by Robyn Steele
It was Monday morning and we had our solid plan laid out. We went over it again to be sure we were all in sync. I was very nervous but also excited. Today may be the day I see my dad for the first time. I prayed that I would see him today and that our plan would work.
Stella, Clariee, grandpa, Mr. Domingo, Cruz and I drove to the University. All of the others followed us in other vehicles. They all parked in the parking lot to wait if we needed them. The six of us went into the research and laboratory building. We waited in a foyer area while Mr. Domingo went to find Pietro.
Mr. Domingo taught at the University and had access to most buildings but not this one. He carried in a box of mice and asked the receptionist to direct him to Pietro, telling her that he had a package he needed to deliver personally. The receptionist told him to wait there and she would call him. Pietro, of course was not expecting a delivery but when Mr. Domingo kept insisting he had one, Pietro came to the reception area to see what the mix up was.
Mr. Domingo had his cell phone ready with my phone number. When Pietro appeared and began to question him, he pressed send on the phone in his pocket. That was our cue to join him there. When Caio was within reach, he put the receptionist under a spell to be unconscious. I stepped right up to Pietro and asked him where my father was. He played dumb at first and said he didn’t know what I was talking about. Then it dawned on him that if he could get me too it would benefit him. So he amazingly “remembered.”
“Follow me little girl and I will take you to him.” Pietro purred. He motioned for me to follow him and I obeyed. He was very cunning but I mostly just wanted to get my dad, no matter what the cost.
“We all go.” Grandpa said.
“No, just the girl.” Pietro commanded.
“How stupid do you think we are?”
“I’m not saying anyone is stupid. However, she does want to see her dad. I have the upper hand. Only the girl goes.”
“We all go.” Grandpa said firmly.
“Then I guess you won’t be seeing him today, sweetheart. Come back another day, please. I would love for you to see him.”
“No, really guys, I need to go in. Just give me some time. Please.” I pleaded with them.
“Can she take just one with her?” Grandpa asked.
“Well let’s see now. I might let you take one of the females.”
“Okay. I’ll take Stella.”
“And since you chose Stella, I will let you take the other female. Come, both of you.” He held the door open and ushered us through. Then he closed the locked door behind him.
I had wanted Clariee to come and that is why I suggested Stella. Mr. Domingo had planned that part. The door being locked was not a problem since grandpa and Cruz both had super-strength and could just lift it off its hinges. Caio was going to stay at the reception desk in case the receptionist woke up and needed the spell again.
As Clariee and I walked down the hallways with Pietro, Clariee threw confusion on anyone we passed. She kept it away from Pietro because we needed him to take us to my dad.
Grandpa, Stella and Cruz came through the door when we were out of sight. Grandpa could see through all the walls and know where to find us. They were not going to enter the room right away.
Pietro took us through some more locked doors until we finally entered a room with no windows. I knew immediately that the man at the computer was not my dad. He looked up at us in confusion. Pietro filled him in. “We have a new specimen. We can resume our studies. This is a half breed. This is Demetri’s daughter.”
“Ah ha. Nice job P. How did you manage to do what we couldn’t do in her own home town?” The man stood up and walked over to me. He ran his fingers down a lock of my hair. I jerked away and slapped him. I forgot my extra strength. He fell to the ground. When he stood up he sent a right punch to my jaw. “Don’t ever do that, little girl.” He turned around and addressed Pietro. “What is the other one?” He was pointing to Clariee.
“Nothing. She just insisted on bringing her. Kill her.”
“No! I will cooperate. You don’t have to do that.” I screamed.
“Oh, you will cooperate, all right. But this extra witness…..we don’t need.”
“Clariee, I’m so sorry I brought you here.” I told her. Cruz, I’m so sorry I got your mom into this. They want to kill her. I told Cruz in my mind. That was their cue to come in.
Pietro started to grab Clariee. She sent him confusion and he hesitated. The other man, I assume was Bentley, went to grab her and she sent him confusion also. I gave them both a quick kick to the jaw, sending them flying across the floor. We bolted for the door just as grandpa and Cruz entered the room.
