Movie Man Mills

Mills returns- Chapter 23

2011-08-11T20:37:00.003-06:00

After a much longer than expected break, here is the next chapter of Time Out! Chapter 23! There are only about 4 or 5 more chapters. I am hoping to be done by the end of August!

CHAPTER 23

Friday, October 30, 1989

There were only 15 minutes left before Coach was going to allow the team to stop practicing so that they could break for Jake Spencer’s funeral. The entire team was watching the clock, but no one moreso than Jon. The events of the past week had exhausted him and he was ready and waiting for a break, even if that break was sitting in a funeral for two hours.
Jon got to the gym early to wait for Nicholas and the bookbag full of stolen files. Unfortunately, Coach was already there so Jon got an extra half hour of sit ups, since he had to pretend he was there early to do something. Nicholas showed up just a few minutes after Jon and cursed out the fact that Coach had beaten them that morning, of all mornings.
The day started with relays and drills. Jon felt amazingly comfortable doing them, if still winded from all of the situps he had done that morning. Then, Coach broke them into two-on-two teams for the last two hours of practice. Today, Hobbs and Bernard were against Nick and Jon. Stan could do nothing to help his friends as he saw them being berated and cheaply fouled throughout the morning. Not only that, but Stan’s court was on the opposite end of the gym.
Jon and Moss spurred each other on, but the contest was very heavily sided against them. Jason squared made sure that their cheap fouls only bruised Jon and Nick up, never drawing blood, knocking them down, or drawing blood.
The small hand of the clock ticked slowly, very slowly, toward 11. As the Coach’s whistle blew to end the humiliation and torture, Jon bent over to center himself and catch his breath. Moss sat down on the pulled out bench on the side of the gym. Stan came over and placed his hand on Jon’s bent back.
“You okay, good sir?” Stan asked.
Jon panted a few more times before standing up. “I will be. Just two more days, and then I hope to never see another basketball as long as I live.”
Stan smiled. “You’re doing great. Just keep it up. Hobbs and Bernard won’t be any problem to you a week from now.” Stan nodded his head at Moss; Moss nodded back. Jon noticed Coach walking out the side door. “I’m going to go get ready for the funeral. Need me to stick around for a second and help you guys? You need a ride at all?”
Jon shook his head. “I think we’ve got it. I’ll watch Nick’s back while he returns the files. Then, we will shower and head out. Kate is giving us a ride. We’ll probably only be about 20 minutes behind you.”
“All right. I’ll hang around the locker room until I am the only one in there. Then, when I leave, you two will be clear.”
“Thanks, Stan. I never would have made this without you.”
Stan looked at him quizzically. “You’re right. You would’ve been screwed.” Stan turned and headed into the locker room.
Jon slowly strolled over to sit by Moss. “We only have two more days of this, then it’s time for the game. What are you going to do after tomorrow?”
“Either way, I think I’m out of here. We either find out the issues behind the scenes and can prove it, or we won’t. Kate or Bender will probably “transfer” me to another school. They’ll pull me out of here and I’ll get sent on another assignment. Since I’m 23 anyway, it doesn’t matter.”
Jon was shocked. “You’re 23?”
Moss shrugged. “If Cameron Crowe can do it for Fast Times at Ridgemont High, don’t you think our government can do it as well?”
“So this really has been a long time undercover assignment for you, hasn’t it?”
“It’s up there. I was like you, though. I’ve been getting a nice paycheck for 7 years. The first little bit was strange, but you get used to it pretty quickly.”
There was a silence between the two. The first batch of athletes were leaving the locker room.
Moss continued. “I do like the change, though. Never knowing where you’ll be or what you’ll be doing is both really stressful and a lot of fun. Getting to know the country, different types of economic groups and areas… the food is the best part! Did you know that Salt Lake actually has some of the best burgers anywhere as a whole? You can always find one or two really good burgers anywhere you go, but Salt Lake has an amazing array of burgers!”
Jon smiled. “Do you ever miss a place? How do you let go of each area?”
Moss thought for a moment. “You never get too close to anywhere or anyone.”
“Will you miss me? Stan?”
“You’re an agent now, so it’s a bit different with you. It’s possible that we’ll team up later. Stan, though, I’ll be honest. I won’t miss him at all. I keep everyone at arm’s length. When you know you’ll be leaving, you don’t get too attached.” Moss could tell Jon was a little hurt for his friend. “Don’t get me wrong, though, Jon, Stan is a good guy. I like him. Since he knows what you are, keep him close. He’s helped a lot and he’s an amazing friend to you. I just won’t ‘miss’ him. There is a difference.”
“How well do you know Kate?”
“I met her when I came on this assignment.”
“Are all of the liaisons as hot as she is?”
“All? Nowhere near. There are a few, though…” Nick smiled. “She won’t be by your side all the time, though, Jon. Neither will Bender. Since you live here with your parents, they won’t move you around yet, so you’ll still have Kate and Walter with you for another year and a half. After that, though, you’ll jump from office to office and get to meet a lot of good people. A few assholes as well, but a lot of other good people.”
Another batch left the locker room.
“Where is your favorite place you’ve been?”
“I’ll be honest- I love DC. New Orleans was also a great place, even though I was there in the summer and felt like I was going to melt at all times.”
“Least favorite?”
“I was on assignment in Winnemucca Nevada for a 3 month period. That was not too fun.”
“What happened?”
“Can’t talk about the case, but it was really a bad area. Too hot, nothing to do on my downtime, and….”
“And?”
“Got dumped by my girlfriend at the time right before I left for that assignment because I was never around. I was not in a good frame of mind.”
A few more athletes left the locker room and Stan trailed the last one. Stan waved to Moss and Mills as he walked out of the gym.
“Shall we?” Jon asked.
“Let’s do it.” Moss walked over and grabbed his bag full of files. “I’ll go and do a quick check and make sure that Stan didn’t miss anyone. I will turn off any showers that are still on. Then, I’ll put back the files, and go and turn on the showers again. That will be your cue to come back.”
“What if someone comes in the gym? What do you want me to do?”
“It’ll only be a minute- two minutes, tops. If someone does come in, just tell them that there is a hazing or something going on and they can’t go back. But, I don’t imagine that will happen. Keep your eyes forward. I need you to make sure that no one sees me putting away the files- I could be suspended for that and it would go on my permanent record!” Moss laughed. “I also couldn’t be at the game on Saturday and that would be a problem!”
“Got it.” The two of them stood, facing outward, in the small doorway which led to Coach’s office, which led to the long, thin hallway to the locker room and the showers.
“See you in a second.” Moss patted Jon’s shoulder and turned to walk down the hall to make sure they were alone.
The gym was empty. Beyond empty. There was not a ball on the courts, not a towel left on a bench. Only his own gym bag was left sitting by the bench where they had been sitting. Jon never felt comfortable in the gym, but this seemed eerily empty and quiet. Jon let loose a wolf whistle, just to hear it echo and reverberate in the cavernous gym.
“Hey-“ Moss said.
Jon visibly jumped. “Don’t do that!”
Nicolas laughed. “Little jittery are you? Maybe you should switch to decaf.”
“Maybe you should switch to hurry your ass up!”
“I am. I gave the sweep, everything is good. The files will be easy to replace, then I’ll turn on the showers. Listen for the showers and come on back.”
“Got it.”
Moss left again. Jon scanned the empty gym again and then glanced behind him. He saw Nick slide into Coach’s office.
It shocked Jon that someplace could be so empty right now and then a mass of people in just over 48 hours. Why does sports bring out so many people? Why do they feel it is a thing to bond over?
It must be the same thing as movies and books and TV shows. It is a common thing that people experience together with a “good” side and a “bad” side, with yours always being the “good” team or the correct opinion, and create that human bond over. All of a sudden, sports seemed to click for Jon. It still all seemed alien and strange, but at least now it was a little more relatable.
Out of the corner of his eye, Jon saw Moss leave the Coach’s office and head back to the locker room. He also saw the main gym door open at the same time and a high heeled shoe start to enter. Then, he heard an embarrassed laugh, and watched the foot retreat, and the door close again.
The shower water turned on.
Jon left his post and walked down to the main gym door. His footsteps echoed hollowly throughout the gym. He stood next to the door for a few moments and listened intently. He didn’t hear anything out of the ordinary. He pushed the door open a crack and stuck his head out. No one was in the hallway. The girl with the high heels was exiting the school through the door by the auditorium on the other side of the building. He closed the door again and went back to the hallway to the locker room, footsteps echoing again.
Mills could hear the faint sound of the shower. The shower was going, but that’s all he heard, nothing else.
“Moss?” Jon yelled.
Two shots rang from the locker room. Jon jumped and then he began sprinting to the hallway. As he turned the corner, he was hit by someone running at locomotive speed. Jon spun and landed with a thud on the floor. It knocked the wind out of him (he could almost envision the comic book style ‘Oof’ rising from his lips) and he could feel the right side of his face flat against the ground.
Jon’s body writhed in pain on the floor, but it felt as though his face stayed still as he tried to take a breath. He opened his eyes and saw his gym bag on the other side of the gym. If he stayed here, there was nothing that would keep him from dying if there were 2 gunmen. Without being able to take a deep breath yet, Jon slowly started to work his way toward his bag.
The word ‘serpentine flashed through his mind, but he didn’t know why.
After an agonizing 6 foot progression, Jon felt the cool air chill his lungs again. He immediately brought his arms straight and his legs forward so he was in a kneeling position. He took a breath and waited for his mind to clear. After kneeling for 15 seconds, he stood, steadied himself on his feet, and then ran as fast as he could, it was actually more of a fast walk, to his bag. He bent down, wobbled for a moment, then unzipped his bag.
He pulled out his normal towel and threw it aside. He reached in and got his other towel, found the edge and quickly unrolled it. As he did so, his gun fell right in his hand. He reached in and grabbed a folded third towel and thrust his hand into the creases, returning with a magazine. He slid the magazine in, cocked the gun, spun on his heel and headed back for the hallway.
As he approached, he felt the humidity of the showers take effect. Mills decided to go back into the gym a bit so he could sidle against the wall for protection in case someone else came out. Reaching the doorway, he peered around the corner with his gun pointed ahead of him.
Nothing except the sound of water hitting the tile.
Jon rounded the corner and kept his body hugging the left side of the hallway. He would reach his long left leg as far down the wall as he could, plant his foot and scoot the rest of his body to catch up with it. Again, he could hear his own breath echo in his ears, just like at the sniper building several days earlier.
When Jon reached Coach’s office door, he snuck a peek inside. His first reaction was to look at the filing cabinets. All of the drawers were closed. Jon noticed, however, that a supply closet door was wide open.
Damn! That wasn’t Moss that I saw coming out of the Coach’s office- that was the killer!
Jon quickly continued moving along the hall, listening closely for any sounds. He only heard the water from the showers and a slight gurgling sound. He reached the end of the hallway, Mills brought the gun up, holding it in front of his face, ready to turn the corner….
Shitshitshitshitshitshit, Jon thought. He took a deep breath and…
…spun around the corner as he knelt, very Axel Foley-like.
Jon’s gun was pointed down the aisle separating the lockers from the showers. Nick’s locker was on the first row. Jon stood and walked down the first aisle of lockers. Moss’ locker was slightly open. Jon used the front of his gun to open it wider. Nothing special was inside, just Nick’s clothes and his gun medallion was hanging on the hook just inside the door.
Jon turned and walked back up the aisle. It was then that he saw Nick’s shoe for the first time. Sticking out from the showers. Jon holstered his gun and ran to his side.
Nick was face down in the water, breathing shallowly, dribbling water out of his mouth about every other breath to just keep from drowning. Bloody water trails were going to the drain from his stomach and shoulder areas. His hair was wet and fully forward. Nick hadn’t even changed clothes yet. Jon knelt beside him, rolled him over, and brought his head out of the water streams.
“Jon, Jon, Jon, “Nick panted.
“I’m here, pal, I’m here, who was it? What happened?
“Jon, Jon…. Okay? Youhokay?” he still panted his words.
Jon looked and saw a decidedly non-lethal shoulder shot, but a stomach wound that was gushing blood. “I’m okay. They hit me as they came out of the hallway, but they didn’t shoot. I think at that point they just wanted to leave. I’m okay. Let me go get Kate.”
Nicholas became very agitated. “No, no, nono…”
“Okay, okay. I’m here. I’m not going, I’m right here for you.”
“23, 23…”
“I know you’re 23. You’re too young. You’re going to be fine,” Jon started to feel tears stinging his eyes. “You’re going to be fine and playing well on Saturday night, “ Jon lied.
“23!” Nick’s clenched fist reached for Jon’s shirt. “23! Got it? 23! Twenty…”Nick’s clenched fist dropped to the tile floor with a light splash. Jon heard a low gurgle in Nick’s throat as his head flopped backward.
“Nick? Nick? Moss?” Jon raised his hand high in the air and brought it down hard against Moss’ cheek. “No! Fuck you! Don’t die! Don’t die! You can’t die! You can’t die, you son of a-“ Jon’s knees gave way and he crumbled to the wet tile floor as well, dropping Nick’s lifeless body onto the ground as well.
Jon closed his eyes and listened to the shower spray hit his head. He could feel his clothing slowly gain weight from the water and stick to his skin. He couldn’t tell which warm water from his face was from his tears or the shower. He silently cried under the water.
All of a sudden, he took a deep breath and began loudly sobbing. In between the sobs, he was muttering, “What am I doing, what am I doing?”

Kate drove up and took her normal parking space nearest the gym with the side door by the locker room entry. She was expecting her two young agents to be waiting for her. When they weren’t, she turned off the car, got out, and walked up to the door. It was locked. She tried the other door next to it and it was locked, too.
Kate walked around the building, looking for the next open door. She found one about halfway on the west side of the building. She opened it and was met with nothing but a flight of stairs going up- almost like a fire escape, but indoors. She walked up the stairs and opened the door at top.
She then walked down the long hallway past several music and drama classrooms. At the end of the hall was a flight of stairs going down.
At the bottom of the stairs, she saw a pair of wet footprints which led out a door to her right by the auditorium, and came from the gym, on her left. She went toward the gym.
As she reached the gym door, she slowly looked around and, upon not seeing anybody, she unholstered her gun. She opened the door and walked in.
The wet footprints led away from the locker room hallway. Kate pressed her back against the wall to her left upon entering and kept her gun ready. “Moss? Mills?” she repeated calling for them both as she made her way to the hallway.
As she entered the hallway, she started walked determinedly toward the locker room. “Moss? Mills?” she kept calling.
As she entered the locker room, she turned the corner with anxiety starting to grip her throat. Her immediate scan of the area showed a body face down in the showers. Kate quickly walked through the shower with her gun drawn, making sure there was no one else in the showers. Going to the body, she knew who it was as she kicked the body face up.
“Oh, Nick.”
Kate next started the walk down the hallway which separated the showers from the lockers, her gun still drawn. Her pace became quicker as she got to the end of the rows. Kate ran down the last row and yelled, “Freeze!” as she turned the corner. No one. Again, she kept her back toward the wall of lockers as she did the row parallel to the row separating the showers and lockers and was running by the end. She darted up the row of lockers, which included Nick’s, and headed back down the hallway to the gym.
“Jon!” she yelled. “Jon! Where are you? It’s me! It’s Kate!”
Kate went out the side door as soon as she got out of the locker room hallway. The cool wind hit her as she scanned the entire field with her gun and saw nothing.
“Mills!”

June 12th

2011-06-14T13:04:00.004-06:00

2 days ago, June 12th, 2011, was the anniversary of 2 very important times in my life and both significant events really shaped who I am as a person, albeit they happened 29 years apart.

June 12th, 1981- I was 9, getting ready to turn 10. Being an only child, during the summers, I would go down to Phoenix, Arizona and spend time with my cousins and their larger family of 7 kids. While there, I would learn to interact with a larger family dynamic.
My parents would also send money with me and I would go to movies with my cousins and we would catch as many showings of the big blockbuster movies between 1981- 1985as we could stand.
It started out very strongly in 1981 when my cousin Denny came back from a date after seeing a midnight movie that had very little opening word of mouth.
I have always been a night owl and, even at the age of 9, I was routinely staying up until 2 or 3 am watching old reruns of Twilight Zone, Odd Couple, Real People, and watching any old movies I could find that interested me at the time.
Denny came home from his date and, not surprised that I was still awake, told me to get to bed because he was going to take me to the first showing in the morning of the best movie he had seen in a long time.
We went to the 10 am showing at the Chris-town 5 and several of my other cousins came along. The lines were not too long and we got in easily. This was going to be the last time that ttickets would be easy to get for this film for the next year.
I remember getting a Coke for the movie, but remember very little else about the actual experience as far as seat choice and such bcause once the film started, it was one of the greatest moments of my film going life.
Many people of my generation say that the opening scene of Star Wars is what turned them into movie fans. While I really enjoyed Star Wars, it held nothing in my mind to this experience.
As the Paramount logo turned into a live action mountain in South America (actually Hawaii), I was hooked for the next 115 minutes as the world was introduced to Indiana Jones in 'Raiders of the Lost Ark'. The story, the action, the characters- I was enthralled! My parents also saw it while I was in Phoenix and were dead set against me seeing it when I came home because they thought it would be too scary. When I got home that summer, though, I had already seen it 3 times.
Before the movie left theaters 86 weeks later, I had seen it in theaters 13 times! I purchased it on VHS when it came out in December of 1983 and I wore out 2 VHS copies. I have purchased it twice on DVD. I will purchase it the day it is released on Blu Ray. On my mission, I could literally watch and hear every moment of it in my head. In 1995, I lost track of how many times I had actually sat down and watched it. At the time, I was up to 435 times of actually sitting and watching it. This does not include the millions of times I have had it on in the background as I wash dishes, cook, do homework, write, anything! And, since then, I have had another 16 years to watch and listen to it. I am sure that I have sat and watched it well over 600, if not 700, times by now and my "listenings" of it probably go up into the several thousands. Even today, I have a digital copy of it on my Zune.
When I got home, I took all of my friends to it at the Villa theater in Salt Lake. My parents took me to the late show on New Year's Eve for our celebration of 1981 turning to 1982.'Raiders' was a phenomenon and there were times when we would have to plan to see a specific showing and you would get your tickets several days before.
Somewhere around the 7th time, I realized just what filmmaking was. It made sense to me how dialogue, acting, costumes, music, cinematography, directing, sound, editing, and the whole moviemaking process worked as a whole to bring a story to life. Although I was already a huge movie fan, 'Raiders' helped me see beyond the screen and get into my true love of films.
My parents encouraged my love of films. My dad took me to see Raiders many times and would watch it with me on video many more. He also showed me his favorite films, most of them starring Steve McQueen and Clint Eastwood.

My dad's favorite film was 'Bullitt' starring Steve McQueen. I got to watch it last year on June 12th, 2010- 29 years after the release of Raiders of the Lost Ark and a mere 19 hours after my dad's death.
Denny also factored greatly into last year's proceedings as he and his brother Garry gave my mom and I blessings the day we learned that my dad was terminal.
I am still working through the grief process. June 12th, 2011 was hard. Aleisha and I are in Hurricane spending the time with my mom as a time of reflection and remembering.
I worked late at Blockbuster on Saturday June 11th, 2011 and went home, finished packing and we got on the road. We pulled out at 1:12 AM on June 12th- the exact 1 year mark of the death of my dad. I could not imagine a better place to be at the one year mark. My dad loved to drive and to travel. While travelling, he listened to music and talk radio, so I listened to music, general songs and a few selections from the Raiders soundtrack and Rick Emerson.
I wanted to stop by my dad's grave in Nephi on the way down but wanted to make it to Hurricane instead of being arrested by the Nephi City cops for trespassing, so we will stop on the way home this Sunday.
I thought about holding my dad's hand for the last time during the 1 o'clock hour. My dad was dead for about 45 minutes before we called anyone last year just because we were all too stunned and drinking in the moment to even think about calling anyone at that time.
I was close to tears during the entire day of June 12th, 2011, but yeaterday and today, I feel a weight has been lifted off. While still hard, it is comforting to know that I have done an entire year without my dad. I know that seems strange, but that's how it feels to me. Since I have now done it all once, I can do it a second time. And a third. And a Fourth.
While I don't think it will ever be easy without my dad, I have learned a lot. I have had many friends and relatives give me love and support. Aleisha and I have had to work through it all together and have become much closer in doing so.
I am working on finishing Time Out (another chapter of which should be posted by tomorrow night) and getting my career going in that track and I'm not sure if I could have forced myself to do it without the death of my dad. Even though he has been gone a year, he is still making me a better person.

So, June 12th will forever be filled with tons of emotion for me and will probably be a yearly day which I take off from work.
Thank you, Steven Spielberg.
Thank you, Daddy.

Chapter 22

2011-05-25T12:25:00.002-06:00

Here we are! With this post, I am now posting the last thing I have written. From now on, I will have to write more to be able to post anything else.
This chapter is a little over 3,200 words and, by my guesstimate, I only have about another 20-25,000 words until I finish the book.
For those who know the three act structure, this means that we are headed into the climax. Keep your arms and hands inside the car at all times.
My goal is now to finish the book by June 12th, the 1 year mark of my dad's death. So, posts may only happen every other day or so, so that I feel like I give a lengthy enough chunk of the story at each step. So, please stay with me and let me know what you think of it so far. Are you still interested? Did I lose you somewhere along the way? Please let me know!

CHAPTER 22

Jon’s ears felt like they were going to bleed from the heavy bass that was thumping through the dark hallway. The stale stench of smoke, alcohol, hairspray, and perfume stained the area. Neon lights glowed under the closed doorways.
Jon took small tentative steps through the hall as he had lost sight of Nicolas. From behind him, Jon heard a door open. As he turned, he thought he saw the naked back of a woman as she scurried across the hall to another doorway and closed that door.
“Where the hell…?” Jon asked the empty air but was stopped by slamming into a wall. He placed his hand against the wall and turned slowly as he peeled his face from the plaster.
The hallway had made a turn. He could see a large, heavy metal door leading to another room. The neon pink light shone down the hallway through the cracks in the door. The music was getting louder as he walked toward the door. He could hear the whoops and hollers of men wafting towards him.
“You are kidding me….,” Jon muttered as he reached the door and read the taped up, handwritten sign on the door which read- 2 rules- you can touch them, they can’t touch you, and no actual fornication- Thank You for working at Southern X-posure.
Jon opened the door and found himself in a dimly lit gentleman’s club that had been the answer to his Mom’s question of “Where are you, Stan, and Greg going tonight?” for at least the past five years.
“Nicolas, where are you?” Jon asked to the ghost of Nicolas who he knew was here somewhere.
Jon scanned the room and saw a raised stage with two scantily clad women on the two opposite ends of the stage who were taunting the basketball team members with their wares. By taking a quick head count and facial scan, Jon noticed there were only 4 people from the team not gathered by the stage- Nicolas, Stan, Coach, and himself. Coach, he realized, was actually sitting at the bar, hitting on the brunette bartender serving him. Nicolas and Stan were still MIA. A hand closed around Jon’s arm and he could tell trouble was waiting behind him.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Jon was spun around and was facing a large white guy who resembled Macho Man Randy Savage and whose name badge read Bret.
“Um, I’m part of the team. New guy. Jon- Neal page. I was following Nicolas Moss.” Bret was looking Jon straight in the eyes to try to determine if this was a lie or not.
Another hand closed around Jon’s arm, a much gentler hand. Jon turned and saw a very heavily makeupped blonde woman who, by Jon’s estimation, was five feet tall at the most. She had a drink tray under her arm and wore a very tight midriff top and Daisy Duke shorts.
“Bret,” she said in a mother disapproving of her young son’s behavior type of a tone, “I was told to take good care of this young man. Let him go and I will take care of him.”
The vise grip of Bret’s fist loosened and Jon felt himself shrink back ever so slightly. “Thank you,” he whispered to the waitress.
“Bret’s a good guy. He’s the size of a dinosaur with the brain of one as well. I’m Lorna. Nicolas did ask me to watch you and take care of you right off the bat.”
“Take care of me…?” Jon let the question trail off.
“Don’t worry about a thing, darling. Not like that.” Lorna was leading Jon to the farthest corner of the club. There was a booth away from the floor and the bar. The music was still too loud, but it got Jon out of the way of the uncomfortableness of the club. “This is where the boss can oversee the entire place but still be hidden away a bit. Tonight, he’s actually in the office, so this has been here for you.” She kept her hand lingering on Jon’s arm a little too much for his liking. “I’ll be back in a moment with a drink for you.’
“But, I don’t….” Jon let his thought die right there as Lorna was already out of hearing range. “This is the strangest day.”
Stan showed up and slid into the booth with Jon. “Wanted to make sure you were doing okay. Are you doing okay?”
“I’m 17 and was taken away from a make out session with Aleisha Madsen and brought to a strip club! What do you think?”
“I know Nicolas needs to talk to you. I’ll be wandering around. Generally, when they do these things, I go over to the arcade machine- that thing has over 100 games in it!”
“Generally?”
“I’ll admit- I go up by the stage now and again. Why wouldn’t I?”
Jon shook his head. “Let me guess. Part of the group?”
Stan smiled and patted his friend on the shoulder. “Part of the group. Have a good time. Lorna’s great! She’ll take care of you!” Stan slid out of the booth and walked to another dark corner where Jon could see the crudely rendered depictions of dragons killing the arcade character.
Jon looked back over the leering group of teenagers. One of the dancers was down to a string bikini the size of dental floss. Jason Hobbs was grinning and placing a five dollar bill-
“Here you go, honey!” Lorna reappeared and slid a tall glass full of a dark liquid and a cherry in it toward Jon.
Jon yelled to be heard. “I’m sorry you went to all that trouble! I don’t drink!”
Lorna laughed and leaned closer so she could be heard. “Stan and Nicolas both told me that this is your favorite! Cherry Coke?”
Jon’s heart sunk a bit as he felt very embarrassed for a number of reasons. “I’m sorry. They were right. I love cherry Coke! Thank you!”
“Told you I’d take care of you. Trust me.” She smiled and walked away as Nicolas slid in the spot recently vacated by Stan.
“I’m going to kill you, you know!” Jon told Nicolas.
“For what? Not enjoying yourself?”
“Not really. I’ve always wondered what this place was like, now I know that it is actually just sad and depressing.”
“Strip clubs are for lonely men, or desperate men, who want the fantasy of a beautiful woman with no baggage attached to it. Never been a favorite hang out of mine.”
“How many have you been to?”
“Enough. Look, Jon, I don’t want to talk about strip clubs, like I said they’re not my thing, but we do need to talk. I called ahead and had Lorna set this booth aside for us.”
“Nice of her. Thanks for the Cherry Coke by the way.”
“No problem. I didn’t want you to get parched in here.”
Jon stirred the grenadine into his Coke and took a big swig. “So, what do have planned for this glorious evening?”
Moss brought out the backpack that he had brought in with him. “This. We are going to go through this.” He tossed it to Jon.
Jon opened the bag up cautiously, but was greeted by file folders. A backpack full of file folders “I never would have guessed that my first few minutes in a strip club would include me running into a wall, almost being beaten to a pulp by a dinosaur, drinking a Cherry Coke, and reading through file folders.”
“I’m telling you- being a spy can be glamorous at times.”
Jon started pulling folders out of the backpack. “What are these?”
“Player profiles and folders from Malone’s desk.”
Everything started connecting in Jon’s head. “You son of a bitch! That’s where you went this morning! That’s what the deal was! You weren’t really pissed at me! You just needed some time to yourself to steal these!”
Nicolas nodded a proud smile. “You may make it yet, Mills.”
“Why did you need these?”
“I figure that no matter what is going on, it’s in these. Whatever Spencer found out, it was about a player. Coach protects his players, so I assume that whatever it is must be in these files somewhere.”
“Malone is in no way innocent in this mess.”
“He may be an ass, Mills, but that doesn’t make him guilty of murder.”
“Can we just arrest him for being an ass?”
“If we could, Sean Penn would have no chance of getting out of prison.”
Jon opened the first file. “Artie Clark.” Jon had to squint to make out the type in the dimly lit room. “He’s a Junior, he comes from Idaho. Had a job at a convenience store last year, GPA is a 2.6….” Jon faded off as he flipped through the pages. “I don’t see anything major on Artie, but why do they even list girlfriends in the file?”
“Malone is very thorough.” Moss took the next one. “Donald Adams. Senior. Into the new rap music scene. Comes to us from Oregon. Moved here last year because of his dad’s military job. “ A few more pages flipped and Moss tossed the file on the table. “3 sisters. Mom died of cancer. Adams was arrested for shoplifting from a convenience store, but it was less than $100.00, so the convenience store let him go after paying restitution. Nothing else.” Moss nodded to Jon. “Go.”

“There is the connection of a convenience store. Was it the same convenience store? Jon asked.
Moss picked up Clark’s file from in front of Jon and compared it to the Adams file. “Nope. Adams was a Plaid Pantry and Clark was a 7-11.”
“Oh, well. Worth a shot.” Jon took another sip from his drink as he started yelling across the table. “Jason Bernard. Senior. Also from Idaho. Moved here seven years ago. Top rebounder on the team. Father in Prison,” Jon stifled a chuckle, “He could sure use a father figure. Maybe that’s what Malone is to him.”
“Malone is the team’s father. They all trust him implicitly. That is what a sports team is. The Coach is the dad nobody had.”
“I don’t know. Maybe.” Jon flipped through the file more. “What’s his dad in prison for?
“If I remember correctly, he got into a bar fight and almost killed the guy.”
“Sounds about right.”
There was a loud ruckus over by the main stage. Jon glanced over. The lithe blonde on stage had just removed her top and was twirling it to see which of her gentleman friends was going to be the lucky one tonight. She flung it like a slingshot over to Coach Malone at the bar. It landed on Malone’s head. He reached up, while still flirting with the bartender, and nonchalantely tossed it back toward the stage.
Jon motioned to Nicolas and the pile. “Can you throw me Hobbs’ file?” Moss slid through several of them until he found the file Jon wanted and then slid it across the table. Jon opened it and started reading.
“Hobbs grew up here- my mom taught him in kindergarten.” Jon read silently for a few moments while blocking out the ruckus from the other side of the bar. “He was a firebug and set fire to his own house a few times on accident…”
“Jesus, wouldn’t you figure he learned his lesson the first two times?” Moss asked.
“When it comes to Hobbs, it wouldn’t surprise me if he didn’t learn his lesson after the first few thousand times.”
“Damn!” Jon heard Stan swear and kick the video game machine. Jon glanced over and saw Stan walking over to the table.
Nicolas started to panic, grabbed a bunch of the folders on the table and attempted to get them back in his backpack.
“What’s all this?” Stan asked.
“Nothing. It’s absolutely nothing,” Nicolas replied, still shoving folders in his bag.
“Possible evidence,” Jon told his friend.
“Mills!” Moss hissed.
“Why does Moss have them?” Stan asked.
“He’s yet another agent in this whole mess. Just like Spencer!”
“I warned you, Mills!” Nick was glowering in Jon’s direction.
“No way! Seriously? Both of you guys?”
“Yup. “ Jon confirmed. “Both of them. Never would have guessed it, would you?”
“I thought I told you-“ Nick started.
“Moss, come on! Get real. Stan knows about me and the Agency. Having him know about both you and Spencer will only give us another pair of eyes.”
“Shit, Jon, the more people who know about The Agency, the less secret it is.”
“Scooby Doo had the gang in the Mystery Machine to help out and they always got their man.”
Moss wrinkled his forehead. “Scooby Doo was a cartoon dog. Cartoon dogs are not real.”
Now it was Jon’s turn to smirk. “Thank you. I realize that, but I was making a point. I’m not letting the secret out to the team- just to Stan, who already knows about The Agency. He can help.”
Moss sighed and slumped back into the booth. He started pulling the files out again. “Stan, if you can find a link- go right ahead.”
Lorna wandered back by the table. “How are all of you gentlemen doing over here?”
“How much for the drinks?” Jon asked.
“The sodas are free. They’re picked up by the team. It’s only the alcohol that costs tonight.”
Nick raised a finger and pointed to Stan as well. “We’ll take 4 waters.”
Jon picked up his Cherry Coke and drank the rest of it in one gulp. “I’ll take 2 more Cherry Cokes, please.”
Lorna nodded. “You got it. I’ll make sure I keep it coming.”
Jon ate an ice cube from the cup. “How does Coach get away with having underage boys in here? Doesn’t that seem wrong?”
“Notice we came in through the back, ”Moss reminded him.
“And Malone pays off the local police to look the other way. Another perk of being part of a winning team.” Stan interjected.
“You would think that there might be a vice cop who wouldn’t want to look the other way.”
“Again, as long as the team wins and the cops are having their palms greased, I don’t think it matters to them.” Moss said.
Stan picked up another folder. “Sam Ford.” He started flipping through the file.

It was three hours later as Jon unlocked the door and walked up the stairs, he noticed that a Kate-sized and shaped lump stirred on the couch.
“How was it?” she asked.
“You were just so excited for that to happen, you just couldn’t wait, could you?”
“I knew it was coming because that’s what the team always does. I didn’t want to ruin the surprise.” Kate sat up and rubbed her eyes.
Jon walked over to her and pointed non-threateningly in her general direction. “You, Ms. Thompson, were complicit in their plot. Since I was in a place where 17 yr olds should not be, even though alcohol was not served to me personally, you were a co-conspirator.”
“Come on, Jon, was it really that bad? Nick checked in with me and told me that you were being treated well and kept away from any real trouble. We wouldn’t have let anything happen to you.”
“Tell that to the huge bouncer guarding the back door!”
Kate tipped her head slightly to the side. “I forgot about him. He can be a little rough, but Nick had your back.”
Jon attempted to speak, but caught himself before he said something that he would regret. His hand, which he had brought up to chin level, was lowered in defeat.
Kate perked up on noticing the defeat in his look. “Told ya you enjoyed it.” Then, changing the subject, “What did you and Nick find out?”
“Oh, you mean, Nick Moss? That Nick? Nick Moss, the other Agency Agent who has been available to back me up this whole time? Is that the Nick to whom you are referring?” Jon’s voice had raised ever so slightly.
Kate was still in her waking up stages, but also used silence as a stall tactic to get Jon to calm down. “Yes.”
“Not much, to tell you the truth. Most of the guys have either moved into the area recently, most of them have minor criminal records, but there is nothing that matches on any of them, other than convenience stores, and there’s no connection there, either.”
“I still can’t believe it’s not against the law to mess with a kid’s primary education and upbringing just to get him to a specific school to play sports. It’s shady enough to me in college ball, but at least by then, most of them are over 18 and legal adults to make their own decision. This way, they may still be in the angsty teenage years anyway.”
“Nothing illegal in that on the books. There probably should be, but nothing yet.”
“Great. Another dead end. We are running out of time to find something, Jon.” Kate stood up, stretched, and walked into the kitchen. She turned on the light, opened the refrigerator door, glanced around, and closed it again. “You’re out of milk. Bread, too.”
Jon came around the corner into the kitchen. “While I was at the bar, why didn’t you run and pick up some random and various sundries?”
Kate turned and looked at him matter-of-factly. “If I would have done that, I would have done the same thing 3 times and wouldn’t have had any idea if I could have picked up milk as it wasn’t random, or various, or a miscellaneous item. Random, various, and sundry all mean the same thing.”
“I thought sundry meant grocery.”
“Your vocabulary is definitely better than most of the basketball team, Jon, but you still have a few word choices that are slightly off, like a normal teenager.”
“But, sometimes the little stop and robs are called sundry stores. Since they carry groceries, I assumed that’s what it meant. And, I thought that’s why I was picked for The Agency because I am a normal teenager.”
“It is, but sometimes you still act very much like one. And they are called Sundry stores because they carry a random array of convenient miscellaneous grocery items.”
“What do I act like at other times?”
Kate walked back into the living room.
“Kate, what do I act like at other times?”
Kate was back on the couch by the time Jon caught up to her again in the living room. “It’s late. Tomorrow will be a big day.” Kate’s gun was tucked neatly between the back couch cushions. She was doing a quick check that the gun was still locked and loaded and ready for anything. “You have practice in the morning and Jake’s funeral in the afternoon, and more practice afterwards. You should really get to bed.” She pulled the blanket around her again as she nestled into the couch.
Jon sat and watched her, waiting for her to say anything else, or even to look and see if he was still standing there. She didn’t so he went and turned off the kitchen light to let her sleep in the dark again. “Sleep well, Kate,” he mumbled as he walked down the hall to his room.

Chapter 21

2011-05-24T17:43:00.002-06:00

This is a pretty lengthy chapter. I thought about splitting it, but it stopped the flow, so, here you go!

CHAPTER 21

An hour into it, the game film had not shown much. At least, not to Jon. It seemed as if each play was slightly different, but nothing he could really learn from. One play, Junior would be passed the ball up the right side, then the left. Jon would’ve probably dozed a time or two if he hadn’t been keeping an eye peeled for Moss’s return. Jon nudged Stan.
“What do you think that was about? Talk to Dutton? What does that mean?”
“I don’t have a clue. Maybe you should talk to Dutton.”
“Do you think he’ll actually tell me what’s going on?”
Stan repeated, “I don’t have a clue. Maybe you should talk to Dutton.”
Coach’s eyes rose from the game film and focused on Jon, who slid lower in his seat.
“You haven’t seen Moss come back, have you?”
“No, I haven’t,” Stan muttered out the side of his mouth, keeping his eyes squarely focused on Malone.
“Have you noticed Coach hasn’t even been looking for him?”
“Must’ve slipped his mind.”
“Something is not right at all about this whole thing. Where is Moss? Why doesn’t Coach care and what does Dutton know about it?”
“Maybe you should ask him.”
“I think I will.”
Jon sat up straight until he found Dutton on the left hand side of the room at the end of the aisle. Jon crouched as he made his way to the side of Dutton’s chair.
“Hey,” Jon lifted his head slightly as he acknowledged Dutton.
Dutton gave Jon a quick, ‘are you crazy?’ look. “Hey.”
“So, I gotta say, being on a sports team is not easy.”
“Yup,” was Dutton’s only response.
Jon opened his mouth a few times, but closed it immediately. Small talk is obviously not going to work on this guy, Jon thought. Let’s just go for the whole shooting match.
“Why did you and Spencer part ways?”
Dutton shot a look at Mills that he couldn’t interpret until he was under Dutton’s steely gaze. “You! Come with me!” Dutton grabbed Jon by the collar and jerked him toward the door.
Jon could see Stan mouthing the words ‘what the hell’ and Jon just shook his head as he followed Dutton.
The next obstacle was the coach. He stood up after Dutton had passed through the door and blocked Jon’s escape route. “Mr. Page, do you remember what I told you?”
“Do you remember what I told you, Coach?”
Malone’s gaze got hotter but he stepped out of the way allowing Jon to continue his pursuit.
Jon entered the huge, empty gym and saw Moss and Dutton standing in the exact center. Jon cautiously walked up to them.
“Guys,” Jon greeted them.
Moss nodded to Dutton, pretending Jon wasn’t even there. “It’s okay, man. I think he just wants to help in some way. He’s an ass, but I think he’s okay.”
“You cutting early?” Dutton asked.
Moss motioned to his backpack. “Yea. Got a load of homework. I want to get most of it done before tonight.”
Jon tried to join in. “What’s tonight?”
Moss just glared. “We’ll chat later.”
Jon couldn’t tell if Moss was speaking to him or to Dutton. “Okay,” Jon said quietly.
“Yo, man. Thanks.” Dutton’s voice boomed through the cavernous gym. He and Moss pounded fists in a goodbye gesture and Jon watched Moss walk out through the double gym doors.
There was a tense silence between Mills and Dutton as Jon could feel the 6’9” gaze barrel down on him. He had to break the silence. “Jake’s death affected everyone, man. I didn’t mean anything by the question. I’m just taking his place and want to know why he’s not here anymore. Stan said he was a good guy. Never hurt anyone. You two had a bust-up and I’m just-“
“You think I killed him?”
“Never said that. Never even meant to imply it. Or infer. Whichever. You two were partners and it didn’t last. Why?”
“He was stupid. That’s it.”
“Stupid? How?”
“He just asked me to do something stupid. I didn’t want to. That’s it.”
“What was stupid about it? He try to pass you a joint or something?”
“No.”
“Steroids?”
“NO! Nothing to do with drugs! He just made me uncomfortable and I couldn’t be his partner anymore.”
“So, the whole teamwork thing. He made you uncomfortable,” Jon was lost as to where to go next. “Did he make advances on you?”
“I’m not even going to dignify that with a response!”
“Definitely not a vaguely gay thing, then.”
“Look, Page, I really don’t want to talk about it.” Jon could feel the apprehension leave Dutton and it left behind an air of resignation. “I understand that you’re the new guy here, but it’s not my job to make you feel loved and wanted. That can be Stan’s job. Jake Spencer is a part of my past. I’m sorry that he died like he did, but it doesn’t affect me now. That’s it. May I go now?”
Jon nodded and locked eyes with the sad tall man. “Yes.”
After he watched Dutton walk back into the team room, Jon stayed behind and listened to the sound of his own breathing in the empty gym. “Now what do I do, Kate?” he asked to the air as he trudged back to watch more game film.

Dana sat down across the cluttered desk of the Cottonwood High Coach. Aaron was making final adjustments to the lights on the camera. A few times he blinded the coach by flashing him directly in the face, but he eventually got the bugs worked out.
“Are you doing okay, sir?” Dana asked.
“I’m fine.”
“I am of course going to start out with questions about Junior to get people into the piece and then I will talk about your school and the history of basketball here and your legacy as Coach. I am going to start right out with the questions, we’ll get your side, and then, right after, if we can just put the camera where you are sitting and I’ll tape the introduction then. Does that sound okay to you?”
“Fine by me.”
“Okay, Aaron. Ready to roll?”
“Whenever you are.”
“Roll on 3, 2,….” Dana heard the cameras gears click on. “Obviously, Coach, we know that the whole reason that our network, or any network for that matter, is carrying this game is because it will be the first actual game with Jason Grissom, Jr, or Junior as he’s affectionately called.”
“That is correct.”
“Do you think that this is going to overshadow the game or the teams?”
“Initially, I believe it will, but, as the game progresses, I believe that the viewers will be treated to an epic battle.”
“Epic battle?”
“Yes. You see, Cottonwood and Taylorsville are rival schools. We always have been. In anything we do, we are at each other’s throats. Whether it’s basketball, baseball, drama, homemaking arts, even the German clubs, we always go after the other. Even though this is still high school basketball, it is a rivalry that rivals any professional team.”
“I hope that that is what we will see on Saturday. Will you be playing Junior right out of the gate?”
“He is one of our starters, yes, but I will not commit to how much game time he will actually see. Our year is just getting started. As I have said before, we are massive rivals, and if this game starts getting a little too mean spirited, I am going to pull him because he will be anchoring our team this year. I can’t take the chance of him getting hurt.”
“So Junior is your secret weapon right off the bat? An unknown player with a lot of potential but no one knows just what he can do. You sure have the element of surprise on your side this weekend, at least.”
“And for at least several weeks to come. Junior is an exciting player with huge potential and loads of tricks up his sleeve. He got a lot from his daddy, that I can assure you.”
“You have been coach here for the last 15 years, have you ever seen a player like Junior?”
“All the time. I see many players with a lot of potential, but very few who make good on that potential. Very few thrive in being on a good team and making good grades. You have to do both here at Cottonwood. We pride ourselves on the outstanding scholastics of all of our players. I must say, however that Junior excels in both athletics and scholastics.”

