Socket 1-3 - The Socket Greeny Saga (54 page)

I picked up the gear and put it on his lap.
We took a moment, looking each other over, adjusting to the new
looks.
Had that much time gone by?
He was there when my dad
died. He was at every after-school fight, sometimes the only one on
my side. But now there we were, remembering what it used to be
like.

Streeter shoved the chair back and held out
his hand. We latched with hands up, then he pulled me close and
sort of hugged. It was the first time we’d ever done that.

“Shit, man,” he said, “it’s good to see
you.”

I knew his thoughts the way I had with my
mother. I knew how he’d suffered gear addiction withdrawal, how his
eyes ached for weeks, how his entire nervous system hurt while he
adjusted to being back in his skin full-time. I knew how he carried
a guilty weight for the incident at the Judgment Day club, that
what happened to me was all his fault. I also knew the loneliness
inside him, like a block of ice in his stomach. I knew that ice
block, too. Streeter hated it, fought against it, but now he was
finally acknowledging it.

He was back. Good old Streeter.

“You look different,” he said.

I grabbed my short hair. “It’s the
shampoo.”

“Well, there’s that. But there’s something
else.” He moved his hand in front of him like a magic trick was
coming. “It’s the whole package, you feel different.”

“Look who’s talking. What, you weigh a
hundred pounds now?”

“I’ve never weighed a hundred.”

“You did when you were a baby.”

“True.” He laughed the old Streeter laugh,
and nodded thoughtfully like he was looking through me. Chute
must’ve taught him how to do that.

“So, how’s things?” I asked.

“Some good, some bad.” He tapped his nojakk
cheek. “I’m guessing this technology blackout is your fault.”

“Sort of. But not really.”

Streeter lay back in the lounge chair. “I
want details.”

“You don’t want to know.” I pulled up a
chair. “It’s boring, really.”

“Yeah, you’re right. Fighting deathmatches
with assassins with flaming swords and laser canons is boring shit.
That’s the last thing I want to hear.”

“Besides, what’re you doing with a gear box?
I thought you were in therapy, you shouldn’t be virtualmoding
yet.”

“What, this?” He turned the black box over.
“This is just a nojakk generator. You know, there’s a huge reward
for the first pirate generator to override the blackout. It’s like
$10,000 or something.”

I took the box and sensed the circuitry,
could feel the basic structure was correct but his coding was too
primitive. He’d probably make it work.

“I know what you’re thinking,” he said,
taking the box back. “But the therapist wants me to do things
outside as long as it isn’t virtualmode. I can use the nojakk and
Internet. I even helped with the garden, pulling weeds. Believe
that?”

“You can’t do virtualmode ever again?”

“Eventually. Right now, the therapist wants
me to talk about feelings and other bullshit. Mainly about my
parents, but there’s other things.” He rotated the box around and
around, like it might tell him the future. “We’ve been talking
about you a lot.”

That wasn’t easy for him to say. Tension
wrapped around him. He didn’t expect to go there with his feelings
with me sitting right in front of him; it took him by surprise. But
he stayed with it.

I said, “Hey, well what can I say? I’m
honored.”

Over and over the gear box went. He shook
his head, looked at the clouds. “You know what it is?” he said, his
throat tightening. “It’s just, you’re not afraid of anything,
Socket. And I am. I’m afraid of everything. You fought my fights,
were always there and now I got to do this shit on my own and I’m
hating it, man. Freaking hating it.”

He twisted his fingers like pretzels.

“Streeter, I can walk through the worst
neighborhood in the world and nothing can touch me. Nobody and
nothing can hurt me. But I still experience fear. I’m no different
than you.”

“
Right
. You walk on water and I’m
crying in the therapist’s office because I miss my mom and dad.” He
looked away, didn’t mean to say that, either. “Yeah, we’re
exactly
the same.”

“What I mean is just work with what you
have. That’s all you got, just be there with it. Don’t be comparing
yourself to me or Chute or the President of the United States.”

“Yeah, well don’t quit your day job. You’re
no therapist.”

“Never said I was.”

