by Tara Maya, Elle Casey, J L Bryan, Anthea Sharp, Jenna Elizabeth Johnson, Alexia Purdy (epub)
We waited to see if anyone was going to get up, but everyone stayed. Apparently no one else was feeling too concerned about the lack of specific information either.
The door opened and another man came in, carrying a stack of papers. I almost laughed when I saw him because this guy was the last person you'd expect to see being some kind of secretary. He was super buff - even with the suit he was wearing, you could see it. His neck was thick, his hair short. He looked like a combat guy dressed up in his Sunday best. He spoke quietly with Mr. Dardennes for a minute before Mr. Dardennes left the room.
The buff guy walked around he room, giving each of us a packet of papers as he passed by. He didn't look at anyone, keeping his eyes focused on the materials in his hands and where he was walking.
On the top of the papers he handed us was a basic application form, asking for our name, address, phone number and other similar stuff. There were also some health questions like you'd answer on a doctor's office form.
Buff-Guy stood at the front of the room, speaking in a deep, gravelly voice that was slightly accented. He had a different type of accent than Mr. Dardennes did - possibly Slavic or Russian or something.
"Please fill out the forms on top. After you have completed your papers, put them on the table up here. When everyone has finished that part, we will begin the written test. It will be timed and you will have thirty minutes to complete it." He turned and left the room.
Everyone began filling out the forms. I looked at Tony and gestured towards the name and address section. He gave a very slight shake of his head, agreeing with me that we shouldn't put our real information down. I remembered the ad said we had to be eighteen to participate. Tony and I were both still seventeen. I nudged him and pointed to the birthday question on the form, subtracting a year off my date to qualify myself, watching as Tony did the same. For our addresses, we both used a street near our high school. It was more like a fib than an outright lie - I mean, it was in the same neighborhood, at least. If they asked me for identification, I was going to say that I didn't have any. It wasn't that strange to not have a driver's license in Miami ... the public transportation was pretty good. Hopefully, since the One Eleven guys weren't from Florida, they wouldn't know any better about West Palm. Without a driver's license there, you would be stranded most of the time. It wasn't that the city didn't have public transportation, it was just that I normally wouldn't be caught dead on it. There were some serious weirdoes on those buses, which Tony and I found out firsthand when we took the bus to the Tri-Rail station. One guy was sitting in his seat, yelling at no one in particular. He seemed to be hearing an invisible person talking back, too, the way he was one minute shouting and the next minute listening to a response that neither Tony nor I could hear. It seemed like a lot more time than just one day had passed since Tony and I had been on that weird little adventure.
Tony elbowed me out of my daydream. "You done?" he asked, standing to go up to the front with his form.
I signed at the bottom of the form, under some disclaimer I didn't bother reading. "Yep. Here ... " I gave him my paper, and he left to deliver them both to the table in front. My dad is a lawyer and would have flipped his wig over me signing a form before reading the legal stuff. That was part of the reason why I made it a policy not to. My dad was a real dickwad, so it made me happy to do things that got under his skin.
Not long after, everyone else finished their forms and stacked them on the table in the front of the room. I was curious about what Jared's crew was going to use as addresses and birthdays. I'd bet Becky wasn't eighteen yet ... probably not Finn either. The others probably were, though. They looked older, especially Jared.
Mr. Dardennes walked back into the meeting room with Buff-Guy. "Anyone need more time?" he asked, looking around. When no one answered, he continued. "Good, then let's begin with the timed test." He picked up the forms we had just completed from the table and handed them to his assistant, who left the room.
"Please break the seal on your packet. You will find an answer sheet under the first page. Take it out and fill in your names at the top. Don't bother filling out the other information." He waited two minutes while we did that.
I felt like I was getting ready to take the pre-S.A.T. test in school again.
"This test is timed. You will have thirty minutes to complete it. Please read the instructions carefully before answering the questions. Good luck ... you may now begin."
