Omniscient Leaps (13 page)

The harsh realities of life weren’t rational.  Mom’s viewpoint made more sense than dad’s soulful explanation. Maybe in time I would understand. I clung to my dad as I fought the sobs rising in my throat. Life was beautiful but it was hard—more challenging than anyone could put in to words.

My dad died right in front of me. I felt powerless. The only thing that gave me peace was the fact that he was okay with his destiny. I knew he was going to a better place, yet knowing what it would do to my mom made it hard to stomach.

A car pulled into the driveway and I knew I had stayed too long. I kissed my dad one last time on the cheek. Then I darted into the hall, grabbed the video camera and reluctantly stole a stash of cash from my mom’s special hiding place. Just as my foot thumped the back step, I turned to see Mom in the hallway. Instead of busting me for intrusion, she continued off down the hall—to experience what had to be the worst moment of her entire life.

I ran to the local Wal-Mart as quickly as I could and bought a watertight safe, some blank tapes, a notebook, pen, large padded envelope, permanent marker, shovel, hooded sweatshirt and a rolling cart.

It wasn’t hard for me to settle on a place to hide my supplies.  The spot in the woods behind my house where I grew up imagining my lake, my realistic happy place as a child, was where I’d decided to bury the safe. It was a locality that I hoped would be easy to find again.

The ground was cool, offering the perfect location for the tapes to survive years of confinement. After filling the safe and covering it with dirt, I laid down on the forest floor and said a prayer for my dad.

I smiled to myself as the light consumed me. The timing was impeccable. I was thankful to be returning home to bed. My mental and physical states were too exhausted to make any further strides in my mission today. My eyes drifted closed as soon as I snuggled under my covers. Drifting off into a dreamless sleep had never been so easy.

The next day at school rushed by in a blur. I didn’t skip a beat, not until Jer found a way to corner me.

“So Kara, I was wondering if you’d want to go to the dance with me,” he began. I swallowed hard. I hated to disappoint, but didn’t want to lead him on either. “We can just go as friends. Jenna already told me that is the only way to get you to be my date. I’m cool with that if you are.”

“Awesome,” was all that came out.
Awesome?
His approach had thrown me off.  I hadn’t expected my response to be the cause of my sudden awkwardness. “So I’ll meet you here at school that night or what?”

“Just because we are going as friends doesn’t mean that I’m going to let you drive yourself,” he grinned. “A bunch of us, Jenna included, are going to ride in a limo. It’s on the guys.”

“Sounds fun.” After watching us from a distance, Jenna finally approached. She was eager to talk and who was I to disappoint her.

“Catch you later.” Jer gave my arm a quick squeeze before rushing off to his class.

“That was easy, right?” Jenna added. She’d clearly observed the entire exchange. “You won’t believe what happened to me yesterday after school. I tried to find you, but you’d already left. It’s unbelievable.” Her eyes were lit with a rare sparkle. Whatever she had to tell me was big news.

I pulled her in the direction of our common study hall class. “I had something important to do yesterday. I jetted out of here quickly. Tell me.”

“Gage Parton tracked me down. He was a different person, a train wreck if you want the truth of it,” she began. She brushed her hair away from her face and I didn’t notice an inkling of torment at the mention of his name. It was definitely an improvement. “He apologized for being such a creep freshman year. He said he had a crush on me and went about things the wrong way. He made his proclamation in front of an audience so I knew he was serious. You wouldn’t have recognized him, honestly.”

“Wow,” I replied, shocked that he had taken my advice. I was even more taken aback that he’d allowed witnesses to overhear the declaration. It was the beginning of a change. I was impressed.

“I know,” Jenna continued. “Then he said he didn’t expect me to forgive him now, if ever, but he wanted me to know that he truly regretted hurting me.” She stopped to pull something out of her bag. “Then he gave me this.” She showed me a beautifully adorned journal engraved with her initials.

“I guess he expects you to work through your emotions about everything by using that,” I snorted. “It was thoughtful, I guess.”

