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  He sped along a trail through the woods, somehow able to see despite the thick darkness. He left the trail and hid behind a boulder. A new day dawned pink in the east. David found the trail again, continued along it until night fell. David’s heart pounded, but he wasn’t sure if it was his own fear or the alien’s. The being continued to search—was he searching for a way out or for someone to help him? David heard dogs barking, saw the beams of headlights.

  He called out, “Help me,” but it was a dream, and there was no one to help him.

  “Help me, David,” he heard himself call out in his dream, and it made no sense—he was David. He heard the hounds coming closer.

  “Help me, David.”

  It woke David from his dream. He looked around. There was no one, nothing. He heard the dogs. They were real. He needed to get home.

  Wind rustled through the trees behind him. A sudden gust startled him. It whisked past, like a ghost in the night, and there was more rustling ahead of him. The wind seemed to beckon him. He didn’t know if he was dreaming or awake.

  He heard a voice whisper, “David.”

  But he hadn’t heard it, not with his ears. The voice was inside his head, and it called again, louder, “Help me.”

  David jumped to his feet and ran, not knowing where he was going but following some instinct, like a migratory bird. Low branches whipped his face as he turned from the trail and ran uphill. He pushed rational thoughts out of his mind and went as fast as he could run, his feet finding a path through the trees, his mind’s eye seeing roots and rocks and other obstructions to be avoided. He crested the hill and stopped. He stared across a clearing to a lone cell-phone tower. A single light at the top of it blinked bright red.

  “David,” the voice called again, beckoning him toward the tower. It was surrounded by a fence, but a section of chain link was ripped open on one side. David crouched down and pushed through the opening. He picked himself up and saw the alien from his dreams standing in front of him. The creature’s head barely reached David’s chest. It was gripping part of the tower to steady itself, its elongated fingers curled like hooks. It breathed heavily as if plagued by asthma. David knew he should be scared, but he wasn’t. He felt as if he knew the creature.

  “I’ve been searching for you,” the alien projected. “I’ve travelled a long way to find you.”

  “Why?” David asked aloud.

  “I’ve come to your planet to deliver a message that could save your people. The inhabitants of Earth are our universal twins. Our ancestors severed the bond because of the humans’ destructive nature. But that’s not so with you, David Noble. Because of you and your mate to be, our faith is restored.”

  The answers only confused David more. He heard the dogs’ howling, and the sound of vehicle engines was coming closer. “Why are you being chased?”

  “In my search for you, I was captured by your kind. They would not listen to my thoughts. They only want to study my kind. Now that I’ve found you, I can complete my mission. But I also need your help to get home. It is your duty to build the portal that will return me to my home planet.”

  “I don’t understand.” The dogs were close enough now that he could hear not only their barking but also their panting. The sounds of the vehicles were nearly loud enough to drown out his voice. But, dream or no dream, this creature—a being who had searched him out for some reason—was being hunted, and David knew he had to help him.

  “In return for helping me, you’ll receive the secrets your people need to survive.”

  David looked over his shoulder, saw the first dog approaching. He turned back to the alien. “I’ll help you.”

  David felt a sudden weight and was forced to his knees by an alien gravity. He was face to face with the creature. The alien smiled through thin lips, studying David with its large, black eyes before wrapping its hand around David’s neck. An instant later, David felt a sharp prick, like a needle, against the base of his skull. It burned white hot for a moment, but the burning quickly faded. He felt every cell in his body begin to vibrate.

  The alien nodded. “Now we are one. It is time for me to go, to give you the time you need to complete the task. I’ll be in their hands until you return for me.”

  As the first vehicle entered the clearing, David watched the alien wave his hand in the direction of his pursuers. A tree fell across the clearing in the vehicle’s path. “Leave, now, while I distract them,” the alien said before jumping the fence and racing for the trees. As he ran, his body faded to a translucent shimmer. Headlights played over the area where David was standing, and vehicles screeched to a stop and disgorged dozens of men, all wearing black attire, like ninjas, their faces half covered with enormous goggles. The men chased the alien and surrounded him. Someone tossed a net. It dropped over the alien and pulled him to the ground.

