The Hydrogen Theory: A Novel

Chapter 4: Who You Know

Friday morning. The golden autumn morning sunshine invades Tyler Mason's bedroom, through his fault alone. The night before, Mason had left the curtains undrawn again. The harsh light transformed the pitch black darkness of his closed eyes a few shades lighter, a monochromatic rainbow. Finding simplistic reasons for optimism hadn't exactly been Tyler's strong suit, so instead of hopping out of bed, he chose to cover his head and turn the other way. He carried on sleeping, snoring and dreaming until, the beeping ringtone of his cellphone sounded and shook him to a waking consciousness. Rewind time back a week and his reaction would have been to ignore. But that morning there was a lingering 'what if' running through his mind, and that 'what if' served as more than enough motivation for him to answer the phone. And so, with eyes still tightly shut, Tyler reached out, felt his way to his mobile and flipped it to his ear. Mason murmured out and obligatory greeting.

"Hello?"

"Good morning, Tyler Mason." Emily's voice. Just as Tyler had hoped.

"Hey, Emily."

"How'd you sleep?"

"Okay, thanks."

"Good. I just thought I'd be your alarm clock this morning."

"I appreciate it."

"I'm going pick you up again this morning, obviously." Emily assured him. Tyler panicked and quickly sat up. "Oh damn, are you on your way already?"

Emily giggled, hearing the shake in his voice. "Don't worry, Tyler, I'm still in bed too. Still have to get ready."

"Oh, good. That means I have like what, two, three hours?" He joked, and heard that rich tone of laughter through the phone again.

"Oh whatever, Tyler. I'll be there around seven, okay?"

"That's cool, see you then, Emily."

"Bye."

The past few days since Tyler's arrival at West Newfield had been quite interesting, running as smooth as silkworms. He began feeling more comfortable in his new surroundings. He found his feet academically as well as logistically. And every moment swiftly brought Tyler closer to Emily and the rest of his new found friends. Since the Monday passed, Tyler had not seen George the teleporter again, who Tyler had once again asked Emily about, seeing as the first time he did she had been distracted by something else, or someone else, the person who Tyler would every day, get only a glimpse of. The person who, with one look had been able to haul his attention away as well. But the quick flashes of his face were so rapid that it had almost left Tyler wondering if he had been seeing imaginary things, hallucinations. He had not asked Emily about it, though. He had not been curious enough. Not yet, at least. Furthermore, Emily had confirmed that she had not known or seen anything of the man who had introduced himself to Tyler as George.

For the entire week, Mason had been exposed to new and wondrous abilities of students at NWU, leaving him enthralled. His well-oiled week carried on into that morning after Emily had picked him up and they headed to school. Upon arrival they met up with Tracy as they had been doing all week. Tyler moved onto his classes, some with Andrews. The flow of the day; uninterrupted. That had been, until he met up with Kyle during the lunch hour, and things began to take a turn.

Kyle and Tyler were positioned in unusually densely crowded hallways. The students had all been heading in one direction, rushing like a river.

"Kyle, what's going on, man? Where's everyone going?"

"Well, It's Friday!" Kyle yelled over the noise of the crowd, his answer meaning nothing to Mason. He took a moment to think about the possibilities but nothing came to mind.