Sparks

Chapter 10

         “So that’s the story. Any questions?”
         “Yeah. Why the hell is it so damn vague?” I felt my heart rate increase again as I realized something new about Gryphon: he was a terrible liar.
         He looked back at me with some confusion. “What do you mean?” he said, “Vague stories are the best. Too many details and they’ll start expecting more. We don’t want to have to adhere to very specific behaviors.”
         “Well, if there aren’t enough details, they’ll start asking more specific questions, and what happens if we don’t have an answer?” I asked
         Gryphon waved his hand dismissively at me, “You worry too much. It’ll be fine. Trust me on this.”
         I crossed my arms. “Haven’t I put enough trust in you for one day?” We were standing on a street corner, a few blocks away from where the bus had dropped us off. Around this next bend and the cafe would be in sight. Along the way, Gryphon had filled me in on the master plan that was going to save me from my family’s wrath.
         “What, all that Eleprima stuff? That was all the truth, why would you feel like you couldn’t trust me on that?”
         “Even you have to admit that it’s a bit of a leap of faith taking that at face value.”
         “Not at all. You can trust me.” A sly wink, “I’m an angel.”
         I gave him a flat-faced stare in response. This was the guy that was supposed to talk my mother out of strangling me. Along the way, I had tried to think of something else, an option I hadn’t seen, but I’d come up blank. I sighed in resignation as I accepted that I didn’t have any better options at this point. Gryphon stood waiting for an answer. With a shrug, I motioned towards the cafe, and set off.
         The sun was setting beneath the horizon to our left as we approached. The sheen off the glass prevented me from looking inside, just a pane of silver lapping against the orange bricks surrounding it. I walked up to the door, took a moment to breath, and pulled the key out of my pocket. The store was closed at this time, and the clean-up should be done by now. It was a miracle in-and-of-itself that I hadn’t lost the key over the last day or two.
         The bell above the door chimed cheerfully as I stepped through. The light slanted through the window, throwing the tables’ shadows across the wall behind the counter. The muted brown walls were drowned in an orange splash, creating a fiery atmosphere that gave the room a rare sense of passion and energy. I could still smell the faint traces of coffee left from business hours. My sister was lounging at one of the tables, idly flipping through her phone. She looked up at me with dull, tired eyes and greeted me with, “You’re late.”
         I smiled apologetically, “Yeah, sorry about that. Ran into some… old friends.” And spending too much time on a cover story.
         Her eyes focused a bit as she looked past me, “Who the hell is this?”
         Gryphon lifted a hand from his pocket and gave her a short wave. I moved to block her view of him a bit more, “Is Mom home?”
         She shifted her gaze back to me, wandered over to Gryphon, then responded with, “Yeah, I’ll go get her.” She slowly raised herself up off the chair, then pointed at Gryphon, “You stay down here.” He nodded in acknowledgement.
         She gave me one last look, then turned and went upstairs. Gryphon and I stood there in silence before, “Is that your sister? Why is she so unnaturally attractive?”
         “Please don’t.”
         A few seconds later Tanya returned, with my mother following along behind. When our eyes met, I could see as a great weight was physically lifted off her shoulders. She mouthed my name silently, then rushed over to wrap me in her arms. Her head came up to a bit over my chest, and I could feel the dampness on my shirt as it soaked up the start of her tears. I smiled awkwardly and put my arms around her. “Gee mom, if this is what it’s like after one night, I’d hate to see what college would do to you.”
         I laughed nervously, but the tension remained. I looked to my sister, but she was too busy scanning Gryphon to pay me much mind. Eventually, my mother pushed me to arms length and commenced the barrage. The standard, where’s, why’s, when’s, and with’s all came out in rapid fire, not even giving me a chance to answer. I’m not sure what the other two saw of a person barely more than half my height outspeaking me, but I’m sure it looked ridiculous.
         Fortunately, a man’s, “Ahem,” spared me from the burden of having to answer. My mother stopped speaking and leaned to her right, looking past me at the tattered man standing before the doorway. I took a couple steps to my right, giving her easy access to interrogate him.
