Wednesday morning came with another phone call. Frank looked at his caller id and it said Bureau on it. He answered, “Hello?”
An overly courteous effeminate voice said, “Gulliver Webster here, I’m calling to speak with Frank Nickels.”
“That’s me.”
The voice continued, “I’m with the BIA in this local area. Tomorrow at noon I’d like to have lunch with you to discuss the position you now have. Do you know where Harry Wang’s is? It’s within walking distance to the school.”
Frank’s cleanly shaved brown face humorously frowned because he thought he was hearing things, but he replied anyway, “No I can’t say that I do.”
“I’ll email you the directions. I look forward to meeting you. See you tomorrow,” Gulliver abruptly hung up leaving Frank holding his phone and almost responding with a parting word.
That night when Frank went to sleep he had a strange and scary dream. Everything was in slow motion. He was slowly walking down a hallway filled with fog and could barely see the walls. There were bizarre things on the walls and when he looked closer they were covered with dark purple holes that were screaming. The voices sounded like little girls being frightened by a monster. He finally got to the end which was a glass exit door that showed the outside leading to other buildings. After he pushed the black handle to open the door he walked through it and he wasn’t outside at all. He was in what looked like a college dormitory.
He woke up after that in a cold sweat, realized it was a nightmare, and got ready to meet Gulliver for lunch. When he got there, he noticed it was a typical small coffee shop with beige walls, Formica tables and turquoise pleather booths. Country style breakfasts were on everyone’s plate and the sounds of silverware clanging against plates jingled throughout the restaurant.
After he walked in the door he saw a short dark man with dark hair, about forty years old, stand up out of a booth and wave with his hand. Frank walked over to him with a smile. Upon further inspection he noticed he bear a striking resemblance to Don Ho the famous Hawaiian singer who sang the song “Tiny Bubbles.” Only Gulliver was five feet tall.
“Good afternoon Frank,” he said, “There’s no time to waste so let’s get started.” He then went on to describe the situation to Frank. It was the same story of how the place just needed an extra hand. He said that they were about to meet the school administration in an hour. They ate their breakfast and then left for the high school.
Approaching the facility Frank first mistook it for a Military installation because of its size, but started to notice the typical educational buildings that you might see on a college campus. The building was obviously made from old strong government concrete and the dark orange color was unkind to the eyes after a while. When they got into the parking lot, Frank noticed that there was a guard shack that only allowed certain personnel onto the campus. The guard was an older man who was Indian from India. What a coincidence, Frank thought.
After stopping them, he had Frank get out of the car and go with him to his shack. He asked for id and Frank showed his FasterTree Consulting id. The strange thing was that he took his id out and showed it to Frank. He smiled and pointed at his Guard id that said, Rhatha Khan on it. Frank looked at him for a minute and said politely, “Thanks Mr. Khan. Nice picture,” then he made his way back to the car that Gulliver was waiting in. Gulliver looked at Rhatha with fiery rage and made the throat slitting gesture at him as he drove them through the gate onto campus.
They had extra time to spare so Gulliver gave him a brief tour of the school introducing him to some of the staff. They stopped by Facilities, Home Living, Recreation, and the Cafeteria. They all seemed like very nice older Native American Elders to Frank. Since Gulliver was well known all over campus it was easy to get acquainted with some of them. After the tour, they ended up at the academic building which was also the administration building.
J.J. Fauria 