Authors: Brandt Legg
“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.
“My mom was pretty upset and yelling, ‘I
don’t know what’s going on down there, but I want you up here now. I have you
booked on a two o’clock flight to Portland.’ I tried to argue, but it was
pointless. Oh, God, Bridge was arrested!”
“Fitts must know she isn’t going to be of
any use now.”
“How did he know that already?”
“Either because we didn’t show at the beach
house, or her room really is bugged.”
Just then the phone rang again. We were
sure Amber’s mom had more to say. Instead it was the concierge from last night.
Amber’s face registered total fear. She slammed the phone.
“Agents are at the front desk asking for
our room number. They’ll be here any minute!”
We grabbed some things, raced for the
stairs, and were down thirty-three flights before they barged into the
stairwell above us. We dashed through the lobby and almost ran into a black SUV
parked in front. Sprinting toward Amber’s car, my heart was pounding.
“Where to? Where to?” Amber’s voice
panicked.
“Just drive! I don’t know!”
We had only driven a few blocks when my
phone rang. “It’s Tanya.”
“Answer it.”
“Hello.”
“Hello, Nathan, this is Agent Fitts.” His
voice was raspy.
My eyes widened. “Fitts,” I whispered to
Amber.
“What do you want?”
“What do I want? That’s most amusing isn’t
it? We both know what I want. I’m sorry I missed you at the hotel.”
I hung up.
“What did he say?”
“He said it was him at the hotel.”
“God, what do we do? Where should we go?”
“Just head out of town.”
The phone rang again.
“Don’t answer.”
“I have an idea.” I let it ring again, then
answered. “How did you get Tanya’s phone?”
“She was good enough to lend it to me,”
Fitts said.
“What if I agree to meet with you? Will you
arrest me?”
“That
is
my plan. It’s what I do.”
I resisted the urge to say I thought what
he did was kill innocent people.
“I’ll meet with you in a public place if
you give me your word you won’t arrest me.”
“Why would I do that? You’ll be in custody
within the hour anyway.”
“Maybe, but you don’t know for sure what I
can do and who’s helping me. I may get away. I have before.”
“Yes, you have. What would this meeting be
about?”
“I’ll tell you things you don’t know, and
we could make a deal.”
“What do you have to deal with?”
“That’s what we need to discuss. You might
be surprised.”
“You’ve piqued my interest. Do you have a
place in mind? Back at the hotel perhaps?”
“No. In front of the Transamerica building
at eleven.”
“Are you trying to make me laugh? Not
eleven. Right now.”
“Okay.”
“And Nathan, if you aren’t there by
nine-thirty, I’ll bring the whole city down on you.”