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"Third Generation Unicorn"
May. 27th, 2022 01:25 am"Third Generation Unicorn"
12/8/2016
I.
"I could have a different cookie every day, I like the oatmeal raisins best but they are all so good, I would eat any one of them. Even the dry old scones. If we came here every day, you could have your coffee and I would have a different cookie every day and we would both be so happy, doesn't that sound like a good idea--?"
April Whitaker had turned into a chatterbox well before her fourth birthday and now the deluge of conversation showed no sign of slowing. Often it was just her narrating in great detail whatever had happened to her that day, but recently she had been proposing a lot of 'what if' and 'how come' questions. What would Daddy do if a dog got in our car, what would happen if she cut her own hair, why do people say 'bless you' when someone sneezes?
Securing her in the child seat in the rear of his canary-yellow Jetta, Cory Adams did his best to keep up with the flow of questions and observations. He was not by nature particularly chatty, although he had to admit April's mother sure was. The daughter took after Ashley so much that strangers smiled when they saw the two of them out together. April had the same platinum-blonde hair, pale blue eyes and cleft chin of both her mother and her grandmother. Cory saw almost nothing of himself in his daughter but who knew how she would change as she got older?
Cory himself at thirty-four was presentable if not amazingly good-looking the way his girlfriend and daughter were. He had wavy black hair and dark brown eyes, a pleasant but unremarkable face, and he had kept himself in reasonably good shape despite spending most days trapped in a cubicle preparing presentations on new smartphone features or pretending to listen at motivational meetings. Just forty minutes on the treadmill at the gym he had to pass anyway on his way home seemed to do it. Ashley said his best feature was his smile, especially when he was trying to get away with something but she sometimes remarked how proud she was that he still wore his belts at the same notch as when they had met.
Satisfied that April was snug and safe in her seat, Cory got behind the steering wheel and answered her questions about why cats don't like to get wet. That seemed to give her something to think about and she was quiet for a minute. He reached up to his sun visor and turned off the security alarm that Ashley's friend Megan had installed recently. As long as the tiny lights blinked green and blue, everything was okay. If they stayed on or turned red, it meant that someone had been in contact with the car for more than fifteen seconds and he was supposed to be on the alert for trouble.
That reminded him of the defense panel. As he started up the Jetta, Cory reached under the dashboard and swung down a black plastic panel that had a horizontal row of four toggle switches and a red button. He studied it for a second, made sure he remembered what each switch did and clicked the panel back up out of the way. As much as he loved Ashley's adventurous spirit, he was grateful she had dropped out of the Midnight War, at least until April was older. He wanted as little to do with the weird and the paranormal as possible.
Pulling out of the shopping plaza, he realized that they had been at the Barnes and Noble for over three hours. It was a great place for April to blow off steam checking out the various toys and games and activity kits for children. Today she had been obsessed with dinosaurs for some reason and the girl working that section had been incredibly patient describing how the various dinosaurs had lived and acted. She assured April that no one had ever seen a live dinosaur but yes, maybe just maybe in some jungle somewhere a few really old dinosaurs were still walking around. In fact, April was wearing her latest favorite shirt that day, a green T-shirt from the Museum of Natural History that showed the skeleton of a Triceratops.
Hitting the Long Island Expressway, Cory Adams glanced at the rear view mirror and saw April had dozed off. Well, she had gotten up extra early that day and the interior of the car was warm on the sunny December day. Feeling it was stuffy himself, Cory wound down his window partway. He let her nap. They would be home in another thirty minutes and the silence would do him good. As long as Ashley didn't call him, in which case the ringing of his phone would roust April. Today Ashley was supposed to be in Manhattan, visiting with her friends from the Kenneth Dred Foundation. Ashley was still a member on reserve duty, and had been called three times in the past year, always in the middle of the night to rush out to handle some menacing creature or maniac. It was like being married to a police officer or a firefighter, he supposed.
Her old teammates all called her Unicorn, and he knew all about the actual Unicorn horn she carried everywhere in a cylindrical leather sheath. But, although he knew about his girlfriend's adventures in the dangerous Midnight War, he had never been affected directly by her former career.
