by Aaron Slade
“You’re going to be late if you run,” I said. “Legacy is across town. You’ll never make it on time.”
“You underestimate me,” Adam said.
“It would be easier if you teleport.”
“Yeah but teleporting doesn’t burn fat. I haven’t done a lot of walking today, so I need to run. I wish I had been born a speedster. They have the fastest metabolisms.”
Adam was a huge health freak. When he didn’t talk about music, he talked about his number one obsession– his body.
“Teleportation just encourages laziness,” he ranted. “It’s just…” he caught the peeved look on my face before he continued. “But– but I’m very thankful that I’m a teleporter.” He knew that he’d rather be able to teleport than have no ability at all.
“Just put your bag in my car,” I said. “But I’m not covering for you if you’re late. I’ll time you. We’ll see if you can finally beat your record.” I unlocked my door and reached for the handle- “What the fire!” I cursed, pulling back my hand.
Adam looked at me confused.
“The handle burned me!” I grunted. The pain throbbed in my fingers. Missing skin left my fingertips red and raw.
Adam put his hand up to the metal handle without making contact. I did the same noticing the black tinge around the door handle.
“Randy,” we both said in unison.
I let out a big huff. “I knew I got off too easy this morning.”
My hand actually hurt worse than my arm had. I kicked the sandy gravel in anger and waited for it to cool down. I looked around but didn’t see Randy anywhere.
Ten minutes went by and the handle was still too hot to open the door. I was sure my passenger door handle had melted slightly. Adam wrapped his hand in a shirt to try and open the door, but the shirt caught fire. I felt my windows and could feel that it was absurdly hot inside my car as well. I guessed Randy wanted me to sweat on my way to work. We lived in the Nevada Territory– sweating was often the only way to travel.
“Will you just pop me into work?” I asked Adam. “If you don’t, we’re both going to be late.”
“I really wanted to run,” he said desperately. “I haven’t walked more than ten steps today without teleporting. I seriously went from my bed to the shower as soon as I woke up.” He animated his explanation with his arms.
“I know,” I said, “but my hand hurts. I have to doctor it before I can clock in.” I held up my hand for him to examine it.
Adam paused, staring at the marble-sized blisters on my fingers. The blisters must have been pretty convincing. Without saying a word he put his hand on my shoulder, and before I knew it, we were at the store.
“One day I’m going to be fat, and it will be your fault,” he said. He chuckled to let me know he wasn’t being serious, but I could see he was disappointed to miss an opportunity to exercise.
Adam had teleported us directly into the break-room at Legacy. I went over to my locker and got out my often-needed first-aid kit. I always tried to have a regeneration cream made from the blood of someone who could regenerate their injuries. The blisters disappeared in seconds once I smoothed the red paste on my fingers.
I put on my green smock and clocked in to start my shift.
Adam dressed in the same smock, and adjusted his nametag. “So what brought on the conversation about girls?” he asked.
For some reason, I couldn’t tell him about the new girl. “I just wanted to know what my chances were,” I confessed, “but it doesn’t matter.”
I put Evee’s blue eyes out of my mind. It was hopeless to think about such things, but no matter how hard I tried, she still lingered on my thoughts.
My shift passed quickly. When I wasn’t busy shelving movie chips and helping people find movies, I chatted with Adam in the music department. I put in five hours of work, which would earn me about sixty credits to spend. By Military Law, I could only spend my credit in Fallon. If people could make purchases and spend credit outside of their survival cities, Adam and I would travel the land.
I clocked out in a hurry. I wanted to get home to talk to Dad. Adam teleported me across town to my car, which was no longer rigged to scald me. I wondered if Dad had told Mom about my interaction with this girl. I knew she would make a big deal out of it if she knew. I could already hear her in my head.
“Oh, your first crush!” she would shout in her most agonizing tone.
