Just like old times

Clark lay across the couch watching something on TV when there was an abrupt knock on the door. The knock was so hard, loud and sudden that it startled him, almost causing him to jump out of his position.

“Who the hell is it?” He wasn't expecting anybody to come by, and while he was expecting a package from Amazon, it wasn't supposed to arrive for a few days, besides it was after 8:00 in the evening.

“Jehovah Witnesses,” a decidedly female voice spoke through the door, “I'm just making just a brief visit to share an important message with you...”

“I'm not interested, now go away!”

“We'll just take a few minutes of your time.”

“You've already taken up enough of my time,” Clark flung the door open, and instead of looking at the lone woman who was standing there, he looked at the NO SOLICITATING sign on the door, he read to her like he was reading to a child. “Before you knock on my door please note: this home charges $50.00 per minute to listen to sales pitches & religious messages or to take surveys. This fee is payable in advance--.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah.”

“Wait a minute,” Clark looked around, noticing that there was just the single girl, “don't you people come around in groups so you can back one another up or something, not to mention at some point in the middle of the day?”

“Those people do,” the woman rolled her eyes, “but I'm not one of them.”

“Well,” Clark got a good look at the woman as he studied the girl's features; She appeared to be in her mid-twenties with short dirty-blonde hair that almost touched her shoulders, a blue button down shirt that was open at the top showing her cleavage, and a piece of costume jewelry that hung around her neck, and her lips were a light shade of red. The near sensuality of her look was certainly not the look of a Jehovah's witness, and she appeared a bit old for the local College. Then there was the costume jewelry, something about it felt familiar, but he couldn't place why. “You certainly don't look like one of them. You're not from the local College here to take one of those silly survey, are you? Because if you are...” Clark pointed to the sign, “...this still applies.”

“Not from the College,”

“Then what brings you to my door,” Clark looked at the clock on his cellphone, “at 8:00pm?”

“Clark, it's me.” The woman said like he was supposed to instantly recognize her. She played with the piece of costume jewelry as if doing so would reveal who she was. “Hello!”

Now Clark was confused. “And you are--?”

“Rachael Collins,” said the woman, “we were childhood friends, grew up together, lived right next door to one another.”

“Oh. Rachael, it's been a couple of years since we last talked.” Memories of her raced back into his mind like a flood. “But who's counting how long it's been.”

“10 to be exact,” Rachael sighed, “10 long, lonely, miserable years.”

Clark realized that Rachael has been counting, and decided to change the subject. “So, what brings you here?”

“We reconnected on Facebook and have been talking for the past few weeks,”

“Yes we have,” Clark agreed, “and?”

“And I do have pictures of myself up on my profile,” Rachael said as if 2 or 3 selfies were going to do her justice and make him instantly recognize her.

“Yeah, I wasn't thinking,”

“And you did say that I can come around and visit any time I want,”

“I did say that,” Clark frowned, “but you should have given me a head's up on your arrival,”

“I texted your phone number 5 times,”

“Oh,” Clark looked at his phone, there were several text messages from Rachael, “I put my phone on silent mode for a while,”

“I see,” Rachael nervously looked around outside, “can I come inside?”

“Of course,” Clark let Rachael inside and closed the door behind her. “You changed a lot from the last time I saw you; which you had short hair.”

“Hair's still short.”

“I mean military cut short.”

“It was just a stage I grew out of,”

“You had braces on your teeth.”

Rachael let out a laugh. “Remember our first kiss?”

“We both learned that bubble gum and braces don't mix,” Clark chuckled.

“I was mad at you for a week,” Rachael laughed, again she played with the costume jewelry ring.

“I remember giving you that,” Clark held the cheap little ring in his hand, “it was the day you moved, I went to the local thrift store to get it and picked it out.”

“You called it your pre-engagement engagement ring,”

“I did, didn't I?”

“After that I left. But you promised to keep in touch.”

“I tried to,”

“For a while, yes,” Rachael agreed, “that is true.”

“The problem with long distance relationships is that they tend to die out. And I was in a bad position here.”

“Hey, I didn't come to Philly from New York to find out why we lost contact,”

“Hope not, because we could have covered that on Facebook,”

“Yeah,” then Rachael fell silent.

“OK,” Clark wondered, “so why did you come here?”

“I'm in trouble,”

“If it's money you need, you came to the wrong person,”

“It's not money,”

“Just tell me what it is.”

“I'm getting married,”

“I don't know whether to congratulate you or cry.”

