Jayden's Cybermountain

by Katrina Cope

  Instantly, the TV turned off. Jessica and Charlie got up, and they all started to follow Charlie back to the common room. This time, it wasn’t empty. There were many students everywhere with books and folders in their arms, sitting on the benches that framed the gardens. While waiting for classes to start, they sat talking to friends.

  Even though these students were ready for class, Jayden spotted other students who weren’t. These students were hurrying across the vast floor of the common room, trying to get ready in time for the busy day ahead. None of the students seemed surprised to see that there were five new people crossing the floor with Charlie.

  The new students continued to walk to where there were two large swinging doors. Charlie pushed one of them open for the teens to enter. Before them was a very large dining room that was lined with an endless number of tables and chairs. On the far side of the room was a glass wall that extended into part of the ceiling and that was identical to the one in the guest rooms.

  The view here was completely different—it surpassed all the other views by far. Even with the tempting smell of food, the five newcomers couldn’t resist walking to the far wall for a better look.

  When they reached the glass, they looked out as far as they could see. They were clearly at the top of a mountain, or very near the top. Below, and between several smaller green mountains, they could see a very large dam glistening in the last stages of the glory of the sunrise. It was magnificent. Their eyes followed the natural beauty in front of them back to the base of their window, and it appeared as though there were no ground beneath them. It seemed they were standing at the edge of a precipice.

  Taylor turned toward Charlie and asked, “Are ya sure we’re in the right place an’ we wasn’t accidentally taken to a fancy hotel?”

  Charlie chuckled. “Come on. You’ll have plenty of time to see this later. Right now, you have to start eating, or they’ll put the food away.”

  The possibility of not getting any food brought the kids back to reality. They turned away from the window and looked back into the room. On one side, there was a full buffet. In the buffet were pancakes, sausages, eggs and bacon, and also cold foods such as pastries, cereals, yogurts, and fruit. Almost everything one might want was available for breakfast.

  “Okay. The rule is that you take a plate and can fill it up with whatever you want, however many times you want. But this morning you’ll have to be quick, since we have to get you all shown to your permanent rooms. We’ll also need to get you to your classes, Jayden.”

  Eager to eat, the four did as told and found a table where they could sit. Halfway through breakfast, Avando joined them. “Good morning, everyone. I hope you all slept well?”

  “Morning, Avando,” they responded in unison with their mouths full of food and only nodded in response to his second question.

  “Well, I must say that you all look—and smell—a whole lot better this morning than you did last night,” he said. A humorous glimmer flashed in his eyes.

  “I can’t rememba the last time I felt so good. Thanks, Avando,” Jessica replied.

  “You’re welcome, my dear. You’ll feel even better once we get your system cleaned up.” He turned to Jayden. “Are you nearly finished, Jayden? You’re coming with me for the tour while Charlie looks after the others.”

  Jayden shoveled the last of his breakfast into his mouth and started to get up. “Yep. How long until I’ll see the others again?” he asked Avando.

  “Probably a couple of weeks, depending on how well they go through the process.”

  He turned to his friends. “Good luck, guys. I’ll be thinking of you.”

  “Gee, thanks,” replied Ben with sarcasm. “You get to go to paradise and we get to go to a temporary hell.”

  “Well, it does have to be done, since you can’t come into the school until you’re clean. And you were the ones who decided to do drugs, not Jayden,” Avando reminded them.

  Ben bowed his head in acknowledgement of the truth of this. It saddened Jayden to know that his friends were in for a difficult time, but he was comforted by the fact that they’d come out feeling better and be back to their old selves.

  Leaving the others behind, Jayden and Avando left to go and discover the rest of the Sanctum. Avando’s cane clicked softly on the marble floor.

  “This’s a really awesome place you have here, Avando. I’m still a little stunned you’ve brought us here, but thank you.” He smiled at Avando. As the morning progressed, he could feel the worries of the past slowly leaving his body.

  “You’re welcome, son. I do enjoy offering opportunities and changing lives—especially for the younger ones, as the troubles of street life are easier to erase in them than in the older kids. You young people have so many years ahead of you. It gives us more time to help—and hopefully change lives for the better.” He looked down at Jayden. His dark-brown eyes were filled with compassion. “Tell me, though—why is it that you speak so much better than your friends do?”

  “I don’t understand.” Jayden said, looking quizzical.

  “Why do you not speak with the terrible street slang that they use?”

  “Oh, I guess—what’s the saying? Old habits die hard.”

  Avando looked like he didn’t understand.

  Jayden continued, “I was brought up in a family that wouldn’t accept slang like my friends use. My dad was a respected businessman, and I’d be in heaps of trouble if I spoke like they do.”

  “Well, proper speech is a habit I like the students to adopt. We do teach them to speak properly here because we don’t like slang, either.”

  “Then I guess I should fit in quicker?” He paused for a moment in thought. “What made you want to make the Sanctum and take on all these kids and teens? You could easily have just kept all your money, and used it for yourself, or your family.”

  They had reached one of the seating areas of the common room. Avando sat down, and Jayden did the same.

