Spark (6 page)

When I got downtown, I decided to get a slush from the ice cream shop next door and hang out by the fountain in front of the theater until the show started.  It was too hot, but I had my slush and besides, I liked just watching people scurry to and fro.  I sat on the edge of the fountain, feeling the slight spray of the water, squinting my eyes at the sunlight reflecting off the surface.  I can't believe it, but I actually managed to get my mind off Zach for a minute. 

That's why I almost gasped out loud when I saw him about a block away.  Zach, walking alone, straight toward me, dressed in a white t-shirt, jeans, and dark sunglasses, just like he was earlier, and just like in my dream.  I looked away, fiddled with my phone, wishing I had my hat and sunglasses, but realizing, just then, that I’d forgotten them.  I grabbed my purse and headed for the entrance to the theater.  Surely there was another show starting soon.

But before I could get inside, Zach had caught up to me, practically jumping in front of me.

“Hi.  You're uh Tess, right?  I’m—we had orientation class together, at school?”

I could hear my heartbeat in my ears.  He looked at me and flashed a grin that gave me goosebumps.  He had an impossibly perfect mouth, a row of white teeth that could star in toothpaste commercial. 

Oh great
, I thought. 
He’d seen me earlier
.  Yeah,” I said, tentatively.

“Zach Webb.  Are you gonna watch a movie?”

“Yeah, uh,
Spider-Man:  The Next Generation,”
I lied.

“Oh, me too—I mean, I’ve wanted to see it ever since it came out.  I was thinking about seeing that one, too…”

This is just too weird
, I thought.  Is he suggesting that we go inside and
sit together
at the same movie?  I have been obsessing about this guy since I saw him at orientation a month ago, had followed him, and now he was standing in front of me, practically asking me on a date. 
I must be dreaming
, I thought.  This is just an extension of the mall dream.  Or… I have gone completely insane.

“So you just moved here?”  He asked.

“Sort of.  I’ve been gone for a few years.  What about you?”

“I’ve been around for a while,” he said, flashing that toothpaste grin again.
              “Well, the movie’s about to start,” I said, looking at my watch, feeling a little uncomfortable.

Zach hesitated, but held out his hand.  “Well, it’s nice to meet you—again!”

I reached, but before I even touched his hand, an electrical pulse zinged between our fingers, causing me to yank my hand back.

“I’ll be darned,” Zach muttered.  “It’s true.”

“What?” 
What was he talking about?
  I wondered. 
What was true?
 

Zach looked confused, as if I’d caught him off guard.  “Oh—it’s nothing.  The shock.  I did the same thing the other day with my dad.  And then yesterday with my friend Mike.  Are you ok?”

“It happens,” I replied.  “I’m fine.”

Zach looked relieved.  He seemed to look directly at me then, his eyes concealed by the sunglasses, his mouth drawn up with determination.  It seemed like we just stood there, looking at each other for five minutes.  I stared at my reflection in his glasses, my oval face, framed with black hair.  My slightly upturned nose and broad forehead, my thin, arched brows and chiseled cheekbones. For the first time in a long time, I thought I looked pretty.  I felt a buzzing sensation rippling over my entire body.  I wanted to look at my watch again, tell him I had to get going, but at the same time I felt immobilized.   

I looked directly at him, realizing that our eyes were perfectly parallel to each other.  We were roughly the same height.  I stared at myself in his sunglasses, a stray streak of my hair that had fallen over my cheek.  A whirling breeze stirred up some leaves scattered on the pavement, and the sound of them scraping the ground was deafening.  The leaves settled and I became aware of the sun, beaming on my back, dancing on the highlights in my hair, glinting off Zach’s shades like shooting stars.  I thought I heard him say, “Your eyes … enchant me” but his lips weren’t moving. 

I looked away quickly and willed myself to disappear into the dark, safe cave of the theater.  “Well, the movie’s about to start.  See ya,” I said.

“I’ll see you at school in a couple weeks,” he said.  “Or I could show you around town ….”

I looked up, my heart racing so hard I was sure he could hear it or see it, thumping against my chest.  Zach wanted to see me?  Show me around town?  “Ok,” I said, with hesitation.

