Provex City

by Michael Pierce

  “And Oliver is such a special boy. You have no idea how special he really is. But he needs help. He needs a father figure in his life, which is more than I can provide. But you need to be around long enough to help. And when he’s ready, he’ll be sent on a journey that neither he nor you could have ever fathomed. But I need you to help me look after him until he’s ready.”

  Daniel laughed to himself while thinking of the limited information Richard has been privileged to. He imagined the day Richard would find out his family’s secret. He imagined the day Richard would come face to face with Nicholae.

  “You poor man, you have no idea what you’ve gotten yourself into. But it’s okay. I’m here to help. I want to help you get back to your family. I know you can hear me in there. Beneath the slumbering body is a conscious mind waiting to be freed. Your morning will come—not tomorrow, but soon—for you to awake and be well. Act surprised, and no one will be the wiser. This will just be our little secret. So for now, sleep, my friend, and the morning soon will come for you to awake with new and heightened vitality.”

  Just as Daniel removed his hand from Richard’s arm, a nurse strolled into the room.

  “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t think anyone else would be here,” she said stopping in alarm at the sight of Daniel.

  “No, my apologies. I didn’t mean to startle you.”

  “Are you another family member?”

  “Just a friend of the family.”

  “Oh. It’s rather late, isn’t it?”

  “It is, and that’s why I was just leaving.”

  “No, I didn’t mean you had to go. I just meant—”

  “I know what you meant, and I was actually about to leave. He’s not going to wake up tonight.” Daniel brought the chair back to its original placement in the room and grabbed his coat.

  “I do hope he wakes up soon,” the nurse said.

  “Hope is a wonderful thing to have. It invites the possibility of miracles,” Daniel said, tipped his hat to the nurse, and sauntered gingerly into the hall.

  16

  The Glimpse

  It felt good to finally have the Thanksgiving four-day weekend. Of course, we were given homework to finish over the break, but I could wait until Sunday and still finish on time. Instead, I wanted to eat, sleep, and watch TV.

  “I don’t understand why you’re going through all this trouble. Why don’t we just order a pizza?” I asked Mom as she slaved over the stove, with all burners blazing.

  “We can’t just order a pizza. It’s Thanksgiving, for God’s sake.”

  “I love our Thanksgiving meals—don’t get me wrong—but it just seems like a lot of food and a lot of work for two people.”

  “What’s Thanksgiving without a Thanksgiving feast? We’ll probably have leftovers for two weeks, but who cares. What’s Thanksgiving without turkey?”

  “Turkey we’ll be eating for the rest of the year,” I said.

  “You love turkey. And I won’t have to cook again for a very long time,” Mom said as she wiped her sweating forehead from the rising steam. “Can you set the table? The food will be ready soon.”

  “Are we eating in the kitchen or the dining room?” I asked.

  “In the dining room, of course. We always eat in the dining room for Thanksgiving.”

  “I know. I just thought—”

  “And use the fine china.”

  “I know. Just like we always do,” I groaned almost mockingly.

  In the dining room, I retrieved the white formal tablecloth and place settings from the china cabinet. I set everything up to the former years’ specifications, except for the number of place settings. But our seats at the table remained the same.

  Frolics lay by the sliding glass door, and I sat with him until Mom called me into the kitchen. The food was finally ready and I helped Mom transfer it into serving bowls and arrange the bowls on the table.

  “Are we having wine?” I asked, looking through the refrigerator.

  “One glass for you, then as much sparkling cider as you desire.”

  We sat across from each other, and Frolics lazily moved his position to the foot of Mom’s chair. He looked docile now, but the moment any food hit the floor he would become a beast.

  “Do you mind if we say Grace?” she asked.

  “I don’t remember us ever saying Grace.”

  “We have to be thankful. It’s more important now than ever to be thankful for what we have and remain hopeful of getting our family back together.”

  “I know, Mom. I don’t object. I’m just saying we’ve never said it before.”

  “I don’t want to have another Thanksgiving with these two chairs empty.”

