Mendez Genesis Read online

  Mendez:

  Genesis

  Edward Hancock II

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2015 Edward Hancock II

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  Manufactured in the United States of America

  ISBN: 151967922X

  ISBN-13: 978-1519679222

  DEDICATION

  This book is dedicated to anyone and everyone who has ever struggled in their faith walk. This whole series is about a man’s journey. His highs and his lows. His triumphs and his failures. Some have not understood that and have blasted this series when Alex fails to lean on God. While I hope everyone will enjoy it, perhaps this book is not for the Christian whose faith is grounded in a multi-generational raising in a denominational system. This book is for everyone else. Everyone that gets it. Everyone who has come to God by an odd and windy road, only to find themselves occasionally lost on some dark, frightening dead end path. Those who’ve reached “rock bottom” only to realize He is the rock at the bottom. Because, for most of us, that’s how it really happens. Be grateful God allows U-turns! And keep on going! Keep praying. Keep hoping. And, yes, keep trying! Never give up. Never surrender. I’m living proof that you are not alone! To everyone else, please do not judge our scars if you have not walked the road we did to get here. Thank you.

  CHAPTER 1

  CHANCE ENCOUNTER

  As he opened his eyes, in the driver’s side of the dark blue Ford Bronco, he knew. When he looked at her cream-colored brick house, he knew. He knew what every room in the house looked like, though he’d never been any closer to it than he was at that moment. He knew all about the brown carpet in every room and the wood-panel walls that to him, combined for a tasteless atmosphere. Very dull and lifeless, totally unlike her, he thought. She would leave her house soon and take him to a location he’d never been, but still he knew. Not really where it was, nor did he yet have the knowledge of how to get there, but he knew it would come soon enough. It always did.

  He knew everything about her, in explicit detail. He’d never seen the brown flakes in her otherwise deep blue eyes, but he knew them all too well. He’d never touched the softness of her gently-tanned skin, or ran his fingers through her sandy yellow locks, but he knew the sensation as if it were tattooed on his very soul. There’d never been any less than ten feet between them, but he knew every fold of her skin, every wrinkle, every crevice, every little imperfection as well as every perfection. He knew everything about her, and he was the only one. The others did not know.

  How could they? They were weak, stupid. They were mortal.

  He was Eternal.

  * * *

  She absolutely hated the morning time. There were times when she swore she was part vampire, because she so passionately loathed the early hours of the day. The first rays of sunlight that should have energized her body, mind and spirit seemed almost to have the exact opposite effect, so disheartening to her. A lingering melancholy, just waiting to swallow her into the bottomless pit of despair. But this was the life she led. The life she had to lead. At least for now.

  She exhaled loudly as she stretched and sat up in bed. The wooden frame creaked and squeaked as she rose slowly to a comfortable seated position. Her green T-shirt lifted slightly, showing her toned abdomen, but to whom?

  “To the walls?” she laughed as she looked down and saw her stomach exposed to the morning air.

  She pulled her shirt down, hugged herself and snuggled back under her navy blue comforter. The clock read 7:13. Her new semester at college began at 9:00 so she had a few minutes to lay down.

  Her room was covered in posters of her favorite bands and movie stars, so unlike a college woman. Still like the high school girl she had been back in May.

  “That’s all right!” she told herself, as she looked at her poster

  of that blond guy from that vampire movie. She could never remember the title of the movie. It was the only time she’d ever seen this particular guy in a movie and he was, in her opinion, the only thing about the movie worth remembering. Strange that she couldn’t quite ever remember his name. “But wow, he’s cute!” she thought.

  So high schoolish. She knew it.

  “Oh, so what,” she sighed, from under the covers, “My college life doesn’t start for a while. I’ve got time to be a high school girl little longer”

  Her name was Tina Miles. She had turned 18 just days before walking across the stage to end her days as a high school celebrity.

  She was well liked in high school. There were few people she thought of as friends, but no matter where she went, her list of admirers seemed to only grow longer. On her own since she was 16, she’d become very independent and self-sufficient to the point of near isolation. To her, people were just the things she saw when she went places to do the things she had to do to survive. She certainly didn’t need friends. Survival was the name of the game. Politeness was acceptable, but emotional ties were, always had been, forbidden.

  Emotions, in her mind, were God’s most foolish creation.

  They got in the way, she thought, delaying the task at hand and ultimately threatened her survival. There was plenty to be done during the day and there was no time to stop and feel, especially for a procrastinator like Tina.

  She always seemed to wait until the last possible minute to do everything, but she never failed to get the job done. For some reason, she seemed to work best under pressure. Fear, one of the few acceptable emotions, always seemed to motivate her to her goal. She could even recall instances of such intense pressure as to bring about a kind of mental block where she could not recall doing the task she had just completed.

  * * *

  As she rose from her bed, she looked at the clock, 7:37. Her first class was at 9:00. She sighed as she sat upright. As she toe-grabbed for her pink house shoes, she felt a chill go up her spine. Probably just too used to being under those warm blankets, she thought.

