by Dave Hazel
“Don’t be so negative. This truly is a great honor Myk.”
“I know,” he agreed. “I honestly don’t care about medals and awards and all that stuff. But no one in my family has ever met any President before. You finally did something good,” he joked.
“Oh yes, I almost forgot. I have something here for you,” William said as he opened his brief case and dug through some papers and manila folders. “The author of this book asked me to give this to you. He would like to meet with you. He said this is a work of fiction base on the life of your cousin. He said you’d understand.”
“Whoa. What? Let me see.” Mykal eagerly grabbed the novel.
“The author is Dave Hazel and the name of his book is Street Shock. He said he’s from your home town Niagara Falls, New York. He wanted to make sure you knew he and your cousin were pretty good friends. He’s concerned you might think he’s some stranger who wrote the story about your cousin.”
“Oh wow, I heard about this book, but I haven’t read it,” he said eyeing the cover and thumbed through the vast tome. “Man there’s over seven hundred pages here. My cousin was a punk on the streets. He was just a kid. My cousin and his friends were involved in a lot of crimes and they ended up killing some people.”
“I’d never heard of that,” he said and looked disappointed. “How did they miss that?” He asked out loud, but it was more to himself. “The people who did the back ground investigation before I was assigned to you never brought this information up.”
“What? What investigation?”
“One of the many investigations that were conducted after your return, it was before I was assigned to you,” he paused as if he said too much. “It doesn’t matter. I’m just surprised they missed such a big piece of information related to your extended family. Ah never mind, but back to this Dave Hazel, he asked if you’ve given thought to writing your story or having someone else write it for you,” William said to change the subject. “I brushed him off and said you’re not interested. He understood, and said he’d still like to meet with you since you’re both from the same town and because he knew your cousin. With all that’s going on I’ll tell him to move on.”
“No! Don’t, he’s from back home.” Mykal grinned excitedly. “He knew my cousin and he’s the guy that wrote the book on my cousin. My cousin was only seventeen years old when he did all that stuff. Yeah, I’d like to talk to him. I haven’t seen anyone from back home in a while, except for when my parents came out here when we returned from Towbar’s world. And that was brief! It was brief cuz of my crazy schedule and we know who’s fault that is,” he joked, putting the blame on William. Mykal’s mood suddenly changed for the better.
“He said he’s going to be in the area till Wednesday night. Here is his number at the Ramada Inn in Minot,” William pointed to a card from the hotel. “He said if you can’t catch him before he travels back, this here is his telephone number back in Niagara Falls. Myk, I think you should just let it go. He may be just another huckster trying to make a name and a quick buck off your name and situation.”
“No. I wanna talk to him and ask him some questions about the whole thing with my cousin. Like I said, he’s from back home.” He continued to eye the book. “Will, do me a favor. Get in touch with this guy and get him over here. I’d really like to talk to him,” he said and smiled with a renewed excitement.
“You’re not seriously contemplating allowing him to write your book, are you? He’s a no name author for crying out loud. You can get anyone with a big name to write your book,” William declared and wished he would have thrown the contact information away.
“I know. I never said anything about letting anyone write my book. I just wanna talk to the guy. If you don’t wanna go get him for me, then you can start working on how you’re going to explain to the Crowns that I was a ‘no-show’ when it came time to receive my medal from the President of these here United States,” he threatened playfully. “I just wanna talk to the guy about my cousin.”
“Alright, alright I’m going,” William said. It put him at ease that Mykal seemed to be back on board. “I wish you would start to remember that I’m the captain here and you’re only a sergeant. I’m not sure if you remember how rank works.”
“See Will, that’s your problem. You care too much about all this military stuff and I don’t. If you were a little more like me you woulda told me to go screw myself and then you woulda slapped me around,” he kidded. “But you’re always too worried what the big boys, or rather the Crowns, will do if I don’t come through on the plans.”
“If I was a little more like you we would both be in serious trouble. It shouldn’t take long to find this guy. He said he was going to stay by his room until he had to leave.
Towbar stepped into the living room after William departed. “I see you did not travel with Pam and your sons.”
“Na,” he replied, keeping his face buried in Street Shock. “I hate going anywhere anymore,” he said and set the book on the table. “I can’t handle the people not leaving me alone, but at the same time I don’t wanna be rude. I know it’s something special for them to meet us. You get it worse than I do.”
“It bothers me not, my friend.”
“William should be coming back shortly so let’s make sure we have our stories straight. If he asks you if you’re working on going back to your world, you gotta tell him you’re not. At least for now. Continue to say there is no way that you know of to get back to your world.”
“That is fine. I will not speak of my plan.”
“He may be bringing the writer of this book back here,” Mykal said and lifted Street Shock. “I wanna talk to the guy for a little bit. I’m sure he’ll be shocked to see you. But if he starts asking questions you know nothing about anything dealing with going home or making the green fog and so on. I just wanna ask him questions about back home and my cousin.”
“I will reveal nothing my friend.”
“Do you think you’ll be able to make the green fog appear?”
“Yes. I think I may return home in just a few days,” Towbar said. He truly looked homesick.
