The Devil is in the Details – Chapter 3 – vvc

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9 Minutes

Chapter 3 – Eddie

Eddie left the church and started the mile-plus walk back to the house he shared with his cousin.  The sermon had been tolerable today, not too preachy, not too out-of-touch with modern morals.  The baby-minding he’d done afterwards had been more rewarding, as per usual.  He spent two hours every Sunday morning watching, feeding, and caring for babies and toddlers too young for bible study so that their parents could participate in their own groups.  He enjoyed the babies for themselves, he did, though he couldn’t deny the biggest reason he’d taken the task was to ensure that he didn’t get sucked into bible study himself, because he loathed it.

He honestly didn’t care about the Catholic church one way or the other anymore.  He appreciated the community it provided, though, and he was fairly active within it, much more so than his cousin, and enjoyed many friendships among the congregation.  The friendships were good, he’d never deny that, but they weren’t deep and solid like the ones he’d had long ago when he’d lived in Los Angeles.  Most of the time he lived his life without thinking about the past too much and how he’d screwed it up but today was a bit dreary and he was feeling melancholy.

He didn’t blame anyone but himself for the collapse of his life in Los Angeles.  Yes, his poor mental health and crap coping strategies had roots all the way back to his childhood, but he’d known even as a young man that he needed to shed the effects of his upbringing and he hadn’t done it.  Not in any persistent, committed way.  Not until he was 40 and his son cut contact with every single person he’d known before college.  Eddie had made a hard-core commitment to self-improvement then, even though he recognized it was too late.

He was in a good place now.  Healthy, productive, happy enough.  It didn’t mean that the sadness and regret didn’t sneak up on him on occasion, especially around the anniversary of the last time he’d talked to his son.

Ten years on and still no one had heard from Christopher, not even an impersonal, stock Christmas card.  Eddie had let his son go the first time because he was an emotional mess and didn’t have the strength to fight his parents and demand the boy stay; he’d let his son go the second time because he recognized his son’s simmering anger for what it was and knew pursuing would make his son’s fury even worse.  Maybe one day Christopher would make contact.  He kept that hope.

He turned the corner onto his street and took in the state of his neighborhood.  Smallish houses, older cars, nothing falling down but nothing in perfect repair either.  Clean enough, nice enough, quiet enough.  It was enough, and it served him and Rafael just fine.  Mr. Dupree was taking down his Halloween decorations and Eddie stopped at his neighbor’s mailbox.  “You need help, Barry?”

“Nah, I got it.  I’m almost done.  Thanks, though.  You putting up lights again this year?”

“Not until December, Barry.”  No way was Eddie putting up Christmas lights before Thanksgiving.  Still, Rafael and Eddie took a few hours to put up simple edge lighting.  Barry was a crazy man about Christmas lights, though, and merely laughed at him.  “Let me know when you’re starting your yearly electrical assault and I’ll help out.”

Barry laughed again.  “Will do.  I’m thinking the big snowman this year and programming the roof net lights to look like snowfall.”

Eddie laughed with his neighbor and shook his head as he waved goodbye.  His home was next door and the kitchen light was on so Rafael was already home.  He opened the door – unlocked, Rafael was lazy about that – and immediately smelled tomato and spices and something sweet.  He closed and locked the door then took off his jacket and hung it on one of the over-painted and chipped hooks that had come with the house that they’d never gotten around to replacing.

“That you, Eddie?”

“Yes.  You left the door unlocked again.  What are you making?”

“Pollo rojo.  And I made chocolate chip cookies.”

Eddie snorted his disbelief.  “From scratch or from a refrigerator roll?”

“Don’t knock Pillsbury, Eddie!  Just be happy you’re getting cookies!”  Rafael turned as Eddie entered the kitchen and waved towards the table by the window.  “I agreed to bring cookies to work tomorrow so just made enough for us, too.  First batch should be cool enough to eat.”

Eddie grinned at his cousin and headed to the cooling racks on their dining table.  He picked up a cookie and took a bite then sat down in his customary chair and looked out the window just in time to see his across the street neighbor settle into a lounger on their porch.  “The devil is out.”

Rafael huffed.  “It asked me earlier if I wanted a promotion.”

“What’d you say?”  Eddie glanced at his cousin curiously then went back to watching the devil, taking another bite of his cookie.

“I said I did, but not enough to pay for it.”  Rafael huffed again and stirred the chicken dish with a bit more force than necessary.  “I wish it would stop asking me shit.”

“Tempted?”  Eddie knew his cousin was frustrated with the lack of advancement in his career.

“No.”

Eddie turned to stare at his cousin.  That answer had been too sharp.  “Rafael.”

Rafael didn’t turn but his posture was stiff.  “Yes, all right?  Yes, I’m tempted.  Because the cookies for tomorrow are to celebrate Brenda getting promoted.  But I’m not tempted enough to pay a devil’s price for it.”

Eddie was quiet a moment.  Brenda was a good woman, smart and competent, friendly.  They’d had her over for dinner a number of times when she and Rafael had a project they were working on together.  The promotion wasn’t undeserved, but she’d been at the company for two years less than Rafael.  “Tell her congratulations.  And, I’m sorry.”

