by Sharon Sant
Ellen’s phone bleeped. She took it from her jeans pocket and unlocked it. ‘Luca… he says he’s stuck helping his sister with her motorbike and will have to come later.’
‘Motorbike?’ Jacob laughed. ‘Which sister?’
‘Maria. You know what she’s like. Her latest boyfriend is into bikes so she’s decided to get one too. Trouble is, she’s picked up this completely rubbish second hand one so she’s getting everyone to help her fix it up.’
Jacob rolled his eyes. ‘I bet he’s loving that.’
Ellen smiled. ‘I know. But when Maria tells you to do something, you probably don’t argue with her.’
‘I hope her new boyfriend has a thick skin,’ Jacob agreed.
Phil interrupted them. ‘Is Maria the big one with the…’
‘Yes!’ Jacob and Ellen shouted together, laughing.
Phil smirked, the grin immediately fading as Maggie turned her disapproving gaze on him. ‘Just checking.’
Maggie looked back to Jacob. ‘Do you feel up to a bit of food?’
‘Oh, Mum.’ Jacob rubbed his belly. ‘I thought you’d never ask!’
She smiled approvingly. ‘I can bring you a bit of soup up?’
‘Actually, I think I’d rather come downstairs.’
‘You’ll be alright getting up so soon?’
Jacob nodded. ‘It’ll do me good to get up as soon as I can. I could do with a shower too.’
‘Are you sure you’ll manage on your own?’ Ellen asked doubtfully.
‘Are you offering to help?’ Jacob shot her a mischievous glance. Ellen blushed.
‘I think she means that I could, perhaps, assist…’ Phil interrupted with a wry smile.
Jacob grinned. ‘I’ll be fine, Dad.’
‘At least let me help you out of bed,’ Phil pressed, clearly still unconvinced that Jacob was quite as well as he was telling them.
Maggie left for the kitchen. Ellen moved the chairs out of the way as Phil put his arms around Jacob to help him to sit up straight. Jacob swung his legs over the edge of the bed, and Phil supported him into a shaky standing position. He was wobbly at first, but it was more in the way one might feel wobbly after a particularly long flight. Other than that he felt as strong as ever - better, in fact, than when he had returned from the exhausting and ultimately frustrating trip to California to find Alex.
‘You’re ok?’ Phil asked.
‘I’m more than ok. I can manage, honest.’
Phil looked doubtful. ‘I’ll come down the hall with you.’
Jacob bit back an exasperated sigh. He would have to indulge his parents’ overprotection for a while, he supposed. He threw Ellen a smile as she watched them negotiate the doorway together.
Glancing around the suddenly silent room, Ellen shivered, an unexpected melancholy stealing over her, and went downstairs to help Maggie.
Once he had persuaded his dad that he was capable and had showered, Jacob went to his own bedroom to fetch some clothes. It was remarkably tidy, considering what he had subjected it to, which was more than he could say for the spare room with its scorched walls and cracked plaster. He noted the absence of the lamp he had broken and that the window was still boarded, his parents not having the time to get a glazier in. Wandering over, he pulled the wood away from the opening and inspected it thoughtfully. He could create new glass, but it would take the right elements and a great deal of heat - it might be better to leave this one to more traditional methods of repair, he mused. He put the wood back up and rifled for some jeans and a sweatshirt in his drawers, pulling them on hurriedly before going to the spare room.
This room was easier to fix. The scorch marks could be erased by extracting the carbon, which he did easily, dissipating the molecules in the air. Next, he turned his attention to the window. The grindings of glass were still caught in the tape his dad had used to secure it. Jacob stroked his hand across the surface and the molecules began to reform, pulling together into a solid, transparent sheet again. He was about to go down and make his way outside to look at the exterior damage to the house when his dad appeared at the doorway.
‘You’ve been a while… we were worried.’
‘I’m fine, Dad, be there in a minute.’
Phil wandered over to the window and froze. ‘I know Ellen told us you could do things, but…’
‘Things aren’t always this simple to fix, though,’ Jacob replied, his tone with a new heaviness. Sometimes his power seemed pointless when there were such disastrous consequences of using it for anything that mattered to him.
