Yeah, Right!: It's Okay Now, #1

By Jim Fox

Dan is a loner...but not necessarily by choice. As a senior new to a high school after bouncing around from place to place to hide his bizarre past, Dan becomes close friends (maybe a little too close?) with Mazie. For the first time, Dan struggles with keeping his secret, but just can't seem to find a way to tell her that he is really older than he appears to be. Why? It's all because of a top-secret government experiment gone wrong! Dan has been studied, poked, and prodded by doctors and psychologists throughout his life but he's on the verge of becoming "normal" for the first time. Dan is multi-talented and wise beyond his years, having been around longer than most seniors. Mazie is artistic, athletic, and biracial. The third member of the unique trio of friends is Bodie, who mostly stays in a small house that he designed and built himself. Mazie is just starting to learn about Dan's complicated history and uncovers even more when she stumbles on Dan's journal. A government guardian (Gigi) and a twin sister (Dani) both play major roles throughout Dan's story. In other words, Dan is just a normal guy – Yeah, Right!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jim Fox
• Release date: Apr 11, 2021
• ISBN: 9781393110569

Jim Fox

Jim Fox awoke from a dream in the mid-1990s, deciding the dream was an interesting premise for a novel.  Writing took a back seat to career and family, but the desire never left.  He published his first book, Yeah, Right!, in 2019 and followed up with the sequel, Whatever!, in 2020.  A third book is planned in the “It’s Okay Now” series, the title of the book yet undetermined.  Stay tuned!  If you are wondering whatever became of the dream-inspired novel, Jim is still working on that as well. Jim and his wife, Helen, reside in Mason, Ohio, where Jim was born and raised.  He graduated from Mason High School and obtained a B.S. in Education at The Ohio State University.  They have two adult sons, Cliff and Harrison, a daughter-in-law, Erica (Cliff), and a granddaughter, Avery (Cliff and Erica). Jim can be reached at [e-mail].

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Yeah, Right!  is dedicated to the past, current, and future students of Mason High School, especially two of my favorite classes, the Class of 1969 and the Class of 2019.

The smiles in the hallways during the 1960s and those for the past five years have given me more joy than the smile-givers will ever know.

~ Jim Fox

CHAPTER 1

Sunday, August 17, 2014

I’m a lot older than I look.  I’m six-two, one-sixty-five, a little on the skinny side.  A little?  You could count my ribs from 50 yards through a blindfold.  Anyway, I’ve been to a lot of schools in my life, more than anybody I’ve ever known.  I do a lot of things really well.  And I’m a lot more knowledgeable than most of my peers in some ways, especially current events and the government.  I don’t like to game very much.  I like all kinds of music and I play a lot of different instruments (guitar and keyboard on my own, and sax and a little trumpet in school bands in the past), but when I’m playing guitar and keyboard by myself, I mostly play older classic rock like the stuff I grew up listening to – my Mom and Dad’s ‘60s and ‘70s music – because that’s what they always played and that’s what I’ve always liked.

Because I have a lot of free time, I spend a lot of it on my laptop, and I research just about everything that I’m interested in.  Google and I are on a first name basis.  I have a twin sister, Danielle (she goes by Dani), who lives in a different city.  She and I are also best friends even though she gives me a hard time about everything, but in a funny way.  I say I mean and you know a lot in the middle of talking, similar to other people using like or uh so that I can catch up with my thoughts.  I use the word stuff way more than I should when I talk about different stuff.  And the other pet phrase that I use a lot, sometimes with a sarcastic tone, sometimes not, is Yeah, right!

I like to think that the country would be a lot better off if the politicians didn’t get in the way, but I like living in the good old U. S. of A., even though I don’t agree with everything that the government does, especially the Agency.

I like to hang out with girls but that can get way too complicated.  I also like to hang out with guys, but sometimes they ask too many questions that are awkward to answer.  Other than that I’m just like any other guy.  I’ve played a lot of sports.  I never get enough sleep and don’t get out of bed sometimes until 10:00 or 11:00 on the weekends.  Yep, just like any other guy.  Yeah, right!

So here I go again.  Another school year at yet another school.  But this has got to be it for high school.  Nonetheless, I’m starting my senior year again hoping that the second time’s a charm will hold true in my case.  The Agency doesn’t want me officially turning eighteen until my body and mental development are caught up or some such nonsense.  I’m sure the year will start out typically enough.  New school.  New friends.  New teachers.  Same anxieties.

I’ve been probed and prodded more than ever this summer.  Gigi is pretty sure that the breakthrough will come this year and that I’ll be ready to move on.  But it’s not totally up to her.

