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Chapter 27 - Prom and Graduation

“All right, Tamara, now tell us the other half of what happened out there,” Wilson said when they were alone.

“And before you do that,” Nadine added, “how are you now? Any jittery feelings? Or anxiety? Do you need to see the doctor tomorrow?”

“I think I’m just fine, Mom. I was awake the whole time but a bit woozy. I wasn’t terribly scared ‘cause I knew I could do to them what I did to Mr Evil if it came to that. Dad, what do you mean, ‘the other half’?”

“So when Norris was here, you only told us what those guys did to you. What did you do to them?”

“Ah. Okay. I saw the guy who must have had the dart gun outside when I left the hospital but didn’t have a chance to react. It must have been air-powered ‘cause I didn’t hear anything, then I felt the dart hit and it really stung. I saw Tony drive up and tried to run to him but my legs just quit and that’s when I figured that it was ketamine. I remembered reading, some time ago, an article about how ketamine and other anesthetics are thought to work, ‘cause I was interested in how nerve cells communicate and anesthetics interfere with that communication. So I asked Beauford about it.

“He told me then that ketamine doesn’t affect all brain function, just cortical function, and neurologists believe that its effect is a result of how it disrupts the neurotransmitter glutamate in the brain. There’s a special receptor protein on cell membranes that it binds to and blocks glutamate. And glutamate is necessary to generate the electrical signals that nerve cells make. So I ‘pushed’ a taste into myself that I thought would cause a feedback loop and my fMRI results had showed that when I did that, the blood flow in my brain would increase a lot. I figured that would flush the ketamine out pretty fast.

“While I was doing that, I could hear them talking. It looked like we were in heavy traffic, so I figured we were on I-95 in stop-and-go traffic like it is when rush hour starts. So I figured if I had to shut the driver down, there wouldn’t be much of a crash. Then I realized that they had my masers up front and I had the wireless control on my necklace where I keep it. So I turned the masers on, that got them hot and it began melting the car’s plastics and electronics. The AC went out, they couldn’t open the windows, and the door locks got stuck too. When the engine quit, I ‘pushed’ fear and confusion at them and bailed out. We were in the right lane and he had drifted partway onto the shoulder when we stopped. I could see that it was safe to crawl out there since I couldn’t walk yet. Then the sheriff’s car stopped behind us and he saw me. I told you the rest before.”

“That’s some story, sweetie,” Nadine said. “Did you feel...”

“Oh! Something just occurred to me,” Tamara interrupted her. “I can see why ketamine is a recreational drug. While I was still a little bit under it, I felt such a huge sense of power; very lightheaded but very strong. Almost disconnected from everything around me. It felt like I could do anything. That’s when I ‘pushed’ the confusion and fear tastes at them. I made a monster cloud of it and was right next to them and I think I recall saying to them that they were trapped in the car and couldn’t get out. That had to have been a huge overdose of fear I gave them.

“Then when I was sitting on the shoulder, I decided to really punish them. I was still feeling giddy and wanted to have fun. I was gonna make ‘em lose control of their bladders and bowels—but then the sheriff’s cruiser arrived. So I didn’t have the time to figure out how that worked, but I did know how to do compulsion. So I made a big bunch of that taste and sent it at them.”

“Tamara...”

“Wait! The point is, that I wasn’t near them then! I didn’t have eye contact and was way too far away to ‘push’ an emotion so complicated without a verbal backup. So either the ketamine gave me superpowers—possible but unlikely—or I had some real help from the lwa. I’m voting for the spirit help. No way did I do that on my own.”

“Come here,” Nadine told her, opening her arms for a hug. “You are truly a beloved of the spirits, my darling.”

After hugs all around, Nadine said, “Let’s join hands and send our prayers and thanks to our protecting lwa. At our next worship ceremony, they all will receive special sacrifices and proper ritual thanks.”

~~~~

Tony was her scheduled driver next day to collect her for her trip to college. Tamara knew that he was recently married and was working a main job plus his driving gig, so he probably scrimped on frills. So, with Nadine’s advice, she had gotten him a gift card which could be used at a number of higher-end Miami-area restaurants.

“Hi, Tony,” she greeted him as she got into his car. “Thanks for calling 911 for me.”

“Glad you’re okay,” he responded. “It was thoughtful of you to call yesterday to let me know.”

“I want to show my thanks in a material way,” Tamara said, “so here’s a restaurant gift card. Take your bride out for a night on the town with my thanks.”

He opened the envelope. “Three hundred? Jeez—Tamara, that’s too...”

“Just take it. You deserve it. Your 911 call saved me all kinds of grief.”

“Can you tell me anything about what happened?” he asked as they pulled out.

Tamara gave him a very heavily edited version of the kidnapping.