“I’m not so sure about your day job, either.
What happened at the Judgment Day club? I wake up, you’re gone and
then I hear you got thumped. What gives?”

“Yeah, well, I got distracted.”

“You’re a freaking Paladin!”

I laughed loudly. “You’d be surprised just
how human we are.”

He fished an ice cube from his cup. Long
pause. “I know you didn’t understand my obsession, you know, of
having to go see my parents, you being a Paladin and everything,
I’m sure you got that all figured out, but us mere mortals got to
do things the hard way.”

Oh, I understand, Streeter.

“Why, Socket Greeny!” Granny walked onto the
deck. “Where have you been hiding all this time, young man? I
thought you moved away.”

“He’s in disguise, Granny,” Streeter
said.

“I can see that.” She rustled my hair. “You
mustn’t do that, you’re like family here.” She handed me a tall
glass of sweet tea. “Are you going to spend the night?”

“No, ma’am. I’ve got to be home, tonight. My
mother’s expecting me.”

“Well, if your mother’s home, by all means.”
She looked at Streeter. “Are you all right, dear? Do you need
another drink?”

Streeter said no. Granny said it was nice to
see me and went inside. There was no more fade, people knew me once
again, like I reclaimed my former life. Now it was a part of me,
not something I left behind. I was fully aware of my entire being,
had completely integrated all facets of my Self, and I chose not to
fade. I’m not sure all Paladins reached that level of understanding
and were able to do that.

“You going back to the Garrison?” Streeter
asked.

“Not for a while, it’s getting
renovated.”

He asked about Spindle. About Mother. About
all the cool things I’d been doing. I answered in generic truths,
avoided the details that mattered the most. Someone once told me
the public doesn’t really want to know the truth around us. They
just want to feel safe.

“Any new powers?”

I shrugged.

“Come on.” He dipped his finger in the cup
and flicked tea at me. “Who am I going to tell?”

I gathered a bit of strength around the core
in my chest, focused it in Streeter’s direction. He was about to
dip his fingers again when the cup dumped in his lap. He leaped off
the chair brushing icy sweet tea off.

“Did you just do that?” he asked.
“Seriously?”

Later, I did it again. Streeter set up
targets for me to hit. Maybe I shouldn’t have done that, but it was
Streeter. Who was he going to tell? I ended up eating dinner with
them. We didn’t hug on the front porch. We didn’t even shake hands,
that wasn’t something we usually did. We just nodded, said
goodbye.

“You coming back?” he asked.

“Yeah.”

“When?”

I got in the car and rolled the window down.
“As soon as I can.”

I wouldn’t leave my best friend behind.

T R A I N I N G

Fishing

There was more Paladin business that night,
but I couldn’t concentrate. I’d been thinking about going to the
park for weeks. And when the day finally arrived, I couldn’t think
of anything else.

The shade beneath the magnolia tree was deep
and cool. The koi pond shimmered in the noon sun where dragonflies
hovered over the lilies. I picked at the kernels of fish food in my
hand, tossed one on the water. The surface swirled yellow, orange
and white and the kernel disappeared in the chaos of hungry mouths.
I waited until it was calm again and threw another.

Chute was late.

I talked to her on the phone the night
before (phones were working, still no nojakks).
I’ve got a
surprise,
I told her
.
She said just seeing me was
enough, she didn’t need a gift. I wanted to jump through the phone
when she said that, but held myself in check. We’d meet at the koi
pond at noon. So I sat in the muggy shade, tossing fish food with a
mess of emotions in my stomach.

A young couple walked around the pond,
holding hands. I only needed a few minutes with Chute and I wanted
this place to be empty. The trees rustled like a wind funnel
dropped out of the sky, debris whipping around the swan sculpture
then pelting the couple with leaves. They covered their heads and
jogged off.

Freak weather we’re having, wouldn’t you
say?

I sensed her before I saw her. Felt her park
the car by the road. Sensed her beam with exuberance. Her essence
pervaded the entire park; I felt it vibrate in my guts! She was a
beacon, a lighthouse of essence that buzzed inside me. I closed my
eyes and inhaled.

