(GE Copy)

Chapter 20: Begging Bounties (Part 2)

“They were no different than the last.”

Down the streets, Aaron looked to his left. He noticed a decayed building, and remembered the month before. It was said that every walk of agent, detective, and fleet admiral had occupied the main drag for weeks, poking it for any clue as to why. It was so intensive that it choked whatever business were left over in the area from conducting sales and it became mostly abandoned. Not even the bystanders wanted to return to the heartache, let alone the watch of lingering officials with their loose suspicions. Perhaps in fifty years, it would turn into a tourist hot spot, selling the fear of what transpired like a cursed ghost town gift shop. Aaron shook himself to forget and pass the memory aside. It was still far too soon for him to manage such a heavy weight, and they moved on, never knowing the state of repair to old Penticton’s devastating crash site.

Aaron glossed over the streets, always seeing places of heavy activity and no seclusion. Eyes everywhere. Even the deadened cold dreary allies were no place to put a tub of water. Hobo’s probably wash themselves off in it, take the container, use it to store clothes. Rooftops, maybe. Everywhere seemed so conspicuous for a random tub of water. They made most the walk down to the superstores, and figured it was probably their best options anyway. Looking up the sheer wall to the top of his favourite shopping centre, he felt a giddy excitement, imagining the joys of easily walking through his bedroom, and arriving at the best place to find toys, and foods, and everything was half the price of Summerland’s tourist gouging. You thought I was done heckling my old home town, didn’t you? You were wrong.

They took a once over, making the full loop around the mart, and began at the garden centre around the back. The plastic covered bales left behind gave them a stepping stool up onto the abandoned service booth, and Felicity could reach the top from there, but Aaron couldn’t. With a little piggybacking, Felicity leapt for the roof’s lip, gripping it’s side, and pulled Aaron up with him. The top was flat with a rim, level, surprisingly empty. Perfect.

Getting straight to it, Aaron retrieved the plastic dish tub, hiding it behind an air vent. He ducked to the side, hearing the footsteps of a random person, and once they were past him, he rose to fill the thing with water. He stopped, took a look around, and blushed “You know... This really does look pretty ridiculous. I mean, look at me. Hiding up here just to install a foot bath on a superstore roof. I probably look like an addict. Like that guy...” Pointing to the scruffy fellow basking in the rays across the treeline towards the rough district. Shaking his head, Aaron turned to Felicity, “How is it that these oddities make so much sense to you too? No normal person would be doing these things...”

“Seen it my whole life,” Felicity replied, “kinda hard not to. Your people are the ones who are unconditioned to mysteries, that it takes having to see something for them to actually believe it; and when it does happen they are so terrified by it that they wish it never even happened.”

“Yeah... I should teach you how to work these things, so you can use them too...” But it wasn’t so simple.

After a half hour of explaining it, the mysticism, and the extra sensory, Aaron was left trying to help Felicity zen out. The smell of the stale roof tar, the sun that beat down, positions of trees as though it were there, even when they were not in sight, the mechanics of a damned ventilation duct. “Got nothing...” Felicity admit, sitting back. “And it’s baking up here... Can’t we learn this somewhere a little more cool?”

“Sure...” Feeling let down. “No idea how the old guy does it... Being a teacher.” Aaron took a moment to recalculate his approach until looking at their surroundings and sighed, “You know, I’d love to move on too, actually...” Looking down the edge, Aaron admit. “I guess we kind of need a way down at some point too... Mind running in there and seeing if they have some cheap rope or something? Thinking these metal pieces are bolted down pretty good. I’ll stay up here, see if I can go home or something, might have some rope there too.”

Well after Felicity leaves his sight, Aaron stood, staring deeply into the tub of water, wondering how Felicity couldn’t grasp the concept. He felt guiltily stupid, as though such a simple task was outside his ability to pass on. He couldn’t let it go, trying to imagine some means of making it make sense but he caved and sat down beside it. “Dhow!...” Aaron cuffed himself upside the head, “Ya’know, my stupidity rides on brilliance some times. It’s not like I even have the money to buy a rope from here in the first place... Guess I’m stuck waiting up here... Or going home.” Laying upon his back, Aaron looked at the patchy sky that clouded past the sun. He could hear the passing of a plane fly overhead, but couldn’t quite spot it with his eyes. The delayed travel time of the flying metal bird said it was behind, so it must be in sight by now, but the sound wavered and distorted until the pale purple sky seemed caustically bleak. “Ah... Shit... This feels too familiar.”

