by Wendy Owens
“That you’re a crazy nut job and freaking me out!” Gabe snapped back.
Uri didn’t laugh at Gabe’s reaction this time, instead he stiffened, clearly alert to his surroundings. “We gotta go,” Uri instructed as he stood and looked toward the exit. Gabe noticed how the boy suddenly seemed mechanical in his movements. He had gained a sense of urgency about him. Uri stood and turned, reaching his hand out to Gabe. Gabe stared at the outstretched hand, still unsure what to do.
“Seriously? I’m not going anywhere with you. Besides the fact I have no idea who you are, even if I did agree to go, how are we supposed to leave? There is no way the cops are letting anyone out of here until they have been questioned,” Gabe pointed out.
Uri quickly dropped to one knee to look Gabe in the eye. He leaned in close and brought his voice almost to a whisper; Gabe had to strain to listen.
“I know you, I know who and what you are. I can show you amazing things that will change your life forever. At the place I want to take you there are people just like me and you. They all want to meet you, but it’s your choice, Gabe.” Uri jumped to his feet again and extended his open hand once more.
Even though Gabe’s thoughts kept telling him to stay planted where he was there was something deep inside that desired to follow Uri. He wanted to believe there was something else out there, a different life he could eventually hold on to. Taking a deep breath, Gabe closed his eyes and took hold of Uri’s hand, making the decision that Uri couldn’t bring any worse horror into his life than what he had already seen.
Uri pulled Gabe to his feet, whispering something under his breath. Gabe asked him to repeat himself, but Uri didn’t reply. He dragged him toward the nearest exit tunnel.
Gabe stumbled behind Uri and realized they were headed directly for a cluster of officers. “Uri, they’re never going to let us through. Wrong place at the wrong time only seems to go so far with them.” Uri didn’t respond and just continued to walk toward the tunnel.
Five to six feet away from the officers, Uri stopped, never letting go of Gabe’s hand. Gabe watched and waited for one of the officers to say something, but realized they were not even looking at them. Uri studied the men, as if he were looking for a weak point. Gabe worried what the boy might be thinking.
A moment later, Uri raised his free hand to his left and with fingers spread; he tilted his head back and mumbled a word Gabe could not understand. Gabe watched and wondered what type of insane character he was mixed up with. He jokingly thought that this guy fancied himself some kind of Jedi knight, waiting for him to say, ‘these are not the droids you’re looking for.’
Just then, a woman’s shriek came from the direction where Uri had been lifting his hand. All the officers rushed toward the source, leaving the exit wide open. Uri took a tighter hold of Gabe’s hand and led him up the stairs, out of the tunnel to freedom. It was as if the officers had not seen them, even though they only stood a few feet away. “What was that?” Gabe asked, not realizing his mouth was still hanging open in shock.
Uri shrugged, continuing up the stairs to the street, “Let’s get to the manor and I’ll explain everything, I promise.”
“Manor?” Gabe asked, clearly concerned, but at this point he was in such disbelief over what he had just seen, that he continued to follow Uri while replaying the last five minutes of their exit over and over again in his head.
Uri didn’t answer. He led Gabe to a side street where he had an older dirt bike parked, waiting for them. Uri finally released Gabe’s hand and passed him a helmet. “Put it on,” Uri commanded while starting the bike’s engine with a couple of stomps. Gabe slipped the helmet on and climbed behind Uri. Within moments they were on their way. Gabe wondered where this manor was exactly.
Gabe nervously watched as they passed exit sign after exit sign. Having left the city behind miles ago, Gabe became increasingly worried about getting back to the group home before curfew. He tapped Uri on the shoulder and motioned for him to get off the highway.
Uri took the next exit, pulling into a dimly lit, dingy gas station. The lights buzzed and flickered overhead as the gnats and mosquitoes swarmed in the humid summer night air.
Gabe wasn’t used to seeing so much undeveloped land around him. He squinted, searching to see if there was more civilization near this lone gas station. Much to his disappointment, he couldn’t see lights in any direction. Uri stepped off from his bike and walked around to the pump.
