Matthew Nath – Author

This Could Be Happening Now…

Reddit YouTube

Chapter 5

	“Sorry, that was kind of a strange tangent,” Tyler said.

	Jim felt himself jerked out of Tyler’s life and back into the real world.  Tyler was an excellent story teller and Jim felt himself drawn more deeply in with each word he spoke.  “No, not a problem at all.  You are doing great and seem to have lead a very interesting family history.”

	“That’s nothing, just you wait,” Tyler replied.  “You want me to keep going?”  Jim motioned with his hand that he please continue.

	Just as Tyler was about to speak, Jim’s radio chirped to life with Nathan’s voice “Come in, Jim, are ya there?”

	“Yeah I’m here, one second,” Jim replied.  He motioned a finger to Tyler as he rose and stepped into the hallway.  Once in the hall he spoke again to his mic, saying, “Alright, Nate, go ahead.”

	“I’m on the way to look at that van and I was just wondering something,” Nathan said.

	Jim was a little suspicious as he answered, “What was that?”

	“Alright, how do you explain Jamie Lannister?  Dude has five, almost six seasons of an awesome redemption arc building, right?  And then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, he just decides to forget all that character growth and go back for Cersei? How do you explain that?”

	Jim rolled his eyes.  They had a running discussion about the terrible ending of Game of Thrones. Nathan seemed to have taken on some Quixotic mission to convince Jim that a better, more complete ending is coming once the books are finally out.  Jim was on the side that believed that the TV series ending was THE ending and that he’s dreaming if he ever believes those books will be published.  “How do I explain the dude who’s one character flaw is his sister, falling for his sister?  Doesn’t seem tough to me.”

	“But why make him go through all that stuff?  Why make him fall in love with Brienne, show her compassion, knight her, just to leave it all?  The showrunners think we need ANOTHER sad ending.  Would it have killed them to have given us one hopeful character?”

	“I don’t know man, maybe it would have.  Maybe that was their only direction from GRRM, that all of the characters need to have tragic deaths.”

	“Now that you say it, that does make the most sense, doesn’t it,” Nathan said.  After a short pause he said, “You doing ok there?”

	Jim smiled and replied, “Yes I am darling.  Thanks for checking.  It’s cute when you worry.”

	“Har har,” Nathan said sarcastically.  “I just really don’t have it in me to train another rookie. I mean, you are putting me through hell with those damn painted nails, but still.  After all the crap you put me through, I finally got your mouth mostly in check, so I can’t go losing you now just because I failed to radio.”

	“Nah, I’m good man,” Jim replied more earnestly.  “How are you doing?”

	“All good out here,” Nathan said.  “Surprisingly quiet night so far, but I feel like something is in the air.  I think it might be a busy one.”

	“We’ll see I guess.”  Jim was about to sign off when he remembered something.  “Hey what kind of vehicle are you going to again?  What do we know about it?”

	“Nothing much,” Nathan said.  Jim heard papers rustling and Nathan continued, “black van, no plates, parked on Elm and Carol.”

	“That’s just a few blocks from the place we picked up Tyler from, right?  The Dreyfus’ place?”  Jim could feel his anger rising at the thought of Mike.

	“Yeah, why?  You think the kid has something to do with the van?” Nathan asked

	“I’m not sure, just look closely and let me know if you find a zip drive,” Jim said.  His thoughts were filled with getting revenge on Mike.  Going in and placing him under arrest once they had that drive.

	“Uh,” Nathan replied.  “OK, why?”  Jim could tell he was confused.

	“Just a hunch,” Jim said.  “Trust me.”

	“OK, partner,” Nathan said.

	“I’m going to get back into my interview, you drive safe,” Jim said. Signing off.

	Nathan signed off his radio and put it on the receiver of his car.  He was somewhat concerned at the tone of Jim’s voice.  He tried to listen to these concerns, but couldn’t make anything out of it right now.  It was always harder when he was at a distance.  Nathan shook the thoughts off and pushed play on his CD player, resuming the book he’d been listening to.  Jim laughed at it, but Nathan found a series of books he loved.  It was written for young adults, but Nathan found himself connecting with the main character and found it almost inspiring to listen to as he was driving.

	The series followed a paladin as he roamed the countryside, fighting demons, helping the innocent, and just generally being awesome.  It was a religious series with lots of mentions of God and the paladin was a Christian Warrior empowered for battle by Christ and covered with the Armor of God.  Nathan felt like that sometimes as well.  Nathan listened as the story continued:

	Sir George crested the hill that looked over his hamlet.  It was really just a small collection of houses guarded by a 6 foot high fence.  Probably about 25 huts in all for people to live, plus the church, the inn, and the market.  All said, Sir George had 148 neighbors he could call family.  George did find it somewhat funny that he considered it his hamlet.  He knew that he wasn’t alone in his feelings.  He trusted there were several more men in the hamlet who would leap to its defense from any attack.  He felt that he was one of the best prepared, but could at a moment’s call have a squad of men around him.

	He inhaled the cool, crisp air as he galloped his horse down the hill.  “Well, Dusty, let’s see what sort of mischief is before us today”…