The nth Day

By Jonathan Huls

Justin is an immaculately conceived deity who spends much of his early years like other kids his age. The supernatural occurrences that do spring up in the first handful of years of his life are so small and menial that they are mostly dismissed by everyone around him. It isn’t until later that the effects of his supernatural powers become catastrophic for everyone around him and the whole world.

The petite and cute, Cassie, is handed a tough life from the get-go. She dies and is then revived at a birthday party, she’s abused for years by her drug addict mother, and she’s thrown into foster homes which test her will and fortitude to near their breaking points. She must learn how to survive on her own in a world that gobbles up little girls with a side of ranch dressing.

Theodore, a proud black man, becomes a multi-millionaire early in his life when his parents are abruptly killed. Now in his 60s, he wants nothing to do with the money and goes as far as living life as a vagrant on the streets to avoid it.

As each character follows different paths in life, they all converge on the same point on a map – Atlanta: a point where young and old love tries to flourish, a point where the problems of the world will begin to boil over, and a point where, Nick, a Louisiana native who becomes victim to Justin’s cross-country journey, will bring his version of hate and chaos in an attempt to destroy everything around them.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jonathan Huls
• Release date: Nov 12, 2015
• ISBN: 9781311234780

Jonathan Huls

Jonathan Huls has a permanent home in San Diego with his wife, Brigette, but they travel the world extensively at every moment they can. They can be sighted attending the World Cup, relaxing on the beaches of Colombia, eating ceviche in Peru, or climbing the various rock formations throughout the world.

Book preview

The nth Day

Jonathan Huls

This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, dialogue, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Published by Duvinchi Media Group. Visit us on the World Wide Web at www.duvinchi.com

Copyright © 2015 by Jonathan Huls

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. Contact Duvinchi Media Group for requests or additional information.

To my wife who loves me and the hate that I bring. To my wife who supports my every step by taking care of all the little things. To my wife who traveled to the end of the world with me.

I love you forever.

Suck on a shit-flavored lollipop.

Contents

Chapter 1 – Immaculate Conception

Chapter 2 – My Green-Eyed Girl

Chapter 3 – Peach Cobbler and Jet Planes

Chapter 4 – My Green-Eyed World

Chapter 5 – Black

Chapter 6 – The Press

Chapter 7 – Auburn Mucus

Chapter 8 – A Communal Hearing

Chapter 9 – Beginning of an Empire

Chapter 10 – A Storm is on the Rise

Chapter 11 – Shuffled

Chapter 12 – Half a Chicken and a Bottle of Wine

Chapter 13 – Authorities

Chapter 14 – Haymaker

Chapter 15 – Friends of Death

Chapter 16 – Quicky Mart

Chapter 17 – Lonely Travels

Chapter 18 – Dealing

Chapter 19 – Lightning and Oxys

Chapter 20 – Bowling for Bread

Chapter 21 – Seatbelts Save Lives

Chapter 22 – Diamonds in the Sky, Diamonds in Your Eye

Chapter 23 – Ready to Fly

Chapter 24 – Planes and Stains on a Runway

Chapter 25 – Epilogue

Author Bio

Additional Information

Chapter 1 – Immaculate Conception

And on the 8th day, as foretold by the Bible, God was reborn. It was not a glorious birth, in fact it was a birth that was somewhat like any of the other 360,000 births that occur around the world every day – a woman feels pain, a woman cries out in pain, vaginal canals rip open under the stress of a watermelon emerging from the orifice, and finally a small bundle of gurgling bloody helplessness plops out into the hands of a doctor who has seen way too many years of the process to enjoy any part of lovemaking with a woman. In most cases, there is one other occurrence: the small squealing cry of the child. But on this 8th day, more specifically August 20th of a year indicated by the Chinese zodiac calendar with a rooster, there was only silence. Not because of a still birth nor because the child was experiencing some form of mental retardation, but instead the child, God, simply looked about the room with a knowledge of his surroundings that should have even given the gynecologist an uneasy feeling. Instead, that gazing about and mere presence in the room gave everyone calmness.

Julie’s pussy hurt. It hurt something awful but somehow, once she saw how calm her new son was, she was suddenly filled with a sense of fulfillment and peace. She didn’t want to cry anymore; her tiredness driven by a 20-hour labor seemed to only be a distant memory, and the hunger that had panged her stomach which was aching for something other than ice chips was mostly gone. But that damn pussy. That still hurt and it hurt something bad. Should have taken that epidural, she thought just before the birth.

