“Dad,” I started, “I’m trying really hard to adjust to all this…I mean….the Commission and everything…”
“I know it’s hard, honey, but you are part of the Commission of the People and you need to be conscious of the image the Commission has as a whole, which means you need to be the best you can be.”
“What do my grades have to do with the image of the Commission?” I snapped.
“Honey, calm down,” my mother cooed.
“No! Don’t tell me to calm down!” I growled, standing.
“Lily Grace Sandover, you sit yourself down and do not talk back to me!” my mother ordered, pointing at the chair I had previously been in.
“No, Mother!” I rebelled against her for the first time in my life. “How can you expect me to be fine when I know that the Commission of the People mutilates people and turns them into weapons?! I’m the one that has to be there every day and see these people!”
“We’ve been over this, Lily,” my mother growled. “They are criminals. It’s for the greater good that the Commission takes them off the streets.”
“Dad, how can you be okay with this?” I gasped. “The Commission took in your own brother, for God’s sake!”
My father hesitated before sighing and shaking his head. I felt my heart fall and my jaw drop.
“Do you not care?” I hissed. “Aren’t you…are you even angry?”
“Lily…” he said tenderly. “You’re young…and when I was your age, I was angry. I was angry at my father for calling in my brother, but I was also angry at my brother. Now, I know that you think what the Commission does is wrong, but as I’ve gotten older…I’ve come to realize that people like my brother are dangerous. You can’t fight against something as powerful as the good of the nation’s people, and that’s what the Commission seeks to protect.”
“I can’t believe I’m hearing this!”
“Lily, you’re only seventeen. How do you expect to know everything about the world and how it should be?” my mother shook her head. I hated it when she used the age card.
“Sweetheart,” my father started quickly, trying to diverge my attention. “I know that you care, and I know that you’re upset about what you see in the Commission…but something that you’ll come to realize is that…not everyone is equal. There are some people that are dangerous to the delicate balance of society. I know it’s tough to swallow, but what Dana and the Commission does is the best thing for American society. It keeps things balanced and safe.”
“But…all those people…people like Mykail…” How was I expected to just shut off my feelings about all those people who had been taken from their families and had their lives destroyed?
“You’re going to have to learn how to stop looking at them like that…” my mother said. “They’re not people anymore.”
I couldn’t speak.
“And you’re going to have to get your grades up,” she added. “No more failing tests. If you do, we will have to ask Dana if there is someone in the Commission to tutor you and help you get through your classes with the grades you used to pull.”
My stomach flipped over. I couldn’t have someone looming over my shoulder. It would make planning the revolution that much more difficult. I went quiet and bowed my head, nodding.
“Okay…”
“Alright, dinner is in the oven, so go ahead and set your stuff down and wash up,” my mother said, standing and moving into the kitchen.
I was angry. I was furious at my mother and father for being so accepting of the Commission, even after seeing all that happened there, even after seeing the way Dana treated Miranda and Julie in front of everyone, and the way Eyna screamed when he was on the table…they were still accepting the Commission of the People.
I stormed to my room, passing Mykail’s door. I was sure he had heard everything but I was so angry that I could not face him. I threw my bag angrily against the side of my desk and shrugged off my coat. I was furious!
A few minutes later, after I had taken off my shoes and flopped down on my bed, there was a knock on my door. I turned to see my father peeking his head into my room.
“I know you’re pissed,” he said. “But I just wanted to let you know that, regardless of the grades and everything else, I really appreciate how good you’ve been about the move and the Commission and everything.” He stepped into my room, closing the door. “You’re mother…I think she’s just trying to process everything, and I think that she says what she does because she wants to believe it herself.”
I groaned and sat up, rolling my eyes.
“She never used to think like that.”
“Oh, your mother’s always been steadfast,” my father smiled, sitting next to me. I huffed again, still feeling my anger course through my veins. He reached an arm around me, hugging me as I rested my head against his shoulder. He smelled the same way he always had—a hint of cinnamon and aftershave. It was comforting to realize that, even after everything, that had not changed.
“Your mother’s been a little difficult lately,” my father admitted. “We’ve had our disagreements about the Commission as well. It’s hitting everyone hard.”
“Then you don’t agree with the Commission,” I said, hopeful. He hesitated and then sighed heavily, causing my heart to fall again.
“I agree that the Commission is essential in maintaining the balance of current American society,” he said. “What I don’t agree with is Dana. There is something about him that…worries me.”
“Only something?” I groaned. “Not everything?” My father laughed.
“Alright, I admit that Dana is not entirely right in the head. But…I also think that he might have been raised in that environment. He said that he worked with Bryant Morris, he must have only been a boy at that time. Imagine if you were raised with that horror around you. I think that has the potential to screw anyone up.”
“I agree with that…” I nodded. “But Dana is in a really powerful position of the government, and he doesn’t seem to be in a fit mental state to be making rulings on people’s lives.”
My father rubbed my shoulder, pulling me into a tighter hug. We sat in silence, not sure what to say, knowing that, at the moment, we were powerless.
