by Rex Bolt
Chapter 29 Shop Talk
Pike stepped down off the bus and there was a woman over by the far guard rail, leaning against her car. She had on shorts and a sweater and was wearing a baseball cap.
There were a couple of other people being picked up, but they were accounted for now in the parking lot.
Pike walked over to the woman who he was pretty positive was Dani.
“Are you hungry?” she said.
“That’s it?” Pike said. “How do you even know it’s me?”
“I guess I’m just naturally intuitive,” she said.
“Yeah, I’m starving, if you really want to know.” He was thinking about the steak dinner he missed, and hadn’t done anything yet to replace.
He got in the car with her and they went to 5 Guys Burgers. It wasn’t bad at all. The best thing were the fries. Pike reminded himself this was Idaho, potato country, and the burger place gave you the name of the actual potato farm they used, on a chalk board next to the counter.
“Thank you,” Pike said, when they got back in the car. “I can think straighter now.” Dani hadn’t said much so far. She mostly listened to Pike and observed, kind of like she was watching him audition. To see if this unlikely, not to mention unwordly scenario really did add up.
But what was happening, was they both were dancing around the real subject. No one brought it up.
“Do you drink coffee?” she said.
Pike could take it or leave it but said sure. Dani drove downtown, to a 24-hour coffee shop that was right across from the university. She parked on the street.
Pike got out and came around the car, and Dani was on the sidewalk.
“I’ll tell you one thing,” he said. “Forgetting everything else, this is an adventure. A couple days ago I fly for the first time, and today I’m in another new state … What do you know.”
Dani didn’t say anything, she just looked at him, not in a hurry to go inside.
Pike said, “So … I guess I’ve been rude … all this happening so quick, just today … I haven’t even really said hello to you … thanks for meeting me.” He reached out his right hand.
Dani started take it, to shake hands, but then fell into his arms. She was crying, there was no doubt about that now like there may have been on the phone. She buried her face in his shoulder and held him tight.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
Pike wrapped his arms around her back, and he started crying too. He was experiencing a connection that he couldn’t expect people to understand. It was … kind of like meeting a long-lost sister for the first time … except it was more complicated.
“It just feels so good,” Dani set, wiping her eyes and trying to get under control, “to be able to let it out.”
Pike said, “You’ve never let it out before?”
“No I haven’t,” she said. “You still feel like that coffee?”
“I’d love it,” he said. He wished he had better manners and carried a handkerchief or something, like his mom told him to more than once, and then he could help Dani. Her face was wet and her makeup was smearing, so he told her to please use the front of his shirt, and she smiled but didn’t, and she pulled something out of her purse.
Dani said the strawberry-rhubarb pie was good, they were known for it, so Pike ordered a slice, and when he finished it he decided she was right, and got another one.
Dani stuck with a cup of coffee. “It was a Tuesday night,” she said. “June 15th … last year … 2015.”
“Ho-ly shit … a year and a half then.”
“I’d just finished my student teaching. I was spending the summer looking hard for a job. I grabbed some hours at the student rec center lifeguarding and teaching swimming … Then one night I took a spin class.”
Pike was nodding. “Where you’re going with this,” he said, “you broke the bike … except you were shocked … you couldn’t understand how.”
“Close. Apparently there are different types of bikes, with different ways that they create resistance. Mine had a band that tightened down on a flywheel … It started off innocently, it felt quite good actually to be exercising like that … then unfortunately the smoke started.”
“Oh yeah, I can see that,” Pike said. “Anyone … suspect anything?”
“Fortunately no, and I didn’t suspect anything myself. When class ended and there was no one around, I went back in there, thinking I must have been hallucinating. But the same thing happened.”
“Man … so you, reined it in, after that?”
“Exactly. I’ve been careful … There’ve been a few situations where I’ve had to act quick.”
“I know,” Pike said, thinking about the Marcus deal. “I give you all the credit.”
“Yes, but I meant other situations … I was in a Barnes and Noble bookstore, in the mall, and there was a painter outside with a scaffold, and a little child, and a situation was developing.”
“And you had to intervene.”
“Yes. It was strange, I felt an obligation to do so.”
“Not to mention, you had the capability.”
“Yes, that too.”
“Wow,” Pike said.
“Why?” Dani said. “You’ve had similar experiences?”
“Oh yeah. A couple of ‘em. The first one … I basically stopped a theft by holding up the front end of a car.”
Dani didn’t seem surprised.
“But the obligation part,” he said. “I never thought of it like that.”
“Another one,” Dani was saying, “I was in line at the motor vehicles office. An older gentleman, he appears to have a heart attack. He’s unconscious and not breathing. Someone starts administering CPR, but I have a strong urge to take over. Which I do … I nudge the person out of the way, and then with two fingers I start massaging the man’s heart … I broke his ribs and what not, but I could feel his heart responding. By the time EMS arrived he was sitting up.”
Pike was digesting this. Among other things, he decided Dani was beautiful. Though that was beside the point.
