by Rae Knightly
Ben grinned, unable to believe his luck. “Thanks!” he said earnestly.
This is perfect!
“That’s it, then. Off you go. If you hurry, you might catch the bus.” Joe ushered him out.
Ben waved, then he and Tike sprinted across the playground. He could see busses filling up with school children. Max’s red backpack stood out in the crowd. Ben headed in the same direction and made it just as the last students settled into their seats.
The back of the bus was rowdy. Tyler and Wes occupied the back seats, talking loudly. Max sat a few rows forward. The curly-haired boy waved and slid over into the empty seat by the window.
“I saved you a spot,” Max said, fishing a big bag of cookies from the open backpack on his lap.
“Thanks!” Ben spoke out of breath as the bus departed. Tike jumped onto his lap.
“Whoa!” Max exclaimed, hugging his cookies.
Ben laughed. “Don’t worry. Tike won’t eat them.” He scratched Tike’s ears, noticing the forlorn look the dog was giving him.
Max shrugged and dug into the bag. “Wan’ one?” he asked Ben while he stuffed his mouth.
Ben helped himself to a cookie and made sure some crumbs fell onto his lap as he bit into it. Tike was quick to notice. As he chatted with Max, Ben spotted a person dressed in black on the sidewalk. A blast of cold air hit him in the neck.
“Hey, Kimimela!” Tyler shouted out the back window. “My monsters won’t abandon you. You want them?”
Ben whirled and caught Kimi making an obscene gesture at Tyler. Wes cried with laughter.
“Shut up, Tyler!” Ben yelled. The words were out of his mouth before he realized it.
Tyler pulled his head away from the window, startled. His face flushed, but not with anger. He shrugged sheepishly and closed the window, then flopped down next to Wes, eyeing Ben with a touch of respect. The noise in the bus died down a bit.
Ben settled into his seat again, his arms crossed across his chest. Hearing one kid making fun of another made his blood boil. It wasn’t the girl’s fault if she was an outsider. He, for one, knew exactly how that felt.
Max hadn’t budged; he was still chomping away. He offered Ben the cookie bag. “Don’t mind her,” he said. “She wants to be alone.”
Ben considered this as he took a bite. “What did Tyler call her? I thought her name was Kimi?”
“Kimimela,” Max corrected.
“Kimimela? That’s a strange name. I’ve never heard it before.”
Max stuffed a cookie in his mouth. “Dats cuz’ it’s naydiv.”
Ben stopped munching. “Naydiv?”
Max swallowed hard. “No, dummy. Native, like, Native American. You know…?”
Ben stopped bringing the cookie to his mouth, his eyes widening in understanding. “Oh, I see. She’s First Nation, then.”
“Only half,” Max explained. “Her mom’s from the Dakhona Reservation. I don’t think she lives there anymore, though.” A boy sitting behind them tapped Max on the shoulder and asked for a cookie. Max turned to chat with him.
Ben stared out the window, lost in thought. He recognized a shop window and suddenly remembered he lived only three bus stops away from the school.
“I gotta go!” he said, picking up his backpack. Tike slipped to the ground and caught the last of his cookie. “Bye.” He waved at Max.
The back of the bus erupted, “Bye, Ben!”
Ben grinned at Wes and Tyler as they shouted their goodbyes gleefully.
“See you tomorrow!” Wes yelled in a sing-song voice, waving his arm in the air like a ballerina. Just before reaching the door, Ben saw Tyler shove his friend into the window, so Wes’ arm hung limp above his head. “Aargh!” the boy groaned with heavy exaggeration.
Ben shook his head. Those two clowns were rowdy but harmless.
He hopped down the steps, almost walking straight into Mesmo as he landed on the snowy walkway. He straightened to take in the tall alien standing before him.
The doors slid closed and the bus took off in a roar.
“Hi,” Ben said through the sound of the motor.
“Hi,” Mesmo replied.
Ben ignored Wes and Tyler as they sped by with their faces plastered against the bus window, their mouths open in crazy grins and their noses flattened against the windowpane.
“New friends?” Mesmo asked.
