Schism

Chapter 25 part 1

Chapter 25

"I want to say thank you, Harold.  I really needed someone to talk to."

Harold looked up from the spread of food on his lap to Jared, who sat in the driver's seat.  Jared had only asked for fries, but Harold had ordered a shake, a burger and onion rings.  The girl who brought their food out wore those inline roller skates and was pretty...nice pretty, not like Nadine.

The onion rings were good, the thin kind that didn't pull out of the breading and feel slimy.  Harold chewed another mouthful as Jared went on talking.  "It's this man, the one I told you about the other day.  He's murdered some friends of mine.  I tried to stop him, using those bombs you gave me, but he got away this morning."

That's what Jared had brought him here for, to blame him.  Harold held the burger in his hands, wanting to take another bite.  He had never been to this restaurant, with all the cars and trucks pulled up to the little speakers at the side of the parking spots.  He hadn't been to a restaurant at all in years.  There was a little Chinese grocery store two blocks from the apartment building where Harold got all of his food.

Would Jared burn that store down and make them leave the city, drive them away? 

Maybe Harold wouldn't let him.

"They were good bombs you made.  Very good fires.  They really scared him.  But he got away," Jared said.  "It was my fault."

Jared wasn't blaming him?  Harold didn't understand why he was here, then.  He looked at the burger in his hands, took a bite.  Ketchup ran down his chin as the bun started to fall apart.  It was almost as good as the onion rings.

He saw Jared shake his head and lean his arms on the steering wheel.  "I don't know how to say it.  He...he did something that I...that he shouldn't have been able to do.  Something impossible."

Harold wiped his chin and levered more onion rings into his already full mouth.  He didn't know what was wrong with Jared.  The man was acting differently than he ever had.  He sounded more like Harold sounded to himself.  For once, Harold didn't feel small being next to Jared.  It didn't make sense.

He felt Jared looking at him and tried to swallow quickly.

"What he did, it wasn't possible.  I can't understand it," Jared said.

Another swallow.  Harold looked back down at the food, waited before he took another bite.  "What...what did he do?" 

He had to wait as Jared stared out the window.  "He moved too fast, way too fast.  And he jumped higher than anyone is supposed to jump."

That was different, not what Harold had been worried about.  He took another bite of the burger. 

"Do you think it's possible?  Can one person do something that no one else in the world can do?  Something that should be impossible?" Jared asked.

Harold chewed slowly.  This was something he had thought about, often.  He nodded his head.  "It's possible."

"But how?"

He wasn't sure what to tell Jared, what was safe to talk about.  But it was something Harold had wondered about for years.  "Maybe...maybe he can see things, feel things other people can't."

He waited as Jared sat silent.  It looked like the man was thinking.

Finally, as Harold was about to take another bite, Jared spoke.  "But how am I supposed to protect everyone from someone like that?  How can I protect you?"

"You don't have to protect me," Harold answered.

Jared stared at him and Harold knew he had said too much.  Jared would start asking questions again.

"But you're my friend," Jared said.  "If I had any way to keep you safe, I would."

Harold stopped.  It wasn't another question.  Jared had bothered him about the real fires before, had always wanted more, without understanding what he was asking for.  But now he seemed desperate for help and wasn't trying to get anything.

No, he couldn't say anything.  It wasn't safe.

"I want to tell you something.  Something I feel very bad about," Jared said.  Harold felt his guard go up even more as he waited for Jared to go on.  "It's about Nadine.  When I met her, she was a whore, working for a black man, a pimp.  I got her away from him and tried to help her.  I brought her to see you because I thought you might be good for her.  You're a good man, Harold, decent.  I thought being around you might help her change."

Harold sat there, still confused.  A clump of bun and ketchup fell onto his lap.

"But she didn't change.  I just found out that she was giving information to the police.  She betrayed me.  She betrayed you.  I'm sorry I brought her to your place.  She was still a whore."  Jared was silent for a moment more.  "I just don't know what to do."

The burger sat in Harold's hands.  He stared at it, moved a drip of ketchup back inside the crumbling bun.

"Burn her," he said.

*