“I am not feeling well. Why don’t we go find a place to talk?” Harry said.
“Sure thing. We can get you something to eat.”
Harry let Gabriel walk ahead while he scanned landmarks around him, making note of the location of where the portal would have been on the “other side”. It was the place where the walls of Akko used to stand before they crumbled into dust during the earthquake. Here on this side of reality, instead of walls there stood sixty-foot high steel bars.
If I’m going to get back to the other side, I have to come back to this spot.
“Harry, c’mon. The others will be relieved to see you.”
Others?
“Uh, Gabriel. What others?” Harry asked but Gabriel had darted ahead.
He followed Gabriel into the small shop. It was a typical fast food restaurant in the area. Sharp smells of spices and greasy food hit his nostrils while the sound of Arabic pop music blasted from a boom box sitting on a shelf behind the front counter. Groups of young people sat at the wooden tables spread across the room. A number of the guys glanced up, eyeing him suspiciously as he walked past.
Gabriel waved to someone sitting at a table in the back of the shop.
“Look who I’ve found!”
As he walked closer, Harry could see two people sitting across from each other at the table. One was a woman with her back to him and the other was a middle-aged man with Latino features, olive complexion, dark wavy hair, and a pointed nose.
When they reached the table, the woman stood up and turned to face him. Harry’s heart started racing when their eyes met.
“Mom?”
It had been a year since he last saw his mother Bina. She was thinner; her hair was greyer and the wrinkles around her eyes deeper than he remembered.
Waves of emotion ran through him. Every cell in his body wanted to run to her and hug her just as he did when he was a terrified six-year-old child lost in a crowded shopping mall.
The look of concern on her face and the way she glanced over her shoulder forced him to realize that this was not the time or the place. The reunion celebration would have to wait until their safety was established.
“Harry, we need to be discreet,” she said in a hushed voice. “Sit down beside me and face Roberto.”
She motioned with her hand towards the man sitting across from her. Roberto lifted his chin slightly in acknowledgement.
Gabriel asked, “So you know Rose?”
Harry shot a glance at his mother. Was Rose her alias?
Harry’s mother turned to Gabriel.
“Please keep your voice down and take a seat.”
Gabriel took the chair beside Roberto while Harry sat down beside her. There were many questions he wanted to ask but he remained quiet. The answers will come, all in good time.
The loud music and the noise from the different conversations in the room decreased in volume. Harry checked over his shoulder to see that all eyes were on them.
Roberto lowered his voice, speaking with a subtle Spanish accent, “Harry, your mother Bina has taken the alias Rose and you must refer to her as this until we get out of here.”
Gabriel’s eyebrows shot up and his mouth opened as if to say something.
Harry pulled his focus back on Roberto.
“I’m assuming that Roberto is not your real name either,” Harry said.
“Correct. I’m Carlos Hernandez. Cristal’s father.”
About the Author
Anne-Rae Vasquez is currently writing Resist – Book 2 of the Among Us Trilogy. Among Us is a book series about a group of outcasts (online gamers) who band together to investigate who or what is behind the catastrophic events happening around the world. Among Us will attract fans of the TV shows Fringe, Lost, and 4400. Doubt, Book 1 of the Among Us Trilogy was released in November 2013 at the Raindance Book Festival.
Anne-Rae also freelances as a journalist for Digital Journal, an online news magazine. Her previous work includes writing the novel and screenplay for Almost a Turkish Soap Opera, an award winning feature film and series. Her other projects include: Salha’s Secrets to Middle Eastern Cooking Cookbook, Gathering Dust – a collection of poems (published by AR Publishing Inc.) and Teach Yourself Great Web Design in a Week, published by Sams.net (a division of Macmillan Publishing).
To find out more about Anne-Rae’s work, visit her GoodReads’ profile page.
Doubt Page 17
