“What about you? Any family?” he asks.
“Parents who don’t approve of my life choices; a sister who agrees with them, we see each other now and again,” I say.
“Life choices would be---?” he asks, cocking his head.
“Tattoos, piercings, bartending, sleeping with random guys I just meet,” I say.
“Hmm, like I said, my mum’s not one to judge, must be rough,” he says, shrugging.
“Enough. They only care, I just don’t always want to hear it, “ I say.
“Understood, the pep talks from my mum get tiresome but I understand she doesn’t want me to be dead,” he says, “I’d like you to come to dinner I think you’d like her as I said she’s not one to talk about life choices and she’s got tattoos as well.”
“Why don’t you?” I ask.
“I wasn’t allowed to in Space Forces---suppose I could now,” he says, “That’d be something to ask her about.”
“You’re going to go ask your mum about getting a tattoo?” I ask, almost laughing.
“Yeah, like I said she’s the poster child of poor life choices me being one of them,” he says, smiling.
“I’ll ask if I can get off,” I say.
“Don’t get in trouble we can do it another time if you don’t mind staying in my life as long as it may be,” he says.
“What?” I ask, laughing again.
“You heard me,” he says.
Chapter 4
“A
re we speaking again?” I ask, tapping my earpiece to answer Tess’ call.
“You’ve had your cookies?” she asks, oh so innocently dear god she is so completely my child.
“Yes, your revenge was bitter, now, what do you want?” I ask.
“A favor, for Billy,” she says.
“Did you go to classes today?” I ask.
“Yes,” she says.
“All right, go on,” I say, “Who’s Billy?”
“The bald little boy you dumped ice water on the this morning getting yourself a tainted cookie,” she says.
“Masculine debates should never be the subject of feminine revenge any more than masculine sins against the female should be the subject of masculine revenge,” I say.
“He’s dying, dad, water upon me is of little consequence compared to him, I was nearly late for class getting him warmed up again,” she says.
“You can’t actually die from catching cold,” I say.
“You can if you’re already dying,” she says.
“Have you done experiments in it---I think not---”
“I have read several scholarly articles but we digress—”
“Yes we do, what was the favor?”
“Billy’s a Project 10 like me, but thing is his parents don’t have any contact and he’d like to meet them before he dies,” she says, “Is there any way we could get special permission for him to get to contact them? Since he won’t live to be sixteen like me and the others.”
“I haven’t looked into the laws much, but I can ask,” I offer, checking my wrist pad, “Your next class starts soon, doesn’t it?”
“Yes, can you find out for me?” she asks.
“Yes, I’ll try, study hard, love you,” I say.
“Love you too, dad,” she says.
“Are you done?” Thorn asks, staring at me. I got Tess’s call right after stepping into his office.
“Yeah, we’re good, she had class,” I say, nodding, “How was your night last night?”
“Remarkably and refreshingly free of you---yours?” he asks.
“Good, I tortured the cadet and picked up Tess and her friends,” I say, nodding.
“Absolutely lovey and nobody died? Wasn’t that pleasant?” he asks.
“Not really now that you mention the lack of bloodshed---”
“I know, and no random explosions you must be out of your mind---”
“I am, and I talked to Ziggy this morning and you’re right I so can’t kill him it’s depressing---”
“So hard to be you Titus, now I assume you didn’t come to my office just to inquire about my health and answer phone calls?” he asks.
“No, I wanted to ask if you knew why Major Tom is upset with me?” I ask.
“No idea, have you done anything especially you, lately?” he asks.
“No, that’s the thing---it’s been for a while, though, just sort of bubbling, I’m hoping you can help me you’ve known her as long as I have, what would make a woman who is generally ambivalent to likely to make out with you completely disgusted/mistrustful of you?” I ask, desperately. Kip was no help. Modern psychology manuals were no help. Ziegfeld was no help. I’m running out of options.
“As completely not at all interested as I am in your sex life---”
“Go on, please?”
“Might have something to do with having to be made to be in charge of you because you’re a force of nature?” he asks, “Maybe, just an idea, could be wrong I usually am.”
“Yeah, you usually are, all right, any other ideas?” I ask.
“No, hard as this may be to believe I do other things than entertain, mange, talk to, and all around attempt to survive, you. Now can you go play with your cadet or child or eat crisps with Kip or try to seduce Major Tom or any of the non-violent things you do when you aren’t here?” he asks, hopefully.
“Oh, all right, then,” I say, “The cadets are with Major Tom, we’re going to put them on the flight simulators tonight.”
“Yes, you do that, goodbye,” he says, waving at me to leave.
“Right then----but before I go offhand do you know of anybody who would care more about my potential sex life than you do and would have more empirical information---”
“OUT!!!”
“Yes, sir, good afternoon sir.”
“Oh now you remember customs and courtesies, stupid bastard.”
“Love you too, Thorn.”
“Are you humming?”
“No,” I lie, turning around so Bridget can’t see the smile on my face.
