Nova, Part 3
by ted2112, HSM team writer
images by Olivia_Allin, HSM team photographer
The Sportswalk was a large boardwalk area right on Central Bay that held sports bars, shops, and of course, the Central City Stadium. When there was a game or concert in the stadium, forty thousand people crammed together made it a chaotic free for all. You could get to the Sportswalk by train or ferry. When the ferry docked, up to a thousand people came shuffling toward the stadium, creating a huge log jam that vendors take advantage of. Outside the logjam, every kind of food and drink and sports memorabilia could be purchased.
Sam, Tac, Pence, and Seiphie arrived by train an hour before the chaos started, and planned to find one of the electric tubs the vendors held cold drinks in. They didn’t have a solid plan, but winging it was something that they were very good at. On the train ride to Sportswalk, they narrowed down the options to simply grabbing one of the tubs, creating a distraction or pretending they were vendors. In a moment of brilliance Pence printed up some rudimentary lanyards that said “Vendors” on it. From afar they looked official.
Stealing wasn’t a concept the Misfits accepted. They never blatantly stole anything just for the fun of it, or for profit. From their underground Spot it was not only close to the Hub’s storage rooms for the retail stores, but an unseen entry way into them as well. They could have stolen to their hearts content, but it just wasn’t the way they were. They weren’t pure and innocent; they didn’t steal as a general rule, but at times they would take what they needed, and today was one of those days.
The Misfits also had plans to tag the wall that ran around the stadium. The large concrete wall was a perfect spot for them to spray paint their logo. Thousands of people would see it, and for that they did have a plan. They painted a large banner with the sports team logo and colors on it, and attached poles to the ends. Sam and Tac would hold up the banner next to the wall while Pence and Seiphie would spray-paint “The End is Near” as big as the could behind it, without being seen. When it was over, they would simply lean the banner against the wall and split. As it turned out, getting the tub would be easy; tagging the wall would almost be their undoing.
The afternoon was cloudy but hot. It had rained the night before, and puddles covered the boardwalk and reflected back the clouds above. Already crowded with people in the sports bars and clubs, vendors were busy setting up street stalls. The Misfits found immediately what they were looking for.
The tubs were stacked up in an alleyway, and vendors were simply grabbing them and carrying them off to various locations along the Sportswalk. Tac casually went into the ally like he owned the place and grabbed one, and even stopped to help somebody lift up a tub on a cart. Tac walked out of the alleyway holding the tub on his shoulders like a boom box.
“That was easy,” he said balancing the plastic tub. “Now what do we do?”
“Keep moving,” Seiphie said. “Let’s move down the boardwalk, I know a spot where we can stash this for a while.”
The Misfits moved all the way down to the part of the boardwalk where it met the Pier Park area that had boat docks. Most of the boats tied up here weren’t being used, and the Misfits simply put the tub on one on a small sport fishing boat called Confluence and covered it with a few things on the boat.
“Cover it good,” said Sam laughing, “somebody might steal it.”
“So far so good,” said Pence.
“Piece of cake,” said Tac.
They made their way back near the entrance of the stadium, found an outside table near the wall at a sports bar, and ordered a round of beers.
“Milk these,” said Pence as he paid for the round. “This is a for-profit trip.”
“Mmm, cold,” said Sam.
“Don’t be mocking the keg, she’ll be cold again,” said Pence with a finger in the air. “We got the tub and all we have to do is get it back to the Spot, plug it in and voila, cold beer.”
“Baby sips,” said Seiphie barely putting her lips to the glass.
“I can’t believe our luck,” said Sam cautiously. “If we can pull off this tag it will be one for the books. You guys still want to go ahead with it?”
“Yeah, it we do this right, we’re talking three minutes. Tops,” said Tac, “Sam and I will be on the lookout the whole time, if we see trouble, we all just run. In this crowd, there’s no way they will catch us, not possible.”
“We all make our way to the Ferris wheel at Pier Park, any way possible,” coached Seiphie, “and meet up.”
The Misfits waited for the crowd to swell up, and made their way with it to the wall. Most of the people were looking to get into the gate and that made it easy for them to make there way over to the left side of it. Pence took the banner out of his back pack unrolled it and attached the poles. With Tac on one side, and Sam on the other, they raised it up a far as they could with Pence and Seiphie behind it. The banner drew a few cheers from the crowd, but for the most part the crowd was concerned with getting into the stadium.
“Go!” Sam said as he heard Pence and Seiphie popping off the spray-paint cans.
They were discovered as soon as they started by the police. Patrols ran around the wall looking for people trying to climb over. Instead, they found some kids spraying graffiti. Sam saw them first. The cops wanted to run to them, but the mass of people in there way prevented it.
“Hurry,” said Sam, “the cops are here!”
“Finish quick!” Tac echoed, seeing the police.
