by Jay Korza
Wilks assured her that if she was aware of how much her education lacked, she simply couldn’t be dumb. A dumb person would never realize that they needed help. Cynthia seemed to like this line of thinking because everyone else she had ever known had called her dumb or some variant of the word, sometimes a much worse variant. Cynthia settled in very quickly and only had a few minor emotional incidents for the next many years that she was a part of the group.
One student quickly became ten; then twenty and then too many for the group to take care of in a single space. Teaching and study days had to be rationed like bread to the starving masses. Wilks eventually used his master key to take over a few more unused spaces in the school. He also found that they could use the school after hours thanks to the magical key he had been handed without so much as a second thought. This allowed their endeavor to flourish even more with the run of the entire school at night. With the use of the subject-specific classrooms, they could schedule classes and study sessions even better.
Cynthia even started teaching a class of her own, basic Coalition penal code. She had actually absorbed a wealth of knowledge in all of her goings-on with the local law enforcement. Now that she was learning how to better articulate herself and put together a study plan, her elective study group was becoming quite popular. Cynthia went on to graduate from an Ivy League school and came back to the same colony to practice juvenile criminal defense.
By the end of the year, Wilks and his original study group were basically running their own school at night. Even a few parents present were taught to read and write. When he looked back on his fifth-grade year, Wilks couldn’t help but be impressed with himself and the other eleven-year-olds he worked with.
The school’s overall GPA was just about eleven times what it had been when they started. The principal knew it was because of Wilks’ study group but never said anything about it. He also knew they were using the master key well beyond its original intent and purposes, but he was fine with that, too. Why would he say anything when he basically now had an army of non-paid teachers who were making his school look better than any of the other public schools? Not to mention the fact that “new” equipment had shown up all over the school. Most likely thanks to the master key and the ingenuity of the young criminal minds working together to make their new learning obsession as grand as it possibly could be.
By the time Wilks graduated from high school, he and his friends had had more success stories than probably all of his teachers combined, times five, to a modest power of ten. Okay, maybe a power of two, but still pretty damned good.
After college, Mr. Wilks began working at a public school, teaching history and helping to coach track after school. Mr. Wilks hadn’t returned to his own colony as Cynthia had; he wanted to help the less fortunate but he also wanted to see new places so he moved around for the first five years, trying new things. He even tried substituting at a fairly wealthy private school and found that some of the students were even harder to reach than the young criminals he was used to working with.
During his fifth year of being a teacher, he was living on a Coalition planet near the Shirka home world. He met a woman, maybe even the woman. Mr. Wilks settled down at last and got a full-time job teaching at one of the poorest-rated public schools in the city. He was going to make a difference. He was going to re-create his childhood school, but it would be better this time now that he had the full support of the school and he was an actual adult.
Three years later, he was watching the clock and getting annoyed at his own voice. Maybe it was because he was an adult and the kids didn’t want to listen to an adult regardless of who they were. Maybe he had possessed a certain something as a child that he no longer possessed. Maybe his earlier successes were actually more because of his adolescent colleagues than because of him. Whatever the reason, Mr. Wilks was utterly beat down after just eight years of teaching.
The clock struck the top of the hour and the lights dimmed twice to indicate the class was over. An almost audible sigh of relief escaped from everyone who was still actually conscious in the classroom. As Mr. Wilks walked out of the room, he didn’t even take the time to wake the two students who were still sleeping. They’d figure it out soon enough when the janitor droid came in and poked them and ordered them to leave the school grounds.
Mr. Wilks was now on the track field, the best part of his day. At least here, most of the kids wanted to be participating in the activities. Some were there due to the pressures of their parents and some were court-mandated to take extra-curricular classes to help them learn the socialization skills they so obviously lacked.
Mr. Wilks ran a 5K to warm up and then went through each of the events in a decathlon. He wasn’t out for time today, just a good workout, so he did a fairly light pace and easy numbers on all of the events. He had five students working out with him, two who were actual competition when they were pushing each other. After the workout, they all put some time into the pole vault and worked on some of the issues the team had been having with their techniques.
Mr. Wilks then went home and found all that was left of his girlfriend Mary was a note. Not even a very long note. In fact, the note was fairly atrocious in its spelling and grammatical errors. That gave Mr. Wilks some solace, to know that he could always look back on the note and see that she wasn’t really that great of a catch to begin with. Its contents didn’t matter so much as the sentiment, which was along the lines of “It’s not me. It’s you, it’s totally you. Seriously, how could you not know it was you? We both know it wasn’t me, not in a million years could it ever have been me. So we’re clear, right? All you, buddy.”
Mr. Wilks sat on his couch and opened a beer. He stared at a still-dark screen for twenty minutes before he realized he hadn’t even turned the television on. That issue was easily solved as he turned on the Coalition military channel. The screen came to life and Mr. Wilks found himself in the middle of a documentary series about the first twenty years of military space exploration. In the back of his head, he heard Mary’s voice: “The military channel again? What a surprise. You see, totally not me.”
