3

by Shera Eitel-Casey

  “Can you look at me and tell?” I asked in a very subtle voice. I walked over to the counter and put my hands on the table where she was sitting, then clasped them together. I could feel the coolness the slate table had to offer. She laid her hands on mine, they were warm and the contrast between the two was pleasant, this moment reminded me of my grandma.

  “I think our gift obliges us to help those in need, when we can,” she said.

  “I like that.”

  She removed her hands from mine “My relatives, I mean the people I’m tracking and the real reason we moved.” She said grimly and hesitantly, I was hanging on every word she said. She continued “They...ah...weren't what I expected. When I saw them, they seemed... they were different.” She seemed very nervous and unsure of what she was going to tell me next. “And well it scared me and I don't know what to do, not sure if there is something I can do or if anyone will even believe me.“ She stopped rearranging her books and her eyes began to search the table for the nothingness it provided. “But” Sheila said and paused “I have an idea about what's wrong with your friend.”

  Sheila and I jumped when Nic came in the room. We both looked at each other and snickered, “Thank goodness it's only you.”

  “How come you didn’t…” I cut her off “she’s not that kind of psychic… Good to see you Nic, the plot just thickened,” I said. I reviewed what Sheila had just revealed to me.

  Nic said “Addie knows a detective that didn't laugh at the weird stuff she told him.”

  I looked down at my shoes a minute and said “Yeah, Jett's Uncle is a detective I could call Jett and see if he could get his Uncle to come by.”

  “I have no proof of what he's doing...” her eyes searched the table again then she looked up “Can't hurt to call him and see if he'll listen.”

  I called Jett since I didn't have his Uncle's phone number on me. His mom answered the phone and I could hear her call for Jett and although her hand was over the receiver I still heard her tell Jett “There's another dead animal in our back yard, make sure you clean it up before you go anywhere.” Jett said something grumpily back to her.

  When he got on the phone he sounded equally grouchy but seemed to lighten up a bit as I explained everything to him. “I'll call you back.” Click, he was off the phone.

  A few minutes later the phone rang. Sheila looked at me and shrugged one shoulder so I picked it up. “He's on his way so am I,” was all the voice said on the other end, “click” he disconnected with me abruptly again. “Gosh darn it” I said “He keeps hanging up on me – but Jett and his Uncle are on their way.”

  Sheila went to her locked file cabinet and took out three old worn boxes and placed them on the counter carefully, they looked like they would fall apart any minute. They were only the size of a piece of paper and not very deep, like a photo box. One was marked “1911 – 1931” the other marked “1941 – 1961”, the last was marked “IMPORTANT”. She made a pot of coffee nervously, although she was trying to look relaxed, she was uneasy about something.

  I broke the silence “Can you tell us what's wrong with Jett?” She looked at me in confusion.

  “My friend that's been sick,” I explained.

  Twenty minutes later Jett stepped in and another five behind him was his Uncle. Nic said “You told me there was a family hotness but I didn't notice it 'til now, you're right.” I looked at her smiling and blushed a bit “Right, I know – told ya.” Sheila even gave us a smile of approval.

  Grey shook everyone's hand and introduced himself and then shook Jett's hand and said “What's up?” and smacked him on the shoulder.

  “Crazy stuff,” Jett said and smiled nervously.

  Shelia put cream and sugar out on the table and poured everyone a cup of coffee. Everyone sat around the table in silence. When Sheila sat down I took one of the pads of paper from the middle of the table and a pen and began to doodle. She started with “…as our history goes vampires and werewolves did exist but at the end of the 18th century one vampire realized the humans were in jeopardy and killed every last one of them with the help of our families. And then he killed himself. So nothing went on for many years and that’s why it was such a scare for everyone in 1910. Her story that began in the early 1900' the one I heard before, or at least parts of it. She gave us the name Dr. Sal Rewtnic a familiar name both her and her daughter had mentioned before so I wrote it down.

  She explained the experiments he was doing and the diseases he was trying to cure, and then she stated that they thought he was very close to a cure when his first staged experiments went crazy and the vampire and werewolf rumors started. Sheila also assured us that they were just rumors.

