78. TICKS
As the twins shuffled away, Kip jabbed his sister in the arm. “Thanks a LOT, Gowan turd.”
When the Gem awakens to call a Hero, the world is ill prepared...and its fate is placed in the hands of a 17 year old boy, named Wendell.
Some will say this is nothing but a tale of fiction.
Let them think as they may.
After all...I can't fix stupid.
Previously: Wendell was released from the clutches of the lab coats and escorted by two teens to meet the President of Clockworks City.
Chapter 78
Society schools us to place ourselves first. We are trained and encouraged to take, get gain, compete, amass material wealth and beneficial connections…so we can defend against the evils that constantly besiege us.
…yet only the wise ever discover that the evil that constantly besiege us are created by the students of society.
“Gentlemen, we’d like some privacy please,” Stump said loudly.
Without another word, the eight black suits vacated the room, disappearing through a far door—the last one pulling it closed behind them.
“I know they’re necessary, but it does get on my nerves, always having someone breathing over my shoulder. Watching my every move, if you know what I mean?” He looked up at me, and I remained silent. “Forget the sitting room. That’s for negotiations and formal arguments with other faction and guild leaders. This is something special!”
Kip grinned and started pushing the wheelchair, Buffy and I in tow.
“Gretta!” Stump cried out. A moment later, an old female gnome, dressed in powder blue with white shoes appeared. “Would you get us some refreshments please?”
“Yes, Mr. President.”
The further we walked, I started to notice a slight curvature to the rooms of the penthouse. We passed through an opening in a blue translucent wall…and I nearly fell over.
“WOAH!” I blurted out, stumbling backwards. I hit the blue wall and started to slide down to my backside, arms flailing. The smiley flashed instantly from yellow to snow white, eyes as big as saucers. In desperation, I gripped onto Buffy and clung to her.
She smiled triumphantly from ear to ear. “Now that’s what I’m talking abou…”
“Buffy!” Kip snapped.
“WHAT?” she yelled back, “He grabbed ME!” She softly caressed my face, “He looks stressed…I’m just comforting him.”
Not sure if I mentioned this before, but heights are not my thing. In fact, I’m terrified of heights. This room opened up to the great outdoors…thousands of feet above the ground! Walls, ceilings, even the floors…was made of transparent materials. At the center was a long, elegant table surrounded by a set of transparent chairs. The bowl of fruit, sitting plainly as a center piece looked like it was floating in midair. The only problem for me, was the main tower was hundreds of floors high…and when you looked down, I’m guessing the lower floors were built with mirrors
…because all you could see what the sky.
Clouds floated by the window.
My stomach heaved…and I choked it down.
“Are you alright, Wendell?” President Stump asked anxiously. When I didn’t respond, he followed my line of sight, which was fixed on the mountain range thousands of feet below us. “Oh my. You don’t like heights, do you? Didn’t think about that possibility!” He turned the wheelchair around, “Come on Kip, lets go back to the sitting room.” Shaking a finger at his daughter, “Quit stroking the boys cheek, Buffy! Help him into the next room.”
It took a few minutes, but they eventually encouraged me to crawl across the floor and propped me up onto the small couch. Being more than twice the size of the gnomes in human size, I made the furniture look more like an extra wide chair.
Buffy snuggled in next to me. “I’ll sit with Wendell. He still looks shaken.”
“That’s it,” Stump grumbled, “You children are excused. I wanted to have you here, but this is quite enough. What I have to say to the Gnolaum is…”
“Wendell.”
The President looked up.
“Please,” I choked, the color returning slowly to my face, “just call me Wendell. Not Gnolaum, not sir, Lord, sire, Mister…just plain old, normal Wendell.” I let my head fall backwards as the smiley silently gagged.
“…what I have to say to Wendell. So you two see yourselves out.”
“Seriously?!” bellowed Kip. “She mucks this up and I get punished too? That’s crap!”
His father frowned. “Out.”
As the twins shuffled away, Kip jabbed his sister in the arm. “Thanks a LOT, Gowan turd.”
