As lunch started, I didn’t see Alex. I was glad, because I wanted to sit with my old friends without having to explain it to him. He could never understand what it felt like to be excluded by your entire pack. I wasn’t sure he even believed me about being a wolf. Sometimes I felt like he was humoring me, as he would a child. And after spending lunch with wolves again, with my own kind, I finally felt resolved to tell Alex what was coming. It was silly to keep it from him. It would only hurt more later. It had to happen. I had to marry the alpha for the sake of my family, and I was certain Alex would understand that.
***
The front door opened and Plain stood there in his burgundy dressing gown and Hush Puppies, loose curls wild and unkempt, frowning like he’d never seen me before. “Are you here about the Wondrous Worldinator?”
“The what?”
“Of course you are. How are you?” He grabbed my hand and simultaneously shook it as he dragged me inside. “Why else would you be here? It’s-down-here-just-follow-me-I’ll-take-you-to-where-it-is.”
I followed, amused, and also curious about his latest invention. Glad, of course, that he was finally inventing again after the bad news about George.
“As I told you in the letter I sent it’s going to revolutionize the way we experience imaginative thought from now I can’t tell you enough how truly amazing it is I—”
I wanted to tell him to take a breath, but I really found it too charming to say anything.
Still chattering away, he led me into a room with painted black walls, and adjusted a sheet that was covering a shelf. Then he went quiet, and just stood there blinking at nothing. I wasn’t sure if he was still ‘in there’, or if this whole episode had been a case of sleepwalking and if I tried to wake him he’d freak out like a turkey on Thanksgiving.
I approached with amused caution. “So… tell me more about this, uh…”
“Wondrous Worldinator,” he offered, snapping awake. “And it’s not for me to tell, but to show. See…” He squatted down by a large square machine that looked like a photocopier, only at knee height, with many thin metal arms coming out that made it look like some freaky and highly unfortunate mechanical spider. That’s when I got the first wave of worry. “My sons, ever since they were born, their sweet mother, God rest her soul, taught them… taught us all, really, to create different worlds in layers over the one we exist in.” He glanced back at me, this time narrowing his eyes as if he’d at least seen me before. “I want to make it easy for every boy and every girl to step into those worlds at any given time. With this.” Plain stood back and presented the machine, and a second wave of worry moved over me as he attached a bicycle helmet with a bunch of cables and little lights to his noggin.
“What’s the helmet for?” I asked.
“Not helmet,” he said, tweaking some buttons on his machine. “Thought processor. But once the prototype is made commercial, this little piece of technology—” he tapped the red helmet, and I noticed the faded Transformer sticker on the side then, “—will be called The Imagicapture.”
I laughed, repeating that name to myself. “What does it do?”
“It takes your thoughts—any thought, any world you can create—and it captures a single image of it—a 360˚ image—then it transfers that image to this machine—” he bent at the knees and patted it like it was a friendly dog, “—this brilliant machine, which then paints it around the room.”
“Wow.” If that was true, then Plain had actually invented something truly amazing.
“Wow? Yes, wow is right, my dear,” he said. “In fact, this machine is so amazing it is even capable of taking the thoughts of, say, a person locked inside of himself, and bringing them to the surface for people like us to see—people that can’t go into his world.”
People like George. “And you’ve tested this? On George?”
“George? No. I mean yes.” He shook his head and tapped his temples with three fingers on each hand. “Yes, George. My Georgey. But it hasn’t worked yet. Today will be the first time.”
And there I felt the third wave of worry.
“Stand right here please.” He moved me by my shoulders and positioned me in the middle of the room, passing me an umbrella. My eyes widened in great concern, and I took off my nice red coat to hide it under the sheet nearby.
“Now I’ve designed it to be a clever but also fun little machine. You see, I like all my inventions to be clever and fun. After all, what is life if it’s not fun?”
“I agree,” I said with a curt nod.
“Yes, yes you do, I see that.” He patted my shoulder. “I see that now. Perfect. Perfect.” Plain clapped his hands once and then went to run them through his hair, fumbling and fussing with buttons on the Wondrous Worldinator when the helmet stopped the progress of his fingers through his curls.
“Red?” Alex popped his head in. “I thought I heard you in here.”
“Alex, just in time, my boy.” Plain took Alex by the arm and led him to stand under my umbrella. It wasn’t big enough to cover us both, but after Plain pressed a big red button on his device, he came and huddled under the canopy with us, bending slightly at the knees as if he was too tall to fit, even though Alex was taller than him and he fit perfectly.
“Shut your eyes,” Alex said as the machine began to bleep. The bleeping got faster and faster until Plain pulled a set of goggles from his pocket and shielded his eyes. I copied Alex, shutting mine tight, and then I heard a wet pop and a cold, thick splash of paint coated my face, like someone just flicked custard at me.
Alex laughed loudly and his father cheered. By the time I cleared the paint from my eyes, Plain was rolling around in it on the floor, crowing like a madman, and Alex was standing over him, bent at the knees, laughing so hard his mouth was open really wide. They both looked ultimately mad.
