The Agent's Daughter Read online

  “Who are you?” Travis said as he stood up and looked at Alex.

  Little brothers can sometimes be blunt.

  “Are you my sister’s boooyyyyfriend?”

  They can also be wildly inappropriate.

  Alex blushed and smiled at Melina.

  “Travis,” Melina said. “This is Alex Winfield. He is my physics lab partner. He is here to work on our project.”

  “Pleased to meet you,” Alex said. “Your sister told me about you, but she didn’t mention anything about us rockin’ the same hairstyle. Haven’t seen many dudes around here with the longer hair. Nice look, man.”

  “Thanks,” Travis said. “The ladies like it. They think I am as smooth as melted chocolate.”

  “The ladies, huh,” Alex said, smiling.

  “That’s right. My hair has been down to my collar as long as I can remember. My mom used to … wait, what did my sister say about me?”

  “She said that you are quite the physics genius,” Alex said. “Maybe you could hang around with us and give us some advice.”

  Melina, who was standing behind Travis, waved her arms and mouthed the word no. Her brother would be a tremendous help, but she wanted to spend time with Alex alone.

  Alex looked at her and then back at Travis. “Ummm.”

  “I’d love to help you novices,” Travis said, “but I am going over to my friend Wedgie’s house. He just got the new Mutant Karnage II video game.”

  “You have a friend named Wedgie?” Melina asked, with a tone that indicated that there must be a story to the name.

  “Yeah. One day in fourth grade, he came to school wearing his pants real low like his older brother. But this made his underwear totally stick out. He got about twenty wedgies that day. After that, the name kinda stuck.”

  “I used to play a lot of the original Mutant Karnage,” Alex said.

  “You used to play that?” Melina asked.

  “Heck yeah,” Alex said. “The central theme of the game is that there is an evil scientist that has this laboratory. There, you create your own mutant fighter that has unusual characteristics such as an extra arm or the ability to run really fast. Then the scientist gives the mutant some weapons, and it goes out and terrorizes the town. It’s a hoot.”

  Melina laughed and rolled her eyes. “Yeah. Sounds like it.”

  “No, I’m serious,” Alex continued. “It’s like real science. You try to make your mutant have mutations that make it better at terrorizing the town. I gave mine eyes at the end of its hands so that it could see around corners just by putting its arm out. It was easier to sneak up on the townspeople that way.”

  “That’s right,” Travis said. “I made my mutant consume massive quantities of iron supplements so that over time it came to have an iron core. Then I wrapped a wire around its torso hundreds of times. When I connected each end of the wire to a car battery, the mutant became like a giant electromagnet. I hooked the current up backwards, so the magnet repelled bullets and metal weapons. The poor townspeople didn’t stand a chance.”

  “That’s it!” Alex said. “That’s what we can make for our project.”

  “An iron-enriched mutant?” Melina asked.

  “No,” Alex said. “An electromagnet. I would think that we could get a decent sized piece of iron at the hardware store. Some wire and a large battery too. I bet we would get bonus points for creating the magnetism from electricity.

  “And you could make it powerful enough to stop metal weapons!” Travis said as he moved his arms to deflect some imaginary threat.

  “Hmm… I don’t know about that,” Melina said. “But we could have it deflect something like a metal pendulum.”

  Alex smiled. “Wow. I think we are on to something. Thanks for the idea Travis.”

  Melina looked up when she heard Angela call for Travis from the living room.

  “He’s in here,” Melina yelled out.

  “There you are,” Angela said to Travis. “Are you being a bother?”

  “He’s okay,” Alex said. “He just helped us with a great idea for our project.”

  “Angela, this is Alex Winfield,” Melina said. “His father works at Hadron Systems too.”

  Angela looked over at Alex. “You’re David Winfield’s son, aren’t you?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Nice man, that David,” Angela said, “but a little geeky. Of course, I mean that in the best possible meaning of geek.”

