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- Getting what you really want.
- Part Nine
- Written by Nicolus Tails
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-
-
- It was probably about a quarter 'till ten when I woke up. It was
- Sunday, so I didn't have to worry about getting anywhere early. Tim was
- lying beside me, wide awake, staring at the ceiling.
- "What are you thinking about?" I asked him.
- "Only the same thing we've been talking about for weeks now. I had a
- really weird dream last night."
- "Aron was in it I assume?"
- "Alive and well sipping Pina Coladas on the beaches of Maui."
- I smiled, picturing the image.
-
- I walked into the kitchen and started making coffee. "Luke Wells
- International Coffees" it said on the side of the can. I started that
- brewing, and went into the spare bedroom. Justin had pulled all the windows
- and shades completely shut, so he had no concept of night or day, and as a
- result, was still asleep as if it were 3am. I opened the shades, and
- sunlight from the morning flooded the room. The room was on the front of my
- house, and I could see people in my neighborhood out doing the usual for this
- time of morning on a weekend. It was a pretty nice neighborhood, a lot of
- people retired, a few working class people, and even a few children running
- around on the street. It was right out of a storybook, but this was real. I
- switched on the radio.
- "...and should be partly to mostly cloudy over most of the day, high
- very cool, around 74 degrees. Tonight, most of the same, low around 50, and
- more of the same throughout the week, highs in the high 70s. This is KHOW,
- 630 AM."
- I went over and pulled off the covers on Justin's bed. He was a slow
- waker, and it took quite a bit of noise or commotion to bring him out of
- sleep. He meerly turned over, and put his face in his pillow. I just pulled
- all the top covers off the bed, and dropped them on the floor. When he
- started to get cold, he'd get up.
- Music was coming over the radio, bringing in with it something
- special. Tim was cooking in my kitchen, and I walked out to get the paper.
- "1 dead, 24 injured..." I expected to see that headline start off
- again, as it had done two weeks ago on this Sunday. I began to worry a
- little that this wouldn't be a good day for Justin, but in the past two
- weeks, there weren't any, so it couldn't be much worse.
- I went back inside, and began to undo the band, and pull out the
- various parts of the paper. Madonna's "Material Girl" was coming over the
- speaker, which I had wired all over the house. Justin stumbled into the
- living room wearing nothing, and collapsed onto the couch. He was like I
- was. Never awake until a hot shower and hot coffee. If I didn't get that,
- I'd never make it past the kitchen.
- "What is today?" Justin asked.
- "July 17th, '88. Want a section of the paper?"
- "No thanks."
- Tim walked in with two cups of coffee, and gave one to me. He
- noticed Justin.
- "Oh, Justin, want some coffee?"
- "Sure," Justin said. He was still half asleep. The radio came back
- on.
- "Good morning. This is Hal, it's 10:15. Still no lead to speak of on
- that Chicago massacare that occured two weeks ago today, leaving a Denver
- man, Aron Mason dead, and 24 injured. Police are still not ruling out the
- possibility of a freak shooting. In other news, Democratic nominee Michael
- Dukakis is whipping up more campaign spirit with running mate..."
- I switched off the radio. Justin was sitting up, wide awake with his
- cup. I got the weirdest feeling that he was going to start telling "Aron
- stories" again. I didn't have anything against that, but for the past two
- weeks, everytime he talked, it was about Aron. This morning, I just didn't
- want to hear it. But that never stopped him before.
- "I remember one time in High school. He was always getting out of
- classes, it was like an obsession with him to see if he could do it without
- getting caught. And for four years, he never did. One time he did it with
- faking death. He had me call in, and I told him that Aron had died, and we
- had it printed in the school paper and everything. (He laughed a little.) He
- got out of classes for about three weeks, then went back. Everyone was
- shocked, but he just claimed it was a mistake, someone else had died, and he
- was all right."
- Justin stopped short of finishing the sentence. He looked at me,
- realizing what he had just said.
- "Why would he do that," Justin asked me. I didn't answer
- immediately.
- "Tim, call the airlines," I said. Tim hurried out of the room.
-
- Chicago O'Hare Airport. Justin and I landed about 2 in the
- afternoon, rented a car, and got on the freeway.
- "OK," I started, "where was Aron supposed to go when he was in
- Chicago?"
- "He had a job interview with some company here. National firm, but
- this is where they like to hold all the evaluations."
- "Do you know what company?" I asked him.
- "Reston Industries."
-
- Within an hour, we found the building in question. A huge sign was
- in front, with chrome letters spelling out "RI". We went into the lobby up
- to the receptionist.
- "Can I help you?" It was a lady sitting behind a huge desk, which
- she probably didn't need.
- "I want to know if you had an Aron Mason come to this firm two weeks
- ago yesterday. He was here for a job interview."
- "Just a moment." She pulled out this huge book of appointments and
- scanned through. It took a little while, but she ended up going through all
- the appointments made. I began to wonder why she didn't have it put in on a
- computer, but I wasn't in the mood to suggest ideas.