“So sorry I’m late, your brilliant tubbiness!” Ian huffed, jogging into the room. “I missed the last elevator.” He gave me a sharp look. “It seems the last one was full. What did I miss?”
Yup, he was going to take it out on me.
“We’ve just sat down, so you haven’t missed a thing.” President Stump beamed at me. “I assume you two have already met?”
We both nodded.
“Good! Good! Then let’s get down to business here.”
Gretta walked in and set a small tray down on the coffee table between us. She curtsied and left.
A small pot of steaming liquid, four cups, four saucers and a bowl of sliced fruit. Cut in a similar fashion as you would an orange, these fruits had a deep forest green skin, a bright yellow meat on the inside with dozens of purple seeds at its center.
The room quickly filled with the scent of mint and chocolate.
While Ian poured the liquid into the cups, Stump held up one of the fruits. “I’m so glad I was able to get these before you arrived. Uroshimät. Gander fruit. Very difficult to acquire…but I spared no expense for our first meeting.” He shook his head. “What am I saying? You probably have this all the time from where you come from.”
“No, actually.” I accepted the piece offered me. “I’ve never had the opportunity.” I forced a grin to my face. “Thank you.”
Stump beamed and snatched up his own piece, popping the whole thing in his mouth. His eyes clenched tightly as the munching and slurping noises commenced. “Mmmm. Mmmmm!”
“You’ll have to excuse his brilliant blubberiness,” Ian said, setting a pit back onto the tray, “it’s not often that we are able to convince the Temple to part with their treasured fruit. They ask an exceedingly high price for this rare treat.” His tone stressed the word rare.
I raised the slice cautiously to my lips.
“Not like that,” gurgled Stump, trails of liquid escaping down his chin. He grabbed a napkin and wiped his face. “The experience is in the whole piece, skin and center. Pop the whole piece in your mouth and chew quickly.”
Put me on the spot now, why don’t you? Good grief. It smelled sweet…almost like lemons. It was pretty…so it should be just fine, right? Sure. Yeah. It’ll be great. My nose, however, was pulling my attention to the liquid that smelled like chocolate mint.
Uhhhhhh….Alright…here goes…
I popped the whole slice into my mouth, both Stump and Ian staring on.
The first sensation sent a wave through my mouth so fast my head almost reeled backward. My nose crinkled up and my eyes clench tight, while my poor cheeks wanted to shrivel up and roll to the back of my throat.
SOUR! Holy momma of….THAT WAS SOUR!!
The smiley face shook violently across my chest, puckering so badly, the round head looked closer to an hourglass.
“Chew!” Stump burst out laughing. “You have to chew it, Wendell, quickly!”
Forcing my jaw muscles to clench down, I fought the urge to spit. One bite, then another. The texture was like the skin of a lemon—firm with a pleasant crunch to it. Each grind of my molars changed the dynamics of the taste, from an overwhelming sour to a warm sweetness of sugar that subdued and balanced the sour.
Wow. My eyes popped open. That was…good! I stared at the president as I chewed more vigorously.
“Told you,” he smirked. “A perfect experience when you know how it all works, don’t you think?”
I nodded, “Absolutely. May I?”
Stump smiled warmly. “Please, help yourself.”
Knowing to focus on creating the mix of released flavors made the second bite heavenly. “That’s amazing.” I swallowed. “Thank you, very much, sir.”
The President beamed. “I…wanted to use this as an ice breaker, Wendell. Didn’t expect the laughs, but I’m glad. What I’d like to discuss isn’t an easy subject.”
I raised my cup to my lips and sipped. It was a perfect liquid version of the chocolate minds left on the pillow of really nice hotels back on Earth.
“I need your help.”
I looked up to find both gnomes staring back and serious faced. I swallowed loudly. “My…help?”
“Clockworks is under incredible duress. You must have seen signs of it as you wandered about the populace, didn’t you?”
“You mean, like the factory workers, the strikes, reports of violence…”
“Exactly,” the president exclaimed.
“But the media doesn’t always tell the truth. In fact,” I argued, “most of the stories about me and the Trench Wars pilots was flat out false.”
“We do have a problem with slight exaggeration,” Ian said with a smile.
