IA: Initiate (10 page)

Dr. Gwen resumed taking notes as Naz continued.

“I was trapped in my bathroom and couldn’t get out. It seemed like there was a tornado coming and things were floating in midair … the toothpaste … the soap …
me
! I could hear my mother on the other side of the bathroom door, but I couldn’t make out what she was saying. The floor gave way and while I was falling, I saw seven people. Then I woke up. That morning, Miss Tracey found the bathroom a mess and said that I had been sleepwalking again. But there were things out of place in the bathroom that I never touched in my dream. How can that be, Dr. Gwen?”

“Who were the seven people?”

“I don’t know. They were more shadows than anything.”

“I’ve read somewhere that dreams can either remind you of your destiny or warn you of your fate. And I’m afraid that’s about as much as I have, Naz. Dream research is a very complex and controversial field, and more to the point, it’s not my field. As far as your sleepwalking is concerned, as I’ve said before, at your age it’s not uncommon. It may increase slightly in the next year as you go through puberty and then gradually decrease thereafter.”

Naz wasn’t paying attention to Dr. Gwen’s prognosis about his sleepwalking. He was more interested in what she might have to say about his dream, so he decided to come from a different angle. “Meri says that something big is about to happen in my life, that the things floating all over the place mean I’ve lost control, and that being trapped in the bathroom symbolizes my inadequacy to deal with the situation.”

“Inadequacy?” Dr. Gwen said, laughing. "That sounds like a fine interpretation to me. I’ll second that opinion. That’s my little counselor. How is she anyway … Miss Firecracker?"

“She’s fine.” He was hoping for more from Dr. Gwen about his dream, but it was clear he wasn’t going to get it.

“That reminds me. I have something for you … actually for Meri.” She put her briefcase on her lap, opened it, and pulled out an envelope. “This is the first step.” She handed Naz the envelope. "It’s up to her now to do her best, and from what I know about little Miss Meridian Slaughter, she’ll have no trouble making the grade.” She paused to make sure she had Naz’s full attention. “Naz, you do know that International Academy is a boarding school, right? If she scores high enough, there are scholarships out there that would provide her full tuition, as well as room and board for the next seven years.”

Naz stood up with a look of excitement on his face. “I didn’t know that. She’ll score high enough.” He looked at the thick envelope made of light green parchment. It had a raised crest with a large I and A in emerald green Old English style letters on the flap, but it wasn’t sealed. Naz traced the crest lightly with his fingers. He smiled as he read the address.

Meridian Liberty Slaughter C/O Doctor Guinevere Hornbuckle15086 Stansbury CircleBrookeside Village IL

“It is of the utmost importance that you be there on time—no, early, Naz. If you are even one second late, the doors will be closed and locked. She will not be admitted, and there will be no second chance. Do you understand?” Dr. Gwen asked with her eye trained on him.

“I understand. I will have her there at least an hour early, Dr. Gwen.”

“Good, I knew you’d say that.” She paused, and then continued, “Naz, has anyone ever witnessed, or actually seen you sleepwalking—moving something while you were sleeping, picking up something … anything at all?”

“Well, when I dreamed about the tornado and being trapped in the bathroom, Meri said she got up when she heard me sleepwalking. But she said by the time she got to the bathroom, I was already back in my bed asleep. So, no, I don’t think so, never.”

“Hmmm, interesting.”

“Why?”

“No reason.”

She was holding something back. Naz could sense it, but he knew he was just about out of time, and so whatever she was thinking was probably going to have to wait. She reached in her briefcase one more time and pulled out a tarnished, odd-shaped skeleton key. She handed it to him.

“What is this?”

“A key,” said Dr. Gwen, with a laugh.

Naz laughed as he stood up and prepared to leave. “OK, you got me, Doc, a key to what?”

“I was hoping you could tell me. Someone left it at the front desk for a Mr. Andersen. You’re the only Mr. Andersen I know, so it must be for you.”

He shook his head. “I don’t know,” he said, looking at the key to examine the shape and markings on it. The only person he knew that called him Mr. Andersen was Fears.

“Well, it’s yours now. Maybe it’ll come to you,” she said.

He continued looking at the key and spinning it around his fingers as he walked to the door. There was something about it, he thought,
but then again, maybe it’s just an old tarnished key.

“One more thing, Naz. What have you learned, if anything at all, from your little exploit with your friend, Hector?”

He stopped in the doorway and looked down for a second and then back up at her and replied, “To go my own way.”

She smiled. “That’s right, Naz, to go your own way. In the end, every man and woman must go his or her own way. You have to choose what’s most important to you, prioritize, then conduct yourself accordingly … and the next time you hear the voice, Naz, don’t just hear … try listening. If you don’t like what the voice is saying, take a deep breath, calm down, and I promise you, it’ll go away.”

He smiled, nodded, and headed out the door.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

THE MARKET MERCHANTS

Dr. Gwen
left Naz with a lot to think about. Who would leave him a key? What did it unlock? What did it mean? Could it be Fears? And why would she bring up his father? That had always been a taboo subject, even with his first therapist, and here she was bringing him up out of nowhere and without hesitation.
Could it be his voice that I hear
, Naz wondered, as he made his way to the Market Merchants?

