I should never have stopped when I saw the laughing man in the middle of the road. His face was bloody, his khaki pants and red polo shirt were dirty and torn, and his bare feet were red and scaly from however far he’d walked on the hot asphalt before plopping down to have a good time braying at the sky like a donkey.
Tears left tracks down his cheeks as he wept with the effort of chortling and guffawing so hard and fast and loud that his chest shuddered with the effort to suck in enough air between bursts. He looked exhausted and pathetic and crazy, but also like someone that needed help. So instead of driving around him, I slowed to a stop just past him and pulled over to the shoulder, glancing both ways down the long stretch of highway before walking over to him.
“Sir? Um, are you okay? Were you in an accident?”
The man kept laughing as he rolled his eyes in my direction. “Acci….dent…”
I wasn’t sure if that was a confirmation or not, but at least he could hear me. Maybe he was in shock? Leaning down, I tried to catch his eye, but he was staring at the passing clouds again. I studied him a moment, looking for bleeding wounds or broken bones, but not seeing any at a glance. Maybe he could get up and get out of the road and then I could call for help.
“Sir, are you okay to get up? I think if you are okay to stand and go with me to my car I can try to get you some help. If not, I’ll stay with you and call from here.”
The man looked at me again briefly and then looked past me to the car, his laughter slowing for a moment. Chuckling under his breath, he glanced back up at me and then stood up with surprising speed. He pointed to me and then my car.
“Let’s…let’s go.”
He started walking toward the side of the road without waiting for a response, but then doubled over halfway across the right lane. At first I thought it was stomach cramps or a sign of internal injury, but then I realized he was roaring laughter again, his whole body seeming to spasm with it for a few seconds before he looked back and beckoned me to follow.
Frowning, I looked both ways one last time and ran across to where he stood waiting at the car. “Hold on. Are you hurt? I need to call 911.” Pulling out my phone, I saw the no service icon in the corner of the screen. I looked across the car to the man. “Sorry, I don’t have a signal right here. It’s weird, because I was just streaming music for the last hour. Maybe it was still buffered from a few miles…” I blushed as I shook my head. “Sorry, I know you need help.”
I didn’t know exactly where I was, and I didn’t like the idea of letting a stranger into my car out in the middle of nowhere. Still, maybe he was badly hurt. And if there was a town nearby, it might be easier and safer to just drive him to a hospital and drop him off. I waved at the man to catch his attention, and his latest bout of laughter slowly trailed off as he followed my hand back toward my face.
“Do you know this place? Is there a town close by I can carry you to? A hospital?”
The man’s face lit up with a smile as he nodded. “Braxton.” He pointed the way I’d been headed. “Not far. It’s…It’s…” he began snickering, “it’s home.”
I glanced back down at my phone. Fuck this guy was creepy acting, but I still had no signal. And he hadn’t done anything violent or aggressive. I needed to just take him toward town and call 911 as soon as I could. Let them direct or meet me and take over helping his crazy ass.
Trying to keep my expression neutral, I nodded. “Sounds good. Get in and I’ll take you back.”
Wiping away more tears of laughter, he nodded and climbed into my car.
“So what’s your name?”
We were five miles down the road at this point, still no signal but I had seen a sign saying Braxton was only two more miles away. I’d have preferred just staying quiet until I got rid of him, but that damned laughter was hard to listen to, and it did seem to lessen when he had to talk.
“Har…Harry Marcus…”
I gave an awkward smile. “Good to meet you, Harry. I’m Jeff. Did you, um, have an accident out there or something?” I glanced over at him again. Closer up, I still wasn’t sure he was really hurt other than a scrape on his forehead, which seemed too small for the blood on his face. Maybe he hadn’t been the one bleeding so much… “Shit, were you by yourself out there?”
He nodded and went to speak when another peal of laughter shook his body. Taking a deep breath, he tried again. “Alone. Yes.”
“What about how you got there? Did you have a car accident?”
Harry shook his head as he wiped a line of bloody snot from his nose. “N-no, no accident. They left…left me out there. Would have car-carried me farther, but they forgot!” With this, he vomited a little, leaving a fine brown mist on the passenger dash as he grew louder, as though he had just told the punchline of a great joke.
Feeling queasy myself, I focused back on the road. “Um, okay, so where’s the hospital here? I want to get you there quick as I can.”
