Thy Eternal Summer (3/15)

There were a few people out, walking dogs, mowing lawns, working on cars. Of course, nobody saw anything out of the ordinary about two school kids walking in the direction of down town in the evening. Though if they'd looked closely enough, those with students might have recognized this pair from the mail regarding dangerous influences they had received this afternoon. That is, if they'd actually read that particular mail, which they probably hadn't.1

A car sped past, its driver yelling obscenities out the window at them. Naturally, it was the cool student lording over those who had no cars. He sped past an enforcement officer's car, and got pulled over and searched and handed a ticket, doubling his coolness in the eyes of almost any fellow students who might see him. 2

They turned down the three hundred row, but they wanted the next block over. The house, of course, was the same as those around it, but Ava noticed what looked like a small, crudely drawn fish carved into one of the steps, but it was small and haphazard enough that it could simply have been a trick of the light and the material. 3

Jack stood in front of the door a moment, Ava behind him. He took a deep breath, and knocked. A man opened the door, an older man with a white head of hair, a white beard and mustache. He looked momentarily shocked to see them there. Then he said, “Are you fishes?”4

Jack and Ava answered at once.5

“Yes.”6

“Maybe.”7

They exchanged glances. Jack said, “We're thinking about it.”8

The man opened the door, glancing around to see who might be watching. He shut it behind them. He looked at Jack, considering.9

“My girl, would you wait in the living room? I have something to talk to Jack here about.”10

She looked at Jack, who looked unhappily between the two of them, and then glared around at the room as if threats might lurk in the walls. 11

“She'll be safe, believe me,” said Dr. Spock.12

Jack nodded. Ava went and sat in an overstuffed chair. Spock gestured, and led Jack into the kitchen. He took out three flash cups, and put them in the nuker. The smell of cappuccino wafted from the nuker, growing stronger. 13

“I heard what you said this afternoon, Jack,” he said. “I really did. You are right, in many of your observations, and you are certainly perfectly right to feel this way. I want you to understand that I couldn't do anything about it; I did what was prescribed in the rule book, I did what I had to do. Anything else would simply have gotten you in trouble along with myself. I am the mouthpiece for the government.”14

“Then you're as much a slave as any of us,” said Jack. “Why should I listen to you? What makes you different from anybody else?”15

“I may not be,” he said. “In this world. But it is not this world I am concerned with. It is the next.”16

“Then I have some questions for you,” Jack said.17

The front door closed; Jack heard it, he couldn't tell if Spock did. The man's eyes didn't flicker, he didn't flinch, but there was something deep within, some awareness that flashed with that sound that wasn't a sound. The doctor opened his mouth and muttered, “He whose hand touches the goblet at the same time as mine...”18

The man's eyes snapped back into focus. “What were your questions?”19

Jack felt something boiling within him, anger welling up.20

“Where does knowledge of motion bring us?” he shouted. “What do we get from knowledge of speech? What do we gain from knowledge of words?”21

The psychiatrist was taken aback. The time on the nuker beeped, but Spock made no move toward it. He simply stared at Jack.22

“Don't have an answer for me?”23

“I...”24

“Fine! Answer me this!” he took a shaky breath. “Where do you people come from? Where do you keep popping up from? I thought we wiped you out when we built that wall, converted you into the sensible way of thinking! We threw out the old framework you set up! So where in hell, what dark cave, do you come from?”25

The man wore a sad little half smile. “Isn't all that what you were taught? The programming you received, the stuff you were made to believe so you would serve your basic function?”26

Jack, who had been about to speak, stopped with his mouth hanging open. 27

The man grabbed him by the arm, and propelled him down the hallway, past the empty living room, to the door.28

“We,” he said. “Are the ones who think. The ones who question. We are the only ones who do either, it seems, these days.” He gently pushed Jack out the door, and, saying nothing more, closed it behind him.29