  “That all sounds extremely selfish, but on top of that…” A dark cloud moved over Avando’s face, and he looked as if he were in deep pain. “I don’t have a family.”

  “You don’t?” Jayden’s eyebrows rose. “Didn’t you ever have children? What about brothers and sisters?”

  “Actually,” he said, then paused. The look on his face was growing darker. “I once had all of those. I grew up in a family with three brothers and two sisters. I also had a beautiful wife and a lovely daughter who was about the same age as you.”

  “What do you mean, had?” Jayden was on the edge of his seat.

  “They’ve all passed away now.” His voice was barely audible, and he looked to the floor.

  “Passed away?” Jayden choked out the words. “How can that be?” The cloud on Avando’s face grew even darker, and his expression became more intense. Jayden assumed this was from the grief of the memories. “Did they have lots of freak accidents or something?”

  “Kind of. They all died in one tragedy,” he said. “All at once,” he added.

  Jayden stood up. This news was too much. “What happened?”

  Avando let out a deep breath. “I’d taken my wife Atasha and my daughter Tamara over to my family in the country of Casa in the little village of Doric, where I was born. My family hadn’t met Tamara before, and this was her first meeting with my extended family.”

  Jayden slowly sat back down. This sounded like it was going to be a story he didn’t want to hear while standing up.

  Avando continued, “We’d been there for a little over a week when the village was attacked by foreign fighter planes that bombed the whole village. It took only ten bombs for them to destroy it completely. After I heard the first two bombs and realized what was happening, I started to run to find Atasha and Tamara.” He paused and swallowed. “I ran outside and saw that Tamara was running toward our relative’s house, and then the fighter plane dropped another bomb right behind her.” He fiddled with his cane, which was lying against his leg. “I watche
d, helpless, as the bomb destroyed her at the same time as shrapnel hit my leg, and I was knocked unconscious by the blast. After I regained consciousness, I learned that I’d lost all my family that day.” He rubbed his crippled leg absentmindedly. “Although the agony of the injured leg was intense, it was nothing compared to the pain of losing my loved ones.”

  There were no tears today, but Jayden could tell that the pain of the past still ran very deep in Avando’s veins. “Is this why you walk with a cane?” His words felt clumsy as he tried to grasp the gravity of the situation.

  Avando nodded.

  “Did you ever find out who the attackers were, and why they did it?”

  Avando sighed. “Yes, I did. They were foreign militants who thought there were terrorists hiding in the village.”

  Jayden was horrified and recalled the images on morning’s news. He could hardly speak, but he had to ask, “Were your family—” he gulped, and then continued, “terrorists?”

  “No, they weren’t, and I’m pretty sure that if they’d known there were terrorists living in that village, they would’ve left.”

  “Did the foreign militants get the terrorists?”

  “They claimed that they did—but whether they actually did or not, I don’t know. They certainly would’ve claimed that they did to the public because there was such an outrage over the number of deaths of the innocent.”

  There was silence as Jayden tried to grasp what he’d just been told. “I hope that having us in your home and helping us makes up for some of your losses. I know that we’re not your loved ones, but I really do hope that you get some students who’ll be like your family—especially after all that you’ve done for us.”

  Avando smiled a sad smile. “I really do enjoy having you all here. I love seeing the students who really want to learn advanced techniques—the ones who are wise beyond their years—come up with great inventions and demonstrate clever skills of their own. It fulfills my life in more ways than I ever dreamed.”

  Now that the conversation was getting a little happier, Jayden started to get a better look around than he had the night before.

  “I’m surprised at the amount of money you’ve spent for a place that houses homeless people. I was expecting a simple, clean school—not this.” He indicated the surrounding extravagance.

  Avando smiled a proud smile. Jayden looked up and saw a third level of the building that he hadn’t noticed the previous night. In the common room three levels up, there were two massive skylights at each end of the room and a large window on one side of level three that allowed natural light to flood inside. This illuminated the whole area and provided the plants with natural sunlight so that they could grow and thrive.

  Realizing that there were only two people remaining in the common room, Jayden asked, “Where is everyone else?”

  “It’s after eight thirty, so they’ve all started their classes. That’s when we begin. We should get a move on and start your tour of the school. Firstly, I will show you to your room.”

  They started to climb the stairs that were to the left of the common room. When they reached the top, they came to a couple of corridors.

  Avando explained, “The daily rooms aren’t as elaborate as the guest rooms, but I hope you will still be happy.”

  “I’m sure that everything will be great.”

  At the corner of the corridors, they came across what appeared to be a large room by the absence of doors along the walls.

  “This is the girls’ bathroom. It’s totally inaccessible to boys, and Scarlet makes sure of that.”

  They followed the path to the next corridor.

  “This is the boys’ bathroom—and again, Scarlet will make sure that no girls will be able to enter.”

  Jayden thought it was weird that a computer would police the bathrooms. He was really beginning to wonder about this computer.

  Then they turned into the corridor and followed it past the two bathrooms, which were on opposite sides of the corridor. They continued along the corridor to a room at the end, on the right.

