Chapter Four

He sat in front of the computer for hours trying to figure out how he could help. He clicked link after link never finding a way to get around it. The only way to get around the incredibly difficult situation was to go through with it. There was no other way. As remote the possibilities were he had to continue to try, for Stacey, and the baby. His eyes blurred as he thought of that tiny creature just coming into life; how could someone do something like this? How could anyone want to do this to a child, no to an infant, a mere baby? They couldn’t do anything themselves, they had to depend completely on an adult to make sure that they live another day.
Desperate with a new hope the elderly man sat in the lab frantically trying to figure out any possible way to get around the set rules that the Chief of the mission had lain down. It was sickening to think of that man in the ranking power. He was so high above them that they couldn’t do a damn thing about it even if they went to the head council. He had such an outrageous way of telling a lie that everyone had to believe it.
“I guess what Hitler said was right…” His voice trailed as he continued to search the screen in front of him for a way out.
“And what was that?” The younger man was leaning against the doorframe intently looking at the man of grey. The older man, for an instant, had a look of fear in his eyes until he realized who it was. Motioning his head to the computer, “Did you find anything yet?”
“Not a damn thing.” The older man shook his head with defeat, “There’s no way we’ll find anything in time. It’s already been a week that baby’s probably long gone by now.” Resting his elbows on the desk in front of him and putting his hands on his forehead to rest his eyes, the younger man put a blanket of comfort on the older man as his strong hands rested on his shoulders. The older man, despite himself, began to sob. Slow and steady at first with only the silent tears that were searing down his cheeks. Then it turned into a great lurching wail as he clenched to the young man’s shirt. The young man walked to the front of the sad old man and held him in his arms, a touching sight even for a criminal that had any heart at all.
“It’s alright Pops, we’ll find him.” There was a familiar determination to his voice, “We’ll find him dad, we’ll find them both.” As the young man held his elderly father, he noticed something flashing on the screen and could hardly believe his eyes.
“What was it that Hitler said again Pops?” His eyes didn’t move from the blinking screen.
Coming to his senses the young man’s father answered, “The bigger lie you tell the more that they’ll believe it.” There was a sudden smile on the young man’s face, his eyes still didn’t avert from the screen. The father noticed this, “Son, what on earth are you looking at? And what does Hitler’s quote have to do with-” He turned and saw what his son was impishly smiling at. He himself started to smile; he turned and patted his son on the shoulders. “I think we’ve found a hole my dear boy! I think we’ve found where Chad’s messed up!”

