City of Pickering

City of Pickering Part 2: Introducing Eddie

"You've got to be kidding me," Jack groaned, crossing his arms firmly over his chest and glaring down his nose at Eddie. "You can't bring that thing in here."

"Of course I can, Jack," Eddie reached down and withdrew his pen from where he'd had it hidden away in one of the pockets of his swim shorts. He waved the pen in front of Jack's face, and Jack rolled his eyes. The pen was mainly black, decorated through with the distinctive designs of the radiation symbol, the biological hazard symbol, and the atom, the official symbol of nuclear energy. "After all, it's just a pen. What harm could it do?"

"Maybe I should ask my friends," Jack scoffed, and twisted around so he was facing the opposite direction, and called, "Ward! Henric!"

Two boys who had been standing on the side of the indoor pool, their heads held close together in quiet conversation, instantly snapped to attention. Henric, the shorter of the two, marched towards Jack confidently, then stomped to a halt beside him, Ward following.

"What's the deal, Jack?" Ward asked without looking at Eddie. "Are we having an Eddie issue again?"

"Worse," Jack murmured, shooting a fierce glance at Eddie's pen, which was still clutched tightly in Eddie's fingers. "Eddie brought his nuclear energy pen into swimming lessons. Again."

"What do you want us to do about it, Jack?" Henric spoke for the first time. "Do you want us to explain why he shouldn't bring his pen into swimming lessons?Again?" Henric raised his eyebrows mockingly at Eddie, and Eddie scowled.

"It could explode in the water, and ink will go everywhere!" Ward threw his hands up in the air to demonstrate.

"You're right, Ward," Henric agreed, clasping his hands together in front of him. "And that's why it's up to us to make sure Eddie doesn't bring his pen in here."

"Guys, it's not like I was actually going to bring it in here. I was going to give it to my dad." Eddie nodded towards Max, who was a dark silhouette in the brightly lit pool entrance. He was speaking to Ms. Chapman, the swim teacher, most likely about Eddie. Being an Ontario Power Generation worker, Max was respected very well by Eddie, who had a very deep interest in the Pickering Nuclear Power Plant, Max's job. As Eddie watched, Max shook hands with Ms. Chapman before retreating down the hallway, giving Eddie a quick wave before leaving.

Ms. Chapman jaunted back into the room again, a clipboard held between her arm and her side and her long, golden hair tied back in a tight ponytail. She grinned at Eddie as she passed, and scowled at Jack, Henric, and Ward behind their backs. She set the clipboard down on a chair by the pool, and darted over to where the four boys stood facing each other.

"Is everything all right here, boys?" Ms. Chapman queried, her eyes narrowing suspiciously. "I heard arguing."

"It's Eddie again," Jack sighed, nodding towards Eddie. "He brought his nuclear energy pen in here again."

"Still, Jack," Ms. Chapman reasoned, her tone of voice calm. "That's no reason to start an argument. Now, please return to your positions." She gestured towards a strip of grey tiled floor right at the side of the wide, rectangular pool.

Jack glared irritably at Eddie before leading Ward and Henric back to the side of the pool, their movements slow, their expressions drawn. Ms. Chapman placed a hand comfortingly on Eddie's shoulder. "Is there something bothering you, son? Is Jack being a pain again?"

"Jack's always being a pain," Eddie replied. "He just can't get enough of driving me crazy."

"Well, Eddie, we're all equal here," Ms. Chapman told him, her gaze soft with understanding. A clean white grin lit her face. "You might be a little bit different, but it's our differences that make us who we are. Without them, we'd be nobody!" Ms. Chapman chuckled and shook Eddie's shoulder happily. "Now, I think you'd better get to your position, so we can begin." She released Eddie's shoulder, and Eddie, feeling slightly more positive than before, sauntered across the pool deck and dropped into a crouch at the side of the pool and folded his legs beneath him, gazing out over the calm, rippling surface of the pool, shimmering slightly in the pale white light that slanted in through the row of windows on the pool's far side. The sky outside was overcast, a dove gray color punctuated with the occasional darker gray ripple. Despite the clouds, however, Eddie knew that in Pickering on that day, it would not, could not, rain, because in Pickering, everything was better. As with all cities, it rained enough so that there wouldn't be a drought, for the Pickering Nuclear Power Plant's sake, but when it did rain in Pickering, it usually never lasted for that long, because the sun usually came and gave the rain the boot after a couple of hours at the most. Anyway, if you wanted a city that was home to a famous forty three year old nuclear power plant and literally about twenty two ATI Sound Blaster HPSS32 air raid sirens, then Pickering was definitely the place.