Heaven with a Barbed Wire Fence Chapter Eleven
Title: Heaven with a Barbed Wire Fence
Author: Alex Foster
Category: General
Word Count: 50,000+
Rating: PG-13
Summary: A trip home for the holidays turns into a race to protect a young special from The Church of the Nephilim. Claire/Gretchen/Elle triad relationship.
Contains: Polyamory, established relationships, original characters, cursing, misogynist language, threats of violence to a child, sexual situations, descriptions of violence.
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by NBC. No money is being made and no infringement is intended.
....
Chapter Eleven
Elle pushed painfully to her feet and took stock of the scene. The house looked trashed but otherwise was still standing. She didn’t see any fires or immediate dangers. The end tables and coffee table were toothpicks and debris from ruined shelves littered the floor. The stink of ozone hung heavy in the air.
Everyone was alive though and more or less unhurt.
Elle hurried to Gretchen. Her eyes had returned to normal but she had a trickle of blood coming from her nose. "You with us?"
"Barely." Gretchen stood, wobbly, but under her own power.
Claire came up behind her and looked over Elle’s shoulder. "Elle," she said.
She turned and saw Lillian and Howard Berg standing in the ruins of the living room. Martin sat on the edge of an upturned lounge chair, still looking very dazed, and rubbed his chest where he took the blast.
"Get away from her," Howard said. "I want both of you out of this house."
"No! Mom, dad, please-"
Lillian shook her head. "These people are not welcome here. Not now or ever again."
Claire and Elle exchanged a glance. Reluctantly, the former nodded.
"No," Gretchen said again, strength coming back to her voice. "This is my home too. You can’t kick them out."
Howard seemed to come to a decision right then and there. "Fine," he said. "You get out too."
"What?" Elle beat Claire to the outraged outburst.
"Mr. Berg, we’ll-"
"Yes," Gretchen finished for her, "we will. Claire, could you get our bags please?"
"It doesn’t have to be this way."
Martin tried to stand up and speak, but sat back down with a groan. His mother went to his side.
"You have three minutes," Howard said. "And then I’m calling the police to report a break in. It is up to you if I tell them the intruders are still here."
Rocking on the balls of her feet twice, Claire finally broke from the pack and headed upstairs.
Elle positioned herself between the Bergs and Gretchen. "You are making a huge mistake. Trust me on that."
"Making threats now? Haven’t you done enough? The mistakes we’ve made were allowing your kind to come into our home and not pulling our daughter out of that school when we found out the kinds of creatures she was associating with."
"Oh you have no idea what a threat from me entails, Howard, but keep it up and you will."
"Gretchen…"
"Stay with them, Martin," Gretchen said. "We’ll talk later. It will be all right."
Claire came down the stairs, a bag over each shoulder and one in her hand. It would have been comical, a small woman with so many bags, if the situation wasn’t so tense.
Elle took one of them from her girlfriend and looked back to Gretchen’s parents. "This might not be my holiday but you’ve showed me the importance of one thing. Let’s go."
She led the way out the broken door, Claire bringing up the rear, with Gretchen tucked safely between them. Outside the air was biting cold and made Elle aware her clothes were still wet.
Gretchen sniffed and wiped at the blood on her upper lip.
Elle sighed and tried to think as they walked. She had to get them out of the weather and to safety as fast as possible.
"Will the church come back for them?" Gretchen asked.
"Probably not," Elle said. "The police will be there soon and Light was only really after us."
"We need to call West," Claire said. "Warn him." She didn’t seem bothered by the cold.
"Not until we know how they tracked us," Elle said. "They came after us and not him that means his location is uncompromised right now. I want to leave it that way until we can pull ourselves together and make sure our phones aren’t tapped."
They rounded the corner and started down the next block. It was fully dark out but outside Christmas lights and displays provided more than enough light to see by. There was no one around and the world seemed incredibly still after the noise and bustle of the invasion.
"I need to sit down," Gretchen said at the end of the street. "My heart is racing."
Claire and Elle helped her down and sat next to her on the curb. Their breath fogged in the cold air. Claire rubbed Gretchen’s back both for reassurance and heat. "We need to call a cab or something. Put some distance between us and them."
Whether she meant the church or the Bergs, Elle didn’t know. But she agreed. Still not sure if she could trust their phones, she looked around and listened carefully. No sirens yet. The police would be coming though-even if Howard didn’t make good on the threat, someone must have heard the commotion with Light.
