Zellie Wells Trilogy

by Stacey Wallace Benefiel

  So, mastering the skill of driving got pushed down on the priority list and Avery just drove me everywhere. Not that it wasn’t nice to have Avery drive me places, but I wanted to be able to get myself around too. Also, he’d be in a lot less danger if I didn’t have to catch a ride with him to get to a rewind. My having a license was going to be better for everyone in my life.

  Avery smirked. “I bet your mom would glimpse the driver’s test for you, or your grandma, tell you which questions you got wrong.”

  I wrote my name with my finger in the condensation on the windshield, ignoring that little remark. “When are you going to get rid of this truck anyway? I thought we agreed that you needed to be driving something less red and truck-like.”

  In the vision I’d dreamt every night since Avery and I had gotten together, he died lying on the road next to this truck. The sooner this stupid truck was gone, the better. I didn’t know if it would improve the outcome of Avery’s future, Grandma thought it was unlikely, but why not take as many precautions as we could?

  “I know, I know. After Christmas, I promise.” He flipped the defrost on. “Although, it would make more sense for me to keep it through winter. It sure handles great in snow.” He swiped the windshield with his forearm and then cranked the defrost to high. “Not to mention it’s paid off.”

  I knew the real reason he didn’t want to sell the truck, that’s why I didn’t bug him about it too often. It was one of the only connections he had to his dad in the physical world. I broached the subject carefully. “What did your dad say the last time you talked to him?”

  “About the truck? He didn’t say too much. Something about me learning how to change the oil myself.” Avery glanced at me, testing the waters. “He was more interested in talking about the baby.”

  “Oh.” I rolled my eyes. My mom was almost six months pregnant with Avery’s dad’s baby. It was a boy. At least there was way less of a chance for it to be a Retroact. I still wasn’t sure I would wish my abilities on anyone.

  Mom had moved from the Adams’ house in Rosedell in September when Avery’s mom, Becky, came home from the Bend psychiatric hospital. Now Mom lived by herself, kinda, out at the Adams’ cabin in the foothills of Mt. Scott.

  Avery and Mom met a couple times a week at the cabin so he could communicate with his dad. Yes, his dead dad. My mom, while not a Retroact (that power skips a generation) has the ability to talk to spirits. That’s what I mean by her kinda living by herself. She’s at the cabin with her ghost baby daddy. My dad, Pastor Paul, is super happy about it. Ha.

  Avery claimed that his dad was more pleasant in the afterlife. More content. I’d never talked to Mr. Adams through my mom out of respect for Dad. The two of us had an unspoken agreement that if I was touching my mom, he’d disappear to wherever it was he went so I didn’t have to see him. I had a right to be mad at him and he knew it. My parents were getting a divorce because of him, after all.

  “Zel, I know it sucks for you, but it sort of doesn’t for me,” Avery said. “They’re really excited for the baby...and I am too.” He looked at me and gave me one of his irresistible crinkly-eyed smiles, patting my thigh tentatively. I was almost able to forget what we were talking about. “Y’know, I never got to have a sibling like you do.”

  I rolled my eyes again. “Yes, my relationship with Melody is magical.”

  He squeezed my leg. “You know what I mean...this little baby; he’s going to be your brother too.”

  “Half brother.” I wished he wasn’t so psyched about something that was seriously screwing up my life. “Anyways,” I said, “we’re gonna be almost seventeen years older than him. It’s not going to be like growing up together.” I sighed. “I bet they ask us to baby-sit all the time.”

  “So, what, they can have a date night?” Avery put both hands on the steering wheel, obviously pissed that I was ruining his big brother fantasy. “My dad’s still dead.”

  Here we went again. “And my dad’s newly single despite that fact,” I shot back. We had this fight at least once a week and I was so over it. I moved all the way to the door.

  We drove the rest of the distance to school in huffy silence. Avery parked in his usual close-in spot in the dinky Rosedell High School parking lot. Over the weekend, the city had plowed and there were huge mounds of snow and wet rotting leaves in several of the spaces.

  I jumped from the truck and landed in a dirty snow and leaf pile. Awesome. There’s nothing like walking around in squishy cold shoes all day long. I slammed the door behind me and headed for Claire, who was waiting at the bike racks.

