by Brandt Legg
“I want to do drugs. Or at least have a candy bar.” It wasn’t long before we were in California. “Do you mind if I crash for a few minutes?” I asked.
“Sure. Tanya and Bridgette in one day, it’s a lot to handle, isn’t it?”
Half the trip was gone before I surfaced again.
58
“I don’t want it to be true about Bridgette. Our parents were so into themselves. Bridge and I were like trophies for them to argue about. So, we were all each of us had, you know, much more than sisters. I’m just sick. It’s impossible! I can’t believe she’s helping them.” The rest of the drive—at the end of rush-hour traffic—was more stressful as we played out the best way to get the truth from Bridgette.
We stopped for a quick dinner at a mall so Amber could get a change of clothes. “You could use something else to wear yourself.” She waved a credit card at me. “It’s Mom’s!” The mall trip made me feel almost normal again, as if we were just a couple of teenagers shopping for clothes. Mom phoned and said the call with the attorney and Sam was set for noon tomorrow, and that if it went well, his sister would fly in to meet us over the weekend. She has reliable sources within the media and Homeland Security, and she even has a contact on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, which oversees the CIA. Sam talked her into taking our case for a very reduced fee. Finally some good news. Things were looking up.
The Academy of Art University occupied several buildings in downtown San Francisco. I was surprised there were more than 17,000 students and wondered where they kept them all. Amber had been there before and easily found the right building, although we had to park a few blocks away. Standing in the hall outside Bridgette’s dorm room, I asked if she was ready.
“No.” She knocked.
Rod, Bridgette’s boyfriend, opened the door and was visibly shocked to see us.
“Bridge, uh . . . Amber’s here with, uh . . . Nate.”
“What?” Bridgette appeared behind him. “Amber, what are you doing here? I thought . . . Wasn’t Nate going to the beach house?”
“Bridge, can we go for a walk?”
“Yeah. Sure. What’s going on?”
Rod and I followed uncomfortably as the girls went down the stairs. By the time we were out on the street, they had erupted into an argument.
“I am not helping the government!”
“You’re lying. We came all the way here to get the truth.”
“This whole thing with Nate is crazy. I mean his whole family is crazy!”
“Bridgette, has the field agent called you for further clarification of the data?” I shouted.
She turned to me stunned.
“We haven’t done anything wrong—” Rod started to say.
Bridgette held up her hand.
“Bridge, Nate’s not crazy; he’s psychic.”
“Oh yeah, then what am I thinking right now?”
“It doesn’t work that way.”
“I’ll bet it doesn’t.”
“Hey, you’re the one who betrayed us.”
“Us? What, are you two married now?”
“Shut up Bridge. Just admit it.”
“Don’t admit anything Bridge. They don’t know anything,” Rod said.
People were staring. Amber led us to a bench on the corner in one of those micro parks.
“What don’t we know?” Amber yelled at Bridgette.
“Nothing.”
“Let me see your phone. There’s a 703 area code on there from this morning, I can tell you the whole number if you want,” I said, reaching for her phone.
Rod shoved me.
“Let me see your phone,” Amber said calmly. “If there’s no 703 number on there, I’ll believe you.”
“No.”
“We didn’t do anything wrong,” Rod repeated.
“Why’d you do it?” Amber asked softly.
“It’s all so intense—”
“Don’t!” Rod snapped.
“Rod got into this big mess,” she said. “He needed money for tuition. His mom died, and he had this job waiting tables.”
Rod sat on the bench with his head in his hands.
“At first he just double-charged customers’ credit cards, but soon he started selling the numbers. Then he got a couple more people involved, and it just got out of hand. I only helped a little near the end. Then, we got busted. And it turned into a federal crime because of some interstate commerce thing, and soon the FBI was talking to us. We were going to get indicted when suddenly they offered us a deal.”
“What kind of deal?” Amber asked.
“Full immunity for Rod and me if I just told them everything you said about Nate.”
“So, you didn’t care about what I was going through. You just needed to fulfill your contract.”
“No, I care about you more than anything, Amber.”
“So you turned on us?”
“If I got arrested . . . you think the media is having a field day with Mom about the divorce? They’d destroy her over this.”
“So, get Nate and maybe me killed so Mom doesn’t get on the cover of the Enquirer again this month?”
“They aren’t going to kill anyone. You guys are a couple of minors. I doubt they could even get any charges to stick. Amber, they don’t even have anything on you.”
“You’re incredibly stupid sometimes.”
“I’m not the one running around with a fugitive psycho.”
“Yeah, congratulations. You’re running around with Mr. Credit Card Fraud over there.”
Rod looked up but didn’t say anything.
“I love him, Amber. He’s not a horrible person—he just made a mistake. We’ve all done things we’d like to take back.”
“What’s going to happen now?” Amber asked. “I mean, I’m not going to tell you another syllable about my life. What happens to your deal when you have no more information for them?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did you even talk to an attorney?” Amber asked.
“No.”
