Glimmer (11 page)

I miss everything about you.  Write me back please.  I’ll see you in church, but we probably won’t be able to say much.  Keep dreaming, okay. :)

Love you,

Zellie

P.S. We never talked about Christmas.  I got you something a month ago and it’s not huge or anything, but it’s not gonna fit under the toilet tank lid, that’s for sure.  Can you ask your mom if we’re allowed to at least give each other Christmas gifts?  I think this note thing is as sneaky as we should be.  I in NO WAY want to be permanently separated from you!!!!!!

I thought about putting on some lipstick and kissing the note, but I didn’t want Ben to get all snarky about me making out with paper again.  I folded it up into a small little rectangle, looking around the room for a Ziploc.  I could go get one from the kitchen, but I didn’t want Mom to wonder why I needed it.

Ben pulled a bag from his pocket and tossed it at me.  He was certainly being Johnny-on-the-spot today.

“Thanks,” I mouthed.  He nodded back.

I put the note in the bag, sealed it and grabbed a roll of double sided tape I’d been using to wrap Christmas presents from my desk.   Tiptoeing to the bathroom, I knocked lightly on the door to make sure the coast was clear and then went in, shutting the door behind me. I could hear mom and Aunt Hazel and Frank talking in the family room.  Now was my chance. 

Slowly, I lifted the lid off of the back of the toilet and set it upside down on the bath mat in front of the tub.  After checking twice more that the bag was tightly sealed, I adhered several strips of tape to the bag and to the inside of the lid. Then, I replaced the lid and flushed. After waiting for the tank to fill up again, I checked to make sure it was still in place and it was.  I added a few more strips of tape just to be sure and then lowered the lid as quietly as I could.   Perfect.  Now all I had to worry about was my pregnant mom using the bathroom every five minutes and Avery retrieving the note without getting caught.

“What you’re telling me,” Wes asked, “is that instead of weakening Ben’s powers like you thought you were doing, they’re getting stronger?”  .

Christopher rubbed his eyes.  Coming out of a glimpse was always a bit disorienting, like waking up in a hotel room. He’d blurted out what he’d seen the second his eyes opened, but he still needed a moment to get back to reality. A moment to shake away the glimpse of Ben and Zellie in the woods, her eyes bloodshot and his not. “Yes, that’s what I’m saying.  I don’t know what’s going on exactly, I’m not even sure that there’s a connection between my attempt to control Ben’s mind and his powers growing stronger. I do know that he is definitely having more frequent and accurate glimpses since he came to town.”  Christopher rested his head on the back of his camel colored chenille couch and put his feet up on the dark cherry coffee table. “I suppose Zellie could be affecting Ben the way Avery affects her?  Strengthening his powers?   They’re definitely developing a bond.”

Wes sat next to him on the couch, close, but not touching, clearly distressed by Christopher’s latest revelations.  “And Zellie, is she getting better at anything?  Has she made contact with the spirit world?”

“Hardly,” Christopher said. “My control over Zellie is still strong. She’s not thinking about anything besides how to communicate with Avery, which is ridiculous by the way - they’re stashing notes in the toilet tank.”

“Ben needs to go first then.  You shouldn’t wait until Claire’s party.  I’ve always thought your need to destroy both of them at the same time was overly dramatic.  Let’s just kill them when it’s most convenient and be done with it.” Wes placed his hand on Christopher’s thigh. “Honey, I can tell this is taking a toll on you. You’re exhausted. It may be time to face the fact that you’re not as powerful as you thought you were.”

Christopher huffed. “Wesley
, honey
, while I appreciate your misplaced concern for my well-being, we’ve got a concrete plan and I’m sticking to it.  Ben and Zellie have to die together for maximum effect. The Society has to be shown that I wield enough power to take down two Retroacts, especially these two who have so much promise and come from such strong lines. They need to be afraid.  They need to feel terrorized.”

Wes rolled his eyes.  “If you say so,” he said and then muttered “drama queen” under his breath.  “I don’t suppose you’d consider telling Pastor Paul about the notes Zellie and Avery are sending each other, make things a little more exciting for my benefit?”

