Season 1, Episode 5 - The Boxtops XXXIII - "The Secret Origin of Isaac Spallacio, Part 3"

Their mother died a few months later.

The entire process of death - the town doctor’s tired look, arranging and attending the funeral, lowering the casket into the grave, everyone in town there, all dressed in black, returning home, collapsing into bed - all felt like a blur to Isaac. Hazy. The whole world felt hazy, messy, lacking in rhyme or reason. Deciding he was better off not dealing with that world at all, Isaac shut himself away in his room.

Days (weeks?) later, lacking in any sense of time or space, not eating, not living, Isaac heard a knock on his door.

“Isaac,” his brother’s firm voice called out. “You need to get out of bed.”

Isaac didn’t answer.

Gregory sighed. “I know you don’t want to. But you need to.”

Isaac just brought the blanket tighter over himself.

“You think Mom would want to see you like this?” Gregory asked.

Isaac knew she wouldn’t, but that only made him hug his knees.

“Alright, Isaac. Look. There are things in life you don’t want to do. In fact, right now, maybe you don’t want to do anything. But there are things in life you must do. Try as we might, we can’t escape them. This is called discipline. Even when things are terrible, even when things are terrible, you need to have the discipline to do them.”

Isaac kept quiet.

“And these are small things,” his brother continued. “Cleaning yourself. Eating. Getting out of bed. These must be done. I wish I could sugercoat it. But you need to find it within yourself to do them. I'll be there to help, but ultimately, only you can do them. But because you can only do them... these tiny, everyday victories over the world, this is where the sense of self starts from.”

Isaac heard what sounded like a plate of food being left at his door.

“I don’t expect to convince you overnight,” Gregory said. “I don’t even expect to see you for a while. But move around and eat something every so often. You might find yourself feeling better.”

Isaac heard his brother’s footsteps leave. Isaac rolled over and sunk his head further into his pillow.

Days (weeks?) later, Isaac stepped into the kitchen. His hair was messy and unkempt, huge bags below his eyes, his body thinner from losing weight. Each step seemed like it took a lot out of him. But, for however long it took, all those days that blended together, there was a slow fire starting in his heart. It took a while to light, and it took a while to spread to his mind and soul, but it could be found now in his eyes, in his hands.

Gregory sat at the kitchen table, pouring over his notebooks. He looked back at Isaac, his expression not changing, but there was a look of approval in his eyes.

“I’m gonna do it,” Isaac said, finding his voice. “Dad looked after us, Mom looked after us, you looked after us. Now, I’m gonna return the favor.”

His brother closed a notebook. “And who are you going to return the favor to?”

The answer was obvious.

“The whole world,” Isaac declared.

The kitchen went silent. His brother grinned.

“Then let’s get started.”

Their training picked up immediately. Having moved through it so many times, the obstacle course became child’s play. Mill workers looked forward to seeing the two brothers sprint past every morning. They found a department store in Acushnet selling heavier weights. Isaac even surpassed his brother when it came to an old hobby of his - boxing.

But the body alone wasn’t enough to succeed. Putting pencil to paper and then some, Isaac shot up through the ranks at school. He disliked math, disliked science, but it needed to be done for two reasons. First, it helped Isaac’s sense of self - now driven by his motivation to recreate the world, the newfound knowledge expanded his outline, added new dimensions to it, pushed back the unknowns that surrounded a person.

Second, he would need good test scores to get into one of the Rddhi schools in Narragansett. Part of Gregory's plan involved Isaac unlocking the Rddhi, after all. And getting into a Rddhi school served as a one-way ticket to connections and knowledge that would greatly aid them in the future. But despite all his best efforts, despite the countless nights of meditation and self-reflection, Isaac couldn’t get a flame to flicker in his palm, nor could he get a spoon to bend. If he couldn’t get in through the Rddhi, he’d have to get in academically.

The brothers were realistic. That method left out both Cambridge High School and the Institute High School. That left one option, not their ideal option, but it would be the route they needed to take themselves to the top - West Narragansett Technical Academy.

His brother cooked up a precise training regimen for both body and mind. They spent long nights at the library, since Gregory also had his own studies to work at. When Gregory returned for the spring semester, Isaac turned fifteen. By the time his brother got back, Isaac proudly displayed his test scores.

That just left the interview, since test scores weren’t enough - Isaac needed to have an edge over the others. He needed to convince the school they would have a use for him.

