Century Traveler

She stood in the kitchen doorway, looking a little lost. "Would it be inappropriate to ask for a hug?"

John was surprised by the normally reserved woman's request but managed to keep it from his face. "Not at all, considering the circumstances. It'd be nice." He stepped up to the woman with open arms and suddenly found himself crushed against her chest. He'd forgotten how strong the six-foot yoga master was. His smaller five-foot-eight frame brought his face closer to her soft cleavage than he was comfortable with, but he did his best to return the hug until he felt her collect herself. They released mutually, and she did seem more at ease as she gave him a gentle smile.

"You'll be upstairs for dinner at six?" she asked.

"Yes, that would be great! Thank you," he smiled with a nod and went out the back door to reach the stairs down to his apartment.

Sunday dinners had become a tradition with John and Anna. He wasn't much of a socializer and typically stuck around his apartment on the weekends working on his writing. Anna missed making Sunday dinners for her husband and noticed John seemed to be available. The first invitation was a big success, so after a few more, they decided to make it a fixed calendar event. John missed the last one as he'd been in a coma, but he was sure she'd forgive him for that.

He smelled of her light, flowery perfume, and the scrubs he'd been given made him a little uncomfortable, so he took a quick shower, careful to keep his cast poked outside the curtain. Once he dried himself, another awkward task with the plaster on his arm, he pulled on some soft pajama bottoms. He set his alarm to give himself time to get properly dressed for dinner and dropped into bed. The bliss of being in his own bed helped him drift off almost immediately.

Chapter 2

Taking the bus felt... odd. John always cycled to work, but with no commuter bike, no helmet, and a cast on his left wrist, he'd have to ride public transit for a little while at least.

He carried a lunch of leftovers from the delicious meal Anna cooked for them last night. They slipped right back into the comfortable company they'd been for the past four years. He recalled their conversation with a grin as he'd tried to shock a smile out of her, but she'd immediately put him in his place.

"So, when will you get back out there and date?" he asked cheekily.

Anna's eyes snapped to his, and a small smile slipped onto her lips. "What makes you think I haven't already?"

"Really? That's good!" It was his turn to smile in surprise.

"Look at you! You're actually shocked!" Anna scolded him playfully.

"I'm just wondering where you fit that into your busy schedule," John said, just a little defensively.

Anna nodded as she gave him a knowing look showing him she wasn't buying it. "After work, the girls and I sometimes go out for a drink. Occasionally, men work up the nerve to ask if they can buy me one. I've gone on dates. I've even bedded a few." She smiled in delight when John's face blushed. Then she shook her head in bewilderment. "They're always so surprised to discover I'm sixty. They get so hung up on the numbers." She rolled her eyes, then smiled at him as she sighed. "Anyway, the dates are just for fun. I'm not looking for Mr. Right. I was already married to him."

John smiled at Anna. She was the most level-headed and centered person he knew, and she never failed to amaze him.

Anna's face became serious, and she glanced at him before continuing. "John, I-I just wanted you to know how greatly I value our friendship. Your near brush with death really shook me up. I want to apologize for my earlier outburst... if it made you uncomfortable."

John looked at the woman and saw she was still a little unsettled. He smiled at her and saw her relax a little. "I appreciate your friendship just as much, and in no way did you make me feel uncomfortable." She smiled in return.

He held her gaze. "I want you to know that I fully intend to keep cycling to work. When I can afford to replace my bike and helmet, that is. It's just part of who I am. I'll be a little more cautious in the future, but I can't make any guarantees that it won't happen again."

She nodded her acceptance, and they moved on to talk of other things as they enjoyed the delicious food she'd made.

Dinner lasted for three hours as they found topic after topic to discuss. But soon, they were both yawning. They cleared up the dishes together, bid each other good night, and went their separate ways to sleep off the wonderful meal.

As he had to take the bus, John left before Anna was even awake, so he didn't see her as he hustled off to get to the stop on time. Getting to work would take a little longer, but he did get a seat, at least.

