Chapter 1

Ben slumped in the seat of the bus and looked at the other three people on the bus. There were never many people riding on the bus at this time of night, which is just how he liked it. Two of the other riders were sleeping and one was reading the newspaper that someone had left on the seat. He made no attempt to talk to anyone or even to make eye contact. He took great pains to avoid being noticed. It would never do to have friends or to call attention to himself. He tried to remain as invisible as possible. He was afraid that if anyone got to know him they would discover his secret. It had happened before, and it always turned out bad for him or them. His many years of being a non-person had taught him how to blend in. You would never notice him and would not remember him if you did.

His mind started to remember things again. He so wanted to forget the past. Life was so painful. One day job after another, never working at the same job for more than a couple of days. He always took jobs that paid cash daily so that he could move quickly. People always started to ask questions after a couple of days. Usually it started out as polite conversation, but when he avoided giving information about himself they started to wonder about him. He then moved on. It was getting harder and harder to get work. Modern society required a paper trail like social security and income tax. A few years ago, he had worked for a family that had a son that was a computer nerd and the boy taught Ben how to use the computer to get what information he needed to blend into the population. He used the computers in the library and occasionally used the computer at the place he worked that day. Ben had learned to use the internet to get social security numbers and so had no trouble providing a social security number if he was asked for it. He would never collect social security anyway and whoever had the number would have extra credits added to his social security account. No one had complained yet. He doubted that anyone even bothered to check.

The bus driver called out to one of the sleeping riders, apparently a regular. The man got up and walked to the door and waited for the bus to stop. Ben felt the bus slide on the icy street. The freezing rain had started about an hour ago and the streets were treacherous now. The door opened and the man got off the bus, took a few steps and fell on the icy sidewalk. He got up, cussing and trying to brush off the icy water. Ben's stop was near the end of the line. The end of the line was in one of the poorer sections of town. The bus was going slow on the icy pavement and it would be about three quarters of an hour before it reached his stop. He closed his eyes and started to drift off into a troubled sleep. Sleep meant dreams and often he wished that he could find a way to never have to sleep. He had learned to use his mind in ways that few people thought possible, but he couldn't stop the dreams that his enemy put into his head while he slept.

He awoke for a few seconds when he heard the bus door open. A rider got out and gingerly made his way down the side street. The bus spun its wheels for a few seconds before it gained enough traction to continue. Ben looked at the other passenger and saw that he was still asleep. The bus driver was intent on keeping the bus on the road and paid no attention to Ben or the other rider. Ben looked out of the side window and saw that the freezing rain was still coming down as hard as ever.

He had just started to nod off when he was thrown from his seat and landed on his back on the floor. Ben quickly got up and sat down again. He heard the driver cursing as he stood up and opened the door. After a minute the driver got back on the bus and picked up a two-way radio. Ben heard him tell someone that the bus had slid into the curb and had blown the tire and bent the wheel. He couldn't make out the reply of the person the driver was talking to. The other rider was awake now and was looking at the driver.

"We blew out the tire when I slid into the damn curb," the driver spit, "They're going to send a repair truck out to change the tire and get us going again. I suggested sending another bus, but they wouldn't try it with the roads like they are."

The driver plopped down in his seat again and turned on a portable radio next to him and tuned it to a rock station. He opened a lunch box and took out a sandwich. As the driver stuffed the food into his mouth Ben started to doze again. His eyes snapped open when the familiar face of his enemy came into his dream. He could not shake that man from his dreams. Would he never be rid of these dreams and that man! It had been so long and he was so tired. Even his soul was exhausted.

The bus driver called back that the repair truck would probably take hours to reach them and advised them to get comfortable as the repair crew might not get to the bus before morning. Ben got up and headed for the door. He was only about eight blocks from his stop. The freezing rain had slowed down and he would be able to make it home before the repair truck got the bus moving again. He got off of the bus without saying a word to the driver or bus rider.

He started the walk toward his home. Home was a room in a converted garage that had been vacant for years before he found it. He had convinced the owner to rent it to him for fifty dollars a month while he fixed it up. The owner was an alcoholic who had no intention of lifting a finger for work and happily agreed to let him fix the place up. Ben had made the place livable even though no one would consider it a home except him. It was one room that served as a bedroom, living room and kitchen. The bathroom had been the first thing that he had completed and was a small room itself. There was a small space in back of the building that he used as a garden and a place to think. Heat was provided by a wood stove that he had found in a dump and it heated the small place well. The electricity, plumbing and water came from the main house, so he had no utility bills to pay. The city didn't know that the garage was being used as living quarters because trees and shrubs at the rear of the property and well hid it.

The owner was in the hospital often with alcohol-related diseases, so he had the place to himself usually. It suited him fine. He could not be around people too much or they would start to ask questions. Ben figured that he could stay here about another year or so before he had to move on. The city was large and it would be a while before he ran out of day jobs. Then he would find another large city and would try to blend in and become invisible.

It was getting increasingly harder to maintain his anonymity. With the technology available today, it was hard not to suddenly find a spot on someone's database. The first few years had been easy. Everyone was scrambling so hard to just survive that they wouldn't notice a stranger unless he called attention to himself. Ben was good at not being noticed.

Chapter 2