“I’ll never forget the first time I came to this mall,” said Miles, as I browsed through the purses looking for the one in the window that I liked. “It was on our first date, remember?”
“Of course I remember! I’ll never forget either,” I smiled. “That was such an amazing day, realizing over and over that you were really back, and that we could have the relationship I never thought we’d be able to have.”
I stopped shopping long enough to kiss Miles. He had that melting look in his eyes, and remembering our first date the day after he came back… well I felt like kissing him! So I did.
Then I looked for the salesgirl. I couldn’t find the purse I liked. Miles and I wandered around, and found her at the register, talking on the phone. She stopped talking and looked up as we came over.
“Can I help you?” she asked. She wasn’t unfriendly, but she wanted to get back to that phone call. I suspected it wasn’t another customer she had on the line.
“Yes, there’s a purse in the window that I like, but I don’t see any on the racks. Can you point me in the right direction?”
“Oh, yeah, it’s over there against that wall,” she said, pointing.
But that wasn’t the truth. The truth was, she had no idea.
“Perhaps you could show me,” I said. “We’ll wait.”
She wasn’t terribly pleased at that, but come on, all I wanted was for the girl to do her job. She ended her call quickly, then wandered around the store looking.
“Maybe it would help if we point out the purse in the display that my wife is interested in,” said Miles.
This girl was clearly distracted by something, I wondered what purse she’d been looking for.
“Oh… yeah, sure,” she said, and followed us to the front of the store.
“This is the one I like,” I said, pointing to a bag on one end of the display.
“Oh, yeah, we don’t have any more of those,” she said.
On the shelves they don’t, but they just got in a new shipment.
“There are more in the new shipment,” I said. “They’re in the back. So I’d like to see one of those, or the purse in the window will do just as well.”
She stared at me.
“Are… you some of those mystery shoppers?”
Miles and I looked at each other. Neither of us had any idea what that was.
“Or you’re from management,” she said, a gleam of certainty in her eyes.
Miles reached over and picked up the purse from the display and handed it to me, and I looked it over. I really liked it. I smiled at him.
“She’ll take this one,” Miles said.
She bit back the comment that it was part of the display, and led the way back to the register. She rang us up without another word. She did say “have a nice day” when she handed me the shopping bag, though.
“That was interesting,” said Miles, as we left the shop. “Who knew your superpower could be used for shopping.”
I started to laugh, it struck me as funny.
“I want to use my new purse,” I said, leading the way to a bench.
We sat down, and I took stuffing out and then replaced it with the contents of my old purse. I put it and the stuffing from my new purse in the shopping bag, and Miles took out his pocket knife and used it to remove the tags. I bounced up and down on the bench a little, I was so pleased with my purchase.
“Here you go, Fidget,” smiled Miles, handing me my purse.
“Don’t call me that!” I laughed.
My laughter trailed off before Miles could respond. I looked intently at two people who were arguing. Miles looked too.
“Are you hearing something?” he asked.
“I’m going to try, of course if they’re both telling the truth it won’t work, but…”
I don’t know how far away the couple was, but it was a lot further than the range I had on Monday. Several times further than that range.
I tried to hone in on them using this ability I knew so little about. I couldn’t make out much of what they were saying because of the noise of the other shoppers, but I tried anyway.
I didn’t know what they were saying, but I knew what the truth was.
“She’s guilty,” I said. “She denies it, but she is. I think he knows it.”
The guy turned and walked away.
“That’s amazing,” said Miles.
“Let’s go try the food court now,” I said enthusiastically. “I want to practice with a group!”
We continued our journey to the food court. There were a lot of people at the mall today. It was getting more crowded now that we were nearing lunchtime. It was surprising how many of them were lying in some way. Claiming they liked something they didn’t, blaming their tardiness on something else, and then there were all the stories being told about this person or that. There was a lot of embellishing going on. It was a madhouse!
We reached the food court, and it was packed. All of the voices were starting to get to me.
“We should go,” I said, holding my head. “It’s too much.”
“Okay,” said Miles, looking concerned. He put his arm around me and led me to the nearest exit. We went through the doors and I breathed a sigh of relief.
“I’m fine now,” I said, taking a deep breath. “No more large crowds for me though, not unless I can learn to focus this ability. I was doing that with the couple that was fighting, but then in that large crowd I wasn’t able to, it was all bombarding me.”
“Okay, well let’s go home, or somewhere else for lunch that’s quieter than the mall,” said Miles.
“Yes, let’s do that,” I agreed. “Let’s go home.”
We walked around the building until we reached our vehicle. It was a good thing we were on our way out, and not in. I wasn’t up to encountering any more lies, not until after lunch anyway, and the parking lot was quickly filling up. Miles backed out of our spot, which pleased one of the many cars that were circling, looking for an empty space. Miles pulled out onto the road and merged with the heavy traffic.
“It’s astonishing how quickly your abilities are strengthening. Just yesterday we walked through the crowded food court in the Student Center and you didn’t hear anything. I find it hard to believe college students are more truthful than the rest of the population.”
