Shadow of Yesterday

The sun rained fire and there was no sign of clouds in the sky. The corn field danced with the wind and added to the beauty of the farm. The day was hot enough to make the birds flee for shelter yet it couldn't stop little Sofia and Eleanora from playing in the open. The heat didn't seem to bother them at all. They ran around in circles with their ragdolls. The corn was ripe for the harvest but old Bruno knew that the yield, like the next several harvests, would go into repayment of the debts he owed. He sat on his porch with his sickle and tried to gather enough strength to get up.

Old Bruno was sure that one of these days his back would betray him. He saw his girls run around recklessly and feared for their safety. He called out to them but they didn't care to respond.

"Camila! Come out!" he called out to his older daughter to come out of the house. A beautiful teenage girl came running out on her father's voice.

"Get them inside. They're gonna hurt themselves!" Bruno said and stood up to step into the fields.

Camila obeyed her father and set out after her sisters. She could see the movement in the field near the scarecrow. Ironically, most of the straws of the scarecrow had found new homes in crow nests around the field. Bruno pledged to repair it every time he saw it but always ended up leaving it for later. The miserable scarecrow, like its owner, longed for a break that never came. Camila and the sisters on the other hand, didn't mind the company of the strawy abomination. Camila jogged toward the girls. She suddenly heard a faint rattling sound near her. Before she could respond, a rattlesnake pounced at her and dug its fangs deep into her shin.

Jessica jolted out of her sleep and abruptly sat up on her bed. She was drenched in sweat and out of breath. She felt like she had just run a mile. She instinctively checked on her leg and found it unscathed. The pain felt too real. It took her a while getting back to reality. The drinks she had the night before and the wild west movie afterwards were probably the reason behind such a bizarre dream. The clock said five in the morning but Adam was not in bed. He couldn't be out. The entire Bassett city was buried in snow and most of Adam's work took him out of Nebraska. Jessica got out of bed and peeked through the blinds. Sure enough, there were mounds of snow in the neighborhood. She walked downstairs and heard another western cowboy movie playing in the living room. She stepped in and found her husband staring at his drawing board as the TV played in the background. The room was dark and the lamp on Adam's drawing board was the only source of light other than the faint flickers of the TV. The cowboy in the movie barked insults and fired bullets while Adam stood there in a world of his own. It wasn't new for Jessica. Adam was known to stare at his designs for lengths of time before he spotted any flaw in them. The wooden beads on Jessica's shrug scraped the door and startled him out of his daydream. He looked at her and immediately understood what she had been through.

"That kind of night huh?" he asked as he paced to the kitchen to fix her something.

Jessica nodded and dropped herself on the couch. She scrolled through the channels. All the channels were showing the repeated shows from the previous day. She finally arrived at a news channel which was airing the weather updates. It was the only news she cared about at the moment. Adam returned with two mugs of hot chocolate. He handed the bigger mug to Jessica and she pecked him on the cheek in return. Adam joined her on the couch. A middle aged meteorologist arrived in front of the green screen weather map wearing overly formal attire. The guy did a good job dumbing down the forecasts. The weather in Nebraska was about to see better days. The temperature was about to rise and life would be back to normal. Jessica wasn't that passionate about her job to make her love the news but the days spent cooped up in the house were making her lose her mind.

"Finally! I can make that trip to Albuquerque. Wasn't sure it'd be possible when I promised it" Adam exclaimed and took a sip.

"What's in Albuquerque?" Jessica softly asked, her eyes still glued to the TV screen. Adam didn't mind her curiosity.

"Some billionaire's son wants to build a warehouse with offices on top of it. He wants the design to be tailor made for his business which I'm trying to talk him out of," Adam responded.

"Why's that?" Jessica inquired.

"I checked his record. The business won't float. The guy has the attention span of a fly. The building will end up becoming an eyesore in a fine block," Adam explained. Jessica liked his dedication but he often took his love for the craft too far. "But it's his money, his decision I guess," Adam added and shrugged. He took another sip.

