Eternity (Circle of Light) (17 page)

Mom had made us each a large cup of hot chocolate.  The steam coming from the cup was so inviting.  Eric picked up his cup to take a sip, but stopped instantly.

Fear covered his face.  I knew that look well.  He had the same look when the pool incident happened this past summer.  I carefully tried to not draw any attention to him as I asked what was wrong. 

“He… he… has found another child.” he replied shakily.

“What are we going to do?”   I stood there waiting desperately for Eric to respond.  “We have to go back to the park.  We have to
go now!  Before we’re too late!”  

As soon as he said that, I rushed and put on my coat, throwing his to him and the coldness of it made me more alert. 

“We‘ll be right back!”  I yelled to my parents as we ran out the door. 

My mother called after us, but there was no time to waste.  A child s life depended on us getting to the park as fast as we could.

Eric and I ran as hard as we could until we reached the park. 

“He’s in the same place he tried to get the other little girl
.” Eric said with fury in his eyes. 

I had never seen him angry before and just honestly, the idea of it frightened me.  I knew what we both were capable of and I had sensed that he had a dark side to him when I first met him.  Just help him to handle this right; I thought to myself as I rounded the fence. 

The van was sitting in the same place it had been earlier, but I couldn’t see the man anywhere.  My gut reaction was to call the police, so I quickly drew my phone from my jacket pocket and dialed 9-1-1. 

The operator answered, “9
-1-1, what is your emergency?” 

I swallowed hard as I replied to her, “I’m at the park and I think there is a man trying to kidnap a child!” 

She asked me several questions about what I was seeing in my surroundings.  The operator asked if I noticed any vehicles around.

I replied with panic distorting my voice, “Yes. There is a van here.”   I gave her the license plate number and description in the best way I could.  She informed me that the police were already on their way and I needed to make sure that I tried to remember every detail that I could. 

I agreed as she asked me to stay on the line with her until the police showed up.

I had a feeling that I shouldn’t make my presence known if I could help it.  The bushes gave me just enough cover so I could slip around without being discovered. 

Eric, where are you? 

I waited for him to answer me, but he didn’t.  That was rather strange because he always answers me. 
             

Scanning the park, I noticed a man talking to a little boy.  The boy was alone as I expected.  The bad thing is that I didn’t see anyone else around.  I bet the boy was here by himself, in the cold, and I bet he must have come here without his parents knowing about it.

Do. Not. Get. Involved. 

I won’t.  The police will be here any moment. 

Good.  I hope they hurry or I’m going to have to stop him. 

Panic set in as I realized what Eric was meaning.  The man was about to take the boy.

I watched as the boy was slowly following the man to his van.  Where I was standing, I was sure to be seen and the man would get away, but I could not move or it would tip him off just the same. 

“I am invisible, to him and to the boy.”  I whispered quietly to myself, drawing from my power.

I knew that if the boy saw me he would say something and I could not risk that and I still needed to be able to be seen by the police. 

Nice, I should have thought of the invisibility thing too.

Be quiet.  I cannot concentrate with you in my head. 

He was breaking my concentration and I wasn’t sure I could hold up my cover with him in my head and as bad as I hated too, I blocked Eric from entering my mind.  I had no other choice at the time.  A child’s life was at stake and that was all that mattered to me now.  Nothing else.

They were getting closer to the van.  I couldn’t hear anything, no police sirens. Nothing.   Please let them get here, I thought frantically as I heard footsteps on the sidewalk behind me. 

A quick glance around eased my worry.  The officer held his hand out silently ordering me to stay where I was.  I nodded in relief as he made his way to the backside of the van with his gun drawn. 

I instantly unshielded myself from being seen, but stayed where I was.  I told the operator that the police had arrived and thanked her.

“We will have to stop and make sure it’s okay with my mom if I go to the store with you
.” I heard the little boy tell the man. He was so small and innocent and how someone could take advantage of that is something that I will never understand. 

“Don’t worry,” he said back to him. “I’ll be sure to stop and ask.”  

The boy smiled up at him as the man opened the door for him to get in.  I knew the officer was on the other side of the van waiting for him. 

The man shut the door and looked around triumphantly.  He was pleased with himself.  That much was very clear.  He had managed to get the boy in the van without any hesitation from him at all.

I watched as he went around the front of the van. 

“STOP!” The officer yelled. 

The man threw his hands up in the air so fast that I jumped back.  Everything after that happened so fast that I could not keep up with all the details. 

Several other police officers ran to the van surrounding the man.  He was down on the ground now.  I let out a long breath as one of them placed the handcuffs on him. 

A couple of the police officers helped the boy out of the van and walked him over to where I was standing.  They explained to him about what was happening and the little boy started to cry and ask for his mother.

“You’re safe now.  I’ll get your parents, just stay here with me.”  I heard the officer say to him trying to calm him down.

It felt like I had been holding my breath for a very long time.  The feeling of dread had disappeared and I felt like I had just conquered the world, but I couldn’t help but cry as I watched the boy sobbing for his mother.  Something about that hurt me in a way that made me want to grab him up and hold him until his parents came.

I didn’t try to fight the feeling.  I sat down on the sidewalk beside him and pulled him into my lap. 

He was shivering and I was worried that he was getting too cold.  His little body was rigid and he tried hard to get as close to me as he could.  My body heat was warming him slowly, but I wasn’t sure that it was going to be enough, so I took off my coat and wrapped it around him. 

