Faery Worlds - Six Complete Novels (30 page)

Everyone went back to eating and chatting, and eventually it was my turn. I got up after being summoned by Jared, who'd been called in before me by a guy who was not part of Jared's crew. I walked down the hall, entering the last room on the left as instructed. There was a round table with three chairs around it at the end of the room. Two of the chairs were already occupied, one by Mr. Dardennes and one by some lady, also with gray hair and gray eyes. They looked like they could be siblings ... twins even. The chair opposite them was empty, so I took it.

"Hello, Jayne," said Mr. Dardennes. "This is my colleague, Céline."

I nodded at her. "Nice to meet you, Céline." I wanted to ask them if they were related, but I couldn't afford to be rude with five hundred bucks on the line.

"We just have a few questions for you, based on answers you gave on your test."

"Okay, shoot." This was like a job interview. I'd gone on a few of those, the last one being at the local frozen yogurt store. I didn't get the job, so I wasn't sure that my interview skills were up to par.

The woman spoke first. "Please, before we begin, may I see your hands?"

It was a strange request but seemed innocent enough. I held my hands up in front of me, palms facing out.

She stretched her hands across the table towards me. "Please place them in my hands."

Now this seemed a little on the creepy side.
What is she going to do? Read my palms?

I slowly lowered my hands down to the table, putting them palm up in her hands.

"Turn them over, please."

Okay, so she isn't going to read my palms. Are we going to play the slap game?
I was pretty good at it. It made Tony crazy that I could flip my hand over and slap the back of his hands before he moved them out of the way. He refused to play with me anymore. Somehow I doubted the sophisticated and controlled Céline was going to let me slap her, but if she decided to slap me, I was probably going to let her. Five hundred bucks was five hundred bucks.

Céline nodded at Mr. Dardennes, signaling him to begin the interview.

"Jayne, you said on your test that you do not hear voices in your head, is that correct?"

"Yes, I did say that, and it's true. But honestly, who would say yes to that question?"

"Different people interpret the questions differently, which sometimes results in them answering differently. Surely you have a conscience?"

"Well, of course I have a conscience ... but it's not a separate
voice
or anything in my head talking to me ... " I stopped for a second to think about that. I did tend to have lots of conversations with myself in my head - but they were with
me
, not some other voice. Then I thought about Tony.
Oopsy.
That boy was hearing
my
voice in his head lately. Did that mean he was crazy? I didn't think so. He'd have to follow my instructions in order to qualify as crazy. Now
that
was an interesting idea ... bossing Tony around telepathically ...

My thoughts were interrupted by Mr. Dardennes who had a very small smile on his face. Or maybe I was imagining that, because suddenly he looked very serious again. "Have you ever physically injured another person?"

Dammit.
Did my mother's boyfriend count?
He'd totally deserved it.
Other than him, I couldn't remember ever hitting anyone. Before I could decide whether to hedge my answer, Céline spoke up.

"Include all instances. Do not make judgments about motivations or whether it would be considered right or wrong from a moral standpoint."

Shiiiiit. Is this woman reading my mind now too?
I was going to have to figure out how to keep my thoughts more private real soon. Tony being in there was bad enough.

"I did physically hurt someone once, but he
totally
deserved it and gave me no choice ... and I'm not interested in giving you any details, so if you need them to qualify me for this test, then I'm outta here."

I started pulling my hands away from Céline's grasp, but she closed her fingers and held on. She had a surprisingly strong grip for such an old lady. I guess I assumed she was old because of the gray hair, but her face didn't have any lines on it like it should have ... I mean, for the color of her hair, anyway.

"No, we don't need details; your explanation will suffice," said Mr. Dardennes. "Let's continue. Do you know the ancestry of your great-grandparents or great-great grandparents? Or even further back than that?"

This one was easy. "My mother's family is from Ireland and my father's family is of mixed European heritage." I'd heard my mom say that often enough. She had dark hair and dark eyes, so whenever she said she was pure Irish, I'd make fun of her, saying it wasn't possible since she didn't have red hair or freckles. She claimed she was 'black Irish', whatever that meant.

"What is your mother's maiden name?"

I was wondering if I should tell them, since I was trying to remain somewhat anonymous. But after thinking about it for a few seconds, I figured it wouldn't matter since my mom never used that name anyway. Even after the divorce she kept using Sparks.

"Blackthorn is my mom's maiden name."

My two interviewers exchanged a look. It
was
a super cool last name, I had to admit. When I got older I was going to legally change my name from Sparks to my mother's maiden name. Jayne Blackthorn. It has a cool ring.

Céline continued with the questioning. "When asked what the weather was like outside, you said you didn't know; was that a truthful answer?"

"Yyyeesssss ... ," I said, kind of sure of myself, kind of not.

"You are hesitant in your answer ... why?"

"Well, because it's Miami, so it's probably sunny or rainy, but ... "

"But?"

"Nothing. I just wasn't sure so I picked the 'I don't know' answer."

"I think there is something you are not telling us," said Céline, no expression on her face.

I was starting to get uncomfortable about having my hands in hers. Mine were sweating, and she was being so serious, it made me nervous.

"It's nothing, really."

"Let's try this," said Céline, looking me straight in the eye.

I couldn't help but stare back. Her look wasn't exactly a challenge, but I felt like I needed to let her know I didn't intimidate easily.

"Close your eyes. Think about the weather outside. What do you see, feel, or smell?"

