Short Story: Be Careful What you Wish for.

Be Careful What you wish for
By G. D. Garman

Harris was bored to death. His job was so tedious that he could barely make it through the day without yawning in his co-worker’s faces. He had been working here in this contractor’s office running the same blueprint machine for two years now. When he had taken this job, he had expected to do this for a few months and was led to believe that he would move up into a better position as soon as one opened. He had the training to be a draftsman, but was told by every office in town that there were no openings at the time. So, he had taken a position here with the understanding that he would get the next opening that came along. This had not turned out to be the case. So, here he was in a dead-end job that promised nothing but tedium for the rest of his days.
He finished setting up the printer for the day and started the first run of blueprints. As soon as he got them developing, he took a short break to go get a cup of coffee. As usual, once he got to the break room, he found the same slackers that always hung out there on a regular basis. It was so unfair, that these freeloaders got the job he had earned. As usual here was Roger, gabbing away. Roger was new, being hired only six months ago, and he was the laziest individual that Harris had ever met. He spent the greater part of the day here, sipping his hot brew while gossiping with others. That job should have been his, but Roger had gotten it because he was the boss’s nephew. To Harris, he was just a waste of oxygen. The man produced next to nothing. He rarely saw any drawings come over for transcription from the man. He was a true freeloader that was for sure.
Then, there was Pamela Sleaze or sneeze, or whatever her last name was, Harris wasn’t sure. She was only five foot, but weighed about two hundred and fifty pounds if she weighed an ounce. She was almost as bad as Roger in her gossiping. She always had some tidbit of scandalous news to tell and Harris doubted that any of her stories were anything but bull. She acted so superior to everyone that it made him want to puke in her face. Now that would be a sight he would pay to see.
He looked around and sure enough there were the butch twins. Shirley and Barbara were always together when they weren’t at their desks. Everybody knew that they were lesbians. Harris didn’t hold that against them though. ‘To each their own’ was his motto. What bothered him about them was that they always tried to suck up to the foreman. Every thing that came out of his mouth was golden, according to them. When he was around, they doted on every word that he said. But, when he wasn’t around, they always talked down about him, accusing him of everything from lechery to perversion. They always claimed that he was continually trying to look down their blouses or watching them bend over. It didn’t seem like all that much of a crime to him. If they bend over to show it, why shouldn’t the boss enjoy the fringe benefits? He seriously doubted that Mr. Sylvan paid near as much attention to them as they claimed. Some people just need to be the center of attention.
Suddenly, he spied a new face in the crowd. A young woman was at the coffee pot pouring a cup, and just as Harris spotted her, she turned towards him and he got a clear look at her. She was exquisitely beautiful. Her clear golden skin was flawless and her shining blue eyes were so captivating that as she glanced up at him, he was instantly mesmerized. He couldn’t even try to look away from that gaze that promised the world in sexual pleasure. Within them he saw the girl next door in innocence as well as the most enticing sexpot that ever existed. There was a burning heat of desire that lit every fire within him to a blaze that threatened to consume him. He was frozen in a stare that was impossible to turn away from. She had to be the most beautiful woman in the world and he found that at that second, he would do anything to possess her. No cost would be too much to have her. He would gladly die in the next instant just to spend one night with her. Then, her turning away to return to her work area broke the spell.
Who was she? Why had he become so obsessed in just an instant? Never had he been so completely taken by a woman in his whole life. He was confused by his own desires for her. He felt as though she had somehow captured his soul in an instant and now he couldn’t help himself. He was a slave to his primal urges.
Harris shook his head to clear it and went to the lavatory to throw cold water on his face. The coolness helped to clear his mind, but still, the memory of her face haunted him. Her beauty kept stealing into his consciousness. He would never be able to forget her gaze, and so he decided to go find her later and talk to her to see what might come of it. After his decision, Harris felt better and was able to return to work. When the opportunity arrived, he would act upon his desires, and so he could be patient for now.
The rest of his workday went on in its usual dreariness and although he frequently was reminded of the woman’s face, he was able to turn his focus from her for now. As the afternoon wore on, his co-workers began to leave for the day and his workload began to wane. When he was the only one left in the office, he began to prepare to shut down the blueprint developer once the last sketch had been loaded. When this task was done, he would then be able to leave for the day.
As he reached for the switch to turn off the big machine he was distracted by a presence behind him. He turned to find the young woman he had seen earlier standing before him. Her beautiful smile and luscious eyes were still as captivating as he remembered. When he looked again into those eyes, the hidden message he had intuited renewed and he found that he could not look away. She was incredibly gorgeous. He felt his own will slipping away as he began to fall into those orbs of passion.
“Hi,” she said in the most sensual manner imaginable. Harris wanted instantly to take her in his arms and smother her with kisses. But found that he could not move.
“Hello,” he returned in a cracked voice that mimicked a hormonal adolescent. She reached up to play with the shiny object that hung around her neck. Harris was momentarily distracted by the action and glanced at the object to see was an ankh. When she flipped it between her fingers, the movement of her hands enthralled him. Her every move stirred him with enticement. She radiated sex with every breath. “What can I do for you,” he asked. She smiled before answering. Her smile was as intoxicating as a double shot of whiskey. It made him feel dizzy as though he had been drugged by some odd narcotic. The rest of the world faded from his consciousness and the only thing on his mind was the face of this wondrous beauty before him.