Phil put a hand on his shoulder. ‘Sometimes, you seem so sad and we can’t understand why. It’s like you have the weight of the world on your shoulders.’
I do, Dad. Just not this one.
In the end, Jacob had been able to eat very little of the feast Maggie had enthusiastically prepared for him. There had been enough for them all and more besides.
‘I suppose I overdid it a bit,’ she said with a faint smile as she cleared away the leftovers.
‘It was lovely, Mum,’ Jacob reassured her, now curled up on the sofa with Ellen snuggled against him. ‘Best meal I’ve ever had.’
‘I still can’t believe how well you are so soon,’ Maggie noted approvingly.
‘I told you I would be. I’ve been waking up for some time, you just couldn’t see it.’
‘I’ll help you with that,’ Ellen said, noticing Maggie balance a pile of plates. She sat up but Maggie waved the offer away. ‘Stay there, I can manage.’
Despite her good intentions, Ellen didn’t need to be told twice and she settled back on the sofa in Jacob’s arms.
Maggie had just left the room when there was a knock at the front door.
‘I’ll go,’ Phil said.
Ellen twisted round to find Jacob grinning broadly. As his mum and dad had not yet told any one else in the family that Jacob was awake, it could only be one person. They heard his voice travel the hallway.
‘Hey, Mr L, what’s up? Does he need moving again because I think I just sprained something lifting Maria’s bike…’
As he turned into the sitting room he froze mid-sentence. His mouth fell open as he stared at Jacob.
‘Holy Mary…’ he breathed.
Jacob unfolded himself from the sofa and stood with a huge smile lighting his face. Luca mirrored it, and then grabbed his friend in a genuine hug, one that said all the things Luca felt about Jacob but would never speak out loud. Jacob returned it. Luca pulled away and clapped him on the back, quickly regaining his usual cool composure.
‘When did this happen?’ he asked, his face still incredulous.
‘Earlier today,’ Ellen cut in.
Luca turned to her. ‘Why didn’t you tell me?’
‘I couldn’t resist it; I wanted to see the look on your face.’
‘Well,’ he laughed, ‘I bet you got your money’s worth.’
‘You took your time getting here, though,’ Jacob said. ‘We’d almost given up on you coming today.’
Luca ran a hand through his uncharacteristically dishevelled hair. His clothes were rumpled and he had smudges of grease on his forearms. ‘I had a bit of trouble getting away.’
‘And how’s the bike coming along?’ Jacob asked. ‘I never had you down as a mechanic.’
‘I’m not,’ Luca pouted. ‘It’s just that nobody else is stupid enough to help her.’
Maggie returned from the kitchen drying her hands on a tea towel. ‘I thought I heard you,’ she said, smiling at Luca. ‘What do you think of our happy news?’
‘Amazing. And it means I don’t have to carry him around again.’
Jacob frowned. ‘Carry me around?’ he repeated. ‘When was this?’
Luca shot him a sideways glance. ‘How d’you think we got you into the spare room? Trust me, mate, it wasn’t your most dignified moment.’
Jacob cocked an eyebrow. ‘I’m sure it wasn’t.’
Luca’s gaze was drawn to the leftover food that still
littered the coffee table.
‘There’s plenty left if you want some,’ Maggie said, hovering before she cleared the rest away.
‘You read my mind, Mrs L.’ Luca grabbed a plate of chicken legs and took a seat across from Ellen on the sofa.
Jacob grinned and sat between them. ‘So…’ he began. ‘What have I missed?’
Ellen shot Luca an awkward glance. ‘Oh, not much.’
‘Mostly waiting for you to wake up…’ Luca added. ‘Not that the world revolves around you, but it was a pretty big event.’
‘Oh, but you have your news, Luca. About your volunteering.’
‘Yeah, I have flights booked to South America.’
‘South America? When?’ This news, while not completely unexpected, still took Jacob by surprise.
‘After Christmas. There’s a team of us, qualified doctors and students like me, all going over to do eye operations. It’s amazing what simple procedures can save someone’s sight, but in those countries they don’t have the money, so this English consultant set up the charity to do it for free. We go to Columbia first. Then wherever the programme gets sent to next.’
