Chapter Twelve

Hero's Call: Chapter Twelve

Milo hadn’t slept much the night before. He had had to sneak out of the house at two in the morning to ensure both his parents were asleep and he still had enough time to get to the Culpepper house and back before his father woke up. He had barely made it back to bed before he heard his father’s alarm clock going off. He thought about leaving the bike there, telling his parents it was stolen. When he realized it would tie him to the incident if they cops found it, Milo immediately gave up on abandoning the bike. He hadn’t known exactly where it was. Devon or one of his goons had hid it to well for him to find it easily. He made an excuse here and there to get out of the house and go by the Culpepper house during the day to see if he could spot the bike. He didn’t see so much as a sign until his third scouting mission. He thought the bush was going to blow his whole retrieval operation, but he somehow made it out without alerting the neighbors.

Milo had been faking sick since the incident. He hadn’t felt better a day in his life, but he didn’t trust himself to be around anyone else. The last thing he wanted was for that green light to shoot out of his eyes again and almost kill another kid at his school. His mother had been worried sick about him when she first saw the news report about what had happened. He managed to assuage her somewhat by assuring her he was nowhere near the Culpepper house when it happened, hadn’t even heard anything. He did, however, claim to have come down with a cold that morning because he didn’t wear a heavy enough jacket to be out in the chilly morning air.

At first, Milo was fairly sure his mother had bought the phony story hook, line, and sinker. Brooke Radcliff was nothing if not a worrier. The mere mention of a cold and she put him on mandatory bed rest and called the school to tell them he wouldn’t be in until he was better. Somehow he had managed to convince his mother, despite all evidence to the contrary, that he was truly under the weather. Milo wasn’t sure how long he could keep up the act up, but he was going to go as long as possible until he was comfortable with himself being around others or his mother put her foot down and forced him to go back to school.

What had thrown him for a loop was the fact that his mother didn’t seem to be overly concerned about him after the first couple of days. Neither did his father. It had been almost a whole week of skipping school. He figured his parents would have taken him to the hospital or at least called him out on his bluff. But they didn’t. They still put on the act of the concerned parents as he was putting on the act of the sick child. Milo could tell that somehow they both knew, maybe instinctively, there was nothing wrong with him. They were just letting him get away with it. It was unsettling in a way. He didn’t particularly like it.

His bigger concerns had nothing to do with his parents, though. Boredom and loneliness were far more pressing concerns. After a day or two of sitting in his room doing next to nothing, Milo could feel the cabin fever setting in. He spent a large chunk of his time learning to deal with his new found strength. He learned quickly that a delicate touch was a necessity when handling anything, whether or not it would have been breakable by even a normal person. He tore the cover off of one of his favorite hard cover books, kicked a football almost completely through the wall, and smashed one of his Playstation controllers to rubble. With a little practice, he managed to keep from destroying everything he touched. What proved to be more difficult was keeping all the damage a secret. The small stuff was easy; he just swept it under the bed. The bigger stuff was harder. He moved one of his Britney Spears posters over the whole in the wall, and managed to jimmy rig his closet door that he had ripped off its hinges back into place. Still, he could tell his mother noticed the tiny changes to the room, but didn’t say a word like she should have.

The loneliness was an even bigger concern than the boredom. He couldn’t remember when he had ever gone more than a day or two without seeing Bill at least, if not both he and Cali. Since he claimed illness, his mother wouldn’t let him leave the house or let anyone in his room. Bill had come by once or twice to drop off some of Milo’s homework, but Milo’s mother took the school books and turned him away at the door. Although the dial-up internet connection was slow to the point of being painful, Milo cold still send Bill or Cali and email to keep in contact with the outside world. Their emails were the only thing keeping him sane.

Milo was worried about the rumors that would spread around the school when word of Devon’s injuries spread around and everyone noticed Milo was also conspicuously missing as well. Bill had informed him that the other students were, in fact, spreading a rumor that the two boys had gotten into a fight and Milo had been the one to run Devon down the a car and put him through the Culpepper’s house. It was eerie just how close the rumor was, but Milo played it down without a second thought. He told Bill that he hadn’t seen Devon once since the day at school when Milo had gotten Devon suspended with his tape recorder scheme.

