Why? Was all I could ask myself. Why had I kept her head in my truck? Why did I get the Staten Island route today? It was Kyle’s route, not mine. NOT MINE! Unconsciously I hit the door of the cab I shared with… with, oh God, what was he. Man? Demon? Mutant? I’d always suspected X-Men was not entirely fiction. I mean with all the pollutants in the world, the ozone disappearing, high mercury content in fish, was it any wonder evolution got screwy sometimes? Guys like this should be Al Gore’s poster children for global warming. But that thinking implied I believed in a future where this criminal was behind bars, how could I think that? How could I ever think that. I’d seen what he’d done to those cops. Like breathing, he just touched them, nothing, no effort, no tricks. Touch. Frozen. I hoped to God that’s all Jenny had gone through. Jenny, my sweet Jenny…

“You alright, kid?” the man in black asked. Probably a rhetorical question. I looked up at the cab driver and down at the seat. What would the Ice Man do if I told him the truth? Yeah, dumb question. I mumbled something about being really tired and leaned against the door, the window was cool. My head felt hot. Volcanoes have these things called fumaroles, like steam vents that burst through cracks in the rocks when the pressure builds up too high. I felt like steam could start pouring out of my eyeballs and ears and nostrils, maybe the crack between my lips. Jenny was the pressure. Justice for Jenny. I was probably going to die. But maybe I could help Jenny’s spirit find peace. I looked down at my hands, wringing themselves in my lap. My apron strings were so long I always tied them in the front. I looked out of the corner of my eye. The Ice Man must not have been too worried about me, he was looking out the window. I untied my apron and bent down. I had the apron over my head in a second.

“You alright, Kid?” The Ice Man repeated.

“Shoe’s untied.”

“Yeah, cuz that’s important right now,” he huffed and I watched him turn back to the window. I stuffed the apron under the seat and sat back up. Now I just had to make it to Jersey without him noticing.

God, I had never been more uncomfortable. People can’t endure that. No one can endure a cab ride like that. The cab stopped at a light and I thought about bolting. He’d catch me and kill me, I was going to die anyway. But Jenny’s face, the living, sweet one with bright white teeth flashed in my mind. If the apron was going to work, the cab needed to get to The Ice Man’s destination. I could only hope it was his apartment, or warehouse, or where ever evil mutants did their work. That cop had seen us, I know he had. He had the same look Mike always has on a Monday morning. Like he’d cheated death only a few hours before and just managed to drag himself into work from the ER. I silently pleaded with any power that might be listening that he was a good cop.

Before long, we pulled up to a warehouse in Jersey.