Michael Belmont and the Heir of Van Helsing (The Adventures of Michael Belmont) (5 page)

“Well, what did the doctor say?” she asked him nervously.

“He said everything looks fine.
 
There are no signs of infection, I just need to keep the wounds clean and be careful about putting too much stress on the stitches.”

She let out a sigh of relief, and he could see the guilt, sadness and love in her eyes as she reached to embrace him.

“Careful,” he warned her, but it hadn’t been necessary.
 
“Look, I don’t want you to blame yourself for this.
 
I’m going to be fine, and it wasn’t your fault.”

“But….”

“No,” he said firmly, putting his finger to her bottom lip and drawing it down until it bounced back against her teeth.
 
She made a half embarrassed, half irritated smile.
 
“No, it wasn’t in any way your fault.
 
That man has caused enough pain in your life without laying any guilt on you for this.
 
Besides, this isn’t my first battle scar you know.”

He squeezed her as tightly as he dared and wouldn’t let go until she promised not to let it bother her anymore, although he knew it would.
 
He hoped he’d at least made her feel a little better about it.

“Now,” he said softly, “are you ready to confront your daughter?”

She nodded.
 
“I suppose we’d better tackle her together while we have the chance.”

Abigail was sitting at the kitchen table reading a book when her parents walked in and sat down across from her.

Her father folded his hands and stared at her.
 
“So, this morning before I left, your mother and I heard an interesting story from Rose Dominguez next door.
 
It seems they had a young mountain lion up in one of the ponderosa pines behind their house.
 
It scared the heck out of her mother Elena.”

Abigail raised her eyes from the book and met him in a mad-dog stare, but didn’t say anything.

“You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?”

She shrugged, her eyes suspiciously defiant.

The phone rang, and her mother shook her head in exasperation before getting up to answer it.

“So,” her father went on, “Armando told Michael the whole story.
 
Turns out Wandering Bear has some pretty amazing connections with nature.
 
You know anything about
that
?”

She batted her eyelashes sweetly and smiled.

“Well, Michael is now under the impression that Wandering Bear is some kind of supernatural medicine-man or something.
 
How long do you plan on keeping this little secret of yours from him?”

“He won’t understand,” she came back quickly.
 
“He’s going to be mad at me because it hasn’t happened to him yet.”

“Abby, you know that your brother may
never
get the ability to change his form.
 
Your mom told you that it doesn’t always get passed on.
 
You need to tell him what’s going on, and let the chips fall where they may.”

She looked at him doubtfully.

“Michael has always loved you very much.
 
I don’t think you have anything to worry about.
 
Have a little faith in him.”

She hung her head and sucked her teeth nervously.
 
“I do.
 
I just…I’m not quite ready to tell him yet, okay?”

“Fine,” he said.
 
“But the longer you wait, the harder it’s going to be.”

She kept looking down at the table, and let out a heavy sigh.

“Hey,” said her mother coming back from the phone, “that was Rose Dominguez.
 
She said Francisco is in the hospital with a broken leg.
 
Apparently he jumped off the roof of their house.”

Mark shifted in his chair to look at her.
 
“
Really
?
 
That’s awful.
 
Is there anything we can do for them?”

“Well, Cisco is asking to see Abby.
 
He’s not telling anybody why he jumped, and says he won’t talk to anyone but her.”

Abigail looked back and forth between her parents pleadingly, letting out an annoyed moan and trying to read their confused faces.
 
They just stared at her.
 
It was obvious that she was going to have to pay a visit to the Cisco Kid.

“Thank you so much for coming,” Rose Dominguez sobbed as Rachel embraced her in a hug.
 
“I just don’t know why Francisco is acting like this.
 
Ever since his father died he’s been driving me crazy with all this super-hero nonsense, but every time I threaten to take his costumes and comics away he goes crazy.”

They sat down together on the waiting room couch.

“Has he said anything yet about why he did it?” Mark asked.

“No, he jumped all the way from the roof, two stories up.
 
I asked him if he actually believes he can fly, but he said he only wants to speak to Abby about it.”

Abigail looked back at her like a deer in the headlights.

“Thank you for coming to speak to him, dear.
 
He thinks of you as his best friend.
 
When you talk to him, just try to find out why he did it.
 
Find out for me if he really is…really is…CRAZY!”
 
With this, Cisco’s mother burst into tears.
 
Abigail cringed.

“Do you want me to go in there with you?” Michael offered.

Abigail shook her head.
 
“He only wanted to see me.
 
He might not talk if you’re in there too.”

“Well, good luck then.”

“Thanks,” she mumbled.

“Come on, sweetie,” Rose told her, “I’ll take you to his room.”

They walked down the hallway and entered Cisco’s room.
 
It was dark and a bit cold.
 
The boy was laying in bed, a sling holding up the large cast around his leg.
 
He was wearing a Superman costume that he’d obviously outgrown some time ago, and his plump brown belly could be seen peeking out just below the large red S on his chest.
 
His cape was hung from the foot of the bed.

Grandma Elena was sitting beside the bed feeding him spoonfuls of ice cream.

“Francisco, look who’s come to see you.
 
It’s your friend Abigail,” his mother told him.

The boy’s face instantly lit up.
 
“ABBY,” he shouted in delight.

Elena got up and stooped to give the girl a kiss on her forehead.
 
“See if you can figure out what’s going on in that loco head of his, dear.”

Rose and Elena slipped out of the room, shutting the door behind them.

“That looks like it hurts,” Abigail sympathized, examining his cast.
 