  “Me neither,” I said.

  As she bowed her head and recited the prayer, I looked around the room and was consumed by the emptiness of it. The empty chairs were haunting reminders of our family tragedy and misfortune. But I was still thankful. I was thankful I wasn’t completely alone. And I was thankful I knew Jeremy was alive and had a slight lead to his whereabouts. I was thankful for Mr. Gordon and all he had done for me. And I was thankful for TJ and how he was helping me now. I was thankful for Anna, who was always there when I needed her. And I was thankful for Desiree for always being there—no matter what.

  “Amen.”

  “Happy Thanksgiving.” We toasted and drank our white wine.

  We served each other and ate our food in the serenity of each other’s company and classical music. Mom kept looking up as we ate, to make sure I was enjoying my food, but didn’t say a word. She even fed a piece of turkey to the dog, who scarfed it down in one slobbering bite.

  Just before I could finish my second helping of Thanksgiving turkey, the doorbell rang. Mom and I looked up from our plates, startled by the infrequent sound. Frolics sat up in alarm and barked.

  “Quiet, Frolics. Are you expecting anyone?”

  “Not me,” I said, shaking my head.

  Neither one of us got up from the table, struggling with the mixed feelings the toll of the bell brought. The unexpected visitor on the other side of the door may bring good news, or bad news, or maybe no news at all. I could tell Mom was thinking of Jeremy, and the dread of bad news paralyzed her.

  The doorbell rang again. I finally got up from the table, my apprehension overpowered by curiosity. I peeked through the shades covering the window over the kitchen sink and, to my surprise and relief, saw Desiree and Eli.

  “It’s just Desiree,” I called to Mom and hurried to open the front door.

  “Happy Thanksgiving!” Desiree exclaimed. “I was beginning to think you weren’t home.”

  I invited them both in. Desiree held a square pan covered in tinfoil.

  “Yeah, we were just finishing up. There’s plenty more food if you’d like some.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry. I thought we came early enough not to interrupt dinner,” Desiree said. “We can’t stay long ’cause my mom’s cooking dinner right now. But I made you a dessert.”

  Mom stepped into the kitchen, with Frolics behind her.

  “Mom, you remember Desiree, and this is her boyfriend, Eli. Desiree brought us dessert.”

  “The only thing I didn’t make,” Mom said.

  “I’m thankful for that,” Desiree said, walking into the kitchen. She set down the pan on the counter and removed the tinfoil cover. “I made pumpkin squares.”

  “It looks delicious, thank you. Would you two like anything to eat? We were just finishing, but there’s plenty more food,” Mom said.

  “No, thank you, we have to save our appetites for my mom’s dinner.”

  “How about a drink then? We have sparkling cider.”

  Desiree looked over at Eli with her saddest puppy dog eyes.

  “What time do we have to be back?” he asked.

  “We have time.”

  “Okay, that’s fine with me.”

  Desiree jumped for joy and turned back to Mom. “Thank you. We’ll take some of your finest sparkling cide
r.”

  Mom retrieved two more wine glasses from the china cabinet. She filled Desiree and Eli’s glasses and refilled ours, which finished off the bottle. And with our drinks in hand, we all took seats in the living room.

  “Do you guys have any fun plans for the long weekend?” Mom asked, starting a forced, yet polite conversation.

  The mood consuming the room was that of an extended family member’s wake. It seemed taboo to bring up Jeremy or Richard. They were the two elephants in the room and we danced around them. I didn’t say much; it felt awkward having Mom hang out with my friends. But Desiree was right at home, as she usually was.

  When the glasses were emptied and courtesies exchanged, Eli stood up to signal it was time for him and Desiree to make their exit.

  “Thank you for sharing your Thanksgiving with us,” Desiree said. “And I hope you like the dessert.”

  “I’m sure it’ll be wonderful. Thank you,” Mom said.

  “What are you doing this weekend, Oliver?” Desiree asked.

