46: Boredom

Jack held his breath as his mom unlocked the front door to their suburban home. He knew what awaited him inside, but it didn’t make it any easier to face. The sweet smell of his house wafted through the open door. Alana turned to wave him in. “Well?”

Jack took a deep breath and entered, slowly at first. He took a few more creeping steps, before breaking into an all-out sprint. He ran up the stairs, his feet slamming down on the carpeted staircase. He almost fell over as he bolted to the right of the second floor hallway then tore open the door to his room. What he saw inside was a scene from his darkest nightmare—a physical manifestation of his worst fears.

“No,” he whispered. He tilted back his head, and with his mightiest voice, he roared.

“Noooooooooooooooooooooo!”

The Xbox was in pieces, indistinguishable from the remains of his computer. Wires and circuit boards were all meshed together, creating a tangled net of chaos on the floor. The television had a hole in the center of it, with bits of glass and plastic covering the carpet. Not even Jack’s stereo was spared the destruction; bits of black pieces could be seen mixing in with the rest of the rubble—it was the ruination of his former paradise.

“Try not to step on anything, sweetie,” Alana said, entering behind him. “I haven’t had a chance to clean up this mess yet. There’s sharp stuff everywhere.”

Jack grabbed the sides of his face, trembling. “What have you done?”

“I could ask you the same,” she said. “Did Paro explain to you the kind of danger we face on a daily basis? Did he tell you why trust is so fundamentally important between team-leaders and their teams? He needs to know you’ll listen to him, because if you don’t, you could get them killed. This is serious, Jack.”

“This is too much, Mom,” Jack said. “I loved all of this stuff, every last bit of it. It all meant something to me.” Jack sat on the carpeted floor and cringed at the destruction his mother had wrought upon the room.

Alana kicked aside some of the broken pieces of former electronics and then took a seat next to him. Jack grumbled as she slid an arm around him. He didn’t resist, but he gave her a disgusted look. Obviously, he still loved his mother, and not even breaking all of his stuff would change that; it didn’t mean he felt like speaking to her now, though.

“It was like life-support for you,” she whispered.

“What do you mean?”

“All of this: the TV, your games, the computer … I bought you all this crap, and now I realize I’ve hurt you because of it.”

“I don’t get it,” Jack said. “What do you mean ‘you hurt me’? Mom, you’re not making any sense.”

Alana sighed and held him tighter. Jack looked at her. He could see in her eyes how much it had hurt her to do this to him.

“I know you’ve always been different,” she said, “in both good and bad ways. But the laziness—that’s my fault, and I don’t think that’s a part of who you are or who you were meant to be, Jack.”

Alana picked up a ripped piece of wire and twirled it between her fingers. “With your father away all the time, I think I spoiled you, and so all you ever wanted to do was play with these stupid things. I know there are parts of you that’ll never change, and I love you for them. But sweetie, you can’t live your life through your television or computer. A little bit is okay, but you lock yourself away in here and do nothing else. Now that I’m again who I once was, I’m only first seeing how much I’ve enabled you.”

Jack tried to ignore her words; they were painful to hear. She was right about him hiding away in his room most of his life and avoiding other people, but Jack wondered if she understood the reason why.

“You don’t get it, Ma. This stuff”—Jack gestured at his broken electronics—”was all I had. The kids at school are so mean to me, and I don’t wanna deal with them or make new friends. All I ever wanted to do was be somewhere I didn’t feel so hated.”

Alana’s eyes moistened, which caused Jack to feel guilty. He didn’t intend to make her upset. “Mom, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to—”

“It’s not that,” she said. “It’s just that I’m going to miss you so much, Jack. I won’t be seeing you for two months after you’re shipped off to—ah, I mean, when you start this new case. I promise there’s gonna be all new stuff waiting for you when you get back, and you know what else? When you come home, I’ve got a feeling you’ll appreciate it much more.”

Jack shrugged. “Well, if you’re that upset about me leaving, I guess I could just stay. I mean, I could always go to Adam’s house and—”

“No!” Alana pulled away from Jack then grabbed his shoulders, turning him to look at her. “I mean, no, sweetie,” she said, lowering her voice. “Don’t let me stand in the way of you doing your job. It’s just that you’re going to be far away from home, and you’ve never been away from me for more than a few days before.”

For a moment, Jack thought he detected a bit of mischief in her eyes; it was unsettling. He wondered if there was more to this “job” she wasn’t telling him. It was in the way her lips twitched, as if she were trying not to laugh but failing at it.

It doesn’t matter, Jack thought. If she keeps her promise and gets me all new stuff, then I don’t really care what this job’s about. Well … as long as it’s not a job at a zoo where I’ve gotta clean monkeys’ butts, ‘cause that’s where I draw the line. But why does she seem so sad about sending me far away? I mean, it’s not like I’m … oh no! How could I not have seen it before?

