For You (Eyes Rutherford)

“The nerve of that, that Boy!” I fumed, pacing back and forth in the front foyer. “How dare he say those awful things?”

“Calm down,” Ayumu said, exasperated. “It’s not that big a deal.”

“Yeah,” Hiyono said. “I know that was weird, but you guys should at least stay for the recital.”

“How can we?” Ayumu asked. “Ayame and I don’t have any tickets.”

Hiyono got a mischievous look on her face before pulling out a small envelope. “Tada!” she sang. “I was lucky enough to finagle two tickets out of the lady at the front desk.”

Ayumu studied the ticket before suddenly snatching it out of Hiyono’s hands. “Wait,” he cried, “of course you were able to get two tickets. They have mine and Ayame’s name on them!”

“I wonder,” I spoke up, “if Mr. Rutherford left them for us?”

“Details, shmetails,” Hiyono said dismissively. “You got ‘em, so just enjoy the show!”

“Details matter!” Ayumu shouted at Hiyono.

“Do you know what I think?” Hiyono said, not giving us enough time to answer. “I think the tickets were a gift from God. He wanted me to be able to hear the wonderful Eyes Rutherford in person, because someone decided he was too chicken to play for me.”

“Give me a break,” Ayumu said, sweat dropping. I just shook my head. Such ridiculous ideas shouldn’t even warrant a response.

A woman’s voice came over the intercom then, letting everyone know that the performance would be in one hour.

“Come on!” Hiyono said, grabbing my brother’s hand who, in turn, grabbed me, and dragged us toward the auditorium.

“Can you believe it, guys,” Hiyono said excitedly as we found our seats, “we have front row seats!” I could have sworn that small anime hearts appeared around her head. “I knew these tickets were a gift from God. Thank you, God, for blessing us with these seats!”

Ignoring Hiyono, I looked down to find my seat, only to see a purple iris, Kyotaka’s favorite flower, sitting on a medium sized black box.

“Ayumu!” I said, alarmed. “Look!” I grabbed his arm and pointed to the flower and box.

“What the-,” Ayumu said, surprised. He bent down and examined the box.

“Where did that come from?” Hiyono asked, finally taking notice of what Ayumu was doing. “Is that for you?”

“I don’t know,” Ayumu said, taking the lid off the box. What I saw inside almost made me crap my pants.

Inside the box was a bomb, counting down the time.

“I hope that’s not what I think it is,” Hiyono said.

“Well,” Ayumu answered, “it looks a little too dangerous to be a gift from God.”

Suddenly, a little turtle holding up his fingers in the universal sign for peace, popped up from a small compartment in the top of the bomb. “Hey,” the turtle said, “I’m a Chinese turtle. The name’s lucky and don’t you forget it, because you’re going to need some. As I’m sure you’ve guessed, this is a bomb with about 90 pounds of c4 in it, so if it goes off, even the roof will blow!”

“Oh!” Hiyono exclaimed. “Where are the security guards? We need to call the police.”

“Not so fast,” the turtle said as if he could understand what Hiyono had said. He was probably programmed to recognize the word police and to answer accordingly. “If you call the police, the bomb will explode. It wouldn’t really make a difference anyway, because the bomb squad wouldn’t know what to do with this kind of smart weapon. Besides, take a look at the timer. Your time’s nearly up! Hee hee!”

I did what the turtle said and looked down at the timer. We had less than two minutes and 35 seconds and it would take the police at least five minutes to get here.

The turtle continued. “You’re gonna have to solve a puzzle! If you try tampering with it, BOOM! There’s only one way to trash this ticker! Touch the nine disarming pads in the correct order. Check out my key pad!”

I glanced down below the timer to see nine blank square buttons in a three by three layout.

“Oh, no!” Hiyono cried, freaking out and drawing attention to our little group. “What are we gonna do? I don’t want to die!”

“Remember,” the turtle said as the bomb counted down to two minutes, “there is only one correct order for the code. And I’m sure that I don’t have to tell you that if you mess up, the bomb will explode.”

Suddenly, a number one appeared on the far right button in the middle row.

“As a special bonus,” the turtle said, “I will key you in on your first key. You can disarm this bomb, but you’ll need plenty of courage, wisdom, and of course, luck.”

Ayumu stood up. “This is insane!”

“It may be insane,” I said, standing up as well, “but we can’t just let the bomb go off. We have to do something to stop it.”

A security guard must have noticed all the commotion we were making, because, suddenly, there was one standing behind Hiyono’s crouched form.

“What’s going on here?” he asked.

“I’m a nice turtle,” the turtle continued, “so I’ll give you a little freebie. See that bar coming out of the box?”

I glanced to the left of the turtle and saw what it was talking about.

“If you grab it with your hand, the time limit will be extended to 30 minutes which should give you plenty of time to figure out the code. But watch out! There are heat sensors attached to the bomb, so the instant you let go…KABOOM!”

“What the-,” the security guard said.

“Unless you disarm the bomb,” the turtle continued, “everyone will be blown to smithereens!”

“We’ve got to evacuate the auditorium!” the security guard said urgently.

“There’s no time for that,” I said, finally speaking up. The bomb ticked down to one minute.

“Come on, Mr. Hero,” the turtle taunted.

“Okay,” Ayumu said, making up his mind and reaching for the metal rod. “I will do this.”

Before Ayumu could grab the rod, however, Hiyono beat him to it. The timer automatically went up to 30 minutes and began counting down again.

“Thirty minutes,” Hiyono said unnecessarily, “now there’s enough time to evacuate the auditorium.” She turned to the security guard, taking control of the situation. “Keep quiet about the bomb,” she told him. “Make up some excuse to get them out of here and don’t call the police no matter what.”

“Got it,” the security guard said, running off to get the people out of the building.

Hiyono turned to Ayumu and smiled. This was going to be one crazy adventure if we lived to tell the tale.