***
“So, this is Ms. Molly,” Lianne said as she introduced a large calico cat who made a home behind the cafe. The two girls sat in an outside break area under a corrugated tin roof. A light rain began to fall, making the evening nice and cool.
“We’ve met,” Amber said with a smile. She reached down to scratch behind the cat’s ears as it rubbed against her legs. “She’s been here for a long time, hasn’t she?”
“At least five years or so,” Lianne agreed. “We feed her, and she keeps the creepy crawlies away.”
“Sounds fair,” Amber laughed, and then they both paused to enjoy some coffee and rest their feet for the rest of the break.
***
In the morning, Amber worked on her second bowl of cereal. The house was empty except for her again. Her parents decided they were going to turn their extended day trip into an actual vacation. Good for them! If her stomach hadn’t woken her up early, she would have slept in as her next shift didn’t start until noon. Maybe it was stress or the work, but she was a little concerned about how hungry she was lately.
Amber didn’t struggle with weight. She had come to an agreement with Dieting a long time ago. She wouldn’t starve herself to reach an unreasonable B.M.I., but she wasn’t going to “let herself go” either. Plus, the scale in the bathroom was broken. That was an old argument. Her mother claimed there was nothing wrong with the scale but the weight it reported was radically different every time Amber used it.
Amber finished her cereal, washed out the bowl. The plan was to take a walk around the property before work, but it was still raining. Amber sat on the porch instead and relaxed over a cup of hot tea. The air was even cooler than it had been the night before, and the rain fell in visible sheets. She set down her cup and frowned at the yard. Everything was soaked, and wide puddles had collected here and there, but there was something wrong with the ground. The color was off.
Amber blinked and rubbed her eyes, but nothing changed. She made her way to the porch to the side of the house to look at the central expanse of the fields, and it was the same. Amber pulled off her socks and went out for a closer look. It wasn’t just wet; the soil was different. She dug up a handful and then another. It was the same dark, rich earth that she and her father discovered around the tractor only days ago. How had someone spread new dirt over the entire property without her noticing?
Amber bent down and dug deeper, easily scooping up handfuls of wet soil. It was the same even a foot down. If anything, it was darker and richer the deeper she dug. This was impossible. Even if someone had managed to unearth the entire property and lay down new topsoil, how could they have replanted all the dried grass, and in the rain, too?
The answer, the obvious answer, finally came to her. Nobody could have done this. There was no way that all the dirt on the property had been dug up and replaced without anyone noticing. Even more unthinkable was that all the plants and trees, down to the smallest blade of grass, were left undisturbed.
You have powers, too! Rai’s words rang back unbidden and unwanted. She had done something to the earth the other night.
Amber walked numbly back to the porch, soaked to the skin. Right now, she didn’t care. The very ground had moved under her in a frightening and literal way. She didn’t want this strangeness. Amber had convinced herself that if she stayed away from Rai, and his talk of paranormal abilities, it would be enough. She hoped that whatever it was would eventually go away.
Amber stomped her foot in frustration. One of the thick, porch floorboards cracked and tore upward through the thin area rug in a spray of splintered wood. Amber stared at it in horror as the increasing storm raged and thundered overhead.
We need to figure out what you can do.
“Shut up!” she hollered at the memory of Rai’s words. “You did this to me!”
7
MISS MOLLY
Saturday evening at the Cypress, the place was bursting with patrons. The weather didn’t seem to discourage the people from getting out, and Amber was grateful for the distraction. She had been in constant motion since clocking in. “You need to go take your ‘twenty,'” Lianne said as she tapped Amber on the shoulder.
“Okay,” Amber replied and handed the other girl a towel to wipe down a table. Looking at the pouring rain through the back door, she frowned. The outside break area was twenty paces across open gravel from where she stood. There was the other table in the back of the kitchen, but Amber, like most of the staff, preferred the relative quiet of the outside. That wasn't going to happen tonight though, there was too much rain. It was turning the lot into a muddy soup.
