The Invisible Neighborhood
The Invisible Neighborhood
M.Y. Diallo
Austin Macauley Publishers
The Invisible Neighborhood
About the Author
Dedication
Copyright Information ©
Chapter 1The Lonely Boy
Chapter 2The Dream Girl
Chapter 3Loyalty and Feelings
Chapter 4James’ Unexpected Discovery
Chapter 5Love and Secret
Chapter 6The End of School
Chapter 7The Ideal Friend
Chapter 8Seeking the Truth
Chapter 9Waleed Alharby
Chapter 10The New Girl
Chapter 11The Mystery of the Girl
Chapter 12The Dilemmas
Chapter 13The Code
Chapter 14The Hackers
Chapter 15The Fugitives
Chapter 16The Escape
Chapter 17James’ Nightmare
Chapter 18James in the White House
Chapter 19The Reunion
Chapter 20The Last Hope
Chapter 21The Compromise
About the Author
M.Y. Diallo was born on May 10, 1993, in Conakry, Guinea, where he studied experimental science in high school in order to attend medical school. After two years of medical school, he came to the USA to continue his studies, and that is where he fell in love with writing.
Dedication
To Nan Stratton, my friend.
Copyright Information ©
M.Y. Diallo (2020)
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher.
Any person who commits any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Ordering Information:
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Publisher’s Cataloguing-in-Publication data
Diallo, M.Y.
The Invisible Neighborhood
ISBN 9781641829236 (Paperback)
ISBN 9781641829243 (Hardback)
ISBN 9781645366423 (ePub e-book)
Library of Congress Control Number: 2020904750
www.austinmacauley.com/us
First Published (2020)
Austin Macauley Publishers LLC
40 Wall Street, 28th Floor
New York, NY 10005
USA
mail-usa@austinmacauley.com
+1 (646) 5125767
Chapter 1
The Lonely Boy
Irresponsible, selfish, tyrants, and inferior of all the creatures made by the creator are what they think of mankind. They always wake up, hoping a different view of the world positively but end up disappointed. Every generation of human brought to life, on planet Earth, was a deception for them, but they didn’t care until they felt threatened by Mother Nature because of humans’ foolishness. They had to make it stop. Otherwise, there won’t be home for their descendants. When scientists warned humans about them, no one wanted to believe. Mankind never listens, humans have always thought that they are the only superior kind in the universe. Even after being shown proof by experts that there are other creatures living somewhere, humans still don’t believe. Being stubborn as a mule, humans always need evidence; it’s better to stay away from some evidences. The scariest and most shocking thing is that even scientists didn’t know those creatures are among humans. We don’t know that our daily life is shared with different kind of species.
***
Twenty-three years ago, two computer-programing engineers, Mr. Charles Layoun and Mrs. Olivia Layoun, started their jobs at the NASA. The couple met in college. Sharing the same ambitions and values, which was science, they became closer and fell unbelievably in love. They were the genius couple of their generation in their field. The two scientists were giving conferences at the prestigious University of Harvard. Here, they caught the attention of the NASA’s director, who needed young, ambitious, and determined recruits to put the world in a better place.
A year after being recruited, they found out that there is no way out from the strong love they had for each other back in college, so they decided to spend the rest of their lives together. The beauty of their love was exceptional; it was the groovy kind of love.
The couple became important for the agency. Devoted to their job, they almost did not have a social life except for their newly born child. They preferred staying late at work more than going to a cocktail party with important people in suits, who they considered lazy people. Late one night, Mr. Layoun and his wife were about to leave the office when they made an incredible discovery. They prevented its realization temporarily, but they knew it will happen in the future—it was just a matter of time. It has to be stopped before it is too late. Frightened to death, they went to see the authorities with concrete explanations, but unfortunately, enticed by greed and power, the authorities’ agents were determined to use all in their power to stop the couple from disclosing any information, and use this opportunity for their own agenda. The couple did not have any choice but to withdraw from the world of science because they felt threatened by their discovery. They were trapped between two hostile worlds. Before getting on their way, running for their survival, and their son’s safety, they entrusted him and some documents that would be given to him when he reached the age of maturity.
Abandoning him was not an easy thing to do, but it was something necessary. Luckily, they had long-standing friends of trust, Mr. Benyamin Barry, and his wife, Mrs. Samira Barry, a loyal and respected family, living a peaceful life. Mr. Barry was the teammate of James’ father until he retired.
