A Step to Nowhere (16 page)

Jason. Who would imagine? He hated everything in relation to the police. He couldn’t imagine working there even as a drug fantasy. If he would take drugs.

Maybe I’m dreaming?

If you looked at Alice in Wonderland what did you see? She went through such adventure and it was all a dream. It was true …

Steve was talking, but I didn’t hear.

“Sorry, what?” I turned to him.

“Is it true that you can have as many husbands and wives as you want?” he asked.

“That would be a dream for you?” I smiled. In a world where people were afraid to go outside and get put in jail, the question of legal polygamy was strange.

The guy turned red, scratched behind his ear.

“No, not really.”

“On my planet, in my country, we can have only one legal spouse in one period of marriage,” I said. “Sorry to disappoint you.”

“I can’t believe their lies! I probably won’t have one wife. People are scared to meet.”

“Why?”

“You never know if the person is really interested in you or wants to learn more information to report on you.”

“Are you serious?”

Steve nodded.

“That’s just … How can you live without trusting anyone? So, you don’t have a girlfriend?”

“I had one. We had an argument once. Not a big deal. I talked to my classmate and Eva became jealous. Somebody told her that I was seeing someone else. She trusted that somebody instead of me. Can you believe it? I spent hours talking to her, compelling her to trust me. It was useless.”

The guy fell quiet.

“She snitched on you?” I gasped.

“That’s why I’m here. It’s my second year. Ronald took me under his wing. I wouldn’t survive by myself.”

“They can’t put everyone in jail!”

“Sure. They check people before throwing them in jail for good. Ronald’s father told us about the process. It’s like Kafka, really.”

“You’ve read Kafka?”

“He also was a writer in your world?”

“So, everyone has a double. Or almost everyone. They just do different things. Kafka was a writer here and there. Interesting. How does it work? This process?”

“If a person has anything that can be useful: like good education, money, connections. He probably would come to an interrogation and go home. They would tell him to be good and say bye. I didn’t have any of this. My family is not poor, but also not rich. We don’t have friends in the government. My dad and mom worked as team leaders at the factories. Those professions are not good enough to keep their son out of jail. At eighteen, by law, I would get the full responsibility.”

“Do you see your parents?”

“I don’t want to contact them and get them in trouble. I know they are both at home. Both are healthy. That’s good. I hope all of this will be over soon and I can see them again.”

His voice was so sad that I couldn’t help it; I reached over to him, and stroked his shoulder.

“I’m sorry.”

“I’d love to get to your planet. Your life is so different.”

“That’s true. I haven’t fully realized yet that your planet treats mine as some wild tribe. You know about us, we have no idea about you. You study our lives, we just live ours.”

“You’re just like us?”

“What did you think we look like? Antennas on our heads? Laser eyes?”

“That’s aliens. I heard that you … less cultural.”

“Details?”

“Well … that you eat with your hands. Drink a lot of alcohol. Smoke.”

I held my laugh back.

“We eat with our hands. Sandwiches for instance.”

“Sandwiches.” Steve scratched his chin. “I don’t remember this word.”

“Bread with all kinds of stuff in the middle.”

“Bread,” Steve mumbled.

I rolled my eyes. I didn’t want to explain about bread and didn’t know how.

“We drink, yes. Some a lot, some never. Depends on the person. I drink on holidays.”

Steve bit his lower lip and listened, so carefully, as if I was telling him about the solar system, destroying his belief that the earth rested on three wheels.

“People don’t smoke here?” I asked.

“No. That’s so interesting. Velma didn’t tell us how you got here.”

I opened my mouth to present a short and almost believable story. I didn’t feel like sharing details of my naivety with a young man that I barely knew. Before I could start talking, I heard the distant scream of sirens. It was getting louder with every second. Steve became tense, the smile vanished from his face; he stood up.

“Manhunt!” somebody yelled from the top floor. Peaceful life turned into catastrophe in front of my eyes. It looked like somebody was going to throw a bomb at the city. People ran from somewhere; cursing and yelling came from everywhere. The siren kept approaching and Steve grabbed my hand. His eyes were round with fear.

“It’s for me,” I said. I couldn’t believe my words. It seemed as if everything was over. It was so peaceful here. Did I have to run again?

“We can’t hide at Ronald’s and put his girlfriend in danger.” I pulled the gun out of my belt.

“You can’t fight an army!” Steve pulled me to the car. “We’re getting away!”

Before we reached the car, a man with a black beard jumped into it and raced away. Only gravel sprayed in the air.

“How did he start it?” I yelled.

People passed us, some were armed and it scared me like hell. What if they started shooting? Because of me? The “keep cool” attitude didn’t work.

“Let’s go after them!” Steve screamed.

