by Kim Jewell
“Sure. What am I looking for?”
“Well, here’s how I see it laying out – follow my timeline here, I’m using our birthday as the starting point… We know that Blevins was at Sartori working, then going through the court case for three years after our birth, he went to prison right around our third birthday…”
“Right.” Both Sam and Lexi were following her so far.
“Then he was in prison for six years.”
“Okay.”
“So he’s been out of prison since the time we were about nine years old. We know Rowe visited him until the time he moved to Scottsdale, then at least after that point – they didn’t SEE each other after that while he was in prison. That doesn’t necessarily mean they didn’t communicate.”
“So you think maybe Blevins ended up in Arizona after he got out of prison?” Lexi seemed to be connecting the dots faster than Sam.
Leesha answered, “Well, it seems to me like Rowe’s the most faithful contact of Blevins – at least we know he was the only one that visited him early after he was in prison.” She turned to Sam. “I can’t think it’s just a coincidence that Rowe just happened to end up in the same area of Virginia Blevins shortly after Dr. Blevins wound up in prison.”
“I’m following you,” Sam agreed.
“So see if you can find out how long Virginia was in Arizona – when did she move there, did she live anywhere before Angel Wings, and how long was she in the retirement village? See if you can find staffing information there – maybe Rowe was even on the board of directors or staff there – and then let’s check the visitor logs and see if we can find Blevins.”
“Or some other name…” Sam wondered.
“Are you thinking of other family?” Lexi asked.
“Maybe, but that’s not really what I was thinking. I’m wondering if Blevins changed his identity after leaving prison, which is why I can’t find him anywhere.”
“That would make sense,” Leesha agreed.
“If he did, and went to visit his mother under a different name, we’ll find him,” Sam resolved.
“Sam, that’s a lot of work. Is there anything I can do to help?” Leesha offered.
“I’m not sure. Maybe do a little checking on that other visitor on Blevins’ prison log – Sara Milligan. See if you can find anything out about her. Find out who she is, where she works, let’s see if we can figure out her connection to Blevins. Maybe they’re still in contact. Okay?”
“I can try. I’m not as good as you on the computer, but I’ll give it a shot. I’ll call you if I have problems.”
“What can I do?” Lexi felt left out.
Leesha changed her focus. “Sam said you had another episode last night. Do you have notes?”
Lexi slid her paperwork over to Leesha.
“Are you still…?”
“No. I must have lost them in the middle of the night,” she sighed heavily. “I woke up this morning without them.”
Leesha glanced down at her notes, then looked back up at Lexi. “Looks like this episode was longer yet. You’re making progress, Lexi! Your practice notes are very detailed – good stuff. Hmm… I wonder…”
“What?” Lexi’s interest was peaked.
“I wonder if you can centralize your ability.”
“What do you mean?”
“Here’s your homework. Next time it happens, I want you to try and focus your ability to just one area – like your hand, or your head only. See if you can make just a portion of you transparent.”
“That’s kind of freaky!” Lexi laughed.
“Yeah, I guess. But what I’m also wondering if you can change the makeup of your body enough to transfer through – like reach your arm through - solid material.”
“How do I do that?”
“I’m not sure. I’m not even sure if you can. But if Sam’s sight can reach through solid materials, I have to wonder if yours can too. You two are genetically linked – I wonder if your abilities are similar in nature too.”
“That’s an interesting theory, Leesha,” Sam praised her.
“Just a theory at this point. Lexi, you’re the only one who can answer it.”
“I’ll give it my best shot!”
Sam thought for a minute. “You know, if we try to make contact with Rowe in person, it may take all three of us – with our abilities – to infiltrate and snoop around. Can you imagine how helpful it would be if we could have someone walk in the front door – invisible – and go undetected?”
Lexi grinned. “Not to mention that you can pick his brain without his knowledge!”
“We’ve definitely got some good tools. But we do need to get our facts straight first, then put together a good plan of attack. We don’t know if this guy will talk to us, or if he’ll be on the defensive,” Leesha noted. “We may find, like Blevins, that he does not WANT to be found.”
“Right,” Sam agreed. “And if he’s cagey, he’s got a family to protect. This could get dangerous.”
“We’d better get planning, then. And Lexi – your homework may be the most important of all. You need to get yourself as strong and capable as possible.”
“I hear you. I’m on it!” Lexi always rose to a challenge.
Chapter Twenty-nine
They sat and planned for almost two hours, going over all the details of the research needed and the trip they eventually planned to take. The mall was going to be closing in another half an hour, so they knew they needed to either wrap up their meeting, or find another place to move to.
Sam heard him first, the lanky tall kid that walked in the door. He didn’t see him right away, but could hear him repeating Sam’s name in his head as he entered the building. Sam’s powers were getting stronger, so he could tell from which direction the mental mumbling was coming from. He halted the threesome’s conversation by raising his finger in the air and his eyes snapped directly to the door. He immediately recognized which mind his name was coming from.
“What is it, Sam?” Leesha asked.
“See that boy over there? The one in the faded black t-shirt and jeans?”
Both girls scanned the room. “Uh-huh.”
