The Hunter, The Dragon And The Smokey Mountain Angel

Julia awoke in her bathtub. She rubbed her eyes and yawned. The warm water started to feel cool, so she turned the hot water knob on with her right foot. Cold water poured for a long moment and then it became warm and then hot. She was so happy that her new friends had fixed her house. Flashes from memories of the town’s people fixing the water heater, windows and even of them building a greenhouse came to her mind.

She turned the hot water off with her toes and listened to the last of the water in the faucet dripping. Then all was silent... Something was missing; she could feel it in her bones. Something in her spirit wouldn’t relax. It was like an itch in her brain that she couldn’t scratch and then she thought of her son. With all the attention she had gotten from the TV interviews, she was hopeful that someone would call the police with a useful tip.

A few minutes later, she got out of the bathtub and walked into the living room. She looked at the clock and it read 5:30 AM. Julia’s skin began to crawl and she flinched when the heater noisily kicked on.

How can it be 5:30 AM and my bathwater was still warm, she thought to herself.

She found her new clothes hanging in the closet. As she dressed, her mind relaxed as her body felt the soft fabrics slide across her skin. She remembered how abrasive that army uniform felt against her bare skin as she had walked to town and back again that first day.

Then she looked out the window and saw the valley below. A thick fog had settled in among the mountains and hills. She thought of how the rising sun could turn those clouds away from their usual gray to a soft pink and crown the mountains in light. Then the strange feeling that something really is wrong came over her again.

She began searching her whole house. She looked in her son’s room first, went up into the bonus room and then outside into the garden but everything looked normal. She checked her phone but her messages were empty and she had not received any new text from Andrew. Still something wasn’t right.

She remembered that she was going to start early training at her new job today. She checked the time again, saw that she had time to eat and then she went into the kitchen.

The earth began to shake.

This time there were multiple trimmers, as if the mining company had set off a succession of explosives. The conversation between Frank and Jerry about the government dropping some spaceship into the mountain came to her mind and she laughed to herself. Then she made breakfast and drank a cup of coffee.

After a couple hours of cleaning house, she walked outside and found her little SUV parked near the main road next to her mailbox. She couldn’t recall parking it there but she was in a hurry so she climbed inside and drove to her new job at Applebee’s.

The manager, David, opened the front door and let her in. He had a big smile on his face when he said, “Hi Julia. I didn’t think you would show up today.”

Julia shook her head and sighed, “I may be famous but I still need a job.”

“Everyone’s talking about a book deal. We hope you get one and of course we hope you find your son,” David said. Then he handed her an apron, a ticket book and a computer access card, and had her watch videos about workplace violence and harassment...

When she was done, David returned looking a little frustrated. He said, “Everyone’s afraid that you’re going to attract crowds like what happened at the Waffle House. Would you mind working in the back of the house, for now. I don’t have enough staff to cover thousands of people at the same time.”

Julia nodded and smiled. She said, “I understand. I don’t want to attract that kind of attention either. What do you want me to do?”

David brought her to the computer. He said, “I’ll show you how to take an order and read the computers when orders come to the back of the house. You’ll be our floater. I’ll have to pay you by the hour but I think we can make it work.” He paused and looked around. No one was near them. He whispered, “My wife still cries every time I come home safe. You are the reason most of us are still here.” Then he took a deep breath and started showing her the computer program’s ins and outs.

After a few minutes of training on the computers, Julia said, “I think I can access the menu’s sub–actions faster if the system was slightly modified.”

David listened as she explained the basics of what she wanted to do and then she asked if she could try it. He bit his lower lip, closed his eyes then nodded. Within moments, Julia showed him that the computer could input and order faster by having micro–options on a side menu for the servers to select when inputting an order.

David had no idea what she was talking about but he waved his hand and she got started. She rooted the program and corrected several input methods. She could tell David was getting nervous from what she was doing, so she went faster. A minute later, she rebooted the system and called one of the servers over to the computer. The young man was not one of the people who had been there when she had stopped the robbers but he still acted nervous around her. Julia said, “Now swipe your card and give me the sizzling special, rare with the garlic rub not the red pepper, no cheese on my mashed potatoes and no salt, add a salad with eggs instead of bacon, hold the cheese crumbles and give me a Shirley Temple with extra cherries but put it in a fishbowl glass.”

