The Los Angeles airport is at the center of a complex network of roadways that all come twisting together into one amalgam of concrete, steel and glass. A single glimpse was enough to give David a chill as his flight descended into this fantastic nexus.

Forty-two minutes later he stepped onto U.S. soil for the first time in more than a year. The bustling terminal was so shiny clean that its very sterility gave him a feeling of cultural vertigo and yet it still somehow managed to remind him of what he'd found at the Subte station when he'd gone to kill himself. Everything seemed to remind him of the night he most wanted to forget.

Then, as if to augment his disorientation, Akiko suddenly emerged from the crowd.

They hadn't spoken in years and he had no idea what she was doing there, but her grim, fastidious approach made it clear she was coming for him. He tried and failed to muster a smile. The word "hello" formed in his larynx. And that's when she struck him in the face.

The tooth rattling knuckle punch turned him sideways and cut open his lip. "Did you think we wouldn't figure it out, Dave?" she screamed. "Did you think we wouldn't know what you did?" Her second attack buried itself in the side of his neck.

For one crazy moment he thought she somehow knew about his aborted suicide attempt, then he realized that it had to be something else entirely. When he saw his brother grabbing at her from behind, he at least knew how she'd found him. But it would be hours before he would understand what she was shouting about.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: With five continents under his belt, AJ Episodes author Jeremy Russell is more than a little familiar with the locations featured in the fictional Episodes. A former daily news reporter for the Billings Gazette in Montana, his award-winning writing has appeared in publications from the New York Press to the San Francisco Bay Guardian. He can be accessed online via www.jeremyrussell.com.