Prologue
The playground suddenly came to life as the doors of the small Irish primary school flung open spilling the contents of the school out onto the blacktop. Children just released from the classroom began to run about rushing to begin their favorite free time activity some opted for pick-up games of football, or soccer as some parts of the world called it, others took up positions on the monkey bars showing their latest skills to their friends and still others just collected in groups to socialize. The latter example of these groups collected on the farthest part of the out door play space from the school as they could get and was made up of some boys aged roughly between nine and eleven years old who stood in a loose circle around a another boy who seemed to the casual observer would be seen as the one in charge. He was speaking to the others with confidence and as if he where the one leading a classroom.
"Look, I am telling you the truth, my Uncle Sammy used it himself when he blew up my Gramma's sunroom. Now I don't have everything he had but I did make a modified version that can be just as successful."
"Charley, you are full of crap!" Said one of the older boys in a thick Irish brogue. "There is no way anyone blew up a room with some Christmas lights and gun shells"
"Look, Reggie" the dark haired boy named Charley turned to face the doubter" I was able to prove what a can of air could do to a padlock from the lab, right?" The other boys who were in on that caper smiled and nodded. They remembered how Charley had taken an inverted can of air, normally used to clean the keyboards in their classroom and freeze the padlock used on the kitchen freezer to keep its contents secure. The boys were equally impressed with Charley's use of a hammer taken from the maintenance room, Charley smashed the padlock shackle like it was glass then opened the freezer door and passed out some of the ice creams left over from the fair held the day before and better yet, he even took the rap for it.
"I know what I'm talking about. Look!..." reaching into his book bag he held up a small string of modified Christmas lights, only it didn't have any colorful lights in the small sockets. Instead, there were small fire crackers wedged into the spaces, holding it up for inspection he began to explain to the others the different ways you could modify the string to ignite including a motion sensor to simply plugging it in and you get ignition.
"Yeah, Prove it yank-boy" Reggie the doubter said with a dare in his voice. He wanted a demonstration. Shrugging Charley took the string and led his small group over to the work shed and before plugging it into the outdoor socket he shooed everyone back and when he felt they were a safe distance he plugged the string into the socket.
A few of the boys were expecting an instant reaction so they were all ready covering their ears and preparing for the loud noise. When nothing happened after a few seconds a few of the boys looked at Charley. With a self satisfied smirk Reggie started towards Charley. Who for his part was remaining calm and was just watching his string.
"See! you're full of shit Charley." Reggie said feeling victorious and ready to gloat over finally getting the best of this Yank. "Electricity won't set off a firecracker set in a string of lights" and just as he was about to make his move the towards Charley the string went off.
My name is Michael Westen
What do you think it is?
"An envelope"
With an irritated look at her partner "Well, I can see that! What do you think is in it?" The Irish lilt she once tried to suppress was now back in full force.
"A letter" was his reply.
Rolling her eyes the woman punched the man in the arm.
The man and woman turned their attention back to the object that had come under their intense scrutiny. They stood together looking down at the center of the old worn table where a crisp white envelope with the words, to the Parents of Charles McBride written in perfect script across the front lay spotlighted by the old fashioned jar pendant light hanging directly above. Michael stood with his arms crossed with one hand up working his lower lip with his fingers. Fi for her part was more relaxed but still kept a safe distance from the item that seemed to be causing them both some worry. Without pulling his eyes away from the letter Michael turned his head slightly and said
"open it"
Fi looked sharply at Michael with some panic in her voice "No, You open it"
Mike shot his eyes over at her then rolled them "This is silly. It's just a letter"
"Then open it" Fi said nodding towards it.
Mike let out a defeated sigh and reached for the letter. Memories of his own childhood and the letters that he had brought home to his Mom flashed through his thoughts. Picking up the letter Michael flicked it a few times against his fingers and finally made a move to open it and just as he was about to rip the top open a flash out of the corner of his eye caught his attention and a knife appeared in front of him just inches from his chest.
"Here use this" still smarting from their earlier back and forth, Fiona offered the stiletto in dramatic fashion as a substitute letter opener.
Mike turned his head and looked at Fi as he took the letter opener with the double edged six inch blade and replied sarcastically "Thank You!"
Fi shrugged. "Wouldn't want you to get a paper cut."
With a last sideways glare at the woman he loved Mike sliced open the letter and began to read it. His lips barely moving as he did so.
"Well?"
Mike dropped his hands down and slowly turned to face Fi and with a look of dread he answered
"It's Charley, he's been suspended and the Headmistress would like a conference tomorrow morning. Apparently, Charley has been displaying some undesirable behavior at school"
They both turned to look at ten year old Charley as he played with his modeling clay and it was Fi who was first to realize, he was cutting little blocks of clay and attaching what looked like detonators formed from his small plastic blocks that most kids would connect together to make castles or airplanes.