~~~~

Attending classes at the university was almost anti-climactic after the excitement of the previous day. By noon, she was exhausted. Fortunately she didn’t have any afternoon classes; she usually spent the time in the library doing her class work or in study sessions with others taking the same classes. So she decided to go to the hospital to talk to Beauford. She had already let him know that she was okay.

He was seeing patients when she arrived so she relaxed a bit outside his office. When he returned to his office, he called her in. They hugged.

“I’m squeezing you in between patients, my dear. When the cops came here, they told me that the guy had grabbed you and pushed you into his car. Someone saw and called 911.”

“Yeah. My driver saw and called it in. They shot me with a dart, ketamine, I figured out what it must be.”

Beauford thought for a few seconds. “You cleared the anesthesia really quickly after your fracture reduction...”

“Yep, and yesterday too. I never really lost consciousness, so when their car broke down, I could get out.”

She went on to tell him the edited version.

“But I wanted to stop by so you’d see I was okay. Also, that jerk was trying to get the secret design data. They had no intention of paying, either and the FBI is looking into the case. Seeing who hired them to go after me.”

Beauford looked at her with concern. “Do you think you’ll be safe?”

“I’m pretty sure. The FBI agent told me that the kidnappers are spilling the beans; he figures that their investigators will know who hired the jerks really soon. Hey, I’m really wiped out from yesterday. Must be the aftereffects of yesterday’s adrenaline rush. It hit me around noon, so I’m going home to get a nap. I should be back tomorrow afternoon. I’ve still got some fine-tuning to do on the coil.”

“Well, take care of yourself. Don’t come in if you’re still tired, you hear?”

They hugged again and she left.

Little Haiti, Miami, Florida: Mid-May

The prom was next Saturday. Tamara had gone shopping with Linda and they both found dresses they loved. The best part of getting a dress instead of a gown was that the dress was much more versatile; it could be worn for parties and dates. The girls were meeting Carlos and Jerome at their favorite hangout. They had just found a table in the food court when the boys arrived.

Carlos hugged Linda while Jerome took Tamara’s hand with both of his.

“Will you allow me a kiss?” he asked her.

She nodded and touched her lips briefly to his.

“So me and Tamara have our dresses,” Linda said as they sat. “You guys decide what to wear?”

Carlos grinned. “All set. You’ll see.”

“Um, nothing garish or funky, I hope,” Linda frowned.

“No, no,” Jerome responded. “It’ll be fine. You won’t be embarrassed.”

“So you hear about Tyler and Martin? The teacher in charge of the prom tickets was refusing to sell them couples’ tickets?” Linda asked.

“What, are they gay?” Jerome asked.

Carlos nodded. “Yeah. Martin’s a pitcher on my team. He’s a great guy, good teammate. He’s been dating Tyler for two years now. I didn’t know about the ticket problem.”

“They can’t do that, can they?” Tamara asked. “I remember in Civics about equal protections.”

“Yeah,” Jerome added, “my dad had a case like that a year or two ago. A school—not in Miami—had a policy saying that only mixed-sex couples could attend dances and prom. The school lost the case.”

“I’m gonna call Martin later and find out what happened,” Carlos said. “On another topic,” he looked at the girls, “We haven’t talked about post-prom. There are a few post-parties I know about and some couples even get a hotel room...”

Linda smiled. “We’ll skip on the room, right, Tamara?”

Tamara nodded. “I don’t know about going to another party afterwards,” she said. “The prom ends midnight, right? Why party afterwards?”

“Um, then they can have booze. Even drugs. I know a couple guys who are planning that,” Carlos replied. “But most times, it’s just to continue the dancing...”

“Yeah, and start the making out,” Linda smiled. “Right?”

“Well, that’s been known to happen,” Carlos agreed.

“My sister graduated two years ago,” Jerome told them. “She went to an Edison prom—she did something like I’m doing and that gave me the idea. Anyway, she told me that lots of kids hate when it ends so they try to keep it going. So that’s why there are after-prom parties.”

“I’m not keen on a party starting after midnight,” Tamara told them. “Are there any restaurants or clubs we can get into that have late dancing? I would do that.”

Jerome pulled out his cell phone. “Let me look.” He searched for a bit. “Here’s one out on Miami Beach, a beach club. It has dancing on the beach. Oh, it says minimum age eighteen. We’re all eighteen, except Tamara.”

She chuckled. “I can be over eighteen if I want. My folks have friends in high places. Because of what I do, it was terribly inconvenient for me to be fourteen or fifteen, so I was given a U.S. passport card. According to the passport, I’m nineteen; halfway to being twenty.”

