by Aaron Slade
“Down here, Evee,” Sara called down a stretch of hallway.
I walked down the hall into a wing labeled Portraits. Every inch of the walls was covered in paintings and portraits of all sizes– some small, some bigger than me, which didn’t take much. As I entered the room, Amanda hung a giant canvas on the wall. Sara sat with crossed legs on the floor with several containers of paint orderly spaced in front of her.
“I’m so glad you’re here,” Amada said. She dashed to my side with blurring speed. “Casper will meet us later, but Sara and I need your help this morning.”
“What can I do for you?” I was glad to help. Mostly I just wanted to forget about Dad and Zana.
“Do you think she’ll fit?” Amanda asked Sara.
Sara stared me up and down as if she was calculating something in her head. “I think she’ll do.”
“What am I helping with?”
Sara and Amanda both smiled. I could tell that they were excited to share this place with me. All of Sara’s OCD tendencies were evident in the spacing and perfection of each artifact and exhibit. The style of the museum was original and tasteful like the decor of Amanda’s house. I’d never seen a place like this. History before the Blight was a mystery to me.
“This is the museum,” Amanda exclaimed. “It’s not much, and we don’t get many visitors, but I love this place.”
I panned around the room at all the marvelous portraits and photographs. “I can see why.”
“Sara’s extra-human intelligence really helps me here,” Amanda said. “She works weekends and after school occasionally. She’s currently restoring an antique painting for me.”
The weathered portrait of a man rested on a tripod in Sara’s working area. The frame looked ancient and parts of the painting were missing. The eyes of the man in the portrait were gone– ripped away and forgotten in history.
“This portrait is of an old leader of this land,” Amanda said. “His name was Thomas Jefferson. My husband did several years of research on this man. He was a president, but that’s before the Military came into power. The Military recently sent us this portrait from one of the East-Coast Territories.”
“It will take me a while to finish restoring it,” Sara said. “The level of detail the portrait requires will take my full concentration. I’d much rather work on the gown today.”
“Me too,” Amanda said. “Are you ready, Evee?”
Before I had time to answer, Amanda sped away.
“Follow me,” Sara said. “Amanda is really excited to finish this project. We occasionally find examples of fashion from before the Blight. The clothes the Military excavates usually need to be repaired before we can put them on display.”
“What kind of clothes?” I asked.
“Really extravagant clothes,” she replied. “Fashion had deep connections to culture before the Blight. Our Military-brand clothes can’t compare with the collection Amanda has put together.”
I followed Sara through several rooms. There was a wing of old technology with computers ranging in size from giant and box-sized to small and compact. Another room had a timeline stretching along a wall illustrated by pictures of forgotten people. Finally, she stopped at a pair of double doors in the far back of the building. The sign above the doors read FASHION.
“This is Amanda’s favorite room,” Sara said. She opened the doors.
Spot lights hung on the ceiling, making the room incredibly bright. Mirrors covered all four walls entirely. A few dozen mannequins posed and wore glamorous clothing from another time. The scene reflected in the mirrors created an illusion of hundreds of people gathered for some sort of special occasion. The dresses were trendy: beaded and sequined with sparkly stones. Some dresses even had colorful feathers. No two were cut the same. Some looked formal while others seemed more like costumes. I felt underdressed next to the mannequin, wearing the usual jeans and plain shirt.
“This is lovely,” I said. “Tell me about them.”
Sara walked over to a random male mannequin. “This is called a tuxedo. Men used to wear these to formal occasions. We’re currently restoring a new tux the Military sent us. The ensemble has several parts: Jacket, pants, vest, and tie.”
“What about those over there?” I pointed to a group of dresses in the corner. The female manikins looked beautiful in the different colored fabrics.
“Those are referred to as cocktail dresses,” Amanda said, speeding away next to the dresses. She zoomed to each dress, mocking the pose of the mannequin or swaying the long, lavish skirts.