For any young child, Mr. and Mrs. Barry are the last family to choose to spend the rest of their life with: a family that has never had the chance to know how to raise a child, the situation presented the potential for problems. For James’s parents; however, it was the right family. It is an extraordinary couple, living an ordinary life far from the prying eyes in the countryside, and they can teach him all about his parents when the time comes. Mr. and Mrs. Layoun standing at the door, remembering the happiness and joy he brought into their lives the day he was born, it was hard for them, abandoning him, knowing that it is going to be a long goodbye or even worse, a forever goodbye.
Time to leave, but Mr. Layoun tries so hard to untie his wife’s arms around the tiny child, she did not want to let go. They step out shedding tears, waving their hands, and saying goodbye to James, who was only three years old.
At his young age, James used to be haunted by a dream that he could not understand because of its darkness.
James is now seventeen years old. He has grown to become a lanky mild natured man with his arms as broomsticks, an unusually large head and grasshopper-thighs, his face is covered with acne. Bespectacled, most often when he is stuck in front of his computer. You can recognize him by his old, big, black leather jacket that has contact with water only once a month; this explains his unpopularity in school. James is extremely shy. He will never look at you in the ey
e, especially if you are a girl. It is his last year of high school. Life in high school is hell for kids like James. It’s a jungle where only the law of the strongest prevails. One more year, and he will finally be getting rid of his nightmare.
James is not aware that he is not living with his biological parents. It is time for him to learn who his real parents are, but the couple has some difficulties tackling the issue. One morning, without checking whether James was still in bed or not, Samira asks her husband if he has made up his mind about telling James the truth, because she is not ready yet. He is their only son and they are all attached to him. James hears noises in the living room, and he rises up from his bed. At the moment, Benyamin wants to open his mouth to answer, he sees James coming from his room and interrupting them.
“What are you guys talking about?” asks James indifferently.
Samira lowers her head and says nothing, James has no clue what they are talking about, but he has a feeling that is it important considering the sadness on their faces. After a long moment of silence in the room looking at the helpless couple staring at each other, he begins to worry without knowing what is going on. What is he going to hear? Soon, Samira opens her mouth to talk, but James interrupts her and says, “You will tell me whenever you are ready, and whatever it is I’ll understand.”
In his turn, the father cuts off the words of poor James, whispering, “My son, you are adopted.”
A monumental dead silence invades the living room; James cannot find the exact word to express himself. “Wow!” he finally mutters.
Samira starts crying and storms out of the living room and enters her room while Benyamin tries fighting back his tears. He follows his wife in the room, but she continues crying, repeating, “He hates us, doesn’t he?” several times.
James goes into the room, finds Samira wiping her tears from her cheeks. Trying to hide her pain, she keeps her red eyes open and smiles at him, “I’m fine honey,” she mumbled. James slips slowly between them, and confesses to them that the fact he has been adopted does not change the love that he has for them, and anyway, he is still stuck on them because the love that he has for them is incomparable to anything else; they are his family, they have always been there for him, they taught him everything.
“But why now, why didn’t you tell me all this time?” James asked.
“You weren’t supposed to know. At least not now, I made a promise to your parents.” Answers Benyamin
“What! My birth parents told you to inform me that you adopted me? It doesn’t make any sense,” James snapped.
“It does not make sense if it’s an adoption.”
James is lost, trying to figure out what they are talking about. “OK! Let me simplify: your father and I were best friends. I was his mentor and then his colleague until I retired,” said Mr. Barry
“And?” he asked confusedly
“And what?”
“How does this explain my adoption?”
“It doesn’t yet, but when we get to the right time you will have the explanation you need. In the meantime I can give you a briefcase that your parents left for you before you said goodbye to them. It contains documents that will help you know something about them.”
Barry goes into his room and opens another door that leads to a secret underground, that only he and his wife know about. It is a place containing computers and files that he had received from James’ father at their last meeting. He opens a safe and takes out a briefcase, removes a few documents and places them in the trunk, and then closes it. He goes and finds James sitting in the living room, confused, thinking that he is left by his parent because he is a terrible child. Mr. Barry gives him the documents, to allow him to find out a little about his birth parents.
James flips through the file, realizes that he has a lot in common with his parent. He discovers that they were the youngest students recruited to work for the NASA, but he does not find any trace that shows the cause of their disappearance from his life. He asks Barry if the files are complete. Barry answers confidently, “Yes, why?”
