[Intertwined Souls 05.0] No Good Deed

by Mary D. Brooks

  “What does that mean?” Stella asked with a hint of a smile. Zoe looked at her with a look of such bliss that Stella was eternally grateful to the Goddess that she had a photographic memory. Zoe’s huge smile and her pointing to Eva made Stella want to get down on the floor and hug the stuffing out of her niece.

  Eva giggled. “Um...we were talking about my telekinesis, and how…” She started to laugh again. Henry snorted and slapped the bathroom floor, unable to contain his laughter. That set everyone off.

  Stella enjoyed seeing the six adults enjoying one another’s company. It was evident to anyone with eyes that they loved one another. What was also evident was that they had been drinking for some time.

  Eva put her hand on her heart and tapered down her laughter only to look up at Tommy and set off again. Stella decided that this wasn’t going to end soon, so she went into the kitchen and brought a chair. She sat down and crossed her legs. She waited for them to stop laughing again.

  Tommy cleared his throat and seemed to have the most control. “Eva was saying that for their next baby—”

  “What next baby? Zoe hasn’t had these two yet!”

  “We’re planning ahead,” Zoe said with a giggle.

  “Eva said that for their next baby,” Tommy started up again and almost lost his composure when he glanced at Eva, who was making faces at him. “Eva said that for their next baby,” he repeated and shut his eyes to prevent Eva from making him laugh. “Eva said that for their next baby,” he said a third time, “she’s going to try her telekinesis to get the sperm into Zoe, but…” He dissolved into laughter when Earl put his arms around him and brought him back behind the door, where they laughed hysterically.

  “With Eva’s radar being a little off,” Theo said from the bathtub, “the sperm might end up in Elena instead!” He almost choked as he laughed.

  Stella shook her head and chuckled. “How long have you lot been sitting on the floor?”

  “Well,” Zoe began and started to giggle. “Evy and I had a bit of a celebration and then we wanted to celebrate with the boys but…” She stopped for a moment and the entire group erupted in raucous laughter. “Not like that!”

  “So you all decided to get drunk in the morning?”

  “We were given a beautiful gift last night.”

  “Yes, I know. Saint Theresa came to see us.”

  Eva gazed at Stella and smiled broadly. “Are you here to check up on me? Do you want some beer? We have some in the refrigerator.”

  “No, I don’t want to drink beer so early in the morning, thank you,” Stella responded as she tried not to laugh at their antics. “Now, I hate to break up this laughathon, but I need you to get off the floor. We have some tests to run on you and I can’t do it in the bathroom.” She turned to her son, who was behind the door. “Tommy, get out from behind that door and stop cuddling Earl. I’m going to need you.”

  Tommy’s muffled laughter was the only confirmation Stella needed that he was indeed with Earl. It made her happy that Tommy had found someone worthy and that she’d didn’t have to worry about his love life.

  “Theo, get out of the bathtub and get Zoe off the cold floor. Why none of you thought to put a towel on the floor for Zoe to sit on, I’ll never know. The woman is pregnant with twins! Henry, darling, can you help Eva up?”

  “Yes, Aunty,” Henry said with a smile and got up from his position on the floor. He swayed a little, which made everyone start laughing. He offered his hand to Eva. “Row, row, row your boat gently down the stream…” He started to sing, which made everyone break out laughing again. Eva got up and fell against his chest.

  Theo took Zoe’s hand and tenderly kissed her on the cheek. He turned around to Eva, brought her towards him, and also kissed her on the cheek.

  “Goddess, I love days like this,” Stella said with a chuckle.

  ***

  “How’s your head?” Zoe asked Eva, who was sitting up in bed after having finished being examined by Stella. She had her eyes closed and a smile plastered on her face. “Did Aunty Stella prod you enough?”

  “I’ve got a little buzz right now from all the drinking, but the head is fine! Tommy took some blood and Stella is going to test it. I’m not sure why, but she wants to compare it to my previous bloodwork. I think she’s excited to see the differences.”

  “Are you drunk?”