Meri was playing chess every day after school. This gave Naz time to run errands for the Market Merchants. He started running errands for the Market Merchants shortly after his mother died, and now it had become quite lucrative.

The Market Merchants were a group of proprietors that, out of self-preservation, had agreed to work together in harmony. They needed to cooperate in order to survive the ominous presence of the mega discount department store chains that had sprung up. Through cooperation with one another, the Market Merchants managed to stave off the inevitable: eventual demise. They agreed not to undercut one another with lower prices and to charge the lowest possible amount for their goods, which in most cases was still not as low as what the Mega Chains charged for the same product. This amount was sometimes decided by unanimous vote of the owners, but more often by less formal means. They also agreed to keep the same hours, as well as the same weekend and holiday schedules.

These dynamics caused a war of commerce and economics between the Market Merchants and Mega Chains, and many felt there would never be peace again. The Mega Chain’s primary tactic was to employ high-powered attorneys and cite collusion, while the supporters of the Market Merchants, favoring more guerilla-style warfare, resorted to arson and vandalism as their primary tools to voice their frustration. This volatile mixture added to the effect of the already nefarious Exclave.

After the death of Naz’s mother, things like music, computers, video games, and other luxuries were no longer available to Naz and Meri. Naz discovered early on that he and Meri would need more money than any foster parent or home would provide. He also knew that at only eleven years old, none of the Mega Chain discount department stores would consider giving him a real job, so he turned to the Market Merchants. One by one, they turned him down flat, telling him he was too young and that they would not hire him, not even for the most menial position.

Naz had just about given up hope when one day after school, he walked into MeeChi’s completely depressed and somewhat defeated. MeeChi’s was owned and operated by Taverdae Tesla, a stern, bald, older man who stood barely five feet tall. MeeChi’s was in Section 31, close to Naz’s elementary school, which was just on the edge of Section 29—his section at that time. After school Naz would often go to MeeChi’s for a candy bar, soda, and chips. Of course, he could have found junk food in any of the markets on his way back home, but there was something else about MeeChi’s that caught Naz’s interest.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

TONE

Just
inside the door, on a perch, sat a medium-sized gray bird with a red tail named Antonio. Naz started going to MeeChi’s right after he had arrived in the Exclave. Back then Mr. Tesla told Naz that Antonio was ten years old, the same age as Naz. Mr. Tesla had no idea the exact day that Antonio hatched. About a year later, just before the accident, Naz went to MeeChi's with his mom and Meri on a rare occasion. Without Naz knowing, Mr. Tesla asked their mother Naz’s birth date. A few weeks later, on his birthday, Naz happened into MeeChi’s. On this day, Mr. Tesla handed Naz an official-looking document that read:

Department of Health Vital Records

Certificate of Live Hatching

Species: African Grey Parrot

Sex: Male

Name: Antonio Warner Tesla

Place: Penelope’s Pet Palace

Date of Birth: July 8
^th

There was what looked like an official seal from the Illinois Department of Health at the bottom of the document. Naz became excited when he saw that Antonio hatched on the same day he was born and then remembered that the bird was also the same age as he. Mr. Tesla told Naz he could keep Antonio’s hatch certificate as a birthday present because it would just end up getting lost at MeeChi’s anyway. From then on Naz began to look at the bird differently, as if he and the bird were connected in some way. Ever since then he had been drawn to Antonio.

A few months after the accident Naz walked into MeeChi’s feeling dejected. He had already asked Mr. Tesla for a job and like all of the other Market Merchants, Mr. Tesla told him he was too young.

Whenever someone walked into MeeChi’s, Antonio usually said,
“Welcome to MeeChi’s,”
but when Naz walked in, Antonio always seemed to say something different. Naz had heard that talking birds usually had a very limited vocabulary and only repeated what they heard, if they heard something over and over again. Mr. Tesla told Naz that Antonio’s species was the smartest of all birds on the planet. Naz swore to Mr. Tesla that Antonio would say new things to him all the time that he never heard him say before.

When Naz walked in on this day, Antonio said, “
Seize the day, seize the day
.” Naz, not thinking anything of Antonio’s words, walked up to him, opened his hand, and presented the bird with two larger than average sunflower seeds. The bird took one seed in his beak and ate it, and then he took the other and dropped it in the small cup under him. Naz turned and walked down the aisle as he heard Antonio say, “
Thank you.”

Naz walked down the aisles and looked at all the merchandise as he tried to figure out a solution to his problem. He needed a job. Mr. Tesla kept promising Naz he would give him a job when he turned twelve. But that was almost a whole year away, and Naz needed money now. He was tempted to run errands for the drug dealers, but he had promised his mother he would never resort to that. However, she was gone now, and he and Meri needed things, things they were used to having. They needed things that in Naz’s opinion they couldn’t do without.

Mr. Tesla, like all of the Market Merchants, stocked MeeChi’s with the biggest variety of goods that he could pack onto the shelves in his little store. From clothes to groceries, small appliances to toys, games, and computers, MeeChi’s was bursting at the seams with goods. It was a combination of a large convenience store and a mini department store. The biggest problem that MeeChi’s faced, along with the other Market Merchants, was finding an effective balance between the quantity of specific goods and a variety of different goods. They didn’t have enough space to purchase and stock large quantities of goods like the Mega Chains and often found themselves out of stock of something that might be crucial to a loyal costumer.