Ben Archer

by Rae Knightly

  Opposite him, next to the office door, Wes and Tyler were glancing at him glumly. They had been told to sit quietly while Ms. Nguyen talked to their parents.

  “Hey! Psst! Ben!” Tyler whispered.

  Ben ignored him.

  “Come on, man!” Tyler insisted. “We’re sorry. We had no idea you’d feel like this. We thought you’d be proud of what you did! You’re a hero, dude!”

  Ben pressed the ice pack really hard, concentrating on the pain in his eye rather than the pain in his heart. How could Tyler ever begin to imagine what he was going through? His fear of Bordock and Inspector Hao, which he had managed to bottle up since his arrival in Canmore, cut through his body.

  What if they saw the video?

  The very thought paralyzed him.

  Wes pressed a Kleenex against his bloody nose, and Tyler examined the big bump on his leg. Ben heard him note how ‘cool’ it was. The bruise was turning purple, green and yellowish.

  Like my eye.

  Wes bent over to whisper something to his friend, to which Tyler replied, “Yeah!” excitedly.

  “Boys!” the assistant at the front desk warned.

  The pair stiffened, suddenly taking a quiet interest in the carpet. Several minutes ticked by before Tyler ventured to catch Ben’s attention again. “P-s-t! Hey, Ben! When this is over,” he gestured to the Principal’s office, “Let’s do a revenge snowball fight.”

  Wes joined in excitedly. “Yeah, next Saturday, when Kimi’s better. We can meet up at the Millennium Park.”

  Ben couldn’t believe his ears. These boys, who were in deep trouble, were already planning their next stunt. He wished he could have felt that laid back.

  Tyler added, “We can sled there, too…” He was cut off when the door to the Principal's office opened and Wes and Tyler's parents emerged. Immediately, the two boys hung their heads in apparent shame.

  Ms. Nguyen nodded Ben over, but just before he entered her office, he saw Tyler mouth Millennium at him.

  As soon as the door closed, Ben fell into his mother’s arms gratefully. He was intent on hiding behind his ice pack for the rest of the day and let her do the talking. But that didn’t seem to be on the Principal’s mind. The small woman played with her eyeglasses on the desk, staring at him intently. Ben ended up lowering the ice pack, wondering if she needed to see his two eyes before being able to speak.

  A look of concern crossed her face when she saw the damage. “Ah, Ben!” she sighed. “What am I going to do with you?” She leaned back in her chair, her eyes boring into him. “I don’t know whether to suspend you or give you a gold medal.” She paused long enough for Ben to wonder what her verdict would be.

  Her face broke into a smile. “Honestly? I think you’re the bravest boy I’ve ever met in my entire career! You put another student’s welfare before your own. You risked your life with no second thought as to the danger you were putting yourself in.”

  She turned her attention to Laura. “Ms. Anderson, your son truly deserves the highest praise. I’m sure there must be some kind of Canmore medal for outstanding deeds to society. This could go much further than you could ever imagine…” She paused for effect, before finishing, “…but only if you want it to.”

  She was looking at Ben again. “Seeing that video and reliving that horrible experience must have been quite a shock for you, Ben. It’s essential for you to understand that those boys had absolutely no right to be filming you or posting that video online for all to see, without your consent. That was a fundamental breach of privacy. And I want you to rest assured that the video was taken down immediately.”

  At her words, Ben breathed a little easier. He glanced at his mother, who squeezed his hand.

  Ms. Nguyen proceeded very seriously. “Now this unusual event has sent shock-waves through the school and will continue to do so for some time. It is crucial for me to know your mind on this matter so that I can act appropriately. Would you like to share any thoughts, Ben?”

  Ben crossed eyes with his mother, then said, “I just want this to go away. I want everything to go back to normal.”

  Laura added, “We’re not looking for the limelight, Ms. Nguyen. We strongly insist on keeping our privacy intact and would appreciate any help you can give us.”

