by Rex Bolt
Cathy said of course she did and she and Hannamaker kind of nodded at each other.
“I’ll show you what we got,” Pike said.
“There’s a lot of debris, and of course we have to spackle and paint everything,” Jack said when they got back down to the basement.
“What he’s saying,” Pike said, “is if you look past that, we have a sweet little set-up here.”
Cathy said, “I’ll say. How cool . . . except how do you get in?”
“Over the top,” both Jack and Pike said at the same time, like it was obvious.
Cathy couldn’t exactly picture that one. She said, “Anyhow . . . no real reason I came by, except I’ve been . . . you know . . . . curious how things are going for you.”
“Well that’s nice of you,” Pike said. “Before we get into that, you’re still going with Julio Sandoval?”
Cathy was cautious. “As far as I know . . . why?”
Pike said, “Because my friend Jack here, he says you’re a hot little number.”
“Don’t play with me,” she said, but both Pike and Jack were staring at her now, watching her reaction, and she was turning red.
“Let’s go upstairs for a second,” Pike said, “Jack keep working, don’t take any breaks, I’ll be right back.”
It was Saturday night and there was no one around upstairs and they sat in the living room. “You had to embarrass me like that?” Cathy said. She didn’t seem too upset.
“He’s into you, what can I say. I give him credit.”
Pike hadn’t thought of this before, but if Cathy dumped Julio, and Jack and she hooked up, that might open the door for Pike to approach Audrey. Right now he was feeling too guilty about that prospect, since, for better or worse, he was starting to genuinely like Hannamaker.
Then again, in the highly unlikely event he managed to get to Chico and screw up the Milburns’ future Beacon plans, that might be a moot point.
Cathy said, “I wonder about you, like every week . . . Is everything still the same?”
“Honestly?” Pike said. “I might be getting used to it. There’s positives and negatives. A lot of cons of course, but a few pros too.”
“Well did your meeting with Reggie help? Was there any follow-up to that?”
Pike didn’t see any benefit in telling her too much, such as all the details with Mitch honing in on the silver, and he certainly didn’t want to unleash the time travel business on her, even though it was she who actually planted the possibility in his head by telling him Reggie’s brother claimed to have done it.
“One thing that’s mostly a positive,” Pike said. “I met someone.”
“Oh,” Cathy said, a touch of jealousy in her tone, which is the way things usually worked, even though you’d broken up.
“Naw, not like that,” Pike said. “Someone with my scenario. Out of state. I went and saw her once, we keep in touch . . . the encouraging part, she’s had it for a while.”
“How long?”
“I think June of last year is when it surfaced. If you can believe it, she was in one of those bike-spin classes and stuff started smoking. It’s kind of funny now, to think of. Everyone looking around, wondering what the heck is going on.”
They could hear some pounding downstairs, Jack finishing things off.
“Gosh . . . so . . . that’s like 15 or 16 months before your discovery?”
“Yeah. And nothing’s changed, she’s fine . . . healthy as an ox actually.” Which was a serious understatement.
“How old is she?”
“I think 26.”
“I see. So . . . yeah . . . that’s good then Pike.”
“What you’re saying,” Pike said, “it’s good I’m not deteriorating then. At least most likely.”
“You know that’s not where I’m going with it.”
“Don’t worry about it, I’m just giving you a hard time. But I’ll admit, it’s helped me a little, to stop freaking out.”
“And she goes to work and all like a normal person? And keeps it a secret like you?”
“Exactly. Though she has to watch herself. I mean I drive down to L.A., I get in brutal traffic because two bozos are arguing in the middle of the street, I lose my cool and sort of flip one dude back into his car.”
“Please be careful.”
“I know, that was dumb . . . but in her case, if she pulled something like, as a woman, then it would really stand out, and the authorities would be on her.” No kidding.
“And . . . you’re into her, it sounds like . . . to use your expression.” Cathy was smiling, teasing him the way she did sometimes when they were together.
“I’m not going to dignify that with an answer,” Pike said. “But come here.”
They held each other for a minute. “Something else now,” he said. “I’m going be doing something maybe a little dicey, coming up.”
Cathy didn’t say anything.
“But you sort of knew that might happen, at some point, right?’
“I think I did.”
“So I’m going to turn it around on you. Stay safe.”
“I will,” she said, and she kissed him quickly and hard, and said good night.
Chapter 14
It took Pike a few minutes to get back into the project and go down to the basement. That had been an emotional little episode with Cathy in the end, and totally unexpected. Obviously if his thing never happened they might still be together right now, but the cold fact was it did, and they weren’t, and that wasn’t going to change.
Hannamaker was making a lot of progress. There was a thick rope now hanging outside the structure, which was the idea.
“Dang,” Pike said.
“Well I figured we need two of ‘em,” Jack said, “so I installed the eye-hooks into the ceiling joists. You could tie a small car to the rope now, and it would hold.”
Pike tried the robe. There was some technique involved, holding your feet right going up, and going hand over hand coming down so you didn’t rope-burn yourself.
“I haven’t climbed one of these since middle school,” he said.
“I haven’t either,” Jack said. “Now you get to the top, you flip open the panel, you dive through and grab the other rope and you’re in . . . Piece of cake essentially.”
