InsaneJournal

Zach, Constance, and Adam: Plans
Who: Zach, Constance, and Adam
When: Early afternoon of January 8th, 2008.
Where: Constance and Adam's cottage.
What: Constance is getting weary and old, and she wants to talk to Zach about something very important: Adam needs a new alchemist.

The walk to his grandmother’s house was filled with dread. He couldn’t get the encounter with Dante off of his mind ever since it happened, but he didn’t believe the other guy. Dante was clearly crazy, a little too much off his rocker, and Zach didn’t know whether or not to tell his grandmother. Last he talked to her, she had resigned from her position on the Head Council. Did she even have any sway anymore? Well, he knew she was friends with Theora and Dylan, but he didn’t know how far that friendship extended. He knew Theora, to a degree, but he didn’t know Dylan at all.

His grandmother said the position took too much of a toll on her and she couldn’t deal properly with the responsibilities any longer. It wasn’t that she didn’t have the capabilities. Constance was one of the toughest people he had ever known. It was age, weariness, and tire with life. She wanted a break from it all at last, a retirement of sorts. There was only so much a person could take, and Zach watched as his grandmother just couldn’t take it anymore.

He arrived at her door and knocked a few times, stepping back and waiting for an answer. Uncle Adam answered the door, smiling at the sight of him. Zach smiled back, though it was weaker than he intended it to be. “Zach,” his uncle said happily, enveloping him in a hug that Zach easily returned. He pulled back a moment later and patted Zach on the back. “We’ve been waiting for you,” he said, leading the way into the house. “Constance made tea . . . ”

Zach tried to listen, but most of what Uncle Adam said faded away into the background. His grandmother said she had something important to speak to him about, but Zach couldn’t figure out what it was. If things were so hard on her, maybe she was nurturing the idea of discontinuing the carmot? If so, why was Uncle Adam acting so chipper? Wouldn’t he have known before Zach? His grandma wouldn’t keep something like that from Adam. She shared everything with him.

Zach sat down on the couch, and Adam disappeared into the kitchen. Constance came out a moment later, beaming in a way that Zach hadn’t seen from her in months. He rose to meet her, but she waved her hand dismissively. “Sit down, sit down,” his grandmother urged. Zach did so, and she hugged him where he sat before taking a seat on the couch beside him.

“Grandma, is something wrong?” Zach blurted out. It came out without him thinking about it. She was acting differently, and he wanted to know why he was called here today. The look on his grandmother’s face said everything. She knew he would cut to the chase like this. Zach was never one to hold his tongue for too long.

“I’ve stopped taking the carmot,” she admitted immediately.

Zach’s eyes grew wide with worry, his gaze faltering from her face and moving to kitchen opening. “Does Uncle Adam know?”

“Of course he knows,” Constance said, slapping his knee. “I tell Adam everything. Even you should know that by now.”

Zach sighed, shaking his head as he glanced down at his lap. “I know. I’m just . . . ” On edge? Unnerved? A complete wreck because of Dante? Zach thought to himself. Even though he didn’t believe Dante, it didn’t stop the drastic change the other man’s words had invoked in him. “Worried,” he finished.

“I wanted to talk to you about something very important,” she told him. “I’ve already gone over it with Adam, so don’t you worry about that. We’ve been talking about it for nearly a week now. I wanted to let you know because, well, you’re the final person it involves.”

Zach furrowed his brow, not sure what his grandmother meant by that. She noticed the look. A coy smile found its way onto her lips, and she leaned back against the sofa.

“I’m ready to move on with my life,” Constance continued. “I want to grow old, and I want to move back to Alaska.”

Zach expected to be surprised, and yet he found himself unsurprised. A part of him felt like he had been expecting this to happen one day. He always thought his grandmother missed her home more than she let on, and he always figured she’d want to go back to it one day. He was going to miss her. It seemed like he had so little time with her, but she was getting old. He knew she didn't want to hang onto this life any longer than she had to.

He kept his gaze on his lap, his hands folded atop his legs. “I kinda thought this would happen,” he said honestly. He looked up in time to see her smile at him.

“You’re a smart boy, that’s why.”

“I’m not smart.”

“Nonsense,” his grandmother said simply. He couldn’t argue with the knowing smile on her face. She leaned forward to pat his knee. “Now, here’s the hard part,” she began, her hand laying itself on top of his and squeezing his fingers gently. “Adam wants to stay here, and I want him to stay here, too. More importantly, I want to age without putting his life at risk. I’ve been wrestling with this idea for weeks, so don’t think I just came up with it on the fly and was okay with it from the beginning. Mostly, it’s going to be your decision, but I think it’s the best decision for everyone involved, including you.”

Zach thought he knew where this was going, and yet he didn’t know what she was going to say. His heart was pounding faster and faster inside of his chest, an indicator of his building anxiety. “Yeah?” he asked, wanting her to continue. The seconds of silence were torture on his mind.

Constance looked him dead in the eyes, and Zach saw the trust reflected deep within them. “I want you to be Adam’s new alchemist.”

Zach felt his heart plummeting to unseen depths below. “No, I can’t do it,” he immediately said, shaking his head. “I can’t do it. I’m not cut out for that—”

“Zach, you’re the best alchemist I know,” his grandmother said, grasping his hand with hers. “Adam will be safe with you, and you’ll be safe with him. He’ll take care of you like he took care of me. There’s no better match.”

“I can’t take care of an elemental,” Zach fought back. He was met with a no-bullshitting stare from Constance. He knew that look pretty well. It was his grandmother’s favorite look to give him when he was, in her eyes, being stupid.

“Zach, Adam isn’t a baby anymore. He hasn’t been for long time. You’re not changing a damn diaper here or bottle feeding him. He’s a grown man. He can take care of himself.” She sat back against the armrest of the sofa. “I would think you’d be smart enough to notice that much about your uncle.”

Zach looked down at his lap. His cheeks felt hot with embarrassment. “I still don’t think I’m ready,” he told her.

“You’re ready, Zach.” Constance placed her hand on his shoulder. Uncle Adam came back into the room with a tray of tea and snacks in his hands. Zach still had trouble looking up to face either one of them. “Why don’t you ask Adam’s opinion on the matter?”

When he finally raised his gaze, he saw Uncle Adam smiling at him from his position in a chair across from the sofa. “It’s okay, Zach,” Adam told him. “I think it’s a perfect idea.”

Zach didn’t know what to say. All words had left him. He nodded his head and looked away again. A deep sigh wracked his chest, and he sat back against the sofa. “You know it’s hard to argue with two adults who are completely comfortable with the idea, don’t you?” It didn’t change his apprehension, but it did ease it some. If Uncle Adam was so okay with it, then it couldn’t be such a bad idea. Besides, it was just a link. Like his grandmother had said, it wasn’t as if he was changing any diapers or bottle feeding anyone. Uncle Adam was a grown man, and he didn’t need Zach’s help through life.

He just needed a vessel — an alchemist.

Zach reached for a cup of warm tea and held it up as if in a toast. “Cheers,” he announced, downing the liquid before he had to say anything else. He wasn’t so sure if transferring Adam to him was a good idea, but it looked like it was going to be inevitable if both his grandmother and his uncle thought it was a good idea. Zach didn’t want to be responsible for another person’s life through his own, though. He had been terrified of anything remotely resembling the embodiment of a conscientious adult for a long time now. He wanted to live out his youth as freely as possible, but his youth was becoming a hindrance more than anything else with other aspects of his life.

Maybe it was time to grow up and take some real responsibility. Maybe, just maybe, this was just the right step he needed to take to help him move forward in his life.

Zach hoped more than anything that everything would turn out all right.