by Hayes Farley
President Joyce took another sip of water and looked at Melissa and the smile on his face turned to a look of concern. He stepped away from the mic and motioned for her to approach. She cupped her mouth and whispered something and then walked quickly to the edge of the room.
President Joyce no longer smiled. His eyes lost their sparkle. His shoulders slumped. He looked old. His glasses slipped to the end of his nose as he braced himself against the podium.
“My life has become increasingly complicated during these last few months.” He paused and looked at the table of professors. “It seems that my presence is needed on the other side of the country.” He turned back to the students. “I apologize, but I must be going. You will be in good hands with Professor Startsman.” President Joyce exited the Dining Hall with Melissa. The muscular bald professor was not far behind.
Professor Startsman stood and cleared his throat. “Your president is a popular man nowadays. I, for one, am glad that he’s on our side. I don’t have anything profound to add to his speech. I will say this, though: You have the next few days to yourselves. Please, don’t do anything stupid. I don’t want anybody getting hurt and missing my class on Friday. And remember: Don’t bother wasting your time trying to perform telekinesis back in your rooms. It won’t work.” He sat down and turned back to his dessert and tried to force way too big of a bite. A glob of ice cream plopped on his shirt.
****
“Chris. Chris, what is it?” Sonnier had to jog to catch up to them.
“New evidence.” President Joyce nodded at Melissa and she handed the tablet to Sonnier.
“What am I looking at?”
“Satellite imagery of the Workshire Building.”
Professor Sonnier panned to the corner of the roof. A man with a full head of gray hair filled the screen. “I’m assuming that’s Davarian?”
President Joyce glanced at the tablet and nodded. “Correct.”
“But we knew that. What’s the new evidence?”
“He had help. Look on the opposite side of the roof.” They reached the sedan. President Joyce opened the back door and Melissa took a seat. She slid to the other side.
Professor Sonnier stood staring at the black ponytail on the screen. “Who is it?”
“We don’t know yet. But the fact that Davarian now has a partner is…troubling.” President Joyce sat down and closed the door. He rolled down the window.
Sonnier leaned in and handed back the tablet. “So how long will you be gone?”
“A few days. A week. However long they need me.”
Sonnier nodded. “Do you want me to tell the others?”
President Joyce stayed silent for a moment. “Bill. You can tell Bill. The rest will learn in due time.”
“Understood.” Sonnier pushed away from the window.
“And Marc?”
“Yes?”
“I saw Alex Armstrong in there. Felt his presence.” President Joyce closed his eyes. “He’s every bit as powerful as I remember.”
“Good.”
“When you speak to Bill, remind him that Alex’s development is of the utmost importance.”
“I will.”
President Joyce rolled up the window and the sedan started down the path. He turned to Melissa. “I just pray there’s enough time.”
7
Breakfast with Friends
Alex noticed he was pulling his eyebrows and stopped. Of all his nervous habits, he figured that was probably his weirdest one. He blew a few hairs off his tablet’s screen and turned it on. 6:58. He got up off the edge of the bed and smoothed his shirt and ran his fingers through his hair and popped a piece of gum and walked out of the room. He stood at Nate’s door and listened. There was movement inside. He crossed the hall to Patrick’s room and listened. Nothing. He turned and left The Stub.
Alex opened the blue door and took a deep breath. The aroma of freshly mowed grass reminded him of a golf course. Birds chirped in the courtyard.
“What took you so long?”
Alex turned to the now-familiar voice. Her blonde hair cascaded over her shoulders and down the back of her black jacket. “Good morning to you, too.”
Eva smiled. “Good morning. And I know you’re not late, it’s just—I figured one of yall would be out here early with me. God, I’m so nervous. Were you able to sleep?”
“Barely. I woke up way before my alarm. I’ve basically just been sitting on my bed thinking for the past hour.”
“Why didn’t you come out here? You could’ve kept me company. We could’ve been nervous together.”
Alex shrugged. “I didn’t know you were standing out here. Have you seen Patrick?”
“No. I haven’t seen Nate, either.”
“He’s coming; I heard him moving around in his room. But we better go check on Patrick.”
“You mean wake him up?” Eva said.
“Probably.”
A playful look flashed in her green eyes and she pulled out her phone. “I’ve got a better idea. Check this out. Have you seen this app?”
Alex shook his head. “What’s it called?”
“Annyong. It’s basically the most annoying app ever. It’s so bad, you’re limited to one use per contact. But it’s really funny. Watch this.” Eva swiped through a few more screens and took a deep breath and brought the microphone to her mouth and screamed: “PATRICKWAKEUP!”
Alex winced and looked at the courtyard in time to see half a dozen birds fluttering away. “Well, they’re awake.”
“Who?”
“Nothing.”
She pressed one more button before tucking her phone into her back pocket. “So it’ll be my face message followed by a really loud alarm that he won’t be able to turn off until he finds me and we touch phones.”
“Wow. That’s just wrong. All sorts of fun possibilities, though.”
“Yeah, I know,” Eva said. “I only learned about this app when someone did it to me. And she did it while I was in church. With my family.”
“Oh my.”
