Jonah Havensby (3 page)

He turned the tablet off and shoved it and its power cord into the now bulging backpack. It was heavy, and lumpy, but he didn’t find it very difficult to walk while it was on his back. He left the cave. One side of his brain was completely unsure about where he was going to go. The other side was completely sure he had made up his whole mind that he was going to walk to the town down the road. So, outside of the cave, he turned right and made his way out to the narrow highway.

There wasn’t much traffic to speak of coming up the road towards the bluff, but he took to the trees when he saw a car approaching from either direction. People would almost certainly stop if they saw a boy his age walking down the highway with a giant pack on his back. And then there would certainly be questions. Questions he couldn’t answer.

It was dusk by the time he made it to the first signs of the town. The first stop light on the outskirts was the first crossroad he’d seen. Far down one side he could see a farm house with the lights blazing inside. Down the other, he could see nothing but trees.

It was growing colder, but the winter coat his father had packed away was quite warm and had a hood, so he pulled that up and zipped the coat further, stuffing his hands in the pockets.

A few more blocks and he came to the second stoplight. There were more obvious signs of civilization now, a row of shops and restaurants, but few people came and went. Most of the shops seemed to be closed, and the restaurants seemed to be full. Fortunately, it seemed that the town was small, but not small enough where a stranger his age would immediately get stopped and questioned on the street. There was an occasional sideways glance from a couple going into a restaurant. And one old woman who had taken a coffee break from sweeping her storefront actually seemed to stare.

He decided to get off this street, so he turned left and walked a few more blocks. The buildings became larger and more industrial looking.  There was still an office building or a storefront here or there but most of the buildings looked like warehouses. A few more blocks up, a residential neighborhood loomed. Jonah was sure he didn’t want to attempt that. Someone was bound to notice a boy out of place in their neighborhood.

He decided to take a right and walk down another street. The sun had gone down and now he was quite cold even through the coat. He had to find somewhere to get away from the chilling night air that he knew would only grow colder by the hour.

Between a large building made of aluminum siding and a weathered, brick office building he came upon a storefront bordering an alley.  The store had a ‘For Lease’ sign hanging in the window. He looked in the window and it seemed empty. There was a bare shelf or two, here and there, but it seemed like no one had been inside in quite a while.

He looked around to see if anyone was nearby. No one was. So he darted into the alley to see if there was a way in from the back. There was a back door, with bars across the window. He tried the handle, but it was locked tight. He couldn’t reach the back windows. Even if he could, they had bars on them as well. He went to one of the windows, grabbed two of the bars, and stood on his toes to look in. It still looked deserted.

His foot knocked into something, something that gave way when his foot hit it. He looked down and saw that there was a row of windows close to the ground. Two of them had bars across them.  The one his foot had tapped did not. He knelt down and put his hand on the window and, sure enough, it was open. It was on a hinge and moved up and down easily. He noticed that there must have been bars on this window at some point, but it looked like they had been pried away some time ago. So someone must have gone in this way at one time or another.

He opened the window, leaned down near it and called “Hello?” There was no response. “Hello?” He called again. He listened intently but didn’t hear even a movement from inside.

Jonah dug his flashlight out of his pack along with some batteries. He put the batteries in and pushed the button. He pointed the light into the dark basement back and forth, sure it was going to fall upon some maniacal face in the darkness that would grab him and pull him under the building or shout at him to leave.

But there was nothing. Nothing moved. There was still no sound. He swept the light back and forth a few more times. Maybe someone had pried the bars away a long time ago in order to rob the store. He hoped that was the case. He saw no other option for him to get out of the cold tonight.

He looked around again, to make sure he was alone, and then stuffed his backpack, with some effort, through the window. It fell with a soft thump to the floor. He then dropped the flashlight, still turned on, down through the window. He hoped to hit the backpack, which he did, but then the flashlight hit the floor with a loud clank.

