by Strand, Jeff
“No.”
“Okay. I asked and you said no, so I’m not going to keep pushing it. We’ll let that idea drop. In my own defense, a couple of minutes ago I saw a pregnant woman almost fall down some stairs, so I’m still a little shaken up.”
“That’s fair,” said Allison.
“My minute’s up, isn’t it?”
“I don’t know. I forgot to start a timer.”
“I’m sorry if it seemed like I was trying to be menacing. I really wasn’t.”
“It’s fine.”
“Maybe I imagined it.”
“Maybe you did.”
“Anyway, you seemed upset and scared, and I just wanted to make sure you knew that you had no reason to feel bad. You should be feeling proud. That’s basically all I have to say.”
“Then I have two questions for you,” said Allison.
“Sure. Let’s hear them.”
“First question: what do you think you saw?”
Cody hesitated. “From my vantage point—which I thought was a pretty good vantage point—it didn’t look like you actually touched her. It was like...not levitation, that’s not right. You know how when you’ve got two magnets, and they either stick together or they repel each other? It was like your hands and her shoulders were magnets, and there was this invisible layer between them. I didn’t describe it very well but that’s what I saw.”
Allison kept her expression neutral. This was concerning, yet he did seem truly sincere about not having harmful intentions. He simply saw something weird and wanted to find out what was going on.
“Question two,” she said. “Why do you want to take me out to dinner?”
Cody shrugged. “Spur of the moment thing. When I see somebody save a pregnant woman, I tend to think they might be a cool person to hang out with. Thought it might calm you down...although, obviously, first date jitters aren’t all that calming, so I didn’t think it through very well. Like I said, spur of the moment thing. I don’t know. I wanted to ask you out.”
“I’m old enough to be your mother.”
“How old do you think I am?”
“Twenty-seven?”
“Twenty-nine. How old are you?”
“Forty-five.”
“Okay, so, the math checks out biologically, but some people would be pretty unhappy about it. Not gonna lie—I thought you were a hot young forty-four year-old. Now it’s awkward.”
If Allison weren’t still so upset about the baby, she would have smiled. “Give me your number,” she said. “I may or may not call you. If you haven’t heard from me by five-thirty, then go ahead and make other plans.”
Cody chuckled. “You’re confusing me with somebody with a social life. My current plan involves an evening at home with a jigsaw puzzle. It isn’t much different from my plans for the previous six or seven hundred evenings.”
“Don’t be mad if I don’t call.”
“I won’t.”
“I mean it.”
“I won’t be mad. I won’t even ask you your favorite kind of food, because that would be presumptuous. We’ll sort that out if you do call.”
She entered Cody’s number into her phone, shook his hand, told him that it was nice to meet him, and then got up off the bench. She walked away, feeling frantic, confused, and weirdly excited.
5
“Everything looks totally fine,” said the nurse doing the sonogram. “You’re not doing your daughter or yourself any favors by smoking, but you’ve got a healthy baby in there.”
“So nothing has changed since our last visit?” Daxton asked.
“Not a thing.”
“That’s great to hear,” said Maggie. “We didn’t think anything was wrong, but I almost fell down some stairs, and we wanted to check it out just to be safe.”
“Oh, of course. I’m glad you didn’t hurt yourself. It can be tricky when you’ve got a new center of gravity.”
As they drove out of the parking lot, Daxton put his hand on her leg. “Well, that’s a relief.”
“Yeah. I mean, I knew everything was okay, but the way that lady got so upset, we couldn’t not check it out.” She took out her cell phone. “I’ll send her a text to let her know that she freaked out for nothing.”
“Wait, hold up. Don’t send anything yet.”
“Why?”
“Hear me out,” said Daxton. “What if we didn’t let her off the hook?”
“What do you mean?”
“She thinks she might have hurt the baby, right? Irrationally, yeah, but she believes it. She kept apologizing. What if we did something with that? How much do you think we could get out of her if she believes you had a miscarriage because of her?”
Maggie let out a high-pitched squeak of a laugh. “How do you even think of something like that?”
“It makes sense, doesn’t it? I show up with the bad news, give her a sob story about how we already didn’t know how we were gonna pay our medical bills, and tell her that now you’re insisting on having a funeral because you need the closure...”
Maggie laughed again and clapped her hands together. “That is so messed up.”
“But the idea has potential, right? What if she’s rich?”
“She didn’t look rich.”
“Let’s say we get five hundred bucks out of her. That’s still five hundred bucks we didn’t have before. I’m not talking about a long con where we need a big score to make it worthwhile. I’m talking about one conversation that might end with her writing us a check. I bet I could be out of there in ten minutes.”
“You’d permanently traumatize her for five hundred bucks?”
“I’d feel bad if it was for that little,” Daxton said. He wouldn’t really; hell, he’d do it for free, though Maggie didn’t need to know that. “But it could be so much more. What if it’s thousands? What if she empties her savings account to cope with her guilt?”
“You think she’ll buy it?”
