"Ah! Make it stop! Make it stop!"
In the next moment, Zane sprayed some kind of foam on my face, and the burning sensation subsided.
"It's a good thing you were wearing those goggles!" Zane exclaimed. "Otherwise, you might have lost your eyebrows!" He added gleefully.
I grunted and went to work wiping the foam off of my face. For the past hour, Zane had been showing me all the applications of Gulbranak, and more than once I had felt my life was in danger. So far, I had learned that the greenish metal could power the entire castle, slice through a boulder, be programmed to take on different forms, and spontaneously combust when it came into contact with any fruit. Yeah, fruit. Who would have thought?
Once I cleared the foam from my face I watched as Zane took a sample of boiling hot, liquified Gulbranak, climbed up a step ladder, and adhered it to the ceiling of my room. He then embedded the end of a thick chain into the metal and held it there for a few seconds until the Gulbranak cooled and hardened. On the other end of the chain was a large steel bowl, which was suspended about 3 feet up from the floor.
"Watch this," Zane said, waggling his eyebrows in apparent anticipation. He activated his favorite robot, a squatty contraption that he called Mister Smee. The robot began to take 100 pound weights from a pile in the corner and transport them into the steel bowl. Zane really could have just asked me to put the weights in, but I knew how much he loved to use his robots.
"Isn't this amazing!" Zane called out to me as the robot put the fourth weight in the bowl. "There's nothing else like it!"
It was true. Gulbranak truly was a miraculous metal. No wonder the Jumerum wanted to get their hands on it. I looked up and noticed that the ceiling beams were starting to groan with the weight.
"Hey Zane," I said, pointing to the beams, "maybe you ought to stop."
He looked up and sighed regretfully. "Yeah, that's probably a good idea. I just wish I could show you the full amount. Just one gram of Gulbranak can hold up to 1100 pounds!"
Just then the door to my room opened and my mother stepped in. "Sorry to cut the demonstration short, Zane, but I need to talk to Frederick."
Zane's face fell, but he nodded. "Sure thing, Mrs. V. Just let me break all this down and get it out of here."
Zane operated the robot as it took the weights out of the bowl. Then he climbed up and used some kind of blow torch to melt the Gulbranak and clean it off of the ceiling. I don't know how he didn't start everything on fire. Finally, Zane had the robot take each weight, one by one, and place it on a cart in the hallway outside my room.
I stepped toward the pile of weights. "Here, let me help."
Zane held out a hand, stopping me. "No no, Mister Smee can do it."
My mother and I watched in awkward silence while the robot laboriously took each weight out to the hallway. After what seemed like an hour, the weights were all loaded on the cart and Zane packed up the Gulbranak and his tools and stepped out the door. "We'll finish tomorrow night," he said cheerily. "Wait till you see what this stuff does for body odor!" He said as he waved goodbye.
I shut the door behind him and looked at my mother. "How can you stand that kid?"
She only smiled and motioned for me to sit down at a small table in the corner. She had always been very tactful and diplomatic, but now I knew that these characteristics were a result of her being the queen of a small country. It had taken a while for me to adjust to the fact that my mom was not a business consultant and that my dad was not some jerk who had left his family ten years ago. Well, in reality, he had left us, but for more noble reasons than I had previously believed. He had left to protect us.
"Frederick," my mom began as she sat down across from me, "I wanted to tell you about an important event that will be happening at the end of the month."
"Where's dad?" I interrupted. I'd seen very little of my father over the past view weeks, and I was a little annoyed by it. I mean, sure, he was the in charge of the country, but I'd hoped that after being away for a decade he might want to spend some time with his son.
"He's working on a plan to capture the Jumerum," my mom replied, stiffening slightly in her chair.
"Can I help?" I asked. "It seems like I should be doing something useful."
My mother sighed. "Frederick, you need to be eased into this. That's why we have you training with Alm and Zane. You'll have a chance to participate in these affairs soon enough, but for now, just take it one day at a time. You haven't even seen the whole country yet!"
I rolled my eyes. "Mom, I'm pretty sure I could walk around the whole island and visit all the villages in a couple days. It's tiny!"
Something sparked in my mom's eyes, but she just shook her head. "What I came here to talk to you about," she said forcefully, "is your presentation gala."
"My what?"
"Your presentation gala," she repeated. "It's a celebration where you're formally introduced into Gulbranian society."
My mouth went dry. "Like a debutante ball?"
My mother rubbed her temples. "If that's the way you'd like to think of it, sure."
"Mom," I said, looking her in the eye, "that sounds horrific."
"Why?" She replied in exasperation. "It's a party all in your honor! It's for people to see who you are!"
I winced. All I could imagine was me standing up on a stage with hundreds of people gawking at me. I'd had enough of that in high school. My mom must have read my expression, because she reached out and took my hand.
"Frederick, it will be fine. The Gulbranians are going to love you. You're their prince, and you don't look the way you used to-"
I felt indignation flood through me. "It doesn't matter what I look like, mom!" I exclaimed. "A room full of people staring at you is awkward, no matter who you are!"
"They won't be staring…" she trailed off and then took a deep breath. "It's happening, and you will enjoy it," she said with a tone of finality, as if she could force me to be excited about it. "But before that occurs, we need to address a few things. You need to be fitted for your royal suit, you need to go through etiquette training, and tomorrow you're going to meet with the press."
My head was swimming. "The press? So, someone's going to interview me or something?"
My mom gave me an uncharacteristic smirk. "Something like that."
I suddenly didn't have the energy to argue. I slumped back in my chair and stared out the window at the darkening night sky.
"I know this is a huge adjustment for you, Frederick," my mother said, standing, "but everything is going to be fine."
It was such a vague, cliche statement, but I knew that she meant it. By the time I turned my gaze away from the window, my mom was already gone. I crossed the room and fell onto my bed, picking up my phone and settling into what had become a nightly ritual: reading through all of Kayla's texts and talking myself out of texting her back. She had probably forgotten about me by now, so there was really no point, but I still found enjoyment in remembering those times when we had been friends, when she might have even cared about me.
I switched over to one of the school's social media groups and saw something that made me feel nauseous. Someone had posted a video of Milo stuck to a chair in chemistry lab. While he tried to pry the chair off of his pants, the students around him just laughed. The more I watched it, the more awful I felt. It wasn't like I had a choice in leaving Indiana, but I still felt guilty for leaving Milo alone there. A thought crossed my mind and I sat up in bed. There was really no reason for me not to text Milo. I didn't have to tell him everything, but I could at least apologize for leaving and offer some moral support from afar. Plus, it would be nice to be in touch with a friend.
[Hey, sorry I didn't respond to your texts], I wrote, [I lost my phone for a while and I just got it back. My mom's work transferred her to Gulbrania and we had to leave pretty quick.] I frowned. That was almost true. [Anyway, I hope you're doing okay.]
I read through it once before I sent it. It was a pretty lame text, especially for someone who I hadn't corresponded with in over a month, but I didn't know what else to say. I stared at my phone for a few more minutes and then let my mind wander to things like the Gulbranak, the Jumerum, and the presentation gala my mom had just mentioned. The more I thought about that impending event, the more it seemed like it was going to be an entirely different type of torture.