by C. S Luis
“Hey. I got the equipment,” I said setting the backpack onto the counter.
He was eating an apple when he turned. His full lips curved into a grin, despite being occupied with the piece of apple he was chewing.
“Good morning, nephew.”
There was a bowl of fake apples on the counter, which were green; Joseph was eating a red one. He swallowed licking at his lips where apple juice had dripped out of the corner of his mouth. He wiped at it with the back of his hand.
“Good, we should head out. We’re expected. Make sure you’re updated on your identity.”
“I know the drill, Joseph; I’ve done this before,” I said.
“Don’t get cocky, kid,” he said, chewing on his apple.
My plan was to head to class, but since Joseph was here I had to tag along. Things had changed. I would have to accompany him instead of getting into the routine and work.
“The director sent an update.” His eyes drifted towards me. “As you are aware, I have been transferred, and you and I are moving in with dear old dad.”
I nodded, glancing at him and waiting for the update he was referring to.
“Since your father,” he continued looking around, opening the pantry and found the trash, dropping the apple remains into it. “...doesn’t use his house a lot, he’s invited us to stay there.” Right.
I blinked at him.
“But also because your grandma died recently.” I nodded at the added info.
“Yours, I mean. Your pretend grandma,” he reassured.
I gave him a look, why would I think it was my actual grandma? I didn’t have one.
“That’s the update.” Joseph added. “well not an update, but it’s worth mentioning.”
“Great.” Considering the contents of the mission and documents I had just spent hours reading. The grandma thing was a nice touch.
Joseph laughed, the laughter of a man who was enjoying seeing me, soaking in the new information.
“Relax, hot shot. Dr. Nicholson figured a sympathetic story would help you connect with the Edwards’ granddaughter. He wanted you to be aware. It works with what communications I been having with Mr. McClellan. It was the story I gave him. So, it’s all good.” Joseph winked.
I furrowed my brow at him.
“Hey, anything helps, right?” He grinned.
“She lost her parents and grandfather, you lost your nana and your mother 2 years earlier.” He laughed. “If you ask me you have a lot in common now.”
I grabbed the cell phone from inside my backpack, there was a message from Dr. Nicholson regarding updates.
Joseph smiled. “I know it’s not the same, but it might be what you need to connect with her. Just remember you were close. Poor Grandma Müller, she will be greatly missed.” He laughed before straightening himself to look into the stainless-steel refrigerator.
“Dr. Nicholson thought it would further explain your absence from classes. Our death in the family, the move, those sorts of things.”
“I got it.”
He glanced back. There was no doubt in his eyes, I was ready.
“We just want to cover all our bases. So,” He said stepping up to me, a big smile spread over his mouth. He looked me up and down. “Not bad, not bad at all.” His eyes rolled off every part of my attire, like a staff sergeant did when he was making sure I was standing at attention. I thought it was strange he was just noticing, but realized he had, it was just taking him a moment, to offer his opinion.
“Jeans, huh?” he smirked. “They go with the vest and shirt nicely. It’s nice to see you’ve learned to dress yourself. You make me proud.”
I twisted my lip. “Funny,” I muttered.
He laughed.
“Looking sharp, nephew. Girls won’t know what hit them.” He gave me a thumbs up. “I’m wondering, how do you manage to keep them off?” Was he joking at my expense again?
“Keep them off?”
A frown greeted back from my face.
“I’m not there to socialize, Joseph.”
“I’m sure you’ve had a girlfriend, right?”
“Of course,” I said. “Many.” I didn’t want to make it sound like that. I’d taken a few to the prom, kissed them, never felt right about being with them.
“I just don’t have time for them or what they want from me, Joseph. I’m committed to the job. That’s all.”
Joseph fell silent, wondering if he had hit a delicate nerve. He softened, his expression taking on a more caring, nurturing note. I had no time for anything else. The only thing that drove me was the high and adrenaline I got from the hunt.
“You shouldn’t be afraid to love anyone, kid,” he said suddenly.
Where had that come from?
“Joseph, I have no time for anything else. What would you have me do, lie to them when I’m only going to leave? I don’t love anything, but my job. That’s what keeps me going and I’m happy with that.”
“You worry me, kid. You’re still young, you should be…” he stopped himself.
“You’re forgetting your place, Joseph.” I understood he was my guardian, and also yes, a friend.
He shook his head, “No, no of course not. You’re right. We have a job to do. You have a job to do.”
I exhaled.
“Forget it, I’m just talking out of my ass.”
I didn’t say anything. Joseph had become very comfortable and friendly with me since the start of our relationship. Sometimes he spoke the first thing that popped into his head. I guess you could say we had a very easygoing friendship.
“So just to clarify Grandma Müller is dead,” he said, our discussion forgotten. “We had a funeral a few days ago…etc... your dad’s a workaholic…blah,” He searched the cabinets, pulling open the drawers and cabinetry from each end of the kitchen. They were all empty. Didn’t he know there was never any food in a destination house? That’s why it was a refer-to-a-destination house, no one ever stayed any longer after assigned their assignment.
I observed him for a minute. “What are you doing?” I felt I had to say.
