“I’m not, practically speaking. I’m only hired to watch you.”
She was a spy. Spy of Zeus!
“Yes, yes, whatever you call me, I only followed my employer,” says Chickie. At the same time, Zeus lifts me up and places me on the table. My wrists, ankles and neck are locked in ice shackles that suddenly appeared out of the table.
“What are you going to do with me?” I ask with a shaking voice that comes with feelings of betrayal. “Chickie!” I roar.
“I’ll be healing you, my friend, by taking out your painful memories.”
“What do you mean?”
“Your friends you lost. You’re going to forget them just like you forgot your dad,” says Chickie, closing her eyes, her hands making circles on my skull.
“No, not them. Don’t erase them!”
“And everything you know about avatars. Everything happened after you knew the truth as well,” says Zeus, “You NTTs are not allowed to know about it.”
“No, Zeus, you can do anything but, not them!”
“You will be able to smile after this,” says Chickie.
“I don’t want to forget them. Please, please don’t erase them…” I now beg as politely as I can. Zeus wipes a tear away from my eye.
“I only want my avatar happy and healthy. That’s your bodylord’s mercy.”
“Mercy? You bastard…”
“It’s time to go back to a home where your father awaits.” With her whisper, I fall into a deep sleep.
CHAPTER 34
Bang! Bang! Bang!
I open my eyes at the irritating bangs. In my doorway stands my dad in his vividly flower-printed pants and a tight gray shirt that shows off his beautifully formed muscles. Well, he looks good on everything with his alluring appearance. No one will believe he has a big son like me if he lived in NTTs’ district. He does not age, thanks to his youth gene.
Pang! Pang! He lightly slams twice more the pot with a scoop.
“Are you still sleeping?”
“Dad, I cannot move my body. How did I come back home?”
“Chickie. How could you let my girlfriend carry you?”
“Sorry, sir.”
“Does anyone make you so stressful that you had to drink all night?”
“I didn’t drink, sir. I’m just knocked down after being fed Naga Jolokia Pepper version three by her.”
He chuckles. “That’s my darling.”
“Darling? She tried to kill your son!” I say, getting up from the bed and move to my closet to change my silk nightclothes into a shirt and pants. My blanket stretches and spreads, bedclothes fold and pillow land above the folded quilt themselves behind me. I am enriched with technology, thanks to my BTT father.
“She’s doing revenge to you because we couldn’t meet for two weeks straight. I told her I’ll have business trips to Qing Dynasty and Memphis but, not how long they will take. She must be mad. It’s a son’s duty to lessen his father’s burden, isn’t it?”
I sigh and turn to him. “Yes but, I refuse to share your taste in clothes.” I’m holding a multicolored flower print shirt. “I wear silky pajamas since you threw my cotton shirt and boxer shorts. But, no flower. I hate printed flowers.”
“Then how about stitched flowers? With my signature diamond buttons?”
“No, sir! Do you want to advertise I’m your son?”
“Why not? I’m so proud of my son that I want to shout it in the middle of NTTs’ square that Justice Judge is a single papa with a large cockroach son!”
“Perfect! Then you lose your job and I’m dead.” I pass him in the doorway and walk through a wide corridor of glossy tiles.
“Don’t worry! Before they do anything to us we will run away,” he says, walking next to me.
“To where?”
“Where you were born.”
“Then what do we do? Meet my mom and dad?”
“Not papa.” He shakes his head. “Only your mom.”
“Good plan. I’ll tell Chickie.”
“Oh, please don’t, she will feed me Jolokia version four!”
“You have to arrest her for a murder attempt.”
“I can’t judge love.”
“But you can judge your son. Don’t say no. I know you can. You will tell me, the only way to survive is to please me. Entertain me!”
He doesn’t laugh at my joke. I just turn back and walk forward until I reach an empty kitchen.
“Where are the cook robots?”
“I sent them to sleep. I wanted to have time with you only. It’s been a while since we had a breakfast at home.”
“What are you talking about? It’s been two weeks since your business trips.”
“No, son, it’s been a long, long time. I felt it too long.”
“You got some TT sickness, didn’t you?”
He gives me a long look. I can read some regret in his eyes. Regret? Regret for what? Only possible regret he would have must be picking me up in the riverside on that rainy day. He would not regret taking some smart NTTs like his son into his court room, torturing the sinners and ending their lives. He can do it all smiling and saying it is only work. But no one in his workplace knows that this hard-core sadist has sentiment to pick up a foreign boy flooded from the other world through a time hole.
He passes me and enters into the kitchen.
“Why don’t you bring a bottle of champagne?”
“For Sunday breakfast?”
“Why not? We have to bless every moment we are together. We don’t know how long it will last this time, do we?”
CHAPTER 35
He keeps champagne in a room where he cultivates his honey with the real bees but, I walk the opposite way. I’m not going back to the kitchen with champagne. We have nothing to celebrate. He found out. That I was pretending to forget everything. Show’s done.
I don’t know if it’s Chickie’s trick or not but, one thing for sure is that I remember everything clearly. Every moment with him and with them. I remember so vividly how he watched every piece of Cine’s bones being shattered and damaged by the drunken Bacchus. He was just behind Zeus, watching me fighting with Cooper. You might know he was my friend. You and Zeus were a team made to demolish my friends.
