True Heroes (59 page)

              Caleb straightened his back. “I asked her to sit with me.”

              The room was quiet and downturned. “Why?”

              He turned to the girl half of the oft-attached couple to his left. “Why do you always hold his hand?”

              “I like it.”

              “Well, that’s pretty much the reason I wanted her to sit next to me.”

              David set his board on the ground. “On that note, let’s take a break for a few minutes.”

              Everyone but David and Alice stayed seated, he nearly running outside while she standing next to Benny. ‘A former conquest?’

              ‘Funny on so many levels.’

              She gently rubbed her hand across the fake shoulder pad. ‘Perhaps not.’

              ‘It doesn’t matter.’

              ‘Oh we both know it does to you.’

              Caleb shook it away while Alice turned back and smiled down to him. Other people had begun to move around now, but all stayed very close to their seats with tethered ankles and shackled minds. Their bodies were all quickly feeling the autumn intrusion with assorted long-legged garments while only his and Alice’s arms showed any skin above the wrists. His attention varied from quiet group to quiet group, only Alice’s particular voice sticking out. “Well what kind of story do you want to write for us now, Benny?”

              Caleb scanned over the man—‘His eyes aren’t on the ground,’—and glowered with help from his power. “Well, I want to do something bigger, better. We’ve got some couples, so maybe I will do the big love story I was thinking about.”

              “We’ve only got one couple, Benny, but I’m sure they’d love that. All of us would.”

              “You and him?” Benny looked up for a second as she shook her head playfully. “Oh, I thought…that you’d be able to help me with the context. But never mind.”

              “I couldn’t help you I’d only drag you down. I don’t know anything about that.”

              “Love is a constant exhale…,” Caleb raised his voice to drag the attention of Alice and Benny, hooking the ears of everyone else along the way, “the frothy white before the curl, a naked meadow before the dew. It’s a simple sparkle in the vast, and a sweeping wind before the crease. It is that one moment when the nature of life itself forgets its purpose, its place, and its entire reason for existing, and all it can do is breathe out, and, at that moment, there’s nothing in the world that could be more perfect for life itself. Does that help?”

              Benny and Alice stared straight into his blue-cusped eyes while the extroverts around took in the area closest to his staying shoes. David returned to the scene with a curious look that made him smile a slight while the man that appeared behind brought Caleb to a scorn. ‘Another new one? Your disease is everywhere.’ Everyone shuffled to their seats. Alice, a suddenly cutting smile touching his heart gently, sat in her recliner heavily while subtly leaning closer to Caleb than before, her arm upturned on the rest and hand with fingers spread apart.

              ‘What would happen if I took her hand here, now?’   

              His power didn’t respond as David, before sitting down, grandstanded. “I’d like to introduce a very special guest and friend who will be teaching us how to deal with real-life situations starting tomorrow.” The man standing by the door walked over, his shoes quiet on the boards but appearance loud across the empty space. He wore brown pants, coat, and vest with a gold chain dangling from the small jacket pocket and a pair of fine, black dress shoes. He shook hands with David briefly and sat across from Caleb. “This is Doctor Dyllo.”

              “Hello all,” he said in an odd accent that stemmed from British. “I am a Doctor of Philosophy, and also of the symptoms of the human condition. I but witness what mankind does in this debacle of life and I understand it without ridicule or lament. David has asked me to rip away the guise of human rationale and reveal to you the truth of the world. I will accomplish this with dispassion and calculation as the habits of humanity are dissected. In no time at all, you will understand the truth, as I do.”

              Caleb hadn’t realized his head was cocked to the side. Even as David dismissed everybody for the day, he stayed seated in reflection. ‘This guy’s serious?’

              ‘You don’t believe he knows the truth?’

              ‘He just sounds like an arrogant idiot to me.’

              ‘Then I immediately enjoy him.’

              ‘Lovely.’

              Alice tugged at his shirt. “Are we still on for today?”

              “Yeah. You go to your place and I’ll meet you there. I’m going to talk to David for a second.”

              She pulled him up and looked up. “Behave.”

              “What do you think I’m going to do?”

              “I know what a part of you wants to do to him. I was talking to that part.”

              Her emphasis made his smile grow. ‘Tell your princess I’ll behave.’

              “It says it’ll try its best.”

              She gently tugged his arm until they were outside. Her little legs carried to her truck as David came into Caleb’s sights. The small man turned before Caleb reached him and began speaking. “Ah, Caleb. I was hoping we could talk,”

              “What a coincidence.”

              “I don’t want to make it seem like I’m bitter with you and Alice starting whatever you’re starting. I was just trying to keep the peace in there. You saw how it bothered them.”

              “After you pointed it out to them, yeah.”

              “I promise they noticed before I said something.”

              “I don’t doubt it, but you gave them a reason to say something because you’re the only person in there that outranks Alice. I surely don’t want to make them uncomfortable, but you pulling their strings isn’t nice to watch either.”

              “I’m just trying to keep everyone set.”

              “And yet you bring in a colleague to have us thinking differently.”

              “You’re saying it’s a waste of time?”

              “I’m saying your motives don’t add up.”

              He stepped off the curb and jingled his car keys. “Want a ride? We can talk on the way.”

              ‘You trust him behind a wheel?’

              ‘He’s a dick, maybe, but still able to drive a car.’

