Speak No Evil-Gifted 6 (13 page)

‘I don’t know,’ Amanda replied.

‘And what were you and Ken doing there?’

Uh-oh, Paul thought. She can’t tell Madame they were consulting Dr Paley. He needed to help her out, provide a distraction. And he knew exactly how he could do it.

He crept out of her bag and started crawling up her leg. As he expected, Amanda let out an ear-piercing shriek and leaped out of her chair. Paul dropped to the floor and scurried away before Amanda could step on him.

‘It’s a cockroach! There are cockroaches in my bag!’

Somebody picked up a book and threw it at him. Paul dodged it and frantically searched the floorboards for a hole to crawl into. Then it dawned on him that here was the perfect opportunity to introduce his gift to the class. He shifted back to his human form.

‘Carter!’ Madame gasped. The rest of the class stared at him in stunned silence. The unfamiliar attention unnerved him, and it took a lot of effort to formulate any words. They came out as ‘I haff uh giff’, but he was pretty sure they got the meaning.

Madame gazed at him in wonderment. ‘So I see,’ she said.

There was a short rap on the classroom door, and then the door opened. Dr Paley walked in.

‘Excuse me for interrupting your class, Madame,’ he said. ‘Ah, Paul. I thought I might find you here.’

Madame’s eyes darted back and forth between the boy and the doctor. ‘
Paul?’

‘That’s his real name, the name he was given at birth,’ Dr Paley said. ‘We’re not sure about his surname, so we’re calling him Paul Carter.’

‘Paul Carter,’ Madame repeated. ‘Well. We’re pleased to have you back here, Paul.’

‘I’m afraid he can’t stay,’ Dr Paley said. ‘As you can see, Paul has made a lot of progress. He’s recovered his memory, and he’s beginning to speak.’

‘And he has a gift,’ Madame added.

‘Yes, Paul is a shape-shifter. But he still requires some counselling and therapy before he can be released from Harmony House. You’ll have to come along with me, Paul’

Paul looked at Madame beseechingly, and Madame smiled but shook her head. ‘I’m sorry, Paul. We’re all very excited about this, and we look forward to having you back, but you’ll have to leave with Doctor Paley now.’

Paul understood. As he walked to the door with the doctor, he looked at his classmates. Tracey and Emily smiled at him. Most of the others were looking at him in a friendly way too. Only Jenna was frowning.

And Amanda, who had emptied the contents of her handbag on her desk, was clearly upset. ‘He nibbled at my granola bar, Madame! That’s gross!’

T
HE THOUGHT THAT A cockroach had been in her handbag – even if that cockroach was really a human being – made Amanda sick. It wasn’t just the granola bar. He could have crawled over everything. By the time she left class, she had decided to toss out everything that had been in her handbag and replace it all with new stuff. First of all, she’d go directly to the mall and buy cosmetics. She’d need a new wallet, a replacement for her cell phone cover . . .

But all plans to restock her handbag were swept away when she found Ken waiting for her by her locker.

‘Ken, are you OK? What happened?’

Ken looked totally wiped out. He tried to smile but it came out looking more like a grimace.

‘I’ve been in the office all day, waiting to get a note for my absence.’ He sighed. ‘I had to tell him, Amanda.’

‘Tell who what?’

‘Officer Fisher. I had to tell him about my gift.’

Amanda drew in her breath. ‘No . . .’

‘He kept asking me all these questions. And I couldn’t come up with a story that would explain how I knew where the bomb was. I mean, what could I say? That I knew the guy who committed suicide and he told me what he was going to do? I didn’t even know the poor man’s name!’ He leaned against the wall and let out a deep sigh. ‘So I told him I talk to dead people.’

‘What did he say?’

‘He thought I was joking.’ Ken gave her a half-hearted smile. ‘You can’t blame him. He told me I would have to come up with a better story than that. And I ended up telling him everything.’ He clenched his fists, and he looked like he was in real pain. ‘Everything, Amanda. Not just about me.’