Looking around, I noticed Eric was standing beside me.  He had come to my side without me knowing it.  He was getting very good at sneaking up on me and that bothered me.

The cold breeze blew hard against my face making me realize that I had been outside for far too long and not having a coat on to protect me from the frigid wind wasn’t helping the matter any.

Eric took off his coat and put it over my shoulders.  I could not break the hold that I had on the boy because every time that I tried to he would get a look of panic and start crying again.

Several of the officers had gotten blankets out of their police cruisers and brought them over, wrapping each of them around me and the boy, trying to keep us as warm as possible.

“How about you guys get in one of the cars and try to keep warm.”  One of the officers said, but the little boy continued to cry and say that he wasn’t going to get into a car unless it was with his mother.  I understood his fear.  If I were him, I think I would feel the same way about getting into another person’s car.

An investigator had wanted to talk to both Eric and myself.  We answered the questions they asked us in the best way we could and he thanked us for being here at the perfect time.

One of the officers had apparently reached the little boy’s parents.  I could see his mother running to us from the car that had been parked in the middle of the road.

“David!”  She screamed as she fell to the ground in front of us. The look that she had on her face was a sight that I was certain I wasn’t ever going to forget for as long as I lived. There was a certain amount of pain and horror in her eyes that seemed to be beyond my understanding. 

I was locked in an uncomfortably tight embrace with her and the boy, but I
didn’t move. 

The boy's mother finally let go and started looking at me in a way that I couldn’t completely understand.  It was a half of a thank you and a half scared out of her mind look. 
             

“It’s okay now, Momma.  The man didn’t get me.”  David said as he touched her hand gently. 

“I know baby. I know.” she sobbed.

I made sure that he was snug in the blankets, after taking our coats off him.  His mother took him and stood up, still holding on to him. The boy’s father was trying to dry the tears from his face, but he was not doing a good job of it.  Every time that he would get his face clear, he would look at his son and the tears would start falling again.

Eric put his arm around me and I could feel all his tension release from his body.  We had done it.  We saved the boy and the man was going to jail for a very long time.

The boy’s father walked closer to us and held out his hand to Eric.  He shook the man’s hand as he pulled him into a hug.

“Thank you so much for being here.  I don’t know what would have happened if you guys hadn't have been.”

The boy's mother hugged us both and cried as she kissed each of us on the cheek,  I don’t know if words could ever say how much I appreciate what you two have done for us today.  You
two truly are David’s angels.

She asked for our names and phone numbers as she held out an envelope and a pen.  Eric quickly jotted them down and handed it back to her.  She hugged both of us one last time and said goodbye.

“Hey!  Pretty Girl!”  I heard the boy call to me.  I was instantly aware of him and every move that he was making as he ran up to me.  I hadn’t exactly noticed how small he was until now.  He could not have been more than five years old at best.

I knelt down on one knee as he jumped on me and hugged me in the magnificent way that only a child could.  The love I was feeling from him was amazing to me and I was suddenly feeling that I was connected to him in some way.  My heart grew with love for the stranger child that had his arms and legs wrapped around me in an embrace.  The strength of it was striking.  So pure.  So gentle, but powerful.

“Thank you for not letting that man take me.”  He said, kissing my forehead and then jumping down to run back to his mother.

I grabbed my chest and without any hesitation in my body, I began to cry again.  His innocence had touched my soul and I could feel love deep within myself for him.

The investigator came up to us, thanked us for answering his questions, and told us we should probably get on home. 

He was right, we should.  I was freezing and it felt like it was getting colder every minute.  The temperature must have dropped since we came out.  Maybe the wind made it feel colder, but I wasn’t so sure about all that. 

The sky was unnaturally dark for this time of day.  It gave me a troubled feeling.  All I wanted to do was to get home.  And fast.  I wanted to shake away the horrid felling that I had and I was positive that I wasn’t going to be able to do that for a very long time.

Eric pulled me close to him as we hurried to get back home. I was so cold that my body had begun to jerk.  Every step I took sent dull pain through my legs.  I honestly couldn’t remember a time when I had been as cold as I am now.  It really gives new meaning to the phrase
, the cold bites.

By the time we reached my house every muscle in my body was stiff.  I forced my legs to move the last few steps to the doorway, but I was having a hard time making them do anything.  The pressure from walking on my feet was almost unbearable.

As we walked through the door, I almost cried.  I was so happy to be home that I would have jumped for joy if my body would let me, but I was hardly allowing me to walk.

My mother met us at the door with a concerned look on her face.  She looked us over and called for my dad.  He came bounding down the stairs looking at us as if we had been in car accident or something.  Immediately, he started checking us over.

“You guys were out there way too long.” Dad said as he scanned our hands for signs of frostbite.

“Sorry Dad.  We had to stay at the park until the police said we could leave.”

He looked up at me, eyes wide with fear.

“What happened?”

I tried to tell him what had happened, but I was just too cold.  My teeth were chattering and I was having a hard time talking, so I pointed to Eric and said, “You tell them. I can’t.”

An alarmed look came over my Dad’s face. 

“What happened, Eric?”  He said as he shifted his weight onto one foot.

Eric explained everything.  He told them that he had thought that he had lost his wallet and turned to show my father the whole in the back pocket of his jeans.