Grandfather (26 page)

Meeko and Cleo gasped.
“May we ask how he died?” Cleo asked.

I thought back to the day
I heard how one of the older guys saw Jim dead. I think that was
when I first realized I’d probably meet the same fate. “When you’re
seventeen, they kick you out on the streets. Most orphans die on
the streets. At least that’s how it is outside of the wall. That’s
how Jim went. It’s unfair what happens out there.”

I immediately realized
that I had said the wrong thing. Meeko’s and Cleo’s eyes grew wide,
their green eyebrows raised. I glanced at the audience. The people
I could see had similar expressions. I refused to look at
Cornelius. He probably looked as if he could strangle and rip me
apart. If it wasn’t for me telling Meeko and Cleo about Marley and
Ashton, they would’ve been dead within minutes. I just knew that
Cornelius wouldn’t have them killed now that everybody in the
nation knew about them.

“Let’s move on,” Meeko
said, as if nothing had happened.

“
You’ve
heard a lot about him,” Cleo took over, her voice slowly returning
back to normal. Her arms were everywhere again. “You’ve just heard
the story of how he’s saved not one but
three
kids.”

“Folks, let’s welcome
President Cornelius,” Meeko exclaimed, standing up with Cleo to
applaud Cornelius.

I heard whistling and
people yelling stuff like “I love you President Cornelius” over the
sound of applause. I assumed I was supposed to stand up with Meeko
and Cleo so I did. I turned to finally face Cornelius. He smiled,
waving at the audience as if I had said nothing. Of course he
couldn’t look angry. That wouldn’t have made for good television. I
wondered what he was truly thinking. He approached us. He shook the
hosts’ hands, looked at me, and patted me on the back as if I was
his own child.

“He’s been amazing to
have,” Cornelius said once the crowd grew silent and we were all
sitting back down.

“I bet,” Meeko said. “He
seems to appreciate very much what you’ve done.”

“I do hope so,” Cornelius
said. “We worked hard to find him. Little did we know that he would
escape and come to us.”

“Yes,” Cleo said.
“Speaking of that, how did you get away, Carsyn?”

I hadn’t thought about
being asked that. I tried remembering what was on the note card
Cornelius had given me but couldn’t. Thankfully, Cornelius noticed
and answered for me.

“He doesn’t like to speak
of it much,” Cornelius said. “But he and his two friends were able
to pick the lock with just a nail.”

“Impressive!” Cleo
shouted. “How extraordinary!”

“It really is,” Cornelius
said. “Maybe they’ll show me sometime.”

The audience and the hosts
chuckled. “Perhaps they will,” Meeko added.

“So,” Cleo started, moving
the conversation.

I wondered if there was a
time limit.

“
You have now given not
just one, but three kids, a home.”

“I have,” Cornelius said.
“Unfortunately they couldn’t make it today.”

“Well, I sure do hope we
see them soon,” Meeko said.

Cornelius said
nothing.

“Do they have homes, or
are they also orphans?

“They don’t have homes,” I
answered before Cornelius could. He could’ve easily told everybody
that Ashton and Marley had a home they would go back to. That would
give a reason to take them out of the city. He would, of course,
kill them as a punishment for what I had said about Jim earlier. I
had to keep their security.

“Amazing,” Cleo
said.

Cornelius nodded. “Yes,”
he said slowly. “It truly is.”

“Mr. President,” Meeko
said, annunciating every syllable.

“Meeko,” Cornelius mocked
in the same tone.

The hosts chuckled. “Can
you tell us a little more about Carsyn’s parents? You didn’t know
anything about them did you, Carsyn?”

“No,” I answered slowly,
frowning.

“I can tell this is a
serious topic for you, isn’t it?” Cleo asked me.

I felt Cornelius’s eyes
beaming at me. I forced a smile, this one obvious. “Yeah,” I said.
I looked over at Cornelius and could feel his eyes piercing through
me, as if he was trying to make me explode. “The President said he
was going to tell me all about them.”

“
Ah yes,” he said, moving
his eyes back to Meeko and Cleo.

“
Can you please tell us
more,” Cleo asked, leaning forward in her seat.

“Well,” he started.
“Benjamin was a good man. He was just led the wrong
way.”

“The alcohol?” Meeko
confirmed.

Cornelius confirmed with a
nod. “Losing the person you love has to be difficult. It was just
too much for him to bear.”

“Which, as you said, is
why he placed Carsyn in an orphanage?” Meeko added. “Benjamin felt
as if his alcoholism was a danger to Carsyn.”

“Oh yes,” Cornelius said.
“And though unfortunate, maybe he was a danger. We’ll never
know.”

The hosts
nodded.

I listened, wondering if
anything Cornelius was saying was true. It probably wasn’t, but I
wanted to know so badly that I held on to that chance that
Cornelius actually knew . . . even if he
was
the bad guy.

“Before, you said you had
something to give Carsyn,” Cleo asked.

“Ah yes,” Meeko kindly
interrupted. “Something from his father. Have you given it to him
yet?”

I had forgotten that
Cornelius had said that during the broadcast. He dug into his
blazer pocket. Slowly, he pulled out a small black box and handed
it to me. I took it with suspicion. Everybody was silent, and when
I didn’t open it, Cleo grew impatient, urging me in her jolly tone
to see what was inside.

I opened it, finding a
shiny golden necklace with a red pendant of a heart. I looked at
Cornelius, searching for the truth. All he did was put on his
innocent grin. He hid it well. Or perhaps he didn’t hide
it.

The gold was cool to the
touch as I raised it into the air, letting the pendant dangle
below.

The audience was awed,
whispering to one another, fawning over the necklace.

“That’s wonderful,” Cleo
said, wiping tears from the corner of her eyes.
“Spectacular.”