  “I’ve got some homework to finish up. I should also find out what Anna’s up to.”

  “Yes, you should,” Desiree scolded me. “Well, if you guys want to hang out, you know how to reach me.”

  After our visitors had left, Mom went back into the kitchen and cut a couple pieces of Desiree’s homemade dessert. She didn’t seem to care that we hadn’t finished our dinner—at least she hadn’t. We sat back down at the dining room table, pushed our dinner plates aside, and enjoyed the dessert.

  “That was nice of them,” she said after a few bites.

  “Yeah.”

  “I hope you’re thankful for your friends. They seem like good kids.”

  “I am.” And we enjoyed the rest of our dessert in silence.

  Mom didn’t leave for the hospital until late into the evening. We watched a movie after clearing off the dinner table, leaving the dishes for tomorrow. Leaning against each other on the couch—Mom wrapped in the couch’s decorative afghan and a fire crackling across the room—we brought our Thanksgiving to a close.

  I probably should’ve gone with her to the hospital to see Richard, but I told her that I’d promised to spend some time with Anna. She seemed to understand, even though she looked somewhat disappointed.

  I retreated to my room and collapsed on my bed, scouring through my pockets for my phone.

  “Hey, Anna. Happy Thanksgiving. How’s your day been?”

  “Good. We had some extended family over. It was nice to see everyone. But I’ve missed you.” Anna paused. “Everyone’s gone now. My parents are just cleaning up. You’re welcome to come over, if you want.”

  “I’d love to, but I promised my mom I’d go with her to see Richard, you know, with it being Thanksgiving and all.”

  “I understand. Was your Thanksgiving okay?”

  “Yeah, it was good. My mom seems to be doing better. And Desiree and Eli stopped by for a few minutes.”

  “Oh?” Anna asked.

  “It was nothing. They just stopped by to wish us a happy holiday.”

  She was quiet again.

  “I should get going,” I said. “My mom’s waiting for me. But I just wanted to hear your voice before I left. Hopefully, we can get together tomorrow?”

  “I’m looking forward to it.”

  “Me, too,” I said and hung up.

  What’s wrong with me? I wanted to see Anna, but at the same time, I couldn’t concentrate on her. There were so many things eating away at me. I did plan on keeping my promise tomorrow, but tonight I just couldn’t handle the company.

  I sat up and stared at the wall across my room. Sitting up as straight as I could, I relaxed my shoulders and placed my hands—palms up—in my lap. I closed my eyes and tried to envision what I wanted to see. But it was hard since I didn’t know what I was looking for. I just needed to see past the wall.

  I focused intently on the wall, the window, my curtains. The light was on and what I saw was clear. I relaxed my eyes and breathed deeply and somehow willed my vision through the wall. The scene before me soon became blurry, like I was seeing cross-eyed.

  But the wall was becoming more than blurry from my relaxed vision. I was seeing something more. Something I couldn’t have imagined possible. Maybe something I shouldn’t see. The wall wasn’t becoming blurry. It was fading. I was seeing a translucent view of the courtyard. But the courtyard wasn’t any clearer than the wall.

  I tried to wrap my mind around what was happening as the scene before me faded deeper into obscurity, and my vision became doubled. I saw trees and bushes intersecting with each other—growing out over one another and overlapping. Trees I knew and trees I’d never seen before grew together. And there was a boy sitting at the base of one of the new translucent trees. With his knees up and his head down, the boy was still.

  Was I witnessing a scene similar to what Desiree had seen on the night she was in my room? The appearance of the pictures and the door to the Room of Enlightenment were nothing compared to the scene unfolding before me.

  “TJ? Is that you?” I called out to the boy who, for all the world, appeared to be sitting in the courtyard. “I think I’m doing it! I’m seeing something. It may be a dream or an illusion, but it sure seems real. TJ, is that you out there? I can see you through the wall.”

  I was so excited and desperately wanted TJ to look up and say something. And when he did, I was in for a greater surprise. His head rose, and he looked straight at me.

