by N R Brooks
“I’ll let you guys chat for a while. I am going to go sit at the bar.” I said to Ziad.
“It won’t take long. I’ll come drink with you in just a moment.”
“Good to meet you guys,” I said to Atta and Marwan as I walked away towards the bar stools.
I could already hear them chattering to each other in Arabic. Whether they were discussing their progress with flight training or if they were just talking about more mundane things, I had no idea. It didn’t matter. I was becoming part of a much larger event, and I was feeling a sense of clarity. The hardest part I felt was going to be the initial encounter with these men. The near run-in with Atta earlier was definitely a shock, but I recovered quickly. I knew who I was dealing with now.
I plopped down on one of the stools at the bar and slowly sipped my Bloody Mary. The bartender actually made a pretty decent drink. You could barely taste the alcohol in it. The tomato juice even had a tasty zing to it. I was debating whether or not to order a second one.
As I was sipping at my drink, I glanced up at the TV in the corner behind the bartender. You couldn’t hear anything that was being said because of the noise but it did have the closed captions turned on so I could read what was being said.
The news was currently playing, and it was showing another one of those black hole looking things that have been popping up around the world. The news anchor indicated this was the twenty-fourth one they have found. Once again, it appeared underground which caused a sinkhole.
The one they were showing was actually close to where I was. This one appeared on the grounds of the Disney World theme park just north of where I was. Luckily, it was found early in the morning before the park opened up. They called for a state of emergency and left the park closed for the rest of the day.
I read the captions with wide eyes as this fascinated me. A completely unknown enigma that just shows up randomly. No known cause has been discovered. Apparently, they are just calling them mini black holes or in some cases just ‘black spots.’ Not very imaginative but it gives one a pretty accurate visualization of them.
They aren’t exactly the same as the black holes that astrophysicists study in space. However, it does say that anything brought within very close proximity of these mini black holes actually gets absorbed into the hole itself. So, in a sense, they are similar to the ones in space but not exactly the same. It appears that the event horizon of these anomalies is confined to a tight ring around the “hole” portion, or to use astronomical terms, the singularity of the object.
Scientists have managed to create an enclosure around the little black holes to prevent anybody or anything from being absorbed into it. Still, not much is known about them, but they seem to be popping up more and more as time goes on.
When the news article concluded, Ziad came back and sat on the stool next to me. His mood seemed to have changed from his earlier upbeat attitude now to a look of dejection.
“What’s up, man? Everything okay?” I asked him.
“Yeah, I am fine. I think I am ready to go now.” He said not even looking over at me.
“Already? But we just got here. This is only my first drink. What about you?”
“I had this beer. I am good now.” He handed the mug to the bartender.
“Well, okay. We can head home if you would like.”
I had guessed that Atta had gotten on Ziad’s case for acting “too American” or something along those lines. I remember reading how people who encountered Atta in my past always said they had a bad feeling about him from the first glance. I now understand exactly how they felt. The man just radiates hatred. You can almost smell it on him.
“Yeah, let’s head back home. I have been slacking in my prayers anyway.”
“No worries. Let me finish my drink, and we will go.”
I finished my Bloody Mary, and we left the bar. I looked over at the booth that the men were sitting in earlier and they had already left. Both mugs were still sitting on the table, one almost completely full and the other one empty. Looks like Atta didn’t even touch his beer, it was all for show.
When we got back home, Ziad went into his room and immediately began doing his prayer. We had been living together for a few weeks now, and this was the first time I actually witnessed him doing anything religious. He really didn’t strike me as a religious person. He never really talked about his ideologies, and I never saw him praying. He either did it when I wasn’t around, or he really did slack off on it. Just one more reason why I felt I could turn him before it was too late. I wasn’t interested in changing his faith, that is his own business, and I really had no issues with Muslims. But I definitely wanted to turn him away from the violent radical beliefs that have been pounded into his head.
I didn’t want to interrupt Ziad during his praying, so I just went into my room and laid down for a moment before I called Keiko. It felt like it had been weeks since I heard her voice. I only then realized that I was in her apartment and in her bed just this morning. My life was moving much too fast.
Chapter 19
“Okay, here is one for you. Would you rather be deaf or blind?”
“Oh, come on, that is an easy one. Blind for sure. I would lose my mind if I couldn’t listen to music ever again.” Jeni replied during one of our many rounds of ‘would you rather’ that we played when it was slow at work.
Both of us worked the morning shift because it would get busy between seven and nine when everybody was on their way to work. There were a lot of retirees in the area, but there was still more people who worked for a living.
I actually enjoyed working there with Jeni. She and I became fast friends. She didn’t share my love for airplanes or history, but she did have a warped and dark sense of humor like I did. We would ask each other ridiculous questions just to hear the reaction and answer that followed. It always broke the monotony of downtime when there were few customers in the store.
“Fine, you come up with a better one,” I replied, nudging her in the arm.
