A Perfect Player -C7

CHAPTER 7

It would be an important event I was going to play with Ethan. The bank was going to close at five. I was racing my jeep to the bank trying to heed the time and at the same time I was going to change the identity with him at the washroom. It had to simply work without any flaws. Any flaw would result one of us to have instant conversation with God. This was going to be hard but we did not seem to have any choice in choosing. The traffic light seemed to be in my favour, green light throughput each junction of the road. I stalled my jeep just outside the bank. I stride into the bank scanning every corner for Ethan. He was sitting at the red couch reading the Gerald’s Times newspaper. I gave him an eye contact to head down to the washroom. I entered one of the cubicle scanning the whole area to ensure there was no camera or stuffs. I got dressed to what Ethan was wearing and put on his identical look skin onto my face.

As I walked out of the cubicle he was me he was dressed looking alike. I passed him the key and card. I walked out of the cubicle first and sat on the couch. He was led to a private room to do the money banking in. In the private room, he was transferring the data information of the money into his watch as if he was just reading time from it. I was reading the newspapers and scanning the surrounding. I was sending instant message to Ethan using my watch too. He was tapping the authorisation card and key onto his belt. He banked in the money and walked out of the private room and headed to the washroom. I got my identity back in no time. I headed back to the office and put the card and key on my dad’s office table. He had already headed home but I could not just logged into his computer as he had camera installed in his room. As I walked out of his room, I took picture of his room and the whole office layout.

I drove back to my house with the company of the music song played by Liz Phair “Why can’t I?” The song was cool for driving by the road. I reached home parking my jeep at the usual garage. I unlocked the timber door to my house. It was indeed a busy and tiring day. I decided to make a phone call to order Chinese food delivery of the seafood noodle. I took a warm shower thoroughly to clear my mind. I got out from the shower wearing a blue cotton shirt with a pair of Bermudas. I went on to sit on the couch and lay there waiting for my food to be delivered.

My eyelids were heavy till they were slowly shut. I was sitting on a hilltop all by myself. There was little yellow flowers blooming as they are snow-capped mountain peaks in distance and down below valley was all green and dotted with little houses. There was pretty meadow and sat down taking in the scenery. As I slowly drawn to the place I was in, out of the blue, there was the ringing of the door bell. I was awakened promptly. I walked toward the door to open the door. The delivery man for the Chinese food was there.

“50 bucks sir,” the man asked.

“Here you go thanks.” I replied.

I took the food and closed the door slowly. I strolled toward the dining table and took the chopsticks and open the food packet. The aroma of the food was pretty appetizing and as you first tasted it, it was so scrumptious. The seafood which was part of the noodle was very fresh too. I finished the food in a short time. I closed the food packet and aimed at the rubbish bin at the kitchen before I threw like throwing a basketball to a net.

I walked toward my laptop and switched it on waiting to observe the office layout. I was devising a flawless plan to enter into the office and stealing the information and took it as evidence. I was thinking of entering the office from the top through the air con ducts as there’s where the security was less but at the same I knew there would be laser detecting device in the air con duct too. I needed a partner on the mission. I had solved the problem of the CCTV cameras in the office. I would use the computer effect to make record of the office and replayed it in the office video of the camera. Ethan could play the double identity with me to decrease the doubt of me in my dad’s office stealing information. I was thinking maybe there was no need for me to climb from the air con duct. I would just walk in from the front door. The camera would rotate in a few angles while I could ask Ethan to stay put in the washroom. I would use the laptop to connect with the network cameras system of the office and replayed the recorded situation of the office that I took today.

With that, I had even come to a decision that I would make use of the following Saturday when he would fly to Paris to take a break from work. He led on a luxurious life since young. He was indeed a very successful man but not a righteous man that did all the crimes. I sent message to Ethan telling him all the plans I had devised. He replied without hesitation agreeing to my plans. I sauntered toward my bedroom to my bed. I lay on the comfy bed with the blanket that covered to top half of my body. I was like a child all of the sudden awaiting for the sleep to come upon me. My mind was too weary to think of other issues after a long working brainstorming day. I was lying in the bed and in no time I was led to a dream world of my own gradually. I had an indeed good sleep till morning I was awaken by the ringing alarm clock. I clicked the remote control to open up the curtains of my room’s window.

