This is the most exciting thing to ever happen to Penelope Bowen. She was a loser in high school, seen as a freak, a freak who likes to discover strange things and wants to one day be a scientist.
She was seen as a freak when her classmates were freaked out to dissect a frog but she did hers with quickness and she showed no remorse as well. After doing so she put on a grin on her face that was considered creepy to her age mates.
"Eww, creepy Penny's grooming herself to be a serial killer." Everyone laughed and the smile on her face disappeared and she adjusted her glasses so no one would see her crying. No one had her back except her teachers who would allow her to eat lunch in the teacher's lounge.
Her classmates would make fun of her for doing that as well, they'd call her a teacher's pet. She didn't know what they wanted, they didn't want her eating with them in the cafeteria and they made fun of her for eating in the teacher's lounge. It's almost like her classmates didn't want her to exist altogether.
Every day in that school was social suicide. She'd get berated while she walked down the hall. And they'd take any chance to make fun of her. They picked everything wrong with her from her large curly brown hair to her round granny glasses.
She was even called a slut once. And she tried to remember when she had sex with anyone at all. She had always been a virgin, that's until she got married to her college sweetheart Daniel Bowen.
When she went to Stanford, her weirdness was reduced and her confidence was boosted. She became less weird but she still had a little weirdness to her. At least she had friends and she even had a boyfriend. A man she didn't have to chase, he chased her.
Life was far from perfect but it was better than what her high school gave her. Her dream as a scientist was still set in stone. She was never going to give up on her dreams. She was a kind person that was into fact and not fiction. Although she grew up in an extremely religious family. She was not buying it. The talking snake alone was enough to make her question everything.
Some people read the bible from beginning to end to feel something and to find what they lost, some read it to debunk it. Penelope was in the debunking crew. She could not believe anything that was written. Either that or she thought there was a piece of the puzzle that was missing all along and that the bible is a history book but not all of history is in this book that Christians claim to have all the truth.
For instance, she didn't know how homosexuality was a sin since being homosexual is completely natural and it's found in animals as well. She failed to understand how a God would create homosexuals and deny them entry into his kingdom. It was strange and absurd to her. It's either this whole thing was just made by men to control people or there's something taken out of or added into the book written by the men who want to control everything.
She wasn't going to have it. She knows she lives in a man's world and she's currently in a male-dominated field but that's not going to stop her from being what she wants to be.
At first, she thought her life as a scientist was over because she couldn't find anything interesting but that's when she heard the news. It wasn't on the news. It's not known to the masses yet. Just the government and a few selected scientists.
She's one of the few selected.
The news was people dying and then coming back to life. It starts with a man or woman hovering around a dead person's body then they bring out a large ring which glows and they put it into the dead individual then after that the dead come back.
Penelope has never heard or even seen anything like it. The people who worked at morgues around America saw it and described it as holy. They think God is the one doing it. But Penelope likes to know the facts. She hates fiction, she thinks that it makes people delusional. Literature was her least favourite class in high school.
She also hated going to church with her mom because she couldn't believe these people believed that lions did not devour a man in a den or that a tiny boy killed a giant.
It will be plausible if these Christians think these stories are fictional but they think it actually happened years ago.
So what does this mean? That in a thousand years if people discovered the Fear Street books in a cave people will think it actually happened and they'll create a religion out of it? She won't be around to see that, but she sure hopes not. Those books are horrifying.
She doesn't understand why people are coming back to life but she believes that they are because she saw it happen with the young Mexican American boy. Her boss sent her to the morgue specifically to see if anything extraordinary happens because he believes it's a global thing like the AIDs epidemic but instead of people dying. They're coming back to life,
And she saw it for herself. She checked the man's pulse, she saw the crack on his head, his heart was not beating. He was beyond saving, he was gone. And then the next thing, she saw him standing on his two feet talking and smiling like he never died at all. She had to call her boss over to see.
And just as she thought him coming back to life was the only thing, he went through a wall and then he disappeared right before their eyes leaving a ball of light and the two watched it in shock as it disappeared. Disappearing like it was never there before.
They sent security guards to search for the curly-headed Mexican American teenager but he's gone. It's like he was never here in the first place.
So now the two of them are seated with a Doctor trying to make sense of all of this.
"Aliens?" Mr. Winston, Penelope's boss asks and Doctor Kate Henshaw shrugs.
Penelope isn't sure about that, all she knows is that there's something wrong somewhere. Something is bringing these people back to life and she would like to know what and why.