Dave was content and much calmer as well. Of course, he didn’t just have his junk thrashed by a wood chipper like Julie just had. He of course had his own problems previous to the baby emerging: the constant nagging from Julie, the stress of receiving the call, and finally the nausea that came with nearly passing out after she made him view the carnage behind the blue drape. Why would she make him do that anyway? They put those blue drapes at the woman’s waist for a reason. Why would she make him view that? Why?

Both Julie and Dave Lockhart had been high school sweethearts. Things had moved quickly since graduation; Dave got a job at the local feed shop, Julie had started teaching 4th grade at the local elementary, and they had bought a house and moved in together after what only felt like a week. Dave’s parents didn’t have an opinion because they had passed away just two years ago after being hit by a drunk driver while walking just blocks from their home, but Julie’s parents had strongly protested them living together before marriage. Julie’s mom went to church just a handful of times in her life, but clearly must have had a direct connection to little baby Jesus up there in Heaven because she berated the both of them constantly, saying things like, You are living in sin and You are going against God’s will. Julie had repeatedly contested with her mother that she and Dave were waiting until their wedding day, but it didn’t help. Why would it when Julie’s sister had already produced two children out of wedlock and one of them had been at the ripe old age of 16? Julie’s mother, Evelyn, had been down this road before and her concerns were soon validated when Julie started bloating like a hippo, throwing up almost precisely at 4:17 am and 9:32 am every day, and strangely acquired the craving to lick clay pots. All precursors to the $4.99 plastic stick turning blue. Julie’s mother felt vindicated for the weeks of dropping nuclear mouth bombs on her and once in a while, to Evelyn’s delight, Dave as well. Julie and Dave however were zip lining through a range of emotions and verbal fights to match. Dave and Julie had truly been saving themselves for marriage, and since that day hadn’t come yet, Dave began blaming the pregnancy on Julie’s infidelity. Dave yelled various profanities sprinkled with the names of Julie’s previous boyfriends, even though he had an inkling in the back of his head that none of her previous boyfriends could have been the culprit, which meant that it had to be some new guy. There had been only three other beaus in high school and only one of them was still living in the area; the other two had moved to bigger cities for work immediately after high school and the 3rd probably couldn’t have completed the task unless Julie had strapped on a rubber cock and lay there wearing a football jersey on the bed before him. Mitch had been the 3rd and seemed to have started batting from the other side of the plate somewhere shortly after his brief stint with Julie.

With Julie not having a man on the side and Dave sort of knowing it in the back of his head, fights shortly turned into resentment for one another because they both knew that their (non-sexual) sex life must have had a mishap somewhere along the way. Julie was technically still a virgin, but Dave had filled every other crevasse in her body more times than he could count. Something must have gone wrong and over the weeks to come, Dave repeatedly thought about the various ways it could have went awry. Had one of the times he shot his load all over her chest and then finger-banged her after somehow have led to one of his swimmers making its way deep enough inside of Julie to get her pregnant? Or had one of their anal romps gone wrong while they were drunk? Wrong hole! Dave had giggled out loud when he thought that one, which had led to an awkward stare from his stepmother while they sat around the television after dinner one night. What would his mother-in-law say if he told her the reason for his giggling? Wrong hole, mom, that’s how your daughter got pregnant. I must have stuck it in the wrong damn hole while we were drunk. Ironic.

At the six-month point, the couple’s fighting had hit a climax. The fights continued to be fruitless and made both of them even more stressed than what was already being thrown at them with the new child on the way. Almost every day there was something new happening: doctor appointments, Lamaze classes, shopping for a crib, shopping for diapers, shopping for a stroller, shopping, shopping, shopping. Dave hated shopping.

At the eight-month point, Julie was so uncomfortable in her skin that Dave was now getting the brunt of the verbal abuse and had, for the most part, given up trying to retaliate.

How the fuck could you be so fucking careless, you fucking piece of shit? All you had to do was shoot it in my fucking mouth and you couldn’t get that right.

Julie hadn’t even cussed much before the pregnancy, maybe using fuck or shit once a month and throwing in a cunt for dramatic measure once a year. But with an extra 30 pounds of weight on her normally 120-pound frame (and she believed all the weight was being gained on her ankles), Julie felt that a few four-letter words were justified. Julie kept telling herself that she would let up on Dave for his shooting inaccuracies after the baby was born. Julie also believed that their relationship would mostly repair itself after the baby was born. She was mostly right; her and Dave’s relationship problems disappeared, but would be replaced with much different baby problems down the road.