The sun rose in a pool of crimson and gold, spilling light over the nearby trees bringing them to life. I went to take a cold morning shower getting dressed to my formal wear with a brilliant necktie, shining pin were flamboyant in their effect. I opened the door and I felt the cool morning breeze brushing through my body welcoming me to a brand new day ahead. I got onto my jeep and drove to the nearby city to the prominent Starbucks to get a cup of cappuccino and a piece of cheese cake. I got back into my jeep and drove to the office. The car parks were fully parked with cars till I had to drive around the car park a few time before I got a vacant car parking lot for me to stall my jeep. I took the elevator to the office tower. The office was flooded with usual dad’s working stuff. I got used the large crowds since young. I walked into my office closing the door behind me shutting myself to have some peace finally from the crowd outside. I drank the beautifully brew cup of cappuccino and ate the piece of cheese cake.

“Sorry, that I did not knock the door. I just want to praise you for the fast job you did for me. I have to go meet the client now. See you around, son.” My dad began.

“No worry,” I replied as he closed the door.

I was enjoying the breathtaking view of the city of buildings. I logged onto the internet and decided to hack into my dad’s system since he was not around. I also sent message to Ethan asking him to shut the security system down of my office.

“I needed at least ten minutes before I could do that. Be careful,” Ethan replied.
I calculated the time to ten minutes before I begin my action on hacking. As the time strike ten minutes after, I began on my hacking immediately. I managed to hack to the clients’ list of my dad and downloaded all the information to my watch.

“You got exactly five minute to download the information before the security system recovered.” Ethan sent me the message.
Time was ticking away fast while I was trying to download the system.

“Target is coming back to the office in 50 yards away from his office room.” Ethan sent me another message.
I was not giving up as I was just one minute away from finished downloading.

“Stop what you are doing, he’s was just outside the door of your office.” Message written in the watch.
As I heard the turning of the door knob of my door, I had just finished downloading and I switched the internet to a movie watching and erasing all the information and logged in network from my computer.

“Max, I forgot to tell you that I was going to the golf course tonight. Do you want to join me?” my dad opened the door and began.

“Sorry dad, I had a basketball game to catch tonight on TV.” I replied.

“What are you doing before I come in?” My dad asked.

“Watching a movie, How to lose a guy in ten days.” I replied calmly.

“I see, enjoy your movie.” With that my dad walked out of my office.

I felt a sense of relief as my dad ambled out of the room. Ethan hailed a sigh of relief when I sent him the message I was all right. I sent him all the information I had gathered from the hacking to him without more ado.
An incoming icon popped out giving me the knowledge that there was incoming email.
When I opened the email, it was written;
Dear Max,
Hwo aer you? I misi you so much. I hope you aer doning all right. Take crae of yuosrelf.
C.

I was confused by the email initially but however in the end I figured out this letter was written in this manner in purpose to distract other people from reading this email. I presumed the email was from Claire.

The email was supposed to be;
Dear Max,
How are you? I miss you so much. I hope you are doing all right. Take care of yourself.
C.

I replied the email;
Dear C.,
I’m doning all right. You do need to wrroy about me. It’s tmie for you ot og back ot wehre you are form.
It si much sefar. Tahnks fro craing fro me. Take crae of yuosrelf too.
Max.

This was the last email I sent before I logged out of the computer. I stride toward the couch in my office and lay on the couch like a small boy lying on the bed with both arms cross below my head letting time slipped past gradually. I was pondering on whether I should look for a psychiatrist to heal my mind as right now I felt so loss. This time round I came to a decision that my heart would determine on whether I should go and the answer from my heart was yes I should go. I took a newspaper from the table and started to browse for a psychiatrist I would visit. There was this psychiatrist from Norway who recovered from a close shave from snow slide as she went for sky skiing that caught my attention. I picked up a nearby phone and decided to make an appointment with her later in the evening.