  David heard the alien’s voice inside his head. “Run.” David slid through the opening in the fence and bolted into the bushes. Several men yelled at him to stop before giving chase. He ran harder. He stumbled over an exposed tree root and went rolling down the hill. He tried to stop himself, but he couldn’t. Suddenly the ground disappeared beneath him, and he plummeted over the side of the cliff.

  “Nnnttt, nnnttt, nnnttt.”

  David’s alarm clock blared in his ears as he was freefalling. The bottom of the ravine was rising up to smash him when he slapped the alarm and silenced it. He pulled himself up onto his elbows and looked around the dark basement.

  “Wake up, David,” his mother called from the top of the stairs. “Come on, honey, you don’t want to be late for your first day of school in your senior year.”

  “Right,” David murmured. “First day of school, first day of school.” First day of school? “What are you talking about?” he asked his mother while he threw on a pair of jeans and a Led Zeppelin T-shirt. “I have another week. Don’t I?”

  Karen looked at her watch. “Actually, you have about another hour.”

  David stood at the foot of the stairs and shook his head slowly. “I don’t get it,” he said as he looked up at his mother.

  “You’re still out of it, huh? Well following your little tiff with John at the arcade, you disappeared for half the night. Since then, you’ve practically slept this last week away holed up in your man cave, so we decided to let you alone. But your week of moping is up. Now, hurry up or you’re going to be late.”

  David scratched his head as he made his way up the stairs, not sure what was real and what wasn’t. I really popped John? he thought. Boy, that was some dream. He checked the back of his neck for a war scar, but nothing was there.

  As David sprung from the last step, Karen asked, “Wow, have you been secretly working out?”

  “No. Why?”

  “You’re filling out with muscle.”

  “David? Muscles? Yeah, right,” John said as he walked by. When David shot him the look of death, John rubbed his crooked nose and shut his mouth.

  Before leaving the house, David combed through his hair in the mirror, hoping to look presentable for his first day of senior year. When he turned to leave, he didn’t see the reflection of the geometrical markings on the back of his neck, glowing beneath his skin. The mark faded as he stepped out into the sunlight.

  David had managed to blend in anonymously with more than two thousand high school students for the past three years, and he planned to continue the practice for his final year. But something buried deep inside him said it was time for a change. He smiled as he walked the length of the main hall of Atlantic Bay High School, looking straight ahead instead of at the floor, which had been his usual practice for the last three years. He felt a rush of energy, something he hadn’t experienced in years, and there was a new swagger in his stride. He felt as if he could breathe again. He was actually drawing glances from other students, and he was looking back and nodding. Girls were smiling at him, and he was smiling back. It seemed like a new experience, yet also familiar, and he liked it.

/>   “Hey, stranger,” a soft voice called. It was Chastity Bertum. She stood staring at him as if he was the new boy in school and she was fascinated by him.

  “Chastity,” he said, giving her a slight nod.

  “It’s good to see you, David. How are you?”

  David shrugged. She hadn’t thought it was so good to see him a week ago, when she and her sister had snubbed him. “Same as I was on the boardwalk.”

  Chastity furrowed her brow. “I’m sorry about the eye rolling thing. I, uh, was arguing with my sister.” Deciding to change the subject, she added, “Hey, you’re looking pretty good. Have you been working out or something?”

  David smiled. “Chastity, that’s the most you’ve said to me in four years.”

  It was Chastity’s turn to shrug. “You’re the one who became an introvert. Just think about what you’ve been missing,” she said as she did a little spin to let him take in the goods.

  “Speaking of missing, I’m missing a very important appointment,” he said before walking away.

  “Hey,” she said behind him, her tone of voice a mixture of whininess and indignation.

