Pulse of Heroes (34 page)

“God creates. I create nothing. I just
harness what was already put out there, and even that’s not always
successful.”

They eventually took the freeway offramp to
the airport parking structure. Michelle decided to stay in the car
while Elliot went to meet Devin, but Elliot didn’t feel quite right
leaving her in the garage.

“He could be tired or in a bad mood, and the
last thing I would want would be to meet a new person if that’s how
I felt,” Michelle explained. “At least this way he’ll get the
heads-up that I’m here,” she added. Elliot was touched by
Michelle’s thoughtfulness. And besides, she had a headache. She
often got them after she cried and that morning was no exception.
Without even asking, Elliot placed his hand over Michelle’s
forehead and the headache began to subside. Michelle smiled at him
half intoxicated and told him that she should keep him around just
for that.

About half an hour later Elliot returned with
Devin and Michelle hopped out of the car to be properly introduced.
Devin was very proper and, like the rest of the guys, very
beautiful. His skin was a luxurious shade of gold and caramel and
his amber colored eyes were like those of a tiger, beautiful and
picturesque. Michelle immediately tried to imagine him in royal
Indian garb made of rich multi-colored fabrics. He looked every
inch a prince, in her humble opinion. On the drive back, Devin told
stories about his travels and about the people he met, and Michelle
swallowed every word as if she was there herself tasting China’s
great cuisine. But while Devin was talking, Michelle noticed that
Elliot didn’t say much of anything. Perhaps he was tired from
talking to her she thought, but then she remembered that he rarely
tired at all. Could he have argued with Devin on their way back to
the car? Maybe Devin was not all that pleased about Michelle being
there? Whatever the reason, she kept all those thoughts to herself
and kept smiling and asking polite questions. When Elliot dropped
her off in front of Samantha’s and didn’t say much anything to her
besides goodbye, she knew that there was something wrong and that
she wasn’t just imagining it. Something had changed from when
Elliot had left the car to when he returned and whatever it was, it
was definitely serious.

Michelle tried to fill in the gaps for
Samantha as best she could. She chose her words carefully, avoiding
anything that would arouse any suspicions about Elliot. It was a
difficult task, considering that several months ago Michelle had
sworn up and down that the guys at the new school weren’t
human.

“Ok,” Samantha said, annoyed, “but how come
you never bring him around or anything? I mean, he drops you off
and picks you up in front of my house, and you never once thought
about properly introducing us.” Michelle hadn’t even considered
sharing Elliot with her friends. Samantha was right. If Elliot were
any other guy they would have probably already hung out
together.

“So is he your boyfriend?” Samantha wanted to
know, still annoyed. “Did you guys even kiss? Did he even tell you
he likes you like that?” Michelle shook her head in defeat;
Samantha was right. She was reading too much into things. “You’re
not doing drugs together, are you?” Samantha demanded to know.

“What!” Michelle exploded in anger and gave
Samantha a look that could kill. Samantha apologized and explained
that she was only asking out of concern, since the guys at that
Hekademos
Center were troubled after all. Michelle was
fuming; Samantha tried to calm her down.

“You know, I thought I was your best friend
and you don’t even trust me to get a feel on this guy? I want to
meet him Michelle, then I’ll stop asking all those questions.” An
unsure and anxious Michelle bit her lower lip. She’d try to arrange
something.

Unfortunately for Michelle, Elliot didn’t
contact her the rest of the week and eventually even Samantha
stopped asking about those ‘plans’ that Michelle had promised to
arrange. Every day Michelle came home from school waiting to either
run into him or at least get a note, but none of those scenarios
materialized. By the weekend she was crushed all over again, and
tried to figure out if she had offended him during their long
conversation about his past. She started to seriously panic when
she didn’t hear from him the next week either. And then she grew
angry. If he thought she was being rude, the least he could do was
let her know about it; say it to her face and not be a coward and
run away from things.

