Connected: Book 1 Connected Series

by Kat Stiles

  “Yeah, she foresaw us getting our powers,” I said. It sounded so funny to say I had powers. Like I was a superhero or something.

  “So anyway, the vision came in clearer,” Roz said. “I recognized one of the two men, Mr. Godfrey—he lives down the block. I still couldn’t figure out what exactly they were doing, but there was definitely a transfer taking place. Oh, and there was a woman there, too.”

  “Is it a vision of the future?” I asked.

  “Judy thinks so,” Roz said. “I was sent to the nurse’s office after I ‘fell asleep’ in class.”

  “What do you mean by transfer?” Tommy asked.

  “I guess it’s some kind of energy or something,” Roz explained. “But then it got more intense. It woke me out of the vision in class. I’m worried the man may be getting hurt.”

  “What did Judy say you should do?” I asked.

  “Nothing, she got all weirded out when I talked about the transfer. She asked if I was sure the man was getting hurt. I’m pretty sure she knows something. Maybe she’s protecting someone.” Roz sighed. “And I think I’m supposed to stop this from happening.”

  What if her visions are like dreams, where you don’t always remember everything you’ve seen, but the details are still there?

  “Roz, I was thinking, maybe if I could help you relax, you might recall your vision clearer.”

  “It’s worth a shot,” she said, but she looked off to the side, and I could sense doubt from her.

  I shared her skepticism… Would we be able to figure out the vision before it happens?

  * * * *

  Tommy came with us to the nurse’s office, which was surprisingly empty. It did make sense, though—most students would rather get out of class than lunch, and as such would schedule their illnesses accordingly.

  “Ah, my three favorite students.” Judy winked at me.

  “Yeah, we figured it out,” I said.

  She smiled. “Knew you would. Anything I can help you with?”

  “Can we use a bed?” I asked. “Need to work on Roz. We won’t go past the lunch hour.”

  “Sure, help yourselves,” she said before returning to her desk.

  Tommy moved a couple of chairs next to one of the beds, and Roz lay down. I placed my hands on each side of her head.

  “Breathe normally,” I said.

  Within minutes, her breathing became rhythmic, and her body relaxed.

  “I want you to think about your last vision,” I said. “Tell me everything you see, one detail at a time.”

  Her voice was so calm, it almost sounded as if she were drunk. “I see the house, in my neighborhood. It’s still daylight. There’s a garbage can on the sidewalk, two kids skateboarding in the street. Inside there’s a woman and a man on a couch, with another man on a chair nearby… The woman’s talking, she’s sad. The man in the chair is concentrating… The man on the couch seems to understand now.” She paused momentarily, before continuing in a petrified whisper. “Someone else enters the room… He’s angry.”

  “Okay, Roz, we’re done. Try to clear your mind now.” I slowly lifted my hands from her head. She took a minute to return to full consciousness.

  “Did I say anything useful?” She rubbed her eyes. “I was kinda out of it.”

  “Yes,” I said. “We know it’s going to happen tonight or possibly next Monday.”

  “How do you know that?” Tommy asked.

  “Roz and I live in subdivisionland. Garbage is picked up on Mondays and Thursdays. If the can was put out to the curb, it’s got to be close to the pickup day. Our neighborhood is kind of anal about those kinds of things.”

  “I’m impressed, Em. Awesome powers of deduction,” Tommy said.

  I swear I almost let out a gleeful giggle at the compliment. Instead I restrained myself and smiled coyly.

  Judy looked so distracted when we left she didn’t even say goodbye.

  “Do you think she heard us?” I asked Tommy and Roz.

  “Probably,” Roz said. “But she was in her own little world again. Thinking about something.”

  “His name is Adam,” Tommy said.

  “Who?” I asked.

  “The guy she’s interested in, possibly protecting?” he said, as if it should be obvious. “You said Judy acted strange when you told her about your vision, right?”

  “Yeah.” Roz pressed her finger against her lips in a pensive fashion. “I definitely got the feeling she knew who I was talking about.” She looked at Tommy with sudden surprise. “Did you read her mind or something?”

