The Only Human

by Rick Mofina

  “If they’re not in jail then where are they?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Could it be related to the fire at Professor Blair’s building?”

  “I don’t know, Ty.”

  Looking at the goggles in his hands, he couldn’t believe that the nightmarish images he’d seen through them at the fire were real.

  “What I saw last night was hideous. To think those things might be linked to what’s happened to my parents scares me to death.”

  “I know. I’m scared, too, real scared.”

  “So what do I do?”

  “We keep going and we find out what this really means,” she touched the goggles and the notebook. “It’s the only way to help your parents.”

  “It’s not going to be easy, but I’ll do it. I have to,” Ty said.

  “Good,” Ella closed the notebook. “I still can’t figure out exactly what his notes say. We need to go back to the professor’s neighbors for help.”

  Twenty minutes later Ty and Ella were at the Times Square – 42nd Street station where they got on a Number 1 train for the Cathedral Parkway – 110th Street station.

  After a couple of stops along the way, Ella picked up a discarded copy of the New York Daily News. She flipped through it and stopped at the headline: Tourists Still ‘Missing’ Families Allege Cover-up In Vanishing Tour Bus Mystery.

  Confusion continues swirling around the mystery bus tour.

  Company officials insist the bus – which had originally set off for a scheduled two-hour tour of Manhattan – went to Vermont in error and that passengers are en route back to New York City.

  “That’s not true,” the son of a missing retired couple from Albany said. “No one has been able to reach any of the passengers. It’s as if they disappeared from the face of the earth …

  Ella and Ty exchanged glances, then read smaller stories on the same page. The first was headlined: Gas Main Break Disrupts Brooklyn – Hundreds Evacuated

  A gas main break forced the evacuation of hundreds of people from several buildings in Brooklyn.

  Several city buses were used to transport residents to safety …

  They went on to read the next story headlined: Fire Rips Through Morningside Heights Apartment Building

  A three-alarm inferno destroyed a 14-story apartment complex on 108th Street West and Amsterdam Avenue last night.

  Upwards of 100 residents, left homeless by the blaze, were transported in city buses to the Columbus Avenue Community Hall nearby.

  Cause of the fire is under investigation …

  “That’s the fire from last night,” Ella said.

  “That’s definitely it.”

  “Weird. It seems that lately more people are getting evacuated and taken away on buses.” Ella said as their train reached their station.

  The Columbus Avenue Community Hall was a large brick building. An unshaven man sat at the service window of the office by a computer. He smacked the counter with a fly swatter when Ella and Ty stepped up to it.

  “Hi,” Ty said. “We’re here to see Agnes Crane.”

  “Who?” he flicked a dead fly away.

  “Agnes Crane, she came to the hall with the tenants from the fire last night on a Hundred and Eighth Street.”

  “What?”

  “City buses brought about sixty people here last night after their building burned down,” Ty said.

  “Naw.”

  “But we heard them say that last night at the fire. It was a paramedic, or firefighter or police officer, I forget. But we heard him say they were taking the people here, to the Columbus Avenue Community Hall.”

  “Naw, don’t think so.” The man’s keyboard started clacking as he checked, then shook his head. “Naw. I heard about a fire, but ain’t nobody brought nobody here.” The man grunted and smacked the counter with the swatter. “Try the firehouse, forty-seven.” He wrote the address on a card.

  On the way, Ty and Ella stopped at the smoldering rubble that was once Professor Blair’s home. The area was sealed off and the work crews tending to it didn’t know where the residents were taken.

  Ty turned to look at the huge cathedral in the distance where, through the goggles, he swore he’d seen some Gothic beast worming its way up one of the towers. For a moment he considered putting on the goggles, walking a few blocks, and examining the church up close.

  Was it real or an illusion created by the goggles and the fire?

  Ty grew uneasy at the idea of pursuing the mirage.

  “Are you okay?” Ella asked him. “What is it?”

  “Nothing, let’s go.”

  They continued to the firehouse.

  Engine 47 was on 113th Street. Firefighters there were washing their trucks. They knew nothing about the residents but they were friendly and made some calls to Engine 76, which also responded to the fire. They also called the police precinct nearby.

  “No luck,” a firefighter told them. “Best we got is for you to try the Center on Amsterdam Avenue. Who knows, maybe signals got crossed and they took them there.”

  At the Center on Amsterdam Avenue the lady in the office said her group had not received any victims of the fire. But she invited Ty and Ella into her office, gave them juice and cookies while she made calls to the city, the Red Cross and other local support groups.

  “I’m so sorry.” She put her phone down after her last call. “Apparently, no one has any record of where those poor tenants were taken. Bureaucratic red tape, I guess.”

  No, it was more than that, Ty and Ella thought as they stepped back into the street. Without speaking, they watched the traffic and people of Morningside Heights going about their business. On the surface there was nothing to signal that something strange and troubling was quietly unfolding across New York City.

  “Ella,” Ty’s voice wavered a little, “what’s going on, here?”

