Leapholes (2006)

by James Grippando

  "Maybe it isn't as virtual as you think it is."

  "So you're trying to tell me that Hezekiah is lost?"

  Kaylee said, "He's definitely not lost. No one knows his way in and out of cases better than Hezekiah."

  "Did he run out of leapholes?"

  "Are you kidding?" said Kaylee. "Nobody has earned more leapholes than Hezekiah."

  "Then why can't he get back?"

  Kaylee and Jarvis exchanged glances, as if coming to a silent agreement that Kaylee should do the rest of the talking. "I don't think it's really a matter of not being able to come back. I think he's too ashamed to come back."

  "What does Hezekiah have to be ashamed of?"

  "It's like Hezekiah told you," said Kaylee. "He is about to retire. You were his chosen replacement. He selected you from millions of other kids. And you refused. He failed at the most important mission in his life, which is to preserve the future of the Society."

  "I wasn't trying to embarrass him."

  "I'm afraid you have," said Kaylee. "Now it's really up to you to show him that he didn't fail."

  "You mean I have to agree to become a Legal Eagle?"

  "At least tell him that you'll think about it," she said. "Give him enough hope to draw him back. Let him save face."

  "And then what happens?"

  "You'll restore his confidence. No one can be a Legal Eagle without self-confidence. Hezekiah has to start believing in himself again. Then he can get back through the leaphole."

  "And if I don't do it?"

  "I'm afraid he'll be trapped there forever. And I just pray that he doesn't bump into Legal Evil while he's in this weakened state."

  Ryan smiled knowingly. "Now I see where this is headed. Is this some kind of ploy that you and Hezekiah cooked up to get me to come back and join his Society of Legal Eagles?"

  "It's not a ploy," said Kaylee. "Jarvis and I didn't come here to argue with you about whether leapholes are real or virtual. All I can tell you is that this is a real emergency. Somebody has to help Hezekiah."

  "Why don't you two help him?" Ryan asked.

  "First of all, Jarvis is not a Legal Eagle."

  "You're not?" said Ryan.

  Jarvis shook his head. "I'm not even a candidate for the Society. When Hezekiah gave me the test, I failed miserably. But you passed, Ryan. That means you can use Hezekiah's leapholes and bring back Hezekiah."

  Ryan looked at Kaylee and said, "You can do it. Hezekiah said you're the newest member of the Society. Just go find him and tell him that I'm thinking about becoming a Legal Eagle."

  "He'd never believe it unless he sees you and hears the words come from your own mouth."

  "Do you actually expect me to do this by myself?" said Ryan.

  "No. Jarvis and I will go with you. We just need your help in convincing Hezekiah that he isn't a failure. That he has nothing to be ashamed of."

  Ryan thought about it. He still didn't know what to make of these leapholes, whether they were real or virtual. But the questions were starting to pile up, and he remembered what Hezekiah had told him about Legal Evil. If leapholes were real--or if there was something about them that he still didn't quite understand--he hated to think of Hezekiah stranded someplace, possibly a bad place, unable or unwilling to save himself.

  Ryan asked, "How long will this take?"

  "Not long."

  "What about my mom? She looks like she hasn't slept since the last time I left. She'll freak if I disappear again."

  "Why don't you try being honest with her?" said Kaylee. "Explain what you have to do. Trust me. After everything she went through when your father was sent to jail, she'll understand that you're doing the right thing."

  "She'll never believe it. I started to explain, and she thought I had a fever."

  "Then don't tell her," said Kaylee.

  "I have to tell her."

  "No, what I meant was, don't tell her, show her. That's what I did with my parents. Jarvis can take you and your mother to Hezekiah's office. You can show her Hezekiah's leapholes. She can decide for herself whether to let you help."

  Kaylee was making it hard to say no. Ryan said, "Let me think about it."

  "There's no time to waste. This is urgent."

  Ryan really did admire Hezekiah, and he didn't like the angry terms on which he'd left. Beyond that, perhaps this was his golden opportunity to sort out these leapholes, virtual legal environments, and the so-called magic that Hezekiah had talked about. Most intriguing of all, it might even be a chance to solve Hezekiah's riddle about Legal Evil--"Legal Evil lives where the brood follows the dam."

