Tangents, vol 1

by Rae Agatha

  The members of the commission exchanged looks; they were surprised, certainly nobody expected such turn of events.

  “I’m sure the commission is not interested in Ms. Fielding’s desperate attempt of defending herself –“Tom said.

  “All right, what is the evidence?”

  Brian smiled, walked toward the door and opened it.

  Anna said, “I would like to introduce you to Mr. Kevin Kensington, a private detective I hired over two weeks ago as I was seriously concerned about my safety due to Mr. Miller’s actions.”

  A bit chubby man in his fifties entered the room. He was wearing a grey suit and a hat which he took off once he walked inside. He was holding a brown, leather briefcase in his hand. Kensington walked toward the commission and shook hands with its members. He was asked by John Bay to take a seat next to Anna.

  “Good morning, my name’s Kevin Kensington, I work as a private detective in the Boston area. Here’s my card with the license information,” he said and handed the commission his business card before sitting next to Anna.

  Tom Miller started sweating, he poured himself some water.

  “So, Mr. Kensington, what can you tell us about Mr. Miller?” Joan Lester asked.

  “Ms. Fielding hired me over two weeks ago to check if Mr. Miller had been spying on her. I have numerous evidence he, in fact, had,” Kensington opened his briefcase and took out photos from it. “If I may?“ He got up and looked at the commission. John Bay allowed him to approach them. “Here are pictures of Tom Miller’s car parked outside Anna Fielding’s tenement. You can clearly see the licence plate numbers and here in this photo – Mr. Miller himself. Taking pictures with quite an impressive lens, pointed at Anna’s window.”

  “I think it’s a free country, I can park my car wherever I want!” Tom said angrily.

  “Of course, but it’s a bit suspicious when you park your car every day at the same place, the commission can see photos were taken on different days, the date is in the corner, on exactly the same spot, and always, always when Mr. Grant would come to visit Anna Fielding. May I?”

  The detective asked if he could use the TV in the room. Michael Walt allowed him and Kevin plugged in a flashdrive. He pushed a couple of buttons on the remote control and everyone saw a clip of Brian walking into Anna’s staircase and about five minutes later, Tom Miller parking his car on his usual spot, equipped with the camera, pointing it up.

  “Mr. Miller did not show the commission the photos he took from his car, because he probably knows he has crossed the line, it’d be quite difficult to explain why he would have the photos of his colleague, of her in her apartment, in her living room. In my opinion he was taking the pictures for his own pleasure. Ms. Fielding let me in to the teachers’ room and we opened Mr. Miller’s locker, here are the photos I took when I searched it.”

  Miller’s locker was filled with photos of Anna in her apartment, with Brian or without. There were also photos of them walking at the beach during the Thanksgiving trip. All of them were great quality pictures, taken by high-quality equipment, not a cell phone.

  “This is bullshit! It’s outrageous! How the hell did you get into my locker?!” Tom yelled.

  “Calm down, Tom,” Brian said firmly and pulled him back into his seat. He was shocked to see all the pictures.

  “Ms. Fielding, how did you get to open the locker?” asked Walt, looking through the photos.

  “I told the janitor that Tom had some of my books, books which I needed, in his locker, that he forgot to give them back to me,” Anna replied. “I don’t think janitors ought to give the keys to the lockers to anybody else but their owners, and I did not even think I’d manage to get the key, but it looks like we all have some ethical problems in this college, don’t we?”

  “We weren’t sure Mr. Miller had the photos in the locker, but we both decided it was worth to look for them there,” added Kensington.

  Anna thought her stomach would turn upside-down. She hadn’t seen most of the materials yet, was hoping to get familiar with them for the meeting she wanted to organize with the Academy’s authorities, but since things had been happening much sooner, she was looking at almost everything for the first time.