On Thursday Francesca asked Michelle if she
would be kind enough to drive her to church again for Sunday
services. Something about somebody’s great granddaughter getting
baptized. Sure she would, she told Francesca, it wasn’t like she
had any plans for the weekend anyway. Michelle’s other
consideration was that maybe she would see Rion there and she could
ask him about Elliot. But when Sunday came around Michelle’s luck
had not changed. Rion was not there. She scanned the pews and just
about screamed when she didn’t spot him anywhere. After that she
decided that she had no choice but to march over to the school and
find out from Elliot himself what the heck was going on!

Michelle showed no appetite for dinner. She
sat at the table and played with her food, moving it back and forth
from one side of the plate to the other. Her parents tried to cheer
her up by letting her know that it seemed that they would be able
to afford the Europe trip after all. Her father had taken on a
couple of side projects and made out reasonably well, and with the
Euro sliding downwards it meant that US dollars would be worth more
in Hungary. Michelle tried to look engaged but her heart just
wasn’t in it. When her mother couldn’t take the sight of Michelle’s
mess of a dinner anymore, she lifted it out from under her in a
quick swoop.

“Hey, I was going to eat that,” Michelle said
as her mom scraped the food into the garbage.

“Michelle, I wouldn’t let you eat that. It’s
disgusting!” Her mother was right. The meal had started as an
appetizing display of rice, cooked carrots in ginger and shaved
lamb steak, but once Michelle was done with it, it looked like baby
puke. Her father was also upset, telling her that her mom worked
very hard on the meal.

“Perhaps you should make dinner if you don’t
like the menu,” he said in an angry but controlled tone. Michelle
was sorry and let her mom know that she didn’t mean to ruin dinner,
it was just that she was stressed over school again.

Michelle used the school excuse to get out of
the house, supposedly heading to Samantha’s to study. But she kept
walking with a different destination in mind. She was going to
Hekademos Learning Center
and she was going to let Elliot
have it. She didn’t care how old he was or what tricks he could
pull.

Michelle stood in front of the large iron
gates and looked at the black button next to the keypad. She was
mighty worked up while walking, but once she was standing there she
lost her momentum and her confidence sank. She started feeling
embarrassed and ashamed at her own stupidity, wondering if anyone
on the inside could see her out there pacing around like a fool.
After all, the entire place was security tight and the cameras were
everywhere. That thought alone irritated her enough, giving her the
boost to push the black button. After pressing it, Michelle waited
for a reply and when nothing happened she felt almost relieved. Oh
well, she thought, at least she wasn’t a complete chicken and gave
it a try. But just as she turned around to walk away she heard some
static coming out of the small speaker, and then a voice; to whom
it belonged she couldn’t tell.

“Umm… this is Michelle. I was wondering if I
could talk to Elliot?” Did she sound desperate? “If this is a bad
time will you tell him that I stopped by?” Michelle’s heart was
practically jumping out of her chest. It seemed like it took
forever before she heard any response. She didn’t know that Rion
and Haneul were inside, deliberating about what to do. The voice
told her to come inside as the gates began to swing open. Oh God,
Michelle thought, what has she gotten herself into now? What if
Elliot was in there, livid? Once in front of the door she came to a
standstill, too scared to knock. But not a second passed before the
large door swung open to reveal Rion, standing there smiling.

“Hello, Michelle. What a nice surprise. Do
come in.” Michelle didn’t know what to say as she entered with Rion
right behind her. “I hope you enjoyed that egg?” he asked with a
laugh. Michelle’s legs began shaking a little bit. The living room
was empty; she had a bad feeling and regretted being there. Rion
asked her if she would like anything to drink but Michelle politely
declined.

“Michelle, I am sorry to be the one to tell
you this, but Elliot is not here.” Rion looked straight into her,
and it made her feel uncomfortable.

“When will he be back?” Michelle asked in
disappointment.

“That’s the other thing, I’m afraid I don’t
have that answer.” Michelle’s eyes grew large and sad and she
looked very confused. Rion couldn’t help but think that she was as
cute as a bug.