  The Principal nodded. “Yes, of course. You can count on my full support. In that case, if we are to avoid any interviews, filming, naming, handing out rewards, or such, I suggest you stay at home for the rest of the week, Ben. You are not grounded, but it’s best you’re not at school until I can calm the situation down. I will hold a staff meeting and instruct the teachers to talk to the students about the dangers of sharing private information on the internet. Goodness knows, we need that kind of debate in this day and age!”

  Ben frowned. “But,” he objected. “I have a civics exam on Friday.”

  Ms. Nguyen smiled. “Well, in that case, you can return on Friday if you feel up to it. I’ll have Ms. Evans send you her notes and homework by e-mail this week so you can keep up. Does that sound fair?”

  Ben nodded. He glanced at his mother, but he could not read her expression.

  “The other question I must ask is something you need to weigh very carefully because it can affect the future of certain students.” She crossed the fingers of her hands before her and said, “Will you be pressing any charges?”

  Ben saw his mother straighten in her chair. “Charges?” she asked.

  Ms. Nguyen pursed her lips. “Yes. Charges against Wes and Tyler for posting video material of Ben and Kimi without their consent. There’s no need to answer right away, of course, but I’ll need to know if you are going to want the police and lawyers involved.”

  Laura and Ben glanced at each other in alarm. “No, no!” Laura said quickly. “Of course not! These boys were just fooling around. I’m sure their parents will talk some sense into them!”

  Ben nodded vigorously in agreement.

  Ms. Nguyen’s relief was visible. “I’m glad you see it that way. I’m not defending their reckless actions, but, after all, they did call 911 without delay. At least it shows their hearts are still in the right place.”

  Ben echoed her words in surprise. “Wes and Tyler called the ambulance?”

  Ms. Nguyen nodded. “Yes, Tyler sent Wes for help as soon as they saw Kimi fall through the ice. You can hear it in the video. Kimi was very lucky to be surrounded by so many good-willed people that day.”

  Ben sat back in his chair, fighting a grin. Those two boys would never cease to amaze him!

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Breakthrough

  By the time they got home it was late afternoon. Ben told Laura he wanted to rest, which suited her well because she needed to consult with Thomas about the day’s developments.

  Thomas arrived one hour later, followed by Mesmo not long after that.

  “Sh!” Laura shushed the men when their voices rose at the news. “I don’t want to wake Ben,” she said.

  Thomas pulled out a dining chair and sat heavily, while Laura finished filling Mesmo in. The television flickered with the volume down.

  When Laura fell silent, Thomas said, “It’s worse than you think. They knew about the ice incident at work.”

  “What?” Laura exclaimed. “But how?”

  “It turns out some guy saw the ambulances at the lake and figured someone had fallen in. He started a thread on a Canmore community page on Facebook. I read it. No one has brought up Ben or Kimi’s name yet, but it’s only a matter of time.”

  Laura sagged into a sofa with her hand to her forehead. “Oh my gosh!” she breathed. “All this time we’ve been checking TV and radio stations…”

  “…when we should have been checking social media.” Thomas ended her phrase.

  They stared at each other with a heavy silence.

  “That’s it, then. We have to leave,” Laura stated finally.

  “I’ve already looked into it,” Thomas said. “But you can’t leave. At least not right now
. Two storm fronts are heading in from the plains. Once they hit the mountains, they will dump considerable amounts of snow on Canmore. The first one is due in a couple of hours. The second one on Friday night. We’re stuck here for the first one, but I’m counting on getting you out before the second one hits, probably around noon on Friday.”

  Laura’s brow creased. “That’s a long time…”

  Thomas interrupted. “You have no choice. Flying is out of the question right now. Driving would be insane. On the bright side, if we can’t get out, no-one can get in either. So we shouldn’t have any unwanted visitors until then.”

  Laura sucked in air, then nodded. “All right, Friday it is.”

  “NO!”

  Laura’s head snapped towards the stairs.

  Ben was grasping the railing, his face flushed with anger. He yelled, “What about me? Is anyone interested to know what I want?” Without waiting for an answer, he stormed up the stairs and slammed his bedroom door.

