Chapter 13

William stepped out the front door of the hotel and froze. Rather than facing a run down street in San Diego, he was in a meadow. There in front of him was a contrived scene of life and death. To his right, a man was facing death as a giant wrecking ball swung towards him from behind. To his left, a different man faced an identical death. He shouted, "Duck."

Both men stared at William as the wrecking balls swung through them. William stared in horror at the result. Two broken bodies lay on the ground in front of him. It was not a pretty sight. With his shout he had tried to save both, but had saved neither one. Sick to his stomach, William stared at the consequences of his failure.

William stepped forward only to find the scene repeated. Two men, each with death bearing down on them from behind, looked at him. Still trying to save them both, William shouted, "Get down now."

The men stared at him with puzzled expressions on their faces. A fraction of a second later, two broken bodies lay on the ground. Angry, William said, "It's not right."

He took a step forward and the scene repeated. Rather than shout, he ran to one man and tackled him. The wrecking ball passed over them. William turned and saw that the second man was dead. He had managed to save only one of the men. The man he had saved thanked him and walked off.

William rose from the ground and took a step forward still wanting to correct the problem. The scene repeated. This time William tackled the other man. The wrecking ball passed over them. The first man was dead. Frustrated, William rose from the ground and took a step forward to find that the scene was repeated. Over and over, William tried to save both men. Each time, either one survived or both died. He could find nothing to do to save both. He tried everything that he could imagine.

The flashback to his trial in the glade ended leaving William blinking in the bright sun.

Beads of sweat had formed on his forehead. He frowned as he thought about the lesson taught in the trial. He looked forward through the immediate future and saw two people dying. One was a young boy and the other was a middle aged man.

Turning to Ed, William said, "There a joke about a stubborn mule that dies of starvation because it is standing exactly halfway between two bales of hay. It couldn't decide which way to turn. I find myself in that position and I don't find it very funny."

"What's the matter?" Ed asked. He had nearly run over William when his son had come to a stop outside the door of the hotel.

"If I go to the right, I'll save someone from getting run over. If I go to the left, I'll save someone by preventing a robbery. I can't save them both," William answered.

"I'll go one way and you can go the other way," Ed said.

Shaking his head, William turned to the right and headed down the street. He said,

"Sometimes, it doesn't work that way."

Puzzled by William's answer, Ed stood watching William walk off. There was a sense of resignation about how his son was walking. He decided to try to save the other person and headed off in the other direction. William turned back and shouted, "It is a barber who gets killed, but I can't describe the place to you. I'd recognize it if I saw it, but I don't see enough details to describe it to you."

As Ed walked, he tried to spot the beginning of a robbery. He wished William had known enough to tell him what he was to look for, but he hadn't. All he had was the occupation of the victim. The most likely place to find a barber was in a barbershop. He decided that he'd look for a barbershop, but also that he'd keep his eyes open in case it didn't happen in a barbershop.

It was a simple street in a low end neighborhood of San Diego. Little stores with bars on the windows lined the street. There was a little trash here and there, but it wasn't the kind of filth that one found in a truly impoverished neighborhood. A few stores were freshly painted, but more than one had paint peeling. Not all of the stores had permanent signs that described the business inside. Some stores had signs that were written on cardboard using a black marker and taped to the window. This was the kind of neighborhood in which people knew the businesses and didn't need the signs.

Ed walked a little and looked around trying to spot something that didn't fit. He walked past two men talking. He paused in his walk for a moment to overhear what they were saying. Their conversation concerned a car. There was nothing out of place with the conversation and nothing to identify either man as a barber. He walked past a check cashing service and looked through the glass windows. If there was a robbery taking place, then this would be where he would expect it. A clerk sat behind thick glass looking bored.

Ed shook his head and continued on down the street. As he walked, he glanced into one place of business after another, never seeing a sign suggesting a barbershop. Everything just looked so normal. He heard a gunshot behind him and spun around trying to see where the noise had come from. A man ran from a shop. Ed gave chase, but he was too far away and the man got away. Frustrated by his failure, he bent over to catch his breath and said, "I'm going to give William a piece of my mind."

Ed returned to the shop and looked through the window. Only when he had looked through the window did he see that it was a barbershop. A man was lying on the floor with a wound in the middle of his chest. He tried the door, but it wouldn't open. Ed pulled out his cell phone and called the police.

