by T. A. Uner
“I still don’t know why I’m here,” Johnny asked. “Don’t get me wrong, I think Argos arrived at a great time since I almost did something stupid to myself.” Argos looked at Murdoc who nodded. Perhaps the doctor had read Argos’ mind and knew what Johnny was talking about. Who knew?
“I think we should talk more about this subject in my office,” Murdoc said.
Doctor Murdoc’s office was comprised of a large bookcase filled with large tomes. Many were classic Earth novels, but others were written in alien languages. Johnny wondered exactly how many alien races inhabited the Milky Way. Judging by the sheer amount of diversity here, probably a lot.
“Agent Argos and I have been tracking your progress for some time.” Murdoc’s yellow irises pulsated like two circular coronas against the backdrop of space. Johnny didn’t know if this meant the doctor was excited or just plain irritated. “Even before your father’s disappearance we decided that you were a worthy AL prospect.”
“Why?” Johnny shook his head. “Have you seen my grades? I’m not exactly Einstein.”
Murdoc’s smile returned, the same one that made his face look elastic. “It’s ironic that you mention Einstein, Johnathan. It was he who said: ‘Imagination is everything. It is the preview for life’s coming attractions.’”
“I still don’t get it Doc.”
“Your test scores, Johnny,” Argos said. “They revealed elevated amounts of creativity, which is the result of a powerful imagination.”
“Agent Better is correct.” Murdoc handed Johnny a digital tablet. On it was a profile picture of Johnny. Beneath the picture was a series of test scores he’d never seen before.
“How did you know I was creative? It’s not like I openly advertise that I’m a writer. And even if I did I’m not a very good one.” He paused for a moment. “How is it you managed to evaluate me based upon these test scores?”
“It wasn’t difficult. Over the years AL operatives were placed in your elementary, secondary and high school. It was their job to evaluate you based on your creative endeavors. Art classes, English writing assignments, test essays and industrial arts. Those scores alone are what convinced us that you’d make an excellent AL agent. And then of course there was your father, he was the greatest agent of his time. We knew you’d inherit some of his traits.”
A ripple of woe passed over Johnny as he felt pinpricks stab his arms. It seemed that whenever someone mentioned his father it prevented the pain he had buried from healing. “But don’t you need someone who can use guns and has a black-belt in karate? Nerdy things are cool, but they’re not a skill set that secret agencies look for.”
“Well AL isn’t like the FBI or CIA Johnny. We grade our candidates on a much different scale. Why do you think we invested so many resources to track your progress?”
“Did my Dad know about this?” Johnny asked.
Both men nodded. “Yes,” Murdoc answered. “He wasn’t thrilled that you were being studied all those years, but understood the necessity for AL’s recruiting practices; we’re always on the lookout for qualified applicants.”
This was happening all too fast. First Argos’ appearance. Then Gina. Then all this AL stuff that was being spoon-fed to him. Johnny strolled over towards an aquarium in the corner of Murdoc’s office. The water’s fluorescent blue hue settled his nerves. “I don’t know. I mean it sounds like a lot of fun but I’m only 18 years old. And I’m not exactly sure about what I want to do after high school.”
“If you choose to walk away from our offer then we will respect it,” Argos said. “The choice is yours, but we could really use you.” Both Jessie and Studs barked. Johnny smiled at them and scratched their heads.
“Say I decided to join AL, what would I do?”
“You’d be a Time-Healer like Agent Better here,” Doctor Murdoc said. “But you must first pass a series of tests at AL command before you could enter the field.”
“What type of tests?”
“The most challenging series of tests you’ll ever take,” Argos said.
Johnny smiled again. “That doesn’t really answer my question.”
“You’ll just have to trust us Johnathan,” Murdoc said. He picked up a pen on his desk and began clicking it.
Johnny thought hard. He worried about his mother and how she would react to his sudden disappearance. Then there was school. He wasn’t too excited about returning to classes and he didn’t have a girlfriend anymore so who gave a crap if he got his degree or not? He took that back immediately…his mom cared.
