Chapter 6: Two Fathers, Two Sons
I was outwitted! I need to be faster! Lily was way more powerful than I have imagined.As she stood in front of me, she tried punching my face with her left fist, but I crouched down and evaded her hand. I retorted by kicking her left side of her body. I throw my knife at her, as I flipped back vertically.She squatted downwards, almost touching the floor, as I stood straight. I attacked again with a shot, as she rushed towards me using her swords. She slashed the bullet that I used to attack her. She was still running at great speed, and send two swords drifting towards me.I held my gun tightly —as she was only few meters away— staring at her. But a wash of light blinded the two of us and broke the ceiling. My eyes can only see black. I can only see nothing but darkness."Lucy!"What's that? Did someone call the name of my mom?!"Lucy! Get out, I have to tell you something!!"That shout became louder and louder! I looked all over the place, but I can only see pure darkness. I can't find where that voice was coming from."Lucy!! Don't go with our son!! I want to see him! I want to see Aze!!"Huh?! Was that... my... father?! Who is he? Where is he? I want to see him!!In fact, I haven't seen him in my entire life! Even pictures or descriptions... none. I don't even know his face. All I know... that he... died before I was even born."Come here, Lucy!! Talk to me!!"I looked all over the place to find who is the man that I heard was shouting. "Dad?! Aze is here! I am here, Dad!!"It looked like no one can hear my voice, despite how loud I shout. And this place was really dark. It was hard to search in here!"Dad!! Where are you?!"I walked and tried allocating somewhere else. I have to see him! I want to have at least vague description in his face."Aze wasn't your child!!"Huh?! Was it... Yes! It's my Mom's voice. She was mildly angry. But, where is she?"I was drunk that time, and something happened between me and the Principal! The Principal is Aze's father!! Not you, Priam!"My father... was, no! Not the Principal! I don't want to!! I don't want to be his son!! I DOOOOOON'T!!!"What are you saying, Lucy! We have slept at the same room when I visited your house! Don't deny that we made something we both liked!!"It wasn't my mom's voice anymore. It was the man's voice. But, all I can do was hear them.. I can't even see where they are.But... how can the Principal be my father..?! I have no information that we have a Principal that was surnamed Montgomery..."Lucy!! Don't leave with my son!!"The man sure had started crying. I can felt the pain. In fact, it hurts me. It hurts me so much. It's as if I was that one who was betrayed."At least.. put my surname with his name. Please, name him Aze Harp Montgomery! Not Aze Harp Clinton!!"C-Clin...ton?! That was.. my Mom's surname. And I can remember that a Principal that also has that surname.. Mr. Thomas Clinton!So.. strictly speaking, was he my father? Who among them? The man that was talking to Mom that I can only hear also claimed being my father."Thomas!! Thomas!! Help me!!"That was my Mom again!! She was like dazed and scared."Thomas!! I have bleedings!! Let's go to the Hospital!!""Hospital, you say?"That voice who replied was new to my ears. It wasn't the man that was shouting earlier. And Mom.. has bleedings?!"Don't go somewhere but here!! If you have to give birth, then give birth here! And don't ask for my help!""But.. Thomas.. I can't —"What happened?! Why mom's voice suddenly faded. I can't hear any! "Mom!!" I shouted in panic. "MOM!!!"I can't hear them anymore! What happened?!"Lucy.."Oh! That man! The man who refused Mom to go to the Hospital! He was also scared. I can hear the shakiness on his voice."Lucy.. wake up.""What... happened? Th-Thomas?"Mom's voice was raspy. It's as if she shouting nonstop and don't have any voice left to use for speaking."Where's Aze? Did... Did I gave birth to him?""Sorry, Lucy. He died!"I was dumbstruck! I died?! Then why I am here?! I am with my mom for consecutive 17 years! That's a lie!"Let's adopt a child as a replacement, Lucy. And we'll treat this child as ours."What did he say? Adopt?! What the hell is... Am I adopted?!"I don't want to. I want Aze Harp! I want my Aze Harp back!!"This voice I was hearing really broke my heart. Mom was crying in great agony and pain. I can't stand it! I can no longer hear her cry because of me!"Then, let's name him Aze Harp again.""What? N-Name him.. Aze Harp?"I felt a cold sensation going up in my spine. I made me shiver; I was dumbstruck! So.. I am adopted. That's the