Initiates (The Book of Adam 3)

by Scott Gelowitz

  Adam nodded then looked around the room. Everyone was staring at him, making him feel uncomfortable.

  “I’ll take Adam home,” said Marius, and silently waved for Adam follow.

  He said a quick goodbye to everyone and followed along.

  “Too bad we didn’t find the Heartstone,” said Marius as he drove, “but you did a great job figuring that all out. You think like your dad.”

  “Thanks,” said Adam, “but Elianora pointed me in the right direction.”

  Marius stopped in front of Adam’s house, and Adam hopped out. He slammed the van door harder than he intended, and then waved to Marius before turning toward the house. To his surprise, Mary was already waiting at the door. She smiled a weak smile and held the door open as he slipped past her to get inside.

  “How did it go?” she asked as he took off his shoes.

  Adam shrugged. “Didn’t find the Heartstone.”

  “Did you find anything?”

  Her questions put Adam on guard. His mother had never usually asked many questions about anything unless he was about to be in deep trouble. Adam nodded and replied, “Just a note. It said, ‘The Heartstone now resides at a new address,’ and it was initialed E. M.”

  Mary looked surprised. “You’re kidding,” she said in nearly a whisper.

  Adam pursed his lips and shook his head.

  “Do you have it?”

  Adam fished the paper from his pocket and handed it to her. She read it closely, her face changing as she examined it. Adam could see the memories flooding over her.

  “So that is dad’s writing,” Adam said.

  Mary continued staring at the note, but gave a small nod. Her emotions seemed to be getting the better of her, but after a few moments Adam could see her harden into her usual self.

  “We’ll worry about this later. Elianora and I want to make sure you get some rest today so she has arranged that all of your friends are going to be busy working for the League.”

  Adam was disappointed. He really wanted to tell his friends everything that had happened to him. They weren’t just his friends, they were like family. He didn’t like keeping them in the dark about anything for long, but he did realize that he was tired.

  “I’ve got some hot dogs cooking right now, so as soon as you eat, you can go and rest. Elianora left some books that she thought you might like to see to help you pass the time. They are up in your room.”

  Adam wondered what books Elianora would have left for him and he got excited at the thought that there would be video pages just like she had shown him the previous year, although learning about history didn’t exactly excite him much. Maybe that was her plan; show him some boring historical information so he would fall asleep and rest.

  Adam took a couple of steps toward the kitchen before Mary stopped him and pointed at the table. “Sit,” she commanded.

  Adam had the urge to bark, but wasn’t sure how the response would be received. He was still a little unsure why Mary wasn’t making him get his own food. Not counting the other day when she had made him hot dogs before going out with Mrs. Garagan, Mary hadn’t catered to Adam in years.

  Adam sat at the table like Mary had asked, and she turned to the stove before fishing out a single hot dog and placing it on a piece of bread already coated in mustard and ketchup. She filled a cup with milk and brought the cup and plate to the table before returning the jug back to the fridge. The entire process was strange for Adam and he forgot about his food and stared at Mary until she stopped and asked, “Aren’t you hungry?”

  Suddenly remembering that there was food in front of him, Adam nodded and said, “Yeah. Brain is just a little foggy.”

  Mary smiled. “That’s why you need a day to rest. Now eat up and relax.”

  Adam picked up the hot dog and took a big bite. He hadn’t realized how hungry he was until the first taste hit his tongue. That’s when he remembered that he hadn’t eaten since he woke up, with all of the excitement that morning. He finished off the first hot dog in record time and Mary had a second one placed in front of him soon after. Once it was done, she offered him a third one which he refused. Even though he felt hungry, he knew that another one would only make him uncomfortably full a few minutes later.

  He chugged down his cup of milk, thanked Mary, and headed upstairs to his room. As soon as he had opened the door, he saw two books with odd covers on top of his dresser. One was a faded blue color, and the other red, probably leather, he figured. He picked them up and sauntered over to his bed before hopped on top and examined them both.

