The Beast of 1977 (Book 1)

Dressed in his slightly tattered grey winter coat, a Cleveland Browns knit hat and a Band-Aid in the center of his forehead, Isaac stepped inside and gladly shook Levin's hand.

"Hi, Isaac," Levin warmly greeted.

Rubbing his cold hands together, Isaac smiled back, "How ya doin', man"

"Well, why don't you have a seat?" Jeremiah said as he sat himself down behind his compact desk.

Isaac took off his coat and hat and laid them on the leather couch behind him. He then tried to caress some warmth into his arms. He was wearing a green Izod sweater and a faded pair of blue jeans, and even in all of his layers the young man still felt like a six foot tall ice pick.

"Can I bum a smoke off of you, my man?" Isaac anxiously asked.

"Sure." Levin strangely eyed Isaac as he opened a drawer within his desk and took out a pack of Marlboro's.

Isaac secured the cigarette from the doctor and waited until Levin whipped out a lighter to ignite the tip.

"I wasn't aware that you smoked." Levin curiously grinned.

Isaac sat down in the chair in front of the desk and stated, "I don't smoke in front of my father and kid. But anywhere else, I'm game."

"I understand." Levin nonchalantly waved his hand. "Everyone here seems to frown upon anyone who smokes anymore." He hopelessly sighed. "So, how are you doing these days?"

Gradually coming down from his cold fit, Isaac explained in between puffs, "Not bad. Been looking for a job. And I got engaged the other night."

"Congratulations!" Levin lit up. "When is the wedding?"

"My lady says she wants a spring wedding, so, I figure it'll be sometime around April or May."

"Super, just super," Levin graciously smiled.

Isaac stared pensively at the doctor while taking a long drag on his cigarette. He wasn't accustomed to being around such a young looking professional man. In a way, it put him at ease, it made him feel as though he didn't have to live up to a lofty, generational expectation that seemingly everyone over the age of forty had already set for him.

Studying Jeremiah with a keen eye, Isaac cunningly grinned, "You sure you're a psychiatrist and not some college kid trying to get extra credit from his professor or something?"

Levin just sat back. "I'm actually five years older than you. I received my bachelors from Ohio State when I turned twenty-three. I hope that meets your standards." He cracked a smile.

"Man, you must've been real smart back in high school. If it hadn't been for me smoking since the eighth grade I probably would've joined the football team. And who knows, maybe the NFL."

"My dad once told me that smoking was the poetry of liars. It hides the true you behind a façade of so called lethargy."

Isaac screwed up his face and giggled, "Your dad sounds like mine. I swear, that man can recite just about every verse out of the bible, and ninety-nine percent of the time I don't have a damn clue as to what he's talkin' about."

Jeremiah joined in on the humor while unhinging his tie. "I have an uncle who happens to be a rabbit in Utica, New York. Till this day the man still gets me to recite verses out of the Tanakh."

"Does he have that real deep Jewish accent? You know, like he's gagging on something whenever he talks?" Isaac smirked.

"Yep, that's my uncle Jerome alright." Levin lightheartedly chuckled.

"Don't get me wrong, I love my dad to death, but you get tired of always hearing bible verses night and day. You would think after hearing it for twenty years that I'd have the whole bible memorized by now." Isaac joked while squashing the butt of his cigarette out in the glass ashtray on the desk.

"So tell me, how do you and your father get along?"

"We're cool, I guess." Isaac exhaled.

"Just cool," Jeremiah queried.

back in

what took place back at that house? Doctor Sanyupta never went into

I mean me trying to

"Oh really," Levin panted.

"I don't know." Isaac sulked. "I wasn't exactly myself at the time. I swung at 'em, next thing I know, I wake

"It was that

ever seen my father? The man isn't

you feel when your father brought you to Ashlandview,

pissed. I was pissed at a lot of things at the time. But when I finally came to and realized what I had done to both him and my lady, him sending me to that place

his desk and said, "Doctor Sanyupta mentioned that

six

"Would you say that her passing brought you and

besides November, we always got along. If anything changed after my mom's death, it had to be that my dad stopped working so much. I think he slowed down

keep

Sanyupta did the same thing. So before you try and go back in time with me, understand, I can barely remember what happened yesterday, let alone three

"Really," Levin's

"Yeah, I keep on having these...blackouts. Sometimes I can't remember things. Hell, I can't even remember how I

pen and began to jot something down on a

before. Have you seen

"Look, I don't have the money to go see a doctor just so he can tell me to take some Anacin. If it weren't

to the root of these blackouts, Isaac, especially since

year old at that moment. He tried to cut his eyes away from the

"The other night, I remember talking to my dad. Then I went and made some popcorn and watched some TV. After that,

"I see." Levin murmured, still scribbling away on his pad.

on the phone and then my dad taking me down to his job to see if I could get on. Then, we got back in the car,

mention that you would see...another person in your bedroom from time

if he were too ashamed to hear anything more come from the doctor's

Isaac, "it's just you and me in here. The only other person that knows about this is Sanyupta. I'm not trying to pry, I just want to make

up and coughed, acting as though he

I've been seeing this...thing. I'm not even gonna call it a person because I never see its face. It just comes out of nowhere, and then it just leaves. It never speaks. It just walks around. I don't know if it's a ghost or if it's all in my head." He bashfully explained. "Shit, I feel like Ford. I'm

that you don't want to talk about what took place inside that house, but piece by piece, it'll start to come together for you. I mean, I heard when they first brought you to

he were recalling something funny before he said, "I guess Sanyupta told you about what I thought I

modestly answered.

"What you really mean to say is that you've never heard a colored person sat that he was

"I thought you people didn't like to be called colored." Levin haphazardly jibed while apparently waiting for a smile

the joke, he was just awestruck at the sheer boldness of the person who was

woman who believed that she was a

as far as what happened back in November, let's just say,

to know, were you beaten up that night? Because your x-rays revealed significant damage to your entire skeletal system. Extreme muscle strains. And even more amazing, it appeared as though your body healed within days." Levin explained,

vegetative state of silence. He was determined not

just can't even begin to imagine the utter pain and agony that

that...I wasn't beaten up. And you're damn right, it was painful." He gritted

of inquiries at Isaac, he paused to examine the young man who suddenly took on the eerie appearance of someone who wasn't even in the same

Isaac sat in his seat, slumping closer and closer to the floor like he was

The young man

your pardon?" Sitting

age when I thought I was

of his desk in front of Isaac and said, "Guilt binds us in all sorts of trouble, Isaac. This so called ghost that you see, this mythical creature that you think you are, it's all part of the culpability that you've been carrying all this time.

Ashlandview, I got a chance to do a lot of thinking. I got a son. I look at a lot of brotha's out there now, fuckin' up, doin' things they're not supposed to be doin'. I swore that I'd be different. I want my son to look up to me like I look up to my dad. I want my fiancé to have a man that she

The more Isaac spoke, something inside of him began to twist and turn, much like a stomach