“What’s your number and e-mail?” He asked, taking out his phone.

I heard myself saying the numbers and letters, watched as he punched it into his contact list.  “Got it,” he said.  “I’ll get in touch with you.”  Then he took off his sunglasses and revealed the most impossibly blue eyes I’d ever seen.  Clear as tropical pools under an endless blue sky. 
Like water that goes on forever and ever.  Gentle, rippling water.

Alex

Zach had not only stopped to talk to me, he had offered to show me around town, which was odd because I’d lived there my whole life, but still, so much had changed.  For someone normal, a date would be good news, but for me, at the moment, it scared the crud out of me.  First of all, he seemed like a loner, which meant he was probably even freakier than me.  And I didn’t need anything else filling up my Weird O’Meter.  Plus, why was he hanging out at some old building?  Something was strange about the old building, and why did he go around with that white shirt and sunglasses all the time. 
Cute, and tall, yes.  Strange, definitely.  But those eyes.  And that perfect face.
  It gave me chills, in a good way.

School was going to start in less than a week, and I needed to get off on the right foot.  And that meant getting in with the right people.  Despite being off-the-chain gorgeous and mysteriously attractive, Zach scared me a little.  Plus I remembered Alex had offered to show me around, too.  He seemed safe and people seemed to like him.  It certainly couldn’t hurt to have an ally like him around.  So I got up and turned on my computer, pulled up my web browser, and went directly to Alex's FB page. 

I typed in a quick note and added my phone number—hoping I didn't sound too goofy.  I remembered how he’d interacted with the Beautiful People after orientation, how they’d joked and teased him.  He seemed like a nice guy, and besides, I really did need someone to show me the ropes.  It would be fun to get to know someone—anyone―normal. 

I felt a chill over my body, more like a vibration. 
What is happening to me?  It's guess it's just stress over the move, the new school
, I thought.  I am just totally stressed out.  Then again, I’d been out of commission for four years.  All this technology stuff may be normal, but it still stressed me out. 
Would I ever catch up?  If I couldn’t handle this, how was I going to handle the first day of school?
   

I was surprised to a reply from Alex within minutes. 
A sign
, I thought. 
It’s going to be a good year
.

Dear Tess,

I love your name!  Very cool.  Anyway, I’m free tomorrow.  Let’s get together and I’ll give you a personal tour of beautiful Colorado Springs!  I’ll call you later.

Alex

Alex called me that afternoon, and arranged to pick me up at 9:00 the next morning.  My parents had a million questions, and, while I couldn’t answer all of them because I didn’t know much about him yet, I was able to tell them he was student body president, which was, presumably, the most pertinent piece of information for a parent.   

My mom looked relieved.  “Well, he sounds like a nice young man,” she said.

My dad was a bit harder to convince.  “What do his parents do?  Does he have his own car?  Where are you going?”

“
Dad!
”  I said.  “He’s just going to show me around town.  He’s lived here like forever, and he knows everyone.”

“David, it will be good for her,” my mom said.  “She needs to make friends here.”

“Ok, but I want to meet him,” he said.

“Fine,” I replied.  “He’ll be here at 9:00 tomorrow morning.”

My dad was dressed in a tie-dye Grateful Dead t-shirt from 1973, a pair of old jean shorts and orange flip-flops when he answered the door the next morning.  Of all the possible outfits my dad could have chosen to put on that morning, it had to be that one.  I cringed. 
Just when I had someone fooled that we were normal,
I thought,
my dad single-handedly tipped the Weird O’Meter back to high. 

Alex immediately reached out to shake his hand.  “Hi Mr. Turner.  I’m Alex Davis.”  His blonde hair was cut in a flat top style, close to his head, a few longer bangs spiked up in the front.  It looked like he’d put some sort of gel in it.  His face was flushed slightly, as if he’d just scrubbed it with a washcloth.  He wasn’t gorgeous or even handsome, but he had the look of a classic, All-American Guy—clean cut and blue-eyed, with a wide, friendly smile—the kind of guy who couldn’t help but make you feel at ease in his presence.  I liked him already.

My dad said hello and motioned him inside.  “So Tess says you’ve lived in Colorado Springs a long time.”

