Chapters 21-23: AWAKE/BACK TO THE GRILL AGAIN/DADDY'S HOME

21

Askauri didn't know how long he'd slept but he did feel much better, his thoughts were much more clear. He was concerned, however, that he could sense neither Bealz nor Monie. He felt their fading essence, knew that they had passed through the valley of flowers that lay here between the base of the hill and the forest. But now they were gone.

It was no surprise to him that Monie had gotten them out or that this is where they had stepped through. The forest served as a transom, a thin place between worlds. It was fairly aligned with the ghost of the forests and plains that once covered the land where Chicago now sat and could often be heard throughout this region mourning the loss of its sister wood on Earth.

Considering the journey they had to take, the years of struggle she and Bealz had faced alone, Askauri was thankful that Monique had been able to summon the strength to do what was needed. To bring them here. He had no idea just how inadequate this was.

Askauri's opinions on parenting were, of a necessity, an abstract. His philosophies on the matter were purely theoretical. He couldn't truly grasp the scope of the job at hand, just how difficult, how nearly impossible it had been for Monique to manage it alone. Even without the added burden of the Queen Mother's curse.

That she had not just survived the ordeal, but could still manage to do what she must in order to protect her and their son was a testament to the strength of a mother's love. A superhuman feat accomplished daily and with little to no fanfare by countless numbers of mothers just like her.

For long distant parents, to see the results, to look admiringly upon a child they had no daily hand in raising, only the successes are readily apparent. The hardship, the ridicule and social stigma, the unreasonable restrictions and requirements of a rigged system, these things were well hidden in the past of a giddily smiling, healthy young boy or girl. It was hard to consider all that had been endured, the pain of loss and the hurtful uncertainties that sprang from the void left behind by an absentee parent.

This isn't an indictment, simply an unaddressed fact of existence for all involved, Bealz, Monique and Askauri included.

Gathering what strength he could manage, Askauri casts his mind out across worlds, searching for Bealz, scanning, scouring the astral planes. Bealz shined like a burning star within a dull constellation. Askauri could feel the pull of his blood, the blood of the Askai, calling to him.

He stepped towards his son.

22

“See man, told you we would find him.”

“Yeah, but what he doin? Man, they blew this place up. Ain't nobody left here.”

“Yeah, well, Bealz's little punk ass is here, ain't he?”

“Ok, but why he all wet?”

“Whatever, man. Let's get him before he wake up or whatever. Maybe now Dakari will ease up on our ass.”

“Why his clothes steamin up like that? Like they jus came out the dryer or something?”

Bealz is lost in darkness. He had seen some things. He had fallen.

He was now lost in the darkness.

“Who cares?”

“Man, I care. This shit feel funny.”

“Tonio, man, move yo punk ass out the way,” Deshaun barks. “Yo scary ass gone get us messed up. You know what Dakari said.”

“I know you better stop sayin his name out loud like that,” Tonio replies. “You know what he said about that too.”

Bealz can see a tiny pinprick of light. A single star piercing the darkness. It slowly expands. He can hear voices, echoing far off in the distance. The star begins to pulse, the light intensifying. It continues to grow, to fill into the shape of a man.

It was his father! His dad had stepped into the emptiness. He was much closer, much more real than anything Bealz had ever before dreamed of. His father called out to him, his voice echoing about in the darkness.

“I'm here!” Bealz calls back. “Daddy! Here I am!”

Bealz can feel the heat of his father's eyes, like burning lasers, seeking him out. The star who was a ma who was his father, strode towards him.

Bealz woke up.

“Hey,” he says, slapping at a pair of hands clutching and grabbing at him as his eyes flutter open.

Bealz is disoriented. He's not sure where he is. He didn't know who was trying to snatch him up. He panics, lashes out fearfully, and with a spastic fit, unleashes a psychic whiplash that condenses the air ahead of it into a solid fist. Deshaun and Tonio are smacked hard, sent tumbling head over heels.

Bealz's eyes sting and water. His fingertips and toes and his earlobes tingle and burn. He can't quite be sure what had just happened.

Getting cautiously to his feet, he looks around the alleyway with confusion. His day had been filled with holes, blank spots in his memories since he'd set out this morning and his legs were dead, as if he'd run a marathon, maybe even through two different worlds.

