Adam in the Dark

“You’re listening to Adam in the Dark, what would you like to hear, man?”

Static came through on the line then fell silent again.  Adam turned back to glare at his producer and waved his hand in a circle.  Wrap it up!  He pulled off his headphones and went to bring the music up again.

“Helloooo? Sorry about that, folks; seems we’re having some technical difficulties.  Here to sing you off to la la land is – “

His producer tapped on the glass and gave him an insistent thumbs up.  Pick up the line! Adam slid his headphones back on.

“Wait, seems like our caller is back.  You out there?  Want to make a request?”

 

“Uh yeah, but something else first,” a man said.  He sounded young.  “She will die.”

Adam’s mind stuttered over the words.  He snapped back up in his chair when he remembered the dead air.  “Sorry, I didn’t quite catch that.”

“She’ll not be looking where she’s going.  You have to help her.”

“Don’t know what you’re talking about, dude.  Did you want to hear a song?”

“Uh, hmmm.  Yeah, I know what song I want,” the voice said, chuckling.  “’Don’t Fear the Reaper.’”

“Okay, here we go.  Joke’s on me, man.  Here it is, and keep it tuned to 91.5 KNSU.”

Adam pressed the button that silenced the line and pushed the volume slider back up for the music.  The distinctive guitar lick filtered through the speakers mounted on the wall.  He whipped his headphones back off and stalked out of the booth.  His producer met him in the hallway.

“What the hell was that, Lucy?  First dead air, and then that lunatic?  What were you thinking, taking the call?”

“I’m sorry, he didn’t sound weird.  Just said that he wanted to talk to you because you were his favorite DJ.”

He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck.  “Lucky me, the grim reaper is a fan.  We’ve only got an hour left – try not to screw anything else up.”

She wrinkled her nose.  “We always get weirdos this time of night.  Don’t blame me.”

***

Adam waited on the curb for the light to change.  He was fiddling on his phone when someone brushed past him.  She smelled kind of nice and he looked up.

It was with an awkward sense of slowness that Adam saw what happened next.  She was yakking away on a Bluetooth.  She didn’t notice that the light hadn’t changed.  Adam turned to look down the street.  At the same time, he lurched forward to try to pull the woman backwards.  He heard the clacking of her heels on the asphalt that was then drowned out by a blaring horn.

She teetered back and her ankle twisted as one impossibly high heel gave out.  Her purse flew out of her hands.  Adam’s eyes stayed locked on her but he couldn’t move.  She almost hit the ground just when a delivery truck struck her.

Adam couldn’t look away even as it ran over her. The squeal of brakes and the smell of burning rubber filled the air.  She tumbled through the tires and rolled to a stop after the truck passed over her.  Adam still couldn’t move.

The truck finally stopped in the intersection and the driver burst out.  “Oh God, oh geez, she didn’t even look!  You saw that, right? She didn’t even stop and look before she crossed the street.  Please tell me you saw that.”

It occurred to Adam that the man was talking to him.  He stared at the dead woman.

Other drivers started to honk their horns impatiently, maybe not noticing what had happened.  The just saw a truck in the middle of the road that was preventing them from getting home after a long day.

“Oh God, is there a doctor anywhere?  Hey you, can you help me here?”

Adam realized the spark had gone out.  She will die.  You have to help her.  He stumbled forward and knelt beside the woman, not realizing that he was kneeling in her blood.

A cautious ring of people stood gawking around the two of them.  Their chatter didn’t break through the buzzing in his ears.  He reached out to touch her face, a comforting gesture that didn’t make any sense.  Her mouth was still wide open and frozen in a surprised exclamation.

Someone tugged at his shoulder.  “Adam, hey, get up.  You have to get out of the way, come on.”

He let the person pull him to his feet and pull him back to the sidewalk.  He turned his head slowly and saw that it was Lucy.

“I was waiting for you and...this is so terrible.  The show is about to start, do you want me to go…oh my God, the show.  That lunatic, do you think he knew? ‘She will die.’  Do you think she’s dead?  Adam?  Are you okay?”

