Missing Time (313)

by J. David Clarke

  "What did you say to me?"

  "YOU talked!" Simon repeated, turning to face him.

  His father stood, aghast. Simon's face had shifted, his jaw jut forward, lower teeth exposed.

  "You always talk, and you never listen!"

  Harold turned, and walked to the door. On the other side, he turned. "Something is very wrong with you, Simon. I don't know what it is, but this is not you. I'm calling a doctor."

  "I don't care!" Simon shouted, and his eye flicked, sending the invisible hand out once more.

  The bedroom door slammed in his father's face.

  *****

  The scalpels, the men in masks, the lights.

  Towers made of wood, which could be climbed from outside.

  The jungle. The endless jungle.

  Pain.

  Simon's eyes fluttered upward. His jaw clenched, and Heather gripped his face.

  "Simon!" she shouted, "What's wrong?"

  The bus swerved onto the bridge; the lights surrounded them.

  *****

  Simon could hear the doctor speaking to his father outside the room.

  "Whatever happened last night," the doctor said, "he seems okay now. Nothing unusual."

  Simon looked down at his hands. The black hair had disappeared, the claws receded. He could hear the soft sound of his mother weeping as his father held her.

  "Shouldn't he be admitted for observation?" his father asked.

  "Right now," the doctor said, "I don't see any reason to keep him overnight. But I'm going to prescribe a mild sedative. I'll give you a note for school. See to it he gets some rest. If there's any change, bring him back immediately."

  "Oh! Mr. and Mrs. Chu!" a familiar voice called. "There you are! Is Simon okay?"

  Simon started to stand up, to go to her, but his father reached in and closed the door.

  He sat down again and leaned his head against the wall.

  *****

  He tried to push the big gorilla back with the invisible hand inside his mind, but the effort only caused a blinding pain in the back of his head.

  Simon howled, and reached back with his right hand. He had time to feel something, a bandage, before the big male reached him and grabbed him, throwing him down.

  *****

  The bus struck the railing, and Simon's body seized.

  The men in surgical masks were wheeling him to an operating room, where overhead lights blinded him. A gas mask was placed over his face.

  As the water filled the school bus, Simon climbed the wooden tower and looked down on his home. The bat struck the baseball, and everyone called his name.

  "Simon," one girl's voice called. "Simon, can you hear me?"

  *****

  The family ate dinner in silence, Mrs. Chu trying to conceal her tears.

  At last, Harold spoke up. "There is one good thing about all of this."

  Simon tensed.

  "You can use the opportunity to catch up on your studies."

  He produced from somewhere the biology text, placing it at the corner of the table near Simon.

  "No," Simon said.

  "Don't talk back to me, young man!" Harold pounded the table with his fist.

  "I'm supposed to rest," Simon said, as a heat rose inside him.

  "You will not ruin your future with this nonsense," his father said. "You have a future as a scientist, not a ballplayer...a scientist."

  Simon felt something surge inside him, and the invisible hand reached out. The book slid across the table, knocking his father's glass off the table and sliding with his plate all the way across the other end. They flew into the wall with a resounding crash. Simon's parents both stood and looked at him in horror.

  "No." Simon said. The jolts started at his feet and ran up his body, up and down, up and down, UP AND DOWN. In their wake, black hair sprouted and Simon felt his body giving way like a weakened levy before a hurricane surge.

  "Simon....what in...what..." his father stammered.

  "NO!" the invisible hand reached out, lifting his plate in the air and hovering it over the table. Simon's feet tore through his shoes and he reached out, gripping the edge of the table with his toes and hoisting himself up, flipping over the tips of his fingers to land on his feet at the center of the table, his plate unharmed. Simon reared back, and unleashed a terrible bellow, his teeth bared, fangs lengthening before their eyes.

  "GRAHHHHHHRR!!!!"

  His mother ran screaming from the room. His father followed, turning only briefly, before running into their bedroom and slamming the door behind them.

  Simon sat cross-legged on the table, and his plate lowered itself.

  He finished his dinner in peace. He ate with his hands and picked his claws clean with his teeth.

  *****

  They came for him that night. Simon was sleeping curled on the floor of his bedroom, and he first became aware of the sound of feet moving down the hall toward him. Then the smell: he whiffed the scent of strange men.

  As the door was broken down, Simon leaped up and reached out with the invisible hand, pinning one man against the wall. Two more ran forward, grabbing him by the shoulders. He threw one of them aside, but a third entered, raising a gun. Then another.

  He felt the sharp pain in his chest before he heard the shwipp of the darts.

  Simon fought, but he soon felt groggy, and dizzy.

  "Don't hurt him!" he heard his father call.

  The men took hold of him, and placed a jacket around him, tying it. Simon could hardly stay conscious. He growled and twitched, but couldn't break free. They dragged him through the house, past his parents, standing in their nightclothes. His father followed after them, calling his name. "Simon, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. Don't hurt him please, something is wrong with him, he's sick. He's not well. Please."

  His mother said nothing, just stood stoically, clutching the cell phone in her hand.

