Talent Hall
Chapter 3

As I wake up, I replace myself in a hospital bed, an oxygen mask giving me air. I take a deep breath and push the mask over my face, slowly sitting up. A sharp pain in my left arm motivates me to look down only to replace gauze that has blood seeping through and the worst part is, I don’t remember how that happened. Not the slightest detail.

I grab my phone and dial Caleb, wanting some answers and believe he can provide some type of explanation. Although he doesn’t answer, he pops in through the door with a soft smile. It’s his smile that tells me he’s upset, but doesn’t want me to know. I’ve known that for a while. It wasn’t long after he start to date my Mom that I learned that. It’s sad that it’s that easy, but it benefits me a lot more than it probably should.

I groan at the unbearable pain in my arm. “You were shot with a Red Tranq.”

A Red Tranq is supposedly dangerous and can kill you in a matter of seconds, depending on how healthy you are. Caleb’s been shot with them more than a dozen times. From what I’ve seen in him while he’s recovering from being shot with a RT is memory loss and confusion and I’ve definitely both confused and not remembering what happened.

“Is there a reason I was shot or...” I pause, hoping there was a reason I got shot so I wouldn’t have to continue.

“I’m not exactly sure how to tell you this...”

“Spit it out!” I snap, my heart pounding in my chest.

“Your mother was killed.” I gasp. “And you were shot because you saw who killed her.” Blunt and straight to the point. Okay, definitely not the news I was wanting to hear.

My eyes start to water, but I try to hold them back. That only goes so far. I take a deep breath. “W-What? Why don’t I remember?!”

After a moment of silence, Caleb finally responds with yet another answer I don’t want. “You don’t want to. I don’t want to remember that she was killed.” He sighs. “Not remembering details is pretty common with an RT.”

My heart begins to pound harder and harder. If my mom’s dead, then will the state still let me live with Caleb? What if they throw me around from foster home to foster home. “Am I going home with you?”

“Today... Yes, but whether the state will let you stay... I’m not so sure about that...” My eyes widen. I should stop talking now. I’m getting all of the bad answers. “You know the state has strict adoption laws... Right now, they think it’s best for you to live with your aunt Lisa.”

My voice cracks. “Across the country?” The aunt with the new fiance that I’ll probably be terrified of?

He sits down next to me and pushes my bang back. “I don’t like it either, but even if they did allow me to adopt and keep you, I wouldn’t be able to keep you safe and that’s all I want for you. Is to have a home to feel safe and secure in. A home to be safe and secure in.”

“I don’t care about being safe. I’ve always been in danger. Everyday when I go to school, I’m in immediate danger!” My pain and sorrow turns into anger.

“But I do. You can always visit, but you are not safe to live here. Especially right now... You were shot for heaven’s sake because I wasn’t here to protect you! I wasn’t here to protect your mother and he got away, Danny...”

“But, Caleb-”

Lisa stands in the doorway with a gentle smile. “Honey. We just want you to be safe. Not that Caleb isn’t fit to raise you. I know he is, but I also know what he’s talking about. You really aren’t safe in Seattle right now.”

“Well, I want a breathing mother!” I protest. “So it looks like we’ll all be disappointed, won’t we?”

Lisa sighs. “Danny, please. Don’t be that way.”

I cross my arms and huff.

A few hours, nurses, and doctors pass, and Caleb harassing me to eat while they check my vitals. I have a feeling that the second they leave, the harassment will get worse. I don’t even feel like eating to be honest and my inner demons have nothing to do with my not eating this time which is weird because nine times out of ten, they are the reason I don’t eat. The only thing I don’t totally reject is the low calorie Apple Juice.

When the nurse comes back to take my tray after writing down what I don’t eat, Caleb leaves and comes back with more Apple Juice and a police officer. Great. Now I’ll be expected to answer questions about what I did and didn’t see.

“Sorry to bother you, Daniel. We wanted to do this earlier, but you slept for three days.” I look down and take a deep breath. “Would you feel better if you spoke to my partner instead?”

“I would feel better if my mother was here with me,” I say with a harsh tone.

“I wish it were possible.” He pulls out a pad of paper and a pen. “Now tell us how you across her body.”

“I came inside the house with my friends. One needed to use the restroom. The other had to grab a tablet. The one who used the restroom screamed a name in what I’m assuming is Russian. We went upstairs and the man up there told me I don’t understand yet, but I will.” The waterworks begin. “I pushed him away from him, the friend who screamed shot him and that’s when Caleb came in.” It’s at this point that I realize exactly what happened, except for being shot. I gasp. “Oh, my God.”

He nods and clears his throat. “Mr. James, can we speak to you in the hallway for a moment?”

“Sure. I’ll be right back, Danny. Drink some more juice.”

Instead of even attempting to grab my juice, I lay back and watch TV. That results in Caleb opening my juice bottle and handing it to me, only to be rejected some more. Caleb and I made a small and unwanted agreement when my eating disorder was exposed to them. If I wasn’t going to eat, I had to drink so much that if felt I was eating. I’m starting to regret agreeing to that, but it doesn’t matter. He would be this way whether I agreed or not.

