Chapter 6
“That’s right. That means that your husband, Mrs. Hemingway, is going to be in jail for the rest of his life. Do you want to stay married to this man knowing that he killed five innocent people, human or superhuman, it doesn’t matter?”
“No,” said Leanne, shaking her head and crying. “I am filing for divorce first thing tomorrow morning.”
One month later, things had changed for the tormented Manning family after the terrorist attack. Instead of having her uncle move his mansion to her community, Christina moved her mansion to his community, Tiger Paw Falls. Aliens had reconstructed the Manning Foods building, and it looked exactly the same way it did when it was destroyed. Aliens could build houses and other buildings one hundred times faster than humans could. Brooke also moved her home next to Christina’s with the help of Mark’s men.
Lyle and Christina’s three thousand children were still under the care of Tears of the Universe, but instead of being babies, they were five year old kids. What the staff of Tears of the Universe didn’t know was that, while enhancing Lyle and Christina’s DNA to make alien children age at the speed that humans did, year by year, was that aliens couldn’t remain babies for long. No matter what humans did with their DNA to make them stay babies, they would still be five years old a few months after. After five years, they would age year by year. Next year they would be six years old, and in 2007, they would be seven years old… they would be older than all the human beings that would be born in the year 2002 and beyond.
Although the kids never did anything that would annoy the staff of Tears of the Universe, they were a handful. Instead of playing with little cars with remote controls, they were flipping the pages of textbooks as they studied different ninth-grade-level academic subjects. Instead of drawing and coloring they were on their computers, typing the brainstorms of their reports. There was something unusual with these alien children however. Instead of having blue, brown, green, and hazel eyes like humans did, they had only green, blue, and yellow eyes. There were no brown eyes. Some of them had inherited Christina’s eyes, and the others had inherited Lyle’s beautiful green eyes. The ones with yellow eyes, the color of their eyes symbolized that they were superior, superior to humans. There was no doubt about that. The vivid yellow eyes were really stars when these children were in outer space, in a spaceship or out.
These beings would be respected and some of them would even be revered. They would be doctors, lawyers, writers, singers… all of them, they would work in the most prolific professions and all of them would have a six-figure income; thus their intelligence was incalculable. They would be just like their grandfather and their granduncle.
Meanwhile, Shirley was in school, in her math class. Since she was so bright, her teacher, Ms. Jessup had her explain a very difficult math problem that most of her classmates couldn’t solve. They had failed their test the day before, and it seemed like Ms. Jessup wasn’t explaining the math problems in a way that they would understand. These were students with a C average, and they belonged in lower-level classes. Nevertheless, they were given a chance to be in regular classes just to test their potential and see if their minds weren’t being challenged enough.
As soon as Shirley was finished explaining those dreaded math problems that were covered in that awful test the day before, the students understood this chapter so well, that it occurred to one of them to ask the teacher to expedite the test again.
He raised his hand. “Ms. Jessup,” said Roman “is it possible for us to take the test again? Now we understand everything.”
“I’ve never done this before, Roman. I only give every student the tests once.”
“This is the first and last time that we’ll ever ask you this,” said Agatha. “I like Roman’s idea. We just want to pull up our grade.”
“The teacher has the choice to redistribute or not redistribute the test,” said Ms. Jessup. “Therefore, I will do it. You will take the test again tomorrow morning. Be wary, though that this is your second and last chance.”
The class was so happy that they applauded loudly and screamed.
The class took the test and anxiously waited for the next day to know what grade they’ve gotten. As everyone got out of the room, Melissa approached Shirley and told her, “Thank you for what you did for us.”
“It was nothing,” said Shirley, smiling.
“Was it really nothing? Thanks to you, we will finally get a good grade. I hope that Ms. Jessup allows you to teach the class from now on because to be honest, you teach better than she does. Don’t tell anyone, though.”
The principal was so impressed with Shirley’s work with her classmates that he convinced Ms. Jessup to allow Shirley to explain the lessons every day from now on. Ms. Jessup would now give Shirley fifteen minutes to teach the new lesson, like a real teacher would. Ms. Jessup didn’t understand however, how a student could teach her classmates the lessons better than a teacher could. She had no idea that, although Shirley seemed human, she had a human body and a literally superhuman mind. At her young age, Shirley was just months from graduating high school and going to college. Shirley discovered her true calling when thanks to her, the next day, and all her classmates aced their calculus tests. She was going to be a teacher, for real.
