Inspiration Point

by M. A Casey

  “Do you think he will be satisfied with that?”

  “I don’t know Hayln, but it is all I can think of. He will have something that I know won’t hurt innocent people, and it will make him extraordinarily rich. I can’t live with myself developing the other drug.”

  I nodded, agreeing with him, “but didn’t you try this before – before I was born?” I said stumbling over the words.

  “Yes, but I wasn’t as motivated then was I. And besides this time I have you helping me.” His eyes were full of faith and confidence in me just the way they had been all my life.

  “I hope I can help Dad,” I said sounding a little deflated. My discoveries up to this point were few and far between for a genetic genius.

  “We’ll be fine, but we do have to be careful about what we do in here. I know Spencer’s scientific knowledge is limited, and I doubt Davis & Ian have any, but there is Tyler.”

  My heart sank again hearing his name. I don’t think facing him today will be much easier.

  “I suspect he will be forced to watch us and report to Spencer,” my Dad concluded.

  I heard movement upstairs, and a few moments later footsteps were coming down to the lab. Dad and I glanced to each other knowing this would be Spencer and the game was about to begin.

  “Good morning Knox, Hayln,” he nodded to each of us as he said our name.

  “I trust you both are well rested and ready for a successful day in the lab.”

  Neither of us responded but started unpacking the crates with supplies Dad had ordered. Davis and Tyler came downstairs with more crates and some test subjects, three white rabbits.

  Davis went back upstairs while Spencer spoke to Tyler.

  “You remember what we spoke about?” He questioned Tyler.

  Tyler nodded, “Very good then, I will talk to you this evening.”

  He turned to us. “I have other duties today so Tyler will be watching over your work. I will speak to him this evening to make sure the day has been productive. If not, we may have to make things a little more interesting.”

  I glared at him, and so did Dad. Tyler hung his head as if he was ashamed – he should be.

  “I’m sure it won’t come to that though,” he said as he left the room.

  I felt like throwing something at him as he left. His threats over my family were starting to wear thin with me.

  “Let’s calm down Hayl’s,” Dad said assessing my mood. “We have a lot to do.”

  Tyler sat in the corner at the window and pulled out a book to read. How can he just sit there I thought to myself? I bit my tongue and continued to help Dad, once we had sorted out the supplies he handed me an enormous folder.

  “What’s this?” I questioned.

  “That’s all my original work from before you two were born.”

  I ignored the mention of Tyler and picked up the folder – it was heavy. As I weighed it in my hands, I saw my father smile.

  “I'll get started, but before you will be able to help me, you will need to go over those notes. It will make you see things……. differently.”

  Fine with me, I thought to myself, I would be able to bury myself in work for a while which means I could block Tyler’s presence out. I opened the folder and got started.

  It was totally enthralling, partly because of the discoveries my father had made and partly because this was the work that led to my birth. I pored over the papers for what must have been hours because I was starving when I stopped reading to look up at Dad. He continued to work so I decided to keep going a while longer. When I finally got to the composition of the chemical strain I was speechless. Not only had I never seen anything remotely like it, it entirely changed everything I had been taught.

  I am not sure of an easy way to explain something so complex, except maybe to compare it to music. In any song, you know that there are numerous instruments to make the music. And what you hear when you listen, is the combination of all those instruments combining to form one song. But now after seeing how my father constructed his chemical strain, it is like you would still be able to hear the music the way you did before, but you could also hear and identify every instrument individually along with every single note they played. You now know, what each of them is doing, at any one time, and because of this you can make small changes without altering the whole.

  Like I said – it’s hard to explain, but understanding it changes the way I will look at everything in the lab now. I shook my head in disbelief because everything I’ve learned had been turned upside down. This was ground breaking.

  “You’ve read the composition of the strain, haven’t you?” Dad asked, smiling at me.

  He must have been dying to show this work to someone who would have understood and appreciated it for years. I simply nodded still astounded at his work, and, after a while I spoke.

  “There are so many more possibilities in my head now, this changes everything,” I said amazed.

  “Yes,” my father said modestly. “The day I discovered that was the second greatest discovery of my career.”

  “I don’t know what could top this,” I said as I started thumbing through the rest of the paperwork.

  “You,” Tyler said simply.

  I was immediately drawn back to reality by his voice, I had lost myself reading as I often do. I took a moment to glare at him for intruding in our conversation and then looked to my father to see if his answer was right. His face was warm and loving, and I remembered that no matter what I had learned over the past few days this was the one person in my life who I have always been able to count on.

  “Yes, the night I created the embryo, you, was easily the highlight of my career. And watching you come into this world, was one of the happiest moments in my life.”

  With all that had happened I had forgotten that my father and I hadn’t really spoken about the past since I found out. It was a shame that Tyler was here to ruin the moment.

  “It’s truly amazing Dad, and I am glad you did what you did,” I stopped to smile at him.

  What I had said was true, but what was also true was that I wished he had handled it differently. Maybe our family would have survived if he did. All that pain with my mother might never have needed to exist. He sensed what I thought from my pause and dropped his head.

