Date: Fri, 04 Nov 2005 12:06:44 -0500
From: Henry Higgins <escribir12@hotmail.com>
Subject: Nevermore-17

As we made our way through the traffic, my vision of Adam seemed to guide
us towards the Golden Stage Diner. I pulled into the lot, parked, and as we
all three settled into the same booth we'd had the day before, D approached
us with three glasses of water and a big smile.

"Well I'm glad to see youse guys back so soon. How are yez all, anyway?"

We all chorused "fine" as the boys opened their menus and I excused myself
to go to the bathroom. I had hoped to grab a chance to talk to D away from
the boys. I found the men's room and checked to see that it was out of
sight of our booth. I peed, and then noticed D waiting on another table
nearby. Catching her eye, I signaled her to come see me, and then waited in
the hallway. D took the order and then came over.

"Thanks, D. I'm glad you caught my meaning," I said.

"Sure, Jim. What's up?"

"Kenny and I found Rusty with a bad actor yesterday. The creep hurt him
pretty badly. Fortunately they're only superficial wounds that will heal
rapidly, but I want you to warn all the kids you know about to stay away
from this guy. He's really bad news."

"Oh my God, Jim! I saw Rusty leave with that guy yesterday and I didn't
have a good feeling about him. He looked like trash--you know, a real
greaser. Oh Lord, is Rusty going to be okay?"

I replied, "Physically yes. Emotionally, I'm not sure. It's too early to
tell. My doctor friend, Roger Hansen, treated him at my house and we're due
at his office Monday morning. I think we may know then. But I arranged for
Rusty to stay with us a few days. I'll be able to watch him for any signs
of serious emotional damage. Right now, I think that being with Kenny is
the best thing Rusty could be doing. Those two really are soul brothers."

"You got that right. Ain't they great for each other? Well I'll be sure to
tell the other kids that I know. Are ya going to file charges against that
jerk?"

"That's a tough situation, D. I can't right now because I don't know that I
could find him. He ran away when we came upon him yesterday. I hope he's
gone for good, but you never know."

"Yeah, I know. Well, I'll keep my eyes open and warn everybody I can. I
gotta get back and pick up an order now."

"Okay," I said. "Thanks, D. You're a huge help."

She shot me a snaggle-toothed grin and then hurried over to the serving
window as I returned to the table to find the boys sitting where I had left
them, studying the menu, and Rusty seeming to grow out of his bro he was
sitting so close to him.

"So, what'd you say to D?" Kenny asked, piercing me with his intense look.

I almost jumped I was so startled. But then, I should have known that in a
close relationship like the one we were developing, there would be
absolutely nothing I could put over on this kid. "Um... uh... could I tell
you later?" I smiled, but looked pointedly at Rusty and Kenny took my hint.

"Sure," he said. "No problem." "I think I'm gonna have a double bacon
cheeseburger with extra cheese like you get, Kenny. I'm kinda hungry
today."

"That's a good sign," I observed.

Rusty looked at me quizzically. "Huh?"

Kenny chimed in, "It means your wounds are healing."

"Oh. Well, that's good, isn't it?"

Kenny and I chorused, "You bet it is!" Rusty grinned and I thought I could
detect a brighter light in those hazel eyes.

"So is D gonna tell the other kids about that creep?" asked Rusty. Kenny
and I stared at him. "Well, that's what you were talking to her about,
wasn't it," he asked me.

I could only be truthful. "Um... Yeah, Rusty, it was. How did you know?"

"Well it's not like I'm igneous, ya know. I'm not TOTALLY stupid!" Rusty
grinned impishly.

"You mean ignorant, don't you?" corrected Kenny.

"Yeah, I guess," said Rusty.

I continued in a sober tone. "Rusty, I wasn't trying to hide anything from
you, but I was very concerned not to upset you."

"Oh," he said. "Well I don't think I'd be upset now, Jim. After all, the
creep's gone."

Kenny had followed my exchange with Rusty intently. Rusty seemed to be
unaware of the "mind bonding" he'd just done. However, Kenny knew. I could
see it in his intense study of our conversation. And, I could feel it even
more than observe it.

"So, what are youse guys gonna have?" asked D as she came to the
table. "Rusty, you're sure looking good, hon."

Rusty beamed. "Well, I'm gonna have what Kenny always gets--one of them
double bacon cheeseburger things with extra cheese and fries!"

