The Athena Effect

by Anderson, Derrolyn

  Still, he was friendly, and always happy to see her. She never had to worry about troubling flashbacks with Jesse, because his mind was as calm and tranquil as still water. He called her “Artemis” or “Diana”, proclaiming her protector of all the plants and animals. Usually, he just made her laugh, trying to sort out the differences between Greek and Roman mythology in his fanciful stories.

  Sometimes Cal wondered about the people living in town, their mysterious lives illuminated by electric lights blazing through curtained windows. They kept tidy houses with neatly mowed lawns, but they all seemed to be masking inner turbulence, and it was always a relief to turn up the unmarked road that led to her quiet little cabin.

  The random seizures and night terrors her parents experienced only served as a testament to the dangers of straying too far from home. She realized that there was evil out there that she couldn’t even begin to fathom, and she adopted her parent’s fears as her own.

  But today Cal glowed pink with happiness as she trotted home with a great haul of fresh morels– more than enough to feast on and still take the extra into town to sell. There might even be enough money left over for some chocolate, she realized, picking up the pace with a little thrill of excitement.

  She rounded the corner and her heart leapt with joy to see Sherriff Brown’s truck parked on the rutted dirt road leading to her door. The Sherriff was a kind man who worried about her parents, checking in on them a few times a year. His initial suspicion about their isolated lifestyle had turned to grudging respect, and on his visits he always brought along a tool or some spare item he claimed to have no more use for.

  He knew how much Cal loved her books, and was always sure to include something new for her to read as well. One Christmas he’d even hauled over an almost complete set of the Encyclopedia Britannica– over twenty-nine thick and heavy tomes. Cal read them cover to cover that cold winter, huddled by the warmth and dim light of their wood-burning stove.

  She hustled up the driveway to find the Sherriff leaning against the hood of his truck, reeling to a stop when she saw his color. He was vibrating with a deep purple sorrow, surrounded by an intensely worried yellow-green anxiety. He shuffled uncomfortably from foot to foot.

  ~

  Sherriff Brown had seen a lot of things in his many years in law enforcement, but he could say for certain that this was the worst day of his entire career. He thrust his hands in his pockets and stared down at his feet. He’d been a newly hired deputy almost eighteen years ago when Jenny and David had arrived on the scene– two scruffy kids that looked like something the cat dragged in.

  The land they settled on once belonged to David’s grandmother, but there hadn’t been a Mackenzie living in these parts for many years. Stories about the area still swirled throughout the town; tales of a forest haunted by the ghost of Old Lady Mackenzie, along with rumors of witchcraft and demonic goings on. Lingering suspicions kept the locals away, and that suited David and Jenny just fine.

  No one ever came looking for them; they paid the property taxes regularly and kept out of trouble. They were grimly determined to hang on and stay out here in the middle of nowhere, despite the overwhelming odds against them. Heck, the Sherriff remembered, they’d even spent the first few rainy months living in an old army surplus tent.

  Some folks speculated that they were involved with the drug trade, growing pot on a remote plot hidden away in the deep dark woods. But when year after year went by without any ill-gotten gains appearing, folks pegged them as reclusive back-to-nature types that simply wanted to be left alone.

  Odd… But then again, odd was not illegal.

  The Mackenzies were always nice and polite to Sherriff Brown, and he admired their tenacity. He looked around at the tidy little cabin with its neatly stacked woodpile and wire enclosed chicken coop. It was a damn shame.

  He’d just seen David and Jenny for the last time, and he squirmed, because now he had to break the news to the kid. He heaved a deep sigh, wishing he had a cigarette. A movement caught his eye, and he looked up to see the girl rushing up the long gravel path, her golden hair reflecting the last long rays of the sun despite the advancing gloom. Even hidden under baggy clothes that looked like they’d be more suited to her father, he could still see the beautiful young woman she’d grown into.

  He watched her sadly, wondering. Where did all the time go?