  The more he thought about it, the more impossible it was to refuse.

  "All right. I'll give it a try."

  "Great," said Kaylee. "Now, the first thing you have to do is convince your mother that you're ready to leave the hospital. Do it today."

  "Fine. I can't wait to get out of this place anyway."

  Jarvis handed him a business card. "As soon as you get home, dial this number. We'll set up a meeting with your mother at Hezekiah's office."

  "Okay," said Ryan.

  "Thank you," said Jarvis.

  "Yes, thanks a ton," said Kaylee. Then she and Jarvis started out of the room.

  "One more thing," said Ryan. Jarvis continued down the hall, but Kaylee stopped in the doorway. "What is it, Ryan?"

  "You know, I really was mad at you. I understand that everything you said and did was part of the test Hezekiah designed for me. But it still wasn't very nice the way you tricked me. Especially that night we spent in the dungeon, when you pretended to be so scared. The truth was, you could have gotten up and left anytime you felt like it."

  "I'm sorry, Ryan."

  Ryan wasn't sure if he should say everything that was on his mind, but he couldn't stop himself. "And it's not very nice to hold someone's hand if you don't mean it."

  "You're right about that," she said as she lowered her eyes. "But there's one thing you should know. Just because I tricked you into thinking I was scared doesn't mean--"

  A blaring announcement over the intercom--"Dr. Blanco, please report to the O. R. immediately"--completely drowned out Kaylee's words. Ryan watched her lips move. He could have sworn she said doesn 't mean I didn 9t want to hold your hand.

  "Doesn't mean what?" Ryan asked.

  She looked away, seemingly too embarrassed to repeat it. "Nothing. I'm just sorry about that whole thing, okay?"

  He was curious to know if he had read her lips correctly, but he didn't press it. He was already feeling less anger toward her. "Okay."

  She gave him a little smile and said, "I'm glad you're going to help us find Hezekiah."

  "Me, too," he said. And he truly meant it.

  Part 2

  The Brood Follows the Dam

  Chapter 19

  From a very early age, Kaylee knew she was different.

  Kaylee was just a toddler when her mother started fighting off the modeling agencies. Your daughter should be in commercials, they told her. Maybe even movies. She had perfect features. A natural beauty. Cha-ching, chaching. Her mother was smart enough to realize that the only thing those people cared about was the sound of a cash register ringing.

  Kaylee was no dummy herself. In fact, she was so intelligent, it sometimes scared people. Once, when she was a little girl, she tagged along to the doctor's office for her mom's annual checkup. Her mom sat on the examination table. She was so pretty, looking exactly like the woman Kaylee dreamed of becoming. Kaylee watched intently as the nurse rolled up her mother's sleeve and checked her blood pressure.

  "Very good," said the nurse, reading from the gauge. "One-twenty over eighty."

  "One and a half," Kaylee volunteered.

  "One and a half what?" her mother asked.

  "One-twenty over eighty. That equals one and a half."

  The nurse looked up from her chart and almost dropped her pen. "How old is that child?"

  "Six," said her mother. "Well, almost six."r />
  The look on that nurse's face was unforgettable. Over and over, throughout her childhood, Kaylee would see that same spooked expression. Hearing the amazing things that came out of her mouth, adults would guess that she was just small for her age. "You're special," her mother would tell her. She always made Kaylee feel that way.

  It had taken Kaylee's mother a while, but finally she warmed up to Hezekiah and his leapholes. Some parents would freak out if an eccentric old man told them that their daughter has what it takes to become a Legal Eagle. Kaylee, however, had been pursued all her life, whether it was the modeling agencies or top private schools. Her mother checked out Hezekiah carefully. Eventually, she came to see him as a private tutor of sorts, though her affections ran much deeper than that. He was like family to her, and she adored him like a grandfather. It was difficult for her to accept the fact that Hezekiah was gone.

  Naturally, her heart fluttered when Jarvis called her with the good news.

  "Ryan and his mother are driving to Hezekiah's office right now," he said into the telephone.

