A Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon

It was almost nighttime when Miles went home after his inquiry at the house in Palindrome Drive. His wife had been texting him -worried sick of his whereabouts. All he needs is to reassure her that everything is alright. While he tried to call her, he noticed the low battery indicator, which was conserved earlier but at once died down when he answered back.

He saw a tavern along the way, went inside, and asked for an available payphone. Still, the waitress laughed, saying the technology is already obsolete and replaced with a nearby cell tower. One of the men sitting on the counter heard him and at once offered to lend his phone so that he could make a fast call to his wife.

"Here, take mine. You can make an unlimited call with this." The man is in his 70s.

"Thanks, this is heaven-sent."

A moment later, he was able to connect to his wife's cell phone.

"Barbra? I'm sorry my phone died, so I have to make this call from someone else's phone."

"I am so worried, Miles. Are you OK?"

"Yes, how about you."

"I am OK. Mom was here a while ago. This pregnancy thing is a difficult experience, and I am trying to get some advice from her."

"That's great. I will be there in a while."

"OK. Mom brought some food too."

"I think I will have my dinner here at the tavern. OK, I have to go. Gonna give this back."

"OK, take care, will you."

" I will. Bye."

Miles returned the phone to the older man.

"Thanks." The older man took his phone and put it back in his pocket. He twitched his mustache and pointed at the next seat at the counter.

"Come sit beside me."

He was drinking a bottle of beer.

"Where have you been, young man? If you may allow my questioning. " He wore a wide brim cowboy hat and maroon plaid long sleeve shirt.

"At the Palindrome drive up north."

"Oh, the old house?"

"Yes, a police matter." Miles tapped on the counter as he waited for the waitress to finish cleaning the set of drinking glasses in front of him.

"That house…. I heard the house is empty."

"That's what I thought….at first."

"Did you find the person you are looking for?"

Miles looked at the look man.

"Not exactly."

The older man asked the waitress to bring the menu.

"You look famish. Order anything you want. It's on me."

"Thanks for the graciousness, sir, but I want to pay."

"You know… I own the place. People knew me here. When I saw you, I knew at once you are from someplace else. And you are a policeman, you say?"

"Yes…sir..."

"Oh, call me Hummer. People call me that because I owned the very first hummer track in this town. Stuck to my name."

"I'm Miles, Hummer."

"Miles and your last name?"

"Sanchez."

"You know Palindrome Drive is a mysterious place in this part of town."

Miles ordered a sumptuous dinner and a bottle of beer.

"What happened in that house?" Miles asked curiously.

"It depends really on who asks the question. Because it's a really kind of long story, that old, dilapidated house is the most beautiful ancestral house back in the days. I went there a couple of times when I was still a young man. My parents were in the military, so they know the couple living there."

"You are referring to Marian Meneses?"

"Uh yes…." he nodded.

The older man whispered. "Marian, the beautiful woman of yesteryear."

Hummer stopped for a moment.

"I once thought she already died a long time ago," he mumbled.

"She still lives there," Miles replied.

"What is she like now?"

"White hair, white dress, quite old, mysterious and mesmerizing, to say the least. I can also characterize her as rather lonely and alone in that desolate place."

Hummer scratched the side of his nostril.

"People up there call her the white lady of Palindrome Drive because she was often seen looking at her window dressed in white."

Miles looked around. The tavern is mostly empty and dimly lighted.

"That's a horrible way to describe a real person. Especially when you get to know who she is inside. She is actually a human being probably hurting inside."

Hummer agreed.

"Yeah, people here are really nasty."

Miles took the chance to ask Hummer about something that's puzzling him.

"Do you by chance know Henry De la Vega?"

The older man almost choked after he heard the name.

"I heard the name from years ago. He's Marian's fiancee. My parents talked about it back then. People were telling a lot of lies. Some said Henry died in a plane crash. But the other group of people said ...he just disappeared all of a sudden. That story cannot be reconciled and remain a mystery for as long as I know. That's how the mystery gets its root and branch from there. Now people talk nasty about the place."

Hummer took a heave of a sigh. The waitress returned with his order and gently arranged the plate and bottle of beer in front of him. Miles tried to think of some weird possibility.

"That's interesting and new for me. Now, if he just disappeared, then there's a chance that he is still alive today?"

The older man laughed. Perhaps he was just sarcastic.

"That's another BS for me. He might survive the war, but he cannot survive diseases like cancer or virus. He must be a 90-year-old senile man if it's real."

"You got the point."

Hummer raised an important issue.

"From what I heard, it truly bothers me. Why would a beautiful woman like Marian Meneses waste her entire life waiting for him?

There was a long pause. Then Miles responded, "Love maybe?"

"That's what I want to hear as truth if there is one because I am a bitter old man who never found it. Pardon me for sharing my own stupid life."

Hummer drank the rest of the alcohol from his bottle.

"That's not a problem with me."

"Oh, beautiful Marian, when you see her in her youth. She's the Mayflower Queen of this town."

"You have seen her in her prime?" Miles asked.

"Of course! Every man in this town knocked on her door. Lawyer, police, engineers, commoner, magician, and what have you tried their luck on her."

"And…"

Hummer looked at him with a glint in his eye.

"She just let them down. Yesiree...all of em."

"Did you?"

Hummer fell silent. But he was frank.

"You can say that she broke my heart too." Then laughed a bitter one.

"Oh, that's sad to hear."

Hummer tried to compass his hand like some music conductor. Then sighed a couple of times.

"I guess some people have a reason for not letting go of the past."

"Yeah, that's what I am trying to learn from all of this," Miles said.

"She never told anyone why? Did she?" Miles continued.

"No...that's my wild guess too," Hummer replied.

Miles queried, "If Henry is still out there…..why did he leave? My next question is, what did he do to vanish like that?"

Hummer nodded his head. "It's a million-dollar question. That will probably bother me till my last breath. You know, I'd rather settle on the truth that he died in a plane crash."

Miles finished his dinner and paid for it.

"Are you going now?" Hummer asked.

"Yes, my wife is waiting for me. She's pregnant with our first child."

"That's nice to hear, Miles. Go on, and good luck."

"Thanks, Hummer. This is a nice talk. Thanks for the phone too."

"No problem, " Hummer replied.

As he drove back towards the city, Miles Sanchez watched the neon lights flicker down below. The calm wind brushed his hair and swept away the photo tucked inside his car.

"Oh f_ck!" he shouted, and he immediately stopped his car to retrieve it. But the surroundings were dark. He lit the area with his small flashlight, but the rain suddenly fell from the sky. He decided to ignore it and went back inside his Volkswagen. As he started the engine, he saw that the photo of him and his wife was still there tucked below the car radio.

Maybe he just had a deja vu. But he is 100% sure he saw it flew earlier. And now, he could have been mistaken. But. Aww. The hell. He is probably tired. Nature sometimes indeed plays tricks on us.

He arrived at his house late in the evening. He saw his wife Barbra sitting on the couch and immediately buzzed at her cheek. "Sorry for coming home this late."

She was crying. Somewhat offended.

"I thought you weren't coming back."

Miles hugged her close enough so he could feel her touch. He craved so much for Barbra's touch.

"But I called you earlier, remember?"

Barbra pushed him back. Her face was fraught with extreme jealousy.

"Who did you call?"

Miles scratched his head. Thinking.

"You. I borrowed a phone to get through you..."

Barbra handed her phone to Miles. "Look at it. I haven't received any call from you since the other day, Miles."

Miles examined Barbra's phone. It doesn't have any phone call received from any number known or unknown.

Miles slumped on the couch as he cupped his mouth in disbelief.