Character Interview with Mark Petrie (THE HIGH ROAD)

(Mark Petrie settles into his chair, moving slowly and tiredly for someone nineteen years old. Then he turns on a friendly smile that pushes the fatigue away from his face.)

Mark: Right off, I’m not sure I can help you here. I guess you heard about my bragging how I’d be the best bicycle courier in Lavine. But, well, I don’t have that job any more.

author: It’s not about that. I wanted to talk about you, and the belt.

Mark: What? I don’t know what you mean.

author: The belt the Dennards had. The one that had you floating over Rosewood Park. The Blades gang hunting down Joe Dennard. And what you’re going to do about it.

Mark: So… you know about all that. Then, maybe you should tell me what you’re going to do. How’d you find out? Are you going to help us? Hell, just give me a straight answer why Angie hasn’t gotten the belt’s magic to work for her. I only found the thing, but it’s her family’s, isn’t it?

author: I’m afraid I’m not here to help you. I’m here because I wanted to get to know you better, and what it’s like being you, before and after this happened.

Mark: Come on, not even a hint? (Mark tries another smile, and then he closes his eyes for a moment to think.) I guess I can’t make you answer. So, ask me what you want. Maybe when we’re done, you’ll want to return the favor.

author: All right. Let’s start with: what part of what’s happening has made the biggest impression on you?

Mark: Good start, I like that. And the answer’s easy, it’s knowing there’s a whole gang of punks out to kill us, and all the plans we started yesterday with are history. That and… under it all, finding out I was right about what happened when we were kids, that Angie’s father didn’t just save her and me from the Blades, he went on to attack them right when he could trigger a gang war. I always thought he must have done it except there was no way to get there in time… and now I know the missing piece is that he flew there! Crazy as it gets, it’s one thing that makes more sense now—too much sense for Angie, that her father really did that after all. Say, I wonder…

author (quickly changing the subject): Sounds like it really bothers you, to see Angie in pain like that.

Mark: Of course it does! We’ve known each other since we were kids, even before that moment with the gang. But that doesn’t matter now; what matters is that she and Dennard get out of the city before Rafe and the rest of the Blades try something else, because the gang will never stop, and you can’t fight something like that. The sooner both of them just disappear, the sooner we can all try to start something like normal lives again.

author: So you think you can get things back to normal?

Mark: They’ll be alive, won’t they? And I know I’ll have to keep looking over my shoulder, but the gang’s not after me, so I hope that’ll die down. It should, right? (Mark pauses, hoping for a hint from the author.) Sorry, I had to try. What’s your next question—work, family, my feelings about flying, or what?

author: I’d like to know about what you were like before this happened. How would you describe yourself?

Mark: You mean yesterday? I’d say… I was trying to figure myself out; that’s what you’re supposed to do when you get out of school, right? So I was working different jobs and scrambling to get shifts when I could, and keeping track of everyone I’d worked with. I’d drove and ridden around town so much I guess I had to try being a bike courier next, until the Blades moved in and blew that away. –And you know, I think I was dating on the same plan, just looking around, and the latest thing got shut down by the same problem. You can’t exactly tell Lucy I was late because I was floating over the city! But… I’d say things had been good, until then.

author: Good? Were they always that way for you?

Mark: Good enough. First with my uncle and aunt, then when my cousin Henry stepped in—

author: First? I think you’re skipping something.

(Mark’s teeth clench, for a moment.)

Mark: You do know a lot.

author: I’m trying to get the whole picture of what it’s like for you.

Mark: Yeah. And I’m trying to come clean here… So yes, my father sold drugs and my mother died from them. He’s been in jail almost all my life; mostly I remember Uncle Stan and Aunt Maria. I don’t know if they even liked kids, but they took me in, and I guess they did the best they could. Then when they split up, my mother’s nephew Henry took over—just in time for me to hit teenager.

author: Ouch.

Mark: I mean, I was grateful for the chance and all, but there were a few days that… But we got through that, and now I’ve got my own tiny place where I can cover the rent—well, almost—and I try to think by now I’ve learned a bit about looking after myself and remembering who I can trust. Now I’ve got all the time I need to figure out what I want to do, I’ve got my friends, I’ve stay in touch with Angie and her father… and I admit, sometimes I’m just trying to impress Henry.

author: (The author can’t resist grinning.) Only Henry?

Mark: I don’t know what you’re trying to say. But of course with all this now, it’s not about impressing anyone any more. Well, maybe convincing the police, but we don’t think they’ve got any kind of protection that’s permanent enough for what Dennard did. So he and Angie have to get far away and make sure they never leave any traces back. I just wish I knew how the Blades found out what he’d done all these years later. Just our kind of luck, right? (Mark pauses, trying to get the author to answer.) Come on, you have to give me something.

author: Since you keep asking, I can tell me this… don’t give up on Angie.

Mark: Don’t give up on… sure, you tell me not to do one thing I’d never do anyway? Is that a way to make me stop trying to make you talk?

author: (says nothing)

Mark: I know when I’m beat. And I guess that’s what this is all about, with the gang—I hate quitting, but I know enough to change the rules in a game I can’t win. And Angie… she’s stubborn, but she really just does the same thing, she finds a way. And if it wasn’t all the Blades, I’d be putting my money on her, even without the belt.

author: Yes, the belt. The thing we haven’t talked much about.

Mark: Because it doesn’t change things. –Oh, sure it changed everything, that Angie’s family had a secret like this, but none of them will tell us a thing about it. And just knowing it’s possible, that somehow, somehow an old belt lets you fly… Or it’s more like, I float on the wind, or I jump, but it’s still defying gravity. I even think it was the magic that let me lift Dennard up when the Blades had hurt him, and run all the way to safety carrying him. And the way that felt… or the moment up there when I forget I’m not sure why I’m not falling, and all I see are the night sky and the streets I’d been biking through laid out as line of lights… a sight like that ought to mean something.

author: Something like what?

Mark: (Mark shakes his head.) What it really means is that I’m in over my head—yes, even if I’m floating above it all. I don’t know how the belt works, or if there are any other impossible things out there about to jump out at us. I just want to send Angie where nobody can find her, and so I can stop thinking what a better person than me could do with a power like this.

author: A better person?

Mark: Yeah. Me, I could make one slip and ruin everything for us, and I’m not going to let that happen. Whatever it takes. –Anyway, I think that’s it. Is there anything else you want to know? Anything else you want to cover before we stop?

author: I think that’s just the note to leave it on.

 

(Chronology note: this interview would be set in the middle of THE HIGH ROAD’s Chapter Four. Mark has no idea what he’s in for.)

And: this post now has a companion interview, with Angie.

 

On Google+