Stevens thought to himself, I think he saw me. He might be on the move. Quickly, he reached into his jacket and retrieved his gun. Pointing the gun down with both hands, he fixed his gaze on Etelson and motioned his head for her to go back to the front entrance.
Nodding, Etelson turned around. When she exited, she turned, in order to head for the bathroom corner of the building. She would intersect with Sik’s path, should he escape from the bathroom.
Inside, before Sik could disappear through the door, Stevens shouted, “Samuel Kessian, freeze!”
Sik had no intension of stopping; he dashed into the bathroom and slammed the door closed.
Stevens ran to the bathroom and kicked the door open. Cautiously, he stood back, with his gun extended in front of him. “Kessian!” he yelled, as he stood just at the threshold.
The silence responded.
Carefully and guardedly, he inched in.
There was no one in the small area.
Stevens saw at one side of the bathroom was a urinal, and after it was a stall. He crouched down, to look at the feet of the stall. It seemed empty. Standing up, he walked toward it, with his gun still extended.
He kicked open the stall door.
No one was there.
Perplexed, he turned completely around and examined the entire area.
No other doors, or even windows, led out of the bathroom.
Then, he heard Etelson shout from outside, “Kessian, freeze!”
Stevens immediately ran out of the bathroom, raced and maneuvered himself through the crowd in the pool hall, and sped through the entrance. He ran down the sidewalk and headed to where he had heard Etelson. A distance away, and diagonally to his right, he heard her voice again, shouting, “Kessian!” Finally, he saw her through an opening, in between the buildings that separated them.
Stevens picked up his pace to a sprint. A large dimly lit parking lot opened up, in front him, and there he saw Sik, in his own sprint, with Etelson trailing not far behind.
Sik made a right and ran in between two buildings.
Being a much faster sprinter, Stevens quickly gained ground. Deciding to intercept him, Stevens ran further ahead, instead of following Sik. He turned right, to go in between two other buildings. As he reached the end of the alley, Stevens was sure that Sik would be coming up, just around the corner, at his right. When he arrived at the corner, he immediately turned right and extended his gun.
The only thing there was the darkness and the sound of Etelson’s steps, fast approaching.
Suddenly, a solid body of a man slammed into Stevens from behind.
Stevens dropped to the ground, in an instant. He was stunned. His gun flew from his hand, and it stopped on the asphalt three steps from him.
Still on the ground, Stevens turned around to face Sik.
Sik stood over him. With burning eyes, he glared at the agent. Without looking at the gun, Sik stepped to it and picked it up. Without a pause in his motion, Sik pointed the gun directly at Stevens’ chest.
The moon above allowed Sik to eye the deep breaths taken by his otherwise motionless prey. In a low, cold voice, Sik told Stevens, “I’ve got nothin’ against you. You probably have a family to come home to. But if you keep chasing me, you’ll regret it.”
Stevens started to shake his head and begin to speak. But before he could say a word, Sik lowered the gun and tossed it aside.
As the sound of the metal gun grinding over the pavement reached Stevens’ ears, he saw Sik turn and jog away. At the end of the building, he watched Sik go left.
Etelson turned the corner and ran to Stevens’ side. “You alright, cowboy?” she asked.
As she helped him up, Stevens said, “Yeah. I thought I had him. But when I expected him at my right, he suddenly crashes into me from the left.” While picking up his gun, Stevens informed her, “He had the chance to plug me. But he didn’t. He let me go.”
“So what then? He can’t be all that bad? I’m not buyin’ it. He just blew up a couple of buildings and some people along with them.” Then, hurriedly, Etelson said, “I’ll follow right behind him. You go and try to cut him off again.”
“Crisis of conscience maybe?” asked Stevens, and then, he added, “Anyway, got it. I’m on him.” Stevens made his way back down the same alley he had run into. When he reached the other end, he saw, into the distance, that Sik was jogging back in the direction of the Alleyway.
