Kinetics: In Search of Willow (20 page)

A lot of our information
is out of date, but what I do know is that their security is heat
sensitive. Take the blue ones when you are about to get to through
security, one for each of you. Don't forget to take the red set
when you are through.

"Useful." Harry read the note over my
shoulder.

We rode in silence after that. I put
everything away and held onto it tight. These things, what little
they were, these would help me save her. These would help me get
Willow away from these people.

I wasn't going to let them
win.

***

The ride from Columbus to St. Louis
seemed like nothing. When we arrived at the station it felt like
everything was finally looking up. We had successfully traversed
the first leg of this probably foolhardy mission. But I was sure I
could see the light at the end of the tunnel. Willow was worth
it.

From the bus station we walked the ten
blocks to the location where Marcus Grey and Willow had
stopped.

It wasn't what I expected.

Instead it was a house, old looking,
but obviously taken care of. The neighborhood was fairly peaceful
despite being in the middle of a big city like St. Louis. I wasn't
sure what to do at first, and Harry seemed content to sit on the
sidewalk across the street and watch the few people who were
working in their yards.

"You decide, Eugene." Harry said,
watching the passing traffic.

"I don't know what to do." I said,
tightening my hands around the straps of my backpack.

"This isn't my mission, Eugene. I'm
here to help, but I can't hold your hand the whole way." Harry
shrugged.

Before I could work up the courage to
go and knock on the door, an old man came out and started watering
the flowers outside his door. He was black with super white hair.
He was plainly dressed with a blue plaid robe and grey slippers. He
glanced at us, and at first it didn't seem odd, but then he kept
looking at us. I made eye contact a few times, and each time I did
he smiled and nodded his head.

When he had watered the last flower he
came down to the edge of his small yard and opened the mail box. He
grabbed a single envelope and looked up at us again.

"I have tea and water inside if you
would like to join me," he said.

I felt my heart jump into my throat.
Why was he talking to us? Were we suspicious?

Harry stood up and grabbed my shirt.
"C'mon, he's invited us inside."

He pulled me along until we got to the
doorstep and nodded to the old man who was holding the door open
for us.

"Sit," the old man said and pointed to
a couch under the large living room window.

The old man's house was full of books.
Every bit of wall was covered in bookshelves stuffed to the brim.
The coffee table in front of the couch had three very large stacks
of books.

He shuffled around in the kitchen and
brought out two glasses of water. "The tea is heating
up."

I grabbed a glass out of his hand and
held onto it with shaky fingers. I didn't know why we were in this
house. Why did we come in? Marcus Grey had been here with Willow.
For all we knew this man was a friend of Grey's, and we had just
let ourselves be invited into a death trap.

"I know you have questions, and I will
gladly answer them. But first tell me something about yourselves."
The old man sat himself down in a chair across the coffee table. He
clasped his hands in his lap and smiled warmly at us
both.

I glanced at Harry. He seemed
intrigued by the old man. "What's your name?"

"My name is unimportant. Tell me your
name." The old man deflected.

"Uh… Oliver."

"No. Your real name."

Harry blinked in surprise. "How did
you know that's not my real name?"

The old man smiled, "I know a lot of
things. Now, your name."

"Uhm, my name is Harry. Harrison
Gleeson."

"Your middle name?"

"Frederick."

"Tell me about your
mother."

I saw Harry pale at that. He stumbled
over a few words and then with wide eyes he asked, "What do you
want to know?"

"Why do you think she
left?"

Harry glanced at me nervously, then
swallowed. "She… she is an important woman in her company. She
didn't have time to raise a child."

He nodded. "And do you think she will
ever come back?"

Harry took a large gulp from the glass
of water, "Well, I mean she and my dad didn't really leave on good
terms. I always hoped that… that she would come back, but… but Dad
says she probably won't ever try. Just… too busy."

I know that I had only known Harry for
a little bit of time, but I had never seen him as shaken as this
man's questions were making him. He was filling the empty spaces
between words with sips from his water. He had scooted to the very
back of his chair and looked like he was ready to sink into the
cushions.

The old man nodded and
then looked at me. "And you, your name…
your 
real
 name."

"Eugene Preston Yoshida." I answered
quietly.

"Tell me about the dream."

"What dream?" I whispered. I already
knew which one. It was the dream that had been visiting me every
night since the encounter with Laura in the school.

The dream of fire encapsulating my
whole world.

"You know." He smiled and cocked his
head. I suddenly wanted to join Harry in sinking deep into the
couch.

"It's me… I'm a baby and my room is on
fire. I can't stop it. It's just taking over
everything."

"But… is it really a dream?" the old
man asked.

"I don't know. It feels…"

"Real?"

I nodded.

"Describe the events."

"I'm sitting on the floor,
playing with blocks. And suddenly, everything I'm touching is
setting on fire. The floor is on fire and the curtains are lighting
up, and then my… my mother
comes in and
she's not safe from the flames. Her clothes catch on fire and
she's… screaming. I think I burned her. I think she's
dying."

My eyes are closed. I can see the
images so clearly, but I'm afraid if I open them I will start
crying. What self-respecting fifteen-year-old starts crying at a
stupid dream?

"What do you think it means?" The man
asks.