Ben snorted. “Not really,” he said, then shrugged. “Maybe.”
Facing Mesmo always stirred inscrutable feelings deep inside of him. Chatting about simple things such as a school day seemed trivial when faced with a being from a distant planet who had crossed the universe in a spaceship that far surpassed any human technology. It always took Ben a couple of giddy seconds to accept this information before he felt comfortable enough to speak with the alien.
“Should you be here?” he asked finally.
Mesmo checked his surroundings, frowning. “Do I look out of place?”
Ben considered the alien man who was wearing jeans, a brown jacket and a curious fur hat with ear flaps. Aside from his height and one strand of white hair peeking out from under the hat, he fit quite well among humans.
“It’ll do,” Ben said. “At least your hat is appropriate for this climate.” He indicated the snowy city street. A few pedestrians wore different types of hats to fend off the cold. “I’m more worried that someone might step into you.” He reached out and passed his hand through Mesmo’s arm. He found it fascinating to observe the fabric of Mesmo’s clothes, the details of his hands, the tiny hairs of his fur hat. Everything looked completely solid. Yet—he knew—the man who apparently stood before him was not really there. Not physically anyway.
“I don’t remember calling you,” Ben pondered, checking that his silver wristwatch with the spirit portal was still safely attached to his arm.
Mesmo gave him a small smile. “You don’t need to. Our bond is growing stronger. The portal is now always open to me. I can come and go as I please.”
Ben stared at the snow, wondering whether he liked that piece of information or not. “Let’s go,” he said, subdued.
They walked side by side towards Thomas’ house.
Footprints.
The word formed in Ben’s mind, making him glance back.
Tike stared at him, then sniffed at the snow.
“Oh!” Ben exclaimed. “You’re not leaving any footprints!” Both he and Mesmo observed the ground behind them. There was only one set of footprints in the snow and they belonged to Ben. He stared at the alien quizzically.
Mesmo smiled. “Well now, that is something I can remedy.” A soft glow appeared around his hands, and as he put one foot in front of the other, the snow under his feet melted.
Ben watched the patches of walkway appearing next to his own footprints.
Of course! Mesmo can manipulate water, and snow IS water!
He grinned and nodded approvingly. “Cool!”
CHAPTER 5 The Crow
The weeks would have gone by smoothly if it hadn’t been for what happened on a Tuesday morning.
Ben got used to catching up on homework, helping Max understand assignments and the three girlfriends—Alice, Joelle and Kimberly—making annoyed comments when Tyler and Wes cracked rude jokes in class. The gloomy girl, Kimi, brooded at the back of the class and avoided contact with anyone. But all in all, Ben was quite content going about his normal school activities with his friendly classmates.
The problem, however, didn't come from school. It came from an entirely unexpected source. And that source was Tike.
Never in a million years would Ben have thought that he’d have any kind of issue with his four-legged friend, but that Tuesday morning, something that he had refused to accept so far was thrust into the light.
He was running late and hurriedly finished lacing his snow boots to his feet.
Drats! I forgot my gloves upstairs!
He considered untying the boots again so he wouldn't dirty the carpet but t
hen decided against it. He’d have to do without gloves that day. He zipped his jacket, thrust his backpack on his shoulder and shoved the key into the front door to lock it.
“Tike!” he called, realizing the dog was still inside.
His terrier zipped through the door to join him outside and wagged his tail enthusiastically, Ben’s gloves clamped in his mouth.
Ben stiffened. Had he spoken aloud when he remembered his gloves? He was pretty sure he hadn't. He reached out to take the gloves from Tike’s mouth, but froze again. A blue halo of light surrounded his hand. He jumped back, staring at it in fright. He heard the blood rushing to his ears, and his heart began to thump harder.
Thud-thud, thud-thud.
He shut his eyes tight and shook his head—as if that would rid him of a reality he refused to accept.
He already knew that Tike was trying to use the alien skill to communicate with him. He had suspected it for quite some time, but no matter how wonderful the idea seemed, he would not, could not, accept it, for accepting it meant opening up to the alien poison in his blood. It meant accepting that he was becoming an anomaly, a mutated being that was neither human nor alien. Hadn’t Inspector Hao glimpsed Ben’s true self when he had said, “I know what you are!”
