The Sensitive

by Mary Coffin

  “I’m Fynn Cage.” She emphasized her pronunciation of it.

  Ben asked, “Do you know what cæge means, Fynn? It means key. Sully and Kay were the keepers of the key.”

  Fynn frowned. “The key?”

  Jon spouted, “They didn’t give you the key?!?”

  Ben held up his hand to calm Jon once more.

  “I don’t know anything about a key. All I have...” she looked down and her shoulders sunk, “...had, was a box my mom gave me before she died. It had a necklace and a poem in it.”

  “The necklace is the key,” said Ben. “What do you mean had?”

  Fynn looked at the others and then at Tibby. “A girl at Happy Days has it. I saw her with the box before we escaped.”

  Ben rubbed his chin. “Hmmm. Okay. We can work with that,” he said. Then he looked at Tibby, and waited for his introduction.

  “I’m Tibby Drincan. So what does drincan mean?” His stomach growled and he held it with his hand, as though that would quell the hunger that was building inside.

  “It refers to a drink, or a special elixir,” said Ben. “I’m guessing it’s in that small bottle you wear around your neck.”

  Jon smiled. “It’s for Cnāwan. She’s afraid of heights.” He glanced around, searching for the cat.

  Fynn wrinkled her nose, like she did when something was strange to her.

  Mel laughed. “You look just like your dad when you do that.”

  “Cats aren’t afraid of heights,” said Fynn.

  She heard the cat. Believe me. I’ll need that drink when it’s time.

  “You mentioned Cnāwan. Where is the ole’ girl?” asked Jon. He tried to sound casual but Fynn detected emotions in his voice. A sharp pain pierced his leg and he reached down with his hand. “Owww!”

  Fynn explained. “That was Cnāwan who bit you. She said that’s for calling her old. Tibby and I can see her but no one else can; I can hear her, too. She says she’s saving her energy. She’s a woman, in a cat’s body.” Fynn shook her head and rolled her eyes. “I’m still trying to understand how that can happen.”

  “It helps with time-space travel,” said Ben.

  He said it so casually that Tibby wasn’t sure he heard correctly. “Excuse me?”

  Ben saw the confusion in their faces. “Okay. Let’s back up a bit. Did your parents ever talk about Wærs?” He tried to ease them into the information he was about to drop in their laps.

  Fynn asked, “Wares. You mean, like, things for sale?”

  Ben wrote on a piece of paper and held it up. One word was written: Wærs. “This character...” He pointed to the æ in the word, “...is pronounced like the letter a in the word at. Wærs. Does it look familiar to you?”

  Fynn said, “Yeah, it’s in the poem my mom gave me but I don’t know what it is.”

  “Wærs are people who have a keen awareness of energy and vibrations. Wærs can manipulate energy.”

  “You mean, like, magic?” asked Tibby. His stomach growled again and he held his hand over it. They hadn’t eaten since that morning and he was starving. He didn’t want food to appear in front of the others so he tried not to think about how delicious a thick, juicy hamburger would taste...but it was becoming more difficult.

  “It may look like magic but it’s not really.” Motioning to all three of them, Ben said, “We’re Wærs.”

  Tibby couldn’t control it anymore – his mouth watered and he smelled food. Without warning, a burger, fries and a shake appeared on his lap. He blushed as he looked down at it. He glanced at the others and gave a nervous laugh.

  Ben cleared his throat. “You’re Wærs, too. Otherwise you wouldn’t be able to do that.” He motioned to the food.

  Jon gave a hearty laugh. “Well, that will come in handy for the trek home.”

  Tibby shrugged and held up his hands. “But I don’t do anything. It just appears when I get really hungry.”

  “You call it to you with your own energy but we’ll...”

  Tibby held up his hand and interrupted. “I know. You’ll explain more later.”

  Just then there was a knock on the front door. Ben knew he turned the sign to show the store was closed. He expected it would deter people, unless...

  “Everyone quiet and stay out of sight.” He poked his head around the wall and looked toward the front of the shop. The second knock was more insistent. “It’s the Sheriff,” he said quietly to the others and headed for the door.

