Red

by Richard P Rigoli

  “Oh, yeah,” Emma replied with a nod. “It’s so crazy that I didn’t even want to bring Livs into it until I got a chance to tell you.”

  “Go on.”

  As Emma went over what she found in the folder and what it could possibly mean, Rai sat for a long time without saying anything. She didn’t mention seeing Jade with a similar sword to Rai—at least not until she’d had a chance to talk to Jade herself first. He looked very concerned, stroking his chin thoughtfully with his fingers. Emma paced around before settling on the railing and leaning against a post to face him.

  “That’s incredible,” He said after a long quiet moment. “Do you think it’s the real thing?”

  “It might be,” Emma said “—but even if it was a replica, all it would take is for someone to believe it was the real sword to explain what happened to your dad’s warehouse.”

  “Yeah.” Rai nodded. “I can see why you were frantic-texting now.” He looked like he was about to say something else and paused, then closed his mouth with a small shrug.

  “Now,” Emma said. “How about you tell me the big secret you’ve been holding back for weeks.”

  “I don’t know what—” Rai began but Emma shook her head at him.

  “Spill it, Rai. I’ve been more than patient.”

  Finally, Rai stood up with the kind of deference he would show if he were about to deliver a speech at graduation. “Emma, you’re right. There is something I need to tell you,” he said, sounding serious.”

  “Is it about Jade?” Emma asked.

  “She factors in but forget about her for a minute. This is about me.”

  She nodded for him to continue.

  He opened his jacket and revealed a dark blue tee-shirt underneath. He moved his fingers around the central imprinted logo like a hand-model, showing her the details. It was a stylized logo that looked like cloud in the shape of an upraised fist, set in light blue over the dark background of his shirt. It wouldn’t be the first time Rai managed to get an official shirt before the release of a new movie or comic book.

  “Is it a new, secret character or something?”

  “Yeah, something like that,” Rai murmured with an odd expression.

  Emma tried to be patient with Rai but wasn’t in the mood to talk about animated hero films.

  “Emma,” he confessed, “I’m a superhero.”

  In her mind, she began ranting about the other forty million times Rai thought he was a superhero. He read too many comic books. She tamped down on her irritation though. Emma pursed her lips and folded her arms under the blanket. “Why do you think you’re a superhero, Rai?” she finally asked, leveling her eyes at him.

  An upward curl formed on his lips as he lifted his arm with his palm facing toward her. A sudden breeze blew over Emma, her long hair whipping back as if she had stuck her head out the window of a fast-moving car. “Okay, that was a good one. So, where’s the fan?” She looked around for the suspected item.

  “I’m the fan, and it’s no joke,” Rai said with a straight a face. “I get it. You’re going to need some convincing that I’m not pranking you.” Rai curled his fingers into a tightly closed fist and abruptly made a punching motion toward her. A hard, invisible “something” forced her off the railing, sending her backward, feet over head. Emma tumbled over the hedges and landed with a thud on the back lawn.

  Rai leaped off the patio after her. “I’m so sorry, Em. That was stronger than I meant.”

  “Ow!” Emma swore as she rubbed her backside, “What was that?”

  Rai put an arm around her and helped her back to the patio lounge. “It’s a little something I figured out I can do.”

  “A little something?” Emma scoffed.

  Rai scanned the area and noticed a set of wind chimes hanging at the other end of the porch. He lifted his hand and wiggled his fingers at the decoration. Immediately, the silvery tubes began swinging and tinkling together melodiously. Rai dropped his hand, and the chimes quieted to a stop.

  “So, you can move things with your mind, now? Like telekinesis or something?” Emma sat up, staring widely at her friend, trying to detect the trick while somehow knowing there wasn’t one. “I swear if you’re putting me on after the day I’ve had, I’m going to kill you.”

  “I know it doesn’t sound possible, but it’s real,” he said with a smile. “It’s something like TK, yeah, but it’s more like I can control the air around me.” Rai looked around. He focused on the patio furniture but seemed to think better of it. Looking out at the lawn, he nodded once, and the bird bath fell over.

