The Athena Effect

by Anderson, Derrolyn

  She smiled confidently at Calvin, “Hey Cal, how’s it going?”

  “Good,” he nodded, reaching behind him and clamping onto Caledonia’s hand before she could back out the door. He pulled her closer to him, and short skirt girl’s eyebrows hitched up a little.

  Jarod stepped forward with a smile. He had a beer in his hand and a loopy grin on his handsome face. He saw Caledonia and lit up, “Hey everyone! This is the chick that saved Rufus’ life! You guys hungry? I’m ‘bout to grill some steaks…”

  Crystal jumped in, telling her friend, “Her name’s Cal too… Isn’t that cute?”

  “Adorable,” the blonde said, simmering a resentful olive green.

  “You can call us when it’s time,” Calvin said to Jarod, pulling Caledonia down the hall to his room. When she stepped inside it looked different. She could see he’d made the bed and tidied up the room; it occurred to her that he’d been planning to take her there. She looked at him suspiciously.

  “Have a seat,” he said, gesturing towards the bed.

  She stood there for a moment, finally perching uneasily on the edge.

  He felt awkward too; unaccustomed to being nervous around a girl. All at once he was at a loss for words. He sat down a safe distance from her.

  Caledonia was both blessed and cursed with the ability to see how people really felt, and she realized that this ability could spare her heartache as well as be the cause of it. She couldn’t be lulled into a false sense of security, she thought, because she could never be deceived. She remembered her parent’s deep, calm love for one another, and decided she would settle for nothing less. She tried to ignore all of the intense colors he was throwing her way.

  “Do you like steak?” he asked.

  “I don’t know. What kind?”

  He looked puzzled, “Just the regular kind I guess.”

  “I guess so,” she said, looking down at her hands. She could barely stand looking straight at him now, afraid of getting engulfed in his warm red glow.

  “So… What do you like to do? I mean, what kinds of stuff are you into?” he asked.

  “I like to read,” she said.

  They were quiet for a minute, and then they looked up at each other simultaneously.

  She smiled first, and before too long they were both laughing despite themselves. The colors around them lightened to a pretty pastel.

  “So, you never went anywhere your whole life?” he asked, falling backwards.

  “Yes,” she replied, looking down at him. “I mean… no.”

  “Is that why you’re so weird?” he smiled.

  “I guess so,” she lowered herself too, propping up on one elbow. “What’s your excuse?”

  They laughed again, and he crossed his arms behind his head.

  “What’s that for?” she asked him, pointing to the black tribal tattoo design that curved around his bicep and disappeared under his T-shirt. He pulled the sleeve up to reveal more of it, looking down at his shoulder.

  “I don’t know… I turned eighteen and we were drinking… I was at this tattoo parlor with Jarod, and he thought we should get one for our mom… We were looking at a bunch of pictures and I just thought it would look good …” his voice trailed off, and he looked up into her eyes, trying to gauge her reaction.

  She reached over and touched his arm with her index finger, tracing the designs.

  “Did it hurt?” she asked.

  He couldn’t talk for a few seconds, overwhelmed by the sensation of her finger trailing across his skin. He never wanted her to stop.

  “Yeah,” his voice was husky, “It did. But I kind of liked it… at the time.”

  “Because you were sad,” she said.

  He was stunned, marveling at the way she seemed to know everything about him. He finally nodded, his voice rough with emotion, “Yeah... I guess I was.”

  She sighed, “Life leaves marks on us.”

  There was a loud shriek that made them both sit bolt upright on the bed. Crystal came bursting through the door in a panic.

  “Help! Oh my God! Cal!” she screeched hysterically. “Jarod just cut himself real bad, but he won’t let anyone see! We gotta get him to the hospital!”

  Calvin jumped up and rushed down the hall with Crystal following him, crying and blubbering hysterically. Caledonia trailed behind, peeking around the corner of the hallway to find everyone gathered in the kitchen around a belligerently drunken Jarod. He was standing with a towel wrapped around his hand; a butcher knife lay discarded on the blood spattered counter.