“Hi this is Andie Anderson clinic, how can I help you?” Andie greeted from the other line.

“Hi, my name is Max McGuire. I was hoping to have an appointment with you this evening, is it possible?” I asked.

“Mr McGuire, you can drop by this evening at Mabel’s Street, 21. No worry, I have filled you into the slot for the last appointment for the day.” Andie replied.
I hung up the phone with my jacket held on one hand walking toward my dad’s office. I knocked on his door.

“Max, you looked very tired. How can I help you?” My dad asked.

“Dad I was hoping I could get off from work an hour earlier as I have an appointment with my psychiatrist. I made up my mind to see one to get better and move on as I can barely sleep lately.” I asked politely.

“Sure my son, you can get off from work anytime. I do not have any assignment for you yet. Take as much break as you need.” My dad answered.

“Thanks dad, I replied.

I got going and drove to the Mabel’s Street, 21. I had been driving for hours and as I drove past the busy street filled with people walking around shopping and doing some window shopping around the street made my heart felt so empty in a sudden. I reached the Mabel’s street finally and stalled my car at the sides of the road. I took some coins out placing them into the parking machine. I walked up to the building and climbed the flight of staircase. As I began to walked up the stair, each step I took on the stairs gave a cranky sound which echoed throughout the whole building. The building looked rather new from the outside but I guessed the saying of never judged a book by its cover made sense to me now. The psychiatrist clinic was at the fifth storey. I turned the door knob of the polished timber oak door slowly and walking into the clinic like a gentleman.

“Hi sorry to interrupt, is this the Andie Anderson clinic? I’m Max McGuire coming for my appointment.” I introduced politely.

“Yup, that’s right you are in the right clinic. Please take a seat at the couch and made yourself feel home. I would attend to you in a short while.” An answer echoed from inside of the other room.

I was wondering how this psychiatrist looked like, would she be a very matured woman or someone around my age. It was just a kind of thinking to keep me busy. In a pithy five minutes, there was this middle-age man with dark, mahogany-red hair and sandy brown eyes who came out of the room.

The man threw a short glance at me before sitting down at the couch beside me.

“You must be one of the suitors of the psychiatrist. You looked so puerile compared to other suitors of her. She is so hot that she can make the guys ejaculate when they see her. Guess you must be drooling for her like me.” The man beside me began.

“I begged your pardon, I was here not because I knew she was alluring. I was here because of her profession. It had just proven how unrefined you were for a man who was middle-age older than me that I could even addressed you as dad. Forgive me for being rude but I do think you deserve that. I believed you do not just need a psychiatrist but a counsellor to counsel you on how to resist your sex addiction.” I rebuked.

“Well, I think I have to thank you in entrusting your faith in my profession. You must be Max. It’s your turn now and you may proceed to the room and take a sit at the orange couch inside. Mr. Barry, I take that as a compliment. This is the prescription I had prescribed for you. See you in two months time.” Andie interrupted.

Andie Anderson was an impossibly tall woman, with long blond hair being tied back behind her face and had the most exquisite brown eyes I ever saw. She was dressed in a little sheath so scrupulously cut, it fitted to her every spectacular curve and jut. I was lying down on the orange couch as I was rather weary on that day. Andie walked right into the room with the door closed behind her. She sat at the movable arm chair beside me.

“Hi Max, my name is Andie and I am your psychiatrist. I needed to ask you a few questions before leading to the main questions. Where do you stay?” She asked.
She had a full, rich and seductive voice.

“I stayed in Queens’ Street 11.” I answered.

“Is it possible you can give me your mobile number or house number? How old are you?” Andie questioned me again.

“Well let’s see I gave you my house number then, 7008201135. I am twenty this year. How old are you? kind of curious.” I replied.

“Well usually I do no answer question about me but I will do an exceptional this time. I am in the same age as you are. I can feel the anger you had just now outside and at the same time you had something bad that happened before in the past which kind of made you reacted in the way just now. Would you want to tell me the story of yourself?” Andie hesitated before she added.

