Cassidy St. Claire and The Fountain of Youth Parts I, II, & III

by A. H. Rousseau

Cassidy smiled. “Ha!” Cassidy's laugh caused an old couple sitting halfway down the car to jump in their seats and look over. “I'll admit, I'm glad that you kept that secret. It was a much better reveal this way.”

  Jebediah returned an easy smile. “I do have some surprises.” By now, the waiter had set his pitcher down and returned for the orders.

  “Yes, right... Eggs, beans, toast, lots of toast,” said Cassidy. “Coffee as well.”

  The waiter turned to Jebediah. He stared off into the distance for a moment with a focused, worried expression on his face. He turned to the waiter. “Would it be possible to have a breakfast cart delivered to our car?”

  The waiter nodded. “Absolutely.”

  “Very good. I would like that done.”

  “You ok, Jeb?” asked Cassidy.

  “Yes. I think that the excitement of last night has caught up with me,” he responded as he got up, placing his napkin on the table. “Please excuse me.”

  The waiter then turned to Gideon. “Oh, I'll have the breakfast platter,” Gideon said.

  “Very good, sir. Everything will be out shortly.” The waiter than shuffled off. Cassidy looked over toward the door out of the car, concerned about Jebediah.

  “Doesn't seem like the kind of guy to get digestive problems,” said Cassidy.

  “Yeah, but, I think anyone who didn't have some problems after what we have gone through would be strange,” added Gideon.

  “Yes. That's probably true,” replied Cassidy, sipping her water. “I wanted to apologize for last night.”

  “Oh, please. Don't worry about it one bit.”

  “No, no, I need to apologize. I get frustrated when people press and harangue me, and, well... you... I get drunk and get stupid. I don't think I'm being stupid at the time, mind you, and sometimes other people are being stupid, but in this case, I was being stupid.”

  “Well, I do appreciate the thought. So thank you. Did you apologize to Jebediah?” asked Gideon.

  “No. I didn't.”

  “You probably should.”

  Cassidy thought on it for a moment. “Yeah, I should. But I won't.”

  “Why not?” Gideon asked, chuckling.

  “I don't know. I don't want to give him the satisfaction. I still wish I had shot those cows. Cud-chewing... slabs of goddamned beef... How many died?”

  “Do you mean the cows that were hit by the train?” Cassidy nodded. “I overheard the waiters talking about it. They mentioned over two dozen.”

  “Good,” replied Cassidy.

  “So vindictive,” Gideon said with a smirk.

  “What the hell were they doing there? Just relaxing? They have millions of acres in which to relax and they think to themselves oh yes, this is where I want to stand.”

  “They're being cows, what do you want from them?” Gideon asked. “They spend all day, every day, standing. I imagine that if I were a cow, I would want stand in as many places as possible just to help the days go by.”

  Cassidy grumbled and relaxed in her chair. “So, we're alright?”

  “Yes, yes,” replied Gideon. “We were alright last night, too. You won't find many f... of us who don't have thick skin.”

  Cassidy nodded. “Yeah. I'm happy. Not that you have thick skin, but that you didn't take it personally. I know how hard it can be. What it's like to be hidden. If anything, the fear of being hidden, of having to hide, is the reason why I... do what I do. I don't want anything to be hidden. Everything I am is right out there. Everyone can see it.” Cassidy paused to think. “It actually makes me feel safer being like that. That said, the last thing I want to do is make you upset for what you have hidden.”

  The two made eye contact and smiled. Gideon nodded in acceptance. “Again... I don't want to dwell on it. But thank you.”

  “Joe's a fairy,” said Cassidy.

  Gideon grimaced. “Shhh. Not so loud.”

  “Oh yes, sorry,” said Cassidy in a quieter tone.

  “Now, What?” said Gideon, surprised by the turn in the conversation.

  “Joe's a fairy.”

  “Joe... your friend Joe?”

  “Yeah. He won't admit it, but he is. Probably the reason why he drinks so much.”

  “I was unaware he had a problem with liquor.”

