Memento Mori—U.X.O. Chapter II
Imported from SF2 with no description.
Jack felt a soft tap on his shoulder as his eyes drifted open. He felt a few more taps as he yawned the drowsiness away. Looking up, he saw his dad, dressed in a white lab coat, just like the ones Jack saw on TV. The plain white walls and fluorescent lights of his dad's workplace must've driven him to sleep. Jack had to wait in the waiting room while dad did some paperwork that allowed him to enter.
"All set. Let's go," his dad said as he turned around and started down a hallway. Jack quickly caught up to him as he explained what was going to happen.
"You don't need to worry, it's not dangerous, we're just going to have you meet with someone very special."
"Who?" Jack asked, his curiosity having increased at the vagueness of his dad's words.
He let out a soft laugh and ruffled his son's hair, "You'll see."
The white hallway continued for a few more minutes. They turned down another hall every so often, passing doors, the occasional person walking by who often greeted and conversed with dad--which in one instance led to a near ten-minute long conversation--as well as fake potted plants, esoteric paintings, and some other measly decorations that only seemed to blend in with the bland environment. Despite that, Jack felt his heart beat faster as he continued the trek down the white halls. No windows, besides one door having a small one on the upper half of it, and every turn made felt like he was going further into the Earth. Eventually, dad halted at a door, one not unlike the previous. Jack continued on for a few more steps, unaware his dad stopped.
"We're here," he said, rummaging through his wallet to get a card. He presented it to a small panel near the door, and after a few seconds, a beep rang through the hall and it slid open. Inside was a small room, plain white like all the others, with only a metal desk with a computer in the corner and a door on the other side. There were a few people inside: a woman with long curly brunette hair with a friendly face; a blond man who was much taller than everyone else, including dad; a ginger man with a large set of curly hair; and a grey-haired woman who looked just short of eighty. The curly-haired woman was the only one not wearing a lab coat, which means the one draped over the chair must be hers.
The brunette girl stepped up and held her hand out to Jack, "hi there, I'm Jenny, I'm the project manager here. Thank you so much for joining us!"
Jack shook her hand. She had a darker skin complexion compared to the others in the room, and her arms were adorned with a few bandages. The latter fact only served to increase his anxiety over what might happen in the coming minutes. After greeting Jack, she turned to his dad, "Have you told him what we're gonna do?"
"Sorta," he responded with, "haven't given him specifics, but I did say he will be meeting someone special."
Jenny nodded at his words, before turning and walking to the computer. She typed away at the keyboard for a few seconds, then walked to the other door. Just like all the others, it required a card to enter. Jack managed to peek inside before the door closed, and unlike most of the painfully bland white facility, it had sky-blue wallpaper and a colorful floral pattern. She stayed in there for a few minutes, while the others in the room (dad included) started moving around, seemingly organizing as if they'd been rehearsing for this. Dad positioned himself near the entrance, while the others stood at the other door. Jack couldn't help but feel a bit anxious at what was happening. Who was he going to meet? An insane criminal? A monster like the ones mom told him about? Who did his dad even work for, anyway? Was Jack being taken here to be killed and experimented on? No, his dad wouldn't do that, right? Jack couldn't think straight. The plain walls of the small room suddenly felt like they were closing in on him. They seemed to stop just before crushing at the sound of a beep echoing throughout the room, and the door started to slide open, bringing Jack out of his stressful thoughts. His throat twisted and turned, and he felt like he was on the verge of tears. He didn't want to be here anymore, but he was a big boy, and he was gonna make it through this.
The door opened to Jenny leading someone out. Behind her a strange, white-furred monster of some sort peeked around her body. It wore a small sky blue dress that went to its ankles, stood about as tall as Jack, and had on a threatening visage. There were a few small splotches of black peppered across the fur of its face, as well as on various other parts of its body. Its black ears flattened on its head when it saw him. He stepped back on instinct at the sight of the strange being, his anxiety pumping adrenaline through his veins in an attempt to flee. He was about to turn around and run out when dad put his hand on Jack's shoulder. "It's alright, kiddo. She's not going to hurt you."
Jack turned back to the monster, he was still unnerved at the sight. It, or she, was just staring at him, albeit in a less threatening manner than Jack initially thought. Her expression looked more like one of fear and shyness, not too far from his own. What species was she? He'd never seen anything like her before. She reminded him of the monsters in the picture books his mom read to him at night, but a lot less threatening. More like one of the monster's children.
"Jack, this is Grape," Jenny said while gesturing towards the monster. Jack was so struck with a mix of fear and awe that he even couldn't bring himself to laugh at her outrageously hilarious name. Jenny turned to the monster gripping her pants and said, "Go on, don't be shy," While lightly pushing her toward Jack.
