Cathedral of Dreams Read Online Free PDF Page B

angry onslaught, to stop the man from drawing attention to them. But it was too late. Two of the five police coming down the hall peeled off and headed directly for them. The others were rushing past. So he didn't have to be concerned? Keith felt stupid for trying to get away. He'd never done such a thing before. And now he'd actually caused them to advance. His ears were ringing, and he felt a burst of adrenaline as though it were injected into his neck. The police. Two days in a row. What would this mean in the system?
     
The yelling man, too, was coming at him. Keith just backed farther into the doorway until his back bumped flat against the door.
     
“Come in,” he heard inside the apartment. Keith reached back for the doorknob.
     
“I'm talking to you, Mister,” the yelling man said, as he stepped up to Keith and pushed a finger into his chest. Again, unrequested physical contact.
     
Then, abruptly, the police were on the yelling man, one at each arm, pulling him back and away from Keith. “We are very sorry for the interruption, sir.” They addressed Keith, but he didn't know how to answer. He had expected the officers to take both of them. What was happening?
     
The policeman to Keith's right said, “You may carry on.”
     
Keith stared at him.
     
“Sir,” the policeman asserted, “you may go to work now. There is nothing here that you need to be concerned about. We'll handle it.” He was smiling at Keith the whole time he talked to him.
     
The yelling man tried to pull loose. “It's him,” the man said. “He attacked me. I did nothing wrong.”
     
Keith saw one of the policemen reach for his gun.
     
He drew his hands over his eyes and turned away. The policeman spoke to Keith sternly, “Please sir, we have this under control. Move along.” No one else in the hall had even stopped to see what was going on.
     
Keith rushed from the three of them, passing other people as he darted away, practically falling into a jog. When the noise behind him seemed to subside, Keith slowed. He was the last to enter an elevator. A breeze of air came from the outside as the doors closed. He realized how heavily he was sweating when the air brushed the sweat across his forehead, momentarily chilling his scalp. What had just happened? Were they coming for him and then the angry man drew them away? Confused their sensors? He hadn't seen where the other police were headed and whether or not they went to his apartment, but he could imagine that happening. He had lived through such an unusual evening and night and then morning, that he would not have been surprised if they were headed for his apartment.
     
The doors opened and Keith stepped out and began to walk away, until he realized he was on the wrong floor. Many of them looked so similar and he had been wrapped in thought, not thinking about where he was going, not focused on getting to work. He looked around and turned back just as the doors were closing again. A burst of nervousness helped him to thrust his arm into the small gap between the closing doors. They hit his arm and bounced open. “Sorry,” he said as he stepped back inside.
     
He focused this time and when the doors opened on his floor, he strolled out as though nothing had happened, although his body tingled with the morning's events.
     
He stepped into the offices and went up to Maria's desk. “I'd like to deliver the reports again today, if you don't mind.” He had no idea why he suggested it, but just as he did, he could visualize the boy in the stairwell. He had to see if that boy looked like the boy in his dream image. And if he did, then Keith wanted to get the image clearly embedded into his memory in case the dream occurred again. For reasons he couldn't put a finger on, he thought that another encounter would help him receive more images, and perhaps even provide an entire dream.
     
“Of course you can. I'll call when they are ready,” Maria said.
     
Keith did not compliment her