No one did.
Finally, she steeled her nerve to do something visual. Somehow it seemed like being seen to do something weird was more embarrassing than having people hear her singing badly. She began by hopping along beside her brother, then jumping vigorously up and down. No one seemed to notice, so she did a few cartwheels, still without any reaction.
Stopping the cartwheels, she swept the crowd with her eyes trying to see if anyone might have noticed and been watching her, even if they weren’t responding in a more visible manner.
No one’s eyes were on her.
Roni let herself reappear as they turned the corner, feeling like suddenly becoming visible in front of someone without the distraction of the turn might attract unwanted attention. Hax’s head jerked around to glance at her and he said, “There you are. What’ve you been doing?”
Shrugging, Roni said, “Trying out some things. I picked your pocket.”
Slapping his hand over his wallet, Hax said, “You didn’t!”
She thought about telling him how she’d flicked his ear, but since he didn’t seem too happy about her talent today she just said, “I also seem to be able to keep people from noticing my touch.”
Narrowing his eyes, Hax said, “You say that because you picked my pocket and I didn’t notice?”
Roni shrugged again, “I also tapped a bunch of people on their shoulders. They didn’t seem to notice either.”
“I don’t see how that will help you with your dear Niccolo Castano,” Hax said, still sounding disgruntled.
“I don’t think it will. I just think I should… know exactly what it is I can do.”
Hax shrugged and kept on walking. After a bit, he said, “So what’d you learn?”
Pensively, Roni said, “I can sing loud and even scream without anyone noticing.”
“That won’t help you with Castano either.”
“Yeah,” Roni sighed. They walked a little farther, then, as they approached the next corner, she said, “Can you help me try something else?”
“I suppose,” Hax responded reluctantly.
As they turned the next corner, Roni thought about hiding. Hax turned toward her and, apparently not seeing her, said a little sarcastically, “Yeah, you’ve hidden again. Big deal.”
Roni thought to herself that it was a big deal and that Hax would’ve agreed if he wasn’t jealous. Next she thought that she wanted Hax to be able to see her, but to remain hidden from everyone else.
Hax had turned forward, but now he turned to glance at her, then back forward. “You’re back. So what?”
“I’m trying to hide from everyone but you,” Roni said, glancing around and trying to see if anyone seemed to notice her.
“Well, I surely can’t tell whether they can see you or not.”
“Yeah, so I’m going to act like a fool and see if anyone notices. Watch the crowd for me.” Roni sang for a moment. When no one reacted, she shouted a couple of times. Then she jumped up and down and did a cartwheel. “Do you think anyone noticed that?”
Hax’s wide eyes were focused on Roni, not the crowd. Now he glanced around, “I guess not.” His eyes returned to her, “But I don’t think that’s going to help you with Nick either.”
“Maybe I can do the reverse? Hide from one person, but not everyone else?”
Hax frowned, “You’re thinking you could hide from Castano but let everybody else see you? How would that help more than hiding from everyone?” He glanced around, “In fact, I think it’d be even worse. He’d be saying, ‘Where’d she go?’ and people would point at you. If he still couldn’t see you, everyone would know something weird was going on.”
Suddenly tired of having Hax pooh-pooh her ideas, Roni said, “I don’t know.” She made herself visible to everyone at the next corner. Shortly after that they arrived at the martial arts studio.
***
Master Akita shook his head, though not visibly. These two new students were… he didn’t know what to think.
The half-breed girl he didn’t like. However, over the years he’d learned to hide his revulsion at the odd mixtures of the races one found in this city. It was a given that people from all over the world had mixed together here, though Akita had never seen anyone with nearly black skin yet light blue eyes before. He thought she looked… interesting, but still, she put his hackles up.
Nonetheless, mixed-race though the girl might be, she was athletic. He expected that if she stayed with it, she’d march her way through the belts to achieve a black one someday.
