Chapter Fifty Eight
After assuring Ember for the hundredth time that I was feeling fine, she finally went to bed. Krista was already asleep so she pulled out her book light. My little girl could be up for hours because she just started reading a new novel. I yanked on my jacket and stepped outside. I needed the fresh air but, more importantly, I needed to call Willow back. She could be my sounding board.
“Krista wants to do what??” Willow said, loudly.
“Her grandmother, Elizabeth wants to throw Ember a big birthday party…” was all I managed to say before she interrupted me again.
“Well, you have to agree to let them throw her a party because it’s her 16th birthday and that’s special. No wait…you can’t let them throw her a party because it’ll be uncontrollable madness. Just tell Krista it’s a nice gesture, but no thanks. But how can you possibly say ‘no’ to her best friend and her best friend’s grandmother when they want to give Ember a surprise Sweet Sixteen party?? You can’t say ‘no’ if you think about it clearly, but no way can you agree to let them give her a party either…” Willow argued with herself for the next few minutes and I continued to check my pulse rate.
I laughed as I listened to her vocalize the same rationales I had been thinking over and over. It was quite evident that we wouldn’t be able to arrive at a decision over the telephone. So we decided to talk about it face to face in the morning. We would likely have clearer heads after we rest.
My body refused to cooperate and give my mind any downtime. I obsessed all night about what to do and how to answer Krista’s offer. Still wide awake when the sun rose, I finally just made some coffee and watched the minutes tick by.
Willow’s right – I can’t say yes, but I can’t say no either…
The girls woke up and Krista gave me this ‘please, please, please’ look every time she had an opportunity of chance.
Holy heaven I’m begging for assistance. This is going to be a long, long day…
Willow and I skipped our morning classes so we could sit and debate the pros and cons at a local coffee shop. We were only seven minutes from the school, but I was a nervous wreck anyway. I didn’t tell Ember that I wouldn’t be at school this morning for obvious reasons. I also knew my little girl would wear me down with questions if I mentioned it without any explanation. My skill doesn’t work on her and I didn’t want to outright lie. So I had chickened out and said nothing – now, I would have to pay the price. I kept checking my cell phone as if I could see her through it somehow.
“Put that phone away, Florida. I’m sure she knows how to manually dial if her speed dial inexplicably fails,” Willow stated and put her hand over my phone.
“I’d say sorry, but I’ll probably look at it again in less than five minutes. I wouldn’t want to risk you thinking that I’m insincere or something,” I stated, comically.
“The party, Tray – we’re here to discuss it, remember? Although I must admit I’m enjoying the freedom. I’ve never had to sit in an actual school classroom before I moved here. It kind of makes me feel trapped sometimes,” Willow informed me.
“Yeah, there are days when I keep Ember outta school just so we can drive around in circles. It’s hard to leave our gypsy life behind…” I agreed.
“Okay, we’ve gotta focus…we’re getting as bad as Ember and that’s scary. So – the party…” she reminded me.
“The party…” I affirmed and looked down at my cell phone longingly.
“We’re gonna run this like any other gypsy job we’ve done since we’re being pressed for time. Aunt Celeste had a fairly good suggestion when I discussed this with her last night. She said maybe we could persuade Krista and Elizabeth to have the party on the Vaydem Preserve. They have a very large room located in the basement of their community center that’s attached to the Sacred Arboretum. The guests would all be directed to park in a specific lot so they wouldn’t be able to see the Arboretum from the parking lot. We’ll park in the restricted Vaydem lot in an entirely different location.
“This parking situation would be ideal because it serves two purposes. The first is the fact that outsiders are strictly prohibited from entering the Sacred Arboretum. The guest lot prevents anyone from seeing it, so they won’t know it’s there to begin with. The guest parking lot provides direct access to the basement area. The second purpose it would serve is that Ember wouldn’t accidentally see someone she recognizes and have the surprise ruined.
“The basement doesn’t have any doors or windows that lead directly outside. So that eliminates the wind factor. The wind seems to give her the most difficulties in relation to controlling her spirit light and channels, so it would rate priority on our scale. By removing the wind from the equation it significantly lowers the risk that she’ll lose control.
“Uncle Rave already worked out a solution to the risk of wandering people. He reserved the entire community building for the night of her birthday party. Only guests will be allowed inside and all the adjacent rooms will be locked. That way everyone will be contained in one space. So that problem falls off the scale too.
“We’ll all be there to help chaperone Ember. We’ll spend the entire night putting out fires before the building goes up in flames from her uncontrolled spirit light. I’m just kidding! Between all of us, we should be able to keep her alert and hopefully outta trouble. I’ll work with her every day so maybe she’ll have better control of her spirit light while she dances. I’ll need your help with that though because I’m gonna push her. So I might need you to keep her firmly rooted on the ground…” she stated.
We discussed every possible scenario that we could imagine – all the horrible ones and good ones. We’d all likely have to be admitted to a mental ward collectively afterwards, but how could I refuse? I’m the one who wants Ember to have every normal childhood experience. Sweet Sixteen is about as traditional as it gets…
“So, we’re gonna be body guards all night on the 15th? Sounds great – well, at least it’s a plan,” I told her wearily.
“No Tray, we’re gonna be observers. Ember’s gonna dance, have fun and eat cake. We’ll only interfere if or when it becomes absolutely necessary. This’ll be a birthday she’ll never forget,” Willow said wishfully.
“Now, can we please go back to school?” I asked.
Miraculously, I had somehow managed to avoid looking at my cell phone for the last thirty minutes. Ember would be changing classes in less than nine minutes and I wanted to be back before the bell rang if possible. I tried unsuccessfully to pry my phone away from Willow.
“No, not yet, we’ve covered a few challenges on our priority scale and went over various scenarios. Now, we need to address the biggest priority challenge...” Willow announced and my head wrapped around what she just stated.
“None of those were the biggest priority challenge?” I asked a little too loudly and got a few puzzled or frustrated looks.
“We need to figure out what to do about this whole ‘jumping out and yelling surprise thing’ at her. I’d hate to think of what kind of surprise Ember might give them in return if she gets scared enough by the crowd…” Willow voiced something I hadn’t given any thought to.
A surprise indeed…
Ember Rising Light (Book One) Page 62