“Okay. I’m gonna have to see if there is a way I can work this out so Boris can go with you. The thing is, there are so many people from my world who want to go there, but they really don’t understand what they’ll be getting themselves into. What we’ll do is this…
CHAPTER FOUR 11/29/1983
1. Tuesday, November 29th 1983
1422 hours, Press Conference, Washington DC
“Sergeant Graves, how do you feel now that the President had to cancel your award ceremony?” One reporter called out louder than the others.
“I don’t have a problem with that,” Mykal said and shook his head. “It’s a serious situation going on in the world, and he needs to deal with that stuff first.”
“Have they rescheduled the ceremony?” Another shouted and continued scribbling on his notepad, while others held up portable cassette recorders.
“I don’t know and I’m not too concerned with that. I just heard bits and pieces of what happened. From what I heard there was a bombing in Rome that killed at least four Americans and I’m not sure how many others. Plus if I heard correctly, a plane in the airport was taken over by hijackers. That’s messed up. That’s far more important for the President to deal with, than to be handing out an award.”
“Does it seem ironic to have your presentation of an award for stopping an act of terrorism being upstaged by a similar event, an act of terrorism?” A female reporter asked.
“First of all, I don’t really care about the award. I don’t feel I did anything worthy of getting an award,” Mykal replied. For those close to Mykal it was obvious he was getting annoyed with the silly questions. “The only thing I am disappointed about is not having the chance to meet the President. I am flattered that the President would take the time to honor me with an award. I would graciously accept it, but I did what anyone else would do. All I d
id was convince a friend to give up who had committed a terrible crime. There is the difference. What I stopped was not an act of terrorism. It was a horrendous crime, a horrible crime, a terrible crime, but Robert Traginsky is not a terrorist. He is someone who is mentally screwed up and he went off the deep end. I know him and what he did is not the person I know. He snapped.”
“Speaking of Robert Traginsky, you called him your friend, are you defending him?”
“No, not at all. He is a friend of mine and yes I think he should be locked up for the rest of his life,” he anticipated the next question. “And that’s if the military doesn’t give him the death penalty.”
“Are you for the death penalty?” Another reporter yelled.
Mykal paused. “It’s not my place to say. There have been a great many families destroyed and devastated by his actions and my opinion doesn’t matter so I’ll leave it to those who will make those decisions.”
“You’re a very popular person Sergeant Graves,” a female reporter near him caught his attention. “Many people would like to hear your opinion on the matter.”
“Do you think my opinion will influence the thoughts of others?” He answered with a question and looked over at the bored expression of Towbar.
“Well, I would assume some would be influenced and some would not,” she giggled at his question.
“Okay, then I won’t answer. Those who won’t be influenced wouldn’t care anyway, and those who may be influenced don’t need to hear what I think.”
“What do you think caused Robert Traginsky to, as you called it, ‘to go off the deep end’? Did your stay in Towbar’s world have a negative effect on his mental and emotional faculties?” The reporter looked surprised when Towbar glared at her.
“I can’t answer that. And if I was to answer that you’ll have a flood of shrinks saying I don’t know what the hell I’m talking about,” he retorted. His tone gave away the fact that he was tired of all the media and the attention. “I can say that when we were in Towbar’s world, we were constantly under a great deal of stress, similar to what Vietnam vets experienced. It was a daily struggle to stay alive. It was kill or be killed on a grand scale. So yes we all did a lot of fighting, but if we didn’t we wouldn’t be here today. I actually heard that there are some who think we shouldn’t be allowed out at night because they fear we may all just snap at the drop of a hat and go on a killing spree or do like Robert did and take hostages. That’s a load of garbage. That same jackass said something to the effect that since we don’t know if our stay in Towbar’s world will have lasting side effects like a bad drug, that we shouldn’t put the public at risk by allowing us to be free. What a dumb ass thing to say,” Mykal paused, his anger started to get the best of him.
“Are you saying he shouldn’t be allowed to voice his opinion?”
“No, not at all,” Mykal snapped back quickly. “But I’ll voice my opinion too. That whacko with all the letters behind his name is a friggin moron. I don’t care how many diplomas he has.” He wanted to add that he’d like to have a one on one talk with him behind closed doors, but he knew they would all perceive it as a threat, so he dropped it. He wanted to get it off his chest and explain how Boris had been pushed and mistreated, but he knew the people would never accept that as a legitimate reason for his actions.
“Does that anger you?” A reporter called out and continued to scribble in his little notebook.
“Yeah it does. Because I hear that stuff all the time from these little whiny pencil-neck geeks who don’t have a clue what we went through and they constantly say we’re all a threat and after a while it starts to get on your nerves. These are some of the same people who don’t know their friggin asses from a hole in the ground. As far as I’m concerned they can all kiss my ass.” His voice rose expressing his emotion.
“Mykal,” William called out and rushed to his side. “You’re on live television,” he whispered between clenched teeth without moving his lips. “Tone it down,” he ordered.
“Right now I don’t give a shit,” he whispered back, but some standing close to him heard his words. “If these people wanna know how I feel, then I’ll tell them how I really feel about a few things,” he scoffed at William’s interruption.
