The Haunting of Cole House Pt. 01

Chapter One

March 2, 2019

Cole House had 99 problems, but the son of a bitch driving the Hummer next to him on Interstate 5 was not one of them, nor did he anticipate that he would become a problem. Unfortunately, the asshole did not know this yet. He was doing his best to become a problem.

It was late afternoon on a beautiful March day north of San Diego. Cole was in the middle of another day of driving ride share for Uber, his chosen occupation since his "professional" job had evaporated three months earlier. He enjoyed rideshare because it gave him a chance to do many of his favorite pastimes; drive his Mercedes E350, listen to his playlists, meet interesting people and mostly just think about his life.

Cole had been cruising in the right line between rides. Driving the speed limit and generally ignoring the traffic around him. As he was passing an onramp for Grand Avenue, the Hummer came speeding up the ramp and settled in beside Cole. As the ramp was nearing the point where it merged with the right freeway lane, there was an uncomfortable moment where it became apparent that someone ws going to have to yield to prevent a sideswiping accident. Normally, Cole was a courteous driver. Whenever he saw situations like this about to occur he would take his foot off the accelerator, signal and change lanes if traffic permitted. If traffic didn't allow a lane change. He would slow enough to let the approaching car merge comfortably ahead of him. Life was full of enough aggression in business and relationships. In his car he created a sanctuary of calm.

That was his normal behavior. In this case, things were a little different. The asshole had three strikes against him by the time the uncomfortable moment occurred. First, he came up the ramp at a speed that Cole estimated was 20 miles per hour above the speed limit, which lead to the intersection of his vector with Cole's at the end of the ramp. Second, he was driving a Hummer. Who in the fuck needed an imitation military vehicle on a US freeway, or any road that was not in a certified war zone? Third, he had a vanity place which read L8TRBRU. Cole detested vanity plates. He loathed the pronoun "bruh" and he had absolute contempt for the use of numbers in place of words.

Now to be fair, Cole didn't know about the vanity plate when the incident occurred. However, that didn't change the fact that he had it. And as he considered the incident later in the evening, it made sense to him to include the plate in his justification for his actions. And the first of his actions was to decide that he was not going to yield even one inch to this asshole. So when the asshole ran onto the shoulder, laid on his horn and slammed on his brakes, Cole's second action was to change the playlist he was listening to something a bit less chaotic. The asshole then swerved on to the right-hand lane and accelerated until he was mere feet behind Cole's car and again laid on the horn. Cole issued a silent prayer of thanks for German auto engineering. The Benz remained nearly as silent as a tomb save for the Bossa Nova music streaming from the Harmon Kardon speakers.

The status remained unchanged for two miles and might have remained that way until one of them (most assuredly the gas guzzling behemoth) ran out of fuel. The status quo changed when Cole's ride share app chimed at him and let him know that he had a ride waiting and to please take the next exit. Cole accepted the ride, checked his mirrors and signaled his intention to exit. The asshole made his third mistake of the afternoon when he exited right behind Cole (without signaling) and proceeded to follow Cole for a half mile until Cole pulled up in front of the appointed address. At this point, Cole activated his emergency flashers and pressed the app button to indicate that he had arrived. The asshole was still right behind him on this quiet, residential street.

Cole decided at this point that enough was enough. He unlocked his door, unbuckled his seatbelt, opened his door, reached under his seat to remove the Heckler and Koch MP5K submachine gun. Then he stepped out of his car and without a word proceeded to unleash approximately 90 rounds into the abomination of a vehicle behind him and the asshole who was staring at him from the driver's seat. This required him to reload twice. At this point, his customer came out of the front door of her house and carefully surveyed the scene in front of her.

Blink

As Cole was pressing the "I've arrived" button, the asshole was exiting the Hummer and walking up to Cole's car. Cole noted his appearance in his side view mirror. He was overweight, had a comb over, mirrored aviators and a Members Only jacket. In other words, it looked like this asshole just stepped out of a cheesiest casino from the bad side of Vegas. Did they still make Members Only jackets?

