Eternity (Circle of Light)

by April Margeson

  I got dressed and went downstairs. Mom was sitting at the table in the kitchen reading the paper.

  “Morning, Mom.”

  She looked up and smiled at me as she said, “Good morning sweetie.”

  That was a silly question. I always slept like a rock.

  “Yeah.” I said answering her generic question.

  “Your dad and Eric should be back anytime now.”

  “Where did they go?”

  “They decided earlier this morning that they were going to go get breakfast for us all.”

  They definitely have something up their sleeves, I thought to myself.

  I noticed that Mom had a very sly look on her face. There was, definitely, something going on. I’m sure I was going to find out sooner than later. I hate surprises. Eric knows that too.

  The front door opened and I could hear Dad and Eric chattering to each other. They sounded like they were abnormally happy.

  I sat down at the table trying to wake up a little more. I hate mornings. I don’t think that part of me was ever going to change.

  Eric came in the kitchen followed by Dad. They were carrying a few paper bags. My guess was they intended to cook for us. I was expecting fast food. I was not aware that either of them had any culinary skills at all.

  I watched as they emptied the contents of the bags onto the counter. They had all the necessary items for a home cooked breakfast. I was gearing myself up to eat some badly burned eggs.

  I heard Mom giggle quietly as she finished reading the paper.

  “What?” I asked. I was sure that I was on the outside of a joke that had been told to everyone else. Something was going on and I was the only one that was not in on it.

  “Anything good in there?” I asked Mom as she passed the newspaper to me.

  “No. Not really.” She replied with a smile.

  The paper was filled with the usual goings on. Mostly crime reports. There had been a robbery at the gas station at the end of town. The robber had gotten away with a few hundred dollars in cash and various items from the store inventory. No harm came to the cashier, thankfully. Although, I was certain the whole incident left her forever shaken.

  Scanning on down the page, I came to an article about an attempted kidnapping. A small girl had been playing at the park with her brother. The article read that a van had pulled up and a man got out and approached her. He had offered to take her to get ice cream. The girl was, obviously, not fooled by the stranger’s offer. She immediately ran from him and told her brother and several of his friends what the man was doing, but before any of them could get back over to the place where she had told them he was, he was gone.

  They reported it to the police. An investigation was underway, but they really did not have much to go on. Unfortunately, the little girl could not remember what he had looked like. She could only remember what the van looked like. And that was all the police had to go on.

  Several other articles caught my attention, but they didn’t seem as important as the one about the girl. The thought of someone trying to take a child mortified me. Instantly, Eric was whispering to me in my head.

  “It’s okay. They will find him and everything will be fine.”

  “I hope you’re right.”

  I had to stop looking at the paper because I couldn’t get the thought out of my head of the little girl. I wondered how long it would be before the kidnapper would be successful in luring a child into his van.

  There is absolutely no reason these things should be going on in this world. So much evil, and for someone to want to hurt a child or take them away from their parents was just unspeakable.

  A sense of panic filled me. I knew I could help capture him, but I wasn’t sure how to do it. Letting anyone know what I could do was completely out of the question.

  “Eric. Do you think we can help?”

  It was no time until I heard his reply.

  “It might be possible. After we eat, we’ll walk down to the park and look around.”

  I sat there at the table contemplating a way to find out who and where the man was. I was so lost in my own thoughts that I didn’t realize Eric had already fixed my plate and put it in front of me.

  “Bailey?” he muttered trying to hide his concern from my parents. I had obviously not heard him call to me in my head.

  I looked up and Eric was sitting beside me at the table.

  “Are you going to eat?” Dad asked me.

  “Yeah.” I smiled at him.

  Picking up my fork, I began to eat my breakfast. Surprisingly, the food was good. It was better than I had thought it would be. I was going to have to give them a little credit for it.

  After cleaning up from our meal, Eric got our coats and told my parents we were going to take a walk.

  “Make sure you bundle up. It’s really cold out there.” Mom told me.

  She was always worrying about something it seemed like. Although she sometimes took it a little far, I knew it was because she loves me. I guess that was where I got it. I came by it honest.

  I donned my coat and pulled the hood up onto my head. Dad smiled at me and said, “You guys have a good time. Don’t stay out too long.” Eric nodded in response as he led me to the door.

  Halfway to the park, I began shivering. I had not been aware of exactly how cold it really was outside. I was guessing it was pretty close to twenty degrees. That was how cold it felt to me anyway.

  Eric picked up his pace trying to warm up. I kept pace with him and soon I was a bit warmer than I had been a moment earlier.

  He pulled me closer to him as we walked. “If we work together, we should be able to go back to the time everything happened.”

  I looked at him out of pure confusion. How could it be possible for us to see what happened? It had been a day ago since they were here and we had not been anywhere near here.

  Eric explained what he was thinking about doing as we reached the spot where the paper said the van was. It was a genius idea, to say the least.

