Provex City

by Michael Pierce

  Mr. Gordon glanced over at Desiree.

  “I’ll be here next week, I swear,” I said and also gave a glance to Desiree. “You could probably use the extra practice without me anyway.”

  “You jerk,” Desiree said.

  “I understand. Give my best to your mom,” Mr. Gordon said and went back to his paperwork.

  “I’ll still be here,” Desiree said.

  “It’s okay, Miss Behring. Take the afternoon off. We’ll reconvene next Tuesday.”

  Desiree followed me out the door. “Thanks a lot,” she said as we exited the humanities building.

  “What? I can’t make it today. It’s not a crime.”

  “What’s going on with you? Your mom’s not sick. You blew him off. And for what?”

  “How do you know my mom’s not sick?”

  “Oh, come on. That was pathetic. Mr. Gordon knew it, too. I think you hurt his feelings.”

  “No way. He’s probably glad to have the afternoon off,” I said.

  We argued all the way to our communal art desk. Andy and Sara were already setting up their stations.

  I was in the process of finding another picture. But I couldn’t focus. My focus was on getting back to the quiet of my room and practicing. I was so close. Jeremy was just beyond my reach. But I was reaching further than I ever had before. Soon it would be far enough.

  Desiree sulked beside me. Ordinarily, I would try to cheer her up, but if I tried now she’d just ask more questions about what I was up to. I didn’t know if she’d try to convince me to consult with Mr. Gordon or attempt to talk me out of what I was doing altogether. I couldn’t take that chance.

  “I’m gonna leave early. I’ll see you tomorrow,” I finally said to Desiree.

  “Fine.”

  I got approval from Mr. Jeffers to see the nurse, but instead of heading for the nurse’s office, I walked straight off campus. I texted Anna along the way to let her know she didn’t have to wait for me. The walk home was peaceful, giving me time to mentally prepare for my awareness exercise.

  I wasn’t home more than five minutes when the doorbell rang. I glanced out the window in the kitchen. Desiree was standing outside with her arms folded across her chest.

  “I bet you’re not here to wish my mother your best,” I said, opening the door for her.

  Desiree didn’t wait for me to invite her in. “I bet she’s not even home.”

  “Good guess.”

  Frolics ran in to greet Desiree, but I pulled him by the collar back into the kitchen and slid the door closed. There was another way out, but it would probably take him a few minutes to figure that out while he remained focused on the closed door instead of the one that was open to the dining room.

  “So, what’s this all about?” I asked.

  “You tell me. What is TJ telling you to do? To avoid Mr. Gordon? He’s the one who’s really helping you. He’s constantly been there for you. Mr. Gordon has shown us so much. And this is how you repay him—”

  I grabbed Desiree by her padded wrist and led her to my room. She took a seat on my bed, wrestling off her coat.

  “You don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said.

  “Good. Then fill me in.”

  “I saw Jeremy.”

  Desiree’s eyes widened. She was finally speechless.

  “I’ve seen Jeremy several times now, and TJ has helped me do it. But he also warned me that I’m not getting the whole truth from Mr. Gordon. So this is something I didn’t want to bring up to him.”

  “What’s he hiding?”

  “I don’t know. TJ could tell you himself—but, like usual, when you’re here, he’s conveniently not,” I said, trying to control my frustration. “TJ, where are you?”

  “Hello?” a girl’s voice called from the entryway. “The front door was unlocked. Oliver?”

  It was Anna. What was she doing here? How had I not heard her car or the screech from her opening the courtyard gate?

  I found her standing in the entryway with the front door still open. “You’re letting in all the cold.”

  “I got your text and just wanted to stop by and see how you were feeling. Can I get you anything?”

  “I’m feeling a lot better, thanks though.”

  “Hey, Anna,” Desiree said, emerging from the hallway.

  Anna took one baffled look at Desiree and then at me. “What’s going on here?”

  “It’s not what you think,” I said, quickly catching on to the connection she was making.