truth. I was the replacement for the Aze Harp they lost that time.I was the lucky child they adopted. But.. that made me over think more. Who was my mother? Father? Were they both alive? Did I have siblings?"You scheme, Thomas!! How dare you hid my real son for years!! Where is he?!""I have dispatched him! You didn't telling me the truth, but I know that the father of that child was that blind Priam! You fell in love with that blind?"What? So.. Priam was the real father of the Real Aze Harp.. And he didn't die.. That Thomas.. He maybe alive even this time. I want to search for him."Lucy, I have all the luxury you wish to have, yet you still with that Priam Montgomery?!! How dare you! Then, I should be leaving as well! Be alone with your adopted child!!""Then, leave! Money aren't lives. They're deaths in this world!"Yeah. That was my Mom was always saying. Money aren't lives. They're deaths in this world. And the one who was being ruled by money was also dead.We maybe poor but we lived with dignity and purity. But we are rich in love. Craving for Money can also made someone be poor in love."Mom! I found him!"Huh?! That was my Mom again!"I found him!! The real Aze Harp!! I'll surname him Montgomery..."Chapter 7: School's Secret RevealedI opened my eyes. What happened? Where is Lily? The place I was in looked like the school's office."Aze!"That was Aaron's voice. I stared at where his voice rang out. It was on my left. There were all of them. Trixie, Emma, Nathan, Ella and Lily!"Aze Harp, am I right?" Lily hesitatingly said. "You won. I lost."What just happened in our fight? And.. did I laying down a bed?!"Your friends have already told me that you are finding the confidential files that the school is hiding for 18 years."Yeah, we are trying our best to find the blind man's book. "Did you know where it is?" I asked."Unfortunately.." she didn't even continue."Lucas.. the book was transferred into another school." Emma continued what Lily was trying to say. "Because of the renovation, old books were dispatched."What?! Then, we have to know what school did it end up? "Where? What school?" I simultaneously asked."I have no idea what book are you talking at.. But there are 6 s
Chapter 8: Given Hint DecipheringI almost begged in front of Mr. Hughes to say the exact locations of the schools. But, "I can't tell you where the exact locations.. but I will give you a hint.""Hint?! Want hint?" I remained polite."The books were distributed at the some nearby libraries." Mr. Hughes said. "From the school's location, follow the Big Dipper constellation. Alpha High was the Polaris."Big Dipper...? I gave him a stare that he needed to continue. "Please elaborate the hint, Mr. Hughes."Six stars have made the Big Dipper. One of its stars was Polaris." he stated. "Alpha High was modeled as its Polaris star. Go on search for the other five.""Five..?" I asked in disbelief. "Lily said six schools?!""Oh, yes!" he cleared his throat. "One of it, the Zachard was given only children's books. Don't mind it. Just search for the other five.""I'm so sorry for your inconvenience, Mr. Hughes. Thank you for saying the hints." I said as he rapidly walked away."I have plans to go
Chapter 9: The Lies of Sleeping DogsThrough the little rivulets of water running off his umbrella, Liam Norris watched them lower his father's coffin into the damp Donegal earth. As the priest's muffled blessing came to an end, the pall-bearers, unhitching the ropes from the now invisible handles with just a fraction too much haste, started back up the hill towards the church, followed by the priest with his own large black umbrella, and the two rain-soaked altar-boys who hurried ahead with little pretense of reverence. The mourners, a group of seven or eight rather shabbily-dressed men of his father's generation, ambled over to Liam and Francie and solemnly shook Liam's hand one by one, looking him up and down curiously as they did so, telling him that they were "sorry for his trouble". Liam thanked each of them for coming and for his kind wishes, but in reality all that he felt towards them was a mild unease, mixed with guilt at his own lack of emotion throughout the entire ceremon