Snuffing what unruly clog had clung to his nose, he walked up to Aaron, casting a sigh and stood silently above him. The short prick looked down, and muttered aloud. “You look like I feel... Heh...” Feeling relieved under the facade of his stern demeanour. “You’re eyes have shaded over again, what an auspicious time for that to happen, feels like it’s been forever since that weight’s been lifted...” Picking up a reminiscent tone, “Never did understand why that transpires like it does; otherwise, if I did, I might not have to be here right now... Shit...” Sighing, “Boy... I got some terrible news...”

Still turned away from the munchkin, Aaron revelled. “Oh, I’ve waited a long time for this one, give it to me straight doc, how long do I got on your life support? I’m not sure I can pay the bill anymore, see my attention spans fleeting and get no help from you...”

“Alright, I get it, you’re depressed but you’re trying too hard...” The contractor complained, “Comedy’s an art form, take what works, build on it, don’t just shovel shit and expect a laugh... Trust me, I want a few of those before we’re done here.”

“How long is it going to take for you to get to the point? I feel like the guy on the corner waiting for his next dose of cough syrup. Just hit me with it...”

Smiling, the Contractor continued. “You might desire to savour this moment... I wouldn’t be here right now if I didn’t care...” Aaron clasped his face into his hands for another senselessly long bout. “Some people figure we should have taken you as a child... Perhaps we should have. I wanted to... yes, I did. I know, say what you will but I had a change of heart; someone convinced me to believe in you... And I did. I believed in you for eight years... Today you broke that faith, smiling as you do it too... See...” Taking a long, pensive pause, “I wanted to do this whole song and dance, 'woe is me, I lost my little dog...' routine to perk your empathy but then I realized there is no compassion, no competing, no tale is sadder than your own. Guess there is no future for you... Your potential is almost all washed away with the shit winds...” Lighting one last cigar, and taking a hit “See, there are only so many chances we get in life until we roll snake eyes, and one day the people keeping back the flood gates aren't there to send you out an orange ring.” Sitting melancholy beside the boy “I’d say that you’ve got little over a few days before this ride of yours is going to need a tow truck... Hmm... Not much impact with that euphemism, is there?” He muttered, evaluating his sentence before catching an anomaly off his side, where a strong man walked up to them, having a stern air about them. Their eyes met, and the bastard took a knee to stand on. “Holy shit, he can do that too? It’s not just the Cyrenian guy?” Reforming his tone, the contracted sneered. “You think he’d listen if I told him it’s private business?”

“You know what?” Aaron suggested, turning his head to greet Felicity, “How about we have someone else actually know about your little kidnappings?” Finally directing his sight to the shit gremlin “What? Shy all of the sudden?”

“And perhaps they might like to know a couple things about you, too, wouldn’t they?” The contractor bluffed through the shock in his lips. “Maybe he’d like to know how death threats are your common insult these days, or how extensive your knowledge is on big lusty dragon maids and their sexy french outfits.” Laughing the contractor smirked at the effeminate man, “You wanna know what this kid wished for them to do to him?...” Wiping a reminiscent tear from his eye, “...AH! But, heck, you probably already heard... See, me and the boy go back a long time, we used to play poker every weekend after school, where I’d lay down a full house and he’d bluff his way out of chips with two jacks. Never did learn how to stop smirking when his hands were loaded either... But usually they were loaded with shit.”

“You know what, this is as pointless as ever,” Aaron regret, “just say the freaking words already; I’m tired of waiting.”

“Words? Words? What words, ‘abra kadabra, dirty old man, squeezes his assistant as fast as he can’? No? How about ‘Wally wally washington walking down the street, falls into a manhole cover and slides down shit creek...’ ‘presto pasto, alimony he has’to’ You’re not waiting for ‘I do’ are you?” Repulsing at the thought.

“How about starting with ‘goodbye’, ‘sayonara’, see where it goes from there. ‘Bon voyage’, ‘recede, exodus, adieu,’ It’s easy, just open up your mouth and repeat after me; ‘adieu’, adieu already, for fuck sake! A-Bloody-damn-well-dieu, and fuck off! Just put the damned words in your purple shit coloured lips and bloody say the fucking words! Say it! Say it!”

