Prison of the Past

by Elle Klass

  I knew that, but was trying to avoid the inevitable. A picture of Einstein hung on the wall at the end of the bar. My mind flashed back to the day. We were young but not naïve. We didn’t have the chance to be that way. More of my life flashed through my head. There was always a mystery to be solved; questions that needed answers.

  The past two years were peaceful. No drama, no intense secrets or problems. Simply two people falling in love and it hit me. I’d been in a funk since his death and allowed the sorrow of my void to fill me. I needed something to solve and busy my mind, something to give me purpose. My bio-dad’s visit was ill-placed, but it reminded me of who I am and inadvertently gave me a purpose.

  I looked square in his light green eyes. “No.”

  He took another swallow, a bigger one this time. “You don’t know what I’m going to ask.”

  “You want me to care that you’re dying. Well I don’t and you’re not my father. You are a sperm donor, that’s it.”

  “This isn’t for me. I was responsible for ripping you from your mother’s arms. She had nothing to do with it – ”

  I interrupted him and with clenched teeth stated, “She never searched for me either.” They were equal pieces of dirt in my mind. At times I hated her more but, seeing him in front of me, I was reminded how much I despised him.

  “I don’t beg ever, but this evening I’m begging. Please meet your mother.”

  Oh no! That was it? His last will and testament wishes, meet your mother. No, he wasn’t that kind and didn’t care about anything or anyone but himself. Something was in it for him. “Not happening!”

  He stood, swallowed the last of his bourbon, and set the glass on the bar. He nodded. “I was hoping to change your mind but I see I can’t.” He walked towards the front door then paused, water and lines of sand drizzled across the floor. Turning back around he said, “You’re in my will. When I heard you were getting married I added an addendum to cover any children you may have.” Then he opened the door and let himself out.

  I locked the door. I wanted him out of my life permanently. Permanent was an everlasting word. My wish was coming true and the evil man was dying, but I lost my Raul forever. I couldn’t help but blame myself. Maybe if I hadn’t spent so many years hating him I’d still have Raul. My back against the door, I sank to the floor and cried. My tears mingled with the watery sand left by his footsteps.

  I felt no sorrow for him, but pity. He was a wretched man and was facing a deserved ending. Karma was boomeranging on him big time! As soon as I thought it another wave of sadness washed over me. I hated him with all my being, but didn’t wish death even on him. My stomach churned and the feeling my life was changing forever returned. I’d never be the same.

  Tears blurring my vision Einstein stared at me from across the house. His eyes locking with mine. I forced myself upwards, staring at the picture. That was it! Einstein! For years, the mystery he attempted to solve gently poked at me.

  With a renewed purpose in my life, and an unsolved mystery, I gathered the clues he left me.

  Peeping Tom

  I scrutinized all the newspaper clippings and pictures Einstein had gathered. There was no apparent connection between any of the boys besides Einstein’s friend was a victim and Letter-opener Judge let a possible guilty guy go free.

  A picture of Raul and I holding each other in San Juan stared from the computer screen. His chocolate eyes filled with happiness and life. My own face filled with smiles and joy. Those days were gone. My finger lingered over the screen for a moment too long before touching the program I needed. La Tige kept his programs up to date even though he was mostly retired. They came in handy when we searched for a child’s family.

  The screen blurred as I stared at it behind tear-soaked eyes. I wiped them and focused on the mystery at hand. The one I hadn’t solved but vowed in Einstein’s childhood room that I would. I’d had plenty of time to work on it but hadn’t. Procrastination was a lovely thing when attempting to avoid facing something. In this case, my past – our past.

  Einstein, like Raul, was taken too young and early in our relationship. I’d given my heart to both only to have it crushed each time. It was high time to face the past I avoided. Raul’s death was a senseless accident I couldn’t process. He was in the wrong place at the right time. I hoped and believed that solving Einstein’s mystery would somehow make amends to my soul for Raul’s loss. I had my vengeance on Einstein’s loss years ago when I made sure Slug stayed locked up forever. It didn’t bring back Einstein, but it helped my heart heal.

