After school, he made his way to the front door of the building and stepped out onto the steps. Most of the other students went out on the other side because that was the street where the bus stop and student parking lot were located. There was also a driveway for parents to pull in to pick up their children. Tyler had glanced out that door as he passed by. There were no limos, Mercedes, or BMWs out there. That was another difference.
He reached into his coat pocket to get his phone. He did not know why he had picked this coat. It had been raining this morning, so he had naturally decided he needed a raincoat. He did not think he should have shown up for his first day in a three-hundred-dollar coat from J. Crew. Most of the other kids looked like their clothes had come from GAP, and he now wished he had gone for that look, too. No one said anything to him about his clothes, but he had caught a couple of glances and heard some whispers. He guessed that was what they were talking about.
Just as he was dialing the number to get a taxi to come and pick him up, the door opened and he was nearly knocked down the steps by the boy coming out. The guy had a stack of books in one hand and was carrying a cardboard box filled with wires and other bits of computer hardware under his other arm. The boy never saw Tyler, but Tyler saw him as he was about to blindly step off the steps and crash to the sidewalk. He put his arm out and stopped him just as he held his foot out into thin air.
“Hey!” Tyler said, a bit loudly. “You’re gonna fall!”
The boy stopped and took a step back. He looked at Tyler with a confused look in his eye.
“Uh, thanks,” he said. “It’s hard to see with all of this stuff .”
Tyler took the box from him and tucked it into the crook of his arm.
“Here,” he said. “I’ll help you. Where are you headed?”
“Huh?” the guy said. “Oh! I’m just going to my dad’s store. It’s a block that way.” He pointed down the street.
“Okay,” Tyler said. “Let me carry this for you. I wouldn’t want you to have an accident.”
“Thanks,” the kid said. He still sounded confused and even a little bit nervous. “I’m Stan. Uh, Callahan. Stan Callahan.”
Tyler held his hand out and Stan took it. They shook.
“I’m Tyler McDawn.”
“Oh, I know who you are,” Stan said. “We have lit together.”
“Third period?” Tyler asked. It was a genuine question. He still had not memorized his class schedule.
“Yeah,” Stan said. “And you live in my Grandfather’s building.”
“You’re Grandfather lives in the Simmons building?” Tyler asked.
“No,” Stan replied. “He owns it. He’s Daniel Simmons.”
“Oh,” Tyler said. “Wow! I think I met him last weekend when we were moving in.”
“You did,” Stan said. “He told me about you. He said you looked like a smart guy.”
“Well, I wish you had introduced yourself earlier,” Tyler said. “I haven’t really met that many people since I moved to town.” They started walking down the steps and turned in the direction Stan had indicated.
“I wouldn’t want to wreck your reputation,” Stan said, smiling shyly.
Tyler cocked an eyebrow. “What does that mean?”
Stan made a gesture toward Tyler’s clothes and pointed at his shoes. “You’re one of the rich kids. You could be popular at this school. You don’t need to be seen hanging around me. I’m just a techie nerd.”
Tyler smiled. “Stan, I’m not like that. Really. That kind of social ladder stuff doesn’t phase me. I make friends with people I want to be friends with.”
“Well, you may not be like that but everyone else is,” Stan said. “Like right now. If someone saw you and I walking together, people would hold that against you later.”
“Screw ‘em,” Tyler said. “I told you. I don’t care about stuff like that.”
“Well, then you’re a rare breed,” Stan said.
“Maybe,” Tyler replied. “Besides, if your grandfather owns the Simmons building then your family has to be pretty well off.”
“Yeah,” Stan said. “He is, anyway. My dad owns a used bookstore down the block. But I guess you can call my family rich. They want me to go to some fancy boarding school that’s like fifty miles from here, but the science department sucks. I had to beg them to let me go to school here.”
Tyler glanced down at the box that he was carrying. He had already seen the wires in it. Under it, there appeared to be a couple of circuit boards and some other various metal and plastic objects. “What’s in the box?”
“Oh, it’s just some supplies,” Stan said. “I’m building a computer.”
“You’re building a computer?” Tyler said. “You say it like it's easy.”
“It's not hard,” Stan said. “I mean, I’ve got some old ones at my house that I’ve taken apart a bunch of times. I know how they go back together. I’ve been trying to learn how to write programs.”
Tyler grinned. “And, you’re seventeen?”
“Fifteen,” Stan said shyly. “I skipped the eighth and ninth grades.”
“That’s cool,” Tyler said. “I know how to use a computer well enough to update my Gram and watch the cat playing the piano on YouTube. That’s about it. Unless you count playing Xbox games.”
They both laughed as they crossed the street to the bookstore. Just as they reached the sidewalk, Tyler happened to glance back to the side they had just come from. A man was standing in the shadows of an overpass about a block away. He looked like he had long hair that was pulled into a ponytail and then draped over his shoulder, so that it was visible from the front. He had on a long black coat, like Tyler’s raincoat but much older and worn. He was staring at them.
