On the city streets, Soni felt distracted as he followed the rest of his graduating class. The girls wanted to buy something out of every antique store they passed. From crystals to handmade dolls. Before lunchtime rolled around, the girls were complaining about the excess baggage they had bought.

Soni kept to himself most of the morning, except for the times Eric and Marty tried to persuade him into doing their wrongdoings with them. He, on any other day, would have been down for whatever to be down with the boys. Today was different.

The crowded streets with our motorist blaring their horns and screaming obscenities at each other seemed miles away outside his mind. Only one question stayed on his mind.

"How?" he had asked himself for the hundredth time. He had asked everybody in the room when he caught them by themselves. Soni knew he was good at reading people's facial expressions and everybody that slept in that hotel room with him was telling the truth. But how could the blanket he was sleeping under be snatched from him, get folded and set neatly by his bed?

"Hey, Soni,"

He snapped out of his trance and looked up at Kresha Winston. Soni noticed that she was carrying bags. The brown with streaks of blond hair was her best feature. She was prettier than most of the girls on the trip, which confused Soni because most people say that he's strange, and women are ninety percent of these people, and she’s one of them.

“Huh…What’s up Kresha?” Soni asked curiously.

Kresha pointed toward the door of the restaurant they were eating in. Soni looked at the door and focused on what was going on outside. He could see the teachers ushering the class across the street. “I just came out of the bathroom. I just happened to notice you on my way out. You okay?” She asked concerned. “You look dazed.” Soni grabbed his book bag out of the seat next to him and stood up. He looked at his plate on the table and noticed that he hadn't touched his food. A hamburger, fries, and drink sat untouched before him. If anyone would have asked Soni what he ate for lunch today he wouldn’t have been able to tell them what he ate.

Soni couldn’t remember walking into the restaurant. “I’ve got to wake up,” Soni said, not meaning to the voice it out loud.

“So what else is new,” Kresha said walking toward the exit to catch up with the rest of the class. Soni followed close behind her, walking around tables that patrons occupied. The politely excused themselves and stepped from the restaurant. They saw a break in traffic and started crossing the street after their class.

“Hey Kresha, thanks for waking me up back there in the restaurant,” Soni said quickening his pace up to match hers.

“Don’t mention it.” She said looking at him. “You weren't sleeping though, you looked lost in your head.”

Soni laughed, “Yeah, I have a habit of doing that.” Kresha looked for her girlfriends in the crowd of graduates. As they walked toward the class Kresha asked, “What happened in your life to make you daydream as you do?”

Soni never felt comfortable talking about his past, so he kept it short. “I was orphaned at the age of nine.” Kresha turned to look at him. She couldn’t see the hurt on his face but knew that it was eating away Soni’s soul. “I’m sorry to hear that,” she said sincerely. She hasn’t lost anyone in her family. She said a silent thank you to the skies and kept walking. A thought occurred to her and Soni knew exactly what she thought was. She stopped walking and turned to him.

Pedestrians were bumping into them, so she stepped clear of their routes. “I’ve been going to school with you for four years, and this is the first that I’ve heard about you being an orphan.” She said, now curious about Soni’s past.

Soni feigned a surprised facial expression. “Are you interested in me now Ms. Winston?” he asked her.

Kresha smirked at him. “Don’t bet your life on it.”

They both laughed together and caught up with the class. As they parted ways they both gave each other that last look that people do when they think they’re going to miss something. The class toured through mall strips and museums until it was time to head back to the hotel.

As everybody took turns riding the elevator to their floor Marty leaned close to Soni. “So how was it?”

Soni perplexed asked, “What?”

Marty grinned at Soni, “Don’t play stupid. I saw you and Kresha walking behind everybody at lunch.” He leaned closer, “Come on Soni, you can tell me.” Soni shook his head.

“You’ve got problems. She woke me up. Seeing that you forgot to. I would still be in that restaurant if it wasn’t for her having a bowel movement.” That said it still wasn’t enough for Marty.

“Alright then. I’ll fall for that one.” He leaned in again, “So what did you two talk about then?” The elevator doors opened and Soni stepped off behind the other boys.

“Leave me alone Mart. You’re one sick individual.”

“Tell me something I don’t know,” he said laughing.

Once in the room, one of the boys had turned the television on and found a movie. Soni couldn’t tell what movie it was. He walked to his bed and laid on his back exhausted from today’s events. He stared at the ceiling, counting the cracks in the thick paint when a news bulletin could be heard from the television.

“Aww man, Not now,” one of the boys complained. “It was getting to the good part.” A woman’s voice could be heard from the television explaining an incident that occurred earlier.

“....the armored cargo ship transferring U.S currency and gold estimated to be worth three hundred million dollars, still puzzles the Coast Guards and Naval officials. Nobody has been arrested as of the moment.” Soni could hear the channel on the television being changed.

“It's on all the good stations,” the complainer whined, finally walking away from the television.

“…Waters are clear for miles,” Soni heard the same reporter’s voice continues. “Agencies are waiting at all docking ports and searching sea for any ships big enough to carry the weight and amount of currency the armored cargo ship carried.”

Soni heard Marty whistle, “Man I wish I had my hand on some of that money.”

“Of the 18 men manning the ship, twelve survived,” the reporter continued.

“Man, look at that,” Eric said shocked. “Looks like a shark took a bite out of that ship.”

Soni raised himself up curious by the destruction Eric spoke of. The camera angle was from a helicopter flying around the ship as if it were an exotic specimen.

A special tow carrier and the Coast Guards had pulled the sunken cargo ship out of the water. The reporter popped back up on the screen.

