Finders Keepers

Finders Keepers - Chapters 66-75

            Ohhhmmmmmmmm ... ohhhmmmmmmmm ... ohhhmmmmmmmm ...

            "Theo," he finally said. "What the hell happened to you in Budapest?"

            Ohhhmmmmmmmm ... ohhhmmmmmmmm ... ohhhmmmmmmmm ...

            "Dude, I mean ..."

            Ohhhmmmmmmmm ... ohhhmmmmmmmm ... ohhhmmmmmmmm ...

            "... how did you miss that train?"

Chapter 67
Circular Logic of the Puzzle Book Maze

Budapest, Hungary - Keleti Pu Train Station
Sunday, September 11, 2005, 10:33 a.m.

A week before finding Jason in Amsterdam-and just hours after losing him in the first place-Theo sat on a wobbly metal chair at the Keleti Pu train station café in Budapest. He ate a cheese sandwich Lilly bought him.

            It was the least she could do, she said. Only Lilly had introduced herself as Liz. Elizabeth was her full name, explaining that it even said so on her passport. Theo wasn't sure why she needed to clarify her documentation, but he was too annoyed to care.

            Lilly-calling herself Liz-was painting again. Sports themes. Tennis. But she wanted to incorporate the athleticism of competition with the nuance and scope of the European cultures. Liz did a sketch for him. In it, Theo was eating his sandwich at the very table he was leaning on, except the tabletop was like the head of a tennis racket, and instead of cheese, a long piece of netting dangled from the roll.

            "That's good." Theo smiled despite himself, feeling a sudden flash of color in his mind, and though they were becoming less intense, more subtle, he had a sense they weren't warnings so much as signs. "Yeh, really good."

            "Thanks. I just got back into it. I had some ... trouble ... you know. Life got kinda complicated, but I'm getting it together."

            Theo nodded politely, but behind those steady eyes he was blood-boiling furious. Yet rather than vent that rage at Liz-whom he did not know was Lilly, Jason's Lilly-he just sat there quietly picking at his food. He nodded.

            "I got a little distracted for awhile," she said, "but I met this woman in Arizona ... this like ... totally amazing woman, and she's sponsoring me here. She said 'Lil-Liz.' She said 'Liz ...     Liz, go to Europe. And when you come back, you'll paint a masterpiece.'"

Inexplicably, Theo saw Lea just then, as if she was right there with him, wearing her safety helmet with the miner's light in front. Her face was vivid for just a moment, so close and real he could almost smell the beetroot on her breath. "Oh, yeh?"

            "I couldn't believe it. But when I found out who she was ... it made total sense."

            Theo put his sandwich down. "What do you mean? Who-?"

            "So who was your friend? Again, I'm totally sorry. Seriously. I'm just ..." Liz rolled her eyes at herself. "I'm such a total spaz like that." She forced out a laugh, craning her neck so that her breasts jiggled. "My brains and my body are hardly ever in the same place. It's like they start at opposite ends of those puzzle book mazes ..."

            Theo nodded, trying not to stare at her breasts-they were right there, after all-round, ripe and freckled, hoisted out.

            "... figuring they'll meet in the middle, but at least one of them always seems to take a wrong turn and get stuck somewhere. By the time they find each other, the maze is wrecked and I have to start over."