Jon threw his backpack into the back seat of Kate’s car. “That was one of the most wonderful days that I have ever experienced!”
“Why so glum, chum?” Kate tried to break Jon of his foul mood.
“I angered Moss, pissed off the biggest guy on the team, ran a bajillion laps and was bored out of my mind by game film that I didn’t even care about! It was like watching a poorly filmed scrimmage with no sound! I love films, but even I hate silent films!”
“Did you find out anything?”
“Just that he made Dutton feel, what was the word he used? Uncomfortable, that’s right. Uncomfortable. Why would a guy use that word?”
“Did you ask anything about sexual orientation?”
Jon shot Kate a glare.
“Ok. All right. Sorry. Did you ask him about steroid use?”
“Yes, and even if there was anything physical outside of the gym, and he said that he wouldn’t even dignify that.”
“Well, you have about 48 hours to get some answers, Jon. Then it may be too late.” Kate put the car drive and headed off.
When they pulled into his driveway, Jon got out, but the engine kept running.
“Not coming in?” he asked.
“No, not right now. I’ve gotta meet with Walter. We’re only a few hours away, and we don’t have anything. I have to go make a contingency plan.”
“Sounds painful.”
“Probably will be. But, Walter always gets a huge batch of greasy fries, so I’ll make it.” Kate flashed him a big smile. “Work hard tonight. You’ll figure something out.” She shifted into reverse which indicated it was time for Jon to close the door.
“Right .See you in the morning?”
“Bright and early. Don’t stay up too late.”
Jon shut the car door and trudged up the sidewalk to his home door. Something about the last exchange didn’t feel quite right. He fumbled for his keys and let himself in.
His backpack dropped heavily on the ground as he walked up the front stairs and headed straight for the kitchen. Jon rummaged through the cupboards, found the large electric frying pan and plugged it in. While it was heating up, Jon grabbed bread, deli meat, and slices of Tillamook cheddar cheese from the fridge. He grabbed the butter and started buttering one side of each of the 8 slices of bread he had pulled out. He slapped four slices onto the now heated pan and started stacking them high with meat and cheese. Each one was topped with another slice of buttered bread. After pulling out a long handled spatula from the wooden and plastic spoon/spatula/ladle/whisk jar on the cupboard, Jon pushed down on each mega sandwich and listened to the satisfying sizzle as he did so.
Jon’s mind floated back to the final exchange of the day with Kate. ‘Don’t stay up too late?’ What was that implying? Or inferring? He couldn’t remember which. Was he the one who had stayed up late this past week? Had Kate made him stay up? It seemed as though at this point there was never a time when he had actually had a good night’s rest this week. The comment also seemed as though maybe Kate knew something that he didn’t, in a mischevious way. Like maybe she had shortsheeted his bed. Maybe she had placed lights all around his house to turn on at Midnight, or…
While pushing down on the last sandwich, there was a knock at the door.
“Come in!” Jon yelled.
The doorknob turned and the door started to open and then stopped suddenly.
“Oops! Sorry!” Jon called. “I must’ve locked it! Hang on a sec!”
Jon checked on the darkness underneath the 4 sandwiches. He took two off of the pan and left the other two still cooking as he wiped his buttery hands on the white dishcloth on the counter and hopped down the stairs two by two to unlock the door.
“So, what exactly do you have planned tonight?” Jon asked as he opened the door.
Aleisha looked taken aback by the question. “I don’t have anything planned for tonight although we can definitely change that.” A playfulness in her eyes sparkled in the autumn afternoon.
It seemed as though Jon always seemed sheepish around her. “Sorry. I thought it was someone else.”
“Does that someone else have plans for tonight?”
“I’m not sure. That’s why I thought they were here.”
“Well, I’m here now. Can I come in?”
Jon closed his eyes tightly for a moment. “Of course. Yes. My fault. Please, come in.” He backed up, let Aleisha into the foyer and closed the door behind her. She walked up to the top floor and noticed the 2 sandwiches on the plate and the 2 sandwiches still cooking.
“I see you were making a snack for you and the person with plans.”
“Actually, no. Those are all for me.” Jon noticed how that sounded. “Those were all for me, but, if you are hungry, I can make you a sandwich or two new or you can have any of those you want.” Jon could tell that he was slightly fumbling for words, but couldn’t stop himself.
Aleisha grabbed the plate off the counter and took it to the table. “May I have a seat?” she motioned to one of the chairs.
“Make yourself at home.” Jon gestured to the entire home as he reached and got another plate from the cupboard. He then took the last two remaining sandwiches off the pan, put them on the plate, turned off the pan, and sat down next to Aleisha at the table.
Aleisha had already made herself comfortable by taking off her shoes, pulling her legs in front of her and putting her feet flat on the chair. She was pulling a sandwich apart with the arcing goo of the melted cheese between the sandwich halves. Jon smiled. She looked like a five year old in this position. After the strand broke and she returned one of the sandwich halves to the plate, she noticed Jon was watching carefully. Her mouth screwed into a smirk. “What?”
Jon felt suddenly as if he was under a hot tanning lamp. “You’re just so damn cute.”
“Thank you.” She tucked an imaginarily loose lock of hair behind her ear.
There was an awkward silence as they just stared at each other while Aleisha ate her first half of the sandwich.
“This is pretty good,” she said to break the silence.
“Old family recipe. Bread, butter, meat, cheese, heat. You should see the amazing meal when I add Campbell’s Tomato soup to it.”
“Tomato soup helps most hot sandwiches.”
“I don’t know about that, but, if you say so, it must be true.” Jon kept watching Aleisha eat her sandwich.
“Yours are going to get cold.”
“I think I’ve almost lost my appetite.”
“You made yourself four sandwiches and now you don’t even want to take one single bite?”
“This may sound creepy, but I like watching you. You look like a little- please don’t take this the wrong way- a little elf.”
“I’m glad you warned me. None of that sounds creepy or strange at all!” A wry smile snaked across her face.
“You are just- what’s the word?- yourself.”
“I’d like to think that we are all ourselves. No matter what, we are ourselves. No one can make us any different.”
“But you are so- you. “
“You are you, too, Jon. You just may be too close to yourself to see it.” Aleisha finished one of her sandwiches and walked over to the couch and sat down. She patted the cushion next to her. “Come over here. I don’t bite.”
“I’m doing just great over here, Miss Madsen.”
Aleisha stood up and with a very serious air grabbed Jon by the arm, pulled him off of his chair and led him to the couch. He landed with a plop and she wriggled right next to him by using the give of the couch.
“Mr. Mills,” she said with a silly serious tone, “you are you. You are special. You must see it by now. You’re a head smarter than anyone at school-“
“I am far from the smartest- I don’t get the best grades…”
“Being smart and getting good grades are not necessarily the same thing,” Aleisha paused and let that sink in. “You are a boy king. You are the coolest guy in school!”
Jon let out a spurt of air. “That is absolutely not true!”
“Why is it that you have such low self esteem? I thought we went over this last night! You are one of the only guys in school who can be friends with the jocks, the drama geeks, the stoners, the wavers, the rockers, whoever! For the most part, Jocks hang with Jocks, cheerleaders hang with cheerleaders, drama with drama, and so on. You could have any girl in this school, and when I say have, I mean biblically, and so many girls have swooned over you! Yet, you don’t see it!
I know what people think of me! People see me as the hot unattainable chick and I am like a prize! You don’t think I know that? But you, you are you. You don’t see me like that! You don’t see me as a prize! That’s why you are the coolest guy in school. You’re not the valedictorian, you’re not the spirit king, or the quarterback on the football team- although you have all of a sudden jumped on the basketball team which is a little weird, but that’s besides the point- you are cool! And I have no idea how I can make you see that!” Aleisha threw her hands up in the air in almost a resignatory feeling.
Jon had no comeback. He sat and stared in her deep blue eyes. “Are you bullshitting me?”
“Why would I bullshit you, Jon? Why? What possible purpose would that serve?”
Jon shook his head. “I’m not that guy, Aleisha. I don’t know where you come up with that.”
“You are that guy, Jon. You are that guy. Believe it or not, you are that guy.” Aleisha put her right hand under his chin and felt the 5 o’clock shadow. “Believe me, you are that guy.” She leaned in to kiss him.
This time, Jon kissed back, and he kissed back hard. ALL the girls in school? Damn! That set his mind racing, but the fact that it was Aleisha Madsen, his lifetime crush that he had been mooning over for 10 years, who was kissing him and slowly pushing him back onto the couch, made it that much stronger.
Aleisha took one of her arms from around Jon and found one of the couch pillows and placed it behind Jon’s head as he finally went fully flat on the couch.
“Thanks,” he mumbled through the kiss.
Aleisha laughed and their lips parted for that.
Jon thought it was strange that in such a moment that humor could shine through. He broke away for a second. “Is that a good thing that you laughed?”
Aleisha’s eyes shone with passion. “Trust me, it was a very good thing.” She pressed her body on top of his. Again, through the kiss, Aleisha spoke, “You can touch me, you know.”
“I don’t really want to offend you.”
“Trust me, at this moment, it is pretty much impossible to offend me.”
Jon gingerly touched her back.
“If you’re going to touch me, then just touch me!” Aleisha took one of her hands and pushed Jon’s hands harder into her back and she kissed him harder.
Jon’s blood was pumping. He could feel his heart pounding in his ears. It almost seemed like a door knock. He slid his hands down Aleisha’s back and stopped at the small of her back.
“Don’t be scared, Jon, just go ahead and touch my ass! You won’t offend me.”
Jon’s pulse was pounding and he thought he heard another knock. Jon’s breath was quickening and loved the feel of their breath combining in the intimate space between them. Another knock came. This time, he could tell it was the door. “Shit,” he muttered.
“Let it go,” Aleisha pleaded. “They’ll come back.”
“Aleisha, I really-“ Jon started to lean up.
Aleisha grabbed his hands from supporting his weight forcing him to fall back on the couch. She took his hands and placed them on her breasts. “They’ll come back.”
Jon had flashes of Kate, Bender, anyone, coming in and catching him in his first flailings with Aleisha. He also had flashes of any of the killers that Kate had talked about. He definitely didn’t want her to be caught in the middle of this.
Another knock. Jon stopped breathing. If it was killers, they probably would have busted down the door. It was probably Kate or Walter, or Stan or Greg who needed to talk to him about the mission.
Another knock and Jon let out a huge sigh. Aleisha’s breasts were so warm to the touch…. “I’m sorry. Please hold that thought.” Turning toward the door, he called ”Hold on!”
Jon stood up from the couch slowly and straightened his clothes. He took each step to the front door very deliberately. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath as he opened the door. “I’m sorry, but I thought you needed to go talk to Walter-“
“Walter’s out of my league.” Nicolas Moss smiled. “I need to talk to you.”
Jon could almost hear the Twilight Zone theme in his head. “I thought I was an ass.”
“You are, but in a good way.” Nicolas grabbed Jon’s shoulder. “I also said that you wanted to help, remember?”
“Yes, I do, but right after that, you said I was an ass.”
“I meant an ass in all of the positive, happy ways.”
“And what ways are those?” Jon leaned against the doorjamb.
“Dude, I am done talking about you, the ass, okay? I need to talk to you the Agent.” Nicolas walked through the Jon-block.
“Excuse me?” Jon asked as pulled himself out of the doorway and shut the door.
“I need to talk to Jonathan Mills, the Agent.” Nicolas walked up the stairs.
“I don’t know what you are-“
“Hey! How are you doing, Aleisha?”
“Hi,” she answered unsteadily. Aleisha locked eyes with Jon as his head became visible above the railing again. Jon shook his head.
“Aleisha, Jon and I need to go somewhere and talk. Will you excuse us?”
“Nicolas,” Jon broke in, “Aleisha and I-“
“I don’t care.” Nicolas stated matter-of-factly. He stopped and Jon ran into the back of his heels. “Me. You. Talk. Now. Comprende?”
Jon shot daggers through his eyes at Nicolas. “Comprende. Can you give us a few minutes, please?”
Moss agreed. “Few minutes. I will wait in the car for you, Jon.” Nicolas slapped Jon heartily on the back as he passed back down the stairs.
Aleisha had a look of sadness mixed with confusion on her face. “Jon, if you don’t want to-“
“Trust me, I want to. I really want to. My life has just been very-“ he paused and took two very deep breaths and exhaled slowly, “- complicated the last few days. I am trying to help out Stan and these things just keep coming up, but, after Saturday, I promise, I will make sure we have the time.”
Aleisha finally stood up. “Are you positive?”
Jon smiled. “Very. I am very positive. Please come to the game on Saturday night. I want you to be there. I really do. I am probably not going to play much. I am there more for the bench, but it is a help to the team and to Stan, so I need to finish what I’ve started. Then, after the game, it will be just you and me. I promise.”
Aleisha gave Jon a giant hug and he crouched ever so slightly so she could reach his neck. “I will be there. And I will wait for you after the game.”
Jon whispered in her ear. :I am so looking forward to it.” He kissed her ear gently.
Aleisha hesitated a moment and then stepped back. “Then, be gone with you both, and Nicolas had better not be there on Saturday night!”
“I promise. Just you & I!” Jon went to the kitchen and retrieved Aleisha’s shoes. He handed them to her and she slipped them on. He placed his hand behind her back and led her down the stairs. As they left, he pulled the door shut and locked it.
Aleisha stayed on the porch as he walked down the first step. “Hey, Mister!” she called.
Jon spun around quickly and, with the step equaling the height difference between them, found himself face to face with Aleisha. She moved in and slowly kissed him.
Moss rolled his eyes.
The duo finally parted. “Do you need a ride?” Jon asked.
“No, I have my car. Thanks though. You and Nicolas are probably going to start talking from the time you get in the car.”
Jon glanced at Nicolas waiting very impatiently in the car. “You are probably right.” He paused, not wanting to say goodbye to Aleisha. “Thanks for coming over. It was fun.”
“Yes it was. I expect Saturday to be even more fun.” She walked to her car and got in, waving at Jon as she did so.
Moss honked the horn.
Jon waved back at Aleisha and then trotted to Nicolas’s car.

“Agent?” Jon yelled at Nicolas. “Agent? What the hell do you know about it?”
Nicolas had already pulled out of Jon’s driveway and was headed to their destination. “A lot, Jon. I know a hell of a lot.” He paused, analyzing the impact. “I am an Agent as well.”
“You are an Agent? And you have been giving me as much shit as you have? What the hell is wrong with you? A little help would have been nice!”
Nicolas made a quick turn from a neighborhood street onto a main street, pushing Jon against the side of the car. “I’ve been giving you help, but, you haven’t been taking much of it.”
“Talk to Dutton? That is help?”
“As much help as I could give at the moment. Jon, I was supposed to be the guy who stays undercover and never reveal my identity. I have been there since Jake Spencer was! You want to know how close I was to Spencer? I was his Agency Partner!”
Jon felt as if he had been sucker punched in the gut. “You and Spencer were partners?”
“Yes. When he was killed, we had no idea if it was personal or business, so I couldn’t reveal myself. I was needing to make sure that we still had a connection. Bender didn’t feel that it was safe for me to be there alone, so they wanted to put Chad in, but you screwed that up nicely by shooting him-“
“If it means anything, I didn’t mean to.”
“I know you didn’t mean to, but that means that he couldn’t come in on this big operation where it needed a little more panache.”
“Sorry. I didn’t know there was a panache limit necessary to be an Agent.”
“Jon, I don’t mean to sound like I am ripping on you personally. I’m not. You are doing an amazing job here, but you are in wayyyy over your head and need a little help. I am here to give you that help. The only catch- you can never reveal to anyone that I am an Agent. I know you’ve let Stan and Greg in on your secret, but they can never know about me. Deal?”
Jon thought about it . Finally, he extended his hand. “Deal.” They shook. After pulling away from the shake, Jon pulled back his right hand and slugged Moss as hard as he could in the shoulder.
“What the hell was that for?” Nicolas asked.
“I should have had knowledge of help a bit sooner!”
“Take it up with Bender! It was his call.”
“I will, but between you and I? it’s now water under the bridge.”
Nicolas pulled into a dirt road that led behind several businesses. “Where the hell are we?” Jon asked.
“We’re here. This is where we are going.”
“Which is where?”
Nicolas pulled the car under a leafless tree behind several businesses that had delivery doors on this side, but these definitely were not the public entrances. Nicolas turned off the ignition and got out.
“So, “ Jon asked hesitantly, “am I getting out as well?”
“Sure. If you need the help, I will be going inside. Therefore, if you want help, you come inside with me.” Nicolas slammed the driver’s side door and opened up the driver’s side back door and pulled out his duffel bag. “Coming?”
Jon got out and shut his door and followed 3 paces behind Nicolas. “You sure this is where we are supposed to be?”
Nicolas laughed. “Well, in a way we are supposed to be here. This is where the team is.”
“The team? The team is here? I can’t even get a night off?”
“Not this time, I’m afraid. But, we’ll be able to have a little alone time. It won’t be hard. Trust me.” Moss rapped on the heavy steel door three times. It opened and a large black man towered over Nicolas. “Hey, Wallace. How are you doing tonight?”
A deep bass voice came out of Wallace’s mouth. “Doing great. Most everyone’s here.”
“Good. Sorry I’m a little late. Had to pick up a friend.”
“Friend?” Wallace’s eyebrows lifted. “No friends allowed.”
Nicolas held up his hands. “I know. You’re right. He is a friend, but he is also a player. This is Neal page. He’s replacing Jake.”
“Hi, Wallace,” Jon waved meekly.
“I was sorry to hear about Jake,” Wallace said. “He was a good guy. I’m going to the funeral tomorrow. You going?”
“I’ll be there, don’t you worry about it.” Moss started to head past Wallace into the dark hallway beyond.
“Save me a seat?” Wallace asked.
“You know it, Wallace! Front and center.”
“Thanks!”
Jon snuck past Wallace. “Have a great night, Wallace.”
All Jon got in reply was a grunt. Jon took that as acknowledgement and followed Moss down the dark passageway.

Chapter 20

2011-05-23T10:45:00.001-06:00

I am back! Here is a short Chapter 20!

CHAPTER 20

Coach Malone’s loud whistle put an end to Jon’s suffering. Jon finished the laps with Stan by his side encouraging him all the way. After a total of 5 laps, or just over one and a half miles, Jon’s legs could not handle any more. He could barely believe that this was just the beginning of the day and he had several more hours of practice to go before he could lay in his wonderfully comfortable bed.
“Tired already, Page?” Coach asked as Jon slowly made his way into the warm and rank gym.
“I just need a few moments to recover, then I’ll be back as good as new.”
“You haven’t been as good as new since you came out of your momma.”
“Least I’m not a product of inbreeding.” Jon muttered.
Stan snickered.
Coach fumed. “What the hell did you just say?”
Jon just shook his head.
“If I could make you run fifteen more laps, Mr. Page, I would, but we have something a little more important than that right now.” Coach blew his whistle 3 loud and strong times. “I want to introduce everybody to my friend, Pat.” Coach motioned to Pat who nodded toward the team. “I have sent him over to Cottonwood the last few days and he has taken some practice film of the Colts, and, more importantly, of Junior. We will be watching these films and dissecting them and getting the play rundown and figure out how we can stop them on Saturday.”
Jon noticed Nicolas come out of the locker room with a smirk on his face. Nicolas then joined the rest of the team listening to Coach.
“The media pressure will be on us, gentlemen. In fact, just this very morning, Mr. Page was nice enough to invite the enemy into our camp.”
Jon nudged Stan. “Enemy?” Stan waved off the question.
“So, the media is here in town. I would prefer that no one except me speak to the girl who is doing the leg work here this week. They are all here for Junior anyway. He is the only thing that anybody in this entire country cares about. As long as he puts us to shame, everybody will be happy.” Coach stood with his arms folded and looked at his players. “Everyone?”
Jon jumped, as the rest of the team yelled, “No!”
“Who won’t be happy?”
“You won’t, sir!” the team yelled.
Jon felt as if he were in a Leni Riefenstahl film or, at the very least, boot camp.
“And?” Coach prompted.
“We won’t be happy, sir!”
“Good! You better not be! We are a better team than they are! We are a stronger team than they are! We are a smarter team than they are! We will not let them beat us by that sixteen-point spread that they are favored by! We will stick it to them and we will win!”
A loud whooping came from the team. Jon glanced at Stan who was much less enthusiastic as the rest of the team. Nicolas, on the other hand, seemed to be part of the machismo of the group.
Coach continued his rousing speech. “Cottonwood is going to be playing Junior as much as they can! We want to shut him down! We want him to foul out! We want to take him out of the game as early as we can, so that the hoopla is gone and we can just play our best game and win! How will we be able to do that? By knowing their moves, gentlemen. It’s as simple as that. By knowing their moves. Everyone into the weight room and face the east wall. The TV is already set up in there and we will watch what surprises they have in store for us!”
The team thundered through the gym headed to the weight room. Nicolas hung back a little, but Stan and Jon were the last two to start heading toward their own private theater.
Coach Malone came up behind Jon.
“You think you’re a bright funny guy, don’t you?”
Jon just tilted his head in response.
“I know you do,’ Coach continued. “I have my eye on you, and if you mess up one more time, you will be off the team, girlfriend or no.”
“Is that an offer, Coach?”
Jon could feel the slow burn of Coach start to rise. Stan continued up the hallway several feet before he realized that Jon had stopped and had turned to face Coach Malone.
“You accepted me as a player on the team, Coach. Get used to it. It doesn’t matter if you like me or not. I’m a player and I will play on Saturday. That’s just all there is to it.”
“Is that a threat?” Malone growled.
“No threat, Coach. I could say that it was a promise, but that would just be too cliché. Instead I think I’ll just stick with calling it a fact.”
“Mr. Mills, Page, whatever the hell you’re your name is, listen to me and listen to me good. I am the Coach of this team and I will decide-“
“What? What will you decide? I’ve only seen the two of you together for a moment, but I am already quite sure that you can’t do anything that Mr. Hreinson doesn’t decide. He’s pulling the strings. And I will still play whether he coaches me on Saturday or whether he coaches me through you. I am helping the team. I am a player. I will play. It’s just like verb conjugation, Coach. Get used to it.” Jon stared down Malone, who had no response.
Jon turned to catch up with Stan but thought better of it and turned to face Malone again. “By the way, if I see or hear you giving Natalie Hurley or anyone else from any of the reporting teams shit during the next couple of days, that will be noted and taken straight to Mr. Cannon who wants us to play nice with everyone. Do I make myself clear?”
Malone was ready to explode with anger, but he reined it in. “When did you become so confrontational?”
“I guess you bring out the worst in me.” With that, Mills did turn back and join up with Stan. Coach Malone watched as the two of them turned into the weight room.
Pat Hreinson came up the hall and stood next to Coach Malone.

“I can’t believe you said that!” Stan gave Jon a slap on the back as they took their seats near the back of the already full room.
“The man is a bully, Stan. That’s not right.”
“It may not be right, but that is how sports teams have been coached since the beginning of time. That’s how things are done.”
“I’m not a big fan of just accepting how things are done. You know that. Drama geeks, like me, are not known for conforming. I hate the fact that teachers know more than us just because they have the big desk at the front, or because they have the whistle. Mrs. Perry is a testament to that! She is a glorified babysitter who wouldn’t know great literature if it was handed to her on a silver platter! And this guy? Come on! Just because he’s called Coach I have to respect him as a coach even if he weighs four thousand pounds, never runs, and smokes and drinks Coke for every meal?”
“Even so, are you sure that was a good idea to tell him off like that? Kate can help you out, but you can still be kicked off the team for insubordination.”
“He won’t kick me off the team. He doesn’t dare. There’s too much riding on this.”
Moss was near the front of the room but kept glancing back at Jon.
“So, can I ask you a question, Stan?”
“Of course.”
“Why do seemingly intelligent people turn into complete buffoons when a man with the first name of Coach gets in front of them and starts saying a speech that sounds like it came from a Dick and Jane book?”
Stan pondered the question, and then shrugged his shoulders. “I guess I already summed it up the best way I can. That’s how things are done.”
“Fair enough. So answer me this. Why do you do it?”
Stan smiled. “Because that’s how things are done.”
“Why?”
Moss kept glancing back at Jon, pretending to watch the door.
“I guess there are just things that as a society we are told we should do. Men have to be manly and like sports and have certain macho qualities.”
“But you don’t play basketball because it’s expected of you. I’ve known you forever. You play because you like it.”
“Yes I do.”
“So why put up with the stupid shit?”
“Because that’s how things are done. How often do I go to the team parties? Rarely. But, to be part of the group and part of the team, you have to be on each other’s side. You have to know that the other player wants the same thing you do and that he will follow through with what’s best for the team. That’s why the grand standing players may be great point wise, but their team almost always hates them. There’s a reason this is a team sport and games of one-on-one are not televised.”
“So, let me get this straight. If you don’t cheer and clap along with Malone’s speech, the other guys may not trust you on the court enough to pass you the ball?”
“In a nutshell.”
“How insane is that?”
“Again, that’s how things are done. But, think about it. You and Nicolas had a blowup a half hour ago. Now, there is some strange feeling between you two. He keeps looking back here, pretending he’s not looking at you, which he clearly is, and, I would be willing to bet that if you two are paired up either with or against each other later today, both of your games will be off. I’ve seen it happen.”
“Because we no longer feel as one as part of the team?”
“You learn quick.” Stan stopped the conversation and watched Nicolas Moss make several more glances towards them. “Jon, don’t you ever feel like you want to be part of a group?”
“What do you mean? I am part of a group.”
Stan lowered his voice. “Part of a secret government agency that nobody knows about is not being part of a group.”
“Okay, apart from that, I am part of the drama geek group.”
“No, you’re not. You’ve told me about what you do at the tournaments, Jon. You go and perform, and then you hang out by yourself in between rounds and at the awards ceremonies. That’s not part of a group.”
“I’m in plays. We have to trust each other on stage as much as you guys have to trust each other out on the court. Drama people are known for being one of two ways. They either always hang out together and go to the bathroom in groups or they are known for being extreme loners who are good at what they do, and therefore, it doesn’t matter if they conform. Drama people are not known for being the most conforming individuals out there.”
“So, if you’re not a part of that group, then, what are you a part of? You weren’t even a part of the scouting program!”
“I told you before, scouting wasn’t for me!”
“Because you don’t like the group mentality. That’s what it comes down to, Jon. You’re just not one for the group mentality.”
“You would always come back with these horror stories about scout camps how the first timers always had to stick their hands in cans full of shit and they had to eat gross disgusting things just to be initiated. How stupid is that mentality?”
“Again, Jon, that’s how things are done. To be a part of a group, you have to show that you will do what the group does.”
“Does the word peer pressure or flock of sheep come to mind at all, Stan?”
“I’m not saying that it’s a smart thing. I’m not even saying that it isn’t at all levels one of the stupidest things in our society. All I’m saying is that that is how things are done as part of a group, and that it is something that you will probably never quite get because you are one of the few teenagers who doesn’t need to be a part of something. You feel perfectly fine in your own skin and you don’t need the group. That’s all I’m saying, Jon.”
“I have you and Greg. Isn’t that enough?”
“Some people would think that that is vaguely gay, Jon.”
“That’s why I went on a date with Aleisha!” Jon grinned and arched his eyebrows.
Nicolas made his move. He stood up quickly and made a beeline for Jon and Stan. He stood behind the duo.
“Hey, Nick, what’s up?” Stan asked.
“Stan, are you with him?” Moss asked.
Jon put up his hands, as if in surrender. “We were only joking about vaguely gay, we aren’t really.”
Moss was not amused. “Jon-“ he warned.
Mills looked around to see if anyone else was listening. The rest of the group was laughing, joking, paying no attention to the three of them. “Speak clearly, Moss. What do you mean? No more of this code are you with him crap.”
“You want to know what happened to Jake Spencer, don’t you?”
Jon and Stan exchanged glances. “Don’t we all?”
“You want me to cut the crap? You cut it too. Talk to Dutton.” Moss turned and walked out the door.
Jon turned in his seat and called after Moss, but as he did so, Coach Malone entered the room.
“Let’s watch some game film, people!” he yelled as he clapped his hands and rubbed them together.

Status of Time Out

2011-05-16T08:33:00.002-06:00

Since Thursday night, I have not ahd a chance to work on editing Chapter 20. Friday was a very busy day and Blogger was down so that I could not notify you, my reader of the inability to edit Chapter 20 and post it. The weekend was also all kinds of crazy as is today and tomorrow. I will ensure that Chapter 20 is posted by the end of tuesday night, and then we will be back to normal posting schedule. And, hopefully, life will not intrude again until the rest of Time Out is posted which should be around the end of May.
I apologize to have gotten off track a bit, but, real life does intrude from time to time. Thank you all for undertsanding, following, and reading.

Chapter 19

2011-05-12T07:18:00.000-06:00

CHAPTER 19

As soon as Jon opened the gym door, the slight wind hit his face. He inhaled the cold air deeply, closed his eyes, and turned what would have been his gaze up to the sky. Jon could feel Nicolas just behind him, not moving either. Just the thought of running for twenty-two minutes caused Jon’s legs to ache already. They were already burning from the tremendous week he had experienced, and here it was, only half over. Jon smiled faintly to himself as he took another deep lungful of crisp air.
“Here we go,” he whispered to himself as he opened his eyes and started running with a quick skip.
Nicolas fell in beside Jon.
“Can I ask you something?” Nicolas asked as they hit the snow-covered field.
“Go for it.”
“Page? Why Page?”
Jon looked over and made a grimacing face at Nicolas. “I know. Horrible, isn’t it?”
Nicolas laughed. “Yes, it is.”
“I don’t know.” Jon bought himself an extra moment by forcing himself to laugh this time. “My, uh, cousin is in from out of town. She is the protector of the family, you know. She just doesn’t want it to get around that I’m the one taking over a spot on the team for a few days. If I do well, great, and those who know will be happy but it won’t stick to me like I’m a jock. If I’m not good, I tried, I helped out a friend and I will be saved the embarrassment of being a bad player. I agree and so that’s why.”
Only the sound of their feet shushing through the snow could be heard for several seconds.
“Your cousin has gone just a little around the bend, hasn’t she?”
Both of them laughed for real this time. “I think maybe she has, yes,” Jon commented.
“So, Mister Page,” Moss started, “since we are going to be teammates for a few days, what’s your story? Where are you from? What makes you tick?”
“Born and raised here. Well, kind’ve. I was born and raised for a very short time in Ogden. Moved down here after 11 months in the hospitals up there in Ogden and have been at the same house ever since.”
“Never moved, huh? Wow, I can’t even imagine that.”
“Why not? You’ve moved a few times?”
“I would have loved only moving a few times. In fact, I attended 7 different elementaries in 7 years. It sucked big time.”
“Seven times? I can’t imagine moving seven times in seven years. I’ll bet you had a tough time as a kid, huh?”
“Nah. I got used to it. My dad was a military guy and we’d move as the Army wanted us to. The first few years were rough, and then it just becomes normal. You start expecting your parents to tell you to get your stuff together in May, you move in June, get settled and start a new school every September.”
“I’ve seen enough Oprah to know that you probably were a loner who never made friends.”
“Actually, quite the opposite. Made a lot of friends. Guess how?” Jon shrugged. “Sports. I was the basketball guy. From as long as I can remember, I would play basketball on my first day of school every year. I would make friends, quite often; it was the older kids, too. They would see how well I played, and I would never have to worry about bullies that year. As opposed to all the self-help shit that’s out there, I actually had a good childhood and wasn’t too traumatized by the whole experience.”
“If you moved a lot, why have you stayed in Salt Lake?” Jon asked.
“Believe it or not, the same reason- sports. My dad actually likes Coach Malone and wants me to hopefully graduate and get picked up by a college on a basketball scholarship, and make the family proud. Winning against Junior and looking good on TV would go a long way to accomplishing that.” They again ran in silence as they went back past the gym for the first time. “What about you? What are your plans?”
“My plans?” Jon again smiled to himself. “I don’t know anymore. I want to be an actor to be honest, but, sometimes, life just kind’ve takes you in weird directions, you know what I mean? So I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
“Planning on college at all?”
“Yea. Probably Utah State. My parents went there so I may as well, too, you know? Where would you like to go?”
“I’m hoping to be a U of U guy. My dad loves the school and the team and the coach up there. He’s even had the coach come down and watch a few of our games. He seems to like me, so it’ll probably be the U. My dad would love something local so that he could watch all my games, but he’d just be happy if I got a full ride somewhere.”
“I’m sorry if I sound a little cynical, but won’t it be kind’ve tough to get a full ride if you’re always rooting for the underdog and getting into fights?”
“Did it stop Jason Grissom? Junior’s dad has been doing that shit since the ninth grade and he was still picked up right out of high school and four years later, even after attacking the head coach and several players at a post-game party, even after getting arrested several times in college, even after saying the big f-bomb on a live national sports show the day before the NBA draft, was the second pick for the NBA. Your behavior doesn’t matter in the wide world of sports, only your performance on the court, or the field, or the ring, or the whatever. If you play well, make a winning team, and can bring fame and success and fortune on everyone involved, you can do whatever you want in your personal life. Any publicity is good publicity.”
“You can’t be serious!”
“Look at Tyson, Rodman, Grissom, Rose, Strawberry, - I don’t even have to say first names! The only reason any of these guys will be kicked out of their respective sports is if the fans turn on them and their teams. If they stop being the best, then they will be dispensable, but not before.”
“You are a true cynic, aren’t you, Nick?”
“I just call it the way I see it, Jon. I mean, Neal.”
The two shared a glance and kept jogging next to each other.
Jon noticed the rest of the team start straggling out to the field. He and Nicolas had done one and a half laps by this time and Jon was glad that he wasn’t being pushed. Even though his legs already felt like rubber, Nicolas was giving him a terrific pace, nice and casual, but consistent. Jon hated running in any form, but if he was forced to run, like this week, he may as well do it in the beautiful crisp air and the bright whiteness of the newly fallen snow. Jon listened to the shooshing of the footsteps, to the sounds of his own breath and started going into his zone.
Dana Hurley was just as pretty in real life as she seemed on the show. Coach Malone was an asshole, but Jon had known that since his sophomore year when he had had Malone as his official PE teacher. Kate was an emotional wreck and trying to get over it by being the toughest member of The Agency. Aleisha seemed to really like him. Stan was sticking by him through all of his mistakes on the team. Greg was- well, he assumed Greg was by him, too, for moral support if nothing else.
“Hey!”
Jon was snapped out of his mental zone. He glanced over and saw Stan catching up. “Hey, Stan! What’s up?”
“Just trying to catch up with you and see how you’re doing.”
“Neal,” Nicolas made the concentrated effort of saying the false first name, “is doing just fine. We’ve set a nice, easy rhythm so that he can make it for the next few minutes.”
“Good to hear,” Stan commented. “Nick, do you mind if I chat with Jon, I mean Neal, alone for a few seconds?”
“Not at all.” Nicolas gave the twosome a nod of the head and sped up for a few moments, getting about twenty five yards ahead and then slowing down to the same pace so that he was still a good pace car for Jon.
“So,” Jon could tell that Stan was about to start a very specific conversation very casually, “how was last night?”
“What exactly are you referring to?” Jon teased his friend.
“Last night, you know, last…night?” Stan emphasized the last two words.
“It was very interesting to say the least.”
“I can imagine. How interesting was it? Was it everything you had hoped?”
“It wasn’t too bad.” Jon downplayed the excitement that he was feeling in his stomach just from discussing it. “We went to dinner and a movie and then I took her home.”
The two longtime friends jogged in silence for what seemed like an eternity to Stan. “That’s it? We went to dinner and a movie and then you took her home? That’s it?”
“I’m not sure if you’re old enough for all the details, my young friend.”
“What details? I would love to hear details! I live for the details!”
Jon laughed. “It was great. Honestly, we went to dinner and the movie and talked pretty much the entire time. What can I say other than it was great?”
“Did you kiss her?”
Jon gave his friend a chagrined look. “I’m not going to tell you that!”
“Come on! You’ve had a crush on her forever! Every time you have seen her the past fifty years, it’s just been, uh, hi, Aleisha. Uh, did you like the hot dogs for lunch? And then, last night, you went on a date, and you’re not going to tell your best friend, or at least the friend who has pushed you to have a meaningful conversation with her for the past three years, if you kissed her or not?”
“That about sums it up.”
“Oh, for crying out loud, come on!”
“Okay, okay, okay. Yes, we kissed. Fine. Happy now?”
“How was it?”
“Now that I won’t tell you!”
“How was it? Come on, Jon, I know that you have never kissed another girl. Even in plays, you say it’s a character choice to kiss the females on the forehead or cheek or wherever when, in all actuality, you’re scared shitless of lips that come from the female anatomy! If you kissed, that would have been your first kiss ever, and I want to know what you thought of it!”
“Can I just say that I know I am not a homosexual and just leave it at that, please?”
“At least that gives me something, man!”
The two friends started busting up as they ran. Jon had now made just shy of two and a half laps as the rest of the team started passing them. Jason Hobbs poked Jon with his elbow as he ran by. Jon just muttered the word dickhead under his breath and Stan stayed right beside Jon.
“How’s the mission coming along?” Stan asked when they were finally alone again.
“Not bad. I got some time to talk to Nicolas this morning, as you saw.”
“Yup. That’s why I gave you the chance. I figured let you talk to him and see what you could find out.”
“Thanks. It’s pretty tough, though, you know? All we know is that there is some strange thing happening here, and we don’t even know what. It kind’ve makes the chats with players strange and forced, you know? I feel like I’m looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack.”
“You are. There is nothing to go on. We don’t even know if it is our team or on Junior’s team. Maybe you’ve gone undercover on the wrong team to find out what’s going on.”
“If the problem was on Junior’s team, though, why would they kill Jake Spencer? There’s no reason for it! Jake knew about something on this team, and that is why he got killed.”
“Unless it was just a random fast food killing.”
“Where the victim got his tongue ripped out? Even if I wasn’t a fan of police films, I would have to say that if that was the case, the killer sure went above and beyond the call of duty on that one.”
“You may be right.”
“Of course, I’m right, pal. There is something not right here, and I only have two and a half days to find out what it is.”
“If it were me, Jon, I’d start finding out what people thought about Jake and what they knew about him and go from there.”
Jon looked at Stan as they ran past the gym, making Jon’s third lap. “You just may be onto something.”

“What did you say your name was, again, sir?” the school secretary asked.
“I’m Pat Hreinson.”
The secretary punched a few numbers into her phone and waited. “Hello, Coach Malone? There is a Pat Hreinson here to see you.” She waited for the response and then hung up. “He’ll be right down.”

“How’s our boy doing?” Walter asked.
“Great! He’s doing great! In fact, he’s doing even better than great!” Kate replied hyperbolically.
“How is he?” Walter asked again, sensing Kate wasn’t being totally honest.
Kate sighed. “Having a bit of a tough time, but he’ll do fine. We talked a bit this morning and he told me that he didn’t know how to do investigation undercover.”
“And, what did you tell him?”
“I just said that the more you talk to people, the more they open up, and the bigger the chance that they will say something and drop a clue right in your lap.”
Walter laughed from behind his desk. “And?”
“It seemed to calm him just enough. I think he’s actually more worried about the physical part of it. The playing.”
“If I were forty years younger, I probably would be, too. We have thrown him into the deep end of the pool.”
“But, he seems to be swimming just fine. Just like we’d hoped.”
“Now, can he keep his head above water?”

“What can you tell me about Jake Spencer? Tell me briefly, succinctly, give me the bullet points, not a valedictory address. Talk to me as if I were a small child….”
“May I really? Does widdle Jonny want to come out und play?”
Jon shot a glare Stan’s way.
Stan gave an apologetic smile, thought for a moment and began. “He was partnered up with Dutton when we were sophomores and even about halfway through last year. Then, they had a big argument, some falling out. He then went to be with Glover for the rest of last year. This year he was Nicolas’s partner.”
“Really? Nicolas?”
“Yeah. Do you think that’s why you’ve become Nicolas’s best friend?”
“I don’t know, but I’m going to find out. What else?”
“I liked him. Jake was a good guy. He played hard, played well. Not the best player, but not bad by any means. He would always leave practice and go straight home. He never was one to party or hang out much, but he was always friendly enough. If he fouled you, he would always apologize and help you up. I don’t think there was a mean bone in his body, just kind’ve a loner.”
“A loner who played organized team sports who then gets murdered and has his tongue ripped out? That sounds a little odd, doesn’t it?”

“Are your players ready?” Pat asked.
“I’ve got them out running laps this morning.”
“In the snow? What kind of a cruel bastard are you?” Pat asked.
”The cruelest.” Malone and Hreinson were walking toward the gym.
“You have a new guy?”
“That’s why I wanted you to take the film. Did you bring it?”
“Would I be here if I didn’t?”
“Good, The new kid will take the place of Spencer. He’s the friend of one of my other players.”
“And?”
“He’s a jerk-off, but I do need the extra body. I don’t want to go into Saturday’s game a guy down.”
“Is he a good player?”
“I don’t know yet. Haven’t really had the time to put him through the motions.”
“What good is an extra body if it can’t play?”
“Even if he just fills up the bench, it will look better on TV.”
“But, won’t the TV cameras notice he doesn’t play?”
“Maybe, but that’s better than having an empty space and have them investigate why we’re a player down.”
“What’s the new guy’s name?”
“Mills. Jonathan Mills, but he had a woman come in yesterday and play a little hardball with me.”
“Who was she?”
“I don’t know. She said she was an agent, but I think it was just a good friend or something. She sang a song at the talent show with him the night before apparently.”
“Will they screw us up on Saturday at all?”
“No, don’t even worry about that. I have everything covered.”
“You’d better. You know how Luke hates to be disappointed.”
“Everything is fine, Pat. I have complete control over everything.”

“I told you it would be easy to find,” Dana told Aaron as they were pulling into the parking lot of Cottonwood High School.
Aaron looked at the marquee as they drove by. “Home of the Colts? The colts? Really? I can understand how one might be afraid of a Warrior, but a Colt?”
“Ever worked on a farm, Aaron?”
“Never.”
“Why don’t you tell me, then, Mr. Smart Guy, just how you would break a colt to be able to ride him. Tell me how you could stay away from the back hooves as they kicked and flailed. Tell me how you could stay away from the big teeth that can deliver a pretty mean bite…”
“Okay, okay. Point well taken.”
“I did some reading up on local high school teams last night. Do you believe that there is actually a high school with the mascot of a beet digger?”
“A beet digger?”
“Yup.”
“That is decidedly less frightening than a colt.”
“Decidedly.”
“Colts can be frightening, especially if we’re talking about the firearm. That would be scary.”
Dana decided to join in the name game. “What about a bottle of liquor that’s endorsed by one Billy Dee Williams?”
“Having Billy Dee Williams as your mascot? That could be decidedly more frightening than a warrior.”
Dana grinned. “Decidedly.”
She parked the van and they walked by the marquee as they entered the front doors of the school. On the marquee was a message that read- Go for it, Junior! We’ll be bucking for you!!!
“Bucking for you?” Aaron asked.
“Don’t even start.”
“Almost sounds like something Christian Patrick might say.”
Dana glared. “Don’t.”

“Thanks for the tip, Stan. Now, do you mind?”
Stan nodded at Jon. “Not at all.”
The two of them jogged faster and caught up with Nicolas. Stan kept going at that speed and this time it was Stan who slowed down after about twenty-five yards.
“Get some chatting time in?” Nicolas asked.
“A bit. I just had a date last night and Stan was wondering how it went.”
“With who?”
“Aleisha Madsen.”
“Aleisha Madsen? Really? She is smoking, dude!”
Jon started feeling extremely embarrassed. “Thanks, but actually, that’s not what I wanted to talk to you about.”
“What did you want to talk to me about?”
“Jake Spencer.”
“What about Jake Spencer?”
“You were his partner this year. What happened?”
“What do you mean what happened?”
“What happened? He was killed on Tuesday and you don’t seem to be too despondent.”
Nicolas picked up the pace. “Am I supposed to be?”
“Working with a guy every day would tend to make you a little close at least.”
“Why the third degree? Your friend Stan doesn’t seem too heartbroken either. Why aren’t you questioning him?”
“I know him. I know what makes him tick. I’ve talked to him and found out that he knew Jake but was never tight with him. As his partner, you should have been a tad bit closer than just a guy on the same team.”
“Jake and I had only been partners for three months. How tight can you get in three months?” Moss continued to pick up the speed. They passed Stan.
Jon’s legs were really starting to burn and he could feel a fire starting in the bottom of his lungs. “Tighter than not at all. What’s the matter, Nicolas?”
“Who said anything was the matter? I just feel like all of a sudden I’m the star suspect from a guy who, until today, had not even played a cop on stage. Maybe I should be asking, what’s the matter with you?”
“Look, I didn’t mean it quite like that, it just seems a little strange to me that you and I never talked before I got on the team, and I walk on, and I am all of a sudden your best friend. I’m taking Jake’s spot, and I’m just wondering if there is maybe some sort of misplaced guilt or something? Am I the only way you can atone for something that happened between you and Jake?”
“Don’t even try to put the blame on me, Mr. Page!” Nicolas lost his temper and took off ahead of Jon with a burst of speed.
Jon watched him take off into the distance as his legs finally gave out. Jon put his hands on his knees and leaned over, trying to catch his breath. Stan came up behind him and grabbed Jon by the arm.
“Come on, Jon, we only have a few more minutes. If you don’t keep running, Coach will have your ass.”
Jon took three deep breaths and nodded. “Thanks. Let’s go.” They went back to their easy consistent pace.
Jon looked ahead and saw Nicolas sprint past a group of the team and run full speed into the gym.