“Tyler?” Stan asked. He followed Tyler’s gaze and saw the man, but he was turning away and headed down the street. “Somebody you know?”
“He looks familiar.” Tyler did not know why he said that. The man did not look familiar. He was sure it was no one he had ever seen before. But at the same time, he felt like it was someone he was supposed to know. “It doesn’t matter. Is this your dad’s store?”
They went inside. The place was exactly the kind of place Tyler imagined it would be. It was small, and filled with bookshelves. There had to be at least twenty shelves that were ten feet long and seven feet tall. They were filled on both sides with books that looked anywhere from almost new to almost dust. A desk was in the front corner of the store, not far from the door. A thin man was sitting at that desk, typing away on a laptop.
“Hi, Dad,” Stan said, setting his books down on the desk. He took the box from Tyler and set it there as well.
The man looked up from his computer screen and smiled. He adjusted his glasses.
“Hi, son,” he said. “Time got away from me. I didn’t realize that it was after three o’clock already.”
“My dad is a writer,” Stan said to Tyler. “He writes for the Tribune. He usually does his writing here at the store.”
“Who is this?” Stan’s dad asked.
“This is Tyler,” Stan said. “Today was his first day. He helped me carry my stuff here.”
“Oh,” Mr. Callahan replied as he reached a hand out to Tyler. “Well, that was good of you, Tyler. Do you mind if I ask where you’re from?”
Tyler accepted the hand and shook it. “Atlanta, most recently,” he said. “My father runs the natural history museum downtown.”
“Ah, yes,” Mr. Callahan said. “Daniel McDawn. I’m covering the gala tonight. Which reminds me, Stan. You need to get home quickly and change if you’re planning to go with me. Your mom picked your suit up from the cleaners this morning. Tyler, is there something wrong?”
Stan’s father was referring to the wide-eyed look of panic that had just come across Tyler’s face. He pulled his phone from his pocket and looked at the time.
“I’m fine,” he replied. “It's just that I forgot about the gala. I’m supposed to be home by four to meet my dad. I’ve got to go!”
“You’re never going to make it to the Simmons building by four,” Stan said. But Tyler was already gone. He was running down the street and trying to dial his phone at the same time.
__________________________________________________________________________
“Hey, kid!” Tyler stopped and wheeled around, sliding on the heel of his shoe. The taxi was coming to a stop about half a block behind him. “Are you the one that called a cab?”
“Yes!” Tyler yelled breathlessly. He jogged to the car and slid into the back seat. He was surprised to see that this was the same taxi that he was in this morning, and the same man was driving it. “I need to get to the Simmons building.”
He closed the door and the man guided the car away from the curb and back into traffic. They made their way toward the other end of town at a steady speed. The traffic would not pick up for another hour or so, but there was always a heavy stream of cars at all hours.
“You’re my first fare to ever call for an on-the-go pickup,” the driver said with a laugh. He looked in his mirror and noticed that Tyler was still pretty red-faced and breathing heavily. “You okay, kid?”
“Yeah,” Tyler said. “I’m just out of breath.” The truth was that he had asthma. He did not usually worry about it because it only flared up when he got out of breath. He did not play any sports, so it was not usually an issue. He hardly ever carried his inhaler with him, and today was no different. Had he known that he would be forced to run ten blocks he would have grabbed it.
“Well, we’re gonna have to take the long way ‘round,” the man said. Tyler groaned. “Sorry, but they’ve got a big chunk of downtown closed off. The mayor’s makin’ a big speech today.”
Tyler remembered hearing about it on television this morning while he was getting dressed for school. The mayor was appointing a task force to tackle the rising crime rates in the city. From what he heard, Birmingham had nearly three hundred violent crimes in the past year, and two-thirds of those had ended in death. He had to hand it to his dad. Going to a violent city with one a low graduation rate, much less a terrible economy, and opening one of the largest natural history museums in the world had to be risky. He had a lot riding on this museum, which in turn had a lot riding on the gala tonight.
Sure enough, Tyler looked in front of him and saw nothing but brake lights stretching for at least three blocks. A lot of people must have decided to park here and wait out the speech. It was scheduled to last a couple of hours but Tyler knew it could not last too long because the mayor and his wife were supposed to be appearing at the museum gala tonight.
“Stupid,” the driver muttered as he made a left-hand turn to an area between two buildings that Tyler was not even sure was meant for cars. “This guy don’t do nothin’ but sit on his butt and take his pay! The only time you hear from him is when he’s doin’ stuff like this. Holdin’ up traffic and stuff!”
The driver did not seem to care for the mayor.
“If you ask me, I’d say that he’s the whole problem!” the driver continued.
