The parousia effect

Chapter 9

The "Senile Brigade," as Henry jokingly told his friends, had left with those two guys in the trunk of a convertible Oldsmobile to teach them a lesson. Henry and his wife, Joanna, convinced Hansen a David to stay with them in their apartment to spend the night and continue on their way to the airport the next day. Hansen was worried that those who were persecuting them would also find them there, since they knew they had gone to the business of the elders and would soon find out where they lived to look for them there. Henry explained that there would be no problems there, since the apartment where they were was his daughter’s husband, and they had gone about five years ago to Argentina. Their home was located in Queens and, although they are living there permanently, that afternoon they had decided to go to their daughter's apartment precisely to avoid being located by those who were looking for them.

But he was wrong, because they were able to locate them, but they were not precisely the bad guys. They were gathered in the living room of the apartment, still with some members of the brigade and chatting menacingly, when they knocked on the door. Hansen, David and Henry looked surprised.

“They found us!” Hansen said, getting up from the furniture where he was. Joanna was in the kitchen with Joseph preparing some sandwiches, and they were returning with some on a tray when they saw David and Henry were also getting up, waiting.

“If they were they wouldn’t knock on the door,” David said.

They knocked again.

“New York Police!” A man shouted. “Open the door!”

Henry walked to the door and watched through the peephole. He saw a young man and woman on the other side, waiting.

“Go to one of the rooms and wait there,” he ordered Hansen and David. Hansen took Joseph by the hand and left the room. David followed them. Henry opened the door, facing the callers.

“Good afternoon,” said the man. “I’m Detective Mark Forney and she’s the detective Doris Ventura of the NYPD. It was not easy to find the address of your daughter’s house, mister ... Barnes?”

Henry hesitated for a few seconds. Then he nodded.

“Yes, I’m Henry Barnes. What can I help you, detectives?”

Mark looked into the living room.

“Can we come in?”

Henry let them pass. They stood in the middle of the room. The elders watched them intently. Henry sat down again.

“We’re looking for Dr. Julius Hansen, aka Andrew Farnsworth and his friend David Cranston,” Mark said, glancing around. “Dr. John Moses gave us this address. Well, not this one, your business in Manhattan and it was closed, so we look for your house, but you weren’t there either, and finally your daughter’s, and here we are.”

“We know Hansen contacted you, sent by Dr. Moses,” Doris said, “since this morning there was a m******e at his house and we really thought they could be in danger. We just want to know where they went after going through your business.”

Henry hesitated for a few seconds.

“Yes, they came to see us,” he said a few seconds later. “They just wanted a place to reach in South America, and I gave them the address of my daughter's house in Argentina. I imagine that at this time they should already be at the airport or on a flight over there.”

“Well, no. They aren’t there nor have they taken any flights so far. We have checkpoints on highways and at airports, terminals, and nearby border crossings with a description of both, and so far they have not been able to pass through any of them. We think you might know if they went somewhere else to hide, or at least know a way to contact them if the need again for something.”

“We haven’t seen them since this morning,” Joanna said, sitting near Henry in another piece of furniture. "They were in a hurry and continued on their way.”

Doris approached both of them, detailing Henry’s face.

“How was that wound done?”

“I am an old man, detective, I tripping over things at home and in my business and I fall almost daily.”

Doris stared at him.

“Generally falls are accompanied by more than a bump or bruise. When you fall you usually put a hand or an arm or both and take more than one blow. And in the case of the elderly, some occasional fracture. I imagine that you were very lucky today to just cut your temple and have a half swollen lip.”

“Those who go after Hansen went to see you later, right?” Mark said. “What did they do to get rid of them? These people are willing to kill and are dangerous.”

Henry and Joanna looked at each other for a few seconds.

“Look, Mr. Barnes, let’s be honest,” Mark said, “we know everything. Dr. Moses told us about what Dr. Hansen did and why these fan groups are looking for them. We have to recognize that the story is a bit implausible, but given latest events we are inclined to believe it may be true. We need to know where Hansen and Cranston went with the child and protect them as much as possible. Anyway they will not go very far because of the fence we have throughout the state, but the faster we find them, the better it will be for them.”