Chapter 18

2011-05-11T07:53:00.000-06:00

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2000

As Kate pulled into a parking lot on the west side of Taylorsville High’s ex-grassy field, Dana Hurley was pulling into a parking space on the east side of the newly snow covered field. Kate was in her Impala while Dana & Aaron were in a non-descript white van.
“So, this is it?” Dana asked as she put the van in park.
“This is the school where the game will be played, yes. I doubt if it will be in the middle of this snowy soccer field, though. If, however, you are asking if this is the existential ‘It’ that everyone always talks about, then I really couldn’t tell you,” Aaron quipped.

Jon took a deep breath and looked over at Kate. “I guess I actually have to do this, now, don’t I?”
Kate had seemed a little reserved this morning in Jon’s opinion; her usual enthusiasm wasn’t there. “Yes, you do. You’ll do fine.” Kate didn’t move.

“What if I screw up?” Dana asked. “I’m on the air and I screw up? I give a wrong stat or I forget someone’s name or number?”
“You’ll fix it,” Aaron reassured her. “You’re good and you have a lot of friends supporting you. They will give you the right information. You won’t be alone.”

“Stan will be there with you, Jon. He won’t allow anything bad to happen to you .He’ll keep a lookout. He wants you to do well. As do we all.”
Jon smiled. “Well, let’s do this.” He opened the car door and got out. Jon pulled his heavy duffel bag from the back seat. His gun as carefully wrapped in a towel and laid on the very top. All he had to do was to make sure that he didn’t grab the wrong towel at the end of the day. He slung the bag over his shoulder and shut the car door.
Kate was staring at the dashboard when she finally made up her mind. She slammed the car in park and, keeping one leg in the car, got out and stood up. “Hey, Jon!”
Jon turned. “Yea?”
The cold, winter wind whipped Kate’s hair around her face. “Thanks.” She paused. “Thanks for-,” she was having trouble finding the right words.
Jon nodded. “It’s cool. Don’t mention it.” He smiled and turned back around to trudge through the virgin snow.

Dana climbed out of the van. “Can you stay here with the van for a second, please? I just need to go inside and take a look around for a few minutes. Is that okay?”
Aaron smiled and nestled back in his seat. “I don’t know, Dana. Is it? You’re the boss.”
She looked at her watch. “We don’t have to be to the other school for another hour. Apparently, it’s just off the freeway. I think we have time.”
Aaron raised his eyebrows at her. “Then go for it.” He paused, not sure if he should push his luck, but he soldiered on, “boss.”
Dana smiled and gave him a quick wave as she shut the door and started sliding her way across to the gym.
As Dana reached the gym door, a student who was obviously a player with his tall and thin physique, was also reaching for the handle.
“Excuse me?” she asked.
Jon turned. “Hi! How can I help you?”
“You’re a player right?”
Jon wasn’t sure what the stranger was getting at. “Excuse me?”
“A player? For the basketball team? The big game on Saturday?”
“Yes. Yes. I am. A player. For the game.” It sounded weird in Jon’s own head to hear his voice say those words.
“I was just wondering if I could come in and take a look around at the gym and the school for a few minutes?” Dana was shivering, even in her puffy purple jacket.
“I’m sorry? I don’t quite get it.” Why would anyone want to take a look at the school? Jon thought.
“The school. The gym. I’m going to be working here for the next few days and I want to stake out the place.”
“Stake out?” Immediately, Jon felt wary around this intruder. “Are you another agent?”
“Agent?” Dana asked.
“Cop?” Jon tried to clarify.
This brought a sense of relief to Dana. She laughed hard. “Cop? Me? No! Never! I’m a sports reporter. I’m covering the game.”
Finally, Jon recognized her. “Dana Hurley?”
“That’s me.” Dana felt a sense of pride that someone actually knew who she was.
Jon repositioned his bag and offered his hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you! My friends and I are huge fans of your show!”
“Thank you.” She shook Jon’s hand vigorously.
“No problem. Sure! Come on in! Can I show you around?” Jon motioned for Dana to enter the gym. She smiled her appreciation and entered.
“So, as you can see,” Jon started the tour, “this is the gym.” He looked around and pointed to both sides. “Those are the seats.” He craned his neck and motioned towards the north end of the gym. “Those are the offices and the locker rooms.” Jon raised his eyebrows and smiled. “There ya go. The grand tour!”
Dana laughed. “Thank you, Mr.-“
“Mmmm,” Jon got stuck on the first letter of his real last name, “Page. Neal Page.”
“Pleased to meet you, Neal Page.” She nodded her greeting. “Will I be seeing you play on Saturday?”
Jon scratched the back of his head. “I think maybe you will.”
“Bench warmer?”
“New guy.”
Coach Malone blew his whistle loudly. “Mr. Page!” he bellowed.
Jon stayed silent. Dana didn’t move a muscle.
Coach stalked over toward the twosome. “Who the hell is this?”
Dana stuck out her hand. “I’m Dana Hurley from SportsTime. I’m the one in charge of broadcasting the game on Saturday night.”
“Don’t screw with my schedule, little miss missy! What the hell are you doing here today? You aren’t supposed to show up until tomorrow!”
Dana took it in stride. “I just figured that since I didn’t have to be to the other school for about an hour, I could come and take a look at the place I was going to be broadcasting from.”
“I don’t want you here! Don’t you get it?”
“I just thought that I could help put your school and your athletics program in a better light if I could see the gym a little early. You know, I could get a mental image of the court, what might be the best angle to get the players coming out of their locker rooms, the regular stuff. I want the country to be as impressed with this place as I am.”
Coach glowered at the visitor a little longer, then pointed in her face. “Don’t get in my way! Don’t get in my players way! Understood?”
“Got it.” Dana’s eyebrows shot up when she looked at Jon as Coach walked away. “Is he always that friendly?”
“In the 24 hours that I have known him, yes.”
“Mr.- -“ Dana paused, “Page? Right?”
Jon nodded. “Yup.”
“Thank you for your hospitality. Now I won’t be afraid that everyone here is as horrible as he is. Thank you, but I should let you get back to your practice.”
“Not a problem. If you need anything, just ask.” Jon shook her hand and Dana headed toward the exit.
Coach blew his whistle. “Get your asses over here!”
Jon turned and started toward the group huddle. He turned back around. “Ms. Hurley!” he shouted. Dana kept walking. “Ms. Hurley!” She had reached the exit. Jon ran to catch up with her and yelled, “Dana!” She stopped and turned. Jon reached her momentarily. “Could you do me a huge favor on Saturday?”
Dana smiled. “What is it? You want to be on camera?”
Jon blushed. “No. My good friend Stan is a huge fan of the show. He is also a player. Could you at least sign an autograph for him or something?”
Dana pursed her lips and nodded. “I could do that.” Coach’s whistle blew again.
“Thanks. See you on Saturday.” Jon turned and ran to the circle in the middle of the court.
Dana watched as Jon ran back. “Mr. Page, you just got yourself an on-camera interview.” Dana pulled out a pad of paper, wrote herself a note and headed out the door.
“Nice of you to join us, Mr. Page,” Coach grumbled.
“Just doing my part to get us free publicity and keep in overall good standing with the media,” Jon replied.
“I have enough to worry about on Saturday. I don’t give a damn what the media thinks.”
“Got it.”
“Good. Roll Call! Adams!”
“Yo!” came the reply.
“Clark!”
“Here!”
The gym door opened on the other side and Stan walked briskly over to the circle.
“Dutton!”
“Right here!”
Jon looked over and noticed Dutton for the first time. Jon hadn’t ever had classes with him, but noticed him when he walked down the hall. Of course, it was difficult to miss a 6’9” guy walking down a high school hallway. His voice was a deep bass and reverberated throughout the gym even when he wasn’t trying. He had jet black eyes and hair, but also, an almost wry smile under his gruffness.
“Ford!”
“Here, coach!”
“Glover!”
“Here!”
“Ingle!”
Stan slid up next to Jon. “Here!”
Jon leaned over. “Running a little late today, are we?”
“Greg just isn’t as sexy of a chauffeur as yours is.”
“Moss!”
“Here!”
“Page!”
It was still a name that Jon didn’t recognize right off the bat. He said nothing.
“Page!”
Still silence.
Coach stared at Jon. “Do you need a golden invitation, Page?”
Stan nudged Jon in the side.
“Here,” Jon finally replied quietly.
Coach walked up and got nose to nose with Jon. “Here?” Coach asked softly. His voice changed to a light, airy sound like that of a girl. “Here, Coach. I’m right here. Come and get me if you want me.” The team stifled a laugh.
Jon’s face went red. “Here!” He said a little more forcefully.
“Come on, Page! Don’t be a wuss. Stand up and say it with power! Be a man!” Coach took a deep breath and let out a booming phrase. “Here, Coach!” Jon noticed Coach wasn’t blinking as he stared him down.
Jon mimicked his instructor. “Here, coach!”
“Here, Coach!” Malone repeated.
“Here, Coach!” Jon repeated.
Malone closed the roll call file and slapped Jon upside the head with it. “Here, Coach!”
Jon’s anger rose. His tongue went into his upper lip as he pursed his lips and took his turn to narrow his eyes and stare down Coach. There was a long silence in the gym as the two eyed each other. “Here, Coach!”
The file rose up again and slapped Jon in the back of the head this time. “Here, Coach!” Malone shouted.
This time, Jon bit his upper lip to keep control. He said nothing.
Malone took a step closer and whispered in Jon’s ear. “I don’t know what kind of game you’re playing, Mr. Mills. Your agent or whoever she is wants you to be called Neal Page for tax purposes. I think it’s a load of horse shit, but I have more things to worry about this week than what name I call you, so I will call you by Neal Page, but you are all mine until Saturday night and I will squash you. Just remember, it’s automatic suspension for hitting a teacher.” He backed up the step. “Here, Coach!”
Jon felt his leg twitching wanting to take a swipe at the Coach. “Here, Coach!” Jon shouted.
Malone smiled. “Good, Page.” He addressed the team. “Mr. Page has given everyone a twenty minute run this morning. I will finish roll call, you can all change, and then get your asses out on the track! Is that understood?”
“Yes, Coach!” The team replied, except for Jon who continued glowering.
“Mr. Page, you can change right now and get an extra minute or two on the track if you wish.” Jon knew by the tone in Coach’s voice that it wasn’t a request. He picked up his duffel bag and headed into the locker room. He noticed that someone fell out of line and followed him, but Jon didn’t pay attention.
Mills found his locker and opened it. He carefully set his bag inside and unzipped it. The towel with the gun wrapped in it was on top. Jon took it out and held it in his hand for a moment pondering all the damage he could do to Coach with it. He smiled to himself and gingerly placed it on the top shelf of the locker. Then, he started pulling out his clean gym clothes.
“You handled yourself nicely out there.”
The voice in the empty locker room made Jon jump. He turned and saw Nicolas Moss standing behind him.
After taking a moment to let his heart slow down, Jon smiled. “Thanks.”
“Don’t let Coach get you too riled. I don’t think he likes anybody. He just likes the power.”
“Big shock there, huh?”
“He may slap you with a file, push you off balance as you run by, kick you in the butt as you bend down for the ball, but he knows he can’t do too much.”
Jon pulled his shirt over his head. “Isn’t that still considered harassment or hazing?”
Moss smiled. “In sports it’s called coaching and training.”
Jon tossed his old shirt in his locker as he pulled out his plain white gym shirt. “Physical education hasn’t really progressed since the 60’s, has it?”
“Other than the weight machines, no, it really hasn’t.”
The two shared a laugh. Moss turned his back, unlocked his own locker, and started changing alongside Jon.
There was just the sound of clothes being taken off and put on for a minute in the locker room. Coach’s bellowing voice flowed in faintly, but Jon ignored that. Finally, as they were both almost ready to start their laps, .Jon broke the silence.
“Thanks for helping out yesterday.”
“No problem.” Moss replied.
“I do appreciate it, really I do, but may I ask you why you helped me out?”
“Believe it or not, not all jocks are assholes.”
Jon smiled. “I know, I’ve been friends with Stan forever. But, why you?”
Nicholas shut his locker and turned and looked at Jon. “I guess I always root for the underdog. When I see the underdog getting the shit beat out of him, I have to step in and lend a hand.”
“Well, thank you. And again, it is appreciated.”
Coach’s voice echoed off the tile in the locker room. “Page! Moss! Why haven’t you started your laps yet?”
“Just gotta shit, Coach!” Moss yelled. “I got a big one brewing here!”
The two heard Coach’s footsteps leave the doorway and the other players start to head down the hallway.
“Thank you for stepping up and taking a spot for a few days. I never knew you were a basketball player.”
“I’m not,” Jon admitted. “I’m doing it as a favor for Stan. You guys are going to be on national TV. I figured, I may as well help out and see what it’s like being a jock instead of a drama geek for a few days.”
“I’ve seen you do several plays and play the piano and dramatic pieces. You’re good.”
“Thank you.”
“How good are you at basketball?”
Jon nodded as he closed his locker, leaving the rolled up gun on the top shelf. “We’re about to see, aren’t we? Good enough, though, I think, good enough.”
“You better be. Coach is going to ride your ass until Saturday night.” Moss shut his locker. “Come on, we’d better get lapping.”
The two new friends jogged past their cohorts as they left the locker room and headed onto the field.

Chapter 17

2011-05-10T12:34:00.001-06:00

CHAPTER 17

“When I graduated from Apollo high school in Phoenix, I had the whole world ahead of me. I had a music scholarship to ASU, home of the Wildcats. I was secretary of my graduating class. I had a good job as Assistant Manager of a clothing store in the mall. I was happy. I had had a few boyfriends in high school, but it was just for fun. The last month, I started dating this guy who was perfect. He was tall, dark, and handsome, he came from a wealthy family, and he said that he knew we were meant to be together. For three months, I believed him and fell under his charms.
The night of July 22, 1983 changed all of that. I was in downtown Phoenix on a date with Roger, my boyfriend. We had gone to a very expensive restaurant and all signs were leaning towards the engagement that night. When he picked me up, he seemed really nervous, and several times he said he needed to talk about something important, but he kept just pushing it off until later. I was ready to accept his proposal and drop everything.
When it finally came down to our serious talk as we finished dinner, he told me that he had been dating another girl that we graduated with and she had become pregnant and he wanted to do the right thing. I threw my drink in his face and walked out before he could dump me.
My parents had gone out with friends that evening and all of my other friends were out on their own respective dates. I tried calling several numbers, but I had no luck. I was wearing a very expensive dress since I had been expecting a special night, so the bus didn’t seem right, so I decided to call a cab, but I had no money on me. I walked to the nearest bank and went to the ATM.
After I had punched in my PIN number, I could feel someone hovering over me. I turned, expecting to see an impatient customer and instead saw a knife. I was told to take out as much as I could and hand over the money slowly. I did as I was told. I took my bankcard out and also handed it to the robber. He grabbed my arm and twisted it around my back and led me into some bushes.
He threw me on the ground and leaned over me. I closed my eyes and could smell his nasty breath as he leaned down and licked my cheek. Then, all of a sudden, he stopped. It was almost like he had been struck dead as he raised up to undo his pants. As I opened my eyes, I saw a man with a gun pointed directly at my assailant’s head. He instructed the robber to get up slowly and back away from me. He did. Not thirty seconds later, a police car pulls up and arrests the robber. The man with the gun holstered it, and came over and knelt down beside me. I started crying then and didn’t stop until an hour later. Patrick stayed kneeling next to me the whole time.
Patrick took me to the hospital himself and waited while I was tested for any damage. When all the tests turned up negative, he took me home and told my parents what had happened, so that I wouldn’t have to relive it so quickly.
The next morning, Patrick picked me up from my house and went with me to work, so that I could get the morning off and go down to the police station. We picked up some Subway sandwiches on the way there and had our first date eating a cold sandwich and filling out a police report.“ Kate looked up at Jon. “Romantic, huh?”
Jon smiled and let Kate continue.
“He joked around with me a bit as he was taking my deposition, and it relaxed me enough to be able to recall the man’s face and we even did a line up. It was almost seven o’clock at night when we finished. He asked if I wanted to go to dinner and I accepted.
“We went to a little hole in the wall Mexican place and we talked for three hours. It was at that time that he told me that he was not a cop for Phoenix, but instead a Federal Agent. Turns out that my assailant was the little brother of a known Mafia Kingpin. Little brother had been driven out of the family business and was now terrorizing women across the country. He would attack several women in one night in one city and be gone before the police even issued a statement. They just happened to catch up to him when he attacked me.
As the night wore on, we just talked, and talked, and talked. It seemed like we were best friends who hadn’t seen each other in years. He was witty, and charming, and seemed to care about me more than the fact that he had just caught a man they had been chasing for two months.
I was attending ASU, but let some of my classes slide. I wanted to be with him more than I wanted to be in school. To make a long story a little shorter, we were married on Christmas Day that year. We bought a house in Tucson, and we were doing well. I knew he had to go out of town a lot, for weeks at a time sometimes, but I was okay knowing that he would be back.
Once, there was a man who was setting off bombs and robbing banks, and then throwing bombs at local abortion clinics when the police were already busy with the bank robbery. He was working on that case for several months. One night, he fell asleep in his office while looking at pictures of the crime scenes. I happened to take a look at the files and ended up studying them for four hours. When Patrick woke up, he was horrified that I had read these confidential documents. I apologized and then told him that the criminals
were probably brothers since one always left before the bomb was lit signifying a protection of one of the robbers, and they were probably next going to hit Madison, Wisconsin since they were hitting cities in the order of Presidents of our country.
Patrick flew off the next day for Madison, and three days later, he caught the group. The day after that, he was back home. The day after that, we went to dinner, and one of his bosses met us there. The boss was Walter Bender. At dinner that night, I got basically the same recruitment speech that you got, only for me, there was the added bit about married couples working well together and being able to go undercover together, giving each Agent someone else to watch their back.
I joined the Agency almost exactly six years ago, on October 10, 1984. Patrick and I never really got a honeymoon, so we took small ones while we were out on jobs. We had assignments in Hawaii, Alaska, Florida, Louisiana, and 35 of the other states. We got into a few tough scrapes, but we kept each other alive and sane. Because of the nature of our jobs, we couldn’t contact our families. I even missed my parents’ funerals who died three months apart, my dad from a car accident and my mom from complications of leukemia.
It was April 19, when I found out I was pregnant. We were busy going undercover here in Salt Lake trying to bust a bunch of Meth lab operators. I kept throwing up and could barely leave our apartment, so Patrick kept at it. The director of the Salt Lake Office retired and Bender requested a transfer to be near Patrick and I.
Finally, at the beginning of September 1985, there was a break in the case. It turns out the lab was on the move the entire time! They kept renting different U-Haul trucks and moving the lab, and drove it around all day!
Patrick received a call from Walter about nine o’clock one night that one of the U-Haul rental agents had noticed a funny smell from their van when it was brought back in. He called the cops and the drug guys got nervous. They took the entire staff of the store hostage one night, and Patrick was called in on it. He wrote down the address and kissed me goodbye.
I knew something was wrong. I was able to read the address of the site because Patrick had pressed the pen so hard into the pad. Five minutes after he left; I somehow made it out the door and into the car.
The hostages were being kept in a large warehouse that was used to store the trucks in. Patrick had already entered the building and was pretending that he knew nothing about the hostage situation, just that he was told where the guys were so he could score some Meth.”
Kate’s hands were folded very lady-like in her lap, but the rest of her body was shaking as if she was standing in a waist high snowbank. She had paused and was reliving the events of that horrible night. Jon moved closer and took her hands in his. He still didn’t say a word.
“I arrived and parked several blocks away. I wound through the alleyways and the back streets to get to the warehouse. I could hear a lot of shouting and yelling along with some muffled cries. There was a fire escape on one side of the warehouse and I walked up very slowly, trying to decipher what was being said. There was a door at the top, and I quietly went inside.
I found myself on a metal walkway about 2 floors up from the floor of the warehouse. I had a bird’s eye view of the whole thing. The thing that shocked me most was that lying almost in the center of the warehouse floor was a five-year-old girl, dead from a gunshot right between her eyes. A man was cradling a woman in his arms who was obviously dead from the slit in her neck. He was crying, rocking, and stroking her hair. There were about ten others cowering in a corner of the warehouse.
Patrick was by the man who must have been the leader of the gang. Patrick had money in his hand and was flipping through a wad of cash to try to negotiate the sale of drugs. The leader raised a double barreled shotgun to the head of the man cradling the woman.”
It was getting very hard for Kate to speak now. Her words were coming in bursts as opposed to a flowing narrative. Her sniffing had become much more frequent. Jon kept her hands tightly gripped in his own.
“ I had barely had time to see what the situation was when Patrick brought out his badge and his gun. His gun had not even cleared the holster when the gang started firing on him. I watched as Patrick’s body got shredded by all of the high powered rounds that were pumped into him. I watched as his body fell limp and bleeding on the floor. I screamed which only brought attention to me.
“Luckily, the gang had no time to find me with their bullets because, at the same time, the side of the warehouse rocked with an explosion and burst into flame. Several cars barreled through the flames and entered the warehouse. It was Earl Stanley’s suicide squad. They just started firing and taking out everyone and everything inside. Hostages, criminals, even me. I remember watching one of them turn around, spot me and I even saw the muzzle flash.
The pain was horrible. I remember feeling several bullets hit me. One went through my shoulder, one my leg, and I felt a sharp pain in my gut. Flashes of bullets hitting the metal walkway flashed through my mind as I fell face down on the walkway. The last thing I remember was feeling the warmth of the blood as it started seeping out of my body.
I woke up a week and a half later in the hospital. Walter was by my bedside. He informed me that my husband had been shot and killed during the assignment. He told me that I had lost a lot of blood before the medics got to me and found I was an innocent. I was rushed to the hospital and went immediately into the OR. The bullet had torn up my insides and taken my child, too. While they were trying to stop the internal bleeding, I had flatlined and was resuscitated. They couldn’t save my baby and I went into a coma. Patrick’s funeral was held without me and he was given a 21 gun salute.” Finally, one lone tear ran down Kate’s cheek and she suddenly stopped shaking. Now, it became an automated telling of facts.
“For the next two months, Walter became my babysitter. He encouraged me as I started walking again and learning to handle the pain from my abdomen. An apartment opened up just down the hall from his place, so he rented it, had a moving company bring all my stuff from the Tucson house and moved me in. When I was sent home, he would bring take out every night and stay with me until Midnight. We would just talk or watch movies and sometimes just sit and never say a word to the other all night. He would also bring magazines, movies, groceries, anything I needed. He took care of the rent for a year and sent a cleaning woman twice a week.
I got pretty damn bored after a while, so I asked Bender if I could start again. It took some pressure, but he finally relented. The one condition he had was that I would stay stationed here and be under Bender at all times. I agreed and I was accepted back.”
Kate smiled for the first time in a long time. She pulled her hands out of Jon’s and parted the blankets that were still wrapped around her. She lifted her sweatshirt and bared her midsection. Her index finger traced the path of a long, red, heavily keyloided scar that ran from the left side to the right side of her abdomen.
“But I will always have this as a reminder of the worst day of my life.”
Jon took her by the shoulders and slowly brought her towards him. He wrapped his arms around her and hugged her tightly. Silent tears flowed out of her eyes and dripped on Jon’s shoulder.
Jon buried his face in her hair. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” he kept repeating.
Kate’s shoulders heaved as she started sobbing uncontrollably in Jon’s arms. Jon hugged her even tighter, trying to give her the safe space she desperately needed.
He started rocking slowly back and forth. “It’s okay, Kate. Let it out.”
Kate continued crying and Jon continued holding her. Kate pulled away from Jon just far enough so she could look at him. Her eyes were red and puffy, but her deep blue eyes still shimmered. Her arms wrapped around Jon’s lower back as she lightly fell back toward him. She leaned into Jon and kissed him tenderly.
Then, the emotion took over. With an ever growing intensity, she kissed Jon harder and harder. Jon didn’t resist. He kissed her back. Kate’s breathing started growing more and more shallow as she kept kissing Jon. She stopped once and grabbed Jon’s bottom lip with her teeth gently and chewed on it lightly before she found his mouth again.
Kate’s hands wandered and untucked Jon’s shirt. Her cold trembling fingers caressed Jon’s back as she started to softly moan.
The feeling of Kate’s fingernails on his bare back caused Jon to snap back to the reality of the situation. He pulled his head away from Kate’s kisses and placed his hands on her shoulders.
“No, Kate, no.”
“Yes,” she moaned as she leaned back into him and kissed him again.
“No. No, Kate, this isn’t right. This isn’t us.” He finally separated her body from his. Jon looked at her eyes again. Tears were coming easily now, and she whimpered like a lost puppy. “Don’t get me wrong, Kate. You are an amazing woman, and any guy would be crazy to not like you. I am probably going to be kicking myself several days from now, but this isn’t right. There is something very special between us, that’s true, but it’s not this. Not now. Not tonight.”
Jon paused to collect his thoughts and to try to not hurt the amazingly vulnerable woman next to him. “Maybe someday, but not tonight. The emotions are running high, I had a roller coaster of a day, we’re trainer and trainee, and you have just relived a very bad day of your life. If it’s meant to happen, it will happen. In another place, another time, maybe.” Jon hugged her tightly again. “You’re safe, Kate. I’m sorry for everything that has happened to you, but you’re okay now. You’re safe.”
As Jon hugged her tightly, he could hear the crying start to subside. He kept rocking, and slowly, her breathing turned into deep breathing, and then gave way into snores about fifteen minutes later. Jon smiled as he slowly pulled his arms away from her. She grunted a time or two as he eased her back onto the couch, but she never woke up.
He carefully removed her shoes and slipped a cushion under her head. He took the blanket she had been in and tucked it around her sleeping body. He knelt beside her and smoothed her forehead with his palm.
“Sleep well, Kate.” He kissed her on the forehead and stood up.
Jon stretched and cracked his back. As he turned out the lights, he whispered to the sleeping figure on the couch, “Goodnight.”

The bright sunlight awakened Kate. She sat up and stretched. As she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, she started looking around the room.
“What happened last night?” she thought. “Where am I?”
Her eyes landed on the side table with a picture of Jon and his parents.
“That’s where I am!”
She closed her eyes tightly and tried to recollect the previous night’s escapades. She was sitting in her car, Jon scared her, he invited her in, they drank hot chocolate, she told him about Patrick, and then she kissed him, and…..
“Oh, my God.”
She remembered all the crying and the kissing, but she couldn’t remember anything else.
“Oh, my God! What the hell was I thinking?” she finally gave voice to her thoughts.
Kate sat up on the couch and swung her feet over the side. She was surprised to feel a small, warm draft on her bare feet. Her gaze went to the floor where she saw Jon Mills lying on a makeshift bed of several blankets stacked on top of one another.
A grin broke onto Kate’s face.
“Jonathan Mills, you gallant little devil, you.”

Chapter 16

2011-05-09T08:33:00.001-06:00

CHAPTER 16

By the time Jon got home, it was well past ten. Humans or animals hadn’t touched the snow in his front yard yet. Jon took great pleasure in making the first set of footprints in the snow. The snow flew off of his shoes as he kicked them on the doorstep before entering.
He was tired and exhausted, yet exhilarated. Is that possible to be exhausted and exhilarated at the same time? He thought. And, isn’t it interesting that they both begin with the letters e-x-h.
The TV went on immediately. SportsTime was into its second half-hour. By now, it was time for sports like cricket and the America’s Cup. He didn’t care so much, but he was interested if they were going to say anything else about the game on Saturday. He turned up the volume so that he could hear it wherever he was upstairs.
Jon kept the lights in the house off. He liked the sense of solitude that the darkness gave him. Besides, if he fell asleep, he wanted to stay asleep. He went to his bedroom and pulled out a pair of white sweats and changed into them.
Mills wandered into the kitchen and grabbed two cans of Cherry Coke out of the fridge. He popped one open and downed half the can in one chugging session. He let out a long and laborious belch. It was great to be home alone.
His next stop was his parent’s bedroom. He liked to come in here when they were gone and just look out the window. In the living room, the window was too high and the couch back was towards the wall, so it made it a chore to stare outside for long periods. But, in this bedroom, the window was the right height, the bed was big enough and close enough to be able to stare out into space and watch the falling snow while retreating into your own thoughts.
He had just come from an amazing first date with Aleisha Madsen! And, to top it all off, she had kissed him and he had kissed her! Three monumentous occasions all in one night! Jon set the other can of Cherry Coke on the bed next to him as he thought about the warmth of Aleisha’s breath on his face. He watched the large snowflakes fall lightly on the ground. It didn’t happen often, a snow like this, this early in the season, but he could easily remember trick or treating twice in weather like this.
The neighborhood outside of his parent’s window looked calm and quiet. No cars had driven by in the few minutes he had been watching, no pedestrians had walked by, and no one had left their house.
One of his neighbors across the street had an old decrepit Russian olive tree that sagged badly during the summertime. Now that snow was on it, one of its branches was bending down and touching the sidewalk on the other side of the street. Jon watched as more and more snow piled on it. After about five minutes, the branch visibly drooped even more and a chunk of snow fell from it, lightening its load, which caused the branch to rise ever so slightly. There was a car directly next to the branch that was drooping, and Jon was sure that the stream of exhaust hanging in the air had come from it. He hadn’t noticed anyone turn the car on or off. In fact, there didn’t seem to be anyone in it now. But if that was true, where had the exhaust come from? It surely wasn’t his imagination.
The sound of SportsTime was forgotten about as Jon all of sudden heard Kate’s voice in his head, just like he still had his earpiece turned on.
“Don’t forget, Jon, you’re going up against killers here.”
Up against killers here.
Up against killers here.
Up against killers here.
Killers.
Killers.
The quote kept reverberating through his mind.
Killers here.
Killers.
Killers.
Jon slowly set his can on his father’s nightstand as the unthinkable thought made its way to his brain.
“Oh my God. They found me. I don’t know how, but they found me.”
Jon threw himself to the floor and waited for the barrage of bullets to come pouring through the windows and the walls. He waited, keeping his breathing steady and still, but the bullets didn’t come. If they were watching him, were they already in the house? Doubtful, since there were no footprints in the snow. No footprints in the snow leading to the front door. What about the back? Jon stayed on the ground and listened intently for any movement elsewhere in the house. Not hearing any, he crawled out of his parent’s room and into his own.
Jon was still crawling on the ground when he found his gymbag and unzipped it. His right hand went into the bag and rummaged around until it came out with the gun Kate had given him that morning. He popped out the magazine and checked the clip. It was full. Kate said she had fired it and that it had worked fine. Let’s hope it still does, Jon thought. Now, it wasn’t just a gun to Jon, it was his lifeline. Jon slammed the magazine back into its chamber and put it in the back waistband of his pants.
Should he call Kate and wait for her to arrive? Nah, he thought, they could come in at any time. I’ve got to go take care of this one myself. Besides, I’ll have the element of surprise on my side! He sat on the ground and slipped on his white tennis shoes. He was going to have to go out for a little walk.
Pulling himself out of the sitting position and into a crouching one, he made his way to the kitchen. Jon paused, just to make sure that he couldn’t hear anything unusual inside the house yet. Still convinced he was alone, he made his way to the sliding glass door. He examined the snow outside. No footprints and no disturbances here, either. He could safely assume that the killers had yet to make their move against the house. They were probably just waiting for the TV to go off. Jon had thought about turning off the TV, but now thought better of it. If he knew where they were, but they didn’t know where he was, he had a much better chance of taking some of them with him.
Mills cracked the sliding door open just enough to squeeze through the crack. He eased his way outside, and sucked in his gut even more when the gun clanked solidly against the doorjamb. He could just imagine shooting his own ass off. What a great story that would be to future generations. He slipped the gun through the doorjamb and gently closed the sliding glass door behind him.
The night air seemed so still and every crunching footstep he took thundered in his ear, but he knew in reality, he was moving as quietly as could be expected. After creeping down the back stairs, he flattened himself against the back of the house. For all intents as purposes, he was camouflaged quite well with his white sweats against the white snow. Movement didn’t help his chances, of course, but hopefully, they would never see him coming.
He reached the corner of the house and readied himself. He pulled the gun out and checked to make sure the safety was off. He took a deep breath and in one motion, rounded the corner, went down on one knee, and aimed his gun straight ahead. No one. There was no one on the side of the house. Jon flattened himself against the wall again and continued his journey.
Mills was now at the front edge of the house. He would have to be exposed for a few moments no matter what. He crouched low again and peeked around the corner. The scene was still just as quiet except the car was now running. There was a figure in the front seat that leaned down, as if to get something from the glove compartment. This was it. His only chance.
“God, if you’re up there, please help me.” He took a quick visual measurement of his path. There was one tree in the front yard. Jon left his safe place and scurried across to the tree and looked at the car again. The figure was still searching the glovebox.
“Let’s make it all the way,” Jon told himself as he left the confines of the tree and ran behind the back bumper of the car.
Again, Jon waited to hear loud voices, or feel the barrage of bullets pierce his body, but nothing. The only sound he could hear was the radio inside the car. It sounded like ‘The End’ by The Doors. Whoever was stalking him had good taste. KLZX was the only station in town that played that song.
The butterflies subsided, but Jon could still hear the force of blood pounding through his veins and his heart thundering in his chest. It sounded as if his raspy and straggled breathing was as loud as a siren. It must not have been because the person was still looking like they were the hunter, not the hunted. He knew he had to make his move soon, because he couldn’t stand the tension for much longer and also, he was freezing to death!
Slowly, Jon crept along the passenger side of the car. He watched the side mirror and figured that if he couldn’t see the passenger’s reflection, then they couldn’t see him. He made it to the door, raised his gun, and positioned his hand to yank the door open.
“Bad move,” he thought. “They’ll have me made before I can get the door open. I’ll be better just shooting through the glass. Besides, if I shoot first, the glass will go inside toward them, not outside toward me.” He closed his eyes and took several long, slow, deep breaths and let them out.
“Here we go, Mills, make it or break it time.” He steadied himself in his crouched position and got his gun prepared.
He stood straight up and was prepared to see several goons aiming at him. Instead, he noticed just one person in the car, and they were lying across the front seat. All Jon could see was a mass of hair pressed up against the window. A mass of red hair. A mass of very familiar red hair.
Jon clicked the safety on and tapped the side of the gun against the window.
Kate Thompson screamed and jumped almost vertically through the roof. She turned around with fear and rage in her eyes, but softened immediately upon seeing who it was. She put her hand to her chest and slowed her breathing down. Jon motioned for her to unlock the door. She did and Jon opened it.
“Kate, what the hell are you doing out here?”
“I should ask you the same question. Aren’t you supposed to be sleeping and getting ready for tomorrow?”
“I probably should, but I have to say, it’s your fault I’m out here!”
“How is it my fault?”
. Jon ignored the question. “It’s a little cold out here tonight. You want to come in and do your stakeout from inside?”
Kate knew that she had been had. Smiling at the thought of warmth and companionship, she responded, “Sure. I’d love to.”

Jon took the large steaming mug of hot chocolate over to Kate. She was shivering on a chair with two blankets over her, next to the heater vent.
Kate unburied her hands from the pile of blankets and took the mug from Jon.
“Thanks.”
“You’re welcome,” he replied. “I can make soup, or toast, or even steaks if you want.”
“Nah, this will do me just fine.” Kate lifted the spoon that Jon had left in the mug and stirred the steaming liquid. She avoided Jon’s gaze. “How did you know?”
“Excuse me?”
“How did you know I was out there?”
Jon decided to play with her. “Come on, Kate. Any good Agency member would notice that you were out there.”
Kate looked up, tilted her head to one side and raised her eyebrows.
“Okay, maybe not.” Jon went to the kitchen and returned with his own large mug of hot chocolate. “Actually, I didn’t know it was you. I assumed it was them.”
“Them who?”
“Them the killers, them.”
“Why would you think that?”
“Isn’t that what you told me? I was going up against killers? I needed to take my gun everywhere with me? I would never know when I might need to use it?”
“I did say that, yes.”
“So, at the theater, you said you would see me tomorrow. I wasn’t expecting you. I was looking out at the street and watching the snow fall, and no one had walked to the car and it started up, so I knew someone was there and it looked like a perfect vantage point for this house.” He paused his explanation and took a deep breath. “Besides, if I knew it was you, would I take my gun out?”
“Fair point.”
“How long have you been watching me, Kate?”
Kate diverted the question. “Is that the piano you learned on?”
“How long, Kate?”
She resigned herself to telling the truth. “I never stopped. Monday when you came back from the hospital, I dropped you off, circled the block and started my nightly stakeouts.”
“Why?”
“Bender wanted you protected at your most vulnerable moments.”
“Bender wanted it?”
“Of course.” Kate seemed to be searching for the right phrase. “Sort’ve. When I asked him to do it.”
“You asked him?” Jon got a triumphant grin on his face.
Kate stirred her chocolate again and stared into the swirling brown depths. “ Yes, I did.”
Jon walked over and put his hand on her shoulder. “Thanks, Kate. Thanks for looking out for me.”
“That’s my job as your trainer, isn’t it? I watch out for you. I’ve made a few mistakes, but all things considered, I think we make a good team.” Kate took her first gulp from the mug and winced slightly as the drink burned her throat. “You’re doing amazingly well, Jon. You’ve started strong, you’re getting better in just two days, and you have real potential. You may feel like a nobody, the new guy, but you have a lot more promise than I did when I started.”
Jon took a seat on the couch and put his feet on the coffee table. “How did you find out about the Agency? How did you get to where you are now?”
Jon watched as Kate got lost in her memories. Her lips turned upwards, almost imperceptibly, as she remembered the good times. Her mouth turned downwards as she thought about the bad times. Then, her mouth went into a straight line and she started biting her cheeks as her eyes moistened as she thought about the really bad times. A tear never fell from her eyes though. She was determined not to let that happen.
“Do you really want to know?” Kate’s voice was quivering.
Jon locked eyes with her. “Yes, I really do.”
Kate sat and just breathed for several minutes, contemplating how to begin. Jon waited patiently. He knew the explanation was coming, but he wasn’t about to rush her.
“I guess I owe it to you to tell you, Jon. I know all about you, and you don’t know anything about me.” Kate turned her stool away from the heater. She stood and sat down on the opposite side of the couch from Jon. Her legs folded under her in Indian Style and she re-wrapped the blankets tightly around her.
Kate took one more gulp from her hot chocolate before she dropped the bomb. “My husband was the first link to the Agency that I ever had.”
Jon’s eyebrows shot up. “Husband?”
“Yes.”
“Your husband?” Jon asked again.
Kate nodded.
Jon had never even considered this possibility. “So, you’re, uh, you’re, you know- married?”
“I was. It seems like forever ago, but I got married on May ninth, 1986. I was a young girl of just 21.” She stared at the couch cushions. “It was the best two years of my life.”
“Two years? So, you’re not married anymore?”
Kate shook her head.
“I’m sorry to hear that. When did you get divorced?”
“I didn’t.”
“You’re just separated? Trying to work things out?”
Kate shook her head again.
“Oh.” Jon felt like it was his turn to intrude on personal things. “So he, uh-“
Kate looked up and locked eyes with him. The moist eyes were back. “I’m a widow, Jon. At 25 years old, I’m a goddamned widow.”
Jon was speechless. Strange squeaks and silence came from his open mouth, but no words for the longest time. Finally, he was able to form a complete thought. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”
“No one does. Only Walter Bender and Earl Asshole Stanley know about Patrick.”
Jon really felt like he was intruding now. If those were the only two who knew…. “If you don’t want to tell me, Kate, it’s cool. I totally understand.”
Kate cut him off. “No, Jon. It’s okay. I owe it to you. I owe it to him. I haven’t thought about it for such a long time, it almost seems like I’m forgetting him. I can’t let that happen.”
Jon picked up his mug again and got ready for Kate’s story.