“The mayor?” Tyler asked. He did not know why he cared. He guessed he was just trying to keep his mind off of the fact that they had just cut around a stopped school bus and had driven with one wheel on the sidewalk for at least ten feet.
“Yeah,” the man behind the wheel replied. “This town was something back in the day. Low crime rate. Lotsa jobs. Not a whole lotta folks standin’ in line down at the soup kitchen. Then this guy gets in office and it all goes ta crap. You follow politics?”
“Not really,” Tyler said. “I took a government class last year. But that was back in Atlanta.”
“Ah, yer just a kid anyway,” the man said. “You’ll be worryin’ ’bout this stuff in a few years, though.”
__________________________________________________________________________
It was a pretty quick trip and Tyler found himself easing across the seat and opening the door after only ten minutes. He looked down at his phone. He was late, but he was not as late as he had feared.
He gave the driver his driver’s license just like he had this morning. The driver slid it through his reader and another green “accepted” appeared on the screen. Tyler thanked the man and stepped out of the car onto the sidewalk in front of the Simmons building. He nodded to the doorman in the long red coat who smiled and opened the door for him.
“Good afternoon, Mr. McDawn,” the man said with a light trace of an English accent. “I’ve just gotten a call from your father.”
Tyler looked at him and winced. “You have?”
The man grinned. “Yes, sir. He’s in quite a state.”
Tyler rolled his eyes. “Wonderful,” he said.
Five minutes later he approached the door of the apartment he shared with his father. He heard a beep and a click as the lock let go of the door. He turned the knob and went inside. His father was standing ten feet away, having heard the door.
“Tyler,” he started.
“Dad, I’m not that late,” Tyler started. “The gala doesn’t even start until eight.”
“Yes, son,” Daniel McDawn was saying. “But I have to be there at six. I have a photographer coming to take pictures of the exhibit and the caterer already has people there setting up for the banquet.”
“Well, go,” Tyler said. “I can get there on my own. I made it to school and back. Didn’t I?”
“We’re supposed to show up together,” he replied. “There will be reporters taking a lot of pictures when I get out of the limo, and I would like to arrive with my family. That’s you, Ty. Your tux is in your room.”
Tyler shook his head and made his way through the apartment toward his room. “I don’t see why this thing is such a big deal. You had parties like this all the time in New York and London.”
“This is different,” Daniel said, halfway following his son down the hallway. “You don’t realize what we’re unveiling tonight. The excavation in Greece has uncovered some really remarkable things, and we get to display some of the highlights right here.”
“I know the drill, Dad,” Tyler was saying from inside his room. His tuxedo was hanging on the closet door and he began pulling off his shoes to get dressed. “I’ve seen all of the fossils and mummies before. I grew up in museums.”
“This is more than just fossils and mummies,” Daniel said as he stood in the doorway. Tyler was busy pulling on the tuxedo pants and Daniel looked at his curly hair. “Aren’t you going to take a shower?”
Tyler rolled his eyes and pulled the pants back off. He turned and walked into the bathroom and closed the door.
“What’s different about it?” he called through the door.
“This is evidence of ancient stories that even the Greeks didn’t believe in,” Daniel said. He heard the shower start running. “I don’t have time to go into the stories right now, but I’m going to talk about it tonight. I gave you a copy of the press release.”
“I didn’t read it,” Tyler said.
“Oh, right,” Daniel replied. “I forgot that you don’t like to read books without pictures.”
“You’re talking about comics, Dad. And I haven’t read one of those since I was fourteen.”
Daniel grinned. “Anyway, this is an important step in my career. I’ve run several museums, but this could be the one that I’m known for after this exhibit opens. And it could help to bring a lot of positive attention to this town.”
The shower stopped and a couple of minutes later Tyler stepped out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around his waist. He folded his arms across his chest. He did not like to be seen without a shirt on. He still felt like he was underdeveloped for his age. He guessed he looked fine, but he wanted some definition in his arms and chest.
“I’m sorry I was late, Dad,” he said. “I’m proud of you and everything is going to be fine tonight.”
Daniel smiled. “I know it will. But it’s hard not to be nervous about things like this. By the way, I was so flustered when you came in that I didn’t ask you about school. How was your first day?”
“It was fine,” Tyler said. “Teachers, classes, lunch. You know.”
“Did you make any friends?”
Tyler rolled his eyes but laughed at the same time. “What am I? Twelve?”
“Well, did you?” Daniel asked again with a chuckle.
“I met this one kid named Stan,” Tyler said. “His grandfather owns this building and his dad writes for the newspaper. He’s going to be there tonight.”
“Good,” Daniel said. “Make sure to introduce me.”
“I will,” Tyler said. “Now go away and let me get dressed.”
Daniel turned and walked toward the door of the bedroom. “Okay, but hurry. The car will be here in half an hour.”
Tyler promised he would. He closed the door behind his father and started getting dressed for the evening.
