Initiates (The Book of Adam 3)

by Scott Gelowitz

  “I’ve told you that Ellie is fine or Nora is fine. When you use my full name it makes me feel like I’m in trouble,” she grinned.

  “Do you think I could borrow Adam for a few moments? I need to discuss something with him,” she said.

  The group looked amongst themselves and shrugged.

  “Just bring him back in one piece,” said Jimmy.

  The others looked at Jimmy with raised eyebrows.

  “What? Too soon?” he asked. “You don’t know from funny,” he continued in his best Ukrainian accent, dismissing them all with his hand.

  “No problem,” said Kevin. “We’ll just wait for him.” Kevin waved for the other two to follow as he walked away.

  Adam looked at Elianora and she gestured for him to follow her. She headed for the stairs leading up to the stage. Along the way Adam passed a lot of people he knew and exchanged a lot of ‘good morning’ and ‘hello’ comments as they fought the tide of people leaving. In a short amount of time they climbed the steps to the room beside the stage where performers prepared before a show. As usual, it was full of various items from props to a piano and even some old mining equipment that the local theater group used in a recent production.

  As soon as they were inside, Elianora asked Adam to shut the door. It wasn’t the most private place ever, but it was the most private place in the hall at the time.

  “How are you feeling today?” she asked. The concern showed on her face.

  “Fine,” Adam replied. “I got a lot of sleep yesterday, watched some TV.”

  She stared at him as if she were trying to read his mind.

  “You’ve probably figured out that we’re planning on having a memorial service for Karl.”

  Adam nodded.

  “How do you feel about that?” she asked.

  Adam was taken aback by the question. Why would she want to know how he felt?

  Adam shrugged. “I dunno. I guess I’m torn.”

  Elianora continued staring at him, but said nothing, waiting for him to go on.

  “I mean, I liked the guy – right up to the point where he tried to sell me,” he finished.

  Elianora’s gaze broke when she nodded a little, then she breathed a deep breath. “Most of us in town feel the same way. We’ve all known him for a long time, and for most of us, his last actions seem uncharacteristic. I would never have imagined him capable of selling you to Larix before the events the other day. I mean, I had just finished knitting him some slippers…” Her voice cracked at the last word.

  She composed herself again. “Anyway, we wanted the rest of the community to know what had happened and to let them voice their concerns, and so they did. In the end, we voted to have a memorial service for him.”

  Adam was confused. “Wouldn’t you be having a funeral for him?” he asked.

  “No. His body is being sent back to Germany, to the town where he grew up. He will be buried there next to the rest of his family, and they will have a funeral for him.”

  “I didn’t realize he still had family there,” said Adam.

  Elianora nodded. “The only reason he was staying was because I asked him to. As I told you before, I mistakenly thought he could read the Impression Stones. If it wasn’t for me, he would have gone home years ago.”

  “But he told me he was going to take the money Larix gave him and live somewhere warm for the rest of his life.”

  Elianora shrugged. “Maybe he would have. Obviously, I didn’t know him as well as I thought.”

  There was an awkward pause.

  “Did you get a chance to look at the pictures I left for you?”

  Adam nodded. “Thanks. They were interesting to see. I didn’t realize how much the Sentinel League meant to this town.”

  Elianora grinned. “I’m glad you liked them. I thought you would enjoy some of the pictures of your Dad, especially when he was young.”

  Adam looked at her and raised an eyebrow.

  “Didn’t you look through the red one yet?”

  “I looked through the first couple of pages and saw it was from Killaly, so I went back to the other one because I knew it was from Grayson. But you’re telling me that there are pictures of my dad in the Killaly book from when he was younger?”

  “That’s where he grew up,” said Elianora.

  “Really? I thought he grew up here,” said Adam.

  Elianora looked surprised. “I guess that’s something else your mom never told you. Didn’t you know that your grandpa was Mayor of Killaly, and your dad grew up there?”