“Alright, let me think.” She took a moment to think of a question while she was mopping the aisles. “Okay, I got one. Would you rather have sex with the ugliest person you have ever met, or with the most beautiful but recently deceased corpse?”
“Oh man. You know, I still haven’t gotten used to the fact that my boss asks me questions like this.” I replied while trying to weigh the pros and cons of both choices.
“Shit, you ain’t heard nothin’ yet. I’m just glad I work with you and not some of the snobs I’ve had in the past. I would sometimes try to think of reasons to fire them just so I could find someone that didn’t have a bug up their ass.”
I had to laugh out loud at that. Not because what she said was funny, but because I could totally believe it.
“I can see that. Quick question. Is the corpse still warm?”
“Are you seriously asking me that?”
“Well yeah, it makes a difference, you know?”
“Boy, I can’t wait to hear your answer now. Yes, the corpse is still warm.”
“Okay, then I’m going to have to go with the corpse. I honestly don’t think I could even get it up with some of the beasts I’ve seen in my day. At least with the corpse, I could pretend she was sleeping or passed out or something.” I thought I had come up with a decent reason for my answer.
“Haha! You are one sick bastard. I love it.”
“Me?! Did you forget the answer you gave yesterday where the both of us couldn’t stop laughing for almost ten minutes?”
“Oh god! Don’t bring that up again, I might piss myself this time.” She said as she covered her ears.
Ding-Ding.
That was our cue to clean up the chatter and pretend to be professionals. A man in a hat and uniform walked in and nodded at me and walked down one of the aisles, heading towards the soda coolers. When he saw Jeni, he stopped and was eying her down, giving her elevator-eyes.
“Damn girl, you are looking sexy as ever!” T
he man said to Jeni as he slapped her ass with a loud pop that echoed throughout the store.
“Ow! You aren’t looking too bad yourself, big boy.” She replied, also checking him out from head to toe.
The man grabbed a bottle of soda from the cooler and walked up to the counter with Jeni hanging on him as if they were dating. The man’s elbow was buried between Jeni’s breasts. I started to feel uncomfortable with their excessive PDA; especially coming from the manager of the store.
“Uh, so you guys know each other?” I asked Jeni.
“Oh yeah. This is my brother, David. Isn’t he just the most handsome guy you have ever seen?”
When she said that, she looked at him as if she was flirting. This was getting extremely awkward fast.
“Yeah, Jeni here is my baby sister. Cute little thing, ain’t she? And a body to kill for.” David said.
“Uh...so you guys are brother and sister?” I asked awkwardly.
Before either of them could reply, Jeni let out a blaring laugh, and David joined her shortly after.
“Oh my god, Chuck. I’ve been waiting to do that to you for ages now. You couldn’t have looked any more uncomfortable if you tried. That was classic.”
“What do you mean?” was all I could ask in my bewildered state.
David decided to get in on the fun. “You totally thought we were getting it on, didn’t you? Haha!”
“Jeez, you guys are messed up.”
“Yeah, but you fell for it!” Jeni yelled, still laughing at me. She sometimes had issues with controlling the volume of her voice.
“It’s all good, man. She made me do it. Sorry.” He apologized then reached out to properly introduce himself. “I’m David, nice to meet you.”
“Oh don’t worry about it. We give each other shit every day. I am used to it by now. I’m Chuck.” I shook his hand.
“This is why I love having you work with me. You can’t do that kind of shit with everybody.” Jeni said, finally calmed down from her hysterical outburst.
“Oh don’t worry, I’ll get you back one day.”
“I hope so! It better be a good one.”
“She told me you were from New York and that we should mess with your head and make you think us southern folk like to inbreed. You know, play out the stereotype.” David admitted.
“I should have expected it. The possibility had crossed my mind once or twice.”
Jeni had to cut in with her own input. “Well, the stereotype isn’t totally untrue. I’m pretty sure some of the swamp folk down by the Everglades probably sleep with a cousin or two.”
I shook my head and looked over at David, analyzing his uniform. “So, animal control huh? I imagine you get some interesting jobs down here with the alligators and what not.”
“Oh, you wouldn’t believe. But the best part is you get to carry one of these.” He pulled out a pistol from its holster on his side. It didn’t look like any pistol I had seen before though.
“Huh. Never seen one like that before.”
“Nope, this is a tranquilizer gun. Shoots darts. Doesn’t kill them, just puts them to sleep. It is pretty handy.” He said, admiring it then putting it back in the holster.
“Oh, I see. Where can you get one of those?” I asked.
“You can get the guns pretty much anywhere that sells airsoft equipment. The tranquilizers are a bit harder to get. Unless you are a veterinarian, about the only place you will get it is from the city if you are an animal control officer. Either that or you would have to have some good connections.”
That dashed my hopes pretty quickly. Not that I had a use for one, but it still would have been fun to have. There wouldn’t really be any point in getting one if I couldn’t get the goods to go with it.
“Well damn. What is it like shooting it?”
“I tell you what. If you want, the three of us can go out in the woods, and you can try it out. Just keep it on the down-low. I could get in a lot of trouble if word got out.” He had a serious look on his face.