I think I have a pretty decent but somewhat twisted sense of humor and I’m almost always in a good mood and I’m even somewhat of a romantic, but I’m never optimistic anymore and haven’t been since I was a little kid.  I guess that was taken out of me because I kept hearing that things would get better but they never really have.  Gigi is really cool and has always tried to keep me hopeful but the docs have never shown optimism or pessimism.  They’re just clinical as Dad would say.

I’ve thought about refusing to go to school anymore until something is resolved, but that would kill Mom and Dad.  I couldn’t be luckier in that way.  Mom and Dad have been really patient and understanding with me.  I’ve overheard their conversations with Gigi, and she said the Agency wanted to keep a lot of info from me early on, but Mom and Dad insisted that I be kept in the loop, especially now that I’m an adult.  When the truth is, I’ve been more or less an adult almost half of my life.

Whenever we move to a new town, it’s right before school starts.  I think that’s so we can be close to the docs who are familiar with me as long as possible and to allow as much testing in the summertime as possible.  But I don’t really know much for sure.  Whenever I change docs, it’s always a pain because the new docs want to do a lot of stuff that’s already been done.

I really like our new house though, probably more than any place we’ve lived.  Mom and Dad’s bedroom and two other bedrooms are on the main floor and my bedroom is upstairs with its own bathroom and a walkout deck.  Since the house was built into a hillside, there are two separate entrances for the main floor and the upstairs, even a split driveway.  My entrance and bedroom were used by the elderly woman who lived here before us.  So it was like her own apartment, but it’s connected to the downstairs with a flight of stairs inside the house and another one outside.  It’s really a lot of space for one guy.  The upstairs even has a small kitchenette that I’ve started to keep stocked so that I won’t need to go to the downstairs kitchen late at night for a snack.  Ours is the last house on a dead end street, and there is a city park just beyond the dead end.  The deck outside my bedroom and kitchen area overlooks the park and has a great view of the lake.  Very cool.  Dani hasn’t seen this place yet.  She’s going to try to come for a visit in a couple of weeks over the Labor Day weekend.  She’ll go crazy when she sees my living space.  I told her it was almost as big as her entire apartment and she was joking that she was tired of me being spoiled in high school while she was being tortured in college.  She’s a hard worker but I think she has a pretty good time, too.

Getting back to the elderly woman – her daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughter lived downstairs but they moved after the old woman died suddenly.  According to one of our neighbors, the Robbins family that lived here before us didn’t need all this space anymore and it probably bothered them to stay in the house.  I guess the old lady died right here at home surrounded by her family.  That seemed a little spooky at first but doesn’t bother me too much.  Before they bought the place, Mom and Dad asked me if I would have a problem staying in a house where the old lady died and I told them I would promise not to mess with the old lady’s ghost if her ghost promised not to mess with me.  Mom thought that was funny but Dad didn’t look amused.  I think Mom has a sense of humor more like mine.  Anyway, the granddaughter that lived in this house is apparently also a senior at the high school.  If I meet her and she seems decent enough, I’ll ask her if she knows any good stories about the house.

Time for bed.  First day of school tomorrow.  Sweet dreams, Danny Boy, here I go again.

Monday, August 18, 2014

First day of school.  How many first days have I had now?  It seems like a fairly typical school to me.  I’ve never gone to a really big city school, always smaller size schools in quiet towns.  I don’t know why Gigi and all the other guardians think that’s best.  Or maybe that’s the Agency’s idea.  Probably so I won’t get too caught up in a fast-paced big-city life style and get rebellious.  Yeah, right!  Me being rebellious.  I’m about as rebellious as a sheep.  Ba-a-a.  But the small towns are always close to big cities with good hospital facilities.  Who knows?

Being not too far from Columbus in a fairly nice area, there are a lot of university people living here.  But it looks like not too many years ago, Miller Falls was more of a farm town because there is still a rural feel.

The old part of Miller Falls is a lot like the older small towns we’ve lived in – a small downtown with mom and pop restaurants where the locals eat, a hardware store that’s been there a hundred years, specialty shops, stuff like that.  And then around the downtown area, there are big old two- and three-story wood frame houses with wide porches and huge trees in the yards.  Most of those homes were built around 1900.  And then the majority of the homes on the outskirts, like our house, were built in the mid-1900s.  Everything a half mile from the center of town is mostly farms but there are some newer subdivisions, too.  The high school is at the edge of the downtown residential area and an easy walk from our house.

One of my favorite things about Miller Falls is the park that is located between our house and downtown and the high school.  I’ve walked through the park a few times already.  There is also a lighted walkway called the Loop that goes all the way around the outside of the park.  At the far end of the park from our house, the Loop follows alongside the small river that separates the park from downtown and there is a big lake in the middle of the park.  The main stream that feeds the lake runs right under the bridge in our driveway, and where it enters the lake is what I can see from my deck.