  Still, she momentarily considered the ramifications of diving back under the blankets just long enough to miss out on her first day of college. Impossible!

  “Don’t even think about it, chick!” she told herself, as she turned toward the floor, from her unmade bed.

  Her feet touched the floor, missing her house shoes entirely.

  Suddenly, her blood began to surge through her veins. She felt wide-awake and alert before she was even standing fully upright.

  She wasn’t in the least excited about going to college. It was simply something she knew she had to do. A new challenge to meet and, as always, conquer.

  She walked to the shower, not with the lazy fromp-fromp steps of many sleepy heads. Rather, with brisk confidence and a certain definable air of gracefulness, as if methodically counting every step, measuring to perfection the distance of every stride she took.

  Wasting no movement.

  She brushed her teeth quickly, firmly, but with thoroughness that would make any Marine drill instructor salute with pride.

  Every angle, every side of every tooth was tended to with perfect focus. Her teeth were white, pearly white, and squeaky clean. Her skin wasn’t silky smooth. There were the ever-present signs of youth still lingering about, though they were few and very far between. The hardness in her skin
, if you could call it that, was more a result of life experience than of neglect.

  As she stepped into the shower, the cold water felt good to her skin. She washed her hair with the same thoroughness that she had used to brush her teeth.

  As she stepped out of the shower, she wrapped a towel around her and began to fix her hair. She wasn’t one to keep up with the latest trends or styles. She wore her hair how she liked it, dressed in the clothes she liked, off the rack. She drove the best car, economically speaking, she could afford. She wasn’t a flashy person. Her bangs hung loosely about her forehead, her hair pulled back into a ponytail that was still almost long enough to reach her shoulders. From the closet, she chose a cherry red button up top, slightly form fitting, but that wasn’t her purpose. She wore it because red was and always had been her favorite color. Most of her tops were red, or had red in them. One had once been red but had, over the years, faded to something between a pink, orange and burnt peach. She didn’t wear that one much anymore.

  As usual, she chose a pair of acid washed blue denim jeans. This pair was button fly. Most of the others were not. The platform style shoes she wore were straight out of the era of peace, love and harmony among mankind. Peace sounded great to Tina, but she had no desire for harmony with the universe at this stage of her life, to say nothing of the L word.

  As she finished dressing, she went back to the bathroom and gave herself the once over. She began to wonder if she could actually find it in herself to mingle. To relate to—and with—other college co-eds. Nothing too big, mind you. Just a simple courtesy. She smiled a crooked, half-hearted smile into the mirror as if replying to a “pleased to meet you” offer of kindness.

  To her, the expression looked so out of place. It was a waste of energy. Took too much effort. And was a lie besides.

  She checked her watch. 8:27. Plenty of time, she thought, as she walked from the house to start a new chapter in a life that already had so many stories to tell. Deep down inside, a yearning seed began to form. Somewhere deep down inside, she began to question the point of having so many stories if there was no one interested in hearing them.

  As she exited her house, the wind blew through her hair and kissed the nape of her neck. Another chill ran down her spine. She shivered.

  “It’s going to be a long day,” she thought. “a very very long day!”

  * * *

  He watched her as she left the house. His eyes filled with life as he watched her stride toward her automobile. Her existence gave him a purpose.

  “Soon Tina,” He whispered to himself, “It won’t be long now.” Soon his purpose would be fulfilled.

  As she started the car, he watched her carefully, noting her license plate, even though it was entirely unnecessary to do so. He knew exactly where she was going. He would let her lead him, but she would not know he had followed.

  Once she had rounded the corner, he started the Bronco. An old lady in a nearby yard looked up from her rose bushes. She smiled, waved. He glared at her, through the window of the Bronco and waved back, but not in courteous reply.

  “Death,” he growled softly, as his hand floated through the air, forming an open fist around a pale blue luminescent sphere of empty space. The vibrations of the Bronco were now far beyond the simple humming of the engine. The radio switched on, omitting a screeching noise, barely audible. Her eyes grew dim, and then shut as she lurched face first into her rose bushes.

  Simultaneously, his fist snuffed out the last bit of life from the sphere it had once held. He pointed a demonic talon toward his prey, as an eagle swooping down, preparing to feed a voracious appetite. She belonged to him now.

  “And soon,” He thought to himself “So will Tina” He smiled, and pulled casually out into the road in pursuit of his destiny.

  CHAPTER 2

  AN OPEN BOOK

  Tina drove around for quite a while before finally locating a parking spot. She made a mental note to arrive earlier next time. She parked her dark blue Pontiac by some dilapidated green and white van. As she got out of the car, the distinct smell of engine neglect filled the air. For a moment, she pondered the possibility that it might be her engine that was in need of repair. She soon realized it was the green van, whose idling engine sputtered, clinked, knocked, squeaked, squealed and spilled countless puffs of blue-white exhaust from its pipes.

