The Blinded Journey

by Jeffrey Quyle

  Lasaya’s anxiety seemed to lessen slightly as she focused on her work, Kendel noticed. But it didn’t go down very much. He focused inside himself, checking to see if he could access the energies within. He didn’t anticipate any need to use them, but the high level of emotions in the room worried him.

  “Is this your shop?” he asked Lasaya, trying to have some conversation. When he was back home in Bedford, the hairdressers always talked up a continual stream of observations and gossip. He felt unnerved by the relative silence of the woman tackling his hear at that moment.

  “Goodness no; I wish!” she replied. “I just work here. The owner has three shops around the city; she mostly works in the one closest to her home.”

  The clippers ceased to buzz, and the sound of the scissors began to snip across the top of Kendel’s head.

  Kendel felt the chair swivel part way around as Lasaya adjusted his position.

  “Is everything okay?” Kendel tried to ask quietly.

  “Hmm? How’s that?” Lasaya asked.

  Kendel felt his energy within, sluggish but responsive and available if he needed it. He considered the situation. It didn’t make sense for him to get involved in other people’s personal disputes. He was only passing through the city on his way to his reunion with Flora.

  But he felt ill at the thought of leaving Lasaya alone in such a state of fear, while the man in the shop clearly seemed so angry, probably angry enough to be violent. Kendel thought of his brief fight with Marcus, and how much tension he had felt during the moments when he saw that the fight was coming; that same tension and fear was what Lasaya was likely going through.

  “What’s the boy talking about?” the man spoke in an agitated voice. “He’s been in the chair long enough. Get him out of here now,” he demanded. Kendel heard the man’s chair move across the floor.

  “Sir, we’ll be gone in a moment,” Megan’s voice was anxious. “We just came in for a quick haircut.” Kendel heard a rustling sound, then Megan spoke, standing much closer.

  “Here, this is for the haircut. Please keep the change,” she said. “Can we call someone?” she asked in a lower voice.

  “Don’t leave me, please,” Lasaya’s voice was a tremulous whisper.

  “You two – out of the shop now!” the unnamed man roared angrily.

  Kendel reached for his energy as he sat up straight. He turned his head to face towards where he sensed the man was standing.

  The blue energy came easily, but the green energy was much less responsive than usual. It had to be because there was no green sun in the sky, he guessed. He reached inside himself and found a portion of energy that was his own, and he carefully siphoned some of it off to add to the reduced green power.

  “Kendel!” Megan screamed, as Lasaya shrieked.

  “You need to leave here now, and never ever come around this woman again,” he said as his feet touched the floor and he took a step forward.

  “What kind of freak are you?” the belligerent man shouted. Kendel sensed the man stepping forward, preparing to strike, and Kendel let the green energy enter his hands, as it had in the fight with Marcus.

  He made contact with the man’s face, just as a disoriented punch from the man struck Kendel weakly on the shoulder.

  “You freak!” the man shouted,

  “Kendel! He has a knife!” Megan shouted.

  Kendel focus on the man’s hands and flipped his own hands upward in a gesture that sent his opponent’s hands shooting into the air above his head as Kendel then delivered a series of blows in assailant’s midriff, driven by the power he possessed. His use of the power was instinctive once more, and effective but inexplicable.

  The man grunted and shouted, then Kendel sensed that he went unconscious, and Kendel released his powers. The man collapsed to the ground. Kendel reeled backwards and reached out to find a support behind himself, to help him maintain his feet. He felt pain in his own midriff, a light reflection of the pain he had inflicted on his opponent, whose name he didn’t even know.

  “Kendel!” Megan shouted his name a third time. “What are you? Why were you glowing?”

  “I pressed the emergency button; the police are on their way. Thank you,” Lasaya spoke, but her voice sounded as fearful as it had before.

  He didn’t want to face the police, Kendel knew instinctively.

  “We ought to go,” he turned towards Megan’s voice. “We don’t want to face the police.

  “Will you be okay?” he asked Lasaya.