Although Cisco sometimes got on her nerves, she liked him, and was sorry to see him like this.

“Oh, it hurts all right, but that doesn’t matter right now.
 
Hey, I’ve really been wanting to talk to you about something.
 
Can you hand me my notebook off the table over there?”

She nodded and retrieved it for him.

“Your mom said you wouldn’t talk to anyone about why you jumped off the roof, Cisco.
 
What’s going on with you?
 
Were you trying to kill yourself or something?”

First he looked stunned.
 
Then he laughed.
 
“Kill myself?
 
Why would I want to do that?”
 
He opened up his notebook and began to shuffle through some papers, finally retrieving the one he wanted and unfolding it.

“So…you don’t
really
think you can fly or something do you?”

He frowned at her disapprovingly.

“Abby, only super heroes can fly.
 
Normal people like me can’t do that.”
 
He said it as if she were the one that needed to be convinced.

She began to tap her foot impatiently.
 
“Then what
were
you doing up on the roof?”

“I was trying to summon Hawk-Lady,” he told her longingly.

“Hawk-Lady?”

He held up the paper.
 
It was a comic, showing a woman changing into a hawk.
 
Abigail’s jaw dropped.
 
It was obviously her mother.

“I climbed up there and called for her, pretending that I was about to jump off, but then I accidentally lost my footing and, well that’s when I fell off the roof.
 
Hawk-Lady never showed up to help me though.”

Abigail wanted to change the subject.
 
“So…you didn’t jump after all.
 
That’s a relief.”

“No, I wouldn’t do something like
that,
Abby.”
 
He laughed at the absurdity of it.

Abigail laughed along with him, but it was a forced, nervous laughter.

“Hey, Abby,” he suddenly looked very serious, “does your mom have super strength?”

She felt her stomach tighten.
 
“What are you
talking
about Cisco?”

“Your mom, Hawk-Lady.
 
I mean, I know she doesn’t have super hearing, because she didn’t hear me call to her from the roof, but if I’m going to finish my comic book about her I’m going to need to know about the rest of her powers.”

Abigail was too flabbergasted to speak; she just frowned and shook her head at him.

“Don’t bother denying it, I’ve seen her change a couple of times now.”
 
He scratched his chin contemplatively.
 
“Hey, do you think she’d let me be her sidekick?
 
I mean, I don’t have any powers, but I know just about everything there is to know about heroes and villains.
 
I could really help her out you know.”

“Cisco listen, you can’t tell anybody about this, okay?
 
You have to —”

“Oh, I’d never do that, Abby, not even if they tortured me.”
 
He said this so deathly serious that she wanted to laugh.
 
It also made her believe him.

“Listen, I’ll talk to her about it, okay, but don’t get your hopes up.
 
Just don’t fall off of any more rooftops.
 
What are you going to tell your mom about what happened?”

“I’ll tell her the truth, that it was an accident.
 
I’ll tell her I saw a hawk up there and went up to look for it.
 
But don’t worry, I won’t mention
anything
about Hawk-Lady.”

“Alright,” she allowed him a smile.
 
“Listen, when are you going to be able to come home?”

“I think they’re only holding me here to see if I’m nuts, they’ll probably send me home once they figure out I’m not crazy.”

“So it might be a while then?” she said under her breath.

Cisco looked confused.

“Well, let me know when you get home and I’ll come over and visit, okay.”

“Great.
 
Hey don’t forget to ask your mom for me, alright.”

“I will,” she said, opening the door.
 
“Take care.”

He waved enthusiastically as she left the room.

Everyone was waiting eagerly for Abigail when she returned.

“What did he say to you,” pleaded Rose, “Is he crazy?
 
Was he trying to fly?”

“No, he isn’t crazy.
 
It was just an accident, he wasn’t trying to fly.
 
He was looking for a bird and lost his footing.”

“Well, why didn’t he just tell us that?” Elena asked her daughter in frustration.

“I think,” broke in Abby, “I think he was just too embarrassed.
 
Maybe he thinks you’ll be mad at him or something.”

The two women shot off down the hall to confront Cisco.

“Thanks for coming down you guys,” Armando said as he followed the Belmonts to the elevator.
 
“I’m sorry about my little brother.
 
He sure is a weirdo sometimes.”

They told him not to mention it, and to call if the family needed anything, and then got into the elevator.
 
When the door closed, Abby’s mother turned to face her.

“So what in the world was that all about?”

“Well, Hawk-Lady,” she said with a smirk, “I think we may have just found you a new sidekick!”

Michael’s parents had made the decision to have him and Abigail educated at home.
 
They hoped this would give the family more time together and provide the children more opportunities to have hands-on learning experiences.
 
Their parents would often have to travel and work away from home, but now they could bring the children along more easily and see the world together as a family.

Elizabeth Harrison had accepted the role of the children’s private tutor.
 
She could travel with the family and see to it that Michael and Abigail got a consistent education.
 
Elizabeth was a good teacher, but she was strict.
 
She took the children’s grades seriously, and didn’t let them get away with shirking their work.

As the cold days of winter passed, Elizabeth was pushing hard for the children to complete their assignments so they could enjoy a nice long break after Christmas.

Christmas was now just two days away, and Michael breathed a sigh of relief as he wrote the last few words of his final assignment.
 
He went downstairs to see how Abigail was coming along.
 
She was watching television when he walked through the door with his school folder in hand.
 
“Abby, have you got your story finished yet?”

“I got it done yesterday,” she told him blankly.