Not who. But what.
He was turning into a thing.
“Hey, kiddo! Time to go!” Thomas called from the driveway.
Ben held his glowing hands close to his body, nodding vaguely in Thomas’ direction. He noticed that Tike was no longer wagging his tail, but stared at him curiously. Ben found he could not stare back at his own dog. He concentrated on putting on his gloves, his brain fighting to shut Tike out, and in so doing, shut out the skill.
I have to ignore it.
That was his only remedy. If he ignored the skill’s existence, there was a chance it would weaken. Maybe it would even disappear altogether. The problem with that strategy was this: he would have to ignore Tike as well.
Ben didn’t think about it further until he picked up Tike after school. The sight of his dog brought the incident back to his mind and he found himself reluctant to look at Tike’s eyes. Instead, he said, “C’mon, let’s hurry, or we'll miss the bus.”
They left the school from the side door, but instead of heading for the bus stop, Tike suddenly darted away from Ben in the opposite direction.
“Tike!” Ben yelled. The terrier was already halfway across the football field, heading toward a row of trees.
“Tike! Come here!” Ben called again, annoyance creeping into his voice. He jogged after the dog, then slowed down when he realized a form was crouching in front of some bushes.
Ben frowned. “Tike?” he said more slowly.
The person’s head turned to face the dog, and Ben recognized the long side bangs as it slipped before the girl’s eyes. Kimi shoved the strand of hair behind her ear and made a gesture as if to block Tike from moving forward. When she noticed Ben approaching, she threw him an angry glare. “Hey! Is that your dog?” she shouted. “Call him off!”
Ben reached her side. “It’s ok. He’s friendly,” he said reassuringly.
No need to overreact.
But she was no longer looking at him. Instead, Ben realized both the girl and his dog had spotted something low in the bushes. Branches rustled revealing a black crow that cawed loudly, thrashing around as it tried to free itself.
Ben’s gloved hands warmed abnormally. Blood rushed to his ears, accompanied by a wave of intense fear. Stars swam before his eyes, and he almost retched as an overwhelming pain made his left arm go limp. He dropped to his knees in the snow, wincing.
Kimi, who pushed aside some branches, must have thought he had gasped in surprise, because she said, “Sh! Don’t make a noise. I think it’s hurt. And pull your dog away. He’s scaring it.”
Ben blinked tears from his eyes and tried to ignore the staggering pain that drowned his thoughts. He inhaled silently several times, almost drowning in the bird’s fear as it coursed through his brain.
Don’t be afraid.
He directed the thought at the crow, trying to counter the bird’s panic. It eyed him with beady, black eyes, its wings spread at a strange angle, its beak half open. From a corner of his brain, Ben observed his huge self from the bird’s eyes. His heart raced in combined rhythm with the crow’s. The fear that grasped his mind was not his, yet he felt it to the core. He vaguely registered Kimi speaking next to him and tried to concentrate on what she was saying, though her words sounded foreign.
“I think its wing is broken,” Kimi said. “I’ve tried to catch it, but it keeps flapping around and getting stuck further in.”
It hurts!
Ben’s head exploded with words that were not his. And searing pain throbbed through his own arm. His heart raced, thud-thud, thud-thud and for a second he lost himself completely in the crow’s mind. Frantically, he sent soothing thoughts to the bird.
I’ll help you.
The crow gave up flapping and regarded him with the eyes of a trapped animal. They stared at each other, each assessing plausible dangers. The fear in Ben’s mind subsided somewhat and he was able to think more clearly.
Don’t be afraid. I’ll help you.
He sent the thought to the crow again, more clearly this time, and it bowed its head in acceptance. Ben reached out to it.
“No!” Kimi pushed his arm away. “It’ll peck at you!”
He heard her as if from somewhere far away. Removing his scarf, he held it from both ends and slowly approached the crow.
It’s okay. Trust me.
