Beyond the Reflection’s Edge (38 page)

Jack wagged his head back and forth. “I suppose we should have said something. Maybe if all of us had spoken up, they might have listened.”

As fire engines roared close and a helicopter beat its blades overhead, Nathan turned back to Kelly. She held the camera in her hands, the strap still around her neck as she snapped a picture of the crash scene. The flash lit up, though it didn’t seem as bright as usual in the mid-afternoon sun. As she lowered the camera, her voice matched her teary, anguished eyes. “One of the survivors asked me to take some pictures for her. I hope it’s okay.”

Nathan glanced at a business card in her hand. “Sure. I guess it won’t hurt anything, but I don’t see how you’re going to get the pictures to her.”

She picked up the violin case and opened it, nodding toward the saddle pack at her feet. “I found them near where we landed.”

Nathan methodically laid the violin and bow inside, closed the lid, and snapped the latches. He stuffed the case and mirror into the bag and snatched it up. “Let’s walk. The terminal’s not far.” Staring hard at the airport buildings, he strode toward them, not wanting to look back as he listened to the turmoil in his wake — blaring sirens, shouting rescue workers, and sizzling fires. Every sound made him wince inside, a dissonant song of death, a “Dance Macabre” performed on the strings of demonic violins. And he hadn’t been able to prevent it.

Kelly’s voice seeped into the flow of sounds. “Are you all right?”

“How could I be all right?” He winced again. His words had come out harsh, like a stabbing dagger.

Her cool fingers slid into his free hand. “It’s not your fault.”

He grasped them gratefully. “I know.” But that was all he could say. Death loomed over his mind like a shadow — dark, empty, and icy cold. And now he had to go to a funeral — his parents’ funeral.

After following an access road that led them to the front of the terminal building, they found the motorcycles where they had left them, leaning on their stands with the helmets still in place. Cars had parked in every lane, halting the flow of traffic. People milled all around. Their conversations buzzed, word-less in Nathan’s ears. A few uniformed men and women hurried from place to place, some barking into walkie-talkies, but Simon was nowhere in sight.

Nathan slipped on his helmet, attached the bag to one of the cycles, and dug out the keys. “Here,” he said, tossing one set to Kelly. “Can’t afford to wait for him.”

She caught the keys and mounted the other bike. With her helmet already on and her dirty beige slacks and blue polo shirt rippling across her body in the breeze, she looked like a mosaic of misplaced pieces, a muscular choir girl mounting a wild mustang, a true hell’s angel.

As he straddled the seat, he nodded at her. “We’d better not travel together. Just stay close enough behind to keep me in sight.”

“Why?”

“Word’s going to get out that we survived. I said something about the engine to the gate clerk, so, if they think I had anything to do with the crash, they’ll try to hunt us down, but they’ll be looking for two teenagers traveling together.”

She gave him a thumbs up. “Got it.”

He dug into his pocket and pulled out a wad of dollar bills. “For tolls,” he said, stuffing them into her hand.

Tightening his grip on the handlebars, Nathan started the motorcycle and weaved through the lanes of parked vehicles. When he approached the front, he reached a row of airport security cars. Apparently they had intentionally blocked the access road to halt the flow of traffic.

Nathan eyed the officer in a driver’s seat as he passed by. As if in reply the car’s siren squawked a brief note. When Kelly’s bike scooted by the officer rolled down his window and shouted over the motorcycles’ rumble. “Stop! Pull over to the sidewalk!”

Giving the engine a shot of gas, Kelly raced away. Nathan roared after her, keeping watch in his rearview mirror. The blue lights on the police car flashed to life, and its siren howled as it gave chase.

Kelly slowed down. When Nathan caught up, she shouted. “Ever done any dirt biking?”

“Yeah. Why?”

“Get ready!”

As they passed a merge lane for cars entering their road from an upcoming overpass, she slowed even further. When the officer zoomed closer, she turned into the grass, spun a one-eighty and headed into the entry curve in the wrong direction.

Nathan swung around and tore after her. As cars blared their horns and knifed out of the way he checked his mirror, barely catching a glimpse of the patrol car skidding to a halt back on the main road.

