Coming Of Age
Disclaimer: I deny any ownership of any adult or adolescent transformed shadow warrior chelonians. I also deny any ownership of Casey and April.
Chapter Four: Pieces coming together
April was heading out of the news building to grab some lunch, as she headed through the reception area towards the front door of the building she noted a young woman, holding a very familiar young boy in her arms, as she spoke with one of the staff.
Curious April drifted over towards them as she moved trying to see if she could inconspicuously pick up a part of the conversation at the same time her mind tried to place where she had seen the young boy. Then it clicked it was the boy the officers had found last night, the one who almost been hit by the truck.
" I don't see why I can't just talk to some one here…" the woman complained.
She was cut off quickly with a blunt " Sorry Ma'am but it just isn't newsworthy enough for us."
The woman heaved a sigh of frustration before turning to her son " Come on Nate I guess we were just wasting our time." She turned and moved through the throng of people as she made her way to the front door.
April pushed her way through the crowds determined to catch up with the mother, once out the door April glanced both ways and spotted the woman waiting at a nearby bus stop, sitting on the bench and talking with Nate.
April strode over to the bench " Hi there, I saw you at the front desk. I'm April Jones channel six news reporter." April introduced herself offering the woman a warm smile and an out stretched hand " I heard you say you wanted to talk to someone."
She gave a small smile as she took April's hand " Sharon Chandler, and this here is my son Nate. Nathaniel really, but his dad and I call him Nate." Sharon shrugged, " I did but the fellow I spoke to seemed to think I would be wasting everyone's time."
" They tend to get over zealous" April admitted, " I often wonder how many good stories we lose because they feel that what they hear isn't news worthy to report. So how old is Nate?"
Sharon held the boy close to her " He's going be four in about three more months."
" Um. I have a five and a two year old myself." April decided to try and find out a bit more about the incident last night, her snoopy reporter instincts told her this was the perfect opportunity to get some back ground, especially as Sharon seemed to want to talk " tell you what I was just going to lunch. Why don't you and Nate join me? You could tell me your story and I'll see what I can do." April offered, " I can't promise that I can get it on the news though."
April looked over Sharon she looked to be in her late twenties, with strawberry blond hair and green eyes, she wore glasses, and was slightly heavy about the middle. Sharon pursed her lips for a moment as she reflected on April's words.
" I guess I might as well at least then the trip won't be a waste for me." She decided.
" Come on then" April stood up off the bench and lead the way to a small cafeteria down the street.
While they ordered their meal, April and Sharon chatted about children and the joy and heartache that seemed to come with raising them. It was a topic meant to relax an build some rapport between her and Sharon.
Meanwhile Nate kept him self busy colouring on some paper. The paper and crayons supplied by their waitress to keep the youth amused until lunch arrived.
April waited until their meal arrived before bringing the conversation around to the reason for the meeting in the first place. " So what did you want to talk to a reporter about anyways?"
Sharon glanced away looking over the other patrons for a moment before turning back " It is something that happened last night and I know I got off luckier then I should have" she began her voice shaking slightly, " Understand that usually I'm far more careful but I've been fighting off a bad cold and I guess I wasn't as with it." Sharon bit her lip slightly.
April smiled a bit cocking her head to one side and kept her pose attentive to Sharon " What happened?" she inquired gently.
" Well with me fighting that cold I'm out like a light once I go to bed. If Nate's dad had been at home he would have heard Nate, he is such a light sleeper but he was working last night." Sharon explained, " Anyway I took some medicine last night before going to bed. I remember locking the front door but I guess, I mustn't have secured it correctly."
April nodded " Let me guess Nate got out of your home. Aren't kids so slippery like that?" April moaned giving a shake of her head " I swear my two have it planned they will take off in two opposite directions at the same time." April commiserated.
Sharon seemed to relax at these words " Yeah, I keep telling myself that I'm a bad mother for letting it happen at all." She said then gave a heavy sigh, as she glanced Nate's way. " Any way I woke up around two and couldn't find Nate. I found the door a jar and no sign of him in or out of the building."
April easily detected the note of worry and fear in Sharon's voice. Being a mother herself April could easily relate to Sharon's position " How frightening." She murmured.
" Yeah my worst nightmares come true" Sharon agreed as she reached out and tousled Nate's hair " I called the police when I couldn't find him and he was at the station safe and sound. They brought him home and talked with me for a bit."