  Alex smiled. “Quite, all right. That’s a fairly accurate description.”

  Angela looked at Melina. “I just talked to your father. He is running a little late, so I am going to take your brother to his friend’s house. After that, I am going to go to the grocery store,” Angela then furrowed her brow and continued. “Can I trust you two not to get into trouble while I am gone?”

  Melina thought for a moment. She had never been left in the house by herself. All of her friends had already reached that age where their parents felt comfortable leaving them home alone, but Melina’s dad just could not bring himself to allow it. Especially in the company of a boy. Melina now understood the look that Angela had given her. This was something that they were not going to discuss with Dad.

  Melina smiled and nodded in understanding. “You have nothing to worry about.”

  “Then we are off,” Angela said. “Back in a while.”

  An hour passed, and Melina and Alex had settled into their work on the project. They worked in the kitchen for a short while, but then they moved to the living room where they sat side by side on the couch, each working on a laptop. Alex was searching the internet for details on how to build a working electromagnet and Melina was writing the outline for the other part of the project, the three-page essay on a subject related to magnetism. They were working hard, and there had been no talking for some time. The entire last hour, Alex had seemed nervous. Now he was starting to sweat.

  He finally took a break and broke the silence. “You doing anything good this weekend?”

  “My dad is getting back tonight,” Melina said. “He is going to start teaching me to drive tomorrow. Then we are going out to visit my mom.”

  Melina thought for a moment. Was he trying to gauge her availability to get together for this weekend? Perhaps outside the context of schoolwork.

  "If you get back early enough, would you like to go somewhere together tomorrow?” Alex said. “Maybe we could go to a movie or something.”

  The words came out hurried and were a bit high-pitched. As if he had been rehearsing them in his mind for an hour.

  Melina had a look of delight on her face. “I’d love to. We should be back in the late afternoon. How about I call you when we get back and we can firm up plans then.”

  “That sounds great,” Alex said, in a tone that was much better than earlier.

  They both went back to their work, or at least the appearance of working. Neither could do anything more productive as they both thought of tomorrow evening. Alex stared at the display of his laptop and pretended to read an article on how to wrap an iron bar with wire. Melina stared at the display of her laptop and pretended to read her outline. She rested her hand on the couch between her and Alex. Without looking, Alex went to lay his hand on the couch between him and Melina, but it came to rest right on top of hers. They both looked over at each other but neither made an effort to move their hands. After a moment, they each went back to staring at their screens. Alex intertwined each of his fingers with Melina’s, so they were holding hands.

  For the next hour, that is how they sat, side-by-side, holding hands. They didn’t even move when Angela returned from the store. Then, Alex’s phone began mooing, so he reached into his pocket and took it out.

  “It is a text from my mom,” he said, with a noticeable sigh. “She has left the house and is on the way over here to pick me up.”

  Melina made a frown-face at Alex and watched as he packed his computer and notebooks into his backpack. When he finished, she grabbed him
by the hand. “We can go wait on the porch.”

  She led Alex to the front door, opened it and walked with him onto the porch. She shut the door behind her.

  They stood side-by-side, looking out at the street, not knowing what to do next. Then, Alex set down his backpack and faced Melina. He put a hand on each of her shoulders and slowly pulled her toward him. As they drew together, she turned her head, rested it in his chest and wrapped her arms around him. He put his chin on the top of her head.

  After a few minutes of quietly holding each other, Melina pulled her head back and looked up at Alex. He looked down, their faces a few inches apart.

  “I’m glad you came over tonight,” she said.

  “I am too,” he said, that nervous voice returning.

  His words hung in the air as there was a silence between them. They both knew what was next. The goodnight kiss.

  After a moment of hesitation, Alex inched his face toward Melina. She closed her eyes and tilted her head to the side. Their lips were almost touching.

  Suddenly, the silence was pierced by the sound of a car pulling up in front of the house. Alex’s mom.

