"Oh I can't wait to see her too." He closed the door. "So I can wring her neck," she added he walked around to the other side of the car.
2
How could he be so stupid? It probably wasn't the millionth time Justin'd asked himself that question but it wasn't the first time either. Running off down a crowded street. In a city where he'd never been. And twenty-five, sorry, twenty-four, years in the past. Let's not forget that. You couldn't forget that. Things were different. You could smell the cars. Get near a lot of them and they actually make your eyes sting. And he'd seen a guy turning from some kind of machine on the wall of a building. The guy was stuffing money into his wallet. Actual paper money. Probably had those little plastic cards in there too. What'd they call them? Credit cards. Justin'd almost asked if he could look but'd stopped himself in time. And the cars. He stopped at a curb when the light changed. Started to step off when it turned green but felt someone yank at his arm and pull him back just as the car sped past.
"How'd he do that?" Justin asked the guy who'd pulled him back on the curb. "The light was red." The guy just raised his eyebrows and laughed. Shook his head. No. You couldn't forget it's the past. And somewhere in Wisconsin a three-year-old Justin was running around without a care in the world. What would his parents think if they came upon him as an adult? Wandering around aimlessly? Probably that he hadn't changed much. How could he be so stupid?
They'd given him that communication device, that hard screen they called a cell phone. And where was it? Not in his pocket. Must've fallen out when he'd gotten out of the car. Then he'd left Monica, who was barely able to walk, sitting in the car that he'd abandoned in the middle of the street. What'd he been thinking? What was he going to do? Where was he supposed to go? How was he going to get back?
How was he going to get back?
He'd jogged through the people on the sidewalk, chasing glimpses of Sarah between the backs of heads in front of him, turning corners without paying attention to where he was. He'd gone as fast as he could but his glimpses were from farther and farther away with more and more time between them until he'd finally lost her. He'd kept going for a while, straining for a glimpse of the back of her head, but eventually gave up hope of finding her and was wandering in the general direction where he'd last seen her when the thought hit him. Stopped him in his tracks. In the rush to send them off they hadn't told him how to get back. Hadn't even told him where the attack would be. Some guy hurrying behind him rammed his shoulder, glared at him as he passed, but Justin barely noticed. Just stick with Sarah they'd told him. Ha. That's a good one. Like sticking to a roman candle. He'd be, did a quick calculation, fifty-one by the time he got back home for Thanksgiving. He and his father would be the same age. Would he be bald too? He'd never thought about looking like dad but somehow the thought of being the same age... He gave his hair a little tug and got a strange look from a woman passing. He started walking again. How was he going to explain that to his parents? Should he try to get to Wisconsin? Explain it to them now? Somehow that didn't seem like a good idea.
Justin was halfway down the next block when he saw him. For a second it didn't register. It was just the back of another head in the flow of pedestrians, but something about it caught his attention. Following this time was easier, this head was moving a lot slower than Sarah's'd been, and Justin was able to keep up easily. It occurred to him that he should try to be slick about it. But the pace never varied and the head never turned, to the point that Justin started to think he was imagining things. It wasn't him. But after what seemed like a hundred blocks, the back of the head turned to cross the street and Justin got the full profile.
It was more of a shock than he'd've thought. He was in the past after all. Had been agonizing over that only a few minutes ago. But somehow seeing the younger version of the same face was unsettling, almost shocking. Justin stopped, then it occurred to him. Not only was Pruitt much younger, he wouldn't have any idea who Justin was. Justin walked right up and stood next to him at the corner, watching the cars. The drivers. The drivers fascinated him. Their faces, some intent, some not looking at the road at all, one woman had one hand against her ear and was waving the other around her head. Justin had an almost irresistible urge to nudge Pruitt and say, 'Wow. How does she do that?'
But he fought it off until the light turned and they were walking across the street. And just what was Pruitt's younger self doing here anyway? That was no coincidence. All the obsessing about avoiding yourself in the past and it didn't occur to Pruitt to mention that he'd be walking around that time and place? You didn't need to be a chrononaut to know that smelled bad.
