ONE NORMAL LIFE / TWO EXTRAORDINARY LIVES

CHAPTER 29 – CITY OF BIG SHOULDERS

June 5, 2008

"Please buckle your seatbelt for the descent into Chicago, until the captain has turned off the buckle your seatbelt light. The time is 1:10pm and the temperature is 83 degrees Fahrenheit, with a relative humidity of 78%. It's going to be a muggy day in Chicago, folks," said the flight attendant into the intercom.

Dawn looked out as the city came into view, "It's a big city, Buffy," she said, "where are we going to start?"

"I don't know. I thought maybe we could check in to the hotel...oh crap!" Buffy said.

"We don't even have a reservation anywhere!"

"Yeah we do, while you were napping, I booked us in at the same place," Dawn said.

"You did? How?"

"Power of the Internet," Dawn said, patting her backpack, which contained the all-important laptop, "figured you might have forgotten."

"Remind me to kiss you," Buffy said, smiling.

"Consider yourself reminded!" Dawn replied.

"Rent or cab?"

"Cab!" they both said together.

"Hey, Buffy, remember the cabbie that gave us his card? Maybe we could call him and have him take us around to all the places we want to look. Once we figure that out."

"That might be a good idea. Probably cost us and arm and a leg to have him wait everywhere while we go checking, but it would be nice to have someone who knows the city and not have to get another cab each time." Buffy said.

"Got money?"

Buffy just looked at her.

"Credit card?" Buffy asked sheepishly.

"Don't worry Buffy, went to the bank machine this morning on my way to the airport. Took out about a thousand."

Buffy looked at her questioningly.

"Hank's," Dawn said, "well, part of my summer allowance."

"I'll pay you back," Buffy said.

"I know you will," Dawn said, laughing.


After they checked in, they went up to their room and called the cabby’s pager number. He called back in 10 minutes. It was his day off, but he agreed for $100.00 plus gas, to drive them around as long as they needed him to. He told them he’d be by to pick them up at 3:30pm. That gave Buffy and Dawn time to start plotting where they were going to look.

“It’s too bad you don’t have a picture of Spike,” Dawn said, “would make it easier than trying to describe him. Although having those distinctive cheekbones and blue eyes will help,” she said, trying to remember what he looked like.

Buffy went over to her luggage and opened it up.

Dawn gasped when she saw the familiar t-shirt and jeans, “How did you…” she asked.

“Spike had Clem get a box of our things to take up to the house, before…about a week before, I think. He had those in there, so he’d have…”


Dawn walked over to Buffy and took the t-shirt from her, she placed it under her nose, “Still smells like him, Buffy,” she said, smiling, as the familiar scent of smoke, leather, and Spike came back to her.

“This makes it, er, him seem so real again,” she said, then thought sadly how Buffy must have felt to have this scent on his clothes when she never thought she’d see him again.

Buffy pulled back some of her clothes until she came to an envelope. She took out some pictures that she had scanned of those he’d drawn of her and him. There was the one of him and her under the canopy and pictures of him and her from his little imaginary drawings of them at the Eiffel Tower and some other places. There were some copies of those same pictures, except where she had removed her image, just leaving his.

“Spike!” Dawn said at seeing his face for the first time in over 5 years. How did you? How? When?”

“He drew them, Dawn. They were in the box, he drew this whole imaginary life he wished we could have,” she said, sadly.

“Oh, Buffy!” Dawn said, “maybe you still will. You’ll find him and he’ll take you to these places for real, you can do anything now, he can do anything now!”

Buffy wasn’t so sure. She wanted to feel excited like Dawn in a happy way, but she had to find him first, and when she did, she wasn’t sure what she was going to find. Or even if he…


She shook her head, bringing her back to the present, “Let’s figure out where we’re going to start and order some room service while we look at the map,” Buffy said.

They were finishing a late lunch when Buffy’s phone rang.

“This is Bernie Jadzewski,” said the voice, “I’m here to pick you ladies up. “

“We’ll be right down,” Buffy said.

“Oh, got a 4 door red Ford Taurus, that’s what I drive on my day off,” he said.

“Okay,” Buffy said, hanging up.

“Let’s go,” she said to Dawn.


Bernie was parked in the cab queque, being honked at, by the on-duty cabby’s as they came out of the building.

“Hi, sorry, we came down as fast as we could,” Buffy said.

“No problem, How you ladies doing?” he asked, as he held the back door open for them.

“We’re alright, but we’re here to look for someone. He’s…missing, we don’t know where to start,” Dawn said.

“That right? You know where he was last seen?” he asked, as he got into the driver’s seat.

