True Heroes (87 page)

              “Yeah, I know that. Brake, click here,” his finger moved and highlighted the drive function along the small console, “What’s up with this little heads-up thing on the window?”

              “Just drive and that’ll go away. My side actually has cable T.V. built into the window.”

              “What, and you didn’t tell me?”

              “You were into your comics, and I didn’t want to overload your mind.”

              “Good thing I have the mentality of a ten-year-old.”

              “No, I just didn’t think about it. I was into your comics just like you were. Did you want to watch television while I drive? Or you could lean over here and watch it with me. I feel like there are a lot of options here.”

              He proceeded onto the roadway and looked quickly for the ramp to the highway. “You can enjoy it I won’t bother you.”

              Her head turned sharply from the window back to his smiling face as it stared and focused at the weaving traffic. “Yeah, because you’re a constant bother to me.”

              David’s snoring could be heard from the back. “He must’ve been tired.” Caleb’s hand clicked against the plastic interface after flicking the cruise control. “And I hope I don’t really annoy you.”

              He suddenly felt the creeping warmth of her dancing fingers across his hand that laid upon the smooth console. The fingers didn’t quite clasp together, rather her hand rested upon his rest. “We had another couple in the group about a year before we moved the outfit to Cincinnati, and every time I was in group with them, they’d be holding one another’s hand a different way. It bugged me so much. One day they’d have fingers  entwined, and another they’d just be holding like a sideways handshake, then some others they’d have a couple of fingers overlapping while the others made a small mini-fist under the overlapping fingers. I always spoke it out loud, of course, but they never gave me an answer.”

              Caleb made a quiet humming noise before saying, “Were they ever in different moods when they changed hands?”

              “They…wouldn’t look at one another when they were in handshake-mode.”

              “If we stay with that, then we could say that they were feeling really close when their hands were melded together, then mad at handshake, then just sort-of indifferent to one another in the middle hold.”

              “That would actually make sense. Their looks would be different at about that pace.”

              “So, which are we right now?”

              She looked back towards him. “You’re asking me?”

              “Well, yeah, if I needed to ask about my own feelings, I think I would be set back a few years of maturation.”

              “I think…,” Alice’s voiced trailed into whatever thought process she kept within her heady confines and her fingers finally clasped the fitting spaces between Caleb’s, “that I’m glad you’ve chosen my hand to hold.”

              “Oh please, I never had a chance.”

              ‘He’s asleep. Let me out.’

              ‘Let us talk.’

              ‘You gave your word.’

              Caleb took his hand back and slapped it lightly to the wheel. “How far away are we now?”

              “Three hours-ish.”

              “The Prince wants to talk to you….”

              “Oh! Yeah! Great idea now that David’s asleep. How is he? The same?”

              “You can ask it yourself.” Caleb looked into each mirror before quickly allowing the transition to happen.

              Power gripped the wheel as lightly as it could while its blue self engulfed Caleb’s eyes. ‘I’m going to sleep. Don’t be too mean.’

              “Is that you, Prince?”

              “Yes,” the subliminal voice of Power purred. “I haven’t seen you…. You haven’t talked to me in a long time.”

              “You guys just got back, and I wanted to spend some time with Caleb and talk with him last night.”

              “You wanted to talk with him but not me?”

              Power turned Caleb’s head while keeping a part of its field focused on the road. “You know how I feel about him. Honestly, it’s gotten even stronger since he came back. Since you brought him back.”

              Power fluttered Caleb’s eyes. “I came back too. We always talk too. What is the difference between me and him?”

              “Listen, let’s start over. How are you?”

              “Sorry…I’ve been taking things he’s said to me to heart. Perhaps I shouldn’t.”

              “He knows his stuff. What did he tell you?”

              “Quite a bit.”

              “C’mon, you can’t complain about us not talking then not talk.”

              “He’s said that I am stuck, that I can’t change the fact that I am always out for myself, and that I will destroy myself.”

              She leaned her shoulder into the crevice between the door and the seat. “It’s hard to argue against him. I’m very sure that he had a good reason to tell you that though.”

              “To injure me from the inside out.”

              “Does that sound like him?”

              “You don’t see the side that I do.”

              She laughed quietly. “I’ve seen every side of him. Are you trying to bad-mouth him still? After all this time me and him spent together, you’re still trying to prove to me that he’s not who he seems?”

              “He did create me.”

              She looked over to it. “Whether he created you or not, he didn’t do it because he is a bad person.”

              “Why else would I come into this world but to serve the purpose of wiping it out?”

              A small frown spread from Alice’s heart. “I see only one of you changed from your experiences over there.”

              “I can’t change.”

              “Him and I have, so much.”

              “You two are apparently different people than I.”

              “I thought we were going to stay away from negative stuff?”

              “It’s all that’s on my mind.”

              “I thought you and Caleb shared a mind? His is completely clear it seems like.”