  When she looked up to meet his eyes she froze, and the bag that she carried slipped off her shoulder and fell to the ground with a dull thud.

  ~

  Chapter Two – ORPHANED

  ~

  “Are you sure it’s the right thing to do?” Mrs. Brown fretted.

  “She doesn’t know anyone around here… She should be with a relative.”

  “But she’s never even met the woman.”

  He cleared his throat, “It’s her only family.”

  “It’s not right, the way they raised that child,” she huffed. “You should have done something about it sooner.”

  “Like what?” he asked. “Take her from her parents? They may have been a little different, but they loved that girl…” His voice was drowned out by the low hum of a furnace turning on, yet another alien sound to Cal’s ears.

  She lay suffocating in a midnight blue pool of grief, listening numbly from the guestroom bed as Sherriff Brown and his wife discussed her fate in the next room. The past few days had gone by in a blur, and the crushing pain in her chest still made her feel as though she could scarcely breathe.

  Her parents had been on their way home from the farmer’s market when their motorbike suddenly swerved right into the path of a logging truck. They were killed instantly. The driver was beside himself, but there wasn’t anything he could have done to avoid it. Cal suspected that a flashback had caused them to lose control, blaming herself for not doing something to forestall it. She remembered the eerie feeling she had gotten from her mother that fateful morning.

  The good people of the town had pitched in for the burial, laying her parents to rest side by side in the local cemetery. Cal stood in shock, watching the last few shovelfuls of dirt cover the only two people in the world who loved her. A few strangers stood by silently, surrounding her with clouds of pale blue sympathy laced with lemon curiosity.

  Sherriff Brown had done a little research at the county courthouse, hunting for any information about next of kin. He finally came across a yellowing antiquity of a deed, and discovered that after being orphaned himself, David Mackenzie had been adopted, and had a sister who was living to the south of them in Santa Rosa.

  Cal wouldn’t be eighteen for a few months, so the aunt had grudgingly agreed to be her guardian until that time, whereupon David’s land would officially go to the girl.

  Arrangements had been made for Cal to move into her aunt’s condo. The chickens were taken to a local rancher, and the little cabin was boarded up. She watched it all happen in a daze, swept away before she even had a chance to say goodbye to Jesse. She wondered if he would notice when she stopped making her random visits.

  Carrying a bag with some clothes and a few treasured books, Cal boarded a smelly bus to the big city. She looked out the window, silently saying goodbye to the only home she’d ever known. I promise I’ll be back, she thought, wishing she could see her parents one last time.

  Sherriff Brown and his wife watched the bus pull out of the station.

  Mrs. Brown turned to her husband, “My goodness… those eyes of hers,”

  “I know,” he replied, waving goodbye to the sad, beautiful face in the window. “God bless her.”

  The bus ride lasted for three shocking hours that exposed Cal to more different kinds of cars and scenery than she’d seen in her entire life. Colorful billboards with scantily clad women advertised casinos, and some sections of the road were peppered with discarded cans and bottles.

  Everyone on the bus seemed to go to great lengths to be disconnected from one another. They all wore plugs in their ears, and stared int
o the tiny screens of electronic devices that had them completely absorbed.

  Cal was overwhelmed by the colors coming from the other passengers, people of more different shapes and sizes than she’d ever imagined existed. She was surprised by how many of them seemed to be in real distress; just as she had feared, the outside world was proving to be a frightening place. Cal was beginning to feel very small and insignificant when the bus finally pulled into the station.

  There was no one there to meet her and she was frightened, pacing around the bus terminal anxiously. She must have looked lost, because she instantly attracted the attention of a man who offered to help, asking if she needed something to eat, or a place to stay. When she looked into his eyes she recoiled in shock, because his kind voice and offer was completely incongruous with his predatory greenish yellow aura.