Shirley wanted to be a singer, and she had the spectacular and supernaturally angelic voice to do it, but it suddenly occurred to her that perhaps she could come back to this class, not as a student, but as a teacher. Maybe she could take Ms. Jessup’s job because she understood that Ms. Jessup wasn’t a good teacher. Ms. Jessup was now jealous of her. She had to do something to eliminate that feeling of animosity.
Suddenly, as Shirley went to her car, Jacob went up to her. Jacob had been madly in love with her since they were both in the first grade and now they both had their English class together only that class. However, Jacob didn’t dare to tell Shirley how he felt because Shirley’s parents were very protective of her and he didn’t want to have problems with them. He knew how special and beautiful Shirley was, and although he wouldn’t express to her his love for her or have a relationship with her, if any guy approached her with bad intentions, he would quickly dispatch that guy in an unimaginable way. If he couldn’t have her, then a better guy would, but no guy in this world would take advantage of her because he would regret it. Jacob was six feet and six inches tall, and although he was not fat at all, he weighed 280 pounds, but those pounds were in pure muscle. He had the body of a bodybuilder because he was the captain and state champion of the wrestling team, and on top of that, he was a black belt in tae kwon do at his young age. He was practically the young king of self defense, and no one would dare to mess with him.
“I heard you were an excellent teacher,” he said to her, smiling.
“That’s what everyone in my class thinks,” said the always-modest Shirley, smiling and blushing.
“I would like for you to tutor me in advanced calculus. I’ve always been in advanced classes, and now I’ve got a low C average in the class. I’ve never gotten a C before and my parents are disappointed in me. They think I’m not working hard enough, but my teacher… man…”
“Is your teacher Ms. Jessup by any chance? She teaches both calculus and advanced calculus.”
“Yes, she is.”
“I have her in my seventh period.”
“I have her in my third period. She’s terrible. She just doesn’t explain things to you. She’s like, ‘Ok, this is what you have to do. Do it’, and then she sits down. She thinks that just because we’re in advanced classes, we know what we have to do, and I’ve always been great in math.”
“Guys usually are, Jake.”
“Yeah, but that teacher… I don’t even know how she became a teacher in the first place. She’s really bad.”
“She doesn’t treat her students the way they deserve to be treated. Don’t worry I’m going to tutor you every day at six when I finish doing my homework everyday. I will call you and let you know because I usually do my homework as soon as I get home, and it takes me twenty minutes to an hour in all my classes, but sometimes when I have to do a report, you know, the research, the rough draft, and the typing… it takes me longer. I’ve done reports, just the typing part, from the time I get home to the time I go to sleep.”
“Wow…”
“I usually type those reports and they’re twenty pages or longer and then I have to go back and edit… It is hell, but I don’t have to do one of those anytime soon, so yes, we will take care of that.”
“I’m sure everyone wants you to tutor them.”
“Yes, but they know that’s not possible, so Ms. Jessup has given me fifteen minutes daily to teach the lessons.”
“That’s weird of her.”
“All of it was the principal’s idea. She would never have done this on her own,” Shirley said as she got into her car. “I’ll see you later, Jake, today at six. Make sure you do all your homework before you come over.”
“I’m just like you. I do my homework as soon as I arrive home.”
She closed the door and fastened her seatbelt. Then, she started the car and pulled out of the parking lot.
Suddenly, as she left the school, someone came up behind her from the backseat, put a pocket knife on her throat and said, “Keep driving until I tell you to stop!”
She recognized that voice. It was the guy that had been in love with her since she started going to high school, Lorenzo Liebermann. His mother was Puerto Rican and his father was Caucasian, a nice guy from Connecticut. Lorenzo had blond hair and blue eyes, a beautiful face, and an enchanting smile. He was the guy that every girl in Shirley’s school wanted, but Shirley was the only one who could have him. Nevertheless, she didn’t want him. He had a girlfriend in middle school from the beginning of the seventh grade to the end of the eighth grade, and that girl was his only sex partner. He hadn’t been with anyone else. Ever since he saw Shirley, he decided to save all his passion and desire for her. He had broken thousands of hearts just for her.