              “His is. His share is growing while mine is shrinking, which doesn’t help me at all. Anytime I sit back and watch his mind work now, there’s almost no action, no anxiety. We returned and his life was suddenly…beyond questions and answers. He hasn’t succumbed to cause and effect. All action that flows from his mind is simply there with an intention I can never grasp. My intention always come back to me without variation.”

              “What’s wrong with that?”

              “I…can’t change my thought for a second, and you obviously like him more than me. It has to be in that fundamental difference.”

              “I like you both.”

              “You don’t have to say that.”

              “It’s true that I…really care about him, but I like you too.”

              “Could you ever love me?” Her mouth opened, but nothing came out. “Don’t you dare pick up the habit of lying.”

              “You’ve never wanted the truth.”

              “I need it on this occasion.”

              “No.”

              “There has to be a reason.”

              “I don’t think I can tell you the reason.”

              “Tell me.”

              Alice’s gaze seemed to drift up and down the changing road before she smiled at some internal thought. “When I first saw you, well you apart from Caleb, I knew the possibility to you killing me was pretty high, and that hasn’t changed. That was really…funny to me when I found it out, but it wore out. I always thought we’d be great friends, but you want more. I guess Caleb was right, then.”

              “Do you think?”

              “You sound breathless. Please don’t be sad. You’re…we’re both trying to classify this when I don’t even know what Caleb and I have. Let’s just wait.”

              “For you to decimate what little mind I have left?”

              “No, don’t be like that. There’s a chance I’m wrong about this whole thing. Let me have time to figure this out with him. Please don’t hate yourself over this.”

              Power rebounded into the small recess of Caleb’s mind, causing him to violently awaken and to swerve the car over the rumble strips for a moment. “What the heck?”

              “I think he’s mad at me.”

              ‘What’d you do?’

              ‘I now possess the truth. Tell me, how is my life better now?’

              Caleb could feel a bitter fog sweep both hemispheres of his brain, all from the small corner his power found home within. “About you two?”

              “I just told him the truth, like you always do, but he got mad. Was it wrong?”

              “No, Alice, you did nothing wrong. Neither did it. You both will be fine.”

              “How do you know?”

              “Because you both have the things you can’t stand to be without.” He reached over and took her hand gently. “You have me.”

              “Who does he have?”

              “It has itself.” A green sign appeared quickly on the right side of the highway. “We still have a ways to go. Until we get there, just be with me.”

              “What if I always will be with you?”

              Caleb smiled. “All the better.”

-
         
                            -                            -             

              Caleb awoke to the sight of glass shards twinkling against the reflection of the sun off the side of the car along the hazard lane of a roadway. He sat up quickly and looked around. ‘Car, Alice driving.’

              ‘Nothing’s changed no worries.’

              “Welcome back just in time,” she said while turning the car into a driveway and beneath a shady overhang. She put the car in park before turning around in her seat and smiling. “Sleep well?”

              Caleb, still groggy, almost missed David leaving to enter the hotel lobby. “Yeah, guess so. What time is it?”

              “We made great time. Made it twenty minutes before we were supposed to.”

              “Speeding is illegal.” She pushed her tongue out at him before they both exited the car and began to stretch. He grunted and popped at every joint as she hugged around his extended abdomen. “What do you want to do first?”

              “We can walk around and see what’s going on, but not if you’re tired.”

              They walked around to the back of the car and popped the trunk before turning around and scanning. She attempted to maneuver her eyes through the buildings to catch a glimpse at the grey horizon and the tan sand beneath it, but the fog coming off the beach drew a disappointed moan from her instead. “We’ll see it, and I’m not tired enough to sleep a vacation away.”

              “We should see it last, tonight maybe.”

              “Why last?”

              “Once we get there, we won’t want to leave.”

              He smiled while taking a majority of the bags unto his body. “True. Hopefully David shares that sentiment.”

              ‘Behind you.’

              Caleb spun and caught the key David had thrust at him. ‘He looks awful still.’

              ‘Poor him.’

              They all rolled into the lobby and found the elevator waiting for them. ‘She’s making faces at herself in the fake gold plating around the car. She looks weird. Little fun house in here isn’t it?’

              ‘That’s your attempt at small talk with me?’

              ‘I just woke up my wit isn’t sharpened yet.’

              ‘I wouldn’t want to hear it anyways.’

              ‘Speaking of grumpy.’

              “I take it you two are going back out?”

              “Most likely. Why?”

              “I’m not feeling up to it,” he said as the doors opened to their floor. They rolled to the appropriate room number and quickly entered behind the speed-walking David. “I think I’m going to crash so I’m up to par tomorrow.”

              ‘Alice looks disappointed.’ “Well, leave your phone on just in case, okay?”

              Her words went completely unheard as David’s eyes were shut before his head hit the pillow. Caleb unclipped his phone and set it to the highest volume. They both carefully unzipped their bags and retrieved what few parcels they would need and left, conjoining hands in front of the elevator. “You think he’s okay?”

              Caleb smirked at her in the reflection of the door. “I know he’s exhausted, and any other problem he may or may not have is secondary to that right now. You can talk to him about it later okay?”