Kassie’s Car: To San Francisco

THE CAR RIDE seemed as if it would never end. A seemingly endless spread of pavement opened in front of her as the car moved forward.

Kassie Tom was still in shock that her father was dead. Death. The word seemed to loom over her, and she wanted to get it away. But it was there, and it happened to everyone -- eventually.

Comforting, she thought. She passed a sign reading ‘You’re now entering San Francisco.’

She knew her mother, Darla, lived near the outer rim of the great Californian city. Nothing like Presence at all. Big buildings, noisy streets… she wondered why her mother never stayed in Presence. It would be perfect for her.

Kassie read the street signs as she continued to move forward.

‘Bourbon Street.’ That was what she had been looking for.

Kassie made a sharp left turn and slip down the smoothly paved road. There were beautiful trees and lush grass on all the houses. The sky had opened up earlier, and is spread sunlight everywhere.

“This is why,” Kassie smiled. It was so perfect; it even looked like she would want to live there.

Kassie pulled into the driveway marked with a ‘46’ and stopped the car. Her mother’s home was gorgeous. She had been there only once to help her move. That was it. She exited the vehicle, walked up the cobblestone walkway, and knocked on the wooden door. She heard footsteps from within.

A man opened the door.

“Excuse me?” Kassie said, questioning the man at her mother’s home. “Who are you?”

The man smiled at her. “You must be Kassadine. You have your mother’s eyes.” He stared at her, and then continued. “I’m Robert.”

Kassie nodded. “Hi, Robert.” She was still confused. “You are here why?”

“For your mother. She called me about the news, and I can over as soon as I heard. I am truly sorry for your loss.” He passed her and walked down the walkway, then turned back to her. “Nice car.”

Kassie nodded, and then entered her mother’s home.

“Mom?” she called out, expecting a reply.

Darla came into the room, her face beaming. “Honey. I wasn’t expecting you. What a pleasant surprise!” She came up to her gave her a giant hug. “I’ve missed you.”

“I’ve missed you, too,” Kassie replied. She quickly changed the subject. “You’re holding up well. It looks like Robert did a good job of cheering you up.”

Darla nodded weakly. “You saw him?”

Kassie nodded. “Nice guy. A friend?”

Darla nodded again. “From work. He has been so nice to me; I didn’t know whom else to call after you. I didn’t think you’d come all the way here.”

“Sure I would,” Kassie stated.

“Good to hear.” Darla motioned for Kassie to follow her into the den. “Did you want to talk?”

“Yes.” Kassie followed her mother. “I have many questions for you regarding my father’s trip to Switzerland. Why was he there, anyways?”

Tom Residence

Sitting on the bed, Jake Geary stared at a picture of Kassie. She had left him to see her mother that evening. It was 7:00 and he was already missing her.

He was restless, and knew he wasn’t going to sleep anytime soon.  Jake got up and exited the bedroom. He walked down the hall and to the front door. He opened the door and peered out into the night.

He stared across the road to Gillian’s home.

He wanted her, too. It was a crazy feeling he had inside him, but it was there nonetheless. Jake immediately closed the door and walked into the kitchen. He reached into the fridge and got a cool beer from the bottom.

He looked around for something to do, but he could keep his mind off Gillian.

I need to do something, Jake thought. Anything…

Jake walked over to the kitchen counter and took a pen and some paper. He then crossed over to the kitchen table and sat down, placing the beer a foot from the papers. He wrote…

“From you secret admirer…”

Evans Residence

The perfect plan, Gillian thought. She exited the kitchen and walked into the living room. There was no sign of her mother, and she was glad.

“Iris is perfect to set up with Giovanni,” Gillian spoke to herself. “Iris gets a guy. Giovanni gets a girl. I’m happy. And my mom can find someone else.” She walked to the phone. “Now to call Iris…”

Presence Beach

“Breathe!” Mateo Consuelos screamed to the woman lying in the sand. He checked her pulse and felt nothing. “Oh, God!”

Was she dead? Was he sitting next to the body of a dead woman?

Could he have checked the pulse incorrectly? He tried checking at her throat. He pressed his finger against her cold skin. He checked for it.

Lub, dub…

It was there!

Mateo breathed a deep sign of relief. She still wasn’t breathing, so he gave her mouth-to-mouth again. He pressed his warm lips against hers (cold, of course).

“One… two… three…” Mateo counted. “Check breathing… One… two… three…”

He continued for a few minutes. He checked her breathing, and he felt it. It was a breath on his cheek! She was breathing.

She was alive!