I turned the page on the test to reach the first question. 'How many hours per day do you sleep?' Hmmm. That's a tough one. My answer depended on whether there was anything interesting going on. I marked an answer and moved on, not believing for a second that it even mattered.
'Do you ever have a sense of déjà vu?' Of course, doesn't everyone? Next question ... 'Do you ever hear voices telling you to do things?' Oh, come on, who's going to say yes to that? Next ... 'If you were going to take a vacation of your choice, where would you go? (a) the mountains, (b) the plains, (c) the desert, (d) the ocean.'
Hmmm. That one was harder. Definitely 'no' for the desert and ocean options. I lived in Florida because I was forced to, not because it was my choice. Maybe if I lived somewhere else, I'd pick '(d) ocean', but being a resident of a vacation resort area made the ocean seem like no big deal to me. I chose '(a) Mountains'. I loved the mountains, especially the forest part. I'd only gone to the mountains in North Carolina and Tennessee, but they were magically awesome. It was a long time ago, but I still remembered it fondly. I had to shake my head to get it back into the test.
The next section was similar to one I'd seen in school before. There were a series of shapes and I had to pick the next shape in the sequence. I was good at those.
The last section was weird as hell. I'd never seen anything like it before. The instructions said specifically that we were not to guess answers, and each question had the same letter (d) response: 'I don't know.'
I looked over at Tony who was already on that section. He had a lost look on his face, so I knew he was thinking the same thing as me. The first question was: 'What color are Mr. Dardennes' eyes?'. The answer was '(c) Gray', but what the hell? The next question was even weirder. 'What is the weather like outside right now?'
We were in a windowless room on the inside of a hotel, on the bottom floor. Chances are it was sunny outside - it was Miami after all. But what the heck kind of question was that? The instructions said I wasn't supposed to guess, so I was getting ready to answer with letter (d), but then I thought about it for a second, looking over my answer choices.
(a) It is sunny and dry.
(b) It is rainy and warm.
(c) It is snowing.
(d) I don't know.
Snowing? Ha. That's funny. I was thinking about marking it just for the hell of it, but I stopped, reminding myself that we really needed this money. This wasn't school where I would mark '(c)' without thinking about it. Memories of the warehouse's hard concrete floor trickled through my mind.
I breathed in deeply through my nose, thinking about the outside of the hotel. As I inhaled, I smelled something funny. What is that smell? I'd smelled it before, I knew I had. I couldn't put my finger on it, though. Oh well, no time to ponder. I wanted to get the test over with, so marked (d) on the weather question. It felt wrong, but I was running out of time.
I continued taking the strange test, answering more crazy questions. The last one was my favorite, though. It wasn't a multiple choice; it was an essay question with ten blank lines under it. The question was:
'If you could be a superhero, which one would you be and why? Fill in the lines below with your answer.'
Superhero? Good guy or bad guy? Do I have to stick to female superheroes or can I pick a male one? So far, their instructions had been pretty specific. I decided there were no limits since they hadn't given any. I looked at the clock; I had five minutes left. I gazed around the room and saw that some people were already filling out their answer and some still hadn't gotten t
here yet. Tony was already done. He was always faster than me on tests.
My favorite superheroes were of the X-Men variety. I loved the one with the wings, but only because I'd always wondered what it would be like to fly. I wasn't sure that having wings would be very useful or practical in reality, though, so I scratched that one off my mental list. The laser-vision thing would be cool - until you accidentally lasered your house or your best friend. I thought about several other superpowers, and it seemed like most of them had super shitty side effects that I would never want to have to deal with.
What powers would I like? Hmmmm ... I liked the ability to control the minds of others; that would be cool. I think I would like to see through things, like with x-ray vision. Superhuman strength would come in handy, no matter where I was. The problem is, none of these powers added up to one particular superhero, man or woman. Did Superman have x-ray vision? I couldn't remember. He was kind of old-school anyway, plus he had to wear tights and a cape. I sure wasn't going to be any superhero wearing tights or some trampy negligee like Wonderwoman did. Who made those costumes anyway? They were totally impractical for fighting crime.
