by Sybil Nelson
Mom and Dad sent me to my room and fussed over me like I was dying.
“I knew it,” my dad said, pacing my room with his crutches while Mom stuck a needle in my arm. “They probably poisoned her or something while she was in that place. We need to get her to a doctor and get her a full physical.”
“You know we can’t do that, Greg. Even a first-year med student would see her blood isn’t normal,” Mom said, looking at the tube of blood she’d just collected. I wondered if she could see the little microscopic mutations in me with her naked eye. Then she levitated the tube to my father. “Run some tests on it, honey. Put that Biochemistry degree you have to good use. If something’s really wrong—”
“If something’s really wrong, we are out of here, Quin. I mean it. New house, new state, new names, everything. I can’t believe I let you talk me into staying here in the first place. What if they come back for her?”
Dad’s face turned red. He was really angry about this. I had no idea he’d wanted to move away and Mom talked him out of it. Whatever she’d said to him, I’m glad it worked. I didn’t want to leave River’s Bend. I couldn’t leave my best friends.
Mom and Dad stared at each other in a silent stalemate. I felt I needed to lighten the mood.
“Britney!” I yelled.
“What?” they said in unison, turning their attention to me.
“Yeah, Britney. If Dad is handing out new names, I wanna be Britney. It’s about time someone brought some honor back to that name after what the Spears girl did to it.”
My mother actually grinned at my little joke. My dad rolled his eyes and headed for the door.
***
Josh was still acting weird. He locked himself in his room for three days, even missing school and football practice. The only clue I had he was even still alive was that every few hours his soundtrack of depressing white boy music changed. If I had to listen to one more Elliott Smith album, I was going to scream.
After a couple of hours of lying in my bed, I heard a light tapping on the door. Josh entered the room quietly. He stepped in and closed the door behind him, the whole time not making eye contact with me.
“Are you feeling better?” he asked, still not looking at me. He crossed his arms and stared out of my window.
“I’m fine, Josh. It’s just a bug or something. It’ll pass.” I felt weird reassuring him that I was fine. He normally didn’t worry about my health. We left the worrying to Dad; he was paranoid enough for all of us.
I rolled over on the bed and stared at my brother more closely. He looked really small and really pale, and I thought I saw his lip trembling, like he was going to cry or something. What the heck is the matter with him? “Josh, are you okay?”
“I’ve known you all your life. I was there the day you were born. Twelve years. In twelve years, you’ve never had so much as a cold.”
I opened my mouth to protest, but then I thought about it. He was right. I had never been sick, ever. Then suddenly I come home from school and I can’t walk straight. It was kind of weird. “Well, that’s no big deal. I mean, there’s a first time for everything, right?”
Josh sat on my window seat and put his head in his hands.
“Okay, you’re really scaring me, Josh. What’s going on?” I asked, leaning up on one elbow. I was too weak to sit all the way up.
He sighed and looked at me before saying, “The thing is, I can see things.”
I rolled my eyes and flopped back on the bed. “Well, you have eyes. I should hope you can see things.”
“Don’t be a pain, Priss. I’m serious here.” Josh jumped up and kicked a basketball and a baseball glove that littered the floor of my messy room.
“Okay, fine. What can you see?” I said, trying to hide my sarcasm.
“The future.”
Two months ago I would have busted out laughing at something so ridiculous. But that was before I started shooting fire out of my fingers. For all I knew, he could really see the future. That wouldn’t be the strangest ability of a Sumner. I mean, my mother had gotten in the habit of using her telekinesis to cook dinner. It was pretty freaky to walk in the kitchen and see salt levitating in midair over a pot while my mother sat at the breakfast table flipping through a Modern Science magazine.
So instead of calling him crazy or something, I just said, “How do you know?”
“At first it was just little things,” he said, sitting back down at the window seat and staring at his untied Chuck Taylors. “I would be able to predict what Dad was making for dinner or that the twins would break a lamp in the living room.”
“Anyone could predict that.”
“But then things started getting bigger. Like I had a vision that Stefanie would cheat on me, and she did.”
I wanted to say that Stefanie was a skank and anyone could have predicted that as well, but I didn’t want to hurt his feelings. I knew he still kinda loved her.
“I also had a vision that you and mom weren’t exactly human, and that turned out to be true too.”
I rested my head on the pillow and thought about this for a second. I guess Josh did have super powers like me and mom. But I didn’t understand why he was so upset about it.
Looking at him, I said, “Well, so what? You can see the future. You should be happy. It’s more useful than shooting fire out of your fingers. Go buy yourself a lottery ticket and stop complaining.”
