02 Seekers

by Lynnie Purcell

  “A good home?” he asked.

  “The best,” I replied.

  “I can’t believe you have a home, and you’re just…man, that makes no sense.”

  “Oh, well, Clare is saving the world,” Alex explained. “That never makes any sense.”

  I rolled my eyes. “You’ve never had a home?” I asked Spider.

  “Nah. I mean, I had foster parents, but they were all a real drag. I got tired of it all, so I ran off.

  Cops aren’t really concerned with hunting another runaway down, so it’s been me and the mean streets since I was seven.”

  “That’s awful!” Alex said.

  “Better than some things,” he said.

  “Is Spider your real name?” I asked.

  “Nope.”

  “How’d you get it?”

  “I like spiders,” he replied. “And, well, I like doing things with my hands, building things. My first robot was a spider, and the name kind of stuck.”

  “Cool,” I said.

  “You girls got any real life skills?” he asked us.

  “I think you saw we do,” I replied.

  “No, I mean…you’re going to have to make your way while we help you. We’re not rich,

  obviously. Everyone in our group has to take care of themselves…”

  “I don’t think I could steal,” Alex said.

  “What about begging?” he asked.

  “I don’t know…” Alex replied.

  “Your perception of it is all messed up. It’s not stealing if they willingly give you the money. It helps if you think of it like acting,” Spider said. “Or a game.”

  “A game?” Alex questioned.

  “You’re trying to best your opponent. You win if you get money.”

  “That sounds fun,” I said.

  Alex and I exchanged another look. Her eyes told me she wouldn’t be able to beg. She could live on the streets and follow me in to danger, but she wasn’t programmed to beg. We would have to figure something out for her.

  “It is.” He stopped abruptly in front of a white building and gestured grandly. “Welcome to my home.”

  “The Orpheum?” I read the words across the green awning over the front door.

  “All the world’s a stage,” Alex said.

  “And all the people merely…something profound. You live in a theater?” I asked Spider.

  “Yep. It’s got some flood damage from Katrina, and has been abandoned for a while now, but it’s as good a place as any.”

  “It’s better than a roof,” I said.

  “You’ve been staying on a roof?” he asked.

  “Yeah.”

  “Smart, but what happens when it rains?” he asked.

  He took us around to a side parking lot. Metal stairs hugging the building led up to a heavy metal door. The stairs creaked and groaned at our steps as if the stairs wanted nothing more than to collapse to the ground. At the top, he jiggled the handle of the door and the heavy chains slithered loose. He grinned at me and gestured for us to go first. I was hesitant, the darkness beyond the door almost absolute, but his mocking smirk spurred me forward.

  “Is it just you and Eli?” Alex asked, stepping into the dark. She stayed close to my side, not caring if Spider saw her afraid.

  “No. We got a group, sorta like a family. So…this is Eli’s rule, not mine, but I agree with it…If you hurt any of them, Eli will kill you.” He said it very calmly, bluntly. I had no doubt he meant what he said.

  “You invited us here,” I reminded him.

  “Yeah, I know, but it’s good to get that out right at first. Another rule is that we share what we get during the day. No keeping the good stuff. It’s a sharing endeavor we got here, and it works…so no selfishness.”

  “Clare here is very rarely selfish,” Alex said. “And she keeps me in line.”

  “Oh, shut up,” I told her.

  Her teeth flashed white in the darkness in response.

  Spider led us down a set of stairs, through a set of double doors, and in to a large room. This room was the only lit room in the whole place. There were no windows, but the broad stage, elegant seating and shadowy back stage were touched by lanterns set up intermittently

  throughout the space. The light sparkled out around the large room leaving shadows thick in the corners. I imagined, as we walked down the aisle towards the stage, a thousand plays being performed on the wooden stage.

