Cristal - Novella (8 page)

So what next
, she asked herself,
realizing that she hadn’t thought it through.

Cristal had just pulled a fast one on Harry
and she was still enjoying the moment. Harry was probably having a
fit seeing her walking hand in hand with Kerim.

“My bike is over there in front of the
coffee shop,” Kerim said, interrupting her thoughts. “You want me
to take you home? We’ve got a few hours to kill before the meeting
tonight.”

She realized that her hand felt good in his.
Why not play this out a bit?

“Nah, I don’t want you to have to drive
through the chaos out there. I can take a cab after the meeting,
assuming the streets will be clear by then. Let’s go to the coffee
shop instead. It should be open,” she said.

“A good espresso might help my caffeine
headache.”

She glanced up at him and remarked, “You
still have a headache?”

“Well I didn’t get a chance to get my dose
of caffeine at Gabriel’s. And spilling it on my jeans doesn’t
count.”

She giggled, remembering the event that
happened earlier.

They crossed the street in silence and
stopped in front of the shop.

“I guess Harry can’t see us anymore,” he
said quietly.

He gently let go of her hand.

“Yes, sorry for that,” she said. “Thanks for
helping me back there. I really didn’t want to hang out with Harry
right now.”

He stared at her for a moment. His steely
gazes made her catch her breath. She remembered her thoughts from
earlier about ice cream and bad boys.
Chocolate ice cream is
very bad for your hips
, she reminded herself. She noticed Kerim
glance down her body. Was he checking her out or was she only
hoping he was?

“No worries. I know how it is,” he said,
snapping her back to reality.

She gave him a small smile realizing that
her cheeks were probably the color of persimmon.

Cristal wished she could enjoy this moment
with Kerim a little longer but they reached the coffee shop’s
entrance. The sign on the door said “Open” so despite the
earthquake, it looked like the shop was running business as
usual.

“After you,” Kerim said, pulling open the
door.

She entered the store noticing that they
were the only customers and the owner of the shop was sweeping the
floor behind the counter. He looked up when he noticed them
standing in the entrance.

“Sorry, we’re closed.”

She started to turn around, but Kerim’s hand
gently squeezed her arm.

“We were hoping we could stay here for a
bit. We really have nowhere to go right now,” he said.

The man behind the counter stopped sweeping
and stared intently at them as Kerim continued with his story.

“She’s not feeling well. Something fell on
her head during the earthquake. We just need a few moments.”

She touched her head, wincing slightly and
hoped that it looked convincing.

The shop owner leaned the broom against the
back wall and walked towards them, wiping his hands on his
apron.

“It’s been a hell of a day,” he said.
“Please come and sit at this table.”

He pulled back a chair and waited for
Cristal to sit down.

“Do you want anything? Tea, coffee? An ice
pack?”

As she sat down, she smiled and said, “I’m
fine. Thanks for asking. I just need to rest a moment.”

“I’ll have an espresso,” Kerim added,
winking at her as he sat down across the small table. “And how
about an iced café for the lady?”

“Of course, no problem,” the owner said, and
then walked back to the counter.

Cristal leaned towards Kerim and whispered,
“You like starting trouble, don’t you?”

“I was just trying to be a gentleman.
Besides, I need my caffeine fix.”

She was relieved to be able to sit down and
have a real conversation with him. Who knew that this would be the
sweet "aftershock" following the stunt she pulled on Harry
earlier.

“I guess I could do with an iced café after
all we’ve been through.”

He leaned forward, and admitted in a
semi-sultry voice, “Now I’ve revealed my weakness to you.”

“You’re hilarious,” she said, putting her
hands on the table. “My dad always said, ‘Never reveal your
weaknesses.’”

“You have a very wise father,” he said.

His steel grey eyes probed hers, looking for
what… she wasn’t sure. The sadness that she buried deep down inside
suddenly welled up in her throat.

“Yes, he is…” she half-whispered, “or
was.”

She looked down at the table.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to…” Kerim reached
for her hand.

She looked up at him and tried to blink away
the tears. Tears that betrayed the cold loneliness she felt every
day. Loneliness that had become part of her, since the day her
father disappeared.