However, it had nothing to do with Lorenzo, the reason why Shirley hadn’t been with any guy. She just wanted to abstain until the age of eighteen because that’s what her parents had taught her ever since she was a little girl and they started talking to her about sex, at the age of eight. They told her all her life that abstinence was the only way for her to protect herself from unwanted pregnancy and sexually-transmitted diseases because most guys were idiots and they refused to wear condoms. Shirley loved Lorenzo. She adored him, but she didn’t want him in her bed because of what her parents had told her all her life. That’s why she wouldn’t give Jake a chance, but she was starting to change her mind and reconsider her feelings. She was starting to hate Lorenzo and love Jake because Jake would never do this to her.
“Lorenzo,” she said crying, “What the hell do you think you’re doing? Take that knife away from my throat right now, or you’ll be sorry!”
“You’re the one who will be sorry if you don’t do exactly what I say!” he screamed. “Keep moving! Don’t slow down!”
She turned her face to look him in the eyes, risking her life, and said, “Get the hell out of my car right now!” Her voice sounded strange now, low, and her turquoise-blue eyes shone like two bright stars in the sky.
No one at school knew the truth about Shirley. They didn’t know that she had alien blood and alien superpowers. Now Lorenzo understood that nothing in this life was what it seemed to be. He was in front of a superior entity, a superlative being. He didn’t know what to say or what to do. He immediately withdrew the knife from Shirley’s throat.
“I’m… I’m sorry.”
“Get out of my car, I said.”
“I didn’t know that you’re…”
“Does that drive you away from me, Lorenzo, you who always takes pride in loving people just the way they are?”
“On the contrary, it gets me closer,” he said.
Shirley took the other road to go to her house. “What were you going to do, rape me?”
“I don’t know what I have to do to get you to show me that you love me!”
“Is having sex with you the only way to show you that I love you?”
“You always say you love me, but…”
“I loved you before you did this to me, but now I’m not so sure.”
“Shirley, I’m sorry.”
“Were you that desperate? I mean there are thousands of girls at school who are crazy in love with you, and they’d do anything for you to love them even if it’s just a little bit. Why does it have to be me? I am out of any guy’s league right now.”
“So, I am not the problem.”
“Yes, now you are the problem because you scared me to death!” she said. “But I understand that maybe you have some kind of mental illness or the evil in you finally manifested in the action you took against me.”
He placed his arm around her neck. “How many times am I going to have to ask you to forgive me?”
“Take your hands off of me, please.”
Just when Lorenzo was about to slit her throat because of her rejection, Shirley woke up from this horrible dream. Everything had happened except for the event in which Lorenzo threatened to kill her and argued with her. It was now ten minutes ‘til six and she hadn’t done her homework yet. She was desperate. She just couldn’t tutor for Jake today. It was too bad that Jake was already walking to her room with Brittany.
Jake arrived.
Brittany said, “Leave the door open,” and left.
“Hi, Jake, how are you?” she said, smiling.
“You seem worried. Is something wrong?”
“Nothing, just that when I got home I fell asleep like a sissy and I haven’t done any of my homework…”
“If you want to you can tutor me tomorrow during breakfast.”
“It’s ok,” she said. “I’ll tutor you today. You have a test tomorrow and I don’t want you to fail. I’m going to have to change one of my elective classes to study hall so I can tutor you and do all my homework there.”
“Poor you…”
“Don’t worry. I’m used to doing large loads of homework. From Monday through Thursday, I hardly have any time for myself because after I do my homework, I do my laundry, I do the dishes… you know, I do house chores to help my mom. I even cook.”
“You’re an amazing friend and an amazing daughter. I wonder if you would be as great a girlfriend,” he said and then put his hand over his mouth. “Oops! Pretend you never heard that, ok? I never said that.”
She looked him in the eyes. “Why are you all of a sudden holding back?”
“I shouldn’t have come over, Shirley,” he said as he picked up his stuff. “I ruined everything. We’re only supposed to be friends.”
“Wait,” she said, holding his hand lovingly and putting his stuff down. “You don’t have to leave.”
“But I disrespected you!”
“You didn’t do that at all. What’s wrong with you? What are you talking about?”
“This love I feel for you,” he said shedding tears, “is supposed to be platonic. I’m not supposed to do anything to make it real. You are mine only in my dreams, but in real life, we’re just friends and nothing more.”
“Jake…”
“I’ve just ruined this pure, perfect, non-lustful love.”
“Jake, you’re a passionate romantic. You do know that, right? You didn’t ruin anything. You didn’t disrespect me. On the contrary,” she said, smiling, “you opened up to me. You finally let me know how you feel about me.”