  In any case the authorities extinguished everything and everyone involved, or so they thought. Her family took it upon themselves to observe and watch everyone that was experimented on and not destroyed. The second and third phase patients weren't killed and the police never found the last set of books with names and experiments that had taken place, her family hid those in a safe place.

  The people they were to watch included Sal Rewtnic the third, Sal's son, and his best friend and Cousin Neil Royce.

  I wrote those names down.

  She explained that both boys were placed in a psychiatric ward in Chicago with Dr. Westman and he took custody of them soon after the death of Dr. Rewtnic and moved up to a place in Michigan. So our family moved and followed, well my Great Grandmother's family did.

  She continued “My great grandmother became very ill and was sick for quite a while and she kept begging me to check up on this Sal guy and I kept telling her yes, okay, I will. She begged again on her death bed to follow up and for me to call my uncle for help. I didn't think anything of it, I wasn't into the stories like our elders were.” Sheila had tears in her eyes. I looked around the table everyone seemed pretty engrossed in her story.

  “We know we’re supposed to track Sal Rewtnic the third the scientist’s son and his cousin Neil Royce. The names of the other families we’re supposed to track were George Grell, James Nelf, Matt Black, Charles Gellar,” she looked at me as she said it “Shelly Falconer, Fred Labowski, Dena Castle, Lynette Coey,” When she said that name I gasped and slapped my hand to my chest.

  Jett replied “That's what your sweatshirt says, right? Coey?”

  “Yeah, Coey's Crew is the name of my dad's hockey team. Coey was his mom's maiden name.”

  “Cool.” he said.

  Sheila continued “Elizabeth Nolan and Eugene White.” The last name made Jett react. “Wait!” Sheila said grimly. “She pointed to Jett you know Eugene White? And Addie Charles Gellar is your grandfather and you know Lynette Coey?”

  Shelia looked confused. Jett replied, Eugene White is my mom’s father.” I added “Lynette is my dad's mom and George Grell is my mom's dad.” I explained. “How come so many of my relatives are on the list?”

  She stared at me with a long gaze and mumbled out “Good question. Maybe that's why Cale is so interested in you.” There was a long silence.

  “Anyway” she said. “My uncle and I are tracking their family trees. Everyone on the original list should be in there eighties or deceased. However, he called me from Tucson, Arizona and told me that Sal Rewtnic's new name is now Stew C. Neila. It was a very bad connection but he said that Sal now Stew needed to be stopped.” She took a deep breath “And then he sent me these boxes.” She pushed one of the three boxes toward the middle of the table.

  I don’t think I want to hear this. I wanted to know what was wrong with Jett and I also wanted to figure out how to get Cale out of my life. I also wondered if he's the one I've been dreaming about being a wolf. So I wrote his name down and doodled some more.... I kept staring at the Sal Rewtnic's name on my paper and then Cale's. Nic seemed to be watching me intently. I crossed the letter “C” from Cale's name off of Sal Rewtnic’s name, then the “A” and then the letter “L” and then the “E”.

  I sat up straighter in my chair and wrote ‘Winter
s, then crossed the “W” out in both names and then Sheila cleared her throat loudly, I stopped what I was doing. She began again “When I went to visit Sal Rewtnic's son whose name is Sal Rewtnic the third he should have been about 75 – 80 years old, but the man I found was not.” She paused, “he looked much much younger. He looked about 18.” I looked at Nic and we both said “Cale” in unison as she pushed a recent photo toward us.

  “So you're telling us this guy hasn't aged at all.” Grey responded. “I wouldn't say at all, but definitely at a slower pace than us, much slower. Doc Brown, my uncle, wrote me a letter that this box” she pointed to the one that was marked 1941 – 1961 “...was misplaced, because none of us were taking any of this seriously.”

  She looked at us but we were a little confused “The guy who's giving you a hard time?” she said. I wrote Stew C. Neila on my paper and underlined it then pushed my pad of paper near the middle for everyone to look at. Sheila immediately opened the box and took out pictures – sure enough they were old black and white pictures of Cale. “Doc Brown took these pictures of Stew a couple months ago.” They were definitely Cale.

