The Deviant Underground (Time Bandit) (12 page)

“Okay, um . . .” Kathryn said hesitantly. “I'll think about it.”

“What's there to think about, baby?” Charge asked. “It's perfect. You deserve a vacation anyway. You work too hard, besides—”

“Now, now,” Jonathan interrupted. “Let her mull it over for a bit and check her schedule. The invitation stands and is open for you to take advantage of whenever it’s best for you. However, nothing would make me happier than to have you as my guest.”

“Thanks.” Kathryn was relieved that she wouldn’t be pressured to make a decision right there on the spot. She had to admit that the notion of vacationing in LA with Charge and Susan was appealing, but— Suddenly, Jonathan's attention was diverted to the tv located over the bar behind Kathryn. She turned to the screen.

“More details are being uncovered about the recently discovered Underground Deviant Network. Apparently, the goal of the Network is to place unidentified deviants into positions of power in expectation of a covert deviant takeover at the highest levels of government and business. This information has reinforced the government's determination that all identified deviants remain incarcerated or institutionalized. The polls now show that public support for the proposed mainstreaming of deviants within the general population has plummeted to all-time lows. Just today, several corporations pledged to help fund additional research in the attempt to create a newborn screen to identify the one-half to one percent of the population born with these genetic abnormalities. Until accurate, reliable medical screenings can be created, we are all reminded that we must rely upon each other to identify deviants living among us. If you see a person exhibiting any unusual behavior or physical abnormalities, immediately go to a safe place and call the police or the Deviant Discovery Hotline.”

Kathryn’s stomach churned and the blood rose to her face, causing her to sweat. Charge's leg pressed against hers, once warm and comfortable, now felt searing hot, and she instinctively moved closer to the window to avoid touching him. As uncomfortable and ill as Kathryn felt, Jonathan's, Susan's, and Charge's faces flashed very different emotions—disbelief, confusion, and rage. Charge's hands balled up into tight fists on top of the table, and the veins in his forearms bulged.

“Fucking propaganda . . .” Charge hissed.

Jonathan raised a finger to silence him. “Not here.”

Charge set his jaw and relaxed his hands, but the bulging vein moved to his neck and forehead. Jonathan signaled to the waitress for the check. All conversation at the table ceased as Jonathan paid the bill, and they silently filed out of the restaurant. The silence continued all the way to Susan's apartment. In the car, the air was filled with tension, which Kathryn tried to interpret. She felt fear, which was understandable, and Charge's rage was certainly warranted. But, there was something else present. There was a quiet, pensive air about Jonathan, and there was a touch of sadness in Susan's face. Both indicated to Kathryn that there was something else going on behind the news report they had just seen—something else that Jonathan, Susan, and Charge knew. Charge had said “propaganda,” but what did he mean?

Chapter Twelve

Kathryn continued to practice. Each day they headed out to the abandoned warehouse where Jonathan, Charge, and Susan attempted to disarm, distract, and displace her using whatever methods they could come up with. Sometimes Kathryn ended up on her ass staring at the ceiling, but as the hours and days progressed, more often than not, they did.

“Now that's not fair!” Charge roared as he found himself face-down on the concrete floor with Kathryn straddling his wide back. She laughed heartily, and Susan and Jonathan joined her.

“What?” Kathryn jumped off as Charge attempted to get back on his feet. “I thought that it was 'no holds barred,' right? I mean, I've suffered through heavy objects being hurled at my head, punches to my stomach, and lightning bolts to my ass, and you don't expect me to retaliate?”

Charge noisily slapped the dust off the front of his shorts as he muttered, “Still, you have an advantage that—”

“What?” Kathryn interrupted, now thoroughly enjoying the situation. “That I'm not supposed to use? Plus, you don't think that three on one is a distinct advantage on
your
part?”

Charge grunted as he wiped his hands on his shirt. Kathryn could tell that he didn't like being bested, but he was proud of how much better she’d gotten in the last few days. Kathryn was proud as well. She felt more confident about her freezing ability, and she marveled that she was able to stop all the objects Jonathan hurled at her, even the ones she thought would have been impossibly heavy. Better yet, she was becoming better at teleporting. Ninety percent of the time she ended up exactly where she wanted to. Ten percent of the time she didn't, but at least the nausea had disappeared.

