by Shelly Crane
We followed her but I turned to look at Bish.
“Are you coming?”
“In a minute.”
I nodded and we went to make up the living room couch for Ecstasy. Caleb explained to her where everything was and that he and I were right in the next room. She nodded and sat down numbly on the couch. She was trying to put up a big front but in her mind, she was scared.
“It’ll be ok,” I told her. “I’ll get you some clothes.” I brought her some jammies and some clothes for in the morning. “Alright, our door will be open if you need anything.”
“Ok.” Caleb started to turn the lamp off as we went by. “Please leave it on,” she pleaded.
“Ok.”
I didn’t even speak to Caleb. Just threw on one of his t-shirts and climbed in bed. He pulled the lamp string and climbed in with me after changing and I latched myself to him, begging for sleep to find me quickly.
I woke several times during the night and so did Caleb. I felt like a mother hen watching over Ecstasy, who conked out so deeply that she never even cracked an eye at us as we kept getting up to check on her. Even after she spouted that she’d get absolutely no sleep.
In the morning, I woke with a start. I ran into the next room to find the couch ruffled and empty. Caleb ran in too and went to the door to check the alarm but then I heard her singing in her head, in the shower.
She was singing the words to Sesame Street which made me chuckle. Caleb said he needed to go for a quick swim to clear his head for the day so I went to greet Rachel and everyone else in the kitchen. Bella was lounging at Dad’s feet, chewing on some bacon.
The coffee smelled heavenly and Rachel had made honey buns today. I smiled in thanks to her. Then, for some unknown reason I hugged her and kissed her cheek.
She smiled brightly and kissed mine back.
“Thank you, honey.”
I scratched Bella’s head as I passed and went to sit by Dad and Bish. Bish still looked grim but everyone else was oblivious to what we had seen last night. I laid my head on Bish’s shoulder and nibbled my honey bun. We had to figure this out. I couldn’t loose Bish.
He took a big sip of his black coffee and I could taste the bitter taste in my mouth from it as I heard his thought.
Are we going to talk about last night?
I shook my head no.
“Not right now,” I whispered.
He pulled his arm up and over me to lay it on my shoulders. I lifted my knees to press against the table edge as he continued to sip his coffee and look at nothing on the wall.
“I’m glad to see you two made up. I was thinking it was going to be a warzone all day long.”
“No worries, Dad,” I assured him.
“Good.”
“We need to get a move on,” Peter said and I saw him pat Rachel on the bottom, making her smirk as he passed her behind the island counter to get more creamer.
I giggled and Dad gave me a funny look. I just shook my head but then my jaw dropped as Ecstasy shuffled into the kitchen. The purple in her hair was gone and she had brushed it out straight. She had no makeup or eyeliner. She looked so different, like a completely different person. She fingered her hair and shrugged bashfully when we all continued to gawk.
“I washed out my hair color. Temporary.” She looked at me. “Thanks for the clothes.”
“No problem, Ecstasy.”
“And you can call Lynne, my middle name. If I’m starting over anyway, I may as well get rid of that ridiculous name right?”
Everyone chuckled in agreement with her.
“That’s a very grown up outlook, Lynne,” Rachel said and directed her to the huge plate of honey buns.
“Rachel makes the best homemade honey buns,” I told her.
She shrugged and went to grab one.
“I usually don’t eat breakfast,” she took a bite, “because I’m not ever…oh my gosh!” She looked at Rachel. “These are the best things I think I’ve ever had!”
“Thank you.”
“Can I have two?” she asked tentatively.
“Of course, honey.”
“Thanks.” She grabbed another one and came to sit beside me. “So…” she began.
“We’re leaving soon,” I told her.
“Good,” she muttered under her breath.
Jen came in then and accepted the good morning kiss from her dad. She glanced our way and tried to smile. Her mind said she wanted to try to be normal. She wasn’t mad at Bish and didn’t want him to be upset, or me. So she smiled sadly at us and then sent a small wave as she went back upstairs with her honey bun.
Bish never moved but his breathing changed when he saw her and when she left, he sighed. I rubbed his arm under the table.
I looked over at Lynne and saw she had icing drip on her chin and she wiped it on her hand and then grimaced and looked around for a napkin.
“I got it,” I told her.
I focused just like Caleb and I had on the beach that day. I pushed forward the thought for the napkin to lift from the counter. I also had to tack on a bad thought to go with it. The first one to pop into my head was the vision I saw last night. I winced but went ahead and when I saw the napkin lift from the holder I smiled. Bish’s arm tightened on mine in surprise and Dad’s eyes rounded. Peter and Rachel watched in fascination too but it was Lynne’s reaction I enjoyed the most. She watched it stoically as it made its way in the air down the length of the table. Once it reached her she grabbed it and wiped her mouth and then took another big bite like nothing at all had happened.