“Yeah.”  Rafael sighed and gave a short, bitter laugh.  “Yeah, I will.  Thanks.”

“Of course.”  Eddie let the silence sit and went back to watching the devil do nothing but sit and be a visible temptation to any passerby.

Rafael turned down the heat and covered the dish to let it simmer and joined Eddie at the table.  He picked up a cookie and waved it in the general direction of the devil across the street.  “Mrs. Ramirez thinks her grandson made a deal with the devil.”

Eddie turned towards Rafael, eyebrows raised in surprise at the gossip.  “Which one?  And why does she think that?”

“Miguel.  And because last time he came to visit he showed off his brand new sportscar.  The next day he decided to see how fast he could go on I-5 and crashed it.  Car is totaled, he’s in the hospital, and who knows just how much trouble he’s in once he gets out because he caused a major accident at the same time.”  Rafael took an aggressive bite of his cookie and waved it again in the direction of their supernatural neighbor.

“That’s a shame.”  Eddie grimaced then ate the last of his cookie.

“This is why I won’t make a deal.  They never go well.”  Rafael shook his head and stuffed the rest of his cookie into his mouth.

“It’s half and half,” Eddie murmured, then shrugged when his cousin glared at him.  “He probably would have been fine if he hadn’t been an idiot.  The devil might have gotten him the car, but it wouldn’t have given him the common sense to not drive like a maniac.”

Rafael shrugged and grabbed another cookie before standing.  “I’m gonna watch TV while dinner finishes cooking.  Yesterday’s leftover rice good with you or you want fresh?”

“Yesterday’s is fine.”  Eddie stood as well and put a few cookies onto a napkin.  “I think I’ll go ask the devil to leave you alone.”

Rafael rolled his eyes.  “I don’t understand how you can stand to talk to it.  And especially on Sundays.”

“Just being a good neighbor.”  Eddie ignored his cousin’s snort.  “Plus, I like the irony.”

Rafael laughed at that and turned away.  “Go enjoy your irony then.  Dinner in an hour.”

Eddie left the house, leaving the door unlocked, and walked briskly across the street.  It was a little chilly but he’d left his jacket behind because he knew from experience that the radiant heater on the devil’s porch was more than enough to be comfortable.  The devil watched calmly as Eddie approached and stepped up onto the porch, its expression not changing when Eddie took a seat on the second lounger.  Eddie took the top cookie and placed the napkin with the other two onto the small table between them and pushed it towards the devil then relaxed back against the cushions.  “For you.”

“Thank you.  Shall we make a deal to teach your cousin how to bake cookies from scratch?”  The devil, still expressionless, pulled the napkin closer and picked up a cookie and took a small bite.

Eddie barked out a surprised laugh then shook his head with a grin.  Nobody ever believed him when he said that devils had a sense of humor.  Or, at least, this one did.  “Rafael wants you to stop asking him shit.  His words.”

“And what about you?”  The devil tilted its head in inquiry.

“I don’t care if you keep asking me shit.”  Rafael was a big boy and could manage his own angst about the devil’s offers.  Besides, he knew his opinion about other people, no matter how close a relationship he might have with them, was completely irrelevant to any devil.

“I ask you every week and every week you refuse me.”  The devil took another small bite of cookie.

“You giving up?”  Eddie raised a mocking eyebrow and got back a small smirk.  He took a bite of his cookie and thought about his own question for several minutes, the devil letting the silence sit comfortably between them as it ate its cookie in tiny bites.  “I don’t mind you asking me if I want to make a deal for what I want.  Or what I think I want.  It helps me clarify in my own mind if I actually want something and just how much I want it.  Do I really want whatever it is badly enough to make deal for it?  Or am I willing to put forth my own effort to accomplish the thing on my own merits.  So far, my own merits have won out.”

“You are not against making a deal with me?”  The devil picked up its second cookie but didn’t take a bite, just stared at its guest steadily.

“Well, I’m Catholic.”  Eddie laughed a little at his own statement.  He wondered if there was any other Catholic on the face of the planet that went to mass and then dropped by a devil’s home to chat.  The Church certainly didn’t interpret love thy neighbor as including devils.  “I don’t hold to the teachings much anymore, but I was born and raised Catholic and a lifetime of indoctrination is hard to overcome.  Intellectually, no, I’m not against making a deal, but I doubt I’d ever actually reach a place emotionally that I would agree to one.  It’d have to be spectacular.”

“I could return your son to you, happy and free of anger.”  The devil set down its cookie and stared intently at Eddie.

“No, absolutely not.”  Eddie put down the remains of his own cookie and leaned forward, matching the devil’s stare with his own full of unequivocal refusal.  “Christopher comes to me of his own free will or not at all.  I’d never make a deal to abrogate his choices.  Never.”

“How about your youth?  Another chance with your friend?”  The devil leaned forward, setting its elbows on the table.

Eddie sucked in a surprised breath, his ache for his long-lost friendship with Buck a sudden sharp pain.  “It would be weird to be younger than my son, so no.  And leave Buck out of this.”

“It’s already too late for that, Edmundo Diaz.”

Fast as a snake, the devil shot forward a hand and grabbed hold of Eddie’s wrist.  Eddie didn’t have time to cry out before the world swirled into colors.