Learning To Fly

by DeMaris, Charles

  He pulled his hand away from hers and turned his head, walking to the court with the basketball, dribbling a couple times and putting up a shot that missed everything. He shot two more times, missing badly each time. When he turned back around, he was trying to keep the tears from forming, to no avail. He came back over and sat down, resting his chin in his hands and staring at the ground. Kendra scooted over next to him and put her arm across his shoulder. He leaned his head into her shoulder and finally let the tears come.

  “I’m sorry,” she said.

  “Don’t be, ain’t your fault.”

  “I brought it up. We were having such a fun time, and I had to go and say that.”

  “Yeah…you got plenty of gas?”

  “Filled the tank yesterday. Why?”

  “Can you drive me up to Lebanon, before I change my mind?”

  Henry Jones sat in his cell reading a paperback novel when the guard came by.

  “Hi Henry, whatcha reading?”

  “Something Wilson loaned me. It’s not bad. About some young black kid becomes an action hero. Writer’s a local guy.”

  “Really, you’ll have to let me read it when you’re done.”

  “You’d probably like it. Anyway, what brings you to my neighborhood?”

  “You got a visitor.”

  “You kidding me? I ain’t had a visitor in six years. Who is it?”

  “They didn’t tell me the name. Couple young black kids.”

  “What kids would want to be visiting me? I ain’t nobody.”

  “I don’t know. Couple young kids. They must know you.”

  “Figure I oughta follow you then.”

  The guard took Henry to the visiting area where he sat down and picked up the phone handset while Franklin did the same thing from the other side of the glass. They both looked at each other for a minute, neither saying anything.

  “Do I know you kid?” Henry asked.

  “Yeah…but it’s been a while. I don’t look familiar?”

  “Maybe you do…wait a minute…you aren’t…” Henry’s voice trailed off as recognition hit him.

  “Franklin…that you son?”

  “Dad…yeah…” The tears began to flow as Franklin tried to gain his composure.

  “Well, didn’t reckon I’d see you today. Lord knows I didn’t know if I’d ever see you again. Don’t rightly deserve to.”

  “I’ve been mad at you, awful mad.”

  “I guess I got that coming. What brought you up here today?”

  Franklin nodded toward Kendra, who smiled at Henry.

  “Well son, that your girlfriend?”

  “I…I don’t know.”

  Kendra nodded her head and smiled, eliciting a smile from Henry.

  “Well boy, you’re punching way above your weight class there. You take care of her. What you been up to? You finish school by now, I figure.”

  “Well…not exactly. Just took my GED test.”

  “I guess that’s better than nothing, but I don’t want you following me, you know what I mean?”

  “I think so. I…I guess you want to know what I’ve been up to. Not been good, most of it.”

  “Nothing like I did, I hope?”

  “No, no drugs or anything, but I saw plenty of that.”

  “Last I heard, you had a good foster home.”

  “I didn’t stick around.”

  “Oh…streets are tougher than you imagined, right?”

  “You could say that.”

  “You can’t be on the streets now, not having a pretty thing like that hanging around.”

  “I’m staying with Walter.”

  “Walter…the super guy?”

  “Yeah, he’s a cool dude.”

  “Seems like it, what I see on TV. How’d that happen?”

  “I saw him using his powers, before he knew how. I kind of tagged along.”

  “Well son, I’m happy for that. I’m happy you aren’t turning out like me. You don’t want to spend your days in a place like this.”

  “How do you deal with that?”

  “Son, I’m here because I deserve to be. I can’t blame anyone else for it, just me. I done things no man should do, and I’ll never forget it. I still see his face…every time I close my eyes. I see his face, and the look on it when I pulled the trigger. Son, you don’t want to deal with that. I see that, and sometimes I think of you and hope you’re better off and that you never go down that path.”

  “Yeah, Dad…I been hating you for years, blamed you for what happened to Mom…”

  “And you’d be right. She made her own choices, but where was I to stop her? Where was I to set her on a better path? Hell, I walked the same path with her. You listen to me boy. You treat that girl like I treated your mom and I’ll break out of here just to kick your ass, you got it?”

  “Yeah, I think so.”

  “I hope so. One bitter old man is enough for this family. You got a future ahead of you. Don’t waste it.”

  “Sounds like you changed in here.”

  “You get a lot of time to think, stuck in a place like this, lot of time to pray too. I done a lot of praying and thinking. Good thing the Lord forgives, even though I don’t deserve it.”

  “I’m not so good at it.”

  “Not so good at what?”

  “The forgiving thing. I’ve been so mad at you…now…I don’t know. Kendra says things…says you deserve a second chance. You want a second chance to be my dad?”

  “Oh Franklin…” Henry wiped the tear from his eye and tried to continue.

  “Son…I don’t deserve it. I know the Lord done forgiven me, but he’s the Lord. That’s what he’s good at. I failed you. I ain’t never been much of a dad to you.”

  “You’re being one now.”