  “Just my luck,” she sighed, noting that the breeze seemed to be blowing the smoke in her direction. How unfriendly this wind seemed, in contrast to the caring winds outside her home. She covered her mouth and nose with one hand, and grabbed her book from her car with the other. When she was far enough away, she dropped her hand to her side, removed her pink scheduling slip from her pants pocket, and verified that English was her first class.

  She surveyed the campus, in search of the Liberal Arts Building, which she found just across the way, two buildings down from where she currently stood. Like the other buildings she could see in the immediate area, it was old, made of yellow brick and from the looks of things, drastically in need of renovation. The rest of the campus wasn’t too bad. Trees dotted the mall area between two rows of buildings. Surrounding most of the trees were gray-black marble benches. An empty paper cup, a couple of candy wrappers and a wadded up bag of potato chips rested near the foot of one of the benches.

  Down the way, she could see a couple of maintenance men trimming the hedges around one of the buildings. For a moment, she regarded them curiously, wondering how they could let such clutter lie around. It seemed as though they were trying to give the impression of being busy, so as not to have to do any real work.

  As she approached the Liberal Arts Building, she made her way up the steps to the second floor. About half way up, she noticed a couple of smokers hanging around. They were ugly, she thought.

  One, a leathery-skinned woman, dark-haired. She was tall, thin, looking to be in her late 40’s. The other was a man. A biker type. Full beard, salted and peppered with age. His pot belly lay about an inch exposed to the world, and all of him looked like he was suffering from a lack of running bath water, if not a bona fide fear.

  The woman coughed, hacked. Tina felt her stomach knot up.

  She kept her head down so as to avoid eye contact. As she entered the building, she was taken aback by the immense neglect that was being allowed to go unattended. The ceiling was brown with water spots. Parts of it had rotted away. The floors and the staircases looked as though a legion of desert warriors had just passed through with their sand drenched boots stomping to cadence. The walls were the only things that looked new. Painted brilliant white on both the bottom floor and the top floor.

  Her classroom was in much the same shape as the rest of the building. The desks were about the most uncomfortable as any she’d ever encountered. Wooden, and very hard. She was the only one in there at the time, so she found a fairly comfortable seat next to the door. She fidgeted, trying to get comfortable, then took out her notebook and textbook to start class. As people began to file in, they all seemed to feel compelled to introduce themselves, or at least say hi. Tina put on her best smile, reciprocated, and tried to engage in small talk. There wasn’t much time till class began. She only hoped the quality of education would make up for the facilities in which she was taught.

  * * *

  He introduced himself to the young woman as Devin. He was sort of tall, but not hulking. Only about 5’11. Slender but defined muscles. Very athletic looking, almost like a track star. He was quite handsome though he lacked the conceited knowledge that his looks were anything beyond average. When she spoke her name

  “Tina” it was as if he’d heard the gates of heaven themselves open up with a chorus of angel song pouring from within. She seemed very shy, withdrawn even, but there was something about her. Something in her eyes that spoke volumes to him. About her, about life in general. About the future. As he looked at her, trying desperately not to sound like a total dork, he swore he saw something of a future in her eyes. And as he
listened, beyond just the simple sound of his own voice, he could almost swear he heard the sound of a baby crying.

  For a moment, there it was. A connection. Something inside him smiled. And something else, something he could not explain, grew scared.

  * * *

  When he introduced himself as Devin, Tina felt very apprehensive. Not at his name. Just at his introduction. The simple fact that, unlike all the others in the class that had introduced themselves, Tina really wasn’t so sure Devin was an unwelcome distraction.

  He was quite charming and frankly not that bad looking. He almost reminded her of that poster she had thought about this morning. The one with that movie star guy on it. But there was something unmistakably common about him. When she shook his hand, her spine tingled. It had never done that before, but she was almost sure she blushed as she became consciously aware of the tingling sensations in her stomach and spine. Tina’s insides shivered as she reached the uncanny realization that, for the first time in her life, she felt the seeds of something she’d never felt before.

  For the first time in her life, she believed beyond a shadow of a doubt that she needed someone. But not just someone. Devin.

  “Stupid!” She thought to herself. “You just met this guy! How do you need someone you just met?”

  She sighed to herself.

  “Still . . .”

  Something inside her smiled. But something else inside her shivered. As the bell sounded to begin class, she smiled. It was a nervous smile. It was a pleasant smile. And it was real.

  CHAPTER 3

  MAGIC MOMENTS

  After class, Tina took a few extra seconds gathering her things. She couldn’t explain it, but she could not take her eyes off of Devin. And where her eyes went, her mind was forced to follow. Or perhaps the opposite was true, she thought. It was as if she thought he’d disappear, and the thought of him not being real bothered her far more than the thought that he was, in fact, not a product of fantasy or delirium. Twice, she had almost reached out to touch his arm, just to make sure he was there. Both times, she felt an immediate need to kick herself for acting in such a childish manner.