Because of the Humanists’ protest and their failure at the auditions, Adaru’s mother decided that they were not going to the zone the next day. Adaru was relieved after hearing this.
In the morning, he turned on the television. As he expected, the news were all about the small earthquake. The reporter on the TV was saying how New Haven was not known for tremors, so this one caught everyone by surprise, especially when the center was far away from any known faults.
He knocked in Faith’s room to know if she was awake. She was and he entered to see her looking outside from her window.
“How did you sleep?” Adaru asked.
“I had a nightmare again,” she said.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t hear you this time,” Adaru said.
“I didn’t scream because I am getting used to them. I know screaming won’t help anymore.”
“You know they are only dreams, right?” Adaru said.
“They are not dreams. They feel different. They feel just like the dream I had with the girl who was hit by a car,” Faith said.
“That was a coincidence,” Adaru said, trying to convince her and himself.
“I didn’t know it at the time, but I had a dream with the mustache guy. The man you jumped over at your hearing,” Faith said turning toward him. “I dreamt he came for me.”
“For what?”
“To take me to the zone. He wanted me to live in the zone.”
“That’s a good thing. Mom would be thrilled.”
“But I don’t want to go,” she said, “I’m scared to go.”
“I know what you mean. New city, and all different kind of people,” he said.
“Do you want to live in the zone?” Faith asked.
Adaru was going to say no. He would be uncomfortable with all the freaks. Also, they would still live in constant fear of being found out and that they will be visited by police officers like the ones Adaru met the day before.
“I think it would not be as great as people say it will be,” he said.
“I don’t want live there, because I was there in my nightmares,” Faith said. “If we go, something bad will happen.”
“What will happen?”
“I don’t know. I dreamt I was in a white room on top of a building that looked like a crystal. I could see outside the building and everything was white but it starts getting dark. There’s darkness everywhere, and I am afraid. Somebody wants to hurt me, and I think there’s a man inside the darkness, but I cannot see him,” Faith said.
“How do you know it will happen if we are in the zone?”
“I was wearing those bracelets people in the zone wear, but it was white” Faith said. “I don’t even know how I became like this!”
Adaru had heard a lot of stories of how people first showed their abilities. One day, they were normal and the other they were destroying their houses when they couldn’t control their strength. There is a story his mom used to tell about a neighbor who could control the water. Everybody found out he had an ability when, in a sunny day, water started to pour from inside his house. In a very short time, it flooded the entire street, carrying cars and people away.
Adaru was nervous that his sister was starting to get an ability like that.
He decided to stay inside his home those two days. In part to keep an eye on Faith, but Adaru was also fearful that the police from the zone were looking for them in New Haven.
On Monday, he had no choice but to get out to school.
On recess, he was talking with Joe and Nathan about their experiences in the Zone. Unlike Adaru, they wanted to go back.
Joe was still excited about how he floated for a couple of minutes. Nathan was telling him about a young girl who lifted him, a bench and a horse with her two arms.
Then, Nathan shifted the conversation to talk about Jade.
“Looks like something happen between you two during Evolution Day,” Nathan said.
“We just hanged out together,” Adaru said trying to be cool.
“Well, I guess I have to warn you. I heard Lester has set his eyes on her,” Nathan said seriously.
“He has a girlfriend already,” Adaru said.
“I heard he broke up with her,” Nathan said. “I heard he wants Jade. He is interested in her because of her hair.”
“Who likes someone because of her hair?” Joe said.
“I guess someone like Lester. Of all the girlfriends I know he has had, none of them had Jade’s hair,” Nathan responded.
Adaru couldn’t blame Lester in liking Jade’s light blonde hair. He was concerned by the news, however. Lester was the class president and the hero of the debate team. Everybody liked him. You could ask any girl and they will tell you, he was the best looking student at the school.
But Adaru knew Jade did not like Lester. She had not told him that exactly, but she wasn’t the kind of girl who goes for appearances, Adaru thought.
“I also heard Mitch didn’t come to class today,” Nathan said.
“Mitch has skipped classes before, even since elementary school,” Joe said.
“Not this time. I heard he is purchasing M-pills so he can live in the zone,” Nathan said grimly.
“He is purchasing abilities? But that’s dangerous, and strictly illegal,” Joe said nervously.
“Thank you, captain obvious. We all attended the classes given by the police. Still, Mitch always wanted to live there,” Nathan said.
