by Shelly Crane
He chuckled at my thought.
“Yeah,” he agreed with a sigh. He kissed me softly once more on the lips, my cheek, jaw. “You’re making me the happiest man there is.”
“Then we’re even.”
He laughed at that too and rolled to lie back on the bed to catch his breath. He pulled me to lay against him and ran his hand down my arm. My body continued to tingle and I felt like I’d been given a shot of morphine. I was buzzing and calm and I felt like I’d float away.
I’d always hated that expression but now understood the feeling completely.
“Are you ok?”
“What kind of question is that?” I asked and laughed, hearing the breathlessness of it.
He laughed too and spoke into my hair.
“Thank you, baby.”
“Caleb,” I started to protest.
“I mean for everything. You accepted me and love my family, you love me despite everything that’s happened, you’re going to marry me…thank you. If you had a goal to make me happy, you’ve succeeded.”
“I’m glad you’re happy. It is what I want.”
A few seconds later I felt a searing pain in my wrist. Caleb jumped too and I thought it was because he felt my pain and heart beat but he hissed at his own wrist. To see what was going on, we brought them up together into the air above us.
There in the dark, in my room, on my bed with the man I loved, on my wrist in the same place as Caleb’s…was my Virtuoso tattoo. It burned a bright orange, like it had been branded into my skin. Caleb’s burned bright too and I saw my name around the edge of his. And mine, had his beautiful name around the edge too. We instinctively put them together and I poorly held back a happy sob when they lined up perfectly; two halves to make a whole.
Caleb was no longer in awe and my protector took over.
“Ah, Maggie, I know it hurts a little. I’m sorry.”
“It didn’t hurt,” I insisted. “I wanted this so bad.” I sniffed and he wiped my chin. “I’ve been thinking about going and getting it done myself.”
“I know.”
“Then why don’t you know how happy this makes me?” I said through tears and a smile. I looked at my tattoo once more and frowned slightly. “What’s that?”
He looked back up and frowned too. In the middle of both of our crescent moons was an infinity symbol – a sideways eight looking thing- but I knew exactly what it was.
“Infinity,” Caleb muttered beside me in awe. “I’ve never seen that on our family’s tattoos before.”
“It means things are about to change,” I told him and grinned like a complete fool.
“Maggie,” he sighed. He put his face against mine. “You are so amazing,” he whispered into my skin and kissed me, slowly and languidly. He took his time at showing me how much he thought that. Soon, I was breathless, again, and I felt his thoughts flit through his mind about wanting to Mutualize with me again…like right then. I smiled into our kiss and broke it unwittingly. He smiled too and leaned back a little to trace the pattern of my tattoo on my wrist with his thumb. “Do you want to see a vision?” he asked carefully.
“What?”
“Do you want to see one of my visions, from when we imprinted. I figure, since you already agreed to it, it couldn’t hurt to show you now.”
“Yes,” I breathed. “Please.”
And when he pressed his head to mine once more, I saw us in a big yard at night. It started with dancing feet, bare feet, and worked its way up to black pants to red dresses. Caleb was holding me close as we danced slowly. He lifted my chin higher and kissed me as everyone cheered and egged him on behind us, then he told me I was beautiful in my mind. I turned to see Kyle and Lynne, just as we were, near us dancing. She smiled at me and when I looked back to Caleb he lifted my hand to kiss my ringed finger but my hand was blurry so I couldn’t see the ring he had placed on me. I smiled and when I looked around for Dad I saw him watching us, he was crying, trying to wipe his face on his sleeve.
Caleb pulled back and I felt the cool of wet on my cheeks. He wiped them away again.
“Those better be happy tears.”
“They are,” I sniffed. “Thank you for showing me that. What else did you see?”
“Nuhuh, cutie, not so fast. One thing at a time,” he whispered playfully.
“Do you know what I saw?”
“Nope.”
“Do you want to?”
“Are you trying to make a trade?”
“Yes.”
He laughed.
“Then no, mine are good enough to last me.”
“Boo,” I groaned and he laughed again.
“Are you ready to pick out your dresses now,” he said into the skin under my ear.
“No,” I groaned.
He moved to kiss my neck.
“Well…I’m sure we can find something to do,” he told me, his voice low.
“I never want to move from this spot again.”
“Agreed, we’ll stay right here, forever,” he said and laid his head on his arm as a pillow.
Sadly, forever didn’t last long as I heard a car and then the front door.
~ Twenty Eight ~
When I got up and turned the light on I looked in the mirror and did a double take. I looked like I’d run a marathon. My cheeks were flushed and my hair was a mess. The crying hadn’t helped. Caleb came up behind me, wrapping his arms around me and looked at us in the mirror. He was a mess too. We both laughed at our reflection and I flushed an even brighter red at why we looked that way.
