Chapter Five
August 10, 2010
Addison Augustine is projected back inside Bridget Riley's apartment.
"Ben!" she exclaims. "Jane just left the strip club! You got to drive over to Hoover Dam."
"Right," says Ben. Already wearing a sleeveless blouse and short denim shorts, the leaper grabs Bridget's purse and heads out the door. Greeted by the daytime summer heat, he leaves the apartment building, heading out to the blue 2005 Honda CR-V parked on the street.
""Wait!" Leticia Gomez-Aguilar calls out. Ben sees her running.
"Yes?" asks the leaper.
"Where're you going?"
"Hoover Dam."
"Can I come?"
Ben and Addison look at each other. "Yeah, you can come," says Ben even as he gets in the driver's seat and starts the car.
Letty gets into the front seat and fastens the seat belt. Ben pulls from the curb,.
"We are not stopping over for anything," says the leaper.
Addison looks at Jane as she drives her white
I'm Superman with the wind at his back, she's Lois Lane
But when it's bad, it's awful, I feel so ashamed
I snapped, "Who's that dude?", I don't even know his name
I laid hands on her, I'll never stoop so low again
I guess I don't know my own strength
Just gonna stand there and watch me burn?
Well, that's all right because I like the way it hurts
Just gonna stand there and hear me cry?
Well, that's all right because I love the way you lie
I love the way you lie
I love the way you lie
Addison is projected inside the white Toyota Land Cruiser, seeing Jane drive the car on the Oran K. Gragson Freeway southeast. Pressing buttons, she then appears inside Bridget's car.
"You're three minutes ahead of Jane," says Addison.
"Got it," says Ben, focusing on driving the CR-V.
"Okay, can we get lunch at Boulder City?" asks Letty. "There's this nice place I remember from last year."
"After Hoover Dam."
After twenty minutes, they pass through Henderson and reach the end of the Gragson Freeway, stopping at a stoplight serving the access road for the Railroad Pass Hotel and Casino. The light turns green after two minutes, and Ben gently presses the gas pedal and continues on to Boulder City. Soon, after U.S. 95 splits from U.S> 93, he desert landscape is replaced with retail businesses fronting the highway and brick walls separating U.S. 93 from residential homes. Ben takes a left turn to stay on U.S. 93, passing by a Burger King fast food place. Soon, open desert surrounds both side of Highway 93, as the CR-V heads towards Hoover Dam. The highway becomes a two loan-road and twists through reddish-brown mountains, and there is a fair amount of traffic, even on Tuesday.
Ben stops and waits for a gap in opposing traffic to make a left turn to the access the p[arking garage, paying the parking fee at the entrance. Entering the parking structure, the leaper keeps an eye for a parking spot, until he finds one between a black Ford Mustang and a red Toyota Tercel which both have California license plates.
Ben and Letty both leave the parking structure, with Addison following them. They emerge into the oven-like heat. There are still a fair amount of tourists, mostly older people, though there are a few parents there with their children. The two of them walk to the side facing the outlet of the dam, which was constructed between 1931 and 1936. The two of them can see Black Canyon, with the waters of the Colorado River flowing on the bottom. In the distance is the Mike O'CallaghanPat Tillman Memorial bridge, which is in the oprocess of receiving its finishing touches and will carry traffic for U.S. Highway 93 starting on October 18th.
The leaper looks at the watch on his wrist.
It is 1:30 pm.
"Jane will jump off over there," says the observer, pointing toward the Arizona side. "Witnesses said she stood there for a few minutes."
Addison presses some buttons on the handlink,. And then is projected many meters away, still on the top of Hoover Dam. She sees Jane, wearing a denim skirt and a white blouse. She walks to the edge.
And then she climbs up on the concrete wall separating U.S. 93 from the south edge of Hoover Dam. Some of the visitors already look.
Addison is projected back to where Ben is.
"You have to run!" yells Addison. "Four minutes!"
Ben starts running, passing some tourists while mumbling apologies, while Letty follows him.
His heart races.
He sweats even more due to the desert heat.
And then he sees the blond-haired woman standing on the edge.
"Jane!" he calls out.
The strip clumb mamanger turns around.
"Bridget?" she asks.
"I don;t know what you're going through,but please don;t do this!"
"I..wanted a look."
"Just get down, please. Whatever you;'re going through, we can help."
Addison walks through the ledge, finding her feet projected over seven hundred feet above the waters of the Colorado River.
She looks and sees Jane facing southward.
"Don;t do it," says Addison, even though Jane can neither see nor hear the observer.
"Jane, please look at me," says Ben.
Jane turns around, briefly noticing the tourists looking at her. She then look at the leaper, who appears to be a young woman with blond hair, wearing a white sleeveless blouse and short denim shorts barely reaching past her hips, with some leftover baby fat on her face.
She looks for a bout three seconds.
And then steps down.
Ben then gives her a hug.
"What happened?" asks Letty.
"Please don;t tell anyone," asks Jane.
"Uh, sure," replies the exotic dancer.