It took him twenty minutes to deal with the police. It was only after he showed his medallion that the questioning took a more respectful tone. After the police had finished their questions, he stepped back and looked at the building. There was absolutely nothing that William could have said to him that would have allowed him to identify it. There was a small cardboard sign in a corner that announced that it was a barbershop. He had walked past it without noticing the sign.

He turned to head back to the hotel. As he walked along, he thought about what William had said. He had two choices and there wasn't a good answer. He reached the hotel to find William sitting outside waiting for him. William looked up and said, "I can see by the look on your face that you didn't prevent it."

"No, I didn't," Ed said.

"I could see it happening, but I couldn't see the details," William said with a shrug of his shoulders. He would have liked to have been able to give Ed directions that would have prevented the robbery.

"Did you save your person?" Ed asked.

William nodded his head and answered, "Yes. A kid came out of an alley riding his bicycle. I grabbed the kid before he entered the street, but a car totaled his bike."

"There would have been no chance of me being able to catch him?" Ed asked.

"You're a good fighter, but your reflexes just aren't that good," William answered looking at his father. He knew with the surety of his gift, that his father would have been close to the scene, but wouldn't have been able to stop it.

"You might be right," Ed said as he sat down beside William. He sighed and said, "At least you saved one of them."

"I'll have to take comfort in that," William said with a sad sigh.

"There was nothing that could be done to save them both?" Ed asked with a frown.

William sadly shook his head as he stared at a small patch of grass in front of him. He said, "I can see glimpses of the future, but I'm not all powerful. There are things that I can do nothing about. I can't be in two places at once."

"How does that make you feel?" Ed asked. He studied William taking note of his posture. It was obvious to him that William was saddened by the affair.

Irritated, William asked, "How do you think it makes me feel?"

"Helpless," Ed answered.

"Useless," William countered. Deciding which one was to live and which one was to die was one of those choices that he never wanted to make. What good was his gift if it couldn't be used to save lives?

"It makes you human," Ed said.

Nodding his head, William said, "You're right. It is easy to forget that at times."

Ed thought about it. The potential for William to become arrogant in his abilities was significant. He wondered if this had been a lesson by the Two-Sided One. Events like this would serve as a reminder that he wasn't a god. He asked, "How did you decide which one to save?"

"I picked the youngest," William answered. Knowing nothing more than what each person looked like, he had no real criteria to select.

"Oh," Ed said. He would have probably made the same choice. He favored the potential represented by youth.

William said, "I hope you don't mind, but I don't really feel like going to a burger burner right now. Let's just get room service."

Cole sat down and studied the two clowns seated across from him with a twinkle in his eye. They were not the happy characters that their costumes suggested. He asked, "Do you know why a clown's nose is never twelve inches long?"

"Because it would be a foot," Barbara answered in a low growl. A week of walking around dressed like a clown had turned into ten days. She was ready to kill Cole.

"I take it you are tired of being clowns," Cole said.

"Very tired," Sandra said. No one took a clown seriously.

Nodding his head, Cole said, "Barbara. I want you to go upstairs to your suite and get into the fat suit that I left on the bed. There's a woman up there who will help you get into it. Be nice to her. Sandra, you can get into your regular clothes."

"Fat suit?" Barbara asked feeling a little sick in the stomach.

"Yes. I was talking to a gentleman who works in the movie industry. He told me about a fat suit that he made for a movie. I had one made for the two of you. You get to be the first to use it," Cole answered.

"Okay," Sandra said thinking it would be great to be wearing her regular clothes for a change.

"When each of you is finished changing your clothes, go to the restaurant here. I made reservations for you," Cole said with a smile.

Barbara had learned not to trust Cole's smiles. She asked, "What's the trick?"

"No trick. I imagine that Sandra will finish changing clothes first and will have to wait for you at the table," Cole said. Looking at Sandra, Cole said, "Enjoy your clothes because tomorrow, you get to wear the fat suit."

An hour later, a very fat Barbara waited for the hostess to take her to where Sandra was seated. More than once, the woman had seated others who had arrived after her. It was as if the women didn't see her standing there. Barbara wondered how the woman could miss her; she was so big that she nearly occupied the entire room.

Furious, Barbara went into the dining area to search for Sandra's table. It took her five minutes to locate Sandra seated at one of the best tables in the place. Sitting down, she said, "That damned hostess just ignored me."