  “He has three warrants out, including one for violating a restraining order,” Lasaya answered, her voice slightly less shaky. “He won’t be bothering me for a while. I’ve got enough time to pack up and find a safe place. Thank you – for whatever you did.”

  “Kendel,” Megan’s hand clutched his, and pulled, making him give a grunt of discomfort which Megan failed to notice in the midst of the shocking circumstances. “Yes, let’s get going. Goodbye and good luck,” she said to the stylist, and the pair were out the door. “This way; walk fast,” she told Kendel as she linked arms with him and pulled him back into the world of ordinary things – pedestrians and traffic and background noise, all of which was lost on Kendel as he thought about what had just happened.

  “I’m like a super hero,” he muttered to himself.

  “I hope that’s what it is,” Megan’s voice answered. “Are you going to do that again? Do we need to go into isolation somewhere?

  “What was that?” she asked before he could answer.

  “Stop. I need a drink,” Megan swerved, and Kendel felt himself pulled to the side, into a building that had music playing and people murmuring.

  “A gin gimlet to stroll,” Megan said after they stopped walking.

  Two minutes later they were walking again, and Kendel could hear Megan sipping a drink.

  “I’m thirsty too,” he said.

  “Of course you are,” Megan spoke sharply. She paused, and Kendel heard her swallow a long gulp of her drink. “Come in here and we’ll get your drink and sunglasses,” she pulled him into a convenience store and they quickly bought the goods they wanted, then left.

  “We’ll be back in your room in five minutes, then I want you to tell me everything about what happened. Can you stay human that long?” his guide asked Kendel.

  He thought of Dwad, who had told him he was nonhuman because of the power he controlled. “I’ll keep the energy under control,” he replied.

  They were silent until they got to the hotel, where Megan stopped in the bar and got another drink to take up to Kendel’s room.

  “Now, tell me what happened,” she said as soon as the door to Kendel’s room was closed with the two of them isolated inside.

  There was a warbling noise.

  “It’s Jane calling,” she said. “Hold on.

  “Hello, this is Megan,” she answered the phone, as Kendel drifted closer to her.

  “Yes, I have him. He’s right here. He’s very,” she paused, “unusual. Very unusual. He can do things; he glows; he’s blind but he seems to know where to look at things.”

  She paused and listened.

  “What about Flora?” his voice turned lower, and she stood up from the spot where she had sat on the bed, and walked away.

  “She’s all he wants,” Megan spoke again. Kendel started to rise, and he heard the door open, then close, and he didn’t hear Megan any longer.

  He felt anxious. Megan could have just asked what time Flora was arriving, then told him the answer, but that hadn’t happened. Something was not going right, but Kendel didn’t know if it was because of Megan or because of Jane. He was sure it wasn’t because of Flora.

  “Damn it!” Megan’s voice was audible again as the hotel room door opened.

  Kendel let his awareness float out of his body to examine the girl. She was frustrated and angry. He didn’t know if her emotions were directed at him or at Jane.

  “You should sit down and finish your drink,” he suggested.
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  “Eh? Yes, I suppose,” Kendel felt her walk to the bed, then sit down near the bedside table where her drink sat.

  After a minute of silently gulping down her drink, Megan spoke. “Well, Flora isn’t on her way here anytime soon, Jane said. Jane hasn’t told her because Flora is developing a relationship and it would be disastrous to blow it up with another emotional train wreck over you.

  “What went on between you two? What is the world are you? Who are you?” her questions were not challenges, but real requests to understand.

  Kendel felt his way over to the bed, then sat down next to her.

  “You seem like a good kid,” Megan told him, one hand gently touching his arm.

  “It all began in a movie rehearsal scene,” Kendel began, and he disgorged the whole story to Megan in a rambling and meandering monologue that lasted so long the two of them went out to dinner and ate while Kendel continued to reveal the fantastic elements of the story he had fallen into.

  Megan drank a carafe of wine with dinner as she listened and questioned, laughed and gasped and sympathized a time or two.

