Authors: Crystal Cierlak
“I didn’t know what you’d like so I
just ordered the first thing on the menu.” Her hand waived carelessly over a
plate of cheese and fruit and a pitcher of chilled water. “The Riesling is
pretty decent if you like white.”
“Thank you, but, I don’t drink,” he
politely declined.
“Usually I don’t either,” she
revealed, observing what little liquid remained in her wineglass. “Somehow it
seemed appropriate.” Her eyes met his and he could tell she was not interested
in small talk or pleasantries. She had questions and seemed to be holding back
the urge to let them spill out all at once. He recalled the horror on her face
when she awoke from unconsciousness, and how she turned red while screaming at
him. He could only imagine how she was feeling.
A waiter appeared, welcomed Evan,
and took an order for two meatloaf sandwiches - Anne’s recommendation - before
disappearing as quickly as he’d appeared. She was staring at him, expecting him
to start explaining himself. The time for silence had long since passed and he
knew he could no longer keep her from the answers she desired.
He didn’t have to be there at all. He
could have easily declined her invitation to dinner and kept driving along the
coast towards Santa Barbara, but that wasn’t who he was. He always believed in
honoring his commitments, even the ones he didn’t like, and Anne was no
different.
“So tell me. How does an ordinary
man like you jump off a cliff after someone he doesn’t know, only to catch her
and land miles away on a beach perfectly intact?”
He swallowed hard at the question. During
the drive from the harbor he had tried to come up with any explanation that
might satisfy her while protecting him. He hadn’t come up with anything.
“I suppose I’m not an ordinary
man,” he answered. She looked at him pointedly, clearly not in the mood for
games or pointless distractions. Being evasive would do neither of them any
favors. “I told you. It’s difficult to explain.”
“Try me.” Her eyes bore into his
with an intensity that caught him by surprise. The truth was the only direction
to go. Even if he could come up with an adequate lie he doubted she would
believe him. Though he also doubted she would believe the absolute truth.
“You’re going to think I’m lying,”
he warned.
“Well, my disbelief is already
pretty suspended after what happened. Why don’t you just explain yourself and
allow me the benefit of coming to my own conclusion?”
He took a deep breath and sat back
in his chair, resting his right leg over his left. “I have what you may consider
to be certain abilities that would ordinarily preclude rational logic.” He
picked up the pitcher of water and poured himself a glass. He looked at her as
he took a sip and tried to gauge her reaction. She looked utterly perplexed.
“So you’re some sort of...” her
words dropped off in the middle. Her eyes searched around as if the answer were
lying on table in front of her. Finally she shrugged and with a raise of her
shoulders mumbled, “Superhero?” He couldn’t tell if she was annoyed or amused
by the question.
“No. It’s nothing like that.”
“So you’re not some kind of caped
crusader who goes around saving women in distress?” Whether annoyed or amused
she definitely looked at him as though she thought he was crazy.
He had to laugh at the implication.
No, he was not a superhero, nor was he crazy. From what he observed during his
time there, superheroes were caricatures of myths, created for entertainment
and consumption. He was nothing like that.
“Nothing of the kind.” He took
another sip of water in an attempt to try to hide his amusement from her.
Clearly she was trying to seriously understand him the only way she could think
of.
“A mutant then?” she guessed.
“No! At least... at least not in
the way your movies and entertainment would lead you to believe.”
Her eyes widened a fraction and her
head moved back as though she were physically repelled by the information.
“Will all of your guesses come from
movies?” His pretense was gone and he couldn’t hide his own amusement. For as
crazy as she may have thought him to be, he wondered if she found her line of
questioning to be just as crazy, if not more.
“Well, excuse me if I have nothing
else to base them on!” she retorted. She absconded from the conversation as the
waiter returned balancing two plates and a bottle of wine in his hands. He
placed each plate in front of them and at Anne’s request refilled her glass.
