After the fear and excitement of escaping from a fiery death, Adaru embraced the chaos of medics and police surrounding him, asking questions and taking care of his injuries. His ankles were only twisted, but the medics took him to the hospital just as a safety measure.
Adaru was exhausted, so he fell asleep just minutes of touching the hospital bed. When he woke up, Faith and his mother were in the room.
Faith was smiling when she saw him. His mother didn’t dare to look him. At least, Adaru got some enjoyment in seeing her embarrassed.
“Where were you?”
“I just went out. It was just for a couple of minutes,” she said, still looking away.
“You went to the bar, don’t lie.”
“That’s not true. I just went for a walk, and then I couldn’t come back.”
“It must have been a very long walk,” Adaru said turning away.
“I am your mother. You can’t treat me like this!” she said.
Adaru didn’t want to answer that. He was too tired to start an argument and nothing would have changed at the end.
“Talk to me,” his mother said.
“I’m tired,” he said.
But he couldn’t rest. Just five minutes later, he had two visitors and Adaru was surprised that he recognized one of them.
He was Horatio Bellingham who was joined by a tall, slim man with black hair and a nose shaped like a boot.
“Good morning,” Bellingham said taking off his bowler hat. “I hope I am not intruding.”
“I know you,” Adaru said, with his voice betraying his nervousness.
“And I know you,” Bellingham said with a smile. “The young lad who showed disrespect to the main judge during his audition by giving him a fright, therefore, he became a hit and a media darling. I also remember your other auditions”, he said while moving a chair and sitting down in front of him.
“They were good, but as we both know, not that good.”
“How can we help you?” his mother said with some excitement.
“Well, we hope for you to help us fill some holes of what happened yesterday,” Bellingham said.
“You see, agents from the Department of Inner Migration went to your address to do a local audition for a young man that showed promise. Unfortunately, it appears the young man’s ability to control fire was not enough since his apartment was the spot where the sinister started.”
“What happened to them?” Adaru said to Bellingham.
“They died,” Bellingham said without emotion. “I wished we had arrived to the family earlier, but it was bad timing that the kid’s ability started during Evolution Day weekend.”
“But even though it was a horrible loss of a great potential, my agents came back saying they saw a remarkable feat of physical ability. They saw a young man making an impossible jump while carrying someone on his back.”
“It wasn’t that impossible. You know I am not that good,” Adaru said.
“I remember,” Bellingham said. “Still, it was an impossible jump. If someone had done that at their audition, that person would certainly have passed the test.”
“Passed? You mean he would be able to live in the zone?” Adaru’s mother said.
Bellingham saw her for the first time.
“You must be their mother, Rachel Sepien right?” Bellingham said. “Your husband’s name is Joseph?”
That brought fear to Adaru and to Rachel as well. They looked at each other, wondering if they will be punished by his crimes.
“We know that Joseph was a big-time smuggler. I know people in New Haven don’t consider that a big crime, but getting in and out from the zone is a national security issue,” Bellingham said. “Still, your relationship with him does bring some red flags for us. We first need to know is, how did you accomplish that jump?”
“I don’t know how to answer that. I just did,” Adaru said.
“Are you sure? Because that jump merits a second audition. You may be accepted into the zone,” Bellingham said.
Adaru turned to see Faith. She was trying to avoid looking at Bellingham by looking down. He saw the nervousness by how she was biting her lip. She glimpsed at him and her eyes were wide.
“I think it was just a lucky jump,” Adaru said.
“It was not. My agent saw that you, apparently, made a jump while in the air,” Bellingham said.
“That’s impossible,” Adaru said, even though he remembered the force he felt. It was at the same time that Faith yelled.
“Then, if it wasn’t you, perhaps another made you do it,” Bellingham said.
He then turned to see Faith, who was still trying to avoid looking at him.
“Who are you, little girl?” Bellingham said to her.
Faith was quiet.
“Darling, the man asked you a question,” her mom said. “Don’t be rude and also looked at him.”
“My name is Faith sir,” she said, looking at him.
“Incredible, green eyes and red hair. That’s something you don’t see in a family of brown eyes and dark hair,” the man with a boot-shaped nose said.
