by Dave Hazel
“I love you too. What’s wrong?”
“Is Towbar inside?” He asked. Mykal knew Towbar wouldn’t leave on his own. Towbar could only travel in secret or he would be mobbed and swarmed by flocks of people and reporters and anyone who wanted to try to make a quick buck. The offers and requests to try out for sports teams and advertisements were endless. “I’ll tell you together. It’s all over the news, but the facts won’t be right for days,” he said and shook his head sadly as they entered the wonderful home they moved into just a month ago. “It’s Boris.”
“Is he alright?” She gasped and feared for Boris.
“No. It’s bad. Real bad. Boris did something bad and…”
CHAPTER THREE 11/21/1983
1. Monday, November 21st 1983
1048 hours, home, Minot, N.D.
“Mykal, would you like to come to the mall with me and the boys?” Pam asked while she put winter coats on their two small children. “I’m going to start our Christmas shopping early this year,” she said and smiled happily. “I’m not going on Black Friday this year.” Pam rolled her eyes with mock shudder.
“Black Friday?”
“You know, the day after Thanksgiving. I know the sales will be great but the crowds are just way too much,” she laughed.
“Na. I really don’t feel much like doing anything,” he replied. His voice and his facial expression gave away his down, dark mood. “I’m sure I’ll be recognized and I don’t wanna talk to anyone.”
“What’s the matter? All you’ve done is mope around the house since Boris killed all those people. I know you feel terrible because he was your friend, but you have a family that you have been ignoring.”
“He is still my friend,” Mykal corrected her.
“He’s your friend after what he did to all those people and their families?”
“You don’t know what he’s been through. Don’t get me wrong I’m not defending what he did. It was wrong and he’s locked up. But the poor guy is my friend. I shoulda been there for him.”
“Just like you should be there for your family,” she sighed angrily. “When are you going to be with us?”
“Whadda ya mean? I’ve been here all week.”
“No Myk,” she disagreed adamantly. “Your body has been here, but you haven’t been here.”
“Honey, I have a lot on my mind. I’m dealing with a lot of stuff and it’s not just this stuff with Boris. I have to deal with all the media stuff, I have to deal with the families who still keep trying to get me to bring their loved ones back from Towbar’s world, and I have to deal with the friggin military. Everyone’s always pulling on me and it never ends.”
She paused and looked at her husband. “How much longer is this going to go on? When are we going to start being a family again? I’m so over being married to a husband that I can’t have. I have a husband that I can’t sleep with.”
“I can’t help it that I have nightmares,” he shot back defensively. “What the hell are you getting all over my ass for? Do you think I like all this stuff that’s going on? And do you think I like it that the damn military is making me stay away from you and the boys?” He realized he became angry. “I’m sorry. I’m not mad at you. I’m angry at William. I’m angry at the Crowns cuz they keep pushing William to keep my schedule packed. I just want a normal boring life. That’s it. I wanna go back to the way it was.”
“Boring?” She replied with a mock rage and placed her hands on her hips. “I’m boring to you?”
“You know what I mean,” he chuckled
The two little boys stood like stiff plump statues in their tightly bound snow suits. They both turned to each other in a labored move that caused Mykal to break out in laughter. He dropped to his knees and grabbed both his sons and kissed them on the cheek. “I love you guys,” he laughed and he pulled the two of them close. “You guys are growing up so fast.”
“I’m sorry Myk,” Pam said with a frown that turned into a smile. “I love watching you love the boys. And I know all this is not your fault. But all this is getting to me. What bothers me more is the fact that when we’re together, I can tell your mind is someplace else. I get the feeling that you would rather be somewhere else and we’re keeping you trapped here. When can we, your family, have you back? Nothing has been the same since you and all the others disappeared.”
