The Time Stone (12 page)

“
Like we could afford it,”
she added and they laughed silently at the poor attempt at humor
and entered the shop.

The interior of the shop was lit with
an old world sense of charm and wonder of mystic mysteriousness as
candelabra hung from the ceiling painting a vivid flashback to
yesteryear.

“
It is like travelling
back in time,” James thought as he looked around until he noticed
the candles were replaced by electric fixtures but still
maintaining the ancient rustics of the old mixed with the new.
“It’s completely different from the outside” said James.

“
Huh?” Tina whispered in
response followed by a belligerent and sudden yell. “Help!” Tina
yelled at the top of her lungs all of a sudden.

“
Silence” whispered James,
“why so loud?”

Tina looked at him and shrugged in
response, “why not?”

Then suddenly in the silence before he
could answer, a confident and imperiled voice echoed down the
corridors, “Welcome to the World of Mystery!” They turned to look
and found a slender woman, aged with time but beautiful in
captivity descending slowly from a long narrow staircase as if
floating on a cloud of smoke, from a burnt out fog machine,
surrounding her feet. She wore a gold colored shawl that spread
with her arms and long rhinestone studded dress, her brown curly
hair with threads of gray wavered on behind her and her smile
adorned by the wrinkles on her checks covered slightly by various
shades of Azul and lapis, fuchsia, and magenta in makeup and eye
coloring but still visible nevertheless.

“
I am Ezelzaba, mistress
of enchantment and powers beyond this world and fortune teller
extraordinaire, but for you… I sense a greater need!” She squinted
her eyes and peered into James who stood before her reflecting her
gaze in stunned silence.

“
Can we stay the night?”
Tina spoke looking in between both.

“
We literally have no
place to go,” added James.

Ezelzaba dropped her arms and the
mystery act as the fog machine died down and she casually
descended. “My normal rates for a reading are fifty dollars. I
don’t take boarders but you seem like non-threatening people and
since my readings usually wipe people out, you can stay if you
pay.” She spoke more relaxed and less mysterious.

“
Uh” James and Tina looked
at one another and Ezelzaba smirked as if reading their
thoughts.

“
You guys are up on hard
times, huh? Ooh,” before they could answer she moaned deeply as her
eyes widened as she saw James up close walking to him. “Oh I see,
for you no cost. I see you will travel far together, farther than
you ever thought possible and you will need your rest. You will
both encounter great forces on your journey so take care of each
other. A miracle of fate awaits you and you will come to see in one
another a hidden purpose, a true destiny, are your combined paths.
When the time comes, you will know all you will ever need to know.”
She looked directly at James with a sinister glare of her eyes
beneath her colorful yet excessive red and blue eyelid make up.
“The world awaits you and time is your greatest ally but also foe.
Remember to follow your instincts.”

“
What does that mean?”
Tina asked annoyingly.

“
You will find out. Also
be good to each other and look out for one another. Always remember
to look out for one another. Be there for each other. Always love
and respect one another” she added. You two will be together for
many times.”

“
Thanks.” He nodded. “But
just one question, why no cost?”

Tina struck his arm and gave him a
sinister glare.

“
I am just curious” he
added as she looked away upset.

“
Well,” started Ezelzaba
quite sheepishly, “let’s just say I recognized something on you
that made me think we’re related. And let’s leave it at that,
James.”

James smirked at the obvious flaw and
smiled looking at his dumbfounded companion and then retiring to a
room Ezelzaba pointed to in the back. They turned and slightly
exited into the back room.

The next morning, James and Tina
prepared to leave the shop having felt completely renewed and
rejuvenated.

“
Sleeping in an actual
non-jail bed felt good for a change.” Tina muttered.

“
Yeah, I wonder what
Ezelzaba meant by all that mumbo jumbo about love and traveling
far?” James asked.

“
What a cryptic lady!”
Tina muttered.

“
Yeah, but what a drama
queen she was. Your guess is as good as mine.” James added brushing
off the mystery of her cryptic attitude for now. “Anyway, ready to
go buddy?”

“
Yep.” She nodded with a
repetition that signified extreme eagerness.

“
Thank you madam Ezelzaba,
for everything.” James whispered into the air as they departed out
the door and into their uncertain and yet forsaken
future.

A mysterious figure remained lurking
in the distance of their peripheral vision as sleek and as hidden
as a silhouette in the shadows quietly observing them, his face
robotic like and mechanical, motioned by jerk movements, and a
black hat and suit his attire of choice.

CHAPTER 28

Tina sat in a local coffee
shop on the corner of Main Street with Ester Avenue across from the
train station. She talked herself into a free cup of coffee from a
handsome bachelor who talked to her for a quick moment before
heading off to an important business meeting. He left his card and
number with her, “Mark
Taft, Esq. Attorney
and Counselor at Law
”; she read it and
sighed thinking “
no
thanks
.” She thought to herself that
“
the last time I saw an attorney I was
hauled off in shackles and tossed in the lock
up.
” She tossed the card and sipped her
café latte awaiting her partner in crime hopefully who had gone
across the street to the train station to try to get tickets with
an antique ring that Tina stole from the second-hand store and
which she cautioned him to lie and say it was handed down to them
by their grandmother and which they did not want to part with but
felt they had no choice as it was their only way out of town and
they needed to get out of town fast. She suspected that
negotiations of such may fail and had a backup plan if negotiations
failed and that is to find a way to use more desperate yet certain
measures to get what they need. She thought they would have to do
something drastic.