  Letter-opener Judge Landon Feeney wasn’t difficult to find court cases on, but it was more difficult than squeezing milk from a tomato to find anything personal. All I discovered was an address of his youth and where he gained his law degree. I scrolled through his illustrious career from the time he was a mere public defender.

  He closed thousands of cases or more. One after the other. Court records were bland reading but I held my hopes that one of his cases would give me something. All I needed was a small clue.

  My eyes drooping and head rested on my fisted hand, I nearly gave up when I found something suspicious. As a public defender he defended a man whose case was almost identical to that of the man arrested for the murder of Einstein’s friend.

  I glanced at the time, two seventeen A.M. Bed is what I should have done as my eyes drooped and begged for it, but my brain had other ideas. I searched the man’s name. He’d been arrested twice but never found guilty. The first when he was twenty. It seemed he had a peeping Tom fetish for his next door neighbor’s son. There was no evidence and the courts let him go instead of wasting tax payer money.

  The next case, he was arrested for abducting and murdering a fourteen-year-old boy, but swift Feeney got him off. I scrolled back to the first case, Einstein’s friend. The exact same charges, but little cold hard evidence. It went to trial and the jury was hung. The perp walked away.

  I searched the name. He vanished after the case. Nothing showed, not even a parking ticket. The other man, Peeping Tom, also disappeared. I wasn’t a genius but had three identities of my own so the answer was obvious. He became someone else.

  I pressed my brain to remember the judge’s house. All I got was the darn gold letter opener and money, lots of it. I was a starving street urchin who wasn’t looking for anything more than my next meal and a warm bed and shower. If I’d have seen anything I wouldn’t have recognized it or cared.

  Tired, I crawled into bed. Strange dreams haunted me and I awoke with an answer. In order to verify my vision-infested thought I went back to the court documents. Something about them bothered me and now with clear eyes I put my finger on it. The address. Peeping Tom lived at the same address as the young Feeney.

  That alone wouldn’t mean noodles, except Feeney lived at the address during the time Peeping Tom was arrested. I wasn’t a lawyer or even a court reporter but I was pretty sure that was a conflict of interest.

  I picked up the picture of Einstein and his friend – two cheerful kids standing in front of a lake. His brown eyes seemed to wink and I could hear his voice ‘This is eerie... hmm... What is it that happens to teens alone in the woods?’ The flippin’ clues were embedded in my brain!

  Laying on my back, I held the picture in front of me and studied it. Why this picture? He wanted to solve the case and if he couldn’t, he left evidence hidden in his parents’ home. I wondered if he even snuck back into the house after vanishing just to leave it.

  Behind Einstein, on the other side of the river from where they stood, was a white sign. The picture quality wasn’t great so I grabbed a wine glass and pressed it against the picture. I rolled it over the sign: Einstein Camp, A Science and Technology Camp.

  Trapped in a Rolling Metal Box

  It didn’t take long to locate it. The camp was in the Niagara Falls area and still running! My brain worked faster than my body as I tossed clothes into a suitcase with one hand and the phone in the other reserving the firs
t flight out. I stopped cold when I spotted one of Raul’s T-shirts stuffed beside my pillow. The day of his death I pulled it from the dirty laundry and slept with it every night to feel close to him. Inhaling the aftershave scent combined with his hormones mixed into the fabric, tears threatened to pour from my eyes. I blinked several times and squeezed my eyes shut to keep the downpour from happening. It worked and I carefully folded his shirt and placed it in my suitcase.

  Almost out the door, I stopped short. I couldn’t go as me because I might run into something shady, which was as sure to happen as bugs flying into a radiator. Justine was glamorous, not the action-adventure type. Justine was out. She lived her life scared and locked in a hotel room or under Didier’s and/or Sam’s protection. But Shanna was a girl who didn’t fear the unknown and jumped into solving crimes and dealing with Red-headed Gnome with a chip on her shoulder. She was the girl who found her roots and shunned them. Shanna Nu it was.