“Oh, you have nothing to worry about. Jeni here is pretty much my only friend anyways.”
“And I am more than you can handle as it is!” She snapped back.
“Not quite, but you sure get close sometimes.”
David grabbed his soda and was getting ready to head out. “Well, I need to get back on the road. We will go out and play around soon. See you guys.”
“See ya.” Jeni and I said simultaneously.
The rest of the shift was more of the same. Jeni and I going back and forth, trying to think of the most ridiculous and offensive questions to ask each other. It made the days seem so short since we were having fun. I considered her a pretty close friend at this point.
I had the house to myself for a few weeks as Ziad had flown to Germany to visit his fiancé. He wouldn’t be back until the end of the month. I had thought about having Jeni come over to just hang out with me, but I decided not to. I would have felt a little guilty having a young attractive single woman at my house. I knew nothing would happen since we were only friends, but I was faithful to Keiko and would remain that way.
The tranquilizer gun that David showed to me at the store kept flashing in my mind. I really wanted one for some reason. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that I might actually need it. The fact that I was going to eventually have to subdue at least one if not two of the hijackers, the gun might actually be very handy, almost necessary. I decided that once I became more of a friend with David, I would try and see if I could score one from him. That was going to be the next item on my agenda.
We eventually planned to go out into the woods with David and Jeni in November when Keiko would be visiting. That way they could all meet and get familiar with each other. I had already told Keiko about Jeni on previous phone calls. She was a little jealous at first, but I assured her that it is strictly friendship and nothing more; as if anything other than a rogue jet could take me away from her. Plus there was the fact that she was my boss. It took a little bit of convincing, but I finally made her aware of just how committed I was to her. I understood where she was coming from though. I have to say, she handled it much better than I ever had. I was forever thankful for that.
As October was nearing its end, Ziad was due to return from Germany in just a couple of days. I was working that Friday morning with Jeni, and we were doing our usual rounds of trying to outdo each other in terms of crudeness and vulgarity. When it was nearing time for me to leave for the day, I was cleaning the aisles when I heard the familiar ding-ding of a customer entering the store. Jeni was at the counter, so I just kept to my task of maintaining the orderly fashion of all the items on the shelves so everything was in perfect harmony. It was more of a case of finding things to do rather than obligation—and maybe a slight case of OCD.
After a moment I heard the ding-ding again as the very same customer left. Not a moment later, Jeni came up to me in a hurry.
“Jesus H. Christ! If that wasn’t the evilest looking sonovabitch I ever saw.”
“What?” I asked without looking over at her.
“That fella that just came in. Some Ay-rab looking guy. He had the evilest look on his face. I felt like he was staring right through me.”
“Really? What did he look like?”
“Like I said, he looked like an Ay-rab or some shit. Probably about your age. Black fluffy short hair and just the most hateful look on his face. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was a terrorist or something. Although he was wearing blue flip-flops for some reason. Anyways, he gave me the chills, I tell you what.” She said, holding her arms crossed as if she were cold.
“Huh. Let me take a look.”
I walked to the glass door that the man came through moments ago and looked outside. At the gas pump was a red Pontiac Grand Prix, probably a late 80s model. I could see someone sitting in the passenger seat, but they were too far away to see details. The man that had come in the store was pumping gas and was facing away from me. I wait
ed until he was done and when he hung up the pump nozzle and walked to the other side of the car to get in the driver’s seat, I finally saw his face, then I saw the blue flip-flops on his feet. Jeni had described him to a T. It was Mohamed Atta.
“Shit! Give me a pen and paper, fast!” I yelled to Jeni.
She tore some blank receipt paper off and grabbed a pen and gave it to me. “Here. You know that guy?”
“Kind of.” When the car pulled out, I was able to write his license plate number down. This would come in handy later.
“I tell you, that man was the creepiest sonovabitch I ever saw.” She said still holding her arms across her chest.
“Yeah. He definitely is. You described him well.”
“Who is he? Do you know him from somewhere?” She asked.
“Let’s just say your intuition was pretty much on the money. Just try to stay away from him. He isn’t someone you want to associate with.” I explained trying to be as vague as possible.
“You don’t have to worry about that. He gives me the creeps just thinkin’ about him.”
We walked back to the counter, and I saw that it was time for me to clock out for the day.
“Looks like I’m off. You mind if I head out now? I have some things to take care of.” I usually stayed for a bit and just BSed with her for a while after my shift, but today I wanted to see if I could find where Atta lived.
“And leave me here all alone?” She replied, feigning sadness.
“Oh you are a big girl, I think you can handle yourself just fine.”
“Go on, get out of here.” She said shooing me out the door with a smile.
I jogged home this time, something I rarely do. I now had Atta’s license plate number as well as the make and model of his car. I could now try and scout out where he and Marwan lived. All I knew was that it was on Laurel Road. I could just drive up and down the road until I spotted the car. Hopefully, I would catch them while they were home.