by Elin Peer
Athena stepped forward, and many of the children waved and smiled at her as if she was a dear friend. Some even bowed their heads to her.
“Good morning children,” she said in a velvety soft voice that made me look at her and wish she would use that voice with me.
“I understand that you would be confused about why we would interrupt you in the middle of your class. For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Athena, the priestess who lives in the old mill outside of town.” She had their full attention and continued. “This is Hans, who is a mediator and assigned by the Council to be the escort of Finn MacCumhail, our guest from the Northlands.”
“How are you all doing?” I asked and lifted my hand in a greeting.
There was an excitement in the room and I didn’t know if it was because we had interrupted a boring class or because they were genuinely interested in my person.
“Tristan,” Athena said. “We went to visit your mother Karina today, and she made us promise to come by your school and say hi. She said you aren’t afraid of anything and that she thought you’d enjoy meeting an Nman in person.”
Tristan lifted his chin and smiled at me.
Athena gestured for Tristan to come up and join us in front of the class. The boy was quick to get up and moved straight over to stand in front of me. He was the same height as Hans already and it surprised me, because I thought all Motlander males were small.
“How tall are you?” I asked him.
“One meter and seventy-seven centimeters.”
“Sorry, we don’t use the metric system in the Northlands. Do you know how many feet that is?”
Tristan shook his head while I measured him against my own body. “You’re about five-ten; that’s pretty good. You’ll be my height when you grow up.”
“How tall are you?” Tristan asked, looking up at me.
“Six-two, which makes me one of the smaller Nmen, but what I don’t have in height I make up for in charm and brains.” I grinned.
Athena spoke up and encouraged the children. “Maybe you have a question for Finn?”
A girl wanted to know if it was true that there were no girls in the Northlands.
“About one million people live in the Northlands, but only one hundred and ten are females. That’s why they are all very precious to us,” I said and looked to Athena. “Now do I get to ask questions too?”
“Yes, of course.” She smiled and pointed to the children. “I’m sure the children are eager to answer anything you want to know about going to school in the Motherlands.”
I already knew a lot since I’d spent time with students at the experimental school in the Northlands. Ten of them were from the Motherlands and they had answered my questions already, so I decided to have some fun with these students. “Okay,” I said and planted my feet a little apart. “I wanna ask the boys how many girlfriends they have.”
The children started giggling and no one wanted to answer, so I put Tristan on the spot. “What about you? How many girlfriends do you have?”
He shook his head and answered with a firm voice. “None. And I don’t want a girlfriend either.”
More giggles and head shakes.
“Huh. You know what, when I first saw you I thought you might be my younger brother or something, because I swear you’re my spitting image when I was your age, but now I’m certain that we’re not related.”
Tristan just stared at me.
“Any male relative of mine would have at least one girlfriend,” I stated with a grin. “We’re born seducers, you see.”
Tristan bit his lip and opened his mouth to ask a question but the principal was quicker. “Did you ever meet Pearl Pilotti?” she asked.
“Sure, Pearl married one of my good friends, Khan. He is our ruler, you might have heard about him.”
The small woman looked star-struck as she fiddled with her hands. “I’ve read all the articles and seen the interviews. They make such a handsome couple.”
“Is it true that Khan is your ruler because he’s your best warrior?” a kid asked.
“Khan is amazing, but our best warrior would be his brother Magni, who also happens to be my closest friend. We’ve known each other since we were children and just for the record, he’s not just our best warrior. Magni is the best warrior in the entire world.”
“Oh my.” The principal blinked her eyes. “He sounds dangerous.”
I shrugged. “I don’t recommend provoking him, that’s for sure.” Turning to the class, I said: “I have another question. How many of you can walk on your hands?”
Three of the children raised their hands.
“Come on,” I said. “All boys in the Northlands can walk on their hands before the age of six, and you’re telling me only three of you can do it?”
“Why would we walk on our hands?” Tristan asked with a puzzled expression on his too-pretty face.
“Why wouldn’t you?” I asked. “It’s fun and it’s a great way to build body strength. I still do it all the time, do you wanna see?”
They cheered me on when I gave them a show designed for one thing only: getting their reaction when my shirt fell down and revealed my tattoo. I was a sucker for the shock effect it had on people and this group was my best audience yet.
“Oh Mother Nature, he’s a cyborg,” one cried out and others got up from their chairs to see better.
“What?” I asked when I got up on my feet again. “You don’t have cyborgs here?”
“Not real cyborgs. We only replace limbs and eyes, not internal organs. Is that legal in the Northlands?” Tristan asked, his eyes dropping to my shirt, which was now hiding the tattoo.
Hans and Athena were clearing their throats and I knew I only had a few seconds before they would reveal the truth.
“So what about brains, Tristan? You don’t have cyborgs with computers for brains either?”
“No,” he exclaimed with his big expressive eyes focused on me. “Only implants, but even that is restricted because of what happened during the Toxic War. I wanted an implant for my birthday really badly, but my mother wouldn’t let me have one.”
