by EJ Wozniak
“Look here . . .” Allister pointed to a couple of the thorns. There was something that was dark red..
“What is it?”
“This, my boy, is blood. It looks like whoever is doing this, may have cut themselves when picking the thistles from your mother’s garden. Don’t be alarmed, but we have reason to believe that this is the work of a student.”
Lumen scratched his head.
“A student? How is that possible?”
“Don’t you worry about that part; I just need you to look out for anyone that may have a cut or a bandage covering a cut. Anything would help.”
Lumen nodded. He felt good again.
“Yeah, I can do that.”
Allister smiled.
“Good, off you go. Class starts soon.”
Lumen felt great. He had a mission today: find someone with a cut.
* * *
Lumen jumped home and landed exactly where he planned, in his room. He was nervous he would accidentally open a window and land in sight of his mom. Lumen couldn’t let that happen; he thought she would probably lose her mind.
Lumen decided to tell Alice he was going to Alec’s for the day to help him babysit. As he was lying to his mom, he realized that Alec lied to him all this time about what he did on Friday nights. Alice thought that was sweet of Lumen and reminded him of her date that night.
“I won’t be home when you get back. I’ll leave some dinner money for you.”
Lumen rolled his eyes and yelled “Bye!” as he walked out of the house.
He went back to the same spot he jumped from before: on the side of a house about a block down the street.
He opened a window and landed in the Paxum. The students were walking to their respective cabins to drop down to class. Lumen ran into Till on the way to the cabin. She was wearing jeans, different from her typical sundress attire. They looked good on her, Lumen thought.
“First full day, you excited?” She asked.
Lumen nodded. He didn’t want to talk to Till too much now that he had an official girlfriend.
They walked side by side to the cabin and down into the classrooms underground.
Till attempted to grab Lumen’s hand on the elevator down. Lumen pulled his hand back.
“Look, you’re cool and all, but I think we need to stay friends. I have a girlfriend now.”
Till’s face didn't change. She didn’t seem to care.
“It won’t last. How are you supposed to hide all of this? It’s only a matter of time before you know what is right.”
She smiled and walked away. It got him thinking. How would he keep this secret his whole life?
Lumen sat down, and the rest of the students filed in. Till still decided to sit next to him. Yu came in wearing his typical beat up baseball cap. Lucy wasn’t far behind him, wearing a band shirt as usual; this band was called “The Coyotes.” Lumen jokingly wondered if the band members went to Bromide High. She waved to Lumen as she sat down.
It was 8:01 AM. Mr. Durum looked up at the class.
“Where is Chester?”
The class looked around at one another. Lucy spoke up.
“We haven’t seen him, Mr. Durum. He kind of keeps to himself.”
Mr. Durum frowned.
“His loss. Let’s get started. Turn to page 19 in . . .”
The door burst open, and there was Chester, sweating profusely. He made his way into the classroom and took a seat in the open chair on the other side of Lumen.
“Thank you for joining us, Chester. Don’t let it happen again. I don’t like being interrupted.”
Mr. Durum had the habit of scaring students, although Chester didn’t seem fazed by them. He simply wiped the beads of sweat off his forehead and pulled a notebook out of his backpack. When his hand emerged from the bag Lumen noticed a bandage; it appeared to be newly wrapped.
Lumen didn’t know if he could wait until class was over to tell Allister.
Chapter 12 – Hiding in Plain Sight
Lumen decided to wait until after class. He remembered Allister telling him not to start a commotion over anything. He also didn’t want Mr. Durum making a big deal out of him leaving abruptly in the middle of lessons.
Lumen needed to find Allister to tell him about his suspicions of Chester. Class ended and he headed straight out to the foyer area where all the Eauge students hung out in between classes. He found Alec exiting his class. When Lumen peeked inside his classroom he saw a few students soaking wet from head to toe alongside an older woman that Lumen presumed was the teacher. Alec was smiling.