  As they threw Simon in the back of the truck and locked the door, he heard someone say, "We're going to take very good care of Simon, I promise."

  And his mother's voice replied, "That thing is not our son."

  *****

  The hospital was a blur for Simon. He was kept on heavy medication most of the time. Sometimes he thought he was himself, and sometimes he thought he was there in the jungle, climbing the towers.

  Occasionally, he dreamed of baseball, but he always awoke when he realized he was running the base like an animal. Never the crack of the bat, never the cheering kids, just the chalk on his hands and the black hair.

  Heather visited him, he knew she did, though he could never remember for how long or what she talked about. He remembered she held his hands and told him everything would be all right.

  For a long time, he believed she was right.

  Then one day, he heard one of the orderlies say that he was being transferred. Papers signed, he said, orders given. Simon could only lie there and wait to find out what was happening.

  The men that came did not look like doctors. They wore military garb and carried weapons. Simon was loaded into a van, where he was injected with something far more powerful than the drugs they kept him on at the hospital.

  As his consciousness slipped away, he saw there was another girl being taken as well, a girl with spiky blue hair. Where Simon was able to fight a bit, she was out like a light.

  Soon, Simon joined her.

  *****

  The bus struck bottom, and the water rushed over them, but Simon wasn't there. He was climbing the tower, looking down upon his jungle home. He threw his head back and bellowed, roaring to the jungle that he was its master and it was his domain.

  "Simon," Heather's voice called, "Something's happening! Something's happening to meee!"

  The man in the mask reached down, turning on his surgical device. A whirring sound came from behind Simon's head, and he felt the circular blade sawing into his skull.

  Simon's eyes opened.

  *****

  "I don't rem
ember," Simon said, still facing the corner. "I don't remember anything. There were flashes, there were images. None of it makes any sense."

  "Turn around, Simon," Heather said. "It's okay." She put her arms around him. "Everything's going to be okay."

  He turned toward her. "I remember you said something happened to you."

  She nodded. "It did. Something amazing!"

  *****

  Simon scrabbled away from the big gorilla, ignoring the throbbing in his head, forgetting the bandage and whatever it covered. He ran for the wall and jumped to it, using his claws to scale it. He had to get back to the lab, find Heather, and Kevin, and the others before the scientist did something to them too.

  Near the top, however, the rock gave way to metal. Metal? It was a smooth metal surface, where Simon's claws could find no purchase. He couldn't get any higher, couldn't escape. He looked up, trying to stare through the pain.

  "Mommy, that one wants to play with me!" A little girl's voice said.

  There were children. There were children, beyond the metal, beyond a rail, where a sign stood proclaiming this to be the GORILLA ENCLOSURE.

  Simon tried to talk to call out to them, but it only caused his head to throb. He couldn't form the words. He emitted a whimpering sound as he let go, sliding down the metal, slipping down the rock. He collapsed at the bottom, and buried his face in his hands.

  The children, their parents...everyone was looking at him. Everyone was smiling. Everyone loved him, loved seeing him.

  Everyone loved the animals at the zoo.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  HEATHER

  "I am not nothing."

  Heather McDonnell-Chu. Heather Chu. Simon and Heather Chu. Mrs. Simon Chu.

  Heather gazed at the writing she had absent-mindedly scrawled on her biology text. She sighed, and leaned forward, resting her chin on her hands. The sun was out, it was a beautiful day, and the boy of her dreams was walking up to the plate. She emitted a little squee! to herself as Simon got into his stance. She twirled one finger in her brown hair and hoped hoped hoped he got a hit!

  "Go Simon..." she said under her breath. She'd never dare say it out loud. This wasn't an actual game, just some of the boys out having some fun, and there weren't enough kids watching to cover for her. How mortifying would it be if he heard her? No. Not out loud. But privately, just to herself, that was okay. "Come on, come on..."

  CRACK!

  The ball went up, up...and was gone over the fence and past the tree line! Heather couldn't stop herself, she was on her feet before she knew it was happening, and it was okay really, this time, because everybody was on their feet. Everyone cheered him on as he trotted around the bases. Heather cheered with them.

  "SIMONNNN!" she screamed.

  Later, as she was leaving, she walked in a daze, barely noticing what was in front of her, so consumed was she by the thought of him.

  So lost was she in her imagination that when the boy collided with her running off the field, she didn't realize at first what had happened.

  "Oh!" she exclaimed, looking around at all her books, lying in the dirt. She bent to pick them up.

  "Here," the boy said, picking up her biology text.

  Only then did she realize who it was, and she froze in terror.

  Simon looked down at the book. "Um.."

  "No!" she shouted, snatching the book away. "Ohmigod! Oh! No!" She felt herself go red all over. She turned way from him in horror.

  "Hey," he said.

  She didn't know what to do. She didn't run away, she didn't turn around. She just stood there and felt like she was turning into a tomato.

  "It's. I mean, y'know, it's okay."

  She turned, covering her mouth with her hands, and looked at him.

  "It's really okay," he said, and smiled.