“Mom,” Jack said, trying but failing to keep panic out of his voice. “Are you sending me to outer space? I don’t wanna go to another planet!”

Alana tilted her head while she repeated Jack’s question aloud, then she shook her head and rubbed her eyes. “What kind of question is that? Even for you, that’s just …” She sighed. “No, honey, I’m not sending you to another planet. What kind of thought process do you go through before you ask these things?”

Jack moaned. Her insulting tone aggravated him. Why was she acting like he’d said something stupid? After all, it was a legitimate question!

Alana repeated what she’d told Jack on the helicopter: that there were Rogue Psychs at some kind of training camp, and that he needed to do exactly what they said no matter how hard it was for him.

“I don’t get it,” Jack said. “If all I need to do is earn some kind of certificate, then how will that help anything? I’ll just come home with some piece of paper, and you’ll be no closer to stopping them.”

Alana looked worried for a moment. Then she waved her arms around and laughed. “Oh, that’s, well … don’t worry about that, sweetie. That’s just Psych-stuff that you haven’t learned about yet. The certificate will have, umm …” She clicked her tongue a few times before widening her eyes and shouting, “D.N.A! Right. It’ll have D.N.A. and stuff, but it’s complicated so don’t even worry about it. What does it matter, anyway? You’re going to get all new stuff, remember? I mean … I guess I could explain it all to you, but there’s a lot of math and science involved.”

“Yikes! Forget it, then. I don’t need to know the details.”

Alana stood back up to her feet. “Well, we better start cleaning this place up. It’s dangerous to walk around in here.”

She turned to leave the room, but Jack called after her. He’d just remembered something very important. “Oh, hey, Mom. Do you think you could have one of those Telepath friends of yours come over?”

“I guess, but why?”

“Oh, ‘cause now that you’ve broken all my stuff, I don’t have anything to do for a week. Sarah was telling me about all these cool things Telepaths can do, and I was kinda hoping that, if one of them isn’t too busy, maybe each day after school they can put me to sleep until the next day. That way I don’t have to—wait a sec!”

Jack filled with excitement as he thought of another idea. “Do those machines exist? You know, like the one that Han Solo went into or the one that Jake Sully used to sleep on his way to Pandora? ‘Cause those are just as good. I just need some way of passing all this time.”

Alana slapped herself on the forehead. “See? This is exactly the kind of thing I’m talking about, Jack. Without your stupid gizmos and gadgets, you have no idea how to enjoy life. You know what? You’re not allowed home anymore until nighttime. From now until Friday you have to spend the entire day outside.”

“What! No way, Mom. That’s way too much to ask for. I don’t wanna go outside. There’s like, bugs and stuff out there. It’s hot, and I hate it. What am I supposed to do all week?”

Alana shrugged. “I don’t know, think of something. You could play sports, make new friends, or go to the movies. Jack, I don’t want to lie to you. This case coming up … it’s going to be very, very difficult. I want you to have real fun, experience real freedom. Being trapped in your room isn’t living. Look, there’s going to come a time soon where you’ll wish you were given this opportunity, so I want you to take it. There has to be something you want to do.”

Jack thought for a moment. There was one thing he wanted to do, but he wasn’t sure how his mom would feel about it. It was something he’d been thinking about for a while. He took a deep breath and risked asking. “I want Michael to take me to a bar.”

Alana’s face twitched, and Jack knew what that meant it: she was trying to hold in more laughter. She covered her mouth then stepped backwards, steadying herself against the wall in the corner of the room.

“Stop laughing, Ma. It’s not funny!”

“Jack, you’re too young to go out drinking,” she half-said half-snorted.

“I don’t wanna drink,” Jack grumbled. “I wanna learn the art of woman-hunting. Mom? Mom! Stop laughing—it’s not funny!”

“Woman-hunting! Again with the woman-hunting!”

Jack gave her a dirty look. “It’s not funny. I need to learn, and Michael is the master. Hey, come on, stop laughing!”

Alana shook her hand, steadying herself while she calmed down. “All right, All right, fine. I’ll call him up for you.” She reached inside her jeans pocket for her phone. Then she tried twice to dial a number, but each time she paused as she was hit with another bout of mocking laughter. Jack grew impatient and begged her to hurry up. With a deep breath, she dialed a third time and then put the phone on speaker. For a few seconds, the only sound in the room was the dial tone.

“Yello?” answered Michael’s voice from the cell phone in Alana’s palm.

“Hey, Michael, this is Alana.”

“G-General Harris! Umm, is yer coat off?”

