The Ties That Bind

by T. Starnes

  She looked at me with a sad, puppy dog expression.

  "Dammit. You girls all know how to push my buttons. Yeah, I'll do it. But can we do our training in the morning?"

  She was all giddy with excitement, "Great. Yes, I can meet you at your house for morning runs. Thanks, Cas, you're the best."

  As she leaned over the table and gave me a kiss on the cheek, Tami leaned in from my right side and whispered, "You're such a push over."

  I just shook my head in resignation, "Yeah, yeah."

  And that's when I saw it, what was bugging me. It was a girl, sitting by herself at one of the far tables. Her hair was stringy and poorly cared for, her clothing was disheveled, and every time someone got near her, she flinched. She wore a long sleeve shirt but every now and then, I could see what looked like a nasty bruise peeking out.

  Zoe followed my gaze to where the girl was sitting and asked, "What?"

  "Do you know her?"

  She shook her head no. I looked at everyone else at the table and they all did the same.

  "Why?" Zoe asked, looking concerned.

  "Something has been bugging me all week and I just figured out what it was. I have been reading up on various psychology and sociology books, for ... a project, and something from there connected. She is in trouble."

  "What kind of trouble?" Zoe asked, shifting her gaze back to the girl.

  "I don't know, yet."

  I motioned for Zoe and everyone else to stay seated and walked over to where the girl was seated, and sat down across from her. She had been looking downwards, and was startled when I sat. Her eyes darted around. It seemed like she was looking for a place to escape to.

  "Hi, I'm Caspian."

  She still wouldn't look at me, directly. I started moving my head to keep my face in her eye line and hold eye contact with her.

  "What's your name?"

  She stopped looking around and returned to looking down, then mumbled something.

  "I'm sorry? I didn't catch that," I kept my voice soft and even, trying not to spook her more than I already had.

  "Emily."

  She glanced up, and I gave her the warmest smile I could manage as I said, "It's nice to meet you, Emily. You're a freshman, right?"

  It was a good guess. Just by the way schedules worked out, it seemed this lunch was mostly full of freshman and sophomores, so I figured I had a fifty-fifty chance.

  She nodded yes but didn't say anything. I was grasping for ways to keep the conversation going, to see if I could bring her out of her shell. I noticed she had a book that I knew Josh's English class was reading.

  "I noticed the book; do you have Ms. Vanhorn for English?"

  She nodded again, glancing up once or twice, but didn't say anything.

  "My friend Josh has that class. He says she drones on and on, in kind of a monotonous voice. It's all I can do to convince him to stay awake."

  I thought I saw her mouth twitch in a small smile, but it quickly went away. I was surprised when she finally said something however.

  "Why are you talking to me?"

  I shrugged, "Why wouldn't I want to talk to you."

  "Because you're with the cool kids, you sit over with the cheerleaders and football players."

  That was the longest sentence I had gotten out of her so far, so I started trying to push it more.

  "Yeah, but don't hold that against them, they are generally pretty nice. But some days you need to change it up. Plus, all through lunch, Andrea has been talking about a marathon she wants to run. Do you know how boring it is to talk for a whole lunch period about running? I either had to get out of there, or the next time she started comparing the pros and cons of running shoes, I was going to have to make her eat one of them."

  Her mouth twitched in an almost smile, again, and then the bell rang for the end of lunch. She quickly stood up and started gathering some of her stuff.

  "Wait," I said, standing quickly.

  She froze in place but looked ready to bolt.

  "Would you mind if I sat with you on Monday?"

  "What about your ... girlfriends. I heard you were dating three girls."

  I shook my head in mock disdain, "Man, people around here like to gossip. They won't mind, I promise. Most the time they are all talking about shopping, anyway, so I am sure they would be okay if they got to avoid my whining on the subject. So, would it be okay?"

  She finally looked up at me and said quietly, "Yeah."

