Nicolai Bates
by Jerrin Kelley

Young Nicolai Bates had always felt like a social pariah of his hometown of Liberty, California. Sure he had friends, but he never really considered them his friends. He always looked at them as schoolmates, and people he was forced to come in contact with. Of course he would never tell any of them that, they would never talk to him if he had done so, and Nicolai wasn’t stupid.

Nicolai had been the typical city kid, who played football in the park with his schoolmates, chased after all the most popular skirts of his school and had always wondered about the real world and what lied ahead of him in the future.Would he be the rising young sports star? Or maybe the philanthropist who was known throughout the country for his extremely generous donations to the less fortunate? He might have even been a scientist or an architect who would go on to create many marvels that the whole world would look upon with awe.

Nicolai had no idea that his entire view of the world would be turned upside down at the mere mention of a man that could tell you everything you needed to know about not only yourself, but about the purpose of life itself.

“So I heard about some old guy that lives in the forest out of the city that can tell you the future.”

“No way! That’s such a load of crap, nobody can really see into the future.”

“How do you know? Just because you’ve never seen a million dollars doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist!”

“Hey keep it down will ya’? I’m tryin’ to get some sleep over here!”

“Shut your piehole Bates, and why don’t you pay attention in class for once!”

As Nicolai opened his sleep induced, crusty eyes open he saw his two schoolmates Vince and Cindy staring back at him with a look of disapproval upon their faces.

“It’s not like you two are paying attention either! I mean really, talking about fortune tell-“ At least were actually awake!”Cindy abruptly interrupted.

Nicolai stretched out his arms above his head and gave out a big yawn, but he was cut short again when he realized the whole class, and their teacher Mr. Winslow were staring at them in their cozy little corner in the back of the room.

“Did you have a nice little nap Mr. Bates?” perused Mr. Winslow, with a sinister grin on his face.

Without thinking Nicolai nodded his head with another yawn and a grin on his face.

“Well I'm glad you did because you’re going to need your rest since you will be serving detention after school so you can hear my entire lecture,” said Winslow.

“Grumpy old prune…” muttered Nicolai as he left detention one hour after the rest of the school had already went home for the day.

His hand hurt from writing the notes for Winslow’s lecture so quickly. Although, something had been bothering him during that past hour. The tale of Vince’s “prophet” that could tell your and everyone else’s future. What if he was real? What if he wasn’t?

“Oh stop being such a fool Bates!” Nicolai said out loud to himself as he clambered into his red Volvo.

He turned the key once; nothing happened. He turned it a few more times and finally the engine turned over and began running. He backed out of the parking lot and headed home with the thought of the prophet still in his head.

“So why were you late coming home from school today Nick?” asked Mrs. Bates while the family was sitting down for dinner.

“I had detention,” replied Nicolai. “You better have not fallen asleep in class again mister,” said Nicolai’s mother with a harsh tone in her voice.

Nicolai’s silence told her that that was exactly what had happened.

“Bill would you please tell your son that he needs to keep his grades up if he wants to get into college!”

“I don’t want to go to college!” erupted Nicolai.

“Everyone has to go to college dear” replied Mrs. Bates with a cooler but still aggravated tone.

Nicolai slammed his knife and fork down on the table shaking it and knocking a glass over in the process.

“It’s not for me! I told you this a million times before!”

He got up quickly before the glass’s contents had trickled down the tablecloth and onto his jeans, and went for the door.

“You come back here Nicolai Bates! Or there will be some dire consequences this time! Bill, help me out here!”

“Listen to your mother, son” Mr. Bates muttered without looking up from his plate of food, still acting like all of this was a normal conversation.

Nicolai didn’t hear his mother’s shouts at his father for not helping control him. He had slammed the door and was already in his car by the time his mother had gotten around to chasing after him again.

He backed up out of the driveway and sped off into the night, wondering where he was going to sleep that night. He didn’t know why the subject of his future always brought his blood to a boil, it just did, and Nicolai was tired of it. At that moment he made a decision that would change him forever.

He would find this prophet. Real or not, he would find out his purpose. He knew it was going to be tough, but he headed towards the city limit where the dark, ghost-like forest awaited him. He reached the forest, parked the car on the side of the road and entered into it. Nicolai felt a tiny prick of fear touch the back of his neck as he started maneuvering through the brush.

He pushed and trudged his way through the dense leaves of the forest, not knowing where he was headed. After what seemed like hours, and when exhaustion was close to overtaking him, he finally came upon two paths that lead in opposite directions. One was thick and overflowing with weeds, mud and thorn bushes. The other was clearer and had obvious signs that many others had past through the area. As he thought about it, his head pounded with exhaustion and pain from all of the previous thorn bushes, mud and tree roots he had tripped over on his way to his present location.

He decided that the clearer path was a lot smarter, saying to himself, “This has gotta be right, I know it. This is the path every other sensible person has taken. I should take it too."

So onward he walked, relieved that he needed not fight the forest any longer.

Although, he couldn’t help but wonder if this really had been the best path, but soon his exhaustion had taken over the little voice in his head. By the time he had reached his destination, the sun was almost up. He stood before a small hut that was surrounded by the dense forest leaves.

The sun shot through the canopy and gave the area around Nicolai the feeling he had won the greatest competition in the history of the world. He thought to himself, that it seemed odd it took so long to get there, it was almost as if he had traveled around the hut many times before. He cautiously approached the hut glancing back and forth for any glimpse of movement around him. He pushed the door open and gaped at what he saw.

Sitting in the middle of the empty hut, was a chair that had a piece of paper on it. Nicolai advanced upon the chair picking up the paper in his raw and sore hands. He realized the paper had been stained with bloody fingerprints and mud had caked onto it over a long period of time. The paper had one sentence written upon it.

“If thou had taken the more difficult path,

thy might have caught me in my chambers,

and thou might have found, that this prophet,

hath had the power that you seek.”

Nicolai noticed there was some scribbling at the bottom of the paper.

It read, “It means that he knows when each of us are coming, but he doesn’t want to stick around to be bothered. So if we had chosen the harder path, the one he didn’t think any of us would take, we could have caught him here and found our purpose.”

Nicolai stood there dumbfounded. He couldn’t believe he lost his opportunity to finally know what he had to do. As he exited the forest, he took his time and thought about what had just happened. When he reached his car, the sun had reached its highest point in the sky. Nicolai looked at the forest in the rear view mirror, knowing he would try to go back and brave the harder path when he had the strength.

“Mr. Bates, would you please wake up and join the rest of the class in today’s lecture?”

Nicolai opened his eyes and rubbed them, with a big yawn. He looked up and saw that Mr. Winslow was smiling at him with his sinister grin.

“I’ll see you after school so you can get the rest of the notes Mr. Bates.”

Nicolai looked around and his schoolmates, the looked at his hands and arms; there weren’t any marks from the forest.

“A dream…?” said Nicolai, as Mr. Winslow started talking about the United States’ judicial system.

Copyright © 2005 Jerrin Kelley | Home