“Got to go for now, be back in a couple hours.” He leaned down and kissed his mom and left.
“You sure are full of surprises, Chaco,” said Maria. “Is there anything else that I should know?”
“I don’t think so. Does Franco still have to leave?”
“He’s leaving at the end of the week. He’ll be at Fort Bragg for another month before he leaves for Afghanistan again.” Tears came to her eyes.
Chaco came over and sat down beside her. “It’ll be alright, I’ll be here to help.”
“I know you will Chaco. You’ve been a godsend to our family.”
Chapter 40
Later that afternoon Franco came back from wherever he had been and took Chaco down to the park. As they walked Franco told Chaco what he had been doing.
“I just watched a tape of the speech you gave at Harvard and what you did the next day when you hid from the news media in what you called dead space. Was that for real? Is there really dead space and can you hide in it without anyone finding you?”
“It’s real. I seem to be able to locate it.”
“Could you teach me about it and how to find it?”
“I’ll try. Why do you want to know about it?”
“I might be able to use it when I’m in Afghanistan. Is there any dead space in the park?”
“Probably not. Usually I find it near solid objects like walls. Let’s wander over there near those buildings.”
For two hours they wandered through the streets with no luck. Franco wouldn’t say it but he was starting to question if dead space really existed. They stopped outside a Citibank and happened to glance through the window into the lobby of the bank.
“I think I see what might be dead space over on the far side of the room near those cabinets. Can you see how the light looks a little strange, Franco?”
“I don’t see anything Chaco. We can’t go in there anyway. They’ll think we are casing the joint.”
“Casing, what do you mean?”
“I mean looking to rob the bank. They have cameras all over the place and would be on us pronto if we were acting suspicious. You’ll have to find another place.”
They turned back toward home and were only a block away when Chaco grabbed Franco’s arm and said, “I think I found it. Just wait a second until those guys over there leave.” Minutes later they crossed the street and went down an alleyway about ten feet.
When they got closer Chaco said, “It’s dead space. Tell you what, let’s have some fun. Turn your back.” Franco hesitantly turned. “Now count to fifteen out loud slowly and then turn back and try to find me. I’ll be hiding right at the wall directly behind you. Okay, start counting.”
“One, two, three…..”
Chaco went straight to the wall, looked for just a second and saw the shadowed edge of the dead space. He heard Franco say ten. Chaco squeezed into the space and disappeared.
“Fifteen,” said Franco turning around.
Chaco was gone. Franco walked to the wall and looked around. He looked up and down the alley. There was nowhere for Chaco to hide. His eyes came back to the wall where Chaco had been. He took his hand and ran it across the wall. There was nothing out of the ordinary. He tried it again and still nothing.
He stepped back from the wall and said, “Okay Chaco, you’ve played a trick on me. Now come out and let’s go home.”
Franco waited for him to come running down the alley but Chaco didn’t appear. He looked back toward the wall and then he saw it. There was a haze through which appeared Chaco’s face in the brick wall. Franco jumped back, shocked from what he saw. He moved closer and then he saw Chaco again. Franco ran his hand across Chaco’s face in the wall.
“It’s got to be a trick. Come on out and show me how you do it.” Franco stood staring at the wall when magically a leg appeared out of the wall and then the rest of Chaco’s body.
His mind couldn’t believe what his eyes were seeing. “It’s not a trick?”
“It’s for real, Franco. Climb in there and see what it is like.”
“Where? I don’t see anything different.”
Chaco pointed to the shadowed entry way.
“I can’t see it Chaco. I just can’t see it. Show me how to get into it.”
Chaco took Franco’s hand and reached it through the shadow. Franco resisted as he saw his hand disappear.
“Now it is sort of tight getting into. I don’t move around much in there. I am always concerned that I won’t be able to find my way out. So, stay close to the entrance for now.”
Franco squeezed into the small opening and then was gone. Chaco could see him when he came near the exterior membrane of the dead space and then he would pull back and was gone.
A few minutes later Chaco put his head near the dead space and called to Franco. “Come on out, Franco.”
Chaco heard him holler back. “I can’t find the opening.”
Chaco squeezed part way in and took Franco’s hand and led him back out.
“That was a little scary. I wasn’t sure if I would ever get out. Show me how to find this dead space again.”
Chaco showed him again and again but Franco couldn’t see it.
“Chaco, I think you may be the only one able to see it. I have great eyes and I can’t even pick up the slightest differences in light that you are talking about.” He tried once more to find the dead space but couldn’t. “Let’s go home and we’ll try again tomorrow.” Then he said, “Chaco, if I could figure this out, it might save my life and several of my friends in Afghanistan. Hopefully you can teach me.”
As they walked home Franco told Chaco that he had heard they were still looking for him back in Boston. He was considered a missing person. He wasn’t in trouble but would need to be very careful when he was out in the public so that people didn’t recognize him.
They went home and Maria cut Chaco’s dark black hair.
