MAN FROM TOMORROW (EPISODE 7)

Anita looked around, trying to make up her mind. Then gazed backed to the man- the one who drove the truck that almost hit her- and stepped up onto the kerb. The look he gave her was one she knew well. It was the look her boyfriend had given her minutes before inside the coffee shop. A look of expectancy, a pleading look that asked her to comply with his request. For a moment she believed him- maybe, she should go to the hospital may be where she needed to be. Wouldn’t it be quiet there?

It only took half a second to change her mind. She needed to leave, now! and the hospital wasn’t where she needed to go. Where she did need to go, however, still remained a mystery. She thanked the driver for his thoughtfulness. Before he could respond, she rushed back into the crowd that had gathered by the road. Even if he had said something, it would have gotten lost in the sound of everyone else’s muttering. Plus, Anita was no longer listening.

Though her destination remained unclear, the tag in her pocket felt like hot coal. It made her mind focus on one terrifying fact: She should be dead.

Someone had saved her. But who?

Anita thought the tag was in some way a relic of the man who saved her, she just didn’t know who.

***

Martin Phillips was a man of many talents. The downside to that was he expected way too much of himself, and thus, especially as of late, let himself down. But he knew that mental exhaustion was playing a large role in what he saw as not only underperformance, but failure. The thought of being a failure made him miserable, a thought he couldn’t share with anyone else.

For the last few days, he was beginning to believe it would be the end of his career. Weeks before that, he was believing it was the end of his life. He hadn’t yet been able to decide which was worse, or if he would survive the possibility of them both being the truth. If he was older, neither possibilities would have bothered him, but he was the young age of thirty-seven. Before he’d began to think of himself as a failure, he had neared the status of legend amongst his peers, superiors, and co-workers.

He had the pleasure of working as an agent for the FBI. That alone was a feat that anyone would be proud of, and he was.  There wasn’t a day on the force that he wasn’t immensely proud of his position. He jumped to his feet in panic and surprise when the secretary chimed in on the speakerphone.

"Martin, the Director is ready to speak with you.” Her voice would have been pleasant on any other day. He lifted his head and looked at the black speakerphone sitting on his desk. The thought of grabbing it and throwing it from the desk seemed appealing. Summoning all his self-control, he grumbled to himself reaching for the phone and held the button down. He summoned the most pleasant voice he could.

“I’ll be right in.”

(To Be Continued Tomorrow…..)