“Jeez, Tamara,” Jerome said. “What do you do that gets you a false ID from the feds, of all things? Is it secret? Are you a spy?”

She giggled. “Not a spy. I have some inventions being tested by the Defense Department. It turned out that a few big-shots wouldn’t take me seriously ‘cause of my age. So I was made older.”

“So we can all get into an eighteen-or-older place? Cool,” Linda said. “Is that beach place expensive?”

“On the higher side,” Jerome told her. “But that’s no problem. Carlos and I can handle it. Should I reserve?”

“Sure” ... “Yes” ... “Okay.”

“Okay, got it. 12:15 a.m. next Sunday. The place is only about six miles from the prom location. The beach club goes to 5 a.m. The dress code is ‘chic,’ so I think we’re covered there too. Okay, now, Tamara, tell us about your invention.”

She briefly told them about her MRI work and how an unusual extension of the work could have a military application—she couldn’t talk about that.

“So that’s why you go to the medical school so much,” Linda said. “I assumed that it was only the study you were in.”

“Yeah, but that’s only part of it. I got interested in the tech part right when I started in the clinical study. I get college credit for the stuff I do there, so that’s a bonus.”

“Cool,” Jerome said. “So you want to be a scientist? Engineer? Doctor?”

“Probably not a doctor, but who knows? Right now, I’m closest to being an engineer, because I design and build stuff, but the person who’ll be my faculty advisor at Hopkins says I’m an engineering scientist. She called it an ‘engineering physicist.’”

“Tamara told me she likes electronics. She’s in charge of the school AV squad and helps the AV tech to fix stuff,” Linda said.

“That’s what I do at the med school too,” Tamara told them. “They have lots of high-tech electronic gear to work with and the medical equipment is interesting to work on. But I like the MRI the best. Seeing inside someone’s head while they do stuff is beyond cool.”

