The Walker Tracking System, Part Three
But, before any of that started, I discovered one of my first great loves: New Orleans.
The first time we went there it wasn’t much to look at- FEMA still hadn’t cleaned up all the mess left over from Hurricane Katrina, and you could tell it would be a while before you could walk around without some reminders of that tragedy, but at the time I could have cared less. Arriving in New Orleans meant a break from the constant verbal and telepathic lectures on the many and varied reasons I SHOULD NOT track Sylar. All of which I dismissed out of hand as a load of utter crock, albeit utter crock that hand its roots in fatherly love and a desire to protect our family.
That didn’t change the fact that I felt it was still utter crock, and I treated with all the passive-aggressively contemptuous sarcasm my nine-year-old self could muster.
This did not make for a happy trip.
So, getting back to the topic of hand, I was very happy when we crossed the Louisiana border, and the conversation inevitably turned to “Where do you want to live?” and “How are we going to support the family?” and “Crap! Those diamonds are still in my safe box in San Francisco!” and “I should probably visit Micah while we’re here.”
That last thing caused silence to descend upon the car. At the time, I was only vaguely aware of what had happened to Niki. I knew Appa was supposed to do something to save her, before Sylar came and, once again, ruined everything. I knew she’d died- I knew there was no body. I knew Micah had stopped emailing me after that, even though I’d still sent him occasional email offering a chance to talk if he wanted to.
He never replied. If Appa was going to see him, I wanted to go with him.
I said as much, and before Appa could say anything, Dad heartily agreed.
Looking back, I think it’s safe to say that he was hoping that if I had Micah to fuss over, I wouldn’t worry so much about Sylar. Because that would happen.
Actually, as it turned out, Micah was the one to really get the Walker Tracking System back on line. I might have been able to switch her on, but Micah gave me upgrades and a directive to work with.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. There was a lot of stuff that happened before all that: we moved in and Dad took a trip to San Francisco to get the diamonds- I don’t think we actually used any of them yet, but they were, as Appa had explained, a sort of insurance policy. No matter how far we had to run, no human society had yet evolved that didn’t take diamonds as currency.
I watched him every step of the way. There was one close call with Sylar when Dad was at a rest stop in Nevada and Sylar was less then five miles away, but thankfully, Sylar drove right by before I could even figure out the right number to dial to tell Dad to watch out.
Things went less well on the Micah front. Monica refused to let us in the door after the words “Dr. Mohinder Suresh” left Appa’s mouth, threatening to call the police and get a restraining order.
Obviously, Appa wasn’t the only one blaming him for Niki’s death.
For a while, that was that. I think Appa might have written a letter, but somehow I doubt it ever made its way into Micah’s hands.
And then school started. And not only did it turn out that I went to the same school as Micah, but we were in the same grade- and the same class. I sat right next to him that first day, and we pointedly ignored each other until recess, when he cornered me on the playground and began to yell at me about Niki’s death.
It got really loud. And ugly. The monitors were already convening on our position when he made the mistake of calling Appa a cowardly murderer, and I punched him in the face.
We were both sent down to the principal’s office, where I finished it off my launch a yelling attack of my own, about how life sucks, and at least his life is better than mine, at least he has family he can turn to, at least he didn’t lose both his parents at once, and Niki so wasn’t murdered at all, let alone by Appa, it wasn’t even funny.
That seemed to cheer him up a bit. Nothing distracts a person from the pain of a crappy life better than hearing about how much crappier mine is. And I can still be chipper on demand, so really, how horrible could it have been?
Anyway, after the principal admonished us, and Monica and the Fathers lectured us, and the teacher moved our seats, and the monitors started shadowing us around the playground, and Micah gave me a nice bruise in retaliation for his chipped tooth, we became the best of friends.
I helped him through all the shit that comes with losing your parents, and tried to prevent him from being too much of a geek; he built all sorts of cool electronically doodads that could do things that probably broke the laws of physics- not like pretty much everyone we knew hadn’t already shattered them simply by existing.
Things we pretty cool for awhile. Dad got a job as a bodyguard, Appa got a job as a science teacher, and although we weren’t exactly what you’d call well off, or even respectably middle class, we got by.
And then three things happened in quick succession:
1) Micah asked me to look for him mother. Just to be sure.
2) A bank in Montana was held up.
3) A Company employee caught up with us.
~*~
Link to the next part is here.