         She didn’t start in on him immediately. My mother began with a questioning glare, which I hadn’t thought was a possible facial expression, before shifting her weight and crossing her arms. “And who would you be?” She asked.
         Gryphon, to his credit, didn’t seemed phased by the “mom stare”. He gave her a short, courteous bow, and responded, “Hello ma’am, I’m Johnathan Veral. But you may call me John, if you wish.” He straightened up and fixed her with a careful smile. Funny, I actually didn’t expect him to use his real name.
         I saw my mother’s shoulders relax by a small degree. “Hello Mr. Veral. I’m Monica,” she responded. “Can I ask what you’ve been doing with my son?”
         “Of course Monica. Well, in all honesty, I’m an up-and-coming new face on the scene for virtual entertainment.”
         Mom tilted her head to one side, “Virtual entertainment? So… video games?”
         Gryphon laughed, “Well, it sounds less professional that way, but yeah, I develop video games.” He slung an arm around my shoulder in a convincing manner of camaraderie, “And your son here has just been helping me out with a few things here and there.”
         “Oh really? I find that a bit hard to believe. What kind of things?” Thanks for the vote of confidence Mom.
         “Well, quite a few things actually. For one thing, your son falls within the target audience range, making him the prime candidate for a focus group. Additionally, your son is quite agile for his age. Given the nature of my current project, Leonidas here is perfect as a model for ensuring things such as motion, posture, and other things concerning character models. Oh, and I haven’t even mentioned…” Gryphon had never struck me as the chatty type, but I guess he could turn it on when need be. He went on to explain various plausible reasons for very plausible things, while I stood there withering underneath my sister’s scrutinizing eye.
         Of course, my mother’s attention could only be diverted for so long. “Why didn’t you call? At all? It sounds like you had enough time to at least do that.”
         “I did call. Earlier today.” Stupid excuse. Why did I say that?
         “You know that doesn’t count.” My mother stepped away from Gryphon towards me, which coincided with my mounting sense of dread. “Honestly Leo, you could have called. What happened?” I could see the faint ghosts of tears in her eyes.
         This was the hardest part. I couldn’t come up with a lie for this. I’d tried to think of something, but even Gryphon couldn’t come up with anything for this. So I sighed, sagged my shoulders, and did the scary thing: tell her the truth. “I don't know mom. I don’t have a reason for why I didn’t call. I’m sorry.” I dropped my gaze down, noting how sparkling clean the floor was. Sis did a good job during clean-up.
         I could hear my mother heave a sigh, then felt her arms around me again. But this hug lacked the raw protective force of the first one. It was gentler, more tender. I could feel the heat of my mother’s breath as she muffled out, “Just… please, don't do this again. Can you promise me that much?”
         I placed my arms around her in turn. “Sure mom. I promise. I’ll try my best. No more scares.”

         My bed squeaked in protest as my sister bounced on. I was jostled a bit by the motion, nearly dropping my phone in surprise. I’d been poking around online, seeing if the word “Eleprima” showed up with anything. Turning up nothing, I’d opted for “Johnathan Veral” and “Gryphon Veral”, but either I’d been wrong and he had used a fake name, or he really didn’t want to be tracked. Both of those thoughts made me feel uneasy.
         I’d been so deep in thought that I hadn't even heard my sister enter. She was now lounging on my bed, leaning back on one hand as she regarded me with measured eyes. I took a second to fight the urge to look at my wrist, instead choosing my phone. It was only about 15 minutes until 10, but she didn’t seem to have any makeup on. Guess she had decided to stay in tonight.
         I closed out of the browser and lightly tossed my phone onto the nightstand. My room wasn’t large by any means, although it was an odd shape. It was set in the top corner of the house, but some madman designed it as a triangle, with the door set in one of the tighter corners. The closet was in the same wall, and the other two walls were dominated by an array of windows, letting in an ample amount of light, even by Seattle standards. My bed, nightstand, and desk, which was a unique design I was proud of constructing, were the only items in the room. The only thing I was concerned about was how blank my walls looked. I should probably buy posters to cover up the large expanse of nothing. At the very least, maybe I could paint some stuff on there. It’ll probably be up for a good week before my mother finds out.
