If there's one thing Calvin had learned to be true, it was that practice does indeed make perfect. Or at least makes doing something a 2nd time much easier. Leaning back on the stool in his shed and admiring his handiwork on the table in front of him, he just had to hope it would work. The problem with building bombs, especially in a residential neighborhood, is you cannot generally test them. Now his only concern was finding out how to use it. Calvin had already decided he didn't want to do it at the school. Much as he wanted Mr. Wattson to pay for his crimes, he didn't want the college kids to be in harms way. He was going to have to get him somehow, maybe at his apartment? That could work. A tight confined space.
Calvin bit his lip and thought how this was not the sort of thing you generally are taught in school. How do you blow up a man with little fanfare. *** Wyatt, seated at the outdoor patio table at a nearby deli he'd taken to go to lately, was looking around at the other couples there. For some reason, today, the place seemed to be absolutely packed with couples. He thought of Scarlet and grimaced. Things had been so good for a while after Grudin's death, why had things soured now? The pony didn't help, he knew that much. Scarlett wasn't used to him keeping secrets, nor was he used to doing it. They'd never had a secret between them, and now this secret life...it was creating a divide between them, a divide he feared was unbridgeable the further it got. He heard a chair scrape on the wood and looked across the table to see Kelly sitting down and smiling, plopping her purse down by her feet. "Must be nice to just not have to go to work if you don't want to," Kelly said, making Wyatt chuckle as he lifted his water glass to his lips and took a drink. "Well," he said, shrugging after drinking and setting the glass back down, "it definitely gives me time to be a dad and stuff, which is nice. I realize I'm privileged though, and not everyone has things as lucky as I do, so I try to appreciate the freedom it offers me." "I have to be at work at 4am every day," Kelly said, groaning and running her hand through her shiny blonde hair, "I'm always so exhausted. Sure, I get to leave after the evening news, which isn't super late at all, but still, it leaves me virtually no time to be social or do anything fun." "Well then think of me as your gateway to harder entertainment," Wyatt said. "...did you just compare yourself to weed?" Kelly asked, laughing, making Wyatt shrug again. "Dude, I don't know," he said, laughing softly, "I'm exhausted too, for what it's worth, so a lot of my jokes probably aren't going to land today. Still, it's nice to be able to get out of the house and have lunch with a friend." Kelly blushed and nodded. It was true, she thought. It was nice. She didn't really have any friends at the station, nor did she have many outside of the station. Work, honestly, was all she cared about, and for a long time that didn't bother her. It still didn't, really, but she had begun to start wanting to at least have one person to talk to. Now she had two. Rachel and Wyatt came as a package deal, apparently, and Kelly couldn't be more grateful for that. "When do you leave?" Wyatt asked. "You mean for Cloudcon? Um, in like 24 hours," she said, "I have my ticket, I have my bags packed, I'm really ready, I'm just waiting around now. They'll have an interim weather girl until I get back, so enjoy that." "Is she better than you?" "Are you insinuating I'm not the greatest weather girl ever?" Kelly asked, and Wyatt shrugged. "You said it, not me," he replied, smirking. "...you're an ass," she said, chuckling. Yes, it was nice to have friends. *** Most of his stuff was packed and already being shipped back home, and now all that was in Leonard Wattsons apartment was his suitcase. When he made a plan and stuck to it, he found he could be quite good at sticking to a schedule. Leonard sighed, hands on his hips as he looked around the almost bare apartment, and thought about Oliver. All this time spent here and he was ultimately coming away with nothing. He'd just have to find new people to produce content for him, and that was all there was to it. He groaned. His life was going to be hectic for a bit when he got back home. Suddenly there was a knock at the door, and Leonard turned and walked towards it, tugging it open, surprised to find Calvin of all people standing there. "...hello," Leonard said. "Hi Mr. Wattson," Calvin said, "can I come in?" "...that depends, you plan on throwing a tantrum again?" Leonard asked, the both of them smirking as he stepped aside, allowing Calvin to enter. "...are you...leaving?" Calvin asked. "Something's come up back home, I have to go," Leonard remarked, scratching the back of his head before asking, "so...what is it you want, exactly?" "I want to apologize, for one," Calvin said, "I guess I did go a little of the rails. I just...was disappointed. You were my favorite teacher. It's hard to have someone you admired so much turn out to be so morally dubious is all. But no, I wanted to apologize. Glad I caught you before you left, because I would've felt awful if I didn't get the chance to apologize." Leonard smiled, nodding, his arms folded. "Well, I appreciate that Calvin," he said, "Listen, the world is an awful place. You of all people should be miserably aware of that. Sometimes we have to do things we don't want to in order to survive, and sometimes that includes hurting others, unfortunately. But that doesn't mean I necessarily enjoy it. Yes, I was courting a high school sophomore. Yes, that's morally wrong. It's an illness. But it's such a stigmatized illness, that I can't even really get help for it without being labeled a monster. So I do what I can, try to control myself best I can, and just hope for the best." Calvin clenched his fists into tight balls, nodding slowly. His blood was boiling, and he wanted to take Leonard's glasses right off his face, but