by Lizzie Vega
Michael just leaned back against the headrest, “Yeah, I thought about that.” It had a tired, resigned sound to it.
“Mike, stop thinking and start doing. I know you way too well. You sit there and play out these scenarios in your head of the perfect thing to say at the perfect moment. This isn’t a movie, it’s your life. Sam isn’t going to wait forever.”
“I know.”
Parker was just getting started, “Let me ask you a question, what would happen if you walked right up to her tomorrow night and asked her out?”
“She might say no, right?”
“Yeah, maybe, but even if she did, at least you would know where you stood. Isn’t that worth something?”
“I don’t want that to be the case, though,” Michael said quietly.
“Michael, for God’s sake. You’ve had a crush on her since the sixth grade, imagine what it would have been like to have at least kissed her once during that whole time? I get it. It’s perfect in your head. I imagine the fantasies are amazing.” And Parker stopped and looked at his friend.
“That’s it, isn’t it? You hide in your perfect fantasy world. She’s been there for you through everything, distant, but still perfect. You better figure this out, and quick. She’s going to move on soon and then you will still be stuck here without her and without your Dad.” Parker instantly realized what he had said, “Oh fuck, Mike, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that the way it sounded.”
Michael turned on him, “Yes, Parker. Yes, you did,” his voice was dead calm. “You’re a complete asshole most of the time and that’s, I think, in part why we are friends.” He took a deep breath, “I’m not mad. You’re right.” Another breath, “And I appreciate you putting it out there”
Parker was shocked, “Wow, Mike, you’d have every right to kick my ass right now,” and he swung the car into his parking spot.
“Funny thing, Parker,” Michael mused, “Right now, I’m pretty sure I could take you.”
“Ah, more fantasy I see. How ‘bout we don’t test your theory tonight, ok?” They took the steps up the apartment and walked through the lobby. They rode silently up the elevator but as the doors opened, Parker took a playful avenue, “Speaking of fantasy, what if, after we finish opening up the seven gates of hell, we conjure up a girlfriend for you? Shit, what am I saying? One for me, too?”
“God, Parker, you are such a dick.”
Samantha walked out of the third floor laundry with a basket of clothes on her hip, “Conjuring? You guys should be careful, I hear it’s dangerous” and she turned in front of them and walked down the hallway as if nothing had happened. They had no choice but to follow her. She got to her door and, as she turned to go in, she looked at Michael and smiled, “Goodnight, Michael” and closed the door behind her.
The boys waited until they got in the apartment before anything was said. Parker closed the door, “Mike, please tell me that you saw how obvious that was, or does she have to use a neon sign to get your attention. She wants to say that to you in a much more intimate setting. Got it?”
Michael just smiled, “Yeah, I think I did actually,” and then he frowned, “And we have to stop blabbing about the gates of hell, Ok?”
Chapter 22
Michael and Parker walked around the parking lot toward the west high-rise just after sunrise the next morning. Mac and Allie were already there. Allie waved as she saw them and motioned them over to the dumpster where they stood.
“Good morning, sleep well?” she asked as they approached. Parker just grunted and Michael shook his head, “Not so much last night. I was really restless. Such a lovely setting, a dumpster at the butt crack of dawn.”
Parker yawned, “Did you find it yet?” he asked.
Mac just laughed, “Oh yeah, this one was easy. Parker, you’re standing on it.”
“Shit, I’m sorry,” as he hopped over a couple of feet.
“Ha! It’s not like you’re standing on anyone, it’s just concrete.”
Parker looked around to see if anyone was watching. He knelt down to see a deep bronze and black scorch mark on the concrete. It not only left a mark, it had turned a small section of the cement into powder. “Look at the side of the dumpster. It looks like the heat from the bolt melted the paint a little.”
“That will make this easier,” Allie offered as she brought out her phone to plug in the GPS coordinates of the mark on the ground. “If we can get the majority of the strike points documented, I’ll cross reference it against what we see in the video loop.
Michael perked up at that, “I can print off an oversized map of the city at the Union copy shop and we can pin the strikes on it. Cool.”
Allie handed Michael a sheet of paper, “This is half of the addresses listed in the police log for the last few nights. Mac and I will take the other half. Let’s see how many we can find and meet up later.”
“That’ll work, back at our apartment,” Parker offered, “Michael’s buying the beer,” and he laughed.
“Sounds like a plan, plus we can finish up our costumes for the geek party.”
Michael found himself agreeing to the proposition, “Yeah, I’ll buy, this project is so much fun, but it’s a distraction from the party. I need to finish up a couple of things for our stuff.
Parker raised his eyebrows in a mocking way, “This is Michael’s way of getting ready to make his move with Samantha, finally.”
“Honestly, Parker,” Allie said in a scolding tone, “Don’t be mean, he’ll do it when he’s ready.”
Parker held his hands up in mock surrender, “Ok, fine, but she’s been ready for him since the sixth grade, just sayin.”
Mac interrupted the banter, “Just call us when you find a couple of marks. We’ll take it from there.”
