The Secret Manuscript (21 page)

Even though he
had done some morally reprehensible things in the past, he was not
about to let Vanessa get caught up in the crossfire of his problem.
Ben took off his backpack and slid it across the floor to the man’s
feet. The man picked up the bag and practically ripped it open like
a bag of potato chips. The bag was empty.

“Where is it?”
the man asked.

“I’ll tell you
where it is once you let the girl go.”

For a moment,
the two goons wanted to pummel Ben for the mere suggestion of
negotiating with them. However, from their standpoint, Vanessa was
incidental — a means to an end. They were not looking to hurt her,
they just wanted answers. Now that they were about to get those
answers, they complied with Ben’s request.

“Very well
then,” one of the men said as he shoved Vanessa toward him. The
force was enough to knock her off her feet. She stumbled forward,
tripping right into Ben’s arms.

“Vanessa, you
need to get out of here. Run and don’t look back.”

“What about
you?”

“I’ll be fine,
don’t worry about me.”

She hugged Ben
and whispered in his ear. “Should I get the manuscript before they
do?”

“No, it’s not
worth it. They’ll never stop coming after me unless I give them
what they want. Just go.”

Vanessa stood
up and ran out of the room. Ben waited a few seconds to give her a
head start before returning to his feet as well. His body was sore,
but nothing that would not heal by next week.

“Now tell us,
where’s the manuscript?”

Despite no
longer being in possession of the manuscript, Ben figured it was
for the best. He had been able to acquire a bit of money from it
and understand himself more, but beyond those things, it was
occupying too much of his focus and not allowing him to live a
normal life. Perhaps he should have listened to Kyle and gotten rid
of it sooner. As it remained, Ben was unsure whether having it was
the greatest of all blessings, or the biggest curse.

Although he
had yet to realize it, the manuscript had given him one other gift
— an introduction to a beautiful and intelligent woman. Other than
that one scene, there had been no other mention of Vanessa in the
manuscript. Since he was convinced the manuscript was a scripture
from God, he never considered the possibility that he could ever be
with her. Ben and Vanessa had begun hanging out and every time they
saw each other, Ben would expect something bad to happen, as if any
prolonged engagement with her would unravel the space-time
continuum, or cause some great tragedy. Eventually he was able to
free his mind of those thoughts and live his life unbound from the
directive of the manuscript.

Ben sat at the
dining room table typing away. He was trying to get his novel
finished, but had been distracted as of late. There was a new
addition into his life that was competing for his time.

“There, I’m
done,” Ben said.

“Done what?”
Vanessa asked.

“I finished my
novel.”

“That’s so
amazing, Ben, congratulations!”

“Thanks.”

“How does it
feel?”

“I have to
tell you, it feels amazing. I’ve been through some ups and downs
this past year and completing this novel is validation for me. It’s
tangible proof of how much I’ve grown.”

“I’m so proud
of you. We should definitely go out and celebrate, you deserve
it.”

“Sure, that
sounds great.”

“So are you
going to finally tell me what it’s about? You’ve been so secretive
about this manuscript.”

“I’ll let you
read it, but I drew a lot of inspiration from my life.”

“What’s your
main character’s name?”

“For now I
have it as Ben, but it’s meant to be a placeholder only. I’ll come
up with a different name during the editing process.”

“Maybe you
could just leave it as Ben, I like that name. Does it have a title
yet, or are you still working that out?”

“I haven’t put
the title on yet, but I’m thinking of calling it Angel’s
Cradle.”

“What does
that mean?”

“An angel’s
cradle is a receptacle that some hospitals have. It’s basically a
box where people can anonymously drop off their unwanted
babies.”

“That sounds
horrible, do people actually do that?”

“It’s supposed
to prevent people from abandoning their unwanted babies in
dumpsters or on people’s doorsteps. I think given the alternatives,
an angel’s cradle is a good thing.”

“I guess,” she
said with sorrow. “So is that what happened with you?”

“I’m not sure.
The details of my early life are not clear, but I was abandoned by
my mother. The name Owen is actually not my real last name, it’s my
middle name. When I became eighteen, I legally changed my last name
to Owen. But I know now my real last name is Gringer.”