The server opened his mouth, looked at David, then down at the computer and swiped his card. That kind of order would normally take a while to input and often the computer would simply crash or give an error message because of the many modifiers. But it only took seconds for him to input the order and when he was done, he smiled and shook his head.

David said nothing, patted the server on the shoulder, then brought her to the back of the kitchen and handed her a knife. He told her to start chopping celery, broccoli, carrots and lettuce then left her to finish the morning prep work.

Julia felt a connection to the knife in her hand like never before. She knew its exact weight and at which angle to cut the vegetables perfectly. Then she started. Her mind felt pure as she began chopping and sliding the cut veggies into the plastic bags and then tagging them.

A few minutes later, David walked back through the kitchen and stopped. He said, “Wow, done already. It looks like someone helped you; good.”

Julia sat her knife down and slowly shook her head. She said, “I think they are staying clear of me.”

“But how?”

The bartender interrupted, “David!– Donna, Nick and James just called out.” Her eyes flicked towards Julia then back to David, “And I don’t know what happened to the computers but they are so much faster to use now.”

David looked at Julia and blinked.

Julia said, “I could wear a hat or something.”

David stared at all the bagged vegetables– each one labeled and stacked neatly on the table. He took a breath and said, “It looks like we need you on the floor after all.” He looked at her hair and said, “Can you put it in a ponytail and wear glasses or shades. I’ll give you a hat and you’ll be assigned to section 1. That’s the one farthest from the front door and it’s hardest for others to see who you are.”

Julia smiled and said, “Okay, let’s do this.”

Ten minutes later, she was standing in front of her first table. An elderly couple sat before her but they had trouble selecting what they wanted. Julia pointed at the menu and described each item on the list, exactly as the training video had shown her. The precise reiteration startled Julia. She even inhaled and exhaled in exactly the same way the girl had done in the video.

The woman looked Julia in the eyes and said, “Thank you, that’s a perfect suggestion.” She paused and then said, “Young lady, you look very familiar. It’s hard to see you with those glasses on.”

Julia’s hands unconsciously went to her face but she stopped herself from taking off the glasses. Her eyes had adjusted to the dark. She had forgotten she was wearing glasses as she looked around the room. Everything looked very clear and bright. She said, “I get that a lot. Now do you want that stake cooked medium or medium rare?”

The lady looked back down at her menu and said, “Medium.”

Julia took the couples menus, thanked them and went to the next table...

An hour later, the lunch crowd began pouring in. Julia’s section filled within minutes and then she started taking tables from other sections too.

David walked up to Julia as she input her order into the computer. He said, “You don’t get tired. You’ve memorized the menu and you’ve reprogrammed the computers. If I didn’t know you could fly, I wouldn’t believe you’d done all this.”

Julia smiled and started to take the compliment lightly but she paused. She had been full of energy– racing from table to table– taking orders and dodging questions about who she was.

“How am I doing this?” Julia said to herself.

And then she held her breath. She hadn’t heard her bones popping or any clicking when she bent or twisted… She hadn’t once used the body curving method that allowed her to float and fly. She had been walking and lifting trays full of food without the special twisting that she needed in order to activate her flying ability.

Julia looked at her ticket book. She’d memorized every order; her ticket book was empty... There wasn’t a single note in the book. She had 15 tables, 10 more tables than any other server, and several people had made special requests that normally would have disrupted her routine. Rather than being slowed down, she found that she had a small window of time before the kitchen finished preparing her guest’s food and the bartender hadn’t completed making her drinks.

She walked outside the rear door and started to change her body’s posture so she could fly but then she stopped and just jumped... She nearly landed on the roof but her momentum kept her going higher and higher, passing over the privacy fence and she landed on the other side of the building in the parking lot. She turned around to see a group of stunned customers staring at her through the restaurant’s side window. Julia gave a quick smile, fixed her hair and ran back to the rear entrance faster than she could have if she would have been in a car.

