Technocracy: Epiphany, Part 3

Three periods later, they were at Lunch.

“Uuuggghhhhh,” groaned Marin, slumping heavily into her seat with her tray. Her heavy red wool dress kept her warm in the slight chill of the cafeteria. She was also wearing green leggings. Actually, all of them had some green on, somewhere. In addition to Saera’s dark green pants, Ardo was wearing a henley with green sleeves and a gray body, atop some jeans. Terry, of course, had his usual green field jacket on, atop some heavy brown corduroy pants and a navy shawl-collar sweater.

“How’s your weird-ass day been, fatass?” said Ardo, slipping into the seat across from her.

Marin reached for the big navy streak in her hair. She grimaced at it as she held it out where she could see it. “I managed to play it cool and convince everyone who asked that I was trying out a new style. I said my mom pulled some strings with the front office and got me an exception to the ban on hair dye. I said I’m not sure if I’m gonna keep it or not.” Marin crossed her arms. “So I’ve been able to keep today from being a total disaster.”

“I have just generally not talked to people,” said Saera, sitting down next to Marin. “I am not talked to much anyway, so I’ve put the whispering out of mind.”

“Welcome to the club,” said Terry, sitting down next to Ardo. “You’ll get used to that after a while.”

For a moment, all four of them ate bites of their food. But only for a moment. “So,” said Ardo, “we gonna talk about this, or what?”

“Talk about what?” asked Marin.

“Come on, fatass,” said Ardo. “We all show up on the first day of school with weird color streaks in our hair? Doesn’t that bug anyone else?”

“My hair is fine,” said Terry. Then he said “Hey!” as Ardo stood up and pulled at the front of his brown locks.

“No it’s not,” said Ardo. “Your hair’s changed color, too, it’s just not as obvious as the rest of us. See?” He pulled a swath of Terry’s brown hair away from the rest of it.

Saera, Marin both glanced up and looked at what he showed.

The hair now that Ardo held was brown—that had not changed.

But all of a sudden both girls noticed that it gleamed,

That it… sparkled, glimmering amid the lights above,

Caught the light and flickered, like light playing off a mirror.

It was brown, but shiny brown—it had metallic sheen.

“Whoa, hey!” said Terry.

“Terry, he’s right,” said Marin. “Your hair’s got this… shine to it. At least the part he’s holding.”

“It’s not easy to notice, not compared to the rest of us,” said Ardo.

“But you have an eye for color,” said Saera, smiling up at him; Ardo smiled back down at her, in turn.

“I-It must be a trick of the light,” said Terry.

“No,” said Marin, standing up and pulling out her phone. The soft click of her camera issued, and she swung the screen around to show Terry the photo. “See? Ardo’s right.”

Terry beheld the glimmering glint of his brown hair lock and his copper eyes bulged; they did that shift, again, where they swung between copper and bronze. “Whoa,” he said.

“So like I said,” and Ardo sat down again, “we all show up on the first day of school with weird color streaks in our hair. Does this bug anyone else?”

“Yes,” said Saera. “And what about what has happened with you all today? Things acting… strange, when you all are around, and are angry. The same thing happened to me this morning with my Mama.”

“Not to mention the eye glow,” said Marin.

“You saw that too?” asked Terry. “I saw it in Ardo in Homeroom.”

“Really?” asked Ardo.

“Yeah, man,” said Terry. “Your eyes shone this bright red color, right as you breathed out smoke.”

“And Terry, your eyes shone kind of a brown color, right as the floor shook when you were mad,” said Marin.

“When that mopping robot blew up, Marin, your eyes were shining bright blue,” said Saera.

“You reckon your eyes shine too, Saera?” asked Ardo.

“It would not be surprising,” said Saera. She put a knuckle to her lips. “So, we have all gotten strange colored streaks in our hair, and it would seem that we all have odd things happening around us, which are accompanied by our eyes glowing.” Her fingers moved to her chin. “Hmm. And glowing the same color as our actual eyes, at that.”

“And our hair,” said Ardo. “You’ve got that white streak, Saera, so I bet your eyes glow white.” He tilted his head to the side and barked up a chuckle. “Color-coordinated. Fucking hell.”