Bealz wasn't sure about anything right now. Including whether or not he had really watched his mother rip a hole through space and time. Or kill two people. Turning slowly, he looks up at the apartment building where he'd lived his entire life The upper floors were blackened, burned out shells.

Looking away in shame, Bealz sees Deshaun and Tonio. They lay in disjointed heaps as if they had been bowled over. Neither of them moved.

He thought of his mother, what she did to Ms. Penny and then to the old man as she floated up in the sky like a witch. Bealz wonders if the two boys were dead. He fears the worst of himself.

Taking a tentative step towards them, he didn't know, maybe to help, maybe just to see up close, he freezes as an icy hand clamps down on his shoulder. “Naw, don't worry bout them none. They did their job. You, my young sir, you need to worry about me.”

“Dakari,” Bealz says in horror.

“None other,” the tall, dark man says. “I've been lookin for you. Shouldn't have been so hard to find, though. You lose my chain?”

Bealz's hand instinctively darts to his neck. He'd completely forgotten about his earlier encounter with Dakari. But now the blank spots began to fill in. He remembered being cornered in this man's car. He remembered the inhuman mountain of a man that had held him gently, but tight, in a bear hug. He remembered the chain, still there around his neck. It burned his fingers to touch it.

“Don't worry about it. Not now, anyway. It's gon be cool now. You see, young blood, ol' Dakari always manages to find a way to make things right. It's a gift,” he says, grinning while painfully squeezing Bealz's shoulder.

Just moments before, Bealz had begun to question his grasp on reality. So much had happened, so quickly. Now, real or not, he wishes with all of his might just to disappear back into his fantasy. Standing in the alley behind Ms. Penny's building, surrounded by the greasy filth that settles along the surface of everything and everyone down around the fringes of the city, a tear blurs Bealz's vision.

He'd spent so much of his life dreaming of escape. Longing for clean air to breath, cool, clean water to drink, to splash and play in. The ultimate tragedy then, the most terrible realization for Bealz as he stood here with his back to a monster, was that such pleasures really were just a foolish dream.

The truth of it, his reality was peopled with men like Dakari; parasites and predators let loose among the poor. His real world was colored in dirty, brick reds, concrete grays and old wall plaster-y yellows. There were no flowers for young fools such as him.

“Don't trip my man. This'll be over soon. I promise.”

Bealz disconsolately thinks of his father. He had promised that he would protect him. That he would find him. Bealz should've known better. There was really no reason for him to get his hopes up about some super hero swooping in for the rescue. Where he was from, that's just not how it happened.

Around here, the so-called heroes ruled with iron fists. They poisoned the ground and the air, sought their profit in human misery. Nice cars, nice clothes, these were the hallmarks of heroic success on the streets. And that success was pursued ruthlessly by men like Dakari.

In his despair, Bealz imagines that he can see a pinprick of light, glowing, growing steadily. He felt a pang of longing, of unexpected hopefulness in a hopeless situation.

The distant speck of light brightens into a star, intensifies and steps into the shape of a man. Into the shape of his father. It couldn't be real.

But...

“Son...”

“Oh, shit,” Dakari says. “Well, well. If it ain't the King himself. Now the gang's all here. ”

“Enough, Dakari. Take your hands off my child.”

“You been gone awhile, Askai. You don't look to good.”

This is a distraction. Mook, his impossible bulk moving with an impossibly silent grace, rushes at Askauri from behind, attempting to blindside him.

Bealz tries to shout out a warning but Dakari roughly smothers his mouth. “Shut the fuck up and watch your daddy die!”

Spinning on the balls of his feet, Askauri ducks low and catches Mook in the solar plexus with a well-executed uppercut. It was like slamming his fist into the concrete wall of his prison cell. Stepping lithely to the side, Askauri sticks out his foot, tangling up the big man's legs.

Mook, unable to check his bulk, goes stumbling right into Bealz and Dakari. The three of them fall to the ground in a heap.

Rushing forward, Askauri reaches out and pulls his son into his arms and pivots them back into the Incata.

23

The air is still. No signs of the ferocious storm that ravaged the sky as Bealz fell back down and through to Earth. The grass wasn't wet, as if it had not rained at all.

Bealz doesn't notice any of these discrepancies. His face is buried in his father's chest. He weeps. His tears soak Askauri's shirt.

“It's alright now, son,” Askauri says, holding him close, kissing his head. “Daddy's here now. It's alright.”