“If I told you my life was not as simple as a normal should have, would you believe me? Would you be in fear if I told you I was once a professional cold hearted killer before but I was never being caught? I longed to have a normal life as a boy who you seen from your everyday life. I knew a girl from childhood till high school. However we were typical star cross lovers which could not be together as I was assigned to kill her and her family. I held back as I was not so professional after all as I was emotional. I fell in love with her the first time as a boy as I saw her from neighbourhood. I continued to be with her regardless of any risks I was entitled with. She knew me and saw through my personality which no one ever could do. She knew my assignment was to kill her and did not stay away from me but instead she tried to cheer me up and even willing to sacrifice herself for me to complete my assignment. My dad was furious and grave about such issue and came together with my trainer professional killer to track her down. I attempted so much to save and protect her but I fail. It has been a year since she was dead and I just has sleepless night with conscience haunting me. I think the story of life ended here with a full stop. How could you help me? I heard you survived from the snow slide. This was why I had faith in you that someone who had come close with death before knew how I felt.” I summarised.

“I have to say that I’m very shock to hear that. First of all I like to say I’m sorry about the girl. Sometimes in your life, you might think that you had actually cause her death but in the actual fact, you did not really cause the death of her if you get what I meant. She was killed by your dad not you. The fact that you lost someone closest to you in your life had the greatest impact in your life. You were seeking for forgiveness from her all along your life which you had got it long time ago from her. Acceptance from her to be with you was the biggest step she ever did to forgive you at the same time. Maybe someday in life, not today not tomorrow but someday you would learnt to accept the fact she was gone. Pain would fly away in the wings of the pain. Max, I would be prescribing you with some sleeping pills to help you in having a nice rest. Proceed on to the outside to get your medicine.” Andie advised.

“Maybe you are right, thank you.” I continued walking outside to collect my medicine.

“The next appointment time would be next tuesday same time. Is it ok with you, Mr McGuire?” Andie added as she passed me the medicine.

“Sure, you can called me Max. It was kind of weird when someone who was around my age to call me in such formal way. Would you like to have dinner together since it was already so late? I did not have any other intention.” I asked.

“Sure, someone who was honest in the beginning would not have any bad intention. It would be a rare pleasure and honour to have dinner with a professional killer, just kidding. Do you have a place in mind?” Andie replied.

“It was a sure pleasure. I was thinking we had dinner in the café just a few blocks from here which I drove past when I was heading here.” I suggested with an infrequent smile.

“I could determine that you are one observant person but it basically from your profession instinct, I guessed. Sure I heard the nearby café was eminent.” Andie agreed.
We walked out of the door of the clinic together with her locking the doors behind her. With an tremendous security system she had installed, I had no doubt that the privacy issue of client to stand. I guided her to my jeep, while I opened the door for Andie to get into the jeep.

“Thank you,” Andie added.
I just shot her with a smile. I got onto the driver’s seater and began driving to the nearby café. It was a brief five minutes ride to the café. I found a perfect car park lot to stall my jeep. She got out of the jeep by opening the door herself. I got off and insert coins to the parking machine nearby. We got into the café with a waiter welcoming us to the café. It was a miniature café with a nice music saturating the café. We got to sit in the window seats. The waiter passed us the menu of the café to each of us.

“I think I would like to have an entrée seafood spaghetti and a glass of ice lemon tea.” Andie decided.

“I think I would take the same thing as you took.” I replied as I signalled the waiter to take our order.

“Hi, I would like to have two entrée seafood spaghetti and two glasses of ice lemon tea. That’s all for our ordering.” I ordered.

The waiter repeated our order before walking off.

“Well it seemed to me that you were very familiar with the ordering of food, Max.” Andie began.

“Not really, but it was just a routine thing to do.” I responded.