She saw us all watching.
“What?” she muffled around her bite defensively. “I’m hungry.”
We all just laughed, for a long time. It was funny that she seemed to be so ok with everything. She wasn’t freaked about a napkin floating to her. She was just weird.
“I’m still here,” she said a few minutes later. “So I guess your theory holds some water after all. You can change the visions.”
“I guess.”
“What theory?” Dad asked.
I explained to him everything that happened, except the part about Jen and Bish’s vision, and then said I was going to shower and get ready.
I bumped into Kyle on the way out.
“Hey, Sorry, I-” He stopped when he saw Lynne at the table. “Is that Ecstasy?” he asked with inflection.
“It’s actually Lynne now. And yes, that’s her. Quite a change, huh?”
“Yeah,” he said absently and looked at her for a moment longer. Then he looked back at me almost…guiltily. Like I would be mad that he was checking her out. “So, um.” He pulled me to the little nook by the stairs. “I’m sorry about being a jackass yesterday in the alley, about you kissing me. You see, I had to do something to make Caleb think that I don’t want you like I do. If I just sat there and wasn’t myself then he’d know something was up. I have to do it, Maggie. If he and I are ever going to be friends again…he can’t know that this wasn’t some crush. If he knew I loved you for real…he’d take you away from me.”
“Kyle,” I whispered. “You can’t talk like that, ok?”
“I know but I just needed you to understand. I wasn’t trying to start trouble between you and me. I was serious about what I said to you in the club. I want you any way I can get you.”
“Ok, Kyle. It’s fine.”
“Friends?” he asked and held his hand out to me.
“Friends.”
I shook his hand and he grinned.
“Awesome.”
He waltzed into the kitchen and slung his arm over Rachel’s shoulders and kissed her cheek. She smiled at him and handed him a glass of juice. I couldn’t help but think that I missed the smart elect Kyle; the clown cut up guy who had been my friend for years.
I wondered if things would ever be the same again.
~ Twenty Three ~
Within an hour we were all packing the cars and headed to the airport. Beck and Ralph didn’t come down for breakfast and jus
t walked straight to the cars when we yelled it was time to go. I felt horrible about it all but I couldn’t talk to her. I’d just get emotional and it wouldn’t make her feel any better because I wouldn’t have any answers for her.
Caleb slung my bag into the back of the Jeep then patted the floor with his hand in back for Bella to jump up into. He shut the trunk and followed my line of sight.
“You’re right, just let her go,” he told me gently.
I nodded and we all got in, fitting between the three cars we had. Lynne and Kyle rode with us. She immediately started asking us about Tennessee and snow. She’s never seen snow before.
“Well, there won’t be snow for still a couple months,” Kyle told her.
“What’s it like to grow up like that?” she asked softly. “Normal families and holidays, snow outside your house that isn’t falling apart. Parents actually giving you gifts instead of taking your paycheck at Christmas.”
“I don’t know. I’ve never known any different. What happened to your mom?” he asked her.
“She left.”
“Mine too,” I told her.
“Really, why would your mom leave?”
“Same reason as yours probably.”
“I doubt that. Anyway, so, what’s the plan?”
“Well,” Caleb took over. “The last time we did this we just gave her some money and she took off but with you, I think it’ll be better to fly you out somewhere.”
“The last one,” Kyle asked Caleb and Caleb cursed in his mind.
“We had a problem before with another girl,” I explained. “We had to get her and her family out so we sent them away.”
“Who? Was it just like this? You had a vision?” Kyle asked.
“Kind of,” I said and even I heard the odd tone in voice. I wasn’t the worlds most fabulous liar.
“What does that mean? Who was it?”
He’ll just be even madder, if we don’t tell him now.
Caleb nodded and looked at Kyle in the rearview mirror.
“It was Amber. Sorry, bro.”
“What? Why didn’t you tell me?” He looked at me. “She didn’t stand me up did she?”
“No, I’m sorry. I thought it’d be better for you to just forget about her.”
“What happened?”
I told him the whole sordid story, beginning to end. He listened but his mind poured on the guilt. He felt like he’d dragged her into our mess. I assured him it wasn’t his fault and she was safe now. For some reason he was angry at Caleb. But I wondered if he was just playing his part, like he said before.
“You could have told me, dude. I’m not nine, I think I could have handled it.”
“Yeah, totally,” Lynne chimed in. “No offense, but crappy move. Who doesn’t tell someone their girlfriend skipped town?”