  "Awesome!" said Kaylee. She was speaking from her bedroom on an encrypted satellite telephone that the Society had given her. Secrecy was at the core of the Society. "What time are you meeting them?"

  "Three o'clock."

  "Do you want me and my mother to come over? Maybe it would put Dr. Coolidge more at ease if she met my mother."

  "It's best if I handle the first meeting by myself."

  "Why?"

  "Because we can't trust Ryan or his mother yet. Your membership in the Society is secret. I can't run the risk of exposing your identity until I know more about Dr. Coolidge. You and I will be dead meat if she shows up on the nightly news talking about the secret Society of Legal Eagles."

  Kaylee fretted for a moment. She didn't like leaving this in the hands of Jarvis, but he had a valid point. "All right. As soon as you develop a level of trust, call me. It will be easier to convince Ryan's mother to let him go looking for Hezekiah if my mother is there to reassure her."

  "No problem."

  "Oh, and just a reminder: Don't even think about taking Ryan by yourself to search for Hezekiah without me. That would be way too dangerous. You're not a Legal Eagle. Ryan may have what it takes to be one, but he doesn't fully understand leapholes yet."

  "Yes, I'm fully aware that I'm not a Legal Eagle, that you are, and that Ryan probably will be. Is there anything else you'd like to rub my nose in?" He sounded quite annoyed.

  "Sorry," said Kaylee. "I wasn't trying to put you down. I just want to make sure that this is done right and that we get Hezekiah back."

  "Then we're all on the same team."

  "Good. Don't forget to call me."

  "I won't."

  She said goodbye and hung up. But the tone of his "I won yt" made her wonder. Did he mean I won't forget?

  Or did he mean I won 7 call?

  Chapter 20

  Ryan's mother was no fool. No one knew that better than Ryan.

  Sharon Coolidge had graduated at the top of her medical school class. She did her residency (a form of training for doctors after med school) at the most prestigious children's hospital in the country. She was a respected pediatrician. As Ryan had learned at a very early age, it was extremely difficult for a child to pull the wool over the eyes of a pediatrician. His friends could often skip school by faking illness in the morning. Not Ryan. One time he held the thermometer over the light bulb so that it would register a phoney fever. This same kind of stunt worked every time for his friend Sweaty Colletti. Ryan's mother just looked at the thermometer and said, "Either someone put a match to this thing, or you died twenty minutes ago."

  No, it wasn't easy for Ryan to fool his mother. So, as he stood in Hezekiah's law office, listening to Jarvis talk, he had a sinking feeling. He knew that his mother wouldn't easily buy into the notion of lawyers who could make law books come to life.

  "Leapholes, huh?" she said with a hefty dose of skepticism.

  "Yes ma'am," said Jarvis. "That's what we call them."

  "It's not really magic, Mom," said Ryan. "It's computerized. They're called Virtual Legal Environments."

  "Is that so?" she said.

  She didn't seem persuaded. Ryan was beginning to wish he had explained more to her during the car ride. He had gone missing almost three full days to take Hezekiah's test. Both Ryan's hospital physician and his mother were convinced that Ryan's accident had caused temporary amnesia. Their theory was that Ryan had walked around aimlessly for three days before someone finally brought him to the hospital. Had Ryan tried to tell her about leapholes and magician-like lawyers, she probably would have readmitted him to the hospital--maybe even the psychiatric ward. So he decided to let Jarvis do most of the explaining. Perhaps that was a mistake.

  Ryan said, "Jarvis, why don't you take my mom to Hezekiah's library?"

  "Good idea. Come right this way, Doctor."

  Ryan was eager to see if Hezekiah's personal library was as impressive as the one in the old fort where they'd first met. It wasn't. The prison library had clearly been designed to impress Ryan. This one had just as many books, but they were scattered everywhere. Piles and piles of books stood in random stacks around the room. Some of the stacks were taller than Dr. Coolidge. It was as if Hezekiah had long ago given up hope of building enough bookcases to shelve all his books. Ryan couldn't imagine how anyone could find what he was looking for in this mess, which only confirmed his continuing belief that the key to Hezekiah's leapholes was the computer, not the books.

