Gifted

Ch. 12 He's Too Young

It was midafternoon when Mr. and Mrs. LeFlour pulled into the lot of the Newcastle City Hall building. They exited their black sedan and walked inside. Marisa could not help but feel a sense of dejá vù as she walked into the conference room. This time, however, only Alfred Franklin sat at the table to greet them.

            "I understand you wanted to meet with me?" Franklin said innocently. Time had aged him even further since the last time they had laid eyes upon the man.

            "You overstepped with Aiden," Cole started. "He's our son, you should have come to us before taking him on as a student." Cole refused any offer to take a seat, he stood beside his wife.

            "I got the feeling he felt the same way," Franklin conceded, "Won't you take a seat?"

            "We just drove over an hour to get here from Augusta, we'd rather stand," Marisa spoke up.

            "I see," Franklin said.

            "Stay away from Aiden," Cole demanded, still standing stiffly.

            "I believe a day or two ago, young Aiden might have agreed with you,  but you see, today he came into my classroom and..." Franklin trailed off dramatically, "What was it he sad? Oh yes, 'I'm in."' That's what he said. He wanted to know all about the arrangements we had made for him and what was to be expected. He was very interested in being a part of the campaign," Franklin revealed.

            "Is that what you're calling it now? A 'campaign'?" Marisa spat in disgust.

            "Despite what you may think, my goal really is to improve life for all of us," Franklin explained.

            "Oh, I have no doubt," Cole spoke up, "just do it without our son," Cole said, turning around to leave.

            "Aiden has expressed interest in joining our cause, and he is of age, so it really isn't your decision, you have no say in the matter," Franklin assured them.

            "You wouldn't have any say in the matter if I broke your neck now would you?" Cole shouted, slamming both his hands on the table.

            Two men stepped into the room, "Do we have a problem here?" one asked sternly.

            "Please escort this lovely couple out," Franklin commanded.

            The towering, muscular guard put his hand on Cole's arm and led him out. "Yeah, yeah, we got it. We're leaving," Cole said, attempting to take his arm back. Cole and Marisa got into their car and started for home. When they arrived, Aiden was not home, nor was Marisa's van. That was when they remembered Aiden must be out on his date. They sat stiffly in their living room and waited for Aiden to come home.

            He stepped in the door at seven and Marisa nervously asked, "Where were you?"

            "I was out with Amanda. Remember? You said I could take the van? I made sure I wasn't out late," Aiden replied as he closed the front door behind him, handing his mother the car key.

            "We remember," Cole said calmly. Aiden could tell it was a conscious effort, "Come sit," he gestured to the armchair in the living room. Aiden felt like he was in the hot seat.

Man, I just had such a good time too...

"We met with Alfred Franklin today, telling him to back off," Cole started, "and could you imagine our surprise when he tells us our son has decided to 'join the cause'? I said hell no, there's no way, when he responds, oh yes, he wanted to know all about it and even used the very words, 'I'm in.'"

"It's not like I was trying to keep it a secret. All this just happened today, I hadn't seen you yet today. I was going to tell you as soon as I got home, and here we are, talking about it."

"That's not the point!" Marisa began to cry, "You decided," tears were streaming down her face, "without even discussing it with us.

"Oh, mom," Aiden didn't know what to do, "I wasn't thinking about it like that."

"That's my point," Cole interrupted, "You weren't thinking. You can't leave Maine! You're not old enough to go fight in some epic revolution against Marcus Kisinger! You can't go!" Cole roared.

"That's not your decision!" Aiden blasted back.

"It is when you live under my roof!" Cole commanded. Both men were standing up and in each other's faces.

"Then maybe I won't live under this roof!"

Cole stepped back, removing himself temporarily from the conversation. He took a minute to breathe deeply and calm himself, then approached his son again. "Alright, here's the deal. Nobody is leaving tonight, correct?" Cole looked from Aiden to Marisa, both acquiesced, "Then let's all go to our rooms, or take some time to be alone, because no tough decisions need to be made tonight. Does that sound agreeable?"

"Yes," Aiden said.

**

            It took a whole year of convincing his parents not to mourn him for them to come to terms with the fact that he would be leaving after graduation. He had to instill in them confidence that they were not sending him off to his inevitable doom. He promised that in all his reports back to Alfred Franklin, there would also be letters for them.

 It helped that senior year was full of normal teenager things such as Homecoming, Christmas Break, Prom, and Graduation, though graduation didn't help him to distract his parents much. He enjoyed his last year of high school, and went on many more dates with Amanda, they visited the lighthouse several more times.

            Finally, it was time to start packing for the trip and saying goodbyes as the week of graduation came around.