David had kept the taxi waiting as he knocked on his mother\u2019s front door. She hadn\u2019t answered, which came as a disappointment but no real surprise. She hadn\u2019t answered her phone either, and David had no idea where she was. He now had nowhere else to go but home.<\/p>\n
So he climbed into the back seat of the cab, gave his apartment address, and closed his eyes, desperately hoping to drift off to sleep. He had the beginnings of a headache, which was starting to bother him. Still, it didn\u2019t keep him from drifting off until somebody spoke.<\/p>\n
\u201cWild night, innit?\u201d<\/p>\n
It took him a couple of seconds to realize it was the cab driver talking to him. \u201cYeah, pretty wild,\u201d David muttered, closing his eyes again. Take the hint, David thought. Shut up and let me sleep.<\/p>\n
\u201cTerrorists. In LA. Who\u2019d a thunk it, huh?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah,\u201d David said. \u201cLook, I\u2019m kind of tired. You mind if I\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t let me bug ya,\u201d the cab driver said earnestly. \u201cNo problem.\u201d<\/p>\n
David thought that was the end of it until the guy turned up the music. Idiot!<\/p>\n
For a fleeting moment, he thought he felt his hands swell, but he buried that feeling with ease. This guy\u2019s annoying, but he\u2019s not going to die for it.<\/p>\n
\u201cCould you\u2026\u201d David began.<\/p>\n
\u201cToo loud?\u201d the driver said. \u201cSorry.\u201d He turned down the volume dial. The music was still annoying, but it was just white noise. It didn\u2019t take long for him to drift off to sleep.<\/p>\n
He started dreaming almost immediately.<\/p>\n
David knew he was dreaming, which allowed him to distance himself from what he knew was coming. His mind cast back to an unnaturally warm January in Bel Air, the night he had chosen to come back to his father\u2019s house. He knew he was supposed to be excited \u2013 he was standing up to his mother, he was becoming his own man \u2013 but he knew how the story ended. Every time, he tried to talk himself out of doing what he did then. But that was why he was here, wasn\u2019t it? That was the way real life had played out, and he had to follow suit.<\/p>\n
Those were the rules of the dream.<\/p>\n
He heard himself scream again as he looked into the dimly-lit pool and saw the lifeless eyes staring back at him from the bottom. He had screamed before, in the real world, but his heart wasn\u2019t in it the way it was the first time. He wasn\u2019t surprised. He knew how improbably odd and strange they were, how they looked desiccated, mummified, bone dry while surrounded by water. But he still screamed, out of duty to the dream more than anything else.<\/p>\n
He turned at the appointed time and saw the familiar figure coming toward him.<\/p>\n
Only this time, the dream changed. His hands swelled up; he reached out to grab him before he had a chance to speak. I could squeeze the life out of him faster than popping a zit\u2026<\/p>\n
No! That\u2019s not the way it works!<\/p>\n
But he couldn\u2019t help himself. He could feel the tiny body between his colossal hands, feel the life draining out of him the way it had abandoned the figures lying like dead weights in the pool behind him\u2026<\/p>\n
No. No.<\/p>\n
\u201cNO!!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSorry, man,\u201d the real-life cabbie said, \u201cit\u2019s one of those special reports. They just broke into the music. I didn\u2019t mean to wake you.\u201d<\/p>\n
David rubbed his eyes and tried to get his bearings. He had come out of that dream so many times before, but never to a reality that was just as strange, or even stranger\u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s been report of another terrorist attack in the Reseda area,\u201d a voice from the radio voice intoned. \u201cDetails are sketchy, but \u2013 \u201c<\/p>\n
Click. The driver had turned the radio off.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sorry. Really,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can go back to-\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTurn it back on!\u201d David ordered fiercely. The driver, looking startled and somewhat annoyed, sheepishly complied.<\/p>\n
\u201c- in an apartment complex. The masked stranger from the earlier Westwood incident was sighted, along with his female companion, who bystanders say was injured in the blast.\u201d<\/p>\n
A female voice broke in. \u201cTodd, why this apartment?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWell,\u201d the first voice answered, \u201cwe know very little, but one report say this apartment was being rented by David Chakiris, son of Olympus Studios Chairman and CEO Leo Chakiris.\u201d<\/p>\n
