F
U T U R E B A R R I E R
( The
4th Novel )
Secret Technology,
Unrequited Love, Absolute Vengeance
© May
2020
- Written by David
Wicker
Please do
not reprint without permission
CHAPTER 50 -
"Eep Opp Ork Ah-Ah"
[
CHOOSE A
DIFFERENT
CHAPTER TO
READ ]
* * *
This chapter is
Rated: TEEN
I rather like these little slices of life before we begin each weekly chapter. So what's been happening ?
Hmm ... well I guess I should let you know that every Wednesday my doctor calls to see how I'm doing which is nice. We talk about my dreams mostly. How I'm getting along. I have kind of an audio problem.
That is if I hear loud sounds, especially bass from music, I get sick to my stomach and want to throw up. It's - from my past and something I'm trying to deal with. Something as simple as this has wound me up in the mental ward more than once.
And while years ago I think mental wards really were a quiet and safe retreat, today they are noisy crowded affairs with really crazy and dangerous people. Doctors wanting to try experimental medications on you often worsening your symptoms.
It's not worth it. If you need quiet, check with your friends or your family, spend a few days with them to get back to 'normal.' Don't count on mental wards to be your sanctuary - cause today they are most definitely not.
Regarding the nationwide virus. My sister recently sent me a care package, one item of which was a very professional mask. I'm going to give this to my Godfather though as he's 86 and I still have the one Chris gave me. Also there was some bleach and handmade hand sanitizer which actually looked and smelled pretty good.
And - you should be aware that hand sanitizer has returned to the shelves, at least at my local Wal-Mart. I still can't seem to find any spray Lysol disinfectant.
My sister was saying they're likely going to be opening swimming pools with Summer coming on. But I'm going to tell you now I definitely do not want to go swimming with this virus thing still going around. It travels through water vapor. I don't think you can get any more wet than a pool - so yeah likely I'll skip swimming entirely this year to be on the safe side ...
And now back to our regularly scheduled chapter ...
And then the loudspeaker crackled to life. There was a bunch of static along with some barely heard curses as the principal was apparently fighting with the wires to get his microphone to work.
Once it did though he was all smiles and started out like a gameshow host, "Gooood Mooorning students ! It's another fine day here at Waialeale High ! You've been gone for a week so in order to compensate teachers have been ordered to give you double homework."
He leaned closer to the microphone, "Double ! Can you believe it ? And if that's not exciting enough there's more good news. The lunch-lady has told us there is an extra special treat in the cafeteria for everyone so ... work diligently and look forward to a grand reward at lunchtime !"
The speaker clicked closed then. There were some groans and muttering from the other students. As for me I was beyond elated. Double homework ! I only had dreams of things that good.
Knowing better though I groaned with the rest of the class. Tyr eyed my carefully and then realized I was just trying to fit in and grinned toothily at me.
Then Ms. Arable spoke, "Now class. I'm also understanding that you have brought your cellphones and they have video games on them and you chat filthy to each other texting !"
She took a breath, "Filthy little games and texting that detract you from your schoolwork. So we're going to have a May Day. What is that you ask ? Any cellphones or video games I appropriate will not be returned until May Day ! When is that you ask ? If you know your history books that is May the 1st."
"And if I STILL see you with them I will take them away May the 1st and you won't see them until NEXT YEAR !"
She listened carefully. Everyone was still playing video games and texting and it sounded a little like this:
Eep. Opp. Ork. Ah-ah ! Eep. Opp. Ork. Ah-ah !
She raised her voice menacingly over the mindless rhythm of electronics saturating young brains with anything except education, "So I will count to 3 and when I reach 3 you had better put away these devices or I will take them from you !"
"1." Some boys in the back put away their cellphones.
"2." The whole front row of girls put theirs away.
"3." The remainder of the class put theirs away.
Everyone except what remained was some teenage girl in the back who had ear-buds on and was whispering as she typed. "I know ! I know ! Can you believe Danni would wear something as sexy as that to the first day back to school ? I could just die !"
Wordlessly Ms. Arable honed in on her and yanked it right out of her grip peeling the ear-buds off in the process.
"Hey !" the girl said angrily, "What's your problem !? Give that back !"
Ms. Arable put the mess of wires and phone in her vest pocket. "You weren't paying attention Miss Juniper. I'm confiscating all cellphones and videogames in class. They have no place in school."
Juniper frowned, "Well you could've warned us !"
Ms. Arable leaned close and spoke in confidence, "I DID warn you. I warned all of you but you had your cursed earbuds on and you missed out. Now you don't get this until the first day of May !"
Juniper complained further getting out of her seat to gesticulate angrily, "But that's not for 6-months."
Ms. Arable nodded, "Very good. I see you know your calendar. Now see if your bottom can find your seat again or I'll send you to the principal's office additionally for disrupting my class."
Juniper squinted her eyes fiercely but took her seat pushing down hard on it to make it squeak and grumpily looked forward.
"That's better." She looked around the class and saw me with a calculator. She immediately bee-lined to me.
Starting in a shocked tone she began, "Dev ! My prodigy, what are you ..." but then saw it was a calculator.
"Oh ! Well that's alright then." and patted me on my head before returning to the front of the class.
Little did she know I could derive hundreds of games from any basic calculator so she never would've suspected me.
She continued, "As you can see I have Juniper's - stuff here. She then showed this very shiny brass key and unlocked the bottom drawer on her desk with it. She put in Juniper's cellphone and earbuds locking it up again.
* * *
"Juniper, you won't get this until May Day. That is as I told the class earlier when you weren't listening, the 1st day of May. 6-months from now."