  Chapter 15

  _______________________

  Reluctantly, Ben unlocked the front door to his bookstore. There were two officers standing on the other side and he recognized one of them as Tungate’s Sheriff.

  He opened the door. “Hi, Sheriff.”

  “Ben, is everything okay? You’re usually open for business at this time of day.”

  “I seem to have a touch of the flu.” He placed his hand on his belly. “I was just about to head home for the day.”

  The Sheriff and the other officer studied him. “Does Melanie Craft also have the flu? Her shop is closed as well.”

  Ben acted surprised. “Oh, I didn’t realize her shop was closed.”

  “May we come in for a moment?” asked the Sheriff.

  Ben motioned to his stomach again. “I’m really not feeling well.”

  The Sheriff wasn’t discouraged by his answer. He stepped through the doorway with the other officer behind. “It will just take a moment.”

  Once the other officer was inside, he immediately began looking around.

  “Jonathan Hieran isn’t at the coffee shop either.”

  “Maybe he’s still at the street fair. He came by earlier and said he was headed over there.” Ben maintained eye contact with the Sheriff but hoped like crazy that Mel and the others were hearing their conversation. He noticed the second officer heading toward the back room and decided he had to do something about it.

  “Someone thought they saw him leaving the street fair with a couple kids. They looked like the missing children from Happy Days.”

  Just as the words left the Sheriff’s mouth, Ben waved a hand across the room. “Freosan!” Both officers froze in their tracks, like marble statues. Ben quickly walked to the back room where he’d left the others. He was just about to tell them to get out of the store when he saw that the room was already empty. He sighed with relief.

  ~~~

  Jon, Melanie, Tibby and Fynn sat quietly while Ben went to the front door of the bookstore. They listened intently to his conversation with the Sheriff.

  As soon as the Sheriff asked to come into the store, Melanie held a finger to her mouth for Tibby and Fynn to be quiet while she took each of them by the hand and walked over to the wall, where a bookshelf was stuffed full of old books. Jon quickly followed behind, holding Tibby’s food.

  Tibby thought it peculiar that they suddenly wanted to read a book. Melanie shoved Tibby’s and Fynn’s hands together, then she took Fynn’s outside hand and Jon took Tibby’s outside hand. The four of them faced the old books, holding hands.

  Melanie moved her free hand through the air and whispered, “Flowan.” She and Jon walked forward, pulling Fynn and Tibby with them.

  Fynn heard herself gasp as they proceeded to walk through the bookshelf. Mel pulled her more forcibly, through the wall. They stood in a different shop but Fynn recognized it as the art gallery where they saw the painting of the mountain with the bridge.

  She and Tibby squirmed as they scratched at their arms and legs.

  “It tickles at first but you’ll get used to it,” whispered Melanie.

  ~~~

  Ben walked back to where he previously stood in front of the Sheriff. He passed his hand through the air and said, “Thawian.” Then he continued, “I’m sorry, Sheriff. I haven’t seen him...or the missing kids.”

  He watched the other officer step into the back room and look around. When he returned, he gave
the Sheriff a slight shake of his head. Behind the officer, Ben saw Jon suddenly appear in the back of the shop as he tiptoed across the room to the other wall. He wore a mischievous grin on his face and Ben tried not to smile.

  Knowing he had just walked through the adjoining wall to the coffee shop, he added, “Are you sure he isn’t in his coffee shop? The girl he hired is new and,” he lowered his voice, “she’s not real bright.”

  The Sheriff looked at Ben, not sure whether he was being played. “We’ll go check again. Thanks for your time, Ben.”

  The officers walked out of the shop and Ben watched them go next door. He quickly locked the door and turned to see Mel and the kids standing in the doorway of the back room. Fynn and Tibby scratched at their arms.

  “That was quick thinking, Mel. Now...we need to get you two out of here.”

  Chapter 16

  _______________________

  “It’s okay. You can come out now,” said Ben as he drove toward the foothills. “We’re almost there.”

