by Travis McBee
“Should we tell him about our past?” He questioned his wife, his own opinion already formed
“No,” she replied without looking away from the smiling baby, “There is no point in telling him, besides he wouldn’t be able to keep it a secret, you know how kids are.”
Steven agreed instantly since she had verbalized his own, unspoken, beliefs as if he had uttered them himself.
A sizzling slice of lightning illuminated the room as they watched the new pride and joy of their life sleep and soon they were all fast asleep on the ludicrously old cast iron bed the ERA had provided.
Barbara and Steven never spoke about Broglio again after Will was born. He lived an average American childhood; filled with tee-ball, peewee football, pizza parties, and trips to Disney World. He never considered the fact that he was any different from any of the other children; to him he was just the son of Barbara and Steven Haynes, and a normal boy from Earth.
Chapter One
William Haynes
Sweat poured down his back in torrents of salty water as he ran. Behind him an angry mob of dogs howled their odious cries of loathing into the air. Will didn’t bother to look over his shoulder, that would only slow him down, as he turned and pelted up a deep gully that seemed to spring from nowhere. Thorns slashed viciously into his exposed arms as he pumped them harder and harder to try and outrun his pursuers. He sucked at the damp air that reeked of decaying leaves while his heart beat a frantic symphony in his chest. The shapes around him began to become more and more vague as the sun receded behind the hill and dusk took its hold. With the failing light William failed to see the root that was almost his undoing as it seemed to leap up and attack his foot viciously.
His balance deserted him and he fell into the thick covering of foliage that blanketed the gulley floor. For the briefest of moments he contemplated giving up but an angry bay had him on his feet and running again before three heartbeats could pass. He ran on, accumulating various scratches until he came to a wall of rocks that had fallen into the ravine. He tried to climb it but the dew slicked rock provide no handhold and he slid back to the bottom. He glanced around at the walls that had guided him to this place. They were impossibly high, taller than his house and perfectly straight giving him no hope of escape. His body ached from the scratches that adorned every inch of his skin. Behind him a chorus of gentle, yet vicious, growling broke him from his reverie and he turned to face his pursuers.
“Mr. Haynes! Would you please be so kind as to NOT SLEEP IN MY CLASS!!” yelled Mr. Nicolletta with particular emphasis placed on the final five words.
Will sat bolt upright, his skin was a glistening blanket of sweat from the dream he was already forgetting. He stared around the room and found that he had become the center of attention. As if on cue the entire class erupted into laughter at his sudden return to consciousness. He smiled, envisioning how incredibly silly he must look and soon found himself laughing along with the rest. At the front of the room Mr. Nicolletta glared at him, his face alone bore no smile.
“If you think you can sleep in my class, perhaps you can answer some questions over what I’ve been discussing, Mr. Haynes,” He uttered in a softly sinister voice.
“Sure.” Will replied simply, barely stifling a yawn.
Mr. Nicolletta smiled as he gathered together what little intelligence he possessed to try to make a fool out of Will. He finally decided on a question that he himself had missed on every test that it had ever appeared on.
“Tell me,” he spoke again in that ludicrously terrible voice, “Who shot who to start World War One?”
Will replied instantly but this time the yawn could not be controlled and it entered his voice clearly, “Gavrilo Princip shot Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria who was the heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.” The simplicity of how he stated it, mixed the yawn, made it clear that he thought this was an incredibly easy question
Mr. Nicolletta was unbalanced by the hasty and accurate response. He had intended to make a fool of the boy yet instead he found himself feeling foolish. If he had been a smarter man he would have probably expected it, after all Will had never scored below an A in any of his classes during his academic career and had yet to miss a question in the joke of a World History class that Mr. Nicolletta taught. Mr. Nicolletta decided not to press his luck and try again and after the brief exchange between student and teacher he went right back to teaching as if the short question and answer session had never happened.
Will went right back to not paying attention. There was no point in him doing so; in this class he was actually smarter than the teacher. Teenagers utter that statement an extraordinarily high amount of times but only on the briefest of occasions does it ring true. In this case it was; Will was a gifted student, Mr. Nicolletta was a complete idiot. Although he wasn’t paying attention to the lesson he did manage to stay awake and was soon involved in a whispered conversation at the back of the room.
On his right sat his best friend Michael Carroll, a boy with lazy dark hair and uninteresting blue eyes. He was relatively short but powerfully built. His muscles lacked the definition to make him irresistible to the ladies, but they sat under his skin with smooth potential that helped him become the top running back in the county. He had been friends with Will since the day they met on their first day of school eight years ago.
To Will’s left sat an enchanting young lady, she had midnight dark hair that shone in the light as if it were silk, her skin was tanned to perfection, even though it was the last day of school before winter break began, and her light brown eyes twinkled as she laughed along with Will. A laugh which was so stunning that an angel would surely envy it. Whenever she allowed that wondrous sound to resonate from her lips the room would seem to brighten and few could resist smiling along with her. She was the most popular girl in school and her name was Jessica Hawk. She also happened to be Will’s girlfriend. They had been dating for over three months, which in the eighth grade was an eternity.