Soon enough, he was exiting the bus and making his way up the street to Century Traveler, the bookstore he worked at. It was an older, two-story brick building, painted black and standing just slightly apart from the other shops on the street. On its roof was a large, dual billboard shaped like a V. It looked like a sail to him. He smiled as he liked to imagine the building was a sturdy ship, traveling the seas in its quest to collect rare items.

As he got closer, he spotted Mr. Sass sitting in his usual spot nursing a hot cup of coffee. He walked up and smiled at the man.

"Good morning, Mr. Sass," he said.

The old man took a sip from his coffee before replying. "Good morning to you, Mr. Doe." There was a slight stiffness to his voice this morning, and John recalled the tears he'd seen in the man's eyes when he'd left. It made him feel a little uncomfortable as he hadn't really opened up to that level with the gentleman. It usually took John a long time to get to know people. Especially those who weren't in his presence every day. Opening up was something he really wasn't good at. His landlady was a rare exception, though she was as reserved as he was, so he knew what to expect from her. She was almost a reflection of him in a sense.

"I wanted to thank you for letting my boss know where I was. And for looking in on me. I'm not sure how you found me... but I'm grateful."

"Hey, no big deal, right?" Mr. Sass responded, looking into his coffee.

It was the answer John was hoping for, but for some reason, it felt wrong. "Right... okay... well, have a good day," he finished, feeling awkward.

He pulled open the door and saw Deron starting up the systems at the cashier's station.

"Good morning, Deron. Sorry, I'm late. Taking the bus now," he said with a grin.

"I'm docking you for the four minutes, and if you give me any lip about it, I'll tack on the week you missed!" Deron scolded him with a twinkle in his eye.

"John! Where you been, man! Whoa, check out the cast! Were you in a fight? We should see the other guy, am-I-right? Wait! Did you kill someone and had to hide out? Are the Feds after you?" Franklin Cho peppered him with questions the moment he spotted him. The diminutive twenty-three-year-old Korean American had an ultra-fast mouth but very little control of what came out of it. Whatever popped into his overactive imagination just came gushing out with no filter. Much to the dismay of his co-workers.

"Nah, nothing that exciting. Just a little traffic accident," John replied. When he turned back to continue to the staff room, he had to stop suddenly as another co-worker was standing directly in front of him. Satomi Kimura was a recent transplant from Japan, and she was three years younger than John and three inches taller. So much for the stereotype of petite Japanese girls. She was tall and rail slim, but nature played a strange prank on her by overcompensating for her stature by giving her a chest of prodigious proportions. Franklin was in awe of the girl and, given the opportunity, would unleash terrible poetry singing her praises... but mostly about her breasts.

Satomi was currently barring his way to the staff room, and her face was a delightful shade of pink from embarrassment. She wasn't bold by nature, so there must have been something she wanted to say.

"Uh, good morning, Satomi," he began when he was engulfed in a sudden and fierce hug. He had to admit being crushed up against her felt very good, and her hair smelled terrific! Considering the long black tresses were now covering his face.

"Aww, you lucky bastard! I'm going to jump into traffic to get one of those too!" Franklin lamented.

Satomi pulled back as suddenly as she'd grabbed him, and he noticed her face had shifted from pink to deep red. "So pleased you are well." She spun and disappeared into the stacks before he could respond.

Confusion plain on his face, John glanced over to see Deron's smirk and ignored the jealous daggers from Franklin's eyes. He continued on into the staff room, where the second-to-last member of the staff was putting her lunch in the fridge. Melanie Singh, who everyone called Mel, looked up from the fridge door and smiled at him.

"Welcome back, John!" she said. Her Delhi roots were clear in the lilt of her voice, and John could listen to her speak all day. He'd often make excuses to swing by her desk just to make small talk and try to impress her with some bit of trivia he thought she might be interested in. She'd listen with a look of bemusement and casually dismiss him when he was done. He really did have a thing for accents.

"Good morning, Mel! Is everything okay with Satomi? She seems a little... uh, emotional this morning," he asked.

"Doy! How can someone so smart be so dumb?" she snapped.

"You think I'm smart?" he said with a grin.

"And you have selective hearing. Did you miss the part about being so dumb? Yes, of course, you did. Men. Hmmph!" the princess snorted as she walked out into the store with her nose in the air.