  After the Sheriff left his store, Ben watched until the officers left Jon’s coffee shop and then got his car and pulled up to the back door of the book store where the kids waited.

  Fortunately, there were blankets in his car, along with empty boxes from his last book order. He was glad he hadn’t disposed of the boxes yet. He had Tibby get in the car and lay across the back floor, pulling boxes over himself. Fynn crawled all the way in back, under a blanket, near the hatch. Ben tossed a few other items around for a cluttered effect.

  As they drove behind the shops, Jonathan ran out the back door of the coffee shop and hopped in the front passenger seat. Melanie had agreed to catch up with them later.

  When Ben gave the okay, Fynn and Tibby removed their coverings and made room to sit in the back seat, where Cnāwan settled in between them. Ben turned off the pavement onto a dirt road.

  “There are no houses around here,” stated Fynn. “You don’t have any neighbors?”

  “That’s right” replied Ben. “I have a large piece of property so it offers privacy. They’re going to continue looking for you two but it should be safe here, for now. We don’t have much time.”

  The road curved and climbed a hill. Bushes lined both sides and it was only wide enough for one car. Ben stopped and Fynn saw there was nowhere to go. The road abruptly ended, in the bushes. It was as if the bushes had suddenly decided to grow across the road and meet up in the middle, cutting it off. They were at a dead end!

  Fynn rolled down the window and heard a few birds singing as they fluttered about but, otherwise, it was perfectly quiet. She and Tibby glanced at each other, perplexed by their surroundings.

  “Uh, you live here?” asked Tibby.

  “It’s a dead end,” said Fynn.

  Ben rolled down his window and said, “Open.”

  Suddenly, the bushes started changing. The leaves rearranged themselves and moved into different positions while, at the same time, scattered off to each side of the road. Fynn and Tibby watched in amazement at the transformation. It sounded like dried leaves blowing in a fall breeze but there wasn’t a breeze strong enough to blow them about. Within moments, there was a mass of leaves on each side of the road but their shape was completely transformed. They were now in the shape of two large majestic lions...covered in leaves.

  As the car crept forward, Fynn stared in awe outside her window at the bush that had transformed into a lion. If she hadn’t known better, she would have sworn that the lion bowed its head to her as they passed.

  “Scyttan,” commanded Ben.

  The bushes scampered back to their original positions and sealed off the road.

  Tibby said, “That’s it? Open and shuttan? No secret word? Nothing like abracadabra or shazaam?!?”

  Ben smiled. “Nope. That’s it. But it only works if you’re a Wær.”

  “What do you mean we don’t have much time?” asked Fynn.

  Ben looked at them in the rear view mirror and then glanced at Jon. With the car idling, they turned around from the front seat to face the kids.

  “We aren’t from here,” said Ben. “Wærs live...” he hesitated, unsure of how to proceed.

  Jon blurted it out more directly. “Wærs live in another time and place. Well, to be accurate, it’s not far from here but it is in another dimension. The fact that you two and Cnāwan showed up means we have a chance to get back home now.”

  Ben braced himself for their reaction.

  Fynn looked out the window. “I’m not from here.” She quietly mumbled it as though she were trying it on for size. As she milled over this new information, she realized that it explained a lot of things about her life. It was certainly a pleasant thought, just like when Tibby stated that they didn’t belong at the orphanage. She wondered if he truly realized the full meaning of his own words.

  Relief flooded Ben. It appeared that there wouldn’t be a reaction.

  Tibby asked, “Is this the prophecy thing?”

  “You know about the prophecy?” Ben eyed him in the rearview mirror.

  “Not exactly,” said Fynn. “Cnāwan told me in a dream to trust the prophecy. That’s all we know.”

  “Yes, it is the prophecy,” said Jon. “We only have a small window in which to go back, otherwise, we’ll die here like...” He caught himself and lowered his voice. “...your parents.”

  Ben looked at him and cleared his throat. Jon turned back around in the seat and faced the front.