“But… where did he go?” Michelle asked, her
large eyes growing even larger. Rion asked her to sit down and
although Michelle didn’t have any desire to do so, she knew that if
she didn’t she would look even more a fool than before. Michelle
pretended to be more at ease and asked Rion if she could have a
drink of water after all. What she really wanted was a few seconds
to herself so she could regain her composure. But that didn’t
happen because Rion didn’t leave the room. Instead, Haneul came out
of the kitchen with a tall glass of water and put it on the table
in front of her. Michelle felt like she had been lured into a trap
because it was obvious that Haneul had been listening to them from
the kitchen.

“I’m Haneul,” he said, holding out his hand
to shake hers. Michelle shook it placidly. Rion sat on the edge of
the low table in front of her and Haneul took a seat in an armchair
to her left.

“Michelle, Elliot left the country and there
is no way of telling when he might be back,” Rion said in a
sympathetic voice. Michelle wanted to scream really loudly, but
instead took a deep breath and tried to act as calm as
possible.

“Oh, really. Well, I guess I’ll have to study
for my Italian test by myself then.” Michelle had no intention of
revealing her true feelings of pain, shock and anger. The guys
looked at one another, both raising their eyebrows as they were
obviously unaware that Elliot had the patience let alone the
interest to do any studying with anyone.

“He’s teaching you Italian?” Haneul asked in
shock, as if such an idea was completely off the wall.

“He’s not exactly teaching me. He’s helping
me with my schoolwork because I fell behind when I…” Rion cut her
off.

“It’s really not our business what you and
Elliot do when you are alone. It’s a shame that he left before you
took your exam. I’m sure that is very important to you.” Michelle
could tell that Rion was making small talk instead of really saying
what was on his mind. She changed the subject, asking when exactly
did Elliot leave?

“He left early Monday morning, right after
Devin got back. I drove the two of them to the airport myself,”
Haneul answered. Michelle’s ‘cool’ act was fading quickly. The area
between her eyes and forehead bunched up as she thought of all the
possibilities as to why Elliot would leave like that without
telling her. Did he have the trip planned already? Did something
happen and he had to leave in an emergency? Did it have to do with
her? Whatever the case, Michelle felt hurt and invisible. If Elliot
cared about her at all, even as a friend, he should have let her
know.

“Where did he go?” Michelle asked again. She
had no idea that her voice would sound so shaky and upon hearing it
her cheeks became warm. She got up off the couch telling them that
she had to go home. It was obvious that both of them felt sorry for
her, but being that Haneul didn’t like emotional anythings,
especially if it had to do with Western women, he too got up and
shook Michelle’s hand, telling her that it was a pleasure to meet
her, and disappeared upstairs in lightning speed before Michelle
even got the chance to say goodbye. Rion watched Haneul pull his
disappearing act with much amusement, but he definitely didn’t
intend to still be smiling when he turned his attention back to
poor Michelle.

“I’m sorry about that,” Rion said, wiping the
grin from his face. “Don’t let him fool you. Haneul is quite the
ladies’ man, but he finds Western women baffling.” Michelle blushed
all over again and Rion burst out laughing at her expression, even
though he did everything within his power not to. “I’m sorry,” he
finally said once he saw that Michelle looked as if she might start
crying. He cleared his throat and approached her with what he
considered to be his mature fatherly voice. “Michelle, I don’t know
how much Elliot told you, or if he told you anything at all about
us… or this school.”

“He told me enough,” Michelle said, folding
her hands together and shifting her weight back onto her left leg.
She wasn’t going to let him make fun of her anymore. Now that was
the attitude, Rion thought to himself. That’s what attracted Elliot
to her; it was suddenly so obvious. She wasn’t just a quiet little
mouse. Elliot had never liked passive women because there was no
challenge or mystery to them at all. Their kind found it so easy to
be with anyone they fancied, and after a while it became quite a
bore. Elliot had once said that having a woman that said yes to
everything was like being alone, and this girl here in front of him
didn’t seem like a ‘yes’ woman at all. But she was young, way too
young, Rion thought, especially if Elliot wanted her to remain her
own person rather than becoming a reflection of himself. Rion
couldn’t help but wonder if Elliot had already lain with Michelle.
That was the surest way to get a young girl to grow up to be a
‘yes’ woman. Young women were so easy to control.