Chapter 10: The Oracle at the AdelphiIt was only when Satan Coil died that any of us discovered that Satan hadn't been his real name. He died in 1956, the year that the Russian tanks rolled in to Budapest to crush the Hungarian Revolution. Of course the Hungarian Revolution was of no concern to me, I was nine years old and what I cared about was my new black Raleigh Junior bicycle, the TV set with the huge mahogany cabinet and the miniscule, blurry and often rolling black-and-white picture, and the Glenalough Adelphi, the local cinema that was owned and managed by Satan, where my friends and I spent every Saturday afternoon, transported to other lands, other times and other lives by the magic of the flickering screen.The idea of a cinema being owned and operated by Satan was one that must have appealed mightily to the local Roman Catholic hierarchy, it may even have been them who gave him the nick-name, but I suspect that it emerged more from his habit of running up and down the cin
Chapter 11: Bottom FeedersIt had turned out to be as good a morning as the weather forecast had promised. Olaf's first glance through the porthole on wakening revealed a clear blue sky with barely a wisp of cloud, a sultry heat-mist already forming that made the distant shore ripple while the sea itself remained majestically still, with only the barely perceptible rough-patch marking the reef's closest approach to the surface. They had anchored not long after sunrise, and while Olaf and Henrietta had slept, the Spanish-speaking Captain and Olaf's young safety diver Morris had studied the echo-sonde traces, eaten a light breakfast, and assembled all the equipment neatly on the rear deck ready for the dive. Olaf's camera gear and lights were neatly laid out behind his BCD and wet-suit. By the time he appeared from his cabin, having kissed Henrietta good morning (but, with an effort of will, left it at that) there was nothing more to do but suit-up and explain to Morris exactly what he
Chapter 12: Letting GoHenry knew who it was as soon as he saw the little figure in the distance between the slender boughs of the palm trees that leaned lazily across his field of view. He watched him as he turned off the dirt-track that twisted its way across the dry cactus-sprinkled scrub-land to walk up the rocky path towards his house. It was the way the man walked that gave him away: the purposefulness, the tightness of the gait, the disregard for the hazards of the bleached dusty stones that made up the path's surface. Henry had always imagined that he would be younger, somehow. An earnest young academic from some Polish university, dripping with anger and self-righteousness. This man wasn't all that much younger than himself - twenty years his junior, perhaps, a pale-skinned European in his mid-sixties, perversely dressed for the merciless heat of Thailand in a neat dark grey business suit, his figure long and gaunt, his silvering black hair thinning to near baldness beneath t
Chapter 13: IMMACULATAImmaculata's sensible flat shoes clicked along the pavement as she hurried past the open iron gates of the school hall car park. Her slight and youthful figure was respectably covered by her ample grey overcoat and a plain blue scarf held her long dark hair tight against her head. Her monthly confraternity meeting at the church had run unusually late because of a talk given by a visiting missionary father with a high pitched voice and a slow delivery: it was quite dark now, and she could hear the repetitive mechanical bass line of an undistinguished dance record playing inside the hall. The end of term disco was clearly getting under way.The signs of the impending event barely registered in Immaculata's brain, it was not the kind of thing that interested her: for some reason she had never felt drawn to the activities of other girls of her age."Immaculata!"She stopped dead in her tracks. It was Billy Sullivan, the son of the local filling station proprietor, a
Chapter 14: Services to the Community“Didn’t work out for you in Dublin, then?”She winced at the old man’s negativity. “Dublin was fine, Mr. Singer. Great. But I was there to train. To get my degree. I wasn’t there to work. You don’t just walk straight into a job on a national daily...” As you know better than I do, she almost added, but stopped herself in time.“Damn right you don’t. Thirty-eight years I’ve been in this profession, come April, and I’m still on the same paper I started on, even if I am the editor. So you’d like to come and slum it for a while, back in your old home town. Use The Eagle as a stepping stone to greater things.”“I didn’t say that, Mr. Singer. I don’t know where I’ll be in the future. I just know that I need a job in the industry right now.”He stopped fidgeting with the microphone of his ancient dictating machine and looked her straight in the eye. “You seem like a sensible enough girl. And young people aren’t exactly queuing up to work on The Eagle.”“