  “I knew Grandpa was Mayor of Killaly, but I never really thought about it. I found a young picture of Dad in the Town Archives here in Grayson and always assumed he grew up here,” said Adam.

  “Was the picture from a church picnic? Killaly always comes here to play baseball here you know,” said Elianora.

  He nodded. “I guess I should have known after finding out Grandpa was Mayor of Killaly,” said Adam.

  “That’s why I brought those books over for you. I know you’ve never seen many pictures of your dad, so I thought you would enjoy seeing those. Killaly has the younger pictures and Grayson has the older ones.”

  “Thanks. I really appreciate it. I’m going to take a good look at the Killaly book as soon as I get a chance. When do you want them back?”

  “Whenever you are ready. All I ask is that you don’t lose the pictures. Those ones haven’t been archived quite yet, so I’d hate for something to happen to them.”

  Adam got the feeling that ‘archived’ meant something other than just making a copy.

  “So, then, the only thing remaining is to break the news of the memorial service to Mary. Do you want me to do it, or do you want to? I’m pretty sure she isn’t going to be happy to hear it, no matter who tells her.”

  Adam didn’t have to think about it too much. “I’d rather have you break that news to her.”

  Elianora nodded while wearing a solemn look on her face. “I was pretty sure you were going to say that.”

  “I just thought it might be easier for you, considering you’ve probably had more experience with that kind of thing,” said Adam after carefully choosing his words so he wouldn’t call her old.

  “It’s never easy telling someone something that will upset them, and it never gets easier, no matter how old you are. I can personally attest to that,” she replied. “Regardless, you are invited to the memorial on Saturday at 10 a.m.. You don’t have to dress up or anything. You don’t even have to show up, if you don’t want.”

  Adam didn’t know what to say as he wrestled with thoughts that he had kept at bay for the last couple of days. He had really liked Karl up to that last day, so he wasn’t sure what he wanted to do. In his mind he should hate the man, but in his heart he wasn’t so sure.

  “I’ll have to think about it,” said Adam.

  “Understandable. Anyway, I’m going to speak to your mom soon. It might be better for me to do it when she is at work tomorrow,” said Elianora.

  Adam agreed.

  “I think you should go and spend some time with your friends now,” she said and she flicked her hand toward the door as if she were chasing him out, “Have some fun while the sun is shining. It’s supposed to get stormy this week.”

  Adam opened the door and looked into the hall. It had cleared out completely in the short time they had spoken. He was glad, because he didn’t really want to see anyone other than his friends.

  Elianora followed him to the area inside the front door where all of the younger children had been playing when Adam first arrived. Jimmy, Mark, and Kevin were standing there waiting.

  Elianora waved at them and said, “Have a good day, boys.”

  The group replied, “You too,” at nearly the same time.

  Adam looked at the others. “What do you guys want to do now?” he asked.

  “Anything that doesn’t involve us doing any work for anyone,” replied Mark.

  Jimmy smiled and nodded. “For o
nce, my little friend, I’m not going to tease you about not wanting to do any more work. Yesterday was enough for me.”

  “What did you have to do yesterday?” asked Adam.

  “Well,” said Jimmy, “They wanted to make sure we couldn’t bother you, so Ben took us out to the Radome and had me and Mark clean out the storage shed while farmboy cut the grass. We were there until 6:00 and then they brought us back to town, fed us at the restaurant and took us to Town Hall. Then we got to file papers until 8:00 p.m. I guess they figured it was late enough and we were tired enough that we wouldn’t try to come see you.”

  “Sorry to hear that,” said Adam.

  “It wasn’t that bad, you babies,” said Kevin.

  “Oh yes it was,” replied Mark.

  “If you think that was hard work, you need to come to my place for a day,” said Kevin.

  “You got to drive around on the riding lawn mower all day because Ben likes you. Us two,” Mark pointed at Jimmy and himself, “had to sort and clean boxes of parts and then sort out partial bottles of weed killer.”