  And then she quickly turned and walked away. As I watched her go, Zoe, Vicki and Tami all walked up.

  "Another project?" Tami asked, putting an arm around my waist.

  I didn't look away from Emily's retreating form, but nodded as I said, "Yeah. Something is very wrong in that girl's world, and I want to find out what."

  Vicki kissed me on the cheek and said, "Good boy."

  I let the problem slip to the back of my mind as I gathered my things and walked the girls to their classes.

  Chapter 10

  When we got home from school the girls went into prep mode, tonight was my date with Vicki, and Zoe's date with Tami. I had a pretty good plan for Vicki and what we were going to do, tonight. I was really looking forward to it.

  I stopped Vicki as she was following the other two up the stairs, "Dress casually. We are going to be doing stuff, outside."

  She turned and looked at me with a smirk, "What are you planning?"

  "You'll see," I said as I turned her around and swatted her butt.

  She came down a little later, well ahead of the other two girls, in jeans and a t-shirt with very minimal makeup.

  I gave her a kiss on the cheek and said, "Perfect. Megan just pulled up so let's get going."

  I hollered up the stairs that we were leaving and both Tami and Zoe appeared, still only half dressed, to say goodbye. We hurried out to the suburban and hopped in. Vicki immediately started grilling Megan on what my plan was, but I had seen that coming and warned her not to give anything away.

  We drove a few miles away from the house and pulled into a small sports complex. Vicki was looking at me sideways when we hopped out. Megan gave us both hugs and wandered off, although I tapped my watch to remind her of step two of my plan. She gave a half wave, before disappearing from sight.

  Vicki was standing with arms crossed, "What exactly are we doing?"

  I pulled her with me, managing to get her arms loose, and taking one of her hands. I led her around to the far side of the complex, where the batting cages were. Even though both the other girls are cheerleaders, Vicki is by far the most athletic of the three of them. While she likes nice clothes dressing up, she is the most aggressive of the three and loves to compete. When her mom dropped a bit of information at Thanksgiving, it had planted some ideas in my head about stuff Vicki would enjoy.

  When we stopped in front of the batting cages, she turned and asked, "Batting cages?"

  "Yep. Your mom mentioned at Thanksgiving how you used to love playing baseball. So much so, that they fought to get you into Little League. It's not what you normally do on dates, but I thought you would enjoy spending some time getting reacquainted with your old passion."

  She squealed and hugged my neck, "Cas that is so thoughtful. No one ever takes me to stuff like this. I can't remember the last time I got to play."

  I just smiled at her as I walked us up to the attendant, paid, got bats, helmets and the small lecture they give you to keep your helmet on at all times in the cage.

  When we got to our assigned spot I asked, "Do you want to go first?"

  She shook her head and half pointed with her bat, "No, you go."

  I plopped the helmet on my head and went in. I hadn't used a cage before, but the instructions were pretty clear. I set it for a fairly fast, but not MLB fast, and hit the button to start the machine. I missed the first several swings. I understood the mechanics of baseball, and enjoyed watching it, but this was the first time I had ever even picked up a bat.

  "You're overpowe
ring it. Don't swing away like you are chopping wood. You have to predict where the ball is going to be and try and connect there, not swing once you see the ball at the plate. By then it's too late," Vicki said from behind me on the other side of the chain-link cage.

  I just nodded and let two balls sail by while I tried to gauge the timing of it. Of course, this only works on a machine that methodically shoots the ball at the same place every time. I started to really concentrate, and felt the moment when I slipped into slow motion. Every other time it just sort of happened, and was an involuntary reaction. This was the first time I really felt the change taking place. It was a weird sensation.

  I started to focus and unfocus trying to drop in and out of slow motion. This of course did nothing to help me on my swing, since I was barely paying attention to connecting with the ball. But after a few minutes I found that sweet spot, where I could force myself into slow motion. The only real downside to being able to do it on command was, with as much focus as I needed to make the change happen, I ended up with a splitting headache.

