Path of Ranger: Volume 1 (13 page)

In a minute, everyone got back to their thoughts about the trip. Happy smiles appeared among young travelers once more. An unforced fuss thrived in the group. They kept going on.

The hard part was behind. JB had passed the security. Yet, there were two more uniforms to pass before he could sit down and relax. A man and a woman were standing at the plane entrance. The big guy handed the ticket to the man. He took it to examine it, then smiled and gave it back to JB.

“It’s 'first class,' sir. Please, go straight and to the left.”

JB accepted the ticket, nodded silently and followed the directions. El and Tina noticed that JB walked a different way than they were going to.

“Hey, Jerry, aren’t you going with us?” Tina asked.

He turned around to see her uncertain and yet demanding look. Then there was an ‘eco’ class, which had lots of people and tight seats.

“No, I don’t think so,” he didn’t intend to be smug about that, but his smile made an appearance of it.

Bridgers went on. It seemed easier for him to keep away from that group. They had too little in common anyway.

Soon after, El had a chance to glimpse into first class, through the flight attendant area. JB was seen from there. He sat in the back row near the pass. She stalled for a second, watching. Tina’s hand pressed on her shoulder.

“El, what’s wrong?” she asked.

El didn’t say anything. Just exhaled heavily and moved on. They passed a few rows to get to their seats. The girls had two seats out of three, the one between them stayed free. Tina took a place near the window, El sat on the outside seat, the one between them was left for stuff.

Right after taking a rest, Tina pulled out powder from the purse to fix her makeup. She was doing that for quite a while before she noticed El watching the passway. Tina used lip gloss.

“You don’t have to stare at him all the time, you know.”

El changed focus. She wiggled, being uncomfortable.

“I’m not staring.”

“Uhuh. Like I can’t see,” the friend said sarcastically. “Girl, you have a serious crush there.”

“It doesn’t matter. He doesn’t care anyway. I’m just a toy for him, like everything else.”

“The boys love their toys,” Tina implied, still looking in the mirror. “So what about that date of yours? You’ve never told me about that.”

El didn’t want to tell the truth to anyone. But it was too hard to hold that in secret at that point. She looked around making sure that the conversation was private. Then she leaned closer to Tina.

“Everything was going fine. But then, I found a gun on him,” she whispered.

“Found? How? Did he show it to you?”

“No, I found it myself,” El explained. “I felt it when… When we kissed.”

“Oh, really? You’ve kissed?” Tina smiled. She put away the mirror. “That’s my girl!”

“Stop it! That’s not important,” El tried to make her friend take that seriously. “Why does he need a gun? Where did he get it? What was he doing all those years?”

“I had a guy with a gun once. Didn’t last for long,” Tina got back to her makeup. “He used to tell me that he had that because he had someone to protect.”

“Who? You?”

“He wanted me to think so. In reality, he was worrying about his own sorry ass. But being skittish like that I doubt he could protect anyone,” she snorted. “Your guy is nothing like that.”

“Did you see how he handled the fight with Eugene?” El spoke worriedly. “Did you see his eyes? They were ice cold; it freaks me out.”

“You’re cranking yourself up for nothing. It’s just in your head. Better think about something good. You, Jerry… On the LA beach… Did you see his body? Or his car?”

“Come on! I’m being serious here. Where does all that money come from?”

“His parents, duh.”

“That’s the thing. He doesn’t have parents. Or relatives.”

“That man in the business?” it looked like a game to Tina. “Tell you what, girl. There are a whole bunch of losers out there, and you have a jackpot right here. You better take it, because if you won’t, someone will.”

“Shut up,” El finally cheered up. “It doesn’t matter anyway. He won’t even look at me.”

“So you make him look.”

The engines fired up. A stewardess appeared from the curtain, her smile was bright as the sunshine. The ‘buckle up’ sign lit up. The stewardess picked up a phone to address the passengers.

