The Hiding

The Hiding:Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Tim’s eyes peeked to find the early morning sun rising, bringing a blue overtone through the blinds of the 2 story house he grew accustomed to since it was left to him after his mother and father died 2 years ago.  They worked hard for their house.  His mother worked part time as a librarian, the other time as a housewife. His father was a doctor who believed in many things, but mostly in the principles behind driving an old beat up Volvo to work everyday.  He cared for his old Volvo, replacing the engine once; making sure it was being as good to the environment as it was to him.    He talked about how much he loved to park in the physicians parking ramp at the hospital.  He would park next to other physicians Mercedez Benz and BMW’s just to make them sweat the idea that someone in a crappy old Volvo might carelessly open the door too wide.  He always thought it was ironic how much they can be so open to hearing and addressing others flaws, while spending so much time trying to hide their own.  His parents own commitment to the reality of the human condition is what finally ended their lives. During a medical missionary trip to Africa, they were killed by rebels.  After their death, Tim received a lot of things.  His favorites were an old beat up Volvo, and the 2 story house with a 3 car attached garage that it sat in.
The house consisted of a 3 dimensional appearance, consisting of tan siding with a rock stone accent.  The French window design, with white inlayed slats brought an elegance to the front, and it’s double wide front door was welcoming to the 1 or 2 friends of Tim that came by to visit.  It was located just north of Des Moines on 20 acres of much sought after wooded timberland.  Des Moines was like a fat man between thanksgiving and Christmas, always getting fatter.  His father purposely kept the woods and his 20 acres to keep a sense of isolation from the encroaching golf courses and housing communities that were built 5 years ago to the south.   
After Tim dragged himself out of bed, he walked down the rounded staircase that edged toward the landing in front of the doublewide doors.  He walked to the kitchen to begin his morning routine of turning on the coffee pot.  When he opened the front door to retrieve the morning paper from the front stoop, the freezing cold reminded him of the cold night before.  Suddenly the cold air turned frigid with a hazy gust of wind, capturing the small snow particles and blowing them past his face.  Just as the gust rushed by, he heard the faint sound of his own name, masked inside the thick of the wind. He quickly closed the door, standing, listening to the eerie silence, the wind stopped blowing beyond the door as soon as it shut. Tim looked over both shoulders, feeling the same shiver up his spine that he felt the night before. 
         A beeping sound from the kitchen slightly started Tim, but then he knew his coffee was ready.  Walking over to the kitchen counter to retrieve the aromatic drink, he grabbed a bagel, and then headed for the dining room to relax at the official start of his vacation.  Sitting down at the dining room table, he opened to find a story that caused him to drop his bagel onto the floor. 
The main headline read “Scientist Murdered” with a picture of Dr. Tyler Bekin under the caption. One of Tim’s fathers long time friends, Tim maintained contact with Dr. Bekin because of a long standing trust that had been set up for Dr. Bekin’s research, with Tim maintaining the power of attorney. 
Just then, the phone rang from across the room. Looking at the caller ID, Tim saw that it was his long time friend, Jen, and Tyler Bekin’s daughter.  Their fathers were friends long before they were born.  Tim and Jen grew up as best friends.  They once dated in their early college days, but following the break up they didn’t talk for 2 years.
         “Did you hear the about Dad?”  Jen’s voice sounded rushed and course, as if she had been crying for hours.
         “I just opened the paper.” Tim replied.
         “I need to meet with you, it’s important and I’m scared.”
         “Where are you at?” Tim was fumbling out of his chair, rushing up the staircase to his bedroom to get dressed.
         “I’m at home, but I need to leave here.  I don’t know it they are coming after me.”
         “Who would be coming after you?”
         “ I’ll talk to you about it later.  Let’s meet at the Starbucks on Merle Haye, north of the interstate. I just don’t know.”
         “Alright, I’ll be there in 10 minutes.”
         “Make it 20, I have a longer drive” Jen replied.
         “Thanks.”  Tim hung up the phone and got dressed, unsure of how this might interfere with his lunch date with Alyssa.

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Tim drove up to the coffee house, but quickly saw Jen sitting in red Volvo S 60  on the opposite side of the parking lot, her hands at 10 and 2 on the steering column.  Tim turned his car and pulled up beside her.
“I’m really sorry-
“Can we drive through and talk on the road?”
“Yea, let me grab my bag.” Tim reached across his seat, grabbed his bag and exited his car.  He sat down in the passenger seat.  The car was silent as they pulled through the window getting 2 Venti coffees with some medium blended expressive named flavor, and pulled away from the Starbucks.  Conversation was usually lighter between them.  Following there 2 years of silence, they reconciled their relationship, and enjoy an outspoken common misunderstanding of why it didn’t work out in the first place. 
“What happened to your father?”
“I’m not sure.  Last night my dad called me and told me to leave the house and not go back, and to meet him at Salorville Park.  He didn’t show up.  I waited 2 hours.  I tried calling him, but he didn’t answer.”
“Did you try going back to his house to see what happened.”
“Tim, there is something that is not making sense about all of this.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, my dad always talked about it, but I didn’t understand where he was coming from.”
“What are you talking about?”
“It’s hard to explain,” her eyes crimped as though she was having a flash back.          “My father always talked about being able to hear and see another side, but I didn’t understand.  He told me that his job was to work on something that involved opening communications with the “other side”.” She placed imaginary quotations into the air.          
“The other side.”  Tyler said with a wrinkling of the eyebrow in disbelief.  “No, from what I understand, he has been funded to work on creating clean energy for small, underdeveloped countries. My father has been funding his work for years with a trust.  I know this because my father was as much involved with Tyler’s work as Tyler was.”
“Still, I am confused about what happened to your father.  Why didn’t you go back.”
“My father prepared me for this day.  It’s like he knew it was coming.  He told me if someday he called asking me to leave, to not ask questions, and to not go back.  He said some people might change their mind about the progression of his work, and that it as serious enough that we all might have to leave. He often said it jokingly, but when he called me last night, he reminded me of this, and now he’s gone.”  Jen’s lower lip began to quiver as she approached a stop sign.
Tim felt a sense of urgency as his heart began to race.  He knew it wasn’t because of Jen getting upset.  Tim began seeing a similar hazy figure from last night now standing in front of him in the middle of the road.  Now gaining a new understanding of what was coming, his gut feelings directed against his common sense.
“Run the stop sign!  Step on it -now!” Tim yelled with sudden urgency.
Just as the message computed in Jen’s brain and the Volvo S60 Lunged forward, the back window blew out, blowing glass shards throughout the car.  Both Tim and Jen ducked down as bullets began pelting the trunk.  Once the sound of the dull thuds stopped hitting the car, Tim looked back and saw a man standing behind a bush, talking into a radio getting smaller as they sped away.
“That was them, did you see who it was?” Jen asked, frantically looking in all mirrors as she sped down the residential street, turning suddenly to change her course of direction.
“No, I didn’t get a look.”