A strange man with a knife stood outside Iris’ house at the front door. He was going to give her the surprise of her life, and wasn’t going to make her forget it...

Torres Residence

The doorbell rang and is scared Iris half out of her mind. She had been thinking about the message she received earlier that day. Someone knew what she did.

She got up cautiously and made her way to the door. She got to the front, and peered through the side glass.

No one.

“Strange,” Iris said. Why would there be nobody at the door? Could it be a trick? The neighborhood kids might be pulling some pranks.

She glanced a second time and there was still no one.

Iris shook her head and made her way back to the living room. There was then a knock at the door.

“Who’s there?” she yelled out.

Then the phone rang                

She was breathing, and this made Mateo smile. He could now see her chest move up and down. She had finished coughing up some water.

She opened her eyes and stared up at Mateo.

“Gah!” she screamed. “Woah... You..." She coughed, then continued. "Who are you?”

“I’m Mateo Consuelos. I saved you from drowning. Do you remember how you got here?”

The woman thought. She was very pretty with dark brown hair and a Latino toned skin. Her clothes were wet and she was shivering slightly.

“I don’t remember…” she breathed.

“Do you remember your name?” Mateo asked hopefully.

She thought bout it.

“No,” she said, frustration growing. “God, I can’t even remember my own name!”

Downtown San Francisco

“Gimme the money!” Dean Consuelos was screaming at one of his clients in the alley. “You promised, and I don’t want you breaking your promises!”

Dean had been demanding the money from this customer, but the customer kept putting it off. These people really pissed him off, and he wasn’t very pleasant when pissed off.

“I d-don’t have it…” The customer was stuttering like a fool.

“You said you’d have it for today!” Dean could hear police sirens in the background. They weren’t after him, but he could be in trouble if seen.

“I…”

Dean took out a gun and pointed it at the customer.

“Oh, God!” the customer cried, hysterical. “I’ll have the money tomorrow morning. I swear!”

“You’ll have to do better than that!” Dean clasped the trigger. The sounds of sirens and cars clouded the tense scene. The gun lay pointed...

Iris looked at the door as the phone rang. There was no second knock, so she rushed back into the living room and caught the phone on its third ring.

“Hi!” came Gillian’s voice on the other end.

“Oh. Hi, Gilly.” Iris walked out of view of the door, through the living room, and into he kitchen. “I’m sorry I brushed you off tonight.”

“No problem.” There was a pause. “But I can make it up to you!”

Iris stopped and rolled her eyes. “I know that tone of voice. What have you come up with this time?”

“You know me so well,” Gillian joked. “It has to do with a guy. I’ve found someone that you’d like, and he works at ‘Natural Exposure.’”

Iris immediately thought of Adam King. He was sweet and handsome – and rich. They worked together most of the time, though she didn’t understand why he was working there. He could have had a life in politics.

“Who is this mystery guy?”

“He is tall… dark… handsome…” Gillian teased her. “He is a great person, and I just know you’d love him.”

“Does he have a name, or did the catalogue let you give him his own name.”

“Very funny… his name is Giovanni,” Gillian blurted.

The photographer. Iris had only heard about him, and he was one of the best they had. Iris turned around and made her way to the stairs.

“I’ve heard about him… tell me more…”

She passed the front door and ascended the stairs across from them.  Iris continued talking, as the camera a pan to the door that is slightly ajar.

It had been opened.

“You father was in Switzerland for business,” Darla began, taking a sip out of a glass of water. “I was never into what he did, but it was for his computer company. A promotion. I’m sorry, I really don’t know.”

Kassie nodded. She was shifting in the Lazy-Boy. Her mother’s home was beautiful. She couldn’t stop staring around. “What have the Swiss authorities told you?”

“Nothing that I couldn’t have watched on a news report.” Darla smiled faintly. “The only difference is the six o’clock news gets the information first. Go figure. Reassure the public, then contact the families.”

“What information is that?”

“That there was a mechanical error. I believe it was a couple frayed wires that generated a spark. There was a engine short out, then it went down.”

“And the body?”

Darla took another sip. Her hand was shaking terribly. “Body? They are going to contact me when it has been recovered.”

Kassie got up and pushed a strand of blonde hair from her eyes. “I’m going to Switzerland.”

“Why?” Darla got up and walked up to her daughter.

“Questions and answers.” Kassie turned to her mother. “I want to confront the airline myself. I want to know why my father died, and get his body. We’ll bury him here.”

“No,” Darla quipped. “Bury him in Presence. He always liked it more there. Quieter.”

Kassie nodded. “Mind if I use your phone?”

“Not at all.” Darla pointed to a table in the coroner of the room.

