Chapter 5

The garage was closed the next day.

Shattner peered above the gate and saw that the garage was deserted, with no movement from within. He looked to see if there was any notice put up about the closure; there was none.

After an hour of hanging about, he gave up and made a call to Diego. Diego didn’t pick up, and after several rings his call went to voice mail. Shattner didn’t leave a message. Diego wasn’t into voice mail. He called the office number for the garage and, after several rings, got the teenager’s recorded voice stating the opening times for the garage.

He hung around for another hour, trying Diego’s number repeatedly with no response, before making his way slowly back to the apartment. The absence of any information was eating away at him, his mind conjuring various scenarios when the terrible thought struck him.

He stood still on the sidewalk, oblivious to the cursing of the pedestrians who were forced to flow around him.

He pulled out his phone and called the children’s school. After a five-minute harangue with the receptionist, she put him on hold, and after a million years, the cool dry voice of Mrs. Harwood came on.

‘Ah, the missing father. What’s so important, Mr. Shattner, that you had me dragged out of a lesson?’ Sarcasm. A New Yorker’s birthright.

He breathed deeply, oxygen filling his mind, trying to blow away the mist in his head and mute the roaring in his ears.

‘Mr. Shattner?’

‘Mrs. Harwood, are my kids in school?’

A pause. ‘Why wouldn’t they be, Mr. Shattner?’

He squeezed the phone tightly as if by doing so he could get a better reply from her. ‘Mrs. Harwood, are they in school right now?’

The cool voice went cold. ‘I taught Lisa earlier today and saw her with her brother later. Is there something that the school should know?’

‘Mrs. Harwood, this will sound insane, but could you please go and see for yourself that they’re both in their lessons right at this minute? I’ll hold. Please?’

‘Mr. Shattner, I have seen both of them earlier today. Now, I have a lesson to teach, and I’m hanging up.’

‘Mrs. Harwood, please. I shall never ask another favor of you, but please do me this one. Please check on them right this minute and let me know. Please!’ Desperation cracked his voice and singed and burnt the air around him.

She went quiet for a minute and then said, ‘Mr. Shattner, I don’t know what’s going on in your life. I’m not sure I want to know, but I have to ask. Are they in some danger? What exactly is happening that you have to ask this?’

‘Mrs. Harwood, just this once, please go check on them.’ Cities, continents, sun, life disappeared. Existence was reduced to the voice in his ear.

He heard nothing, just an empty line, and feared she had hung up on him, but no, there wasn’t a dial tone. Just an empty silence. He crushed the phone harder to his ear as if that would bring her back, and then through the fog surrounding him, he heard her voice in his ear.

‘Mr. Shattner? Mr. Shattner, are you there?’

He licked his lips and forced sound through his parched throat. ‘Yes.’

The coldness was replaced by cool dryness. ‘I’m happy to say they’re both in their respective classes. Would you like me to message you a picture to your mobile?’

He cleared his throat once, then twice. The planet started spinning again. ‘No, that won’t be necessary. I apologize for the trouble and can’t thank you enough.’

A pause and with it came the slightest softening in her voice. ‘If there is some trouble, we might be able to help, Mr. Shattner.’

‘No trouble, Mrs. Harwood. I was missing them, that’s all.’ It sounded lame even to his ears.

‘Very well then,’ came the brisk reply, ‘I have to go back to my students, who no doubt will be thinking and behaving as if it was Christmas come early. You have a good day,’ and she hung up.

Shattner stood there, the darkness disappearing, New York sprouting around him, making its presence felt again. He walked unsteadily to a nearby wooden bench, drawing huge gulps of air, a dead man revived. He sat there till the world had righted itself and then started thinking, analyzing, planning.

Clearly something had happened for the garage to shut down and Diego to go off the radar. He tried Diego’s phone again a few more times and got no reply. He had to check if the gang was still operational, but first he had to drop off the radar, just in case.

He walked towards Thatford Avenue, taking care to check for tails and finding none. He stopped at a store and bought a change of clothes for the kids and himself and headed back to the school. He camped outside the school, a concrete structure that looked pretty uninspiring for a school – but most schools were these days. Drab on the outside, yet expected to churn out geniuses.

