Birthrights (8 page)

Jaxon swallowed. “Whatever! I don't have any
powers. I can't fly or teleport or whatever we did back there, and
I certainly don't do rituals, of any kind or with any
intention.”

Caislyn put the book back on the counter. “Well
I don't know what you are, but you are something and it’s not
human.”

Jaxon sighed heavily, trying to process the
information she had just received. As an adopted child, she had
never known her biological parents, and with this new information
she had to wonder if this was really possible or just some sort of
sick joke nature was playing on her. "I'm adopted. So I never knew
my real parents. I was raised as a human girl; a normal, human girl
by my adoptive parents."

Caislyn saw the worry on her friend's face and
decided it was time for a drink. The two of them headed back
upstairs to Caislyn's apartment to chase their demons, real
and imagined, away.

The two girls sat on the couch drinking their
Tropical Cloud drinks - a concoction Caislyn had become famous
for in her circle of friends before her parents went missing -
commiserating in silence while Jaxon's attention was drawn back to
the wall of sketches. She got up from her place on the couch and
walked toward them.

“You know, these are really good,” she said as she
looked back over at Caislyn. “I've never seen so much detail in a
charcoal work before, it's almost as if they are real.”

Caislyn responded with a lopsided grin, “Well,
they kinda, sorta are.”

“Oh, yeah, I guess they are, but you know what I
mean.” Jaxon studied the sketches a little longer, “you know, they
just draw you into the scene like you are there with them.”

“Yeah, I sketch what I see in my dreams and they are
usually very vivid. I don't completely understand the mechanics of
it, but they do turn out rather lifelike. It was actually startling
the first time I ever did it.” Caislyn looked down into her drink,
staring at the cloud of cream moving through the alcohol bliss, her
thoughts going back to her father who had talked her through her
gift and helped her to understand it. The sadness of his loss
overwhelmed her for a moment.

“You'll find him you know.” Jaxon said as she tried
to fight off her own wave of melancholy, while wondering to herself
where that feeling had come from.

“Yeah, I know, he's out there somewhere,” Caislyn
paused and looked back at Jax. “Wait, how did you know, I was just
thinking about my dad.”

“I don't know, it was just, well, you just looked
sad. I figured it was because of your parents.”

“But, you weren't looking at me. So how did you
know?”

“Uh, I don't know, I just guessed I would feel that
way if it were me, so I figured you did too.”

“You're empathetic!” Caislyn nearly shouted the
revelation, because for her it was one more nail in the coffin that
Jax was not human.

“I'm what?” Jax questioned. “First you tell me I am a
witch or something and now you're calling me names, what's going
on?”

Caislyn laughed at Jax and then began to
explain, “An empath is someone who can feel other people’s
emotions, it goes deeper than that with some people, but there's an
easy explanation for you.”

“Oh, I don't know. I don't think I feel what other
people are feeling. I think I'm just really intuitive, that's what
my mom used to tell me anyway. She said it was a gift to be so
compassionate and so understanding and that I should just accept
it.” Jax said thoughtfully.

“Hmm, it sounds to me like your mom knew you were an
empath. She just gave you an explanation you would understand and
accept."

"Maybe," Jax said as she nonchalantly changed the
subject, “I got an idea. What if we displayed your art in the
gallery? Maybe someone would recognize the scenes and be able to
help you figure things out. At the same time, I need to get a new
artist in. My boss would be oh so happy if I brought these into the
gallery. Not that I care if I make him happy, but it will be a
boost to both of us financially.”

“Oh, I don't know, these are so personal.” Caislyn
looked down into her drink again and then back at all the art she
had hanging along the walls, “what if the wrong person sees
them?”

Jax scoffed at the idea as she explained,“So what if
the wrong person sees it, then they will come looking for you and
you'll know. You're a witch, you can protect yourself. Hello, you
can teleport!”

Caislyn rolled her eyes, “I can not teleport!”

“Well, you did.”