Of course Pike could climb the thing one handed if he wanted, and be sitting inside playing the drums in about a second and a half, but what fun would that be?
“The only thing now,” Jack said, “besides of course painting the outside--”
“Forget about painting the outside. But I know what you’re really thinking, get in there and let’s see how loud it is.”
Jack put down his tool belt and hauled himself up top and twisted and grunted a little, but a moment later had disappeared under the little flap panel and was in.
“We’re good,” Pike said. “I can’t hear a thing.”
“Except I’m not playing yet, idiot,” Jack said. Pike knew he wasn’t but it was nice to be having some good old fashioned fun. Jack started banging around and you could definitely hear it, but it sounded very far away.
Jack reappeared out of the hatch and waited and Pike gave him two thumbs up. “One more thing,” Pike said, “I’ve been meaning to mention, I found an extra key to the outside door. Right over there, behind the furnace? You go around the side of the house is all . . . Help yourself, any time.”
“Wow, man, thanks . . . this is like Christmas.”
Pike was picturing Hannamaker’s home situation, which didn’t look all that inviting. “And if you’re ever . . . like playing late, or something, and you don’t want to bother going all the way home, you can sleep on the couch,” Pike said, pointing across the basement. “There’s pillows and a sleeping bag in that cabinet . . . And an old bathroom but it works.”
Jack seemed kind of blown away. “I don’t know what to say,” he said.
“Don’t be crazy. Plus you’re helping me out too, if you want to know the truth.”
“I am?”
“Sure. I got access to a drumset, I learned a lot of construction today, and . . . what was the other thing I was thinking?”
“You got to pay for dinner? That helped you out too?”
“Oh yeah . . . the other thing is you helped me kill a Saturday night, without feeling sorry for myself that I don’t have a date.”
“Speaking of that,” Jack said, “that was interesting. She just happened to be in the neighborhood I guess, curious how things are going.”
“Okay, knock it off.”
“No, I’m serious, they don’t just do that shit by accident.”
“It’s complicated, and not even close to what you’re thinking . . . But okay I’ll throw you one personal bone. She’s with Julio Sandoval. But . . .”
“That’s what I kind of deduced. The Venezuelan kid who plays soccer, right?”
“Right. The crux of it is, I’m not sure he’s completely floating her boat.”
“Oh,” Jack said.
“So anyway . . . you hungry, by any chance?’
“I tell you, I am. Must have been all this work.”
“How about Wendy’s?” Pike said.
“I’m down.”
“Then maybe we can pop into the go-kart place, take a few laps. Clarke works there, so we’re in clean.”
“I’m down for that too,” Jack said.
They were getting in the truck and Pike said, “This is out of left field. But did I rough up Mr. Foxe at the skate place?” Pike had been trying to avoid thinking whether the incident happened the second time around, but his curiosity was getting to him.
Luckily Hannamaker wasn’t thrown off. “I guess it’s a question of interpretation,” he said. “But as far as scaring the asshole half to death, you got that right.”
Now that Pike had the answer, he was glad he asked.
Chapter 15
Sunday afternoon, there wasn’t a whole lot else to do, so Pike called Mitch.
“Howdy,” Mitch said. “I’m driving.”
“Okay I’ll call you back,” Pike said, “no big thing.”
“Nah I’m good, there’s barely anyone within a hundred miles. I’m in the desert, west of Phoenix.”
Pike said, “Well, I guess I have one tidbit you might be interested in.”
“Okay before you get to that,” Mitch said. “I’m real excited. I think I’ve found someone who lived in the town, Hillsdale, back in the day.”
“Good for you, whoopee,” Pike said. Honestly? What Mitch might or might not turn up about a supposed UFO possibly messing with a silver mine 60 years ago, and on and on . . . It was interesting in the beginning, but it was becoming more and more irrelevant. The fact was, Pike was stuck with this endowment now, and all this historical stuff wasn’t going to change it.
“Yeah, well it’s got me fired up,” Mitch said. “Don’t you want to know how I found this person?”
“Melinda still there too?” Pike said, hoping to sidetrack him.
“No, she got burned out. She flew home last week.”
“Then summarize your deal quick,” Pike said, “and I’ll fill you in on mine, and we can call it a day.”
“Well the short answer? There were only a few families left at that point, like I might have told you, after the mine abruptly shut down. All dead ends except for one, the granddaughter of one of the last residents. I found her . . . you don’t want to hear how, but it was a lot of steps and a little luck.”
“Yeah?” Pike said, “you found her, and so what?”
“That’s what I would think too,” Mitch said. “Except I get her on the phone, she’s suspicious at first and then relaxes and before I know it we’re shooting the basic breeze back and forth. She’s about my age now, maybe a few years older.”
“Come on.”
“I build up to it slow. I want to win her trust, if you get where I’m going . . . So finally I ask her matter-of-factly if her grandpa ever mentioned a UFO stopping by.”
“You’re drawing it out again,” Pike said, “you always do this.”
“She doesn’t answer.”
“Because it’s a ridiculous question. She’s starting to relax that you’re semi-normal, and then you spring that on her.”
