Winter's Fury - Volume Two of The Saga of the Twelves (34 page)

Mikalah did not seem to
have heard and was looking to either side of them. She was trying
to figure out where they were.

Louis did the same and
realized they were going uphill now and had been for a while. They
were already a third of the way up the entire incline.

“
We should see the mall
soon,” he declared in a loud voice, trying to be
reassuring.

“
Yeah,” replied Mikalah
with a yell of her own. “I think we’re pretty close to where
Sizzler used to be.”

Louis bobbed his head up
and down, recalling. The girl was correct. “I think it was just
over there,” he said, indicating a patch of unremarkable forest off
to their left, about fifty feet up the trail still. He knew exactly
where it should have been.

He saw Elena staring back
at him, her eyes unwavering.

“
Did you ever eat there,
Louis?” she inquired. Her eyes were big. She was trying to control
her fear by starting a conversation. Without realizing, she rubbed
at her bruised shoulder every now and again.

Louis went into himself,
thinking of the times his parents had taken him to that restaurant.
He recalled all those weeknights and weekends for countless lunches
and dinners. It had been his favorite place to eat with its’ wide
variety of food and its’ Never-ending Salad Bar. He had imagined it
so many times; it had to be true that he had been eating there the
moment his could consume solid food. He was certain of
it.

Good food and good
times
, he thought. His mind shifted to his
parents. They had always made an effort to eat with him, together,
like a family should, as many times as they could manage. It was
sometimes hard for his father to attend, because of the nature of
his work. This occurred moreso toward the end, right before the
Rending had come, but he had tried.

Louis frowned at the
thought of his father’s occupation. His recent promotion to senior
seismologist had changed much of the dynamic within his family. A
career at the California Institute of Technology (or Cal Tech) had
proved wearing on the Willigan's.

His father was almost
never around if there were a large quake somewhere in the western
part of the United States. Surprising as it might seem, it not as
infrequent as one would imagine. Louis had learned at a young age
that the crust of the earth was always moving, always on the go.
Because of this, his father was often whisked away, at all times of
the day, to study the latest tremor. He would map it’s affect upon
the ground, within the earth, etc., etc. He would sometimes be gone
for weeks, and every time he would come back exhausted - both in a
physical and mental sense. Sometimes his father would be so
frazzled; Louis would not attempt to talk to him until after he had
slept. He knew his father had seen horrible things in those
devastated earthquake zones, things he would never talk about. When
they piled-up, became unbearable, his father would be as lost to
him as he was when he was gone. Those were lonely times, having his
father there and yet have him still a million miles
away.

Louis guessed, to make up
for the times he did miss, his father had made it a practice to go
out of his way to do what Louis wanted when he was able. This was
only when his overwrought mind was stable enough to do
so.

His mother, on the other
side of the coin, was always there, everywhere Louis went. She
dropped him off at school and picked him up. She took him to
Science Club and was right there the moment it ended. She never
made Louis wait. She never made him feel alone or lonely, most
likely because he was an only child, and always would be
one.

(His parents had explained
to him years ago that his mother was incapable of having any more
children. They had said because he was so unique and special, his
mother had used up all her ability to nurture children when she had
carried Louis. So that was that – no brothers, no sisters - no
nothing.

Unbeknownst to them, he
had overheard them talking one day. It was a discussion of the
surgery his mother had undergone to prevent pregnancy. That was
when he found out his birth had almost killed the two of them. His
father would not risk the life of his mother a second time. Or at
least that’s what he had said to her during the course of that
conversation. The rest was too complicated to understand so Louis
had ignored it. After all, he had no idea what the heck
Preeclampsia meant).

Still, he figured this was
the reason why his mother made him feel loved and fulfilled. There
were times though, when he wondered would it be would be like to
play with a child his age at home or on a whim. All the kids he
played with were either at school or at the many clubs or
associations he attended. The activities kept him busy, but still
it was not the same. What would it feel like to have a sleepover?
Or wake up in the morning and have a pillow fight? His parents did
not allow that sort of thing.

When he sat down and
thought about it, serious, he realized he did not have any friends
he felt close enough to ask in the first place. It had always been
that way, so long he did not know anything else.

I miss you, mom…
dad…

He was still lost in
thought when Elena spoke again. “Louis, you heard me, right? Are
you ok?” Her voice snapped him out of his thoughts as if a
firecracker had gone off in the cart among them. He jumped about
three inches in the air.

Elena's snigger was
loud.

Mikalah looked at both of
them like they were crazy.

“
Yeah, yeah, I’m ok,” he
stammered, shaking his head to clear it of the imaginary cobwebs he
could have sworn were clogging it. “I was just thinking, sorry, but
to answer your question. Yes, I’ve been there a whole bunch of
times. And you, have you eaten there before?”

Elena thought for a second
or two. “I think once, when I was real young. Mikalah was only a
baby, but I don’t think we’ve eaten there since or at least, I
don’t remember.”

Louis nodded; downcast she
did not have the same fond memories he had of the place. But a
second thought prevailed and he added, “It used to be my favorite
place to eat with my parents. They used to take me there twice a
week sometimes.” His grin returned at the thought of all the food
and drinks and desserts.

“
Our favorite place to eat
was El Arco’s Iris. It’s real close to our house in Highland Park.
Did you ever eat there?” speculated the little girl with her
inquisitive, lopsided grin.

It was Louis turn to
think. “No, I don’t think so,” he said after a time, no image of
that restaurant coming to mind.

