by mike Evans
The man pointed in the opposite direction which was the way his car was pointing. “It is this way about fifteen kilometers. You could probably be there in fifteen twenty minutes if no one
wants to speak to you. There will be security here I am sure when someone arrives.”
Forsyth gripped the man with one hand. He said, “Would you please stop worrying about things which do not matter. The pilot is on the airplane if they need to speak to someone they can call him down.”
The man held out a hand jiggling the keys and asked, “Would you like me to drive you?”
“That would be wonderful, thank you very much.”
The man nodded and motioned for them to follow him. When he turned around, Forsyth said a short prayer that karma wouldn’t come back too hard on him then punched the man in the back of the head, sending him down to the ground. Mikey said, “Oh no, you can’t hit people Mr. Forsyth, my dad says so all the time.”
Forsyth ignored him while pulling out the money that he had gotten from Gabriel. He looked at the car for a moment, assessing that he was in no way taking a high end vehicle. He dropped ten thousand dollars on the man’s chest covering it with his coat and thought that he was giving him a four thousand tip for his pain and suffering. He figured if karma came back on him and he got a payday for what he took, that he was going to be getting a hell of a payback.
He bent down while still holding Mikey and grabbed the man’s keys and cursing under his breath when he saw the car was a manual. He commented, “Christ there’s a reason that the entire country of America went to a standard automatic. You know why that is Mikey?”
Mikey shook his head and said, “I don’t even know what an automatic is Mr. Forsyth.”
“Well let me be the first to tell you, because manual cars suck and they break faster than automatics. Hell I haven’t had a reason to drive one of these in years and I haven't missed it whatsoever.”
“You are going to get in some serious trouble when you speak to my parents they don’t even let me use the P word sir.”
Forsyth looked in the car’s rear and did not see a child’s car seat. He cursed again silently to himself then had to ask, “You said you cannot say the P word, what are you not able to say, piss?”
“Poop, I’m not allowed to say poop. Oh boy you are going to get on mom’s bad side. Don't do it, word to the wise Forsyth, word to the wise.”
He saw that the child he was most definitely not kidding around. Forsyth nodded his head thoughtfully, letting the little boy know that he thoroughly understood and agreed with him. “Got it, sorry about that. Why don’t you strap in? We are going to be driving very fast in a minute. I don’t want anything to happen to you, I REALLY don’t want anything to happen to you.”
Forsyth put it in gear and was one of the only vehicles leaving the plane wrecked in the middle of the road. He tried to smile to Mikey but the kid had one thing on his mind. He said, “Hey Mr. Forsyth, I got a question for you…”
Forsyth was pushing the small car to its limits, hoping that he’d just purchased or stolen one that was somewhat popular amongst the European drivers. He asked, “Yeah kid, anything, what’s up?”
“Well I wanted to know….are we going to get dessert before or after we get to the hospital?”
Forsyth stared at the kid for a moment, realizing that he was about as sharp as a kid his age could be. “You know come to think of it, you sure are starting to look a heck of a lot healthier. I think that we can skip the hospital and if something comes back around we can always change our mind. Why don’t we find a place to park this little ride and you and I can go find something to snack on. I could eat a horse.”
“I thought we were going to get dessert, now you want to eat a horse?”
“No it’s just a…..never mind bud. I think some cheesecake or chocolate cake is definitely in our future. We probably better get you a glass of milk to go with it or some hot cocoa. I am getting whatever the strongest coffee this fair city makes because I could sleep for a week right now.”
Mikey yawned, shaking his head and said, “No way we just got here. There’s no way I am going to sleep.”
“I tell you what kid, let's eat until our bellies hurt and then the two of us are going to find a big fancy hotel that has a swimming pool, and I’ll get you a big breakfast in the morning, followed by a morning full of swimming if everything seems like it is on the up and up. Do you think that you handle that, is that a good trade?” Forsyth asked.
Mikey said, “Oh man, you gotta be kidding me. You think they really have got a pool in Paris?”
Forsyth gave him a thumbs up and when they got into the city he found the first cafe he could. He parked three blocks from it then wiped down the wheel and the back window and seat belt that Mikey had surely touched. When he deemed it clean enough, he stripped off the plates and locked the car, ensuring that he left nothing of theirs behind.
He took Mikey by the hand and the two walked quickly towards the cafe. They got no look of concerns, just those of adoration for what they assumed was a grandfather with his grandson. Forsyth, even though highly stressed out and worried about his current future, was not ignorant to the fact that the little man with him was an absolute chick magnet. The ladies attention didn’t hurt his feelings but it did dull his ability to pay attention to men that he was missing.
Forsyth found the cafe that they had passed and opened the door, ushering Mikey through. The two went to the back of the building and waited patiently for a waitress to come and seat them. When she did and she took in Mikey she could not have kept the smile off of her face. She went to pinch his cheeks and Mikey came up in his normal protective stance to which she fully played along with. Forsyth watched the kid and knew that he was a natural. He ordered four different desserts and two of the strongest espressos that the store had to offer. Mikey looked like he was going to pass out at any minute after finally getting a belly full of food. Forsyth enjoyed the quiet and sat happily sipping his espresso and watching the front door.