The man shook his head in the corner of my view. “No…no. Kendra. Take me to Kendra. Down…downtown.”
I considered arguing, but thought better of it. Whoever this Kendra was, he clearly knew her, and better her deal with his gross crazy than me. I was going to try asking for directions on my phone, but there was still no signal. Did they just not have a tower in town at all? How was that possible? Weighing the pros and cons of asking Harry where to go, I felt relief when we passed a sign that said Braxton City Limits. Below it, an arrow pointed forward and then to the right with the word “Downtown” below it.
Braxton seemed strange. Just looking at it, it was a small midwestern town that probably hadn’t grown much in the last fifty years. There wasn’t much traffic, and I didn’t see any people on the street other than a couple of cops talking through the window of one of their patrol cars and an old man walking alone down the sidewalk near the edge of downtown itself. I thought about turning around and asking the cops for help, but it would just lead to me getting more involved than I already was. If I could drop him off with this Kendra, that would be good enough and I could be on my way.
“Here. Sew.”
I followed his gaze over to a shop coming up on the right. It looked like a tailoring or alteration store, and the sign above the door showed a smiling needle and thread laughing at some shared joke above the name: You Sew and Sew. Frowning slightly at the sign, I pulled into a spot and looked over at Harry. “Here?”
He nodded, covering his mouth as he chuckled to himself.
“Okay. I’m going to go in and ask for Kendra. Be right back.”
The store was large, with sections devoted to sewing supplies, alterations, and even a large selection of supposedly handmade dresses and suits. It was weird, but kind of cool, and if I didn’t have a bloody insane man in my car vomiting up weird shit, I might have enjoyed poking around there for a few minutes. As it was, I just wanted to find Kendra.
“Can I help you?”
I turned to find the source of the voice and sucked in a breath as I saw a beautiful young woman smiling at me from behind a nearby counter. Blushing, I nodded and stepped forward.
“Um, hi, yeah. I…I’m looking for Kendra?”
She raised a delicate eyebrow as she smiled at me. “I’m Kendra. Why are you looking for me?”
Swallowing, I made myself go on. “So, I was driving…out on the highway. And I found this man in the middle of the road. I don’t know if he’s hurt or in shock or crazy or what, but he needed help and asked me to bring him to you.” Her smile had faded while I talked, but she didn’t seem to know what I was talking about yet either. “Um, his name is Harry.”
I thought I saw her skin pale slightly, but it was hard to say in the dim morning light coming through the front windows. “Harry? No, I don’t know any Harry I don’t think. I’m sorry.” She kept her eyes on me, and I didn’t see any clear sign she was lying to me, though I didn’t know why she would. “Maybe, if he’s hurt like you say, you should just carry him on to the hospital. It’s up the highway toward the north side of town.”
I winced slightly. “Look, I can if I need to. But…can you just come out and look at the guy? Maybe he gave me the wrong name or something. He’s pretty messed up in the head I think. Keeps laughing all the time, and I don’t know…” I trailed off as her eyes went wide.
“N-no…I…laughing? No, you need to go. I can’t have you here. You…you need to take him and go.”
I frowned. “So you do know him. Why did you say you didn’t?”
She shook her head as she took a step back from the counter. “I…I don’t know him. Or I don’t remember him right. But I remember laughing. Laughing so much I thought I’d die.” There were tears in the corners of her eyes now. “And I…I think maybe my daddy’s name was Harry.”
I didn’t know what was going on, and nothing was making any sense, but one thing was clear: Kendra was terrified and didn’t want to be anywhere near the man in the car, whether it was her father or not. Fine. I’d drop his ass off at the hospital and quit freaking her and myself…
I heard the door chime, and when I looked around, Harry was there.
Kendra let out a low moan behind me, and I stepped between her and the door as I met Harry’s gaze. “Hey, man. I don’t think this is the place. I’ll carry you somewhere else so you can…”
The man looked past me, wiping drool from the corner of his mouth as he chortled. “Kendra…don’t you know me, girl?”
I glanced back in her direction and saw she had retreated toward the back of the store, her lips trembling as she stared at him.
“I…I think you’re my daddy. But you…you’re gone.”
Harry let out a loud laugh. “Gone. You’re being silly. I’m right here.”