              They approached a smaller car with downed windows. “Every Saturday get out early?”

              “Yeah, I don’t like ruining a beautiful day like this.” He clicked open the doors. Both men sat in their respective places. “What are you planning for today?”

              “Alice wants to show me a nice picnic spot.”

              “Ah.” The car began gently purring and radio voices welcomed them. “To her place then?”

              “Or somewhere near it, please.”

              “I’ve never been, so you’ll have to direct me.”

              “You’ve never been to her apartment?”

              “She’s usually very private.” The streets came from a point and expanded beyond the car on either side. “I trust she didn’t tell you about her dating past yet?”

              “She doesn’t really have one is what I’ve gathered.”

              “It’s a brief one, mind you, but she does have one. With every male member of the circle, minus Christopher.”

              ‘I warned you not to ride with him.’ “Really?”

              ‘He’s probably lying anyways.’ “Yes. I never asked, but I don’t think any of them went anywhere. They just seemed like her coping mechanism so I played along. She only dated me for a few weeks though. The rest lasted months.”

              ‘Strange, I like him more now. Must be his ability to usurp your hope.’

              Caleb let his arm dangle out the window for a block before the brakes slowed the auto unexpectedly in front of the coffee shop as David looked over. “This is where she would always meet me.” Caleb opened the door and stepped out. “And, it’s just food for thought. I’m not meaning to stick a knife between you two.”

              He leaned back down to the window frame. “Thanks.”

              Caleb began walking slowly, but felt his legs swimming in power after David cleared the street. ‘What are you doing?’

              ‘Save your thinking for later.’

              ‘Why do you want to see her so bad?’

              ‘She’s the only person I want to see because she’s the only person who can hurt you now.’

              Caleb quickly jogged the four blocks to her apartment, and was bemused to see her standing outside in a bright yellow sundress. She smiled sweetly as he approached. “Hey. Did you run here?”

              “From the coffee shop, yeah. David drove me there.”

              “Oh, you two got along? That’s so fun, but odd. Why?”

              “I’m pretty sure he’s chopping this up to a passing fad you have. He told me that you dated the other guys in the circle.”

              Her eyes rolled. “I did not date them. I just wanted them to have some fun and to connect with them.”

              “Aha, okay.”

              She moved a picnic basket into her left hand while reaching for him with her right. “You don’t believe me?”

              Caleb moved past her and down the sidewalk. She quickly skipped to catch up. “It doesn’t matter. I wouldn’t be jealous, it’s just something I’d like to know if it did happen.”

              She smiled and hooked her hand around his elbow. “Well, we’re just a chance, right?”

              “As of now, yeah.”

              “Well, whenever we become more of a chance, I’ll tell you, deal?”

              He allowed Power to reach behind her and bring the basket over to his hand as she spoke. “Deal.” He swung the basket back and forth as a taunt.

              “Sneaky.”

              “I try. Where is this place?”

              “Back here.” She stepped off the sidewalk and between two buildings. Caleb followed warily, noticing green brush up ahead. “This is the closest greenery to my place, and as luck would have it, it has the perfect clearing up ahead. I swear it’s got to be seventy meters wide. It’s enough for quite a few picnics and the trees are tall and green. You can’t even see the sun come up or go down—the horizon’s completely covered. It’s so cool during the day.”

              “It sounds like it’d be a nice night time hangout too.”

              They cut their way through the young brush. ‘These inner ones are older. How many days of pollution do you think they’ve seen?’

              ‘You don’t think it’s strange that there’s such deep woods right next to a city?’

              ‘I bet quite a lot….’

              “I’ve never been here at night.”

              He followed her as the trees ended and a wide green struck his eyes. The field was smaller than she advertised, but flat and just as secluded. She started skipping but stopped after only a few gallops. “I forgot the blanket? Really? Of all things to forget to bring to a picnic.”

              “We can eat without one.”

              “On the grass? I don’t know what kind of picnics you’ve had, but we will be eating on a blanket, thank you.”

              He smiled sideways. “Fair enough, princess.”

              She stuck her tongue out and scrunched her eyes. “I’ll run back and get it.”

              “I can do it. I’m faster.”

              “Yeah, but I’m the one that wants this to be perfect. Stay here, get comfortable. I’ll be back in a second.”

              Caleb gave her a big smile as she backed out of the clearing with his eyes in hers. The basket was set down as he turned into the grassy knoll, blue sky carouseling arcedly above the higher horizon of green around him. ‘We never could find a nice place like this to practice could we?’

              ‘I wouldn’t know.’

              ‘Ah, yeah, well we couldn’t. It was a construction site first, then an old football field. It was a little dank, yeah, but I was alone. That’s what always mattered to me. That’s when everything was at its peak.’

              ‘We won’t be alone here for long.’

              ‘I’ll never be alone again. May as well make the best of it.’

              ‘For the sake of your mood and your woman, I wouldn’t.’

              ‘She’s not mine, and you won’t hurt her.’

              Power didn’t answer as Caleb slowly unraveled its parasitic talons from his torso and spread to the outer green. He gently pushed the basket under a tree and sat down, feeling his lungs strain to breathe over fifty meters of space. The entire area heaved and sighed; heaved and sighed, waited and watched, listened, and suddenly heard music as if it poured out of his head. “What’s that?”