“What about my mom and high school?” he asked. “They’ll both wonder why I’ve disappeared.
“Not to worry, Johnathan,” Murdoc said, “arrangements have been made. We’re confident that with the skills you acquire from your AL training, you’ll be one of our top agents.”
“I see.” Johnny had no idea what ‘arrangements have been made’ meant. Time-Healing did sound like fun, even though it was dangerous. Besides, how many humans got to time-travel? And his father had dedicated his life to AL, maybe Johnny could continue his work. Then there was Maria. He had to get his mind off her and AL would keep him busy. “Alright guys, I’m not making any promises but I’ll take a crack at this training of yours. Besides, it’s not like my writing career is going anywhere.”
“That’s all we can ask of you right now,” Murdoc said. “I’ll notify AL Command of your decision and have them confirm a spot for you in their next training session.” Murdoc paused for a moment and smiled at Johnny. “One more thing Mr. Veto. Don’t be so quick to dismiss your writing abilities. After all, you can still pursue it as a hobby.”
(3)
Gina took off from Phoenix and less than twenty minutes later they were approaching Los Angeles, where AL Command was located. “We could’ve been here in five minutes flat,” Argos bragged, “but I don’t like to waste fuel.”
“Showoff,” Johnny said.
Gina veered northeast and Johnny watched as the Los Angeles skyscrapers were left behind. “Wait a minute, Argos, I thought AL Command was in Los Angeles?”
“Nope, but close. Our headquarters is located in the San Gabriel Mountains.” Beneath them the lush green trees of the forest came into view before Johnny spotted the San Gabriel range. “Get ready, we’ll be landing in less than a minute.”
Gina banked right and descended until they were skirting across the tops of a large mass of clustered trees. Jessie and Studs barked as a large opening in the side of Mount Baldy appeared. Johnny could see runway lights and seconds later they touched down inside a hangar built into the mountain. “That was awesome!”
Jessie and Studs poked their heads between Johnny and Argos and looked outside. They were inside another hangar, but this one was smaller than the LifeHouse hangar in Phoenix. “Time to meet your trainer, Johnny.”
They stepped out of Gina and Argos pressed his keyless entry remote. Gina’s engine started up and took off before parking itself in a designated parking spot. To their right a lift descended until it stopped on their level. A young woman got off and walked towards them. As she came closer Johnny saw she was wearing a grey business pants suit with a white blouse and black stiletto heels. Her brown hair was tied back and she wore black-rimmed glasses. A strange looking device with flashing lights was following her. It reminded Johnny of the hovering robot he’d seen at the LifeHouse.
“Hello Patrice,” Argos said as the young woman approached them.
“Agent Better,” she replied politely. Johnny was struck by her eyes which looked like a pair of blue emeralds. She turned to face him and he smiled at her. She nodded curtly. “And this must be the new recruit.”
“Are you the same Patrice Waters Argos told me about?” he asked.
“That depends,” Patrice replied defensively, “on how he described me.” Her voice was as dry as sandpaper rubbing against a chalkboard.
“Nothing too bad,” Argos said, “I’ll leave you two to get acquainted.” Argos turned towards Joh
nny. “Good luck,” he said before shaking the boy’s hand. Both dogs barked cordially at Johnny before following Argos towards the lift.
The hovering robot approached Johnny before making a low humming noise. It emitted a green light, which scanned Johnny from head to toe. “What’s it doing to me?”
“Just taking your measurements for your training suit. Now if you’ll follow me we can get started on your orientation.” She pressed a button on her wrist gauntlet and Johnny felt himself dissolve before reappearing in a small chamber.
“What just happened?” he asked Patrice who simply stared at him placidly. The robot was not with them anymore.
“I teleported us to the briefing room.”
“Teleported?”
“Yes,” she sighed. “A transportation technology we’ve just developed.” She spoke as if it was a common everyday occurrence.
