Chapter 16 -- Flying, into the Darkness
A/N: Welcome back to purely PG-13 land...
That's me in the corner
That's me in the spotlight, I'm
Losing my religion
Trying to keep up with you
And I don't know if I can do it
Oh no, I've said too much
I haven't said enough
R.E.M. - Losing My Religion
Chapter 16 -- Flying, into the Darkness
A phone conversation.
"Kuntzler."
"Kevin?"
"Lara. Hi, Love, what's up?"
"Kev, is Mara with you?"
"No. Why?"
"She's not here. She left a little note, all it says is 'Gone Into Town' or something like that. Honestly Kevin, I think we've found someone that actually has worse handwriting than you."
"So. She's probably gone to see the sights, reacquaint herself with the town."
"Kevin."
"What, Love?"
"I don't like this. Her emotional state, she was so tired I would have sworn she'd still be asleep right now..."
"Honey, it's almost 2:30 in the afternoon."
"Yeah, I know. I'm just...worried. About both of them. The only time I've ever seen Mara look so...bereft was when her father died. I'm worried about her, I think she's fallen hard for our resident womanizer..."
"Lara."
"I know, I know, Rafe is a dear friend to me too, but you have to admit he's got quite the track record... But, I've never seen him look the way he did when he came back from South Dakota. He did have the look he gets when he's on the scent of a story, but there was something else to it..."
"Lara, darling, you are such a romantic. I don't think Rafe..."
"Kevin, my sweet love, call it women's intuition, call it what you will, there's something there..."
"I was thinking about them both last night, together...and apart. You do know they'll end up apart don't you? Rafe loves the city and Mara loves Pittsville. I can't see them succeeding at a long distance romance, they'd just return to their first love, the news."
"Well, I do understand what you're saying. It's just that...well, stranger things have happened. Look at you and me..."
"Yeah, the love story of the century, people envy us for our legendary relationship."
"Kevin, you nut."
"It's the stuff of the romance pages, dear. And the society column. Grubby journalist sweeps elegant society deb off her feet, beauty and the beast..."
"You're no beast..."
"Who says I'm the beast..."
"Brute. At the risk of sounding vain, I'm much prettier than you are."
"Yes, you are love, to my eternal delight. Don't worry about Mara just yet, okay? If she's not back by tonight, then yes, then we'll worry. You did leave the spare key for her?
"Of course. If I didn't feel so 'intuitive' about this situation..."
"I know, love. But Mara's a grown woman. She won't do anything too crazy. In spite of whatever is going on between her and Rafe, she's got her feet firmly on the ground."
"That's what I'm worried about. If I were her, I'd probably be lying in bed indulging in a good cry and sleep session..."
"You would, accompanied by the best Godiva Chocolate and a nice bodice-ripper."
"Kev..."
"Just teasing. I know you better than that. You wouldn't be lying around. You'd be boxing the ears of whomever had upset you that much."
"Kev, that's just what I'm afraid of. That she's gone off to box the ears of Rafe...or whomever. Darn, I must leave for my afternoon meeting."
"We'll talk more tonight, love. Okay? You, me and Mara, we'll talk it all through."
"Kevin, my dear writer of words, you do know that something go beyond talk and words..."
"Yes, my love. Every time I think of you. Go on to your meeting. Unless something comes up, I'll see you tonight.'
"Okay, I must run. Love you."
"Love you, too. 'Bye"
-------------------
The first thing Mara did was to catch the Sheridan Lake bus. She caught the 29 State Street bus down to the 400 block south of State Street. This block contained the Harold Washington branch of the Chicago Public Library, its main branch. She figured there was no sense in calling anyone with questions until she knew a little bit about what Rafe had been up to.
She could have asked Kevin to use his archives to dig out everything Rafe had written in the last five years. She figured Kevin would figure out just what she was doing and put the kibosh on it and make sure she was on the first flight back to South Dakota.
Mara certainly didn't underestimate Kevin. She knew that he knew she would be digging around to find out what was going on. But she figured why should she make things easier for him. She could probably find most everything she needed in the back issues of the two main Chicago
daily newspapers, the Sun-Times and the Tribune at the library.
Before she dug into that, she picked up a number of maps for bus routes around the city, in case she had to do some riding around. The CTA had provided a nice kiosk with maps for all the major routes in the lobby of the library.
She asked the man at the information desk which floor contained the serials/periodicals section in case the library had been completely reorganized since she had last visited it, nearly nine years ago. The man told her it was up on the third floor and gave her a map of the library when she asked.