Ava was waiting for him at the next intersection.30

“How weird was that?” she said.31

Jack was breathing heavily, and not from the walk over here. “Yeah...” he said. “It... Yeah.” They turned toward home. “Did you get anything?”32

“Yeah,” she said. “It was weird. I think he lives alone, but both his upstairs bedrooms were decked out for sleeping. The only difference, really, was that one had a console in it and one didn't. In fact, I think the second one didn't have anything that required energy.”33

“What was in it?”34

“A bed, a chair, a shelf... and all these books.”35

A slightly strange light came into Jack's eye on hearing this. “Which books?”36

She shrugged. “I don't know, I didn't look. Just... old stuff, obviously. Stuff the government would 'frown on.'”37

“I see,” said Jack, and seemed mildly disappointed. “Well, did you get anything?”38

Her eyes lit up. “Oh, yeah. It's a good thing you made me watch that thing on how to spot a fishy, because I was able to go right for the Book.” She pulled it out of her back pocket and held it up triumphantly. Jack quickly grabbed it, looking around to make sure no one had seen them. It was an old book, read many times, but well cared for also. It contained thin pages, and a cover of brown leather, on which was emblazoned HOLY BIBLE in gold lettering.39

Jack flipped through it, and gained no spiritual enlightenment. He thought he detected a lot of prayer, a lot of thou shalt not, and something about not eating pigs because GOD didn't like their smell. 40

He put the book away in his own pocket, glancing around as if he expected the old moldy GOD it contained to strike them down with lightning at any moment. “Get anything else?” said Jack.41

Her eyes lit up again. She grinned. “I think so. It's cool, whatever it is, even if we can't sell it.”42

She pulled something out of her other back pocket. It was... a statue. Two slabs of wood, crossing each other like the intersection of two streets, and on them...43

“Turn it around,” said Jack.44

“What?” said Ava. “Oh.”45

She spun the thing around. On the other side was a man. His arms were spread wide in what at first looked like a welcoming gesture. But his legs were bent under him, and his head was tilted in an attitude of pain, and agony was written in great tiny detail across his face. There were holes in the hands and feet, and a crown around his head that seemed to be made of... something sharp and bristly. Anyway, the “crown” too seemed to be giving him pain.46

“The is that thing, anyway?” said Jack.47

“Don't you remember?” said Ava. “It's their suffering God. He's the model they look to, when they do all that... that scourging themselves, and stuff. I'm pretty sure the government will want this too.”48

“Yeah,” said Jack, a little awestruck, though he knew not at what. “I think they will.”49

The next day they managed to arrive a little early to school. They turned and twisted their way along the hallways, until they arrived outside Mr. Cullman's door. Mr. Cullman was officially the chemistry teacher, but there was a certain symbol on the door to his office, below MR. CULLMAN and CHEM. INSTRUCTOR. It was a fish with four legs, eating some sort of bird. A very crudely done line drawing, but effective. Everybody in school, indeed, probably everybody in the country, knew this symbol. They knew it even though it was not taught in any classroom or to be found in any official government approved text book, at least until you reached certain levels of government employ that didn't officially exist anyway.50

But everybody recognized this symbol; it was learned about in whispers and fearful glances and jaded looks exchanged between peers. And, by the time you reached the upper levels of schooling, you knew what to use it for as well. 51

Jack knocked, a little more loudly than necessary. “Who's there?” came a voice from within.52

Jack fumbled a moment. “Er... Jack and Ava?”53

The door opened. Cullman was tall, with an aquiline face and a nose that was slightly too big. He frowned down at them, before remembering himself and splitting his face with a wide failed attempt at a smile. “Ah, Jack and Ava. You're our truants for the week, aren't you?”54

Ava looked down, but Jack continued to meet the man's gaze. There seemed to be no condescension in it, no hostility or disappointment in the words. 55

“She's only your truant for today. I'm truant for the week,” Jack said.56

The man laughed, a deep, ponderous laugh. “I see.” He paused, as if considering. “Well, come in, come in. What can I do for you?”57

