The Changelings Part 6

We all pa.s.sed our booklets up. I wondered which superhero Tony picked. Probably Spiderman. I know he has some Spiderman comics in his room at home.

"For those of you interested in continuing, there will now be a brief personal interview, conducted in a separate room. We will take you in alphabetical order by first name. While the interviews are taking place, the rest of you may remain here in this room. Refreshments will be provided."

The door to the room opened and several hotel employees started filing in, carrying trays of sandwiches and chips and bins of sodas. Within five minutes they had a whole lunch buffet set up. Tony and I had eaten half a sub before we came, but with our current situation being what it was, I decided I should eat anyway. Who knew when our next good meal was going to be?

"Our first interview will be with Becky."

Becky stood up and followed Mr. Dardennes out of the room, glancing back at all of us with her trademark happy smile. The rest of us got up and served ourselves lunch.

Tony came back to the table, his plate piled high with four sandwiches.

"Hungry?" I asked.

"Not really. I'm going to wrap these up in something and put them in my bag for later."

"Brilliant ... me too. Be right back." I stood up and made a second trip to the buffet, grabbing three more sandwiches and two bags of chips. I noticed Jared's crew were all doing the same thing. Even with all of us grabbing four times what we could eat, there were still plenty of sandwiches left. They must have been expecting more people. There were only about five extra seats though. Oh well, someone made a calculation error and I was going to capitalize on it. I grabbed some napkins from the stack for wrapping up our sandwiches.

I got back to the table and all but one of Tony's sandwiches was already gone. He wrapped mine up quick and shoved them in his bag to join the others. We started eating the ones we still had on our plates.

The door opened and Becky stepped through. "Chase, you're next. Go down the hall that way, and go in the last door on the left."

Becky went up to the sandwich buffet, taking four sandwiches, three bags of chips and two sodas. She was barely five feet tall and I'm sure didn't break one hundred pounds on the scale. Seeing her with that much food was comical. She sat down by Finn and set about wrapping up her sandwiches, just like Tony and I had done. I guess we were naturals at this homeless thing ... a depressing thought.

Jared spoke up first. "So Becky, what'd they say?"

We all stopped chatting and listened for her answer. "I can't say. They said we can't tell each other until it's all over or it could compromise the results." She shrugged apologetically. "Sorry guys; I need the money though, so I'm going to follow the rules. Don't worry," she said brightly, "you'll find out in a minute anyway." Then she took a big bite of her turkey sandwich.

Everyone went back to eating and chatting. Eventually it was my turn. I got up after being summoned by a guy who was not part of Jared's crew; he looked like he could be one of our parents ... older and more serious. His name started with an 'H'.

I walked down the hall, entering the last room on the left as instructed. There was a round table with three chairs around it at the end of the room. Two of the chairs were already occupied, one by Mr. Dardennes and one by some lady, also with gray hair and gray eyes. The looked like they could be siblings ... twins even. The chair opposite them was empty, so I took it.

"h.e.l.lo, Jayne," said Mr. Dardennes. "This is my colleague, Celine."

I nodded my head at her. "Nice to meet you, Celine." I wanted to ask them if they were related, but I couldn't afford to be rude; there was five hundred bucks on the line.

"We just have a few questions for you, based on answers you gave on your test."

"Okay, shoot." This was like a job interview. I'd gone on a few of those, the last one being at the local frozen yogurt store. I didn't get the job, so I'm not sure that my interview skills were up to par.

The woman began speaking. "Please, before we begin, may I see your hands?"

That was a strange request, but it seemed innocent enough. I held my hands up in front of me, palms facing them.

She stretched her hands out across the table. "Please place them in my hands."

Now this seemed a little on the creepy side. What was she going to do? Read my palms?

I slowly placed my hands down to the table, putting them palm up in her hands.

"Turn them over, please."

Okay, so she wasn't going to read my palms. Were we going to play the slap game? I was pretty good at it a it made Tony crazy that I could flip my hand over and slap the back of his hands before he moved them out of the way. He refused to play with me anymore. Somehow I doubted the sophisticated and controlled Celine was going to let me slap her. If she decided to slap me, I'd probably let her. Five hundred bucks was five hundred bucks.

Celine nodded at Mr. Dardennes, signaling him to begin the interview.

"Jayne, you said on your test that you do not hear voices in your head, is that correct?"

"Yes, I did say that, and it's true. But honestly, who would say 'yes' to that question?"