"Uh-oh, you wouldn't be startin' a growth spurt like Kenny did, would ya?"
D teased the boy.

"Well if eatin' them things will help me get one started, I'll just hafta
begin t' eat more of 'em." Rusty joked. "Cuz I got a lotta catchin' up to
do!" We all laughed.

"Kenny, how about you, hon? You gonna have a cholesterol bomb, too?"

"No, D." the boy answered. "I think I'll have a chicken Caesar salad."

D looked up from her order pad. "Kenny! You? Salad? Boy! You must be
beginning to listen to Jim."

Kenny just gave a coy smile. "Well, maybe it's time I started eatin' a
little more healthy, ya know?"

I smiled and felt very proud of Kenny just then. "I think I'll have the
same, D. Thank you."

The waitress turned back towards the kitchen, shaking her head. I thought I
heard her muttering something about 'marvelous effect.' No, I thought, that
was probably just my over-active imagination.

"So what kindsa new stuff do they got at the arcade?" asked Rusty.

"I heard that they got in some flight simulators," I said.

"Oh, great!" spouted the younger boy. "Like we can fly fighter jets or
rockets or somethin'!"

"Yeah, just be sure you don't go crash and burn, little bro," advised
Kenny, grinning at his 'little bro.'

"Oh, not me! I'm gonna be the best pilot over there," said Rusty.

Kenny grew serious. "Jim, we just did it again, that mind-bonding thing,
didn't we?"

"I think we did, Kenny. I didn't even know it was happening until we were
into it. And, I think Rusty still isn't aware of it."

"Aware of what? Our mind-bind thing?" asked Rusty.

Suddenly, Kenny and I were startled into an awareness that Rusty indeed
knew of our special bond. It was almost as though he accepted it without
question. I was beginning to see Rusty as a boy who understood the world in
a very different way than many of us.

"How did you know, Rusty?" I asked.

"Know what?" he asked as Kenny slipped his arm more snugly around Rusty's
shoulders.

"That we were mind-bonding."

"Oh, that's easy. Ican just feel it," said the slim little redhead. "It's
like I can feel you, Jim--when you're turned on to us, when you love us,
when you're afraid. That's why I trust you so much. You're
honest. Yesterday, when I was upset and you were rubbing my back, I could
feel your love.You wanted to love me, not to have sex with me. I don't
think I ever felt anything so good!"

In my mind, I could feel Kenny reaching out to me; it was almost
spiritual. I could also feel Rusty basking in my acceptance of him. I was
trying to "beam" back my acceptance of both boys when I felt them
reassuring me--I didn't have to try to project my feelings; they picked up
on them anyway. We exchanged no words.

Kenny said, "Rusty don't trust many people, Jim. But he locked onto me last
year and that's when I started responding to him in this way. You know how
I said we'd seen you at the beehive? Well what I meant was, we were kinda
reading you. That's how we figured you'd be a good guy. That's why we
wanted to meet ya."

"Here ya go guys!" said D as she brought our platters--Rusty his
cholesterol bomb, and Kenny and me our Caesar salads. I smiled at my young
charges and dug into my salad. We didn't talk much as we munched; we each
seemed lost in our own thoughts. Yet I could feel that bond of trust and
love as if it were a golden ring encircling us. How strange! I don't think
I'd ever felt that way before, even with David. I wondered: If David had
been with us then whether he would have tuned in on our vibes? Glumly, I
thought that I'd probably never know.

"Ya never can tell, Jim," said Kenny between mouthfuls. "I know how much
you miss him and how much you loved him!"

I realized that I hadn't said anything; that I had thought it; and then I
started to choke up. "Oh, Kenny. That means so much to me!"

"Yeah," said Rusty. "Now that we know you wouldn't throw us out if ya ever
find David..."

"No chance of that, guys!" I avowed. "I just can't imagine how somebody
could just disappear like he did." "Have you ever tried to find him?"
asked Kenny.

"Early on, yeah. But the Child Protective Services wouldn't give out any
information about him, especially to me. Rog and Peter tried to help me
find out, but they couldn't get anything, either. Later, I tried to find
out if he'd gotten a driver's license, or had a credit record. Nothing. It
was like he literally disappeared."

There seemed to be nothing more to say on the subject, so we finished our
meal in silence. Every now and then I could detect D keeping an eye on us,
good soul that she was. I went to the cash register to pay the bill, the
boys at my heels. D was busy with other customers, so she could only nod
her farewell to us.

