Ending ELE (ELE Series)

by Gober, Rebecca

  “You’re such a dork,” Alec jabs.

  “Proud of it,” Connor says as he leans away from the ladder like Belle from Beauty and the Beast.

  Claire climbs up the spiral staircase and examines the books up top. “Boring. These are all medical and science books.” She climbs back down.

  All of us busy ourselves snooping around at the gadgets and odds and ends on the shelves and on top of the desk. Connor picks up a pipe, puts it in his mouth, and pretends like he’s studiously smoking it.

  “Elementary, my dear Watson,” Connor says with a mock puff.

  We all turn to look at him in confusion. What a totally random statement, even for Connor.

  "What?" He pulls the pipe out of his mouth to speak. "My dad collected classic novels. You've never heard of Sherlock Holmes?"

  We all shake our heads in unison.

  "Well never mind then." He happily raises the pipe back to his lips and we all return to our search.

  Another, smaller fireplace is next to the desk. Marya walks over to it and starts pulling the dust cloth off a framed picture above the mantel. A second later, the cloth drops to the ground and she gasps.

  I look over at her. She’s trembling and staring with wide eyes at the painting. I look up at it and something lurches in my stomach. My heart begins beating double time as I stare at the portrait in horror.

  Connor lets the pipe drop from his lips and he spits several times, like it had some sort of disease on it.

  Tony comes to my side and puts his arm around me to lend me his strength. “I had no idea this was his house.”

  I can’t avert my eyes away from the oil painting of a family dressed in pristine clothes with serious expressions. The Hasting’s family. Dr. Hastings stands shoulder to shoulder with his late wife, whom I never met in person. In front of them, sitting in chairs, are Candy and Zack. They are the only two people in the portrait to have a somewhat smile etched on their faces. Their eyes are their natural color and they look younger, like this was painted several years prior. I shiver, realizing that three of the four people in that painting are no longer living. “This is the Hastings’s home.” I say the obvious with a tremor in my voice.

  “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know.” Tony pulls me closer to him.

  I shake my head in disbelief. “You couldn’t have known. What are the odds though?” I ask.

  “A million-trillion to one,” Connor interjects.

  The tension is thick in the room. Marya, having recovered from her shock, begins covering the picture up again. Claire jumps in and helps her.

  My heart finally begins calming once the picture is no longer in view. I want to leave this room. I kind of want to leave this house but we have taken up so much time finding it already and it’s not like the owners are coming back. Plus, Tony had a vision of us here. It’s technically safe and an ideal location for a hideaway. I try shaking off the creepy feelings.

  Connor is the first to get back to snooping around. “That’s why he has all these science books.” Connor looks at the books on the wall again. Then he turns around and leans back against the bookcase. “Ahh!” he yelps as the shelf he’s leaning against begins moving backwards.

  Claire grabs his arm just in time to keep him from falling down when the bookshelf mysteriously opens up a panel in the wall.

  We all inch closer together around the secret chamber Connor discovered. Alec goes back to the desk and rummages through the drawers. He comes back with a flashlight and shines it inside the dark abyss.

  The stairs lead downward toward some sort of secret basement. “This must be the basement from your vision,” I tell Tony.

  He shakes his head. “No, that one had a normal door and was off the kitchen. I didn’t see this place.”

  “Well, let’s check it out,” Alec suggests.

  Claire goes and closes the door to the office first. “I just want to make sure the kids don’t come running in here and accidentally fall down the stairs.”

  “Good thinking,” Marya tells her.

  I smile at her maternal instincts.

  “Boys first.” I gesture to Alec.

  He cautiously starts leading the way down the stairs. At the bottom, we find yet another door. Alec tries opening it. “It’s locked,” he says.

  “I got this,” Connor says. He steps through the door, using his powers. I hear a rustling and a few grunts on the other side as I assume Connor is trying to find the lock in the dark. A second later, the door is opened from the inside.

  “Good job, babe,” Claire tells him.

  He beams with pride.

