep this up all you want. Maybe you should talk to a lawyer now.”

He got up and walked out of the room.

When he was alone, Steven Harrison stood and looked over at the glass window. You know the kind. They are one way glass and look like a mirror on this side of the room.

When he looked into the mirror he began to scream. It was a loud piercing scream.

On the other side of the glass, the detective spoke with his Captain. “What do you think Cap?”

“I think we have a real nutcase here.”

Steven Harrison stood looking into the mirror glass screaming…looking at the reflection…

The dirty gray hoodie and jeans covered in blood, the hair knotted and stringy down to his chest….the green eyes glowing back at him…his reflection staring back at him.