Sitting in a booth at Archway sipping on a slowly disappearing beer, Kathryn let the warm glow of accomplishment and pride slip over her. She was dusty, hot, and tired, but she didn't feel that way on the inside. On the inside, she felt . . . excitement? Joy? She wasn't sure, but she knew that the liked the feeling. Plus, the beer helped. Jonathan's next sentence, however, brought her crashing down to earth.

“I'm leaving tomorrow.” She knew Jonathan had to return to California, but in the flurry of the week's activities, she had lost track of the days. Her thoughts must have been clearly displayed on her face because Jonathan continued, “I hope that you have been giving serious consideration to my proposal.”

“What proposal?”

“To my proposal that you come out to LA for the summer.” Kathryn had forgotten about this offer, but upon re-mentioning it, she began to weigh the possibilities. She wanted to continue working on what she was slowly considering to be her “gift.” Jonathan, Charge, and Susan's insistence on the term had begun to sink in. Maybe she was special. One percent of the population, right? Kathryn briefly imagined a summer full of days like today—practice, camaraderie, laughter, togetherness, belonging, excitement, joy, and good food. The thought was appealing. However, Kathryn's real life was nagging at her from the corners. She had to use the summer to get some articles out and continue working on her book if she ever hoped to get tenure. Jonathan's next words addressed her concerns.

“I know that you have a lot of work obligations to tend to, so why don't you just come out for two weeks. Think of it as a vacation. Fly out, relax at the cabin, enjoy the California weather—”

“And the wine!” Susan interrupted eagerly.

“But of course. And the wine. Then you can return to St. Louis rested and refreshed for a long summer of trolling the library stacks and reading the latest criticism on Restoration drama.”

“Boring.” Charge teased as he bumped Kathryn with his elbow. “Come on, baby. It'll be fun. What do you say?”

“Well . . .” Kathryn looked around the table at the expectant faces. Everyone seemed eager to hear her answer. She decided to satisfy them. “Okay.”

“Excellent!” Jonathan smiled.

“That's great, baby.” Charge wrapped his arm around her and gave her a warm kiss on the side of her head.

“Yay,” Susan said. “We are going to have so much fun.”

“Okay.” Kathryn waved away all the attention. “Don't get too excited. I'm sure by the end of the two weeks, you'll be begging me to leave and to go back to the library stacks where I belong.”

Chapter Thirteen

Kathryn couldn’t wait for the semester to end. She always looked forward to the last day of class and finals week, when nervous students deposited their carefully written tomes into her mailbox. But this time, the end of the semester had a special anticipation to it.

“So, do you have any plans for the summer?” the department secretary asked one afternoon.

Kathryn's arms were full of students' papers, papers that she didn’t feel like reading. She tried to answer the question nonchalantly. “Not really.” She shrugged, hoping that the gesture came off as casual and noncommittal. “I'll probably just relax for a few days before heading back into the library.” She made sure to speak a little loudly because she noticed that the department chair's office door was open. “Gift” or no “gift,” Kathryn still needed her job.

The secretary smiled and turned back to her computer, and Kathryn took advantage of the moment to hurry back to her office. Once there, she closed the door and began tackling the stack of dubious undergraduate genius. A few hours later, the buzz of her cell phone jarred her away from the argument that Ibsen's
A Doll's House
was actually a comedy. She smiled when she saw who it was.

“Hey.”

“Hey, baby.” Charge's voice was warm and inviting, and her mind wandered to the evening's possibilities. “I got our tickets.”

She leaned back in her chair and stretched her cramped neck. “What tickets?”

“Our tickets to LA. We leave on Saturday.”

“Saturday?” she shouted into the phone. Remembering where she was, she dropped her voice down to an angry whisper. “I can't leave on Saturday. I have too much shit to do!”

Charge chuckled. “Like what? Grade some bullshit-ass papers? Just give everyone an 'A' and call it a day.”