  “How do you have electricity?” Alex asked

  “Oh, I’m stealing it from next door. Just enough so they won’t notice. I thought about getting cable, but they’re always so touchy about those sorts of things…” he told us. “The others are out right now,” he continued. “They don’t come back until dark.” He jumped up on the stage. Old costumes and blankets were laid out in rows for beds. “I’ll find you some things to sleep on…

  there’s lots of stuff downstairs they didn’t take with them.”

  “Thanks,” I said.

  He shrugged. “It’s part of our deal.”

  “How’d you know I knew the truth about Eli?” I asked curiously. “For all you knew, I didn’t have a clue.”

  “I could tell. You were just so confident you knew what to do…”

  “That’s just because you don’t know me yet,” I told him.

  “What does your friend look like…this Daniel?” Spider asked. He plopped down on the edge of the stage with his feet dangling over.

  “Green eyes, black hair, about six foot three…I think it would be easier if we just found the nest.

  He’ll be there.”

  “But how do I know what a nest is? Do they have a sign on the door that reads: ‘Super bad guys here: we devour souls for free’?”

  “That would be helpful, but no. Haven’t you heard anything about this end of town?” I asked wondering if the hobo had been wrong. I had thought Spider of all people would be up on the darker goings on of the city.

  “I just know people have gone missing,” he said. “I can’t say where to or how…well, I can say

  ‘how’ now, at least.”

  I thought over all the impediments in my way. The frustration was almost palpable. Alex’s baby blues bored into the side of my face as she read my emotions. I turned away from the stare, not wanting the analysis.

  “I guess if we’re going to have to beg for a living, you’re going to have to show us the ropes. No sense in wasting any more time,” I said to Spider, feeling full of nervous energy suddenly. His questions were only letting me know how little we really had to go on. Being here wasn’t any different than being on the streets, only now we had Spider.

  “I like your enthusiasm, doll. It’ll take you far…”

  He jumped off the stage and beckoned us to follow. The daylight outside was alarming after the dark of the theater. I blinked rapidly to clear my eyes of the dark. As I did, I saw a hooded figure turn the corner and disappear. It was obviously Eli; it was also obvious he had followed us to make sure nothing bad happened to Spider. I didn’t blame him for being suspicious of us, but I wasn’t happy about being followed. It wasn’t my favorite feeling – I had spent long enough feeling chased.

  “Begging boils down to three basics,” Spider said, not having noticed Eli. “Make the sell, be the sell, and always, always, sound like your heart is about to break if you don’t get that sell. You don’t want to cloud the sell with too much history. They don’t want to have a conversation with you. You have a sentence to convince them to give you money. Competition is never good. Pick a spot where others aren’t staked out. We all have territories we like to cover, but it’s a ‘get what you can, if you can’ kind of thing. Don’t let some of the older ones scare you off. They won’t do nothing.”

  “Sounds like a lot more than three basics is involved,” Alex said while I laughed.

  “Nah. Watch this,” he said, walking away from us.

  We were back at the park with the massive church – somehow we kept ending up there. Th
e

  streets had started to swell with post-breakfast tourists. Spider made a casual, non-linear path to a thirty-something man wearing a baseball cap. Their meeting was brief, but rewarding. Spider walked back and flashed a dollar bill our way as proof of his success.

  “Your turn,” he told me.

  Alex pulled me to the side, far enough away from Spider for it to matter. “I don’t think I can do this.”

  “I know,” I replied. Spider watched us curiously. I pulled her further away, not trusting him with her weakness. “What do you want to do, instead?”

  She started fidgeting. “I can talk people into things. I can bring people down on prices and convince them to let me use their phone, but asking for money straight up? I just…”

  “We’ll figure something out…”

  “You heard him,” Alex said. “Everyone has to contribute. It’s their rules.”

  “He won’t be around all the time…so, let me take care of it,” I said. “It’s the least I can do.”

  “What are you dolls talking about?” Spider asked trying to edge closer.

  I went over to him and put my finger in his face. “Call me ‘doll’ one more time and see what happens. Go on, I dare you.” He put his hands up and backed away. “That’s what I thought,” I said.

