Chapter Twenty Nine
I have recently discovered that my ability just doesn’t work sometimes…
I always knew that it didn’t work on Ember, but I had arrogantly assumed that it would work on everyone else in the world. A few weeks ago, I would have been terrified and overwhelmed by panic from this fact. A tremendous amount of things can change in a very small amount of time – or so I have learned.
Frankly, if my ability had worked on Rave and Celeste that afternoon, Ember and I would have been on the run again. As it turns out that decision would have been a huge mistake on my part, but I have since been humbled. Until that fateful afternoon at the creek, I had walked around like everyone else on this planet – always thinking I had the answers and that I usually knew what to do in every situation. At risk of betraying my ‘brotherhood’, that last part likely is more a male-quality, than a universally held thought.
Guys mostly react without thinking if they are panicked enough. The female of our species tends to think a little before they react, even under dire circumstances. It’s for that very reason that I was thankful Celeste was there at the creek bank that afternoon.
It was unusual for Celeste to arrive home before I had left for the day. On the rare occasions when we did manage to bump into each other, she was polite and kind of quiet. Rave was full of interesting stories so even when his wife was around, she typically remained in the background. I had never had any reason to use my ability on either one of them until that insane afternoon.
Boo usually stayed with us while we worked in the garage – that is, until he found something more interesting to do. The first time I noticed the kid wandering into the woods alone, I alerted Rave immediately. He pushed himself out from underneath the truck he was ‘inspecting’, stood up and looked in the direction Boo had vanished.
“Ah, Boo’s okay. He’s got this special place near our creek that he plays at – rain or shine. My wife used to follow him around, constantly worrying about him like women do. I suppose she worried herself out at some point. Either that or she decided he was safe because Boo’s been playing there for months, alone. Women, no one can understand em’…”
Boo was the Jansens’ grandson. Their oldest daughter had him when she was just fifteen. She had run away months before with a “no-good, outsider” according to Rave. When she reappeared, Vixie had her infant son in one hand and a cigarette in the other. She didn’t even have formula or diapers, but she did have a terrible attitude and a substantial drug habit to feed. Their daughter stuck around for less than twenty four hours before she stole all the cash she could find and left her son behind for Rave and Celeste to care for.
I had way too much personal experience with a parent who preferred a crack pipe – or any other chemical substance for that matter – to caring for her children. So I felt a certain kinship with Boo.
Of course Boo was just his nickname. His given name was Zander. Although they had never formally adopted him, he was their child. I had a great deal of respect for Rave and Celeste because they took care of their own. That’s a huge priority in my book and a code I live by. They were also both unwavering in their belief that the legal authorities should never get involved. I had never seen a cop anywhere around their property, not even a forest ranger. Rave’s people were a close-knit community, and one that obviously minded its own business. That was a fact I especially liked.
My boss had told me that they had spent the first few years of their marriage living with Celeste’s family. After a ‘time,’ they moved back to his land and this is where they were going to stay. He talked often about how his people believed in staying off the radar and he told me a story to demonstrate this.
His shop had been vandalized a week before I came to work for him. Some stereos were stolen out of his customer’s cars. He had quietly replaced the stolen items out of his own pocket and finished the repairs, free of charge.
“That’s the way things are handled around here – all matters are taken care of among ourselves…” he announced and that was all he had to say about that.
Rave never discussed his other children. In fact, the only reason I knew they had more than Vixie was because he had referred to her as his oldest daughter. I never asked about their other kids or why he owned an auto mechanic shop either.
Most people open a garage because they are mechanics or it was handed down. Rave had the garage built about six months before I started and he didn’t know anything much about auto repairs. That made his ownership of a garage weird in my estimation. He was an interesting, knowledgeable man – probably with an equally interesting and colorful history – but a real mechanic, he certainly wasn’t.
He would putter around the garage, ‘inspect’ my repairs and talk to me. The real mechanical work fell squarely on my shoulders – not that I minded, though. I have always enjoyed repairing cars and trucks. I can fix anything with a motor. He told me that he had never hired anyone until I came along. Although I did wonder how he managed the major repair work for six months, I didn’t ask him because it wasn’t really my business.
It was so bizarre that afternoon on the creek bank. I had reacted on instinct, just like all the other times before. I had felt the power building and prepared to suggest that we had never met them. After convincing them, we were going to run like the devil was chasing us. My suggestion seemed to fade before it even started. I had never given any thought to how “my persuasion” worked until that moment, but it was too late to figure it out. I had wished insanely then that I had at least tried to decipher the ins and outs of my special ability.
However, it turns out that my inability to forcibly suggest something to Rave and Celeste would be a blessing in disguise because the Jansens’ would be able to explain some of the – well – unexplainable…
Ember Rising Light (Book One) Page 33
