The Light Tamer (9 page)

“You can’t drop all this in my lap and walk away, no, how dare you,” I fumed. “Stop daddy, don’t leave. Now that I know, I can stop you from hurting me,” I beg.

“You’d have to kill me Jessie, and I know that would kill you. Be good,” he says as he gathers his stuff and heads for the door.

I dropped into my seat, my legs unable to hold me up anymore. “Caleb, I think that was good bye,” I say and my eyes fail me by seeping tears down my face.

We sit in the room until I can compose myself enough to leave without heads turning my way.

“Jessie, while we’re here, let’s find out what we can about your family. The computers here won’t be tied to us in any way; and it’s bright enough with all the windows to stay light.”

The energy from Caleb seems as though it absorbs my fear, comforts my soul, making it not so bad to be hunted. In reality, I am hunted, aren’t I?
I can’t believe my dad blamed me for his drinking problem. I’m sure there are other ways to tame the devil inside that wants to drain your only daughter of her light. Is this what I have to look forward to? If I lose Caleb, I become a monster that will teeter on the edge of sanity. Stop thinking about it, it is what it is. Plain and simple, now protect what is yours. Mine? Caleb and I bound to each other like stars to the sky.

“Bound together in light and friendship Jessie. It isn’t a life sentence of uncertainty, we will get through this. We were bound for a reason, together we are stronger. It’s a gift, we protect each other, and we protect a gift. You’re from the original bloodline, which means something. What do the
Dark Ones
get from you?”

“Ugh, you’re going to be right all the time aren’t you?”

“Good thing you’ve realized that early on,” Caleb flashes me his dimpled grin.

“Sheesh, conceited much?” I say and playfully pinch his arm. “I don’t know what the
Dark Ones
want, but if they find out about my
chazzle
ability, it could be bad.” I turn and face him, smiling and say, “You know what happens when I
chazzle
you,” and winked. “I could make kissing you a chazzle sport,” I say and do my best to wiggle my eyebrows up and down. I take his hand in mine as we walk through the library. “I got a text from Amber asking if we can come rescue her for the night. I’m going to ask my grandma and mom if she can stay over. I’ll probably regret it, but I’m a glutton for punishment.”

“I think she could use a friend, and I’m thinking that just might be you,” Caleb says dramatically and points at me.

And there it is, that moment when like seems too weak a word and love, well… I’ve never felt it before. His concern for his friend makes him even more attractive to me. The struggle between like and love renders me confused. This is the pivotal moment when I know this is more than words can describe.

Slow down, back up, turn around, but don’t fall,
I say to myself.

The time we’d spent in the library melted the morning sun into a blazing inferno of heat. Caleb’s car felt like a private sauna, equipped with leather seats to burn away the outer portion of your skin.

“Oh look, the sno-cone cart is here. Let’s grab a snow cone and let the A. C. cool down the car. I don’t want you to get burned on the black interior. Same flavor as last time?”

Awe, he remembers the flavor, how sweet.

“Of course, you think I’m some kind of knucklehead?” Caleb says as he pulls out his plaid Velcro wallet.

We sit on a bench with our sno-cones and try to eat them faster than they melt, unsuccessfully. Just as I’m about to take my last spoonful of melted flavored water, my biggest fear on earth happened. A bee the size of a baseball flew straight towards me, his aim spot on for my face. Before I have the ability to reason rationally, I do what most would do during an attack of a murdering bee. Without thinking, I throw my sno-cone at the bee, which sadly did not hit it. Instead, the triangle cup of lime green water slammed straight into a child no more than ten years old. I hear a blood curdling scream, realizing it was coming from my mouth, and I watch the kid burst into tears. The mother pulled her child to safety from the insane, sno-cone hurdling nut job that is screaming like a banshee. My arms go up in the air and I start flailing them back and forth in hopes of whooping the bee to the ground. I drop my purse and run screaming towards Caleb’s car.

In an instant, I watch as Caleb reaches up into the air and with lightening speed he grabs the bee out of the air. I scream in fear that it’s going to murder my boyfriend, or worse, he is going to bring it over and show it to me.
Oh, if he comes near me with that bee, I will kill him myself
. The lady and her child are huddled together at the sno-cone cart and a small group of people have stopped walking into the library, to watch the lunatic in the parking lot. I hear someone yelling for him not to do it, to stop and begging God for mercy. Again, I realize it is my voice. This isn’t going very well, I tell myself. Caleb has the bee in his hand and he is shaking his hand back and forth, knocking the bee silly. He opens up his hand, and to my horror it is still alive but very dizzy and it drops to the ground. Caleb’s foot goes stomping onto the bee, in a display of crazed lunacy. He wipes his hands on his pant leg and walks over to me with his hands held out to show me it was gone.

Without inhibitions or fear of public display of affection, I throw my arms around him and thank him with sloppy lime green tongue kisses. Caleb opens up my car door and I sit down with a thump. My boyfriend is the best killer bee murderer, ever.

What have I got myself into?

“Stick with me kid, I got your back,” Caleb said and pulled out of the parking lot. “Let’s go rescue Amber. Did your mom reply to your text?”