Kassie dialed the number of US Airlines. She talked to the service woman and ordered a ticket for that evening.

She was going to Switzerland.

Jake had finished the letter. He walked to a small cupboard in the corner of the kitchen that held office supplies and slipped out an envelope.

Jake took the written note and slipped it into the rectangular fold of paper. He signed the envelope with the pen he used to write it.

‘GILLIAN.’

He licked the thin strip of glue. He sealed his message inside.

It is anonymous, Jake thought. She will never know. I don’t know if I can ever tell her. She just has to know there is someone out there for her.

He quickly rushed across the kitchen, down the hall, and sprinted out the door in his sandals. He crossed the road to Gillian’s house.

“There.” Mateo had draped the woman in a nightgown. Her wet clothes were in the drier. “Doesn’t that feel better?”

The woman nodded. She still was confused. It was obvious she was trying to remember her name, but wasn’t succeeding.

Mateo walked to the kitchen. “I’m going to make some cocoa. You want some?”

“Skye.”

Mateo to turned to her. “What was that?”

The woman’s eyes opened wide. “I remember. It is the only thing I remember, though. My name is Skye. Skye Lore.”

Mateo rushed to her and smiled. “That’s great. You could even start getting your old memory back.

Skye shook her head. “I doubt it. I had an idea for my name. I have no clue with anything else.”

“I’m sure you will…” Mateo rubbed her back. “I’m going to get that cocoa.”

“But,” Skye continued. “I feel very strange. I don’t know why. I just know something terrible is going to happen.”

The gun remained pointed. The siren still echoed through the streets. The cars still came rushing by. And he still didn’t have the money.

“I’m sorry.” Dean's finger was still unmoving from the trigger. “But I have given you enough time. And my boss has given me specific orders. It’s you, or it’s me.”

“God, no…” The customer was on his knees.

“Try to guess who it is. A hint: It isn’t me.”

He fired the gun!

The bullet raced through the misty air and hit the customer square in the chest. He let out a groan, and then collapsed on the ground.

A dark pool of blood began to develop around the body. He was dead.

Dean took his gun and placed it back into his jacket. He didn’t know if it was his mind or not, but the sirens seemed louder and closer.

He took on last look at the body, and then turned back down the alley. He jumped the fence and raced into the darkness. He needed to find a place to stay.

Mateo.

Iris made her way upstairs. She was still talking to Gillian on her cordless phone.

“He seems nice enough,” Iris said. “But I have this strange feeling that there is more to this than meets the eye – on in this case, the ear.”

“Of course!” Gillian chuckled on the other end. “You know me too well for there not to be a catch.”

“What is it?”

“My mother…” Gillian was cut off.

“Jeez!” Iris flicked the mouthpiece with her finger. “What is it with you two. Is your mother going out with him?”

“No… no that I could see. She just invited him over really.”

“I really can’t do this… you know me…” Iris paced back and forth in the upstairs hallway. “I can’t get into other people’s affairs. It isn’t me.”

“Well maybe it should be,” Gillian pressured, but still friendly. “You could land yourself a man quicker.”

“Gillian!” Iris turned into her room. “It is just me. I’m me. Me.”

As Iris enters the room and moves to her bed, we see a shadow move in the halls. She continues to argue with Gillian on he same point. The figure is masked in darkness since Iris hadn’t turned on the lights.

“Gillian I don’t need a man that desperately…”

We follow the figure’s feet and he steps quietly into Iris’ room. Iris was at the window of her house looking out while talking. The figure neared as she talked. He was several feet behind her.

“Gillian, this is your problem. You can’t take my word for anything. I’ll get a man when I want one. Right now, I’m going to let Mr. Right come to me…”

And with that sweep of irony, the stranger wrapped his arm around Iris’ throat and pulled him into her. Iris choked and dropped the phone.

“Iris?” Gillian asked. “Is everything all right?”

Iris was struggling with the stranger. Then the stranger reached around with his other hand. He was wearing black, torn leather gloves. And in them was a knife.

“No!” Iris screamed. The knife swung around and plunged into her side.

“Iris?!” Gillian called into the phone again. She could hear the struggle ensue. She heard the scream come from the other line. Then she heard what sounded like stabbing.

Iris let out a groan. She crumpled to the floor.

“Iris!!” Gillian was now screaming. She was standing in her hallway, and sure that she was going to wake her mom. “What is going on?”

Iris moaned.

“Oh, God!” Gillian was terrified, and keeping in the tears. She was strong. “Iris. Jesus. Are you there? God, please be all right?”

No sound.

“God…”

She had listened to her friend die.