“Almost everyone wants to live there,” Adaru said.
At that time, music started on the school’s speaker system.
“Apparently somebody wants to entertain us with music,” Nathan said.
“Or is just the end of recess,” Adaru said.
When classes ended, he saw Jade at the entrance of the school. Lester was there too. He wanted to talk to her, but he was surrounded by Jade’s friends. Adaru decided to take Jade away from the entrance.
She smiled at him, and he got nervous. If Lester was actually trying to get her, he had to strike first.
“I was wondering if you are doing anything tomorrow?” he asked.
“I have a birthday party tomorrow,” she said.
Adaru felt disappointed, but he couldn’t give up.
“What about the day after that?”
Jade smiled.
“Why do you want to do something? We just went together to Evolution Day.”
“It wasn’t just us. I wanted to take you to the movies. Besides, I need to make up that I left you alone with your parents on the way back,” Adaru said.
“Joe and Nathan were also with me.”
“So sorry about that.”
Jade laughed and for a moment, Adaru thought everything was brighter.
“I am busy all this week. Today, I have basketball practice,” she said. “Do you want to come and eat something afterwards?”
Adaru couldn’t hide his glee.
“Of course. I’ll see you then!”
The smile never left Adaru’s face. He couldn’t hide it from Faith when they met after school, who seemed worried because she had never seen him that happy before. When he told her he had a date with Jade, she raised an eyebrow.
“Does she know it’s a date?” Faith said.
“Yeah, of course.”
“Did you tell her you were going on a date?”
“Not exactly.”
“Then it’s not a date. She is just hanging out with you.”
“Still, it’s time we are spending together,” Adaru said.
“That’s true.”
The siblings walked in silence. When they arrived at their apartment building, they were surprised that there was a large crowd at the entrance. Faith grabbed Adaru’s hand and he thought that she was afraid.
“It’s not the Humanists. They are our neighbors. Let’s see what is going on,” he said, trying to calm her down.
When they got closer, they could hear the laughter and clapping. There were minor fireworks, but it didn’t sound like fireworks.
“Oh my, how lucky you are! Didn’t you have an audition?” someone said.
“We didn’t know he had an ability until this morning,” a woman said.
Adaru got the front to see a young boy, probably younger than Faith, making smalls balls of fire from his hands. Everyone was mesmerized by the perfect, round and beautiful orange spheres of flames that he was creating. He threw two to the skies and they exploded, forming red fireworks.
Everybody clapped. They were clearly excited even though most of them should have seen a similar spectacle just that weekend.
“So when are you going to live in the zone?” a man said. Adaru could hear the hint of jealousy in his voice.
“I called them this morning. They told me to not take him to school since someone can come today. They didn’t tell me a time,” the mother said.
“Classic government people. They think we have all the time in their world to just wait for them whenever they feel like it,” a man said.
“As long as they pay for our food and rent, I will wait for them all week,” the mother said again and everyone laughed.
Adaru was curious to know what more the boy could do, but he felt Faith pulling him away.
“We need to go now,” she said.
They climbed the stairs and when they were at their floor Adaru asked what was wrong.
“The people of the zone are coming. They are coming for me,” she said.
“No they are not,” Adaru said. “They are only coming to see that boy. Not you.”
“I know I have an ability. I know they will find out,” Faith said, now more in a panic.
“Your dreams are just that, dreams,” Adaru said grabbing her by the shoulders, but he also doubted that. “Just relax.”
Faith hugged Adaru, hiding her face on his chest. Adaru thought she was about to cry.
“You are really that scared to go in the zone?” Adaru asked while combing her hair with his fingers.
“Yes. I think someone wants me there.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know. Just a bad man, a man made of darkness,” Faith said.
“There’s no man made of darkness,” Adaru said.
“Like there is no boy who can make fire?” Faith said raising his head so she could see Adaru’s eyes.
“That’s different.”
The rest of the afternoon, the siblings didn’t talk. Their mother arrived some time later and went to her room. Adaru remembered that Jade got out of practice at 5 p.m., just little more than an hour away. It was an eternity.
He walked to the closet of his room. He opened it and picked a shirt that he thought would look nice on him. His eyes lingered on a box at the corner. He grabbed the yellow lunchbox and he opened it to see the folded papers and the crisp one hundred bills.
