Chapter Nine
On the Range
Time dragged by at an excruciatingly slow pace for both Rosa and Cameron as they waited to hear about their Academy application.
Rosa’s parents expressed their concern that she might become isolated from “real people” if she attended the virtual academy. She’d never have to leave the house. She wouldn’t get to interact with others her own age at the high school in town. There would be no dances to attend or sports in which to participate. She had made a wider circle of friends since she started high school, and she could lose all that if she got accepted into the academy.
Cameron’s parents had many of the same concerns, although Cameron would not miss the harassment he was receiving from Chet Ames and the coach at spring football practice.
In late April, Cameron started his summer job at the local goofy-golf course and driving range. He worked weekends until summer vacation began, then he started to work full time. One of his jobs was to drive the “ball-picker.” This was a small tractor with a device attached that picked golf balls off the driving range. Cameron sat protected in a steel mesh cage as he drove back and forth across the range.
Whenever he was picking balls, it seemed that the tractor became a moving target no golfer could resist. If a golfer was lucky enough to slam a golf ball against his cage on the fly, everyone on the driving rage would cheer then redouble their efforts to land a strike themselves. Despite the protection of the cage, Cameron would flinch every time a ball struck full force.
It was a Saturday morning in June, the tortures of spring practice were over, and Billy Parker was hitching a ride with Cameron as he picked up balls. Billy moved from side-to-side in the cage, always positioning himself to face the line of golf tees. He pressed his hands against the cage, put his thick-lensed glasses close to the steel mesh barrier, and shouted taunts at the golfers.
“So ya can hit a ball two hundred yards,” he yelled at the golfers, “but I bet ya can’t hit a movin’ target!”
A ball hit the ground about ten yards in front of him, careened off the hardened ground, and struck the cage with a mighty blow. The shock of the strike caused Billy to recoil from the cage, falling backwards against Cameron. When the tractor veered off its normally straight path, the golfers cheered.
“Good try, hotshot!” Billy shouted as he regained his position facing the golfers. “But a bounce don’t count.” He twisted towards Cameron. “So whatcha doin’ this summer?” he asked.
Cameron gave Billy a sideways glance as he straightened the tractor. It must have been a trick of the light: a combination of Billy’s thick lenses and just the right tilt of his head. Billy appeared to have four eyes behind his black, horn-rimmed glasses. Cameron chuckled at the sight of his near-sighted friend. “Not much. Just working and stuff. You know.”
Talking with Billy was unique. It was like talking to someone way out in space somewhere. So far out that there was a time delay between each part of the conversation. Cameron had driven to the edge of the range and was doing a U-turn before Billy spoke again. “Just workin’ an’ stuff, eh?” he asked.
“Yep,” replied Cameron as he headed the picker back across the range.
“Drills’ve been over a couple weeks now an’ still you ain’t been to play ball,” said Billy fifteen seconds later. The tractor was approaching the center of the range, so Billy shifted sides in the cage and once again taunted the golfers. No one came close to striking the cage on this pass. “So where’ve you been?” he asked as the tractor came to the other side of the driving range.
“Have you read about that new academy GundTech’s starting next fall?”
A twelve-second pause. Cameron hauled the tractor about and headed back across the range.
“Yep,” said Billy
“Well… I’ve applied.”
Just then, the cage was rattled by the strike of two golf balls in quick succession. At the unexpected impacts, Cameron’s heart leapt into his throat. Ten seconds later Billy said, “Cool.” Before Cameron could ask what Billy thought was cool (his applying for the academy or being struck by two golf balls at once) he noticed his boss, Mr. Jeffries, waving for him to come back to the clubhouse. His parents and a woman he had never seen before were standing beside his boss.
Rosa’s summer work covered a much larger range than Cameron’s did. Rosa’s job may have been enviable to most people her age who didn’t realize how much work it actually was. Rosa was an honest-to-goodness cowgirl. The job demanded long, sometimes boring hours interspersed with periods of intense action and physically demanding work. Even at her young age, Rosa’s skills were at such a level that she earned one of the top wages among the seasonal ranch hands. All of the other cowboys trusted and respected her. Cameron had never seen the shelf full of Rosa’s rodeo trophies in the Costas family living room.