  Eric told me that we could turn back time and watch as the events of that day unfolded. The only thing is, is that we could not try to interfere or we would disrupt everything that happened. If that happens, the police would for sure have a hard time getting any leads in the investigation. We could not risk that. The man had to be found before he accomplished what he set out to do.

  We came to the general area of where it happened. I was very familiar with this part of the park. The spot always gave me the heebie-jeebies. I understood why he picked this place. There was so much cover for him to evade being seen by anyone. Anyone except who he wanted to see him, that is.

  Eric looked around trying to find somewhere close but inconspicuous for us to begin our task. He found a good spot under the cover of the trees and a few bushes.

  “No matter what, you can’t say or do anything but what we have to do to see it.” Eric demanded.

  “Don’t worry, I won’t.”

  Eric took my hands and I could instantly feel our powers coming together. Unity was the key. It made us more powerful and I did not question the idea of us being able to do anything we set out to do.

  I could hear Eric thinking about the day it all happened. I joined him in deep concentration. Suddenly, the air around us began to become somewhat unstable. It swirled and spun until looked like I was watching something on a television screen. I could see the events of that day unfolding right before my very own eyes. I was captivated by what I was seeing. Everything became clearer as I watched.

  The little girl had been playing by herself at the fence when he spotted her. She had a sad look on her face and that seemed to make him surer that he could get her to come with him. He called to her as he leaned up against the fence.

  “Hello, little girl.” I heard him say to her.

  I watched as she looked up at him unaware of his intentions for her.

  “Hi.” She said back sounding purely angelic.

  He was pleased by her respon
se and began to ask her questions. He asked where her parents were and why she was playing all by herself.

  She told him she was there with her brother, but he was too busy to play with her. He was playing ball with his friends. The bad thing was that she had actually pointed out her brother and that gave the man the advantage on her.

  The man noticed the distance between them and her brother, thinking that he could get her in the van before he even noticed she was gone.

  “Would you like to go get some ice cream?” He asked the girl.

  She stood up with a frightened look on her face and strongly answered against his request.

  “I’m not supposed to go with strangers!” She yelled.

  Her loudness startled him, causing him to back away from the fence. He tried to coerce her into believing that he was not a stranger, but she was not going to believe him easily. Her parents had taught her not to talk to anyone she did not know, no matter what.

  Instead of staying, she turned and ran to where her brother and his friends were at, but before she could finish telling them about the man and what he was trying to get her to do, he was gone. Eric released my hands and broke the connection.

  Eric had been paying more attention to the details than I was. He had managed to get a clear look at the man and his van. He told me what he looked like and that his van had out of state license plates on it. The man had been watching the girl for some time. I just could not understand out why. I mean, I had a gut feeling why, but the details made no sense to me. Why would someone even think about harming a child?

  Eric seemed to think that it was one of those black market adoption things. “He wasn’t thinking anything outside of getting her into the van and back to the office where a couple was waiting to adopt her.”

  Eric had caught several glimpses of an office building of some sorts from the man s thoughts. I was so sure he would look like the definition of a dirty old man, but that wasn’t the case.

  As we hurried back home, Eric gave me a rather detailed description of the man. He was in his early thirties. He had dark hair and was worn exceptionally dark sunglasses. Eric described him as being very clean cut and professionally dressed. He had been wearing dress slacks and a crisp button down.

  They were going to sell her.

  I was absolutely appalled by his claim. Why would anyone want to make a living by kidnapping other people’s children? The reasoning was completely beyond me.

  I was still lost in thought when we reached the sidewalk that lead to my door. The house looked warm from the outside and I could not wait to go in. My hands were getting numb from the cold and my nose felt like it wasn’t even on my face anymore.

  I could see my mom in the kitchen. She was watching us from the window. She gave us a quick wave to come in and went about what she was doing.

  We managed to get in the house before we froze to death. Eric helped me out of my coat and placed them both on the coat rack. I swear they sounded like they would break if they hit something.

  Mom had made us each a large cup of hot chocolate. The steam coming from the cup was so inviting. Eric picked up his cup to take a sip, but stopped instantly.

  Fear covered his face. I knew that look well. He had the same look when the pool incident happened this past summer. I carefully tried to not draw any attention to him as I asked what was wrong.

  “He… he… has found another child.” he replied shakily.

  “What are we going to do?” I stood there waiting desperately for Eric to respond. “We have to go back to the park. We have to go now! Before we’re too late!”

  As soon as he said that, I rushed and put on my coat, throwing his to him and the coldness of it made me more alert.

  “We‘ll be right back!” I yelled to my parents as we ran out the door.

  My mother called after us, but there was no time to waste. A child s life depended on us getting to the park as fast as we could.

  Eric and I ran as hard as we could until we reached the park.

  “He’s in the same place he tried to get the other little girl.” Eric said with fury in his eyes.