“I…she wasn’t looking.  I tried to…”

“It’s okay, Adam, it probably all happened so fast,” she said.

He shook his head and looked back at the woman.

“I have to go do the show,” he murmured.

“No no no, that’s not happening. I’ll cover for you.”

Sirens called down the street and broke through the noise in his head.  He slowly sat down on the curb.  Two police cars and an ambulance stopped in front of him.  Paramedics burst forth.  Adam didn’t need to tell them that the woman was already dead.  He leaned forward and cupped his face in his hands.  He found moisture there and realized he was crying.

“Sir?  Excuse me.” A police officer was standing in front of them.

“He’s a little shaken up.  He saw everything,” Lucy said.

The man looked down at Adam.  “That’s never a good thing.  We’ll need to ask you a few questions but that can wait.  You might want to calm down first.”

“It’s fine, what do you need to know?” Adam asked.  His voice was too rough -- maybe he shouldn’t do the show tonight, he sounded almost sinister.

The police officer looked over at Lucy and shrugged.  She sat down next to Adam and took his hand.

“It’s okay, Adam, I think you need to decompress.  Sort everything out in your head,” she said.

Adam shook his head and rose to his feet, swaying forward.  His head spun and he nearly threw up on the police officer’s feet.  “It’s okay, I know what I saw.  I was waiting for the light to change and she walked right past.  Didn’t even look, she was talking on the phone.  Bluetooth or whatever.  She was in a hurry and all dressed up.  Career type alpha bitch.”

“Adam!  She was just run over by a truck!” Lucy said.

“Sorry, I...”

“It’s okay, sir,” the officer said. “That’s all I need to know for right now.  Go home, get drunk if you need to, and sleep it off.  Here’s my card, call me in the morning.”

“I need to do my show.”

“Your show?”

“Adam, you are not doing the show now.  He’s on the radio,” Lucy told the cop.  “I’m going to take him home now.”

“Lucy, I swear, I’m fine.”

“And I swear that you’re definitely not.  Come on.”

Lucy pulled him up to his feet and latched onto his arm.  She was small but insistent and he didn’t feel like pulling away from her.  He looked back to the intersection but the woman was gone; the ambulance doors were closing.  It drove away slowly with no siren – they didn’t need to get anywhere quickly now.

***

Two nights later, Adam was in the booth and setting up a playlist.  That was the perk of taking the insomniac show; he could play whatever he wanted. Lucy tapped on the glass.  She mimed talking on the phone and he turned to see the line flashing in the booth.  It never rang so that it didn’t interfere with the sound at all.  He shrugged – the show hadn’t started, he wasn’t taking callers.  She glared at him.  It’s important!

He picked up the phone.  “Yeah?  What is it?”

“Hello, Adam.  I figured you wouldn’t want to put me on air after what happened.”

Adam swore.  “You’re insane.  Why are you calling here again?  How did you know what would happen?”

“Who says I did?  I guessed. I read the signs.”

“Yeah, sure buddy.  Is that what the voices in your head tell you?”

“This isn’t anything to sneer at.  I’m trying to help you but you’re making it difficult.  Personally, I don’t think you’re right for the job, but that’s not for me to decide.”  He paused.  “But here’s what I called you to talk about.  You didn’t help her.”

Adam bolted up in his chair and swore.  “Listen buddy, I don’t know what you think you’re doing, but – “

“Relax, Adam, this is out of your control. I am on your side.”

“You’re crazy is what you are.  You can take credit for what happened to that woman the other day if you want, but it was just a coincidence,” Adam said.

The man laughed.  “Uh, I wish that was the case.  No, this is a pretty big deal.  You were supposed to help her.”

“I tried!  She wasn’t paying attention, and that truck was right there, I was going to pull her back…”

“But it all happened so fast?”

“No.  It all seemed to drag on forever.  I saw but I…I couldn’t do anything about it.”

The man was silent for a long moment.  “There will be a man in the park.  You know which one.  He’s going to have an accident.”

“And what?  I’m supposed to save him too?  This is bullshit.”

“Have a good show.  I do love listening to you, you know.  No one realizes how important midnight radio is.”

