41

"So, you started working as Doctor Richard's barber. How was that like?" Lewis asks Shabaz. He has found his opening. He taps at his watch twice. Shabaz looks uneasy at this question. He is trying to choose his words carefully. Lewis takes notice of all the body signs of anxiety on Shabaz.

"Uhm, well, the thing is… I was not a barber at first for Doctor Richard. I was doing something else."

His pattern of breathing has changed and he is fidgeting with his hands. Lewis can tell he is lying by omission. Lewis will press him till he spills the entire truth.

"What were you doing, Shabaz?" Lewis asks in the most calm, friendly voice he can muster. Lewis knows there is something he is trying to hide. Shabaz looks at him with eyes darting around like he is trapped mouse. Lewis almost wants to laugh. How the tables have changed. He had been stuck here when Shabaz looked like he was about to tear his head off because of his psychotic side. Now, Shabaz looked like the terrified one.

"What are you, a detective? Back off, man!" Shabaz almost yells. Fear begins to show in his features.

"Cool off, man. Jeez, I am just trying to get to know you and your story. Curiousity got the best out of me. You know what? It's alright, you do not have to tell me anything you are comfortable with sharing."

Lewis backs off and acts as though he is no longer interested in knowing whatever Shabaz was about to share.

"Where is Emily, by the way? She really has been gone so long." Lewis asks Shabaz. But, he is lost in thought. Suddenly, he looks at Lewis with a determined look in his eyes. Lewis knows when he tells Shabaz that it is alright if he can not do something, Shabaz would do everything to make sure he does it. Lewis guesses it is because of his trauma from being called a sissy when he was younger.

"Emily told me that R&E medicals was searching for candidates who were willing to test their latest creation. It was still in the laboratories and they could not use lab rats to test out this serum cuz they it said made people age backwards. They had to test it out on real humans. That's what they told me. You know, I was wary of the idea. But, Emily offered me a hundred bucks for each person I could find. I thought, wow, so if I find ten people to willingly go check out this serum, I would get a cool one thousand dollars. I went fishing immediately." Shabaz clears his throat. Lewis waits a while for him to continue his story.

"I told everyone I could about the serum. I even told Emily about making fliers but she shut it down immediately. She said they did not want to spread news of the serum before it would officially be introduced to the market. I understood that so I cancelled the idea of making fliers. I was making a couple hundred bucks per day and I was very happy until I wasn't."

Lewis has been patiently waiting for this point. He puts on a patient face that does not convey too much of his interest in the story and lets him move according to his own pace.

"Something went wrong, didn't it?" Lewis asks.

"Sort of. I could not keep going out in the streets in search of people that wanted anti aging serums. It was becoming stressful. Two things that never mix. Stress and Shabaz. So, I came up with an idea. I called together most of my friends, told them about the idea and we came up with a plan.

We planned to visit R&E in different disguises. We hired a prosthetics guy. They could all go as a group in a day but at different times of the day individually. They did not wear any disguise the first time. They never returned either."

Shabaz makes a sharp intake of breath and has a blank look. Lewis waits for him to finish but no words come after.

"What happened? Where did they go to? It can not be where it ends." Lewis has his speculations about where his friends ended up but he wants Shabaz to share his thoughts.

"They just never returned. I asked Emily about them and she said all the candidates from that day went home after the testing with their payment in full. There was no way they were not alright. I thought they had double crossed me. I have to tell you, I felt better thinking they had double crossed me than thinking they were in danger. I thought, well this is just my shitty luck at play, isn't it?" Shabaz gave out a false smile that did not reach his eyes.

"On Thanksgiving, I had no family in town. So I went to visit my friend. His family had taken me as their own when I was alone and homeless. They gave me a warm welcome but when I mentioned Gary's name the entire family went quiet and the room was tense. His grandmother quietly told me that since the past month, Gary had been missing. No one had heard from him, no one had seen him. It rattled me to the bones. I went in search of the rest of the crew after that, all of them had gone missing. I tried to remember the names of other people I had sent to R&E. I went in search of some of them and they were also dead ends. I stopped speaking to Emily for a while after that."

Lewis thinks about this story for a while and wonders why Shabaz never went for the test himself. He asks him why.

"Emily said she thought I did not look like someone who liked the smell of hospitals. She said I was better off getting candidates than being one." Shabaz explains his part.

Lewis strokes at the stubble on his jaw. He knows what happened to his friends but Shabaz is not ready to hear that.