by Palladian
Lex thought Casey looked like she was holding her breath as Lou stared at his plate a moment, chewing and thinking. Finally, he glanced back up at Casey.
“That’s fine by me,” he agreed. “I think we should stick together. We’ve gotten this far, and I think we can go even farther together.”
“OK,” Riss said, “there’s something you should know, then. When the three of us spoke, we agreed that we should share what we have so that we’d all share in out good fortune. Between the four of us, we have over half a million dollars.”
Lou’s eyes widened, then narrowed a little. Riss shook her head.
“Before you think we stole it, what I did was to transfer our pay out of our accounts. The M Agency pays well, due to all the borderline-legal experiments they do, I guess. Plus, they want to be sure no one tries to leave, so they pay high wages…that remain mostly uncollected, so they simply take the money back into their corporate accounts when they transfer people to the labs permanently. Casey had earned over $200K, Lex had earned about $100K and I threw in the $50K the facility usually gives to the next-of-kin for the person who experiences a body event and subsequently disappears, in her case. I hadn’t earned anything because I was a prisoner, but in all fairness I thought I should earn the same rate as everyone else, which netted me about $200K. So, we should have enough cash to keep us going for a while.”
Lou still looked surprised, but nodded. “That sounds good, but won’t they be able to trace us through the money?”
Riss shook her head. “No, although I’ve already moved the money, it currently looks like nothing has changed in their accounts. It won’t be until sometime in the future, when they get down to a certain level, that they’ll discover that some of that money no longer exists.”
She gave a smirk before continuing. “From what Lex and I figured, it’ll probably be enough to fund all of us for about a year while we travel and figure out what to do next. We both agreed that it would be good to try to keep out of the government’s eye as much as possible for a while, so the money will allow us to avoid things like applying for jobs and such for the next several months at least. Plus it’ll give us the freedom to look around. We figured that we could settle in Phoenix for a while and do some traveling until we all decide where we want to settle permanently, or just stay there until we figure out what our next step should be.”
Lou nodded and looked at Casey, who grabbed his hand and squeezed it once. Riss continued after eating another bite.
“Like I told you yesterday, though, I haven’t seen any sign that anyone is pursuing us or knows where we are. We probably should take the scenic route and act like we’re on vacation, because for once we’re not in a hurry.”
Exchanging looks then, suddenly everyone was grinning like crazy.
“I haven’t had a vacation in years,” Riss added.
“I can’t really count being out of work, so I’ll have to join you in that,” Lex replied, smiling broadly now.
Casey shrugged. “I’ve had vacations, but mostly they were to visit family back in Kansas. Can’t say as I’ve had a vacation just to enjoy myself in years. How about you?” she asked, turning to Lou.
Lou smiled wider as he caught the look in her eye. “No, it’s been some years for me, too.”
Lex laughed as she finished a sip of tea. “OK, Riss, we’ll probably have to use some computer time so we can figure out what we want to see between here and Phoenix.”
Chapter 24: Arrival
“Really, I like this one the best,” Riss said as she opened the thumbnail on the laptop, bringing the picture into larger focus.
Lex smiled as she looked at it. She’d taken it at sunset, from around a corner. She and Riss had both insisted on taking a steamboat ride when they’d reached the Mississippi, so they’d found a small outfit and gone out near the end of the day. During the trip, Riss and Lex had become complete allies in finding it fun to take surprise pictures of Casey and Lou. In the picture, the two lovers stood along the rail of the boat kissing, framed by the sunset and mostly just a silhouette against the remaining light in the sky.
Casey made an uncomfortable noise, shaking her head. “You guys. My favorite is this one.”
Riss enlarged the one Casey had pointed at. It was a picture of Riss and Lex with a backdrop of the desert, complete with huge cacti and a blazing sun. They stood each with an arm around the other’s shoulders in matching sunglasses, Lex smiling widely and Riss with a small grin.
“Yeah, I kind of like that one, too,” Lex said, smiling at Riss. Although they hadn’t had to deal with the sometimes 100–degree-or-more temperatures Lex had remembered from her Arizona summer visit, Lex had enjoyed the weather in the 70s that they’d experienced on the road, and the 70-80–degree temperatures they were having now, in the spring. She’d nearly forgotten how dry the air could be compared to the DC area, and found herself drinking water constantly to compensate, usually keeping a case on hand for long days they’d spend on the road.
Riss smiled as if she had a happy secret, still staring at her laptop screen. She continued scrolling through the other pictures, enlarging some that she liked and some that others picked out. Lex’s attention flagged after a moment, and she sat back and stretched, looking at the cavernous space they’d found for themselves. They’d done their best to sweep the huge concrete floor but realized that some of it still might not be clean, so they’d camped out in one of the less dusty spots. With the overhead lighting and their sleeping bags spread out over the center of the floor, Lex felt like she was camping in like a little kid, building forts out of couch pillows in the living room.
Casey caught the movement of her glance and looked at her over Riss’ head and smiled a big, goofy grin. “How do you like the new digs?”
Lex found the smile catchy. “I wasn’t sure I would, but I really like it. It’s going to be great once we finish fixing it up.”
