Adam woke up. Well, not exactly. He opened his eyes while lying in bed and looked at the clock. 6:34 am. Way too early to get up on a day he didn’t have school. There was no going back to sleep though. His brain had started working and refused to return him to his dreams.
It had been a week since the news about Langenburg, and he hadn’t thought about it until he woke that morning. It came to his mind in a vivid memory. Why would someone destroy an entire town, and just what happened to all the people? What if George was right and something was coming to Grayson? Too early to think about that now, he decided.
The sun shone through his bedroom window making it warm, even though it was early. It was a small room with few decorations, only things Adam had found or had built himself.
He sat up and looked around, then rolled out of bed to find clothes for the day. It was easy to choose a shirt as there were only two clean out of the five he owned. The jeans he had worn the day before weren’t dirty, so he put them on over clean underwear. The rest of the previous day’s clothes sat in a pile at the foot of his bed so he dropped them in the clothes hamper. That little bit of work would save him from hearing his mother complain later.
With careful steps he climbed down the narrow stairs. Having avoided all of the creaks, he turned into the cramped kitchen hoping to find something to satisfy his grumbling stomach. After searching through the cupboards for things he knew wouldn’t be there, he settled for his usual piece of toast with a small bit of butter. At least today I can have some milk, he thought as he poured himself a glass.
Instead of sitting at the small kitchen table, Adam sat in one of the two living room chairs. They were the only furniture in the room except for the old television. The chair he chose was the older and uglier one, but it was the more comfortable of the two. His mother usually sat there, but she was still asleep, so Adam could enjoy it for the moment.
He finished eating, put his plate and glass in the sink and sat back down in the same chair, thinking about the day ahead. Kevin would meet him later, and they would decide what to do at that time.
Adam stared at the few pictures of his father on the mantle without really seeing them, mainly because there wasn’t anything else to look at. If he turned on the TV and woke his mom, she would be furious.
He browsed each of the pictures, trying to remember his father, but the memories were weak. Edward had died when Adam was just two. Mary McTaggart was devastated, even though she said she had seen it coming. Years of drinking and smoking were bound to catch up with him, but a heart attack wasn’t something anyone expected, especially since he was young and in good physical condition.
Something caught Adam's eye in a picture of Edward on the lowest shelf of the mantle. Has that always been there? thought Adam.
He moved and picked up the picture. It was a small portrait of Edward. The picture had been in the same place for as long as Adam could remember, but it seemed different somehow. On Edward’s suit jacket was a lapel pin Adam hadn’t noticed before. The pin was shaped like a bowtie and was easy to overlook. Deep in his mind Adam was sure he’d seen that shape around town before.
I wonder where that pin is? he thought. In days of boredom, he had gone through almost every drawer in the house, except for a few in Mary’s bedroom, but had never seen it.
Adam heard movement upstairs, so he placed the picture back on the shelf and sat down in the other chair.
Mary made her way down the stairs and into the kitchen, triggering every creak along the way. She brewed herself a cup of coffee and sat in her living room chair.
“Good morning, Mom,” said Adam.
Mary just looked at him and nodded slightly. Adam knew not to say much more until she had finished her first cup of coffee.
They sat in silence while Mary slowly sipped her black beverage, when Adam looked at the clock. It was 8:35 am. He must have stared at the picture for a lot longer than it seemed. It felt like a good time to be somewhere else.
He walked to the door, slipped on his runners and stepped outside. The morning air smelled of dew and grass clippings from their neighbour’s lawn. The bright sun made him squint as he walked to the garage, but the warmth felt great.
Adam stepped through the side door of the small garage that sat near the back of the yard. It was nearly empty except for Adam’s homemade bike, some old furniture, and a few tools he had either found or had been left there by the previous owner. His dad had left some tools behind, but Mary had sold anything of value long ago.
The garage was his refuge. Mary seldom bothered him when he was in it, unless she had chores for him, which seemed often. Most of the time, it was his own private space where he could do whatever he wanted.
The garage was where he discovered he had a talent for fixing mechanical things. He wasted hours pulling apart anything he could find and tried building other things from the parts, sometimes successfully. It was also where he built his bike from parts he collected at the dump, garage sales, and donations from his friends.
As he walked to the back of the garage, something in the corner caught his eye. A long time ago, that corner held a stove for winter heat. There had never been a stove there as long as Adam had been using the garage, and the only things left as evidence were the plugged chimney hole in the roof and the tin heat shield on the wall.
It was the heat shield that caught his eye. It covered a 2 square foot section on each side of the corner. The top edge of the left shield was hanging away from the wall a little. Being old and rusty it wasn’t surprising, but Adam was concerned because his best hiding spot was behind the right heat shield. Years ago, the right side had come away from the wall, and he found that he could make it look like it was still secure with one well-placed nail. Most of the time, he had only few dollars in change hidden behind and nothing else.
He checked his hiding spot first, and after finding the money untouched he inspected the left side. It looked like the nail head rusted just enough for the tin to pop off, but he decided to check behind anyway.
He pulled the tin away from the wall and looked into the dimly lit space. To his surprise, something was there. He reached in and pulled out a large cardboard envelope. The envelope was a heavy one used to mail important documents and looked like it had been there for a while. It was addressed to Edward, but there was no return address.
The top was open, so Adam reached inside. He pulled out a small stack of papers and pictures. The picture on top was of a group of people standing in front of Town Hall. It must have been the Grand Opening, because they were all dressed in formal clothes and there were decorations hanging in the background. If it was the Grand Opening, the picture was from 1910. He had learned the year it was built while on a class trip a few years before. The date was carved into a brick near the main entrance.
Adam looked at the picture a little closer. Each of the people wore the same lapel pin as the one Edward wore in his portrait. Since he had just noticed the lapel pin earlier that morning, the ones in the Town Hall picture stood out. He would have overlooked them at any other time.
He set the pack of paper and pictures on the workbench nearby and looked back in the envelope, checking for anything he might have missed. As he angled the envelope toward the light of the lone window, something shiny flashed at the bottom. He reached in and pulled out a lapel pin, exactly the same as the ones they wore in the Town Hall picture.
The lapel pin was bowtie shaped, over an inch long and half an inch wide. A needle that was used to attach the pin to clothing ran the length of the back. The sharp end was held in place under a small metal latch, keeping it from poking whoever was handling it.
He felt a connection with it right away, sure that it had to have been his father’s. Why else would it be hidden in their garage?
The crunch of gravel under bike tires snapped Adam back to reality. Someone was coming. Without thinking, he shoved everything back in the envelope and slipped it back where he found it.
&nb
sp; The side door flew open and Kevin stuck his head inside.
“Waldron’s been destroyed just like Langenburg," he said.
CHAPTER THREE