Justin trailed after him for a half block when Pruitt turned and stepped in between two parked cars. Justin hesitated as Pruitt looked both ways then walked across the street. Follow him? Pruitt may not recognize him but Justin wouldn't be very invisible running across the middle of the street after him. Why'd he crossed? Had he realized Justin was following him? Justin drifted back across the sidewalk as Pruitt reached the other side, walked straight across the sidewalk, and walked up to an apartment building. He was just disappearing through the front door when Justin felt the window of the building behind him against his back and stopped. OK. Now he knows Pruitt's here, wherever here is. That doesn't get him any closer to getting back. He wasn't any closer to Sarah or Monica. Still didn't have any idea...
"Are you deaf and stupid?"
The voice hissed in his ear the same time as he was yanked into a doorway by his arm.
3
"What are you doing here anyway? What are we doing here?"
"Not so loud." Sarah waved a palm up and down over the table and glanced around. The handful of people sitting around the coffee shop weren't paying any attention. Two young people arguing over a diner table wasn't anything worth noticing. Justin looked around again. Weird, how different it was. The way people dressed. The fact that people were just walking around, sitting in a diner. No metal detectors. No guards. This is what it was like. How far is it to Wisconsin? Could he actually go there? 'Hi mom. I was just in the neighborhood and thought I'd drop by.'
"What are you staring at?"
"It's all so different."
She started to say something but settled for a shake of her head and looked around. A couple of teenage guys at a table across the room shot what they thought were surreptitious glances in her direction and she glared at them until they felt the sudden need to stare down into their hamburgers.
"You seem to fit in though."
"Staring down babies is timeless."
"So what are we doing here anyway?" He brought himself back to the problem at hand. God knows that was enough to occupy him. "What did Monica mean? What did she want me to ask you?" He lowered his voice and leaned over the table. "Why aren't we at the staging area, getting ready for tomorrow?"
"So go there. I'll meet you," she said without looking across the table. She kept her eyes on the house that Pruitt'd gone into.
"And what's Pruitt doing here? And," he raised a hand, palm out, "don't try to tell me you don't know."
"I don't know," she said, and actually looked curious. She had a way of biting her lip when she was thinking that for some reason reached in and tugged at Justin's heart strings. Not that he was attracted to her. She was attractive. Very attractive. But it wasn't that way. "I have to agree with you about that," she went on. "That's no coincidence."
"I didn't say it wasn't a coincidence."
"Do you think it's a coincidence?"
"Well...No. But if he's involved we need to be ready. To bring back proof." He leaned across the table. "We can't let him get away with it. Whatever it is."
"Don't worry. We're not going to let him get away with it."
"Great. So what do we do now?"
"You go to the staging area. I will meet you there."
He shook his head. "We're partners. They told me to stay with you and that's what I'm...hey. Ow." She'd reach
ed across the small table and gripped his arm. Dug her nails into it. He started to pull it away, wondering what he'd done now, but the look on her face stopped him. Justin followed her eyes out of the streaked window. A young women holding a small suitcase stood in front of the building where Pruitt'd disappeared. Sarah stared at her with something in her eyes he didn't understand. She'd frozen. Didn't seem to be breathing. An ancient white van wheezed to a stop in front of the young woman, blocking her from view.
"Who's that?"
Sarah turned her head and stared wildly across the table at him, seemed to slowly realize where she was. She looked down at her hand and let go of his arm. He pulled it back and rubbed it. She turned her eyes back toward the street. Men piled out of the van. The young woman reappeared walking down the sidewalk as a police car pulled up in front of the coffee shop. Sarah seemed to be fighting some kind of internal struggle.
"Wait here," she said when the woman disappeared around the corner. She jumped up from the table and Justin stood with her.
"I'm going with you."
"I'll be right back."
"Then so will I."
"Excuse me."
They both turned. The man behind the counter had come out and was holding a piece of paper in front of him.
