“James,” Ella answered for me. “And we didn’t exactly meet him. We walked in on them when they thought no one was home—”
“OK, OK, OK,” I practically screamed, trying to drown her out. Having a sister that never forgets anything is the worst. “We all know what happened next. No need to bring that up again. Besides, not everyone can bring home every man they hold hands with.”
“I don’t do that,” she cried. But I could tell I’d hit a sore spot. For as smart as Ella was, she had a problem picking appropriate relationships. She tended to fall for these actor/model types that she had nothing in common with, only to have it crash and burn before it even really got off the ground. I couldn’t remember how many times I’d sat across the table from some guy she had brought home, knowing it was a lost cause.
Dad took a big gulp of his beer. “Can we talk about something else, anything else but the love lives’ of my daughters?”
I clinked my glass to his. “I second that.”
“I have something to talk about,” Ella announced in a funny voice. “I think Din-Din is pregnant.”
“What?!” Mom, Dad, and I cried at the same time. Din-Din was a cat I’d saved during a Super shift and brought home. Only, I was living at home at the time and wasn’t exactly allowed to have pets. So I got Ella to take her in on a temporary basis. Unfortunately, because I wasn’t supposed to have pets in my building, the arrangement seemed to be more and more permanent by the day.
“But how?” I said.
“I know! But she got out last month and she was gone for a couple of hours.” I vaguely remembered a frantic call from Ella where she blamed me for giving her a cat and then blamed me for that cat being missing. “And now she’s acting pregnant.”
Mom looked at Ella in disbelief. “You didn’t get her fixed?”
“Mom, I don’t own a cat.” Ella pointed at me. “Audrey, asked me to watch a cat for her for a while and has never shown up to get the cat back. It wasn’t my responsibility to get her fixed.”
“Well, how are you going to know if she’s pregnant?” Mom asked. “Are you taking her to the vet?”
“I have an appointment on Sunday morning. Hopefully, I’ll find out then.”
“Audrey will go with you,” Mom volunteered.
I almost spit out a mouthful of my Cornish game hen. “What? Why me?”
“Because you’re the reason she has Din-Din, dear. You can at least accompany her to the vet.”
Even though I knew Mom was right, I didn’t want to do it. But I knew that if I said that, they’d all gang up on me. “Fine. I’ll go with you.”
Dad clapped his hands together. “Well, that settles it. Audrey doesn’t have a boyfriend. Ella doesn’t have a boyfriend. Din-Din does have a boyfriend. And I’m tired of talking about all of it. Now what’s for dessert?”
Chapter 6
I’m not a very good Super. I know that. Anyone who has taken a look at my file down at the Super Council headquarters knows that. There was a time when I wasn’t sure I wanted to be a Super. In fact, I never really agreed to it.
Like every other Super, I started showing signs at puberty and my parents took me down to the Council to have me evaluated. And the next thing I knew, I was in Super School—which is basically high school but instead of having gym class, you learn how to control your powers. There’s government class but you spend a whole year learning about how the Council governs Supers. And it’s really hard to cheat on test when your teacher has telekinesis.
When I was done with school, I took the licensing exam just like everyone else. And much to everyone’s surprise—myself included—I passed. Not by much, though. So when I was given my district assignment, I was given a low level Super clearance. That meant that I wouldn’t get an alter ego assignment. I was expected to live and work in my district, while patrolling frequently to keep back any chaos and crime I might see. It was grunt work.
On the other hand, when my sister Ella graduated Super School, she got her license, an acceptance into Columbia University, and instructions to become an astrophysicist. Later, she was placed as a professor at the same school. She does her duty by working within that system and keeping peace and order. She doesn’t have to sit in a park for four hours waiting for someone to snatch a purse to get the job done.
I used to be a little bitter about that but after my audit last year, I realized that I actually wanted to be a Super. It was a calling, not a job. And although I wouldn’t necessarily say that I was the most valuable Super the Council had, I was happy I still had my license, probation pending.