Josh rolled his eyes. “I knew I couldn’t talk to you about this.” He stood and headed toward the door.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. No more sarcasm. Promise.” I held up my hands in surrender and waited for him to sit down again before saying, “But seriously, if you knew Stefanie was going to cheat on you, why were you so determined to give her a promise ring?”
“I tried to change the future. I tried to make it not come true.”
“Why?”
Josh shut his eyes tightly. After taking a deep breath, he said, “Because if everything I see comes true, it means you’re going to die.”
Chapter 20: Sick of Love
“Die? I’m gonna die? Like dead die? Like game over, no extra player, no reset button?”
Josh nodded.
“Whoa.” I couldn’t think of anything else to say. We sat in silence for a few minutes while I let the information sink in. I wanted to believe Josh was wrong and that somehow he had made a mistake. But looking at him, I knew he was sure even though he didn’t want to be. By the expression on his face, I knew it hurt him to have to tell me this.
“Do you know when? Do you know how? Maybe we can stop it from happening.”
He sighed. “Yeah. I know how. You—”
Josh was interrupted by a knock on the door.
“Priss, it’s me,” came my mother’s voice.
He gave me a panicked look. I knew he didn’t want me to tell mom about his ability to see the future. He wasn’t ready. I went through the same thing when I discovered my powers. It takes some getting used to. Plus, he probably didn’t want to bring up the whole “me dying” thing. Mom might be able to handle it. She would sit down and try to think of a logical way to overcome it. Dad, on the other hand, would go into super-overprotective mode. He would probably take me to the hospital and force every vaccine known to man on me. Then he’d stand outside my door with a gun, day and night, ready to take out any possible threat to my life.
“Priss, can I come in?” What a refreshing question considering Dad often busted down my door if I didn’t open it fast enough. He was always afraid I was in some sort of danger. I guess, in a way, he was right.
After a quick glance at Josh to make sure he was ready, I said, “Come in, Mom.” I could tell Josh was trying to calm his nerves and clear his head. I tried to do the same although I probably wasn’t as good at it as Josh. I had to remember to ask him how he kept mom from reading his thoughts all the time.
My mom opened the door and stepped inside. Two pitchers of water hovered in front of her, held in place by her teleki
nesis. Totally creepy, yet kinda cool.
“Can I talk to your sister for a moment?” she asked Josh. He nodded and then bolted out of the room as if afraid his presence alone would reveal his secret.
“Okay, what’s his name?” my mom asked once Josh was gone.
“Whose name?”
“The boy.”
“What boy? Josh? Your son, Josh?”
“No, not Josh. I know my own child’s name. I mean the boy. Your boyfriend.”
“Boyfriend? He’s not my—” Just then, a heat rose in me and swirled through my body. Before I could think to stop it, flames shot out of my fingers, setting my sheets on fire. I jumped out of bed and clasped my hands together. Flames spread across my bed, eating my favorite Wonder Woman sheets. Snap! Just when I thought I was getting the hang of this “finger shooting fire” thing, I go and set my bedroom on fire. I really wished these powers came with a guide book.
My mother calmly took one of the floating pitchers and poured it over the flames. Out of immediate danger, I fell to my knees and then lay down on the floor, too weak and tired to keep standing. I suddenly had the urge to vomit.
“Just as I thought. Priss, you’re not sick. You’re in love.”
“Excuse me? I’m in love?”
“Love is a very strong emotion and it affects each person differently. For people like us, it can be downright dangerous.”
“Well, if this is what love does to me, you better bring a coffin to my wedding.”
“When I fell in love with your father,” my mother continued, ignoring my sarcasm, “I put him in a coma for two weeks. And that was even though I’d had a lifetime of training with my powers. You’ve only known about your abilities for a little over a month. If you’re not careful, you could kill him.”
“Kill him?”
My mother picked up a t-shirt off the floor, sniffed it, convulsed a little, and then tossed it in my dirty clothes hamper. “Look at what you did to your bed just thinking about him. Can you imagine what would happen if you kissed him? And don’t even think about sex. You have to pass a written test before you’re ready for reproduction activity.”
“Whoa, wait, what? A test?”
“Yes, to make sure you understand your body well enough. I created an educational video about hormone progression and its interaction with our specific genetic mutation. After you watch it, I want you to take a test to make sure you understand the implications.”
I stared at her in disbelief. I didn’t even want to imagine what this video was like. It was probably more embarrassing than the video they made us watch in sixth grade after separating the boys and the girls. The one with the corny folk music and the images of flowers blooming.
“There’s no way I’m watching that video.” I rolled over on the floor, turning my back to her.
“Sorry, Priss, you have to. For people with our genetic mutation, it’s an absolute necessity that we understand our bodies.”