Then she had to explain how that worked. They had lunch and then walked over to the nearby theater to see a movie.

~~~~

Jerome picked up Tamara at her house on the evening of the prom. He was dressed in a nice black suit, but wore a pleated shirt and a red bowtie. Tamara giggled at seeing him.

“You have half of a tux outfit, Jerome.”

Nadine shushed her. “He looks splendid, doesn’t he, Wilson?” she asked as Jerome stared at Tamara.

“Tamara, wow,” he exclaimed. “You look amazing.” He showed her the box he was carrying. “I didn’t know whether you wanted the corsage on your wrist or dress, so they made it to do either.”

Tamara elected having it pinned to her dress, and then she picked up a box containing a boutonniere from a side table.

“I got a flower for you too; it’s basic white,” she grinned and pinned it on his lapel.

After the mandatory photos were taken, Jerome escorted Tamara outside.

“Oh! You got a limo. Wow,” she exclaimed.

The driver hopped out and opened the door for them.

“It’s a special date, Tamara,” Jerome said. “We’ll pick up the others now. Carlos will be getting his mug photoed at Linda’s. Hope the camera survives.”

“Jerome! Not nice,” Tamara said, smiling.

He grinned at her. “We rag on each other all the time. A male bonding rite, you understand.”

When they picked up Linda and Carlos, Carlos was looking a little angry.

“Carlos got a call just before he came to get me,” Linda told them. “About Tyler. Tell them.”

He nodded. “Yeah, two days ago, Tyler went to Barello to complain about the tickets. She got it settled and told the teacher that the school district policy didn’t allow any discrimination. She had to sell the couple’s tickets to any couple, according to the district’s policy. But just before I went to Linda’s, I got a phone call that a few guys were heard making plans to rough up Tyler and Martin. Six guys, I heard. I checked with Tyler and he knows about it. Shit, I don’t want this party to get ruined by a big fight; the guys on the team would back up Tyler and there’ll be a brawl.”

Tamara decided she’d try to do something.

“Do you know their plans, like how they’d get Tyler? I doubt if they’d start a fight inside the prom room,” Tamara asked.

“Don’t know; I don’t think my source heard how.”

“You know who the guys are, though?”

Carlos named four; Tamara knew two of them by sight.

“Okay, Diego,” she said. “He’s a bigoted asshole, for sure. A loudmouth too.”

Carlos nodded. “He appears to be the ringleader too. And he’s on the wrestling team, so he’s no pushover.”

Tamara grinned mirthlessly. “And Hugh. I had him to tutor once. He lasted three minutes; tried to hit on me and was disgusting. Creepy. He won’t mess with me after I told him off.”

“He’s a wrestler too, Tamara. You’re not gonna...”

“I’ll handle this, Carlos. Kids like those idiots are all mouth and no brain. Where I grew up, there were kids who were bullies and I know exactly how to make them back down. Oh, we’re pulling into the driveway. If you see them, let me know, okay?”

Jerome looked at her, concerned. “You sure...?”

She put a finger on his lips and looked at him, her eyes boring into his. “I know what I’m doing, Jerome. Please don’t interfere.”

“Oh, shit... suddenly you’re almost scary, Tamara.”

She laughed. “Gotta work on that, then. I wanna be completely scary!”

They got out of the limo and Tamara grabbed onto Jerome’s arm and guided-pulled him into the building. Carlos and Linda followed, mouths agape.

They had arrived a little early, so there were only a dozen couples there. Within five minutes, Tyler arrived with Martin and Carlos went over to talk to them. He brought them back to the others and introduced them. While they were talking, Tamara noticed Hugh coming in with a date, followed by Diego with a date on his arm.

“Wait here, don’t follow,” she told the others, and marched off toward Diego and company, who were being joined by several more couples.

As she walked over, she gathered a pinkish-green taste cloud in front of her and “pushed” it toward the group. As she got closer, she could feel the difference in emotions between the boys and their dates. The girls, all of them, had no inkling of the plans.

Okay, they’re primed now, she thought. Ready for suggestions. Now a touch of greenish-brown for a bit of disorientation.

She “pushed” that as she arrived.

Hugh noticed her first. “Uh, shit... Damn, I do stay away from you...”

His face started to turn pale.

Tamara fixed his eyes with a steely look and then caught the eyes of several of the other boys.

“Tell us what extras you planned tonight... with Tyler,” she grated. “Tell your dates what you planned. They want to know.”

One of the girls looked around, confused. “What do we want to know?”

Now for a bit of compulsion. Tamara added a gray taste to the pink-green cloud now settling on the group.

“Diego, tell your girlfriend what you were planning,” she ordered as she “pushed” a yellow fear-taste at him.

Diego and Hugh began babbling about how they hated “queers” and that they were going to make sure to mess up their faces so they’d be ugly... and the other four boys joined in, reciting all their plans to “teach the queers a lesson.”

The girls were totally horrified at hearing that and Tamara motioned them to move away from the boys. They did, and moved pretty quickly too.

Tamara whispered to the boys, “All of you boys... when you leave, you won’t come back here.”

She went to where the girls had gathered. “Wanna leave your dates and forget what you saw me do here?” Tamara whispered.

Some of the girls shuddered, and five said “Yes!” The last one muttered, “I’m calling my father to come get me!” and ran out.

Make ‘em sick now. “One sec,” Tamara said and “pushed” a pink taste with streaks of brown at the boys, who were looking around in fear.

Then she spoke to the girls. “You heard what your dates planned—beat up an innocent kid. If you want to rescue this evening, you can join my group. Also, there’s a few single boys here; they’ll be nicer than those jerks you came with. Speaking of which...”

Tamara pointed to the six boys, who were rushing out the door, looking very sick.

“Come, I’ll introduce my friends,” Tamara said. “I’ve seen you all at school but don’t know any of you. Tell me who you are.”

She walked with the group back to her friends who had been watching the whole thing in awe. No one else in the room had noticed the scene.

Jerome was the first to recover. “Tamara, you just spoke to those guys—and then they ran out?”

“Yep. I can be kinda persuasive. Right, girls?” she asked the five who were meekly following her.