He laid two twenties on the table signaling for the waitress and telling her to keep the change. She brought over some food to go and brought him a regular cup of coffee. Forsyth sat listening to the low jazz over the speakers and hoped that the car had not been found and that there was a hotel near. When the waitress refilled his cup he asked her if there were any hotels nearby with pools for the kid. She brought him a small flyer the cafe kept to hand out to patrons in search of a place to sleep. He asked if she recommended any of them and she pointed out two that friends of hers from out of town had used and thought that it was good and clean.
He took off his coat wishing he could smoke, he wouldn’t be the only one in the cafe doing it he was sure. He covered the boy using the sleeve of it to make a pillow and tucked it under Mikey’s head since the little guy had curled up asleep. He took a sip of the coffee while looking at the television mounted in the corner and watched as a terror attack threat in America raised their security level. He leaned forward when a picture of a gunman on a roof was shown followed by video footage of Gabriel beating the hell out of a group of men. He murmured quietly to himself, “Oh hell no, please don’t tell me that is the case.”
Gabriel’s profile picture was a still shot of him in the worse light they could photograph the man, showing a face that was full of nothing but rage. He thought that anyone who was stupid enough to make that decision to put his picture on the television had literally just written his own death warrant, knowing that when Gabriel saw it there’d be little to stop him short of killing him. It got even worse when the reward for information scrolled across followed by zero after zero.
When Forsyth decided it was time to leave he saw two men walking towards the back of the café, not veering any direction but walking a straight line for him. One of the men stayed slightly behind while keeping his hand behind his back, not making it a hard fact to miss that more than likely they had weapons on them. Forsyth went to get up and saw Mikey curl
ed up in the booth and knew he wasn’t going to be able to go anywhere if these men weren’t taken care of.
The man, who seemed like he was not the muscle but possibly the brains, walked up not smiling and not looking like he was going to be a pushover. He said, “You know my friend, there are people who will pay good money to get the man that backed up the interstate, eluded police and for some reason have the CIA looking for his plane. I have to ask myself, what would they pay to get someone who is not even hiding, brought to them and if they would want you and the boy alive or dead.”
Forsyth countered, “The boy is not even five years old; would you really kill him if they wanted us dead or alive?”
The man looked at the boy for a moment thinking of how much value people placed on the human life. He for one, being from Russia originally, did not value it nearly much as others around him, something he felt was most likely because he had been on his own, an orphan for as long as he could remember. He had fought for the food he wanted and had lied and cheated to get anything else which his fists could not provide for him. The newest stranger retorted, “You know what they say, a dead body does not fight back.”
Forsyth leaned on the table nodding his head and acknowledged, “You know I completely agree with that. You know what I really hate is? I mean the thing that just burns my ass?”
“Is there a reason to which I should care old man?”
“I’m sorry, do I look old to you? I’m not nearly as old as you think that I am.”
“I am unsure about that. I think that you are pretty old, old man.”
Forsyth smiled at this, giving him a wink and casually replied, “What I was going to say is what I absolutely hate, is when I have to waste a perfectly good cup of coffee.”
“My English it is pretty good, but I do not have any idea what language you are talking about, wasting coffee? What does this have to do with anything at all?” the man challenged.
“Can I ask who you are working with, or is that something I don’t get to know?” Forsyth queried.
The man looked at him with an expression that screamed ‘are you serious or just stupid’? It was enough that Forsyth didn’t ask a second time, he knew if he could get out of here with the kid that they at least had a chance. Forsyth thought how if they were lucky enough to have Gabriel here that one, they would have never snuck up on them and two, that he would have already snapped this guy’s neck and possibly some other body part in one of the more painful ways he could think of.
Forsyth took a large breath blowing on the to go cup while staring at the steaming contents. Taking advantage of the slight distraction, he brought the cup up as quickly as he could and splashing the near scalding liquid into the man’s face. The Russian gripped at his face, trying unsuccessfully to claw away the pain and prevent the almost immediate blistering on his face. Forsyth didn’t really have a plan in mind, but knew taking one man down meant he’d be alive to take on the second. He brought up his bum leg as far as he could and did an ugly front snap kick into the man’s kneecap putting his two hundred plus pounds into it. The crack of the bone echoed through the cafe. By now the men had gotten everyone’s attention, yet didn’t disturb the exhausted and still sleeping Mikey in the booth. Forsyth waited for the man to fall to a knee and when he did, Forsyth gripped his hair with both hands and brought his head down while simultaneously bringing his knee up. This maneuver effectively put the man out for the count after two strikes. He looked down at his jeans, knowing he now needed to get new clothes because the knee was drenched in the man’s blood.
Forsyth grabbed his coat off Mikey and shook him gently trying not to wake him up too fast and scare the boy. “Time to wake up buddy, come on let's get going.”