  “Hey!” Avery called. “I love you and your stubborn ass! See you at lunch, honeybear!”

  I considered rewinding the last five minutes and finishing my fight with Avery, trying to get him to see my side, erasing the use of “honeybear” for sure, but I was almost to the bike racks.

  “What’s up H.B.?” Claire grinned. “Aww, did you two have a fight?”

  I smirked. “Yes, want to venture a guess about what?”

  “Well, let’s see, is it one of the twelve things you guys have going against you?”

  “Why yes, it is.” I stuck my tongue out at her.

  She pretended to aim a dart and throw it. “Ghost baby daddy?”

  “Bullseye.”

  We walked to our lockers. I took out my AP History book. Claire had choir first period and Avery had English. The three of us didn’t have as many classes together this year.

  I felt Avery come up close behind me. I turned to him, our mouths nearly touching. “What?”

  He kissed me. “I couldn’t wait until lunch.” He took off down the hall, looking back over his shoulder, smiling.

  “I’m still mad at you!” I yelled after him, but then I smiled too.

  “You guys make me throw up in my mouth a little, you know that, right?” Claire asked. She checked herself out in her locker mirror, one of her many daily rituals, running a brush through her black shoulder length hair.

  I snorted. “We’re not as bad as you and Jason were.”

  Claire looked at me from the mirror as she moved on to adjusting her eyeliner. “He Who Must Not Be Named and I were a flame that burned hot and strong...until he opened his mouth and everything he said was so stupid that the flame took itself out.”

  “If only they’d just keep their mouths shut.”

  “Holla.” Claire closed her locker door and turned to me. “I’ll see you in French.” She gave me a hug good-bye.

  “Ouch!” I let go of her and dropped my books. Clutching my head, a vision crackled and sparked behind my eyes, short-circuiting my ability to concentrate on what I was seeing. The pain was excruciating. Wait, why was there pain? I fell to my knees on the ground.

  Claire knelt beside me. “What’s wrong? Should I go get the nurse?” She pulled at my hands. “Look at me! What can I do?”

  I clutched my head tighter, squeezing my eyes closed. I felt extremely hot. I could see her in my mind, coming in and out of focus. I couldn’t tell where she was or what was happening. “Just...hold on. Don’t get the nurse...I’m trying to...you’re in here...”

  “Hush,” she whispered, “people are looking at us.”

  The halls became congested as other students stopped to stare. Only a few said anything.

  “Is that girl okay?”

  “She doesn’t look so good.”

  “I didn’t think what’s-her-face could get any paler.”

  Claire hovered over me, blocking me from view. “Come on,” she coaxed, “try and stand up. Let’s go to the girl’s room.”

  I shook my head. “Wait. The pain’s going away a little. I can see...you...and Benjamin?”

  “Am I kicking his ass?”

  I managed a weak smile. “No, just talking. Actually, you both look happy...and you’re both in...formal wear? That can’t be right. Benjamin’s too old to go to prom.” I opened my eyes enough to see and stood up. The vision was over. My head throbbed a little, but the pa
in was gone for the most part.

  The bell rang.

  Claire shot down the remaining looky-loos with a glare. “Move along people. Nothing to see here.” She took my arm and led me to the nearest bathroom. Stooping to look under the stall doors, she made sure we were alone before she spoke. “What was that?”

  “I don’t know, but it killed.” I splashed water on my face and then dried it off with the paper towel she offered. I looked in the mirror. There were broken blood vessels in both of my eyes. “What the hell?”

  Claire sucked her breath in through her teeth. “Oh, man. That looks horrible.” She got closer to the mirror, studying my reflection. “Do they hurt?”

  I opened my eyes wide. I did look pretty horrible. “No, not much.” I winced at the brightness from the overhead fluorescent lights. “I still have a headache though.” I pressed my temples with my fingertips. “I’m not sure I can handle school today. Do you think you can go get Avery? I need him.”

  “Sure. He’s in English? Mrs. Woodbury?”

  “Yeah. Thanks. Tell him I’ll be waiting by the truck.”

