Mankind | Teen Ink

Mankind

April 22, 2019
By joeysacco, Lisle, Illinois
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joeysacco, Lisle, Illinois
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It turns out, every scientist, geologist, explorer, was wrong. Kyrie was the only one who still believed, and as it turns out, was the only one right. They finally overturned the seemingly historical theory, but now is confirmed the discovery that the earth is flat.


“Today, we all learned the truth; obviously except me,” Kyrie mockingly says at the outdoor press conference held in downtown Washington D.C., just 24 hours after the news broke.

“I forgive all of you, every single man, woman, and child, for criticizing me and my beliefs and how ‘wrong’ I was” as he grins from ear to ear triumphantly. He stares off into the crowd that had gathered for him to speak on the historic breakthrough. Then catches a glimpse a very familiar face to him; his father.


“Tod.. Today - we mark a very historic day in the worlds history” he tries too blurt out, but his voice keeps cracking and stuttering, as he and his father stare into each others dark, almost seemingly nightmarish, brown eyes.


He suddenly ends the speech there and allows a few scientists to speak afterwards, as he quickly tries to rush out the back of the pavilion and to the car waiting for him. He’s already nervous enough due to flying and heights, since he has to be back to Boston by that night for a game the next day against New York at the Garden. Now the thought of his father rushing through every part of his brain, shocked and confused as to why he was there.

Rage began to then fuel his body and corse through his veins as he thought about how his dad left when he was 16, out of the blue, leaving teenage Kyrie to help take care of his mother and family. “Why had he shown up now, of all places, and times in my life, why now?” he kept repeating over and over until he realized they were already at BWI airport, when his driver said he was at his terminal.

 

The next thing he knew, he was sitting at his gate with less than 20 minutes until he had to board the Boeing 727 with the big blue words ‘United Airlines’ across the midsection of the aircraft. Though, he couldn’t focus on his game that he will start in tomorrow anymore. His father showing up to that press conference in front of the Lincoln Memorial was one of the scariest, saddest, and agriest combination of events he had ever seemingly felt in his life. Then, almost like clock work, Kyrie got his boarding pass scanned and all checked in, to then proceed boarding his 5:45 pm flight out of Baltimore to Logan International Airport, just on the edge of downtown Boston.

As he got into his single seat up in first class, almost feeling that his routine would be disrupted very soon, he looks out the window to see his father again, trying to force his way onto the flight.


Trying to subdue his worries and overall uneasiness about flying and seeing that, he tries to listen to some music. He throws on his custom green and white Celtics wireless Beats Studio headphones, and instantly plays ‘A Thousand Miles’ by Vanessa Carlton. A song that calmed him down ever since he was little when his mother would play it in the car when he got extremely anxious. He also loved singing and it was, in fact, his favorite karaoke song to sing in the locker room before home games.


And just as soon as he felt like the song started, he paused it at 2 minutes and 3 seconds in, when a flight attendant came and asked him to come off the plane and talk with a man, who said was his father, and needed him to calm down. “I’m sorry miss, but I can’t help you, I don’t know who that man is or how he knows me” noticeably lying, he tried to keep his composure to not have to get off and go see him. “That may be true sir, but then could you go tell him that, so there won’t be anymore violence, it’s just protocol” the flight attendant quickly replied back, trying to stay calm herself. He finally complied, seeming his argue wouldn’t work out any other way he would try to lie. So he promptly got up, squeezed out of the side door, and back towards the gate entrance.

Almost immediately locking once more, then before he noticed any more details as he approached the desk where the security and other flight attendants were, his father spoke quickly and almost frightened by his tone. “Kyrie, son; I know I haven’t been around long enough for you to trust me” and before Kyrie could reply with a snarky comment about how correct that comment was, his father added, “but as your father, you need to believe me when I say, you cannot get onto that flight back to Boston, cause it will be the last thing you ever do again.”



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