Empty Sky Chapter 9 – Earl Pangiosi

Read Empty Sky Chapter 8 – Joni and Honey Fitz


Earl Pangiosi sat in the Empire Builder‘s Superliner Snack Coach’s upper level, a pillow behind his head and a blanket covering his legs, peering through dark, wraparound sunglasses at people’s reflections in the round, full length domed windows. When someone nodded off, he’d dip down his glasses and peer at them briefly, purse his lips then shove the glasses back up his face. Once in a while he’d catch his own red-haired, high colored reflection as he followed people walking past.

Earl liked being around people so he could practice. He had his own car — disguised as two back-to-back LandSea containers on a flatcar and marked “US Mail” — further back in the train. It brought a brief smile, the change in rail regulations that allowed all trains to transport freight and passengers simultaneously. It made his private car’s subterfuge possible.

He tolerated the miasma of greasy hamburgers and soggy fries, of too strong coffee and unwashed bodies, of screaming children and louder screaming parents, and the occasional whiffs of diesel to indulge in a pastime he enjoyed since his childhood; watching people’s reflections in glass.

It was a early Fall night much like this one that he first noticed his gift.

Dad, suit and tie and freshly shaved and mustache neatly trimmed, drove their new, ’59 burgundy Lincoln Continental back to the old neighborhood. Mom sat opposite dad, wrapped in her furs, wearing her best clothes. Dad told her she wore clothes too tight sometimes but she told him to never mind, didn’t he want everybody to know what he had every night?

Mom and Dad left the old neighborhood a year before and never told Earl why. But once a month, maybe twice, he and Mom and Dad would get in the car and go back north to the old neighborhood with presents for everybody. Dad was in the meat business and he’d hand out steaks and chops and roasts and cutlets and hotdogs in summer and hamburger and ground pork if somebody wanted to make meatballs. Everybody was so grateful and Mom would smile and nod as she stood beside Dad, his hands reaching deep into the coolers in the dark of the trunk, coming back into daylight, his hands full of brown paper wrapped meats neatly tied with butcher’s twine. They asked questions about the new car and Dad would tell them it was a Lincoln and Mom would correct him with “Lincoln Continental.”

They drove home, the coolers empty and tucked in the trunk, heading south on a clear, moonless Sunday night. Earl saw the Rhode Island border sign. Soon Dad would slow for the Providence traffic and take the Federal Hill exit.

An only child, Earl had the entire backseat to himself. He could lie down and take naps if he wanted to. Now he sat hands folded and face pressed against the rear passenger’s window, his knees pulled together and tucked under him because he had to pee but Dad said they weren’t going to stop, they only had a little further to go and Earl was a big man and could hold it, couldn’t he?

Sure, Dad.

Except Earl really had to pee. The leather seat sent shivers of cold up through his bare knees and that didn’t help. He had bare knees because he wore shorts. Shorts, a winter jacket and a hat Mom made him wear even though his cousins all wore long pants.

They already laughed at him because he had different color eyes; the right brown, the left blue. Mom didn’t say much and his cousins and some aunts and uncles said that made him a freak. She made him wear dark sunglasses and told people Earl had sensitive eyes.

His cousins would dance around him. “Earl has sen-si-tive eye-yiis. Earl has sen-si-tive eye-yiis.”

He caught his reflection in the window as his exhalations frosted the glass. Mom’s and Dad’s reflections, too.

He’d never noticed them before. Maybe reflections were something you only got in a Lincoln Continental? The dashboard gave off so much light.

He watched his father’s profile as they drove. Mother said things and Dad occasionally winced on the side mom couldn’t see, like somebody was jabbing him with a little knife.

Mom would go ya ya ya and Dad’s nose would twitch and his mustache would rise a little then go back down. Mom would go da da da and Dad’s eye would wink shut quick and then back open to watch the cars on the road. Mom would go sa sa sa and Dad’s lips would move forward and back like he wanted to spit something out.

Earl watched his father and something happened in Earl’s head. His father stopped being a person and became a book, a map, a reference, something easily read. He tasted what his father felt. He did not know the word but he understood the emotion: despair.

“You don’t like what Mom’s saying, do you, Dad.”


Greetings! I’m your friendly, neighborhood Threshold Guardian. This is a protected post. Protected posts in the My Work, Marketing, and StoryCrafting categories require a subscription (starting at 1$US/month) to access. Protected posts outside those categories require a General (free) membership.
Members and Subscribers can LogIn. Non members can join. Non-protected posts (there are several) are available to everyone.
Want to learn more about why I use a subscription model? Read More ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes Enjoy!

Joseph Carrabis, Author Shopping Cart
I feel so empty...
Writing Mentoring


Interested in taking your writing to the next level? Want to take a class with other writers and authors perfecting their craft?
Check out Writing Mentoring.
Classes are held on Wednesdays. Each session starts the first Wednesday of the month and ends the last Wednesday of the month. Morning and evening classes available.

Are you a Member? Would you like to be?
Subscribers! Want to be Interviewed?
Sorry, this content is available to paying subscribers only


Watch previous interviews to learn what they’re like.

History
Tagalicious
About Me Americana Analytics Ecology Anthropology A Tale of the Northern Clan Atmosphere Author Interviews Author Tools Bear Bees Behavior Betrayal Birds BizMediaScience Blurbs Body-Mind-Spirit Book Blogs Character Childhood Trauma Children's Stories Chipmunk Conflict Cons-Fairs-Expos Contest Covers Coyote Cozy Murders Creative Non-Fiction Crime Comedy Crime Thrillers Critiques Crow Cymodoce Deer Description Dialogue Economy of Meaning Editing Emotions Empty Sky Espionage Expanded Awareness Experiments in Writing Exposition Fains I Fantasy Fiction Flash Fox Gable Smiled Gel Ink and Rollberball Gender Gothic Romance Great Opening Lines Hanging Tree Harvey Duckman Hawk History Horror Humor Identity iMedia Interpersonal Relationships know Language Learnings Library of Congress Life Linguistics Literature Lively Discussions Lizard Love Story Magic Realism Marketing Mayhem Midnight Garden Midnight Roost Military Mood Music Mystery Myth Narration Neuroscience Newsletters Noir Non-Fiction Old Ones Opossum Owl Pace Performance Artist Personal Finance Personal Improvement Personality Philosophy Plot Podcast Poetry POV Psychology Rabbit Rabbit Hole 5 Rabbit Hole 6 Rabbit Hole 7 Raccoons Readings Recovery Triptych Relationships Reviews Revision Ritchie and Phyl Rob and Joan Carter Romance RoundTable Scenes Science Fiction Search Self-Discovery Self-Help Setting Skunk Snake Social Sociology Spider Spies Spirituality Spoken Word Sports Stating the Obvious StoryCrafting StoryTelling Structure Style SubStack Susan Tag Tales of the Woods Tales Told 'Round Celestial Campfires Tension Terrorism That Think You Do The Alibi The Augmented Man The Change Zone The Goatmen of Aguirra The Inheritors The Shaman