“Whatever, the point is, outside of my family you are
the only person who has ever seen the sketches. I used to keep them
hidden. I only put them out in case it triggered a memory or helped
me find my parents in any way. You are talking about people looking
at them and maybe even buying them to take as their own.” She sat
thoughtful for a moment, “what if I need to look at them
again?”

“Xerox! Seriously, we will make copies for you, and
if someone recognizes anyone or anything, they will ask questions,
you may get some answers. Do you want to find your parents or not?”
Jax looked at Caislyn, “Didn't you say earlier that there was a
reason you met me? Maybe this is it! We met so I could put your
sketches out and get you some answers. This will help, I
promise!”

Caislyn sighed heavily,“Okay, how do we do this?”

“I'll bring someone by in the morning to help me pack
them up. I saw a copier downstairs, lets go make copies and get
everything ready.”

***

For Art’s Sake

The following day, Jaxon showed up bright and early
with two of the guys they used to unload shipments at the gallery.
She had trusted them on numerous occasions before to get the job
done right and they trusted her to pay well for their caution. Jax
used her cell phone to call Caislyn and let her know they were
waiting for them downstairs at the bookstore entrance.

“Alright,” a very groggy Caislyn responded into her
phone, “be right down.” Caislyn sat up on the edge of her bed, and
commenced putting her slippers on her feet. 'Why in hell's name
does she have to make it so early?' she thought to herself as she
smiled down at her favorite slipper critters. Her feet were shoved
up the ass end of two very peculiar looking garden gnomes. Not real
gnomes of course, but they were the stuffed little gnomes that
bobbled on the top of her slippers as she walked. It looked from
the front of her as if she had two garden gnomes sitting grumpily
on the ends of her feet. These were her favorite slippers when she
could find them, being as they had the gnome spirit, they would
often wandered off on their own and get lost throughout the
apartment.

As Caislyn walked downstairs and through the shop,
she paused momentarily to turn on the coffee pot. If she had to be
up this early to unload her mounds of sketches, then she was going
to be caffeinated. She continued on to the door, unlocking it and
letting Jaxon inside.

“Why so early,” she grumped to Jaxon.

“Why not? The earlier I get this done the quicker I
get everything tagged, in the system, and on the walls. Isn't that
the point?”

Caislyn looked at her out of the corner of her eye as
she turned to go retrieve some of the coffee that had begun
brewing.

“Don't you have a band of merry men with you, just as
bright and bushy tailed, waiting to pounce on your orders, or do I
have to do the lifting too?”
　

Jaxon laughed at Caislyn, who obviously wasn't a
morning person. “Look, I don't like mornings much either, but I
would really rather get this done before Seth comes in tonight. I
want to rub it in his face that I found a new artist so quickly.”
She tossed her head back behind her at the men who were now in
visual range unloading some crates from the truck they had pulled
up, “there they are now.”

“Coffee?” Caislyn asked Jax as she poured the fresh
brew into her cup.

“I'm more of a tea person.” Jaxon said, while eying
her friend's peculiar choice of slippers.

Caislyn caught the look, admired her own slippers one
more time and shrugged while sipping the coffee that was warming up
her hands. “Tea bags are over there, behind the counter. Help
yourself.”

Just as she said that, the first of the movers walked
in the store with a hand truck loaded down with wooden crates. “Uh,
hey, where should we be stacking these for now?”

“Just over here by the counter,” Caislyn
directed.

“Hey, did you hear that noise, your bells at the
front door sounded different when he came in,” Jaxon
half-questioned Caislyn.
　

“Bells?”

“You know whenever you come in the store there are
some bells or something that sound. Only I haven't heard them do
that before.”

“Oh,” Caislyn realized what Jaxon was talking about,
“there aren't any bells, it’s the wards on the store. My father set
them up to make a different sound for the various species in the
world, so we would know how to better help them when they walk
through the door. That guy is a witch; the wards always sound that
way for witches.”

“Except you,” Jaxon corrected.

“Well, yea, I think my dad put his own spin on me,
just in case I thought of sneaking out when I shouldn't” Caislyn
laughed as the second guy came through the door carrying more
crates, without the need of a hand truck. “That one there is a
Were,”she paused for a moment, “wolf most likely.”

