The Mortal Fringe (3 page)

"What do I mean by that?" she asks
with a hopeful smile on her face.

No one dares to speak. Every time she
asks something, whoever answers is publically humiliated. Since I
do believe that I know what she means, I raise my hand slowly. As
mom used to say, the only way to beat what you fear, is facing
it.

"Mr. Stills, right?" I nod "let's hear
it."

"Well, I think that what you mean is
that you can choose between being just a human being, or make
yourself immortal", as soon as I say it I want to take it back, but
it's done.

"Make yourself immortal", she whispers
while nodding with her finger on her lips "I like the expression.
You got it almost right, Mr. Stills. What it means is that back in
the time, some people chose to hide their true nature so they would
become rulers of the world. And how do you do that? You become
immortal, you call yourself Zeus, or Ares, and you live
forever."

"So, what you mean is that someone
came up with the great Greek Gods because they wanted to be
remembered?", the voice comes from the back of the room, and
surprisingly enough, it's one of the girls who can't seem to shut
up during the class. The girl sitting behind me, Ingrid, gasps
hopelessly, she is not particularly fond of this class.

"What's your name darling?"

"Maria"

"Well, Maria. That's exactly what I
mean. Yes. And that's how the class is going to be, we are going to
trace the origins of every single myth, the reason for the
creation, and how they have evolved up until today. "

It sounds interesting, at least we
won’t have to learn every single myth word by word, which used to
happen back home.

"I have written down some topics for
the essays, they are in small papers in this box I have here. I
will walk around and everyone will pick one, and that will be the
topic for your essay. "

Ms. Adkins picks the box up and shakes
it so that we can hear the movement of the pieces of paper inside.
I have to wait for five minutes to get my own. I pick one randomly:
Theseus. I would have enjoyed something else better, but I write it
down on my agenda, and rapidly begin to brainstorm on the topic.
When Ms. Adkins reaches her desk again, she looks inside the
box.

"Oh, I wrote too many", she opens one
up randomly and smiles. She keeps it in her hand and continues with
the class. She has started to put into question the very first myth
of Greek mythology: chaos.

Ms. Adkins walks around the class, she
does not stop talking and her enthusiasm fills me up like I have
never felt in a class before. She comes near me and stands in front
of my desk, and puts her hands over my notebook. The talking goes
on for a couple of minutes and when she goes back to her table, she
smiles at me and winks her eye. I look down, and where her hands
had been some seconds earlier, there is a piece of paper just like
the one I have taken out from the box. I open it carefully, she has
left it there on purpose. I read what it's written on it:
Immortals.

I am getting all my things together
when I notice that Ms. Adkins is pointing at me. I doubt for a
second and when everything is in my bag I walk towards
her.

"About the piece of
paper..."

"I felt that it would be more
interesting than Theseus. Listen, I have a proposal for you. I have
been busy this past weeks and I would need an assistant in my
office for some time. Getting everything in its proper place, no
more than that. If you'd be so kind to consider it, I would grant
10% of your final mark, as an in class task. "

I take a couple of seconds to think
about it. I have nothing to do after the next class, which means
that I have a couple of free hours. I accept the offer
gratefully.

"I'll see you in my office after your
class then" and she leaves.

I walk out of the room, Jay is waiting
for me, with his back against the wall.

"Meet you for lunch today?"

"I can't make it, Ms. Adkins asked for
my help."

"Well done dude, if only she were
younger."

"Shut up!", and that's the first time
I joke around with him unexpectedly.

"Oh Alex! I forgot!" he grabs my arm.
"I bought two tickets for a Star Wars thing next week, but
something came up and I can't go. Do you want them? Please, I can't
give them back."

I don't know what to say, but I end up
nodding and accepting his offer.

The next class is, as always, as
boring as it can be, and I am trying my best not to look at the
girl with the green eyes. I've been trying to avoid her, she makes
me strangely uncomfortable. I have never felt like this
before.

When the class is over, it takes me
about fifteen minutes to get to Ms. Adkins office, and she is
already waiting for me. The place is quite a mess, I suddenly
regret having accepted the offer, and 10% is not worth
it.

"You need to tidy this up, my other
assistant will help you, and she is from Sussex. Really nice girl.
Elizabeth, darling where are you?"

"Here" she says, and then she appears
from behind a pile of books. That's her, now I regret being here
even more. She is ridiculously beautiful. And her haunting green
eyes are fixed on mine for the very first time.

"This is Alex, he will help you out. I
recruited him from my previous class, he is American." was my
accent that showy? "My all-time first American."

I have a bad feeling when I hear my
teacher's last statement.

"Cheer up. I meant that I had never
taken in an American student as an assistant before." And without
saying anything else, she leaves.

I stand still for a couple of seconds
until she gives me some old essays and papers that need to be
archived.

"So, from Sussex" I try to use Jay's
tone of voice to seem friendly. Trying to hide how intimidated I
feel.

"Yes."

"Never been there."

Not even a glimpse of interest. I try
to go on putting to practice everything that I've learned with Jay
these days.

"I'm Alex, nice meeting you" living
with Jay is working out for me, I would have never been able to do
that. "We go to the same Latin class."

"I know" she says, with voice as cold
as ice.

Good, do not bother her.

I go on organizing everything in boxes
or filing cabinets and all of a sudden, it hits me: How on earth
did Ms. Adkins know that I had taken Theseus from the
box?