“Hey, Alec, where can I find Allister this time of day?”
“He should be in his cabin, what’s going on?”
Alec could see the intensity in Lumen’s eyes.
“It’s about that thing . . . you know, that we aren’t supposed to talk about . . .”
Alec looked around to make sure no one was listening.
“What’s going on?” he whispered.
Lumen leaned in and spoke in a whisper as well.
“I think Chester has something do with the fires, I need to let Allister know. Actually, can you keep an eye on him while I go?”
Alec nodded and walked in the direction of Chester, toward the back of the Genaqua to the forest.
Lumen opened a window to Allister’s cabin and jumped through. He had no problem arriving there this time. Allister stood over the fire, one hand on the mantle and the other holding his smoking pipe.
“Hello, Lumen, what can I help you with?”
Lumen felt anxious with the information he knew. He regurgitated what he had just seen to Allister. Allister didn’t move from his position as he took in Lumen’s observations.
He puffed his pipe a couple more times. Lumen sat in silence for a few moments. He thought he may have said something wrong.
“Very good, Lumen. I want you to keep an eye on Chester. Stay close with him. He may be very dangerous, so if at any given moment that danger presents itself, you need to leave immediately. Is your luxem set up properly?”
Lumen nodded. He had it set for Allister’s cabin.
“Good, I know this is a precarious position to be in, but we need all the help we can get. If the board were to find out the others or I were following a child around based off of limited evidence, they would have my head.”
Lumen’s eyes widened. He hadn’t realized this world was so cut throat. That same feeling in his gut returned, the same one he felt when he did not know what had happened to his mother after the fire in their backyard.
Allister noticed the worried look on Lumen’s face.
“Not literally, my boy. Just a figure of speech. You need to get back now. This stays between you and I. Tell Alec to come see me if you could.”
Lumen nodded and opened a window back to the Genaqua.
He landed in the same spot from where he left and proceeded to run over to Alec. He was standing 30 feet or so from Chester who was sitting on a rock above the snow, playing with a Rubix cube.
“He hasn’t done much except play with that cube. Some kids threw some snow at him. He didn’t do anything about it, just wiped the snow off and kept playing with the cube.”
Lumen couldn’t help but think that that reminded him of himself; he also let that kind of bullying happen. With that, Lumen realized the people there were the same as the people where he was from, just with more abilities to torment each other.
“Allister wants to see you. I’m going to keep an eye on him for now,” Lumen said nodding in the direction of Chester.
Alec patted Lumen on the back.
“Okay, man, be careful. Once this is all over, we should celebrate. I feel like you haven’t been able to fully appreciate all of this yet. I’ve got to show you The Danse. It’s a good time.”
“The Dance . . .?”
“Yeah, it’s a hall to hang out in. There are some games, good food, just a good time. It’s back in Entropolis.”
Lumen nodded.
Lumen wondered if Till goes there.
Alec jumped to Allister’s cabin. Lumen sat down on a bench and glanced over at Chester every once in a while.
Chester didn’t move too often. He played with his Rubix cube, put in some headphones, and wiped some more snow off that was tossed at him.
Their break period ended. Lumen had the same class as Chester again: Pluviam. Lumen followed Chester in and found a seat behind him toward the back of the classroom. As they walked in, Professor J was sitting at the front of the class reading a book. Lucy came in and sat to Lumen’s left; when Till arrived she sat on the right. She smiled and waved. It was like she had already forgotten about Lumen telling her to leave him alone. Maybe Lumen could convince her to just be friends with him.
Professor J went over how to control water in clouds .
“I’m not asking for you all to make this water and cloud appear in the classroom; I’ll do that for you easily,” Professor J said smugly.
“I just want you to be able to hold the cloud above without letting the water pour down. Let’s get a volunteer up here to show us how it’s done.”
Professor J conjured a small cloud at the front of the room. It was dark, just like the clouds one would see before a major storm is about to hit, only the size of a plush pillow. Nobody raised their hand to volunteer.
