Page 13 of Kaine

I’m transfixed on the screen, holding my breath as the camera zooms close up on her face. Her cheek is still bruised, but it is fading into the yellow-green hue of the final healing stages. But I barely notice it. All I see are her plump cherry red lips and her creamy porcelain skin. Her eyes are bright and alive as she prepares to speak, a look that lights a spark inside me that I didn’t realize has lain dormant for as long as I can remember.

“Well, there is ONE thing I was hoping your viewers could help me with.” She speaks in her silky sweet voice.

“Anything!” The hosts look excited, they seem to be prepared for what she is going to say. I can’t imagine what it is going to be, but I don’t care. I just want to hear her speak again.

“Well, as you know, I probably would NOT be sitting here today, if it weren’t for the man who risked his own life to save me.”

Oh, no.

I bite my lip, hoping I am wrong about what I predict is about to happen.

“Well, as you can imagine, I would dearly love to thank him for saving me from my attackers, making sure I was taken to the hospital and taken care of, as well as... this you probably don’t know from the news stories, but he also paid for my hospital stay and treatment. 100%”

The female host looks about ready to leap out of her chair in suspense. I feel like I’m about to throw up. “Wow, he’s a real hero! You couldn’t get him to come today? We’d love to interview him, he sounds like a man who knows how to defend himself... and his loved ones.” The words make me swallow hard.

“That’s just it,” Jade slides to the edge of her seat, her hand waving in the air, her voice bright and cheerful – so different to the soft whimpers I heard from her that first day I met her. No, this is how she should sound, this is a woman who is filled with life. “I don’t know who he is!”

“NO! You don’t? How can that be?” The host plays the devil’s advocate, and I want to strangle her.

“He was wearing a grey hoodie when I first saw him before I fainted, and the nurses and doctors at the hospital told me that he wore the hoodie hiding his face the entire time he was there. And no one knows his real name, we just know him as ‘Mr. K.’”

“Fuck.” I say to the empty room.

“And now all I want to do is to be able to thank him. Thank him for saving my life.”

She turns to face the camera right on. It focuses unmoving on her doll-like features. Her eyes widen and her face opens like a blossom.

“Please. If anyone out there has any information on who this hooded hero is that saved me, please get in touch with me. Please. If you were in my position, you’d want to be able to thank your guardian angel as well. And that’s what he is. People like this need to be acknowledged and recognized as heroes. Please help me find him.”

Her mouth trembles a bit, and her eyes sparkle with tears threatening to spill out onto her bone china white cheeks.

She is good. I am almost inclined to give her information to find me myself.

“Ugh,” my head falls into my hands. It’s the first time I’ve torn my eyes from the screen. This is not good. This is going to fuck with the perfect harmony I prefer my life to exist in.

I force myself to lift my eyes back to the screen and watch the rest of the interview.

“...so you’ve got all the information that Jade has on her hooded hero. Come on, New York! Let’s reunite this lovely woman with her savior. You can contact us on...”

The hosts jarring voice fades into the background as I watch Jade wave and smile at the camera.

“What’ve you done now, Kaine?” I groan and grab my towel and retreat to the showers, bracing for what the day is going to bring. As if I don’t already have enough to deal with.

The phone rings as I strip my body of my clothes and prepare to step under the steaming hot water.

“What?” I answer, my voice accurately displaying the gruffness of my mood.

“Oh. So, you’ve heard,” Xavier’s voice echoes in the shower chamber, the phone on speaker.

“About what? The citywide search for a guy in a hoodie fitting my exact description?”

He is quiet. I know he’s grinning.

“Shut the fuck up,” I say as I duck my head under the water, feeling it open the pores in my scalp.

“What? I said nothing.”

“It’s when you’re quiet that I’m most afraid. What am I going to do?”