“When they ask you why, how do you start?” Gregory asked.

“Talk about father’s death,” Isaac recited. “Talk about Mom’s death. Talk about you. Talk about how I’ll return the favor to everyone.”

“And you’ll return the favor by…”

“Wiping the slate clean,” Isaac said. “Win the next war. Restore the United States. Destroy the village to save it.”

His brother nodded in approval. None of those were technically lies - Isaac genuinely believed in all of it. But the underlying assumption behind it all was that Isaac wanted to do it in the name of New England. For the glory of their country.

It was tough to undo all the propaganda. Isaac wasn’t even sure if his brother’s tutoring about the evils of New England even got through to him. But one fact rose above all the others - this was the world that killed his mother.

But that wasn’t quite right. It was the uncaring world that enabled humanity to kill his mother. An uncaring world created an uncaring people. Humanity fired the gun, but the world supplied it.

And that was the brothers' true goal. Gregory didn’t let Isaac into all of his secret plans just yet, but they weren’t doing it for their country. They weren’t even doing it for their people, or any people outside of themselves. The current world needed to be destroyed. That way, they could create a caring world, one that wouldn’t allow humanity to destroy itself.

Destroy the village to save it. Destroy the current reality to save it. That was the plan. Isaac had felt lost and adrift when his mother died, the foundation he lived upon shattered, but thanks to his brother, he found a new direction to embrace.

In the middle of the summer, Isaac returned from his interview with the Academy. He stayed around the capital for a few days, but he kept his vision focused on the here and now. It was a city of millions, but there was not a single person there he wanted to see. He kept to himself, barely even acknowledging when, before he returned home, the interviewer slipped a package into his hands - an acceptance package for West Narragansett Technical Academy.

When Isaac arrived in his kitchen and slid the package onto the table, his brother gave a sad smile as he slipped something of his own alongside it. Isaac's eyes widened at the sight of the document's symbols - the pine tree and moose of the Presidential Administration.

“By order of Presidential General Headquarters,” Isaac read aloud, “Gregory Spallacio is hereby selected for the draft, and should report to the 4th Army recruitment center in Acushnet…”

Isaac looked up at his brother, who could only wipe his face.

“Attending college should grant immunity from the draft,” Gregory said, sounding tired. “But they’re looking to weaken the professor by driving his associates away. They already have the students in the Presidential Collegiate League interrupting his lectures and harassing him in his office.”

“What are you going to do?” Isaac asked.

His brother pocketed the draft notice. “I’ll have to do what must be done. I know some people in the 4th Army." He patted Isaac on the shoulder. "Don’t worry. I’ll never stop with my work. And there’s no reason to stop yours, either.”

Gregory - the theoretical side. Isaac - the practical side.

Except Isaac still couldn’t use the Rddhi at all. He had no idea why.

Three days later, the brothers stood outside their house for the last time. Piles of luggage and suitcases stood around them - all of their possessions, which really wasn’t a whole lot. They each took a photo of the family for remembrance, and for anything else that was important but they couldn’t bring along, Gregory knew someone who would keep them safe.

The house had been emptied of the material possessions, but the old spirits remained inside. The house symbolized the new world, the one they rejected in favor of restoring the old. They had to destroy the new to save the old - there couldn’t be anything holding them back.

Isaac and Gregory finished dousing the porch with gasoline. They tossed the canisters away, then took a step back.

The two brothers looked at each other, one who would be heading south to Acushnet, the other north to Narragansett.

“For the old world,” Gregory proclaimed.

“For the old world,” Isaac repeated.

“To avenge our father-”

“And our mother.”

“And not for the people-”

“Not for anybody, besides ourselves.”

The two brothers clasped hands, nodding at each other. Then Gregory picked up a nearby log, a cloth doused in gasoline wrapped around. With his other hand, he lit the makeshift torch. The two brothers watched it for a moment, the smoke trailing into the air, the heat rising on their faces. Gregory then tossed the torch onto the porch, and the flames flickered and spread across the entire house and all of its memories.

Isaac had been in his new home at the Suffolk Apartments in Elizabeth Pond for a week now. He only left his room to go for his morning runs - retrieving his food for the day on the way back. Outside of that, he kept to himself on the inside, shadow boxing, doing sit-ups, meditating, frowning -

There was a knock on the door.

“Hey, Isaac! Hey!”