"Different people interpret the questions differently which sometimes results in them answering differently. Surely you have a conscience?"

"Well of course I have a conscience ... but it's not a separate voice or anything in my head talking to me ... " I stopped for a second to think about that. I did tend to have lots of conversations with myself in my head a but they were with me, not some other voice. Then I thought about Tony. Oopsy. That boy was hearing my voice in his head lately. Did that mean he was crazy? I didn't think so. He'd have to follow my instructions in order to qualify as crazy. Now that was an interesting idea ... bossing Tony around telepathically ...

My thoughts were interrupted by Mr. Dardennes who had a very small smile on his face. Or maybe I was imagining that, because suddenly he looked very serious. "Have you ever physically injured another person?"

Dammit. Did my mother's boyfriend count? He totally deserved it. Other than him, I couldn't remember ever hitting anyone. Before I could decide whether to hedge my answer, Celine spoke up. "Include all instances. Do not make judgments about motivations or whether it would be considered right or wrong from a moral standpoint."

Sheee-it. Was this woman reading my mind now too? I was going to have to figure out how to keep my thoughts more private real soon. Tony being in there was bad enough.

"I did physically hurt someone once, but he totally deserved it and gave me no choice ... and I'm not interested in giving you any details, so if you need details to qualify me for this test, then I'm outta here."

I started pulling my hands away from Celine's grasp, but she closed her fingers and held on. She had a surprisingly strong grip for such an old lady. I guess I a.s.sumed she was old because of the gray hair, but her face didn't have any lines in it like it should have ... I mean, for the color of her hair anyway.

"No, we don't need details; your explanation will suffice," said Mr. Dardennes. "Let's continue. Do you know the ancestry of your great-grandparents or great-great grandparents? Or even further back than that?"

This one was easy. "My mother's family is from Ireland and my father's family is of mixed European heritage." I'd heard my mom say that often enough. She had dark hair and dark eyes, so whenever she said she was pure Irish, I'd make fun of her, saying it wasn't possible since she didn't have red hair or freckles. She claimed she was 'black Irish', whatever that meant.

"What is your mother's maiden name?"

I was wondering if I should tell them, since I was trying to remain somewhat anonymous. I figured it wouldn't matter though. My mom never used that name anyway. Even after the divorce she kept using Sparks.

"Blackthorn."

My two interviewers exchanged a look. It is a super cool last name, I had to admit. When I get older I'm going to legally change my name from Sparks to my mother's maiden name. Jayne Blackthorn. It has a cool ring.

Celine continued with the questioning. "When asked what the weather was like outside, you said you didn't know; was that a truthful answer?"

"Yyyeesssss ... ," I said, kind of sure of myself, kind of not.

"You are hesitant in your answer ... why?"

"Well, because it's Miami, so it's probably sunny or rainy, but ... "

"But?"

"Nothing. I just wasn't sure so I picked the 'I don't know' answer."

"I think there is something you are not telling us," said Celine, no expression on her face. I was starting to get uncomfortable about having my hands in hers. They were beginning to sweat, and she was being so serious.

"It's nothing really."

"Let's try this," said Celine, looking me straight in the eye. I couldn't help but stare back. Her look wasn't exactly a challenge, but I felt like I needed to let her know I didn't intimidate easily. "Close your eyes. Think about the weather outside. What do you see, feel, or smell?"

I closed my eyes as instructed.

"Smell?" Her question reminded me of the funny odor I smelled when I looked at that weather question on the test.

"Yes ... do you smell something?"

"Yes, I do actually; but I can't put my finger on it exactly. I know I've smelled it before."

"Does it smell like rain?"

"No, definitely not rain."

"Suns.h.i.+ne?"

That was funny. Suns.h.i.+ne didn't smell like anything. I laughed.

"What about snow?"

I started to smile at that one too, but I hesitated. Snow ... did it smell like snow? I inhaled again deeply. That's it! Snow! I smelled it once when we were in North Carolina. We had taken an RV trip up into the mountains and when we got near the top of one of the higher peaks, near the border of Tennessee, it had started to snow. I could smell it in the air; it was amazing.

As crazy as it sounded, I answered her question truthfully. "Yes, I smell snow. I'm not sure where it's coming from, but when I was in the mountains once, when it snowed, this is what it smelled like."

Celine squeezed my hands and then let them go. "I'm done here then." I couldn't tell from her dismissal if I'd answered correctly or confirmed for them that I was a complete loon.

"I have one more question for you," said Mr. Dardennes.