Chapter 15- part 2

2011-05-06T09:16:00.001-06:00

The Italian Village was full, but not crowded. Jon and Aleisha only had to wait a few minutes before they were seated. Kate stayed in the car until she could tell they were safely in a booth, then she entered and asked for a single table on the other side of the restaurant, where there would be no danger of Aleisha noticing her.
The rest of the drive had been relatively uneventful. Jon had spoken out loud a few times, as he would hint at exact directions from Kate. A few statements like- “The next light is ninth, so I’m going to take a left” were quite common, but no real conversation between Jon and Aleisha had happened.
It had seemed to just be a comfortable co-existing of the couple had taken place and Kate imagined a lot of googly eyes at each other. Kate felt as though she was an odd intruder, a third wheel, and in reality, she was. It was interesting that she had done this kind of stake out for almost a year before Jon had been recruited, only 3 days ago she had to remind herself, but it seemed so much different now. She hadn’t been able to hear entire intimate conversations before, and now, here she was playing chaperone. Granted, she was still several yards away, but she still seemed to be intruding too much.
The conversation had restarted.
“So, Jon, what looks good to you?” Aleisha asked.
“I’m a sucker for ravioli. but I love lasagna, and just the boring old fettuccini Alfredo. I haven’t decided yet. And you?”
“I’m thinking that a pizza bender sounds amazingly tasty.”
“What is that?”
Aleisha leaned over the table and pointed at the spot in the menu that described it. “It says a mini-pizza folded in half and served with dipping sauce.”
As she leaned over, her hair fell into her eyes. Jon looked up and brushed it away so he could see her face. She smiled at him, and then very slowly sat back in her seat.
“Sounds good. I think I have to go for the half and half plate.”
“Don’t you generally drink half and half?” Aleisha led Jon along.
“No,” Jon explained, “you get any two half servings of anything on their menu on the same plate.”
A waitress came up to their table. “Welcome to the Italian Village. Are you ready to order or can I just get you some drinks while you look at the menu a minute more?”
“I’m ready!” Aleisha piped up.
“I guess we’re ready,” Jon replied.
“For you, Ma’am?”
“I will take two combination pizza benders please with extra dipping sauce, and a bowl of minestrone soup, please.”
“Healthy appetite for a little girl,” Kate commented.
Jon reached up and pretended to scratch his shoulder, but flicked his mike with his thumb while doing it.
“And to drink?”
“Pepsi?”
“We do serve Pepsi, yes, ma’am.” The waitress scribbled the order and turned to Jon. “And for you?”
“I’ll take the half and half plate with lasagna and meat and cheese ravioli, please with a bowl of minestrone soup and a side salad. With Italian dressing and a cherry Pepsi, if I may.”
“You sure may.” The waitress took their menus. “I’ll be right back with the drinks.”
Aleisha looked up at their waitress and smiled. “Thank you.” Aleisha continued to look admiringly at Jon.
The waitress brought their drinks and their complimentary order of garlic bread. Aleisha attacked the bread with gusto. Jon took a few sips of his drink while he watched as Aleisha ate her first slice in a matter of seconds. He waited until she had begun working on her second slice before he ventured his hand near it.
“So,” Aleisha asked in between bites, “what do you want to be?”
Jon took a bite of his bread before answering. “This sounds stupid, but I actually want to be an actor.”
Aleisha grinned and nodded her head. “Not stupid at all. You were great in Little Shop of Horrors last year.”
“Thanks.” Jon nodded and then a realization hit him. “You went to one of the performances?”
“No.”
“Then how-?”
“I went to all seven.”
Jon was shocked.
Kate was stunned.
“Whoa,” was all Jon heard from Kate.
“All seven?” Jon asked.
“Yup. After the first night, I went back and sat in the third row, center aisle every night.”
“Third row? Center? That’s where I-“
“That’s where you stopped to sing your solo every night. I know. I knew you wouldn’t see me since the spotlight was right in your face at that time. I knew you couldn’t see anything but a blinding light.”
Jon was speechless.
“You were great. Even though I wasn’t a huge fan of the play entirely because it was quite silly, you were really good. You actually seemed to be in love with that girl, and too scared to talk to her, and, even after you two started seeing each other in the play, you only kissed her on the forehead. I thought that was sweet. You brought a silly play some depth. You were good, so I don’t find that silly at all.”
They stared at each other for a minute. Even the bread eating had stopped. Finally, Jon broke the silence.
“Thank you.”
“You’re very welcome.” Aleisha began to eat her bread again.
“What do you want to do then, when you grow up?”
“Now this, you will laugh at.”
“Why would I? I promise I won’t laugh.”
“Scout’s honor?”
“I was never a scout, sorry.”
Aleisha just tilted her head. “Scout’s honor?”
Jon straightened up and put his hand up in the famous salute. “Scout’s honor, Miss.”
Aleisha seemed to be having trouble spitting it out.
Jon leaned forward. “What? What is it? Is it embarrassing? Do you want to work at Southern Exposure as a career?”
“No! Of course not! Not at all. It’s just-“ Aleisha almost seemed to be freezing up.
“Illegal? Drug runner?”
The head tilt again.
“Okay,” Jon sat back in his seat. “Not a drug runner, I assume, not a prostitute, so what can be so bad?”
Aleisha just opened her mouth and closed it again.
Jon leaned over and did what would’ve seemed impossible three days ago- he grabbed her hand. “What is it?”
The actual touch seemed to bring Aleisha back to reality. “It’s just that whenever I tell guys they make fun of me.”
“I promise. No laughter. None at all. I am serious guy.”
Aleisha seemed to steel herself against the onslaught of laughter she knew was coming. In a small meek voice, she said, “A newspaper reporter.”
Jon let out a release of air that almost came out in a laugh. Aleisha glared at him. He put up his hands in defense.
“That was not a laugh about your choice of career at all. That was a stifled laugh because I can’t believe you were so scared to tell me. I was picturing garbageman or dog walker or something absurd like that, not something serious like a reporter. Honestly, I just think it’s funny you were so reluctant to tell me.”
Aleisha weighed Jon’s words carefully and her body posture relaxed. ”It’s just that when I go out with guys, they think that’s a stupid dream to have. As a reporter you don’t get a choice really, you go with the stories.”
“I think I see this coming,” Jon nodded. “And guys-“
“Guys just want a woman who will be subservient to them and their wishes. They don’t want a woman with a career. They just want someone to be barefoot and pregnant.”
“Hey, now, be careful, there! That’s my entire gender you’re talking about!”
“Isn’t it true? In your guy talks, how often does someone ever say, ‘I want a wife who will make more than me and leave on assignment and leave me at home to take care of our 2.7 kids?”
Jon gave her hand a squeeze.
“The kid does have a point,” Kate said.
“I know,” Jon said quietly into his receiver, but also looked at Aleisha and gave her support.
She didn’t look back. She was staring straight at the table. “Most guys ask if I want to cover the food or the gardening sections or the wedding pages, and they just about lose their shorts when I say that I want the big stuff! I want the murders, the rapes, the wars, the scandals. Most guys can’t even handle the thought of it!
I’ve heard about that Oscar party you always have. Believe it or not, I actually stay up and watch the Pulitzers every year. No one cares about them, so it’s televised at like 2 in the morning or something ridiculous like that. I get my bag of microwaveable popcorn and just watch these people go up and receive their awards and think, someday that will be me. Probably what you do with the Oscars every year.”
“Pretty close,” Jon agreed.
Jon let go of Aleisha’s hand as the waitress brought the soups and the salad.
After she had left, Jon watched as Aleisha picked up her spoon and started eating her soup.
“I can’t deny that most guys would think that you were crazy, but I think it’s great! I think most papers would benefit from a female reporter tackling the big stories! I don’t mean to sound sexist here, but I do believe that, in general, men and women view the world in a different way. I think that is pretty much a given, but that doesn’t mean that one viewpoint is right and the other wrong. I think you could easily add something that most males can’t add to journalistic writing and that’s the heart and the soul. I think you can do for newspapers what you think I do to silly plays, and that’s to add depth.”
Aleisha had kept eating her soup with vigor, but Jon knew that his words were hitting home. Her movements weren’t quite as sharp and jerky. She hadn’t looked him in the eyes at all since she told him. Jon reached out and touched her hand that was holding the spoon. She responded and brought the spoon down after she had eaten that spoonful. Jon’s hands moved back up to her hair and he swept it away.
Her eyes were glistening, but not in a sad teary way. Her face also had a smile on it. Her bottom lip was quivering, but it was a smile.
“Thank you, Jon.”
“You’re very welcome, Aleisha.”
She grabbed his hand and gave it a light kiss on the knuckles and a squeeze.
“You’re okay, Jonathan Mills,” Kate radioed her approval.
Jon addressed Aleisha. “I want you to send me every single one of your articles when you finally get published, okay? I’ll give you self-addressed stamped envelopes and you can send them to me all the time. Then, you have to promise to pay to see every single one of my movies at least twice. Deal?”
The quivering bottom lip had stopped. “Deal.”
“So, now that we have bared our souls already this evening, how about we do the normal first date stuff?” Jon finally started digging into his food.
“Such as?” Aleisha was visibly relieved to get back to fun conversations.
“Favorite musical group?”
“Oooooh. That’s a tough one. I would have to go with Van halen.”
“A rocker chick, huh? “
“You know it! And you?”
“I’m an poppy music kind of a guy. Billy Joel, Huey Lewis, and the like. I mainly listen to movie soundtracks, though. I’m a huge fan of John Williams, Danny Elfman.”
“Okay. What kind of questions should I ask?”
“Anything. I’m an open book!”
“Anything?” the devilish smile returned to Aleisha’s face.
“Anything.”
“Okay. Lightning round. Color?”
“Blue.”
“Food?”
“Italian or Mexican.”
“Paper or plastic?”
“Plastic.”
“Coke or Pepsi?”
“Coke, but Cherry Coke is the drink that keeps me alive, specifically.”
“Ford or Chevy?”
“Anything that runs.”
“Movie snack?”
“Nachos and a cherry Coke.”
“Tats or piercings?”
“Neither. I hate needles.”
“Favorite actor?”
“Harrison Ford and Michael J. Fox, neither of which are truly recognized for the job they do.”
“Cheese.”
“Type or brand?”
“Both.”
“Pepper jack and Tillamook.”
“Favorite book?”
“Author is Stephen King. Book would be either It or his novella, Apt Pupil. Although I hear that his book coming out next week, The Dark Half is also very, very good.”
“Favorite class in school?”
“Come on! Easy! Drama!”
“Favorite real class in school?”
“Oh, that’s cold!”
“Real class?” Aleisha pressed on.
“History and government.”
“Most embarassing moment?”
“That would have to be either the tryouts for the talent show this year, or the infamous spider story.”
“Infamous spider story? That just has a nice ring to it.” Aleisha was very intrigued.
“Okay, so, it was a normal Thanksgiving. All the relatives come over, general chaos until about four in the afternoon, a huge feast, dishes were done immediately, and then until about seven, everybody lazed around napping, or just not moving much in general. I was asleep on the couch, sawing logs, snoring like there was no tomorrow. Then, supposedly, all of a sudden, I sat upright and yelled ‘Watch out for the spiders!’ I stood up on the couch, jumped over my Uncle Dennis, the couch arm and ran into my bedroom, where I promptly zonked out again. It totally freaked out everybody who was sleeping and has been a cause of mockery ever since.”
“That is a priceless story!” Kate radioed Jon.
“Now,” Jon took control again, “I’ve answered a bunch. What about you? Same questions?”
“Color red. Food chinese. Paper is biodegradeable, plastic is not. Pepsi, by far. I am a chevy girl. A movie isn’t the same without popcorn. My ears are pierced once each, but no other weird tatoos or piercings.”
“Any normal tatoos or piercings?” Jon asked jauntily.
“No. Actor is Nicholas Cage. I am a fan of sharp cheddar and Cache Valley cheese, made right here in the great state of Utah. Book would have to be anything by E. L. Konisburg or Roald Dahl. I like science and most embarassing moment would have to be last year when my parents and I went to the Disneyland Hotel. I took all of the souvenirs that you could find around the place. I started with the usual stuff: soap, shampoo, stationary, pens, and by the end, I had things like ice buckets and ashtrays, even though I don’t know anybody who smokes just because it said Disneyland Hotel on it. So, my dad gets us a taxi to take us to the airport and the bag I had all of my treasures in broke open and it all spilled out. I looked like a seventeen-year old klepto of all things Disney.. I was mortified!”
Jon and Kate both got a good laugh out of the story as dinner arrived at the table.

Kate could tell that dinner was going well. The tone of conversation stayed light and pleasant, but there was absolutely none of the normal first date hmmmm-ing and hawing. There were pauses, which Kate could read as a shared smile, wink, or something. Jon was doing well keeping his nerves at bay.
Kate had ordered a pizza bender herself and was just finishing it as Jon excused himself to go to the bathroom. She wiped her mouth on a napkin, and went towards the bathroom hallway.
Since the Italian Village was a small family owned place that had expanded over the years, it still only had one toilet in both the men’s and women’s restrooms. Kate caught up with Jon in the hall.
“Pretty slick, slick,” she said.
It freaked Jon out that what he was hearing in his ear was also coming from just one small step away.
“Hey, Kate!”
“You almost act like you forgot I was here.”
There was a flush and the sound of running water.
“I almost did,” Jon admitted.
“Doesn’t surprise me. You’re doing fine and it sounds like you and Aleisha are hitting it off just fine. No problems with conversation for a while. I’m not sure if you really need me anymore tonight.”
A man unlocked the men’s room door and held it open for Jon.
“Excuse me for just a second, Kate.”
Jon’s back was to the dining room, so he didn’t see Aleisha as she slid out of the booth.
Kate saw the movement and grabbed Jon’s right hand, which was holding the bathroom door open, and swept him into the bathroom with her and she locked the door.
“Believe it or not, Kate, I really do have a kind’ve bashful bladder. I can’t-“
“Trust me, I don’t like to talk in bathrooms myself, but Aleisha was coming. Probably not the best move to be seen talking to another woman, who was on stage with you at the talent show the night before, in a bathroom hallway on your first date with the girl of your dreams.”
“Good point.”
They each held their breath as they heard Aleisha walk down the hallway and enter her respective restroom
As they released their breath, Kate started to speak. “All I wanted to say is that I am not useful to you anymore. Tonight, I mean. You are doing wonderfully well! I just feel like an intruder. I shouldn’t be listening in.”
“It’s cool. I’ll admit, even though you haven’t said much, you have helped me. Just knowing that you were there listening, made me secure that I could never say anything too stupid or foolish without you calling me on it. I also knew you would stop me from not being myself if I strayed too far, so it’s been good. Just one more thing and I’ll let you go.”
“Okay, and then I’ll let you go so that you can go.”
“Since we’re going to a movie, can you hang out and be in ear with me until the lights go down? Then, we’ll just be watching the movie, and afterwards, it’ll be late, so I will just talk to her about the film and take her home, and I know I can do that fine.”
“What about the end of the date?” Kate teased.
“I’m not as nervous about it.”
“Okay, Jon. You have a deal. I’ll be with you until the lights go down and I’ll cut loose. You just stow the earpiece in your pocket and get it back to me in the morning. Cool?”
“Cool.”
They listened for any sign of movement in the hallway. When none was detected, Kate slipped out the door and Jon locked it behind her. Almost immediately, the whoosh of running water in the pipes sounded through the bathroom and Jon could picture Aleisha fixing her hair in the mirror as she washed up. This put a smile on his face as he did what the room was designed for.
Kate actually left a few minutes before the happy couple. Since she knew the destination, she just stayed one step ahead of them to the theater. She purchased a ticket and then went back to her car until she knew they were in their seats.
While she was waiting, Kate noticed the first few snowflakes drift down and fall on her windshield. They quickly melted but they were soon replaced by more and more. She watched as Aleisha and Jon parked and purchased their tickets. Jon had his arm around Aleisha’s waist as they walked through the doors.
Aleisha shook her head free of the snow once inside the lobby. “Do you want some popcorn?” she asked.
“I can’t believe you want popcorn after all you ate at the restaurant!”
“I only ate one of the pizza benders. I told you I got the other one for lunch tomorrow! Besides a movie just isn’t a movie without popcorn.”
“And nachos,” Jon added.
“And nachos,” Aleisha agreed.
“Should we buy two large popcorns so you can have one for lunch tomorrow?” Jon joked.
“Nah. I don’t need it. I’ll just share with you tonight, if you don’t mind.”
“Not at all.”
They got their large popcorn, a large Cherry Coke, and an order of nachos. Kate walked through the doors as she watched them make their way down the hallway to their theater.
Kate could hear the slight argument about seating as she purchased her own drink and popcorn from the concession stand.
“I’m telling you, the front row is the best!” Jon tried to persuade Aleisha. “You don’t have to look straight up at the screen! You just kick back in your chair and let the film envelop you.”
“I like to see the whole screen, thank you very much!”
“You can see the whole screen! Have you ever heard about peripheral vision?”
“I have heard about it and yes, I do have it. You’re the one who has to wear contacts. I t wouldn’t surprise me to find out that you lost your sight while sitting in the front row of a movie theater.”
“Touché! Where would you like to sit?”
“I prefer the exact middle of the theater, but, since I’m with you, I’ll compromise. How about if we sit on the front row of the main section? We won’t venture into the nether region of the very front of the theater.”
“I think I could handle that.”
As they took their seats, Aleisha looked at Jon and shook her head. “The very front row? Why would you ever decide to sit on the very front row?”
“I used to go see movies all summer. My parents would drop me off at the theater and I would see at least four or five movies a week every summer. I was only about ten or eleven and I couldn’t see over anyone! So, I chose to sit on the front row so you don’t have to crane your neck. Then, I grew and got taller and taller, and now I sit there as a place to stretch my legs out.”
“So, this works, being back here on the front row of the main section?”
“It works, but I still prefer the every front row.”
“You are so weird sometimes.”
Kate entered the theater and made a beeline for the very back row of the theater. She picked her seat and slouched in her chair so that she was as inconspicuous as possible.
“So, how long have you liked movies?” Aleisha asked.
“My whole life. Like I said in my presentation, I would calm down when I was sick if my parents took me to a theater. Then they would take me to a movie before any big event, like the first day of school, to calm down my nerves. Then, it just became a natural thing to do.
One weekend, my dad took me to a showing of Raiders of the Lost Ark and it changed my life, literally. I remember that we went to the Villa, that old one screen theater on Highland Drive? We went and sat in the front row and I was just in awe of this big, huge screen, and the action, the music, the acting, the cinematography, I loved it all. Ever since then, I have just been a huge fan of the cinema. I watch most everything and I notice when its crap, but the thing that I love most is seeing the product of all of these talented people working with one purpose to tell one story. It’s amazing to me.”
Aleisha just looked at Jon admiringly. “I can see that. I can totally see that. So, do you still go to the Villa?”
“All the time. If there is a new movie up there, I go that weekend. I have seen crap that I might not ever even rent for the sheer fact that it was playing at the Villa.”
“Like what?”
“Cousins.”
Aleisha laughed. “That’s pretty bad. “
“When you’re an addict….”
“So, what makes the Villa so special?”
“Have you ever been there?”
“Never have.”
“We’ll go there for our next date.”
“Okay, I would love that, but that still doesn’t get you off the hook. What makes it so great?”
Jon paused and Aleisha could tell he was envisioning it in his brain. “You buy the tickets under a large marquee that is lit up with flashing lights. It almost puts you in the mood right away. You walk through the heavy glass doors and there is a huge lobby, populated by a large cross section of the population on any night when Cousins is not playing there.”
Jon was pleased that Aleisha laughed at that pathetic joke.
“After the visit to the concession stand, which besides the fact that they serve normal theater food is nothing special, you walk up a ramp to enter the theater. If you get there before the movie starts, you walk by one thick velvet curtain that is pulled back by a large golden rope. You continue up the ramp, and this time, you have to walk through another heavy velvet curtain, only this one is black. That keeps all the outside lights and colors from entering the theater.
Once you’re past that curtain, you enter the actual theater. It is a large, cavernous room, at least three or four times bigger than the high school auditorium and what passes for most movie theaters now days. I asked the manager once and he said there were 1150 seats. When you enter, you can go up to the balcony and sit in those 400 seats or so, or go down to the main theater seating. The seats aren’t the maximum comfort that the new seats have, but they are plush enough. They are easy to relax in for the two hours you’re there.
The screen is so large that it curves around the front of the theater. It’s so large that even the very front row is still about 30 feet from the screen. The lights dim and, on the front row, you are truly enveloped by the picture. The sound is amazing, and just the thought of having 1150 different people experiencing the same story is amazing! It’s an experience like no other!”
“You almost talk about it like it’s a church.”
“It is a church. It’s my church. It’s as close to a higher power as you’re ever going to get. That many different people sharing in one experience together? Age, race, color, sex, it’s all the same when you’re sitting in the dark together experiencing the same thing. When you’re there, you can forget all of your problems and your cares. Whatever anybody says about you outside of those walls, doesn’t matter.”
“That’s a nice sentiment. I- I mean, we- will have to go there.”
“Anytime. It would be my pleasure.”
“So, Jon, what do you see in me?”
“I’m sorry?”
“What do you see in me? We’ve known each other for ten years and you have always treated me special. Why?” Aleisha asked.
“What do you mean, why? Shouldn’t we always treat everyone special?”
“You know what I mean, Jon. Don’t back away from the question. What do you see in me?”
Kate was glad that she was still around. “Tell her the truth, Jon. You just opened up about an inanimate movie theater. She wants you to open up the same way about her.”
Jon took a deep breath. “What exactly do you mean?”
“Like I told you before, whenever I tell most guys that I want to be a reporter, they laugh. They don’t see me the way that you see me. They see me as a pretty thing to be next to them, almost like a possession. What do you see in me?” She asked the question very distinctly this time, enunciating each word.
“I guess,” Jon started hesitantly, “I guess I just see you as a real person. A person of amazing beauty and grace and kindness, and true, genuine emotions. I guess I see you the way that your parents see you, for who you are and who you can become. You will become a great reporter. You will be a gorgeous woman. You will be a spectacular wife to someone someday.”
“Someone?” Aleisha’s voice growled deep in her throat. Her hand went to Jon’s knee. “After an answer like that, I think you know who you want that someone to be.”
Kate watched as Aleisha leaned towards Jon and kissed him lightly on the lips.
Jon’s heart raced as he felt Aleisha’s moist lips on his. He could feel her breath and smell her soap. He closed his eyes and let his senses take over. Then, he felt her pull away. He opened his eyes.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“I was about to ask you the same question,” Aleisha replied.
“What do you mean?”
“Why aren’t you kissing me?”
Jon was totally confused. “I was. Who did you think you were kissing?”
“I was kissing you, but you weren’t kissing me.”
“Then whose lips did I just feel?”
“Quit making fun of me!” she demanded, raising her voice.
Jon leaned over the armrest and lowered his voice, hoping to defuse the situation. “I’m not making fun of you, honestly I’m not. I’m just really confused here! I thought things were going so well, and now I don’t understand one word of what you are talking about!”
“You’d think that your performance in Little Shop was true! You’d think that you have never kissed a girl before!”
“You’d be right!” Jon answered.
Aleisha’s body language changed. She softened up immediately. “You’ve never kissed a girl before?” An evil smile twinged on her lips.
“No, I haven’t! I have never even been on a date before!”
“Are you serious?”
Jon’s hand went to the familiar salute. “Scout’s honor.”
Aleisha had to bite her bottom lip to keep from laughing. “That makes sense.”
“Have you just gone around the bend on me?”
Aleisha put her hand in front of her face. “No, no, I haven’t. It just makes sense now!”
“What makes sense? Can you please explain it to me?”
Aleisha’s face was a flutter of emotions. She wanted to laugh, she felt very sorry for causing a scene and accusing Jon of whatever she had been accusing him of, and total confusion at how to explain the art of kissing. She had never been the teacher of that before.
“Jon, when two people kiss, they both have to kiss.”
“You have definitely gone around the bend on this one, Aleisha.”
It was all Kate could do to not cause a scene in her seat. She was doubled over in convulsions of laughter.
“Okay, how can I explain this, Jon?” Aleisha wondered. “As one person makes lip contact and goes into the kissing process, the other person must return the kiss.” She could tell by Jon’s expression that he wasn’t getting it.
She tried another way. “When you shake somebody’s hand, both hands move together and grip each other, and they both do the shaking. It’s not like one person just puts out his hand and doesn’t grasp for the other hand as it makes contact. As the shake is being performed, both people have to put their energy into it, or it’s one of those dead fish handshakes. That’s what you were Jon. You were a dead fish kiss.”
Jon got an embarrassed look on his face. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”
“That’s okay, Jon. I didn’t know that you didn’t know. That’s why I freaked out. I just assumed that someone as nice and as great as you are would have had a girlfriend before and kissed her before.”
“You’ve known me for ten years, Aleisha. Have you ever known me to be with a girl? Do I hang out with anyone besides Stan and Greg?”
“No, and to be honest, I was wondering if it was a guy thing between the three of you.” Aleisha giggled.
“We are definitely not gay, thank you very much!”
Aleisha was laughing hard again. “I know that, now. You just continue to surprise me, Jon.”
“I’m here to keep life interesting.”
“You do a good job of that.” Aleisha let her laughing subside. She reached up and pushed her cheeks together and made a fish face.
“I thought I was here to keep life interesting. What are you doing?”
Aleisha started smiling again. “Stop it!” she said in a very non-commanding tone. “You are making me laugh and grin so much that my cheeks hurt!”
“I’m not sure I should apologize for that.”
“Trust me, you shouldn’t.”
Aleisha leaned toward him again.
Kate crackled in Jon’s ear again. “I can tell you’ve made it out of the woods. I’m gone for the night. Over and out.”
Jon’s hand reached up and tapped his mike two times in response. His hand then went around Aleisha’s back.
The lights dimmed, and the previews of coming attractions came flashing to life on the screen in all their Dolby Digital glory. Jon didn’t notice, though. He was too busy kissing Aleisha back.

The lights came back on as the movie credits rolled. Aleisha stood up.
“Be calm, little miss.” Jon said. “These people gave us an amazing film for the last two hours, we owe it to them to watch their names.”
“You are so strange sometimes,” She leaned down and kissed Jon on the cheek. “I’ll stay by you, but I need to stretch.”
Aleisha reached high into air and laced her fingers together. She leaned backwards slightly and heard her back pop a time or two. She flexed her arms and felt the knuckles pop. She brought her arms back down and put them in a running type position. She then twisted around and swung from side to side and popped her back that way.
She stayed standing for another two minutes and the credits kept rolling. She leaned down and whispered in Jon’s ear. “I need to go to the restroom. I’ll be right back.”
“Okay, I’ll see you in just a second.”
As Jon walked out of the theater after the six minute credits, he was shocked to see something that he never thought he’d see- Kate and Aleisha talking to each other. He approached cautiously.
“Hey, Kate! What are you doing here?” He acted surprised to see her.
Kate was acting way too happy and smily for Jon’s liking. “What else do you do at a movie theater other than go see a movie?”
“She saw the same one we did. Funny what a small world it is.” Aleisha joined the new conversation.
“So, what were you two talking about?” Jon ventured into dangerous territory.
“I was washing my hands when she came in and I knew she looked familiar, so I just told her how great you guys were last night!” Aleisha grabbed Jon’s hand.
“And then, I proceeded to tell Aleisha that we were neighbors and we both just loved music and I wanted to help you win, so I came and helped you out last night,” Kate continued, punctuating almost every word with a widening of her eyes. Jon was nodding, assuring her that he was going to follow the cover story.
“Kate’s a great neighbor, that’s for sure! Whether it’s a cup of sugar or help to win a talent show, she’s always there to help.” Jon continued the charade. “Well, Kate, it was good to see you tonight. I’ll just see you around?”
“You sure will!”
“Okay. Great. Fine. I need to get Aleisha back home. I don’t want her father to shoot me or anything for keeping his little girl out too late on a school night.”
“Nice to meet you, Aleisha. Maybe I’ll see you two around later?”
Aleisha squeezed Jon’s hand tightly. “You can count on it.”

The snow had fallen heavily while they were in the theater. Luckily, it hadn’t frozen to anything yet. The door opened easily as Jon let Aleisha into the car and started the heater and defrost. Clearing off his windows was easy for Jon, since the powder just flew off as he swiped the snow brush by it.
When the couple arrived at Aleisha’s house, it seemed to be a Norman Rockwell painting. The sky was covered with fluffy white clouds which matched the fluffy white snow that was falling and on the ground. There were no footprints in the snow leading up to or away from the Madsen’s front door. As the couple made their way to the end of their first date, they also made the first steps in the freshly fallen snow which was already a good quarter inch deep.
“So, was tonight everything you hoped it would be?” Aleisha asked as she stepped onto her front porch and turned around to face Jon.
“Everything and more,” Jon admitted.
“Good. How had you hoped it would end?”
“I honestly never even got past the part of picking you up in my dreams. I was sure my head would explode if I even tried to take you away from your house on an official date type thing.”
Aleisha reached up and tenderly touched his bruises. “Your head seems to have made it through in one piece. A little worse for the wear, but not too bad.” She grinned.
“You are honestly one of the most amazing people I have ever met.”
“Thank you. Now just shut up and kiss me.”
Jon did as he was told. His old friends the butterflies returned for a moment, but they disappeared as soon as his lips touched hers. Jon had the strange sensation of breathing her breath as she was exhaling. It seemed very intimate to him.
He pulled away after what seemed like a few seconds, but was in all actuality closer to a minute.
“Good night,” Jon whispered as he stepped away and gave her room to enter her house.
“Good night.”
Jon watched as Aleisha slipped in through the door and gave him a smile and a wink. He returned the sentiment. The door shut and Jon heard the lock slide into place.
Even though it seemed terribly dramatic, Aleisha couldn’t help but lean against the door and breathe a loud and deep happy girl sigh.
Jon walked back to his car as if his feet weren’t even touching the snow.
“I kissed Aleisha Madsen!” he whispered as he skipped to the driver’s side door and took off down the street.

Chapter 15- part 1

2011-05-05T23:30:00.003-06:00

Chapter 15 is a very long chapter. I knew I wouldn't be able to do it all tomorrow, so I thought about posting it all tonight. Except that I am too tired, so, here is Chapter 15 part 1. Chapter 15 part 2 will be posted by 6 pm Friday night.

CHAPTER 15

Jon let out a deep breath as he settled into the passenger seat of Kate’s car. He closed his eyes and tried not to think about the pain his face was in. Kate was trailing a few seconds behind him. Jon could hear as she got into the car and put the key in the ignition. What he didn’t hear was the engine turn over. After about a minute, Jon opened his eyes again.
“Your car okay?” he asked.
“My car is fine. I’m more worried about my agent.”
“Why are you worried about me? I’m fine. I just hate Hobbs with the searing white-hot intensity of a thousand suns. I’d be surprised if he doesn’t hate me with the searing white hot intensity of TWO thousand suns.”
“You have already almost gotten killed several times this week and it’s only Wednesday. I just worry about you. My job is to keep you safe.”
“Was it safe for you when you went to high school?”
“What do you mean?”
“High school. You know, that big building where a bunch of obnoxious teenagers hang out between seven and three every day from September until May? You know, high school.”
“Safe? I’m not quite-“
“Kate, this is my high school experience. Hobbs and I have hated each other for so long, I can’t even imagine having a life where I don’t have an evil nemesis lurking in the halls of my education building. Hobbs is a dumbass jock. Always was, always will be. I would be amazingly surprised if, by the time the ten year high school reunion rolls around, he hasn’t flunked out of college, gone on with an NBA team, been traded at least five times, then fired with no other team wanting him, come back to Salt Lake, live off the fact that he was a bench warmer for a few years, own a car dealership, and go home and get drunk every night and beat his soon to be ex-wife and kids before drifting into la-la land. The only reason that today had anything to do with the Agency is that they put me in the same gym as Hobbs. That’s it. Otherwise, this was just part of my own personal hell which is high school.”
Kate looked at her protégé with a look that Jon couldn’t quite read.
“What? Do I still have blood somewhere on my face?” he asked.
“No. You’re fine. I was just wondering, how does a teenager already have so much of a look forward attitude on life?”
Jon was almost embarrassed by the question. “You’re acting like I’m Yoda or something. I’m not, Kate. I was just a painfully geeky elementary school student eight years ago.”
Kate smiled. “Eight years ago? That would put you in fourth grade!”
“Yes it was. Fourth grade. You know how in kindergarten you start making friends at school? You get a sense of the kids you like to play with and the kids you don’t?” Kate nodded. “Boys of course don’t play with girls ‘cause they’re yucky. And vice versa, I’m sure. So, you have these boys that you play with, and little by little you feel more comfortable with some than with others. Either you like the same colors, games, books, whatever. So, that’s what happened to me, Stan, and Greg. I met Stan in kindergarten and Greg in second grade. We just had an almost immediate bond for some weird reason.
Stan and I were inseparable in kindergarten and first grade. Then, on the first day of second grade we were put into a table with Greg and three other kids. We never clicked with the other three, but we hit it off with Greg immediately. So, we were in the same class in third grade, too. But then, the unthinkable of elementary school happened. They were in the same fourth grade class, and I was in a different one. I cried the whole day before starting fourth grade because I wasn’t going to be with my friends.”
Kate’s face turned into a slightly bemused look of sadness.
“So, the next day came and I walked to school with them, but when the first bell rang, we parted ways. I vividly remember watching them disappear into their class before I went into mine. So, the first day of fourth grade, I was put into a table with five other kids who I knew, but never really liked. Two of them, Scott Sandberg and John Mackay were even in my neighborhood, but I never played with them. During class, they would do the stupid things that kids do. Take your pencil for thirty minutes at a time and then return it when you finally went to tell your teacher, punch you in the back all the way down the hall to the lunchroom until you turned and hit them back, and then you got into trouble, all those things. At recess, even though I was with Stan and Greg there, they would run by and call me four eyes because of my glasses. Normal kid stuff.”
“Normal, but thoroughly pathetic. Why can’t kids just be nice to kids?” Then, in quick, slightly different tone, she asked, “Do you mind if I turn on the heater?”
“Go for it. I’m a little cold myself.”
Kate did so, and the car rumbled to life. “Please, continue.”
“Where was I?”
“They were mocking you at recess, and lunch.”
Jon found his story foothold again. “Right. But it really started getting on my nerves when I started wearing a Legendof the Lone Ranger shirt to school and they would just mock me for liking movies and that movie in particular. For about a two-week period, I had knots in my stomach every day as I woke up. I played sick for two days in a row, but quit when I heard my parents talking about taking me to the doctor the next day if I wasn’t feeling better. Then, one day, they were teasing me as we were walking down the hall to go to the library and I had a flash of lightning go through my brain. The thought that came was- these guys are jerks. Who cares what they think? I like it. I am who I am, I like who I am, and that was that. Simple. I ignored them and never once thought about the whole peer pressure thing again Stan, Greg, and I just did what we wanted and never looked back. We were also never separated again after that. When we got into junior high and high school, sure there are classes that we don’t have together, but we have the same lunches, lockers next to each other, so .it all works out.”
Kate slowly shook her head. “You three are like one in a million. Or, three in three million. You know what I mean?”
“Yea. I do.”
“Keep it up, Jon. You’re going to go far.”
“Thanks.”
“Now, we need to get you home to get ready for your big date!”
“Kate-“ Jon warned.
“Don’t you worry. We’ll make it.” Kate screeched her tires as she pulled out of the parking space.

“Remind me what you’re doing here, again?” Jon asked.
“I am here to make sure that you are ready for this,” Kate replied.
Jon walked back into his bedroom, barefoot, but with a pair of khaki pants on and an unbuttoned polo shirt. “Ready for what? My date?”
“There are many things that you need to be ready for tonight.”
“Like what? Is an assassin going to follow me and try to kill me?”
“Possibility, but you present no threat at the moment. There is no reason for someone to do that to you yet.”
“Yet?”
“Don’t forget, Jon, you are going up against killers, here. You saw what they could do last night.”
Jon stopped dead in his tracks. “Thank you, Miss Thompson, for bringing a ray of sunshine into this dreary day!”
“I’m just being honest here! It is a distinct possibility that after tomorrow or so, you could have a tail on you. I just want you to be prepared for that!”
“I can be prepared, but how about if we don’t start talking about it until after my first date with Aleisha, please? I would like to worry most about what to do at the end of the date with her, thank you very much. Let THAT be on my mind for the next few hours, and then I can start thinking about the yakuza hit squad on my ass!”
“Sorry I even brought it up!”
Jon nodded. “Thank you. Now,” he said, turning his attention to even greater matters, “what shoes should I wear?”
Kate looked at Jon’s pathetic assortment of shoes. “I would definitely go with the shiny black pair. Your church shoes?”
“If you’ve been following me, you know I don’t go to church.”
“You went once.”
“When?”
“The end of May, I believe?”
Jon made a buzzing noise. “Nope! Wrong! That was a funeral. I went to A church, not TO church.”
“My mistake. How about your funeral shoes?”
“Is that a slight reference to the fact that you think I’m going to choke tonight?”
“No, Jon, that was a reference to the fact that you just told me you went to a funeral a few months ago and I assume these are the shoes you wore. Believe it or not, I followed you and took note of your actions, not your wardrobe.”
“Probably wouldn’t have the job if you were counting fashion points against me.”
“Probably not.” Kate picked up his shiny black shoes from the floor.
“You weren’t supposed to agree with me on that one.”
“Not my fault if you are a fashion victim.”
“I seem to remember that you gave me a gun this morning, Kate. Seems like I have yet to test it out.” Jon smirked.
“I just tell the truth, Jon. That’s it. No need to kill the messenger.” She paused. “Literally.”
Jon grabbed the shoes out of Kate’s hands, sat down on the edge of the bed, and started putting on his shoes.
Kate let silence linger for a moment before she asked Jon the next question. “So, since you brought it up, what are you going to do at the end of the date?”
Jon looked up. “Remind me what you’re doing here again?”
Kate got a fake disappointed look on her face. “Honestly! I’m here to help you.”
“Thank you. I know that. You’re here as my official Agency trainer. I think we’ve been over this before. You are not my mother. You are not my sister. You are not my girlfriend. You are not my sex adviser. You are my Agency Trainer! Nothing more!”
“You’re right. I am your Agency Trainer, but an Agent has to be a happy Agent in order to be a successful Agent.”
“What? Is that in your Agent training handbook?”
“It’s true! Think about it! In anything in life! You said it yourself earlier when you were talking about those kids who picked on you. You took two days off from school sick just because you didn’t want to face them, right?”
“Yes. So?”
“So? It works in the real world, too, Jon. Whether you are a student, a construction worker, a paper pusher, or a fry cook, you will do your best work when you feel you are successful in all the other areas of your life. When your mind is not occupied by thinking about a bill that needs to be paid, a girl you should’ve called, or a joke you shouldn’t have played on the boss, your mind is more open to thinking about your job while you are doing it. It’s basic human psychology.”
“So, you’re telling me that if I have a good night tonight, then I won’t be so concerned about my face hurting and having to face Hobbs tomorrow?”
“Basically, yes.”
“Okay, fine. You want to help me?”
Kate nodded.
“How about you tell me where I should take her for dinner?”
“Where do you like to go?”
“I’m a food guy. As long as there is food, I will eat it.”
“What does she like?”
“I don’t know.”
“What if you find out and then you can decide?”
“I don’t want her to think that I am unprepared guy!”
“Unprepared guy?”
“While I was at the barber, there were no good magazines, so I read Cosmo.”
Kate laughed. “What kind of barber has Cosmo?”
“Okay, not a barber. I went to one of those Great Clips type places and they have Cosmo, okay?”
“Are you telling me that you actually pay someone to give you that haircut?” John glowered at Kate. “So, sorry. Continue.”
“ So, I was reading this article and it said that one of the top five girl’s pet peeves is an unprepared guy on a date. They don’t know where to go eat, what movie to see, what club to go dancing at-“
“You? Dance?”
“I was using it as an example! But, anyway, I don’t want her to think that I have put no thought into the date!”
“Jon, I honestly don’t think she’s going to care! I don’t know Aleisha, but I don’t think it matters where you take her! I think it matters that you are going to be the one who is taking her!”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“You are completely hopeless! Do you realize that?”
“What do you mean, Kate?”
“Like I said, I don’t know her, but every single indication that she has given you, both verbally and physically, is that she likes you already. She wants to be able to go out on a date with you. You could take her to the city dump and as long as she was with you, she would enjoy it.”
“Well, I would have to keep the conversation going. I would have to make her laugh, at the very least, to enjoy a date like that.”
“You do make her laugh!”
“Way to help build me up here, Kate!”
“I didn’t mean it in a bad way. I mean, she enjoys you. You just need to go and be yourself. If you can do that, women forgive a lot!”
“How do you know that?”
“Excuse me, Jon, but have you looked at me recently? Believe it or not, I am of the female gender.”
Jon shook this sarcastic remark off. “Not what I meant and you know it.”
“Let me tell you a little secret truth about women, Jon. Actually, let me tell you a little secret truth about women that you want to date and spend time with. They want a guy that they like. That’s it. That’s the simple mystery of women. There are women who just like the so-called bad boys, but those aren’t women that you want to date and spend time with. Those are women that you would use for sex and move on.”
“Kate, I’m in drama club, remember? I haven’t had the chance for sex yet.”
“Believe it or not, Jon. You have and you missed it, but that’s neither here nor there.”
Jon put up his finger to get Kate to explain, but she pushed ahead.
“Men and women are alike in more ways than they are different. Some men and women just want conquests. Some men and women just want friends. But, for the most parts, men and women are looking for companions for life. Men and women don’t get married to get divorced. That happens because they are no longer what the other thought they once were. If they could be themselves and communicate better, the divorce rate would drop like a stone
Men and women want companions to spend time with. They want people who don’t lie, who are honest and respectful. They want someone that shares the same qualities and interests. They want someone who can laugh with them, not at them. They want someone who can talk with them about anything and know that their viewpoint is heard and validated. They want someone that they feel comfortable with and around. They want someone who is not rude, who is generous, and has the same outlook on life as they have. That’s all it takes. Women will forgive lulls in conversation, the awkward time of trying to decide what restaurant to eat at, and which movie to see, if the guy is himself.”
“That sounds awful hard.”
“It can be, but it doesn’t have to be. Just be yourself, Jon and the rest will follow. If Aleisha likes you for who you are, then all the little things will slide by. If she doesn’t like you for who you are, then she isn’t someone that you want to waste your time with.”
Jon thought about that. Then, he stood up and gave Kate a hug. “Thank you.”
Kate was shocked by Jon’s physicality. Not by the hug, but because it seemed so natural. She couldn’t tell if she was happy or distracted by it. Was the relationship becoming too far away from a trainer-trainee relationship? Was this a romantic hug or a hug of pure friendship? Kate hugged him back.
The two of them stood in a silent embrace for what seemed to be an eternity for Kate, as her thoughts were swirling in her head. In reality, only a few scant seconds had passed before Jon loosened his grip on her, but it must have been, in Kate’s mind, at least an hour.
“Thank you,” Jon repeated.
“You’re welcome.” Kate’s face was a healthy shade of red.
Jon took a breath, as if to say something, but then released it quickly.
“What’s up, Jon?”
“I am going to be myself, Kate. I promise. I believe you when you say that that is all it takes to win a girl’s heart. But that still doesn’t change the fact that I can barely sustain a single coherent thought.”
“Why does it seem to me like you are going to ask me for something?”
“Because you’re my trainer and you have been following me and you know me better than I know myself.”
Kate closed her eyes and braced for what she knew was going to be the next words out of Jon’s mouth.
“What do you need, Jon?”
“You bugged the place yesterday, didn’t you?”
Kate started shaking her head. “No, Jon. I refuse. I will not-“
“You bugged it. You were the one. I know you were! I’ll wear a wire-“
Kate was shaking her head vigorously now. “No, Jon! Absolutely positively not!”
“You are a girl, so you can help me with the tough stuff. I won’t need you all night, just a time or two.”
“Absolutely not, Jon! I won’t help you-“
“You are going to be following me, I know you will be.”
“This is crazy! How well did it work for Cyrano? It didn’t!”
“Kate, I won’t try to impress her. I won’t try to be someone I’m not-“
Kate turned away from Jon and put her hands to her ears.
“Jon, you are not going to convince me on this! I am no longer listening to you!” She walked out of Jon’s room and down the hall.
“That is so childish, Kate! You look like a fool.” Jon followed after her.
“Who looks like a fool? Do you realize what will happen if Aleisha finds out? Do you? All that trust that you have built up with her will go kablooie, Jon! It’s not worth it! Just be yourself and you’ll be fine!”
“I just need a safety net, Kate! I* would feel a lot better if you could coach me along.”
“You are seventeen years old, Jon! You don’t need a chaperone!”
“You’re right! I don’t need a chaperone. You’re right! I need a friend.”
This caught Kate’s attention.
“I’m asking as a friend, Kate. You said that if an Agent feels successful, he could keep his mind on the job. If I have you giving me encouragement, telling me all the faux pas and when I do something well, I can keep my attention on being myself. You know how women think, so you can help me by giving me a play-by-play and know if I’m doing well.” He paused and stared at Kate’s deep blue eyes. “Please. As a friend?”