In the
driveway was a brand new Ford Mustang in cherry red. Ben
deactivated the alarm and opened the passenger door for Vanessa. He
then walked around and sat in the driver’s seat.

“You look
happy,” Vanessa commented.

“I am,” he
said. “It almost doesn’t feel real. I finished my novel, I’m about
to go for dinner with you, and I’m sitting in my dream car. A year
ago I would never have thought this day would be possible, at least
not as soon as this. I was just thinking about all those things and
it brought a smile to my face.”

“You certainly
have a lot to be thankful for. And you should smile more often, it
looks good on you.”

Ben turned the
key and fired up the engine. The powerful rumble still excited him.
He backed out of the driveway and drove from his quiet suburb to
the downtown core.

Of course,
finding a parking spot during the dinner rush proved to be an
issue, so Ben dropped Vanessa off at the restaurant so she could
wait for a table while he circled around the block to look for a
spot. A few blocks away, Ben pulled up just as someone was leaving
and felt his luck had yet to run out. After parking the car, he got
out to feed the meter for a few hours. While reaching in his pocket
for coins, Ben was blindsided by a punch to the jaw. The unexpected
blow was jarring and knocked Ben to the ground.

As he was
regaining his wits, a man stood over him and rained down punches.
Ben instinctually covered up to protect himself, but knew he had to
get out of there. The street was fairly quiet and he was lying on
the sidewalk obscured from view by his car, so it was unlikely
someone would see the attack and come to his rescue.

Still unsure
who the man was or what he wanted, Ben decided not to remain there
and find out. Ben kicked upward, creating enough distance between
himself and his attacker. Bloodied and bruised, Ben sprang to his
feet and began to run away. Without hesitation, the attacker gave
chase while yelling incomprehensible slurs at him. Ben paid no
attention to what he was saying; he just wanted to get away from
the mêlée.

The attacker
was in good physical condition and caught up to Ben with ease. He
grabbed Ben by the back of the shirt spun him around, and slugged
him in the stomach. Ben crumbled to the ground.

“That’s a nice
car you have, I think I’ll look good driving that.”

“Take it,” Ben
pleaded. “Take anything you want.”

“You know,
I’ve always been good with faces,” the man said, “and as luck would
have it, I happen to run into you the same week I’m paroled.”

“What are you
talking about?” Ben said, looking up at the man from the
ground.

“You really
don’t remember me, do you?” the man asked in disbelief. “Maybe I
should break into your house in the middle of the night and rob
you? Perhaps that will jar your memory.”

Ben remained
silent, realizing it was the bank robber seeking revenge.
Unbeknownst to the robber, Ben had actually saved the man’s life.
According to the manuscript, had Ben not broken into the robber’s
house and subsequently called the police on him, he would have died
in a police standoff the following week in a botched robbery. Of
course, Ben could not tell this to the man who was acting like Ben
had taken everything from him.

“Look, I think
you have me mistaken for someone else.”

“I don’t think
so,” the man said, studying Ben carefully.

“What do you
want from me?”

“I want what
you took from me,” the man said, “the money plus interest, and the
time I spent in prison.”

“Look, I don’t
want any problems, man,” Ben said, not willing to admit to what he
had done. “How much will it take for you to leave me alone?”

“Twenty large
ought to cover it.”

“Twenty-thousand dollars!” Ben said. “I don’t have that kind of
money.”

“Well, that’s
my price,” the man insisted, “and I’ll hold onto your car until you
give me the money. I expect full payment by the end of the week and
if I don’t get it, I’ll come by and take something else of
yours.”

The man stood
over Ben once again and patted down his pockets for his wallet and
keys. He reached into Ben’s pockets and removed them both. He
opened up Ben’s wallet and took out his driver’s licence.

“Now I know
where you live, Ben Owen,” he said, holding it out. “You have one
week.”

The man began
to walk down the street toward Ben’s car. Ben was not sure what to
do, so he stood up and tried to reason with the man.