Rusty bounced out to the car, with Kenny and me not far behind. I could
tell that his head was already full of piloting rockets or airplanes. Kenny
seemed more sedate about the whole thing. I couldn't tell what he was
looking forward to, so I made a mental note to check out where he went
first.

The mall was located close to the diner. We could have walked, but that
would have required crossing two one-way parts of a busy state
highway. Even though there were crosswalks at a light, driving seemed the
more expedient way to get there. Five minutes later, we were getting out of
the car with the diner across the highway and up a hill. The mall was a
multi-level thing, built into the hillside that continued down from the
diner.

As we entered the building, the hollow hiss of a large fountain and echoes
of people talking and calling to one another filled our ears. A loudspeaker
system added to the din, occasionally issuing calls for the parents of
little so-and-so to call for her at the mall security office or notifying
the owner of a white Mustang, license number such-and-such that the car
lights were on.

The arcade was across the atrium from where we had entered. I noticed Kenny
drift over to a DDR game that some kids near his age were playing. Rusty
headed directly for what I remembered as an old Link trainer, a mocked up
cockpit mounted on a pivoting base that could simulate climbing,
descending, and banking in an airplane. I was surprised and pleased to see
that the line of kids in front of Rusty was short so that it wouldn't be
long before he would get to play. As I approached, the little redhead was
standing in the number four position of the line.

Having assured myself of Rusty's position, I turned back toward the DDR
group just as Kenny took a turn on the pad. His agility surprised me as he
followed the dance steps on the screen. I watched for a while and then
turned back towards Rusty to see how he had progressed in the line. What I
saw made my blood run cold.

Rusty stood frozen in place, number two in line, as he stared over the top
of the little trainer at something toward the back of the arcade. He was
making a croaking sound that I immediately realized was some kind of attack
affecting his breathing. I called to Kenny to come over as I rushed up to
Rusty. When I got to him I could see that he was turning an ashen color as
he tried to breathe but could only croak. I also could see what had brought
on the attack. At the back of the arcade was the same greasy creep that had
attacked him the day before.

"Oh, God! Rusty, what's wrong," Kenny cried as he joined us. I didn't have
much time. Just then I saw that the creep had seen us and was heading for
an exit door at the back of the arcade.

"Kenny, call 911 NOW!" I said, as I handed him my cell phone.

I ran around the flight simulator toward the creep as he darted through the
back door. I noticed the lights in the place come up on high, so I figured
Kenny had succeeded in summoning help, which probably wasn't too far away
these days. I ran through the back door into a utility hall for the
mall. Which way had the piece of shit run? I had to choose in an instant so
I bet that he would try to get out of the mall, that he wouldn't be smart
enough to try to meld in with the shopping crowd.

I could also tell that he was panicked--little streaks of wetness lay on
the floor. I ran down the hall to a door that led outside. It stood
slightly open, letting a shaft of bright daylight fall across the dim
interior of the hall. Somewhere in my mind I had heard back-up signals
blaring as I neared the door. I stepped outside and saw why. The door
opened onto a narrow stairway that flanked a loading dock for trucks. A
tractor-trailer rig had been backing into the dock, but had stopped before
reaching it.

The creep was nowhere to be seen. As I approached the edge of the loading
dock, I saw him under one of the rear trailer wheels blood oozing out into
a dark red puddle around his neck and his head bent back from his body at a
crazy angle. His face was frozen in a mask of terror. Two men and two mall
security guards were approaching him from the front of the truck.

"Ain't never seen anything like it!" one of the men was saying. "Crazy ass
come runnin' out th' door, missed th' stairs and th' guard rail, and fell
down right behind th' trailer. It all happened in about fifteen seconds."

I had seen enough, so I turned and ran quickly back into the hall and up to
the back door of the arcade. It only opened out from the inside. There was
no way to open it from the hall, so I ran around to the front of the
arcade, looking for Kenny and Rusty. They were nowhere to be seen.

Panic surged through my guts as it felt like everything was letting go. No!
I couldn't do that here. Not with the boys here. I shouted, "Kenny! Rusty!"
people in the arcade turned to stare at me, but my boys were not
there. "Does anybody know what happened to two boys?" I shouted. Now,
people looked at me as if I were the madman. A pair of mall guards was
closing on me fast.

"What's the matter here? Why are you shouting sir?"