  “No… No thank you,” she told the deceitful man, backing away. She bent to check the hunting knife she wore strapped to her ankle, shouldered her bag, and left the station to wait outside. Her parents were right; the world was clearly very dangerous, full of predators of the human type. She was coiled with tension, and ready to fight.

  She found a bench out front and settled down, holding her bag protectively across her lap. Her baggy clothes and worn out sneakers helped her to fit right in with the homeless population of the bus station, and thankfully, no-one tried to talk to her again. She pulled a baseball cap down low on her forehead and pulled out a book, pretending to read with her head down.

  A motorcycle pulled up to the curb, and two dark haired young men climbed off. She squeezed her eyes shut. The sound reminded her of her parents, and her eyes burned as she fought back tears.

  She was afraid that if she allowed herself to start crying again, she might not ever be able to stop.

  “Thanks for the ride, bro,” she heard one of them say. “I’ll call you when I get to town.”

  “Just hurry back… alright?”

  “When are you gonna come along with me? What should I tell him?”

  “I have nothing to say to him.”

  She heard a heavy sigh, “Hey Cal…. Take good care of Rufus, okay?”

  Her eyes snapped open at the sound of her name.

  “Sure thing,” the other man answered, flashing a wide grin. The two shook hands, leaning in for a one armed hug with a few backslaps. One of them headed towards the bus station, turning back to call out, “Take care, little bro.”

  She watched the one named Cal as he sauntered back to his bike. It was a bigger, more powerful looking motorcycle than her father’s; she’d never seen one that looked like it before. She tried not to stare, but she’d never seen anyone who looked like him before either.

  He was tall, taller than her father, clad in dirty blue jeans and a black leather jacket that fit snug across his broad shoulders. His hair was dark, like his eyes, which were fringed with black lashes that made them stand out even from a distance. She’d never seen a really good-looking man before, and she watched him, fascinated.

  He walked with a confident swagger that belied the anxious chartreuse color he was radiating. Like everyone else at the bus station, he was troubled. He reached into his pocket for a pair of mirrored sunglasses, slipping them on to hide his arresting eyes. She watched him straddle the bike gracefully, without putting on a helmet. He revved the engine and sped away, going much too fast.

  Beautiful idiot, she thought.

  A small economy car pulled up in front of the station and stopped with a screech. Cal looked up to see a woman with short brown hair checking her face in the rear-view mirror. She wore a black vest over a white shirt, and she climbed out and smoothed her skirt, looking flustered in a tangerine sort of way.

  She scanned the crowd in front of the bus station, and when their eyes finally met she hurried over, asking, “Are you David’s kid?”

  Cal nodded, thinking that the woman looked younger than she’d imagined. She stood up and held out her hand politely, “I’m Cal.”

  “Sorry I’m late– I just got off work. You can call me Angie. You sure have his hair, don’t you?” she pumped Cal’s hand, smiling apologetically, “Nice to meet you.”

  “It’s nice to meet you too,” Cal said politely, “Thank you for letting me stay with you.”

  “Well… I’m double-parked… So let’s get going. Is that all of your stuff?” She looked at the battered green duffel bag suspiciously.

  Cal nodded, slinging the bag over her shoulder and following along behind her. They drove off in an uncomfortable silence. She could tell that Angie was uncertain; yellow with curiosity, but far from happy about the situation she found herself in. People couldn’t help the colors they gave off, making Cal a walking lie detector.

  “I was sure surprised to hear about David,” Angie finally said. “We were adopted at the same time, but I was only a baby and David was nearly six years old. I suppose he never really felt like part of the family, because he changed his name back when he was a teenager.”

  Cal was surprised, because her father never spoke of his childhood at all.

  “When our parents divorced we just kinda drifted away from each other. He got himself a scholarship and I stayed with my mom until she passed. Last I heard he went missing from college. Some professor even came around looking for him… Way back when I was in high school. To tell you the truth, when I didn’t hear from him, I just assumed he was already dead or something.”

