Ivy

by William Dickstein

  Maybe Tristan and I could stay close.

  I figured the best place to find the GHS officials would be somewhere around the front of the academy, possibly near Hunter’s office. It turned out that was exactly where they had set up, Hunter’s table big enough for two of them to sit behind. The official who was a Communicator was in there, still talking with and petting the cat, and one of the officials who had watched me wrestle and run the obstacle course was also present. I knocked on the door before I stepped in, and the other official asked me to enter.

  “Good to see you’re feeling better,” he said.

  “Thank you. I wasn’t really sure what the protocol was at this point, I hope it’s alright that I came by.”

  He laughed. “Not a problem at all. Plenty of people end up fainting or getting knocked out, so don’t worry about being the only one. We’d have come found you soon enough. No one told us you’d even woken up yet.”

  “So, should I sit down?”

  “Please do.”

  I took a seat across from the officials, and the woman stopped talking with the cat for long enough to grab a folder from her bag on the floor, my name at the top. She took out three stacks of papers, handing one to me and another to the other official, and she kept one for herself.

  “These are your official scores,” she said. “This front page is your summary, with your total at the bottom across the different events and the categories you earned points on in each. We were very impressed with your hand-to-hand ability, and you made excellent time on the obstacle course...”

  It sounded to me like there was a “but” coming, and as I scanned the entirety of the first page, I could see that I was right. My final score in the section judging the power of my gene had brought my grand total down significantly. On paper, I barely had any powers at all.

  “But,” she continued, “we weren’t able to score you very high in the use of your power. If we flip to page eighteen, we can go over why.”

  “Is it because the voices wouldn’t listen to me?” I asked.

  The question seemed to knock the woman off center for a moment, and I could see her clench her teeth, the muscles on the side of her head flexing. The cat looked up, flapping its tail as it looked over at me.

  “Yes,” the other official said, breaking the silence. “That’s the gist of it.”

  “They didn’t want to help because they knew I wasn’t actually in danger.”

  “And that’s great,” he said, “But a major part of the scoring system is based around your overall ability to be effective as a part of a team. Capes need to be able to react according to scenarios and according to each other. And even though your particular gene is unconventional, we still had to score you against the same standards we would hold other Communicators to. Technically, whatever it is you communicate with does accompany you into battle, but you weren’t able to control it or convince it to do your bidding in a reasonable amount of time. There were enough copies of Senior Cape Fibre that you could have easily been killed.”

  “But if he had been a real threat, they would have helped.”

  The official looked like he understood where I was coming from, but he just shook his head. “Sadly, it doesn’t work that way. But if you look at your overall score, you more than passed. Absolutely, you’re going to be a Cape. I know that everyone wants the best score possible, and I understand if you’re feeling a little let down, but you never know what the future holds. Just because your score in the academy determines where you’re sent doesn’t mean you have to stay there. You can always put in for a transfer.”

  “Do you know where I’m being sent?” I asked. I opened the packet and flipped through, trying to see if the location was already listed anywhere. It wasn’t, as each of the pages were simply filled with information that broke down my specific scores. The final page was my request form, if I decided I wanted a moniker or official Cape name. There was a small rectangle at the bottom, the top of it perforated, that I was meant to sign and hand in to someone in order to receive my official uniform. I had completely forgotten until that moment that I’d had my measurements taken before our first day of training began, as did all of the recruits who had stepped off the bus.

  “Well, there are point thresholds among the many cities where Capes are stationed. Your score being what it is, there are sixty cities across the country that you would be well-suited to operate within. From here, the algorithm decides exactly where to put you based on a host of other factors.”

  “Right, I actually already knew that.”

  “Oh good. So, alright, to keep the speech short, we’re looking at either,” he looked down at his notes, “Ahkuhrareee, in Iceland, or Port Elizabeth, in Africa. How are you with the cold?”

  Try to go to Africa. We love it there.

  Might as well…

  “I think I’d rather go to Africa,” I said.

  “Well, that settles it,” The official said. He turned to his partner, I think to see if she had anything to say, but the woman was still mewing and purring with the cat, who looked like it had fallen completely asleep in her lap. “We’ll set up the travel arrangements. You’ll stay here until then. You can get your suit from—”

  Hunter walked in at just that moment, cutting off the official. “Hold on just a second,” Hunter said. “Ivy, can you give us the room, please?”

  “Uh… alright,” I replied, getting up and walking out. I shut the door behind me.

  “Ivy!” Tristan yelled, running over. When he got closer, I guess he could see that I was feeling a little bummed. “Oh, hey. What’s wrong?”

  “Ah, I just didn’t do as well as I wanted. No big deal, right? What’s up?”

  “Er… I…” Tristan stammered.

  “You came to gloat,” I said.

  Tristan gave no reply.

  “It’s okay, Tristan. Go ahead.”

  “They’re sending me to New York! The city, not the state.”

  “Well, it’s still the state of New York…”

  “You know what I mean! Okay, sorry, I’m really excited. Where are they sending you? You killed it with hand-to-hand—like, I’m sure you did better than me. And your time on the obstacle course was really good! You never did that well on any of the runs. I was really worried, you know? They gave you a choice, right? Maybe you can choose somewhere close to where I’ll be, and we can hang out on our days off or something. Capes get those, right?”