*********

The laughing and fun that everyone was having, continued well into the night. Once it was dark someone had run to the shed and pulled out the tiki torches. Against the night sky it was beautiful, no one was splashing as hard in the pool as they were earlier. Most everyone had adjourned to the hot tub to relax their muscles; there was Meg and Gerry along with Irene and Chazz in the hot tub, and Brandi and JJ with Marie and Travis inside watching an older movie, When a Stranger Calls. A thriller where the baby sitter of some children are stalked by an unknown source till the end of the movie, duh, otherwise it wouldn’t be a thriller!
The guys were dispersed among the hot tub, lounging in the pool, and watching the movie. Ricky and Stacey on the other hand had been out of sight for a while and no one bothered to see what they were doing, nor did they care. They didn’t want to mess up destiny and have their friends hurtling to their death just because they aren’t together, so everyone just went on, laying there and enjoying each other’s company.
In the hot tub Irene and Meg were talking seriously about shopping the next day at American Eagle and picking up some things from Abercrombie. Chazz, Gerry, and Jose on the other hand were, as their usual, talking about cars and how much they were looking forward to seeing Chazz’s new Ferrari, while Skeet just lay in the pool relaxing looking at the stars. Gliding towards the sliding glass door and going into the living room you’d see Brandi and JJ occupying one love seat and Marie and Travis occupying the other. With Junior, Rudy and David on the floor watching the movie like schoolgirls about to get dumped before prom. All the rooms were empty inside the house other than the living room where the movie was, outside in the back yard there was nowhere for them to hide… Where were Ricky and Stacey? If you guessed the front yard, congratulate yourselves… You’re wrong! Ha, sorry but they’re really on the street taking a walk. So I guess you were close if you guessed the front yard.
There they were, walking slowly under the cascading moonlight holding each other and each other’s hands softly. They walked together in equal steps that were coinciding with each other’s steps, and Stacey’s head was resting on Ricky’s shoulder. They were silently walking down the street heading to the nearby park, just wanting some fresh air.
“It’s really nice out tonight isn’t it?” Stacey’s voice was quiet, looking around her almost as, if she spoke too loudly the beauty of the night would shatter into a million pieces.
“Yea,” Ricky agreed looking at her and not up at the stars, “it really is beautiful isn’t it?”
She looked over at him and saw that he was staring at her. She smiled sheepishly and rubbed her hands together to give them something to do. She looked around her; there was nothing around the park other than a couple of young girls that looked no older than 14 sitting in the park giggling and more likely than not talking of boys and the future. There was nothing else surrounding the park other than an old run down red car. “I remember what that was like.” She said sitting on one of the swings and digging her toes into the sand to sway herself.
“Remember what what was like?” Ricky occupied the swing next to her and looked at her quizzically.
“Those girls over there,” She pointed out the young girls on the top of the playground near the tallest slide. “I remember what it was like to be that young and care-free.” There was a short pause and a small hint of regret in her voice, “I wish I could visit those days…” She breathed in the night air and closed her eyes. “If only for a day, I’d be happy to live as a child with no cares or responsibilities for just one day, I could play with Bianca Gonzales like the old days…” She trailed off before she finally whispered, “Just one day.”
Ricky watched her intently as she held her eyes closed tight. She was beautiful, this he knew, and he knew it well. She was gorgeous and he was lucky to have had a child with her if only for brief time. He had hoped, though, that Chad would have dissolved from the picture and it would have been him and Stacey. He moved his gaze from Stacey’s smooth face and looked over at the young girls that were giggling and looking in his direction, when their eyes met the girls giggled and looked away quickly. He smiled and laughed to himself.
“They like you.” She stated simply without even opening an eyelid.
Ricky was amazed and some what confused. “How could you possibly know that? You didn’t even see them look at me.”
“Didn’t have to,” she stated. “I was fourteen once, and whenever I saw an older guy at thee park I always tried to get their attention. Trust me,” she said opening her eyes, “you’ll be old news by next week.” She looked at him and smiled a gentle smile. She closed her eyes again, feeling a bit weak and nauseous.
“You ok Stace?” Ricky could sense that she wasn’t feeling alright.
She held her stomach, and felt a gross familiar nausea rush towards her. Quickly she turned the opposite way and threw up in the sand. After a moment another wave hit her and she threw up once more. Ricky’s firm hand was on her back, patiently waiting for her to be through. This wasn’t the first time she had felt like this.
Wiping her mouth with the edge of her towel that was wrapped around her waist from earlier she looked wearily at Ricky.
“What’s wrong? Did you catch something from swimming today?” Ricky’s concern was real, and it was appreciated. It wasn’t like the fake and over dramatic concern that Chad put on just to make Stacey feel more comfortable around him.
“The only way that I could have caught something from that pool is if Chad and I were in there a few months ago. Which I don’t need to tell you that we weren’t.” Her voice was suddenly quieted as she looked around once again. Her eyes went anywhere but to his face, she wouldn’t look at him, she couldn’t look at him.
He stayed silent for a moment contemplating what it could have meant. Suddenly his face dawned with understanding, “Stacey…” There was a long pause, “Have you taken any tests?”
“No need to, I know what it is, and I know how it feels. I’d guess it’s as far as three maybe four.” She continued to look anywhere but his eyes or face anywhere but that direction. There was a distant annoying sound that was starting to hurt her ears.
“Stace, you need to take one, it’s safer that way.” He touched her hand clenched to the metal rings holding up the swing. She flinched slightly at the sudden touch of familiarity. Her ears were ringing, that noise! Why wasn’t it stopping? It was really hurting her ears and she was starting to get a headache. A familiar headache. One that only came from one thing. Before she knew what she was doing she was frantically looking around.
“Stace, what’s the matter?” Ricky was incredibly concerned now.
She continued to look every where, but she didn’t see anything, “That sound, it’s my baby! I know his cry, he’s here somewhere.” And then she saw it, a short woman pushing a stroller and her eyes pushed past her light cardigan sweater, and zoomed in on the young face twisted into a wail from a baby that she had felt inside her womb for nine months.
“Stacey, it’s just someone’s baby that’s crying. Michael’s gone, there’s nothing more we can do. Please don’t make it harder on yourself.” She had started to walk towards the baby’s cry like a zombie in a world of the dead. He grabbed at her arm, she wrenched free.
She spun on her heels almost making him crash into her, “His name is Nicholas.” With that she tore from him and ran as fast as her legs would carry her across the park. The lady had already put the boy in the car seat and had put the stroller away; she was heading to the opposite side of the car when something that Stacey saw made her stop and almost trip over herself for stopping so quickly. The woman had frozen just as Stacey had, but Stacey was in terror. Sheer terror. What she saw would haunt her for years to come even when she had found happiness once more. For the woman had no face, well not that she could see. She hadn’t noticed before, that the woman was wearing a small vintage hat that formed to the crown of her head. Attached to the hat was a black veil making it impossible to see any facial feature that she would have.
Ricky had come up behind her and gently put his hands on her shoulders; she jumped from under them and screamed an unearthly scream which she still doesn’t know if it came from her, or the other woman. For Stacey found herself running after the beat up red car that screeched into the night. Frantically she searched for a license plate number, but there was none; there wasn’t even a license plate. Pumping herself harder she ran and ran after the car until she could breathe or run no more. Hitting the asphalt hard she started to fade out. The last thing she remembered was Ricky leaning over her with the two young girls behind him crying and talking fast into one of their cute little pink cell phones.
Ricky propped her up and tried to comfort her, “Stace just calm down, you’ll be ok, you had quite a fright.”
She tried to push her lips together to make a sound but nothing came, it was all in babbles. The only that could be understood was “I tried to get him back, I tried so hard, I ran fast, but they got away, they left, I ran, I ran, so familiar, it was so familiar and I ran, I ran, so familiar….” And then, her vision went black.