  Neither book was very thick, and neither one had a title, so he decided to open the blue one first. It was a picture book, and to Adam’s disappointment, none of the pictures moved. The pictures in the book were all taken in Grayson, and it seemed to be pictures of League members from around the time Ed would have been Number Two. He recognized so many of the faces even though they were so much younger back then. He thumbed through page after page, and the pictures became older as he continued. The funny thing was that he didn’t see any pictures of Ed until Ed was already a fully grown man, but Adam wanted to see pictures from when he was about Adam’s age.

  Pretty soon the exhaustion overtook him and Adam fell asleep. For once he didn’t dream, and when he woke some time later, he found that he hadn’t moved at all. Even the picture book was open on the last page he remembered seeing.

  His stomach grumbled and he realized that he didn’t know how long he had slept. It could have been an hour or ten – it was that kind of deep sleep. When he looked at his watch it was 9:42 p.m. No wonder he was hungry. He had been asleep for over six hours.

  After a yawn and a stretch, he hopped out of bed and wandered downstairs. Mary was sitting in her usual spot. The television was on one of her favorite shows, but she wasn’t watching. She was wearing the golden pendant Ed had given her for their last anniversary, holding it up and examining it like she had done many times before, and Adam already knew what that meant. It happened at times when she was missing Ed the most.

  She turned when she heard Adam open the fridge door.

  “There’s some spaghetti on the stove. You’ll probably have to warm it up in the microwave, though,” she said.

  Adam replied, “OK. Thanks,” and pulled the lid off of the pot.

  Inside was some Chef Boyardee spaghetti and meatballs. Fairly bland stuff, but it smelled fantastic. He found a microwave safe bowl and filled it with the spaghetti before sticking it in the microwave on high for two minutes. After the first minute, he opened the door and stirred it before heating it again. As soon as it beeped he took it to the table and began eating directly from the bowl. It tasted fantastic even though it was nowhere near hot. His stomach wouldn’t let him wait any longer.

  As soon as he finished, he rinsed the bowl and filled the pot with water to soak. “I’ll get these later,” he said to Mary.

  “Whenever,” she replied like it was no big deal. Any other time and she would have made sure he either finished them right away or gave her a firm commitment exactly when they would be done. It was another odd change in her behavior.

  The sleep had regenerated his mind and he was now able to process things better than he had earlier. Obviously the events of the past day, even the past year, had softened the hard shell Mary kept around herself. Adam had always felt that she had it inside her, but she buried it deep and put it behind such a high wall that he never thought it would ever show. The previous year’s events had begun to knock down the walls and the previous day’s events had seemed to open a large hole, but Adam expected the wall would be up again in a short amount of time. Until then, though, he would enjoy the softened version of his mother.

  Mary’s TV show had ended. She yawned and stretched before standing up. “Do you need anything else?” she asked, tucking the pendant back inside her shirt.

  Again, Adam was surprised by the question, although not as much before. “I’m ok. Just wide awake now,” he replied.


  Mary smiled, “Well, don’t stay up too late. You can watch whatever you want on TV, but try and go to sleep again in an hour or two,” she said.

  Adam nodded and said, “OK. Goodnight…and thanks.”

  Mary smiled back at him before turning and making her way upstairs.

  Adam thought about her transformation for a few seconds, then stepped over to the TV and checked the other channel. He didn’t feel like thinking about anything too much; he had done enough of that lately. It was a perfect time to find a show and let his brain stop thinking, only to drift along with the brainlessness the majority of shows offered. He decided on a talk show out of New York where some celebrity was promoting a movie Adam probably wouldn’t see for another few years when it was finally shown on late-night television. He laughed along at the jokes, and there was a pretty funny skit involving the second celebrity interviewed. Overall, it gave him a good laugh.