She let go and shuffled hesitantly along Jenny's push, her weird clawed hands clasped together as if she was trying to comfort herself, and a bushy tail swung back and forth nervously behind her. She sniffed the air in his direction as she got closer. When she was only a few feet away from Jack, she stopped and looked straight into his eyes. Her hazel eyes were slit, like a cat's, and her ears perked straight up in curiosity. She stared at him for a moment, before opening her mouth. No sound came out of her, however. Instead, she turned to Jenny and made a motion like she wanted to whisper something into her ear. Jenny reiterated what she said earlier and motioned Grape to face Jack. She turned and took a few steps toward him, and tried again. A quiet, "hi" came out of her, Jack almost didn't hear her if not for her absorbing all his attention. He held up his hand and slowly waved in response, her bashfulness had all but melted away his fear.
"Jack," he said, so stunned with awe that he couldn't greet her with anything beyond his name. Neither of them said anything past that, they only stared at each other. Sensing the uncomfortable silence of the two children, Jenny got the attention of Grape again by holding out her hand, "Why don't you come and show him your drawings?"
Grape grabbed Jenny's hand as they walked into what's presumably her room. Jenny ushered the others in, and dad encouraged Jack to follow suit by lightly pushing him forward. Walking into Grape's room reminded Jack of his daycare back in Santa Barbara. Much like the sneak peek he got earlier, the walls were adorned with flowers of the colors of the rainbow while the floor was a plain white carpet, although much softer than the ones he was used to. There was basic furniture: a bed, a nightstand, a closet, and a small table with a few chairs; all different bright colors. A white, moderately-large square chest also sat at the end of the bed. A number of torn-up plastic toys of different colors were sprawled on her bed. Jenny walked to the chest and opened it, taking out a box of crayons and a folder, and handing it to Grape. "Go and show him your drawings."
Grape took the items and placed them on the table, then shuffled through to find specific drawings. Dad put his hand on Jack's shoulder, "Go to the table and socialize with her."
Moving closer, Jack saw Grape sprawl the drawings across the table, all of which were all of various things, although one image seemed to stand out as being drawn much more than the others. She grabbed one and held it up to Jack at about her chest level. The crayon markings were hard to discern, but to Jack, it looked like a large white bird flying in a clear sky.
"It's an airplane," Grape said, in a more straightforward manner than earlier.
Oh. Well, he was in the ballpark. Jack could only stare at the picture she was presenting to him, replaying her high-pitched voice over and over. He couldn't hear her when she greeted him, it was the first time he actually heard her say something clearly. With her snout, she didn't seem able to talk, but she sounded just like the girls from school with near-perfect articulation. His thoughts were broken by his dad somewhat loudly whispering to him, "Compliment her!"
That led to a few of the adults snickering quietly. Jack racked his brain thinking of what to say to her. Something heartfelt, but not too much. He didn't want to feel like too much of a softy.
"Uhh, it... looks cool?" Jack said. The adults in the room, his dad included, laughed at his words, and Grape gave him a meek smile at the praise, awkward as it may be.
"I've never seen one in real life before, only in pictures, but I like how they look," she said while turning the drawing around to her and gazing at it, "someday, I wanna go on one."
"Y'know, I was on a plane to get here," Jack said.
"Really?" Grape said with a sudden burst of emotion, he nodded in response. "What was it like?" She said, her attention now glued to him.
"It was cool, I guess. I slept through most of it, and it was pretty cramped." He said.
"What was it like being next to the plane? Was it big?"
"Yeah, it was pretty big, but I didn't go next to it. Everyone goes through like, a tube thing that doesn't have windows."
"Oh." Grape responded, her ears folding back a bit in a disappointed manner. There were a few moments of silence, mostly consisting of Jack and Grape staring at each other, taking in the other's presence.
"It's called a boarding bridge," the two looked towards the door, seeing the ginger man looking at them. "Boarding bridge," he repeated, in a somewhat awkward manner.
Jack's dad then piped up, "Really? Do you just know that off the top of your head?"
"No, I looked it up just now," he responded, flashing his smartphone to dad alongside his words.
"But that fast, Will?" Jenny asked.
"I was already on my phone, anyway, so I thought I'd just search it up for fun, y'know?"
The two kids turned back around to each other. The silence continued, until Grape finally said, through a mass of stutters, "You wanna play?"
Jack nodded, and she took a seat and brought a few blank papers onto the table, moving the other drawings aside with her arm with no regard to organization. Jack joined her across the table and took out a few crayons as she handed him one of the blank papers. The time was spent mostly in silence, as the two worked on their drawings. When Jack was finished, he lifted it up and showed it to her. It was a drawing of a commercial airplane, just like the one he flew on a few weeks ago. He thought she would like it, given her previous interest in aviation. His drawing ability was about the same as her, if a little worse, but she seemed to like it.
"Look at mine," she said, showing Jack her still-unfinished drawing of the same thing. Now that Jack looked closer at her drawings, he saw how poor of a grasp she had on the anatomy of airplanes. Not like Jack did either, but many of her drawings lacked things he noticed by being close to the planes at the airport, like the engines and fins at the end.