“Are the kids still upset about Miranda and Julie?” he whispered.
“They’re really upset.”
“I don’t blame them,” my father sighed. “I mean, if they needed to be taken in, that’s the Commission’s ruling, but he didn’t need to make such an extreme example of them at the meeting. I guess the problems with the Commission children have been pretty bad.” He turned to me and rested his head on mine. “Are those boys still giving you trouble?”
“No.”
“Good,” he smiled, kissing my forehead. “I’m sorry about your mother today. I’ll talk to her. She should have been more understanding of how hard the move has been on you.” My father kissed my head again and hugged me tight before standing up. “Alright, I’m getting Mykail for dinner. Come down whenever you’re ready.”
“Okay.”
“I love you,” my father smiled.
“I love you, too, Dad.”
* *** *
My father did try to talk to my mother that night. Mykail and I both listened to them in the living room, but the discussion quickly turned into a heated argument where my mother accused my father of not supporting her in raising me as a proper Commission child. My father tried to remind her that they had always told me it was my choice if I wanted to go into politics, but now I was stuck and it was going to take time for me to adjust to the idea.
The fight quickly got ugly, and by the time it was over and my mother stormed away, I was close to tears and Mykail had to hold onto me while I cried into his chest.
Wednesday I walked around in a haze. I was tired and stressed over the fight between my father and mother the previous night. Becca asked me what was wrong, but I assured her that it had nothing to do with the Commission. I asked if she
would be willing to come to my house on Sunday. I wasn’t sure if I was allowed to invite people over, but I knew that my mother and father had a charity event for the whole day on Sunday, so they would be out.
I wasn’t sure, either, if I was going to show Mykail to Becca or not. It was something I would have to discuss with Clark.
The day went by without incident. After school, I walked to the side parking lot and found Mark standing next to the car. He smiled and bowed his head when I walked up. I smiled and bowed my head a little as well, hoping I was able to hide my bad mood from him.
I tried to smile when he straightened, but I saw his face fall quickly. I looked around to be sure that no one else was around to worry him. Since we were alone in the parking lot, I knew he had seen my drawn expression.
He opened his mouth, but stopped.
“I’m alright, I’m alright,” I said quickly. I gave him two thumbs up with a weak smile. He shook his head and carefully put his hands on top of mine, pushing them down.
He knew I was lying.
I allowed my hands to drop to my sides. I didn’t know what to do or say. I looked at my shoes. The situation went from awkward to weird very quickly. I had no way to communicate with him and he had no way to communicate with me, but we both knew that the other was worried.
Suddenly, a thought clicked. I raised my hand, pinching my left earlobe to tell Mark I was sorry. He hesitated and then rubbed his nose once before biting his lower lip.
I sighed. He was trying to tell me something, but Mykail had only taught me a few of the signs. I used another one I knew. I ran my hand through my hair and closed my eyes, tilting my head to the side tiredly. That meant I didn’t understand. He sighed and nodded, reaching up and pinching his left ear.
“You don’t need to be sorry, Mark,” I shook my head. “I’m alright.”
He shook his head and reached out, pointing at my face with both pointer fingers and pushing them into my cheeks. I backed away at first, but when he moved his fingers to make me smile, the adorable action made me break out laughing.
Mark chuckled silently.
We waited for a few minutes before I started to wonder where Clark was. Mark looked around and then glanced at his wrist watch before offering his hand for my backpack. I handed it to him with a ‘thank you’ and he placed it in the trunk as I leaned against the car. I reached into my purse, pulling out my phone, bored.
I had a text message from Clark.
Hey. I will be a little late. Long story. Tell Mark that I am okay. He gets frantic when I’m not on time and he will come looking for me. Make sure he knows that I’m okay.
I turned to Mark quickly, who was pacing nervously behind the car.
“Mark!” I called. He turned and walked over immediately. “Clark is okay,” I said slowly and clearly so he could understand me. “He will be here soon.”
Mark just stared at me through his sunglasses. I groaned in frustration.
“I really need to figure out the best way to communicate with you…” I mused. I said very clearly and slowly that Clark was okay and Mark nodded, sighing in relief. I smiled. I was thrilled to see that Mark cared about Clark rather than feared him.
We waited for twenty long minutes before Clark appeared. After fifteen minutes, Mark was getting very anxious and pacing again. I felt apprehensive as well. I wasn’t sure what to expect from the ‘long story’ that Clark had to explain why he was late. I spent the last five minutes of our wait, trying to assure Mark that Clark was alright. Mark didn’t understand what I was saying and I had to actually grab him by the arm and tell him very clearly that Clark was alright again before he stopped pacing.
When he did see Clark, he darted over to him.
“Mark, I’m alright,” Clark said when he saw the experiment running toward him. He lifted his hands. “I promise. I’m sorry that took so long. I’m okay. I’m alright.”
When they both reached the car, Mark took Clark’s backpack and put it in the trunk.