  Alec shines his flashlight in the room and looks around for a light switch. With all the natural light up on the main floor, I hadn’t even thought to try a light switch. It’s been so long that we’ve been without electricity. I assume though, that at some point, Dr. Hastings would have made sure that there was power running to his home again. My stomach clenches as I think of him and whether he stayed here while he was holding our people hostage.

  Marya spots the light switch first and flips it on. The room floods with a bluish white light, illuminating the lab. All kinds of electrical equipment, medical charts, and devices fill the room. An operation table sits on one side. A desk and workspace with two computers is on the other side. Beakers and testing equipment sit on an island workspace in the middle of the room.

  “Creepy,” Connor says.

  “Yep,” Tony agrees.

  The question remains in the air as to why Dr. Hastings would need an operating table in the basement of his house. I shiver. I don’t need to wonder why Dr. Hastings felt the need to have a secret lab. Nothing he did seemed to be much on the up and up.

  We all branch off from each other and take turns scouring the room. I immediately head to his desk and search for any information that could be useful to us. I can’t help but notice that his desk is meticulously clean. Everything has a place and is organized just so. I open the drawers and find a bunch of files. Nothing seems interesting to me at first, just files on family matters and finances. I can feel Tony behind me before I can see him.

  “That drawer is too shallow,” he states. I step off to the side as Tony steps in, examining the drawer. He begins pulling out the drawers at the top and setting them off to the side. He shimmies under the desk like an auto mechanic would a car and runs his hands along the surfaces. After a few minutes, he has an audience. All of us gather around Tony to see what he uncovers. I hear some sort of click. He gets out from under the desk and places one of the drawers back in place. Then he pulls it out halfway. Another click is heard and then Tony opens the original drawer the rest of the way, revealing another round of files.

  “Seriously Tony, that’s like the coolest thing you ever did. Very James Bond.” Connor pats Tony on the shoulder.

  “Yeah, that was pretty boss,” Alec adds.

  Tony grins and I can’t help but smile at him. I know he hasn’t officially been deemed “one of the guys,” yet. Moments like this tell me that it might not be too long before Alec and Connor’s bro-pack grows a little larger.

  I inch closer to examine the contents of the drawer. A stapler, box of pens, and seven manila colored files are all that sits in it. Ignoring the office supplies, I pull the files out and place them on the desk. I bet Dr. Hastings is rolling over in his grave right now! We each grab a few of the files and surf through the contents.

  “It’s just a bunch of formulas, tax documents, and such,” I announce rather bitterly. Just when I thought we had something. The only interesting thing I see is what looks like a code to some type of safe or something that is written by hand at the bottom of an instruction manual for the operating table. It’s a series of four, two-digit numbers. We haven’t seen any type of safe around here yet, so it’s pretty much useless thus far.

  We all throw the files back together, leaving them on the desk this time. Connor announces what’s on everyone’s mind. “I’m starving.”

  Feeling a bit
defeated, we head upstairs, close the secret bookshelf, and wander towards the kitchen. It doesn’t take long for the smell of pancakes to drift towards our noses. Instinctively, we rush quicker towards its origin.

  Inside the kitchen, we find Carrie flipping a golden pancake in the air like a pro. It lands back down on the skillet with a sizzling sound. Without taking her eyes from the stove, she answers our unasked question. “I found some wheat flour and other staples in the pantry. I was pretty sure you guys would be hungry so I whipped up some pancakes. I hope you all don’t mind.”

  “Mind?” Connor says in mock shock. “As long as it isn’t sauerkraut, I’m game!” I try to stifle a grin but fail. Connor puts his two fingers to his eyes again and moves them in Tony’s direction. “I haven’t forgotten,” he says. To make it even funnier, he further clarifies his gesture. “Meaning, I’m watching you and when the time comes, you’re getting yours.” He clamps a fisted hand into his open hand.

  Tony’s eyebrows raise a quarter of an inch to let him know, ‘Game on.’

  I love these guys. Humor is a great distraction from the hectic world we live in.

  Claire, Marya, and I help find some plates and forks for everyone. My dad comes into the kitchen with Lillie and Sabby in tow. Their little cheeks are rosy red from being outside.

