A Catch in Time Read online

  He’d known about smiling. But he was learning that other tools seemed to be as important, like hugging, and tears. John Thomas was effective with those.

  Step by arduous step, Lucas taught himself to socialize.

  Unaware of his complete lack of empathy, without the ability to decipher others’ emotional cues, he was unable to extrapolate one situation from another and had to learn the response to each situation by rote.

  He was only five. It wasn’t easy.

  Reno was jammed. Burdened by an early winter, geographically isolated from other cities, it was physically linked to some of the world by tenuous wreck-strewn highways, and electronically linked by unpredictable television, radio, telephone, and Internet. From these sources came news of devastation, reconstruction, disease, and wars, national interests and decisions, presidential speeches, chat-show cacophony, and mostly inaccurate weather reports.

  The world was in turmoil, its future uncertain. From their lonely outpost, Reno’s residents and visitors watched and waited. Opinions became arguments. Prophets, preachers, and professors were on every corner, to give insight or to incite. The massive convention centers held twenty-four hour rallies, and casinos bulged with milling throngs, exhausted by it all. Many people carried weapons openly.

  Populations rose and fell with the weather. In clear weather, refugees poured in, from upper and lower regions, or over the western passes. And those who’d tired of the harsh climate and surreal frenzy fled south to escape. Their places were quickly filled.

  Despite tensions of the drive, Laura’s excitement grew as they neared the spill of lights that defined downtown Reno. She followed the truck and Cherokee along the freeway off-ramp and into the city, rolling slowly along noisy, crowded South Virginia Street.

  After weeks of relative isolation, the tumult and glitter were both fascinating and nerve-wracking. Kate and Laura exchanged amazements and the boys squealed their excitement, but Catherine remained silent, missing nothing.

  “Can you believe that?” Kate exclaimed. A banner that covered a three-story casino sign read “Play ‘N Pray.”

  Leaving the downtown, their caravan explored neighborhoods until they found an abandoned house with a large two-car garage not far from the university campus. There they parked the truck and Cherokee in the garage, unloaded the Suburban, and locked everything up.

  Everyone was eager to hear the latest news, to eat a meal that wasn’t from their own supplies, and to collapse into beds they didn’t have to make. Crammed into the Suburban, they returned to the heart of the city.

  “The town has a primitive feeling about it,” warned Catherine. “Be wary of those to whom you speak.” By this time, they had learned to trust Catherine’s sophisticated instincts, honed by years of world travel with her late husband.

  “When the weather clears,” she added, “we should move to a smaller community, where we can be more certain of our security.”

  As a convenience, not to mention luxury, they pulled into the gigantic parking facilities of the Peppermill, went inside the recently enlarged hotel/casino, and asked for a suite where they could rest and where Reina, their now-constant companion, could stay.

  “Six hundred dollars,” the gruff man with a shaved head at the front desk said. “Cash,” he added emphatically.

  “Jesus, that’s highway robbery,” said Eli.

  “Take it or leave it,” replied the thug-clerk, retracting the registration card.

  They took it, then went to dinner at the buffet restaurant in the hotel. Food seemed plentiful, but Catherine noted the lack of fresh fruits and vegetables, and again commended Laura for the cache of vegetable seeds she’d brought home weeks ago.

  “They will prove to be our salvation,” she said as she cut a dainty piece of liver.

  Josiah jammed steak in his mouth and grinned at Catherine. “You just can’t wait to see us plowing the fields, can you?”

  “With mules, too,” Eli added. “No tractors for us.”

  “Of course,” Josiah said. “The more primitive, the better.”

  Laura laughed. Catherine and Josiah had verbally sparred before, mostly about humanity’s primitive inclinations. Catherine insisted that humans were nothing more than cavemen with remote controls, while Josiah held that intellect trumped primitive impulses. The jousting had, on several occasions, become the evening’s entertainment.

