Jackson Humes is Not a Superhero

CHAPTER TWELVE

My hands were shaking. The walls felt like they were closing in. The room began to spin. I dropped the laptop on the couch and ran out the front door. I barely made it down the stairs before collapsing in front of Mr. Saltzman's flowerbed, where I proceeded to unload my entire breakfast.

"Gross, dude," I heard Marv say from somewhere behind me.

My mom had always worn her hair long. I knew this from the various pictures I'd seen. I also knew that she had cut it off right around the time Tanner had broken his arm, which meant that she'd been pregnant at the time of the car accident. Why hadn't anyone told me? Surely, my aunt would have known.

I felt angry and afraid, confused and tired. I crawled away from the mess I'd made, hugged my knees into my chest, and sobbed for several minutes. I had never felt so overwhelmed in my life. All I could think about were the children in cages and the fact that our parents had allowed it to happen.

When I was finally able to compose myself, I noticed Marv sitting just a few feet away from me, looking off into the distance. He had that lost expression dogs get when they don't know quite what to do.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"Not really. I feel like everything I've ever known about my parents is one big lie. Watching our parents do horrible experiments on those kids like it was nothing." I pushed the images out of my head for fear of getting sick again. "How could they?"

"They didn't want to, but they had no other choice," Mr. Saltzman said from the patio. "They realized it was the only way they could help protect those kids. Believe me, had it not been for them, the experiments would have been much worse. Your parents weren't the bad guys in all of this. They were just trying to do their best in a horrible situation." He walked down the stairs and disappeared around the side of the house before he came back carrying a garden hose.

I felt a pang of guilt and stood up. "I can clean that up."

"It's fine," he waved me off. "I was in the military. A little vomit isn't going to send me over the edge."

"Uh, that reminds me," Marv said, he'd been watching Graham do his business next to the large tree in the middle of the yard, "I think I may have to go. Like, sooner rather than later."

I wasn't quite sure how to respond. "Do you use the toilet, or—"

"Do I look like someone who can squat over a toilet?"

"Well, I hope you don't expect me to take you on a walk and clean up after you."

"Don't be ridiculous. Just ask him where I can go."

Mr. Saltzman pointed to the back of the house. "Another fun mess I'm going to have to clean up. He practically ate everything in the refrigerator this morning."

"Yeah, he does that." I shrugged, feeling guilty about all of the work we were creating for him.

He'd just finished washing away the last of my vomit when I heard someone call my name. Mr. Saltzman shut the garden hose off. "Did you hear that?"

"Jackson, I need your help!"

I ran to the back of the house and found Marv using one of the bigger trees to hide behind. He was human again and completely naked. I ran into the house and returned with the throw blanket I grabbed off the couch.

"Thanks," he said, wrapping himself up.

"What happened? How did you turn back?"

"Not now, I still have to go." He took off at a run and cleared all five steps leading to the back door. A dozen seconds later I heard a door slam shut from somewhere inside the house.