They had met at football practice that summer. Will was the starting quarterback for the South Valley Middle School team. He had never lost a game for the Vipers and many thought he would be the first freshman to start at quarterback for the Pleasant Valley Pythons varsity team the next year.
Will was only fourteen yet he had already achieved a height of six feet. He wasn’t nearly as heavily muscled as Michael but the muscles he did have stood out with amazing clarity under his lightly tanned skin. His blonde hair was trimmed neatly so as not to fall into his eyes, which were marvelously silver. He was considered by the girls of the school, although he remained amazingly ignorant of the fact, distinctly handsome.
Will was a boy who had it all, and he realized it. He was good looking, intelligent, and athletically blessed. The most astonishing fact about Will is not how great he was though; it was that he managed to maintain an impeccable reputation for humility. He would not bully the nerds, nor toy with the hearts of the girls who would sometimes fawn at his feet, and despite the fact that he could have easily manhandled any student at South Valley Middle he had never had so much as a heated argument with another person. He was kind, gentle, and caring. He was, quite simply, a good guy.
The bell rang its sweet lullaby of release into the air and the students scurried to their feet to escape the dull drone of Mr. Nicolletta’s voice. It was not the all liberating bell that would end their week of misery and begin their winter break. Instead it was the next best thing, lunch. Will, Mike, and Jessica laughed together as they sedately walked down the hall toward the lunch room.
“Did you see his face when you answered him?” Mike cried out in his still breaking voice, “I think he was actually asking a genuine question and didn’t know the answer himself! He nearly flipped out when you just reeled off the answer like you were commenting on the weather.”
Will laughed out loud at this as he interlocked his fingers with Jessica who was staring up at him with those amazing brown eyes.
/> “Well Will is smarter than him,” her sweet voice chimed out.
Will blushed at this and looked away from the two of them as they once again shared a melody of laughter over his bowed head.
They had made their way to the lunch room and Jessica abandoned them briefly to save a spot at the table for them. She alone brought her lunch from home (she had to eat something healthier than the “garbage” served at school). So it was only Mike and Will that made their way through the line to get food.
Mike looked at Will and saw that the temporary discomfort brought on by Jessica’s praise had receded completely. That simply would not do, an uncomfortable Will was a fun Will after all. Yet he couldn’t bring himself to praise his best friend, with whom he had shared every detail of his life since the age of five, so he chose a different tactic.
“Will man,” he began his assault, “Can you please tell Jessica to stop looking at you like you’re the Romeo to her Juliet all the time?”
He had intended to embarrass Will but he hadn’t counted on one thing, Will knew what he was trying to do.
“Well bud,” Will retaliated at once, “When you’re good you’re good.” He announced in an even keeled voice and didn’t even bother to look up from the spoon of potatoes that he was dabbing onto his tray as he said it.
The incredible arrival of Will’s arrogance stunned Mike for a second before he realized that his oldest friend was joking right back with him. He began to chuckle lightly under his breath. It did not stay under his breath for long and within second it erupted into another bought of hysterical laughter that seemed to have become an epidemic within the last hour. Will looked at him concernedly and the plague progressed. Before Will could even think of resisting he found himself laughing alongside Mike. They laughed through the meat line. They laughed getting their drinks. They laughed as they paid for their meals. They were still laughing when they sat down alongside Jessica at their table.
“Is there something wrong with you two?” She asked, all traces of sweetness absent from her voice.
The instant bitterness that had brewed and spewed forth from his beautiful girlfriend shocked Will out of his merriment instantly. Mike was not so shocked yet his laughter died out instantly as well. Jessica’s sudden turn in attitude awoke a not so subtle tension that threatened to drown the lunch period into a state of awkward silence. Mike sensed it approaching and decided to stand in the way of it.
“So the big game’s tomorrow big guy! You ready?” He voiced in the most cheerful voice he could manage.
“Of course he’s ready!” Squealed Jessica in her, once again, enchanting voice.
The biggest game thus far in Will’s career was the next day. He would lead his South Valley Vipers against their rival middle school, The Central Valley Cobras. They were rivals because they both fed into Pleasant Valley High school, but this game was even bigger because of the fact, that for the first time in history, both teams were entering the game undefeated.
If that wasn’t enough pressure for Will there was an even more personal reason for him to win. Quarterbacking the Cobra’s was Daniel Collins. He was sixteen years old and older than anyone else in the two middle schools because he wasn’t quite as bright as anyone else in the two middle schools. In fact the ball he threw around was probably a little smarter than he was, but oh man could he throw that ball around. He was huge at six feet two inches and was as heavily muscled as a carthorse. He could run like the wind and was as agile as a cat. The game would be the job interview for the starting job at Pleasant Valley high the next fall. Everyone in the town was going including Coach Johnson who was the head varsity coach.