  Kevin smiled, “I have to admit, I did get the better end of that deal.”

  Jimmy and Mark shot fake angry looks to Kevin.

  “Thanks for doing it anyway,” said Adam, “It gave me a chance to rest and look at some pictures.” He continued describing the photo albums Elianora had dropped off for him.

  “Just don’t almost get killed for a while, alright?” said Kevin.

  “I’ll try not to,” said Adam with a big grin on his face. “Come on, let’s get out of here.”

  He opened the door and waved for the others to follow him into the bright sunlight.

  CHAPTER THREE

  The rest of the day passed by in typical fashion. After lunch, the group ended up in Adam’s garage where Adam was finally able to tell them every detail of his ordeal.

  “That’s crazy,” said Mark. “I’d’ve never thought Karl could do that.”

  Jimmy and Kevin agreed with Mark.

  “Are you going to the memorial service?” asked Jimmy.

  “I’m torn, but I don’t think so,” Adam replied.

  “I feel the same way,” said Jimmy. “Yeah, I liked him and all, but he did try to sell you to your death. I’d’ve had less of a problem if it had been Mark.”

  Mark scowled at Jimmy. “Karl thought about selling you off too but he knew Larix would ask for a refund after hearing a couple of your lame jokes,” Mark teased Jimmy back.

  Kevin chuckled.

  Adam thought how strange it was that they were joking about such a thing, but he couldn’t help chuckling along.

  “Thanks guys,” said Adam.

  “What for?” asked Kevin.

  “Just for making me laugh.”

  “Well,” started Jimmy, “if you want a laugh…”

  “Jimmy will show you his biceps,” said Mark as he cut off Jimmy.

  Jimmy shook his head. “Did you pay someone to come up with that, or did you figure it out all on your own?”

  Adam grinned the entire time. Listening to the two teasing each other made him feel close to normal again.

  “Are either of your parents going?” asked Kevin, interrupting Mark and Jimmy.

  Mark looked away from Jimmy and nodded. “For sure. The League is paying for a bunch of stuff, and I’m sure he’ll end up making a speech.”

  “Yours?” asked Kevin as he turned his gaze from Mark to Jimmy.

  “Pretty sure they’ll be there. Dad knew Karl pretty well, from what I overheard at home.”

  “Yeah, mine too,” said Kevin. “but I’m not sure how I feel about it either.”

  “Who wants to play some cards?” asked Jimmy, opening up an old deck he picked up from a shelf on the wall.

  “Deal away,” said Adam, and they started playing a game.

  ***

  The next couple of days went by fast, and Adam decided that he didn’t want to go to the memorial service. As it approached and he thought about it more and more, anger at Karl started growing deep inside.

  Mary hadn’t said a word about the service or even if Elianora had spoken to her. There was no way Elianora hadn’t talked to her, though, and Mary seemed to be dealing with it in the same way she dealt with other things in her life, ignoring it completely.

  The morning of the memorial came and went, and Adam did nothing other than look through the picture books from Elianora a few more times since it was raining hard outside. The more he looked at the pictures, the more people he recognized, but there were still many faces that he had no clue. Of course, the Killaly book was full of faces he didn’t know, but he looked through it for pictures of Ed anyway. The most interesting picture he found in the Killaly book was one of Ed with his arm around John Gunderson, and they were probably around the same age as Adam. It was hard to mistake that it was John, and the smile on John’s face brought up anger in Adam, so he closed the book and wandered downstairs.

  After he ate some lunch and returned to his bedroom, he put away the two books before opening his top dresser drawer, pulling out some parts, setting them on the table and wondering what to build. The wind outside was picking up and the rain seemed to be getting more intense all the time, but he didn’t really think about it much. All he thought about were the parts in front of him. He had no idea what he would like to build, or what parts he might need, so he decided that he would just pull things off of some of the circuit boards he had yanked out of some junk electronics. One was from an old VCR he found at the dump. There were a few good parts on that one, like motors, a lot of gears and a few circuit boards. The read-heads were interesting since they were mounted on an angle. He guessed that they read the picture data in angled tracks across the old VHS tapes.

