Radiant (33 page)

Drew grabbed her hand. "Come on! We'll go out the other door."

As they ran down the hall, Mary asked, "What is that thing?"

"It's a small scale version of what I was talking about," he huffed. "It's not strong enough, though. It looks like it will only stun him for a little bit."

"How long will it keep him from
—?" Mary started. But as they rounded the next corner, the earth radiant appeared.

Drew
switched on the machine again.

WEEEIIINNNNGGGG!

The radiant paused once more.

Mary and Drew
ran. When they got to the stairs, the radiant was there again, and Drew had to stun him once more.

"That was the last of the battery," he said as they ran
the other way. "I can't use this on him again."

"We need to get out of here," Mary said.

Drew looked around. "This classroom's next to the dumpster. We'll go out a window."

They dived into the room
and headed straight for the windows. "Won't this sound an alarm?" Mary asked as Drew fought with rust and paint to open one of the windows.

"Are you kidding?" he asked. "The school's more concerned about making sure the football trophies are protected. The only thing we have is
the keypad on the front door, and the code hasn't been changed in two years."

He finally got the window open and helped her out. They hopped
onto the top of the large dumpster before jumping down to the ground.

Mary landed hard, and pain shot up her ankle. "Ow!"

Drew helped her up and they hobbled away from the building.

Vwooossshhh!

"Ack!" Mary screamed as a great gust of wind knocked them down. She looked up and saw what looked like a woman with long white hair and a body that was almost not there, as if she were made of air.

"You h
ave been found," she said in an airy voice. "Do not resist."

The earthy one appeared next to Drew. He reached down and put his muddy hand on his forehead.

"What are you doing?" Drew asked. "Wait—!" Suddenly, he went limp and collapsed unconscious.

The radiant removed his hand. In his palm, if that was what it could be cal
led, he held several round little lights.

"Drew!" Mary cried. "What did you do to him?"

"We removed some of his memories," the airy radiant said. "Now, we must do the same for you."

Mary struggled to get to her feet, but
her ankle screamed in pain and kept her on the ground. "Get away from me! Phos! PHOS!"

"It is for your
protection," the airy one said. She reached her ghostly hand towards Mary.

Suddenly, Phos appeared
and translated Mary several yards away.

"Phos!" she cried. She
was glad to see him, but then she saw the look of struggle on his face.

"They…are not…
letting me translate again," he said.

Mary looked at them. Then back at him. "They're judges. Aren't they?"

"Yes," he said.

"You," the earthy judge said, "are the one we have been looking for."

"You broke many rules," the airy one added. "Face us."

Phos crin
ged as he stood. "Yes, your honors."

"
It is time to leave the human body," the earthy one said.

"
I understand." Phos looked down at Mary. "But please don't do anything to her."

"
She knows too much," the earthy one said.

"It is for her protection," the airy one
added. "These are the rules."

"
Screw your rules!" Mary snapped, tears starting to form in her eyes. She struggled onto her good foot and clung to Phos. "If you're going to take him from me, don't take my memory of him, too."

The judges said nothing. Instead, they both raised their hands and moved towards her.

Phos tightened his arms around her. "It's all right, Mary," he said, his own voice choked with tears. "Everything will be all right."

But
that wasn't true. Mary had already seen what a lost memory was like. And the terrible part of all is not knowing you had lost it. She quickly went through them in her head, one by one. Her first day back at school. Their first date. Their first kiss. When she was in the hospital. When they met Martin. Each memory—beautiful, wonderful, rich, precious, and worth more than all the stars combined.

Just then, they heard singing.

The judges stopped and turned. Mary looked and saw someone pushing a cleaning cart over to the dumpster. From the fluorescent lights along the side of the Sci-Tech building, she saw that he wore a ponytail and a janitor uniform.

"Hello there!" he
greeted. He started emptying his cart into the dumpster.

Mary stared at him for a moment. Then, she remembered the judges. "Josh!" she cried. "You have
to get out of here!"

He
chuckled. "Why? I've got work to do."

"Mary," Phos said. "That's
—"

"I can't explain," she said quickly. "But you have to leave now!"

Josh casually finished emptying the trash. Then he dusted off his hands and walked over to them.

"Didn't you just he
ar me?" Mary cried. "You have to—!"

But she lost her words when she saw the two judges s
ink to their knees. Phos did the same, letting Mary keep her hand on his shoulder to help her stand.

"
Master," they said in unison.

Mary
looked at them. Then at him. Her jaw dropped earthward. "
You're
the Master?"

Josh
held out his red wrist-banded hands. "Probably was expecting a bit more, weren't you?"

She did
n't answer right away. "But…how…if you're…?"

"
I'm like you," he explained. "But I'm also like them. Radiants? I think that's what you called them. I like it. I think I'll start using it." He walked over to the earth radiant, who held up his hand of little round lights. "Let's see," Josh said as he sifted through them like marbles. "Let's give him back this one and this one. They might come in handy later."

He took the lights and went over to Drew, who was still sprawled on the ground. Josh placed the two lights on Drew's forehead, and they
sank into his head and disappeared. "Translate him back to his computer. When he wakes up, he'll think he just fell asleep from too much work."

The earth one pu
t his hand on Drew's shoulder, and they both disappeared.