“No. We don’t know if he’s been seen. I mean, somebody must have seen him. Recently, most likely. But we don’t have any idea.”

“How long has he been missing?” Bernie asked.

“Who said anything about him being missing?” Buffy asked, suspiciously.

“I just figured. I mean, you don’t know where he is, so I figured he’s missing. At least from your point of view.”

“Five years,” Buffy said.

Bernie whistled, “Long time. You just find out he’s in Chicago?”

“Yeah. He’s been…away. I just found out he’s here, though. Just got here.”

“I see,” Bernie said, “any ideas where you might want to start looking?”

“There’s someone we want to talk to at The Field Museum, if that’s alright,” Dawn said, looking at Buffy, who nodded.

“Field Museum it is. What is he, some scientist fellow?”

“No, just…a fellow,” Buffy said, looking at the tall buildings as they got onto Lake Shore Drive.

“What kind of a name is Bernie Jadzewski?” Dawn asked.

He laughed, “Yeah, strange one, isn’t it? Well, my mom was Jewish and my dad was Polish. Met in the concentration camps during war.war. Dad’s family was trying to hide some Jewish friends of theirs and they got sent to Auschwitz for it,” he shook his head, “dad lost all his family, as did my mother there, but they found each other.”

“I’m sorry,” Dawn said, looking at him in the mirror.

Bernie shrugged, “Don’t be. There’s lots of evil people in the world, but eventually, they’ll pay the price.”

Dawn and Buffy looked at each other thinking of all the evil they’d seen, of a different kind.

Bernie pulled the car up to The Field Museum, “I gotta go park in the lot, since I don’t have the cab. Just call my pager number when you’re done and I’ll come around to pick you up,” he said, adding,“only open for another hour, so you’d better hurry.”

“Thanks,” Buffy and Dawn both said.


Buffy and Dawn asked at the desk if Donald Johanson was in. The woman called down to his office and after a few minutes informed them that he was on vacation.

“Damn!” Buffy said.

“Excuse me miss, I’m going to have to ask you to move,” said a man with a ladder.

Buffy moved and watched as the man went up ladder to the top of the entryway carrying a camera.

“New security,” said the woman at the desk, “we had a break in a few weeks ago in the middle of the night.”

“Oh,” Buffy said.

“Another woman working the front desk said, “Oh, you talking about our crazy naked guy? Or the crazy one who tried to climb up on top of Sue?”

“Either one! All sorts of crazies out there,” she said.

“Yeah, crazies out there trying to get in here,” said the second woman, walking off to help someone else.

Buffy had the strangest feeling, “What happened?” she asked.

“Oh, some homeless guy was in here one night. Guess the guard ran him off,” she said.

“Do you know what he looked like?” Buffy asked.

“Why?” the woman asked, eyeing Buffy strangely.

“It’s just that…I had a…a brother who used to do crazy things. He’s been missing a while. Do you have any pictures or anything?” she asked.

She shook her head, “No, our security cameras weren’t working, that’s why we’re getting these installed, “ she said.

“I see. Well, thank you,” Buffy said.


Buffy paged Bernie.

“You think that was Spike?” Dawn asked as they waited.

“I don’t know what to think,” Buffy said, “probably not.”

“It’s too weird. But Buffy, the thing about him being naked and homeless? Maybe that was him. She said it was a couple of weeks ago, that would make it around the time you started having the dreams!”

“Tell Bernie I’ll be right there,” Buffy said, as she walked back inside.

She walked over to the desk again and waited to talk to the woman. Finally it was her turn, “I’m sorry to bother you,” she said, “but could you please tell me what day the naked man was found in the museum?”

The woman nodded and made a phone call, after a minute, she came back to Buffy, “Security says it happened on May 20th, hope that helps. Miss? Miss? Are you alright?” she asked.

Buffy gripped the desk, as her heart pounded wildly in her chest, “Thank you! Thank you!” she said and ran out the door.

She ran down the stairs and got into the car, “Dawn, it was May 20th! May 20th!”

“Oh my God!” Dawn said, grabbing Buffy’s hand!

“Where do we look?” Dawn asked.

“Bernie, we need to start talking with some homeless people!”

“Okay. How ‘bout I stop at a few shelters around here and you can talk to the people who run them, as well as the people in them.”

Buffy nodded.

“Wasn’t that the same girl asking the questions before?” the second woman asked the first woman.

“Yeah, wanted to know about the naked guy. Thought it might have been her crazy brother,” she answered.

“Did you tell her the guard shot him?”

“He shot him? Shit! I didn’t know that, I was on vacation that week. Man! I never know what’s going on around here!”


END CHAPTER 29