"Maybe I should drive you home."
"Yeah,"concurs Jane, reaching into the pocket of her denim skirt and handing the leaper the keys to her Land Cruiser.
Ben reaches into Bridget's purse and hands Letty the keys to the Honda CR-V.
"I'll just go home," says Letty, taking the keys before heading back into the parking structure.
Jane guides the leaper into the parking stricture, until she reaches a white Toyota land Cruiser that is parked next to a yellow Chevrolet Camaro with Utah license plates. Ben gets in the driver's seat, while Jane enters the front passenger seat. The leaper inserts the key into the keyhole on the steering column, and turns the key, activating the starter motor which starts the gasoline engine.
Soon, the white Toyota Land Cruiser is northbound on U.S. Highway 93, Ben drives through Boulder City, this time in the opposite direction, making a right turn where the Burger King is to continue northbound towards Henderson and Las Vegas. Less than ten minutes after leaving Boulder City, Ben makes a right turn at the stoplight servicing Railroad Pass Hotel and Casino. The leaper pulls into the spot; he does not shut off the engine, letting the air conditioning running.
"Why are we here?" asks Jane. "If you want to go gamble, just get out and let me drive home."
"I want to talk to you," says Ben. "We both know you were going to jump off the dam."
"Can you just please drive me home?"
Ben looks into her eyes. "Listen, you can tell me. I think I'm one of the few people you can open up to, to bare all."
Addison stares at Jane.
Jane looks at Ben, seeing the young woman named Bridget Riley, seeing a face with wonder and innocence.
"You look so innocent," she says. "So hopeful. I remember when you first looked for a job at the club. YI said you looked underage. You then came the next day with a copy of your birth certificate. I remember. I was that kind of girl."
Ben and Addison hear this, understanding why the leaper had leaped into Bridget Riley and not someone else in Jane's life.
"Go on," says Ben. "Just tell me, please."
"I grew up happy," replies the strip club manager. "Yes, my father walked out on us for "a better model" when I was three, and my mom had to keep fighting to squeeze out child support, but I was happy. We were a family. My mom did date some guys, but it never worked out."
Addison taps on the handlink. "Her mother is still alive even in our time. And, sadly, her pathetic excuse for a father is still alive in our time. I wonder how many children he abandoned."
"When I started high school back in 1992, there was this teacher," says Jane. The students loved him. He was always willing to help out. I had trouble with schoolwork, and he offered to help. He met with other students before. I decided to talk to him more. He would talk to me about more than school, about my life, advise me on the struggles of growing up from girl to woman. I remember I would fantasize that he would marry my mom and we could live together as a family. I guess I wanted a father figure in my life. At one point, I wanted to be like him, helping the next generation.
I'l never forget the date. Tuesday, August 10, 1993. I was fifteen years old, looking forward to tenth grade. He invited me to his house for lunch. H I had drinks at his place before, and I certainly wasn't gonna snitch about that against anyone, let alone someone who I wanted as a stepdad."
"He had music on. I remember "Linger" by the Cranberries playing. It was just released; you would have been only five years old at the time. He even served wine.I gave him a hug, and he slipped his hand under my blouse. I pushed his arm away. He then grabbed me and then pinned me down on the leather couch.
"My mind froze. Even as if he was taking off my clothes, I couldn't understand what he was doing.
"Until I felt that pain, that sharp pain inside me. I'll never forget that sharp pain. That repeated sharp , stabbing pain. I kept crying. And I'll never forget his awful, disgusting grunts.
"And then he was done. I just lay on the couch, sobbing. It hut me that this man I trusted, this man I hoped would be my dad, had just raped me, stolen my virginity."
He then slapped me and told me to shut up. He told me, in exact words, that "you should be grateful because a real man turned you into a woman' He kept demanding me to say' thank you', so I did. I was just a scared, betrayed fifteen-year-old girl. After what he did, I was scared of him. He then showed me a handkerchief, and there were fresh blood stains. He said he would keep my virgin blood as a souvenir. After that, I somehow just went home, crying."
For about five minutes the only sound is that of the Land Cruiser's air conditioning.
"Ziggy pulled something up," says Addison. "There was a male former high school teacher in Mankato, Minnesota. In 1999, he plead guilty to distributing explicit pictures of some of his underage female students and spent three years in federal prison. Considering what he did to Jane, he got off lightly."
"I can't imagine how that would feel," Ben says softly. "I mean, it;s the seventeenth anniversary of..that."
"That wasn't all," replies Jane.
"What happened after?"
"I tried to put it aside. Even though I often had nightmares, it didn't feel real. I was messed up. But then, I started feeling sick each morning. And then I remembered I hadn't had my period since the rape. I went to see a doctor, and the doctor told me I was pregnant. After much discussion, my mom and I, we decided to go forward with what that teacher did to me.
Ben knows from what Addison told him that no one had ever been convicted of raping Jane Schrader. "What happened next?"