Cole was afraid that his future passenger might get the wrong impression and subsequently give him a low rating if she witnessed a confrontation, so he decided to short circuit the situation. He powered down his window and as the asshole approached him Cole said, in a calm and reasonable voice as he held up his cell phone for the asshole to see "I've already keyed in 911. I only need to press send. I have front and rear video in my car and will be happy to show it to the police when the arrive. I suggest that before you say anything, you think about this for about two seconds. Then I want you to wave to the nice lady walking down from her house, and then go back to your pretentious piece of shit vehicle and exit this location. But obey he speed limits and come to a full stop at the signs."

The asshole started to say something, so I held up the phone and placed my thumb right over the send button. He walked back to the hummer and entered at the same time as Janice, who looked not a day over 72, entered the back seat of the Benz.

As Janice was fastening her safety belt, the asshole slowly cruised by me on the left. As he went by, he lowered his passenger side window and gave me the finger. I reached into the glove box and removed the hand grenade I kept there for emergencies. I pulled the pin and tossed it into the assholes window, to his comical surprise. As I pulled away, I felt rather than saw the concussive blast of....

Rewind

I reached into the glovebox and removed the white phosphorus grenade I kept there for emergencies. I pulled the pin and tossed the grenade into the assholes window, to his comical looking surprise. As I pulled away, the lengthening shadows from the setting sun were all put erased as the willie pete grenade exploded, sending the Hummer to vehicle hell and hopefully eradicating the last remaining Members Only jacket from existence.

Blink

Cole let the Hummer pull away and counted to ten before he left in the opposite direction.

"Who was that man?" asked Janice.

"An old military buddy of mine." Cole said. "We served together in Iraq. We happened to see each other on the freeway and he pulled off when I did to say hi."

"Isn't that nice." Janice smiled. Then her voiced chilled about 20 degrees. "However I detest war and all forms of violence. Men and their toys!" There would be no tip from Janice.

Cole tried to salvage what he could. "I'm right there with you ma'am. Violence is the devil's work."

March 8, 2019

Cole was waiting at a red light and looking in the rearview mirror at the two Asian ladies sitting in the backseat. They were having an animated conversation speaking Mandarin. They had no idea that Cole had lived and worked in Shenzhen, China for 8 years and was fluent. They were both grad students at the University of California, San Diego. Molly was describing to Kitty the date that she had last night with her grad assistant, a white guy.

"He tried to get me drunk. Stupid guilao. He had no clue that I can drink twice as much as him. After we left the bar he wanted to hang out with me at my place. Like I would actually let my roommate see me with him. Can you imagine what my parents would say? I let him feel me while we were in his car and I gave him a hand job and told him to go home. He did have a nice cock. It took me about 30 seconds to make him cum."

Kitty replied. "He will want you to suck on it next time."

Molly was ready. "You are making me sick. There will be no next time. Grades get assigned next Monday so he will turn in his recommendations by Friday. I just need to insure my A for that lab. I like the US but American men are so stupid and easily controlled. He is already in love with me."

Cole pulled up in front of a luxury apartment complex in LaJolla. "Is this okay?" He asked in English.

They both looked at him as if they had completely forgotten anyone was driving them. "Yes, this fine." Kitty responded in broken English. Cole came around and opened the door for them. As they exited the Benz he said "Wo xiwang ni you geng yukuai", which means essentially that he hoped that they will have a more pleasant evening.

"Xi xi" answered Kitty. And then she turned and actually noticed him for the first time. "You....." she stammered, looking at Molly for support. Molly's face had turned a deep shade of pink. "Hao de ytian." Cole said, wishing them a good day. He reentered the Benz before they could think of anything else to say and slowly pulled away from the luxury living complex that mommy and daddy back in Beijing were paying for. He had met many women just like Molly and Kitty when he lived in China, and had fucked more than a few. "Stupid guilao, my assI" he thought as he merged into traffic. He might be a white skinned devil, but he was not stupid.