I closed my eyes as instructed, but asked, "Smell?" Her question was weird, but it reminded me that I had detected a funny odor when looking at that weather question on the test.

"Yes ... do you smell something?"

"Yes, I do, actually; but I can't put my finger on it, exactly. I know I've smelled it before."

"Does it smell like rain?"

"No, definitely not rain."

"Sunshine?"

That was funny. Sunshine didn't smell like anything. I laughed.

"What about snow?"

I started to smile at that one too, but hesitated.
Snow ... did it smell like snow?
I inhaled again deeply.
That's it! Snow!
I'd smelled it once when we were in North Carolina. We had taken an RV trip up into the mountains, and when we got near the top of one of the higher peaks, near the border of Tennessee, it had started to snow. I could smell it in the air, and it was amazing.

As crazy as it sounded, I answered her question truthfully. "Yes, I smell snow. I'm not sure where it's coming from, but when I was in the mountains once, when it snowed, this is what it smelled like."

Céline squeezed my hands and then let them go. "I'm done here."

I couldn't tell from her dismissal if I'd answered correctly or confirmed for them that I was a complete moron.

"I have one more question for you," said Mr. Dardennes.

"Alright."

"When the test asked you what superhero you wanted to be ... " He hesitated, as if he weren't sure where to go from here.

"Yes ... ?" It was getting a little uncomfortable, him sitting there saying nothing now, and both of them just staring at me.
Am I supposed to say something? ... What?

"Your answer was a bit ... unconventional," he finally said.

I shrugged my shoulders. "That's me ... unconventional, I mean."

"Was there any particular reason you chose that ... person?"

"No. I guess it was the one thing I felt like I could identify with the most."

Both Céline and Mr. Dardennes had the same expression on their faces. Confusion? Contemplation? I wasn't sure what it was exactly.

Céline apparently wasn't done anymore. "In what way?"

"In what way do I identify with her, you mean?"

"Yes."

"I don't know ... she's just the most awesomely powerful I guess." I shrugged my shoulders. "It wasn't the easiest question to answer, you know. I'm not a big comics fan and most superheroes are very limited to just one thing. And they wear stupid outfits. I guess I like her because she doesn't have those limits."

"Interesting." Céline and Mr. Dardennes exchanged a silent look. I wouldn't have been surprised to find out they were telepathic. Something about the way they looked and the way they acted seemed very foreign. They were probably French. They both had the same accent.

Mr. Dardennes stood, followed by Céline. "Thank you, Jayne, for your frank answers and cooperation. Could you please go back to the room and tell Samantha that it's her turn?"

I stood to go out. "When will we find out if we're accepted?"

Mr. Dardennes walked me to the door. "We will post a list at the front desk of the hotel tonight by eight o'clock. The candidates will be expected to be at the hotel tomorrow by eight a.m. to take a shuttle to the airport." He stopped in the doorway, and I stepped out into the hall. "And Jayne, please keep the content of this interview confidential. We don't want your answers or advance notice of our questions to taint the other candidates' responses."

"Okay, I won't. See you later, I guess ... thanks."

I went back to the meeting room and told Samantha it was her turn. Spike flashed me a smile as I walked by to sit with Tony, making me feel all warm inside. It was ridiculous how he could affect me like that. I shook it off. I couldn't be all lovesick when I needed to focus on getting through this physical test, or whatever it was. I was never the best rope climber in gym class ... or the best monkeybar climber ... or the best runner. The list went on and on.

"What'd they ask you?" Tony whispered, his eyes darting around to the others. He was about as sneaky as an elephant in a china shop.

"Wait your turn, nosey parker. You'll find out soon enough. I'm not going to blow this five hundred bucks by telling you, if I haven't already with my stupid answers."

Tony immediately dropped the subject, and we speculated about the study itself instead. Samantha came back a few minutes later and then Spike went in. Eventually, Tony had his turn and everyone else got theirs too, so Mr. Dardennes joined us back in the meeting room. It was almost four o'clock.

"Thank you all for coming. We will post a list of the accepted candidates at the front desk of the hotel. It will be available by eight o'clock tonight. If your name appears on the list, you will need to be at the front of the hotel at eight in the morning, tomorrow. A shuttle will be waiting to take you to the Miami Executive Airport. If your name is not on the list, there will be an envelope at the front desk for you with fifty dollars inside, as a thank you for your time today. It was nice meeting all of you, and for those of you who are accepted, I will see you tomorrow."

He left the room as we digested his speech.

"Well, that was interesting," said Becky, coming over to stand by our table, along with the others of Jared's crew.

"Are we allowed to talk 'bout the interviews now?" asked Finn.

"Not now, let's get outta here first," said Jared. He seemed uncomfortable. He looked over at Tony and me. "You guys are welcome to join us."

I looked at Tony and he shrugged, nodding his head. We didn't have anything else to do - might as well go and talk to them about what happened in their interviews. I was curious to see which superheroes they had chosen. I was pretty sure I had answered that one wrong.

We left the meeting room and went towards the front of the hotel, Jared leading the way. He came to a complete stop as he rounded the corner that was just before the glass exterior doors. Samantha was following so close on his heels that she ended up bumping into him. Chase was right behind them, but jumped to the side, missing the pile-up. Tony and I hadn't reached the corner yet, but we couldn't miss the surprise in the voices of those who were there.

"What the hell?" said Jared, obviously surprised about something.