5 A Thousand Faces (2)

"Why don't you…" Boomie swallowed the rest of the words. Aldrich had looked towards him so fast that Boomie's ass clenched from the sudden reaction. Boomie let out a sigh, but then a beam of resolution shined in his eyes. He took a long breath and slowed down the truck.

"Why don't you come out with it? Isn't it enough already?" Boomie asked.

Aldrich found the topic distasteful but still replied, "Enough? It would never be enough."

Both stared at each other for a moment, when Boomie realized he was still driving. The same old answer brought the same old tension between them. Boomie and Aldrich knew each other enough to not let this tension get any heavier than it already was. And the task had always fallen on Aldrich's shoulders.

"How's aunt?" Aldrich asked.

Boomie's father was a Medical Examiner. And his mother used to be the best trainer an amateur climber could get at the start of his career. Especially from mid-September to October, when her services were getting booked a year before the actual climb.

But one time, while doing her routine climb, an accident happened, and she fell from quite a height. Aside from legs and ribs fractures, she sustained a traumatic head injury. The authorities could never find the primary cause of the mishap, but Boomie's mother had suffered from retrograde amnesia ever since.

"She is doing alright, but not for long. What could I expect when Dad, that bastard, decided to just disappear? Bills for psychotherapy are piling up, and the job isn't lucrative enough. I am out of practice and I am not my mother, am I? Help me get something to do, it would be best if you can ask 'him'."

For the first time, Boomie's face showed anger and helplessness at the mention of his father. He had dreamed of being like his mother, doing what he loved to do. And in his case, he wanted to be a trainer of bouldering. But after the incident with his father, he had to take out time to work in the Museum's gift shop. With his father's money gone, emptying their savings and what little money they had, there wasn't much Boomie could do to alter the situation.

Aldrich did not consider the incident with Boomie's father as 'disappearance', but both accepted it silently.

"Don't worry. I've already transferred some money for the therapy."

"Huh..?" Boomie immediately checked his bank account. His eyes had almost popped out while looking at the mobile's screen. And combined with his lean face and comical eyes, he almost looked like a chameleon.

"Dude! I know you love me, but this is still too much." Boomie, the shameless, exclaimed.

"It's for aunt. I don't love you." And Aldrich was not subtle with the jokes either.

"But I would still prefer if you could do the therapy, you know. I mean…" Boomie hesitated a little. He looked around like he wasn't in a car but a pub and whispered, "I mean, who can claim to be a better psychologist in front of you."

Boomie looked at Dr. Aldrich Guo, a title he added for his satisfaction from the corner of his eyes. The Artist Aldrich Guo, a title he added for the world's satisfaction, had taken out a notepad to dribble on.

"And it's not like you lack money. So… how much did it sell for?" Boomie asked.

Aldrich rested his hand over the verses he had written. And with a pained expression, he said, "243 million dollars."

"Haha…," Boomie laughed so hard that even the car, moving with the speed of a pregnant snail, suddenly picked up speed.

"I won. Yes! Finally, I won a bet against you."

Boomie had made the bet that the final amount would be over 240 million dollars. While Aldrich had gone with 238, give or take 1 million dollars. Yes, with Aldrich, there was not much margin to get lucky with bets. Aldrich did not know that the few extra million dollars were an amount added for Mr. Edwin.

Aldrich looked at the smiling face of his only friend, who was just cursing his father a moment before, and compared it to the scene of their first meeting.

Weeks after the accident of Boomie's mother, as Aldrich later found out, Aldrich was dissecting a lizard using a surgical knife he got somehow. Boomie ended up in the basement of their house and watched the entire scene. And he must have run too fast, for he didn't come to school for 3 days after the incident.

On the fourth day, Boomie waited for him after school and he seemed like he was hiding something. As Aldrich approached him and showed no sign of halting, Boomie brought his hand in which there was a dead frog.

"Um…, Can you… Can you do an operation on him? He hasn't jumped since my father kicked him."

Boomie had always thought he saved Aldrich from all the solitude, and that Aldrich had also saved him.

"You know, I was reading history the other day… Hey! don't look at me like that, I know how to read too. So where was I? Yeah, and I found out that people like you did not like to amass wealth and something like that," Boomie said.

"It is true to some extent," Aldrich paused his dribbling, "But only time has determined the value of wealth. Those scholars could not swipe the card and get information from the other half of the world. Those prominent physicians could not get all the relevant knowledge. They could not get all kinds of test subjects, even with all the money. So what use of amassing wealth was to them?"

"But still..."

Aldrich cut him off and said, "We are living in a world where every tiny little service costs money. I don't need money, per se, but I don't want any moment where I would have to hold back because of the lack of it."

Boomie headed the truck towards the parking area of the trailhead. He couldn't help but ask, "But what's wrong with letting the world know about your 'gift' or 'gifts'? Wouldn't it be easy then? You don't know what I experience when every second-rate bum out there calls you a psycho."

In the end, Boomie was already pointing towards the town.

"Boomie…"

Boomie jumped out of the cabin, "I know, I Know. Your mission." How could Boomie ever forget 'The Mission'?

"But you know, you should at least tell Uncle and Aunt. They deserve to know."

"Yes, they deserve to know," Aldrich said. Boomie, in astonishment, dropped the backpacks back in the bed. But Aldrich, looking worriedly at his bag, continued, "They deserve to, but they do not need to."

"You know I got to ask," Boomie handed over the backpack to Aldrich, "Why do you do it? All the things, the research papers, the experiments, the books, the paintings and I remember your contribution to that LIGO, too. Why?"

"You know too much for your good. I should have pushed you down to the river."

Aldrich looked at his friend's silent laugh and then gazed at the top of Icicle Ridge. His eyes suddenly gaining an immense depth moved from the top of the ridge to the empty summer sky. Boomie's mouth had already sealed his mouth. No laugh could come out when he saw Aldrich standing by his side, looking at the sky like he would bring it down if it didn't kneel in the next few seconds.

Aldrich took a full breath of mountain air and said, "Nothing is more beautiful than to know all."

And Boomie shuddered, 'Why I was even talking to him about money like some normal person. "That" is not a normal person. "That" is a monster, the nightmare of countless others in their dreams.'

"Kircher," Boomie reflexively pointed out. Aldrich nodded at the name and both moved on with their hike.

Mr. Edwin could have been the wiliest person. But even in his wildest dreams, he would have never thought that the organization he was working for, 'A Thousand Faces', was a thousand faces of a single man.