“
Too bad, it’s a great
place to eat. They have the best Mexican food in the city. Better
than everything, everywhere - other than the food my great
grandmother makes. But, that’s homemade stuff, that doesn’t count.
Eating good food when you go out is not the same as the food you
eat at home, you know?” she differentiated for him, her eyebrows
rising.

Louis agreed with her
whole-heartedly. “I usually don’t eat a lot of Mexican food, but
you are right about eating out. Chowing down away from home is much
better and way more fun, because there are no dishes to have to
wash afterward.” He raised his own eyebrows like Groucho Marks,
adding a goofy smile, making Elena laugh out loud.

“
I miss it all already and
I have only been gone for about half a week,” admitted Elena. Her
face slipped a bit as the sadness of her next thought sunk in.
“What will it feel like when we’ve been gone for a month or a year
or ten years? How are we ever going to deal with being away from
our families? After so much time has passed, we’ll be
wrecks.”

Her dismay was easy enough
to read, but that was not what resonated with Louis. “Do you really
think we could be here that long?”

“
I don’t
know. I mean, I
do
feel we have a long, long road ahead of us,” she
replied.

But his mind was already
elsewhere.

He could not help but let
the dread creep up and down his spine. The thought about being away
from everything that he had known before for any extended period of
time was an awful one. It scared him to death. What about his
mother? She would be all alone. She needed so much help around the
house. How was she going to cope? How would she open the upper
cabinets in the kitchen without him to climb the small stepladder
she was wary to use? Who would help her with the garbage, mowing
the lawn, getting the mail or the newspaper on the weekends? What
about his father? He would be in the field more often than not. How
could he not help but worry over his wife being alone, knowing that
Louis was not there to get her through the day, to help, to talk?
Would he quit his job? Would he throw away his career, all because
Louis was no longer there?

What about going to school
and getting an education? If he was gone that long, how could he
hope to get into a good college without the proper
schooling?

What about Leeda, his
dog?!? Who was going to take care of her? Who was going to feed her
or brush her hair? With his father gone so much of the time, who
was going to walk her? Who was going to help her get her exercise
and keep her strong and healthy…?

His mother was more afraid
of the huge lumbering pet who had come home as a tiny piebald pup
and had grown into an eighty pound behemoth of a dog.

How would she going to
fill her food bowl, if she was so afraid of her?

“
Louis… Louis! Jeez, man,
why do you zone out so much?” asked Elena in a huff.

“
W-what?” he croaked
through a constricting throat. All at once, he was deathly
frightened for the life of his dog back home.

“
I was talking to you and
you were just staring off, looking at nothing. What’s wrong with
you?” she scolded him, frustration scrawled on her face.

“
Oh,” he began, “Sorry, I
was… just thinking. What were you saying?”

“
I was trying to change
the subject, you dope. Thoughts of home are just too sad to talk
about right now. Plus, I don’t want to cry anymore,” she explained
with a wistful expression. “I wanted to talk about something funny
or cheerful.” She added the latter with a slight pep in her
voice.

Agreeing with her in his
mind, the topic of home was a little too depressing to want to deal
with at the moment. He asked, “What were you talking
about?”

Her smile was mischievous.
“I think Andrew likes the new girl.”

That made Louis burst with
laughter. He was grateful for her in that second. “You
do?”

“
Yeah, totally. Look at
the way he is just staring down at her, like he’s trying to
memorize her or something.”

He followed her
gaze.

Maybe that’s why he is
sitting still for once.
The felt himself
flush as his mind raced. He likes her!

“
I think you are right,”
he consented.

They both continued to
peer over at the tall, lanky teen in the speeding cart next to
them. His boney limbs protected the girl on just about every side
as he stared down at her in deep thought, unmoving except for his
eyes. Every few seconds, he would trace the side of her face where
her hair touched the edge of her head.

Neither of them could tell
if she was conscious or not, but Louis presumed she was not. She
was still lying limp in Andrew’s lap as if she were sound
asleep.

“
Yeah, he likes her,” said
Louis, echoing her sentiment.

“
I’ve known Andrew for a
long, long time. I have never seen him sit still that long,” noted
Elena with a nod in the older teen’s direction.

“
I know, huh!” yelped
Louis, his eyes squelched shut by the force of massive grin. “I was
thinking the same thing like only a few minutes ago. Isn’t that
-.”

“
There it is!” exclaimed
Mikalah from the front of the cart, pointing off to the left, some
distance ahead of them.

Both Louis and Elena
scrambled to their knees to get a better look.

Sure enough, there it was
- the Eagle Rock Plaza in its entirety complete with a snow
covered, multi-story parking lot.

It was just as Luis
remembered, a double-leveled structure about three to three and a
half football fields in length. At one end was a huge Target store
(the end closer to them) and a Macy’s at the other. Between the two
anchor stores were a myriad of small shops of all sorts. There was
a Cheek E. Cheese and a small fish market, reeking of various fresh
seafood stuffs every time Louis had walked past it.

He craned his neck around
the heads of the girls. He caught a glimpse of Anthony yelling
something at Garfield. He had no idea what they'd communicated in
those silent seconds. He watched as the big cat, glancing back in
the direction of their party, altered his direction. He angled
toward two ramps of the parking lot. There was one leading to the
snowbound upper lot. The other led down, into the darkened,
semi-subterranean lower level.

The rest of the group
altered course to follow Garfield.