"Is this the right one?" Luke asked as Noah rechecked the scrap of paper Joshua had earlier scribbled a few details onto.
"Number nineteen, yes, I think so…"
Luke knocked on the apartment door and waited until it was opened by a striking African American woman.
She kept the chain on the door and peered at them through the crack, "Yes? Can I help you?"
"Um, hi." said Noah awkwardly, "Um, my name is Noah and this is Luke. Are you," he peered back at the paper searching, "Jasmine?"
"I am." She stated, eyeing them both with practised suspicion.
"Um, Joshua sent us?"
Her eyebrows raised at that and she asked, "Is this about the boy?"
"I'm sorry?" Noah looked briefly at Luke, "No, he asked us to collect a package from you?"
Deciding they were safe she said, "Hold on."
They waited as she closed the door to slip the chain and open it wider. Her expression portrayed her confusion, "Just where exactly is JJ?"
"JJ?" asked Luke.
"Sorry, I meant Joshua… where is he?"
Luke nodded at Noah before Noah answered, "Um, the police are holding him right now."
"Oh man!" exclaimed the woman, "I knew it! I knew he was up to no good! What are the charges this time?"
"Actually it's kind of our fault," explained Luke, "He's been following us for a day or two but we didn't know it was him and so we called the police. They arrested him last night."
"He said he gave you something to look after and he asked us to come and get it…" continued Noah, "He said it was important."
"Look," she sighed, "No offence or anything, but I don't know you two from Adam! How do I know Joshua sent you?"
Luke smiled. The pretty lady had gumption and a sultry aura that reminded him of a classic soul singer. "He said you would say that!"
She couldn't help but smile back at him. His grin was infectious. She was testing them but the blonde instantly put her at ease, and she had already decided she liked them.
"He said when he was seven he stole a bicycle from a kid up the road, and when you caught him with it, you forced him to give it back." Noah recited the tale just as Joshua had told it, "And then you made him carry the other boy's book bag to school for a week."
She sniggered, "Little shit! Always up to his eyeballs in trouble that one! But a good heart!" Then after just one more moment of checking them over she said, "Well, the thing is? Joshua didn't leave me any package…"
"Oh?" asked Luke, "he didn't?"
"No." but she stepped aside, "You had better come in."
...
Julius and Gianni followed Claudio into the bowels of the 40,000 ton Grimaldi cargo ship on which he worked. The monster was docked for seven days in the Port of Los Angeles.
"If you hear anybody coming you'll have to hide behind one of the crates." Claudio reminded them and they nodded.
Gianni was itching to show his new friend the ins and outs of their smuggling operation. "Damian Grimaldi allowed us to use his ships for a cut of 40% so long as we made sure he could be cleared of any wrong doing if customs ever discovered a shipment. So far we've been lucky. It's much easier to hide this stuff under the umbrella of a legitimate company."
They walked through row after row of gigantic paletted iron crates, until Claudio stopped and withdrew a small remote from his pocket. He pressed a button and one of the crates opened sideways like a door, revealing a hidden compartment crammed with smaller wooden boxes. Picking up an iron bar, Claudio used it to pry open one of these exposing the hidden arsenal of weapons destined for the Los Angeles underground.
"Impressive." Stated Julius, knowing how it would stroke Gianni's incredible ego to say so. "How do you get them to shore?"
"It's a slow process. Basically it's carried out one crate at a time over the week. A few bribes here and there go a long way."
Julius nodded. "Just ammo?"
"No, we have a large narcotics business too. It does really well. Only now…"
"What?"
"Well it seems Damian's spawn is a little goodie, goodie, and he's trying to put us out of business. I need to be working within the organisation if we are going to continue to pull this off."
"Oh you told me. Luke Snyder. What are you going do about it?"
Gianni sniffed, "We sent him a pretty strong message yesterday!"
"The bomb? That was you?" exclaimed Julius, feigning ignorance. Gianni was such a chump!
Gianni grinned with glee, happy to have impressed Julius, "He'll learn pretty quickly! This is LA! Not some hick town! He's messing with the big boys now!"
...
"No! Absolutely not! No way!"
"Luke…"
"Noah! It was bad enough you talked me into coming here to pick up a package! But this is a kid!"
The boy in question was curled up asleep in the centre of a giant pillow on the floor. He had apparently dropped off only a few minutes before their arrival.