So that night when I was walking up to St. Jude Church on Montague in Brooklyn Heights, I was a little nervous. The text from Nathaniel said that the meeting was in the church basement. As I was walking into the foyer of the building, I saw the bulletin board papered with fliers for bake sales, clothing drives, and mission trips. I looked over a little to the left and saw a sign that said “St Jude—Patron Saint of Lost Causes.” It had to be a sign. I was the biggest lost cause I knew.
“Audrey.” I turned to see Nathaniel walking into the main door of the building. He was just as impressive today as he had been the other night. Dressed in jeans, loafers, and a cable knit sweater, he looked like an Abercrombie and Fitch model. He jerked the arm holding his coat to the right. “This way.” I followed him down through a door and down a few set of stairs to the meeting room.
The meeting room looked like any random classroom or an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. It had a white board along the front of the room with a large desk off the side. There were four or five rows of plastic chairs lined up in the middle of the room, with a couple of people sitting in them. Along the back wall of the room, there was a long folding table with coffee and donuts on it and a couple more people clustered around it.
As we walked in, Nathaniel put his hand on my shoulder. It was warm and meaty. “Hang back after we’re done. I want to talk to you. We’re going to get started here in just a minute. Refreshments are in the back.” He gave me a final pat on the shoulder and headed to the front of the room. I promptly grabbed a donut and inhaled it like my life depended on it. Then I went to take a seat near the back of the room.
By then a few more people had trailed in to make about twenty or so. After a few minutes, Nathaniel closed the door and pulled the shade down on the window in the door. He stood in front of the room. “Hi, everyone. Welcome to this month’s Brooklyn Council District Meeting. You’re all familiar face but in case you forgot, I’m Nathaniel Kane, head of the Brooklyn District.” There was a smattering of applause and Nathaniel raised his hand to wave it away. “C’mon guys. None of that. Let’s get started.”
Nathaniel started going down a list of topics. He looked at home up there, pacing back and forth and punctuating his sentences with hand gestures. The way he hit each one gave me the impression that they talked about some of this stuff every week. I nodded like I knew what the fuck was going on, something I’d been practicing since elementary school. But at least I was able to stare at him without drawing attention myself.
At one point, Nathaniel went over the crime stats for the district and then broke it down by each area of Brooklyn. Even though I didn’t know much about the way my district was run, I knew that crime stats were important. “I’ve been working in this district for a long time and I’ve been the head of this district for the past five years. There will always be crime but they happen in hubs.”
Nathaniel went over to the whiteboard and picked up a marker. He drew a circle with several lines coming out from various angles. He started to write types of petty crime at the ends of the lines. “Muggings. Car theft. Burglaries. Drugs. Vandalism. Assault. All of these types of crimes can be traced back to larger, more organized crimes perpetrated by groups. As more sophisticated criminals operate in hubs together, they increase the level of overall crime.”
Nathaniel wrote “Noches” in the middle of the circle he had drawn on the board. “The Ninth Street Noch
es are one of the biggest gangs in our district. Some of you should know that name from working out here on the streets. They have a network of chop shops throughout Brooklyn. They’re behind a lot of car thefts, carjackings, and illegal racing. The Noches also use violence and intimidation to keep their hold on streets. Much of the ancillary crime in our district can be traced back to them.”
He pulled out a stack of fliers and started to hand them out. “Everyone needs a copy of this.” When I got my copy, I looked over it. It was a black and white drawing of a young Latino man with short hair and a clean shaven face. Below the picture was a list of his vitals. “Wanted” was in big letters at the top. “This is El Gato, head of the Noches,” Nathaniel went on. “Obviously, El Gato isn’t his real name but it’s all we have. Even without his real name, there’s enough evidence of his participation in various crimes to put him away forever. The cops have been chasing him for years. He’s a ghost.”
