Immune to Fear

“It appears I’m being deported for the summer,” Ella told Nina. “Or should I consider it exiled?”

“I would love to spend the summer in New York City, but I’m stuck here playing nanny, nurse, chef, and housekeeper to Dr. Markam’s family,” said Nina.

“No worries, Nina. I rather prefer the company of strangers,” Ella said staring out her bedroom window down at Michael’s garage. How could he have left like he did? Vanished without any indication of his plans.  Ella thought they connected that day. For the past year, Michael and Ella shared nonverbal communication from their bedroom windows. Until one day Michael suddenly appeared in Ella’s backyard, standing in front of her mother’s garden shed.

“You’re eighteen, so parents don’t have to be present,” Detective Sam Gueydan informed Ella. “How well did you know Michael James? We know you’ve been neighbors for the past year. Did you have much contact with him?” asked the detective. Gueydan questioned her the morning after the incident. “Were you in school together? Any idea why he might leave without letting anyone know?”

“Michael goes to Jesuit; I go to Newman,” Ella replied avoiding the man’s eyes. “We didn’t know each other that well,” Ella lied. She and Michael hid most afternoons in the public library on St. Charles Avenue avoiding adolescent pressure for overachievement. They wrote fake college essays for people who annoyed them. Ella believed she spent enough time with Michael to know if he planned to leave home. Other than that one day a couple of weeks ago, Michael seemed his usual self.  Except two weeks later, still no trace of him.

“We found a notebook,” the detective said, bringing Ella back to the interrogation room. Michael kept secrets. The police discovered the notebook during their evidence collection. Ella’s name never appeared, but the contents implied the involvement with someone. Why not the girl next door?’ “We hoped you could help figure out some details.”

Ella’s parents invited Michael’s parents for dinner every night after the incident. Ella found it strange since they never socialized before nor did the couples share the same interests. Her parents were professors of history and anthropology at Tulane, and Michael’s parents worked for the city. Every time Ella entered the room, the talking stopped. Then as if on cue, someone asked if she wanted something to eat.

“Still not hungry,” Ella said heading to the backyard. No need to hide in the library, and she preferred her old swing in the backyard for thinking. Ella pondered Michael’s last day. Things she remembered seemed odd behavior for Michael. She tried to see his face through the fog in her mind.

Ella stared at the garden shed thinking about the last conversation she had with Michael. He seemed interested in what her mother did inside. Ella’s father converted her playhouse into a garden shed for her mom, which was strange since the landscape architecture department students maintained all faculty yards. What had Michael discovered that he kept to himself? That stupid notebook. He should have trusted her enough to tell her or leave her a message when he left.

“We can’t decipher the code Michael used in the notebook. Are sure you can’t figure out what he has written? We know you lied about your ‘friendship’,” said Gueydan using air quotes. “Take a closer look.”

Ella stared at the open notebook seeing Michael’s face. She struggled to think what he might have meant with his combination of letters and figures. Michael discovered something in her mother’s shed. The pictures from the notebook proved that.  Michael’s drawings indicated something suspicious inside.

“Ella, what are you doing? Why are you going into the shed?” asked Ella’s mother, Lisa, who appeared behind her. 

Ella turned around to look at her mother. Her voice sounded foreign. Saying nothing, Ella placed her on the knob of the shed door. The door didn’t budge. When Ella headed to the back of the shed, Lisa grabbed her arm in a squeeze and shoved her in the direction of the house.

“I think it’s time someone told me what’s going on,” Ella said walking passed her mother toward the living room. She looked at the adults seated in the room and said, “Tell me what happened to Michael.”

“Nothing?” Ella moved her eyes between the four pairs of eyes. “Detective Gueydan needs to know you have something to do with Michael’s leaving,” she said removing her phone from her pocket and showing the parents something on the screen. “Anyone care to tell me what this means?” she looked at the screen trying to make sense of what she saw. “What did you do with Michael?”

“Michael had to be relocated,” Louis, the man posing as his father said.

“He discovered something that made him a danger to the Society,” the woman called Janet said. “I found out Michael must have accessed the shed based on the contents of his notebook.”

“Why did you hide it under the mattress for the police to find?” Ella asked Janet.

“We didn’t know Michael had made a copy,” Louis said. “When we informed the Society, they instructed us to remove Michael.”

“What kind of society? I can’t believe you are my real parents.” Ella asked moving away from Lisa and David.

“We became your parents when yours couldn’t take care of you,” David said trying to get closer to Ella.

“What’s that supposed to mean? Did the ‘Society’ remove them, too?” Ella asked. She felt the panic building. “Where do I fit in this Society?” Ella asked Lisa and David.

“That’s null and void now,” Lisa said moving closer to Ella, hiding her hand with a hypodermic needle. “Your removal is also required.”

“Removal?” Ella asked hitting the wall as she backed away from Lisa bringing her arms up in defense.

“Removal of your memory,” Lisa said injecting Ella.

Ella felt herself slumping to the cold tile floor.

“Ella, honey? Can you hear me?” said Nina, Ella’s nurse. “You fainted again. Wow, you do not like shots.”