“Don’t worry. I already said it’s Alana, not General Harris.”

Michael sighed, his voice becoming more relaxed. “Ah, hey there, sweet cakes. Thanks for the ride home on the Heli. I reckon it’d taken me hours to get home, what with the traffic being kinda’ funky today. What’s going on?”

“It’s my son. He wants you to, and I quote, ‘Teach him the art of woman-hunting.’”

“I see,” Michael whispered. His voice changed again, his speech becoming slower and more pronounced. He sounded to Jack like an old man, one who had lived for generations. “It has been many years,” he continued. “I swore that I’d never take on an apprentice again … not after—”

“Oh, would you quit with the dramatics,” Alana said with a chuckle. “He wanted to go to a bar. I hope I don’t need to tell you not to bring him anywhere that I wouldn’t.”

“Of course,” Michael said. “Tell him to be dressed and ready to go in an hour. There is much to learn.”

Alana closed the phone and eyed Jack with a distrusting, sly look. “Why is it you’re so interested in this all of a sudden?”

“Because,” Jack explained, “I'm no good with girls, but Michael thinks he can teach me how to, you know, be good with them. I wanna be able to sweep Sandra off her feet and …” Jack trailed off as he spotted his mother’s disapproving glare.

“We’ve been through this,” she said. “You’re never going to see her again. I forbid it. Besides, why would you suddenly have eyes for Requiem when you’ve been madly in love with Melissa all this time?”

Jack frowned at her; she didn’t understand. “Mom, Melissa doesn’t like me like that. Don’t you get it? She never has, and she never will.”

“You’re such a dolt. Of course she likes you, but you’re just too thickheaded to notice.”

Jack was careful to keep anger out of his voice. After what happened earlier today, he now held a deep fear of his mother.

“She doesn’t like me at all, and lately she seems to outright hate me. Do you know how many times I tried to make her be my girlfriend? Like, a lot, that’s how many! But Sandra is different—the way she looked at me the last time I saw her. I just … I don’t know how to describe it.”

“Well, don’t bother, because like I said: you’re never seeing her again. But to go back to your other point—why do you think it is that Melissa’s been so angry with you lately?”

Jack shrugged. “Estrogen imbalance?”

“No, silly. It’s because right in front of the very girl you’ve been chasing after, you kissed another girl—and for nearly twenty minutes, too! Did you even think about how that would make Melissa feel? Think about it, sweetie. Did you really think that just because she shrugged you off a few times it meant she didn’t like you? Girls want to feel like they’re worth the effort. It’s called ‘playing hard to get’. And you gave up on her and kissed someone else without regard for her feelings. Of course she’s going to be upset with you. Oh, and between me and you, I’m pretty sure you were close—a bit more and you could have had her.”

Jack was caught between two conflicting thoughts; on the one hand, he was devastated that his mother forbade him from seeing Sandra. He wondered if she was somehow behind his failures to see her every time he visited H.Q. On the other hand, he felt guilty over Melissa. He was so sure she wasn’t interested in him, especially after he’d tried—and failed—so many times to ask her out. Could that all have been a test? Was she really just seeing if he thought she was worth the effort?

“I see that look on your face,” Alana said, grinning. “Your father had that same look when I turned him down for the seventh time.”

Jack took notice of the flicker of amusement in her eyes, and he wondered how she could read him so well.

“Do you think there’s still a chance for me?”

“Do you want there to be?”

“Of course I do … but at the same time, I still want to be with Sandra.”

“We’ve been over this, Jack.”

“Mom, you don’t get it. I care about Sandra, more than you know. Why can’t I see her? I don’t get it.”

Alana raised her voice, and Jack felt the first pinch of fear. “Because, Jack, she’s a killer! I know deep down she’s just a sad and frightened girl looking for someone to care about her. I know that, but it doesn’t change anything. I don’t want my son seeing someone like that, not even as a friend, let alone be in a relationship with them. No, you’re never going to see her again. You better get that through your head, because that’s how it is.”

Jack snapped. He knew it was a foolish thing to do, but he couldn’t control himself. “You do not get to tell me that! Sandra, she means a lot to me, Mom. And if I want to see her, then I’ll see her!”

Alana didn’t move, yet somehow she seemed to grow taller, fiercer. It was the slightest change in her expression, a darkness that entered her eyes as she regarded him. Jack gulped. “Mom, I—”

“Quiet,” she said. “And listen to me for a second. Sandra is not at H.Q, and she never was.”

“W-what do you mean? Deven said she was there. Don’t tell me that you sent her to the facilities, mom. Don’t tell me that! I promised her I’d keep her away from there.”