“Oh yeah. So I’m sitting there with my phone on silent looking at something online when my friend’s face pops up on my screen and yells: ‘Jesus has big balls!’ Like, really loud. And then that obnoxious alarm started going off.” She covered her face. “It was so embarrassing. The old people in there just got this look. My dad couldn’t stop laughing. Kinda like you right now. I would’ve been laughing too, but since it happened to me… Oh, it was terrible. The preacher was shaking his head.”
Alex was still chuckling. “Well, what about the alarm? Did it just keep going off?”
“Yeah, I had to run outside. I was trying to cup my hands over the speaker, but it was just so loud. You’ll see what I’m talking about in a second. Anyway, I ran into the parking lot and tried everything and then finally just popped the battery. I still had to find my friend, though, cause when I put the battery back in, the alarm started up again.”
Just then Hope’s door swung open and out ran Patrick, wearing only his boxers, holding his phone high above his head. A steady stream of high-pitched beeps pierced through the air like a reversing garbage truck on Adderall.
“How do I make it stop?” Patrick said, hopping down the last two steps. He was doing his best to muffle the speaker, but it had little effect.
Eva doubled over, her shoulders heaving with each laugh. Alex covered his ears.
“Come on, Eva! Do something!”
Alex noticed a few students leaning out of their windows. He looked at Eva, but just as soon as she straightened, she doubled over again, her face red and her eyes watery. Alex motioned for Patrick to hand over the phone. He grabbed it and pressed it against Eva’s back pocket and the beeping stopped.
“Well if I had known all I had to do was touch her butt…”
Eva wiped tears from her eyes. “Where did you get those things?” She started laughing again.
Patrick looked do
wn at his Harry Potter boxers. Hermione was pictured on the front and her empty wand hand was positioned right on the fly. “I found em online. My magic wand boxers!” He thrust his hips.
“That’s terrible!” she said, half-covering her eyes. She was still laughing.
Patrick considered them again and then shrugged. He checked his phone. “So I’m guessing it’s time to wake up?”
“Yeah,” Alex said. “We were meeting out here at seven, remember?”
Patrick went from scratching his head to rubbing his eye to raking his fingernails across his hairy chest. “I remember. I must’ve slept through my alarm. It’s kinda chilly out here.”
“You’re only wearing your underwear,” Alex said.
“Touché. I’ll go throw some clothes on.”
“Nice boxers.”
Patrick looked at Nate standing at the top of the steps and mooned him.
“Come on, man,” Nate said, shielding his eyes. “The glare from that thing is gonna blind me.” He walked down the steps and joined his friends. “So I’m guessing our boy here is the one who got Annyonged?”
“What?” Patrick said.
“I’ll show you later. Go get ready, man. We’re gonna be late.”
****
They took the path that ran between Dresden Hall and the valley. Alex looked right and stared into the rising sun with barely a squint. It was just peeking over the far mountain range. Most of the valley still lay in darkness, yet the crystalline finish of Dresden’s green doors sparkled like emeralds.
“Hey, did any of you ever find out about that building we found the other day? The one up in the trees?” Patrick said.
“Only that Simtest is where we take our final,” Alex said.
“Yeah, I saw that, too. Nothing else, though,” Eva said.
“Well, I guess we’ll find out later. All I know is it must be a hell of a classroom. I mean, why else would there be eye and fingerprint scanners? They probably didn’t even like us walking around in there.”
Alex nodded, thinking back to that marble building atop the hill, empty inside save for the red metal door stamped with the word Simtest.
“Let’s save the secret red door talk for another day. We’ve got bigger things to worry about,” Nate said. He opened the Dining Hall door.
“Yeah, you’re right,” Patrick said, taking a deep breath. “Like how many slices of bacon can I eat today? Mmm, I can already smell it.”
They placed their tablets on an empty table and walked over to the buffet. “I’m going for an omelet,” Alex said. Eva joined him. “You guys gonna finish eating before we sit down?”
“Maybe the first round,” Patrick said. He unloaded a heaping spoon of eggs onto a plate that already held hash browns and sausage and bacon. He grabbed a biscuit and took a bite and placed it atop the eggs and then wiped his fingers on his jeans.
“He doesn’t seem very nervous,” Alex said. “I always end up eating less.”
“Me too,” Eva said.
Alex grabbed two bottles of water and two sets of utensils as he waited for Eva. They walked to the table together.
“Those smell good,” Patrick said. “I think I’m gonna get one. Nate, how bout you? You want something while I’m up there?”
“No thanks, man. I’m good.”
“Come on. You can’t have oatmeal and bananas every morning. How bout an egg white omelet like Eva? That’s healthy.”
“I’m vegan, man.”
“So? I’ll get you one without meat.”
Nate looked up from his tablet. “It’s the eggs, man. It’s not just meat. I don’t eat anything from animals, either.”
Patrick dropped his fork and placed both hands on the table. “Seriously?”
“Yeah, man. Seriously.”
“What about cheese?”
“Nope.”
“You don’t eat cheese?”
Nate chuckled. “No cheese.”