"Want to tell me what the hell that was back there?"
Gretchen shrugged. "I don’t know. I just thought…I thought back to when I heard Stephen’s voice and tried to talk to him. I asked him to please help me like you helped him."
"Any chance you made them go out to the cornfield? Like in a Yet I Must Scream kind of way?"
"I don’t think so. I wanted them away but I don’t think I managed to get them very far. Just that little bit felt like I was going to split in two." Gretchen cradled her head and leaned forward. Blood continued to drip from her nose.
Elle bit her lip. They needed transportation, fast, and one that didn’t involve other people.
Elle’s gaze fell on a dark house several doors down without an attached garage. Like the other homes on the block it had a driveway big enough for two cars. There was only one parked. She didn’t see any Christmas lights or holiday decorations.
She drummed her fingers against the curb as she thought. Beggars can’t be choosers. She stood. "Wait here, girls."
"What are you going to do, Elle?"
"Keep your spankies on, Cheerleader. I’m going to get us out of here."
Elle crossed the street, turning in circles as she did so looking for signs of nosey neighbors. Not a curtain was disturbed. Perfect.
She walked past the dark driveway, peered at the house, and then doubled back across the lawn and deeper in the shadows.
The car was a little Nissan GT-R sport coupe, probably the toy of some middle aged man with a small penis and disposable income. Knowing better than to touch the door handle right off, Elle walked around the entire length of the car and bent near the front grille. It took some searching, but she found a little red wire running along the underside to where she suspected the battery was located.
Letting a strong current flow between her finger and it, Elle overloaded and fried the component. The car alarm flashed once, the locks opened, and a single siren sounded before going quiet.
Standing, she looked around to see if anyone took notice of the brief noise. Nothing. Gotta love the suburbs, she thought. Everyone was busy with his or her own crap.
Walking around the front end like she was on her way to work, Elle opened the driver’s side door and climbed in. The owner might have a small wee one but he was tall. Elle moved the seat forward until she could reach the pedals. A zap to the ignition wires while pressing the start button and she was in business.
The dashboard lights glowed red as the engine happily hummed. Elle took a second to familiarize herself with the controls and paddle shifters before backing out of the driveway.
Claire wore a disapproving look when Elle pulled up and shook her head. "This is going unnoticed?"
"Not the family car," Elle said. "It got left behind when the Smiths paid a visit to their gram-gram. Now get in."
Gretchen still looked queasy and wasn’t in a position to argue. Claire climbed into the backseat and put the passenger seat back into position for Gretchen. It was probably best if the sick person had the access to the side of the road, for obvious reasons.
Seconds later they were on the road and moving in the opposite direction of the Berg household.
"Don’t speed," Claire said.
"Aw. This car was made to speed." She did see the wisdom in the advice though and kept the speedometer under the limit. Keeping an eye on the rearview mirror, Elle stayed off the highway and drove in a looping pattern through the outskirts of Austin. Company training included defensive and offensive driving and she wanted to make sure no one was following them.
At least no one in a car.
It wasn’t outside the realm of possibility the church had put a flyer or speedster on them. If that was the case all the car tricks she knew wouldn’t shake them.
"Everyone turn your phones off," Elle said.
"Are you sure? We need to contact Micah and West."
"We will."
An EM manipulator could also track them by their phones. Elle mentally kicked herself for not thinking of that sooner. Digital hiding basics right there and she forgot about it. Other things on her mind.
"How are you holding up over there, Doe Eyes?"
"Good." Gretchen kept her head resting on the seatbelt return. "I can still play, coach. Put me in."
"Warming the bench right now." Like your brother, Elle almost joked but caught herself in time. No family mentions for a while, she thought.
Silence fell in their new car. Elle executed a sharp turn to throw off anyone that might be tailing them and played with the radio controls. Soothing piano music came from the speakers. She hit the power button with a grimace. "What sort of douche buys a sports car and listens to classical, am I right? I mean, play some AC DC or something."
Uneasy silence settled.
After another three turns Claire spoke up, "The street behind us is empty. Only my dad could have stayed with you this long. We have to get to a hotel. I have cash."
"That’s great, Pom Pom, but Douchey McGee didn’t have one preprogrammed into the GPS and I don’t know where I’m going."
"Turn left up here at the light, down about a mile-two lights-and then another left. The hotel isn’t low end but paying with cash won’t seem entirely abnormal," Gretchen said. Then shrugged. "In high school that was the go to place when you wanted to…you know."