Now Amanda felt
really
sick. ‘You told him about our class? About all our gifts?’

‘Well, I didn’t go into details. But he knows we’re a bunch of freaks.’ He sighed. ‘Madame is going to kill me.’

‘But he actually believed in your gift?’ Amanda asked.

‘Yeah, I guess so. Weird, huh? And then he let me go . . . but you should have seen the way he looked at me. Like I was some kind of alien.’ Suddenly he slammed his fist against the locker. ‘I hate this damned gift!’

Amanda had never seen him so upset. She touched his arm. ‘It’s OK, Ken. It won’t be for much longer. Tomorrow we’ll see Doctor Paley and get that laser thing. No more gifts. We’ll be normal.’

‘Shh,’ Ken whispered. Amanda turned to see Sarah coming towards them. She approached them tentatively, and when she spoke, her voice was barely audible.

‘That was a very brave thing you did, Ken,’ she said.

He looked at her in confusion.

‘I told the class how you located the bomb,’ Amanda explained.

‘Oh.’ Ken forced a smile. ‘I wouldn’t call it brave.’

‘Of course it was,’ Sarah said. ‘You revealed your gift so you could save people. I don’t know if I would have the guts to do something like that.’

‘Maybe you’ll never have to make the choice,’ Amanda said. ‘If you could lose your gift . . .’ She looked at Ken with a question in her eyes. He shook his head slightly.

Sarah shrugged. ‘Well, I just wanted to say . . . I admire you.’

‘Thanks, Sarah,’ Ken said, and the girl left them.

‘Why didn’t you want me to tell her about Doctor Paley?’ Amanda asked.

‘I don’t know,’ Ken said simply. ‘I guess, maybe because her gift is so powerful. And maybe she should hang on to it, because she could
really
save people.’

‘But if she doesn’t
want
to save people,’ Amanda began, and then clamped her mouth shut. Nina was there.

‘Who’s saving people?’ she chirped.

Amanda had to press her lips together to keep herself from yelling ‘none of your business’, but Ken actually smiled at Nina.

‘The X-Men,’ he said. ‘We were just talking about what it would be like to have super-powers. What do you think?’

‘Not a clue,’ Nina said blithely. ‘Anyone want to get an ice cream?’

Of course, she was looking at Ken when she asked the question, but Amanda answered.

‘No.’

To her surprise – and extreme annoyance – Ken said, ‘Sounds good.’

Amanda stared at them as they started towards the exit together. Then she hurried to catch up with them.

‘I’ve changed my mind,’ she announced.

She didn’t get it. Two minutes earlier, she and Ken had been having this intense, serious discussion. Now he was listening to Nina chatter about her day’s activities, and actually paying attention.

‘. . . then Mr Jones called on me in history, and I hadn’t read the assignment, so I started coughing and he let me go out to get some water, but when I got back, he asked me about the reading again, and so I started coughing again, and then . . .’

Ken seemed to be hanging on to every word. He kept his eyes on her, he nodded and made the right comments, like ‘no kidding’ and ‘wow’. Amanda couldn’t believe it. Here she and Ken had just experienced this incredible day, and now he was acting like Nina was telling him something exciting.

How many more ways could she feel sick that day? she wondered as she slid into the booth at the ice-cream place. Was it possible that Ken was really into Nina? She couldn’t bear this – she had to do something to turn him off her. And it dawned on her that she had the means to do this. She just had to come up with a reason to feel sorry for Nina . . .

‘. . . and if I don’t get at least a C in history,’ Nina prattled, ‘I’ll have to go to summer school, which means I won’t be able to go to the beach . . .’

A summer without a tan. That was all it took.

D
R PALEY WAS NOT happy with Paul. He didn’t yell, and he didn’t threaten to punish him, but on the way back to Harmony House, he gave Paul a lecture on what he should not do.