**********

Things were so relaxed at the house everyone was just sitting around eating, and talking as the movie was finishing. Marie pushed another dipped chip into her mouth and chewed smiling and trying not to laugh. “Travis shut up! You’re gonna make me spit my food out.”
Across from Marie, Travis had jumped up when he heard the My Humps song and was dancing around trying to imitate a hip hop dancer, turning out to look like he was doing the monkey. “I can’t help it, when I hear this song I just wanna dance!” He continued dancing as everyone else couldn’t hold it in and started to laugh uncontrollably. Travis got so into it that he pulled Marie up and tried to get her to dance the same idiotic way that he was. Didn’t work very well because she ended up elbowing him right in the face.
“Oh my gosh, baby I’m so sorry!” Marie held his face in her hands and tried to look at his face. “Are you ok?”
“Yea I’m fine,” He continued to smile and laugh. “Guess we just got a little carried away.” He kissed her on the lips and they smiled at each other.
Things started to get loud once more as a cell phone started ringing. It continued to ring and no one bothered to answer. For a few minutes things went on and then it started ringing again. “Hey!” Jose shouted over the noise. “Whose phone is this?” He held up a silver camera phone that was playing the theme song from Disney’s Cinderella.
Meg looked at him with a look of sheer annoyance, “its Stacey’s who else would have the Cinderella theme song as her ringer?”
Jose shrugged and handed the phone to Meg, “Maybe you should answer it.”
“Who is it?” She asked reaching for the phone. “Huh, I don’t know this number.” Flipping open the phone she spoke loudly into it, “Hullo?” There was a silence, “Hullo? Anyone there?” She motioned to Skeet to turn down the music.
There was a muffled noise that sounded like a voice, but she couldn’t make out what it said. “I’m sorry could you repeat that?” Meg had her finger in her ear trying hard to listen to the muffled voice.
Finally she heard the fuzzy voice on the other end, “Do you know where Stacey is?” The voice was calm and cold, almost like she didn’t care what she was saying.
“I’m sorry,” Meg replied, “she’s not in right now, can I ask whose calling?”
“Do you know what happened to Stacey?” The voice continued to grow colder.
“Excuse me?” Meg started to have a hint of worry to her tone. “What are you talking about? What happened to her?”
“Tell her if she wants to catch him, she’s out of luck.” And then there was a click and the line was dead. Meg slowly dropped the phone from her ear and closed the phone.
“Meg, babe, what’s wrong?” Brandi’s smile dropped from her face, “Meg you’re pale as a ghost, what happened? Who was that?” She rushed over to her and looked Meg in the face. She snapped her fingers in her face, “Meg!” Meg gave a jump, “Snap out of it, what happened?”
Meg tried to say something but she couldn’t, she felt faint, what happened to Stacey? What was wrong? Better yet, who was that that was on the phone? What did they want with Stacey? And who was she trying to catch? Meg put her hands on her forehead and lowered herself to the ground.
“Baby, what’s the matter? What’d they want?” Gerry was kneeling by her trying to get some information out of her.
“They…” She started, “They… they were asking about Stacey…”
Skeet cut her off, “Of course they were asking about her, it’s her phone.
“No.” She had her voice back, “They said something happened to her, they were asking me about it. And then they told me that if she wanted to catch him she was out of luck.” She was silent.
“Who’s ‘he’? Who was she catching?” Irene was confused along with everyone else.
“I don’t know.” Meg said quietly. “I don’t even know who that was.” Just then two young girls burst through the door.
“Someone call the police.” The blonde girl shouted.
“No, call the ambulance first.” The shorter blonde girl shouted louder.
Turning to the shorter blonde the first one yelled, “No Katie, they need to call the police in order to get the ambulance people here!”
“Mary, you have to get the ambulance first she might die!” Katie yelled back.
“But if you don’t call the cops then that scary lady will get away!” Mary screamed.
“Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!” Jose yelled walking in between the young girls and holding his hands in front of their faces. “Hold it! First of all who are ya’ll? And what are you doing in my house?”
The girls started talking so fast and at the same time no one could understand them. “Shush!” Jose rolled his eyes, “What is this about?”
Mary took over, “It’s about Stacey! She’s hurt real bad.”
Katie continued, “And that scary lady did it!”
Everyone looked at each other before Jose asked the next question. “Where are they?”
“At the park!” They both shouted together in perfect unison. With that everyone got up and ran to the park.