The lone knock turned into several more fierce beatings on the door that simply wouldn’t let up, no matter how long Isaac waited it out.

Isaac sighed, not enjoying having his inner monologue interrupted. He stepped to the door and looked through the peephole - that blonde girl, that neighbor of his, stood on the other side. Her usual grin covered her whole face.

Isaac opened the door, hoping to shoo her away.

“Isaac!” Audrey proclaimed, her hands behind her back. “I’m Audrey!”

“...you told me that already. We met yesterday.”

“I know!” she exclaimed. “But I’m trying to be helpful in case you forgot!”

Isaac wanted to close the door and be done with this, but there was a genuineness in her eyes that couldn’t look away from.

“And check it!” Audrey exclaimed. “I made a cake!”

She revealed the secret behind her back - a chocolate cake that she now proudly presented to Isaac. He could only raise an eyebrow when he saw the words MADE BY STOP N’ GO emblazoned on the cake’s bakelite cover, along with the price.

Isaac looked back up at her. The two made wordless eye contact for a brief moment.

“...I bought a cake!” she corrected, her words no less cheery. “Do you want some?”

Isaac reached for the door. “No, I’m all set-”

“There’s strawberry in it!”

Isaac did like strawberry.

But then he frowned again, because this girl, as nice as she would be, was part of the current humanity. And that current humanity would have to be destroyed in the end.

But this person of the current humanity was offering him some cake.

Cake with strawberry in it.

“Fine,” Isaac said. “But just the one piece.”

“HER NAME IS RIO AND SHE DANCES ON THE SAND!”

Audrey, microphone in hand, pointed back at Isaac.

Lights flashing across his face, Isaac leaned back and sang to the heavens.

“JUST LIKE THAT RIVER TWISTING THROUGH THE DUSTY LAND!”

Thirty minutes later, having worked up a good sweat, Isaac and Audrey departed Elizabeth Pond’s karaoke building, made possible by recent electronic developments out of Asia (the karaoke equipment imported from Shenzhen now only took up one floor of space for one machine!). Isaac found himself fascinated by the whole thing - Asia, electronics, history, songs, singing, his new friend, the city, the twelve stars above it all, hanging high above them in the night sky.

Isaac found himself fascinated by everything. In his morning runs, he no longer kept his tunnel vision. Looking around, even for just a second, Isaac saw newspaper boys, Military Police officers, storefronts, cars driving by, elevated rails, highway overpasses, cracks in the pavements, water streaming down the street after the rain, tall trees, long shadows, that blimp and those patrol planes overhead.

This was a city. Millions of people lived here, existed here, and Isaac found himself fascinated by each and every person. The sights, the sounds, the smells, all of it packed together, sometimes crammed, but everything found its niche and groove and place of belonging. It all fit together, and somehow, it all worked together.

Everything just felt vibrant. Colors popped, sounds waltzed through his ears. And if the city felt big and exciting, it was only one small slice of the greater world. Thousands of cities and hundreds of millions of people existed throughout the entire globe.

Everything, all of it, one giant ecosystem, maybe even a superorganism, the collective sum of every person who existed and ever existed. That’s what the current humanity was, symbolized by those bright city lights he and Audrey walked under on their way home.

She was a good friend, that Audrey. If it weren’t for the cheerfulness in her smile, the optimism in her eyes, Isaac would’ve never noticed any of this. It was meeting her that got him out of his room, brought his head out of the swamp, and let him see everything that could be seen.

“What?” Audrey asked, orange lights from a passing car briefly illuminating her face.

Isaac realized he had been looking at her while heading home, walking down the sidewalk of a long avenue lined with trees.

“Nothing,” he said, rubbing his head. “Just, uh…thanks for hanging out with me, you know.”

“Of course!” Audrey exclaimed. “I’m your neighbor! I want us to be the best of neighbors!”

Audrey patted him on the back. “Now, I know tomorrow is the first day of school. And that can be scary! Especially considering that I’ll be going to the Voc while you’ll be going to the Academy! But don’t be afraid, young Isaac! We’ll both be home before you know it.”

Isaac didn’t feel too particularly concerned about school - but he did feel a weird sort of feeling in his stomach, like ships being tossed around by a storm. Since, try as he might, he still couldn’t use the Rddhi.

He wouldn’t never give up. But seeing the streetlights, hearing Audrey’s voice, feeling the mass of humanity surrounding him, Isaac felt quite alright for the time being.