“She said she thought it was a good idea.”
Cooler than Me
came on the radio and Caleb and I both reach over to turn it up. His hand brushes mine and I feel my face blush at the touch. I feel embarrassed suddenly. The slightest touch of his hand, sends my heart into flutters that I’ve never felt before. As okay as I am with it, I need to understand it. I don’t.

~~~~~~~~~~

Amber is dressed in a teal tutu, ballet flats and neon pink t-shirt that has slits cut all over it draped over a neon yellow bikini top. She is either fashion forward, or STOP, turn around and put on your shades before looking her way.

“What’s up with you two? Did you do the nasty before picking me up? You both look guilty as hell,” Amber asks.

“You can be such a spoiled brat Amber,” Caleb said to her.

“Says the guy driving a Beemer and wearing designer sunglasses. I want to know if I need to Lysol the backseat before I sit in it, is all I’m askin’” Amber said as she tosses in her backpack.

“Shut up Amber,” Caleb said, letting go of the driver’s seat in time to bump her over as she sat down. “And if you ride in my car, you have to know it isn’t Beemer, it is Bimmer.”

Amber held up her middle finger so Caleb could see it in the rearview mirror. “Okay guilty children, what have you been doing today? Hey Jessie, do you have something wrong with you?”

“No, why?” I ask.

“Your tongue was that lime green color the first time I met you, and it’s that way again.”

“Amber, sit back and shut up, before I turn around and take you home,” Caleb complained.

“Damn, you two are in a mood today. Caleb, did you hear about the back to school bonfire next month? It isn’t as if I will actually go to something so lame and organized, but I thought you two and your tooty fruity lipstick would want to go.” Amber says.

A bonfire, I didn’t know kids still have them. How cool, but strange to go to something where no one knows you.

“No, where did you hear about it? Do you have a secret bff that you’re hiding?” Caleb replied.

“Yeah, ten. No, you freak, the website…duh,” Amber said as she leans forward and wraps her hands around our headrest. “Where have you lovers been today? I tried calling your house, no one answered the phone.”

I turn sideways and tuck my foot under me. “We went to the library, and I threw a sno-cone at a kid. That’s about it,” I say. I thought about telling her what my dad said, but remembered I can’t.

“You did not!” Amber exclaims.

Caleb and I shake our heads up and down.

“Why in the blankity blank blank would you throw a cone at a kid? Is that some New Yorker thing to do? You know, like initiation or something.”

“You figured me out, yup, I’m trying to be gangster. It’s all the craze for us Bronx kids, we run around and tag little kids.”

“I learned today that Jessie here, has an unrealistic fear of bees,” Caleb says and pats me on the leg.

“Unrealistic? I think not, that bee was about to murder me.”

“No, the mom of the kid was about to murder you, the bee was on his way to his hive in the tree.”

“Whatever,” I say and cross my arms. “Just kidding. I know I have issues with bees, at least I don’t freak out when I see butterflies anymore.” I don’t tell them that last week I about had a heart attack over a hummingbird. Riding back into town we listen to some punk band that Amber swore up and down we’d love. Personally, I thought my ears were about to bleed.

After grabbing some dinner at a local café, we decide to go over to Union Point Park for an impromptu picnic. The park is busy as usual, with the health conscience walkers, dates, and people throwing bread to the seagulls and ducks. The river is so wide, it is almost impossible to see the other side. A modern drawbridge now replaces the one that was here when I was a kid. I remember that I’d imagine what it was like to live on the yachts in the harbor. I would call myself princess of Carolina.

“You going to eat or stare at the river all night?” Amber asks and swipes Caleb’s pickle off his Styrofoam box. “You daydream a lot, must be hard wrestling those voices in your head.”

“Has anyone ever told you that your delivery is, well…wrong. The voices in my head tell me to find a rock and throw it at you. Lucky for you, I’ve opted not to do that, out of genuine concern for you.” I say in reply.

“Oh, nice, little B’s got some spunk,” Amber says.

“Isn’t this quaint, two geeks having a picnic in the park. What’s wrong, the restaurant wouldn’t allow you to eat inside? Afraid you might scare the patrons away with your face?” The voice said from behind me.

Caleb stands up so quick I had to catch his dinner before it spills on our blanket.

“Darla, I see the mental ward is missing its latest patient. Go away and leave us alone,” Caleb said.

I stand up thinking that one girl wouldn’t take on three people. I cross my fingers and use my best Bronx accent to scare her away. “Yo, you gotta problem with my friends? Cause, if you do, you gotta problem with me too.”

“Yeah, Darla from Vanceboro,” Amber quips. “What’s wrong little Miss. Mutt, don’t have any friends to hang out with? I suggest you get your flat pancake ass out of here, before we call your daddy the pastor and tell him how sweet you aren’t,” Amber says as she stands up.

“Oh great, the dog speaks,” Darla says.

“I’m about to show you dog,” Amber growls.

A lady walking a Doberman pincher comes over to where we are. “Is there a problem over here?” The lady asks.

Everyone except me looks at the woman with terror across their face. I see nothing terrifying about her, maybe her dog is terrifying. She is average height, with dark short hair and her skin is very tan.

“No ma’am,” Caleb says. “Darla here came over to say hi to us, that’s all.”

“Darla, you aren’t giving Caleb and Amber problems are you?”

Darla slumps her shoulders in defeat and assures the woman she wasn’t. Right, she always talks to people that way. No one bothers to introduce me to the lady; causing me to shift from foot to foot uncomfortably. Darla rattles her car keys and says she has to leave, not before saying a syrupy sweet good-bye to us.

“Mrs. Ward, hi, how is your summer break going?” Caleb asks in a sped up version of his regular speech. Why this woman is bringing so much stress to both Amber and Caleb is beyond me. She seems perfectly nice.

“My summer is going well Mr. Baldwin. I see that you’re showing Miss. Lucente around town,” Mrs. Ward said and smiled my direction.

Woa, how does she know my name? “I’m sorry, have we met before?” I ask.

She switches hands with the dog leash and holds her right hand out to me. “Not formally, but I do try to know all of my new students before they come to school.”

Amber eyes her suspiciously and whispers to me. “Mrs. Ward is the principal of our school and she has been very close with the T L T’s. I thinkith she has some secret society of her own going on at the school. You’ll get it…. You will.” I try to ignore Amber and