Tells

by Scott Rhine

  She gasped and stood up. Something had startled the hiccups out of her.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked.

  “Someone touched me, like a hug.”

  I didn’t see any of the usual signs. “Is the headache gone?”

  “No, but your prayer worked!”

  “Why else would people keep doing it?” I asked.

  She ran out of the room.

  I knelt in front of the podium and tried to listen to what God wanted me to do next.

  I didn’t have the chance because a man in a white-collar shirt and brown tie poked his head in. He had cotton packed in the side of his mouth, which made him sound like a movie gangster. “Some crazy lady in the hall said a little girl was granting prayers in here.”

  I rubbed my forehead. “I’m not a genie.”

  “Oh.” He plunked down next to me, disappointed.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked with a sigh.

  He launched into an involved story about how stress at work made him grind his teeth at night. Customers called his pager to complain at all hours. He’d clenched so hard that he’d shattered his back molars and the crowns the dentist put on to replace them. This time, he had to be rushed to the ER because his middle molar was cracked and infected. They’d just pulled it and given him antibiotics. “I don’t know how to stop it. Could you pray for me?”

  I just stared at him in disbelief. “You don’t need prayer. You just need to quit that stupid job.”

  The grinder shook his head. “I can’t do that. I make too much.”

  “How much are you saving in your bank account each month?”

  “Three grand, a thousand more than I could make at any other job in the area.”

  “How much are you spending each month on dentistry?”

  “Fifteen hundred,” he admitted. “Plus the pain pills and the time off.”

  “How would it feel if you didn’t have to go back?”

  He sprouted a stupid grin. “Amazing.”

  I laid it out for him. “So you’re paying an extra five hundred a month because you want to suffer and have your time-off wasted.”

  “I have two weeks of time-off saved up. I could take terminal vacation starting Monday. I’d never have to set foot in that miserable building again!” He left, laughing like a lunatic. “I’m free.”

  I didn’t learn his name. I hadn’t healed him, but I made him go away. At least, I was finally alone—for almost a minute.

  A guy in a plaid overshirt and a yellow Mack Truck bulldog hat wandered in next. Conveniently, his name was embroidered on the hat. Frank was pushing fifty with the start of a muffin top over his belt. “I met two people who said you made them feel better by praying.”

  “I didn’t heal anyone.” I was a lousy saint. How was I going to ask God anything if these people kept interrupting? I noticed that he was carrying a sealed can of Dr. Pepper, and it reminded me of how thirsty I was. “But in exchange for that soda, I’ll listen.”

  Frank told me a tale of woe while I drank his offering. “I pinched a nerve in my neck. Now my right hand is numb all the time, and I can’t lift anything. Since I drive a package delivery truck, I lost my job.”

  “Can they do that?”

  “I did it on my own time. I ran my four-wheeler into a ditch and pushed it out on my own. I was pretty pissed off—pardon my language—and still thought I could do things like I was twenty. The dang machine didn’t even work right after all the money I spent getting it fixed. I put off coming into the doctor because I thought it’d get better on its own. Only been sleeping five hours a night. The blasted insurance company wouldn’t let me get treated for three weeks because sometimes it goes away on its own.”

  Trying to speed up the story, I guessed, “When you finally did get to make the appointment to make the pain go away, you’re not covered by the insurance anymore.”

  “The injection is scheduled two weeks from now, but it costs an arm and a leg. The worst part is that with all the pain pills I take, I’ve started to snore. My wife won’t even sleep in the same room anymore. I have to stay on the sofa, and all the springs are broken.”

  I get the point, God. Everyone had problems worse than mine. “So basically, one moment of anger has wrecked your whole life.”

  He jerked back and glared at me. Then, he took off his hat and smoothed his balding head. “When you put it like that, yeah.” His face fell. “I screwed up everything.”

  “Meh. The one thing in all this you need the most is your wife. You could still salvage your relationship.”

  “Definitely. How do I fix that?”

  “Admit to her you have an anger problem, and lay off the sweets.”

  “Huh?”

  I held up the can of pop, which was almost empty by now. “No exercise and extra comfort food. Right? I’m not trying to be mean, but my dad snores when he gets above two hundred pounds. I bet if you took off a little weight, your wife would let you back in the bedroom. Heck, she may even be willing to go on daily walks with you.”

  “We did that when we were courting.” Tears leaked out of the corner of his eyes. “Yes, she’d love that. It’s all been so much. Thank you, miss!” Blubbering like a fool, he hugged me.

  Standing in the doorway, Miss Bradstreet cleared her throat. “Please follow the rules about unwanted touching. Decorum.”

  Frank popped up. “I’m sorry.” To the line of people waiting in the hall, he said, “It’s true. She makes everything better!”

  My headmistress grabbed me by the arm and hauled me back to my room. “You’ve been released, and your aunt asked me to escort you home. Grab your belongings before the throngs follow you.”

  I held up my amulet. “Um, I’m wearing everything I brought. The cleanup team bagged the rest due to contamination. I hope I get the bat back eventually. The rest burned up in the fire, so I can’t even stop and pick up spares.” She already knew that my Book was out for restoration, and I didn’t want to reopen that painful wound.