Soni noticed that she was reporting from one of the carriers. Men in uniform were running around behind her. “Here are some words from one of the eyewitnesses.”

A man in his mid-thirties popped up talking fast in a southern accent. “It was crazy. Nothing came up on the radar for miles. The ship just took a massive punch in the haul.”

The camera then jumped to the damaged ship again. “I thought that we might have hit something, but it would have been impossible, considering that the damage is not in front of any ship.”

Soni looks at the waters around the ship, nothing was in the water. No pieces of the ship to show that something exploded.

“....and before I knew it, we were sinking fast. I thought we were under attack, but I didn’t see any fire. No smoke or explosions.”

“Does anybody know about the shipment?” the reporter asked. The black guy shook his head confidently. “No.” We do transfers like this all the time. Never on the same schedule though, it would be hard to make out our routes considering that we plan them as we leave.” The witness shrugged his shoulders. “ I can’t understand what happened. I didn’t see anybody or any other ships.”

The television went back to the reporter. “Contacts tell my station that this is the biggest shipment to be robbed at sea.”

“That sea must be haunted,” Eric said staring at the wreckage.

“Naw, it ain’t that,” Marty said trying to sound educated in the situation. “I think that boat was in the Bermuda Triangle.” Everybody laughed.

“Man, you crazy,” Eric said laughing. Soni laughed too. These guys had a way of making everyone laugh.

Soni looked back to the television in time to see the movie come back on. Soni laid back on his bed and continued staring at the ceiling. A knock came from the door startling everyone.

“Somebody order a pizza,” Antonio Blight asked. He was the oldest in the room. The teachers told him to watch over the boys and keep everyone in order and from killing each other. He walked to the door and opened it. Soni heard the door close.

“Who was it?” One of the boys asked.

Antoine shrugged his shoulders. “Don’t know. I didn’t see...” another 3 knocks came from the door. Antonio walked back and opened the door again. “What the hell?”

Soni heard him say. Antonio stepped out into the hall looking up and down for anybody.

“Somebody’s playing games,” he said walking back into the room closing the door behind him.

“Maybe it’s the girls downstairs running up here. They could have snuck up the fire escape stairs.” Eric said looking at everyone.

“Yeah, that might be them knocking on our door.” Somebody else chimed in.

Soni smiled at everyone’s accusations. Then he felt it. Where’s it coming, he asked himself. He looked around the room at every individual. Nobody was looking at him. They seemed in their own world. Soni looked around again for anything that was out of the ordinary. Nothing.

“Come on Tony, think about it,” Eric said, calling Antonio by his nickname. “The girls found a way around the chaperones.”

Everybody started gathering towards the door. Not wanting to be left out of the fun, Soni sat up and reached for his shoes under the bed. They weren’t there. Confusion swept over his face. He looked up to see everybody running out of the room. He could still feel a presence near. Soni looked under the bed but couldn’t find his shoes. Then the sound of somebody jumping on one of the beds caught his attention. He looked toward the noise, peeping over his bed and saw his shoe bouncing up and down on the bed as if somebody were wearing them. Soni stared in astonishment, He glanced toward the door to get somebody’s attention but everybody was gone. 

“What the hell is this?” he said aloud. The shoes bounced to the floor and started walking towards him. Startled, Soni started backing up until his body was pressed up against the next bed. The shoes stopped by his bedside as he left them before they turned up missing.

He watched the shoes an entire minute before he moved to stand up. Walking back to the bed when all of a sudden his blanket was lifted into the air by an unknown force. He took a step back again shocked at what he was seeing. The blanket was stretched out and then folded identical to the way it was last night and sat back on the bed. He stared around the room into the air.

"It's you, isn't it Nine?" He said aloud. He heard a single knock come from behind him. Soni turned around to face the direction of the sound of the knock.

"What you can't talk now?" Soni asked looking at the nightstand. The knock had to have come from there. Another knock, this time coming from the door. Soni smiled. "How do you do that? I've read the books... " Knocking came from the nightstand again. This time it didn't stop. Soni turned and stared at the dresser. The knocking stopped.

"I must have said something wrong ?" Soni mumbled to himself. A single knock from the dresser again. Soni began to understand. "Ooohhh, okay. One knock is yes." another single knock. "More than one is No?" Soni asked fascinated. Another single knock. Soni started laughing.

"Imagine the possibilities this brings..." This time it sounded like somebody was pounding on the walls. "What the..." Soni said startled.

The pounding stopped and Soni looked around the room. "Can I perform this,'" he asked with a hint of hope. A single knock. “But how.." Nothing. Soni looked around the room was puzzled.

"Are you there ?" He asked.

Nothing. No knocks on the nightstand, walls, or the door. Suddenly the door to the hotel's room burst open with his roommates coming back in. They had puzzled looks on their faces as they walked in.

"It had to be them," Marshall said as they filled the room once again. Marshall was the tallest of the group. He had the voice of the weakest and smallest man. When he gets hyped his voice raises eight octaves until it's a high pitched squeak. "Who else would pull a prank on us?"

"I don't know," Marty said looking at everybody, "we should have spotted somebody in the halls."

Antonio closed the door and looked at everybody. "Somebody did knock on the door. We all heard it."

Soni didn't feel the presence anymore. "Damn," he said under his breath as Marty sat down on the bed across from him.

"What happened to you, Soni? Why didn't you join the hunt?” Marty asked curiously. Soni pointed at his feet. "My dogs are hurting from all the walking we've done today."

Marty kicked off his shoes and rubbed on his feet. "Yeah, I feel ya bro. I can feel it too."