Early the next morning they were on their way over to meet with the Headmistress of Charley's primary school, Mike reflected on their lives up until this point and how it had been relatively peaceful living under the protection of the Glenanne clan here in the town of Clevernaugh, a small village located along the the Lough Gill in County Sligo, Ireland.
Fi's brother Sean had helped them relocate and though it was thought that they could never return to Ireland they realized that the political climate had changed and most if not all of the people who might want Michael and Fi punished for their betrayal were now either dead or on the run themselves. In fact, the area they were currently living in many former Irish fighters had relocated in order to start anew and out of the shadow of reputations and possible feuds. This area of Ireland had become a sort of neutral zone. Where everyone could put their past behind them and just think about the future living in peace.
Arriving at the school the pair were shown to some chairs located in a small sitting area in front of the Headmistress's office. Though they had met the woman at various school functions. Their talks had been much more informal. Though the subject of Charley's precociousness would come up they always seemed to head off any formal meetings or conferences in regards to Charley. Until now. As Mike and Fi sat in the chairs, curious students walked by staring some would even stop to look at the two adults waiting until the receptionist moved them along. Being a small school of only ninety children most if not all of the students already knew whose parents occupied the chairs waiting to see Mrs. Connolly.
After waiting for what seemed an eternity, the door to the headmistresses office finally opened and an older woman dressed in the crisp business skirt and matching jacket looked right over to where they were seated and smiled as she came over to where they were seated. Her hand extending as she made her approach "Mr. and Mrs. McBride, How wonderful it is to see you again!" Mike and Fi both rose at the same time each with flashbacks to there own first meeting with their school principal. Mike at the tender age of six and Fi being the late bloomer at age ten. Both smiled at the same time and extended their hands. "Mrs. Connolly" replied Fi as her hand was grasped first Mike could only smile and nod when his hand was taken. The one thought that ran through his mind was "I used to be a super spy and I can't believe how badly I am sweating right now"
"Please come this way won't you?"
They entered into the office and were shown chairs that were 3/4 scale the normal sized chair. Obviously built for frames that were much smaller in stature.
"Sorry about the chairs. I so rarely meet with parents and when I do unfortunately these are the only chairs I have available."
Mike and Fi glanced at each other after this last statement and proceeded to take the seats available.
Michael tried to shift into a more comfortable position without dumping himself onto the floor. He quickly glanced over at Fi whose smaller frame didn't seem to have a problem with the small chairs. His attention returned to the older woman sitting across the table and began to listen as she explained the problem they were having with Master Charley. Mrs. Connolly was speaking with the Irish lilt that he himself had adopted in the last three years living here in the village.
"As you know Mr. McBride" clutching her hands together Ms. Connolly leaned forward towards where Mike and Fi were sitting and continued "We here at the Cleveraugh Primary School work very hard at creating an educational environment where besides the fundamentals we also encourage our pupils to use their imaginations. Because we believe that imagination is a crucial part to every child's development."
Fiona was the first to respond "And that is why we were so happy to put Charley into your school. We..." Glancing at Michael who nodded and smiled his best smile at the teacher "felt it was the best fit for our Charley"
"Mrs. McBride, though I am glad to have Charley in our school as he is one of our highest performing students and favored by most of the teachers here because of his quickness and what many would consider an over developed cleverness. We feel his latest infraction cannot not go unpunished."
"What did he do exactly?" Mike responded
Mrs. Connolly stood and with hands still clutched together she started to pace and appeared be debating how to chose her words carefully. "Mr. McBride. Who is Sam Axe?"
"Sam Axe?" Michael swallowed hard after saying the name.
"Yes, apparently he is an Uncle to Charley?" It was more of a question than answer on Ms. Connolly's part.
Michael mustered a small chuckle as he replied "Yeah, Sam. Uh. He's an old friend, Charley calls him Uncle Sam." Now with some trepidation Michael added "Why?"
The headmistress looked at Michael and smiled then walked over to her filing cabinet and pulled out the middle drawer and withdrew a file roughly an inch thick. She returned to her desk and sat down, opened the file and began to go through the papers. Mike and Fi looked at each other then back at Mrs. Connolly.
"Well, lets start at the beginning and go from there shall we? Like I said earlier, young Charley has garnered his fans amongst the staff here at school. So there has been a lot of forgiveness going on when it comes to some of his earlier exploits. So lets review some of those first, then we will discuss his latest escapade that brought the both of you here today."
