Again, Grandpa gives my hand a squeeze.
“I’m glad to see you, too,” he says. “How’s Mae?”
“She’s doing well,” I say. “The bullet only grazed her arm. They’re monitoring her for all the water she inhaled just in case. We called her parents to let her know that she was alright. They’re going to meet us here as soon as they can get here.”
Grandpa smiles and nods.
“That’s good news.”
I look away from his smiling eyes. I can’t take the optimism. Here he is, lying in a hospital bed, and just a few weeks before he was living a secluded, peaceful life with my grandmother. Nobody would have bothered them. Nobody except myself and my mom probably knew they existed.
Then BAM. I get a suspension and end up saddled here. All this commotion started with me. I was the one who nearly drowned and found the Vestige. I was the one who had to go poking around at my father’s old office. I was the one who led The Drone - Billy Flagrant - back to my grandparents’s house.
Now I’m sitting in a hospital beside my bed-ridden grandfather.
This is the last place I expected to end up after my suspension.
I shake my head.
“This is all my fault,” I mutter.
“What do you mean?” asks Grandpa, and his brow furrows.
I take my hand away from his and run it through my hair.
“If I hadn’t been suspended from school in Boston, none of this would have happened,” I say.
Grandpa’s voice is stern when he replies.
“Don’t say that,” he says. “This is not your fault. I know it feels like it is, but this is not because of anything you did. This thing has been going on back before you were born. Your father dealt with it. I dealt with it.” He blinks. “Now, unfortunately, you are dealing with it.”
I grit my teeth for a moment, trying to get everything to make sense. A lot of it doesn’t make sense, and I know that’s because there are things that I’m not being told.
At last I look back to Grandpa, staring him in the eye.
“Why didn’t you tell me about the Vestige?” I ask.
If he was able to stand up, I can tell Grandpa would have taken a step back.
“What do you mean?” he replies. “Why didn’t I tell you that your father was hiding a supernatural medallion up in our attic that gave a person super powers? Would you have believed me if I did tell you that?”
There’s a pause while I think it over, then I let out a forced laugh.
“I guess not,” I say. “I probably would have told you that you were crazy.”
“Exactly,” says Grandpa with that look in his eye he gets when he tells a particularly colorful joke. “So, don’t you go and beat yourself up over this.”
I nod, feeling a little less stupid about the entire situation. But, I still have questions that need to be answered, so I press on.
“So, what else have you not been telling me?”
Grandpa goes to reply, but a nurse walks into the room and he is cut short. It would be pretty weird to be spilling family secrets, especially family secrets that involve superpowers, in front of a nurse. So, he waits while she checks on the machinery in the room. I nod politely at her as she double checks the tubes connected to Grandpa’s arm, and then she leaves us alone once more.
Grandpa swallows, obviously debating how much he should tell me, and then he continues.
“There is a lot to tell you,” he says. “More than I can say in the short amount of time we have here. And there are too many people to go into great detail, so most of it will have to wait for another time. Don’t hold it against me.”
I shake my head, and he goes on.
“But, our family has known about this medallion - the Vestige - for longer than any of us care to admit. The Vestige came to me first. I don’t even remember exactly how it did. I know that I was out of high school. I was courting your grandmother, and worried about planning a wedding - not to mention the rest of our lives - when I just stumbled across it. I was doing a logging job up north for the summer and I remember there was a bright flash of light that blinded me. I fell to the ground with this ringing in my ears and when I was able to see again, I spotted it. It was underneath a pile of rubble that I was moving. It was the oddest thing. I’m sure that it wasn’t there before the flash.”
He gets a far-away look in his eye, like he’s suddenly been transported to a different place and time.
“It was shiny. I was hoping it was money, or silver. But, it wasn’t either of those things. This…” He trails off and is silent for a moment. “This is something else. Something unexplainable.”
“Did you know what it did back then?” I ask.
“I didn’t find out for a while,” he answers. “It was a long time before anything came of it, mostly because I put it away in a drawer and never really wore it. That seems to be the trick. You have to be wearing the medallion somehow to get it to do its magic.”
“Magic!” I scoff. “I don’t think it’s magic. Magic is stuff that magicians do. Rabbits out of hats and all that stuff. That’s a fairy tale.”
When I look over at Grandpa I can see the seriousness in his face. It isn’t harsh, but it’s knowing.
“You doubt it even now,” he states more than asks. “Even when you’ve seen its supernatural qualities for yourself.”
I shrug.
“Some fans of Dad’s comics think it’s from another galaxy,” I say. This gets a skeptical look from Grandpa, and I sigh. “I’m just glad that this entire thing is over.”
“Is it?” asks Grandpa.
I think about it for a few moments.
“I really hope it is,” I reply.
There’s a dose of silence between us. Then I get slowly to my feet.
“I should go check on Mae,” I say. “She’s been alone for a while.”
“By all means.” There’s another dose of silence. Then Grandpa says, “So,” as I take my jacket off the arm of the chair and start to put it on. “What are you going to do now?”