Elle hit the turn signal. "That’s great. Is there a certain room you’d like me to ask for to relive old times?"
"Elle." Claire’s voice was quick and harsh.
"Sorry." Elle sighed. "I get cranky when people pour water on me, try to kill people I’m fond of, and I don’t get to try potato pancakes."
Gretchen smiled weakly. "It’s okay. I never stayed there…I was more of a backseat kind of girl." She winked at Claire.
"Yeah, she’s doing better."
Gretchen’s hook up hotel turned out to be a travel inn and motor lodge. Respectable enough looking for what they needed it for-Elle had lived in far worse-with a nine foot tall mascot standing by the parking lot gesturing for them to come in.
"Holy crap," Elle said, "it’s a cowboy."
His neon light up hat and belt buckle illuminated the inside of the car as they drove past.
"Yep," Gretchen said. "Cowboy Curtis there with his tight pants has seen a lot of action come and go over the years."
Elle took the parking space with the least visibility from the street in case the cops decided to come looking for their ride. She killed the engine and popped the door.
"Why don’t you go get the room, Cheerleader? You look more like the type they are used to seeing." Realizing how that sounded she quickly added, "Young, like high school. Not, you know, like a whore."
Claire gave a tight-lipped smile and climbed out once Elle did. "That’s very reassuring. Thanks. I’ll be right back."
Elle settled back in place behind the wheel and watched her go. "We’ll get this straightened out," she said.
"I know." Gretchen didn’t sound very sure however. She sounded tired and sad.
Elle didn’t like that, not at all. She was at a serious loss for how to fix it. Bad guys she could handle-dead always worked best in those cases-but she wasn’t sure how to make Gretchen not sad about her family.
The happy neon cowboy kept waving as they watched.
"I’m still envious," Elle said. "If that makes any difference."
"What?"
Elle fidgeted. How long could it possibly take to rent a single room for three grown women to all sleep together in?
"Well, we might talk about bad batting averages with families but Claire and you have something I don’t and never will. A few good years of a stereotypical nuclear family. I have a few flashes of my mom and then a grandmother before the Company and that’s it.
"I’m not even sure of their names. It is all sort of happy with some nice smells and then grown ups are talking about how I made the block go dark. There are a lot of medical tables after that."
Gretchen reached for her hand but Elle fiddled with the wheel instead and pretended not to notice.
"So, yeah, your parents are jerks and they just fell below Noah in my eyes-and he tried to kill me a couple of times-but you had them for a while and could get them back."
"Thanks," Gretchen said. "I-"
"Claire’s back."
Noah’s baby girl knew her craft well and managed to swing a corner room with windows facing both the parking lot entrance and the oncoming traffic from the street beyond. Very defendable with a couple of avenues of escape if it came down to it. Elle wholeheartedly approved. Swiping quickly at her eyes, she helped Claire unload the bags and carry them to the room.
Inside wasn’t much to write home about. Basic full size bed with light tan sheets and comforter. Tiny bathroom. Desk with pens chained to it. And seashore artwork that Elle swore was the same in every hotel she’d ever been in.
"Ah, home crap home."
The two specials swept through the room, inspecting it for points of entry and escape. Elle had Company training to thank for that and Claire had her father.
Gretchen waited for them to finish-it was more for a sense of security than any real battle plan-and then kicked off her shoes in defiance of every Dateline blacklight hotel special they had ever watched. "I need a shower," she said. "Then I’m going to sleep for an hour or week, whichever comes first."
Elle watched her go and heard the water spray start a few moments later. Gretchen had left the door slightly ajar, not quite an invitation but a comforting gesture regardless.
Claire sat on the edge of the bed and sighed.
"Well, Ollie, this is another fine mess we’ve gotten into." Elle leaned against the desk and cross her arms over her stomach.
"We need to get a hold of our people," Claire said. "It can’t wait. We can use the hotel phone if we have to."
Elle agreed, but not about using the landline. She’d caught one of the church specials glancing at the phone at the Berg’s house. They needed new cell phones that they only kept alive during set intervals. Basic Company protocols. She stepped forward and pulled the gun out of the waistband of her pants. "Here, hang on to this for me. I’m going out for a second."
"You are? Where?"
"Not far. I saw a dollar store down the street. I want to buy some supplies for the night."
Claire gave her a look that didn’t come off quite as humor filled as she probably intended. "I don’t think we need condoms."
