WILDly (10 page)

My studies so
far had taught me much about nature in botany, chemistry and
physics, and also about the larger universe in philosophy and
astronomy. But even with all these subjects combined, I still
couldn’t figure out what this power was exactly.

Or more
importantly, why it existed.

Then I thought
about the other planets. If Lisa had a link with Venus, then maybe
Alex was Mars. Or maybe Duncan was Mars? Neither felt right. I’d
have to ask each of them. And what would their powers be like? Was
each power bound to the specific properties of that planet?

If the person’s
power was linked to the properties of the planet, I would imagine
Mercury, being the closest to the sun, giving power to its
ambassador to melt stuff. Or maybe it didn’t work like that at all.
Maybe it was more a mental type of power.

And what about
the Reds? Maybe they were the gas planets, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune
and Pluto? It couldn’t be, Pluto was too small, and it wasn’t even
a planet anymore.

Suddenly
astronomy became an amazing subject, my favourite subject of all
time. I couldn’t wait to get outside again and have a look at
everything. Or to see if I could get back that old feeling of being
watched.

***

Chapter 9 –
Star studded

It was
reassuring, looking up every now and then as I walked on campus
over the next two days, to see one of the Reds close by. They made
me feel both safe and important. It was usually Benjamin and
Wilfred, as they did the day shifts. I really enjoyed their
company, not that we talked much, but every now and then one of
them would pass me and smile or hold a door open for me. It felt
like I had two caring older brothers, or at least I thought that
was what it would feel like having older brothers.

This feeling of
safety worked extremely well with my new attitude of being in
control. I felt like my old self again, comfortable in my own skin,
in spite of the haunting image of Alex in my head. His condition
was still the same, and the doctors hadn’t made a diagnosis yet.
And the emergency meeting was still in progress, according to my
mom’s message yesterday.

Lisa too was a
little more controlled, but still worried out of her mind. She had
spent all her time next to Alex’s bed since Monday. I took notes
for her wherever I could; it also helped a little with my guilty
conscience.

The things that
Lisa had told me only made me more assertive. It was true; it was a
part of me. I believed it, no matter how unreal it sounded to a
sane mind.

As always,
Jennifer chose the seat closest to the paying point of the dining
hall. It was amusing; she was really thrilled when she first saw
Benjamin and Wilfred. She winked and smiled and winked and smiled,
pulling out all the stops. I wondered what Benjamin and Wilfred
thought about this little eager beaver next to me. It was my chance
to surprise her for once, so I kept absolutely quiet, smothering
the giggle I felt coming on.

“Hey, Val. We
have a
pair
on the way. Take a look,” she said, pointing in
their direction and smiling from ear to ear. She noticed my grin
and possibly interpreted it as enthusiasm. She watched them like a
hawk while they dished up and then paid. Benjamin turned and looked
around a bit, and then smiled when he noticed me.

“They’re
heading this way!” Jennifer whispered in a high-pitched voice,
without taking her eyes off them.

The two Reds
walked straight to our table and stopped.

“Hi, guys. Do
you want to join me and my friend for lunch?” Jennifer
wheedled.

“Thank you,
that’ll be great,” Wilfred answered with a slight frown.

“I’m Jennifer
and this is Valerie,” she introduced with a lilt in her voice.

I slapped my
hand over my mouth in an attempt not to laugh out loud. The poor
girl thought they reacted to her flirting.

“Hi, Jennifer,
I’m Wilfred and this is Benjamin,” Wilfred answered with a big
smile on his face. He understood the situation immediately, and so
did Benjamin.

“Guys, please
sit down?” Jennifer invited.

I couldn’t get
out one single word and she gave me a hard elbow nudge as Wilfred
sat down next to her and Benjamin next to me. But Jennifer didn’t
hold back at all. It wasn’t a moment before she moved closer to
Wilfred.

I couldn’t hold
it in any longer and burst out laughing, Wilfred and Benjamin
joining in.

“What?” she
asked annoyed. “Why are you all laughing?”