“If he doesn’t win I’ll dump him. I can’t date a loser after all,” continued Jessica giggling
Will laughed heartily at this, glad the tension was gone, but when he reached for a sip of juice he failed to notice the malevolent glint that was in the eye of the giggling enchantress. Mike however did see it, and he instantly loathed Jessica for it. No matter how beautiful and perfect she seemed he caught a glimpse of something that made his stomach attempt to force up the food he had been piling into it. Perhaps that’s why he decided to throw a large spoon of apple sauce at her or perhaps he just wanted to have a little bit of fun, none the less apple sauce was thrown by Mike and onto Jessica.
She squealed as it hit her and waved her hands in the stereotypical, yet still hilarious, prissy little girl fan. She fanned at her face with both hands as if she could force the sauce out of her perfect hair with sheer wind power. Mike roared with laughter at once, Will just stared open mouthed at the two of them, and the entire table became deathly silent as they ceased what they were doing to watch the proceedings. Jessica continued her whimsical fanning but glared at Will.
“Do something!” she hissed
Will smiled and dipped three fingers into his mashed potatoes. He pulled them out with a fair amount of potatoes spooned in his hand.
“Sorry buddy. My girl said ‘Do something’,” he said with a grin.
He launched the potatoes into Mike’s face where they hit with a wet smack and slid off into his lap a second later. Mike stared from his lap to Will for several second before standing up and yelling those immortal words of glory, “FOOD FIGHT!!!”
Silence greeted his words and for the briefest second Mike felt like a fool, and then a large slab of macaroni and cheese hit him in the chest. The entire lunch room descended into chaos in the blink of an eye, the girly girls screamed and jumped under the tables to avoid the volleys of food that were being launched from every corner of the room. Within second Mike was heavily caked in a layer of food and Will was not much better off. Jessica had taken refuge under the table and was sheltered for a while, at least until a group of girls that despised her caught sight of her. They pelted her with peas, and threw their salads at her with stunning accuracy. Before long she was covered in pieces of lettuce that clung to her skin like leeches.
The bell rang to signal the end of lunch but the food fight continued; only when the administrators came in did the ruckus die down. Someone did happen to nail old Principal Miller square in the chest with an entire plate of macaroni and cheese before it ended however.
The entire school walked around for the rest of the day covered in the remnants of their lunches and the teachers themselves abandoned hope of teaching students so charged by both the thought of a huge upcoming game, break, and the residual energy that only a food fight can instill. So the final three periods of the day were spent mostly relaxing and talking with friends. The members of the football team were the center of attention in each class they were in and by the end of the day Will was tired of answering questions about miniscule aspects of the game. After all what did Betty Cornlock care about what coverage the Cobra’s would probably run the most? The real question was who had told her that there was such a thing as coverage’s.
When the blessed final bell granted their liberty Mike and Will met up outside the front door of the school. Mike had ridden his bike and was pulling it off the bike rack when Will spotted him.
“Hey man,” Will called to him, “You coming over to play some video games?” he asked as he drew closer
“Na dude, can’t,” Mike responded, “My baby bro is home alone so I have to go baby sit him. Besides I need to change,” he pointed at his shirt which was crusty with the souvenirs of the food fight, “Maybe some other time?”
“Yeah that’s cool,” Will replied only slightly crestfallen
Jessica had already gone, having herself checked out of school immediately following the ceasefire so that she could rush herself into an intensive bout of cleaning, manicures, and hair styling.
“One thing about Jessica,” Will had muttered to himself, “She’s defiantly high maintenance.”
Will hadn’t meant anything mean by it at all. Truth be told he believed himself to be in love with Jessica. He thought she was absolutely perfect and considered himself luckier than a leprechaun to be dating her.
So he set out for home by himself. He didn’t ride a bike since he lived down on Park Street which was only a half mile away at the most. His sneakers plodded along the ground in a careless pattern as he let his mind drift away to the team he would have to play the next day. He had went to one of their games earlier in the season when South Valley hadn’t had a game. Their team was big and fast. Central Valley was mostly the farm kids so they were toughened to thick , muscle bound, brown working machines by the age of eight. To them playing football was a walk in the park and he wouldn’t admit it to anyone, but he was nervous, as nervous as a cat in a doghouse.
He kicked a rock that was laying daringly in front of him on the cracked side walk. It skipped across the side walk and skidded sideways into the road itself. He followed it with his eyes and noticed the man for the first time.
He was a very out of place man, not because of how he was dressed, nor how he looked, there was just something wrong about him, something very wrong indeed. Pleasant Valley was a tiny town and everyone knew everyone, not metaphorically but quite literally, and every resident could identify every other resident. This was a stranger to Will; he had never seen the man in his entire life.
That wasn’t the only odd thing about The Stranger though; the man was just standing in the middle of the side walk on the opposite side of the road from Will. He wasn’t walking on it, or relaxing while leaning against something, he was just standing perfectly still.
The man was dressed in an inky black suit that looked perfectly tailored for him, without so much as an extra puff of fabric at any place. Around his neck was a blood red tie that was placed across the front of the clean white shirt and disappearing into the coat. His hair was as black as his suit and his eyes were brown, not the vivid beautiful brown of Jessica’s eyes, just a muddy boring brown. It was when Will noticed his eyes that he noticed perhaps the most important thing. The Stranger was staring right at him.