"Yes but Joshua couldn't tell us it was a kid, could he? The police were listening to every word!" Noah spoke softly so as not to wake him.
"Babe! Do you even hear yourself? No matter what Joshua did for you, he's still a criminal and this… THIS!" he swept his hand in the direction of the boy, "This has got crime written all over it! We're talking about a CHILD here! We don't know anything about him?" and then in a whisper he said, "They don't even know his name!"
"I know! But Luke, Joshua saved my life! And now he's depending on us! I owe him. WE owe him. He said he would explain everything when he could."
Luke was incredulous, "You're trusting a guy who knocked me out and threw me into the back of a car? Or have you forgotten all that?"
"Of course not! I know what he's done! I know what he is… but still…"
"You are ACTUALLY considering this, aren't you? You actually want us to take him home! Don't you?"
Noah was silent but his expression spoke volumes.
Luke sighed deeply. "Please don't look at me like that." he moaned, "You know I can't say no to that face!"
"Then don't… I don't think Joshua would deliberately put us in harms way. I'm sure he has his reasons for asking us to do this. And until we know what they are, we need to help him out. Please?"
Luke looked over at the boy and sighed. "One week Noah! Then we talk to the police, Okay?"
Noah paused for a minute but finally nodded, "Okay."
...
He was afraid the first time he woke up in the lady's apartment. But then he remembered. Joshua said it was okay. Joshua would fetch him soon. Joshua had given him a case for his pencils and a notebook to draw in and that meant that Joshua was a good person. He was sure. And he liked Jasmine. She spoke nicely to him and gave him food. The food was so good!
BUT!
But now he was awake and he really didn't know where he was! He was in a HOUSE! And he could hear voices! And the voices sent tremors down his spine. MEN! An ice cold chill rushed through his body. He tiptoed across the carpet and peered out of the doorway. He could just make out the side of one man and he knew he couldn't escape that way. He wedged himself close up against the wall and followed the passageway. He couldn't stop shaking and the darkness made him feel sick, but he kept going.
"Luke?" He heard one man call from the room he had just left.
"Yeah?" Came the reply.
"Um, he's not here…"
"What?" asked the other voice, louder this time, "Well he must be somewhere… he didn't come past us so he has to be in this part of the house."
His heart beat faster.
"Okay. I'll look. Just wait here… I don't want to scare him."
He could hear the man searching the other rooms and finally arriving in the bedroom. "Hello?"
He moved and cursed himself for making a noise. Stupid! There was silence for a while and then he saw a soft glow of light piercing through the cracks in the closet door. It wasn't so dark anymore and he felt somewhat better.
"Hello kid."
He cocked his head slightly at the sound of the voice, like a puppy trying to make sense out of something unfamiliar. He knew the man was right on the other side of the closet door. He expected it to fly open at any moment and he braced himself for the violent beating he would no doubt receive. He held his arms over his head and waited. But nothing happened.
Instead the man said, "My name is Noah. You're not in any trouble. You don't need to be afraid, okay?"
He had made the mistake of listening to these sorts of promises before. Every time he had wanted to believe that the guy was good, but always it was just another lie. All they wanted to do was hurt him and he just wanted to be left alone.
But this man had a calming voice, "We're friends of Joshua. He had to go away for a while and he asked us to look after you."
Joshua. Joshua had never lied to him. Joshua was his friend. Joshua was kind and wouldn't leave him in danger. He felt sure of that.
"Listen," said the kind voice, "You can stay in the closet for as long as you like, okay? And you can come out whenever you want. We won't bother you unless you want us too. I'm leaving you some milk and cookies out here. So you just take them when you're ready. I'm going to go now, okay?"
He was surprised to actually hear the footsteps as they left the room. But that didn't mean he was going out!
...
Over the next two days the boy remained in the closet, coming out only when he needed the bathroom, and then only when he thought Luke and Noah were asleep.
They spent the nights in the spare bedroom, but neither of them could sleep, both too afraid the child would try and leave on his own. Thankfully he would eat the food laid out for him. In fact he seemed to eat everything up as though he'd never had food in his life. Noah wondered, with dread, just how true that was. But at least getting him to eat was one less thing they had to worry about.
Luke had been forced to run to the store to purchase spare clothes for both Noah and himself since the majority of their usual clothing was stored in the closet now occupied by the boy.
