F
U T U R E B A R R I E R
( The
4th Novel )
Secret Technology,
Unrequited Love, Absolute Vengeance
© June
2020
- Written by David
Wicker
Please do
not reprint without permission
CHAPTER 52 -
"He's A Very Freaky Boy"
[
CHOOSE A
DIFFERENT
CHAPTER TO
READ ]
* * *
This chapter is
Rated: TEEN
SMHIA.
Yep, I'm the author of that acronym on Urban Dictionary. SIGH. And apparently - well, that's what I feel right now.
Now I know there are 7-ways till Sunday to look at what's been happening here. First off, I want to state that I fully agree that George Floyd was murdered, capital murder, murder one. However you want to put it. It was deliberate and pre-meditated murder, not an accident.
With that I can understand the outrage of people right now. But smashing and destroying grocery stores including pharmacies that have NOTHING to do with what happened is not only stupid it's frightening. Terrifying even. It shakes our faith.
So, yeah, guess what, our brave President went underground into his bunker with his family for safety and we have a 3-day curfew here in Fort Worth. Could be a lot worse. and even in this tiniest of reprimands placed by our governor we STILL have people breaking curfew and getting arrested for it.
Now here is the way I see it. A man was murdered by a police officer. Okay so I think the mentality is from some of the people, they believe the police are going to be weak or not want to act since such a terrible thing just happened. So these individuals go out and smash and loot stores - feeling that they can get away with it.
And from what I've seen it certainly does look that way. On the night of the incident no police showed up in force for arrests, no firefighters showed up in force to put out the fires. The day after is different. but wow, you might as well just take those 4-letters off of that word 'mankind' on that 1st day and leave it as a warning to any other life out in the universe.
For Q from the Q continuum in Star Trek The Next Generation, in the pilot episode, "Encounter Of Farpoint" accused mankind of being, "a dangerous savage child-race." And when this was televised back in 1987 we all smiled in our homes and hugged our friends and families and said yeah we're better than that.
Today ? Maybe we give pause to that statement. Maybe we feel not everyone on Earth shares that same sentimentality that we are and good and caring people and Q's statement has no basis in fact. Maybe it's a racial crime. Maybe it's an excuse to be a racial crime. It all depends upon how you look at it.
Some people want to riot NOT because of what happened. But because they feel they can, protected by the 1st Amendment of the US constitution, "Freedom Of Speech." And will go to great lengths to appear on camera for that one sake and 'be' one of the group.
To steal, destroy, commit crimes, and hurt others and then say you're merely doing so protesting against a man's death, does NOT honor that man in the least. I don't know how anyone can think this.
No,
when I first saw this happen. I expected quiet yet strong faith,
candles, flowers, prayers even, churches to open for special services to pay tribute in this unique situation and time of trial of the heart and spirit. I would've liked to have seen that ...
Not the violence looting, destruction, and harm that followed. I wasn't expecting that at all.
And maybe I'm naive. Maybe - maybe I really haven't seen too much of the world except for the past few days. Maybe I had not really seen, not in real life, the ugly side of humanity, greed and pride, and prejudice. which seems to be riding the rails right now.
Hmm ... In any case those of you out there who are not part of the mob or riots, who just want to get through this virus and violence safely, stay close to your friends and family, keep a weapon ready, gun or what have you, which by the faith of God hopefully you will never have to use.
Hopefully - hopefully the looting and destruction will start to abate with real penalties to the obvious criminals. And real healing, the Floyd family and their friends, can begin.
That they can deal with this very tragic and senseless murder from the police in the proper and fair channels of protecting our society from this kind of senseless death so that it may never EVER happen again.
And now back to our regularly scheduled chapter ...
Matthews started to travel with Janet back up to the surface in the elevator.
Now Janet had a bit of time to think as well. Was I an alien from another planet ? Is it possible that boy she rescued from the bathroom from the bully was not even of this world ?
She scoffed to herself. No, that's impossible. She talked with me, she met me. She LIKED me. There was no way. But maybe. Maybe it was possible that I was mixed up with something that was alien in origin. Something I unwittingly became a part of.
"We're here." Matthews said after a minute of the elevator door being open.
There was no response.
"Janet ?" he asked politely.
She shook her head for a moment, "Oh, sorry. Lost in thought. Yes, thank you. I'll go to look at the vehicle now."
Matthews nodded back to her. "Be safe. If that car runs on the same beings of living light, exposing them could be dangerous."