  “You told me you were sick.”

  “He told me his mom was sick,” Desiree said.

  “But why are you here, Desiree?” Anna asked.

  Desiree gazed over at me for help. “I—”

  “Just tell me the truth. What’s going on with you two?” Anna demanded.

  “Nothing,” I said. “There’s nothing going on between Desiree and me. This is all just a big misunderstanding.”

  “Desiree sees you on Thanksgiving and I don’t. You are always leaving early from lunch. I know you have a bunch of classes together. Your late-night phone calls with assignment questions. And your weekly meetings with your teacher? Is that like a code or something?”

  “No! We’re just friends,” I said, starting to feel interrogated.

  Desiree jumped in. “Anna, you know me. You know I wouldn’t screw you over. And I’m with Eli. I don’t want to do anything to screw that up—”

  “Well, it may be getting a little late for that,” Anna said.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Desiree gasped.

  “You know exactly what it means!”

  I’d had enough of this. I didn’t want to deal with this right now. I wanted to tell Desiree more about what I was seeing, but I thought that was currently a lost cause.

  “Okay, I think it’s time for everyone to go home,” I said.

  “First you lie to me and then you kick me out?” Anna said.

  “Well, I’m feeling pretty sick now. So yes, I’m kicking you out. Both of you. I can’t handle this right now. I’m sorry. There is something I have to do,” I said. Both girls glared at me with utter contempt. “Please, just go. Anna, I’ll call you later this evening. Desiree, I’ll see you in class tomorrow.”

  We all stood there staring at each other for an excruciatingly long time. I couldn’t tell if they were actually going to leave or not.

  “Okay, call me later,” Anna finally said.

  “I need to get my coat,” Desiree said and headed back to my room.

  Anna shook her head, spun around, and stormed out of the house. Desiree came stomping through the hallway with her coat in hand, closely following Anna. But they didn’t say a word to each other.

  Taking a deep breath, I closed the door and went back to my room. I stood in the doorway for a few minutes just looking over all my possessions. An object on my desk jumped out at me. The screwdriver. That frightening day was the last time I had truly seen Jeremy.

  I grabbed the flathead reminder of my last day with Jeremy, jumped up on my bed, sat down, and let the back of my head bang against the wall. I turned the screwdriver over and over in my lap.

  You will help me find him.

  I had to get my focus back. Put the girls out of my head. Every relationship seemed to be a mess. I didn’t need the distraction, and I wasn’t going to let it keep me from my goal. I didn’t need anyone else. All I needed was to believe in myself. I needed to know I could do it, just as Mr. Gordon had said all along.

  I focused on my wall across the room and waited for the fade to begin again—not hoping, but expecting it to begin.

  And it did.

  My wall faded away and the surreal new world reappeared, now in radiant sunlight. The buildings on the far side of the river glowed even in the daylight. The water was crystalline blue, with shimmering diamonds in its soft ripples. And there was a boy walking toward me, a couple hundred paces off. And I knew at once it was Jeremy.

  “Jeremy!” I exc
laimed. He didn’t seem to hear me.

  I knew what I had to do. I didn’t need TJ and I didn’t need Mr. Gordon. Stepping carefully off my bed, I remained focused on Jeremy. He wasn’t going to get away again.

  I took a step closer. I knew my wall was close now, but I tried to keep its image out of my head and held my gaze on Jeremy.

  “Jeremy!”

  Still no reaction.

  I took another step forward and felt myself entering this new world. I started to feel the warm sun on my back and the cool breeze on my cheeks. By the time I realized I was out in the winter air without a coat, I looked around to my room only to find it gone. My room was no longer behind me—I was enveloped by this new world. I looked down at the screwdriver that I still had in my hand. I could hear the chirping of birds in the trees. The sound of cars around me. The smell of grass and exhaust fumes.

  I’m here!

  “Jeremy!” I yelled, looking up again.

  And this time he heard me. He looked directly at me with an ear-to-ear grin on his face.

