The Story Begins (28 page)

“So,
how did it go, sir?” Phil asked as Jaden entered the sergeant’s office.

“I believe that Krappa and I now have a better understanding of each other,” Jaden said, taking a seat on the edge of the sergeant’s desk.

“I thought to come up there when I saw you headed up,” Sergeant Phil said.

“Oh yeah! Why?”

“Because I wasn’t sure if you could carry on a conversation with Lieutenant Krappa and successfully get your point across without opting to simply resort to trouncing him after enough stupid shit had come out of his mouth,” explained the Sergeant.

Jaden laughed.

“I heard you get a little loud but not enough for me to believe that a serious pummeling was about to occur.”

“Nah, I’m always cool, for the most part anyway. I may have a bark but I really don’t have much of a bite,” Jaden told him.

“I don’t know, sir… for some reason I think your bite is unimaginably worse than your bark.”

That sounded familiar. Jaden changed the subject. “Hey, do you still have Lydia’s number? I accidentally deleted it.”

“Roger. I’ll text it to you when I get back to my quarters. I forgot my phone at the barracks.”

“All right, thanks.”

27

A Presence Unknown

Lydia was lying
in bed watching television when her phone buzzed. It was a text message without an originating number.

“Hi.”

“And who might you be?” she wrote back.

“A friend,”
was the simple answer.

“Does this friend have a name?”

“Yes
.”

“May I ask what it is?”

“You may
.”

“Okay – what is it?”

“I said you may, I didn’t say that I’d say
☺”

“Okay, I’ll play along… for now. How did you come by my number?”

“I’ve always known it.”

“How?”

“Does it matter
?”

“Yes, because I don’t know you.”

“Good answer!”

“It’s a crazy world; one can’t be too careful these days.”

“How right you are. You say it’s a crazy world yet you continue to write a stranger.”

“I don’t know why but I get the overwhelming feeling that I can trust this stranger.”

“Yes, you can. Your instincts have never failed you nor will they ever.”

“Still does not answer the question of how you came by my number.”

“I know everything about you and suffice it to say that you have always known me as well.”

“Then why not tell me who you are?”

“You will know in time.”

“You’re writing in German so you cannot be who I otherwise would have believed you to be.”

“I can just as easily write to you in the tongues of both your mother and father.”

“You speak both Spanish and Portuguese?”

“Si, eu falo Espanol y Portugues.”

“Who are you, really???”

“Time has kept us apart and will yet still but distance now favors us. I must go. Goodnight, beloved.”

“Are you still there?”There was no reply. Whoever it was, was now gone.

THE FOLLOWING DAY: Lydia and Cassandra couldn’t be any more content sitting in an ice cream parlor, each enjoying a cone, after having suffered through the scorching heat as they walked from bookstore to bookstore searching for the books they needed for the upcoming semester.

“Back to school in a couple of weeks already,” Cassandra cried. “Why do good things always come to an end?”

“C’est la vie, sweetie,” Lydia said smiling while thinking about how Cassandra, like many children, had disliked school as a child and still did as an adult. “At least we’ve got the books out of the way. I’m glad we beat the rush. Oh! I almost forgot to tell you. Last night someone was texting me.”

“Really? Who?” Cassandra asked.

“I have no idea.”

“Jaden maybe?” Cassandra suggested.

“Unless, in addition to English, Jaden can also speak and write in German, Spanish and Portuguese, it could not have been him.”

“How did whoever it was get your number?” a concerned Cassandra asked.

“Didn’t say.”

“Guy or girl?”

“I have no idea. I get the feeling that it was a guy though,” Lydia guessed.

“Did he say anything about himself?” Cassandra asked, now feeling very apprehensive.

“No, not really. He said that we both know each other but that was about it.”

“Did you try concealing your number and then calling back the number it came from a little later?”

“I couldn’t. It was as if he wasn’t using a phone, the internet, or anything else that I am aware of from which a message can be sent. The messages simply just showed up. The phone would buzz, I’d see the little message icon but then that was it, nothing more,” Lydia explained.

“This is creepy. I don’t like it!” said Cassandra.

“It kind of is,” Lydia assented.

“If he writes again, tell him to leave you alone. People are crazy these days,” Cassandra asked of her.

“I feel like I can trust him. I don’t know why.”

This really alarmed Cassandra. “I don’t like this at all! Please tell him to leave you alone if he writes again,” she besought.