  “Make him listen!” Crystal sobbed, “He needs a doctor.”

  “Shut up woman!” Jarod snapped at her, “I ain’t goin’ to no hospital!”

  “What happened?” Calvin asked, trying to get his brother to show him his hand. He took Jarod by the shoulders and steered him over to sit down at the card table. Jarod’s friends all backed away.

  “Uhm… I gotta be taking off man,” a burly looking biker said, clearly rattled at the sight of blood. Jarod’s friends started to mill about uncomfortably, and the crowd began to thin as one by one they slipped out the door.

  “Let’s party! Gimme another beer,” Jarod growled at his girlfriend. Crystal handed him a bottle and stood wringing her hands. The last few guests slunk out of the door, leaving three of them standing around watching Jarod drink defiantly.

  “How bad is it?” Calvin asked his brother, prompting Jarod to draw his hand back protectively.

  “S’nothing,” he said.

  Calvin didn’t know what to do, and stood there helplessly. Caledonia could see how scared he was, and her heart went out to him.

  She stepped forward, addressing Jarod, “May I see it?”

  He looked up at her with bleary eyes, taking a swig of his beer. She directed a strong, calming blast of blue his way and his shoulders slumped, “Okay.” Calvin watched in amazement as Jarod offered his hand submissively.

  Caledonia unwrapped the towel, wiping fresh blood from a long gash across his index finger. She inspected it carefully, bending the finger to check the tendons. She lifted his arm up over his head.

  “You need to elevate it above your heart,” she told him firmly. “It should stop bleeding in ten minutes or so.”

  Crystal came closer, but shied away from looking at the wound, asking Caledonia, “Is he gonna be okay?”

  “Yes, but it’s going to need a few sutures,” she replied.

  “Can you take him to the emergency room on your bike?” Crystal asked Calvin.

  “It’s fine. I’m not going anywhere,” Jarod dug in his heels.

  “But you need a doctor!” Crystal wailed.

  “I can sew it up if you want,” Caledonia offered.

  Calvin and Crystal just stared at her.

  “Do you have a needle and thread?” Caledonia asked, perching on the edge of the pool table and concentrating on wiping around the cut as the bleeding slowed.

  “Are you serious?” Calvin asked, “Have you ever done it before?”

  She looked up at him like it was the most obvious thing in the world, “Of course, lots of times. Sometimes my dad hurt himself chopping wood. I’m going to need some alcohol– Do you have any whiskey?”

  Crystal looked at her with wide eyes, “You need to be drunk first?”

  Caledonia burst out laughing, and Calvin couldn’t help but join in. Jarod started laughing too, and the last bit of fear wafted out of the room. Calvin shrugged, and went to gather the supplies.

  Caledonia turned to Crystal with an apologetic smile, explaining, “I only need it to clean the wound.”

  Calvin brought out a little sewing kit in a box shaped like a heart, plunking it down on the table alongside a fifth of Jack Daniels and a roll of paper towels.

  “This is going to sting, so don’t be a baby,” Caledonia told Jarod sternly. She looked directly into his eyes and sent him another tranquilizing blast of lavender blue just in case, watching him slump in his chair. She found Jarod as easy to ma
nipulate as an animal, and wondered if it was because he was drunk.

  She sterilized a needle and thread with the alcohol and cleaned the skin thoroughly, lining up the edges of the cut and putting in the first stitch. Jarod flinched when she pierced the skin the first time.

  “You’re doing great,” she said reassuringly, patting his wrist.

  Calvin winced, watching her work, “How did you learn to do that?”

  “My dad showed me,” she said. “I helped tie off the stitches on my arm. That took a whole lot longer than this will.”

  “Whoa… They did that at home…” Calvin said quietly.

  Caledonia’s scars bore testament to much, much, worse wounds than the one she was working on, and he had a hard time imagining her enduring such pain. It made his heart hurt to think about it.

  Jarod took one look at her arm and blanched, “Whoa! You’re a real badass.”

  She paused, looking to Calvin for a translation.

  “He means you’re tougher than you look,” he explained.