It was early that same Saturday morning. Rosa and her dad were on the far south range, mending a fence. A solitary hawk was circling high in the clear blue sky. Rosa heard two things almost at once: the shrill shriek of the hawk and the whinny of an approaching horse. She turned to see her mother coming over a small rise.
“It’s Mama,” she said as she waved a gloved hand happily.
Her dad rose from his kneeling position and dusted himself off. “Well, I’ll be,” he said. Then he saw the head of a second rider pop up over the ridge. “Who could that be, way out here?”
Rosa and her dad didn’t recognize the man. He was young — probably in his late twenties or early thirties — and he was definitely from the city. It didn’t take Sherlock Holmes to figure that out, for he was wearing dress pants and expensive shoes. His open-collared white shirt told them that the man must have abandoned his coat and tie back at the house.
Mrs. Costas dismounted gracefully when she reached her husband and daughter. She held up a silencing hand before Bernardo Costas could ask who the stranger was. The man pulled a small satellite phone from the clip on his belt and punched in a single number as he swung down from the horse so effortlessly it both surprised and impressed Bernardo Costas and his daughter.
Cameron parked the tractor in the equipment shed and walked towards the clubhouse with Billy in tow. As he neared his folks, he noticed that his boss had returned to the clubhouse.
“Who’s the lady?” asked Billy.
Cameron shrugged.
“She’s hot,” Billy continued after only a five second interval.
“I like redheads.”
Cameron heard the ring of a telephone and then saw the woman with his parents reach into her bag and withdraw a phone. She flipped it open and put it to her ear. A smile crossed her face.
“Are you on site?” She was speaking to the caller as Cameron arrived. “Good. The young man has just walked up. What’s that? Oh, yes... I’m at a driving range… No, not golfing. He works here. He was driving the ball picker.”
She smiled as she looked Cameron over from sneakers to Packers cap.
“And you? …Uh-huh… no kidding? How did you… on horseback!” Her smile widened into a grin. “Okay then, I’ll make the connection.”
The woman punched in a long string of numbers then listened a moment. “Yes, are we all connected? I hear you fine. Yes. That’s right. He’s right here.”
She handed Cameron the phone. “There’s someone who wants to talk to you.”
The man handed Rosa the phone. “There’s someone who wants to talk to you.”
“Hello,” said Rosa tentatively as a familiar voice on the other end said the same thing. “Who is… Cameron? Is that you?”
“Rosa? Where are you?”
“I’m out in the middle of nowhere. What’s going on?”
“Mr. Rush? Miss Costas?” came a third voice. It was a woman who sounded vaguely familiar.
“Yes,” they replied together.
“This is Gwen Johanssen. Do you have any idea who I am?”
Rosa remembered immediately. “Yes, ma’am. You’re from GundTech. You introduced the IHT.” Her heart began to race.
“Yes, and I’m calling from Oslo, Norway, to inform you both that you have been selected as finalists for the IHT International Academy.”
Gwen was happy that she was on a speakerphone when the line erupted with screams of joy. She smiled at the young man seated across from her. He nodded his approval.
Once Cameron and Rosa had collected
themselves, Gwen Johanssen spoke again. “Before
we go on, I must ask you one question. You must answer immediately, and your
answer is final. Do you both understand?”
The teens voiced their understanding.
“Good. Let me continue. You have apparently applied jointly. The record shows you linked your multiComs in the application process. Please realize that, if you proceed as a team, you will either succeed or fail as a team. We can allow you to split your applications right now, if you so wish. That way, if one of you does not get accepted, the other may still have a chance. You must now…”
Two voices, speaking as one interrupted, “Team.”
The man sitting across from Gwen slapped his hand against the table as if exclaiming, “I knew it!” He nodded to Gwen as he picked up the vidCap photos of Rosa and Cameron, rose from his seat, and left the room.
“Good, that’s settled then,” Gwen affirmed on the phone.
“The GundTech representative who’s with you at the moment will explain to you and your parents what happens next. Good luck. I hope to see you soon.”
(Chapters 10-13)