‘Sounds amazing,’ Jacob said, genuinely trying to sound pleased.
‘It will be, I hope.’
Jacob smiled. Of the three of them, he wondered whether Luca’s journey had actually been the most astonishing. Though he already felt the wrench of parting, how could he be anything other than happy about his friend’s opportunity? ‘I bet your mum will miss you.’
‘Probably. She’s already making up emergency food parcels for me in case they don’t feed me enough,’ he said through mouthfuls of chicken. Luca shot Jacob a sideways glance. With the issues of their trip to California still very much unfinished, it seemed there were things he wanted to ask Jacob, and that he was wondering how long he would have to wait. ‘Ellen sold a painting too,’ he said changing the subject.
‘I have sold them before,’ she replied with a tone of exasperation.
‘I know,’ Luca said, but this one is in the café at the boating lake.’
Jacob turned to put an arm around her. ‘That’s so cool. You’ll have to show me.’
‘As long as it doesn’t fall off the wall this time.’
Jacob twisted round to look at her. ‘It fell off the wall?’
She nodded. ‘I think that was you as well,’ she whispered playfully.
Jacob frowned. ‘I’m surprised you didn’t pack me off somewhere.’
‘Who would have you?’ Luca quipped, wagging a chicken bone at him.
‘I would,’ Ellen said lifting his hand to kiss it and nuzzling against him.
Silently, they shared the same thought: but for how much longer?
Sixteen: Hopes and Fears
It had gone three in the morning. Maggie and Phil had both fallen asleep in their armchairs. Despite Jacob’s assurances that he was fine, they had both refused to go to bed and leave him unsupervised. Jacob had spent so long in his unnatural sleep that he felt like he could stay up for a week; his eyes were still bright and alert as he conversed earnestly in hushed tones with Ellen and Luca. His friends, while not faring quite so well, had been determined to stay up with him. The topic of discussion was something they needed to air just between the three of them and they weren’t sure when their next opportunity would be.
‘I’m glad you didn’t tell Mum and Dad about Astrae,’ Jacob told Ellen.
‘I just thought it might be one unbelievable thing too far,’ she agreed. ‘And if you didn’t wake up…’ she paused, ‘then I suppose it would have been pointless telling them something that might have really messed with their heads.’
‘You think a lot of them, don’t you?’ Jacob gave her a fond smile.
‘They’ve been good to me.’
‘So, what about you going back home, then?’ Luca cut in. ‘You said you couldn’t hear your people now? Do you think you messed something up in your brain when you cured your dad?’
‘I don’t know,’ Jacob admitted, his mood turning pensive. ‘I ought to be able to detect something, but there’s absolutely nothing. It’s never been silent like this before.’
‘Do you reckon they all think you’re dead?’ Ellen asked.
Jacob shook his head forcefully. ‘No. They’d have all felt my passing… if you’d ever experienced something like that, you would never forget how it feels…’ his mind was pulled back to the day his Astraen father died, the absolute desolation that swept through his soul. Even now, he could still feel the remains of it. ‘But I wonder if they could sense my existence at all. It was a sort of limbo state; I couldn’t get through to them and, maybe because they couldn’t get through to me either, they have just stopped trying.’
Luca frowned. ‘Call me thick for suggesting this… but have you tried to call them since you woke up?’
‘Briefly. But it’s been difficult to focus with Mum and Dad making such a fuss and I didn’t want to give them any more reason to worry.’
‘You do look a bit freaky when you do that,’ Luca agreed. ‘Sort of gormless.’
‘Thanks,’ Jacob laughed softly. ‘But,’ he returned to his original thread, ‘they should have been able to sense my return to wakefulness and contacted me straight away. Normally they don’t leave me alone, even when I want them to. It just doesn’t add up.’
‘What about Alex?’ Ellen offered. ‘Has she tried to communicate?’
Jacob sighed. ‘No. I have a vague awareness of her consciousness but she’s veiling it; she doesn’t want me to get through to her either. And I don’t know what to do about it.’
‘Maybe,’ Ellen began slowly as the idea formed, ‘they’ve let you go.’