“He’s saying my name over and over in his head.”
That seemed to wipe the lingering smile off Lexi’s face in a hurry. “Do you know him?”
“Nope. Never seen him before.”
“What’s he saying?” Leesha asked.
“He seems to be looking for me.” Sam’s eyes continued to follow the boy as he stepped a few more paces into the food court.
“Does he sound nice? Angry? Violent?”
“No, Lexi. He sounds… Well, confused.”
The three of them continued to watch the boy take slow steps into the middle of the court and scan the room. When his eyes finally met their table, and he realized they were all watching him, he cautiously walked towards them.
He slowly approached them, and when he reached their table, he directed his dark eyes toward Sam. “Um, are you Sam Dixon?”
“Yes. Have we met?”
“Not that I know of.” The boy looked even more confused.
“What can I do for you?” Neither one of them was comfortable with this conversation.
The boy scuffed his toe against the floor and then looked up again. “I’m not sure. I was just told to meet you here. I thought you sent the message.”
“What message?”
“This one,” he handed his cell phone over to Sam. Sam read the text:
Important meeting in food court at mall. We need your input. Please come meet us now. –Sam Dixon
Sam looked up at the boy, whose face was as puzzled as the rest of them. He checked the details of the text.
Of course, no number. Sent 28 minutes ago.
“So you don’t know who sent this to you?”
“No. Really, I thought you sent it.”
A chill ran down Sam’s spine and he heard both Leesha and Lexi shudder.
Who knows we’re
in the food court? And why would they send him to us?
“Are you a police officer?” Sam asked, knowing it was a stretch. This kid couldn’t be more than like fifteen or sixteen, even if he was tall.
“No.”
“Medical professional?”
“No…”
“Evil scientist?” Lexi couldn’t help but butt in. If she had hackles, they would have been raised.
“No! Why are you guys asking all of this? And who are you?”
Sam looked up at Leesha, then back at the boy. “I think the more pressing question is who are you?”
“My name is Clint. And I have no idea what I’m doing here. I’m sorry I even came. The message just sounded important.”
Leesha’s eyes cleared and she turned her body towards Clint. “Clint. Clint McKay?”
Clint’s expression was a mixture of curiosity and fear. “Yes. How do you know my name?”
She turned to the others. “He’s one of us.”
“He’s on the list?” Lexi asked.
“Yes. He’s one of the three still in the area.”
“What are you guys talking about?” Clint looked there, stumped.
Leesha looked at her watch. “The mall’s going to close in a minute. We’ve got a lot of questions for him. We need to find another place to meet.”
“You just want to start talking to him about this?!” Lexi sat straight up. “I mean, we don’t even know he is who he says he is. We don’t know if we can trust him. He just walked in here, from nowhere, says he is looking for us, and we’re just going to take him at his word?”
Leesha understood Lexi’s caution, but didn’t know what else to do. Clint could be another key to finding the answers they wanted. “Do you have any other suggestion?”
“Stop it you two,” Sam interrupted. “Hang on just a minute.”
Sam looked up at the boy, searching through his thoughts for a minute. From what he could tell, the boy was scared stiff. He couldn’t understand why the three kids were speaking in code, like they had some kind of secret they were protecting with their lives. He wondered who sent him the text, because obviously none of these three had done it. Just as he was considering turning around and walking out the door, not look back, Sam spoke.
“It’s okay girls. He is who he says he is. He really doesn’t know why he’s here, or who sent him.”
“How do you know that?” now Clint was even more confused.
“I’ll explain in a minute. We need to find somewhere more private. He’s going to need some proof,” he said to the girls. “He’s not been affected yet.”
Leesha spoke up. “My mom is gone for the weekend. We can go to my place.”
“And I’m just supposed to follow you three?!” Clint was not convinced, as their behavior in his opinion was more than a touch bizarre.
Lexi looked at his face for a minute. She trusted Sam’s assessment, and was now feeling compassionate for Clint, knowing what was in store for him, if he was at one point infected like the rest. She touched his sleeve.
“It’s okay, Clint. You can trust us.”
He looked down at Lexi’s pretty face and instantly softened. “Okay. Where are we going?”
“Follow me,” Leesha said, and walked the foursome out the front door.
Leesha’s house was kind of a matchbox little house on the fringe of the dodgy end of town. Not quite in the sticks, but you knew it was close. Inside, the place was clean, but as Sam looked around, he detected the trail of someone who packed in a hurry to leave for a weekend getaway tryst. He looked up at Leesha’s face, and heard the embarrassment in her thoughts. She instantly breezed around the room to pick up the clutter. He thought about saying something to her silently, telling her not to worry about it, but decided to leave it alone.
It might just make her feel worse.
“I’m sorry,” she stammered, still cleaning up her mother’s trail of discarded clothes and empty soda cans.
“Don’t worry about it, Leesh,” Lexi reassured her. “Let’s go sit down in the living room – it’ll be more comfortable anyway.”
Sam had filled Lexi in on Leesha’s mother and their history, and Lexi instantly felt sorry for the lack of direction in Leesha’s life. Sam and Lexi always had positive influences in their parents, and now reflecting on Leesha’s life, knew that they often took their life for granted.