April nodded aware of the police procedure. Most likely the police were trying to ensure that it was just an accident and not a case of neglect.
Sharon pushed her unfinished meal away and coughed a bit before continuing, " One of the things the police told me was that Nate had almost been hit by a truck while playing in the road. According to the driver of the truck another child got Nate out of the way."
April's brow furrowed at this news " Another child?"
" A girl. The Police searched but found no signs of her though supposedly the driver assumed she'd been hurt." Sharon replied, " I thought it might make a human interest story and it might be the only way I could reach that girl and tell her thanks." Sharon choked up a bit and she removed her glasses to dab at her eyes with a napkin.
April's mind was starting to put two and two together Mike when he had called last night had mentioned something about Rama being hurt by a truck driver who had been speeding.
Rama had definitely been in the area around the time of the incident involving Nate, so it was possible that she had acted to save the boy. April knew any of the turtles would have acted quickly to save Nate had they been in the area.
Still April was also fully aware Ramiela wasn't fully trained as of yet and might not have acted on her training.
Then another thought occurred to April one that filled her with a certain amount of trepidation for her sewer dwelling friends. The thought was what if Nate's rescuer had been Rama, and what if the truck driver had seen far more then he should have?
For the turtles sake April knew she would have to follow this story through. She'd rather follow it and learn Rama wasn't involved then leave things as it was, at the moment only to find out that the turtles existence might be in danger and she could have prevented it.
" A very interesting story." April said.
" I thought so, but maybe only because I know someone had saved my son's life. The fact that it might be a young girl who did it though, just seems to make it all the more incredible." Sharon replied a few tears slipping free from her eyes. " I saw Nate's favourite ball out on the road this morning it was squashed flat and I couldn't help but think what if…" Sharon gulped unable to finish her words.
April reached out to pat her hand offering a little comfort. " Before I do any thing I want to see if I can get a hold of the fellow who was driving the truck. See if he'd be willing to speak with me and give me his account of the events." April explained " If you give me your phone number I can call you later and let you know."
Sharon nodded and wrote her number on a napkin."
Nate had finished his sandwich and had gone back to colouring he held up a picture " Dat angel save me momma." He said cheerily.
" Angel?" April asked arching an eyebrow.
" Yeah, who ever saved Nate had to be an angel. That is what I told Nate is he was saved by an angel." Sharon replied shrugging a bit.
Mike's daughter an angel? April wondered. It surely wasn't the best word to describe the handful of mischief that was Ramiela. April found she had to fight to keep a straight face at that thought.
Sharon showed the drawing to April " Isn't it beautiful?" She beamed with pride.
April glanced at the work, she was quite used to deciphering children's drawings thanks to the many pictures that Jeremy had bestowed on his parents, and this really wasn't that different from Jeremy's pictures.
It was a stick person with a large circular head, what could only be hair on top of the head, behind the stick person was a large round brown object.
Sharon might view the brown object as wings of an angel, but why would a child draw such an object behind this stick person?
April knew that when Jeremy drew a picture of his family they were always represented as stick people, however whenever Jeremy drew a picture of the turtles he would draw a similar large round brown object behind a stick person saying " It shell mom."
That picture convinced April even more that what Jeremy had been saved by was a member of the turtle family. Then there was the hair on the angel something that would not be found on any of Jeremy's drawings of Raph, Mike, Leo or Don but was always on the ones of Rama or some of the other turtle children.
April sighed inwardly knowing she might be reading things into this drawing, perhaps she was quite willing to do anything to convince herself that it had to be Rama and was just making the pieces of the puzzle fit that way to suit her preconceived idea.
The only way to know for sure was to try and get a hold of the driver of the truck.
When April returned to the office she called directory assistance and asked for the number of Speedy delivery, the name of the company that had been posted on the side of the truck.
April ended up reaching the manager and he seemed very reluctant to give out any information about it.
Even after April explained her reason for calling, a fake reason of hoping to track down a very heroic child. April knew that small companies had to stay competitive and knew that negative attention could kill many small companies wondered if that was the manger's problem.
" Look I promise if I do a story on this I can make sure that your company name isn't even brought into the story. I'm focusing instead on the one child saving another," April insisted hoping to sway the manager.