Amber spun away from the door to take her break in the kitchen when the door banged open. A busser rushed in past Amber looking upset and carrying an empty wastebasket.
"I need a little help out here!" he called into the open kitchen door.
"Take out the trash and stop whining about the rain, James!" came an immediate reply from the kitchen.
"Serious, man. I need help pulling the dumpster out," James pleaded.
"What happened?" This time the voice was less mocking and more curious.
"I accidentally knocked the cat behind it," James replied. "I didn't know it was up on the lid when I threw it open. I can't get the bin to roll out."
Two of the cooks rushed outside to help, and Amber followed them. She watched from the landing as the three boys slogged through water and tried pulling the large metal dumpster from its niche.
"The wheels are buried in the mud!" One of the cooks called out after a minute or two. Amber heard the cat yowling over the rain. They tried rocking the container, pulling it from one side and then another with little success. With help, James climbed on top to look down the backside.
"I can't see. It's too dark."
"I'll get a flashlight," Amber offered and ran inside.
"What's going on out there?" Kathleen asked as Amber peeked into the office.
"Molly is stuck behind the dumpster," Amber reported. "We're trying to get her out, but I need to borrow a flashlight, please."
"It's bad out there," Kathleen said, removing a large yellow flashlight from a desk drawer, "Tell them to be careful. Let me know if I need to call the fire department or something."
"Thank you." Amber took the flashlight and turned to go, relieved that the boss was on board with helping the cat.
"Just be quick about it," Kathleen added. "Don't be playing in the mud all night. We have customers lined up."
Amber rushed out the back door and stumbled down the three steps, her flats skidding on the wet boards. She kicked them off before trudging into the water pooling around the dumpster, then handed the flashlight up to James. He turned it on and laid across the lids on his belly scanning behind the bin for the cat. The plaintive caterwauling had quieted to a low forlorn mewling.
"Okay, I see it," James said. "The cat is stuck about halfway down." He scooted closer toward the back and Amber watched his legs kick around for a bit as he struggled to reach her. "It's too close to the wall!" James shouted after a minute of effort. "I can't reach it!" He slid back off the top of the dumpster. "We have to pull it out, but we can't rock it. The cat's jammed between the dumpster and the wall."
"There's no way we're moving this thing," one of the cooks said, shaking his head. "The wheels are totally buried in mud."
"Kathleen said to let her know if she needed to call the fire department," Amber said. "Y'all go back and let her know. I'm still on break. I'll stay here for now."
After they had gone back inside, Amber stood out of the rain beneath the eaves of the Cypress and brooded. She didn't doubt that Kathleen was phoning the fire department right now, but with the weather this bad, a stuck cat was going to be a low priority. It could be hours before they arrived, and she could barely hear Molly anymore. Amber pulled out her phone and dialed Rai, who picked up on the second ring.
"What's up?" he asked in a hushed and slightly muffled voice that she could barely ma
ke out.
"I need help," she said with a sigh.
"Are you in danger?" he asked in the same quiet tone.
"I'm not in danger. I'm trying to save a cat and need something heavy moved." The conversation was sounding ridiculous to her and was about to get worse. "I'm not sure how to ask this, so I'm just going to ask. Do you, um—" she hesitated to try to find the right words.
"Do I what?"
"You say you have powers," she finally blurted out. "So, are you like really strong? Could you pull a big, full dumpster out of the mud?"
"I don't have super strength, but I could move a full dumpster." He sounded very sure of himself on this point, and Amber had to wonder how he would manage that despite herself. "I'm up in Austin tonight, though. It would be some time before I could get back to Wimberley."
"What are you doing out there?" she asked frustration in her voice.
"Fighting crime," he said with the calm demeanor of someone describing how much homework he had. Was he serious? Of course, he was serious and probably wearing some kind of mask explaining the fuzzy sounding voice.