  “Kendel,” she said when they returned to his room, “I’m too drunk to drive home. Can I sleep here? Just sleep, mind you?” she said.

  “Grace and I slept in a bed together,” he answered with a smile. “We had our heads at different ends, and that seemed to satisfy Grace,” he offered.

  “And you’re really blind?” Megan asked as she unbuttoned her blouse.

  “No, it’s all an act,” Kendel answered, making the woman hurriedly pull her blouse shut until Kendel laughed. “Yes, I’m blind.”

  Megan lightly slapped his chest, then finished undressing and slumped over to fall quickly asleep.

  Kendel rested his head on his pillows and wondered about Megan’s report on Jane’s comments about Flora. In one sense, if he stepped back and looked at the situation objectively, Kendel actually sympathized with what Jane said.

  It would be good for Flora to have a chance to have a steady life and a regular one. But he was determined that she know he was looking for her. He needed her, and he believed she wanted to be with him, perhaps even in more ways than either of them had admitted.

  Chapter 27

  “You really can’t see, can you?” Megan asked the next morning when they both began to stir.

  “I really can’t,” Kendel confirmed.

  “Good,” the agency rep replied. “Because I’m going to take a shower, then go home.

  “I apologize for last night. I don’t ever drink that much. It was just such a bizarre day,” Megan continued, before Kendel could even respond. “And it wasn’t all just a dream, was it? You really have magical powers, and Jane really is hiding you from Flora?” she asked rhetorically.

  Kendel heard the sound of her last articles of clothing hitting the floor, then the sound of rustling in her purse, and her hand pressed paper into his.

  “Here’s some cash for a tip. Call room service and order breakfast for us. I want coffee and toast, and anything else you want to order,” her voice began to grow distant. “I’m going to take a nice, long hot shower,” she informed him, and moments later, he heard the sounds of activity in the bathroom.

  Kendel felt his way over to the phone, then placed the order for breakfast for two, and hung up the phone. It occurred to him for the first time that the phrase ‘hang up’ had a literal, physical root that involved the physical act he had just done with the vestigial phone on the table, instead of simply pressing a button on the screen of his cell phone.

  His hand brushed against something else on the bedside table and he idly picked it up, then realized it was the pair of sunglasses Megan had bought him the night before. He smiled as he placed them on his face and imagined himself as a dashing figure from a movie.

  There was a knock on the door, which startled him. The breakfast must have been already cooked when he ordered to have been delivered so quickly.

  He shuffled over to the door, past the open bathroom door, where he heard Megan’s shower running and felt the breeze of steam escaping into the hotel room, and he opened the door to the hallway.

  “Thank you,” he said to the waiter as he opened the door. “I’ll take it.”

  There was not an instantaneous answer, and he suddenly sensed a waft of aroma that was achingly familiar.

  “What?” he gasped as a long moment of silence stretched.

  “Kendel!” Flora spoke his name with tenderness.

  Flora? Flora!” he felt his eyes well up with moisture and he spread his arms wide to take the actress into his arms, as they hugged on the threshold of his hotel room.

  He turned his head down towards her, and their lips met in a kiss that was not planned, nor unexpected.

  “Well, aren’t you going to invite me in?” Flora asked.

  “Come in, come in, come in,” Kendel replied, and he pressed himself back against the door to make way for her to enter the room.

  She stepped in, then paused. “Is there someone in the shower?” she asked haltingly.

  “It’s the lady from Jane’s agency, Megan,” Kendel answered. “She’s just taking a shower before breakfast.”

  “Maybe I should come back later,” Flora said cautiously, taken aback by the unexpected visitor.

  “No, no, oh no,” Kendel said. “Please stay. You’re the only reason I came back here – back to this world at all – just for you.

  “Oh,” he abruptly realized what Flora was thinking. “She isn’t, we didn’t do anything. She just slept here because she drank too much last night. But she’s not my girlfriend or anything, not anything at all,” he hastened to assure his friend.

  “If you’re sure,” Flora felt confident that Kendel was telling the truth, that she wasn’t crashing upon an intimate moment.

