Nowhere, Arizona Part 2

“Somebody is trying to kill us!” yelled Jack, scrambling across the floor toward the hall.

“No, hold on! No need to panic!” exclaimed Hansen.

“No need to panic? Man, are you from Pluto? Someone just shot out a window right next to us!” screamed Jack, gesturing toward the broken window frame and hanging shards of glass.

Hansen showed no sign of panic. He looked around and frowned hard. “Your Uncle Bert will not be amused at this situation. He doesn’t like messes, he really doesn’t. He and your Aunt Lea are the most immaculate people I’ve ever met. You notice that this whole house is remarkably clean and in order? I’ve never seen anything out of place. Even the money was piled neatly. ” While Jack stared at him unbelievingly, Hansen glanced out the window. “I might just be able to take care of our little problem.” He crawled carefully to the doorway.

“Listen, having money lying in stacks on a floor is not in the common order ...hey! Hansen! Man, get back here!” Jack shouted, but Hansen had scooted out of the back door.

“Oh, another confrontation,” said Murray, peeking his head above the window sill. “This really upsets my evening. There he goes again. Hansen’s always doing something off-the-wall – the guy‘s nuttier than a squirrel's cheeks in October.”

“I’m sorry we’re not more accommodating,” said Andy quietly to Jack, “but the situation is a bit extreme. Your Uncle Bert is most punctual and meticulous in all of his work and duties. This is most unlike him. Say, be careful of that broken glass around you.”

“I can’t believe Hansen went out there. Let me at least try to turn off the lights so we’re not sitting here like a moving target,” hissed Jack, reaching for the nearest lamp. “Murray, try to click off the back porch light.”

“No need, really,” replied Murray, glancing through the window once again. “I think our situation has been resolved.” He pointed toward the driveway.

Jack glanced out the window and his jaw dropped open. Hansen was walking alongside the mysterious gunman. “Y-you mean he just walked out there and talked the shooter into giving up?” asked Jack incredulously.

Hansen called out to the other boys. “No need for fear or trepidation, my friends. This is one of the new neighbors to Mofarse, total misunderstanding, I’m sure you’ll realize.” He gestured in the direction of the bald-headed man, who had put down his rifle. “This is Apolinarius Gryzbowski. I met him last week, in town as I was getting groceries.”

“’Apolinarius Gryzbowski?’” whispered Murray. “Doesn’t sound like a name. That sounds like he got a bad hand dealt to him in a Scrabble Game!”
“Ssshhhhhhhh,” said Andy.
“Call me Poli, everyone does,” said the man, grinning widely. “I was just watching the house to keep it safe for your uncle and aunt, and I thought you guys were trespassers. Sorry.”

“Yes, but how do we know you weren’t a trespasser yourself?” asked Andy, opening the door for Hansen and Poli to enter. Poli entered with measured casualness.

“Well, I guess you could suspect me at that,” said Poli as he settled into a chair, pushed the strawberry jam jar absent-mindedly, and glanced over as Andy carefully stacked the money into one pile. “But the fact is I’m not the only one around here. Since they left at seven o’clock, two of us have been keeping an eye on things.” He nodded toward the far side of the room. “On the other side of the house, down the hill a ways is another man who’s been guarding the house since Bert and Lea left yesterday morning. Kip’s retired, a good guy, he’ll vouch for me. We each had shifts, promising to watch each side of the house while they were gone.” He glanced around, grinning widely again. “It’s a pretty big place with a lot of nice stuff, and they wanted us to stand guard over it for a few nights. Bert paid me and Kip each twenty bucks to watch things. I should say, he tried to pay me but I wouldn’t take the money, no sir. Friends are friends, and they’ve been good to me since I moved here. I think the amusement park could be up and running soon, too. I’ve been working here at nights, fixing the lighting in the popcorn stand and the ice cream shack. Seems I’ve seen you other boys in Mofarse when I went to the Deli right before my ‘night shift’ here, but I’m not sure you’ve been in the Park while I’ve been working here.”

“We worked here for a few hours after school throughout the last weeks, probably before you came up to the top of the mesa. You say they left at seven? Maybe I’ll just go see this Kip fellow and bring him up here,” said Hansen, sauntering toward the door and keeping an eye on Poli.

“Suit yourself,” said Poli, shrugging.

“Hey, let me go. I’d like to get some air, and talk a walk anyway, okay?” said Jack. Hansen nodded, and Jack stepped through the door out into the Arizona night air. He headed off in the direction of the man called Kip, thrusting his hands deep into his pockets and frowning as he talked to himself. The solitude of the night got him to thinking hard.

Where could your uncle and aunt be? Does Poli know where they are?

Why do you not trust this man? Why don’t you trust his story?

Maybe it’s the way he looked at that money on the floor...

...or rather the way he didn’t look at the money. Andy was stacking thousands of dollars in bills and Poli never makes a comment. That’s strange...too strange.

He stopped at the edge of the hill and leaned his foot on a boulder. No man was in sight. Still, that wasn’t what bothered him right now. What was eating away at his thinking was that he had left one problem and had walked into another.