“Heck,” said Terry, “speaking of things we have in common, what about when we all got sick? We all got sick on the same day. And I think we all felt better on the same day too, right?”

“Yes,” said Saera. “I felt better on January 6^th, and that was what I heard from all of you, as well.”

“Yeah, the sixth is the date for me,” said Ardo. “That’s when I suddenly wasn’t sick any more.”

“Same for me,” said Terry.

“Me too,” said Marin.

Now it was Saera’s turn to cross her arms. She bent her head, the snowy white streak in her hair still so distinctive against the rest of the platinum blonde locks. “We all got sick on the same day. We were sick the same number of days. We all felt better on the same day. Now, all of us have strange streaks of color in our hair, and we have all had strange moments involving physical changes to the world, which were accompanied by our eyes glowing.”

No one spoke for a moment.

“Shit,” Ardo finally said.

“I agree,” said Marin.

“So… what?” said Terry. “We have a lot of points of data, but what’s the conclusion here? What are we saying by noting all this stuff?”

Saera cocked her head to the side. Her silver eyes narrowed. “I do not know,” she said, softly and slowly. “There is something here. My instincts tell me that there is something here, something strange. Something that links the four of us together. But I cannot say what it is. I don’t have enough data yet.”

“Well I agree with that,” said Terry. “This is all definitely weird. And it sure seems like it means something. But I’m not going to say what, because I don’t think we can say. I say wait and see.”

“That seems the most prudent course of action,” said Saera. And then her silver eyes sharpened. “But we must be sharp, and my advice is that we should not speak of this to anyone, not even our parents.”

“My Mom might—” Marin began.

“No,” said Saera, softly, but firmly. “My instincts continue to tell me to keep this a secret. My pediatrician is Dr. Crickson—”

“No way,” said Ardo. “That’s mine too!”

Saera’s eyes widened. “Really?” Ardo nodded. “And I know he is also Marin’s… Terry, who is your pediatrician?”

“I haven’t seen one in years,” said Terry. “But it actually might have been him, the last time I saw him.”

Saera’s knuckle came up to her lips again. “Hmm. Another odd link between the four of us.” She shook her head softly, and yet again crossed her arms over her chest. “But regardless, if we are all going to be seeing Dr. Crickson about our hair, I propose that we tell him only the bare minimum of what he needs to know. Tell him about how we were sick. But I would not tell him about that dream we all seem to have had.”

“Oh, yeah, that,” said Marin. “I don’t remember most of it. There was somebody… talking? That’s all I remember.”

“Don’t tell Dr. Crickson about that,” said Saera. “And don’t tell him about our eyes glowing. I do not want more attention drawn to us than is necessary. I should rather maintain a certain level of normalcy among us, at least until we can perhaps learn more.”

“So you want me to lie to my mom and my doctor,” said Marin.

“Just for now,” said Saera. “At least for now.”

“I think she’s right,” said Terry. “You’ve clearly put more thought into this than the rest of us so far, Saera.” She nodded. “And I do think she is right. This is all really weird, but I’m worried about what would happen if somebody outside the four of us found out about it. If we were in danger… if we were going to be harmed… it would be one thing. But I don’t know about you guys, but I feel fine.”

“I feel really good,” said Ardo.

“Me too,” said Marin.

“I have felt fantastic since getting over that sickness,” said Saera.

“So we definitely don’t seem to be in danger of being hurt or dying from all this,” said Terry. “So, because of that, I do think Saera’s right. I think it’s probably prudent not to tell Dr. Crickson and our parents any more than we absolutely have to.” Terry picked at the sleeve of his field jacket. “We need to learn more. We need to see what happens.”

“Hmm.” Saera had long since finished eating. They all had. She checked her phone. There were more than ten minutes left in Lunch. She slumped forward, resting her head on the table between her folded arms. She thought. She felt her mind drift back to that moment in the kitchen this morning.

Something was pulling, somewhere. Something was tugging. Something nagged at the back of her brain. She thought, and wondered about what had happened, those hours ago. When the breeze had swirled. Such a strange thing. A breeze—a wind. And she wondered about how it had felt.

