Catalyst Part I

by L D Strawser

  “Would you like the beer now or with your food?”

  “We’ll take the beer now, thank you.”

  “I’ll be right back with that pitcher. Did you want Coors, Bud or Miller?”

  “Bud thanks,” he winked again and confirmed that I still had whatever it is guys are looking for even after all these years. It was nice to get a boost to the old ego, not that I needed it, but it was nice just the same. I was too old and set in my ways to bother with getting married, at least for the reasons most people get married; settle down, have kids, grow old together, play with the grandchildren, then die surrounded by loved ones. I was lucky my self esteem wasn’t worried about getting a date at my age let alone a wink and nod. Most men my age were either happily married, unhappily married and looking for a fling, or divorced and dating a twenty year old who didn’t know any better. Younger men seemed to think I was supposed to be this font of supreme sexual knowledge since I was ‘the older woman’ and older men were interesting but not usually interested in the same things I was interested in. That was the story of my relationship life, willing, but too late and a dollar short.

  As I drew the pitcher of beer from the tap I noticed that the woman was practically yelling at her companions. Ok, so the winking Don Juan was probably her boyfriend or husband and now she was pissed. There went that tip, oh well it’s not like I make a lot of money in tips in this place anyway. I pulled three frosted mugs from the freezer and put them and the pitcher of beer on the serving tray and headed out for their table. As I approached the two men were looking at me intently as if I were suddenly doing something that was mesmerizing to them. I set the tray down and started to walk away when the winking man caught my hand.

  “Hey!” I didn’t know what kind of waitress he thought I was but I sure as hell wasn’t that kind.

  “What do you think you are doing?” He pulled my hand over the table and turned it palm up. It appeared that I was going to get a palm reading whether I wanted one or not. The woman was looking intently into my eyes and the other man had his eyes closed now and was holding my other wrist.

  “Be quiet woman, you are in danger and we are trying to help you,” said the carnie woman in her strange accent.

  “Look, I don’t mind people helping me but they usually let me ask for help first. You all just started getting grabby and didn’t bother asking permission to do any grabbing.”

  “I said be quiet, we must concentrate,” as she said this she nodded to the man that had had his eyes closed and was holding my other arm by the wrist in a firm grip. Meanwhile, Mr. Palmreader seemed to be getting more and more agitated by my palm as if I were somehow offending him. He began talking in that foreign language the woman had been speaking in earlier. He kept tracing different lines on my palm over and over as if they shouldn’t be where they were, as if they were somehow not what he had expected to see.

  “Where are your brothers and sisters, your parents?” he asked. His voice was very quiet but there was power in it and an undeniable authority.

  “I don’t have any brothers or sisters and I only have my mother, why do you ask?”

  “What do you mean you don’t have brothers or sisters? You clearly have both and one of the sisters is your twin.” He said this with such confidence it was hard to try and argue with him about it, but I knew for a fact that I was an only child and my mother never married my father. I didn’t even know who my father was only that my mother said he was dead before I was old enough to ask such questions.

  “Look, I appreciate the free preview and all but I don’t have brothers and sisters and my mom said my dad died when I was little, ok?”

  “She is not your biological mother and you do have a twin sister, two other sisters, two brothers, and your biological mother and father are still alive and you need to find them quickly because all of you are in grave danger.”

  I tried to back away but the other man still had my wrist in his hand. He opened his eyes and looked at me with what I could only describe as awe. He was almost crying and he began speaking rapidly in their language to the other two. The woman kept nodding her head as if he were confirming everything she already knew.

  Who were these people and why would they say that about my mom? My mom moved here when I was born and everyone knew us, they knew her, she wouldn’t lie to me about something that important, I was certain of that. She had worked at the local health clinic for the past forty years or so. She would be retiring in a few years. She was the only reason I didn’t live in a cardboard box. I had tried to live on my own but I just couldn’t seem to do it and my mom welcomed me back with open arms and told me to just work when I could and when I couldn’t I could clean house for her if it made me feel better about it. The woman nodded her head at the man who was holding onto my wrist. He looked up at me and began to speak.

  “The one you think of as your mother has kept you safe and kept you hidden. The only reason we were able to detect you at all was because we were in close proximity. She has created a powerful shield around you but it only works against those who are trying to find you not against those who stumble across you by accident. I cannot tell what gifts you have because the shield obscures that aspect but if you are who I think you are, you and your real parents, your real sisters and brothers are in great danger and it is good that you are hidden. We must meet your mother and ask her to shield them as well for their own protection.” His eyes were still looking into mine and I was starting to get dizzy with information overload.

  “How do I know you guys aren’t the danger? What proof do you have of any of this? My mom wouldn’t lie to me and whatever shield you are talking about sounds like science fiction nonsense to me.”

  “Your mother moved here when you were born, no one here knows where you were born, no one here witnessed your birth, am I right?”

  “My mother moved here right after I was born because she was getting away from my dad, not that that is any of your business,” these people were totally insane, “and of course no one here witnessed my birth because I wasn’t born here.”