Gabe slid the helmet from his head and took another quick glance around, then looked up at Uri. “Are we almost there?” he asked.
Uri simply chuckled to himself.
Frustrated by Uri’s dismissive attitude, Gabe pushed for more information. “Hey, can you answer me? I live in a group home, I have a curfew.”
“I know where you live,” Uri replied, staring off in the distance while he continued fueling his bike.
“Creepy much?” Gabe said. “Look, what’s going on here? You say you know me and where I live. I have never met you. Can you understand why this would be making me a little uneasy?”
Uri silently looked at Gabe with a pleased grin.
“Gee, I’m glad you see the humor in all this,” Gabe added, becoming more infuriated with each passing moment.
Uri’s face stiffened as he watched Gabe punch the bike seat, hard. In an effort to comfort Gabe, Uri tried to reassure him. “Seriously, Gabe, there is no reason to worry. Michael will explain everything when we get home.”
The word 'home' was a foreign concept to Gabe. He had been relegated to countless foster homes throughout the years. He only had a handful of memories of his parents, but most of them had been forgotten long ago.
He remembered when he went to the group home, he had been told it would just be a few days. Now here he was, six months later, stuck in the same lonely place. He had recently accepted St. John’s Home for Wayward Boys would be the only home he would know for the next two years. The way Uri said home felt so unfamiliar. He envied him.
“Who’s this Michael?” Gabe asked.
Uri stood there for a moment in silence. The pump clicked to a stop, he pulled the handle. Gabe watched as he replaced the dripping nozzle into the cradle. Uri looked around nervously for a moment, setting Gabe on edge.
“You’ll see soon enough,” Uri answered, finally.
“Okay, seriously,” Gabe insisted, stepping off the bike. “I demand some answers before I go anywhere else with you. I have no idea what you did back there at the subway to get us past those cops, but I know something wasn’t right about it. Now you’re taking me out to the middle of nowhere and I’m going to miss my curfew. I need some answers now, I mean it!”
“Get on the bike, Gabe ...” Uri sounded annoyed as he replied. “You won’t miss curfew because you don’t have one tonight.”
“What?” Gabe questioned, consumed by confusion. “What do you mean I don’t have one? The curfew is not negotiable. No exceptions. If I’m late I lose privileges. You have no idea what it’s like when you don’t have the right to come and go. It’s like a prison!” Gabe became more excited as he talked about the consequences he faced.
“Please, calm down,” Uri said while climbing onto the bike. He looked over his shoulder at Gabe. “Michael made some phone calls. The home you live at has marked you on leave for the next week.”
“What?!” Gabe shouted. “How the heck did ... what do you mean ... a week?!” Gabe could feel his head begin to swim and thought he might actually vomit.
“Look, it’s not like I’m trying to hide anything from you Gabe! There’s too much to explain. Trust me; it’s simply easier to show you.” Gabe listened to Uri, struggling to make sense of everything. “Michael is a very important and powerful man. He has helped a lot people in his life and, from that, gained a lot of friends. In return, those people help him when needed. It’s necessary that we have time to show you everything and explain who we are. These people gave us that time.”
Uri glanced around a
t the darkness; Gabe thought he almost seemed nervous. “The manor is on an island just over eight hours away,” Uri continued. “That’s why it’s of the utmost importance we keep going. We need to avoid trackers.”
“Trackers?” Gabe asked, the crack in his voice revealing his unchecked fear.
“Not something you want to know about … really, Gabe, I promise,” Uri explained. “If you can just find it in yourself to trust me a little while longer, all will be made clear. Michael sent word to your social worker, as well, saying that you were visiting distant family for the week. If you want to return to New York at the end of the week I’ll take you myself.”
“If I want to return? What do you mean?” Gabe asked, but his questions were ignored. Instead, Uri leaned back and slowly reached out to touch Gabe’s hand. Gabe wanted to scream ... to turn and run as far as he could into the darkness, far away from Uri and all these terrifying secrets. However, the moment Uri touched his hand, Gabe felt that same calmness he had felt when Uri touched him at the train station.