  He bowed, mocking me with his smirk. I ignored him and squared my shoulders in preparation for the task at hand. I willed my mind to think of it as Spider had suggested. All I had to do was ask for money: it didn’t matter what they thought of me, only that I won. Thinking about it like a game helped with getting over the moral questions. I always liked games. My competitive nature helped the insecurity fade away.

  I slowly walked through the people, trying to look casual. As I did, I listened to their thoughts, searching for a compassionate soul. I found one in moments – an old lady who was feeding the birds. She accepted my need without a second thought, her smile warm and compassionate. I

  didn’t even have to lie. When I walked back to Spider and Alex I had a five dollar bill in my hand. Spider crossed his arms, annoyed I was so successful so quickly.

  “How was that?” I asked.

  “You did all right, I guess…” he said, starting to walk away.

  “Where are you going?” Alex called.

  “To work,” he replied. “Be at our place by dark. I’ll see what info on this nest I can get for you by then.”

  Alex turned to me as he disappeared in to the crowd. “So…this is an interesting turn in events.

  From homeless to beggar in a day.”

  “It’s a means to an end,” I said.

  “To what end?” she muttered.

  “At least I found a use for my mind reading,” I pointed out, trying to stay positive. “I’ll be able to find people willing to give money, and hopefully make enough for the both of us, so you won’t have to beg.”

  “What do you want me to do while you’re making a living?” she asked, fidgeting with restless energy.

  “What we were doing before. Talk to people. It’s only a matter of time before we find the

  information that matters.” I wasn’t sure if I was lying. It was hard to tell what I really thought. I just knew we couldn’t give up.

  “Okay. Fine. Sure,” she said, strangely upset.

  She turned away and wove through the crowd before I could get another word in. I watched her go, wondering at her reaction. It wasn’t long before she, too, was lost in the crowd, and I was left with nothing but my confusion for company.

  I managed to get thirty more dollars over the course of three hours. With every dollar earned, I understood better why Spider had called it a ‘game’. It was about strategy and maneuvering, only you had seconds to maneuver them where you wanted them before they told you ‘no’. At the end of three hours, I pocketed my cash with a smile and crossed the street, headed away from the church. I figured thirty dollars was enough for two people for a day…

  Alex had abandoned the tourist traps in her search for information. She had turned her search toward the local bars and restaurants, knowing the locals would know worlds more information than the tourists.

  We had agreed to meet back at the theater for lunch. It was the first time we had separated since the fire. I worried about her – worried that the second she left my sight she would get hurt or killed. Things kept happening when I wasn’t looking; it didn’t help that most of those things were deadly.

  My feet wandered off course as I searched for the theater, the unfamiliar roads confusing me. I turned on a familiar looking street, hoping it led back to the theater, and realized too late it was the street for the hotel. People were going in and out of the front of the charred structure – people in official city uniforms. I backed up slowly, not wanting the reminder of the past two days thrown in my face so abruptly. I half turned to find another street to get to the theater but stopped mid-turn. My eyes told me the impossible; my body stopped moving with what I saw. Frozen, I stared hard at the person coming out of the charred wood of the once beautiful hotel.

  The tall figure stopped at the edge of the sidewalk and looked up at the hotel briefly. He adjusted the hat of his city personnel outfit and bent down for a second, placing something on the ground, and then he moved over to a motorcycle along the curb. The shock melted. I knew that figure. I knew his form and the curve his face better than anything in the world, even over the distance. It was Daniel.

  I started walking toward him, my shock suppressing my ability to speak. Was luck real or was I imaging this? The motorcycle roared to life, and my fast walk turned into a run. He was leaving.

  My time was running out.

  I found my voice. “Daniel!”

  The motorcycle peeled away from the corner and was gone before I could yell a second time.

  “Crap!”

