by R G Peterson
Nick called out to AJ, “Move, buddy.”
AJ was so wrapped up with trying not to step on Maddy’s toes that he never heard Nick, but Maddy did. When she opened her eyes and saw Aaron’s hand less than an inch from AJ, she surmised what he was about to do and countered his touch with a thought of her own.
AJ’s eyes flew open. He suddenly had a tremendous urge to go to the bathroom, but also felt like he couldn’t even if he tried.
Nick and the others arrived at that moment. Closing up ranks behind Aaron were Jeremy Thompson, Ron Baker and Tim Bourbon – Terry’s old posse members.
Maddy swung AJ around freeing him from Aaron’s touch, as she scowled at Aaron. “How dare yeh?” she yelled at him.
Aaron shrugged his shoulders, “It was just a prank, like you pulled on Ron.”
“Well, he had it comin’ ta him, didn’ he?”
The eleven teens stood facing each other. It felt like a showdown in an old cowboy movie, both sides waiting for the other to draw first to justify their violent reaction.
Tim Bourbon, son of Evelyn Bourbon, the Chief of Police, was the first to move as he lashed out at AJ knowing he was the one member of the Clan who could not prevent him from doing what he wanted. A second before Tim launched himself at AJ, however, Nick ordered, “Move, AJ.”
Tim took a swipe at AJ in an attempt to make his blood boil. AJ jumped back and pulled in his stomach as Tim’s hand touched his shirt but missed making contact with AJ’s body. AJ’s shirt heated up as if he had just pulled it out of the dryer, set on high heat.
Jeremy, likewise reacted, and reached out to shock Maddy, but before he could reach her, Nick stuck his hand directly in front of his path. Jeremy and Nick’s hands were locked in a battle. As Jeremy forced an electric charge down his hand, Nick repelled it. The two looked like they were in a game of one handed tug of war. Jeremy’s hand would move an inch or two forward then move back an inch or two seconds later. The strain of the battle showed on their faces.
As everyone was locked onto Nick and Aaron’s clash, Terry surreptitiously circled around Jeremy. Grace caught sight of him moving and realized he had done something none of them thought was possible. He stayed in his human form, but his hand had turned into a panther paw, claws exposed. His eyes showed an unrestrained malice as he began to swipe viciously toward Jeremy.
One part of Nick’s brain focused on his battle with Jeremy while another part of his brain received a vision that showed Terry slicing Jeremy’s back wide open, dropping him to his knees.
“No!” Nick shouted, as he released his hand from their tussle at the same moment that Jeremy pushed forward once more. The sparks emanating from Jeremy’s hand lit up the room as if he had taken a picture using an extra-strong flash. With no further resistance, Jeremy went sprawling head first onto the dance floor as Terry swiped at his back, barely missing cutting him open.
Everyone turned and looked at a fuming Terry. He glared at Jeremy, before turning it on Nick. “Why’d you do that? He had it coming.” He motioned toward the rest of his former posse. “They’ve all got it coming. Or have you forgotten what they did to you…or our grandparents?”
Jeremy scrambled to his feet and hid behind Miriam, as the rest of Terry’s old posse hurried to move out of Terry’s reach. Terry smiled malevolently as he watched them retreat before he returned his attention to Nick.
“When are you going to learn? Some people don’t deserve to live. And these four have out lived their usefulness.” He was so incensed his body began to shake and his breathing became ragged as if he had just sprinted up five flights of stairs.
Nick and Terry stared at one another. Nick felt helpless. All of the talks they had meant nothing to Terry. He continued to believe that everyone should succumb to his will. That the solution to each and every problem was through oppression and violence.
“What’s going on here?” they heard an adult say. They turned to see a police officer walk toward their circle. Grace glanced at Terry’s hand and watched it transform back into its natural state.
“These guys started it. They threatened us, Gus.” Jeremy said in a tone conveying a close familiarity.
“Really, now?” He looked at the Clan one by one. When he came to Terry he stopped and stared. “What’s your story?”
Terry, with his eyes sparking maliciously, said nothing and simply returned the police officer’s stare.