“It’s what I can do for you,” she replied. “Don’t you hunger for some… excitement?” She continued to advance towards him slowly without taking her eyes from his. Her eyes continued to promise him untold riches of lust. They promised him endless amounts of ecstasy… Of primal dreams unheard of in the conscious mind. Only a man’s Id could promise such desires to be fulfilled. His inner beast begged to be freed to ravage her.
“I… I suppose so,” he answered with almost no breath. Suddenly, he was stopped in his retreat by running into a small table that sat in the corner. He glanced back for a split second and when he looked up he saw her coming at him with a wider smile that revealed huge fangs protruding from the roof of her mouth. Fear sent a sudden shot of adrenalin into his body making Harris jump in response. When he landed, he tripped over his feet to fall on top of the small table. He felt it collapse under him and landed on his back on the floor with the broken legs protruding up beside him. He looked up again to see the woman throwing herself at him all at once and with out thought, he grasped the table leg beside him to pull it forward. The voluptuous creature seeking to bite him landed atop that splintered piece of wood and became impaled. She stopped at once and looked down at her pierced chest and died with a sudden cough.
Harris was revolted by the site of the creature that was still atop him and pushed the grizzly thing aside to get up beside the developer. Then, without warning, the woman’s body exploded throwing him into the machine where he landed on top of a pipe. He felt the pipe give way under him and when it broke off it released the ammonia from within. Harris gasped, sucking in the ammonia vapor and then lost consciousness as it took his breath completely away.
∑
His consciousness wandered in and out in a haze that he could not pierce. Little moments of sensation came and went as he felt pain from time to time, but he was unable to focus on what was hurting. Every time he would begin to arouse from that dark well of unconsciousness, a new blanket would be added to darken his world again. It seemed that he was kept a prisoner in that dark world for such a long time that he began to wonder if he was in fact dead. Either that or this was the longest nightmare he had ever experienced.
An unknown time later, he found himself beginning to surface from that well of darkness. The first thing he realized was that his throat was killing him. He must have been horribly injured somehow. He reached up to grasp his neck but found no evidence of injury. He then opened his eyes to see that he was in a hospital room and that he was not alone. A tall silver haired man was standing beside the bed looking down on him.
“How are you feeling?” he asked in a deep bass voice. Harris tried to respond, but found it very hard to make any sound whatsoever. “Don’t worry; your voice will get better in time. Having that tube down your throat for a week does make it a little rough on the vocal chords.” Harris shook his head to clear it.
“What happened?” Harris asked in a bare whisper.
“You were caught in an explosion and asphyxiated by industrial ammonia. I’m afraid that your lungs were burned, so we had to keep you on machinery to help you breathe until your lungs healed enough to sustain you again. You were quite lucky that someone else was in the building when it occurred. If you had lain there any longer, you would have been in a pine box right now instead of this comfortable bed.”
“You said that I’ve been here for a week?” Harris inquired.
“Yes,” replied the doctor. “We had to keep you sedated to allow your lungs to heal. It’s a bad thing to get your lungs burned. Most people don’t survive it. It was a break for you that you didn’t inhale very much of the caustic liquid. The burns were not as serious as they could have been. How are you feeling now?” Harris thought for a moment before responding.
“Like a truck ran over me,” he replied. He managed a small chuckle as the doctor laughed. Suddenly, he remembered what had brought him to this present situation and fear crept into his mind. “What happened to the woman who was with me?”
“There was nobody else with you when you came in. I was on duty when you were admitted and I would have known if anyone else had been brought in with you. I was told that you were alone in the whole wing when the explosion occurred. Why? Do you remember something about the accident?”
“I thought I did. I remembered this beautiful woman being there. It seems that she was chasing me or something.”
“Well, don’t take anything like that seriously. The stuff that you were knocked out with causes some wild hallucinogenic dreams. I had a patient once that claimed he went through the end of the world while being drugged. Another one thought that he had gotten married to a famous model while he was under and wanted to know where his wife was. Don’t worry about it; your head will clear soon. Well, I have to go. I’ll send in the nurse with something to drink to soothe your raw throat. Just be patient and we’ll have you out of here in a couple of days.” With that, he was left alone with his thoughts for company. Was that girl all just a dream? She must have been; there were no such things as vampires any way. Besides, it was still light out when his encounter happened. Weren’t vampires supposed to be nocturnal? What an imagination he had! Vampires! What was next, Gremlins?
He sat up on the side of the bed and looked around the room. It did feel good to be sitting up. He spotted a pile of clothes sitting on a table beside his bed. He recognized them as the ones he was wearing on the day of the accident. On top was an envelope. He reached over to pick it up just as a nurse walked in.
“Where do you think you are going?” she asked in a stern voice.
“Nowhere,” he replied. “I was just looking around. God, it feels good to be out of that bed.”
“I can imagine,” she replied. “Just don’t overdo it.”
“I won’t,” he said with a smile as he rubbed a twinge in his stiff back. He glanced again at the envelope in his hand. “What’s this?” Harris asked of her as he tore the envelope open.
“We found that clutched in your hand on the night you came in. We figured that it must important to you since we nearly had to pry your hand open to get it out.” Harris reached into the envelope and pulled out the contents therein. At first, he didn’t recognize it at all. Then, memories came flooding back. He had seen this object before, just moments before the explosion. It was a piece of jewelry. It was an ankh.


The End