It was amazing how gullible the students were, and I had too much fun messing with them to reveal that brain implants were prohibited in the Northlands – and for good reason. Back in the middle of the twenty-first century when implants were first introduced it became a must-have operation in no time. Millions of people jumped at the chance to master unlimited languages and have instant access to all information from the Internet. But once the Toxic War broke out, the hacking began and viruses were planted in people’s minds resulting in violent rampages of murder, and an explosion in tragic suicides. When it was clear what was happening, people became frantic to get rid of the implants, but only a few succeeded.
“I can’t believe you’re a real cyborg. Are there many of your kind in the Northlands?” Tristan asked with awe in his voice.
Again, Athena cleared her throat behind me and I knew my fun was over.
Placing my hand on Tristan’s shoulder, I smiled. “I’m sorry, champ, but I’m not really a cyborg. I’m just having some fun with you all.”
“But…” His eyes fell to my shirt again.
Pulling it up, I gave them all a better look. “It’s just a tattoo, see?” I smacked my abs.
Tristan reached out and poked my skin. “I thought it was the real thing,” he said with disappointment.
“I know, everybody falls for it,” I said and laughed. “But you know what is real?”
“No.”
“My special talent of juggling with five balls.”
This time Tristan narrowed his eyes in suspicion. “How do I know you’re not lying this time too?”
“Because I would never lie about something as serious as juggling.”
“Prove it,” a boy from the third row called out to me, and the kids scrambled to come up with three apples and two oranges for me to juggle with, and applauded when I took a bow after my juggling act.<
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The principal allowed the children a chance to get a photo with me, and I noticed how many of them surrounded Athena and hugged her. While goofing around and shooting funny pictures with the kids, I overheard her talk to them about their families and it surprised me how they hugged her and shared details about their lives. I’d thought of Athena as a bit stiff with all her talk of proper communication and spirituality, but seeing her smile and laugh with the children was an extension of that sunny side that I’d experienced briefly after we meditated earlier today. She was so relaxed and free that it made me wonder what else I had misjudged about her.
After the photos were taken there was time for a few more questions, and a boy asked me to tell them what it was like to grow up in the Northlands.
“Well, we live in learning facilities from the time we’re three years old until we graduate school at the age of eighteen,” I said and bit my lip at the wave of memories that was pushing from the inside.
“We call our teachers mentors and they’re very different from yours.”
“In what way?” the boy asked.
“Do your teachers punish you?” I asked and the question seemed to confuse the students.
“In the Northlands,” I said and tensed up. “Students are disciplined using physical punishments if we don’t follow the rules or learn fast enough.”
“What kind of punishments?” Tristan asked.
Memories flashed in my mind but I couldn’t tell them what I’d gone through, and it wouldn’t be a true representation of the Northlands anyway. My childhood hadn’t been typical.
“Mostly spankings,” I said. “But we had fun too and we were always surrounded by our friends.”
“Did you have your own room?”
“No, not until I was an adult and by then I had gotten used to sleeping in a dorm and having others around me. It was almost too quiet to fall asleep without someone snoring or farting in the room.”
That last comment made the children laugh and for the next ten minutes I joked with them and had them in stitches when I told them about my shenanigans as a child.
“You should have seen my mentor’s face when he realized I’d swapped his shampoo for glue.”
The kids thought it was hilarious when I made funny faces and imitated Johnson’s hands stuck to his scalp. Luckily, we ran out of time before any of them could ask me how he’d punished me. There was no need to spoil the fun by telling them that I’d spent almost two weeks in the infirmary after that incident.
CHAPTER 11
The Psychopath
Finn
When I was twelve, showering was my daily nightmare. Being one of the smallest boys at my age and not yet close to going into puberty, the other boys teased me that I was feminine because of my large expressive eyes and long lashes. I hated it; not least when they came up with the nickname Finny.
I wanted to beat them up but I wasn’t the best fighter either, and got beaten badly the few times I tried standing up for myself.
Doomed to be the underdog, I honed my two assets into a shield and learned to use my quick brain and my humor to distract their attacks.
It worked with the boys, but it didn’t work with our mentor Johnson. The man was a sadistic son of a bitch who took pleasure in hurting us.
Somehow I was unfortunate enough to make it to his list of preferred targets and that’s when the nightmare really began.
“Why are you being so quiet?” Athena’s question brought me back from my trip down memory lane and I came up with a lie on the spot.
“Ah, you know, I was just thinking about all the birthday gifts I’ve missed out on over the years.”
Athena studied me and put down the book she’d been reading. We sat on opposite ends of the sofa while Hans was outside doing something he called t’ai chi. He had invited me to do it with him but after five minutes I ran out of patience. The man moved in slow motion like a human turtle. It was so ridiculous that I gave up and went to poke at Athena to get her to work faster on lifting the curse. She told me she was reading about it and asked me to be quiet, which was when the memories got the better of me.
“When is your birthday?” she asked.
“September seventeenth,” I answered. “Which makes me thirty-four years, one month, and one day old.”
