Catching On Fire Page 5

  Kim and I fed the animals and helped her aunt peel a couple bushels of carrots for canning. But then it started to snow. Hard. We had to get on the road fast or risk being stuck in the middle of nowhere for who-knows-how long.

  I was glad we took my car. It handled really well in the snow. And I like to be in control in tricky situations. Driving on slippery country roads through blinding snow was harrowing enough without someone else being at the wheel. Normally I wouldn’t take my gas guzzler on such a long drive if I could help it. But, since we were picking up Christmas trees for both my apartment and Kim’s family’s house, we needed all the roof space we could get.

  We had taken the back roads all the way down to the farm. It had been such a pretty and relaxing drive. Funny how all that gorgeous tranquility could suddenly turn treacherous. I headed for the highway and hoped the plows had beaten me to it. If they had, maybe I could crank it up to 10 miles an hour and stand half a chance of keeping ahead of the piling snow.

  I remembered my EZ Pass and asked Kim to put it in its little foil pouch in my glove compartment so it wouldn’t register my presence at the toll booth. I could tell she thought that was an odd request. I wasn’t going to tell her that I posted to a top-secret website using her aunt’s Wi-Fi and didn’t want there to be any record of my being in the area. But, I didn’t think she fully bought my story that I was having problems with my EZ Pass account.

  The guy at the toll booth told us the plows had just come through, so we were in luck. If you can count driving with less than 2 feet of sight distance for an entire 50 miles “luck.”

  Chapter 14

  After the harrowing drive back home on Saturday, I slept in late Sunday morning. I didn’t think my roommates had made it home Saturday night. I looked out the window to see if their cars were around.

  Mine was the only car on the street. And it had been plowed in and shoveled out. My walk and front porch were shoveled as well. That Mr. Laskowski. He was such a sweet guy. He and Kim must have come by to get their tree off the car after church and shoveled me out. That would have been no small task. There were easily four feet of wet, heavy snow on the ground.

  I put on a pot of tea and flipped on both my computers. (I now felt comfortable enough to read the posts from my home Wi-Fi, but I still didn’t trust posting from home. I had no idea if there was any sense to that; it’s just what felt right.)

  It would be a perfect day to catch up on work. I doubted my roommates would be home before Monday. Snow like this didn’t get plowed very efficiently in the city. The only reason my street was plowed was because there was a fire station on it. The roomies were either stuck at friends’ houses elsewhere in the city or enjoying driving freedom at their parents’ houses in the suburbs. The suburbs always got plowed out right away. They had the tax dollars to do that kind of thing.

  I was surprised at the response to my post on CussedEmOuterwear.com. Dozens of people said they’d print flyers and post them around their town or campus (in the dead of night while no one was watching…bless them, they were as paranoid as I was). And then there was one really strange post. “Truth Seeker,” who identified himself as a well-to-do business owner, wanted to help finance a campaign. And he wanted me to meet him in Las Vegas the following weekend to work out the details.

  That was exciting. And scary. Jim was still the only person I had face-to-face contact with regarding the Glyphs. But, if we had some money, we could post billboards or TV ads – something that would reach so many more people than the random hundreds that found us on the Web. Maybe we could even do some promotion internationally. (I thought there might be a small chance that “reception” of the Glyphs vision might vary geographically.)

  Of course, how I was going to get to Vegas and how I was going to assure my safety there were entirely different matters. I called Jim on what we affectionately referred to as the “batphone” and left a message. Then I plowed into the assignments I brought home from work. If I was going to be traveling next weekend, I’d need to get caught up.

  Chapter 15

  Jim called back around 9 p.m. He was emphatic that I not go to Las Vegas. Unfortunately, by the time he called, I had made up my mind that I should meet with this guy somehow.

  “It’s too dangerous. You don’t know what kind of nutcase this guy is. And Las Vegas…sin city for crying out loud!”