  Josiah asked their waitress about world conditions, but she had little to add and, in fact, contradicted several things others had told them. The only consistent information concerned Reno: its water treatment plants were maintained, hospitals open, and railway freight lines functional. While no one was sure of the origin of Reno’s freight, it was certain that loose-knit groups of “posse police” acted as security for almost everything.

  “You folks made a good choice, coming here to the Peppermill,” the waitress assured them. “We’ve got the best casino posse in town, ex-Reno police officers, our own security folks. Not many Shaitan get past them.”

  “Shaitan?” Kate asked. She glanced around the table, meeting expressions as puzzled as her own.

  “The Shaitan. The crazies. Just this morning, I heard on the news—” Her attention was caught by a signaling customer. Hurriedly, she added, “They’re saying Shaitan are people gone crazy in the second blackout, but if you ask me, I think they’re convicts. Everything went nuts after the first blackout, prisons, too. They won’t say how many escaped.”

  “Why do they call them Shaitan?” asked Alex.

  “Don’t know,” said the waitress. “It’s just what folks always call them. Sorry, gotta go.” She hurried to service another table.

  Alex could barely contain his excitement after dinner; he’d been served beer without being asked for ID and had deduced he’d also be able to gamble. Everyone, except Catherine, seemed ready for fun.

  “Who’s ready to hit the casino?” asked Alex. His wallet was full of cash Eli had given him. Josiah and Eli had paid for the rooms, as well. Alex didn’t ask where they’d gotten the money.

  “Somebody carry me to the nearest slots and dump me on a stool,” groaned Laura.

  Kate swallowed her wine and set the glass down with a thump. “I’m in.”

  Eli chimed, “Me too.”

  Josiah grinned and nodded.

  “It appears I’m the designated nanny,” Catherine said, nodding at Lucas and John Thomas, both of whom had heavy eyes and flushed cheeks. Laura offered to take care of the boys, but Catherine said, “Go with the others. I hate to admit it, but I’m feeling my accumulation of years.” She grasped her cane. “If you could just help get the boys into bed?”

  “But, Katie,” John Thomas protested. “What about the paint? You said—”

  Kate hugged him to her. “Don’t worry, honey, we have plenty of time. Look at you. You can hardly keep your eyes open.”

  “Come along boys, bedtime,” Catherine said.

  Lucas looked at John Thomas. “I wanna play video games.”

  John Thomas turned to Kate. She laughed and tousled his head. “Tomorrow, kiddo. I promise.” With a quick kiss to his cheek, she held out a hand. “Come on, I’ll help tuck you in.”

  Catherine walked away, leaning heavily on her cane. Kate followed, her arm around a sleepy John Thomas. He waved at Lucas to follow.

  Lucas stared, unmoving. “John Thomas, I wanna play video games.”

  “Come on, Lucas.” Laura smiled, holding out a hand. “We’ll stop by the arcade for a quick game. But we have to hurry.”

  Lucas beamed at his victory and placed his hand in hers.

  Twenty minutes later, Laura and Kate were sitting next to each other at a bank of video poker machines.

  Kate immersed herself in the game, but Laura was distracted by the kaleidoscope of people, colors, noise, and flashing lights. She became nostalgic for the calmness of the small cabin in which they’d stayed during the blizzard.

  There, she and the others had talked long into the night,
sprawled before the fireplace. One particular memory of Josiah made her stomach flutter. It hadn’t been much, just a look he gave her, a long look that caused her breath to catch. Just as a smile started easing across his face, she’d looked away. You’re pregnant, she’d reminded herself. But the reminder wasn’t enough to stop the flutters. It did, however, stop her from making a fool out of herself, in case what she thought she saw in his eyes was only in her imagination.

  She’d told Kate about her pregnancy, and had sworn her to secrecy. She wasn’t ready for everyone’s questions. Or so she’d told Kate—and herself. But now she wondered if Josiah was the real reason.

