Awakening
By: Evie Ryan on Nov 02 2010Category: Story2
Episode 37 - A hero rises…
“Ev, you listening?” Phil asked, looking at me intently.
“Hmm?” Obviously I wasn’t. How could I? Things were moving so fast. That kiss…and those three words…what was that about? I needed time to sort this out, but it didn’t look like I was going to get it. “Sorry, what was that?”
“I was saying that I’ve felt out of place my whole life,” Phil repeated patiently. “Maybe it’s genetic. I’m a mutt, you see: my dad is Greek-American and my mom is Chinese. They met on some Peace Corps type thing.”
“Really? That’s fascinating,” I mumbled, still somewhat distracted.
“Yeah, I guess. We moved around a lot before settling in the Bay Area. All that moving really messes with your head. I remember being shy and not having many friends, even before the accident .” Phil began pacing the room again. “After it, I basically shut down socially. In a world seemingly out of control, I latched onto the only thing that seemed stable: academics.
“School’s really simple if you cut out all the social stuff. Everything is all laid out for you. All you have to do is work hard, and you can get the results you want. That’s pretty much what I did all the way through high school: eat, sleep, and study. Everything was fine until I went to college and was confronted with the first real decision of my life.”
“Wait, what about picking colleges?” I asked.
“Oh, that didn’t really count, for me at least. I never really considered leaving home, so I went to Stanford.”
“Boo…” I hissed, wrinkling my nose. He had my undivided attention now.
Phil chuckled. “Hah, I thought you’d like that. Anyway, like you, I hadn’t the faintest clue what I wanted to do with my life. But at least you majored in something you liked. I, on the other hand, let others make that decision for me. I hung out with some upperclassmen my freshman year, and I basically picked electrical engineering because they were EEs and said that it was the hottest field at the time.
“Man, I hated it. I probably couldn’t have picked a worse major if I tried. It was all math and models, and I realized too late that I’m more of a visual, hands-on kind of guy. I got depressed and started bombing out of school.”
“Couldn’t you just switch majors?” I asked. “I mean, people do that all the time.”
“Yeah, but I had already invest two years in it by then, and I hadn’t really explored anything else. Stanford ain’t cheap, and I didn’t have to heart to tell my parents that I might need an extra year. It felt like a serious failure at the time. Ever since the accident, I had tried hard to be perfect. I guess I was trying to make my parents doubly proud, to make up for the loss of Alex.” Phil cleared his throat and shook his head as if dismissing the memory. “Anyway, this is when I got hit with the Heroic Task.”
“Wow. Talk about perfect timing,” I said.
Phil nodded in agreement. “Though I hate to admit it, the Task probably saved my life. Nothing like a good ol’ fashioned ass whooping to get you out of a funk, right?” Phil grinned. “I was blind before, but you helped me see how everything I learned fits together. The Task taught me that life isn’t about being perfect. You’re gonna get hit, no question. It’s how you react that matters. And being a hero starts with believing you can be one. You taught me that.”
“You give me too much credit,” I protested, but Phil interrupted me with a smile and gentle “shh.”
“This is my moment of truth, and I choose the red pill. I’m not going back; I won’t be Cypher. I’ve been following someone else’s script for far too long, but now it’s time to write my own story. I want to be a hero…and a damn good one too.”
“Oh my god…Phil, you did it!” I exclaimed, leaping into his arms and almost knocking him over in the process. “I’m so proud of you!”
“Easy there, partner,” Phil said laughing. He grew serious and got down on one knee. My heart skipped a beat. What is he doing?? Taking my hand, he said softly, “Listen, I couldn’t have done it without you, Ev. The road ahead will be hard, but I can manage if you’re by my side. You’ve done so much already, and I know I have no right to ask more of you… But will you stay with me and see this through?”
My throat constricted, and it was difficult to breathe. I smiled and managed to croak, “Are you proposing?”
“Yeah, you could say that,” Phil murmured.
“My mind was made up long ago,” I whispered softly. “Yes. By all means, yes.”
We kissed. I began pulling him down to the sofa, but he resisted. “Wait, we can’t…there’s so much that needs to be done before –”
“But, Sir Knight, what about that reward I promised you?” I pleaded, batting my eyelashes. “Can a lady not welcome her hero properly into this world?”
“Well, my lady, if you put it that way, how can I refuse?” Phil chuckled. “Oh, all right. The world waited this long, what’s a few more hours?” I tugged on his shirt once again, and this time he relented.
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