The time signatures for the police log were no help and the four of them ended up criss- crossing all over the city looking for the addresses. It was a meteorological scavenger hunt. Michael found their first mark by the Fargodome right away. The strike had only missed the marquee signage on the corner by about twenty feet. It left the same black burn mark that they saw at the high-rise.
Their second one took a little longer. The police report said it had come down somewhere in the North High School parking lot. The boys pulled up in Parker’s Subaru and looked at the three acre expanse of asphalt with parking barriers. “This will take forever,” Parker lamented. Michael agreed but he was realistic, “Let’s set a time limit, so we don’t blow the whole day out here. I’ll take that end, you head over there, and we’ll work towards the middle.
As luck would have it, Parker found it almost right away. He put his fingers to his lips and blew out a sharp whistle waving Michael over excitedly.
“I sorta cheated,” he confessed as Michael jogged over to where he was standing. “This is asphalt. I looked for spots that were broken or heaved up as I got down here. Check out the size of this.”
Michael was somewhat shocked by what he saw, “This isn’t a mark, it’s a small crater. You could break an axle in this.” The edges and part of the inside of the hole were marked with the same black and bronze scorch mark as two before. , “Nice find,” as he inputted the location into his phone. He was pleased by Parker’s new-found enthusiasm for the search and knew he could easily sustain his roommate’s zeal, “I’ll bet you twenty bucks, I find the next one.” They raced to the car, Parker jumped into the driver’s seat, “You’re on, what’s the next address?”
He put the car in gear and sped out of the school lot without even knowing what direction he was supposed to go. Michael smiled. The cash was a good investment to stave off any whining for a while. He knew his friend’s competitive streak would come in useful.
As they headed into North Moorhead, Allie called. She sounded excited. Michael put her on speaker, “We have found four so far. We walked up to a couple of kids took us right to the one near the 45th Street on-ramp. I gave them each five bucks.”
Michael laughed, “That’s great. Don’t
worry about the cash, Parker will pay you back,” and he grinned at him.
As the morning pressed into early afternoon, they had found eleven of the strike points. Parker decided he was ready to call it a day after a close call with an aggressive Rottweiler in a back yard. Michael called in to Allie and Mac.
“Let’s meet back at the apartment in a half hour, I think we have enough to plot them on the city map I printed. Parker will buy pizza.” Again, Parker just grinned. He enjoyed watching Michael come out of his shell, even at his expense.
“Great! We’re looking for one more strike, see you in a bit,” Allie finished the call with, “Extra pepperoni, this time.”
The pizza showed up just after they all arrived, but this time, it just sat in the cardboard box for quite a while longer than normal. They quickly pinned the city map on the wall and shared stories of their explorations for the strike marks.
As they built the map, Allie put large pins into the sites that matched with the GPS coordinates. She put post-it notes where they had been unable to locate the strike but it was at least close according to the address. Parker noted that two of the strikes were within blocks of the warehouse.
There was a soft knock at the door. Michael looked through the peephole and saw Samantha standing there. He stood there for a moment just staring, heart racing, face heating up, then realized how obvious that was and opened the door, “Hi Sam,” voice cracking, “what’s up?” which came out stronger.
Her face lit up, somewhat camouflaging the blush she couldn’t contain, “I just stopped by to see if you had finished the props for the…” she looked past him and saw Mac and Allie. “Hey, I thought we got to come to the next pizza party.” Sam was stunned to hear a touch of confidence in her voice.
Michael, similarly stunned by her directness, swung the door open wide, “Well, come on in.”
There was an awkward silence as the four lightning hunters looked back and forth at each other. It was supposed to be a secret and the more people who knew about this, the riskier it would be, but other than the map, it just looked like a few friends hanging out.
It only took her about two seconds to notice.
Sam looked at the city map that Michael had pinned to the wall, “This is cool, what is this supposed to be?”
Parker looked at Allie and then back at Samantha. He saw the opportunity and he took it on his friend’s behalf. He elbowed Michael, “Tell her Michael, she’s just as smart as the rest of us, maybe she can help.” Michael looked hesitant and he looked at Allie. She just winked at him, “C’mon, it’s ok.”
Samantha looked excited, “I can help? Great, what am I helping?”
Michael surprisingly took the lead in explaining what they were doing, at least the lightning part. When he was done explaining the lightning and how the strikes corresponded to the map of the city, Samantha began to ask questions. Really good questions.
“Is this all of the strikes? she asked.
“That we know of, so far.” was Parker’s response.
That sounded a little off and Sam caught it, “So far? You’re expecting more?” and she walked over to the map and then backed off to look at it from further away.
“Maybe two or three more?” she asked
“Um, maybe two or three, yeah,” it was clear he was struggling with not telling her the entire story, “What makes you ask, Sam?”
Sam looked at the map, “Can I draw on this?” she asked, “Just a little, please.”
Allie and Mac each grabbed a piece of pizza and moved closer to see. Parker stood next to Michael. “Of course, you can.” He handed her a pencil, “Will this do?”
“Sure,” she answered. Her brow was furrowed, “Do you have a ruler or a straight edge, something I can draw a line with?”
Michael ducked into the hall closet and brought out a yardstick, “Will this do, Sam?”
