Jane walked into the bar and was greeted by loud obnoxious music. Some pop, techno record. Jane’s girlfriends danced and grooved into the crowd as hypnotic disco lights flashed. Britney started ordering drinks, Lily began chatting to the DJ, and Lexi awkwardly grinded up against some drooling guys. In that moment, Jane regretted being dragged out. As soon as she spotted some half caveman ogling her, she dashed outside for a breath of fresh air.
The air was chilly, the moon full. Jane walked past the lumbering bouncers, and through a continuous cloud of nasty cigarette smoke. She needed to wander the city. New York was beautiful at night, and the bustling crowds and vehicles gave a real “life” to the area. She noticed a small jazz bar.
Charlie loved jazz, she thought.
She’d rather spend her night in a chilled-out bar than a club where the music is so loud you can’t hear yourself think.
She entered and was instantly introduced to a cool and laidback place; complete opposite of the last building. A few people were scattered around, bobbing their heads to the admittedly nice music, even if it wasn’t exactly to Jane’s taste, but it was somewhat therapeutic. She sat at the front bar, and before she could ask for a Jack and Coke, a stranger spoke up.
“Care for a drink?” He said with a soothing and relaxing voice.
“Um . . . I have a boyfriend, sorry,” Jane replied, wanting to reject the man nicely. He wasn’t bad looking, with his broad complexation, his dreamy eyes, and his bald head, but she wasn’t looking for that kind of attention.
“Had,” he said.
“Excuse me?”
“Dear, I asked if you’d like a drink, not if you were in a relationship.” He smiled. He crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair. His silver suit literally glimmered.
“Okay, fine.” She gave in. If the guy made a move, she’d make a run for it.
“She’ll have a Jack and Coke.” The man tapped on the table twice, while the barman nodded, understanding.
Jane’s heart skipped a beat, and she looked at the stranger weirdly. “How do you know that? Are you a . . . I dunno, just, how did you know that?” she asked, somewhat angry, and more so baffled.
“Lucky guess I suppose.”
“Lucky guess.”
“Sure, why not.”
“You know what? It’s late. I have to get going. Sorry. Bye.” Jane lifted herself from the seat, but the stranger said something that would keep her longer.
“Did you love Charlie? I know the answer, but I can still listen to it.”
She stood, frozen, silent, then said, “Don’t. Don’t say his name.” She slipped back onto her stool, as the barman placed her drink on the counter. “Unless . . . you were his friend. How did you know him?”
“Not a friend. But I knew him. I know everyone,” he said with a tone of a wise man. Still, this just made Jane even more confused.
“What are you even talking about? Were you close to Charlie or not?” she asked, adamantly.
“Listen, you have to know something. I’m not somebody who is normal, understand? I’m not really a human. I’m something more, than any of you. Than any human.” He said this in such an average way, like he had said this many times, almost like he was rehearsing a script. At that point, Jane knew the stranger was crazy, but something made her not flip out.
“Who are you?” she asked, looking for a name she might recognize.
“You can call me Mr. Adams. It’s the easiest one to say really. And I like that it references the human religion. Very in vogue, yes. It’s low-hanging, but I think I’ve made too many of those references in my lifetime. Even bit the fucking apple once before.”
“Well, Mr. Adams, are you from a mental hospital? Because you sound absolutely insane.” Jane laughed. With him knowing Charlie, she wanted to not end the conversation there and then, so she tried to make it sound jokey.
Mr. Adams sighed. He looked at her deeply in the eyes, took a swig of his drink which seemed to be whiskey, and then snapped his fingers. Everything stopped. All sound was gone. Everybody was completely still. A man who’d dropped his drink was stuck in the same look of shock. A woman grooving to the music was cemented in a pose of intensiveness. The band’s instruments made not a sound. Her ears rang. She could hear the blood rushing. She’d never been in such silence.
Jane screamed loudly, nearly falling from her stool. Mr. Adams grabbed her arm, holding her steady, and grimaced after noticeably having his eardrums attacked.
“Stay calm,” he said softly. This instantly made Jane have a relief so fierce, it was like nothing she’d ever felt before. Like she had an injection of morphine.
“Wha-wha-wha-” is all she could stammer out.
“Try to remain still, it looks very strange if you have moved position when time catches up. I’m going to be quite frank. As I said, I am more than human, you just needed a little evidence. I must admit, this isn’t the most conventional way of doing things, but it is the fastest. As you can probably tell, I can bend time and space. I can read minds, travel anywhere in the blink of an eye, see the future, blah blah blah. I am all knowing, all seeing, all hearing. Now that you realise what I am, exactly, I feel like that drink is definitely owed to you. Please.”
Jane sat in shock, staring with wide eyes. After a few seconds of silence, she tried to compose herself. “That’s how you know Charlie?” she said, tearing up.
“Yes, yes, of course. How’s about you ask something interesting?”
“Something interesting.”
“Of course.”
“You fucking prick, you’re all knowing? How’s about you stopped my fiancé from driving into a fucking four-by-four?!” Her voice echoed violently.
“From all the enemies you could obtain, I strongly suggest that I am not one of them.” This seemed less than a threat, and more like a fact. This scared Jane more.
“Could you have stopped it?” she asked.
“Of course. Obviously.”