“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the flight ‘UA-Air 107’ Kiev Los Angeles. Time of travel is approximately sixteen hours. Please, do not remove seat belts or leave your seats while the sign is on. Please, enjoy the flight.”

The announcement was done and the stewardess went back to the flight attendant area.

JB waited for instructions to be over to take out his music. The earphones were tangled badly, so he got to fixing that right away. Quickly moving his fingers around the loops, he was solving the problem in no time. An aged man, who sat next to him, noticed that.

“Oh, that’s quite a piece you have here,” he smiled to JB. “It’s been a while since I’ve seen one of these iPods.”

“No-o-o… Man,” JB smiled back. “This ain’t no iPod. Chinese replica, just thirty dollars.”

“A good replica for that money, I guess,” the man commented. JB lingered thinking about the subject and nodded after. The man looked at the process of detangling the cords. “Can you believe those people? They’re doing a bunch of new stuff these days. Microchips are everywhere, the drones… But no one bothers to make earphones that won’t look like a mess every time you take them out of your pocket.”

JB smirked.

“Yeah, man. True that,” he almost finished. “But, perhaps, it may be even betta that way.”

“How is that better?”

“This process takes me about a half a minute, so I have that time for anticipation before I can listen to my favorite music. Plus, I kinda like the idea that a man can’t solve everything using tech. At least something is left to ourselves.”

“Hm… That’s an interesting point.”

Taking a couple seconds to pause, Jerry smiled lightly and turned back to the man.

“Actually, I wasn’t entirely fair. There are a bunch of models with a wide cable that almost don’t tangle. I just wanted to put out an idea.”

The man wrinkled his face in pondering. He took another look at JB while forming the next line.

“So, why won’t you buy those ‘non-tangling earphones’?

JB shrugged.

“I used to have one of those. Just like those,” JB pointed at a hefty guy who sat in the next row. He was listening to the ‘Beats’ with bright red cable. “The earphones are getting lost all the time, just like audio players.”

“Getting lost? How can they get lost?”

“When you run a lot.”

“Are you an athlete?” the man smiled again.

“No,” JB said senselessly. “A street criminal. I run a lot. Losing earphones all the time.”

“Okay,” the man’s face changed. “I see. It was good talking to you.”

This time the man put on a fake smile. He turned back to the magazine he was reading to look busy. JB, on the other side, brightened up genuinely. He sat back, relaxed and turned on the music. It was time to enjoy the ride.

The plane went into motion. Take off was smooth and easy. There were several hours ahead until France for a gas refill and less than a day to LA.

It took JB just a few minutes to fall asleep. His dreams were light and shallow. The consciousness was split. A part of it deepened into dreaming, another part stuck between there and reality. JB’s mind was still recognizing the music. That duality made it hyper-real as if the whole inner world of his imagination consisted of those sounds. It seemed so beautiful to him, he didn’t want to come back, he wanted to stay there forever. It stayed that way just for a few minutes. Then he snapped back. An involuntary flinch of his muscles drew even his neighbor’s attention. But it didn’t wake up Jerry after all. His body went relaxing once more. No more sounds. He fully plunged into the dream.

A better part of the flight passed. In several hours after refilling, the plane flew somewhere in the Atlantic.

El and Tina had enough time to chat and even got a little bit tired of it. They talked about everything, but most of all about Jerry and her. The girl still couldn’t decide whether she wanted a relationship with him or not. But Tina was very insistent. El got convinced after all. It was time to do something about that.

Meanwhile, JB had a good rest. So he got a lot of extra energy to spend. Only, there was not much to do on the plane. Most of the passengers were asleep. JB got bored pretty fast. He went on wandering.

The flight attendant area was curtained up, JB came there to check what was in it. He heard women’s voices inside. It had to be stewardesses. Suddenly, JB ached to join that conversation.

