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CHAPTER FIVE
GIA
My body shivered.
I had called Julian a potential threat to society, but I was the ticking time bomb. The feeling of that warmth suddenly surrounding me threw me off guard, made my insides burn. It was all so confusing and embarrassing. I could not even raise my head to look at Julian.
I did not know any of those people. Why were they all being so kind and acting like they knew me? I returned their kindness with my own insanity. Who was that woman running up to me anyways? It was all so weird. One minute I was happy remembering my time with Morla, the next I was filled with bitterness and hate. My brain kept flip flopping and it was exhausting.
Julian called Orson over the phone, and he put it on speaker for me to hear that the woman, whom I now knew as Adelaide was alright, and I had not caused her real damage. But for how long? What if one day I snap and end up hurting, or even killing someone who is innocent, or someone who loves me?
Julian pulled over by the side of the road and took both of my hands in his.
“I could have killed her,” I muttered.
“But you didn’t.”
“Who was she? Why did she run up to me to give me a hug? Am I supposed to know her?” I turned to Julian who was now looking at me.
My cheeks reddened with embarrassment when our eyes met. Ever since Morla died, the happiest I felt was today, in the shop. Now, anger clouded my positive feelings and just left me confused.
The silence hung between us like a thick, wet blanket.
Julian sighed and let go of my hands.
“I was married once,” Julian spoke his voice so jarring in the quiet space that I winced from the sound. “When I finally left the camp after Boy’s Ville, I never thought I would amount to anything. I thought I would just be a street rat the rest of my miserable life. Then, I met Fletcher and his crew. They were amazing, and they did the most unimaginable thing with their hands. They taught me how to do those things too. I learned how to be part of a team, how to do something that actually mattered. We built cars in a little workshop on Jonas Avenue, and it was one of the best times of my life. They were older men, but they had young blood, searching constantly for ways to bring light to the lives of people…” his voice broke, and he smiled into the distance as if he was reliving those moments again.
“Fletcher had seen the worst of disasters. He lost his wife, his children, his job. But then, he found inspiration again and built everything from scratch, and although it was a small workshop on Jonas Avenue, it was worth it because that place… that place brought life to the world. Who would have known that the first Fletcher Engines that won De Apollo were built in that tiny space? He had a little granddaughter though. If she was here, she’d kill me for calling her little. Such a spitfire.”
“You married her?” I asked, my anxiety dying.
“Well, not immediately…” he chuckled pleasantly. “We fought a lot. I mean, she nailed me with a spanner in the head once, and I was out of work for nearly a month. We were that angry. She was always angry that I looked at her as nothing but a girl, and I was mad at her that she saw me as nothing but a boy from Boy’s Ville. But I was the one seeing myself that way in her presence, and she always wanted validation because she was the only girl in the shop at the time. She just wanted to be respected like one of the boys. She even won De Apollo in 2003. Youngest racer to ever win at De Apollo. The youngest. I fell in love with her, and years later, we got married. Fletcher passed. The whole crew retired, some dead now, some in homes, but we kept the place alive, built an empire out of it. The place was willed to us, my life was better.” He laughed again, looking into the distance. “It was the best. With her, it was the best.” He turned to look at me, a rueful smile in his eyes, “she got pregnant, and I was the happiest man in the world.” He removed a picture of an ultrasound from inside his wallet and showed it to me. “A boy. I was going to name him Fletch, you know…I was eager to be a father who would not abandon his son, and be a better man for my wife,” he sniffed. “One night, we had a big argument. She ran out of the house, and I thought she wouldn’t go far. It was just some stupid argument, and she would come back. She was stubborn as hell. I thought she would come back…”
“What happened?”
“She never did. She disappeared.”
I felt blood drain from my face as he uttered those words. It must have been so devastating for him to be happy one moment, and extremely sad the next. With trying to get my brain free from The Wonder Project, I knew that feeling.
“I searched for years…”
“I am so sorry,” I choked out. “Did you find her?”
He looked back out into the distance for a few seconds before shifting out of park and getting back onto the road.
As he did, he said, “I can only hope at this point in time that she returns, but for now she remains alive in my memories.”
His smile came back, so fully that it made me flush at what a hopeful man he was. He had hope that his long-lost wife and son would come back, and here I was beating myself up about something so silly. I was free, and if I was free, it meant I could do anything I wanted, and make the most of my life.
She must be a great woman to have won De Apollo 2003, I thought to myself.
***
"Run! Run!” I heard a voice through the mist. I looked back and no one was there any longer. I turned to keep moving but was met with something heavy and metal pushing back against my chest. I stumbled to the floor, hitting the concrete hard. The cold metal rested on my head, and the dazzling image before me made it difficult to see the face.
“Say your last prayer.”
“Who are you?” Before I could utter any more words, a loud bang cracked through the calm, and I felt burning lead pierce through my soul. The last thing I saw were heels running away from where I lay dead on the cold floor.