“You did it, Plain!” Alex yelled, lifting his arms and spun around like he was dancing in the rain. “You’re a genius.”
“I’m a genius!” he yelled, throwing his hands in the air too.
I rolled my head back to look at the ceiling and then the walls. There was not a drop of paint on any surface but the three of us, the sheets nearby, and the floor. And none of those blobs looked like a magical world. Unless I was missing something. But I got the distinct feeling I wasn’t the one missing something.
“But it didn’t work,” I said.
They both stopped laughing and looked at me, soft smiles held in place.
“She doesn’t know,” Plain said simply.
“I’ll tell her.” Alex took my umbrella and laid it aside.
“Tell me what?”
“That the point of every failure is to celebrate being a step closer to success.”
“How is a splattered mess of paint a step closer to success?”
“Because we now know how not to do it,” he explained. “Which means we won’t waste time doing it that way again—”
“Which means more time can be spent trying another wrong way or, perhaps, the right way,” Plain added from the ground, in no real hurry to remove himself from the mess.
I smiled at Alex’s white-coated eyelashes and the way his hair sat flat to his head on one side, and then laughed.
“Red, you’re laughing at me.”
“I am. Because you look like you got pooped on by a giant bird.”
Alex laughed too. “I was going to say the same about you. Come on, you can shower in my room.”
***
Every step we took, Alex laid down a new piece of newspaper, leaving a trail all the way up the stairs until we reached a door with the words ‘George Plain’ written on it in a child’s hand.
“So you really did take George’s room,” I said.
“I took it the week he was supposed to leave. By the time he had his accident, I was already moved in.”
“And you didn’t think to give it back, you know, because maybe the familiar space would be comforting?”
“Sure I did, but until th
e parts for the wheelchair lifter Dad’s making come in from London, we can’t get him upstairs.”
“Oh, right.”
He opened the door and the room was pitch black, the light showing only the seven hanging planets in the middle of the ceiling, until Alex flicked a switch and a million stars peeked out from a velvety black. They covered the walls, the ceiling, and cast light-shadows onto the black floor, making it look like we were floating in outer space—the illusion broken on one wall where he’d hung death metal posters and, oddly, a Coldplay one among the mix.
“Wow.”
“You say that a lot,” he noted, laying down another sheet of newspaper as we stepped inside. On closer inspection, the stars were merely Christmas lights set behind black board and stuck on every surface, but the effect was unforgettable. It had been done in such a way, with paint and lights, that sections of it looked like galaxies, and I was certain each constellation was correct, from what little I knew.
In the far right corner there was a double bed and desk beside it, covered in papers and textbooks, a lamp half buried. On the far left was a bathroom, but other than that, he had very little clutter in his room in comparison to the rest of the house. It was a bit messy, with a few clothes on the floor and the game controllers left hanging out by a beanbag, leading away to a small TV on a stand at the end of his bed, but it was tidy enough that my mom wouldn’t be on his case if he were me, and it smelled nice. Not at all like any boy’s room I’d ever been in. Then again, I’d never seen a human boy’s room. Maybe they were all as tidy as Alex.
“The shower’s that way.” He pointed to it and then laid another sheet of paper down. “I’ll get you some clothes to put on.”
I showered and changed, and luckily my undies never got paint on them, so I at least had those, because Alex’s jeans were a bit big for me and kept slipping every time I walked. He laughed when he saw me. And I frowned at him.
“How did you get clean?” I said, taking in his wet curls and clean blue T-shirt.
“I showered in my old room.” He took a jumping backward leap to sit on his bed. “So… I didn’t see you at school today,” he said in a tone that so bluntly accused me of avoiding him, but he also smiled as he said it. “Hanging out with your old pals again, huh?”
I offered a half smile. “Yeah.”
“That’s awesome, Red, but why ignore me? I thought we were friends.”
“We are.” I sighed, moving over to sit with him. “It’s just that I have something to tell you, and I don’t want to tell you.”
Alex cocked his head in interest, leaning back to rest on his elbow. “I’m all ears.”
My hand moved to the iron wolf ring tucked inside my shirt. Alex’s eyes followed.
“You know how I told you I’m a wolf. Half wolf.”
“Yes.”
In the darkness, closed in by a million stars, I felt like the truth wouldn’t hurt so much. I felt like I’d built our friendship up to be more than it really was, and that maybe I’d been silly all along about keeping this from him. Why should he care, really? We’d only been friends for two weeks.
“See this?”
He reached over and took the ring in his fingertips, studying every angle. “It’s pretty. What’s it for?”
“It’s an engagement ring.”
“A what?” He laughed, shaking his head.
So I told him. I told him all about Luther and the Selection Day; about how I didn’t fit in and how things had changed now that I would be the alpha female; about how much this meant to me. But the more I talked, the more his smile dropped, changing at the end of every one of my sentences, and I got the feeling that maybe this was actually bad news for him after all.