Riding the escalator up, she looked over the map. Good, nothing had been moved around in a major way, that was a relief.
Upon arriving at the third floor, she checked with one the librarians to quickly locate the Readers' Guide To Periodical Literature as well as where the library terminals were located.
She was delighted to find that she was able to do research on the internet as well as locate library resources from the same terminal. Ten years ago that wouldn't have been possible and she had been not looking forward to chivvying around with the other library patrons for terminal and Internet time. Now, it appeared that the library had more than enough terminals to go around.
In the small carrel holding the terminal, there was a box of ubiquitous scratch paper always available in just about any library. Mara grinned at it, and pulled out a nice handful of scratch. That ought to do for a start. She dug through her purse for some pens, pulled the keyboard toward and started searching.
An hour later, she was disgruntled to find that everything over three months old for both the major newspapers was on microfilm and/or microfiche. She didn't know which format she loathed more, the readers for both types of format gave her motion sickness after prolonged usage. She figured that she'd be spending a minimum of two hours using one of those machines.
Mara wrote down the last page number and date that she wanted to access and turned to the Readers' Guide. She didn't know if Rafe had written anything for magazines, but thought it couldn't hurt.
Finally ready to brave the film and/or fiche machines, she put the Readers' Guide back. It hadn't yielded anything noteworthy by Rafe. He had a number of articles listed, but they were more fluff pieces for Chicago Magazine and some of the other local periodicals. She smiled. She'd have to tease him about his take on the Chicago Food Festival the next time she saw him...
Her smiled faded. If there was to be a next time. Gritting her teeth, she approached the main periodicals desk and requested the first set of film reels she needed to look through. Damn the man for having written so much, she would need to go through at least 35 reels of film and about 40 fiche to locate all of his recent articles.
She found an empty carrel containing a microfilm reader and sat down in the chair. She looked the machine over, and liked at least one piece of it that would make her life a lot easier: It had automated feed in what appeared to be the most up-to-date model. Film readers could be such a pain and she hoped the new-fangled automated feed worked as promised.
Popping in a reel, she cross referenced its index and set the machine spinning to find her first article. She looked away from the blur of film flashing across the screen and hoped her stomach would behave.
----------------
Rafe groaned as he rolled over, feeling every bruise and some new ones that must have happened during the night. He was still in the same room, but no longer tied to a chair. Lombardo's men had removed the chair and given him a sleeping bag and a pillow and left.
It was a very nice, plush, sleeping bag, but he was in no shape to sleep on floors. He unzipped the sleeping bag down to his waist and pushed himself into sitting position, keeping the bag around him as much as he could. No sense in wasting body heat in that room. At least the bag's tag said it was intended for use down to 10 degrees F.
He knew the room wasn't quite that cold, certainly not as cold as it was outside. However last night before he had laid down on the floor, he had sighed and was disgusted to see his breath; what a lovely place they had him penned up in.
Slowly drawing a deep breath, he let his lungs fill up as much as he could. As his lungs filled up, his ribcage protested. He touched one bruise on his side and figured he had at least one cracked rib from the pain they were giving off.
He was happy to find that his eye that had been swollen shut the night before was able to open a little bit. Propping himself against the wall next to the panoramic windows, he looked outside. Another mizzley day with the occasional beam of sort-of sunshine. Typical spring day in Chicago.
Drawing the sleeping bag more tightly around his shoulders, he wondered what Mara was doing. What must she think of him, leaving like that. He was sure she didn't take anyone into her bed idly, so she must have felt something beyond lust. And then circumstances had to go and screw that up. He shook his head.
Rafe promised himself that if he got out of this mess alive, he'd do two things. First call his mother and tell her he loved her. And then call Mara...and tell her he loved her, and stand back from the phone as she verbally ripped him a new one. And then hope for the best...
--------------------------
Mara looked up from the microfiche reader and realized it was getting dark outside. She quickly looked through the last couple of pieces of fiche. She returned them to the reference desk and came back, quickly packing up her "research" -- lots and lots of pieces of scratch. She laughed at herself for having left South Dakota so abruptly that she didn't even bring along any kind of note pad or steno pad.
That would have to be a task for tomorrow: buy a notebook. She looked through the bus maps and was relieved to see that one of the express busses from State Street stopped not too far the Kuntzlers' apartment building. Maybe, if she were lucky, she would get there before Kevin got home. She knew Lara knew she was out and about, but she dreaded facing the inquisition she was sure to get from Kevin...