  “Once we get rid of Spencer I will make the rest up to you Hayln, I promise.” He sighed loudly and then composed himself before he looked towards Tyler.

  “Tyler would you like to look over the file, since it is your story too?” My father asked.

  I was appalled at this, he was the enemy. He wasn’t always the enemy, but that was only because we hadn’t learnt the truth. Why would Dad want to encourage him?

  “Dad, I am sure Tyler is too busy getting his report ready for Spencer,” I snarled at him.

  “Hayln, Tyler’s father helped me create this, and if he would like to see it than I am more than happy to show him,” he said sternly to me. “I know you never knew him Tyler, but he was a good man at heart.”

  Tyler got off his chair to take the file. I was furious.

  “I’m taking the rabbits outside to feed them.”

  I grabbed the cages, huffed past Tyler and went to the stairs. Not wanting to be a part of this.

  “Could you ask your mother to send down some lunch, I’m starving,” Dad said. “What about you Tyler?”

  “Yes please Professor,” Tyler said sheepishly.

  I grunted as I left the lab. It was like Dad had utterly forgotten Tyler’s betrayal.

  I went out to the backyard and put the cages on the grass and then returned to the kitchen. A smell of baking wafted towards me that reminded me of my childhood. Mum had just freshly baked a batch of muffins and had nearly finished a tray of sandwiches. I went to the bench and grabbed a muffin, it was still warm. In the lounge, I could see Ian and Davis devouring their fair share of the baked goods as well.

  I moved closer to mum. “What’s going on in there?”


  “I haven’t learnt much, except that they only started working with Spencer in the last month or so. And Ian loves blueberry muffins.”

  I chuckled to myself at this bizarre situation.

  “Dad mentioned he and Tyler were hungry when I left.”

  I watched Mum’s eyebrows rise at the mention of Tyler’s name, but she didn’t comment. I grabbed a plate and took some sandwiches.

  “I'm just taking some food upstairs to the boy’s, and then I'll go to see your father,” she said.

  “What are they up to up there anyway?” I questioned quietly.

  “No idea, they have been there all morning though. Davis seemed suspicious. He has been up there a couple of times this morning but couldn’t find anything. I just hope they aren’t doing anything crazy.”

  “Well I’ll be in the backyard, I’ve had enough of the lab at the moment.”

  She smiled at me, seeming to sense Tyler’s presence was affecting me. “All right darling, I'll check on you later.”

  There was a refreshing breeze outside so it was a pleasant place to sit to have my lunch and play with the rabbits. One had a black patch on his ear, and he seemed to pay more attention to me than the others. He was eyeing off my food so I pulled off a little and held it above his head. He sniffed around but couldn’t reach it. I tried to get him to sit on his back legs so that he could reach the food, this wasn’t very successful.

  “It’s not a dog Hayln,” Emin said as he came to sit next to me.

  “That doesn’t mean that I can’t train him,” I said confidently.

  “A bit pointless isn’t it considering it’s a test subject.” He said as he sat on the grass beside me. He seemed pretty pleased with himself.

  “That doesn’t mean he is going to die, besides he’s cute and it’s better than being in the lab with Tyler.”

  “True,” Emin agreed.

  “What are you doing out here anyway I thought you and Zeke were up to something in your room.”

  He looked back to the house to check who was around before he spoke.

  “He is just finishing it off actually. That’s why I came down, I want you to do something, I’ve asked the same of Mum, and she will let Dad know.”

  “I’m listening,” I said suddenly wondering where all this intensity was coming from.

  “Just go to bed early tonight, when it’s time I will come and wake you.”

  “But they will be watching us. What’s your plan?” I said sounding confused.

  He smiled confidently.

  “That’s why I need everyone to go to sleep early. We are going to record us all in our beds, and when we have the right amount of footage we will loop it back into their system. That way we can all talk in my room and decide what to do from here.”

  “But what about…”

  “Look, don’t worry about it now, just keep doing what you are doing and if it doesn’t work we won’t wake you. Just go to bed early just in case, okay.”

  I nodded but was a little worried about what Davis would do to them if he found out what they were up to. He appeared at the doorway then waving me inside. I put the rabbits back into their cages but left them on the grass as I went over to Davis.

  “Your break is over freak, back to the lab,” he said smugly.

  Emin walked back inside glaring at Davis as he went past and I went down to the lab. I passed Mum on the stairs having finished having lunch with Dad and Tyler. She smiled knowingly at me, giving me a sign that she knew about tonight. I wondered how she had a chance to speak to Dad with Tyler in the room but when I got to the bottom of the stairs he wasn’t there.

  “Where’s Tyler?”

  “He was a little overwhelmed after looking through the file and decided to take a break. I expect he will return soon.”

  "Poor baby,” I said sarcastically.

  “Hayln, I know you have had more to deal with than any of us can even imagine, but Tyler is struggling with this too. He could use a friend,” he said putting his hand up to let me know he hadn’t finished. “From what I know of Spencer, I honestly believe that he didn’t have a choice about what he had to do.”