  Melina opened her eyes wide, pulled her head away from Alex and looked out at the street. Alex quickly put his arms down at his sides, and did his best to look as if there were nothing going on. He gave a nervous wave to his mom, grabbed his backpack, and turned to Melina.

  “I will talk to you tomorrow,” he said, still flustered.

  Alex swung his backpack over his shoulder and headed down the steps of the porch, when he stopped. He thought for a moment, turned around, and went back up the porch steps toward Melina. He stood in front of her, leaned forward and placed a soft kiss on her forehead. Then he turned around and ran down the porch steps.

  “Whohoo!” he yelled as he ran across the grass toward the car.

  Melina waved to Alex as he got in the car. She watched the car pull away, and when it was gone, she smiled to herself and went inside. Then she ran upstairs to her room, grabbed her phone and dialed Jean’s number.

  “Hey lady,” Jean said, “How did it go?”

  “It went great, and it went not so great,” Melina said.

  “Okay, tell me the great part first.”

  Melina thought for a moment. “Well, we had great conversations, we held hands for over an hour, and we had the most exquisite long hug on the porch when he went to leave.”

  “Did you get a goodnight kiss?”

  “That was the part that did not go so great. His mom drove up just as he was going to kiss me. We both panicked, and it didn’t happen. But he did give me a totally sweet kiss on the forehead before he left.”

  “A forehead kiss,” Jean said, laughing. “I got one of those from my grandma last week.”

  “No,” Melina said. “This was different from a grandma forehead kiss. Much slower. More lip. It was verrrrry nice.”

  “It sounds like your buddy Ellen Barrow can officially give up,” Jean said. “Alex is off the market. I can’t wait to see the look on her face when she sees him kiss you at school.”

  Melina hadn’t thought much about what others would think. Especially at school. She was uncomfortable with others looking at her or talking about her, and her relationship with Alex was going to be hot news around school. And there was surely going to be a nasty confrontation with Ellen.

  “You may have to kick her butt,” Jean said, echoing what Melina was thinking.

  She tried to picture how that would go down when she heard a knock on her bedroom door.

  “Come in,” she said.

  The door opened, and Angela stepped into the doorway.

  “I’m going to pick up Travis from his friend’s house,” she said.

  “I gotta go, Jean,” Melina said into the phone.

  “Okay, talk to ya tomorrow.”

  Melina pushed a button on the face of the phone to hang it up and then sat up on the bed.

  “Do you mind coming with me?” Angela said. “Staying here with Alex is one thing, but your father would not be happy with me if I left you here alone.”

  “I understand,” Melina said as she smiled in acknowledgement. “It is his way. He is one to be afraid of things.”

  Angela smiled at the thought. If she only knew.

  “How did your studying go?” Angela asked. “Did you get much done?”

  Melina looked up from her book. “Yeah. It was productive. Until …” Melina wasn’t sure that she wanted to talk with Angela about Alex, but it was too late.

  Angela looked concerned and stepped forward. “Until what. Did something happen?”

  “Oh. No, nothing inappropriate happened. Alex asked me to go to the movies tomorrow. Everything is perfect,” Melina’s voice tailed off. It was clear that everything was not perfect.

  Angela picked up on that. “It doesn’t sound like it. Are you concerned about anything?”

  Melina shifted her position on the bed. “It’s just… it’s just all new to me. I have never been out with a boy. I don’t know what to do, how to act on a date. What others would think of the two of us being together.”

  Angela thought that last one was out of place among Melina’s concerns. She wanted to help, but she did not want to come across as taking the place of Melina’s mother in this situation.

  “Tell you what,” Angela said. “On the way to pick up your brother, we can stop and get ice cream. You can ask me questions about dating and stuff.”

  Melina didn’t say anything, but it was clear she was thinking about it.

  Angela put her hand on Melina’s shoulder. “You need your mother right now. I am sorry that she is not here to help. I know Laura. She is a dear friend of mine. She would want me to help you.”