“You know, there’s something I really hate about some people!” Grinding his teeth, as he cussed through them “Contrarians... Yeah, that’s right, I ain’t done telling you my grievances yet so sit up and take a midol... They seems to do all this shit to spite you. Whatever you say, they gotta do the opposite. You give them two weeks to think things over, and they go along all gangbusters just to shit even harder into your already ‘generous’ hands. Please sir! Can I have another *Plbbbttth*... You’ve grown boy... Like a fucking weed, rapidly too, abrasively, all in spite of me. If I kept hush hush, you’d still be the same weak staggering fool. I should feel guilty, responsibly even, but you made the choice against it... Hold your fangs, Mr...” Addressing Felicity. “I’m just the messenger, can’t you see the arrows already sticking out of in my damn back? Funny story who put them there.” Pointing this thumb to Aaron. “I was going into the office a little while ago, gonna ask for an extension, the words that came after that aren’t the kind of things you wanna know about. So... He cut it short for me. I came to offer you a heads up, a... Last minute warning before Gomorrah start’ it’s annual fireworks. Said the deadline was cut, bet you’re real happy about that too, aren’t you?...”

“Oh, finally...”

“Damn it all! Open your ears Aaron!...”

“It’s like Christmas! You actually called me by my name for once, what else did you get me, a toy train?!”

“I got you a bag of steaming turds! Now listen! I can’t even begin to explain the shit you are in, or the exchange rates on an Iladian Skorpal, but there’s a kings fucking ransom over your head! Your friend there better be able to pull a really damn big rabbit out of their ass if you want to get out of this one. I tired to save you, I tried to FUCKING save you!...”

“And I’d assume your boss has nothing to do with that bounty, or it’s amount? I ain’t playing willing slave to the bounty collector, coz I’m calling bullshit on your chain of command. Hard to say you’re saving someone from the person they work for... We’re playing hardball now, and you... Can take a vacation somewhere nice for once, and visit a cow’s asshole!”

“I’m gonna miss your way with words... It’s not all business.” Gritting angrily. “I really will miss you kid, but this is going to be a goodbye none of us want. My vacation pay started two hours ago, I spent it tracking you down across the damned lake, just to warn an old friend of things to be; and he told me to fuck off. Good riddance. What an asshole!... I could have let you find out on your own, but no; two hours of my life, sober, looking at Liberachi and his boyfriend instead of greasing up some busty Bermudan babes who want to sink my oil tanker off the coast of Cuba” Turning around “Oh... Speaking of sobriety” Reaching into his pocket, “Forgot... This is for the old man’s fridge. Don’t say we don’t replace our quarry when we steals em.” Tossing a can in Aaron’s hand before beginning to disappear.

Smirking, Aaron shot out, “It too late to take in applications, or am I just jinxing my luck by asking?”

“If you want some advice kid... Grow some wings, and fuck off for the moon, the sun’s rising...”

“Guess I really am free then, it’s not just another ploy... Heh... Talk about assholes... There goes... Um... Hmm...” Confused, Aaron questioned the container in his hand, “What’s this?”

“One way to find out...” As Felicity took it up in their own palms, then pulled on the metal tab.

“Wait! What if it’s a trap?”

“From a can?” Felicity doubted, sniffing the contents “Eeeeww” He repelled, draining the liquid ash on the ground. “It’s putrid...”

“Yeah, I’m not one to doubt it...”

“Well, at least he didn’t call me a woman...”

“So... We’re in agreement that happened though, right?... Right?... It’s all the proof I need to know I’m not crazy anymore... He really does exist, that... That short... Short...” Having the thought stall silently in the back.

“What a son of a bitch...” Felicity complained, “Ruined my whole mood. I was so excited to tell you about the store. Everyone there wears pyjama bottoms, and even looked happy to see me, like I was accepted; welcomed even... I like this store. We need more of these in the world. Still can’t figure out how they keep it so much colder in there with everyone breathing all the time... Who was that guy anyway?” Noticing a tiny thread floating above Aaron’s mouth. Felicity stared at it long enough to see it curl around even tighter around the boy’s silent lips. He was stalled, until Felicity withdrew his blade, and snipped the wire. It flowed, even unravelling and fell from his lips, but something still poked out from Aaron’s face. Felicity reached to tug the flowing string but a heavy weight fell upon them, and Felicity was surely afraid of the force that awoken in defence of that one thread. He backed away, leaving the force only to watch the thread suck back into underneath Aaron’s skin.

Aaron shook his head, like a hundred thoughts came running back into his mind all at once. He looked down at the plastic tub and marvelled again at the guiding force that helped him at every corner. “Couldn’t have happened soon enough.” Picking up his jars of water. “He’s been tracking me down, eh?... It’s time we made a network that they can’t follow, and keep moving... As long as we don’t stop, it’s gonna be real difficult to track us down... He... Hedrig’s goon. Heh... I can actually remember him. That’s strange.”