They all nodded, still slightly influenced by Tamara’s cloud of confusion. Gradually, their senses began to return and that’s when they fully realized what their dates had planned to do. Greatly embarrassed, they began apologizing, but Tyler and Martin convinced them that they weren’t at all to blame.

It turned out to be a pleasant evening for the group; everyone got danced with, since Tyler and Martin both were happy to dance with the extra girls and Tamara “suggested” to a number of the single boys to join their group too. Theirs turned out to be the liveliest bunch of tables at the prom.

When it became close to the ending time, Tyler asked the single girls if they had a way to get home. All five needed rides, so between Tyler and a few of the single guys, they all had a way to get home. And the girls, who were delighted at how their Prom experience had been so nicely rescued, were definitely going to spread the word about their erstwhile dates’ plans.

Jerome’s limo picked up the foursome at midnight, right after the last dance. Saying goodbye to their new friends, they left for Miami Beach.

“Now give, Tamara,” Linda demanded as soon as the car door closed. “What the hell did you do in there? Those girls were dazed when you brought them over to us.”

“Sure they were. They had just found out what kind of jerks their dates were,” Tamara replied.

“Well, if it were me, I would have been raging mad and kicked their dumb asses out the door,” she retorted.

Tamara laughed. “Which is precisely why I didn’t get you involved. I told you I had a brief tutoring session with Hugh. I know some things about him and put the fear of the Almighty into him. I also figured out Diego’s vulnerable secret. I threatened to tell it to everyone unless they confessed their plans to their dates. Sometimes blackmail works, if you use it to do good.”

“But why did they all run out looking sick?” Jerome asked.

“Well, I told them what would’ve happened if they did beat up Tyler. They would be arrested and tried as adults. I told them what happens to kids their age while in jail. I really laid it on thick—they’d give up their anal virginities and become jailhouse boy-whores. I figured that they were so homophobic, by telling them that, it would shake ‘em up. It sure did.”

“Jeez, Tamara, I thought you were such a quiet gal,” Carlos said, admiringly. “I never figured you to have such a killer instinct.”

Tamara grinned tightly. “My dad taught me well. ‘Walk softly, leave no sign you passed. But if someone interferes with your passage, then end the threat. And never look back.’ He’s a Marine; that’s what they say.”

“My god; that’s totally chilling,” Linda said, shocked. “Do you actually believe that?”

“Not in a literal sense, but yes. I’ve had stuff happen to me and my family that I can’t talk about. So I’ve learned ways to protect myself. Dad says a good defense is good intelligence and I’ve taken that advice to heart.”

“Huh. I’d hate to think of the stuff you know about us,” Carlos told her.

“You guys? It’s all good,” Tamara laughed. “But Carlos? Some advice. When you’re catching and signal for a fastball, you have a ‘tell.’ You pull on the bottom of your facemask with your hand after you give the signal. Bad habit; it’ll get noticed.”

“Holy shit, how do you know that?” he yelped.

“Observation,” Tamara smirked. “I watch everything. Everything is important; you just need to filter the level of importance. Told you I know stuff.”

“Jeez. You’re really scary, Tamara,” Carlos said. “Anyway, Tyler didn’t get a chance to tell you. He was really happy about whatever you did to stop those morons. He had arranged for some guys as backup, so if it went down, there would have been a big brawl—and he could have lost his scholarship over that. He’ll thank you personally on Monday, he said.”

The four teens had a great time at the Miami Beach club and Tamara rolled in at 5:30 a.m. that morning, tired from the dancing and weary from her mental activities earlier that evening.

Early June

Graduation day was here. The school held the ceremony in the stadium so they could accommodate the graduates’ families. Tamara was up for several awards: She was one of the top two of her class for her 4.0-plus GPA; the “plus” accounted for the grades in her AP classes. The only reason she missed on being valedictorian was her credits; she only had three years of high school credits, having skipped her sophomore year. The student chosen also had a 4.0-plus GPA but more credits. Tamara was just fine with not getting that honor.

A second award was for service. Her office aide work, tutoring, and AV squad leadership would be recognized. Finally, members of the school’s athletic teams had voted an honorary school sports letter for her in recognition of her tutoring work which preserved the eligibility of a number of the teams’ members.

Tamara didn’t have many people to share her day of achievement with. She had invited the Gilsons, Susan and Dr John, who came, but Dr Beauford had a full schedule and couldn’t. She was now a high school graduate. Her world was changing.

Agent Norris had been in touch with Wilson about the men involved in Tamara’s kidnapping.

He had told Wilson, “We still don’t know exactly who’s involved. The people who hired them still haven’t tried to make contact, even though we’ve kept their arrest secret. They’ve been cooperating—they get scared to death when Tamara’s name is mentioned—and we’ve put together a packet that has fake invention details as bait.”

“Is she in any danger now, though?” Wilson asked.

“Probably not, but I missed the call about the possibility of their using violence when we first heard of their interest in Tamara. She should keep alert. I know that she’s good at that. On a related matter, there’s been some discussion at the agency of whether your family still needs to keep under the radar, so to speak.”

“You mean about our name changes?”

“Not specifically that, but the need to hide your family’s origins may have disappeared. State and the CIA have found no bad actors left in Haiti concerning your case and our agency hasn’t heard anything from our in-country sources that Nadine, or Tamara, are the object of any interest. Except this recent one about the invention.”

“Do we need to do anything, then?”

“Well, not really, I suppose. You just won’t have to use your cover story anymore. But don’t, you know, take out ads to publicize your new status all over the city,” he chuckled.

“As if. I like the low-profile approach; always have.”

“Well, good chatting, Wilson. I’ll stay in touch. Bye.”

Wilson sat back in the seat. Would this begin a new phase of their life in Miami? Only time would tell.

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