That's me in the corner
That's me in the spotlight, I'm
Losing my religion
Trying to keep up with you
And I don't know if I can do it
Oh no, I've said too much
I haven't said enough
R.E.M. - Losing My Religion
Chapter 16 -- Flying, into the Darkness
A phone conversation.
"Kuntzler."
"Kevin?"
"Lara. Hi, Love, what's up?"
"Kev, is Mara with you?"
"No. Why?"
"She's not here. She left a little note, all it says is 'Gone Into Town' or something like that. Honestly Kevin, I think we've found someone that actually has worse handwriting than you."
"So. She's probably gone to see the sights, reacquaint herself with the town."
"Kevin."
"What, Love?"
"I don't like this. Her emotional state, she was so tired I would have sworn she'd still be asleep right now..."
"Honey, it's almost 2:30 in the afternoon."
"Yeah, I know. I'm just...worried. About both of them. The only time I've ever seen Mara look so...bereft was when her father died. I'm worried about her, I think she's fallen hard for our resident womanizer..."
"Lara."
"I know, I know, Rafe is a dear friend to me too, but you have to admit he's got quite the track record... But, I've never seen him look the way he did when he came back from South Dakota. He did have the look he gets when he's on the scent of a story, but there was something else to it..."
"Lara, darling, you are such a romantic. I don't think Rafe..."
"Kevin, my sweet love, call it women's intuition, call it what you will, there's something there..."
"I was thinking about them both last night, together...and apart. You do know they'll end up apart don't you? Rafe loves the city and Mara loves Pittsville. I can't see them succeeding at a long distance romance, they'd just return to their first love, the news."
"Well, I do understand what you're saying. It's just that...well, stranger things have happened. Look at you and me..."
"Yeah, the love story of the century, people envy us for our legendary relationship."
"Kevin, you nut."
"It's the stuff of the romance pages, dear. And the society column. Grubby journalist sweeps elegant society deb off her feet, beauty and the beast..."
"You're no beast..."
"Who says I'm the beast..."
"Brute. At the risk of sounding vain, I'm much prettier than you are."
"Yes, you are love, to my eternal delight. Don't worry about Mara just yet, okay? If she's not back by tonight, then yes, then we'll worry. You did leave the spare key for her?
"Of course. If I didn't feel so 'intuitive' about this situation..."
"I know, love. But Mara's a grown woman. She won't do anything too crazy. In spite of whatever is going on between her and Rafe, she's got her feet firmly on the ground."
"That's what I'm worried about. If I were her, I'd probably be lying in bed indulging in a good cry and sleep session..."
"You would, accompanied by the best Godiva Chocolate and a nice bodice-ripper."
"Kev..."
"Just teasing. I know you better than that. You wouldn't be lying around. You'd be boxing the ears of whomever had upset you that much."
"Kev, that's just what I'm afraid of. That she's gone off to box the ears of Rafe...or whomever. Darn, I must leave for my afternoon meeting."
"We'll talk more tonight, love. Okay? You, me and Mara, we'll talk it all through."
"Kevin, my dear writer of words, you do know that something go beyond talk and words..."
"Yes, my love. Every time I think of you. Go on to your meeting. Unless something comes up, I'll see you tonight.'
"Okay, I must run. Love you."
"Love you, too. 'Bye"
-------------------
The first thing Mara did was to catch the Sheridan Lake bus. She caught the 29 State Street bus down to the 400 block south of State Street. This block contained the Harold Washington branch of the Chicago Public Library, its main branch. She figured there was no sense in calling anyone with questions until she knew a little bit about what Rafe had been up to.
She could have asked Kevin to use his archives to dig out everything Rafe had written in the last five years. She figured Kevin would figure out just what she was doing and put the kibosh on it and make sure she was on the first flight back to South Dakota.
Mara certainly didn't underestimate Kevin. She knew that he knew she would be digging around to find out what was going on. But she figured why should she make things easier for him. She could probably find most everything she needed in the back issues of the two main Chicago
daily newspapers, the Sun-Times and the Tribune at the library.
Before she dug into that, she picked up a number of maps for bus routes around the city, in case she had to do some riding around. The CTA had provided a nice kiosk with maps for all the major routes in the lobby of the library.
She asked the man at the information desk which floor contained the serials/periodicals section in case the library had been completely reorganized since she had last visited it, nearly nine years ago. The man told her it was up on the third floor and gave her a map of the library when she asked.
