The Freezer (Genesis Endeavor Book 1) Page 2
Music was playing softly in the background, but rather than the typical music one would hear in a waiting room, it was rock and roll. Not real rock and roll like Elvis or Buddy Holly, but more of this new stuff the hippies liked. It sounded like something from the Doors. Figures, he thought.
“Good morning Jack.” The secretary stood up when he walked in, a nervous looking smile on her face. She was around twenty five years old, busty, blond, and, remembering the last time he was here, had a pretty nice ass too. Her dress was a yellow and orange flower print that was cut just low enough to show about two inches of cleavage and just high enough to expose a few inches of her thighs. Her bouffant hair was done up to perfection and her attractive face didn’t need makeup, although like most girls her age she was wearing lipstick and a little too much eye shadow.
“Good morning.” He put a fake smile on his face to match her nervous one. What he wanted to say was, “How are Bill’s wife and kids?” That would be rude, though, and it really wasn’t his business.
“I’ll tell Bi... er... Dr. Callun that you’re here.” She blushed a little as she turned around. Jack watched her sway down the hall and thought to himself, I can see the temptation, but damn, you’ve got three kids you stupid asshole.
Jack loved his wife dearly, but she had been gone for almost two years now. Little things constantly reminded him of her, and every thought brought a little pain along with it. But the pain got a little less each day, and sometimes the memories contained joy instead of anxiety. For the past couple months he had been thinking it was time to get his life back on track. He figured the first step was finding a nice girl, preferably one he could settle down with. He was young and healthy, made damn good money, and was, as he had recalled that morning in front of the mirror, ruggedly handsome. What’s not to like?
“Jack, you can go in now.” He snapped back to reality, and when he regained focus, his eyes were pointing directly at her cleavage making it look like he was ogling her. He quickly looked away, probably making him appear even guiltier than he felt. Now it was his turn to blush. He stepped away from her without another word.
As he walked down the hall his mind went back to figuring out where he could meet a decent woman. These days there were plenty of young, loose women running around talking about ‘free love’, even here in the middle of Montana, but Jack wasn’t interested in a roll in the hay with a hippie chick. Well, a roll in the hay with that receptionist wouldn’t be that bad, he thought, but immediately chastised himself over it and unconsciously said a little word of apology to his wife who was probably listening in on his thoughts from above. It’s bad enough that Bill is diddling her. His shame at the thought was also a little comforting on some level… At least he was still young enough to be attracted to the opposite sex. It had been two years since he had been with a woman, and he was still a man with all the natural urges a man has. The problem was, he seldom socialized, and he wasn’t enough of a hypocrite to go to church just to try to meet a ‘nice girl’ either. He surmised it was probably a good thing he wasn’t in a position to meet anyone, the guilt he felt for even thinking about it was still strong enough to keep him from actively looking.
As he entered Bill’s office, his stomach gurgled again and his bowels felt a little loose. Normally confident under the most stressful of circumstances, he was facing the unknown, and courage wasn’t about not being afraid, it was about taking the next step despite that fear. He recalled his earlier thought about being healthy. God I hope so.
Bill was sitting in his high backed office chair looking out the window. He spun the chair toward Jack, and gestured to a seat opposite him, across the desk. Before the doctor could get a word out, Jack, in the tone he used to address enlisted men, said, “Okay, Bill, I’m here. Now tell me why.”
“Please Jack, have a seat, this is... not going to be easy.” Jack’s stomach sank further, any hopes of this just being a visit that the doc is using to pad his bill going out the window. His military discipline kept him looking composed as he sat down. “I have the blood tests back from your last visit, and the x-rays too.” Bill took out an x-ray and laid it in on the desk in front of Jack. He pointed to the middle of the film and said, “You see this white spot right here?” Jack looked down but was hesitant to focus on the dark film lying on the desk. He just stared at Bill, waiting for the bad news. Bill looked down at the file in front of him, then back up at Jack. “The indigestion isn’t... well, I’m not going to bullshit you Jack, it looks like cancer.”
A wave of shock followed by numbness washed through him from head to toe, leaving him feeling like he was in another room looking back at himself from a distance. He’d faced death dozens of times in Korea and lived to tell about it. He’d lost his wife and child, and survived long enough to try to put his life back together. He was a tough man, but those words sent fear and despair coursing through him. He was nearly paralyzed by the declaration, and he wasn’t sure how long it was before he spoke. “Is it treatable?” he asked, practically holding his breath.
The doctor hesitated as if trying to decide what to say. “There are some things that Oncologists are trying with radiation and chemical therapy in Minnesota, but...” Bill shrugged. “Jesus Jack, of all the people this should happen to... Man, I am so sorry.”
Jack started to speak, stopped, then started again. This time he couldn’t keep the emotion out of his voice. “How... Are you... Are you sure this is cancer Bill?” The doctor just looked at him for a moment, then turned away and looked back out the window.
“I’m not a cancer doctor, so I’m sending the x-rays to a specialist in Rochester, Minnesota. The Mayo clinic has some good Oncologists. I’ll know more in a few days.”