He was lost in thought about the encounter when he was startled out of his trance by the thundering roar of two fighter jet airplanes passing above him. He never got used to this. The fighter jocks from Miramar Naval Air Center flew practice loops in their F18's and F35's all day long. It was a part of life in this part of the state. He pulled the Benz to the side of the parkway on the outskirts of the university to watch the pair of jets as the looped back aound over the ocean. He was fascinated by jet aircraft and enjoyed watching the lethal looking planes flying in precision formation. He often imagined himself strapped in a jet, feeling the acceleration as he rocketed upwards into the clouds. He watched as the same pair of jets completed their circle and headed back towards land. The approach was again going to take them very near him. He watched intently. He noted that they were coming in that they were much lower on this circuit. He could see the sunlight gleaming off the canopies of both jets as the prepared to pass directly in front of him at no more than a few hundred feet above the ground. He wondered if this was something that the university complained about as it must be a terrible distraction to the students and professors. Suddenly, there appeared to be a single oblong object ejected from below each plane. Before he could even process what this meant the Scripps Hospital building no more than 500 yards in front of him erupted into a huge yellow and white fireball. "OH MY GOD" he thought as he raised his arms in a futile gesture to shield his face from the oncoming blast wave.

Blink

A car behind him honked his horn as he passed by. Just a friendly reminder that Cole pas partially blocking traffic. Cole waved back and picked up his Big Gulp diet Coke and took a long pull on the drink. He checked his mirror and pulled back onto the parkway. His phone chimed. He had another pickup four minutes away. Lola was waiting for him.

March 10, 2019

It was late morning on a rare rainy day. Cole was parked on the side of the road downtown waiting for his first passenger of the day. He was on his second cup of coffee. He had a hard time falling asleep the previous evening. Too many memories were streaming through his mind, like an old-time news reel played at beatbox tempo. Sometimes it was just so damn hard to focus. Cole had taken a second Seroquel and had finally fallen into a fitful, dreamless sleep.

The app chimed...a pickup just around the corner. As he arrived, he unlocked he door quickly so his customer ,Tommy, would not have to wait in the rain. Tommy ducked out from under a restaurant awning and quickly slid into the back seat, talking on his phone. Cole pressed the appropriate accept button on the app and noted that it was a 30 minute trip. He turned off the music as a courtesy to his passenger and then slid into traffic, headed for the 5 north. He settled in and began listening to the one sided conversation.

"...dude...she's like 10 years older than me. She told me about her first concert she went to. I was like 5. Yeah...35 or 36 I think. She took me back to her place. She was hammered. Two firsts in one night...a first nighter and a cougar.....Of course I did!.....Yeah I'll probably hit it again this weekend...She wanted it in the ass but it kinda grossed me out. I don't know....she mentioned like ten times that she was so much older than me. I got tired of hearing it. I didn't know what to say. Yeah...see you on the beach. Later dude."

After he disconnected, Cole turned the music back on. Norah Jones sang softly. Cole had seen her in concert when Tommy was probably "like, 10." Nothing else was said the rest of the trip. The rain continued to fall.

As they approached the destination, Cole spoke. "Hey Tommy?"

The young man looked up from his phone. "Yeah?"

" She just wants affirmation. She wants to feel that she is as desirable as the girls your age. She wants you to tell her that she is amazing and beautiful and that age never even enters your mind when you think about her. She got drunk and took you home because she is fragile. If you can't accept this, don't see her again, but send her flowers."

He looked at Cole like he was a labradoodle that had just spoken to him. "Yeah, whatever." He closed the door, but just stood there in the rain. Cole pulled away slowly.

The app chimed again instantly. His next ride, April, was only a few hundred yards ahead. He approached slowly so as not to splash her. The rain was still coming down quite heavily and the gutters were teeming.