I found it humorous how hard it could be to keep up with Amanda.
“We wanted you to help us with this dress back here,” Amanda said. “We need you to wear it while we make all the repairs.”
I followed them to a small work station in the back. A privacy partition separated the work area from the rest of the room. A lovely lavender dress hung on a rack.
“What kind of dress is it?”
“Women wore dresses like this on formal and fancy occasions,” Amanda said. “We need all the repairs done so that the dress looks authentic.”
Before I knew it, Amanda and Sara had the dress on me. The shiny fabric felt silky against my skin. They instructed me to stand still on a stool as they circled me like sharks and documented where the dress needed repairs. The dress only had a few minor rips and areas of frayed fabric, but they gave it their full attention.
“So all I have to do is stand here?” I asked.
“That’s it,” Amanda said. “We needed someone really small to fit the dress.” Amanda grabbed several needles and placed them around the skirt that rested at my knee.
After an hour, there were more pins in the dress than I could count. Sara had to tell me to quit moving several times. I tried my hardest to be still and not prick myself with the needles.
“Can I ask you a question, Evee?” Amanda asked.
I could tell by her tone it was serious. “Certainly.” I was excited about the conversation. Amanda had zipped around the dress for a while, only talking to give Sara instructions.
Amanda walked (for a change) around the dress a few more times, but finally stopped in front of me. “What happened to your mother?”
I knew this subject would come up sooner or later. “My mom died giving birth to me.”
“Oh… I’m so sorry,” Amanda said.
Sara and I made eye contact in the mirror and she gave a sympathetic smile.
“I’m sure she was a wonderful woman to birth such a gorgeous daughter.”
“I wouldn’t know,” I said. “I have some pictures of her, but my dad doesn’t talk about her. Her death was really hard on him.”
“I’d be lost without my family,” Amanda said. “I’ve lost both my parents, and it’s hard to say goodbye to the ones we love. Your father must have loved your mother very much if he’s still hurting from her loss.”
“He stays busy with work to distract himself,” I said.
Amanda cleared her throat. I watched her in the mirror stand behind me and pull my hair behind my shoulders. “Well, if you ever need someone like a mother to talk to about… girl things… I’d be happy to help anyway I can.”
I smiled. “Thanks.” It was easy to picture Amanda as a mother figure. Since Shannon had predicted that Casper’s family would become like my own, I had already set my hopes on having Amanda as a close friend.
“I also wanted to talk to you about Casper,” Amanda said. She kept her attention on the dress, sewing something behind me that I couldn’t see.
I could talk about Casper all day. “Sure.”
I could see in her eyes that the conversation was serious.
“Casper is… special, Evee,” she said.
I nodded. “I knew it the first time I saw him.” I remembered Shannon had told me the same thing.
“I don’t tell many people this, Evee, but when I was pregnant with Casper… I knew he was different.” She quit sewing, and found her reflection in the
mirror. “I used to dream at night what he would be like. I knew early on that I was going to have a son– women’s intuition you know? James wanted a son more than anything. I never tried to guess what Casper’s extra-human trait might be once he was born. It never occurred to me that he might be human. The issue is really sensitive for Casper.”
“He’s talks to me about it a little,” I said. “I know people at school give him a hard time.”
“It’s more than a hard time,” Amanda interrupted. “What Casper faces is nothing short of dehumanizing slander and prejudice… but it wasn’t always like this. After the doctors told us Casper would never have an ability, everything changed. People had loved Casper when they thought there was a chance his ability would develop. All that bigotry you’ve witnessed happened over night. I don’t want to scare you, but you need to know that dating my son isn’t going to be easy.” Amanda’s usual, perky face vanished.
“I’m not going to give up,” I said. “This might sound weird, but I feel a connection with Casper.”
Amanda concentrated on the dress, and talked in a low voice. “I don’t want something to happen to you because you date my son.”
It took me a few seconds to process. “Is someone going to hurt me?”
