Pulse of Heroes

by A. Jacob Sweeny

  “Goliath was one of us, but he fought for the other side. He stole my sword, the same sword that David used to sever his head. I saw the whole thing.”

  “You were there? It’s all real then?”

  “As real as I am.” Elliot’s serious expression was replaced by a smile and he lost himself in a memory. “Goliath was struck on the forehead, very close to his eyes, and was blinded by the blood pouring out of his wound. He tripped over a protruding rock and knocked himself out cold. David used Goliath’s, actually my sword to cut off his head. If he had used any other weapon, Goliath would have awoken at the first touch of the blade and David would have been history.”

  “So you’re telling me you knew David, the famous David?” Michelle was thoroughly enthralled.

  “I served in his army, and I spent many hours with him and his wives,” Elliot said, smiling proudly. Michelle wanted to know if David was good looking like Michelangelo’s sculpture, but Elliot didn’t appreciate all the sudden excitement over David. He had been forced to deal with it back then too, and found it a bore that every woman was so taken with him.

  Michelle picked up on his thoughts. “I’m just curious Elliot, honest.”

  “Since I don’t look at men the way women do I can’t really answer that question,” he said arrogantly. Michelle’s face sagged with disappointment, and when Elliot saw her looking like a sad little girl he had to remind himself that David’s legend had become bigger than he ever was. “All I can say is that he was charming and women found him irresistible. He had a boyish appeal to him, even when he was older. And besides, he was a musician and they always know how to pull a woman’s strings.” Michelle looked at Elliot dreamingly and he failed to control his jealousy. “But in war he was as ruthless, if not more so than others. Not to mention that his son completely eclipsed him in looks and spirit, and his predecessor, the first King of Israel, was one of us, and he was greater than both put together.” After Elliot’s rant Michelle didn’t mention David again.

  “Devin is still out there searching, and our friend Mikoto has joined him. This whole thing is a dangerous mess. Not only because my friends are in danger, but because someone out there is crazy enough to want to start something again.” Michelle put her arms around the obviously distraught Elliot and leaned against him. It felt good to have someone care about how he felt, and he realized how much he had missed it. But the intimate moment was cut short by a knock on the door and Michelle asked him not to answer it.

  “And why not?” he whispered back into her neck. Michelle confided in him that she was worried about the guys blaming her for the fight between him and Rion. Elliot hugged her and told her that was nonsense. “I was under a lot of stress. I had just come back without being able to locate my friends and I freakin’ hate flying. I don’t know what I was thinking. I thought he was trying to take advantage of you. And besides, if you think that was bad you should have seen the brawl we had in Italy.” Elliot’s eyes sparkled with mischief and he showed Michelle his perfectly healed forehead. “Come on,” he said, grabbing her hand and pulling her towards the door, “you’re with me now.”

  That evening, after washing her face and brushing her teeth, Michelle picked up her little red bracelet from the side of sink and headed to her bedroom. Her head was spinning with all the awful information Elliot had fed her, on top of which, what were the chances that it would be Rion knocking on Elliot’s door just as she was saying how uncomfortable she felt since their fight. It was bad enough that she had to face Rion after what had happened, but to be in Elliot’s bedroom? Was Rion indifferent to her? Was he angry that she was Elliot’s girl? His words didn’t hint at anything; the only thing he seemed interested in was her bracelet. Michelle scrutinized the little gold charms: a tiny duck, a heart, a cute turtle, a flower, a sheep, and what looked like a coiled snake. Childish little things for a baby girl, yet Rion actually asked if he could look at them closely. Was he just trying to make her feel uncomfortable? And then to make things even worse he and Elliot started speaking in a different language and she felt completely alone. Later, Elliot told her that they weren’t talking about her, but then what were they hiding? All those thoughts swirled in Michelle’s head, and then she remembered Elliot’s kidnapped friends. He seemed to be worried that someone was trying to start a war between all of them. He explained to her that if that were the case he would have no choice but to be dragged into it. The whole thing was beginning to sound like some bad comic book scenario. But what really frightened Michelle was the fact that there was still a copy of the formula somewhere out there, the one that Elliot had written down thousands of years ago on a clay tablet.