Jon walked up to Aleisha’s house, hands deep in his heavy winter coat pockets, staring at his shiny shoes. “This is so weird. Monday I never would have believed that I would have a date with Aleisha Madsen a scant two days later.” Jon noticed the puffs of breath that were hanging in the wintry air.
“Believe it, pal,” came Kate’s reply in his earpiece.
Jon paused before knocking. “Here we go!”
“You’re going to do fine, Jon. Do we really need to continue this?”
Jon ignored her and gave the door three loud raps. While waiting, he moved the tiny earpiece around, just finding a more comfortable fit.
Jon almost accidentally yanked the earpiece out as Aleisha opened the door. He visibly jumped.
“Did I scare ya?” Aleisha asked with a devilish grin.
“A bit,” Jon admitted. “Are you ready?”
“Let me grab my coat.”
As she reached into the closet behind her, Jon noticed how easy she made the whole date thing look. She was wearing a tan pair of slacks, a simple brown pull over sweater and slip on black flats. She probably had agonized over what to wear for about the same amount of time as he had, but it seemed like she had just found the outfit and put it on very casually. Aleisha grabbed a navy blue jacket and exited her house.
“I’ll be home about ten!” she called back to her parents.
“See you then, dear!” the deep bass voice of her father carried through the door.
Jon stepped back as Aleisha shut the door to her house.
“You’re not going to need more than that jacket? It’s pretty cold out here.”
“I’ll be fine,” Aleisha reassured him.
Jon’s lungs tightened up as he took a deep breath of the icy air. “So, where to for dinner?”
“Anywhere is fine with me.”
They reached Jon’s car and Jon opened the door for Aleisha. “What kind of food do you like?”
“Italian sounds good tonight,” Aleisha answered as she settled into the passenger seat.
“Sounds good to me, too.” Jon shut the door. As he went around the car, he whispered into his lapel. “Good Italian place in the area?”
“I like Italian Village, myself.” Kate’s voice crackled.
“How about Italian Village?” Jon asked as he climbed into his seat.
Aleisha smiled a smile that would light up a thousand-watt bulb. “Never been, but it sounds great!”
“Good!” Jon smiled back at her. “Now, if I could only remember how exactly to get there,” Jon said aloud.
Aleisha’s brow crinkled as she looked sideways at Jon.
“Go to 45th south and go east until 9th.” Kate whispered directions in Jon’s ear.
“Silly me, I should’ve remembered that it was on 45th,” Jon smiled at Aleisha as he turned to key to bring the car to life.
“Have I ever told you that you make you laugh, Jon?” Aleisha asked.
“I think that’s a first.”
“You make me laugh,” Aleisha repeated.
“That’s a good sign, Jon,” Kate told him.
Jon put the car in gear and headed out of Aleisha’s neighborhood.
Kate waited until they had turned the corner and headed out onto the main road before she started her car. Since the wire had a range of a mile and a half and she knew where they were going, she didn’t need to follow too close behind.
There was only the noise of the car engine in Kate’s ear.
“Say something, Jon. Women like to know that they have someone who can start conversations,” Kate prodded.
“So, how was school today?” Jon asked.
“It was a little strange.” Aleisha looked at Jon over the shoulder of her jacket. “Why weren’t you there?”
Three sentences into the date and Jon was already trapped and needing an escape route out of the conversation.
“You had to help a friend. You can tell her that much, Jon,” Kate helped.
“I had to help a friend. Stan, my friend. You know Stan, right?”
Aleisha nodded. “Yes. Yes I do.”
“I helped him. He needed help.”
“So I gather.”
“Calm down, Jon,” Kate whispered in his ear, “you do fine at a diner table with a man who may be a double agent, you can handle this girl. Just take a few deep breaths and keep talking.”
“Are you feeling better after yesterday? Your face looks even more bruised today than it did yesterday.”
“I’m still hurting. I’m stiff, but I’m okay. My face hurts a lot more, but it’s just bruising. It’ll go away. Fact is, I haven’t even thought about it since I picked you up.” Jon wanted to get the conversation onto safe ground as soon as possible. Keep it away from Agency speak. “Anything exciting happen today?” Jon asked, putting the pressure of the conversation back on Aleisha.
“No one could talk about anything other than Jake Spencer.”
“I heard about that.”
“Careful, Jon,” Kate cautioned.
“He and another kid were shot and killed over at that Arctic Circle just down the road. It even happened while we were in the talent show!” Aleisha reported.
“I know. That’s what I was doing today, too. Jake was on the basketball team and Stan knew him. It hit him pretty hard.”
“I can imagine. Did you know him at all?”
“Jake? Not really. Stan talked about him a bit, and I knew him to say hi in the halls, but that was it.”
“He was in my English class last year. He was a lot like Stan. Not the myth of the dumb jock at all. Very smart, very witty, and quite a nice guy.”
“Did you date him?”
“No. I thought about it a time or two, but I never did anything about it. Then, he hooked up with Mandy Jensen, and he was never as attractive after that.”
“She can be a real brat sometimes, can’t she?”
“Jon, I’m not a fragile flower, you know.”
“What do you mean?”
“You can call her a bitch if you want. It doesn’t offend me. In fact, I’d probably agree with it.”
“Okay.” Jon took a deep breath. “She can be a real bitch sometimes, can’t she?”
Aleisha smiled. “You know it.”
“Once I had a class with Mandy and she actually asked the teacher if the United States was friendly with the country of Alaska.”
Aleisha laughed heartily, and Kate gave a snort in Jon’s ear.
“I mocked her, of course, and it wasn’t long after that that my house was toilet papered. No doubt in my mind who did that job,” Jon added.
“She was in my gym class two years ago,” Aleisha offered. “After she made it on the cheerleading squad, she actually took money from the class if they thought our team would win or lose the next game.”
“Seriously?”
“Seriously. We were in the locker room, and she would keep her tally of who owed her what on the inside of the locker door.”
“How much was she making?”
“Not much. The girls would only bet a quarter or so. Probably only five bucks a week, but that would buy two diet Cokes a day.”
“So, she doesn’t know Alaska is part of the Union, but she has the math skills to be a bookie? That’s an interesting trade-off.”
“They say that some of the dumbest people are some of the smartest and vice versa.”
“Take a look at Mrs. Perry. That proves that theory.”
“Speaking of which, why does she have it in for you, Jon?”
“I had her last year. My parents wanted me to be in accelerated English, but I took Humanities instead. I was lucky and got put in the dumb class.”
“Really?”
“Not really, but kind’ve. Some of my other drama friends were in the class, but there were also cheerleaders and other jocks. Mandy was there, come to think of it. Anyway, all of my friends were in one corner of the room, and the rest of the class were dumbshits. So, Mrs. Perry knew the majority of the students were idiots, so she taught the class like it was a first grade class. So, to make it interesting, I was the class clown. I would crack jokes that only our corner would get.”
“For example?”
“We were talking about Greek and Roman architecture and one of them builds that scene of top of the columns. You know, they have a real elongated triangle that spans over several columns and there’s a scene in it?”
“Oh, yes, okay. I know what you mean.”
“So, those are called friezes. So, Mrs. Perry asks if anyone knows what a frieze is. She becomes like that teacher in Ferris Bueller, you know? “ Jon imitated Perry. “Frieze? Frieze? Does anyone know what a frieze is?” He dropped the funny voice. “ So, no one is raising their hand in the rest of the class and our corner could answer but, I think, everyone else was asleep by that point. So, I just started singing. Frieze a jolly good fellow, frieze a jolly good fellow, frieze a jolly good fellow, which nobody can deny.”
Aleisha laughed, and Jon was sure that he could hear Kate crack a smile on the other end.
“So, “ Jon continued, “she got so upset at me, that she made me do forty pages of book busy work by putting commas in the right places, and quotation marks here and there, and just a lot of that crap. It was easy, just a lot of it. So, I turned it in the next day, and she was livid! She thought it would take me a week or so to finish it, and it’s almost like she’s had me on her list ever since.”
“You really can be a smart-ass, can’t you, Jon?”
“Can be.”
Again, a silence cast itself over the car, but this time, there was no trepidation in it. It was a comfortable silence. They drove several blocks without saying a word.
“You okay up there, Jon?” Kate asked. “Still breathing?”
Jon began to speak as a yes to Kate’s question.
“Aleisha, may I ask you a question?”
“Isn’t asking if you can ask me a question a question in and of itself?”
Jon didn’t have a response, which caused Aleisha to laugh.
“She got you there,” Kate told him.
“I suppose it is, yes,” Jon finally replied.
“Then, I give you permission to ask as many questions as you want of me during the entire night, so you can stop asking if you can ask me a question.”
“Fair enough. Anyways, For my original query-“
Aleisha knew she had Jon over a barrel and was enjoying his nervousness and lack of response. “We’ve known each other so long, Jon, I don’t know if I can remember your original query.” Aleisha was beaming by this point.
“You got me. Okay, you got me. I’m just not going to even try to dig myself out of this one. I’ll just shut my mouth now, and drive.”
Aleisha could also tell that Jon was not serious about this, but she played along. “Fine,” she answered with a devilish glint in her eye.
“Oh, come on!” Jon pretended to be in a rage. “You’re supposed to beg me to be in a talkative mood or something, aren’t you?”
“I won’t beg, but I am curious what you were going to ask me.”
Kate could almost hear the sweat break out on Jon’s brow.
“I was just wondering if you’ve been waiting for me to ask you out for very long?”
Aleisha broke eye contact with him and looked down at the floor for a moment before re-engaging eye contact. “I wouldn’t use the word waiting, but I was hoping. I’ve always liked you, Jon.”
“Me too.”
Aleisha’s eyes lit up. “What an arrogant thing to say, Narcissus!”
Jon smiled and put up his finger. “That’s not what I meant, and you know it!”
Aleisha stopped the feistiness and grabbed Jon’s finger out of the air. “I know.” She brought Jon’s hand down to the seat and held it tightly.
Kate heard a satisfied sigh from Jon followed by several minutes of a nice silence. Kate didn’t get the feel of grasping for straws for conversation, just that it had taken a deserved break.

chapter 14

2011-05-04T22:05:00.001-06:00

Today has been a long one at work. I have another long day tomorrow, so I decided to post Chapter 14 now. Enjoy!

CHAPTER 14

Jon’s watch beeped one o’clock straight up as he walked into the drab, slightly dark gymnasium He had been in his school’s gym many times, for games, assemblies, and even for his own gym class, and he had the same reaction this time. It was a place he didn’t like, despised actually, and all he could smell was the pungent odor of stale perspiration.
Jon was carrying his gym bag. Inside was a new set of clothes, since his other gym clothes were dripping in sweat and there had been no time to clean them, a towel, a first aid pack, an Ace bandage, and, of course, his gun. That, however, was wrapped tight in one of the extra towels in the bag.
The sound of basketballs bouncing, hands clapping, balls hitting nets, nets being ruffled as balls went through, and loud trash talking reached his ear almost immediately.
On the far end of the gym was the coach, Norman Malone. He was the quintessential gym teacher. He was just a hair over five feet, weighed about 200 lbs., and had the worst comb over this side of the Mississippi. Jon walked over to introduce himself.
“Hi, Coach. I’m Jonathan Mills.”
Coach took a step back and looked straight up at Jon and looked him in the eye. “You are lucky, Mr. Mills. I’ve heard about you. I know you’re not one of us. I know that you are more of a drama guy. That’s right. I saw you last night. You think you can impress me with that horse shit? It doesn’t take a man to do that! Any wuss can do that. It takes a man to be able to stare down his opponent, to beat him into submission, and make him cry Uncle! You just play the tinkly little piano. Big whoop, son! But, for some reason you’re friends with one of my guys, and I’m being ramrodded by the parents and the administration to take your sorry little ass on until after the big game on Saturday. Trust me, I’ll work you hard the next few days, but you’ll just be a bench warmer on Saturday. That you can guarantee.”
“Okay, sir, if that’s how you feel,” Jon started.
“Of course it’s how I feel! I wouldn’t have wasted all that breath on you if I was just pretending! Now, go on and get changed! We’ll be playing two on two for two hours. I want to watch you play.”
Jon could feel the anger welling up inside of him. If he had been Bruce Banner, his eyes would have at least turned green by now, but, knowing that he had a job to do, he held his tongue.
“Who will I be playing with, sir?”
“Your partner will be your friend, Stan. If he’s going to recommend you, he’s going to be the one stuck with you.”
Jon felt a weight lift off of his shoulders. At least he’d have Stan to get his feet wet. “And who will we be playing against?”
“Hobbs and Bernard,” was the reply and the coach walked away.
The weight that had been lifted momentarily slammed back down on Jon’s shoulders. Jason Hobbs and Jason Bernard were the twin terrors of the team. They were amazing players, but off the court, they were as good as juvenile delinquents. The only reason they weren’t in juvy hall by now was because they were the main defensive guards on the team.
The two of them had played together for the last six years. They played on both the junior high and the high school teams since the beginning. The school’s nickname for them was Jason squared. They never left each other’s side. They were always together.
Hobbs was number 34. He was six foot seven, close to three hundred pounds and had one of the biggest noses Jon had ever seen on a white man.
Hobbs had been one of Jon’s mother’s students many years ago. He had been a holy terror in Kindergarten, too. Hobbs would attack the smallest kids on the playground for the first two weeks of school to scare them into giving him their lunch money. Then, a Tongan named Lino had transferred in. Then, it was Hobbs getting beaten up every day for a month. None of the teachers did anything about it because they knew Hobbs was going to be trouble.
Seven years later, when Jon was in seventh grade, Hobbs had been in his woodworking class with him. Hobbs would walk by when Jon was sanding something and make Jon take too much off of one side, get a knuckle against the belt sander, basically terrorize him. That lasted for one term.
Luckily, at the beginning of second term, who should be transferred into the class but Lino! Jon still had to take a few weeks of being picked on, but as soon as Lino found out that Jon was his Kindergarten teacher’s son, all problems with Hobbs stopped. Jason hadn’t come to school for a whole week after that and rumor had it that he’d been put into a coma by Lino even though that had never been proven.
Unfortunately, Lino had moved back to Tonga two years ago, and Hobbs had never forgiven Jon for the beating he had taken. Now, it seemed like a good time for Hobbs to get his revenge.
Jason Bernard was not as large and intimidating as Hobbs, but he had the attitude to make it not matter. Hobbs was the monster bruiser while Bernard was the slimy weasel of the group. Instead of clobbering you, Bernard would take your homework when you weren’t looking, copy it, and turn his in on time and slip yours back to you two days later so you got marked down. Hobbs was the dumbheaded muscle, Bernard was the brain.
Bernard was number 43 and was the master of the dirty play on the team. He stood six feet one inch, weighed in at only one hundred and eighty pounds and had a gaunt look to him, but anyone who had gone against him on the court knew that looks could be deceiving.
Jon headed into the locker room and changed. Knowing he was going to be facing Jason Hobbs, Jon had to make a mental note to leave the gym bag, and the gun, in a locker.
Stan was waiting for him when he emerged.
“You heard the bad news yet, Jon?”
“I heard,” Jon sighed.
“Whatever happens, just blow Hobbs off. Watch your back for Bernard, but just play the game. Concentrate on what you’ve learned and don’t let them frazzle you.”
“Okay. You got my back?”
“Yes I do.” Stan gave Jon the thumbs up. “We can take them.”
Coach Malone blew his whistle. All of the players gathered around him.
“As you know, there was a tragedy that happened last night. Jake Spencer was shot and killed while working at his job at Arctic Circle. We have a replacement for the next few games brought in by our own Stan Ingle. His name is Jonathan Mills. I’m sure most of you have at least heard of him. He frequents the other side of the school, namely the arts department, and Stan assures us that he can at least fill the hole in our team for the next few days.”
Jon leaned over to Stan. “Is he always this sentimental?” Jon cracked.
“Believe it or not, this really is him being sad and sentimental.”
“I believe the mental part.”
“Now-,” Coach continued, “for the next two hours you will all be playing two on two. I have already assigned teams. I want to see blood, sweat, and tears on these courts today! I want to see rivers flowing down each court. There will be no timeouts, no pauses. If there is a dead ball, it gets thrown back in immediately and play resumes. Do I make myself clear?”
“Yes, sir!” the team shouted.
“Good! If you have to take a shit, then take one. Just don’t leave the court! If there’s blood, just make sure you don’t step in it until it dries! No autopsy, no foul! The winners of each game get a fifteen-minute break at three o’clock! The losers run laps for fifteen minutes! Do you understand?”
“Yes sir!” the team shouted again.
Coach blew his whistle at full volume. “Then, begin play!”
The whistle almost deafened Jon, but he didn’t notice that until he was already on the floor.
“What the hell was that for?” Stan yelled as he walked up to Hobbs.
“It’s playin’ time! No autopsy, no foul.” Hobbs said in his dumb jock voice.
“Mills didn’t do anything!”
“My point exactly! It’s playin’ time! He needs to get his ass moving! He was in my way!”
Stan offered his hand down to Jon, who accepted and was pulled back onto his feet. Jon was deafened once again by Coach’s whistle.
“I thought we all had an understanding! Let’s play some goddamned ball!” Coach yelled. He tossed the ball to Bernard and Jason Squared started walking to their court.
“You okay, Jon?” Stan asked as they followed a pace or two behind.
“Right now, yes. Ask me again in two hours.”
“Nickel’s worth of free advice?”
“Please.”
“If they dish it out, give it right back to them.”
“Gotcha,” Jon responded as he watched Hobbs put up a swooshing three point shot.
Bernard grabbed the ball as it fell through. He walked over to Mills and went toe-to-toe.
“Three,” he enunciated as he threw the ball as hard as he could at Jon’s abdomen, knocking the wind out of him.
“Wow,” Jon gasped for air; “he can count, too? When did that happen?” Stan grinned as his friend straightened up after the cheap shot. Jon noticed he was out of bounds and passed the ball in to Stan and the game began.
Stan took the ball to the backcourt. He dribbled a time or two watching Hobbs and Bernard on the court. Bernard was crowding Jon and Hobbs was hanging back. Jon jogged around the key.
Stan made a break for it. He charged straight down the middle of the court. At the free throw line, he jumped and headed straight for the hoop. Instead of going for a slam-dunk, though, he passed it quick and hard, directly into Jon’s hands. Without even aiming, Jon jumped and went for a shot. It bounced off the side of the rim.
Ready for a missed shot, Stan rebounded the ball and ran back to the outside corner. Hobbs came charging at him like a mad rhino. Stan set up his shot calmly, and jumped, firing the ball. It went straight through the hoop.
Jon rebounded the ball and tossed it at Bernard. “Three.”

Fifteen minutes later, the game was heavier on one end than the other at 25-18, but it was much closer than any of the four players would have thought.
It was Jon’s turn to guard the in-bounds shot. Bernard faked a pass high and to the right. Jon started to move to go for it, but he was able to stay still. Several more fakes were read, and Jon was still in Bernard’s face.
With a savage ferocity, Bernard hurled the ball into Jon’s crotch. Mills tumbled to the floor.
“Out on your team!” Hobbs laughed.
“You son of a bitch,” Stan muttered as he went to help his friend.

At the one-hour mark, the score was 97-68.
Not bad, Stan thought. Much better than I would have put money on. Too bad Jon has only made twelve of our points.
Stan passed the ball in to Jon and he dribbled up to the edge of the key, just past the foul line, and he rose up for a shot. Just as his feet left the ground, Hobbs drilled Mills with what seemed to be a football tackle. The ball was launched into the bleachers as Jon was flipped into the air and crashed on the floor.
“Nice blocked shot, asshole!” Stan yelled at Hobbs.
“You do what ya gotta,” he laughed as he gave Bernard a high five.

With ten minutes left in the game and everyone winding down, the scoring had dropped, but it was still a high scoring 162-124. The other three players were tired, but Jon was completely thrashed. His legs couldn’t move, he had been slammed into the court by Hobbs and Bernard so many times he had lost count, and he had a cramp in his leg and one in his side that he was sure would not go away. Jon passed in to Stan.
“Let’s do it,” Jon sighed as he stepped back into the court.
Hobbs was underneath the basket, but he started at a full run towards Jon. Stan passed Jon the ball. Jon took two steps while dribbling then stopped. He brought the ball behind him and slung it directly into Hobbs’ face. The ball found its target and ricocheted off elsewhere in the gym.
“For Christ’s sake, asshole! Enough is enough!” Jon yelled. He turned on his heel to go search for the ball.
Mills heard the Coach’s whistle blowing and then he heard Stan yell, “Look out!”
Jon turned again and was in a half-turned position when all three hundred pounds of Jason Hobbs slammed into his mid-section. Jon felt like his ribcage was going to explode as the weight of Hobbs crushed his body against the hard wood court. He watched helplessly as Hobbs raised his anvil sized fist and brought it down with full force against his face.
“Is that enough?” Hobbs asked as his fist hit Jon’s face again.
“No, but this is!”
Hobbs turned and saw Nicholas Moss, another player, behind him. As Jason opened his mouth to retort, Nicholas swung a broom handle as hard as he could. The next sound Jason heard was the crunch of bone as his nose broke.
It took less than ten seconds for the gym to become a free-for-all.

When Kate walked into Coach’s office, she saw Stan lifting a steak off of Jon’s eye.
“Does that shit really work?” Kate asked.
“Mama’s home remedy,” Stan replied.
Kate cleared her throat to signal her presence.
“Oh, boy,” John whispered under his breath.
Nicholas stood up to acknowledge the presence of a lady in the room.
Kate walked over and knelt down by Jon. “Didn’t play nice with the kids today, dear?”
“I tried, but they didn’t play nice with me.”
“What happened?”
“I’m in trouble, aren’t I?”
“Depends on what happened.”
“Will Bender hear about this?”
The door opened a second time as Coach Malone strode into his office. “Who the hell are you?” he yelled.
Kate walked over to him and offered her hand. “My name is Kate Thompson. Pleased to meet you.”
Coach seemed less than thrilled to shake Kate’s hand. He did not even glance at it. “The amazing Kate? From last night?”
“That would be me,” she replied.
“And I am the goddamned coach around here and now that we’ve had mouseketeer roll call I want you out of my office!”
“Blow it out your ass,” Kate retorted.
“Excuse me, Babe?”
“I said, blow it out your ass!”
“This is my gym! I don’t want the likes of you distracting my players in my office, my locker room, or my gymnasium, so you can blow it out of your ass and get out of here!”
Stan stepped between Kate and the Coach. “No one is going to blow anything out of their ass! Okay? How about we just settle down, here a bit?”
Coach advanced on Kate another step, crowding Stan’s space. “Your boy broke my player’s nose!”
“That was me, actually, sir,” Nicholas piped up.
“Who allowed this to get to that state?” Kate asked the Coach.
“These players are about to be suspended from school, and therefore the team, and I won’t be sorry to see them go, neither!”
Kate took a step toward Coach. Stan backed out of the middle and took a seat next to Jon.
“Are you really that stupid, Coach? You are going to play a game that is going to be broadcast nationally, and you want to be three players down? What is going through your head?” Kate stood up to her full height and looked down at Coach. “Are you aware of the anti-hazing laws that are being batted around in Washington? You even think about suspending these three and you will have the biggest lawsuit of all time on your hands! You do not have control over your team! You do not have control over your gym! You most certainly do not have control over your anger, so if I were you, I would just shut your verbal diuretic hole, sit down, and be damn glad that I’m not going to even bring a civil suit against your sorry ass as long as Jon gets to play on Saturday!”
“Play? Oh, no! He is not going to play!”
“He’s on the team. He will be to every practice. He was the one attacked today! There is no reason that he should be prohibited from playing!”
“What about the fact that he is a prick?”
Kate noticed a small mini fridge in the corner of Coach’s office. She walked over to it and opened it up. She bent down and pulled a can out of a six pack.
“What about if I call the cops and have them arrest you on having alcoholic beverages on school property, contributing to the delinquency of minors, and sexual harassment charges for calling me babe?”
Coach could see he had been beaten. “What about if they miss the rest of this practice to go home and think about what they’ve done? What about if they come back tomorrow at nine sharp? What about if I don’t even report their names to the principal? And what about if I guarantee them each at least ten minutes of play on Saturday?”
Kate smiled. “Sounds like a deal, Coach. One more thing?”
“What?” Coach growled.
“Jon Mills will not be playing under that name. He will need a uniform with the name of Page on it, please. He will also be listed as Neal Page on the program.”
“What for?”
“Tax purposes,” was Kate’s only response.
“Tax purposes?” Coach mumbled.
“Tax purposes. Now, may I please have time with these players?”
Coach’s eyes narrowed and he grimaced as if he had just touched a hot stove. Without another word, he went back through his office door and slammed it so hard the curtains fell off of the small window.
Nicholas walked up to Kate. “Hi, I’m Nicholas. Nice to meet you.”
Kate smiled. “Nice to meet you, too. I’ve seen you play. Thank you for what you did to help out, Jon.”
“My pleasure. Those guys were being real dicks to him all day. Your boy did nothing wrong.”
Kate nodded her approval. “Good.”
Nicholas started toward the door. “I’m going to get home before Jeopardy starts.”
“Later, Nick!” Stan called.
“Stan,” Nicholas nodded and went out the door.

Chapter 13

2011-05-04T07:25:00.000-06:00

CHAPTER 13

The wind had gotten stronger and colder in the short time they had been in the diner. Jon had his coat zipped up to his chin as he and Kate walked from the parking lot into the gym. The .357 was in Jon’s inner pocket and it jostled around uneasily as Jon tried to make the walk as brisk as possible.
“Remember, Jon, you don’t have to be playing like Michael Jordan in three hours. You just have to prove that you have a rudimentary knowledge of the game and some of the drills since that is what Coach Malone will be testing the team on today.”
“I’ve got the rules down pat. That’s the easy part. I’ve been watching Stan play every game he’s played in the last four years. I know the game; I just don’t get the game. It makes no sense to me. Why should the guy keep bouncing the ball? Why can’t he just hold the ball? They hold the ball in football. Maybe they should just hold the ball, run down the court, get the best court position, and then make a basket before somebody tackles them. Wouldn't that make more sense?"
Kate just rolled her eyes.
“Look, no disrespect to sports people. I’ve been told that I don’t understand sports. I understand sports just fine. I understand the rules. I just don’t know why most people consider soccer a sport and not bowling.”
“Bowling?”
“Bowling. It’s not easy to keep a sixteen-pound ball on that thin little lane. Try rolling a basketball down a bowling alley and see how well that works.”
“You are so strange sometimes, Jon.”
“What it comes down to Kate is this, I understand the rules of basketball, I’m just not sure that I can actually perform any of the necessary basketball feats.”
Jon opened the door for Kate as they got to the building. Stan & Greg were already waiting.
“Good morning, race fans!” Greg shouted across the lobby.
Jon glared at his friend.
“Where you been?”
“We went out for breakfast,” Jon replied.
Stan stood up from the bench he had been waiting on. “Breakfast? And now you think you can run up and down a court for almost 8 hours straight? Practice goes until five tonight, Jon.”
Jon looked at Kate who tipped her head slightly to the left with a smirk. “You’re going to need the energy.”
“He does need the energy,” Stan agreed. “But he can live without the cramps he’s going to get for the next hour or so.”
“Cramps?” Jon’s color drained ever so slightly from his face.
“Just get him ready, Stan. That’s why we let you in on the deal. That and you’d have to know something was up when Jon joined the team. Just get him ready,” Kate commanded.
“He will be.”
Kate turned to Jon. “I will be waiting for you at five on the east exit of your school gym. No screwing around after practice. Come right out and then you need to be debriefed. We’ll get all your info and then you can go on your date with Aleisha.” She patted him on the back. “Do well.”
“Yes, sensei,” Jon said.
Kate handed him a gym bag that contained all of his newly purchased gym equipment. Jon took it and followed his friends into the locker room.
“Good luck, Jon. You’re going to need it.”

Kate had booked an entire basketball court just for the three of them. It seemed a little eerie to Jon to be one-third of all individuals in an entire gym. Each squeak of the shoes or each breath seemed to echo for an eternity.
“Ok, Jon,” Stan started, “remember, we don’t need you to be proficient, just good. If you can at least hold your own and look like you know what you’re doing, the rest will take care of itself.”
“So, you want me to act?””
“Precisely.”
“I can do that.”
“Good. I am going to be on the court with you. I will put a little pressure on you at all times to force you into an adrenaline rush like you will feel this afternoon on the real court. Greg is going to be paying particular attention to form. Got it?’
Jon nodded. “Got it.”
“Ok. First things first. Dribbling. It is the basic building block of all of the offensive moves on the court. If you can’t dribble well, you can’t play basketball.” Stan picked up two basketballs from the gym floor. He threw one to Jon and he started bouncing the other with his right hand. “Dribbling is a skill in and of itself-“
“The first thing babies learn,” Greg mumbled.
Stan shot him a look that shut Greg up immediately. “Moving on from that, you can’t bounce the ball too fast, too slow, too hard, or too soft. It has to be at a comfortable speed so that you can control the direction its moving in. The force that you bounce the ball has to be just hard enough to make it bounce back up to your palm, but not too hard so that you can’t change directions or grasp the ball easily.”
“You weren’t kidding when you were talking about how this seemed easy, were you?”
“No, I really wasn’t. Now, since you’re right handed, put the ball into your right hand. Now, just start bouncing the ball. I will demonstrate and then you will just do what I do, okay?”
Jon did as he was told. He watched and observed as Stan did it, and he copied in the same rhythm.
“Good. Very good. Keep the same rhythm. Don’t go too fast. Don’t go too slow. Keep it moving. Boom, boom, boom,” Stan made his voice like a metronome, ”boom, boom, boom. Good, good. Keep it going. Good. Boom, boom, boom. Now, keeping the same force on the ball and not bouncing it any harder, speed up the dribble.” Stan started bouncing his ball at double speed and his voice followed suit. “Boom, boom, boom, boom. Good. Keep that speed up! But, don’t put too much extra oomph on the ball. There you go! Good!”
Jon’s right hand was getting very tired, very quickly. “Can I slow down yet?”
“Not yet. Keep it going!” Jon continued. “Boom, boom, boom, boom, good! Four more times and…slow the dribble down now!”
Jon stopped exerting so much pressure on the ball and almost immediately it stopped bouncing and started barely getting above the floorboards. Jon stooped quickly and started bouncing it again at which point the dribble recovered effectively and Jon kept a nice, slow, easy going dribble speed.
“Nice! Way to recover! Okay, next, I want you to take five steps to the right. Nice and easy, keep the ball going at a consistent speed and a consistent height. You’re just going to angle it ever so slightly to the right when you’re ready to take the step. Ready? Step one!” Stan demonstrated and then nodded to Jon.
Jon did as he was told and made the transition nicely.
“Good! Very good! Ready again? Step two!”
As Jon went to take the second step, he moved his foot too soon, the ball bounced off of it, and headed for its refuge in the corner.
“It’s okay, Jon! It’s okay! No problems! Greg, can you please throw him another ball?” Stan asked as his ball kept bouncing.
Greg tossed another basketball into the fray and went and retrieved the lost one.
“Get the rhythm going again, ok? Boom, boom, boom, boom.” Jon started and got the ball into Stan’s metronome voice. “Very good. Now, try taking the step again. Watch me. Just a light tap just before you want to take the step.” Stan demonstrated and Jon followed suit. “Good! Right on! Again! Step three!”
Jon performed this one perfectly.
“Nice! Step four!”
Again, Jon kept his dribbling at an even pace. He had to reach and stretch to keep the ball in check, but he handled it deftly.
“Good recovery again. Now, Step five! Go!”
This time, Jon angled the ball too far and as his right arm reached out for it, he got his footing tripped up and stumbled a few steps too far. He eventually righted himself, but the squeaking from his shoes was still echoing. Jon grinned.
Stan shook his head. “Perfect. Just perfect. It’s like we’re pulling teeth here.”

“Kate!” Chad Peterson was surprised to see Kate walk into his hospital room. “Good to see you! What’s up? I thought you’d be with the new guy.”
“He’s in good hands right now, Chad. We’ve, uh, brought in outside help since you’re unavailable.”
“Who?”
Kate looked at the Styrofoam box she was carrying, put it on Chad’s rolling food tray and placed it in front of him. “I brought you something.”
“Don’t change the subject like that, Kate. Who did you bring in?”
“It’s my usual. A double ham, cheese, and mushroom omelet. After dropping off Jon, I came right over so it should still be fresh and warm.”
Chad hadn’t looked down at his food offering. He still had his gaze fixed on Kate.
“His best friends, Stan Ingle and Greg Taylor.”
“What?”
“I Okayed it through Bender. There was no other way we could get him on that team. Impossible! It’s his own school’s basketball team and his best friend was on it! He has gone to school with some of the same kids for twelve years! If we tried to just slide him in on the team, someone may have made a stink!”
“And they’re still not going to? You just brought two wild cards into this! That place is filling up fast! Is he really that important?”
Kate paused and looked at the floor. “Yes. He really is.”
Chad opened his peace offering. As he picked up his fork, he asked Kate a question that took her by surprise. “Does he know?”
Kate avoided eye contact and looked everywhere but at Chad. “No. He has no clue.”
Chad took his first bite and spit it immediately back into the box. “Damn hot!”
Kate picked up the pitcher from Chad’s tray and filled it with water from the bathroom sink. She poured it into his gas station mug that was next to his bed. Chad took a sip. “Thank you.”
“No problem.”
Another awkward pause. After his second bite, Chad took a drink and looked at Kate again. “When will contact be made?”
“He will be going with Stan to practice at noon. Sometime after that, I hope.”
“Do we have anything yet?”
“No. Something’s up. Something major for two lives to be taken, but we still can’t place it.”
“How’s Bender holding up?”
Kate smiled. “He’s good. I think he’s going to get another ulcer by the time this is done, but he’s holding up quite well.”
Chad paused as he took another bite. “Kate? What the hell is this?”
“It’s a ham, cheese, and mushroom omelet with double everything.”
“This is your usual?”
“Yeah.”
“Kate, are you insane? No one should be eating this! Least of all, you!”
“Just shut up and eat.”

Stan did a spinning bounce pass to Jon. Jon caught the ball and stood firmly in place.
“You are standing at the foul line, Jon.”
Jon smiled sarcastically at Stan. “Thanks for the tip.”
“I was told to assume nothing. Start dribbling to keep in practice.” Jon did so. “Anyway, the foul line is at the top of what is known as the key. During game time, you can not stand in the key for any more than 3 seconds if you are on the offensive team.” Stan stopped and turned to Greg. “And, no, there is not supposed to be any swearing or rude finger gestures whenever your team has the ball.” He turned back to Jon. “The whole point of basketball is to get the ball you’re bouncing to go through the hoop. One of the most important shots is the foul shot. It can make or break games. It can also get you into a good pattern of being able to make baskets. So, we are going to be making foul shots.”
“Okay. I think I’m ready.”
“Good. What I want you to do first is to just throw the ball at the basket.”
Jon did so and the ball ricocheted off the top of the backboard. Greg threw him another ball.
“Ok. So, you see how hard you threw that? Soften it up just a bit so that it can stay within region of the backboard and basket.”
Again, Jon followed Stan’s directions and this time, the ball bounced harmlessly off of the bottom right hand corner of the standard. Greg tossed another ball to Jon.
“Even better. Good job. Now using that same amount of thrust on the ball, try to hit the white square just above the basket.”
Jon did so and the ball came right back to him.
“Nice. That’s what we want. Now, soften up your toss just a smidge and try to get the ball to just swish down into the net.
Jon did as he had seen many basketball foul line throwers do; he bounced the ball a few times and aimed. The ball bounced off the front rim and again basically went back to Jon. He reached out and grabbed the ball as it tried to zoom past him, but it didn’t quite make it.
“All right!” Stan clapped his hands a few times. “You are right there! You are so there, it’s scary! You softened just a little too much. Put a tad more on it, and you’ve got it!”
This time, Jon’s ball went for a beeline to the front of the rim and shot back at Jon so quickly, he had to duck to get out of its way.
“Good amount of push, now, just arc the ball in the air a bit more and you’ve got it!”
Jon did it and felt an amazing sense of relief as he heard the ball swish through the net.
“Right on, Jon!” Stan whooped and clapped. “Nice going! Now, you do not get to move from that line until you make ninety-nine more foul shots! Go!”

“Come on, Dana, we’re going to miss the flight!” Aaron Goodwin coaxed his girlfriend, Dana Hurley out of the closet.
“I watched the National News! They said that a storm is blowing into Salt Lake!” Dana yelled from deep inside the couple’s closet.
“It is, but it won’t be that much worse than here. More snow, maybe, but cold will be all relative. This is a very humid cold, Salt Lake is more of a dry cold, after the precipitation.”
Dana’s head poked out of the closet. “I have no idea what you just meant, but you are truly adorable.”
Aaron blushed slightly. “Just take a big heavy parka and you’ll be fine!”
“But which one? I want to make sure I’m ready for the dry cold.”
”How about if we just get to the airport?”
“How about if you just relax for a minute, sweetie?”
“I’m perfectly relaxed because I know that all flights out of New York hold for third place network sports reporters before they take off.”
Dana brought herself out of the closet. “Good point.”
“I’m also relatively sure that there is no place to buy a coat in Salt Lake. I watched the National News and they said that all coat sellers have gone out of business for some odd reason in that area.”
Dana smiled at her geeky boyfriend. “Very cute, dear.”
Aaron followed her toward the front door. After they had toted all of their luggage out into the hallway, Aaron locked the door and turned to hurry to the elevators. Dana was blocking his way.
“The next time I enter that apartment, I will have been on the air, live, with a report.”
“I know.”
“When we get back, I will either have a new career as a reporter or I’ll be stuck in the control room for the rest of my life.”
“I know.”
“Don’t get me wrong, Aaron, I love Jennifer, and Will, and Chris, and Dave, but I want to be a reporter.”
“I know.”
“That’s all I’ve ever wanted to be. Ever since I was a kid was a sports reporter and here’s my chance. If I blow this, I’m not going to have anyone to blame but myself.”
“Dana, these are all things I know. You’re not going to blow it because you are very talented, and have a lot of knowledge. People will like you in front of the camera. Everyone back here will be rooting for you, and I will be right in the truck feeding you anything you need through your earpiece. You won’t fail. We won’t let you. But, if we don’t leave now, we might miss our plane, so can we go please?”
Dana smiled and threw her arms around Aaron. They kissed quickly as they bent down to pick up their suitcases and make it to the airport.

“It took about an hour for you to get those hundred foul shots, but the last fifteen came pretty quickly. You feel good about it?” Stan asked Jon.
“The last fifteen? Sure. Other than that, my arms feel like Jell-O.”
“That’s going to happen. Now, guess what we get to do? We get to make your legs feel like Jell-O. There is no basketball if you’re not moving up and down the court.” Stan walked across the court and placed erasers at the foul line, half court, the opposing foul line, and under the opposing basket. “I want you to start from under this basket. Run and grab the closest eraser. Then, run back here and drop it. Then, go get the eraser at half court, come back here and drop it. Then, go to the opposing foul line, pick up the eraser and come back here and drop it off. Then, when you get the last one from under the other basket, just come running back here as hard and as fast as you can and then we’ll see how well you do.”
Jon took a deep breath and shook his head.
“Jon, are you okay?”
“I’m okay, I’m just almost beat and I still have a little over an hour until we go to the school team. I’m going to be wasted by then.”
Stan shook his head. “You can’t be. There is no choice but for you to keep going. You can’t let yourself drop, Jon. Now, are we ready?”
Jon took another deep breath and resigned himself to the run. “Let’s do it.”
Greg held a stopwatch and put up his arm. “Ready!” he yelled.
Jon crouched.
“Set!”
Jon’s upper leg and upper arm muscles were twitching, just ready for the word.
“Go!” Greg brought his hand down and started the watch.
Jon ran sprinting to the first eraser. It took him a moment to stop, bend, and pick up the eraser. As he was coming back, Stan clapped his hands and encouraged him.
“Not bad, not bad! Run lower to the ground, slightly crouched and get ready to pick up the eraser before you get there!” The first of the erasers flew into the wall behind him as Jon turned and went for the second.
To Stan, it almost looked like Jon was running like a speed walk. He was still straight up and down, but his legs were moving him very fast along the court just by extending and retracting from the knees down. Jon still paused slightly as he bent to retrieve the second prize, but it was faster than the first time. He was coming back toward Stan and Greg in the same awkward gait.
“Keep it coming, Jon! Keep it coming!” Stan kept the encouragement up. “But, you need to actually move your legs, not just from below the knees! To crouch, just run in a forward stance!” The second eraser flew by Stan as Jon turned for his third one. “Just crouch in a forward position, You can grab the eraser a lot better that way!”
Jon changed up his running style again and this time looked like he was off balance most of the way as he was lunging forward ready to grab the opposing foul line eraser by the time he had barely reached the first foul line. Jon’s shoes were slapping against the court in a very unhealthy sounding running style. He did grab the third eraser without much trouble and still cut down his time turning around, but Stan could tell his friend was starting to get extremely tired.
“Nice turnaround time, buddy! Way to go! Now, as you turn around this time, just run as hard and as fast as you can, whatever style is easiest for you. When you get just past the other foul line, start bending down. Don’t try to stop, pick it up, and turn around, just run in a-“ the eraser came flying by again, and Stan started raising his voice as Jon got further and further away, “figure eight type of a pattern and never plan on even stopping and then get your ass back here as fast as you can!”
Jon picked up the last eraser in a smooth figure eight style turn and ran his guts out as hard as he could. He almost looked like he was emulating the slow motion shots of races in films. His head was back, eyes closed and he was purely concentrating on speed. He opened his eyes just as he passed the top of the key, continued running and slowed down only after he had passed the line. He was still slowing down as he came to the wall of the gym, so he put his arms out in front of him and he stopped just shy of scraping his nose against the wall.
Stan walked over to Greg who had stopped the watch as soon as Jon crossed the line.
“Well, Greg, how did our boy look?”
Greg studied the readout for a moment before giving his reply. “Asleep.”

“What are you doing here?” Walter asked Kate as she strode into his office. “Aren’t you supposed to be with Jon?”
“He’s fine,” Kate replied. “He’s with Stan and Greg. Stan is coaching him on the basketball essentials. He’ll do better with them alone than with me as a distraction.”
Walter had his reading glasses on and he looked above his rims at Kate. “And just how much of a distraction have you been?”
Kate closed her eyes realizing that she had better choose her words a little more carefully. “Not what I meant. Stan and Greg have been his friends for a very long time. They would probably be able to get more out of him from a practice than I could.”
Walter picked up a file that was on his desk. “I’m not sure about that, but, you’re his trainer. If that’s what you feel is best.”
“I’ll admit, Bender. I’m not sure what is best. I’m glad we’ve let his friends in on it, but letting him just go in and not letting him know-“
“It’s okay, Kate. He will be contacted and he will know that he is the primary Agent. Help is there, but more for fact gathering. It will be made clear.”
“Isn’t he going to feel used? We’ve put him in when there was already someone there and we didn’t tell him?”
“Moss was never meant as a main Agent. He was just supposed to watch over Mills until we could make contact with him. We never expected that the basketball team would be a place we’d need another Agent. “
“We can’t let him know that we’d been watching him that closely for that long.”
“We won’t. All we do is tell Jon that Moss was just a low level Agent who was never supposed to do anything more than watch and gather information and relay it back to us. He doesn’t need to know any more than that.”
“Jon has a temper, Walter. If he finds out and blames it on us for not telling him-“
“He won’t. And if he does, you talk him down. You’ve done it before. He’s just a normal teenager.”
“Bender, I know he seems like an obnoxious teenager sometimes, but I like him. I think he has a good heart.”
“I like him too, Kate. But you have said it yourself; he can be a cocky son of a bitch. How many times have you told me that in the past few days?”
Kate smiled. She knew she had been caught again.
“There’s no doubt that he will make an excellent agent, but we have been pushing him. If we give him an out, he’ll take it.”
Kate nodded. “Okay, you’re the boss.”
Walter went back to reading the report, but Kate still stood in his office. Walter glanced over his rims again at her and smiled. “Yes, Ms. Thompson?”
Kate took a seat in front of her boss’ desk. ‘I’m worried about something that I hadn’t thought of last night.”
Walter set down the file again and took off his glasses.
“We now have a small group that know about us who are not Agents. His two best friends know. Now, tonight, this girl that he’s had a crush on forever is going out with him on a first date.”
“Aaah, yes, the infamous Aleisha Madsen!”
“So, since his best friends know, what is going to keep him from telling her?”
Walter smiled another large, warm smile. “It’s young love, Kate. Don’t you remember that? He doesn’t want to make himself look any stranger than he possibly can. He won’t want her to run away from him. His stomach will be all butterflies tonight and he is going to try to stay talking about safe subjects as long as he can. He’s not going to take the chance of frightening her away.”
“Are you sure?”
“I was just like him forty years ago. Boys don’t change that much. Not even in today’s world. As they say, boys will be boys.”
“I just hope you’re right, Bender.”
Bender put his glasses back on and picked up the file one more time. “When have I ever been wrong?”

“We only have another half an hour, Jon.”
“Can’t I even get a five minute break?”
“You’ll have about a forty five minute break, but you have another thirty minutes to go. Come on!”
Jon closed his eyes and stood up straight. He tilted his neck back and forth. Several very loud pops came from his neck. He then put his fists behind his back and used them to brace him as he bent back. Even more loud cracks emanated from deep within his back. He opened his eyes.
“Okay, what’s next?”
“Now that we’ve worked on dribbling, shooting and running and putting them all together, you have the basics of offense. Now, it’s time for defense. We play man to man defense. That means that you are assigned a certain player and your job, when the other team has the ball, is to not allow your guy to get the ball at all or to not have a shot.”
“I understand that part of it.”
“Good. So, how do you do that?”
“Beats the hell out of me.”
“Well, here we go, then. Greg is going to pass me the ball from the other side of the court. You are going to be defense against me. I am going to try to get past you and make a basket. You try to stop me and we’ll go from there. Okay?”
“Got it,” Jon sighed, preparing himself for the next thirty minutes.
“Greg!” Stan called. “Go!”
The ball came rocketing to Stan from the other end of the court. Stan immediately started dribbling and backed his way down the court. He could feel Jon right behind him, but he could tell that his friend was more or less just standing there, backing up with him.
Stan stood straight up, spun, and shot. The ball whooshed through the hoop.
“You have to at least put your arms up, Jon.”
“If I could feel them, I would.”
“Let’s do it again, Jon. This time, your hands have to at least be up in the air. If I stand up and have a straight shot at the basket, then I will take it. If the basket is not perfectly in my sight, I’m going to look at the other players more than I will try to get out of the position I’m in for the shot. Got it?”
“I can pretend,” the weary Mills acknowledged.
“Well, then. Pretend. Here we go! Greg!”
Another ball came down the court. Stan backed up, just as he had previously. He could see the extra height behind him in the shadows on the court.
“Good job! Now, I’m going to make a move. Stay with me and don’t let me get a shot off.”
“Okay!”
Stan spun and moved to his right. Mills stayed on him and followed him move for move. Stan took the ball to the extreme corner of the court and set up for a three point shot. Jon saw what was coming and shoved Stan in the chest as hard as he could. The ball went straight up into the air while Stan landed with a loud thud on the floor.
“That’s not quite legal in the game, Jon. We’ll need to work on your defending skills,” Stan told Jon as he stood up and brushed himself off.