  She looked for Josiah, or for Eli’s grin, or even Alex’s shags of unruly hair. But they’d been swallowed by the crowd. Turning back to her machine, she barely registered the electronic images. Telling Kate she was going to look around, she joined the flow of people in the nearest aisle. Maybe the frenetic, barely contained, undecipherable energy of the place was causing her restlessness, she thought.

  In a narrow gap between machines, a woman jostled her. Sidestepping her, Laura was bumped again, hard from behind, and lost her balance and fell against a man in front of her. The stocky man turned just as the crowd surged against both of them. To her right, shouts erupted. Two arms flailed through a space that suddenly gaped as people backpedaled, flattening themselves against the tables and machines. A blur of male torso was flung through the air to disappear below the wall of bodies. The sickening sound of fist striking flesh cracked through the pandemonium.

  Laura twisted away and found herself pressed against the stocky man she’d bumped into moments before. His large hand grasped her arm, but his attention focused on the fight, his eyes lit with fire. Sounds of flesh being struck punctured the air. Like fire through dry grass, the adrenaline of violence spread through the crowd. Voices roared. A stray nudge, an inadvertent elbow from the closely packed bodies, erupted into violence.

  Desperate to escape, Laura tried to free herself from the stranger’s grasp, but she had no leverage. She yanked again to release herself from the painful grip. The man’s eyes were suddenly on hers. Sweat dripped from his coarse eyebrows, beaded on his pored nose. His pupils dilated with fierce excitement.

  Breathing roughly, he said something to her, but the noise prevented her from understanding him. His fingers tightened, his other arm crushed her to him, and he ground his erection against her.

  Laura’s cry was lost in the roar of the crowd. She squirmed frantically. He shifted her into a bear hug, and gripped the back of her neck, forcing her face to his.

  Inches away, his eyes: in them, a sucking emptiness, dark, throbbing, powerful.

  Terrified, she couldn’t think, couldn’t look away from his eyes, from the intense darkness that swelled behind them.

  Her fear became overwhelming terror.

  “It’s good,” he rasped. “You feel it. Feel it feel IT FEEL IT.”

  Suddenly, his face snapped aside; his hand dropped from her neck. She twisted free of his arm, turned to flee, and collided with another body.

  Josiah!

  He had removed the man’s hand from her neck and still grasped the wrist. Sandwiched between them, Laura felt Josiah’s energy as he stared down at the man.

  “You son of a bitch,” Josiah said, his tone lethal.

  The fight abruptly fell into their space, and a caroming body slammed into the man. He spun and locked his arms around the neck and shoulders of the intruder, struggling to keep his feet under him while others fell against them. Roaring with glee, oblivious to stray blows, he immersed himself in the fray.

  Josiah stepped between Laura and the ragged edge of the fight. Using himself as a wedge, he shoved them both through to a clear aisle.

  “Exciting stuff, these casinos,” he said, drolly.

  Laura stopped walking and threw her arms around him. For the first time since they’d met, she was oblivious to any undercurrents and felt only vast relief at his solidness next to her. Head pressed into his chest, she said, “I have never been so happy to see anyone in my whole entire life.”

  Josiah held her easily. When she finally looked at him, he smiled and almost spoke, but stopped himself.

  “How about,” he said after a pause, “we go have a drink?”

  They followed a path to a dark bar. Laura kept her arm looped through Josiah’s as they stepped aside for security guards who were hurrying to the spreading fight. Despite her intense emotions, she made several connections: the mood of the second blackout, the faces of the people in the warehouse, and the eyes of the man who’d just terrified her. All shared the same empty darkness.

  She’d felt the touch of it herself, just as she’d emerged from the first blackout, but had been unable to grasp its contradiction of empty depths and powerful fullness. What was it? What did it mean?

  They slipped into a corner booth at the lounge and Josiah ordered drinks. With a sinking feeling of certainty, she answered herself. What she’d experienced wasn’t a fragment of these people’s minds. It was real, something outside of them, something deadly. The man who’d assaulted her was lost, gone. But it was there.

  “That must have been terrible for you,” Josiah said. “Did he hurt you?”

