True Heroes

by Gann, Myles

  Nothing in the world mattered anymore. The song of the bird couple’s tweeting, the symphony of dogs and cats, the awareness of a catastrophic outcome by the driver of that car; the entire world blanked out except for him and the cowering Carol. The car—fifteen feet away now—finally began to apply the brakes, and Caleb’s muscles began to tense again. They didn’t uncoil until his arms were wrapped around Carol, trying his hardest to imitate a cocoon around her body less than a second before a car crashed into his back. Nothing: not the initial pain of the impact, the scalding metal now resting on his back, or the unusual feeling of Carol broke through to tell him that he was still alive.

  What felt like an eternity of numbness finally passed. The driver had exited the car and dialed some number on his cell phone, and Caleb’s eyes started to return to their normal glory. Carol looked up at him with horrified eyes and he stared back, feeling his lips move into a small grin, but sensation returned to normal. His breath began to quicken and he could no longer hold eye contact as he was hit with an overwhelming fatigue. He keeled over, allowing Carol to catch him, but her eyes started to sag from shock as she saw what was behind Caleb: a body-sized dent in the grill of what had been a brand new BMW where he’d just saved her from certain death, but also left her more scared than she’d ever been in her life.

  - - -

  Caleb breathed steadily as he started to come out of his nap to the methodic sound of a heart monitor. He blinked a few times and was instantly swarmed by his mother’s caring hands and cooing words while she ignored the fact that he was already calm and aware of where he was. ‘I don’t see why people stay in hospital beds. They’re not comfortable at all, but every time I visit there’s always so many people in them. At least I know where I am, that’s a relief. Mom’s hand is warm and everything, but I don’t think she’s making me feel all cozy. Her hands are freaking me out a little, actually. The bleep-bleep-bleep of the heart machine is kinda soothing…but this uncomfortable bed seems to be undoing that trick. I’m in control again. I didn’t hurt Carol, did I? That creepy feeling didn’t touch her did it?’ He created a small cushion before quickly asking, “Where’s Carol?”

  His mother smiled at him passionately, as if he’d just passed some great test, before answering. “Well, out of the two of you, she got the worst of it, but it’s still nothing more than a few scrapes and scratches, dear. All thanks to you.” Caleb barely registered the little compliment. ‘The curtains in that small window on the left are moving. Three shadows behind the green sashes. Fevered mumbling and lots of hand movements, and it looks like two of them have hats on.’ “There are some people outside that want to talk to you about what happened. Just tell them the truth, baby, okay?”

  He nodded his head and noticed that a corner of the curtain shifted slightly and a single knuckle knocked itself against the window. His mother grabbed up his hand and pecked her lips against it before standing and trying to walk away, but Caleb wouldn’t drop. “Can’t you stay?”

  The door opened and a female police officer walked in and offered his mom a hard stare, giving Caleb a reflection of the answer he knew he’d get. She carefully slid her hand from his grasp and walked out with the officer closing the door behind her. The curtains were slowly pulled open—‘Mom really doesn’t like this officer lady,’—as the officer began to scribble random words into her report packet. ‘Why did she leave me in here with a stranger if she doesn’t even trust her? Why can’t she just bring Carol in here and take this lady away? She looks too serious to care about me or my dumb questions.’ “All I want to do is ask you a few questions about what happened with you, your friend, and the car accident earlier, okay? I’ve already talked to the few witnesses and your little friend, and I’m honestly hoping you can shed some light on what really happened. So, just tell the truth and I’ll go nice and easy.” Caleb refocused and nodded slightly as she began her questioning. “Let’s get started then. Were you and Carol both hit by the same car?”

  Caleb wandered beneath the surface of that simple question. “Yes, but didn’t the other people already tell you that?”

  The lady, apathetic to his question, continued her own. “You shielded her body with yours, correct?”

  “Yes, but—”

  “And the car hit you in the back with your body covering hers and her in your arms?”