I shrug into the jacket and zip it up halfway.
“I don’t know,” I say, trying to give it real thought. “To be completely honest, I want to run and hide. I mean, super powered people? What a ridiculous idea. We’re worried about people running around with guns, and now there can be people who are deadlier than an assault rifle.” I shake my head. “What I really want to do is hide this thing where someone will never find it.”
“But, that’s just it,” says Grandpa, sitting up despite the pain it causes him. He groans, his features screwed together for a moment, until at last he finds a comfortable position. “That’s the real kicker. Things like this will always be found. You can’t hide power. People are attracted to it like nothing else. Look at Bill. He was just an ordinary kid, down on his luck, when he stole some of the Vestige for himself and nearly drowned in that power.
“Even if you could hide it, what would be a safe spot?”
I blink. The question has caught me off guard.
“Well, I could hide it…” I start. But, the words die on my lips. Where would I hide such a powerful object?
Dad tried to hide it in the sleeve of his jacket, sewn into the lining. Even when the Vestige was in the middle of the northern woods of Maine my grandfather still found it. He had a point. Where would I hide something this powerful if both of them had been unable to keep it contained?
“There’s only one option if I can’t hide it,” I say. “I need to keep it with me at all times.”
This amuses Grandpa because he grins.
“You’re just like your father,” he says. “I swear he said those same exact words to me once. And believe me, he tried to use the Vestige. He had grand plans to become a hero for the people. But, then you came along and he knew that he had to make a choice. He could put himself in harm’s way, fighting for others. Or he could put the Vestige away and fight for you and your mother as a normal person.” Grandpa made a ta-da mot
ion with his hands. “As you can see, he chose the two of you. The Vestige didn’t have a part in his life. However, something tells me that it has a part in yours.”
I raise an eyebrow.
“How so?”
“It chose you,” Grandpa explains. “It chose to come to you when it could have stayed hidden up in that attic for who knows how many years. It’s up to you to choose how to use it now.”
I take the medallion off my neck and hold it in my hand, letting the light glitter on its surface. Even in the dim light it is bright and attractive.
How to use it?
I close my eyes and shake my head slightly.
“How do I choose what to do with it?” I ask. “The possibilities seem endless.”
“It’s simple when you boil it all down,” says Grandpa, gripping the sides of his bed. “The world we live in is selfish. Look at the news and you see that everyone is consumed by their greed. Everyone is looking out for themselves. They all want to be on top.” He points to the Vestige. “Now, you hold in your hand the ultimate power. People would kill for that. People are going to be envious of that if they find out about it. But, there are also people who will admire it. Others who give their lives for strangers because it’s what they are called to do. Not super heroes, but ordinary heroes. People pulling strangers from burning buildings. People stopping a robbery. These are people who give of themselves because it’s what they’re called to do. It’s what they know in their heart is the right thing to do.
“You can be like them. You can take the power of the Vestige and protect it, using it for good.” He looks down, taking a beat. “If you choose.”
I open my mouth to reply, but instead no words come out. Instead I look down at the Vestige in my hand and, for a split second, swear that I can see my father looking back out at me from the reflection.
A glint of light washes over the shiny silver surface and the reflection is just me once again.
Then my father’s voice rings in the back of my head.
Use it well…
I close my fingers around the Vestige.
“I know what I need to do now,” I say. “It’s not going to be easy, but if I don’t do it, who will?”
Grandpa leans back and closes his eyes as relief washes over him. I can’t let him rest that easily though.
“You need to train me, though,” I say.
Grandpa’s eyes snap open. He sees that my stare is locked on him, and he starts to laugh.
“Don’t you worry,” he says. “There will be plenty of time for that.”
35
Mae
Mae is wide awake when I walk into her room. She’s aiming the massive remote control at the television in the corner. She groans as she clicks through the channels.
“Can you believe that this place only has a handful of channels?” she says. “I think my choices are either Days of our Lives or The Price Is Right.”
I laugh and take a seat in the armchair beside her bed.
“You look like you’re recovering well,” I say. I motion to her bandaged arm and she glances at it.
“Oh, this?” she says. “It’s just a scratch. The doctor said I’ll be good to go home tomorrow.”
I let out a sigh.
“That’s a relief for me, and I’m sure, your parents.”
Mae makes a dismissive gesture.
“They overreact anyway. You know how they are.”
This doesn’t seem like an overreaction case, but I nod.
The mood becomes serious as I fold my hands together and lean forward.
“I’m sorry that you got dragged into this,” I say. I’m going to go on, but Mae cuts me off.
“Don’t act like this is all your fault,” she says. “I’m the one who wanted to tag along, remember? I saw that you could fly, and I saw what a mentally disturbed nutcase Bill Flagrant is. It was just a coincidence that he happened to ambush your house while I was there.”
“Still,” I say, not looking her in the eye. “I don’t like seeing you put in danger.”
Mae gives me a smile.
“I’m a pretty tough girl,” she says. “I can take care of myself. Though, fighting against super villains is kind of hard when you have no powers of your own.”