  I had finally made it. I had finally found Jeremy. I had no idea where I was, but it was like a shroud that had been covering my eyes my entire life had been lifted, revealing a whole new world.

  But then the expression on Jeremy’s face sank from excitement to horror. And that’s when it happened. Someone honked. Something crashed. And everything went dark.

  18

  Provex City

  A faceless voice fought through the haze, and a barrage of other sounds rose to the foreground.

  “Oliver, can you hear me?” a distant voice whispered to me.

  My head spun from the encircling chaos. Becoming aware of my body, I noticed the temperature of my surroundings and the softness of where I lay. Increasing light forced me to keep my eyes closed. I flexed my fingers and wiggled my toes, relieved I could still do so. My breathing was slow, deep, and meditative. I tried squinting, and there was a flood of white light. Blurred shapes encircling me remained hidden, enveloped in auras of bright light. I blinked hard several times to restore my vision and lessen my sensitivity.

  “How’re you feeling?” Multiple faces condensed into one. And it was Jeremy. He stood over me with a smile brighter than I had ever seen before.

  I was lying in a white bed, in the middle of a white room, with four chairs lining the wall by the door, and some blinking machinery beside the bed. There were two wires connected to the machine that extended toward me. Freeing my arms from under the blankets, I felt around my neck and discovered a suction cup on either side just below my jaw. The suction cups were connected to the wires.

  I looked up at Jeremy. “I can’t tell yet. I think I’m okay. I feel weird,” I said. My throat was dry and hoarse. I coughed and my throat burned, acidic and sensitive.

  “Well, you look a hundred times better,” he said, smiling. “You had me worried.”

  “What happened? Where are we?” I coughed again.

  “You can’t just walk onto the freeway whenever you feel like it. People get hurt that way. I probably don’t have to tell you.”

  “I was walking on the freeway?” I tried to think back to my last memory.

  “Yeah. You really scared the hell out of the driver who hit you. He was raving that you came out of nowhere. You were a mess. I thought I’d lost you, little brother. Thank God for all the medical advancements in this place.”

  “Where are we?”

  “You’re in the Inner Provex City Medical Facility. You appeared about an hour outside the city and were flown here to get the best medical attention.” Jeremy took a moment before continuing. “Well, you made it. Not as graceful of an entrance as you may have expected, but you made it.”

  I looked up at the ceiling and racked my brain, trying to think back. And then it came to me: The vision. The fade. Stepping through. Seeing Jeremy—truly seeing Jeremy—at last. The crash.

  Pushing up on my elbows, I only felt mild discomfort. I was in similar clothes to what I had been wearing. They looked brand new. Pulling myself the rest of the way up, one of the suction cups fell off my neck, and the machine beside me began beeping furiously.

  Jeremy reached down to retrieve the suction cup and placed it back on my neck. The machine calmed. I repositioned myself to be fully seated and leaned against the wall so the wires wouldn’t be overextended.

  “How long have I been here?”

  “A few days.”

  “I’m still so exhausted,” I said, examining my arms for any cuts, bruises, or signs of other more serious injuries.

  “No kidding—you were hurt pretty bad. Your body needed a ton of rest to recover. You left the scene with bones sticking through skin, internal bleeding, and a rather serious concussion. It was grisly. Luckily, you were unconscious.”

  “Are you kidding me?” It almost made me sick just trying to envision the aftermath of the accident.

  “No, I’m totally serious,” he said, as he backed up to sit in one of the chairs.

  I examined my body again, looking over every extremity. I was a little sore, but nothing really stood out. Obviously, nothing was still broken, but nothing even felt sprained or revealed any evidence of real trauma. My head ached slightly, but nothing aspirin couldn’t fix. I was just in a hospital bed with no bandages and no restrictive movement whatsoever.