“I may never be able to go much of anywhere without you,” I said, thinking out loud. “Unless, maybe truths that don’t involve murder don’t have the same effect on me. I didn’t feel dizzy at the mall, but you were with me, so it’s hard to be sure why.”
“What about in class? When you viewed what happened to the real Ryan Mead? Did you feel dizziness then?”
“I did,” I said slowly. “I felt some dizziness and disorientation. Then I saw my rings, and light flashed through the stones. I’m not sure where the light came from though, now that I’m thinking about it. I don’t understand, but it’s like I was halfway between that truth I saw, and the classroom. Anyway, the flash of my rings reminded me that you weren’t far away. It helped.”
“This is extremely hard to comprehend,” said Miles. “I wish this gift came with an owner’s manual… do you feel up to engaging the dog in conversation?”
“I don’t know, she has a tendency to leave me with more questions than I had before!” I said. “But sure. Let’s see if she can tell us anything. There isn’t anywhere else we can go for information. About either of us.”
“We’re in uncharted territory,” said Miles. “I guess. I suppose if there is or has ever been another couple like us, we wouldn’t know about it.”
“Interesting point,” I said. “I wonder if Trixie could tell us that?”
“We can ask. We’ve got a fifty-fifty chance she’ll tell us something that doesn’t leave us dazed and confused.”
I laughed. How true that was!
“How old were you when you got Trixie? And how old was she?”
“I was fifteen. I was on an errand for my Father. I’m no
t sure what I was supposed to do, I don’t remember now. On the way to town I found a horse in the road, reins dangling, saddle empty. The horse wasn’t particularly skittish, so it wasn’t that difficult to approach her and get hold of the reins. I recognized her and knew who she belonged to. Whatever Father wanted me to do must not have been very important, because I decided to return the horse first.”
Miles turned down a side street to avoid the traffic jam on the road ahead of us.
“I walked her to Mr. Clarke’s house. I went to the front door, but Mr. Clarke’s daughter told me—ouch, what’s with the death grip?” Miles asked. “Please tell me you aren’t feeling jealousy over Mr. Clarke’s spinster daughter who was more than twice my age at the time, and has been dead for years and years.”
“I’m sorry,” I said, loosening my grip. I rubbed the back of his hand, then held it in both of mine. “I do get jealous, and I know it’s silly, but I was so completely not part of your past, and… I do. But go on with your story.”
“Okay, but let me remind you of something first. I’ve never been in love with anyone but you. And you know that’s the truth.”
“Yes, you’re telling the truth,” I said, and smiled. “I’ll quit being insecure about your past. Please, tell me about Trixie.”
“Mr. Clarke’s daughter told me he wasn’t at the house but I might find him at the barn. Either that, or the horse had thrown him and she had no idea where he was in that case. So I led the horse to the barn, and that’s where Mr. Clarke was. He was glad to see his horse, he forgot all about her. He saddled her, planning to go to town, when he realized one of his pups wandered off again. So then the horse wandered off while he searched the barn. He still hadn’t found the pup, and was frustrated. He said he was done searching for the trickster. I offered to help, and he said ‘boy, you can help search on one condition. You find that pup, you take it with you.’ I made sure he meant it, because I would’ve been very disappointed if I found the pup and he changed his mind. But he did mean it, he said the pup’s mother couldn’t keep up with it and neither could he, and if I found it I better keep it tied, but even then good luck. So I looked around and figured I’d start searching near the hay bales. Before I even got there she came right to me. Technically I didn’t find her, but Mr. Clarke said he’d stand by his word and not argue technicalities, so I had myself a dog. I named her Trixie because of what he said about her being a trickster. She may have given Mr. Clarke fits by wandering off, but she’s never left me. She’s been loyal since the moment we made eye contact.”
“You can’t get any more loyal than Trixie,” I said. Even death hadn’t separated them.
“You really can’t. It was hard being alone for so long, but if I didn’t have her, I think I would have sunk into deep depression. It made a big difference to have her to talk to, and it was pretty cool how we began to be able to communicate. She sort of encouraged me to keep an interest in what was going on at the estate, too, by threatening shoes and socks,” Miles smiled. “It was a game with her to see if she could get to the belongings that people unwittingly left out, and take them before I could catch her at it. Somewhere at the estate there’s got to be a roomful of shoes, because she can’t have chewed all of them up.”
I laughed, thinking of how mischievous Trixie could be.
“I think it was more than a game though, I think she was making sure I didn’t completely detach from the rest of the world.” Miles pulled into our covered parking space, then turned to me. “From what she said recently, I’m guessing it was so that I’d be ready to meet you when you came.”
“I’m glad you were,” I said, as I choked back sudden tears and hugged him. “Let’s grab lunch and take it with us. I have the inescapable urge to take Trixie to the dog park, Chip too, and let them play before we have to head back to class.”
“Okay,” smiled Miles, hugging me back. “I’m sure they’d both appreciate that.”
“Maybe on the way home we can stop by the pet bakery too, and let Trixie pick out more treats for her and the rest of the kids,” I said, carefully wiping away tears so my eyeliner wouldn’t smear.
“We’ll do that,” Miles said. He kissed me before letting go. “Then this evening we’ll see what more Trix can tell us about… well, us.”
