For I Could Lift My Finger and Black Out the Sun (24 page)

4

Police cars, particularly more than one of them, draw a lot of attention. It seemed that half the neighborhood was in the street, looking our way, when Sergeant Durso left the house and finally drove off. Bobby was just one of many interested faces, raising no one’s suspicions except my own.

As the second squad car pulled away, the neighbors started to dissipate, head back to their homes. Miss Janice — that’s what she told us kids to call her — walked over, asking my mom if she was okay, if she needed help. The Morrisons did the same. Mr. Morrison was one of the two general practitioners in town, so technically he was Dr. Samuel N. Morrison, MD, but he told everyone to call him Sam. He was always trying to help, living life like it was perpetually 82 and sunny, doing his best to radiate good cheer to everyone around him. I appreciated his bedside manner, especially that day.

As Miss Janice and the Morrisons gathered in front of our house, I noticed Bobby turn to walk off. Was he going home? That seemed doubtful, given how long he’d been away. I had to catch up with him. I had to find out what had been going on with Sol and what Bobby was doing back in town.

“Mom, I’ll be right back,” I said, pushing through the crowd. She started to ask why, but didn’t want to ignore our concerned neighbors. I left without turning back.

“Hey, man, hold up,” I shouted, running across the street, almost unwilling to say Bobby’s name in public. He didn’t even look back. Instead, he reached the corner and turned, disappearing for a moment behind a fence. I was terrified he’d be gone, a mirage, never really there in the first place. But rounding the corner a moment after him, I saw Bobby walking fast, maybe a hundred feet ahead of me. When he got to the next corner, he quickly turned again and I had to hurry to catch up once more.

Taking that second turn, I saw Bobby in the middle of the street. Facing me.
Oh crap. Another fight
, was all I could think.

As he stood right in front of me, I realized I could sense Bobby’s beacon, like Sol’s but much smaller. But there was something odd about it. It was weirdly… resonant, like I was hearing a chord rather than a single note.

“Johnny, it’s good to see you,” Bobby said. “Glad I got your attention, but stop where you are.”

I pulled up. “What are you doing here?” I was actually a little out of breath.

Bobby just tilted his head and looked at me. If he had been a schoolteacher wearing reading glasses, he’d have been looking over them, down his nose.

I took a step forward. That’s when I realized something was familiar. “Bobby, listen. Stay away from Sol. You don’t need that guy. He’s crazy.” Another step.

“Johnny…” Bobby calmly raised one hand, gesturing for me to stop.

I took another step. “Did Sol tell you I came to see him in the capital?” Another step.

Bobby’s hand went higher. “John. Stop. Really.”

“I’m not afraid, Bobby. I’ll fight you if you want, but I’m not starting it.”

Bobby’s eyes looked left and right. “Yes. You are. Stop.”

I paused. I don’t know why I was trying to get closer anyway, other than maybe to just talk like old times, try to get some sense into him. But for a moment I stood frozen.

Frozen. Ice.
Snow
. We were standing on the spot where everything began. Where I ran into Bobby, just before we were hit by the little red car. “Bobby, you know where we are, right? Remember that day in the snow?”

He gazed around, indifferent and unfocused, more toward a fence on his left and a row of shrubs on his right than at the street and houses. “Huh? Oh. Oh yeah. The scene of the crime, so to speak,” he said with a little laugh.

“Yeah. I think it is.” Another step forward. “You were going to beat me up here, but then we became friends. Remember that part? Friends?” One more step, hands out, hoping Bobby would relax. We were still kids, after all.

“We’re friends, Johnny. We are friends,” Bobby said, eyes down. “But some things change. Some things aren’t in my control.”

“What does that mean?” I asked, taking another step.

“Stay back, John. I mean it. Listen. You’ve gotta come to Sol and really talk. None of that nonsense you pulled back in the city. When I heard you tricked him, well, I thought he was going to be furious. But… he was almost… I don’t know. Proud? Yeah, he seemed proud of you. He really just wants to talk to you.” Bobby finally looked up, into my eyes. “We all do.”

I took another step, but felt like I was moving through a deep fog. “What, Bobby? Who’s
we
?” One more step.

As it turns out,
that
was the step too far.

There were two blurs, one left, one right. In the blink of an eye, I felt like I was being crushed between a couple of freight trains, stuck in the middle where I couldn’t move. No, not freight trains, but instead something amorphous, something that pressed on every surface equally. My body, usually so familiar with fluid escapes, was frozen in shock for a moment.

Bobby seemed upset. “Stop it, you guys!” he said. “Let me handle this!”

