Jamaica

“Man what’s taking you so long?” Danny whined to David.

“Danny, if I don’t fill out this expense report right, I’m not going to get all my money straight and my boss is gonna chew my ass again. I spent a lot of the company’s money in Jamaica.” David tried to say it without cracking too hard on him.

Danny went over to the large window in David’s apartment, overlooking Central Park and Manhattan, and gazed out at the view.

“I’ll tell you buddy, you do have a killer view from here, but man I can’t wait to get out of this city, ride around, fish and just cool it awhile. This city cramps me all up sometimes. Makes me crazy. Know what I mean Davey my boy?” Danny said.

“Yeah I can’t wait to get some mud all over me and work up a good manly stinking sweat.” David said in his patented girly-man voice.

“I do love it when you talk that way.”

“So how was Jamaica? You haven’t talked about it much since you got back.” Danny asked.

“Man, it was beautiful coming in on the plane, the water was gorgeous. I tried to get a good look at the beach to check out the women but the plane was going too fast, and we were too high to see very good. But, I’ll tell you what, on the ride from the airport you could see how poor that place is once you get away from the financial center of the city. I mean cardboard box house kind of poor. Around the financial area is where they want to put the building I’m going to design if we get the contract.”

“Boy I bet if some of those people from those cardboard boxes had a chance to get at some of that money you spent, they would have fixed you up.” Danny said.

“The guy that picked me up at the airport was telling me the same thing more or less. Plus another thing over there is all of the weird voodoo shit. It’s like a presence over there. And all the little stores have these weird signs in the windows selling stuff like cat’s blood and wild boar hair. Creepy.”

Danny shuddered. “Man, that makes my skin crawl over here, an ocean away.”

Hey what time are we supposed to be at the four wheeler place.” Danny mumbled as he was looking at a mirror and picking at a blackhead on his face.“ I mean, what time can we pick them up?”

“I think the girl said they closed at six o’clock or they’re about.”
“You got the beer on ice?” Danny asked.
“Oh yea-ya.” David said.

The two had known each other since they were eight years old and were in the same Boy Scout troop together. The troop they were in wasn’t exactly world class, being they were in New York City but the Scoutmasters did try and teach the boys some of the basic outdoors skills. Most of the camping trips, (two), were over night stays in one of the fathers friends back yard really. But it was roughing it to a bunch of city kids and the fathers too for that matter. It was a blast for most of the kids. There were the three or four boys who were scared and cried and whined all night, but even that was part of the fun of it all.

They had stayed friends ever since then. David had gone to college and gotten a degree in architecture and landed a pretty good job for a well-established company in the city. Danny on the other hand had graduated from high school and partied for six months without thinking about his future. His father talked him into going to a trade school and becoming an electrician’s apprentice. At first Danny thought he’d made a big mistake. He wasn’t getting a real good handle on the electrical game. And that was it, it wasn’t a game you could make a lot of mistakes on and still think about retiring. Hell, if you messed up, you might not be thinking about anything at all. But as he learned more and more began to get a real understanding of electricity and enjoy it. He actually became one of the best apprentices in his local.

This long weekend was like a mini vacation they had planned for almost a year and were looking forward to it. The trip had become an annual event. This was the fourth year they had made it. The weather forecast was good, about seventy degrees in the day and forty-eight or forty-nine at night. After David finished up all of the paper work, they threw their bags in David’s Jeep Grand Wagoneer and started off for some serious fishing, four wheelin’ beer drinking and slacking.

They got to the rental place and hooked up the trailer for the four wheelers and loaded them up along with a couple of five gallon cans, all filled with gas. Right before they got to the camping area, they stocked up on some food and stuff for the trip at a little mom and pop grocery store. Basic stuff like cereal, milk, bread, peanut butter and jelly and soda. David already had the beer on ice.

The campground was divided into two areas, one area for tents, pop ups and the like. The other part was set up with small cabins. Although they were small, they had electricity running water and were set up pretty well, just a little “rough”. This wasn’t a regular campground. This one was set up to have motorcross races on a track they had set behind the tent sites area. Although most of the time it was just kids running around on bikes and four wheelers messing around. Nothing official.

“Let’s see, we’ve got cabin number six. It’s supposed to be down this little hill and on the left.” David said.

“We usually have one closer to the track. This is the farthest out we’ve been.” Danny said.

The cabin emerged into view as they popped up over the rise.

“Well the place doesn’t look very big but it looks homey enough.”

“It doesn’t have to be that big anyway, we’ll be outside most of the time.” Danny said. “But these new ones are smaller than the old ones.”

The cabin had one room with a couple of beds, a small fridge and oven with a small bathroom off of one end. They went inside, stowed away their gear and changed into some jeans and long sleeve shirts. When David was changing his shirt Danny noticed a necklace he had never seen David wearing before.

“Where’d you get the silver and black rock necklace from? Your girlfriend give it to you to make up for that pass she made at me at that dinner party the other week?” Danny asked with a little smirk.

