Age of Power 1: Legacy (11 page)

I looked back to the middle of the gym. What I saw made me
realize that today was definitely more of a show than a real memorial. Paneled
posters of Alex hung on the walls, a giant one of him in the front, and red,
white, and blue bunting surrounded all of them. Hanging from the lights and the
backs of each chair were pennants with various symbols of corporations and
thank you notes in gold lettering underneath the logos.

A massive video screen was set at the front of the gym. The work
crews had affixed it to the wall above the main stage and had set screens of
equal size throughout the gym. The screens were all active when we came in and
the video feed was showing the center of the front stage, where I could see
that people were still getting ready for the show. I knew I wasn’t alone in my
thoughts when Brand whispered, “I’m beginning to get a bad feeling about this.
Look at the cameras up in the stands. It’s like they’re at a campaign event or
something.”

My mom heard 
him,
 she looked
at us and said, “This is why your father and I debated about telling you two
about the memorial. 
This was all funded by a couple of
major corporations as a thank you
. We couldn’t argue about it,
especially since one of them paid for both of your hospital bills. It seems
that their gratitude for being saved extended to wanting to keep you two alive
and not have you turn into a major 
cause célèbre
 for directly dying
from Alex’s power.”

I blinked. Okay. That’s fine. Everyone came close to death, and
if some rich people wanted to show their gratitude that was okay by me. So
why 
was my mother
 so dead set against…oh.
Crap.

“Hold it. Corporations paid for this. Mom, was Andrews Corp the
one that paid the hospital bills?”

She nodded as she said, “He may not be here, but Alex’s dad has
been all over the news talking about his poor, poor son. You can guess who’s
been behind that little melodramatic act. Joe doesn’t want anyone upsetting the
potential money maker that Alex has become.”

My dad, who had been quiet up until now, spoke up. “Andi, I
wondered why you were so angry after you talked with the hospital when we went
to settle the bills. I’m stunned you didn’t freak out when you heard what Dana
said.”

My mom’s smile grew brittle as her emotional ‘mask’ of nicety
came down for a moment. “I was just gauging responses, dear. Remember, I work
in the courthouse. You have no idea how deep the problems ran between Alex and
his father—or, rather, his father’s wife, Janet. And our dear Joe Andrews paid
the court costs. But now, let’s smile, be nice, grin, and bear it.”

Beside me, Brand whispered, “What’s that about Janet?”

I sighed. “I’ve met her. One time, I was over at Alex’s, and she
went after him for reading comics and watching all the science fiction shows
online. She said he was too spoiled. He’d just gotten home from mowing lawns
for most of the day and I’d just come over to borrow some books. She knew where
he’d been; he told her.”

Brand coughed. “Spoiled? Alex wasn’t spoiled! He was always
doing yard work and stuff to earn money to get those comics. She sounds like
a...”

I cut him off before he finished the sentence. In a lighter tone,
I said, “Well, Janet seems like a cruel woman until you get to know her.”

Brand’s eyes twinkled; he finished the joke for me. “Yeah, then
she’s just an evil witch. Look, I may not have liked Alex, but she’s wrong
about him. Did she always go at him like that?”

Nodding, I answered. “Janet didn’t like Alex living with them.
He was a reminder that Brian had been married once before. I think Alex was
putting up with her until he graduated.”

That last part was just a guess. Alex rarely brought up his
family with me. But with all this talking about them, made me wonder if he was
reluctant to talk about himself because he didn’t want anyone to see his
personal pain.

We reached the front of the gym. Since I was on the list, they
gave my parents seats near the stage. At my request, they also allowed Brand
and his family to sit with them. Things came together and the start of the
memorial was getting closer.

The feeling only got worse when I noticed rows in front of the
stage reserved for some very important looking people. Already seated near the
gym exit on one side were a large number of Catholic clergy. The rest were
people I only knew from television. Statesmen, politicians, movie and music
stars, even a few billionaires that I’d seen on social news shows were here.