"Are you wearing a costume?" she had to ask— she couldn't not ask.
"It's more like a uniform," he said defensively.
"Okay," she muttered. "Look, I'm sorry I bothered you about this. The fire department will probably be here soon, so don't worry." She ended the call and looked back at the dumpster. Amber couldn't hear Molly at all now. A minute passed like an hour, and she prayed she’d hear a siren soon.
The rumble of thunder shook her from her thoughts, and she frowned. Amber walked back down the steps and padded barefoot to the large metal trash bin. The water was to her knees now, but her footing felt firm even in the slick mud. She needed to move the dumpster somehow. Rationally, Amber knew she wasn't strong enough to drag it out of its alcove with the wheels sunk in. The dumpster probably weighed hundreds of pounds with all the garbage in it.
Her feet tingled against the ground. She felt something at that moment, a presence both strong and eternally patient. Amber needed that strength. She could sense it there, and she called out to it. Then in a way she did not understand, the earth answered.
You have powers, too. Rai's voice replayed in her head.
Amber gripped the long steel bar that ran across the front of the dumpster, the one used to lock the lid closed, and pulled hard. The bin began to tilt forward a bit, but then a wrenching squeal rang out as the bar’s metal hinge broke apart under the strain. The thick locking bar came loose suddenly in her hand with a snap. Amber rocked back, but her feet held firmly to the ground. She let go of the bar and grabbed for the lip of the dumpster, catching it with the tips of her fingers and holding tight. The front of the dumpster bent outward and the entire thing dropped against the wall with the heavy sloshing sound of all the water trapped inside. Amber gasped in panic.
"No!" Had she just crushed Molly?
Quickly, she reached under the water and dug her fingers into the mud to grab the base of the dumpster. Amber felt a solid lip and gripped it firmly. One step at a time, she back peddled, dragging the bin through the muck and out of the alcove as if it were nothing more than oversized luggage. Her fingers formed deep grooves where she had dug into the metal base, but she ignored them and moved to check on the cat.
Before she could move behind the trash container, an orange and white, feline blur darted past her and into the rainy night.
8
MOVING ROCKS
Amber regarded the steam covered bathroom mirror. Her hair was still wet and expertly wrapped in a towel. She grabbed the washcloth from the hook beside the sink and wiped the glass. There was something wrong with her eyes. They were lighter than usual with a luminous yellow hue that reminded her of an evil Jedi. She reached up to touch her face and noticed her arms were more defined and muscular. Amber stepped back from the mirror in shock as her entire body suddenly swelled up like some massively grotesque bodybuilder with ropey veins and corded muscles.
Amber woke up screaming, ran to the bathroom mirror, and sighed with relief. Other than a bad case of bed-head, she looked completely normal.
The sound of heavy rain resonated from above as Amber wandered down the hall to the kitchen. It was still dark outside, but there was no way she was going back to bed. She was hungry, but it was an average-sort of hungry instead of the eat-everything-in-the-pantry level of hunger she had been experiencing this week. There was still some cereal left, so she sat down with a bowl and contemplated the previous evening. Had she really dragged that big dumpster out last night?
After Molly ran off, Amber had pushed the massive trash bin back into its usual spot. It had been easy to do, too easy. She left the broken locking bar beside the bin, as there was nothing she could do about that. The restaurant was probably going to need a new dumpster now. She had let everyone know that Molly had gotten out on her own and spent much of the rest of her shift doing mental gymnastics in an attempt to rationalize what she had done. But there was no denying it. The guys hadn't somehow "loosened" the dumpster in their earlier attempts to pull it from the alcove. She had moved it, breaking and tearing metal with her bare hands in the process. She shouldn't have been able to, but she had anyway.
