The Business of Time Travel Tourism

Chapter 38: The Power of Friendship

July wiped a tear off the red cheek. He knew that the physical pain would go away in seconds, but the scar deep inside his heart would remain forever. July always tried to hide his feelings on the battlefield, look tough, and build an image of an iron soldier. Yet more often than not, he failed.

"I did not deserve this," said July. Another tear rolled down the cheek.

"Oh, you deserve much more, you mean little man," Sally bit the open wound.

He had too many hopes to befriend this girl and there she was cursing and beating him. For July, this was too much to handle. He was sinking into the ground underneath the feet. He wanted to go away, to escape. For a moment, he forgot the mansion, the rocket, and Sally. He was once again a small child spending his days in solitude at the labs of Moonrise Enterprises.

There, on a daily basis, he endured both physically and mentally painful treatment. He had no clue how he came to be or what was to become of him. The only person he knew back in the day was a scientist named 'Nobody'. The scientist was a harsh father figure: strict, and rude, and demanding.

Wearing a white coat, Nobody would often sit in front of July, read the results of his tests and say, "Average, July, so average. You could do much better. You are not getting your supper for this."

July still remembered the bald scientist's head reflecting the intense lights of illuminators, the face emotionless as that of a robot. The scientist always came on eight AM and left on five PM five days in a row. Then for two days he would not get to see Nobody and spend the time alone, doing excruciating tasks or homework assigned to him.

Once, when July asked if he could leave the place, he got the following reply, "You'd die if you ever left this place before completing your training."

Nobody supervised the physical tests July had to pass on a daily basis. Depending on the results, July would either be treated nicely or like a trash. Because the tests were impossible, July often ended scolded and told how miserable he was. He never got used to harshness and often cried alone with his face pressed into the soft matt in the sleeping room. He blamed himself for failing, for not making a hundred pushups in a minute, for falling off a thin hundred meters long line which he needed to walk under simulated severe weather conditions, for being unable to hold breath for seven minutes. Those and hundreds of other tests demanded his maximum effort, which never seemed to be enough.

In time, July understood the world was much larger than the confined space he spent his days in. As years passed, the questions he gave Nobody about the origins of food, equipment, clothes, about the purpose of the training got more complex and the scientist slipped with the inconsistent and logic lacking answers. Once, when pushed into a corner by a barrage of questions, the scientist said that the little man was important in mankind's path towards greatness. But who was that mankind and what path it wanted to take, July had no clue.

As July came to his early twenties, the scientist started lacking energy and motivation. By accident, Nobody slipped a fact or two about the outside world, about the people, about the fly-cars. It was enough set off the fire of curiosity burning in July's heart.

Time passed and things did not change for the better. Tests went on. There was no sign that the training would ever end. One day July had enough. He decided to risk it all, bet his life on the line and attempt an escape.

July used the agility skills he learned over the years. Once, when the scientist was leaving the laboratory on his fifth day of work tired and exhausted, July silently followed him through a short maze of corridors and when he saw the door to the smoky world open, he pushed the scientist out of the way and ran off into the unknown.