Stevens quipped, “This guy’s either got guts or stupid or he really wants his beer.” With that, he began running after Sik once again.
Sik heard Stevens’ steps, and then stopped and turned around. Facing Stevens, he saw further down that Etelson rounded the corner of another building, and was on her way. Chuckling to himself, he headed back to the left, to hide through the buildings.
Stevens, feeling tenacious, picked up his pace and chased after Sik once again. But to his surprise, Sik maintained his jog, allowing Stevens to quickly catch up. Just before Sik was about to reach the alley, Stevens raised his weapon, steadied himself, and commanded, “Stop!”
But undaunted, Sik continued his jog, disappearing into the alley.
Stevens started running. He thought, I’ve got him. He’ll be in the alley. I’ll have a clear shot.
But as he rounded the corner and entered the alley, Sik was not to be found.
Perplexed, Stevens slowed to a stop.
Then, he heard Sik’s voice at the end of the alley, calling out, “Hey!”
While Stevens started running once again, Sik trotted to the right.
Reaching the end of the alley, Stevens decidedly became very cautious. In the cat-and-mouse chase, he began to feel like the mouse. Stevens turned the corner, just to see Sik vanish around another corner.
Stevens sprinted again. Suddenly, he felt himself being tackled from behind.
His gun flew from his hand once more.
His attacker straddled over his back.
Stevens struggled and turned his body to face Sik. As he did, Sik’s heavy fist crashed into his jaw.
Sik wasted no time. Right and left, right and left, his fists kept landing into Stevens’ face.
The beating disoriented Stevens.
Then, Sik held Stevens’ face down with one hand, and turned the fury of his other fist down at Stevens’ gut. Sik was unstoppable. As one blow after another landed, he growled, “I said stop chasing me!”
Stevens quickly lost his wind and couldn’t breathe. His eyes revealed his fear and helplessness. His mouth heaved and tried to breathe in air, as Sik pressed his jaw down against the ground.
The pounding seemed endless.
But the sound of Etelson’s approaching strides reached Sik’s ears. He stopped and quickly thought, Lesson time is over. He jumped to his feet and instantly sped away, in a swift sprint.
Etelson turned the corner. “Halt!” she commanded. But Sik continued to run and disappeared into another alley.
As Etelson passed Stevens, she said, “I’ll get him. I’ll be back!”
Stevens’ body lay in shock. He stayed on his back for a long time, blinking his eyes and sucking in air. The intense, painful heaving seemed to take forever to ebb away.
He coughed.
Breathed.
Coughed.
A long time later, he could hear Etelson’s returning steps.
While she stooped beside him, he finally gained the composure to sit himself up.
She said, “I lost him. And he’s not at the Alleyway.” Then, she added in wonder, “He just flat out disappeared.”
“Tell me about it,” he replied, as he bent his head down between his knees.
“You ok?”
“I don’t think so, Etti. The guy just utterly kicked my ass.” He breathed in painfully. He coughed again. “Somehow the guy made it out of the Alleyway’s bathroom, without breaking through the wall.” He shook his head. “When I thought he ran to the left, he showed up on the right. When I see him make a right, he jumps me from the l
eft. What the hell is this guy?!”
“Well, looks like we’ve underestimated him.”
Stevens finally glanced up at her and smiled, “Like I said, tell me about it.”
“Well, do ya think you’ll live?”
“Yeah. Just don’t tell Missy about this. I spent many years trying to convince her that I’m superman, and now she irons my cape every day.”
Etelson chuckled, as she helped Stevens up.
“…unbelievable,” he sighed.
They slowly walked down the alley and headed out, through an empty parking lot.
Minutes later, they reached their car at the Alleyway and got in.
On the rooftop of the Alleyway, a dark hooded figure stood.
The moon above revealed his presence.
With dispassionate eyes, the hooded man watched them drive out, and then drive away. He was the one who positioned Sik, mysteriously from one place to another, taking Stevens by surprise. In his thoughts he said, I still need Samuel. You cannot take him. There is much more he must do for me.