  Laura put a hand to her mouth. The adults fell silent. Mesmo made a gesture as if to follow Ben, but Laura stopped him. “No, it’s ok. I’ll go,” she said, stepping forward.

  But Mesmo was no longer looking at her. Instead, he stood frozen in front of the television. He pointed at the screen and gasped, “There!”

  Laura was stricken. “What? Is it Ben?” She fully expected to see her son’s face on the news. Instead, a reporter spoke in front of high windows behind which multiple large planes were stationed. The caption read: CANADIAN AIRLINE COMPANY IN JEOPARDY.

  Thomas put up the volume.

  “...the Alberta oil sands crisis has caught up with Canada’s biggest airliner, Victory Air. Stocks have plummeted, and major investors have pulled out of the company. At this point, it would take a miracle to save the airliner,” the reporter said.

  Another reporter appeared on the screen. He was standing in front of a highrise surrounded by a flock of newspeople and cameramen. They followed a youngish man to the entrance of the building. The man pushed the cameras away with his hand in an attempt to get away from them. This time the caption read: VICTORY AIR HEADQUARTERS, TORONTO. The reporter spoke loudly into the microphone as he got shoved around by the crowd. “The spokesperson for the troubled airliner was not available for comments…”

  “I don’t understand,” Thomas broke their concentration. “What are we looking at? That’s Toronto, not Canmore.”

  “I saw him!” Mesmo exclaimed.

  “Saw who?” Laura asked, confused.

  Mesmo stared at her with wide eyes. “The man who is holding me!”

  “Wha…?” She gaped at him in disbelief. “Thomas! Can you rewind that thing?”

  “On it!” Thomas’ thumb was already pressing the rewind button.

  “There!” Mesmo said again.

  Thomas pushed the play button. They stared at the stocky man with thick black and grey eyebrows and small green eyes behind black-rimmed glasses who appeared on the screen. His stance was relaxed and he smiled smugly as he shook hands with the President of the United States. The woman’s voice reported over the images, “…just over a month ago, the CEO of Victory Air signed a billion dollar contract with the American government, leading economists to believe the airliner was in good shape. The CEO will release a statement later today…”

  Laura gasped. “I know who that is!”

  Thomas’ head shot up. “You do?” he asked, bewildered.

  “Yes! And so do you. You may not have met him personally, but you will recognize his name.”

  Thomas frowned.

  Laura sucked in air. “That’s my father’s neighbour, Victor Hayward.”

  ***

  Laura knocked softly on Ben’s door. She did not wait for him to answer but stepped into the bedroom, where she found him lying on his back, staring at the ceiling. When she sat on the edge of the bed, he turned to his side so she couldn’t see his face. She rubbed his back, realizing he was crying.

  After a long silence, Ben sobbed, “I don’t want to leave.”

  “I know you don’t,” she said, staring at the floor. “I don’t either.”

  Ben glanced at her with red eyes.

  She gave him a sad smile. “This place has grown on us, hasn’t it?”

  Ben nodded, sniffling.

  “Ben,” she said more seriously. “We need to look at the bigger picture. We promised Mesmo we would help him. He’s already saved us countless times.” She leaned on the bed with her hands on either side of him so she could face him better. “We’ve had a breakthrough. I think I know where Mesmo is being held.”

  “Really?” Ben said, his eyes widening.

  Laura nodded. “I want to stay here as much as you do, but as long as Bordock and the CSIS are looking for us, we’ll never be safe. We have to free Mesmo so he can go home. Only then, will they leave us alone.”

  Ben’s eyes lowered. After a pause, he said purposefully, “How do you know?”

  She removed her hands and straightened, taken aback by his statement.

  Ben insisted, “Seriously, Mom. How do you know for sure? I’ve been infected by alien blood. It’s inside my body, spreading like a virus, turning me into some kind of freak. Mesmo can beam himself away to safety, but what about me? What about us?” He shook his head as if trying to rid his mind of the idea. “I don’t want it. I don’t want the skill, Mom. Mesmo can have it back.” He rolled to his side again, his arms crossed over his chest.