  “That would be a cool power.” He smirked. “No, she had the name ‘Adam’ on her calendar and a note to call him. The letters of his name were traced over and over. Surprised there weren’t hearts all around it.”

  I couldn’t see anything on her desk from where we stood in her office. “I’m impressed, too,” I said to him. “Awesome powers of observation.”

  “We should probably head out there after school, keep an eye on the place,” Roz suggested.

  Tommy and I nodded in agreement, and we made plans to meet at Roz’s house.

  * * * *

  After school, Tommy picked us up and Roz gave him directions to the house.

  “It’s this street,” she said. A visible shiver ran through her after we turned the corner and saw a couple of skaters. “It’s exactly like in my vision.”

  Tommy parked by the house and we got out. When we approached on the front walk, a man flung open the front door, practically plowing over Tommy on the way to his car. He sped off, leaving us standing there in shock. The door to the house was left ajar in the frenzy.

  “She’s calling an ambulance,” Tommy said.

  Roz gasped. “We didn’t stop it.”

  I began to walk towards the house when Tommy stopped me, touching my shoulder.

  “Em, we can’t go in there.”

  “He could be hurt. I have to heal him,” I said.

  “We don’t even know these people,” he said. “There’s nothing you can do.” He grabbed hold of my hand. “The ambulance is on its way. They’ll take care of him.”

  We walked back to his car and sat inside. Roz glanced off to the side, her fingers playing nervously with her rings, pulling them off, and then pushing them back on over and over.

  The ambulance arrived quickly. We watched the EMTs wheel a gurney into the house and, minutes later, reemerge with the man.

  “Thank God he’s alive,” Roz whispered. “Is he going to be okay?”

  I think we all wondered about the answer to that question.

  “Was that Judy’s Adam running from the house? The guy she had on her calendar?” Roz asked.

  “I don’t know,” I said. “But I think I know how to find out. Judy said she went to school with Dad. Maybe Adam was in their class.”

  “Oh, we can check out their old yearbook,” Roz said.

  Dad was watching a TV show when we arrived. Seeing Tommy, he got up in hurry. It didn’t surprise me–I knew how much Dad dreaded the prospect of Roz dating, and now that she was of age, it made sense that he would constantly be on his guard around any teenage boys in close proximity to his daughter.

  Roz picked up on it and laughed. “Dad, this is Tommy, Em’s boyfriend.”

  I couldn’t believe she introduced him as my boyfriend. “Well, it’s not that he’s…” I began, unsure of how to finish the sentence. “That is, he and I, we’re not—”

  “Has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?” Tommy whispered to me. I smiled.

  Tommy approached Dad, offering his hand. “It’s nice to meet you, sir.”

  “Em’s like a daughter to me, you know,” he replied, shaking Tommy’s hand.

  “Dad!” I folded my arms against my chest.

  “What?” he said, cracking a smile.

  “Don’t embarrass me.”

  “Treat her right, okay, Tommy?” He winked at me, and I rolled my eyes at him.

  “Of course, sir. Like a princess,” Tommy re
plied.

  “So what kind of trouble are you three stirring up today?” Dad asked.

  “We need to see your yearbook from high school,” Roz said. “Is it in the bookcase?”

  “Why do you want that old thing?”

  “Our nurse says she was in your class. We wanted to see what she looked like when she was a teenager,” Roz lied, effortlessly. I always joked she’d make an awesome politician.

  “Oh, yeah, Judy. I talked to her the other day.”

  Roz looked at him blankly, and I could tell she was growing impatient. “So it’s in the bookcase, then?”

  “It’s on the top shelf. I’ll go get it,” he offered. He returned shortly with the book.

  “Thanks,” Roz said. The three of us settled on the couch.

  “Guess I’ll go start dinner,” Dad said. “Will the happy couple be staying to dine?”

  I tossed a throw pillow at him, but he dodged it.

  “I’ll take that as a no,” he said on his way out.

  Roz had already started flipping through the pages. I giggled at all the Farrah Fawcett wannabes.

