The rain was pouring as the two made their way down the road, the same one they traveled down with Abigail Reed in their truck bed, four years ago. This time though, they were on their way to a rally as they could see the orange in the sky in the distance, even with the rain coming down like it does only once every 20-years.
Abigail Reed was the last thing on their mind as they saw headlights coming at them. Not thinking anything of it, Jeff cut to the middle of the road, a little game of chicken.
Just as doing so, he saw a girl run across the road.
Abigail Reed stopped in the headlights, starring at Jeff and Rob.
"What the?" Rob slowly let out as Jeff cut the wheel hard to the right, trying to avoid the ghost in their past.
The truck came to a halt in a row of trees on the right side of the road.
The headlights of the car slowed and came to a stop.
A black man, wearing a black suit, black tie, black shoes, a white shirt, and a black fedora stepped out of the driver's seat of his black 1972 Cadillac DeVille. A well dressed man and a very nice car for such a poor area.
He walked slowly towards the disaster.
"Oh my," he said aloud as he came to the body of Rob, laying in the road, face down. He was thrown out of the windshield of the truck, "I don't think you made it."
He made his way to the truck. Jeff, sitting there, his head smashed against the steering wheel, but still hanging on for life.
"Well Jefferson, looks like you've got yourself a problem," said the man, calmly. Too calmly for such an accident as this.
"Please mister, please save me," Jeff cried out. Tears rolling down his cheeks, next to the blood that came from his forehead on down. "Did ya see that girl? Oh, no, did ya see her?"
"No, there's no girl out here but, I suppose you'll have to do me a favor."
"Yeah, yeah, OK, please just. OH GOD!" Jeff bellowed out.
"I'm not God," laughed the man in the black suit, "but, I do reckon it's time for you to be a changin' your ways now, son."
Jeff nodded then fell into unconsciousness.
The man pulled Jeff from the wreckage and carried him over to his car and put him into the back seat.
Drifting in and out of consciousness, Jeff asked the man questions.
"Who are you?"
"The name is Donald. They call me Black Donald, on account of me always wearing black suits," said Donald, the man in the black suit.
His head pounding, Jeff went back under.
He came back a few minutes later.
"Where are you takin' me?"
"Why, to the hospital, son. You need some help."
"No, you can't take me there, I'm wearing my robe," Jeff cried out. "They'll see me and know who I am."
"Yes, but that's not who you are anymore. Now get some rest, you need it."
The black DeVille pulled up to the county hospital and the car came to a stop. There was no one around. Donald stepped out of the car, and walked around, the rain still pouring down as lightning and thunder rolled through the black night. He opened the door and woke Jeff.
"Let's go, we're here and you'll be alright."
Jeff didn't respond but the look of thanks in his eyes was enough for the man in the black suit.
Donald helped Jeff up the ramp into the hospital. The nurse had her head down as the two men walked in. A black man and a white man wearing the cloak of the KKK. A site that surely would've given the young nurse a heart attack.
He sat Jeff down in a chair, turned and headed for the door.
"Wait, how can I thank you?" Jeff asked.
"You'll see, eventually," said the man in the black suit as he walked back out the door.
The nurse looking up to see Jeff, blood soaked, screamed. She never heard the two men come in, nor saw them.
Hearing the nurse's scream, the night shift doctor and several nurses came running into the waiting room.
Working quickly, they got the man on a gurney, and checking his vitals. It looked like he was going to make it.
Jeff awoke the next day, his mother by his side.
"Jeff, how ya doin'?" Sheriff John Dallenck asked.
"I'm alright Sheriff," Jeff said, calmly, thankfully.
"Oh just leave my baby alone!" Jeff's mother, Virginia, snipped at Dallenck.
"Sorry ma'am. But, you know I've gotta ask questions," Sheriff John replied woefully. "Now Jeff, can you tell me what happened?"
Virginia squeeze Jeff's hand and gave him a motherly scorn that only Jeff could appreciate at this time. She'd already heard the story when Jeff woke up some two hours earlier after being told that Rob didn't make it. He's already mourned for his friend.
"It's alright mama," Jeff reassured her.
"Huh, dunno if you'll believe me, Sheriff, but I was saved," Jeff started off, as Dallenck looked puzzeled. "Yeah," Jeff laughed awkwardly, "Rob and I were drivin' and I saw a deer in the road and cut my wheel, after that, I don't remember much. A black guy in a suit brought me to the hospital."
"A black man? You were saved by a black man?" Sheriff Dallenck laughed heartily. "I just as much woulda rather died there!"
"Well I'm here and I'm breathin'! So you shut the fuck up Johnny!" Jeff angerliy retorted.
"Well, then boy, how much did you drink last night?" the Sheriff questioned quickly.
"Enough...." Jeff trailed off, realizing now what might be.