I glowered. “No, you have a serious problem with liars and ignorant people making assumptions, while others disregard the truth and fabricate what they want to sway the minds of others.” I shifted my gaze from the president. “Then you have gnomes like Twoface here. That’s a whole problem in itself.”
Ian snorted. “Now you wait just a…”
Stump chuckled, “I see you’ve been talking to my children.”
“Good kids.”
“Thank you. I think so too.” Taking up his saucer, “You must understand that Ian has a job that few could ever perform…and even fewer would want.” He took a sip. “With what he’s required to do, there’s little fame and even fewer friends at the end of the day.”
“Quite right,” Ian muttered.
“But…,” Stump smiled, “appreciated by me nonetheless.”
“Thank you, sir.”
I set my cup down and sat upright in my seat. “So his job is to threaten and bully other gnomes into submission? Blackmail in exchange for cooperation?”
“What?” President Stump looked to his assistant, openly appalled.
Ian sat upright. “I never!”
“No?” I leaned forward, the smiley on my shirt revealing its curling grin…as sweet thoughts resurfaced…of punting the albino’s head out a window. “I sat there in Morty Teedlebaum’s warehouse as you threatened his wife and personally manipulated me to get me to cooperate on behalf of President Stump.”
Now it was Stump who frowned. “Is this true, Ian?” Fat hands gripped the side arms of the wheelchair and squeezed tightly. “You were asked to get me an update on the PROMIS device and to make an offer of government sponsorship to Mr. Dipmier here, nothing more, Ian.”
The albino shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “Our records showed the tinkerer was lagging behind schedule! Teedlebaum was so close to success that our own engineers could likely finish the project if he couldn’t. I…felt he needed a little motivation, that’s all.”
“You felt.” Stump sighed, his head dropping forward. With one hand, he rubbed the front of his forehead. “Leave us.”
The albino gasped. “L-leave? As in this meeting? You’re actually kicking me, your primary assis…”
President Stump glared at him. “Now, Ian.”
Straightening his red tie, the gnome stood up abruptly, snatched his briefcase from the side of the chair and marched across the room. There was a quiet squeak of a door…followed by a slam.
“I’m…sorry about that, Wendell.” Arching his back, the president tried to shift himself, arms trembling. “Stupid wheelchair.”
“Would you like to sit in one of these, sir?” I asked. “It’s probably more comfortable.” At first I couldn’t tell if the gnome was shocked…or confused. “I’d be more than happy to lift you,” but I hesitated. “Unless that would offend you?”
“No…not at all,” he said softly. “In fact, I’d be grateful.”
Sliding a hand under his knees, I placed the other around Stumps back. He was surprisingly easy to lift, probably as heavy as an eight year old child. I moved him from the wheelchair to the same spot Ian had been sitting moments ago.
“I’d forgotten how good that feels,” the President beamed, sinking back into the chair, letting his hands rest along the plush arms. “Very kind of you.”
Aside from who he had working for him, the President didn’t seem like such a bad gnome. I watched him, lost in the change of perspective. Something had to change in this city…among this people, and I realized my opportunity might still be on the table.
“I can’t speak for you,” was all that came out.
“I’m sorry?”
“If that’s what you want from me. To sway the people to follow and obey the government more, or to fall in line with whatever your agenda is. I can’t do that.”
Stump laughed, which threw me off. He looked up and me and nodded. “It would be stupid, too.”
Now it was me who looked shocked.
“This whole meeting has been thrown off track because of others assuming they know what my mind and intentions are, Wendell. But Ian’s been wrong, the Centurions have been wrong…even the G.R.R. movement only knows me through my henchmen filters.” He struggled to sit forward and grab his saucer again, and nearly fell over. I lifted the cup to him. “Thank you,…again.” He smiled warmly. “If for no other reason, I’m glad you came to see me. Just so I could meet you. To see if you were real with my own eyes. The Gnolaum of holy prophecy.” He took a sip of his drink and stared. “Wow, Wendell.”
An awkward silence lingered for a moment.
“You want to see it, don’t you?” I said, finally.
He shrugged. “I don’t need…,” but he stopped himself, considered, and then his grin widened. “Well, yeah, actually. I do.”