Jack followed Cullman in, and Ava followed Jack. She shut the door behind her.58

“Well,” Jack said. “I'm not sure how this is usually done...”59

“Just spit it out, son,” said Cullman. “No use holding it in, when you've come to tell me whatever it is you've come to tell me.”60

Jack grinned. “Sir, I've heard it said that you take an interest in... things we consider, um, unsavory. A purely... pure interest, one might say. Artifacts that the government considers... unnecessary to be floating around, so to speak. And you might... want to buy them? From those that had them, and were unwilling to keep such... such unsavory stuff?”61

Cullman laughed, loudly and a bit too long.62

Jack narrowed his eyes. “You seem to like laughing, Mr. Cullman.”63

This prompted another laugh, shorter and more abrupt. “I do,” said Cullman. “Oh, I know it's frowned on in your classrooms, but when you've been in the world as long as I have you'll discover a little laughter is necessary, just as the other vices are a little necessary—lying, cheating, stealing even.” He paused. “But, yes. This artifact.”64

“Two, actually,” said Jack. 65

Cullman's eyebrows went up. He gestured for them to continue. Keeping his eyes on Cullman, Jack reached behind his back, and found the Book placed in his hands. He held it out to Cullman. The older man flipped through it. He seemed to be looking up key places. After a couple minutes he nodded in satisfaction. 66

“This should bring the usual price,” said Cullman. 67

Jack nodded, as if he knew exactly what this meant.68

“You said there was... another one?” Cullman's voice trembled a bit, but he concealed it well.69

“A statue,” said Jack. “I think so, anyway.”70

Cullman's brow furrowed. “A... Christian statue? I didn't think... are you sure?”71

Jack shrugged. He didn't know what Cullman was talking about. “See for yourself.” Ava handed him the statue, and he handed it to Cullman.72

The man's eyes grew huge, as he took the statue and gazed at it, almost lovingly. Almost. He held it up to the light, almost reverently. Almost. Then, wonder of wonders, he held it to his lips and kissed it.73

He looked back at them, completely unembarrassed. “This... this will bring a large price. You two will be rewarded well.”74

He took the book and the statue, and dropped them in a drawer, closing it and keying in a lock code. He looked up at them. “This kind of thing takes time, of course. Stop back in a couple days, and I'll have some Bens for you. Strictly legal, of course, but also strictly not something that needs mentioning.”75

Jack nodded. “Of course. I'll... We'll... see you later.”76

Cullman laughed again. “Yes, we will.” Jack and Ava turned toward the door, but stopped when Cullman called out to them again. “Oh, you two wouldn't happen to know where these, er, artifacts came from, would you?”77

“Actually,” Ava started, “They came from doctor—”78

Jack cut her off, his louder voice drowning hers out. “No,” he said. “We wouldn't. Bought them off some chump of a kid who had no idea what he had.”79

Cullman looked sharply at Ava, before meeting Jack's eyes. He smiled. “Okay then. Just making sure you don't have family members we should be worried about, or some such.”80

“No,” said Jack, laughing a little. “Nothing like that. Thanks, Mr. Cullman. We'll stop back in a couple days.”81

Cullman laughed as they closed the door. “Okay. See you.”82

Chapter Two83

Jack and Ava arrived at their math class just in time to avoid being marked tardy. The teacher tossed them their stickers—large white circles that they put on their chests, to show everyone that they were truant—and gestured them to their places. A further sign of punishment, they sat in opposite back corners of the classroom, the teacher ignoring them save to collect their homework. 84

Jack endured math class, learning nothing. In the press of people leaving the classroom, he managed to bump against Ava and give her hand a squeeze, before they had to go separate ways to their lockers. 85

Jack turned down the hallway to the boys' lockers, and several of the guys set up a cheer.86

“It's the truant!” shouted Brock, a big, popular, athletic student. He slapped Jack on the shoulder. “So tell us, truant—” the name was said with reverence, like General or something—“What was it like? Did they torture you?”87

