The Agent's Daughter (2 page)

“
Every two or three weeks
he goes on a two or three day trip to the corporate headquarters in
Washington D.C. He described these trips to me once. He does the
same thing he does here, but he does it in another city. Instead of
typing on a keyboard in his office here, he gets together with a
bunch of other engineers to talk about what they type on their
keyboards. Elaborate discussions of software tasks and function
calls.”

“
All I know is that you
should pursue what you have a talent for and-” Jean started, but
stopped suddenly, turning her attention to behind
Melina.

“
And what?” Melina
asked.

Jean gave Melina a quick head nod that
indicated that she should look behind her. Melina turned around and
there standing in front of her was Alex Winfield.

“
I’m sorry. I didn’t mean
to interrupt,” Alex said, looking alternately at both Melina and
Jean.

“
No problem,” Melina said,
flustered and now standing up a little straighter.

“
Who’s your friend,
Melina?” Jean said, not flustered.

Alex held out his hand to Jean. “My name is
Alex.”

“
I’m Jean,” Jean
countered, shaking his hand.

Melina then regained her composure. “My
friend Jean was just trying to convince me that I should give up
the hard language arts class.”

“
If you are thinking about
what happened in class today, that’s kinda why I’m here,” Alex
said. “You told Mrs. Frerking that you had lost your copy of the
book from the reading assignment. I’m done with mine. Would you
like to borrow it?”

There was a noticeable pause as Melina tried
to process the turn of events. The cutest guy in language arts
class was offering to solve her problem of finding a book before
tomorrow. Sensing that she was taking too long, Melina answered
abruptly.

“
Sure... uh… are you sure?
I mean are you sure that you are done with it?” Melina
stammered.

“
I’m positive,” Alex said,
as he took the book out of his backpack and handed it to Melina.
“I’ve read it twice already. I’m a big fan of historical
non-fiction.”

Melina took the book from him and slid it
into her backpack. “Thank you, Alex.”

“
I still think you should
drop the language arts and concentrate on physics and math,” Jean
said, trying to be a part of the conversation. “You do awesome in
those classes.”

“
Physics is my favorite
subject,” Alex said. “When I was in seventh grade, my science
teacher made us do a biography paper on a famous scientist. In
order to prevent the entire class from doing their papers on Albert
Einstein, the teacher assigned us the names of the scientists. I
did my report on Ernest Lawrence. What he accomplished was so
fascinating that I have been hooked ever since.”

“
Ernest ...?” Jean
asked.

“
Ernest Lawrence,” Melina
said, with a tone that implied that his name was common knowledge.
“Nobel Prize winner… inventor of the cyclotron.”

“
Cyclotron?” Jean said as
she looked at Melina with her eyes squinted. “You just made that
up.”

“
No,” said Melina,
laughing. “The cyclotron is the scientific name for an atom
smasher. It accelerates elementary particles such as protons up to
near the speed of light. Then the particles are forced to smash
into one another. The collisions can be observed for new particles
in the collision debris.”

“
Lawrence’s invention was
so revered by the scientific community that he has an element in
the periodic table named for him, Lawrencium,” added
Alex.

“
This conversation has
crossed way over the line into geekdom. I am starting to learn
things,” Jean said, rolling her eyes.

“
Wow,” Alex said as he
turned to Melina. “It sounds as if you know your stuff.”

“
Physics comes easy for
me,” Melina said. “I haven’t missed a single question on any of the
quizzes this year. But the real physics gearhead in the family is
my little brother Travis. He has always been a little small for his
age and has never been that interested in outdoor activities, so he
spends a lot of time inside reading. Most of the time about
science.”

“
Sounds as if he might
turn out to be a scientist when he gets older,” Alex
said.

“
Maybe,” Melina said. “He
just received a Castle Grant.”

“
I heard about that,” Alex
said, his face with the look of recognition. “That is the grant
that is given to the top five middle school physics students in the
country. It is supposed to allow them to do independent research of
a physics topic of their choosing.”

Melina pointed at Alex. “That’s the one. He
hasn’t chosen his area to study, but he said something last week
about investigating his theory of the possible existence of a
seventh quark. A gentleman from the grant committee said Travis’s
theory has a lot of potential. He said Travis has an unusually
natural grasp of the subject.”

“
I like physics a lot, but
it is not natural for me,” Alex said. “I have to study pretty hard.
It helps that my dad is an engineer. He can help me with the
tougher problems.”

“
Melina’s dad is an
engineer too,” Jean said.

“
Yeah, he’s a software
engineer. He works in downtown Dallas at Hadron Systems,” Melina
said.

“
Hey!” Alex replied.
“That’s where my dad works! He just transferred from the Seattle
office. That’s why we moved.”

“
Wow,” Melina said, “What
a small world.”

Bzzzzz …...Bzzzz.

Alex looked around. “What was that
noise?”

“
That would be my watch,”
Melina said as she held up her arm and pointed at her wristwatch.
“It apparently thinks it is the top of the hour.”

“
You know, I’m no watch
connoisseur, but that is the ugliest watch I have ever seen,” Alex
said, clearly joking with Melina.

“
You’re telling me,”
Melina shot back, “Its face is twice the normal size. And do not
get me started on the fluorescent orange color.”

“
It was a gift, I
presume?” Alex asked. “From someone you cannot offend. Like a mob
boss.”

“
No,” Melina said,
laughing. “I lost my watch about a month ago, and I borrowed one of
my mom’s watches.”

Jean was thinking ahead. She could sense
‘the question’ coming, and she had to get her friend out of
there.

“
You know, Melina, we
should get going to our next class,” Jean said as she tugged on
Melina’s arm.

Melina gave Jean a strange look. It was
unlike her to want to rush to class. “I’ve got plenty of time,”
Melina said as she turned back to Alex. She was clearly enjoying
her conversation.