I laughed. “For the record, I don’t go around lifting my shirt to people, alright?”
Stump laughed loudly. “Noted.”
When I lifted the shirt to reveal the Ithari, the natural light from the windows reflected off my chest. It created a hundred rainbows in the room. Brilliant spectrums of colors danced off the walls and ceilings.
Stump gasped. “You really are here…”
I let the shirt fall and the lights vanished. “Well, I wouldn’t say that.”
Stump blinked. “What? Why would you say…”
“I’m not sure I’m the one everyone’s talking about, sir. I mean, I do have the Ithari…that’s for certain, but maybe this Gnolaum is someone other than me. That’s all I’m saying. It would help incredibly, if you could please explain what this prophecy actually is. Everyone keeps mentioning it, but…”
“You don’t know it?”
I shook my head. “I’m quickly learning that there’s a lot I don’t know in this wide world. Take Clockworks, for example. You have writings and beliefs about this Gnolaum that I’ve never heard of…and believe it or not, I’m new to this myself.”
The gnome stared at me, puzzled. He blinked a few times, my words sinking in. “Huh. I never would have considered that.”
“So, would you explain this gnome prophecy to me? It would be a great help.”
President Stump handed the saucer back to me and leaned back thoughtfully. “It’s…a bit complicated.”
“Everything’s complicated from where I’m sitting I’d rather know a little something, than nothing at all.”
“It’s also hard to convey—there are so many interpretations.”
I paused.
“You don’t know what the prophecy says, do you.”
For a moment, Stump held his breath. Then he exhaled in a quick huff, “Nope.”
We both laughed.
“The strange thing is, our whole culture has been taught that the Gnolaum…this great, gracious being…would come back and save us. Whatever that means. The Church has taught this tiny snippet of lore for hundreds of years.” He motioned to the chair he was sitting upon. “And as I’ve seen thus far, you definitely are kind and gracious…but I remember, even as a boy, asking the priests of the Temple more about you. They told me it was only for those sanctified in the Church, to know the whole meaning of the ancient writings.”
“That…doesn’t sound right to me. How can you believe in something deeply if you know nothing about it? I guess you could call it faith, but I wouldn’t call willful ignorance ‘faith’.”
“Your words, not mine, Wendell. I’ve always been a believer. My wife was also and that’s how we raised the twins. To believe that someday, we would right from this island and rejoin the world as equals. But now, with you here, I…”
I popped another piece of fruit into my mouth and flinched.
“Chew,” Stump chuckled. “Remember to chew!”
“What,” I chewed quickly, “was it…you wanted of me, then?”
“Ah, well, thankfully not what you might have thought.” He drained the rest of his cup. “It’s a very complicated task, being President…and dealing with such a large population. Now that we’re in private, I can say that this is in fact, a burden. A city that is split along three, rather broad dividing lines. The Government, the Church and then the Revolutionaries. I believe all of them have their place. I know, I know…this isn’t a train of thought Ian or any of my constituents would condone, nor my supporters…but this is just us. So let me be myself, so you know my mind and heart…without filters..”
I relaxed more into the couch. Could I have been wrong about the government? How could a system become so corrupt with a decent gnome in charge? Then again, he was only one person. Stump wasn’t a king and there were many cogs in the Clockworks machine that was government. This wasn’t a small town or a handful of people. This was one and a half billion in population. It was an entire country compressed into a single massive city…each with their own, distinct personality. “I’m listening.”
Stump looked casually over his shoulder at the door Ian and the black suits had walked through. “There are good people in all three factions, Wendell. I’ve seen it. What I am seeking, is a way to combine the good of all and create a more united people. Not by force or by law…but to find a way to do it by choice. That’s the key. Create a common ground, a common vision and allow people to find a better path on their own.”
I thought back to one of my conversations with Philburt Bellows. “People in power might not appreciate that, you know?”
“I do know!” Then pointing at the door, “You’ve already seen how convoluted my instructions get when filtered through an individuals own interpretation and assumption. But what if it was clear? Simple?”
“What do you mean?”
