L EVI’S HEART FLUTTERED as they turned onto the
main road, still on the lookout but hoping Violet wasn’t
somewhere out there in all this violent mess. He had
only left Jenny’s apartment a few moments earlier and
had no choice but to jump into the fray and check
areas in which he hadn’t yet looked.
“I wish your friend K.S. was here,” Jenny lamented,
as she held the faintly glowing lamp in her lap.
“Me too,” he said.
The mention of K.S. sparked a memory in his mind.
He searched the street signs and knew he could arrive
at the corner of 5th and Grover in less than a minute.
“I think I know where to find her,” he said.
“Just now? Where?”
Levi smiled, hoping he was right. K.S. had sent him
there just days earlier, and for no apparent reason.
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“Well,” he thought, “maybe that reason is crystallizing.”
He sped the car along 5th Avenue toward a smoke
cloud which rose above Grover.
“Oh, no,” Jenny said. “Levi?” Her voice a frightened
quiver. He noticed it too. Up ahead, the entire block
was embroiled in bedlam.
“Is that where she is?” Jenny asked.
Levi saw the Fairfield Inn ahead of them. The
sprinklers had killed most of the fire but ghastly black
smoke drifted outward from the lobby. Bodies, gunshot
victims, littered the sidewalk.
“She’s inside,” Levi guessed.
“Levi, no… you can’t go in there! Are you nuts?”
He parked on the corner, close to where he had
before, and killed the engine. He considered the lamp,
which held that subtle glow inside its glass fixture.
“Stay with the lamp,” he ordered her.
Jenny reached for his shirt but he was already out
the door and racing toward the towering smoke of the
hotel. He saw fistfights breaking out in the street and
heard a weak siren moaning in the distance. Blasting
through the door, he covered his face with his shirt
and made his way into the thick haze. Where are you,
kid?
He sprinted up the grand staircase to the landing
and saw that most of the doors stood open. On those
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that didn’t, he began knocking while placing his ear
against the thick wooden doors, listening for any sign
of her voice. The sprinklers above drenched him and,
coupled with the alarm, made it difficult to hear
anything. After checking the first three closed doors, he
passed several which were already open. He quickly
ducked inside each one, shouting, “Violet? Is anyone in
here?” He heard no response.
Heading back into the hallway, he began to feel the
dizzying effects of the smoke, but his legs carried him
forward to the next closed door. He knocked and
shouted, “Is anyone in here?”
He pressed his cheek against the door, straining to
listen. He heard a squeak. Maybe.
“Hello?” he shouted. “Is someone in there?”
He thought he heard it again. He knelt down and
tried to look underneath the door. He pressed his ear
closer to the gap at the bottom.
“Anyone in there?” he repeated as loudly as he could.
He then heard a strained voice, calling out as though
in intense pain. It was a single word: help.
Levi tried the handle first. Locked. “Listen to me,” he
shouted. “Can you come to the door?”
He heard only that word again. “Help.” He was
positive this time. Levi kicked the door, near the
handle. Then again. And again. It was solid oak. He
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tried his other leg, but his head began to spin as he
sucked in deep breaths full of smoke, which made
feats of strength and coordination difficult. He placed
his shirt snugly against his face once more, burying
his nose in it, and then cocked his right arm.
Levi slammed his first into the frame with all of his
might and heard the door buckle. He cocked his
bloody, scarred, fist again and sent it crashing into the
oak door, nearly lifting it off its hinges. In his moment
of delirium, Levi was glad he couldn’t feel anything in
that hand.
He cocked again and sailed a punch into the door,
which caused it to fold in the center. Levi raised his
foot and gave it a kick, knocking the door completely
in. He rushed into the room with groggy vision and saw
Violet prone on the bed, nearly unconscious from the
smoke. He saw the serrated knife at the foot of the bed
and snatched it up, slicing through the rope which
bound her wrist in a single motion. After cutting her
free, he removed a pillow case and held it over her
nose. “Here,” he said. “Breath into this.”
He boosted her onto a shoulder and took one dazed,
staggered step after another, moving back toward the
grand staircase. As he drew closer to the entrance, he
heard the sound of air cannons going off outside and
people yelling and fighting. He swayed back and forth,
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trying to stay on his feet as he carried Violet outside,
through the thick cloud of smoke and toward the
booming sounds of the street.
Jenny jumped from the car when she spotted them
coming out. She grabbed the lamp by its handle and
ran forward to meet them in the center of the chaos.
She felt the lamp’s heat increasing as she dashed
toward Levi and Violet. The moment she reached them,
the lamp escaped her grip and fell to the ground as she
wrapped them up in a hug.
The lamp landed with a clank. And then it happened.
A blast of concentrated energy erupted from the lamp
like a volcano thundering skyward, sending a blanket
of brilliant, intensely hued, impossibly bright light as
far as the eye could see, in every direction. Night had
suddenly been transformed into day, and yet the
luminance they were all witnessing was even brighter
than daylight. Levi staggered back along with Jenny
and Violet, all shielding their eyes briefly before
realizing the light wasn’t burning them.
The violent tumult on the street ended at once. Levi
saw two policemen drop their guns and fall to their
knees in awe of the exquisite light bathing the entire
block. A group of men whom he’d seen beating one
another to a bloody pulp also stood and gazed. What is
happening here?
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The lustrous, shiny light continued to radiate as
everyone feasted on the brilliant, warm glow around
them. The light seemed to move with circular elegance,
almost dancing around them as if it were alive. This
pulsing, enchanting, peaceful energy moved among
them, allowing each person to get his or her fill; not
that any of them could ever get enough of this
enchanted, ebullient feeling. No one felt like moving
and suddenly the idea of hitting or killing the person
next to them seemed absurd as they looked around,
seemingly awakening from their paranoid nightmare.