Sniffling, she shook her head again. “No…you went down with the men. Into the mine. And it fell in and…”
“…and then I came back out, didn’t I? Like Lazarus reborn. Other fellas didn’t make it, but I did. Oh, I did!” The man began to do a strange little jig as he talked, bouncing on the balls of his feet as he edged further into the store. Torn between confusion and anger, I raised a hand as I stepped forward to stop him.
“Hold up, man. This girl is scared of you. So why don’t we go find those cops we passed and let them sort it…”
Harry looked up at me, his eyes shiny and hard. “You’re a funny man. Funny, funny, funny.” I saw his jaw flexing, and I thought he might try to either jump me or run past, but then I heard a new sound behind me.
Kendra had started to laugh.
“It…it is…kind of funny…maybe...I don’t know…He’s right though…Daddy came back…but he’s…not the same. He’s so funny…but he’s mean too…and…I don’t remember him…but I do…I…” Her voice rose into another spasm of laughter so violent her face flushed red as she grabbed a nearby shelf for support. Kendra’s eyes were bloodshot as she looked up at me again. “Please…please help…”
Sucking in a breath, I bolted forward, grabbing Kendra’s arm as I passed. Behind me I could hear Harry laughing louder, as though he’d never seen anything quite as funny as us trying to escape. I’d seen a door on the back wall, and when we reached it, I flung it open, relieved it led to a back office and storeroom rather than a dead end. Pulling the girl through, I slammed the door back shut, but not before I saw Harry slowly walking toward us, a large slash of a grin below his hard, dark eyes.
“Is there a way out of here?”
Kendra nodded, giggling. “Yeah…back there is a door to the alley.”
Taking her hand, I headed for the back, weaving between shelves of fabric and boxes before finding the door and heading out into the empty alley. I looked in both directions, unsure which way to go. “My car is right out front. Can you sneak us back around so we can get away?”
Chuckling to herself, she looked up at me, her eyes panicked and desperate. “I…I think so. It’s getting hard to…to think. To want to leave. It’s like what happened before…but a lot faster this time.”
I gave her arm a squeeze. “Well just stay focused. Maybe you’ll feel better when we’re away from him, okay?”
She nodded and began leading us to the right. We moved behind a couple of other stores and then turned right again to cut between two buildings and back out to the main street. Peering out, I half expected to see Harry waiting for us, but there was no sign of him. Instead, the only person around was that same old man I’d seen puttering down the sidewalk as we’d come through a few minutes earlier.
Now he was sitting on the curb, head held in his hands as he wept with laughter.
Gesturing to Kendra, I ran out toward my car, jumping in and starting it even as she got into the seat behind me. Looking up, I could see Harry standing at the store window watching us, smiling and waving as I slammed the car into reverse and shot out into the street. If he tried to follow, I didn’t wait to see.
I wasn’t sure which way to go was best, so I just kept heading the way I’d planned—back to the highway and then onto where we found people that were still sane in this town or the next. Behind me, Kendra was laughing harder, and I felt a prickle of fear at the thought of her at my back and still acting so strange.
“Um, Kendra, you want to come up here and sit?”
A snort of laughter. “I’m okay. I’m really….rrreaally great I think.”
Swallowing, I glanced at her in the rearview mirror. “I think I’d feel better if you were up here.” Looking back at the road, I saw a sign saying the hospital was this way, but I wasn’t sure if any place was safe to stop in this town.
Kendra snickered. “It’s all going to happen again now.”
“Um, what is?”
“The town…going crazy. Getting happy. Tearing each other apart.”
I frowned. “Are you saying people have been killing each other here? Because of him?”
“It’s okay…Look, you can see there.” She stuck her arm past my head, pointing ahead of us to the right before climbing over into the seat next to me. At first I thought she was talking about the hospital coming into view, but then I saw the column of grey smoke pouring up behind it. As we grew closer, I could see the massive fire blazing in the field behind the hospital, surrounded by people throwing bodies in.
I almost slammed on the brakes, but then stopped myself, accelerating further instead. My hands were shaking on the steering wheel, and I gripped it tighter as I risked a look over at Kendra. She wasn’t watching the mass burning we’d just passed. Instead she was looking at me, her eyes wide and flinty as she hummed to herself, the tune periodically punctuated by soft laughter.
“Why? Why are they doing this? Why didn’t they call for help?”
