Glimpse

by Steve Whibley

  We took off, racing across parking lots, cutting through yards, hopping fences, and ducking down alleys. The only time we slowed down was when we hit an intersection that was too busy to rush through. We made it to our stop just as the bus was shutting its doors. Lisa slammed on the glass until the grumbling driver let us in.

  For twenty-five minutes, I didn’t move a muscle, except for the trembles I couldn’t control.

  ***

  I burst into the kitchen and startled Mom as she was wiping down the counter.

  “Good God, Dean, you scared me,” she said. She fanned herself with the washcloth and then added, “What happened? The therapist just called and said you three—”

  “Where’s Becky?” I asked, cutting my mom off and glancing in the living room.

  “She’s off looking for another insect for her collection.”

  “She’s what!? You told me that she was staying home all day! You said she had too much packing to do and that she wasn’t going to leave the house.”

  Mom frowned at my tone. “It’s important to her, Dean.” She folded the dish towel and hung it on the handle to the oven. “She took her net to the park. I’m sure she’ll be back before—”

  I spun toward the backdoor and sprinted out of the house. Lisa and Colin were right behind me. The park was only three blocks away, but I knew it would be packed with people during the summer holidays and with such perfect weather. I glanced at my watch.

  “It’s 12:25,” I huffed. “We don’t have much time.”

  ***

  As expected, the park was crowded. I shielded my eyes from the sun and tried to spot my sister. “We have to split up,” I said. “Lisa, you have the phone. If we don’t find her by two, call 911 and tell them there’s been an accident at the park.” She nodded. “She’s looking for bugs, guys. She’ll have her net. Look for a girl with a net.”

  Colin was too out of breath to speak, but he nodded his head and jogged off to the right. Lisa went left, and I headed straight for the creek.

  “Becky!” I called as I ran around the park. I probably circled it at least a dozen times, shouting at girls who looked like Becky, only to find out they weren’t her. I checked the whole length of the creek and all the bushes. I ran into Colin and Lisa twice while we were doing our laps. They were having as little luck as I was.

  By 2:15, my whole body was trembling. I looked to my left and saw a hill that might give me a better view of the park and sprinted to the top. A man and woman were filming the view with a small handheld video camera.

  “Becky!” I called again.

  The man must have heard the desperation in my voice and turned to me. “Did you lose someone, kid?”

  “My sister,” I said without looking up. I didn’t dare stop scanning the park.

  “What does she look like?” the woman asked, suddenly by my side.

  “S… she’s eleven,” I said. “She has frizzy hair, and she’ll be holding a bug-catching net.”

  “There’s a girl with a net,” the man said, pointing off in the distance.

  I peered toward where he had indicated, but saw nothing.

  “There, kid. Right there.” He crouched slightly so his head was at the same level as mine. And then I saw her. I had never been happier to see Becky’s frizzy head. She was swinging her net through the air, following an insect that was flying just out of her reach. She was moving back and forth, headed straight for the street. My gaze shifted to the end of the road just as a black BMW squealed around the corner. Like I had with Mr. Utlet, I saw what was going to happen. This time, though, I sprang forward even as the colors around the park drained away, leaving the once bright scene tombstone gray.

  My legs burned but didn’t slow. I wanted to scream and warn Becky to stop chasing that stupid bug, but if I shouted I’d have to slow down to catch my breath. I could run or scream, but not both. As I moved closer, I saw the guy driving the car that was hurtling toward my sister. He was fiddling with something, his attention split between the road and whatever was on the seat beside him. I wasn’t going to make it; there was no way. Becky was at the far end of the park and the BMW was going to pass me any second.

  Suddenly it made sense. Mr. Vidmar’s hospital visits, his stints in the psych wards… people thought he was trying to kill himself, but he wasn’t. He was trying to save people. The Society of Sacrifice. People who sacrificed themselves for others. Mr. Vidmar wasn’t just trying to save the people in his visions. He put his life in jeopardy to save them. When he jumped off bridges, got electrocuted, and fought off criminals, he was doing that to save lives. He put his life in jeopardy to save me. And the color fading away moments before Mr. Utlet died—moments before my sister might die—was a warning… A warning telling me to act.