I open my eyes. "Does it have to mean
anything? It's just a dream."

"Thank you." The old man gets up just
as a tea kettle from the kitchen starts to whistle. He goes to the
kitchen, and in the few moments that he's gone Harry and I did not
speak.

He returns with two steaming cups of
tea. "It's chamomile. Try it."

I take a sip and it feels good on my
constricted throat.

"I will tell you this. It may not be
what you want to know, but it is what you need to know," the old
man began, and sat in his chair again. He clasped his hands in his
lap and smiled at us.

"You are beginning something that will
not be ended easily. Marcus Grey is only the beginning and Willow
Patterson is not the end. There is more to this journey that you
are on than what seems. Take note of even the unimportant details,
because those will decide how you handle the events to
come.

"The ghosts of the past will haunt you
for years and the certainties of the future will elude you until
you take command of your lives. Don't be afraid of failure. Embrace
it and overcome."

The old man stood and nodded at us.
"Drink up. You have a long way to go." He disappeared into a back
room and left Harry and I sitting there in silence.

I didn't know how to take what he was
telling us. None of it made sense, and how could this possibly be
what I needed to hear?

Harry and I finished the tea, and when
the old man returned he came back with two books, one for each of
us.

"These will help you on your journey,"
he said as he ushered us to the door. Before I could step over the
threshold, he touched my shoulder. "You have a long path ahead of
you. Just know that there is always a way to climb out of the
deepest pits, and there is always a light to lead the way. Just
know how to find it."

He patted my back and pushed me out
the door.

"When you feel the time is right, come
back to me and tell me your stories," he said before closing the
door between us.

Harry led the way back through the
city. Neither of us did much talking, but I knew eventually we
would have to start talking about what to do from here on out. Our
next destination was way off in Oklahoma. What little money Nick
had given me wouldn't get us another set of bus tickets.

"I'm going to call Nick," I said to
Harry. When he nodded, I fell back a bit and called Nick from the
little prepaid cellphone he had given me.

"Hello?"

"Hey, it's Eugene."

"Hey! You made it to St.
Louis ok?"

"Yeah. We went to the address where
Grey stopped and it was just this house. This old guy lives there."
I explained the old man's questions and what he had told us at the
end.

"Interesting. Any clues to
who he was?"

"No. But it was strange. We never told
him we were looking for information about Grey. He knew their names
and everything."

"I wonder if he's some
kind of mind reading Kinetic."

"I hope not. I don't want anyone like
that in my head."

"Either way, what's the
plan now?"

"Not sure. I guess we need to find
some way of getting to Oklahoma."

"Be careful."

"We will. Uhm...hey, do you know how
my parents are?"

"Your Dad hasn't been at
work for a few days. They said he's out on some assignment. I
checked up at the university. Your mom took a leave of absence
because of reporters harassing her at the school."

"Oh."

"I'm sure they're worried
to heck about you, Eugene. But you gotta understand at this point
their kid is being accused of domestic terrorism. They have to be
pretty low key."

"Yeah, I guess."

"Hey, I'll let you know if
anything changes. I gotta go now, okay? Talk to you
later."

"You too."

I hung up the phone and caught back up
with Harry. We were only a block away from the bus
station.

"Let's stop inside for a bit and
reassess, huh?" Harry said. His eyes looked tired.

"Sounds good."

We sat in the waiting area watching
people pass by for about an hour while we discussed options. Harry
kept trying to find some way of suggesting we dupe the bus drivers
into letting us on the bus.

"I just don't know if that's a risk we
should take. I don't want to get arrested."

"I doubt they'll arrest us. Just kick
us to the curb."

"Still."

We went back and forth for almost an
hour before a rumble in my stomach loudly announced the fact that
all we had consumed today had been the old man's water and
tea.

"Food?" Harry asked.

"Food." I replied.

A quick survey of the bus station
revealed a couple tiny fast food places but none of it was all that
appealing. Harry took charge and went to the front desk to ask
directions to some other restaurants."

We had barely exited the bus station
when I heard a call over the parking lot. "Hey! Stop!" someone
shouted.

"Eugene, run!" Harry grabbed my shirt
and dragged me after him just in time as a car came hurling at us
from around a corner. Some of the people waiting by the bus station
were shouting and yelling obscenities at the car when it nearly hit
them.

I recognized the driver immediately.
Napoli. I also recognized the person in the passenger seat. Joe
Barrett was my brother's other best friend. This wasn't
good.

"Crap!"

We ran down a narrow alley way to get
away from the car, but I heard a door slam followed by footsteps. I
turned back for only a second and saw Joe charging after
us.

"Don't stop!" Harry yelled back at me,
and kicked over a trashcan full of rainwater. I skidded past him
just in time for a great wall of water to rise up and solidify into
ice blocking the way through the alley. The guy in the hoodie was
behind us. He shouted, "Go!"

Harry didn't stop to see if the guy
would keep Joe forever but instead sprinted out of the alley past a
parking garage underneath a large office building. I had no choice
but to follow him.

"How could they have found us?" I
gasped.

"I don't know, but we have to run."
Harry looked over the edge of a concrete divider and pointed toward
the parking garage. "Do you know how to drive, Eugene?"