Kendra smiled at me. “When he’s gone? Nobody can remember him too much. And when he’s here? Well, then most people don’t want him to leave.” Her face pitched down into a momentary frown. “A few of the people from town still weren’t happy though. They tried to take him away I guess.” She started laughing harder. “But he’s too smart for them.” Face lighting up, she turned around in her seat to look back at the receding fire. “Ooh, I bet they’re in the latest burn pile for that!” She shoved me in the arm. “Turn around! I want to go see them! I want to hear them cook!” Her face contorted in another bout of hard laughter as she shoved me again, harder.
Fighting to keep the car straight, I shook my head. “Stop it. No. We’re going away from here. Getting you help. Telling other people about what’s going on here so we can stop him.”
I jumped slightly as I suddenly felt her lips and teeth against my ear. “Why would you want to stop him?”
Recoiling, I turned toward her. “Because he’s driving you all insane. Or something is. He’s killing you.”
She pulled back and frowned as she shook her head slowly. “I...I think he’s helping us. Helping us to understand and…helping us to be happy.” She looked back out at the road. “But I’m not leaving. You can’t take me away…” She broke up laughing, leaning against the passenger door and slapping the glass harder and harder. I was going to try and stop her, but then she was grabbing the latch and flinging the door open.
I did grab for her then, barely grasping her arm as she began to pitch herself out of the car when we went around a curve. I managed to keep us out of the ditch by inches and then got us on another straightaway as I looked back to her and tried to pull her back in.
It was no use though. She was fighting me, pushing with her legs against the center console and twisting to free her arm, shaking with laughter the entire time like it was all the best game in the world. I called out to her, told her to stop, to let me help her get away, and for a moment she did stop, looking down the length of her body to where I held her arm and then on to my face.
Her own face was red and swollen from laughing and crying, her cackling growing more brittle as her voice grew hoarse. And her eyes were worse, flickering between sparks of madness and glimmers of sane terror, all colored by a desperate, manic sadness like poison in the bottom of a deep well. She gripped my arm back for a moment, and in that moment, her eyes seemed clearer and the laughter was gone. She used this brief window to say one last thing, to try and rescue me in a way I couldn’t save her.
”Get away.”
Before I had a chance to respond or react, she wrenched her arm free and pushed off again, and this time she made it out of the car completely. I’d slowed down to about twenty miles an hour after the curve, but she still rolled several times before coming to a stop in the tall grass of the shoulder.
I slammed on the brakes, determined to go back, to get her back, to make her come with me again. But then she stood up, stood up and looked back at me with a single solemn shake of her head before running off back in the direction of town. Body trembling, I reached over and pulled her door shut before driving away.
I went two towns over before I stopped to get help at the police department. I knew if I told everything, I’d sound crazy, so I just gave a vague story of trouble in Braxton that needed outside help. I waited nervously at the station while the desk clerk called a superior to get the okay to reach out to Braxton P.D. I could only faintly hear one side of that conversation and the ones that followed, but I already knew what was coming before the man came out to give me an update.
“I called Braxton like you asked. Talked to the chief himself. He said everything is a-okay over there.” The clerk blushed slightly. “Maybe you just got mixed up or some…”
I stood up angrily. “No! Sorry, no. Something is bad wrong there. I’m telling you. People are dying and going crazy.” The man was stepping back, his eyes cutting to the door he’d come out of. “Look, I’m not crazy, or on something, or whatever. I know how this sounds. But if you don’t help her, help them, more people are going to die.”
He frowned at me. “Her?”
Shaking my head, I went on. “Just…are you sure you talked to the chief of police?”
The clerk’s eyes widened a moment before he let out a laugh. “Yeah, I’m sure. Harry Marcus. He’s been the chief there for years. Great guy.” His eyes grew distant for a moment. “Real funny.”
He seemed like he was going to say more, but I was already headed out the door.
I’ve spent the last hour sitting in my car half a mile from the police station, just writing all of this down. Making sure there is a clear record of everything that happened. That is still happening.
I’m doing it in part because I don’t know if I can get anyone to believe me. I’ll try again, but something is pushing against being discovered, at least until its too late. I’m also writing everything down because my memory of today is growing strange, as though I’m passing into a dark forest with brilliant patches of sunlight shining through here and there. Parts of it all I still remember clearly, but other moments, from just a few hours ago, seem so dim now.
But none of this is the real reason I’m writing so fast, desperate to get every detail down. It’s to help someone else understand. To give a warning in case I can’t. Because I’ve noticed something else this afternoon, growing stronger as the day passes, making it a struggle to even write these last few words.