“I thought it was a sweet gesture. Of course I’ve already worked through my feelings, mostly.” She paused to make eye contact with me. She wore her compassion like a new pair of gloves. I enjoyed the new sparkle in her spirit. “I think his apology was all I needed for closure. I feel like I can finally move past the whole experience. It’s hard not to forgive someone when they’re sincere, right?”

“I know what you mean.” And of course I did. If Gage had approached me with anything less than a genuine request for forgiveness, I would have called the police and shoved him out of my house. His desire for repentance was good enough for me.

After a quick hug, Jenna and I took our seats and settled into the normal chatter of study hall. No matter how she pleaded with me to help with dance preparations, I declined. Even though she meant well, I had a substantial amount of work to do and didn’t need any silly distractions. Going to the dance was already a stretch.

When the school day concluded I made tracks to the public library. I was determined to pinpoint the days, times and locations when Mr. Fred Parton might have possibly been treating the citizens of Kenton with less than appropriate force. It wasn’t hard to find what I was looking for. It was curious that no one had made the connection to Fred when he made it a habit of supposedly finding his criminals already beaten.

It was hard to believe none of the ‘supposed’ perpetrators had spoken up, but I was willing to bet he’d threatened them. I made notes of all the dates and times and then did my best to memorize them. On my first flash back I would write down as much as I could remember and store my list in the safe. Hopefully my flashes would coincide with some of the incidents so I could capture him in the act. With God on my side, things were looking hopeful.

The first flash occurred as soon as I had returned home from my errands. I arrived in the woods and immediately began digging. The shovel was well aged and I was eager to find out the date. I grabbed the camera and loaded it with a tape. The battery was dead.
Naturally.
I prayed a little charging would do the trick.

Mom was not home, so I plugged the camera in the back outdoor outlet and set to work on my list. When I had finished writing what I could remember, I set out to uncover the date. The neighbors’ paper sat untouched at the end of their driveway. I picked it up, scanned the date and placed it back where I had found it. It was a date I could easily recall; I had visited it once already.

My patience was waning by the time the camera was charged. I did a quick test and made a visual note of the date and events. I snatched an empty handbag from dad’s closet and stuffed my necessary tools inside.  Then I sprinted towards the local Wal-Mart. After getting a glimpse of the time before exiting the house, I knew I didn’t have a minute to spare.

It was a completely different experience of déjà vu. I was actually watching myself. Not that there would be consequences if my other self saw me, but I wasn’t taking any chances. I donned my hooded sweatshirt and carefully filmed what I needed to. I captured the man riffling through Lilly’s bag and the exchange between Fred Parton and the Wal-Mart employee. Then I made sure to record Lilly reporting the incident to the staff and Fred Parton’s reaction to the entire scene.

The experience was surreal, something out of a movie, and I couldn’t wait to expose the creep. I ran back to the woods and marked the first tape with my permanent marker before replacing it with a fresh tape. I had just enough time to charge the camera and head over to the police station. I’d be filming the incident between Fred and myself.

By the time I’d finished my taping for the day, I was exhausted. When the last load of dirt was piled on the safe and I had set my shovel down beside the tree, the world around me lit up and I found myself lying face down on the floor of my bedroom. My mom was standing over top of me pondering something and I immediately sat up.

“Rough day?” she asked wearily. She appeared less animated than me.

“I lost my balance and tripped,” I announced. “I just wanted a moment of peace to gather myself together. Besides that, the rest of my day was fine. You look beat, Mom.”

“I am,” she admitted. “The restaurant actually called for me to come in tonight, but I couldn’t do it. I need to get some sleep. The kids are draining me this week.”

“I guess you’re glad I’m an only child,” I teased. She helped me to my feet and we moved slowly towards the kitchen.

We had a relaxing dinner together as we caught up on the events we had missed in each other’s lives over the past few days. She was excited to hear about the dance and seemed disappointed by my lack of enthusiasm. The only way I could find the whole experience memorable would be if I were going with Luke—a fantasy that was never going to be realized.