I nodded toward them and whispered to Brand, “Seriously, how did
a major computer billionaire and a clothing guru ever know Alex? I mean, wow,
the boy got around! And why is the White House Chief of Staff and the Secretary
of State here but not their boss? Ungrateful leader of the Union, isn’t he?”

Brand snorted and said, “Be good. Remember, we don’t
want everyone calling for our heads! And I want to vote for the
Secretary of State if she runs for President someday, not have her declare war
on us. She’s cool.”

I stared at him and said, “Since when did you get into politics?
Wait a second…‘our heads?’ 
Excuse me?
 Who’s
gonna be up on the stage?”

Brand smirked. He mouthed the word, “You!”

Things moved quickly from there as people took to their
seats. Once my family was sitting, someone escorted me to the stage, where six
chairs sat at the back for all the speakers. I stood next to Dana for a moment
as we waited to 
be seated
.

As the escort walked off, I noticed Dana’s tight expression, so
I leaned toward her and whispered, “You okay? You seem bothered…”

She smiled easily, but I could see that she was angry.

She said, “Let’s just say that I had a deep understanding where
Alex’s religious beliefs are concerned. The clergy here is Catholic. Alex was
never Catholic.”

My gaze went down to her neck, and I saw that she wore a
pentagram necklace. That reminded me even more of Aunt Cassie, but it also
prompted a thought. “Alex was Wiccan? I thought he didn’t believe in a god. He
always made a face whenever I swore to the gods.”

She shook her head. In a low voice she said, “No…he didn’t. He
was a mix between a humanist and a futurist. But he
respected spirituality. But 
I
 knew that about him. These
people do not. In fact, few people here really knew him. I’m seeing a show, not
a memorial. And Alex deserved so much more!”

We began 
being seated
, and just as
Dana was shown her seat, a new person arrived to be seated between the two of
us. 
I didn’t recognize him, though
, 
he seemed familiar
. I also didn’t have time to think about
it when the lights dimmed. Around the room, the screens all came on, showing a
scene from a video I’d heard of but hadn’t had time to watch.

Along with the video, a deep-sounding voice said, 
“He
appeared from nowhere on the Day. Earth was doomed, and no amount of human
intervention could stop what was coming. Then, from a small town in the
American Midwest, a single teenager, holding the powers of the fictional
Superman, flew!”

It was just as Chief Sinclair and Hector Gutierrez had described.
Alex flared brighter than the faraway sun. We all watched as another voice,
identified onscreen as astronaut Daniel Wilson, told of his experience filming
the first and final flight of Alex Shaw, the Avatar.

I felt as if I were watching a mini-documentary on the History
Channel intermixed with a trailer to the next big superhero movie. I only hoped
it wouldn’t get worse. As we watched, Alex reached the edge of the atmosphere,
flashed brighter for a second, and suddenly sped past the ISS camera.

It took a few seconds for the camera to track him again, but
when it did, there was a collective moan from the crowd when Yama appeared. It
reflected light from the sun brightly enough to make people wince. The damn
rock was a monster. It blocked out stars and even a part of the moon. Then we
caught our breath as Alex and Yama came together. Suddenly the camera caught a
blast of light that made us all cry out and look away. Nope, nobody had thought
about using filters on that camera!

As the room darkened, we looked up and watched as the bright
blue light flared into two crescent waves that split Yama into two huge, hot,
glowing pieces. They even began to move away slightly and to the sides of the
camera’s view. You could literally see the space between them growing. At the
midpoint of the explosion, a blue and white star slowly died away.

The announcer’s voice continued, 
“To this day, no one
has been able to explain what science exists that could explain such a miracle.
And, tragically, no amount of effort to find the young Avatar has been
successful. We may never recover his body. But the Avatar has given humanity a
new chance at life. Now, here is our thank you to the god-like man who died in
saving us.”