  I kicked a crumpled can into the road. I followed the path of the can in dejected anger, wishing I had been faster with my run or quicker with my words. The can stopped parallel to where he had been standing, almost as if it knew the spot and had stopped there on purpose to torture me.

  Glaring at the spot, I noticed a rock on the edge of the sidewalk. I raced over to it and picked it up eagerly. It was smooth and perfect, though a bit charred as if it had been in the fire, too. I recognized it as well.

  Daniel had once done a magic trick with a rock – after the school pool had blown up around us –

  to prove he could do anything. I had kept the rock, wanting a part of his magic. It had been in the hotel when the room had caught on fire. He had gone inside and found my rock! It proved what I had thought. I had just missed Daniel. I turned it over in my hand and looked at the hotel. A couple of workers stared at me oddly but didn’t comment, figuring I was loitering because of the appeal of mass destruction. They’d had many such visitors in the past day. Not wanting to look too suspicious, I shoved the rock into my pocket and walked away.

  My eyes scoured the roads for somewhere close I could hide and think. An obliging side road provided me with privacy. I slumped on the stucco and looked up at the bright sky. It was hard not to just start running, to chase after him, regardless of the fact that I didn’t know which way he had gone.

  He had been so close! I kicked at the building behind me, while still leaning against it. I set the bag with the sword against the wall and gripped my necklace. It was cold against my skin. It was the coldest thing in the hot sun. Sweat trickled down my back and face, a contrast to the gem Ellen had given me so many years ago. Why couldn’t one thing work out on this stupid trip? All I had needed was a couple of seconds, and I had blown it. I took a deep breath to calm the feelings in my chest.

  Frustration gave way to determination, and I dropped the necklace. It was just another set-back in a long list of set-backs. Now, I knew he was alive. He wasn’t rotting in some gutter, dead by the hands of evil Watchers. Our fire hadn’t been a continuation of his death. It had been

  unrelated. However fleeting the satisfacti
on of that fact might be, for now, it was enough. I would keep looking. Eventually, I wouldn’t be too late.

  Chapter 11

  Remembering that I had to meet Alex, I pushed off the wall. The sword was heavy as I picked it up again. It weighed almost as much as the thoughts on my mind. I was curious, wondering if it could sense my emotions or if I was transferring some of gravity to the sword. It was weird to think of a sword as a living thing, but it felt sentient. It was creepy. Wondering about its strangely alive feel helped take some of the anger out of my thoughts. Any distraction was a welcome one.

  I finally found the right road, the unfamiliar roads growing more familiar as I walked. Alex paced impatiently in front of the green awning of the Orpheum as I approached.

  “Where ya been?” she asked when she saw me, obviously worried.

  I reached out with my free arm and pulled her in tight for a hug. I put my head on her shoulder and took a moment. Even though I loved her dearly, I wished she was Ellen. Ellen would make me feel better in an instant. All she had to do was share that bubbly laugh of hers with me and my mood was better. Ellen didn’t have to say anything to take away the worry.

  Alex rubbed my back soothingly, trying her best to comfort me. “Something bad?” she

  whispered.

  “I was too late,” I said. “Daniel was at the hotel. He left this. It was mine.” I held up the rock. “I yelled, but he didn’t hear.”

  “Oh, Clare…are you sure it was Daniel? I know you might think so, but the brain can be funny sometimes.”

  “I’m sure it was him,” I said. “I would know him blindfolded in hell.”

  “Which way did he go?” she asked, believing me.

  “He went straight then turned left. That’s all I know. He could be anywhere in the city by now.”

  “Clare…”

  “Yeah?” I said into her shoulder.

  “You really stink,” she said with laughter in her voice. Because of my height, her face was right at my armpit.

  I released her quickly. “Sorry.”

  “We’ll find him,” she promised. “He’s alive, at least.”

  “But we don’t know about Jackson and Margaret. What if he blames me if they’re dead? I have to know for sure before I see him…” I sucked in a deep breath and gathered my thoughts. “Did you find anything out?” I asked her.