Adam hung up.  Lucy poked her head through the door.  “I’m sorry, Adam, I didn’t want to put him through, but he insisted.  What did he say?”

“Nothing important.  We’ve got two minutes, and Lucy…I don’t want to take any calls tonight.  If someone wants to make a request, just tell me.  All the late night freaks will just want to talk about the accident.”

“Sure, Adam.  Whatever you want.”

***

It was Saturday and Adam was in the park, the one right by his house.  Of course he knew which one the man was talking about.  He wasn’t going to come, but then he couldn’t stand the thought of someone else dying because of him.  He took that as a sign that he too was going insane.

The park was crowded – it was a warm, windy summer day.  The large field on the edge of the lakeshore was perfect for flying kites.  Kids dashed back and forth, trying to get their kites aloft, while their parents shouted directions at them. Many adults had more elaborate, obviously homemade, kites that drifted sedately over everything.

“Now which one of you is about to die?” Adam muttered.

He drifted around the edge of the field, not wanting to get caught up any strings or scrambling children.  As he got to the far side of the field, he saw that it suddenly dropped down to the rocky beach below.  Too many people were drifting perilously close to the jumbled barrier of larger rocks.

Adam sat down on one of those rocks and waited.  He didn’t really know what he was doing here – that guy couldn’t be right twice in a row.  He was probably just making it all up.  And Adam believed him; what did that say about him?

As Adam watched people edge closer to and then away from the rocks, he figured he was probably just gullible.  And it was kind of flattering to think that someone picked him to do this.  Saving people was pretty important, right?

He almost didn’t notice a man who started tripping backward.  The wind had pulled his kite out toward the lake and the man was trying to pull it back, not noticing that he was about to fall backwards onto the barrier.  Adam leapt to his feet and ran toward the man, who was already regaining his footing.  Adam came to a stop in front of the man, an awkward explanation on his lips, as a kite struck him forcefully on the back.  Adam stumbled forward, colliding with the man and propelling them both over the rocks and down the steep slope.

It was funny, really, Adam thought.  He was just trying to help and he messed it up for the both of them.  Their limbs were tangled together as they fell.  He saw the rocks of the beach come up to meet them with a sort of bemused detachment.  He wasn’t even afraid.  This seemed just about right after his short, sad existence.

Their impact snatched him back to reality.  He heard the crack of the other man’s skull on a sharp rock. Adam’s momentum kept him tumbling over the prone body.  He finally came to a rest face down in the water, not before smacking his own head on the rocks.

***

Adam rolled over and saw a man on the beach staring down at him sadly.  The poor sap Adam had taken down with him still lay on the ground.  The dead guy was also behind them, somehow, looking down at his dead body.

“It’s you,” Adam said, knowing it without a doubt.

The man smiled sadly.  “Indeed it is.  You’re not done yet, though.  You still have to help him.”

“Help him do what?  He’s already dead.  Am I dead?”

“Look for yourself.”

Adam was standing up now.  He looked over and saw his own drowned body still lying in the water.  The waves lapped over him gently.

“What’s going on?” the other dead guy asked.

“Help him.”

Adam shook his head.  “I don’t understand.”

“Yes you do, just think.”

Adam looked the man in the eyes, the one who had just been flying his kite without a care in the world.  Or maybe he did have a care, who knew for sure.  If it weren’t for Adam, he’d probably still be alive.

“I’m sorry,” he said, feeling helpless.

“We’re running out of time here.  Hurry it up, Adam.”

And suddenly, Adam did know what to do.  He took the man by the hand and pointed off into the distance.  “You have to go.  I’m sorry, you’re dead, and you have to go now.  It’ll be better where you’re going.”

The man nodded and smiled vacantly.  “Yeah, I see it.  It will be.  Thanks, I mean, for showing me the way.”

Adam watched him walk away and fade into nothingness.  He turned to look at the other man.

“Ironic, isn’t it?  Or maybe it isn’t.  You only become one by dying yourself. “

“Become what?”

“You still don’t understand, even after all this?  Think about it – you’re a reaper.  Told you not to be afraid of it.”