  Nic whispers to me “No wonder he dresses like an old man – he is one….” and she giggled.

  “What happened to the cousin? “Grey asked. She looked at him and her hands went lax on the table. “We’re not sure. He usually follows Sal but he hasn't showed up in the area or if he has we just haven’t found him yet.” We asked his name again and Nic and I tried some anagram names for Neil Royce and Ben O'Riley. “However, Doc Brown says there are several missing people in Tucson Arizonian the last place we had tracked both Stew and Ben or Sal and Neil, we checked both names.”

  I looked at Nic and whispered, “So if Cale is really 80 no wonder he used to dress like a grandpa and treat me like his daughter, ewww,” I got the chills all over.

  As Grey was asking her questions she opened the box marked “IMPORTANT” and pulled out an envelope and set it down in the middle of the table. She got up and went back in her file drawer and pulled out an envelope, already opened and handed it to Grey.

  “This all does sound absurd” Jett finally got in the conversation. I reached for the envelope in the middle and removed its contents. “Let me help” Nic said. We shuffled the photos around looking at them and Nic turned one over, they were all dated. “Let's put them in date order on the counter.” Nic said. After we got up to put all the photos in order the rest came up behind us. No one had anything to say. We recognized Cale so the other one had to be his cousin.

  I turned to Sheila and said grumpily “So this is Sal?” Everyone turned to look at her and she said “Yes, now I know this sounds preposterous...” she said with her hands held out in front of her, palms out and shaking her head “...and you probably don't believe it. I'm not sure I do, at least I know I don't want to.”

  “But you're psychic, can't you tell if it's him.” Jett retorted. Grey said “Good point – if you are psychic what do your spidy senses tell you.” He sort of snorted and dropped the envelope on the table and rubbed his face.

  “She is not that kind of psychic” I started in “...she has to touch the person to read them or use some sort of tool to read them.” She smiled at me and said “That's right, I can't just read someone because I want to or can see them. Just like Addie can't dream about what she wants they just come to her.” Everyone at the table just looked at me, because putting the words psychic to my abilities for the first time was weird. I shook my head and said “No, I'm not a psychic I just have dreams that come true, sometimes.” Saying that, was even weirder, I didn't want that title it seemed so odd. Everyone started talking at once back and forth asking all sorts of questions of each other.

  “Hold it, hold it, hold it!” Grey said “We're missing the point or at least I think Sheila is missing the point.” He pointed to the counter were the pictures lay. “That is Cale Winters, so Cale and Sal are the same guy. What was that other name, he uses, you gave us?” He nodded toward Sheila. She said Stew C. Neila, so Cale is his third name we need to assume his cousin has a third name as well, maybe that’s why you can’t track him yet. He wrote Neil Royce and Ben O’Riley down on my scratch paper and handed it to me and Nic, see if you can up with an anagram with these...”

  “Ooh, good Idea” I replied and Nic and I grabbed the paper and started coming up with names, Nic immediately though of the last name O’Neil from one of our classmates. We doodled with the rest of the letters trying to get a first name.

  “Cale being psycho answers a lot. Whatever experiments his father did on him could have made him crazy, and living for so long and not aging could also have an effect. If he's had to hide for so long and change his identity, it has made him crafty at being able to hide and aiding his ability to plan a killing spree all that much easier.” Grey said in an authoritative voice.

  “Do you have an address on him?” He asked Sheila, she responded “Not exactly, but I know he has a white house with green trim.” He looked at me and said “What is it with women never getting an address… Well we know he isn’t living there anymore and we found no evidence of any kind there, however the whole scene was peculiar.” He walked back over to the pictures and studied them.

  Jett saw the pictures, turned to me, squeezed my hand and said “I may be dangerous too, until I find out what’s up with me I should probably keep my distance… I’m assuming Cale’s the one who poisoned me or did what he did to me.”

  “Hell no!” I said. “We'll just keep people around us, you start isolating yourself it could make it worse.” I said. “Ah...ah...” I said holding my hand up to him “I don't want to hear it! Does anyone think I'm wrong?”

