Posted on April 19, 2007

The Hole: Part 1

Elliot sat on the front steps of his house and sipped a warm Dr. Pepper as he watched his neighbor drag her husband’s corpse to the curb. This marked only two of them left on the block now, him and Evajean. Oak Street’s last two residents, the rest decaying in piles the city had stopped picking up three weeks ago. He’d immediately began thinking of them as the Easy Es, taking it easy while the world dies. Elliot had even wondered, perhaps thrown off his moral game by the craziness of the world around him, if this meant he’d finally get to sleep with her.

He stood up. “You need help?” he called to her, waving the pop can over his head.

Evajean shrugged, only looking at him briefly, and continued her slow progress, dragging Henry by the wrists.

Elliot set down the drink and jogged across the lawn and street. He took hold of Henry’s ankles. The dead man’s ass now was all that touched the ground and Evajean’s speed improved considerably. Elliot smiled at her, a sort of aren’t-you-glad-I-was-just-hanging-out-and-available look, but she didn’t return it. Her eyes were wholly on Henry.

Elliot felt for her. He didn’t care for Henry, had always pegged the guy as fat, dumb, and not nearly good enough for her, but she’d been attached to him, had married him, so this sudden separation was likely messing her up good. He needed to let her calm down, get her wits back, and then he could move in as the savior. He was the last man around–and Evajean looked oh so much like she could use a man.

“You want some place to stay,” he said, panting now with the weight, “or don’t want to be alone in– I don’t know, all alone in that empty house…”

She did look at him now. Her eyes slowly came up from Henry’s grey face, and she smiled. It was a tiny gesture, not even showing any teeth, but Elliot’s heart went all a-flutter.

“I don’t have much,” he continued. “The stores, everything, there’s not a lot to get. But I do have some steaks still frozen and some bottles of Jim Beam.”

“Yeah,” Evajean nodded. “Whiskey’s just what I need right now.”

For a moment he thought she was being sarcastic but then he saw how hungry her expression was. This lady needed to get plastered.

“Three bottles is what I got,” he said. “And some other stuff. Stoli’s. I think a wine cooler from that office barbecue.”

“Just the whiskey.”

“Sure,” he said. Then, “It’s not like I’m a big drinker. Three bottles, I mean, shit that’s a lot of Jim Beam. But it was for an engagement party. A buddy a mine, he and his girl… Then all this happened,” he rolled his head, indicating the neighborhood in general, “and, well, things got called off.”

“I understand,” Evajean said. She was back to looking at Henry.

A couple of grunting heaves and they had the body at rest next to the curb. Someday, if things ever got back to normal and the city’s administration started humming away about its business, a truck would drive by and men would get out and take Henry away to be fed back into the Hole.

But the world was dead. Elliot knew nobody would come and that the act of putting Henry in the collection area was only to provide closure to Evajean. Her husband was really gone and she could accept that now.

Elliot put his hand on her shoulder. “You want to stand here? Be alone for a bit?”

She nodded. She didn’t react to the contact.

“Sure,” Elliot said. “Look, I’m going to go back inside and see about thawing those steaks. If you’d like one or you want that drink, go head and knock, okay?”

“Okay,” she said.

He turned and left her standing by the curb, leaning forward slightly, palms out, like she wanted to touch Henry but couldn’t make herself do it.