The my power kicked in, and my body started to sluice out of the grip. For a moment, it was working. I tried to maneuver, to turn and find an opponent to focus on, but something hit my head, hard. My body couldn’t get out of the way of the blow quickly enough. I was stunned, seeing little flecks of light before my eyes. “Wha—?” I managed.

I had just enough time to ponder one thought.
I wonder what someone in one of these houses is seeing, if they happen to be watching?
Not much, I’d bet. Two boys in the street. One acting in a strange, unexplained way. From an adult point of view, this would no doubt be characterized as “boys being boys.”

Bobby was upset, but not fearful. His expression seemed more petulant. Like whatever was happened was an insult to
him
. He kept looking to either side, and I felt a presence. Maybe more than one. “You guys…” he repeated.

The chord in my head grew stronger, enough that I could recognize three distinct notes. Three
beacons
. Bobby… and who else?

For a split second, I thought I saw a flash of blond hair above me, followed by another strong thump on my head.

Then nothing but black.

5

“I got it. I got it.” A voice. It sounded like Bobby.

“Look, we should just take him back with us.” A young woman. No one I recognized.

“That’s not what he told us to do!” Bobby again, shouting the way kids do when they’re being overruled by an adult.

A pause. I tried to open my eyes, but they refused to obey. I may have slept again.

“Look, I agree with Bobby,” a man was saying. “Let us just go.” He had an accent I didn’t recognize. Actually, who am I kidding? I grew up in small-town America. I didn’t recognize
any
accents. Except maybe British, and even then I was sure I couldn’t tell English from Scottish from Irish from probably Australian. But his voice wasn’t like any of those anyway. And it wasn’t Sol’s Portuguese baritone. That would have had me jumping out of my skin to wake up. This voice was something different, like he was enunciating each syllable a little more than necessary, the words “let” and “us” coming out completely separately, instead of the blurred together
let’s
people normally said.

A frustrated grunt. It was the woman again. “Fine.”

Footsteps. I may have slept a little more.

* * *

“Oh my God, it’s about time, your majesty,” Bobby said as I blinked and tried to look around. The room was bathed in shadow, but still far too bright for me. I squinted toward the sounds of shuffling footsteps on dry concrete, coming near.

“Where am I? What’d you do…?” My mind creaked forward a notch, and I realized there was a more important question. “Who were you
talking
to?”

Standing over me, still blurry in my vision, Bobby made an impatient gesture with one hand. “Friends,” he said.

I rubbed at my head and tried to sit up. “Friends? What kind of
friends
are they?” I pressed my palm against my head to make my point.

Bobby sat down on the floor in front of me. “You’re very funny, and one to talk. Are
we
friends?” He didn’t wait for an answer. “Yes, we are. But didn’t you knock me silly? And shoot me in the stomach?” He paused, lips pursed and eyebrows raised. “So you see my point. Look, friends don’t always do what’s
friendliest
for each other. But they try to do what’s
right
for each other. That’s what I’m trying to do for you. Now.”

I kept rubbing my head where it ached. “Really? How so?”

Bobby stood and paced the room. “Look, do you know where we are?”

Still squinting, I scanned the room.
Ah, yes. Well, at least that was no surprise
. “Warehouse bay.
Our
old warehouse bay, number 6, I assume.”

“Thank you. So you got dinged a bit, but it sounds like your brain’s still working. Possibly.” Glancing my way, Bobby actually cracked a smile.

I ignored it. “Was that supposed to be funny?”

“Come on, Johnny. Can’t you just
listen
to me? Consider what I have to say?”

I looked around the room, the dark remote warehouse bay where I had been abducted and stashed. “Do I have a choice?”

“We
all
have choices. But the right choice is to stick together. Look at yourself. You’re not tied up. You can leave if you want. I just want to explain a few things to you first.”

I finally sat up straight, then felt the throbbing in my head and slid back down to one elbow. Tied up or not, I wasn’t ready to leap into action just yet. “Fine. I’m listening. But this better be one damn compelling story. Like I better want to speak in tongues and say
hallelujah
when you’re done. Because, right now, I think you’re wrong. No, worse. If you’re on board with Sol. I think you might be going crazy. And I think I’d be crazy to even consider joining you.”

“Will ya shut up, Johnny? Geez. Always like that with you. Think think think, blah blah blah. Just gimme a second, will you?”

Rolling my eyes, I nodded. Bobby smirked. Both of us playing our roles.