She appeared at the small bridge, emerging
from the path enclosed by trees. She stopped in the sunlight like
she stepped onto a stage and looked around. Luminescent and
beautiful, her essence tasted sweet. She didn’t see me and I sensed
the fall of disappointment. I didn’t want to torture her, but I
wanted just to savor the moment.

I tossed a kernel into the pond. She stepped
to the water and watched the fish scramble for it. I stepped out of
the shade and she saw me there on the other side. Chills danced on
my skin.

There wasn’t another moment to waste.

I stepped onto the concrete ledge and into
the pond, the water up to my thighs. I splashed through the lilies.
The water slowed my steps and the lilies wrapped around my ankles.
Chute leaped in from the other side and beside the swan sculpture,
wings spread and soaring, we embraced. Her essence permeated my
senses, overwhelming me. We squeezed and shook. No separation.

Just wonder.

I could see future moments. In my moment of
Realization when all the possible futures were laid out before me,
I allowed the path to choose me, allowed life to be present. I
didn’t look to see if Chute was in the path. Maybe it was better I
didn’t know.

“I had a dream you died,” she said.

“It was just a dream.”

The trees rustled. Leaves fell like a
snowstorm.

“Don’t go away like that, Socket Greeny.
Never again.” She grabbed my face with both hands. “Can you quit
your job?”

“My resignation’s in the mail.”

Another storm of foliage fell.

No words followed. None needed. I had loved
Chute all my life. Just like the grimmets, it was an immense power
and joy waiting to be released, waiting to be expressed. And there
it was in her face. In her smile.

And then we kissed. Long and hard. Our warm
bodies pressed together, our hearts exchanging beats, our essence
intermingling. Time seemed to stop and I basked in the moment,
standing in the muddy water.

Wondrous
.

Something squirmed between our bellies like
a fish had leaped from the water. Chute jumped back. The squirming
thing stopped on my shoulder and blinked its oversized golden
eyes.

“I remember you.”

Rudder wiggled with excitement. I held him
by the tail and he continued to shake. “He’s a bit excited,” I
said.

Chute cupped her hands. Rudder rolled on his
back, hands and feet up and tail curled around her wrist.
“
Aaahhhhh,”
she said and stroked his stomach. “He’s so soft
and warm.”

She pressed him to her cheek and he purred
louder, his tail pushing through her hair. Rudder’s essence was
part of me, he kept me alive when Com absorbed me. He kept my heart
pumping until I could live on my own and even though I was back, a
bit of him was left inside me. Our lives were intertwined,
inseparable. We felt the same things, sensed the same things and
loved the same things. Chute was now as much a part of his life as
mine.

“Is this my surprise?” she asked.

“Part of it.” I looked up into the trees,
saw the glittering eyes looking back.

Then nodded.

The trees exploded, leaves and sticks
everywhere. The flock of grimmets corkscrewed and circled the pond,
whizzing between us and around us, diving in the water and skimming
the surface with dragonflies between their lips. The fallen leaves
whisked off the ground.

Chute threw her head back, smiling and
laughing, her voice lost in the exuberant chatter. They brushed
against her and tussled her hair. One of them hit her square on the
face with a fat kiss, pinching her cheeks until I snatched him off.
She spun around and around, letting them, one after another, drop
into her outstretched hands. They divebombed and circled her,
coming together for a group hug.

I could’ve stood there for eternity
listening to her laugh.

“Hey! You’re not supposed to be in the
pond!” The park superintendent stomped onto the path. He was set to
snatch us up by our earlobes. That is, until he saw something he’d
never seen before. Still pointing, he was mesmerized by the
impossible creatures fluttering overhead. Making him forget what he
came to do. Making him forget what he was seeing. He dropped his
hand, mouth open.

Chute and I didn’t wait for him to leave; we
chugged out of the pond, lifting our legs high. The grimmets
disappeared into the trees, scratching along the branches and
staying out of sight. Rudder curled up into the palm of my hand,
twining his tail between my fingers. We stopped on the second
bridge and caught our breath. I hooked my finger with her’s and
Rudder wrapped his tail around our hands.