“Jennifer,
these are my friends.”

She blinked
slowly before answering. “They’re with you?” she asked, peeved.

“Yes, like I
said. I met them over the weekend and invited them over for lunch
yesterday.”

“Okay, cool.
But tell me, just friends, or
dating
friends?” she asked,
suddenly her old, happy self again.

This doggy
doesn’t leave the bone until it’s completely finished
, I
thought.

“Just friends,”
I quickly answered.

For the rest of
the lunch she completely ignored me and put all her focus on
Wilfred. With batting eyelashes and a seductive tone, she asked him
about his studies and his background. I stopped listening after a
while and turned to Benjamin.

“How are Leo
and Peter doing? I mean, with the night shift and all?”

“They’re fine.
We are used to this kind of thing, you know.”

“I know, you’ve
told me. But I still feel guilty, everybody changing their
lifestyles to protect me.”

“Don’t see it
like that. We were trained for this, we’ve been waiting for it. And
it’s not your fault people want to kill you... or kidnap you.”

My eyes went
wide. I hadn’t thought about abduction. That would be worse. Who
knows what they would do to me. I’d probably be a lab rat! I
shivered and Benjamin noticed.

“What class do
you have after lunch?” he flew off at a tangent.

“
Philosophy.”

“And is it a
subject you like?” he asked, interested.

“Not really,
although it might be more interesting today. We’re having a guest
speaker about evolution.”

“Sounds
interesting.”

“You can come
with if you want to. It’s a full class and no one will notice a
stranger.”

“No thanks,
that’s fine. I’ve had my fair share of classes and lectures. I’d
rather just wait outside for you.”

By this time,
we were all finished and it was almost time for class.

Jennifer
offered to clean up after the guys. They left with a promise of
meeting for lunch again the next day.

They were
barely out of sight when she turned to me. “Thanks, Val. You’re a
real pal,” she said angrily. “Make fun of me; humiliate me in front
of Ben and Wil.”

I’d already
forgotten about the silly episode and was caught a little off
guard. “Jennifer, I didn’t mean to humiliate you. You took over and
didn’t give me a chance to introduce them,” I twisted the truth a
little. And now we are even, I thought. I owed her one for the
blind date and the silly outfit she had given me.

“Oh, come on.
You know that’s not true.”

“Look, you can
believe me or not. I didn’t mean to humiliate you.” It came out
harshly and I regretted my reaction immediately. I was the guilty
party here. She didn’t answer me, so I tried again. “I’ll make it
up to you – I’ll buy you dinner tonight?”

“No.” And then
grudgingly, “I’ll think about it.”

I decided not
to tell her about the other two as it would only get her more
worked up. I felt impatient with her persistent stubbornness. I’d
already apologised for something minutely small.

“I need to go
to class now, see you later, okay?”

“Fine,” and she
walked away, leaving all the dishes on the table.

I sighed and
collected the trays. The class was about to start in two minutes
and I hurried out. Benjamin spotted me immediately from the bench
underneath a big oak and trailed along a few feet distant.

By the time I
reached the class, the professor was already busy, a funny looking
round little man, not like the other professors. He didn’t look up
at all, just continued as if no one was in the room. I didn’t want
to interrupt him, so I didn’t apologise. He was one of those
lecturers that ignored the entire universe around him and continued
with his lecture no matter what.

Usually
students responded to such an attitude by not paying any attention
at all. Fair enough, the topic wasn’t the most interesting in the
world. But it was a compulsory subject.

The room was
very full, and I had to settle for a chair in the third row. I
paged to the next open page in my notebook and started writing down
the stuff on the board. It was all history and definitions,
mind-numbing stuff. The rhythmic drone of his voice made me sleepy
and my mind wandered. It drifted back to the incident with
Jennifer.

Suddenly
something happened in front. I heard a thumping sound and then the
class exploded with laughter.

“What
happened?” I whispered to the girl in the row behind me.