  Laura’s shoulders sagged, Mesmo’s words echoing in her mind. Bordock had forcefully taken a skill from Mesmo’s wife. And she had died. Was Ben stuck with this skill indefinitely?

  “Have you talked to Mesmo about this?” she asked, trying to sound in control.

  His voice was muffled by a cushion. “Are you kidding? He wants me to have this skill. He’s thrilled that I have it! He wants it to grow strong, so I can use it all the time.”

  Laura frowned. “Use it, for what?”

  Ben faced her with angry eyes. “How should I know? Why don’t you ask him?”

  ***

  Laura shut the door to Ben's room quietly and leaned on the wall shakily. She placed her hands over her nose and mouth and closed her eyes tight.

  She had gone to see Ben with the intention of reassuring him, but things hadn’t gone as planned.

  If they ever completed the daunting task of sending Mesmo home, would the police leave them alone? In her heart, she did not believe so.

  And what was it about Ben’s skill? Intuition told her Mesmo’s interest in the skill went way beyond the fact that it had once belonged to his daughter. “I came to assess the planet.” That’s what he had said. But assess…for what?

  Laura realized how little she knew about the alien whose destiny was intrinsically linked to theirs. Her father’s letter warning her about Mesmo flashed before her eyes. “He will crush you if he feels you are standing in his way.”

  Her breath halted.

  Would he really do that, if it came to it?

  ***

  The stocky man’s knuckles whitened as he grasped the side of the table, a large golden ring topping his ring finger. His nostrils flared and his small green eyes were hard. He looked like a bull seeing red.

  Before him lay a computer screen from which a youngish man rubbed his pale face. Both men sat at desks though the first man had a view of a sprawling desert city while the other cowered in a dim room that resembled a hospital.

  The youngish man blinked rapidly and wrung his hands together before him. “I’m sorry, Boss,” he said meekly. “We can still contain this.”

  “We?” Victor Hayward seethed. He looked like he was about to explode. “Who do you think is going to an emergency meeting with the investors? I have the American military breathing down my neck. They are snapping at me like wild dogs.” He leaned forward and said menacingly, “Maybe I should feed you to them instead.”

  The youngish man gulped visibly. Victor Hayward let him suffer for a bit, then said, “How did
the media find out? Who told them the oil sands have dried up and we’ve been stalling to tell the world?”

  “I…I don’t know, Boss. We’re still tracing the news. It obviously came from an investigative reporter…”

  “…who slipped through the security you set up,” Victor Hayward accused.

  The man avoided eye contact. “Tell me what to do, Boss,” he said, resigned. “I’ll do it.”

  Victor Hayward leaned back into his tall office chair, letting air escape his nostrils as if he were letting off steam. “Sit tight,” he said. “I need to get through this week, restore the investor’s confidence, rub the media the right way, put on an angel face.” He leaned forward again and jabbed a finger at the screen. “And then,” he growled threateningly, “I’m coming home. And we are going to get down to business. Our martian friend’s nursing days are over.”

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Rejection

  Ben paced his room in frustration. He would honestly have preferred going to school rather than spend long days cooped up at home on his own. His mother had braved the wind and snow to walk to work that morning, while Thomas had had to wait for the roads to be decently cleared before he’d been able to make his way to Canmore Air. There were reports that schools and some businesses would close the next day if the snowstorm worsened. Laura had told Ben that Tim Hortons would remain open, however, due to the high demand for hot coffee, which suited her fine because she needed to work as many hours as possible before their departure.

  Seeing as they planned on leaving that Friday at noon, Ben begged his mother to let him take the civic’s exam. Laura told him she did not like the idea, but he was adamant and refused to let go until she consented.

  Now, alone at Thomas’ house, Ben regretted having insisted so hard, because studying proved impossible. Strangely, it wasn’t because their lives had been flipped upside-down, again. It was because, in the silence of the house, Tike was talking to him nonstop.

  It started with a nudge in his mind, a playful thought, and before he knew it, Ben watched his hands begin to glow while he sat at his desk.