Glimmer (15 page)

Christopher returned Avery’s grin with a look of disapproval.  “Are you seriously trying to bribe a pastor?”

“Not so much bribe as convince, sir.”

“Oh, God, I mean gosh...never call me that again.  I’m not
that
much older than you.”

“Uh, sorry,” Avery said, switching his fidgeting to his other leg. “It’s just that I couldn’t think what else to do.  I tried to go see Zellie the other night but my mom caught me sneaking out of the house.”

“Zellie’s not being sent away, is she?” Christopher asked with more interest than he should have.

“No. I told Mom that I was going to meet up with Claire, but she made me stay at home.”  Avery sighed.  “And I can’t believe I just told you that I lied to my mom.”

“It’s okay, but I think you should get going, Zellie and Melody are going to be here--”

Melody entered the room, tagging the top of the door jamb on her way in.  Zellie followed behind, looking like she hadn’t slept in a few days.

“Oh, snap,” Melody said when she saw Avery, “showdown at the OK church basement. Yikers.”  She turned to check on her sister, but Zellie was already rushing past her.

Avery stood up and met Zellie in the middle of the room.  He looked back at Christopher, his eyes pleading.

“Fine,” Christopher said, “but Melody and I are not standing in the stairwell this time.”  He wanted to assume that whatever Avery desperately needed to talk to Zellie about was really not that big of a deal, but you never knew with those two.  Still, he couldn’t appear to care too much.  He’d always played the part of the “cool” pastor and needed to keep that impression going.  Five minutes wasn’t going to strengthen her powers a great deal.  He and Melody sat down at the table, neither one pretending like they weren’t eavesdropping on Zellie and Avery’s conversation.

“Have you talked to Ben and figured out what happened yet?” Avery said, huddling close to Zellie in an attempt at privacy.

“No.  He won’t be back until tomorrow night--”

“I’d prefer you talk to him during the day.”

“Don’t be like that.” Zellie said, casting her gaze at the floor.

Avery touched the bullet pendant hanging around her neck. “I have a right to, don’t I?”

She nodded her head.  “Yes, but...as someone whose body does things without meaning to, I don’t want you to be mad at Ben if he wasn’t in control of his actions.”

“That’s a pretty lame excuse, Zel.  When
your
body does things you don’t mean for it to, your intentions are still behind your actions.”

Christopher wondered what Ben had done to piss Avery off so much.  Zellie and Ben were spending a lot of time together and she was influencing him, Christopher had glimpsed as much, but surely Zellie was keeping their relationship platonic, wasn’t she?

“Look,” Avery said, evening his tone, “I’m attempting not to be mad at you or him.  I understand that you’re not trying to make a fool out of me, but I’m not so sure that he isn’t.”

“He’s not.  Ben is not like we thought he was,” Zellie said, taking his hand.

“I wish you would stop defending him.  It seems like you want to pretend that nothing happened, but a kiss and ‘a little bit more’ is something.” He slid his hand from her grasp.

And a little bit more, huh? So, Zellie and Ben were getting close physically after all.  Christopher wondered how he could use that to his advantage?  First, he’d have to get Avery out of the picture completely, which should be easy enough, even with his weakened powers.  Teenage boys’ emotions were pretty volatile to begin with.  A wicked smile graced his mouth.

“I’m so sorry.  I promise you it will never happen again.  Whatever Ben’s intentions are, whatever control he had over me, I won’t let it overtake me again. Okay?  Please trust me,” Zellie begged.

Narrowing his eyes, Christopher stared at the back of Avery’s head, amplifying the boy’s insecurities.
She cheated on you.  They laugh at you behind your back.  They think you’re crazy like your mom is.  Ben is more attractive than you are and a better kisser. Zellie doesn’t know why she’s with you anymore when she could be with someone powerful like she is.  Ben is right for her and you’re not.

Avery began pacing the floor, unable to harness his anxiety or his emotions any longer. After a moment he started raving in a loud voice. “I can’t trust you and you know what?  I don’t know if I can even stop myself from being mad at you.” Zellie opened her mouth to speak, but Avery continued on.  “Yeah, now that I think about it, I mean, it takes two to tango right?  You may have felt like you had no control over what you were doing, but what about your intentions?  Are you telling me you feel nothing for the guy?” He poked a finger at her chest, a look of disgust on his face.   “You think I don’t notice how you and Claire and Mel all look at him?  Like he’s some blonde hipster god?”

