Slowly Getting Back To Reality

            Tony had to take his bath in his mother’s car that was stationed at the Maxi’s parking lot, but he was scared because since there wasn’t enough room in the car, he had to undress himself beside the car, where everyone could see him. He turned on the faucet, which slowly filled the car with water, and then he stripped himself naked, feeling nervous since the parking lot was filled with people. He experimented with many different positions, trying to figure out how he could read his comic book without dropping it in the water while he took his bath. It was pretty awkward because people that were passing by the car looked at him through the window with a very strange face, but he forced himself to ignore them. It was important that he could read his comic book while taking his bath. He wondered how long it would take before his mother would come back from her errand. Unable to fathom how to fulfill his duty, he tried yet another position, feeling ashamed.

            “WHAT THE HECK!” Tony screamed as he woke up and lifted his head from his pillow. That was one scary dream, he thought, and then got out of bed. He could hear his parents talking in the kitchen, so he put on his socks, his pants and his shirt. Ready to join in on the conversation, he left the bedroom and walked down the hallway. He arrived in the kitchen and his parents weren’t there, then suddenly everything started to melt around him as he felt the floor crumble under his feet. The floor collapsed, making Tony fall into the black abyss below. He landed right on his back in a boundless white room. He got up, looked around, and there seemed to be no walls around for kilometres. Beside him was Narcolia, sitting at a table.

            “Why do you have chairs and a table?” Tony asked him.

            “I have no idea man. It’s your dreams, so you tell me. Come and sit.”

            “I mean, where did you get them?” He asked again.

            “They just appeared, out of the blue. Sometimes it’s a bed, even a couch, sometimes it’s a whole house and sometimes it’s a room in a house. This is your world here; your thoughts dictate the environment I live in.” Narcolia explained, “So you better not dream about anything s****y!”

            “If only you knew what kind of dreams I have…” Tony muttered. He didn’t understand how all of this worked, having a spirit living in his head and all, but he did not care that much anymore ever since he gave up on trying to understand anything. With all that happened recently, the magic, the aliens, he started to question everything he had ever learned about anyway, so he just decided to give up on logic. He took a seat at the table, facing Narcolia.

            “But anyways, hey! You’re still alive, kiddo! You did well.” Narcolia started.

            “Thanks, I guess. To be honest I don’t even know how I did it.”

“That’s not important. You just got ‘em so it’s normal. You’ll have plenty of time to master those powers. And speaking of Birth Powers, holy mother of god, ey?” He exclaimed as he tapped him on the shoulder.

“What do you mean?”

“How many do you have? How many will you have? This is unbelievable! You and I are well aware that I was the only nemusian ever to have more than one Birth Power. How can it be possible? I’ve had dozens of kids before, and they never even had two Birth Powers. There must be something wrong with your mother for creating such a powerful child…”

“Something wrong with my mother?” Tony asked, but Narcolia was too ecstatic.

“Let’s count them, shall we?” Narcolia started mumbling with his head down as he counted with his fingers. “Strength, speed, flying, teleportation, regeneration, telekinetics…”

“And what about Pascal?”

The king sighed and pressed his palm against his forehead. “Oh don’t even make me think about it, I’ve been pondering for days about who the heck is that kid. He’s nemusian, that’s unquestionable, but why does he also have more than one Birth Power? He’s not my son, that I can tell you. I just can’t come up with any with reasonable explanation right now.”

“Well he was brought to Earth by Cloudfire.” Tony told him.

“Yeah, I know that, but that doesn’t tell me anything about where he comes from and who he is…” Narcolia answered, looking quite perplexed.

            “Anyway, as you know, I’m pretty close to getting back home now. Life will be normal for a while. I just don’t really know what to do with Pascal once I get home.”  Tony added.

“Don’t you show him or even talk about him to your parents, your hear me?”

“What, but why? They could help him or something.”

“If you show Pascal to your parents, it will only cause you trouble, believe me. The kid simply cannot live in society. People will notice very fast that he’s not normal.”

