True Heroes (17 page)

“I need help living forever?”

“Yes. Talk.”

Caleb smiled back at her as he thought. ‘It’s time to start really trusting her.’ He turned to face her, moving damp bangs from their eyesight with a gentle brush, and began slowly. “I finally got all the words narrowed down to one.”

Carol looked genuinely excited as she kissed his cheek. “Good job. That’s honestly incredible news. So, no more suspense; what’s the word?”

His eyes looked into hers with no humor amongst a cold aural presence. ‘Stand up straight. Jut out the chest just like Dad does. Look like the indomitable wall of rationality while delivering the one, simple word that will change both of our lives forever.’ “Power.”

Eyes remaining steady and un-mocking, she simply asked, “What kind of power?”

“The absolute, omnipotent kind where fear and doubt become things of the past and one person can have the ability to transcend physics. I’m not talking about any kind of tyrannical power or anything like that, but rather, a power that you can use to protect the people you love and to bring reprocussions to those deserving. I have a chance to be able to protect everyone I love and everyone in the world. This isn’t a quest for my greater power; this is the path to your protection. That’s the power I want for us.”

Carol nodded even more excitedly than before while biting her lower lip and holding onto his hands tightly. “I know you feel invincible, baby, but you’re not. You’re a lot more invincible than the rest of us and maybe you’ll make it all the way one day, but you’re not now. I’m behind you one-thousand percent and am more ready than you could ever know to live with you. So, do me this small favor and listen to my advice: be ready to fall before you can rise, and what you think is right now may not be right after you have fallen.”

Caleb nodded slightly and locked those words into his mind. They embraced in a hug that produced nervously gripped areas of flesh along either pair of shoulders. While clamped tight, Caleb looked over her frame. ‘When did the television turn on? Breaking news…a man’s body had been fished out of the Sans river just a few miles down from where Carol and I…totally naked with with a single cut across the front of his neck. Focus!’

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‘School’s different…. Or, at least, it seems different. Maybe it just hit a time machine.’ He let his eyes wander carelessly about the tall windows, noting his old lunch table was welcoming him back with waving hands and light smiles. ‘The hallways are all the same, and the smiles look familiar but not from any recent memory. These smiles were from a time before this school year, before this summer, and all the way back to junior year. Glad they can stand the sight of me again.’ Now, his old friends were patting him on the back and asking for allotted time slots and other friendly things. A few flirting stares slapped his body while lust-filled words caressed his ears as he’d strutted with a perfect mask of accommodation. ‘What am I running for president now? You can cut the pomposity in this school into slices.’

This was the way the day had gone: a few assignments were given between “hellos,” and “heys,” as he smiled and didn’t do anything to change his in-class demeanor. He still sat back and let the teachers ask him questions if they needed but did very little to actively participate. ‘No one’s asked me about my mother.... Conversion disorder? Or don’t they know? Marion is always all about the sympathy. Hmm. They must not know. Family dying is too big for people to just ignore. Not even with all of these Oscar-worthy actors around me.’ Stuck in thought, he barely noticed Hackard behind until the man’s hand slapped him gently on the right shoulder. ‘Look back, classic Hackard nod. Your office, now. Got it chief.’

Everyone at Caleb’s table—‘It’s my table again,’—smiled at his smirk before he exited the cafeteria. Once they got into the quieter, emptier hall, the principal started talking quietly enough for only Caleb to hear. “This is far enough. You’re not in trouble. I was just wondering how you are.”

Caleb smirked a little despite the question. “I was wondering if anybody actually knew. I haven’t heard a question about it all day.”

“Your father came in and told me everything. We both agreed that starting a pity-party wasn’t the best course of action. Who knew it would affect you positively, though,” he said while waving his hand at Caleb’s clothes.

Caleb’s eyes pointed. “This happened for another reason, Hackard. In the end, though, I guess you got what you wanted.”