David thought his heart was probably still beating, but he couldn\u2019t be sure.<\/p>\n
His sense of purpose, however, had suddenly returned.<\/p>\n
________________<\/p>\n
She was alive. For the moment, that was enough.<\/p>\n
Jeff was grateful for each and every one of Lisa\u2019s breaths as he carried her out of harm\u2019s way back toward the UCLA emergency room. He knew there were likely closer hospitals, but his sense of direction was lousy; he couldn\u2019t see the signs without his glasses, and he didn\u2019t want to take chances. Even without glasses, it was easy enough to follow the freeway route back over to the West Side and then back to the place he\u2019d dropped off Vikki. He flew hunched over her, almost backward, in order to shield her from the wind resistance, which allowed him to travel far more quickly than would have if she were conscious. He made it from Reseda to UCLA in record time.<\/p>\n
Once he got to the hospital, in the blink of an eye, he was able to swoop in, deposit Lisa in the lap of the startled nurse on duty, and then swoop back out again.<\/p>\n
He used the next few minutes to hover and think.<\/p>\n
He was balanced on his back, drifting through the now-cloudless night as if he were floating lazily down a stream. His body was perfectly at ease while his mind was racing, and he wasn\u2019t sure what to panic about first. Where was Walthius? Not that he could have helped. Both Lisa and Vikki were wounded. He was now a wanted terrorist. His parents were probably about to have a joint heart attack. And his car was trashed, totaled. Not to mention the killer giant on the loose, or the movie studio head who was probably nothing but ashes. So where to begin?<\/p>\n
He looked down at his ankles, which were glowing in the moonlight. Stupid tights, he thought. What was Walthius thinking?<\/p>\n
Good question.<\/p>\n
Jeff looked at his arms and realized for the first time that the tights had escaped the explosion entirely unscathed. He checked his torso and his legs for signs of burns or scorch marks. Nothing. Not even some fraying around the edges. It was perfectly intact. It was even clean. How does that work? Jeff thought. There was more to this suit than spandex.<\/p>\n
What was<\/em> Walthius thinking?<\/p>\n His thoughts of self-pity took a detour to consider this new evidence. Walthius wasn\u2019t the least bit surprised when he heard the news about Jeff\u2019s inexplicable transformation. Walthius prepared for all this. Walthius had this miracle suit ready made for the occasion. Walthius was at the home of the giant, talking to a studio executive.<\/p>\n There was more to Walthius than met the eye.<\/p>\n Somehow, Walthius was at the center of everything that had happened. Clinging to the thought of this infused him with a new confidence.<\/p>\n But it also made him mad.<\/p>\n Jeff didn\u2019t understand the particulars, but he knew Walthius somehow did. That didn\u2019t strike him as fair. He wanted to know why. Why would he know all this without confiding in me? Without telling me everything? The friend he\u2019d known for over a dozen years was now a complete enigma.<\/p>\n Just who was Walthius, anyway? \u201cI\u2019m her brother,\u201d David told the nurse. \u201cI need to see her right away.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m sorry, what?\u201d she said. David could barely hear her \u2013 the emergency room was alive with activity in every corner, filling quickly with victims from David\u2019s attack earlier. David had even thought he\u2019d recognized one of them, and was terrified that maybe they recognized him, too. He was sure that at any moment he might be discovered. His agitation was not out of place in a hospital that was seeing more than its share of action tonight.<\/p>\n David looked out the front window to see his cab pulling away. He wasn\u2019t even sure he was at the right hospital, and now his ride was gone. He turned back to the nurse and hoped things wouldn\u2019t get too messy.<\/p>\n \u201cDidn\u2019t you hear me, lady?\u201d David said, shouting. \u201cI said I\u2019m her brother.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhose brother?\u201d the nurse asked. She was speaking blandly, unruffled by the frenzy around her.<\/p>\n \u201cComing through!\u201d yelled an orderly directly behind David. David dodged a stretcher that almost rolled directly into his back. Watch where you\u2019re going, he thought. He felt his hands begin to swell\u2026<\/p>\n \u201cHer brother<\/em>?\u201d said another nurse sitting on the other side of the station. \u201cIs that what you said?\u201d<\/p>\n David exhaled slowly. His hand seemed to do the same. He turned to the other nurse, smiled, and said, \u201cThat\u2019s right.