  He took his time answering. ‘She’s acting like my answers don’t matter, like I’m a little kid. Whatever just keep it up.’ “I think so, yeah. Those few seconds before the crash are a bit of a blur. I haven’t really had time to sort it all out.”

  The lingering tone of his voice still reverberated through the dead air with nothing but the woman’s furious writing and the harmony of the heart monitor as background noise. Suddenly, she threw the pen into a nearby chair and slammed her report on the foot of his bed before storming out of the room. He watched her with a slight smile. ‘I’m glad you’re angry. Keep yelling at your poor partner. She’s not going to calm down, pal, stop waving your hands at her.’ Caleb turned the report around with his foot and pulled it up to his chest so he could skim its contents. His eyes began pulling out random words that formed images of the accident. ‘2000 BMW…man driving…fifty in a twenty-five zone…Caroline Allis—’

  An unmistakable memory of Carol’s horrified eyes bolted into his brain like a painful lighting strike. ‘I need to see her.’ His back slowly came up from the white sheets and the blanket on his lap quietly started to slip to the floor, but a loud alarm suddenly blasted his room and the cavernous hallway outside. He quickly leaned back to his bed, silencing the alarm, but not before he received two pairs of glaring eyes from the police as a consolation prize. They went back to talking and his door opened slowly, revealing a friendly face in Doctor Fink. “Hello again, my boy. I guess you decided to come back and see me rather than wait for our yearly check-up?” Caleb smiled slightly and nodded quickly. “This was a bit of a big accident this time around, though. Well, bigger than your usual nothing at least.”

  ‘Nobody but Doctor Fink. I couldn’t ever have another family doctor. It just sucks I don’t get sick more often. Once a year, I get to come in and have tons of fun with him. I miss the early years when I’d come in here for weeks at a time and we’d have so much fun. He respects me. He sees me as a grown-up like Mommy. Every time he brings up space, time, politics, or anything that’s just outside the home life. He must talk to Mom about those things. Any test he runs on me barely breaks the string of words from either of our mouths. I wish everyone was like him. I wish I was like him.’ “Yeah, I’m a little early this year. Maybe I should start getting sick to talk to you more often.”

  “The time between visits is excruciating,” he smiled and chuckled softly, ignoring his quip about getting sick. “Of course, this visit isn’t exactly our usual is it? You, in all honesty, shouldn’t be here right now, son.”

  ‘What, exactly, does he mean by that? Did he really just state the obvious fact that I should be dead? No, he’s knows I can put two-and-two together well enough to reach that…gotta be deeper than that. He reacted happily but woodenly while having relaxed hands and eyes, the lady cop with her pure anger still flaring outside with animation, Mom being worried, almost desperate, about my health; his voice trailed off at the end too. Why do I notice these things? I’m not some detective. Stop thinking so much and just talk like you always do.’ The doctor nodded his head. ‘It’s like he understands without saying a word; the doctor has placed himself in my shoes.’

  “Have you been reading more lately?”

  “Only my comics.”

  “Oh, a boy as smart as you should be on to bigger and better books than those.”

  “Hey, I like them, and Mom keeps giving them to me.”

  ‘He’s smiling again.’ “What about math? Have you advanced a little in that?”

  “I’m into algebra now.”

  “That’s great, son, absolutely great.” Caleb looked towards the windows with the so
und of rising voices between the police officers and his mother. ‘Don’t you—’ “Have I ever talked to you about number theory?”

  His small head pivoted quickly back. “No.”

  “You’ll like this,” he said while pulling out a small piece of paper and clicking open a pen. “Let’s say you have a really big number,” he said while writing ‘1001’ on the small paper. “You can break this apart into one-thousand-and-one ones right? That would equal the same number if added together?” Caleb nodded. “If we do that, we could simplify any odd number to one; do you see how?” He peered on while Caleb shook his head slowly. The doctor drew three symbols for the number one and explained. “A quick way to see it is that we can cross out this one,” he said while crossing out the left '1,' and then the right as he continued, “and this one, and we’re left with this one in the middle. See?”