His principal smiled and leaned against the yellow wall. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry I got it the way I did. In any case, you’ve only got another quarter or so of school left before you go off and rule the world, so I don’t see any reason why we can’t avoid each other until graduation.” Caleb smiled and nodded in actual gratitude as kids began to come out of the cafeteria. Hackard began to walk away before turning back. “By the way, Stephen won’t be bothering you anymore. He came to school drunk one day while you were gone and he won’t be back this year. From the rumors I’ve heard, I doubt he’d be bothering you again anyways. Rumor was he was afraid of you for some reason.”

‘Glad I could finally give Stephen a taste of his own medicine.’ Caleb’s friends walked by and grabbed his arms to sweep him away in the current of other students going towards class. He said his good-byes to them as they kept going past his philosophy class. ‘Time for the highlight reel of the day to run its course.’ His entire argument was coming to mind as he took his seat and didn’t even bother to take out his notebook. Instead, he took it upon himself to notice Mrs. Drit’s new pair of high-heeled shoes for a moment—‘Makes her butt look even better,’—before looking away and focusing. ‘Got everything you need in your brain? Good because—she’s looking at me. Attention to the important things, please.’ After he sensed Mrs. Drit’s eyes moving off him, he moved his own back to study her. Her hair was curled in two large bunches and she had an extremely tight, striped shirt on with her bosoms straining between the top and middle button. Her yellow eyes met his just as they averted from that sight and he could see her mouth the question “Are you ok?”

Caleb smiled softly and nodded during the sounding of the late bell. Everybody sat. ‘All of the questions, answers, and possible rebuttals in mind, straight in the chair—Marion said my name. Go.’ He stood smoothly while never taking his eyes off the ground. Phrasing his opening question just right, he let it all go. “When you think of power, what comes to mind?”

‘Shocker, they’re silent. Let the group that cares have some time to think, and forget the other useless idiots.’ “Like strength?”

He nodded towards the student that answered. ‘Usually one of the quiet ones. Guess his bright yellow shirt signifies today won’t be a usual day for him.’ “Good. What else?”

The answers all came at once now, but he did his best to sort through them. “Force, determination, danger: all good answers, but what about protection, or safety, or even love?” Another silence befell the class, and even some of the apathetic ears from before began to turn to him in curiosity. ‘Here we go.’ “We hold some words to be set and their definitions to be the same throughout any situation, but what if they weren’t meant to be stuck to one specific definition? Why can’t all words have multiple definitions? When I say the word cool, what comes to mind?”

“Totally un-cool,” ‘said one of the unpleasantly high-voiced cheerleaders.’

“And why is that? Is it because the definition has changed or because we, as a civilization, have changed the usage of that word?”

Even with no sound filling the air, Caleb could sense the brain of everybody hard at work as he dangled this idea in front of them like an orchestra conductor trying to get the proper sound from his wind section. “Our perceptions of words change from generation to generation and even from social group to social group, but definitions are set in stone. Those can’t be changed.”

Caleb smiled on the inside at the affronted kid who’d offered up his answer. ‘Poor guy is trying to show off what little insight he has. Being second in the class doesn’t get you anything but the second seat. Even if you did give the answer I wanted, you should still leave the big thoughts for the big league thinkers.’ “Assuming definitions give words their power, can that power change from person to person? Can the manifestation of that kind of power change in the same way?”

The same boy tried to answer again but Mrs. Drit cut him off. “One response per person at first, Eric.” The seconds ticked off the clock with no response coming to break the monotonous drip of time. After a sea of ticks went by, Mrs. Drit sighed. “This is your one free pass before I start deducting points from everyone that hasn’t spoken up yet.” She crossed her legs under her knee-length skirt and leaned forward to project her voice. “I think power is a drastically different prospect from person to person. Power is generally another word for strength and everyone has different strengths, so what kind of power are you talking about?”

“Absolute.”

All eyes in the room turned to him again, but this time they were mostly annoyed projections as a reward for his vagueness. “It’s impossible to have absolute power over everything.”