Chapter 41
For the next two days Chaco and Franco roamed the city looking for any more areas of dead space. They only found two and Franco was unable to see either one. It appeared that Chaco was the only one who could find these things.
“It’s no good, Chaco. I can’t find them. It just won’t help me in Afghanistan. Come on, a bunch of the guys are meeting at O’Leary’s Bar on Broadway at one.”
“Uhh Franco, I’m not old enough to go into a bar.”
“Don’t worry. Nobody ever checks ID anyway.”
As they entered the bar Franco saw several of his friends on the other side of the room. Chaco had a coke and Franco had a beer. The other three men at the table were about Franco’s age and just as big. Chaco looked like a midget next to them.
A couple of guys at the bar noticed them and came walking over.
“Mora na maiden dhuit, Franco.”
“Well, top of the morning to you, Sean, and to you Patrick.”
They were a couple of the Irish locals and Franco had become friends with them. They all shared a beer together and the tales of Ireland and leprechauns were in the air. Chaco couldn’t get enough of it. Their sayings and songs intrigued him beyond belief and he was disappointed when they had to leave.
“Dia dhuit,” Franco called out to them across the room.
“And God be with you, and your fellow soldiers,” Patrick responded as they walked out the door.
A short time later several drunken sailors, who must have been out all night, entered the bar and sat on the other side of the room. It wasn’t long before the army rangers and the sailors were throwing insults at each other. Nothing seemed to be getting out of hand though and pretty soon the sailors left. Not long afterward the rangers left as well. They were walking down a back alleyway cutting through to a main street when out behind a couple dumpsters appeared the sailors again. There were seven of them in all.
“What’s the squirt doing with you tough guys?”
Franco smiled. Chaco didn’t care if they called him a squirt. Compared to these guys he was a sq
uirt.
The conversations between the two groups heated up and before long both sides were ready to rumble.
“Chaco, get out of here. I don’t want you hurt.”
Chaco didn’t quite know what to do when one of the drunken sailors tried to push him. He grabbed the man’s wrist and effortlessly forced him to his knees and with a quick kick to the chest disabled the sailor. The others sailors were shocked and definitely surprised. The squirt had just taken down their best fighter in seconds. They picked up their fallen comrade and stumbled away down the alley.
The rangers wouldn’t have needed help anyway. They weren’t drunk and could have easily taken care of themselves.
“Wow, where in the world did you learn that move?” asked one of Franco’s friends.
“I’m not sure. I must have picked it up somewhere.”
“Let’s go over to the gym, Franco, and test the kid out. I think we could learn something from him.” Nobody was in disagreement with that and off they went.
Two hours later Chaco had shown the rangers that he could easily take care of himself. What amazed them most was when he had a weapon such as a club in his hands. There was no stopping him. He seemed to sense his opponent’s moves and invariably brought them to their knees. Even bare handed Chaco could defend himself. He was so strong in his arms and hands that any attacker had little chance.
When Franco’s friends left to head home and were about twenty yards away, Chaco called out to them and said, “Dia dhuit.”
One of Franco’s friends called back, “God be with you.”
“You pick the language up real well.”
“Yeah, for some reason I can remember different languages easily.”
While they walked home Franco told Chaco that he felt so much better knowing that he was there to take care of his family. “When I get back from my tour in Afghanistan, I’m getting out of the service and then I’ll be able to help out Mama. I sure hope Eduardo is okay. You’d like him. He’s a great guy.”
Chapter 42
Franco left a few days later for Fort Bragg. He would be there a month before leaving for Afghanistan. Chaco continued working at the restaurant with Maria with everything going smoothly for another week until Maria fell at work and broke her leg in two places. The household was already living paycheck to paycheck and with Maria unable to work they couldn’t even make the rent payment. From her bedside Maria pleaded with the landlord to give her a few months reprieve on the rent. He wouldn’t even consider it. She called several different state and federal agencies asking for help. Either she didn’t qualify or it would take too long to get any help. She would have asked Franco for help but he was already giving her almost half of his paycheck as it was and she refused to ask him for more.
Chaco kept working at the restaurant but made next to nothing and gave almost all of it to Maria. If he was back in Lima or even out in San Diego he could find some gold to help her out, but he was only dreaming. He was in New York and she needed money by the end of the week or the family would lose their home.
When Chaco wasn’t working he would wander the streets always trying to think of how to get some money. He tried to get other jobs but his visa was only good for another forty-five days. There was no way they would hire him. A few nights he was able to work late at the Salvadorian restaurant cleaning up but only made a few extra dollars.
It was Sunday morning and his only day off as he walked down Broadway looking into the windows of the beautiful stores. He couldn’t imagine that there was so much stuff to buy. He continued to wander until he found himself outside of Citibank. He looked through the window into the lobby and saw the high pillars rising majestically to the ceiling throughout the room and then he saw it…..dead space.
Yow, that’s right. I saw this before with Franco.
He kept his eyes glued to the spot. It was ninety or a hundred feet away he figured and it was hard to pick up the light inflection through the window. He kept staring until he was positive it was there.