“Don’t worry honey,” Mykal looked up from the two little bodies pressed against his chest. “I’m gonna talk to William today, cuz I’m tired of all this too. I wanna get outta the Air Force. I know I just can’t quit, so I’m gonna see what I can do since I’ve been through Towbar’s world, and now this thing with Boris. I’m hoping to make a case to get out early.”
“Let’s talk about that when I get back,” she said and reached down to kiss him. “I promised the boys I would take them out to buy them a toy today. Since their dad isn’t here,” she paused to allow the sarcastic bite to sink in, “I said I would buy them some toys they could keep here.”
“Alright smart-ass,” he laughed at her feisty dig. “I’m really sorry honey,” he looked down, away from her playful pout. “But that’s not really fair. Are you mad at me?”
“No, I’m not mad at you, Myk. I’m hurt. I’m really afraid that you do not want to be with us anymore.”
“What? Where in the world did that come from?”
“Almost every time I look at you I can see that your thoughts are a million miles away. I know your thoughts are on Towbar’s world. I can see it when I see you on TV talking about it. And I know, deep inside, you want to go back there.”
“That’s not true,” he argued unconvincingly.
“I want to help you get over that place and you won’t let me. Every time I bring that subject up, I feel like you push me away. The boys need their dad. I need, and I want, my husband back. Please remember I have feelings too.”
“That hurts my feelings to hear you say that honey, cuz I love you guys more than anything in this world. The farthest thing from my mind is to be away from you three,” he said as he stood and hugged her tightly. “I’m truly dealing with a lot of stuff. Please be patient with me. I’m trying to wrap all this stuff up so I can be done with it. Okay?”
“Yes. I’ll be patient. But my biggest fear is that one day I will turn around and you’re not going to be there anymore. I’m afraid that if you leave again, it will be for good.”
“Leave? Honey, I’m not gonna leave you ever again. For right now I have to keep doing all these talk shows and appearances, and after what happened with Boris, I’m not sure if it’s gonna change at all. I hate this nonsense that they’re talking me up as a hero.”
“But you are a hero,” she expressed happily and hugged him tighter. “You saved those hostages from being killed.”
Mykal pulled from her grip to look her in the eye. “Honey, I’m not a damn hero,” he said coldly. “I didn’t want to see my friend get killed so I talked him into giving up. The honest truth is,” he paused. Mykal wasn’t sure if he should admit the genuineness of his heart. “I didn’t care what happened to any of them people. I didn’t wanna see any harm come to them, but I didn’t care about them either,” he said with dead emotion in his eyes. “I’m not a friggin hero and I hate pretending that I did something wonderful when I know the truth. I lied to my friend to get him to surrender.”
She gazed into Mykal’s eyes and she saw Towbar’s world. “You’ll always be my hero,” she whispered quietly and gently kissed him.
“Thank you honey. I just have to play this game a little longer and I’m going to see what I can do to end this.”
“I hope so. I just see the same look in your eye that I see in Towbar’s eyes. I understand Towbar, because he needs to go back to his home.”
“Speaking of Towbar, where--”
“He’s in the basement playing with the Quecktarbs,” she answered before he finished his question. “He said he does not like the television. Let’s talk when I get home.” Pam kissed and
hugged him and turned away.
“Yeah, I have to talk with William today, and when you get back we’ll have one of those ‘what’s everything on your mind’ kind of talks, that I know you wanna have. Okay?”
“Yes, because I’m feeling insecure. I feel like I’m losing you,” she admitted. “If I was losing you to another woman I would know how to fight that, but I feel like I’m losing you to Towbar and his world. I don’t know how to fight that because it is a world that doesn’t exist to me.”
“That’s not happening,” he laughed weakly. He watched her button her coat and take the boys by the hands. “Drive careful.” He watched her leave and felt terrible. He hated the idea of hurting Pam.
Before joining Towbar in the basement to play with his two-headed wolf like creatures, something inside drew him upstairs. He rushed to the spare bedroom, being pulled like a drug addict needing a fix, or a sex addict seeking porn. He stood in the doorway, secretly eyeing the wooden foot locker in the other side of the room. He felt like he was doing something wrong and feared being caught. But he needed to look inside the trunk just one more time.
