Michael Reinhardt actually entered the outhouse and quickly exited. It would be a long weekend, if his three second dodge was any indication. He slips out of it and then around it, away from the people. He sees a bath and tosses off a quick prayer for some of the luck of the Wee Folk and looks at the ground. A path greets him and he follows it. From the air, it leads to a cabin, one of the two he thinks might hold the old man, Norman Gibbs. Walking down the slight hill he comes to a cabin door. The screen is closed but the door is open, and he peers inside, hoping against hope that Harley's old boss is inside.
Norman Gibbs sits at the small staff kitchen table with a large needle and thick weaving thread. He's making something, a wall hanging that hasn't revealed it's shape yet and just looks like a random mass of braids. Some days that's all they turn into. Norman rocks himself side to side as he works at it quietly humming. The tune is recognizable even, Amazing Grace. It's mournful the way he hums it, haunting even.
Michael peers through the screen and listens to the music. Not a religious man, the music chills him regardless. Glancing to his left at the path from whence he's come and seeing no one, he places a hand on the handle of the screen door and tests to see if it is open. "Mr. Gibbs?" he says in a normal voice. "Norman?"
The door is unlocked and Norman stops humming for a moment and calls out "Who's there? Ziven?" Not waiting for an answer he breaks into song. "I once was lost, but now I'm found. Was blind but now I see....."
Michael gets the idea that the man may be blind, which he wasn't the last time they had met. "No. I'm .. I'm Michael." he opens the door and steps inside. "Harley's .... I knew Harley. You talked to me at the ... cemetery." even now he can't use the word 'funeral'.
Norman's eyes go wide and he pales, dropping his macrame. Clearly he can see Michael and it's triggering something in him "Harley?" It's a moment of lucid recognition but then it slips and he laughs, his eyes shrinking again and the lines around them crinkling "The preacher came...they sent the preacher after the doctor and I thought I was dying. He brought me a bible and sang songs to me, nice songs....."
Michael arches his brows. For a second it seemed he was recognized and then ... this. He moves in. "May I sit?" he asks, even as he does exactly that. "I ...." and for a moment he has NO IDEA what to say to this man. So he goes with his gut. "I thought you were crazy, but you weren't. Were you? You saw ... something. Saw something happen to Harley." it is actually more statement than question he realizes as the words come from him.
Norman picks up the macrame and starts pulling at the threads now, unraveling, destroying. His voice gets quiet and his eyes are on the mess of threads "I'm not supposed to talk about Harley. The doctors....the preacher.......they'll come for me. I'm safe here." Norman starts breathing fast and his head snaps up. He gives Michael a hollow stare "He went...into.... the light."
Just then Charlotte's work boots can be heard clomping down the dock walkway. She pushes open the screen door with a creak and then looks at Michael talking to her father with alarm "What the hell are you doing in here?!" She demands defensively.
Michael understands in many ways why the old man was told not to talk about Harley, but before he can say anything the man says he saw Harley go into the light. But as he opens his mouth to reply, boots sound and the privacy is invaded. He looks at the old man and says quickly. "I saw that too, with another man." before the door fully opens. Instead of being defensive in return, he turns in his seat. "Just talking to your father, is all." he says casually, as if he were a long lost friend who was passing by and stopped in to chat.
Norman smiles warmly at Charlotte "It's Ok Charlie. This is Michael. He's Harley's lover. He's looking for... The light. The preacher tried to tell me it was Jesus.." Norman unraveled the threads so they were one long string now, enough to hang oneself with.
Charlotte gripped her clip board and looked between the men perplexed "What?!"
Michael had been looking at the woman who had entered the cabin, but at Norman's blunt words, his head turns and he looks at him with wide, astonished eyes a moment. No one ... not in his entire life ... had ever come right out and said that to him. It completely derailed him. "He ... told ... you? About me?" he manages to choke out. He'd assumed that, even though Harley was not in the closet that he had kept their relationship as secret on his end as Michael had. Charlotte is, for the moment, not even there.
Norman has no social filter left about discretion. He winds the string through his fingers and carries on "He was suffering not telling and he needed to tell. Don't talk about it.. He said. Then they said don't talk about him. He's not dead..." Norman starts rocking again, his voice agitated "Not dead... Not dead!" He pulls the string so tight it cuts into his knuckles now as he begins shouting "He's not dead!"