* * * * * * *
TWO WEEKS AGO
Going to the church picnic was a difficult decision for the longhaired goateed man to make. But two things were nudging him to go. One, he thought he should take Preacher Man’s advice and “give yourself a chance.” And two, he wanted to at least try to be friends with just one person: Paige. He thought about the way she slapped him on the shoulder with her notepad at Trace. She made it seem like she ultimately didn’t care whether or not he showed up at the picnic, but he knew better. He thought it would be worth the effort to see if it would surprise her, by making an appearance.
So, before he left for the picnic, he made sure to completely set aside what he was beginning to see as emotional baggage, from his painful past. The unpleasant sharp-edged personality that came with it, he put into a dark backroom of his mind.
Kit Park was a large park, with five baseball fields, four tennis courts, and several large, open, grassy areas, with many benches for people to enjoy their day.
Trying to find the group of people from the church, he drove around a few parking lots. He stopped at maybe three of them and looked out into the grass fields. It seemed like a waste of time, but that day, he would have spent the whole day looking for them, regardless of the outcome.
Finally, he decided to park his car and walk around the grounds. He wore a white t-shirt, jeans, and his black leather shoes. It was a beautiful day: no clouds in the sky, a very cool breeze, coming from the ocean, and the temperature around the mid-seventies.
A wide and long ribbon of blue sky had opened up, tearing open the shimmering light-green veil that surrounded most of the earth. The ribbon’s length stretched from one end of the horizon to the other. Its width was about a tenth of the sky, centering directly above.
He took his time looking for Paige. As he carried a music player in his pant pocket, he enjoyed the music from it with the earbuds comfortably in his ears. He stopped for a few minutes along third base of one of the baseball fields.
As he watched a game, he couldn’t believe that he had been depriving himself of the simplicity of life.
A large group of adults sat behind the backstop. Their young kids, no more than ten years of age, played in the field. He saw them fumbling and missing balls in the outfield, and many batters swinging three strikes, at the simplest of pitches. Nobody kept score.
He was quite amused when he saw a young child at shortstop, wearing a large baseball cap that could fit his father’s head. The little boy attempted, over and over, to pick up a ball between his feet, using a completely oversized glove. He and the crowd watching thoroughly enjoyed the moment.
He looked down at the grass, looked up at the baseball game, and looked down again. For a brief moment, he loved life and pitied himself.
Then, he decided to move on and find Paige.
After walking from family to family picnicking on the grassy areas, and strolling through yet one more baseball game, be began to feel a bit lost.
On his music player, a wistful song started to play and set his mood.
He walked aimlessly for another minute.
Then, there was Paige.
Wearing a light blue tank top and blue jeans, Paige was on a blanket spread over the freshly cut green grass. Leaning on her arm, she folded her legs together under her. The wind blew a fresh breeze through her blonde hair that she had recently cut into a shorter bob.
He caught a glimpse of her laughing at Isaac, as he tried to catch soap bubbles in the air, being blown by a young girl a few feet away.
The longhaired man had to stop his stride and just watch.
As Paige looked on, Isaac chased the bubbles with his arms up. When they floated too high for him to touch, he twirled and twirled to watch the bubbles fly away from his grasp. Stretching his arms further up to the sky, he opened his mouth wide in laughter.
As he gazed at Paige in the distance, the world seemed to stop while the song played.
Then, Paige noticed him.
Beginning to stand, she waved her hand up in the air, to greet him. “Hey, we’re over here!” she called out, surprised to see him.
He waved back at her, as he walked closer. When he reached her, he removed one earbud from his ear and kept the other one on. He said, “I’m glad I found you guys. I kept driving around, and then decide to park and take a walk. It’s a beautiful day, isn’t it?