Henry got up from his furniture again.

“We’ve already told you, detective, that we don’t know where they went after they went to our business. And yes: it’s true that two men went to see us after them and made me these wounds to the blows to tell them where they went, but fortunately our friends here and others arrived on time and saved us from those men. You must have the report of two n***d men on a highway a few hours ago. Well, that was thanks to our friends here and others from our group. That will confirm what I am telling you.”

“Can we check the house?” Doris asked.

“If you return with an order, yes. Now we ask you to please leave. It has been a difficult day for us.”

Mark and Doris backed up to the entrance door.

“Anyway if you know or need anything, please tell us,” Mark handed him a card. “If we find this house, they can do it too, and it wouldn’t be good if you faced them without help.”

“We just want to find them and protect them,” Doris said. “We are their best option right now.”

That said they left the apartment.

“We have to keep an eye on them,” Mark said as they waited for the elevator. If our friends don’t appear, the bullies will. In any case they will have visited again.”

Hansen and David left the room with Joseph; they had heard part of what Henry and Joanna had talked to those detectives. Hansen looked worried.

“I think we should better go to the authorities,” David said. “Anyway they already know everything and can offer us protection.”

Hansen was thoughtful. As the situation was, it was best to seek help, whether from the authorities. He looked at Joseph and again thought about what the future could wait for that child if he wasn’t in his care. Surrendering to the authorities, it was most likely that he was removed from his side, and he didn’t want that. Definitely, not. He sat on a piece of furniture, thinking. Joseph sat on his lap, resting his head against his chest. He felt the smell of his hair and the colony of children that hadn’t yet completely gone despite the hours he had spent without bathing again. He held him against him and kissed him on the head, feeling the softness of his hair. He was his son; he had raised him until that moment with all the love of his soul and away from a destiny that wouldn’t be good for him if he were in other hands. He had been there when he left the diapers and learned to use the toilet; in his first steps, his first words. It was definitely his son: he was there on sleepless nights when he got his first cold and his first fevers. Mrs. McAllister became his babysitter after all that and when he was three years old. She had been a big help when she began teaching him to read, but it was he who taught him his first words and who was still teaching him to read and write. He felt tenderness remembering all that. He definitely couldn’t let him go, and he thought for a moment if he was being selfish with him by denying him to the rest of the world, including his own mother, who took him in her womb for nine months and had made big plans for him and now he didn’t was at his side because of him. If all that he had lived with him and all that he felt was what it meant to be a father, then he was to Joseph: he was his father. He looked at David with watery eyes. He had made a decision with regret, despite the risk involved.

“In the morning we will go to the authorities.” He said. “I think it’s the best we can do right now. They wouldn’t have let us go out of the country anyway. They have our description everywhere and almost everyone looks for us.”

Joseph was falling asleep, and Hansen stood with him in his arms. He looked at Henry and he told him to go to the second room, which was the guest room, and laid him there. The other three elders of the brigade also got up and said goodbye, leaving the apartment. David sat on one of the furniture, next to Joanna, eating a sandwich. He was hungry.

Mark and Doris had already left the building and were heading for their car. In the street, another car stopped behind theirs and three men got off, all of them with beards. In the car one had sat in the back. They passed by and greeted them. They stood at the side of the entrance door when they reached the building, as if waiting for someone to open to them. A few seconds later, three old men left and stared at them with distrust. One of the men greeted them with a wide smile and told them that he had forgotten the key, and then they entered the building, taking advantage of the fact that the door was open. Mark recognized the elders; they had been in the Barnes’ daughter’s apartment. They passed by and gave them a contemptuous look. Doris smiled.

“It seems we don’t like them.”

“A that age, they don’t like anyone,” Mark said, getting into the car.