Without another word, he climbed on behind Uri and they darted off into the night. Gabe buried his chin into his own chest to try and block the wind from the part of his face the helmet did not cover.
He thought how his biggest problem that morning had been growing up alone in the world. Gabe started to think about the bright side of his New York life. He was fed and clothed. He had a roof over his head. Now he found himself on the back of a complete stranger’s dirt bike, being driven into the wilderness where nobody would hear his screams.
Gabe found himself fixating on all the possible ways his life could be snuffed out: perhaps a bag over his head or a knife to the belly, maybe even assassination style with a bullet to the back of the head.
As he tried to think of something else, anything else, his thoughts drifted back to the evening’s events. There was the train, the girl, the explosion—why did all of these things keep happening around him?
Though he tried to resist, his thoughts settled on his most recent foster family. They had been nice to him. Some families he had lived with avoided him like the plague. It had felt like they didn’t want to get close to Gabe or the curse that was his life from fear that it would infect them, as well. The Hannon family wasn’t like that at all, though.
Gabe was so used to being distant when he would go to a new home, that he found it hard to adjust to the loving environment of the Hannon’s. After countless tragedies, he learned not to get too close for fear that he might lose someone else he had come to care for.
He had made it eight months with the Hannon’s, a record for him. Gabe remembered how he had let himself get used to being accepted and included. It was the routine, it was easy to get lost in it and let everything become normal. He let his guard down. He let the lessons of his past grow fuzzy.
It was then that his foster dad, Christopher, had reminded Gabe of what he had to lose if he let himself get too attached, too comfortable.
Christopher had gone to pick Gabe up at school for his therapy appointment. In the car, Gabe felt the dread he had not felt for months. The light-headedness, stomach pains, clammy hands; it was all back and hit him with a tremendous force.
He could still hear Christopher’s panicked screams. ‘Gabe what’s wrong? Are you all right?’ Christopher had been so concerned about Gabe, who was doubled over in the passenger seat, that he didn’t notice the truck that ran the red light. Gabe struggled for air as he contemplated Christopher and the pain his wife and kids must have felt simply because they had tried to share their love with him.
Clenching his eyes shut tight, a haze filling Gabe’s head. He tried to think of anything else; anything but all the people who had disappeared from his life, ripped away by tragedy.
With a deep breath, Gabe refocused his thoughts on perils from the evening. He needed to think about anything except what he had lost. What exactly had Uri done when he raised his hand back at that subway? Was it something Uri had done that made that poor woman scream? Although Gabe didn’t know how Uri could have done anything, he hadn’t left Gabe’s side.
The officers had not even looked at them, which Gabe found particularly odd considering they were only feet away. Gabe couldn’t imagine any possible way the officers could have missed them. He was certain something wasn’t right. He had a mountain of questions for this, Michael, when they finally met. Gabe just hoped things wouldn’t end like it usually did when people tried to help him.
A couple hours passed and the rhythm of the road had Gabe drifting in and out of a state of sleep. His eyes had grown heavy again. Just as he thought he might slip back into unconsciousness, he felt the bike pulling to one side. He lifted his head groggily as gravel began to spit up onto his ankles.
Uri was pulling off to the side of the road directly behind an old car. The pebbles sprayed outward as the bike came to an abrupt stop. The brake lights of the car glowed in the darkness. Gabe once again began to feel very unnerved by the situation he found himself in.
As the blurriness of sleep faded from Gabe’s eyes, he noticed the car was an old muscle type. Leaning to one side in order to see the vehicle more clearly, he instantly recognized it as a Mustang Shelby GT. The color was white, with a black stripe down the center, although it was hard to tell with all the dust that was on the vehicle. Gabe thought perhaps it was a stranded citizen. Or even better, maybe it was someone that might be able to help him if he decided he needed a quick exit strategy.
Uri stepped off the bike and, glancing back at Gabe, he raised his hands and commanded Gabe to wait here calmly. Gabe watched as Uri approached the car slowly and cautiously. Gabe’s breath caught in his throat.