  “Look at me boy, I’m here because I took some other boy’s dad away from him, and I was never a father to you, or a husband to your mother. I don’t deserve another chance. I’m getting what I deserve, right here.”

  Franklin put his hand up against the glass, tears streaming down his cheeks.

  Henry hesitated, but put his hand up in the same place.

  “Dad, I don’t wanna hate no more. It’s no good. Kendra’s taught me that a person isn’t his past. We all got a future and we can move on. You’re not your past. I see that. You ain’t all that crap you did back then. Yeah, you got to pay the price, but you’re still my dad. You think you can be a better dad now than back then?”

  “Oh Lord…Son…you can…forgive me?”

  “I didn’t think I could this morning…but…Dad…I…forgive you.”

  Henry kept his hand on the glass and bowed his head slightly, not able to do anything but weep. Finally after what seemed like an eternity but was in reality only a minute or two, Henry composed himself. “Franklin, you done me a world of good today, you know that? You took a big burden off my heart.”

  “Off mine too.”

  “Visiting time’s almost over, Mr. Jones,” the guard said.

  “That’s my boy there. That was my son, come to visit me,” Henry said to the guard, “Brought his girlfriend too. Ain’t she fine?”

  “See you later, Son,” Henry said.

  “See you later, Dad. Love you,” Franklin said hanging up the handset.

  18

  Walter and Mike had breakfast and found a secluded spot for training, in the Mojave desert.

  “Why did you have to bring me all the way out here?” Walter asked.

  “The likelihood of us running into anyone else is rather slim.”

  “You got that right. Second question. You had to hang on while I flew us both here. You can give these powers out and you don’t have any yourself? What gives?”

  “Yeah, about that. That's not tech my people exactly have access to.”

  “Come again?”

  “The other one I fear might be here…it’s his people who developed it. He can probably make more of you than I can, and he probably has similar abilities himself
.”

  “Then how did you manage to do what you did?”

  “I stole one.”

  “Just one?”

  “Yes, and the other device I gave you, the one that you can use to transfer your powers.”

  “Let me get this straight. You stole the two devices and got out of Dodge?”

  “I brought them straight here. I heard he was heading here, and I didn’t know exactly what his plans were. I still don’t. I thought if I could use the device on at least one person here, I might give your people a fighting chance.”

  “But if he can make more, how is one of me a fighting chance?”

  “I don’t know how many he has or what his plans are yet. You’re a good start, if we an get you up to speed.”

  “How much more up to speed do I need to be?”

  “You’ve barely scratched the surface, but you've done better than I expected under the circumstances. You have your young friend to thank for that.”

  “What else do I need to learn?”

  “Your other senses, for starters. I think you’ve had success with your hearing and smell, but you can have more control over those, and you sight too.”

  “Sight? I never knew.”

  “There is that, and you’re capable of way more speed than you realize. It’s all up here.” Mike touched Walter on the forehead.

  “All in my head?”

  “Yep. That's all that’s holding you back. Let’s start with your eyes. You can see objects farther away, or zoom down to see microscopic objects. It’s not as much of a physical trick as just deciding that’s what you’re going to do and doing it. Give it a try.”

  Walter looked at a small hill about two miles away and focused his mind, and within a few seconds it seemed as if he was a foot away. He saw a snake crawl by and could see the details of the scales as if he was standing over it. He then came back to normal vision by thinking about it. He repeated the process with other objects farther away and then looked down and magnified the dust at his feet until he could see mites and other items normally not visible to the naked eye.

  “Whoa, that is pretty cool,” he said.

  “It seems you have the hang of it. Now, work on your speed. Fly to the ocean and back, and don’t hold anything back. As fast as you can.”

  Walter flew to the coast and back, but he knew he didn’t go any faster than he had in the past. He took off again, this time clearing his mind and just letting himself go, and he was amazed. He was back in a couple seconds at the most.

  “There you go,” Mike said, “Now do the same time, but with the east coast.”

  After a few more tries, Walter found himself flying at speeds he only dreamed of before, crossing the entire country in a second, making a mental note not to cause any more sonic booms near populated areas.

  “Now you’re getting it,” Mike said, “There’s only one other thing to teach you, and it might take more time to master, since I’m not exactly sure how to describe it.”

  “Would it be how you managed to get in my house undetected?”

  “It would be.”

  “I didn’t think you had any of these powers.”

  “I don’t. It was a one-off thing in my case.”

  “How…never mind. I don’t think I need to know. How did you do that?”

  “You vibrate your body so fast that you can pass through a solid object. I could explain the science, or I can just have you work on it until you can do it.”

  “I vibrate my body and I can pass through things?”

  “That’s how it works. You might want to try something small first. Like take that piece of wood over there and try to pass your hand trough it.”

  Walter held his hand out and tried it shake it back and forth as fast as he could, but nothing was working.

  “You’re not looking for a shaking motion as much as you’re looking to try to make much smaller motions. Vibrate your hand. When you get it, it will look like a blur. Keep trying. When you get the hand down, eventually you’ll be able to do your whole body.”