He wrapped his hands carefully around the tense body, ignoring the searing pain in his arm. With the greatest care not to touch its broken wing, Ben lifted the bird and wrapped it in his scarf. By the time he stood again, his mind had cleared somewhat, and he realized that Kimi was staring at him with her mouth open.
“Wow!” she breathed. “How did you do that?”
Ben hoped his inner struggle wasn’t showing on his face. He shrugged and replied, “I have a way with animals, I guess.”
Kimi snorted, “Yeah, I’ll say!” She frowned, considering him with worried eyes. “Are you okay? You look like you saw a ghost.”
No, I’m not okay.
Cold sweat accumulated on his forehead. He felt sick, like his stomach was in his throat; his legs were weak. “I should take it to a vet,” he said unsteadily. “Do you know any?”
An indefinite emotion flickered over the girl’s eyes, but Ben couldn’t tell what it was because her long strand of black hair hid half her face.
“Yes, I know one,” she replied without much enthusiasm. She picked up her backpack and added, “Come on.” She headed off with Ben following.
He found himself on the very sidewalk where Tyler had shouted at Kimi from the bus several days back.
As if reading his mind, Kimi slowed down so they were walking side by side. “I heard about what you said to Tyler on the bus the other day,” she said. “You didn’t have to do that.”
Ben gave her a sideways smile. “Tyler’s a jerk.”
To his surprise, her laugh came out crystal clear and authentic. He liked it immediately. “Wes, too!” She agreed, grinning.
They chatted sporadically, Ben having to stop to catch his breath once in a while and to shift the bird's weight away from his aching arm.
Twenty minutes later, Kimi led him away from the street and into a back alley. They passed snow-covered yards and garden sheds until they reached a property with a brick structure that was detached from the main house. Kimi opened a low fence and let him through. Then she fished some keys from her jacket pocket, one of which she inserted in the door lock of the small building. When Ben glanced inside the dim room, he found a curious table in its center while cabinets lined the back wall. A couple of animal cages were stacked against the side.
Kimi switched on a bright, neon light, then hurried across the room to grab one of the cages, which she placed on the table.
“Here,” she said. “You can put the crow in the cage for now.”
Ben did so reluctantly, ignoring its caws. “So… uh… where are we exactly?” he asked.
She avoided his eyes. “I live here,” she said, pointing vaguely at the house opposite the square building. When Ben continued to stare at her quizzically, she sighed and added, “My mom’s a vet. She doesn't practice anymore, though. She's been… sick.”
“Oh,” Ben said, studying the room again. Suddenly the central table, the cabinets containing medical supplies, and the animal cages made sense.
Kimi headed to the door. Still without looking at him, she said, “Wait here. I'll get my mom.”
He watched her leave, a slight frown above his brow.
It’s as if she didn’t want me here.
Pain!
Ben whirled to face the crow in the cage. The blood rushed to his ears again and he could not control it. The crow stared at him with its tiny, round eyes, oblivious to the boy’s inner struggle. A cold ripple travelled up and down Ben’s back. So, was this going to be his new reality? Was he going to feel every animal’s pain and thoughts? He wanted to cry from despair. He could barely stand the feelings of one creature. How was he ever going to survive the burden of thought from the whole animal kingdom? And with each contact, he could sense the blue filaments in his blood multiplying, anchoring themselves into his very being. He still had his gloves on, but he could feel his hands warming with alien power. A wave of nausea washed over him and he had to hold on to the table for support.
The crow thrashed, causing searing pain to shoot up Ben’s arm every time the bird hit the cage.
“Stop it!” Ben muttered through gritted teeth, before realizing he was no longer alone. He turned to find Kimi, followed by a woman.
The woman was slightly taller than him, had long, straight black hair to her waist, dark eyes, thin lips and elegant features. She must have been stunning at some point, but right now she wore an old sweater and she seemed very tired. Even with Kimi’s beanie hat and side bangs, the resemblance to her mother was striking.
“This is my mom, Maggie,” Kimi explained, sounding as though she was trying to excuse the woman’s unkempt appearance. “Mom, this is Ben Anderson.”