  David smiled and nodded at a group of girls. He knew Chastity couldn’t abide being snubbed, and he also knew he should feel bad about it, but he didn’t. It had felt good.

  David found his homeroom, room 116. It was nearly empty. He thought about sitting in the front row, just to see what kind of reaction he’d get from his classmates, but he rejected the idea and headed for the very back of the room, his usual spot. As he slid into a chair, he momentarily lost his sense of balance. His body felt like it was freefalling in an elevator. He squeezed his eyes closed and waited for the sensation to pass.

  “You’re in my seat, Noble.”

  David opened his eyes and looked up to see Brice Cooper, who was glaring down at him. If there was one person David hated even more than his stepbrother, it was Brice Cooper, a hulking behemoth with tiny eyes and the physique and personality of a wild water buffalo. Just the sound of his voice sent a wave of nausea through David.

  “I can’t believe you bloodied Johnny’s nose,” Brice was saying. “If it would’ve been me, I’d have beat the living—”

  “Knock it off, Brice,” Mr. Jenkins, their homeroom teacher, yelled.

  Brice slid into the seat next to David. He snatched David’s class assignment sheet off his desk before David could protest and compared it to his. “Looks like it’s going to be a great year. We’ve got six classes together.”

  “Maybe you’ll flunk out after a couple of weeks,” David said.

  “Guess what?” Brice said, ignoring David’s comment. “I took up boxing over the summer. I think I’ll designate you as my school-time sparring partner. Maybe I’ll pop you a few times for Johnny’s sake.”

  “Pop this,” David said, flipping Brice the bird.

  “You’ll pay for that,” Brice muttered.

  “Settle down, people,” Mr. Jenkins called. “Let me take roll call so you miscreants can get on to your first class.”

  “You’ll pay,” Brice muttered again.

  All morning David continued to be plagued by dizzy spells. He thought he might have an inner ear infection, but after each spell he felt a new sense of understanding, as if he’d tapped into some hidden part of his brain. In each class he soaked up information like a sponge absorbing water. David had always been smart, but today he felt like Einstein. He wondered if he might have a brain tumor, like John Travolta’s character in Phenomenon. He’d welcome a tumor if it would end his misery. Each class was more intense than the one before. He felt his IQ rising like mercury in a thermometer. He was both frightened and thrilled by it. Mathematical formulas jumped off the board, Spanish seemed like his native tongue, and history class felt like déjà vu.

  His fourth class was Calculus. His stepbrother had the class as well, and his stepfather was teaching it. If Don Butler prided himself on anything besides coaching, it was his high IQ. The man was a walking calculator. He had mastered a variety of mental math tricks, frequently showing them off as a testament to his skills. David realized that math class would be no different from his home life. Mr. Butler owned the room. He began to write on the chalkboard.

  Max/min of a multi-variable function over a closed and bounded region.

  Find the absolute maximum and minimum values of:

  f (x,y) = e ^ (x^2 + 2y^2) over the disk D given by x^2 + y^2 (smaller or equal to) 4

  David stared at the board. As he did, numbers began to fill his mind, and the equation unfolded before his eyes. The solution was practically jumping off the chalkboard in 3D.

  “If anyone in this class can solve the problem on the board, you don’t need my expertise,” Mr. Butler said. “In fact, I’ll make you a deal. The first person who can solve this problem before the end of class will get a big fat A for the semester.”

  “Does that mean no homework, Dad, uh, I mean, Mr. Butler?” John asked.

  “Indeed it do,” Mr. Butler said. “However, class, I assure you that math skills aren’t genetically passed from father to son.” The class laughed. “With that said, I doubt a one of you will be able to solve this problem. But I’m a man of my word. So, if you’re up to the challenge, and you want a free period, I suggest you start trying to solve the equation before time is up. And put your cell phones and calculators away. No cheating. You have to use that thing called a brain for this one.”

  “Piece of cake,” David said before he realized what he was saying. He pressed his lips together and looked at his desk.