  “Oh,” she said, getting back to work, “Thanks… I guess. Do you have some antibiotic ointment to put on this when I’m done?”

  “No, but I can run to the store,” said Calvin. He got up to go, pausing at the threshold, “Wait for me, okay?”

  She nodded, “Okay.”

  There was an awkward silence when Calvin left, and Caledonia put in the last two stitches to the sounds of Crystal cleaning up the kitchen.

  “There.” She set his hand down on the table, “The thread can come out after about a week or so.”

  Jarod looked at the neat row of stitches, “Nice job.” He looked at the heart-shaped box, “That was my mom’s.”

  Caledonia cleaned off the needle and rewound the spool of thread, packing them away neatly and replacing the lid on the sewing kit. She set it down with care.

  Jarod scrutinized her, and seemed to have a rare moment of clarity, “Cal’s lucky he met you… We’re both lucky. You know, he’s a good guy. He could do a lot better than–” he gestured all around, “This.”

  “What do you mean by that?” Crystal chimed in, offended.

  He rolled his eyes at her, “I mean that Cal’s a smart kid. He could actually do something with his life… I suppose that I haven’t done a real good job of helping to bring him up… He took it real hard when dad got put away.”

  “Put away?” Caledonia was puzzled.

  “He didn’t tell you our old man’s in jail?”

  She shook her head no.

  “He’s in jail for killing their mom,” Crystal said, coming up behind Jarod and rubbing his shoulders. “Not on purpose though.”

  “It was an accident,” Jarod explained, “He was drinking and he fell asleep at the wheel.”

  “He killed like, three other people too,” Crystal added, “Hit ’em head on.”

  “That’s terrible,” Caledonia said quietly.

  Jarod sighed, “Yeah well, he’s doin’ the time for it. It’s been five years and Cal still won’t go visit him. Not even once. Pops feels real bad about it.”

  They all looked up when Calvin walked in the door. He handed a bag to Caledonia and she pulled out a tube and package of tape and bandages, lining them up on the table. Jarod held out his hand to her like an obedient child, and she set to work, applying ointment, carefully wrapping the wound and taping it up neatly.

  Calvin stood watching her with soft eyes, overwhelmed. He almost wished that he was the one with the cut, just so he could feel the gentleness of her touch once more. There were so many sides to her that she had his head spinning. She’d surprised him once again; first by knowing what to do, and then by taking firm control over his belligerent brother.

  Despite being deceptively fragile looking, she was proving to be stronger than anyone he’d ever met.

  He was falling further and further under her spell, and the way he felt about her was written all over his face. Crystal nudged Jarod, and when he looked up at his brother, even a drunk man could see it.

  “Do your best to keep it clean,” Caledonia told Jarod, handing him back his hand and getting up.

  “Thanks,” he said thoughtfully, “Looks like you saved the day again.”

  “You’re welcome.” She finally looked up to meet Calvin’s anxious eyes, “I should probably go home now.”

  “Why don’t you stay and have dinner with us?” Jarod asked.

  “Yeah!” said Crystal, “I can cook!” She ran to the kitchen and came back with two beers, thrusting them into Calvin’s hands, “You two go wait on the couch and I’ll put some garlic bread in the oven.” She nodded at Caledonia, “Kay?”

  Caledonia looked at the three of them watching her expectantly. It felt good to be wanted somewhere for a change, and she really didn’t want to go back to her aunt’s house anyway. She could see that they were all sincere, so she nodded back.

  “Okay, thanks.”

  She followed Calvin to the couch and sat, taking the beer he offered her. She sniffed it and took a little sip, wrinkling her nose and grimacing with distaste, “This is what all the fuss is about? It tastes awful!”

  Calvin didn’t know why he was surprised, “You’ve never had a beer before?”

  “No, but everyone keeps trying to get me to.”

  “Who’s everyone?” he asked, laughing at the disgusted look on her face.

  She stiffened up and looked down, unwilling to discuss it. He took the beer from her, “It’s okay… You don’t have to drink it.”