"Alright."

"When the test asked you what superhero you wanted to be ... "

He hesitated, as if he wasn't sure where to go from here.

"Yes ... ?" It began to get a little uncomfortable, him sitting there saying nothing now, and both of them just staring at me. Am I supposed to say something? ... What?

"Your answer was a bit ... unconventional," he finally said.

I shrugged my shoulders. "That's me ... unconventional, I mean."

"Was there any particular reason you chose that ... person?"

"No. I guess it was the one thing I felt like I could identify with the most."

Both Celine and Mr. Dardennes had the same look on their faces. Confusion? Contemplation? I'm not sure what it was exactly.

Celine apparently wasn't done anymore. "In what way?"

"In what way do I identify with her you mean?"

"Yes."

"I don't know ... she's just the most awesomely powerful I guess." I shrugged my shoulders. "It wasn't the easiest question to answer, you know. I'm not a big comic fan and most superheroes are very limited to just one thing. And they wear stupid outfits. I guess I like her because she doesn't have those limits."

"Interesting." Celine looked at Mr. Dardennes and they exchanged a silent look. I wouldn't be surprised if they were telepathic. Something about the way they looked and the way they acted seemed foreign. They were probably French. They both had the same accent.

Mr. Dardennes stood, followed by Celine. "Thank you, Jayne, for your frank answers and cooperation. Could you please go back to the room and tell Spike that it's his turn?"

I stood to go out. "When will we find out if we're accepted?"

Mr. Dardennes walked with me to the door. "We will post a list at the front desk of the hotel tonight by eight o'clock. The candidates will be expected to be at the hotel tomorrow by eight a.m. to take a shuttle to the airport." He stopped in the doorway as I stepped out into the hall. "And Jayne, please keep the content of this interview confidential. We don't want your answers or advance notice of our questions to taint the other candidates' responses."

"Okay, see you later, I guess ... thanks."

I went back to the meeting room and told Spike it was his turn. He flashed me a smile as he walked by, making me feel all warm inside. It was ridiculous how he could affect me like that. I shook it off. I can't be all lovesick when I need to focus on getting through this physical test, or whatever it was. I was never the best rope climber in gym cla.s.s ... or the best monkey bar climber ... or the best runner. The list goes on and on.

Tony tried to get me to tell him what happened, but I didn't want to mess up either of our chances of being accepted, so I told him to just be patient. Spike came back a few minutes later and then one of the older people went in. Eventually everyone was done and Mr. Dardennes joined us back in the meeting room. It was almost four o'clock.

"Thank you all for coming. We will post a list of the accepted candidates at the front desk of the hotel. It will be available by eight o'clock tonight. If your name appears on the list, you will need to be at the front of the hotel at eight in the morning, tomorrow. A shuttle will be waiting to take you to the Miami Executive Airport. If your name is not on the list, there will be an envelope at the front desk for you with fifty dollars inside, as a thank you for your time today. It was nice meeting all of you, and for those of you who are accepted, I will see you tomorrow."

He left the room as we digested his speech.

"Well, that was interesting," said Becky.

"Are we allowed to talk 'bout the interviews now?" asked Finn.

"Not now, let's get outta here first," said Jared. He seemed uncomfortable. He looked over at Tony and me. "You guys are welcome to join us."

I looked at Tony and he shrugged, nodding his head. We didn't have anything else to do a might as well go and talk to them about what happened in their interviews. I was curious to see what superhero they chose. I'm pretty sure I had answered that one wrong.

We all left the meeting room and went towards the front of the hotel, Jared leading the way. He came to a complete stop as he rounded the corner that was just before the gla.s.s exterior doors. Samantha was following so close on his heels that she ended up b.u.mping into him. Chase was right behind them, but jumped to the side, missing the pile-up behind Jared. Tony and I hadn't reached the corner yet, but we couldn't miss the surprise in the voices of those who were there.

"What the h.e.l.l?" said Jared, obviously surprised about something.

"Is that ... ?" said Samantha, unable to get the rest of her sentence out.

"Wow, I never would have guessed that in a million years!" said Becky, obviously delighted about something.

Chase just shook his head, saying nothing.

"What? What's up?" said Spike, walking up from the back of our group with Finn. "What's the big deal?"

"Come see for yourself," said Jared, with a deliberately neutral tone.

We all walked around the group at the corner so we could see the front doors too. None of us were expecting to see what was there.

Snow. Snow all over the sidewalks and the bushes ... even in the palm trees.