  Each of the clips displayed on the TV, and there were eleven of them, each with a date visible on the screen, showed the same pattern – Brian coming to Anna, a few minutes later there was Tom’s car appearing, then late at night Brian would leave and Tom would drive away. He was there every day. Watching, taking pictures, observing.

  “Also, I have checked that Mr. Miller has no family in Reading, and as far as I have been able to establish, no friends either, so it’s highly probable he was there on Christmas Day only to follow Ms. Fielding and Mr. Grant.”

  “I would also like to point out that since the beginning of my relationship with Brian, Mr. Miller kept on grilling me about my private life, whether I was seeing anybody, and he kept on making highly unsettling remarks about me regretting my decisions, even though he had never expressed directly what he had in mind.”

  “Yes, I can confirm that,” Mark Hampton said.

  “What can you confirm, Mr. Hampton?” Michael Walt asked.

  “I heard Tom asking Anna highly personal questions many times, he also kept asking the rest of the teachers if they knew if Anna was seeing anyone and, if so, if they knew who it was. Now it seems to me he was needling them to mistrust Anna, to confirm his little investigation, so that he wouldn’t be alone in accusing her.”

  “That’s a lie, Mark, and you know it!” Tom yelled.

  “Calm down, Mr. Miller!” John Bay said harshly.

  “She’s violated the Academy’s reputation, the values the Academy believes in. What difference does it make how it was exposed?!”

  “Shut up, Tom, you sick bastard,” Mark Hampton hissed.

  “The commission would like to announce a break. Let’s meet again in an hour. We need to get familiar with the materials brought here by Mr. Kensington,” Joan Lester said.

  ***

  Five minutes later, they were all outside. Tom disappeared, Anna and Brian were sitting together. Brian took her hand and Anna did not oppose. She smiled to him.

  “I think we’re screwed, Brian. I am for sure.”

  “If you are, we both are,” he kissed her hand.

  “Anna,” Mark came up to them and sat next to her. “I wanted to say that I do not approve all this …“ he waggled his finger at them, “but you’re a great teacher and I know the students like your lectures, they value your work; I value you as my colleague. I’m very sorry things have been - like this,” he added and drank some coffee from a plastic cup.

  “Thank you, Mark, I really appreciate it.”

  “What are you going to do about Tom?”

  “I don’t know. I hope he gets scared senseless and lets this go, but I don’t know yet.”

  ***

  “So, what happened?” Dan asked.

  “I lost my job, Tom lost his job, Brian got suspended for one term,” she replied yawning.

  “You should sue him.”

  “Yeah, in America we sue each other left and right. I am thinking about it,” she replied a bit ironically.

  “You haven’t made the decision yet?”

  “No, I mean Tom disappeared. He left the commission meeting and never came back. It’s been about three weeks, he’s been quiet. Perhaps he ran away, he knows with me holding all the evidence I have against him, maybe he doesn’t want to mess with me.”

  “But he was spying on you.”

  “Yes, but, I mean you know, he’s been quite harmless. Sitting in his car by my place. It’s not like he was seriously stalking me, coming to my place, hacking my e-mail or bugging my phone, things like that. I don’t think he’ll do anything more. I hope he doesn’t.”

  “But you did lose your job because of him, that’s at least one concrete proof his action against you were harmful.”

  “I kind of gave him a pretext to att
ack him, didn’t I?”

  “Are you still with Brian?”

  “Yes.”

  “Do you think it’s what you want?”

  “Maybe,” Anna smiled. “Things look good. Well, I need to get some sleep, I’m so tired, I’m having a hard time reopening my eyes when I blink, I’m dead beat,” she yawned.

  “Yeah, I better get some sleep too,” Dan got up and brought them both blankets and pillows.

  Chapter 7

  Rick flinched; it felt like something was making his skin crawl. He swatted, scratched his forearm, and woke up. He blinked a few times, and had no idea where he was. He rubbed his eyes, surprised by a total darkness surrounding him and turned on his back. A fluorescent no-smoking sign was delicately glowing above his head and he immediately remembered everything. Rick sat up on the seat and looked around. Opposite from him Anna and Dan were fast asleep; their breathing was steady and deep, Dan was snoring quietly.