I looked up at the clock and realized I only had two minutes left. Dammit, I was running out of time. I really wanted to answer this question and pick a superhero for some reason. I tapped my pencil on the side of my head. Think, think ... come on, think! Wait ... yes! I had something. I quickly scribbled it down and gave the accompanying explanation. As I put my last period on the paper, Mr. Dardennes walked in the door.
"Your time is up," he said. "Thank you for passing your tests to the front of the room."
We all passed our booklets up. I wondered which superhero Tony picked. Probably Spiderman. I knew he had some Spiderman comics in his room the last time I was there.
"For those of you interested in continuing, there will now be a brief personal interview, conducted in a separate room. We will take you in alphabetical order by first name. While the interviews are taking place, the rest of you may remain here in this room. Refreshments will be provided."
The door opened and several hotel employees filed in, carrying trays of sandwiches and chips, and wheeling bins of sodas on a cart. Within five minutes they had a whole lunch buffet set up. Tony and I had eaten half a sub before we came, but with our current situation being what it was, I decided I should eat anyway. Neither of us knew when our next good meal was going to be.
"Our first interview will be with Becky."
Becky stood and followed Mr. Dardennes out of the room, glancing back at all of us with her trademark happy smile. The rest of us got up and served ourselves lunch.
Tony came back to the table, his plate piled high with four sandwiches.
"Hungry?" I asked.
"Not really. I'm going to wrap these up in something and put them in my bag for later."
"Brilliant ... me too. Be right back." I made a second trip to the buffet, grabbing three more sandwiches and two bags of chips. I noticed Jared's crew doing the same thing.
Even with all of us grabbing four times what we could eat, there were still plenty of sandwiches left. Dardennes' company must have been expecting more people. There were only about five extra seats, though. Oh well. Someone had made an error in calculating the food needed, and I was going to capitalize on it. I grabbed some napkins from the stack for wrapping up our sandwiches.
I got back to the table and all but one of Tony's sandwiches was already gone. He wrapped mine up quickly and shoved them in his bag to join the others. We ate the ones we still had on our plates.
The door opened and Becky stepped through before I was finished. "Chase, you're next. Go down the hall that way, and go in the last door on the left."
Becky went up to the buffet, taking four sandwiches, three bags of chips and two sodas. She was barely five feet tall and surely didn't break one hundred pounds on the scale, so seeing her with that much food was comical. She sat down by Finn and set about wrapping up her sandwiches, just like Tony and I had done. We were naturals at this homeless thing ... a depressing thought.
Jared spoke up first. "So Becky, what'd they say?"
We all stopped chatting and listened for her answer.
"I can't say. They said we can't tell each other until it's all over, or it could compromise the results." She shrugged apologetically. "Sorry, guys. I need the money, so I'm just going to follow the rules. But don't worry," she said brightly, "you'll find out in a minute anyway." She took a big bite of her turkey sandwich and smiled as she chewed.
Everyone went back to eating and chatting, and eventually it was my turn. I got up after being summoned by Jared, who'd been called in before me by a guy who was not part of Jared's crew. I walked down the hall, entering the last room on the left as instructed. There was a round table with three chairs around it at the end of the room. Two of the chairs were already occupied, one by Mr. Dardennes and one by some lady, also with gray hair and gray eyes. They looked like they could be siblings ... twins even. The chair opposite them was empty, so I took it.
"Hello, Jayne," said Mr. Dardennes. "This is my colleague, Céline."
I nodded at her. "Nice to meet you, Céline." I wanted to ask them if they were related, but I couldn't afford to be rude with five hundred bucks on the line.
"We just have a few questions for you, based on answers you gave on your test."
"Okay, shoot." This was like a job interview. I'd gone on a few of those, the last one being at the local frozen yogurt store. I didn't get the job, so I wasn't sure that my interview skills were up to par.