The first twenty years of military space exploration was filled with first contacts, first battles with other species, so many firsts that were scary and wonderful all.
Ten hours later, the series marathon was over and Mr. Wilks looked at the clock, this time not waiting for his day to be over but dreading his day having to start. She was right: it was him—it was always him. With the documentary still fresh in his mind, he was able to go to work with a little spring in his step, thinking about the wonderful history he had just watched. The documentary would help him get through the day, as he imagined himself in the place of the brave warriors who had ventured out into the cosmos so many centuries before.
Mr. Wilks kept going over his personal mantra, “The day will end. Nothing they do can ever make the day longer. It will end, no matter what.“ And while it wasn’t a merciless end, it did in fact end and Mr. Wilks headed out to the track for the only thing that brought him joy anymore.
As he approached the track, he saw there was a small contingent of military personnel near the field. That was odd. He had seen small contingents of cops on campus before, but that was to arrest one of the wayward students. Could any of the students have done something so bad that the military needed to show up?
Mr. Wilks approached the group and walked up to one of the soldiers. “Excuse me. What’s going on here, Gunnery Sergeant?”
The gunny looked at Mr. Wilks. “Career day. Prior service?”
Mr. Wilks looked a little embarrassed, “No, Gunny, I’m just a big military history buff. So why are you out here at the field?”
“I’m with the special detailing recruiting office. We look for students who might be more suited for Special Forces and similar assignments. Out here on the field is where we tend to find those sorts of kids.” The gunny waved his hand towards the athletes who were warming up. “Do you think any of t
hese kids might be interested?”
Mr. Wilks thought for a second. “Maybe a couple. I’ll put them through a bit of a warm-up and let you take a look at them in action.”
Mr. Wilks called in his group of athletes and told them that they were going to be putting in a little bit more of an effort today but he didn’t tell them why. They went through the 5K warm-up and then the obstacle course. Mr. Wilks was pushing hard today; a few of the students dropped out, along the way calling him crazy. Then they went on to the decathlon again, but still pushing it pretty hard.
When they got done, the gunny and two of his fellow marines walked over. “Very impressive. How would all three of you like to be Force Recon Marines?”
Mr. Wilks looked around; there were only two students left at the end of the workout. “Three? Which other student are you talking about?”
“For a smart guy, you’re pretty dumb.” The gunny handed the three athletes his business card. “You two will have to graduate first, but you, sir,” now talking directly to Mr. Wilks, “can sign up today if you’d like. In fact, I’m sure with your education, you can probably apply to Officer Candidate School.”
“I don’t want to be an officer. I want to be in the field more.” Mr. Wilks was absently looking at the business card.
“Sounds like you already made up your mind. We can go to my office and fill out the paperwork right now. I can probably get you started as a corporal after boot camp, given your college education. Maybe even get you in to a sergeant fast-track program.”
Mr. Wilks was amazed as the words came from his mouth, almost without permission from his conscious self, “Can you guarantee me a spot in Force Recon?”
“No”, the gunny said flatly. “But I can absolutely promise you a shot at trying out for it. You won’t have any problem getting in to training, I’m sure of that. Staying in and graduating, that’s your problem.”
“Let’s go.” Mr. Wilks looked back at his athletes. “I’m sorry, but I can’t stay here any longer. It’s not you, kids, it’s me.”
One of his favorite students, Matt Snyder, stepped up. “We know, Mr. Wilks. You should go. You deserve better.” Matt flicked the corner of the business card in his hand. “I’ll look you up when I get there.”
“You better.” Wilks walked away to start his new life.
Back to Previous
Emily
“Emily!”
“What?!”
“Hurry up! We’re going to be late for your flight if we don’t leave in the next few minutes.”
“I’m coming, Mom”, Emily said as she came down the stairwell and into the kitchen. “I’m sorry. I just wanted to make one last check of everything before we left. It’s not like I’ll be able to head to the corner store and get some toothpaste once we get to the dig site.”
“Don’t worry so much. You’re going to be with a lot of people who have done this before and will help you out if you forgot anything. Now let’s go, your dad is waiting in the car.”
Once they were in the car, Emily allowed herself to relax a little. “I hope this trip isn’t for nothing. I’m missing out on some summer activities that would look great on my college application”, she said aloud, but not having meant to.
“Look,” her mother began, “we’ve been through this before; you need to relax and stop worrying so much about college. You’re sixteen and have two years of high school left—you should enjoy them. You’ll be fine. You’re a great student. I’m sure you’ll have your pick of colleges. When your dad and I were kids, most alien schools wouldn’t even think about taking human students. You have a whole galaxy of colleges to apply to.”
“I know you keep saying that but it doesn’t make me worry any less.”
“You get straight As, honey.” This comment was from her father.
