“That is good. To be on the safe side, I would suggest that you head back here as soon as you leave the mall. That way you will already be at base, or very close to it, even if they get knocked off by the sedatives.”
“I understand, Jeffrey. Let me go now and join them. They seem ready to leave already,” Eddie said as he began to walk towards the kids.
“You be careful and be alert, Eddie.”
“Sure. I will. Thanks,” Eddie said, and walked up to the kids with a broad smile.
“Who were you talking with, Eddie?” Clara asked.
“It was a very good friend of mine, Clara,” Eddie replied.
“Would you like to introduce us to him?” Douglas asked suddenly.
Eddie was caught off guard. He blinked and stared at Douglas. Douglas merely looked up at him with a smile. “Him? How do you know that my friend is a man?”
“I don’t know. I just guessed,” Douglas said with a smile.
Eddie smiled as he relaxed. “That was a good guess, Douglas.”
“So, would you like us to meet with this man, your friend?” Clara repeated.
“No, I don’t think you need to meet him for anything,” Eddie said.
“Are you sure about that? We could pay him a visit, you know? Or maybe you could ask him to come and meet with us here at the mall,” Clara said.
Eddie was becoming uncomfortable with the discussion. He glanced briefly at the watch on his wrist. “Why are you kids suddenly interested in meeting with my friend? I thought you wanted to buy your parents an anniversary cake before we head back to meet with them.”
“Is that why you keep on checking your watch, Eddie?” Douglas asked.
Eddie stared at him, dumbfounded. “Checking my watch? I only checked to see what the time was.”
Douglas nodded. “Yes. And you have done so several times since after you made your call to your friend.”
“Several times? I only checked my watch just now,” Eddie said.
Douglas shook his head. “I have been watching you, Eddie. That must have been the eleventh time you have looked at your wristwatch in the past ten or so minutes. Why is this so, Eddie? Are you bothered about the time we are spending here in the mall?”
Eddie was bewildered. “Bothered? No, not really. After all, you said you were going to pay me well for the time we are going to spend.”
“So, you should just relax and not be bothered with what the time is saying. Stop looking at your watch, Eddie. We have all the time in the world to spare,” Douglas said.
Eddie nodded. “Yes. I understand. All the time in the world.”
But Eddie was still apprehensive. He could not be comfortable with the kids’ resolve to be relaxed in the mall. He knew that the effects of the sedatives would soon begin to work. He had to think of something really fast.
“Which cake did you decide on for your parents?” Eddie asked.
Both of the kids pointed at a dark chocolate cake in the glass. “You prefer chocolate for them? That is a wonderful choice. All right, let them package it for you then,” Eddie said.
But Douglas held Eddie’s hand. “No, Eddie. That is not the cake we chose.”
Eddie was confused. He looked at the dark chocolate cake again. “Then why did you point at that cake?”
“We thought you might want something for yourself as well. That is why we pointed at this dark chocolate cake. For you, Eddie,” Clara said.
Eddie pretended to smile in delight. “For me? That is very sweet of you guys. Now, what about the one for your parents?”
“It has already been packaged. They are bringing it over to us already,” Clara said, and pointed at the counter. Eddie looked in the direction in which she was pointing and saw a waitress coming over with a big box.
She smiled at Eddie. “Your kids are very warm and nice.”
Eddie shook his head. “No, they are not mine.”
The waitress looked surprised as she handed over the package. “They are not? What a shame. Anyone would love to have such kids.”
Eddie collected the package and nodded hastily. “Yes, you are right about that. Very nice kids, they both are.”
“Is there anything else you would want?” the waitress asked.
Eddie glanced at his wristwatch again and shook his head. “No, we are all right with this cake.”
Douglas pulled his arm. “Your cake, Eddie. What about the dark chocolate cake?”
The waitress looked at the showcase glass. “You mean this dark chocolate cake? Is that what you want, little man?”
Douglas nodded. “Yes, miss. Please package that cake for him as well.”
Eddie gritted his teeth as the waitress collected the cake and went to wrap it up. He felt sick in his stomach as he felt the seconds ticking by.
Clara touched his arm. “Eddie, are you all right?”
Eddie nodded. “Yes, I am fine.”
Douglas held his hand. “Are you sure you are okay, Eddie? You are not looking too good.”
Eddie looked at Douglas. He was already feeling very dizzy and disoriented. Only one thought came to his mind. “I need to get to my cab right away.”
Just then the waitress returned with the wrapped cake. When she saw how Eddie was leaning on the counter, she touched his arm. “My goodness. Your body is very hot, as if you are on fire. Are you okay?”
Eddie shook his head. And this time he was being sincere. “I am not. I don’t really feel too well.”
“Maybe you need to get to a doctor or a hospital,” the waitress suggested.
Eddie nodded. “You are right about that. Come on, kids. Pay off the nice lady and let’s hurry to my cab. Okay?”
Eddie saw Douglas open the small bag with him and bring out another stash of notes. As he counted the mint-fresh currency, Eddie could feel his heart begin to pound aloud.
I cannot wait to get my hands on that money, Eddie was thinking to himself.
