Four and a Half Horsemen

Epilogue

           

It's a few years later. Isaac has been let out because the court found him not guilty. Clem, however, is directly linked with the credit fraud and the license plate numbers which had taken the group all around the world. The neighborhood is alright. Fergus assumes the mantle of his old life, besides the wanted fugitive part, writing letters to Clem as often as he can. The folks around town don't know he's wanted because they don't watch the news. They're doing just fine. He has introduced the neighborhood to Jasmine at a few block parties. They are expecting. He is avoiding marriage for as long as he can. He still makes peach cobbler. He no longer has flashbacks.

            It's visiting day in the pen. Usually Clem just ignores this, because nobody ever comes to visit her. But today, she is requested by name. She wonders if it could be her mother, or another family member, as she sits down at the tiny aluminum table. But when Isaac comes in, and sits with her, she is without words. He is heavier. He is not fatter, but his footsteps and his face and everything about him now carries a weight to it. His arm has healed, and all his wounds, everything was looking tip top. Except for his expression, that is. His face is practically morose. Dressed in a suit, there isn't much he could be up to.

            "Well well well," she says, "all dressed up for little ol' me?"

            "Frankie's funeral is in an hour, there's a church around the corner that would do it for practically nothing," he says, "figured while I was here I could stop by and say hello." Clem is saddened by the news of Frankie's passing, having never met her or learned much about her.

            "Look, kid," she begins, "I'm sorry about your sister alright? The book was destroyed. There was nothing you could have done."

            "Oh, I've made my peace with that," he says, clenching his fist a little, "I've come to realize that organic material cannot be allowed to outlive its expiration date. She was spoiled milk in a fridge of uncovered cheese." She starts to look confused.

            "Why are you here, then?" she asks, "just to say hello?" He grins.

            "Something like that," Clem looks at him, genuinely puzzled, "I learned a few new tricks. And I figured the first thing I use them for is to break out my old teacher." As soon as he finished speaking, everyone in the room who isn't Clem or Isaac falls over. They don't go flying, as if they'd been shoved, their head just falls limp on their neck and if they're standing, they flop down. He calmly gets up and searches the pockets of a nearby guard to find the key he is looking for. He manages to get the key turned in the lock and the door opened before the lockdown starts.

            "Guess we better start running, huh?

The End.