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

at that house? Doctor

"No, I mean me trying to hit

Levin panted. "What

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

"It was that bad,

"Have you ever seen my father? The man

"How did you feel when your father brought you to

and rolled his eyes upwards as though he were ailing. "At first, I was pissed. I was pissed at a lot of things at the

Levin pointed his eyes down at his desk and said, "Doctor Sanyupta mentioned that your mother was

"Yeah, she died six years ago from a

her

anything changed after my mom's death, it had to be that my dad stopped working so much. I think he

"You keep mentioning November."

you're trying to do. Sanyupta did the same thing. So before

"Really," Levin's eyes

these...blackouts. Sometimes I can't remember things. Hell, I can't even remember how I got this knot on my forehead." Isaac pointed to his

his ballpoint pen and began to jot something down on a piece of white notebook paper

Have you seen a doctor about them? Are any of these

me to take some Anacin. If

"I really want to get down to the root of these blackouts, Isaac, especially since they began after

about in his seat like an impatient five year old at that moment. He tried to cut his eyes away

and watched some TV. After that, everything went dark. When I woke up the next morning, I was hanging out of my bed with the covers wrapped around

"I see." Levin murmured, still

"No, not really," Isaac shrugged. "And then there was yesterday. I remember waking up, eating breakfast, talking to Lynn on the phone and then my dad taking me down to his job

"Doctor Sanyupta did mention that you would see...another person in your bedroom from

he turned his head and exhaled as if he were too ashamed to hear anything more come from the

in here. The only other person that knows about this is Sanyupta. I'm not trying to pry,

acting as though he were trying to find the proper

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

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 Ashlanview that you were a...for lack of a better term, a wreck. But after

if he were recalling something funny

his glasses. "Uh, yeah," he modestly answered. "I'll admit that it's not exactly what

that you've never heard

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

Isaac glared oddly at the doctor before laughing. He got the joke, he was just awestruck at

and a woman who believed that

weren't my friends. And as far as what happened back in

the unexpected, I happened across some of your x-rays from your hospital visit after the incident. Isaac, I just have 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

Isaac once again regressed into his vegetative state of silence. He was determined not to go back in

"I just can't even begin to imagine the utter pain and agony that you went through."

is that...I wasn't beaten up. And you're

to examine the

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

"I miss my mom." The young man uttered in a tone that seemed

"I beg your pardon?" Sitting

age when I thought I was too cool. Couldn't nobody tell me shit. I'll never forget the day before they took her to the hospital, she and I argued because I wasn't doing my homework. That was the last

syrupy sympathy in his blue eyes, Levin got up, sat down on the edge 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

"Guilt had nothing to do with what happened that night. Everything that I felt that night was real. I'm talking about a second chance. When I was laid up in 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

spoke, something inside of him began to twist and turn, much like a stomach ache, but on a less gut wrenching level. He felt a crucifixion taking