“Why wouldn’t she? She’s the one who flipped out and kept apologizing. You and I never said it was her fault or that the baby might’ve been hurt. That was all her. All we’re doing is confirming her worst fear.”
“I don’t know,” said Maggie. “I’m sure you could make it work, but the whole idea is just so freaking cruel. If she hadn’t caught me when I fell, the baby could’ve been harmed for real. I’m not sure I can do that to her.”
“You wouldn’t be doing anything. It’s all me. It’s like when I do a job for Winlaw; you don’t need to hear the details. I won’t do a full recap. I’ll just come home with the money.”
“What if she finds out?”
“How would she find out?” Daxton asked. “She’s not gonna go on some investigative journey. She’s sure as hell not going to walk around our building anymore—I bet she avoids this whole neighborhood from now on.”
“You can’t promise that she won’t find out.”
“If she does find out, then she becomes a problem, and I’m really good at making problems go away. It’s what I do.”
“Yeah.”
“So what do you say?”
Maggie frowned. “I don’t know.”
“It’s easy money. We’re not exactly shitting on golden toilets.”
“Don’t curse around our child.”
“Sorry. We’re not exactly pooping on golden toilets.”
“What you’re proposing is really awful. I can’t let you do that to her for five hundred bucks. It’s gotta be worth it. I mean, we’re gonna destroy this poor woman. It’s gotta be, like, two thousand or something.”
“So if I can get two thousand out of her, you’re okay with the plan?”
“Yeah, I guess,” said Maggie.
“What if she doesn’t have that much?”
“Then you tell her you made it up. Tell her it was a mean-spirited prank. I don’t care what you tell her, but we’re not going to ruin her life for five hundred bucks.”
“All right, fair enough,” said Daxton.
&nb
sp; “When are you going to do it?”
“Tomorrow. We’ll increase our odds if we give her a night to worry about it. Let her keep working herself into a frenzy.”
Maggie giggled. “I’m not laughing because it’s funny, I’m laughing because...I don’t even know why I’m laughing. Yeah, let’s do it.”
Allison sat at her dining room table, doing some online research on babies being injured in the womb. What she’d hoped to find was “Oh, yeah, the mother would totally know right away,” but that didn’t seem to be the case.
That said, as she sat here, an hour removed from her initial horror, she was feeling much better about the whole incident. She hadn’t touched the woman’s stomach. Not that she had to, but it wasn’t as if every time she used her abilities people’s bones started shattering. She hadn’t been angry or frightened when it happened—just extremely startled. If she thought about it calmly and logically, based on her prior history, this incident had almost certainly done nothing to harm that woman’s unborn child.
She couldn’t completely relax until she got the call. But the idea that she was a baby-killing monster was no longer tearing through her brain, helped in part by the purring cat on her lap. Purring cats made everything better.
She had to figure out what to do about Cody.
She’d vowed that she would never again share her secret with anybody. But Cody didn’t seem to doubt what he’d seen with his own eyes. He didn’t know the full extent of what she could do, and he didn’t know about the tragedies in her past, but he knew that she was either a very talented illusionist or that there was something strange about her.
Having somebody to talk to about it would be such a relief.
She could set the parameters. Explain that this could never be more than a “just friends” relationship (no benefits), and that he could never get her upset. The friendship wouldn’t last, but maybe they’d be okay for a short while. She’d get dinner out of it, anyway.
She deserved that chocolate muffin, and she deserved to let this guy take her out to dinner. She’d wait for the pregnant woman to confirm that everything was fine, and then she’d call Cody.
The woman didn’t call.
It was 5:25 PM. Five minutes before Allison’s self-imposed deadline to call Cody. Not that he’d refuse to speak with her after that, but she’d already come off as somebody who might not be in the best mental health and she didn’t want him to think she was unreliable as well.
Allison kept wavering back and forth.
The baby is dead. They were so upset they couldn’t call.
The baby is fine. They just haven’t called yet.
The woman decided that a minor stumble was not a good enough reason to rush to her doctor, just because some crazy lady insisted upon it. As soon as Allison was out of sight, they’d decided not to bother.
Maybe the first option was true.
The second almost certainly wasn’t. They wouldn’t get her checked out and then be such assholes that they didn’t bother to let Allison know that all was well.
Honestly, Allison was pretty sure they simply hadn’t gone to the doctor. Maybe they couldn’t get in to see their regular obstetrician and saw no need for an emergency room visit, or maybe they blew it off altogether. The pregnant woman would assume that she knew her own body better than the panicked lady who’d stopped her from falling, and maybe they had a busy day planned and simply weren’t able to squeeze in a doctor’s visit just for a stranger’s peace of mind.
A text saying that they weren’t able to make it to the doctor and would update her later would’ve been nice, but she didn’t know these people. Maybe they were inconsiderate. Maybe they were worried that they’d wake up in the middle of the night and she’d be standing at the foot of the bed shrieking, “Prove to me that your baby is okay! The spawn of our master must not be harmed!”