She took it and sipped deeply, eyeing him from the rim.
The sandwich was thick with meat
and smelled delicious, making him realize he was starving. A deliberate bite
was distraction enough from the conversation at hand. They ate in silence for a
few minutes, but he could tell just by the look on her face that she was
processing his answers and thinking of even more questions. Around them the sky
deepened into a golden orange, the sun having started its descent across the
Pacific to the other side of the world. The exterior lighting of the restaurant
was glowing, striking a rich contrast against the blue interior of the restaurant.
She readjusted, crossing one leg
over the other as she sat at the edge of the plush couch. It was difficult to
imagine that she was the same woman who stood at the edge of a cliff and
jumped.
“Why did you do it?” he asked. She
looked up from her plate and frowned. There was a long stretch of silence as
she appeared to considered the question, a fork full of meatloaf stationary in
her hand. Perhaps she was also estimating how much of the truth she would reveal
to him?
“We aren’t talking about me,” she
finally answered before putting the fork in her mouth.
“You wanted to know why I jumped
after you. I want to know why you jumped at all.”
“That should be obvious, Evan,” she
pointedly replied.
“To kill yourself. Why?” He
resisted the urge to frown for fear of appearing judgmental.
The fork dropped to her plate and
her fingers went absentmindedly to the wineglass, twisting around the stem. “I
intended to take my life.” Her eyes dropped back to the table as she took a
slow sip.
He put his sandwich down and
reached for a napkin. He couldn’t eat and talk about her perceived value of
life at the same time. Why she thought she could question him without answering
a few questions herself was unknown to him. He caught her and therefore the
obligation was his to explain, but she couldn’t honestly expect to not get
involved, could she?
“I just don’t understand why
someone like you would want to do that.”
“Someone like me?” she asked. She
shook her head and looked back up him, a fury in her brown eyes. “You don’t
know anything about me.”
That much was true. “And yet, here
we are.” He shrugged but didn’t look away from her. He wasn’t going to give up
so easily.
“I could just as easily ask why you
felt compelled to save the life of someone you don’t know.”
“Isn’t that what people do here?”
he asked.
“
Here
? Where? Ventura?
California?”
He shook his head at the misspoken
word. “I just mean... isn’t that what anyone else would have done?”
She looked at him incredulously. “
Nobody
else would have done it, even if they
could
fly, which
you
apparently can!”
His fingers went to the deep crease
in his eyebrows and he pushed the skin down flat against his skull. “I can’t
fly.”
“Right, you just have
abilities
.
Such as the ability to, I don’t know, teleport or whatever. Oh, and you’re sort
of a mutant but not like in the movies. Whatever the hell that means.”
He couldn’t stop himself from
laughing at her. “Teleport? No, it’s... Yeah, I guess you could call it that,
for lack of a better word. I teleported with you from 500 feet above the ocean
to a beach miles away. Something like that.” In spite of his laughter he could
barely hide his irritation. He picked up the sandwich and continued eating
knowing she was staring at him, still stuck on his words.
“So then... what are you?” she
asked.
“I’m a person! Not some foolish
mythical character from a stupid movie!” he practically shouted. He took a
quick look around to make sure no one else heard him. Clearly he would sound
crazy to a random passerby.
“Well, people don’t usually break
the laws of physics and teleport, Evan. There are natural laws preventing
science fiction crap like that from happening.”
“Clearly your natural laws don’t
apply to me, Anne,” he retorted. “Things are different where I’m from.”
“Right, and where is that? Another
planet?” She shook her head as though she couldn’t believe she was engaged in
such a conversation. She sipped the last of the wine and signaled the waiter
for the bottle.
He sighed. “Not another planet,” he
replied, exasperated. He fell silent as the waiter came back and cheerfully replenished
Anne’s wineglass. She took another slow sip then placed the glass down on the
table before her, just out of her reach.
