“Yeah. You on drugs or somethin’, Chief? Two chicks and Howdy Doody take us?”
To my surprise, Tip chuckled. “Tell you what. I’m gonna give you boys a chance to turn around and walk away before we embarrass the hell out of you right here on the street.”
My heart was racing as the last remnants of my shield fell away. I had nothing to contribute to our defense and it was taking everything I had to keep up my own. I wondered what the hell Tip was thinking by antagonizing these guys. They were thugs!
“You must be mainlinin’, Chief, if you fucking think—” The tallest one took one step toward us and then dropped to his knees grabbing his head in pain. He howled in agony. The other two looked at each other before also taking a step toward us. They, too, dropped to their knees. Whatever Tip was doing to them, was causing them a whole lotta mental agony. All three were holding their heads and wailing, their pain rattling the marrow of my bones.
“You boys oughtta lay off those Hurricanes. I hear they can give you a mighty big headache. Come on, kids. Let’s get out of here.”
The three of us turned and walked away. At the corner, Tip stopped short, released us and turned to look back. “Hang on a sec. Stay here.”
I grabbed her arm. When she turned, I saw something in her eyes I’d never seen before. It wasn’t fear or trepidation…it was a protectiveness bordering on scary Mama Bearness.
Stepping up to her, I was inches from her face, looking up into brown eyes that truly, deeply cared. “Tip—”
She shook her head and stepped back. “Don’t.”
“Don’t what?”
“Whatever it was you were going to do.” She stepped back. “Just don’t.”
I cocked my head. “You don’t know?”
She turned around to check on the three men. “I’ve been a bit busy.”
Zack and I both turned back toward the three guys attempting to get back on their feet.
“Mover?” Tip said to Zack, motioning with her chin to the biggest one.
“The tall guy,” I said softly to Zack, feeling his intentions as clearly as if he had been holding a sign that said I have a gun and I’m going to blow your head off with it.
“One shot, Zack,” Tip whispered. “That’s all I’m giving you, and I will totally deny it to Melika if either of you snitch.”
Zack looked up at Tip, who nodded.
The big guy reached behind him and before he could move another inch, Zack raised his arm as if he was holding a shot put, and thrust it forward. The guy flew backward about ten feet, crashing against the side of the store. The other two looked at us, then at their friend. They got up and ran, leaving their friend lying on the sidewalk.
“Nice shot,” Tip said. “Not one word about this to anyone. Don’t talk to each other about it, don’t even think about it. It never happened.”
Zack and I could barely manage a nod. I was overwhelmed and unprepared for all of this and was beginning to lose my sense of balance. Emotions are one thing; drunken emotions fill you with this weird, hazy feeling. It’s ugly and disconcerting, and I was having a real hard time focusing. “Tip…”
“I know. Come on.” Taking my arm, she pulled me into a lobby of a hotel room. Tip knelt down and took my hands in hers. It was the most intimate gesture we had shared and the look I’d seen earlier was back. “Can’t get your shield back up?” Her voice was softer than I’d ever heard it.
I shook my head, glad to be off the street and inside where there were less people. My knees were weak and I realized for the first time that I’d been scared. “I’m trying, Tip, really I am.”
“I know you are. Deep breath, kiddo. Take all the time you need.”
I winced. “Tip, how old are you?”
“What?”
“How old are you?”
“Twenty-four, why?”
“So you’re not old enough to be my mom?”
She tilted her head. “Don’t follow.”
“I hate kiddo. Could you call me something else?”
A slow smile spread across her face. “I can try.” Rising, she slapped Zack on the back of the head. “You and I are going to have a little chat. Echo, you do what you’ve been taught to do.”
“He was just—”
She waved me off. “Don’t try to save his ass, kid—what he did back there put you both in danger. Not only that, if Melika found out, she’d send him packing so fast, he’d arrive home yesterday.” To Zack, she said, “Showing off is never smart. You know better than that. You think you’re going to impress Echo with that bullshit, you’re wrong.” To me she finished. “You get your defenses back up. Zack and I will be waiting for you over at Cafe Du Monde.”