“Yes, she was blessed by being unique,” Rachel Sepien said. “Nobody believed me that she had dark hair when she was a baby. I swear she changed her color of her eyes and hair when she was two.”
“Interesting,” Bellingham said. “So perhaps you could have helped your brother made that jump.”
Adaru got into the conversation again by almost shouting. “I made the jump, it was all me.”
“Really? Then why haven’t we seen those same skills during your auditions?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t think I could have done it until yesterday.”
“That’s seems plausible,” Bellingham said. “Physical-based abilities are harder to gauge because some of them are based on adrenaline. No matter, we can give you another shot to see if you should live in the zone.”
Adaru had to ignore that his mother was making little jumps of excitement and smiling broadly.
“I don’t think I want to live in the zone,” Adaru said.
“Well, you won’t if you don’t pass, but you must if you do,” Bellingham said. “It’s the law and you saw why yesterday. We have the zone so people with an ability cannot hurt the normal folk.”
“Yeah, but I can’t kill people by jumping very far.”
“That is why we have auditions, to see the magnitude of your ability. And frankly, you don’t have a say on this since we know you and your sister survived a fire you were not supposed to. So one of you has an ability,” Bellingham said again.”You can leave the hospital this afternoon. We will have a transport waiting for you to take you to the zone. I assume you have lost everything on the fire?”
“Yes,” Rachel said.
“It’s unfortunate, but it simplifies the moving process. If you passed, you will be given some help like housing and clothing,” Bellingham said.
And with that, he and the other man left the room with an excited Rachel, a nervous Adaru and a fearful Faith.
“Oh my god! We are going to live in the zone!” Rachel said. She hugged Faith and gave a kiss to Adaru before she left, almost jumping with glee.
Her son and daughter were not that excited.
“What are we going to do?” Faith said while getting near Adaru.
“I don’t know. We can only hope they see I don’t pass the audition and let us go,” he said.
“But what if they then do tests on me? What if they found out about my dreams?”
“I don’t think they can do that,” Adaru said.
“Are you sure?” Faith said.
Adaru wasn’t sure. He thought his only option was to make them pay attention to him instead of Faith.
“If I passed the audition, they will not experiment on you,” he said. “They only need one of us.”
“How can you fool them?”
“I don’t know yet. I just know I must,” he said. “That’s why I am your big brother.”
“You are the best big brother ever,” Faith said while getting on bed and hugging him. He hugged her back.
Adaru thought about his father. He needed his cunning to fool the freak with the bowling hat. Adaru only knew he had to protect Faith from them. She may be one of them, but she won’t belong to them, he thought.
He was released from the hospital that day. He was upset he could not see Jade one last time. She must have been worried when he didn’t show up to class that day. He was thinking why she didn’t visit him at the hospital when the family was picked up by a small bus outside the hospital.
Only their mother was eager to get on the bus. She had grabbed some bags of clothes from the local Red Cross. Then, they went to cross the bridge and into the zone. This trip was less amusing for Adaru than the trip he did on Evolution Day.
At the end of the gate, they got off and entered an office they had their pictures and fingerprints taken. The room was almost empty, so the process went very fast. They were told they would have an escort for the second leg of the trip.
Adaru could not hide his surprise very well. Their escort was the two police officers he met on Evolution Day.
“Welcome back.” Custos said to Adaru. “Ready for the tour?”
“My name is Candace Whiteman, and he is Nate Custos,” the woman said to Adaru’s mom. “Please come this way.”
She opened the door for a black car. Adaru entered first, then Faith and then their mother. The two police officers got in front. They drove and let the Sepien family discover a part of the zone they have never seen before.
The buildings were taller and Adaru thought they were shining when the sun hit them. Their glasses were transparent and reflected the people outside. The streets were alive with people walking, but the most interesting thing for him was the streets.
There was traffic like in New Haven, but this was a different kind of traffic. The streets were filled, but not only of cars but also of people running.
Adaru looked up and saw people jumping from roofs to roofs, like they were chasing each other. There were others who were flying. There were so many of them that there were even traffic lights floating in the sky to regulate traffic.
When the police car turned a corner to evade road work, Adaru could see there were two men and there was no machinery. Adaru saw one man punching the road to get rid of gravel. The other man grabbed it and threw it to a large container at the side.