  “Nooo.” Eva shook her head and smiled. “Just a little, but I was dizzy this

  Morning and it wasn’t because of the beer...”

  “Did you ask her why you were dizzy?”

  “Hm. She tested my balance and said it is going to be off because I was compensating for the back pain for so long. My dizziness is caused by that imbalance. She said my migraines won’t lessen now either.”

  “Why not?”

  “It’s a gift-related issue. Tessa suffers from them as well. All the gifted do.”

  “How long will the dizziness last?”

  “Hm. She said I haven’t got my sea legs yet.”

  “What does that mean?”

  Eva smiled. “I’ve been unbalanced since the accident, and I need time to adjust. I’m going to find I get dizzy as I’m trying to adjust. She also said that my back muscles are weak and that I need to strengthen them.”

  “Oh I wouldn’t say that. I thought they were perfectly fine this morning,” Zoe quipped before they both dissolved in a fit of giggles.

  “I don’t think she had that in mind.”

  “Ooh, more exercise!”

  “Yes, that’s what she has planned.” Eva chuckled. “She says I’m going to be walking differently, but she wants to take x-rays tomorrow of my spine to compare it to the previous x-rays.”

  Zoe curled up next to Eva and put her hand on Eva’s stomach. They gazed at each other and smiled. “I know what you’re thinking.”

  “You do? I’m supposed to be the gifted one.”

  “You’re thinking about the lamp, aren’t you?” Zoe already knew the answer to that question. She had enacted the ‘no secrets’ rule after they had made love. Eva needed to know the truth now that she had been healed. Eva had been shocked by the revelation and tears were shed, but Zoe was content to know they would start a new chapter in their lives without that secret between them.

  “Yes, but you know me—I’ll stew on it for a few days and then it will disappear. I know what your next question is.”

  “You do? So you have the gift of prophecy now?”

  Eva put her fingers against her temple and closed her eyes. “Hmm, I see in my crystal ball…”

  Zoe laughed. She cupped Eva’s cheek and gently turned her face towards her. “Is that right? Well, what happened?”

  “Stella gave me a pelvic exam. I do dislike those, but for once I was eager to have one.”

  “And? Is it there?”

  Eva grinned. “Zoe, you make it sound like a treasure hunt,” she said and laughed. “No, it’s not there.”

  “Are you disappointed?”

  “A little, but it’s not important.” Eva shook her head slowly before Zoe put her hands on either side of her head and stopped her. She smiled. “I don’t need it.”

  “I thought you wanted to have children.”

  “I’m already having children, love. You’re carrying them and I’m throwing up. They’re mine as well, so it doesn’t matter who has them.”

  “I’m loving being pregnant, although you and Bessie are becoming great friends.”

  “You named our toilet? Now I can’t go to the bathroom without thinking a woman called Bessie…” Eva scrunched up her face and started to laugh.

  “You are just too adorable. How do you feel?”

  Eva gazed at Zoe for a long moment. “I haven’t felt this good in fourteen years. It’s like a fog has lifted. A thick fog that I just couldn’t get out of. Some days I didn’t want to get out of bed because it just felt it was too much. If it wasn’t for you, Zoe, I don’t think…”

  “Let’s not even think tha
t, alright? Fourteen years is a long time, Evy. That’s almost half your life.”

  “I had forgotten what it felt like not to be in pain,” Eva replied quietly.

  “It’s going to be different for you, in a good way. I don’t know how you did it every day. You developed a system where you wrote little notes to yourself so you could remember things. That’s going to change.”

  “Stella says it won’t. It’s become a habit, and she thinks it will take time for me to be able to rely on my memory rather than on those little notes to myself. She wants to do more tests. You know how much I love doctors.”

  “Yes, but this is Aunty Stella. We can work on your memory, and the more you work at it, the better it will become. You will get your back muscles strengthened, which will help you a great deal. You have me to help test and strengthen your memory.”

  “Your memory tests are hard.”

  “I’ll teach you ways to remember things. Not the memory tricks you use, but to really remember things.”

  “I don’t know if my memory can be that good, Zo.”