“Why? He just has to hide his Birth Powers and pretend he always lived in a city.”

“It’s not that simple boy. You can’t just pretend and hide things all your life. He won’t even be able to act like a normal child. The fella will be able to deal with things on his own. He’ll be fine.”

Tony strongly disagreed. “I can’t just abandon my friend! That would be wrong. I’m sure he’ll be able to live in society, we just have to show him how.”

“Kid, stop it. Your earthling mother thinks the blond boy is your kidnapper. His description was in the newspaper. He’s a wanted criminal.” Narcolia said bluntly so he could reason his son.

“Oh... right. I had forgotten about that.”

“Now I’m glad that you’ve survived all this and that you’re almost back home. I’m very proud of you, son. I only need you to tell me one thing that troubles my mind quite a bit.”

“Okay, what is it?”

“Why the hell did you let the lizaard get away? Are you crazy? Tell me why you let him go.”

Tony was surprised by the question. “Umm… I don’t know. He didn’t look really strong so I kinda felt sympathetic.”

Narcolia took on a serious face and scolded his son. “You realise that he’s the most dangerous creature on the planet, do you? Do you realise all the troubles he can cause around the world?”

“Nope…”

“He could start wars! He could kill people, destroy buildings and towns! What about your loved ones, have you ever thought about that? To hell with sympathy!”

Tony didn’t know what to say but he felt really bad now. He worried that he would be responsible for future world disasters so he got scared and started to cry. That’s when Narcolia remembered that he was talking to a ten year old child who had learned that killing other people is wrong. “Okay, look.” He started, trying to reassure his son, “I’m not saying that that’s what’s gonna happen. I’m just saying it could… but hey, it’s alright, you didn’t know. People make errors, ey? It’s part of life, don’t feel bad because of that. Just remember to never do it again.”

“B-but…people will die!” Tony sobbed.

S**t, I shouldn’t have said that, he thought in regret. He had accidentally put all the weight of the world’s future on his son’s shoulders. He was making Tony feel responsible for all the troubles that the planet would eventually go through. “Look, I was exaggerating. I just wanted to teach you a little lesson. The world is gonna be alright. By the time Rosayan gets old enough to be dangerous, you’ll be strong enough to kick his butt, right?” He asked him to make him feel better.

“Yeah, I’ll get him for good next time, I promise.”

“Now that’s what I wanted hear!” Narcolia responded with a smile. The problem was, Narcolia had not been exaggerating. The world was indeed under a significant threat. The boy does not need to know that yet, he resolved.

“Narco, can I ask you a question?” Tony asked, sniffing the last of his tears.

“Go ahead.”

“Why did you choose Earth, out of all planets?”

“Because I knew about Earth and I knew more importantly that earthlings were very similar to nemusians.”

“But how come did you even know about Earth?”

“Because I went there one day.”

“Really?” Tony asked, filled with curiousness, “What did you come and do here?”

“Ho-ho, that was a long, long time ago my boy. Humans were quite a bit more primitive back then, should I say. It’s a long story. I’ll explain it to you one day… if you ever make it back home.” He said with a wink.

“I will! I’m almost there, you just watch me. You won’t have a choice but to tell me the story once I get back!” Tony said, smiling.

“Ha! Well you show me then. I don’t want to press you too much, but you know, once you get back home, you should start trying to understand and control your Birth Powers as soon as possible.”

“Yeah yeah, I’ll get to it as soon as I catch up on my homework.”

“Also, I’m just sayin’, but I’d strongly advise that you learn how to defend yourself.”

“Defend myself?”

“You should. There’re probably some institutions in your city that teach people how to fight, right? They pretty much teach martial arts on every planet.”

“Yeah, there are…”

“Well there you go. And know what? I myself am a professional martial artist! So I can always give you some tips.”

“What, you’re also a martial artist?” Tony asked.

“Of course I am! I governed the army of my planet, so I had to know what fighting looks like. Honestly, if I hadn’t been the king of the world, I would have probably been a Gwaja movie star. Either that or a Bin-Disc player in the NBDA.”

