The Strange Tale of Stanley Russ

"…up…open…fucking…door!"

I was awoken by the sound of someone beating on my door, and also my phone in my pocket was ringing.

I reached into my pocket and saw that May was calling me. Once the display screen faded, I realized I had slept for two whole days. There were over a hundred texts and calls from her.

I quickly got up from underneath my bed, my entire body sore from being cramped there. I heard the cracking of my bones with each move.

I ran straight to the door and opened it, only to be immediately punched in the face by May.

"Ow! What the hell—?"

"Where have you been!? You've been ignoring me, haven't you?! Huh!? You're tired of me!?"

The pain in my face was intense—I didn't expect her to carry such a punch.

I stood there, holding my face, ignoring her barrage of questions.

At this point, I had had enough.

She started to walk into the apartment, but I quickly put a stop to that.

I pushed her out of the apartment and told her to go away.

"What? Go away!?"

"Yes, I'm through with you! Go fuck yourself!"

And I slammed the door in her face.

I stood there, waiting to hear what she would do.

At first, there was complete silence. Then I heard her footsteps walking away, followed by the sound of her ascending the stairs.

I let out a huge sigh of relief.

I had never gotten a compliment from the landlord, and I hoped this situation wouldn't come back to bite me.

I walked over to the couch, plopped down, and rubbed my fingers over my temples.

"That girl was bad news. I should've ended the relationship a long time ago. All she did was drain my money, my energy, and my time," I muttered aloud to myself. "Why did I even stay with someone like that?"

But I knew why. It was a silly, stupid question. It was my own damn fault for staying with her this long.

I was afraid of being alone.

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For a few hours, I decided to rethink the situation that led to me sleeping under the bed for two days.

The faceless girl and the feeling of being watched.

I deduced it must have been me hallucinating due to a lack of sleep or exhaustion. That would explain why I fell asleep for two days straight.

As I sat there pondering, my phone rang. I didn't check the caller ID, just answered it.

"Yeah?"

"Oh! Mr. Pinball!"

It was Wendy.

"I've been calling you for a few days, I thought you were ignoring me."

I looked at my call history, and sure enough, there were texts and calls from Wendy mixed in with May's.

I put the phone back up to my ear. "Well, sorry about that. I've been asleep."

"For two days?"

"Believe it or not, yeah."

There was silence on the other end for a while.

I got up and started pacing around the living room of my apartment, waiting for her to say something.

"Hey, Mr. Pinball."

"Yeah?"

"Can I come over to your place?"

I thought about it for a moment. "Well, I guess that's fine."

"Cool! That's neat. Just send me your address, and I'll be over."

I sighed. "Fine."

I hung up and sent her my address.

Since she'd be coming over, I figured I'd tidy up my room and fix something for her to eat while I was at it.

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It took longer than expected to clean up my room.

Twenty minutes had passed.

I didn't have much time to enjoy the beauty of a clean room, though, since I still hadn't prepared any food.

I went to the kitchen, washed my hands, and warmed up four egg and cheese burritos—two for me, two for her.

I put them in the microwave for two minutes. Once they were done, I checked to see if they were warm enough, and they were.

After placing the plate down on the kitchen table, I heard the doorbell ring.

"Ah, must be her," I muttered to myself.

I peeked through the peephole, and sure enough, it was Wendy.

I unlocked the door and opened it to let her in.

Standing at my door was Wendy. Her hair was still in braided pigtails, and she wore a grey sweater and a very short denim skirt. Her entire legs and thighs were exposed, and her dark skin looked smooth and clean.

"Hey."

"Heyyy," she began sniffing, "What's that?"

"Egg and cheese burritos. Did you want any?"

"Oh my God, yes! I'm starving!"

She came in and went straight to the kitchen. I closed the door and followed her.

"Are all these mine?"

"Of course not. I'm hungry too. There's four, so we'll each have two."

I grabbed two paper towels and placed them on the side of the round kitchen table.

I sat down on my end, and Wendy sat on the other. I grabbed two burritos and placed them on my paper towel. Wendy followed suit.

As she took a bite, she spoke with food in her mouth. "Sho, Mr. Pinball, hfwow've you been?"

"Speak to me after you've swallowed the burrito whole."