"Any plans of your own?" Adam asked.

"Yeah. Shopping, loads of it," Jessica responded. She decided to tune back to the movie channel. They had watched the movie several times. She remembered every dialogue with accuracy. The couple assumed one character each and said the dialogues to one another. Such was the degree of boredom.

Adam stole a glance at his wife, who was staring at the TV, clearly lost in her own thoughts. Her shrug had slipped off one of her shoulders, revealing her almost translucent tank top. Her face was enough to make Adam unleash the beast inside of him but her figure left him out of control. He didn't even try to be clever or stealthy about it. He softly grabbed her by her arm and pulled her toward himself. Jessica didn't mind at all. They stared into each other's souls as if they were talking through their eyes. After a brief stare-down, their lips met. Adam's hand found the parts of her body that he loved the most and Jessica was tightly clinging onto his body. Minutes passed like seconds during that passionate kiss. Jessica was determined to elevate it to another level. She quickly slid out of her tank top leaving her upper body entirely bare. Adam seemed to have his passion dwindled as he saw her stripping down to move to the next step yet he continued to worship her body. His lips moved from her lips to her neck and kept on going downwards. She awaited the moment when he would take the initiative and strip her down further. She had her eyes closed as she longed to feel his hands on the lower part of her body. But Adam kissed her on the lips again and abruptly let her go. Jessica was beyond confused but then again, it wasn't the first time it had happened.

"If the weather gets better, I think we should go out for lunch today!" Adam suggested with a heartfelt smile and tossed her the tank top she had slithered out of.

Jessica let out a sigh and nodded in agreement. Adam had been bailing out of these intimate instances for a while now. She couldn't even remember the last time they had sex. She was going crazy for some action but all she was getting from him were high school kisses. She had told her coworkers about it and they had all suggested that he had lost his appetite for her but his passionate kisses could not have been just pretend. They were genuine. She wondered if she was going to need to tie him to the bed and take the wheel. If it kept on like this, she would keep that option on the table.

The day was going to be another one of the pointless ones where Adam would go over his projects for the future and Jessica would end up counting the tiles in the house. She hated herself for not making most of the bookstore sale last week. Her current TBR stash only lasted two days of the shut in. The colorless days were only bearable because the love of her life was by her side. They had met five years ago at a Christmas party. Adam had been a friend's cousin. They had developed feelings immediately. They shared numbers and kept on meeting each other. Jessica was from a catholic Mexican family that didn't often approve marriages outside the community let alone across borders. She couldn't remember much about her family or her childhood no matter how hard she tried. But Adam's folks on the other hand, would sleep with anything that moved. His family had every color of the rainbow, both racially and sexually. They already had an Indian, a Vietnamese and a Jamaican in the family so Jessica was just another color addition to the spectrum. There wasn't much time wasted on dates as they got married after only four dates. The only reason that had been possible was because Jessica wasn't on speaking terms with her parents. She barely remembered their faces and a part of her didn't want to remember them at all. From home to work, her life was just the way she had always wanted it to be. Adam had been on foreign visits at the time of their marriage. They had used it to their advantage and turned it into a working honeymoon. Jessica abandoned her rental residence in LA and Adam sold his apartment in New York.

They moved to a much larger house in Bassett, Nebraska and had been living there for four years. Both of them loved every second of it. There wasn't a thing that they would change. The neighbors were good. The town wasn't the most energetic and active, just the way the couple liked it. They had seen their share of bustling activity and city lights and noises. It was just the level of peace they had always longed for. The work treated them fine.

Adam's work had been a bit on the slower side ever since they had moved there. Jessica had gotten the hint when she casually ran through his files. He had seen some remarkable heights of his career yet he was limited to small time gigs and an occasional fluke every once in a while. As slow as it was, it was still to let the couple maintain a respectable standard of living. They didn't need to cut any hobbies or micromanage the groceries to fit the budget.