  He set both bottles aside on the end table; he didn’t really want his either. When he was with her he didn’t want to drink himself numb like he sometimes did. He was happy simply to be there, present in the moment. With her.

  He reached for the remote control, “Do you wanna see a movie or something?”

  “I don’t know,” she squirmed in her seat, uncomfortable. The last person who’d asked her that was Phil.

  “Don’t tell me you’ve never seen a movie before,” he grinned his crooked grin at her.

  She looked at him with sad eyes, hating the fact that she was so different.

  “Whoa,” he said, putting down the remote. “That puts a lot of pressure on me.”

  “Why?” she asked, worried.

  “Because I have to make sure your first movie is a really great one,” he smiled.

  “You don’t have to do anything,” she said, looking down at her hands in her lap.

  “Yes I do,” he replied, completely overwhelmed by the way she made him feel. He wanted to make everything perfect for her. He wanted her to be happy more than anything he’d ever wanted for himself.

  When she looked up into his dark eyes he was doing it again, casting the strongest, most intense shade of bright fuscia and red at her that she’d ever seen, rendering her speechless. She looked at his lips and wondered why he never tried to kiss her. He kissed all the other girls, so she could only assume he didn’t want her that way. She blushed and looked away.

  Calvin watched her in awe. He wanted to kiss her so much he could barely stand it, but there was nothing coy or flirtatious about her, and he found himself waiting for a signal that never came. She was so skittish he was afraid she’d run away if he made a move on her, and he was afraid to risk it, knowing how easily she could slip away from him.

  She looked back up at him and his breath caught in his throat. Just sitting alongside her made Calvin feel good, better than he’d ever felt before. Caledonia made him see the world through fresh eyes, and drop his jaded act. He wanted to be the first one to show her everything, and he wanted her sitting right next to him all the time.

  That would have to be enough for now.

  Caledonia studied his warm brown eyes and thought she could never feel cold looking into them. Their eyes were locked onto one another’s when Crystal peeked around the corner, “Hey Cal, Jarod wants to know how you like your steak done.”

  “He already knows,” Calvin answered in a strangled voice.

>   “Not you… her!”

  Calvin smiled at Caledonia, and the two of them burst into laughter once again.

  ~

  Chapter Eleven – CONFESSION

  ~

  Calvin walked her home after dinner, unable to convince her to stay and watch a movie. After a day filled with firsts, Caledonia was exhausted, and she knew that she risked falling asleep again if she stayed any longer. She remembered the ugly scene with her aunt in the morning, and she dreaded a repeat performance.

  He took hold of her hand as they walked, and she didn’t pull it back. He was encouraged, but he felt her tense up as they drew closer to her house, so as tempted as he was, he dared not try and kiss her goodnight.

  Frustrated, he watched her slip silently into the dark condo, waiting on the sidewalk until he saw a light flick on in an upstairs bedroom. He wandered back home slowly, images from the day flashing through his mind.

  He shook his head, remembering the no-nonsense way Caledonia had managed his drunken brother. He was doubly impressed by her lack of squeamishness in dealing with the bloody cut– he didn’t know anyone else who would have been so cool and collected. He remembered that both of her parents were practically doctors and figured that they must have been the same way.

  He tossed and turned that night, having a hard time falling asleep. When he finally nodded off, his dreams were filled with images of her; clinging to him on his bike, or lying on his bed with her hair spread out across his pillow. He vividly recalled her smile, her laugh, and her scent. When he woke up he missed her, closing his eyes and trying to worm his way back into his idyllic dreams.

  By the time he rolled out of bed he’d replayed every moment from the day before in his mind. He checked his phone and found dozens of texts piled up. He scrolled through the invitations, flirtatious messages, and raunchy come-ons; there were messages from everyone but the one person he truly wanted to hear from.

  He smelled coffee brewing, and when he headed for the kitchen he saw the bandages and sewing kit, still sitting on the card table. Everything he looked at screamed out her name, taunting him with her absence. He started making a mental list of the places he’d like to take her next, trying to imagine what might please her the most.