  I had never seen him angry before and just honestly, the idea of it frightened me. I knew what we both were capable of and I had sensed that he had a dark side to him when I first met him. Just help him to handle this right; I thought to myself as I rounded the fence.

  The van was sitting in the same place it had been earlier, but I couldn’t see the man anywhere. My gut reaction was to call the police, so I quickly drew my phone from my jacket pocket and dialed 9-1-1.

  The operator answered, “9-1-1, what is your emergency?”

  I swallowed hard as I replied to her, “I’m at the park and I think there is a man trying to kidnap a child!”

  She asked me several questions about what I was seeing in my surroundings. The operator asked if I noticed any vehicles around.

  I replied with panic distorting my voice, “Yes. There is a van here.” I gave her the license plate number and description in the best way I could. She informed me that the police were already on their way and I needed to make sure that I tried to remember every detail that I could.

  I agreed as she asked me to stay on the line with her until the police showed up.

  I had a feeling that I shouldn’t make my presence known if I could help it. The bushes gave me just enough cover so I could slip around without being discovered.

  Eric, where are you?

  I waited for him to answer me, but he didn’t. That was rather strange because he always answers me.

  Scanning the park, I noticed a man talking to a little boy. The boy was alone as I expected. The bad thing is that I didn’t see anyone else around. I bet the boy was here by himself, in the cold, and I bet he must have come here without his parents knowing about it.

  Do. Not. Get. Involved.

  I won’t. The police will be here any moment.

  Good. I hope they hurry or I’m going to have to stop him.

  Panic set in as I realized what Eric was meaning. The man was about to take the boy.

  I watched as the boy was slowly following the man to his van. Where I was standing, I was sure to be seen and the man would get away, but I could not move or it would tip him off just the same.

  “I am invisible, to him and to the boy.” I whispered quietly to myself, drawing from my power.

  I knew that if the boy saw me he would say something and I could not risk that and I still needed to be able to be seen by the police.

  Nice, I should have thought of the invisibility thing too.

  Be quiet. I cannot concentrate with you in my head.

  He was breaking my concentration and I wasn’t sure I could hold up my cover with him in my head and as bad as I hated too, I blocked Eric from entering my mind. I had no other choice at the time. A child’s life was at stake and that was all that mattered to me now. Nothing else.

  They were getting closer to the van. I couldn’t hear anything, no police sirens. Nothing. Please let them get here, I thought frantically as I heard footsteps on the sidewalk behind me.

  A quick glance around eased my worry. The officer held his hand out silently ordering me to stay where I was. I nodded in relief as he made his way to the backside of the van with his gun drawn.

  I instantly unshielded myself from being seen, but stayed where I was. I told the operator that the police had arrived and thanked her.

  “We will have to stop and make sure it’s okay with my mom if I go to the store with you.” I heard the little boy tell the man. He was so small and innocent and how someone could take advantage of that is something that I will never understand.

  “Don’t worry,” he said back to him. “I’ll be sure to stop and ask.”

  The boy smiled up at him as the man opened the door for him to get in. I knew the officer was on the other side of the van waiting for him.

  The man shut the door and looked around triumphantly. He was pleased with himself. That much was very
clear. He had managed to get the boy in the van without any hesitation from him at all.

  I watched as he went around the front of the van.

  “STOP!” The officer yelled.

  The man threw his hands up in the air so fast that I jumped back. Everything after that happened so fast that I could not keep up with all the details.

  Several other police officers ran to the van surrounding the man. He was down on the ground now. I let out a long breath as one of them placed the handcuffs on him.

  A couple of the police officers helped the boy out of the van and walked him over to where I was standing. They explained to him about what was happening and the little boy started to cry and ask for his mother.

  “You’re safe now. I’ll get your parents, just stay here with me.” I heard the officer say to him trying to calm him down.

  It felt like I had been holding my breath for a very long time. The feeling of dread had disappeared and I felt like I had just conquered the world, but I couldn’t help but cry as I watched the boy sobbing for his mother. Something about that hurt me in a way that made me want to grab him up and hold him until his parents came.

  I didn’t try to fight the feeling. I sat down on the sidewalk beside him and pulled him into my lap.

  He was shivering and I was worried that he was getting too cold. His little body was rigid and he tried hard to get as close to me as he could. My body heat was warming him slowly, but I wasn’t sure that it was going to be enough, so I took off my coat and wrapped it around him.

  Looking around, I noticed Eric was standing beside me. He had come to my side without me knowing it. He was getting very good at sneaking up on me and that bothered me.

  The cold breeze blew hard against my face making me realize that I had been outside for far too long and not having a coat on to protect me from the frigid wind wasn’t helping the matter any.

  Eric took off his coat and put it over my shoulders. I could not break the hold that I had on the boy because every time that I tried to he would get a look of panic and start crying again.

  Several of the officers had gotten blankets out of their police cruisers and brought them over, wrapping each of them around me and the boy, trying to keep us as warm as possible.