After Douglas had settled with the waitress, they walked back to the parking lot. As they walked, Eddie was huddled over, moving very slowly, with his hands tightly clutched on his stomach.
CHAPTER 3 Eddie could not understand what was going wrong with him. He just knew that he was not feeling all right anymore. And the sensation was more than just an apprehension of the sedatives working on the kids in the mall. He quickly glanced at his wristwatch again. It was well past forty minutes already. His face was covered in sweat as he glanced from Douglas to Clara, who were by his side. They both looked up at him, smiling.
Eventually, they got to his cab. Eddie literally collapsed into his driver’s seat and held onto the steering wheel. He was feeling very dizzy and could not concentrate on anything.
“Eddie, what do we do now?” Douglas asked from behind.
Eddie turned to look at him. Both he and Clara were already seated. And they were still looking very bright and alert. They were holding their sandwich bags which they had left in the cab before going into the mall. “Are you both feeling okay?”
Clara nodded. She opened her bag and brought out her sandwich and began to eat. “Yes, we are okay, Eddie. But we are very sure that you are not okay at all.”
Douglas nodded also as he bit into his sandwich. “You are acting as if you might have been drugged, Eddie.”
The statement hit Eddie like a sledgehammer and he felt his heart skip several beats. “Drugged?”
Clara nodded. “Yes. Were you drugged with some sort of sedative?”
Eddie was now panting as he glanced at the two bags in the hands of Douglas and Clara. He stretched out his hands towards them. “Give me those snack bags.”
“What do you need our snack bags for?” Clara asked.
“Just hand them over to me right now,” Eddie snapped.
Without a word, the kids handed over their bags to Eddie. He frantically began to search all over them, as if he was looking for something.
“What are you looking for, Eddie?” Douglas asked.
Eddie was n
ow feeling very apprehensive as he checked both bags over and over again.
“Are you searching for some special markings?” Clara suddenly asked.
Eddie looked up and stared at the two kids. They were smiling at him in an uncanny way.
“Can we have our sandwiches back?” Clara asked.
Eddie was now feeling like he was under an unknown influence. He saw himself obediently hand over the bags to the kids. And he watched them continue to eat their sandwiches.
That was when the realization hit him. He leaned over to the side and picked up his own sandwich bag. He was already scared of what he was going to see. With shaky hands, he turned over the bag and there on the side was a bold letter G.
He had been eating a sedated sandwich all this time.
Eddie dropped the bag and looked into the rearview mirror.
Douglas was smiling at him. “Why would you want to sedate us, Eddie? What did you want to gain by doing such a wicked and evil thing?”
“Obviously, it was because you saw us with so much money. Isn’t that right, Eddie?” Clara asked.
Eddie coughed, and as he did he saw blood on his hands. Alarmed and suddenly feeling overcome with renewed fear, he looked at his bloodied hands. “What is happening to me?”
“Nothing, Eddie. You are just about to suffer the fate that you had designed for any passenger of yours who was unfortunate enough to eat your sandwiches,” Clara said, still taking a bite from her sandwich.
Eddie coughed again and he felt his head swim as dizziness began to take a hold of him. “Who, who are you?” he muttered.
“Who are you referring to?” Douglas asked.
Eddie looked at the young boy. He saw that Douglas had kept aside his own bag and was opening the door. “You don’t know who we are?”
“We are just some children who decided to leave New York to visit this city, Eddie. And what a visit it has been. Finally, we have been able to detect and get rid of an evil person like you,” Clara said, putting down her own sandwich.
Eddie saw Clara open the door and step out. She picked up the wrapped package. “I shouldn’t forget this gift for our parents. You know, it is really a wonderful thing that on a day like this we get to celebrate their anniversary, as well as apprehend a wicked man like you, Eddie.”
“Your parents?” Eddie repeated.
Douglas nodded. “Yes, our parents. You still remember that it is their anniversary today, don’t you, Eddie?”
Eddie coughed out more blood. “Their anniversary?”
Douglas nodded. “Yes. Today marks the seventh anniversary of their deaths, Eddie.”
Eddie suddenly felt a seizure in his heart. He clenched his chest and began to cough sporadically. As the coughing subsided, he saw another taxicab drive up to where they were parked.
A man stepped out of the vehicle and began to offload the luggage of the children from Eddie’s boot. Even though there was blood all over Eddie’s nose, lips, hands, and shirt, the man barely paid any attention to him.
Eddie raised his hand and tried to catch the man’s attention. “Who are you? Please help me,” Eddie called.
The man stopped what he was doing and stared back at Eddie with very blank eyes. “The kids called me to come and pick them up from here, Eddie. They told me that you would not need any help.”
“They told you what?” Eddie asked.
“That you don’t need any help, Eddie,” the man replied. As he watched the man enter the cab, Eddie was now struggling to breathe. He saw that Douglas and Clara were already seated in the back of the other cab. They were waving at him as the cab drove off.
With shaking hands, Eddie picked up his phone and dialled a number. After it rang for a while, the other person picked up the call.
Eddie struggled to position the phone close to his ears. “Hello. Jeffrey? It’s me. Where are you?”
“I am still waiting for you, Eddie,” Jeffrey replied.