  Heather McDonnell was in love.

  *****

  Heather ran down the hall, feeling more and more lost.

  He said it was this way, she thought. This isn't right. This isn't the right way.

  She heard shouts behind her. They were chasing them, chasing the others. Simon! She had to find what she was looking for, so she could get back to him!

  But nothing was the way the scientist had said it would be.

  So she ran, turning this way and that, and feeling more and more lost all the time.

  *****

  She laid her head against Simon's shoulder and watched him reading his textbook. He was so perfect, so beautiful. He was absorbed in the book, and she was absorbed in him.

  She was so lost in looking at him that she barely noticed the first swerve of the school bus.

  When the bus swerved again, she looked up.

  "What's going on?" she asked

  *****

  Heather had waited in the emergency room for what seemed like hours. They had refused to let her go in with Simon, and once his parents had gotten there, his father had dismissed her as if he were speaking to a servant.

  Some of the other students from the school bus had been brought there as well. She recognized Mia immediately, and that one quiet kid. Zachary. He was kind of super-religious or something.

  "Kind of fucked up, huh?" said a girl's voice from beside her.

  Heather turned. The girl sitting next to her was still wet from the river water, her long dirty blonde hair plastered to her.

  "What?" Heather asked.

  "That you don't even know them. Most of them. Barely even know their names. Most of us don't even know each other."

  "How did you..."

  The girl laughed. "Good fucking question."

  Heather stared ahead, not really knowing how to respond.

  "You want in to see your boyfriend?" the girl asked.

  "...Yeah...?"

  But at that moment her mother's voice interrupted. "Heather! Come on, we're leaving."

  She had called her mother ages ago, when she first got to the hospital, but hadn't figured she'd show. Her mother was not the most reliable person.

  "Mom! I'm waiting to see Simon."

  Her mother took her cigarette in her hands and blew out a long puff of smoke. "There's nothing you can do for him." Her lips drew out the word YOU like it referred to something found in a toilet. "Now come on." She walked away.

  Heather turned back to the girl. "Sorry," she said meekly, "I have to go."

  The blonde girl shrugged. "Your mom's a bitch. You're just gonna do what she says?"

  Heather sighed. "It's...I just have to go."

  "It's whatever. Go."

  Heather started to go, then turned back to her. "I'm Heather, by the way."

  "Becca," she said with a grin. "See you around, Heather."

  Heather turned and followed after her mom, and that's when the girl's voice flooded her mind.

  SSHE'S WRONG, YOU KNOWW

  Heather put her hands to her head. "What? What?"

  AABOUT YOU, ABOUT EVERYTHINGG

  Heather turned, but the girl was gone.

  *****

  Heather looked out the window, but saw nothing. Then she realized, to her horror, that nothing was all there was.

  Outside the bus...was nothing at all.

  The bus swerved again, and the textbook slid from Simon's arms.

  Heather felt a strange sensation, as if she was melting, dissolving into the seat.

  Simon's body tensed in her grip, and she turned to see his eyes roll backwards, his body clench.

  "Simon!" she cried, taking his face in her hands. "What's wrong?"

  Her hands seemed to ripple and twist in front of her eyes.

  *****

  Heather slammed her door and fell onto her bed, burying her face in her pillows. Something had happened to Simon on the baseball diamond, that much she had been told, but no one knew what. His parents wouldn't let her see him. His father had talked to her like she was no one at all, just something to scrape off his shoe.

  She had tried to call him, but his cell phone was turned off. He never checked
Facebook; he had only set it up in the first place because she talked him into it.

  Heather felt the tears spilling out and couldn't stop them.

  A fluffy long hair orange and white cat leaped up to the bed and rubbed his head against her.

  "What do I do, Nemo?" she asked, taking him in her arms and stroking him. She buried her face in his fur.

  She felt a strange sensation inside her then, as if her body were shifting.

  "What can I do? Probably nothing."

  Her mother opened her door. "What are you doing in here?" she asked. She was holding a glass of scotch in her hand.

  "Mom, can't you knock?" she asked wearily.

  "You in here moping about that boy again?" her mom asked. "It's always something, you latch onto something and obsess over it, what was it last time? That stupid boy band?"

  "Mom! Get out!"

  Her mother took a drink, and peered closely at her. "What the hell, Heather? Did you get contacts or something?"

  Heather shook her head, exasperated. "Contacts? No!"

  Her mother just rolled her eyes. "You're so damn weird." She left, closing the door behind her.

  Heather sat up.

  Contacts? What the hell was she talking about?

  She stood, and Nemo leapt from her to curl up on her pillow. Heather walked to her vanity, and gazed into the mirror. Yellow cat eyes looked back at her from her head.

  She gasped and jumped back, putting a hand to her face.

  She looked over at Nemo, now licking himself contentedly, and then looked back.

  Her own eyes were back.

  Oh my God, she thought, something happened to Simon, and now it's happening to me!

  *****

  Heather heard sounds from the hall behind her. She rounded another corner and saw a pair of double doors ahead. Maybe this was the room she was supposed to find!