“Thanks for getting here for the twelve o’clock rundown just a little early, everybody. I just wanted to make sure that you knew everything that I knew about Saturday before we get talking about tonight’s show.” Jennifer Whittaker was addressing her staff at SportsTime.
“Before we get going, can I just make one thing abundantly clear?” Dan McCall, one half of the anchor team spoke up.
“Dan, please. Not today.”
“It is of vital importance to the show, Jen. You have my word.”
“What is it?” Jennifer resigned herself.
“No matter what Casey says, we are not concerned at all about Ultimate Fighting Championships, and I refuse to ever do a segment on it.”
Jennifer buried her head in her hands.
“It’s an even better sport than boxing, Dan,” Casey, his co-anchor, defended himself. “No ref, no rules, just the better, tougher man wins. Isn’t that what we always hope to see in sports? Isn’t that why we get so upset over the calls that referees make in the last few minutes of a game? We don’t want the game to be decided by penalty shots or anything like it, we just want the best team to win.”
“Dan, Casey, I’m sure this can wait until a meeting when I don’t happen to be here, can’t it?” Jennifer interjected. “Fine good. Now, here’s what’s happening. Dana and Aaron barely made their flight to Salt Lake. Once there, they are going to spend some time interviewing every member of both teams. Tomorrow will be a piece about Cottonwood’s players, mainly centered on Junior, of course. Friday night will be about the Warrior’s players. Saturday, we get on the air an hour before the game, which starts at seven o’clock MST. So, we will start our coverage at eight o’clock, local, with the game starting at nine.
“The two pieces from Thursday and Friday will run, and then Dana will be live with both coaches before the game, she will be in the locker rooms, and out in the stands. Our play-by-play is going to be handled by Phil and Michael, and they’ll cut to Dana once every section with crowd reactions and such.
“I just want everybody here to know that I am behind Dana one hundred percent. She has been our associate producer since the very first night we went on the air almost five and a half years ago. This is her big shot. Aaron will be feeding her information all night long and he won’t let her fail. But, we need to make sure that we are on top of our game here at the studio to make sure that she won’t have to deal with any of our mistakes and fill in for us. We all must be on the same page. Is everybody with me?”
There was a resoundingly loud yes from everyone at the meeting.
“Good. Now, since it’s actually time for our meeting to start, we have Bobbi in Vancouver tonight….”

Kate didn’t see Jon as she walked into the gym, but Greg and Stan were chatting, each holding a basketball.
“Hey, guys! What’s up?”
Stan met Kate at half-court. “He did well. Like we were planning, not a superstar, but he should at least be able to be out on the court and not embarrass himself.”
“Good to hear. Will Coach Malone beat the shit out of him?”
“Probably, but Jon can shovel it right back. As you know, he’s not afraid of authoritative figures.”
“I’ve noticed,” Kate grinned. “So where is our boy?’
“In the showers. We let him off five minutes early so that he can massage those muscles a bit before going to the school practice.”
“Well, thanks again, Stan. I’m sure he’ll do well today.”
“Me too. Thank you, too, Kate, for letting us in.”
“It was almost a necessity, but you’re welcome. And I do apologize for taking you down yesterday.”
Stan put up his hands. “I totally deserved it. My fault, but apology still accepted.”
Greg motioned to the locker room. “I’ll go check on Jon.”
“That would be great!” Kate hollered across the gym.
From the moment Greg walked into the hallway, he could feel the humidity level rise. The steam got thicker and thicker as he got closer to the shower area. When he arrived, Greg pictured the steam to be almost as thick as the fog in cartoons when they actually cut it with a knife.
“Jon!” Greg called out. “Kate’s here!”
The shower shut off and a towel wrapped Jon emerged from the mist.
“Honestly, Greg, how did I look out there?” Jon asked as he went over to his gym bag, which was lying open on a bench.
“You won’t win MVP of the game Saturday, but you’re not bad.”
“Honestly?”
“Honestly. I also don’t see you generally just walking off the street and onto any team you want, but in a pinch, you’ll be doing fine.”
“Thanks. That sounds suspiciously like you’re shitty, but you’re not as shitty as you were three hours ago.”
“I was trying to be optimistic.”
“Well, quit it because you suck at it.”

Chapter 12

2011-05-03T07:25:00.001-06:00

CHAPTER 12

In the New York offices of TSC- Trager Sports Channel, home of the TV show SportsTime, Jennifer Whittaker knocked on the door of her boss, Paul Jaffee.
“Yeah?” the older black executive called from the large picture window where he was standing.
“You wanted to see me?” Jennifer asked.
“Yes, I did. I just have one last question to ask you about the whole Salt Lake report. Is she ready?”
“Dana?”
“Yes, Dana. Is she ready?”
“I’m sure she is. Ever since Dan told her that it was very difficult to be on-air talent, she has only taken that weekend trip to visit Aaron’s family. Every other day off, she’s been studying tapes and preparing. I think this is a great chance for her.”
“And I agree. But is this the best chance for her?” Paul hobbled slowly over to his desk and sat down.
“Paul, Dana is getting restless. She can now take over the show and run it with only 3 or 4 minutes’ notice. She can do it with her eyes closed and her hands tied behind her back. She wants to take the leap and I think she’s ready.”
“This is a big story, Jennifer. If she doesn’t cut it this weekend, I will have no choice but to suspend her on the air duties for a long time- a year, maybe more. We need this, Jen. We need it badly.”
“I know, Paul. I called Sam in Indianapolis and he says that we’re just 1/8 point behind FSC. If we can do this well, it can move us into second place, maybe for good.”
“This is our Cosby.”
“Excuse me?”
“Our Bill Cosby.NBC was dead last in the ratings until a few years ago when The Cosby Show became can’t miss television. Ever since then, NBC has programmed Thursday nights very tightly making a two hour programming block of sitcoms that has every show in the Top 10.. Although we will probably always be behind ESPN, we can make a great showing in second. Make sure she’s ready.”
“Aaron is going with her as her producer. They’ll be fine, Paul.”
“I’m glad, but we need them to be more than fine. We need them to be spectacular.”
As Jennifer opened the door, she glanced back around at her boss. “They will be.”

It was a cloudy and overcast morning. An extremely cold wind was whistling through the valley. As they drove, Kate had the radio on. They were predicting an inch of snow by tomorrow morning. It didn’t surprise Jon. He had put on his heavy winter coat since he wasn’t used to the quick change in the weather.
Kate had driven to a small greasy spoon truck stop in the middle of an industrial district. As Jon got out of her car, he bumped into a large boned, unshaven man. The man grunted, and, using his wide girth, shoved Jon back into the frame of Kate’s car.
“Sorry,” Jon muttered.
The man didn’t even look back.
Jon called to Kate. “What kind of a friendly place is this? You didn’t give me enough time to get a full body piercing so that I won’t feel out of place here.”
Kate stopped in the middle of the parking lot and turned around. “What on earth are you babbling about?”
Jon smiled. “Nothing, important,” he muttered as he shut his door and followed Kate into the restaurant.
As soon as he entered the place, Jon could almost physically feel the years of food and grease and grime. He could see oily streaks on the tables, chairs, orange vinyl covered booths, countertops, everywhere! Silverware, while it looked washed, had spots all over it.
A waitress with peroxide blonde hair walked up to Kate. As stereotypical as it seemed she was chewing gum. “Just two of you today?” She grinned through her chomping.
“That’s correct, just two,” Kate answered very politely.
The waitress grabbed two menus and sat them in a grimy booth. “This okay?”
Kate looked at Jon and his look of disgust said it all. “This will be fine,” Kate assured the waitress. Kate moved across the booth and sat next to the window. She got a private chuckle out of Jon trying to follow suit and getting stuck on the vinyl. “You okay, pal?”
Jon took off his coat and put it on the seat next to the window. He scooted all the way over and sat on his coat. As Jon finally made it to the window seat across from Kate, he leaned over the table. “Great ambiance, Kate. There are much cleaner places to come and eat breakfast. Like the urinals in the restrooms.”
Kate grinned. “I know, but this place has a killer ham, cheese, and mushroom omelet and a chocolate shake to die for!”
“But, why this place?”
“Good food, yes, but also, a truck stop. No one cares about the people who are here. As long as they don’t take baths in the aforementioned urinals and sleep in the booths, the employees just want these people to come in, spend money, and leave. It’s a perfect place for those of us who don’t want to be noticed.”
“I’ll take your word for it,” Jon muttered as he picked up a menu.
The waitress, Heather, came back. “Can I get y’all something to drink?”
Kate was as perky as Jon had ever seen her. “Actually, I’m ready to order.”
“Go for it, hun.”
“I will take a ham, cheese, and mushroom omelet. I need extra ham, cheese, and mushrooms. Double the normal amounts, please and charge me whatever you need to, and then I will take an extra large, creamy, frothy chocolate shake.”
Heather finished writing on her pad. “And for you?” She looked at Jon.
“Oh!” Jon hadn’t even touched the menu, not that he really wanted to. He opened it and looked at the long list of greasy possibilities. After a quick glance, he handed it back to Heather. “Make it two.”
“You got it!”
As she walked away, Jon turned to Kate, who was radiating a smile from ear to ear.
“There has to be something more to this place, then just the food and the ability to not be noticed for you to be so happy this early in the morning. I assume you’re just not a Denny’s kind’ve girl?”
“I love humanity! I love just watching the type of people who come to a place like this and how they interact. It’s amazing! You could almost write a thesis on human behavior just from living here for a week or two!”
“Thanks for putting images in my head that I don’t need. Imagine how many kinds of disease are in this booth alone!”
“Come on, Jon! You joined the Agency! You must like adventure!”
“I’ve been shot at several times, yes, but my opinion may change if I had to deal with lice and snot all day.” Jon watched with a wretched kind of fascination as Kate just scanned the crowd. “So, Ms. Freud, what do you see?”
“The guy in the black coat and red hat by the exit is a married guy who has been having affairs on this trip.”
“How-?”
“His ring finger. It’s slightly thinner as if it’s been constricted by a ring for many years.”
“Maybe he’s just gotten a divorce?”
“No. He just hugged a woman that went into the restrooms and you could tell he was slightly embarrassed.”
“Maybe he’s not used to the dating scene again.”
“Or maybe he hopes his wife doesn’t find out.”
“Fine. Next?”
“Our waitress is probably from Arkansas who was travelling through Salt Lake on her way to finding her dream when she got stuck here and decided to find a job. She ended up here, and then needed the money, so she never felt that she could quit and continue to pursue her dream.”
“You could tell all that just by how she walks and talks?”
“Nah. Heather- I’ve talked to her before.”
As if summoned, Heather came out of the kitchen with two large plates each with a tall glass and a metal tumbler on it. The glasses were coated with whipped cream on the inside and the metal tumblers were already frosted over. Small dribbled lines of chocolate ran through the frost on each tumbler. Heather set them down on the table.
“Here you go!”
Kate swarmed over hers, picking up the spoon and the straw at the same time. She took the straw wrapping off in one slick motion and placed them both in the glass. She picked up the tumbler and started pounding it on the glass' edge. The shake slid smoothly and evenly into the glass until it just crested over the top.
“Your food will be out in just a second.” Heather walked back to the kitchen.
Jon followed Kate’s lead and did the same routine with his shake. It came out of the tumbler slightly chunkier than Kate’s, which caused it to drip over the sides more. Jon took a drink.
“Damn! That’s tasty!”
“Told you so!” Kate smiled and stuck her tongue out at him.
Jon smiled back. This morning she seemed like a six-year-old. Other times, it almost felt as if she was forty or above. Jon knew that some people held their age well, but he knew Kate couldn’t have been that old.
“Kate, may I ask you a question?”
In between sips, Kate responded. “Go ahead.”
“It’s personal.”
“What is it, Jon?”
“How old are you?”
“25.”
“And you are already this high up? Do a lot of agents quit or something?”
Jon sensed an immediate change in Kate’s energy. “Quit or get killed.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It happens. They’ve made sacrifices so that many other people wouldn’t have to. That is part of the job, Jon.”
“It may be part of the job, but it still sucks.” He paused and thought about reaching across the table and grabbing Kate’s hand from the side of her shake glass. He thought better of it. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to bring you down.”
“It’s okay. We need to get talking about business anyway.” She extracted her hand from Jon’s grasp and reached into her bag. She pulled out a large manila envelope. “Open this.” She tossed it to Jon’s side of the table.
He did as he was told and inside was one sheet of paper. It had all of his personal information on it as well as a brief biography. It almost could have doubled as an obituary. At the bottom was a place for a signature.
“Read over it carefully and, if everything is correct and spelled right, just sign at the bottom.”
It took a few minutes, but he did, and it was all correct. He signed at the bottom, slid it back into its envelope and handed it back to Kate. “Okay. What was that?”
“That was for this.” Kate nodded to the table.
“I don’t get it.”
Kate’s voice dropped to a whisper. “Under. Put your hands under.”
Jon did so. Kate grabbed his hand and put something heavy into it.
“Is this for real this time, Kate?” Jon asked, sensing immediately what it was.
“Yes it is, Jon. No blanks. Only actual bullets. It’s a Colt .357 fully loaded and ready. I took it out this morning and shot it myself to verify that it is in tiptop shape. It checked out perfectly.”
“You’ve checked everything in the magazine?”
“Personally. All real ammo. Face it, Jon. You are now a real spy who needs real bullets.”
“Get out of here, Kate! I don’t need a gun! I’m going undercover on a high school basketball team for Pete’s sake! Do I need to use this in case I get in foul trouble?”
“I’m not kidding, Mills. Maybe there wouldn’t have been a spot open on the team if the guy last night had had a gun.”
“Kate, look, I’m not the guy that they will come after! There’s no way! Everyone knows that I’m not a jock!”
“That’s why you’re meeting with Stan and Greg this morning, Jon. You need to make people believe that you have been a jock, just not open about it. You said you wanted to act, here’s your chance. Your role is that of a nerd who has had jock potential all along. If you do a good enough job of that and sniffing out the info we need, someone will want you dead. You’re going up against honest to God killers now, Jon. Play time is over.”
Heather brought out the omelets. Jon slid the gun under his coat.
Kate dug in with the same glee as she had when she first attacked her shake. Jon picked up his fork and went to dig in. He noticed a deep pool of grease in one of the pockets of his omelet. Picking up his napkin, he dabbed at the pool. It soaked into his napkin immediately and doused it entirely. Jon used all of his willpower to not vomit. He glanced at Kate who was smiling and had already made a large dent in her breakfast.

Time Out Chapter 11

2011-05-02T10:31:00.001-06:00

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 1989

CHAPTER 11

After the fast food restaurant, Kate had taken the guys back to the school to pick up their cars, go home, and get some rest. She returned to the crime scene and helped Walter bag and tag the evidence. It was almost two in the morning when she got back to her lookout position outside of Jon’s house. His Ford Thunderbird was in the driveway, so he had made it home from school.
The temperature had dropped significantly throughout the week. It had been chilly several of the other nights, but this night had a genuine snap in the air. Kate had on a ski parka and the heat in the car was turned on full blast. She left it running for about fifteen minutes every hour to make sure she didn’t freeze to death, but it was definitely not good sleeping weather.
After watching a darkened house for an hour and a half, Kate was tired of hearing nothing but her teeth chatter. She needed to talk to someone. She whipped out her car phone and hit her speed dial.
It took seven rings, but Jon eventually picked up. “Yo,” was all he could muster.
“Hey,” Kate felt guilty about waking him up.
“Hey, you.” Kate could hear Jon sit up in bed and turn on the light. “When you join the Agency do they ever let you sleep through the night?”
Kate chuckled. “I keep doing this to you, don’t I?”
“You do, but it’s okay. What’s on your mind?”
“It was ugly tonight, wasn’t it?”
“The murders or my piano playing?”
“What do you think, genius?” They shared a laugh. “Yeah. It wasn’t a pretty picture. I was just wondering how you were handling it.”
“I came home and went right to sleep. I don’t know if that means that it wiped me out or if I just had my second huge day in a row.”
“From my experience, a little bit of both, more than likely.”
“I’m doing okay, Kate. Tired, but okay.” There was a pause. “I’ve woken up in a cold sweat twice already tonight. Nightmares, but I couldn’t tell you exactly what I dreamed anymore. I’ll admit, I’ve probably seen things the last couple of days that no teenager should see.”
“Or adult for that matter.”
“Or adult,” Jon agreed.
“That’s why you’re doing this, you know. So that the fewest people possible will see the horrors that are out there.”
Jon paused and didn’t say anything. When he spoke again, it was a new subject entirely. “My body is stiff, so I’m probably not in the best shape of my life to start playing on a basketball team tomorrow, but I’m relatively decent. Besides, Tylenol taken with Ibuprofen will do wonders.”
“Jon?”
“What?”
“Can I ask you a question?”
“Since you called at this hour of the morning, I would hope you’d feel comfortable in doing so.”
Jon could hear her breathing on the other end. He didn’t rush her.
“What do you want to be when you grow up?” she asked.
Jon thought. “An actor. I want to be able to help people see the human existence from another perspective.” He paused. “This is going to sound corny as hell, but I actually just want to make the world a better place by my acting.”
Kate said nothing.
“Are you still there, Kate? You haven’t fallen asleep on me, have you? My answer wasn’t long and boring, was it?”
“Nope. No such luck.” She sniffed and Jon couldn’t tell if it was from crying or if she had a cold. “I’m still here, Jon.” He could hear a few deep breaths in the background. She had been crying, Jon surmised. “That’s a good goal. Everyone should have a purpose.”
Jon let her thoughts roam a second or two more. “Kate, again, I apologize, but I really need to get some sleep. Tomorrow is going to be yet another huge day for me.”
Kate laughed. “I’ve heard. A date with Aleisha, huh? Pretty big stuff!”
Jon smiled at the none too subtle mockery. “Sleep well, Kate.”
“You too, Jon.” Kate hung up the phone and turned off the engine of the car again this hour.
Jon listened to the dial tone for a few seconds before he tried to hang up the receiver. He missed a few times in the dark, but eventually found the cradle.
“You’re okay, Kate. Everything will be okay.” Jon was asleep almost by the time he said the last word.

The phone rang again.
With his head under his pillows, Jon couldn’t see the phone, so his hand went venturing onto his nightstand in a blind search. Finally, after way too many rings for Jon’s liking, he found it and brought the receiver under the pillows. “What time is it?” he asked groggily.
“It’s time for you to get up, Jon,” came the female voice on the other end.
“It’s been a long week, can’t you call Stan first and make sure he’s up and ready?”
“Why would I call him first? You’re the one I care about.”
“I know, but I’ve had a very long week so far, can you give me, like, another ten minutes, please, Kate?”
“Kate?”
“Huh? What do you mean?” Jon was immediately confused.
“Kate? Who’s Kate? You just called me Kate.”
“You’re not Kate?” The synapses in Jon’s brain immediately started firing.
“No, Jon. This is your mother!”
Jon sat bolt upright in bed. “Mom! Hi! How the hel-ck are you?”
“We’re fine! Your father & I were just calling to check up on you. Long week, huh? Kate? A girlfriend, Jon? A little partying going on?” Carol’s voice was slightly mocking her only son.
“It has been a long week already. With school, and the talent show, and Stan and Greg, my friends, and I have seen several films, and ordered pizza, and stayed up late, and- yes. A very long week.”
“I know Stan and Greg, Jon. How was the talent show?”
“Amazing, Mom! The piece I did blew everybody away, and I think I won!”
“You think? What do you mean, you think?”
“I didn’t stay for the awards. I was tired and just needed sleep.”
“Right.” Jon could tell that his mother was not quite sure whether to believe him or not.
“Stan and Greg and I stayed up all night watching movies on Monday.”
“Nothing with too much sex or nudity, I hope?”
“Not too much. Just watched Fast Times at Ridgemont High 3 times in a row.” Jon grinned.
“As long as Kate wasn’t there.”
Jon was snapped back into dealing with the Kate situation. “Huh?”
“Who’s this Kate girl?”
“No one, actually. I just haven’t been sleeping too well the last few days and last night I finally just crashed and you must have woken me up and I was dreaming and in a deep sleep.” Jon was making up lies as he went along. He knew he was using the word ‘and’ too many times, but he couldn’t help himself.
“You always were one to have weird dreams and act them out for a little while after you woke up. Remember that spider dream?”
“How could I forget, Mom? Everyone is always reminding me of it at every family function we have gone to since then!” Jon was turning red just thinking about it. “Anyway, how are you guys doing?”
“Things are going great! We stopped off in Farmington, New Mexico on Monday night and got a good night’s rest. Then, yesterday, we just made it the rest of the way to Dallas. We met Gary for a late night pizza at a place by his house, and then we came to the motel and we just got up.”
“Sounds like fun.”
“Other than having to listen to your father’s talk radio shows all day.” Jon could hear the sparkle in his mother’s voice as she tried to rise out of her husband.
“Don’t be going on about TalkNet! You listened quite intently yourself!” Jon heard his father retort from the background.
Carol laughed. “Today, the wedding is at 2 and then there’s a reception for family and friends tonight. Tomorrow is the big family tour around Dallas, Friday we meet your cousin Cassandra in San Antonio for a day and then we’ll just take our time coming home. We should be there by late Sunday afternoon. Can you stay out of trouble that long?”
Jon rubbed his eyes and ran his fingers through his hair. “Yeah. I think I can do that.”
“How are my plants doing?”
Jon stopped all motion. “They’re great, mom! All of them have been watered and are looking very healthy!”
“Just make sure they don’t die, please.”
“I’m on it.”
“I knew you would be. I love you so much, honey.”
“I love you, too, Mom.”
“Your dad wants to speak at you for a bit if you have time. Since you already slept in, you may as well miss your first class since it is just choir and show up at nine for your second class.”
Jon looked at the clock. It was 7:30. He still had an hour and a half before he had to meet Stan at the gym. And, if his mom was giving him permission to sluff, he was going to take it for sure and let her know. “I got plenty of time. Hour and a half until Family living, right?”
“Hour and a half,” Carol repeated. “but no more. I’ll let you miss one class while we’re gone.” There was an awkward pause. “I love you, Jon, and we’ll see you on Sunday.”
“You know you will. I love you too, Mom. May I speak to Dad, please?”
“You sure can.”
There were the inevitable sounds of the phone changing hands as Carol handed the phone off. Then, came Jon’s dad’s famously gruff, yet very loving voice. “Missing choir today, huh?””
Again, the sparkle was in the voice. Jon’s parents loved him a lot and had taught him right from wrong many years ago. Now, there was a lot of joking around, but the love always shone through.
“Hey, Dad, lot of miles, huh?”
“Just a few. But, plenty of time to listen to those AM talk radio shows!” Bob’s last four words were obviously spoken more to his wife than to Jon.
“So, what’s up, dad?”
“Hang on a minute, son.” Bob covered the receiver with his large hand. “Carol? Can you do me a favor and get some more ice from the ice machine?” Jon heard his mom agree and he heard the heavy motel room door shut and lock. “Okay, sorry about that. I just wanted to remind you that I don’t give a shit about your mother’s plants. I know you’re more like me. If they don’t happen to get watered, your mother can do it when she gets back. It’s only a week. The important ones can make it.”
Jon smiled. “It’s okay, Dad. I haven’t done it yet, but I will. I’ll make sure they’re taken of.”
“Whatever you decide is fine with me, just remember that I could do with less greenery around the house.”
“I know.”
“Also, there is another hundred dollars in my sock drawer. I stashed it there for you. Your mother doesn’t know I won a thousand dollars last time I went to Wendover. Take the hundred and have fun.”
“Thanks, Dad. I will. We can always use more pizza and Coke.”
“I know. That’s why I left it there for you. Are you really doing okay, Jon?”
Jon nodded. “Yes, I am, Dad. I’m doing great. Pretty sure that I won the talent show and I have a date for tonight.”
“With this Kate girl I heard your mom talking about?”
“Actually, Mom woke me up and I was still talking about this girl in the dream, I guess, named Kate. I don’t know.”
“Is Kate related to the spider at all?”
“Ha ha, very funny. No, dad. The date is with Aleisha Madsen, actually.”
“Nice work, son! Finally got over the fear, huh?”
“Kind’ve. It’s a long story, dad. I don’t want to keep you on the phone too long. I’ll tell you on Sunday.”
“Fair enough. Have a great rest of the week, Jon. Your mom and I love you. You know that.”
“I know, dad.”
“And I will be very upset if you use that money in my sock drawer for anything important. It should all be fun money!”
“Got it.”
“See you Sunday, Jon.”
Jon heard what sounded like two motel room doors opening behind his dad. “See you Sunday. I love you guys. Be safe.”
“We will.”
“Don’t try to put too many miles away each day. Pull over and rest if you need to. You have until Monday morning at 7 to get home if you need it.”
“Now who’s being the parent?” Bob asked.
Jon heard a voice from the stairway. “Jon?”
Jon almost froze up. “I am.”
“Someone there, Jon?’”
“I think so.”
Kate stuck her head around Jon’s bedroom corner. “Hey there, sleepyhead! Time to go!”
“Who is that?”
“No one. It’s cool. Don’t worry about me.”
“You’re barely waking up?” Kate asked. “Come on, Jon!”
Jon turned his mouth slightly away from the receiver. “Kate!” he hissed. “Can you hang on for a second?” Realizing that his father had just heard this exchange, Jon went back to his father. “Love ya. Gotta go. Bye.” Without waiting to hear his father’s last words of the conversation, Jon slammed the phone down. Jon closed his eyes and took a few deep, cleansing breaths.
“Who was that?” Kate asked.
Jon looked up. “My parents!”
“Too bad. I would’ve liked to at least say hi to them. You could say that I was a new neighbor who stopped by to borrow a cup of sugar or something.”
“At 7:30 in the morning?”
Kate shrugged. “Eggs, then.”
Jon buried his face deep in his hands. “Kate, are you trying to give me a heart attack?”
“I’ve seen them from a distance and they seem like great people. One of these days, I’ll just have to find some way just to say hi to them.”
“I thought this was a secret thing!”
“It is, but I still want to meet your parents. I won’t tell them who I am, but I would like to meet your infamous parents.”
Jon looked incredulously at Kate. “Yup. Damn shame I hung up. Well, there’s always next time-“”
“Come on! You’ve got to get moving!”
“What? Do I have another assignment before I meet Stan & Greg?”
“As a matter of fact, yes, you do.”
Jon groaned. “Are you shitting me?”
“Nope, Jon. I’m not. This is very important.”
“Another training mission that I can get killed at?”
“No more training for you, Jon. You’re on. Actually, it’s much more important.”
Jon was now concerned. “What’s up, Kate?”
“You’ve got to take me to breakfast! You haven’t even showered yet!” Kate changed the subject and opened up Jon’s bureau drawers. “Would you get your butt in there and get ready? I am starving!” She tossed a pair of underwear, socks, pants, and as shirt to Jon, which he caught very adroitly.
“You’re insane, sometimes. Do you know that?” Jon asked her.
“And you’re dirty!” Kate got behind him and started prodding him into the bathroom.
Jon shut the door behind him. Kate heard him drop the clothes on the ground and start the water. The bathroom door opened back up.
“How did you get in?” Jon asked.
“Huh?”
“How did you get in?” he repeated.
“Through the front door.”
“It was locked.”
“I picked the lock,” Kate said matter-of-factly.
“Oh.”
“You should tell your parents to get a deadbolt. Much harder to pick than just a normal lock.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.” Jon shut the bathroom door.
After a few moments, Kate heard the shower curtain slide open and closed again. Then, seconds later, it was opened once more, the bathroom door clicked into locked mode and the shower curtain slid closed one more time.

Chapters 9 & 10

2011-04-28T14:00:00.002-06:00

Tomorrow is another work day for me where I will be working from 6 am until after midnight, with only an hour break to get from one job to the other. So, I have posted both Chapters 9 & 10 today.
I will continue posting chapters on Monday, May 2nd.

Chapter 10

2011-04-28T13:59:00.000-06:00

CHAPTER 10

As they pulled out of the parking lot, Kate offered her hand to Jon’s two friends, even though she was driving.
“Hi, Stan and Greg.” She found their eyes in the rear view mirror and made eye contact with each of them as she said their names. “I am Kate Thompson. Since yesterday morning, I have been Jon’s trainer.”
“You got a job? That’s totally cool!” Greg mussed Jon’s hair.
“I kind’ve got a job,” Jon tried to downplay it. Then, as soon as the sentence was out of his mouth, a realization struck him. “If this is a job, Kate, do I get paid?”
Kate smiled and nodded. “Yes, Jon. Of course you get paid.”
“For training, too?”
“Yes, for training, too. You will be paid with a nice pretty blue paycheck- come on! There are a few things that we need to talk about, here!”
“Getting paid is pretty important, I would think,” Greg interjected.
Kate made eye contact with him again. Just from the look in her eyes, Greg knew what would be the safest choice to make.
Stan took his cue to speak up. “Hello, Kate Thompson. Pleased to meet you, officially, without having a physical confrontation with you. What are you a trainer of?”
“I am Jon’s trainer for the Agency.”
“Ok.” Stan took it in stride, but he obviously had no idea what that meant.
“To put it in easy terms, The Agency is a super secret break off of the CIA to go undercover and help stop incidents that could tear a community, the country, even the world apart. For a quick example, one thing that we were about one or two days behind was President Reagan’s assassination attempt. Those are the things we like to avoid.”
There was silence from the backseat. Until, as always, Greg had to break it. “Holy shit! You’re a spy!”
Jon looked at Kate and realized that she wasn’t about to save him. In fact, she had a smirk on her face. “Yes, Greg, I am in fact a holy shit spy!”
Kate took a hard left turn into a fast food parking lot. “We’re here!” She zoomed into a parking space, braked hard, turned off the car and jumped out. Jon followed suit since he was used to Kate’s fast pace. Stan and Greg followed behind by a few clicks, not sure if they were to join Jon & Kate or not.
Kate swooped through the front doors with Jon close behind her. Stan and Greg had just entered the establishment when they saw Kate meet up with a 50-ish male who looked a lot like a favorite uncle. He had white hair, a beer gut, and had an on the job kind of look, but underneath, it was easy to see that he was a man of good humor. She must’ve asked him what was going on because he launched into what seemed to be a description of the crime scene.
“The two victims were working behind the counter. It must’ve been a slow night because there is no evidence of any other diners in here when they got hit. No uneaten food or spilled shakes or drinks. The perp probably came through the front door you guys just came through. Victim one was shot point blank at his register. The perp probably came right up to the counter and fired. ”
Jon kept a safe distance from the victims. He didn’t need to see the blood just yet. Stan and Greg however, had been taken over by the cool fact of being beyond the yellow tape at a crime scene. They followed Kate closely as the older man led her back into the kitchen, probably her superior.
When Kate’s eyes enlarged and she put a fist up to her mouth, Jon knew it couldn’t be a pretty picture. Stan turned away quickly, and Greg stifled a vomiting episode and ran back past Jon and threw up in a corner. Jon braced himself and started making a slow path towards the actual crime scene.
A young kid, no more than 16, had been shot in his left eye. His right eye had a relaxed look to it. There were small drops of blood all over the counter and the register. Jon knew that behind the register had been a sign that read “No checks, please.’ Now, it was just a piece of paper that had been painted red with blood, brains, and skull. The kid was flat on the ground, arms at his side, in a pool of goopy red blood.
“This kid never knew what hit him,” Jon said under his breath.
“What was that?” Walter asked.
“He didn’t know what was coming. He didn’t know the guy had a gun. There are no defensive wounds. Even his right eye looks perfectly calm and still. He wasn’t expecting it.” Jon walked back around the counter, pretending to be the criminal. “The guy probably came in, made some small talk, was pretending to peruse the menu, was commenting about how the temperature has dropped, la, la, la, the clerk is annoyed that his easy night had been disrupted. He probably nodded and said yes or I know what you mean a few times, and at some point, BOOM! The gun goes off, and victim number one is on the floor dead.”
Kate and Walter exchanged glances.
“If this is victim one, where is victim two?” Jon asked.
“Back in the freezer,” Walter confirmed victim two’s existence.
The group followed him back. Jon and Greg were the last two in line. As Greg brought up the rear, he whispered to Jon. “I’m sorry. I didn’t want to puke in the evidence.”
Jon smiled. “It’s cool. This is pretty disgusting, don’t get me wrong, but I was expecting it to be worse. Somehow, this almost seems like a movie set or something.”
“Oh my God,” Stan mumbled as he walked into the freezer. Now, it was Stan’s turn to race through the group and leave the immediate area.
Jon moved up quickly, wanting to know what had unnerved Stan so badly. Greg was understandable, but Stan….
The freezer was a complete mess. There were frozen hamburger patties all over the floor, hamburger buns thrown everywhere, chicken breasts and fish fillets scattered, several of the metal shelves were tipped against the back wall. Another young man, though not quite as young as victim one was lying on his back on the floor. His face was bloodied; his legs were underneath him as if he had fallen while trying to play limbo. There was a pool of frozen blood around his knees and his face. Two frozen hamburger buns were on the victim’s chest, but they looked different from the others. Jon took a few steps closer and put the puzzle together. He knew why Stan had run out of the room.
“His name is Jake Spencer,” Jon told Walter and Kate. “Stan knew him. He was on the basketball team.” Greg left the freezer to be with his other friend.
Kate put a gentle hand on Jon’s shoulder. “We know.”
Jon shrugged off the gesture and walked in and took an even closer look at the scene. “Jake’s face is bloody, but his shirt just has some spatter on it. What happened?”
“Mind if I ask you a question, Jon?” Walter asked.
“Go for it.” Jon didn’t avert his eyes. He was still studying the body.
“You’re pretty good at this. May I ask how you know so much about crime scenes?”
“My dad was a cop. I’ve been going to R-rated cop movies since I was 7. You pick stuff up quickly, if you pay attention to the good ones and forget about the crappy ones.”
Kate smiled and made a slight head gesture toward Jon while Walter was looking at her. He just smiled back and nodded his head. “We knew you were the right one for the job, Jon.”
Jon finally stopped looking at the body and locked eyes on Walter. “So, I’m the right one, huh? That’s great. Can you help me figure out what’s up with the blood?”
“Look at the legs again, Jon, smarty pants.” Walter used the name calling not to insult Jon, just to spur him forward.
“They’re torn up,” Jon commented. “Torn up. They almost look like meat themselves.” Jon paused and circulated the thought through his brain. “He was shot in the kneecaps.”
“Bingo.”
“There was a fight in here, but not out there. The registers weren’t touched, I assume, since they looked to be just fine. It wasn’t a robbery.”
“Keep going,” Kate encouraged him.
“Not a robbery.” Jon stood up and went back to the door of the freezer. “It wasn’t a robbery.” His eyes were darting all over the freezer looking for the one clue. “He was kneecapped, but not for money. What else would the perp want?” Jon walked back to the body and looked at Jake’s bloody face. “For there to be just blood spatter on the shirt, this didn’t happen until he was on the ground. Or…this put him on the ground!”
Jon walked back to the door of the freezer. “The criminal backs him into the freezer. Jake assumes it’s a normal fast food robbery, so he is expecting to just get locked in the freezer while the guy robs the place and leaves. For some reason, the criminal, turns his back, and Jake decides he’s going to fight back. He grabs stuff off of the shelves and throws it at him. He and the guy get into a frozen food fight, the gun must have gotten loose, and the criminal gets it back, and doesn’t want to kill Jake. He shoots him in the knees. Jake falls but is still upright by his arms or his ab muscles when the guy comes over and punches him in the face, knocking Jake out. The perp locks him in, realizes he’s done more than he wanted and leaves while Jake freezes in here.”
“Good try,” Kate nodded, “but not quite. Look closer.”
Jon looked the body up and down. He looked around at the freezer and all the frozen goods everywhere. On Jake’s head was a large bruise.
“The guy hit him over the head.”
“Okay,” Kate coaxed.
Jon kept looking and noticed a small trail of blood that led underneath a shelf that was still upright. Jon stood and walked over to the shelf. He stuck his hand out as he knelt down. “Kate, get me a bag or gloves or something. I’ve found something.”
Kate grabbed Jon a pair of plastic gloves from the wall dispenser and threw him a ripped apart bag that had held buns. “Here.”
Jon put on the gloves, leaned over and stuck his arm far under the shelving, when he pulled his arm back out, he was holding a wallet and something else.
Walter beamed. “I wondered where that was! We hadn’t totally processed the scene yet.”
Jon took the wallet and put in the plastic bag. Then, he stared at what was in his hand. It looked like a frozen quarter patty of meat. He brought it within eight inches of his face and just turned it over and examined it from all sides. Kate and Walter had strange looks on their faces. Then, on one of the turns, Jon saw something and realized what it was. He quickly put it in the bag and sealed it, tossing it to Kate.
“His tongue! The blood wasn’t just from a nose shot. That was his tongue! They cut out his tongue!” Jon stood up, stripped his gloves off, and threw them into the trashcan that was there in the freezer.
Stan and Greg had re-joined the group but were still standing several feet away from the freezer, but close enough to hear the conversation.
“The bastard knew Jake. This was personal. He shot his kneecaps as a warning shot and then he cuts out his tongue so he couldn’t talk! Okay, okay. Here we go.” Jon started pacing in front of Walter and Kate.
“This guy comes in, chats with Jake over the counter while looking at the menu or something. He shoots victim one out of nowhere. He never sees it coming. “ Jon took a quick walk out to the kitchen, brushing by his friends. “Buns! There are no buns out here! He realizes he needs buns, he tells his friend he’ll be right back. While Jake is in the freezer getting the buns, our shooter pops victim one. Jake hears the shot and starts coming out. Our guy blocks Jake’s exit. They talk for a while about something.
“Our guy doesn’t like Jake’s responses, so he hits Jake with the bag of frozen buns that Jake was trying to get. That’s not heavy enough, so our guy tries fries, chicken, and fish, which are probably not frozen in stacks quite like the beef. These guys are tussling, knocking shit over. Finally, the killer grabs a bag of hamburger and wallops Jake. Jake goes down, but not for long. He rushes the guy and gets his knees shot out to stop the attack-“ Jon stopped. “Why shoot out his knees? The friend must know that he’s a basketball player. That’s going to stop him from playing basketball.” Jon was silent. He finally shook his head and continued with his theory.
“Jake is down, our guy comes over and punches him as hard as he can in the face. Jake drops to the ground, unconscious. The killer decides he may as well get a little extra cash, but doesn’t want to rob the restaurant. He’s been here too long already. He takes the wallet out and takes Jake’s money. Then, he opens Jake’s mouth and cuts out his tongue, tossing it aside, knowing Jake won’t need it again. But why the buns on Jake’s body? The food fight happened before Jake hit the ground?”
The freezer was silent again Jon could hear his friends talking softly. Stan entered the freezer. He bent down over his friend’s corpse and looked at the buns, not looking at his friend’s contorted face. He picked up the buns and held them close to his face. He took his pinky and put it on the bun over to one side and swiped his pinky along it. He put his pinky in his mouth and tasted the residue.
“It’s a signal Kind of like the fish I the newspaper in The Godfather. They’re buttered. It means he’s toast.”
“Jake knew something. He knew something that he shouldn’t have known and he was killed for it. Was the kneecap shooting a sign? A signal? Was it about the basketball team?”
“Am I in trouble?” Stan asked.
“We don’t know,” Walter answered. “That’s why I told Kate to bring you into our little secret. We’ve been watching your team for the last few months of practices and training. We’ve heard rumors about things happening, but they are all very vague. What do you know, Stan?”
Stan was confused. “Nothing. I don’t know anything. We’ve been practicing since the end of July. We were sixth place in our conference last year. Some of our players drink and drive after we win. We have the game coming up with Cottonwood this week.” Stan stopped as his eyes teared up. “I don’t know anything, man. I just play. I don’t worry about anything other than playing my best. I just play.” He started crying silently.
“Walter, he doesn’t know anything. Leave him alone.” Jon defended his friend but kept it low key and hushed.
“I wish I could, Jon, but we need him. He knows the team. He knows what has been happening up until now. He may be in danger. We need his help!”
“And Greg?” Jon asked.
“Well,” Kate admitted, “we just figured it would be easier to bring the three of you in than just two. You three are never apart, so if you and Stan started shrugging off Greg, we knew there could be a lot more problems.”
Jon ran his fingers through his hair. “Not only do you screw up my life, you’re going to screw up theirs, too?”
Walter stepped up. “I think you’re misunderstanding us a bit, Jon. We just need their help. We are not recruiting them. But we need their help, especially Stan’s to get you in.”
Jon didn’t get it. “What do you mean? Stan has nothing to do with the Agency.”
Kate tried to soften the news. “No, but he is on the basketball team.”
“Okay, that’s true. So?” Jon’s eyes widened with realization. “No! You don’t mean- you can’t mean-!”
“We need you to go undercover on the basketball team, Jon.” Kate finally explained.
“I can’t! I don’t play basketball! Isn’t there someone else who can do this?”
“We were going to try to integrate a new player this week before this killing. This just gave us a prime opportunity and a real reason to push this assignment.”
“Who was the new player going to be? You must’ve had someone else in mind before I came on board!”
Walter stepped up. “We did. Chad Peterson. Then, you shot him.”
Greg couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “You shot a federal agent?”
Jon got defensive. “I didn’t mean to! It was an accident!”
Walter put out his hand and touched Jon’s elbow. “We know you didn’t mean to, but you did. Now, we need to do what we can. We need to improvise a bit. You are a new agent; you have a friend on the team. Since they won’t want to be a man short for the big game this weekend, he can introduce you to the coach as a clutch player, and bing, bang, boom, you’re on the team!”
Kate went to Stan. “I’m sorry that I had to hurt you today. You were a little out of control. And I am really sorry about your teammate, but we need your help, Stan. Can you get Jon onto the team?”
Stan shrugged. “I guess I can try. I can’t guarantee anything, but I’ll try.”
Walter shook Stan’s hand. “We’ll try to get a grass roots thing going and get the parents desperate to get another player to fill out the roster. That way, Mr. Cannon will light a fire under your coaches ass and we will just slip Jon right in.”
“Cool,” was Stan’s only reply.
Jon walked out of the freezer finally. Without a word, he walked past victim number one and up to the dining area. The group followed him. Jon plopped down into a booth and put his head in his hands. When he looked up, there was a half circle around him.
“I’m going undercover on the basketball team?”
Stan smiled and looked down at Jon. “You’re going undercover on the basketball team.”