  Cassidy nodded. “Yeah. He's one of my best friends in the world. In many ways, he is my best friend in the world. It hurts, you know. We have so much fun together, and I think he thinks he keeps it hidden, but I see. Really, everyone sees.”

  “Is his drinking bad?”

  Cassidy grimaced and bobbed her head side to side a bit. “Nnnnnooo. Not terribly so. It's troubling, but he's not someone who needs a drink to get through every day. If he's working on something he doesn't drink. He doesn't need it; he's working on something. But if he's got free time, he always seems to find a drink in his hand. That's why, when I know he has a break in work, I conveniently find some adventure on which I need to drag him along.”

  Gideon nodded. “It's hard out here. It is. I don't know what San Francisco is like, but New York is friendly. It's obviously best to stay... quiet, but being a little loud doesn't risk all that much. There are some of us,” Gideon chortled, “there are some of us who I swear look like they dressed by being covered in glue and fired through a carousel.” Cassidy chuckled. “And there are a good many of us, too. It makes life easy... easier. Out here, there is no quarter. And of course I get sent out here all the time. It's quickly reaching the point where I am on assignment all year long... in places where... I already lost one... a relationship of mine already failed.”

  “Ooh, a lost love, you say?” said Cassidy.

  “Yeah... I suppose. I'm not sure. He irritated me a lot. I think he loved me, though.”

  “How could you tell?”

  “He told me.”

  “Yeah, that'll do it.”

  “I think what frustrated me was that he just wanted to pretend like we were this happy little couple, living in our home — everything was fine. But even in New York, everything is not fine. There is no happy ending, and his insistent belief that if he just baked enough pies or some such hooey, that we would magically be a family that everyone loved... I just couldn't.”

  “Can you blame him?” asked Cassidy.

  Gideon searched for words for a moment, accepting Cassidy's statement with his facial expression. “Yes, as in I mean to say, no, I can't. But, having a fantasy that is utterly incompatible with reality... that is...” Gideon just shrugged.

  Cassidy nodded. “Do you know what became of him?”

  “Oh sure, he's in the Department as well. He's got his eye on a Senate seat. I have total confidence that he will make it.” Gideon sipped his water. “So how do you know about Joe?”

  “Oh, well, he's hinted at it,” replied Cassidy. “Unintentionally, I think. But it's hard to keep things hidden from someone you've known for twenty years.”

  “Quite a long time. You must have been young.”

  Cassidy became wistful for a moment. “Yeah. Fifteen. I've known him since I was fifteen. I had just been kicked out of another school, so I went to a boarding school out in New York. I think William is the one who primarily arranged it. It had two parts, the boys and the girls. The two schools were separated by this large area where shared buildings were located. I was always being harassed because I refused to wear a dress. The school couldn't turn me away, though, because they needed the money, and they weren't about to lose the richest woman in the country. They didn't do anything to prevent the other students from making my life difficult, though,” Cassidy said with contempt.

  “Joe had just been hired as an assistant to one of the teachers and he supported me. He chastised students who made fun of me. He gave me an office to work in, and on and on. He... always had my back. He was my only real friend. Because even those who were nice to me didn't risk being too nice to me. And Joe was good looking at the time, too. Strapping, handsome. But he treated me... he knew what it was like to be
an outcast. That... that... that sense that I got from him was my first hint.

  “One night, when I was eighteen, my last year there, three boys and one teacher's assistant attacked me, ” Cassidy inhaled and exhaled deeply before continuing. “I had been outside one night waiting to meet Joe. I don't even remember what we were planning on doing. This group of jackasses wandered by, lead by the king jackass, this burly piece of shit named Edward. They took it upon themselves to ruin my night. They started with the usual bombardments. They started getting pretty close to me and I realized from the way they were moving that they had been drinking. I remember that it was at that moment that I felt afraid. I had felt afraid before, but not... well... I felt like I could get truly harmed. So I turned to walk away. I don't know what happened after that. I don't know whether they threw something at me or hit me in the back of the head, but the next thing I remember is being on the ground, with my pants off, and Edward was inside me.