“You know what? I really don’t know
how I’m supposed to take you right now. Nothing about this day has gone
according to plan and I never imagined I would ever be having the kind of
ludicrous conversation you and I are having right now. There’s no such thing as
teleportation, or whatever, and yet somehow you managed to do it.” She cradled
her head in her hands with her elbows resting on the table. He watched as her
fingers moved through her hair, rubbing her scalp as if it were aching. She was
clearly at odds with herself, distressed at the cognitive dissonance of what
she believed could happen and the impossible nature of what did happen. He felt
responsible for her anguish and frustration at having to talk about something
she clearly found to be beyond the bounds of possibility.
“Would it help if I could prove it
to you?” he asked. Even before the words finished coming from his mouth he
regretted them. He had never once been in a position where his actions caused
disbelief by those around him; he went above and beyond to appear to be as
normal as everyone else. And yet this beautiful woman indirectly caused him do
many things that he never would have otherwise. What started out as a routine
day had become anything but. Perhaps there was no turning back.
Her head lifted up from her hands
and he could see she was both confused and intrigued. “What do you mean?”
“Name a place.”
“Name a place? Any place in the
world?” She looked absolutely dumbstruck.
“You name any place in the world
and I’ll take you there.”
A too-loud laugh escaped from her
mouth and she quickly covered it with her hand. She looked at him as though he had
gone utterly insane. She continued to laugh a series of small, disbelieving
chuckles and she grabbed her wineglass to take a sip. The laughter calmed and
after pausing for a moment, she held the glass out in front of her face and
looked up at him.
“Okay. This Riesling is made at the
Gainey vineyard in Santa Ynez. Take me there.” Her smile suggested she didn’t
believe him at all and was quite possibly mocking him. Either way, he wondered
if she even realized she was smiling.
Evan glanced around and noticed their
waiter was busy inside. Of the few patrons present none of them were paying
attention to Anne and him. He reached across the table and placed his hand on
hers. She recoiled at his touch.
“Just relax,” he whispered as his
hand covered hers, holding her knuckles beneath the width of his palm.
The street, restaurant, and city of
Ventura dissipated around them, a grove of trees taking their place. A two-lane
highway stretched out behind them with an expanse of vineyard in front. The sky
turned a different shade of blue, illuminating a heavy stone inscribed ‘
Gainey
Vineyard, Tasting & Tours’
in front of them. A bed of green shrubbery
dotted with purple flowers sat in a shallow well that made up the front portion
of the sign, the petals swaying gently in a cool breeze that touched their face
and hands.
“
Holy shit
,” she exclaimed.
She circled around him, taking in the 360 degrees of new environment with her
jaw dropped open.
Evan’s heart beat at an
uncomfortable pace inside his chest. Transporting with another person was not
something he had ever done before, and he felt certain he was never meant to do
it at all. Catching her on the island had been a quick decision on his part,
and one he was willing to accept the consequences for. Transporting her just to
prove he could was another matter entirely. Subsequently, he was even more
obligated to her, creating a connection he was certain was not meant to ever
exist. However, there in a vineyard in a strange place he’d never been to
before, the look of pure astonishment on her face made it worth the risk. He
took a moment to study her face again, and to appreciate her beauty.
In another moment the sign,
vineyard and highway were gone, replaced with the restaurant, street and the
city of Ventura around them. They were back in their seats, her glass of wine
still chilled on the table next to their half-eaten sandwiches, the waiter
still distracted with other patrons in the far corner of the restaurant.
“How did you do that?” she
exclaimed with breath caught in her throat. She was looking around at her
environment again, seemingly trying to comprehend how the world had changed
around her so literally.
Evan shrugged and took a sip from
his water glass, settling back into his seat and preparing himself for the
inevitable questions to follow. “I told you that I have certain abilities.” He
tried to sound nonchalant but inside he was reeling. He didn’t like not knowing
what was going to happen next, especially when he had opened himself to her in
a way that could not be undone.