But on this 8th day, as foretold by the Bible, also known as a hot and muggy August 20th of a year indicated by the Chinese zodiac calendar with a rooster, everyone in the delivery room gathered around the newly born God and just stared in quiet awe but not exactly knowing why.

Chapter 2 – My Green-Eyed Girl

It wasn’t even that Justin did anything resembling acts of godliness, because he rarely did. Julie and Dave just felt, or even knew, that Justin was different somehow. The calm, as Dave liked to call it, always surrounded Justin. People were just more relaxed around baby Justin. The workers at the hospital, taxi cab drivers, and best of all for Dave, even Julie’s mother was calm around Justin. Dave thought that the calm Evelyn had to succumb to around Justin actually kept her from visiting the house more often. And that was just fine in Dave’s book. Julie loved it; she never really liked confrontation anyway before the pregnancy, and now that Justin was born, all of their marital problems had just disappeared. When Julie brought Justin with her to the store, people seemed to smile more and she seemed to get more free stuff: a coffee at Starbucks, an extra rib eye was thrown in for free from the butcher at their local Piggly Wiggly, and today, a free cupcake while she waited for Justin’s birthday cake. Nothing ever that major, but when it happened, she always somehow knew that it was because she had Justin with her.

Julie almost didn’t believe that an entire year had passed already. The first year had gone by so quickly and easily that it just seemed to float by. Contrary to what all the books explained and counter to what all of Julie’s friends told her, Justin never cried, not once, not even when Julie took him to get his immunizations. Justin methodically ate once or maybe twice a day, but was in perfect health according to the pediatrician. Julie had tried to feed him more often, and Justin would accommodate her if she forced him, but that was exactly it, he was accommodating her. He didn’t need it, nor did he want to be fed more often. Eventually Julie gave in and just fed Justin once a day.

Julie had a big day planned for Justin’s first birthday. Dave had been successful at work over the last year, so she was splurging by inviting all of the kids in town for Justin’s big day. There were only 15 or 20 kids Justin’s age in the entire town, so she was hoping to get even 75% of them to attend in order to make it a bash. A cake had been pre-ordered, a clown scheduled to make animal balloons, and Julie had even picked up several 30 racks of beer for the fathers to keep them entertained while the children frolicked about.

As Julie and Dave prepared their home for 30 plus guests, Justin sat in his play pen mostly looking about as if preparing for a jailbreak. Justin rarely played with toys, rarely cooed or giggled like other children, and rarely showed any admiration toward either Julie or Dave. When he did any of those actions, it was similar to the feeding, in which case he produced the expected result just to accommodate the needs or expectations of whomever or whatever he was interacting with. Dave and Julie had discussed whether Justin had some form of disability, but the doctor had continued to reassure them that Justin was fine. Justin did just enough to ease their concerns, so that discussions were mere musings brought up between the two of them during small chat, often while Dave got ready for work in the morning or while lying in bed after a casual Saturday afternoon sex romp.

Guests arrived, and one by one, babies were placed on the backyard lawn so they could crawl about while adults bantered back and forth about what Melanie Riddum did on the job last week or what Buck Thompson bought for the family car this summer. Johnny Austerbauer had gotten a scholarship to the University of Arizona and Sally Yalesworth was knocked up by her boyfriend before they were married. Julie thought to herself, boy that sounded like a familiar story.

As the party progressed, Julie quickly began to realize that her guestimate of 50 guests including babies was quickly getting dwarfed. Darren and Barb originally thought they were not going to make the party but were suddenly freed up. Samuel and Josephine had family arrive in town from Boston, so they brought them along because they had a son the same age as Justin. These stories and others like them were told to Julie and Dave until the backyard was pushing a hundred guests, and though Julie and Dave’s home sat on almost an acre of land, which meant there was plenty of space for everyone, she had not bought enough food and beverage for a celebration this size. Julie began to get worried at 50 guests, began to fret at 75 guests, and was almost utterly frantic at 100 guests. Evelyn had been placed on Justin watch since she and Dave would be busy tending to guests, but Julie felt a need to be near Justin’s calm. Where was Evelyn with Justin anyway? Julie quickly scanned the party but didn’t see them. Dave was the next best thing and he was just ten feet or so away speaking with Lenny Koontz, the local high school gym teacher who seemed to worm his way out of a few recent unscrupulous encounters with some of the high school cheerleaders.