During their last team-building evening, they went to a Karaoke bar. Franklin drunkenly remarked that Deron was obviously hiring based on how closely the women resembled Disney princesses. He described to them which ones Satomi, Mel, and Kelly, their tech person, matched. Everyone argued that the resemblances were tenuous at best, but the term princess really did suit Mel, and it kind of stuck... not that they dared say it in her presence.

He put his lunch in the fridge and got to work.

Century Traveler was widely known as the place to go to get your hands on rare and difficult to obtain books. If it had been printed, they would find it and, if possible, broker a deal to get the item into the hands of their customers. They had a network of contacts and connections and kept abreast of the slow ebb and flow of rare books through the market.

They also had an awesome selection of independently published fiction. Most were digital, available only through their website, but some authors placed orders for printed copies to be created, and they had a service for that. This odd mix seemed to generate enough interest to allow them to thrive in a market slowly being devoured by the digital age.

To assist them in their efforts, Kelly was their technical guru. She was their New Media and IT Departments combined, maintaining their website, managing their self-publishing program, and ensuring they remained connected to the Internet to source the books their customers requested. Red hair tied back in a thick ponytail, glasses perched on the tip of her freckled nose, her green eyes peered into the depths of the code running their website. She would be found upstairs at this time of day, pouring over the logs of the overnight maintenance tasks or ensuring the incoming request were free of Viagra ads and other spam. She'd be down for Deron's review at ten, and John would say hello to her then.

Working with the cast proved to be difficult and tiring. The weight was aggravating, and his typing accuracy was totally messed up. Everything took longer. When ten rolled around, he was ready for the break. His left bicep was cramping, and he realized that he really should make an effort to put more muscle on his slim frame.

There was an area near the front of the store for the staff to gather for stand-up meetings while maintaining a watch on the customers. This morning was especially quiet, and they had the store to themselves.

By habit, everyone took their usual spots, Deron leaning back against the front of the cashier's desk, Franklin to his right, and Satomi to his left. John stood next to the digital upload workstation nearest the front door, and Mel stood opposite him, leaning against the end of the stacks. It was roughly a circle, and Kelly completed it as she came down the stairs to stand opposite Deron.

The redhead looked over at John and smiled. "Hey! Welcome back! How was the vacay?"

The rest of the team, aside from John, groaned.

"What? What did I miss?" she asked. Her ability to tightly focus on her work was as legendary as her inability to follow the day-to-day activities around her.

Deron raised his hands, and they settled down. "Kelly, we discussed this last week. John wasn't on vacation. I'm going to let him explain his foolish activities himself. John, the floor is yours."

"Uh, thanks. Okay, uh, while riding my bike home last Saturday night after my shift, I was hit by a car. For the past week, I was in a coma at the Oregon State Hospital, and I came out of it on Saturday evening." Smiles were instantly replaced with gasps and shocked expressions.

"Dude! What the fuck are you doing here today? Shouldn't you be, I don't know, resting or something?" Franklin exclaimed.

"Swear jar," Deron said. Growling under his breath, Franklin pulled a dollar out of his wallet and stuffed it into the half-full jar on the front counter labeled tips.

"The doctor said I was fine aside from my broken wrist," John said, glancing over at Satomi, who was seriously tearing up. "I'm fine, really!" He looked to Mel desperately for some guidance on what to say to calm the girl down, but she just glared at him for his apparent insensitivity.

Mel walked over to Satomi and handed her a tissue. She rubbed her shoulder and murmured something to the young woman, who nodded. Then she returned to her spot against the stacks, where she gave John a disdainful look and turned her face away. The term Princess never fit her as well as it did right then.

Deron took control of the meeting once more and ran through the routine question-and-answer period. The gathering dispersed quickly, and Satomi disappeared into the stacks before John could apologize for whatever he did to make her cry. Mel avoided him as well. He had no idea what he'd done wrong, and Franklin's commiseration by way of saying 'Chicks, man!' wasn't that helpful either. John went back to his desk and pulled up the requests Kelly had assigned to him. It felt good to busy himself with something he understood.