The crew of ISS appeared and saluted a blown-up picture of Alex.

I whispered, “Please tell me that we just didn’t see the start
of a new religion!”

The man next to me heard me and said, “I think we have. I hope
we’re wrong, it would be insanity!”

Then the President appeared onscreen and gave his apologies for
not being at the memorial. That was fine. He’d always been a great speaker, but
this was for Alex. He thanked the people of Riverlite for raising such a brave
young man, and expressed his hope that others would be inspired to carry on
with acts of compassion and kindness in his name. Yep, this was only going to
increase the religious fervor that had started about Alex. And now, I had a
feeling that was exactly what someone was trying to do.

The screened
darkened,
the lights came
up as everyone in the room started clapping. I clapped along with everyone
else, but in the pit of my stomach, I had the feeling that things were about to
get way out of hand. I saw Dana tense when the first speaker, who introduced
himself as Cardinal Benito Bersculini, took his place in front of the podium
and led us all in a prayer for Alex’s soul and gave thanks for his appearance
on the Day.

I suppose I could be fine with this whole thing, except,
although I didn’t mention it to Dana, I also knew what Alex’s feelings about
religion were. Alex had definitely not been Catholic. He even mentioned
once that his mother was Lutheran. So they even had the wrong denomination. But
Alex was a futurist and an atheist, and a humanist as well, from what Dana had
said. I just knew that he didn’t believe in a God. His belief was about the
potential for human beings in the course of things. I couldn’t say anything,
but, as the homilies went on, I kept thinking Alex would tell them they were
all rushing back to the caves.

And I couldn’t say anything. Well, I could, just not
yet. I settled down my urge to scream by thinking that my turn would come soon
enough. I figured it couldn’t get much worse after Bersculini finally finished
and returned to his seat. What sounded like elevator music came on between speakers.
That was annoying in and of 
itself
. And even the
crowd in the gym looked unsettled by it. The next person to speak calmed things
down with his speech 
being filled
 with
humor. Vice Principal Jerrold Gaines told us about a time he discovered that Alex
had a sense of humor.

We all laughed when he said, “You know, at one point, he said he
could have been worse. He mentioned that he’d been thinking of doing some heavy
piercing and black lipstick. I remember staring at him in horror. He looked
serious for a moment, and then he actually grinned and said, ‘A bit too much?’
I had to wonder who this joker was and what he’d done with the normal dark
brooding Alex Shaw we all knew and loved!”

As the laughter died down, Gaines got a bit more serious.
“Really, Alex Shaw was a good kid, and I was happy to know a small part of him
that could find humor with how he acted. And I hope that each of us who knew
him can keep that as a memory to carry on with.”

After he finished, Gaines returned to his seat as the audience
applauded him. It was a good speech, and the memorial could have ended
with it and no one would have minded. But it didn’t. I gritted my teeth as
the third man stood. Joe Andrews; he was the man behind the glitz. If this was
how he thought we should remember Alex, then he had barely known him!

Maybe if he looked like a dour old man with a balding head
and hooked nose, I could have felt something for him. But no, Joe Andrews
was this heavy, gray haired man with a groomed beard and few wrinkles. The man
was in his sixties, yet he looked as if he could beat Hector Gutierrez in a
straight out fight. Well, okay, maybe not Hector. I doubt he’d need to. He
could hire someone for that. He was the richest man in town

I didn’t hate him for that, mind you, I really didn’t. Having
money doesn’t make a person evil. If it did, we’d all have been spitting on the
biggest money guy in the front row. No, I just didn’t like the way Joe Anderson
treated his family. This wasn’t a memorial to Joe Andrews. For him, this
memorial was about gain and keeping what he coveted, money. ‘Greedy’
didn’t begin to explain this guy. Yet, when he got to the podium and
began to speak, I suddenly got a glimmer of why he could do so much. It wasn’t
only about his money. He had charisma, and his 
voice
projected
 strength as he spoke.