“Is there no food in this house?” he uttered.
“You know there’s never any food in a destination house.”
He grunted. “Yeah, well, I was hoping someone had left a protein shake or something.” I shook my head.
“Never mind. So, you’re ready?”
I nodded.
10
Being The Norm
It was early when we arrived. The sunlight was cascading down the corners of the building, beating off the school exterior and its old brittle Romanesque design. Joseph drove his expensive, light blue Mercedes SUV into the staff parking lot and found a space that read principal parking. He smiled pulling into the space and turned off the engine, grabbing for the computer tablet on the side of the console.
“Nice,” he whispered. You’d think he never got front row parking.
I sat on the passenger seat staring over at the building as he logged in to the tablet. The backpack laid at my feet, and I was dressed in the attire of a teenage boy who ready to engage with a crowd of his peers. However, I was far readier to engage with the disturbance that had sent us here. Feeling the adrenaline and the blood rushing into each part of my body I’d given into a long time ago, I shoved back at my blond locks. Dr. Nicholson said acceptance would connect me with whatever I was hunting; he was right.
“Your messing it up,” Joseph’s voice distracted me from the driver’s side.
He made an attempt to fix my hair. I pulled away falling against the passenger door to move as far from him as possible in such close quarters.
“That’s where I draw the line, Joseph. Hands off,” I scolded.
He claimed my hair needed a little grooming. I hated product in my hair. Joseph said I looked like one of those actors on the CW shows. “You know those teen shows, like Vampire Diaries or Riverdale. You just need to fix your hair a little…”
I gave him a glare, because I cou
ldn’t imagine him watching those shows to know what the actors looked like.
“Stop.” I said, “Just stop.”
He twisted his lip and nodded.
He dropped back into his seat.
“Fine.” he uttered.
The school’s haggard appearance made the building look deserted, but the bustle that never seemed to stop at a school breathed some life into the place. The yellow buses were lined up along the side of the building getting ready to leave the parking lot and make their routes to pick up students.
I had never gone to a normal school, up until I started on the assignments. My gym teacher, Master Chung, trained me in Chun Kuk Do, Jeet Kune Do, Jiu-Jitsu, and many other forms of martial arts. My upbringing was anything but normal; the teachers were drill sergeants who taught soldiers to disassemble and re-assemble weapons. We learned about mixing chemicals and making explosives. My studies consisted of a variety of ET product curriculum, science, technology warfare, and devices alien to this world. I was fluent in several languages.
Joseph closed the tablet, and grabbed for the briefcase in the back seat, putting it inside. He narrowed his dark eyes over at me. I hated that I hadn’t been allowed to drive my car. Wasn’t I a senior? I felt ridiculous riding with my ‘uncle’.
“Explain to me again why I couldn’t drive my car today, Joseph?”
He smiled wide, it made him appear like the cat that swallowed the canary. “It’s just for today, Nephew”
“Can we drop the alias for now?” I asked.
“Nope,” he said nonchalantly. I think he liked calling me nephew. “We have to stay in character. You know the drill.” He never dropped character even when we were alone. He said it was dangerous, someone might catch us or worse, we could forget while in public spaces. This way it stuck; we were always who we were pretending to be. I thought it was BS. I thought he liked changing names and becoming someone else.
“You ready?” He opened his door before I could answer him.
Grabbing my backpack off the floor, I opened the passenger door of the car. I stepped onto the unbalanced gravel beneath the soles of my brown boots stumbling slightly as I walked on. Had they not even the funds to pave the parking lot?
Joseph moved first. The gravel crushed beneath our feet was a little noisy as we walked toward the building. I hurried alongside him swinging the backpack over my shoulder. A repeat of my last performance, this whole scene was so familiar, minus Joseph.
He glanced back at me and gave me one of his grins. “This should be easy, Nephew. I always wanted to go back to school.”
“Seriously?”
He laughed. “Shut up, will you.”
He looked so professional. Not that he didn’t usually, but now he had a briefcase instead of a gun, so it added to his appeal. Most people probably found him a little intimidating, but he was far from it. In fact, he was probably the most down to earth guy one would ever meet. I think we were well-fitted for each other.
We stopped at the entrance of the building. It was just half-passed six in the morning. Principal’s hours. I was familiar with school hours by now.
“So, here we go,” I said.
Joseph smiled back at me, and we both moved forward up the steps. Behind us, the school buses were moving, leaving the side of the building to retrieve their cargo.
The empty halls were dark, dreadful, depressing, and in desperate need of repairs. The paint looked worn and faded. If these walls could talk, I feared what they would say.
We walked along the hallway. To our left was a stairwell. To the right, the doors leading to the cafeteria were wide open. Inside, colorful folded cafeteria tables lined each side. It looked like any other ordinary cafeteria. Along the other end of the hall we passed up two Coke and snack vending machines. The school bell surprised Joseph. We hurried down the long-extended hall that seemed to have no end. We passed a few offices to the left and right. ‘J. Claypool, Assistant Principal’ and ‘R. Vasquez, Assistant Principal’ were written in plaques on their respective office doors. These would be two individuals Joseph would have to get to know as new principal.