Riding the escalator up, she looked over the map. Good, nothing had been moved around in a major way, that was a relief.
Upon arriving at the third floor, she checked with one the librarians to quickly locate the Readers' Guide To Periodical Literature as well as where the library terminals were located.
She was delighted to find that she was able to do research on the internet as well as locate library resources from the same terminal. Ten years ago that wouldn't have been possible and she had been not looking forward to chivvying around with the other library patrons for terminal and Internet time. Now, it appeared that the library had more than enough terminals to go around.
In the small carrel holding the terminal, there was a box of ubiquitous scratch paper always available in just about any library. Mara grinned at it, and pulled out a nice handful of scratch. That ought to do for a start. She dug through her purse for some pens, pulled the keyboard toward and started searching.
An hour later, she was disgruntled to find that everything over three months old for both the major newspapers was on microfilm and/or microfiche. She didn't know which format she loathed more, the readers for both types of format gave her motion sickness after prolonged usage. She figured that she'd be spending a minimum of two hours using one of those machines.
Mara wrote down the last page number and date that she wanted to access and turned to the Readers' Guide. She didn't know if Rafe had written anything for magazines, but thought it couldn't hurt.
Finally ready to brave the film and/or fiche machines, she put the Readers' Guide back. It hadn't yielded anything noteworthy by Rafe. He had a number of articles listed, but they were more fluff pieces for Chicago Magazine and some of the other local periodicals. She smiled. She'd have to tease him about his take on the Chicago Food Festival the next time she saw him...
Her smiled faded. If there was to be a next time. Gritting her teeth, she approached the main periodicals desk and requested the first set of film reels she needed to look through. Damn the man for having written so much, she would need to go through at least 35 reels of film and about 40 fiche to locate all of his recent articles.
She found an empty carrel containing a microfilm reader and sat down in the chair. She looked the machine over, and liked at least one piece of it that would make her life a lot easier: It had automated feed in what appeared to be the most up-to-date model. Film readers could be such a pain and she hoped the new-fangled automated feed worked as promised.
Popping in a reel, she cross referenced its index and set the machine spinning to find her first article. She looked away from the blur of film flashing across the screen and hoped her stomach would behave.
----------------
Rafe groaned as he rolled over, feeling every bruise and some new ones that must have happened during the night. He was still in the same room, but no longer tied to a chair. Lombardo's men had removed the chair and given him a sleeping bag and a pillow and left.
It was a very nice, plush, sleeping bag, but he was in no shape to sleep on floors. He unzipped the sleeping bag down to his waist and pushed himself into sitting position, keeping the bag around him as much as he could. No sense in wasting body heat in that room. At least the bag's tag said it was intended for use down to 10 degrees F.
He knew the room wasn't quite that cold, certainly not as cold as it was outside. However last night before he had laid down on the floor, he had sighed and was disgusted to see his breath; what a lovely place they had him penned up in.
Slowly drawing a deep breath, he let his lungs fill up as much as he could. As his lungs filled up, his ribcage protested. He touched one bruise on his side and figured he had at least one cracked rib from the pain they were giving off.
He was happy to find that his eye that had been swollen shut the night before was able to open a little bit. Propping himself against the wall next to the panoramic windows, he looked outside. Another mizzley day with the occasional beam of sort-of sunshine. Typical spring day in Chicago.
Drawing the sleeping bag more tightly around his shoulders, he wondered what Mara was doing. What must she think of him, leaving like that. He was sure she didn't take anyone into her bed idly, so she must have felt something beyond lust. And then circumstances had to go and screw that up. He shook his head.
Rafe promised himself that if he got out of this mess alive, he'd do two things. First call his mother and tell her he loved her. And then call Mara...and tell her he loved her, and stand back from the phone as she verbally ripped him a new one. And then hope for the best...
--------------------------
Mara looked up from the microfiche reader and realized it was getting dark outside. She quickly looked through the last couple of pieces of fiche. She returned them to the reference desk and came back, quickly packing up her "research" -- lots and lots of pieces of scratch. She laughed at herself for having left South Dakota so abruptly that she didn't even bring along any kind of note pad or steno pad.
That would have to be a task for tomorrow: buy a notebook. She looked through the bus maps and was relieved to see that one of the express busses from State Street stopped not too far the Kuntzlers' apartment building. Maybe, if she were lucky, she would get there before Kevin got home. She knew Lara knew she was out and about, but she dreaded facing the inquisition she was sure to get from Kevin...
posted by Dace @ 12:50 AM
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