Cole was focused on getting his front window fog free as April entered the back seat. He checked the route on the GPS, pulled into traffic and did a U turn before glancing into the rear view mirror at his new passenger. He was a bit surprised to recognize Veronica, a woman he had dated about eight years before. He was mildly annoyed that the app had given him the wrong name.

"Hello, Cole." She said. "It's good to see you again."

Cole studied her in the mirror. "it's great to see you too. I had no idea that you lived in San Diego. I thought that you were still in Atlanta."

"Are we in San Diego?" She laughed, and opened her purse. She removed a brush and started to smooth her wet, tangled hair.

"What are you doing here?" Cole asked, turning his gaze back to the road ahead. He was trying to remember more about Veronica. What did she do? He seemed to remember that she and her husband owned a pet shop. No, it was a pet boarding business. "Do you still run the pet boarding business in Virginia Highlands?"

"I'm here to see you, Cole. You were the best fuck ever and I've been thinking about that a lot lately. Since Steve left me, I've had a lot of time to think. I fell in love with you. You made me fall in love with you. I haven't had an orgasm since the last time you went down on me."

Cole pictured her in his mind the last time they had sex. Long dark hair spilling over full breasts. Her legs were spread wide on a coral linen bedsheet. She was propped upon pillows and would reach down and spread apart her labia so that he could have unfettered access with his lips and tongue. He wanted to tell her that he loved her.

Blink

He looked again in the mirror. April was looking at her phone in silence. She looked up at him. "Are you having a good day, sir?"

He nodded his head so she could see it and changed the music to a playlist of classic rock tunes. Led Zeppelin filled his ears and he sand along softly.

When Cole returned to his Airbnb shared apartment that night, he was pleased to find that the house was empty. He shared the house with the owner, Daphne, a widowed woman of about 60, and another male guest that he had seen but never met. Cole had his own bedroom and bath. They all shared a kitchen, laundry and living room. It was clean but old. It reminded Cole of his first college apartment in Cincinnati where he shared the second floor of a 100 year old house with two of his buddies.

He grabbed a bottle of vodka from the freezer and a jug of grapefruit juice. He added ice to a plastic cup and then took everything with him to his room. The bathroom was huge. He set the drink ingredients on the vanity counter and made a strong drink. Then turned on hot bathwater, poured a strong drink, undressed and sat on the toilet sipping while the bath filled.

He always prepared a bath as hot as he could stand it. When he first sat down, it would be painful. He enjoyed the pain. One of the reasons that he had selected this apartment was the enormous clawfoot bath tub. As he now sat back, he took another long swallow of the drink and set the cup on the table next to the tub. He thought again about seeing Veronica and his hand automatically reached down to his suddenly stiffening penis. He closed his eyes and could see in his mind an image of Veronica above him. Sitting on him and grinding her wet pussy against him. Her breasts were swaying as she moaned.

She looked at him and started to speak, but now it was not Veronica, it was Lily. Actually it was Lily's eyes with Rachel's mouth. He was very hard now and was squeezing himself tightly, painfully. He opened his eyes just as he had an orgasm and she was gone. He closed his eyes again but she did not come back.

After his bath he sat at the desk in his room and wrote a few paragraphs in his journal. He wanted to read a little could not focus his thinking long enough to decide what to read. Instead he took 2 Seroquel caps and turned off the light. He lay on the bed naked with only the light from the streetlamp coming in his window. He turned to his left and noticed that his ex wife was laying asleep beside him. His ex had died of a brain aneurysm two years ago. A year after the divorce was final. She was snoring softly. He quieted his breathing and did not move a muscle for fear of waking her. He closed his eyes and counted backwards from 100. He made it to 77. In his dream later that night he was looking for someone in a crowd of people at a concert. He couldn't remember who he was looking for and started to panic. Slowly, accusing eyes from people around him made him feel angry and resentful. He awoke with a start, alone and cold on top of the covers. He had to pee but was afraid of who might be in the bathroom. He slipped under the blanket, closed his eyes and counted backwards from 100 again. He made it to 92.