  As soon as that was over, a late night movie came on another channel. “Flash Gordon” was playing, and it was a cheesy sci-fi film from sometime in the 80’s. Even though the film was made in the early 80’s, the special effects were ten years behind time. The script and acting were along the same lines, but even with all of those things against it, somehow it was still quite entertaining. Still not tired at the end, he flipped over to another channel again, and caught another movie that was already in progress. After a while, he figured out that it was “Forrest Gump.” He had heard about the movie before, and even though it was really interesting he drifted off to sleep with the feeling that he was running endlessly.

  He woke in the chair a few hours later and realized that the TV was still on. Some morning show weather guy was pointing out the jet stream movements and explaining how it would impact the weather. It didn’t excite Adam at all, so he turned it off. He stretched and yawned, then decided to look at his watch. 7:33 a.m.. His mom should be up any minute now, so he decided to have a bite to eat before showering for the day.

  After chuckling over the thought that he was eating a cold ‘hot’ dog, he grabbed clothes from his room and had a quick shower. When he came out of the bathroom, Mary was just sauntering down the stairs.

  “Did you end up getting some sleep last night?” she asked.

  Adam shrugged. “Sort-of. I fell asleep watching a movie pretty late. Not the most comfortable way to sleep.”

  “Did you eat yet?” she asked.

  He nodded. “Yeah, I had a cold hot dog.” He smiled at the thought again.

  Mary caught the joke and rolled her eyes before turning toward the kitchen to get her morning coffee. Adam took that as the cue to head up to his room again. He put his dirty clothes in the hamper before sitting on his bed. The two books were still where he had left them, but he didn’t feel like looking through them any more, so he put them back on his dresser.

  He wasn’t sure what to do next, so he mindlessly opened the dresser drawer where he kept all of his parts and gadgets, pulled out miscellaneous items and began building nothing in particular. He didn’t feel like thinking too hard, so he continued on with the mindlessness he had started the night before.

  A while later he felt the fog in his brain fade away, so he decided to check the time. It was a little after 10 a.m., so Kevin would either be working or waiting to hear from Adam. He decided he would ride over to Kevin’s house and see.

  He pulled his bike out of the garage and was off. So much had happened over the past couple of days that it felt like forever since he had been on his bike. The sense of freedom was almost indescribably enjoyable, but it was short lived. In no time he turned into the long driveway leading to the Baranov farm yard.

  As he rode up the driveway, something seemed strange. It was a beautiful summer morning and yet nothing was going on in the yard. With six people in the Baranov family, there was always someone outside doing something, especially on a sunny day. Adam continued riding toward the house, and things felt even stranger. Because it was bright outside, the windows on the house reflected too much sunlight to see inside, but Adam was sure no-one was home. As soon as he made it to the door, he felt strange ringing the bell because he was sure the house was empty. He rang it anyway and waited for a couple of seconds. No voices or movement could be heard from within. Usually, the instant the doorbell rang, Adam would hear one of Kevin’s three sisters calling to their parents or yelling ‘just a minute’, but not on that morning. Adam tried to remember if Kevin had told him that his family was going on a trip, but nothing came to mind.

  Adam got back on his bike and rode out of the yard toward home, still wondering where Kevin and his family had gone. When he reached the intersection that led right to downtown, straight to his house, or left toward the school he decided to go left. If he went toward downtown, he would probably run into people there, and he didn’t feel like seeing anyone other than his friends at the moment, but he did feel like driving around on his bike. Going toward the school meant he could turn toward the highway and go for a long ride while still staying on the pavement.

  After a minute of pedaling, Adam neared the edge of town. Being a Sunday morning in summer, not much should have been going on at that end of town. As soon as he neared the last of the houses on his right, though, he saw many cars parked outside of Cecelia Hall. Cecelia Hall was the large hall used for community dances and wedding receptions, and it was set back from the main road so you couldn’t tell if anyone was there until you were near enough. The Baranov’s vehicle was parked out front in the middle of all of the others.