I preferred to wait for Ronald, but dozens of police cars changed my mind. I ran after Steve. The roads were narrow here with many benches, gazebos, and trees. It wasn’t difficult to run around the impedimenta, but cars couldn’t do it. They dropped behind us.

I ran again. Fourth time in one day. When I get back … if I get back, I’ll start running in marathons. I shouldn’t waste an experience like this. I was good at it, apparently.

We flitted along with the panicking crowd, trying to outrun the cars. We turned into a narrow alley where no car would fit and ran into another courtyard with dragons and elves on the walls of the buildings, then another one. This one wasn’t bright, but looked like Ronald described the city before irnaners. Gray, gloomy houses, ditches on the road, overturned benches.

We joined the crowd and burst in the walls of some airless place that looked like a barn. Inside, were wooden walls and a crowd of reeking, tattered people, who were pushing each other. A man stood with his back to me. His clothes were wet; drops of sweat streamed down his bald head. Steve pressed against me and I felt responsible for him. As if he was my younger brother or could be. I pulled him into this mess. It
 
seemed I had developed a sense of guilt, but it still wasn’t my fault I came here.
Somebody
should have helped me!

I heard coughs and whispers from all directions.

“… What happened?”

“…We didn’t have them here for ages, why today?”

“… Pard!”

“… I would ask you …”

“… I hear that somebody from Planet Two sneaked in the corporation and then ran from there.”

“… It can’t be! Tirrez!”

“… I don’t believe it. Who told you that? Who told you this undura? It’s notless.”

“…I heard they need organs.”

“… What does it have to do with organs? What organs? They want to steal the machine.”

“…. I’d say, let them take that pard. What do we get from it? Listen, what if they’re here? Among us?”

“… That’s right! That’s why the dogs are here!”

“... They should leave! We have enough pard without them! We have irnaners up to the top!”

“… Don’t you care about them irnaners. They don’t do nothing bad, but they help us some.”

“… They hide here too. They will take our people because of those spies. I heard they smell different. We would recognize them if they were here.”

“… Not just smell. They
look
different.”

Steve glanced at me and pressed his finger to his lips, even though I wasn’t going to yell – Hey! Can I introduce myself? I’m Sam laser-eyes from Planet Two! Yes, that’s me!

I wasn’t going to introduce myself in any manner, but it was still nice to feel support, even if this support was shaking, pressing against my side like a dog during a thunderstorm.

We smell different. Look who’s talking.

One more man ran into the barn. He was old, his hair stuck out, his eyes were hazy. He looked high. What did they do to cause such an effect?

“They’re coming here!” he yelled.

I saw a gun barrel near me. The man who was holding it, pointed to my gun with a nod. I took it off safety.

“We have more arms here,” he said. “We can do some dogs.” He spat on the floor, in the little space between us.

“Please, don’t!” a woman begged on the other side of me. “They will kill us all.”

The man bared his teeth.

“Irnaners,” he barked. “Before them, no one stuck their noses here. They whine and they draw the dogs here. I haven’t seen you before.” He narrowed his eyes looking at me. “Newbie?”

I nodded. Steve dug into my hand.

“Please.” The woman folded her hands in a praying gesture. “I have two kids out there. I can’t die.”

“They’ll get you anyway,” the man groaned. “You’re not …”

He didn’t finish. The door of the barn squeaked and opened. All heads turned there … My heart stopped …

In the threshold, there was Jason.

He had something like an AK-47 in his hands (I had seen it in movies). He had a bulletproof vest, as far as I could tell. He slowly examined the crowd of scared people. One by one. The silence was sticky and bitter. No one moved, no one said a word. Only the man near me stepped from one foot to the other and raised his rifle a little. I prayed for him to not shoot before I’d shown myself. This man came for me and I didn’t want anyone to be hurt. I wasn’t suffering from extreme nobility, but it didn’t seem right. It was my fault after all, getting into this crap. I should get out of it myself. I shouldn’t involve people who didn’t have anything to do with it. Enough making excuses, calling myself a victim.

Before I had time to raise my hand as I moved away from Steve, Jason raised
his
hand. Steve’s eyes became wide; he shook his head looking at me.

“Not you.” Jason pointed to someone in the crowd. “Not you.” One more person could take a breath. “No, not you, not you, not you.”

His eyes locked with mine. I’d known him so well. I’d known his habits, fears, likes. He relied on me for everything. His look was always filled with love, loyalty, kindness. That Jason, from my world. The look of this Jason was hard and cold, like the blade of a knife. It didn’t have hatred, only ruthlessness and confidence that my Jason lacked. I would give anything to see him now. I wanted him to hug me, as he’d always done in times when my emotions flew over the edge. It usually followed some stressful situation and he called everyone else an idiot and I was the best. Why didn’t I love him?