True Heroes (89 page)

              “Watch.”

              Caleb lifted her chin from behind the large rock and gently held out his hand from the rocky boundary. A small breeze shifted the sand around them as Alice’s toes curled into tight balls while her legs tangled amongst Caleb’s. She looked up at his hand as it caught the fresh rays; dipped within a gold basin to celebrate the return of something that had never left. His hands reflected as the wind blew salt into crusted granules across his skinny fingers, and she could hear the beach from the echo of his palm. “The sunrise from the shade.”

              He lowered his warmed hand to her cheek and assimilated within her soul through her eyes. “That’s what we can be.”

                            -                            -                            -                           

              Caleb smiled as David tapped his foot impatiently. “She’s only ten seconds late.”

              “We’re a day behind as it is.”

              “No, we’re on time technically, which is why we left a day early.”

              “A day I could’ve spent preparing.”

              “Why did you bring us along if we were going to be such a burden?”

              “I didn’t want you to come.”

              David looked sharply at Caleb as Alice exited the hotel. “Where’s my bag?”

              “I’m sitting on it,” Caleb said while staring back at David. “I’ll put it away.”

              She handed him the toothbrush. “Thanks. What’s wrong with you, David?”

              “Maybe we wouldn’t be behind if you two had actually slept in the room instead of wherever you decided would be better than the suite worth hundreds of dollars.”

              ‘He’s getting on my nerves already.’

              ‘You’ve finally brought his jealousy out in full. Finally, you’ve done something useful.’

              ‘I do live to make him and you pointlessly jealous.’

              ‘And I live to be entertained. Win-win.’

              “We fell asleep on the beach, and you paid for the room when we wanted to sleep in the car.”

              “Yeah, because I want to sleep in a car the day before my life is changed.”

              “You’re just grumpy, David. I’ll drive to the airport.”

              ‘Did you see that look?’

              ‘No, I was looking at David’s sour puss.’

              ‘She’s your girlfriend; you may want to notice these things.’

              ‘I’m noticing his odd demeanor.’

              ‘She is too. She’s very upset.’ Caleb gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze as she walked by him to the driver’s door. David moved quickly for the front seat. ‘He does have quite an attitude.’

              ‘It’s to be expected. It’s who he is.’

              ‘How do you know?’

              ‘I told you. I have my model now.’

              ‘From the group? That thing?’

              ‘It’s right.’ He entered the backseat and stretched his legs across the grey interior. ‘That’s the only way to be from now on.’

              ‘Oh hooray.’

              “Where did you two sleep last night?”

              Alice sighed and Caleb spoke for her. “Does it really matter? We slept on the beach behind a boulder by the second mile-marker, between two tiny hotels. Do you want longitude coordinates?”

              “Why did you sleep out there?”

              “All right, let’s cut to the chase and ask the real question you want to know about.”

              David spun around with a strong look in his eyes. “I was alone in that hotel room for sixteen hours.”

              Alice gently gripped the wheel. ‘Look in the mirror. Her eyes are sad.’ “David, you were asleep that whole time.”

              ‘She feels guilty. He’s a lifetime friend, and he’s a manipulator.’

              “What if I wasn’t?”

              Caleb again answered for Alice. “Then the world might’ve ended, or you could’ve called us, or met us somewhere, or we could have come back to the room, but none of those happened. You were asleep and you’re not going to guilt trip us.”

              He watched from behind as David’s head seemed to drop for a moment before rising again. “I just was really worried when I woke up.”

              “I know, and I’m sorry about that, David. We really did plan on coming back last night. We just didn’t. You should be happy over your job today.”

              He laughed towards Alice. “That’s what has me nervous. I don’t know what they’re going to have me doing”

              “Not knowing does suck,” Caleb said lazily.

              “You’ll know soon, then you’ll be off and running.”

              They pulled forward and under the rental tent. ‘David’s looking a bit ragged for sleeping sixteen hours.’ Caleb exited the car and took up all the bags he could while looking into David’s eyes for a moment.

              ‘No circles, although he does look quite unnerved.’

              ‘That’s what I mean. Even we showed some excitement when things arose. He’s dreading it.’

              ‘He wouldn’t tell me if I asked.’

              ‘No, he surely doesn’t want you here, but I could ask.’

              ‘And have this turn into a few months ago? No, I don’t think so.’

              ‘Find me a squirrel to kill then.’

              ‘Like your lust is that bad.’

              ‘Strangely, it isn’t.’

              Alice took her small bag from Caleb’s hand and placed it atop the rolling luggage before taking his emptied hand. ‘Our reason is back.’

              Power grunted. ‘She won’t ever leave.’

              They rolled themselves and their bags into the terminal and appeared before the board seconds later. “We’re on time,” David noted.

              ‘Your male friend is here.’

              Caleb turned around. “Stanley Rue?”

              The uniformed man raised his large arms as Caleb left Alice’s side and shook Stanley’s hand rigorously. “What in the wildest-hell are you doing this far right of Ohio?”

              Caleb pulled away with a large smile. “I could ask you the same thing. Thought you were sticking around the city?”

