Fresh Flesh Read Free

but keeps on ticking." Sure enough, when
the watch came out of the mixer, it was still ticking. This watch,
however, must have taken a much harsher licking because it wasn't
ticking. It was frozen on the time: 12:03 P.M.
    When she finally looked up Dick had a solemn
expression and asked, "What year is this, anyway?"
    "Nineteen ninety-three." she answered.
    He took the watch from her and held it close
to his face. "Oh, Jesus, no, nineteen ninety-three. Jesus. . ." He
touched the cracked face of the watch to his forehead and closed
his eyes.
    "Dick? How long? How long have you been
here?"
    "Eleven years," he said, opening his distant
eyes. "Eleven long years."
    As if on cue, the light outside dimmed.
     
* * *
     
    "How did I get here?" Dick repeated Jessica's
question. "Do you want the long, boring tale? Or a quick
summary?"
    "It's up to you."
    "Okay." he paused, eyes wandering, "I was on
a long fishing trip and a bad storm caught us like the one a couple
of nights ago. There was, oh, I'd say thirty of us on the ship that
day. I'm the sole survivor." He paused again looking back at
Jessica with a melancholy expression, "I was beginning to think I'd
be here alone forever."
    "We're alone?" Jessica gasped. She was
stranded alone with an old, decaying bum?
    "Yes. Yes, quite alone."
    "And," Jessica fought back the fear in her
voice. "There's no way off this island?"
    "No way."
    "Nobody knows I'm here?"
    "I'm not so sure about that. Why don't you
tell me how you got caught up in the storm?"
    Jessica rubbed her forehead and forced her
weak legs to stand. Her bones cracked. She turned away.
    "Jessica? Are you all right? What did I
say?"
    She knew he was standing behind her, staring
with his empty, pitiful pits. She was not ready to accept the fact
that she had survived. Perhaps she really had been torn apart in
that storm. Perhaps her final destination had been decided?
    Heaven was too good for her because she
hadn't helped enough senior citizens cross the street, hadn't
donated enough money to AIDS research or Jerry Lewis' continuous
battle with Muscular Dystrophy, hadn't loved or labored or lived
the Good Life. Perhaps this was, instead, the other place. The bad
place. And this was where she would suffer forever: an enigmatic
island with a rotting man for company.
    She turned. "I—I'm sorry. It's going to take
a while for me to. . .to get used to this."
    A strong ocean wind blew through the cave
opening.
     
* * *
     
    "My name is Jessica Roberta Stanton. I grew
up in New York and am married to Edward Stanton. You don't know who
he is, do you?"
    "Sorry." He looked at her marriage finger and
she nodded sadly. The tide had brought her to the island somewhat
unscathed, yet it kept her diamond wedding ring as an eerie
memento.
    She continued, "Edward Stanton owns the
patents on several revolutionary computer chips. The IX-2 series is
tearing it up in the business world. Edward has IBM shaking. We
were celebrating a billion in profits and then—"
    The wind blew in, captured, raised and
lowered her hair.
    "And then?" Dick prodded.
    "Edward wanted to take a yacht trip. Just a
couple of close people we knew, and me, of course. We left from San
Francisco. . ."
    "So you live in New York and he owns a
private yacht in San Francisco?" Dick said.
    "No, we live in Valford, a suburb of Redmond,
Washington. Sort of becoming the tech hub in the Pacific Northwest.
Microsoft is there as well. We have a condo in New York." She kept
using 'we' but Dick was correct that the toys were more about and
for Edward than her. "We own several yachts. One in Mexico, New
York and San Francisco."
    "So, you're rich." Dick must have missed the
part about celebrating a billion dollars in profit.
    She expected him to be envious, as most
people were, but he wasn't in the slightest. She might have gotten
a better reaction out of the rock he was sitting on.
    "Money doesn't do much good here, does
it?"
    "No." He shook his head. "Unless, you want to
use it as toilet