She found her mind wandering to the mostly empty lot outside as they’d seen it in the bright light of day, pavement cracked by a thousand hardy weeds and complete with a few defunct cars parked in the corners of the chain-linked lot. The neighborhood had the benefit of being a quiet one, however, and the space turned out to be exactly what they needed. The owner had been so happy to rent the unit, given that most of the neighboring ones stood vacant, that he’d given them permission to make any internal changes they liked, which fit with their plan to make it a living space for the four of them.
Lex followed Casey’s gaze to rake over their temporary home and felt her heart beat a little quicker. She found the prospect of all of this just for the four of them a little overwhelming but still exciting. When the group had first arrived in Phoenix on an overcast, 76-degree day, they’d all talked about what they thought they’d need in a place to live and finally started looking at vacant warehouses in some of the older business districts.
Lex had had a lot of fun refreshing her memories of the city and learning about it anew, not now restricted to the cactus-strewn suburb her friend had once lived in. What she’d learned was still colored with the happy feeling of being with friends, as her earlier visit with Liz had been, but she’d had some surprises. She hadn’t remembered the city being as large or busy as it was, but the sense of openness (due to the lack of lots of trees like in her childhood home in Virginia), was something she appreciated, along with the stark loveliness of the surrounding landscape of reddish rock and seemingly endless dramatic sunsets.
Another pleasant realization had been that they’d accidentally picked a place where being anonymous seemed easy. The people, although friendly, didn’t seem as inquisitive about your business the way Lex remembered many being in the DC metro area. In the end, they’d chosen an old warehouse in a semi-industrial neighborhood that seemed slightly run down and half empty, the kind of place where people weren’t too nosy about others.
The need to have someplace sturdy where Casey and Lou could live where they wouldn’t have to be walking on eg
gshells the whole time, and someplace where they could have a lot of room in case they needed it (for gear, working out, practicing together as a team, or working on their skills), and potentially a lot more power than would be considered normal for a regular house (depending on how many computers Riss needed) were all things that had driven their choice. All of those considerations caused Lex to nod as she looked the old warehouse over again.
“I think we’ll like it here,” she finally said.
Lou came back into the room then and used a huge button in a box along the wall to turn the overhead lights off. They continued to look at pictures from their break, their four faces lit only by the laptop’s screen, the light flickering and changing as Riss continued to switch through different images. After a little while, once everyone got tucked into their sleeping bags, Riss shut it down.
“Goodnight, everyone,” Casey said. “Get some sleep; we’ve got a big day tomorrow.”
The place became a blur of activity over the next few weeks as they worked on their new home. First, they measured everything and then discussed and designed how they wanted the new rooms to look and where they should be situated. They settled on planning to build a large bedroom downstairs for Casey and Lou and a kitchen in one corner where currently a little utility area with a sink existed, revamp the downstairs bathroom (currently just toilets) to change it to a full bath, expand the bathroom upstairs, and use the half-ruined old office space there to build four new rooms. In the process they’d have to reinforce the stairs to the second floor, because in their current state Lou seemed doubtful if they’d support him or Casey.
Next they ended up buying an old but mechanically stable van, figuring that since they’d all been able to get around the country in a van like that, they should get one for traveling as well as carrying things back from the hardware store. After Lou had drawn up a list based on the designs they’d come up with, the group made five trips to the hardware store to get everything needed to start the project.
Construction dominated several of the following weeks, and everyone but Lou learned new skills as they completed the work. Lou had done enough different types of construction and repair in the past that he could direct everything that needed to be done, and he completed most of the plumbing and electrical installation himself with some assistance from Casey.
One evening in the middle of the project, everyone had decided that they should knock off early since everyone seemed tired, but after they’d eaten, Lex still felt wound up, and her friends seemed about the same. As they cleaned up the dinner dishes, Lex asked, “What does everyone usually do to wind down and relax? Obviously, we’ve completely forgotten.”
Casey shrugged as she sat down at the small table in the kitchen. “After I’ve worked out all day I’m just tired, but since I spent a lot of today just puttering around and waiting, I still have a lot of energy.”
Riss lifted an eyebrow. “I usually just work on some project that I’ve got on the back burner.”
“On the computer, right?” Lex asked with a smirk.
“Yes, on the computer,” Riss said, shaking her head and trying not to smile. “You had to ask?”
Lex replied with a laugh. “I was thinking that maybe you could pick up another hobby, though. What about you, Lou?” Lex asked, turning to the man washing.
He looked over at her for a moment as he put a clean cup into the draining board. “I used to go home and play the bass.”
Lex had been about to grab another dish to dry, but instead almost dropped her dishcloth in excitement. “You play? For how many years?”
Lou tilted his head for a moment as he considered. “I guess for about fifteen years in one way or another. When I was fifteen, I found an acoustic bass someone was throwing away. I figured out how to fix it up and then started learning to play it. Once I got a job, one of the first things I bought was an electric and a little amp, and that’s what I’ve been playing ever since. I just started getting into effects pedals in the past few years, so I had a little collection of those.”