At a traffic light, a man wearing a tight suit and a helmet stood next to the car and waved to Custos.
“Hello Jeremy, having a nice run?” he said.
“Yes I am, officer. I hope you have a nice day,” the man said.
“Remember to run below forty,” Custos said.
“Always,” he said at the same time the traffic light turned green and he ran so fast Adaru lost sight of him before the car started moving.
Adaru could not contain a laugh when he saw an old man lifting his parked car and put it between parked vehicles. Apparently, he had not enough space to maneuver for parallel parking.
He felt Faith giving him a tug on his sleeve. She told him to look up. When he did, he saw a very tall crystal building in the center of the zone. Adaru wanted to ask her if that was the same building of her dream, but he didn’t have to mutter the words. She just nodded.
The family was taken away from the downtown area and into a neighborhood area, not very different from their home at New Haven. The streets were cleaner, and the building looked that they were recently built. They parked in front of a big red square building that had a big parking lot.
“Here are your keys. Your apartment is in the fourth floor, room C,” agent Whiteman said. “Here are some vouchers you can use to purchase groceries at the store that is two blocks that way.”
Adaru’s mom nodded and then she told them to follow them to the room. There was an elevator, which was the first thing different from their old home.
Their apartment was one big room with a door going to the restroom and another on the opposite side leading to a bedroom. The kitchen was in the corner next to the entrance. It had only a big window between the stove and the door. It was smaller than their old apartment, but their mother wasn’t complaining.
“We did it! We are in the zone! Things will get better. We just need to give time to time,” she said trying to cheer up Faith and Adaru.
“It’s too small,” Adaru said.
“It’s homely,” his mother said. “Come, lets’ go buy something to eat.”
The store was underwhelming. It was only a one-floor white building that had “STORE” painted in red letters on the side. Inside, it was almost empty.
While his mother went to talk to the cashier, Adaru walked through almost empty shelves that occasionally had two products like lettuce or apples together. Three things on an aisle were the most he saw. There were fewer varieties of cereal and canned goods than Adaru used to see in New Haven
“Why do you mean there is no beer here?! What am I supposed to drink?!” he heard his mother say.
“Miss, we are not allowed to sell any alcoholic beverages,” the cashier said.
“You don’t even have chocolates here!”
“They are bad for you. We try to sell things that are good for you,” the cashier said.
“So what am I supposed to drink to have fun?”
“We have a wide variety of organic milk for you.”
Adaru and Faith had to hide their smiles. They had not seen their mother this mad before and they may finally see her more sober. Perhaps living in the zone would not be all bad, Adaru thought.
They managed to find a loaf of bread, a dozen of eggs, pasta and some fruit.
Her mother kept cursing all the way back to the house. When they got to the lobby, there were three people already waiting for the elevator, so Adaru decided to take the stairs instead. He wanted to be alone and focus on his problems. Adaru couldn’t find a way to convince Bellingham he had an ability when he had rejected him less than a week ago.
While walking up the stairs, a man with a pony tail was coming down, so Adaru went to the right side and grabbed the handrail.
“Where’s your bracelet?” the man said.
Adaru couldn’t get a word out due to his surprise. He only looked at his hand and had to take some minutes to remember he was supposed to have a bracelet to be considered resident of the zone.
“I…” he started to say.
“You are doing your audition?” the man said. “Are you up for it?”
Adaru didn’t want to talk to a complete stranger so he tried to ignore him.
“Hold on buddy. I want to help you,” the man said. “There are some pills that can help you fool the judges if you are not confident of your own skills.”
That caught Adaru’s attention. The man noticed.
“Just have to go to Smith Avenue and Red Street. There’s a warehouse at that corner. Ask for Lizzy,” the man said.
And with that, he left. Adaru got to the apartment and he was surprised that his mother had opened a bottle of whiskey and was already drinking.
“Where did you get that?” Adaru asked.
“I brought it from the city. Thank god I learned something from your father. I wouldn’t be able to celebrate properly without this,” her mother said.
“We really need to get a couch. At least there’s this bed,” she said while laying face up to a mattress that was in the bedroom.
“It was nice while it lasted,” Faith said to Adaru.
“Yeah. I am going out,” he said to her.
“Where?”
“I think I know how to pass the audition. Don’t wait up.”
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