  Rick clumsily got up and bent over to see Anna’s watch. It was 2:40 p.m., which meant he slept about nine hours. 2:40 p.m. and yet it was still dark, it was still nighttime. When Rick’s eyes adjusted to the darkness, he walked to the back of the plane and checked out the lavatory wondering if there was some water left in the pipes so he could wash his face. He got into the tiny room and spotted a pedal under the sink; he pushed it and some drops of water indeed started flowing from the faucet, but it was greenish and looked more like water-downed mud. It smelled horrible, too.

  “Disgusting,” he whispered as the grimace of revulsion appeared on his face.

  Rick recalled the moist towelettes Dan found. He opened one package and cleared his face, necks and hands with the moist piece of material.

  His thoughts were centering around Mon. It felt weird not being with her for so long, once again he hoped it was all a dream, this thing they were all experiencing. He hoped that Mon wasn’t worrying about him not coming back home. Rick promised himself that the moment he awoke, the moment it all ended, he would do everything he could to fix their relationship. The previous two months between them were horrible, he had had enough, something had to be done to make it right again.

  He came out and saw Anna sitting on her seat. She was yawning and was looking around confused.

  “Hi, Rick,” she said quietly, rubbing her eyes.

  “Hi.”

  “It’s already 3:05 p.m., why is it still so dark?”

  “Looks like it’s still night outside.”

  “You’re kidding!” she said, and lifted the blind on her window with a finger. A ray of pallid light shone inside the plane. Anna put it down; she thought it might wake up Dan.

  “How long do you think the night will be?” She asked.

  Rick shrugged his shoulders. “If it’s to be as long as the day, then we’re still looking at many more hours of darkness ahead of us.”

  She looked worried, Rick felt a bit sorry for her. “I mean, I don’t suppose we’re anywhere near the poles, so I do hope it’s going to be less than six months,” he laughed a bit to cheer her up. She smiled sadly at him. Dumb joke, he thought.

  “I’ve left the moist towelettes in the lavatory, if you feel like washing yourself a bit,” he said.

  “Okay, I’ll go.”

  She carefully got up and went to the back of the plane. Rick thought he’d had enough of the darkness around them so he walked to the front of the plane. He lifted the blinds of two windows, far enough from Dan not to wake him, but enough for Rick to see things outside. Then he took down the curtain between the cockpit and the rest of the plane. It helped to let some of the moon light into the fuselage. He sat on one of the pilot seats stretching his legs atop the control panel.

  “Hey,” Anna said behind him.

  “Hey. Check this out,” he said and pointed ahead.

  The view was amazing; two gigantic moons were hanging above the skyline, one was visibly smaller, it was probably further anyway. They lit the fields and forests giving the wheat and the sequoias a mysterious silver shade. It seemed there were millions of stars above them, some of them were creating a galaxy-like shape, which looked like a thick rope in the sky.

  “This is unbelievable,” Anna whispered, she sat on the next seat.

  Rick had to agree. It was mesmerizing, beautiful.

  “Can you recognize any constellations? Is this sky even remotely familiar to the one we know?” She asked.

  “No, but then again, I’ve never been very interested in those things, so I can’t tell.”

  “Red, right?” She said and gave him a bottle of wine.

  “Oh, this just keeps getting better and better,” Rick laughed and took the bottle. She had one for herself too and was unscrewing it. “I think it’d be good if we found some water to drink, though, I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m all for having some wine now and then, but we might run out of it quite soon.”

  “Maybe when the day comes back, like a year from now, we could go back to that spring we found in the woods and get some water there?”

  “And transport it here how exactly?”

  “Well – in, empty wine bottles!” They laughed and they clinked their bottles.

  “You know, under normal circumstances, we’d probably have to pay a lot of money for a room with such a view,” she said.