The eyes of the crowd seemed to collectively fall on
the bodies littering the street, some bloody and
wounded. Others dead. In the light of day, it all felt
more real, and more evil. What are we doing?
The light fell away without warning and left the
streets cold and dark. Violet took in the crowds, most
of whom stood in stunned silence for a long time,
before beginning to slowly move away from the streets
and back to their cars, their homes. People whispered
to one another as they walked away. A cop offered his
hand to a fallen dissident, helping him up.
Jenny’s eyes engaged Levi and she said, “That’s what
you’ve been carrying around in your bag all this time?”
Levi shrugged bashfully. He had never seen the
lamp’s energy taken to that level. He thought he’d
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gotten used to seeing it glow, but you don’t get used to
that! Especially when it’s cranked to the max, if that’s
even what this had been. Actually, he didn’t want to
see its maximum power. It was simply too much to
grasp; he’d seen enough.
Violet was rubbing her stomach, slightly hunched
over. “Are you sick again?” Levi asked.
“I’m okay,” she offered, not wishing to trouble their
minds further.
Levi spotted someone moving in the distance, calmly
walking under the overhead street lights. He came and
went as he moved, going in and out of darkness as the
lights fell into shadow and then reappeared. Jenny and
Violet noticed him too and they stood together, facing
in his direction.
A short distance away, Levi could make out the
man’s features. He was older, maybe in his seventies,
olive-skinned with white hair and dressed in the
tattered rags of a homeless man. And maybe that’s
exactly what he was.
But as he came closer, it was clear that he was
returning their gaze. The old homeless man then
stopped in the middle of the street, taking in the bodies
that had fallen. He knelt down next to a dead woman
who’d been shot, lying on her side. The man gently
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moved his hand down the side of her face. He then
wiped some blood onto his own sleeve.
The man stood erect and walked a little farther, to
another unmoving body. He knelt briefly to rub the
man’s back, an endearing gesture, and then, it
seemed, the old man wiped back something from his
eyes. He continued on, stopping at a few bodies to pet
and caress their faces as if he had known each one
personally, like close friends or family.
Before long, the homeless man was standing in front
of them directly. Levi gazed at him and recognized
youthful, energetic eyes. They were the eyes of a
twenty-year-old and certainly stood out in stark
contrast to the wrinkled, tanned skin that covered his
face.
“K.S.” fell from Levi’s mouth.
The old man produced a smile. A big one. Levi had
waited for this moment for a long time, and had
prepared hundreds of questions for him. There were so
many things he didn’t understand, and he greatly
desired an opportunity to satisfy his deep curiosity.
And yet, standing face-to-face with K.S. now, he
couldn’t recall even a single one of them. In fact, that
mental list he’d been tallying now seemed surprisingly
silly. It was almost as if, deep down, Levi felt that he
might be the one answering questions, and not asking
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them. Yet K.S. looked upon him like an old friend, as if
he were enjoying the moment as much as Levi.
K.S. then broke eye contact with Levi and turned his
sights on Jenny. She felt embarrassed under his gaze
but forced herself to peer into those young eyes. K.S.
took a step forward and touched her hand. She
glanced at Levi as if to ask, “What should I do?” That’s
when she noticed that his other hand had taken Levi’s.
The old man with young eyes lifted Jenny’s hand,
together with Levi’s, and placed them together. Upon
realizing that K.S. had literally joined their hands, a
profound feeling of warmth hugged his soul. Jenny
noticed it too, and didn’t protest for a moment. Then
Levi felt Jenny’s grip tighten a bit, as if affirming what
was happening. They looked into one another’s eyes
and Jenny nodded her head and flashed an emotional
smile. It’s Okay.
K.S. stepped in front of Violet, who stood silently,
staring at her feet. She couldn’t even look at him.
Whoever this strange person was, she felt that he oddly
knew everything about her, down to her most shameful
act. He lifted her chin with his hand and she saw a
kindness in his eyes that put her at ease. K.S. then
removed her hand, which she’d been pressing into her
stomach, and slipped a purple bracelet — the one
she’d given to Johnny — onto her own trembling wrist.
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The moment was bittersweet for her. He leaned
forward ever so slightly and extended his right hand to
her abdomen. The moment Violet became aware of his
touch, she felt a euphoric jolt shooting through her
body, like a Taser gun emitting pleasurable pulses.
K.S. removed his hand and she rubbed her stomach.
The pain, finally, was gone. And this time she knew the
relief wouldn’t be temporary.
“Thank you,” Levi said. He didn’t know how else to
articulate it.
K.S. nodded politely and then pointed to Levi with a
wink, as if to say, “Thank you also.”
The old man with young eyes turned and walked
back in the direction in which he’d come. Passing by
Levi’s car, he paused as if considering something, then
touched it, removed his hand, and moved on. Moments
later, the Great Artist disappeared into the night and
the three of them stood alone where he’d left them.
Violet grinned at Jenny and Levi, who were still
holding hands, and said, “Well then.” Jenny laughed.
Things had turned awkward pretty fast. Levi looked
down, searching for the lamp in desperation. It was
nowhere to be found. Jenny joined in, searching
through some of the rubble until it became obvious to
everyone: the lamp was gone.
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Violet finally asked the question that had been on all
of their minds, at varying points, during the last
several minutes:
“So… was that really…?”
“Mm hmm,” answered Levi.
“That’s what I thought,” she marveled.
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