\u201d Maybe this one would be more sympathetic, he thought. There will be no need for a more\u2026 physical solution.<\/p>\n The other nurse wasn\u2019t smiling. \u201cWho did you want to see again?\u201d<\/p>\n David\u2019s hand twitched again.<\/p>\n \u201cLook, it doesn\u2019t matter anyway,\u201d said the first nurse. \u201cWe\u2019re too busy right now for visitors.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI need to – \u201d<\/p>\n The nurse cut him off. \u201cSir, if you\u2019ll just take a seat, I\u2019ll call you over when things calm down.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAre you even listening to me?\u201d David\u2019s voice was rising. \u201cBecause I just need you to listen to me\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n A burly man in an official-looking uniform appeared from what seemed to David like out of nowhere. \u201cWould you come with me, please, sir?\u201d the man said. His voice was polite, but his hard eyes were not.<\/p>\n David stared back at him. You think you\u2019re tough? I\u2019ll show you tough\u2026<\/p>\n No. No, I won\u2019t. It was like holding back a river with one outstretched hand, but David managed to keep the giant-sized rage from drowning him. The rage river slowed to a trickle. David was back in control.<\/p>\n \u201cWould you like to come with me, sir?\u201d the guard asked again, exactly as he had the first time, which made it all the more threatening the second.<\/p>\n \u201cIt can wait until tomorrow,\u201d David said, smiling pleasantly. He walked toward the door and waved at the nurse, who had gone back to her business and didn\u2019t notice him. He waved at the guard, too, who saw him and didn\u2019t wave back.<\/p>\n \u201cFine,\u201d David mumbled, and, out on the street, he turned to go. He made his way to the parking lot when he saw an ambulance turning toward a different rear entrance. They pulled someone out of the back on a stretcher, and they started wheeling the patient in to the hospital. Paramedics, nurses and family members were swirling around the scene. Another ambulance pulled up behind them. It was total pandemonium.<\/p>\n All that lying about being her brother was just a waste of time, David thought. In the end, it was too easy. He made use of the confusion to slip in through the rear door unnoticed.<\/p>\n I\u2019m in, he thought.<\/p>\n He breathed a sigh of relief, and then he set off looking for Vikki Dennis\u2019s room.<\/p>\n ________________<\/p>\n Unable to assuage his anxiety, and having nothing much better to do, Jeff was now distracting himself by playing what amounted to a superheroic game of chicken. How low could he go without being spotted? He was bobbing up and down in the dark above all of the comings and going around the emergency room. He began by hovering about ten feet above the heads of the visitors, and then lowered it to five feet. In one manic moment, he actually brushed up against a woman\u2019s head, which he was sure would be the end of the game. Instead, the lady just reacted as if she\u2019d felt a stiff breeze. She patted her hair down and kept moving.<\/p>\n Nobody ever looks up, Jeff thought. I could do this all night.<\/p>\n Or I could do something else.<\/p>\n As soon as he thought of the plan, he put it into motion. The ER sliding doors opened, and at just under the speed of sound, Jeff whisked into the waiting room, hoping that the entry into the actual hospital wing would be open.<\/p>\n They weren\u2019t. So Jeff clung to the eight-foot ceiling, just a couple of feet above the nurses, and prayed that no one looked up.<\/p>\n No one did.<\/p>\n The room was jammed, but no one had the time or interest to look toward the ceiling. Jeff crabwalked a few feet to see whether the movement would attract anyone\u2019s attention. Still nothing. Jeff resisted the urge to chuckle. After a moment, the doors opened, and Jeff darted into the main holding area and practically glued himself to the ceiling. He banged the door on the way in, making a fairly loud noise, and Jeff looked back to see if anyone would notice the source of the disturbance.<\/p>\n This time, someone did.<\/p>\n It was a toddler, a blonde, curly-haired little moppet who saw Jeff up where Jeff shouldn\u2019t have been. Jeff made eye contact and waved feebly, and then quickly put his \u201cshushing\u201d finger to his lips to keep the kid quiet.<\/p>\n The kid\u2019s eyes grew as big as saucers and filled with tears. His mother, who was consulting with the doctor next to her, turned to pick her up.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s wrong sweetie?