  “This is your new room. I believe that the bed in the far corner on top is not taken.” Avando pointed to the bed as Jayden studied the room. The beds looked very comfortable and clean, and that was enough for him. “Scarlet, please confirm sleeping availability,” Avando said.

  The screen next to the door lit up with the face of an attractive, middle-aged woman with long, dark hair. She spoke in a calm voice. “Confirmed, Avando. In room E, bed five on top at the far corner is available.”

  “The computer can tell who’s sleeping where?” Jayden asked Avando in surprise.

  “This isn’t an ordinary computer. There isn’t too much that the computer doesn’t know.” Avando turned to the screen again. “Scarlet, what color clothing is Jayden wearing today?”

  “Jayden is wearing blue jeans, a beige shirt, and white sneakers,” the monotone voice said while gazing at Jayden from the screen.

  “That’s easy,” Jayden scoffed. “She can see me.”

  “And…” A smile spread across her face. “May I add red underpants?”

  Jayden felt his face flushing. “Wow. This computer really does know a lot more than I thought.” Trying to take his mind off his embarrassment, he turned to study the room.

  There were four bunks and one wardrobe on the right side of the room. Again, there was a vast glass ceiling similar to the one in the guest room, which Jayden had loved. This time, there were also two glass walls. He walked over to one of the glass walls and looked out of it. The view was different than before. Across a deep, narrow valley, he could see a large mountain.

  The mountain stood at least five stories higher than his current level. In one section about two stories up was a majestic waterfall that cascaded all the way down the side of the mountain into the deep valley below.

  “Wow. Awesome. What a view! Is this seriously going to be my everyday view out of the window?”

  Avando chuckled. “It certainly is.”

  When he managed to tear his eyes away from this extraordinary sight, he looked to the west and saw an endless panorama of more tall, green mountains and deep valleys.

  He put his head to the glass and tried to look along the right side of the Sanctum as far as possible. After a good distance, he could see land. He looked down and there appeared to be a large, dark rock below them. He thought this was strange.

  “What’s this building built on? I’ve looked out a couple of the windows, and it looks like the rooms have been built on air. This room looks as though it’s on a rock, but the rock doesn’t appear to be sitting on anything.”

  Avando chuckled. “Actually, we’ve built the Sanctum inside a mountain. This isn’t really a building, as such.”

  “Really? Does it look like a building on the outside?”

  “No, it doesn’t.”

  “Can I see?” Jayden was completely intrigued. He also wasn’t convinced that you couldn’t see anything man-made from the outside.

  “Yes, of course. Now that you’ve seen your room, I can take you for a tour outside. Not for too long, though—you do have classes to start.”

  Jayden nodded, not wanting to argue with his rescuer but still determined to explore his surroundings and this very odd building.

  “What about the glass everywhere? Surely we’d see through all the windows and glass walls from the outside?” he asked, his eyebrows rising quizzically.

  “The glass is the rock that you thought we were built on when you looked out the southern window. It looks like a rock from the outside.” Avando looked amused as he watched Jayden’s reaction.

  “Why’d you build the Sanctum inside a mountain? I mean, why not just build a normal building?”

  “I love nature, and I wanted to conserve our natural resources while still blending in with the environment. This is, as you will find out, a very environmentally friendly school. In fact, I would wager, it’s the most environmentally friendly building you’ll find any
where.” Avando swelled with pride as he explained the wonder of the Sanctum.

  “Why don’t you enter it into a competition for environmentally conscious ideas? Surely you’d win if it’s better than anywhere else.”

  “I don’t really want all those strange people coming to have a look—and, besides, I’ve more than enough to do looking after you kids.” He draped his arm over Jayden’s shoulder in half a hug.

  Potential problems began to come to Jayden’s mind. “Okay then! How is the electricity run?”

  “By natural methods, of course—for example, hydro energy.”

  “What’s that?” asked Jayden, screwing up his face.

  “It’s power generated from fast-flowing water that turns the blades of a turbine, which then works like a fan and causes the blades to rotate. The turbine spins a generator to produce the electricity.”

  “Oh,” he responded, trying to understand the information. “That sounds tricky. Where is this fast-flowing water?”

  “Well, there is another waterfall on this mountain that you can’t see from here, and it’s our source of energy.” Avando removed his arm from Jayden’s shoulders as they continued strolling to the front door.

  “What happens when there hasn’t been enough rain?”

  “Then we use the energy from our wind turbine.”

  “What’s that?” Jayden asked, again unsure.

  “A wind turbine is like a windmill that has a sideways fan. This operates when the wind blows, and then it generates energy.”

  “What happens when there’s no rain and also no wind?”

  Avando laughed. “So many questions.”

  Jayden felt sheepish and looked at the ground.

  “Questions are good,” Avando reassured him. “You show potential to learn well already.” They walked a little farther, and he explained, “There being no wind would be very rare. There’s hardly ever a time when there wouldn’t be wind trying to push its way through the tight gap between two large mountains that are separated by a narrow valley. However, if we’re so unlucky as to have neither wind nor rain, then we also have solar panels that capture the energy from the sun. So between all these options, it’d be extremely rare to run out of energy—don’t you think?”