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Short Fat Stubby Finger Stories PRESENTS:

Episode 6   Chapter 4

   An unexplained, unexplainable, feeling occasionally stirred within Joseph, a weird and wonderful feeling that primarily made its appearance whenever he entered his current mind set.   Some inner, but yet unreleased, knowledge that he would someday handle vigorously: victoriously, a problem that would arise during man’s darkest hours.   He would take on a powerful enemy that threatened world peace – and he would be at the main thrust of the enemies defeat – not once, but thrice.

Joseph also considered it to be a rather stupid thing for his brain to come up with considering how dull and boring his life and background actually was.   Quiet, private, mundane … that was him in a nutshell, he thought.   And with not a clue in the world as to who or what this enemy of the world could ever be that he might possibly defeat in battle.   Joseph doubted he could beat an overgrown path into submission in reality, never mind a general with a full blown army at his disposal … or whatever the world’s worst threw at him.  In the end Joseph put his brain’s overactive imagination down to boredom, or to watching too many movies from the golden age of the cinema, ignored the feeling and went on with his real, totally dull, but certainly safe, life.

Joseph shook his head in dismay at this, his fifteenth thousandth display of self-pity that he had allowed himself to be submitted to over several years of working at Johnson’s; to wallow in virtually every time he checked his stars, which of course was every working day of the week since he had joined the company.    And every time that this happened, he momentarily regretted his decision to deny himself his opportunity to become involved with the occupation he had always craved: Paranormal and spiritual phenomenal investigator.

But he had accepted the offer to work at Johnson’s and he knew he would just have to live with it.   However, there was occasionally a side value offered when Joseph succumbed to self pity in this manner because it sometimes became a reality check for him as it made him realise that there may be not much of a living to be made in such a trade.   As far as he had ever seen in his limited time on this planet was that the only ones who had made both money and a name for themselves in this field had been the actor Bill Murray and his friends who had starred in ‘Ghostbusters’, and when he reflected on this reality of life, he also wondered if perhaps it would be better for him to stop reading his stars altogether.   If he stopped reading his stars each and everyday, he decided, then that might help him to stop this daily irrational flight back to his past, though Joseph felt that it might not be something that he could bring himself to do easily, but he would try – starting tomorrow.   That would give him four straight days to go on the wagon seeing as how Monday was a public holiday, he reasoned.

It was not like he had kept in contact with the orphanage since he had begun working at Johnson’s Export and Import.    Joseph had had no reason to make contact with the orphanage since he had moved out … except on one particular occasion.   And a wry grimace crossed Joseph’s face as the complete memory resurfaced.

The actual incident was not an unfamiliar story, but the story of how Joseph became advised of its happening was rather peculiar, to say the least.  Not long after he had begun work at Johnson’s he had met a girl, Rowanna Stokes, a pretty young thing who giggled a lot at his inane jokes and made him feel special.   Rowanna was not exceptionally bright, but she made him laugh and she made him happy.  They became engaged and planned for a spring wedding and a honeymoon in Paris, and they would most likely have done so – had it not been for the unexpected phone call from somebody saying they were from the orphanage and they had a bit of surprise for him,  “Go to the Regent Hotel at three this afternoon, the unfamiliar voice had said, “go to room 610 … don’t knock … just go straight in.”  Then they had hung up.

Curious, Joseph had followed the instructions and had nearly passed out at the shock of finding his fiancée – and his intended best man, naked and locked in a passionate embrace on the bed.

Joseph’s shock at what he had seen had passed in time, but it had severely dented any thoughts of entering into any new relationship.   In the end he had been happy that he had found out in advance, before he learnt the hard way about Rowanna’s waywardness, but even more concerning for him, when he had time to think about what had happened, had been the phone call from the orphanage.  How had they known?  Were they spying on him and his relationships?  Why?

Joseph had rung the orphanage, but got nowhere.  ‘I am sorry,’ the receptionist had told him, gently, but firmly, after he had explained the reason for his call, ‘but  I think you will find the orphanage has been used as a cover by somebody in order to get your attention.’ and had hung up.

For a minute Joseph had believed her, but then he began to wonder who it could have been if it wasn’t them and he realised he had only ever told two people of his upbringing in an orphanage – his ex-fiancee and his ex-best man, and he sincerely doubted that either of those two would have revealed themselves that way … unless, he remembered, the interviewer had been aware of his background, because that was where the interview had taken place.   But Joseph’s instincts made him think that that any information obtained by Johnson’s would have been treated as confidential, and he dismissed all similar thoughts from his mind.

Time had moved on: it was all history to him now … except for moments like this when he still wondered who had rung … and why.   Fortunately for Joseph the memory of the breaking of the engagement was not something that raised its ugly head every day.   In fact it was a reasonably rare memory to surface, though for some unknown reason it had picked today to make an appearance, but he felt reasonably safe in dealing with it.

Joseph had heard later that Bertie had moved to Australia only two weeks after that day, not because of being caught out, but to escape the clutches of two very pregnant single women who were both claiming him to be the father, and Rowanna had moved to Brighton after Joseph had fended off any chance of reconciliation over the following days.

Joseph sighed and for the umpteenth time dismissed the past from his mind and without thinking began to re-read his stars.   Joseph was resigned to his bachelor ways.    At the time his heart had been broken he had learnt to throw his days into his work and his nights and weekends into a mundane, but comfortable existence that ranged between reading, music, television, coffee houses and going to the movies at theatres that specialised in the classics from the thirties to the sixties, with a preference for the horror and comedy films of the thirties, the sci-fi films of the fifties and sixties and the musicals from all generations.

Sometimes Joseph wondered if perhaps he watched too many old movies and sub-consciously let his imagination have too much control over his mind at times; if that was the reason why his mind wandered off the beaten track so often.  The reason why he had so many inane thoughts.  Thoughts that seemed to be intensifying over the past few weeks.   Strange, uncalled for thoughts glossed with a mystique Joseph could never understand.   It was almost like he had a secret hidden deep inside his brain,  a secret so dark, so private even he was not privy to its contents.

   ‘Time to get back to work,’   Joseph declared inwardly, feeling slightly guilty about his time wasting on his horoscope as he cast an eye in the direction of the wall clock and noting the time at just after eleven, ‘An hour to lunch – cool!’    Then Joseph scanned his eyes across the screen, slightly concerned that he had not one, but three priority orders awaiting his attention.

   ‘I’ll be pushing it to finish this lot by twelve’, he mumbled softly to himself, but Joseph was not perturbed, he would do his very best to finish in time for his normal departure.   The reason for his concern was his reserved table at the restaurant.   He could arrive a bit late at the restaurant and still get his table, but bookings following his would have meant he could not remain at it for as long as usual, and that would mean he would have to rush his meal and leave early.    Not a thought he embellished as it would mean getting back to the office far too early for his liking.

Joseph had started the day in a pleasant mood, he had had no problems thrust upon him after his arrival at work, and he had enjoyed his early morning coffee, the part of his daily routine that had always been the governing factor for the remainder of the day.   A good tasting, warm enough to drink, uninterrupted café latte from the Kool Kat Koffee Kaffe located a block from the building to start the day … and nothing was beyond his capability.   That was Joseph’s philosophy to handle the tedium of life at Johnson’s Import and Export.   But all this was about to change … Joseph’s life was about to change forever.   And despite his constant queries to himself about his life before Johnson’s; his constant thoughts about something strange being buried away somewhere deep within his memory banks, and his constant resentment of not being a ghost buster … Joseph was no way prepared for what fate had in order for him.   Not just in the coming weeks … but until the end of his life.   Provided, of course, that he lived that long.

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