There it is, the door to STT. He made it for me to go in and out of STT whenever I wanted to hang out with some friends. He eventually stopped me meeting brainless kids but, I still sneaked in to have candies. I remember the pills he fed me to vomit two days straight. That was his punishment. Anyway, through this door, I could enter and leave STT without a badge.
I look back before I put my foot inside. He’s not here. I can hear water running in the kitchen. It might be filling a pot. Whatever your Sunday breakfast, you’ll have to have it alone. I’m madly sorry, dad.
I turn my head back to the door and step backward staggering, startled badly. I might have collapsed if he had not caught my arm.
“I already got the champagne myself. Come back,” he says. I only watch his back walking to the kitchen.
“I’m not going back,” I say.
He stops. But doesn’t turn back. “Can’t you just forget them?”
What are you saying? Just forget them? “How can I forget them? I promised them. I promised I’ll protect them. Yes, I already lost them thanks to you! But I still have to remember them. If I erase our moments, nothing leaves here!” I say, beating my chest.
“But you erased me from there,” he says.
I pause. So was it why? Was it a punishment for a bad son? Is he serious? Didn’t he know my purpose? “That was my way to protect you.”
He turns his feet around at my words, frustrated. “Son protects dad? Dad protects son!”
“Why can’t a son protect dad? We were a family!”
“Were a family? Is that how you think of us now?”
“It was hard for me as well but, I thought it was the best way to protect both of us!”
He gives me a mad look. I swallow as he clenches his fi
st. I don’t know what to do if he’s going to attack me. He hasn’t used violence but, we don’t know how a person can transform through overwhelmed anger. He is just there.
He must read me. He opens his palm and takes a deep breath to calm down.
“And you did it in a very wrong way. Go back! And don’t come back until I call you!” he says, turning around. I wait to see if he has something more to tell me but, he remains silent.
I saw the same five years ago after hearing his yell, just like now. It was during my interview with MTT officials. I passed every exam required and I only had the interview left to join the Ministry. It might be quite an issue among them that the highest officials asked me questions themselves. I did not know it then. I only wanted to work in MTT because my father worked there. I took tests without information that there was no NTT who applied as a MTT official in history. And when I passed everything, I knew that I could hurt my father.
“Question. Do you love the world you are living in?” said Vice Minister.
“Yes, I’m satisfied with both my life and my district,” I answered.
He drummed his fingers on the table, his face unsatisfied with my answer. “I don’t think you’re telling the truth. Should I remind you we can all read your mind and you must tell the truth to pass this question?”
“No sir.” I sighed quietly, not sure if I can tell how I really feel deep inside. My real attitude toward my world. “I haven’t many thoughts about my life. I just live on, day by day. You didn’t consider me as a sinner yet,” they laughed at this moment, “So I’m alive. If you decide to spread some virus in my district, I’ll be the first one who gives up my life. I don’t really have a big desire for a life.”
“Passive and lifeless,” he said grinning, seeming to be fulfilled with my answer.
“But how come you passed the exam? Your brain is quick just like other BTT applicants which we found very weird. It’s strange. You are designed to have different food. So, question. Where and which food do you eat?”
“I have my food at home.”
“Do you cook yourself?”
“I don’t think so because I don’t know how to cook a single dish. And I can’t eat instant food. I vomit if I smell it.”
“Then it must be your mom or dad or both who cook your meal?”
“Yes.”
“And we have no information where you were born and who your parents are.”
I only nodded yes.
“Come on, answer. Don’t worry. We don’t arrest them for raising a smart son.”
“But you are going to arrest them for feeding me the right foods, aren’t you?” I asked back.
“Can I ask why I can’t see anything when you talk about your parents? Usually people think of them in their mind when they are asked about their parents,” an official sitting in the center asked me. He was the only one who was in black clothes bejeweled with gemstone buttons.
“I have no memory sir,” I said frankly, as I knew he would read my mind anyway.
“No memory?”
“I erased it before I came here.”
“About your family and home?”
“Yes.”
He stiffened. I thought I saw an instant shock in his eyes but, he returned to his cold smile quickly.
“Smart. So we cannot read your mind or your memory to track them. Also, we cannot time travel into your memory. You’re one insanely smart cockroach.” He stood up and walked to me speaking wildly. “Do you know why we call your type cockroaches? Not because they run away fast or can be extremely smart when they are in danger. It’s because we don’t feel guilty to kill them. You are just that. You are nothing more than that!”
He turned back to the officials. “Sorry, I have to leave before I do something to him.” Then he disappeared. I thought he was mad because I considered it was weird to decorate his uniform with money. But that was definitely not the reason.
He must be painful. He must be awfully angry. His son erased him and every moment together.
“Sorry,” I say to his back. “Sorry, I did a stupid thing. But wasn’t it too harsh to your son? How could you sell me to the man?”
He slowly turns back. “What are you saying?”
“Ask your girlfriend. No, go directly to your new best friend!”