‘You must not leave Harmony House without permission,’ he warned Paul. ‘You are not a prisoner there, but this is the one place where you are safe. Never forget that you are still in danger. The people who killed your parents are still out there, and they may still be looking for you. Do you understand?’

‘Yes,’ Paul said, and he was pleased to hear the word come out correctly and clearly.

‘And you must not shape-shift, except under controlled circumstances and in my presence. Your gift could put you in danger too. If you became, say, a lion and went out into the street, people would become frightened. You would be shot. Do you understand?’

‘Yes,’ Paul said again. Why did Dr Paley keep asking him if he understood? Paul wasn’t stupid.

‘Madame told me that you have always obeyed her orders,’ he continued. ‘You must obey my orders too. Do you understand?’

‘
Yes.’
The word came out louder this time. Dr Paley took his eyes momentarily off the road to glance at him.

‘Your voice is improving.’

When they arrived back at Harmony House, Dr Paley told him to go to his room. ‘I have an important meeting with my colleagues,’ he said. ‘I would like them to meet you. I’ll send someone to get you when we’re ready. And don’t forget what I’ve told you.’

Back in his room, Paul lay on his bed, stared at the ceiling, and thought about his little adventure. Visiting the gifted class had brought back all kinds of memories, mostly bad ones. He remembered himself sitting there day after day, not speaking, not thinking, responding to commands, following every order he was given, doing nothing on his own. He had been something not quite human.

Now he was human – and more. He could speak, he could think. He had a gift. And he didn’t have to follow orders any more.

Like the orders Dr Paley gave him just now. He knew the doctor was trying to protect him, and there was a time when Paul only wanted to be protected. That was why he followed orders, because he was always afraid.

He wasn’t afraid any more. And he didn’t want to stay in this room and wait for Dr Paley to send for him. There was so much to see, so much to explore. And hear. He was curious about Dr Paley’s meeting with his colleagues – people who believed in unusual gifts and what could be done with them. He could learn more about himself. Clearly, Dr Paley thought he wasn’t terribly intelligent, or he wouldn’t be constantly asking Paul if he understood. So he wasn’t going to get a lot of information from him, not right away at least. He wanted to hear Dr Paley and his colleagues speaking freely.

He considered his options. What could he become? He didn’t particularly want to be a cockroach again. True, he had to be small so no one would notice him, but he wanted to try something new. A spider? No, he could easily be stepped on and crushed. A snake? No. A worm . . . but they couldn’t move very fast. His plan was to go to Dr Paley’s office, listen to their conversation, and then, as soon as the doctor sent for him, return to his room and shift back.

He was going to have to be a mouse, he decided. There were mice all over this building – the doctor had said so himself. And they weren’t all shape-shifting humans. If by any chance he was spotted, no one would be too shocked.

Maybe a white mouse, not the ordinary grey kind. White ones were nicer looking. After he shifted, he wished he could get up to the mirror over the washbasin so he could admire himself, but it was just too high.

He slipped out under the door and looked around. No one was in the hall, but even so, he kept close to the wall. As he approached Dr Paley’s office, he heard voices coming from around the corner, so he dived under the door of the office next to the doctor’s.

Big mistake. ‘Eek, a mouse!’ someone screamed. So people were just as freaked out by white mice as they were by grey ones. Paul raced along the edge of the room until he came to a hole just big enough to squeeze through. He spotted another mouse in the cavity, but he didn’t pay any attention to Paul. That was good – Paul had no idea how mice communicated with each other.

He could hear people chattering excitedly through the wall of the room he’d just left.

‘Those traps we set are not working,’ one person said. ‘We have to call in some real exterminators.’

Paul shuddered. Well, he didn’t have to stay being a mouse forever. But he would have to keep an eye out for those traps. What was it people put in traps to attract mice? Cheese, right? Paul wasn’t too worried. He didn’t like cheese. It would be no temptation for him.

He followed a narrow tunnel in what he thought was the direction of Dr Paley’s office. Sure enough, after a moment, he was able to make out some other voices, including one that he recognized.