Tina looked around at her
surroundings in the coffee shop what was a typical array of
urbanites in their customary garbs from leisure wear sport shorts,
other shorts, to full on Armani suits or the multicolored jackets
of old world fabric flown in from impoverished areas. She sipped
her coffee and then nearly choked on a gulp in her throat as her
eyes nearly collapsed out in shock when she saw the man in the dark
suit she remembered from the bar approaching her. This one from the
biker bar, he was there. “
How did he get
here?
” She wondered as he continued to
approach in the crowded room unseen and unnoticed to the busy
people in their own lives. He was tall, thin, snakingly, and thirty
feet away, He walked slowly in what appeared to be an endless
distance to her as time seemed all to slow to her as her jaw
dropped and she reached for the chair behind her and started to
rise waiting to scream but all that came out was a slight fearful
whimper as she acted on her natural instinct to get away. He was
familiar as if she had seen him before but she felt a strange aura
of something not quite right and felt the need to run. The chair
moved against the hard wood floor making a screeching sound that
startled her and she started to move and turn to it and then
quickly turned back to find the man stood right in front of her in
what was a breathless moment and calling devoted as she fumbled to
catch her breath. She fell back. The man reached out to her but
someone else reached out to her from behind and grabbed her hand
pulling her back. “Come on!” Said James in a matter of seconds and
they were running out the door hand in hand. “What was that?” James
asked outside.

“
I wish I knew,” she
replied. “I think he found us. It was him. The guy I told you about
at the biker bar.”

“
Your father? Or the one
who you said looks him.”

She nodded frantically in response.
“What the hell is going on here? Why did he come after me? How did
he find us?”

“
Good questions, but we
will find out the answers. Why were you running instead of facing
him?” James asked.

“
I just felt a gut
instinct. I never knew my father but heard some horrible things.
It’s a super long story, James. Let’s get to the train station. Did
you get the tickets?”

“
Yeah about that I
couldn’t get the tickets.”

“
What? I told you…”Tina
scolded but stopped herself as they looked round happily as not to
draw too much attention to themselves.

“
They wouldn’t take the
ring you gave me. Plus I saw some cops looking around and they have
wanted posters with our photos on them. We’re wanted for murder.”
James sheepishly turned trying to hide his dumbfounded
look.

“
Murder? Of that guard?”
Tina looked at her colleague in shock.

“
Just says murder but we
can imagine. This is absolutely crazy. They’re trying to pin
something big on us.” James appeared bewildered.

“
We’ll have to figure this
out to clear our names. Any luck even scalping some tickets or
thieving them?” Tina inquired.

“
No.” James uttered
skeptically.

“
Great do I have to do
everything in this relationship?” Yelled Tina.

“
Hey I got us out of jail
didn’t I…” he stopped short noticing her humor, “since when did we
become engaged? “He joked.

“
Yeah right,” she smiled
at the ground and implied laughingly. “Don’t worry bud; I’ll get us
a way out of town. I think I know just the place.” Tina looked up
and smiled as she pointed James towards the tall glistening towers
near a roaring 747 engine flying overhead and both knew she meant,
The Chronix Bay City Airport. “It’s only two miles
away.”

“
OK, let’s hail a cab.” He
said.

CHAPTER 29

Moments later, they exited the cab
they took right to the front of the airport. Within moments of
distracting the driver, Tina and James take off at the behest of
the driver, an Indian national with a turban who gets out and yells
obscenities at them in Punjabi while shaking his fist angrily in
midair. “Get back here, you thieves. Damn you.”

Tina and James stopped running behind
a stone pillar near the terminal entranceway to catch their
breath.

“
Ooh close call.” James
whispered exhaustedly.

“
You never beat fare
before, homey?” Asked Tina bending over breathing
heavily.

James merely shook his
head.

“
Oh right, I’m dealing
with an amateur.” She nodded smiling at him.

“
Look,” James pointed to a
live ninety-inch plasma television set in the window of the airport
showing the local news broadcast to passengers. The due looked in
together and observed.

“
Top of the hour afternoon
news in Chronix Bay, Channel Nine, Anchor Sylvia Armstrong
reporting, we bring you live coverage from downtown Chronix Bay
where a demonstration just broke out near the Chronix Bay City
Airport. Thousands of angry protesters march down Main Street
singing “we shall overcome” as they hold banners and picket signs
in stern protest against the Mayor’s new policy against the
immigrant community in Chronix Bay. One of them is quoting segments
into the crowd from the famous Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. ‘I have
a dream speech’.” The well dressed and radiant anchor spoke out in
front of the terminal building as a barrage of spectators witnessed
the movement unfold before them. “This is one for the history books
as never in our small city’s history has there been such a large
scale demonstration. And this is the second demonstration this week
in the city, the first a couple of days ago about the great
depression-like-economy faced by law school graduates. Local
police, federal agencies, and private security forces have been
dispatched in case this escalates into a violent riot but for now
it seems these movements are peaceful marches spawning massive
discourse in academic and business circles. We have community
leader, PhD recipient, and well-known activist at only the age of
twenty-two, Dr. Yolanda Veracruz here. Doctor, tell us about this
movement.”

“
Yes, we have been silent
for far too long and now we are being threatened by corruption and
inner workings that threaten our way of life. We are not illegal
and we are not items of objectification. The Mayor’s policies are
against the fabric of our moral society, our humanity, and our
nation’s constitutional principles. We will not submit and will
resist to the end. Let us bring power to our people!” She yelled
into the camera, a fiery dark haired vixen with a glare in her dark
brown eyes and mocha colored complexion, and lectured with an
indignation recognizing her deep rooted Central American heritage
and pride in the principles of diversity and freedom embodied by
the United States of America. “There you have it,” yelled Anchor
Armstrong. “The spark has been set and the fire for equality and
freedom for our growing immigrant population continues to rage on
and may do so for generations to come. It will continue for all of
time as a symbol of freedom and technological innovation in the
hearts of the people."