The house was almost dead quiet a fact that Marcus even after all these months was still not used to, maybe he never would get comfortable with it. He had lived for years in a home filled with the sounds of a family living out their lives in relative peace and comfort, but that had all been shattered two years earlier.
He walked away from his front door feeling the weight of a bulky envelope stuffed with important looking legal papers in his left hand. The process server had been very professional and to the point when he had handed over the packet. It was amazing how the dissolution of a marriage could be summed up in a stack of papers less than an inch thick. Marcus tossed the manila envelope on to his kitchen table sighing quietly at the hollow sound it made on impact. For a moment he flashed back to an earlier time, and he could picture his wife Sally sitting at one end of the table smiling at their son, Samuel, as he went on about some new adventure he had enjoyed at school that day.
Then the memory faded, and he was alone again.
"Quit dwelling on the past, Marcus," he thought to himself. Sam was gone, and he was never coming back, two tons of steel and plastic operated by a man who should never have been behind the wheel had made sure that was true.
Sam's death at the hands of a drunk driver two years earlier had left a hole that neither he nor his wife had been able to fill. They had tried for awhile, but it had become painfully clear that the only thing that had kept them together had been their son.
The sound of the air conditioner kicking on shook him out of his dark thoughts. Grateful for the interruption Marcus left the kitchen and made his way to the only room in the house where he still felt comfortable. It was the kind of hide-away most folks would have called a "Man Cave," but this one fitted Marcus's individual interests, so there was no poker table or dart board on the wall.
"It looks like a rich twelve-year-old lives in here," said Marcus, chuckling to himself as he recalled what his wife had always said about this part of the house.
Since his childhood, Marcus Shaw had been fascinated with the genre of science fiction. He had grown up reading comic books, and novels set in fantastic worlds of the future. As he reached an age where he could get a job and start making some money he had evolved into a rabid collector of anything tied to his favorite characters and stories. His eyes moved about the room taking in the sight of years worth of his efforts in tracking down memorabilia.
On the shelves of one wall were his complete collection of starships from the old T.V. series, Galactic Alliance, each painstakingly assembled and painted in the proper colors for the race of aliens that had piloted them in the show. His collectible figures from the anthology, Into the Void, lined the workbench where he had been working on painting them when tragedy struck, and he had never gotten around to finishing the job. All around the room were bookshelves stuffed with books, and magazines he had read so many times that many of the titles were hopelessly dog-eared and worn. The walls were covered in posters from his favorite science fiction movies and T.V. shows. The most prominent was in the very center of the far wall and depicted the hero of his childhood, Captain Blaster!
The picture on the faded vintage poster showed Captain Blaster with his arms extended holding his signature ray-guns one in each hand preparing to use them against a horrific looking reptilian creature that rose up before him. His face was fixed in a fierce grin showing his courage in the face of potential dismemberment as well as the thrill he got out of making sure that the evil jerks in the Universe got what was coming to them. The title of the film could just be read at the bottom, "Captain Blaster vs. The Reptiloid Invaders!"
Just beneath the poster was a battered looking wood table where a half-finished costume that mirrored the outfit Captain Blaster was wearing in the poster sat near a box of materials for sewing. Marcus had been working on the outfit to wear to the local comic book convention. He and Sam were going to go together cos-playing their favorite characters. His wife had never understood their obsession with what she considered a bunch of childish silliness. She had just rolled her eyes and walked away when the two of them would babble on about how to make an authenticate looking Captain Blaster coat.
Marcus ran his hands across the leather boots that sat nearby. He doubted he would ever finish the costume let alone wear it to the convention now that Sam was gone. He shook his head and turned away leaving the room. It was almost time for him to go to work.
A quick check of his face in the mirror reminded him that he hadn't shaved that morning, so he stopped right quick to run a razor over his stubble careful not to nick his perfectly shaped Van-Dyke beard. The face that looked back at him belied that fact that he was about to face his fortieth birthday. He had inherited his father's boyish looks so that even now he could still pass for being a good five, maybe even ten years younger than he was with little to no gray in his hair as of yet. His longish dark hair fell to the nape of his neck and set off his forest green eyes that women had often said were his most striking feature.
Although he was definitely a nerdy guy, Marcus didn't appear like your stereotypical skinny, glasses wearing example. In contrast to the accepted definition, he was actually in good shape. A trim and muscular six-footer he kept active both at the gym and doing cross-country bike rides.
He finished getting ready and grabbed his car keys to head out. As soon as he stepped outside his attention was drawn to the sound of water running, and the blaring of loud music coming from his next door neighbors house. In the driveway, his neighbor's car stood half covered in bubbles of soap. As Marcus looked on a figure emerged from the far side of the vehicle, but it took him several seconds to wrap his mind around what he was seeing.
The figure was indeed a female and a damn gorgeous one. She was wearing a red bikini and carrying a sponge in one hand that she was using to scrub the dirt off the car. Her hair was a cascade of dirty blond waves that fell just past her shoulder blades framing a beautiful long face with high cheekbones, and vibrant, full lips painted a slick blood red. She turned and smiled in his direction bringing her large chest around with her in the process. The top of her outfit looked as if it could barely contain the firm, round breasts that strained to escape from their imprisonment. She bent over dropping the sponge into a bucket near her feet and started to walk toward Marcus whose heart was racing in his chest.
The sweet vision in red pushed her sunglasses up on top of her head revealing a pair of brilliant blue eyes.
"Hey, Mr. Shaw, it's so good to see you again," she said.
Marcus felt the shock of sudden recognition. It had been more than two years since he had seen much of his neighbor's daughter, Michelle, she had gone away to college before Sam's death. In the intervening years he had been too caught up in his own problems to pay much attention when she returned home for visits, so he had missed how much she had changed in that time. Michelle had gone away a skinny little girl with short hair and a small chest. He could hardly reconcile that image with the voluptuous young woman that stood in front of him now.
"Michelle! Umm...Yeah, it has been awhile. How have you been?"
He could hardly follow the words as she explained that she was back to visit her parents for the summer, and that school was going well. Though he tried very hard not to stare, it wasn't easy. Michelle Thibodeaux favored her father's side of the family and her Creole blood gave her the light brown skin that stood in sharp contrast to her blond hair making her even more exotically beautiful.
"I know I never got around to saying this to you before, but I was sorry about Sam. He was so sweet to me all the time."
The mention of Sam snapped Marcus back to reality.
"That's nice of you to say. Thank you, Michelle."
The moment turned awkward but was saved by the arrival of Michelle's dad. Daniel Thibodeaux had been Marcus's best friend in high school, and amazingly the two had stayed in proximity to each other ever since those days. While most folks had gone away to college and lost touch he and Dan had joined the service together and even ended up in the same Army unit serving their four years practically side by side. Marcus had been the best man at Dan's wedding to his wife, Kim, and Dan had returned the favor when Marcus had married Sally a few years later.
Michelle had been conceived on their honeymoon, and Dan doted on his only child.
"Hey, Marcus! Finally coming out of your cave?"
"Well, sitting around the house doesn't pay the bills, and lawyers are expensive," replied Marcus.
"Ah...So its a done deal then?"
"Got the papers this morning. It isn't like I didn't see this coming."
"No, I suppose not. Sally was never the same after...well," said Dan not finishing the thought.
"Look, you guys can talk all you want, but the soap is drying. See you later, Mr. Shaw."