  Michelle buried herself in her studies as an escape from everything Elliot had told her. And In the next few days she paid more attention to her History lessons than ever. Before she met Elliot, she had always felt that historical figures were no more than imaginary characters, stories, fairytales without the happily ever after. But now with Elliot in her life these characters jumped out of the pages of her books and practically knocked on her door. On Sunday evening while studying for her US history final, she learned that Paul Revere was a gifted silversmith and metalworker, as well as being an American hero. She couldn’t help but wonder if Revere was one of Elliot’s kind with secret metallurgy knowledge, not only because he pioneered a special copper plating technique, but because he was also the ‘Most Worshipped Grand Master’ of the secret society of Freemasons in Massachusetts.

  Finally. Michelle was happily tearing page after page of notes out of her school binder. She crumpled them into paper balls and tossed them over her shoulder while Elliot laughed in amusement, trying not to take his eyes off the road for too long.

  “You will clean that up, right?” he asked, but Michelle shook her head and told him that she was redecorating the back seat. After driving through beautiful rolling hills dotted with herds of black and white cows, Elliot pulled up in front of a large bright white barn-like building. Michelle noticed two white swans majestically floating in the small pond. The picnic tables were set perfectly under beautiful weeping willows, and Michelle smiled at Elliot, eyes beaming in pleasure. She helped him gather the mess from the back seat, and saw that he was curiously reading one of her handouts. It was the prom announcement, advertising to students that it would be a night not to be missed. Michelle bit her lip in embarrassment. She should have recognized the purple copied page, but it was too late now. She asked Elliot to hand it back to her, and when he did she crumpled it up and stuffed it in her pocket, telling him that the event was totally stupid.

  The large barn turned out to be a cheese factory with a small attached shop that offered their entire line of cheeses, fresh baked French bread, condiments, pastries, and a wide selection of California wines. Michelle was very impressed when Elliot spoke to the elder lady behind the counter in perfect French, who in turn happily chatted away with him.

  While helping set the picnic table, Michelle asked Elliot if he shopped there often. Without missing a beat he answered, “Since the 1850’s,” laughing that it used to be a much longer trip on horseback. Michelle was immediately reminded of the horse and buggy photographs in Francesca’s album, which in turn reminded her of the young woman with long brown hair and perfect lips who had a child out of wedlock. Did Elliot bring her here? Michelle didn’t want some ghost from the past ruining their afternoon. The sound of a cork popping woke Michelle from her thoughts. Elliot poured something into two champagne glasses and handed her one.

  “To the passing of all your finals, and to a great summer vacation,” he toasted. Michelle clinked her glass with him and took a sip of the liquid gold. She was surprised to taste a sweet and lightly fragrant carbonated drink gliding down her throat like a small taste of sunshine. Elliot waited for Michelle’s response, but she had to take another sip, actually it was more like a gulp, before looking up at him with a wide smile.

  “Oh my God! That is so good! What is it?” she asked as she held
her glass out for more. Elliot laughed and told her that she would have to slow down or she’d get drunk and have a horrible headache.

  “Oh no, Elliot. We can get in a lot of trouble for this, especially you. I’m not allowed to drink till I’m 21. It’s against the law.” But Elliot dismissed her worries.

  “I told her we’re from Europe, and besides, if you can legally serve in the military and die for your country at 18, you should be able to celebrate with a little champagne at the same age, don’t you think?” Michelle felt the drink spread inside her, down to her thighs and up her arms. She giggled with delight while Elliot fed her bread and cheese, and when she had eaten enough she walked over to the pond and watched the swans enjoy the bread as much as she did. Eventually she relaxed and slowly lay down on the bench with her head in Elliot’s lap. The sun shone down on her face and she was forced to close her eyes. Elliot watched Michelle from above and wondered if he was really falling in love with her? Maybe he was kidding himself and just enjoyed impressing her because it was so much fun to see her smile like that? If he hadn’t fallen in love with her yet, he most likely would if he spent more time with her. Michelle was a beautiful person inside and out and she was young, which meant that he could enjoy more years with her before she broke his heart. Maybe he shouldn’t let himself go that far, he thought. Maybe better to keep tight control over his feelings instead of committing emotional suicide. Remember Leta? And now, with shadows reappearing from his past, could he be endangering the girl by being too selfish to let her go?