“I don’t know,” Amanda said. “But they hurt Casper all the time. He tries to hide it from James and me, but… we know.”
“There’s a lot you still don’t know about Casper,” Sara said. “You’ve seen him suffer through being bullied at school and still somehow force a smile. But there was a time when Casper almost gave up.”
Amanda nodded. “When Casper was ten, there was an accident at school. A student used his ability to hurt him, knowing that he couldn’t fight back. The student shocked Casper with high volts of electricity.”
“What happened?” I asked. “Was he alright?”
“We homeschooled Casper for a year after that. He refused to leave the house. He didn’t feel safe outside. He had nightmares in his sleep, asthma attacks that occurred whenever he got scared, and then… there was the year he quit talking.”
Sara winced and bit her bottom lip.
“He quit talking?” I asked.
“When he turned fourteen, he became so depressed that he didn’t talk to anyone but Adam. It’s a horrible feeling when your son won’t talk to you.” Amanda’s eyes watered. “I had Jesse read Casper’s mind constantly because I was so desperate to know what he was thinking. You can’t imagine the things Jesse told me.”
“What?”
She attempted to swallow her emotion. “Casper truly thought that it was only a matter of time before his family would quit loving him. And he blamed himself for everything. He thought James and I would have been better off if he’d never been born.” Amanda’s hand trembled while pushing pins through the delicate fabric.
Sara worked with her needles along the trim of the dress. Amanda focused on the bodice, repairing a small rip.
“Casper went back to school when James was made principal,” Amanda added. “James has been able to protect Casper. In the last few years, Casper has lived as close to a normal life as we’ve been able to offer him.”
“If you had known Casper four years ago, you wouldn’t even recognize him now,” Sara said, holding needles between her lips. “Despite everything, he’s been able to turn a few things around.”
I realized that I still had so much to learn about Casper. Knowing my future made me want to rush through all the proper channels of a relationship. Casper and I hadn’t even been on an actual date yet. I’d spent too much time waiting for the future to happen, but Casper and I had to make it happen together. He deserved a real relationship as opposed to me rushing through to the good stuff. Emotions would run deeper if they had the time to manifest.
“Can I ask a question?” I asked.
Amanda nodded. She stood level with my eyes, but even standing on a stool, I was shorter than Amanda.
“Is there a place in Fallon to go on a date… a nice date?” I asked. I had a purpose that came with my future. I was more aware of it every day that I spent with Casper. I could make him smile. He needed me, and I wanted him.
Sara and Amanda looked at each other, but before they could answer, someone else in the room spoke.
“I have a place in mind,” Casper said, peeking around the privacy partition. He smiled when he saw me in the dress. He wore a white collared shirt that made his olive skin look dark in the bright room, and the front of his hair stuck up like he’d been hit by gale force winds. “Why don’t we go to Carson Lake? It’s half an hour outside of Fallon, but there’s a restaurant there and you can eat on a deck that overlooks the lake.”
Amanda finished with her needle, cutting off some excess string with her scissors. “This is the part where you say yes,” she urged.
A feeling of relief and gratitude spread over me. “I would love to go out with you.” My heart skipped a beat when I imagined an evening alone with Casper and away from Fallon.
“And you have the perfect dress to wear,” Sara said. “We’re done with this one, and it could use a night out to bring some life back into it.”
The dress was gorgeous. It was strapless and fit around my chest in a sweetheart neckline. The color was an elegant shade of lavender. The fabric fit snugly around my chest, but the skirt ruffled out, stopping at my knee.
“I can’t wear this,” I said. “It’s too nice. I might spill something on it.”
“You’re not going to find anything better to wear,” Amanda said. “The Military brand dresses aren’t this nice. And a first date should be memorable. Casper can wear one of the tuxedos.
“Great,” Casper said sarcastically. He scrutinized the manikin next to him wearing a tuxedo.