Knowing that James is too intelligent to believe that the files are complete, Mr. Barry already has a plan to make him believe they are. James must not know the secret hidden in these documents; otherwise he risks drawing attention and putting himself in danger. Barry shows him his personal files of the time spent with Mr. Layoun till his retirement. James finds maximum conformity. After finishing browsing the files, he hands them over to Barry, who tells him never to talk about it to anyone, not even his best friend if he has any. His life depends on it.
James leaves the house to clear up his mind, but he does not arrive to erase from his memory the tumultuous events of the morning. For days he is intrigued by the fact that at the age of three years old his family abandoned him for a reason that he is not yet allowed to know. Whenever he starts asking questions about his biological parents, his adoptive parents avoid the subject by telling him to wait until the day comes. A day will come when he will not need to ask them to find out. James begins to understand why his pathetic life is largely shrouded in mystery. He realizes that it is not a coincidence that his life has always been based in the countryside, where he cannot make many friends, although, he is not disconnected from the world of technology. He has an incomparable brain that can easily be detected by a rather undesirable group of people, which is why he must keep a low profile as his parents have urged him to adopt. He should never do anything that will make him stand out to people.
Class starts in two days. James must be registered for his last year of high school, so he goes there without wasting any further time. In the countryside, school places are always limited. When he arrives at school, nobody pays attention to him. Being used to being ignored by his peers, he does not feel uncomfortable about it anymore as before when he was ridden by feelings of inferiority. James steps directly into the principal’s office. The lack of communicating with strangers makes James respectable, he intimidates older people with his quietness while having nightmare with people of his generation. James listens more than he talks, and that is what makes him mysterious.
“Come in James!” the principal said. He takes a seat after passing along greetings from his parents to the director. Sabrina Smith is the director; she is a wonderful woman who has been in charge of the community high school since last year. James caught her attention when she first came. She likes James because of his politeness and good behavior towards everybody in school, and she knows James’s parents well. After a long discussion with the director about his project of study for this year, he signs in and leaves the office. Once outside the office, he fatuously jostles Sofi without realizing it, and she falls down with her books and a stack of papers scattering all around. He spontaneously gets down to help. She raises her head. He is mesmerized by the fall of her long dark lashes over her deep blue eyes. For the first time in his life, he extends a hand to the girl. After having helped her to get up, he notices that her face is not familiar to him. Sofi smiles lowers her head and tucks her hair behind her ear. Nervous, he cannot express himself, but part of his mind wants to make her acquaintance before the other students infect her with the virus of the hatred.
Sofi is a beautiful smart, ambitious and charismatic girl filled with a rather twisted sense of humor when she tries to be funny.
James begins to apologize stutteringly, and asks her name. She squeezes her eyes shut and open them. “Seriously!!! You just knocked me down and the first thing that comes to your mind is to flirt with me?”
James apologizes a second time, “No, no absolutely not. I wanted to make sure you’re OK—I thought it was the least I could do after accidentally knocking you down.”
She accepts his excuses and turns around without telling him her name, but James insists in knowing her name, and also proposes to be her guide. She smiles and James continues wagging around her. James asks her what her favorite subjects are; knowing that is the key to his relationship with her. There is no
doubt for him, if she likes literary matters his chances of being her friend are little, but if she prefers exact matters such as math, he will probably be her friend. When he finishes asking the question, he holds his breath because of being afraid of the answer that he will receive. Fortunately, she is a nerd just like him. He exhales deeply, with relief. “What is it?” she asks.
“No, nothing. I couldn’t breathe, but I’m good now. I regained control of my lungs,” he replies.
She did not know that she had the control of poor James’s lungs.
Eyes wide-open James asks with seriousness, “What did you say? You like math and physics!”
“Yes,” the girl answers with a surprisingly.
“Me too,” James says with an excited voice.
She tells him that she has come to finish her last year of high school, and she has been living with her mother again for the last two months.
In the middle of their conversation Georgina Kura arrives and interrupts them. She is a wicked witch and the queen of the school. Georgina and her two minions, Alicia and Rose can make anybody’s life look like hell, you have no choice if you are targeted. They start spitting their venom at him. “Oh isn’t that sweet, girls? Finally, poor James has a friend with whom to look after his loneliness,” she says with facetiousness.