She just grinned at him, “Thank you Michael,” she said sweetly, looking straight into his eyes, “this is perfect.” They both turned back to the map with a bit more color in their cheeks. “I might need to move a couple of pins, but I’ll put them back.”
Sam took the yardstick and lined up two of the push pins and drew a line to connect them. She moved the stick over and connected two more and then stepped back to look at it. “Yep, just a couple more. Let me know if you guess what I am doing.”
For the next two points she drew an angle and connected them into a large geometric shape. The last few points looked out of place. They seemed more random and far from the main shape.
She turned to the group who were absolutely silent. She had a big smile on her face, “Anyone?” She was clearly enjoying this.
She moved a post it note, “This means you couldn’t find the actual mark, right?”
She took the straight edge and connected the bottom corner of the shape. “It will be really close to the corner of Second and Seventh Avenue, within a house or two”.
She pointed to the center of the shape where two points were relatively close together, drew a line that connected them, then pointed to a spot right in the middle, “No strike here? At least not yet?”
Parker leaned in and looked where Sam had placed her finger. He drew back. He looked pale.
“Sam, please tell us what this is, you’re starting to freak me out.”
“Here, I’ll make it easy for you.” She pointed to the pins she had just connected, “This is Alnitak and this one on the other side is Mintaka. Any guesses?”
Mac threw up his hands, “Ok Sam, now you’re just showing off. It’s Alaska?”
“Yes Mac, yes I am showing off. I’m just as big a geek as all of you so I’ll make this next one easy,” and she pointed to the upper left corner just below the random lines.
“This one,” she said but Michael interrupted, “Was a big hole in the ground.”
“I’ll bet it was, it makes perfect sense, this one is Betelgeuse, and this one,” she pointed in the lower right corner, “this is Rigel.”
Michael suddenly knew, “Stars, those are stars, holy shit.”
“Yes Michael, they are stars.” She pointed at the short line in the middle of her diagram. She quizzed them further, “What three stars in a row can you see all the time?”
“I’ve got it,” said Mac, “Duh, it so obvious now, It’s Orion’s belt.”
“Yes,” exclaimed Sam, “That’s it, but you have the whole constellation on your map. That’s so cool!”
All of them stood around the map excited and chatting. Except Parker who looked a little pale.
“Sam,” he asked, “would you put a pin in the map where you think the missing center star is going to be, please?”
She was happy to comply, “Sure, it’s called Alnilam. It would be right here,” and she stuck the point of the pin into the map.
Parker looked at the rest of the group, “Anyone want to guess where that is?”
Michael leaned in and looked, “It looks near the warehouse.” He looked closer, “Uh… it is the warehouse.” The three of them spun toward Parker. No one spoke for a long time.
Chapter 23
Unbeknownst to Michael, Parker and Katie had arranged a predetermined meet-up spot at the Cosplay party.
When they first arrived, the boys walked around the perimeter of the hall checking out the vendors and concessions. Parker would never have admitted anything publicly, but he was enjoying himself as he pointed out one attractive costumed woman after another.
A curvaceous young woman dressed as Harley Quinn caught Parker’s eye and held his gaze. She smiled and winked at him as she bobbed her head and made her pink and blue pigtails bounce. She caressed her baseball bat in such a suggestive manner, Parker collided with Michael who had stopped to check out a costume vendor.
“Seriously, dude. I had no idea geeks could be so, um, aggressive. She’s amazing.”
Michael laughed and briefly glanced at her, but quickly went back to looking through the vast array of props of one costume vendor
. He was giddy for a few minutes when the vendor asked if he’d be interested in making a few copies of his props to sell.
Parker listened impatiently and checked the time on his phone. He continued to subtly direct Michael toward the meeting spot. They passed by the mezzanine entrance to the dance floor. While the party was just beginning, there were already several hundred dancers down below writhing to the bass-heavy throb of the DJ.
Michael’s face lit up with a grin as he looked at the dancers. “Wow, Parker, this is so cool. You can almost feel the heat coming off the crowd.”
Parker looked over Michaels’ shoulder and smiled as he looked across the upper level, “That’s nothin. You want heat? Check out these three.” He spun his friend around and pointed as Iris, Katie and Samantha approached.
Iris used the Star Wars costumes as base of their outfits then took some structural liberties with a pair of scissors creating slits here and plunging necklines there, making a stunning, sexy presentation. The boys just stared at them as the women made their way to the mezzanine rail. For once, even Parker was briefly speechless.
Katie switched places with Samantha to get her closer to Michael. “Hello, boys,” she shouted over the music, “Come here often?”
Parker grinned at the opportunity but looked at Michael and quickly chose to stifle an inappropriate answer. He shook his head as if to scold himself, “Wow! You ladies look smoking hot.” He elbowed Michael to jog him out of staring at Sam but was surprised when Michael stepped forward and, not taking his eyes from hers, smoothly agreed, “Sam, you look amazing.” He tipped his head to her, “I’m happy you’re here. Iris, you too.”
Katie mock pouted, “Yeah, that’s me. Chopped liver.” She playfully poked Michael in the shoulder which he uncharacteristically returned causing Katie to smile brightly. “You guys look cool too.”