“Congratulations.” Athena smiled. “And if you were to wish something for your birthday, what would it be?”
“A cake with my name on it sounds good. And if you’re open to fulfilling wishes, I wouldn’t mind an hour with you naked in bed.” I flashed my teeth in a hopeful smile.
“A cake it is,” Athena said and stood up. “Do you like chocolate?”
“Who doesn’t?” I watched her rummage around the small kitchen. “Are you really going to bake me a cake?”
“I am.”
“I would have settled for a kiss, you know,” I joked.
“A cake was the first thing you mentioned and I’m happy to give you what was on the top of your list,” Athena said with her back to me.
“In that case, can I change it to sex at the top and cake as number two?”
“No.”
“Ahh, so if I’d said sex first and cake second, you’d still be baking me a cake?” I asked with a flirtatious grin.
“What is your obsession with sex, Finn?” Athena asked while mixing ingredients. “Is it really all you think about?”
“Pretty much,” I lied. “Don’t you?”
Athena stopped for a minute and once again I got the eerie feeling that she was looking inside my brain. “If you could choose between making love to one woman for the rest of your life versus sleeping with a new woman every night, what would you choose?”
“That’s easy,” I said. “I would choose a new woman every night. What man wouldn’t?”
Athena frowned, but she didn’t challenge me on it further, and I didn’t tell her that making love was out of my reach. A knot formed in my chest thinking about my friends at home with their wives. I was happy for them but also aware that forming the kind of bond they shared with their wives required an openness that I could never afford. The minute I let anyone see into the ugliness of my past they’d see me for the dirty, disgusting person I really was.
Hans walked in with Bast almost tripping him up because the mean cat ran between his legs. I’m sure the cat did it on purpose.
“Ouch,” Hans shouted when the cat planted a claw in his leg as a payback for his stepping on its tail.
“That’s what you get for naming your cat Beast,” I teased Athena. “A demon cat who attacks your visitors.”
“I’m not a witch and Bast is a friendly cat.”
I moved my hand to imitate a puppet speaking and it made Athena point a spatula at me. “I’m not going to turn you into a toad after you threatened to suffocate me in my sleep, but I might poison the cake and turn you into a rat or something.”
“A rat?” I wrinkled my nose. “I could still kill you if I was a rat.”
She tilted her head. “You’re going to crawl down my throat again?”
“No, but I could bite you and infect you with all sorts of disgusting rat diseases.”
“Well, I never liked rats to begin with, so I’ll have to think of another animal.”
“You do that.” I grinned and directed my attention to Hans. “Hey, Hansi, my sparkling turtle, come sit here and watch Athena make me a cake.”
“You’re making a cake?” Hans asked her.
“I’m starting to regret it, but yes, I’m making Finn a birthday cake to compensate for all the birthdays he has missed out on.”
“I love cake,” Hans said and plunked down on the sofa looking at me. “What did you mean about sparkling turtle?”
“Just that your make-up sparkles and you move like a turtle when you do that t’ai chi thing.”
“It’s supposed to be slow and fluid and it’s much harder than it looks,” Hans defended himself. “It’s really a type of martial art, you know.”
> I grinned. “You’re kidding, right? Is the tactic to bore your opponent to death?”
Hans ignored my joke and kept promoting his love for t’ai chi. “It’s an effective means of alleviating stress and anxiety. And I think it would be really good for you.”
“Why?”
“Because it promotes serenity and inner peace,” Hans claimed. “You could consider it a form of meditation in motion and since you don’t like to be still, maybe yoga or t’ai chi would be better for you.”
I shook my head with exaggeration. “What? And miss out on my bonding with Athena? No way.”
Hans opened his mouth to speak but closed it again and gave a shrug of resignation.
“Look, Athena, while you bake my cake, and Hans rests after his exhausting martial arts program,” I said and got up from the couch, “I’ll go for a run.”
Already halfway to the door, I stopped when Athena said one word in a soft tone. “No.”
“No?” I turned to face her in a slow motion. “What do you mean no?”
“I decide what you can and cannot do. And running isn’t on the program.”
“Fine. Then can I at least get something to eat?” I grumped. “I haven’t had anything today but that apple Karina offered me.”
“There’s some leftover broccoli pie from yesterday in the cooler,” Athena said in a casual manner and it only made me grumpier.
“And you’re only telling me this now? Why didn’t you offer me the pie this morning?
“Must have slipped my mind,” she said like it was no big thing.
“You should have mentioned that you had pie in your fridge,” I told her.
“I have pie in my fridge,” Athena said with a shrug. When I still gave her the stink eye, she tilted her head. “It’s a curious thing that you’re much more eager to discuss why I didn’t tell you about the pie than you are to actually eat the pie.”
“Oh, I’ll eat the damn pie,” I said and went to locate it.
“Do you want me to warm it up for you?” Athena offered, but my stomach had heard the talk about food and was craving something right now. Shaking my head, I searched for a knife and cut a large piece that I gulped down. It wasn’t bad, and another piece followed.