  “There it is,” Roz said, pointing to her father’s photo. “The mega-fro.”

  “Wow, was it, like, five inches tall?” Tommy asked.

  I smiled. “Groovy.”

  We eventually found an Adam, but his picture was unavailable.

  “We were so close,” Roz said.

  “Keep checking. Maybe he was on a team, in a group photo or something,” I suggested.

  She continued to turn the pages, when we found a photo of the senior class couple.

  “Hold up,” Tommy said. “Isn’t that Judy?”

  A younger version of Judy smiled at us, and next to her was the same man we saw running from the house earlier that day, minus the feathered hair. The caption underneath confirmed it.

  “This is crazy—she knew it was him. She protected him.” Roz dug into her purse and retrieved her cell phone, along with the small post-it note from Judy. “I’m calling her.” She tapped the numbers on the screen so hard she about broke the phone.

  “This is Roz,” she said into the phone. “My vision, it’s happened. It was Adam, you know, your high school sweetheart?”

  A brief pause followed, and I figured Judy said something back. But then Roz said, “Hello? Are you still there?”

  Judy must have answered then, but I couldn’t hear it.

  “You knew it was him,” Roz said, shaking her head.

  Roz’s frustration was understandable, she saw the vision and felt obligated to try to prevent it. If Judy knew the person responsible, and that he was capable of hurting people, she should’ve done something to stop him. Did she doubt Roz’s vision?

  A few more seconds passed before she shoved her cell back into her purse. “She said she had to go.”

  “Wow, she told you absolutely nothing,” Tommy said.

  Roz shot him a reprimanding look. “Remind me never to have phone conversations with you in the room.”

  “What?” he said innocently. “She’s got a loud voice.”

  “She did sound surprised, though. I wonder what her involvement is in all of this,” Roz said.

  “We can always grill her tomorrow before class,” Tommy suggested.

  “Okay,” Roz agreed.

  Even if Judy was surprised that it was Adam, the fact remained that she didn’t share her suspicions beforehand. What else is she hiding from us?

  * * * *

  The following morning, the nurse’s office was locked. From down the hall, Judy scurried towards us.

  She slipped the key into the lock and opened the door, and we followed her inside. “I’m sorry I didn’t get a chance to call you back—”

  “That scent…” Tommy frowned, before his eyes got large. He gaped at Judy. “You were with Adam last night!”

  “That’s none of your business,” she snapped back.

  “What did he do to put that guy in the hospital, Judy?” he practically yelled.

  Judy took a deep breath and exhaled. “Adam is the social worker for that family. There was an accident. He…” she trailed of, before finishing very quickly, “…It wasn’t intentional.”

  “Why didn’t you say anything?” Roz said, her voice sounding more dejected than admonishing. “I knew something was up when I told you about my vision.”

  Judy softened. Her eyes focused on Roz, but she didn’t respond.

  I couldn’t believe Tommy could smell Adam’s scent on Judy. Her defensive reaction only made it more clear he was right. An awkward silence fell over the room, probably because we were all in shock. Finally, Roz spoke.

  “This is all my fault. I saw this would happen, and I didn’t stop it. Mr. Godfrey… Is he all right? He left in an ambulance...”

  Judy averted her eyes to the floor. “I called the hospital last night. He’s in a coma.”

  “A coma? Your boyfriend put this guy in a coma?” Tommy asked.

  “He’s not my boyfriend. He—” Judy began.

  “How do you expect us to trust you when hide things like this from us?” I said. “If you told us before, when you suspected something was up, we might have been able to stop him.”

  Roz cowered back, folding her arms against her stomach. An enormous surge of guilt washed over me.

  Judy must’ve sensed it, too, because she moved towards Roz with her arms outstretched. Roz backed away from her, shaking her head in what I sensed was revulsion.

  “I’m… I’m sorry,” Judy said quietly.

  “We all failed, Roz,” I said, touching her shoulder gently. “But maybe we could put this right.” I turned to Judy. “Do you think we can heal him?”

