Last Light Falling (15 page)

Jacob just stands there and stares, and any words he’s trying to spit out are suppressed by distraction. Juliana nudges her elbow into Jacob’s
ribs to break his hypnotic state. “You look very nice yourself,” he stutters. Juliana rolls her eyes and shakes her head.

Gabe comes racing downstairs with the largest grin I’ve ever seen on his face. He looks at Juliana like she’s a piece of meat and the only thing he can muster is, “Hey.”

“I like what you did with your hair,” Juliana says as she gingerly runs her thin fingers across the side of his head.

Gabe turns to me, smiles, and mouths, “Yes, it was worth it.” I watch my baby brother escorting Juliana into the dining room with all smiles and realize he’s finally embraced a state of happiness after enduring so many years of depression. Jacob stares at me, making for an awkward moment, until he gestures his elbow out for me to hold on to.

“Wow, what a gentleman. I haven’t seen one of those in a … well, I haven’t seen one until now,” I say while he gallantly escorts me into the dining room.

After a pleasant meal, Gabe and Juliana go into the living room along with Niki and Myra, looking through photos while Jacob and I go outside and sit on the porch swing. We just sit there without talking, gazing across the horizon, waiting for the awkward silence to break.

“I’m really sorry about yesterday. I didn’t mean to step into your personal space. What Derrick said was really none of my business,” I say. He remains silent, so I hold his hand to comfort him. I struggle to change the subject and wonder if I’m really capable of making this a pleasant moment. His large hand caressing mine feels comforting, but as he nudges closer to my body, the sensation in my heart grows warm with delight. I almost forget about the awkward silence.

After a few minutes of the quiet intimate moment, Jacob finally speaks up. “My mother killed herself when I was young, and my father never recovered from the loss. His mind began to deteriorate and depression manifested from a combination of the loss of his job, wife, and the motivation to raise his son. He left when I was twelve, scrounging about among the other Watchers. I tried to get him to come back home, but his mental state was too far gone—he didn’t even recognize his own son, and I didn’t have the heart to have him brought in to the mental ward,” Jacob says with a stone-cold face. I feel overwhelmingly speechless right now. I don’t know how to respond to what he just told me. I’m sad, depressed, but glad he trusted in me to tell me his past.

Those who are mentally incapacitated are sent to the ward and given a full lobotomy, an archaic convention of weeding out the sick. Most patients die within months. After yesterday, I’m absolutely stunned he said a word at all, much less this. I have no words to say that
will console him, so I just lean my head on his chest as he puts his arm around me.

“Where do you live?” I bravely ask.

“I live alone in a room right above the Jensen’s Cleaners building. My father was good friends with the owners, and I begged them to let me stay there to avoid being taken into child custody.”

I want more than anything to help him find a home; I even come up with this crazy idea in my head of sharing his predicament to Myra, hoping she would take him in to our home, but I quickly erase the idea and just hold on to him tightly before the night ends.

“Jacob,” I say softly.

“Yes?” he says.

“Do you believe that God has a plan for every human being on this earth?” I ask.

“Of course, unfortunately not everyone follows His plan. I think we just get too distracted by a wicked world in front of us. I believe we should be reminded from time to time that we are here to live in this world, not of it,” Jacob wisely says.

For some reason, a feeling of comfort covers me. I sit up momentarily and turn to Jacob and do what I have never done with any boy— I slowly lean into his lips and initiate the first kiss. With my mouth caressed softly against his, my heart has grown ever brighter, dispersing the warmth throughout my body. When our lips finally disengage from the intimate moment, we sit on the swing together and hold each other tightly until the evening ends.

Before the 9:00 curfew draws near, Myra asks Niki to take Jacob and Juliana home. All I can think about is the last and only kiss I may ever have, because you never know what uncertainty tomorrow may bring. Before he leaves, he unhooks his cross necklace and places it around my neck. I don’t say anything, but just smile as he touches the back of my neck ever so slightly, making the tiny hairs stand up and creating the most dazzling sensation I have ever felt. “It looks much better on you,” he says as he walks toward to the car.

I’m smitten with a feeling I can only assume is love—something I’ve never really felt toward a boy before. I’m so engrossed in this feeling that I completely forget about the world around me, or realizing I’m sitting in the living room, until I recognize Derrick’s father in one of his obnoxious commercials on TV. Suddenly, the commercial is abruptly interrupted. Myra, Daniel, and Gabe’s eyes are glued to the breaking newscast. The news anchor explains the recent explosions that occurred tonight in downtown Chicago, killing thousands of people.

“There has been mayhem ever since the two explosions took place near the John Hancock building downtown. This footage shows what happened just before the first explosion. As you can see, it appears what we can make out are close to two hundred federal officers searching for select individuals and detaining them. Many of the detainees are being shuttled onto large federal vehicles. If you look to the far right side, you can see a fifty-vehicle convoy leaving the city. It’s unknown whether or not if the explosions were retaliation from those being detained or a brutal force of action from the federal officers. This chaotic and cruel upheaval is disturbingly reminiscent of the gun riots five years ago that caused our nation to experience one of the darkest hours in its history. Although the president’s reorganization policy has come under sever scrutiny, causing a growing resistance among much of the nation, there has been no official word from government officials of Martial Law being declared. We ask viewers to be advised that the footage we are about to reveal is extremely graphic and may not be suitable for children to see …”

It doesn’t take more than ten seconds to roll, when the screen turns blue followed by a series of beeps and a scrolling message at the bottom of the screen that reads:
Technical difficulty, please stand by.
It’s obvious now that the feds shut down the broadcast and were most likely responsible for the explosions. All I can think about is when the next city will be hit.