  Don Butler raised an eyebrow. “What did you say, David? You haven’t even lifted a pencil.”

  “He said he’s got the answer,” Brice said. “Mr. B, you should make him write it on the board.”

  “Okay, Einstein, get up here,” Mr. Butler said. “Let’s see what you got.”

  David reluctantly stood up and trudged to the board. As he began to write, the room grew silent. Every eye was on him. David’s heart raced. He didn’t understand how he could possibly know the answer. But as he stared at the board, answers began to float up from his subconscious like surface marker buoys deployed by scuba divers.

  “Well, uh, first, look at the boundary condition, x^2 + y^2 <= 4 is a circle with radius 2, right?”

  Don Butler looked perturbed. “That is correct.”

  “So, if you realize that your f(x,y) equation is symmetric across both axes,” David said as he drew on the board, “this will help visualize the function f(x,y). Then just think about e^t. What does this look like in two dimensions? It goes down gently to 1 when t = 0 and grows rapidly as t increases. If we maximize t then we′ll have maximized e^t.”

  Don Butler’s mouth fell open.

  David continued to write on the chalkboard. “That means that f(x,y) can be represented as f(t) = e^t when t = x^2 + 2y^2. Then all you need to do is maximize x^2 + 2y^2 where x^2 + y^2 <=4. Taking it a step further, you′ll come to the conclusion that it’s best if y is biggest. Because of that, 2y^2 and y is biggest at (0,2) and (0,-2). But don′t forget the second one because it is symmetric.”

  David’s classmates stared at him as if he were some sort of lab experiment gone horribly wrong.

  “As far as the minimum of e ^ (x^2 + 2y^2), since they are squared inside, x^2 + 2y^2 will never be negative, so the smallest value will be at (0,0).”

  “Where’s your graphing calculator, David?” Don Butler asked, his voice trembling with anger.

  “I don’t have one.”

  “Then how’d you get that answer?”

  David shrugged. “It just came to me.”

  “Really? Then can you tell me what my real point to this problem was?”

  “I think you were trying to get us to think about the shape of the graph. But if I’m wrong, and you wanted us to demonstrate it mathematically, you simply take the partial derivative with respect to each x and y and find the point where it is 0. You will have either found a maximum, minimum, or saddle. Th
en, use the second derivative to figure out which you′ve got, that is, if you don’t want us doing partial derivatives.”

  The two debated the point back and forth in a mathematical language that was foreign to the rest of the class. Everyone cleared the room the moment the bell rang, leaving only David and Mr. Butler.

  “You’ve been snooping around in my study, haven’t you?” Mr. Butler accused.

  “You mean in my dad’s old trophy room. I have no desire to snoop around in your stuff.”

  “There’s no way you solved that answer in your head. You cheated. I’d bet my coaching career on it.”

  “Then you’d better retire,” David snapped, grabbing his backpack and heading for the door.

  Butler grabbed his wrist. “Don’t screw with me, you little punk. I’ve put up with your whiney poor-me attitude for three years. No more.”

  “Let go,” David said. When Butler refused to budge, David wrapped his hand around his wrist and squeezed. Butler cried out and a look of panic crossed his face. “I didn’t cheat, Mr. Butler. If you grab me again, I’ll break your wrist.”

  “Detention,” Don Butler yelled at David as he walked out the door.

  David waved his hand back over his shoulder in a gesture of dismissal and walked out of the room.

  Whatever was happening to David was no dream. His sudden new intelligence, strength, and confidence seemed natural, as if he were emerging from a cocoon. But memories of three years of pain and ridicule from classmates were also resurfacing. All kinds of things were being stirred loose in his mind, both polished gems and useless detritus. He knew his life was about to change.

  He headed for the lunchroom. He was hungry and needed to double up on pizzas to feed his raging appetite. He piled on the peppers before grabbing a Coke to finish his tray. As he searched for a table where he could be alone, his stepbrother stood up from his table before he could pass.