“OR,” Rachael said, “you could help me get out of it.”

“Easy solution. Where you're supposed to say “I do” instead say “I don't”.”

“It's not that simple,”

“Or just be a no-show at the wedding, that way you don't have to worry about making that choice.”

“Clark, I have to marry this woman.”

“W-woman?” Clark nearly passed out. “You're marrying a woman?”

“It's not of my choice Clark, I'm being forced to marry her.”

“You're saying that like something bad will happen if you don't.”

“If I don't marry her, they'll kill Dawn!” Rachael cried out.

“Dawn, your 8 year old sister,”

“She's 18 now.”

“And who exactly is they?”

“Doniela Cardioni.”

“Cardioni?” Clark parroted. “They're one of the biggest crime families in New York, Doniela is going on trial for murder next week. How pray tell did you get in trouble with them?”

“I know Doniela is going on trial for murder, that's why they're going to kill Dawn if I don't marry her.”

“Please make what you just said make sense.”

“Doniela executed some man behind the theater, of which I was the only witness.”

“Theaters have security cameras all around,”

“All of the information from those cameras were either wiped or corrupted,” Rachael held up her cellphone, “except for one source. I forwarded a copy to the investigating officer. But Doniela found out about it and it too was mysteriously deleted.”

“So the only existing proof that she killed the guy in on your cellphone.”

“Not any more,” Rachael said, “I moved it to a flash-drive, and put the flash-drive in a safety deposit box until the day it can be presented at the trial.”

“And how does your being forced to marry her fit into all of this?”

“If I'm married to her, the court can't make me testify against her, because by that time I will be her wife.”

“While it's true the court can't force you to testify against Doniela if you're legally married to her, it can't stop you from volunteering the information.”

“I get that, you get that, but she doesn't.”

“And to them threatening to kill Dawn is a sort of an insurance policy against that,” Clark was beginning to understand, “again the easy solution is to get Dawn out of harm's way. Unless they have her.”

“They've got her locked up somewhere on the Cardioni estate, and plan on holding her until Doniela is cleared of all charges.”

“Why come to me? It's a bad situation, I know. But my name's Clark Johnson, not Clark Kent. I can't just go flying into the estate like I'm Superman and save the day.”

“I... really wasn't expecting you to do anything,”

“This is going to take some careful planning,” Clark went to his computer and called up a satellite map app, “do you know where about the estate is on the map.”

“I know exactly where it is,” Rachael made a few motions on the map's image, and zoomed right into the Cardioni estate, where it showed live images of what was going on at the estate.

Clark noticed a large concentration of big men with guns. He zoomed in on the men, behind them was a small house where it would appear Dawn was being held prisoner. “Hello Dawn; help is on the way.”

“Help? How? How do you plan on getting past those armed guards, let alone onto the estate?”

“I think you can help me out with that one.”

“Help you?” Rachael cried out but got no answer. “How?”

The next morning, Clark and Rachael stood outside a large ornate gate that was closed and locked. Behind it was a large, sprawling estate.

“Please tell me how this is going to work again?” Rachael fumed. “You were supposed to help me get out of marrying this woman who I completely hate, by the way. NOT talk me into actually marring her.”

“You're only supposed to make her think you're going to marry her. Meanwhile, with me going in as some sort of wedding planner, it gives me the freedom to move around the estate without much suspicion.”

“This sounds like one of those war-games we used to play as kids with the other kids in the neighborhood. When we were done, we'd all gather at Santucci's Grill to watch him chop up the meat for our cheese-steaks.”

“We did do that,” Clark smiled reminiscently, “didn't we?”

“Reality check, if the Santucci on the other side of that gate gets a hold of you, it won't be cheese-steak meat he'll be chopping up!”

“OK,” Clark agreed, “so I'll avoid Santucci.”

“Clark, it's not a joke, my sister's life is at stake,” Rachael noticed the basket of brownies that Clark was holding, she was tempted to take one, “what are these for?”

“I wouldn't eat that if I were you,” Clark said as Rachael picked one out of the basket.

“Why not?”

“Because I ground up a whole bottle of sleeping pills into the mix,”

“Oh,” Rachael quickly put the brownie down, “you know I'm a brownie freak!”

“I know, you like them so much you wanted them to be available at the wedding reception.”

“I did?” Rachael's nose wrinkled, then it dawned on her. “Oh, I did.”

“While you're “making amends” with dear Doniela, with me as a welcome visitor, I'll be free to wander around giving out samples to all of the guards. Each delectable brownie has enough sleeping pills in them to knock out a horse.”