  “Why only odd numbers?”

  “Well, if we only had two one’s, and we crossed them out, there wouldn’t be anything left.”

  “Or they could fold over one another?”

  “Not with even numbers. See, if they both fold over, there’s nothing left. You would have two wholes fighting for the chance to be right and be heard, but an odd number leaves the last one in the middle alone. Leaves it there to be seen.”

  “And?”

  “And that can be a wonderful thing to remember, Caleb.” The male policeman knocked on the window suddenly and motioned for the doctor to meet outside the room. “I’ll be right back.”

  ---

  “You’ve been monitoring this boy since his birth, correct?”

  Doctor Thomas Fink nodded slightly and said, “Yes, officer.” The only thing on his mind was staying as calm as possible over this string of questioning. He knew remaining serene was paramount; he knew he was one half-thought lie from severing Audrey from her baby boy forever. Being calm was the only option. His mind went around in circles at a blinding pace, but his outward expression remained focused and unflappable. He glanced over at the female officer, still fuming and staring in at Caleb. Fink thought, ‘And her cross-armed posture shows her mind is running circles around the impossibility of the boy being alive.’ His internal self cracked a smile and broke from its observational thought. ‘They have no idea how tiny a feat this survival is for Caleb.’

  “Describe the nature of this boy’s visits to you.”

  The officer’s uniform pen stood at attention as the doctor shook his head slightly while answering. “The only times I’ve ever seen him were for yearly visits. None ever for sickness or injury, until now.”

  “So, you expect me to believe that a young boy who goes to school and doesn’t live in a bubble has never stepped foot in this hospital for sickness? What about his shots?”

  “All taken care of on his visits,” he lied with his head continuing to shake and churn, ‘His many, many early visits. All the genetic testing, calibrating of the boy’s delicate state, praying that no medications would upset the gentle balance of defects inside every strand of this DNA….’ A sigh escaped him as his facetious story to cover the truth started to dribble from his lips. “Yes, I’d thought it a bit odd myself, so after the boy’s tenth birthday I talked to his mother, Mrs. Whitmor,” he darted his eyes to her, noticing her beautiful chest was holding in a breath, “and a few of the things she told me calmed my suspicions.”

  “What did she tell you exactly?”

  “Simply that their home was a clean environment and he didn’t have any real friends so there wasn’t much risk for sickness exposure.”

  The pen clicked closed as the officer chuckled in disbelief. “I wanna see the boy’s medical records.”

  A pang of nervousness worked its way into his mind but kept out of his voice, for now. “I’m sorry but that’s simply out of the question.”

  “Well I’m bringing it into the question.”

  “Sir, not to mention the fact that his file has absolutely nothing to do with this report, but to even begin to see that confidential information, you would need a proper warrant with just cause. Can you produce either?”

  Both officers looked at one another and suddenly felt their authority, as well as their welcome, had run out. “We’ve got everything we need from the boy.” He barely gave a glance towards Caleb’s mother.

  They both retreated down the hall, almost dragging their feet along, as Audrey walked up to him and whispered, “Thank you so much for that, Thomas.”

  He shook his head. “It’s no problem, but I do think he’s old enough to know a little bit about what he is. He can’t hide something if he doesn’t know why he should hide it.”

  Fink watched her eyes wander around and refocus with a look of gathered thoughts. “After he sees his little friend healthy, we can try to explain things.”

  ---

  Caleb leaned back after exhausting all of his ideas for escape. He glanced over to see his mother and the doctor walk away from the observation window. ‘I wanna go with them! And I have to pee! How could I get up without making the alarm go off?’ That alarm and the attention it brought were the only things keeping him from fulfilling both of his urges, but thankfully, his answer came walking into the room. His mother energetically sauntered closer with a much happier look than he’d seen earlier. “Hello honey. Doctor Fink is going to get your friend and bring her to you, and you don’t have to worry about that silly alarm now that those policemen are gone.”