he was restraining himself. Calvin looked around the apartment again, noticing there was nowhere to hide his bomb, and began to panic about how he'd accomplish his goal. "I'm sorry, Calvin, and I'm sorry for trying to pull you into the fold," Leonard said, "I just wanted you to have a better life." "I'd love to, but not at the expense of ruining another person," Calvin replied softly. Leonard excused himself and headed to the bathroom, leaving Calvin alone momentarily. As he stood there, looking around the mostly empty apartment his eyes caught sight of something on the nearby kitchen table. It was Mr. Wattsons plane ticket. Calvin lurched forward a bit and looked at the information, reading the flight information and then, reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a pen, quickly uncapped it and, tearing off a nearby paper towel, copied the information down. When he was done, he stuffed the paper towel into his pocket, just as Leonard resurfaced in the room. "Sorry about that," Leonard said, smirking, "flying always makes me nervous, so I've been peeing a lot." "...I guess I'll see you when I see you, Mr. Wattson," Calvin said, as Leonard held his hand out for Calvin to shake, which Calvin did after a moment of hesitation. Just touching him made Calvin feel sick. When Calvin was finally out of the apartment and back downstairs in his car, he pulled the paper towel from his pocket and looked at it. He had information. He had the bomb. He just needed to put two and two together somehow. He wasn't going to let Mr. Wattson leave unscathed. No matter what, he'd see this man receive the same fate as other men who'd hurt children. That much he promised himself. He just had to find a way to make it work. *** "Because, mom, I don't want to," Rachel said, standing in the living room, tapping her nails nervously on the coffee table as Sun Rai laid on the couch, sipping tea; Rachel began pacing, just listening to her mother speaking, occasionally responding; eventually, Rachel sighed and said, "Look, you're the ones who pushed me away. I begged you, literally begged you for years to talk to me, and you didn't want to believe anything I had to say, so why should we start reconciling now? Yeah, well, maybe it's still too painful for me. Goodbye." Rachel hung up, stood still for a moment, and then screamed loudly. Sun Rai looked up from her book and set her mug down on the coffee table. "Everything okay?" she asked. "Is anything ever okay?" Rachel replied. "God, you're so emo," Sun Rai said, smirking, making Rachel laugh nervously. Rachel walked to the couch and Sun pulled her legs up so Rachel could sit down, then laid her legs back down across Rachel's lap. "I tried to tell them about college, about my agent, about everything, but they didn't want to believe it. They said I was trying to ruin a mans career, and then called me melodramatic. If my parents won't believe me, then why should I even tell them things, you know? Fuck it. Not worth the irritant," Rachel said, sighing as she pulled a box out from under the coffee table and opened it, revealing her pot, which she quickly rolled into a joint and lit, leaning back into the couch and smoking. "You never have to forgive them," Sun Rai said, "okay, please don't let society trick you into thinking that you need their acceptance. You're great without them." "Yeah but the world is...fucking....lonely without family," Rachel said, before glancing at Sun and adding, "I mean, sorry, you're family too, I suppose, but...you know what I mean." "I do," Sun Rai said, sitting up, balancing on her elbows, "I do because with my father so sick and presumably on his way out in the next year or so, it's made me realize just how fleeting and fragile your time with your parents is, not to mention your relationship with them in general. Sure, my folks are your typical overbearing Asian stereotypes, but they aren't bad parents, and I'm very grateful to have them and to be able to say I love them, because I know not everyone gets that." Rachel exhaled smoke from her mouth and looked at Sun as she sat up, pulling her legs off Rachel and sitting cross legged now. "But, like you said, I'm here, I can be family," Sun whispered, leaning in and pressing her lips to Rachel's neck, making her blush and giggle. "Ooh that makes this incest," Rachel whispered. "Why do you have to be so creepy about everything," Sun asked, laughing. *** "You gonna bring me back a gift from Cloudcon?" Wyatt asked, stabbing his side salad and pulling some of it into his mouth, chewing as Kelly finished chewing her pastrami sandwich. "A gift? What do you want? There's a guy who sells snow globes that show each city in the event of nuclear winter," Kelly said. "That's awesome," Wyatt said, "get me Chicago. I wanna see it leveled." "What did Chicago ever do to you?" Kelly asked, laughing. "I had a bad hot dog there once and spent most of the trip in the bathroom," Wyatt said, chewing, "fuck Chicago." "Hey," a voice said, causing Wyatt and Kelly to look to the side of the table, noticing Celia was standing there before pulling a chair out and seating herself; she smiled at Kelly and introduced herself, "Hi, I'm Celia. I'm a friend of Wyatt's. I was just coming to have lunch and saw you, figured you'd like some company." "The more the merrier," Kelly said enthusiastically, making Wyatt smile. He liked her eternal openness. Celia waited for someone to take her order - a honey ham and swiss cheese sandwich - before picking up the glass of water they'd brought her and took a long sip from it, then sighing afterwards and wiping her mouth on her blazer sleeve. "And you call yourself a consummate professional," Wyatt said. "I never once used the word 'consummate' and you know it," Celia replied, making them laugh as she added, "so, did you hear about the Evergreens?" This caught Wyatt's attention, and he looked up at her, ignoring his food now as Celia continued. "They're going to some convention