"I need to find my boys. The younger one couldn't breathe and the older one
was going to help him. Did the paramedics come?" I could hear the
desperation in my voice as I struggled to get my own breath. No wheezing,
though. I struggled for a calm that seemed to be just beyond my grasp.

"Who are you sir?" said the guard. "We just had some trouble where a man
seemed to be approaching one of the kids in the arcade. He ran out the back
though. Are you that man? Why do you want to know about these boys? Are you
their father?"

Panic gave way to dread as I began to realize how quickly my situation had
become grave. I tried to calm down, though. "I'm a neighbor. We had lunch
together at the diner across the street and then came in here to play some
games. The younger boy started to have an asthma attack. He couldn't
breathe."

"I see, sir. If you could come with me to the mall security office I think
we can get this straightened out," said one guard.

I felt wooden. I could hear myself speaking as if from a great distance
outside my body. Realization grew upon me like a cloak of lead as the
desperation of my predicament loomed over me.

"Yes, I'll come with you," I said. "Are my boys there? My younger boy
couldn't breathe. Do you have first aid equipment there? He needs a
doctor!"

"Just come with us sir. I'm sure we can sort all this out," said the other
guard. Numbly, I followed them.

I fought to contain my indignation and panic. My survival instinct dulled
the other reactions as I walked woodenly between the guards, across the
mall, and down another hallway to a door marked "Mall Security." I was
aware of a huge emptiness just then. I tried reaching out to Kenny and
Rusty with my feelings, but I was numb. I couldn't feel anything. I could
only see the visions of my arrest and imprisonment years ago... and David's
face screwed up in horror and fear as the two of us were torn apart. Now it
seemed to happening all over again. The guard took me to a small room off a
hallway inside the Security Office, where they indicated for me to sit down
at a table.

"Sir, we know you're concerned about your boys. If you can wait here for a
few minutes, we can get it all straightened out for you," said one of the
security guards.

"I need to know about my younger boy," I demanded. "He couldn't breathe."
My panic was notching my voice up in pitch. I felt crazy... just barely in
control of myself. They didn't answer me further and left the room. I
became quiet to the point of lethargy, filled with dread as I considered
the situation.

In a few minutes, a uniformed officer came into the room. I recognized the
uniform as County Sheriff rather than mall security. "Mr. Watson?"

"Yes," I answered.

"We're trying to get an idea of what happened just now. I'd like to ask you
some questions."

"Okay," I replied. "But first, could I find out what happened to the boys
that I was with? One of them was having trouble breathing, an asthma
attack. Is he okay?"

"Both boys are at a nearby hospital emergency room sir, and are receiving
care there. Now could you help us understand what happened?"

I tried to think, but my mind was mired and numb. I couldn't talk about the
perp because that would betray the boys' trust in me. More on instinct than
anything else, I sorted out what I could talk about and what could be
corroborated--and, to reveal as little as possible without seeming to be
hiding something.

"I'm not sure, myself. The boys are best friends. I was doing the younger
boy's mother a favor and taking her son to the doctor's office for a blood
test this morning. She had to work and couldn't take him. After the blood
test, we had lunch at the diner across the street and then came over to the
mall so the boys could play some of the new games at the arcade. That's
when I found the younger boy wheezing and gasping. I ran out the back door
of the mall hoping to find some help while I gave the older boy my cell
phone to call 911. When the back door to the arcade closed, I found that I
couldn't get back into the arcade, so I ran around front and that's when I
found the boys gone and the mall security guards came up to me."

"Did you see anyone else go out the back door of the arcade, Mr. Watson?"
asked the officer.

"No. When I didn't see anybody in the hallway, I tried to get back into the
arcade and couldn't, so I had to go back around to the front," I replied.

"What do you think gave the younger boy the asthma attack?" the officer
asked.

"I don't know," I lied.

"Mr. Watson, are you aware that a man was run over by a truck around the
time you ran out into the hallway?" he asked.

"No. I didn't see anybody in the hallway," I replied.

"That man was a registered sex offender with a long list of repeat
offenses. I think there may be some link between him and the younger boy
who had the difficulty breathing. Can you help me with that? Did you see
him in the arcade?"

"Was?" I asked.

"He was killed when the truck ran over him."

"Oh, no!" I replied. "I was so focused on Rusty, that's the boy's name,
that I didn't notice anyone else."

"Mr. Watson, we know that you also are registered with the state as an
offender."