Patrick opened his mouth but no words came out, so he just sat there stupidly with his mouth gaping. He shook the expression from his face and closed his eyes and started rubbing his temples. “We, uh—we need to discuss this. I’m gonna go get an omelet.”
Alex watched Patrick as he walked back to the buffet area. “You just blew his mind.”
Nate grinned. “Yeah, he didn’t quite know how to take that.”
“What are you reading?” Eva said.
“Me? Oh, just different news stories. Whatever headline gets my attention. Like this one,” Nate said, tilting his screen so Eva and Alex could see. “Happened yesterday. A maintenance worker at a golf course got caught out in a thunderstorm. He started heading back to the barn when a bolt of lightning struck him right in the back of the head. Died instantly.”
“God, that’s some terrible luck,” Eva said.
“Yeah, but that’s not the end of it. The mower kept going with the dead guy slumped forward against the controls. One of his buddies at the barn saw him coming and must’ve figured the guy was having a heart attack, so he ran up to the mower and started screaming the guy’s name. Just then the mower hit a bump and the dead guy slumped to the right and somehow steered the machine straight into his friend. The dude got mangled in the blades.”
“He died, too?”
“Yeah. Says his blood sprayed everywhere. They found a shoe of his a hundred yards away down the eighteenth fairway.” Nate took another bite of oatmeal and a sip of water. He turned off his tablet and closed the cover.
“Did they have families?” Eva said.
“I don’t know. Probably. I didn’t read all those details.”
Eva set down her fork. “I think I lost my appetite.”
“At least you didn’t lose a shoe,” Alex said.
“Alex! That’s not funny.”
“What?”
“You can’t joke about stuff like that.”
“Sure I can. I thought that was pretty clever.”
She sighed. “Tell him, Nate.”
“Tell him what? He’s right.”
“You’re taking his side?”
“I’m not taking anybody’s side. That’s just the way it is. You gotta laugh. I mean, I could read you stories like that every day on this website. Every day. Terrible stuff like this happens all the time. It’s just the way the world works. Sometimes God just farts, you know, and something irrational happens. Little kids get cancer. Earthquakes kill entire buildings of people. A dude gets struck by lightning and chops up his friend. You can’t predict that. And being upset or sad isn’t going to change a thing. It just makes you feel bad. Laughing doesn’t change anything either, but at least it makes you feel okay. And if that’s what you need to keep things in perspective, then by all means, laugh away and just keep on going with the flow.”
Alex nodded and offered up his glass to Nate in a mock toast.
“Well, I’m still not hungry.”
“And that’s okay,” Nate said. “We should head out, anyway. Don’t wanna be late on the first day. Where’s Patrick?”
“Right here,” he said, walking up to the table. “I ate my omelet while I was waiting for the fresh biscuits. You guys want one?” He held out a plastic plate.
“Maybe on the way over,” Alex said. “Let’s get out of here.”
8
Professor Startsman
Alex grabbed the door and ushered his friends into Blue101 with a little bow and sweep of the arm.
“Why, thank you.” Patrick shoved the last bite of biscuit in his mouth and placed his balled-up napkin in Alex’s hand. “You mind taking care of that for me?”
Alex flipped it at the back of his head.
“Gah! Don’t get crumbs in my hair. I gotta look good for the ladies!”
“You wish.” Eva picked up the napkin and tossed it in the trash.
“Whoa,” Patrick said. “You guys gotta get in here and check this out. Looks a little different with the lights turne
d on, huh?”
“Like we’re outside,” Alex said. He looked up and down the LCD panels covering the left and right walls of the auditorium.
“It’s a live stream,” Nate said. “Must be from those cameras on top of the building.”
“Oh yeah. Good call,” Alex said. He looked at the left wall. A couple squirrels hopped about in the ankle-deep grass under the large oak. Pink windows glinted in the background. “You guys wanna sit toward the front?”
They nodded and Alex led the way down the aisle and turned in at the third row. He smiled to himself because he knew without looking that Eva had filed in right behind him. He caught a whiff of her perfume as she sat down and it filled him with an urge to say something to her. Something witty. Alex waited until she finished unloading her backpack, then he took a deep breath and smiled and turned to her. And then his mind went blank. He sat there, mouth gaping, filled with that same sense of panic he always felt around pretty girls. But why now? They had talked plenty of times the last few days. Why was this different? Alex realized he was still looking at her and quickly turned away, unsure if she noticed. His heart was racing. He stared at the table at the front of the room, studying it as if it were something worthy of a museum. He began counting its dowels.
“That’s Agra, isn’t it?”
Alex stopped at eight. He looked up and peered through the large panes of glass at the dorms in the distance. “Yeah. And you can just see the edge of Hope.”
“Where?” Eva said.
Alex pointed. “There. Look about five feet right of the table and ten feet up.”
She leaned over and her blonde hair draped across his arm. “I see it,” she said, nodding.
Alex noticed she stayed there a beat longer than necessary. His face reddened. It may have been uncharted territory, but Alex knew a sign when he saw one. Of course, knowing the signs and doing something about them were entirely different things. He doubled down on his search for a witty comment, wading through memories of movies and TV shows for something he could use. He was about to give up and go back to the dowels when his phone vibrated. It was a text from Patrick: