“It’s been three weeks! And you have nothing!” Rob slammed the phone down.
His wife Candy and their kids
12-year-old Henry and 9-year-old Merone sat at the kitchen table. They had long finished dinner, but the
uncleared dishes spoke of the unsettled mood that left the family feeling
shaken. The Tennants were five – Rob,
Candy, Henry, Merone, and the eldest, 16-year-old Igor. Igor had been sent off to camp. On the last night, there was a fire. Igor somehow rescued his classmates and then
himself turned into fire and shot into the night. This after they had, earlier in the summer,
gone on a cruise in the Chesapeake with Rob’s brother Matt and Matt’s family
which includes his wife and three kids.
On the nocturnal cruise, the children
fell into the Bay as the boat sailed over a mysterious submerged light. None of the six kids was injured. In fact, each felt invigorated swimming in
the mysterious glowing waters. Then
weird things began to happen.
It started with Igor’s strange disappearance. He seemed to be able to control flames and
turn himself into lightning. Then,
16-year-old Dean developed the ability to control his body’s density, and the
denser he became, the more impervious to pain was his skin. Eddy, a 14-year-old star long distance
runner, was now able to walk on clouds, control the wind, and fly.
Then there was Henry and Merone.
Henry, 12, was gearing up for his first
season of full-tackle football. Henry,
with his dad’s help, convinced his mom, Candy, that he’s be ok playing full
contact. She was worried about
concussions, but she had to admit, he was growing into toughness and could
probably handle it.
So they signed him up for a camp to
develop basic skills before practice.
Mostly, the camp involved non-contact drills. However, on the last day, they went live
action. Rob knew this was coming. He was going to watch the scrimmage but just
before he began his cell phone rang. It
was the FBI agent he’d been talking to daily.
Desperate for a word about Igor, he walked away from the crowd of
watching parents. The agent took 25
minutes to tell Rob no new news. He was
absolutely frustrated.
As he talked with the agent, he heard in
the background a loud commotion and a lot of screaming. When he came back over, three parents jumped
into his face pointing fingers and yelling.
“How old is your son?” Screamed a frantic mom.
“What?”
Rob was confused.
“How old?”
“12.”
Rob was in no mood to be attacked, especially not regarding his
son. “All these kids are 12. Why?”
“What do you mean, ‘why?’ Didn’t you see?”
“No,” now Rob was nervous. “I had a call. I had to turn away. What happened?” Then, Rob was horrified to hear the sound of
sirens. Ambulances were coming. He looked to the field and for the first time
heard the sounds of tears. Boys were
laid out, crying.
Now a dad was right in Rob’s face. “The first time they gave your son the ball,
he ran through everyone like a freight train.
We could hear the bones cracking from the sidelines.” The man was livid.
Before Rob could perceive what was
happening, the coaches had run over and come between him and the other
parents. One coach was calming the
parents of the injured kids down. The
other coach, a former NFL running back, was talking to Rob, and he was
astounded.
“You’re Henry’s Dad?”
“Yeah.”
“I don’t get it. You’re …”
“White?
Yes, I am. I am a white man and
my son is black. He’s adopted.”
“Well,” the coach continued, “He’s the
most amazing 12-year-old I’ve ever seen.
He’s been spectacular all week, in every drill. He’s the fastest, most powerful and most
athletic. To be honest, I probably
should not have let him carry it against these kids. He ran through them like he was a full-grown
man.”
Rob was surprised. “He’s barely 5 feet tall.”
“Yeah, but he’s got explosiveness in his
legs like I have never seen in my 30 years in this game.”
Rob looked at Henry who had a downcast
look on his face. Henry had spent the
last few weeks just worrying about Igor.
Rob hoped football would take his mind off things. But, Henry is tender-hearted. He’s got the body for football, but not the
mentality. Now, a bunch of kids were
hurt because of Henry’s running. Rob
knew Henry would not like this.
On the way home, Henry said nothing in
the car. As they drove, the phone
rang. Candy’s voice was frantic.
