The Future Next Door Boxed Set, page 69
“I know what that’s like,” Caitlin said. “Coming from a big family.”
Mark rolled his eyes. “Oh, sure. Seven kids. A big family. That’s cute that you think that. I don’t even have a number to give you, there were so many of us.”
“You really don’t know how many brothers and sisters you have?”
“You’ve got to understand my parents. They’re ex-hippies who became college professors at this stupid liberal arts college in Olympia. One of those ‘no majors, no grades’ kind of places. My grandparents were kind of rich and my mom had this huge trust fund but she didn’t want to use it for any, like, material possessions or shit like that. So they decided they’d spend it on kids who didn’t have families of their own.”
“That’s nice,” Caitlin said. “Kind of noble.”
“Yeah. No, it is. I mean, obviously I’m not complaining. I don’t know what my life in Korea would have been like if they hadn’t adopted me. But over the years they’ve taken in so many kids. Some foster kids would be with us for years, some for weeks, some just overnight. Some of the foster kids they’d adopt, some they wouldn’t, but they told us to call all of them our brothers and sisters. I have siblings I don’t know if I’m legally related to or not. Plus they’d adopt kids from outside of the foster system, or from other countries sometimes, like me and Vik or my sister Feng. And somewhere in there they found time to have three biological kids of their own.”
“You didn’t like it?” Alan said. “Having all those foster kids in your house?”
“What?” Mark looked surprised at the question. “No, that’s not...that’s not what I’m saying. They’re my family, my brothers and sisters. I just...” He shook his head. “Forget it. It’s hard to explain. Can we just leave it?”
“Yeah,” Caitlin said. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to pry.”
Mark turned back to watch the ride, and the three of them stood together in silence. After a few moments Mark’s family made it to the front and got on the round up. They spun around and around, screaming in delight. As the hydraulic arm lowered the slowing dish back to the ground, Mark, Alan and Caitlin made their way to the ride’s exit and waited. Toba and Vikram came out first, chatting excitedly and laughing, steadying themselves on each other’s arms. Robert and Hannah followed, more subdued but still obviously enjoying themselves.
Caitlin snuck a peek at Mark. He had a smile on his face, which he quickly hid when his family got closer.
Vikram broke away from his mother and punched Alan lightly on the shoulder. “That was awesome. You guys missed out.”
“Forget these stick-in-the-muds,” Toba said. “What are we riding next?”
“The flume,” Vikram replied. “It’s the only big ride we haven’t hit yet.”
“You want to ride the flume, Hannah?” Toba asked.
“Yeah, whatever,” came the response.
Robert headed off in the direction of the water ride, park map open in his hands. “Let’s go if we’re going.”
The group marched off together. Caitlin found herself lingering behind, her thoughts still on the decision she was facing.
“Everything all right, Caitlin?” Toba asked. “Seems like you’ve got something on your mind.”
“I do,” Caitlin said. “I was hoping to get some advice from Alan but I haven’t had a chance to finish telling him what’s going on.”
“Can I help? I’m a good listener.”
“Oh, thanks, but you don’t want to hear my problems.”
“I’m a mom, Caitlin. Many times over. Hearing problems is what I do.”
Caitlin smiled. “I’ve just got a difficult choice to make.”
“A good choice or a bad choice?”
“A good choice,” Caitlin said. “Two good options, but I can’t do both.”
“Well, that’s a good dilemma to be faced with, so there’s that.”
“True. And that’s new for me, for sure. But choosing one thing means giving up the other, and I can’t decide which I want more.”
Toba stopped, letting the rest of the group continue on. Caitlin paused, and the older woman led her to a nearby bench.
Caitlin sat next to her, slightly confused. “Why are we stopping?”
“Shush. Close your eyes.”
Caitlin did so. The sounds of the park intensified – the cries of children, the zooms of the rides, the tinkling music from the hidden speakers all around them.
“What am I doing?” Caitlin asked.