"Leave the sauciness to me, Cheerleader." She left the gun sitting on the bed and gave Claire a quick kiss. "I’ll be back soon. Keep this door locked."
"Can I take candy from strangers?"
"Totally. I would if I could."
Elle left the room and started walking. She liked the car where it was, nice and hidden, so she jogged across the parking lot and started walking in the direction of the store. Traffic wasn’t heavy in this neighborhood but there were a few cars cruising down the road.
Elle let her trained gaze sweep over each one and linger in the dark alleys between buildings. She looked for anything suspicious or dangerous for her girlfriends. Nothing seemed amiss or out of place.
The store was only a couple of blocks down and well lit in the dark Texas night. It was a generic dollar store that seemed to grow wild below the Mason-Dixon Line like mushrooms. Cheap fabric poinsettias decorated the outside of the store along with small Christmas inflatables.
Inside it was warm, smelled like plastic, and had carols playing over the loudspeaker. An old woman wearing a smock worked the counter and smiled when the bells on the door jingled. "Hello! Happy holidays."
"Thanks," Elle said without really paying attention. "Merry Hanukkah."
She grabbed a hand basket and started shopping. The store only had a couple of other shoppers so Elle moved quickly down the aisles. First stop was disposable phones. She grabbed three of the cheapest and airtime cards for each. Next she hit the food department for a quick dinner for three. Eggo didn’t make a box of frozen potato pancakes much to her disappointment.
Odds and ends from the Christmas aisle and she was set. She looked longingly at the bottles of whiskey. It was temping but if Light somehow found them she didn’t want to fight another special while hung over. She moved past the whiskey with a sigh and kept on going to the checkout.
She placed the basket on the counter and the old woman looked at the items. "Impromptu office party," Elle explained and tossed a box of matches from the impulse buys on the pile of items.
Elle thought for a second. "Start ringing me up. I’ll be right back." She headed back into the aisles and came back with a small box of wine and a package of Solo cups. "Now it’s a party. Double bag all this for me, would you, Louise?"
She paid cash for everything to keep the ping off her bank card and looped the bags around each wrist, box of wine tucked neatly under one arm. The walk back wasn’t as enjoyable with the load of groceries weighing her down but she trekked along. Halfway back, a police car shot by with its lights and siren on but it kept going past the hotel and didn’t slow. Probably on the way to an accident caused by a holiday drunk driver. Elle hitched her boxed wine a little higher to keep it from slipping. Some people had no responsibility this time of year.
She passed the waving cowboy and this time took notice of the mounted security cameras keeping an eye on the hotel and parking lot. Helpful to know in case the church had a technopath on the payroll. Though if they had an evil goateed Micah over there she, Claire, and Gretchen were pretty much screwed.
The curtain blocking the window facing the parking lot moved as she got closer and Claire opened the door. She had the gun in one hand, finger off the trigger, and it was Elle had to admit more than a little hot.
"Did you buy the store out?"
"Just about." Elle deposited the bags on the desk.
Claire closed the door behind her and threw the lock into place. "How long do you think we’re going to be here?" she asked peering into one.
Gretchen lay on the bed, wearing only a pair of shorts and a white t-shirt. Her hair was wet and the shirt clung to her skin in a distracting way. She pushed up on her elbows to see what Elle bought.
"Just tonight hopefully," Elle said, turning her attention back to the groceries. "But we might as well make the best of it." She began emptying bags.
The wine and Solo cups went off to one side; they were for later anyway. Elle set a one foot tall plastic Christmas tree on the desktop, the tips of its fake pine needles flashed red and green when she hit a button on the base. Next to it she lined up little glass candleholders and placed a yellow ez wick taper in each.
"A makeshift menorah?" Gretchen asked.
"Best part of doing our own celebration," Elle said, "is we can do both Hanukkah and Christmas. I kinda missed the tree."
Claire came up behind her, put her hands on her hips, and kissed Elle’s neck. "I do believe you’ve gone soft."
"Have not. It’s to make Doe Eyes feel better." She pulled out the disposable phones. "Here crack those open and plug them in. Or leave them out and I’ll charge them later by hand. Until we know how the church found us that is how we contact our people. We keep them off when we’re not using them."
"Good idea." Claire took the packages from her and moved to the night table, where there was a wall outlet.
Gretchen climbed to her feet and padded over to the desk. "All this to make me feel better?"
