He looked out at the corn however, and there was a figure standing in front of the first row. There was a tall man, with bad posture waving to the right, wearing black robes and a black four-cornered suede hat. The crooked man looked oddly like a seventeenth century puritan. But then it instantly hit Theodore: he was staring at Dr. Drek. Drek’s face was expressionless and neutral and he stood, his posture slightly rocking in his over-sized black shoes, staring right at Theodore.
Theodore slowly rose up from his Adirondack chair in his sweaty and mud-stained overalls and returned Drek’s empty stare. Drek suddenly turned away and awkwardly hobbled into the corn. Theodore instantly dropped his tax papers and jogged down the porch after him. Under a large grey Kansas sky, Theodore looked up, and felt his face moisten from humidity and specks of rain falling. He turned and bolted into the corn, in Sunday night television dramatic sort of way. He couldn’t see much, couldn’t even see even twenty feet ahead now that the sky was getting dark. The rain intensified, and suddenly turned to hail, and jellybean-sized frozen white stones were pelting him in the back of his ears and chin and the corn was making an awful howling sound as the hail smacked it.
With one arm over his head, and another shielding his eyes, Theodore scattered back and forth between cornrows, desperate to catch a glimpse of Drek, but the hail blocked all lines of sight. Ow! He just received a welt on his lip, from this awful hail. Christ! Drek, who is this guy? Where did he go with that bizarre pilgrim hat? Why is he dream-stalking me? Wait, no! There he was! Theodore saw a black figure in the middle of a row, standing with his hands at his sides, waiting, untouched by the abusive weather.
“Drek!” Theodore called out. “Hey! Drek! Drek!”
The shadowy figure of Dr. Drek just remained, standing.
Theodore was still twenty yards away from him — goddammit he was stung again by hail inside his ear — but he realized something strange — Theodore’s hands were wrinkled, and not pruned like they’d been in the bath, but his hands had aged, now they were hairier and had liver marks and moles. Theodore ventured two more steps and felt a tickle on his neck and realized that he had shoulder-length squirrely-gray hair! He kept on towards Drek, but after another couple steps he felt his skin tighten. He touched his face and felt protruding cheek bones and odd whiskers. Looking into a deep puddle in front of him, Theodore saw a faint man on his way to the old folks’ bin. He was rapidly aging with every step towards Drek.
By now Theodore could see Drek’s face, a heavy white face, cocked to the left, five days unshaven, flaps of skin and purplish lightning streaks of veins on his porous nose. He looked corrupt as the green on money.
Theodore’s eyelids lifted open at 6:24 AM to a digital phone ring, caller ID, “Ma.”
“Hey ma,” he exhaled with extra winter throat, put his left hand through his salt and pepper hair, “what’s up?”
“Morning honey. We got in from AC last night. I woulda called last night but it was after ten and I didn’t wanna disturb you.”
“Yeah, that would be better than six in the morning.”
“Anyway, listen, your father wants to know what you want for Christmas. He’s gonna go out today to do the Best Buy an’ all that stuff. Ya got a wishlist or somethin? Am I disturbing you? You got a lady there or somethin’?”
“No ladies ma. Sorry. Um, Christmas. I dunno. I’m still asleep. I can’t think. Maybe a dress shirt for work. Or money. At Best Buy? I don’t know. Yaaaawn. Nothing big to take up space in my apartment. Although what I’d really like is to stop having these bizarre dreams about this creepy teacher I’m replacing. I dunno. I’m in a weird spot.”
Theodore shifted to his side; his thick hairy legs gleamed olive in the early sunlight and he laid heavy in his underwear and black socks, staring out at house yards being covered with the days falling snow. The heat was cranked up high for everyone in the building, because most of the people who lived here were old. His window was wide open.