“Okay…”

“But anyway, I’m just saying that during the night, while you’re sleeping, I could teach you a couple of those Gwaja moves, what do you think?”

Tony wasn’t sure. He had never really been the fighting type and he didn’t see himself doing some weird Kung-Fu moves. “I’ll think about it.”

“So if ever you dream of me and you feel like moving a bit, I can show you a lot of interesting techniques. Oh yeah, by the way, where’s your friend?” Narcolia asked, suddenly looking a bit more concerned.

“My friend?”

“You know that Pascal’s gone, right?”

“No! What do you mean he’s gone?” Tony asked, suddenly looking a bit more panicked.

“Well, he left a while ago, I don’t know where. I thought you knew.”

            To those words, Tony woke up in horror and looked beside him to see that truly, Pascal was gone. They had constructed this wooden shelter to sleep in during the night. Tony was so scared that at first, he didn’t even dare get out of the shelter. Who knows what was waiting outside? A bear? A wolf? Another lizaard? Last time he had crept out of a shelter, some lizaard had tried to kill him. He told himself that he should wait until his friend came back. But then again, what if Pascal never came back? The wind blew, making trees shuffle and branches crackle everywhere around him. Tony had taken it as a sign that some big animal was near. “Oh my god oh my god…” He murmured, terrified. This was unbearable! How could Pascal do this to him? He absolutely needed to go look for him or else he would certainly die at the hands of a grizzly bear that would trash his shelter and rip him to pieces. You can’t just leave a kid in the middle of a forest during the night; that was almost murder.

Tony crawled out of the shelter, unable to deal with this on his own. The fire they had done earlier was almost extinguished, barely giving off any light. He couldn’t see anything and it was quite chilly, so he scurried to what remained of the campfire, feeling that this was his only safe zone. He looked around, trying to decide which way he should check out first. Tony decided to go right, where the route quickly lead to the Jaco Lake. He advanced, barely seeing anything, so he analysed his environment with the senses he had left. His smell didn’t help him find anything useful, so he focused on his hearing. He quickly decided to stop focusing on the sounds around him because it only misled him into imagining monsters creeping everywhere. He soon found out that the only thing he could base himself on was the soil he was stepping on. Following the track, he kept screaming Pascal’s name, really hoping that he would hear him and respond. He trembled as he walked into utter darkness. He kept shouting Pascal’s name in order to scare the big animals that would feel like eating him. “Pascal!” He repeated, “Where are you?” As he arrived near the lake, he could suddenly hear some snuffling going on. He pronounced his name one more time, and Pascal, annoyed that his wimpy friend couldn’t do anything on his own, finally answered: “What?”

            “Oh my god man! I was about to s**t in my pants! You can’t just leave someone alone in the woods like that, that’s dangerous!” Tony told him, relieved but a little angry. He saw his friend, sitting on a log that perched over the lake shore. Tony carefully sat beside him and Pascal started sniffing again. He moaned something incomprehensible, and that made Tony understand that his friend was crying. “Hey, what’s wrong buddy? What happened?” He asked him.

            “Nothing!” Pascal responded bitterly.

            Tony started to doubt that Pascal had gone hiding because he didn’t want him to see him cry. “Are you sad because of Cloudfire?” He guessed.

            “He…he was supposed to be with me forever! I thought that we would always hunt together and then eat and-and… tell funny stories… I-I thought that these moments w-would just… never end!” Pascal stuttered before crying again.

            Tony felt sad for him. He didn’t know what he could do to cheer him up, and even though he was a super powerful alien, he felt powerless in this kind of situation. “It’s okay man… you’ll get over it eventually, everyone does!” He said, hoping it would encourage him.

            “But… he was the only person I ever had! Now I’m all alone, completely alone…with nothing left for me!” Pascal bawled.

            “Hey, hey, don’t say that! I’m here. I’ll always be there for you man, you won’t be alone.”

            “You’re the only one I’ve got left…” Pascal said.