It hit Jane hard, and it took a lot of effort to not burst into tears. Three years since the death of Charlie, she finally tried to move on. Her friends had told her and told her and told her to find someone; that Charlie would want her to move on. She knew this fact, but it didn’t make it any easier to try.
“This is getting dull,” the unknown creature in human skin continued. He resumed time, without clicking his fingers on this occasion. The sound and motion around her were jarring. “You get used to it faster than you’d think.” Mr. Adams took another swig of his drink.
Jane looked around, her heart thumping dangerously. She saw the man groaning over his broken glass, the lady grooving away, and the band playing like before. “Are you God?” she blurted out.
He put a finger to his lips, and then put it away. He whispered his next sentence. “I am not God, I am not the devil, angle, spirit, ghost, ghoul, wizard, monster, bogeyman, alien, or anything like that. I am simply an . . . observer.” He grinned.
“But you’re . . . like a god, right? All knowing, all seeing?” Jane asked, in a lower volume.
“No. If that’s what you’d like to think, then be my guest.”
“Do you know everything?”
“You and I did say that, yes.”
“Can you stop time for as long as you want?”
“Miss, I don’t stop time, I slow it. What I just showed you was what you perceive as time, going at a rate twenty times slower than usual. I hear in other places of the universe, that it’s normal. And then there’s another place that is twenty times slower than that. And so on, and so forth. My, and a place where time flies, where a pretty face would wither and decay in what you perceive as seconds. Strange.” Mr. Adams shrugged in an unimpressed look.
“Were you sent here for a reason?”
“Maybe. I have thought so, in the past.”
“And you can stop things from happening? My Charlie?”
The man shrugged.
Jane was annoyed by this response. “So, you’re, what the fuck, some omni-whatever-the-fuck-type being, and you’re in some bar? Haven’t you helped people? Why do such cruel things exist if you have this power? Why did a man, a good man die when you could have saved him?” Jane asked with frustration.
“Well, here’s the thing.” He leaned closer. “Nobody abandoned you, and if there is a god, I can assure you that he is there, but I am not him. I could have helped, and I did for a time. I stopped helping after a while. You might think it’s because I saw the injustice in the world, and didn’t consider people “worthy” anymore, or that I might have had restrictions with what I could do for planet earth. Or, that I gave up after so much injustice and horror. I’ll tell you the truth, I’ll tell you why I don’t bother travelling around saving people from car wrecks, or ensuing disasters. Here’s your reason: I. Simply. Became. Bored.” He leaned back again, with half-closed eyes.
Jane was in disbelief at who she was in front of. “You’re a monster.”
Mr. Adams sighed and rolled his eyes. “Monsters cause misery intentionally, I just choose not to cause either happiness or sadness any longer.’
“If you could . . . Could you bring back Charlie? Could you bring him back?”
“No,” he said bluntly. “There are many things I can control, but I do not control life and death. I can prolong it, I can maintain, I can predict. I see when everyone’s life comes to an end, except . . . my own. I am immortal and I will roam this earth for eternity. I was introduced to the universe some time ago. I can’t remember exactly when. I’ve gone through life for so long and I’ve experienced absolutely everything. It’s just no fun anymore. Consider your fiancé and yourself lucky, you have no idea how much worse life can be.”
“I see,” Jane said in a monotone voice, completely stripped of any emotion.
“Would you like to know when you will die, Jane?” he asked.
“Is that some kind of joke?’
“No, it was a question. Why do humans find death to be such a taboo thing? It seems rather exciting to me, not knowing what could be awaiting you, good or bad. Such a dangerous game you play, not knowing when it could be your turn. I’ve thought about it a lot, with how you all have to be so cautious and fearful. Trust me, there are much worse experiences than death. Naturally, I have not seen what comes after death, but I’ve seen what comes after life.” A wicked grin formed on Mr. Adams’s face. “Think of an endless loop of your worst nightmare, repeating over and over and over and over until . . . nothing. It doesn’t end. Does it frighten you Miss, that I could send you to that place?” A lump caught in Jane’s throat, and she couldn’t react. “Oh don’t worry dear, you won’t be going there. I’ve reserved a few places for the worst of the worst. And you call me a monster?” He laughed. “I’ve described it as hell, a few times. Heaven and Hell are not places that exist, but it is similar. No demons and pitchforks, with fire raining down on the sinners who broke a rule in the bible, however. So, if you want my advice Miss, don’t be a completely deplorable human being. It’s unseemly.”
Jane felt as though she could faint right there and then. Her skin had gone pale and she was fighting the urge to vomit. “I should go.”
“You’ve hardly touched your drink, dear,” he said.
“Do you do this courtesy to everyone who’s suffered?”
“Suffered.” He stifled a laugh. “But, the answer is no. Sometimes I offer my sympathies to someone, buy them a meal, give them reassurance. These are far and few between, but they are there. The number has come to a lot over the years, so don’t think you’re any more special. I’ve had this conversation a thousand times.” Mr. Adams downed the last of his potently smelling whiskey. He didn’t flinch.” I suppose I should get out of your hair then, if you have to go.” He picked up a hat under his stool and placed it on his head. Have a lovely evening, Miss.” He stood there for a second, expecting Jane to talk, which she knew that he’d know.
“Will I see you again?” Jane muttered.
“No.” He nodded his head and turned around. “A little bit of advice. Grief can be fierce for creatures with such low life expectancy. Try to move on. You never know how long you have left.” He then exited the bar, leaving Jane alone.