“Going back to the basics of being a decent gnome. That everyone has a place. That everyone has a purpose. That every gnome has value. To find the common beliefs that cross all three factions and focus on those, instead of our differences!”
I sat there for nearly a minute in silence. Stump stared back, but let the words sink in. It sounded good. It even felt good. He wasn’t asking for…well, I’m still not sure what he was asking for, but so far, I couldn’t see any reason why I couldn’t help…but one thing standing in the way of why I would.
“You still have my friend caged and wounded, like an animal. A friend who has bled for me, protected me…”
“And you couldn’t possibly see your way in assisting me, unless he was safe.”
I nodded.
With a deep sigh, President Stump clasped his hands together and rested his chin on them. “It’s a difficult situation, I’m afraid.”
I shook my head. “No, it’s not. We were both tortured and questioned at your hand.” I paused. “It may have been at the hands of your henchmen, but they work for you and you’re responsible. The difference between my friend and I, is that I heal quickly…he doesn’t. Mr. Upshot, one of your white lab…’people’ down there, threatened me, just before your twins showed up. Said I was a threat to this city and if I crossed him, he’d cut Dax into pieces.”
President Stump listened carefully, showing little emotion other than raising an eyebrow at the mention of the mutilation. “You feel this Upshot will carry out this threat?”
“Absolutely,” I said. “He’s a psychopath with a scalpel.”
He sighed. “Then I’m already seeing two problems I don’t have solutions to. At least not yet. Your friend, as much as I believe you Wendell, is and will be looked upon as a danger to this community. I cannot, in good conscious, let him go.”
“But he’s NOT a vallen, which is what I’ve been trying to tell everyone…but no one will listen!”
“Precisely,” Stump said. “Which is why I’m working to change the minds and hearts of the people. I do believe you, Wendell, please know that. However, Dax cannot be allowed to walk the streets of this city. The people still believe he IS a vallen, and as such, would kill him if they had a chance.”
“They’re killing him now.”
“Then I will personally get involved. You have my word on that. I’ll talk to this Mr. Upshot…and to his superior…”
“That’s not good enough.”
Stump clamped his mouth closed.
“It seems to me you’re a bit out of touch with those working closest to you, Mr. President. That doesn’t exactly create confidence. Dax’s safety is key to you getting my help. In fact, it’s your only key. You’ll have to do better.”
Stump nodded. “Hence my second problem…I may be President, but I’m limited as to my control over those in my administration.”
That, I could believe. Twoface was a perfect example, but I didn’t need to say that out loud. “Then sadly, I think our conversation is over.” I stood up. “Your men can take me back to my cell.”
Stump chuckled. “Nonsense. You never have to go back.” His eyes suddenly grew as wide as the saucers on the table. “Wait. I can bring Dax here.” A shallow laugh, deep from within his chest resonated, then grew in volume. “That’s it—the answer! I can help you, Dax, AND this city by having Dax come and live, up here…with me!” He looked up to me, beaming. “I could oversee his medical treatment…using my personal staff…and keep him safe with my own private security. Would that be satisfactory?”
“You would bring a supposed vallen, up here, to live in your own home? Won’t that hurt the public’s view of you?”
Stump offered his hand. “What? That I love my countrymen so much that I’m willing to take all the risks myself in protecting them? Because that’s exactly the spin I would put on this, publicly. If it would secure the support of the Gnolaum in saving my own people, then yes, I would do this…and I will.” He grinned gleefully. “All I’m asking you to do is speak your conscious. Speak peace, love, kindness and encourage the gnomes of this city to work together to build a better tomorrow by cooperation, collaboration, and community.” Slapping the side of the chair, “THAT’S what I want to see!”
Well I’ll be. I reached down and shook the gnomes hand firmly. “Then I would be willing to help.”
President Stump grinned with delight and slapped his knee. “Then plop me back in that cursed wheelchair and let’s go meet the press!”
“Oh,” I stopped in mid lift, “there’s one more thing I need you to do for me, Mr. President. Something very important was stollen from me by those lab coats…”
“Name it, my boy.”
I sighed a breath of relief. “There was a folded letter with a red wax seal on it…”
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