to protest and try to get people in the weather industry to listen to them," Celia said, "they claim that people involved with the weather are their best hope for getting their message about saving the environment from rampant industrialization. They came in to speak to me today about it, about their policy and stuff and like if they legally had the right to be there. Don't remember the name of the convention, but these people are dedicated. Unfortunately they're also out of their minds." "...Cloudcon?" Wyatt and Kelly asked in unison as Celia nodded, sipping more water. "Yeah that's it!" she said, pointing at Wyatt, "...why do you know that?" "Because I'm going to that," Kelly said, "I leave tomorrow. actually. I'm the local weathergirl for this area." "I thought you looked familiar," Celia said, pointing at her, "Now I know why!" "Ugh, to think I'll have to share a plane with those people," Kelly said, shaking her head in annoyance as she continue to bite into her sandwich, "weirdos." "Well, it's probably not a long flight, you won't be in the air long," Wyatt said. "Here's to hoping," Kelly replied, not realizing just how true his words would wind up being. *** That evening, when Wyatt arrived home, he found Scarlett making dinner in the kitchen as Mona and her little brother watched TV in the living room. Wyatt headed into the kitchen and put his arms around Scarlett's waist, surprising her from behind as she stood over the stove, and nuzzled his face into her neck, making her laugh. "You're prickly!" she said, "You need to shave." "Hell no, I'm gonna be a silver fox," Wyatt said, stroking his fuzzy face with his hand. "You're in your thirties, you're not allowed to be a silver fox until you're in yours 60s at the earliest," Scarlett said as Wyatt backed away and went to get a drink from the fridge. As he unscrewed a beer and leaned against the fridge, watching his wife cook and drinking his beer, he couldn't help but think how nice it was to come home to this. He sighed and looked at his shoes. "I'm sorry," he said softly, "...I've been a shitty husband lately. I'm sorry." "You're not shitty, dude," Scarlett said, "you're just...I need you to work with me on things, you know? If you're going to make a big purchase, like a pony, then you need to consult me first, okay? I don't hate you. I just want us to work together cause we've always made a great team." Wyatt smiled, nodding. He didn't deserve her, and he knew it. He'd always secretly known it, and had always harbored a small amount of guilt, feeling as though he'd somehow tricked her into loving him, and now he'd trapped her in this life, despite all the evidence she gave him to the contrary proving that she genuinely was happy with what they had. After all, they had their own business, a nice home, two children, and now a pony. What more could one really ask for when it came to creature comforts? Wyatt lifted the beer to his lips again and took another sip, thinking back to lunch with Kelly. He wanted to keep Kelly safe from his life, just like Scarlett. He didn't want these women getting sucked into his web of tangled shit and have to deal with his poor decisions. He felt like he'd already disappointed one woman. He didn't want to disappoint Kelly too. Meanwhile, elsewhere, Calvin wasn't having a great night. He didn't have a wife or children to go home to. Instead, when Calvin entered his parents home that night, after having gotten dinner out, he found his mom sitting alone in the living room, watching some antique grading show on television. Calvin stood in the doorway, hands in his pants pockets, as he watched silently with her for a moment before she noticed him and muted the commercial. "We missed you at dinner," she said, "...your sister called." "...she did?" Calvin asked, and his mother nodded. "She wanted to talk to you but you weren't here," she said, "She sounded good though, or as good as she could." "That's nice to hear," Calvin said, "...I think I'll go to bed." Calvin gave his mother a kiss and then headed upstairs. He took a quick shower, brushed his teeth and then got into his pajamas. He laid in bed for a while, but couldn't fall asleep, so once he was certain his mother had gone to bed too, he snuck back downstairs and, after making some coffee, headed to the shed. He found the bomb sitting just where he'd left it, right on the table. He sat on his stool and stared at it for minutes on end in silence, just sipping from his mug. He needed Mr. Wattson to die. He knew if he let him go, he'd just wind up hurting more children, producing more despicable content from their pain. He couldn't allow that to happen. He was desperate to erase his ilk from the world, and make it a slightly better place. Calvin put his hand on the bomb and touched the cold metal casing, sighing. There just HAD to be a way. And Kelly, well, when she got home to the apartment, she kicked off her shoes and quickly changed into something more comfortable before finishing packing. She just had a few more things to toss into her suitcase before tomorrows flight, a couple odds and ends - notebooks, her bathroom stuff - and once she was done with that, she sat on her bed and flipped on the television. Kelly liked to watch TV while she fell asleep. She flipped through a few channels and then landed on some action film which just happened to be taking place at this particular moment in an airplane. There was some big bad with grandiose plans to blow the plane up with the hero on it, and it was up to the hero to rescue everyone else on the plane. Kelly was asleep within minutes.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
About
A group of former high school classmates reunite at their 10 year reunion, and discover they each want something different, many with someone else there. What ensues is a labyrinthian relationship amongst them involving crime, murder, romance and, in one particular case, terrorism. Archives
May 2024
Categories |