“Oh, that's neat, wait, did you say Jack's a
Werewolf?" Jaxon looked a little peeked for a moment. Jaxon started
stirring her tea frantically, “I didn't realize, should I be
careful around him? Holy crap! How do I not know these things?”

Caislyn stifled a laugh, “I don't think you have
anything to worry about unless you wanna try tongue kissing him on
a full moon.”

Both girls looked up as they heard Jack the Werewolf
snickering over by the door.

“Oh, by the way, they have excellent hearing.”
Caislyn laughed as Jaxon's face took on the scarlet hue of
embarrassment.

In an effort to change the subject Jaxon
asked, “What about me?”

“Hmm?”

“The bells, wards, whatever, they do something
different for me.” Jaxon looked nervously toward Caislyn, knowing
she was not going to like this answer.

Caislyn nodded to her,“Yeah, they do.”

“Well?” Jaxon questioned.

“Well what?”

“Well, if I am not a witch or a Were, then what do I
sound like?”

Caislyn looked out into the open expanse of the
store, seemingly looking through the mass amounts of books upon the
shelves into nothingness. She didn't answer for quite some time, as
Jaxon nervously continued to pack away the sketches that Caislyn
was giving her for the show. “I'm not sure,” she finally answered.
“I have never heard it before.” Caislyn still stared off into
oblivion as she continued, “It's kind of like mine in that it's
unique, but the only person my dad ever gave a unique sound to was
me.”

“Well, I don't think I have ever met your
parents.”

“No, it's something else altogether, I just haven't
figured it out yet.”

“When do you think you'll figure it out? Because I am
dying to know.”

“Don't worry Jax, we'll figure it out soon enough.”
She looked around at the crates, now full with her sketches, “you
better get these things out of here before I change my mind.”

Jaxon had the guys load up the remaining crates, it
was beyond her why they brought so many in for just some sketches,
it wasn't like they were packing up statuary or something. She
finished off her tea and headed out to her car. “See you later
tonight, Cais, and stop worrying. This was meant to be, I can feel
it.”

Caislyn nodded to her and took a look at the vintage
Mickey Mouse watch she always wore. It was already 11:30 in the
morning, that only gave her an hour and a half to get ready to open
the store, 'so much for going back to sleep,' Caislyn thought.

****

Over the next few hours Jaxon oversaw the offloading
of the crates containing Caislyn's drawings, she painstakingly
categorized, assessed, framed, and entered them into the system.
Caislyn had given her a rough value that she would place on each
sketch were she to sell them off herself, but Jax felt she was
selling herself too short. She raised the prices on each piece
substantially and began logging where their placement would be
throughout the gallery. Jaxon took some still photo shots of the
now signed and framed sketches for publicity photos and she made a
note to get Caislyn in here to take a few snapshots of the artist
with the art.

She was trying to figure out how to get Caislyn in
there, not only for photos, but also to make an appearance at a
show when her boss Ronald stuck his head in the door.

"Jaxon, you take care of all those drawings and stuff
already? I was hoping to see them before you decided on your own
that they were good enough to show."

"Oh wow, Ronald, sorry," Jax replied realizing that
she had completely forgotten to involve him in the process, "I
guess I was just so excited about this new artist that I got
carried away."

Ronald stepped further into her office, walking
towards the last few drawings that Jaxon had left on her work
table.

"Well, I certainly appreciate your gun-ho attitude
towards this new artist, but in the future, I think following
protocol would be the wisest action. I do know your reputation
speaks for itself and I'm sure your eye for art is quite refined,
but I'd still like to be the one to call the shots. Otherwise the
big guns will question why they're paying me!"

Jaxon agreed wholeheartedly with her boss, "Oh sure,
no problem Ronald, really. I'll be sure to keep you in the loop in
the future.” She got up and met him at the work table as he flipped
through some of Caislyn's sketches, feeling lucky that her
reprimand wasn't harsher. In Raleigh her old boss would have
made sure she never forgot who was in charge. Jax shivered slightly
at the thought of it but was interrupted by Ronald's assessment of
Caislyn's work.