A burger and a bag of peanuts gave him brief company. At three p.m. the school regurgitated its contents, children streaming out of the gates and into the open doors of their parents’ cars.

Through the crowd, Shattner spotted Shawn holding tightly to Lisa’s hand, his daughter skipping and talking excitedly to him. Shattner held back, just drinking in their sight, feeling his skin and insides warm, and then stepped forward into Shawn’s vision.

‘Daddy,’ his daughter screamed and hurled herself into his arms.

‘Hello, princess, I wanted to surprise you,’ he replied over her excitement. She kissed him on the cheek and started telling him about her day. He set her down and looked both of them in the eye.

‘I have a surprise for you both, but I can’t tell you what it is,’ he told them solemnly.

Lisa started dancing on her toes and tugged at his hands. ‘What is it, Daddy?’

‘He said it’s a surprise,’ Shawn said in his big-brother superior voice.

‘Daddy, won’t you tell me, please?’ Lisa pleaded with him.

Shattner shook his head and took their hands and started walking away from the school.

‘I won’t talk to you then, Daddy,’ Lisa said in her most serious voice. They walked in silence for a minute, and then she burst out, ‘Daddy, I mean it, if you don’t tell me, I won’t talk to you.’

Shattner grinned down at her and winked at Shawn. ‘I heard you the first time, princess.’

She pouted and flounced along and then burst into giggles as he tickled her. He drank in her laughter greedily, drawing sustenance from it. He walked them to the subway at Rockaway Avenue, Lisa barely able to contain her excitement as they walked down the subway stairs and bought the tickets.

‘Are we going somewhere, Dad?’ This time it was Shawn who could not contain his curiosity.

Shattner smiled and nodded and directed them to the platform going towards Manhattan. He looked around discreetly, noticing nothing out of the ordinary. They were part of the anonymous commuting populace, merging into their inescapable routine. During the subway ride, Shawn kept Lisa entertained while Shattner organized his thoughts and planned his next steps. The motion of the train lulled his children to sleep, and he held Lisa in his arms as the train sped from light to dark and light again.

He roused them when the subway was approaching the Upper West Side and got them off on Eighty-Sixth Street. He checked them into a run-down but still decent hotel, paid in cash, and settled them in their room.

He arranged the children’s stuff in the wardrobe in the room, the highest shelf holding his bag with his gun and phone, its battery removed. He let the kids have a shower and freshened himself up quickly and then set up the takeaway dinner they had ordered from a diner.

Lisa was barely awake when they finished and went to sleep soon after he had changed her clothes. Shawn was tired but awake, knowing that something had happened to make his dad change their routine.

When Lisa was asleep, he sat up in the narrow bed and looked at his father expectantly. Shattner ruffled his hair. ‘I’m taking you out of school for a few days. I have some work in this part of the city, and once I finish it, we’ll go back and start school.’

Shawn’s mouth opened in an ‘O’ as he processed all this.

‘Dad, how many days will we miss? Mrs. Harwood will have to be told.’

‘Done.’ Shattner ticked in the air. ‘I told the dragon about it and made her feel nice about letting you both have some days off. And we’ll be here two or three days, at the max.’

Shawn frowned as another thought struck him. ‘What will we do when you’re away, Dad?’

‘Oh, ye of little faith.’ Shattner pulled him toward his chest. ‘Your superman dad has taken care of that too. There’s a daycare center here that’s very good. I’ve checked both of you in for tomorrow, and you can spend the whole day there. You’ll enjoy it. My buddies rate it highly.

‘No dragon, no schoolwork, just fun and games all day,’ he continued.

Shawn pumped his fist and whispered loudly, ‘Yes! I can’t wait to tell Lisa.’

He grinned widely at Shattner, his dimples pronounced. ‘You were planning this all along, weren’t you, Dad?’

Shattner nodded, his heart clenching, and sat with him till he fell asleep.

And felt like the smallest person in the greatest city on earth.