  “We foun a twampoline!” Sabby declares excitedly.

  Lillie nods her head with equal enthusiasm. “It was awesome, Coco!” Her little, red curls bounce against her head as she runs to her brother’s side.

  “That sounds like fun! You’ll have to take me there later,” Connor tells her with a hug.

  “Deal!” She smiles.

  We take a seat around the kitchen table. My dad insists that Carrie take a seat and let him serve us. “You did all the cooking, so you get first dibs!” he tells her.

  She smiles. “I like these rules!”

  Alec comes to the table holding a jar over his head like a trophy. “I found some maple syrup! I don’t know how old it is, but I don’t think maple syrup goes bad.” He sets the jar on the table.

  Carrie picks it up. “Oh, this is the real stuff. I never could justify paying fifteen dollars for such a small bottle. This is going to be good.” She opens the jar and pours a liberal amount on her hotcakes.

  After everyone’s been served, we dig in, leaving our manners at the door.

  Sebastian is less than thrilled with our table etiquette. “Slow down, Wello. You gonna choke!”

  I purse my lips and smile. My mom was a horrible cook but she always made sure to teach us the proper way to eat a meal. I slow down and remember to actually chew my food—not inhale it.

  Sabby nods his head as if to tell me, ‘good job’.

  Could he be any cuter? I watch him gingerly cut his pancakes with the side of his fork and stuff a small bite in his mouth. I wonder if he realizes that his birthday is only a day away. He hasn’t mentioned it. Then again, we rarely ask what day it is. I haven’t the slightest clue as to what we’re going to do to celebrate. My mom used to make him birthday pancakes with icing and sprinkles. I wonder if that would be too much for him though… now that Mom’s gone.

  After we’re done eating, we shoo Carrie out of the kitchen and take on dish duty. It amazes me that running water is also available here. I guess Dr. Hastings still has the hook up… even after death. I push that thought out of my mind immediately—it sounds so morbid.

  We spend the rest of the afternoon sifting through the house. We come up empty with anything that may leave us clues as to what happened with Project ELE or clues as to what our next move should be. It seems like we’re running in circles; none of us are sure about what to do next. As the sun begins to set, we go in search of candles. It’s one thing to have access to electricity, but another to use it in the dead of night. We don’t want to light up the house like a Christmas tree and give the ‘other guys’ the location of where we are. We may as well send up fireworks if we did that.

  After we put Sebastian and Lillie to bed, the rest of us congregate in the living room. Carrie made us all some hot tea, which is immensely soothing. I sit on Tony’s lap on the floor of the living room. We’ve all brought down blankets to cuddle up with. While we’ve lit the fire and turned the heat up a bit, there is still a crisp chill to the air.

  My dad’s the first one to speak up. “We’ve had a pretty grueling last couple of days—er, well, a long year I guess.” He clears his throat and continues. “But, as of now, I feel like we reflect some resemblance of safety being here. Now, having said that, I don’t want us to put our guards down. I do, however, want to celebrate my little boy’s birthday. He’s had a rough year and even if it’s just for a day, I want him to be a little boy and worry for nothing. In order to do this though, I’m going to need to enlist all of your help.” He looks around the room at all of our smiling faces and nodding heads. There isn’t anything I would love more than to make Sebastian’s fifth birthday one he’ll never forget. Even in these turbulent times, it’s important to make memories.

  We find a pad of paper and some pens and begin jotting down some ideas for what to do for Sabby’s birthday. We don’t have a whole lot to work with, being as though we’re out in the middle of nowhere and only brought the necessities with us. However, we can use our imagination—which is something a five-year-old can certainly appreciate. After about a half hour or so, we’ve managed to compile a very long list of ideas, which are mostly games. It takes us another twenty minutes or so to narrow it down to our top five. Connor takes up most of our time trying to persuade us to keep no-rules dodge ball on the list. With as powerful as Sebastian is, that one seemed like a no-brainer to me that the game might end in complete disaster.