The extra stress of caring for the child was taking its toll on their work. Noah was far behind on his edits and the studio would call every half an hour for updates. Luke was in the throngs of finding a temporary office space fit for purpose and trying to control the rumours being spread in newspapers by the media. Not to mention spending hours on the phone convincing his parents that he and Noah were both alive and well and there was absolutely no need for them to hop on a flight to Los Angeles. He didn't tell them about the boy.
On day three, Jasmine arrived at the house to bring the child a small suitcase, which she explained contained his art supplies. To Noah's amazement the child actually opened the closet door to take the case from her. But he immediately shut it after himself.
"Well," Noah exclaimed to Jasmine, "I guess even that can be seen as progress!"
She winked at him.
"Hey?" said Noah through the door. "It must be kinda dark in there to draw. Why don't you come out into the light?" He waited but the door stayed shut. Jasmine watched as Noah pondered over something and then opened a dresser drawer to remove a flashlight. He checked it was working and then said, "I'll leave this flashlight here for you, okay? It will give you some more light in there."
Within seconds of placing the flashlight on the carpet the door opened and a tiny hand snatched it before slamming the door shut again.
Noah smiled.
...
"Hi." Luke said as he sat up against the closet door later that same afternoon, "I got you a book from the bookstore today. I thought maybe you might like a story? I loved it when my mom or dad would read to me when I was little. Of course the first book that caught my eye was this one." He lifted the book onto his knees and smiled, "Noah's Ark…" he began.
He read the story in the way his Grandma Emma would, all expressive with different character voices. Right after reading the last word on the page he asked, "Did you enjoy that story?" and he closed the book.
He didn't expect a reply of course, but just as he was about to stand up the closet door opened and the child, looking right at him, handed him a page torn out of a notebook. On it was drawn an unbelievable depiction of Noah and his Ark. All the animals were featured two-by-two, just as Luke had read.
Luke's heart did a double beat at the gesture. To receive this gift from such a child was like receiving manna from heaven. His heart swelled and he felt suddenly teary. Luke gazed back up and, as he did so he froze, his breath caught in his throat at the look of uncertainty in the boy's blue eyes. It was look he knew well! It was a look he had seen a thousand times before… only not on this face.
He felt suddenly paralysed; sure that he was seeing things. He had to be careful. This was an important moment for the boy… a huge step in accepting them. Whatever he was feeling at that moment they had to be quickly masked for the sake of the child.
Swallowing hard he passed the boy the book, forced a smile and asked, "Are you ready to come out of the closet?"
The boy frowned briefly but then nodded. He closed the lid on his small suitcase, pressing the locks into place, and then, taking it with him, the storybook hitched under his arm, he walked past Luke and out the bedroom.
Luke let out a shudder of breath! Something strange was going on! He took a moment to steady himself. As he entered the lounge he saw Noah watching the boy as he sat cross legged on the floor drawing. Noah smiled up at Luke and mouthed, "Congratulations…"
But Luke's mind was elsewhere. "Noah, I know you're working but there's something I forgot to do. Can you watch him for an hour or so?"
"Sure. Nothing serious I hope?"
"No, no…" he stopped to kiss Noah's on the forehead before making for the door.
...
"Boss?"
Marco Di Alberto sat at his enormous mahogany desk and gestured with three fingers for the man to enter. "How soon can you be ready to move against Snyder?"
"Whenever you need me too boss. Everything is in place."
"I've been trying Snyder's number for two whole days and he's not picking up! I don't like to be ignored. I'm not a patient person. Screw being patient! I got no time for it! I want him to squirm you understand? Let's make sure he gets the message this time."
"Yes Sir! How final a message are we talking here boss?"
"Just scare him… He owns that company! We need him on side. Even if we have to get his cooperation by force…"
"Done!"
...
Luke sat face to face with Joshua in the visitor's room. "Okay! I want you to tell me where you got that kid!"
"I took him."
"You took him? Holy shit! That's just great! So what you are trying to tell me is that Noah and I are harbouring a kidnapped child?"
"Depends how you look at it."
"Okay," said Luke with exasperation, "how should I look at this?"
"Boy's mother hurts him… She doesn't want him."
Luke stared at Joshua for a few minutes while he processed that. "Okay. Another question then… Where did you snatch him from?"
"Branson. Branson, Missouri."
Luke felt a strange reverberation throughout his entire body. No! It wasn't possible! Was it?
Please comment if you are enjoying my stories… Thanks :-)