“His foot got
stuck on something and he fell down, probably because he couldn’t
see over his big round waist,” she laughed.

It was kind-of
funny, but I felt rather sorry for the Professor. He got up with a
bit of an effort and went on as if nothing had happened. He didn’t
even wait for the class to settle down; he simply picked up from
where he’d stopped.

Every now and
then, I looked at my watch. It felt as if time was standing still.
I hated classes like this; it was such a frustration and waste of
time. I picked up my pen and started writing again.
There was a
new cure for insomnia
, I thought:
this little professor’s
voice, combined with the hum of voices around me.

The period was
almost finished when I dozed off a little. Then, somewhere in the
midst of a semi-sleeping trance, a phrase caught my ears. I sat up
and started listening again. He had said something about the sun
being alive.

My heart
pounded and my ears swooshed. I didn’t like asking questions in
class, especially not a full philosophy class, but I had to make
sure that I had heard correctly.

“But,
Professor, do you really believe it is possible for the sun, a
star, to be alive?” I had to speak up above the buzz of voices from
where I sat in the third row. No one was listening. They thought
the Professor was just a big fat joke. And his overweight, wobbly
appearance made him even more ridiculous, not to mention his bald
Bozo-the-clown hairstyle.

He stopped
writing on the board and turned towards the class.

“Who asked that
question?” The noise level died down a bit. He had never spoken to
anyone directly before.

I raised my
hand slightly but enough for him to see me. He frowned before
answering.

“It is not a
question of whether it is alive. It is a question of form.”

The noise level
from disinterested students climbed even higher than before.

I nodded and
stuck my shaking hands deep into my pockets. I wanted to ask more,
but the time was up and I didn’t want to attract any more attention
to myself; I’d rather ask him afterwards.

Some of the
students had stood up already, without giving him a chance to
finish.

“Thank you,
Ladies and Gentlemen. Next week Professor Greenwald will be back,”
he said and walked out.

I tried my best
to squeeze quickly past the huddle of people, but by the time I had
reached the door, he was gone.

I grabbed the
closest student, a tall geekish guy, by the arm. “What was his
surname?”

“Whose
surname?” he asked, frowning down at me.

“The Professor
who gave the lecture just now.” Who else, I thought.

“Can’t
remember, I think he said it was Rosenbaum.”

“Thanks.”

Outside, I
looked around for Benjamin.

With the
Professor’s answer fresh in my mind, I suddenly remembered that
Peter had said that they were the four closest red dwarfs. Was it
possibly the closest red dwarf
stars
? When Lisa had
explained it all to me, I had the impression that these ‘links’
were with planets. Now the stars were also a possibility.

Wow! How cool
was that? Stars have such immeasurable amounts of energy and mass;
they would have to be super strong people. Suddenly the Reds seemed
even more impressive to me, although technically red dwarf stars
are smaller and colder than regular white stars. Suddenly there was
a new dimension to this secret world: stars. Stars! Who would ever
believe this? Stars amongst us!

The hair on my
arms stood up. Maybe this was why my memories of being out there in
the wild at night felt so strong and alive, as if I had been
watched. Someone
had
been watching over me. Or rather the
stars had, not only the planets! Stars, with such massive energy
that they
fuse
.

Surely Lisa
made a mistake when she had said that I was the most powerful human
on earth? She clearly didn’t know about this.

It also meant
that someone had a connection with the sun as well. Could it be
Duncan? Some of the recent events lined up in my mind and I tried
to put two and two together. The sunspots, the mobile interference,
the eight minutes Duncan had mentioned. No, it wasn’t Duncan.
Duncan was afraid of the sun; that I was sure about. I clearly
remembered the fear on his face and then his words:

“
Oh no! He
is… here! Has it… been… eight minutes… already?”

Whoever had a
connection with the sun, he or she was on the other side, my
personal enemy. He or she was the villain, the one behind all of
this. It felt scary, the thought of someone as strong as the sun on
the other side. Who knew what this person would be capable of, with
such power in their possession?