A New Life

Chapter 5

Logan drove Erik to the Bailey Falls School the next Monday. He had told Erik to wait for him at the schoolyard so he could pick him up after worut Eut Erik didn’t look forward to waiting for Logan for over an hour. All classes ended at 3:30 PM, and Logan didn’t quit working until an hour later.

“Logan, do I have to wait for you? Erik asked while they were on r war way. “I do believe I can walk home, it’s only three miles or so.”

“No, you’re gonna wait for me at the schoolyard, so I know you’ll get home safely,” Logan replied resolutely.

“But Logan, I am no little boy…!”

“Little boy or big boy, Erik. You heard me. Wait for me at the schoolyard. Understood?”

“Yes, Logan,” Erik sighed.

“Good,” Logan grinned and pulled his hand through Erik’s hair. The boy had such beautiful locks.

Suddenly they stopped by the school building. Erik inhaled deeply. Now it was time. The moment of truth.

“Don’t worry, angel, you’re gonna be fine,” Logan said, noticing Erik’s anxiety.

“Yes, I hope so,” Erik said slowly. Then he wound his arms around Logan’s neck and kissed his cheek. “Bye Logan. See you this afternoon.”

“Yeah, remember to wait for me!”

“I promise.”

Then Erik stepped out of the car, wearing his best clothes, carrying a brown leather bag, and headed for the entrance. This would be an ordeal, he was sure of that.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Erik would be in the 6th grade, and his teacher was a woman named Claire Murray. Ms. Murray was in her late 40s, skinny, with brown hair a colourless face, protuberant eyed lad large teeth. She made Erik think of a rabbit.

He knew from the start that he didn’t like his teacher, and probably he’d never grow to like her. Ms. Murray’s eyes were watchful and cold, and Erik knew from the look she gave him, that she didn’t like him either. She showed him to a desk and gave him a very cold welcome. The class consisted of about 20 other pupils his age, who shot curious and even spiteful looks at him throughout the whole morning.

He alsoicediced that some of them sat with their heads together, whispering and looking in his direction. Erik thought that that was rude. If they wanted to tell him something, they could say it directly to him. He had a strong feeling of being an outcast, and suddenly he felt lonely and unhappy and terribly homesick. He longed to be near Logan, not these evil little monsters that looked at him like he was plague-stricken or something.

Ms. Murray didn’t seem to notice how sad Erik was, and obviously she didn’t care. She didn’t even give him another look after putting him at his desk. Her voice was cold and piercing when she spoke, and Erik wished he didn’t have to listen to her.

He fared fairly well until the dinner break. He didn’t want to go out with the other children, and asked Ms. Murray if he could stay in during the break. He couldn’t. Ms. Murray simply snorted at him and told him that *everyone* must go out, and that she didn’t want to hear such nonsense from him again.

Erik had no choice but to obey her, and went out on the schoolyard. The other pupils were standing in a group in the middle of the field, casting malevolent looks at him. Erik decided not to care, and went to sit on a bench nearby to eat his lunch.

It didn’t take long before he found himself surrounded by a lot of unfriendly faces. Both boys and girls were there now, regarding the dark-haired newcomer while he was eating.

Erik looked up from his food and tried to meet their eyes without fear or hesitation. I survived Auschwitz, he thought, and I will certainly survive them!

“What are you doing here all by yourself?” a red-haired boy with freckles asked.

“I’m eating my lunch,” Erik replied in a low voice.

“Oh, really?” another boy said. “I think it looked like you were crying!”

Many of the children giggled at the comment, and that obviously made the boy who said it feel confident.

“Why were you crying, baby-boy?” he said again, sounding very spiteful. “Missing your momma?”

“He doesn’t have a momma,” a blonde girl said. “I heard he lives with that weird fellow, Logan, or something.”

“You talk funny,” another girl said, referring to Erik’s German accent. “And you have an ugly voice. I can barely understand what you’re saying.”

“I think he’s a Jew,” the boy with the freckles said again. “Are you? My dad says that Jews are bad people. And that guy Logan who you’re living with is weird and crazy.”

