Breathing In

10

The car pulls into a tall church building, and after a long car ride, made longer by a steady stream of traffic, we are actually right on time. Josh parks the car and takes my hand.

"Hey, Becca. Are you okay? We can leave if you want to do this by yourself, but we can stay too." Josh says as he pats my back.

"Can you come with me?" I ask, because I don't know if I will be able to hold in the stream of tears that seems to burst out at the most inconvenient moments.

"Sure. Come on." They both get out of the car, and Josh grabs my hand and we walk, together, towards the big imposing brown church doors. A tall church spire in the back seems to reach the sky, and I can't help but imagine that Charlie picked this place because he wanted to be able to see us from wherever he is now.

We pull open the heavy doors, and a blast of warm air almost melts me down to the core. A cacophony of voices fills the large area, and I see the single color black reflected in as many ways as you can imagine. Long, flowing black dresses, short tight grey ones. Black and white suits, and grey ones too.

I hear quite a few exclamations of surprise as I walk over to the open casket.

"Oh, aren't you Roy's daughter? Your uncle was a great man." A another voice says. Quite a few more "I'm sorry's" and "Your uncle was a great man" cloud my head as I try to push out the cloud that has seemed to cover me. I search for Josh and Char, who have been separated from me, and I see Josh's tall head of hair in the back of the room.

Suddenly a voice from the crowd catches my ear.

"Rebecca Lee?" It says, almost in a question. I turn around and wipe my eyes, not sure if I have mascara all over my face. I see one of my dad's colleagues walking towards me. That must've been the voice, I think. I search my brain for his name, John, Jeffery, Mickey, Michael... Michael! That's it.

"Um... That's me?" I say to him. Without a movement from his mouth, he speaks again.

"Oh, it's you. You must be terribly sad." The voice says, and I realize it's not coming from Michael at all. From behind me, the voice starts once again, "Over here, Miss Lee."

I turn around to face my unknown conversationalist.

"Um, hello?'' I say. I dan't know this person. He is very tall, and his dark hair is almost the opposites of my fathers. He gives off a dark feeling, almost like I shouldn't be talking to him.

"It's a shame, really. He tried so hard to hide it. After what happened to your mother, I can't imagine how it must feel to see your uncle dead." My face must betray my confusion, because only after that little tidbit of information I was supposed to know, did he introduce himself. "Curt Astroe. With an E. I work for your father alongside with James. didn't you know that?"

"No, actually, I didn't." I say, again on the verge of tears. I sniffle.

"Figures he never told you." Curt Astroe, with an E, says.

"What do you mean? My dad said..." And I realize I can't say more because I find my dad did not tell me anything. Those questions I never asked? I have a feeling that the omniscient Mr. Curt Astroe, with an E, knows the answers. "I mean, can we talk privately?" I ask a I gesture towards a hallway.

Curt smiles and walks over there. The hallway is dark and brooding, what I feel like he is about to tell me. A cold blast of air comes in from an open window.

"Rebecca, you know your uncle died, and you know your Dad did not invent a cure for cancer, but pretended he did." I nod along, and a crow caws from outside, darkening the mood even more. "What you do not know is why your uncle died. Your uncle died because he invented the cure."

He pauses to let that sink in, but I already knew that. "I know, but I don't know what that has to do with his death." I say.

"Let me explain," Curt says, patiently. "Your uncle invented a cure for cancer. As you know, cancer is caused by mutating cells. Your uncle found a way to reverse the mutation of any cell. So, not only did your uncle invent a cure for cancer, he found a cure for mutations."

Confused, I ask in a low voice, though no one can hear me, "So why did he..." I pause for effect, then raise my voice a little, "DIE?"

"Why? Because the cure is dangerous. To reverse the mutation, your uncle was exposed to scary chemicals. I won't go into details, but when your uncle found out he was dying, because of the cure, he told your dad to present it as his own, so people didn't know." Curt explains calmly.

"Wouldn't the cure still be harmful?" I ask.

"It's not, anymore." Curt says.

Suddenly, I understand. Visions conjured up by my imagination float to my consciousness and all I can see for a few moments is Charlie jumping in vats of green goo, and pulling out a glowing vial. I gasp, finally knowing why my father never told me.

"Rebecca, you can't tell your friends." Curt on his face.

"Why?" I ask, but answer my own question, "Because they would do something."

I know I can't do anything about it. The cure has saved too many lives, and if people knew that it was once harmful, we would all be in danger of, I don't know, something.

I turn to walk outside, but suddenly, I realize that I have never seen Mr. Curt Astroe before, in my life. Why would he tell me these things? I turn around to ask him, but he seems to have disappeared in thin air. Where did he go, and who is this Mr. Curt Astroe?