  Ben slowly continued up the road as he explained. “Each one of us has something that will help us get back home. Melanie’s part has been to help us remember home. We’ve been here so long we probably would have forgotten it by now. Jon can sense things coming through energy so he’ll help us anticipate - issues or problems – on the way home. Cnāwan is our guide. The bottle hanging from Tibby’s neck contains something that will help her on part of the trip. I’m the keeper of the book. Opening the book activates the gateway between here and home. The necklace is the key that opens the book. Eight of us came here. Each person, or couple, had a role. Your parents’ roles have now been passed on to you.”

  Fynn thought for a moment. “What about the eighth person, the guy you said died, what was his role?”

  Ben said, “He was the original hearer before Jon took over that function.”

  Jon squirmed in his seat.

  “What was he supposed to hear?” asked Fynn.

  “A flute,” said Ben as he looked over at his friend. “It’s okay, Jon.”

  Fynn gasped. “A flute?!? The first call is a flute.”

  Jon grew more uncomfortable.

  “So you do know about the prophecy,” said Ben.

  “My mom gave me a poem. I didn’t know it was the prophecy. The first call is a flute and it’s better to take the first call.”

  “Okay already,” said Jon. “Can we change the subject, please?”

  Tibby asked, “If we are the second call home, then that means the first call was missed, right?”

  “Geez,” said Jon. “I thought I would be able to hear it. I thought I could step into Emmett’s role and hear the flute. It came and I missed it. Okay?”

  “How?” Fynn asked.

  Jon didn’t respond at first. Then he quietly said, “I thought it was my neighbor practicing her clarinet. It didn’t sound like a flute, okay? And, because of that, we’ve been stuck here for two hundred thirty one years.”

  “Two hundred thirty one years?!? No way,” said Tibby.

  “Yes way,” said Ben. “Actually, we’re younger than that, according to our dimension, but who’s counting...right Jon?” His friend just gave him a smirk. “Wærs don’t age the same as people here.”

  They rode up the hill in silence. A million questions flooded Fynn’s mind. Finally, she asked, “If you...if we...aren’t from here, then why did you come here?”

  Ben said, “We like to visit other dimen
sions now and then; something different to do. But there’s always a risk.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “For every force in this world, there’s a counter force – opposites. For day, there’s night. Love and hate. Good and bad. That’s how this world stays in balance. You do something good and before long something bad happens. When we visit other dimensions, there’s always a counterforce to our energy – but it takes different forms depending on where we’re at. In this dimension, there are two things that can bring us down: porcupines and forgetting who we are. Actually the latter can hurt us no matter what dimension we’re in.”

  Fynn and Tibby looked at each other. “Porcupines?!?”

  “Yes. They’re exceptionally drawn to us.” Ben giggled, “It is incredible how those awkward little bodies can suddenly move when we’re in the vicinity.” Then he got serious and gazed at them in the mirror. “Their quills are poisonous to us. That’s how Emmett died.”

  Tibby shook his head. “Wow. No wonder it felt like I would die when I got hit by one.”

  Fynn’s nose wrinkled. “How can you forget who you are?” She caught the shared glance between Jon and Ben.

  Jon said, “When you’re in another dimension long enough, it’s very easy. After a couple hundred years, you start to forget about home. You start living your life like everyone else in that dimension. You forget the Gädweg and the payment for that is that you lose your energy. That’s how your parents died. They ran out of energy; they must have been discouraged and gave up.”

  Fynn’s nose wrinkled even more. “What’s the Gädweg?”

  “It’s the source of all life,” said Ben. “At least, that’s what Wærs call it.”

  They reached a level area on the side of the hill and stopped in a flat grassy area in front of a tall house. Ben shut off the car and turned around. “We’ll have more time to talk. For now, we have work to do. We need to train you for the journey home and,” he looked at Fynn, “to get the necklace. You are the keeper of the key now, so it must be you who gets it back.”

  Fynn’s stomach suddenly felt like it was full of butterflies, all struggling for space to fly around.

  Jon sensed her nervousness. “Don’t worry. It will be like taking candy from a baby.”

  Chapter 17

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