Charlotte drops her clipboard and runs to her father trying to grab hold of him. She clasps him in a strained hug and glares at Michael barking "Get out! Now!"
Michael stares at him, swallowing hard and fighting tears. This was not going as he planned. Then the older man gets hysterical and his daughter runs to hold him. Michael blinks and clears his throat. "I'm sorry, ma'am." he rasps, then clears his throat again. "I can't do that." he reaches for the hand with the string wrapped around it and looks at Norman. "I believe you." those were not the words he had planned to have come out of his mouth, but there they were. On the table.
Norman hears the words "I believe you." and something shifts in him, an unspoken release. It's like an instant calm button. He feels the other man's hand on his and exhales, leaning into Charlotte. He starts to tear up too and says hoarsely "People usually tell me I'm crazy."
Charlotte takes in the shift in her father and both he and Michael's emotion and slowly eases out of the hug. She doesn't say anything but sort of gives a begrudging nod and steps to the shelf by the sink, looking for bandages for the cut knuckles.
Michael sighs. "I admit ... when we met at Harley's funeral ... I thought you were too. But I was pretty crazy that day myself." he swallows. "Did Harley tell you we were supposed to get married? I mean I know he admired the hell out of you, so he probably would have. That was the plan. And then ... he was gone. But ..." he moves his hand from the old man but keeps it near. "I saw someone vanish into that light. Just like you did. And I am NOT crazy. My problem is ... I saw this with my own two eyes. How can I deny it?" he is totally focused on Norman.
Norman looks mournfully at Michael "Harley told me about the engagement. Who did you see vanish Michael?" He opens and closes his hands causing the blood to dot along the cuts.
Charlotte seemed to be busy counting out bandages and digging for some antibiotic cream. She sits down with both one chair over from her father and takes his hand, starting to treat the cuts. After swiping antibiotic cream across the lot she says "You saw Lee didn't you?" without looking up.
Michael can feel the slightest of smiles across his face, pleased that SOMEONE beside he, his beard and Harley himself had known about the engagement when it happened. Then his smile fades. "Yea. Lee Chen Wright ... but you can't tell anyone, either of you. I'm not insane and I'm not going to be labeled insane if I can help it, because if I AM I can't find them. Where they actually went, if I can." he sighs. "I'm a cop ... and I've falsified enough reports to give the family comfort." he looks at Norman. "You understand ... I'm a cop ... logic was ... everything to me .. just like Harley was." not that a man considered insane and his daughter would be believed, but he knew ... this was Anna's friend.
Norman nods knowingly. He looks as if a weight has been lifted. Morgan will believe you. He believed me when no one else did." Norman looks pointedly at Charlotte as she bandages the rest of his knuckles.
Charlotte looks between them with a conflicted expression and then catches her father's words and look "I want to. I just need something that can be explained....I'm really trying...I am." She crumples the wrappers from the bandages and gives Michael a hard look "I'll keep your secret, but I don't like it. Anna is my friend. This is her brother we're talking about and her cousin before him...and Harley...and so many. You want me to just believe in aliens or something?"
Michael chuckles dryly. "That's who sent me to find you, but ... all due respect, sir. He isn't exactly the most reliable witness either." he looks at Charlotte. "Miss Gibbs." he would call anyone that if not told to refer to them by their first name most of the time. "I think like you do. There's no aliens, there's no portal to another dimension. No Lion, witch and wardrobe. That's for books and movies." he shrugs. "Until you see a man vanish in a puff of light. Without a trace. If I put that in my report .... who would believe me? I'd wind up like the rest of the Quake Takers ... and lose my job to boot. Even when the drug screening came back negative." he blows out a breath. "I can't go to Lee's family and say never fear, he is alive and just beyond the veil. This isn't Harry Potter. SO I did my job and let them have closure. And sacrificed my own. I took them gently by the hand and led them to believe Lee either skipped town or drowned." he sighs. "And I look forward to the day when Ushi and Anna kick my ass for lying to them when they come back. Cause this has been happening since Cedar Points founding. The problem is .... I have NO IDEA where that light takes people. Maybe its aliens, or Narnia or hell ... they could be at Area 51 or the Kremlin ..." he runs a hand through his red hair. "But I know what your father went through telling the truth and I want to thank him ... but also ... Mister Gibbs ... you need to drop the story. My whole job is finding the truth. If you can't give it up, let me take the torch. I have no idea how to find them but .... I can't think Harley is dead anymore ... or at least I can't think he died that day you saw him vanish." he blows out a breath. "Lying is better than being institutionalized and medicated for telling the truth. But now ... you know there someone else who doesn't just believe you but KNOWS you are telling the truth. Can't that be enough?" and it is then he realizes he may have lied to Ryan about having accepted the disappearance.
