Ignorance Is Not Bliss

Posted on Wed Aug 18th, 2021 @ 8:27am by Charles Xavier & Bliss Hawkins

2,201 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Episode 1: X-Odus
Location: Xavier School
Timeline: July 7, 1990
Tags: Charles Xavier

The sight of a yellow cab pulling up the long driveway off of Graymalkin Lane was nothing unusual. After all, students were being picked up or dropped off on a regular basis at the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters. But this one didn't drop off its passenger at the main entrance, the one with the imposing big doors. This taxi pulled into the guest parking just off to the side.

The driver twisted the rear view mirror so she could check her reflection. The teenager tossed her cabbie hat aside to run her fingers through her shoulder length blonde hair. She sighed with annoyance. She really needed a cut, but when you are on the move as much as she had been over the last few months there wasn't time or money for proper upkeep. She touched up her lips with the last of her makeup, wiped down the steering wheel to get rid of fingerprints, and pushed herself out of the car.

She got her worn backpack and duffel bag out of the trunk and slammed the lid. She took her first real look at the place as she strolled to the obvious entrance. The place looked like something out of Masterpiece Theater or some other big Brit drama show. It practically screamed old money. It certainly wasn't like one of the cheap looking orphanages she'd seen in her day. Maybe the people running the place will be as nice as the grounds appeared to be.

"Don't get your hopes up, kid...." she sighed to herself. She had been hurt and disappointed so often that people just being kind typically took her off guard.

As she approached the doorway, the blonde fished the yellowed envelope out of her backpack's zippered compartment. She had memorized the contents of the letter in the months-long journey from Las Vegas to here, but she figured that she might need to show it as proof that she had been invited here. Sure, the invitation was years old and two dead parents ago, but it was real. Now it was time to see if this Xavier guy was still interested in her. And if he wasn't? Well, she'd survived this long out in the real world. She could just keep going.

She suddenly felt very self conscious about her appearance. A pair of worn jeans, a Peter Gabriel t shirt, and a pair of very broken in black Converse trainers wasn't exactly cutting edge fashion for out here in the land of the wealthy in Westchester County. But if first impressions was all this place ran on, she'd be back on the road in no time at all. The loud rumble that escaped her empty tummy reminded her that she hadn't eaten since before she had found the taxi with the motor running back in the Big Apple.

"Swell...."

She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. She didn't know why she was suddenly nervous. She considered for a moment. It was a chance for something good to finally happen for her. A place where she might be accepted and welcomed into someplace that wasn't actually some kind of home for abusers and crackheads. A small voice reminded her to have faith, and she reminded the voice that she did have faith. In herself.

The blonde reached out and rang the doorbell. She half expected Lurch from the Addams Family to answer the call. She shook her head at her own crazy notions. They were all going to be normal, she reminded herself. She was the freak. But that's how she liked it.

Various signs of renovation stuck out across the campus grounds, though they weren't terribly overt. Beneath the Ivy League veneer was clearly a solid modern foundation that did could withstand the fiercest storm, possibly more. Students idled about the courtyard, none paying attention to the taxi that had arrived, whether out of indifference or respect for privacy was hard to tell.

A small group of younger children dispersed to reveal an older man with a bald head. He moved his wheelchair toward Bliss with a smile.

"Why, hello, there," he said warmly, though his eyes were penetrating. "Welcome to Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. How may I be of assistance?"

Bliss had taken note of the other students, especially the younger children. She was impressed that the mood was relatively good. All of her experiences with schools associated with the foster care system had made her think most kids were on some level troubled by their status. Most of these kids were in good spirits. That raised her curiousity and fanned the sputtering flame of hope inside that this place could be a good thing and not some kind of long con.

The man approaching in the wheelchair brought focus back to Bliss away from the grounds. She gave the gentleman a polite smile but there was still the typical wariness in her eyes that she always had when presented with authority of any kind.

"Hello, sir. My name is Bliss Hawkins, and my parents received this letter a number of years ago."

She offered the unsealed yellowed envelope to the man.

"Unfortunately, my family was in a bad accident. I found the letter in their possessions just a few months back, so I thought I'd look into it. I'd have been here sooner but...well, I was on what Australians call walkabout. I took the scenic route from Las Vegas. Not all on foot, and not all a direct way. But that's life. Robert Frost talks about taking the road less traveled by, and he was right. I've seen a thing or two on my way here."

Bliss suddenly felt like she was rambling.

"Anyway, sorry it took me years to come here. But life has a way of getting in the way of any plans. So, is this Professor Xavier still running things here?"

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference."

With a broad smile, he said, "Yes, and I am he. And I am delighted that you have joined us at last, Miss Hawkins." Casting a spare glance at the construction going on about them, he said, "Would that your arrival met with our best face, but at the moment we're undergoing some unscheduled renovations. Would you wish for the tour, or might I find a room for you?"