“Think about the first of your two choices. Imagine the best possible outcome if you were to take that path.”
Caitlin did. She pictured performing Dress My Heart in Ribbons and Lace in a much bigger theater under an off-Broadway contract. She imagined a glowing New York Times review. She saw herself landing an agent. She thought about the show moving to Broadway.
It wasn’t a pipe dream. She knew the show was good. Everything she was imagining could happen. It would be everything she had dreamed of since she was a little girl.
“That’s quite a smile,” Toba said. “Keep your eyes closed. Same thing, with the second choice.”
Caitlin pictured herself accepting the other offer she had received. It wasn’t something she had ever imagined for herself, so the possibilities were a little harder to foresee. She thought through what her life might be like if she let Ribbons and Lace move on without her.
“That’s quite a smile too,” Toba said.
Caitlin opened her eyes. “So what do I do?”
“You already know.”
“I don’t!” Caitlin protested. “I really, really don’t!”
Toba put her hand on Caitlin’s shoulder. “You do,” she insisted. “There’s a voice telling you what the right choice is. You just need to listen to it.”
“I’m not very religious.”
Toba laughed. “I’m a secular Jew, Caitlin. The voice I’m talking about is your own. Filter out the distractions and you’ll feel one path calling to you stronger than the other.”
Caitlin looked down at the ground. The sounds of the park faded. “I think I know what to do.”
“Wonderful!”
“Now I just have to figure out how to tell my boyfriend.”
“Oh, well,” Toba said, standing up. “Boyfriend problems, those take a little longer. Let’s go ride the flume first.”
Caitlin took Toba’s outstretched hand and stood. Before the older woman could take a step, Caitlin pulled her into a hug.
“Thank you,” Caitlin said.
Toba patted her back. “You’re welcome, but you worked it out, not me.”
They hurried after the rest of their group, catching up with them at the entrance gate to the flume ride. A sign at the top read, “The Johnsons’ Water Wall.”
“Thought we lost you,” Robert said.
“Girl talk,” Toba replied. “So who’s getting wet?”
Vikram looked at Alan and opened his mouth, but Alan cut him off before he could get an innuendo out. “I’m staying nice and dry.”
“Me, too,” Caitlin said.
“Yeah, I’ll sit this one out,” Mark said. “Too late in the day to get wet.”
Toba brushed her hands together briskly. “You three are dull, dull, dull! Those of us who like having fun will meet you at the exit. Again.”
She took Hannah’s hand and the two of them headed down the path towards the ride, Robert following behind. Vikram hesitated, looking at Alan, who quickly looked away. Vikram shrugged and chased after his parents.
“Not interested?” Caitlin whispered to Alan.
“Too interested,” he whispered back. “He’s Mark’s brother.”
“But he’s so pretty.”
“So, so pretty.”
“And such muscles.”
“Stop! Stop leading me into temptation.”
“Mark wouldn’t care.”
“Stop, I said! Go get me an ice cream.”
“Eat your feelings as much as you want,” Caitlin said. “You know you’re going to sleep with him before the week is out.”
“You don’t know that.”
“He obviously wants to have a vacation fling with you, and you have no willpower when it comes to resisting men who look like that. I don’t care whose brother he is.”
Mark turned around. “What are you guys talking about?”
“Ice cream,” she said. “Want one?”
“No, thanks.”
“Get me the one shaped like the little girl’s head,” Alan said.
“You got it, weirdo.”
She headed back down the path towards a snack bar she remembered passing. A picture of Jane Johnson, the little girl, was painted along the side of the little shack, and a word balloon coming out of her mouth had the words “Nice Dreams!” written in it.
There was no line, so Caitlin headed straight for the teenage girl behind the counter. The girl had a bright, totally fake smile on her face.
“Good afternoon!” the girl said. “What can I get you?”
On the counter were images of the various snacks on offer. Caitlin pointed to a picture of Jane’s head on a stick. “One of those, please.”