“My friend? Zeus?” he says. “You’re saying you’re an avatar of Zeus?”
“Oh, please, stop it! I already know it all!”
He shakes his head no. “I didn’t know it. There must be something I’m missing,” he says and disappears from my view.
He’s gone. He denied selling me out. Did he fall into a trap Zeus and Chickie made? Did she approach him with a vile purpose? What’s going on? Where did he go? Did he go to Zeus to ask for facts? Will he fight him? What will happen to him if Chickie and Zeus attack him together?
Zeus must be in STT. I have to find him before my dad finds him. He’s in the trap as well!
CHAPTER 36
It’s a night in STT. I step into a familiar alley. I recall this alley used to be dark and empty before Hera’s family built a tent bar. There should be no one inside at this hour in the Morning Market. But I hear some noise from inside. I hear glasses meeting for cheers.
Who’s there in the empty tent bar without the owners? I think he must be a very drunken man or a crazily brave man to be inside the Morning Market at this hour. They catch you if you are found in here after twelve noon except the passers.
I slowly open a gap in the tent and peer inside. There are two men sitting in plastic chairs over a round table. It’s too dark for me to see their faces. But I can tell by their builds that they are not NTTs. BTT officials? I think and try to get out without them noticing me.
“Your target is here.”
I pause at the voice and turn back.
“Familiar?” One of them stands up. “We met once but, I haven’t introduced myself. I’m Kelly, the principal of the mental hospital.”
Oh, yeah, I remember you. Then the other man must be the hunter. His hunter. Good. I’ll break you first and find your master. Blame your bodylord.
The hunter takes out a stick and turns back to face me. I raise my fists up, getting ready to fight.
“What an honor to fight you, General Cine Moon. I have been admiring you,” says the hunter. Is he twisting? Trying to provoke me?
“I’ll wait in my hospital,” Kelly says and vanishes out.
We stare at each other in silence for a second. He watches my fists carefully how they will move. I rush to him and deceive him as if I’ll throw a punch into his face. When he covers his face with the stick I quickly feed him a strong left hook to his stomach. He grunts and steps back. When his body staggers, I grip his stick and lift him up. I feel the pins and needles. His weapon must be a voltage stick.
Before I throw him onto the tables I realize that any noise can call the officials or their robots. So, I gently pull his legs and let him fall down on the stone ground. When he is about to release a moan, I quickly throw myself and seal his mouth with both palms. Seeing him closely, I notice he is a middle aged man with gray hair and wrinkles on his forehead.
Zeus had one more NTT avatar.
“I’ll ask a few questions. Can you answer them quietly?” I ask him. He nods yes. I get up from him and quickly place a chair over his body so he cannot stand up. I sit there and look down at him.
“Where is he?”
“The BTT? He’s waiting in his hospital.”
“No, not him. Your bodylord.”
“Bodylord?”
“You don’t know you are being controlled?”
“What are you talking about?”
“I didn’t know either.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Listen. Does the BTT know where you live?”
“No sir.”
“Good. Go back home as soon as possible.”
“Well, thank you General but…”
I stand
up from the chair. “No but. Just leave before he comes after you.”
I take two steps forward but, pause, feeling all the energy of my body has been drained. My knees buckle and I drop down on the floor.
“It’s the stick,” he says. He walks and kneels in front of me with an apologetic look. “That makes you paralyzed. I’m so sorry General. But if I don’t take you, I’ll be locked in the hospital, waiting for a surgery that makes me idle. That is what I most fear. Can you understand me?” I shake my head, no, but he ignores me then goes on. “We’ve been waiting for you but, you didn’t appear to help us. I’m talking about the rebellion. Where were you? Were you hiding like a real cockroach?” He slaps my face. “Don’t faint yet. Answer me. Where were you? Have you thrown us away? Have you thrown a hope? What the hell were you doing when they were shooting us, turning us into fools? I’ll fight until I die. I don’t need you. We don’t need you.”
I crack a smile. Finally they know. That the change comes from themselves not anybody else. That they should make the change themselves not expecting or waiting for anyone else to act.
“What a great learning!” I say.
“What a great learning?” he says crossly.
I meant to congratulate but, it might be provoking him. He wallops my face with his knuckles as hard as he can and I tumble forward, powerlessly, my face onto his chest.
CHAPTER 37
I open my eyes to see a ceiling with dozens of lights shining on me. Where am I? Definitely not in his hospital for surgery. Then he cannot sell me to the hunter. Am I already sent to the Avatar Auction?
Then, Kelly’s face appears in my view.
“You are still half asleep, you lazy soldier,” he says and pours ice water from a bucket onto my face. I shake my face, lifting my waist but, he presses me down, stamping on my naked chest with his boot. As he thrusts his right hand out of a ring, someone hands him a bottle of milk-like liquid. He removes the lid and pours it onto my face. I have no choice but to open my mouth and drink it, otherwise it will enter into my nostrils and arouse a painful sting. He throws the empty bottle out of the ring and sits on my chest to whisper.
“I fed you Ox Power version four. You will be crazily powerful, Cine Moon.”
“Why should I fight in the Avatar Auction?” I ask, coughing.