"What's that?"
"That," he explained in an accent Justin couldn't identify, "...is the bill. Six dollars and thirty-four cents. Tip not included."
"Pay him," Sarah snapped. She turned to the door and ran right into the arms of a cop. They hadn't even heard him come in.
"This her?" the cop asked Monica, who'd walked in behind him, glaring at Sarah.
"They tried to run out on the check."
"We did not." Sarah reached into the back pocket of her skirt and pulled out a wad of bills. She stared at them for a second and dropped the pile on the table. "There."
"That's her," Monica said.
"That's a hundred dollars."
"Hold it a second miss." They both walked right past Justin. He watched the desperate look in Sarah's eyes as she looked to the corner where the woman'd disappeared. He gave her a quick nod and pushed out the door. The cop didn't even seem to notice him.
He got out onto the sidewalk and broke into a jog. He didn't need to hurry. When he turned the corner she was still clearly visible, not fifty feet down the street. And just beyond her...
Justin'd grown up on a farm in Wisconsin. The mean streets of an inner city were something he only saw on the screens, but he knew they were up to no good. There were three of them, their eyes locked on the young woman he was following. She'd sensed it too. Her body tensed. Her arm down tightly over the purse hanging from her shoulder. The suitcase seemed to get closer to her body. They stopped what they were doing, not that they were doing much, but the one that'd been bouncing between the curb and street stood still with one foot on each. The one that'd been sitting on the curb stood. The one leaning on the hood of the car shoved his hands farther into his pockets. They weren't that old, teenagers, watching her walking down the street. Why was she still doing that? Walking down the street? Why didn't she stop? Turn? It was the middle of the day, but Justin didn't see anyone else the length of the street. She slowed and the punks noticed. You could tell. The one leaning on the car stood, the other two took a step forward. Justin started running. He was almost to her when she turned and ran right into him.
He grabbed her by the arms and glared over her shoulder. They hadn't noticed him, their eyes on the easy prey. They stared as Justin turned her around and guided her down the sidewalk past them. They'd lose a footrace anyway so he brazened it out. They watched warily, calculating, as the two of them passed within a few feet, but didn't follow. Just stood and watched. Why? Justin's brain turned on as they passed and his adrenaline began to subside. They'd've pounded him into the cement. He'd never even been in a fight. He hadn't noticed his heart thumping in his chest but he could feel it now. Could hear it.
"Thanks," she said after they'd tottered out of ear shot, throwing a glance over her shoulder.
"No problem." He smiled weakly, hoping his knees didn't buckle. "Let's go find someplace to sit down."
4
"You don't have any idea what you've done."
"I've saved you from doing something stupid," Monica shot back from the room's lone chair that she'd fallen into when they'd gotten to the motel that was the staging area for the mission. Sarah paced the threadbare carpet, her arms crossed. "I don't know what it was but I have no doubt it was colossal."
"You don't have any idea," Sarah repeated and then, after an hour of arguing pointlessly and to Monica's shock, Sarah burst out in tears.
"Sarah?" Monica stood, teetered on her good ankle, reached a hand out. Sarah fell onto her shoulder, sobbing. It was like Mount Rushmore cracking. On the list of things she never expected to see, Sarah crying was near the top. Maybe below Pruitt helping a stray kitten, certainly above pigs flying.
"You don't know what you've done," Sarah sobbed into her shoulder and Monica fought to maintain the smug superiority that she was saving the day. "How could you?"
Sarah pushed herself away and walked into the bathroom. Monica heard something spin. What was that? Sarah came out blowing her nose into a handful of, what was that? Toilet paper? That's right. In two thousand twelve they hadn't automated bathrooms...she was going to have to...eew. Could she hold it until she got back?
"What?"
"Nothing." Monica shook off the thought. "What have I done? Kept you and Agnes from a massive intervention? I know I've done that."
Sarah gave a last gigantic snort into the pile of toilet paper and threw it into the trash can before dropping into the chair. She glared at Monica over her crossed arms. "Pruitt was there," she finally said.