It took about ten minutes of quiet to get my defenses back up. Then, I walked over to Cafe Du Monde. After having my fill of the best beignets in the world, I was feeling more like myself again.
“Thank you, Tip,” I said, at last.
She nodded as she sipped her coffee, looking away. “No biggie.”
“Were you following us?”
She stuffed an entire beignet into her mouth and shook her head. “It’s my job.”
Zack looked over at Tip and then at me. “She heard you. She heard you call for help.”
I looked at Tip, who was still averting her gaze. “You did?”
Shrugging, she sipped more coffee. “You’d stopped blocking, so it was pretty easy to pick up your thoughts. I’m just glad I wasn’t far away. But don’t worry, Zack swears it’ll never happen again, right, Zack?”
Zack nodded contritely.
Laying my hand on hers, I said, “I’m glad you’re here, Tip. Thank you for saving us from ourselves.”
Tip rose and dropped a twenty on the table. “Next time, you might not be so lucky. Enjoy the rest of your day.”
When Tip was gone, Zack slumped down in his chair. “I coulda taken those assholes. I didn’t need her help.”
I thwacked him like Tip had. “Once again, are you brain dead? Do you have any idea what you could have done?”
“Yes, but—”
“But nothing. You don’t have the right to put us at risk with your dumb male ego. Haven’t you heard a damn thing Melika taught us about protecting each other? Damn it, Zack, you know better.”
“All right, already. Jesus, don’t you start lecturing me, too, Echo. Tip totally busted my chops. I said I was sorry.”
“You’ll really be sorry if Melika sends you packing. Seriously, dude, you can’t do that anymore. We have a responsibility to the community.”
“A community we’ve never even met, Echo. We’re out here in the middle of nowhere being told there are hundreds of us and yet we never see anyone else. Aren’t you curious—”
“No. It’s called faith and trust, Zack. I trust Melika, and when it’s time to meet more of our community, we will. Until then, we need to be more aware of everything we do.”
“I want to meet another mover. I want to see how my powers stack up.”
“You will when the time is right. Until then, do us both a favor and behave.”
I finally had to just let it go and by six o’clock, we had eaten too much, shopped too much, and had too much fun. We had even had our palms read by a woman who was no psychic, but we were curious about what she would say. My shields held up for the rest of the day, Zack finally stopped pouting, and my feet were killing me from all the walking.
My shields were still holding when I entered the Acme Oyster House, otherwise, I would have known what to expect when I walked in.
As I approached the table where Bishop was sitting, she looked up and gave me a little finger wave. She was talking to a woman whose back was to us. “Right on time!” Bishop said.
When the woman turned around to look at us, I stopped dead in my tracks.
It was Danica.
She had come to New Orleans.
“Danica!”
“Jane!”
I had never been happier to see anyone than I was at that
moment. We hugged each other tightly for a really long time. I felt like if I let go, she would vanish, so I held on until she whispered, “I can’t…breathe.”
Pulling away, I held her face in my hands and just stared into her eyes. “It really is you.”
“Goddamn, Jane, what have you been eating? You look fantastic!” Danica stepped back, a grin stretching across her face revealing two perfect rows of teeth. Her eyes were green and slightly almond shaped. At six feet one, she carried her slender frame like a much larger woman and commanded attention everywhere she went. Her mixed race gave her caramel color skin that looked edible and yummy to nearly all who met her. If her interior was as hot as her exterior, Danica would spend her days fighting people off, she was that hot.
I laughed giddily. She laughed. We laughed together, and nothing ever felt as good as that moment. “Good food, fresh air and great company will do that to a girl.”
“Ahem.”
We turned around, and I realized I had completely forgotten my manners. “Oh. God. I’m sorry. Zack, this is my best friend in the world, Danica. Danica, my new buddy, Zack. I take it you’ve already met Bishop.”