The trunk’s self-contained lock secured the contents, but he added an extra padlock. He found it odd that the contents had such a pull on him. ‘There’s nothing bad in here,’ he thought as he rushed to unlock the locks. ‘It’s not like I’m hiding drugs, or booze or pornography,’ he considered as he opened the lid to examine the contents from Towbar’s world. This was where he kept the mementoes from that strange place, that horrible place, that deadly place he couldn’t keep his mind from.
Kneeling before the trunk he looked at the items and had to sit back on his feet as a flood of emotions and memories rushed through his brain. So many friends were lost, so many battles, and a few close calls with his own life. He spent thirty-seven days in Towbar’s world and at times it seemed like years. Mykal felt like he couldn’t get Towbar’s world out of him. The items in the trunk were so important to him, but no one else would understand, especially Pam.
The first items were three pair of BDUs, his camouflaged uniforms. The military issued shirt on top had a hole where he was struck by a Soso death arrow. The material still had blood stained into the threads. Most of the blood stains were from his injuries. Some blood stains were from friends who died and some were from Sosos he had killed at close range.
Under the cammies were his black, military issue, combat boots. Those boots had been through it all with him. He wore those boots in every battle, every trek, and every flight from near death. He wore them when he killed Sosos, and when he was almost killed by a giant snow spider. He sported them when he met King Loankore III of Towbar’s people and when he met King Krago of the Dwarven people. He touched the leather of the boots, remembering the friends who died while he wore this pair of military issue footwear. ‘It sounds silly,’ he shook his head with a smile at the thought. ‘But these boots have been through it all with me.’ “These boots could tell a story,” he whispered.
Setting the boots on the floor, he reached in and picked up a blanket that was wrapped around one of his prized possessions. He carefully uncovered the baby blue blanket to reveal a leather holster with a .357 magnum revolver tucked into the case. This once belonged to U.S. Marshal Adam Sommer whom they found dead the second day in Towbar’s world. This weapon had killed many and was used to save Mykal’s life several times over as well as the lives of many of his friends. He managed to hide the weapon with a sack of diamonds when they first returned. He knew it would have been confiscated and he didn’t want it taken away. He was terrified that it would have been found then he would have faced charges for obstructing the investigation, but it all worked out when he snuck away with Pam for seven hours one day and was able to retrieve these special items.
‘They don’t know what the hell I’ve been through,’ he thought. ‘I deserve this stuff. They would only have taken it away from me.’
Mykal withdrew the revolver from the holster and hefted it in his hand. It reminded him of so many emotions, so many battles, so much power to take lives. He admired the gun in his grip and it made him feel invincible, but then the thought of what Boris did just a few days prior made him quickly slam it back into the leather casing.
His other weapon, an M-16 rifle, had been taken away once the first responders arrived at the scene of their return. He wished he could own that rifle because of all he had been through with it, but he knew the U.S. government would never allow him to own such a weapon for personal reasons.
Inside the trunk was the long ice pick like dagger that a Soso had stabbed him with. He kept it as a reminder and he still remembered the pain when the point pierced under his right shoulder and exited his right armpit. Towbar’s magic ability flowed through his veins which allowed him to heal quickly. The weapon looked plain, but felt heavy in his grip. He was glad he kept it and hid it with the revolver. Those in authority would never allow it in his possession. He wasn’t a souvenir hunter, but he wanted it. These two items were a part of his life and fight for survival during that 37 day period.
The large cloth sack brought a big smile. “One day when all this craziness ends, I’m gonna be rich.” The large sack was filled with many, very large, raw uncut diamonds. King Krago of the Dwarven people allowed him to take as many as he wanted because he traded Boris’s .22 caliber pistol for ‘some of the countless rocks’ that littered the floor of their mountain home. He chuckled at the thought of the Dwarven King living inside a mountain owning a .22 pistol and close to two hundred rounds of ammunition. “This is crazy,” he said.