Chapter 9

2011-04-28T10:45:00.001-06:00

CHAPTER 9

The auditorium was packed with people. It seated about 2100 people and there was not an empty seat in the joint. The three small front rows were reserved for the contestants of the talent show, but most of the rest of the seats were filled with family and friends of the contestants. A good majority of the student body was not there because, really, how cool is it to spend after school hours watching a talent show?
Stan and Greg had already found their seats inside. They were just a few rows behind the contestants but way off to the left-hand side. Jon had remembered to return the music to the store for Aleisha’s mom and he had brought his sheet music for Gaspard de la nuit. He was now just waiting in the hall for Aleisha to show up so he could give her back the refund money. That was why he had set up this meeting, but he was also secretly hoping that he could get a little wish of good luck from her, too. Along with setting up that date, of course.
Jon was dressed in khaki slacks with a short sleeved white shirt. Not too formal, not too casual and he could move his arms in it as opposed to a full suit. He was rocking back and forth on the heels of his toes when he heard a familiar voice behind him. Not a very friendly familiar voice, either.
“Mr. Mills?”
He turned, already aware of what he would see.
“Mrs. Perry! How the hell are you?”
“I should ask you to refrain from the profanity, Jonathan.”
“You should ask me to refrain but you won’t. You see, I wasn’t swearing. I was merely asking about your place of residence.”
Mrs. Perry’s tongue went into her upper lip indicating that she wanted to retort very badly, but knew this was neither the time nor the place.
“I have been asked to remind you that you may not play the same piece of music as this morning. This time, you will be judged on how well you play and how much attention is paid to rests, beats per minute and that kind of thing. You were lucky to get in tonight. I wanted to boot you out, but Doc was so impressed by your dexterity that he felt you must be let in.”
Jon smiled. “I’m in and I fully intend to win.”
Mrs. Perry glared at Jon for just a moment, turned, and entered the auditorium.
“Hi, stranger,” came another voice from behind him.
He turned and saw what he had been waiting to see. Aleisha Madsen was standing behind him and looked radiant! Even though she was just wearing an orange T-shirt, a brown jacket over it and blue jeans, she still looked smashing. Maybe it was her beaming smile that made it all work.
“Thanks for coming! I, uh, wanted to make sure I got you the money back.” Jon reached into his pocket and clumsily pulled out the four dollar bills which had the change wrapped inside of the tangled mess. As he passed the money, he made sure that he didn’t actually touch Aleisha.
“Actually, Jon,” she smiled as she took the money, “I wouldn’t have missed seeing you perform again. This morning was very…interesting.” She grinned and showed her white teeth to Jon.
“That’s what I’ve heard.” He could feel himself getting red with embarrassment and anticipation again. “I was just wondering if tomorrow would be a good time to go to a movie. Look Who’s Talking is playing. I don’t know if you’d want to see a talking baby, but-“
“Tomorrow is perfect! However, I’ve been wanting to see the Tom Selleck movie? An Innocent Man? Would that be fine?”
“Totally fine! Especially if I can take you to my favorite theater that’s playing it.”
She nodded, bowed her head just a little and showed her teeth again.
“Great! That would be just great! I’ll pick you up at, say, six tomorrow night, and we can go get a bite to eat before the show?”
“I would like that.” She was enjoying watching him almost melt.
Stan poked his head out of the auditorium door. “Jon! I think they’re getting ready to start!”
Jon looked at Aleisha and was both happy and sad for the time to split up. “If nothing else, I’ll see you tomorrow in Katsilas’s class?”
“You know it!”
“Bye, Aleisha.” Jon turned and ran up the stairs to go in and take his seat.
Aleisha watched him go. She put up her hand and waved, even though she knew Jon would not see it. She happily skipped up the steps after him and found her seat as her heart fluttered.
Jon was not scheduled to go on stage until near the end. There were thirty finalists in the different categories and Jon was listed as number twenty-five. He was the last of the pianists, so he could see how he measured up.
The problem with the measuring up theory was that he had to stay awake for the twenty-four so-called talents that preceded him. After three talents, he was ready to call it quits. Even though the three front rows were small, and they were reserved for the contestants, he noticed friends and family of the remaining group slowly making their way into the seats. The chair beside Jon was vacant, so he wondered how close Aleisha was. He craned his neck and squinted through the dark to see if he could spot her.
As he was turned around, Jon felt someone take the empty seat next to him. Since he hadn’t spotted her yet, he turned around in resignation of just falling asleep. He was overjoyed however to catch a glimpse of a brown jacket as he turned back around.
“Good timing!” he whispered to Aleisha.
“Thanks. I figured that other people were doing it, moms, dads, boyfriends, and girlfriends. So, I thought we could be considered a couple since we have a date for tomorrow, right?”
Jon’s butterflies, which had been noticeably absent during his time with The Agency, reared up again when Aleisha even mentioned the word couple in reference to the two of them.
Jon and Aleisha made it through a ventriloquist who was so poor that by the end he didn’t even try to hide that his lips were moving. They were treated to a saxophonist playing a Kenny G song while his girlfriend ballet danced in a silhouhette against a blue light. Two different couple sang the Phantom of The Opera Duet. Neither one did it well. There were several pianists, one played The Man From Snowy River Theme, but they both seemed like second year piano students. One girl even tried a stand up comedy routine in French.
The new couple just made it through each one silently whispering to each other and hiding under coats to muffle their laughter. Jon made sure that even with all of the leaning over and whispering, he never touched Aleisha. It would’ve just seemed too weird. He did brush her hair away from her ear a time or two, but that was the extent. Aleisha quickly touched his arm once or twice to get his attention, but he would move it off of the arm of the chair under the pretense of getting closer to her.
Mrs. Perry had given them a few stern looks throughout the night, but they weren’t being overly rambunctious to warrant a tossing out of the assembly.
Finally, it was time for number twenty four to take the stage which meant Jon had to leave to go to the side of the stage to prepare. He raised his eyebrows in a ‘Here I go’ gesture. Aleisha smiled and gave him the thumbs up sign as he stood to exit the row.
It wasn’t until he was alone in the hallway headed to the stage door, that he realized that he had actually had a very fun time this evening. It had been awkward now and again, but all told, he wasn’t worried about saying anything too inappropriate, he hadn’t been concerned about whispering into Aleisha’s ear, it had almost seemed natural. Jon paused before he entered the stage and leaned against the brick corner of the alcove, enjoying this moment, before he got stressed out for the next ten minutes up on stage.
As the door to the parking lot opened, Jon knew the rest of his night had gone south.
Kate Thompson strolled through the door and looked happy to see Jon. “You haven’t gone on yet, have you?”
Jon mustered a smile. “Perfect. Just perfect,” he muttered. Louder, he said, “No. Not yet!”
“Good! I didn’t want to miss this!”
Jon was almost shocked. “Miss it? What do you mean, miss it?”
“I wanted to see you perform! You were so intense about it today, I figured that I couldn’t miss my trainee’s big night!”
“You’re my trainer, right?” Jon questioned.
“Yup. You know it.” Kate’s voice was way too cheerful. Jon didn’t like the sound of it at all.
“Kate, I don’t know how to break this to you, but you’re my trainer. You’re not my mother, my nanny, or my girlfriend. Thanks for coming, but I’m not sure that I feel comfortable with you being right here at this part of my life right now.” It was only after he had said it, that Jon realized the word girlfriend wasn’t that scary of a word after all.
Kate stood her ground but remained silent for a beat. “Okay, you got me.” Her shoulders sagged and her voice went back to being all business.
“Oh, shit,” Jon lowered his head and started shaking it.
“Two things that I came here for, Jon.”
Jon squeezed his eyes shut tightly and listened to the strange sound that emanated from somewhere deep inside his ear canal. He opened them and mustered the same fake smile that he had previously worn. “Number one?”
“A student of Taylorsville High was shot to death at a fast food restaurant just up the street.”
“And this matters to me because-?”
They could hear applause starting in the auditorium that meant Jon needed to get inside the stage door.
“We’ll get to the importance of that issue in a moment. But number two-“ Kate snatched Gaspard de la Nuit out of Jon’s hands and thrust another piece of music in its place, “-is to apologize for the last couple of days, I’m here to help you win the talent show. Come on!” Kate opened the stage door and for all semantical arguments aside, threw Jon into the backstage area.
“Kate-!” Jon started, but Kate was already strutting front and center in the spotlight. Jon hurried out to the piano. “Perfect.”
Stan and Greg had been slouched in their seats doing their own mocking of the proceedings. As Kate marched onto stage, their eyes widened, their mouths opened, and their butts slid straight back in their chairs. There was no need to look at each other or say anything. They both knew something was about to go down.
Aleisha also sat up straight and was a little confused by the turn of events. She was in the school choir. Why hadn’t Jon asked her to sing? And who was the girl- woman more accurately- standing up there? Aleisha had never seen her in the halls. Did she go to this school? Was this a legal part of the talent show?
Jon was busy finding the first page as Kate took the microphone out of its stand.
“Hi. The next contestant is Jonathan Mills. He will be playing the piano as I sing. The piece is entitled Short People by Randy Newman.”
Mrs. Perry stood up in her spot in the audience. She blocked the spotlight so that she was outlined clearly to Kate. “Excuse me, miss, but who are you?”
Kate looked at Mrs. Perry dead center at where her eyes should be in the dark shape in the spotlight. “I’m the singer.” She smiled triumphantly. Kate turned and nodded at Jon.
Jon was still scanning the music. He had heard the song once or twice during the novelty song days of Carter and Bammes and once or twice on The Dr. Demento Show, but to play it cold? As he was scanning, he realized that it wasn’t that difficult. He would’ve preferred not playing it for the first time at the finals of the talent show up on stage, but there were much worse pieces of music to have to play under the gun. He noticed Kate’s nod, so he flipped back to page one and started.
The piece was mostly a simple rhythm piece. It started with a three note chord on the right hand for four beats. Then, it brought in a single note on the left hand which then went to a much lower note and another very low note in quick succession also on the left hand while the right hand stayed on its own three note chord rhythm Jon got to play this specific bit four times at the exact same speed for eight bars.
After eight bars, the beats per minute changed and he now played the same pattern about one-third faster than he had been playing it before.. He was to keep this beat per minute for the rest of the song, he played this pattern at this speed for eight more bars and was surprised enough to jump ever so slightly when on the ninth bar, Kate started singing.
“Short people got no reason, short people got no reason, short people got no reason to liiiive.” Kate sang.
The down beats on the left hand came after every use of the word got.
She had a nice, raspy quality to her alto voice. The song was not high pitched at all. It was almost in a spoken tone with a few pitch changes and an actual holding of the note on live, but that didn’t matter. Kate’s voice had the sensual raspiness to it, but was also perfect pitch with a pleasing timbre. She had the depth of pipes and stage presence of Ethel Merman or Aretha Franklin. She not just sang on the stage, she seemed to prowl it. The audience was not ready for this kind of a performance at a high school talent show. There was an immediate stillness in the auditorium, yet an instant electricity at the same time.
Stan and Greg sat mesmerized, watching the red hair almost seem to take on a life of its own as Kate sang.
Jon almost missed the next beat pattern as Kate hit the last note on the phrase. It was so crystal clear and beautiful, he almost wanted to stop playing and watch the performance himself. Instead he caught himself, and kept playing. Since the piano part was pretty basic, he could feel himself loosening up and not being quite as tense. He started hitting the notes with purpose instead of just because they were on the paper. At the word live, Jon got to go down the scale with his left hand and he relished every note.
Kate continued singing. “They got little hands, little eyes, they walk around telling great big lies….”
Jon almost expected someone to stop them in this too politically correct world that they lived in. Talking about short people like that? That can’t be good for the Federation of Height Impaired Citizens, but, for some reason, Kate’s voice broke through what the words were saying.
“…they got little noses and tiny little teeth. They wear platform shoes on their nasty little feet, well I don’t want no short people, don’t want no short people, don’t want no short people ‘round here.”
It was time for Jon to just play a little bridging section. He was playing the right hand almost, but not quite, stacatto like, and was hitting the left hand notes with gusto, giving the song a bass kick. He looked ahead and saw that a change was coming. He prepared and flowed naturally into it as though he had played this song for years. The music almost turned into a schmaltzy message type song music, but Jon, knowing the genius that is Randy Newman, knew that it was as satirical as all get out. Words and music, both.
Kate sang as though she got the joke as well. “Short people are just the same as you and I, a fool such as I, all men are brothers until the day they die, it’s a wonderful world. “
As Kate sang the word world, Jon started back on his right hand rhythm, left hand bass. The down beats again came after the word ‘got’ each time.
“Short people got nobody, short people got nobody, short people got nobody to looooove.”
There was a whooping in the crowd and all of a sudden the audience started having fun with the song, too, not just listening to Kate sing.
“They got little baby legs, they stand so low, you got to pick them up just to say hello-“ Kate grinned as she sang that line and she got a whooping round of encouragement from all the tall friends ribbing their short companions.
“They got little cars that go beep beep beep, they got little voices going peep peep peep. They got grubby little fingers and dirty little minds-“ At this the audience went into catcalls as Kate reached down to her shirt’s neckline and ever so slightly tugged at it. “They’re gonna get’cha every time, well, I, don’t want no short people, don’t want no short people, don’t want no short people ‘round here.”
Next, it was Jon’s turn to improvize and jam. He was continuing to do the rhythm and bass boosts, but every four times he did it, he threw in extra notes either sliding up or down the scale, turning the three note bass kick into chords as he would go down, just making it his own. He played the cycle eight bars four times, jazzing it up each time.
The crowd got more and more wild as they got into Jon’s improv and Kate’s strutting around like a rock star, getting eye contact with boys near the front row and making suggestive hand motions. Stan and Greg stood up, and most of the audience followed their lead. Greg started whistling with his fingers in his mouth. Even girls were dancing in their seats to the rhythm Jon was providing while the guys were drooling over Kate.
Aleisha was enjoying the fact that it was easy to see that Jon was the audience favorite at least. She enjoyed watching him perform. She was giddy at the sight of watching him go from being a jumble of nerves to loosening up and rocking out. She grinned and clapped along with the rest of the audience. She joined Greg in the whistles with her fingers in her mouth. The difference was hers were aimed solely at Jon.
Mills saw the end of the song coming, but he could hear Kate not speaking into the microphone over the roar of the crowd. He knew she was speaking, but couldn’t make out a word. He kept his fingers playing the rhythm as he leaned over the music and shrugged while he mouthed the word “what?’
“Go back!” she yelled. “Go back to the top of the fourth page! Link it up and replay it till the end!”
When Jon was only playing his right hand, he quickly flipped back to page four. It was the start of the fake schmaltz. He nodded to Kate. She turned back around and started vamping the crowd once again. Jon found a perfect place to make the splice. He played one more eight bar round and then turned back, and started replaying the new bridge. Jon had memorized the music by this time so he just forgot looking at the page.
Kate started singing again, only this time really playing up each single word and instead of singing, almost growling into the mike.
“Short people are just the same as you and I, a fool such as I. All men are brothers until the day they die. It’s a wonderful world.” The crowd erupted again as Kate brought one leg up and thrust her chest out toward the audience. She had seen Tina Turner do it once and wanted to try it. It had worked.
Jon kept the rhythm going still and kept a strong bass presence but was throwing in extra notes all over the place and punching out the bass as hard as he possibly could on the old run down school piano.
“Short people got nobody, short people got nobody, short people got nobody to looooove!” Kate ground out each ‘nobody’.
“They got little baby legs, they staaaand so low, you got ta pick ‘em up just to saaaay hello. They got little cars that go beep beep beep.” Each of the beeps was a low rumbling stacatto bass note. “They got little voices going-“ Kate’s voice jumped an octave for the next two peep peeps and went to an amazingly high glass shattering, Mariah Carey note for the final peep..
Aleisha’s eyes widened to an unnatural state. “Damn!” she whispered.
“They got grubby little fingers and dirty little minds-“ Kate tugged on her neckline again, but this time really went for it. “They’re gonna get’cha every time, well, I, don’t want no short people, don’t want no short people, don’t want no short people ‘round here.”
Jon played through eight more bars and then ended in rousing fanfare, something that he imagined Billy Joel would play on his piano at the end of his last song in concert: a triumphant pounding bass chord on the last octave on the piano in unison with a pounding treble chord on the uppermost octave on the piano. As he played it, he stood up quickly and suddenly flinging the piano bench halfway across the stage with the forcefulness of it all and his hands went up in the air, as if he had just made a touchdown pass. He grabbed the mike that was on the piano. “I am Jonathan Mills and that was the amazing-“ he paused for a moment. Should he tell everyone Kate’s name? “The amazing Kate!” was his decided answer.
Even though he didn’t think it was possible, the crowd got even louder and had even more whistles and catcalls than there had been previously. He went to the front of the stage, stood on Kate’s left and grabbed her left hand.
“Why didn’t you tell me you could sing like that?” he muttered through the side of his mouth.
“You never asked,” was Kate’s reply. They raised their clenched hands together and as they brought them down, they bowed to their adoring fans. They raised their hands again and bowed a second time. Stomping of feet had started. They did the bow a third time and finally Kate tugged Jon off of the stage.
As they got behind the curtains, Jon pulled Kate to him and hugged her tight. His adrenalin was flowing at an all time high. As he let her go, he took a step back to admire her. “That was incredible. You were amazing!”
She was grinning widely. “You did a damn fine job, too, if I may say so my damn self, thank you!” She grabbed his hand and pulled him through the stage door into the hall. “Come on! We’ve got to go!”
Jon was puzzled. “What do you mean? We have to stay around and get the award. It’s only going to be another half hour or so. Come on, Kate! I’ve wanted to get a reaction like that up on stage ever since I was in seventh grade drama! Let me enjoy this!”
Kate was still smiling, but shaking her head. “You did an amazing job, Jon! I know you think that that was an easy piece, and, truth be told, it’s not that hard. But only someone with true talent could have pulled off all of the improv riffs and scales, and notes, and played it on the first time with a joy to match what I was doing onstage. You are on an adrenalin rush that you can identify that is different than the other recent adrenalin rushes, but I need you to come with me right now.
“I’ve actually been in the back row watching the entire show!” Kate continued. “There is no way that they can give the top prize to anyone but you! There are still five bits to go, but judging on the shit that has been up on that stage tonight, you don’t have anything to worry about! The award is yours and sewn up and in the bag! There will be a mutiny if they even try to play the whole ‘you must be present to win’ card, so I need you to trust me. I need you to come with me right now! Earlier this afternoon you told me that you were in. This is what being in means, Jon. It means letting go of personal wants and desires and doing what’s best for The Agency and the nation.”
In the matter of a few seconds, Jon’s face went from utter joy to total resignation. He took a deep cleansing breath. And let it out slowly. “You’re right, Kate. You’re right.” He took another deep breath. “Where are we going?”
“We are going to talk.” She started walking out of the building.
Jon put his hands up by his sides in a shrugging motion. He had a look of confusion on his face. “That didn’t really answer my question...” He started to follow her.
Several people started coming out of the doors as if they knew they had already seen the winner, so why stick around? Stan and Greg, however, had gone up on stage and followed Jon and Kate’s lead and gone out of the stage door. “Jon!” Stan called. They ran up to meet Jon.
Greg slapped his friend on the back. “That was great! You were great! She was great!”
Jon laughed at the enthusiasm. “Thanks, but I really gotta get going!” He motioned to the doors that Kate was already at.
“What’s up, Jon?” Stan asked. “Honestly, is everything on the up and up?”
“Yes, “ Jon answered. “Everything is on the up and up. I just need to go with her.”
“Aleisha was wanting to follow us, but she got stuck by the crowd. She should be out here any second.”
“I really can’t. I mean, I’ll be seeing her tomorrow night, anyways. We set up a date.”
This time, Greg gave Jon a surprisingly hard punch on the shoulder. “Good for you, stud!”
Kate came walking back up the hallway. “Jon, we really need to go!”
Jon put up his hand. “Okay, okay. I know, Kate. I just want to say goodbye.”
Kate grabbed Jon by the elbow. “Actually, they can come along.”
All three of the guy’s faces were awe struck. “Excuse me, miss?” Greg vocalized for the group.
“You can come along,” Kate repeated. “I was going to wait until tomorrow morning, but since the opportunity has presented itself, they may as well come right now. But, in order for them to come along right now, we must goooooooo.” Kate stretched out the last word as she tugged at Jon’s elbow again.
The trio followed Kate out to her car.
It took Aleisha several more minutes to make it out to the hall. She ran down the hall, calling Jon’s name. She even left the building and looked around at the parking lot and the street. She didn’t know it, but she watched as Kate’s Lumina pulled out of the school’s parking lot into traffic.
Aleisha’s grin faded into a frown as she buttoned up her brown jacket against the wind. She shoved her hands deep into her jacket pockets, lowered her head, and walked to her car, scuffing her shoes.

Chapter 8

2011-04-27T06:34:00.002-06:00

CHAPTER 8

“You are one cocky son of a bitch! Did you know that?” Kate was fuming.
“I really don’t think my cockiness should enter into anything! What about the guns that were loaded with actual bullets? Who fell down on that job?”
Kate and Jon were in Jon’s front room arguing over the events of the last hour. They were both pacing back and forth in the small open square in the center of the room surrounded by a couch, 2 chairs, and a piano.
“The kid was carrying a loaded weapon! She was a split second away from blowing her head off!”
“And who was it that stopped that? Hmm. Who was that? I’m curious? “
“You may have stopped that! You are correct!”
“May have stopped that? May have stopped that?”
“But you didn’t follow directions, did you? It’s quite possible that that situation wouldn’t have happened if you would have just followed the goddamn directions that I gave you!”
“Oh, you gave me directions?”
“Yes, I gave you directions! I said that at some point in the meeting to slip in the part about secrecy. At some point! At some point, Jon!” As Kate was repeating herself, Jon started repeating the words ‘at some point’ along with her. “I did not say to just go in there and be a cocky little asshole like you had all the answers in the world and accuse him outright!”
“What does it matter how I did it? It was a training mission, Kate! It was a training mission! It was all an act anyway until real bullets were brought in!”
“You didn’t even know about the real bullets until after it was all over!”
Jon shook his head and threw his hands up in the air. “Who cares if I knew about them right away or not? I thought they were live bullets from the beginning! I didn’t know they were blanks until after I found out that it was a training exercise, and then I found out that they were real! Kind’ve like a large vicious circle!”
“Well, who cares about your vicious circle? Cynthia had an earpiece and could hear that you were already accusing her husband so she hurried faster than she probably should have to get back out to the table! If you hadn’t played Mister Big Cock Cowboy, maybe the incident wouldn’t have been so bad!”
“Look, we’re going around in circles here!”
“Are they vicious circles?” Kate mocked.
“May I just get a few words in edgewise?”
Jon could tell Kate was biting her cheek and pursing her lips just waiting for him to say the wrong thing.
“I have two major questions, here. May I ask them?” Jon asked, angry, but cautious, knowing that Kate was ready to pounce.
“Shoot.”
“Try not to use that phrase, please.” Kate glowered at him. Jon held up his hands as if in apology. “Sorry.” Kate backed off and sat on the couch.
“First,” Jon continued, “what was up with the guns?” Jon paused. He realized that Kate was ready for him to just tear into a rampage. “That was not rhetorical.”
“Those were guns that came out of The Agency’s gun cabinet. They all have a little piece of blue tape on them indicating that they should all be blank cartridges. Whoever filled them last is the one responsible.”
“Shouldn’t that be something to look into?”
“Walter assured me that he would.”
“Is he a paperwork kind of a guy? Will he research it?”
“Yes he will. Next question?”
“What is up Richard and Judith’s-“
“Cynthia’s.” Kate corrected.
“-Cynthia’s parenting skills? Why would you let your seven year old daughter watch you tape a gun to a toilet bowl and then leave her alone in the restroom whether the gun was filled with blanks or not? Doesn’t that seem just a little on this side of child endangerment to you?”
“I’m sure she thought that Alex was right behind her.”
“I’m sure she might have at one point! But what was she doing letting her daughter see that she had a gun in the first place? Doesn’t this strike you as bad parenting? Why is there even a husband and wife team working together at the Agency? Let alone on the same assignment? Let alone with their own kid?”
“Married couples comprise a very important kind of team at the Agency. There is a certain level of trust there that is more than ever comes with just arbitrarily assigned partners!”
“Okay, so they can trust and rely on each other more than just partners can, but why drag the kids into it? Was she even supposed to be there or was that another screwing of the pooch by The Agency today?”
“She was supposed to be there today, Jon. It was supposed to be a nice, happy family setting to show that he had gone and become a family man!”
“So, do all married couples bring their kids along on assignments?”
“Are you kidding me, Jon? Of course not! Just in this situation-“
“Where the kid almost got killed!”
“Okay, so that was a mistake! Are you happy? I’m admitting that it was a mistake!” Kate stood up again to defend her position.
“So, this wife of a married couple of Agents brings their kid along, right? It’s supposed to be a training mission. She lets her daughter watch her bring a gun to a restaurant and leave it in the restroom and then leaves without her daughter? Come on, Kate! She sat down! She didn’t just walk out of the bathroom without her daughter; she went to the table and sat down! Wouldn’t you think that after a few moments of sitting at the table she would realize that her daughter was missing?”
“Here’s where we go back to you being a cocky son of a bitch!”
“Fine! Let’s hear it!”
“If you hadn’t have accused Richard so damn soon, she wouldn’t have had to go into her role quite as quickly!”
“And now, here we go to another one of my points!”
“Shoot!”
“That’s exactly it! If the scenario had played out like it was supposed to, I would be shot, killed and dead at this precise moment! Richard would have come out of the bathroom, Godfathered me, if he was following the film precisely, shot me in the head with very little chance of my survival and been shocked as hell when I was dead and started bleeding! Jesus Christ, Kate, don’t you get it? The situation was very close to being deadly on so many accounts; it’s not funny! And this was a set up training situation? Maybe someone should look into the training program because right now- it sucks! It’s a wonder you have any Agents at all! I’m surprised anybody makes it through a year as an Agent, let alone training, without being wheeled out in a body bag!”
Kate took Jon’s last point like a punch in the stomach. She almost visibly winced and sat down in one of the recliners this time. It took a moment for her to get her voice back. “Okay, so the last couple of days have been rough,” Kate acquiesced.
“Rough? I’ve been kidnapped by a couple of goons from school, shot by a tranquilizer dart, almost shot and killed, stopped a seven year old from blowing her brains out and you call that a little rough?”
“Does challenging work better for your semantical argument?”
“Challenging? I don’t care about the semantics of it! I want to know that if I join the Agency that I won’t be killed by any stupid goof ups at the office! I need to know that I have a team that will back me up, and go to great lengths from making sure that I don’t get killed! That’s what I want!”
Kate was silent. Jon could see her eyes welling up. He took a step over to her.
“We made mistakes, okay?” She lashed out. Jon went back to his standing position. “We made mistakes. Nobody’s perfect! You have taken shit situations and turned them into sunny days! You made one real mistake. You shot Chad Peterson, but he’s doing fine. He was more of collateral damage than a mistake, truth be told. You’ve saved many lives. What do you want me to say? I’m sorry? That doesn’t quite seem to do it, Jon. You’ve only known about the Agency for a little over 24 hours and you’ve already saved at least thirty lives, probably more! Who knows what would have happened if the Suicide Squad of Stanley’s had made it up those stairs? Your life, probably several of the Agency’s diner’s agents lives.
“You have done great! We wanted you because we knew that you didn’t give in to authority figures easily. Hell, your feud with Mrs. Perry proves that. We wanted you because you think fast on your feet. We wanted you because you are a cocky little son of a bitch, in the best possible way. We wanted you because you don’t let fear get in your way. You let it help you and push you through the situation. You’re going to do great here, but you gotta trust us. You have to trust us that we will be there for you. You have to trust us, even if we haven’t done a good job yet, that we are here to protect you, the nation, the citizens, everyone! You don’t know us very well, so if it’s hard trusting us because of our mistakes at the beginning, maybe it’ll help if you know that we trust you.”
“I’m sure that you trust me, and I’m sure that you all try hard, but what assurance do I have that I will be safe?”
“We will not allow you to fail. We have recruited you so that you will succeed.” She paused. “ I won’t allow you to die. If I would have known that there was a problem today, I would’ve forced you to get back and I would have handled the disarming of Alex. I won’t allow you to fail.”
Jon shrugged off her sincerity. “But what assurance do I have?”
Kate looked up at him and looked deep into his eyes. “My word. You have my word.”
With the solemnity and determination in her voice, Jon knew that that was going to be enough. He nodded. “You got me, Kate. You got me. How do I sign up to be the next Agent?”
Kate stood up and walked over to him. She threw her arms around him and gave him a big hug. “Welcome to the Agency, Jon Mills!”
This was a different type of hug than she had given him in the stairwell. Jon had never been hugged this tightly by someone who was not directly related to him, so he was a little taken aback. He was amazed at how good her hair smelled, even after being in a diner for an hour this morning. He could feel a little wetness on his neck. He assumed it was from the tears that were now surely falling out of her blue eyes. Kate’s breath was warm and moist on the back of his neck. Jon got the chills and his hairs stood up on the back of his neck. He could feel her chest rising and falling as she cried silently. As her chest moved, he was able to feel her breasts against his body. It was a strange feeling. Not at all like he had imagined them to feel. Just this thought caused his face to get hot and red with embarrassment.
Jon had no idea of how to respond to this display. If he hugged her back, would she get the wrong impression? If he didn’t hug her, would she think that he was being an asshole? If he hugged her, did it mean that the teacher student relationship would take on a new meaning? If he didn’t hug her, would she think that he thought she was repulsive and weak for crying?
Should he kiss her? Is a kiss alright just to help someone calm down? Is a kiss always romantic? No, it's not always romantic, Jon reasoned. Parents kiss their kids and if it's romantic they get arrested. Or should. Is a romantic kiss different than an unromantic kiss? Is an unromantic kiss different than a kiss used for comfort? No, he decided. There were way too many problems with the kissing scenario, but the hugging- that was something he could do.
His arms went up to her back and he gave her a quick squeeze. He needed a way out of this awkward predicament. He tried humor. .“Where are the forms to fill out?”
Kate gave a small laugh and then sniffed. Jon was right. She had been crying. He dropped his arms to her waist. She still had a tight hold around his waist, but she leaned back to look at him again. Her eyes were very red and puffy. Her smiling lips still quivered with the end of her crying. Jon instantly regretted how hard he had been on her. “Kate-“ he started.
Just then, they heard a key in the front door. Kate stepped away from Jon and Jon used this chance to get as far away from Kate’s body as he could. The front door opened and Stan and Greg walked in. They started up the stairs of the split-level house and grabbed onto the black wrought iron railing as they looked into the front room. Kate and Jon were separated, but Jon’s friends had already noticed that there was still a sort of an interrupted intimate feeling that was hanging in the room. Their eyes fell immediately upon the major oddity in the room. A girl- a woman, actually, alone in the house with Jon as his parents were out of town.
“Jon?” Stan asked.
“Hi, guys! What’s up?” Jon asked non-chalantly.
“Let me guess, bud,” Greg quipped, “the dream is always the same?”
“We should ask you the same thing!” Stan said.
“I bet I know what’s up, Jon!” Greg continued his mini stand up routine.
Kate wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “Thanks, Jon. I need to get going. I knew you would feel my pain at the fact that they actually made Howard the Duck.”
Stan was standing at the top of the stairs with Greg behind right behind him. “Aleisha wanted to come with us, Jon,” Stan warned. “Good thing she didn’t, huh?” Stan shook his head as he blocked Kate’s exit. “You move pretty fast. One moment you know nothing about women, the next day you get a date with Aleisha and have a little make out session with an older woman while your parents are away.”
Jon could feel his temper raise. “How dare you make those accusations, Stan? How dare you? You know nothing about what has happened the last two days!”
“I may not know exactly, but I know that she-“ he said the word she harshly and spit just slightly on Kate’s face, “has something to do with it.”
“Let her go, Stan. Let her walk down the stairs and leave. She has nothing to do with whatever you are angry at.”
Greg, after spending the last twenty seconds like a deer in headlights, came back to his senses and touched Stan’s arm to move it away from the railing. Stan shook him off.
“Stan, come on.” Greg was trying to talk his friend down.
“What are you doing, Stan?” Jon asked. “I’ve known you since we were in second grade. I have never known you to act like this.”
“Me? Act like this? I’ve known you to throw attitude, Mr. Mills! Now it’s my turn!”
“Don’t do this, Stan.” Jon warned. “Walk away. I can’t explain it, but you have to trust me.”
Stan advanced on Kate. “You were driven out of the school parking lot yesterday, Jon! We were scared to death for you! You disappeared and we had no explanation! You come to school this morning with some dumbass story that you were at the police station and got attacked by some guy who was embezzling funds from the drama club or something? What the hell kind of a story is that?”
Stan was slowly backing Kate into the kitchen. Greg was still back on the stairs. Jon was keeping a safe distance but watching every movement made and listening to every word and sound. Jon could tell that Stan was getting angrier, and he could tell that Kate was feeling threatened and was getting ready to take Stan out the equation.
“Kate!” Jon warned.
She looked over. Jon was patting the air and shaking his head as if to say to let it go. Kate arched her eyebrows. ‘Are you sure?’ she seemed to ask. Jon nodded.
“You didn’t go to the police station for that, did you, Jon?” Stan was talking to Jon but was staring at Kate.
“You’re right, Stan. I didn’t go to the police station for that.”
“This morning, you were obviously not in your right mind as you play that piece of music in one minute flat. It was pretty amazing, but something wasn’t right. I assumed you were thinking about Aleisha. Then, we see you being pulled out of school again for the second day in a row by her!”
“Actually, I didn’t meet her until an hour or so after I got taken out of school yesterday.”
“It doesn’t matter! I’ve been your friend for ten years and I won’t let you throw your life away on her! You’ve had a crush on Aleisha for far too long! Your parents trust you way too much! You’re too good of a guy to let her seduce you away from your friends and family who care about you!”
Kate couldn’t hold back any longer. “Seduce?”
Jon motioned again for her to cool off.
“Seduce?” Kate repeated. “I can’t tell you what’s been going on the last two days, Stan, but I can tell you it’s not what you’re thinking.”
“Then what is it?”
Kate narrowed her eyes and moved her face toward Stan. “Are you deaf? I just said that I couldn’t tell you.”
“If you’re not taking advantage of my friend, then what did we just interrupt? Why does it need to be kept secret?”
“There are things other than sex that need to be kept quiet.”
“Are you a thief of some sort?”
Kate snorted at the accusation. “Nope.”
“A private instructor? Aikido? Feng Shui? Line dancing?”
“Not even close.”
“Then what? What are you doing to my friend? He showed up hurt today! If you had anything to do with that, you’ll wish you had never met him!” He raised his hands up.
Jon could tell that he was not threatening her just talking with his hands, like Jon was very apt to do. But Stan had put Kate into a corner. Kate gave one last tilted head glance at Jon. Jon shook his head. Kate nodded and Jon knew that was the end of the discussion.
Kate grabbed both of Stan’s hands by the wrists. She brought her knee up into Stan’s groin and then crossed her own hands, which tied up Stan’s arms. She pulled as hard as she could on Stan’s wrists and bent him in half. Kate’s knee then connected with his face. She then whipped his arms apart and flung him to the ground on his back while doing so. She dropped to one knee and hit Stan in the chest with her elbow. He didn’t move.
Jon and Greg stood silently, barely breathing.
“Don’t worry,” Kate assured them as she stood up. “He’s knocked unconscious, not dead. He’ll be hurting when he wakes up in about twenty minutes, but he’ll be okay. Just remind him never to try that with me again.”
Jon walked over to Kate. “He didn’t mean to, Kate. He was just scared.”
Kate smiled. “I know. He’s a good friend. He was just protecting you, but I was just protecting myself. I can’t wait around any longer. I need to go back to the office. Apologize to him for me when he wakes up, will you?”
Kate patted Jon on the shoulder, limped down the stairs as if nothing had happened and out the door. Greg had given her plenty of leeway.
Jon felt as if his life had just been hit by a whirlwind for the millionth time in two days.
“Who was that woman?” Greg finally asked.
Jon smiled. “That was Kate Thompson. She’s a friend.” He recognized Greg’s incredulous look. “She’s a friend. Trust me.”
It took almost an hour for Stan to regain consciousness. In the intervening time, Jon and Greg had talked very unspecifically about the last two days while playing a game of 9- tile Scrabble. Greg had won by thirty-three points. Jon was slightly upset because Greg had built up from an ‘S’ on the outermost line of the board to hit the triple word score with the word excavate. As they were cleaning up the mess, Stan started moaning and moving. Jon left the rest of the game cleanup to Greg while he went and got a bag of ice for Stan.
Stan sat up in the middle of the kitchen and held his head with his right hand His left hand went down to his groin.
“Hey, man,” Jon sat next to him on the floor. ”How you feeling?”
Stan opened and closed his mouth several times. His right hand went to his jaw and then to his chest. “Been better.” Jon and Greg exchanged slightly amused grins. “What happened?”
Jon gave his friend the icepack. “You picked the wrong woman to mess with.”
Stan winced as the ice touched his jaw. “Obviously.”
The only sound for a while was Greg putting the game box back into its place in the game closet. He then joined his other two friends.
Jon broke the silence. “I honestly want to thank you, Stan. You stuck up for me. I appreciate that. I really do. You tried to stop me from making a big mistake.” He tenderly put his hand on Stan’s shoulder. “You were right. It probably didn’t look very good when you guys came in. And I know you’ve been worried and concerned about me. I know my cover story for yesterday sucked. But I promise. Everything is okay. I did get hurt yesterday and today has already been a hell of a day, but, all things considered, I’m okay.”
Stan looked at Jon. “Has she hurt you?”
Jon smiled and shook his head. “No.”
“Have you and she, you know-?”
Jon smiled bigger and shook his head more vigorously. “No, we haven’t had sexual relations if that’s what you’re asking. I will say that we have been very closely involved while working on things that she needed my help on, but nothing quite that close.” Jon emphasized the word ‘that’. “I will admit that she is a very striking woman, to put it mildly, but that I will be true to Aleisha, who I have yet to date. Can you still be monogamous to someone you haven’t dated yet?”
Greg piped in with his two cents. “I think so. As long as you do what you feel is right, I think the rest is just words.”
Another silence while Stan nursed his wounds. Again, Jon took the initiative. “I really wish I could tell you guys what’s going on, but just trust me that it’s nothing bad or illegal. Kate is a good, honorable person. In her line of work, she asked for my help and I have obliged.”
Stan again looked at Jon with slightly narrowed eyes. “She’s not an escort, is she?”
Jon gave a grinning glower and gave Stan a friendly tap on the shoulder. Stan winced. “Sorry.”
Greg stood up and went to the phone. “It’s just past noon. Anybody want pizza?”
Jon stood up. “Count me in. My parents are buying!”
“Right on!” Stan said from the floor as he slouched back down into a prone position and put the icebag on his crotch.
“Get two extra large combo pizzas, Greg!” Jon called out from his parent’s room as he retrieved the seventy dollars from his dad’s drawer.
“No, no, no!” Greg countered. “I don’t like green peppers! They give me heartburn!”
Jon re-entered the kitchen. “You old man!” he chided. “Fine. One extra large combo, one extra large carnivore combo.”
“That works!” Greg smiled as he dialed the number.
Stan stood up slowly and wobbled slightly as he gripped the kitchen counter for support. “Why do you get heartburn from green peppers and not from sausage, bacon, and pepperoni?”
“My stomach doesn’t like rabbit food?” Greg answered as his attention went to the other end, which had clearly been picked up.
Jon walked over to Stan. “You sure you’re okay?”
“She walloped me good.”
Jon grinned. “Yes, she most certainly did.”
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Stan asked Jon.
Jon thought for a minute and slowly nodded his head. “Yes. I’ve never been better in my life.” He looked at Stan. “Not when I have such good friends who look out for me”
Jon knew that Stan would regret his encounter with Kate when he had to go to basketball practice in just a few short hours.

Chapter 7

2011-04-26T08:25:00.000-06:00

This is a long one.

