Excerpt: Hope for Frantic (working title)

Chapter Three

Kara and Erik waited in the long line to pass through security. They were plenty early for the flight, but Kara planned to get dinner at one of the fast food restaurants near the gate. She had completely forgotten to eat lunch what with the news about Aunt Janelle, and the hunger was gnawing at her.

She tried to peer ahead. Of course the airport had too few security lines open, and it seemed like nearly everyone was getting pulled out of line. As they got closer, she could hear one of the security guards, though she couldn’t see him yet. There was a tone in his voice that made her think that he was enjoying the power he had over people. Enjoying the fact that he could hold up the most powerful CEOs, the most beautiful women, the happiest families. She didn’t know what it was, probably just her own bad mood projecting an unkind assessment of a man who was just doing his job.

Kara and Erik cleared the x-ray machine, and of course Kara was then pulled to the side. She had been waiting for her purse to come through the machine, and after she picked it up, she turned and saw the guard face-on for the first time.

“Silver!” she said, astonished.

“What?” the guard asked.

Kara had a moment of déjà vu, of complete confusion and incomprehension. This man, this security guard, looked a lot like Silver, one of the men who lived in the caves in her dream. In fact, just last night she had dreamed of Silver, guarding the door to the cave.

She took a closer look. The guard was pudgier than Silver, though certainly not fat. Just not the lean muscled physique that Silver had. And the guard had a near buzz cut while Silver’s hair was longer and always a bit uneven where Silver had trimmed it back himself. Still, Kara thought the resemblance was uncanny.

“I’m sorry,” said Kara, “you just reminded me of someone.”

“I don’t think we’ve met before,” answered the guard, who seemed to spend a minute thinking about it. “You didn’t go to East High, did you?”

“No,” answered Kara. “I didn’t even know anyone at East High.”

The guard ran the wand over Kara, then waved her on. Then he added, “Because it’s a little weird that you called me Silver. In high school, I used Silver as my knickname for some Dungeon and Dragons type games I used to play.”

“That is a weird coincidence,” said Kara.

“Well, go ahead,” waved the guard, turning to the next unlucky traveler pulled out of line.

***********
Kara sat at the gate, eating a fast food hamburger without even tasting it. She couldn’t get the guard out of her mind, especially not because as she was leaving, she noticed that his name tag said “Silas”. In her dream, was Silver’s real name Silas? Or was she just thinking that because she saw the guard’s name tag and was simply projecting the information back into her dream? She wasn’t sure.

She tried to put it out of her head, but she kept coming back to it all through the plane ride, and the trip to the motel, until she finally fell asleep.