It so unnerved Gus that he looked to Nick. “So what did you do?”
“Nothing. We were out here dancing and we kinda bumped into to each other. Before we knew it everyone was yelling at one another. No big deal, really.”
Gus looked at him warily.
“Just a misunderstanding, that’s all,” Grace added in hopes of diffusing the situation.
The police officer looked from one group to the other. He motioned with his head for Nick’s group to move on, “You guys get out of here. I’ll be watching. If I see you anywhere near these guys again, I’ll take you all in and your parents will have to come and get you.”
Six of the Clan swung on their heels and retreated across the dance floor, leaving Terry momentarily behind. Grace looked over her shoulder and saw Terry staring at Gus.
She spun back and gently tugged on his arm. When he turned his glare on her, she smiled sweetly up at him and motioned for him to come along. His face softened and he allowed her to move him toward the others.
Nick felt a sudden surge of jealousy, then pushed it aside, reminding himself what had happened the last time he allowed his emotions to get the best of him – he and Grace hadn’t spoke for over two weeks. He convinced himself she was simply defusing the situation, but a part of him felt uncertain as to what he had just witnessed.
Chapter 50
“How’d you do that?”
After AJ dropped the two of them off at Grace’s house, she fixed Nick with a questioning stare.
“How’d you do that?”
Nick, who could only think of Grace and Terry walking arm and arm, was caught off guard by her question. “Do what?”
“You know, when Jeremy tried to shock Maddy, you stuck your hand in there and stopped it. You’re not Earth so you shouldn’t have been able to stop him.”
Nick’s face lit up in surprise. “Oh, yeah.” He looked down at his hand and studied it. He reached over and lightly touched Grace’s arm.
“Ouch,” she said as she pulled away from him because of the static shock he had given her. “That hurt.” But then a look of comprehension showed on her face. “You’ve got Fire back. When?”
Nick gave his shoulders a quick shrug. “Dunno. I never gave it much thought. I just reacted to what was happening, I guess. I didn’t even think ‘bout it ‘til you just mentioned it. How ‘bout that?” he said as lifted his hand in front of his face and examined it some more.
“So, you now have all three of them back?” Grace asked to make sure he hadn’t lost either of the first two he had regained.
He focused on the tree in front of Grace’s house and the leaves began to stir as if a strong breeze had swept through the neighborhood. He then bent over and picked up a leaf lying on the ground. As he touched it, it immediately shriveled up and became brittle.
“I guess so.” He lifted his head and stared at Grace. “I certainly don’t feel any different than I did a few days ago. But I didn’t feel any different when the others came back either.”
Grace began to shake her head.
“What?” he asked.
“I’m amazed that you can do that.”
Nick didn’t understand what Grace was talking about and his expression showed it.
Grace clarified it for him. “How you can split your mind. You obviously were locked in battle with Jeremy, yet in your head you could see what Terry was going to do. That to me is the most amazing thing of all.”
“Yeah, I guess. I don’t give it much thought. It’s like reading the Voynich script. I just can, so I don’t really see it as that big a dea
l, but…”
“But it is. I’ve never heard of anybody else being able to do that.” Grace got a thoughtful look on her face. “Do you think Terry can do it, too?”
Nick shrugged. “I don’t know. It never came up when he was around.”
“You’ll have to ask him.”
“Yeah, right. He’s freaked out enough as it is. If he finds out I can do something else he can’t, he’ll flip. Uh-uh. I’m not asking him. Besides, even if he can, what’s the big deal? So there’d be two of us.”
Grace scrutinized him for a few seconds before she said, “I don’t know. It might be important. But, you’re right. He’d freak out. Let me think about it some.”
Nick remained quiet, trying not to think about all of the things that made he and his brother so very different, not the least of which was Terry’s often-violent nature. He gave a shudder and without further thought he raised his head and peered at the night sky. There were millions of stars, but his attention was drawn to the nearly full moon. Grace realized what he was doing and joined him.
He returned his attention to her. She sensed him watching her and looked at him, too.
