Sky of Dust: The Last Weapon (20 page)

“
Are you one of us?
”
I asked.

The girl scrunched her eyes.

“
Yew'r mimbling
,
”
t
he girl replied in broken
English
. She then pointed to her ears.
“
Ieam deaf.
”

I felt stunned and guilty at the same time. I just stepped on a deaf girl
’
s fingers.

“
I-AM-SORRY
,
”
I said slowly in a slightly louder voice.

The girl rolled her eyes.

She put down the book that she was reading and grabbed a notepad and a pen out of her bag and began to write. After a few seconds
,
she turned the notepad towards me to read.

“
You can talk louder
,
but I still can’t hear you
,
”
it
read.

I felt my face get hot.

The girl laughed and then picked up the ball that was sitting next to her and held it out.

I reached for
ward to grab the ball
,
but as soon as my fingers touched the ball it shocked me.

I pulled my hand back
,
startled.

The girl started to laugh again then tossed the ball up to me.

I fumbled with the ball a second
;
the whole time
the
girl continued to watch me.

She started to write on the notepad again. She flipped it to let me read.

“
Yes, I am like you
,
”
s
he wrote.
“
I can shock things. How about you?
”

I looked up and she held two fingers apart like she was about to pinch me, but
,
instead
of pinching me
,
I saw a bluish spark pass between both fingers.

“
Wow
,
”
I
murmured
.

She pointed to me.

I had no idea how I could really show off what I could do without being in some sort of danger, so I decided to do something stupid. Act it out.

I started walk like normal and then pointed to my head like it was hurting and pretended everything was moving slow.

All I got was a blank stare. She probably thought I was crazy. I think I
was
crazy for doing it.

I sighed and put my arms down.

She giggled again and started writing.

“
So your power is to dance
?
”
s
he wrote, but she also added a smiley face with a tongue sticking out.

I had to smile. She had a
sense
of humor
,
which was refreshing.

I pointed to her note pad and made a writing motion and pointed to me.

She gave me a playful look of
“
I don’t know
,
”
then held out the pad and the pen.

I hesitated a bit because I did not like the feeling of electricity coursing through my veins
;
I had a bad experience.

I took the pad and pen and started to scribble.

“
I can slow
douwn
time. Just four me
,
”
I wrote.

I turned the pad and showed her.

She read then started to laugh.

“
What?
”
I said aloud.

She grabbed the
pad,
made a note
,
and handed it back.

“
You
can’t
spell
,
”
s
he had noted and wrote
“
down
”
under my
“
douwn
”
and
“
for
”
under my
“
four
.
”
She included the number
4
with an arrow to my
“
four
.
”

My face got red.

I handed her the pad and turned to leave.

“
Wait
,
”
t
he girl said partially laughing. It sounded like it was hard for her to move her tongue.

I guess I felt bad for her because I turned towards her. She was jotting something on the pad.

She looked up and flipped over the pad.

“
I was kidding. You are new here
,
right?
”
s
he had written.

I nodded.

She
smiled and began to write again
, then
handed me the pad.

“
Welcome. I am Annie. You?
”
s
he wrote.

“
Annie
,
”
I read aloud.

Where did I hear that name? Sparks. Could this be Paul’s Annie? It would make sense. They both had similar abilities, she
was
about my age, and she was mixed. I was sure she was, but I wanted to look at the picture that was in the satchel Paul gave to Mary.

I hesitated and began to write.

“
My name is Dalyn. Nice to meet you. I have to go. Will you be hear tomorrow?
”

I gave her the pad again.

She shook her head and pointed to the word
“
hear
”
I had just written on the pad. She pointed to her ear and shook her head and then
lifted
her
shoulders like she was telling me,
“
Duh
.
”

She scribbled out my
“
hear
”
then replaced it with
“
here
”
and wrote,
“
I will be HERE tomorrow.
See you then?
”

“
Did you find it yet?
”
I heard Peter yell.

I nodded my head and returned her notepad.

I
raised
my hand and said,
“
Bye.
”

This time
,
I tried to be clear and
speak
softly.

Annie gave me a big smile and nodded her head like she was trying to say,
“
Thank you. Now you are starting to get it.
”

She waved and mouthed
“
bye
,
”
turning
back to her book.

I ran back towards the others.

When I reached Peter
,
I threw him the ball.

“
What took you so long?
”
Peter asked.
“
And why are you smiling.
”

I had not noticed that I was smiling. I did not know why
,
so I lied.

“
I was just thinking about dinner
,
”
I replied.
“
Listen, I am going to take a break.
”

“
What, you’re giving up?
”
Jason threw up his hands.
“
That means we win!
”

“
Yeah
,
good job
,
”
I mumbled as I began to walk towards Mary, Peter following close
behind
.

Mary was busy
painting her toe nails when we arrived.

“
Mary, the bag that Paul gave you before we escaped, do you still have it?
”
I asked.

Mary looked up at me.

“
Yeah. W
hy?
”
s
he replied.

“
I think I found the girl, Annie
,
”
I told her.

“
Really?
”
Peter asked.
“
How did you manage that?
”

“
She was just sitting by the tree
,
and she told me her name
,
”
I replied.
“
She is the same girl you were dancing with
the other
night, and I also saw her fighting.
”

Peter thought back then said,
“
Yeah, that girl gave me the creeps. She just looked up at stars and fireworks and ignored me
completely
.
All I was
trying to
do was
have a c
onversation with a pretty girl.”

“
That’s because she’s deaf
,
”
I snapped at him.

“
Oh
,
”
Peter muttered.

“
Dalyn, I’
m sure there are many girls that are named Annie
,
”
Mary suggested.

“
Yeah, but how many do you know that can shoot sparks from their hands
,
”
I replied.

They both stared at me.

“
Listen, Paul said there was a picture in the bag
;
maybe we should look at it and see if it’s really her
,
”
I suggested.

Mary nodded.

“
I will bring it tomorrow
,
”
Mary said.

“
Thanks
,
”
I replied.
“
If we find out it really is her, I’d like to be the one to give her the news—
I don’t want her to be surrounded by people when I tell her that her dad is dead.
”

“
Are you sure?
”
Mary asked with concern in her voice.
“
Paul asked me to do it.
”

“
I’ll do it
,
”
I told Mary.
“
Don’t worry about it.
”

Mary did not look happy about it
,
but she
agreed.

Abigail and Jason were taking their time walking over, obviously in deep conversation.

Abigail and I really had not talked much in the past few days, despite my attempts to get close to her. She always seemed to be distracted with Jason.

I grabbed my water bottle and took a long swig.

“
I’
m just going to head on home and try to relax
,
”
I
told Peter and Mary.
“
See you tomorrow.
”

They said
“
goodbye
,
”
and I
started to make my way home. I hope
d
dad was out doing something because all I wanted to do was sleep.

As I passed the market
area
that held the ballroom, I forced myself to look in. It was mostly cleaned up. The only thing that was out of the ordinary was the shattered glass roof. They had extended nets just below the parts of the ceiling that still had glass. They just wanted to make sure
the
falling debris
didn’t
injure anyone
,
I guess.

The market was back open
,
but it was mostly empty. People were scared to leave their apartments, and this area brought back memories of that night.