Eventually I’m discharged from the hospital and Caleb takes me home. As soon as we get there, I go straight to his room and replace that the blood is cleaned up, but nothing will make me forget what I saw. Caleb was right. I don’t want to remember and I hate myself for wanting to earlier. I hate myself for not being here to protect her. Maybe if I hadn’t gone to that party, she would still be here.

Caleb waves his hand in front of my face again, indicating that I’ve been staring at the spot where I found my mother dead for a while now. I slowly turn around and head to my room, not realizing that Caleb’s following me until I sit on the bed and hold a photo of Mom, Caleb and I, slowly starting to cry again. Caleb sits next to me and embraces me, trying to assure me that she’s probably in a better place. I’ve always thought the idea of heaven was a little idealistic. I don’t know why, but something about that just doesn’t add up to me. But, if she’s not suffering anymore, I’m willing to believe anything.

My tears slow down a bit. “Do you think she would still be alive if I had stayed here?”

He sighs. “If you had stayed here instead of going to that party, you could have died too and I wouldn’t have been able to live myself if you both had died. I already hate myself because you got hurt and that along with your mother’s death could have been avoided if I had been here.”

“But maybe if-”

“Daniel, don’t you ever think this is your fault. I’m the adult. I was supposed to protect you both and I couldn’t even do that... “ Caleb says and then tries to change the subject. “Do you want some coffee?”

“Coffee never hurts.” It’s not going to help me, but it won’t kill me.

Caleb returns with two coffee mugs, I take my coffee and thank him before sipping on it. It doesn’t change the fact that I lost my mother, but it somehow brings a little comfort. Coffee never disappoints me. Caleb softly sighs and takes the pictures from my bed and places it face down on the nightstand. That photo was taken of us when we were at the Family Fun Center in Tukwila and it was the best expensive trip Caleb has ever paid for and believe me, we’ve taken plenty of trips there weren’t worth the money in any possible way. That one was.

“Danny... There something I have to tell you.” I make eye contact with him so he knows to continue. “You know how I’m not very open about my job at RS?” I slowly nod. “Well, you need to know more about it now.” I already know everything I need to know about it, but I still let him continue. “We rebel against The Elimination which believes it’s best to rid the earth of children across the world to make it a better place and if you get in their way, whether you’re an adult, child, senior citizen, whatever, they’ll take you down and the whole country if needed.”

“And the government allows this for what reason?” I ask.

“They don’t, Danny. They’ve been fighting against it just like we have, but they have their own government too and it’s not always easy to fight against anothergovernment. Fortunately, we have another government too and we have alliances with other governments from many countries.”

“So in other words, there’s three governments and one of them believes in anarchy.”

“Oh, no. That would be less sadistic.”

He grabs my Macbook and brings up Google, typing Elimination Organizational Purging and then clicks on a website about research.

First, he has to sign in, but once he does that, a page of documents pops up. He clicks on a document and another tab opens up with sentences and even paragraphs highlighted. He scrolls down and stops at some red highlighted parts and points to them. I silently read them over and click on a link, covering my mouth in shock once the picture pops up. The paragraph quotes The Elimination views children as a curse that must be reversed or destroyed.

One retired council member from The Eliminational Government says ‘Children must pay for their sins of ruining our beautiful earth and those prices may be extremely high, ranging from murder to suffering from beatings and sexual assault which immediately leads to murder nine times out of Ten.’

Caleb exits out of the tab and softly sighs. “That’s what we fight against at my job. We handle a lot of technology to make it easier for rebellion against that, but we do more than that. Anyways, that’s what we do.”

“Are you still leaving for Australia?”

“Not until you’re safe in New Jersey with Lisa. The head of the branch in Sydney is still in town, is aware of what happened, and made some adjustments for me. The reason I’m leaving is because they need some help down there.”

“So... Why did you hesitate to tell me for so long?”

“Well... I thought it hit a little too close to home. With their methods and what your father did… Now I don’t know for sure, but your mother thinks he might have been involved with The Elimination.”

“Well, that hurts a little less. At least now I have a reason after all these years,” I say, honestly.

“That doesn’t make it right, Danny. On a different subject, Kamron wants to come over tomorrow and help you pack.”

“So I’m leaving tomorrow?”

He shrugs. “I haven’t really talked to Lisa about the details yet. I’ll let you know tomorrow.” I nod. “Alright, it’s late. You need to get some rest. You’ve had a rough day.” I hand him my partially empty mug of coffee.

Coffee doesn’t keep me awake if I’m tired or feel like sleeping and when I need it to perk me up in the morning, I put in more Almond milk and caffeine.

I slowly lay back against the pillow and start to close my eyes. Caleb messes up my hair and begins to walk towards the door until I call his name. When he turns around, I give him a small And totally fake smile.

“What?” He asks.

“We’ll get through this, Caleb.”

I don’t even believe that. I don’t know where that came from, but Caleb has to believe it. He’s strong and awesome and he’ll get through this faster than I will.

He holds into the door handle and nods. “I know we will. Especially you. You’re one of the strongest people I know.” is he joking to make himself feel better? “Get some rest. You’ve had a rough couple of days.” He closes the door and I close my eyes.