The Time Stone, Third Edition (Extended Version)

Tina sits in a local coffee shop on the corner of Main Street and Ester Avenue across from the train station. She talked herself into a free cup of coffee from a handsome bachelor who talked to her for a quick moment before heading off to an important business meeting. He left his card and number with her, “Mark Taft, Esq. Attorney and Counselor at Law”; she read it and sighed thinking “no thanks.”She thought to herself that “the last time I saw an attorney I was hauled off in shackles and tossed in the lock up.” She tossed the card and sipped her latte, awaiting her partner in crime who has gone across the street to the train station to try to barter tickets with an antique ring that Tina had stolen from the second-hand store.

Tina looks around the coffee shop observing a typical array of urbanites enjoying their morning beverages. She sipped her coffee and then nearly choked as she saw the man in the dark suit she remembered from the bar approaching her. “How did he get here?” She wondered as he continued to approach in the crowded room unseen and unnoticed by the busy people with their own lives. He is tall, thin, and thirty feet away, He walks slowly in what appeared to be an endless distance to her as time seemed all too slow to her as her jaw dropped and she reached for the chair behind her and started to rise, trying to scream, but all that came out is a slight fearful whimper as she acted on her natural instinct to get away. He is familiar as if she has seen him before, but she felt a strange aura of something not quite right and felt the need to run. The chair moved against the hard wood floor making a screeching sound that startled her and she started to move and turn to it and then quickly turns back to find the man standing right in front of her as she struggled to catch her breath. She fell back. The man reached out to her, but someone else reached out to her from behind and grabbed her hand pulling her back. “Come on!” Says James, and they were running out the door hand in hand. “What is that?” James asks outside.

“I wish I knew,” Tina replies. “I think he found us … it’s him. The guy I told you about at the biker bar.”

“Your father or the one who you say looks like him?” asks James.

She nodded frantically in response. “What the hell is going on here? Why did he come after me? How did he find us?”

“Good questions, but we will find out the answers. Why were you running instead of facing him?” James asks.

“I just felt a gut instinct. I never knew my father, but heard some horrible things. It’s a super long story, James. Let’s get to the train station. Did you get the tickets?” asks Tina.

“Yeah, about that, I couldn’t get the tickets” says James.

“What? I told you…”Tina scolded, but stops her so as not to draw too much attention to them.

“They wouldn’t take the ring you gave me. Plus I saw some cops looking around and they have wanted posters with our photos on them and a photo of that security guard from the museum. We’re wanted for murder.” James sheepishly turns trying to hide his frightened look.

“Did you say we are accused of the murder of that security guard?” Tina looks at her colleague in shock.

“Just says murder, but we can imagine. This is absolutely crazy. They’re trying to pin something big on us.” James appeared bewildered.

“We’ll have to figure this out to clear our names. Any luck even scalping some tickets or thieving them?” Tina inquired.

“No.” James uttered skeptically.

“Great do I have to do everything in this relationship?” yells Tina.

“Hey I got us out of jail didn’t I…” he stops short noticing her humor, “since when did we become engaged? “He joked.

“Yeah right,” she smiles at the ground and laughs. “Don’t worry bud; I’ll get us a way out of town. I think I know just the place.” Tina looks up and smiles as she pointed James towards the tall glistening towers under a roaring 747 flying overhead and both knew she meant, The Chronix Bay City Airport. “It’s only two miles away.”

“OK, let’s hail a cab.” He says.