“What’s that?” Faith said at the entrance. Adaru tried to hide it but it was too late. He better came clean to his sister.
“Things that our father left us,” Adaru said.
“Can I see it?”
“I honestly prefer you didn’t. They are just things you should not know about dad,” Adaru said.
“Just tell me, is that box important for you?”
“Very.”
Adaru heard the door closed. He went to his room and started opening the folded papers. Two were birthday cards from his dad. Another one was a receipt from the very first time he helped his dad at his work. Of course, by doing that, Adaru was breaking many federal laws. But at that time, he was just so happy to be with his dad on an adventure.
Then he saw what he was afraid of remembering. Adaru saw the blue pin with an H engraved at the bottom of the box. He looked at it with shame. Before, it was just a pin that made Adaru curious to know more about his father’s past. Now, it was shameful because of what happened to Faith and him on that Evolution Day.
The pin was proof that his father once belonged to The Humanists. His father was always telling them about all the work they were doing to save the world from freaks and also how he fooled them every single day he got into the zone with contraband and then came back with money and equipment to sell in New Haven’s black market.
Adaru was proud of his father, and he agreed with some of his beliefs. He also knew he loved Faith, and he could not deny she was one of the freaks.
The people who threw tomatoes and eggs to him and Faith seemed normal, so it was possible that Adaru’s father could had been in that crowd. He could have been in that crowd.
He always remained behind when the family went to the Alpha Zone on past Evolution Days. He said he didn’t want to meet a disgruntled customer. When they came back, he was never at home. Sometimes, he never returned until days or weeks later.
Adaru thought it was like eight months ago that he said he needed to do something for a friend. He never came back. His mom answered a phone call that made her say obscenities. She had already finished six beers and it was only early afternoon.
She said that their father was not coming back for a long time.
“The stupid allowed himself to be caught,” she said.
She didn’t say what he did. Faith only knew her father was in prison. Now, Adaru didn’t want her to know he used to belong to the same group that threw her a tomato. A group that would hate Faith if they knew she had an ability.
“Dad, would you hate Faith too?” Adaru thought. “Do I have to hate her too?”
Adaru remembered a day he had came back with dirty clothes, scratches and blood coming out from his nose and mouth. He had gotten in a fight with someone over his poor clothes. His father gave him a light tap on his head with his knuckles.
“Stupid boy, what matters is what is inside your head, not your clothes” he said to him.
Adaru grabbed two bills of ten and put everything back in the lunch box and then back into the closet. He got out for his appointment with Jade at the school. He was nervous, so he did some flips on the streets and jumped on top of walls as a way to vent his nervousness.
When he got to the school, there was still music blasting from the speakers. Jade was waiting for him outside.
“Am I late?” Adaru asked nervously.
“No. Practice ended early,” she said not looking at him. She looked like she had something on her mind.
“”So do you want to eat something?” Adaru asked.
“Huh?” Jade said, looking at him. “Oh, yeah. “
He tried starting a conversation with Jade, but she was distracted. He asked what she was thinking.
“Nothing,” she said.
They went to a food stand and ordered two hamburgers. Adaru asked for one with double cheese.
“I really love cheese,” he said to Jade while paying for the meal and trying to make conversation.
It was then than a fire truck zoomed past them, and then an ambulance and two police cars.
“What’s going on?” Jade asked.
“It appears there is a fire nearby,” another customer said.
Adaru looked to the corner when the patrols turned. He then looked at the sky and saw smoke engulfing several buildings. The smoke came from the block where he lived.
He then became very afraid. He needed to go back. He looked at Jade’s eyes. She knew what he was thinking.
“Go,” she said.
Adaru ran and didn’t stop until he reached his home street. He turned a corner to see his apartment complex on fire. Neighbors were outside, some screaming and others crying.
“What happened?” he asked.
“We don’t know. Suddenly all of the first and second floors got engulfed in flames. We had to get to the other side of the building to escape,” a man said.
“Have you seen my sister or my mother?” he asked. The man said no.
Adaru ran to the front of the building. He could only see the last floor and the firemen were scrambling to get their hoses working. Adaru could only see one big stream of water disappearing in the smoke.
He screamed for Faith, hoping that she could hear him and yell back. He saw neighbors but nobody could tell him if Faith had made it outside.
“I saw your mom leave before the fire started,” a woman said. “Maybe she went with her?”