She took a big gulp and smiled. "You want me to swallow your burrito whole? Well, gosh, Mr. Pinball, how daring."

"Get out."

"I'm kidding, I'm kidding."

She shattered all my expectations of what I thought a girl was. She used a lot of sexual innuendos and had no sense of modesty. But oddly enough, it made me somewhat comfortable.

She was the complete opposite of my girlfriend—well, my ex-girlfriend at this point.

May made sure everything she did was in alignment with female expectations.

She always kept her mouth closed when eating. She never did any bodily functions in front of me. Though she dressed in somewhat "indecent" clothing, everything about her exuded a sense of modesty.

May was very ideal outwardly, but inwardly…

"Hey, Mr. Pinball, are you listening to me?"

"Huh?"

"Jeez, I asked if you had anything to drink?"

I looked at Wendy's plate—both burritos were gone.

"Eh? What the hell? Did you eat all those already?"

She nodded and smiled.

"It hasn't even been a minute! What did you do?"

She started laughing hysterically. "What? What did I do? I ate them! What else would I do with them?"

I sighed. "Yeah, there's some soda in the fridge," I said, pointing to the refrigerator next to us. "You can go ahead and get one if you want."

She flashed me her smile and dimples before heading to the fridge. She opened it, retrieved a can, and downed it entirely. She wiped her mouth and said, "Thank you."

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After we ate, we decided to take a walk.

"So, yesterday you told me you had a girlfriend. How's that going?"

I stayed silent for a bit after she asked that. I lowered my head and shook it. "Well, I don't know. I think we broke up this morning."

"You think?"

"We kind of got heated, which isn't anything new. She lashes out a lot. But this time, I lashed out too, slammed the door in her face. What I said was pretty indicative of us being over."

"Well, what'd you say?"

"I told her I'm through with her and to fuck herself."

Wendy didn't say anything for a while. We just kept walking.

We were in the downtown section of Cepheus, Arkansas, the city I lived in, located just north of Little Rock.

It was the beginning of autumn. The cold air was only just beginning, but it was still warm enough to not have to dress cozy. It was chilly enough that you could if you wanted to.

I let the occasional cool breeze bring me some peace from all the weird happenings and my relationship with May.

I began to think of Wendy's entrance into my life as a blessing—a blessing long overdue.

I guess after I said that, the conversation was over, and Wendy wanted to move on. That's what I understood from her silence.

So I decided to break the ice.

"So, tell me something about yourself."

"I have a K-cup."

"Seriously!? I mean…no… stupid! Why would I want to know that!?"

"You seemed interested just now," she said. Then she cupped her breasts, jiggled them, and looked up at me. "Wanna feel?"

I lightly hit her upside the head. "Get a grip."

"Ow! I'm telling you to get a grip."

I hit her again.

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We arrived at the city park and found a bench to sit on.

My life wasn't very eventful, so there weren't many stories I could share. So I asked Wendy if she had any stories she wanted to tell.

"Any stories? Well, which genre?"

"Has your life been that eventful!?"

She started laughing. "Mr. Pinball, you're so gullible it's gonna get you killed one day!"

"Shut up, it's not that funny."

"No, my life hasn't been that eventful," she looked off in the distance as if lost in thought. "Oh, but I do have a story."

"Well, shoot."

"There was once this woman who, from the time she could form memories, could only remember people punching her. It started off light, nothing too hard, but then they got harder and harder. At first, it was by a person she trusted most—her father. Then her cousins, uncles, and teachers. One day, she decided she wanted to pursue a dream. But when she started making steps to pursue that dream, the only way to move forward was to be punched over and over again. And she couldn't take it anymore, so she killed herself. Now, she wanders the earth as a ghost, forever believing in her heart that people only ever want to punch her."

I was silent for a moment, trying my hardest to process that story. I took a breath to recompose myself.

"Mr. Pinball?"

"It's nothing. So, um… what does it mean? Is this symbolic? Did something like this happen to you?"

"No! Not at all. I think it was an episode of The Twilight Zone."

"Like hell it was!"

It seems that when it came to my relationship with Wendy, I had become the straight man.

"Anyways, Mr. Pinball, I spoke too much today. I'll be heading home." She got up, shot me a quick smile, and before I could say anything, ran off out of the park.

I really wish she would've stayed, because that prickling feeling on the back of my neck returned.