  “I realize that you think we are insane, but do you really want to take the chance that we are not telling you the truth and let not only your siblings and biological parents die but a good number of the people on this planet as well?” Mr. Palmreader, the woman, and wrist man were all looking at me intently. I could tell they were completely serious and really believed what they were saying. That just made it all the more frightening. What if they were telling the truth at least about the people of the world?

  “Look, let’s say you’re telling the truth,” I said to them, “I’m not just going to take you all back to my mom’s place and wait for her to get home, and then say to her, ‘oh by the way mom, these people say you have been lying to me all my life and you aren’t really my mom and you need to save my real families lives by doing for them what you have been doing for me to hide me’ that’s just crazy.”

  “Call her, she knows that eventually this would happen, she has been waiting for it.”

  “If I call her and tell her what you have said, will you leave me alone then?”

  “If you want us to leave you alone after that, then yes, we will leave you alone.”

  “Fine, I’ll call,” I said. If all it took was a phone call to get away from their collective insanity then I was all for it. I pulled my cell phone from my pocket and hit my mom’s number on speed dial. She picked up immediately.

  “Hey Sweetie, what do you need?”

  “Mom, I’m sorry to bother you at work,” I began, “but there are some people in the restaurant who seem to think I’m in danger and they want to talk to you.” I couldn’t bring myself to tell her that they were claiming she wasn’t my real mother.

  “What did they say exactly?”

  “Well they are saying that you shielded me and that you need to do it for some other people.” I was still reluctant to tell her everything that they had claimed.

  “What other peopl
e?”

  “My brothers, sisters, and parents,” I sighed.

  “I’ll be home in two hours, bring them to the house with you when you come home. Don’t tell anyone else where you are going and make sure you are not followed home. Tell them I said ‘we don’t have much time’ do you understand?”

  “Mom, what is going on? Do you know these people?” Now I was confused. My mother meant the world to me. If it weren’t for her I would probably be in an asylum or dead. She had never mentioned these people before but she was acting as though she knew exactly what they were talking about.

  “Honey, just trust me, I’ll explain everything to you in a couple of hours, ok?”

  “Uh, yeah, ok mom, I,” before I could say anything else she hung up on me.

  “Your mother wants to meet with us, yes?” This smug comment came from the woman who couldn’t seem to decide whether she feared me or hated me.

  “She said to tell you ‘we don’t have much time’ and that we should meet her at the house in two hours. She also said to make sure we’re not followed and that we tell no one where we are going.” I didn’t like that last bit because I was already in trouble with the boss and this would most likely be the last straw for him. I guess I would have to look for another job in today’s newspaper.

  “How long does it take to get to your house from here?”

  “Depending on traffic, anywhere from 20 to 35 minutes, why?” I didn’t like the looks that these three were exchanging amongst themselves. I was starting to get chills up and down my spine as if I were being watched.

  “We should leave now, you should go straight to your car, don’t talk to anyone, we will be waiting for you and we will follow you in our car,” said the one still holding my wrist. He finally loosened his grip but instead of letting go he slid his hand into mine and shook it.

  “My name is Aurel Moldovan. This is my sister Zaharia and my brother Dragos. We already know a lot about you with the exception of your name.”

  “I’m Daphne Manto and I’m very frightened right now.”

  “Why?”

  “Because, ever since I was little, I’ve had this thing—I can ‘feel’ when I am in immediate danger. Everything in me right now is telling me to run out the back door. My feeling is that I shouldn’t even get in my car. I don’t know how to explain it but I really have to go. I’ll see you at my mom’s house. She lives at 313 Cactus Avenue; it’s a light yellow stucco house with burgundy trim.” I stopped at my locker and grabbed my purse and bolted out the back door. Everyone was so busy that I made it outside without anyone noticing that I was leaving. Instead of getting in my car and driving home like I normally would I turned down the alley next to Johnny’s and started running. This feeling had never been this urgent before but it had never led me astray so I ran for all I was worth.

  Approaching the next street at a dead run I started to slow down a little and noticed one of my mom’s friends just getting into her car. Should I ask her for a ride so I could get home faster or not? My feeling told me to not even let her see me, so I slowed down enough to hide behind a trash bin and catch my breath. When she drove off I got up and walked to the sidewalk and waited. Just then coming around the corner were the Moldovan’s in their car. They stopped right in front of me with the door already open. I jumped in and we were on our way.

  “You have impressive instincts, have you always had this gift of knowing when you are in danger?” Dragos was looking at me with a crooked smile now. Aurel was driving and Zaharia was turned around looking at us from the front seat.

  “Yes. I just know when I’m in danger and it is like I can go over different ways to avoid it in my head and I’ll know what I need to do or where I need to go to be safe.” Aurel kept looking at me in the rearview mirror.

  “Did you think we were a danger to you?”

  “No, but I didn’t like what you were saying and I still don’t,” I still didn’t believe half of what they had said but my mom reacting the way she did had given me doubts.

  “How do you feel now?”