Jessica had found a well paying cashier job at the Red Stallion Bank. She was one of the youngest in the staff. She had found some friends there and she was well respected. The bank didn't see much activity in the regular days let alone on a snow day with blocked roads and slipping cars. The staff was given paid leaves until the weather calmed. She had been burrowed with her husband for four days and was dying to meet her friends again. She was sure that they were just as excited to share their stories. The snow was about to disappear and if all went well she would be back to work tomorrow.

The next morning, Jessica was ready to leave for work. As expected, the sun shone brightly and the snow was starting to disappear. She took a long shower. She took a moment to breathe and leaned into the mirror above the sink. She stared at her reflection for a minute, the faint scar on her forehead, just below her hairline reminded her of the terrible accident she had a year ago. She shook it off. In a matter of seconds, she was ready for work. She walked downstairs and found Adam on a phone call. He had a habit of pacing around while he talked on the phone.

Jessica had found him in the most bizarre places doing the oddest of things during a phone call. Sharp rays of sunlight penetrated the windows and landed on the carpet. The room felt welcoming after a long time. The noise outside made no secret of the resumption of everyday life in the town. The TV barked like always. She sneaked into the kitchen and prepared a modest breakfast. A misshapen sunny side up and a strip of bacon that needed some labeling to be recognized as one. Adam wouldn't complain. Cooking was never among her stronger suits but she still did it every once in a while. Adam loved to cook so he was the one with the chef's hat when they weren't having a takeaway. It took her mere moments to understand what the phone call was about. Adam was booking a flight to Albuquerque. Adam's friend, Frank, worked in a travel agency and struck good deals with the tickets. He was useful more often than not. The planes were definitely going to be packed after the long pause of activity. Booking a seat in advance was the wise way to go. She arrived with the breakfast and Adam hung up as soon as he saw the remedy for his hunger. They kissed and sat down to unleash their fury on the plates.

"When's it due?" Jessica asked, half way through the breakfast.

"Noon," Adam responded without looking up from the plate. He anticipated another question coming his way and decided to answer it before it was asked.

"Two days max," he added. The TV showed a weather forecast with a lot of suns scattered across the map. It was bound to be a warm day. The breakfast was finished and Jessica checked her watch. She was running late. She sprang up to her feet, grabbed her bag and made a run for it. She reached the door with a feeling of missing something.

"Jess!" Adam softly exclaimed from behind her. Jessica looked back and saw him waving her phone to her. The time at home had caused her to miss some of her basic routines which included patting her pockets before leaving for work. She thanked him and kissed him goodbye.

The road was wet but not dangerous. It hadn't been that bright in her town in ages. The sun was in full force and the neighborhood saw a magnitude of activity it had almost forgotten. Everything including the birds and children made the most of the sun's welcome return. Water splashed near the curb as Jessica drove past the puddles formed by the melted snow. Deformed snowmen stared at her Beetle in the final hours of their existence. She loved the feeling of her tires fully gripping the asphalt. The school kids didn't seem too thrilled over their return to the schools but their parents did. She drove past the stores that welcomed the trucks that had been awaiting the opening of the roads. Everything was being restocked and customers stood in queues. Jessica loved every bit of the return to the normal. In a matter of minutes, she had arrived at the bank. The parking lot was already half full. The guard nodded a greeting the moment their eyes met. The rearing stallion statue at the entrance of the bank still had the last of the signs of the blizzard. The ice was still melting off of it. Jessica entered the bank and found a load of customers already in queues.

"Mornin'!" the guard greeted as she went past the door. By that time she was almost jogging towards her workstation.

"Morning Carlos," she responded while hastily undoing her jacket. The staff gave her scowling looks. The customers had been expected to pour in like it was the end of the world and Jessica had chosen that exact day to leave her coworkers in the cold. She arrived at the other side of the glass in a moment and assumed her counter.