Christopher shook his head.  “Sorry, I’m afraid I’ve laid the suggestions on too thickly with Paul Wells -  he’d send Zellie straight to Los Angeles without a moment’s hesitation if he found out anything was going on between her and Avery still.” Christopher rested his hand on the couch, palm up and open to receive the shadow of Wes’s hand. “I need everyone to stay in Rosedell.  Trust the plan. Trust me.”

Unable to resist the beauty of his partner’s deep brown eyes, Wes forwent the handholding and climbed onto his lap, immersing himself in Christopher’s body, sending tickling static to all of his nerve endings. 

Christopher laid his head back on the couch again, closing his eyes.  His relationship with Wes had few advantages, but this was one of them.  He stretched his body out languidly, extending his fingers and toes, letting Wes take him over. 

A warm energy spread through him, elevating his mood and making him smile faintly.  He always imagined the energy, Wes’s energy, as a transparent glimmer of light rising up from within him and settling on the surface of his skin, illuminating him from the inside out.

After a few minutes the glimmer increased to a pulsating buzz, making Christopher break out in a full-on smile. Arching his torso off of the couch, he became completely overcome with energy before letting go and sinking back into the cushions. 

Wes rose from Christopher, standing over him, a smile of his own plastered across his face.  “Feel better?”

Christopher slid sideways and lay down on the couch, his eyes still closed. “Much.  You are so good at that.”

“See?  I do have my uses,” Wes chuckled.

“Indeed,” Christopher said, hugging a throw pillow to his chest and slipping off into a contented sleep.

Wes moved out onto the balcony of their condo. He stood there watching the sun set, seeing what was probably a cold, brisk wind blow through the evergreen trees that lined the driveway to their complex.  He missed that; something as stupid as feeling the wind on his face.  But was it reason enough to betray Christopher like he was?

Jumping through the iron railing that enclosed the balcony, Wes floated to the ground, longing to feel the earth pounding into his feet, the jarring shock of his gravity reverberating through his calf muscles.  Instead he felt nothing.  No, it wasn’t stupid to want to
feel
things again.

He closed his eyes, concentrating on Mildred’s sweet grandmotherly face, her sparkling blue eyes, and her long silver braid that hung down her back.  He felt her acknowledge that he was summoning her and had opened herself up to receiving him. Wes disappeared.

A moment later he reappeared in front of a peach stucco house with sage green shutters and cacti in the yard.  The simple little house sat on a modest street that dead ended at an elementary school at one end and was eleven blocks from Venice Beach at the other. 

Wes’s mouth twitched nervously; he would have taken a deep breath if it were physically possible.
Someday soon
, he thought and then walked through the front door of The Society Headquarters.

Dinner with Dad and Melody was okay, I guess.  I could tell Dad had enjoyed making dinner for us; he kept asking how we liked the chicken piccata.  It was good, really good actually, but I didn’t give him the satisfaction.  All I said was that I’d be fine with it if he made it again.  That made him smile a little bit, so I suppose he knows that I don’t hate him.  Melody was in a grumpy mood, but when isn’t she?  For the most part she was quiet, except to tell me that she was having trouble sleeping without me snoring across the room and that she was bummed that Aunt Hazel was leaving.  I felt for her. After a lifetime of sharing a room with my sister, I missed her too.  Aunt Hazel’s leaving didn’t affect me as much; she wasn’t my mentor.  Supposedly, Grandma was my mentor.  What a crappy deal that was. She’d dropped us off in Rosedell last Summer, hung out with Mom for a couple of days and then bailed again.  She said she’d return when the baby was born, but I wasn’t holding my breath.

As much as I liked being in my real home for the evening, I couldn’t wait to get back to the cabin to check if Avery had found my note.

Mom called around nine to let Dad know that Avery was headed back to his mom’s house and that I was free to come home.  I finished putting the dishes from the dishwasher away and went to grab my purse from the dining room table.

“Thanks for letting me know, Grace,” Dad said, looking down at the kitchen floor, rubbing at a scuff mark with the toe of his sock. “How are you feeling?  Everything going okay up there in the woods?” 

I could hear Mom chatting away to him like she always had. I knew that she was lonely, that she missed talking to him, still loved him in a way. 

Melody called to me from our bedroom. “You leaving?”

I walked down the hall and stood in the doorway. “Yeah, I think I’m going to take off.”