  “Nope.” Nic said. Grey shook his head with his lips pierced.

  “I’ll need to research the new names you gave me, I’ll verify all these sources, check into a couple other things and we’ll go from there. If any of you find anything else out, write it down so you don’t forget or if something else happens by all means call me immediately.” Grey said and dropped some business cards on the table. “Does anyone have any questions? Good. Let’s meet back here in three days, same time.” My head was reeling and trying to process all the information we just found, too soon for questions, but I bet I’ll have some soon.

  CHAPTER 26

  “I wish he could have Cale arrested, just throw him in the slammer.” Jett said with anguish.

  “I know me to,” Nic replied. I stayed silent in the car and noticed Jett was taking us home. “Where are you taking us?” I asked “I'm starving I was thinking Skyway's, is that all right?” I leaned over and gave him a peck on the cheek, he passed my house and kept driving.

  Nic said “Two peas in a pod.” I smiled at her. As we were going through the parking lot Jett put his arm around me and smiled.

  We got back to my house as Declan and Rae were pulling into my driveway. We were meeting to make a plan to catch Cale, based on my most recent dream. Declan and Jett were scheming on how to approach Cale. Jett told me and the girls that we needed to stay home, that we weren't allowed to go on their little adventure which was really my adventure, my dream, my thoughts. I gave him a dirty look, that’s a bunch of malarkey. I wanted to go, we argued back and forth, I was so mad all I could do was stomp my foot.

  Jett looked at me and chortled, “Did you just stomp your foot?” Pointing at me and looking at Declan and added “Don't two year olds stomp their feet?”

  “Well yes Jett, I believe they do.” Declan said sarcastically.

  “Does the two year old need a nap” Jett asked in a baby voice. Of course, I couldn't help but laugh. We all did. I flipped them the bird grabbed my letter and said “That settles it, I'm going. Pick me up at eight. If you don't, I'll meet you there” and walked out.

  I went to sit with Rae and Nic outside who had had enough of the situation, and I don't blame them. I was tired of talking about it myself. As I walked away I could hear the guys still laughing I was glad for it because everyth
ing else had been so serious lately.

  My cousin Peyton had written me a letter, I sat next to the girls and took it out. Peyton decided to go on a five day river rafting trip before her college classes started at Arizona State, she was in Tucson hoping to go hang gliding. It sounded like Peyton, she was always looking for something adventurous to do.

  I looked up, the girls were silent. Nic asked, “Can I read your last journal?”

  “Sure, Rae have you read it yet? If not feel free.” I replied. I handed the note to Nic and Rae sat closer to her. I had dreamt about a girl getting kidnapped in a bar, it had a dance floor and after I described it to Jett he said it sounded familiar, like a bar he’s been to in Akron where all the young kids like to go. She gets put into the familiar truck I’ve dreamt about before and she is either dead or unconscious. We were hoping since I had this dream last night that it would take place tonight, and it makes sense since Saturdays are the most popular night to go to this particular bar called Angels of all things.

  Jett and I arrived early and saw Cale walking into the bar. I was shocked because I remember everything happening when it was really dark and it was only dusk now, I guess it’ll be dark soon and the fact that he could take his time looking for a girl could be a factor. We parked quickly and went inside; we didn't even know if the rest of the gang was here yet. I had never been here before but Jett had, we went up to the bouncer, Jett shook hands with him and he let us right in, didn't card us or anything. We walked in and there were people everywhere, to the right was a bar and a bunch of tables and as we walked forward there was a railing encircling a huge dance floor. When I looked up I saw a DJ with another railing that encased the whole second floor, just like in my dream. I think I was looking at the place in awe.

  I took a place at the railing taking it all in. Jett leaned over “I'll be right back.” The music was going and people were dancing, I heard a fit of laughter around me. The girl next to me nudged me, “Isn't that you?” pointing to a monitor mounted on the wall. It was a picture of me with the text “Never Been Kissed!” I blushed immediately, and they of course kept the camera on me. I spotted Jett across the way, he laughed too, nodded toward the monitor then back at me and gave me a wink.