“Don’t worry about it, Cassandra. I’ll be fine,” Lydia assured her. “It’s not like I’m going to meet with him or anything of the sort. And if he starts to sound crazy, I’ll stop. I’ll even change my number, okay?”

The reassurance allayed Cassandra’s fears. “Okay
.
” She thought of Phil. “Could Phil have given your number to someone other than Jaden?” she asked rhetorically.

“Jaden!” said Lydia, only now aware that he had her number. “You mentioned him earlier but it didn’t click in my mind until now that obviously he’d have to have my number for him to have been considered a possibility. The answer would seem obvious but
does
he have my number?”

“Yes,” Cassandra answered. “He didn’t believe that we had invited him to the get-together so Phil gave him your number so he could find out for himself if it was true or not. I guess because we had met only once before, he found it difficult to believe that we’d invite him when we barely know him,” Cassandra explained.

“Okay.”

Cassandra rummaged through her purse. She found what she was looking for.

“Who are you calling?” Lydia asked.

“Phil.”

“Why?”

“To ask him if he gave your number to anyone else?”

“Cassandra, it’s okay. Stop worrying. I don’t believe Phil would have given out my number to anyone else. If you’re going to call Phil, you might as well call Jaden while you’re at it. It could just as easily have been him, though I can’t imagine who else either one would want to give my number to, or why. Stop worrying, it’s okay. Besides, the person said we’ve known each other for some time and though I don’t know why, I’m really inclined to believe him.”

“I’m still going to call,” Cassandra insisted. “It’ll make me feel better to know that Phil didn’t give it out to anyone else. And if he did, he can let us know who before I then give him a piece of my mind for having done so.” Cassandra was quite upset.

“Amor, if calling makes you feel better you should call but don’t let yourself get worked up over something you don’t know for sure, okay?”

“Okay,” Cassandra consented.

Before Cassandra could call, Lydia asked, “If he says no then what?”

“I don’t know,” she admitted then called.

“Hello,” answered Phil.

“Phil!” Cassandra said, sounding troubled.

“Cassandra, are you okay?” he asked, troubled by Cassandra’s tone.

“Phil, did you give Lydia’s phone number to anyone?”

“No… yes, the lieutenant,” Phil said.

“Other than Jaden,” she asked as her mind wandered off to other possibilities if Phil were to say no.

“No,” came back Phil’s answer. “Why? Is everything okay?”

“Someone we don’t know has been texting Lydia. Do you know if Jaden might have given her number to anyone?”

“The lieutenant? No, not him. Are these threatening messages? Could it not be any of your friends?”

“No, it isn’t anything like that, at least not yet anyway… we’re just trying to figure out who it could be. It couldn’t be any of our friends either; none of them speak Portuguese or Spanish nor would they have reason to give our numbers to people that we don’t know.”

“Tell her to be careful, the world is full of psychotic people,” Phil cautioned.

“I’ve already let her know.”

“Good! You can never be too careful these days; just be sure to report this to the cops and the phone company if things start to get weird,” Phil advised.

“I know,” Cassandra agreed.

Feeling eased Phil changed the subject. “So, what are you two up to?”

“We’re at an ice cream parlor, taking a break from the sweltering heat. We just finished getting our books for school,” Cassandra said. “What are you up to?”

“Some of the guys and I plan on going out later and getting hammered.”

“Hammered? What do you mean? Are you working on something?” Cassandra asked, curious as to why Phil would be hammering anything.

He chuckled. “No, it’s just an expression meaning we’re going to get drunk.”

“Ach so!” she said.

“I’ll give you a call later, okay?” Phil said.

“Alles ist klar.”

“If you keep this up, it won’t be too long before I’m speaking German,” he joked.

“That’s the idea!” Cassandra said, giggling.

“Tschus,” he said, hoping that he, in fact, was saying bye in German and not anything mean.

“Very good!” Cassandra commended. “Tschus,” she said then lay the phone on the table.

“So, the mystery is no closer to being solved,” Lydia observed.

“No. Phil is certain that Jaden hasn’t given out your number to anyone. Have you told Mom and Dad?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Didn’t occur to me.”

“I know you say not to worry but whoever this person is, if he or she doesn’t let you know who it is you should tell the person to leave you alone.”

“I think you worry too much, Cassandra. He didn’t write anything that was cause for concern.”