              “No, no, I can’t get away from active duty. They moved me out here to train a group, and now they’re shipping me to New York for a couple of days.”

              Alice was behind his right shoulder and smiling. “Wow, us too. When’s your flight?”

              “Actually here in a couple of minutes.” Stanley’s eyes moved to her and then back to David. “What’s your occasion?”

              “We should board now!”

              Alice turned around to David’s yell while Caleb searched out Stanley’s ticket with his power. “You have the same flight as us.”

              “How…I feel honored to be felt up by your extended self.”

              Caleb smiled again while shouldering his bag. “Come check-in with us.”

              Caleb turned as Rue slapped him on the shoulder. They walked with Alice moving ahead to catch the rushed David. ‘He’s more fidgety than before.’

              ‘Don’t care at the moment.’

              Security came and went without the congestion of peoples on the out-of-season weekend. “How does it feel to be a civilian again,” Rue asked as he took up his carry-on.

              “Ah, I was always a civilian. I was just one in a different setting when the Major recruited me. Just like you’ll always be a stiff in a combat suit anywhere you go.”

              “I don’t know. The life is getting lost on me. You think I could take the war out of the man?”

              Caleb turned and took Alice’s hand while David shoved by all three. “If the crap we went through can change me, it can change anybody.”

              “We’re not all as impressionable as you.”

              He laughed loudly while presenting his ticket. “Says the guy who came in for the clean-up only.”

              “Hey, that clean-up got me headlines in every major paper in the world. They all think I did the work and that you weren’t even there.”

              Alice looked back while still leading the three. “What? How did that happen?”

              “The military didn’t want to seem weak,” Caleb began. “If anybody had caught wind that they used an outside liaison, the Major concluded that there would be total civil unrest and worldwide panic.”

              “So your boyfriend got shanghaied, Alice. Plain and simple.”

              They stepped into the controlled atmosphere of the plane. “You never told me that. Did you fight hard for it?”

              “He didn’t say a dang thing. I can’t understand it a bit.”

              She turned completely around and walked backwards down the path. “What were you thinking?”

              Caleb smiled lightly. ‘I’m being grieved because I passed up fame.’

              ‘As well you should be. I told you it was a stupid idea.’

              ‘It was the right thing to do.’

              ‘So you say.’

              ‘So it is, not so I say.’

              David was already curled into the window seat and staring into the grey oblivion on the outside. “Where’s your seat, Stanley?”

              “Couple seats into the middle here. I’ll have the honor of looking over your shoulder again.”

              “Just don’t copy my answers.”

              The militarized man moved to his row with a smile while Caleb and Alice got situated and found the other’s hand again. ‘David could not be more focused on the outside world right now.’

              ‘He’s not focused on the world at all. Something in his eyes is strange.’

              ‘You’re keeping tabs on him?’

              ‘In a group full of people in the middle of changes, his is the only one that is negative and mysterious.’

              ‘True…,’ Caleb looked around. ‘The plane’s half-empty.’

              ‘It’s not you and Alice, or he wouldn’t have let you come at all.’

              ‘We’re going on two separate ideas here I think.’

              ‘His mind’s revolving around the job. Try digging for more details about it.’

              ‘He won’t tell me.’

              ‘He would tell her.’

              ‘I’m not using her as bait.’

              ‘Neither am I, but he would tell her if you weren’t here.’

              ‘Oh god, you’re trying to invent a mystery here.’

              ‘As opposed to you making small-talk with people half your stature?’

              ‘Sounds like a plan to me.’ He turned to Alice. “I’m going to sit next to Stanley since there’s hardly anybody here, and I think David is about to have a mental breakdown and I know he won’t talk about it while I’m here.”

              She smiled but retracted it quickly. “For the whole flight?”

              “No, just be gone for a moment. You should talk to your friend. You guys haven’t had the alone time he thought you would.”

              She squeezed his hand before he brought it to his lips and kissed her pointer finger. “It’ll be fun.”

              “Agreed.”

              Caleb stood and walked back to Stanley, who already held a magazine up to his old eyes. The top lip didn’t waver as his legs pulled in for the passing Caleb. “I thought you’d wait for mid-flight to be friendly to me.”

              He sat heavily in the seat next to Stanley. “There’s a conversation happening I shouldn’t be a part of.”

              The outside collection of pages bent down slightly. “She’s a peach, Caleb. She really is. Not so sure about your other friend, but she’s good people. You two are just right for one another.”

              Caleb looked between the seats to the few strands and partial fingers of her left hand he could see from his vantage point. “He’s her friend. They’ve been friends for life, and recently, and unceremoniously, broken up.”

              “By you I take it?”

              “Indirectly. She changed because of something I said, and they became incompatible.”

              “And you two became compatible?”

              Caleb glanced down at the military magazine. ‘Go figure.’ “We’re compatible no matter what happens to either of us. It’s something fundamental.”

              Stanley’s hand left the magazine and a band of gold flicked under the pressure of his thumb. “It’s a good story to tell because everybody knows it. Doesn’t make us special.”