“What are you talking about man, you are such a goofyass.” He laughed as he said it.

Danny laughed and did the growl thing that Roy Orbison does in the song Pretty Woman.

David gave Danny a halfhearted slap upside the back of his head.

“That’s for talking shit about my woman. Let this be a lesson to you, next time I won’t be as easy on you.” David laughed.

“Actually, this is a necklace from the mother of one of my clients I had from that company in Jamaica. She was the sweetest little old lady that you would ever want to meet. It’s supposed to be a good luck thing or something like that. Maybe to make me more attractive to the women. I couldn’t understand a thing she said. You know, just smile and nod your head every few seconds. But it does look pretty bad doesn’t it?”

“Danny got a very serious look on his face and said, you know you’re right. It does look good and it brings out the color of your eyes totally babe.”

At his remark Danny whistled out then went on getting ready like nothing had happened. David didn’t find it particularly funny.

“Smartass.”

“Alrighty then, dress me up like Aunt Marguerite and call me smartass. Let’s go do some riding.” Danny said and walked out the door.

“Alright but don’t get all bent out of shape when I beat you to the fishing hole, catch the biggest fish, and on top of that I’ll look better while I’m doing it too.” David said in a heavy radio DJ voice.

They loaded up their four wheelers with telescoping fly rods a couple of plastic bags, for the fish, and the cooler and headed for the lake. They had their fly’s on vests they wore so they wouldn’t have lug around a fly box. It took them about ten minutes to get to the part of the lake they always fished at. It was a secret place that very few people seem to know about. The fish were always biting around there it seemed even when they weren’t anywhere else on the lake.

After a couple of hours of fishing, David waded back to the shore to get another beer, and sat down on some big rocks along the water. He hadn’t caught a single fish only four beers and the start of a buzz. Danny must slayin’ em though. The whole time he could hear Danny down the lake and around a bend a little ways. He would yell every once and awhile and he hadn’t drank very much beer, so he must be catching quit a few.

When David bent over to pick up a stick to poke a bug with, he felt something dig in his stomach. He stuck his hand inside the shirt and found the necklace. The rawhide lace had come untied and it had fallen down into his shirt.
He held it up to look at the black rock that was encased with silver with fine filigree around the outside of the stone. The rock was something called Jet stone he thought. When he held it up closer to his face to get a better look at the sun glistening off the sides of it, he heard a loud clap that sounded like thunder. David fell to the ground and looked dumbly around him for an explanation for the loud noise.

“What in the hell was that.” He said to himself.

There was no reason for the noise that he could come up with. None at all. He was looking around and getting ready to call for Danny when he had a funny feeling, like he had been here and done this before. Then he realized that the necklace was not in his hand but back on his neck. Like it had never been off. Like it had been just a few…

“Hey what in the…how in the hell did”…. He stood up and looked around then half sat; half fell down again hard. As David looked up all the leaves on the trees looked shimmery, like he was looking at them through heat waves. He felt back to his neck for the necklace and just as he was reaching for it, it fell down into his shirt again. He sat dumbfounded, looking blankly ahead. Danny was not around that he could tell. There was something about the necklace; he didn’t know what but it was something.

He reached into his shirt again and just as before when noticed the sun glinting off of the stone, he heard a loud boom. This time the ground and the water looked all shimmery. He sat very still looking straight ahead like a war veteran with the Thousand-Yard Stare.

Danny had heard the loud noise and came running back to see what it was. David was nowhere to be found his fishing rod and the four wheelers were still there. There was even his half drank beer beside the fishing rod.
After searching for over an hour Danny decided to go back up the lake again.

“Maybe I missed him or something. Maybe he heard the noise, what ever it was and got scared and ran like hell for higher ground.” Danny was nervously talking to himself. He only did that when he was really nervous or scared. “You never know, some switchblade hacker could’ve mosied on down to the lake and snagged him too.”

Danny was about to turn and head up the lake when he heard another boom.

“What the hell is that damn noise. That was alot closer than it was before.”
He moved back to where David’s things were and sat down. It was his turn to get The Stare. After an hour the fatigue got to Danny and he fell asleep. He woke to hear David telling him,

“ This crap isn’t funny anymore.”

Danny sat very still while looking at David. A cold chill ran down Danny’s back as he caught a quick shudder and then it was gone.

“What’s the scoop, what’s going on, where in hell have you been. I’m going crazy man!” After a few seconds he slowly calmed down.

“You look like you’ve seen something that you shouldn’t have.” Danny asked with a serious look in his eyes. “ Would you please tell me what you keep doing. Do you keep hearing that loud boom?”

David held his hands out in front of him turning them over and over. As David was reaching into his shirt, he said

“I don’t know, every time I...”
An extremely loud boom closed Danny’s eyes involuntarily, then frantically look for cover. When he opened his eyes and realized no cover was gonna be needed, David was nowhere to be seen. He stood up and walked around the spot where David was sitting, but there was no David to be found.

Danny walked up and down the lake for an hour and a half looking for David.