The only other news Bill could provide was about Calliope herself. It seemed she had been fairly distant toward him since Milo had left. He rarely saw her even though their lockers were only a few feet apart, and one or two days she had shown up late to school looking a bit flustered and a little terrified. Cali wouldn’t tell Bill why she had shown up late, but he knew it had to be serious. Cali wasn’t late to school for anything. Milo and Bill had joked that she would still show up early for school even if it was on fire. When Bill had told him that, Milo couldn’t help but be concerned for his friend. They both worried that Cali’s parents were on the verge of divorce and their split was taking its toll on their daughter. They weren’t exactly the happiest couple in the world, so Milo wasn’t going to be surprised if that was the case. He had tried emailing her a few times before he’d got that news from Bill, and only received replies that consisted of a few half hearted words that yielded no real conversation. Initially Milo had thought she was buying into the room about him and Devon and she was really mad at him. But when he thought about the alternative, it seemed much more plausible.

Milo had just finished typing up and sending an email to Bill about doing something special for Cali when he came back to school when a knock came at his door. Without waiting for Milo’s reply, his mother opened the door and stepped into his room, closing the door quietly behind her.

“What’s up, mom?” asked Milo. Brook had moved to the bed and faced him, a look of pitying knowledge on her face. It was the kind of look she gave him when she’d caught him in a lie and was going to call him out. Milo’s heart jumped into his throat. He’d admit that he wasn’t sick, but he sincerely hoped she wouldn’t ask him about why he’d been faking sick. He’d do his best to avoid the topic, he decided.

“How long have you been home with me, Milo?” she asked him. Her voice was calm and collected with a hint of sympathy.

Milo thought for a moment. He was trying to affect an air of casualness that he didn’t feel. He knew exactly how long he’d been trapped in that room. He had practically been counting the seconds.

“A couple days,” he shrugged. “I’ve kind of lost count. I’m feeling better though. I could probably head back on Monday.”

His mother nodded slowly. “That’s good. I’m glad you’re getting back to normal.”

She looked at him expectantly, and he knew what she was trying to do. It was a tactic she’d used on him many times to great success. All she had to do was sit and look at him with that merciful look in her eyes and he’d crumble, tell her everything she wanted to know. Not this time though. His transgressions went way beyond broken lamps or scratches in his father’s car. He’d put a kid in the hospital, almost killed him. That’s not something he was willing to just admit freely. It was a real, honest-to-god crime. With his and Devon’s history, no one would ever believe it was an accident. Maybe not even his own mother.

“Were you able to keep up with your school work?” asked Milo’s mother. Her eyes never moved from him.

“Just one or two more assign…” Milo began, but quickly broke under his mother’s gaze. “Fine! You’ve got me. I’ve been faking sick. I feel just fine. I could have been in school this whole time. Do whatever you’re going to do and stop looking at me like that.”

Brook Radcliff smiled warmly at her son. “I know you’ve been faking sick, Milo.”

Milo looked at her, stunned. She never admitted to letting him get away with something.

“What do you mean you know?” demanded Milo. “Why have you been letting me get away with it? Does dad know?”

“Of course your father knows,” she said, laughing slightly. “I’ll admit that I wasn’t happy about letting you skip school, even with what you’re going through, but he was adamant that you be given some space.”

Milo’s look of shock turned to confusion. “Dad talked you into letting me skip school? Is he sick or something?”

Brooke laughed audibly. “Do you really think your father would do that, Milo? He was more against it than I was. You know how he is with you and school. No, it was your great-grandfather that talked us into letting you stay home.”

There was a moment of silence as the words settled over the room.

“Great-grandpa?” said Milo finally. “The Captain? One of the world’s greatest Heroes told you to let me skip school and you actually listened to him?”

“Well, like I said,” Milo’s mother said in response, “we weren’t exactly excited about it, but he’s knows more about this than we do. We decided to defer to his judgment on the matter.”

“Right,” agreed Milo. And then it dawned on him what they were talking about. “Wait, what matter? Are we talking about the same thing?”

Brooke ignored the question.