- "I'm sorry, no Aron Mason listed," she told us. Justin turned and
- walked away.
- "Thanks anyway," I told her, then followed Justin outside. We walked
- to the car.
- "OK," he said, "he lied to me, and didn't really come here. So just
- where in the hell did he go?"
- "Do you know what motel he was staying at?"
- "No, but it's a good bet it was one of those near the airport."
-
- We started to check around. It took a couple of hours, as it turned
- out the motel he was at wasn't near the airport. But it was in our area, so
- we went over there. After haggling with the manager, we finally talked him
- out of the key to the room. We walked inside.
- "What are we looking for?" Justin asked.
- "Anything that will tell us what's going on."
- We went all over that room several times. It was only a single room,
- so there really wasn't that much to cover, but there was nothing. We were
- just about to walk out, when Justin happened to glance behind a dresser. An
- envelope had falled behind there. It took a little bit to fish it out, but
- we finally managed to grab it. It was a letter.
-
- "1200 Grand. 13 A.M."
-
- "What is 13am? There's only 12am, then it's pm," Justin commented. I
- didn't know what was going on. We located Grand, and by that time it was
- about 6pm, and I was pretty hungary. We stopped in a parking lot, and walked
- inside.
- "They must be remodeling," I told Justin. Several of the counters
- were being torn town, some walls were having some work done. Then it
- suddenly dawned on me where we were. I looked up, and the sign read "Welcome
- to Burger King."
- I tugged on Justin, and we left in a rush. I had lost my appitite,
- as Justin had, so we continued to find the house. As it turned out, 1200
- Grand was a warehouse. An empty warehouse, actually. We went around the
- grounds, but there was nothing.
-
- We heard a voice behind us.
- "Freeze assholes!" Then a click of a revolver.
-
- We were drug inside the warehouse. Some guy walked up to us.
- "So what are you doing on my property?"
- I didn't answer him. He jabbed his fist into my stomach, and I
- winced, but tried to hide it. He seemed to be getting impatient.
- "What are you doing here?" he repeated. Justin spoke.
- "We're just looking for a friend," he said, almost whining. Justin
- wasn't the type of person that was used to this. Not that I was, but could
- handle this a little better then Justin could.
- "Oh a 'friend' are you? And just who might that be?"
- I was hoping that Justin would just be quiet. But I knew he couldn't
- be, or these people we were dealing with could do some damage. But I didn't
- say anthing.
-
- But Justin hesitated. He finally said it though.
- "Aron Mason."
- Suddenly the guy looked at Justin with interest. "Aron Mason you
- say? Well I hate to disappoint you, but the boy's been done blown away. He
- did some work for me, and I just couldn't let him continue any longer."
- "What work?" I asked him. He looked over at me.
- "The same kind of work he's always done." Then he made a motion to
- another guy, who shoved us out the door. We were a little stunned, but
- none-the-less went back to our car. Actually, we ran all the way back.
- We located a hotel near the airport, and stayed the night.
-
- Justin came over to me, as I was getting ready for bed.
- "Do you get the feeling that something just isn't quite right?"
- "Why do you say that?" I asked.
- "What's going on with Aron, it just isn't making sense. Like what
- that one guy said..."The same thing that he's been doing."...what?"
- "Do you want an honest answer?"
- "Yes."
- "I think he's been running drugs. You remember when you told me the
- story about the one party, with the bag. That's what I figured it was."
- "Well, that's the first thing I considered. But ever since I knew
- him in high school, he's the type of person who's watching out for law, not
- breaking it."
- "Yeah, but in the past couple of years he's changed. I'm not sure it
- wasn't."
- He didn't respond. But he looked hurt, like he was going to break
- again. I really wished he wouldn't. I walked over to his bed to help him.
- He rested his head on my shoulder, and looked out the window. Nothing could
- be seen because of Chicago's lights, but the city looked beautiful. I placed
- my hand around him, and squeezed him gently, and he kissed me for it.
- "Do you want to make love?" he asked me. I pushed him down on the
- bed, and we kissed. I relaxed with him, and tried to make this worthwhile.
- As we gradually disrobed, I felt like he was treating me like he once treated
- Aron. He was gentler than he usually was.
- As we continued, I felt like we were becoming the same person.
- Somehow, this was really special. I felt like I was really comfortable with
- Justin, but somehow I felt like I was cheeting on Tim. Although I never
- mentioned this to Justin, it bothered me.
- We layed back on the bed, both of us feeling wonderful. But I knew
- deep in my heart that I was cheeting on Tim, and more so, I knew Justin was
- cheeting on Aron.
- I knew Aron was out there somewhere. I was confused about what was
- going on, but I didn't want to think about. I fell asleep dreaming, and for
- a moment, I felt Aron was with me. I felt he was with Justin. I felt he was
- with everyone.
-
- >>>Nick Tails
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