The rest of my week was rather unsuccessful. I flashed two times, neither of which experience proved to catch Fred Parton doing anything too illicit. He’d smacked around and screamed at a few of his felons while I captured it all on tape.  At the very least it was proof of his moral fiber, or lack thereof.

As I settled into my weekend, I hoped to lounge around and plow through my stack of acceptance letters from the colleges I had applied to. The thought of starting fresh in a new place was exciting and frightening all at the same time. If I could just find a place that would be right for me, then maybe I’d be able to concentrate on what I wanted to do with my life.

Since Mom was working a double shift, I delved into my journey alone, determined to make a decision before she arrived home. I pulled out my stack and got started. Although I’d thought of myself as someone who’d easily achieved my aspirations, lately I’d become more than just a little distracted.

I sliced through the first envelope and was surprised when the room around me vanished. I was suddenly standing in the all too familiar surroundings of the forest.

My arms had developed a muscle tone worthy of a regular gym attendee and I jabbed through the dirt without breaking a sweat. I gathered my supplies, headed to the house to charge the camera and made an effort to uncover the date. Surprisingly, my notebook didn’t reveal anything worthy of attendance.

Without anything specific in mind to film, I marched to Kenton’s quaint downtown shopping area. I didn’t plan on finding trouble, but I hoped to stumble upon something useful. I’d been sent to this date for a specific reason after all.

“Fred, I have to collect all the money from my men before I pay you,” the voice whispered.

I ducked into the sheltered ally beside the upscale restaurant and got my camera prepped. Was he actually hiring several men to attack Lilly? The fact he was sitting outside in a public place having lunch with some thug was shocking. Even if the restaurant was deserted he should’ve known better. I pressed record and zoomed closer.

“That’s Officer Parton to you,” Fred began. “I don’t let you deal your drugs in my neighborhood so you can keep the profits for yourself. You’re the big man… supposedly.” Fred stopped to cackle and the other man squirmed slightly in his seat. “I expect you’ll do what you need to and get me my money. I need to
take care
of my wife and that money is essential for my plan.”

“Your wife?” the man questioned. “I’m trying to support a family here during these tough times. I’m not happy with my extracurricular job, but I’m doing what I need to. I’m not giving you a dime if it means I’m contributing to some kind of murder plot involving your wife.”

“It’s none of your business what I do with my money!” Fred bellowed, raising his voice. “You give me what you owe or I’ll arrest you! You’ll be locked up for years and then what will your poor family do then?”

“I’ll turn you over to your own men. I’ll tell them all about your part in this. I bet they would even lessen my sentence if I told them all the dirt I had on you,” the man thundered, getting to his feet.

The waitress in the doorway of the restaurant was talking on the phone, seemingly untroubled by the dispute taking place at one of her tables. I almost wished she take notice so someone else could testify to Fred’s hotheaded behavior.

“If you’re threatening me, you’ll be sorry,” Fred announced as he threw back his chair. “I’ll take care of that sweet little family of yours. You just wait.”

I slid my body against the building’s nearby alcove and dropped the camera to my side. Fred stormed past unaware of my presence.  I suppressed any and all expression from escaping until he was long gone. When I could finally breathe, I put my camera away and slunk down the wall to the pavement. What had I gotten myself involved in?

“Are you okay, ma’am?” a friendly voice asked. I looked up to see the drug dealer Fred had been sitting with.

I nodded politely as he helped me to my feet. “Thanks,” I replied, trying to shake my arm free of his grip. Friendly or not, I didn’t trust him.

He pulled me in close, adamant that I listen to him. “I don’t know who you are, but that man is dangerous. I saw you watching us and I hope you’re not involved with him. You could get yourself killed, young lady. Let the big boys take care of him.”

He dropped my arm and turned away. I swallowed hard. He didn’t mention my camera and I was shocked when he walked away without smashing it.
Kara, what are you doing?

I sprinted towards the forest and stuffed the last of the tapes in an envelope. I buried the safe and all its contents once again. I couldn’t mail the envelope until I knew the name of the appropriate recipient. I prayed I’d be able to get Fred Parton locked away before he hurt anyone. He was a walking time bomb.