I realized that my parents had never had to address the subject of me dating or even crushing on a girl. I recalled the horrifically awkward sex-talk they had with me in fourth grade. They could barely get me to engage with them in the conversation. I hoped that if Dad had told Mom, it wouldn’t be as awkward as the sex-talk.
I entered the house, finding my parents in the living room. They both looked as if they had been waiting for me. The beaming expression on Mom’s face told me that Dad had already talked to her. Mom worked hard to contain herself.
Please! Please! Please! Don’t let this be awkward, I thought to myself.
I watched Mom draw a deep breath. “Did anything special happen at school today, Casper?” She grinned from ear to ear and her words came fast.
I knew she was hoping I would tell her myself. “Dad told you about the new girl?” I pretended to guess.
“He told me that you couldn’t take your eyes off her!” she said ecstatically.
I didn’t have a choice but to answer her every question.
Uncle Jesse walked in the room and took a seat across from Dad on the couch. “He’s not happy with you at the moment,” he told Dad. Uncle Jesse chuckled and Dad tried to hide his guilt.
I know you’re just as guilty, I thought clearly for him to hear. You’ve probably been encouraging her.
“Not true!” he responded. “And what are you freaking out about anyway? Your mom’s not going to try and set you up on a play date with this girl.”
I paused. It had never occurred to me that everything I was feeling was natural, or that this whole situation was natural. Uncle Jesse was right; it was normal for Mom and Dad to ask these types of questions. I let the fact that I was human make this a big deal.
“Your father told me that she is beautiful and has superb manners,” Mom said through her grin. Something in Mom’s voice made me think she never thought this day would come. “He also said that this Evee couldn’t take her eyes off you.”
My heart skipped a beat as I considered her words. My instinctual reaction was to be skeptical. How could he be sure?
“You should trust your dad,” Uncle Jesse said, responding to my thoughts. “He knows a thing or two about girls.”
“It was written on her face too,” Dad said. “It wouldn’t have taken a mind-reader to see that. She was practically glowing.” Dad beamed at me proudly. I liked it. Sometimes, I worried I disappointed him as a son.
Did Evee’s face betray her, the way my face betrayed me? I sat in the loveseat across the room from Dad.
“You guys are my family. You have to say things like this,” I said.
“Why wouldn’t she like you, Casper?” Mom asked, confused. “You’re handsome, smart, charming…”
“Human,” I added. My tone tore through the previous jolly feelings in the room. Mom and Dad stared at each other in silence, wondering what to say next.
“Well,” Mom began, “I think that if she can see you the way you are, you have nothing to worry about.”
“Fallon is a small town, Casper,” Dad reported. “Evee’s from San Diego. That place has always been home to a liberal crowd. I think you’ll find her to be a bit more open minded than some of the people here. Plus, you can’t let a few ignorant people get you down. There are plenty of people in this town that don’t have a problem with you.”
I considered the truth to Dad’s words. Too often, I allowed the bad people in Fallon to categorize everyone.
“I brought her into the library in hopes that we might run into you,” Dad said. “The librarian said you wer
e helping Seth find his books. I caught Evee staring at you from the second floor.”
It shocked me that I hadn’t seen them enter the library. I must have been too busy to notice them.
I sat in the living room with my parents for the next hour. Occasionally, Mom couldn’t help herself and felt compelled to bring Evee back into the conversation. I wanted to leave the subject behind, but like my Mom, I also had to fight the tendency to bring her up randomly. She was on my every thought; even though all we had done was say hello to each other.
I locked eyes with Uncle Jesse a few times and his smile told me that he was in my mind. He knew this girl saturated my every thought. I was thankful he wasn’t communicating my secret thoughts with my parents and that he knew how to keep them private. I’d had to adjust over the years having a mind-reader in the house. If Uncle Jesse were a real adult, I would be more threatened. Since I’d always thought him to be more my age, his reading my thoughts had never been a big deal. There was no way of knowing what he knew about my parents or me.
“It’s Friday night, Casper. Don’t you have plans with Adam or something?” Mom asked.