Walking up along side the doors, Uri leaned forward to peek into the car. After a moment he lunged toward the driver’s side door, quickly pulling it open. The car let out a huge creaking sound. Gabe watched through narrowed eyes.
Two slender arms reached out from the car and pulled Uri half way into the vehicle. Uri let out a yelp. Gabe leapt off the bike, trying to stay on his feet as the dirt bike hit the ground. Losing his footing, Gabe fell backwards on the dirt.
He turned and pushed himself up on his knees, preparing to run. Before he took off, he caught sight of Uri emerging from the vehicle, a puzzled look on his face as he tried to figure out what the commotion behind the car was.
“Gabe?” Uri called out. Gabe looked back at him in shock. “Are you okay?”
Gabe stood up and watched as Uri extended a hand toward the open car door. The same slender arm Gabe had just seen pull Uri into the car, reached out, gently wrapping its delicate fingertips around Uri’s. Gabe was mesmerized as he watched one of the most beautiful creatures he had ever seen emerge from the car’s interior. It was a young girl, he assumed close to his own age. She placed one brown clad cowboy boot after the other onto the gravel covered asphalt.
The first thing Gabe noticed about her was the soft glow around the locks of her beautiful auburn hair. She tossed her head from side to side in an attempt to remove the troublesome strands from around her face. Gabe wished time could stand still. He stood there, mouth gaping open, studying her rosy lips. He wondered in the darkness what color her eyes were. Gabe thought he heard something far off, then dismissed the thought.
“Gabe!” Uri finally shouted. “I asked are you okay?”
Snapping back to reality, Gabe quickly replied with a sudden urge to smack himself in the forehead, “Yeah, uh sorry.”
“Well, get over here. I want you to meet someone.” Uri motioned him to the front of the car.
Gabe looked down at the bike lying on the ground and wondered if he should pick it up. He imagined himself not being able to lift it due to lack of strength or perhaps lifting it to only knock it over again. He decided to play it safe in front of this radiant stranger and leave it where it was to avoid further embarrassment.
“I want you to meet someone. This is Sophie. She's like us,” Uri introduced the beauty before them.
&
nbsp; Gabe paused, annoyed by the unexplained statement ‘like us’ but decided to ignore it.
Sophie extended her hand; Gabe was all too eager to return the greeting.
“Hi, I’m Glabe, I mean Gabe,” he stammered, then gritted his teeth in frustration.
Laughing, Sophie replied, “I know. All of us at the manor have been dying to meet you.”
Gabe glanced at Uri and mumbled, “So I’ve heard.”
Sophie continued shaking his hand and smiling at him.
“Umm ...” he continued, “So what brings you out to the middle of nowhere?” Gabe asked awkwardly. He pulled his hand back, shoving it into his pocket. Gabe was horrified, what brings you to the middle of nowhere? Could he have made a bigger idiot of himself?
Uri started to laugh.
“Well, what did you think we were going to do? Ride eight hours on a dirt bike? We needed Sophie to wait for us far enough away that her talents could get us safely home.”
Gabe furrowed his brow, “Talents?”
“I told you, we have a lot to show you. Patience grasshopper. Now hop in the back! I’ll grab the bike,” Uri commanded as Sophie opened the door and pulled the seat forward for Gabe.
Moments later, the bike was loaded and they were on their way again.
Gabe rubbed his eyes and gave a sleepy yawn. As he stretched, free from the contorted position he had been in for hours, he remembered the precarious situation he was in. He was in a car, riding to an unfamiliar location with two strangers. They were two strangers who were keeping a lot of secrets.
He laid there, thinking about the events that led to this moment. He could hear Sophie and Uri having a discussion in the front seat. Trying to remain as quiet as he could, he hoped neither would realize he was awake. Gabe thought, perhaps, he might finally hear something that would help him figure out this crazy mess.
He folded his arms over his chest and slowly leaned back against the side of the car, trying to stay close enough to hear. He closed his eyes again, trying to look as convincing as possible.