“One Janesicle. Anything else?”
Caitlin looked all of the images over, but nothing looked appealing. “Do you have cones?”
“Sure do,” the girl answered. “Flavors are listed on the side of the menu.”
“Oh, right. Can I get one scoop of butter pecan in a cone?”
“Coming right up.”
The girl bent over to open a freezer tucked under the counter. Caitlin looked away, idly scoping out this section of the park.
Doctor Shermon Cheek was sitting on a bench next to the snack bar, eating an ice cream cone.
He was wearing a plain white button-down shirt and a pair of jeans. The casual attire hung loosely on his skeletal frame and looked incongruous on the old scientist – he had been wearing a much more appropriate lab coat when Caitlin had encountered him before.
Doctor Cheek had been partially responsible for the nightmare Caitlin and her friends had endured that past January. He had kidnapped, tortured, and murdered her friend Aasim. He had put her in a situation where she had been forced to kill a woman in order to stop him from murdering Tamsin. He had blown up the building Caitlin was in, almost killing her and many of her friends in the process.
Cheek licked his ice cream. He had two scoops. The pale green top scoop, probably pistachio, balanced precariously on a scoop of chocolate. He smiled, leaned back, and sighed contentedly. He watched a small child holding a whirling pinwheel run by and chuckled.
Then he spotted Caitlin.
His jaw dropped.
The top scoop of his ice cream slid off the cone and fell to the ground, spattering on his shoes. He didn’t notice.
“Here you go!” said the teenage girl from behind Caitlin.
Caitlin didn’t turn around. She took a step towards Cheek.
He dropped the rest of his ice cream, stood up, and ran in the opposite direction.
Caitlin broke into a sprint. Cheek had a head start, but she was younger, fitter, and faster. She could catch him.
Cheek was headed deeper into the park, back towards the carousel. He ran past a burly young man holding hands with a sour faced woman headed in the opposite direction.
“Help me!” he shouted. “She’s trying to kill me!”
Cheek kept running, but the man and woman paused.
“Hold up,” the man said, stepping into Caitlin’s path.
“Out of my way!” Caitlin yelled. She tried to side-step around him, but the man was faster than he looked. He reached out and grabbed her by the wrist, yanking her to a stop.
“Gerald!” His friend jumped back. “Jesus! Let the police handle it!”
“I got this, babe,” he said to the woman. He tightened his grip on Caitlin’s wrist. “What’s going on, lady? Why are you chasing that guy?”
Caitlin glared at him. “Let go of my wrist, asshole. Or else.”
Gerald laughed. “Or else what? You’re half my size.”
“Gerald, let her go!” the woman shouted. “I’m not impressed.”
“I’m not trying to impress you, babe,” he said. “Just doing my civic duty. Why don’t you go find a security guard or something?”
Other park-goers were starting to gather around, watching the scene.
“Let her go!” one older man shouted. “What do you think you’re doing?”
Gerald looked up in surprise. “No, you don’t understand,” he said. “She was chasing this guy...”
Cheek had vanished down the path. Caitlin gritted her teeth and hammered her knee into Gerald’s crotch. He let go of her wrist and doubled over in pain.
“Gerald!” the woman shouted.
The assembled crowd cheered. The older man rushed forward to see if Caitlin was all right, but she darted around him and continued after Cheek.
She spotted him, further in the distance. He was between the carousel and the spinning cup ride, bent over, his hands on his knees, gasping for breath. She picked up her pace.
He stood up and looked back over his shoulder. He saw her and his eyes widened.
A group of riders was just getting off of the tea cup ride. Among them were a woman and a toddler. The little boy couldn’t have been more than two years old. The woman, presumably his mother, was listing from side to side, exaggerating her dizziness to make the boy laugh. The child imitated her, and wobbled directly into Doctor Cheek’s legs.
Cheek bent over and picked the boy up.
The mother looked anxious, but forced a smile. She apologized and reached out to take her son back.