  “There are security issues. I know that. I’ll figure out some way to guarantee our safety.” I could tell this was going to be a hard sell.

  “It’s not our safety I’m worried about, it’s your safety.”

  “Look, I’m going to try to get the meeting moved someplace else. I can’t afford to fly off for a weekend in Vegas. But, I really do think someone needs to meet with this guy.”

  “I don’t care where the meeting is. I still don’t like it.”

  “I don’t think you understand. I can’t keep up with what we’re doing now – and we definitely need to do more. A lot more. And I can’t do it. My work is suffering. My life is suffering. If I go on like this much longer, I’m going to end up with a nervous breakdown…or fired…or both. And that damn Wilkins Ice Shelf has been at risk of collapsing since April. We’ve had these visions since childhood. We may not have a lot of time left before the damage from climate change is irreparable.”

  “See if this guy can make it to New York and I’ll meet with him. I don’t want you to go. Okay?” I think Jim heard the desperation in my voice and realized the toll all this was taking on me.

  “I’ll see what I can do.”

  “Promise you won’t do anything without letting me know?”

  “Promise.”

  “Cross your heart and hope to die?” He definitely wanted our conversation to end on a lighter tone.

  “I thought hoping to die was what I was trying to avoid.”

  “That’s my girl. Good night, Rae.”

  “Good night.” I couldn’t help it, but it came out almost more of a whisper. I mean, ‘that’s my girl’…what was that all about?

  Chapter 16

  That night it started snowing again. By morning, there was another four feet on the ground at my house. Other parts of the city got it worse. Downtown got seven feet! That was unprecedented as far as I knew. It reminded me of the nightmares I used to have as a child: That it would snow and snow until we couldn’t even open the doors and were trapped in the house under a mountain of snow.

  They instituted a travel ban in the city, so my office was closed. (Though, I really would have liked to go downtown and see what seven feet of fresh snow looked like. By tomorrow, it would be settled down quite a bit, probably wouldn’t look like more than five feet.)

  I turned on my computer and dove into my work again first thing in the morning. By 3 p.m. I was actually almost caught up. My muscles were also starting to cramp after two days hunched over my computer in the cold (we kept our thermostat set at 65˚ since heat was a luxury we agreed we could not afford).

  I was in no mood to hang around any longer in the cold all by myself. My street had been plowed and so had the main street at the corner. I decided to pack up and head to my parents’ house in the suburbs. Surprisingly, they hadn’t gotten half as much snow. (Surprising because they were in the traditional snowbelt south of the city. Contrary to its image, the city of Buffalo and the northern suburbs usually didn’t get all that much snow. The snow was almost always concentrated in the southern suburbs. Could climate change be affecting the snowfall patterns? The thought made me shudder.)

  I had no trouble getting to my parents’ place. I lived near the city line, and even with a travel ban, the authorities didn’t have a problem with people driving out of the city. Getting back in would be another matter, but I didn’t plan to come back until the ban was lifted.

  I used the opportunity to find a Wi-Fi signal and send Truth Seeker a message that I was interested, but would not have the resources to go to Vegas.

  Walking in my parents’ door was wonderful. It w
as warm. Mom was baking Christmas cookies with my sister, Kathy, so the house smelled delicious. Dad’s workplace was closed, too, so he was outside futzing with the Christmas lights. We had an early dinner, decorated the tree and still had time to go Christmas shopping. The stores were nearly empty (of shoppers, not merchandise), so I finished my entire list that night.

  Caught up on work and shopping! It felt like a giant weight had lifted from my shoulders. The only thing keeping this evening from being absolutely perfect was the fact that I had eaten waaay too many cookies.

  My brother was still away at college, so I camped out in his bedroom. I called Kim. Bill had to cancel their date since he lived in the city. She wasn’t too devastated because he rescheduled for Tuesday.

  I flipped on my “stealth” computer to read the message boards. Nothing new in the general posts, but I did get a message from Truth Seeker. He gave me a pay-as-you-go phone number to call and requested I call immediately, no matter what the hour might be.