Once the day ended, he slipped out and headed to the bank. A quick look at his account confirmed he was broke. He wasn't desperate as he had funds for rent, food, and transit but replacing his commuter bike was looking like it was a long while off. Even affording a new helmet would take a few weeks, at minimum. Riding the old beater mountain bike he'd found and did his best to fix up was going to have to wait too.

He slipped into a routine of work-eat-sleep and the week went by relatively quickly. Mel and Satomi continued to give him the cold shoulder, so work wasn't as pleasant as it used to be, but he really didn't know what to do about that.

John visited the doctor with the bad bedside manner on Friday evening, and they determined he no longer needed the cast. He was delighted. While he wouldn't be riding his bike, he still planned to go for a hike this Sunday up in the woods. With the heavy cast gone, all the better!

He made one final attempt on his Saturday shift to make peace with the girls by inviting them to hike with him the next day, but neither showed any interest. Well, he'd tried.

The weather on Sunday was perfect for a walk through the woods. The air was crisp, the sky was cloudless, and John felt really good. He'd shaken off the effects of his brush with death and felt like a new man. While he was still a little upset by how uncomfortable his work situation had become, he vowed not to think about it this fine morning.

Anna had gotten up early as she was flying to Las Vegas for two days to attend a seminar. It was a break in their Sunday tradition, but they'd shared breakfast instead and then went their separate ways.

He took transit to the park entrance at the edge of town. A few joggers and mountain bikers were enjoying the beautiful weather, and he shared smiles with them as they passed. Everyone seemed to be feeling good.

A couple of miles into his hike, he noticed a little-used side trail he hadn't explored before. Checking his map, he saw that it ran along the ridgeline and was much longer than he'd planned for today's hike. Instead of turning back to the main trail, he found himself pushing through the overgrown brush at the side trail's entrance. Surprised by his own daring, he grinned and continued onward. As it was a less-traveled route, he got to enjoy the solitude.

He was slightly out of breath by the time he finished the climb to the top of the ridge. He paused, looking at the forest surrounding him and soaking in the solitude. It felt like he was completely immersed in nature, which was the feeling he was hoping today's hike would bring.

He was rewarding himself with a drink from his water bottle when he heard, or rather felt, an odd rumbling. He lowered the bottle, and standing in the woods to his right was a huge black wolf with gold eyes. John froze. The wolf's growling, which was so deep it barely registered as sound, was the vibration he'd felt. The beast's lower jaw slowly dropped, drool dripping from its huge teeth. There was something off about its eyes. Intelligence and madness were behind its stare, and a chill went through John's spine.

Before he could decide what to do next, the wolf suddenly surged forward, and John instinctively leaped backward, stepping completely off the ridge. His heels hit some branches, and he started tumbling down the steep hillside, picking up speed as he crashed through the small trees clinging to what had become a cliff face. He came to an abrupt stop when he slammed down onto something soft.

Completely dazed, he heard a savage growl and felt teeth rip into his right shoulder and shake him. He screamed in agony as the torn flesh of his shoulder felt like it burst into flames. The intense heat quickly flowed down into his chest as he yanked himself away, rolling to the left. He struggled to his feet, but his head swam, and he fell to his knees, retching onto the forest floor. He couldn't see the flames, but they seemed to lick at his nerves all over his body.

His mind kept screaming to pay attention to the wolf, but his body began shutting down. He collapsed back against the side of the pit he'd fallen into. The terrible heat that had started in his shoulder now raced throughout his entire body, and he gasped once more before passing out.

Sometime later, he awoke with a jolt and found himself leaning back against the steep-sided pit facing a big man lying on his back in the leaves. The man's face was grey, but he was still breathing. Then John noticed the handle of... some kind of knife sticking out of the man's side. Wincing in pain from the wound on his shoulder, John sat up and made his way over to him on his knees and one arm. His right arm hung useless and numb from the shoulder down. He worried about the damage the wolf had done to him, then nervously looked around, suddenly remembering it might still be there.

He realized he was in a roughly circular pit. There was no sign of the beast. The forest was quiet aside from the normal sounds of nature. Once he was sure the wolf was no longer around, he checked the man's pulse as he'd seen it done on TV. There was a faint and slow pulse under his fingertips. Really slow.