"Pruitt? You saw Pruitt?" Her mind flew back to the explosion in the launch room as she'd left. "He followed us? But why? How?"
Sarah slowly shook her head and Monica's eyes widened. "You mean," she said slowly, "Pruitt was here? In two thousand twelve?"
Sarah nodded. "In the very building where Agnes told me they'd be meeting."
"How did Agnes know where they'd be meeting?"
Sarah frowned at that. "She wouldn't tell me," she admitted. " My guess is she got it from the prisoner."
"I thought he hadn't talked to anyone."
Sarah shrugged. "She must've gotten to him after I did. Anyway she said I'd understand everything when I got in the van."
"Got in the van? What van?"
"That white van. Across the street from the diner."
"I didn't notice it."
Sarah sighed. "It's theirs."
"Their?"
"The killers. Their van. Probably with their guns in it. She wasn't sure about that but she thought so. I was supposed to get in and tell the driver to go and get rid of it somewhere."
"Why would he do that?"
Sarah shook her head. "I don't know," she admitted. "Agnes seemed sure he would."
Monica lowered herself onto the bed and stared at Sarah. "And you're sure? It was Pruitt?"
"Dingbat Justin saw him too. I was arguing with him about it. He's with you in the do nothing camp." She sighed and slumped back into the chair. Shook her head. "You don't understand."
"What don't I understand? And where did Justin go anyway? I thought he was just avoiding the policeman but he should've been here by now."
"He followed my mother," Sarah said, her voice shaking.
"Your mother? She was there? She wasn't..."
"She couldn't be," Sarah snapped. She jumped out of the chair and started pacing again. "She left when Pruitt got there. Before they started. She couldn't be involved. She was a victim for Chrissake." She stopped and looked down at Monica. "I never expected to see her there. When I did I just..." she waved her hands around her head, "...oh I don't know. I just forgot everything else. I thought there might be a better way."
"A better way? What ar
e you talking about?" Maybe she didn't understand. She sure didn't feel as if she understood.
"I thought maybe she was going to meet my father. That if I got to them I could..." she burst into tears again and stomped into the bathroom.
"I thought you don't know who your father is." Weren't things supposed to get less confusing as people explain them?
"I don't," she said through the pile of tissue under her nose. "I only know one thing about him." She wiped her face off and threw the wad into the trash and took a deep breath. "My father," she said, "...died in that attack."
5
"Are you alright?"
"That's the tenth time you've asked." She managed a wan smile. "I'm fine. Just shaken up. I should be going," she added, but she didn't move.
"Where were you headed?" Justin asked. They'd found another coffee shop, the city seemed to be full of them, several blocks from their close encounter with whatever fate they'd been lucky enough to avoid. They'd been sitting, not even talking. And now she needed to go. Justin did too. They'd sat here over an hour already. For all he knew Monica and Sarah were in jail. What would he do then? Go on with the mission? Spring them? Anyway he had to go. Had to figure out what to do. Had to go. Now.
"I've got a room at the hotel for the conference. I'm on the executive committee. I guess I was heading there. I just wanted to get out. I hate it when those people are there."
"Those people?"
She shook her head. "Friends of my roommate's. No," she corrected herself, holding her hands around her coffee cup as if warming them, although it had to be as cold as Justin's by now. "Not friends. It started with that one, Pruitt. She fell for him like a ton of bricks." She glanced up and smiled shyly. "I don't know whether you know what that's like." Justin felt his heart rise into his throat.. Me? Ton of bricks? Not that I can think of. "Anyway," she shook the smile off her face. "He was the wrong one to fall for. Bad news," she sighed. "I don't know what it is about him. He's just...Anyway he's got her involved in something. I don't know what. I don't know her all that well but she's usually so level headed. And now she's scared about something. I'm sure of it." Her eyes stared past him. "And his friends. There's one in particular." She shuddered.
Soul Source: Back and There Again Page 28