Anger flared in Jack, and the words came out a little louder than he intended. “Come on Bill, you drag me in here to tell me in person and you can’t even be sure it’s cancer?!” He knew it wasn’t the right response, but he couldn’t help himself. He stood up and now he was yelling, “This is bullshit doc! What the hell kind of crap are you pulling here?”
Bill leaned back a little in his chair almost flinching, but it was obvious he expected Jack to get emotional and he held his composure. “Jack, I know this is hard, please calm down.” His hands came up almost in a pleading gesture. “Look, I will tell you what I can but you need to calm down! Please!”
Jack sat down heavily. His mind wasn’t working right. His reaction to the fear was to fight, but there was no enemy here. His heart was pounding and heat had flooded his face. Then all of a sudden, the numbness slammed back into him and he withered in his chair.
“Aww shit! I’m... Geez I’m sorry doc... It’s just... SHIT!” He was looking down at his hands as if some answer might be there. He could feel the weight of depression and despair starting to push down on him again. He opened his mouth, but nothing came out, so he just sat there, staring at his hands.
“Look, Jack, I’ll tell you what I know, but we’ll have to wait until I hear back from the Mayo Clinic before I can give you a definite answer. I want to do a biopsy and send them a sample so we can be sure. Let’s schedule it for Wednesday.” Bill jotted something on the calendar that lay flat on his desk, then looked Jack in the eye. “Jack, if I wasn’t damn sure, I wouldn’t have dragged you in here like this.” Jack studied Bill and something told him the man was right. “Like I said, they’re doing some things with radiation and chemicals now. It’s no picnic, but at least you can fight it. If you just decide to give up I don’t think you’ll last six months.” Bill attempted to look encouraging, then, knowing it wasn’t working, slumped down in his chair. “I’m really sorry Jack.”
Jack looked up at him, but the only words he could find were, “What time on Wednesday?”
Chapter 3
He was back to the void and nothingness. If he had a body, he would be gasping for breath and sweating, but if he had a body, he couldn’t feel it. There was only the knowledge of existence and now a memory. And that memory had been so v
ivid it was as if he was there again. At the same time though, it felt foreign and detached, more like he had been a puppet in a play.
As he pondered what it meant, he realized that the re-living of that day brought back a lot of the background memories leading up to it. Before, he was just aware of being; now he was aware of his life. Did this mean he was dead? Maybe he was sick from the cancer and this was all just a side effect. Or maybe it had killed him. Perhaps the answer was in the memory. He focused again, and after a time, his consciousness shifted back to that day.
* * *
The rest of the day, Jack went back and forth from his garage to his living room, drank a few beers, listened to the radio a bit, and even went for a cruise in his car, but his mind and heart were elsewhere. He went to bed early that night, after attempting to eat a little dinner. Sleep was as far away as his appetite, and mostly he lay there thinking about Jenny and Ally. It would be two years in January...
* * *
Jack had hit the twenty year mark back in July, and with the war brewing in Vietnam, he decided to get out while he still could. He had joined the army at age 16 using a forged birth certificate he bought from a guy he worked with at a local garage. He did it to get away from his foster family, and just like any teenage kid he was hoping to get a chance to fight the Germans or Japanese before the war ended. By the time he got out of training, the war was pretty much over. He made it to Germany in time to help liberate some death camps, but he never saw any real action in Europe. He re-enlisted after his first four years, and a year later, he went to Korea. Jack was good at being a soldier, his bravery earned him a reputation as a fearless soldier and a nickname “Mad Dawg” which befit his ferocity when things got intense. It turned out he was a good leader as well.
During that second tour, the commanding officer of his battalion, a fairly young lieutenant colonel, made a series of mistakes that killed half of Jack’s platoon, including the platoon’s officer, and nearly cost Jack his life. Injured from the friendly mortar fire, he somehow managed to take charge of the situation, not only completing his platoon’s mission objective, but also thwarting a flanking maneuver by the enemy that would have trapped the lieutenant colonel and his staff, and quite possibly result in his capture or death. Almost two hundred men lost their lives in that one battle, and another hundred were injured. Naturally, there had been an inquiry, and Jack “Mad Dawg” Taggart was awarded a silver star for his actions that day. Knowing the commanding officer’s career could hinge on how Jack responded to the inquiry, he played his cards right and squeezed the young colonel for a nomination to OCS, Officer Candidate School. He returned to Korea as an officer, leading a platoon in several successful missions before the war ended. He reached the rank of Captain before retiring, which gave him a decent retirement check.
His last post was Fort Carson in Colorado, where he met his wife, Jennifer Williams. After High School, Jenny had moved to Denver to get away from the family farm. She ended up landing a job as a secretary on the military base in Colorado Springs, shuffling documents all day. She hated it more than farming and after six years, was about to give up and move back home when she met Jack. Some equipment had broken down on the job site Jack had been managing, and he was trying to get some requisition paperwork pushed through to keep the job on track. Jenny was the one who ended up helping him. There was no question in Jack’s mind that she would be his wife one day, and after two months, they were engaged to be married. Eleven months after they said their vows, she gave birth to Allissa Mae Taggart.