“He is not!” Erik suddenly cried out. “Don’t you dare saying anything like that again! He’s the kindest man I know, and he is not crazy! If you say that I again, I will…!”

“What?” the boy sneered. “What will you do, Jew? I bet they gassed your parents to death in one of those camps. Did you see them die?”

“Please, leave me alone…” Erik sobbed. Tears were itching in his eyes, but he was strongly determined not to let these children see him cry. He would not give them the satisfaction.

“Crying again?” the blonde girl leered.

“Leave me alone,” Erik repeated.

“Or what?” The boy suddenly reached out and snatched Erik’s lunchbox before he could react and started poking through the content.

“Give it back!” Erik screamed, but was only met by scornful laughter.

“Cornbread!” the boy laughed, and then he held Erik’s half-eaten sandwich in the air, and let in fall to the ground.

Erik could barely believe it. Why did they do this to him? Why did they hate him so much? They didn’t even know him. Did they hate him because he was new? Because he was Jewish? Because he lived with Logan?

Logan had told him that no one here would hate him simply because of his heritage. Obviously that wasn’t true. Erik felt like crying, but he was strongly determined not to. He mustn’t show these bullies that he was weak and subdued, for if he did, they would never leave him alone.

“Why do you hate me?” he asked quietly. “What have I done to you?”

“You’re not like us at all…” the blonde girl muttered.

“And then you’re ugly,” the freckled boy said maliciously.

“No, I’m n Eri Erik objected. No one had ever told him that he was ugly before; Logan always said he looked like a perfect little angel with his silken dark curls and large blue eyes.

“Yes, you are,” the freckled boy continued. “And your clothes are weird too. And where did you get that awful leather bag?”

Erik stood up in order to leave, but then he remembered that one of the boys still had his lunchbox. Erik calmly asked to have it back.

The boy just sneered at him. He did not return Erik’s lunchbox, but placed it on the ground instead, and then raised his foot to smash it.

Then it was like something burst inside Erik. He had experienced the same feeling when he first came to Auschwitz and his parents were taken from him. And then the “strange thing” happened. It had felt like he mind sort of “flexed”, and now he felt it again.

The metallic lunchbox flew up from the ground before the boy’s foot landed on it, and crashed straight into the boy’s chest, knocking him backwards. He gave out a terrified cry, and the other pack-members gasped for breath and backed away from the scene, completely dumbfounded.

Erik himself was as shocked as the rest. It had happened again. Or rather – he had done it again.

“Wh…what did you do…?” the blonde girl asked in a trembling voice.

“I didn’t do anything,” Erik said, and quickly gathered his lunchbox and leather bag and left before the pack recovered from the shock, and started picking on him again.

He endured the rest of the schoolday, and no one tried to pick at him again, but he couldn’t avoid noticing the looks he received from his new classmates. //Freak// they said.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Erik sat quiet and sad next to Logan as he drove them home in car.car. Logan hadn’t asked him what was wrong, although he had noticed Erik’s unhappy face and red, watery eyes. Something had happened to his little angel, and he was going to ask Erik when they hom home.

Slowly Erik dragged himself inside the house and sat down by the dinner table, waiting for Logan to make the dinner.

“Alright, Erik,” Logan asked with a sigh. “What happened to you?”

Erik rested his head in his hands, and replied in a muffled voice, “There is something really, really wrong with me, Logan.”

“What?” Logan asked and a frown appeared on his face. He forgot about the dinner and came and sat down next to Erik. “What, sweetheart?” he asked softly. “What is wrong with you?”

Erik snuffled. “I… I don’t like that school. The other children were mean to me. And then…”

“What? Who were mean to you? What are you talking about?”

“I am a freak,” Erik whispered. “I can do…things. But not always, only when I’m really, really scared or angry.”

Logan felt a cold shiver running down his spine, and immediately something caught his attention. Freak? He had been called that long ago, even by his own family, because he was different from average people.

“Erik, what are you saying?” he got out. “Who said you’re a freak? What “things” can you do?”

“Do you want me to show you?” Erik asked.

“Yeah, do it.”