“No,” I responded. “He’s closing the store and I wanted to get in bed early tonight.”
“Any reason?” Mom and Dad asked together.
“Just a long day,” I confessed, remembering my two injuries. I was surprised I had almost forgotten. It was nice being able to forget about Randy when I had Evee to think about. One glance from her eyes and I was obsessed. I would much rather think about her, rather than focus on my hate for Randy.
I thought I had better come up with something to do this weekend so that the time would pass quickly. I would be eager to see her Monday if she decided not to attend school on the Military Base.
When I got in my room I collapsed on my bed and reached for my remote. I had rented another Hitchcock film, Psycho. I didn’t know what to expect because it was in black and white.
I found it hard to concentrate during black and white films. I always appreciated bright colors, especially in film. For some reason I associated colors with emotions. Sometimes, when I saw a rare color, I had to wonder what it meant.
Colors like her eyes, I thought to myself. If love were a color, it would be the color of her eyes.
VEGAS
Evee:
My first weekend in Fallon and Dad was gone– shock, shock… surprise, surprise. I sat in my room reading the Weekly Telepath. The front-page article was about an escaped convict believed to be in the Nevada Territory. The offender of Military Law committed a murder, and the article reported that he was considered highly dangerous by Military authority. Dad was probably out looking for him.
KNOCK! KNOCK!
The loud sound at the door startled me. Dad and I never had visitors. I made my way downstairs to see who the guest might be. I felt certain it was a Military officer for Dad. When I opened the door I could see that I was right. The soldier was at least ten years older than me with a receding hairline, but I could tell by his uniform’s lack of decorations that he was lowly ranked. It wasn’t his fault. His ability was probably only a class four or five. Fivers in the Military found themselves in low ranks more often than not.
“I have a package from San Diego to deliver to this address,” he said. He did a double take at my eyes.
“The Colonel isn’t here,” I responded, “but I can take it.”
He looked at the small, brown package. “This is actually for the Colonel’s daughter.” He rotated the box around to show me. Evelyn Ford was written on the box, followed by the new address.
In all my years of living on Military Bases, the most I’d ever received in the mail were postcards from friends I’d left behind.
I signed for the box and rushed into the kitchen with it. Without bothering to find scissors or a knife, I ripped the packing tape off and peaked inside. A part of me should have been shocked by what I found, but somehow I wasn’t. Buried under inches of packing peanuts, the silver locket Shannon had tried to give me glimmered once I exposed it to the light. I dug to the bottom of the small parcel, finding a letter pushed against the side.
Dear Evee,
I hope this box finds you. If my visions are correct, you’ve already met him. I hope now you can accept this locket. May it be a source of strength to help you accept your future. The uncertainty of tomorrow can always be a challenge to face, but if you are holding the person you love, I know you can brave the trials to come. Again, I am sorry for your tragic future, but understand that everything you do matters. We are all connected in ways you cannot imagine. The connection you share with Casper is momentous.
Shannon
Now Shannon knew Casper’s name. I wondered how much of the future she withheld from me, but her letter had done its job by making me feel more assured. At the moment, I didn’t feel alone anymore. It was as if the future was something tangible dangling in front of me, waiting for me to reach out and grab it. Casper and I still didn’t know each other yet, but I felt confident that eventually he would be something constant in my life.
Images of his handsome smile flooded my mind all day. It was enough to banish all my fears of death. The sun shined brighter now that I knew he was in my future. Fallon was no longer my grave, but the place where I would live– truly live. Everyone dies, I told myself. At least knowing about my death would allow me to make the most of the time I had left.
It didn’t bother me that Casper was human. Meeting society’s only human made the land seem incredibly smaller. When I was younger, I’d heard stories about the human boy in the newspapers, but I never thought I would meet him, and now I knew I would fall in love with him. My own extra-human trait was virtually useless, so it would be like both of us were human.
Monday couldn’t come soon enough.