  “Under normal circumstances, I don’t think we’d have a chance to see two moons in the sky. Not while being sober, at least.”

  “Well, let’s enjoy it then,” she drank some wine. “How old are you, Rick?”

  “I’m thirty-five. You?”

  She snorted.

  “What? I look younger? Yeah, everybody says that,” Rick joked.

  “No, this is just so fucked up, oh my God,” she shook her head in disbelief. “I’m thirty-two, I’m three years younger than you, right? But in 2013, you’ll be actually forty-seven, so, like, fifteen years older than me. This is nuts, like, totally bonkers.”

  He hadn’t thought of that before. She was right, it really was insane.

  “So, what’s the future like?” Rick asked.

  “You’re sure you wanna know?”

  “Is it that bad?”

  “No, that’s not what I meant, I just thought you might prefer some surprises, and not know everything in advance.”

  “It’s okay, I’m curious,” he said and drank some wine.

  “I don’t think I can tell you much about the twelve years between us, I mean so many things have happened, I’m sure I don’t remember everything. Um, the cell phones are now like mini computers.”

  “Meaning what?”

  “Meaning you can surf the internet using them, check and send e-mails, use them for teleconferencing, for updating your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and so on and so forth.”

  “Facebook? Twi-what?”

  Anna looked at him. “You’ll get there.”

  “So, no more Snake game?” He smiled and drank the wine.

  “Ha, ha, the Snake, no I don’t think so, now it’s the Angry Birds’ era,” she said. “What else – oh! Michael Jackson’s dead.”

  “What?! When?”

  “2009, I think. Ha, Dan doesn’t know either.”

  “How did he die?”

  “Because of some medicine he was or wasn’t given, I don’t know, can’t remember the details.”

  “Damn. Anything else?”

  “Really? Isn’t it weird for you to know, like?”

  “It, weird, but I love it. Imagine how many bets I’m going to win when I go back,” Rick joked. “Too bad you don’t remember any lottery numbers or sports results,” he winked.

  “Funny, you’re gonna have memories from the future,” she snorted with laughter.

  “Memories from the future? Now that sounds like a good name for some punk rock band,” Rick laughed, too.

  “You think we’re going to go back?”

  “Absolutely,” he immediately became serious and replied firmly. “I don’t doubt it for a second.”

  “Is there
anyone you’re going back to?”

  “Yes, my wife, Monica.”

  “How long have you been together?”

  “Over ten years, but we’ve known each other much longer than that.”

  “Are you a good couple?”

  Rick took a sip of wine and looked at her seriously. “The best.”

  “Okay,” she sighed. “So, the future, what else, let me think. 2013 hasn’t really unfurled yet, I mean it’s only February, but in 2012 there was a gigantic hurricane, Sandy. It hit the East Coast, it was devastating. Oh, and Barack Obama was re-elected.”

  “Is he a Republican or a Democrat?”

  “A Democrat. Your president is George W. Bush, right?”

  “Yep.”

  “He’ll be the president for some time. Like, until 2009.”

  “How about something not political?”

  “A massacre in Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, twenty-six people dead, mostly kids. It was in December.”

  “Jesus, Anna, how about any news about people not dying? Seriously,” Rick laughed.

  “Well, the dramatic events are easier to remember. Wait, let me think,“ Anna drank some wine. “So, no natural disasters, terrorism attacks, wars and the biggest financial crisis since 1929? You’re sure? There’s like a lot of that stuff.”

  “Oh my God,” Rick smiled in disbelief.

  “What are you guys doing?” Dan was standing behind them, groggy, with unkempt hair.

  “Enjoying the view,” Rick replied and pointed at the window.

  “Oh my God,” Dan said in awe and sat down right behind them. “What time is it?”

  “It’s almost 4 p.m.,” Anna looked at her watch and replied.

  “And it looks like this?” Dan pointed at the moons.

  “Yep.”