She nodded her head solemnly. “Okay, see ya.”

“Don’t be like that, Mel,” I said, sitting down next to her on her twin bed.  All her stuffed animals were gone, shoved onto the top shelf of our itty bitty closet.

“How am I being?  You’re not the one everyone ignores.  No one ever asks me what I want to do about anything!”

I went to put my arm around her shoulders, but she pulled away from me and went to her chest of drawers, fiddling with the nail polish bottles that littered the top.

“Aunt Hazel’s the one who told me that Mom had to go to the hospital.  And even then, she told me like, three hours after it happened.  I stood out in front of school waiting for someone to pick me up for over an hour before I just said, ‘screw it’ and walked home through the park.”

“I’m sorry, Mel.  It all just sort of happened.  We should have called you.  I should have called you.”

She turned back toward me, tears dotting her cheeks. “Yeah, you should have.”

This sucked. I’d been so wrapped up in my own problems that I hadn’t noticed that Melody wasn’t having the easiest time of it lately, either.  She didn’t even have friends she could turn to anymore. After she became my Lookout and was taking things more seriously, they’d all dropped her. Melody may be my Lookout, but I was her older sister and I was slacking at my job big time. “Hey, are you doing anything on Saturday morning?”

“Uh- uh.” She wiped her face with the back of her hand.

“Well, Claire and I are gonna go taste cakes for her birthday party, you want to come with?”

“I thought people only did crap like that when they were getting married?” She sat back down next to me.

“It’s Claire.”

Melody raised one eyebrow. “True.  Yeah, I’ll go.  You gonna pick me up?”

“Of course!  Aren’t you excited to see me behind the wheel?”

She raised one eyebrow again. “More like deathly afraid.  I can’t believe they gave you a license.”

I elbowed her in the ribs. “Whatever!”

“Whatever yourself, hose beast,” she said, bending her long old grasshopper legs, putting her feet against my side and pushing me down to the end of the bed.

“Oh, it’s on.”  She wasn’t the only long legged freak in our family. 

“Bring it,” she said, trying to keep a straight face while brandishing her Hello Kitty pillow.

I grabbed the pillow and threw it out into the hall, executing my best villainous laugh.  “Kitty can’t save you now!” I sprang at her, tickle fingers poised at the ready.

“Oh, crap!” she squealed, rolling from the bed.

I stuck my foot out and tripped her as she was trying to run from the room, causing her to fall flat on her face.  She curled up into the fetal position, flattening her arm to her exposed side in a sad attempt to thwart my tickle attack, overcome by an anticipatory giggle fit.  I put my foot on her hip and raised my fists in the air, victorious. 

“Retros rule, Lookouts drool!” I shouted, feeling pretty proud of myself until my sister took hold of my calf and dragged me down next to her.

“You suck,” Melody said, smiling.

“Runs in the family.”

I looked for Avery’s truck on my way back to the cabin, hoping to get a passing glance at him, but no luck.  It was probably for the best that I didn’t see him. The temptation would be too great to take the chance of stopping out here in the middle of nowhere to spend a few moments together.  At least for me it would.  I had no way of knowing what Avery was feeling, only my instincts to go by.  Melody wasn’t allowed to give me a very detailed Avery report, but it didn’t sound like there were any details to give anyway.  She’d said that he was doing what he always did.  He sat with Jason at lunch, two tables away from her and Claire and was studying for finals like everyone else.  I’d never wanted to eat lunch in the cafeteria and study for stupid finals so much in my entire life.

Mom had already turned off all the lights and gone to bed, leaving me a note on the kitchen table telling me that she was fine and she would see me in the morning.  I stood in the middle of the family room, listening to the sounds of the cabin and the woods outside.  The mini-fridge running, the hum of the porch light, a pine tree dropping cones onto the roof.

I went into my room, undressed, and put my Minnie Mouse nightshirt and a pair of thick wool socks on.  As I shuffled into the bathroom and turned on the sink faucet, I rattled the toothbrush holder to make it seem like I was getting ready to brush my teeth.  Quickly I removed the toilet tank lid and pulled the wet baggie from the water. The tape hadn’t stayed stuck, but the bag had remained sealed and there was a note from Avery inside!