  I dragged out the batphone and called. A woman answered and gave me another phone number to call. But, she instructed me to use a pay-as-you-go phone to make that call. This secrecy business was enough to drive me nuts.

  The city was still closed the following day. I did as much research as I could on an upcoming project at work, then headed to the store. My mother wanted me to pick up some groceries. That would give me a chance to buy a new batphone.

  I called Truth Seeker from my car. He had a sort of formal way of speaking and the slightest hint of an accent. I thought maybe he might be from India. He sounded very calm and rational. But he was emphatic that I meet him in Vegas on Saturday. Apparently he would be on a lengthy international trip after that.

  Truth Seeker said he would cover the cost of flying me to Vegas. He was even more paranoid about security than I was. He asked me what city I lived in, then said he’d call me back the next day, after making arrangements.

  I didn’t know how he was going to make arrangements for me to fly to Las Vegas when he didn’t know my name. Maybe he was getting me some fake I.D. I figured I’d better call Jim to let him know what was going on with Truth Seeker.

  Jim, of course, was furious.

  “Holy cow…what are you nuts?!”

  “I know it’s a little risky, but it’s a calculated risk. No one’s going to do anything to me. You know I’m going. And I’ll write myself a letter and send it to my parents’ house, so if anything happens to me, they’ll be able to track down what happened.”

  “Oh. That makes me feel better. After you’re dead we’ll be able to find your killer. Glad you covered that base.”

  “No one is going to kill me if they know they’ll be caught. Besides, I think this guy is sincere. I think he shares the devoted obsession that seems to come with the vision.”

  “I just don’t like you going off by yourself.”

  “If you’d like to go instead of me, I could call him back and arrange that.”

  There was a long pause. Jim made some sort of weird groan and his breathing changed. It sounded like he was in torment.

  “Jim? Are you all right?”

  “I’m fine. I’m trying to think of a way I could go instead of you. I don’t think I can. Things aren’t great here.”

  “Why? What’s wrong?”

  “After I talked to you the other day, I decided I’d take a year off from med school. You’re shouldering too much of the burden. And I can get enough credit to live without a paycheck for a year or so. When I told Kiku, she went through the roof. Wanted to cancel our engagement.” You could hear the anguish in his voice.

  “Oh, Jim…I’m so sorry.”

  “And beside all that drama, her parents are throwing a huge party in my honor on Saturday…”

  “Listen. Don’t worry about me. I will be safe. I will call you and let you know where I am at all times. And you don’t have to quit school. We’ll figure a way to handle this.”

  Jim was silent for awhile. “You’re going on this Vegas trip no matter what I say, aren’t you?”

  “Yes.”

  “I don’t seem to have any control over the women in my life.”

  “This is America. You’re not supposed to.” What I didn’t say was that the women weren’t supposed to have control over him either. Kiku’s blowup had pretty much sealed my opinion that she was a controlling bitch.

  “You’ll call and let me know what’s going on?”

  “I promise. Everything will be fine.”

  “I think you’re forgetting something.”

  “What?”

  “Rachel’s First Law of Peril.”

  “I’m not forgetting. I will be at a continual state of high alert.”

  “I care about you.” The anguish was still in his voice. Was it over Kiku or over me? I couldn’t tell.

  “I care about me, too. I’ll be fine.”

  Chapter 17

  They lifted the travel ban on Wednesday. Even though the snow had settled, it was still amazing. Parking meters were completely buried. There was too much snow to simply plow away… they had to load it onto dump trucks and pile it into big mountains in selected parking lots and parks. I’d never seen so much snow.

  Better yet, I’d never seen so little work on my agenda. I had enough to do to keep me busy, but I actually went out to lunch and still managed to go home on time. Was that how normal people got through their days? It almost felt like being on vacation. The absence of stress was so…freeing!