“What---you are, Jacob,” she laughs, spinning me around. I have two hours off of surgeries today and she miraculously had a break from classes, so we met in the shops to pick up some things for dinner tonight. “How did it go with the new beauty and brains at the hospital? You talked to her this morning, didn’t you?”
“I did,” I admit, slapping her hands away playfully, “And it went horribly we affirmed once and for all I have at least one social functioning disorder---”
“We knew that already, go on,” she says.
“And she said maybe,” I say, shrugging.
“You do know maybe isn’t good?” she asks, her smile fading.
“My child, you fail to understand my track record. Maybe is great. Maybe is stupendous. Maybe is absolutely bloody exceptional, maybe is unprecedented,” I say, laughing.
“You married my mum,” she laughs.
“If you’ll recall hefty amounts of alcohol were involved in that and she found somebody better in a record two months,” I say, still laughing, mention of my ex will not spoil my mood today.
“What two—are you sure? I thought it was six before they left,” she says.
“No, pretty sure it was two—could’ve been sooner, actually,” I say. It was two before she found somebody more charming than me, and this fellow had more moral character and spine. A very excellent spine. And ribs. It was two months before she found him. Six months before I decided how to cook them. “Doesn’t matter. As I said, maybe is unprecedented, and she’s clever which means she’ll see that I’m a god among men.”
“She’ll know you’re crazy you mean,” Bridget laughs. I like her. That’s why she’s still alive. When she and her mum came to live with me five years ago, I had no idea that she would be the longer lasting, if less nutritious, part of the package.
“Well, thing is I’m hoping she’s crazy too,” I say, “Now come on, what do you want tonight? Roast eggplant with white sauce?”
I hold up a plant.
“No, why are we suddenly vegan?” she laughs.
“Supply doesn’t always meet demand my dear, be patient,” I say. my romantic aspirations have been consuming time usually devoted to my culinary ones. “Come on, decide?”
“Okay, that’s fine—when’s your butcher going to get something in that’s up to your standards?” she asks, tiredly.
“Hopefully soon,” I say. Very soon.
“Welcome to what you never knew you’ve been waiting for.”
“For somebody so sullen about training a cadet you’re quite theatrical about this—” Tom says, leaning against the door.
“I prefer melodramatic----flying is like nothing you’ve ever felt or dreamed of feeling. It’s as close to dying as a living man can get,” I say, standing I front of the simulators.
“Sir, what do you mean?” Jordan asks, frowning a little.
“It is only in death that man can be truly free, free of pain, from thought, reason, the tries and the cares and tribulations of this universe, we go on to something else, the unknown freedom from all human shape and reason. Flight is as close as man can get to that vast, and wonderful, freedom,” I say.
“We’ve been on the simulators for OTS,” Starr says, flatly. He does not expect to be impressed.
“Not with me you haven’t,” I say, smiling. “Are you ready to go?”
“This is where you live?” I ask, staring at what looks like an abandoned warehouse as Jo fishes keys from the pocket of her coat and undoes several locks.
“Yeah,” she says.
“Brilliant, much more interesting than where I live,” I say, leaning against the wall. Walking is absurdly hard and it hurts. But I don’t care.
“If less legal, look, do you mind waiting outside for a second? I don’t want to startle Lizzie,” she says.
“Yeah, no, I’m good, I don’t like walking into girls’ rooms in general let alone unannounced,” I say, nodding. It’s generally a good policy, independent of the close proximity I’ve lived with women all my life, I still tend to be shy, and apparently my mother is the only women in the universe who thinks that’s cute. Well, Jo might think it’s cute but I don’t think she’s the sort of girl who uses words like cute. I don’t think I’d like her if she was.
“Right, just---see you in a minute,” I say. I’m no good at goodbyes, however short.
“Yeah, I’ll be right here,” he says, smiling quickly. He looks like doesn’t smile very often yet he does it often for me. I think about that as I go in.
“Hey,” I say, Lizzie is sitting at the table, our kitchen table, as it were, an old card table set up in the middle of the room. she’s not eating, instead looking blankly at the tablet I brought her. I don’t think she knows how to read very well. “I brought Quentin to meet you.”
“I don’t like men,” she says.
“Yeah, I know, nor do I, but this is a decent, one, I promise, and you need to learn to meet new people without freaking out and—” I don’t have a word for what she does.
“Mutant stuff,” she supplies.
“Yeah,” I say, nodding, “Do you want to meet him?”
“Okay,” she says, “You promise he’s okay?”
“I promise---and if he’s not, we can both take him, okay?” I ask, winking at her.
“Okay,” she says, nodding and turning around to face the door.
“I’ll go let him in, and then we’re gonna go back to his place with him, to help Shannon,” I say, going towards the door, “He wants to help her too.”
“Okay,” she says.
I open the door and let him in. He steps in slowly, ducking a bit in the low doorway. He looks immediately at Lizzie, curiously almost, studying her a bit too intently. She raises a hand and steps backward. He stumbles hitting the invisible wall she no doubt put up. for my part I move, I don’t know if to him or to her, but to one of them to stop it, but like a flash, Quentin steps backward and neatly around the wall, advancing on her quickly.