A cook opened the rear door after a few buzzes and she walked back into the restaurant, returned to the kitchen and started running food again.

Her mind buzzed. She was scared, excited and in a state of shock at the changes in her body. Minutes pass as she thought about all that had happened over the past few days. Everything was unusual but she wondered if the foam treatment had taken on new characteristics.

Then, with a large tray filled with two table’s orders, she maneuvered past a group of servers that were just standing around talking to each other and she realized that she was daydreaming about Andrew and finding her son…

She paused and looked around the room. She had been taking orders, inputting a dozen of those orders into the server computer, making drinks, getting ice for the drink station, running food and she hadn’t even thought about it.

From super soldier to super server.

A lady called for her attention and Julia shook off the thought and got back to work; she’d figure out what was happening after her shift.

After the lunch pop, David made her lunch himself but remained silent when she thanked him but his silence made her notice that not one of the other servers had said a word to her the whole time.

When she finished eating, she cashed out; she’d made $130 more than the other servers had. She thanked David for the job again but David had only remained quiet as she removed her apron and headed for the rear exit.

Then David stopped her at the door. He said, “Julia, your scar is missing.”

Julia’s eyebrows narrowed as she tried to understand what he was saying.

“After you returned from that quick break you had earlier, your shirt was untucked and well when I saw you lifting those two large ice buckets I just stared at you and then I noticed that your shirt had exposed your lower back. The scar you showed us at the interview is gone.” His voice became low as suspicion colored his tone, “Was it a real scar?”

Julia’s hand automatically went to the back of her neck. She didn’t feel the raised scar tissue. Her hand dropped to her lower back and she felt smooth, perfect skin. Her mouth opened to say something but she had no answers.

David said, “I don’t think you should–”

Julia walked out the back door before he could finish his sentence, afraid of what he was about to say. She drove to the Air force recruitment office but a “Closed” sign hung on the door. In the corner of her eyes, she saw a shadow in the back seat, but when she turned, there was nothing there.

What are you seeing Jules? What’s going on with you girl?

She sat in her car in the parking lot, in front of the Air force office and she pulled out her phone and called Detective Singer. When he answered she asked, “Is there any more information on my son?”

She could hear tension in his quiet breathing. After a moment passed, Julia asked again, “What’s going on. I’m...”

“Are you okay Julia?”

“I’ve got this feeling. Something’s… not right with me?”

“Don’t say anything more about this over the phone. I found some information on you.”

Julia’s heart quickened then, just as quickly, it calmed.

Detective Singer said, “I searched your high school records and found where you had graduated, top of your class, and I found when you joined the Air Force with two of your classmates but they’ve gone missing too. It was through researching them that I found evidence that you had joined with them.”

“Okay, so what about my boy?”

“Nothing more on Noah but there is a growing trail to the Air Force and they’re keeping quiet.”

Julia said, “I don’t understand why they’d keep this secret; it shouldn’t be a secret that I was in the Air Force. Why is it so important to them that my identity remain hidden?”

“Don’t worry, after being lied to by the recruitment office about your enlistment, I called in the FBI. They will get to the bottom of this.”

“Thanks Mr. Singer, so much is going on right now.”

“I guess that since you’re the first girl to fly without an engine attached to you somewhere, it’s causing some people problems.”

“No, it’s more than that.” Julia replied, “Something is happening to me, something more than being able to fly.”

Singer was silent again. Then he said, “Why don’t we have lunch tomorrow. We can meet at the same place and you can tell me what’s up.”

“Thanks, I’ll see you tomorrow at noon.” She hung up the phone and looked at the Recruitment Office.

I knew it wouldn’t be long until the truth came out.

She started driving home and the road began to rumble. She looked up at the mountain and her stomach began to growl. In a deep voice, she said, “Stay calm Julia, something important is about to happen.”

For a moment, she thought she had heard someone else say those words but then she realized that the voice had been her own. Suddenly a swarm of black SUVs surrounded her forcing her to pull over.

