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Jim sank down into the comfort of his couch gratefully. But before he could take a deep breath and let out the tension from this strange day, Blair had plopped himself down next to him.
“Uh, Jim?”
Ut-oh. He was very familiar with the curiosity he heard in his partner’s question. And he was tired and just wanted a beer and some pizza.
“Have you ever seen a ghost before today? Or anything else in the paranormal-weird kind of category?”
Blair was looking at him with that ‘I’ve got to know; it’s really, really important, so spill it already’ look of his that Jim wished he could find a vaccination against. Because he didn’t have any immunity against the Sandburg eyes.
He decided to use one of Blair’s own tactics against him. “No, I’ve never seen a ghost before this case.” But Birddog-Blair must have heard the unspoken rest of his sentence, because he’d sat up straighter and was practically quivering. Damn… lies of omission always seemed to work when Sandburg was weaseling out of telling the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
“What else have you seen, Jim? And I’m not talking about your spirit animal or your jungle dreams.” And Blair leveled the power of his eyes and pleading expression again, causing Jim to crack like a walnut in a nutcracker.
“Okay… I did see something when I was a kid, and I was still using my senses like I’d always done. It happened the summer before Bud died, and I stopped all that stuff. But it probably wasn’t anything. I probably was just imagining what I thought I saw.” But Jim knew, really, that he hadn’t imagined what he saw that day. And it still had the power to give him the shivers…
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
The pool would be closing in forty-five minutes and Jimmy Ellison was ready to go home. He’d had a pretty good afternoon swimming and horsing around with his friends, but his eyes were bothering him now. Besides, Sally would have supper on the table soon.
He climbed out of the almost deserted pool. All the guys had left a couple of hours ago, but since Dad was home this afternoon Jimmy had wanted to stay out of his way. Let Stevie have his turn hearing about how to compete if he wanted to succeed in life.
Jimmy picked up his towel and stuff from the grassy area near the pool and walked over to the men’s locker room. He was surprised to find the door locked, but he knew how to climb in the side window. That way he didn’t have to ask the lifeguard to climb down from his chair and unlock it for him. They’d probably already cleaned it and were trying to keep people from messing it up. Too bad. Jimmy had to pee and change into his clothes before riding his bike home.
He scrambled in the window quietly and headed for the urinals but stopped when he heard a weird noise, sort of familiar and sort of not. He listened really hard because there wasn’t anybody in here with him. He sorted through the library in his head where he kept his memories of what things sounded like and figured out that the noise was somebody breathing, but it was kind of muffled and really fast. Like somebody was scared or something.
He followed the sound with his eyes and found himself looking at the shower room off of the main toilet area. He sniffed the air, and besides the strong odors of Lysol and bleach he smelled cigarettes, a gross burn kind of stink, and a salty scent. He recognized what the salty odor was because he’d smelled it plenty of times before from Stevie or himself. Somebody was crying. But they weren’t making enough noise to be crying like people usually cried. He listened again carefully and realized that there were two people breathing in the shower room. And then he heard the sound of fabric being peeled off of wet skin.
Jimmy figured something was wrong; he’d sneak over to where the sounds and smells were coming from and check it out. He saw a broom against the wall, grabbed it, and crept up to the shower room entrance. He held the broom’s wooden handle in one hand above the bristles, like Robin Hood’s staff, and quietly opened the door.
A man in swim trunks, his entire back covered with a big tattoo of a bird -- one of those fancy birds with all those long neat feathers -- was holding Georgie, one of the pool brats, with one hand while the other hand was finishing pulling off Georgie’s swim suit. Georgie had tears running down his face and there was duct tape across his mouth and around his wrists.
Jimmy felt hot anger move from his stomach up to his heart and out to his arms. This A-hole wasn’t going to keep hurting that poor little kid. Jimmy moved forward, swinging the broom handle with both hands and hitting the tattooed man as hard as he could on the pervert’s back. He yelled for help at the top of his lungs. He kept hollering while he swung the broom handle again to whack this pervert and make him leave Georgie alone.
He saw the peacock shift on the man’s back, and Holy Cow! The feathers were opening and closing and the eyes had turned to look right at him, when he hit the guy’s back again with all of his might. It wasn’t the guy’s muscles moving the tattoo; the tattoo was alive! Those eyes on the tattoo bird were mean looking and Jimmy felt like they were sending evilness towards him. He swung the broom for the third time and hit the guy, who had seemed kind of stunned at first but now had turned and was trying to lunge for the broom and Jimmy. Jimmy jumped out of the way and hit the guy again on the head as the pervert stumbled from missing him. All this time, Jimmy had been yelling his head off and now he could hear people pounding on the locker room door.
So could the pervert, because he rushed past Jimmy towards the toilet area. Jimmy chased him with the broom but the man was fast and headed for the window. The tattoo of the peacock on his back spread out its feathers in a full fan, and suddenly -- the man seemed to fly right through the air. As the guy flew – no, that was impossible, he must have just really jumped high -- the peacock’s eyes looked into Jimmy’s own eyes and Jimmy could feel the hate the evil thing sent towards him, as the evil bird-man hurtled through the window.