  I turned the machine off and waved Vicki in. She was just shaking her head, laughing.

  "Wow, you really suck at this," she said and then paused after looking at my face. "What's wrong?"

  I shook my head, "Terrible headache. While batting, I figured out how to go in and out of the slow motion thing I told y'all about."

  "Really? That's so cool," She said excitedly.

  "Yeah, but it comes with a massive headache."

  She took off my batting helmet and rubbed one hand gently across my temple, "Do you want to call it a night and go home?"

  "No, you go ahead and bat. I just need to sit down for a minute," I said shaking my head.

  I knew the headache wasn't going to go away any time soon, but she had been looking forward to our date all week, and I didn't want to disappoint her. I watched her wail away in the cage for a long time. She was really into it and didn't seem to get bored at all. After almost thirty minutes, the pitching machine shut itself off. She looked over at me with an unsaid question.

  I shrugged and said, "That was it for our allotted time. You did really good in there."

  She came through the door of the batting cage and gave me a sweaty hug, "Thanks. I wasn't expecting to do that good. I always enjoyed baseball and softball, but I wasn't amazing or anything."

  "Well, remember you are working with much better reflexes and muscles than you used to have."

  She stopped walking for a second, looking up and thinking, "Huh, I guess you're right. I didn't really consider that. So, what's next?"

  "Back to the car to get dinner."

  "Shouldn't we go shower or something first?"

  "I think we will be okay."

  We got to the suburban, and found Megan waiting, holding a basket. She handed it over to me, gave me a high five, and walked off, never saying a word.

  "Ha, you have her well trained."

  "Megan has always been nice to us. Buuutt, her willingness to do extra stuff, may stem from the fact that I agreed to give her what she wants."

  Vicki stopped dead in her tracks and asked, "You are going to alter her?"

  I put my arm through her elbow, getting her moving again as I replied, "Yes. Alex told Mom yesterday she has the battery of tests ready. We are going to do it tomorrow, giving us Sunday for her to recuperate at our house."

  "What made you decide to go ahead and do it?" she asked.

  We sat down at a picnic table away from other people. I started spreading out a cloth and putting out the food, which included fried chicken, coleslaw and potato salad. A good, old fashioned Southern style picnic.

  As I handed her a plate I said, "Both she and Alex made excellent points. We need to track the personality changes, and she is more aware of the potential risks than anyone else we could include. The problem I face is my reluctance doesn't really have anything substantial behind it ... besides not liking the idea I might be controlling people. But, we won't know that until we test to see what level of control is there. I really don't have a leg to stand on; so, since it was my own hang-ups, I gave in."

  "Well, I am glad you decided to do it. Megan has been very good to us," she said between bites.

  We wound down the conversation as we ate, sticking to lighter subjects. When all the food was finished I reached in and grabbed two small, wrapped, pieces of pie. Handing one to Vicki, I opened the other as my brain shifted to another topic that had been bugging me.

  "Vicki, could you help me understand something?" I asked while I pushed my pie around with a fork.

  "Sure," she said with her mouth half full of pie.

  "You said your dad is a CPA; but my understanding, backed by doing a little research afterwards, is that CPAs don't make nearly enough money for the lifestyle your family leads. Plus, your mom doesn't work. You can tell me if this is none of my business, but, I just don't get it."

  I let out a big puff of air. I had been holding that question in since thanksgiving, and it was driving me mad.

  Vicki looked thoughtfully as she ate another bite of pie. I was starting to worry that I had upset her since she was silent for so long, but she eventually started talking.

  "I'm not sure. I never really thought about it, since we have had money for as long as I can remember. It's not an inheritance or anything. My dad always made a big deal of being a self-made man. Maybe he has investments, or something."

  I wasn't convinced, but decided to let it drop for now.

  "Maybe. I guess it's not a big deal, I was just curious."