Both of us remained very silent after the short talk. I guessed it would be rather awkward for both for us to chat too long. The music playing in the café was Britney Spears, new single Everytime. The song was played with the piano at the background. Memories of the past was drawing nearer to me. Waiter came in time to serve the order we made. I thought Andie saw through my hidden sorrow through my eyes. She did not mention a word. I continued to eat the seafood spaghetti slowly trying to enjoy every little specific taste of it. The sweetness of the sauce of the Bolognese sauce matched the freshness of the seafood. The way Andie consumed the plate of spaghetti resembled so much about Liz. Liz liked to twirl the spaghetti with the sparking stainless steel as she said it was so wonderful that there was this old folks story about there was this young little boy who was so poor to has any water supply use for cleaning. He came up with a way to clean the utensils with his mouth by tasting every part of the fork when he ate spaghetti. The little boy became a very particular food taster when he grew up.

“Max, what are you thinking? You seemed to have penny of your thoughts.” Andie asked.

“No just thinking the way you ate was pretty interesting.” I answered.

“Shall we go as there was still a long queue outside the café?” Andie added.
I nodded my head in agreement. We got into my jeep. I did not start the engine of my car as I did not know where to head to.

“Max, just drove the way I was going to guide you as I was going to teach you another way to make yourself feel lighten up.” Andie began.
I buckled up the seat belt and drove the way she guided me. We drove to a nearby park which was near my house. I was kind of puzzle but was keen what she was up to. We got off from the jeep. I just followed like a small little boy following my mom around the town.

“Here we are, when I was a little girl, I used to come here all the time whenever I was sad. I would just sit here and looked across the clear pond with the chorus of frogs from the creek and the myriad softer sounds that stir in the night. I would just dance by myself all night long. I hoped this worked for you.” Andie suggested.

“Sometimes if you are quiet, you would get to hear neighbouring house playing their unplugged music.” Andie added.
True enough there was the playing of Bon Jon Jovi’s song ‘Always’ from the neighbouring estate.
There was a small drizzle falling and beating on my hot face. I asked Andie like a perfect gentleman for a dance. We just kept dancing around the soft grass patch like the dance floor which was occupied by us. The feeling was very different and my mind seemed to be empty but filled with the music. I enjoyed the sensation night dance at the park with the sound of the flowing water in the pond.

“I got to go Max, I had an early appointment with my patient tomorrow.” Andie spoke.

“Sure let me drive you back as it was rather late.” I offered.
As we were walking back to my jeep, I was dancing and hopping like a little boy who had just learnt dancing. This was the first time I had shown the innocence and playfulness of a little boy ever since Liz had left me to have conversation with God.

“I think this works perfectly well for you, Max as you looked more brighten up than just now.” Andie added.

“May I ask you a personal question?” I asked.

“That depends, Mr McGuire.” She replied.

“I just wanted to thank you for your help today. I was just wondering if you have a boyfriend as I just felt he was the luckiest man on earth to have someone so understanding like you.” I added.

“Thank you but this was my job. Sometime in my profession, I was good at giving advice to others but when all this happened to my life it would be a very different story. I would not be so optimistic. I had a boyfriend but he had the same destiny as your girlfriend. You read on the newspapers on the accident I met while sky skiing in Norway. He did not survive the snow slide like I did as he tried to navigate me out of the danger first. I did not take the fact that he was dead initially very well till after a long while. It was rather surprising I would tell my patient so much.” Andie sat in the jeep quietly after that.

“I’m so sorry.” I reacted.

“It was all right. I stayed just a few streets away after the right turn.” Andie added.
As I drove as she said I realised she was just staying opposite me across the street. I parked my car in my garage.

“I think you dropped me at the wrong house. My house was the one opposite.” Andie reacted.

“This was my house and I was going to walk you over to your house opposite.” I added.
She was indeed very astounded.

“Get out of town, you serious?” Andie asked.

“If I was kidding, I won’t be able to park my jeep in the garage, would I? Well I was pretty surprised too myself. Let me walk you over to your house.” I replied.
I strolled with her to her house. Her house had a passage with bed of roses at the sides welcoming her way back to her home.

“Good night Andie Anderson.” I greeted her.

“Good morning, Max McGuire.” Andie greeted me back.

I just headed back to my house. I opened the door slowly with my key turning the door knob and scanning the card into my house. I sat on the same old couch and went deep into thoughts on the words Andie had said to me.