Isolation

Chapter 06

Mark went into James's room and called his father right away. Anger boiled as he waited for him to answer. Finally, after a minute, he picked up.

"Mark. What's up?"

"Are you alone right now?"

"Give me a second."

Another minute with voices until there were only footsteps and he came back on.

"Okay. What's up?"

"You didn't tell me their Command ship was here, too."

He didn't miss a beat. "I didn't want to worry you."

"Worry me? What I'm concerned about is that my father is holding back even more secrets from me. This isn't something to hide, Dad. This is serious."

"Dom told you?"

"I'm glad he did. I wouldn't have found out from you," he spat.

"Mark, please don't be like this," he begged.

"No. I want the truth. I'm tired of the lies and finding everything out from someone else. You're the only person I have in my family. You never even told me what mom was like or how she even died."

"You know that's a hard topic to talk about, Mark," his dad said.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Mr. O'Connor. I wouldn't know since I never knew her, and my dad won't even talk about her. I'm tired of the secrecy, Dad. I'm almost a full-grown adult, and you won't even tell me what my mother was like. I'm tired of living like this. I can see where the criminals are getting at. They're tired of being lied to, and so am I."

This time, Mark could hear his voice crack.

"Mark, I—"

"Didn't know? How do you think I've felt basically living and sleeping alone all my life while you went on to do work? You've never spent quality time with me or do anything with me besides training. It's always work, fight, experiment, and more work."

"You're amazing in combat."

"But it's not my outside I want you to see. If I could show you what I looked like on the inside, you would never recognize me. You have no idea who I really am, and you never cared enough to find out."

There was a pause.

"I'm sorry, okay?"

"Save it. Go back to work. I'm sure it's more important than I am, anyway."

He ended the call, now overcome with emotion. He sat on the floor and pulled his knees to his chest like a little girl and started to cry. He wasn't strong on the inside like he made everyone else think. He was weak. He was alone.

Blaez sat by him the whole time he was on the communicator and nuzzled up to him. He seemed to always be able to tell how he felt and tried to fix it. He licked his salty tears, but more fell in their place. He wrapped his arms around him and took in his warmth.

"At least you can't keep secrets from me, Blaez."

~~~

Mrs. Tanner kept his food out when he finally returned to finish, but he wasn't hungry anymore. He dumped the contents into the bin on the wall that sent all uneaten portions of food to the composting teams. James was in the living room on the couch watching television on the giant flat screen with Juno. Even after all of these years, flat screens were still used. They hadn't made projections with rainbows of color yet, but that was hopefully coming soon.

Mark sat down on the other end and looked at the movie playing.

"I remember this one," he said.