  "This is where Hezekiah does his research," said Jarvis.

  Dr. Coolidge walked several paces, then stopped. The look of disapproval on her face was all too familiar to Ryan. It was usually accompanied by the words You call this room clean, young man?

  "Show her one of the VLE helmets," said Ryan.

  "Sure." Jarvis went to the closet and rummaged through it. He returned with a black helmet with a visor, which he placed on the table.

  Ryan said, "That's exactly like the one I wore, Mom. It was the most amazing thing. I put on that helmet, and suddenly Hezekiah and I were racing on thoroughbreds, playing baseball in Wrigley Field, and riding on a bus through Alabama. We even went on a ship that was hit by an iceberg!"

  His mother looked at him with concern. "You poor dear."

  "No, it's true, Mom. All I had to do was put on this helmet."

  "Ryan, I'm sure you think this happened, but--"

  "It did happen. Just watch. Jarvis will show you."

  Her expression said it all. It was bad enough to think of her son wandering around lost for three days. But his mother seemed even more distressed by the possibility that Ryan may actually have been cooped up with the likes of Hezekiah (who was nowhere to be found) and his flat-faced sidekick.

  "If it really happened," she said, "then exactly where is this Hezekiah?"

  "That's why we need Ryan's help," said Jarvis. "He disappeared."

  "Where did he go?" she asked.

  Jarvis shrugged. "I don't know, exactly. But I have a pretty good idea."

  "You do?" said Ryan.

  "Yeah. Follow me."

  They zigzagged through several towering piles of law books. Jarvis took them to a small study area behind an overloaded bookcase. There was only one chair at the rectangular oak table. It was empty. The tabletop was clear, except for a single law book. It lay open.

  "This is where he was working when he disappeared," said Jarvis.

  Ryan stepped forward and took a closer look. "Eighteen-fifty-seven," he said, reading the date from the case caption. "That's an old case."

  "It's not the age that concerns me," said Jarvis. "It's the time period. Eighteen-fifty-seven was one of the darkest years in American legal history. It was near the height of legal conflict over slavery--before that conflict turned into the Civil War. If Hezekiah went there, he could be in some real trouble."

  "Why would he go there?" said Ryan.

  "No," his moth
er said sternly. "The better question is how would he go there. I am just about fed up with this nonsense, Ryan."

  Jarvis didn't say a word. He simply reached under the oak table, lifted a large jar from the floor, and placed it on the table. "That's how," he said.

  "What's that?" she asked.

  "Leapholes," said Ryan. "I'm not exactly sure what they are, Mom. But there is something about them that creates the virtual legal environment."

  "Right," said Jarvis, smirking. "For people who insist that this is nothing more than an ultra-hi-tech computer, that's what leapholes are. Keys to virtual legal environments."

  "Are you suggesting that they're something else?" said Dr. Coolidge.

  Jarvis paused, seeming to choose his words carefully. "I'm not the best person to explain it to you, ma'am. All I can tell you is what I think, which is this: I think the best lawyer I've ever known used one of these leapholes to bring himself face-to-face with Legal Evil."

  Ryan glanced at the open book on the table. A chill came over him.4 Are you saying that's where Legal Evil lives? That's where the brood follows the dam?"

  Jarvis gave a solemn nod.

  "But why would he go there on his own?" said Ryan.

  "Because you shamed him. He invited you to be a Legal Eagle, and you rejected him. The only way he can save face is to take on Legal Evil himself."

  "Can he do that?"

  Jarvis shook his head. "He's too old, Ryan. Way past his prime. He'll be slaughtered."

  "What will happen to him then?"

  Jarvis lowered his head, as if he couldn't bring himself to say it.

  Ryan's mother could hold her tongue no longer. "What in the world are you two talking about? I'm no computer genius, but nobody disappears into a virtual environment."

  "That's what I told him," said Ryan.

  "Good for you," she said. "I'm glad you haven't completely lost your marbles. And as for you, Jarvis: What have you and this Hezekiah character been doing with my son for the past three days?"

  "We haven't done anything," said Jarvis.

  "Maybe you should tell that to the police." She took her cell phone from her purse and punched out the number.