She watched, as if in slow motion, as a man dressed in a black suit and a strange blue and silver skullcap approached her. She locked her doors but they immediately came unlocked. The man jerked the door open, leveled a tranquilizer gun at her chest and fired. Julia pulled on the seat lever and she lay back. She caught the dart between two fingers, threw it at the man and released her safety belt.

By the time she was out of her SUV, the man lay on the ground unconscious.

Several other men rushed in from all around her but she pushed the first one away and dodged a strike from another. Another man fired his stun gun but Julia caught the electrical barb, felt the jolt of electricity as she jammed the needles into the face of another attacker. She released the wire and the man’s head jerked and fell to the ground.

She heard another stun gun fire from behind her but her attention stayed focused on a woman dressed in a dark blue business suit, wearing the same skullcap as all the other men that had just exited the SUV in front of her. Without looking, her left hand reached behind her and caught the dart just before it struck her neck and she returned it to its sender.

Julia checked the woman approaching her for weapons and somehow knew that she had at least 10 hidden on her body. Another man was advancing from behind, so she jumped into the air before he could touch her.

She knew she could fly but it felt like the first time doing it. She imagined a ball of energy above her head, rose high into the sky and then started changing direction.

Then the woman’s voice caught her attention, “Captain Anderson, please come with us. I am sorry for the actions of these men but they were only trying to protect you and themselves.”

Julia stopped in midair and looked down at the woman. The woman waved to the other men that were standing next to her with stun guns drawn. She said, “Lower your weapons,” and the men did as commanded.

Julia hovered in the air and asked, “Who are you and what the hell is going on?”

“I’m Method and I am with the US military. My rank is not important but what is important is that you need our protection.”

Julia looked down at the half dozen men she had defeated in empty hand combat and was about to say something when Method said, “I can bring you to your son.”

Julia lowered herself to the ground but stayed near her SUV.

Method said, “I can take you to him now if you will leave with us now.”

Julia detected something desperate in her voice. The woman glanced up and at the trees and then back at Julia.

Julia said, “I will not be your prisoner. I have people waiting to meet with me. I will not just disappear like the others have.”

“We know Julia. Now please, we need to go now.”

Julia lowered herself all the way to the ground, side stepped a few men then joined Method in the back of her SUV. An older man, wearing the same funny skullcaps as everyone else, waited in the front passenger seat and when she sat down, he said, “So you just went home and then you went to work?”

Julia looked at Method but the woman said nothing. She said, “Yes, I went home and then started my new job since you guys won’t give me back the money that I earned.”

The older man’s eyes flashed as he looked at Method. She tapped on her watch and said, “All your funds plus another signing bonus and the money you spent to buy back your home has been returned to your account. That’s over $900,000.00”

Julia looked at Method then at the old man. The old man said, “I thought it would protect you. You were supposed to be in the hospital anyway. No one thought you were going to need all that money in your condition besides, it’s easy to track bank transactions.”

Julia frowned but Method spoke before she could get too upset, “We will be doing things my way from now on, right General Troy?”

“We have an agreement,” General Troy said.

Method said, “After you disappeared from the hospital we didn’t know where you had gone. Then you showed up on the news.”

The old man interrupted, “What the hell happened to you last night?

The SUV stopped just before the Mining office. Flashes of memory came to her about coming here for a job. She recalled everything she knew about this place in such perfect detail that the memory startled her.

Julia said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I woke up this morning...” She remembered the warm water in the bathtub and the strange day she had had at work. She said, “I don’t know, something’s very different.”

Method stepped out of the SUV, motioned for Julia to follow and said, “I’ll meet you in briefing room 33 General.”

The old man huffed, waved to the driver and they continued on the road around the mountain.

Julia remembered walking up here the night after she had learned to fly. She had so desperately wanted a good job, so she could get her driver’s license and start a normal life. Now she had all the money she would ever need to move forward and her son was somewhere nearby.

She paused, as if a program had just made her stop. She took in her surroundings. Something important, something very important was about to happen.