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.

besides what happened back in November, me and him see eye

place back at that house? Doctor Sanyupta never went into much

"No, I mean me trying to hit

"Oh really," Levin panted. "What brought

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

"It was

my father? The man isn't exactly a lightweight, if you catch

feel when your father brought you to

ailing. "At first, I was 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

pointed his eyes down at his desk and said, "Doctor

died six years ago from

"Would you say that her passing

my mom's death, it had to be that my dad stopped working

"You keep

thing. So before you try and go

"Really," Levin's eyes

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

Levin picked up his ballpoint pen and began to jot something down on a piece of white notebook paper in front

from blackouts before. Have you seen a doctor about

can tell me to take

get down to the root of these blackouts, Isaac, especially since they

tried to cut his eyes away

and watched some TV. After that, everything went dark. When

still scribbling away on his pad.

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 to see if I could get on. Then,

Sanyupta did mention that you would see...another person

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

Levin steadily spoke, extending his right hand outwards to Isaac, "it's just you and me in here. The only other person that knows about

Isaac looked up and coughed, acting as though he were trying to find the proper words to

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."

heard when they first brought you to Ashlanview that you were a...for lack of a better

snicker to himself as if he were recalling something funny before he said, "I guess Sanyupta told you about what I thought I

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

is that you've never heard a colored person sat that

didn't like to be called colored." Levin haphazardly jibed

at the doctor before laughing. He got the joke, he was just awestruck at the sheer boldness of the person who

years now, and so far I've had three people tell me that they were vampires. One guy that swears he's James Bond. Another person tell me that he's the reincarnation of Attila the Hun, and a woman who believed that she was a ghost, even though she was about as alive as you and I are right now. What you think you are is the least of your problems. It's normal to have these thoughts. You saw three of your

and said, "Those cats weren't my friends. And as far as what happened back in November, let's just say, for now...I got caught up

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

into his vegetative state of silence. He was determined not to go back in

just can't even begin to imagine the utter pain

"Well, all I can say is that...I wasn't beaten up. And

it looked as if Levin were about to throw another barrage of inquiries at Isaac, he paused to examine the young man who suddenly took on the eerie appearance of someone who wasn't even

sat in his seat, slumping closer and closer to

mom." The young man uttered in a tone that seemed so

"I beg your

she was my best friend. I was the one that pulled away from her. I got to that age when I thought I was too cool. Couldn't

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

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

turn, much like a stomach ache, but on a less gut wrenching level. He felt a