"I reckon you watch tounge then, you got it?" Dallenck said, calmingly. "Now, do you remember this man's name?"
"No, no. Just, he wore, just what he wore. A black suit," Jeff responded using what was left of his memory of last night.
"Anything else, Jefferson?" Virginia pushed.
"YEAH! He was an angel. He saved my life," Jeff boasted proudly.
Sheriff Dallenck looked puzzled, his jaw agape. He blinked twice, as though trying to compute what Jeff just said.
"Well then, I guess we don't need to do a search for him, do we?" Dallenck asked, sarcastically.
"I dunno, Sheriff," Jeff said, sensing Sheriff Dallenck's disbelief. "I suppose I should get some rest."
With that, Sheriff Dallenck turned and walked out of the hospital room. Virginia gave Jeff a kiss on the head and made her way to the door as well. Jeff closed his eyes and went to sleep.
The events over the years that passed showed that Jefferson Alpeck was a changed man. He discontinued his pledge with the Ku Klux Klan. He became a pastor at the local church, preaching togetherness and brotherhood. He worked with the poor in the area, working to get them jobs, living quarters - sometimes his own couch, much to the dismay of his wife - and spending time with them.
He had two children, two boys. The life that he had up until he was 23 was forever gone.
It was a warm Sunday evening in the late-Southern summer. Jeff was inside, getting the kids cleaned up for the picnic dinner they were hosting for members of the church later that night.
A knock on the door sent Jeff's wife, Amy, scurrying from the living room to answer the door, thinking that some of the guests were early. As she swung the door open, she saw a man she'd never seen before.
He stood about 5'10" and 170 pounds, much smaller than Jeff's 6'4" and 245 pound frame. He was a black man wearing a black suit, black tie, a white shirt, black shoes and a black fedora.
"Hi, you must be Amy, Jeff's wife?" the man asked.
"Yes, I am, how can I help you?" she responded.
"Well, could ya do me a favor and let him know that his old friend Donald is hear," the man said, with a smile on his face. "I've come for his repayment."
"Sure, just a minute...." she trailed off as she made her way to the kitchen.
"Jeff, hon, you've got a visitor, a man named Donald," Amy said.
Jeff's eyes went wide, hearing the name of the man he hadn't seen in 20 years, "Oh my!"
"What sweetie, are you OK," Amy asked, seeing Jeff turn a pale white.
"That's my angel," Jeff gulped down. Amy had heard the story multiple times; it was a staple in Jeff's sermon.
Jeff quickly darted to the front door to see the man he wished to lay eyes on. He opened the door, and Donald looked as though he hadn't aged a day in those 20 years.
"Jeff, mind if we have a word?" Donald asked.
"No, not at all, won't you please come inside my home?" Jeff offered.
"It's quite alright, if you'll just step outside," Donald countered.
Jeff didn't ask, but rather stepped outside. There, in the drive way was the Cadillac DeVille, with someone in the passenger seat. "Why don't you invite your friend in?"
"He's not my friend, Jeff, he's yours."
"Well, who is he?" Jeff asked, unsure of who could be with the man in the black suit.
"We'll find out soon enough, Jefferson."
The man in the black suit smirked, and the back door of the car opened and a young girl no older than 15 or so, went running across Jeff's front yard, wearing a smile that haunted Jeff.
Abigail Reed was back.
Chills ran all over Jefferson's body as he watched her run off into the setting sun. Gone, into the dusk.
He looked back over to the car, and began to recognize the man in the passenger's seat. His best friend was dead - 20 years now, yet, there he was, riding with the man in the black suit.
"Oh my lord," Jeff mumbled.
"Your lord ain't going to save you son. Now, let's get in and we'll be on our way," said the man in the black suit.
"There must be something I can give you, something I can do" Jeff pleaded.
"I'm not in the business of making second deals."
"Second deals?" Jeff questioned.
"You heard me," the man in the black suit clearly becoming angry, said.
"Now wait! Wait just a gosh darn minute!" Jeff yelled, nervously.
"Come hell or high water, you're getting in that car with me. And wouldn't you know it, there's a storm a brewin'."
Just a few moments later, Amy came out the front door to see what the problem was.
"Jeff, is there a problem," she asked as she stepped outside to see her husband gone, "JEFF!"
Off in the distance she saw the taillights of the black DeVille, driving into the sunset as the rain began to fall.
I've always been fascinated with the way that the character, Black Donald, has been portrayed. For those of you who didn't catch it, Donald is the devil; Black Donald is another alias for the devil, in Scottish folk-lore, who happens to be called that because he wears a black suit. My original description of Donald was the same as before I came across the description of "Black Donald." The name literally just happened to fall into my lap. I made him black because of the context that the two men were in the KKK, and black people aren't exactly their favorites.
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