"Well, I figured if the holiday crap didn’t do it the bargain booze would."
Gretchen gave her a knowing smile. "Give me the matches. Claire?"
Finished with the phones, Claire walked over and stood on Gretchen’s right while Elle stood to the left. Gretchen removed the extra candles and set them aside, leaving just one to the right and another to serve as the Shamash.
She opened the box and took out a match and struck it. "Blessed are You, O Lord our God, Ruler of the Universe, Who made miracles for our forefathers in those days at this time." Holding the match to the Shamash’s wick, she lit the candle and then flicked the match out. Gripping the candle she nodded to Claire and Elle.
Understanding from what they saw at the Berg household, both specials gripped the candle with her and together the three of them lit the first Hanukkah candle.
As the flame took, Gretchen recited, "Blessed are You, O Lord Our God, Ruler of the Universe, Who has kept us alive, sustained us and brought us to this season."
"Amen."
"Amen."
They left the candle burning, as the Jewish tradition book said, and settled in. Elle cracked open the wine and filled three cups. It tasted horrible but would do the trick if necessary. Claire just grimaced at the taste and didn’t bother drinking any more-Elle remembered she was immune to the trick no matter what the quality of the booze.
Claire huddled where the phones were charging and began adding the airtime cards.
The room had a tv-free HBO-but all Elle could find on was a black and white holiday movie with priests and nuns. Deciding it was better than nothing, she left the volume down low for background noise.
Gretchen sat on the desk chair, one bare leg up on the seat and her arms crossed, staring at the Hanukkah candle.
"You good, Doe Eyes?" Elle peered over and saw Gretchen’s cup was empty.
"Fine." Gretchen was quiet for a moment before adding, "They went after my family tonight."
Muscles in Elle’s back tightened. She thought for a moment that she was going to blame specials for bringing danger into their lives. "Yeah, they did."
Gretchen’s gaze shifted to hers. It was hard and determined. "I want you to promise me that we’re going to stop them. Salt and that Light and whoever he is working with. I want them stopped."
Elle’s mouth twisted. "We’re going to kill them."
"Thank you."
Claire came up. "West is fine. I think I woke him up-he did fly a long way today. No activity around him and he was going to make a couple of fly bys to make sure there isn’t anyone up top. We’ll meet tomorrow."
"What about The Great Oz?"
Claire shook her head. "I left a message on one of his dummy voicemails. It wasn’t coming from my normal number so it might take a bit for him to realize it is there." She looked between them. "Everything okay?"
"We were just talking about tomorrow," Gretchen said. "I want to be part of it. No more waiting in the room where it is safe. I’m not a special but I still want to fight these battles with you."
Church bells started ringing on the tv and Elle laughed at the irony. She set her cup down and reached for Gretchen. Pulling her up and to her feet, she leaned in for a kiss.
Gretchen pressed against her a little harder than normal, forcing Elle to take her weight. A hand slinked around her waist, relieving some of the pressure and Claire moved Gretchen’s hair out of the way with her other hand. She gave a suckling kiss to the exposed skin of Gretchen’s neck.
Briefly, Elle flashed back to their first time together-in another cheap hotel while on the run from a dangerous special. Then it was the other two, led by Gretchen, giving her comfort. She decided it was more than fair she return the favor.
The backs of her knees touched the bed before she was even aware of having moved across the room. The three of them went down in a tangle of limbs and the cares and worries of the disastrous night didn’t seem so important for a while.
~
Micah parked near an overpass and started walking the rest of the way to his friend. It was Christmas time all over the city, with decoration and music, but here it was mostly just cold and dark. His shoes beat a path down concrete as he started looking for his target.
Bennie Klein moved around a lot but he almost always came back to this area. There were a lot of specials on the streets and he did his best to look after them. A better job, he claimed, then Micah’s people in the local shelter. It was his main reason for still being out here despite Micah’s attempts to change things.
Micah also knew he had other reasons. Unlike other specials the Company hadn’t experimented on Bennie, but he did have problems related to his ability.
Micah was sympathetic. Bennie’s power dealt with space and distance in the same ballpark as Molly’s and it tortured him. In a different world, Molly could have ended up like Bennie or worse. And Micah wasn’t fond of thinking thoughts like that.
He slipped his hands in his coat pockets and turned down a side alley. A few of the people looked up when he entered, a couple Micah knew by name. He did his best to look after as many specials as possible, there were always more however, and those like the head of a nearby shelter helped him with the ones that slipped through the cracks. That was why Micah made sure the shelter stayed well funded.