“This is so unfair, so freaking unfair. What about Josh? He didn’t have to watch it.”
“Josh doesn’t have powers.” My mother went back to sniffing my floor clothes.
Hmph. That’s what you think.
“What did you say?”
Having a telepathic mother really sucks. There’s no such thing as private thoughts.
“Mom! I didn’t say anything. I thought it. That’s so unfair, Mom. You can’t go reading my mind all the time. A girl needs privacy.”
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. You’re right. I should stop that.” She sat down at my window seat, continuing to clean my room with her telekinesis. I could feel her retreating from my mind, but I still didn’t want what I knew about Josh to slip. I had to figure out some way to get her out of my head. So, I did the only thing I could think of. I set my curtains on fire.
“Whoa, Priscilla, you’ve really got it bad for this boy, don’t you?” she said, emptying the other pitcher on my curtains. “I better go upload the video onto the family computer.”
“Oh no, Mom. Not gonna happen. I don’t need a sex video. I have no interest in having sex, and since I only have my powers for one week a month, I think I can avoid the whole boy-killing thing. I just won’t go near him during that time.”
“One week a month? Who said you only have your powers one week a month?”
I gathered my strength and sat up to look her directly in the eye. “I just assumed the only time I can shoot fire is when I’m … you know, hormonal or something, like when I’m on or near my period.”
My mother laughed so hard I thought I saw tears form in her eyes. “Priss, you’re adorable.” She shook her head and sighed, trying to get control over herself. “Honey, you have your powers all the time. They’re a part of you.” She stood up and headed for the door. “You have so much to learn.
“On your period,” she said to herself before another fit of laughter.
Chapter 21: Freaks Like Us
My mom gave me some meditation techniques to control my “love episodes” as she so annoyingly nicknamed them. She said there was a drug she could inject in me to neutralize my hormones, but she wanted to leave that only for an emergency situation. After being medicated for so much of her life, she didn’t want me to go through the same. She said I would have to learn to deal with the changes in my body naturally.
Once I got myself together, I had to go see Tai. I’d already told her about everything that happened at Selliwood. I knew it should have been a family secret or something, but Tai was family to me. There was no way I could keep it from her.
“You will not believe what my mother just told me,” I said, bursting into her bedroom.
“What?” She closed her thick, brown, boring book and whipped off her glasses.
“She said if I don’t learn to control my powers I could kill Kyle!”
“Holy hot dogs!”
“Yeah, fry him like a French fry.” I flopped onto her perfectly neat bed with the sunflower sheets. Gosh, why was her room always so clean?
“Well that’ll be pretty inconvenient when he tries to kiss you at the River Day Dance on Saturday.”
“Whoa, wait, what?” I said, sitting up.
“It’s all over school. Kyle plans on kissing you after the River Day Dance.”
“All over school? Kissing?”
“I think it’s kind of sweet. I mean, yes, it’s a little weird that you and Kyle … like each other or whatever. But when you think about, it’s really sweet. You two have known each other your whole lives.”
“Wait a minute. Let’s back up a little. Kissing? Why haven’t I heard about this?”
Tai shrugged. “I have no idea. I thought you knew.”
“Oh, this day just gets better and better. First my brother tells me I’m going to die, then my mother tells me I’m going to kill Kyle, then you tell me one of the two is going to happen this Saturday.” I paced Tai’s room and chewed on my nonexistent fingernails.
“Josh thinks you’re going to die?”
I quickly explained Josh’s powers and how he saw a vision of my death.
“That’s really scary, Priss. I think you should tell your mom. She’ll know what to do.”
“I can’t. Josh isn’t ready. I don’t want to break his trust.”
“How in the world does your mother not know about his powers already?”
I shrugged. “Some secret psychic thing, I guess. It’s probably the same way my mom is able to block my super hearing so I can’t eavesdrop on her conversations.”
“Well maybe you should talk to him again. Get exact details or something. Maybe we can still change the future somehow.”
I sat back down on her bed and thought about that for a moment. It was a good plan. If I knew how I was supposed to die, maybe I could avoid that situation.
“Great idea, Tai. You’re a genius.” I gave her a quick hug and then headed back down the street to my house.
***
“Josh, is it possible you’re wrong?” I asked,
leaning on his door frame and staring into his football-obsessed room. Pittsburgh Steelers posters covered his walls. He had a weight bench in the corner of his room in front of a mirror to help him get closer to his dream of becoming a professional quarterback. I could imagine him working out for hours and then staring at his muscles, probably while listening to “Fighter” by Christina Aguilera. But then I looked a little closer at the weight bench. It was brand-new except for some dust and cobwebs covering it. “Oh my goodness. You’ve never used this weight bench, have you?”