“Fine, I’ll pick . . . You, Lucy, come up here.”
Lucy got up nervously, made sure her black and red checkered flannel was tied around her waist securely, and walked to the front. She took off her fanny pack.
“Stand here,” Professor J pointed underneath the cloud.
“I assume you did the reading assigned?”
“Yes, professor.” Lucy said as if that was a given.
Professor J nodded with approval.
“Good, I am going to relinquish control of this cloud in just a few moments. All you need to do is keep the cloud from releasing all of the water held within. If you don’t, well, let’s just say I hope you have a change of clothes.” He said all of this with a little smirk on his face.
Lucy seemed nervous but determined. She had a new band shirt on today, “Goofproof”, with a clown face sticking its tongue out and X’s for eyes. Lumen thought it was cool.
“Are you ready?”
Lucy nodded and stood as if she was preparing to fight.
“Okay, here we go . . . and it . . . is . . . all . . . yours . . .”
Professor J stepped back. Lucy stood there, looking at the cloud above her, hands above her head as if she were literally holding the water within it from falling.
Nothing happened. The cloud remained as it was, no water fell onto Lucy. The class remained silent. Professor J’s smirk slowly disappeared as time went on.
He waved his arm in the air quickly, and the cloud disappeared.
“Very good. Back to your seat.”
The classroom clapped as she walked back, and Lucy had a smile on her face.
“Nice job, that was awesome. I think he’s is a bit disappointed you succeeded,” Lumen whispered to her. Lucy chuckled.
“Yeah, that was my main concern, not to fail in front of him for his entertainment.” They both laughed quietly before Professor J spoke again.
“Alrighty, thank you, Lucy. You all are going to pair up and do the same thing. The pair that can manage the biggest cloud will get a small prize. Let’s get started.”
He split everyone off into pairs. There were 26 of them in class. Lucy and Lumen were paired together, Chester was paired with Till.
“Okay, I will be making your clouds slightly bigger after a few moments. It will be harder to control as more water accumulates in the clouds. Last pair standing gets a prize. Here we go . . .”
Professor J conjured thirteen clouds, one above each pair. These clouds were a little bit bigger than the one Lucy managed in the front of the class. Lumen was nervous. He needed to keep an eye on Chester while helping to keep his and Lucy’s cloud afloat; luckily, it looked like Lucy had been practicing.
“Here . . . we . . . go . . . it’s all you.”
Professor J relinquished control of each of the clouds. All of the students bent down, as if they were holding something heavy above their heads, trying to prevent it from crushing them.
Chester and Till failed almost immediately. The cloud rained down on them and they were soaked.
“Way to go, Chester! These are my favorite jeans!” Till yelled. Chester looked flustered and scurried out of the classroom. Lumen watched him go and almost followed when a few drops fell onto his head. He immediately stepped back into stance and refocused on the cloud; he needed the other groups to fail. Professor J added water to each cloud every thirty seconds or so. After a couple of times of adding water, there were only two groups left, Lucy and Lumen being one of them. Lumen found himself sweating. Nothing in the textbook explained how difficult this would be physically, Lumen thought. Professor J added just a little bit more to each cloud and the other group collapsed to the floor, drenched in water. He then waved and the cloud above Lumen and Lucy disappeared.
“Lucky Lucy not getting wet at all today. Very good. Lumen’s lucky to have you as a partner. I want you all to know that I could dry you all quickly by removing the water from your clothes but that wouldn’t teach you anything. Read chapter three and four by next class. Go dry off and study. Oh, Lucy and Lumen, you will receive an extra five percent boost on the first test.”
Lucy high fived Lumen.
“Great job! We kind of killed it in there. We should partner up for all the group activities. We can avoid getting wet most days, hopefully.”
Lumen laughed quickly and awkwardly as he regained focus on Chester.
“That sounds great. I got to run, I’ll catch you later.”