  “Jeremy?” And as soon as I said his name, the ghostly scene vanished. My concentration was broken. My room was back in its original form.

  I hopped off the bed and ran to the window. Throwing open the curtains, I scanned the dark courtyard. There was little moonlight tonight. The courtyard was empty. I put my hands up to the window and felt the cold, yet solid glass. I slid my hands over to the wall, and it too was as solid as it had ever been.

  “TJ, what just happened?” I asked into the night. But there was no answer.

  “Eli and his buddies—the ones you met at my Halloween party—officially formed a band and got their first gig this weekend. Wanna go?” Desiree asked, waiting for the start of our chemistry lecture.

  “Yeah, I guess so.”

  “You guess so much that it doesn’t seem like you know anything.”

  Her comment was sarcastic, but she didn’t know how true it really was. “I guess you’re right,” I said, returning her sarcasm. I hadn’t yet told her about my latest vision. “When and where?”

  “Friday night in Hollywood.”

  “Sounds pretty big time for a first gig.”

  “Not really. All you have to do is send in a few mp3s and sell a certain number of tickets. And Todd knows some people.”

  Todd, Eli’s bass player. I remembered him hitting on Anna at the Halloween party. That slimy shmuck.

  “So, the tickets are only ten bucks,” Desiree said quickly, like a professional sales pitch.

  “Is Anna going?”

  “Of course she’s going.”

  “Then put me down for two tickets.”

  “What a gentleman, but Anna is already taken care of. Eli got two freebies and gave one to Anna,” Desiree said scanning my expression, seemingly curious on how I would react to the news.

  “That’s cool. So what are the plans for getting up there?”

  “Good morning, Oliver,” Leslie said, stopping between Desiree and me. “Did you have a good Thanksgiving?”

  “Fine. Yours?”

  “Mine was good. Any word from Jeremy?” she asked in a sullen tone, obviously not expecting an uplifting answer.

  “Not yet, but we’re hopeful. And thankful we haven’t received any bad news.”

  “I’m hopeful, too.” She turned and took her usual seat near the front of the room. Mr. Clayton then attempted to quiet the class so he could start his lecture.

  “I feel so bad for her,” Desiree whispered. I didn’t want to disrupt the opening of the lecture, so I didn’t
say anything in return, but couldn’t help thinking how strange her comment sounded.

  Concentrating in the next few classes was harder than usual. The vision I had seen in my room was imprinted on my mind. A picture of Jeremy. Was the image real? All I had were questions, and the only person with answers was waiting for me in the shadows of my room. I longed to get back home.

  My anxiety in gym was gone, and we had moved on to flag football—a sport I was no better at than any of the others this year. But I was okay with my lack of athletic prowess. I was confident in my inability. And no one made fun of me. When I was changing out of my gym clothes, I saw Logan at the end of the row. We caught each other’s awkward glances, but there was no more pressure.

  As I left the locker room and rounded the exterior of the gym, I stopped at the entrance of the quad. Students all around me rushed to their habitual lunch spots. I looked to where I had become accustomed to eating every day, a spot hidden behind hordes of traveling students. I couldn’t see if Anna was already there, sitting Indian style, with her bagged lunch dissected into a makeshift plate in front of her.

  I was still buried deep in my head. The image of Jeremy wouldn’t go away. I felt like being alone. I felt like hiding. And there was only one place where I could think to do that.

  After committing to the decision not to eat lunch with my friends today, I set a course for the humanities building. I entered the now heated hallway and peeked into the small window of Mr. Gordon’s classroom. The room was empty and the lights were off, but even in the darkness I could see the door to the Room of Enlightenment on the far wall.

  I reached for the handle of the closed classroom door, and luckily it was unlocked. Sneaking in and closing the door behind me, I stood before the majestic door, the door magically hidden from the rest of the world. I hesitantly reached for the handle, pushing past my irrational fear of trespassing. I belonged here. The faint cream glow of the floating orbs from the dungeon-like room below crept up the spiral staircase.