By then it was too late. Alex asked her ‘the
question.’

“
With such taste in
watches, your mom must be a left-brainer,” Alex said. “Is she an
engineer too?”

“
No… she doesn’t work… she
stays home…” Melina said.

Alex stood silently waiting for Melina to
continue.

“
Excuse me,” Melina said,
finally.

Melina grabbed her backpack and disappeared
around the corner, leaving Alex with a perplexed look. He started
to follow her, but Jean stopped him with a hand to his chest.

“
It’s not your fault,”
Jean said.

Alex looked as if he were in a daze. “What
just happened?”

“
It’s Melina’s mom,” Jean
began. “About six months ago, her mom was driving home from the
store when she got into a car accident. She ran a red light, and
another car hit her broadside. Physically, she came through all
right, but they believe that she hit her head because she was
unresponsive when she got to the hospital.”

Alex leaned in toward Jean and spoke softer.
“Oh,” he said. “Did she get better?”

“
Since her mom did not
appear to have any other injuries, they hoped that her condition
was temporary,” Jean continued, “but the doctors are baffled. There
does not seem to be any reason why she should not just wake up. It
has been six months and yet there has been no
improvement.”

“
Is she still in the
hospital?” Alex asked.

“
No. They moved her to a
long term care facility across town,” Jean said. “Melina visits her
every weekend.”

“
I feel so terrible,” Alex
said.

Jean reached over and gently grasped Alex’s
arm. “Alex, don’t. This is not the first time that this has
happened. My best friend is just going through a rough patch.
Please bear with her.”

Alex looked in the direction that Melina
went. “Should I go talk to her?”

“
I’ll talk to her,” Jean
said as she started walking. “Don’t worry about it.”

“
Tell Melina that I
understand and that I will see her in class tomorrow,” Alex said as
Jean disappeared.

…………………………
.

Jean found Melina down the next hallway,
standing next to the water fountain, dabbing her eyes with a tissue
to soak up the tears.

“
You sure have a way with
the guys,” Jean said as she approached. “I’m going to have to take
notes.”

Melina looked up, her teary expression
giving way to a stifled grin. “Very funny.”

“
Don’t worry about it,”
Jean said. “Alex said to tell you that he understands about what
just happened and that he will see you in class tomorrow. He seems
like a nice guy. I can understand why you have a crush on
him.”

Melina looked up quickly. She had never told
anyone her feelings about Alex, even Jean. She felt guilty about
not mentioning it to her, but these were new feelings, and she was
still trying to work through how she felt.

“
You can’t lie to me,”
Jean said, laughing. “I saw how you looked at him. How long have
you felt this way about Alex?”

“
A couple of weeks,”
Melina said, looking down. “I have talked to him in class a hundred
times since he came to the school, but one morning, we were talking
in Physics class, and as Alex looked over at me, he smiled a
certain way. At that moment, I felt something that I have never
experienced before in my life. It is difficult to explain, but I
had an overwhelming sense that I wanted to be around him. I’ve felt
that way ever since. I am sorry I haven’t told you about
it.”

“
It’s okay, lady,” Jean
said. “I understand.”

“
Don’t you think Alex is
way out of your league?” a voice boomed from behind
Melina.

It was Ellen Barrow and a few of her
toadies. It was no secret around school that Ellen was interested
in Alex. She had been angling for him to ask her out since his
first day in class. Without any luck.

“
It is none of your
business,” Melina said as she turned around.

“
It is so my business,”
Ellen said. “When I talked to Alex last week, he remarked how
pretty my hair was. It is only a matter of time before he asks me
out, and I cannot have anyone get in the way.”

“
Well, we’ll have to let
him do what he wants,” Melina said as she bent down to get a drink
from the fountain.

Ellen then put her finger on the spigot of
the fountain so that it sprayed water all over Melina.

“
Just stay away from him,”
Ellen said as she stormed off, her toadies following not far behind
her.

Jean started to wipe the water from Melina
with her jacket. “I didn’t hear anything about rain in the
forecast.”

“
Do you think that she is
right?” Melina asked. “That Alex is out of my league.”

Jean stepped back and looked at her friend.
“Why, because you choose to wear plain jeans and boys tennis shoes
instead of the latest trendy fashions.”

“
That’s part of it,”
Melina said. “I mean, look at Ellen. I don’t think that she has
worn pants since third grade, and she has a different set of shoes
for every outfit. She’s tall, and she’s pretty. She has perfect
blonde hair…”

Jean put her hand on Melina’s shoulder.
“Look, I am just going to say this once. Your clothes are not
trendy, but they look good on you. And you are one of the prettiest
girls I know with a smile that could light up a room. So do not let
Ellen convince you that Alex is out of your league. Besides, you
have something that Ellen does not have.”

“
What do you mean?” Melina
asked.

“
He clearly is interested
in you,” Jean said.

“
Do you think?” Melina
asked.

Jean rolled her eyes. “Guys do not just walk
up to you out of the blue and offer to lend you a book without
there being some interest. That and the fact that he appeared to
have the same look on his face that you did. I’m positive.”

Melina put her arm around her friend.
“Thanks Jean.”

Jean smiled at her and then turned serious.
“There is one thing that I have to ask you, though,” Jean said as
she moved in front of Melina and placed her hands on Melina’s
shoulders. “Now, don’t take this the wrong way, but what in the
heck is the matter with you? What happened to the Melina that I
used to know? The confident Melina. The fearless Melina. I can’t
understand why you let Ellen talk to you like that. The Melina I
used to know would have broken both of her arms.”

Melina took a deep breath and closed her
eyes. Jean was right. She had changed. And Jean had a valid point
about the broken arms.