The banging on the door became louder. Feathers dissipating across the hole way. An older lady puffing while climbing the stairs with her groceries, wondering what difficulties life will serve her tomorrow.
“Who’s there?” is all you could hear from a sorrow voice penetrating the ugly door that was keeping the two individuals on the other side of the spectrum.
“Madame, my name is Tatum and I’m joined by my colleague Adam from the Blue Squad. We need to talk to you about your son. It’s very important. Please open the door.”
Before cracking the door a little bit allowing Catherine to see those sparkling blue shoes of the two officers, her memory flooded with images from her son’s deployment on a sunny afternoon in spring. It’s been eight years since Jack left and not a word, postcard or letter from him since.
"Can we come in, please? Thank you, Madame."
Catherine let the two tall gentlemen in and closed the door behind them. For someone in her mid fifties she looked completely warned out. The emotional and mental scars turned the void in her eyes into a deep, black lagoon letting outsiders know that she had nothing left over for life.
“We know you haven’t heard from your son in eight years as we don’t allow our recruits to keep in touch with family members, friends and relatives from their past. These are our rules at the Squad and Jack followed them strictly.”
As Tatum looked around taking a quick glimpse at an old-fashioned tea pot tucked away in the corner of the kitchen table, he continued:
“Madame, your son has suddenly disappeared. Vanished. Evaporated. It happened yesterday morning in the middle of a training session in front of his unit of ten men. There was nobody else on the deck of the ship when this occurred except his unit. We caught the event on cameras but we can’t explain the phenomenon. We were wondering whether you could tell us more about your son’s apparent out-of-the-ordinary capacities and eventual hidden talents.”
Catherine’s eyes lid up for the very first time in eight years. A spark of light disconnected her iris from the all-encompassing void triggering a counter-force to the gravitational impact of the darkness.
Luckily the officers didn’t notice this sudden change in her ocular region, being more preoccupied with her answer than what was going on behind the two frontal entry points of her skull.
“So you come here eight years after taking my son away from me asking me whether he has some magical abilities or not? Do you really expect me to answer that question for you?” said Catherine with the very same voice she greeted the two upon arrival.
The two men looked at each other before Adam took over the conversation.
“Madame, we want to understand what happened to your son and how we can help him return to his unit. He is one of our top shooters and the team is worried that something similarly peculiar might happen to them as well.”
“Clearly you know nothing about my son so it seems. You might have wiped out his memory, shaped his belief system to adhere to your guidelines but you weren’t able to disconnect him from a powerful source that transcends this realm” continued Catherine with a calm and somehow delighted voice.
Tatum quickly jumped back into what seemed to be an interrogation rather than a conversation:
*“Are you talking about his access to Blue Infinity?” *
Catherine murmured “Your Squad couldn’t find his father, could they? It’s been how many years now? Two decades? What makes you think, you’ll succeed this time?”
“Honestly, due all your respect Madame, we were hoping you could help us out today as we’re talking about your son” went on Tatum.
“My answer is the same as last time. Just because you can’t see someone, it doesn’t mean the person isn’t there” continued Catherine pointing the two officers towards the door.
“We understand” went Adam on to say before he stepped outside. “If Jack contacts you, please inform us immediately. And Madame, you know the drill: what we discussed is highly classified.”
Before closing the door and witnessing the two men walk away, Catherine nodded and said “Sure”.
Tears of joy flooding her cheeks, Catherine put on the tea pot ready to enjoy a treat after eight agonizing years of struggling with the unknown. Jack was in a safe place and she could revive again.
~ Krisz Rokk ~
Photo by Davide Cantelli on Unsplash
