The Weight of the World

by Amy Leigh Strickland

  “How did you do that?” Teddy asked.

  “I can clean things just by touching them... come on guys... I sent you an email like, a week ago.”

  They all just stared at her.

  “Did any of you read my email?”

  There were mumbles around her. “I've been busy with work.” “I'm applying for college.” “Musta gotten lost in the SPAM.”

  “You guys always ignore me,” Valerie scowled.

  “Woah!” Nick shouted, “Valerie. When did you get here?”

  Teddy snickered. Valerie kneed Nick in the balls. Teddy laughed hysterically as Nick rolled on the floor.

  Frank and Penny returned from their trip to the woods. The laughter stopped as everyone, except Nick, turned to look at them expectantly.

  “The body is gone,” Frank said, “Let's double check for other evidence before we go.”

  When all of the work was done, everyone went home and Teddy called the police to report a panther attack. They were a little too far north for a panther, but there was just no other way to explain to his father what had happened to the house.

  Frank went home and showered. Muddy water spiraled down the drain. He closed his eyes as the hot water pounded on his body. The wounds of the battle were gone, but the adrenaline still coursed through his body. He had killed a man. Now he knew how Zach felt.

  Frank was eager to be with Devon. He pulled himself out of his reverie and got dressed. Frank's motorcycle pulled up outside the hospital three hours after the end of the fight.

  “Thank God you got my message,” Celene said when he came in. This cover story had been planned in a hurry when Celene had left Frank to take care of Atlas' remains. “There was a box in the closet... it fell. She's alright.”

  “The baby?” Frank asked.

  “It's fine, too.”

  There was a delay, as if Frank had frozen, and then he breathed relief. His eyes sparkled with tears. He nodded. “Good. That's good.”

  Celene nodded, “You should go see her.”

  Lewis was propped up in bed the next morning, flipping through the channels on the hospital TV. The news was covering the panther attack at Teddy's house, and the reporter on the scene at the edge of the property suggested that a rabid panther was loose in Olympia Heights.

  Zach knocked on the doorframe. “Knock, knock,” he said.

  “Who’s there?” Lewis asked.

  Zach hesitated, “Am I allowed in?”

  Lewis looked up at Zach, brow furrowed. “I don't get it.”

  “What?”

  “That's a pretty lame joke.”

  “Wasn't a joke. I'll go if you don't want to see me,” he said. Zach had a gorgeous purple and black bruise and his cheek looked like he was trying to hide a golf ball under the skin.

  “What happened to your face?”

  “You did. Do you-- you don't remember the fight?”

  “We fought? I thought I was struck by light-- oh... oh, I see.” Lewis turned off the TV. “The doctors say I'm going to have memory gaps. Neurological damage from the strike. I'm lucky I'm not dead or disabled. And I've got this cool thing on my arm for a few days.” Lewis pulled up the sleeve on his hospital gown. A branching pink pattern marked his skin, a perfect map of his blood vessels. It looked like a lightning bolt had printed itself on his skin. “They call it a Lichtenberg figure.”

  “I'm sorry, man,” Zach said. “Really. I was being an idiot.”

  “What did we fight about?”

  “June,” Zach said.

  Lewis burst into a fit of laughter. “June? Why would I fight you over June?”

  “Because she came onto you, and I assumed you had some part in it. Listen, can we forget it?”

  “Clearly, I already have,” Lewis said. He grinned from ear to ear. “We're not dead and I got to ugly up your face a bit, so I guess we're even.”

  Zach nodded. He sat down in the chair beside Lewis' bed. “Your parents around?”

  “They went to shower and eat breakfast. They want to keep me over the weekend.” Lewis turned the TV back on. “Did you see this? Teddy's house got attacked by a panther.”

  Zach looked up at the TV. “A panther? Don’t they live in the Everglades?”

  “Dunno.”

  “I got a text from June last night...” Zach pulled out his phone. “I ignored it, though. You know, because I was mad.”

  “Maybe you should check it.”

  Zach clicked a few buttons. “Cryptic.”

  “What's it say?”

  “'Are you home? I have to tell you about the panther and the spoon. June.'”

