Encounter in Atlanta

by Ed Howdershelt

level of respect and responsibility." Some moments of walking toward the corner passed before Mandi asked, "And..?" "And what?" "That's it?" With a shrug, Cade said, "Yes'm, that's about it. I've been treating you like a beautiful woman because that's mostly what you are to me. If you need more than that -- or less than that -- you'll probably have to look elsewhere." "Mostly?" "Yeah, mostly. I'm not forgetting that you can speak other languages and fly, but at the moment you're just walking beside me and being good company. Seems to me that I should respond in kind; that is, to make every effort to be good company in return. If you wanted more, you'd probably be somewhere else with someone who'd feed your ego." With a grin, Cade added, "With the guys on the fourth floor, for instance, who'd either be waiting on you hand and foot and fawning all over you or avoiding you." Sighing, Mandi said, "That gets old fast, you know. People either weigh and measure every word they say or they babble. There's almost no middle ground." "The price of fame," said Cade, "However clandestine." "Screw fame," said Mandi. "I haven't had an intelligent conversation with anyone but John since Wednesday. Well, not until you showed up, anyway. All anyone wanted to talk about was me. Same old questions, over and over." Making a suitable sigh of pity, Cade said, "Well, I'll try not to disappoint you, milady. I won't ask where you're from, how you got here, how fast you can fly, or anything like that." Peering sharply at him, Mandi said, "Yeah, you've managed to avoid those questions so far. Why?" "Because I don't really need to know the answers. It's enough that you're on my arm and sharing time with me." Continuing to regard him askance, Mandi asked, "Or is it that you already know the answers? Did John or someone else brief you about me?" "Nope. You appeared out of nowhere today when you hopped over a car and jumped into the sky with it. A little while later I ran into you at the elevators." "So when you jumped on that guy, you just assumed -- without knowing anything else about me -- that I'd do something about the other two?" "Yup. I figured all you needed was a distraction to provide a reasonable opening. You'd just survived a major explosion, so it didn't seem likely that bullets would slow you down much, and all the guns were pointed at me at the time anyway. I'd have been real surprised if you hadn't done what you did." "Surprised?" asked Mandi. "You'd have been dead." Snapping his fingers as if just realizing that fact, Cade grinningly said, "Well, then, it's a damned good thing I guessed right, isn't it?" Mandi's face was stern as she stopped to face him and said, "You certainly put a hell of a lot of faith in that guess." "Correction; I put a hell of a lot of faith in you." "You know what I mean, Ed. What if I hadn't lived up to your expectations?" "Well, I'd have been somewhat disappointed, of course..." "I'm not joking, dammit!" Shrugging, Cade began walking again as he said, "Okay, you weren't joking. Next subject." Taking two strides to catch up, Mandy snapped, "What?" "Next subject. Next topic of discussion. The last one wasn't entertaining us, so let's talk about something else." "No! I want to know how you could just presume that I'd..." Interrupting her, Cade said, "I just did, and it's history, so let's drop it. As far as I'm concerned, you can probably do anything I can imagine; anything I ever saw in a comic book. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me at all to find out that the comics about superhumans began after someone found out about you or someone like you back in the thirties." Mandi's gaze narrowed tightly as she asked, "You really think I'm that old?" Looking her over, Cade said, "Could be. I think you'll probably look just as delicious another sixty years down the road. Or maybe a couple of hundred years. How long do superpeople live, anyway?" Pretending vast shock, Mandi rolled her eyes and softly exclaimed, "Oh, wonder of wonders!" Giving her a narrow look of his own, Cade asked, "What wonder of wonders are you referring to, ma'am?" Not bothering to contain her grin, Mandi said, "You finally asked me a real question. Did it hurt?" "Well, it didn't at the time, but I think it's beginning to. Wanna know where?" Laughing, Mandi said, "Ah... no, I can guess. I can't tell you how long I'm likely to live, Ed. I really don't know." Nodding, Cade said, "Doesn't matter. I was just curious." Lifting her hand upward to kiss it, he added, "And I hope it's a really big number."

  Chapter Eleven

  Near the end of the next block was a pub and microbrewery that had a couple of pool tables. Mandi and Cade discovered the place to be almost empty, despite large numbers of convention attendees wandering the streets. Two guys at a table near the window nodded to Mandi and Cade as they entered and approached the bar. Cade ordered a couple of beers and some quarters. Gesturing around the pub, Mandi said, "Well, Ed, you did say you wanted to get away from the crowds." As the bartender pulled a couple of glasses of beer for them, he said, "It's like this every year. The only convention that brings in less business is the Salvation Army thing." Nodding toward the window, he added, "Which just happens to be going on this week, too, of course. It's the worst week of the year for everybody but the hotels and restaurants." The reddish-colored beer cost five bucks a glass and it tasted rather bitter. Cade decided that he preferred his usual Ice House beer as he set his local brew on a table and put quarters in one of the pool tables. "Don't like it, huh?" asked Mandi, nodding at Cade's beer. "Not particularly. Too bitter. I'll break." "Oh, really? We aren't going to flip a coin?" "No, ma'am, we aren't. I've got a strong feeling that if you break, you'll run the table." Rolling a stick on the table to check it's straightness, Mandi said, "Oh, but maybe I'm not much of a pool player, sir." Watching her chalk the tip of her stick by spinning the stick and lightly buffing the contact point, Cade said, "Uh, huh. That's what all the sexy blonde hustlers say." Cade made the four on the break and made another five balls before a bad leave put the cue ball behind three of her stripes. His attempted jump shot made the seven ball, but the cue ball followed it into the pocket. Mandi grinned as she stepped up to the table. One after another she rather elegantly pocketed all of her striped balls, including one that involved a long, almost right-angle cut to reach a distant corner pocket. When only the eight ball remained, she eyed the six-inch shot and smilingly asked, "Want to concede the game?" Shaking his head, Cade said, "Nope. Work for it, lady." With a chuckle, Mandi popped the eight into the pocket. The two guys who'd been watching from a nearby table had come to stand by Cade. "Man, she flat kicked your ass," said one of them. "I think she got lucky on the fourteen," said the other guy. "Yeah?" asked Cade. "Put your quarters up. You just volunteered to be her next victim." The guy nodded and reached in his pocket, then fed the table as the other guy introduced himself as Mike and the other guy as Stan, then put his name on the chalkboard for the next game. "Hey, there's three of us here, dude," confided Mike. "One of us has to beat her." Glancing at Mandi, Cade chuckled and said, "Yeah, right." Cade put his name on the board, as well, and sat down with his beer. He enjoyed watching women shoot pool, especially women in short skirts, and Mandi had magnificent legs. Midway through her game against Stan, Mandi leaned over the table for a shot, lifting one leg slightly off the floor as she stretched. She seemed to take longer than usual about it. The shot hadn't seemed that difficult, even with the need to stretch for it. Cade glanced from her legs to the table to try to see why she was taking so long just as Mandi turned to look grinningly back at him. His gaze shifted from the table to her face. Her expression seemed to change to one of surprise for a moment, then she turned back around and popped the ball into the pocket. 'Ha,' thought Cade. 'She thought she'd catch me eyeballing her legs.' With a grinning mental shrug as he sipped his beer he added, 'She damned near did, too.' Mandi gave him an odd, studying glance as she rounded the table to take her next shot. Cade deliberately pretended to find something interesting about his beer and held it up to look at the way the light filtered through it. Mike muttered something as Mandi sank the eight, then he sighed and said, "Oh, well. It was worth the money to watch her do that, I guess." Stan laughed and got up to take his turn. During the game Mandi chanced to be standing directly i
n front of Cade as she leaned across