“No, it’s okay. He went missing when I was a
kid.”

Cristal focused her eyes on Kerim, telling
herself to calm down. She had never shared personal information
about her father with anyone other than Harry.

“But I know he’ll be back.”

“I understand. My older brother went MIA
when I was in the Army,” he said.

Cristal noticed his other hand clenched into
a fist.

“Missing in action?”

“Yes,” he said in a quiet voice, and then he
turned his head to look out the window.

She put her other hand on top of his. She
knew how it felt to have a loved one go missing.

He cleared his throat, and said, “Okay,
let’s talk about what happened today.”

He gently pulled his hand away from
hers.

“Yes, let’s do that.”

She leaned back and folded her hands in her
lap.

“I don’t think that there was an
earthquake,” he said quietly. “I know you feel the same way.”

She let out a loud sigh, just as the shop
owner walked towards them with their drinks.

“Thank you very much,” she said, relieved to
have a moment to think of an answer.

“Do you mind turning on the television?”
Kerim asked him.

“Sure, I didn’t even bother checking if the
cable was working.”

He went to the counter and grabbed the
remote. He pointed it towards the large flat screen TV hanging on
the wall, and pressed the button to turn it on. The local news
station came up on the screen. The anchorwoman was speaking, but
there was no sound. He pressed the button to turn up the
volume.

“…reports from Manila, Rome, Gaza, Haifa,
and Vancouver confirm that earthquakes occurred at the precise time
as the one that hit Manhattan at 1:25 p.m. Eastern Standard Time
today.”

IT WAS SEVEN HOURS AFTER the earthquake. Dr.
Saeed, dressed in his white lab coat, over black casual slacks and
a Ford dress shirt, and wearing his Boss glasses on top of his
head, stood at the front of the classroom alongside Harry. His hair
was combed back and his face was clean-shaven.

His real name was Dr. Saeed Nariman but
students had such a hard time pronouncing his last name, so he
asked everyone to call him Dr. Saeed instead. Out of all the
professors, Cristal always thought Dr. Saeed was the most stylish
prof at the university. Three video chat windows were opened on the
projection screen. Cristal was sitting on a stool in the first row
of lab tables. Gabriel sat beside her with Kerim on the other side.
Joanna sat front and center of the tables, positioned in clear view
of Harry, purposely blocking Cristal’s view.

Cristal entertained the thought of reaching
over and smacking the back of her head. Kerim’s knee hit hers.

She turned to him and mouthed the words
“What?”

He tossed her a half grin.

Is he reading my mind?
She shivered at the
thought, and then focused her attention on the screen.

Serena was speaking. Her dirty blonde hair
was swept up with a clip. From what Cristal could tell, Serena was
in what looked like her bedroom.

“I was at the location as requested for my
mission. The news reports have confirmed that it was the precise
epicenter of the earthquake. I also confirmed that there were no
early warnings as reported on the HEWS Seismic webpage. For those
of you who are not familiar, HEWS is the Humanitarian Early Warning
System.”

Serena glanced down at her notes.

“I have further confirmation from
seismologists around the world that no one expected these
earthquakes.”

In the other video chat window, the
Martinelli twins, Rinaldo and Angelica, codenames
Red Fox
and
Venus
, were agreeing.

Cristal was eager to hear what Rinaldo had
to say. It was hard to resist liking him. His wavy brown hair,
hazel brown eyes and Hollywood smile, not to mention his quaint
Italian accent, made the other Truth Seekers, mainly those of the
female persuasion, rush to his assistance when he needed help in
the game. In real life, at only five-foot-nine, he had no trouble
attracting high-fashion models who towered over him.

“Yeah, it was pretty crazy here in Roma,” he
said, “Angelica and me were freakin’ out over here when the
earth-a-quake hit us. You can imagine that. I’m-a-sure that the
Pope fell off his throne and I’m not-a talkin’ about the one in the
Vatican.”

He flashed his contagiously charming smile.
Angelica gave him a dirty look in return. Cristal had to hold back
a giggle.