  When I hit the states I had a five hour layover in Orlando where I headed to the salon. When she was done, several inches of thick, dark, straight hair covered the floor around me and distinct red chunks framed my face. Shanna was classier now that she had a wallet filled with bio-dad’s blood money.

  It was late by the time I landed in Buffalo. My blood ran cold as I stepped outside the airport. Everything sunk in at one time. I was retracing Einstein’s path, which inevitably led to finding me. Take a deep breath, Cleo.

  My phone buzzed and I jumped.

  “Everything OK, ma’am?” The voice came from a man about La Tige’s age with an 1800s mustache and cowboy hat.

  I waved my phone. “Great, just my phone,” I sounded like a dorkess. The good life left me rusty in the area of covert actions.

  Mrs. Childrone, checking on my sanity no doubt. She’d become the mother I never had. A taxicab pulled to the curb and I nodded and opened the door. The hefty odor of exhaust fumes buckled against the hairs in my nose.

  The odor was quickly replaced by the pine-scented air freshener when I entered the cab.

  “Where to?” asked the driver. A butch-haired lady, about my age, with a strong New York accent.

  “Niagara Falls.”

  She gurgled as she almost choked. “That’s about an hour’s drive. You can stay the night here and there are flights in the morning.” I guess she didn’t want my money or didn’t think I had it. My attire was a simple pair of blue jeans and an oversized blouse. Flashing a cabbie money wasn’t smart in any neck of the woods, but I also knew Shanna didn’t have any credit cards or a driver’s license, something Raul forced Cleo to get.

  “Can you recommend someone who can get me there?” Insane, I know. Most people wouldn’t even consider such a cab drive. It was last minute planning that put me into the predicament. Flights to Niagara Falls were booked and I didn’t have enough time to schedule a bus, train, or private driver. Everything was filled.

  Her eyes widened into saucers. “You’re serious?”

  “Yes.” I pulled three hundred out of my wallet. A car outside honked and a man in a uniform motioned for us to get moving. I gave her a fifty. “I’ll give you the rest when we get there.”

  “You got it, lady.” She pulled out and I soaked in the city and the lights that shone so bright they muted the stars in the sky.

  “Since we’ll trapped in this rolling metal box for the next hour, I’m Carla.”

  I wouldn’t have chosen her as a Carla, maybe a Sam. Butch-cut, unpainted face and nails, she was a tomboy-type who climbed trees and had more guy friends than drama queen girlfriends.

  “Shanna.”

  “Pleasure or family?”

  “Family.” There I went again with simple white lies that rolled so easily off my tongue.

  “Enjoy a little pleasure while you’re there. You know it’s one of the Seven Wonders of the World, and wear a rain jacket and boots,” she said matter-of-factly.

  I wasn’t sure about it being a Wonder of the World, but I was pretty sure I wouldn’t be stopping to see it. My only goal was Camp Einstein. She chatted my ear off as I researched the camp. The one-sided conversation worked well for her. She had a strong personality, but I enjoyed it. I could be trapped in a ‘rolling metal box’ with someone with no character or one that gave me the creeps.

  Camp Einstein offered science and technology enrichment for privileged children. Prices weren’t listed, but I imagined it was a yearly salary for the average American. The camp also explained where he got the name Einstein. It was a piece of his carefully planned puzzle that someone was meant to solve. The four years we stayed together, leaning on each other for survival, I knew he was clever. The skills he had in technology blew me away. Since I grew up in a tiny cabin with nothing, I didn’t fully appreciate how advanced he was. Everything awed me then.

  I didn’t doubt the camp was only a small piece of his well-to-do education. He most likely went to a private school designed for the wealthy with a specific course of study. I never asked how old he was when he ran away. We didn’t talk about our mysterious history but left it in the past, only focusing on the future. If only I’d asked, then maybe I’d have more answers now.

  The camp’s website offered a photo gallery, but most pictures were recent. Science and tech based – two ever-evolving fields of study – I supposed they only wanted the most up-to-date information on the website. I put the address and phone number into my contacts.

  This type of facility I was sure I needed an appointment and showing up on a whim would put me in the unclassy, less dignified category, so I needed a good story when I called them. I sifted through the possibilities in my mind. My daughter Rosa needs a challenging environment to foster her intellectual needs. That sounded stuffy enough to work.