  I knew what I had to do. I veered toward the street and forced myself to move faster, even though every muscle in my body burned with exhaustion. The engine of the car revved, growling like a monster. I was only a couple feet ahead of the car when I hit the curb. Color rushed back a second before I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and jumped.

  Chapter 27

  The sharp fumes of cleaning solvent burned my lungs every time I breathed in. I opened my eyes. I found myself staring at an oversized fluorescent light. I blinked twice, and a sudden rush of pain spread over my body. And then I remembered: the screech of rubber on concrete and, a moment later, the car slamming into my side. Becky! I tried to shift my body but couldn’t.

  “He’s awake.” Lisa stepped up to the edge of my bed, leaned down, and gave me a quick hug. Then she whispered in my ear, “Becky’s fine.”

  A wave of relief washed over my body, temporarily numbing the pain. I had done it. I had saved my sister!

  My mom was suddenly at my side. Her eyes were red and puffy. “What were you thinking?”

  My excitement began to fade when I saw her worn face. “W… what happened?”

  “What happened is you ran across the street without looking, young man.” My dad’s stern voice came from the front of the room. When I lifted my head, I realized that one of my legs was partially suspended off the bed, covered in a white cast. Tubes and wires from half a dozen machines connected to various parts of my body hummed and whirred as they delivered fluids and monitored my system. I groaned.

  “Lisa, honey,” my dad said. “Would you please go to the nurses’ station and let them know that Dean’s awake. See if they can give him something for the pain.” He looked back at me. “We can talk about how you forgot the whole look-both-ways-before-you-cross bit later.” He stood up and took a deep breath. “Unless you have something to say for yourself right now.”

  As I registered the suspicion in my father’s voice, I realized what was going through his head. He thought I jumped in front of the car to kill myself! Well, technically, Dean, that’s exactly what you did.

  “Nah,” I said finally. “There’s really nothing to say. I was just running to catch up to my friends and forgot to look.”

  Dad nodded slowly. “Well, remember our deal, Dean. Be honest about everything, right?”

  “I am, Dad.” But I knew I could never tell my dad the truth. He’d stay cool on the outside, but he’d bring home a straitjacket and lock me in the basement if I told him I had visions of people dying.

  “All right.” Dad exchanged a look with my mother. “All right, well, what matters is that you are fine, except for a few broken bones. Do you want me to sit you up a bit?”

  “Yeah, thanks.”

  “Be careful,” Mom said. She turned her watery eyes to me. “You broke your leg, three ribs,” tears started tracking down her cheeks, “and your wrist.”

  “That explains the pain,” I said, forcing a smile that only made my mom’s tears flow faster. “I’m fine, Mom, I’ll heal. Don’t worry.”

  “Well, I’m glad you’re fine, you jerk!” Becky’s snarling face came into view as my dad raised the head of the bed. “I should be at entomology camp right now, but instead I have to
visit my stupid, bug-killing brother in the hospital.”

  “We said we’d take you today,” my dad said. “The camp is two weeks long. I’m sure you won’t miss much. And I think your being here is more important. Don’t you?”

  Becky growled and stormed out of sight.

  “I’m sorry she’s missing her camp,” I said. “You guys should take her now.”

  Dad shook his head. “I think you’ll find that your sister is more upset that you’re injured than she is about missing a day or two of camp. She just isn’t ready to show that yet. But we’re going to take her as soon as you get something for the pain.”

  As if on cue, Lisa strolled back in, followed by a short nurse in bright yellow scrubs. She jotted down some numbers on a chart and injected the contents of a large syringe into the tube that ran to my arm. Almost instantly, a warm numbness spread through my body.

  “I think I should stay here,” my mom said.