  “Oh, dear. Well, let’s go.”

  “Are you parked in the garage?” I headed toward Luca and Dina’s room.

  “Yes, it’s this way.”

  “I wanted to say goodbye to my friends first.”

  “People are already talking. We have to rush you away before anyone takes your photo. You performed miracles in public?” She made it sound like I’d flashed my undergarments.

  “Not intentionally. And I didn’t heal anyone. I listened, and I barely started praying once.”

  She shook her head and increased her pace. “I find that difficult to believe. Exposure could ruin all of us. It’s not just your life you risk.” During her lecture, I tuned out her voice and listened to her nonverbals. The woman was legitimately concerned for me this time. She had a lot of worries buzzing around in her head.

  Once we were inside the dark-blue school van, Miss Bradstreet turned to me. “Well, what do you have to say for yourself?”

  “Thanks for driving all this way. They must have called you in the middle of the night for you to arrive in Cambridge so early. I’m sorry I ruined your weekend.”

  That took the wind out of her sails. “You didn’t do anything wrong. Just please be careful how you manifest.”

  “I can’t heal people, and I can’t cast spells. All I did was talk to them!”

  She rolled her eyes at me. “Really?”

  I took a deep breath and let her have it. “I understand how difficult it must be for you to listen to complaints and screwups every day, thinking that nobody pays attention. But you’re getting through to the kids. You really are, just like a parent. Later in life, they’ll hear your voice in their head and do the right thing because of it. Don’t worry that you don’t have a glamorous job or a spell Book like Captain Blood. Building up is ten times harder than destroying, and it takes years to see the effects. You may never see your best work, but it’s there, like the foundation of a house. Nothing stands without it.”

  For a moment, M
iss Bradstreet couldn’t speak. “Child, you are the most dangerous witch I’ve ever met. How did you know I was planning to quit the school?”

  “People shout at me now with their every move. You of all people should know what that’s like. When I tell folks what I hear from them, they act like it’s a revelation. I don’t do anything.”

  She turned the key in the ignition and buckled in. “Yes. We have more in common than I first realized, but you made that man’s pain go away.”

  “Technically, if it did, it’s because he confessed his sins and gave me a drink when I was thirsty. I had no part in the process.”

  Bradstreet looked both ways and zipped out of the parking space. She zoomed toward the exit faster than she should have. “You must protect yourself better. If that man had been evil, you might have been harmed or exposed. You can’t trust everyone so openly. When I was in college, a man attacked me. The physical part was horrible enough, but I have nightmares about what I saw in his mind.”

  That gave me shivers. “Why are you telling me this?”

  She swiped her school credit card in the parking ramp reader to pay, and the gate opened. The headmistress turned toward the freeway without needed to consult a GPS or signs. She was that attuned to the universe. “Just because someone is talented doesn’t mean they’re good, even women.”

  “Such as?”

  Biting her lip, she decided to trust me. “When I admitted you to the school, my intent was to use your father’s situation as leverage to control you.”

  “Wow.” I didn’t know what to say. “He’s even weaker financially now that we’ve lost our home.”

  “I wasn’t talking about financially. I’ve set up a number of moral situations in an effort to compromise him so I could blackmail both of you.”

  “That’s cold. Why the change of heart?”

  She merged into traffic going seventy. “Ishmael didn’t fall for any of the ploys. Not even with a drunken parent throwing herself at him.”

  “Whoa. Who?”

  “He’s even increasing the revenues for yearbook this year. I felt wrong framing a man who had the character to raise a saint. In fact, if you promise not to pray in public until you graduate from my institution, then I’ll get him more work at the boys’ school. He’s a natural educator.”

  “Of course, I swear.” I struggled with several questions. “Why tell me about your plans?”

  “Because without a Book or a dream, you could very well end up as my replacement in ten years when I retire.”

  “Ew!”

  “What about all the nobility speech you just gave me?”

  I did feel bad about my reaction, but I analyzed it. “I think my main objection is that I don’t want to be alone like you are when I’m your age. Sure, your gift frightens people away. Mine does, too, but if you don’t make an effort, you won’t have anyone to carry your casket when you die.”

  She had to pull over to the side to cry.

  Yep, my superpower at work. This was going to be the longest, most awkward car ride of both our lives.

  22. Back to School

  Other than leaving my two best friends in a hospital, Monday morning was pretty normal. Luca’s father drove me to school, but I sat next to him instead of in back. “How much did the Council tell you about what happened Friday night?”

  “My girl earned a commendation for bravery for defending you, but she shouldn’t have been there to begin with.”

  “I’m sorry. It was all my fault.”

  Mr. Benedetto raised a hand. “Nobody tells Luca what to do. If she’s up to her behind in alligators, she’s the one who jumped in with both feet. Even in the hospital bed, she couldn’t wipe the grin off her face.”

  “It was a favor to me.”

  He pushed back his cap. “Yeah? When she graduates, the Council is willing to pay for her university. If she gets good grades, she can have her pick of assignments. Your aunt even gave me a bonus for sending Luca to watch out for you.”