  I heard footsteps coming downstairs which I assumed would be Tyler, so rather than continue this frustrating conversation I took the rest of the file to finish reading. Tyler entered the room and went back to his seat at the window. I watched him and tried to assess my feelings more objectively, but my strongest feeling was still betrayal from the only friend I have ever had.

  Dad kept working away while I finished reading. By the time I was done, my head was spinning with ideas. Both for my own work and how we would split the chemical strain. And because we couldn’t talk about that with Tyler in the room I decided to wait and hope Emin and Zeke would provide us with that opportunity tonight.

  It was quiet in the lab until early in the evening when Dad called it a day after he smelt dinner wafting into the lab. He was halfway up the stairs when Tyler stood in front of me blocking the exit.

  “I am not in the mood for this Tyler,” I spat out at him.

  “I know Hayln, but I have to try. No matter what you are feeling at the moment, I need you to understand I wasn’t pretending, not once, not even on the first day I met you. I feel sick about what I have done, but I beg you to please believe me when I say my feelings are real.”

  I just shook my head I had nothing to say to him.

  “If you are honest with yourself Hayl’s you’ll know that I am telling you the truth. You know our friendship is real, and you knew my feelings for you were real when we kissed.”

  I held my hands over my face not wanting to have this conversation and decided the best thing to do was to leave this room. When I moved my hands away, he was right in front of me and quickly pulled me to his lips. He tried to kiss me gently as he did in his room, but he could feel me pulling away, so his arms gripped me again not letting me move an inch. I could feel his passion and desire to have me believe in him, but I wanted nothing to do with it. I lifted my leg and thrust it down on his foot until he let me go. I then slapped him across the face angrily and looked into his eyes. He was in pain, not physically of course, although I am sure I had just hurt him, but from the look on my face which said more than my words could have. I took a breath to rethink what I was going to say to him, as much as I was hurt by his actions I could see he had reached his limit to.

  “What does it matter Tyler? Our friendship is real, but so is this situation we are in. And even if we figure a way out of this I'm not sure I can trust you ever again.”

  He dropped his head, he seemed to be accepting this as the truth.

  “I’ll find a way to fix that Hayln, I promise, just give me time.”

  I looked into his deep brown eyes once more, not knowing how or if our relationship could ever be repaired and then walked around him to leave the lab. There wasn’t anything else I could say to him, so for now, it was best I left. I was on my way to the kitchen when I found Davis standing in the doorway smiling like a Cheshire cat. He stood in my path, and I looked up to his face, he was so smug.

  “What?” I questioned him.

  “You just provided me the highlight of my day?” Could this guy be any more painful I think to myself? I didn’t say anything, I just kept watching him, acting like an idiot.

  “You see, while you and the other freak where having a moment downstairs guess who was watching my monitor over my shoulder.”

  I still didn’t speak, and held my breath as I knew who it would have been – Zeke.

  “Your boyfriend certainly didn’t like it, especially when I told him that he was probably better off without you and that you freaks belonged together.”

  Now I was angry again. “Surely Spencer doesn’t pay you to watch over my love life! Don’t you have anything better to do?”

  “Of course I do, but nothing that is this satisfying.”

  I stalked back past him deciding it might be best to go to my bedroom for a while to gather my thoughts be
fore seeing Zeke. Davis yelled after me as I left.

  “You know, I didn’t think you had it in you freak.”

  I kept moving, and as I reached the top of the stairs I heard Ian calling after him telling him to leave me alone. I went into my room and threw myself on the bed, completely frustrated. The frustration turned to sadness, and before I knew it, I found myself crying.

  Sometime after, when I had just about ran out of tears Mum came into the room and sat beside me. She twirled a piece of hair away from my eyes and wiped my tears away.

  “Emin has talked to Zeke about what happened downstairs – he understands Hayln,” she said softly.

  “It’s not just that Mum, it’s this whole damn mess, every day gets worse,” I said looking at her face. She looked like my Mum again, just like I remembered.

  “We will get through it together Hayln. There are no more secrets, the rest we will work through,” she said still playing with my hair. I nodded, knowing my crying wasn’t going to help anyone and sat up to pull myself together. “Now let’s have some dinner, Hayln.”

  I stood and followed her down to the kitchen. I caught a glimpse of myself in a mirror on the way down. I looked terrible, my eyes were red and blotchy, and my hair was everywhere. I quickly pulled my hair back trying to make some attempt to improve my appearance before I saw the boys.

  They’d already started eating but looked up when we entered the room. I sat down trying not to make eye contact with any of them. Ian came in then to collect their meals.

  “Tell Davis you will both be organizing your own meals if he ever calls my daughter that name again,” Mum said sternly.

  “I’ll make sure he understands,” he said, and he went into the other room.

  We ate quietly, and I avoided looking at anyone except when I had to, like when Zeke asked me to pass him the pepper. When I looked at him, I saw concern and love in his emerald eyes. I smiled softly to let him know I was alright and continued eating. Zeke and Emin excused themselves and went back up to Emin’s room. The rest of us cleared the table washed up.

  “Tyler went home then?” I asked Dad as we finished up.