Nathaniel paused for effect. Then he erased the Noches from the board. “If we can bring El Gato in, the Noches will be just another unorganized set of street thugs, ripe for picking off one by one. And without the Noches contributing up street crime, the overall numbers in this district will go down.”
There were a lot of murmurs from the group. “Every single one of you should be on high alert for El Gato. But I’m also putting together a special task force of Supers to help me target him. I’m only looking for dedicated people who want to make a difference. Here’s the sign-up sheet.”
He held up a piece of paper and passed to the first person in the first row, who then passed it on to the next person, and so on and so on. As the sign-up paper made its way to the back of the room, Nathaniel went on to other subjects and I tried to pay attention. By the time the sign-up sheet got to me, it had a few names on it. And at the top of the page was my own name, written in large block lettering.
What the fuck?
*****
After the meeting was over, Nathaniel asked me to walk with him along the Brooklyn Heights Promenade. The little walkway was lined with trees and featured views of the Manhattan skyline across the water. It was something you’d do on a date. But you’re not on a date, I thought to myself. Why are you even thinking about that, you idiot?
We walked for a bit in silence, just enjoying the night and the view. I still couldn’t get over how beautiful Nathaniel was. At least 6’4, he moved with a grace that seemed both out of place on his frame but also seemed perfectly reasonable for him. His Super power was flying but his physique said that he was also physically gifted. He was the whole package. Tall. Strong. Beautiful. What had he done in a previous life to get stuck with me?
“Obviously, I put your name on the sign-up sheet,” he began, answering my unasked question. “This is my first time supervising a probation. I saw your file and I just knew you were the case I wanted.” I didn’t know what to say to that. No one had ever said anything like that to me. Usually, I was the last picked or the least wanted. This was whole new territory.
He went on. “Protocol is to just let you do your thing and check in on you frequently. But I like to think outside of the box. What better way to guide you than to work with you on my task force?”
“But I don’t know if I’m ready for something out of the box. That was my first district meeting back there.”
“District meetings aren’t mandatory. That wasn’t even half of the Supers in our district.” Nathaniel stopped and turned to me. He put a meaty hand on my shoulder. The electricity of his touch was evident even through the fabric of my coat. “I’m not going to lie to you, Audrey. Your career has been underwhelming. But I think that I can push you to the next level if you’ll let me. Will you let me?”
Looking into his deep blue eyes, I probably would have let him do anything he wanted. “Yeah, sure,” I breathed.
He patted me on the shoulder and resumed walking. “What do you think your legacy as a Super will be, Audrey?”
Well, that certainly brought me out of my trance. “Ummmmmmmmm,” I drew out. “I kinda never really thought about it.” Nathaniel gave me a serious nod but didn’t say anything. That made me nervous and I started babbling. “I mean. . . I guess. . . I’m more focused on the day to day of the job.” I hoped that made me sound as serious as he looked.
He saw right through my bullshit answer. “Sounds like you don’t know.”
“Yeah. Everything I touch kinda turns to shit,” I admitted.
“At the end of this, you’ll know the answer to that question. Supers do the impossible every day. We keep the world safe. We do what civilians can’t do and wouldn’t want to do if they had the chance. I expect everyone I work with to rise to that challenge. Any questions?”
I spoke without thinking. “Yeah. How come people don’t see you when you’re flying? I mean, you’re right by windows sometimes. And what about people in planes?”
Nathaniel stopped short and looked me up and down as if he were trying to see just how serious I was. Then he burst into a deep laugh and resumed walking again. I couldn’t decide if I was upset that he wasn’t answering the question or if I was excited that I’d made him laugh. Probably a little bit of both.
Chapter 7
“You look like hell.”
Sunday morning came too fast for my tastes. But I dragged myself out of bed and threw on some sweats, a hoodie, a coat, and a pair of dark sunglasses before taking the train into Manhattan to Arbor Animal Clinic on 97th street. I couldn’t say for sure if I looked like hell but I certainly felt like hell. “You don’t look so great yourself.”
