My daughter and son-in-law recently bought a house. She decided that she'd like to have the dining room set that I had lying around. Now you have to understand that I'd brought the set with me when I'd sold the house in Monmouth County and moved to my apartment in Woodbridge. That means that I crammed almost 8 rooms of furniture and personal things into a 4 room apartment. Needless to say, the dining room set was shoved in wherever possible, ans several of the pieces wound up being used for other purposes.
Oh,.....the set consists of a table with 4 legs and 2 leaves, 2 captain's chairs, and 4 regular chairs. All wooden.
I've had to rearranged other furniture, and find replacements for several of the chairs. This got me to take a hard look at how I was living and I decided to make some changes. I'd become sort of a pack rat these last few years and it was time to get rid of a lot of unnecessary junk.
I'd been doing this for a day or two, taking my time. The hard part is learning the difference between what is needed and what isn't. I was getting good at it when part of the living room ceiling fell down. There'd been a crack developing, which I'd notified the landlord about, but the kid upstairs - apparently - took up clog dancing and that was that. The landlord sent someone over this morning to do repairs and I had to leave because of the amount of plaster dust that was floating around.
I had not intended to go out, so I had no particular plan to follow, and no particular place to go. I stopped at a local Dunkin' Donuts for breakfast,and was eating at a small table by the window when the phone rang. Not MY phone, THE phone. The one passed to me over 3 months ago in Barnes & Nobles by one of Doyle's agents. I picked it up.
"Hello?"
"Denny, go some place where you'll be completely alone. I'll call you back it an hour."
He hung up, but I recognized Doyle's voice. I took my muffin and iced tea and went back to my car. Finding an isolated place wasn't going to be easy.
Since I only had an hour, I drove to Merrill Park first and although the parking lots were pretty empty, I didn't see a spot that provided the isolation I needed. I headed towards Roosevelt Park. As I drove up towards the entrance I normally used, I passed a parking lot for those who use the tennis courts.
There was no one there, and as I only had about 10 minutes left, I pulled in there. I ate the rest of my muffin, and had most of the tea while I waited. The phone rang.
"Doyle?"?
"Hi, Denny, how's it going?"
"I'm good. How're you? Is everything OK? What's up?"
"Everything's good, Denny. Just wanted to touch base. I know it's been a while so I wanted to assure you that we're still watching you. From a distance..you know. Like we discussed the last time."
"I know. Has there been any sightings? Has anyone seen Gordon? Do you know where he is?"
A pause. I've learned that it's never a good thing when Doyle pauses.
"No, Denny. No one's seen Gordon. And we still don't know where he is, exactly."
This was it..the reason he'd contacted me. It was something to do with Gordon.
"What do you mean, exactly?"
"Well, we know he was operating in the Jersey/Pennsylvania/Delaware triangle up until about 2 weeks ago. In fact, he'd been too active, staging Events every 2 or 3 days. Randomly...you know...all over. There was no way to predict where he'd strike. And, we were still pretty sure that he was keeping tabs on you. Then, after you participated in that Donate Life ceremony at JFK, he seems to have stopped. He's changed. There's been nothing."
"Is there any danger? Should I be worried?"
"No. We don't think so. Like I've said before, we think he has an attachment to you."
It was my turn to pause. I had this "light bulb" moment.
"Doyle, wasn't Gordon originally meant to be the second "me"? The second member of The Project?"
"Sure. But he was picked by Jones' people, and you know it hasn't turned out well."
"I know, but he was also a transplant recipient, right?"
"Yeah. It seemed to be the best way to control the selection process and implant the tracker. Why do you ask that?"
"Bear with me a little." I was thinking out loud. "I got involved with that Donate Life thing because I've been feeling that I should be paying back for being alive. I don't know if you can understand that. I've been feeling lately that I'm here for a reason, that I ought to be doing something constructive."
"OK. I guess I can understand that. So..what? Do you think Gordon is having some sort of similar experience?"
"Maybe. Or he isn't and thinks he should be. I'm not sure. Either way, I think he's stopped to reevaluate things."
"And when he's finished doing that..what?"
"I don't know. Maybe more of the same. Maybe not. I just don't know. Do you have any ideas?"
"No. But I have people for that. Thanks for the insight, Denny. Watch your back, and I promise to be in touch more often."
He hung up. I sat there going over what I'd said. There was something nagging at me, but I couldn't quite grasp it. As I sat there, another car pulled into the lot and stopped parallel to me, but several spaces away.
Why did he pull in here? Why had he parked there when the rest of the lot was empty?
I didn't care. I lowered the passenger side window and stared at him. He didn't look back.
Point, press, Flash.
I'd had enough changes for one day. I drove home.
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