Her friend, Brenda, operating the counter next to her, gave her a look that said, 'Where the hell were you?' and Jessica couldn't respond.

Brenda was at least ten years older than Jessica and had been a resident of the town since birth. The two long queues divided and a third one formed at her counter as soon as she flipped the sign. Most of the customers wanted cash withdrawals and deposits.

Locals were known to panic after the annual spell of snow shut-ins so it was business as usual. They were acting as if the bank would disappear after sunset. Jessica asked Brenda if the president was there. She shook her head in response. It was expected.

The founder of the bank, Charles Wheatley, had put his son in charge of the main branch to give him an opportunity to learn and the young brat had totally missed the point. Donald Wheatley was in his early thirties and rarely visited the bank. Nobody minded that as it eased the work atmosphere at the place.

Jessica knew every customer by name. Everyone remembered her in return. Work didn't feel like work. It was just another one of those monotonous days. Hours passed and every once in a while, she sneaked a peek at the clock that jumped half an hour at every glance. It was the last hour and the traffic inside the bank had lightened to the point of nonexistence. The staff relaxed. Jessica was on her phone watching a movie to pass the time. An unusually hospitable tone from Brenda to a customer startled her. She looked up and found a man standing at Brenda's booth. The man stared at Jessica with a look of astonishment. The stranger was a rare new face in the town. There were hardly any visitors and it wasn't the perfect place to migrate to. The stranger was presumed to be a passerby like most new faces. Brenda was a professional at what she did and was trying her best to make the man talk to her but the man wouldn't quit gawking at Jessica. It was obvious to Brenda that something was wrong with him. He abruptly walked to Jessica's booth and stood there silently. Carlos gripped his baton tightly and gave Jessica a look to give him the signal if she wanted him to intervene. The rest of the staff was also watching it all. Jessica tried to keep her calm. The man looked under the influence of something that he regretted taking. There was a realistic amount of danger involved in dealing with him.

"How can I be of service?" she dutifully asked the man, just like she was trained. The man's eyes widened the moment he heard her voice. He turned and scampered out of the building. Carlos gladly let the man get past him. Everyone stood motionlessly wondering what to make of it.

"Meth! Not even once!" The guard broke the silence. A few laughed including Carlos himself. In a moment, everything was back to normal as if nothing had happened. Jessica turned to Brenda who was looking back at her.

"What the hell was that?" spoke Jessica softly and Brenda shrugged in response.

"Seemed fine a minute ago. Broke down the minute he laid eyes on you," Brenda said. Jessica hadn't seen the man enter the bank. None of it made sense. "Oh! To be young and pretty!" Brenda said dramatically. She expected Jessica to blush but Jessica was still in deep thought.

"Relax! He's probably on something. You ain't that pretty. Even Carlos is prettier than you," Brenda spoke like a whip and Jessica smiled. The two were accustomed to that kind of exchanges.

Brenda looked at the clock and found the arms where she wanted them to be. It was time to go. She hastily packed up and Jessica followed suit. The sky was turning dark. Jessica said her goodbyes to her coworkers and signed out. She drove through the town which was going darker by the minute. Businesses were closing and diners were dishing out their final meals. The local folks knew that even if the weather was hospitable in the day, there was no telling what the night had in store. The naked tree trunks casted long dying shadows on the road. There was minimal traffic and in no time, Jessica was alone on the road. Nothing was out of the ordinary. She had forgotten what had happened at the bank. But she couldn't shake off the eerie feeling of being watched. She convinced herself that it was just the shock. She drove on. Suddenly, she caught a glimpse of a car in her rear view mirror. The car was a black sedan with its headlights turned off. The vehicle was a fair distance behind her. She tried to shake it off as nothing but a part of her suspected stalking. The car was only visible on the longer and straighter roads. Jessica understood that she wasn't the only person living on that side of town but the off headlights tripped an alarm inside her. She decided to test her suspicion and abruptly turned her car for a u-turn. The Beetle screeched across the asphalt and moved in the opposite direction. In a few seconds, the two cars passed each other. Jessica couldn't clearly see the driver's face. Jessica kept driving in the opposite way with her eyes glued to the rearview mirror, expecting the black car to return. It never did. She blamed her suspicions on the movies she was hooked on and drove home.

