Jeremy North Mainbrook
New Terra City, Beynos
Secondary Timeline
“Come on! Make way, dinner is only getting colder!” I motion the children through the doorway, counting and making sure they’re getting out of their beds, it’s typically a breeze getting them out for dinner compared to the kids playing outside… there’s but one more recent exception.
As I recount and see the kids come out of their bedrooms, but a door owned by one of few kids who gets a room to himself remains closed.
I knock on his door “Come on Samuel! That means you too! Ya gotta get some food in you if you want to continue reading!”
I wait… and unsurprisingly get no response in return.
“Alright man, you know by now I’ve gotta come in to make sure you haven’t hurt yourself or something!” I knock loudly a couple times before entering the cramped walk-in closet he willingly made into his room, barely enough room for an adult to stand, and the built-in shelves are stuffed full with books that he brought with him from his last foster house.
He lays there on the bed that takes up most of the floor, snoring the rest of the day away having fallen asleep reading a book that most kids here can’t even read.
“Alright bud, up up up! It’s dinner time, get up before one of those uh, weirdo twins steals your food or something.” I nudge him a couple of times and he opens his eyes, squirting up at me as his hand searches for the glasses that fell off his head.
“Mmmm… no.” he flops his head back onto his bed, looking over at the book he fell asleep reading.
“No? And why not.” I sit down near the entrance of his room.
“It says here that people eat three times a day if they’re active, doing chores and heavy lifting” He adjusts himself, getting his face above the book better to read it. “I only really read all day, so at the very most I should be eating two meals a day!” He looks up at me supposedly all knowing.
“Hmmm… what’s that book again?”
“A health book, it’s uhmm…” He flips it to the cover. “Not super.. outdated… I think?” He tries to, and struggles to try and calculate the year difference in his head.
“Being outdated isn’t my worry Samuel, see this here?” I point to the cover “This book is clearly meant for adults who are much older than you, adults and kids work quite differently!”
He reads the text, and sighs as he realizes his mistake. “Ugghhh…” back goes his face into his bed, his muffled voice mumbling underneath. “Do I gottaaaa?”
“Yes you ‘gottaaaa’! It’s very important that you get the food you need, unless you want more of your reading sessions cut off by more unwanted sleeping. Come on, I’ll help you up.” I lend out my hand, and his hand lazily grabs onto mine as I pull him up.
“Why do you so badly not want dinner anyways?”
“It’s gross…” He gives a very telling expression that reveals that it is truly not the real reason he’s avoiding dinner.
“I thought you quite liked chicken night! You can even get a salad with it today if you want, we overstocked yesterday!” His eyes light up a bit, salad is a very rare food to have so extra is always welcome. “So, what’s the real reason you don’t want to go to dinner?” We begin walking to the cafeteria as we talk.”
“…Some of the kids were making fun of uhm… some fantasy books and I… don’t really have anyone to sit with either..”
“Really? That’s mean… you’re pretty smart because of it though, no?”
He stays silent, whatever they had said to him clearly bothered him a lot.
“You know… I’m sure some of those books have movie adaptations, if you get up when you’re told for the next… hmmmm… week? I’ll take you to see one of them somehow, how about it?”
His eyes light up! The type of happiness from something so simple, that’s always special to see, especially in Samuel. “You promise??”
“I promise… it starts now though! Go get dinner! Go!”
He immediately starts running down the hall as best his short legs can, nearly dropping his glasses along the way. I walk back to his room to close his door when on his bed a piece of paper with many different scribblings and ideas catch my eye. A basic concept is written down, and even some art that is well made for his age.
‘A boy who can turn knowledge into magical super powers, and uses it to save the world!’
I smile, grabbing a pen out from my pocket, and in the corner I write an idea of my own for him, something I hope he could also take to heart.
‘Knowledge IS power.’