  “It won’t be perfect but it will be better than it is now.”

  “Hm. Remember back in Berlin when we were in my room and we were sitting on my bed?”

  “Yes, I remember. The bed that was too tall for me.”

  “This is silly…”

  “What’s silly?”

  “I would sit in the cinema and watch those movies where the hero would take the girl into his arms and carry her to the bedroom…”

  “That’s your best dream, so go on. He carried her into the bedroom and then what?”

  “You didn’t see anything after that, but I had this secret wish that when I found the right girl, the one special one, that I would do the same. I would kiss her and then pick her up into my arms and carry her to my bed.”

  “Wow. Maybe when Stella is finished turning you into Wonder Woman and you are strong enough, you can do that.”

  “Do you want me to?”

  “My mama did not raise a silly girl.” Zoe giggled. “Of course! I would love to be cradled in your arms and carried off to bed.”

  “We can go to our cabin in the mountains…”

  “Just the four of us.” Zoe patted her belly.

  “No, just the two of us. That’s why we have two grandmothers and the boys—they’re going to be great nannies. Just you, me, and a bed.” She put her hands on top of Zoe’s hips and looked into her eyes. “I’m sorry for all the pain I’ve put you through. I know I’m not the easiest of patients.”

  “No, you’re not, and we both know why.”

  Eva looked down at their intertwined fingers. “I’m sorry, love.”

  “Stop apologizing. I know you are,” Zoe replied as she brought Eva’s hand to her lips and kissed it. “I have you whole again and that’s all that matters.”

  “I’ve never been whole. I’ve always been in pain. You have never seen me whole.”

  “That’s true, but I doubt you are any different now. This is exciting for you and for me.”

  “I don’t even remember what it’s like not to be in pain. Fourteen years is a long time.”

  “You still have some work ahead of you to get that balance thing right and to strengthen your back, but I’ll be there helping you as well.”

  Eva smiled as Zoe cuddled up against her. “I’ll have to be careful in public. Head injuries take a long time to heal and I usually take longer.”

  “If Mama Saint had not healed you, Aunty Stella said it would have taken up to a year to regain your strength.”

  Eva let her head rest against the headboard and sighed. “That’s a long time. I remember what I had to go through in Paris and I felt it took me longer than coming out of Aiden.”

  “There was so much more going on with you in Aiden. You’ve been through a great deal, but now that’s over.”

  “I was younger then, Zo. I’m older now. I would have missed out on so much…”

  “Can we not dwell on what might have been?” Zoe looked up at Eva with a hopeful expression on her face. “It’s over.”

  “When I go back—”

  “Go back where?”

  “To work with Jana.”

  Zoe shook her head. “You are not going back there. Why? What’s the point of that?”

  “I want to go back. I want to leave on my own terms and not on what some bucket dictated.” Eva brought the cigarette she had in the ashtray to her lips and took a drag. “I’m going to be the head of Lambros Steel, and I want them to see I’m alright.”

  “I wish you wouldn’t, but that’s your decision. You have to be very careful now. Maybe you could wear your back brace to prevent you from moving freely and giving people cause to wonder. People know you had brain surgery, so we have to take things very slowly, and when you are out, you need to move slower.”

  “Telling people I was healed by a saint is not something that they will understand.”

  “More than likely they will think the paint bucket severely damaged your brain.”

  Eva nodded, closed her eyes, and for a long moment contemplated what Theresa’s healing meant to her. It was more than a second chance; it was a chance to live her life as if Kristallnacht had never happened. As if Aiden and Paris had never happened. She had the memories and the physical scars, but not the pain or the limitations. She opened her eyes and gazed down at Zoe.

  “I’m scared,” Eva quietly admitted.

  “What are you scared of?”

  “What happens next. I’m gifted, I’ve got a block on those gifts, I got hit in the head with a paint bucket and I died, then I was brought back. We have a saint and an immortal appear, and I see my dead mother… This is all just too weird.”

  “Yes, but we knew you were gifted in Berlin. That’s not new. We’ve never had normal lives. We never will. I know you hate change but, love, it’s all about change.”