The kids here don’t seem much different than other schools.  Midwest kids are pretty cool.  They’re friendly.  Kids in the South are more into pickup trucks and country music.  They are okay, but that’s not my thing.  Colorado kids love the mountain sports.  I liked it there, too.  I’ve never lived on the west coast.  The only place near the east coast that we’ve lived was near Boston and I didn’t find it overly friendly and it was too crowded and fast-paced.  The Midwest just seems a lot friendlier and more laid back than most of the places I’ve lived.  I’ve been a curiosity wherever I go just because I’m always the new kid but then I go away in a couple of years.  I think I make friends fairly easily, but never really have many close friends.

CHAPTER 2

AT THE END OF MY FIRST week at school, I was sitting by myself in the Commons.  I had spoken to a few people but hadn’t gotten to know anybody too well yet, so I was using my lunchtime for reading.  Since this was my second go-round as a senior, none of my classes had gotten into anything I hadn’t covered before, so I was reading for fun.  I had picked up a funny little mystery of sorts by an author from Indianapolis.  I had read about him when I lived there a couple of years ago.

I had just started eating and was laughing to myself at a comical passage in the book when someone tapped me on the shoulder.  I had seen this girl who was doing the tapping here and there and in a couple of my late classes.  She had piqued my interest for a few reasons.

Bouncing around different schools, I’ve made a pastime out of studying people.  I’ve often tried to figure out what their stories are and what their personalities are like before I get to know them.  Later, if I do get to know them, I judge how accurate I was with my first impressions.  It’s been kind of a game for me for some time, and I’ve become decent at reading people.

The first reason this girl caught my eye was that she was one of the most interesting looking girls in the school, attractive in an uncommon, artsy sort of way.  Every school has good looking kids.  Some dwell on their own appearance and try to blend in with the current look.  Some try to stand out to be totally different.  And then some seem comfortable in their own skin, as my Mom would say, and aren’t concerned as much with fitting in or standing out.  From my observation, this girl seemed to be that kind.  Her clothes were more eclectic than the typical style, and she always looked great.  She didn’t seem the type that was doing anything just to draw attention to herself.  She was tall, about as tall as me, and she looked very athletic, and probably a good dancer, too, based on the graceful way she moved.  I like to dance and always wonder if a girl would be fun to dance with.  I was thinking this girl would be.  I was also guessing that she was very smart but not the bookworm type.

The second reason she caught my eye was that she seemed to be somewhat of a loner, but very comfortable being alone.  She didn’t come across as shy or awkward at all, and I was guessing that she was easy to talk to.  But I would rarely ever see her hanging out with anyone in particular except for one guy who also appeared to stay to himself most of the time.  I couldn’t decide if they were a couple or just good friends.  Neither seemed unfriendly or standoffish, they just seemed to be content to be by themselves.  I related to them in that way.

Third, I felt like I was not the only one doing the studying.  I had caught her looking my way several times during class or in the hallway.  She didn’t seem to be flirting, just interested.  Whenever we would make eye contact, she would give me a nearly imperceptible smile, and would not immediately look away.  I would always smile back, but would be the one who would usually look away first.  I guess that was the real hook.  The smile.

I was anxious to meet her to see if my first impressions were accurate.

So I was somewhat surprised to see her standing over my shoulder in the Commons since we’d never even spoken, and before I could respond, the tapper said, The way you’re laughing to yourself, that must be a good book you’re reading.  Would you mind if I join you?

Caught off-guard, I sputtered, Yeah, I guess.  Sure.  Of course.

Smooth!  Really smooth!  I collected myself and continued by saying, It is a good book.  Very quirky.  Guess that’s why I like it.  If you’re interested, I can pass it on to you.  I’m just about finished.

The tapper plopped her tray down and sat next to me.  Sure, I’ll take you up on that.  I like quirky.  By the way, I’m Mazie.

Oh, I said, That must explain why I’ve heard people call you ‘Mazie.’

She smiled again, the kind of smile that made her eyes squint and almost disappear.

Then she responded, Very perceptive.  And I’m guessing since I’ve heard people call you ‘Dan’ that your name must be Daniel.

No, I said, Just Dan.

Switching gears, Mazie replied, Well, ‘Just Dan,’ I’ve seen you in my classes and around school.  I know you’re new here and I have a strange request.  I take a couple of art classes – drawing and photography.  I would really like to use you as a model in one or two of my projects.  You have really nice hair and distinct facial features.  I’ve got to confess.  I’ve taken a few pictures of you with my cell phone just to see how you come across in photos.

I must have given her a curious look because Mazie paused and looked a little