His last seven years in the military were mostly spent overseeing construction of a secret fallout shelter near Fort Carson, and that gave him the experience to get a job as a consultant to a civil engineering and contracting firm after retirement. Jenny was from Montana, near the city of Great Falls, and the new job allowed for them to move up there and be closer to her mother. With the combined income from the army and the consulting job, they were easily able to buy a house right away.
Christmas 1964 was as idyllic as it could be. The fireplace was crackling with flaming pine logs, the Christmas tree was dazzling with ornaments and tinsel, and three stockings were hanging from the mantel, one for Jack, one for Jenny, and one for Ally. It was a prosperous year for them, and the Christmas gifts reflected it. Jenny got a stunning pair of diamond earrings, and Ally got more toys than any child should have.
The next few days were picturesque. The sun was shining, the trees and ground blanketed with a few inches of snow, and with a few days off, Jack got to enjoy some lazy mornings in bed with his wife while Ally played upstairs with her new toys. His job often meant he was out of town, and he cherished this time with both his wife and his daughter. Life simply could not be better.
The following Monday, they headed out of town to visit Jenny’s mother, Mabel. Jenny was younger than Jack by about five years, she would be thirty years old that summer, and Mabel was still a young woman when Jenny was born. Mabel’s husband had died in a farming accident when Jenny was nine years old, and despite still being very young, she never remarried. Most of her time was spent running the farm, which she was good at, but occasionally she had tried to date other men over the years. Usually, the men she dated were only after her farm, and the rest were deadbeats. She was smart enough to recognize this, so for the last ten years she had avoided relationships altogether. There were some rumors that one of the farmhands warmed her bed once in a while, but otherwise she seemed content to be alone.
Jack, Jenny, and Ally spent the week at her farm house, and on Friday afternoon, Jack headed back to town to go to work. There was a new project near the airbase that his firm was working on, and Saturday was the only time the engineers could get out there to survey the site with Jack. Jenny was going to catch a ride back to town with one of Mabel’s farm hands on Sunday.
The night she and Ally returned it was bitterly cold, as it can get when the January wind is blowing hard in Montana. The temperature was easily ten degrees below zero, and flurries of snow were swirling around in the wind. The snow on the roads that had been soft in the recent sunny days turned to rock hard ice. The accident was nobody’s fault really, it just happened. The car slid off the road and dropped into an embankment, and it was the next day before anyone found them. The driver was killed on impact, Jenny and Allissa probably died from exposure before their injuries had a chance to claim them.
Monday after work, Jack returned to his house to find a patrol car out front. He didn’t think it unusual when he pulled up, as the officer, Frank, was an old school friend of Jenny’s who used to help out on her family’s farm. Jack figured he was just there to visit his wife. Frank was a good man with a wife and two kids of his own, and Jack never felt threatened by their friendship. When he pulled into the driveway, Frank got out of his car and walked up to him. “Jack,” he said, “I have some terrible news.”
* * *
Sometime in the early hours of dawn he finally found sleep, but it didn’t last long. At seven a.m. he was up and showered. He had so many things to do, and he felt as if he were now racing against a clock. In Korea, there had been times when he was sure he would be dead before the sun rose again, but even in those cases, there were always things that needed to be done. The military had taught him to work through the fear, and that discipline drove him this morning. The first order of business was to contact Mabel.
He hadn’t talked to her in almost a year. It wasn’t anything she had done or said to him, he was just trying to put that part of his life behind him. It was an attempt to ease the pain that was there all the time, and while it gave him little reprieve, he stuck to it, not wanting to add to the pain by opening that door again. There wasn’t really any other family in his life, and he needed someone to take care of whatever was left after he was gone. His parents died when he was in Middle School, and not long after that he joined the military. There were no brothers or sisters, and both his parent’s families were small; a couple distant cousins and uncles b
ut nobody he had kept in contact with over the years. In the military, he’d had buddies, but many died, and after getting his commission, he just didn’t quite fit in with either the enlisted men or the traditional officers. Furthermore, the secret nature of the projects he worked on the last few years forced him to be somewhat of a loner. The phone rang seven times before there was an answer. “Where the hell are you Dick!” Mabel didn’t get too many calls at the farm, and obviously she wasn’t expecting any calls out of the ordinary.
“Mae, it’s Jack, how are you?”
Mabel paused for a second, recognizing that it was not Dick on the other end of the phone. “Jack! My goodness! Sorry about the way I answered, my field hand was supposed to be here over an hour ago with the winter seed and... anyway, it’s good to hear from you, I was worried, it’s been a while.” Mabel and Jack had always gotten along very well, and just hearing her voice was comforting. However, it also amplified his sense of loss, and emotions started welling up.
He swallowed hard, trying to wash down the emotion and keep his voice steady. “Not so good Mae, that’s why I’m calling. Look, I uh, I went to the doctor a couple weeks ago, and it turns out I’m – well, I’m sick.”