Rachael looked up to see a large looking guard coming out from his security station.

“Rachael Collins, I'm here to see Doniela Cardioni, I know I'm not expected, but I was hoping to see her anyway.”

There was a brief conversation with Doniela and the gate security guard. “Both of you follow me.”

Doniela was a large built woman with long wavy black hair and an olive complexion, she moved towards Rachael with her arms wide open and a smile on her face. “Rachael, I'm so glad you've come to your senses.”

“Of course I have,” Rachael barely allowed Doniela to kiss her.

“And who is this with you?” Doniela's nose wrinkled up at the sight of Clark.

“This is Clark, I've hired him as a sort of a wedding planner.”

“I see,” Doniela said with disdain.

“I was hoping I would be allowed to take a look around the grounds, so that I can scope out a place for the ceremony,”

“Of course,” Doniela smirked, then looked over to the guard who was still there, “Santucci, let the other guards know that this man is free to do whatever he needs to do on the grounds.”

“Will do,”

“Oh, I made some special brownies for you and the other guards,” Clark held out the basket of brownies to Santucci, “have one.”

“Thank you, I'll wait until I get back to my post and eat it after I tell the others.”

“You do just that.” Clark wandered out to the grounds where the small little house sat towards the back of the grounds, where no less than five guards were watching it from several angles.

“This area is off limits,” one of the guards called out.

“I'm the wedding planner, I was told that I could go anywhere on the grounds to scope out spots for the wedding and ceremony.”

“We know who you are, just that this little house is not included in your little tour,”

“OK.” Clark quickly looked through the window, where he could see Dawn tied to a chair. She noticed him, he knew she did from the faint look of recognition she gave. His finger shot up to his lips as he raised the basket. “Almost forgot. I've got brownies for everybody.”

All five of the guards grabbed one. “Aren't you going to have one with us?”

“Of course,” Clark felt around for the one that had a toothpick sticking out of it, as it was the one which didn't have the sleeping pills mixed in, he pulled it out, held it to his mouth and bit into it.

When the guards noticed that Clark had eaten his without ill effect, they began to scoff theirs, there were so many sleeping pills mixed in them that the effect was almost instantaneous.

“Which one has the keys?” Clark asked more himself as he felt around for a set of keys. He finally found what he was looking for. He opened the door and pulled off the gag that was in Dawn's mouth, then began to undo the handcuffs that cuffed her to the chair.

“Clark,” Dawn almost yelled.

“Quiet, and let's get you out of here,” Clark whispered, “we just got lucky that these guys were gullible enough to eat these brownies.”

Rachael watched from the window as Clark lead Dawn out the front gate towards his car that was a little down the road, she then turned to Doniela. “Listen, I'm only here briefly to let you know that I will cooperate with you. I just wanted to know that Dawn's safe.”

“She's perfectly fine, I'll take you to her if you want.”

“That won't be necessary,” Rachael's phone rang, it was Clark's number, “I need to take this.”

“Take your time.” As Rachael talked with Clark, she walked towards the car.

Just a few hours later, Clark sat with Rachael at the prosecutor's office, now able to present the contents of the flash-drive to the prosecutor. The image of Doniela clearly killing someone was unmistakable.

“Well, it looks like we have undeniable evidence of Doniela Cardioni committing murder in the first degree, with this evidence alone we'll be able to put her away for a long time, and we can present this at her trial, which will be this coming Tuesday.” The prosecutor waved the flash-drive in the air. “But tell me why didn't you get this to me earlier?”

“She tried to force me to marry her.”

“Ah, I see, trying to use the spousal loophole, doesn't work the way some people think it does.”

“I just need someone to keep an eye on Dawn until the trial's over.”

“I can take care of myself!” Dawn whined.

“Says a girl we just had to come to the rescue of!” Rachael teased. “Besides, it's only for a few days, then we'll be leaving New York for good.”

“Where will you be moving to this time,” Clark groaned.

“Well,” Rachael smiled, “I noticed that the apartment next to yours is available to rent.”

Clark smiled back. “When the trial's over, we can talk with the property manager, I'm sure we can work something out.”

“I'm sure we can too,” Rachael smiled, because that's how they began, as neighbors living next door to one another, living life, creating memories that only they would understand and appreciate.

“It will be just like old times," Clark smiled at the prospect.

“I wouldn't go that far,” Rachael responded, “and we won't be able to pick up where we left off, we'll have to start off fresh, and.....”