“Shut up, man,” said Jack. “You've all been through it. You know what it's like.”88

Brock and several of his friends (who had gathered around) laughed uproariously. They found Jack's comment very funny, for some reason. Jack shut his locker and turned away from them. 89

He entered his chemistry class, mentally hurling all the dirty words he could think of at the bastards who had decided Ava should be in biology this year. The teacher looked at him, saw he already had his truant sticker on, nodded, and gestured to the far right corner. Jack took his seat, and proceeded to fall asleep. 90

He woke with the school bell, and shuffled his way toward the lunch room. Then his memory caught up with him, and he turned toward the detention hall. The guard there—the fat, bald one—grinned as he punched something in on the number pad. “Thought you weren't gonna make it. Your girly friend might not.”91

Jack hovered in the doorway a few moments, but the guard sneered and pushed him inside. He caught a glimpse of Ava coming around the corner as the door shut. The guard, from what Jack could tell, was saying something condescending to her, as well.92

Jack lay in the corner, stuffing his hand into his pocket as he did so. Two raps came from the wall behind him. He responded with two raps; so they both knew the other was there. Two more raps came, whose meaning Jack was unsure of, but he responded in kind and decided they were love me? Love you. Realizing his hand was still in his back pocket, Jack crumpled up the paper that was in there into a ball. Moving quickly, he threw it so it arced past the camera lens. Not the big black eye in the middle of it, no, he knew that was a dummy. The lens was microscopic, somewhere above and to the right of the black thing.93

As he'd hoped, the camera tracked the movement, swiveled, and came to rest pointing in the general area that the paper had landed. Keeping his eye on it, moving slowly, Jack pulled from his other pocket The Waste Land and Other Poems. He was tempting fate, bringing this to school today, but he wouldn't be able to stand another day of thinking. He began to read.94

Ava emerged from detention that day bored as hell. She had done all her homework, for several weeks on, probably. She got on the female truants' bus. There was another truant on it, today. Ava sat down next to her.95

“What'd they get you for?” Ava said.96

The girl shrugged. “Reading Harry Potter.”97

“Reading... what?”98

She shrugged again. “This old children's book series. Apparently it inspires dissidence. Or something. They couldn't have done anything, except I was reading it sitting on the sidewalk when I went home for lunch today, and of course the sidewalk is government territory... So yeah.”99

“That sucks,” Ava said. “How long did they get you for?”100

“Well,” said the girl. “They said it was ignorance, and not malice, so they only put me in for a day. After this, of course, if I get caught again it will be malice, so I'll have a lot longer detention and possibly worse consequences.”101

“Yeah,” said Ava.102

Jack got home that night and his parents were fighting. That wasn't new; they were always fighting about something—the bills, the budget, the color scheme, who his pretty younger sister was allowed to date (almost anybody, said mom; nobody, said dad). Jack almost made it to his room, but just as he was turning the doorknob he felt a meaty hand on his shoulder. He was turned, and received a good smash across the jaw. He caught himself in the doorway, steadied himself in time to see his dad retreat down the stairs, firing off oratory salvos at his mother.103

Jack went into his room, and closed the door. He fired up his console, and Ava was already waiting for him. He tasted blood and ducked out of the way of the camera, so she wouldn't see his wound. He filled a cloth with ice from the ice maker, and held it to his jaw. 104

“Hey,” he called to Ava, slightly muffled.105

“Oh hey,” she said. “You know, if you take the Saturday detention option, you could be done with your time for next week.106

“Nah,” said Jack. “I have plans for us for Saturday. That is, unless your mother wants you.”107

He could tell she was giving him the idiot look from the tone of her voice. “What do you think?”108