Hi, Lenny, do you mind if I steal my husband?

Lenny began to say something about a chance at the state finals, but Julie wasn’t having any of it and abruptly pulled Dave to the side out of range of Lenny’s dull tale.

We have a serious problem, Dave. I didn’t buy enough food or drinks for this many people.

Dave scanned the yard. He had been engulfed with people telling him how great the party was that he hadn’t noticed it balloon to 100 or more, and they all looked to be holding a beer or a small plate of food. Holy shit, where did all of these people come from?

It doesn’t matter. This is our party and I don’t want to look like the town cheap ass when all the food and beer runs out. Can you run to the store really fast if I make you a list?

Dave didn’t really want to. He had consumed several more beers than what he should have to drive, but he also wanted to have more in him before the day was over, so a beer run would be inevitable anyway. Better now than after the next one so he agreed to the task. I guess.

Thanks for the enthusiasm, Julie stated under her breath as she walked away to inventory the coolers with soda and beer and the fold up tables where she had set up the finger foods. As Julie passed through the guests, she couldn’t help but notice what Dave had already realized in his scan of the crowd: everyone had a soda or beer, and everyone seemed to have food. This is going to be bad, she thought to herself, real bad.

But as Julie opened the first cooler where she had placed the soda, it was relatively full. Of course there were some sodas missing, but there were quantities of each type, which made her feel slightly better. The guys would likely complain if they had to switch to drinking cokes, but she knew Dave had a bottle of Bacardi in his man cave that they could bust out as a last ditch effort until he got back from the store.

Julie moved on to the 50-gallon trash can that she had filled with the beer and ice. The ice had melted halfway, leaving a nice soupy slush that had created a perfect bath for the now ice-cold beers still bobbing in the container. Julie was shocked again. There were at least 50 beers still in the container by her estimate. She had reached her arm deep into the 50-gallon can as far as she could before the cold drove her back. There were beers as far as she dared reach. Julie thought for a second and came to the only conclusion possible – people must have brought beer with them. Well that was nice and sure saved her butt for now. People can go without food, but they can’t go without alcohol for very long. Once the beer dries up, so does the party.

Julie was feeling considerably better. Dave would likely just have to buy food and then whatever beer he could carry in one trip. As Julie approached the food table though, she was changing her mind again. Dave wasn’t going to have to go to the store at this point at all. There was still tons of food laid out on the table. She did an almost militant about-face to look at the crowds again. Was everyone eating like chickens or what? The Olivers were munching on the frozen sliders Julie had purchased from the local big box store, Jodie Yeivel’s plate was stacked high with a mix of vegetables and ranch sauce for dipping, and most of the older kids were shoving their faces with teriyaki chicken wings, meatballs, and cheese squares. How was this possible? Julie had made the sliders, teriyaki chicken wings, and meatballs, and had laid out the pre-made vegetable plate, but there seemed to be more on the table and in the crowd than what she purchased. How was this possible? Was it like the soda and beer where everyone must have brought extra with them? Then why is none of the food different? Everyone couldn’t have brought the exact food she made, right?

Julie stood there just going through the questions over and over in her head, looking at the people at the party with soda, beer, and food in their hands then looking at the food table. Rinse, lather, repeat until her thoughts were abruptly cut short by Dave’s voice, which was now frustrated for having to restate the question she just ignored.

Are you going to give me the list or what, Julie? Dave was still frustrated that he had to stop drinking in order to conduct a resupply run.

No. Julie didn’t know what else to say.

What do you mean no?

No. Julie restated with a hint of confusion in her response.

Do you need help making the list? Have you even looked in the coolers yet? This was about the time Dave finally noticed that the table was still filled with food.

No. I mean, you don’t have to go to the store because we still have plenty of everything.

Well, that’s great. Why didn’t you just say that? See, you worry too much. Go enjoy the party.

Julie was beginning to snap out of her confusion and become irritated by Dave’s indifference. The only thing that stopped her from lashing back at him was that she had spotted her mother carrying Justin toward the kitchen. Julie needed Justin and she needed him now, which was fine with Dave, who was already into the beer bin, fishing for just about anything after being dry for so long.