Josh got to his feet and walked towards Mary
.

Phos jumped to his feet.
"Please, Master—"

"C
ool your jets, Sparky," Josh said as he knelt down and took Mary's throbbing foot in his hands. "You just have a way of getting banged up, don't you?" As he held her foot, the pain in her ankle suddenly melted away. Josh let go of her foot. "There you go. Good as new!"

Mary wiggled her foot and stood on it. It didn't hurt anymore. "You fixed it. Just like you fixed my back!"

"And a bunch of other stuff," he said.

"What do you mean?" S
he thought for a moment. Then she cried, "You were there! The day of the accident. You were the man in the uniform who helped me."

Phos looked at Josh. "You were?"

"You remember!" Josh laughed. "You don't know how many times I do things for people and they don't remember. And that's just on their own, not because their memories were changed." He thought for a moment. "Although, the kids at the hospital where your mother works were really cool and super grateful."

Mary stared at him. "That was you?
Those kids Mom talked about? You healed them?"

Josh nodded.
"It's what you wanted, isn't it? I overheard you and Phos talking about it once."

"You have been watching us all this time?" Phos asked. "How
did I not know?"

Josh
looked at him matter-of-factly. "Don't you think I can hide while standing in front of you if I wanted to?"

Phos looked down. "Yes, Master."

Josh looked at Mary again. "Anyway, yes, I was at the crash. I left some scrapes on you so that you would remember not to run without looking again. I was actually going to take care of the boy, too, but Phos got to him first. I thought it was really interesting what he did and wanted to see how things would turn out." He stretched his arms. "Well, I think my work here is done. You might want to get going. It's late." He turned towards his cleaning cart.

"
Master," the airy judge said. "What of the human girl?"

"
What about her?" he asked.

"
She knows too much."

He sighed.
"Maybe I need to remind all of you why you're here. You're here to help humans, remember?"

"Yes, Master," she said.

"How would taking Mary's memories help her?" he asked. "She's a better person now because of what she's learned in this time. Aren't you?"

Mary stared at him and
nodded.

"Why would I want to take that from you?" he asked. "Drew, however, might not do well with some of the things he's learned. That's why he needs to
let go of some of his memories. It will be better for him." Josh looked at the airy radiant. "I'm not worried about Mary and her memories. In fact, I want her to keep them. She wouldn't remember me either, otherwise."

"
And what of the boy and his body?" the airy radiant asked.

Josh put his hand to his chin
. "Now that's a little more complicated. Hmm, let's see. What to do?" Suddenly, he started chuckling. "You know, of all the rules, the one that really irks me when people break it is not sticking to their word. Have you any idea how awesome this world would be if everyone just did what they said they would? Barring the nut jobs, of course."

"
Master?" Phos asked. What are you saying?"

"
I'm saying," Josh said slowly, "that Mary gave you her word that she would accompany you to the school prom. Correct?"

Phos looked at Mary.
She looked back at him.

"
Correct
?" Josh asked again. "I need some participation here, or I'll think I'm talking to myself."

"
That's correct," Mary said quickly. "I did say I would go with him."

"
That's what I thought." Josh looked at Phos. "Now what kind of a gentleman would make it so that a lady couldn't keep her word? If you ask me, that's worse than terrible manners. Why, that's breaking the rules." He grinned.

Phos
' face lit up. He looked at Mary, then at Josh, then at Mary again, then back at Josh. "Master, you mean—?"

"
Now, don't get too excited and burn your shorts," Josh said. "You can stay until the close of the prom. Then poor Carter Maxwell really needs to have his body back."

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- 3
5 -

A Better Human

The next day, Mary called the university's Astronomy department and asked to talk to Drew. When she told him her name, he asked, "Mary who?" He didn't remember her.

"Sorry," she said. "I was t
rying to reach a different Drew." And she hung up.

Ben got back from Dubai
a couple days later. He came to visit Mary and Mom.

"I'm so sorry," he said. "When Hannah told me what happened, I
just felt sick. I almost didn't finish the installation so that I could come straight back."

"I glad you didn
't," Mary said. "Things worked out, and it gave Mom and me some time to figure out how to tell you something important. About what happened to Anna."

He looked at them curiously
. "What do you mean?"

For the next few hours, they told him about Mary's father and how he had robbed the bank the day Anna was killed. Mom cried a lot and Ben listened. He hardly said anything the whole time.

At last, he said, "Thank you. For telling me."

Mom wiped her eyes with tissue. "I'm so sorry."

Ben was quiet when he got up to leave. But at the door, he stopped. "I don't hold anything against you, though. Or him. Not anymore."

Mom nodded. "Thank you."

He looked at Mary. "All your stuff for your mobile is still at the shop. It's waiting for you to come finish it."

"I will," she said. "
I may need some help. Maybe you can work on it with me if you're not busy?"

Ben smiled. "It
will be my pleasure."

Not much time
separated the Sci-Tech incident and the prom. In between school, physical therapy, visits to Ba, and another visit to Martin, Phos and Mary jammed in as much time together as they could. They didn't travel as much as they used to. Instead, they went to some of David's hockey games, and they even attended one of the choir concerts at the church near Mary's home. Father Cohen recognized Mary and asked them to sit with him near the front.