  “No, no, it’s fine, Mom. You should go. Lisa and Colin will keep me company.” My mom opened her mouth to protest, but I added, “I’m fine. Honest. I think Becky would want both of you to drop her off. It is just two weeks after all.”

  “Yeah, Mrs. Curse, we’ll keep him company,” Lisa said.

  “Where is Colin, anyway?” I asked.

  “We were going to get you flowers,” Lisa said, “but Colin said you’d appreciate hot dogs a lot more.”

  Usually he’d be right, but I felt too weak to even stomach the idea of them.

  “You’re sure you’ll be okay?” my mom asked.

  I nodded.

  “Okay.” She wiped her face with a Kleenex. “It’s only a couple hours’ drive. We’ll be back before dinner.”

  My dad clapped his hands. “All right then. I’ll go pull the car around.”

  “I’ll just check in with the doctor one more time before we go,” my mom said. “But I’ll grab Becky and meet you outside.”

  Dad nodded. “We’ll see you in a few hours, champ.”

  As soon as my parents left—Mom hovered a bit longer—I heard a knock at the door. “Can I come in?” I recognized the Russian accent even before I saw the familiar leather jacket. I frowned, feeling as if I had forgotten something.

  “Dmitri?”

  He winced when he saw my injuries. “You don’t look good.”

  I looked at Lisa, but she looked as confused as I was. “W… what are you doing here?” I asked.

  “I’m sorry about the other day. About chasing you out of the church. Ever since I’ve been thinking… what if you three weren’t just pulling my leg? What if you weren’t working with that cult? And even if you were, what if you could lead me to them? I… I’ve been following you since you came by.”

  “That was you at the library?” I asked. That was what I was supposed to remember—the leather jacket! “And at the university?”

  He nodded. “I’m sorry for the things I said to you and your friends, Dean. But you have to understand, I just lost my brother. And I used to see my brother in the hospital more than I saw him out of it.”

  I decided not to tell him that we’d already seen Mr. Vidmar’s chart. Instead, I just nodded.

  “When you were asking me questions at the church, I saw something in your face. Something I recognized.”

  “You did?”

  “My brother went to Pripyat and came back different, Dean. At first he was scared all the time. Just the way you were when I saw you. And now”—he waved his hand at the riggings and machines around my bed—“you’re in a hospital, lucky to be alive, and yet you don’t look the slightest bit scared. That’s how my brother always looked when I’d visit him too. So calm, even though half his bones were broken.”

  He walked over to the television mounted on the wall and pivoted it so it pointed at the bed. “So yesterday, when I followed you, imagine my surprise when I saw what happened.” He pulled out a small camcorder from the pocket of his jacket and a wire from the other. “Does this look familiar?” He held up the silver video camera. I shook my head. “On the hill. In the park? You don’t remember the man who was filming up there?”

  “Y… yeah, I remember.” Worry the size of a tennis ball lodged in my throat. I looked at Lisa. Her mouth had dropped open, and she was staring at Dmitri with wide, terrified eyes.

  “He filmed the whole thing, Dean.” Dmitri plugged one end of the cable into the camera and the other into the back of the TV. “He kept filming as you were running and kept filming after you ran out to the street. Or”—he paused and looked over at me—“as you jumped in front of that car.”

  “I just—”

  Dmitri held up his hand. “He wanted to give the footage to reporters,” he continued. “I guess a story about some crazy, suicidal kid sells.” He fiddled with the wires. “After what you did for my brother, I decided to return the favor and… I… er… convinced him to give me the camera.” He pushed a few buttons and the screen flashed to the scene at the park. “I want to show you something.” He pointed to the lower corner of the screen. “See this little girl with a bug net? That’s your sister.” He eyed me with a cocked eyebrow. “But you already know that.”

  The scene played out on the twenty-one-inch screen. I watched myself run down the hill. Dmitri paused the film when I was halfway across the soccer pitch. “Here’s the thing, Dean. Up to this point you’re running like a madman straight toward your sister. She’s the one you’re trying to get to. But right here, right before you change direction, I think you realized something.” He tapped the black BMW. “You realized that your sister was going to step onto the street, with the car headed straight for her. And you realized you couldn’t get to her in time, didn’t you?” He pressed PLAY again without waiting for me to answer.