“Who cares if she talked to an attorney?” I said. “She almost got me killed. I’m lucky to be here. Because of her, Fitts got to Dustin before we did. And Rose is dead as a direct result of Bridgette talking to them,” I screamed at Bridgette, stopping just short of pushing her down. “You’re a stupid, self-absorbed airhead!”
“It’s true Bridge, it’s really true.”
“They told us Nate and Dustin were involved in some domestic terrorism plot,” Rod said.
“Do I look like a terrorist?” I asked. “Bridgette, you may think Dustin’s a loon, but you know he’s been locked away in an institution for two years and I’m like a goody-two-shoes. Terrorists? That’s what they say now to get around all the rules and throw out the Constitution.” I wanted to shake them both. “Every government in the history of the world has eventually betrayed its people. And it’s not like the whole government is after me. They’re just a small part, but the bureaucracy is so massive that even a corrupt few can wield incredible power against anyone who gets in their way.
“Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely,” I continued. “They have the power. Any suspicion at all, real or imagined, and they can throw you in a military prison indefinitely. No evidence, no formal charge, no jury, no trial, just jail for as long as they want. It’s like the Inquisition all over again.”
“Why are they after you?” Bridgette asked.
“Come on, Amber’s told you enough. They killed my dad, and they know I know it. They think I have proof of that and of many other murders, including my aunt’s.”
“Do you?” Rod asked.
“I’m not telling you two anything.”
“What can we do?” Bridgette asked.
“I think you better find a good attorney and get them to look at your deal,” Amber said.
“They didn’t give us anything in writing,” Rod said.
“Of course they didn’t.” I shook my head.
“Amber, w
e really should go. If they’ve bugged her room, then they know we’re here.”
“My room may be bugged?”
We didn’t talk until we were half a block away. “Poor Bridge,” Amber said.
“I wouldn’t want her karma.”
“Maybe we can still help her clear it.”
“I’m only trying to figure out the ramifications of what she’s done.”
59
After a call with her mother, Amber hung up, smiling. “We’ve got a room.”
It was only a couple of blocks away. Halfway there, a bum holding a cardboard sign that read, “The end is near,” caught my eye.
“If it isn’t the young wizard. Nathan, quick, don’t look now, but I think there’s a beautiful girl following you.”
“Crowd, what are you doing here?”
“You two know each other?” Amber scrunched her face.
“Oh, my pretty, he has lots of dirty friends. We party in the sewers, eat in dumpsters, shop at the landfill and sometimes we take little girls like you into our secret leper colonies and do things I hesitate to mention here on a public street.”
Amber started laughing.
“A sense of humor? I should have known you’d pick a girl who knows how to laugh.” He motioned back to Amber. “Excuse me, sweetheart, I really need to urinate, could you give me a hand.”
“You’re disgusting.”
“I could say the same about you, Amber.” He smiled.
“How do you know my name?”
“Amber, meet Crowd, he’s a mystic.”
“He’s a mystic?”
“Not what you pictured, huh Missy?”
“Not even close.” She studied him, trying to find the wise man under the filth.
He was dirtier and smellier than when I first met him.
“That’s okay, you and Nate don’t look like who you really are either.”
“Why are you here?” I asked.
“A warning, my young brother. This city is crossed by faults in the earth. It’s a shaky place.”
“Should I leave?”
“Why leave? What difference would it make? Wherever you go, there you are.”
“If you’re here to warn me, then I need something a little more specific.”
“Then remember these words, when the wind is at your back, don’t trust a dying man.”
I couldn’t make sense of anything he was saying.
“Now, get out of here. Isn’t it past your bedtime?”
“Do you need any money?” Amber asked.
He winked at me.
“Crowd, we’ve got a room nearby. You want to come and take a shower, clean up a bit? Sleep inside?”
“No, you kids go have fun. But Nate,” he added, looking me in the eyes, “thank you for the offer.”
We continued on toward the hotel, and I told Amber about Crowd burning the five-dollar bills.
“Where did he get all the money?”
“I never found out for sure, but I believe he conjured it out of air.”
“Why live on the streets then?”
“He says possessions, of any kind, block us from reaching the power of our soul.”
“But you have stuff, don’t you?”
“Yeah, but during the past few weeks, I haven’t been able to hold onto any of it.”
“You think it’s connected?”
“I think everything’s connected.”
60
To avoid any trouble checking in, Amber went to the front desk alone. Our room was on the forty-fifth floor.
“The concierge made the connection with my mother, and went on and on, saying ‘I’ve known Ivy Mayes for years. She always stays here whenever she’s in town and if she needs this or that, I always get it for her.’ I told him that she said if I needed any help to just call Seth, and he beamed.”
“What would your mother do if she knew we were staying together?”
Amber shrugged.
“What do you think this cost?” I asked as we walked into the posh room.
“Four hundred give or take?”
“Seriously? Your mom’s crazy.”
“Yeah she’s definitely out of touch, but you gotta love that view.”
It was a postcard. We could see the whole city skyline lit up. The Bay reflected lights along the shore, the Golden Gate Bridge, and the Transamerica Pyramid, and Amber pointed out Alcatraz. It was so stunning, looking out, standing there with Amber. I was buzzing.