“You’ll look handsome,” I said.
Casper looked at Amanda and Sara. “Could I have a few minutes alone with Evee?”
Casper waited for Amanda and Sara to leave before he spoke. Amanda sped out of the room at blinding speeds. Sara gushed a little as she walked by me, closing the door once she’d left the room.
“I hope you had a good day,” Casper said.
“It was wonderful. You’re really lucky to have such great family and friends.”
He walked over to a mannequin wearing a tuxedo. “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been on that stool. I wore several of these tuxedos, suits, and shirts for Mom and Sara to fix.” He cringed. “I hope it’s not weird that I’ve played dress up with my mom.”
“It’s not weird.” I laughed, realizing that Casper’s mom was one of his closest friends. He had so few friends, he needed to be close with his parents.
Casper walked to my side. We stared at ourselves in the mirror. I was almost as tall as he was, standing on the stool. He extended his hand for me to take and helped me step down.
“Follow me,” he said.
We walked through several corridors and various rooms. The museum was a labyrinth. I could get lost easily, but Casper walked down every hall and turned every corner deliberately as if he had a destination in mind.
“Where are you taking me?” I asked.
“Since my mom and Sara showed you their favorite room in the museum, I thought I would show you mine.”
He stopped outside a door. The sign above the door read CINEMA.
“Of course,” I said. “I should have known.”
He led me into the room. It was smaller than the fashion room. A few dozen chairs were set up in front of a large viewing screen. An old machine projected an image of a gorgeous sunset on the ocean. I didn’t know the movie playing, but I was sure Casper did.
“You look so… nice in that dress, I figured you deserved to walk down the red carpet.”
I looked down at my feet and noticed the carpet was red. “I don’t understand. What does red carpet have to do with anything?”
His laugh revealed an eager smile. “It was an old tradition for actors and actresses when they finished a movie. There was a
big party where they would show the movie for the first time, and the stars– that’s what they called the actors and actresses– walked down the red carpet.”
The couple in the movie was now holding hands and kissing. The music in the film made me feel giddy like the moment I had first seen Casper in Shannon’s vision. Casper had obviously planned this with perfect timing.
The two of us sat down to watch the movie. I took Casper’s hand and leaned my head on his broad shoulder. After a few moments, he readjusted, placing his arm around me. I cuddled next to him, leaning into his warm body.
“So why are you so fascinated with movies?” I asked.
He paused for a few seconds like he wasn’t sure of the answer. “Nobody has ever asked me before,” he replied. “Movies were always something I could do to escape.”
“Escape from what?” I asked.
“From reality,” he said. “In movies, I found characters that became my heroes. I could leave my life and be a part of theirs. I didn’t need an extra-human trait when I put myself in movies. Plus, movies were usually about ordinary people. They had to face their challenges without extra-human abilities.”
“I want to watch more of these movies with you,” I confessed.
“I literally have hundreds that I want you to watch, but first you have to go on a date with me.”
“Carson Lake?”
He nodded, tightening his grip around my waist.
“How about this Saturday?” I asked.
“Agreed.” The charming grin that had captivated me so easily drowned out the image and sound of the movie playing in the background. “Do I have to wear the tuxedo?”
I giggled, ignoring the urge to kiss him. “If I have to wear this, then you have to wear the tux.”
TARGET
Casper:
The back of my neck felt scalded by fire. Friday afternoons were usually relaxed at Fallon High, which gave Randy more time to concentrate on his favorite subject– the human. He and Allen Young found me by myself near my locker, demanding to see the brand on my shoulder. I’d thought about running, but I wouldn’t have gotten far. They forced me against the locker, raising my shirtsleeve up to reveal the mark. Randy grabbed the back of my neck as Allen telekinetically tied my shoestrings together. It felt like the desert’s worse possible sunburn on top of high school’s most juvenile prank, only I could hear my neck’s skin cooking and sizzling like eggs in a skillet.