         I rolled my shoulders and regarded my sister. We stared at each other, waiting for the other to break the silence. Like every other time before, my sister lost. “So, you going to tell me what actually happened?” The question came out straight. We knew each other well enough to not dance around topics.
         I crossed my legs and leaned back as far as I could without falling over. The ceiling had no answers, but I could pretend it did. “You heard what I- we, told Mom. I’m helping a dude make a game.” It didn’t occur to me until after I’d spoken that avoiding her eyes looked really suspicious. I levelled my head and met her gaze squarely. Great, now it looked like I was forcing myself to hold eye contact.
         Tanya tilted her head, then moved to mirror my posture. I had kept the same clothes from earlier, sans the jacket, which lay over the back of my desk chair. My sister had opted for a light tank top and sweatpants, with some brand name decorating the pant leg. It suddenly occurred to me that she looked paler. I looked down at my arm. Seems the lack of California sun was beginning to show. Tanya crossed her arms. “So, you really aren’t going to tell me?” There was a threat buried in there, I was sure of it.
         “I already told you.”
         “Honestly Leo.”
         I felt my face twist into a wry expression. “Okay Tanya,” I started, “What do you want to know?”
         She didn’t even blink. “Full truth, all the way.”
         I exaggerated crossing my heart, “Full truth.”
         “Swear on the honor and integrity as rulers of Fort Seaweed?” I saw a ghost of a smile play across her mouth.
         I chuckled a bit at that. Fort Seaweed was something from our younger days, when Mom and Dad would take us to the beach almost every day. I was only about 5 or 6, but Tanya and I had built a small castle in the sands and declared the structure as Fort Seaweed, named after the copious amounts of the aquatic vegetation we had adorned it with. We had then promptly established ourselves as the ruling powers, no consensus from the people required. It was a childish thing, looking back on it, but for some reason, we had kept using it as a measure of swearing oaths, as if our authority as sovereigns of a tiny sand castle held us to exalted standards.
         Silly as it may be, I still respected it as much as she did. “I swear on my office as Prince of Fort Seaweed, that everything I speak shall be the truth, and nothing but the truth.”
         My sister smiled, “And I as Queen accept your promise.” I had been too young to dispute my sister being queen, so the office of king was forever out of my reach.
         My sister shifted to a more comfortable position, drawing her knees up to her chest and wrapping her arms around them. “So, where to begin,” She thought it over for a while in her head, “How about, why didn’t you come back yesterday?”
         Oh man. “Um…”
         “Don’t start with ‘um’. Lies begin with um.”
         I grit my teeth. “I ran into some trouble.”
         I knew it was too vague. “Trouble? What kind of trouble?”
         “Uh, the guys-in-a-dark-alley kind of trouble.”
         My sister wasn’t my mother, she did not immediately go into full panic mode. “You got mugged? Or beat up? No, you look fine. But what did they want?”
         Easy answer, “I don’t know.”
         That stopped Tanya. She regarded my thoughtfully, but I was telling the truth, and she knew that. I really didn’t know what Vision wanted. “Okay,” she relented, “but what does that Johnny guy have to do with anything?”
         Something told me Gryphon would really hate being called Johnny. “He kinda showed up and saved me.”
         “Saved you? Doesn’t look the type… but that doesn’t explain why you didn’t come back. Did you not just thank him and go on your way?”
         “No. I was sorta kinda unconscious.” i felt sweat break out across the back of my neck. The more I kept avoiding things, the more specific she got. I had told Gryphon this is how things went. And like I said, my sister and I didn’t stretch things out like this. We were too close.