  The man’s eyes. She’d never seen anything like it. “Did you see his eyes?” she blurted.

  Josiah gently bit his lower lip, a familiar habit. He tried to picture the man’s face, but his memory held only snatches of the man’s features. He shook his head and smiled. “I was a little busy.”

  Laura was deep in thought. “He must be one of the Shaitan the waitress talked about. She said people think Shaitan are people who went insane during the second blackout. But I don’t think that’s the whole answer.” She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “This is going to sound really crazy, and I don’t know how to say it.”

  Josiah leaned forward. “How about this? There are dangerous people in the world. Dangerous in a way you’ve never come across, and these people are a real threat.”

  “Yes.” She smiled uncertainly. “But there’s more.” How could she explain it? She took a tiny sip of the wine Josiah had ordered for her. “There’s something new happening, something out of context to the world.”

  Josiah almost said, Maybe you just haven’t experienced enough of the world.

  “How do you mean?” he asked instead.

  Laura felt a boundary had been crossed. There had been the blackout and now there was this new thing in the world, a dark thing that she knew was real.

  She stared into Josiah’s eyes. How green they are, she thought, how clear. His soul’s right there, just inside, just behind that thin, thin green lens.

  “I’m sure now that I know what I know,” she said.

  “That’s good. Now you can tell me,” Josiah said. He widened his smile to show he was kidding. He felt a strong impulse to tread gently with her.

  Laura thought, maybe now is the right time.

  “It’s—I call it epiphany.”

  Josiah blinked. “What’s called epiphany?” He’d tried to stay focused on their discussion, but somehow he’d fallen into Laura’s eyes and couldn’t get out.

  “Epiphany,” Laura began. “It’s all about what happened during the three minutes that blinded the world.”

  Josiah said nothing, listened intently. Laura spoke rapidly, groping for words, painting images, relaying concepts. She interrupted herself, backtracked to fill in gaps, explained what it seemed she alone remembered, and talked about the second blackout. Though somehow connected, it was different, she said, something outside the context of life, outside of everything.

  “The Shaitan–there really is something different about them,” she said. “They’re not escaped cons, or insane people. They’re truly other than us. There’s an entirely different force inside them.”

  She could hardly sit still, and she rose with her last words.

  Josiah touched her hand. “Please tell me you’re just going
to the bathroom, after which there will be a short question-and-answer period.”

  “It’s not that. Please come with me—Kate’s alone and I’m worried she’s—”

  “She’s what?” Kate said.

  Laura turned and saw her coming toward them, Eli and Alex behind her.

  “Thank God.” Laura grabbed her in a hug.

  “Wow,” Kate said. “I love you too, honey, but we really haven’t been apart that long. What’s up?”

  She slid into the booth while Laura hugged Eli and Alex with relief. Grinning, Eli planted a kiss on her cheek, wiggled his eyebrows like Groucho Marx, and tapped an imaginary cigar with his fingers.

  “It’s those Shaitan the waitress told us about,” Laura began, after everyone was seated.

  Kate caught the bartender’s attention and ordered drinks all around.

  Laura told them about the man in the crowd, and of her certainty that there was a new force at large in the world.

  Josiah sat quietly, thinking about Laura’s explanation of the blackout, of an energy-dimension, a community of what could only be called souls, though that might not be what they were, and their responsibility for the physical presence of every life-form on the planet.

  Even though Josiah believed life was something greater than energy and matter, he didn’t believe that anyone could possibly know what it really was. If a greater truth did exist, there never would be any proof to substantiate it.

  In the final analysis, he thought, you can really have faith only in yourself.

  He watched Laura’s animated discussion with the others. Obviously, something had happened to Laura during the blackout. But if the knowledge she described had come to every being on earth, why did only she remember it?

  Kate noticed the intensity with which Josiah’s eyes followed Laura’s lips. “Well, sunshine.” She nudged him. “Where are you at on all this dark stuff?”

  “Sorry, I was thinking about something else,” he said.