“So?” I prompted. “What do you think?”
“Red…” Alex sat up and scooted to the edge of the bed, his head bowed, hands gathered in his lap. “Are you telling me your wolf world is real?”
“I knew it!” I punched him in the arm. “I knew you didn’t really believe me.”
“I thought it was a story—like the strange birds. I thought it was your way of coping with a pain you couldn’t comprehend.” His wide eyes met mine, hand rubbing his arm where I punched him. “I heard about your father dying a few weeks after it happened and then I saw you on the swing and—”
“So you knew who I was?”
He nodded. “I thought I could help you.”
“You have helped me.”
“No.” He hung his head and rested it in his hands. “Not if you’re going to marry someone just to make friends. It means I’ve taught you nothing!”
“It’s not just that. My need to feel accepted isn’t my only reason. I have a duty to my pack, to my family. Well, to what’s left of it.”
“What duty? How will your mom not survive if someone else becomes the alpha wife?”
“We need the money, Alex. It’s a lot of money. It’ll save our house.”
“Money. You want money? Here.” He stood up and dug into his pocket, flicking some notes at me. “Take it. If that’s what this is about.”
“Three dollars.” I shook my head, throwing it back at him. “It will take a lot more than three dollars to save my house.”
“But what about your soul, Red?” He knelt down right in front of me, turning my knees so I faced him. “What will it cost your soul?”
“My soul will be fine—”
“But it won’t. You don’t want this. I can see it in your eyes—”
I sighed, standing up to get away from him.
“Red, please, just think. Just reconsider for one second. Then you can go back to throwing your life away, but for just a moment, please hear me out as though you haven’t already made up your mind.”
“Okay.” I cast my arms out and dropped them back down to my sides. “I’m listening.”
Alex pressed his hand into the bedside to help him stand. “What do you want to be when you grow up?”
“What kind of a question is that?”
“Just answer it.”
I huffed, folding my arms. “To be honest, I haven’t thought about it.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“Well, it’s not relevant now because—”
“Imagine.” He swept in to me and cupped the sides of my head, pressing his brow to mine, as though he might cast his own imagination into my head. No one had ever touched me that way, and it shocked me out of my own thoughts. “Just step into another world,” he added, “one where you’re not a wolf, and you don’t need their approval to feel whole.”
I shut my eyes and exhaled loudly. In that world, with the snow and the straight trees, I would go so fast down a hill that I could hold my arms out and close my eyes, as if I was flying. No one would laugh at me and tell me I was immature. I’d just be free. But what was at the end of that hill? What was at the bottom? I never imagined past that, but I had to, because all slopes came to flat ground eventually. I once saw myself become a wolf and get married, have many children. I saw myself… I saw myself…
“Alex,” I said, my voice tinted with panic. “I don’t know what I would do if I was free to do anything.”
“Then you’re more broken than I thought.” His hands slid down until they held my cheeks.
“What do you want to do?” I asked. “When you grow up, what do you want to be?”
“I want to leave this place, go to college in the city, and find a cure for brain damage.”
“Really?”
He opened his eyes and smiled at me, his face doubling in my vision up this close. His breath smelled like stale coffee and mint gum, and I could feel the warmth of his lips almost touching mine. I liked it. Enough that I nearly forgot to listen when he spoke. “It’ll be too late for George. I think he’ll be long gone before I ever even drive to college, but if I can at least stop just one family from going through the pain we suffered, then my life, and George’s, will have been worth something.”
“It’s worth something now
—”
“Yes, but it’s how we’ll make our mark on the world. Mine will be to find a cure. George will be the reason. I’ll name it after him.”
“And here you are,” I said, taking his sweaty hand down from my cheek, “this entire life in front of you, and here I am, with no imagination. No future to perceive.”
“That’s not unusual, Red. You’re seventeen. Most people don’t know what they want at seventeen. But I can help you figure it out. Do you want to know how?”
“Yes!”
“Come on then.” He led me to his bed and we sat down side by side. “Okay… Uh… What do you like to do? When you have free time, what’s the first thing you want to do?”
“Um…” I gave it some real thought for a second; Solitaire on my phone; TV; playing dodge ball—back when I had friends; eating, and… dogs. But was that an interest? And then there was Alex. So… “Well, do you mean before I met you or now that I know you?”
“There’s a difference?” he asked, leaning out from me, a confused but warm grin hiding behind his curiosity.
“Yes.”
“Okay.” He nodded, smiling to himself. “Well, let’s start with before.”
“Okay, um… well, aside from hanging out with my friends and getting burgers, I used to sit at the park and wait for someone to let me play with their dog.”
Alex laughed. “So you like dogs. Who’d have thought?”
I laughed too, kind of wondering where Sacha was right now.
“Could you imagine working with dogs for the rest of your life?”
My heart flipped. “Yes.”
“Maybe you could run a dog shelter, or work for the ASPCA. Or be a vet.”
My eyes widened. “I never thought of that. Could I really do that?”
Red: The Untold Story Page 7