“Yes, but it wasn’t like that. I phrased it a few different ways. My strong impression was she may have an answer but she’s not comfortable issuing one.”
“Jeez-Louise, issuing,” Pike said. “So let me guess, you’re heading her way now. For a face-to-face.
“So we’ll see,” Mitch said. “ Yes. She lives in a town called Anthem, I guess sort of a retirement village. Her name is Lucy . . . You have all the information, in case I disappear, never to be heard from again.” There was a muffled chuckle.
“Wow, what was that,” Pike said, “some attempted humor? Out of character for you.” Though he was thinking, it wasn’t all that funny as it might apply to him soon, the in case I disappear part.
“So enough about me,” Mitch said.
“Well I hope you have fun, and find what you’re after . . . Now you remember Dani, of course, right?”
“No.”
This was getting so out of hand, Pike couldn’t keep straight who he’d told what, and who he’d held back stuff from.
He said, “That doesn’t matter. Bottom line, I might have made a connection with someone. A policeman’s wife . . . She’s his widow actually. But what may have happened, it sounds like, they donated his organs while he was on life-support.”
It took Mitch a moment. He said, “I’d ask you why you’re telling me this. But I’m assuming there’s more to it.”
“Yeah, I meant to throw it in up front. Everything I’m hearing, the guy had my deal.”
“Meaning . . . super strength . . . plus the psychic time travel prowess?”
Pike didn’t think of it as psychic, except for maybe the deep visualization part that got you there. Hopefully Mitch wasn’t still hung up on whether he’d really been somewhere, though Pike was pretty sure he’d convinced him by now.
“No one mentioned the travel, but the strength part, yeah,” Pike said.
“What did he do to demonstrate that, this fellow?”
“Okay, don’t make me waste time, here . . . The thing of it is, what I’m slightly red-flagging about, is whoever got those organs, is everything hunky dory?”
“In other words . . . are any of them now similarly empowered as well?” Mitch said.
“That . . . or it possible the thing mutated, or some shit?”
Mitch thought about it. “You raise an intriguing scenario . . . One would think, based on our Texas friend’s experience of removing his own filling, that a transplant in and of itself--unless it was the actual tooth being transplanted--wouldn’t carry with it any residuals.”
“But the blood and stuff,” Pike said.
“I agree,” Mitch said. “It’s not clear-cut. Please forward to me all the information you have, it’s certainly something we’d be advised to monitor.”
“All right then. Happy trails, or whatever.”
“You too. What’s your week look like? Pretty routine?”
“More or less, yeah,” Pike said. “Me and another guy, we boxed in a little drum room, and I’m probably heading to Chico in a few days.”
“Drive carefully, then.”
It went right past Mitch, which Pike decided was just as well.
***
Monday after school he went back to see his friend the librarian.
“You’re a nice woman,” Pike said. “You always have time for me.”
He was standing at her desk and she motioned for him to sit down. “And you’re a polite young man,” she said. “However, how important, really, does what it looks like I’m doing seem?”
“You jumbled that up on me a little,” Pike said. “But I hear you. If you just sat there and Tweeted your friends all day, people would still be checking out books without major issues, I guess.”
“They
wouldn’t miss a beat,” she said. “One of my duties is ordering, which requires me staying abreast of new releases. Frankly though, most stories have already been told.”
“I see what you mean . . . Too much recycling the old themes. TV’s the same way I guess. I wouldn’t have thought so, but then I’ll see a re-run of an old show, the kind of thing my parents like, and I’ll say wait a second, Game of Thrones just stole that.”
“I don’t watch television, I’m afraid,” she said.
“Well where do you live?” Pike said. He was in one of those moods, where you just let it all hang out.
The librarian stood up and said, “Actually, I have a break coming up. I can take it a bit early, and we can speak in the lounge.” Pike followed her to yet another corner of the library, this time to a brightly-lit room with a sink and a microwave and a vending machine.
“You’re going to laugh,” she said. “I live with my mom.”
“Well . . . I’m sure that happens,” he said. “How old are you?”
The librarian smiled. “37. There was a time when it was off-limits to ask a woman her age. These days, all bets are off.”
“So . . . if you want to have kids . . . don’t you have to get moving on it pretty quick?” He couldn’t believe how obnoxious he was being. It was just kind of pouring out.
“That’s a fair question,” she said. “But I’m not going to have children. Even when I was married, we were on the same page in that regard.”
Pike helped himself to a glass of water from a paper cup. “You can tell I’m stalling,” he said.
“Not at all,” she said. “I enjoy our conversations quite a lot . . . Needless to say, I envy you, with so many experiences and surprises ahead.”
Pike said, “If I was going to . . . you know . . . try to travel again . . . you’re looking at me funny.”
“No I’m not.”
“You completely changed your expression.”
“Perhaps. Only because of the shift to more serious subject matter.”
“Oh . . . anyway, how would you pinpoint the timing? I mean I’ve got parts of it down, but then again I feel like I’m closing my eyes and hoping, like I’m doing a pin the tail on the donkey thing? It’s scary like that too . . . I mean do you understand where I’m coming from? Does that make sense?”