Melody stood up to go defend her sister.  Christopher grabbed her arm and held her back, nodding for her to sit down.  “Believe me; you don’t want to get in the middle of a lover’s quarrel.  Let them work it out,” Christopher said, knowing full well that there would be no reconciliation if he’d done his job right.

“I’m an idiot,” Avery ranted. “A complete freaking idiot.  What was I thinking?  I practically told you it was okay that you cheated on me!  Where the hell is my self-respect?  I’m outta here.”  He grabbed the necklace from around Zellie’s neck and yanked down hard breaking the chain.

“Ouch!” Zellie said, “Avery, why are you acting like this?”

Avery took off out the door, still talking to himself.  This time when Melody stood up, Christopher let her go to her sister.  Surprisingly, Melody ran past Zellie.  “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of this,” she said, entering the stairwell.  Christopher had to admit, that little girl was one hell of a Lookout.  She anticipated that her sister would rather have her straighten things out with Avery than comfort her.

Zellie collapsed onto a folding chair, laid her head down on the table and began to cry.  He rested a hand on her shoulder as a show of comfort.  She flinched from his touch, giving him the strangest look.

“I’m sorry,” he said, “I was just trying to be comforting.  Instead I startled you.”

Zellie’s expression softened. “Yes, you did, uh, sorry.”

Melody came back into the basement, followed by several other kids in the Youth Group.  “He must have run to his truck, I couldn’t catch up with him,” she whispered to her sister.  “Sorry, Zel.  Maybe Claire and I can corner him later and talk some sense into him.”

“Don’t worry about it, its okay,” Zellie said, wiping the tears from her cheeks. “Everything will work out eventually.”

Melody shook her head.  “If you say so.”

I had Claire tell the front desk person at the Lodge to have Ben call me as soon as he got home Monday evening. His cell had gone to voice mail every time I’d tried it. I was raging pissed by the time he got around to calling me late Tuesday morning.

“It’s about time,” I answered after checking the caller ID.  “You were supposed to call me the second you got in!”

“Sor-ry!  Geez.  We got in late and I fell asleep, okay?  Transcontinental travel can be taxing on one’s person.”

“Dude,” I scoffed, “you went to Canada.  It’s like seven hours from here.”

“I have delicate Circadian rhythms,” he said and then yawned dramatically.

“And I have a feeling that you’re using words you don’t know the meaning of.”

“Do too; I’ve been studying my ass off just like you.”

I seriously doubted that very much, seeing as I had all the study materials with me. “Fine, we’re getting off the subject anyways.  Get over here.  I have some things to talk to you about that can’t be done over the phone.”

“Like what?”

“Like Avery freaking out on me when I told him about our weird-ass make out session.”

“Shit. I’ll be right there.”

To his credit, Ben showed up about fifteen minutes later, his hair damp from what must have been a hurried shower.  He walked toward my room.

“We can talk in here. Mr. Adams saw everything and told Mom all about it and I’m sure you’ve told Frank, so...”  I gestured for him to sit in the recliner.

“Uh, okay, this isn’t gonna be awkward at all.” He nodded at Mr. Adams, who was next to Mom on the couch, where he usually was when he wasn’t in the bathroom taking unnecessary showers or spying on me.

I pulled the two kitchen chairs over for Frank and me.  He smiled as he took his seat. “You can communicate with spirits now, can’t you?”

“I can,” I said, sitting down cross legged.

“You can?  Nice!” Ben said, leaning over for a high five.  I saved us both the embarrassment and put my palm up for him to slap.

“That’s wonderful,” Frank said, “took you less time than it did Ben.”

“Ha!” I uncrossed my legs and kicked Ben in the thigh with the end of my tennis shoe.  He was quick, though, and grabbed my ankle, tugging me from my chair.

Mr. Adams cleared his throat.  “This is not helping your case, Zellie.”

Ben immediately dropped my foot and I slid back onto my chair.  The room fell silent.

“I believe you had a theory you were going to share with us,” Mom said.

“Right.” I sat up straighter and looked at Ben. “Mr. Adams saw us...you know,” Ben nodded his head, “and he said he came to check on me because he felt an odd energy in my room and thought I might be in trouble.”