Lexi walked over to Leesha, and Sam heard her whisper “Don’t worry about it. None of us care. C’mon. We’ve got work to do,” and she steered Leesha to the other room.
“Thanks Lexi,” Sam projected to his sister. “I didn’t know what to say to her.”
“Which is why you are so terrible with the girls,” Lexi shot back silently.
Clint sat down in one of the chairs, looking even more uncomfortable than the red-faced Leesha. He looked up at the group, and started to stammer, more out of fear than anything else.
“Um… Okay. First of all, who are you?
The other three quietly chuckled first, then sobered knowing they needed to fill Clint in on a lot of information.
“I’m Lexi, and this is my brother Sam. We’re twins.”
“I’m Leesha. We’ve got a lot of questions for you. We’ll also have lot more information to tell you in return. I need to know that we can trust you – at this point we want to keep all of this a secret. No one can know anything about what we tell you, okay?”
“Okay,” he reluctantly agreed.
Leesha looked over at Sam, who nodded his approval. He had just reached into his head again, and knew the boy was telling the truth. He could be trusted.
Leesha turned back to Clint. “We know who you are because we’ve been doing some research on the history of our birth. All three of us – and you, too – were born on the same day in the same hospital.”
“October 14th?” Clint’s eyes bugged. “We all four have the same birthday?”
“Yes,” Sam picked up the explanation. “And the three of us – me, Lexi and Leesha – are all now having side effects we think can be traced back to our time in the hospital.”
“Nice one,” Leesha thought to Sam silently.
“Well,” he projected back, “I think we should ease him into this slowly…”
“What kind of side effects?” Clint looked a little worried.
“Have you experienced any kind of burning headaches or pain in your body you can’t explain?” Leesha continued.
“No.”
“Nothing at all out of the ordinary?”
“Nope, nothing.”
“When’s the last time you’ve been to see your doctor?” Lexi helped out in the questioning.
“Um… Right before my birthday.”
“Are you still getting taller?”
“Yeah. Doc says I will probably grow another inch or two in the next year, then level off. Or so he thinks. My dad is tall. Why do you ask?”
“We all started seeing symptoms once our bodies stopped growing,” Leesha said. “I started going through it about a year and a half ago. Sam just got done, and Lexi is just getting started.”
“Getting started with what? What are you talking about?”
Leesha looked from Lexi to Sam with a note of concern. “We don’t even know if he’s been infected…”
“Infected with WHAT?” now Clint’s concern was bordering on pure terror.
Sam scanned the room, then silently addressed the two girls who still had mixed emotions running through their brains. “You’re right, we DON’T know if he’s been infected. BUT, he was sent to us for some reason. We need to find out that reason, and who sent him. And he’s got the same birthday, and he’s on the list. He’s not done growing, and we don’t know when he will be, and even then if he will show signs. But I’ve listened to him, am still listening to him, and I trust him. I do. I think we can let him in on this. Really.”
The girls looked at each other, then Lexi took the lead. “Clint, can you promise us that you won’t tell anyone
what we’re about to tell you?”
“Yes.”
“I need to hear you say it.”
Leave it to Lexi to be a stickler with words.
“I promise.”
“Leesha, you’re better at explaining all of this – I’ll let you explain.”
“Okay, Clint. The truth is, we think that someone did something to us when we were babies that changed us – wasn’t set to affect us until our bodies were completely matured. That is, when we stopped growing. We don’t know why, we’re not even sure who, and we certainly don’t know how, but we’re trying to put the pieces together.”
“Why do you think it happened when you were babies?”
Sam jumped in, “Well, Lexi and I are siblings – obvious connection… But the only connection that we have with Leesha is the fact that we were born on the same day in the same hospital, and treated by the same staff.”
“So you’ve never met before?”
“Not until a few weeks ago,” Sam continued. “Leesha ran into me as I was in the midst of an episode.”
“An episode…?”
Leesha took over. “For me, it was kind of like a blinding, burning headache – but just a flash of one – it was over in just a couple of minutes. I thought it was a migraine at first.”
“For Lexi and me,” Sam added to her explanation, “The burn affects us throughout our entire body. It completely takes over – head to toe – but the flashes are much the same. Further apart at first, then as they get closer and more frequent, the intensity decreases and the time of the flash lengthens.”
“So you’re saying that flashes of burning pain take over your entire body?!”
As if on cue, Sam heard her mind scream first, then her voice followed. Lexi leaned forward, her head in her hands, and leaned her forehead on her knees and started rocking back and forth. Both Sam and Leesha sprang into action. Sam looked at his watch and ran to go get a notebook and pen. Leesha ran out of the room, Sam heard her turn on the bathroom faucet and wet a wash rag.
Clint’s face was suddenly white. “What is going on?”
“Well Clint, it looks like you’re going to experience a flash first hand,” Sam answered as Leesha sat down on the couch next to Lexi, leaning her towards her to put her head in her lap. She laid the cold cloth on Lexi’s head and slowly started to rub her temples.
