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CHAPTER 4:
"Andrei, are you alright?" his wife, Jane asked when he stopped at a green light.
"I'm fine, but they're not," he said, pointing to his left.
Jane looked in the direction he was pointing to and her delicate facial features tensed up as she saw a small group of people running out of the park….chasing two others. She squinted her eyes to try and make out the two.
"Honey, is that…..?"
"Yup," Andrei answered.
"….And is that…..?
"Yup," he answered again.
"But, why are they…..?"
"Well……can't you tell they're on a date?" he asked, sounding unfazed by what he was seeing.
Takeshi and Liz were heading in their direction, when Takeshi spotted Andrei with his family. A look on Takeshi's face indicated that they needed help. Andrei sighed and waved at him. He waited until the two of them passed in front of his car. Then he looked back to his left and waited for the others to get closer to his vehicle. When they were already out in the street, nearing his car to pass, Andrei drove through the intersection, while the light was red, making the group of "followers" stop dead in their tracks. He looked in his rear view mirror and he saw a couple of people giving him the finger; he continued driving as if nothing happened. Jane and their daughter, Sage, were speechless.
"Hope that gave the kids enough time to escape." he thought.
Andrei was then taken by surprise when his daughter leaned forward and gave him a quick hug. "What was that for?"
"I don't know. Just felt like it. Believe it or not, Dad, I really did miss you."
Andrei started pulling over to the side of the road. He turned around and faced his daughter, who had a look of confusion on her face. Andrei was thinking of something to say, but he wasn't used to this kind of thing.
"I haven't really been there for her or Jane," he thought, "but I'm damn sure that I'll try my hardest to make it up to them."
As if knowing what he was thinking about, Jane leaned over, and kissed him gently on his cheek.
"Honey, we know how you feel."
Andrei looked back at her grinned. He turned towards the steering wheel, put the car in drive and took off.
"Ok, Rocket, tonight is Family Night," he thought.
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"Takeshi….I…think….we lost them," Liz was saying while trying to catch her breath.
They both looked back only to find regular people going on with their business. Takeshi sat down on a nearby wall.
"Sorry, Liz."
"Now what are you apologizing for?" she asked.
"That marathon we were running in. Didn't you notice?"
Liz sat next to him.
"Are you kidding me? Dude, that was awesome!"
"Huh!"
"Didn't that get your juices flowing? Your adrenaline running?" she answered back, smiling.
Takeshi stared at her, not knowing what to say, but relieved that she wasn't upset.
They sat there for a few minutes, trying to catch their breath while looking to see if the reporters were around.
"Liz?"
"Hmmm?"
"Why didn't you want Yuri to tell me that you were the one who gave that puzzle?"
Liz blushed and at first, didn't know what to say. She was quiet for a few seconds.
"I don't know."
"Come on, Liz. You can tell. …."
"Takeshi, I don't know."
"Ok, you don't have to tell me if you don't want."
"I just wanted to give it to you, but I didn't want to make a big deal out of it," she said, "it's just a stupid puzzle, anyway."
"Yeah, it was," he answered.
"WHAT!"
"BUT, I never gave up on it," he said quickly, "I was determined to solve it and I did. Looking back, I guess it did help me get my mind off of things. And last night, when I connected the pieces together again, I started thinking about.…..you."
Liz looked up and found him staring back at her. Takeshi placed his hand under her chin to move her face towards him again.
"You know, maybe I can get used to this," she said smiling.
"I hope so," he whispered back.
CRASH!
They both jumped up to find the source of the noise...
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OK, now I'm really going to have to take a break from this. I really need to catch up on my schoolwork. I hope you like my latest chapter. Chapter 5 will be up soon.