“How could he just disappear like that, right in front of me.” Danny shakily said to himself.
Finally he sat back down on the rocks where they were sitting before David disappeared. A loud boom echoed around him. Danny saw something out of the corner of his eye and knew without looking that David had came back. They both sat there looking at each other without saying a word.

“What in the name of God is going on David?”

“How long was I gone this time?”

“I don’t know, but it seemed like days and I don’t mind telling ya, I’m scared to death. How in the hell do you keep doing that? Danny’s face was bone white; he looked like he hadn’t slept in a week. “Why do you keep doing that.?”

I know this sounds crazy but I wonder if it’s got something to do with the necklace the old lady gave to me.”

David said in a voice that sounded nothing like his own. “I really didn’t understand what she was saying to me about the damn thing. I guess I maybe should have listened.” There was a short silence. “But every time I hear the boom, the necklace is back on my neck. Then it falls back down my shirt again. But before the boom it was in my hand. Man, I don’t know what’s going on.”

David was holding the necklace by the leather lace letting it hang down between his legs.

“Maybe I’ll just set this thing down on the ground, keep it from going off again.” He said in a low somber voice like the way you would speak in church.

Danny looked at him and started laughing. David started laughing. It soon built to a peeing in the pants kind of laughing. They both laughed and couldn’t stop until they had tears running down their faces. The laughs slowly died out and the two sat looking at the necklace on the ground. Danny got up, walked over to his fishing gear picked up his rod and reel and waded back into the lake. Soon David did the same. Neither spoke a word for over an hour.

“Ya know, I wonder if there’s some way you can… I mean do you think we could. What happened, where did you go to when you went where ever you went?” Danny asked.

“Well, I don’t know. I didn’t think I went anywhere. I thought it was just a second or two but you said it was an hour or more.”
David answered.

“I mean it was like I blinked my eyes and maybe double blinked them. That fast.”

“You didn’t feel anything, it didn’t hurt, you didn’t see any colors or see weird warp tunnels or anything?”

“No, not at all.” David told him.

“What are you getting at Danny?”

“Well I was just wondering if there was anyway we could work this thing some way so we could find out the lottery numbers early, or who’s gonna win the big game. Or even what a certain stock is gonna do that day. Are you following me Davey, we could do some serious retirement planning with this necklace. If that’s the reason why all this is happening.”

“Or, on the other hand we could be losing our minds. Or maybe if we try it again or do it too many times it might kill us or make a Caesar salad out of our brains.” David said.


“Here, let me try it. What did you do to get it started, do you remember?” Danny asked.

“Well I had it on all the time we were riding the four wheelers. When it fell from around my neck and I put it in my hand is when it happened I guess.”

Danny slowly bent over and picked up the necklace by the leather lace.
“Nothing happened. Try putting it in your hand.” David said.

When he placed it in his hand the loud boom scared David half out of his mind even though he knew it was going to happen. He was getting punch drunk.

David waited there on the rocks for the first forty minutes then sat down on the grass beside them. When he had his head turned he heard Danny say something.

“Did I disappear?”

“Oh yeah you were gone for an hour at least.”

“That’s weird, you can’t even tell that you’ve been anywhere. This is cool.” Danny laughed.

“Shh shh. Did you hear that Davey?”

David jerked and looked all around them.

“No I didn’t hear anything, what. What is it.”

Danny jumped up and started dancing around and clapping his hands.

“That was the sound of money falling from the sky buddy boy. YEAH!”

“Danny I don’t want to rain on your parade, but when you disappear, you don’t go back in time. You just disappear. Right? I mean isn’t that right, it’s all a little confusing to me.”

“Oh shit! You’re right I guess.”

They both were quiet for a couple of minutes each with their own thoughts.


“I’ve got it. What we’ve gotta do is both of us touch it at the same time and disappear right. Then, well we have to wait until we get right in front of a bank before we do it, disappear walk into the bank grab a couple million dollars and walk right out with our retirement funds.” Danny said with a major gleam in his eyes.

David thought for a moment and said, “I think you might have something there MR.Gottrocks. I wonder if it will work for both of us at the same time?”

“Only one way to find out. On the count of three.” Danny said.

“Okay. One, two three.”

They both grabbed the necklace and nothing seemed to happened.

“Damn, I don’t think it worked.” David said.

“I knew it was too good to be true.” Danny cried.

David leaned over and picked up the necklace to try it again. Nothing happened.

“I guess we wore it out or something. Maybe it takes a while to recharge, lets head back to the cabin and”…

David stopped in mid sentence.

“Hey, uh Danny I don’t know if that thing did something to my head or what but it looks like you’re fading out like a ghost or something.” David said with a shaky voice.

“Oh my God.” Danny screamed. “Oh my God.”

Both of them were looking at their own hands and feet and looking at each other with mounting horror in the eyes. Danny ran over to the four wheeler and went to start it up and get the hell out of there, but when he went to grab the handlebars his hand never stopped. His hand went right through the metal. He turned around they looked at each other as they faded away with two small “pops”.