Either way, though there might be an element of self-delusion involved, she’d decided that she was going to assume the baby was all right until she heard otherwise. They might never get in touch with her. She couldn’t spend the rest of her life worrying about it.
At 5:29 PM, she called Cody.
“Hello?” he answered.
“It’s Allison. From earlier today. The pregnant woman tripped, and you asked me out to dinner, and I said I’d call.”
“I like how you think my social life is so rich that I need that many details to remember you.”
“Well, I don’t know you.”
“Since my mom’s picture didn’t show up on the screen, it was either going to be you or somebody trying to sell me something. So thank you for not being a telemarketer.”
“You’re welcome.”
“I feel like I’m not selling myself very well. I don’t live with my mom or anything like that. I mean, not that there’s anything wrong with living with your parents. There are a lot of reasons to go that route. I don’t know who you live with.”
“Just a cat. My parents died when I was ten.”
“Oh, I’m sorry.”
Allison cringed. What the hell is the matter with you? Why are you bringing up your dead parents thirty seconds into your first phone call? You’re anti-social but you didn’t grow up in a goddamn cave! Jesus, learn to talk to people without being creepy and weird!
“It’s fine. I haven’t been ten for a long time.”
Yep, just keep on emphasizing how old you are, dipshit. How else can you get him to reconsider his invitation? Should you ask him what over-the-counter cream works best for an itchy crotch?
Cody chuckled. “So you said you may or may not call, which kind of implied that you’d call if you were interested, and wouldn’t call if you weren’t. I’m hoping that’s accurate.”
“It is.”
“Hey, great! Did you hear back from the lady?”
“No. I’m just going to assume that everything’s fine.”
“That’s probably the right attitude. Do you have a favorite restaurant?”
“What if we just got take-out and had dinner at your place?” Allison knew she might be sending the wrong message, but if she was going to tell him about her telekinetic powers, she didn’t want other people at the restaurant to overhear. She wasn’t worried that Cody might be a serial killer. If the evening went horribly, fatally wrong, she wouldn’t be the corpse on the floor.
Cody hesitated for a moment. “Sure, that sounds fine. I’m a neat freak, so there’s nothing to clean up. If anything, I should mess it up a little.”
“What time works for you?”
“Anytime. Seven?”
“Perfect.”
“What genre of food do you prefer? I’ll have it delivered.”
“Do you like Thai?” Allison asked.
“Absolutely.”
“Order whatever you want. I like it all.”
“Will do.” Cody gave her his address, and Allison hung up.
Holy shit. She had a date.
She wasn’t sure if she should have clarified the reason for wanting to do this at his place. “Just to be clear, you’re not getting laid tonight,” seemed inappropriate. If he started to get a bit date rapey, she’d set him straight.
But...she had a date tonight!
Holy shit!
6
Allison owned “don’t care what anybody else thinks” clothes, and she owned “professional business attire for video conference calls” clothes. She didn’t own “first date” clothes.
She very briefly considered going out and buying something, but she didn’t even know where to begin. She needed a wacky best friend who could make faces while she stepped out of the dressing room in various outfits as part of a movie montage, finally giving her a thumbs-up at the end of the song.
She’d have to decide whether to go with the high end of her don’t-care clothes or the low end of her business clothes. After way more contemplation on the issue than she would ever admit to anybody, she went with the former. Jeans and a nice red T-shirt. If he greeted her
at the door in a tuxedo, well, at least her shirt didn’t have grease stains on the front.
She looked in the mirror. Her clothes were fine, for somebody who wasn’t trying to impress anybody. Her hair...not great. It didn’t look like vermin nested in it, but the proper description was “ugh.”
There wasn’t enough time for a trip to the salon. She’d just have to do the best she could.
As she messed with her hair, she felt like she should be far more worried about Cody knowing her secret than she was. She did have a bug out bag in the closet if she needed to flee, but she really hadn’t thought about what she’d do if he said, “I’m telling the world about your dark magic, wretched witch!” That simply wasn’t the vibe she got from him. Granted, one could argue that a woman who purposely didn’t interact with other people might not be the best judge of these things, but she’d trust her gut until she had reason to do otherwise.
Her hair was clean and combed and she decided that was the best she could do. At least there were no twigs in it.
She gave Spiral a couple of treats to make up for having to turn off the electric blanket (she didn’t want to burn the house down) and then left.
His apartment building was several miles from where they’d met. It was only 6:51, so she waited in the car for a few minutes, wondering if this was a terrible idea, and then headed up to his third floor apartment right on time.
She knocked on the door, still questioning this decision.
Cody answered. He’d changed his shirt, but he wasn’t any better dressed than her except that he was wearing long sleeves. “Great to see you again!” he said, stepping out of her way without offering a hug.
She walked into his apartment. He wasn’t kidding about being a neat freak. The place was almost antiseptic, though it smelled nice, like a kind of flower she couldn’t identify.
There was a couch, a very large television, and a couple of bookshelves. Without going over and perusing the contents, she was certain that they were arranged in a very specific manner. Alphabetically by author? By subject matter? She didn’t know, but she was confident that there was a system.