“Where were you?” I blinked. “Mark was going to go postal any second.”
“He gets a little worried,” Clark nodded. “Saved me my teeth once, though, so I’m grateful he does worry.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m bullied a lot, and one time I was jumped by some guys after school. When Mark found me, they were kicking me and Mark gave them all some black eyes before taking me home.” Mark opened the door for us and Clark smiled as he climbed in the car behind me. “So, I was very happy that he got worried. But, since he can’t read English, it’s really difficult for me to send him a text message when I tell him I’m going to be late. Thankfully you were there today.”
“So, what did keep you?” I pressed as Mark started the car.
“Okay,” he said, turning to face me fully. “What I’m about to tell you has to be said before we get to the Commission and it is really dangerous information. Mark, radio please.”
Mark turned on the radio.
“Up,” Clark said, motioning his hands. Mark turned the volume up so that the songs on the radio were loud enough to drown out our voices. Clark motioned me closer and I leaned in so that his mouth was next to my ear, but he still had to talk loud to be heard over the music. “What I’m about to tell you cannot leave this car. We will talk as we did yesterday as soon as we get to the Commission. Mark, if you can understand or hear any of this, turn the radio down.”
I quickly turned to see if Mark did anything, but he was focused on driving.
“Okay, good.” Clark leaned back to my ear. “Dean and the others came up to me after school and told me that they were going to get Miranda out regardless of anything Dana said. They are going to try talking to Dana Saturday at the meeting, but if that doesn’t work, they are going to try and break her out.”
I gaped openly, feeling a smile creep over my lips.
“We decided that we would see how things go on Saturday, and if Dana still refuses, we will start meeting to figure out how to take Dana down and break out Miranda and Julie,” Clark continued. “We’ll see how many people we can get behind us by the Halloween party at Archangel.”
I grinned broadly, giddy at the news. There were more of us. Things seemed to be coming together on their own without Clark or me putting ourselves in a more dangerous position. The others were going to need us in order to get close to Dana and figure out the best way to take him down. The idea was coming closer to reality.
I could not say anything for several long moments as I processed my excitement.
“I know…” Clark said with a knowing smile.
The rest of the car ride was silent. I was in shock, even the blaring car radio didn’t seem loud as I turned over possibilities in my head. This could really happen…
We checked in at the Commission and went downstairs. Mark led us through the basement and stood watch outside of our conference room.
“…I wonder what Dana’s doing today…” Clark mused. He looked at me, a strange light playing in his eyes. “Wanna take a look at his schedule?”
We went to his mother’s empty basement office and went to her computer, Clark quickly finding Dana’s schedule.
I was shocked to see how many appointments he had for the following two weeks.
“Wow…who are all these people he’s meeting with?” My eyes scanned the names. “Um…is that the president of France? And the Prime Minister of England? And…um…is that the president of China?”
“Yes,” Clark confirmed.
“I thought it was too dangerous for Dana to leave the country…he’s going to go meet all these people?”
“No, these people all come to meet with Leader Simon and Dana. I heard last that the president of China was interested in buying some of the Commission experiments for his personal guard.”
“You can’t be serious… does the whole world know what the Commission does?”
“I’m sure all the leaders of the world do,” Clark nodded. “But it’s pretty class
ified information. I mean, everyone in the world knows that the Commission of the People cleans up the population of America, but as for what it does to the people who it picks up, I’m sure only the leaders know the truth.” He glanced over the schedule again. “He looks pretty busy for the next several days.”
“Does this mean that he’ll be out of the Commission for a while?”
“Today and tomorrow, yes,” Clark answered. “Friday morning he’s out, but he’ll be back in the afternoon.”
“He’s completely booked…” I blinked. “What about breaks? When does he eat and sleep?”
“He doesn’t,” Clark shrugged, shutting off the computer and walking back to our conference room. I followed.
“He has to at some point,” I said. “He was just exaggerating when he said that he didn’t sleep, right?”
“No, he wasn’t,” Clark shook his head. “No one has ever seen him sleep. Sean even told me once that he can’t sleep.”
“Then, he’s not human.”
“Just another piece of evidence,” Clark agreed. “He has a heartbeat, he’s warm…and he has one of the three basic human desires…”
“Sex?” I groaned.
“Yeah, that one,” Clark sighed as we walked into the conference room again. “Oh, and he does drink alcohol, and he can get drunk.”
“How do you know that?”
“There was a big party when the Altereye crew found those planets. He was pretty smashed that evening. He even had a hangover. That was the most human I’ve ever seen him.”
There wasn’t much we could discuss until after the Saturday meeting when we would know if Dana would listen to the concerns of the younger members of the Commission. I was able to catch up on my reading and homework and even finish an essay, but everything seemed so pointless with the possibility of our revolution coming to fruition. But I didn’t want my mother sending anyone to breathe down my neck and make things harder, so I focused on my homework.
I had to learn how to balance school and the revolution so that no one would suspect anything too soon—namely, Dana.
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