  They went back to the bed and sat down, and as they did, the shower water turned off.

  “I’m so glad you’re blind,” Megan called from the bathroom as the other two heard the shower curtain rings slide across the overhead pole. “That means I can walk out of the bathroom naked to get out of the steam,” she announced as she stepped out, a towel wrapped around her head as she dried her hair. She looked up and saw Flora looking at her, and her hand motion froze in place, her fingers pressing the terry cloth against her scalp, without any other covering.

  “Oh, good Lord help me!” she squeaked and bolted back into the bathroom and slammed the bathroom door shut.

  “Was that Megan? Did something happen?” Kendel asked, slightly alarmed by the reaction he heard from the girl.

  “Yes,” Flora answered with a slight pause, “something happened. She sashayed out of the bathroom buck-naked, not knowing that I was here!” the girl laughed.

  “Kendel,” her voice turned tender again, and she placed her hands on his cheeks, then kissed him gently. “Here,” she told him as she lifted his sunglasses off his face, “let me see your eyes.”

  She stared intently at his two brilliantly-colored eyes. “I’d do anything to have both my eyes be either color you’ve got,” she told him. “What happened?

  “No, wait, I’m sure you’ll tell me everything. Let’s start at the beginning. What happened with you and Liza last month?” she asked.

  And so he began to recount the story of all that had happened, but he only spoke for twenty seconds before he asked a question himself.

  “Did she call you?” he asked of Liza.

  “She did, that very night. It was awful, but hopeful. Your message was brilliant. It made no sense to her. Oh, that reminds me,” Flora interrupted herself, “I have to cancel a meeting this afternoon in Venice.”

  “Venice? You were going to Italy today?” Kendel asked in surprise.

  “No, no, Venice in Los Angeles. I was going to meet the technician who was running the CGI sensors the day we were transported to the other land. I thought maybe he could give me some clue about the technology that would help me figure out how to return to the other land to join you,
” Flora explained. “I knew that if you went back, I was going to go back too.”

  “What was his name, Rizzi?” Kendel just barely remembered the fussy, thin technician who had been at the control panel when everything had gone awry.

  “Good memory – that’s very close. It’s Razzi,” Flora answered.

  “You had a very nice funeral, by the way. Your mother was very kind; she insisted I sit with her in the family seats,” she added.

  “You went to my funeral? Thank you; that’s nice,” Kendel smirked.

  “I stayed for several days; got to know the whole family, cousins, aunts, uncles, everyone,” she told him.

  The bathroom door opened, and Megan came out, wrapped in a towel.

  “I’m sorry, so, so sorry, Ms. Greene,” she apologized profusely, humility written in her posture and expression. “I need to get my things,” she bent gracefully and picked up her underclothes off the floor.

  “Don’t worry Megan, you haven’t done anything wrong. You’ve taken care of Kendel, and that puts me in your debt. Has she done a good job, Kendel?” Flora asked.

  “She has been great. She let me try poboy sandwiches for the first time, and she got a haircut and sunglasses and all kinds of things for me. And I didn’t hear her snore once last night,” he added.

  “What about me? Do I snore?” Flora asked mischievously.

  “You know you do!” Kendel answered jocularly.

  “I’ll just get dressed and then be out of your way,” Megan tried to bow gracefully out of the conversation, but as she did, there was a knock at the door.

  “Oh, that’s the room service breakfast,” Kendel guessed.

  “Why don’t you let me get the door?” Flora suggested smoothly. “You duck in the bathroom out of sight,” she told Megan as she rose from the bed and went to the door to get the food.

  Chapter 28

  The three occupants of the room ate the breakfast together, and by the end of the meal Megan was charmed by Flora’s open and friendly personality.

  “I better go home and put on clean clothes; I really, really want to,” Megan said when the last of the food was gone. “It’s been such a pleasure meeting you this morning. Will I see you again later today?” she asked. Megan wasn’t sure if her duty watching Kendel was done, or if Flora was only a temporary visitor, although the intimacy of the two made that seem unlikely, she thought.