"I like it!" he said, only somewhat telling the truth.
Grape turned it back to her and smiled at the drawing. She went right back to drawing it and with neither of them saying a word, she completed it. It was still pretty bad, but Jack thought it was cool enough. Plus, he liked the smiles she gave at his praise.
Jack and Grape spent the rest of the day drawing different pictures and playing with toys and board games taken from the chest. Grape asked questions about the plane he was on nonstop, which he answered with varying accuracy. The adults stood, some with their arms crossed, smiling at the children's blossoming relationship. It was surprisingly smooth for Grape's first encounter with another child. As the day drew to a close, the two were still wide awake and playing. They were now sitting on Grape's bed, pretending to be pilots for a commercial airplane. It seemed to be the most fun Jack had since moving to Vermont, and the adults, who were standing just outside the door supervising the kids and conversing amongst themselves, also got a kick out of how inaccurate they were being.
"Activate the speed booster!" Grape said confidently. Jack responded by pretending to press a button. The two threw themselves back as if they were accelerating. Jack let out an overexaggerated "Woah!" as he did so.
The fictional plane accelerated at speeds unfathomable by mankind, and in the span of a few seconds, they traveled from Vermont to the clear waters of the Santa Barbara beaches to the harsh desert of Australia to the powdery white snow all over Russia and over the Big Ben before looping back to the start. If there was anywhere they could think of, they would travel there instantly. This obvious inconsistency went completely over Jack's head, and he happily followed along with Grape's unrealistic fantasy of how planes worked.
Time flew by for all of them, and eventually, the digital clock on Grape's nightstand struck 8:00 pm in red lettering. She didn't notice, as she and Jack were too focused on pretending to fly over Iowa, which she accurately described as "fields of corn for as far as the eye can see."
A few minutes later, Jenny, now wearing a lab coat, entered the room. "Okay, time for bed, Grape," she said, then turning to Jack, "it was nice having you, Jack, but it's Grape's bedtime now."
"Aww," they both said in a disheartening manner. Grape frowned and piped up right after, "but I don't wanna go to bed. Can't I just stay up this one time, please?"
She left the bed, grabbed Jenny's lab coat, and continued begging, with her tail folded under her dress between her legs. "Please?"
Jenny, obviously cautious of the sharp claws that were now attached to her coat, gently wrapped her fingers around Grape's wrists. "I know you want to continue playing, but you have to go to bed, and I'm sure Jack is tired too. Don't worry, he'll be back tomorrow to play again."
Grape's ears folded back, but she didn't resist as Jenny pulled her hands from the coat, leaving ten small holes pierced into it. A loud yawn left Grape's mouth shortly after, and she didn't fight as Jenny grabbed her hand and led her outside and down a few rooms, to the bathroom to get her ready for bed. His dad walked into the room after they left and said,. "Ready?"
Jack nodded silently and followed him through the doors and to the white halls. Grape and Jenny were still there, and just before they separated, Jenny turned Grape around and said, "Say goodbye to Jack."
Grape waved her hand meekly, not so different than in the first few minutes of their introduction, and quietly said. "Bye."
Jack repeated the farewell, and just like that, the two groups were leaving in the opposite direction. The scenery of the facility looked no different from earlier, even the amount of people walking didn't change. In fact, it seemed a bit more crowded than before, although not so congested that it became a hassle to walk through. They promptly made it to the car and were on the road within a few minutes. The trip was mostly quiet, barring a few classic rock songs playing on the radio at low volume, before dad broke the silence.
"So," he started, "what d'ya think of Grape?"
Jack was so elated from meeting her that he couldn't put into proper words beyond, "She was awesome! Can I meet her again tomorrow? Jenny said I can go back tomorrow."
His dad looked at him with a smile, "Well sure. I would need to get clearance from Jenny and the others, but if she told you that you can come back, then you probably can. Again I'd still need to get clearance, but it should be a smoother process now that you've visited once already."
Jack was so excited at the prospect of visiting Grape again that he completely forgot about getting pizza, which was good, because his dad was lying about that. His workplace wasn't actually close to anything else beyond miles of trees.
"And hey," he started again, "Don't go telling people about Grape, okay? It's important she's kept a secret."
"Why?" Jack asked.
"It's complicated, but..." he drifted off, trying to articulate it in a way his child could understand. "I, you, and everyone else there are the only people who know about it, and the bosses of my work want to keep it that way. Your mom sort of knows, but you should still keep it between us, okay? It's not good if she becomes publicly known"
"Okay," Jack said bluntly, still not exactly understanding why he couldn't, or why she even needed to stay a secret. Regardless, he barely knew the other neighborhood kids, so it's not like he would be yapping his mouth off to them about her anyway. Jack would go on to join his dad at his work again the next day. This time, he couldn't stay in his seat during the twenty-minute car ride. He couldn't help but repeat his plans for what he and Grape would do for just that day.