Her brother though! He was so uncoordinated that, just walking, he looked like some kind of unconstrained mechanism that might fly apart at any moment. Akita could understand why the parents might wish to have him trained in the martial arts. No doubt, with the way the boy looked and moved he must be the target of bullies. However, Akita couldn’t imagine how someone so clumsy could possibly be taught to protect himself.
Still, they were paying customers. Akita needed to do what he could. With a snort he thought, Maybe I could tell the boy to buy some armor?
Akita sighed and stepped forward, “Okay, we’ll start with how to fall.”
***
“Roni?”
Roni looked up. Hax was in her room. She found that very irritating even though she hadn’t closed her door to keep people out. “What?”
“I was researching that… that thing you do.”
She sighed, annoyed, “Close the door if we’re going to talk about that.”
Hax stepped back and closed her door, then said, “Did you know we all have blind spots? We just don’t notice them.”
Roni stared at him for a moment, then said, “I don’t have any blind spots.”
“You do. If you’ve never seen yours, put your thumb out at arm’s length and line it up with a spot on the wall—a spot you can keep your eye on.”
Roni started to do it; then she remembered the time Hax had told her that if you salted ketchup it produced an exothermic reaction. He’d squirted some ketchup on a plate, salted it, and told Roni to hold her hand over it to feel the heat. When she’d done so, he’d smacked her hand down into the ketchup, making a mess and crowing triumphantly. Suspiciously, she said, “This isn’t one of your stupid tricks, is it?”
“No, I swear. If it’s a trick I’ll do the dishes next time it’s your turn.”
Roni warily put her thumb out at arm’s length so it obscured a hole in her wall. She picked that spot because it let her put her thumb out while keeping Hax in her peripheral vision.
“Now,” Hax said, “close your left eye and move your thumb slowly out to the right, keeping your eye on the original spot you picked. When your thumb’s about six or eight inches to the side, its tip’ll disappear.”
Roni felt certain this was one of Hax’s stupid tricks, but she felt curious. She slowly moved her thumb out to the side like he’d said. She was still focused on what his trick might be, when she realized that the tip of her thumb really had vanished, “What the hell?” she muttered.
“Cool, huh?” Hax said. “That blind spot is because the optic nerve enters that part of your retina. Because the nerve’s there, there aren’t any photoreceptor cells in that area. You don’t notice the loss of vision in that spot, partly because you’re used to it, but also because the visual field of your right eye shows you what’s in the blind area of the left eye and vice versa.” He shrugged, “Besides, the blind spot’s small and little movements of your eye let your brain fill in the data missing from that spot.”
While Hax had been talking, Roni’d put her thumb back out and tried it again with the same astonishing result. “I don’t see what this has to do with how I hide. I’m certainly not standing in people’s blind spots.”
“No,” Hax said. “But when you disappear, it looks kind of like that blind spot. Like you’re not there, but it just isn’t noticeable? Maybe it applies a little bit because it shows how we normally don’t notice holes in our vision? Did you know that we can�
�t actually see color at the periphery of our vision? We think we do because our brain fills in the info from the last time we looked that direction.” He shrugged, “We actually see pretty crappy everywhere except at the center of our vision, but we think we see just fine everywhere. I think we’re so used to having bad vision in parts of our eyesight that we don’t even notice when you make a hole in what we see.”
Roni put her thumb back out to look at her own blind spot again. “Maybe,” she said doubtfully.
***
Nick lunged out from behind the hedge to grab Roni by the wrist. Surging back, he jerked her toward the little recess he’d been standing in, intending to slam her up against the wall like he had a few weeks ago. He’d checked out her spastic little brother’s route and it didn’t pass this way so that little pissant wouldn’t be interfering this time.
Unlike he’d pictured it, she didn’t come passively, but leaned back and dug in. She flailed, pulling away from him as hard as she could. However, she wasn’t strong enough to keep him from dragging her closer. Apparently realizing this, she gave up and plunged toward him instead. For a moment, he thought she’d given in and was coming willingly. But then she rotated around to brutally slam her elbow into his face!
Stunned, Nick reached up to grab at his cheek and nose.