Ella was already sitting in the lobby holding a Starbucks coffee and a pink cat carrier that obviously had Din-Din inside. Even though she wearing her best Upper-West-Side-Young Professional-on-a-Sunday outfit, she looked like she had been up all night worrying. “She better not be pregnant, Audrey.”
I reached down to pull Din-Din out of her carrier. She was a small orange and white cat with a few battle scars from living on the street for so long. But she was the most loving cat I’d ever known. I cuddled her while she purred loudly and emphatically. “Oh, calm down. If she’s pregnant, she’ll just have some cute kittens. Kittens are adorable.”
“And where will these kittens live?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. We’ll just find them some good homes or something.”
Ella’s face got so red but her voice got very calm. I knew she was extremely mad. This was something my mom did when she was close to blowing her top. “And how do you expect to do that, Audrey? You promised you’d find a home for Din-Din last year and we’re still waiting.”
I was saved from answering by one of the staff, a young woman dressed in scrubs decorated with dolphins. “Din-Din Hart?” Ella took Din-Din from my arms and told me to pick up the cat carrier. Then she followed the staff member into an exam room, while I trailed behind. “Make yourself comfortable. Dr. Ellis will see you in just a minute,” the woman said before closing the door behind her.
I slumped down into one of the chairs along the wall while Ella situated Din-Din on the exam table. Then, I took the opportunity to blurt out what had been on my mind since last night. “Do you know a Super named Nathaniel Kane?”
Ella whipped around to look at me. “Of course I do. Who doesn’t know Nathaniel Kane?”
“You do?” I was kinda surprised but I also felt like I shouldn’t be. He didn’t seem like the kind of guy that got lost in the crowd.
“Well, I don’t know him know him. But I know of him. He’s running your district. He’s really good looking. He dates a lot and he’s run through half of the eligible Supers in New York City. He’s been highly decorated for his work in Brooklyn. I was on a committee with him once and he came in with a 107-point plan to improve the notification Council notification processes. He’s up for Super of the Year.” Ella ticked off each of the facts with her fingers. “When is the last time you read a Council newsletter, Audrey?”
“Um, how about never? I d
on’t read those things. But I did just go to my first District meeting,” I added.
“You never come to any of the Council events, either, or you’d see him around. Why are you asking about him anyway?”
I hesitated because I hadn’t told anyone in my family about being on probation. But that was stupid. I’d tried to keep my Super audit a secret from them last year, too, and that was a disaster. They knew about it almost immediately and I spent the whole time lying and hiding for no reason. I was too tired for it this time around. “He’s supervising my probation, actually. Anything I should know about him?”
“Nothing you can’t see just by looking at him. He’s kind of a Golden Boy. How did he got stuck supervising you?” she wondered aloud, almost to herself.
“Hey! I’m not that bad! He’s lucky to have me!” The protest came out automatically but deep down inside I knew she was right because I had thought the same thing just the day before. If he was so great, what had he done to deserve me?
“I’m getting back together with Rodney,” Ella blurted out, changing the subject.
“What?!” It came out louder than I had intended. They probably heard me in the hall but I didn’t care. “I don’t understand. Why?”
“Because I like him. We get along really well.” Ella was petting Din-Din pretty hard now. Almost frantically. “I want to have a relationship, Audrey. I want to get married. I want to have kids someday. Current research tells us that a woman’s fertility takes a nosedive at thirty-five. I mean, here I am, thirty-three years old living alone with a cat that’s not even mine and the cat might be a mother before me.” Ella finally stopped forcibly massaging Din-Din and burst into tears.
Watching someone cry is the most uncomfortable feeling in the world. It’s twice as uncomfortable when that person is your sister who always seems to have it together. This was the first crack in the armor I’d ever seen of hers. I awkwardly went over to Ella and put my hand on her shoulder. I didn’t know what to do or what to say. Fortunately, I was saved from saying anything by the doctor coming in.
Super (Book 4): Supervised Page 3