“Please, Milo,” she said, “let’s stop pretending we both don’t know what really happened to Devon Macledowny. While I’m not thrilled with what happened, I know it was an accident. I’ve tried contacting Devon’s parents, but they haven’t returned my phone calls. I think it would be nice of you to go to the hospital and pay a visit to Devon. I believe an apology is in order.”

Milo nodded absent mindedly. He’d barely even heard what she said. He almost killed someone and he wasn’t even going to be punished. In fact, his mother had suggested he go hang out with his friends. Milo thought about pinching himself to make sure he wasn’t still asleep, but he was fairly certain that even his mind couldn’t concoct this outcome. His mother stood up from the bed and walked over to him. She bent over and kissed him on top of the head and asked him if he wanted a snack. Milo, still reeling from the news of his sudden reprieve mumbled his agreement. His mother crossed the room to the door, but stopped in her tracks as if remembering something suddenly. For a moment, Milo thought the whole thing had been a sick joke, and she was about to turn around and tell him she was calling the cops and he was going to be taken to jail, but she just smiled at him.

“Speaking of The Captain,” she said slyly, “he’s downstairs and he was wondering if you wouldn’t mind coming down to see him. If, you know, you feel up to it.” She winked at that last statement.

Milo’s mother left the room, and Milo immediately hopped up to follow her. A sudden excitement was running through him, squashing the dread that had been there only a few minutes prior. He knew that if his parents had let him off the hook, he didn’t have much to worry about. Things would get sorted out. His parents would make sure of it. Now he couldn’t wait to tell someone about what was going on and Captain Amazing seemed the perfect place to start. He shot down the Hall of Fame and bounded down the stairs to the first floor two at a time. He could hear his mother and great-grandfather chatting in the kitchen, and ran the rest of the distance in a few great strides. He didn’t think once about the fact that the kitchen was several feet away from the stairs and would have normally taken him quite a few more steps to get there.

His mother and Captain Amazing were sitting at the kitchen table, each with a cup of coffee in front of them. His mother was giggling about something Captain Amazing had said, but Milo didn’t quite hear. They both turned to look at him when he appeared in the doorway.

“There’s my boy,” Captain Amazing said, almost shouting.

“Hey Captain,” said Milo enthusiastically.

Captain Amazing stood up slowly and Milo gave him a bear hug of epic proportions. He’d forgotten about his newly acquired strength. Luckily Captain Amazing, while elderly, was still a Hero. Even so, there was a fair amount of cracking bones, but Milo didn’t seem to notice.

“Have a seat, son,” Captain Amazing told him. “We’ve got some things to discuss.”

Milo took a seat next to his great-grandfather and across from his mother. He was grinning from ear to ear. Before the discussion could begin, the doorbell rang. Brooke excused herself from the table and disappeared out the same doorway Milo had entered through. Captain Amazing just looked at Milo, beaming with pride. The old man seemed fit to bust with happiness. Milo could almost see the thought running through his mind. Thoughts of the old days. Thoughts of change. Thoughts of what was to come. Milo was surprised to find that he was more than willing to take on the challenge. He’d dreamed about something like this since he was old enough to understand what his great-grandfather had done for the world. He never thought it would really happen. No one did. It wasn’t supposed to. But it had, and he was going to make the most of it.

“Damn, boy,” Captain Amazing started, “I can’t tell you how much this means �"”

He stopped short when Brook re-entered the kitchen. Milo followed his gaze and his jaw dropped. Behind his mother was a creature unlike any he had ever seen. In person, at least. He’d seen plenty of pictures of the An’Fari in school and at home. The alien had to duck to get into the kitchen and the gelatin-like blue skin of his head was almost scraping against the ceiling. He was wearing a shimmering silver jumpsuit with a matching pair of boots and looked at Milo with something akin to awe on his almost featureless face.

“Milo,” his mother announced, “it seems you have another visitor.”

Milo stood up from his chair, not sure what else to do.

“My name is malcom,” the alien said to the room and Milo at once. His voice was airy and transparent. “You may call me Acolyte Seven.” He crossed the room in one long stride and knelt in front of Milo. “It is a most esteemed honor to meet you, Milo Radcliff, Hero of Earth.”