  I clicked on my travel app and booked a room not too far from the camp. It was the only vacancy I found. No doubt I must have incidentally hit the busy season. The seat back wasn’t too uncomfortable, but was far more cushy than sleeping on the ground as I’d done so much in my youth.

  “You have an address?”

  Her heavy New York voice awoke me from my slumber. I gave her the motel name. She put it into her GPS and carried on. “Came here once when I was a kid. The best family vacation of my life. There’s no excuse, growing up in New York. My father died a year after the trip and Mom worked two jobs to care for us. We didn’t have another family vacation but that’s been a long time ago.” Sentiment slowed her speech as she reminisced.

  Death wasn’t selective, we all suffered its consequences and her words in an odd way gave my heart hope and filled me with sadness at the same time. I’d never forgotten Einstein and was on destination solve-his-mystery but the loss became more bearable every year that passed. One day, Raul’s loss that weighed on my heart would grow fainter and fainter but I never wanted to forget him. He was the lover that showed me unconditional love when I was mature enough to understand that.

  The cab rolled onto a curved driveway with a concrete awning extending from the motel’s office. It wasn’t a five star hotel but a place on a poor man’s budget with its two-floor concrete construction. A metal railing went across the top floor from a set of concrete steps. There was no landscaping but the grass was trimmed and full.

  I handed her the fare and a few extra hundred. Cabbies didn’t make a ton of money and she was pleasant and made the long drive bearable so I gave her extra.

  Her round eyes widened inside her plump face. “Thank you!” she said, offering me her card, which I took.

  “My pleasure.” I smiled then walked to the glass door and opened it. A bell rang above my head, alerting the clerk someone was in the house.

  A thin man with a balding head and black-rimmed glasses strolled into the room through a curtain from the back. News, either from radio or TV, played quietly in the background while he checked me in and handed me an actual key. Most places used cards but the metal against my hand reminded me of my humble beginnings.

  Phantom Footsteps and Ghosts
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  I managed a few hours’ sleep, too exhausted to care about the lumpy bed. To my body it was heaven. After my nap, I called Camp Einstein, posing as an interested parent and managed to schedule an appointment for the afternoon to tour the grounds and hear about the program. The woman’s high-pitched bubbly voice made her sound about sixteen. Maybe a camp counselor.

  I showered and dressed in a pair of elegant flats and a business dress. Something I wore when I worked for the Briggses. I wanted something that said money, but at the same time wouldn’t get a heel trapped in the dirt as we toured the wilderness campgrounds.

  I called Mrs. Childrone back. She wanted me to do a book signing in New York at a new bookstore’s grand opening. I’d never agreed to a book tour or signing. I guessed she wanted me to do this now to help take my mind off Raul’s loss. As Einstein’s mother she was no stranger to the devastation that loss caused. I agreed to it and would meet her in the New York office in a few days.

  I managed to secure a driver and car to the camp. Showing up in a taxi wouldn’t cut it, or score any brownie points. It was located along the Niagara River and surrounded by woods. It took a good thirty minutes off the main road to get to the main office where Miss Bubbly would be waiting.

  This far off the beaten path seemed like a better place for a survival camp, but maybe learning science and technology called for seclusion and long nature walks. I stepped out of the vehicle and walked across the smooth, unpaved parking lot. My phone beeped, meaning I had a message. Kacy’s text read: Hey Chica. My lips curved into a smile. Call you later. A lot to tell you. I stuffed my phone into my purse as I reached the office. It was a small log building surrounded by carefully manicured shrubs.

  “Mrs. Nu. I’m Cathy, we spoke on the phone,” greeted a small built woman dressed in khaki shorts and a collared shirt with an Einstein Camp logo embroidered in the corner. The outside looked rustic but inside were models of atoms or compounds. I don’t know which. Since leaving school in the sixth grade I hadn’t done much study in the area of science. There was also a prototype see-through screen with a 3D digital layout of some type of map. On closer inspection it was a map of the camp.