  Claire rummaged around in her red vinyl tote and took out a pair of black Fendis. “Here, put these on. You don’t want to scare the 7th graders.”

  After making sure the coast was clear, we exited the bathroom and went opposite ways down the hall.

  I leaned against Avery’s truck, just in front of the snow and leaf pile, took my small notebook out, and began writing down everything I could remember about this new vision.

  I’d picked the notebook up when we got back from Portland last summer, expecting to have filled it with lots of visions by now, but there were only two others in there.

  Eight-year-old Abigail Dunn had choked on kettle corn at the county fair and needed to be rewound to pre-bite. Then, Melody “accidentally” bumped into her, knocking the popcorn from her hand so she couldn’t choke herself again. Abigail was mad about Melody’s clumsiness and set to pitch a fit until Avery offered her the rest of his cotton candy. I don’t know whether it was the sweet treat or the cute boy it came from, but she squeaked out a “thanks!” and ran away to catch up to her older brother without causing a scene.

  Twelve-year-old Nick McCanless had an allergic reaction to a bee sting while picking blackberries at the lake and went into anaphylactic shock. I knew it was going to be hard to rewind someone completely out of a swarm of bees, so that save depended on the foresight to have the cure. Claire had taken one of her mom’s Epi-pens. I administered the shot. I’d seen myself do it in the vision so I hoped that meant I knew what I was doing. The paramedics Mel called ten minutes before Nick was stung showed up right afterwards.

  Those were both in August. Nothing in September, October, or November, and now it was the week before Christmas break.

  It wasn’t like people weren’t still getting hurt, though. There were reports of car accidents on the news. Two congregants at Dad’s church broke their legs while snowboarding and a whole family was stricken with food poisoning at Thanksgiving. Not to mention this was prime snowmobiling season and some idiot, for as many winters as I could remember, always decided to test out how frozen the lake was and fell through. It was a matter of when not if, but I had no idea when the “when” was going to be.

  Something was up. And now this thing with my eyes? I hoped that Benjamin wasn’t involved; that he wasn’t somehow getting all the visions meant for me and not doing anything about them. I would like to believe that no matter how pompous and jerky, and okay, hot, he was that he wouldn’t stop saving people. As it was, I was going to have to sit out by the lake for the next two months waiting for someone to fall in.

  The second he got to me, Avery took my face in his hands. He pushed the sunglasses up with his thumbs and looked at my eyes. “I’m gonna kill him. What did he do to you?”

  “We don’t know that it was Benjamin.” I looked down. Why did I feel the need to stick up for him? Just because he was good looking didn’t mean he was a good person. “Although,” I admitted, “he was in the vision and I wouldn’t put it past him to be messing with my head. It’s obviously not the first time, but I can’t see him hurting me, not on purpose.”

  “Let’s get you home.” Avery opened the door for me and helped me up into the truck. “Come on, Claire, hop in.”

  “Actually,” I said when we were all in the truck, “you better take me to the cabin. Mom might know what to do and...I don’t want to bother my dad with this right now.”

  Claire put her arm around my shoulders. Avery rested his hand on my knee.

  “Whatever you want,” he said, backing out of the parking space and pulverizing what was left of the snow and leaf pile.

  Chapter Two

  The cabin was on the outskirts of the outskirts of Rosedell, in the foothills of Mt. Scott. We drove through downtown, out past the See-Saw diner and the Hill ranch, until the terrain went from lava rock fields to boulders and pine trees.

  It had started to sleet. We passed a sanding truck as we turned off the slick blacktop and onto the gravel road that led to the cabin. I worried a little about Mom being up here, pregnant and essentially by herself. An ambulance could get to her, but it would take upwards of twenty minutes; more if the roads hadn’t been sanded yet.

  Avery parked in the cut back brush next to Mom’s used silver Legacy wagon and helped me down from the truck, leading me towards the cabin.

  He was being super sweet; he must have felt bad about our argument this morning. “I love it that you’re trying to help me, Avery, but I can actually see where I’m going.”

  “Sorry.” He chuckled. “Maybe it’s those giant-ass fugly sunglasses.”