“Yep, and that big ass Indian chick who picked me up at the airport.”
I turned to Bishop. “How—” And stopped when she raised a hand.
“How is hardly ever relevant or important, Echo. What matters is that Melika felt it was time for you to remember there is a whole world outside the Bayou and that you are still a member of that world. It becomes very easy to get lost down here…to become assimilated into our world. The Bayou now feels like home, but it isn’t. Your home is back in California, where you will one day return to begin anew. We’ve brought your lovely friend to New Orleans to remind you of that.”
“But…am I…”
Bishop motioned for us to sit. “Sit. Eat. You won’t find a better po’ boy anywhere in the world. Eat first, and then go to Jackson Square and find yourselves a park bench to sit on and catch up.”
My eyes grew wide. “Catch up. You mean…on everything?”
Bishop leaned across the table and took my hand. “There comes a time in our lives when we must decide who to trust and who not to trust. You must always remember how vulnerable we are, as individuals and as a community. We are each responsible for the other and for the safety of both. This is your first test. Only you can decide if she’s safe, loyal and worthy to possess a secret that could damn us all. Only you know the truth about her heart.”
Inhaling deeply, I looked over at Danica and nodded. She sat there, wide-eyed, clearly wondering what in the hell we were talking about.
After six months with Melika, I knew the importance of keeping mum about our powers. As long as our gifts were still considered something of myths, we would remain safe. I understood that. However, I also understood that someday I would return to the life I had so quickly left and I would need someone who knew and understood what I was.
But at fifteen, was Danica that person? Were we mature enough to handle the truth of who I was and what I was becoming? At this moment, I didn’t know, nor did I care. Danica had flown halfway across the country to see me, and that was all that mattered.
We ate our delicious po’ boys and waved goodbye to Bishop and Zack before heading off to Jackson Square. We held hands and bounced along like two little sisters, barely stopping to take a breath.
“This place is fucking awesome,” Danica said as we walked to the Square. “I’ve never seen anything like it. You must be having a fucking blast.”
“I would be if here is where I lived, but I don’t. I live way out in the boondocks. This is the first time I’ve been here in almost six months.”
“This place is so way better than any place I’ve ever been.” Danica laughed as she threw her arms around my neck. “Damn, girl, I have missed you. You look so good, Jane…oops. I guess I should get used to calling you Echo, huh?” Danica sat down and took my hand. “Okay, Echo, what the fuckaroonie is going on here? Some humungous, and, might I add, gorgeous Indian chick picks me up at the airport and brings me to this old, superbizarre woman who talks in some kind of code about some kind of secret. What the fuck?”
I threw my head back and laughed. “I have missed you so much!”
“No, you haven’t. How could you? This place is so awesome. No wonder you’ve been too busy to call. I stopped waiting for you to call two weeks after you left. Then, out of the blue, I get a call about coming here, and, of course, I jump for it.”
“Your parents?”
“Took some convincing, but they’re all about me seeing other black folks and getting a better idea of how others live. They finally agreed to let me come take a look at Tulane and Xavier, but it’s really all about the black thang.”
I took her hands in mine. She had the longest fingers of anyone I had ever met. “Danica…I’m really sorry—”
She held up both hands. “Hey, I wasn’t pissed or anything. I mean, hell, you’re here and I was there, and—”
“I have so much to tell you, but first, I just want to listen. Tell me all about school, about your life. Tell me everything I’ve missed.”
I was so happy sitting there, in New Orleans, with my best friend gossiping about people as if I had never left. She told me about Todd having to get stitches, and how everyone teased him for weeks about getting his ass kicked by a girl and how he would never come near her again. She told me who was dating whom and what teachers were bad. And as Danica kept talking, I tried to decide whether or not to tell her the truth. It was such a huge decision for me. I just didn’t want to blow it. Melika trusted me, trusted all of us to be selective in whom we told. I used to lay in bed at night wondering about the moment I revealed everything to her. Three months ago, I was sure I would tell her the first chance I got. Now…now I wasn’t so sure, especially in light of Zack’s outing of himself.