  “There you go—you’ve changed direction. Now watch this. This is actually pretty amazing.” Onscreen, I was running straight for the street. I swallowed, knowing what was about to happen. “Ready,” Dmitri said. “Here.” He paused the screen again just as I took off from the curb. “You are jumping like an Olympic track star, Dean. And you did it to save your sister. Didn’t you?”

  He flicked off the screen and unhooked the camcorder before turning back to me. He walked to the foot of my bed and brushed a lock of hair out of his eyes, then folded his arms across his chest and waited. His rigid stance and narrowed stare made it clear that he wasn’t going to leave without an answer.

  “Yes,” I said.

  “My brother…” He took a deep breath and looked up at the ceiling and then back at me. “My brother wasn’t crazy, was he?”

  “I don’t think so, sir,” I said.

  “And all the times the hospital said that he tried to kill himself? That was…?”

  “I think… I think every time he was in the hospital it was because he got hurt saving someone else. He was pretty much the bravest man I’ve ever met.”

  Dmitri swiped a hand across his eyes and looked away.

  “I didn’t save your brother,” I added. “He was there in the alley because of me. He was there to save me. My initials were on the back of one of his stopwatches.”

  Dmitri nodded and squeezed the bridge of his nose. “Thanks, kid.” He cleared his throat. “Thanks a lot. But I don’t want what happened to my brother to happen to you. I’ll go back to Russia and I’ll track down members of that group. There has to be a way to… get rid of whatever this is.”

  I drew a deep breath and smiled. “Actually, sir, I think I’ll keep it.”

  “What?” Dmitri looked shocked. “But you almost died.”

  Lisa put her hand on my shoulder. It felt like a sign of support, so that’s how I took it. She smiled, and I turned back to Dmitri.

  “I saved my sister, sir. If I didn’t have this… whatever this is… she’d be dead. In fact, I think Lisa was right all along—this isn’t a curse at all.”

  Dmitri smiled. “You remind me of my brother.” He snatched up a pen from the table beside the bed and wrote his phone numbe
r on my casted leg. “If you need anything, any time, just call.” He patted my foot and left the room without another word.

  “Wow,” Lisa said. “When you see it played out like that, it really is pretty amazing what you—” A rustle made Lisa stop talking. “I think there’s someone in your bathroom,” she whispered.

  I shifted as best I could and watched Becky come into view through the open bathroom door. She would’ve been able to hear everything Dmitri had said and watch the whole thing play out on the TV screen. She walked over to my bed and stared down at me. She swallowed and then lowered her head to my chest and wrapped her arms around me. “Thank you,” she whispered.

  “Dean, have you seen your sis—” my mom said from the doorway. “Oh… um… is everything okay?”

  Becky straightened and wiped her sleeve across her eyes. “Yeah, Mom, everything’s fine. I’m ready to go.”

  “Have fun at bug camp, you nerd,” I teased.

  She smiled and nudged my shoulder. “See you in a couple weeks, loser.”

  Mom watched, mesmerized, as Becky left. Clearly, she couldn’t wrap her head around Becky and me being nice to one another. She walked over, planted a kiss on my forehead, and then left the room. Colin entered just as she left, carrying three tinfoil-wrapped hot dogs. He caught Lisa wiping her cheeks.

  “Oh man, Lisa, he’s fine. Stop your blubbering.”

  She ignored him. “What now, Dean?” she asked.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, what are you going to do about your visions? If you keep having them…?”

  Colin answered before I had a chance. “If he does, we really need to figure out a better way of dealing with them. This whole jumping in front of moving vehicles is going to get old real fast.”

  “I second that,” I said. “Now give me one of those hot dogs. I think my appetite’s back—I’m starving.”

  Lisa laughed and poked one of the IV bags by my bed. “I have a feeling we’re going to have a very strange summer.”