Lumen ran out of the class in desperate search of Chester. He looked toward the end of the Genaqua where the snow and trees were. He saw the last bit of Chester heading into the forest. Gotcha. Lumen took off running toward him.
From the looks of it, Chester seemed to be in a rush. He frequently looked over his shoulder to, Lumen assumed, see if anyone was following him. Lumen wasn’t far behind and tried to stay hidden so that Chester couldn’t see him. Chester disappeared into the trees.
Lumen ran to catch up to him, and suddenly he was nowhere to be found. Chester was gone. He must have jumped where Lumen couldn’t see. Lumen thought he may have got too close.
Where could he have gone? I thought it was impossible to jump from the Genaqua? I need to tell Allister.
* * *
“Back so soon, are ya? What’d you find out?”
Lumen was still panting from chasing Chester.
“Well, he left class early after failing to hold a cloud with Till . . .”
Allister laughed.
“Oh Jeremiah, he loves that stuff. Great teacher, bit of a sadist though. Good guy overall.”
Lumen felt like Allister wasn’t taking him seriously.
“Yeah, great guy,” Lumen said sarcastically. “Anyway, Chester took off right after he failed. I chased after him once class was finished but he disappeared into the woods. I think he jumped somewhere.”
Allister stopped smiling and scratched his chin under his coarse salt and pepper beard, adjusting the goggles on top of his head. The straps appeared to be getting worn.
“Interesting . . . good work. Nothing you can do for now. When he returns, back to watching him. Thank you, Lumen. This has been very helpful.”
Compliments from Allister felt very good to Lumen. He wanted to impress him for some reason. Alec thinks highly of him, maybe that’s why I feel that way, he thought.
“How could he have jumped? I thought it wasn’t possible down there?” Lumen asked.
Allister scratched his chin again. He eyebrows furrowed and seemed to struggle coming up with an answer.
“I thought so too. The lights will present themselves when needed most, regardless
of measures taken to avoid that. . . Back to the Paxum. We will meet again soon.”
* * *
Lumen finished up classes for the day. His first Saturday was complete and he was exhausted. He didn’t have to rush home as Alice was going on a date. Afterwards, he went with Lucy and Yu to the Genaqua’s food hall for the first time. The hall contained all sorts of food and drinks, but Lumen chose to stick with the food he knew he would like. The hall didn’t have any drinks he recognized. There was bottle after bottle lined up on the beautifully carved wooden shelves. Finally, Lumen grabbed a classic Hutchinson style glass bottle. The label read “Whistleberry Juice.” Lumen thought it sounded interesting. He kept the bottle and walked out with Lucy and Yu, following with their own juices and pockets.
“Why is it called whistleberry?” Lumen asked.
Lucy pulled an odd shaped red flower from the ground. In place of the usual flower center was a berry. Lucy proceeded to squeeze the berry and it made a loud whistling noise.
“Ah, makes sense now,” he said as he uncovered his ears. Yu giggled as he washed down the last of his pocket with the juice. Lumen thought it tasted like orange and cranberry juice mixed together. They all sat together and ate and drank and laughed. Yu asked about Pluviam class.
“How’d you guys keep that cloud up for so long? I felt like I really had a hold but my partner was useless,” Yu said.
“We both did our part. It’s nice having a partner that can hold their own. All my life, peers have jumped on my back for help and answers. It was nice to see the effort reciprocated for once,” Lucy said as she smiled at Lumen. Lumen blushed from the compliment.
“That was mostly you, I had no idea that would be so hard,” Lumen replied.
“Well you two are lucky. You don’t have to walk around with wet clothes. You know how much colder it is when you’re soaking wet?” Yu asked. They all laughed together.
Lumen was happy to be making friends there.
When Lucy went back up to the Paxum so that she could jump home and Yu retired to his dorm, Lumen stayed behind. He sat down and glanced around the Genaqua; it was littered with students walking around with bottles of juice discussing their classes.