Amber looked at the spoon in her hand and was suddenly fearful that she would accidentally crush it like tin foil, but it felt normal and assuring to her. Everything did. So, did she have super strength or didn't she? It was all too weird for her and Amber decided to give herself some time to process. She had the day off and planned to set the crazy stuff aside for a while—at least long enough to finish her breakfast and get chores done.
Amber was hammering the last nail into the replacement floorboard when her phone started ringing. It was her mother calling to check in on her. Amber spent the next forty minutes, or so, hearing about her parent's unplanned vacation and talking about her new job. The conversation was a welcomed slice of regular, and afterward, Amber felt ready to revisit the insane stuff. It only took her a few minutes to weather-seal the new floorboard. After she had cleaned up the brushes, it was time to give Rai a call.
***
An hour later, rain poured down in cascading waves over the mid-Texas hill country. Amber watched from the porch as Rai stood in the driveway under the downpour and somehow remained dry. He was giving a "demonstration" of his abilities. As he put it, he could make the wind blow just by thinking about it. Subtle blue waves flowed around him, and Amber could see them clearly when she was near him. From what Rai said, he could see something similar when he looked at her. As he described it, her skin looked like it had been dusted with golden glitter. The entire conversation was making her uncomfortable. "It's not natural," she said again. "How do you know this isn't something evil?"
"I don't know why this happened or where these powers came from. I have a lot of theories, but nothing more than wild guesses," Rai answered as he stepped back onto the porch to join her. "But I'm a big believer in the idea that 'evil is as evil does.'"
"You're trying to be funny again, but I'm serious," Amber retorted.
"So am I," Rai countered. "Look, you can use a hammer to break things or to build things. The hammer isn't good or evil, but the person using it sure can be. So far, what have you done with your powers?"
"I did something to the ground," Amber said thoughtfully. "Then, I moved a really heavy dumpster."
"To save a trapped cat," Rai finished. "Yes, very sinister."
"Mocking my concerns is not helping," Amber griped.
"Okay, okay. Let's talk about the ground thing. I don't know anything about soil or planting, but even I can tell this is a farmer's dream dirt," Rai said. "This started when you found an oil slick?"
"Yeah, it was under our old tractor."
"Tell me what you did." Rai leaned against the railing and folded his arms.
"I didn't do anything!" Amber said defensively.
"Don't get excited," Rai said soothingly. "Just try and remember what happened. Walk m
e through it step by step."
"Fine." Amber frowned and thought carefully. "I was out walking the property—"
"Is that something you do a lot?"
"Almost every day," She nodded and continued. "I noticed the oil under the tractor when I was walking by." Amber frowned at that. "No, that's not quite right." Rai raised a curious eyebrow but said nothing as she recalled the events of a few nights ago. "I felt sick, kind of queasy, and I touched the oil."
"You felt sick before or after you touched the oil?" Rai asked.
"Both," Amber said with certainty. "I felt a little queasy before I touched the oil. But I almost barfed after I put my finger in the goop."
"Okay, that's something." Rai bobbed his head.
"Great! What does it mean?" Amber asked hopefully.
"I'm not sure," he answered after a moment, and Amber glowered.
"This isn't helping!" she complained.
"Give me a chance," Rai said, making a placating gesture with his hands. "I've been working with my own abilities for a few months now, but it's not like I have an instruction manual or anything.”
"Okay, I'll try to keep calm," Amber said. She stared out into the rain and took a few calming breaths before continuing. "You have to keep in mind that none of this is easy for me. I didn't grow up hoping for something weird to happen to me like you did."
"Hey, this all came as a shock to me, too," Rai replied.
"Yes, but you're loving the whole idea of having powers." She turned back toward him. "Have you even once worried about where they came from or why?"
"Not really," Rai admitted. "I've been more worried about making sure I can control them."
"So, you can 'fight crime' like a superhero?" Amber chided.
"A little, yeah. I get a kick out of helping people. But that's not why I want to have control of these abilities." Something dark crossed over his expression briefly, and Amber noted it.
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