“You gotta be sure, Echo.”
I looked around for Tip, but she was nowhere to be seen. Just in my head.
“Stop looking around, goofy girl. I’m not in Jackson Square.”
“Where are you?” I thought. The first time you link up with a telepath, it feels a little schizophrenic. You can “hear” the voice in your head and it doesn’t feel or sound like your own. It’s quite a bizarre feeling, and though this wasn’t the first time, I never quite got used to it.
“Not important. Look, if you’re going to tell your friend, do it in a setting that will help her understand. She can’t understand anything sitting here in New Orleans. Tell her on the Bayou.”
“When? How?”
“Meet Bones at his place tomorrow morning around nine. Take her to Du Monde and then take a cab to Bones’ place. You’ll know when you’re out on the river whether it’s the right time. Trust me, kiddo.”
“Please stop calling me that.”
“Sorry. Habit.”
“Well break it. Now go away.”
“Not until you tell me you trust me.”
Trust her? She scared the crap out of me…out of all of us. And now, here she was, for the second time in a day popping up in my head, giving me unsolicited advice.
“Trust me, kiddo.”
Turning all of my attention back to Danica, I listened attentively, asking all the right questions, wanting to be in the moment with her. She had lost weight and colored her hair so it had nice copper streaks in it. She looked really good.
We stayed up half the night cruising Bourbon Street and catching up. It was big fun and I discovered I could relax knowing that somewhere in New Orleans, Tip was lurking, listening, reading, keeping tabs on Melika’s students. I discovered that I could feel whenever she had popped in and out of my mind. I decided then and there to learn more about the strengths of telepaths, because from what I’d seen on this trip, Tip was, by far, the most powerful of all of us.
We were allowed to stay at Bishop’s fine Victorian home for the night, which was such a blast. We baked cookies and just sat and talked. Danica wan
ted to hear all about the loony bin and the people who were now my family. We didn’t get to sleep until four in the morning, and were back up at the crack of dawn when we set out for Bones’ place. We were never allowed to take anyone to Melika’s, so I told Bones we just wanted to go out to the Bayou.
“Ummm…Echo, are you serious about getting in that thing?” Danica stepped away from the boat as if it might bite her.
I chuckled. “It’s okay, Dani, really. I thought exactly what you’re thinking, but I know from experience that it floats. It’ll take us where we want to go.”
“Which is where? Where are we?”
“The Bayou, baby. I’m going to show you where I’ve really been for the last six months, and…well…to explain what’s been going on with me.”
Danica nodded. “Hey, I’m up for an adventure.”
I grinned. “Oh, Danica, you have no idea what you’re in for.”
Turning to me, she grinned. “Oh yeah? Try me.” There was no one braver than Danica Johnson.
Ten minutes later, I did.
“You’ve been living all the fucking way out here?” She asked, looking around. “You have got to be shitting me. No TV?”
“Nope. That’s why I wanted you to come out here. You think I’ve been partying away in New Orleans when the truth is, I’ve been living in a cottage all the way out here. Not quite the party environment you pictured, is it?”
“No. Fucking. Way.” Danica looked around the Bayou all big-eyed. “Here? Out here?”
I nodded, noting how six months made Danica look six years older. She was beautiful. “Farther out, actually, but it’s all the same after you get to a certain point.”
“Holy shit. People can’t live out here, can they?”
“Can and do. That’s why I haven’t called. This is the first time I’ve been to the city since I called you shortly after I got here.”
“What in the hell have you been doing all this time? You can’t…” And then she heard that familiar sound. “What in the hell was that?”
“Just a ’gator.”
“A what? Don’t fuck with me, Jane!” Danica scooted toward the center of the boat, her eyes darting about. “Are you telling me there are alligators in the water?”
More Than an Echo (Echo Branson Series) Page 8