Caleb smirked while not caring who had given him the answer. “By the standard definition of power, and a little deeper interpretation, we can see how it is possible. If a person has absolute power, then they have practiced that power to the point of being able to call on that power in any situation. Not necessarily perfect in every situation, but displacing your power to cover an absolution of all categories, making perfection possible in all categories. Perfection every single time you were asked ‘what’s two plus two?’ or some other, specific area. Is it not perfection in that area when you never fail at that specific task?” A few students tried to stammer out answers, but almost all of them looked around in a bit of shock. A full smile came to his face over the unveiling of his theory; it was hanging by a thread in front of all of their faces and craved their proof to cement this idea forever.

“Yeah, it is.”

“Sure.”

“Sounds like it.”

“Yeah, but isn’t absolute power all encompassing by nature? Like math or science?”

Caleb let out an accidental scoff as Eric rebutted. “First off, math and science are not absolute powers at all, and secondly, absolute power has different definitions just like every other word. Just because you get good grades in math and science doesn’t mean that’s all there is to the world.”

The class chuckled as Eric glared back. ‘Another of the smarter students in the class, please,’ “So, we can prove gravity as an absolute power by the fact that my pen drops when I throw it off the desk?”

He shrugged. “Looks as though you could prove it for that one case, but that’s only a part of gravity’s case for absolute power. When gravity is stronger than the upward force of an object, it will always, always, bring it as close to the Earth as possible. It isn’t perfect since we can still jump and fly in machines, but gravity takes every single opportunity it is given and never fails. That’s absolute power: the ability to never fail when you’re given the opportunity to succeed—”

The bell ringing scared him out of his speech and slowly moved the students from their seats. Caleb caught his breath. ‘They’re not leaving in any hurry now. Their minds have been intrigued.’ He barely moved out of temporary shock. ‘Something’s different again. Maybe the realization that I’m right; the feeling isn’t all I expected. It felt almost…normal, as if my power didn’t want any part of me justifying its existence. Once you put it into action, you’ll feel it.’

“Interesting debate. Even if you were leading them along by the hand the entire way, I’ve never heard so much guarded optimism amongst this group. Everything you’ve done today has been impressive.”

Shooting a smile up at his teacher, he coyly asked, “What else did I do today?”

“You got up and came to school after what happened.”

Caleb stood straight and smiled again as she walked around her desk and placed her chair back within its crevace. “Just something I had to do.” His memory struck up a question. “By the way, when does that club of yours start? I haven’t seen any posters around and it’s near the end of the school year.”

She drew herself back as she sat and adjusted her perfectly-fitted glasses. “Um, well, we hadn’t seen enough interest in the group and I didn’t think any of the current members were leadership material, but if you join, we can officially begin. The way it’ll work is that we do one-on-one meetings first just to get feedback on ideas without peer pressure influencing decisions. This club is meant to… stretch our understanding of communication and individuality. I can squeeze you in tonight if you’re interested.”

Caleb nodded. “I’ll give it a shot, if you’ll still have me. Where’s the meeting being held?”

Marion Drit angled her face down to look at him in a sarcastic way. ‘As if to say “Who wouldn’t want you?” That stare up the rim of her glasses sets her yellow eyes off in a fiery fashion. Brownish-gold mixes with her cat-like stare to create Sky-Daises, as Mom would say; those fireworks that barely lit up the sky, compared to the rest, but cascaded back towards earth in the shape of a glitter palm tree. Those had always been my favorite when I was younger because they were calm and quiet, but fierce and inviting.’ A slight smile from her lips only added to the spectacle before her voice emerged. “The meetings will be a bit unconventional like the club itself. I figure the one-on-one questionings will be held at my house to add a little homemade dinner and comfort to the whole idea. After those are done, we’ll probably meet a few times a week here at school; I haven’t gotten those details settled yet. Sound good?”