Eddie coughed again. More blood came out of his mouth. “Where?”
“Where? At the rendezvous, of course. What about the kids?”
Eddie looked at his back seat. “The kids?”
“Yes, Eddie. What about the kids you spoke about?”
Eddie could not reply again. A wave of darkness had suddenly taken over his vision. The phone dropped from his hands as his head slid down the seat.
As he lay there on the seat, Jeffrey continued to talk. “Eddie? Eddie, can you hear me? What about those kids?”
But Eddie could no longer respond.
As he felt his consciousness slipping away, all he could think about were those two lonely children whom he had picked up from the train terminal.
THE END
The Gift Of A Broken Mirror
CHAPTER 1 There was a knock on her door.
“Yes? Please come in,” she said.
A young man came into the office, holding the door
ajar. “Good day, ma’am. There is a package for you.” The woman looked up from the laptop she was working on. “A package? Where is it?”
“It is right here, ma’am,” the man replied. He then stepped aside for another man dressed in a brown uniform to come into the office. He had a cap to match his attire.
“Good day, ma’am. Are you Miss Katrina?” he asked.
The woman seated behind the desk nodded. “Yes, I am Katrina. What can I do for you?”
“I work for the courier company downtown. You have a package which is to be hand-delivered to you,” he replied, dropping a medium-sized box on her table.
Katrina removed the pair of spectacles she was wearing and stared closely at the package. “Who sent it to me?”
The young man shrugged. “I really don’t have an idea, ma’am. The instructions were that it should be hand-delivered to you here at your office.”
“A package? I really don’t remember ordering for anything. Or did I?” Katrina asked herself aloud.
“Would you sign here please?” the courier man asked, handing over his folder to her.
Katrina quickly signed the documents and the man left. With her mind filled with curiosity, Katrina tore open the wrapping sheet that the courier company had used to cover the package. Inside, there was a brown carton. It was sealed. On the brown carton was a white envelope which was not sealed.
Katrina picked up the envelope and opened it. She brought out the red piece of folded paper enclosed inside it.
As she began to unfold the paper, the light in her office began to flicker. At the same time, the screen on her laptop began to display disoriented images. Katrina stopped unfolding the red paper and looked around. The lights were normal once again. She tapped the keyboard on her laptop, checking to see if it was in order. Satisfied that the laptop was okay, she stood up and walked to the wall switch. She switched the lights on and off. The lights were working perfectly well.
Katrina then walked back to her table and looked at the red piece of folded paper again. Out of curiosity, she picked it up again. But this time she raised it closer to her nose and sniffed it. It appeared to have been covered in a strange perfume.
As she began to open it again, the lights began to flicker once more. Her laptop also began to display a lot of disoriented images. She dropped the paper and stepped back from the table, filled with a sense of apprehension.
Katrina found herself wondering what it could mean.
After waiting for a couple of minutes and nothing happened again, she went to her table and put the red paper back into its envelope. She then placed the envelope back into the carton and closed it up.
She picked up the telephone on her table and dialled a number. “Hello Martin. Can you please get an electrician to come to my office? Yes, I think my lighting and wiring are having some problems. Thank you.”
After she dropped the line, she sat at the edge of her table and waited. As she did, she found herself glancing intermittently at the brown carton, wondering what its contents could be.
The knock on
her door briefly cut short her thoughts. “Yes, you may come in.”
The door opened, and the same man who had ushered in the courier man earlier came in. “You said there is a problem with your lights?”
Katrina nodded. “Yes, Martin. But where is the electrician?”
“He is on another floor. I figured I could come and check things myself before he arrives, you know? Just to make sure that it is not an emergency,” Martin replied.
“I see. That is nice of you.”
“No problem, ma’am. So what was the problem?” Martin asked, looking around the office.
“I really don’t know. I was about to open my package when I noticed that the lights were all flickering.”
Martin stared at her. “The lights were flickering?”
Katrina nodded. “Yes, like someone was playing with the switches.”
Martin looked at the lights overhead in the ceiling. “Maybe it was just a slight power surge or fluctuation in the current. Such things do happen, you know.”
“How frequently do they occur?”
Martin shrugged. “Maybe once in a while; they rarely occur too frequently.”
“I see. But this one happened twice.”
“Twice?”
Katrina nodded. “Yes. Twice, Martin. And it also affected my laptop as well.”
“Your laptop was affected?”
“Yes, Martin. The screen became disoriented while the lights were flickering,” Katrina replied.
Martin went to her table and examined her laptop. “I don’t think that is possible, ma’am. I mean, the lights could blink a little, but not flicker so noticeably, unless they are about to burn out. And even at that, such surges do not affect such devices directly. They have inbuilt stabilizers.”
“Thank you for the tech education, Martin. But I am sure of what I am saying. The flickering happened twice, and on those two occasions, my laptop was acting crazy.”
Martin looked up from her laptop. “Your laptop is fine now, ma’am. Nothing is wrong with it. Same also for the lights. I don’t know. When did you notice the lights flicker? Today?”
“Were you not listening to what I was saying? Of course it was today. It happened not quite long after the courier man left my office.”
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