  “Okay, so let me read off the final list,” I tell everyone as we all quiet down. Connor folds his arms and huffs in the corner. He would have been creamed if we’d kept no-rules dodge ball so I’m not sure why he’s huffing and puffing. Claire rubs his back as I continue. “We have: snow war, capture the flag, tag, red rover, red rover—which I’m still a bit wary of—and kick the can.” I look up from my list and find everyone satisfied.

  Alec interjects, “If we are going to have the snow war after Sebastian wakes up then we have a lot of work to do between now and then.” I nod my head.

  Carrie speaks up, “I can stay here with the little ones while the rest of you start making the forts. I can also take care of the meals.”

  “Thank you, Carrie!” I say. “That helps a lot.” We all get up and stretch, then go to put on our snow gear.

  Tony surprises me by coming up behind me and putting his arms around me. “Hey babe,” he says, giving my neck a small but intimate kiss.

  I squirm at his touch and giggle. “Hey yourself. You need to get ready; we have a lot of work ahead of us tonight.”

  He gives me another kiss or two and then lets me go to get his winter gear on.

  It’s a cold but pleasant evening. The wind is calm and the sky is clear. We bring out flashlights but don’t have to use them—we work with the light of the moon. Carrie brings us out every Tupperware container she could find for us to use as brick molds. Our goal is to turn this yard area into a place any five-year-old would kill to be in. Snow forts of every shape and size every ten feet or so are planned to litter the yard. We work late into the night and start to finish at about five in the morning. We make a few hundred snowballs and place them in mounds at the larger snow forts. When we all step back to look at our work, we can’t believe our eyes.

  “This. Is. Totally. Awesome!” Connor exclaims, fist bumping the air. All the boys join in, hooting and hollering about their accomplishments.

  The girls stand back and let them do their thing. “Men,” Claire huffs jokingly. She makes me giggle.

  We take our shoes off when we get in. Carrie is there to meet us with some hot tea and cocoa. While we warm our hands by the fire, we decide to take a quick nap before the little ones get up. Carrie is smart and says she put a heavy, b
lack blanket over the window in their room to make them sleep longer. Genius. I fall asleep next to my best friend while counting all of my many blessings.

  Chapter 6

  I wake up with a start as I hear my name. “Wello! Wello, wake up!” I’m groggy and try to fall back asleep.

  “Just a few more minutes,” I mumble, half-asleep.

  “Wello,” the little, insistent voice bellows again. “It’s my birday! I’m five years old, Wello, look!”

  I peek out of one of my eyes and see Sabby’s hand proudly displaying five fingers. “I’m a whole hand old, Wello!”

  Claire giggles under her breath. I lick my lips and try to will my eyes to open.

  “Time to get up,” Carrie says. “I bought you till nine.”

  I groan and rub my eyes. Everyone shuffles around me, trying to come to. We only had a few hours of sleep but I guess it’s better than nothing. I sit up and yawn big, stretching my arms to the ceiling. I would kill for a few more hours.

  Sabby grabs my hand and pulls me to standing so fast I almost lose my balance. “Geeze boy, I forget how strong you are…”

  Sabby flashes me a big smile as he pulls everyone else to a standing position, sleeping or not. He grabs Connor’s hand while he is still sleeping and manages to get him to a standing position before he falls flat on his face. I nearly pee my pants from laughing so hard. Connor fails to find the humor in it all.

  Sabby pulls me by the hand to the large window that overlooks the yard. “Lookie, Willow! It’s so much fun!”

  I lean down and pick up Sebastian. “Sabby, did you just say Willow?”

  He grins. “Yep, cause today I’m a big boy.”

  I get a little teary-eyed. “Can you do me a favor, Sabby?” He nods his head. “Can you still call me Wello? Even though you’re big, I like that name. It’s kind of special to me.”

  He contemplates this for a moment and then nods. “K, W-E-L-L-O,” he says, long and drawn out. He bursts out laughing like it’s the funniest thing in the world. I set him down on the ground and he’s off running again. I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen him so happy and boisterous.