Casper:
I opened my eyes, seeing the oversized, legendary face of Jimi Hendrix plastered against the wall. It took me a few seconds, but I realized that I was in Adam’s room. The navy blue walls made the room gloomy and dark, especially when the blinds were closed. Through the crack in the curtains, I saw that the sun had almost completely set, and then I remembered it was Saturday night. I looked down off the top bunk and saw Adam reading at his desk.
He knew I’d be upset. “What did I tell you about teleporting me in my sleep?”
He turned a page of his book, and continued reading. “That it’s the same as kidnapping…”
“Exactly. I’m not in the mood,” I said.
He put down his book. “You don’t even know why you’re here.”
The last thing I remembered was falling asleep in my room. After my neighbor, Mr. Sampson, yelled at me to stay off the sidewalk in front of his house, I had decided to nap through the rest of my Saturday. Mr. Sampson was the only neighbor that had a problem with me. Mom heard him yelling, and came running to give him a piece of her mind. Both my parents disliked Sampson. His wife died years ago, and Mom said it turned him bitter, but the truth was that he despised having the human live next door. It left me in a funk, ruining my weekend.
“We’re going to Vegas,” Adam said. “Gonna watch some fighting.” He jabbed at his shadow on the wall, which was twice as big as he was, and then flexed his arms, using his shadow as a mirror.
“I don’t want to watch our classmates beat each other senseless.”
“Your mom insisted that we do something,” Adam said. “Vegas will be the biggest party anywhere tonight.”
Our parents spent their Saturday nights in Vegas when they were our age– it was a rite of passage to go watch the fights. Adam claimed that we had to enjoy it while we were young.
“What were you going to do otherwise?” Adam asked.
I thought hard, but I knew it would be my usual weekend night routine. “Sleep… watch movies…”
“You did that last Saturday– and the Saturday before that. Tonight you’re going out with the boys. Besides, I promised Seth I would take him. He’s always wanted to
go, but his mom stops us every time we try. We think we found a way to do it without her knowing.” He looked oddly satisfied with himself.
I didn’t bother fighting him. Adam had sat with me most weekends without complaining, and I wanted to hang out with Seth, especially if this would be his first night in Vegas. “Fine… I’ll go. Future permit, it might be the night Randy Alcott finally loses.” I took pleasure in the thought.
“Good, cause we have perfect seats.”
He threw me my shoes and my green FHS jacket with the Shoal emblem on the left breast. I pulled my sun hood over my head, hoping it might offer me some anonymity. Adam approached me and put his hand on my shoulder, teleporting us out of his room.
It took my eyes a few seconds to adjust to the absence of light in the dead city. Moments later, the darkness thinned away, revealing the starry sky and crescent moon above the ruinous landscape. The skeletal structures of skyscrapers towered all around us and bits of shattered glass glistened in the silver moonbeams. Statues and monuments littered the ground– at least, what was left of them. The city didn’t survive the Blight, leaving it abandoned for the last hundred years or more.
“I’ll be right back,” Adam said. “I have to go get Seth, and you know how his mom feels about you.” Adam vanished, leaving me alone in the city.
Seth’s mom– Big Bev, as we called her– wasn’t my biggest fan. The three of us usually avoided Seth’s house if we wanted to hang out. His mother was happy that her son had friends, but having the human in her house made her nervous. She hated me. It embarrassed Seth, but he knew I just ignored it. I hoped Seth and Adam were able to fool Seth’s mom. Mrs. Grindle was some sort of mind-reader– crazy hard to pull a fast one over.
I found some lawn chairs that Adam must have brought while I was sleeping. I set them up near the edge of the building so that we had a clear view of the battleground below us. The empty lot below was the only visible patch of earth in the city, which was why the fights happened here. Most of the timeworn city sat in crumbled remains, and lots of half-decomposed scraps of rustic metal and plastic junk littered the ground. I was able to identify certain buildings as restaurants, casinos, and even a hospital. The empty lot used for fighting was the only sign of life in the city.
