Ascension (The Ascension Series) (14 page)

“Clark!” Coach Smith said, “My newest team player! How are you feeling, son?”

“Great,” Clark told him. “Never better.”

“Terrific,” the coach said. “The team is kind of suffering now that Big Dan LaRent dropped out of school.”

“So he officially dropped?” Clark asked.

“Yeah, ol’ Dan bit the dust,” the coach informed him. “Seriously, who drops out of school with only 4 months remaining until graduation? He was rambling on about following his dreams of racing cars.”

“Are you serious?” Clark asked.

“Yeah,” the coach said. “Who knows? I think ol’ Dan had muscles everywhere but between the ears.”

“That’s mean you’re gonna take the position of Center, Clark. Remember, practice begins this Friday.”

Clark nodded and the coach slapped him on the shoulder. The boys then began to change into their P.E. uniforms.

“Guess you’re on top of the world,” John joked to Clark.

“Certainly feels like it,” Clark laughed.

“I’m still k
ing!” Charles said as he shoved Clark.

After getting properly dressed, they headed into the gymnasium where they played basketball. Charles and John sat on the sidelines but the coach hardly noticed. He was paying attention only to Clark’s performance. And knowing the coach was watching his every move, Clark took the chance to show off. He dribbled the ball down the court at a higher speed than anyone else and made multiple three point shots.

“WOW!” Coach Smith exclaimed after Clark scored his twentieth point. “Who knew? Clark, you should join my basketball team next semester!”

“I’ll consider it,” Clark said half-jokingly, half arrogantly.

Clark played with a ferocity that made all of the other students look poor in comparison. Charles and John were sitting on the bleachers and laughing.

“You know we could do that too?” John said.

“Yeah, but what’s the point?” Charles said. “Joining a sports team would just be a waste of my precious time. And my time is golden.”

“If your time is golden, mine is wooden,” John laughed. “I mean, I could do what Clark is doing too but I just don’t have any interest in any of these games.”

John looked across the gymnasium and noticed TJ the bully on the basketball court. He was running down the court during a game when John nudged Charles. John pointed his hand toward TJ and his gym shorts fell down to reveal his underwear. The other students laughed as he quickly pulled his shorts up.

“What the hell is wrong with you, son?” Coach Smith asked TJ. “Keep your damn pants up, boy!”

John and Charles were howling with laughter from the bleachers. Then they noticed a group of girls on the other side of the gym being instructed by Miss Paige to do jumping jacks.

“Which one do you think is the hottest?” Charles asked.

When John pointed to a blonde haired girl, Charles reached his arm out and snapped his fingers. Immediately the girl’s gym shorts fell to her ankles while she was doing jumping jacks. The girl’s scream drew more attention as she hurried to pull her shorts up. Charles and John were rolling with laughter. They eventually quit laughing and ceased the foolish behavior when John changed the subject.

“Speaking of this psychokinetic
power or telekinesis or whatever the hell you want to call it, what do you think we’re going to discover at your dad’s corporation next week?”

“I think we’ll learn where the crystal came from─ If my dad’s
corporation built it or not.”

“I don’t think the crystal was something synthesized, man,” John said. “How the hell could anyone create something
like that?”

“I don’t know,” Charles said. “
If it wasn’t built, then Bio-Tech must have found it somewhere.”

“In space?” John asked.

“Can’t be,” Charles told him. “I don’t know everything my dad does but it’s not a space station.”

“Then maybe the crystal was mined from the middle of the earth
. I think that’s the most obvious choice,” John said.

“We’ll find out
soon enough. Like a movie tagline: all will be revealed,” Charles laughed.

School ended ninety minutes after their gym class. Clark and Sarah met up with Charles and John. Clark said he was going to find Donny and Chloe so they could all leave together when John reminded them that he was going to say goodbye to Andrew. John
thought about flying but decided to take the school bus to his neighborhood “for old time’s sake.”

John hopped aboard the school bus and found a comfortable window seat. When the bus took off, he laid back and relaxed with no inte
ntion of ever taking the bus again. This was to be his final ride. Nearly half an hour later, after a number students departed, the bus finally pulled into John’s neighborhood.

“The ride never see
med this long before,” John thought to himself. “But I guess when you’ve ridden in Charles’s BMW or taken flight, a school bus can’t really compare.”

When the bus came to the appropriate stop and most of the students were gone, John got off. He stepped into
the downtrodden area in which he resided. An old bum was sitting on a sidewalk with a cup in his hand begging for change when John reached into the jacket pocket of his black trench coat. He pulled out a handful of change, including the quarter that was broken in half, and dropped it into the old man’s cup.

“Thanks a lot, young man,” the bum said. “
This will pay for tonight’s whisky.”

Instead of going directly to Andrew’s place, John first stopped at his own house─ or rather, his father’s house. He refused to refer to it as his own home.
He used a key to unlock the front door and found his half drunken father sitting in the filthy living room’s recliner. His prosthetic leg was lying on the floor next to him.

“What are you doing here?”
his father croaked.

“Just checking to make sure you’re still alive, Alexander.”

“Don’t you call me by my first name, boy.”

“I’m not her
e to stay. And if you ever lay another finger on me, you’ll never see me again.”

“Go on, then. Get out of here. Make the damned life for yourself that I don’t have.”

“What would my mother think about you like this?” John asked him.