“I’m not---going---to—hurt you,” he says, stepping backward every few paces at each word, dodging her blocks and working his way smoothly to her. when he reaches her she’s crying, and he kneels down in front of her, putting her little outstretched hand on his head. She breaks down sobbing, but not tears of fear, now. She leans into him, sobbing and pressing her forehead against his.
“Shush, shush, I’m not here to hurt you, see?” he asks, picking her up and standing and letting her continue to lean into him, sobbing freely.
“What---do you know each other?” I ask, surprised, staring between them.
“No, my sister had telekinesis, like her, same exact eyes,” he says, rocking her a little.
“I saw him looking at me and he knew so I panicked,” Lizzie explains, taking a deep breath but still pressing her head against his.
“That’s why I had to get close to her, the telekensis works better when we’re close together, especially since we hadn’t met,” he explains, “All she could see was the recognition and I knew that, once we touched, she could see more. My sister and I used to practice with it, all the time, naturally. I adapted my mind to let her in. And I got pretty used to getting around the force fields.”
“I’ve always been trapped by them,” I admit.
“Yeah, nobody thinks of just backing out of it, and most mutants don’t think of putting up a back to the box---we’ll practice with that, yeah? That way bad people can’t get to you,” he says, brushing her matted hair out of her face.
“I like you,” she says, touching his head one more time before he sets her down.
“I like you too little one,” he says, “Now you know my name but I don’t know yours.”
“Lizzie is what they call me,” she says.
“She didn’t ever tell us her real name,” I say.
“I didn’t like it,” she says, hugging herself.
“Don’t cry baby, it’s okay,” I say, giving her a cloth to wipe her face, “I’m sorry you got so scared---we’ve not introduced her to anyone else.”
“Right---good thing as well, you know you’re lucky most people aren’t like me? They’re scared of what you can do,” he says, seriously.
“I know---you were right, he’s decent, he’s more than decent,” Lizzie says, still staring at him.
He smiles but says nothing. Lizzie grins.
“What?” I ask, looking between them.
“I know how to respond to her in my head---my sister and I had, literally, nothing better to do than get good at this,” Quentin explains quickly, “We’ll teach you as well, it isn’t so hard once you get used to it. we all, naturally I suppose, have a mental block against them, over the years I took mine down, to let Ginny in.”
Lizzie cries afresh.
“Yes, she died,” he says, nodding, “But we’re not going to let them get you, I promise.”
“That’s how your sister died?” I realize, “They took her because she was a mutant?”
“Yes, I don’t mention it, because it tends to be controversial but apparently neither of us need have worried, it would seem we’re all on the same side,” Quentin says.
“Yeah,” Lizzie says, taking my hand as well as Quentin’s. she smiles. I feel a heat inside my forehead, a warm glowing, heady feeling, like having a bit too much to drink but not so much you’re ill. Quentin nods, “That’s what it feels like.”
(I like him)
I smile. I like him too.
Chapter 5
“D
o you know about any caveats to the Project 10 program, when one of the children is dying? Tess was asking me for a friend,” I say, as Lt Col Ziegfeld and I stand in line in the officer’s mess. Major Tom is avoiding me and eating with the cadets, Ziggy is avoiding me because I scared him, and Thorn is trying to get superglue out of his mouth. Tess is eating at school or at least she should be. Everybody is entertained. Except me.
“That’s sad, one of her friends is dying?” she asks.
/>
“Yes, I suppose so---I honestly didn’t research the program all that much, as I’ve full visitation to Tess it never mattered, but one of her friends doesn’t have contact with either of his parents and since he won’t be alive when it’s unlocked he wanted to know if there’s a way to access it now. I wasn’t sure if you knew of anything like that, by chance,” I ask, picking up packets of milk.
“My son’s been out of the program for years and like you I had visitation so I didn’t pay so much attention to that sort of thing---but I’m going to guess there isn’t, I’ve never heard of anybody getting contacted like that,” she says. “You could look it up easily enough, I’m sure.”
“Yes, I’m sure, just thought I’d ask before I went to the trouble,” I say.
“Poor little thing, only wants to meet parents and not having any,” she says, “Did you talk with him?”
“No, I didn’t know till Tess called me earlier to ask,” I say.
“Huh, well, let me know what you find out, but as I said, I’m pretty sure it isn’t a thing---you never know, though. There is the release for eligible parents to contact the co parent,” she says.
“What do you mean?” I ask, not understanding.
“If one parent has visitation rights, like you do and I did, we can contact the other parent who does not, sort of a loophole, but it’s intended so that the parent who didn’t have visitation is more likely to participate again, knowing the first child and other parent are well and all that,” she says, “It’s a newer opportunity through the program.”
“Oh yes---I remember now they told me about that when Tess was born,” I say nodding. I got a whole lecture and dozens of documents explaining my ‘free’ visitation rights with my own daughter, as well as a host of other procedures and things, from when and how I’d be contacted if she was ill, to my rights of guardianship if she became unfit for the program. I really didn’t listen and asked every 2 to 4 minutes if I could go meet her now and talk to her. they didn’t like me very much.
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