"You have to understand that in 1993, we didn't have DNA testing that would have proven that that teacher fathered the baby inside me. The principal called me to a meeting with that teacher, accusing me of making these false accusations, trying to shift the blame for my pregnancy when I 'should have kept my legs closed'. I was suspended pending further action. And then, my mom and I received a letter informing me I was expelled."
"I'm sorry," says Ben.
"I went through my pregnancy, and then on May 10, 1994, I birth to a baby girl that I named Sophie; I was sixteen years old when I became a mom. I focused on being a teen mom, since I didn't have school."
Ben and Addison know that Jane lives alone and not with her daughter. "What happened next?"
"Even as I was raising Sophie, I kept having flashbacks about the rape, about that sharp pain. I went to sleep on Tuesday, August 9, 1994. Once again, those horrible memories turned my dream into a nightmare. Everything kept playing back, the sharp stabbing pain and those disgusting grunts. I could feel the shame and humiliation and rage.
And then my daughter cried loudly, as she often did. It was Wednesday, August 10th, one year after I was raped, one year after Sophie was conceived.
"I woke up very angry. I went to her crib and pressed a pillow against her face.I pressed as hard as I can. I kept yelling, "Stop crying!" I was filled with so much rage. And my rage was only increasing. All the trauma, all the pain I felt, I focused it, pressing on the pillow on my infant daughter's face. If my mom didn't wake up and stop me...Anyway, I ran outside, crying. I was in so much pain. I then saw a light. It was a train. I thought about stepping in front of it, ending the pain. My mom called out to me, called out my voice. I went out and hugged her just as the train passed by."
After that, there are more minutes of the only sound being that of the car's air conditioner. Neither Ben nor Addison could say anything, not after hearing what Jane had gone through.
"I never saw Sophie again. My mom took her away so she could be adopted. I couldn't look at her or say goodbye to her, not after what I did. I signed some paperwork and then Sophie was gone from my life."
"I'm sorry," says Ben. "I hope you feel better. Maybe you should get some help. You were about to jump from the top of Hoover Dam. "
"You can drive me home, Bridget," says Jane. "Besides, you have promotion duty with Marie, tonight."
An hour later, Jane had sobbed herself to sleep in her bedroom, having bared all to the leaper who appeared to be Bridget. Addison watches over her.
Ooooooooo
Ben is still haunted by Jane Schrader' story. He barely notices the Fremont Street Experience, with the half-cylindrical canopy showing various animations, the lights from casinos and other businesses, and the crowds of people walking around this Tuesday night, feeling the residue of the daytime desert heat as they either walk to a casino, visit one of the food establishments or retail kiosks, or just look above at the light show.
Standing near the Mermaids Casino, Marie hands out another coupon-card with a nude picture of her, with the naughty bits covered with stars. Like the leaper, she is dressed in a tank-top and a miniskirt.
"You've been distracted," says the Polish immigrant.
"Just a lot going on, that's all,:" says Ben, as he looks at the crowd. A group of young men pass him, and Ben hands out card's containing a censored photo of an unclothed Bridget Riley.
"It can be hard. I had some trouble adjusting to life in America. It helped I moved to block with many people from Poland"
"Ben," Addison calls out.
The leaper sees her, wearing a simple dress and blouse, dressed more professionally than the tourists on the Fremont Street Experience.
"It's hard to get tired of observing the past like this," she says in a flat, monotone voice. "Mermaids and La Bayou aren't there anymore, and the Circa replaced Vegas Club. At least Plaza is still at the end over there. We need to talk."
Ben looks at Marie. "Listen," he says. "I need to make a phone call."
"sure," says Marie, before proceeding to hand out the coupon cards to passers-by.
The leaper walks into the Golden Nugget Hotel and Casino. He hears the familiar sound of various slot machines. Before him are rows of slot machines, a few which are occupied by people pressing the buttons or more rarely, pulling the handles. In a corner is the Race and Sports Book where gamblers can place bets of various sporting events.
He holds the Nokia N93i cellular telephone by his ear. "I am wondering if I should place bets for Bridget to make up for the money she should've earned from lap dancing." he takes a seat at one of the video slot machines.
"It's about why you haven't leaped out,"says Addison.
"I doubt it's because I haven't finished Punch-Out!!!"
"It's best if I show you." The observer presses buttons on the handlink, projecting a hologram onto the screen of the slot machine.
Ben sees a hologram of the front page of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, dated October 9, 2010.
He reads the headline.
TRAIN DERAILMENT RELEASES POISON GAS; AT LEAST 40 CONFIRMED DEAD
The leaper reads a few lines of the article, reading about how the train derailed, how the chemicals mixed to generate poisonous gas, and how the cloud of poison gas was blown by the wind toward the Fremont Street Experience in downtown Las Vegas.
"This happens two months from now," he says. "How can I prevent it now?"
"Jane caused it," says Addison. "On October 8, 2010, she drove her Toyota Land Cruiser on the railroad tracks to commit suicide. And she died. The collision caused the train to derail, and the train was transporting hazardous chemicals. It released poison gas, which killed sixty-three people and sickened over a thousand."