Erik picked up one of the spoons laid on the table and placed it in front of him. “Watch,” he whispered and started to focus intently on the spoon, made of stainless steel. He clenched his teeth and focused until it felt like his head was going to explode, and then suddenly – *flex*.

The spoon flew across the table, hit the wall and fell to the floor with a smash. Erik cried out, as did Logan, and then their eyes met, and they stared into each other’s faces, dismay and shock obvious in both of them.

“Oh, fuck!” Logan exclaimed. “Erik…? Did you… I mean---”

“I’m s…sorry, Logan…” Erik stuttered. “I didn’t think it would…”

“Erik, did you make the spoon move?” Logan asked gravely.

“Yes.”

“How?”

“I…I don’t know,” Erik confessed. “I just did.”

Suddenly Logan lunged at him, grabbed him harshly, and started to shake him. Erik moaned in pain when Logan’s big, hard fingers dug into the soft flesh of his upper arms, and it terrified him.

“Never do that again!” Logan exclaimed, almost snarling. “Do you understand, Erik?! Never show anyone what you can do! You’re special, but the world will not accept you if you show it. Do you understand what I’m saying? Yost *st *never* do that again!”

Erik started to cry. The horrible school-day, the thing with the lunchbox and the spoon, and now Logan’s sudden and violent reaction made him burst into tears. Logan let him go immediately and pulled him into his arms instead.

“I’m sorry, Erik,” he murmured. “I…I don’t know what came into me… Did I hurt you, angel?”

“No…” Erik whispered.

Logan held the boy at arm’s length and took his read-streaked and teary face into his hands.

“Erik,” he said seriously. “I’m really sorry for my reaction, but you shocked me, I can’t say otherwise. Your…gift, or whatever… how long have you been able to do that?”

“I…I did it in the death camps two years ago. The doctors tried to study me and told me to do it again, but it didn’t work then. At school today, and…”

“Oh, God…” Logan sighed. “So…you can…move things without touching them?”

“I can only move things made of metal,” Erik explained.

“Metal…Okay.”

“Am I a freak?” Erik asked in a trembling voice.

“No!” Logan claimed. “You’re *not* a freak. You’re only…special. Maybe I shouldn’t tell you this, but I’m special too.”

“You are?” Erik marvelled.

Logan nodded. “Well, not like you, but I can also do certain “things”.”

“What?” Erik asked breathlessly. “Show me!”

Logan thought whether it would be wise to show Erik what his body was capable of, but since Erik seemed to be a “special one” as well, it could hardly do any harm. And if he did, he wouldn’t have to keep anything from Erik.

Logan took a knife from the table, and used it to slice a small wound in his thumb. He heard Erik give a terrified little gasp.

“Don’t be scared, I heal quickly,” Logan said and held his hand visible to Erik as the wound healed within a few seconds, closing before their eyes.

“Whoa…” Erik said, not knowing what more to say. “That was…incredible.”

“Yeah, it’s my “healing factor”. Whatever happens to me, I heal quickly. And there is something else too…”

Erik regarded him with curious, expectant eyes.

“I hardly age,” Logan explained. “You must think I’m something like 35, but I’m not. Erik, I’m roughly 150 years old. I don’t even know exactly. Remember when you asked me about my birthday? I said was August 22, but I lied, since I honestly don’t know.”

Erik didn’t know what to say. Logan – his Logan – was 150 years old? He knew that no normal human being could live to be even close to that age. Then what was Logan? A freak? Like himself? No, Logan was definitely not a freak. He was a kind man, who was loving and caring.

Logan continued, “Erik, promise me that you’ll never show anyone that you’re special. We both are, but we can’t let anyone know it.”

Erik nodded gravely. “I understand,” he said. “I…I promise I won’t show it to anyone.”

Logan smiled and wiped Erik’s tears away with his thumbs. “Don’t cry, angel,” he tried. “I know I just seemed harsh, but I just got scared. I’m afraid for you, Erik. If something happens to you…”

“Nothing will happen to me, Logan,” Erik said quietly.

“I really hope so…”


TBC