Adam landed in Albuquerque in the night. The flight had been short and painless but over crowded as expected. It was as if everyone wanted to escape Nebraska and get a tan in New Mexico. He took an atrocity in the name of coffee from a vending machine and took a break. Albuquerque International Sunport wasn't the busiest of the airports in the country. The rush was entirely because of the flights coming from the icy states. The airport witnessed a brief surge of traffic before going back to normal after a few minutes. He took a breath and stepped out of the airport.

He had planned to take a cab but he caught a driver waiting for him in front of the entrance. The driver was a black man in his sixties with a bald head and a faded mustache. The old man was fighting his sleep while holding a large card that said "Mr. Peterson". The state the driver was in, showed that he had been waiting for a while. Adam felt bad for making the guy wait that long. He hadn't expected to be received at the airport. He approached the driver who was over the moon on seeing someone finally come his way. They shook hands and drove off. The roads didn't have a lot of traffic and the streets were dimly lit. The city was infamous for all sorts of dangers that lurked in the nights so the lack of activity was understandable. The driver didn't wear any specific uniform for the job and the car was definitely not a cab so Adam assumed that he was probably an employee of the billionaire that was charged with the chores and other petty matters. The ride was a long one and Adam was getting tired of the silence.

"What's your name?" Adam tried to break the ice. The driver looked just as willing for a conversation. The long roads with a lack of details were taking a toll on him.

"Albert."

"It's my first visit here. What's the city like?"

"Oh it's fine. The people is nice, the police don't harass nobody and there's a lot of opportunity."

"And Mr. Cole?"

"He fine too. Been working for him for the past eight years. Didn't see or hear nothing bad about the man," Albert responded. It was a relief for Adam.

Albert drove on at a pleasant pace. He was in no hurry. The city was warm. The car's AC blasted on full. Adam felt a drop of sweat trickle down his forehead. Living in a colder state had made his body incompatible to heat. He fanned his face with a magazine he had bought from the airport kiosk. He peeked outside to divert his mind from the heat. The car passed a few modest shopping malls. There were a few ATMs in the vicinity. The men that withdrew the money from them had women anxiously waiting for them across the street. The women wore signature outfits obvious enough to let a blind man guess their profession. It fascinated Adam. He checked his watch and it was past midnight. The car entered a posh neighborhood with luxurious yet simple looking houses. The simplicity was of the expensive kind. From roads to streetlights, everything was spotless. Adam wondered if his client lived there but the car didn't seem to slow. The estates started to get bigger and bigger. The car slowed down at the very end of the neighborhood in front of a large metal gate. A plump guard woke up from his slumber by the headlights flashing on his face. He irritably got up from his chair and adjusted his pants. The car was immediately recognized but he knew that the big guy was home so there was no haste. At least none from his side. He took his time getting to the gate and opened it. The car drove inside the estate. Adam was in awe. A huge expanse of lush greenery with exotic flowers and freshly trimmed hedges surrounded him. There were several luxury vehicles peeking out of the garage. A large fountain stood at the entrance and at the center of it all, was the massive white mansion that looked right out of a fairytale. It was just a few signature features away from being a palace. Albert stopped the car beside the fountain and the mansion. He stepped out and opened Adam's door for him. He got out of the vehicle, still gawking around like a kid in a candy shop. He was staring at the extremely detailed marble mermaid in the fountain. The mermaid stared back at the spectators while pouring water from a vessel over her shoulder. The thing looked to be a part of a museum.

"You like it?" Mr. Cole spoke from behind Adam.