“Come on, man,
please don’t take my car,” he said, but the man ignored Ben and
kept walking. The only play Ben had in this situation was to lean
on the man’s weakness. “I know where you live too,” Ben called out.
This caused the man to stop in his tracks and turn around.

“What’s that?”
he asked.

“I know where
you live,” Ben repeated, his voice somewhat trembling with
uncertainty. “I’m sure your P.O. won’t be too pleased when I report
my car stolen and they find it in your driveway.”

The man
hesitated a moment to consider Ben’s threat. Without saying a word,
the man tossed Ben’s keys back at him.

“You have one
week to get the money or else I’ll be seeing you again,” he said,
holding up Ben’s driver’s licence, “and trust me, you don’t want to
see angry.”

Ben scrambled
back to his car and peeled out, leaving a patch of rubber on the
pavement. He rushed around the corner and down the three blocks
toward the restaurant. When he pulled up, he took out his phone,
and called Vanessa.

“Hey, can you
meet me outside, there’s been a slight change of plan,” he said,
his tone noticeably shaken up.

Vanessa exited
the restaurant with a concerned look on her face. When she got in
the car, she saw that Ben had been beaten up.

“Honey, what
happened?” she asked with great concern. She attempted to touch his
face, but he pulled back.

“Are you
okay?”

“I’m fine, I
was just mugged,” he replied.

“Oh my gosh,
Ben, are you being serious!?” she said in a panicked tone. “We need
to call the police?”

“No, I can’t
do that.”

“Why not?”

“It wasn’t
random, Vanessa,” Ben said mournfully. “It was payback.”

“Was it those
two men from the university?”

“No, this was
someone else. You know how I told you I used the contents of the
manuscript to acquire some money?”

“Yeah, you
told me you placed bets on the Grey Cup and the stock market, and
that nobody was hurt. Was that not true?”

“That’s all
true, but it’s not the whole story. You see, in order for me to
make the kind of money I made on those bets, I needed to already
have a bit of money, which I didn’t. When I moved out here, I was
completely broke and desperate. I had nothing to lose and was
willing to do some crazy things to get by. If I did not do what I
did, I would have lost the house and Kyle would not have been able
to afford school. I didn’t want to do that to him, I felt like I
owed him. I’m not making any excuses for what I did; I just want to
paint the proper context of the situation.”

“Ben, what did
you do?”

“There was a
man who robbed the bank on 12
^th
Avenue… you may have
heard about it on the news. Well, I happened to be there that day
and I watched him do it. When he came out, I didn’t know what to do
so I followed him. We coincidentally rode the same bus home, but
when my stop came up, I didn’t get off. I continued to follow the
robber back to his house. After several hours had passed, I
returned and took the money from him.”

“How did you
take the money from him?”

“I dressed all
in black, snuck into his house, and tied him up. I then searched
his room until I found the stash.”

“I can’t
believe you did that, Ben.”

“I know, it
was really stupid and I was much more opportunistic at the
time.”

“So he must
have seen your face, that’s why he came after you.”

“Yeah, he said
he recognized me, but I denied it. I asked him how much money he
wanted to make this problem go away and he told me twenty
thousand.”

“Twenty
thousand dollars! Ben, that’s a lot of money… do you have that kind
of money?”

“I can pay him
the money, but he took my ID so he knows where I live. If ever he
wanted more money from me, which seems likely, he could return at
any time and demand payment. Even if I’m not home, he could come in
and hurt you. I can’t allow that to happen.”

“So what are
you going to do?”

“The only
thing I can do.”

Ben and
Vanessa rushed to Ben’s house, hoping the robber would not be there
waiting for him. Despite giving Ben until the end of the week to
make the payment, Ben did not want to take any chances on the
robber changing his mind. He and Vanessa ran into the house and
quickly grabbed everything of value. Fortunately, there was not a
lot. He did not own anything that could not be replaced. Ben went
upstairs and packed some clothes and a little bit of money he had
stashed in his room, while Vanessa grabbed his flash drive and some
food. They put everything into his backpack and then left the
house. They were in and out within five minutes.