  Michelle opened her eyes to see Elliot’s soft features looking down at her. The sun was directly behind him, giving the impression of a golden halo around his head.

  “You look like an angel,” she whispered. She knew he didn’t like to hear such things, but that’s exactly what she saw when she looked at him. Elliot’s eyes looked sad, so she sat up and took his hands in hers. If it was the drink in her that made the next words flow out, she wasn’t sure, but whatever the cause it was time for them to come out or else she would burst. She leaned her face against Elliot’s chest and looked up at him.

  “You know you’re making me fall in love with you?” Elliot wasn’t shocked. He knew it deep inside, he just wasn’t expecting Michelle to say those words right there and then, and with so much liberty. But Michelle didn’t care. She was pure and said exactly what she was feeling, and the little bit of alcohol removed any barriers that would have been there to protect her. What was he feeling? Elliot thought about that question as he looked down into Michelle’s large and hopeful eyes? She made him smile and he obviously cared about her, enough to physically assault his friend when he thought that he was steering her away from him. Enough to sneak around with her like he was a teenager himself. Come on Elliot, he told himself, don’t do it, and don’t hurt her because you’re damaged. What price is it for you to let yourself experience joy, to feel freely, to breathe love? Michelle’s increasing heartbeat was what snapped Elliot back to reality. It suddenly pounded in his own head like a drum, and he knew her smile would disappear. She was starting to regret what she had said, to regret laying her feelings all out in the open so exposed for him to squash.

  “I know Michelle,” he said, pulling her into him. He held her tight while watching the two white swans skimming across the face of the water, each a reflection of the other. “I feel the same way too.” Elliot felt Michelle’s heartbeat slow down and her tense muscles relaxed. He held her away from him so he could look at her face, and noticed that she was fighting stubborn tears that gathered at the corners of her eyes. Eventually one broke free to make its way down her cheek. “Are you sad?” he asked, following the little tear with his eyes and watching it plunge from her chin onto her chest.

  “No, I’m happy,” she whispered, “and besides, that’s just sun in my eyes.”

  Samantha hadn’t stopped bringing up the prom issue and Michelle finally had to tell her that even if she wanted to go, which she didn’t, and Elliot agreed, it was just too late because it was only a few days away and she had nothing ready. Samantha couldn’t understand how something that was so important to Michelle only a few months ago didn’t even raise her interest. She reminded her about how upset she had been about not attending the winter formal.

  “James is graduating. It’s his last year.” Samantha’s voice was almost in tears. “If we don’t all go together this year, who knows if James and I will even be together by next year? You have to go, like we always planned it. If Elliot thinks he’s above it, then go with Tim. Hasn’t he asked you yet?” Michelle tried to explain that it was different with Elliot. He was an adult with real stuff to worry about.

  “You need to go and have a wonderful night with James, for the memories, and besides we’re all going out tomorrow night anyway, and Elliot said he’ll come.” At least Michelle hoped that he would. There had been a long pause before he actually agreed. He gracefully declined the pizza part, but told her he could meet her at the movie. For Michelle, that was better than nothing. At least she could introduce him to some of her friends.

  Little Napoli was hopping that evening as Michele threw herself into the booth across the table from her friends and watched them busily leaf through the fashion magazines. Rachael showed Michelle a photo of a pretty model and asked if she thought that she should do her hair like that for the prom. Anna had the opinion that the style looked as if the model had slept in it and then simply gotten up and sprayed it with too much hairspray.

  “She’s gorgeous, that’s why it looks good, and with all the Photoshop too. On a regular person it would be a disaster.” Michelle agreed with Anna. Rachael asked Michelle how she was going to wear her hair and Michelle had to painfully explain to them that she wasn’t going to the Prom. Naturally, Rachael and Anna were quite disturbed by the news and couldn’t understand why on earth she didn’t make her boyfriend go. When Samantha, James, and Marcus arrived, Michelle was still explaining that it was her choice not to attend. Samantha immediately realized what Michelle was talking about, and helped her by changing the subject while Michelle thanked her with her eyes.