“Okay,” Ben said, gulping.

“Did you feel weird energy, or not like yourself?”

He looked at the floor.  “What I felt...I still felt like myself, but that...what I wanted was
intensified
?” He glanced up at me. “I mean, I think you’re pretty and cool and we have a very specific thing in common. I wanted to kiss you but--”

“But you knew I was off limits,” I interjected.

“Exactly.” He nodded his head.

“Then why did you kiss her, kid?  From where I stood, you weren’t taking no for an answer.” Mr. Adams scooted to the edge of the couch, lasering in on Ben.

To compensate, Ben slouched back into the recliner and rubbed his eyes. “Ugh. Because I was overcome with the idea that I could make her and if I projected that idea then she would comply.”

“Wait, what?  You knew you were controlling me?” I asked, rage building in my gut.

“Kind of?” He cringed.

“Kind of!” I hopped up from my chair as Mr. Adams stood, both of us gunning for Ben.

“Wait! Wait!” Ben said, holding his hands out in front of him, attempting to protect his face that I was on the verge of punching in.

“Talk. Now,” I said, my fist poised inches from him.  I thought it was telling that Mom and Frank weren’t trying to stop me.

“It was my intentions mixed with another energy or whatever Mr. Adams said.  When you pushed me away, I realized that I’d gone way too far and felt totally gross.” He cautiously dropped his hands.

I stepped back. “You didn’t act like you felt gross.”

He sighed. “I panicked and tried to act like it was no big deal, okay?  I
had
just absorbed a power I didn’t know existed, cut me some slack.”

That reminded me of my theory, duh. “It’s Assistant Pastor Morris.”

“What?” everyone said in varying degrees of disbelief, except for Frank who muttered something about not trusting the Church.

“That’s who you absorbed the mind control from. I felt it coming off of him when he was trying to console me after Avery’s strange flip-out. I’d never noticed it before, I didn’t have a reason to, but it was very
familiar
. He’s one of us.”

“Hmm,” Mom said, “I always wondered why such a good looking young man like him didn’t have a girlfriend.”

“He
is
pretty cute,” Ben agreed.

“Oh. My. God.  Can the two of you stop being ick for five seconds and focus?  Pastor hottie controls minds.  Hello? We know nothing about this power.  Don’t you think if he was using his abilities to help people he would have revealed himself to us?”

“You think he gave us the painful vision?” Ben said.

“Yup.  I also think he might be responsible for the fire.” I sat down, suddenly feeling defeated.

“Grace, have you spoken to your mother or Hazel recently?” Frank asked.  “I’m not cognizant of any Retroacts that use mind control. Perhaps they would know something about this?”

“In fact, Aunt Hazel left a message on my phone last night telling me that she and my mom had to travel to New York on a case. She instructed me not to contact them, that they would contact me.”

“That seems a little weird, Mom,” I said.

She shrugged her shoulders.  “What’s new?”

“So, what are we going to do?  Should we confront Pastor Morris?”

Mr. Adams sat back down on the edge of the couch.  “No.  Take him by surprise.  You’ll have the upper hand if he doesn’t know you’re aware of his power.”

“But he’s a Retro, Ben wouldn’t have absorbed his power otherwise, so he could possibly glimpse this.”  We were so screwed. 

“So we’ll rewind the conversation,” Ben said. “We all know its occurred and that its been rewound, so we’ll remember.  Pastor Morris would have to concentrate on glimpsing this to know we’d found him out, but just to be safe I might as well rewind.”  He stood, putting his arm out.

“Of course you would assume you’re the one who should do it,” I huffed.

He wiggled his fingers at me.  “Girl, you better watch out and let me rewind this bitch or I just might make you kiss me again.”

Since my pregnant mother was in the room, I held back on the expletives, but made sure I conveyed my meaning in my tone. “Do it,
now
.”

He moved quickly and rewound prior to our conversation about Assistant Pastor Morris.

“What do you say, Zel, how about a driving lesson?”

I shook my head to clear it.  “I’ll be in my room,” I said, ignoring him.  Ben was so not off the hook with me.

Christopher had never met Rachel Loughlin in the flesh, but he could swear she was sitting at his breakfast bar. He pushed himself up from the face down position he’d fallen asleep in on the couch and yawned. Nothing like a nice hallucination to interrupt his Thursday afternoon nap.