Norman sighs "It's been hell. I don't want you to go through it. This has been the safest place for me since it happened and I have Charlotte to thank. I feel connected though, connected to things the light showed me. Spirits, angels...energies. Ziven is very open to these ideas and tells me the traditions of his ancestors. We were not meant to live in the mundane, but to balance with the ethereal. Singing helps sometimes. Wherever Harley is, I hope he can do the same."
Charlotte just looks tired now. This is too much for her to process all at once. She pours herself a glass of water and downs it and then remembers her manners and pours two more, setting one in front of each man.
Michael sighs "That's why I am investigating this all on my own time and not telling anyone that hasn't seen the same thing I have." he rubs his temple. "Well, all I know is what I saw. Did you see anything BEYOND the light .. where Harley may be? Buildings, other people, anything?" he sounds a bit insane, as if its hard for him to not go crazy himself. he reaches for the water. "Thanks ma'am." he looks at her. "Believe me ... I know how you feel now I think. More. I refused to believe in anything I couldn't see with my own eyes ... until I saw something with my own eyes that was ... impossible to all I have been taught."
Norman shakes his head, thinking "It just looked like the room we were in...the light was around him like a full body halo."
Charlotte listens from her chair, after sitting again. She still wears a skeptical expression but keeps quiet, taking it all in. Her father is lucid, more than she's seen him be in years and for that she is both grateful and amazed.
Michael considers it. "I saw he Mayors house and the Lavender Dreams and ..." he pauses, really thinking. "Where the fuck did the school go?" he murmurs to himself. "The school was gone." he considers carefully. "And the houses on the circle were ... different ..." he frowns to himself. "Mister Gibbs .... was it EXACTLY the same? I know its been a long time but ... like ... was there a lamp or ... a light switch or ... were the chairs the same Same filing cabinets? Like that?" he keeps the excitement out of his voice, cause what he is playing with now is simply .. well .. insane and impossible.
Norman closes his eyes, trying to picture the event that took Harley. He's replayed it many times. He starts listing things "Wooden file drawers..a chair...a desk....no wait....there should have been a computer on it...it's a typewriter! I know it even. It's in the lighthouse museum now, Morgan's museum. I donated it as a relic of town life in the 1900s...."
Charlotte looks intently at her father, listening.
Michael considers the words. "I don't know Cedar Point history real well, but .... it was like an older Cedar Point for me too." he strokes his chin and chuckles ruefully to himself, glancing at Charlotte. "Well ... is a portal in time any easier to swallow than aliens?" he runs a hand through his hair. "So I just need to find Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell to find my fiance...."
Norman starts to laugh, not in the demented way he had been earlier but genuinely "If that's true, some part of Harley would love it.....time travel? It's every archivist's dream!"
Charlotte looks between the two men and shakes her head "This just keeps getting weirder..."
Michael laughs a bit himself. "Yea. He would have." he sighs. "Looks like he may have got his fantasy fulfilled" he glances at Charlotte. "Tell me about it. So all I have to do it figure out time travel with my criminology degree." he shrugs. "What could possibly go wrong?" he looks at Norman. "Listen, I don't want to keep you up too long or anything but I'd like to come back and visit you." he pauses and looks almost shy. "You're the only person who really KNEW Harley. I mean he talked about you and all. It's like .. I don't know." he fumbles about a bit, wanting to be close to ... something Harley.
Norman smiles "Anytime Michael. I feel like you brought a bit of him here with you. Thank you."
Charlotte still looks amazed by her father's grip on reality right now, despite not being sure of the possibility of what the two of them are suggesting. She nods at Michael and says "You're in cabin 2, behind the plane."
Michael nods and stands. "Its been a real pleasure Mister Gibbs. I'll be in touch." he promises and he means it. Then he nods to Charlotte. "Thanks .. I'll find it." and he heads out of the door, feeling better than he has in literal years.
No comments:
Post a Comment