CHAPTER 5

It's been days of hard word, I hardly
have time for anything else but to prepare my subjects the moment I
get to my room. I have to decline Jay's constant attempts to get me
out of here, he loves partying and for some reason he can't
understand how on earth I am not like him.

The best days in the week are the ones
I get to spend those silent hours with Elizabeth in Ms. Adkins
office. She barely looks at me, but I feel close to her, I feel
better with myself when she is around, it's like we know each other
from some other place or time. It is madness, but I like to think
that. At least it is the most normal thought that my mind has met
in a very long time.

I hardly know anyone from class. Aside
from Jay, and that girl, Ingrid, I haven't had the chance to make
any other friends, and I have not tried much either. However, I
keep telling everyone back home that this is going perfectly fine,
I don't want them to worry too much. I will be ok, it's just six
months and then I will be back. If I don't get to know anyone else,
it won't be much of a deal, after all.

It's ridiculous the amount of hours I
spend with Elizabeth, and I only get to say the inappropriate
thing. Our last time in the office I decided that it would be a
nice move to tell her about the Star Wars tickets Jay gave me. She
did not even bother to give me an answer. At least she
smiled.

People may think of me as the nerd who
spends the afternoons at the library, and even thought that is not
true, it would appear to be the case these days. Whenever I have
some free time I show up in here, I love this library. It reminds
me of some magical place, all the books are stored so beautifully
that I could stare at them for days.

The essay is driving me crazy. It
doesn't matter how much I look into the subject, I can't find a
single reference to the term Immortals that could be used for it.
The only matches are either films or comic books, but none of that
is useful.

I don't like the idea of it, but I
guess I will have to ask someone for help. I go to the front desk
in the library and the woman behind it looks at me with a fake
smile on her face. She talks to me as if I was bothering her, and
in the end I get nothing out of the conversation. I have nothing to
work on.

Someone leaves a computer free, and
before it's too late I go straight to it and look at the library's
database. I write down the word I want information about, and even
though I get some results, none of them focuses on what I want. But
it seems like there is one named “From mortal to Immortal”, with a
Greek painting on the cover. It might do.

"So they do not teach you about
properly in the United States?"

I turn around closely, it's the girl
from my mythology class.

"I'm Sorry?"

"My computer" she says pointing at the
screen.

"But it was empty."

"I needed to go to the bathroom. See?
My things are here."

She is right, I feel so embarrassed
that I cannot even move. She smiles at me and sits by my
side.

"I'm Ingrid."

I take my hands off the keyboard, but
say nothing.

"I know your name, there's no need for
stupid introductions" she punches me on the arm, as a friendly
gesture, judging from her face. "So, may I have the computer
back?"

"Yes, sorry. I was just…"

"Doing the essay, I can see that. Did
you find what you were looking for?"

"I don't know how to get the
book."

She looks at me almost with pity
eyes.

"I'll show you around."

I write down the number of the book,
as she orders me too and follow her into the bowels of the library.
If the library seems to be immense when you enter it, once you
cross the door into its skeleton it's overwhelming. This huge place
stands as a cemetery of dying books. I am sure most of the volumes
in these shelves have not been touched for years. I see
masterpieces as I go by, Les Misérables, by Victor Hugo, then I see
the complete works of Jane Austen and right next to it, Fitzgerald
and Margaret Mitchell, as guardians of the library.

After an hour of looking, we finally
find the book I'm looking for.

"They will validate it on the front
desk."

"Thanks", I say shyly.

She smiles at me, and punches me
again.

"Good luck with the essay."

I take the book to the front desk, and
once everything is sorted, I put it in my bag and leave.

When I get home Jay is taking a
shower, which gives me about half an hour to work on my essay
without his constant comments on my way of living. I lie on my bed
and open the volume I just picked up from the library.

The power of words has kept
Immortality a secret that one day will be unfolded to change the
world.

-Barbra Harris.

Usually quotations come from known
authors, but I have never heard of this one. I go on with the book
and I am disappointed to discover that it won't help me, after all.
It does talk about ancient mythology, but in the most classic way.
I know those stories, I don't need a book to write an essay about
it. I put the book down, frustrated.

Jay comes out of the
bathroom.

"Hey, didn't hear you
arrive."

"I was reading."

He looks over me and reads the title
of the book, which is still on my hand.

"So you are still with the
essay.”

"I can't find any
information."

"Well, whenever I have to do one of
these things I use four words that usually help me."

I look at him, expecting to hear the
words.

"Google, I summon thee" he jokes,
opening his arms as an orchestra conductor.

I can't avoid laughing. I take the
book again and give it another chance, even though I know I won't
find much in it, at least I pretend I am doing something useful and
that way I can give Jay some time to put some clothes on. Trying to
look for information in a place that you know to be useless is
perhaps one of the most daring things I've done all week. I don't
feel too bad with myself about it, it's just the way it
is.

It's not been a month since I got
here, and I must admit to myself how proud I feel to have
encountered someone like Jay to help me become someone else,
someone like who I used to be.

Night comes sooner than expected, I
wanted this to be a good and productive day of working and I
haven't even written a single word down. I can't sleep, I am still
scared of what might come after closing my eyes. I try my best to
remain awake for as long as I can. But in the end, I fail to do it,
and the darkness of dreams takes me.