Julie wasn’t even ten feet from Justin and she already felt the calm. All the worries about the sodas, beer, and food seemed like a silly memory in a ghostly past. After reaching her mother, Julie snatched Justin out of Evelyn’s arms and gave him a big hug and then a kiss on the top of the head.

Perfect timing, Julie. It’s time for the cake.

Julie had a flash of thought to respond back curtly but the thought passed swiftly and she simply smiled, shifted Justin to one hip, and reached into the drawer near the oven to pull out a single #1 candle. Evelyn would have preferred a verbal response, but she conceded by heading to the refrigerator and pulled out the cake Julie had picked up earlier in the day. The cake was set on the countertop so Julie could place the #1 candle centered on top. Julie also saw that someone had snuck a taste earlier in the party, so there was now a deep gouge in the frosting on one of the corners. The finger mark was much too large for any of the children at the party, so she suspected Dave. The indiscretion was righted with a swipe of a butter knife pulled from the same drawer that previously contained the #1 candle. Evelyn, being a smoker, whipped out a lighter and lit the #1 candle. She then followed Julie into the backyard where several onlookers had already caught the hint that it was time for cake. A few began the birthday toll with an out of tune Hhhhhaaaaaaa… and the rest of the crowd chimed in for the rest of the HAPPY, completing the ditty in no time flat and remaining in a monotonous drone the entire time.

Justin was now in his high chair looking about the crowd with indifference. He wasn’t smiling but he wasn’t frowning either. He was again giving everyone what they needed, nothing less and nothing more. Upon completion of the birthday song, a slice of cake was already dropped in front of him and the crowd gazed on as they waited for Justin to plunge his hands and face into the cake like so many other kids his age would do. Several seconds passed, Justin gazed around the room once, raised his right hand in a deliberate fashion and then slowly plunged it into an area of the cake. Was it a coincidence that it just happened to be the only part of the cake that was white, which meant that Justin would barely get dirty? Julie didn’t think so, but she also thought that she would likely never know. Never the less, Justin took the sticky, white cake hand and gently took a giant lick, leaving just a tuft of frosting on his upper lip.

The crowd erupted in claps and laughter, with the women proclaiming that it was the most precious thing they had ever seen and the men mildly chuckling before returning to their conversations, and more importantly, their beers. The women followed suit by placing the children, including Justin, once more on the lawn to wander aimlessly like a bunch of county fair bumper cars and then returned to their conversations, mostly complaining about their husbands.

It was getting late in the day and many of the men were approaching double digits on their beer counts, though none of them would have told their wives as much. Most of them were supposed to drive their families home, so a percentage of them would have to negotiate with their wives to drive while the others would risk drunk driving just so they could avoid a confrontation. But that would be later. For now, the men were drinking it up and the women were chatting it up without a care in the world until a shrill scream purveyed through the ear drums of every man, woman, and child at the party.

Julie was in the kitchen and just barely heard it, but Dave was near enough to get a chill down his spine from the sound. Dave looked toward the scream but could only make out a woman’s butt poking out of the walkway between his garage and his house. The walkway was rarely used and he had not done a good job of keeping on top of the lawn maintenance in that area. Though out of the way, it was still accessible to the entire party including the children. Dave could see that several of them, including Justin, were crawling, or sitting in Justin’s case, just five or six feet from the woman now screaming a name that Dave could not make out at the top of her lungs. Dave thought maybe it was Jessie or Vinnie or Cassie. Yes, the last one was likely it.

Suddenly, Dave snapped out of his name-guessing game and began running to the woman. Several others were doing the same, but most just gazed in awe until the situation would be explained or until their beer time was interrupted enough to sneak out and leave this madhouse for some stouter beverage at home.

Even with Dave’s slight stall, he was one of the first to arrive, finding a woman trying to give a small girl, about the age of Justin, mouth to mouth between screams of the girl’s name and call an ambulance.

Breathe, breathe, chest compression while yelling, CASSIE – CALL AN AMBULANCE!!!

Breathe, breathe, chest compression while yelling, CASSIE – CALL AN AMBULANCE!!!

Dave immediately knew what had happened. In his indifference and laziness for the maintenance of the walkway between the house and garage, Dave had forgot that Julie had seen a rat in that area and he had placed poison there in an attempt to get rid of them. Cassie was lying next to the poison that she must have eaten. Bad luck for Dave but even worse luck for Cassie. Cassie was motionless and a pale mix of sickly blue and yellow. She looked like she would not