Mikey was out for the count. He grumbled something and turned over trying to find a way to get comfortable. Forsyth turned around to see the man’s friend coming his way with a pistol up. He bent down and quickly stripped the fallen man’s gun off of his holster and walked straight for the new man. When the assailant got closer, he saw his fallen friend and when his eyes travelled back up, they saw Forsyth’s coat coming towards him blocking his view. He gripped it mid air throwing it out of his way but that was the time that Forsyth needed, the man never saw the butt of the pistol coming towards him. Forsyth swung it as if he hated the man. He connected with his jaw sending a bone crushing blow to the man.
His head whipped to the side and the man’s bloody teeth bounced along the floor going under a booth leaving red streaks in their wake. The man’s eyes connected back with Forsyth, his jaw now sat limp with blood spilling out of the side of it. Forsyth brought the gun down once and then twice directly into the man’s nose. Blood gushed down his face as his knees finally gave out beneath him. Forsyth knew that he had done nothing life threatening to this man and as he headed quickly back to Mikey, he paused to stomp on the man’s leg, making sure he and his friend would both be seeing a doctor about their knees before attempting to come after the two of them again.
The waitress came back with a very large man behind her who looked like at one point in time he might have been a wrestler. Forsyth pulled out his roll, dropping three hundreds on the table which seemed to melt the two workers faces knowing that was probably more than they’d make in a few days at this place. He bent down, scooping up Mikey who gripped Forsyth around the neck, then walked out past the two and grabbing his coat off the ground as he went and covering Mikey with it. As he left he could hear sirens starting to sound as if they were getting closer. He did not attempt to go back to the car because he knew that if they had found him at the cafe that there was a solid chance they had followed him in the car. He would not miss it or the manual transmission and knew that he could easily get something else.
The two made it a few blocks away as quickly as Forsyth could. When they went down a new street he thought of the hotels that the woman had circled for him realizing they were all useless now. If the police pushed her hard enough, she would blurt out exactly where she told the nice American man to stay and further provide details about the cute little boy. When Forsyth found a high end clothing shop he figured a suit might make him less noticeable. Especially on a weekday in Paris where there were probably upper class Americans frequenting the city regularly for their business.
He walked in, still holding Mikey and wearing his backpack. The men and women working there instantly turned their noses up towards him. He said hello to a man that could not have seemed less interested in trying to help him. The man pretended to not know English and tried to walk away from Forsyth. He laid his giant mitt of a hand on the worker’s shoulder and spun him in place while looking down at the small man then letting go with a smile. When the man went to say something, Forsyth quickly interrupted, “Commission? Do you work on commission by chance?”
The man nodded his head slowly and Forsyth said, “I need a suit, and I need it now. It needs to be black with a black shirt and tie. I need you to measure me and go bag it up and I mean now.”
When the man stared at Forsyth there was confusion spreading widely across his face. Forsyth held out a hundred dollar bill and said, “This will probably be better than whatever commission you were looking to get out of this, oui?”
The man looked at the hundred dollar bill trying to hold out, but when Forsyth started to return it to his pocket the man gripped it and made the money very quickly disappear. He brought out a measuring tape and pointed to a couch that was unoccupied in the corner. Forsyth took the boy there, laying him down and covering him with his coat. Within twenty five minutes he had a new suit and coat to match and the name of a shop where they would be able to outfit the boy in case he needed to get some fancier clothes for him. The man and manager of the store thanked him for the price he paid for the suit and they called a car service for him to take him to one of the finest hotels in Paris. When Mikey started to wake, he looked around while rubbing sleep from his eyes and saw Forsyth, who looked like a big important man now to Mikey.
/> Mikey sat up rubbing hand through hair which was pointing in an impressive number of directions and asked, “What happened to you?”
“I figured if we are going to be in Paris we better look the part, it’s all about fashion here. All kinds of famous people come here to buy clothes.”
Mikey sat up on his knees and looked outside at the passing buildings. “I don’t care about the clothes, I like what I got. I’d rather eat the cakes though, oh those were so good. I hope we get to eat like that every time we come to Paris. So far this has been like, one of the best days ever!”
Forsyth looked through the boy’s bag and saw that he had more money in it as well as passports, identification, false birth certificates and pajamas and a few days worth of clothes. He zipped it back up and said, “Well I'm glad that you’ve had such an exciting day Mikey. You know to tell you the truth, this is definitely the busiest that I've been in quite some time. I think that we ought to be bums for the next few days. We can pick you up some clothes in case you run out and we better get you a swimming suit because I heard the place that we are going to has one of the absolute biggest and best pools in the country. The guy that sent us here also told me that in the morning they serve more food for breakfast than you would see in a month of your parents cooking for you. Do you think that we could get some shut eye and then start this adventure all over again tomorrow? It won’t be too much longer until your dad shows up and then I'm not sure what you guys will be doing. Who knows, maybe he’ll let me tag along for a while and help you two out. He might like to have the company.”
Mikey said, “I’m dad’s company silly. But I don’t want you to go nowhere. I want you to stay with me and dad. I think the three of us can have fun together while we wait for mom to show up.” The brightness in the boys face killed the happiness and short amount of joy which Forsyth was feeling “Yeah kid, we better stay together a while longer until your….until your mom shows up. I’m sure that you miss her something terrible.”