“Guess you do need me after all...”

“Of course I need you...” Aaron replied, sympathetically “You’re all I have now that they’ve marked war... You... And this water. All I needed, when I needed it, like it always happens.”

“Crazy, huh?... What are the chances of all that happening in the last couple of days?”

“I know right... I used to be bothered by them, felt odd that such things happened... But Sophie told me, that things like these make much more sense than they seem... I feel bad about Sophie...”

“Don’t...”

“I’ve often wondered if someone else was in control of all this, as though guiding my life from birth; and some people probably have but I doubt that it’d take just anyone to cause all this. Whatever the cause is, in time, I might know how it comes to be and what hand it was that brought me here... But, until then, I guess I accept that we really are just following someone else’s journey because that’s what we want to find. Maybe it’s physical, spiritual, synaptic, or even the whims of an empty fate, not sure there is a thing I can do to stop it at this point... It’s gonna happen anyways, might as well see where that road ends...” Aaron stood stoically, recollecting his thoughts, then turned face to Felicity. “Anyway, we need to recruit Zack for this, make as many jump points as we can, hope we can outrun our enemies. Tomorrow we install a few outside Stagna, maybe after, some they can’t find even if they wanted to.”

Firing up the old gateway, Aaron made his return to Zack’s house, but not before a quick stop at the gas station. Finally knocking on the door, he was greeted by a stiff comment, “What’s the point in going all the way to Penticton if you’re literally going to be back after an hour?” The man retorted.

“Hey,” Aaron peeked in, “how’s Zack?” Seeing the person in question leaning back in the stiff kitchen chair.

“On break, so you’re in luck.”

“Yo eighteen hundred’s Rapunzel, I’ve come to borrow you.”

Slowly wiping the relief from his face, Zack sat up

“Hey, you remember what I said.” The man implied, “Zack’s got his work to do.”

“I vaguely remember you saying a lot of things.” Aaron returned, a little less pleased at the audacity in the older man “I remember something about people squandering their whole lives, don’t they? I thought you wanted me to make a good impression on your son, get him out of the house and away from his desk...”

Zack’s father exhaled deeply through his nose, staring a hole through Aaron until letting it up, “People really don’t like it when you quote them on shit...” But Zack’s Father seemed to allow Aaron on his call, then shooed them out of the house just as sternly.

They got a half block out of sight and Zack loosened his frustrations, “Sounds like you and dad had a little word in the car or something...” Until forgiving Aaron for nothing, “The hell’d he say about me?”

“Nothing you couldn’t already guess, I mean, you live with the guy. He’s the same stern stick up the ass he’s been since we were kids, and I think he figures the same logic still applies.”

“Wow...” Zack astonished, “I’ve never heard it summarized so efficiently, while saying equally fuck all. What did he actually say?”

“I’d rather not remember all the details...” Before spitting out what few footnotes he could recall of the whole ordeal. “As I said, nothing you don’t hear yourself. He think’s you’re not doing enough, and that people walk all over you. Personally I think the cheese has slipped off his cracker and he honestly frightens me, so I don’t know what to pay heed to with all that.”

“Yeah...” Zack replied, quietly infuriated, “Sure sounds like stuff he’d tell me, I guess; always looking out for me... Just like he always tells me he does.” But Aaron wasn’t so certain. “I especially like the moment where...”

“Well, we lighting this pond?...” Aaron interrupted “Or?”

“Yeah... Fuck it, I didn’t really want to get into it anyway, let’s fire’er up.”

Zack seemed less excited than Aaron about the prospect that they could travel anywhere. If anything, Zack looked relieved that it got him away from the clutches of his parental overreach, and he laughed himself sober when his feet touched the gravel and tar of the other side. Aaron outlined the strategy, concerns, and overall effect of the portal idea from where to hide them, to how far apart they should be to make the most of their limited weekly allowance. Zack pitched in, requesting that his integration inside the portal network would allow for places that Zack wanted, and were consequently usable for Aaron also. Zack’s funds were even shorter, but for two dollars and ten cents, who wouldn’t be skipping the bus fares?