  Angela was right. Melina was thinking about her mom. But Angela was also right that her mom would not want her to sit around and mope.

  Melina got down from the bed. “Let me get my shoes.”

  ………………………….

  The first few minutes of the car ride were spent in silence. Melina was still mulling over everything, and Angela was trying to figure out a way to start the conversation. She figured she would start with what Melina had said earlier that she found strange.

  “You had mentioned that you thought that others would have a problem with you and Alex. Who are these others? Does your best friend not like him?”

  “Oh, no,” Melina said. “All my friends like him and my best friend has been the biggest help in getting us together.”

  “So your family has a problem with him?” Angela asked.

  “My dad doesn’t even know Alex exists, and my brother seemed to get along with him fine.”

  Angela looked confused. “So who are these people that are going to have a problem with Alex? I mean he seemed like a decent young man.”

  “Well… there is this one girl at school, Ellen Barrow. She keeps telling me that Alex is out of my league. And that she will be together with him before long.”

  “Is she right?” Angela asked. “Is he out of your league?”

  “Ummm,” Melina said as she sounded as if she were thinking about it.

  “That was supposed to be a rhetorical question,” Angela said. “Of course you are in his league. You’re smart, pretty, and you are one of the nicest high school kids I have ever met.”

  “Ummmm,” Melina stammered.

  “This girl at school,” Angela continued. “Do you trust her? I mean, is she someone that you think has your best interests at heart when she talks to you?”

  “That would be a definite no,” Melina said.

  “Then why would you give her opinion the time of day?” Angela asked.

  “Well …”

  “Look,” Angela said. “There are going to be people in your life that are not your friends, are not your family and do not have your best interest at heart. They are going to say hurtful things about you. Some things will be true, and some will be untrue. If what they say is true, they are just tryin
g to make you feel terrible. If what they say is untrue, they are just lying. Either way, their opinion is not worth acknowledging.”

  Melina smiled at the thought. There was certainly no reason to pay attention to Ellen.

  “Thank you, Angela,” Melina said.

  The short car ride was over, and Angela pulled up in front of the ice cream shop. It was in a strip mall with the requisite nail salon and convenience store. There did not appear to be anyone in the ice cream shop except the young man behind the counter. Through the car window, Angela spotted two large, young men standing in front of the convenience store next door. They were in the shadows, so she could not see their faces, but one was wearing a hoodie, and the other wore a baseball cap backwards on his head. They were each drinking from large bottles of beer and standing under a sign that prohibited drinking alcoholic beverages on the premises. This was not a positive sign.

  Angela got out of the car and continued to watch the two men as she walked toward Melina. “Let’s get inside,” she said.

  The men were laughing at something when hoodie noticed Melina and Angela. He staggered over toward them as they approached the door of the ice cream shop.

  “Hey, you ladies wanna party with us?” he said, slurring the sentence, so it sounded like one long word.

  “Thank you for your offer, young man,” Angela said politely, “but we are not interested.”

  “Aw, c’mon. We’ll show you a slammin’ time,” backward baseball cap guy piped in.

  “Again, thank you. But no,” Angela said as diplomatically as she could muster.

  “Aw, you’re kinda ugly anyway,” hoodie said as he walked back to the other man.

  Melina grit her teeth and glared at the man. Angela opened the door to the ice cream shop and pulled Melina inside. The sound of the bell attached to the door that announced their presence was still ringing when Melina turned to Angela.

  “I am beyond furious,” Melina said, still glaring at the man out the window. “I cannot believe he said that.”

  Angela smiled and rapped gently on Melina’s forehead with her knuckle. “Hello in there. What did we just talk about on the way over here? Do you think I care one bit about what some drunken young kid that I will never see again has to say about me? You have to focus. Remember this. Words can only hurt you if you allow them hurt you. Now, let’s get us some ice cream.”