  “It’s creeping me out, too,” she said. “First Professor Blair dies, then his building burns down and the people disappear.”

  “Like the tourists on that sight-seeing bus.”

  “Like your mom and dad, Ty.”

  He looked at her and swallowed hard.

  The sky darkened as thick clouds began bubbling above them. At a loss for what to do next, or where to go for help, they looked up and down the street. They were as helpless in their predicament as they were against the coming storm.

  As the first drops fell, Ella’s eyes narrowed and she focused her attention across the street.

  “I think I see something that could help us,” she said.

  Ty followed her gaze to a sign that read:

  Madame Petrovka

  Psychic Reader - Tarot Card Reader - Palmistry

  No Appointment Needed $25

  9

  The entrance to Madame Petrovka’s storefront was several worn steps below street level.

  Ty and Ella were greeted with the fragrance of potpourri when they entered the small front room. The loud rumbling and hiss of the rainstorm told them that they’d arrived just in time.

  In the dim light they saw a round table and chairs centered in the room, a sofa was off to one side. Shelves with books on astrology, and a glass display case with candles, crystals and jewels stood across the room.

  Murmuring floated from a corner where a woman, hearing the wooden floor creak, ended a subdued telephone conversation. Bent with age, she leaned on her cane and turned to them. She wore a dark wrap-around dress, a gold necklace, thick glasses and a dark bandana.

  “Yes?” she asked.

  “Are you Madame,” Ty pronounced the name slowly, “Paw-trove-kah?”

  The woman raised her chin regally.

  “That is me,” she said with a heavy European accent.

  Ty and Ella had decided before entering that although their situation was dire, they’d reveal little, to ensure this psychic lady was the real deal. They were aware that some fortune tellers could be scam artists.

  “I need you to tell my fortu
ne.”

  Ty held out a twenty and a five from his emergency cab money.

  The woman’s lips tightened into either a smile or snarl on her wrinkled face and she shook her head.

  “But your sign said no appointment and here’s twenty-five dollars.”

  “You are maybe thirteen years old?” the woman said.

  Ty nodded.

  “I don’t read children. I have my rules. You have played your little game, so now you may go.”

  “No, please. It’s important.”

  “Why you children are not in school now? You do something bad, maybe?”

  “I’m begging you to help me.”

  Madame Petrovka’s expression shifted between curiosity and concern. She took a long moment to give Ty a thorough appraisal and made a decision. Then she repositioned her stance, hooked her cane on the chair back, stepped closer and extended her palms to him.

  “You will give me your hands in mine.”

  Ty first offered the money but Madame Petrovka shook her head.

  “No money. Your hands.”

  He tucked the cash in his pocket and placed his palms atop Madame Petrovka’s. Her cool, smooth fingers gripped his hands softly and she closed her eyes for several long seconds. Suddenly they flashed open with worry and all the color drained from her face.

  “A troubling energy surrounds you,” she said. “Sit at my table, now.”

  Ty and Ella sat.

  Madame Petrovka closed her window curtains, switched off the lights and lit a candle. She gave Ty a deck of tarot cards, instructing him to shuffle them and spread them on the felt-covered table in a cross pattern. Then she told him to flip several over in a specific order.

  Madame Petrovka drew her face close to the cards and studied them.

  “I’m getting strong energy and images. Ah, you are mortally afraid of high places, correct?”

  “Yes, I have acrophobia. I couldn’t go on the school trip to the Empire State Building. Dr. Green tried to help me with it.”

  “And you fear snakes.”

  “Yes.”

  “There is belief they symbolize evil, Satan in the Garden of Eden tempting Eve.”

  “I don’t know about that. I just don’t like them.”

  She looked at other cards.

  “You had your family life disrupted in the last year. It was painful.”

  Ty thought of his parents’ divorce and nodded.

  “I see you at that time at an upper window,” she said. “You are watching your father load his car with suitcases.”

  Ty blinked several times as she continued.

  “Your father is going away, leaving in a bad way.”

  She had taken Ty back to the day his parents first separated.

  “Your heart is broken,” she said. “Your world is being destroyed. You begged your father to stay. You begged your mother to stop him, but she is overcome. I see you running to your father. You run into the street and you throw your arms around him. You beg him to stay. He holds you tight, but he must go.”

  Ella looked at Ty.

  The tears rolling down his face glistened in the candle light. Ella reached out to touch his arm but Madame Petrovka stopped her.

  “No, do not disturb the energy.”

  The candle’s flame flickered in Madame Petrovka’s glasses and one of her gold fillings glinted as she gritted her teeth in concentration.

  “Death is near you, stalking you,” she said.

  Ty said nothing.

  “Someone who’d been close to you, but yet a stranger, died very recently and this event is a factor in your future. Do not ignore it.”

  Outside the thunder rumbled. Madame Petrovka closed her eyes and raised her head to the ceiling.

  “Two people who you love are in danger.”

  That would be Ty’s parents. Not wanting to believe it, he nearly rose from his chair.