  Standing outside the kiosk at the cinema, Michelle got a little nervous about Elliot not showing up. She bought him a ticket just like he had asked, and while she paid for her candy at the concession stand she kept looking above everyone else’s shoulders to see if he had arrived. There was still no sign of Elliot when everybody handed their tickets to the usher, and Samantha gave Michelle a sympathetic look. Still, Michelle convinced everyone besides Sam and James to go on in without her because she didn’t want them to miss the beginning of the movie. The three of them were huddled close to the door when Michelle felt a light tap on her shoulder and turned around to see Elliot smiling. The relief was all over her face as Elliot apologized for being a little late. James, feeling protective over Michelle, sized Elliot up as they shook hands. But Elliot didn’t take offense. If anything, he found it comforting to know that Michelle had good friends around her. Michelle wasted no time grabbing Elliot’s hand and holding it tight as they made their way to their seats in semi-darkness. She was happy he was there and that’s all she cared about. The previews were still playing, so Michelle introduced Elliot to everyone, beaming with pride as she saw the awestruck faces of her girlfriends when they couldn’t stop staring at him. Although it was hard for him to relax with so many of her friends around him, Elliot did his best to seem as normal as possible, and when the lights were completely dimmed he pecked Michelle on the cheek and waited to feel the blood rush to her face. Throughout the film Michelle handed Elliot the extreme sour candy, and he couldn’t believe he was actually eating that acerbic junk just to make her happy. When the movie was over and everyone spilled out of the building, Elliot overheard the conversation between Rachael and Anna about the Prom.

  On the ride home Elliot told Michelle that he liked her friends. She told him that he didn’t need to pretend, which he strongly denied.

  “Michelle, I was thinking t
hat you shouldn’t just drop the life you had before you met me.” He took a deep breath. “If you want to go the prom, we can go. I’ll go with you. I don’t want you to have regrets later in life. And I don’t want to be the cause of them.” Elliot had spent some time thinking about Michelle in the last few days, not as ‘Michelle his girl’, but as her own person. He would have loved for her to be out of school and spending her time by his side. He could take her places, places where he had been before, show her countries he had lived in. He could take her sailing around the Mediterranean and island hop for months, years. He could teach her so much and show her so many things, but there would be time for that soon enough and he would have to be patient. It didn’t cost him much. Michelle couldn’t believe what she was hearing and looked at Elliot, shocked.

  “You’ve got to be joking, right? Why would you want to? The Prom is so arbitrary, and everyone I spoke to that has gone says that it’s no big deal. It’s just a dress up dance and there are plenty of people who don’t go and their lives are just fine. It’s total artificial pressure, and besides there’s another Prom in senior year.” Elliot was highly impressed with Michelle’s grown-up speech. She was completely right on all her points, but he still wasn’t buying that she didn’t want to go.

  “Maybe I just want to see you in a beautiful dress?” he said, watching Michelle’s eyes grow big in disbelief.

  “This is so not you…”

  “Michelle, I have lived for a very long time. There are many me’s…” he said, adding a little mischief to his voice.

  “But I don’t have tickets, or even a dress. I hadn’t planned on going,” she answered, frazzled.

  “You don’t have to worry about any of that. Tomorrow we’ll go shopping and you pick out whatever you want to wear.” But Michelle didn’t have a lot of money, and she couldn’t justify emptying the savings account her parents had started for her just for a dress. She was embarrassed to tell him all that because she didn’t want to sound as if she was asking him to buy her something to wear. The other problem was that her parents would never let her go without meeting Elliot first. What would she tell them? Where did she meet him and how long have they known each other? What school does he go to, and how old is he!!! Elliot felt Michelle’s blood pressure rising. Whatever thoughts were running through her mind were stressing her body, so he pulled over the car and turned off the engine, although Michelle hardly took notice. He leaned over and took her face in his hand, kissing her sweetly. “Don’t worry. Everything is under control. We will make this happen.”