“What’s happening to this country?” Myra asks as she covers her mouth with her hands in distress. I haven’t the heart to tell her that it will soon be extinct.

I understand the nation’s tragic direction, but I’m still a teenager trying to survive high school at the moment. I grab Gabe’s shirtsleeve and gesture for him to go upstairs.

“What’s so important you need to drag me into your room?” says Gabe, perturbed. I get out the pinhole cameras from my top dresser drawer and toss them onto my bed. “You took those from the box?” he says, surprised.

“Yes, now what you said earlier back in the den about getting these cameras to broadcast on any source … you can still do that, right?” I ask.

“Of course, but why?” he says.

“What do you say about getting Derrick back without physically hurting him,” I say.

“Look, I don’t condone revenge, Arena,” says Gabe, as he rubs the back of his bruised head.

“Just this one time, Gabe. I promise I won’t ask you again.”

“I’ll need to take my laptop tomorrow, and a code receiver attachment,” he reluctantly says. The distress drawn on his face makes this plan less enticing now.

“What … is it Derrick? Are you afraid of the consequences? Gabe, he beat the hell out of you for no reason other than just being a prick” I say.

“Derrick is the least of our worries.”

“What do you mean?”

“You sure you’re ready for this?”

“Look, Derrick will never know, I can assu—”

“No, not that. Are you sure you’re willing to accept your fate? I mean, when the time comes, will you do it?”

“Do what, run?” I ask, perplexed.

“Pull the trigger. Will you have it in you to take another man’s life when it counts?”

I sit there, pondering what he’s getting at, and as much as I want to be confident in my answer, I have no response to give. I honestly don’t know how I will feel. I know it’s inevitable, but I’ve been avoiding the idea of it since the dream. I give him the only answer I know.

“I guess in this life, I will have no choice.” There is a lingering silence before Gabe drops the conversation and continues with Derrick’s payback plan.

“So, I think I have an idea how to pull this off, but I’m still not too thrilled about this, Arena.” Gabe uneasily says.

I put my arm around him and squeeze. “Thanks, little brother.”

“You do realize we’re twins,” he says, unamused.

“Is that what Mom told you?” I sarcastically say before I walk to the bathroom.

“You can keep telling yourself you are older just because you came out first, but I was in the womb four minutes longer, which makes me seasoned,” he says.

Morning has arrived, and I can already feel the clouds growing darker as a storm slowly approaches from the west. I see Jacob and Juliana waiting for us underneath the old tree. I feel a little chill in the air as we pass the side of the school building. Behind us, next to a crowd of people, stands Derrick and his cult followers. Gabe fretfully picks up his pace toward the tree and meets Juliana with a half-excited hug. His sporadic and jumpy reaction to every person passing by within twenty feet exposes the fact that he’s on edge.

“Why are you so nervous, Gabe?” asks Juliana.

“Is it that obvious? All right, I change my mind, Arena, this isn’t going to work. I can’t do this,” says Gabe.

“Can’t do what?” asks Jacob.

The bell rings before Gabe can explain. “I’ll tell you later.”

We hurry around the building to the front doors to avoid any altercations, but a large crowd of people moves toward us and Derrick is among the pack.

It’s too late. Derrick spots us, stops, and waits for the crowd to move through the door before another ridiculing moment begins. Derrick signals for us to walk ahead, as if he is exercising a rare kindness with his nice gesture, but I know all too well there is no humanity hiding in that demon seed.

While we all walk by Derrick, Gabe, the last to pass, is purposefully tripped at the top of the stairs by Derrick’s Neanderthal foot. A security guard approaches the door as Derrick bolts, leaving Gabe crumpled on the steps. Blood drips from Gabe’s head, but not bad enough to send him to the hospital. Juliana quickly pulls out a tissue and wipes the blood from the front of his scalp.

Gabe looks at me, his nostrils flaring. “Okay, Arena, we do it your way. I’m in.”

I don’t need to say anything to agree whole-heartedly with his request.

“Do what?” Jacob asks again.

“You guys go ahead to class, while I take Gabe to the nurse’s office. We’ll meet up at lunch. I just want to make sure this isn’t too deep for stitches,” I say to deter them from any suspicion of our true intentions.

While they walk off to class, Gabe and I take a shortcut down the other side of the halls and through the gymnasium. Since no one has gym class until later, this is our chance to implement my plan.

I ask Gabe to watch out for anyone coming while I go into the janitor’s closet next to the boy’s locker room. I climb up a folded ladder, push the tiles back from the ceiling, and pull myself up into the rafters. Like a cat, I gingerly walk across the pipes just above the shower area while holding on to cables to balance myself.

I use a small knife I took from the den and cut a nice tiny hole in the sheetrock for the pinhole camera to peek through. I set up another camera in a different location to capture every angle of the showers we may miss with the first camera. I swiftly climb back down to the janitor’s closet, replacing the ceiling tiles as if they hadn’t been disturbed.

“We’re good to go. It’s all you now,” I say to Gabe.

“Seriously, this is your plan? How do you even know when Derrick showers?” Gabe asks.

“Because two little annoying volleyball players in our French class are always giggling and going on about how Derrick stays to watch the girls’ volleyball team practice while the other football players are showering from football practice. They talk about waiting on him to finish showering everyday outside the locker room, as if somehow they might get a chance to see him in a towel. Well, today they are going to get a lot more than that.”

“You’re a twisted, little girl, you know that?” he says, incredulous.

Gabe still has to set up the coded receiver adapter on the main receiver box that sends out the signal to all the televisions in school. Since the main box is set up in the administration office, we have to be a little craftier. I take the lead on this and concoct some story about rescheduling one of my classes to one of the administrators. While she is pulling my file, leaving the box unattended, Gabe hurries and attaches the adapter.