When they reached the feeder highway Kelly crossed the pavement and hugged the right-hand side of the road, roaring across the overpass in the wrong direction. Again, Nathan followed. When she found a narrow gap in the guard rail that lined the center of the median, she angled her motorcycle through it and kept going, this time in the same direction as the cars already speeding along. Keeping close behind, Nathan looked back. No one followed.

After cruising far enough to get out of sight of the officer, Kelly pulled into a restaurant lot and parked behind the building. She cut her engine off and slumped her shoulders.

Nathan slammed on the brakes and skidded to her side. “You okay?” he asked as he shut down his bike.

She nodded. “Just worn out. You?”

“Same.” He looked around the vacant lot. The restaurant was either closed or out of business.

A wailing police car screamed past, then another. He peeked around the corner. A third cruiser came by at a much slower speed. An officer looked their way, scanning the front parking lot.

Nathan pulled back. “We’d better cut through some side roads and get out of here.”

He swung his motorcycle around and headed away from the highway. They pushed their bikes up a gravel embankment and over a set of railroad tracks. Once across, they ran down the other side and onto a residential street. Now hidden from the main highway by the railroad berm, he turned back toward the airport. “If we head that way, we’ll eventually get to Interstate 88. Since we were last seen heading north, they should concentrate on that side of town.”

She started her engine and nodded. “I’m right behind you.”

“Remember. Not too close.”

She nodded again.

After meandering through the neighborhood, Nathan located a ramp to the main highway and headed west, careful to stay just under the speed limit. In his rearview mirror, he spotted Kelly merging into the right lane, falling behind a little farther every few seconds.

He zipped along, keeping an eye on her as she hung back about a half-mile or so. Letting out a sigh, he shook his head. She was an incredible combination of female charm, sharp wits, and ice-water coolness. Most girls would’ve scrunched into a
fetal curl and cried like a baby, but even locked inside a doomed jet already falling from the sky she never lost her head. She even sang the song! Amazing!

He glanced at a ring on his finger, a covenant band of gold his parents had given him when he turned thirteen. His father’s words still rang clearly in his mind as large hands pushed the ring over his knuckle.

In some ways this is a gift for your future wife. It will remind you to cherish her even before you ever meet, to keep your body and mind pure so that on your wedding day, when you meld together into one flesh, hers will be the only skin you ever touch with intimacy. Her lips will be the first yours ever meet in tender passion and the last when one of you goes to meet our Savior. Yes, this is a gift for her, yet for you as well, for when you present yourself to her as a holy vessel, you will feel God’s pleasure, for you will have no memories of past loves, no scars from romantic wounds that never fully healed, and your union will never be haunted by the ghost of a past lover who now rests in the bosom of another
.

Nathan looked at Kelly now just a smudge in his mirror. As her reflection shrank even further, he enlarged her form in his mind, giving shape to her body and imagining her without a helmet, her sunlit hair flowing in the wind behind her familiar face. He focused on her eyes, sad and lost.

He let out a heavy sigh. What about
her
scars? What about the ghosts from her past? If the two of them ever joined as one, could she forget about those phantoms? Could
he
forget them?

He sighed again and searched for her in the mirror, but she had gone beyond the reflection’s edge. Twisting his neck, he looked back. There she was, still following his lead. But she was so far away … so very far away.

Nathan set the motorcycle’s kickstand and unzipped the saddle pack. He glanced around at the broken trees and scattered branches. No sign of Dr. Simon.

After parking her bike next to Nathan’s, Kelly shuffled through the debris toward the tri-fold mirror. In the reflection, the Earth Blue scene had disappeared. Now it showed only the same mangled forest that surrounded them.

Nathan pulled his violin case from the bag and fumbled with the clasps.

Kelly grasped his hand. “Nathan, you’re trembling.”

He looked down at his shaking fingers. “Yeah. I guess I am.” Taking a deep breath, he tried to calm his nerves. He’d never be able to play the “Carmen Fantasy” unless he relaxed. He flipped up the latches and withdrew his mother’s violin. He didn’t remember much of the piece, so the dimension had to open in a hurry.

As he laid the bow over the strings, Kelly gave him a firm nod. “You can do this.”

