Seasons of Heaven by Nico Augusto Read Free Book Online

into his hands. After a few minutes he was able to pull it together enough to sit up and wipe the tears from his face with his fingers. He took a deep breath and slipped his hand into the pocket of his dark, leather jacket to retrieve his keys…they weren’t there. Sighing in frustration, he slipped the other hand in the other pocket…not there either.
    “What the hell?” he yelled out loud inside the empty vehicle. “They were just there when I left the hospital.” He checked his pockets again…still not there. “Fuck!” he yelled as he slammed his fists into the overhead of the SUV. Sometimes even the small things were just too much to bear when it felt like the rest of your life was dangling precariously over the edge of a cliff.
    James sat there, not wanting to have to get out of the car again. It had started raining again. It was pounding like tiny little metal beads against the exterior of the car and the windows had all fogged up. He sat in the small space with the smell of leather and alcohol in his nose and once again felt completely removed from the rest of the world.
    He just sat there like that for the longest time. He was like a zombie without conscious thought or reason. Then suddenly the rain eased up and something about the change in the tune of the heavy drops to the drizzle that barely resonated brought him back to reality. He reached over next to him and felt around on the passenger seat. His hand touched something metal and he picked it up, he’d found the elusive keys.
    James slid the key in the ignition at last and cranked the engine. He drove out of the parking lot, leaving only a beam of light in his rear view mirror. He was still wrapped up in his thoughts. It seemed that tonight more than others he’d been unable to shake them. He began to wonder about the senselessness of life. If he was going to continue down this path and nothing was ever going to get better, what was the point?
    It had been a terrible day. He reached up as he drove and flipped down the sun visor. A little picture fell out and he caught it in his fingertips before it fell to the floor. The picture was of his son, Thomas. Looking at the boy’s sweet face caused him to once again become overwhelmed with emotion.
    “I love you son,” he said with a deep sob. “I miss you. Send me a sign...”
    After a few seconds he sighed again, swallowed the tears that had begun to well back up and slipped the picture inside his jacket pocket.
    ********
    Frank Lewis stood and watched as James sat alone in his car. Before the windows fogged up, he saw him throw back the flask and then beat the steering wheel with his fists. James was not doing well. Frank smiled. The only thing that made him happier than watching, causing or being a small part of a rich, uptight American’s misery was that final breath he got to watch them take, right before he killed them.
    Frank turned and walked past the other black SUV that James had thought was his. He tossed the keys into the gutter and walked several blocks before he was picked up by one of his “colleagues.” As Frank slid into the red Camaro the other man asked,
    “How’d it go?”
    Frank nodded, “As planned. He was drunk and miserable when I left him.”
    ********
                  Still drunk, upset and lonely, James made it to the highway heading out to the John F. Kennedy airport. The road in front of him seemed to stretch out in an infinite line. It was poorly lit and there were few cars out tonight, probably because of the rain. The landscape was dotted with buildings and billboards, but because of the poor lighting, James couldn’t really see anything other than a few feet of black asphalt in front of him.
                  His thoughts continued to return to Thomas and he couldn’t help but wonder if Sarah had seen him. The loss of his wife had been devastating, but it was still a drop in the bucket compared to the emotional upheaval that the loss of