Cheek muttered something to her and she froze. She took in a breath, as if she were about to shout, but Cheek held the boy close to his chest and she stopped. She lowered her arms to her side.
Caitlin was almost to them, but Cheek raised one hand, indicating for her to stop. Then he stroked the little boy’s face. The boy was struggling in his grip, but wasn’t able to wriggle free.
Caitlin stopped.
Cheek turned and walked calmly away, still holding the boy. He headed for a wooden gate set into a large fence. The mother from the Johnson family was painted on the fence, wagging her finger and saying “Employees only!” Cheek opened the gate, stepped through, and closed it behind him.
Caitlin started to run after him, but the mother shouted at her.
“He said you had to stop!” she said in a voice choked with tears. “He said he’d kill my son if you came after him!”
“I’ll call the police,” Caitlin said.
“No,” the woman said, putting a hand on Caitlin’s arm to stop her. “He said...he said he’d put him down just on the other side of that door. We have to give him five minutes without calling the police.”
“We can’t just...”
“He said he’d kill him!” the woman hissed. “We’re staying here for five minutes! He said he’d kill him!”
“Okay, okay,” Caitlin said. “It’s going to be all right.”
“He just picked him up...there are all these people here and nobody noticed.”
The woman was trembling. Caitlin grabbed her by the shoulders.
“Listen to me. We’re going to get your son back. All right? He’s going to be fine. That man can’t see us. Let’s just go to the gate.”
“But...”
“We won’t open it. We’ll just listen, see if we can hear your son.”
The woman’s eyes lit up. “Yes! Yes, that’s...yes.”
They ran for the gate. There were no gaps to look through so Caitlin put her ear against it. She couldn’t hear anything.
She knew Cheek wouldn’t stick around. He must have known of another way out past the gate, or he wouldn’t have gone this way. He was long gone. The only question was whether the little boy was on the other side of the gate or not.
“Do you hear anything?” the woman said. “Should we call the police now? Has it been five minutes yet?”
Caitlin opened the gate.
“Don’t!” the woman screamed.
Beyond the gate was a large, paved lot with several small one-story buildings. They were all ugly prefab shacks with metal siding. Most were labeled ‘Administrative Employees Only,’ although one was labeled ‘Cast Members Only.’ In front of that building was a park employee dressed as Tommy Johnson, the oldest son from the comic. He wore a baseball uniform and a ridiculously large fake head.
The toddler was hugging Tommy’s leg. There was no sign of Cheek.
“Benji!” the mother shouted. She ran to the boy and swept him up into her arms.
“Did you see anyone?” Caitlin said to the actor.
He stared back at her silently. At least, she assumed he was staring at her. The mask’s huge eyes were pointed at her, but for all she knew the actor was asleep in there.
“Answer me! There was a man. He took this boy from his mother. Did you see where he went?”
“I’m...I’m not supposed to talk when I’ve got the costume on,” came a nervous, cracking voice from inside the head.
“Talk or I’ll rip your damn head off, and I’m not talking about the costume!”
“No! No, I just came outside a second ago, the kid was here alone.”
Caitlin ran to the dead center of the lot and looked around. There were only a few places Cheek could have gone. He hadn’t gone into the changing room or the employee would have seen him.
A man in a suit came out of one of the other buildings. He started to light up a cigarette, then noticed Caitlin.
“Excuse me?” he said. “Do you work for the park?”
She ignored him. It didn’t make sense, she thought. It was still the middle of a weekday. If these were administrative office, there were probably people in all of them. How could Cheek have hidden in one without being seen?
Then she noticed, at the far end of the lot, another gate, hanging open. It was just past the smallest of the buildings, a one-room structure. Beyond was a parking lot. It was probably for employees, but it connected to the main lot. Cars and people came and went. There was no sign of Cheek.
“God damn it,” Caitlin muttered.
She reached into her pocket, took out her phone, and dialed 911.