“Yes, Dad, but so does thirty percent of my high school. And with a last name of O’Riley, I’m pretty far down the list when you put all of the 4.0 averages alphabetically. I need something extra, something to make me shine more than the other kids once we start applying to college.” Emily made a small snort. “Some of my classmates actually already have applied and received early admissions to their first choices.”
Emily’s father punched in a few commands to the car’s dashboard and let the autopilot take over. He swiveled his seat around to face the rear passenger compartment. “Honey, a long time ago some colleges did care about extra-curricular activities and how much you filled out your resume on their applications, but that’s not so much the case anymore. With so many different species applying to schools throughout the galaxy, it’s pretty difficult for them to sort out those sorts of things anymore. They really tend to rely more on the placement exams, psych exams, and all of the other admissions testing they do. They look at the data in those results more than the person or applications themselves.”
“Maybe, but you never know. That’s why I decided to do this trip. It might make history and that would make me look good.” Emily crossed her arms and tried to look as if she was sulking.
Her mother took over. “Oh sweetie, I wish you had a different attitude about this. Aunt Janine wouldn’t even be going on this dig if it weren’t for you.”
“What do you mean? Aunt Janine loves these things. She’s always telling stories about how they are the greatest adventures of her life.” Emily thought her mom was trying to throw in a guilt trip to get her attitude to change.
“She did love them, once. She’s been teaching for the last five years and really enjoying it. When they called her to head up this dig, she initially refused. They told her to think about it some more and that they would call her back in a couple of weeks. They really wanted her to go.”
“Why wouldn’t she want to go? This is right up her alley. They found the ruins of a completely unknown alien species. It’s her chance to make history. Again. For like, the sixth time or something ridiculous like that.” Emily was now sitting forward, obviously more engaged than before.
“Janine has been comfortable for the last five years. She has been sleeping in her own comfortable bed. Eating warm food that wasn’t from a dehydrated pouch. She hasn’t had to pick alien fleas from her hair.”
“Eww! Mom!”
“Exactly. And that’s why she wasn’t going to go on this expedition. She’s been comfortable and she’s also satisfied with her previous adventures. She’s even dating another professor, so she’s happy with where she’s at.”
“Then why is she going?”
“Because of you.” Emily’s mom let that sink in for a moment before she continued. “Look, we didn’t tell you any of this stuff because we wanted you to want to go on this trip for yourself, for fun, for adventure and not for other reasons. Janine called me a few weeks ago, just our normal sister talk time, and she was telling me about what’s going on with her and stuff. When she got to the part about the dig and how she was going to turn it down, I mentioned that it was too bad because when you were younger, Janine had always said that when you were old enough she was going to take you on a dig. You used to get so excited about that.
“We talked for a little bit more and she decided that she would take the job if you wanted to go with her. She thinks it’s very important for you to get out as a young woman, see for yourself what adventures you can have and open yourself up to more than what your little corner of the galaxy has for you.”
“I didn’t know. I’m sorry, mom; I’ll have a better attitude, I promise. I really do want to go. I’m actually pretty excited.” Emily started to feel better as she allowed herself to slip her self-applied grumpy shackles. “I was just a little down because Shelly called me this morning to wish me luck and she let it slip that she got early admission to her father’s alma mater. But she is one year ahead of me and she deserves it. I’m letting it go, though, all of it. If Aunt Janine is doing this for me then I’m all in, no more attitude.” Shackles gone.
The family reached the airport and took the transorbital shutt
le to the spaceport. Once they found Emily’s flight, they said their tearful goodbyes and Emily boarded, feeling more excited than ever, now that she allowed herself to.
Two days later, she was onboard another transport, this time with her Aunt Janine and the rest of the expedition’s crew. This transport was so much better and faster than the first. It was a private craft and a fairly expensive one at that. Janine explained that the expedition was being staffed by people from ten different universities and had at least four wealthy private backers.
“Thank you so much for having me along on this trip, Aunt Janine!”
“No problem, dear. I’ve always waited for the day that you could join me on one of my adventures.”
“You should have your own kids. You’d be a great mother.”
“I never had time, and I always had you to pretend you were mine.” Janine smiled warmly at her niece.
“Mom said you have a new boyfriend.” Emily smiled back. “Maybe you two could have kids?”
“Ha! You’re worse than your mom is!” Janine playfully pushed Emily’s shoulder. “He has a son already, eight years old. Great kid, we have a lot of fun together. He was very jealous that he couldn’t go on this trip. I think I’ll be happy with them as my family. But if Steve wants another kid, I don’t think I’d be opposed to it. I’m just not going to be the one to push for it.”
“Well, they are both lucky to have you. I know I am.” Emily finished eating her lunch while she and her aunt caught up on everything going on in their lives.
~
Three weeks later, Emily had all but forgotten about college as she immersed herself in her work. Aunt Janine kept her close by either herself or one of the four other senior specialists. Emily was learning so much from each of them and was thankful she was given a daily assignment rather than having to decide for herself where she’d spend her time; she didn’t think she’d be able to choose between her five mentors if she were forced to.