“Couldn’t have picked a better day. We’re lucky enough to get a little slice of blue sky. It’s been green for so long, I don’t remember the last time I’ve seen any blue,” she responded with a smile. She was happy to see him. Before he had arrived, she thought that she might have been too harsh, by smacking him on the shoulder, with her notepad. But now, she thought, smiling, If that’s what helped to get him to the picnic, I would have gladly done it again. Then, she said, “The kids are having so much fun. We got here about thirty minutes ago. There are drinks and burgers and hotdogs over there,” she said, as she pointed at some tables. “If you want something…”
“I’m good, thanks,” he said. Then, he blurted, “Wow, your hair is really short. I mean compared to how long it was…I mean. I guess I didn’t expect it.”
“Yeah, what do you think?” she asked, as she smiled and tilted her head from side to side.
He heard what she had asked, but he was looking into her eyes. He finally noticed their color; he was so taken by how much they glistened in the sunlight. Gazing into them, he followed the radial lines of her sparkling blue iris. Then, realizing that he took a long time to answer her question, he had to say something, “Well, just a few days ago your hair was really long.” He was still looking into her eyes, and without pausing for a moment between sentences, he said, “Wow, your eyes are really blue.” He looked as if he were in a daze.
Just as soon as he said it, he immediately felt awkward. Looking away, he began to nod his head. “Yeah…yup…uh, blue.” He put his hands in his pockets, looked down, and then looked back up at her with a sheepish grin, “That’s what they are…”
Paige giggled and didn’t know quite what to say, “Yeah, blue ever since I was a baby.”
Just in time to break the awkwardness, Preacher Man walked up to greet the two of them.
“Hey, glad you could make it,” the pastor said.
“Me too, Preacher Man. Me too,” he responded, with a content smile.
They spoke a few pleasantries, and then the pastor shook their hands, wished them a fun afternoon, and walked to greet others.
Paige called Isaac to come to her. “You know Isaac, right?” she said.
“Yeah, hey Isaac, having fun?” he greeted.
Isaac smiled and nodded his head.
He reached for a coin in his pocket and crouched down. “Wanna see a trick?”
Isaac was eager and nodded his head again.
He did his famous disappearing-coin-behind-the-ear trick.
Isaac was pleased and entertaine
d. “Keep it,” he told the boy, as he gave the coin, “and I’ll show you how it works later.”
Isaac ran off, with the coin in his hand, wanting to attempt the trick to his friends.
After watching Isaac go, he turned to Paige. Looking into her eyes, he was at a loss of words, and then he had to look down again. He didn’t know exactly what he was feeling. But, as he listened to the current song end on the music player, he knew exactly what song was coming next: Starlight by Muse. After a quick pause, the song began to play.
Immediately, he realized his emotions were a bit conflicted, about what he felt for Dancy and what he felt, as he looked at Paige. But he didn’t want to try to figure himself out. Instead, he turned his mind to something else: his song guesses. His fifty-fifty average of guessing the next song was getting better. He joked with himself that maybe he actually made it play this time.
Paige had turned away to watch Isaac again.
As he swept his gaze over her face, he couldn’t help but take notice of the details. With her hair tucked behind her ear, he saw she had a slight tan and her skin was smooth, reflecting the soft light from the sun. Her lips were not full, but maybe just slightly thin.
Then, Paige began to sit down, and he took her lead and sat with her. She turned to him and asked with a smile, “So, how are things going with you?”
“I’m keeping busy. Doing this and that,” he responded, deciding to hide the details.
“Really? What are you doing these days?”
“Well, what I’m doing these days, I could have never guessed a year ago,” he said, with a smile and a shake of his head.
“What’s that then?”
Trying to construct the right answer, he had to pause a moment. He started nodding his head, and with a smile, he finally said, “I’m on an extended vacation and working on some personal development challenges. But I’m well on my way to set some lofty personal goals.”
Paige laughed. “Ah, got it! If you say so.” She was amused by his description.
The laughter put him at ease.
Quickly, Paige leaned toward him, remembering something, “Hey, you’ll never guess what I saw in my bathroom the other day.”
RB 01 Through Flesh & Bone Page 33