  “Weeiiird.”

  Zach sent a text back, “I told her I'm visiting you at the hospital.”

  His phone buzzed.

  “That was fast,” Lewis said.

  “She says she's here with Devon. What happened to Devon?”

  Zach sent back another message with Lewis' room number. Half a minute later they heard June's quick high-healed click approaching down the hall. “I'm going to go talk to her outside. I'll come back and fill you in,” Zach said, standing up.

  “Wait,” Lewis said, reaching out to grab Zach's arm.

  “Hmm?”

  “Don't come back without a cheeseburger, okay? Hospital food sucks.”

  Zach smiled. “Alright. See you in a bit.”

  Zach met June in the hallways, his hands buried deep in his pockets. She gasped at the sight of his face and ran the rest of the way to him.

  “Is that what Lewis did to you?”

  “Yeah,” Zach shrugged, “I fried his memory a bit, so we're even.”

  “Is he gonna be okay?”

  “His memory is just a bit flakey on the last few days. What's this message about a panther? What happened to Devon?”

  June took Zach's hand. She looked over her shoulder before pulling him into a dark, empty hospital room. She stood close to him in the dark, keeping her voice low as she explained what happened with Adam and the lion. She finished up with how Frank and Penny hid the body and how, on-the-record, only Teddy was at the house.

  “Man, wish I could have been there to fight,” Zach said. “I could have fried the guy.”

  “There have been enough suspicious lightning strikes in this town for the next ten years, Zach.”

  “Everyone is safe?”

  June nodded. “Astin's at home in bed recovering. Frank doesn't have a scratch on him. Devon and the baby are fine.”

  “And you're alright?”

  “A bit squicked from watching Valerie magic Frank's blood off the floor, but I'll survive. And you missed Dr. Livingstone telling Nick to keep it in his pants.”

  He laughed, “Did he, now?”

  “It was a chewing-out of epic proportions. I don't think one person left that room feeling innocent. We're all going to have to think about being more responsible.”

  Zach stood quietly, looking down at her. He started counting his pulse as it twinged through his swollen face. After ten steady beats had passed, Zach spoke again, “I'm sorry... for how I treated you all of these years.”

  “I'm sorry, Zach,” she said, “About playing you and Lewis off of each other like that... and for... for being... well...” June trailed off, unable to articulate anything she needed to say without showing weakness.

  Zach got what she was trying to say, “It's still no excuse for what I did to you.”

  “No, you're right. It's not.”

  He nodded. “You know, I had my fun. I thought it was going to be a blast, being the single stud. Truth was, I got bored, and then I just missed you.”

  June closed her eyes and looked down at the floor. Zach nodded. “Well, I've got to go get Lewis a cheeseburger, and then my Mom needs her car,” he said. “See you around.”

  June took Zach's hand before he could turn to leave. She stretched up on her toes and pressed a gentle kiss to his lips. Zach stopped for a moment, staring down at
her, before making up his mind, wrapping his arms around her, and pulling her close for a much more passionate kiss. June dissolved against him. Zach's face ached from the pressure, but he didn't care. He had her back. Pain was temporary.

  “How about you meet me at your house,” June said when the kiss was finally broken. “We'll take my car and go get Lewis that cheeseburger together.”

  Zach grinned. “Sounds great.”

  “There are many statues of men slaying lions, but if only the lions were sculptors there might be quite a different set of statues.”

  -Aesop

  xxv.

  The sons of Iapetos faced each other.

  Atlas and Menoetius joined with the Titans.

  Prometheus and Epimetheus stood

  by Mount Olympus.

  The two generations locked in ten-year war.

  Then Zeus unbarred the prisons of Tartarus.

  The three Hundred-Handers and three cyclopes

  were released to fight.

  Prometheus and Epimetheus fell

  back to let their monster allies lead the fight.

  Menoetius and Atlas were soon overwhelmed.

  So the Titans fell.

  “When at a loss how to go on, cough.”

  -Greek Proverb

  XXV.

