by Jesse Reiss
Chapter 24
Charles drove a glum Angelina down a winding road lined with fences, trees and hedges that kept prying eyes from the secret lives of the rich and famous. Houses in these parts can run in the tens of millions and can be appreciated only from a bird’s eye view. Tourists following star maps are greeted by an iron gate or a security booth and are lucky to see a distant rooftop or garden shed through the thickets of carefully landscaped foliage.
Within a few minutes they were accelerating up a freeway ramp and joining the thousands moving across the city on never-ending concrete arteries that connected hundreds of square miles of metropolis.
“Crappy day?” Charles asked after ten minutes of silence.
“Crappy week.”
“Yeah? This should have been a school day for you, shouldn’t it?”
“Well, my life is literally blowing apart at the seams so my Mom thought it would be best to spend the day with Sam where I could have some fun and relax and take my mind off the chaos. But no, I can’t have one good day in my life anymore, can I? I can’t be a normal girl anymore, can I? It’s like everything that was normal and predictable has become crazy and nuts.”
Charles nodded his head, pretending to understand her. “When I feel like that, you know what I do?”
“No. What?”
“Go have a beer.”
“Thanks, really helpful. Ever occur to you that that would be illegal for me?”
“Yeah, but you know. If I had a bad day at school, got in a fight or came home crying because of my crappy grades, my Dad would give me a beer and we would sit in front of the TV and watch baseball.”
“That’s it? Beer and baseball?”
“Yeah. You ought to try it someday.”
“You are weird, you know that?”
He laughed his deep abdominal laugh. “Well, weird by what standard? Do you know how many millions of Americans are right now as we speak sitting at a game or in front of a TV, drowning their sorrows in beer and baseball?”
“Whatever.”
“I think you would find that those who don’t do it are the minority and therefore the ones who could be considered weird.”
“Whatever.”
“Just trying to give you some advice.”
“You could get in trouble for giving advice like that to a minor you know?”
“With who, your Mom?”
“For starters.”
“Your Mom would crack a cold one with me any day of the week!”
“Whatever.”
He laughed loudly and let it drag out into a deep chuckle that made his shoulders shake.
They got off the 101 Freeway exit heading onto Hollywood Boulevard. “Go right please,” Angelina said.
“Your house is left though.”
“I need you to take me up to Griffith Park. I left something there in the park and I need to get it before it gets dark. I know where it is. It’ll take me a few minutes.”
“All right. Good thing neither of us is paying for the gas.”
They drove down Hollywood Boulevard to Western and went right, passing by Angelina’s school on the way up into the park. Angelina gave him directions to the same spot that two days earlier had been a sight of emergency vehicles, law enforcement and yellow tape.
Except for the yellow caution tape still up, it was now deserted. Footprints and tire tracks all over the ground gave evidence to the activity that had occurred there.
The image of the man who had attacked her came back into her mind and she shuddered. She looked in all directions to be sure no one was around before getting exiting the car. “Wait right here. I’m going down that ridge there and will be right back.”
“Okay Miss,” Charles said, with his head already down and immersed into his Blackberry, paying no attention as she walked across the road in front of him.
She slung her backpack over her shoulders and walked off the road and through the dead grass. She ducked under the yellow tape and climbed down the path towards the oak tree. Everything looked normal and as she had seen it last. Arriving to the tree was like going back to a home, looking forward to the company and shelter that one would find there.
She climbed the tree and went across the bough and disappeared into its world.
She was greeted by Tyoo-Rut and Mary, who begged for news of Virginia. She told them how the owl had been treated well and was recovering from her operation to fix her wing. She intentionally omitted to tell them about the fact that she wouldn’t fly again or that she was being threatened with being euthanized. No need to worry them about something they have no control over, she thought. She was soon greeted by the tree’s other occupants and repeated the same story to each.
“That was some activity down there the other day!” Thomas exclaimed. “We haven’t had this much attention in our part of the park in years, maybe ever!”
“And do you know why it was happening?” Angelina asked, taking charge of the conversation like the head of the group that she was becoming.
“No, what happened?”
“Because Andy here gave me a gold coin which is supposedly worth millions of dollars which brought that crazy man after my mother and I.”
They all turned to André, looking disapprovingly.
He acted surprised. “What? I didn’t know that would happen? I tried to repay her after Virginia took something from her.”
“And, when I took Virginia back to get treated, these were in the bottom of the bag,” she said as she pulled out the coins from her backpack. “Can you explain this?” she asked antagonistically.
“Uh oh, I think I can explain that,” Thomas said with some embarrassment. “Those were mine. I won them from Andy in our card games and they were in my rucksack.” He bowed his head in shame, adding another chin to his collection. “Sorry,” he said quietly.
Balfour hit his palm to his forehead and shook his head in disgust. “How can you guys be so stupid? Obviously Angelina is a special guest here in the tree. She is the only one yet who has somehow been into both worlds and when we interfere with that, we will only bring trouble.”
“Right,” Angelina said. She was about to hand them back to Thomas when she realized she had promised another one to Ken for Virginia’s protection. She placed two back in her backpack and handed the rest to him.
“You are keeping those ones?” André asked.
“Yes, I will need them to get Virginia out of the sanctuary.”
“Isn’t that why I offered them to you in the first place?”
Angelina felt the whole thing was being forced back on her. “Whatever! I’m forced now to use them even though I don’t want to.”
André shrugged, feeling vindicated by her actions. “Well, there is plenty more where that came from. You just come here when you are getting low and I’ll take care of it for you?”
She gave him a smirk. “I think I’ll pass, thanks.”
She hugged them each goodbye and promised to bring them an update on Virginia soon. She climbed back down the tree and back up the pathway to the waiting SUV. Charles brought her home, jokingly reminding her to have a cold one and watch some baseball.
Over dinner Angelina told her mother blow by blow what happened at the Currys and the disgust she felt at the two psychiatrists she was interviewed by. Paula was concerned and made a note to bring it up to Tyra, the Curry’s personal assistant, when they spoke next.
Paula told Angelina her day’s events, starting with the detective’s visit and the news of James’ death and the discovery of the assailant’s identity. She told her they would be going down to the police station in the morning, so another day of no school.
She saved the good news for last. “And honey…that coin you found in the park was inspected and certified and we are now selling it for a couple…million…dollars!” She gave her shocked daughter a big hug and kissed her on the head a few times.
Angelina shook her head in disbelief. After a day of bad news, here was somethin
g good. “That means we’ll be millionaires?”
“Yes, Baby and all because you found that little coin in the park that started all this mess. Interesting isn’t it how one little piece of metal can cause so much harm and so much good?”
“Yeah. I could probably get more if you’d like.”
Paula was reminded of her daughter’s story of how the coin got in her backpack from the strange man in the tree and didn’t want to hear her talk about it again. “That’s fine Honey. One coin in our lives is enough.”
Angelina swallowed hard as a small wave of guilt crept over her. She had two more in her backpack and a seemingly endless supply available to her.
Before going to bed Angelina went on-line and tried her best to determine the coins’ value. After jumping from website to website she determined that these were more common gold coins and now worth maybe ten thousand each. At least it wasn’t likely the one she gave Ken was worth millions.
That night they checked to be sure that the doors and windows were locked and Angelina climbed into bed beside her mother with Lynx curled up at their feet.