Beside the sack of ‘rocks’ was the leather pouch given to him by Nidious the Magician, Towbar’s adopted father and lifelong close friend, mentor and teacher. Supposedly inside the leather pouch was magical material that could be used to conjure the green fog. They departed Towbar’s world before Nidious arrived at the Pass to share how to use such magic crystal like powder. ‘If I woulda turned this stuff over then Towbar would never be able to get back. They woulda screwed this stuff up.’
On the bottom of the trunk in an open shoe box were many Polaroid pictures he had taken of the people from Towbar’s world. He eyed all the photos and had fond memories of each picture. The military wasn’t going to return the photos but he persuaded Lieutenant General Jefferson to have them returned after they made copies. The photo on top was one of Towbar and Doninka. “Doninka, what a pain in the ass.” He smirked playfully and looked at her pretty face. Doninka was a real princess, the daughter of Towbar’s King. She fell in love with him, but he could never allow anything more than just a friendship to develop. The two of them had been through a great deal together. She risked her life for him and he developed a strong fondness for the girl. He realized he truly missed the girl, or was it just Towbar’s world that he missed?
Last but not least, his notebook where he kept a journal. He didn’t make it known that he had this in his possession. Some things had been written that would be incriminating. No one had ever peeked between the cardboard covers. Not even Pam knows of the existence of such a personal diary which covers almost all of the thirty-seven days he was in Towbar’s world. He knew if this was to get out it would change a lot of the public’s view of him. ‘The public wouldn’t understand that I did everything I did, whether good or not so good. Ok, whether good or bad,’ he chuckled in thought. ‘It was all to survive, and come home to be with my family.’
“Now, that I’m home,” he said quietly as he lifted the notebook. “Part of me feels that I need to go back.”
He flipped through the pages. He wasn’t looking at any particular entry, just glancing at all his hand scribbled annotations and full length descriptions of almost everything that occurred in Towbar’s world. A couple of pages had blood smeared on them. Mykal had made entries immediately after some of the battles. “I should burn this,” he sighed fearing the trouble he could cause for himself if someone got their hands on these writings.
He set the notebook
down and picked up the BDU shirt that had the most damage to it. He squeezed it close and sniffed hard on the worn material. There was a strong desire to put it on and wish himself back in Towbar’s world. ‘This is friggin crazy,’ he thought. ‘This strange tugging in my guts is probably what an alcoholic feels when he nears a liquor store,’ he continued his silent monologue. ‘But what I feel is real, it’s something physical.’ He had a real need to be back in Towbar’s world. “No,” he said aloud, on the verge of anger. “I can’t leave my family.” The mental tug-o-war started again.
‘I wonder if this is what Boris was struggling with,’ he considered. He eyed the faint stains on the camouflage shirt. ‘Is this what drove Boris over the edge? The need to go back to Towbar’s world,’ he wondered. “I know my desires to return have been getting stronger and stronger,” he whispered and fear seemed to grow. “Am I gonna snap like he did and go on a killing spree?” He wondered aloud because he didn’t discuss this with anyone. He tried to hide it as if it was a drug or a gambling problem, but Doc Cannon seemed to suspect something despite his rabid denials. “Maybe I should tell Doc Cannon the truth,” he said and shook his head. “But I don’t wanna trust a military shrink.”
Sniffing the shirt again brought more memories and thoughts to mind. The clarity of battles, heat of the moment action jolted like an electric charge in his brain. Never really being a violent person, at this moment, more than anything, he wanted to be in the middle of a bloody battle killing Sosos as fast and as mercilessly as possible. “Am I going crazy?” He asked himself again when he caught his image in the mirror atop the dresser. He looked strange holding his old BDU shirt so tightly. “This can’t be good,” he laughed at himself.