  Emma stared in amazement. Rai was standing beside her on the porch, yet she clearly saw the porcelain ornamental bird bath get knocked over without anyone near it. “It was you.” She said, pointing her finger at him accusingly.

  “What was me?”

  “You were at Kendra’s party and ninja’d all those guards!”

  “Guilty as charged,” Rai agreed and gave the same sweeping bow for emphasis.

  “You’re a superhero,” Emma said shaking her head. “You actually did it somehow. I can’t believe it. What happened? Was there a horrible lab accident or something? I mean, how’d you get powers? When did you find out? I have so many questions—”

  Rai took a seat on the railing across from her and leaned back. “Remember that night I talked about how I moved things around my desk? I tried to show you then, but it didn’t work.” Rai chuckled. “That was embarrassing,”

  “Yeah, I remember,” she said. “I thought you were losing it because of stress and the warehouse stuff.”

  “I would’ve thought that too,” he agreed. “And I was beginning to doubt myself. So, I spent most of the next week trying to move things with my mind. I got nothing but headaches for my efforts. But, I eventually figured out how I did it.” Rai flashed a wide grin and paused with a combination of dramatic flair and smugness.

  Emma moved forward on the couch, waiting for him to continue. “Going to leave me hanging here? Really?”

  “Okay! Okay!” Rai said as he stood up. “It’s just that I had this excellent speech prepared for my origin story.”

  “Your what?”

  “My origin story, Em,” Rai sighed. “All good heroes have an origin. It’s the story of how they got their powers, and what inspired them to be a hero.”

  “So, you got bitten by a radioactive ceiling fan?” Emma asked with a smirk.

  “Har har.” Rai pantomimed a hysterical belly laugh followed by a scowl. “I bring you evidence of real superpowers, and I get Captain Sarcasm?”

  “Sorry, Rai, it’s how I cope,” Emma replied with a soft smile.

  “True enough. Besides, if this isn’t just a cool dream or some temporary condition, I’m going to need someone to help me keep my head straight. I can always count on you for that, right?”

  “Happy to be of service,” she said, snapping off a salute. They shared grins and a quiet moment before Emma nodded for him to continue.

  “Anyway, moving on,” He said as he began walking back and forth excitedly. “I realized that I could feel the air around me.”

  “Like the wind?” Emma asked as she slid back onto the seat, swinging her legs over the arm, and trying to remain casual.

  “Sort of. But, it was more like I was aware of the air around me. I spent another day trying to push air around and getting generally frustrated. That was before I decided to try it the Jedi way.” He stopped pacing and put on a serene expression and then quoted, “’Calm your mind and feel the Force flowing through you, young Skywalker’.”

  “And that worked?” Emma narrowed her eyes at him.

  “Mostly,” he said and bobbed his head once. “I’ve had to tweak it a bit, but it is all about visualization. I had to picture the air in my mind to really start doing anything with it.”

  “How do you picture air?”

  “That was the tricky part,” he grinned. “At first, I could barely blow out a candle, but the more accurate
I could imagine the air near it, the better I could control it.” He lifted his arms and spread his fingers, waving them slowly. “I can feel it all around me. But to do something with it, I had to see it in my mind, every little ripple and flow.”

  “Smoke!” Emma exclaimed, snapping her fingers. “You could use smoke or fog!”

  “Exactly! I studied smoke,” he exclaimed. “My mom thought I was getting into something weird with all the incense burning and meditation I was doing.”

  “You can move things with your mind, Rai! What are you going to do now?” Emma said excitedly. She was becoming sold on the idea that Rai somehow had paranormal abilities. Maybe it was her history with him, but she reserved a small part that held doubt and waited for him to yell, “April Fools!” But that was a small part, and it was becoming smaller by the minute.

  “There’s more,” he whispered, lowering himself on the lounge beside her.