Adaru’s wanted to believe that, but he knew she was at a bar getting drunk.
That meant that Faith was still inside.
“Someone bring the ladder! There are people trapped in the upper floors!” a fireman shouted.
Adaru ran to the fire truck that had a big steel ladder. He was stopped by a bulky fireman who was already sweating.
“My sister is trapped in the third floor! Please save her!” he screamed.
“We can’t go to the third floor right now,” the fireman said. “Are you sure she is there?”
“I left her there,” Adaru said.
“But are you sure? We can’t get in the second floor or third.”
Panic filled Adaru. He knew Faith was there but he realized that the firemen would not go searching for her. He saw that the truck started to move the metallic ladder.
“Go back!” the fireman said. Adaru nodded and he turned. He looked back to make sure the fireman had returned to fight the fire. When he had gone away, Adaru ran to get up the ladder truck.
“Hey! Stop!” he heard.
He climbed up the truck and then the ladder as fast as he could. When he got to the top, it was a couple of feet away from the fourth floor railing. He jumped and reached it. He pulled himself to the other side and came face to face with a neighbor.
“Are you here to save me?” he asked.
“No, but if you wait they can take you down,” Adaru said.
Adaru stood up and ran to the stairs to get down. The smoke was thick and he started coughing when he got to his floor. He counted the doors until he reach the fourth and opened it to get inside his apartment.
He felt the heat from the flames downstairs. He didn’t have enough time.
“Faith!” he yelled.
Silence.
“Faith!” he yelled again.
And silence responded again. She may had left or escaped already.
Or she may be unconscious somewhere inside.
He started going to her room. He yelled for her name a third time.
“Here!” he heard from his own room.
He turned and walked to his room. He yelled for her and found Faith at the side of the bed. She was holding his lunch box.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“I was going out when the fire started but I remember you had left your special box. I tried to save it but the smoke got too thick,” she said.
“Stupid. It wasn’t that important,” Adaru said. “Now, come on. We have to get out.”
He grabbed her hand and led her outside. They both coughed when they arrived at the hallway. He could see the flames coming from the floor below. He grabbed Faith and ran to the stairs. They climbed to the upper floor to get to the ladder, but they couldn’t find it or the man who was there.
“Help!” Adaru yelled, but the smoke didn’t let him see to the street.
He had never let go of Faith’s hand. He quickly pulled her near him to go the fifth and last floor. At the edge, he could see the ladder that was getting away from the building, carrying two people on it.
“Wait!” he yelled. They saw him but the truck had already started to get away from them.
Adaru held Faith tightly but then the floor shook. Adaru stepped back before part of the floor collapsed. The smoke was now covering the entire building.
“We can’t get near the building! Need to find other way!” a fireman shouted.
Adaru and Faith got to the roof after climbing the remaining of the stairs. The two of them were on an island of smoke and fire with nowhere else to go.
Adaru tried to sign the firemen that they were up in the roof, but he wasn’t sure if they could see him. He thought he could jump to another building, but the closest one was seven feet away.
He saw the building and it was lower than his complex by two levels. He measured the distance and he felt he could reach the building, but only by himself. He doubted he had the strength to jump that distance with Faith on his back.
“What can we do?” she said.
“How far can you jump?” Adaru said.
“Not very far,” she said. “I’m scared.”
“Me too but I have an idea,” Adaru said. “Get on my back.”
Faith gave the lunchbox to Adaru. She got behind Adaru and put her arms around his neck.
“Hold on tight. I am going to jump to get to the other building,” Adaru said.
“Can you make it?” Faith said nervously.
“It is a long shot,” he said.
“You will make it,” Faith said, still afraid.
Adaru ran as fast as he could. Faith’s body was slowing him down, and his legs had become heavy. Still, he ran. When he got the edge, he jumped. He felt the air hitting his face when he started falling. He saw the roof of the other building getting away from his reach.
He wasn’t going to make it.
“Reach it!” Faith yelled.
Adaru felt a strong gust hitting his back. He felt it was pushing him and lifted him enough to land on the roof. Upon landing, Adaru’s ankles twisted. Faith and he rolled. Faith got up but Adaru was in so much pain he couldn’t stand up.
But he smiled when he saw Faith looking down on him with those bright eyes and a big smile.
Alex's Writing Corner 