“So…”
“I’m going to ask you a question and I want you to answer me sincerely. Do you want to be my boyfriend?”
He smiled. “I think that’s impossible,” he said.
“Why? Didn’t you just say you wondered how I would be as a girlfriend?”
“Yes, but… I mean you’re known as the girl that no boy can have in our school. I respect your morals and values, and I’m not going to do anything to make you throw it all away for me, you know? I was resigned to have only your friendship and nothing else Samuel because by the time you’re ready to give what you’ve never given any man; I’ll be long out of your life.”
“You say the love you feel is pure and non-lustful, well, we can keep it that way. Who says there has to be sex in a relationship? We can be together, go out, have fun, and we don’t have to make love.”
“You’re right.”
“So, do you want to be my boyfriend?”
“Yes, I do.”
They hugged.
Two hours later, the phone rang at Jake’s house. Jake’s mom, Lacy, answered the phone. She was in the kitchen, cutting up beef for a beef stew. “Hello.”
“Lacy, something horrible has happened,” said her father, Mason.
“What is it, Dad?”
“It’s Samuel. He’s getting worse and worse, and a doctor checked him out and he said that he only has a few months to live.”
Samuel was Lacey’s older brother and years before, he was diagnosed with Spinal meningitis. His condition deteriorated more and more as time went by. Months after being diagnosed, Samuel could no longer walk. He couldn’t even stand up. Months later, he couldn’t even sit down. He became bedridden. Now, he was having symptoms that were not common with this disorder. He started not being able to digest his food. It was hard to clean him up after he did the number one and the number two on himself. He would always complain, through devastating moans, of stomach aches because he could no longer talk. Indeed, he was dying. He didn’t have months, but days to live, as all the food that was given to him it would come out of his body somehow… and kill him.
“Months to live?” said Lacy, crying.
Jake went to the kitchen to help Lacy cut up the vegetables for the stew. He started shedding tears as he listened very attentively to the conversation. Samuel was the uncle that he adored the most because his other uncles had never been very nice to him. When Jake was growing up and Samuel was living in San Francisco, Samuel would take him to the park all the time, take him to get some ice cream, buy him all the foods that he loved, like buying him pizza every single Friday, supreme pizza, his favorite, at the best pizzeria, and he would always take Jake to the store to buy him anything that he wanted, like clothes, candy, video games, movies on VHS, and music. Every weekend, Samuel would spend $400 on Jake because Samuel was a prolific impresario who was making nearly $1.2 million a year. Samuel enjoyed the good life until Hilary, a vicious woman, came into his life.
Samuel fell so deeply in love with Hilary that he would spend loads and loads of money on her every month. It was Hilary who convinced him to move to Pittsburgh, to where her family was originally from because, after years of living in San Francisco, they moved back there. In the beginning, when Samuel and Hilary met, everything was wonderful, but he would only buy her clothes and shoes before they got married. Nevertheless, when they got married, she had no limits. Hilary could really buy anything in this world that she wanted. Samuel would pay credit card bills of $200,000 every month. Naturally, the company failed and Samuel was back to being a poor guy. Samuel had to move back in with his parents, who had also relocated to Pittsburgh to stay close to him. Soon after his and Hilary’s divorce, Samuel’s health mysteriously started deteriorating. Mason and Abigail, Lacy and Samuel’s parents, they blamed Hilary for Samuel’s demise. Mason had to work hard, like he had never worked before, sixteen hours a day, to be able to support Abigail and a sick Samuel and pay for Samuel’s medical bills. It was like Samuel had never been rich. Now, Mason needed Lacy and Hugh’s help to work and support him, Abigail and Samuel because Mason’s health was also decaying and now, he could only work a part time job. His doctor, Dr. Barlow, told him not to work at all, to stay home and rest, but for the moment, Mason couldn’t do that. That’s why he was calling his daughter, to let her know that she and her husband had to support him, her mother, and her brother, so Mason could stay home. Lacy really didn’t have a choice. She couldn’t let her family starve and die.
“Yes,” said Mason, crying. “I can’t work anymore. I have high-blood pressure, diabetes and serious vision problems. Dr. Barlow told me that I had to stay home because my vision would only get worse over the next few years, and I could not take anymore stress because of my hypertension. I can no longer do any kind of work. You have to help us.”