  His thoughts were interrupted by a loud knock on the front door. Startled, he jumped up fast, but he stopped to unplug the soldering iron he had been using to pull parts off of the board and then placed it carefully on the dresser to cool in a way that it wouldn’t burn anything.

  A moment later he heard his mother yell, “Adam.”

  At least she didn’t sound angry. It was the first thought he always had when she called his name.

  He flew down the stairs to see Kevin waiting inside the door, soaking wet.

  “Hey,” said Adam.

  “Hey,” said Kevin. “I’m supposed to come and bring you to Town Hall.”

  Adam raised an eyebrow. “What for? Swimming lessons?” he asked.

  Kevin grinned and shrugged. “I’m only doing what I was told by my dad. He’s waiting in the truck to give us a ride.”

  “OK then,” said Adam with more than a hint of sarcasm.

  Kevin grinned.

  “Mom, I’m going with Kevin,” said Adam.

  “I heard, don’t stay out too late,” said Mary without looking away from the TV.

  Adam slipped on his shoes and grabbed his jacket so that he wouldn’t get too wet. They stepped out the door into the pouring rain just as thunder shook their insides. The shock sped them on their way to the truck idling at the end of the driveway.

  Adam hopped in and Kevin followed quickly, slamming the door behind him.

  “Nice day, hey,” said Mikhail Baranov.

  “Yeah, beautiful,” replied Adam.

  Moments later the truck was rolling on its way to Town Hall. The windshield wipers were going as fast as they could and yet they barely kept up with the rain.

  “Any harder and we won’t have to worry about harvest,” said Mikhail, his face showing real concern.

  Kevin and Adam remained quiet as they turned toward Town Hall. Because they couldn’t see very far in front of them, the truck rolled along not much faster than they could have walked. It was still better to be in the dry truck, though.

  “What are we doing at Town Hall,” asked Adam.

  Mike’s expression didn’t change and he didn’t take his eyes off the road as he gave a typical adult answer. “You’ll find out when we get there.”


  They pulled up to the front of Town Hall and parked at the end of the building because cars were lined up out front. Mike honked the horn once they had stopped. They hopped out as quick as they could and raced for the front door, but it was raining so hard that they were soaked before they reached it. Adam didn’t have time to see if he recognized any of the vehicles because of the low visibility and the speed he ran. Even the section of roof that hung over the entrance doors didn’t seem to stop the rain as the wind picked up and whipped it straight at them.

  The horn must have been a signal for someone to open the door because it flew open right before they reached it, letting them dash inside smoothly. Adam doubted that he could get any wetter than he was already anyway, so the speed they made it inside Town Hall didn’t help much.

  After he wiped the rain from his face he looked around. Mark was standing at the door – he was the one who held it open for them. Jimmy was standing next to Mark and smiling.

  “Glad I didn’t have to come get you,” said Jimmy.

  Adam looked at Jimmy and Mark, then noticed that they were both dry.

  “How long have you two been here?” asked Adam.

  “Long enough to be bored out of our minds,” answered Mark. “The Senior members were having a meeting and they wanted us here but not in the meeting itself, so we’ve just been hanging around the front office area. We got here when it was only raining lightly right after the lunch at the memorial service.”

  Jimmy and Kevin nodded.

  “Dad came out of the meeting after a little while and told me to come with him, then he told these two to open the front door when they heard him honk,” said Kevin.

  Jimmy bowed. “And with that, my work here is done.”

  “What are you talking about?” asked Mark. “I’m the one who held the door open.”

  “True,” replied Jimmy, “but I was able to get you to actually do some work, so I must be destined to be a great manager of people.”

  “Did you take the ‘Jeff Wyndum’ management course?” asked Mark, as Adam and Kevin burst out in laughter. “Next you’ll be running for Mayor.”