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25 - Running Away
'Hi, I'd like a ticket to Helena, Montana, please.'
The man at the counter took one look at her, then returned his attention to the screen in front of him.
'May I see your ID, miss?'
She handed her driver's license over the counter, and the man took a quick look at it.
'I'm sorry, miss, but you need to be checked in by an adult, or have their written consent to fly alone.'
'But,' she protested, 'I'll be eighteen in a couple of months, I-'
'You're underage,' said the man, 'and rules are rules.'
'Sir, please, there's gotta be some way...'
The man leaned forward and dropped her driver's license on the counter.
'Look, either you leave now, or I call Security and let them deal with you. What will it be?'
Jubilee sighed, took her ID and left before the man figured she was weird and call Security anyway.
Apart from Chad, there was just one other person in Big Rock who had gotten her out of trouble time and time again. She wasn't as easygoing as her brother, but had never left Jubilee, or any other member of the Six Pack, hanging, in spite of them repeatedly asking for it.
Jubilee hit the speed dial button, then remembered she'd removed that particular setting, and dialed the number from memory.
One ring, two, three. Then the phone was answered, and familiar music greeted her. Jubilee pressed her lips together as she recognised one of the younger skaters' program music. In a moment, the music stopped, and the voice of her former coach came through.
'Jubilee?'
'Hi, Maurey.'
'Shouldn't you be in class now?'
'I-'
'Ladies and gentlemen, this is the boarding announcement for flight UAL491 to New Orleans. Please proceed to gate 3, and have your boarding pass and identification ready. Thank you.'
Jubilee held her breath as she imagined her coach's disapproving look.
'Jubilee,' she said, 'what are you doing at the airport?'
'I want to come home, Maurey. But I can't board any planes unless an adult checks me in, and there's nobody here.'
'What happened?' asked the coach. 'Are you ok?'
'I... no, I'm not ok. I'm going insane here. I'm seeing and hearing things, the people are very strange and scary, and I just want to come back home, where all is normal and safe.'
'Slow down,' said the woman. 'What happened?'
'I think I'm losing my mind, coach, I'm-'
The phone gave a warning beep, and Jubilee pulled it away from her ear long enough to glance at the battery icon.
'And my battery's dying,' she said, her voice breaking.
'Ok, Jay, listen to me,' said Maurey urgently. 'You need to go back to school. Call me from there, and we'll talk all you want-'
'But I want to come home, Maurey! I don't want to stay here any longer!'
'Jubilee, I can't help you from here right now. Go back to school and we'll figure something out-'
The phone went silent.
Jubilee blinked back tears.
'Me and my rotten luck,' she said, letting herself fall in an empty seat. 'I should never have come here. I should have said no and stayed home...'
The dead phone regarded her quietly.
'Of all possible times, you just had to pick now to die on me, didn't you?' she asked reproachfully. All it did in reply was to show her her teary reflection.
'Bastard,' she mumbled, then dropped the phone in her pocket. 'And now what do I do?'
She dropped her head in her hands and let the tears come unrestricted. Crying usually did her good. It usually had a liberating quality as it cleared her anger and frustration, but it didn't work that way for fear. Fear had a tendency to stick, and there was nobody around to make it go away.
'Oh, come on, why are you crying?'
She looked to the source of the voice with a sob stuck in her throat. A man in his early twenties had taken the seat next to hers, and was regarding her with a concerned look on his face. He didn't seem like a threat, but agent Nelson wearing something other than a suit would have seemed harmless too. She sat up straighter and scooted closer to the edge of her seat, ready to take off running.
'You're not CIA, are you?' she blurted out.
He gave a laugh.
'What makes you think I would be CIA?'
Jubilee didn't sketch any movements. After a moment, the man gave a chuckle and shook his head.
'I'm not CIA, kid. Name's Eric.' He rummaged in his pockets for a moment and produced an ID badge. 'I go to Georgetown University. Linguistics. I think I'm innocent enough, no?'
He flashed a grin and handed her the ID. Jubilee took it and observed it carefully.
'They could easily create a fake,' she said.
Eric lifted his hands in defense.
'Hey, it's the best I can do, you'll just have to believe me I'm not CIA, FBI, NSA, MI6, KGB, or who knows what other organisation you only see in the movies. Can I have that back?'
She handed him the badge, and he put it back in his chest pocket.
'So what do you want from me?' she asked, relaxing a little into her seat.
'Just to know what a nice kid like you is doing, crying alone in a place like this.'
She regarded him quietly, unsure of what to say or do, then wiped her tears with the back of her hand.
He took a pack of tissues from a pocket and held them out.
'These aren't poisoned, I swear,' he said, a smile playing on his lips.
'What are you doing here?' she asked, not taking the tissues. 'You don't have any luggage.'
'I'm not going anywhere,' he said. 'I just dropped my grandmama and my grandpapa off for their flight back to Wisconsin. You going to use these?'
She took another look at the pack he was holding, then removed a tissue from it and blew her nose.
'Good girl,' he said. 'So, what happened?'
'Why should I trust-'
Eric placed his hand over hers, and her eyes gave a blank look for a moment. He then removed his hand, and she blinked a couple of times, then rubbed her forehead.
'Sorry,' she said, 'I'm tired.'