  “I'll never forget how it felt. It was so odd. I felt so disconnected from the sensation that it was like I could experience it in an almost academic way. And then I got lost in this thought process, and I thought how odd it was that, here I am, being taken, and I feel like I, the creature inside my mind that is me, wasn't there. My body was there, and it was telling me stuff, but I was not there. I was observing the events. After it was done... he spit in my face... and started to walk off. In a very strange moment, one that I can't even really put to words, my mind came back to my body, and I experienced the entire thing at once. I wanted to cry, but instead I got angry. I pulled up my pants and picked up a large rock. I had a knife that I kept in my pocket with me as well. I yelled at them. I don't even remember what. The last one came over to me and, I don't know why I thought this was the best course of action, I just headbutted him.” Cassidy laughed. “Right in the nose. His face just exploded with blood. It was everywhere. I then hit him in the head with the rock. He fell to the ground. Edward then ran over to attack me and I just slashed at him with my knife. I carved open his neck. I didn't mean to. I don't think I did. He leapt back, grabbing at his neck, then tried to run. I don't think he made it more than ten paces before he fell over onto his front and died. The other two looked terrified and ran. Then I heard Joe. He was calling for me. He had heard me yell. He walked over and when he came into the light he saw me. I must have been a terrifying sight. I was covered in blood, holding a knife in one hand and a blood-soaked rock in the other.” Cassidy choked and stuttered for a moment as she spoke. “It didn't phase him. He didn't ask what had happened. He probably assumed. He just took me by my shoulders and lead me away. I don't remember anything else from the night.

  “The next day, the entire campus was in an absolute uproar. Two promising young men, senselessly cut down. Oh yeah, senseless. I remember so clearly. The effusive eulogies given for the boys from everyone in the city. It was as though Jesus himself had been killed again. No charges ever came against me, likely because they knew that I had the money to put up one hell of a fight in court and all of our names would be ruined. So that was the end of it. I left the school a couple of months after that and never returned.”

  “You handle those memories well,” said Gideon.

  “I have had many years to work them through — many years to understand them. I get letters from my school now and then asking for money.” Cassidy let out a snide, cynical chuckle. “Yeah. They can go to hell.”

  “Does anyone else know about it?”

  “Oh no, no no no. Lord no. Again,” Cassidy chuckled, “that's probably why I'm taking the opportunity to dump on you. Everyone I know is very tight-knit. My replacement parents — my supposed servants — were the ones who arranged my stay at that school. Their choices were slim, but they would... I can't tell them. They can never know. And that is hard. It was nearly twenty years ago, but sometimes I just need to talk about these things. Thank god, thank god, that I have Joe. Because he knows. He knows.”

  Gideon nodded, looking for words and finding none.

  “Up till that point, I never assumed that something like that could happen. I always thought of myself like a boy. It was a choice. I hated girls, so I simply decided to be a boy. Boys don't get raped, boys earn respect, so if I acted like a boy, what happens to some girls wouldn't happen to me. It was... at least I thought... it was the fault of those girls, at least somewhat. They let the world do that to them. They just rolled over and let it happen. And that's still the case. By that, I mean that it's partially true. Women are weak, and they just sit there and be weak. And when something chooses to be weak, then yes, they... well...”

  Cassidy trailed off in thought for a moment. Gideon didn't say anything. He just listened. “Even... that said, it's not their fault. I tried! I tried. No matter how I act... no matter how I act, I'm still a girl. But at the same time, I'm me! I'm not a girl, I am me. Society puts the label of girl on me. And, for that, I will rage against the world. No matter if I die, no matter if I get attacked or hated, I will rage against this god-forsaken hellscape so that it knows that. I will carve that lesson into the flesh of the world. I. Am. Me. Fuck the world. Damn everything that tries to say otherwise. If I have to be at war with the world, then fine. Win or lose, fine. Because the alternative is being at war with myself. And that doesn't work. It's no good being at war with yourself. One of you always loses.”