El and Tina went to stretch their legs too. Tina convinced her friend to talk to JB, so they were heading to the first class area to search for him. With each new step El’s heart rate went faster and faster, her skin got covered with goose bumps and she had no idea what to say. The girl held Tina’s hand the whole time, it gave her some relief.

Being almost there, Tina stopped to check her makeup.

“Come on! Would you just drop that?” El said. “You look in that mirror every five seconds.”

“So should you,” the brunette girl responded instantly. “You never know when you’re going to need a bit of magic.” She closed the mirror. “Okay. Let’s go.”

Suddenly, El felt a strike of pleasant weakness. She realized how much she wanted to be with him. And somehow the girl was sure that it was going to happen. She was thinking about that possible relationship, about the thing that she and JB had coming, and, most of all, about their future.

The curtain to the flight attendant area was in front of them. It felt like they were breaking the rules by going there. But, on another hand, it seemed harmless enough. The girls stopped in front of the curtain take a breath. They had a short giggle about it, very quietly, to not draw attention. El looked at her friend and stepped forward to open the curtain. They both went in.

The picture inside surprised them. Not in a good way. JB was there, staying close to the two young stewardesses, holding one of their hands. It seemed like he was telling a joke or something, nothing special. But the satisfaction on his face shocked El and pissed off Tina. The stewardesses looked quite pleased as well. It made both students uncomfortable. That very moment a storm of thoughts flashed before El’s eyes. It wasn’t just jealousy but felt more like alienation. All that time, since their kiss, she thought of him as of something constant. She was thinking about that night all the time, and she supposed that he was too. But the moment she saw him with two other women that illusion vanished, she realized that all that time JB was living his life, with no place for her. She couldn’t get in his world, and he wouldn’t come to hers. They weren’t meant to be together. El was in love with him, and it seemed like he didn’t care for her at all. That realization crushed her from inside.

A second after she removed the curtain, her face stayed the same. Not even the slightest change in expression. But the first shine of tears in her eyes glistened. More than anything she didn’t want Jerry to see her weakness. She rushed back, pushed Tina aside and ran away.

Being a bit confused with such behavior from her friend Tina froze on the spot. She needed to follow El, but she wanted to see JB’s face first. She looked at him. His emotions didn’t change much. His smile wasn’t that big, but no regret was seen either. Most of all he seemed interested in watching the show. Tina gave him that hateful ‘traitor’ look to make him feel sorry. Nevertheless, JB didn’t change. After that, the brunette turned around and went after her friend.

A few seconds later, after the curtain closed, JB and the girls exchanged looks. They laughed. The stewardess’ attention glued back to JB as they were eager for a comment.

“That was kinda weird,” he said.

The girls giggled. JB knew that they had no idea what was going on, and he pretended that he didn’t know either. But he was aware of everything. He felt El's pain that he caused, but he didn’t regret it. It sure wasn’t intentional of him, yet – it was necessary. There was nothing possible between him and her, it had to be stopped before it even started. He was a villain. Greedy, egoistic. He thrived when others were helpless. El couldn’t be part of it.

The conversation with the stewardesses ended with both their phones in JB’s contact list. It wasn’t new for him and he wasn’t there for the action, it was the challenge that interested him the most. Soon he returned to his seat.

LA was ahead, Ukraine stayed far behind. Being alone again, Bridgers realized that everyone close to him in America were either dead or enemies. There was nobody for him there. Suddenly, JB admitted to himself that he didn’t have a real home, where he could have peace. The feeling had changed. He wasn’t sure anymore if he wanted to return to Los Angeles after all.

The plane was still somewhere in the Atlantic. The day they launched appeared to be sunny and bright. Everything was going fine. Half of the passengers stayed asleep, so it was quiet on the plane. The students grouped up in their seats. El laid her head on Tina’s shoulder. The brunette was gently caressing her hair. Tina had a hard time trying to calm down her friend. She hated Jerry for what he did. Tina was strong, but El was soft and gentle as a flower. Her best friend would do anything for her.