“Indeed it is,” Meeko said
slowly, looking as if he was about to start crying as well. “I’d
bet anything that belonged to your mother.”

“Jaclyn planned to give it
to him as soon as he was born,” Cornelius said slowly, no longer
smiling. Was he actually sad? “They were so happy.”

I said nothing, staring at
the necklace in wonder.

Could it be true? Edgar
would hate me for thinking so. Belladonna . . . well, she’d
probably understand. She always understood me. But she wouldn’t
agree.

“I think the boy is in
shock,” Cleo said, snickering and still wiping her eyes. “You’re
with an incredible person,” she told me, then asked the audience,
“Wouldn’t you all agree?”

They clapped and
cheered.

“I couldn’t be happier,”
Cornelius said. “And I’m glad he could bring his friends
along.”

Cleo clapped her hands,
smiling, tears still flowing down her cheek.

“You certainly have Cleo
all worked up,” Meeko said, smiling.

Everybody
laughed.

“Miraculous,” was all she
said.

“It really is,” Cornelius
said.

Meeko stared at me. “Tell
us, Carsyn, what do you see in the future? I mean, the
possibilities have to be endless for you. What do you want to do .
. . achieve? Oh, man! The possibilities!”

It was one of the biggest
questions I had. It was the very thing that Belladonna had promised
to help me with. I thought for a few seconds.

“Surely there’s
something,” Cleo said when I didn’t say anything for a
second.

I just nodded my head.
“Yeah,” I said. This time, I was actually honest. “I don’t know
what I want to do. Before, a possibility to even do anything with
my life never existed. Now . . . well, I have people who can help
me.”

They thought I was talking
about Cornelius. But of course I was talking about Belladonna and
Edgar.

“You can now do anything,”
Cleo told me.

I nodded. “I know that
when I figure out what I want to do . . . when I finally get a goal
. . . I
will
reach it. I
will
succeed.” I actually meant that. I had thought about it since
the day I ended up under the mountain. I didn’t know what I wanted
to do, but knowing that I actually had an opportunity to do
something other than being homeless, I was going to take advantage
of that. And I
would
succeed.

Apparently what I said had
a huge effect. The crowd went wild. They cheered louder than ever.
I looked up at the screen to see that little by little, people were
standing up, applauding me. Meeko and Cleo, too, were standing up,
staring at me in amazement, smiling. Cornelius joined
them.

“Such potential,” Meeko
said over the cheering. “You’re going to do great things, Carsyn. I
feel it!”

They had to do everything
to quiet everybody down. They waved their hands at them and
couldn’t help but laugh when it didn’t work. The audience quieted
down on their own time, which took around two minutes.

“Wow,” Cleo said. “I’ve
never seen anything like this.”

“Marvelous,” Meeko said.
“Absolutely amazing. You know, it’s moments like this that makes
life worth living.”

Suddenly, a flashing light
above each of the large screens in the back caught my attention.
Meeko noticed this too.

“
Not to interrupt this jaw
dropping moment,” Meeko said. “But before we go, I must ask you,
President.”

“Anything,” Cornelius
said.

I looked at the necklace
again. So many questions.

“There have been a few
reports that some outside the wall have just recently started
believing that the infamous group we all know as Grandfather has
returned.”

Cornelius began laughing.
I looked at him, and he ignored me. “People believe a lot of
things,” Cornelius said. “I’ve even heard rumors that I’m their
leader.” He laughed again. The hosts followed and the audience
joined.

“People
are
ridiculous,” Cleo
said.

“Indeed they are,”
Cornelius said.

“And tell me, Carsyn, did
you ever hear such things outside . . . around the orphanage?” I
could hear Cornelius hold his breath. He was afraid
. . .
afraid I’d say
something else.

“I heard a couple of
people,” I said carefully.

“Well,” Meeko said.
“People are naïve.”

I wanted to shout at him
in anger. They were the naïve ones.

“You never know what to
expect outside the wall,” Cleo said. “People are crazy.”

They were just making it
worse for me. They didn’t know what it was like outside of the
wall. They were talking like everybody outside the wall were
‘nobodies’. Yeah, they didn’t have a future, but that wasn’t their
fault. I could feel my face growing red. That’s when I remembered
Cornelius couldn’t hurt me or Ashton and Marley anymore. At least
not for a while, until I opened up the safe for him.

“Well, folks,” Meeko
started, ready to sign off.

I didn’t let him finish.
“They think Grandfather is back because of the wall,” I blurted
out.

I heard Cornelius’s chair
scoot against the floor as he nearly jumped up.

“This is The Meeko and
Cleo show,” Cleo said nervously. “We hope to see you
tomorrow.”

The crowd applauded as
music filled the entire room. “Thank you,” Cornelius told the hosts
as they stood. I did so too, putting the necklace back in its box
and into my jacket pocket. Meeko didn’t smile. Sweat gave his
forehead a shine. His eyes flickered from Cornelius to me. I had
made him nervous. Good.

“Let’s go,” Cornelius told
me kindly, still pretending. He waved at the people as we left the
stage.

We were immediately
escorted back from the way we had come. We soon approached the
exit. Helly met us there

“We’re going to ride
alone,” Cornelius told her.

She was confused but
didn’t dare argue. She backed away as we passed her.

Cornelius looked at me.
“Smile,” he snarled. “We’re not done yet.”

We exited the building to
find another – or perhaps it was the same – crowd waiting for us.
Flashes from cameras burned my eyes again. People clapped and
shouted their love for Cornelius. He looked at me and gestured for
me to join him in waving at the people. I awkwardly threw my hand
into the air and waved. People went crazy. I even heard a chant. It
took me a while to make it out, but everybody eventually joined
in.
Car-syn, Car-syn,
Car-syn
.