  With that, the waiter walked up with a tray of food.

  ---

  “George?”

  George turned around from his work table where he was eating his lunch. “Yes?”

  Standing behind him was Claudette, the woman who had helped Anna acclimate to the operation.

  “Hi. I'm Claudette.”

  “Uh, hi.” They paused awkwardly for a moment.

  “I'm sorry. I assumed that Anna would have mentioned me.”

  “Oh. No. She didn't. I've seen you around here, but other than that...”

  Claudette nodded. “I took Anna under my wing in a sense, and we had a chance to talk about a variety of things since getting here. I just thought I'd come over an introduce myself to you as well.”

  George's stiffness had started to fade. “Oh, yes, of course. Please, sit down,” George said, shoving the clutter on his table to one side. “It's nice to have someone else come up and introduce themselves. Most people are either sad or lost in their work. So what are you working on?” asked George.

  “Dynamo designs, mostly. I work with the battery and engine teams.”

  “Oh, really? They won't let me over there, and none of them eat with us,” George said, his interest piqued.

  “Yeah. They treat them as something of the special children. We're not allowed to much play together.”

  “That explains why you disappear on some days.”

  “Yes indeed. Not just me, though, although I'm not surprised that you noticed me and not the other men.”

  George blushed. “How do you mean?”

  Claudette smiled with intent. “Well, there are two women on this floor. When one goes missing, it's bound to be noticed.”

  “Oh, right... yes.” George replied. “How many others cross over?”

  “We've got about a dozen. It's not surprising. Many of these machines are running on massive battery banks inside the walls.” George looked all about the room, analyzing the walls.

  “I have a whole bunch of questions about... everything, if you'd be willing to talk about it.”

  “Sure, I'd love to.”

  “Great! Great,” George said, shoving the remnants of his lunch aside. He gave one more big bite to his sandwich before setting it down, brushing his hands together to rid himself of crumbs. “My biggest question, and the one that no one else here seems able to answer, is how do the flying machines fly? How are they generating the power to actually get off the ground?”

  “Well,” Claudette said with a smirk, leaning in, “Maybe I'll just show you.”

  George's eyes widened as they darted back and forth between
Claudette's big, brown eyes. “No joke?”

  “No joke.”

  “... Alright,” he squeaked.

  ---

  Claudette and George stood close to each other in the small elevator, a single light from above dimly illuminating them.

  “Just stay calm,” said Claudette. “They see me all the time, so I won't rouse any suspicions, and so many people cycle in and out every day, that as long as you're with me, no one will notice. This is the perfect time to go down, since they usually run their primary tests during the day. With no one above ground needing lights, all of the power can be diverted down here. Even then, we sometimes kill power to other parts of the complex,” she said with a smirk.

  “What the hell are you doing that requires that much power?” asked George.

  “You'll see,” said Claudette, continuing her smirk.

  The door opened up into a large room similar to George's work chamber. High ceilings, one-hundred-and-fifty feet wide, with rugged metal construction all around. The room was lacking a far wall, being completely open to the cave system. Starting in the center of the room and extending out into the cave was a monorail with a large, three-foot-thick plate of metal terminating it in the lab. George stared out into the darkness of the cavern, looking at the twinkling lights hanging in the nether.

  “A cave? We're underground?”

  Claudette looked out, momentarily surprised that George didn't know this. “Oh... yes. This entire complex was built inside of a naturally occurring cave system.”

  “How far underground?”

  “I don't know. I'd assume at least a few hundred feet. The cave is five-hundred feet high in places.” The two stepped away from the elevator and the gate closed behind. This lab was just as cluttered as George's lab, but the nature of the clutter was different. Instead of boxes and gears, there were cables and metal barrels.

  George's eyes ran up and down the length of the long, straight monorail running out into the cave. He then sniffed the air. It was thick with the hot scent of chemicals.

  “Claudette!” a man yelled. A short, slight man with large glasses ran over. The robust Claudette utterly absorbed the small man in an embrace.