“What are you looking at?” a policeman asked as he nudged Chaco with his night stick. “Are you casing the place?”
Chaco remembered what casing meant and responded, “No, I was just looking at those big pillars in the room.”
The policeman put his face to the glass. “They are large,” he acknowledged. “Now keep on moving. I don’t want to see you hanging around here.”
“Yes, sir,” Chaco said and hurried away. I’ve got it and I know what I’ll do, he thought, as he hurried back home to help Maria.
The next morning he hurried to the bank. He wanted to check it out before he went to work at noon. He was there when the doors opened. Chaco stayed on the street for another half hour waiting for more people to show up before he entered. It was a gigantic room with a lot of activity going on. He knew that he stood out like a sore thumb so he hurried about the room and quickly found where he thought the dead space was located. Without being obvious, he examined the area and confirmed that it was dead space and that he could slip into it behind the desk if he only had a moment.
His mind was running through all of the options when one of the bank guards stepped in front of him.
“Can I help you young man?”
“No thank you, sir, I was just looking.”
“Well, if you don’t have any business here, I’ll have to ask you to leave.”
“Yes sir, I’ll leave.”
The guard escorted him to the front door.
Now what? That guard will be all over me if I go back in there.
Chaco sat on a park bench just across the street from the bank and hoped an idea would come to him and it did. A good sized stray dog was running around the park and appeared to be lost. He watched the dog for a few minutes and then called out to him. He held his hand out with a piece of the sandwich that he was taking to work. The dog came immediately. He gave him some more bites and then led the dog around the park giving him a bite every once in a while. When the opportunity arose he crossed the street with the dog following and joined a group of people entering the bank.
“Hey, that dog can’t come in here,” the guard hollered out as he rushed toward the dog. The dog saw him coming and immediately made a dash for it. The whole bank came alive with people trying to catch him.
Chaco faded away into the dead space behind the desk and disappeared.
The dog was eventually shooed out the front door.
***
Maria answered the phone and was shocked to hear that Chaco had not shown up for work. She immediately became worried and not for a second did she consider that he had skipped work. He just wasn’t that kind of kid. Every time the phone rang the rest of the day her heart would skip a beat. She had lovingly grown attached to Chaco.
Chapter 43
Chaco sat in the dead space for the rest of the day. He had a little bit of his sandwich left, but that was it. He thought the bank would never close. He could hear people talking around him and several times moved close to the exterior of the dead space so he could see what was going on. Once he saw someone in line give a second look toward where he was hiding. He quickly stepped back and they turned away. The day dragged on for what seemed like an eternity. Finally, the bank doors closed. After a couple hours the last employees left and he was alone.
Chaco remembered what Franco had said about the cameras and was deeply concerned. Before leaving his hiding place he pulled his shirt over his head from the back hiding his face. His arms were still through the arm holes and it was pretty uncomfortable, but his face was concealed.
Chaco hadn’t wasted his time while hiding all day. He believed that he had discovered all of the hidden cameras. As far as he could tell there wasn’t a camera pointed toward where he was hiding. He crawled out and followed the wall toward the vault.
He hadn’t moved twenty feet when the alarm went off. It wasn’t just any alarm either, Chaco just about jumped out of his shorts it was so loud. He was confused briefly and then hu
rried back along the wall to his hiding place. He stopped at the desk near his hiding place and pulled on the bottom drawer. It was locked but Chaco effortlessly took a letter opener and pried the drawer open. He had watched the guy eating and drinking all day and Chaco found all sorts of goodies and water in the drawer. Then he heard sirens outside and saw lights near the front door. He grabbed all he could carry and slipped back into the dead space. He didn’t notice that he dropped a bag of cookies.
The front door swung open and several armed policemen came rushing in. Chaco hid further back in the dead space. One of the policemen came over near where he was hiding and saw the cookies on the floor. He looked carefully around the area and examined the slight damage to the bottom drawer of the desk. Another cop came over and looked but they decided it wasn’t anything to be concerned about.
Chaco inched closer to the exterior of the dead space so he could see what was going on. He saw the cookies on the desk and watched the policemen move about the room. He kept looking at those cookies and thinking how good they would taste.
The bank manager showed up at the front door and was let in. He immediately went to a side room and opened the door. Chaco could see a TV screen in there. A couple of policemen and the manager looked like they were replaying the tapes from the last hour.
Chaco couldn’t wait any longer. He bided his time until the policeman who was standing ten feet away turned his back and in a split instant slipped part way out of the dead space, grabbed the cookies, and slid right back out of sight. As he had slid the cookie bag across the table it had caught the edge of the letter opener which caused it to spin across the table. It went around once, twice, and the third time fell to the floor making quite a noise in the silent room.
All eyes wheeled toward the noise and guns were being drawn in the same instant. All this was going on as Chaco’s foot disappeared from view. The nearest policeman thought he saw something move behind the desk and with gun drawn, carefully approached. The rest of the police surrounded the desk in seconds.
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