  I snorted and took them off, handing them back to Claire. “No need to hide my hideousness anymore.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Yes, please, give me back my $400 fugly Italian sunglasses.”

  Mom opened the door. “What’s going on? Why aren’t you all in school?” She waddled down the four front steps, coming directly for me. “Are you okay? Your sister?”

  Her long red hair was pulled back into a messy ponytail, her complexion a little green around the edges. She was wearing sweatpants and a ratty old Adams Insurance long sleeve t-shirt. Not the best she’d ever looked, but who was I to talk? Bloody eyes, meet barfy face.

  I met her outstretched arms with my hands. I held her away from me and widened my eyes. “I had a vision and this happened.”

  Mom grabbed my chin and turned my head from side to side. “What the...? What type of vision was it?” She pulled on my hand, backing up the steps. “Wait. Everyone inside. We can e-mail pictures to Mom.”

  “You can get Wi-Fi all the way up here?” Claire asked, impressed. “Mom and Dad had to spend a fortune to get it at the lodge.”

  “I wish. It’s dial-up, but still faster than the ancient set-up the kids’ dad has at the church.”

  “They have Wi-Fi now,” I blurted, like it was the grown-up equivalent of saying nanny nanny boo boo. “They got it in September. Dad’s doing a whole upgrade on a bunch of stuff. Pastor Morris is helping him since you aren’t there to explain it to him.”

  Mom dropped my hand, giving me a “really?” look and opened the cabin door, ushering us inside.

  Avery put a hand on Mom’s shoulder and looked past her. “Hey, Dad,” he said, and then, “Yeah, you got that right.”

  It annoyed me to no end that I couldn’t see or hear Mr. Adams without trying to. “Got what right?” I asked.

  He shook his head. “Nothin,’ Zel.”

  “I’ll bet,” I huffed.

  There weren’t a lot of places for us to go once we were all inside. Just through the front door on the right was a kitchenette with a two burner stove top, microwave, sink, and mini-fridge. To the left sat a small round kitchen table pushed up against the wall with two plastic chairs tucked under it. A few more feet into the room was a black leather couch facing a green tweed recliner and a console television. At the far end of the roo
m under an enormous window, Mom’s computer rested on the desk that used to be in the bedroom that Melody and I share.

  I could understand why my mom wanted to live up here. The view was spectacular. The clouds hung low, softening the jagged boulder and pine tree landscape, making it dream-like. Through the trees, the bank of a shallow stream was barely visible. Not the worst place in the world to shack up with a ghost if you had to.

  Off the main room along the right side were two tiny bedrooms with a bathroom in between. Mom went into the far bedroom and started rummaging around in the chest of drawers.

  She came back out into the room holding a camera in her hand. “Go stand by the window, Zel, in the natural light.”

  I did as I was told. Mom took several pictures, more than I really thought were necessary.

  “Okay, now let’s...hey, where’s Melody?” Mom said, looking around like she might have not noticed her almost six-foot tall, platinum blonde daughter sitting on the couch.

  I came away from the window and slumped onto the recliner. “She’s with Aunt Hazel. Benjamin is supposed to be in Bend, so they’re working on tracking him down.”

  My mom raised an eyebrow. “That’s interesting. Last I heard, your sister wasn’t supposed to be getting involved in any of our sacrilegious activities. I thought I got a daughter and he got one.”

  “Well, you know Melody. She gets what she wants no matter what. She nagged Dad until he couldn’t take it anymore.” I rolled my bloodshot eyes, “And enough with the bad-mouthing Dad, okay? It’s like you forget what his job is.”

  Mom blushed. “Sorry. You’re right, honey.” She eased herself into the desk chair and turned the computer on. “My hormones are making me catty and mean.” She flung an arm through the air as if she was swatting at something. “Shut up, Mike!”

  I noticed Avery and Claire catch each other’s eye, silently urging the other to diffuse the awkwardness settling over the room.

  Claire’s phone rang in her bag. “Oh, thank God,” she muttered. “Melody? Hey,” she listened, “You’re kidding!” Claire nodded her head. “We’re at your mom’s. Yeah, we’ll stay here.” She paused. “Okay. See you. Yeah, I’ll explain.”