“I look terrible,” I said.
“No, you look like someone who’s been loved on.”
“Yeah, I know. And Dad’s gonna totally know what was going on up here.” He gave me a look that said otherwise. “Well, not exactly what was going on.” I sighed. “I feel like a teenager about to get caught with her boyfriend in the house while her parents went on vacation.”
“You are a teenager.”
“A teenager who’s getting married,” I countered. “I have to stop worrying so much about what my dad is going to say about things.”
“You’re right. And you’re going to be eighteen in nine days.”
“Yeah,”
“Then he won’t be able to say a word.”
“But I still don’t want to disappoint him.”
“I know. Well, let’s start right now, by telling him that we’re getting married. Don’t let him freak you out, just tell him that I asked and you said yes and that’s all there is to it. And that we’re leaving for London tomorrow morning and he can’t come with you.”
“Yeah, he’s really not gonna like that one.”
“I know. I’ll let you break that one to him.”
“Thanks,” I muttered.
He smiled and turned me to look at him, framing my face with his hands, his thumb ran reverently over the Visionary mark on my neck.
“I love you, Maggie.”
“Love you.”
He kissed me quickly and then ran his fingers through his hair to tame it before heading downstairs to let me try to fix myself somewhat. I giggled as I thought about what we’d just done. He was right in his explanation. It wasn’t sex, I mean we barely moved the entire time and our clothes were on but it was so…perfect. It felt like there was no way to be any closer to Caleb than that and feel everything he felt and thought. In honesty, I couldn’t wait to do it again.
But for now, I had to get myself ready and tell my father that his little girl was not only going across the sea to save a non-human race of people but that she was also getting married, the second she turned eighteen. I smiled. What had I been so scared about?
I put the clothes I’d grabbed up off the floor and some extra shirts into a little burgundy rolling luggage that my parents got for me when I went on a fieldtrip to D.C. for a competition with the cheerleaders in ninth grade. I left the bag by the door because that would be a little dramatic I thought, to bump down the stairs with my luggage befor
e even telling him he couldn’t go with us. The council wouldn’t stand for humans being present.
So I brushed my hair and changed my shirt. When I was swiping on some lip gloss and face powder I caught a glimpse of my tattoo in my reflection. I looked down at it, the black ink weaved in delicate calligraphy and Caleb’s name so perfectly aligned and involved around the outer rim of the half moon. I smiled. I got my tattoo. I must’ve been doing something right.
I made my way down the stairs and heard them talking. I almost stopped to listen but I had been doing that too much lately. So I pushed on and smiled when I got to the bottom to see them all sitting in the living room together; Caleb, Bish and Dad.
And no one was dead yet.
“Hey, baby girl. I’m surprised to see you here today,” Dad said as he stood and kissed my cheek. “You look very pretty,” he observed.
“Thanks, Dad.”
I went to sit between Caleb and Bish on the couch and hugged Bish’s arm. He patted my hand but ultimately I gravitated to Caleb’s side and welcomed his calming touch as he put his hand on my knee.
I decided to just out this thing, right there and then.
“Caleb asked me to marry him.”
Bish and Dad both looked up but they didn’t seem too surprised. In fact, Dad nodded.
“I figured that was coming. And I’m assuming since you’re sitting here that you said yes?”
“Mmhmm.” He glanced at my finger and frowned and I heard his thought. “They don’t do engagement rings, Dad.”
“Huh,” he said almost in a disapproving way and I wanted to laugh at how differently this was going that I thought it would.
“The husband gives a house,” Caleb clarified. “The day before we’re married, I’ll give Maggie the keys to the house I picked out for her.”
Great, I heard Bish. One more reason Jenna’s better off without me. There’s no way I could buy her a ring let alone a frigging house.
I looked at him and he knew I had heard. He clenched his teeth and refused to look at me so I pressed on.
“Yeah.”
“Wow, a house,” Dad said and clucked his tongue.
“Yes, sir,” Caleb said in his respectful but firm manner as he rubbed his chin.
“The women are ok with the husband’s picking out a house for them, without them even seeing it?” Dad said with a questioningly raised eyebrow.
“Yes, sir, it’s just like an engagement ring. The woman doesn’t pick that out either,” Caleb countered.
“True…but she’s not going to live in her engagement ring.”
“It’s tradition. It’s what we’ve always done, even back to my ancestors. See, back then, you couldn’t marry until you had a place to take your wife after the wedding. So, they worked all day and night to prepare for her to come and be with him. But, regardless of imprinting, the catch back then was that you had to build it by yourself. It was a show of commitment and faith that you planned to work your hardest and do whatever was necessary to make her happy.”