  It seemed strange, so he quickly changed his plans and headed for the hall. As he approached, Kelsea, Karlea, Miri and Siri could be seen playing just inside the glass front doors along with a few other younger children.

  Adam set his bike against the side of the hall and walked over to the door. Kelsea held it open for him.

  “Hi Adam,” she said as he stepped inside.

  “Hi Kelsea. Thank-you,” Adam replied. “What’s going on here?” he asked.

  Kelsea shrugged. “Dunno,” was all she said.

  The other children were staring at Adam and it made him automatically check the zipper on his pants. As soon as he looked the group giggled, which made Adam even more uncomfortable so he decided to walk further into the hall and find out what was going on.

  Five steps later, he rounded the corner and saw all of the people, seated in chairs and facing the stage. Up on the stage was a table with four people sitting behind it. Elianora, Gurpreet, Lora Jones, and Mayor Jeff Wyndum. Jeff was just finishing speaking.

  “So it’s agreed. The Ladies Auxiliary Club will provide the sandwiches while the Men’s Ice Curling Association will provide the refreshments. Lora will arrange for flowers and decorations on behalf of the League. Any...” Jeff stopped speaking as he saw Adam step into view. “…uhh, anyone looking to help can show up here at 9 a.m. on Saturday and the service will start at 10,” he finished.

  Being a small town, the second Jeff’s speech stumbled and he looked toward the back of the hall, every person followed his gaze, turning to stare at Adam. It was one of the most uncomfortable moments Adam had felt in his life. The utter silence took it to another level.

  “I think that’s all we need to discuss,” said Elianora, shattering the silence. “If anyone has any questions, please feel free to talk to any one of us.” She seemed to be avoiding looking at Adam, at least in Adam’s opinion.

  Adam felt a nudge in the ribs. Jimmy had snuck up on him. He must have been in the coat room. Mark was right next to Jimmy.

  “What’s going on?” asked Adam.

  Jimmy and Mark looked at each other, paused, then Jimmy spoke. “They’re planning a memorial service – for Karl.” He said it as if he were delivering bad news.

  It wasn’t a huge shock to Adam since he had thought that might be what was happening, but he wasn’t sure how he felt about it. His emotions were mixed. After what Karl had done to him, he was angry, but Karl had done a lot of good in the t
own. He was always happy and friendly, and people really did like him, so it was understandable that they would hold a memorial service for him.

  “Nobody was sure how you would take it, so they planned this meeting quick yesterday,” said Mark. “Today they told everyone what happened – more or less – and then discussed whether they should have a memorial or not.”

  People rose from their seats and the general noise level rose back to a point that Adam was used to hearing in the hall. All of the faces were familiar and a lot of them stared at Adam as they prepared to leave.

  “I’m OK with it, really,” said Adam as he spotted Kevin approaching. “Maybe when this is done we can all go hang out at my garage. I can give you all the details of what happened, since you probably only heard a watered down version.”

  Jimmy and Mark nodded as Kevin joined the group. Now that all his friends were there, Adam felt a lot more comfortable.

  “You’re looking good,” said Kevin.

  “As good as he can, at least,” said Jimmy with a smirk.

  Adam rolled his eyes and smiled. “I’m feeling pretty good. You have plans after this?”

  Kevin shook his head. “Just lunch. Dad and the Senior League members are having a meeting this afternoon so I should be free the rest of the day. Especially since they made us work all day yesterday so we wouldn’t interrupt your beauty sleep.”

  “Geez. A guy almost gets killed and his friends won’t even give him a day without hassling him,” said Adam with a smile. It felt great to tease the guys.

  “We did give you a day without hassling you. That was yesterday. Today is a different day – or have you lost track of the days already?” replied Jimmy, as Adam suspected he would.

  While the group chuckled, a familiar voice interrupted.

  “Hello boys,” said Elianora, so close to Mark that he jerked away in surprise, causing the boys to chuckle more as they all replied, “Hi Elianora.”