New Genesis

Chapter 4

Mark was woken up by his mom at eight. Church was at nine thirty and he had to shower. As Mark got up he noticed that his stereo was off. He could see that the stereo’s tab was at the on position.  Mark moved to examine the stereo when suddenly a spark jumped from Mark’s arm to the stereo. 

“What the??”
Mark was startled as the stereo turned on and started to load the cd. “Stupid piece of shit.”
Mark turned off the stereo and grabbed some clothes and headed for the shower. When he got to the bathroom he flipped the light switch but nothing happened.

“Come on. Why is this happening?”
He kept flipping the switch until the light finally turned on. Mark took a fast shower and dressed for Church.  He walked downstairs and went to the kitchen. His mom was eating a yogurt and his dad was reading the newspaper.

“Can I have the comics?”
His dad handed the comics but as their hands touched a spark arced between them.
“Ouch.” Both Mark and his dad drew back their hands and looked at each other.
“Sorry dad. Didn’t mean to shock you.”
“It’s alright. What time did you get in?”
“Around one. Sorry, the time on my cell phone was messed up for some reason.”
“Well at least you got home safely. What did you do at Jessica’s house?”
“We went walking in the woods and found a field that had a great view of the sky.” Mark had thought up the lie while driving home. He knew his parents would ask him what he did.
His father seemed content so Mark poured some orange juice and toasted some bagels. Mark opened the refrigerator to get some cream cheese. He spread the cream cheese across the bagels with a knife but as he tried to put the knife down he noticed that the knife stuck to his hand. He waved his hand around but had to pull the knife off with his other hand except when he tried to put the knife down again it was stuck to his other hand.  After switching the knife between both of his hands for a while he took a napkin and wrapped it around the knife and dropped it in the dish washer. He threw the napkin away and went to sit at the table.

Mark ate and read the comics until it was time to go to church. Mark sat in the back of the car as his parents got situated in the front. His father put the keys into the ignition and turned the keys. The car sputtered and then died.
“Not now.” Mark’s dad tried a second and third time but the car wouldn’t turn on. Mark’s dad started to get frustrated until Mark’s mom calmed him down.
“Calm down. We don’t have time for this. Let’s take the ford.”
“Did someone leave the lights on?” He looked at Mark accusingly.
“Dad I haven’t driven this car for a week.”
“Well we’ll just have to look at it when we get back. For now let’s take the Ford. Do you have the keys, Mark?”
“Yeah I do.”
They got out of the car and piled into the ford with Mark at the wheel. As Mark turned the keys , a sudden shock ran up his arm. Mark pulled his arm back.
“What the heck is going on?” he wondered.
“Mark we need to go.” nagged his mother.
“Yeah…. okay.” Mark pulled out of the drive way and drove to church. Mark had to watch his speed because he didn’t want to get yelled at by his parents. He usually went at least 5 over the speed limit and 10 if he felt comfortable. It took about 10 minutes to get to the church. Mark pulled into a parking spot and turned off the car. He looked at the church as they walked up to it. It had one big bell tower that had a walkway underneath it. It was the only thing Mark liked about the church. The rest was brown and red and not much else.  Mark was bored the entire mass. It was the same thing every week. “Love Jesus. Don’t do bad things and bad things won’t happen to you. And if they do, there’s a good reason for them.” The only good thing about mass was the prospect of seeing Loscher, Pham, Jake, or Zach after it.
Mark almost fell asleep during the homily. His mom kept nudging him to stay awake. Finally after forty five minutes, it was over.  As Mark walked out he spotted Pham and Jake to his left.

“Hey guys what’s been happening with you?”
“Nothing much.” replied Pham.
“Dido.” Jake coined in.
“What’s going on today?”
“Don’t know. I know I can’t do anything because I got a shit load of homework to do.”
“What about you Pham?”
“Same.”
“Just another boring old Sunday.”
Both Pham and Jake agreed.

The three walked out following their parents but they were far enough away were they were free to talk about the base.

“So who do you think made it?” asked Pham.
“Even though you’ll think I’m crazy, I think Josh was to something.”
“What you mean the superhero or supervillain making the base.”
“Yeah. It really is the only explanation that makes sense. What, do you think the Indians made it? Because no Indians that I know of can make those things?”
“Well what about aliens?” inquired Jake.
“Yeah like aliens would make a base that was tuned to Blake’s hand print.”
“Maybe the Aliens were idiots?”
“Well I was talking about how Blake was human but that idea seems reasonable?”

The friends laughed and each went to their separate vehicles. Mark drove home and went to work on his homework. He had a Research Paper on Earnest Hemingway due in April but the teacher already wanted a list of possible sources.  Mark had five books and now he needed to create a possible bibliography from the sources. Thankfully Mark had kept his old English grammar book which had the format he needed. After three hours of doing homework, Mark was finally done. Mark went looking for his mother because he was hungry and he didn’t want to cook for himself. He found his mother in the family room asleep. Mark decided to go look for his dad. Mark found him in the computer room playing Free Cell.
“Dad what’s for lunch?”
“I suppose we could have some ramen.”
Mark stood near his dad rocking on his heels.
“You want me to make them don’t you?”
“Yes please!” Mark replied happily.
“Just let me finish this game.”
“Ok.” Mark waited around his dad to make sure he would make food after his game.  Mark went downstairs after his dad and watched whatever his mom was watching before she fell asleep. It turned out to be a mystery movie. Mark had no idea what was going on but he decided to watch it until the ramen was done.
“Want to watch a show while we eat?” Mark asked his dad.
“Sure.”
Mark spent the next two hours watching tv shows with his dad. Mark went upstairs to put his stuff in the dish washer but the spoon stuck to his hand. After a few minutes of trying to get the spoon off, Mark resorted to using the napkin again. Afterwords his dad went back upstairs to go back on the computer and Mark was left all alone.

Mark decided to play video games. Mark went down into his basement and was about to push the button but stopped. He hesitated. He didn’t know if he would be shocked again and he didn’t know what would happen to his PS2. He slowly switched the power on and nothing bad happened. Mark let out a sigh and started his game.  He played the game until his mom called him up to eat dinner.
“Have a nice nap?” Mark asked.
“Very much so.”
Mark ate dinner with his parents at the table. He usually did not like to but they had missed Wednesday, which is the day they usually eat at the table, so he decided to make his mom happy. Once again as Mark was putting away his silverware, the fork and the knife stuck to him. He even somehow got the fork to stick to his arm. Mark made sure his parents did not see it. He used a napkin to get them both into the dishwasher. Afterwards, Mark took a shower and went on the computer.  He checked his Facebook and talked with some friends online.
Mark got ready to go to bed around ten thirty. He said good night to his parents and went to bed. As he lay in bed he thought about what happened to him today. He wondered why he was able to touch electronic things again but metal still stuck to him.  He tried to think of a reason that would cause these things but could not come up with one. Mark had a fitful sleep that night.