His father didn’t reply. John simply turned around, left the house, and closed the door behind him.
He tried not to think about his father as he strode down the street and headed to Andrew’s place. A few blocks later he found the right house. It was a small, very old two story home with broken shutters and peeled paint on every side. John walked onto the porch of the house and rang the bell.

A brown
skinned woman with long black hair wearing a robe answered the door. 

“Hello?” she said.

“I’m looking for Andrew,” John said.

“Are you one of his classmates?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Then come on in.
You can call me Ms. Lockman.”

She opened the door and allowed John into the house.
The old house was filled with worn out furniture and dirty carpet. It, however, was not as filthy as the house in which John and his father lived. Three young children were in the living room playing with various old toys.

“These are my other children. Derek, Shawn, and Ana.”

“Is Andrew here?” John asked.

“Yeah, he’s upstairs,” Ms. Lockman turned toward the staircase and yelled, “ANDREW! There’s someone here to see you!”

“Thanks for inviting me in,” John told her.

“If you’re his friend, maybe you can talk some sense into him,” Ms. Lockman said. “He just dropped out of school and
keeps talking about moving away. Says he’s found a way out of here but I don’t know what he means.”

Andrew walked down the stairs and raised his hand to John.

“John,” Andrew said as he placed a rosary around his neck. “What are you doing here?”

“I came to s
peak to you, man. I heard you were leaving.”

“Come on upstairs,” Andrew motioned him. “There’s something I want to show you.”

Ms. Lockman tended to her younger children as John followed behind Andrew up the stairs. They stopped at the first door on the right and stepped inside. Andrew locked the door behind them as John looked around. There was clothing strewn about the room, a messy bed in one corner, and several rosaries lying in a wooden chair.

“What’s happened?” John asked. “Why are you leaving?”

“Because I don’t belong here, John.”

“So
you just dropped out of school?”

“These abilities are a gift,” Andrew told him. “They shouldn’t be squandered
by playing jokes or a silly football game at school. There
is
a purpose out there for each of us.”

“What are you talking about?” John asked, frustrated. “I’m not getting the philosophy
of any of this.”

“Just tell me if you get this…” Andrew said as he reached under his bed and pulled out a duffel bag. John looked inside and found stacks and stacks of hundred dollar bills.

“How much is that?” John asked with a look of shock upon his face.

“Quarter of a million dollars,” Andrew smiled. “The real deal.”

“How!?” John questioned him.

“You may have heard about a bank robbery on the local news,” Andrew told him. “Dan and I did that.”

“WHAT?” John half yelled before lowering his voice. “You robbed a bank!?”

“We did it last night,” Andrew said as he closed the duffel bag. “Dan and I went to the bank a little after midnight. We wore masks. We used our powers to first rip the glass door open. Once we were inside the bank we focused together and
easily ripped the vault door off its hinges. We got away with half a million dollars and split it fifty-fifty.”

“What the hell do you do now?” John asked.

“I get as far away from here as possible.”

“Dan too?”

“After the heist, Dan and I decided to go our separate ways. He mentioned something about becoming a race car driver.”

“NASCAR?” John asked.

“No, the formula one racing type stuff. He said he was really into that. I didn’t ask him anything else. I don’t need to know.”

“And where are you going?” John asked him.

“First I’ve got to find a way to break this to my mom. Then I’m moving my family far away. I think we’re going to Florida. My dad left our family years ago. My mother’s been raising four kids by herself and now that can change. I can help.”

“Wow,” is all John could say.

“But I really appreciate you stopping by,” Andrew told him. “It really means a lot to me. Thanks.”

“No problem,” John said softly. “I’m going to miss you.”

“And John,” Andrew continued. “Don’t tell Clark. You know how he gets. No one else can know this.”

“Yeah,” John said
. “Your secret is safe with me. I won’t tell anyone else, especially not Clark. But this does add to the list of things I’m keeping from Clark.”

“What else?” Andrew asked curiously.

“Well I was at Charles’s place and he overheard his dad mentioning the crystal. It apparently used to be at Bio-Tech. No one knows how it got to the barn but we’re going to find out what it is and where it came from.” 

“Fascinating,” Andrew said. “But not compellingly so. As far as I’m concerned, it doesn’t matter that much about where the crystal came from or how it got where it was. All that matters is what happened and how our lives have been affected. Some people just want to continue
living the same life but I can’t do that. So this is goodbye, John.”

“One more thing, Andrew.”

“Yeah?”

“I’d like to show you something. Take you someplace I’ve never taken any other friend.”

“Sure, John. I’m up for it.”

“Great,” John said solemnly.

“When would you like to go?”

“Now,” John said
.

“Okay,” Andrew replied
. “Just make it quick.”

Andrew opened his bedroom door and John walked out.

“Wait,” Andrew said. “One more thing, John.”

John walked back into Andrew’s room and Andrew unzipped the duffle bag. He tossed a large wad of cash to John and stuffed the bag back under his bed. Without hesitation, John placed the cash into his
deepest trench coat pocket. Then they exited the room and headed down the steps. They left out of the house and John informed Andrew that they would be flying to the spot he wanted him to see.

“Where can we go
without being seen?” John asked.

“Follow me
,” Andrew said. “Around this way.” He opened the gate on the side of his house and Andrew followed him into the backyard. The grass was tall and looked as if it hadn’t been cut for a very long time. John and Andrew stood tall side by side in the middle of the back yard and looked up toward the sky.