            Tony then remembered what Narcolia had told him. It was clear that he couldn’t show him to his parents. It was clear that he couldn’t live in the city. He felt like a liar. He just couldn’t always be there for him. Well, in this case, lying is actually a good thing, He thought to himself. “Pascal…remember that I’ll be there to help you.”

            Pascal cried heavily and he hugged Tony, who hugged back in compassion. They both cried together for a while, and then Tony convinced his friend that they should go back to the shelter before they would get eaten by a ferocious beast. Pascal called him a scaredy-cat, and then they both went back to sleep.

            The next morning, the boys woke up, ate a squirrel each for breakfast, and then they felt ready to depart for their final destination. Pascal looked at the tree where Tony had thrown Rosayan’s sword. “Wait a sec, Tony.” Pascal told him, and then he headed off to pull the sword out of the tree. “I’m keeping this as a souvenir,” He said, “Sharp things are always handy to have when you live in a forest.”

“Hunting animals and chopping wood and stuff, right?”

“Exactly.”

“You can bring it, but be sure to hide it somewhere once we get in town or else someone is sure to denounce us.”

“Let me guess, swords are illegal?”

“Exactly.”

“So much rules in the big world, sheesh.”

“You’ll get used to it. The sheath is over there.”

“Thanks.” Pascal responded. He went to get the sheath, put the sword in it, attached the sheath on his back, and then the boys left off to the skies in search of Senneterre. Once back in Senneterre, they could ask directions on how to get back to Val-d’Or. Tony had to ride on Pascal’s back since he was once again in his earthling form.

            “There’s something I have to ask you.” Tony told Pascal as they crossed over the vast wildlife that separated the Jaco Lake from Senneterre, “At what age did you get your Birth Powers?”

            “Umm, like, 10 years old.” Pascal answered him.

            “Me too! Did you feel anything weird when you first got your powers?”

            “Feeling weird? You talking about emergentitis?”

            “Yeah, that’s it! So you know about that?”

            “Well duh! I didn’t have a choice to know about it. Suddenly one day I got this massive headache and my hands started glowing blue. Cloudfire told me that it was normal though.”

            Tony felt comforted to hear that. “So it happens to everyone, ey?”

            “Well, to every nemusian, according to Cloudy. Do earthlings go through that?”

            “No, they don’t. In earthlings, it’s more like hormonal changes, mood swings… you start getting bigger, and hairier.”

            “Whoa… that’s weird.”

            “You didn’t know that? It’ll also happen to both of us in a year or two.”

            “Even though we’re nemusians?”

            “Even though we’re nemusians.” Tony confirmed.

            “Hormonal changes… that doesn’t sound good.”

            “Do you know what hormones are?”

            “Nope.”

            “Good, me neither.”

            The boys flew away, recalling all they had gone through ever since they met each other. The hardest part was to get back to Senneterre, but as soon as that would be done, the rest would all go smoothly, according to Tony.

 

 

***

 

From both of their rooms, five in the morning, Tony’s father and Jimmy groaned at the irritating after-effect that fell upon Tony’s mother, which was called temporary denial. Even though she said she was fine and all’s going well, it was not her lack of spirit that gave her away, but her exaggeration thereof. Tony’s mother hummed to a joyful, self-invented song while putting the last touch on her mascara. She hummed like the natural woman who hummed every day during her make-up routine. But in Tony’s mother’s case, she hummed to shake off the idea of her youngest son never coming back. She promised herself not to give up hope. She finished the song with a strident high pitch that helped her fight back another tear.

 She clobbered on the ceramic floor of the kitchen with her high heels to chug the rest of her sugar-filled coffee and then pose it down in the sink. Minou was strolling behind her so he could make his way down the hallway and up to the entrance window, where he could sing another melody while looking at the beautiful, free outside world beyond the glass. Tony’s mother turned around and started in the hallway, and there was Minou, so she kicked him. She got in her car, one hand on the wheel, one hand on the thermos cup filled with coffee, and drove to work.