And Nothing Else Matters

 Cade walked slowly down the streets of New York City. It was a warm summer day, full of the sights and sounds of life, with its joys, sorrows, and pain. He took a deep breath, filling his chest with the smells around him. He catalogued the smells of dust, pollution, sweat, candy, coffee, leather, blood, food and committed them to the little database in his head, the smells of the city that was his home.

        As he walked, no one paid him much attention. He was just another number in the two million people walking along the bustling streets, minding their own business. And he wanted that anonymity, the feeling of being alone in a crowd. He passed by a little park bursting with the screams and shouts of little children, their laughing parents, and the doddering elderly. Meandering in, he halted as a little girl, no more than five, barrelled into his path.

    Stumbling over her wobbly legs, she lost her footing and fell. Before she could open her mouth to wail in indignation, he was crouched by her side. “Hello there, gorgeous” he said, in tones meant to soothe. “Looks like the ground trembled when you walked by. Are you hurt?” She looked up into the light-blue eyes of the man- they were kind and just a little sad. She smiled and shook her head as he helped her to her feet. Cade used DNA cross references to bring up her social security number and identified her in an instant. “Where is your mother, Mandy?” he asked.

Just then, a harried looking woman came running by. Seeing her daughter with an unknown man, her heart leapt into her mouth. “Mandy!” she said in worry, as she pulled her daughter away. Then recognising his blue uniform, she relaxed a little. “Sorry officer, I turned my back for just a second, and she disappeared.” Cade smiled. “Don’t worry about it. Be safe, little one” he said to the girl. “Not all strangers mean you well.”

    Mandy pulled her hand away from her mum and walked back towards the sad police officer. She held up a flower and smiled sweetly at him.

     If he’d had a heart, Cade reflected, he would have been touched by that gesture. But they hadn’t deemed it necessary to give him one. So he took the flower and ruffling the little girl’s hair bade her farewell.

    “What’s wrong Mandy?” her mama asked as they watched the tall, blonde-haired man walk away. “He was so sad” Mandy whispered. It made her chest hurt. But in a little while, as she resumed playing, she forgot about him.

      Cade walked on. Twirling the flower in his hand, he examined its fragile beauty. He’d meant to throw it away, but ended up tucking it carefully into his pocket. As he walked on, his mind flashed back to the many hours spent in solitary confinement while they had debated what to do with him. The lack of activity and the memories had given him too much time to think. In the end, he knew what was to be his fate; after all, he had done the same to so many others. That was why he’d had to escape.

    His thoughts were interrupted by shouts of alarm and worry. He swung around, searching for the source. Way up on the 13th floor of a building, a man hung, dangling by his fingertips- a window washer, he saw, whose safety cable had snapped. Even as he sprinted towards the building, he was calculating the force, velocity, and gravity. He would not survive the drop, he calculated detachedly. Even if someone caught him before he hit the ground, he would still suffer severe injuries. So Cade ran up the stairs, taking them four at a time.

    As Bryan dangled 30 feet in the air, he could see his life flashing by. Good lord! His wife, Rachel was six months pregnant. He couldn’t leave her like this.  His fingers were cramping, and his arms ached. Rivulets of sweat ran down his face. He would not be able to hold up his 200-pound body much longer. From inside, the office workers were desperately trying to break through the glass with a chair. But the curse of having strong, sunlight-refracting, dust- and noise-proof windows was that they did not break easily. He felt his grip loosen, and gravity softly pulled at his body. Suddenly he was tumbling through the air, his arms pin-wheeling wildly, his last thought being ‘I’m going to resemble a smashed tomato. Shit, this is going to hurt!’