“Almost done,” said Seiphie sounding stressed.
The police were almost there and had by now sized up what they were doing. One cop was talking into a radio and the other was fanning out trying to get them between him and the other cop.
“Done,” said Pence.
“Run,” said Tac as he dropped his side of the banner.
The banner fell to the ground revealing what was behind it on the wall. All four of them ran for it the best they could. There were only two cops, and they were distracted by what they saw on the wall, “The End is Near” wasn’t what they were expecting. Sam and Seiphie cut through the crowd near the side of the boardwalk, and worked their way back away from the stadium. Pence and Tac split up. Pence ran into a sports bar and used it to shield him from the cops and worked his way to the other entrance. Tac just ran straight through the crowd as fast as he could, yelling “coming through.”
It seemed like all was going okay. Sam looked back at the wall and couldn’t see any cops anywhere, but he could make out clearly the tag. Seiphie and Sam reached the end of the Sportswalk where it connected to the Pier Park.
“The tub,” said Sam
“Forget it,” replied Seiphie breathlessly, “We got to get to the Ferris wheel and get out of here.”
Sam turned around and didn’t see any police following them.
“I’m going to get it,” he said. “It will take just a second, go to the Ferris wheel and I will be right behind you.” Sam turned off from the direction of Pier Park and made his way down to the docks and the tub.
Time seem to slow down somehow. The sky opened up and the rain started to fall like buckets. Sam went from dry and alert, to wet and tired in a moment. The boat they hid the tub in rocked and pulled at its ropes as the sudden storm stirred up the water. Sam jumped in to retrieve the tub, his feet sloshed around in the water collecting in the boat. The rain was falling so hard that it was difficult for him to see. The boardwalk and docks became long waterfalls with water from their tops, racing over their sides into the bay.
Almost as soon as the deluge started it was over. A sudden muffled cheer went up from the crowd in front of the stadium. The rain tapered off as Sam was about to leave the boat he saw the lady on the next dock. She was standing at the very end looking at him, water still flowing from around her feet. The sun came out from behind a cloud and its bright light erased her. Sam felt his knees get weak and felt the boat sway under him. Sam knelt down on one knee, steadying himself on the tub.
“I am awake, damn it,” said Sam gritting his teeth. “I am not sleeping,” and passed out.
Sam moved with the comet as it flung itself through space. It light was a brilliant white, as it reflected some distant and dead sun. He felt the super heated gas as it escaped its icy core and gave the comet its long tail. It moved with purpose. It represented everything and yet nothing, a simple thin white line in the black abyss, behind it the past, in front the future. The comet maybe better than anything represented both a beginning and an end. For it was out of the beginning that it formed, and the end of those things before it.
By the time Sam made it back to the Spot, it was well past midnight. He was tired, but that was nothing new. His fatigue was instead from walking the whole way back from the Sportswalk wet, but still carrying the tub. He carried it most of the way over his head, as if to shield himself from some unseen rain. Sam tried to clear his head but his steps didn’t bring clarity, they only brought him closer to the Spot. Only Seiphie was still there, sleeping on the couch. She wasn’t going to leave until Sam returned.
“Sam, thank the gods,” She said as she sat up from her slumber. “We waited all night at the Ferris wheel, are you ok?”
“Yes, sorry,” Sam answered.
Seiphie stood up and wrapped a small battered blanket that came with the couch around Sam. “What happened?”
“I think I slipped in the rain when I went back for tub,” said Sam, lying. “I think I hit my head.”
Seiphie checked Sam’s head for any sign of trauma.
“You look like shit,” she said in a way that meant both how he looked, and how relieved she was to see him.
“What happened to you guys?,” asked Sam sitting down on the couch.
“Well,” said Seiphie as she readjusted the blanket around Sam’s shoulders. “Pence made it to the Ferris wheel right after me. Tac got chased around by a few cops a while but that rain started and he lost them. We waited at Pier Park until they kicked us out, came here hoping you would be here.” She paused a moment looking away. “What a stupid idea.”
Sam was touched by the concern of his friends. He realized he loved them all. “I’m ok Seiphie; everything is going to be okay,” Sam muttered falling asleep. Seiphie laid Sam down on the couch, took his shoes off, and put the blanket over him. She stroked Sam’s hair, half to relax him, half to feel for any injury to his head, and watched him fall asleep. She loved her friend, and wished somehow she could take away the dreams that haunted Sam.
Seiphie took out her phone and sent off a message to Tac and Pence: Sam’s ok, he’s here at the spot, going to let him sleep.
July 1st, 2012 by ted2112 | 2 comments
ted2112 is a writer and a Bass player that has been both inspired and takes to heart Kurt Vonnegut words...."we are here on planet Earth to fart around, and don't let anyone tell you different."
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OOOOH what happens next? Good read Ted.
Great chapter! Exciting! Can’t wait for part 4….