Nearing the South Fork peninsula toward Montauk, Cory was on a relatively deserted side road. Ashley's mother Mary Cassidy owned quite a few acres out here, with a plush four-story house that just missed qualifying as a mansion. Cory, Ashley and April had been living in the family house while the mother generally stayed at her apartment in the Tribeca neighborhood in Manhattan. While Cory wanted for his little family to establish itself in its own home, he had to admit this arrangement did allow them save most of their combined income. College for little April seemed so remote but it was only thirteen years away if one thought about it.
From the corner of his eye, he spotted something coming up behind him fast. It was a black van with tinted windows, moving way over the speed limit. Cory grumbled under his breath. On either side of the road was nothing but flat dry dirt and some brush. He hit his right turn signal and pulled over to the side of the road, slowing down to a roll. If this guy was in such a hurry, let him pass. The last thing he needed was someone right on his tail the next ten miles.
Catching him completely by surprise, the van got ahead, then swerved over and blocked him. Cory had slowed down enough that he could brake in time but he felt a surge of pure anger. He had a four year old in the back seat! What was wrong with this guy? Cory started to put the car in reverse, intending to back up and get away from this maniac.
His heart almost stopped. A red pick-up truck had pulled up bare inches behind him. He was boxed in. Cory felt so panicked he could hardly breathe. He pulled down the defense panel under the dashboard but none of the gimmicks seemed useful. One discharged thick black smoke and another triggered a blinding strobe light set in the rear bumper. Another switch changed the way the tail lights looked. They were all intended to discourage pursuit. He had just enough presence of mind to press the red alert button and then his door was yanked open and he was smacked across the face with a gun of some sort.
This couldn't be happening. Cory Adams stared up at a tall man wrapped in a white raincoat with a face entirely hidden behind a full-head white cloth mask and topped with a white fedora. Even the hands were concealed behind white cotton gloves so no skin showed anywhere.
In that situation, Cory froze motionless and could not have acted no matter what. He had no idea what to say, what to try. He had never been held up before. He had never even been in a fistfight, his life had been as peaceful as anyone could have wanted. Cory stared at the gun pointed in his face and vaguely realized it was not a normal firearm. The weapon had a long flaring rubber muzzle like a fire extinguisher and there were two metal canisters the size of bullets fastened in front of the grip. What the hell? A gush of stinging white vapor spewed from the weapon right into his face and that was the last he remembered.
( the rest of the story )
12/8/2016
I.
"I could have a different cookie every day, I like the oatmeal raisins best but they are all so good, I would eat any one of them. Even the dry old scones. If we came here every day, you could have your coffee and I would have a different cookie every day and we would both be so happy, doesn't that sound like a good idea--?"
April Whitaker had turned into a chatterbox well before her fourth birthday and now the deluge of conversation showed no sign of slowing. Often it was just her narrating in great detail whatever had happened to her that day, but recently she had been proposing a lot of 'what if' and 'how come' questions. What would Daddy do if a dog got in our car, what would happen if she cut her own hair, why do people say 'bless you' when someone sneezes?
Securing her in the child seat in the rear of his canary-yellow Jetta, Cory Adams did his best to keep up with the flow of questions and observations. He was not by nature particularly chatty, although he had to admit April's mother sure was. The daughter took after Ashley so much that strangers smiled when they saw the two of them out together. April had the same platinum-blonde hair, pale blue eyes and cleft chin of both her mother and her grandmother. Cory saw almost nothing of himself in his daughter but who knew how she would change as she got older?
Cory himself at thirty-four was presentable if not amazingly good-looking the way his girlfriend and daughter were. He had wavy black hair and dark brown eyes, a pleasant but unremarkable face, and he had kept himself in reasonably good shape despite spending most days trapped in a cubicle preparing presentations on new smartphone features or pretending to listen at motivational meetings. Just forty minutes on the treadmill at the gym he had to pass anyway on his way home seemed to do it. Ashley said his best feature was his smile, especially when he was trying to get away with something but she sometimes remarked how proud she was that he still wore his belts at the same notch as when they had met.
Satisfied that April was snug and safe in her seat, Cory got behind the steering wheel and answered her questions about why cats don't like to get wet. That seemed to give her something to think about and she was quiet for a minute. He reached up to his sun visor and turned off the security alarm that Ashley's friend Megan had installed recently. As long as the tiny lights blinked green and blue, everything was okay. If they stayed on or turned red, it meant that someone had been in contact with the car for more than fifteen seconds and he was supposed to be on the alert for trouble.
