Where are my FANS? / Stan / Applebaum / The Book / Writing Blog / Horror Blog

I’m writing this a couple weeks after my introduction and after I sat down with Stan. I’m writing from memory, and my memory, when it comes to something this weird and coincidental, is spot on. Stan was sitting in his usual spot that day. He was playing Solitaire or some card game that only required a single player. The sun was bright and the temperature was starting to warm compared to the last week where it would drop into the forties at night.

I masked up and reached out my hand making an introduction.

“I’m Stan,” he said. His eyes darted like he didn’t trust the world. “You can sit down if you want, I don’t get much company.” He chuckled.

I was surprised at how quickly he asked me to sit. In my life, I learned in my forty seven years, how to read people. Stan seemed paranoid, yes, but his soft eyes and his gentle face told me that he was harmless and not out to hurt anyone.

“I’m Tim, Tim Eagle.”

“Why’d you give me your last name? You trust me that much?”

“I’m a writer, and I want everyone to find me, my name goes with my craft, it is my brand.”

“I get it.” Stan said. “What brings you down here?”

“How do you know I don’t live here?”

“Your accent, it doesn’t have a drawl and you’re pale.”

“You got me, I’m from Michigan, how ‘bout you? You don’t sound like a local either.”

“I’m not; you know that already, don’t you?”

As Stan asked me that he picked up the old book and turned it around in his leathery, dry hands. He looked at it intently and then looked up to me. We were silent even if it was for the moment. The book was the same book I had seen on an auction site just a few days ago. It was Applebaum’s book, a book I was very familiar with; I owned a copy for my research. It was the book I assumed it was, and Stan was right, I had my suspicions of who he was, and couldn’t believe that he was alive. He wasn’t a Florida native, at all.

“I already know you stopped over here for this. I have a story behind it, but first things first, you need to write all of this down, and when we’re finished and we go our separate ways, I have something for you.”