“I was at the beach three weeks ago,” he said. “I ran into the water to help a lifeguard … They didn’t need me, it turned out … But yeah, it was like someone flicked a switch, and I went into action, kind of automatically.”
“What else?” she said.
“Ah, well, there was this road crew fixing an emergency hole, and it was getting dark? I probably just imagined it, but I thought a truck was going to back into one of the guys, so I sort of threw him out of the way.”
“Far?”
“Far enough … Luckily the other workers got a kick out of it, and started ribbing the guy, and didn’t focus much on me.”
“When I … first had a problem with Marcus … I tried to hold back.” She was talking quieter now, serious.
“But you hurt him anyway?” Pike said, lowering his voice now too.
“I … just kind of flicked him away. Like you’d do with a gnat or a mosquito … When you’re out camping.” Her voice broke. Pike wanted to say something but didn’t know what.
“I’m sorry if I’m making you uncomfortable,” she said
“Are you kidding?” Pike said. “This is, like, the best thing that’s happened to me in a month … Plus the guy they roomed me with in Logan, I’m not sure about him.”
Dani laughed a little. Then she said, “What is this?”
“Do you have any ideas at all? Like theories?”
“I wish I did. Honestly? I’m thankful every day when I wake up and nothing’s changed. For the worse, I mean … Beyond that, I simply do not.”
Pike said, “Okay, I’ll throw something out there in a second. But what about a doctor?
“You mean,” she said, “did I get examined by one? At first, when it happened, I nearly marched right in the next day … But then I didn’t.”
“I know. You start thinking about stuff, and it stops you in your tracks.”
>
“The negatives could greatly outweigh the positives,” she said.
“Friends? Your family?”
“No … Have you?”
“A couple people. My girlfriend Cathy, which I shouldn’t have done. She tried but she couldn’t handle it, and then she dumped me … Then like I mentioned, an old guy. Who runs a UFO reporting website.”
“That’s sounds like an unusual person to open up to,” Dani said.
“It was.”
“How about your parents?”
“No way … Okay here’s the thing now … I know this is going to sound totally out of left field. Did you go to a dentist before it happened?”
Dani had kind of a blank stare. “You are right,” she said, “that is a crazy question. Why?”
“Did you?”
“Well I’d have to look up the date, but I recall going in early last year, yes.”
“So we’re talking 2015? Like February March, around then?”
“I think so.”
“And what’d they do?”
“Routine check up. I had one cavity.”
“And they took care of it? … What kind of filling?”
Dani said, “My goodness, this is odd. You seem to be on mission here … Normally I get porcelain but, since you seem to need the gory details … this was a back tooth, so my dentist recommended the old-fashioned type. He said they’re stronger.”
They finished up. It hit Pike that he was pretty drained. Dani insisted on paying for a room for him at the Super 8. She told him she’d stayed there recently and it was nice.
Pike slept late, took advantage of the surprisingly complete breakfast spread they put out for you in the lobby, and then reversed the whole shebang. The airport shuttle to Salt Lake, the flight to San Diego and finally the transfer flight to Fresno.
As that final one was coming in for a landing, he reminded himself to not forget to pay her back for the room.
Chapter 30 Renting It
Pike was going through the motions at school the next day. He could have used about another six hours of sleep, but what could you do.
He stopped at his locker between third and fourth period and coming down the hall toward him were Audrey and Jack Hannamaker. The guy looked kind of grim and hunched over, but the bad part of it was he had his arm around Audrey and she seemed to be fine with it.
Then after seventh period, as he was dumping everything in his locker again, getting ready to go to practice, Cathy taps him on the shoulder.
“How was your adventure?” she said, and for a moment he thought she meant connecting with Dani, and how the heck would she know about that, but she was asking about the recruiting trip.
“It was uneven, honestly,” he said. “It kind of opened my eyes. Maybe not the worst thing to stay right here in California.”
“Anyway, Pike, what I wanted to tell you, Reggie is going to be out here this week. He’s willing to speak to you.”
“Jeez, Reggie now. First name basis.”
“Could you please? … I’m trying to help you. You should take advantage, and meet him.”
Pike knew he was being a jerk. “I apologize. And I appreciate this, I really do.”
Cathy told him she’d update him, that Reggie was on a cross country run, and his timing depended on various factors, and that was it, and Pike watched her walk toward the end of the hall and disappear out a door.
As they were fooling around on the field before the whistle blew to kick off practice, Coach asked Pike how it went. Pike said it went great, but there were a lot of quarterbacks under consideration. Coach told him you keep your head up and focus, good things happen. This was starting to get old.
When he checked his phone that night there was a message from Mitch. Pike waited until he had some basic homework out of the way … Everything that was going on, that was still part of the gig unfortunately … and he called him back.
“Now on the guy holding on to the filling,” Mitch said, getting right to it, “I believe I’ve convinced him to get it tested by a lab.”