  By that point, we had both finished our pie, and I started packing all the stuff back into the basket. She seemed to brush off my question and stayed in a good mood. We met up with Megan and she drove us back home. It wasn't all that late and Zoe and Tami weren't back from their date, wherever that was, yet.

  Vicki liked to sleep in, so I managed to slide out of bed without waking her, and got my morning run in. We had gone to bed in the spare bedroom so we could leave our main room for the other two girls. I peek into that room and saw Zoe and Tami. They had the covers thrown off, and were nude, cuddled tightly together. I stood there a moment, just looking at them, before I went out.

  When I got back, I checked on them again, and was surprised to see Vicki was now pressed up against them. I guess she woke up, noticed I was gone, and went to find other people to sleep with.

  I just shook my head and went downstairs to get breakfast ready. Mom was already in the kitchen cooking.

  "Morning," I said, starting to clean up the detritus spread around her.

  She turned to me, gave me a loving smile and said, "Morning sweetie. Did you guys sleep okay?"

  "Yeah, pretty good. Do you want some help?"

  "No, I got it. Go sit at the table and keep Megan company."

  I stopped and looked at her in surprise as I asked, "Megan's here? She is really early."

  Mom just shrugged and said, "I know. I guess she is excited about what is going to happen today."

  I let a frown cloud my face, but Mom just patted me on the shoulder.

  "Go keep the girl company, Cas. This is a big thing for her."

  I gave a single nod, seeing that she was right. Megan was nervously fidgeting.

  "Couldn't sleep?" I asked, walking up behind her.

  She jumped a foot out of her chair, or at least it seemed that way, "Holy crap, Cas. You scared the hell out of me."

  I chuckled and slid into the seat next to her, "I would say I was sorry, but it was too good of an opportunity. Besides, I did it on purpose. You got some nice air on that one."

  She gave me a baneful glare, "You're a mean man, Cas."

  "What can I say? A fella has to get his joy somewhere," I said, giving her a sly grin.

  She dropped back into silence.

  "You nervous?" I said, becoming serious.

  She thought for a second, and then shook her head, 'no.'

  "Not really. I mean a little, but I am more exc
ited. This is a big thing, and I feel like I am becoming part of the family."

  I put my hand on top of hers as I said, "Megan, you are already part of the family. You don't have to do this to prove anything."

  She kept her head down, but smiled.

  "I am not trying to prove anything, Cas. I want to do this. Plus, it will help."

  "Has Alex explained what is going to happen?"

  "Yeah, we talked last night. She will administer a bunch of tests, and then give me an injection. She said I would get sick later tonight, and part of the day tomorrow. Tomorrow night she plans on giving me the same tests, again; then again, at mid-day, Sunday; and again, next Wednesday."

  I nodded, "Yeah, I am not sure this is where the protocol will end up, but on its face it's the best thing we could think of. Once we have this information, we will know more for next time. It's just frustrating that we know so little."

  "That is one of the reasons I want to help, Cas. We need to know this stuff."

  Just then Mom came in with breakfast. I smiled at her and then turned back to Megan.

  "Well, let's eat some breakfast. We'll try to relax a little before Alex gets here."

  We were just finishing up with breakfast when Alex showed up carrying a briefcase. We cleaned up the table, and Alex set a thick sheaf of paper in front of Megan. There were questions typed on every page, in not particularly large fonts, with room to write answers.

  "Holy crap," Megan said, looking at the packet.

  Alex laughed a little, "I know it's a lot, Megan, but the people who helped me put this together said it will give us a good baseline as to what your feelings are. Angela and I added some additional questions more specific to our situation and the group..."

  "Family," I interrupted. "Everyone here is part of our family."

  "Right, Family," Alex continued. "They may be a little more ham-fisted than what the professionals wrote up, but I think they should tell us something. It is very important you answer these as honestly and openly as possible. Don't spare people's feelings. The more accurate this and the following examinations are, the more accurate the information it gives us."