She smiled, "I'll be careful. Thanks."
He nodded one more time and went back down the elevator.
As with Tyr, Lilly, and myself, we were finishing up lunch. It was good for me to see Lilly again. And she told me all what happened. She was the "squirrel" girl in the hospital. When asked why she said she wanted to fit in. And yes, everyone at the hospital did seem to be some kind of mutant in one way or another.
As with Lilly she merely wore a costume that made her look like she had a squirrel's tail. It would've been interested to hear what her pet Choo-Choo, the squirrel, would've said to that, but all he do was chicker in his own native tongue now.
And I had cause for concern again. When I signed the contract Darceon gave me to keep these superpowers I had no idea they could run out, which apparently is what happened. No I expected to have it with me constantly. And now I couldn't even light a candle with my finger.
Lilly seemed elated though. "Good riddance to it I say. You're a better off person not having superpowers, this will give you a chance to grow on your own without relying on some hoo-doo voo-doo."
Tyr took that and started chanting, "Hoo-doo voo-doo ! Hoo-doo voo-doo !" which quickly turned into, "Doo doo ! Doo doo !"
I smiled. She really was a child at times. The bell rang, it was time for us to return to classes. My next class was gym. I started to enter when the coach Cecil stopped me.
"Office." he said simply. I went with him.
"I didn't want to embarrass you any further than yesterday. Are you all healed up ?"
"I don't know." I stated. I hadn't really given it any thought. But surely no I had to have been injured. I mean the wound of Buford tearing me earlier was pretty serious.
"May I ?" he asked.
I nodded. He got behind me with a flashlight to look. He muttered a bit under his breath. Then came back to the front. "You look fine here. Must be a fast healer. Ok, you can do gym. But if you're not feeling well today I will fully understand if you want to skip for today. Do you ?"
I shook my head.
"Fine ! We're still doing somersaults and learning how to fall. It's important you learn how to fall before learning how to knock someone down."
My eyes grew wide, "You're going to teach us that ?"
Cecil puffed up his chest, "Sure ! I'm not like other gym teachers that make you climb ropes and run the track. I want you to know how to protect yourselves too."
"You're going to teach us karate ?" I asked him getting very excited now.
Suddenly he spat on the floor, really nasty. "God no. Boxing ! The true man's form of self-defense. Going to teach you how to box ! None of that sissy kicking and punching and crying out like a girl all the time."
I smiled. I could see Cecil was perhaps a little prejudice of other forms of self-defense. Which was a shame cause I always read that karate was a great form of self-defense. It wouldn't do me any good to learn boxing if someone attacked me with karate. I wouldn't have a chance.
Nonetheless I smiled. He read that on my face and grinned himself. "Alright, let's get out there and learn to tumble. That's all you need to do for today."
So we both went out. Everyone looked wide-eyed at me.
"So you wearing a diaper now ?" one of the other students chided.
Cecil suddenly smacked him hard on the head causing him to lose balance for a bit but look up angrily.
"That goes for all of you." he said in a loud voice. "Dev is fine now so drop it. We're going to continue to learn tumbling, just like we did yesterday."
And Marty was there. He did whisper in my ear though, "You up to this Dev ?" I nodded.
* * *
He nodded back. And it was my turn first. I got on the ground Indian-style for my legs and put my hands behind my head. He pushed on my back and I neatly rolled over. Then I did it with him. We did this for 10-minutes and then Cecil blew his whistle to get our attention.
"Great job guys ! Okay, now we're going to strengthen those legs. Dev, can I borrow you for a minute ?"
I stepped forward. "Okay, Dev. Lie on your chest here." and there was a mat prepared.
I got into position. He then grabbed the back of my legs. "Okay Dev. I want you to push against me and feel the tension in your legs."
I did so trying to raise up but couldn't.
He explained. "You would have to have enormous strength to raise up from this. This is your first time to do this so ..." and his voice trailed off as he watched me with wide eyes.
For I justed pushed a little harder and felt my whole body raise up until I was sitting on the coach's hands !
Suddenly everyone was murmuring and whispering to themselves. Coach himself was speechless as I neatly raised up and down with him just holding the back of my legs.
"It's not possible." he finally said.
I looked up to see everyone wide-eyed looking at me. And it wasn't all friendly. I realized what I did no average kid should be able to do. Especially with my scrawny frame and no muscle at all in my arms or legs.
But coach wasn't satisfied yet. "Well done Dev !" he shouted finally. Then called out, "Marty ! Come help me here."