  After work I went to my apartment rather than my parents’ house. There was much shoveling that needed to be done. The snow had drifted so high in spots that you had to lift the shovel above your head to throw the snow over the drifts. My roommates and I shoveled the front walk (that was our deal with the landlord…we used the front entrance, so we kept in shoveled).

  Then, we helped shovel out some of our neighbor’s cars. It was like a little party on the street with everyone out shoveling and helping each other. That was the great thing about a snowstorm. It really brought city dwellers together. (On the flip side, it tended to isolate suburbanites who cocooned away in the deep snow, letting their plow services clear their driveways.)

  That shoveling was the exercise I needed to get my endorphins going – or whatever the heck chemical it was that got going when you exercised. I hadn’t felt so good, so relaxed, in so very long. I hadn’t had time to go my Pilates class in weeks. I completely pushed right out of my head the fact that this was a false and temporary reprieve from my daily grind.

  Our Christmas tree had blown off the front porch and was buried in a snow drift. We dug it out and put it back on the porch. No use dragging it inside with so much snow still clinging to it. With luck, most of it would evaporate by tomorrow and then we could bring it in.

  Getting home in time to have dinner with my roommates was a real treat. Marilee was a great cook and whipped up some chili. I had picked up a box of cornbread mix at Big Lots a couple weeks before, so I made that. Olivia fixed a nice salad. We had a real dinner like real people. We lingered at the table after dinner laughing and catching up on each others’ exploits. The fact that the oven had brought the kitchen temperature to something approaching comfortable was a real plus.

  After getting ready for bed, I made my phone calls. Kim and Bill had finally gotten together for dinner. She said she had a wonderful time. He took her to the Left Bank, which was one of the city’s hottest restaurants. I was a little jealous of that…I’d never been there. Kim said Bill was very attentive, didn’t drink, and walked her to her car afterward (they met at the restaurant). He held her arm while they walked to the car, but he did not kiss her goodnight. She was seeing him again on Saturday.

  Truth Seeker had made all his arrangements by the time I called. I was supposed to meet one of his female employees at the Galleria Mall after work on Friday. She would get me on a plane. I was not to bring a suitcase. I was to use valet parking and go straight into the dressing room at Urban Outfitters. />
  Jim found the whole meet-at-the-mall-no-suitcase thing bizarre. I did, too. But, I understood Truth Seeker’s paranoia… I just couldn’t figure out how the heck he was going to pull everything off.

  Chapter 18

  When Friday rolled around, my adrenaline was rushing. Half of me was scared stiff. The other half was kind of thrilled to be doing the cloak-and-dagger routine. (Hopefully, there’d be no daggers.) I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I could never, in a zillion years, have foreseen what happened.

  I was supposed to arrive at the mall’s valet parking site at 5:30. I got there almost on the dot. A young, Middle-Eastern-looking valet greeted me with, “Ms. Hawn-Imus?” That was my username on our website, Anne Hawn-Imus. (Get it? Anonymous! Sometimes I crack myself up.)

  I was floored. Truth Seeker didn’t say anything about the valet expecting me. This was way more involved than I’d imagined. I started to get that feeling in my knees that I got when I was at the edge of a cliff. Or saw someone at the edge of a cliff. Edges of cliffs really got to me.

  I was so shaky, I had to grab onto things to steady myself as I walked. It seemed to take forever to get to Urban Outfitters (but, it was just a couple stores from the valet). I walked into the dressing room. An attractive, young woman wearing a headscarf motioned me toward one of the stalls.

  “Ms. Hawn-Imus?”

  “Yes.” My voice was as shaky as my knees.

  “Please to come in.”

  She let me into the stall, closed the door…and opened an umbrella! At first that confused the heck out of me, but then I figured it must be to block any camera aimed at the dressing room.

  “My name is Cala. I will be escorting you on your trip today. Mr. Kezal has provided a disguise to protect your identity. May I help you put on the hijab?”