  It took an hour of repeated attempts, but Walter managed to vibrate his hand and pass it through a piece of wood. Thirty minutes later he was vibrating his whole body, so it looked like a blur. They flew back home and when they got to the door, he did it again and passed through the door without opening it.

  “What the…Walter…where’d you come from?” Franklin exclaimed when Walter appeared next to him.

  “New trick I just learned,” Walter said as he turned around and opened the door for Mike.

  “That’s some trick,” Kendra said from the couch.

  “He showed me a couple other things as well. How’s your day been?”

  “We had a good day,” Franklin said, “shot some hoops and saw my dad.”

  “Whoa kid, how did that go?”

  “It went well. He’s different, not the same man.”

  “Prison can change people, or so I hear. Gives you time to think.”

  “I think he’s been praying. Mentioned the Lord a couple times.”

  “That will do it too.”

  “Uh, guys, check this out,” Kendra said, turning up the volume on the TV.

  “Well, it would appear I’m not alone,” Walter said a moment later.

  Reports were coming in all over the country, a string of robberies by what appeared to be a super powered woman. There were two video clips showing her flying away at a high rate of speed.

  “What all did she hit?” Walter asked.

  “A lot more than that TV report is mentioning,” Franklin said, looking up from his laptop screen, “the Federal Reserve, a large chunk of gold from Fort Knox, several small banks and jewelry stores. Reports are still coming in.”

  “That explains why things were so busy around here last night. Maybe it was a diversion to keep me tied down why she was out joyriding.”

  “I think we know who is responsible,” Mike said, “Now we have to figure out what we’re going to do about it.”

  “What we’re going to do is I have to stop her,” Walter said.

  “It will probably come to that, but we don’t know what her capabilities are.”

  “So, it looks like this, what did you call him…Jack…has given these powers to some woman, but we don’t know what his agenda is yet? Surely it isn’t to just let her run around on a robbery spree?”

  “Maybe it is.”

  “How do you figure?”

  “If she was smart enough to stage a crime spree around here to keep you from stopping what she was doing, why do you think Jack isn’t doing the same thing? He’s got something larger planned, and she is the perfect diversion.”

  “There were rumors going around about some female crime boss in the area. You think it could be her?”

  “That is a possibility you must consider.”

  “We think she was the one behind the plane crash.”

  “Then it is more than likely she was the same person. She would be the kind he would target. He doesn’t have to worry about motivating her.”

  “That’s fine and all, but do you have any idea what he might be up to?”

  “I might have a few ideas, and none of them are good, but whatever it is, it won’t be long. He’ll let his protege run wild for a bit, hopefully getting your attention, and then he’ll start on whatever his plan is.”

  “You have ideas? Let’s hear them.”

  “Only based on what his group has tried in the past. They’re expansionistic…well…let me rephrase that. They like to exploit other people for resources, and sometimes the other people are unwilling. They don’t like to risk their own people in what could be an ugly fight, so they’ll find people from somewhere else to do their fighting for them. Get enough people, give them the right enhancements and a proper amount of brainwashing, and you have an instant army of expendables. They like to go after technologically inferior people, so I don’t know if your planet would be a target or not. Things could get dicey here, so he might be looki
ng to build an army from people he can get from here. Mind you, that’s all just speculation based on past behavior.”

  “Who exactly is this group?” Kendra asked.

  “They're the other major faction on my planet. There are really only two factions on the planet. We have other smaller…what you might call nations…but they all owe allegiance to one of the major factions.”

  “Like superpowers?”

  “Kind of, but not quite. It’s like a loose federal system, like you have here in the United States, but the smaller nations, or states, pretty much govern themselves.”

  “But you said they owe allegiance.”

  “After a fashion, yes, but it’s not like your states that are part of the larger government. I could go all day trying to explain it and we’d never get close. There is commerce, and something of a military alliance if it comes to that, but it’s more complicated than that.”

  “And this other group likes to exploit other people? Sounds like a lot of people here.”

  “I suppose you could say that, but imagine if your country wanted to take over Bolivia, but you didn’t want to risk the lives of your own people in what would amount to a small war, so you draft an army from the Dominican Republic to do your fighting for you. They’ve done that to at least a half dozen different planets over the last century.”

  “And you think he gave powers to this woman so she could distract Walter and he could do whatever he’s planning to do?”

  “That’s what I think, but we just don’t know what his plan is.”

  “What does your heart tell you?”

  “What my heart tells me is irrelevant. My head tells me that his final target isn’t your planet because of your technological advancement and the fact that the larger powers here would jump in and defend any kind of attack on a smaller nation. He doesn’t want to pick a fight with the major military powers on this planet. He could win eventually, but it would be costly, and his people are all about counting the costs and turning a tidy profit.”

  “How many have died for these tidy profits?” Walter asked.

  “Millions,” Mike replied.