Inside the building, the three men boarded the elevator. They took out a revolver each and checked it, checking the load. One of them told the other two that they needed the child alive. They nodded. When they reached the selected floor, they went out and walked down the hall to the third door on their left. They wielded weapons. The speaker had approached the door and leaned an ear against it, listening intently. He motioned for them to wait. Inside, David had finished eating the sandwich, and when he was getting up from the furniture, he noted that there was movement under the entrance door. He thought that maybe it was the detectives who had returned, but they could also be the thugs who were looking for them. With stealth, he got up from the furniture and started walking towards the door. Henry asked him what was happening and David asked him to be silent. He reached the door and watched through the peephole. On the other side were three men, one leaning against the door, they were armed. He looked at Henry and Joanna and signaled them to leave the room and they did so, heading for the rooms. They both looked scared again. David leaned against the wall on the opposite side of the door lock, waiting. If he was right, those men would not knock on the door. A few more seconds passed when the door was opened violently. David stayed behind it. The three men entered with weapons held high but found no one in the room. They advanced slowly and when they were about to enter the corridor that led to the rooms, the door closed slowly, revealing David, who advanced quickly towards them and with a kick behind the left knee made the latter kneel, he stood behind him on his knees, made a key to his neck with his left arm and with his right hand took the g*n he was carrying and aimed at the other two, who turned and met the scene, surprised.

“Drop your weapons!” David shouted. “I don’t want to shoot you!”

The one who went ahead stared at him and David could see in his eyes that didn’t care about the life of his companion, a second later he shot twice, a bullet hit the unfortunate in the chest and the other grazed David’s left ear, who also had to fire his weapon four times, hitting each one twice in the chest. They fell back on the living room furniture and there they remained, inert, with their eyes open. He had given each one directly into the heart. He released the one who had grabbed with the key and fell face down on the floor, dead too. They looked at them for a few seconds and then ran to the rooms. In the first one Henry and Joanna were sitting in bed hugging each other and looked at him terrified when he entered, sighing with relief after recognizing him. David ran to the second and saw Joseph lying in one of the beds, asleep, but he didn’t see Hansen. He was behind the door and came out with a table lamp in his hands; picked it up and when he was going to knock him he recognized him. He stopped and sighed in relief. His breathing was accelerated by fear and adrenaline.

“Oh, my God!” He said, dropping the lamp and putting a hand on his chest. “I almost hit you with that thing! You should have warned it was you!”

David looked at Joseph.

“Good thing he didn’t wake up with the noise of the gunshots. We must get out of here. Someone will surely alert the police.”

Hansen nodded, looked for his suit jacket and put it on, then ran to the bed, carrying Joseph carefully so as not to wake him up. When Mark and Doris were already two blocks away, they heard on the radio that someone had reported a shooting at the building where they had been and that all available units in the area were headed there.

“Damn it!” Mark said. “They were there and we didn’t check the apartment!”

Doris took the radio and warned that they were on their way to the scene, while Mark turned the car around on the street and quickly started back.

Hansen, with Joseph in his arms, and David were already leaving the apartment when Henry and Joanna stopped them.

“Wait!” Henry took David’s arm and handed him a key with a small keyring shaped like a number eight billiard ball.

“It’s from the Chevelle. Take it and protect Joseph. Too bad we haven’t shared enough with him. If he really is what you say he is, then this world will need him more than you can imagine.”

That said, Joanna approached Hansen and kissed Joseph on the forehead. Henry stroked his head gently.

“Thanks for everything,” Hansen said. “Thank you very much.”

“Go! Go!” Henry pushed them gently out of the apartment.

In the hallway they entered the elevator, David peeked and looked at them for the last time, waved them goodbye and entered again. The elevator doors closed. When they went down to the parking lot they looked for the Chevelle and boarded it, they quickly left the building while listening to the sound of the sirens of the patrols very close there. A black Chevrolet Impala with red and blue lights on the front grille quickly passed by and stopped in front of the building. David saw from the rearview mirror that a man and a woman quickly descended from it with a pistol in hand and entered the building.

As they drove away, Hansen made sure that Joseph was still asleep in the backseat. It was already night.

“Let’s go to Brooklyn,” he told David. “We have to seek help, and I think I know where we can find it.”

“Okay,” David said, stepping on the accelerator.