“This is getting weirder by the second.” Johnny patted himself down before exhaling. “Well it looks like I’m all here.”
Patrice glanced at him indifferently before leading him over to a row of tables. She didn’t seem too pleased at the prospect of training a new recruit. “Let’s begin your orientation. Sit.” Johnny nodded and quickly took a seat in a first row.
“You can call me Johnny,” he said before flashing her a smile. He did not know why he wanted to flirt with her. He still missed Maria. Maybe he was on the rebound. Whatever it was he felt lightheaded.
“I think, for the sake of professionalism, we should forgo using first names during the course of the training.”
“Aww…you’re no fun Patrice.”
“This training is not designed to be ‘fun’ Mr. Veto,” she replied. “I have been assigned to train you and I mean to do just that. Now please pay attention. You are about to be indoctrinated into the most exhaustive training program devised by AL. We pre-select our prospective candidates from a very short list. So, by being selected you’ve already proven that you possess attributes worthy of a Time-Healer. But do not take this lightly; I will not hesitate to eliminate you from this process if you should fail to obtain the necessary scores required for each training exercise.”
She sounds just like a machine, Johnny thought. Maybe she is one.
“Do you have any questions before we get started?”
“Yeah. One. What happened to your little robot friend?”
“If you’re referring to the HoverBot, it should be along momentarily. It went to fetch your training suit from the quartermaster’s office.” Patrice walked behind a podium and began running her fingers across a keyboard. The lights to the room dimmed and a projection began.
“What is this?” Johnny asked.
“Your first lesson, you’ll be watching a brief presentation on the history of AL. I advise you to pay attention.”
As the presentation started, Johnny’s eyelids felt heavy. He did his best to remain awake, but instead he began thinking more of Maria. His thoughts took him back a few weeks, before the infamous break-up letter. Patrice took a seat in the corner of the room and watched the video along with him. It mentioned how the AL was formed and how extraterrestrial activity had been closely monitored since WWII. It was interesting, but Maria’s face kept appearing in his mind, and he soon found himself daydreaming.
(4)
Another presentation in 5th Period. He was texting Maria, who was two seats ahead of him in the first row. It was physics class, and they were supposed to be getting ready for finals. Maria giggled to herself every time Johnny sent her a text. If she wasn’t careful she’d get caught and they’d both have detention.
He was in love, and love usually wreaked havoc on 18-year-olds. Maria texted him a message and it was his turn to laugh.
The film ended, but not before Mr. Jacobs heard Johnny’s muffled laughter. “Mr. Veto, would you care to tell us what you found so amusing about the film?”
Johnny looked up and realized his classmates were staring at him, as if he’d done something atrocious. He saw Maria peeking back, looking at him sheepishly. It was her “you got caught again” look. He slipped his phone into his front jean pocket and assumed a somber demeanor. “It was nothing sir, I was just…”
Mr. Jacobs put his hands on his hips. “You were just what Mr. Veto?”
Damn, he’s trying to corner me, just like always. “Nothing sir, I’m sorry if I disrupted the class.” He saw Maria shake her head and turn back towards the front of the class.
Jacobs shook his head judgmentally. “It can’t be ‘nothing’ Mr. Veto, or else you wouldn’t have found it so amusing.”
This wasn’t looking so good now. If he didn’t maneuver himself out of this one he’d be looking at detention. And detention always cut into his free time. I wish I could just graduate and get out of here. Community college can’t be this bad. I might even enjoy it.
He thought hard. “Well sir,” Johnny began, “I found the premise of the film amusing.”
“How so Mr. Veto? The film was on cosmology. I didn’t see or hear anything of comedic value?”
“What he means, Mr. Jacobs,” Maria interjected, “Johnny isn’t sold on the Big Bang Theory.”
Jacobs turned towards Maria and shot her a beleaguered glance. “Is that so Miss Garcia? Well now that explains everything.” He looked at Johnny again. “And what do you have against the Big Bang Theory, Mr. Veto, not conclusive enough for you?”