  “It’s just too bizarre. My brain was so fogged up before that it didn’t make sense to me, but now it makes even less sense. Why me?”

  “You are special. God has a plan for you, for me, and for our babies. It terrifies me that He’s in charge of this plan because I don’t trust Him, but there isn’t anything I can do about it.”

  “You said Larissa will be gifted as well? Is that what Mama Saint said?”

  Zoe nodded and plucked the cigarette from Eva’s fingers. She took a drag and slowly exhaled. She gave the cigarette back to a very bemused Eva.

  “That’s what she said. It seems sometimes when there isn’t a direct line from mother to daughter, God directs it from mother to son to daughter.”

  “Wow.” Eva put her hand over her eyes. “This is just too much to take in. I know one thing as an absolute fact.”

  “Oh, you do? What’s that?”

  “Just one thing in my life is certain, and that’s you.” Eva took Zoe’s hands and held them. “Everything can be crazy, but I know when I look beside me, you will be there.”

  “Where else will I be?” Zoe asked as she smiled up at Eva. “I’m not going anywhere and I’m not turning into a pumpkin or some other exotic fruit at the stroke of midnight.”

  “My god, you are so beautiful. We are going to have some beautiful babies.”

  “You keep talking like that and I’ll kiss you again.”

  “Please.” Eva lowered Zoe towards her. Just as their mouths were about to touch, the sound of tambourines echoed in the room. “What is that?”

  Zoe stared at her for a moment before she started laughing and then kissed her. The tambourine noise grew louder and Eva chuckled. Behind Zoe, Theresa materialized with a tambourine in her hand.

  “Oh, god.” Eva laughed against Zoe’s shoulder when she saw Theresa.

  “Oh, what?”

  “Um…”

  “Don’t tell me… Mama Saint is behind me?”

  “Uh huh.”

  “Hello, Red!” Theresa exclaimed and shook the tambourine. “Ooh, I forgot how much I like this instrument.�
��

  “What’s that?” Zoe asked, not bothering to turn around but staying where she was, lying quite contentedly against Eva’s chest. She was resigned to the fact that her necking session with Eva was not going to continue.

  “That is a tambourine. I used to play it when I was a young girl. You did say I should play bells to announce my presence, but I don’t play bells—I play the tambourine.”

  “Lovely.”

  “Hey, come now, I did wait until you two finished canoodling.”

  “What?” Zoe shrieked and turned to Theresa in outrage. “You...you…”

  Theresa shook the tambourine and giggled. “No, I didn’t peek. Now, that wouldn’t be nice.”

  Eva, who was almost convulsing with laughter, did not match Zoe’s outrage. Zoe cupped her face and kissed her on the cheek. Zoe watched Eva’s smile disappear and a very odd expression on her face.

  “Oh.”

  “What’s wrong, love?” Zoe asked.

  “Zo, you might want to turn around.”

  “Why? Is Mama Saint going to dazzle me with her tambourine?”

  “Tsk, I’ll have you know I’m very good,” Theresa said.

  “My wife wants to be a comedienne; you want to be a tambourine player—”

  “Zo, turn around,” Eva said softly and smiled.

  ***

  Zoe sighed. She rolled off Eva’s legs and sat on the side of the bed. “You kn…” Her words died in her mouth when Theresa took a step back and let the woman behind her come forward. Standing before her, just as she remembered her, was her mother. Zoe was so shocked she slid off the bed and landed on the floor with a thud.

  “Zo! Are you alright, love?”

  “Y...yes...” Zoe got to her feet and took hold of the bedpost to steady herself. She looked around the room and all she could see was Eva and Theresa. “What? I think I’m hallucinating now.”

  “Come back onto the bed. Hold my hand,” Eva said. Zoe did as Eva asked. She blinked in surprise when her mother materialized again.

  Helena Lambros was laughing and shaking her head. She came forward and stood next to the bed, inches away from Zoe. Zoe blinked, not quite believing what she was seeing. She looked back at Eva, whose eyes were glistening, and Zoe almost missed their color change from blue to green.