Shamrock Samurai

2 | STRANGE NOISE

My rear-view mirror showed red and blue lights flashing as the cop car pulled into the plaza. I mashed on the gas and shot down the street.

I was driving from Vallejo to Suisun which, driving the speed limit, takes about twenty minutes. But getting to Mom's house which was at the back end of Suisun took dang near thirty minutes if all the stupid lights were red. My eye caught my gas meter and I smacked the steering wheel. I'd forgotten to fill up the gas. Oh well. It wasn't as if my pockets were full of money to spend anyway.

I continued down another block north, entered the freeway and kept it at seventy-five miles per hour. I didn't want to draw any CHP attention but I also didn't want anyone to approach me either. If I was lucky the Banshee wouldn't know which way I went.

It was a warm night but I had the chills and turned the heater on full blast. I put Boston on to calm my nerves. Some songs don't have the same power though, after you'd faced a life or death situation. There weren't many lights on this stretch of freeway. I blinked and realized that I'd been staring off into space, trying to process it all. Focus on the road.

"What just happened?" I asked myself. My reflection in the driver's side window showed a young man, eyes wide with fear. "That lady was... a monster."

And I had been way off about Nehemiah. My bad. From a certain perspective, it looked like something completely different was going down. Just saying. That magic stuff saved my life back there, both mine and the other guy.

"How had I attacked that demon thing?"

Running over the incident again, I realized that some kind of power had come out of me, released through my hand. Sure, I could sense things, but I had no idea I had magic. And with just my fist. Imagine what I could do with a sword. Or even a gun. I could make Gun Kata real. Eat your heart out Christian Bale!

The voice in my head reminded me, but how'd you do it? Could you replicate it? Who cares? No time to think about that, said another voice in my head. Time to decide what you're going to tell Mom.

How long ago had I left? I looked at the clock. Holy crow! I left almost forty-five minutes ago. She would not buy just any story. And I was also missing the UFC fight by now.

I passed by a McDonald's and remembered I was starving. And if I was then, my family was too. Why had I forgotten to buy meat? I ruined family night.

I tried to conceive a story for Mom. "I'll just say the shopping lines were backed up, the credit card readers were down, and then there was this homeless guy asking for money so I had to go the ATM for cash..." But as I listened to myself there was no conviction in it.

Noticing my gas tank again, I kicked myself for not taking my mom up on the offer to give me cash. Meat was way more expensive than I remembered. Was this how it felt to be an adult? I'm not a very good adult.

I used to think my parents were squares because they enforced strict rules just to be mean. But now I realize that they are great at juggling a bunch of different priorities. I on the other hand, was not a good juggler. Hence the near-empty tank. I'd have to be discrete about that though. If she even caught a hint I needed any money she'd give me a $20 or a $50. Mom, gotta love her.

I exited the main freeway and entered the highway that led to the house. The event had only started an hour ago, but I wanted to fire up the barbeque ASAP so I could watch the fight and eat at the same time.

Watching UFC at our home was a family event. Chalk it up to the fighting Irish blood in us. We loved to see two combatants battling it out with their fists. May the best man win. It was one of the few things that still brought our family together, small as we were now. Though we didn't say it aloud, it reminded us of times when the whole family was together, when we were all still alive.