The Birth Mark - NaNoWriMo 2013

Two

© 2013 Laura Crean

Charles sat in the Head Master’s office in the Community College and stared at the plaque on the wall behind the Head Master’s desk.  It was the school’s motto – “Time is just another place to Learn”.  He had always thought it was a stupid motto.  He frowned.  “Time isn’t a place!” he mumbled under his breath, “Stupid school!”

The Head Master was a tall, muscular man who looked good for his obvious age (he was in his sixties) but he worked out, ate healthily and had a good rapport with his students.  He came into the room where Charles had been waiting alone and walked around to his chair and sat down at his desk.  He looked sadly at Charles, who wasn’t a stupid young man just winging his way through the system.  He was bright, ahead in all his classes.  He sighed and took off his glasses and laid them down next to the note he had been reading.

    “I have some rather sad news for you young man and I want you to know that the college and I myself will be behind you all the way.”

Charles suddenly became alert and sat forward in his chair.

    “What are you talking about?”

    “There has been an accident I’m afraid son.  Your parents were on a trip…”

    “Yes – they were skiing in Switzerland.”

The Head Master nodded.

    “I’m afraid there was an avalanche.  Their facility was completely destroyed.  There were no survivors.”

Charles was stunned to silence.  He was obviously in shock.  He didn’t seem to know how to respond.  He just sat with his mouth open and then he suddenly realised what the man had said.

    “Facility?”  He looked up at his teacher.

    “I’m sorry?”

    “You said their ‘facility’ was completely destroyed!”

The Head Master seemed to cough nervously before saying,

    “Hotel.  I meant hotel of course.”

Charles frowned and thought to himself, no!  He definitely said facility – odd!

Charles thought he should be crying.  He sat on his bed staring out at the students wandering around between lecture halls and classrooms.  His roommate was trying to comfort him but Charles seemed completely fine.

    “I’m here for you Charles.”

    “Why aren’t I crying?”  He asked his friend.  “I mean there are absolutely no tears.  I’m sad they’re dead of course – but I’m not devastated!”  He looked up at his friend’s bemused expression.  “That’s not right is it?”

    “You’re in shock Charles that’s all.  I’m sure it’s quite normal.”  And then the young man shrugged, “Although to be honest – they didn’t really show much of an interest in you buddy – did they?”  Charles shook his head,

    “No!  No they didn’t!  They never did!  I mean I had everything I could want or need.  They put me on all the right courses and everything but they never really showed any interest in me.”

He continued shaking his head and then said quietly, “They never really liked me for some reason.”

    “Of course they liked you Charles, they loved you.”

    “No! No they didn’t love me.  I don’t think they ever really even wanted me.”

After the funeral, the family solicitor sat Charles down and told him everything he needed to know about his family’s money.  He had inherited everything of course, as the only child, and his parents had left generous amounts to their extended family members.  He was given lots of papers to sign and the keys and numbers to various safety deposit boxes.  He knew where most of them were but one key was to a box in another part of the city, Community Two, a not so well off part of the city.  Charles looked at the key, puzzled by its existence and the location of the box.  He thought it very odd that his parents had kept any secrets from him.

As soon as he could get away from all the family and the solicitors trying to “help” him adjust, Charles made a bee line for the bank and the safety deposit box in Community Two.  He had never been out of Community One – apart from scheduled vacations with his parents of course.  His whole life it seemed to him had been planned for him, down to the very last detail.  Every hour of his day and day of the week, scheduled, time-tabled and mapped for him to follow to the letter.

The family butler, Philips, his oldest and dearest friend, the one person Charles could confide in, insisted he was accompanied to what he said was an unfavourable part of the city and Charles laughed at his old friend’s shocked and worried expression when he had informed him about where he was headed.

    “Really Sir for your own protection I really must insist that I come along.”

Charles patted the old butler on the back and shook his head as he answered,

    “Come on then – you can drive.”

 As they drove out of Community One and passed all the check points that separated the communities, Charles wondered what his parents could possibly be keeping in a safety deposit box on this side of the city and he asked Philips that very question.  The elderly man shrugged and when they soon pulled up outside a rather unkempt building that was the Community Two Bank where the box was located Charles repeated the question,

    “Why on Earth would my parents keep something in a safety deposit box here?”

    “I’m sure I don’t know Sir.”  The Butler answered.

Charles was gone for a mere few minutes and soon came back with a rather nondescript envelope in his possession.

    “What was in the box Sir – if you don’t mind me asking?”

    “Of course I don’t mind Philips.  Something very strange, something very strange indeed!  Let’s get home and I’ll show you.  Maybe you will be able to shed light on the mystery for me.”

He told his butler to drive straight back to the house where he sat in the kitchen whilst Philips pottered around making tea.  Charles opened the envelope and took out the contents.  It was his adoption papers, a letter from his Mother, a watch and a strange scribbled note on a crumpled piece of paper.  He read the letter from his mother out loud and then just sat there stunned not sure what to make of it all.

Suddenly his whole life flashed before his eyes – it was a lie, he wasn’t Charles Pennington the third after all!  He was called Chaser Switch and his mother had been a criminal, a prostitute who hid in different time lines and who was obviously the daughter of a prostitute herself, because she had shown no signs of a marker.  This could mean only one thing; that she was born to a prostitute who hadn’t registered her in a hospital and had hidden her existence her entire life, making it impossible for the woman to apply for any jobs, housing or medical assistance.  She was doomed to follow in her mother’s footsteps relying on time criminals to make a living.  “What sort of a name is Chaser Switch?”  He snorted as he read the crumpled note his birth mother had left for him for the tenth time, “My baby’s name is Chaser Switch – please let him know one day that I loved him and that I am sorry I couldn’t give him the life he deserved.”  It threw up more questions than answers but it did give him one clue, and that was the watch.  At some point she had gone back in time to the year 2022.  That was the year time travel had begun and these were the watches that had started the whole craze!  Charles looked up into the astonished face of his Butler and asked,

    “Who the hell am I Philips?”