Marty stepped forward but couldn't keep quiet. "Gee whillikers, Dev ! How did you do that ?"
Coach scoffed, "He's stronger than he looks. You see how powerful Ovaltine can make you ? Okay, you hold his back down while tries this again."
Marty got into position, Coach held my legs, then he spoke. "Alright hot shot, let's see you pull that again."
I started to stretch when I realized I couldn't move. Then I felt a warmth in my legs and suddenly jerked them up.
That's when everyone screamed in fear. What happened ? I looked behind me. Marty was still holding on to my chest but Coach Cecil was nowhere in sight.
I didn't understand. Then everyone pointed at the ceiling. I looked up and saw my coach barely hanging on to the rafters in the gym at least 50-feet above me ! I must've shot him like a rocket !
Clearly he could care less how he got there, he just wanted down. "Get me down from here !" he roared. I stood to look myself.
Someone ran to get the nearest teacher to help. As he did everyone took a big step back from me.
Then a teacher came in and looked right at me with a big grin. Oh no ! It was that suspicious science teacher, Mr. Gershwyn !
He was not frightened in the least though and even had the gall to come right up against me and pat his hand hard and meaningfully on my back. Then not so much a whisper as a snicker, "It was only a matter of time, Dev."
Then he bunched up my shirt in his fingered grip and forced me to march with him.
"What about the coach ?" I asked looking behind me.
"We'll get him a ladder. Now YOU ! You come with me !"
I was frightened. He was dragging me down the hall and I realized we were going into the janitor's closet.
"No !" I said and started pulling against him. But whatever ability I had then was gone again. He chuckled. "No escape for you, wonderboy."
Then we were in the closet and he turned a light on and shone it straight on me.
"You're in a lot of trouble young man so you better come clean with me. Did you throw him up there ?"
I shook my head, "No ! I didn't do anything."
"You're not responsible for him being stuck in the rafters then ?"
I couldn't answer that without lying.
Just then the bell rang. He loosened his grip. "I've got my eye on you now, Dev. If you know what's good for you, you'll skip your last class and come see in my classroom. I'll cover for you and let your teacher know, you won't get in trouble for that."
"What are you going to do ?" I asked.
He smiled and seemed kindly for just a minute. "Don't worry, I won't hurt you. But I need to know how you did what you did. I am a scientist after all and there's no way a shrimp like you could've thrown him up there - not without help."
He leaned in closer, "You and me - we're going to have a nice little pow-wow. We're going to talk about the help you've been given - and I know you know what I'm talking about."
He let go of my shirt completely this time and I ran out of the closet as quickly as I could back to the gym. I still hand to change for the next class.
As I entered the gym I saw they were using an extra-long ladder and Coach Cecil was being carefully guided down it. Once back on the ground he took one fearful look at me and ran back into his office taping paper over the window there so no-one could see in and then I could hear him locking the door.
"Pretty frightened." one of the teachers helping with the ladder said.
"Yeah, who wouldn't be ? To get up there he had to have been shot by a cannon."
I felt it important to get dressed back into my normal school clothes and go to my next class immediately without waiting for questions from the teachers in the gym.
Once in my next class though it felt like I was in a pressure cooker. Every student was whispering like mad and pointing at me. The class was reading so I immediately took out my book and started reading quietly to myself the chapter about the ugly duckling.
In many ways I felt a lot like that poor duck. Dead duck. Ugly duck. The words rolled around in my head.
Suddenly someone tapped me on my shoulder causing me to bounce in fear in my seat. It was the teacher. She was looking at me with concern on her face. "Dev ? Are you alright ? Everyone seems to be talking about you. Are you sick or something ? Do you need to be excused from class ?"
I looked to the other students and it was very clear they were frightened of me. Frightened by what they saw and what was now being told around the whole school - of what I did.
"Sure. I mean, yes ma'am. I'm not feeling well."
She smiled gently, "Then pick up your belongings and go to see our nurse. I'm sure she'll fix you up right as rain."
With that she wrote those words on the board with a squeaky chalk, "Right as rain." As I left she asked, "Class ? Do you know where this term comes from and what it means ?"
The door closed behind me. I sure wished Janet was there to console me but she wasn't.
I felt tears collect in my eyes now. "I'm a freak." I told myself miserably. I would give anything - anything at all to be freed of this cursed unpredictable power of mine and just go back to my normal life, even if it meant daily bullying. Anything - was better than this.
END OF CHAPTER 52
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