Seeing no one, as he looked around a final time, he turned around on his belly, squeezing through the window feet-first. He was expecting to drop through the window to the floor, but his feet found purchase on a sturdy shelving unit that was built into the wall. He slid the rest of the way in easily and, from a crouched position, whispered loudly “Hello?” Still nothing.

Jonah dropped off the low shelf as quietly as he could and grabbed at the flashlight quickly. He swung it around back and forth, searching every corner. Nothing but litter and storage boxes. He picked up his backpack and put it on his shoulders.

He crept slowly to the stairs, still expecting someone to pop out somewhere. He put his foot on the first stair and there was a loud creak when he put his weight on it. He spun his flashlight back and forth in a panic, but nothing jumped at him.

The window he had crawled through was still hanging open. He went back, got up on the low shelf, and locked it. If this was someone else’s hiding spot, it wouldn’t be tonight.

The stairs made a series of creaks as he went up them and when he tried the basement door, it opened.

He turned off his flashlight, sure that it would be noticed by someone passing on the street, and emerged into the back of the store. “Hello?” Jonah called quietly.

He could see the whole of the store from back here and there was certainly nowhere someone could hide. He turned around and closed the basement door. He was relieved to find it had a lock on the handle, and he clicked that for good measure.

There was a spiral staircase leading up to a second floor. He decided to check there. He put his foot on the first stair, and found that the staircase was sturdy. He made his way up and came into a one-room apartment. Thank goodness no one was up here either, and it didn’t look like anyone had been for a while. There was an over-turned book shelf along one wall, and other pieces of furniture that were half-covered by blue plastic tarps around the room, the kind his father had used when he painted their living room last year. There was a bed which had been pulled into the center of the room.

He spotted a small bathroom in the corner and realized he hadn’t used the bathroom all day, but now that he saw it, he realized he had to go quite badly.

Jonah crept to the bathroom and pushed the door open slowly. It was lined with white tiles, that didn’t look very white anymore, even in the thin light coming from a window behind the shower curtain. He grabbed the shower curtain and swung it open, hoping no one was sleeping in the tub. It was empty.

He used the bathroom and rinsed his hands in the sink. The water was freezing, even from the hot water tap. Even letting it run didn’t warm it up. He shut the water off and dried his hands on his jeans.

He crept silently back into the apartment and looked around. Dropping his pack on the floor, he set his flashlight down next to it and sat on the bed, which brought up a cloud of dust. He was now confident that no one had been here for a good while. He brought out a can of beans and a spoon from his pack and ate the beans cold.  He went into the bathroom and drank down some cold water from the tap. The water from the tap tasted different from the water he got from the pond, a cleaner taste, like the water from home. Water from inside versus water from outside had to be cleaner, right?

Retrieving the large water bottle of pond water from his pack, he emptied it into the sink and then refilled it with water from the tap. He also noticed that there was a wastebasket in the corner with some cans marked ‘primer’ and ‘wood varnish’, so he dropped his empty can of beans there. He went to the dusty bed and shook out the one dusty, flat pillow.  His hood, which had fallen off his head climbing into the basement, he now pulled up again, before laying his head on the pillow. He curled up in a ball and blew on his hands to warm them, but he was still cold.

He got up and pulled one of the blue plastic tarps, revealing a large wooden coffee table. He pulled the tarp to the bed, lay down, and pulled the entire thing over his head. And then close to his body. It didn’t feel like it quite made any difference at first, but then he found he was slightly warmer in his blue plastic tent.

He kept his hands close to his face, breathing warm air on them and thought about the day. He had managed two feed himself two meals today. Not amazing dinners like his father cooked, but at least it was food. He also managed to make it into town, all on his own. And he found this place, with an actual bed and a real bathroom. All in all, he was really proud of himself that he’d made it this far. He wondered if his father would be too.

III

He woke up to the sound of bells. The bells chimed and then chimed again and he heard the distinctive sound of a door close somewhere downstairs. Someone was in the building!