When Mykal turned back to the reporters he saw pens and pencils moving at a blistering speed while others talked into microphones and hand held recorders. “We’re not all crazy and we’re not all gonna snap and go on a killing spree. That is for the hundreds of stupid ass questions I’ve gotten just like that,” he snarled. “Okay? Did you get that so I don’t have to answer that one again?”
“What do you think set your friend off?” A man asked who looked like he was sincerely trying to bring Mykal away from the hostile path he turned onto. “Was it something presently he was embroiled with or were there legitimate links to Towbar’s world?”
Mykal gave a deep sigh. “I’m not supposed to say what I think because there is still an investigation going on. And I’m not a shrink.”
“You seem to be displaying signs of stress yourself Myk. Are you nearing the breaking point?” Another asked.
Mykal looked at the man and couldn’t determine if the question was a dig at him or not. “Stress? See, this is the kind of stupid ass stuff I’m talking about,” he replied and looked at the wild motions of William slicing his hand at his throat, signaling for him to cut it off. “Every day I’m asked the same dumb ass questions. I give the same dumb ass answers. It’s not stress, its anger. It’s frustrating because I know there are some who are trying to trip me up and make me look bad. I’m not a politician. I’m not a trained speaker. I’m me. What you see is what you get and I’m not gonna pretend to be something else. I’m not gonna pussyfoot around and say everything all nice and neatly packaged. If you ask, I’m gonna tell ya what’s on my mind.”
“Are you feeling this way because your friend and fellow survivor of Towbar’s world killed thirty-eight people?” A soft-spoken woman asked.
Before Mykal answered he caught sight of William’s angry expression. William quickly jerked his blue Air Force tie upward to signal to Mykal he was hanging himself. Mykal realized there was a great deal to lose if he unloaded and vented the way he wanted to.
“Could you please respond to the question,” the same reporter asked again when Mykal remained silent. “Are you affected by the deaths of thirty-eight people that Robert Traginsky caused?”
“I need to apologize,” Mykal humbly lowered his head. His family was the only thoughts going through his mind. Mykal knew the Crowns could really make his life miserable. “I have been under such a terrible strain,” he gave a fake pout. “I am struggling over what Robert did and I don’t know what to say. I saw all the bodies of the people he killed and it just messed me up,” he lied to get the sympathy of the media and he could almost hear the collective sigh from the group before him.
“Did you feel you were in danger when you entered the building where the hostages were being held?” The female reporter asked and smiled as if she had forgiven his outburst. Her eyes showed that she understood. It was as if his apology turned everything around.
“Ya know, it happened so fast. Sergeant Towns who was acting as the On-Scene Commander went to check on some of his men and something told me to go in there and talk to Robert. I had no idea what he had done, cuz I thought it was a hostage situation only. I wasn’t even thinking about it and I just went inside. When I saw what he did I really became afraid and wanted to leave. And yes,” he turned to the female reporter and gave her a sad expression. “At that moment, between running away and going to Robert, I suddenly felt I was in danger. I honestly didn’t know if he would turn on me cuz of his mental state. I saw all those bodies and it brought back a lot of horror from the Sosos in Towbar’s world. I was scared stiff but I wanted to try to help my friend give up. So we talked and he gave himself up.”
“What did you say that convinced him to give up?” Another shouted from the rear.
/> “It really doesn’t matter what was said,” Mykal lied to change the subject. “I think he regretted what he had done and was ready to give up. It wasn’t so much me, or what I said, he knew it had to end,” he added to take the focus from himself. “I just happened to be at the right place at the right time. I think he really wanted to end without their being any more bloodshed and I just made it easy for him to give it up.”
“You’re far too modest,” one reporter said while scribbling her notes. “Many of the hostages said it was only because of you that he gave himself up. Traginsky planned to kill all of his hostages and to quote Traginsky, he ‘was going to go down in a hail of gun fire’ thus enabling the responders to kill him.”
“I didn’t do that to get attention. I really care about the guy because we’ve been friends for some time and he had saved my life a couple of times in Towbar’s world. It was the least I could do. He’s like family to me. We watched friends get killed and never had the chance to say goodbye. So I wanted to say goodbye if he was going to die. It probably wasn’t the smartest thing I’ve ever done, but it ended the situation.”
“Would you have used force to stop him if he wouldn’t have given himself up?”
“I’m not gonna ‘what if’ with you, cuz we’d ‘what if’ all day,” he replied and glanced at William who seemed relieved by Mykal’s attitude U-turn. “But honestly, I wouldn’t have tried. He was armed with a machinegun and two handguns and he wasn’t afraid to use them.”
“Towbar, have you any plans to return to your world?”
Towbar looked to Mykal who gave a quick smile but didn’t say anything. “I have no plans,” the giant lied. “I desire to return. My people need me. I am trapped here in your world, as Mykal was trapped in my world.”
“Will you miss our world if you go back to yours?”
“I miss my world. Your world is a strange place to live,” the giant said with a half-smile. “I will miss people here. The life style here is difficult. Many things to learn all at once. It feels as if everything moves and happens so rapidly. It seems too difficult to keep pace with all that happens.”