“Yes, I have to agree,” Angelica said,
turning to the camera. “It was a freaky experience. I cannot wait
to-a-hear what Zero has to say about this. Please explain why and
how you knew where we were supposed to be when it happened.”

Angelica flipped her long wavy brown hair
away from her dark mocha eyes. Cristal envied how Angelica could
look both upset and sexy at the same time. Her naturally thick
pouty lips were what women would pay thousands for in Botox
treatments. Cristal looked over at Kerim, trying to read his body
language as he listened.

Kerim’s face was expressionless. He was
listening but not reacting the way men usually do when they see
Angelica for the first time. Gabriel, who was sitting on the other
side of Cristal, was gazing at the screen. She could have sworn he
was drooling as he smiled, drinking in Angelica’s every word.

Cristal looked back at the screen and caught
Harry’s gaze. He was watching her closely. She took a deep breath
and focused on what Angelica was saying.

“The room we were in was shaking so much.
The floor beneath us, I swear, became like a jelly. Rinaldo and me
were so frightened. He was holding onto me and crying like a
bambina.”

Everyone in the room laughed. Rinaldo raised
his hand and smacked her on the shoulder.

“Ayyyy…what’s a matter with you?” Angelica
cried out, turning to him. “It’s the truth. You were crying like a
little baby girl.”

She playfully hit him on the back of his
head.

“Let’s-a-be serious,” Rinaldo said, turning
back towards them. “Zero, we want to know what the hell is going
on.”

He pointed his finger towards the
camera.

Harry smiled and said, “Let’s let our rep
from Haifa report first. Adel, please tell us what happened at the
two locations I asked you and your team to meet.”

In the third window on the screen, a man
that Cristal did not recognize began to speak. He had dark black
hair, cut short on the sides, longer and wavy at the top. His
eyebrows were thick over large eyes that sank deep into his head.
He had a wide bridge over a broad nose and his skin was a cinnamon
color.

“Hi, everyone. Nice to meet you. At the Gaza
location, our team member, Sami, experienced the ground shaking. He
was outside and he saw in the sky, the light streaks, which he
first reported as lightning. Then the sky turned blood red. He saw
an image forming in the sky like an oil painting. He sent us this
picture.”

A photo appeared on the screen. Harry moved
the mouse and maximized the image. In the picture, the sky was as
Adel had described. The sky appeared to be a burgundy red.

Cristal squinted and could see an image
where the lightning streaks were crossing each other.

Gabriel was shifting his weight on the stool
beside her.

He whispered, “It looks like a man.”

Cristal focused her eyes at the image again.
It did look like a man. As Harry zoomed into the area, the shape
was becoming clearer. It seemed as if the man was pointing in a
direction to the east of him. As the picture sharpened, Cristal
could see the man’s facial features.

She gasped.

“Cristal, are you okay?” Kerim whispered in
her ear.

She could feel herself fading out. The room
seemed to be spinning around her. This is how Dorothy must have
felt when her house was being swept away by the tornado, she
thought to herself.

She felt Kerim’s arms around her as she
slipped off her stool.

“Someone get her a glass of water! Cristal,
are you okay?”

She felt herself being lowered to the floor.
She closed her eyes, as the thoughts in her head bounced back and
forth like a shuffleboard disc she had seen her stepfather play
years ago on the deck of a Disney cruise ship. He had proposed to
her mother that same night, much to her disgust.

“Cristal, this is Dr. Saeed.”

She felt something cold pressed onto her
forehead.

“We are just going to move you over to the
couch, okay?”

She felt her body being lifted.
So this
is what floating feels like.
Her body was lowered onto the
couch, her head gently placed onto something soft.

“Cristal, is it something you saw?” Harry
asked.

“Leave her alone,” she could hear Kerim
snap. “Can’t you see she needs to rest?”

“Is she okay?” Gabriel asked.

“She’s just faking it,” Joanna said.

If she could have lifted herself up, Cristal
would have gone over and slapped the witch in the face. But her
arms felt like concrete blocks; her legs were stiff and she was
unable to move them.