“There has to be another way of looking at it, sir.” Johnny pressed his mind for something that could hold up against Jacob’s vast arsenal of scientific knowledge. “I mean, wasn’t Hoyle’s Steady-State theory one alternative before it was eventually rejected by today’s cosmologists, astrophysicists and astronomers? My point is who’s to say another theory won’t be developed in the near-future that challenges what we know now about the universe?”
Jacobs nodded. “An interesting argument, Mr. Veto. I wasn’t aware that you felt so strongly about the origins of the universe.”
Johnny eyed the clock, and was about to say something when, seconds later, the bell rang, signaling the end of class.
The other students rose from their desks and gathered their backpacks before shuffling out of the classroom. Jacobs blocked Johnny’s path. “Not so fast there Mr. Veto. I’d like a 4-page report on the evolution of cosmology. Be prepared to present it to the class next week.”
“If you ask me, you got off easy, Johnny.” They were in Maria’s car, a late-model Mercedes Benz her parents had bought her for her 16th birthday. Some people had all the luck.
“I know. Right?” He looked out the window and took in Tucson’s scenery. He loved eyeing the lush palm trees inside the city but longed to leave Arizona. With his father gone, and his mother planning on taking a job in Los Angeles after he graduated, he really had nothing to keep him here. But his grades weren’t good enough to get into NYU, and he desperately wanted to live the life of a writer. New York was the only city he could immerse himself in his desired trade. “But, it’s better than detention.” Johnny smiled. Writing papers was like breathing to him, and even a tiresome physics paper was more appealing than spending two hours with douche man Jacobs in study hall.
“Did you ever hear back from that literary agency you sent your query letter to a few weeks back?”
“No,” Johnny answered. Query letters were actually the only piece of writing he dreaded, and despite having written hundreds of them over the past two years the results had always been the same. A patronizing rejection letter, or worse, no response at all. “The only thing I hate more than writing a query letter is waiting to hear back from an agency. You see, they get slammed with thousands of letters every month.”
They pulled up to Diner 24, their favorite after school hangout spot. Inside Johnny ordered some blueberry pancakes with a Cherry Coke, while Maria ordered a grilled chicken salad.
Johnny looked out the diner window and stared at the planes taking off from Tucson International Airport. Why couldn’t he be on one of those flights?
Heading east towards the Big Apple.
He felt the warmth of Maria’s hand and snapped out of his thoughts before turning his attention towards her. He smiled. She smiled back and kissed him softly on his lips. It tickled, but in a good way. He wanted to buy her a ring, but like the proverbial artist he was broke as a joke. “We need to talk,” she said.
“About?” The food arrived and Johnny’s appetite kicked in. He’d skipped lunch back at school.
“I’ve been thinking about going to Europe.”
Johnny looked up from his meal and swallowed a mouthful of blueberry pancake. “When?”
“This summer.” She looked down at her salad and pushed a tomato to the side of the plate with her fork. “I’m thinking about modeling over in Milan and Paris for a year or two.”
“Wait a minute! Did you say a year or two?”
She nodded without looking at him.
Johnny dropped his fork and took her hands in his. “I had no idea, Maria. Really.” The thought of her going away for more than a week made his appetite disappear as quickly as it had arrived.
“I’m sorry, Johnny, I thought you’d be happy for me.” She looked up at him and he could see tears welling up inside her caramel irises. He wanted to say he was happy for her, but the words were frozen inside his throat. Was he being selfish? Or just plain needy. Perhaps a little of both.
“I am happy for you, Maria,” he finally said. “But I thought we were going to go backpacking in Europe this summer. My mom is giving me some graduation money and I was going to use it. And what about attending Arizona? I thought you were going to study business administration?”
“I’m putting college off for now, Johnny.”
“This is news.” He clenched his fist and nearly slammed it on the table but held back. He was better than that. The last thing he wanted was to show indignation. Besides, this was the girl he loved.