That reminded him of the defense panel. As he started up the Jetta, Cory reached under the dashboard and swung down a black plastic panel that had a horizontal row of four toggle switches and a red button. He studied it for a second, made sure he remembered what each switch did and clicked the panel back up out of the way. As much as he loved Ashley's adventurous spirit, he was grateful she had dropped out of the Midnight War, at least until April was older. He wanted as little to do with the weird and the paranormal as possible.
Pulling out of the shopping plaza, he realized that they had been at the Barnes and Noble for over three hours. It was a great place for April to blow off steam checking out the various toys and games and activity kits for children. Today she had been obsessed with dinosaurs for some reason and the girl working that section had been incredibly patient describing how the various dinosaurs had lived and acted. She assured April that no one had ever seen a live dinosaur but yes, maybe just maybe in some jungle somewhere a few really old dinosaurs were still walking around. In fact, April was wearing her latest favorite shirt that day, a green T-shirt from the Museum of Natural History that showed the skeleton of a Triceratops.
Hitting the Long Island Expressway, Cory Adams glanced at the rear view mirror and saw April had dozed off. Well, she had gotten up extra early that day and the interior of the car was warm on the sunny December day. Feeling it was stuffy himself, Cory wound down his window partway. He let her nap. They would be home in another thirty minutes and the silence would do him good. As long as Ashley didn't call him, in which case the ringing of his phone would roust April. Today Ashley was supposed to be in Manhattan, visiting with her friends from the Kenneth Dred Foundation. Ashley was still a member on reserve duty, and had been called three times in the past year, always in the middle of the night to rush out to handle some menacing creature or maniac. It was like being married to a police officer or a firefighter, he supposed.
Her old teammates all called her Unicorn, and he knew all about the actual Unicorn horn she carried everywhere in a cylindrical leather sheath. But, although he knew about his girlfriend's adventures in the dangerous Midnight War, he had never been affected directly by her former career.
Nearing the South Fork peninsula toward Montauk, Cory was on a relatively deserted side road. Ashley's mother Mary Cassidy owned quite a few acres out here, with a plush four-story house that just missed qualifying as a mansion. Cory, Ashley and April had been living in the family house while the mother generally stayed at her apartment in the Tribeca neighborhood in Manhattan. While Cory wanted for his little family to establish itself in its own home, he had to admit this arrangement did allow them save most of their combined income. College for little April seemed so remote but it was only thirteen years away if one thought about it.
From the corner of his eye, he spotted something coming up behind him fast. It was a black van with tinted windows, moving way over the speed limit. Cory grumbled under his breath. On either side of the road was nothing but flat dry dirt and some brush. He hit his right turn signal and pulled over to the side of the road, slowing down to a roll. If this guy was in such a hurry, let him pass. The last thing he needed was someone right on his tail the next ten miles.
Catching him completely by surprise, the van got ahead, then swerved over and blocked him. Cory had slowed down enough that he could brake in time but he felt a surge of pure anger. He had a four year old in the back seat! What was wrong with this guy? Cory started to put the car in reverse, intending to back up and get away from this maniac.
His heart almost stopped. A red pick-up truck had pulled up bare inches behind him. He was boxed in. Cory felt so panicked he could hardly breathe. He pulled down the defense panel under the dashboard but none of the gimmicks seemed useful. One discharged thick black smoke and another triggered a blinding strobe light set in the rear bumper. Another switch changed the way the tail lights looked. They were all intended to discourage pursuit. He had just enough presence of mind to press the red alert button and then his door was yanked open and he was smacked across the face with a gun of some sort.
This couldn't be happening. Cory Adams stared up at a tall man wrapped in a white raincoat with a face entirely hidden behind a full-head white cloth mask and topped with a white fedora. Even the hands were concealed behind white cotton gloves so no skin showed anywhere.
In that situation, Cory froze motionless and could not have acted no matter what. He had no idea what to say, what to try. He had never been held up before. He had never even been in a fistfight, his life had been as peaceful as anyone could have wanted. Cory stared at the gun pointed in his face and vaguely realized it was not a normal firearm. The weapon had a long flaring rubber muzzle like a fire extinguisher and there were two metal canisters the size of bullets fastened in front of the grip. What the hell? A gush of stinging white vapor spewed from the weapon right into his face and that was the last he remembered.
( the rest of the story )