  “She doesn’t have to pay my friends to—”

  “Relax. Miss Audra can afford it. She just earned a promotion. Good things happen to people who help you.”

  I frowned as I processed this. “You heard about the saint thing and the guy whose neck pain went away because he gave me a drink?”

  “What?”

  Oops. “Oh, no. I’ve said too much. Please don’t tell anyone.”

  “Miss, half my job is keeping my mouth shut.”

  “You don’t think I’m weird?”

  “You’re nice to everyone. The world could use more of that kind of weird. On the Hutchinson scale, that’s not even in the top ten.”

  “You’re kidding. What could top fighting shadow wolves over my weekend?”

  He made a zipping motion over his lips followed by a locking gesture.

  “My aunt does boring math for a living.”

  “If you say so, Miss Isa. Boring people often drive in bulletproof cars and fly all over the world.”

  Is anyone in my family normal? “Does she have a regular man in her life?”

  “I couldn’t say, Miss.”

  I took the hint and changed the subject. “Do you know which drunken mother threw herself at my father?”

  He suppressed a snort of laughter. “I couldn’t say.”

  “Did this happen Friday night?”

  “You’re like a dog with a bone, girl. Let it go, and trust your father.”

  “Was it at a bar?”

  “I can see how you earned your name,” the driver said. “Would you like me to pick you up at the usual time?”

  “No. I’m having dinner at Lilith Cotton’s while Dad’s away helping Zak. Her mother will be picking us both up.”

  “Whoa. The matriarch herself?”

  I narrowed my eyes trying to pick up more clues. He was a Sphinx compared to most people. “Matriarch of what?”

  “Current head of the Council.”

  “Lilith never mentioned that little fact.”

  He shrugged. “Maybe she wanted someone who liked her for herself, not who her family is. That’s why Luca doesn’t tell people who her mother is.”

  “I think it has more to do with her mother getting caught skinny-dipping with a guy almost Luca’s age.”

  That stung him a little. “Which is why we don’t watch the news at our house.”

  “Sorry. You still love her.”

  “Merda. I really have to watch what I say around you.”

  “It’s okay, Vincenzo. I can hear what you feel even when you don’t say a word. It’s not a sin to love your wife. You’re a good man.”

  “Miss, no offense, but could you sit in back tomorrow? I’ve got rules to follow.”

  I’ve frightened someone else away with my big mouth. “Sure.”

  ****

  At lunch, Lilith came up to our table with a chocolate milkshake. “I had them make it special in back. All the food women want to add their condolences for the loss of your Book.”

  I gave her a crooked smile. “Thanks, Lil.” This nickname, she liked. I sipped the drink to show my appreciation. “It’s really good.” My Book was currently stowed in the safe in my locker. The local restoration people wouldn’t touch it. Aunt Audra was furious at Zak for the whole incident. Though, we had a lead on an Italian firm with the proper specializations that restores documents for the Vatican.

  “You’re the thirty-seventh person to use those same words to her today,” said Blaise in her typical Eeyore style. “When my cat ran away, no one said ‘boo.’”

  “All your pets run away,” Lilith said with disgust. “You can’t compare that to losing a priceless five-hundred-year-old grimoire that’s one of the first and most significant of its kind. Isa can’t learn the most intimate thoughts of her famous ancestor. You don’t have to clean up more poop and hairballs.”

  Blaise put her hands on her hips. “At least my father didn’t try to kill me.”

  “News flash: your cat didn’t run awa
y. It committed suicide because you’re so depressing,” said Lilith.

  I held up both hands to stifle the hostility. “Ladies, please. Decorum.” Crap, now I even sounded like Bradstreet. “My cousin’s probably a little jealous that she wasn’t invited to dinner at your house, too.” This was purely guesswork because Blaise was one of the few people who didn’t broadcast her every feeling around here. It was sort of a relief, actually. I’d discovered that most teenage girls made an emotional soap opera about everything. For someone with my talents, school was like being in the front row during a rock concert.

  “Maybe,” Blaise said.

  Crisis averted, I took another sip of my shake.

  “And the suicide part isn’t funny,” she said. “I had a turtle who did that once.”

  I couldn’t help it. I burst out laughing, spraying the table with chocolate.

  That caused Lilith to choke on her kale casserole. “I’m sorry, but you have to admit…”

  Blaise stood, wiping chocolate spittle from her arm. “I don’t have to stay here and be insulted by the people who call themselves my friends.”

  “Wait. Don’t leave angry.” I put a hand on her arm, and it hit me in a flash. I almost fell on the floor from the force of it. “You can’t feel the presence of God. That’s why you fall asleep in listening class. Why you left chapel when everyone else was crying. It’s like being deaf.”

  Her face reacted like I’d slapped her. “Stop making fun of me!”

  “I’m not. You can’t help it. Just like I can’t help not having a Book. At least one day, you could inherit one. I’m handicapped for life.”

  Blaise went ape-shit. “Don’t touch me. I’m not handicapped.”

  “Sit down. I didn’t call you that. People are staring.” I could hear every set of eyes in the room judging her, and it was almost painful. “I can pray for you and maybe—”