Off the Beaten Path (12 page)

The sun had set by the time they left the restaurant and Kristin took them the long way back to her apartment. The night was warm there was a slight breeze blowing in from the ocean. She grabbed his arm with both of her arms and pulled herself tight against him, he could feel the curve of her breast pressed against his arm.

They were not in any hurry to get back to her place as they wondered aimlessly up one street and down the other not in any particular direction. It was her turn to tell him some stories about the place she called home. She pointed out tall buildings that pierced the skyline and small shops tucked onto narrow side streets. Without even realizing it she was telling Jack about some of the people that worked and lived in the downtown area. It was as if she had been collecting these memories all of her life but had never thought about them until this very moment. Jack gently coaxed the memories out of her without Kristin even being aware what he was doing.

He watched her eyes as they moved from place to place and he could sense when there was a spark of recognition in her warm brown eyes. He could also tell when there was pain connected to the memory, he avoided probing her about those memories.

Jack was looking down into her eyes when a shadow of fear flashed across her face. He followed her gaze up the sidewalk straight ahead of them where a small group of gang members had just rounded the corner and was headed straight at them. Kristin shot a pleading glance up at
Jack's face with mild terror in her big brown eyes, a look that screamed, “What do we do now?”

On their way back to her apartment building they had wondered off the main streets and there was no one else on the street, no other people, no little shops open, not even any cars on the street. What she saw on Jack's face was a look that she had never seen before on him or any other man she had ever known. His face had hardened into almost a granite statue quality. His eyes had narrowed and his deep blue eyes seemed to go a dark gray. She felt two subtle adjustments in his body almost simultaneously; first, he moved the arm that she was holding onto almost to the point of cutting off circulation slightly behind him. This slight correction placed her body less than a half a pace behind him, not completely behind him but just enough to give the impression that he was clearly in command. The second thing she felt was his entire body raise up to his full six foot two inch height. It was as if his whole body was taking a giant breath and that every muscle in his body had a fresh shot of oxygen.

Jack looked down at Kristin and gave her a quick confident smile then he focused on the gang coming down the sidewalk in their direction. There were three of them, all dressed like gang bangers and exuding the stench of boredom mixed with a bad attitude. As they approached Jack and Kristin their laughing degraded into a low pitch gutter cooing.

“What have we here?” One of them slurred.

“A couple love birds.” another one of the gang bangers shot back.

Jack looked from one face to the next, he instantly picked out the leader of the gang and he centered all of his attention at the punk in charge. His eyes drilled hard into the leaders eyes. Jack paid no attention to the other two; he knew that their survival depended on crippling the lead dog. Jack tilted his head down just enough so that he looked like a bull about to charge. As they came closer, he held the gang leaders eyes and waited, watching for just the right moment. Jack
was waiting and watching for something that he knew would happen. He was watching for a sign of weakness, a split second when the gang leader would drop the act of being a tough guy and reveal his fear. They were fifty feet away, now forty, now thirty. He kept his gaze on the kid and narrowed his eyes just enough that his entire face sharpened into a hardened piece of stone.

There it was, what Jack had been waiting and watching for. The leader of this little band of spineless criminals flinched. Jack saw for one split second a look of fear, of doubt, of hesitation in the eyes of the gang leader. That is when Jack delivered the final blow, he smiled at the boy. It was not a friendly or cordial smile it showed no sign of fear or doubt. It was a hard, cold, almost evil smile. The look said everything that Jack had intended it to say,

“Are you really sure that you want to do what you are thinking about doing?”

It had the desired effect; the gang leader dropped his gaze. The boy looked sideways at both of his crew with a careful glance. Then he said in a low cautious voice one word, “Gun.” they all went silent and Jack could feel the breath go out of them like they had all been punched in the gut.

When the threesome reached Jack and Kristin they parted and walked around them with their heads down. Jack kept his gaze on the leader and just before they passed each other on the sidewalk Jack said in a friendly but reproaching tone, “Boys.” the three boys did not look up from the sidewalk but they all grumbled in unison, “Sir.”

After Jack and Kristin turned the corner and headed back in the direction of her apartment Kristin looked up at Jack and asked with genuine amazement,

“What the Hell was that?'

Jack looked innocently at her and responded, “What was what?”

She elbowed him in the ribs and said, “Don't play coy with me Mister Evans; you know exactly what I am talking about. Two minutes ago we were certain victims of at least a mugging, and possibly something much worse.”

Jack shrugged and dismissed her allegation,

“Naw, those boys really didn't have the desire to hurt anyone, they just needed to be reminded of that.”

She looked up and smiled at him as she pulled him closer,

“Crocodile Dundee's got nothing on you Jack Evans.”

Jack flashed her a warm smile and responded in a lame Aussie accent,

“That's not a knife, this is a knife.”

They picked up their pace a little as they zig zagged their way up and down a few streets and back to her apartment building. After the good food and their almost death defying walk home they were both anxious to climb into each other’s arms. When they reached the entrance to her building neither of them noticed a man hiding in the shadows across the street nor did they hear the click of the shutter on the camera he had pointed in their direction.

The three of them sat out on the balcony eating breakfast and watching the sun come over the city. It took several minutes and half a dozen pieces of bacon to coax Sam out onto the balcony. She had the same trepidation about the balcony as she did about the escalator. Something just didn’t seem right to her about stairs that appeared from nowhere and a front porch that high off the ground, this was going to take some getting used to on her part.