Chapter 13
“There’s Xander and Jenny,” I said, turning to Miles. “So I’ll see you when you get home from class.”
“Okay. When you get home, stay there. The dogs will be fine. I’ll take them out when I get back.”
“I know, I’ll be fine too,” I said.
In spite of Miles’ cool response to Pretend-Mead, it concerned him what the guy said about our secrets. If Pretend-Mead did tell anyone what he suspected, he wouldn’t be telling anyone who was sane, sensible, compassionate, or law-abiding. Just like last year, I was being assigned a buddy any time we weren’t together. Just like last year, I wasn’t complaining about that.
I gave Miles a hug and kissed him goodbye.
“He’s not going off to war you know,” I heard Xander say, and I couldn’t help but laugh.
“I don’t know, Xander, it is accounting…” said Miles.
“You’re right, what was I thinking,” said Xander. “I don’t envy you. Do, carry on.”
Miles smiled, and I laughed.
“Thanks for picking Anika up, and making sure she gets home safe,” Miles said. “I really appreciate this.”
“It’s no problem,” said Xander. “However Jenny and I can help.”
“We mean that,” said Jenny. “Whatever we can do, let us know.”
“Thank you,” Miles said. “My biggest concern for the foreseeable future is that Anika not be alone outside of our apartment. She’ll fill you in on more of the details. I better go, or I’ll be late. Bye, honey.”
Miles kissed me quickly, then went inside the building.
“Thank you, guys,” I said as we walked toward the parking lot and Xander’s Yukon. “I’ll explain everything that’s going on, when we get to the apartment.”
“I’m sure I can piece some of it together from class today,” said Xander. “Are you planning to stick with this, or are you dropping the course?”
“I’m dropping it,” I said.
“Good,” said Xander, visibly relieved.
“I’m so glad,” said Jenny. She sounded as if she’d been praying I would. “I’ve been worried ever since Xander told me what happened today.”
“It was pretty crazy,” I said.
We said no more until we were in the vehicle and on the way back to our apartment building.
“He suspects that Miles has abilities,” I said.
“Xander told me what he asked you,” said Jenny.
“Yeah. As Miles and I left the classroom, Pretend-Mead said we had as much to lose as he did, if our secrets came to light.”
“He came right out and said that?” exclaimed Xander.
“Yes. He did,” I said. “So… that’s why Miles asked you to pick me up after my class and take me back to the apartment, instead of me waiting for him in the Student Center or a study lab like I’d planned.”
“I’m glad he called,” said Jenny.
“I am too,” I said. “There’s no limit to what Pretend-Mead would be willing to do if he had the opportunity. I know that for sure after what I saw today.”
“It was unbelievable how he threw that coffee at you,” said Xander. “A lot of students left class with the intention of seeing the Dean about it.”
“Yeah, but that’s not what I’m talking about,” I said. “I’m talking about how he killed his best friend. Instead of hearing the truth stated in words, I was there. I saw and heard for myself.”
“How horrible!” said Jenny, aghast.
“Yeah. It is,” I said, glad that so far it hadn’t become like one of my memories. “But I only remember it if I want to. It isn’t like a memory that shows up randomly in my thoughts. It only appears if I want to access the informati
on. It’s very detailed, and the same every time. It’s the truth, and it doesn’t change like a memory can as it’s analyzed and thought over again and again.”
“Man, that’s just so… crazy!” said Xander.
“It’s hard to comprehend,” said Jenny.
“Yeah. I know,” I said. “This ability is getting stronger, and I’m learning new things about it every day. My range has extended significantly. I can focus and pick up on the truth even when I can’t hear the lie the person is telling. But then when we were in the mall today and it became more crowded around lunch time, it was too much. There were so many lies. None of them life threatening or even involving crime, but they were still lies, and I was hearing too many truths all at once. We had to leave.”
“Is there a way you can control this?” wondered Jenny. “Otherwise you’ll end up having to stay away from groups. That would be hard to accomplish.”
“There’s got to be a way to control it,” I said. “I just have to keep practicing until I can learn how. It’s a good thing my abilities didn’t start out with what I heard today in the crowded mall, I would have been convinced I was losing my mind.”
“That’s got to be so strange to hear those things,” said Xander.
“It’s amazing really, what you can get used to,” I said. “I’m finding that it can be useful. If it weren’t for my abilities I might not have my new purse.”
“What are you talking about?” asked Jenny.
“The salesgirl’s head wasn’t in the game of selling purses today. When she claimed they didn’t have any more of the one I wanted, I knew that wasn’t the truth. They had a whole shipment in back, and she was supposed to be re-stocking, not chatting on the phone. I told her I’d like one from the new shipment, or the one on display.”
“You just came out and told her that?” asked Xander.
“Yeah, I did,” I said.
“What did she do?” asked Jenny.
“She was sort of stunned. She thought we were from management or something, she had no idea how I knew. She was just staring at me, so Miles got me the purse from the display and said I’d take that one. So I should restate what I said. If it wasn’t for my abilities and Miles, I might not have my new purse.”
Darkness Falls Page 22