As he did so, she jerked her hand away.
He lunged forward to grab her, but she’d skipped just beyond his fingertips. As he charged after, she darted around the corner. Knowing she couldn’t outrun him, he sprinted around the corner but tripped over something. He sprawled full-length, face slamming down on his forearm. When he pulled back his arm was red.
A bloody nose! he thought in astonishment, at first grabbing it forcefully, then easing up at the pain.
By the time he’d scrambled back to his feet, she was nowhere to be seen. He sprinted to the next corner and looked both ways, but saw no sign of her. As he walked thoughtfully back to the first corner, wondering what he’d tripped over, an uneasy feeling swept over him.
He didn’t remember seeing her when he’d first rounded the corner.
I probably looked down as soon as I tripped, he decided. Just didn’t have time to register her.
Nick noticed his hand was bleeding too. Reaching up he touched his sore cheek and wiped at the blood coming from his nose. He hoped it wouldn’t be swollen enough for his dad to notice.
Nick’s dad didn’t care if Nick got in fights, he just wanted to hear his son had kicked the other guy’s ass. Unfortunately, Nick hadn’t won this one. If Dad asks, Nick thought, it won’t be the first time I’ve told him I won when I haven’t.
Nick was most of the way home when he realized he hadn’t found whatever he’d tripped over. He shrugged—it wasn’t important.
Chapter 1
Nick pulled over to the curb. It was a no parking zone, but the cops recognized the Castanos’ cars and the police all knew better than to hassle the Castanos. Mario said, “Hey, remember that funny looking girl from our senior year in school? The one with the dark skin and the blue eyes? You hung out with her for a while?”
Nick grunted. He knew better than to try to get Mario to shut up. The guy had diarrhea of the mouth and constipation of the brain. He couldn’t bear to leave a silence unfilled. Big Mario had his merits, but keeping quiet wasn’t one of them.
As they got out of the car, Mario continued, never bothered by Nick’s minimal contributions to their conversations. “I saw her the other day on the Plaza. She looks… well, not my type, of course, but still, kind of cool. She got over her pimples and those blue eyes really stand out against her dark skin, you know?”
Nick grunted again. He’d thought the Buchry girl looked exotic or he wouldn’t have spent any time with her. He knew his dad would’ve given him hell for hanging around with a girl like that.
His dad could be exceedingly emphatic about his opinion that Castanos shouldn’t mix with half-breeds.
Mario pulled open the door and Nick stepped inside the store. As they started toward the front of the store, Mario said, “How far’d you get with her anyway?”
Nick didn’t answer, not because he didn’t want to admit he hadn’t gotten past a couple of kisses, but because he knew Mario’d come up with an answer himself and Mario’s answer would suit Nick’s purposes just fine.
Sure enough, Mario paused for an answer, but so briefly that Nick couldn’t have wedged an answer into the gap if he’d tried. Then Mario answered himself, “All the way, I’m sure. I mean, you’re Nick Castano, right?”
They’d reached the register. Some pimple faced kid was manning it so Nick stepped up and spoke gently, “We need to speak to Mr. Goldman.”
Behind Nick, Mario continued, “A girl like that should consider herself blessed that you’d fool around with her, right?”
The kid behind the register said, “Mr. Goldman’s doing his books, can I help you?”
Mario was still chattering. Nick reached across the counter and grabbed a handful of the front of the kid’s shirt. He jerked the kid off his stool and part way across the counter. With their faces mere inches apart, Nick said in a quietly menacing tone, “Tell Mr. Goldman that Castano is here.” Letting go of the kid’s shirt, Nick shoved him hard enough that the kid banged into the wall, knocking down some cigarettes. “He’ll want to talk to me.”
Wide-eyed, the kid’s prominent Adam’s apple bobbed up and down a couple of times. He opened his mouth, but nothing came out. Finally, he settled for nodding vigorously and heading for the back room.
Behind him, Mario said, “How was she?” He paused briefly, “Good, I’ll bet.”