Jack sighed. “Yeah. Sorry.”109

“It's all right.”110

“So, yeah... I'm not going to tell you. You'll have to wait for Saturday.”111

“Did I ask?”112

“No, but you were wondering.”113

“Whatever you say.”114

They were silent a while. Then Ava said:115

“Do you know anything about these... these fishes?”116

“No,” said Jack. “Well, no more than what we learned in school.” This wasn't precisely true, but what more he did know was a feeling, an inkling... nothing he could have put into words. “Though,” he said. “I get this feeling that they're not very well portrayed in our school books.”117

“What do you mean?”118

“I'm... I'm not sure. It's just... Like Dr. Spock. He's... he's not what the books say. He may be a bastard, but he's not the kind of bastard that the books say his type are. If that makes any sense at all.”119

She thought for a minute. “Yeah, it does. I think you're right, though I'm not sure why I think that.”120

They sat in silence for a bit, this intellectual effort having exhausted them somewhat. Jack's eyes kept flickering to other screens, as he did various things on the net. “Do you want to come over here tonight?” he said, and then he flinched. Ava heard the muffled sound of something hitting Jack's door. “My dad will be gone after a little while.”121

“Okay,” she said. “I trust we don't have another hit to make?”122

Jack laughed. “Nah. I got the new Wandering Samurai series, we could watch that.”123

“Okay,” Ava said.124

She ate supper with her mother, who was quieter than usual. Ava could never tell if this meant she was sad, had had a bad day, or was simply tired or didn't feel like talking. She spent the meal trying to come up with ways to ask about this, but failed. They cleaned up the kitchen in silence, and in silence Ava gathered her things and left the house.125

She walked along the street, carefully avoiding eye contact and being avoided. Last night had driven home an inherent truth about town life—the point that one might know all kinds of people along these streets—friends' parents, teachers, even counselors—but you didn't know where they lived, and that was the way they liked it. 126

She arrived at Jack's house, and out of startlement nearly dove onto the grass as his dad roared off in the car down the street. He was stopped by an enforcement officer by the time he reached the end of the block. 127

Jack opened the door, and ushered her upstairs. She knew why he did that, but she was unable to avoid hearing and catching brief sight of his mother in the kitchen, crying with great gusto. She looked perfectly miserable.128

“What...?” she started.129

“Don't bother,” Jack said, and the rest of the question died in her throat. “It's only the usual.”130

She nodded, dropped her purse. He fanned an array of Wandering Samurai episodes in front of her. “Have a preference?” he said.131

She shook her head. “I don't think I've seen any of them.” 132

He put one in the console, and sat next to her on his window well seat. The Wandering Samurai flashed across the screen, fighting in time to his theme song. Ava didn't like that song; it was all about the loneliness and the friendlessness of the Wandering Samurai. All the episodes ended up, one way or another, being about how the Wandering Samurai refused to or was unable to settle down, and how he was so sad that he couldn't have a home and a family like other people. But the fight scenes were cool, and he was handsome and there were a few kissing scenes periodically, so it was still a good show.133

Four episodes or so played out, and Ava stirred from her position against Jack. “I should probably go,” she said. “Mom... you know.” 134

“Yeah,” said Jack. “Okay.” There was disappointment on his face.135

“What?” she said.136

“I just didn't even get a...” he stopped himself, not wanting to complain. 137

She smiled, and bent down, and kissed him once, deeply.138

He smiled. “Goodnight,” he said.139

“Goodnight,” she said.140

She craned her neck around, looking for his mom as she went down the stairs. But the house was dark as she left it.141

Ava keyed in the front door code, and discovered that her house, also, was dark. She heard a muffled sound coming from her mom's room, which was the ground floor rear one. She approached it, softly. Light spilled out from under her mom's door, and a muffled sound emerged from it. It was a harsh sort of breathing, in and out, but extended. It sounded like they always portrayed sex sounds in movies and stuff... Suddenly Ava realized mom was crying.142

She put her hand on the door and opened her mouth, then stopped. What would she say? What was there to say? How could she help with this kind of thing? She dropped her hand, turned from the doorway, and went up the stairs.143