  Cal looked down, wincing. The car came to a stop at the light and Angie frowned, turning to face her passenger.

  “Didn’t he ever mention that he had a sister?”

  Cal shook her head no, blinking back tears, “Sorry.”

  Angie’s voice softened, “I’m sorry too.” She patted Cal’s knee, “I know how it is to lose your parents when you’re still young.”

  They drove through a bigger city than Cal had ever seen, passing through vast suburban neighborhoods with row upon row of matching houses. Angie pointed out the low buildings and sports fields of the area’s high school, and they looked mammoth to Cal’s inexperienced eyes.

  “This is where you’ll be going to school. There’s a couple months left, and you might as well get into the routine. You might even need to go to summer school if you’re not up to speed. You’re a junior this year? Right?”

  “I guess so,” Cal replied nervously.

  Her aunt started chattering about the restaurant she waited tables at, explaining that she’d been called in unexpectedly to cater a luncheon. “That’s why I was late,” she explained, “I’ve been picking up extra shifts and it seems like I’m working all the time these days.”

  They pulled up in front of a modern looking condominium complex.

  “This is the place,” Angie said, climbing out and leading Cal down a cement walkway. They stopped at a door decorated with a wreath of plastic eggs, and Angie fumbled for a key to open it.

  When they stepped inside Cal looked around, surprised by the house and its furnishings. The Sherriff’s place had impressed her with the sheer amount of things in it, but her aunt’s home was even more shocking to her. Everything looked so new and store-bought, and in such abundance. It stood in sharp contrast to the homespun furniture and random items that her parents had haphazardly accumulated in the past seventeen years.

  Cal peered up the carpeted stairs that led to the second floor to see a man standing at the top, looking down at her. He was tall and wide, with a balding head and a neatly trimmed beard.

  “Phil!” Angie called up to him, “Come down and meet my niece.”

  The man didn’t even try to hide the celery-green annoyance he was radiating as he descended. He was clearly not happy to see her.

  Angie took his arm proudly, “Cal, this is my partner Phil.”

  Cal nodded politely, “It’s nice to meet you…What kind of business are you two in?”

  They looked at each other and laughed, confusing her.

  “He’s my boyfriend,” Angie said, “He just mo
ved in with me too.”

  Cal’s cheeks flushed pink, “Oh… Pardon me.”

  “Come on,” Angie laughed again, climbing the stairs, “I’ll show you your room.”

  She was taken to a room stuffed with boxes, with an inflatable mattress tucked in the corner. She’d never been in an upstairs room before, and she looked out the window to see the identical buildings of the complex repeated in a row, like an M.C. Escher drawing she’d seen in one of her art books.

  “Sorry about the mess. Phil says he’ll get his stuff moved out of here as soon as he can.”

  Cal set her duffel bag down, flipping the switch that turned the overhead light on and off with a smile. Now she could read anytime she wanted to. “It’s fine.”

  That night she stayed awake a long time, re-reading a childhood favorite until she could barely keep her eyes open. She got up silently to get a drink of water from the bathroom down the hall. It shared a wall with her aunt’s bedroom, and she could hear Phil and Angie’s voices echoing through the heater vent as clearly as if she was in the room with them.

  Phil was complaining, “I still can’t believe I have to give up my office space. I should have kept my own place.”

  “Don’t say that,” Angie replied. “It’ll only be until she turns eighteen. I’m sure we’ll figure out something to do with her by then.”

  “When’s that?”

  “In October.”

  He groaned, “When I agreed to move in I thought it would just be the two of us.”

  “I know, I know. But what was I supposed to say? I’m her only family.”

  “Yeah, well… as long as she doesn’t try and drag a bunch of punk teenagers over here at all hours.”

  She could hear Angie laugh at the thought, “I seriously doubt it… She seems pretty shy. Apparently my brother and his wife were some kind of weird hermits or something.”