He lived in total seclusion, apart from the rest of the world, a recluse at twenty-seven. It wasn’t his fault, but society seemed to fare much better without a ‘freak’ walking around. Eric Joseph Malone had been a recluse ever since a terrible fire in his last year of college that had literally burned away the right side of his face. He remembered that awful night when his life changed forever.
Seven years ago, Eric was a computer major at a small college on the south side of Chicago, Saint Patrick University. It was in a small south side Irish neighborhood and had a reputation for producing fine graduates. Although it’s specialty was nursing, Eric found his soul in computers and mathematics. He was a genius, excelled in all of his classes and amazed his professors. He’d done two internships at IBM and had a promising job lined up after he graduated. Then he met Jayla Wilson, and his life had changed forever.
Jayla was a beautiful African American girl, a nursing major, and a junior when she met Eric. It was love at first sight. They did everything together, studied, ate, saw movies, and spent many nights wrapped in each other’s arms. The night of the fire, Eric had asked Jayla to marry him. She happily accepted. After they made love, they fell asleep in each other’s arms.
Shortly after midnight, the fire alarm sounded. Eric awoke, feeling cranky.
“Oh shit, what’s going on at this time of night?” He sat up and started coughing. Smoke was creeping from under the door.
“Oh my God! Jayla! Wake up!” Eric shook his girlfriend until she awoke.
“What’s going on?” She smelled the smoke and she screamed.
“Jayla, it’s all right! We’re going to get out of here! I need you to stay calm, okay? Don’t panic, baby.” Eric kissed her forehead. He rolled out of bed and pulled Jayla down to the floor beside him.
“The air is fresher down here. We have to see if we can make it out.”
“Don’t leave me, Eric!”
“I’m not going to leave you, I promise. Just hold onto me and don’t let go, okay?” Jayla held onto Eric’s waistband as they crawled towards the door. He felt it and found it cool to the touch.
“The stairs aren’t that far, honey. We can make it.” He pulled open his door and they crawled into the hall. The smoke was incredibly thick, so thick that they almost couldn’t see.
“Okay, let’s get close to the wall. We’ll feel our way to the stairs.”
“Eric, I’m scared.”
“I’m here baby. We’re going to get out.” He crawled a few more feet, when suddenly they heard an explosion. A burning beam fell right on top of Jayla.
“Jayla!” Eric screamed for his girlfriend when the heat and the intoxicating smoke overcame him and he passed out.
* * * * * *
“He’s coming back to us now.” Eric stirred uncomfortably. He smelled antiseptic and heard bleeping. He felt a pin prick him in the arm.
“Jayla….”
“Mr. Malone, it’s all right. You’re safe now,” a gentle woman’s voice said. He opened his eyes. He saw the young face of a nurse staring down at him.
“Where am I? What’s going on?”
“Take it easy, Mr. Malone. You’ve been through a lot in the past few days.” This voice came from a doctor.
“You’re in Christ Hospital. You were severely burned in a fire.”
“Oh God….my girlfriend….Jayla…where’s Jayla?” The doctor sighed.
“I’m very sorry, Mr. Malone, but she passed away.”
“No, don’t say that! Not my Jayla…no!”
“Shhh, it’s all right, Mr. Malone. Calm down.”
“Jayla! Jayla!” The doctor gave him a quick-acting sedative.
“You need to rest, Mr. Malone.”
“I don’t want to rest! I want my baby! I want my love!” His sad words were carried away on a sea of drug-induced sleep.
Then after the fire, everything changed. The right side of his face was badly burned. The doctors did what they could with skin graft surgery, but the damage was very extensive. More than likely, Eric would have scars for the rest of his life, unless he had a very experimental procedure performed on his face, and that was unlikely. He never went back to school, at least, not to classes. He finished his degree at home. Then he worked out of his home as a free-lance writer and web specialist. He missed Jayla so very much. He visited her grave often, crying and praying for her soul. He was alone now. Shortly after the fire, another incident had threatened his existence and pushed him further away from society.
A girl had been missing in the area for three weeks. Eric was the one who found her barely alive. When he tried to help the young woman and get her to the hospital, she began screaming frantically. She named Eric as her attacker, which was totally false. In a panic, Eric got into his car and fled for the countryside. His home now was in a beautiful secluded country cabin. He had everything he needed there. Nearby was a small town where he could get food and other things he needed. He usually wore a thick windbreaker with the hood pulled up so no one would so easily notice the scars. It was his life, a life of solitude and loneliness. He’d resigned himself to that painful fact long ago.
No one wanted anything to do with him, no women, and he had no surviving family. The only friend he had was his little hairless dog he named Shaggy. Shaggy was a year old and Eric found her in the alley behind his apartment building, abandoned by someone, barely weaned from her mother. The only hair on Shaggy’s body was a pouf of white hair that sat on top of her head. Eric often combed her pouf, decorating it with cute colored ribbons. She lived to please her master.
Recently, Eric had been feeding Shaggy when he heard something on the radio that caught his attention. A young female teller had been taken hostage when LaSalle Bank was robbed. Her story fascinated him. Eric kept his eyes glued to the TV until the young woman, Caitlin Ryan, had been rescued. Eric saw Caitlin and thought she was extremely beautiful. She looked so much like Jayla, with her long sandy hair and big brown eyes. She looked like a person who had a very large, loving heart. After the newscast, Eric slept that night and dreamed about being with Caitlin, holding her and kissing her. Yet it was only a dream. The kisses were only Shaggy’s way of telling him she needed to be walked and fed.
“You’re the only woman for me, Shag.” Shaggy responded by licking her master’s scarred face with loving care.
“Only you can understand me sweetheart.” Eric let Shaggy out into the yard, watching her at a safe distance from the window. That night, after spending a lonely day alone, he fell asleep with the little dog on his chest. Little did he know that he would soon have a very special contact with Caitlin. It would be a meeting that would change both of their lives.