The Stolen Man: Escape, Episode 2-7
(S.M. Table of Contents)
You are walking along a quiet street. Too quiet. It’s like those scenes form the spaghetti westerns when the two gunslingers are about to meet. The kind where a piece of newspaper or a tumbleweed blows across the street and the music begins to pick up in the background. Of course there is no music, not even a tumbleweed. It’s all very still.
To say you are walking is a bit of an exaggeration as well. You are trying to walk, but if Dan were not supporting most of your weight you would instead simply collapse into a heap. Your hearing seems to be returning a bit and you are relieved for that, but either because of the confusion in your head or the fact that you can only hear in bits and pieces, like a phone with a bad connection, you are having a hard time making sense of his words.
You shake your head, hoping to clear it but it only starts a noise like static, and a momentary confused panic that too much of that will tip your head right off your neck.
You are holding your hand tight in against your body. It seems to be throbbing. You glance down at it. The red welt has spread and your hold hand seems to be an angry red color now.
You try to pay attention to Dan, but all you can make sense of is, “…some coffee…talk…fine…rules…everything…laws…rules…understand.”
Dan is trying to lead you somewhere, his hand poking out of his white lab coat. Wait, he’s not wearing a lab coat, that’s your dream. You look again, no lab coat. You have to rest, just for a second. Trying to listen, think and walk all at the same time is too much. You lean back against the wall of the building you are passing. Is it Sunnyvale? You try to turn your head up to look, but as you do you feel yourself tipping to the side. Dan supports you but it’s too late you are sliding down the ground. You hearing is going again, and now your sight is too. You are pretty sure your eyes are open but you can’t see anything at all. You close them. That’s better. You think you hear Lorelei laughing but that’s impossible because right at this moment, you are dying on the sidewalk in front of Sunnyvale (at least you think so)and Lorelei is somewhere else, putting a picture back into an envelope. Now she’s examining her hands. A very small pinprick sore, not angry, not a welt, is on her hand. She covers it with a small bandaid and looks again at the envelope in her hand. She shakes her head and laughs.
This ends Episode 2: Escape.