“There was a full moon last night,” she said as her face lit up. “Do you remember when you got either Water or Wind back?”
“Well, let’s see. Water? Water? Um, it was a Sunday, ‘cuz I remember it was when I went home to get ready for our hockey game against Green Bay West and those jerks from the dance were waiting for me. That was, um, um, let me think. Around the second to last weekend in January.”
“And Wind?” She encouraged him.
“Okay, Wind. That was, ah, oh yeah I remember because it was at practice one morning and someone accidently sent a puck my way and I just reacted and blew at it and made it change directions. That was, um, um, don’t tell me. That was a Monday near the middle to end of February. Like the 20th, 21st, 22nd? Somewhere around there.”
She unlocked her smart phone and opened the Google app. She searched, “Moon phases,” and scrolled through the months of January, February and March. She read what was there and looked up at the night sky one more time. She lowered her gaze and gave Nick a triumphant smile.
“I think I figured out the riddle. Well, part of it at least. You know how it says, ‘Four moons, complete, gain, loss?”
Nick nodded at her expectantly.
“Well, every time you’ve got a power back was on or near a full moon. I’m thinking it was probably on the day of the full moon, but you just didn’t always realize it ‘til you needed it. And that was always like a day or so later. Anyway, the riddle is about that. Every full moon since…Hang on. Let me figure this out.”
She paused and looked at the moon phases again. She started bouncing up and down, “Yeah, that makes sense,” she said. “The last full moon before all of this happened was three days after your birthday – Christmas day. But the riddle also says complete, so I think it means it has to be a full lunar calendar month. We’re supposed to ignore the one on the 25th because it was part of the previous one. See?”
Nick half shook his head. “So that’s the start date?” Nick asked.
She nodded enthusiastically. “Yes! Well kind of. I think everything centers around your sixteenth birthdays. But the prophet wanted to make sure to get the lunar cycle correct so he put in the word ‘complete’ to make sure. So you got your first power back on the first full moon of the new lunar cycle after your birthday.”
She saw Nick look uncertain, so she added, “It’s too much of a coincidence not to be. Right?”
“Yeah, right,” he answered but with not quite the same enthusiasm as Grace was showing.
She threw her arms around him and gave a tiny squeal.
“Ouch,” he said and playfully covered his ear. He smiled at her and then got a thoughtful look. “Um, what’s the loss part. The gain was obviously me getting things back, but what’s the loss part about?”
She lowered her head a tiny bit and examined the ground around their feet. Nick could see that she was deep in thought. He chuckled. She looked up at him and gave him a quizzical look.
He smiled and said, “I can hear the wheels turning.”
She was so fixated on her thoughts she never reacted, as if Nick hadn’t teased her.
She said, “Remember how Terry couldn’t avoid the ripple you sent along the ice? And how tonight he immediately used Earth when any of the other Elements would have worked just as well? Better even. Because then it wouldn’t have been so obvious. Why rip someone wide open at a crowded dance when he could have shocked him, or taken all of his breath away, or heated or cooled his blood? Why use that? Any of those others would have been much better. How’d he think he was going to cover up slash marks on Jeremy’s back?”
Nick slowly shook his head, but his face showed comprehension. “You don’t think?”
“I do. It makes a lot of sense, don’t you think?”
“Yeah, it does.”
“So if we’re right, the four moons gain, loss thing means, you regain your powers and Terry loses his. Now you’ve got Water, Wind and Fire. And he only has Earth. That’s if we’re right. But what’s the six uinals, reveal thing?”
Nick shook his head, “Dunno.”
“Let me give that some thought,” she said. “Now that we know the starting date, maybe we can figure that out, too. But not tonight. I’m exhausted. I’m going to bed. We’ll call the others first thing tomorrow and get together at AJ’s in the afternoon and tell ‘em what we’ve discovered. But we’ll have to figure out a way to bring it up and not upset Terry.”
She saw Nick’s face flush. “Now, don’t go start doing that again,” she said.