Feeling more at ease, he set his feet and watched himself in the mirror. Then, after starting with a short mid-range stroke, his fingers immediately flew across the neck and ended the run with a sweet high note. After another quick mid-range stroke, he played a rapid run from the high to the low registers, then moved to a slower, sweet melody that lasted about fifteen seconds.
He paused and stared at the mirror. Nothing. Still just his own image gawking back at him, his shirt tail hanging out on one side and his dirty hair locked in a rigid windswept pose.

“I … I can’t remember any more.”

She clutched the camera tightly. “You have to remember. We don’t have any choice.”

“I know. I know.” He took in a deep breath and began again, playing the same notes, but, after a long pause, he lowered the bow. “It’s no use, I —”

“Nathan!” She stared at his Quattro mirror, wide-eyed. “Look!” As she turned it toward him, she broke into a wide smile.

The reflection showed his mother, dressed in gray sweats, standing in a home studio with her violin in playing position. Next to her stood a younger version of Nathan, maybe two years his junior, also with a violin in hand. With each one looking at sheet music on a stand in front of them, his mother spoke, but no sound came forth.

Kelly gave voice to the image. “Your mother says, ‘Watch my fingers, Nathan.’”

His throat clamped so tightly he couldn’t reply. He shuffled as close as possible and readied his bow again, squinting at his mother’s hands. After the first note, her fingers glided along the neck, then stopped as she spoke to the boy again.

Kelly whispered, “‘Now you try it.’”

Nathan played the notes again, this time with perfect precision.

His mother tucked her violin and clapped. Lifting her bow, she played the next few measures. Her fingers again seemed to caress her instrument as a gentle angel would pet a lamb. She paused and pointed her bow at the younger Nathan.

This time, the real Nathan didn’t wait for a command. He played the notes flawlessly, copying his mother’s tender touch.

The tri-fold mirror image slowly darkened.

“She says she’s going to play the rest all the way through, so watch carefully.”

Nathan set his bow again and leaned close. Sweat beaded on his forehead, and his tongue dried out. “It’s so fast. I’ll never be able to copy it just by watching.”

“Yes, you can, Nathan. I believe in you!”

He looked up at her. “Did you say that, or did my mom?”

“I said it.” Kelly bit her lip before continuing. “You’re the best, Nathan. I’ve never met anyone like you. I know you can do this.”

Nathan let his mind drift back to that day he stood with his mother, looking up at her in wonder as she played this intricate piece with blinding speed and flawless beauty. As she leaned toward him, the view seemed to envelop him, bringing her face so close that her fair skin and jet black hair loomed over him like a protective mother eagle. With a whisper, she blew on his knuckles.

Kelly’s voice gave life to the whisper. “May the breath of God fill your soul with the melody of everlasting love.”

Shivers ran up his arm, across his shoulders, and into his other hand. As his mother straightened and readied herself again, his fingers seemed charged with energy, begging to fly into action.

Francesca Shepherd played. Nathan Shepherd answered. Though her reflected instrument sang in silence, he channeled the sound to the same violin, feeling her energy and passion flow through his fingers as each note rang sweet and true.

As the celebration of musical zeal threaded rapid runs across the ebony fingerboard, the reflection in the tri-fold mirror altered with the same fervor. Within seconds, the telescope room in Earth Blue took shape.

Kelly’s voice seemed a distant echo. “It’s working!”

Francesca played the last measure with a dazzling flair. Nathan copied her movements, adding a dip of his body and
an accentuated vibrato as he pushed the bow through the final note.

The moment he finished, his mother bowed toward him. Tears welling, he bowed in return, barely able to restrain the spasms in his chest as he gazed at her face, the gleaming eyes, the rose-petal cheeks, and the lovely smile as she laid a hand on his shoulder, “Well played, my dear son, an aria of strings for our heavenly Father.”

The touch brought an electrified jolt, shocking him back to reality. He turned to Kelly. “Did you say that?”

Tears streaming down her cheeks, she lowered the mirror and embraced him. “I couldn’t say it,” she whispered as she brushed her lips across his cheek. “You must have heard her yourself.” She pulled his wrist gently. “Come on. We can’t wait for the sun. We’ll have to use the camera.”