“I’ll say,” I mutter, remembering what it was like without the Vestige.
Suddenly Mae leans towards me, reaching out to lift my chin with her finger.
“Which brings me to my big request.”
My eyes lock on hers.
“Big request?” I say. “What are you talking about?”
“I think you know,” she replies. “Pull out the Vestige. Come on.”
I roll my eyes. The Vestige is the last thing I want to look at, but she makes a summoning motion with her fingers until I comply and set the medallion and its shard in her hand. She examines them.
“So, you did find the shard,” she says.
“Yeah, in the wall where we saw that glowing light,” I reply. “Grandpa led me to it. Turns out he knew everything.”
Mae makes a ticking noise and shakes her head, handing the two pieces of the medallion back to me.
“It figures that we went all over the place doing this research when the answers were right under our noses.” She leans back against her pillows. “Is he going to actually teach you about this thing now that you know about it?”
“That’s the plan,” I say, tucking the pieces back into my pocket so that they don’t get lost or spotted by anyone. “I’m pretty sure he can teach me how to use my powers since he must have some of his own as well.”
“That’s awesome.” Mae is grinning. She has a hungry look in her eye and I cock my head at her.
“What’s that look for?” I ask.
“Well…” Her voice trails off and she looks down at the bedsheets. “My request is this…and it’s more of a demand.”
I sit up. “Alright,” I say. “I’m listening.”
Mae gives me that grin again and looks me in the eye.
“Seeing as you found the missing piece of the Vestige,” she says, “I was hoping that next time you go up against a crazy super villain that you bring me along with you. Except, next time I’ll have that piece of the Vestige. And my own powers.”
My jaw drops.
“You don’t ask for little things, do you?” I say.
“Nope,” she replies. “I go for the real deal. I don’t know why you give me that look as if it’s a bad idea. I think it would be great! We already make a good team. Why can’t we make a good superhero team?”
I groan.
Leave it to Mae to ask for something so risky, so monumental, that I am without words.
My silence takes too long for her and she reaches out to whack me on the arm to get my attention.
“Come on, Fallout!” she says. “What do you say?”
I pause, then I give her the hint of a smile.
“I’ll think about it,” I reply.
Mae lets out a laugh and rests back on the bed, her eyes locked on me.
“You better think about it long and hard, Shaun,” she says. “Because I won’t take no for an answer.”
36
The Journal
When Grandma and I get home after the long night at the hospital, we hang up our jackets and settle into the kitchen. I’m exhausted and starving. I go to pour a bowl of cereal when Grandpa comes up beside me, holding out a rectangular package.
“What’s this?” I ask.
“I meant to give this to you earlier. Your mother sent it along,” she says as I tear open the packaging. “She said that it’s about time you had a new one.”
I almost float up into the air with joy when I reveal a brand new iPhone, complete with UHD camera.
“Thank-you!” I cheer, then hurry out the back door and into the yard.
I kick off the ground and go shooting up into the sky. Up I soar, higher and higher, until my ears pop from the pressure and the wind caresses me. I come to a stop a
nd close my eyes, tilting my head back.
The air is clean up here. There is silence broken only by the wind tugging at me.
I smile and open my eyes. Then I turn on the phone and launch the camera, aiming it at myself. I click record.
“Hey, Dad,” I say. “It’s me, Shaun.” I lick my lips and continue. “I just wanted to let you know that I found the Vestige. Or, rather, it found me. I heard what you said, and I will protect it. I will use it for good.”
My hair blows into my eyes, and it’s almost as if Dad is rustling my hair with an invisible hand.
“We stopped The Drone,” I go on. “Grandpa and me. We took him down with each other’s help. Grandpa’s going to teach me how to use my abilities when he’s home from the hospital.” Then I smile. “Maybe one day I can really talk to you about it. Until then, things are in good hands.”
I stop the recording and save it to my videos. It feels like old times, except this time I won’t be loading the video onto Youtube. This video is just for Dad.
I return to the ground and go inside where Grandma is waiting.
“Are you alright?” she asks as I come into the dining room.
My eyes are watering, mostly from emotion, but I blame it on the strong winds.
She smiles and gives me a strong hug.
It lasts a few moments, then we part.
“I was just making a video for Dad,” I say. “I think he heard me.”
“He can always hear you,” says Grandma. “He’s right here in your heart.”
When she taps me on the chest I realize that the Vestige also rests right above my heart. It’s funny to think that part of Dad must also be in the Vestige.
I wipe the rest of the tears from my eyes.
“Come over here,” Grandma says, motioning for me to follow her to the cabinet in the corner. “There’s something I want to show you.”
“What is it?” I ask.
Grandma lifts a small lock box onto the kitchen table.
“I was looking around in the cabinet where we kept your father’s jacket and I saw this book. It’s pretty battered, but it’s not really the cover that counts. Maybe we should open it up and see what’s inside.”
The Aberrant Series (Book 1): Super Charged Page 16