“I can’t find Merone.” This was the last straw. Their precocious 9-year-old daughter had not
shown any symptoms since the boat incident, other than being extraordinarily energetic. Now, she was missing?
“How long?” Rob whispered into the
phone.
“A few hours.” He could hear the tears in Candy’s voice.
He and Henry pulled into the
driveway. The July sun was cooling as
evening set in. Candy met them and the
three stood in the yard, not really saying anything.
The stillness of the twilight was
interrupted by a gleeful distant shout. “Hi
Mommy, Daddy. Henry.”
They looked around, not knowing where
Merone’s voice was coming from. “Up
here.”
They craned their necks and saw her in
the top of the backyard tree. The lowest
branch was 10 feet up. Before anyone
could say anything, she shouted, “Watch this!”
Face first, she bound down the tree, her nails clutching the bark like
cat claws. The tree was easily 50 high,
and she went from top to bottom in seconds.
Rob and Candy were speechless. Merone was beaming. “And,” she smiled, “Watch this.” Then Merone squinted her eyes into a snarl, a hilariously cute snarl on the face of a 9-year-old girl. She stared as another tree a few feet away. Fire shot out from her eyes and consumed the branch. It was ash in seconds.
Henry ran into the garage.
Rob and Candy stared at one another.
Merone continued talking. “As far I can tell, I can shoot the flame
about 10 feeShe shot another flame burst that dissipated above their
heads. “And watch this.” She held her hands up. Her fingernails sharpened and extended like
five razor sharp claws. “I can even dig
them into brick.”
“How do you know that,” Candy asked with
a new concern. “I was at the middle
school. I climbed up on top of it.”
Candy frowned. “To your room, right now! You know you are not to go to the middle
school without one of your brothers.”
Merone frowned and bore her claws at
Candy.
Mustering as stern a father voice as he
had in him, Rob barked, “You will not threaten your mother with your newly
acquired superpowers, young lady!”
Merone burst into tears. “OK Daddy.”
She ran in the house and up to her room.
A few seconds later there was a loud
crash in the garage. A year earlier, Rob
had hung a punching bag in the garage. He
wanted to work-out. He told the boys
whenever they felt frustrated to work it out punching the bag. When Henry saw Merone in the top of the tree,
his confusion and fear overtook him. He
ran in the garage to work out his feelings on the bag. He hit it so hard, the bag ripped off the
hanging fixture, through the garage wall and into the dining room.
Two hours later, after the insurance
adjuster had left and the four Tennants had picked at their dinner, a phone
call came in, from someone new.
“Mr. Tennant, this is Major Seamus O’Toole,
of the United States Army.”
“I am too old to enlist.” Normally Rob showed respect for army
officers. His own father was a retired
Lt. Colonel and Vietnam vet. But, he was
in no mood for any more unexpected news.
“Actually sir, I am calling about your
son, Robert.”
“He’s too young to enlist. And he’s missing. And for your records, he goes by his middle
name, Igor.”
“Yes, Mr. Tennant, we actually know all
of that.”
“Did you say the army?”
“Yes sir.”
“The FBI is already looking for Igor. At
least, they say they are. How many government
agencies are looking for one missing teenager?”
“More than normal Sir, when that missing
teenager turns his own body into lightning.
We’ve been tracking his movements as best we can.”
“And,” Rob was suddenly interested.
For the next 10 minutes, Major O’Toole
gave Rob a rundown. The army had been
following an unnatural lightning path that had zigged and zagged all over the
globe. From Europe, over Russia, over
Japan, over Australia. They could follow
it and then they’d lose it. And then
they’d pick it up again. By the time the
conversation ended, it was clear to Rob that this army major had no idea where
Igor currently was.
That’s
when he shouted, “It’s been three weeks!
And you have nothing!” He slammed
the phone down.
The rattled family sat there for several
quiet moments. All at once a blinding
lightning flash crashed right in the back yard.
“What?”
Rob gasped. They all ran to the
back deck. There stood Igor, completely
naked, but none the worse for wear. They
brought him inside. With their son home,
the Tennants fears could give way to relief ad curiosity.