They listened to the woman review Charley's record for almost an hour. They interjected a defense or explanation when they could but even they had to admit Charley had obviously picked up a few tricks not only from his Uncle Sam and Uncle Jesse but also from Fi and Mike as well. Both were equally to blame for his exploits, both the forgiven ones and the current unforgiven one. They had spoken freely about the past in front of Charley when he was much younger forgetting that he could still absorb what was being said and though they limited his exposure to any weapons of any kind at their home. He obviously picked up a lot more than what they thought possible and now, Charley has made a few of them dangerously real again.
"So although Reggie suffered no physical damage other than his dignity after wetting himself. We really can't let this go Mr. McBride." She looked sternly at the both of them and continued
"Now, Mrs. McBride. I remember your brother Sean. When I taught him, I always thought no child would ever be the challenge he was but your son Charley. I must say" standing the Headmistress crossed over to the tea set she had start to steep. She motioned to the two sitting in the chairs asking if they wanted some of the hot beverage though Michael shook his head no, Fi stood up to accept a cup. She definitely needed a hot cup to help calm her. Fiona knew the woman really only had Charley's best interest in mind but it didn't change the fact that being given news that your child was not perfect made your nerves stand on edge. Returning to their seats Mrs. Connolly continued.
"I think it is time you have a small chat with him and sort things out. Tell him about where he came from, tell him about his past. Ask him what he remembers. Some of the children try to call him Yank this invarioubly ends in badly for anyone who does this but ultimately, it ends badly for Charley too, and though we do try to keep the other children from doing this. We cannot protect him all of the time. There have been rare occasions where he will bring up his Gramma Maddie and I can tell you he always seems to get into some kind of trouble shortly there after."
Michael looked down and swallowed hard at the mention of his Mother's name and looked back up as he was about to say something to this, she held up her hand to head off his reply.
"Mr. McBride, when Sean came here to lay the ground work for your arrival here. There wasn't a man or woman here that wasn't going to do their part to make sure you three could live a safe, and normal life far from the various government entities who might be interested in your where abouts."
Fi smiled and replied "yes, and we really appreciate what you and everyone else here has done for us and Michael and I understand that we need to have a talk with Charley..."
"Not just a talk Mrs. McBride, you need to have a conversation. I know it will be hard bringing up the past especially about his Grandmother but you must. Let him know how you came to be here. Remember, his life early on was one of chaos. First with his real parents, then his time with his Grandmother and now here in Ireland. He has seen more in his young life then most adults have."
Fi was opening her mouth to speak when Michael's voice stopped her.
"You're right." Staring at a fixed point on the teacher's desk. Perhaps lost in the past himself he continued "Tonight, I will talk with him tonight. I know he probably has questions about the past, his past. Things that he saw, stuff he wouldn't understand...memories that confuse him, I think he is getting old enough to hear some of the story. We won't overwhelm him in details. We will answer what ever questions he may have." He looks up at the woman and smiled
The older woman smiled "Yes, that is exactly what you should do. Let him lead the conversation. He maybe too young for some of the details but as he grows older he will begin to understand the pieces better and as such his questions may become more pointed. Just remember to be honest. Believe me, in the long run he will love you even more for it and Mr. McBride..."
"Please call me Michael"
"...and I'm Fiona"
"Michael. Fiona" she smiled "Charley is a very lovely little boy and you should be very proud of him"
Seeing that her two parents were now understanding the real problem she smiled and reached for a smaller folder that had been on her desk since they had entered. "Now, let me show you Charley's latest assessments. He is quite impressive and I see him being one of our youngest 6th levels ever"
Charley heard his parents walking into their home downstairs. He had been contemplating making a run for it but he knew there wasn't really anywhere for him to go. So he opted to wait for them in his room. His Dad's favorite saying running through his head "the hell that was about to rain down."
His Dad, who he always knew not to be his real Dad but his Uncle Michael, and never really ever saw any difference between the title, soon appeared at the door to his room. he seemed to pause but then came in to sit on the bed with him. Solemnly, they looked at each other.
Michael looked at his nephew...son.
Charley spoke first. "Dad, I am really sorry. I told them to stand back and...please. Don't tell Uncle Sam what I did...he might get pissed"
Michael just smiled and said "Never again, right?"
"Yes sir"
Michael slid around and sat back against the wall with Charley.
"You know Charley, I know you were real young when your Gramma Maddie died and I am pretty sure there are things that you remember happening and these memories are probably pieces that are as confusing as hell" he looked down at Charley who was now looking up at him.
Michael swallowed as he looked down into his brother's eyes "Charley, I want to tell you a story" He looked over at the doorway to where Fi had just entered the room to lean against the jam. Michael smiled at her his eyes beginning to brim, taking a deep breath he looked down at Charley again and continued.
"My name is Michael Westen and I used to be a spy..."