"All we know is that there is something strange happening. Dead people are coming back to life and the people who have witnessed these people come back to life have said the same thing. That they saw a cloaked figure inserting a round shiny object into the dead that brings them back to life." Says Doctor Kate.
"So what do you think it is?" Doctor Winston asks.
"I don't know, the rapture?" Penelope looks at Doctor Kate and Doctor Winston laughs and rightfully so because Penelope has always hated the whole apocalypse bullshit and how only Christians are going to be ascended into heaven when Jesus comes back.
"I don't understand what is going on Ms Henshaw, but I doubt that those fairytales are real." Says Mr. Winston.
"I know it sounds bizarre but this is the kind of thing written in their bible is it not?" Doctor Kate adjusts her glasses. "People coming back from the dead. And Jesus taking them to heaven. Sound familiar? A man bringing people back from the dead and they disappear when they come back?"
"I don't think that is the case." Penelope finally speaks. "Because the boy we saw was alone and no one took him away, he simply disappeared on his own."
"Aha!" Mr Winston exclaims. "So let's bring back my theory. Aliens. It has to be the only explanation and we're not the only ones trying to understand this situation, the government also want answers. This is something serious. We have to keep our ears and eyes open because I have a feeling this is going to happen again."
Penelope agrees but she can't stop thinking about that boy and the fear in his eyes. They didn't want to hurt him, they only wanted to run some tests, to see why he came back to life but he thought they were going to hurt him. Maybe calling Mr. Winston was a mistake because the boy trusted her and she let him down.
She doesn't know how, but she's going to find him. She doesn't care if it's aliens or the damned biblical apocalypse. She's going to find him and she's going to understand why all this is happening without the scientists and military.
And she's also going to use it to her advantage. Find the boy, discover his secret and expose it to the world. She's going to be the renowned scientist who made a huge discovery. And it seems there's an individual that's perpetuating all this. She also has to find that cloaked individual bringing the dead back to life.
She will not be creepy Penny anymore. She will be famous for the right reasons.
They're out of the building and they're ready to go their separate ways to their houses. Doctor Kate has called a cab and she's gone. Penelope thinks she looks more like a model than a doctor. It's what happens when people tell her that doctors and scientists are not good-looking. Just like she isn't, but she wouldn't say she's ugly, she's not the beauty standard either. But Doctor Kate is on another level. She should be a Hollywood star, not a doctor. But then again this is L.A Everyone is beautiful even doctors and scientists.
It's just her and Mr. Winston. They're quiet for a while. It's usually this way between them. Mr. Winston is a short bald man who people look at and no fear will be felt but that boy was fearful because her boss was probably acting like a maniac. Penelope wishes that he was quiet when he met Angelo and he wasn't acting like he was going to kill the boy.
Penelope has to break her silence.
"What was the needle for?" she asks looking at the cars as they pass them. "I thought we agreed to gain his trust so that we can be able to run some tests."
"Yes, but it all happened too fast Mrs. Bowen I didn't think he'd see the needle."
"But he did!" She quickly took it back when Mr. Winston shot her a shocked look. She didn't mean to snap but she did. "I'm sorry, I just think we should have civilly done this."
Mr. Winston sighs. "I understand." he raises his hand for a cab and it stops right in front of them. He calls the cab for Penelope and he opens the door for her to get in. She walks toward it.
"We will see him again Penelope I can feel it." They look at each other for two seconds before Penelope nods her head.
"Yeah. I hope so."
She gets in and he helps her close the door.
"Get some rest, Mrs. Bowen." He says and the car drives away.
She too knows that she'll see him again. She doesn't know what it is about the boy- and it is not just the fact that he came back to life. Or maybe it is and because she doesn't know why she's been thinking about him since he disappeared. She will see him again but she's not going to be telling Mr. Winston that she's seen him. She's going to do the tests on her own. Discover his secret on her own.
She plans on doing this with quickness and do it discreetly. She's going to be the world's greatest scientist who discovered the greatest phenomena.
The cab takes her to her house. She steps out of the car and walks into her home. A duplex just for her and her husband.
They haven't talked about having kids but from the looks of things, they're both not ready for that yet.
Penelope walks over to the dark living room illuminated by the TV which has the sports station on. Her husband is on the couch fast asleep. He looks cute when he's asleep. He works as a teacher at the Sunnyville High School in Beverly Hills. And he's just marked some tests.
She smiles at her husband takes a brown blanket from the chair and covers him up. She kisses him on the cheek before turning off the TV and ascending upstairs to the room.
She will find that boy, she's sure of it.