“Johnny,” Bobby started, coming closer. I could tell that whatever he was about to say was important to him. Immediately, he hooked me. I even checked myself for a moment, making sure he wasn’t
pushing
me. But no. Seemed like just earnest conversation. And he
was
earnest. “Sol isn’t what you think. He’s not a bad guy.” I scoffed. Bad start. But Bobby continued. “He’s brought us together. We train —”

“Us? We?” I interrupted. “Who’s that? You’ve danced around it so far. So, tell me.”

“Sure. There are a few of us. Not a lot. People with powers, just like you and me. Well, sort of like you and me. Some of them are stronger one way or the other, mind or body. And, see, Johnny, that’s it. That’s the problem. By ourselves, we all have weaknesses. Sol says the individual is flawed but those united are true and strong. Sounds a little preachy to me, but I like it. I know I’m flawed. With the group, we can
do things
.”

Just like in my dream. All that power, wielded in service to Sol. “That’s just it, Bobby,” I said. “Do
what
? What’s the point?”

“There isn’t just
one
point, John.
Everything’s
the point! So much stuff is a mess these days, we need some changes. Some major changes. Not just you and me, but our town, our state, our country. Hell, the world. Things need to change because what we have now is a mess of injustice, poverty, hunger, war, you name it.” Bobby was on a roll now, hardly looking at me. I got the distinct feeling he was repeating a sermon he’d heard, and I had a very strong suspicion about who’d given it originally. “But we.
We
can change things. We’ve been given a gift. A gift to finally break the world out of the trance it’s been in. Are you starting to understand?”

I nodded slightly. “Sol wants to rule the world, or thereabouts. He’s brainwashed you and these supposed
others
, and told you he’s going to make the world a better place. Sound about right?”

“Dammit, Johnny, you’ve always gotta do that. Just be a nerd and a downer.” Bobby turned away, heading toward the door. I thought for a moment that he’d just leave me there. That I might never see him again, or at least never again on friendly terms. But then he turned. And I saw something I truly never expected.

There seemed to be a tear in Bobby’s eye. “I don’t agree with everything he wants to do, no,” he said. “I’m
sure
you won’t either. But the Big Picture…” The words sounded capitalized, the way he said them. “Johnny, he’s not mad at you about your crazy stunt in the city, but he doesn’t want that to happen again. He wants to meet with you, for real this time. And he just needed to get your attention to do that.”

“What does that mean?” I asked, already dreading the answer.

Bobby reached into his jean pocket and pulled out something. A crappy old flip phone. He thumbed it open and pressed a button or two, then leaned down and slid it across the floor to me. With a last look, he went to the door and was gone.

Beside me, the phone made a tinny sound, a ring coming through the miniature speaker, repeating once. Then a click. And a voice.

“Hello, John,” Sol said.

I drooped in a sigh, still propped on one elbow on the cold, hard cement floor.

“John? You are there, aren’t you, old friend?”

I wanted to raise one heel and lower it on the phone, smashing it to pieces. But I knew one thing for sure. I
had
to know what Sol wanted to say, this time if never before. I reached for the phone and put it to my ear. “Yeah. I’m here. Say what you’re gonna say.”

“Ah good, John. I merely wanted to tell you two things that I think you will find important. First, Holly is with me. She is quite safe, and seems happy. She’s having cereal and watching TV now. It’s a cartoon and I think she’s enjoying it quite a bit.”

“You son of a bitch!” I shouted.

Sol
tsked
me two or three times. “John, please. There’s no need to be vulgar. You and I are better than that now.”

I seethed. “Give me my sister back, or I swear to God no distance will be too far. I will find you.”

“John, I
want you
to find me,” he said. “So do my
friends
. That is, in fact, the point in all this.”

“Build an army, Sol. Go ahead. If you don’t return my sister unharmed, I’ll destroy your army first. Then you.”

“John, please. All of this anger is unnecessary. I just want you to come to me. To talk. To hear what we are trying to do. Yes, of course, I will try to persuade you to join us. But when you hear what we are doing, I don’t think I’ll have to try hard.” He took a breath, letting it sink in. “But you have my assurances that Holly will continue to be healthy and happy. We are taking good care of her.”

“She needs to be at home! With Mom! And me!” I stood. So angry, the remaining pain in my head was forgotten. “I can’t believe it. I can
not
believe Bobby helped you do this.” I shook my head despite the whorls of color that stirred up.

“Helped?” Sol chuckled. Damn if I didn’t want to leap through the phone and pull his throat out, for Holly and also so that I’d never have to hear that dry, self-satisfied laugh again. Pompous lunatic. “Bobby did more than
help
, John.”

I inhaled, waiting for the words I suspected were coming but didn’t want to hear.

“It was Bobby’s
idea
.”