“Exactly!” Kyle said and pointed at Lynne to drive home his point.
I just giggled in my seat. How would we survive if we had to live with them both; two Kyle’s...Ugh…
After we returned the cars, we went and stood at the ticket counter. Caleb was encouraging Lynne to look at the flights and decide where to go. She wanted to go with us.
“Why can’t I just go to Tennessee? What’s the big deal?”
“We’re not out of the clear yet. We have lots of trouble coming our way and it wouldn’t be very smart to bring you right to it,” he told her.
In the end it was Kyle who convinced him.
“She knows Maggie’s secret. It would probably be a good idea to keep her close right? And plus, the four days Maggie saw into the vision up to the part where she dies hadn’t happened yet. We need to keep an eye on her until then.”
“Where is she going to stay?”
“With me,” Kyle announced, smiling smugly. “We have plenty of room at my house and Mom would love a project.”
A cute little project.
His gaze shot to mine after his thought and he looked as if he should be guilty or something again, just like earlier. I just grinned and shook my head at him.
“Thank you, Kyle,” she said and smiled at him. “If it’s ok with everyone else, I don’t want to wear out my welcome.”
“That’s a good idea I think,” I said. “Although, Peter isn’t going to be so easy to convince,” I told Caleb.
“I know. Oh well. Let’s get you a ticket,” he said to Lynne but Kyle stopped him.
“I got this.”
“But she’s our responsibility,” Caleb reasoned.
“Uh, hello, standing right here!” she complained. “Besides,” she grabbed Kyle’s jacket clad arm and started to the counter, “I think the single one is more interesting anyway.”
In her mind she was very intrigued with Kyle. And the thought of staying at his house was more than interesting. He looked down at her and grinned.
“Seriously,” Caleb said with animated hands. “That just happened? Kyle is spending his money on something other than Halo?”
I laughed at him.
“Come on. Let’s go break the news to the family.”
It didn’t go so well and once again we were left pulling rank. Well I was. I hated to use the Visionary card but it seemed to be the only reason anyone would listen to us.
We sat in the chairs at the gate and as I laid my head back on the seat backs. I felt Caleb’s fingers running down the Visionary mark on my neck. My eye peeked at him.
“It won’t rub off you know,” I teased. “I’m still the Visionary.”
He chuckled.
“I thought you were asleep.”
“I wish. I am so tired from getting up all night.”
At that, he grabbed my hand to help fill me with his touch. I sighed and closed my eyes on his shoulder. As I sat I listened to the thoughts around me. Kyle and Lynne were sitting by each other and he was telling her about playing football. She told him she played volleyball in high school. They were both pretty engrossed in their conversation and I felt my lips quirk at the thought. Good old Kyle didn’t stay down for long.
Dad was talking to Rachel and Peter about something over a newspaper. Ralph was playing his DS and Beck was reading a magazine someone had left behind. She was still mad.
Jen and Bish were sitting across from each other and pretty much just staring miserably into each other’s eyes. How had no one else but us noticed the strain on their faces all day?
I lifted my head and looked at them. I didn’t think I’d ever seen a more pitiful pair. I wished there was something I could do. I tried to think of anything but that. I smiled when my mind flashed to the 25 Hour Skillet and Big John and Smarty. I chuckled and Caleb smiled as he saw the day Big John chased him with a meat cleaver in my mind.
“You’re enjoying that memory a little too much, I think.”
I laughed and then remembered the bracelet; the bracelet that the Watsons took from me. I rubbed my wrist at the loss. Caleb sighed beside me.
“What?” I asked.
He cocked his head to the side and smiled.
“Well, I was going to wait until your birthday to give this to you.”
“What?”
He reached in his bag and gave me a little white box with a red ribbon and leaned forward to whisper in my ear, his lips touching my lobe.
“Happy early birthday, Maggie.” I looked at him funny and opened the lid to find a bracelet…with a star charm; the exact replica of the one that was stolen from me. I looked back to him and he smiled, lifting his hand to wipe a tear from under my eye. “I wasn’t trying to make you cry.”
“Thank you, Caleb. This bracelet means a lot to me.”
He took it out of the box and put it gently on my wrist. He looked at it and then lifted my hand to kiss my wrist.
“Perfect,” he whispered.
“Thank you, babe,” I said and hugged his around his neck tight.
“You’re welcome.” He chuckled into my hair. “I would have given it to you when I got it if I knew you’d be this happy.”
I had a thought.
“That day…that you went into the store and left us in the Jeep; you were doing math in your head so I couldn’t see what you were thinking.”
“Pretty smart trick, huh?”
I nodded. I reached up and right before I touched his lips they called our flight number over the intercom.