  “Well, we are headed away from the danger, whatever it was, and no one saw me leave or get in the car with you, so I’m feeling pretty good right now.” It was true, even if I didn’t want to admit it. I felt safe in their company and my feeling for danger had never led me wrong. We were at a stop light now. I had a sudden urge to get moving quickly. There was no traffic and no cops.

  “Run the light—run the light NOW!” Aurel stomped on the gas and ran the light. The next three lights were green so we didn’t have to stop.

  “Turn left up here,” I said. I didn’t know why but there was danger again and we needed to get as far from it as possible.

  “Are you getting that feeling again?” Dragos was holding my hand again. Aurel looked at his sister and nodded his head. Zaharia reached back and grabbed my other hand. Aurel put his arm up on the seat and Zaharia put my hand on his arm.

  “What are you doing?”

  “They need to touch you so we can see what is going on,” Zaharia said.

  “See what is going on? Do you mean if they are touching me they will know what exactly is happening even though I don’t?”

  “No. I will know exactly what is happening. They are my conduits. They each have skills of their own but my major gift uses other gifts to fill in the picture so to speak. I guess that what I do would be useless if others around me didn’t have gifts of their own.”

  “You’re kind of a living Medium; you use the living rather than having the dead talk through you?”

  “I’m not sure that is the right way to look at what I do but for now that’ll do. I need you to be quiet now so we can concentrate.”

  Zaharia focused her eyes on me and began speaking in her language to her brothers. Aurel was obviously driving based on her instructions. I started to recognize our surroundings but it wasn’t my mother’s house we were getting close to, it was where she worked. I knew that in another few minutes we would be pulling into the parking lot next to the health clinic my mom had worked for all these years.

  “Keep touching my brothers but be ready to open the door and scoot over,” Zaharia instructed.

  I did as she said because I could see that my mom was headed towards her car. We would just barely reach her before she made it to her car.

  “Mom, get in,” I commanded. She looked at the car in surprise but immediately jumped into the back seat beside me and closed the door.

  “The danger is getting closer to us again,” I exclaimed in panic, “hurry—go go! Get us the hell out of here!”

  Zaharia was yelling in her language at the same time I said this in English. My mom hugged me with tears in her eyes.

  “I’m so sorry,” she said, “I was hoping I would never have to tell you about your past but I guess I have had all the time with you that I’m going to get, so now I’ll explain everything, but please don’t be angry with me.”

  “You must establish a shield around all of us now or we will be detected,” Zaharia said.

  “Mom, what is going on, they said you aren’t my biological mother, is that true?”

  “The shield please,” Zaharia looked at my mother with desperation.

  “Yes,” she sighed in remorse, “we are shielded now. I’m Debra Mantos by the way,” my eyes stayed on my mother as introductions went around. It was obvious that she didn’t want to tell me whatever it was that she was hiding and when her eyes met mine she sighed again. “Daphne when you were born I was warned to hide you from your family and to claim that you had died. The doctor who delivered you and your sister passed that information on to your parents. You were the first to be born and you weren’t breathing. I took you out of the room and resuscitated you while the doctor was busy delivering your sister and then trying to keep your mother from bleeding to death.” I couldn’t believe I was hearing confirmation of this insane story from my mother who I thought would never lie to me. The woman who I had thought was my mother had apparently
been telling me nothing but lies my entire life.

  “The doctor told her she would not be able to get pregnant again but she not only got pregnant again she had two more girls and two boys, so you have three sisters and two brothers. I’m sorry you had to find out this way but you are very important and you had to be hidden and I was the only one with the power to hide you effectively.” Her eyes were pleading with me for understanding. I was completely shocked. I had thought these carnival people were just trying to pull some sort of scam but it appeared that they were telling the truth. I kept waiting for someone to say ‘Ha, fooled you! You are so gullible you’ll believe anything,’ but no one was saying that. It wasn’t a joke and no one was laughing.

  I was surrounded by people I didn’t know, I was surrounded by danger, and from the looks of things they were the only people I could trust even if they sounded crazy or had lied to me. Just an hour ago I was worried about getting fired from my job.

  “Please talk to me Firebrand,” mom said.

  “I don’t know what to say,” I replied with a frown. She called me Firebrand because of my temper as a child and now it was just embarrassing. I was in my forties after all.

  “Firebrand?” Dragos asked with a raised eyebrow.

  “As a child I had a hot temper,” I explained with patience. “I would get very angry and throw horrible tantrums if I didn’t get my way.”

  “It was my fault. I spoiled her because I knew I would never have any other children, so she was my baby and my only child.” Mom smiled up at me tentatively and I couldn’t help but smile back. It didn’t matter that she wasn’t my biological mother she loved me as I was—with all of my warts and faults. I don’t know how I could have considered anything she did as a betrayal when all she had ever done was for my own good.

  “It’s ok, I mean everything is ok, just explain to me what is going on so I can understand.” Everyone was still touching me one way or another and Zaharia was still spouting directions to Aurel. As we drove out of town towards safety, my mother told me who and what I really was and why I had to remain hidden.