  “You can do more than knock people over and stuff?” she asked.

  Rai looked at her sideways. “No, I mean there are others with powers.”

  “No, way!” Emma snorted. It was surprising that Rai had powers, but the thought of other people running around with superhuman abilities was a complete mind-blower. “How can you tell?”

  “It’s subtle,” Rai explained, “Almost like a scent you catch when someone passes. You turn to look at them, and they have this sort of glow around them.”

  Emma’s mind already skipped ahead to what Rai was trying to tell her. “Who else, Rai? Who has powers besides you?”

  Rai shook his head emphatically. “Certain codes are universal, Em. The others’ secrets aren’t mine to tell.”

  Emma reeled from this unexpected reality. Rai had superpowers, and now so did others. She started calculating how many it might be—was it two, five, or five hundred? Rai wasn’t going to tell her, but she could figure it out. Then, something clicked as she started replaying things in her head, recent events, conversations, and visions of a particular meadow.

  “It’s Jordan, isn’t it?” She asked and snapped her fingers again, pointing at him. “He gave up playing football, and suddenly the two of you are hanging out and ‘training.’ You’ve been training your freaking powers, haven’t you!?”

  “Look, Em,” Rai said flatly, “I’m just saying some secrets aren't mine to tell. I’m glad I’m able to talk with you about it, and I want you to know that I’ll tell you everything about what’s happening with me. You’re my best friend. But Em, something like this can never—ever—be public.”

  Emma brought her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. “Yes, I’ve read enough comic books to picture what can happen if someone with powers gets found out. But this isn’t a comic book, Rai. What do you think the government—the real government—would do if people with powers start popping up?”

  “I hope they don’t believe it, like Big Foot or UFO’s. But you never know, and that’s why we’ve got to keep it secret.”

  “I won’t say anything; you know that,” Emma reassured him.

  “Good,” He said, “I knew you wouldn’t.” His face softened with relief, and he took her hand in one of his.

  They sat silently hand-in-hand on the porch couch for a long while as she let the news of life-altering dynamics sink in.

  Rai finally broke the silence between them and announced that it was about time for him to head home. Emma stood up and hugged him tightly.

  “Rai?” she asked but felt slightly embarrassed in doing so, “Am I one of them, one of the people you recognize?”

  “No,” Rai answered immediately. He must have seen the disappointment in her face. “Um, sometimes it’s hard to see, and I don’t know everything about it yet. Maybe not everyone develops at the same time?”

  “I get it. I’m just an ordinary girl.”

  She walked Rai quietly around the yard to the side gate.

  He stopped briefly and regarded her. “Emma, nothing about you is ordinary. And I’m not the only one who thinks so.” He squeezed both of her hands and gave her a warm smile before heading out.

  After he left, Emma went back to her room and flopped down onto her clothes-covered bed. She wondered if she would be able to sleep at all now that all the parts to the puzzle just got more complicated.

  26

  MAGGIE’S MANSION

  “Can you come over? We need to talk,” Emma said to Rai over the phone.

  “Sounds ominous,” He replied. There was a lot of noise in the background wherever Rai was. “I’m a little tied up right now. I’ll swing by as soon as I get free.”

  The call disconnected, and Emma decided to focus on her homework for a while. Her grades hadn’t slipped that much, she tried consoling herself, but knew it was a complete lie. She was struggling lately to stay focused on academics. However, there was just so much exciting distraction around her recently. She frowned down at her economics book. Talk about distraction. That class is loaded with it. Regardless, she did her best to pay attention to the chapter as she read over the material for tomorrow again.

  Emma had hinted and tried subtle probing comments with Jordan over the last few weeks, but he refused to open up about what was going on with him. Emma was sure Jordan had abilities since her conversation with Rai on the back patio. It was eating her up not knowing for sure, but she decided to give him time and, at least try, not to push him on it. Then there was Jade, her oldest friend that still wasn’t talking to her. Jade was obviously going through something and Emma wished she could be there for her while simultaneously hoping her friend wasn’t involved somehow in the Aoi warehouse fire.