The woman spoke first. "Please, before we begin, may I see your hands?"
It was a strange request but seemed innocent enough. I held my hands up in front of me, palms facing out.
She stretched her hands across the table towards me. "Please place them in my hands."
Now this seemed a little on the creepy side. What is she going to do? Read my palms?
I slowly lowered my hands down to the table, putting them palm up in her hands.
"Turn them over, please."
Okay, so she isn't going to read my palms. Are we going to play the slap game? I was pretty good at it. It made Tony crazy that I could flip my hand over and slap the back of his hands before he moved them out of the way. He refused to play with me anymore. Somehow I doubted the sophisticated and controlled Céline was going to let me slap her, but if she decided to slap me, I was probably going to let her. Five hundred bucks was five hundred bucks.
Céline nodded at Mr. Dardennes, signaling him to begin the interview.
"Jayne, you said on your test that you do not hear voices in your head, is that correct?"
"Yes, I did say that, and it's true. But honestly, who would say yes to that question?"
"Different people interpret the questions differently, which sometimes results in them answering differently. Surely you have a conscience?"
"Well, of course I have a conscience ... but it's not a separate voice or anything in my head talking to me ... " I stopped for a second to think about that. I did tend to have lots of conversations with myself in my head - but they were with me, not some other voice. Then I thought about Tony. Oopsy. That boy was hearing my voice in his head lately. Did that mean he was crazy? I didn't think so. He'd have to follow my instructions in order to qualify as crazy. Now that was an interesting idea ... bossing Tony around telepathically ...
My thoughts were interrupted by Mr. Dardennes who had a very small smile on his face. Or maybe I was imagining that, because suddenly he looked very serious again. "Have you ever physically injured another person?"
Dammit. Did my mother's boyfriend count? He'd totally deserved it. Other than him, I couldn't remember ever hitting anyone. Before I could decide whether to hedge my answer, Céline spoke up.
"Include all instances. Do not make judgments about motivations or whether it would be considered right or wrong from a moral standpoint."
Shiiiiit. Is this woman reading my m
ind now too? I was going to have to figure out how to keep my thoughts more private real soon. Tony being in there was bad enough.
"I did physically hurt someone once, but he totally deserved it and gave me no choice ... and I'm not interested in giving you any details, so if you need them to qualify me for this test, then I'm outta here."
I started pulling my hands away from Céline's grasp, but she closed her fingers and held on. She had a surprisingly strong grip for such an old lady. I guess I assumed she was old because of the gray hair, but her face didn't have any lines on it like it should have ... I mean, for the color of her hair, anyway.
"No, we don't need details; your explanation will suffice," said Mr. Dardennes. "Let's continue. Do you know the ancestry of your great-grandparents or great-great grandparents? Or even further back than that?"
This one was easy. "My mother's family is from Ireland and my father's family is of mixed European heritage." I'd heard my mom say that often enough. She had dark hair and dark eyes, so whenever she said she was pure Irish, I'd make fun of her, saying it wasn't possible since she didn't have red hair or freckles. She claimed she was 'black Irish', whatever that meant.
"What is your mother's maiden name?"
I was wondering if I should tell them, since I was trying to remain somewhat anonymous. But after thinking about it for a few seconds, I figured it wouldn't matter since my mom never used that name anyway. Even after the divorce she kept using Sparks.
"Blackthorn is my mom's maiden name."
My two interviewers exchanged a look. It was a super cool last name, I had to admit. When I got older I was going to legally change my name from Sparks to my mother's maiden name. Jayne Blackthorn. It has a cool ring.
Céline continued with the questioning. "When asked what the weather was like outside, you said you didn't know; was that a truthful answer?"
"Yyyeesssss ... ," I said, kind of sure of myself, kind of not.
"You are hesitant in your answer ... why?"
"Well, because it's Miami, so it's probably sunny or rainy, but ... "