The voice shook Adam out of his imagination. He hadn't met his client in person. All the communications had been either via phone or internet. He turned to face Mr. Cole and found a six feet tall, elegantly dressed white man in his forties. The man had a genuine ear to ear grin. It wasn't everyday he hosted people who gave two craps about the piece of art Adam clearly admired.

"Yeah. It's breathtaking craftsmanship!" Adam spoke his mind and turned back to face the fountain. Mr. Cole stepped beside him and placed his arm on Adam's shoulders.

"Some forgotten legendary sculptor from ancient Rome made the fountain on the demand of his King. The King's love had left him in his teenage years and dishonored him. So he wanted something to remember her by. The artist took the job as he knew the King closely. When the fountain arrived, the king took one look at it before running away in tears. The mermaid closely resembles the woman the king had loved but there was something sinister hidden in it," Mr. Cole explained and Adam listened attentively.

"What?" Adam curiously asked while looking for the hidden meaning.

"At certain times of the day, the shadows make it look like Medusa and the smile on it turns ominous if you stare at it for too long," Mr. Cole responded. Adam tried to see it and found it.

"The fountain was doomed to spend centuries in different storages before my great grandfather bought it in an auction in Greece. It has been in the family since," Mr. Cole concluded and the two of them kept on staring at the fountain. Adam suddenly remembered that he was there for a job. He hurried to the car and pulled out his bags. He hadn't taken his client very seriously but his views had dramatically changed. Mr. Cole on the other hand was loving Adam more and more.

"Let's head inside. If you liked the mermaid, the stuff inside is gonna blow your mind," Mr. Cole said and invited Adam inside the mansion. Adam had his bags hanging on his shoulders as he followed Mr. Cole.

"Albert will take care of those for you," the rich client spoke, pointing at the bags and Albert offered to relieve him of the burden.

"But Mr. Cole, the plans..." Adam was making up the words when the client interjected.

"Firstly, call me Simon and secondly, we'll talk shop in the morning. You must be exhausted. Your room is ready but I wanted to share some of the art before you hit the sack," the client said, wondering if Adam had the energy for the tour.

"I'd love to," Adam responded and gladly gave his bags to Albert. Adam lived for art. It was the reason he had chosen the profession.

"Splendid!" Simon happily exclaimed and headed inside with Adam by his side.

The entire mansion was filled with paintings, sculptures and antique relics. Not an inch of any wall was left abandoned. The artworks belonged to all sorts of regions and cultures but had only one thing in common which was the jaw dropping worths. It seemed as if the family got their hands on anything that landed out of the national heritage bracket of any country. The tour lasted an hour and Adam enjoyed every second of it. They had a few pints of an exotic champagne and shared their thoughts for a while.

"So what brought you into this profession?" Simon pried. Adam stared into nothing for a moment before responding.

"I had a thing. My brain used to reverse engineer everything I saw. It worked particularly well with buildings so here I am," Adam spoke. It made sense to Simon so he nodded his head.

"Me, I've never been sure about choosing a profession. Whenever I chose a path, the grass turned greener on the other side, y'know?" Simon said, sounding slightly intoxicated. It was a bit too personal of him. Adam played along and just nodded.

"In the end, I just started managing the family businesses like my father and his father before him and so on," Simon added. There were a few more nods from Adam in response.

Adam caught a glimpse of the clock that looked just as expensive as the rest of the stuff that surrounded it and realized that it was high time he got some shut eye. He excused himself and headed outside. Albert escorted him to his room.

It was going to be one of those restless nights for Adam. He had grown too accustomed to sleeping with his wife. He felt like he was missing a piece of himself when he couldn't feel Jessica in his arms. He grabbed a pillow and hugged it tightly to fade the feeling of loneliness. The image of that medusa flashed in his eyes and the words of Simon Cole echoed in his ears. It wasn't the fear of betrayal that troubled Adam but it was guilt. He wondered if he was the medusa manipulating the unmindful prey. He wondered if what he had done could ever be forgiven.