Imagine

Jason shivered inside as the arctic winds howled by. A few hundred feet away, the wind spun into a small twister, creating a funnel of snow. It lasted only an instant, but that would have been long enough to knock him off his feet and bite him with fangs of frigid air.

“Here is your Irish coffee, sir,” said Jenny, the bartender.

Jason remembered where he was and met Jenny’s eyes with a smile.

“Thank you, Jenny,” he said.

“I don’t get many requests for something hot,” said Jenny.

Jason looked around at the out door tiki bar. Hawaii was the perfect escape from the frozen ice fields. He felt his hair move slightly, as if blown by a distant wind that only he could feel.

“I am haunted by memories of a very cold place,” he told Jenny. “But, with your help, I am leaving it all behind.”

The wind raised its voice in protest, but Jason ignored it. The less he thought about the wind, the less he accepted his isolation in the ice fields, the more he could accept his presence in Hawaii, dressed as a tourist, sweating pleasantly in the shade of the bar’s canopy.

Jason smiled. He had escaped the assasins and the brutal cold, and now he could enjoy a rewarding vacation. He raised his glass to toast Michael. He was the best partner Jason had ever worked with. Jason fought away a frown at the memory of Michael falling into the river after being shot. His body broke through the ice and he was wisked away before Jason could move to help. Jason was able to gun down Michael’s shooter, and that would have to be enough.

Something familiar echoed in the on the wind as it receded into memory, holding Jason in the arctic as he sipped his hot coffee and whiskey. He was almost free, almost completely in the middle of the Pacific, but he couldn’t quite leave the frozen lands.

Jason cocked his head when he heard the sound again. He was on the downhill side of his visualize teleport, but he could always go back. The wind was almost gone from his head when he recognized Michael’s voice cutting through the arctic air.

Jason didn’t think twice and closed his eyes tight, imagining, remembering the sub-zero air that cut his lungs and bruised his body. He had left a generous tip for Jenny, but she would not remember him as anything more than a vague blur of a customer. The coffee had helped, though.

When he opened his eyes, he was smiling. The glaring white made him blink rapidly, until his eyes adjusted. He was right where he left, but this time, he could see Michael on his knees, hugging himself desparately as his wet clothes encased him in ice.

Jason ran to his partner.

“Don’t worry buddy, we are getting out of here,” Jason told Michael.

“Make it quick,” said Michael in a trembling voice. “My vest stopped the bullet, but the ice water is killing me.”

“I was just in Hawaii,” said Jason. “Care to join me?”

“No, New York,” said Michael. “We need to see Melinda.”

“Yes, Melinda,” said Jason. “I forgot. Let’s go see Melinda.”
“The hotel room?” asked Michael. He was barely able to form the words.

“No, Harrison’s basement,” said Jason.

“I hate Harrison,” stuttered Michael.

“Yes, but we pay him well for his loyalty. Besides, he knows about hypothermia, and I will need help pulling you back from the edge of death,”

Michael shrugged. “Harrison’s it is.”

Together, they imagined Harrison’s basement, clean, warm, lit by a single nightlight plugged into the wall. Soon, they would be there. Soon, the artic wind would howl over frozen corpses and bury all evidence that Jason and Michael were ever present. Soon, Jason would be pacing as Harrison warmed Michael back to life in a tub of luke warm water.