" Do me a favour lady stop hasslin' me. I'll pass your message on to the driver. If he wants to he will get back to you. Otherwise forget it okay?"
April scowled but knew she probably wouldn't get much better then that accepted it. Now all she could do was wait.
It turned out that Randy was as eager to talk to her, as she was to talk to him. They arranged to meet at a local bar after April was off work.
" Mind if I smoke?" Randy asked her as they sat down at a booth shortly after introductions were made.
" Trust me go right ahead I don't think it will make a difference" April replied as she gestured to the all ready smoke filled room. Randy was a big fellow, the sort you didn't want to meet alone in a dark alley, he had a deep rumbling voice that seemed to be a perfect match for his size.
" First off I was speeding, and would you believe it the cops gave me a ticket for it!" Randy remarked with great indignance, " though I ought to consider myself lucky that I wasn't charged with killing a kid. Which it easily could have been."
" Well Nate seems to be doing well. His mother contacted me to see about doing the story." April stated. She knew it wasn't quite the truth but it was close enough to it for the moment.
Randy snorted " What kind of parent goes letting their kid run around at that time of night?" he disputed.
April gave him a hard look " You have children of your own Randy?"
April waited and received a negative reply ' No surprise there.' " You'd be surprised what a child can get into and just how quickly they can do it too." April concluded.
Randy gave an indifferent shrug " Maybe you are right on that count. Glad to hear the boy is doing all right, but the one I've been concerned with is the girl."
" The one who saved Nate I take it?" April asked kindly.
Randy nodded " Yeah the police didn't even seem to bother looking for her. She was hurt damn it!" he snapped before taking a gulp of his drink and a couple of puffs from his cigarette. " The least the police could have done is to send out a couple of dogs to see if they picked up the scent. Not just brush her off."
" You are sure it was a girl who saved Nate then?"
" I'm positive on that count. I figured she might have been his sister you know? But she just up and vanished as if she didn't exist. I figured she must have gone into hiding." Randy informed April as he finished off his cigarette and stubbed it out in the available ashtray.
" Why do you think she went into hiding Randy?" April couldn't help ask.
" Well she was hurt, probably scared. Might have felt she was going catch it from her parents for letting the kid wander off" Randy furrowed his brow " I just hope she is all right and safe." He sighed a bit " I'm taking a few days off at the moment the whole thing has me a bit shook up." He confessed uneasily.
" I can understand that." April agreed, " So did you get a good look at her?"
" No I just saw her for a moment or two in the headlights. Man she moved fast that was for sure because the boy was clear on the other side of the road when I went looking for them."
April nodded if he had only seen the girl for such a brief time then perhaps there was nothing to worry about. " So you didn't see anything that would set this girl a part from any other girl? Any thing that might distinguish her from any other child around that age?" April probed gently.
Randy shook his head as he scowled " Naw, that area isn't well lit to begin with. That and the rain made it difficult to see. I'd say she was about eight years of age, dark hair and she was wearing a bulky winter jacket." Randy gulped " I knew I was going hit them and it wouldn't be pretty. I recall shutting my eyes."
April nodded it seemed Randy had either not noticed any turtle features on the person who had saved Nate, either that or his mind had substituted a possibility for what he had really seen and Randy wasn't going look closer at it. In fact he was quite satisfied to accept the matter as it was.
" Did you perhaps swerve at the last moment, thereby missing the two children?" April wondered.
" No." Randy shook his head, " I had slammed on the brakes but with the wet streets it took a bit."
April nodded " Well thanks for talking with me Randy I appreciate it." April smiled as she stood up.
Randy stopped her " You want to know something I was so worried about that girl I went back to look for her today. Nothing. It was like she vanished but that just isn't possible!" he murmured.
April shrugged " Well that is what they say that it is impossible for people to disappear off the face of the earth."
" Do me a favour will ya?" Randy asked suddenly.
" If I can." April hedged.
" If you find out who she is will you let me know she is all right? It would help me a great deal." Randy confessed.
April stared into his eyes " I don't know if she can be found, or even if she wants to be for that matter. But I will see what I can find out and let you know." April assured him then she gave him and appreciative smile, " thanks for your time Mr Gates."
April left the bar feeling more then ever that there was a good chance that Rama was the other child involved. To know for sure though, she would have to talk to Rama herself.
TBC