He lowered his head, ashamed. She reached out and touched his arm. When he looked at her she smiled so sweetly at him he forgot all about being jealous of Terry.
They kissed goodnight. She raised one hand and tried to smooth out his unruly locks as she said, “Until tomorrow. We’ll figure out the rest.”
She kissed him once more and then she hurried up the stairs. As she closed the door, she smiled at him sweetly one more time and his heart melted as it always did. He floated home.
Chapter 51
“What’s wrong with you people?”
They met at AJ’s in the afternoon the next day. Terry skipped Sunday brunch at the Ericson’s and showed up after everyone else. The others gave him an expectant look as he descended the basement stairs. He ignored their questioning gazes and sat on the floor far removed from everyone.
“Are you still meeting with Thanatos?” Nick asked, breaking the silence but not the tension that had enveloped the room.
Terry gave him an are-you-kidding look but didn’t answer.
“What da yeh mean by that?” Maddy followed up.
“What’s wrong with you people? Why would I do that? He’s a complete and total ass…jerk. He’s got nothing to teach me anyway. What a waste.” He held everybody’s eyes and when they all turned away mumbled, “Not that it would do me much good anyway.”
“What’d you mean by that?” Nick asked.
“Mean by what? I didn’t say anything.”
“Yeah, you did. ‘Not that it would do me much good anyway.’ ”
Terry’s eyes got huge, but recovered, “Nothin’. It didn’t mean nothin’. What’re we here for anyway?” asked petulantly.
“Well, Nick and I, well mostly me actually, started thinking about the prophecy after what happened last night.”
Terry shifted uncomfortably where he sat on the floor.
“And I realized that Nick got back one of his lost powers every time there was a new moon since your guys’ last birthday.” She consulted some notes she had made and went on, “There was a full moon on the 25th of December – three days after your birthday. But the word ‘complete’ in the riddle, I believe, means a full lunar month. So I figured out that there were full moons on January 24th, February 22nd and last Friday, the 23rd of March. On or around those dates Nick r
eacquired Water, Wind and Fire.”
The rest of the Clan swung their gaze toward Nick, most with openly surprised expressions upon the revelation he had reacquired Fire. Terry remained impassive.
“So, I think the part of the riddle on your mom’s bracelet and the first prophecy on the 6th pyramid wall – well the last part of it anyway – referred to just that. Four complete moons gain. Don’t you see?” She amended it, “Well, three for now.”
“Yeah, it makes sense because if you add four days to sixteen Mayan haab since when we were born it would bring us to our sixteenth birthday. You see the Mayan calendar was 365 days. They didn’t add an extra day every four years, like we do, for leap year, they just counted days. So that’s the way the prophet said it to make sure it landed on our birthday. See?” Nick paused.
Grace added, “Anyway, we figured that the prophet wanted to make sure the date pinpointed to your sixteenth birthdays. And all his – or her –predictions were from that day forward.”
“Okay, so when’s the next full moon?” AJ asked.
“Not ‘til April 22nd” Grace said as she scanned her notes again.
AJ asked, “So what do you think the loss part and the part ‘bout omni-vision means?”
“Omission,” Nick corrected. “I’m not sure what that means, well kinda. But the loss part…” He and Grace turned to look at Terry. Everyone else followed suit.
Terry acted as if no one was looking at him. He jumped to his feet and said, “Sorry, I gotta go.”
“That’s bull, man,” AJ said firmly. “You did that before. What’s up? We deserve to know. Or are you too afraid to tell us?”
Terry stopped, his foot resting on the bottom stair, poised to make his way out. He turned deliberately to AJ and fumed. “This coming from someone with no powers. What good are you to the rest of us? So what if I’ve lost the first three elements. I still have Earth. And I’m willing to bet that, just like my little brother over there, that it’s just a matter of time before I get them all back. Count on it. In the meantime we’ve always gotta be worried ‘bout protecting you. I’m tired of it. I’m tired of being the one everybody is always trying to figure out. The one that Thanatos is mentoring. Of being told what to do with my future. I’m not some thing for people to use for their own purposes. Just leave me alone, all of you.”