Kathryn rolled her eyes. “I can't do that, Charge.”

“Whatever, baby. Just grade that shit in a hurry. We're leaving on Saturday at 7:00am.”

Kathryn groaned and rubbed her eyes. They were already tired, and she wasn’t even a quarter of the way finished. Saturday was only three days away. Not only did she have to finish grading, but she had to calculate and submit final grades, not to mention tie up any departmental loose ends before she disappeared for two weeks. She supposed she could get it all done before Saturday, but she would be cutting it close. “Okay, okay. I'll be ready by Saturday.”

“I know,” Charge said with complete confidence. “Now, I'll be over in an hour with dinner.” He paused, and Kathryn could hear the grin on his face. “And I'll be having you for dessert.”

***

Kathryn did get everything completed by Saturday, but just barely. At 6:30 am, she found herself in a line at Lambert waiting to board a non-stop flight to LA.

“Why did you get me an open-ended ticket?” Kathryn waved her boarding pass in Charge's face. He snatched it away from her playfully.

“Because.” He held the pass up and away from her. She couldn't even reach it if she jumped. If she froze him and pushed him over, however . . . She smirked at the thought. “Because I wasn't sure what day we would be coming back. So I just wanted to be flexible.”

Kathryn made a half-hearted attempt to reach the pass and then poked Charge playfully in the side. “Two weeks.” She poked him harder. Charge half grunted and half laughed; she knew all his ticklish spots. He returned the pass to her in a truce. “Two weeks means fourteen days from today. That's what it means.”

Charge shrugged. “You might want to stay longer.” The line began to move.

“I can't stay.” Kathryn handed her boarding pass to the agent at the gate. “I have to get back. Remember those boring library stacks?”

“Yeah, whatever.” Charge was waved through as his boarding pass was scanned by the agent. “You might like it so much that you never want to leave.”

“Well, never
wanting
to leave and
having
to leave are two totally different things. I've got responsibilities here, you know.”

“You think you do.” Charge slipped one strong arm around her waist as they boarded the plane. “But your only real responsibility is to be with me.” He bent down and whispered this last part into her ear, sending chills up the back of Kathryn's neck, and her thoughts turned to becoming a member of the mile-high club.

***

Jonathan and Susan were at LAX to pick them up. Susan had flown in a few days earlier “to get everything ready” she had said. Kathryn figured, however, that it was to have a few days alone with Jonathan before they arrived.

“Welcome to LA!” Susan threw her arms around Kathryn. Her blonde hair was pulled off her face in a low ponytail, and she was wearing shorts and a pink, button-down blouse that showed off her new tan.

Kathryn returned her hug. “Thanks.”

“So good to see you, Kathryn.” Jonathan hugged her as well while Charge put their bags in the trunk of a very nice black BMW. Jonathan slipped behind the wheel, and Susan took the passenger's seat. Charge and Kathryn sat in the back. The cool leather seats felt good against Kathryn's skin. She slipped her hand into Charge's and squeezed gently. He smiled at her warmly.

As the car glided into the heavy LA traffic, Kathryn took note of the scenery. The sky was cloudless, but a thin haze kept it from being a brilliant blue. The palm trees rose impossibly high with their pine-cone trunks, and the sun that pierced through the car windows felt blazingly hot. They pulled onto the expressway and immediately ground to a halt in stop-and-go traffic. Kathryn felt a sense of excitement as they inched along. She had no idea what to expect during this “vacation,” and she found that she liked it that way. Jonathan, Susan, and Charge engaged in small talk as she gazed dreamily out of the window. She had a feeling that the next two weeks were going to be very interesting, to say the least.

After moving at a snail's pace for a few miles, Jonathan exited onto a less crowded freeway. As the car picked up speed, Kathryn could tell that they were heading away from the city. The scenery changed as the concrete fell away. The west coast terrain was very different than what she was used to in the midwest. The humidity of St. Louis kept everything a lush green. On the outskirts of LA, the dominating colors were yellow, brown, and tan, with a tuft of green here and there to remind people that despite the lack of water, things were still alive.