Nick wanted to be able to hear what was going on in the back room so he turned to glower at Mario, “As good as any other skank, now shut up.”
It was Mario’s turn to swallow. He knew he wasn’t supposed to be yapping while they were doing serious business. To Nick’s satisfaction, he nodded without saying another word. Nick turned back toward the back room. It seemed suspiciously silent. Nick narrowed his eyes and waited a beat. When old man Goldman didn’t appear, Nick turned his back to the counter and boosted his haunches up onto it. Lifting his legs, he spun on his butt and dropped his feet off onto the floor behind the counter.
As Nick walked toward the doorway into the back room, Mario said, “Um…”
Nick shot Mario a threatening glance, then leaned down to poke his head around the corner at a level below where Goldman might have been expecting it. Goldman didn’t strike him as the type to have gotten out a gun, but Nick’s dad always said the ones you thought were the most chickenshit often turned out to be the only ones who actually had balls.
No gun. The fat little man was stuffing cash into a leather folder. The pimply kid was nowhere to be seen. “Hi Mr. Goldman,” Nick said cheerfully. Eyeing the satchel, he said, “I’m pretty sure that’s a lot more than you owe for your insurance.”
Goldman straightened like he’d been shot. He turned his head slowly to look over his shoulder at Nick. His jowls trembled with fear. “Hi Mr. Castano.”
To Nick, being called Mr. still felt weird. He was just three years out of high school, after all. But Nick’s dad said that the Castanos deserved respect and he should demand it. He let the false smile drop-off his face. “Me and Mario, we’re here to collect.”
“Um… You know, the store’s having a hard time making ends meet what with having to pay you guys for your…”
Goldman broke off when Nick stepped into the little office and grabbed him by the ear. Twisting Goldman’s auricle, Nick pulled him out toward the counter, “Now, now Mr. Goldman,” Nick said in what he thought of as his “reasonable” tone. It was falsely affable with a hint of menace in its undertones. “You’ve got to be thinking about what might happen to your profits if you don’t pay your insurance.” Nick winked at Mario who used an arm to sweep a shelf of bottled drinks. They crashed to the floor, the glass bursting and liquids spraying everywhere. Nick continued. “Vandals,” he said,
shaking his head as if dismayed, “they’re everywhere. Now, if you were insured, it’d be up to Castano and Co. to punish the miscreants and make sure it didn’t happen again. However,” Nick twisted Goldman’s ear even harder, “since you just let your insurance lapse, we just have to stand back and observe.”
Mario cleared another shelf.
Goldman blubbered, “I’ll pay! I’ll pay! Please…”
Nick let go of Goldman’s ear, “I thought there was some kind of misunderstanding,” he said cheerfully. As Goldman shakily straightened, Nick frowned, “I hate to tell you this, but there’s a fifty percent surcharge for letting your insurance lapse. I’m sure you understand. It’s just business…”
From the look of impotent rage in Goldman’s eyes, he certainly did understand. “Yes Mr. Castano,” he said in a defeated tone. “Let me go back to my office and I’ll get your money.”
“I’ll go with you,” Nick said cheerfully. “Then we’ll have to be moving on. More business to be done, you know?”
***
Hax stared at himself in the mirror with some consternation. “Mom!” he called out. “You shrank my pants!”
A sudden cold snap had made this the first day he needed to wear long pants. These were his favorite pants from last year, but they ended well above his ankles now. Frustrated, he pulled them off and pulled down another pair.
They were too short too.
When his third pair of pants were too short, Hax began to wonder uneasily if perhaps they hadn’t been ruined in the wash. He stepped out into the hall. “Mom?”
Tansey turned away from the stove to look at him. She frowned unhappily.
Hax said, “My pants are too short.”
Tansey said, “So I see.”
“Do you think you shrank them?”
“No,” she snorted. “You’ve been growing, haven’t you noticed?” She walked toward him, “Find those pants with the cuffs. I’ll let them out.”
The Girl They Couldn’t See (Blind Spot #1) (Blind Spot Series) Page 4