  She frowned. “I don’t know. Comas are tricky.”

  “We have to try.”

  “Maybe with two of us healing, we might have a chance.” Her brow relaxed. “I used to work at the hospital—I still know some people. We could probably get in after visiting hours. I’ll pick you up, can we meet at nine?”

  Roz and Tommy both looked more than a little apprehensive. I had the feeling we all wondered the same thing—could we trust her?

  “We have to try,” I said aloud, to myself as much as Tommy and Roz. “It has to be stronger with two people healing,” I rationalized.

  Tommy nodded, but Roz looked off to the side. I squeezed her hand, and when she squeezed mine back, I knew I had her approval.

  I gave Judy directions to my house, and we left the office, all of us a little bewildered.

  “What do you think?” I asked both of them.

  “We can’t trust her,” Roz said.

  “I agree,” Tommy said.

  “Trust or not, if she helps us heal him, that’s got to count for something,” I said.

  “She knew it was Adam all along.” Roz said.

  “You don’t think she tried to stop him?” I asked.

  “If she did, she obviously wasn’t successful. Don’t know how much we could count on her help,” Tommy said.

  “I can’t believe you smelled his scent on her,” I said to Tommy. “She was so busted.”

  “Yeah, that was cool.” He grinned. “Sleeping with the enemy. Who knew?”

  “What did I tell you? I knew she was protecting him,” Roz said. “Crazy, right? I always feel comfortable around her.”

  “I know what you mean,” I said. “But she said it was an accident. Maybe it wasn’t intentional.”

  “How does that matter?” Roz asked. “A man is still in a coma.”

  Of course, she was right. I just had a feeling, and maybe it was because of what I always felt around Judy—such a peaceful benevolence—that she wasn’t capable of deceit. But I couldn’t deny that a man was injured because of something Adam did, and Judy was protecting him.

  * * * *

  The rest of the day was difficult, at best. It’s hard to care about the quadratic equation when a man’s life hangs in the balance. I worried about the healing, wondering if Judy and I were powe
rful enough together to bring him out of the coma.

  After school, I was too nervous to eat. I tried to distract my mind by concentrating on my homework, but it didn’t help much. At nine o’clock I went outside to meet with Roz, Tommy, and Judy.

  At the hospital, one of Judy’s friends quietly ushered us into Mr. Godfrey’s room. His expression wasn’t peaceful but vacant, as if he were somewhere else. I felt heat radiating from his head; I knew it was the pain his body was experiencing. It hit me, what I was attempting to do. Can I really bring someone out of coma?

  Tommy stood by the door to listen for anyone coming while Roz stationed herself at the foot of the bed, watching the room. I stood on one side of Mr. Godfrey, with Judy on the other side. We placed our hands a couple of inches above his head. The energy flooded from my hands, and it wasn’t long before it filled the entire room.

  “That’s amazing, I can feel the heat in here,” Roz whispered.

  “Someone’s coming,” Tommy warned.

  Judy and I continued the healing, waiting until the last possible moment to stop.

  The steps moved past the room. “False alarm,” he whispered.

  About fifteen minutes into it, to my amazement, Mr. Godfrey moved. Then his eyes flickered opened.

  “What happened?” His voice was so groggy I could hardly understand him.

  Roz let out a deep exhale. I smiled at feeling her guilt melt away.

  “It’s going to be okay,” Judy said to him, gently squeezing his shoulder.

  Roz joined me at the head of the bed and addressed Mr. Godfrey. “Can you tell us what happened?”

  “What?” he said, more clearly. “Who the hell are you?”

  “Do you remember what happened before?” Roz asked, ignoring his question entirely. “You were at home, with your social worker Adam—”

  “Adam?”

  “We need to leave,” Judy whispered to us, motioning toward the door.

  Mr. Godfrey turned to Judy. “Are you a nurse?”

  “Yes. Relax. You’re going to be fine.”

  He looked her up and down. “Where’s your uniform? And what are these kids doing here?” Feeling around, he located his remote and pressed the button to summon a nurse.