         That last thought made me pause. I looked at Tanya closely. She had started responding, but the noise fell away as I thought. Gryphon was claiming that I had hereditary superpowers. I had dismissed Tanya at first, but if I suddenly found myself growing glowing wings or shooting lightning from my hands, it would make sense to hide it. I interrupted, “Um, Tanya?”
         She stopped mid-sentence. “...Yes?”
         “Is there anything… strange… you wanted to tell me?”
         “No?” She looked at me out of the corner of her eye. “What are you talking about?”
         It suddenly occurred to me then. My sister and I had gone through everything together. We teased and bantered and pranked each other, but I trusted her more than anyone. “Anything doing with, well, changes that make you different?”
         She got a weird glimmer in her eye. “Why Leo, I would have thought you’d learn about that stuff some other way.” Huh? “But, if you really need to talk about this, I guess I could do it. You are a bit past the age, but sometimes people are late.”
         It clicked two sentences too late. “What? No! Tanya, ew, stop!” I waved my hand at her, “That is not what i was talking about. God, no, yuck!”
         My sister’s laugh rung through the room, “Good, because I did not want to discuss that with my baby brother.” She looked back at me, the mirth plain to see on her face. “So, what were you talking about?”
         I took a deep breath, “Full truth?”
         She raised an eyebrow, “You swore.”
         I did. So I outlined everything. The guys who attacked me I suspected to be Vision. Gryphon was an alien superhero. He thought I was the same. I had healed through severe injuries overnight. Alien galaxy, old gods existed, and he wanted to teach me. It took some time, and Tanya listened with a stony silence the whole time. When I finished, my mouth was dry, and my hands were shaking. I wiped them on my pants a few times to hide this. My sister leaned back and lay across the bed, stretching her arms out and over the edge. She stayed like this, her body taut, before, “You’re not lying, are you.”
         I shook my head, then answered, “Nope,” when I remembered she could only see the ceiling.
         Tanya sighed. “Well, either you have finally gone over the edge and are completely insane. Or,” She pulled herself up and locked eyes with me, “everything you said is actually real.” I shrugged. I still had some doubts myself, but there wasn’t much I could do. She hadn’t seen Gryphon popping light into existence. I could still see that same doubt in her.
         “Everything I said was true.”
         “Really? You swear on Fort Sea-”
         “I swear on Dad.”
         She bit off the end of her sentence. I could almost feel the weight of the room settle on our shoulders. I studied the way the lamplight from outside threw shadows across the room. They looked darker than normal. My sister whispered, “That serious, huh?” I nodded slowly.
         She inhaled deeply. “Okay, “ she said, “okay. I’ll trust you on this. But the moment anything goes wrong,” she suddenly leaned forward and cupped my chin in her hand, twisting it towards her, “you tell me, okay?”
         I nodded, a short, jerking motion given how hard she was gripping my face. She nodded back, then pulled me close in an embrace. I was taken aback for a moment. My sister and I hadn’t hugged in a long while. I tentatively wrapped my arms around her. It’ll be okay Tanya. I wanted to say, I promise, but for some reason, it just wouldn’t come out.
         We stayed there for a tentative second, and broke just before the moment of awkward contact between siblings. My sister composed herself, before smiling and asking, “Hey, if you do develop any super awesome powers, you’ll use them to help me out, right?”
         I frowned, “Help you out how?”
         Her eye-roll was an obvious exaggeration, made more apparent by her wide-mouthed grin, “Oh, you know. Some things come to mind.” Not to me they didn’t. I mumbled out a vague semi-promise as Tanya stood up and stretched. “Okay, baby brother. As ruling Queen of Fort Seaweed, I declare this meeting adjourned.” She sent me a wink, “Good luck with your E.T. buddy, and don’t die.” With that, she floated out of the room, a picture of grace and poise.
         I sighed and rubbed the back of my neck. I wasn’t sure if telling Tanya everything was a good idea, but I felt a bit lighter for having done it. Still, it probably wasn’t something I wanted Gryphon to hear about. I flopped back onto my bed, thinking about a larger universe, secrets, truths, and why everything had to become so goddamn complicated.