CHAPTER 7

“I have a life, Kate! I would like to be able to live it!” Jon was on a tirade as Kate pulled out of the school parking lot.
“Jon, I hate to break this wonderful little illusion that you have going for yourself, but there are a few things more important than whether or not you make it into the finals for the talent show tonight!” Kate was using her finger to pinpoint every few words on the dashboard as she was driving down the road.
“A few things more important? For who? For the Agency? Let’s go to final jeopardy for just a few moments, may we please? This high school senior has yet to officially sign on to the big, secret government entity known as the Agency! Hmm. Who is Jonathan Edward Mills, Alex? Good hell, Kate! I saved YOUR ass yesterday! I didn’t go because of some weird obligation that I felt to anyone at The Agency!”
“You weren’t given papers to sign before you went up in the building?”
“Papers? What the hell do papers have to do with anything? Do you really think we were sitting down there conducting business negotiations while being shot at?”
“Well, the U.S. Government usually needs permission to get you fake ID’s before anything is processed…”
“Forget the ID’s for just a moment or two, shall we? Let’s focus our argument here on the fact that I have yet to say yes to any of this shit!”
Kate turned her attention away from the road. “When you went up in that building yesterday, that was officially under Agency jurisdiction. By doing so, you must either be an A) agent of the aforementioned Agency or B) a really dumb fu-“
“Watch the road!”
Kate slammed on her brakes as she came dangerously close to the bumper of a car stopped at a red light. In a very conversational manner, she said, “Thanks.” There was a period of silence in the car as they both took deep breaths. The light turned green, and Kate laid on the horn. “Come on, it’s green! Can we move it a little more, please?” She then turned her conversational attention back to Jon while keeping her eyes on the road. “Slow down, wait a minute here, huckleberry. By going up in that building, you went ahead and basically said, without speech or signature, that you would be a part of the Agency!”
“How does that constitute an agreement of any sort?”
“If you go into a construction area without a helmet and get hurt, if the company has a sign that says Hard Hat Area, then you can’t sue them because they gave you warning about what may happen!”
“So to become a construction worker, I just need to enter into a construction site, and that means that I have agreed to become part of their company? Listen to your logic, here, Kate. It’s not smelling very good!”
“So, do you not want to become an Agent?”
“I never said that!”
“Do you want to be an agent?”
“I never said that either! All I am saying is that I would like to be able to have enough of a life and enough space, so that I can make up my own mind! If you want to talk about an extreme lifestyle that started with me being in the hospital less than 6 hours after I supposedly started work, I would say that the Agency is obligated to give me a little breathing room!”
“The U.S. Government respectfully wishes that they could do you the honor of giving you the time needed, but guess what? Security comes first and they need you, now!”
“Why me? Why today?”
“Oh, so now you want to start talking about why I had to drag you out of school? That should have been the first thing out of your mouth!”
“Now that I’m asking, do you really think that is a good time to reprimand me?”
The energy in the car changed almost simultaneously. “Good point. The reason we need you today, Jon, is because you are a neutral party.” Kate explained.
“Neutral? Like Switzerland, neutral? I’m not sure if I have enough knowledge to stop a world war or something like that…”
“Not quite. One of our agents has quit recently to spend more time with his family. He had a few close calls earlier this year and wanted to get out of the business. We think he is giving information about us over to a third party.”
“Third party? What are we talking about here? FBI, CIA, North Korea?”
“We don’t know. But, technically, the CIA would not be third party since we are financed by the same money that they are, but that’s neither here nor there. We don’t know. With you being a new recruit-“
“Watch the semantics, Kate!”
“Fine. With the possibility of you being a possible new recruit, we-“
“We who?”
“Bender, Chad, and I.”
“Continue.”
“We feel that you will be of no threat to this ex-agent so that he will feel safe with you in a meeting to discuss Agency terms. At some point in this meeting, we would like you to slip in the part about the privacy of all of this and see what his reaction is.” Kate paused.
“But what, Kate? It sounds like a but.”
“But if you feel any hostility or if a gun is brought into play, you must take him down.”
“Take him down?” Jon knew what this meant, but he paused to find the right words to restate his suspicions. “ You mean kill him, don’t you, Kate?”
“Yes, Jon. I do mean kill him.”
Jon was very sobered by the response. “What are the chances?”
“Of what, specifically?”
“That he might be selling out to a third party, that he might be a rogue agent, that I may have to kill him?”
“I wish I had some way to gauge that. I don’t know. I can’t tell you. All I can tell you is that Bob was a great friend and co-worker. That’s why neither Bender, Chad, nor myself want to do it. We have way too much invested in this. We wouldn’t be able to let our instincts guide us. We might think, just for a moment, that friendship is more important and that could cost one of us our lives.”
Jon didn’t say anything for a minute. “I think I like the arguing part better, Kate. That didn’t have anywhere near the repercussions of the later part of this discussion.”
Kate was pulling the car into a strip mall. “I know, Jon.” She pulled into a parking stall next to the road, about as far from any of the stores as possible. “The meeting has already been set up. It’s at the Dee’s Restaurant over there. The party name is Bender; we didn’t want last names for either you or him. Just go in and a waitress will seat you. The ex-agent’s name is Richard. Got it?”
Jon was staring straight down into his lap. “Yup. I got it.”
“You don’t need to sound like the last survivor of a worldwide plague. You could be a bit more cheerful.”
“A man may be coming in to have his last breakfast with me. I wasn’t expecting that two hours ago.”
Kate turned to Jon. “I know, but, if we, the Agency generally and you and I specifically, don’t do anything about this man, who knows what might come because of it? Many of our, and by this I mean just the United States in general, many of our foreign operatives may be kidnapped, ambushed, killed. The security risk of our nation may be at stake, here. You’re the one who might be able to end this in the most peaceful way imaginable. I know that this is quite possibly the worst of all bad situations to put you in, but with the moxie you showed yesterday, I can’t think of anyone better.”
Jon still stared straight into his lap. “Can I get arrested for indecent exposure of my moxie?” he weakly joked.
“You can do it, Jon.” Kate reached into a brown paper bag that was in the back seat. She pulled out a gun. “This is a Colt .357. I assume you’ve shot a gun before?”
“Yeah. All the time. I love taking AK-47’s out and hunting those really dangerous ducks in the pond. You never know. They may leak all of our national security to the Russian mallards.”
“Careful, Jon,” Kate warned. “Honestly, do you know how to handle a weapon?”
Jon looked at Kate in the eyes for the first time since Kate had told him about this mission. “Yes. My dad, as part of his benefits of being a highway patrolman, gets three thousand rounds of ammunition a year so that he can target practice. About every other year, we go out to the salt flats and shoot at cans, bottles, whatever garbage we take out there.” He paused. “I know how to shoot.”
“Take it.”
Jon stared at the gun that was weighing heavily in Kate’s hands.
“Take it, Jon.” Kate’s voice was stern yet caring. “I refuse to let you take a step in there without being properly armed.”
Jon didn’t move a muscle. He kept staring at the gun.
“Hopefully you won’t have to use it. Just take it and be prepared.”
Jon reached out and Kate slipped the heavy piece into his hands. Jon shook his head. “I’m not going to use it, but I am planning on being prepared.” He slid forward in the seat and slipped the gun into his back waistband. He then pulled his T-shirt out and covered the bulge.
“I’m here for you, Jon. There is a bug that has been planted underneath the table. We went in an hour ago and got the manager’s permission. I will be right out here listening to the conversation. If you need backup, you will get it.”
“I hear their Denver omelet is really tasty,” Jon muttered as he opened the door.
“Did you hear what I said, Jon? Did it register?”
Jon looked up at Kate as he put his hand on the top of the passenger’s side door. “10-4, Kate.” He slammed the door and started across the parking lot.
Each step Jon took, it felt like his chest was tightening and his head seemed to be getting lighter. Each taken parking stall represented another person in the diner who might be dead in just a few minutes. These people came here for breakfast and they may be the ones to be toast, he thought.
As Jon entered the restaurant, he looked around slowly. His chest loosened a bit and his light-headedness went away. He could now see the situation clearly. It seemed like a perfectly normal morning at the local neighborhood diner. All ages were represented, both sexes, all economic backgrounds, and, maybe even a communist killer, Jon mused.
“May I help you?” a waitress looked slightly annoyed at Jon.
Jon snapped out of his thoughts. “Sorry?”
“Just one today?” she tried another tactic.
Jon looked at her name badge and smiled at her warmly. “Actually, Sally, I have a party who may already be here. The name is Bender?”
The name alone seemed to warm Sally the waitress right up. “Yes, sir. This way.” She motioned with her hand to Jon’s left and he followed her to the furthest booth from the front door. There was already a man in his early forties seated at the table reading a newspaper. Sally motioned for Jon to take a seat on the man’s left. Jon did so.
“May I get you anything to drink, sir?” Sally asked Jon.
“This is going to sound silly, Sally, but may I get a chocolate milkshake this early in the morning?”
“Not silly at all sir. Would you like a cherry on top?”
Jon didn’t know if she realized that she was playing the S game with him, but he decided to continue. “That would be scrumptious, Sally.” Jon beamed at her.
“Sure thing. See you in a split second,” she told him.
“Sayonara,” Jon grinned and nodded at her as she walked toward the kitchen.
The man at the booth grinned at this exchange as he lowered the paper. “Jon, I presume?”
Jon extended his hand. “Richard?”
The man seemed a little taken aback. “Bob, actually.”
Jon made a face. “I’m sorry, Bob. I thought Kate said I was meeting with a Richard.”
Bob didn’t blink an eye. “That explains it. I love Kate to death, but she’s horrible at names.” Bob laughed.
Jon picked up his water glass. “Is that right? Horrible with names. Imagine that.” Jon felt around with his free hand underneath the table until he found the bug. He tapped it lightly with his finger. “I’ll have to mention that to her at some point.”
Bob took a long drink of his coffee.
Jon set his water glass down with a surprising amount of force. “Let’s cut the shit, shall we, Bob?”
In her car, Kate’s jaw dropped. “What are you doing, Jon?”
Bob almost choked on his hot drink. “Excuse me?”
“Cut. The. Shit.” Jon enunciated each word. “If you’re as good as Kate says, you know why you’re here. You know why I’m here. Why do we need to dance around in circles like an old couple slow dancing in a nursing home rec room at 2 in the afternoon?” Jon lowered his voice and leaned into Bob. “The Agency thinks you’re selling secrets to a third party. Are you?”
“Mr. Mills, I find that to be a highly upsetting accusation…”
Jon’s gaze never wavered. “Are? You?”
Jon stared at Bob who made not another peep.
“Parlez -vous English, Bob? Are you selling secrets to a third party?”
“Well, Jon, it’s very difficult to say-“
Jon cut him off. “Not difficult at all, Bob. You either are-“ Jon held up his left hand, “Or you’re not.” He held up his right hand to make the point. “Sell you secrets?”
“You can’t just ask me things like that!” Bob objected.
“Oh, trust me, Bob, I can and I will. Again, as I’m sure you know-“ Jon’s right hand disappeared under the table, “- Kate is listening to every word that goes on.” He had pried the bug off the table bottom and flung it into the middle of the sugar packets on the table. “What’s going on, Bob?” Jon sat back in his chair and stared directly at Bob.
Bob didn’t look at Jon for a good thirty-second time span. His eyes darted around the restaurant. “Mr. Mills, you have to understand-“
“What do I have to understand, Bob?”
“My family is very important to me and my wife and child are in the restroom at the moment, and I can’t have you making these allegations when they are here.”
As if on cue, a woman walked out of the bathroom and sat down next to Bob. “I see your friend finally made it,” she observed.
Bob smiled a nervous smile. “This is Jon.”
The woman extended her hand. “Hi, Jon. My husband never introduces me. I am Judith.”
Jon only shook her hand to be polite. “Hi.” His eyes bored into Bob.
“Are you going to tell her, Bob, or am I going to be forced to?”
“Mr. Mills, you must understand….”
“I hate to be rude, Judith, but The Agency seems to think that your husband is a spy for another organization and is selling those secrets and jeopardizing the entire country. Isn’t that right-“ Jon paused dramatically, ”-Bob?”
This time, Judith’s gaze never wavered on Jon. “I am quite aware of that, Jon.” She emphasized his name just as Jon had done to her husband’s. “In fact, I’m the one who set up the deal with the so called third party. I made the initial contact and sold the initial secrets. If you’re looking for a bogeyman, I’m him. After Bob found out, I blackmailed him. Obviously, if the Agency found the leak, they’d blame him, and since he is a family man who quit when we needed the money…. I think you can understand my need for a second income.” She smiled icily at Jon.
Sally the waitress returned with Jon’s shake. “There ya go, hun. Anything else?”
Jon never broke eye contact with Judith. “That should do it. This is more of a business dealing than a business lunch.”
Sally sensed the awkwardness at the table. “If you decide to get anything else, please let me know. I’ll just leave your ticket right here on the table and you can pay it up front when you’re ready.”
Jon picked the cherry out of the whipped cream and ate it as he kept staring at Judith. “That would be fine, sally. Thanks a lot.” Sally had already left the table.
“And, thanks for your confession, Judith.” He emphasized the second syllable of her name this time. “Something you didn’t notice while you were in the bathroom is that this place has been bugged. If you would like to take a nice look at the sugar packets, you will see that Kate Thompson has heard and recorded everything you just said, so there will be no more blackmailing. Bob is off the hook, and you just placed yourself neatly on it.” The front door to the restaurant opened and Kate strode in and started toward the table. “I’ve already had one hell of a week. I’ve already stopped a sniper attack in downtown Salt Lake, given an oral report, been in the hospital, been shot by a tranquilizer gun, tried out for a talent show, and gotten a date with a girl I’ve had a crush on for many years, and it’s only Tuesday. I would really appreciate it if you would just go with Ms. Thompson out to her car where she will cuff you and take you back to the Agency. Bob and I will follow behind you.”
Kate had reached the table now and was motioning for Judith to stand up.
Bob started to cry. “It was my fault. I quit before discussing it with her. She was just trying to help the family. Keep us living like we’re used to living.” Kate made a silent hand motion for Judith to stand again.
Jon slid down in a more comfortable position in his seat. “Sorry, Bob. Your wife is a manipulative bitch who is selling secrets to a third party that we have yet to name. Who is it, Judith?”
“I don’t need to tell you that.” Judith looked up at Kate.
“Come on, Judith. Both of my cases this week have been easy. They’ve followed the Bond formula. You push just a bit, and the villain spills his guts. Come on, Judith! Spill it! You already were stupid and confessed with a microphone face up on the table. Now that you’re busted, just put in the final piece of the puzzle.
Judith’s eyes widened and she turned toward the restrooms. Jon looked at Bob who was also looking to his right at the bathroom area. Jon’s gaze followed theirs. A seven-year-old girl was walking toward the table with a gun.
Jon exhaled strongly. “You have got to be shitting me!” he muttered.
Jon saw Kate’s right hand reach for her holster. “Kate!” he said in a commanding yet gentle tone. “You pull your gun, this restaurant’s clientele freaks out. There are tables over there near the restroom. It’s a miracle no one else has noticed this. If people start losing it, they may bump the kid and do more damage, so don’t even think about unholstering your weapon.” Kate’s hand moved away from her gun.
Jon grinned sarcastically at Judith. “Let me guess. Your kid?” Judith was muttering something to Bob. “There are no more secrets here, Judith. What were you saying?”
Bob spoke for his wife. “She said that Alex must have watched her hide the gun.”
Jon pointed to the kid who unbelievably had attracted no attention by walking towards her parent’s table with a gun “Alex?”
Bob nodded. “Yes. Short for Alexandra.”
“And Judith hid the gun?”
Bob continued nodding which by now almost seemed like a nervous tic. “Yes. If you were here for the reason we suspected, I was supposed to go into the bathroom and grab the gun. I couldn’t have had it on me in case you asked to frisk me.”
Now it was Jon’s jaw that almost dropped to the floor. “You were going to Godfather me? Drop the gun, keep the cannoli?” He turned to Kate. “Unbelievable!”
Jon slowly stood up with his hands clasped behind his back. Nonchalantly, he reached behind his shirt, as if reaching for his wallet, pulled out his Colt firearm and laid it gently on the table. “Kate, do the same, please.” Kate gave him an ‘are you nuts?’ stare, but complied with his wishes. “I’m going to give you another chance if you really want to take it. These guns will stay on this table as I walk away. If you wish, feel free to shoot me. Just be aware that I am going to try to make your daughter safe. You kill me, you may kill your daughter.” Jon locked eyes with Kate. “Trust me, Kate. I have tons of movies at my house. Who do you think baby-sits all the young cousins at family parties? I could quote The Jungle Book all the way through if you want me to. I know kids. I don’t need the gun. Take my place in the booth, please.”
“Jon, if we lose you or anyone else-“
“Don’t worry. Just make a noise if either of them go for the guns so that I have enough time to see my life flash before my eyes.” Kate took her seat. Jon looked at Bob again. “She’ll answer to Alex?”
“Yes.” Bob stopped nodding.
“Okay.” Jon turned his attention to the small girl who had stopped and was staring at the weapon in her hand. “Hey, Alex!” He called in a slightly higher pitched voice. Alex looked up at her name. Jon smiled at her and kept the smile on his face while he addressed everyone around them with a louder tone. “Ladies and gentlemen, please just listen to me for a moment. I want to make sure that everyone in here is safe. If you are close enough to see the restroom doors, please just quietly and calmly make your way to the front doors. As you make your exit, you may notice a small girl named Alex holding a gun that her mommy daddy let her play with!” He turned his attention fully back to Alex. “Didn’t they, Alex?” He returned to addressing the diners. “Do not alarm her in any way. The safety of everyone is better if you just calmly and orderly make your way out of the building! I will disarm the child in a safe manner, but we need to assure your safety first. Thank you."
Jon was amazed at how calm everyone acted. Several older women were a little jerky in their movements as they put on their coats and grabbed their purses, but no one jostled little Alex or invaded her space. Jon watched carefully as the final patron left the restaurant. “Judith, I assume the gun is loaded. Yes?”
Judith and Bob were clutching each other in fear. Neither responded to Jon’s query.
“Is the gun loaded, Judith?” Jon pressed.
Judith took in several deep heaving chestfuls of air, barely controlling her sobbing. “Yes. Yes it is.”
For the first time, Alex started holding the gun menacingly. The seven-year-old waved it in front of her, emulating the heroes on television. She closed one eye and squinted as if getting something in her sights.
“Hey, Alex! I’m Jon! What’cha doing?”
Alex smiled a big grin. “I’ve got a gun!” she said proudly.
“Yes, you do, don’t ya?” Jon took a cautious step closer to Alex. He felt like Indiana Jones in the temple at the beginning of Raiders of the Lost Ark. If he squinted, Jon could almost make the carpet look like the moss covered stones in the Idol Room.
Alex started playing with the gun. Jon took a deep breath and froze. The little girl gripped the gun by its barrel and put the butt on the floor. Using it like a cane, Alex lowered herself to the floor with the help of the gun. After she was seated, she kept hold of the barrel and was still using it as a play toy, this time using the butt as the barrel, with the actual barrel pointed at her chest.
“Guns are kinda cool, aren’t they, Alex?” Jon took another baby step.
“Yea,” Alex absent mindedly answered Jon. She was more interested at pointing the butt down the aisle.
“Do you know that they are used for all kinds of things?” Baby step.
“Yea.” Alex straightened her arms and aimed. She was looking down the barrel.
Jon could hear stiffening in the booth behind him. He took another step. “Some people use them to hunt animals for meat.” Jon’s voice sounded as if he were teaching the alphabet to a bunch of kindergartners. Another step.
“Jon,” Kate’s voice came from behind him.
“What?” Jon answered in the same sickeningly sweet voice, but kept his eyes on Alex. He took another step. Alex started fidgeting with the gun even more, almost losing her grip on the barrel.
“Just get the gun away from her!”
“Kate, in order for her to shoot the gun, the trigger must be pulled.” Jon took another step.
As if on cue, Alex finally found her grip by putting her two thumbs into the trigger casing. One thumb was behind the trigger, one in front.
“Oh, Jon, you mean like that?” Kate’s sarcasm dripped through the statement.
Jon glanced behind him momentarily and flashed a fake grin. He turned back to Alex. “Wow! That is a pretty nice one! Where did you find it?” Step number 8.
Alex didn’t answer. She was still fidgeting with her thumbs in the trigger to try to find a comfortable position to hold it. Jon took another step.
“Where did you find that cool gun. Alex?” Jon used the child’s name to try to regain her attention. It worked. She looked up at Jon again. “The bathroom.”
Jon stepped again. “In the bathroom?” Jon made a funny face. “That seems like a silly place to find a gun. Alex.”
She was looking at Jon and giggled. He came even closer to her. Jon guessed that he was just over halfway to her from when he had started out. He had maybe another 6 or seven steps until he would be within reach of the weapon.
“Do you usually find guns in bathrooms, Alex?” Jon stepped closer.
It was Alex’s turn to make a funny face. She scrunched it up as if just finishing a lemon. “No!”
“Only a few more steps, Jon, and then jump on her!” Kate’s voice caused Jon to tense up even more.
Jon stopped in the middle of taking another step and turned his head. “Kate, if I make any sudden moves, this child may get scared, move one thumb and cause the other to pull the trigger. How about we just keep moving?” Jon put his finger up to his lips. He finished the step.
“Alex?” Jon turned his attention back to the child. “Do you play with guns often?”
“My mom won’t let me.”
Jon took another baby step. He was now within about five feet of the little girl. He could take the chance, but he still felt a little far away. He stepped closer.
“That’s a good thing, Alex. Guns are bad to play with. Because they can hurt the animals, they can also hurt people. Especially kids.” He got closer. If Jon leaned over as far as he possibly he could have, it might have been possible to grab the gun, but he was still just far enough away that he wouldn’t have another chance if something went wrong. He needed to wait a few more moments.
Alex’s arms were getting tired. She lowered them to her lap and took her left thumb out from behind the trigger.
“Oh, shit,” Jon exhaled.
. Alex looked up at him. Her body tensed. “Don’t say that! My mommy says that’s a bad word. She doesn’t like me to play with bad people!”
Jon took a step toward her. “Okay, I’m sorry! Scout’s honor, I won’t say bad words again!” He brought up his hands and made the scout symbol. Jon noticed that in her tenseness, her thumb had closed in on the trigger. The hammer was not back far, but it was no longer resting in a safe way against the body of the gun.
“What is your favorite kind of animal, Alex?” Jon asked her as he took another step. Two more and he would be within grabbing distance.
“I like lions!” She got a big grin on her face and she bounced on her butt just a little. Her thumb tightened even more on the trigger. This time, Jon saw the hammer start to cock back into firing position.
Jon took a step and leaned down towards her. “Can I tell you a secret, Alex?”
The child had the barrel only a few inches away from her chin. Jon could see that her little thumb was now trying to pull the trigger, just to keep hold of her toy. Jon was crouched down in front of her now and the hammer was almost all the way back. The chambers were starting to rotate and the bullet chamber was getting into position. There was a deafening silence in the almost abandoned restaurant except for the muffled tears of two frightened parents.
Jon’s right hand reached out for the child’s hands. The hammer was now fully back and the chamber had rotated. Jon’s thumb slipped into the empty area between the hammer and the gun as the hammer came forward and pinched his thumb. Jon winced and released a sigh of relief. “I like lions, too, Alex. They’re pretty cool. But don’t tell anyone that, okay?” Jon’s left hand cradled the firearm and his left thumb pulled back the hammer just enough to release his right thumb. He then gently put the hammer back into place as he slipped it behind his back and put it in his left side waistband.
Shaking his right hand a bit to compensate for the pinching of his thumb, he reached around Alex and took her into his arms. Very carefully, he stood up, picking up Alex and turning around. What he saw as he was walking back to the table surprised him.
Kate, Bob, and Judith had large smiles on their faces Kate started a groundswell of applause for Jon as she stood up. Most of the diners had come back into the restaurant, headed down the aisle toward Jon and Alex. Walter Bender was entering the front doors with Jerry right behind him.
“Kate? What the hell is going on?” Bob and Judith had slid out from their positions of the booth and Judith reached out, patted Jon on the back, and slid her daughter in her arms. “No way, Judith! You don’t get Alex back!” Jon started to grab for the child.
“It’s okay, Jon!” Kate reached up and slowly pulled his arms away from Judith and Alex. “It’s okay. Everything’s okay. You passed! It was a set up and you passed!”
Jon was bewildered. “It was a set up?” His jaw dropped. “It was a set up? The second one in two days?” He repeated. The crowd of well wishers were surrounding Jon and patting him, applauding, and all grinning.
Walter Bender broke through to get to Jon. “Congratulations! You are the newest Agency member if you want it!”
“It was a set up?” Jon’s voice rose as he turned to Bender. “A set up? A kid has a gun and it’s a set up? What kind of shitty training mission is this?”
Walter held up his hands. The crowd quieted down. “It’s okay, Jon. It’s okay. Don’t worry about it. Things are just fine. Again, as seems to be the case with you, things went a little out of control, but everything is, and was going to be, just fine, no matter what.”
Jon looked at Kate who was still positively beaming. “I understood every word he said, but the whole phrase meant nothing to me.”
Bender put his hand on Jon’s elbow. “You hit the nail on the head, Jon. Richard was going to Godfather you, as you put it.”
“Richard?” Jon asked.
Bob put out his hand. “Richard Meloni. Fellow Agent. Pleasure to meet you.”
The pieces started fitting together in Jon’s brain. “Richard.” He said it as if it were a fact he had known since grade school. He turned to Kate. “You called him Richard in the car. That’s why I was surprised when his name was Bob.” The pieces were falling together. “You called him Richard in the car.”
Kate smiled. “I was hoping you hadn’t picked up on that.”
“And Bob over here, or Richard, or whatever your name is-“ Richard smiled as Jon looked at him, “Called me Mr. Mills when we had a reservation under your name Bender just to keep last names out of it.”
Walter nodded. “I picked up on that. Hoping you wouldn’t.”
Jon just shook his head. “Not until just now.” Jon looked around again. “I assume, then-“ Jon continued, “-that all the clients and staff were Agents?”
Walter nodded. “Agents and family members, yes. Everyone at the tables in this section were agents. Everyone on the other side, family, just in case.”
“Just in case it went out of control. Which it did.” Jon turned to Kate. “What was supposed to happen?”
Judith stuck her hand through the melee. “Hi. I’m Cynthia Meloni. Richard’s real life wife and an Agent, too.”
“Pleased to meet you, Cynthia.” Jon was still trying to figure out the major piece of the puzzle. “What are you so happy about, Cynthia? Your child had a gun. I had a gun. I was instructed to kill here today. Weren’t you a little afraid?”
The smile disappeared quickly from Cynthia’s face, but it returned immediately. “For a moment there, yes I was quite afraid. But then, I realized that no matter what, everything was going to be okay.”
“How? After I put my gun on the table, Alex still had hers.”
“But she couldn’t have hurt anybody with it. Her gun was empty. Yours had blanks. It didn’t matter.”
Jon was stunned. “It was empty?” The crowd started walking back toward the front of the restaurant to chat. They left the group alone.
Richard joined the exposition. “It wouldn’t have done any good to even have blanks in the gun I was supposed to have. If it had gotten to the point where I had to fire it, if it wasn’t live ammo, you’d know that a round hadn’t come out of the gun. If I tried to fire a warning shot, no damage would have been done with a blank or an empty chamber, just the sound. If I would have pretended to shoot you, you may have pissed your pants, but you wouldn’t have been shot and you would’ve known that seconds later. It didn’t make sense to have any rounds in it.”
“But my gun-?”
Kate answered this one. “We needed blanks to at least make you think you would have shot something if it had come down to that. You needed to believe that you had fired your weapon. The charade would have fallen as soon as you realized you didn’t have live rounds, but that was the test. Then, you go and make the gutsier decision to not use your gun at all.”
“But it was a kid-“
“You jumped on Richard too fast. We all figured you would try to just finesse everything into the conversation. Instead you jumped right on it and didn’t give him time to get to the bathroom and get the gun. The story that we were going to give you did come out. It was going to be ‘Judith’ who was the double agent. At that time, Bob would excuse himself and come back with the gun. Simple as that. You jumped the gun, as it were, and Alex grabbed the gun.”
“The empty gun.”
Walter grabbed Jon’s gun off the table and put out his hand. “Give me Alex’s gun, Jon.”
Jon reached back with his left hand and retrieved the gun from his waistband. He handed it over.
“Empty. See?” Walter pulled the trigger. A shot rang out and Jon’s melted milkshake splattered all over the diner.
The foyer of Agents and family all went to the ground as the glass fell back to earth. Jon, Kate, Richard, and Cynthia all turned with widened eyes to Walter. Alex started crying.
Kate got a strange look on her face. “What the hell?” She picked up her gun off the table and took what had been Jon’s gun out of Walter’s hands. She cocked them both and pointed them straight up. She fired. Two rounds hit the ceiling and she was sprayed with disintegrating insulation and ceiling tiles.
“Oops,” was all Walter could say.

No Chapter 7- sorry

2011-04-25T23:40:00.002-06:00

I will be posting Chapter 7 on Tuesday. Monday was a busy day with a headache all day, and 2 jobs to go to with tons of busy-ness at both all day, and no time inbetween the jobs, so it is time to eat and sleep.
Chapter 7 is a long one, so I just couldn't quite get to it today, sorry.

By the way, to the person who posted about the year difference in the car- I originally had it taking place in 2000, so it was fine, but I missed switching it while editing. Thanks for catching it!

Thank you all for reading and please remember to spread the word!

Time Out Chapter 6

2011-04-22T10:22:00.001-06:00

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2000

It was a bright sunny day as Jon pulled his parent’s 1996 Geo metro into the school parking lot. The time was 7:30. He had plenty of time to get to his locker, up the stairs, buy a Cherry Coke out of the vending machine and make it to his first class. He had not turned on SportsTime this morning, but he had a certain rhythm already. He was feeling great! Relatively speaking, of course. His arms felt like giant logs jutting out from his shoulders, his legs felt like they were just one big bruise, and he could barely yawn without his chest feeling like it might implode.
As he slightly limped up to the school entrance by the cafeteria, Stan and Greg burst through the doors and pulled him between two relocateable classrooms where they could have a little privacy.
“Hey! Be careful! What the hell?” Jon asked as he felt his arms sending off sharp twinges of pain.
“We should ask you the same thing, Jon!” Stan whispered harshly. “Where the hell did you go yesterday? What happened to you?”
“You look like shit,” Greg interjected.
“You disappeared from school, almost like you were arrested, and then you show up today looking like the poster child for police brutality! What happened?”
“As I was leaving the classroom yesterday, two guys grabbed me. They threw me into their unmarked car, and took me to a place-“ Jon stopped. He couldn’t tell them. They were his best friends, and he couldn’t tell them. He thought up a lie, and he thought it up quick. “-that we call a police station and questioned me for a bit. Had to do with a rash of embezzlement from school drama clubs in the area. They wanted to know if I had seen or heard anything, being part of the drama club and all.”
Jon looked at his friends and could tell that wasn’t going to tide them over. “While I was there, they found the person who was doing it. He was actually a dry cleaning guy who had taken care of the cleaning of the costumes after a play.” Still no look of belief in their faces. “And, as I walked by him, he got away from the cops he was with and started beating me up. He, uh, thought that I had turned him in or something. He got to me pretty good before the cops could pull him off.”
Stan looked at Greg and Greg looked at Stan. They each arched their eyebrows and tilted their heads slightly. “Why didn’t you call us?” Stan asked.
Jon had thought he was off the hook, so he hadn’t even thought of extending the story any further. “Well, when I got home, I was just so freaked out and traumatized, I guess I just went to sleep. Didn’t even think about it, to be honest.” That was the first truthful thing Jon had told them yet.
“It’s cool,” Stan told him. “but, we were just worried about you. “
“Thanks, but everything is fine.” Jon lied. “I am hurt. I look and feel like shit, but, all told, I guess I’m okay. It was a hell of a day yesterday, though. That is for sure!” Jon separated each of the words in the last sentence.
“So,” Greg changed the subject cheerily, “you all ready for the talent show tryout?”
Jon looked at Greg. “Please tell me that isn’t today.”
Greg started laughing. “You forgot? You’ve been practicing Flight of the Bumblebee since last year’s talent show to win this thing for your senior year and you forgot?”
Jon took a deep breath. “Perfect. Just perfect”
“You feel up to it?” Stan asked.
“Not especially, but, I have to try, right?”
“Try?” Greg asked, still giggling. “If you forgot about it, you probably don’t even have the sheet music, do you?”
Jon looked at Stan. “He’s right. No music.” He was tapped on the shoulder. “Oh, hell.” Jon turned. It was Aleisha.
She was beaming at Jon with a special twinkle in her eye. Her hair had been put into a ponytail with a dark blue bow that matched her sweater. Underneath, she was wearing a white shirt with lace around the edges. A dark blue skirt that went just below her knees almost finished her outfit, had it not been for the black backpack that was bulging with all of her books in it.
Jon grinned like an idiot, fear about the talent contest replaced by a whole new kind of fear. “Oh, hell, hell, hello!” he greeted her.
“Am I interrupting something?” she inquired.
Jon pointed at his friends behind him. “Them? “ He twisted up his face in a silly grimace. “No! They were just leaving.” Jon grabbed Greg’s sleeve and pulled him from out behind him. Greg was now almost in hysterics as he tried to hold in his laughter. Jon turned Greg around, raised Greg’s chin with his fingers and stared into his eyes. “They were just leaving!” Stan walked out from behind Jon and dragged Greg away.
“So, are you okay?” Aleisha asked.
“I’m fine!” Jon replied too fast. “Why?”
“You don’t look too good.”
“I don’t?”
“No. You look a little, um, bruised.”
“Oh, that?” Jon blew out some air from between his closed lips and made a small sputtering sound. “A little bit of problems at a police station.”
“Police station?”
“Yea, An embezzlement thing. Got taken to a police station. Jumped by the robber. All very boring. Anyway-“
“Embezzlement? Jumped by a robber? Are you okay?” She reached up to touch his forehead.
Jon jumped back as if she were carrying a red-hot poker in her hand. “Fine! Like I said, I’m fine. I just don’t want to talk about it right now.” Aleisha pulled back from him, seemingly hurt. “No! I mean, I don’t want to talk about that! Not to you!” Aleisha gave him a quizzical look. “I mean-not about that to you. Or to anybody. At all. The police station.” Jon was trying to explain too fast, so he took a huge deep cleansing breath and started over, as if talking to a child. “I want to talk to you. Just not about the police station incident because I’m tired of talking about it. I don’t mind telling you at some point in the future, just not now. Did that make sense?”
A smile came back to Aleisha’s face. “Perfect sense.”
Jon took another deep breath and smiled himself. “Good. So, what did you come here to ask?”
“How did you know I was going to ask anything?”
“You never got to finish your question yesterday in Mrs. Katsilas’s class.”
“I just wanted to know if you had something to do for the talent show today. As much as I have liked your monologues in the past, I was hoping you’d do something else this year. You’re awfully good on the piano.”
Jon felt his ears start to burn. “How did you-?”
Aleisha stared straight down as her ponytail flopped into the position her face had just been in. “I’ve listened to you play after school in the music room.” She looked up with her face bright red now. Jon was staring at her dumbfounded, but with a big grin on his face.
“I make sure nobody’s around except for Mr. Wendell.”
She looked into his eyes. “You can hear the piano slightly from the hallway.”
Nothing was said for what seemed like an eternity. They both were staring into the other’s eyes and grinning like dopes. Finally, Jon said, “I do. I mean, I did. I was practicing for the Flight of the Bumblebee, but, because of the incident,” Jon emphasized the last word strongly, “I forgot my music. I’ll just have to sit out this year.”
Aleisha broke eye contact and swung her bag down for her back. She unzipped it and rummaged through the crammed contents for a moment. She emerged with a piece of sheet music. “Here.” She handed it to Jon.
“But, you don’t play.”
“I’m supposed to take it back to the music store for my mom after school today. She already had a copy and forgot.”
Jon looked down and saw the movie poster for The Man From Snowy River looking back at him. Jon liked the film. He really did. He had even purchased the soundtrack and listened to it often. But to play this piece of music in a talent show was like saying Citizen Kane was the best movie of all time. It showed no imagination and no independent thought. Every ten-year-old in the city played that piece of music at every piano recital ever! Jon would never be able to get into the talent show by playing this piece! He was not a prodigy by any means but he had memorized tougher pieces than this. But could he tell that to Aleisha?
He smiled. “Thank you! I guess this will be the piece I play to make it into the actual show tonight! I’ll give it back to you after the tryout.”
“Make you a deal?”
“Anything!”
“How grateful are you for that sheet music?”
“Very grateful for the sheet music.” Jon didn’t feel that that was a lie. He was grateful that she had wanted to help him and that he at least at something to take on stage with him.
“May I ask you to pay a very steep price for it?”
Jon felt the butterflies start in his stomach again. “Sure.”
“After school today, can you take it back to Day Murray on State Street? I don’t really want to.”
The butterflies stopped flying, and, amazingly enough, Jon thought it was a fair trade. “No problem.”
“And will you take me out to a movie sometime this week?”
The butterflies started flying but were squashed flat by the rock that now sat in Jon’s stomach. “I’ll have to check.”
Jon knew the next words coming out of his mouth as he watched Aleisha’s face fall. “Yes, I would love to go see a movie with you this week. I just have to make sure that I’m feeling up to it after what happened to me, and make sure that I have something to wear.”
Aleisha’s face perked up immediately and even laughed at Jon’s feeble joke. “You will? Honestly?”
The butterflies pushed the rock away. “You bet. I’ve been wanting to ask you that same question for a long time, now.”
She beamed again as she turned away. ”Bye, Jon. I’ll be watching you in the audience.”
As she turned and ran toward the doors of the school, Jon’s heart zoomed. “I have a date with Aleisha Madsen!” He pumped his fist in the air and followed Aleisha’s lead through the school doors.
Greg got to Jon first as he entered the doors. “She looked pretty happy! I assume things went well?”
“Amazingly well!” Jon answered. “At least as far as Aleisha was concerned.”
“What does that mean?” Stan asked.
“I got a date!”
“When did pigs start flying?” Greg asked.
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know? You don’t know when pigs started flying or you don’t know about your date?” Greg’s mouth and eyes opened wide. “You set a date with Aleisha and you don’t know when?”
“Well, that’s the thing,” Jon explained. “I don’t know when I’m going to feel up to it after the-“ he paused, as had become the custom, “-incident.”
“Dude,” Greg butted in, “it’s Aleisha Madsen! Who cares about the-“ Greg paused an extra long time, mocking Jon, “-incident?”
“Guys, come on! She asked me out!”
“She asked you out?” Stan was even more shocked. “She asked you out and you pushed her off?”
“No! I mean, yes, but no! I wasn’t ready! She kind’ve popped it on me, and I wasn’t ready for it, and so, I said for sure this week, but I don’t know when!”
Greg put his arm around Jon and they started walking to their lockers. “Jon, in a world where the woman makes the first move, you must always be ready,” Greg counseled. “What happens on the date if she wants to kiss you?”
Jon stopped dead in his tracks. “Kiss me? It’s a first date, for Pete’s sake!”
Greg continued. “Jon, old buddy, old pal! We’re not talking about the 1950’s here! It’s the year 1989! Do you know that a girl can be whatever she wants to be? She can do whatever she wants to do?” He got a very serious look on his face. “Jon, when two people love each other very much…”
Jon stepped away from Greg and put his hands up. “That’s it!”
“Maybe not even love each other very much. Maybe just lust after each other very much!”
“Greg! Shhh!” Jon walked over to the wall in the student commons area and rubbed his eyes. “Look, this may be the year 1989, but I’m still a rather old fashioned guy! I’ve had a crush on Aleisha for a very long time.”
“We know,” Stan and Greg said together.
“I’m just going to show up and then I’ll see what happens. I’m not going to plan on kissing her, or anything more than that! I just want to spend an evening together with her alone and see if we can do more than just exchange clumsy hellos.”
Stan and Greg looked at their friend. As Jon looked at them he was hoping they would just drop the conversation.
After a long silence and many pleading looks by Jon, Greg shook his head. “You’re an idiot.” They started walking to their lockers. Jon shook his head and followed.
They crossed E hall and started heading down H hall, where their lockers were. Stan returned to the initial conversation. “So, you said it went well as far as Aleisha was concerned. What else happened?”
“Well, she asked if I was going to play anything in the talent show…”
Stan was impressed by Aleisha’s knowledge. “How did she know you played? I thought we were about the only ones who knew that.”
“She has stood outside of Wendel’s door and listened to me.”
Greg re-entered the conversation. “She wants you, man. She definitely wants you.”
Jon pulled a loose quarter out of his pocket and threw it at Greg and laughed in spite of himself. “I’m warning you, man. Just leave it alone!”
Just as they reached their lockers and started dialing their combinations, there was an announcement that came over the intercom.
“Jon Mills!” it squawked. “Jon Mills! Please report to the auditorium! Jon Mills! Please report to the auditorium!”
“What the hell did you do?” Greg asked. “Normally, one gets called down to the office not the auditorium. Did you sluff play practice or something?”
“Very funny.” Jon stopped doing his combination lock and gave the dial one big spin to reset it. “I don’t know, but I guess I’m going to find out.” Jon walked back down H hall the same way he had just come down it. Stan and Greg looked at each other, smirked, and followed Jon at a safe distance.
Jon walked back through the commons and down the long hallway which was officially called B hall but which the students commonly called performance hall since all the music, drama, and debate classes were down one side of it. On the other side was a brick wall and lockers but on the other side of the wall was the auditorium. Since Jon knew his way around the area well, he decided to sneak in through the stage entrance. That way he would be able to hear any talking that was happening before anyone knew he was there.
Stan and Greg used the general student entrance, which put them at the back of the auditorium. The only lights on in the place were the stage lights and the lights for the first few rows of audience seats. They were easily able to hide in the darkness.
Jon hovered just off stage for a few extra moments to see if he could figure out what was going on. Finally, with no way of hearing the muttering, Jon took a few steps back so that he could enter the stage at his normal pace, of course slightly slowed by his limp.
“Mr. Mills! So nice of you to join us!” came a voice from the inky blackness.
It didn’t take long for Jon to realize that the voice was Mrs. Perry. “Hi!” he waved cheerily out to the seats, even though he was blinded by the lights and couldn’t see anything.
“So? What are you waiting for, Jon?” Mrs. Perry asked.
“Excuse me? I don’t understand…?”
“Your tryout! We posted the times yesterday during lunch. You didn’t notify us, so we assumed you were okay with your tryout time of 7:55.”
Jon’s face went from totally confused to a dumbfounded look. “Now? Tryout?”
“Jon!” Mrs. Perry’s voice held a warning. “Please don’t push your luck today. I am in charge of the tryouts and nothing that you can say to Mr. Cannon will hold any sway over him. This is a purely extracurricular activity and you do not have to perform. Like the signs say, No shoes, No shirt, No dice.” Mrs. Perry smiled at herself with her hip humor.
Jon almost lost it when he heard Mrs. Perry quoting Fast Times at Ridgemont High. A great film to be sure, but not necessarily a hip quote for a teacher to say. “Yes, ma’am.”
It was only at that moment that Jon realized that he didn’t have the music he wanted to play with him, only Aleisha’s contribution. He took his heavy book bag offstage and then took the sheet music to the piano, which was slightly off stage left.
The piano bench made an extremely loud squeal as it scraped against the stage floor. Jon could hear the few people in the audience wince. He also noticed the click of the stage right backstage door opening up and closing.
Jon hated the thought of playing the piece so much, he almost wanted to just walk off stage right then, but with Mrs. Perry in the audience, he refused to go with his instincts. Jon closed his eyes before he put the sheet music on the music stand. He heard footsteps approaching on stage right. He took a deep breath. It was either the person with the eight o'clock tryout time or, with any luck at all, it was Aleisha to root him on. Of course if it were the latter, he wouldn’t be able to dart off stage. Hell, he thought, if it is Aleisha, I probably can’t even look at her or I’ll freeze up.
As he opened his eyes, Jon kept his gaze securely locked on the task at hand. He put the music in front of him. Gathering all of his hate of this piece of music, he looked at it and realized he had never actually seen it or played it before. Good thing, I sight read well, he told himself.
Jon exhaled his hatred of the piece as he felt one drop of sweat descending through his scalp.
Mrs. Perry leaned over to her fellow judge, Mr. Jensen (known affectionately by the students as Doc), the music teacher. “Watch this,” she snickered. “He’s going to muff this beautifully.”
Jon started. His fingers played the eight second introduction lightly, as it was supposed to be played. As he took a quick scanning of the first 2 pages, he breathed a sigh of relief. A few sliding moments here and there with the left hand, but relatively simple stuff, as he had imagined all along. Cake, he thought. I can do this with my eyes closed.
He should have. He allowed himself to glance stage right and see who had entered with a smile ready for Aleisha. Instead, it was Kate Thompson! For a split second, he took his eyes off the page and just stared.
Since he was sight-reading, he quickly looked back down at the page and realized it was time to go to page three. He turned the page and did another quick scan. Again, nothing too hard. He continued and looked back up at Kate. She was motioning frantically for him to go over to her. Jon opened his eyes wide and gave a slight nodding of the head to indicate the piano and that he was in the middle of something. Kate continued to motion him to stage right. Mills shook his head and continued playing, dropping his head to try to just stare at the pages in front of him.
Amazingly, he was hitting every note. Jon could feel his fingers moving faster than they probably should have, but he didn’t really care about that one way or the other. He just wanted to hit the notes and ignore Kate for a few more moments. He turned the page.
Unfortunately, she made that impossible. She gave an ear-splitting whistle, which caused Jon to jump. From what seemed like another universe, he heard Mrs. Perry’s stern voice telling the troublemaker to come out from the side of the stage or she would give them detention. Jon made a note of that grinning inside with the knowledge that Mrs. Perry couldn’t put a 25 year old or so female secret agent, let alone one with the temperament of Kate Thompson, in detention. He turned the page.
Jon looked up at Kate again. Her eyebrows were raised high into her forehead and her lips were pulled into a scowl. Kate’s arms were now folded and her left foot was slowly tapping the ground making her look like the mother of every child ever born. Kate unfolded her arms and made a large arm rotation and pointed at the ground as if to say get over here, now. Jon shook his head, turned a page and stopped cold.
That was it. He was done. Mrs. Perry was standing, done bellowing at the troublemaker, while Doc was just staring at the stage, mouth agape. Stan and Greg also just stared at the stage, along with Aleisha, who was close to the judges, and the other 20 or so students dispersed sparsely in the seats. The sudden silence was so immediate and surprising to Jon that he almost felt like looking for a sniper or a monster of some kind. He gathered the music off the piano and stood up, scraping the bench across the floor once more.
Kate was still motioning wildly to see her while Jon just stood by the piano, waiting for the other shoe to drop. He knew the piece was bad, but had he done that poorly, he wondered.
Doc broke the silence. “That was certainly an interesting interpretation of that piece, Mr. Mills.”
Jon looked out toward the seats and could see nothing but the glare of the spotlight. “Thank you,” he said to the white light.
“I’ve heard that piece many times over the years. Many more than I care to think about, actually, but never quite like that.” Doc continued, choosing his words very carefully.
“Thank you,” Jon repeated. “I think,” he muttered under his breath.
“May I ask one question of you, Mr. Mills?”
Jon was afraid to hear the question. “Sure,” he eventually answered.
“I’m all about the musician making it his own, but do you pay any attention, at all, to the suggested beats per minute at the opening of the piece?”
Jon didn’t understand what Doc was getting at. “I’m sorry?”
Doc took a deep breath. “Jon, may I call you Jon?”
Mills could tell he was gesturing for approval. “Sure.”
“Do you realize that you just perfectly played a three minute and eighteen second song in a minute flat? The suggested beats per minute of the song notwithstanding, I mean.”
Now it was Jon’s turn to be surprised. “I actually didn’t.”
It took a few seconds for Doc to find the simple words of his next phrase. “Well, you did.”
When nothing further came out from the audience, Jon nodded a slight acknowledgement. “Thank you,” he nodded and walked offstage to join Kate. Stan, Greg, and Aleisha jumped out of their seats.
“I did it in a minute flat?” Jon whispered to Kate as she grabbed him by the shirt and led him quickly to the door.
“Yes you did, Wonder Boy, and tonight we’re all going to line up and give you a nice, big, fat, honking parade, but for right now, you need to come with me!”
“I just asked for a slight clarification. Jesus! By the way, can we make a quick stop at Day Murray…” They hit the stage right door at full speed even with Kate limping ever so slightly.
As Jon and Kate continued down B hall, Stan and Greg exited the top of the auditorium. “Jon!” Stan called.
Stan and Greg watched as Jon walked out of the school building following a tall red haired woman. Aleisha exited the auditorium seconds later, but by then, Jon was long gone. She looked up at Stan who just shook his head and walked off towards his first class. Aleisha looked at Greg for an explanation, who just shrugged and followed Stan.
“Jon, you are so strange sometimes,” Aleisha muttered as she stared down B hall and blew one loose hair away from her eyes.