Suddenly it seemed that she’d been kicked upside the head,

Jerking back, she stumbled in her chair, her long legs flailed,

As a burst of wind, of air, erupted in their midst,

Blowing all their hair around and billowing their clothes,

Almost knocking all their lunch trays off onto the ground,

And as Marin, Ardo, Terry, all saw Saera, they

Noticed that her eyes were shining, gleaming neon white.

The burst of wind ended as quickly as it had begun. Saera felt the tug go away, like a muscle spasm in her head that had come and gone. She saw the other three staring at her. She smiled gently. “Oops,” she said.

“Wow,” said Terry.

“So they do glow white,” said Ardo. “Aw, yeah, I was right.” He grinned.

“Wait,” said Marin. She pointed at Saera. “Air.”

“What?” asked Saera.

“Nothing,” said Marin. She shook her head, and leaned back in her chair, long hair pooling down her front, that one navy blue streak so stark against the rest of her black locks.

“Heh,” laughed Terry. “I guess this is the most important news of the day. More important than the original news I had.”

“Huh?” asked Ardo.

Terry smiled, and glanced to the side. “Today is my birthday.”

“Ah!” cried Marin. “Ah! Ah! Oh my gosh, happy birthday! Happy birthday, Terry!” And she ran around the table, and before Terry could stop her she had wrapped him in a tight embrace.

“Happy birthday, man,” said Ardo. He clapped Terry firmly on the bicep. “Man, you should have told us sooner!”

Saera smiled, beaming, and her silver eyes were bright. “Happy birthday, Terry.”

Terry glanced aside bashfully as Marin hugged him tightly. “Thanks, guys.” His face wrinkled, it contorted, and Marin, Saera, and Ardo saw the extent to which he was holding back extreme emotion.

“Hey, dude, let’s go out to dinner tonight,” said Ardo, grabbing Terry on the shoulder and forcing him to face Ardo headlong. “Come on, my aunts will take us out.”

“Um, hold on,” said Marin. “My mom and I can take him out just fine. And we will. We’ll go somewhere nice.”

“My mama and I would love to make you a dinner guest, Terry,” said Saera.

Now Terry bent forward, and he sniffed, and his eyes grew wet. “Th-Thanks,” he said. “I mean, I didn’t have any plans or anything. My dad’s obviously not doing anything. But I’d love to… you know, go with you. With some of you.”

“Hey, Saera, Marin, let my aunts take us out,” said Ardo. “They really got to like Terry when they were helping him while he was sick. You two can come too. We’ll go to this badass Spanish restaurant. The owner is friends of our family.”

Saera and Marin exchanged glances. “That sounds fine to me,” said Saera.

“Yes,” said Marin. “I don’t have ballet lessons for another week, so I’m free every night this week.”

The bell rang.

“Come on,” said Ardo, popping up from his seat. “Let’s text after school. If we can’t do it tonight, we can do it tomorrow night or the night after. How’s that sound, Terry?”

“That sounds… awesome,” said Terry, voice cracking. “Thanks. Thanks so much, you guys.”

Saera’s pale, thin fingers wended down to Terry’s hand and wrapped around it. Terry glanced down at this, then glanced over at her. She smiled meekly, but sweetly. “Ardo is right. You should have told us sooner. We would have remembered if you had.”

“I just…” Terry rubbed the back of his head. “I didn’t want to be a bother.”

“No!” Marin whirled at him, and poked him firmly in the shoulder. “You are our friend, Terry. You’re never a bother. Ever.” Marin grinned. “We love you.”

“Thanks, guys,” said Terry. He laughed. “This is already the best birthday I’ve had in a long time.”

“Gonna get better,” said Ardo. “Come on, let’s go!”

So Ardo vaulted up the steps of the levels of the cafeteria, out into the broader hall. Saera followed, as did Terry.

Marin lingered, hands on her hips. She poked out an index finger, and watched her three friends go, and pointed it at them, one by one by one. She pointed at Saera. “Air. Definitely.” The finger swung to Ardo. “Red, smoke… Fire.” Elaborately, with much twirling, she then pointed at Terry. “Brown, ground shakes… Earth, right? Duh.” And then the finger turned back at her, and she pointed at her own chest. “So, blue… that means I’m Water.” She shrugged her shoulders. “Or maybe I’m wrong. Guess we’ll see.” And her hair billowed behind her as she hurried to catch the other three.