We passed a school mascot the sculpture of a buffalo by the entrance near the trophy shelves. To our right, there was a library and finally the main office to our left.
I noticed movers coming out of the office, a box of items was laying near the door; there was shattered glass scattered on the floor nearby. Joseph looked in when another person stepped out. It was time to play our roles.
“You ready, Nephew?”
“You think it’s okay I come along with you?”
“Yeah, why not?” Joseph said. “It’s important to get you acquainted with the staff. Those were the wishes of our boss.” He grinned. Right.
Suddenly, I felt nauseated and unsteady for the first time. My head started spinning. I blinked trying to get my bearings; I was trying to fight the feeling coming over me. It was hard to focus on what was happening around me. Electrified one moment drained and weak the next. A strength I had never felt before filled me. Something powerful was calling to me, like a sense of urgency. Everything was drawing me to a force I couldn’t detect, but wanted to be closer to. It was as if a part of me I had just discovered existed. I gasped exhausted, Joseph’s eyebrows furrow, he seemed troubled.
I closed my eyes fighting it. Suddenly, I found myself alone in the hallway, yet I could sense another presence close by. In the distance, I spotted a girl around my age. She had long brown hair falling freely to her hips. She had beautiful bronze skin.
Hello? Her voice broke through my thoughts. I think she was as confused as I was to find me here.
Hello? I answered.
It’s you again? I asked. Where are you?
How can I hear you? she said.
I don’t know. This shouldn’t be…
She faded, and I lost her in the darkness. The halls seemed to have swallowed her. I felt a strong urge wash over me to seek her out. My legs tingled with the need to run and find her. Adrenaline fueled my need to help her. She needed me. There was something about her, something that drew me. I didn’t understand any of it, but I wanted to, I had to.
I searched and searched the school. Coming around another corner, there she was.
Hello? I said, unsure of the feelings pumping and fueling the veins in my body with a sensation to be near her. I wanted to get close, and something wanted me to find her. Something was bringing us together.
Moving towards her quickly a sudden powerful surge of energy hit me and took me off guard. I had never felt so alive. It was coming from her! I took a breath trying to gather myself. I wanted to reach her; I wanted to know her inside and out. Everything about this energy begged me to stay near her. I wanted to fight it, afraid of the source that both drew and made me resist her. But I couldn’t withstand the battle. I no longer wanted to let go.
“Who are you?” I asked her, I was in pain from fighting emotions I couldn’t resist. I feared if I allowed her to take a hold of me, I would lose myself. It was useless, I was powerless to resist this current flowing between us.
Pushing against it, and I found her beautiful brown eyes staring right at me. She was far lovelier than I originally thought. She was dressed in a fitted flowery top, dark blue jeans, and red Dr. Martens.
I wanted to know her.
She moved back when I neared unafraid but intrigued. Just as I was.
“You’re real?”
Taking a deep breath, I felt exhausted having finally reached her.
“I feel like I’ve known you my whole life.” I asked caught like a moth to a burning flame. “Who are you?”
My instincts as a hunter felt it first the predator was near.
“You give me strength and, yet I feel so weak in your presence. Who are you? Why do I feel connected to you?” I assaulted her with my questions, despite the warning of danger tingling through my system.
She reached a hand out to touch my face and I lost it. Her mere touch had sent f
ire down my veins. I was alive by a force I had never known nor felt before. There was an electricity in her fingertips when they touched my cheek sending sensations all throughout my body. The hunter inside me was awake ready to escape!
“You okay, Nephew?” Joseph asked, snapping me out of whatever vision I’d been trapped in.
I’d had no control of myself with her, but I regained it now. I didn’t know what to tell him, because I wasn’t sure what I was feeling or where I had gone.
I couldn’t explain it. I had lost control over what seemed a mere girl?
“You’re looking a little green there, champ.” Joseph put a hand on my shoulder, and the feeling left me just as fast as it had taken me. What the fuck was that?
“You okay?” Joseph asked again.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine. I didn’t get enough sleep last night. I think I’m just tired.” Something was connecting us. It hurt from the inside, like someone had merged with my soul and was being torn away.
“Maybe you should sit this one out.”
Seriously? I wouldn’t do that even if I had the flu. But he was joking and gave me a single smile and nod.
“I’m fine, Joseph. Not enough sleep. Ok? I think I’m just ready to get into this.” I spoke a little too loudly. I was startled when another mover came out with a few large boxes.
From the other end of the hall, I caught sight of a man with salt and pepper hair and black, thick eyebrows approaching. His large blue eyes greeted us with a warm and friendly smile.
The chaos and adrenaline was still racing in my veins. I bit my lip hard, cutting through it and tasted blood.
Overwhelmed and excited I regain control of my emotions.
“Hello,” Joseph said immediately as the man came to stand in front of us.
“I’m Joseph Müller, the new principal. Would you be so kind as to point me in the direction of Michael McClellan’s office?”
“Dr. Müller?” the man said with a spreading smile. He reached for Joseph’s hand and shook it. “It’s a pleasure. I thought you had changed your mind,” Mr. McClellan joked. As he caught sight of me beside Joseph, he offered me a simple smile.