Beyond Reality Page 8

"What are you doing?" Todd whispered as he stepped towards the man whom entered his cell.

  "Be quiet ole sport," the man said, "I am getting you out of here." Todd immediately recognized the man as being the astronaut who he had seen walking around town in the previous days.

  "But why are you helping me?" Todd asked.

  "Because I knew Helen," the man proudly said, "I probably knew her better than anyone else here, except for you. Whenever she came into town she would always come to me first and tell me how things were going and how she was handling things. We had been friends for a long time, but I knew things could never go anywhere between us. She was a married woman, and we both respected that." Todd was shaken with what the stranger was telling him, but the past few days had shown how often and extreme surprises could otherwise be.

  "Yes?" Todd inquired, holding strong to the memory of his wife.

  "Well," the man began, "I knew her well. And I know that if I lost a woman like her . . . I couldn't hold myself down either." The man's eyes lifted and Todd saw a sorrow within him.

  "Thank you," Todd softly said. The stranger nodded his head and turned around before grabbing Todd's arm with haste.

  "Come on, ole sport," he said, pulling Todd from the cell, "you have to leave." The two men jogged to the front doors and peered out. "If you can get out of town, they won't follow you," the man said, "I have seen it happen with drunks and stragglers before. It's just not worth it to track down anyone. On rare occasions they might send out an APB though." Todd looked out the windows and found barely anyone on the streets.

  "Where is everyone?" Todd asked.

  "It's lunch hour," the stranger said, "Everyone's at the bar." The dark-hair man turned to Todd and grabbed his attention. "Sheriff Meyers had your car towed, so you won't be able to drive out of here, but the nearest town is roughly ten miles away. There is a bus station there." Todd nodded and calculated in his head how long it would take him to reach the town.

  "There is a good chance that someone can give you a lift," Arnold continued, "you might have to get out of town first before-"

  "No," Todd interrupted, "It's alright." Todd turned his eyes away in thought before cracking a small grin. "I will walk . . . but what about my things? Do I have time to go back to the hotel?"

  "I wouldn't worry about it," the man answered, "Lunch hour in this God-forsaken town is nowhere as short as an actual hour. Just travel lightly."

  "Okay," Todd said with admiration as he extended his hand to shake hands, forgetting that he had yet to learn the stranger's name "ummmm . . ."

  "Arnold," the man said, taking Todd's firm grasp. Todd smiled.

  "Thank you, Arnold." An exchange of appreciation passed between the two men, and just as Todd placed his hand on the door's handles, Arnold grabbed his arm once more.

  "By the way ole sport," Arnold said, lowering his head slightly, "She never said this, but I know she would have wanted me to tell you . . ." Arnold lifted his head and looked Todd in the eyes, "She was very sorry, and . . . she wanted more than anything to just go home." Todd was overcome with emotion and was teetering on the verge of tears, but Arnold could tell it was a delicate moment and, straightening himself up again, returned to seriousness. "Now get the hell outta town."

  Todd nodded his head once more in admiration and threw himself out the doors before speeding down the abandoned sidewalk in the direction of the hotel. He ran past house after house, store after store, until coming upon the hotel and sneaking through the doors to find the woman at the desk was gone. Todd ran down the desolate halls and found his room with the door still wide open. He walked inside, shut the door, and looked around the lonely room.

  Knowing time was not to waste, he threw his suitcase on the bed and tossed in a handful of candy bars, papers, and clothes that he had not yet even worn. Then he took his suitcase and laid it out below the desk where his miniature houses and figures stood. Todd suddenly stopped and stood motionless in front of the desk; staring at the buildings. He noticed the church with a bell tower and a crucifix on the top, a cowboy figurine, a restaurant with many people gathered next to the window, a small hotel, a space man, a sheriff's office, and homely houses with bushes surrounding their porches. These images finally computed into Todd's head and he quickly felt a deep regret. With his eyes filling with sorrow, he reached his hand out to pluck one of the figures from the shelf and put it back into his suitcase, but another idea came through his head. Instead, he left all the ceramic models alone and thought of Helen, and of her love for the very place he had not too long ago come to find as acceptable.

  After taking a step back and looking upon the ceramic collection of his wife's once more, Todd zipped his suitcase shut, took it up, and left the room, closing the door with a sense of enlightenment. Todd left the room key on the desk in the lobby and then went out the main doors with his suitcase to find the streets still empty.

  Todd walked down the sidewalk in the direction that Arnold had indicated and watched as the edge of town drew closer and closer. The barricade around town had vanished, along with the artillery craters that littered the pavement. Todd's eyes scanned the remainder of houses he had yet to pass while solemnly watching as the horizon beyond city limits began to expand.

  "Come on! Throw it here!" shouted Billy Doleman as he appeared in front of Todd between two buildings aligning the street. The quick boy ran out into the deserted street while carelessly looking behind him. His big brother, Bobby Doleman, soon stepped out of between the same two buildings with a football in his extended arm and watched as his brother kept running further across the road. Bobby finally let the football fly and Billy caught it with great form.

  Todd began walking towards Billy before the boy even noticed that anyone else was in the area. The boy turned towards Todd and clasped the football between both his palms as he looked up with intrigue. Unaware if the boy could remember their previous encounter, Todd stopped a few feet from Billy and looked at the youth with uncertainty.

  "Hi Billy," Todd spoke but continued without allowing him a moment to reply, "I don't know if you remember me or not, or what we talked about before . . ." Billy squinted his eyes and parted his lips as if to speak, but he instead kept silent and attentive, "but if your dresser is still talking to you, or if it comes back . . ." Todd paused and hoped that the child in front of him provided an exception to the overnight change in town, "or if you hear voices again, please tell it to come visit me overseas."

  Billy stood attentively and nodded his head in understanding. Todd smiled gently and then walked past Billy who was soon accompanied on the streets by his brother. Bobby wrapped his arm around Billy's shoulders, and together they watched Todd leave Kinston city limits.

  -The End-

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  This is the story of a young boy who leaves school and begins a journey to find his lost parents who live on an alien planet.

  Along the way, he witnesses a terrorist attack and joins the military, and his life changes forever.