My father blinked in surprise.
“Well, then. What can I say to that? Have you found a house yet?”
“No, sir. It’s hard for us to keep things from each other.” He pointed to his head to demonstrate. “So, it kind of has to be last minute to keep it a secret.”
Dad nodded and took a deep breath and leaned forward and steepled his hands.
“Ok. Well…I mean, you know the usually spiel. I’m your father and I think eighteen is too young to be married but I also thought twenty four was the perfect age and look how it turned out for me,” he said but he wasn’t bitter or upset, he just stating his case. “I still can’t completely grasp everything that goes on with your family and this imprinting stuff but from what I’ve seen with my own eyes, I can’t say that it’s not true.”
“Jim, I know I’ve said this before, but Maggie is in good hands. I won’t let anything happen to her and it’s not just because I wouldn’t anyway but because my body won’t let me. Your daughter’s heartbeat is in my chest,” Caleb said firmly. “And it’s the most precious thing I have.”
I looked at him, biting my lip at his sweet words. Dad was stunned silent, with his mouth and mind, and Bish was same old Bish. He wasn’t happy about it and still agreed that people can say anything they wanted to and it didn’t mean it was true. But he had told me he was going to back off and he was. He knew it was inevitable. He just hoped I’d be ok and that I’d come to him if I needed him later.
“I will,” I told him. “But I won’t have to, not for that.”
He smirked.
“I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to you being able to read my mind,” he said dryly.
“That’s what I said,” Dad said smiling.
I looked around at them and marveled at the fact that everything seemed to be falling into place so peacefully.
Then the doorbell rang.
“I wonder who that is?” Dad remarked.
“Maybe Jen,” I said and felt Bish jerk. “I told her yesterday she could come but with everything else that happened I figured it’d be best to come by ourselves. I’ll get it.”
As I made my way to the door, I heard the thoughts of a woman before I reached the knob. At first I thought it was Jen, then Beck maybe but then I froze with my hand on the knob.
It couldn’t be…
I jerked open the door, letting it bang against the wall, to prove myself wrong but no. She was right there, flesh and blood.
My mom.
Caleb ran in behind me, feeling my heart gallop and wrapped a hand around my wrist. Whether to calm me or restrain me I wasn’t sure and I wasn’t sure if he was either.
“Sarah?” I heard Dad say in disbelief behind me.
“Hello, Jim,” she said and it had been so long since I’d heard her voice I barely recognized it.
She was thin - so thin - not in a sickly way, but like she had made herself that way. Her hair was dyed a deep black, her tan dark and her makeup much. We just stared at each other. Her eyes perused me with clear relief but also surprise.
She’s finally taking care of herself. She’s lost weight and cut that dreadful hair. And who’s this…
She eyed my significant with a twinkle of interest in her eye and I knew right then, there’d be no reconciliation for us. She hadn’t changed. She had no interest in coming back to be our family again.
“What are you doing here?” Dad asked her harshly.
“Jim, we talked on the phone, you know why I’m here. I’m ready to come home,” she said, her tone impatient and embarrassed. Like how dare we question her when she was on our doorstep.
“No can do, I’m afraid.” Dad moved to stand beside me. “We just don’t have any room for anyone else right now.”
“Are you seeing someone?” she said and laughed like it was impossible.
“No, I’m not seeing anyone. I’ve been a little busy taking care of my daughter.”
Mom’s face turned red, her eyebrows rose in anger.
“Our daughter,”
“Enough,” I shouted and the chandelier above us started to rattle in response to my anger, but I felt Caleb’s squeeze of my hand and I took a deep breath. “Enough, Mom, what are you doing here, for real?”
I’d already seen in her mind that her boyfriend left her. She had been staying at his place and had no where else to go. She refused to be a waitress and that had been the only job she could find so she figured she could say she wanted to make sure I was ok after my ‘ordeal’ and that she wanted to come home.
Home wrecker.
“I told you-“
“The truth,” I said.
She sighed and made a dramatic show of pulling off her shades and smoothing her hair before pasting on a huge fake smile for me.
“Honey,” she crooned and took one step towards me. “I missed you.”
When she touched my hand before I could jerk it away, I saw it. Her little secret. Her dirty indiscretion that would have des
troyed everything I knew up until that point and could also from now on. She really was a home wrecker.
In a vision, I saw her giggling. She was young and the man she was with was young too. At first I thought this was college or something but I noticed the house she was in, this house. They were in the kitchen and doing disgusting things on our kitchen counter together. She glanced at the clock and effectively ended his perusal of her.