  “How far away is New York City from Port Elizabeth?”

  “In New Jersey? Not that far, maybe two hours?”

  “Cool. And how about the one in South Africa?”

  “They’re sending you to South Africa?!”

  “It was there or Iceland…”

  Tristan was speechless for a moment. “Oh man… Ivy… I’m sorry. That’s… that’s really… man, I’m really bummed about that.”

  In a weird way, it was sort of nice that he felt bad. And I guess I couldn’t be too upset, because I still got to be a Cape, and that was what I wanted. Hilly was wrong, getting onto a good team wasn’t everything.

  “Yeah, it’ll be alright. Eventually I’ll be able to put in for a transfer. Maybe we’ll be able to get a little closer to each other then.”

  “I mean, yeah. Maybe… Uh, so, there was something else I wanted to talk to you about.” Tristan took a bit of a deep breath, like he was going to deliver bad news.

  “About the device you built?” I asked. We hadn’t talked about it since the demonstration. I figured if there was bad news, it was going to be about that.

  “What? No. Why would you think that?” Tristan asked.

  “Seemed like you had some bad news to give me.”

  “Ah, no, nothing like that. But, uh, I did want to say, you know… I really liked getting to hang out with you while we were here.” Tristan’s face got red as he finished his sentence. His words made me smile.

  “I liked hanging out with you too. It was nice to have a friend. Been a while s
ince I have.”

  “Right! So, about the friend thing, though—”

  “Ivy!” Hunter called out as he opened the door to his office, startling both Tristan and me. “Oh, you’re right here. Come on in, please.”

  “Sure,.” I said, turning back to Tristan. “Tristan, real fast, what were you going to say?”

  Tristan made a face like he was struggling to find the words, small sounds like “ah” and “uh” falling from his lips every moment or so.

  “Come on, Ivy,” Hunter broke in. “You guys can finish talking later.”

  “Yeah, go ahead.” Tristan said, seeming defeated. “We’ll talk later.”

  “Oh… okay…” I replied. Whatever it was he wanted to tell me, it seemed pretty important, but I figured I’d see him at dinner or something. It was going to be time to eat soon.

  I walked back into Hunter’s office and took a seat across from the GHS officials. The official who could talk with the cat meowed softly, and the small feline woke up immediately. It hopped onto the desk before jumping all the way to the door, where it clawed before Hunter could close it completely. Hunter apologized to the cat, then he opened the door wider so it could easily go through, and closed it when the cat was gone. He walked over to sit on the corner of his desk, leaving me to face the three of them alone.

  “Alright,” Hunter began, “The three of us had a quick chat, and you won’t be going to Africa.”

  That’s too bad.

  Hush.

  “Where will I be going?” I asked.

  “We’ve decided the best place to send you,” the woman said, “is to Louisiana. You’ll be going to a city called Choudrant. You’re going to take over as leader of the team there.”

  “Leader? Really? I don’t mean to be rude, but how did that happen?” I looked mainly at Hunter when I asked my question.

  The male official responded. “Well, Hunter helped us to see that, in every instance where you really were in danger, whatever it is you communicate with came to your aid. One of our primary concerns was whether or not your… voices… would come to the aid of a friend as well.”

  What do you think?

  If there were real danger, Little One, of course we would help.

  “They would,” I replied.

  “Well, since that’s the case, your options open up significantly. With your scores in the other areas, you qualify to step into a leadership position. The team in,” the man looked at a small piece of paper, “Shoodraunt recently lost theirs, so it was an easy decision.”

  “Of course,” the Communicator official broke in, “if you wanted, you could still go to Africa.”

  “No,” I replied quickly. “No, that’s alright. I’m okay with…”

  “Choudrant,” Hunter said, pronouncing the name of the city in Louisiana correctly. “And good choice, Ivy.”

  “Alright, that settles it. For real this time,” the male official said. “Ivy, congratulations on achieving Cape status. Make sure you take a look at that back page. Even if you don’t choose a Cape name, we can’t give you the suit until you sign the bottom and turn it in.”

  I grabbed a pen off of Hunter’s desk and scribbled something on it immediately, then tore it off to hand to the man. Hunter snickered. “Here you go,” I said.

  The man smiled. “Alright, I like your style. We’ll have the suit ready for you before you leave, so you’ll only be stuck in sweats for a few more hours.”

  “Hours?” I asked. “I thought it took time to get travel arrangements ready?”

  “That was when you were heading off of the continent,” Hunter said. “There’s a car that was already on its way to Louisiana. It’s going to swing by and pick you up. Should be here in about forty minutes, actually. I had the chef put a plate together for the trip; you should be there sometime around midnight tonight, depending on traffic.”