“Dad, we’ll send you as much money as we can. You know we make good money. Each one of us can send you $7,000 every month for you to pay for Samuel’s medical bills, the food, the clothes, the utility bills…”
“Sending us money is not enough, Lacy. You and Hugh have to move here and help us. You have to relocate and help us with Samuel, and help me and your mom. Our health is only getting worse, and your mother can’t bathe your brother anymore. She has scoliosis, and we have no money to pay for her operation.”
“Say no more, Dad. We’ll buy a house in Pittsburgh. This situation is so critical that we literally have to leave everything behind. We can’t even take our clothes with us. I thank God that Hugh and I have one million dollars in the bank, and we’ve had that money for years. We’ve been saving it for an emergency.”
Jake gasped. One million dollars, isn't that just awesome? With that money, they can buy a mansion, and the best car! It’s too bad my uncle won’t enjoy any of it. He started crying silently. He didn’t want his mom to worry about him.
“We would appreciate it if you took the next flight to Pittsburg, today.”
“We will, Dad. I am going to call Hugh and tell him to come home early today. We’ll be in Pittsburgh tonight. I promise.”
Jake had heard almost everything that Lacy told her dad, but he hadn’t heard enough information to know exactly what was happening and how critical the situation was. He knew that his uncle was agonizing, but he didn’t know that they had to leave now, and that his parents would have to support his uncle.
“Jake, take a shower and change your clothes. We’re going to Pittsburgh. We’re going to move there, too. We’re going to buy a home as soon as we get there, a home close to my parents’ house. Get going.”
“But Mom, how are we going to move there? Aren’t we going to sell this house?” he said, worried.
“We are just going to put it on the market and sell it. We don’t have time to think about that now, Jacob.”
“But Mom…”
He didn’t want to leave. He wanted to stay and cultivate a relationship with Shirley, but deep down, he knew that wasn’t possible. He was seventeen and she was thirteen. What kind of relationship would that be? He was sweet, loving, caring and sensitive, but he was a man, a man nonetheless. Human guys couldn’t have a relationship without sex. Sex was a priority to them. He knew that his relationship with Shirley would take him on an endless road to nowhere. He loved her, but not deeply enough to wait for her. This was his best opportunity to put an end to what he thought was a farce. He didn’t know that Shirley was the true love of his life and that when he would come back to get her, it would be too late.
Jacob called Shirley.
Shirley answered the phone. “Hello.” She was in her room, lying on her bed, on her stomach, doing her homework and listening to pop music. The music wasn’t loud, though. She didn’t like loudness. It would disturb her and make her nervous.
“I can’t talk to you for long.”
Surprised and gasping, she got out of her bed and turned the music off, worried that something horrible had happened. “What’s wrong, Jake?”
“I am getting ready to take the next flight to Pittsburgh with my parents. My Uncle Samuel is dying and we’ve got to move to Pittsburgh to help my grandparents take care of my uncle. My uncle’s very sick. He has spinal meningitis in its final stage and we have to, you know, help out.”
“You have to move there?”
“Yes.”
“What about us?” she said, saddened. Then she smiled and said, “I can email you and call you, right?”
“No, you can’t. I don’t want you to. It’s over.”
“Why?” she asked. “I thought you loved me.”
“I guess I don’t. Goodbye, Shirley.” He hung up and went to take a shower.
Shirley hung up and started crying. The dream she’d had of Lorenzo kidnapping her and trying to hurt her and Jake being the protective and angel-like one, it was twisted and mistaken. Her mind was fooling her as it was the other way around. Lorenzo’s love was real and Jake’s love was just infatuation. He would never rape her or use her and then leave her, but he didn’t love her the way Lorenzo did. Lorenzo would’ve given his life for her.
Three days later, things were hectic in Pittsburgh. Lacy and Hugh had bought a $500,000, two-story mansion and moved Lacey’s parents and brother with them. Samuel had his own room, but what he didn’t know was that Monti was lurking, looking for the right moment to inject Samuel with Matt’s blood, with which he had healed a few of his loved ones. Monti had flown to Pittsburgh, but not by airplane, but by himself. That’s right. The angels of the universe, they had wings, and they could fly thousands and thousands of miles, just like birds, but their wings were like the wings of gargoyles. Minutes later, just when Samuel was alone in his room, Monti used the power of telekinesis to open the window and literally flew into the room. Then, he stood right by Samuel and immediately disabled his sense of touch and injected the blood into him. Samuel slept and slept until he woke up, free of his breathing machine and walking. When his family saw him, they couldn?