The Post Sunday Experiment | COMPLETED 2020

Chapter 1

Two years later

Five seconds, four, three... Two... Ody held his breath as he waited for the time to pass, staring at the clock that hung above the whiteboard. And just like that, it struck four o'clock and the bell rang. Sliding out of his desk, he picked up his backpack, gathered his notes, and followed the stream of yapping tenth graders outside the classroom.

Walking silently down the halls, his feet dragged on the tile floors of his high school. As he attempted to take his mind off the information from his chemistry class that swirled around his brain with endless equations and vocabulary words he wondered if he would ever fully grasp, he popped his earbuds in.

Like all the mind-numbing days before this one, he tried his best to block out the endless noise that pounded on him from all sides. The kids shouted at each other, threw notes across the halls, and ran around incessantly no matter how much the teachers shoved homework into their backpacks. Turning his earbuds up to a full ten, he blasted his music to block out all else.

The earbuds were noise blocking, so if someone were to look at him, they would just see a tall, thin boy made up of knees and elbows with black hair that was too long and covered his dark brown eyes. And nothing more.

Mae had done her best to convince the boy that he could and would make friends here, but that only fed his pride to do everything in his power to prove her wrong in hopes she would send him back home. Mechanically, he made his way through the halls and to the bus stop.

Because the boy had convinced himself he wanted nothing more than the life he had before, Ody gave all his mental and physical energy to avoiding his mother's piped spirit and receiving decent grades but even some days that seemed impossible .

Ody had always been a natural at math and reading and loved history. On the contrary, ever since he had moved to The Big Apple, all forms of science had seemed to slip his brain and even the simplest atom with its protons and electrons were fuzzy in his mind.

Mae had promised that Ody could see his father every summer. However, in the two years since they'd moved away, she had barely been able to scrape up enough money to pay their rent, let alone a vacation to the countryside. Besides, his father never seemed to reach out in hopes to pay for the ticket himself. On particularly long days, Ody sometimes wondered if Devlin had indeed forgotten about him entirely.

His feet dragged down the front steps of Lake Ballard High and to where his bus, number 364, would soon be. His music rhythmically pulsated through his earbuds, drowning out his messy thoughts.

Ody took a seat on the grass.

His life simply felt gray, black, and white. Nothing had changed since the move. He got up at seven every morning to get ready for school, took the same classes at school, and rode that same bus home.

***

On the other side of the city, Mae's manager drained every ounce of her energy. She loved her job, she told herself over and over again. Despite knowing that, she couldn't fully believe it.

The city felt like a big lie to both of them. On the outside, it was full of colors and inspiration, yet on the inside, full of people desperately pushing others down so that they might brand themselves to a job in order to feed their families . Mae knew that honorable jobs were hard to find so she hung onto her socks and stayed with her toxic coworkers and unreasonable, flirtatious boss.

Sitting at her desk in front of her laptop screen, Mae fought to stay focused on her words. The bags under her eyes, however, were eminent and no matter how much coffee she drained, she still longed for sleep. Her cellphone rang, and she nearly laughed with joy. She needed a distraction.

Answering the call of an unknown number, she soaked in every second her eyes were not glued to that stupid article on the stock market.

"Hello, this is Mae Winter," she answered sweetly, doing her best to hide her exhaustion.

"Hey, Mae-"

"Eric, is that you?" Mae interrupted, laughing with joy and desperation. Eric was an old coworker of Devlin's she hadn't heard from in years. "It is nice to hear from you!"

"It's nice to hear from you as well, Mae. I only wish it were under better circumstances," he spoke, his tone dropping octaves. They both paused and Mae's stomach turned as Eric's voice went dry and cold. "Mae, I have some bad news for you..." Eric paused, "Your ex-husband, Devlin Winter, has passed away."

The air in the room grew cold as ice and Mae had to do her best to not drop the phone.

"Wha- what?" she stammered as her lips trembled in confusion. "How could this be? What happened, Eric?"

"The tox-screen said it was the intake of a chemical. He inhaled too much cyanogenic glycoside from the cassava leaves he had been studying recently. The evidence was spread all over the flat and even Penny said she saw him dealing with it recently.

"But I was the one to discover Devlin's corpse and it was obvious that the man had not died from a poison. His body was in the woods—scrapes, bruises, and cuts all over him as if he had gone mad. The officials claimed the poison had caused him to go crazy and commit suicide. I don't know how much of that is true, but I am so sorry, Mae."

Mae was silent for a second as she brought her hand up to her mouth in utter horror. "But- but what went wrong? How did- how did this happen?" she cried, a tear rolling down her cheek in confusion that something like this could even happen.

Yes, she hadn't gotten along with Devlin and the two of them could never live together, but she loved him. She couldn't stand him, but she would have never wished something so horrid as this upon him.

"Mae, listen to me," Eric spoke softly and calmly for he could hear her horror and sadness through the phone. "Tell Ody as soon as possible. Devlin was a good man and scientist and his discoveries in physiology treatments gave him fame. It would be best that Ody hears this from you before the public news finds it and dilutes the story.

"Request the day off and take him out of school," Eric finished.

"But- but you do not understand, Eric! I ca- cannot! I need the money. I cannot just take the day off!"

"Shh, shh, shh, Mae, listen to me," Eric lowered his voice, "Mae, you will have checks coming in the mail for the next three months having to do with all of Devlin's finances. I know this isn't a good time to talk finances, but he left all of his money to you and the kids in his will. All of it. Don't worry about your job, just take the day off and go tell Ody. Just do it, Mae. Please?"

There was a pause before Mae agreed, said goodbye, and hung up the phone. Her eyes looked back at her open office document the blinking cursor flashing at her.

Wiping her tears away and sitting up a little straighter, she gathered her things. Mae then told her boss it was a family emergency—promising to work more hours on the weekend—and then got in her small car and headed to Lake Ballard High School.

Ody, on the other hand, sat outside the front of the school, watching the busses pass by one after the other as he waited. The bus was delayed today—probably stuck in traffic downtown, he assumed.

His eyes drifted across the parking lot that had nearly drained of people by now. All the other buses had filled with teenagers and driven off so now the kids of 364 all sat on the grass, backs bending over their cellphones. Waiting.

The old, gray, compact car drove around the turnaround and stopped in front of the group of teenagers. Rolling down her window, Mae called for Ody.

Quickly lowering the volume of his earbuds, he walked over to his mother's car and paused.

"Mom, what are you doing he-"

"Just get in the car, Ody," she choked, her eyes glued to her dashboard. "Something has happened, and you need to know, darlin'."

Ody's whole body tensed. She hadn't called him that since the divorce.