  “Sit! And stay calm so the energy can flow.”

  “Will my parents be okay?”

  “Time will tell.”

  Madame Petrovka directed Ty to turn over more cards. Again she lowered her face to study them.

  “You’ve been given a very serious task.”

  “Why me?”

  “It arises from an ancient action, perhaps by an ancestor. The cards do not tell me what that action was. But you must overcome your fears, defeat your enemies and carry out this task. You must not fail because much depends on you.”

  “What am I supposed to do? I’m just a kid. How can I do this thing if I don’t know what it is?”

  “Have patience, all will be revealed.”

  “When?”

  “In time, but as your fate unfolds you must also demonstrate your fortitude. Patience and fortitude will lead you to victory.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “Turn over these cards,” Madame Petrovka pointed to three.

  Ty turned them and she examined them.

  “You must go to a place of enlightenment for more answers.”

  “What’s that?”

  She shook her head.

  “It is not clear from my reading. It will be for you to determine and locate the place of enlightenment. Be warned: the cards tell me that there are powerful, ancient forces that want to stop you. Some will be clear but be careful, some will be disguised.”

  “Disguised? How?”

  “They are not what they appear to be. They may transform their being so that their true identities may be hidden.”

  Ty swallowed hard and glanced at Ella. They were now convinced that Madame Petrovka was genuine. Ty reached into his backpack and put the goggles on the table.

  “Can you tell me what these are for, exactly?” Ty asked.

  Madame Petrovka stuck out her bottom lip as she picked up the goggles, looked at them closely and then the cards.

  “They are a tool to help you carry out your task.”

  “I have seen ugly things through them.”

  Ty reached into his pocket and unfolded his sketches of the creatures he’d seen at the fire and on the big church. The page crinkled as Madame Petrovka smoothed it out to study the images. Ty also gave Madame Petrovka Professor Blair’s notebook.

  “I got this from the same stranger who gave me the goggles. We don’t understand the notes or what they mean.”

  Madame Petrovka took her time, slowly paging through the notes.

  “I do not understand their significance but here,” a long gnarled finger stopped on a page with a sketch and notes. “This is similar to your drawings, see.” She touched the note showing what looked like part of an ornate church archway and tower.

  “What is it?”

  “This is the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine. It’s not far from here on Amsterdam Avenue. It is one of the largest and most beautiful churches in the world.”

  “But what’s the link to me, the task, and the things I saw last night?”

  Madame Petrovka took a moment to collect her thoughts.

  “There is a long history concerning the construction of the cathedral which has given rise to legends and myths about it.”

  “What kind of legends?”

  “Some say the foretelling of the end of days is found in the sculptures and carvings that adorn it. This would arise from St. John, who wrote the Book of Revelation in the bible.”

  Ella and Ty looked at each other.

  “You mean, like the apocalypse, the end of the world?” Ella asked.

  “Yes. Therefore my advice to you is to go there and use these,” she touched the goggles and notebook, “and search for the signs to point you to a place of enlightenment, but remember …”

  Madame Petrovka removed her glasses.

  “There are forces that want to stop you and time is running out.”

  10

  The rain had stopped.

  Ty and Ella hurried along the dampened sidewalks of Amsterdam Avenue.

  “How could Madame Petrovka know so much about me? I never, eve
r met her, but she knew all these private details about my life.”

  “It’s scary. There are things going on in the universe we can’t understand,” Ella said. “I wanted to ask her about my mother.”

  Ty stopped and looked at her.

  “Do you want to go back?”

  “No, Ty, thanks, maybe another time.” Ella indicated the gothic structure looming down the street. “We’d better hurry.”

  The closer they got, the faster they walked until the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine ascended before them in medieval magnificence, rising more than a dozen stories into the sky.

  “Have you ever been to this place, Ty?”

  “Nope, you?”

  “No. Guess we’re like most people who live here and never visit the Statue of Liberty or Empire State Building.”

  “I guess,” Ty said looking up.

  The immense size of the building was breathtaking. It was big enough to hold the Statue of Liberty. They joined the sprinkling of tourists taking in the imposing towers, the facades, the sweeping archways and great stained-glass windows. Then Ty and Ella got to work searching for answers or signs in the elaborate inlaid stone carvings and sculptures. As they moved around the cathedral’s exterior, Ella’s focus see-sawed between the carvings and Professor Blair’s notebook.

  Ty put on the goggles to use the binocular feature to zoom in to details.

  “Look at that one!” he said from behind his goggles.

  Ella looked at a pillar with a carving showing New York’s skyline with the twin towers of the World Trade Center, fire and huge waves overwhelming the city.

  “Here, here,” Ella tapped her finger on a page in the notebook. “The professor sketched it, saying it was produced before the September Eleventh attacks and predicts their destruction, while the water predicts the coming of Hurricane Sandy. Some of his puzzling notes are making a little sense now, thanks to Madame Petrovka guiding us here. Do you see anything with the goggles?”