The Paladin: Lazarus

Chapter 1

Saturday

January 29th

Run, run away from your problems! I thought to myself, sucking in the cold morning air, my heart pumping. Shut up! the rational part of my brain retorted as I sprinted out of Bay Road towards the center of town. It was early, real early, and barely anyone was awake. It was a nice time of day, the sun beginning to rise over the city. I liked seeing my city like that, at peace. Plus, ever since Christmas Eve, I had problems sleeping. Nightmares. I wouldn't fall asleep till after midnight and then would wake up at four or five, typically covered in sweat, feeling like I had on Christmas Eve losing Alicia every night all over again. I dove in pretty deep to my hero work, donning the suit any chance I got,Though I couldn't get into another long-term case, not like the last time. I couldn't risk the investment.

Turning down Robin Avenue, I spotted a familiar figure in the window of the first house on the left. Nancy Knox. She was up early, cleaning up the living room as she prepared breakfast for Tres and Caleb. She was holding up pretty well given the news that her husband, as well as not being dead, had been revealed to be a high-end black market gun for hire. According to my father, she had seen him only once since he'd been in lockup, pretty disgusted with what he had done and unsatisfied with the answer that he had done it all for her and the kids. That hurt Andrew more than any prison sentence or bullet could, though I'm sure spending the rest of his life at a C.I.A. black site with his buddy Dallas wasn't going too feel good either.

I kept running. A few blocks away on Baker Street through another window I saw Sylvia White up bright an early as well. Much like Nancy she was taking care of her child, changing little Adrian's diaper, then rocking him back to sleep with a lullaby. She, too, was taking being a single mother in stride, finding a babysitter to watch Adrian while she worked at the hospital, spending as much time as she could outside of that being a mom. I felt responsible. Even though I caught who was behind it. Even though Alicia was dead, like Sylvia asked, I felt a knot in my gut. Her and her son's lives would never be the same, and it was because of me.

"Damn," I muttered, shaking my head as I moved past. I kept running, passing Puter Avenue, to see what Rosa was up to. Ever since Johnny's coma she had been getting up every morning, spending an hour or more praying. It wasn't doing much good. Johnny was still in a coma and there was no sign he was coming out, but it was what she needed to do to feel a little less helpless. I understood her pain. I felt pretty helpless as well.

I kept running, heading towards the Westside docks, seeing some of the commercial fishermen coming in as the amateur ones went out. I banked a right, passing Blue's Bar on Delworth Street. Blue was one of my father and Gerry's friends from the rangers who had opened up a waterfront bar in his retirement. My brother, Blake, was a line cook in back, while my mother occasionally picked up the odd shift as a waitress. The place had low prices but solid food, meant for the blue collars coming off their shifts. But it was run like an army regiment, staffed mostly by veterans who didn't have a job lined up after their tours. Blue and the back-of-house boys were loading in fresh meat and produce for the day, and as soon as they saw me they paused what they were doing.

"Hey, Booker!" Blue greeted with a wave.

"What's up, Book!" Patty called.

"Look who it is!" Paulie, the dishwasher, chimed in, nodding at my grey-on-grey sweatpants and sweatshirt. "Hey, Rocky when's the fight?!"

"Why, you looking for one, Paulie?" I quipped, back pedaling and shadow boxing past him.

"You come around here any time buddy. I'm ready for ya!" he joked, putting his dukes up like an old-time bare-knuckled boxer.