Bliss followed the professor's gaze to to the construction efforts before offering a shrug of total lack of concern.
"I kind of would like the tour if you've got the chance, Professor. I mean I really don't totally understand what's going on here other than you're looking for people with extraordinary abilities. If that's the case, and you're not looking to use them for some crazy badness, then I'm in."

That made Xavier smile even wider.

"I do have to admit I don't have much in the way of money, so if you're looking for tuition, I'm going to need some help with that."

"Come with me." It was said pleasantly but the imperative was firm.

Without hesitation or awaiting a reply, Xavier spun around in his chair and proceeded away from the courtyard over the grassy field to a slight rise that couldn't quite reach hill status. A lone tree grew from the opposite slope.

The elevation wasn't significantly higher than the courtyard, but from the top of the rise one could look at the entire mansion grounds as it stood out against the distant Breakstone Lake. Midday sunlight reflecting off the far shore almost seemed to dimly spotlight the mansion itself.

"What do you see, Bliss Hawkins?"

Bliss took a long moment to take in the beauty of the grounds. It truly was a place that she had never seen it's like before. Not only beautiful, but it felt ...safe. That was something that Bliss was not accustomed to feeling in terms of a place. But the professor had asked her a question.

She focused her attention on what was before her. What was he asking? She pondered for a few moments.
"The future."
She ran a hand through her choppy blonde hair as she considered this further.
"Or at least one possible future."

~And here I thought that I was the telepath~

The professor's voice had beamed inside her head.

"This is indeed the future, Bliss. Money is not an obstacle toward my dream of peaceful coexistence between humans and mutants, but cooperation. Without that vital ingredient, there can be no sustainable future for anyone." He paused to let that sink in for a moment. "If you can lend me your aid in helping me bring my vision into this world, then consider yourself the recipient of a freeride scholarship for as long as you wish to stay with us."

Bliss's jaw fell open at the sound of the Professor's voice inside her head, but she quickly recovered with an amused expression. She sat down on a small boulder so she and the wheelchair bound man were more eye to eye.
"Excellent....now that's a great start for negotiation."

"So you have a dream....a big dream, obviously. The bigger the dream, the more planning and effort go into achieving it. I've seen a lot of things in my time. I don't know how you're going to convince people who have so much hate in their hearts for people who aren't the same color as them to tolerate people who have wings or scales, or an extra eye...or whatever. Push comes to shove, even someone like me can't blend in with the general population without risk of exposure."

Nodding in understanding, Xavier allowed Bliss to continue. Full expression was important for the level of commitment he would need of her.

"I've tried to help people like us along my path...but it's a drop in the ocean compared to what needs to be done. But if you've got an idea that would pay off big? I'm in. I thrive on being considered the underdog. Whatever you're planning sounds right up my alley."

"My idea is a simple one," Xavier said, "but one with great cost. In order to live among humans, we must be willing to die alongside them. There is no greater love, it is said, yet that ultimate price will prove our cause for coexistence and put the lie to supremacist sentiments--on both sides." Looking straight at Bliss, he said, "I fear some of us have already paid that price. My goal is to equip everyone such that they will never be faced with that choice, first from training and skill, but then through accomplishing the goal of peace. Now that you know the stakes and the goals of our struggle here, Bliss Hawkins, will you stay?"

Bliss considered his words with care. She appreciated his idealism, but there was no way she was going to martyr herself willingly. She agreed with the great warrior philosopher George Patton. You don't win by dying for your cause, you win by making your opponent die for his. But she had put her shapely butt on the line for people from here to Vegas. This wasn't any different other than she got a dry place to sleep and regular meals. Oh, and maybe a decent education too.

She offered her hand to the man.
"I'll stay...."
She paused for a moment.
"I might need a hand to relocate that taxi out front. I kinda...borrowed it to get here from the big Apple. But I did top off the gas tank."

Knowing her mind, the professor smiled. "Let us make a pact. I will arrange to have your taxi and other past indiscretions resolved without incident, and you will seek to understand that our battle is against ideas rather than individuals. To paraphrase a great leader of this nation, the best way to destroy our enemy is to make them our friend."

The expression on Bliss's showed that she was considering the professor's words with care. She rubbed her chin thoughtfully.
"I don't know about that. There's been a few ideas I've discovered along the way that could use a good punch in the jaw. As for making friends, I'm all for that. My mom used to say if you find somebody that doesn't like you, kill them with kindness. I think I can do that."

At first Xavier gave her a probing look that might've been borderline unsettling, but soon his piercing blue eyes relented as he regarded her with approval. "I am glad you made it to us at last, Bliss Hawkins. Come, I'll show you to your room and allow you to meet some of the other students."

Bliss had met Xavier's probing gaze with a quiet defiance. She liked this Chuck guy, but she had encountered plenty of authority figures in her time who had started off strong and fell apart along the way. The fact that she was willing to give the professor a chance was a big deal to Bliss. That being said, she met his approval with a warm smile.
"Sounds great!"

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