  ‘There’s some good news finally.’ After his mom had unplugged the alarm at the base of the bed, he jumped up quickly, putting on his shirt and pants while throwing the hospital gown to the ground. “Why were those police people looking at me so weird?”

  Her response came in the form of a bland, almost mechanical droll. “Because they have no idea what to make of you, and they’re always afraid of what they can’t understand. Don’t worry about them, though. They won’t bother you anymore, baby.”

  ‘How long has it been since she sang about me like that? She always makes me feel so special, but I don’t really know why. I still go to class and read and stuff like everyone else. She’s always been like that, but maybe this car crash was a big hint that I am special. Maybe she’s not just doing the motherly thing. Maybe mine is just calling it like she sees it.’ He went over to the bathroom and opened his pants. ‘She’s never really given me a reason to suspect her validity, but still…I’ve heard some of the other kids’ mothers telling them they were beautiful and special, that they can be happy doing anything in life. Mine doesn’t do that. She always wants me to be better than me. Better than anyone.’ He zipped up his pants and washed his hands. ‘I trust her. She’s one of the only people I can trust.’

  The door swung open behind his mother, and Carol came rolling in, being pushed by Doctor Fink. “Here we go, kids. See? Everyone’s fit as a fiddle.” She smiled wildly as the doctor spoke and pushed her closer to the standing, waiting Caleb. Their eyes met, a wild satisfaction in seeing each other still alive emanated and enveloped all of their attention. Doctor Fink stopped the chair a few feet from the waiting boy and applied the brakes. Carol shot into Caleb’s arms—‘Her body is so warm and skin so soft,’—and whispered a question into his ear. “How are you?”

  “Perfectly fine,” he said in-between being totally breathless. “How are you?”

  Carol released their hug and leaned back to support her own weight, allowing Caleb to drink everything about her. Carol's dark brown hair was frizzed, but had lost none of its shine. Even as her face came back into view, he noticed that, minus the few cuts covered by small band-aids, she was still picturesque. ‘Still, better looking than anyone else on her worst day. Her green eyes and that brown hair….’ She still dawned the traditional hospital cover-all that was tied in the back. ‘There’s simply no way she knew I existed before today. People this beautiful shouldn’t even be allowed in public.’ “I’m feeling tons better now that I see you’re okay.” She spun around, noticing the grown-ups had left the room, and kept ta
lking. “Explain to me how you’re the least hurt out of the two of us! You took a freaking car to the back!”

  Caleb smirked a little. “Well, do you remember that feeling I told you about? I’m pretty sure it has something to do with that.”

  They locked pupils again and Caleb could sense that she was searching for something. ‘What’s to search for?’ Her ocular search carried on while she spoke. “Well, I’m alive because of you and that ‘feeling.’ I don’t think there’s anything I could ever do to pay you back for this…except, um,” only now did her eyes falter, “maybe, um, be your girlfriend.”

  Caleb’s heart fluttered in excitement and a small smile sprung upon his lips and widened. It felt as though her statement had entered his ears but left them numb in the wake of its incredible message. ‘Every boy in my grade would give anything to be with this goddess of Lamark Elementary School, and she wants me. Does she really? Or is she just trying to be nice and repay me?’ She took his hand and started to move closer, but that thought lingered with him like an annoying itch in the middle of his back. He put his hand out against her arm. “Wait, this isn’t right.”

  Staying close, she adopted a surprisingly hurt-filled look and asked, “You wouldn’t want to date me?”

  “Of course I do. Are you crazy? Look at you! It’s just that if I ever date a girl, I wanna like her and I want her to like me back and I don’t think you like me back.” He swallowed hard, feeling his morality fight with his desire, and asked, “Do you?”