They ate breakfast and listened to the city coming to life up around them. They heard cars honking and ships blowing their horns as they entered the harbor, they heard diesel buses stopping at their regular stops and the squeal of brakes on delivery trucks making their rounds. They watched Sam’s ears stand up every time she heard a new sound that she had never heard before. They noticed her raise her head and sniff the air with the new smells she had never smelled before. It took Sam almost an hour to work her way to the edge of the balcony where she had just enough room to poke her nose through the railing and look down at the street thirty stories below. After Sam glanced over the edge of the balcony she pulled her head back and looked over her shoulder at Jack as if to say, what have you gotten me into?

Kristin reached down and gave Sam a reassuring rub down the back of her neck, it seemed to help. Sam put her head back down and closed her eyes.

“I’m not sure Sam is going to get used to city life.” Kristin suggested.

“I wouldn’t worry about Sam she’s just like in any other creature she will adapt to her surroundings.”

“Does that apply to people too?”

“Especially people.”

“You’re not going to start getting philosophical on my again are you Jack?”

“Nope, just an observation.”

“What else have you observed about life in the big city?”

Jack finished off the rest of his coffee and set the cup down on the patio table.

“I am not sure that I have been here long enough to draw those kinds of conclusions.”

“Seattle can’t be all that different than Houston?” She said.

“Cities have their own character, people are pretty much the same wherever you live.”

“Then why do the people that live around you seem so different?” She asked.

“They are not any different, they have discovered the secret to life.”

Without even realizing it Kristin sat up straight in her chair and leaned closer to Jack as if he had pulled her closer with his last sentence. The expression on her face was pleading for an answer. Jack leaned toward her and wrapped his hands around hers.

“You might be disappointed, it’s not much of a secret in fact most people have heard it all their life.”

Her expression did not change she wanted to hear it and she wanted Jack to be the one to say it.

“It’s really very simple, Work hard, treat other people like you want to be treated, and enjoy where you are right now in this moment.”

Jack was right, she had heard those words all her life but there was something about the way Jack had said them combined with seeing how and where he lived that gave integrity to his words. She leaned
back in her chair and thought about what he had said. After a minute or two she asked with all sincerity,

“Do people work harder in the country?”

“I don’t think they work any harder, I just believe that whatever they are doing they have learned to value their work. They appreciate everything they do because they have assigned meaning to whatever job they are doing. They understand that even the most menial task has value.”

“How so?”

Jack pointed at one of the tall office buildings off in the distance,

“Do you think a guy shuffling paper in a cubical looks back at the end of his day and says to himself, boy I really accomplished a lot today?”

“Somebody has to shuffle the paper.”

“That’s right, somebody does, the problem is that a lot of the times people don’t see the value in what they are doing.”

“What causes them to not see the value?” `
      
      
      
      
      
      
      

“I think there are a lot of reasons why people don’t appreciate what they are doing.”

Kristin could see where Jack was going with his observation,

“Let me guess, every profession isn’t as glamorous as being a model?”

“That’s part of it, have you ever seen a blockbuster movie about an accountant? There are a handful of professions that are portrayed as the model of success and every other job people perform are just to get people through the week to get them to the weekend.”

“But how does someone enjoy a job they hate?”

“That goes to the third part of the secret, Enjoy where you are right now at this moment.”

“That sounds easier said than done.”

“Not if you stop living on the boundaries.”

“What are the boundaries?”

“Those are things people think about instead of thinking about their work, when they are at home they are thinking about work, when they are at work they are thinking about being home and when they are not thinking about home or work they are thinking about what they did last weekend or what they are going to do this weekend. They are never satisfied with what they are doing right now.

“What about the second secret, treating people like you want to be treated?”

“That’s the toughest one of all.” He said.

“I surprised that you would say that.”

“I didn’t mean for me I meant for people in the big city.”

“Why is it so much tougher for us?”

“It is the sheer volume of people that make it so difficult. Can you imagine knowing everyone in this building? You probably have more people living in this building than we have living in that entire valley back home. If you think about it you have selected a couple people that are really safe and secure to get to know really well, Marcy and Jimmy,”

“And let’s not forget the hundreds of people that cross your path every single day.”

Jack waited for Kristin to absorb the scale of people he was referring to, to let her think about how many people she came in contact with every day and how impossible it would be for her to wave to every car she saw or say hello to every person on the street or to strike up a meaningful conversation with a total stranger in an elevator or a group of people in a corner diner. Kristin was beginning to see the contradiction of people moving closer and closer to each other in the hopes of connecting with other people and discovering that they were more alone than ever.

“I have been saving the real secret for last.” Jack said in a whisper.

“There’s more?” she asked.

“Absolutely, something that is in very short supply around here.”

“What is that, time?” she asked as if the answer was obvious.

“Nope, dirt.” Jack responded.

The look on her face was a mixture of absurdity and disbelief. Jack watched her closely waiting for just the right moment to explain. When he had her undivided attention he continued,

“There are few things as relaxing and therapeutic as a handful of cool well tilled soil running through your fingers. She looked at him suspiciously for a few moments. Jack said with a broad smile, “You don't believe me.”

“I'm not sure I see the value in dirt.” She said.

“There are some things that you just have to feel for yourself, come on, I will show you.” Jack stood up and said, “Come on, let's go.”

“Where are we going?” she asked.

“You'll see, now go get dressed.”

While Kristin was getting dressed Jack called down to Marcy and asked her to locate something for him.