“Great,” Pike said. “How’d you pull that off?”
“I’m paying the sucker. Sort of renting it from him. Temporarily. So I can control the testing.”
“Dang … So he’s, like, sticking it in an envelope and mailing it to you then?”
“Yeah I got it worked out. Registered and certified, all that BS. The way they’d ship a diamond.”
“Wow, so then what?”
“Then I’m taking it to a lab out here. Not sure which one yet, but I’m walking it in, personally.”
“Okay let me ask you this—what if the guy just sends you some other filling?’
“Don’t see it as an issue honestly … If he did, hypothetically, I’d have to drive out there and kick his ass.”
Pike liked Mitch’s spunk tonight. “But how would you know?” he said.
“Okay let’s don’t worry about that right now. I’m going by instinct here. This is a simple man, whose word is good … As is mine … I’ll get it back to him after we figure out what’s in it. If anything.”
Pike was working it around, should he tell Mitch about Dani. He didn’t see a reason to for now.
But before he went to bed he called her.
“Too late?” he said.
“Yes,” she said. “You would have woken me up. But I haven’t been able to sleep well for a few weeks.”
Pike hadn’t touched that subject when he met her, but maybe it was okay. He said, “And are you still … in the same place, and all?”
“Yep. The landlord took care of the repairs. I’m okay with that part. It’s not the physical environment that’s affecting me.”
“Either way,” Pike said, “why not move into the Super 8? It was great. You can probably make a deal with them for a long term rate.”
“It’s funny you mention that,” Dani said. “I actually inquired about it.”
“But you’re fine for now.”
“Yes. Thank you for asking … Was there any particular reason you called?”
“Not really.”
“Because you don’t have to have one.”
This was a special person.
“I wish you lived closer,” he said. “What I’ll do though, any news at all, I’ll fill you in.”
“And you’re expecting some?” Dani said.
“I’m not … but there are a few … irons in the fire. Didn’t want to bore you with the details. I still don’t.”
“What kind of irons?”
“Okay … it’s all sort or embarrassing. Shit I never would have believed in a million years … Bottom line, there’s a guy—supposedly—he got a filling, got strong, panicked, had it taken out … Then he got weak. Weaker than before.”
Dani was quiet.
“We’re tying to test the filling, see what was in it?”
“We?” Dani said.
“Sorry, me and the old guy in LA. Him taking care of it actually.”
“I see.”
“What? You sound like something’s wrong.”
“No. It’s just that I’ve been wondering about that the past two days now … What if I removed mine?”
Pike said, “I’ve gone through that too.”
“And common sense told me that would be too simple,” Dani said. “So this confirms it I guess … Which is a bit disappointing, nonetheless.”
“I know.”
“You say there is one more ‘iron in the fire’?” she said.
“Yeah, well, a truck driver that we sort of connected with … he could be way out in the Twilight Zone … but he claims his brother had it. I’m supposed to meet him this week.”
“Had it?”
“He says the guy was in the military, that he died in Afghanistan … a couple years ago.”
“Gosh,” Dani said. Pike decided to leave out the part about Reggie saying his brother traveled back in time. Enough w
as enough, for now, and they said goodnight.
It was Halloween, and kids had been ringing the bell all night. Pike couldn’t help thinking, what was the atmosphere like at Audrey’s.
It had barely been a month. The Milburns had had a private funeral, and just a few days after that is when Mr. Milburn got into it with Foxe’s dad.
Holidays, even ones like Halloween, had to be the worst. Pike called Audrey.
“This is not about Jack, or anything,” he said. “I was out of line trying to move in on things.”
“Thank you for saying that,” Audrey said. “I’ve been feeling some guilt.”
“Nah please don’t … You doing okay tonight?”
“Yes. It’s been refreshing actually, the little children’s faces … I know what you’re thinking, but tonight was good for me, and Hailey both.”
Pike didn’t believe her. Nothing would be good for a long while.
“Don’t be a stranger,” he said.
“You neither,” Audrey said.
Chapter 31 Truck Stop
The Miramar game was set for Friday, at home, the final regular season game before the sectionals, and senior night. There were banners around school, and an extra assembly was being thrown in on Monday, which was nothing more than a disguised football rally, but what the heck, you got out of class.
Meanwhile on Tuesday Pike got an email from Jake Olsen, the Utah State grad assistant, which thanked him for visiting the program but ended by saying the school has trimmed its recruiting pool and unfortunately his name has been withdrawn from consideration, but to not take it personally, and continued good luck with his football career, wherever he might end up.
Not a surprise, and Pike thought about it for maybe two seconds … He was curious how the bar pool-player was who he bear-hugged though, and if Hayes felt better by the end of the weekend.
Cathy found him at lunch. The latest, was Reggie Riley would be in Woodling, at a truck stop of all places, Thursday morning.
Woodling was along the interstate. You headed over to where In-N-Out was, then hopped on the freeway maybe twenty miles north. So about an hour from Beacon.