'It's ok,' he said, giving her the same smile as before. 'You were saying?'
'I was saying something?'
'You were telling me what it is that's so wrong that you ended up sitting in this airport alone, crying.'
'Ah.'
Jubilee leaned back in her chair and looked at her lap. Her hands folded, then unfolded, then were shoved into the pockets of her uniform jacket.
'I changed schools. I moved all the way from Montana to attend this place, and I'm all alone. And it's the first time I've ever been so alone, so far away from home, for such a long time. And everything's so new and so different, and it's so hard to get accustomed to everything. And the people, they're... different. Some are very scary. Like they might come after me.'
She stopped talking for a moment and looked around, scanning the faces of the people in the airport.
'So someone scared you?' asked Eric.
'Yeah. But that's just part of the reason why I ran away. I think... I think I'm going mad. I think I'm losing my mind. I don't want to be insane and end up in the loony bin. I...'
'Easy,' he soothed. 'What makes you think you're going crazy?'
She looked around again, then leaned closer to Eric.
'I'm hearing things,' she said in a low voice.
'Are you hearing things now?' he asked.
She looked at her lap and listened attentively.
'No,' she said after a moment.
'Maybe you just need more sleep?' suggested Eric. 'Skipping nights for various reasons can mess up your head quite nicely. Take it from someone with experience. I didn't get any sleep for two days in a row before my first final. By the time I left the exam room, I was hearing colours and tasting sounds. My friends thought I was on crack.'
Jubilee gave a small smile.
'Ok, maybe I do need more sleep. But that still leaves the people. The scary people. One of them... god, this seems so crazy, there's no way to put it so it would seem less nuts... one of these scary people thought I am actually good at a certain something, that I can do something big with my life, that there's more to me than just me. And the thought scared me so much, that I didn't think I could put enough distance between myself and that person. And then I thought I was losing it. So I just ran. I got scared, and I ran. I didn't know what else to do.'
'You know,' said Eric, 'running isn't necessarily a bad thing.'
'It is... it is, because I feel ashamed of myself. I don't know what else I could have done, but I'm still ashamed. No, scratch that.' She balled her hands into fists. 'I'm ashamed twice, once for running away and once for not coming up with a better solution than running away.'
'Hey, hey, relax,' he said. 'You're young. You're what, fifteen?'
'Seventeen.'
'Same thing,' he said, waving his hand in dismissal, 'you're young, you're allowed to get scared and run away, you're allowed to make mistakes and be confused and question everything. It's part of life. It's part of being a teenager. Yeah?'
She looked at her hands and nodded. He leaned sideways and bumped her shoulder with his.
'Yeah, kid?'
'Yeah,' she mumbled.
'And as for that person who thought you could be good at whatever it is that you could be good at, maybe they're right. What if they're right?'
'That's a scary thought,' she replied. 'All I was ever good at was figure skating, and I quit that when I came here.'
'Ok, so maybe there is more to you than just figure skating. What if you're actually good at something else? Would that be such a bad thing?'
'I don't know. It would change my life.'
'Sounds like your life has already been changed,' he said. 'You did move here. I'm not saying that you should accept all changes. Change should always be taken with a pinch of salt, that's what my grandpapa always tells me. But maybe some of the stuff that's happening to you is good. Maybe you should stop and think about things for a bit, see what could be good, what has potential for you. And go with that. Just saying.'
'I guess you're right,' mumbled Jubilee.
'Good. Now, if you care about my two cents, I say you should get back there and go get 'em. What do you say?'
She put her face in her hands.
'I'm scared,' she mumbled.
'It's ok, be scared. Experiment. Make all the mistakes you want. You get to do that now. You're allowed. Make the most of this part of your life, cause you'll be an adult soon, and then everybody will expect you to do everything properly. Heck, my grandmama got so upset when she saw me wash coloured socks and whites together, I thought I'd never hear the end of it!'
Jubilee smiled at Eric, then looked at her hands again.
'I think I should make a decision now,' she said. 'And try to stick to it.'
'Sounds good,' said Eric. 'Let's hear it.'
'I'm going to go back. And no matter how many scary people I'll encounter, and no matter how mad I'll think I'll go, I won't run away again. I'll find a better solution than running. I'll stay and fight if I have to.'
Eric grinned.
'That's the spirit!' he said cheerfully. 'Let's shake on it!'
Jubilee smiled and shook his extended hand.
'I think you picked the wrong major, you know,' she said.
'Oh?'
'You should have picked psychology. You're good with people.'
He shrugged.
'Maybe it's not too late to change my mind. I could experiment with that a bit. I may be older, but not that old,' he said with a wink.
Jubilee stood and slung her bag over her shoulder.
'Good luck, then,' she said. 'And thank you, Eric.'
'Don't mention it, kid,' he replied. 'Good luck to you too, kid. And take care.'
'You too.'
He watched her walk out of the airport, then dropped his head in his hands.
'Well done, Elleron.' said a gentle voice in his mind. 'You've made good progress with her.'
He gave a small, tired sigh.
'Thank you, my lady,' he replied. 'Take me home, please? This form is taking its toll on me.'
'Of course,' came the reply.
Nobody in the crowded airport noticed him fade into thin air.
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