  The lobby doors stood open at Olympia Height's Senior High for the first time since final exams. School buses idled outside, unloading swarms of new freshmen and sophomores without parking permits. The parking lot itself was full of return students who had new clothes, new shoes, and new stories to share. The lot fell quiet, however, when Zach pulled up with June in his new birthday present.

  Zach's wealthy father was absent most of his life, so when he remembered that he had a son, the presents were pricy. The Thunderbird had been insured and this new car came with a huge environmental tax credit, but what Zach's father had spent on the car still could have bought a small house in Florida. Zach and June were riding in style in a new, “Lightning Green” Tesla Roadster.

  “Oh man, you weren't kidding. This thing is hotter than those pics you put on Facebook!” Lewis shouted, running over to Zach as he opened the driver's side door.

  “The old man hasn't made it to a single one of my football games. I can't feel too bad about how much he paid for it, right?” Zach locked the doors twice to hear the keyless entry beep.

  “It's gorgeous,” Lewis said, staring at the car.

  “I'll take you for a ride in it after school,” Zach said.

  Zach, Lewis, and June walked in to school. “Senior year,” Zach said.

  “For you,” Lewis grumbled.

  “For me,” Zach grinned.

  Lewis spotted Diana at the water fountain. Astin was next to her, but she shot him a dangerous look and he turned to high-tail it to homeroom. “Hey, I'm gonna go see Diana. See you guys later,” he said before dashing off to try and cheer Diana up.

  “I'm going to drop in on Doc before homeroom,” Zach said, pulling June close for a goodbye kiss. She let him do it, though she was still sure to stop him before it got inappropriate.

  “Tell him I said hi,” June said.

  Valerie was down the hall posting a notice on the student involvement board. Devon kissed Frank goodbye at the door and headed over, curious to see what she was doing.

  “Didn't Nick destroy the abstinence club?” she asked, looking at the meeting notice in Valerie's hand. Devon was just barely in her regular clothes, now. She could only wear pants that stretched and her fitted t-shirt displayed a slightly convex stomach.

  “He tried to. I sent out an email last night. I let everyone know exactly what Nick was up to and let everyone know that no matter what mistakes they made, they can come back and renew their promise. We're recruiting freshmen immediately, before Nick gets much of a chance.”

  “I'm not sure Dr. Livingstone's rant did much to sway him,” Devon said.

  “It did something. How much is yet to be tested,” Valerie said.

  “Well, even he's smart enough to know that he doesn't want to be a teen dad. So maybe it helped. Look where my impulses got me; I'm wearing stretch waistbands and getting diaper coupons in the mail from Target. But you know Nick, that kick in the balls probably did more than a thousand speeches could do.”

  “You know, it's not too late for you to join, too,” Valerie said.

  “Abstinence club? Me?” Devon laughed. “Keep dreaming, Hess. Keep dreaming.”

  Zach nearly walked into Peter as he entered Dr. Livingstone's office. It was this near-collision that made Zach notice just how tall Peter had gotten in the past year. “Woah, when did you grow?”

  Jason heard voices at the door to the hall. He didn't look up from his newspaper, “It's too early to be going home sick,” he called.

  “Fine then,” Zach said with a smile, “I won't ever come and visit you again.”

  “Oh hey, Zach. That black-eye's almost gone. Peter?”

  “I just... I had something I wanted to talk to you about. I can wait until Zach's done.”

  “Something Pantheon related?” Zach asked.

  Peter shook his head and looked down at his tennis shoes.

  “Oh, well, I just wanted to say hey, see how everything was going,” Zach said.

  Jason nodded. “Good. It's good. Luckily the kids were out of town and I was on my way to pick them up during the panther attack, you know. So life's been nice and boring. Or as boring as it can be with toddlers,” Jason added.

  “Cool... well... I'll let Peter talk to you about his thing. See you later.”

  “See you later, Mr. Jacobs.”

  Zach walked back towards the door, glancing over at Peter curiously. Whatever he wanted to talk to Jason about, Zach was sure that it was serious.

  “Oh hey, Zach!” Jason called. “This might interest you. They got the approval for the school trip this year.”

  “Yeah?” Zach asked. “Where to?”

  “Greece,” Jason said with a smile. “Feel like visiting the motherland?”

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