Nice work, Jack. You can’t seem to keep yourself away from problems, can you? A deep welling of sadness expanded in his chest. Nothing but trouble. Boy, that’s your calling in life. He trembled a bit. And there’s nobody to help you. You are all alone, boy.
He looked out into the inky blackness and didn’t bother to turn on his flashlight. The night air felt good, and the solitude of the deep black surrounding him gave him a feeling of anonymity. You’re hidden out here. You’re by yourself, and you can hide from all the pain everyone seems to bring. Your parents leave you and now your uncle and aunt. Say, they can’t leave you if they don’t know where you are.

Yeah, that’s it. They can’t leave you if you leave them first. Just go. Go now.

He glanced back at the house. No use looking for the duffel bag, someone had already taken it. He patted his pocket; he had enough cash to make it back to California – better yet, he had enough money to head east. He’d always wanted to live in Texas. He could get back to the bus depot and be ready to board a bus by sunrise. Yeah, that’s it. He started walking toward the entrance to the Park., picking up a good pace. He walked past the popcorn stand.

But they need you.
He slowed a little.
For the first time, someone needs you. You know your aunt and uncle didn’t leave. Poli did something with them. Your aunt and uncle are missing, and you’ve got to help.
He stopped right next to the front sign. On the ground was the crumpled note. Must’ve dropped it when I stumbled. He picked it up and started to unfold it, but hesitated.
Yeah, you got trashed. The divorce left you high and dry. But that’s not the big point right now. You’ve never been needed. Now this time you can make a difference. Let’s go.
He turned toward the direction of where the other watchman, Kip, was supposed to be at guard. Purposefully, he headed down the hill. He came upon an elderly man pacing about near a lamp post.
“Kip?”
The man swung around and hollered in surprise. Jack held up his hands and smiled.
“No problem, sir. I’m Bert and Lea’s nephew. I’m coming over here to let you know that Poli’s back at the house with some other guys, and we need you.”
The man stepped forward hesitatingly. “Need me? What’s going on?”
Jack hesitated. “Um, well, I think something happened to my uncle and aunt. There’s money lying in the kitchen, the lights are all…well, we could use your help right now.” The man named Kip nodded and started up the hill.

The man breathed heavily as they walked. “I’ve been fighting a bad fever the last couple of weeks. Takes my breath away on occasions, like right now. I gotta sit a lot, but I wasn’t going to back out of helping your relatives, no sir. They’re good folks, and you should be proud they’re kin. They spoke about a nephew coming to stay with them. I take it that’s you, and it’s good, mighty good.” He turned to look at Jack’s profile as they walked toward the front door. “I might not be the brightest candle on the cake, son, but I can tell things. I can tell important things. And what I could tell was that your coming added a spark to your uncle and aunt’s life, something they really needed.” Jack folded the note and shoved it seep within his pocket.
When Jack and Kip arrived at the house, everyone was sitting in the living room area.

Jack introduced Kip to the group of teens. “Here’s Hansen, this is Murray, and he’s Andy.”
Andy gave Kip a wave. “Any similarity to actual intelligent persons would be really sad.”
Andy ran his hand through his hair. “The safe clock stops whenever the safe is opened, and will not re-set itself until the safe is closed, locked and given the proper combination. That clock says 6:55 p.m.”

The old man named Kip settled himself into the Lazy Boy recliner and grunted softly. “And that’s the problem, because of two things.”

“What do you mean?” asked Jack.

“First thing, I’ve known your uncle and aunt for over two years and your uncle is an obsessive-compulsive. You know what that is, son? He can’t handle things out of place. ‘Close the first door before you get to the next door,’ he’d always say. He’d never, and I mean, never start a second project before he finished the first one. Anything. That’s a fact.”

“What’s the second thing, my good man?” asked Hansen.

“You gotta think,” answered Kip. “What doesn’t fit the pattern? Everything in this place is in a pattern, an even-numbered pattern. Twos, fours, sixes... check and see if anything’s missing or moved.” Andy stood up immediately.

Murray looked up from his notepad. “Andy, where you going?”
Andy opened the door. “To clear my mind.”
Murray nodded. “Shouldn't take long. One good sneeze ought to do it.”
Andy smiled. ”Keep talking, someday you'll say something intelligent. Hansen, I want to test his theory with something I saw outside. Poli, would you come with us?”

Poli rose and grinned. “Sure enough.” The people left the room, leaving Jack and Kip sitting and staring at the aquarium.

Jack started to rise. “I’d like to take a look at that safe in the kitchen one more time.”

Kip waved him over. “Not now, son. Sit here. I found a bigger clue, something for you to think about.” He stabbed a bony finger at the passage highlighted in yellow in the Bible. “This is a bigger mystery, one for only you to solve.”
Jack sat down on a chair and squinted at the passage. It was in the section of the Bible in the back, titled “Revelation”. He read it once again:

“His feet were like burnished bronze, when it has been made to glow in a furnace...”

Kip pointed at Jack. “I was here when your Uncle Bert read that passage aloud. He said ‘Jack is in this verse.’ And he said you’d know what this means.”

Jack exploded. “How am I supposed to know some secret code? How am I gonna figure out some futuristic-type message when I can’t even figure out where my uncle and aunt are?” He grunted and looked at the wall. “I’m some great detective with all the answers? I can’t even keep a family together.”

Kip smiled slowly. “Hand me the note.”

Jack stared at him.

Kip leveled a steely glare at him. “You heard me. I said, give me the note.”