Throwing the tarp off of him, his eyes spun wildly around the room. He could hear muffled voices now. If someone was downstairs, they were sure to come up. His eyes flew around the room for hiding places. There weren’t many options. He could hide in the tub, but felt sure he’d be found. Under the bed was the only logical choice.

He fell from the bed onto his knees, then onto his belly. He shoved the pack under the bed then squirmed under and pulled at the tarp, just enough that no one would see him. His flashlight, which was off now, rolled to the corner of the room and there was no time to retrieve it. Whoever was downstairs was on their way up.

Shoes clanged on the spiral metal staircase. He didn’t get a good look at who the people were but from the shoes he knew it was a man and two women. Both women wore high heels that made a lot of noise on the wood floor. The woman who moved around the room the most spoke in a high-pitched, nasally voice about square-footage, and color schemes and other things Jonah couldn’t understand and at the moment had little interest in.

He tried to hold his breath, but decided he couldn’t hold out so long and instead decided on short, shallow breaths, which was hard, because he was clearly panicking. Sweat poured off his face and dripped onto the dirty floor. And all he could do was try and breathe as slowly as possible and lay stone-still.

The man was asking questions about money and walked into the bathroom. The woman who wasn’t saying so much moved toward a window and was asking about the necessity of the security bars, just as the green gem hanging from Jonah’s neck started to glow.

“No!” he thought. He trapped the gem hard under his body, the sharp point digging into his belly. He closed his coat around his throat. “Why!?” He screamed at the thing in his mind.

Now he was being pushed into overdrive. The thing was poking him painfully, he’d be sure to start whimpering in a moment. He’d be caught and arrested for being here. And then what? He couldn’t even imagine. Handed over to the ‘dangerous men’?

Just then the man in the bathroom gasped and the woman at the window gave a slight cry. Jonah turned his head as best he could and saw a thin plume of smoke coming from the bathroom. The two women hurried to the bathroom door.

“Hurry! Put it in the tub!” cried the woman who hadn’t said much.

Jonah heard a clang and then some more commotion as something was dropped into the tub and something else rolled around in it. “The trash can,” he thought to himself. “A fire started in the trash can.”

He heard the whoosh of water and saw another plume of smoke as the two women backed away from the door.

“I can not apologize enough,” said the woman with the nasally voice. “I’ve asked the contractors to be so very careful, and this is what you get.” She said, clearly aghast. “You can never be too careful with chemicals around.”

“We should get going,” the man said, and moved next to the quiet woman, who was then clearly pulled in the direction of the spiral staircase.

“And aren’t we lucky we were here to stop it in time.” Said the nasally voice. “And you, so quick with your reflexes. I can’t thank you enough.”

As they descended the stairs, Jonah heard “You know, this building is up to the strictest fire codes, and it really is a steal for the price.” And then the voices died down to a mumble, he heard the bells and the door closed.

Jonah lay where he was for a solid five minutes more. Letting his breathing return to normal and making sure no one was coming back.

He slid from under the bed and rose up, rubbing the spot where the gem was poking at him. He pulled it from under his coat and off his neck in a fury, and threw it on the bed.

“Do you seriously hate me or something!?” He yelled at it. “Why, at the worst possible time, do you decide to go off like a spotlight!?”

“Here he is!” He said in a mocking tone. “Jonah’s right over here! Come and get him!”

“What are you, the prize for the worst possible moments in history?!” He yelled at it again. Jonah scooped it up, opened his bag and shoved it deep into the pack with a grunt.

He fell back onto the bed. He obviously couldn’t stay here anymore. He couldn’t have been more wrong about people not being here. The woman had even said contractors would be coming.

He quickly scooped up his pack, went down the spiral stairs and out the back door, not bothering to lock it behind him. He completely forgot about the flashlight.

When he emerged from the alley, he noticed there were actually a number of people in this area of town. Cars and trucks went this way and that at regular intervals, and people came and went from a variety of different warehouses. No one took any notice of him though.