She looked around the class carefully, "And any other electronics I see - except for ... calculators - I will be confiscating throughout the school year. You were warned."
Then she began to call role starting with me, "Dev." I raised my hand.
She went through the entire list calling everyone except Tyr. At the end Tyr angrily rose her hand.
"Yes, Tyr ?" the teacher asked in a haggard voice really not wanting to hear a thing from this troublesome student.
"You didn't call my name, Marble !"
She met Tyr's eyes equally, "And you didn't call my name, either !"
She let Tyr try to figure that one out for a bit when she continued, "As you know the internet is back so your classes will resume as normal. As our Grand Principal has said, you are indeed getting double-homework."
"What he didn't say though was that any double-homework I give provided you can get an A on it, will mean I will skip the whole next week of homework with you."
"So do well and you will be rewarded. I have always found this to be an effective combination."
The bell rang.
She stood up from her desk, "This ends Home Room. If you have any further questions I will be at my desk but you also only have 10-minutes to make it to your next class."
I hurriedly put away my calculator and went to my next class. I kept an eye out for Buford and his cronies and fortunately did not see any of them. I breathed a sigh of relief as I met Tyr in the cafeteria. A large crowd of students was already around the lunch lady who was pointing to a chart she set up.
"I know you're all very excited about the treat I have to offer and I call tell you now. It really is a good one. If you look at this pyramid chart here you will see your basic food groups."
The class grumbled a little bit seeing that the chart was taken right out of Elementary school and had silly cartoon drawings on it. She recited from the bottom, "Grains. Fruits. Vegetables. Meats. Dairy. And lastly, sweets."
She then held up a foil-wrapped brown bar in her hand. "In order to make lunchtime more fun I have combined these 6-food groups into one delicious protein bar. This will make sure that you get all your proper nutrition for the day in a fun-sized candy bar, isn't that super ?"
Not one person smiled at this prospect. "Here, you !" and she called one of the boy students from the crowd. "Come up here. Oh don't be shy ! Come on up here !"
He came up and smiled briefly. Everyone egged him, "Lunchlady Lover !"
"Enough of that." she said finally. Then handed him the bar. "Take a bite ! Tell me how good it is !"
She thrust it in front of his nose. It was clear he wanted nothing to do with this bar. "Eat it !" she finally demanded. He then took a bite, tentatively chewed it, and swallowed. Her face was all expectant like it would be something wonderful.
Clearly from the expression on his face it was anything but. His whole face very subtly turned green and he ran to the nearest trash can to vomit the poison he just ingested. This brought a round of laughter and applause from the students.
"He clearly has a delicate stomach !" the lunch-lady was saying but everyone was dispersing from her display except for Tyr and me - as they all lined up outside to the snack machine to get chips, candy bars, and sodas.
Looking around she could see absolutely no-one was interested in the bar. So she took a bite herself. "Oh that is pretty rank." she said quietly to herself. Then chewed it and forced herself to swallow. But her stomach would not have it. She tripped over her chart knocking it down as she ran quickly to the back to throw up in the staff bathroom there.
I picked up the remainder of the bar, wrapping it back in foil and pocketed it. Who knows, I told myself, it might be useful later.
The snack machine was just about depleted entirely once all the students had what they wanted. As for Tyr and me, we had our brown-paper bag lunches so we didn't have to contend with either the lunch lady's terrible loaf or unhealthy snacks from the machine.
And we went outside to eat our lunch underneath that very familiar tree where we first started classes the beginning of last year.
"This is nice." I told Tyr. She nodded.
Then she came up and used that scary voice again, "Give me your Suzi-Q !" And of course she was referring to that chocolate dessert my Mom always put in my bag.
I gave it to her but was curious. "Where did you learn to talk like that ?"
She used a normal voice now, "Oh, from Janet. When we were in the bathroom we traded all kinds of secrets and she showed me how to use a scary voice !"
"It works pretty well." I told her, impressed at how evil it sounded.
She nodded herself. Then someone was coming out to see us. I had hoped it wasn't some student saying we couldn't sit there, but no, it was Lilly !
Tyr ran to GLOMP her which of course Lilly let her. Trailing behind Lilly was Choo-Choo.
Lilly came up to sit beside me as Tyr stood to eat her lunch.
"Hey Lilly ! Long time no see ! How's tricks ?"
She frowned, "They're not. Choo-Choo doesn't talk anymore."
"Oh ?" I went to the friendly squirrel and touched his forehead. He gave me a very sharp-toothed smile but clearly liked it. I rubbed his fur gently, "You're not talking anymore ?"
He chittered in squirrel-talk to me but obviously I couldn't understand what he was saying.
Then Lilly was all business. "So what about the plugin ? Does it still work ? I thought Choo-Choo would be able to talk to me forever - and it's just temporary. Tyr ?" and addressed Tyr.
She came up looking at Lilly. Lilly continued, "Do you still have your telekinetic ability ?"
Tyr put the wrapper in her hand and concentrated. It moved but that was only because the wind caught it. She tried again when the wind was calm. It didn't move at all.
Tyr knowing how she get her powers in the first place went to me and held my hand. While my hand did indeed start to sweat because girls do that to me, there was no loop of light this time nor did it seem like anything was happening.
"I don't get it." she finally said, thrusting my hand down.
I was curious too why it wasn't working. I stood to address the empty air, "Sim. SIM ! Are you there ?"
A bird in the tree chirped out of curiosity for my behavior but nothing further happened.
"What's going on ?" I asked myself as well as the two girls. Was my super ability now gone for good too ?
END OF CHAPTER 50
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