“Look, bubble bath. I love hot baths. I’m going to take one, okay?”
“Yeah, go for it.”
A few minutes later she called, “Come in and look at this bathroom.”
There she was, a scene from a movie I wasn’t old enough to watch. She reclined in the round tub surrounded by bubbles that covered all the right places. Amber somehow conveyed innocence while glowing seductively.
“Do you want to get in?”
“Yes.”
“You can.”
We stared at each other until she laughed.
“Nothing will happen.” She smiled.
“What if I wanted it to?”
“Then it could.”
We stared again; this time there was no laugh.
“I already got your first kiss. You should save your first time for your real girlfriend.”
“Who’s my real girlfriend?”
“Linh.”
“Linh?” I scoffed. “We’re just friends.”
“Maybe, but she wants to be your girlfriend.”
“How do you know?”
“How do you not know?”
I walked into the other room, puzzled.
Room service arrived just as she was finishing up. I wrote in a good tip on the bill and signed “A. Mayes.” After the door closed, Amber came out in a white, fluffy, terry-cloth bathrobe with the hotel logo on the pocket.
“You okay?”
“Yeah, I’m just not okay with the teasing.”
She took my hand and met my eyes, “I’m not teasing. I would never do that to you.”
“I’m confused about us.”
“Me too, sometimes.”
“What should we do?”
“Right now I think we should eat. Your fries are hot, and the night is young.”
It was nice to have a fancy hot meal after weeks of cold sandwiches and road food. We tried to keep the conversation light, Amber telling me all the fun things we should do in San Francisco, pretending we were tourists rather than “terrorists.”
“I’m going to grab a shower . . . a cold one.” I smiled.
“Stop it. Now who’s teasing?”
Actually, I took a long hot shower, thinking about Linh, Amber, even Gibi, Tanya, and Bridgette. A month ago the only one involved in my life was Linh. I’d thought of her as a sister, best friend, and, I must admit, a few times as more. Was it really possible she wanted more from me? And what about every guy’s fantasy in the next room? I didn’t know what to do with her. No question my hormones were lobbying for action, but what I’d suspected that first day with Amber was true. She, more than anyone, was holding me together with a combination of soul talk, teasing, and an inspiring energy. And I couldn’t deny that, in her arms, there was more than excitement; there was serenity.
Amber changed into a light tank top and cotton shorts. I slipped on boxers and we fell asleep tangled together.
I woke in oppressive humidity; it was an Outview. The date 1904 was on a smeared document in my dirty fist. Through tangled trees stood the Pyramid of Kukulkan at Chichen Itza, bleached and glistening in the sun. I was American, probably close to age thirty. With another man, we hurried along a thin trail into the jungle toward massive etched columns.
Just before passing through a small stone structure, I saw his eyes. My dad from this life! Our second lifetime together was in Mayan lands. He pulled out a chisel and hammer and soon dislodged a slab of rock from an upper wall. Behind it was, incredibly, the gold box from his desk that I had found
in this lifetime.
“What is it?” I, as the young man, asked.
“It is the most important object in existence,” my friend said. “Almost four hundred years ago, you died protecting it. Nine took the oath, but a traitor was among us. The conquistadors pushed you in the cenote. Once they were gone, I dove in, freed this from your body and hid it here. I’ve tried during many lifetimes to get back to retrieve it, hoping to beat the traitor.”
Suddenly a man burst in behind us, slit my throat, and without hesitation, my friend killed the attacker. The Outview ended. I sat on the bed wondering who had killed me. What made the gold box so important, and how—during the intervening hundred-plus years—had it wound up in my dad’s desk? Unbelievable! I stared into the darkness, and exhaustion soon took me back to sleep where no answers were to be found.
61
Thursday, October 2
I woke up before Amber and softly kissed her lips. She came awake just as her phone rang. “It’s my sister.”
“You better take it,” I said reluctantly.
They talked for a while. After the call, Amber sat on the edge of the bed; she looked small, sad, even innocent. Bridge was so sorry; Rod wasn’t a bad guy; they never dreamed of the trouble they could cause; if they had any part of getting someone killed, they couldn’t live with it; they wanted to help; blah, blah, blah. We quickly dressed and ordered breakfast. The tension washed over us as we plowed through our food.
“Fitts is still after you,” Amber said. “We can’t pretend that’s not happening.”
“Hopefully he thinks we’re at your beach house. But getting out of Oregon was smart. And if we find Calyndra, no one will know where we are. We should get out of here soon, and do the call with Sam’s sister from the road.”
The phone rang again but this time it was the room phone. We both looked at it, unsure what to do, like it was some foreign object we’d never seen before. Who could possibly be calling? No one but her mother knew we were here. Amber answered.
“Mom? No, uh. Oh God, no! Hold on.” She covered the phone. “Turn on the TV,” she whispered. “Bridgette and Rod have been arrested!”
I got the TV on, quickly found the twenty-four-hour entertainment channel, and there they were. They were being put into an unmarked van by men and women wearing windbreakers with the large letters “FBI” on their backs. Background video of Amber’s mother came next. The media had obviously been tipped off in advance.