  I lifted up my shirt and saw the small, circular scar still on my stomach. I had seen the miraculous healing that Mr. Gordon had done, but this was different. It wasn’t instantaneous. I was way better than Richard with just a few days rest, but I knew Mr. Gordon could have healed me much faster. I guess not everyone had his abilities, even here—in Provex City—wherever here really was. My head spun.

  “So, how long do I have to stay here?”

  “I’m sure Dr. Stevens will discharge you soon, since you’re awake and all. He checked in on you about an hour ago.”

  I looked at the open door and saw a bedlam of activity in the hallway. To my right, there was a window with the vertical blinds partially open, pouring more light into the room. I decided to test the condition of my body and removed the suction cups from my neck, which again caused the machine to go ballistic. I didn’t care. Swinging my feet over the edge, I cautiously stood up and balanced under my own strength. I felt fine. The window beckoned me, and I peered through the blinds.

  I was not prepared for what I saw. Unable to see the ground, there was just a layer of clouds below, with a multitude of other buildings piercing through the dense cover like metallic fingers reaching up to the heavens. The buildings radiated blue and red pulses, each with giant antennas shooting out from their apexes, and external glass capsule-like elevators darted up and down through the clouds. The sky was brilliantly blue and bright. I felt vertigo as I tried to look straight down and had no idea how high we really were. The clouds could have been foggy groundcover for all I knew, but something inside me felt that was not the case, and that in fact we were inexplicably miles off the ground. The dizziness came and I had to brace myself with the window ledge.

  “Is this where you’ve been all this time?” I asked.

  “Yeah.”

  “What about Mom and Richard, do you have any idea what you’ve put them through? Do you even know what happened to Richard?”

  “What?” Jeremy asked.

  “He was in a car accident, too. But he wasn’t as lucky as me. He’s lying in a hospital bed right now, in a coma,” I said, trying to sound strong, trying to show my disappointment in Jeremy’s pseudo-intentional absence.

  He sat silent for a minute, looking straight ahead. “I tried to come back, you know. I really did. But I don’t have the skills you seem to have acquired. Like you, I’ve had help. I know you’ve been working with Daniel.”

  “That bald guy?”

  “Cias. He’s a friend of your father.”

  The name was familiar for some reason, but I couldn’t remember why. “How do you know Mr. Gordon? He’s not one of your teachers.”

&nb
sp; “He’s an old family friend. Another friend of your father who has been watching over our family since we left.”

  “You mean our father,” I said, correcting him.

  “No, I mean your father. My father’s dead.”

  “I know. Our father died serving—”

  “No. My father died when I was very young, not as a hero. Your father is still alive.”

  No! It couldn’t be true. Mom had told us stories of our father so many times. I could picture him even though I’d never seen a photo. I didn’t know how to react. I didn’t know whether to yell, cry, or deny the conversation altogether. This place was so new and unbelievable that it caused me to question everything I believed. Everything I thought I knew. Even the things Mr. Gordon had told me. And then things that TJ had said seeped back into my head—the reason I had followed his directions in the first place instead of Mr. Gordon’s. Everyone had secrets. Mr. Gordon. Jeremy. Desiree...

  “You deserve to know the truth,” Jeremy said. “I knew you wouldn’t believe me until now, even though it doesn’t make it all that much easier.”

  “Are you even my brother?”

  “Half.”

  “But how do you know? How do you know all this stuff and I don’t?”

  “What do you remember before the fire?”

  “Nothing. Like you, right?”

  “Our escape from the fire was just a story. You were given a pill that completely erased your memory, so you wouldn’t remember places like this and the fact that we were fugitives. Nicholae gave the pills to Mom, and she gave them to us, hoping to spare us the pain, the loss, the curiosity, or something like that.”

  “And you remember—”

  “Because I didn’t swallow my pill. I didn’t want to forget where I came from. She gave it to you first, lacing your drink. You didn’t even know you were taking anything. I was given a pill, a glass of water, and a story. I knew what was coming, hid it under my tongue, and pretended to pass out. Mom was so broken up about the whole situation that she didn’t check me very closely. The rest is—”