They split up, taking north and south. Being with most experience, and knowing a hidey-hole or two already, Zack took the north side... And with Aaron being so finicky with concealment, he was nominated for Skaha and the like. They met back in the middle, at the superstore rooftop, or the closest they could come to it without a ladder, and finished before supper. Zack relished as he entered his room, he’d soon have a speed dial for anywhere he wanted to go, even if he’d still need Aaron to access it for now. Until Aaron could pass on the skill of opening the gateways himself, Zack kept a container under his bed, so calling in his favours was just a simple phone call away. “It feels weird...” Aaron confessed, “Does it feel weird? We’re putting water into a container, and it makes portals...” Still wallowing in his self conscious.

“Who cares,” Zack remarked, sliding the filled tub under his bed, “it works doesn’t it? They probably thought it was really geeky putting a bunch of light bulbs on a circuit and watching them short each other out, but now we have high end online gaming, and five twelve k.b.s. internet speed. Anyway, I’ll give you a call...”

“Any chance I can catch a bite here? I got family over...” Leaning himself against the desk, Aaron could only take in the silence for a couple seconds before forcefully stating. “Look, I can tell you have no idea why that’s an issue, but...”

“No, no... We all have that one aunt, cousin, or fraternal kidnapper...” Zack admit, “Let me just ask really nicely...” Opening the door, Aaron could spot a strange oddity taking their shoes off by the front step. “Oh, might be harder with company, mom hates having to make more food than expected... A... Aaron?” Watching the lad pull the tub out of from under the bed.

“No, sorry, I’m good...” Opening the gateway. “I think the table might be empty at home after all...”

“Dude... It’s not my uncle Steve, it’s just a friend of the family. Who are you so worried about being home anyway?”

Giving Zack a salute, Aaron fell back into his conduit and did an odd standstill half way. Someone had the bright idea to clamp the lid on the other side, but, Aaron managed to get through alright. Finally fighting gravity, he crawled out and moved the plastic tub somewhere a little more discrete. Maybe the bed method was the way to go. He dusted himself off, and walked in through the garage to find the smells of food already cooked. Paul and Crystal greeted him, surprised that he showed up after the prior warnings. “Yeah,” Paul mentioned, “Just as canned and uncooked as it always is...” As he savoured the flavour of a fresh store stake instead of corn. “Made all this food for her, and she had somewhere else to be. There’ll be pasta salad in the fridge for a few days... We were afraid she’d be staying with us until the weekend again, you know how she just shows up and expects things.”

“She’s over at Zack’s right now...” Aaron informed, taking a seat, “Friend of the family apparently...”

Sternly cutting his beef before finding the words, Paul returned. “Is that so... Good thing she’s our family, that busybody...” While sequentially cutting off his wife “No, Crystal, your cousin is a busybody, and everyone puts up with it. She want’s, want’s, want’s, giving people table scraps in return and pretends everyone is the best of friends until someone’s car breaks down and she has to ask her husband if it’s okay to drive them. Remember when she threatened to kick us out of the car along the highway in the middle of February?”

“Yeah...” She affirmed, reluctantly ashamed but undenying.

“Really?” Aaron astounded, shovelling a good heap of real potatoes into his mouth, “She actually did that? Holy mackerel, isn’t that illegal?” Aaron astounded, before watching a certain scaled feature fall directly into the untouched bowl of creamed corn salad. An obvious, obligatory silence cut the room, as Aaron sweat profusely “I was uh...” Clearing his throat to find an excuse. “I was planning that one for weeks... I meant for it to go off... Um... Later in the evening... It has nothing to do with Aunt Eustis being here...”

“Well, I’m sure as hell glad it didn’t happen when she was here!” His mother reprimanded in between the laughter of her husband.

“Well I wish it did! HA!” Paul laughed, watching it spoil the already disgusting bowl of cheap unskilled forgery and pretentious stature. “What did you use, tripwire? Really, where was that hiding this whole time?... It’s flop around like a spring foal!” Aaron could hear the distaste billowing angrily from his mother but it was eclipsed by his old man as he hollered a roaring wild chuckle “I didn’t know Giant Foods caught shit that fresh!”

Well, despite the later reprimands, Aaron did live to see the new sun. He even dropped Felicity a plate off in the Garage next to the huge, snake infused, mason jar before packing it in that evening. As the new morning sun lent itself to the hillside, Aaron cracked his joints, then organized his pack for the day. He refrained to take appreciation for his family, though Aaron often lamented such things; however he was swiftly interrupted by the joined laughter of his Father and his father’s new best friend. Aaron closed the window, taking one last solitary moment before mentally preparing for what was ahead. It was finally time to test the waters in the far beyond, and continue his project where no shit coloured goblin could bother him ever again.