Bennie was halfway down, bundled against the cold with his backpack propped up next to him. He was a middle aged man, dark skinned, with white in his hair and beard.
"Hey, Bennie." Micah sat beside him. "Merry Christmas."
"Hello, young man." For a second Micah couldn’t tell if Bennie recognized him or not. "Merry Christmas to you too."
Micah fished around in his pocket. "I brought you something." He pulled out a sandwich double wrapped in foil. "Turkey."
"Thanks, man." He bit into it and then offered the other side. "Want a bite?"
"No, I had some earlier. Molly says hi."
Bennie shook his finger. "That’s the girl you’re always running around with, right? You ever marry her yet?"
"No, not yet." Micah smiled. "That was nice of you to hint for her."
Bennie laughed and tucked back into the sandwich.
"Listen, Bennie, I need you to do something for me."
"Nah-uh. I don’t do that no more. Sending people, man, it messes with me. Don’t make me feel right in the head."
"I know. I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t important. If it helps, it isn’t a person. Just a small package."
Foil crinkled as Bennie’s hands tightened. "I don’t know…"
"Please." Micah unzipped his coat and reached into the inside pocket for a small box a little longer than the palm of his hand. Brown shipping paper covered it. "It doesn’t have to go very far-just to the other end of the city."
Bennie gave a sharp grunt. "Distance ain’t nothing. People think it is the length of somethin’ that matters. It don’t. Points in space-time are constant. It is just a matter of pinching them together." He grabbed at the air with his thumb and forefinger several times. "People don’t get that. Don’t see it like me."
Micah chewed on the inside of his cheek. He didn’t exactly feel good about this. "I know. If there was another way, I wouldn’t ask you."
Bennie put down the few bites of sandwich left and snatched the package from Micah. "Give me the numbers," he said.
Micah handed him a slip of paper with GPS coordinates written on it. By his calculations, the package had a leeway of three feet from that spot to still be safe from discovery. But he also knew Bennie’s ability and that those extra feet wouldn’t be necessary. Bennie could hit a dime sitting on the street on the other side of the world if he had the coordinates in front of him.
Some people said they could see numbers in their heads when doing math. Bennie actually could. He could see them everywhere at all times. Angles, trajectories, and spatial locations. Advanced mathematics far beyond what most people ever gave thought to. For him the world was one huge math proof solution.
Bennie looked at the numbers on the paper and then back to the package in his hand. The muscles in his arm rippled unnaturally as did the air around the package. He tipped his head and began whispering numbers and figures to himself.
Micah didn’t even try and follow what he was saying. It was incredibly complex and only fully understandable to someone else with Bennie’s ability.
The air rippled again and then began curling around the package like plastic melting in a fire. As Micah watched the planes and angles of the package seemed to look wrong, as though seeing them through a spinning prism. It seemed to stretch abnormally long before snapping back with an audible pop. Air rushed outward from the space around Bennie’s hand and the package was gone.
He shivered violently and Micah knew it didn’t have anything to do with the cold. Memories of how badly Bennie had reacted last time kept Micah from touching him with a comforting hand. The older special squeezed his eyes shut and his jaw worked soundlessly.
Micah winced in sympathy. He knew right now Bennie existed in two places at the same time and his brain, not conditioned to that, was struggling to make sense of it.
It lasted for several long minutes. Bennie finally won the fight and opened his eyes, what he saw however Micah had no clue. Whatever it was, it wasn’t the same thing as everyone else.
"Thank you, my friend."
Bennie grabbed what was left of his sandwich. "Integers and fractions," he said. "People just don’t get how it all fits together. They think space-time is like rubber but it isn’t! It ain’t that tough. Wet paper is what it is. Easy to tear if you ain’t careful. You can ball it up or fold it together. Now balling it makes it tough. Can’t rip that sucker, nope. Folding it though gets tricky because of the extra time dimensions."
He laughed, took a bite of turkey, and kept talking. "They don’t teach you about those, but they’re there. Fourth dimension. Ha! More like four through six. Stick your finger in one of those and it ain’t ever comin’ back. No, sir."
Micah sat with him and let him ramble until Bennie had tired himself out and was starting to fall asleep. Mindful that no one else saw, Micah slipped a roll of money in Bennie’s coat pocket and walked away.
He hated this line of work at times.
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