  ***

  Emma woke up to the sound of someone knocking on her window. She pulled away a sheet of notepaper that was stuck to her face and wiped her eyes. “It’s not locked, Rai.”

  “Were you asleep?” Rai asked as he came in. “It’s only six.”

  “Brooding and studying is tiring work, what can I say?”

  “So, you planning to finally fill me in on what’s up with you and Jade?” Rai leaned against her dresser regarding her curiously. Emma had avoided talking about this for too long, and they both knew it.

  “She has the sword, Rai.”

  “Wait, what?” Rai blinked. “What do you mean she has the sword?”

  “She has the stolen sword from the warehouse, Rai. I saw it. She’s been carrying it around inside that guitar case for weeks now.”

  “Are you sure?” Rai looked stunned and brought his hand up to his face as if to make certain his head was still properly attached. “I mean couldn’t it have been some sword she already had for whatever martial arts stuff she’s been doing since forever?”

  “It’s possible,” Emma raked her hair back from her face and shrugged. “I’m no expert on swords, but I have a good picture of the one you’re missing, and this one looked just like it.”

  ***

  For Winter break, Cypress High School let out at noon on Friday before. Cassandra arranged for a holiday vacation in Galveston to meet up with Emma’s uncle, Arthur Vanora. He was her dad’s philanthropic, older brother. Uncle Arthur had told her mother that spending Christmas with Emma was a fantastic idea and planned for additional lodging at Maggie’s Mansion that was located in the historical district on Broadway.

  Emma didn’t know much about her uncle, but her mom described him as wealthy and eccentric. She wasn’t sure if that was code for something, but the thought that someone in her family might be a millionaire was intriguing. Emma made a mental note that she would have to ask him about that.

  It was a long, four-hour drive from Wimberley to Galveston. Emma didn’t relish listening to her mom work over her Bluetooth the whole way and was glad she remembered to pack her tablet and a pair of earphones.

  While driving on an empty stretch of IH-10, Emma tried texting Jade’s number again. Almost immediately, she got a reply. “The recipient you are sending to has chosen not to receive messages (Message 2109)” Emma fumed. R
eally? She freaking blocked me?

  Rai had told her to back off and give Jade a chance to explain on her own, that pressing her for information would just push her further away. She sensed he was right, but Jade having the sword and Emma not knowing how or why was like a sore tooth she couldn’t ignore.

  The miles rolled past with scattered small talk from her mother between real estate related calls. They were about an hour from Galveston when Emma received a text message from a number she didn’t recognize.

  “sry 4 drama! grounded! still friends? -Jade-.”

  Emma beamed and quickly texted back; “Friends 4ever”

  “talk later. drama still!” The message ended with a heart emoji.

  It didn’t answer any of her nagging questions, but Emma felt stupidly happy anyway. At least, her friend was still her friend. Everything else would work itself out. She was sure of it now. She was digging around in the glove compartment for a tissue a moment later.

  “What’s wrong? Are you crying?” Her mom was looking at her curiously.

  “I’m good, Mom,” Emma laughed and sobbed at the same time. “I just heard from Jade. We’re cool again.”

  “Oh!” Her mom smiled warmly. “That’s so nice, Dear.”

  ***

  Out of curiosity, Emma looked up “Maggie’s Mansion” on her phone. She didn’t find anything under that exact name but saw images of an incredible historical building located on Broadway.

  It was a large manor constructed in a Victorian-Gothic style using red granite and limestone. The home had been the residence for a powerful politician in the late 1800’s and was passed down through his family. There was a lot of history about how the building had withstood massive hurricanes while other homes had been destroyed all around it. Emma scrolled through the article and discovered that some authorities believed that the mansion’s endurance was a testament to its superior architecture and engineering. Other locals believed that something supernatural was responsible for the mansion surviving such massive storms. Emma enjoyed reading about that.