“That’s so cool!” Lex exclaimed, drying the dishes faster. “Come on, let’s hurry up and finish, and then let’s find a music store so we can pick up some gear!”
Casey smiled, Lou nodded, and even Riss seemed to be carried along by Lex’s enthusiasm, so they ended up at a nearby music store. After splitting up and looking through the different departments, Lou bought a bass, a couple of pedals, a tuner, an amplifier, and lots of extra strings.
“It’s sometimes hard for me to get the balance between hitting them hard enough and breaking them,” he explained. “On the plus side, I can change a string really quickly now.”
Lex picked out a small synthesizer, a microphone, and a practice amp with a couple of inputs for herself. She felt intimidated by all of the synthesizer controls but thought that she could learn how to modify the sounds if she worked at it. After all, she thought, I only had a few lessons and managed to learn most of the major chords for the piano from a book. She almost missed Riss buying a sequencer program just before the people in the store kicked them out to close.
After bringing everything home and setting it all up, Lou tuned the bass and began playing something sonorous and rhythmic. Lex messed around with the synthesizer for a while and then turned to her microphone to practice, eventually singing along with what Lou played, tentatively and quietly. Riss had her program installed after a while and joined in, practicing stringing beats together and altering them to sound how she wanted. Casey had been puttering around in the kitchen, but eventually ended up sitting not far away, smiling as she listened to what the three of them played.
Before any of them realized it, midnight was near and after Riss mentioned it, they shut their gear down and began putting it away.
Still smiling, Casey said, “That really sounded nice towards the end.”
Lou nodded and smiled in response while Lex ducked her head and Riss looked in the opposite direction. “Did you really think so?” she asked Casey.
“Yeah, I liked it.”
“Me, too,” Riss added, carrying her laptop over to the others. “I think we should play some more later.”
“Definitely,” Lex replied with a nod and a grin.
A month later, they’d completed most of the work on the old warehouse and everyone had moved into their own rooms. The group had made it a tradition to work on their music every evening, as well. Lex asked Casey at one point if she wanted to pick up an instrument too, but her friend just shook her head.
“No, I’ve never been good at that kind of thing. I really like hearing all of you play, though.”
“Are you sure?” Lex asked. “It’s only for fun. Maybe you’d like it.”
Casey shook her head and shrugged. “I like listening better. It’s sort of stressful for me to try to learn to play an instrument because I ended up breaking a lot of them when I was in school trying them, before I had a good handle on my own strength.”
“OK,” Lex replied. “I’m glad it’s not too boring for you.”
It hadn’t been boring in the least for Lex. She found herself getting lost in Lou’s powerful bass playing, which seemed to take the lead in most of the songs they played. She enjoyed adding textures with her synthesizer, taking the lead line up occasionally, and singing on some songs. Riss, meanwhile, seemed to have mastered finding and crafting just the right set of beats for any song. At times, their sound reminded her of the Cocteau Twins, while their instrumental pieces seemed more like Boards of Canada or Aphex Twin to her. By any measure, their time to play quickly became Lex’s favorite time of day.
While working on some of the finishing touches on the downstairs bathroom one day, Lex spoke up as she took a break from painting the trim.
“I know a while ago we talked about figuring out a way for us to visit different areas and see where we think we might want to settle, something less suspicious than being on permanent vacation. I’ve been thinking about it, and I think I’ve com
e upon something so we won’t attract a lot of attention. It’s almost like we’d be invisible, from what I hear.”
“How’s that?” asked Riss, stepping down from the ladder she’d been standing on.
“I had a friend who was part of a touring band for a while. She told me a lot about what it’s like, and it sounded like fun, but she finally gave it up because, although they ended up going all over the country, they didn’t make much money. She did mention that people usually ignored them once they figured out they were musicians. So, I was thinking that people’s level of respect for traveling musicians might come in handy for us in this case.”
Lex looked around to see everyone still listening, so she continued. “I know we’ve only been playing together for a little while, but I think we’ve been sounding good. We could write enough songs to be able to perform and then go on a tour so we can look everywhere west of here, if we want to. It would give us a good reason to go, and one that wouldn’t look that weird to people. I’ve never been in a band before, though, so I wanted to ask you all what you thought.”
Lou looked thoughtful, but spoke after a few moments. “I’ve been in a band before a couple of times, but I’ve never toured. I think we probably could put something together. Have either of you ever performed before?”
Lex nodded. “Well, I was in the church choir for years, anyway. I don’t know if that counts.”
“That’s as good as anything. Riss?”
Riss looked up and shook her head. “No, never, but I don’t mind trying it out.”
Lex glanced back and forth between the two for a moment. “Another reason I wanted to ask is that I’ve been having a lot of fun playing music with you both. So, what do you all think?”
Riss nodded. “I’m in if you are.”
“Sure, sounds like fun. Plus it really would give us a good excuse to travel,” Lou agreed.
Casey looked around at the group for a moment, but before she could add anything, Lex spoke again. “Casey, I was hoping you might want to act as our manager and do stuff like figuring out our tour route and booking us shows along the way, that kind of thing. What do you think?”