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n Jeff was sure that the kid\u2019s next move would be to point in his direction, so he dashed from the ceiling to an open closet and, after landing without making too much noise, he gingerly shut the door and flipped on the light.<\/p>\n It was a linen closet.<\/p>\n Sheets and clean surgical clothing adorned the utilitarian shelves. Jeff saw an opportunity to get out of his tights and into something less noticeable, and he wasn\u2019t about to let that pass. He rummaged through the piles until he found a pair of blue XL scrubs. Then he grabbed his tights by the neck and started to pull them off.<\/p>\n The tights vanished in his hand.<\/p>\n The instant he\u2019d taken action to remove them, they\u2019d removed themselves. Jeff wondered if the opposite would be true. He dropped the scrubs and concentrated on making the tights reappear.<\/p>\n Which they did, the moment the thought entered his mind.<\/p>\n \u201cNice,\u201d he said aloud. He started playing with it, imagining the tights on and then off, over and over, realizing that the clothes responded to his every whim.<\/p>\n This could come in handy, Jeff thought. Or, if I don\u2019t watch what I\u2019m thinking, this could be downright embarrassing.<\/p>\n Jeff donned the scrubs and tentatively opened the door, looking to see if anyone would spot him.<\/p>\n The coast was clear.<\/p>\n He strolled out confidently, passing each room, looking for either Vikki or Lisa. He saw an old man, an old lady, and a guy with a broken leg until he almost ran directly into a bed being wheeled into a nearby empty room with an IV-wired Lisa Meyer on top of it.<\/p>\n And she was awake.<\/p>\n \u201cLisa!\u201d he blurted. She looked at him, and, even as groggy as she was, her eyes brightened in recognition. The orderly wheeling her looked at him quizzically, and a doctor came up behind him.<\/p>\n \u201cCan I help you, sir?\u201d the doctor asked.<\/p>\n \u201cUh, yes,\u201d Jeff fumbled, \u201cI need to see the, uh, patient, with the uh, thing with the \u2013 \u201c<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s my husband,\u201d Lisa said, and the doctor nodded, smiled, and walked away. The orderly took them to a semi-private room in which the other bed was empty. He also smiled, told Lisa to press a button if he needed anything, and then he was gone.<\/p>\n Jeff decided they could talk freely. \u201cA little early to be thinking about marriage, aren\u2019t we?\u201d<\/p>\n Lisa smiled wearily. \u201cI didn\u2019t mean to embarrass you,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s the only way they\u2019d let you stay.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou didn\u2019t embarrass me,\u201d Jeff said, sitting down at the end of her bed. He didn\u2019t tell her that he felt a small electric thrill that she could imagine being married to him, even under such bizarre circumstances. \u201cAre you all right?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey don\u2019t think I\u2019m your accomplice anymore, which is a good thing,\u201d she said. \u201cI told them you\u2019d rescued both me and Vikki, but I doubt they bought the part about the giant. They must think I\u2019m delirious. They even gave me a breathalyzer test, which was kind of a laugh\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s not what I meant,\u201d Jeff said. \u201cIt\u2019s not about me. It\u2019s about you<\/em>. Are you all right?\u201d<\/p>\n Lisa\u2019s face softened. \u201cA nasty concussion and more bruises than I can count, but nothing\u2019s broken or badly burned,\u201d she said. \u201cI got off easy. How about you?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMe?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYes, you,\u201d she said. \u201cAre you<\/em> all right?\u201d<\/p>\n Jeff shrugged. \u201cIndestructible as always.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAny idea what happened back there?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNope.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of help you are,\u201d Lisa sniffed.<\/p>\n Jeff began to protest, but Lisa let out a small, simple laugh. \u201cKnock it off, Jumper,\u201d she said gently, taking his hand in hers. \u201cYou saved my life. Thanks.\u201d<\/p>\n Jeff was taken aback. \u201cAnytime,\u201d he whispered as he felt his pulse quicken.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Davidhad kept the taxi waiting as he knocked on his mother\u2019s front door. She hadn\u2019t answered, which came as a disappointment but no real surprise. She hadn\u2019t answered her phone either, and David had no idea where she was. He now had nowhere else to go but home. So he climbed into the back seat ... 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________________<\/p>\n