‘Let me go? You mean the Council?’
‘If they thought you were lost for good and then Makash took Alex to Astrae, as he had intended to do with you, would they make her Watcher? What if they gave up on you and did that and so that’s why there’s no contact?’
Jacob stared at her. Somewhere out of reach, that thought had hidden in a dusty room of his mind, but Ellen had opened the door and now it presented itself fully to him. It was an odd notion, one that gave him conflicting emotions. Ever since he had taken the role of Watcher, all he had wanted to do was get someone else to take his burden so that he could be free. But presented with it as a real possibility, it suddenly seemed less appealing. If he was honest, it felt like his people had abandoned him. And he still could not forget the promise he had made to Alex. He couldn’t leave her to a life with their uncle, no matter how much he might want to stay on Earth.
‘They wouldn’t do that; tradition won’t allow it and tradition is too important to them. Besides which, I can still do stuff. I mean, you saw me fix my wound earlier,’ Jacob insisted, his argument not even entirely convincing him.
‘It doesn’t mean to say that you lose every bit of your power,’ Ellen reasoned. ‘Just, maybe, they don’t need to stay in contact any more.’
‘But if I still have power I should be able to get through.’
‘Maybe it’s like having a walkie-talkie. If they don’t switch on at their end, they can’t hear you no matter how much you shout?’
Jacob shook his head. ‘It doesn’t work like that.’
‘So, what is going on then?’ Luca cut in.
Jacob shrugged. ‘I don’t know. But I feel like it’s bad.’
‘Maybe it could be good,’ Luca argued. ‘You might not have to go back…. ever. You might be free.’
Jacob took a moment to ponder this idea. He couldn’t allow himself the luxury of wanting it to be true, not even for a second.
Ellen laid her head on Jacob’s shoulder. ‘I wouldn’t complain.’
He circled an arm around her. ‘I wish I could say it would be a good thing, but I can’t. To stay is all I’ve ever wanted… but this isn’t the right way to go about it.’
‘I know,’ she said quietly. ‘But let me pretend, just for a bit.’
Luca let ou
t a huge yawn. ‘I’m sorry to break up the party, but I don’t think I can stay awake much longer.’
‘You could crash here,’ Jacob offered, ‘In the circumstances I don’t think Mum and Dad would mind.’
He looked at Jacob and Ellen nestled together. ‘Thanks mate, but I’ll go home.’ He pushed himself up from the sofa. ‘It’s not far anyway.’
They got up and followed him quietly to the front door. Luca turned to them. ‘I’d offer to walk you home, Ell, but…’ he gave them a bleary-eyed smirk, ‘I’m guessing you guys might have other ideas.’
Jacob turned to Ellen. ‘A few…’ he admitted, not taking his eyes from hers.
‘See you tomorrow… don’t expect me to be early, though.’ Luca gave an airy wave as he strolled out onto the silent street.
Jacob closed the door and leaned back against it, all the while his gaze still locked on Ellen.
‘Do you think we should wake them?’ Ellen asked, nodding her head in the direction of the sitting room where his parents still slept.
‘Not yet,’ Jacob said, taking her hand and leading her to the stairs. ‘First I want to show you some more of those things I can do.’
Ellen woke with a gasp, confused by her surroundings until she felt a warm arm gather her in.
‘What’s the matter?’ Jacob asked.
‘Nothing,’ she answered groggily. ‘A bad dream.’
‘Anything you want to share?’
She hesitated. ‘It’s fine… I’ve already forgotten it.’
He drew her closer and kissed her head.
‘Did I wake you?’ she asked.
‘I was already awake.’
‘Haven’t you slept at all?’
‘No.’
‘So… I’ve been asleep and you’ve just been lying here watching me? That’s not creepy at all,’ she laughed softly.
‘I’ve done enough sleeping to last me a lifetime. Besides, it was nice.’
She pushed herself up to sit. ‘I should get home. If your mum and dad find me here…’
‘…they won’t care,’ Jacob finished, sitting up and taking her face gently in his hands. She could just see his outline in the dim first light creeping in through the curtains. He planted a small kiss on her nose.
