To Bring 13 Home -{Chapter 2. Part 3}-

Part III

“Next stop, Fourth and Spring,” announced the bus driver.  Jason without hesitation but with much uncertainty stood up to disembark.  He knew this couldn’t possibly be it and stepped off the bus.  After taking a quick look around he noticed Wendy’s was not there.  He ran around the corner of fourth and peeked up and down the street.  Nothing. 

            “Damn it,” he muttered and wandered in the Starbuck’s on the corner.

            “Excuse me, do you know where Wendy’s is?” he asked slightly embarrassed.  The barista smiled kindly.

            “Oh it’s on first and Seneca, right down the road there,” she said cheerily.

            “Thanks I’ll take a cab,” he said quickly as he glanced at his watch.  9:29 it read.  He still had a half hour technically.  The doors automatically opened as he exited onto the street, skimming the cars for yellow.  A taxi pulled around the corner and Jason quickly jumped on it. 

            “Taxi!” he hollered to the driver who pulled over.  Jason pulled open the back seat door and sat.

            “The Wendy’s down on Seneca please,” he said quietly.

            “Wendy’s?” said the driver who suspiciously was shaking his right wrist violently. “Got it.”  He pulled out quickly and drove around the corner down Spring.  Jason watched as the man maybe seven years older then himself nervously fidgeted with his pant-leg.  He appeared to be only half paying attention to his driving. 

            “Hey you ok?” asked Jason which slightly startled the driver.

            He regained some composure and nodded with a very muffled, “Yup.”  Jason’s awareness began to grow as the driver stopped to pick up a second hailer. A middle aged African man opened the door to get in.

            “Oh my apologies I did not know it was taken,” said Tekali as Jason shook his head quickly.    

            “No no it’s fine, I’m just down the street,” he muttered a little frightened of the taxi driver at this point, who continued to show oblivious behavior even to the new-comer.  Jason always thought that if a driver already had a costumer they would not stop to pick up a second. 

            “Thank you very much.  I will pay for you’re ride.  I just want to get home after a hard day at work.  My name is Tekali,” he said in a very thick African accent

            “Jason.”

            “Nice to meet you Jason,” he said as he walked around back with his backpack and hit the trunk.  The driver’s eyes popped wide open as he swallowed deeply. 

            “Uhh the trunks broken just stick it up front here ok!?” called the driver back to Tekali.  The trunk looked fine to him.  No dents or signs of damage, but he started around for the front seat.  Cautiously he opened the door not showing too many signs of awareness and stuck his bag securely in the seat.  As he leaned through the door into the sunlight a bright spark ignited from his collar area.  It extended about a foot and vanished as soon as Tekali pulled his head back out of the cab to get into the back seat.  Only Jason noticed it as the others did not flinch as he did.

            Tekali walked around to the other side of the cab and sat in the seat, fastening his seatbelt.  He shot a curious glance at Jason who was a little perplexed by the spark.  The car pulled out heading for Wendy’s.  Another illuminated bolt flew off of Tekali’s body, this time from his belt.  He gasped slightly.  Glancing down he appeared to realize what was happening. 

            “Get away! Get away!” shouted Tekali as he emitted a great orange ripple from all around his body that engulfed the taxi.  The driver hit the breaks heavily and the taxi careened out of control into oncoming traffic.   Several crackles of what appeared to be lightning emitted from all around the orange glow surrounding the taxi.  A dodge pickup swerved to miss the taxi and piled up on the curb, the driver shouted every curse he could think of. 

            Then the taxi came to a halt; the orange field still lingered.  Jason panted heavily and shared a glance with Tekali.  None of the passengers could muster words to describe what happened next.  As people began to stare at the glowing taxi a massive black bolt ripped across the sky, through the buildings and clouds as though they were one entity.  Motion outside of the vehicle continued as if the crack was not there, people were snapping photos with their camera phones.  

            The sky and buildings were cracked along one colossal tear. Tekali sat with his jaw hanging from his face as all went quiet, the rip remained. The driver attempted to curse but his breath escaped him as he flapped his lips.   For only a few seconds this silence was present as instantly the taxi was whiplashed up violently and came crashing down.  The crack in across and through the city grew bigger and bigger, more branches began to sprout from it.  Jason caught a quick glance out the window and noticed that they had not left the ground, but the ground was contorted into a torrent of ripples. He attempted to grab onto the door handle to escape before the whole ground rippled upward again into a bucking motion firing the taxi up into the sky.  People were still taking pictures as though the taxi had only stalled.

             The driver hollered as the taxi galloped what seemed to be higher, and higher into the sky and then all became weightless.  They did not fall.  The taxi came to a stand still.  The cracks in the sky pulled themselves inside out and sucking the sky and city of Seattle with them like a curtain with a drawstring.