The locker room door burst open, as the lifeguard and two teenagers rushed in. Jimmy quickly told them he’d surprised a pervert who was hurting Georgie and who had just gotten away out the window. The guard and the two teens quickly took off to look for the guy, and Jimmy went back to Georgie. He peeled the duct tape off of the kid’s mouth, freed Georgie’s hands, and wrapped a towel around the little kid. Jeez, Georgie was only about eight years old. The poor kid couldn’t stop crying and there were burns on his arms, little round burns, that Jimmy realized from the smell were cigarette burns. He sat Georgie down next to him in a shower stall and hugged him while the lifeguard came back, and told him the pervert had disappeared. He looked at the burns on Georgie and left. He came back with ice in bags for the kid’s arms. One of the teenagers stuck his head in the door and said the police were on their way and he and his friend would wait out front to show them where to go. The lifeguard tried to take over caring for Georgie, but the little guy just clung to Jimmy like a leech.
The police got there pretty soon, and an ambulance too, to take Georgie away to the hospital. Georgie didn’t want to let go of Jimmy, but Jimmy told him a policeman would be going with him and would make sure the pervert wouldn’t get him. Maybe Jimmy should have checked with the cops first about that, but the cop trying to talk to Georgie agreed and repeated what Jimmy had said. Georgie was still hiccupping and crying, but he let the ambulance guys help him then.
The police wanted to know what had happened to Georgie and asked Jimmy a bunch of questions. Jimmy told them what he’d seen and what he’d done when he came in the locker room. How the door’d been locked and how he’d climbed in the window. He said he’d heard somebody in the shower room and took the broom in with him, in case of trouble, because he’d started to wonder why the door was locked if there were people inside. His dad was always telling him not to exaggerate about what he could tell with his senses, and he didn’t think letting them know he’d smelled Georgie’s tears and had heard muffled breathing – stuff that he shouldn’t have been able to notice, if he was a normal kid -- would help anything.
He didn’t tell them about how the tattoo had moved and had looked at him, either. He knew he wouldn’t be believed, so why bother. The cops told him he was a brave kid, but next time get some back-up before he took on another pervert with just a broom. One cop ruffled his hair and another winked and pinned his badge on Jimmy, and said he could be an honorary policeman till they took him and his bike home. It was cool to ride in the police car, but he gave the cop his badge back when they pulled into his driveway. He didn’t think his father would want to see him wearing a police badge. The two cops talked to his father about what had happened and left.
His father made him tell the story again, and questioned Jimmy about exactly how he knew somebody was in trouble. Jimmy admitted he’d smelled the little kid’s tears and heard the muffled breathing. His father scoffed at him, and told him probably he had heard louder noises than people breathing in the other room. His father warned him again about not exaggerating what he could do, and to keep that part of the story to himself. Jimmy knew better than to mention the strange tattoo to his father. His father didn’t believe him about how he could see and smell things or hear stuff that was far away; he sure wouldn’t believe Jimmy saw a tattoo that could move on its own.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“Well, Chief, what do you think? Was my mind playing tricks on me or was that tattoo alive?” Jim asked, trying for a humorous tone of voice but failing. He wanted Blair to believe him.
“Jim, you were a sentinel back then just like you are now. You were protecting your tribe. I trust what you saw to be real and I’m going to do some research and see what I can find out. And hey, was Georgie okay?”
“Well, his parents stopped dropping him off at the pool in the morning and letting the lifeguards be his babysitters all day long. He had scars on his arms from what that bastard did. For a long time, he tagged around after me if he saw me at the park or the pool, but I think he got over the attack. They never did catch the perp.”
Blair snapped his fingers together and jumped up off the couch. He turned and faced Jim, and muttered to himself, “It all makes sense now.
“So Jim, remember when we were leaving the bullpen after watching the broadcast about Lash? And remember how I was joking about getting a tattoo? You told me you’d kick my ass down seven flights of stairs if I did that. Did you say that because of what you’d seen with the peacock tattoo?”
Jim also got up, then acted as if he was going to catch Blair and give him a head ruffle. Blair ducked him and made with the Sandburg eyes again.
“Yeah, all right. I guess you figured it out, Darwin. I’ve never liked or trusted tattoos since that day, and I didn’t want you taking a chance something weird would happen with any tattoo you got, even if it said Cascade Police Department.”
“I’ve had enough spooky stuff for today. Let’s order pizza and catch a game on the tube, okay?” Jim hoped that with Blair’s curiosity satisfied for now, he’d agree to some downtime. Normal was what he needed right now, not more delving into supernatural shit. Blair looked at him, and smiled comfortingly, then dropped himself back on the couch, and picked up the remote.
“Okay. And I want green peppers and mushrooms on the pizza.”
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Two days later, Sandburg came home with an old, strange looking, leather-bound book. He called Jim over to the table and opened his book. On the page he had chosen was a picture of a peacock. With familiar hateful looking eyes.
“Jim, is this what you saw? The guy’s tattoo -- was it similar to this picture? Jim examined the page carefully and then nodded his head.
“Well, I think that tattoo was of the demon Adramelech, which some authorities translate as meaning ‘The King of Fire.’ He often took the form of a peacock. And, Jim, this demon was known for having children sacrificed to him… by burning them. And tattoos do have some association with magic. It’s possible that this demon was transferred by tattoo to your pervert’s skin, which might have allowed Adramelech to possess him. Or maybe they made an alliance, and the guy became a demonic pedophile. I don’t know, but I’m guessing that the same ability that allows you to perceive ghosts also made it possible to see beyond the surface pigment of the tattoo ink and see the demon for what it was.”
What Blair said gave Jim the creeps but he forced himself to make a lighthearted remark back to his partner.
“Well, Chief, I hope I never see old Adramelech again. But if I do, I have a broom handle with his name on it.”
The end