“Mr. Bertier, leave my class immediately.”
Bertier walked up to the teacher’s desk. The class was silent with all eyes on the teen’s bald head as he sat down on the corner of the desk. “C’mon man, one second you tell me all this crap about how I have to be here, how it’s mandatory island law to sit and listen to you talk about all this boring ass stuff, now you want me to leave? Which is it?”
Mr. Ramar was shaking. Theo wondered if it was rage or fear he was seeing. The teacher pointed a finger at the door. “Out. Now.”
Bertier slid off the desk and walked up to Mr. Ramar. He grabbed the teacher’s shirt and pulled him in close. The teacher was at least six inches taller, but Bertier’s neck was twice as thick and muscular. They made for a strange pair when viewed that close together.
After what seemed an endless expanse of time, Bertier relaxed his grip on Mr. Ramar’s shirt. “Fine,” he said, muscles rippling under his black t-shirt. “I’ll give you a break this time. Too nice a day to be sitting in class anyway.” He turned and walked out of the room, slamming the door behind him.
That incident aside, Theo was doing just fine in his classes. He wondered occasionally what life would have been like if he had been in his senior year at Mifflin High instead of sitting in a makeshift classroom in a former resort and casino. Would he have been as motivated to get into college as he was to make a good impression on Mayor Lucas and the other advisors?
Theo came to love his meetings with Mayor Lucas and he would wait all day for the chance to sit down with the man. Lucas had years of experience running the city and dealing with the bureaucracy that came with the job. For reasons Theo still couldn’t quite understand, the mayor was happy to share all that experience and advice with him.
They discussed in broad terms the strategy for Atlantic Island for the immediate future. Theo told Mayor Lucas his concerns and was always shocked to see the mayor nodding, if not in agreement at least with understanding.
Theo found himself constantly referring to and praising his friends. He was still uncomfortable with the idea of being Mayor Lucas’s “chosen one,” and he found every available opportunity to remind the mayor of the virtues and positive attributes of Kylee, Bill, Jamie, Ryan and Michelle, all of whom were spending the weeks working away at school and jobs.
One day Theo walked into the room where he had his sessions with Mayor Lucas. The mayor was standing by the window and staring out into the distance. He seemed to not realize that Theo was in the room. For a moment Theo remained silent, not wanting to rudely interrupt the man’s thought process. Finally he decided he ought to announce himself before too much time was wasted.
“Mayor Lucas?” Theo said quietly. The mayor tensed as he was startled out of his thoughts, but he did not turn around.
“Hello, Theo,” said Lucas. His voice was strained and Theo realized the man had been choked up by whatever it was he was thinking about. “I didn’t hear you come in.”
“I didn’t want to disturb you sir. Um… is everything okay?”
Lucas turned around. He smiled wanly. “I suppose, Theo. I suppose. You’ll forgive an old man for getting a little emotional, won’t you?”
Theo laughed. “Sure, but what were you emotional about? I mean, if you want to talk and all.” He flushed, embarrassed at his clumsy display of sympathy.
“I don’t want to burden you too much with my concerns but… well, we are here to share things, are we not?”
The mayor walked to his chair and sat down. Theo did the same.
“I grew up outside of Philadelphia, just like you. Did you know that?” he asked.
“No, I didn’t realize that!”
“Well it’s true,” the mayor laughed. “Of course, the suburbs were a little different back then. A good deal more farmland. My father worked in a grocery store, sweeping the floors. It was my mother who truly raised us… my brother and two sisters and me. She taught us much of what we had to know about life, and read to us from the books my father borrowed from work. My mother had taught herself to read. She didn’t even understand half of what she was reading us but she did it anyway. To ‘open our minds’ was how she put it. And open them she did! Through her I learned about the vastness of space, the brutality of World War II that ended just before I was born, and the plays of Shakespeare.
“I loved the plays…loved all of it really. She sparked my enthusiasm for learning and my creativity. I wouldn’t have made it half as far as I did without her…and my father as well. He worked himself to the bone to provide for his family, and it caught up to him. He died in 1968. Just keeled over one day in the store.”
Lucas mulled this over for a minute. Theo waited patiently. “He did not live long,” the mayor continued, “but he achieved what he needed to for his family. By the time he passed I was already in college. My sisters were married and had children of their own. My brother was in high school but was a brilliant mind, wise beyond his years.
“My family was so very important to me, Theo. Though my siblings disbursed around the country we remained close in each other’s hearts. I kept my mother nearby so I could make sure she had the help she needed as she entered old age. When I became mayor of Atlantic City I rented an apartment for her in Mays Landing a few miles inland.”
Mayor Lucas looked directly at Theo. “My mother was nineteen years old when my eldest sister was born. She did everything for us…was everything to us for all those years, and I don’t even know if she’s alive.” He opened his arms wide. “All this, this so-called Palace, this island, all the power I’ve been given, and I can’t help my own family. I miss them terribly, Theo.”
Theo sat frozen for a few seconds as he debated a course of action. Slowly, deliberately, he stood up and put a hand on the mayor’s shoulder. “I miss my family too, sir.”
Theo shared bits and pieces of these meetings with his friends, usually as they sat down for dinner on weeknights. The teens alternated between each other’s homes enjoying the rations they brought home at the end of the day. Ryan was excited to hear Theo’s comments about the weather, which remained unchanged. As Mayor Lucas had said, the science committee was working on this and other information, but Ryan was sworn to secrecy about almost everything.
As the weeks passed, Ryan became more withdrawn and serious. Whatever it was he was working on was taking a toll on him. He spent his evenings after school at the science labs and would return home so mentally fatigued he would go right to bed. Theo and his friends tried to get Ryan to talk but he would not share anything. Kylee tried to pry some info from Michelle, but she swore that Ryan wasn’t telling her any more than he told anybody else.
One weekend evening in mid-October, Theo and Bill were waiting for Ryan as he arrived home. “Hey guys,” Ryan said, “I’m totally beat. Gonna get to bed.”
“Ry, just chill with us for a minute,” said Bill. “You need to take a second to stop stressing.”
Ryan tried to protest but Theo and Bill talked and physically maneuvered him into sitting down next to them. “Listen man,” said Theo, “we know you’ve got a ton of stuff on your mind and you aren’t allowed to talk about most of it. But we’ve been wondering- what is it that’s bothering you so much? Shouldn’t progress be like, I don’t know, a good thing?”
Ryan sighed. “Yeah… I mean, some of it is good, sure. But…” he stopped as he considered how to say something without revealing too much. “Part of why I signed up with the science committee was to get to do some cool stuff and to play with computers and all, but I also really wanted to solve the biggest problem facing all of us.”
“You mean being stuck on an island and not knowing where the hell everybody else is?” asked Bill.