“That may be; that, though, does not change how I feel. Fine, he may not have written anything alarming just yet; however, countless stories of encounters that started out innocently enough yet ended horrifically abound the world over,” Cassandra reminded Lydia.

“Again, amor, you worry too much, with good reason I understand, but you really need not be concerned. Please trust me.” Lydia sounded very confident.

Cassandra was puzzled by Lydia’s confidence. “What makes you so sure, so willing to trust when you have nothing to go on?”

“I honestly don’t know but I’m positive that I need not fear.”

Cassandra thought this beyond belief. “Wow! Had it been me, I’d be freaking out!”

“You think?” Lydia teased.

“I also think I’m more curious as to who this person is than you are.”

“You just might be,” Lydia agreed. “I’m really in no hurry to find out. The intrigue makes it all the more fun.”

“And for how long do you intend to carry on like this, assuming that he or she writes again?” Cassandra asked.

“Until it plays itself out, I guess,” Lydia said rather absent mindedly. Her cone was now empty. She contemplated getting herself another helping. Some other time, she decided.

“I wish I were as courageous as you!”

“No need to be, you’ve got yourself a soldier!” Lydia teased.

A
FEW EVENINGS LATER: Lying in bed with the television on, even though she wasn’t watching it, Lydia looked over at her muddy shoes on the door-mat, wishing she had cleaned them out front at the entrance of the building. Walking in with soiled shoes had left a trail of mud which, if followed, would have betrayed the perpetrator. It had rained quite heavily earlier in the day and the route she had walked home that evening had been quite muddy.

She then turned her attention to the bookcase adjacent to her television-stand. She decided that she’d read a book. As she got up, her phone beeped. “Why is the phone beeping? I don’t have any of my settings on beep. The setting is actually on silent. Not even the vibrating alert is on,” she said, baffled. She reached for it. It was a text message. She opened it.

“Hello.”

She knew who it was. “Hi, stranger.”

“How are you?”

“I’m okay. And how are you?”

“I’m well. You say that you’re okay?”

“Yes. Why?”

“Being okay could imply that you could be better.”

“Then what would you have me say?”

“That you’re good.”

“Okay then, I’m good.”

“Good. That’s better.”

“Better? Well isn’t ‘best’ one up on ‘better’?”

“That it is.”

“What then need I say that you might say that that’s the best response?”

“I don’t know… I suppose you could say that you’re terrific.”

“Then terrific it is!”

“Do you much care for this arrangement?”

“That you know me whilst I remain in the dark about you?”

“Yes.”

“Being one-sided makes it intriguing.”

“How long before you must know?”

“I am curious but in no hurry.”

“Is there a reason you are in no hurry?”

“No. I don’t think so… maybe I’m intrigued as this has never happened to me before. I’ve had people try to prank call me but nothing like this. If this is a prank, it’s more elaborate. You are not obnoxious, rude, or anything of the sort.”

“No, none of that; however, how can you be sure that I don’t have other kinds of quirks?”

“Nobody’s perfect. Besides, you haven’t written anything troubling yet, nor do I suspect that you will. If you were to become obnoxious then we would not be texting anymore.”

“Nobody’s perfect. Wise answer. How right you are.”

“Merely an observation on life.”

“Not too many share your wisdom.”

“I don’t know that I’m wise but I do try to be open minded and fair.”

“Have you told anyone about me?”

“Yes, a friend of mine.”

“And how did this friend react to your pen-palling with a stranger?”

“She doesn’t like it at all. She says that it isn’t safe.”

“And right she is, save I am the exception, I and one other
.”

“Who?”

“If I haven’t told you much of me, why think you that I’d say more of another
☺”

“Just thought I’d chance asking the question ☺”

“I must go. I’d ask you to say hi to Cassandra, however, that would frighten her even more and we wouldn’t want that now, would we ☺”

Lydia lay in bed, petrified, unmindful even that she held her breath, and her eyes blinked not. Her very thoughts seemed to have been stilled. Once she remembered her emotions, she then began to panic. It was just then, however, at that very moment, that she felt her spirit quieted by an emotional flood of serenity. Though no longer fearful, her curiosity was most certainly roused.

“WHO ARE YOU, REALLY? And how do you know about Cassandra?” She wrote back. She then received a familiar message. The message, however, did not come as one would expect to receive a text message; it did not come as a text at all. Rather, glowing individual letters were created and formed in the air before her eyes. Astonished, she dropped the phone. When completed, the message read: