Hero's Call

Chapter Twelve

Milo hadn't slept much the night before. He had had to sneak out of the house at two in the morning to ensure both his parents were asleep and he still had enough time to get to the Culpepper house and back before his father woke up. He had barely made it back to bed before he heard his father's alarm clock going off. He thought about leaving the bike there, telling his parents it was stolen. When he realized it would tie him to the incident if they cops found it, Milo immediately gave up on abandoning the bike. He hadn't known exactly where it was. Devon or one of his goons had hid it to well for him to find it easily. He made an excuse here and there to get out of the house and go by the Culpepper house during the day to see if he could spot the bike. He didn't see so much as a sign until his third scouting mission. He thought the bush was going to blow his whole retrieval operation, but he somehow made it out without alerting the neighbors.

Milo had been faking sick since the incident. He hadn't felt better a day in his life, but he didn't trust himself to be around anyone else. The last thing he wanted was for that green light to shoot out of his eyes again and almost kill another kid at his school. His mother had been worried sick about him when she first saw the news report about what had happened. He managed to assuage her somewhat by assuring her he was nowhere near the Culpepper house when it happened, hadn't even heard anything. He did, however, claim to have come down with a cold that morning because he didn't wear a heavy enough jacket to be out in the chilly morning air.

At first, Milo was fairly sure his mother had bought the phony story hook, line, and sinker. Brooke Radcliff was nothing if not a worrier. The mere mention of a cold and she put him on mandatory bed rest and called the school to tell them he wouldn't be in until he was better. Somehow he had managed to convince his mother, despite all evidence to the contrary, that he was truly under the weather. Milo wasn't sure how long he could keep up the act up, but he was going to go as long as possible until he was comfortable with himself being around others or his mother put her foot down and forced him to go back to school.

What had thrown him for a loop was the fact that his mother didn't seem to be overly concerned about him after the first couple of days. Neither did his father. It had been almost a whole week of skipping school. He figured his parents would have taken him to the hospital or at least called him out on his bluff. But they didn't. They still put on the act of the concerned parents as he was putting on the act of the sick child. Milo could tell that somehow they both knew, maybe instinctively, there was nothing wrong with him. They were just letting him get away with it. It was unsettling in a way. He didn't particularly like it.

His bigger concerns had nothing to do with his parents, though. Boredom and loneliness were far more pressing concerns. After a day or two of sitting in his room doing next to nothing, Milo could feel the cabin fever setting in. He spent a large chunk of his time learning to deal with his new found strength. He learned quickly that a delicate touch was a necessity when handling anything, whether or not it would have been breakable by even a normal person. He tore the cover off of one of his favorite hard cover books, kicked a football almost completely through the wall, and smashed one of his Playstation controllers to rubble. With a little practice, he managed to keep from destroying everything he touched. What proved to be more difficult was keeping all the damage a secret. The small stuff was easy; he just swept it under the bed. The bigger stuff was harder. He moved one of his Britney Spears posters over the whole in the wall, and managed to jimmy rig his closet door that he had ripped off its hinges back into place. Still, he could tell his mother noticed the tiny changes to the room, but didn't say a word like she should have.

The loneliness was an even bigger concern than the boredom. He couldn't remember when he had ever gone more than a day or two without seeing Bill at least, if not both he and Cali. Since he claimed illness, his mother wouldn't let him leave the house or let anyone in his room. Bill had come by once or twice to drop off some of Milo's homework, but Milo's mother took the school books and turned him away at the door. Although the dial-up internet connection was slow to the point of being painful, Milo cold still send Bill or Cali and email to keep in contact with the outside world. Their emails were the only thing keeping him sane.