  I shook the officials’ hands as I got up, and we said our goodbyes. Hunter said he’d walk me to collect my suit, and we ended up only having to wait half an hour. The suit was ready when we got there, but the other items Capes are assigned weren’t quite set. They’d somehow run out of communication devices and electronic notebooks. Eventually, the chef walked up and gave me a quick congratulations—an awkward exchange as we’d never talked before—and handed me a plate of food. Then the car was outside, and Hunter was walking me over to the front of the academy. He helped me get everything inside of the vehicle, saying that any personal items I’d left behind would be gathered and mailed to me within the week.

  “You’re going to do great things,” he said before I got into the car. “You earned this uniform. Remember that.”

  “Alright, Hunter. Thanks. It was an honor being trained by you.”

  “Good luck,” he said as he closed the door. I started changing as soon as I got in. I was halfway to Choudrant before I realized I hadn’t said goodbye to anyone, not to Hilly or the angry nurse. Not to Tristan. I hoped it didn’t hurt his feelings. At that moment, I couldn’t even give him a call. I ate the food the chef had brought me—it was good, but I was a little too nervous to really be hungry. The dashboard in the front of the car had a map up, and my estimated time of arrival showed it’d be a little over six hours before I reached Choudrant.

  I rolled over and tried to sleep.

  The leather of the car cushions squeaked whenever I tossed and turned.

  I arrived in Choudrant in the middle of the night, the car waking me up as it powered down. The absence of the hum from the engine was all it took to bring me fully awake. Even if the car hadn’t woken me up, loss of temperature control probably would have, the southern heat snaking its way into the cab the moment the cool air stopped blowing. I was sweating before I even stepped onto the pavement—the climate control in the GHS vehicle showing it definitely earned its keep.

  We like the weather in Choudrant.

  Well, you’re alone on that one, but I suppose I’ll have to get used to it.

  The car had dropped me in front of some GHS housing. I can always tell when a house is owned by the Global Heroes Society because, somehow, they all look the same. That’s not to say that their layout is similar or that they have the same dimensions. There’s just something about GHS housing that lets you know it isn’t privately owned—a certain charm, I guess. I liked the look of the house in Choudrant, with its red trim and big white door. The nearby streetlights cast a strong yellow glow over the face of the building that extended across the dirt lawn and onto the sidewalk, making everything seem vintage rather than simply old. As I walked from the vehicle, not quite feeling like the Cape I was dressed as, I also noticed a mess of dirt all over the white door. It had been hard to see from a few feet away, like pans above a stove covered in particles of oil. The dirt was such a thin coat of grime that it didn’t stick out to me until I went to knock. I was thankful when it fell away, thinking for a moment that it might have been related to a recent dust storm, if they had such a thing in Choudrant. Maybe there had been a particularly windy day, and the dirt from the lawn had blown onto the door.

  It was Frikshen who opened the door to greet me, one arm around her midsection, her face puffy and yellow.

  “What you want?” she asked, her voice clear through her enlarged lips.

  “Hi!” I said. “I’m Ivy. They uh… just sent me. From the academy.”

  Frikshen’s eyes widened, and the yellow tinge on her skin darkened, her body becoming covered with thick callouses. Her reaction set me on edge, but she doubled over in pain the moment she used her powers.

  “Woah!” I called out. “Take it easy.” I gave Frikshen some support and eased the two of us inside, where I helped her over to a nearby couch. “You have a broken rib or something?” I asked.

  “Couldn’t tell you. Been a hell of a night, though, that’s for sure.”

  “Do you have any aspirin or anything? I’ll get it for you.” Frikshen sank down into the couch, letting out a mixture of a wince and sigh as she leaned back.

>   “Top cabinet on the right,” she said, pointing to the kitchen. “Water from the fridge is good. You said you just graduated?”

  “Just today,” I called back, looking for a glass not covered in dirt. “They sent me to replace… uh…”

  “O-Rell,” Frikshen called back. “Gil!” the woman screamed. “Come down here!”

  “Who’s Gil?” I asked, bringing Frikshen two aspirin and a cup of cloudy water. I’d taken the time to rinse the glass, but that had caused it to begin collecting even more dirt. Frikshen didn’t seem to mind, however, and took large gulps as she swallowed the tiny pills.

  “Who are you?” Gil asked as he hobbled and hopped down the stairs. He was holding his wrist as he walked, both of his hands covered in crusty green mud.

  “Hello!” I called back as I turned to face him. “I’m Ivy. They just sent me down from the academy to replace…” I looked to Frikshen, forgetting their partner’s name again until she started to mouth it for me. “O-Rell. To replace O-Rell. Sorry, I sort of just woke up, and it was a long car ride. Oh! Man, did I wake you guys up?”

  “Not me,” Gil said.

  “Ugh,” Frikshen said as she shifted on the couch to a more comfortable position. “Me either. Too hard to sleep.”

  “Yeah, you definitely look like you’ve busted a rib or two. I had the same thing going on a few weeks ago. Try not to move. It doesn’t take too long before you can deal with it. What happened to you guys? You run into something bad on a mission?”

  “Something like that,” Gil said as he sat on the other end of the couch. They had an oversized recliner on the other side, the furniture pointed into a sort of arrow shape so that people sitting could see each other as well as the television. I took a seat in the recliner, then spun it a little so I didn’t have to crane my neck.