19. Means Justified

She had to chase after him because he was walking at a pretty good pace. When she caught up she reached out and grabbed him by the shoulder, repeating his name, and he whirled around with a frightened look on his face. He didn't recognize Kandhi until she'd managed to stop him and let go and convince him who she was.

"What's happened to you?" she asked. "You look terrible".

"I'm fine", he told her. "Nothing happened."

"Well, look", she said, "I'm just up visiting friends. I've been trying to find you, did you know that? Chris said you didn't have a phone but he gave me your address and I went by a couple of times, you weren't there."

"Chris told you?", Tom asked. He didn't hear the rest of what she said after she'd mentioned that name. "Is he back?"

"Back?", Kandhi took a moment to figure out what he meant. "No, no. I called him. He's in Seattle. You knew that, right?"

"Oh, right", Tom said, and started to walk away.

"No, wait", Kandhi said, hurrying after him and trying to get his attention. "Listen, I wanted to apologize. That was a rotten thing me and Klehre. Tagging the poodle like that."

"Poodle?", Tom turned again to face her. He had no idea why she was talking about a poodle.

"Yeah", she told him, and pressed on breathlessly. "We were kind of pissed that you tagged us too. Like you didn't trust us! Well, I guess you were right because we let you down. I'm really sorry about that. But anyway, it's okay because what I really wanted to tell you is that I felt so bad about that that me and my mom went down to that racquetball club the next week and we found that Harold guy that Chris knows, and we followed him to a juice bar and made sure we sat down right near by and then me and my mom talked real loud and all about your idea, about how Hollywood should do more to save the planet? And I'm sure he heard us because well for one thing some people kept telling us to pipe down, and for another thing we kept saying the same things over and over again? And this one time he looked right at us right after we had said the thing and from the look on his face I could tell he was interested? So", she exhaled, "so I just wanted to tell you that we did it like we promised, okay?"

"Sure", Tom said. He had managed to gather most of the information even though it was the highest concentrated volume of words he'd absorbed in some time. "That's okay. Thanks. I'm glad you did that."

"So I hope you won't be mad at us anymore."

"I'm not mad", he assured her. "Everything is all right."

"Oh, good", she said, "because I was really feeling guilty. That's why I called Chris and came by to try and see you so I could tell you in person. I never thought I'd see you walking down here along the coast like this. You do that a lot?"

"Some", he said. He was ready for her to go away, and she could tell.

"So, do you need a ride or something? I'm heading back down south but I could take you somewhere if you like. You don't have a car, do you? I didn't see ..."

"No, thanks", he interrupted. "I'm just going for a walk. I'll be fine. It was nice to see you. Thanks for stopping."

Kandhi bit her lip and turned to go. She felt it wasn't quite time yet, that she had more to say, but couldn't think of anything.

"And thanks again for doing the thing", Tom told her. That did the trick.

"Your very welcome", Kandhi said. "Anytime, really. Just give me a call, oh, I forgot. You don't have a phone."

Tom shook his head and, turning away, started walking again down the side of the road, leaving Kandhi behind. A few minutes later she beeped as she drove past him. He waited until her car was out of sight, and then he turned around. He nearly jumped in the air for joy. Suddenly he felt like going to the beach and leaping around in the waves. He ran, for the first time in years actually ran, to the steps leading down to the beach at Montara and, throwing off his shoes ran into the surf, up to his knees. The water was cold, frigid, freezing, the way it always is out there but Tom was happier than he'd been in weeks. He didn't even look to see if there were children or women laughing at him. He only noticed a big black lab that came running along to play beside him in the waves.

It worked, he told himself. I know it did. It really did. I can make it happen again. I know I can. But no more volunteers. No way. Who needs it? I don't. I can make all the volunteers I want. I can put the thoughts in their head and they'll just go and do it. Don't need tagging. Don't need tracking. Just get some target's names, dole 'em out at random along with the ideas I want them to hear. I'll send every one I see out on a mission to change the world, just by talking loud in public! This is going to be great!

And, as if to validate the new plan, and right on time, came a squadron of huge brown pelicans, gliding prehistorically overhead.