“I know what Deven said, but it was a lie. Right now, the girl is doing a job for us, something that doesn’t concern you in the slightest. When she’s done, she will have a trial for her crimes. The work she does for us will factor in her favor when she’s sentenced.”

Jack tried to keep his cool, but his grasp on his emotions was slipping. “Why are you telling me this?”

“So that you understand. Because you’re you. Most people would move on and forget about her in a few months. Not you, Jack. Ten years from now you’d still be showing up to H.Q every week looking for her. No, you need to know the truth, and you need to accept it.”

Jack dropped his voice to a whisper. “So … she’s gonna be in the facilities after all?”

“More than likely. I’m sorry, but that’s how it is.”

“No, it’s not. Because when I get back from this job, I’m gonna find her, Mom. I’m gonna find her and take her away from wherever she is. You can try to stop me if you want, but you won’t be able to. I saved her once, and I’ll do it again.”

“Jack,” Alana said, shaking her head. “That’s not …” She turned and walked away, closing the door behind her, leaving Jack standing in the middle of his room in confusion. He cleared his mind and focused on the task at hand.

Woman hunting!

By the time the doorbell rang, Jack was dressed and ready to go. Even before he opened the door, he knew Michael would already be grinning. Seeing his friend’s overconfident mug fill the doorframe, Jack put on a grin of his own. If there was one good thing about Michael above all, then it was this: the guy was never boring.

“Here, I brought you these,” Michael said. He handed a pair of black sunglasses to Jack, which Jack slipped over his face.

“How come I don’t get a cowboy hat like you?”

“One step at a time, bud. You’re not ready yet for ‘the hat.’ First, we’re gonna get you up to speed. I’ve got my Camaro outside. I think you’re gonna really like my car. And don’t worry, Alana,” Michael said. Jack turned to see his mother standing in the hallway behind him. He wondered how she managed to sneak up on him.

“I wouldn’t take Jack anywhere bad for him,” Michael said. “Ya gotta believe me on that.”

“I do believe you,” Alana said. She waved. “Have fun.”

Jack followed Michael out of his house. The street was abuzz with summer activity; kids ran around throwing water balloons under the watchful eyes of their parents, who relaxed on lawn chairs outside of their homes, some sipping iced tea. It was just past five, but the day was still beautiful and sunny.

Jack’s eyes almost popped out of his head at the sight of Michael’s vehicle. “Whoa! Is that yours?” It was a glossy Silver Camaro, with blue headlights, leather seats, and a sunroof. “Sweet ride, Michael.”

“I know it is. Get in.”

Jack hurried inside and fastened his seatbelt. Michael did the same. Then the engine roared as he started up the car and pulled out of Alana’s driveway. He lowered the sunroof, and Jack felt the fresh breeze while they drove down his block. It was liberating.

“Got any good music?” Michael asked.

“Yeah,” Jack said. He took out his MP-3 player and plugged it into the AUX port. “Get ready for this, because you're gonna love it!”

A female singing voice surrounded them as Jack’s music blasted from the car’s powerful stereo system. “Nazonazo mitai ni chikyuugi o tokiakashitara.”

Michael slammed on the breaks, stopping short and causing Jack to lurch forward. “What in the hell is this?”

“Umm, it’s the ‘Hare Hare Yukai.’ You know the song, right? It’s from the anime Haruhi.”

Michael looked at Jack as if he were insane. He took his hands off the steering wheel and removed his cowboy hat. “The what-ey what-ey what? I reckon this is problem number one: no more listening to Anime music, Jack. Don’t ever put that on again.”

He leaned over and grabbed a small device from the backseat. Then he replaced Jack’s MP-3 player with his own and turned the volume up to max. Cars were beginning to honk while they held up the traffic Michael gave an apologetic wave and resumed driving while a gentle, soft guitar rift played in the background; it was a soothing sound.

“Alright,” Jack said. “I guess this isn’t so bad.” Jack regretted his words immediately. Before he finished speaking, the guitar rift turned into a thunderous, chaotic boom, a sound louder than Jack’s ears were capable of handling. A man’s voice screamed at them.

“RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR”

“Now this, Jack, is music!” Michael yelled, picking up speed as they entered the highway. Jack had no idea what kind of music this was, but his best guess was that Michael was trying to summon Satan. At least that’s what the few lyrics he could discern indicated. It sounded like a dog barking.

Jack covered his ears and prayed that the next song would be better. It wasn’t. The moment the first one ended, the second one was even louder and more obnoxious. They fought over the music the entire ride and finally settled on alternating songs. Each of them took turns complaining about the other’s music while praising their own. It took Jack almost twenty minutes to realize it, but he was actually having fun. He didn’t know where they were going, but he knew he’d have even more fun when they arrived.