Alex nodded.  “My whole life.  My dad is a police officer and my mom teaches piano.”

              My mom came in from the kitchen.  “Oh, how nice!”  She approached Alex.  “Hello, I’m Gloria.  Tess says you’re
student body president
!  How wonderful!”  My mom’s grin was ten miles wide and freakishly sincere.   

              “Nice to meet you,” said Alex.

“Are you ready to go?” I said, starting for the door, swiftly intersecting between my parents and Alex.

Alex said, “Don’t worry, we’re just going around town, maybe by the school—I have some things to pick up there and I thought I might show her around.”

“Take your time,” my mom said, leading us to the door.  “And
have fun
!”

             
Alex talked non-stop on the way to school.  He said he wanted to show me something there.  There wasn’t a single car in the parking lot when we arrived, and it was a little spooky walking into the empty building.  Still, walking in with Alex made me feel at ease.  He took long strides up the stairs and dashed through the open front door.  Even though he was shorter than me, he seemed to walk so fast that I had to scramble to keep up.  “Isn’t the school, like,
closed
?”  I asked.  “And the front door is just
unlocked? 
Are we going to get in trouble?”

              “Nah,” Alex scoffed.  “It’s open because the janitors are here.  Besides, I have special permission because I’m on the orientation committee.  I can only use it between the hours of 10:00 and noon, though.”               

“What about me?”  I asked.  “I don’t have special permission.  I’m barely even a student here yet.”

              “Wait here,” he said, stepping up to the scanner.  He stood in front of the scanner and flashed a grin.  “I just need to pick up some things for the fundraiser next week.  Be right back.”

Alex disappeared down the hall.  I examined the scanner, remembering how it had malfunctioned on orientation day and had automatically beeped me through the system. Curious, I walked up to the two vertical bars, looking around to see if anyone was watching.  If I stepped into it and it admitted me without my i.d., especially on a high-security day when only certain people could be admitted, I could be fairly certain it wasn’t just a glitch in the system.  I stepped in between the bars, and before I could look up and smile at the camera or insert my i.d. card, it beeped me through. 

So it was official.  Something was definitely going on.  But what?  I closed my eyes, feeling a lump in my throat.  I bit my lip to keep myself from crying out of frustration.

              “Whoa, that’s strange,” I heard Alex say, coming back down the hallway. 

I looked up, startled, stepped back outside the bars.  “Sorry, I—was just—“

“Must be a glitch in the system,” he said.  “Unless they forgot to put it in restricted mode.  Anyway, since you’re in, follow me,” he said with a shrug.  “I’ll give you a tour.”

“All this high-tech stuff sort of freaks me out,” I said, feeling bewildered and nervous.  “Speaking of computer labs,” Alex said.  “How’d you like to see the new one?”

“It’s all new to me.”

Alex chuckled.  “That would be true.  Come on, I’ll show you.”

He took me outside and through a set of glass doors into a huge outdoor fenced area that was full of trees and shrubs and dozens of flowers.  It looked like someone had taken care of it, pruned the bushes and swept the walk.  There were iron benches that sat beside gray stone walkways.  Computer terminals were scattered here and there inside little covered cubicles.  Birds flew through the trees, chattering and chirping.  It reminded me of some exotic courtyard, forgotten long ago. 

“Look up,” Alex said, stopping at yet another small circuit board.  He punched in a number, and I was shocked when it actually beeped. 

Above us was an enormous metal and glass dome that resembled an intricate birdcage.  I didn’t know what to say.  It was unlike anything I’d ever seen—an enormous, elaborate structure that made me feel incredibly small.  It was then that the ringing in my ears returned, only this time, it was as if the ringing was
outside
myself and that the sound was running through my body like a current, spiraling in all directions around me, as if the dome were a gigantic satellite dish and I was at the center.  It was exhilarating and frightening all at the same time. 

What on earth?  I looked up again; the birdcage seemed to spin around me as if I were trapped inside.

“This is the Wi-Fi court.  Complete with a multi-station 802-11ac wireless router with 1 gigabit per second throughput. This thing isn’t even on the market yet. Not only is it state of the art, but the atmosphere is to die for.”