Uranium Bender VI

The journey to San Francisco from where we were was a 16 hour drive through a lot of desert, then once we really started to get in the thick of California, the sights were breathtaking. Driving alongside cliffs, through mountains, and forests, all under a blue sky. In my life I'd never seen such beauty from just a car ride.

We had to stop for gasoline a few times on the way, and during each instance Saul would hand a few quarters to the attendant, and Ray sat in the car spinning his head around like a lighthouse. Just the sight of another black Dodge made him grip the wheel tighter, didn't matter the make or year. The whole trip he had a line of sweat on his forehead.

The plan was to go to Ray's older sister's house, which was just a little north of San Francisco. Her name was Helen and she was living alone in a beautiful spacious house (according to Ray) and she could easily let us stay for a little while.

The night we got ice cream before the escape, Ray made a phone call to her outside of the facility. She was aware that we were coming in and was happy to take care of us.

When we arrived to the house she greeted us at the doorway in the middle of the night, smiling as the house behind her glowed with warm light. We quietly brought in our baggage and his sister Helen gave us a tour of the house, and Ray wasn't kidding, her house was humongous. She lived in a four bedroom castle with a massive German Shepherd. The living room was wide, expansive, and covered with art landscapes. A brand new mahogany FM and AM radio player stood short and proud next to a towering grandfather clock.

"Thanks for letting us stay here, Helen. We shouldn't be here too long, I think the end of the war is in sight," Ray said, as the four of us stood in the living room, but I was too busy petting 'Benji' the German Shepherd.

"It's late, you boys must be exhausted from all the driving. You each have your own bedroom upstairs, why don't you get some rest?" Helen said.

"I have a question," I said and everyone looked at me. "Ray or Saul, could one of you put your bed in my room in case anything happens in the middle of the night? I'm still kind of scared of everything."

"Yeah of course," Saul volunteered. "We should also give you a little shot before bed. Help wean you off the drug but also take care of the withdrawals symptoms," he dug through one of the bags until he pulled out a green colored vial.

***

After two weeks I grew accustomed to living in Helen's house. Benji became my new close friend, and I spent a lot of my days playing fetch outside in the backyard with him. If I wasn't with Benji I was learning to cook and clean with Ray and Saul. We'd also play board games, read, and listen to the radio. Helen was still working as a doctor in the hospital, while the three of us stayed at the house and took care of everything while she was gone. Time was just flying by faster than it ever had.

We were careful not to go out too much or draw too much attention to ourselves, but Ray and Saul would look out the window and talk about "How nice it would be to go for a cruise and get out of the house."

One day in particular Ray kept pacing back-and-forth in the living room and approached Saul and I in the backyard and said. "Fellas, I'm going to go out for a ride, I'll be back soon, promise.

I would be lying if I said I didn't worry about him. My paranoid mind kept thinking about the worst scenarios of Ray getting caught and being held up by gunpoint, or getting tailed by other agents, or just getting shot. If I thought about it too much, my eyes would start watering, so I tried to take my mind off it by spending time with Saul and Benji.

Ray returned a few hours later and I let out a sigh of relief, and rushed towards him as soon as he entered the house. His face was shining brighter than the sun.

"The cruise must've been just what the doctor ordered," I chuckled.

"Well that's not the only reason I'm excited," he reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out three tiny squares of paper. "Bradley, I got us tickets to go see your Cincinnati Reds take on the San Francisco Giants," he smacked the paper on the palm of his hand, beaming.

My jaw dropped and my eyes expanded so wide I thought they were going to roll out. "You're kidding!"

"No sir, you, Saul, and I are all going to the game in two days! I figure you deserved a treat of some kind after everything you've been through. Since your boys were in town and we seem to be safe, I thought it would be a great idea," Ray winked.

***

I had only ever been to one other game and that was when I was in fourth grade, my dad finally thought I was old enough to see it live in person and it was one of the best days of my life. The idea of seeing the game in a different stadium with Ray and Saul had me shaking with excitement. Falling asleep was hard that night as well as the following evening, my mind ran awake with daydreams of watching the Cincinnati Reds conquer the San Francisco Giants a million to zero.

Later in the day when he bought the tickets, Ray revealed to Helen that we were going to go to the baseball game, but I eavesdropped on the conversation up in my bedroom as they spoke in the living room.

"You're going to go watch a baseball game, out in public, with Bradley and Saul even with everything you've guys have been through?"

"I think it's OK, we've been very careful, haven't seen any weird activity going on, it's not like the police know to look for us. This is a very low profile search, only carried out by a few people, there's no way they know where we are. After everything we've been through I think Bradley deserves this, it means the world to him," Ray said.

Helen groaned, shook her head.

"C'mon, I want to be a big brother for him, y'know?"

Silence.

But Helen shrugged. "I guess. You already have the tickets."

At the time I didn't think much of it, going to the baseball game seemed perfectly safe. But now I don't blame her apprehensiveness at all, because it would prove to be a life altering mistake.