“Where is he?” Cruz asked.
“I read their minds. Another group came in here and took him. They think they are from grams village but they aren’t sure. He’s been gone for a few months and they can’t find him. These are the guys who kidnapped us, trying to find my dad.” I filled them in.
Pietro and the other man began to stand up. They were still dazed but attempted to attack us as retribution for me kicking them. I threw fire on them to stop them. They rolled on the floor to put out the fires but the fire alarms had already gone off. The sprinkling system came on. I searched around and found a vault. We threw the two men in the vault and closed it. Then we began searching the room for any information to take with us. I grabbed some files out of a cabinet and then we all left the room.
In the hall a man tried to stop us to ask us what we were doing in here. Clariee sent him confusion and he just stood there as we ran out. Everyone else was running to get out of the building and paid no attention to us. They all assumed there was a fire. We made it out of the building without incident other than we were soaking wet. We gathered everyone and headed back to the villa.
“Well, back to the drawing board.” Grandpa sighed. We filled everyone in on what we had learned at the University.
“So I figure my dad didn’t see who took him because he sent me the name Pietro and Senesi. So I need to try contacting him and see if he can get us more information.” I deliberated. “Could we contact the governing committee in your village, grams, to get help?”
“I don’t know if they will help. We can try and see but I’d rather wait until we have more information because we don’t know who else is involved. We don’t want to contact the wrong people.” Grams said.
“Since we have all of these people to help,” said grandpa, “we should go straight to the TEC headquarters and confront them. Is everyone still in?” He looked around at everyone, searching for each response. All of them were willing to help. They were appalled that people would do this to anyone. They were even more appalled that it was people of their own kind.
Paolo suggested we recruit more Teletrians to side with us. “They don’t necessarily need to come with us, just be on our side.”
“But we don’t know who we can trust in this matter.” Protested Cruz. “I can’t risk Talitha’s life.”
“I don’t want to do that either.” Stated Paolo. “But if we just approach people we know and we take a mind reader to talk to them, we can just tell the people whose thoughts are pure.”
“I could go too and put a truth spell on them.” Said aunt Cat. “That’s my specialty.”
“Perfect!” I exclaimed. “Let’s get started. Cruz and Aunt Cat and I went to visit some Teletrians. All the others stayed at the bed and breakfast and made phone calls. They called Teletrians they knew to see who they could recruit. Grandpa or someone good at reading minds would be in on the conversation to screen out who was truly with us and who we could trust to share our plight with.
We gathered 13 more Teletrians to stand with us and 102 more Teletrians to support us from their homes. Things were looking up. There is strength in numbers which gave a boost to my confidence in our mission.
“Okay. That really hits the spot.” I said.
“Your muscles are very tight. You need to relax.”
“Is that one of your abilities? Relaxing muscles.”
“No special ability here. Just old fashioned massage.”
“Well it feels like heaven.”
“That’s my goal.”
I was so relaxed I fell asleep right there. When I woke up it was morning. I had a blanket over me and I was lying on the sofa. Cruz was sleeping in the chair. Even though I had slept on the couch, I felt so rested. There was a peaceful feeling that I had not felt in a long time, if ever at all. I felt as if my life was right on schedule, so to speak. No, my life was not perfect. Whose is? But it felt close enough to perfect for me.
I stood up and stretched. Cruz was still asleep. I went up to my room to shower and change. I was just finishing blow drying my hair when my phone rang. It was Nate. I let it go to voicemail. I just couldn’t deal with him right now. What could I say to him to make it any better? I needed a good heart-to-heart with momma.
I texted momma and asked her where we could have a talk at. She texted back that she would meet me in the garden. I went outside to the beautiful flower gardens. There were at least twenty different kinds of roses arranged in a pattern that complimented each other’s colors. There were lilies of all varieties and colors spread throughout the garden in a designed pattern. Jasmine and Narcissus flowers contributed strong fragrances. Babies’ breath and bridal lace accented each collection. In the middle of all the flowers was an arbor with a stone bench under it. I sat on the bench waiting for my mother. This was serenity at its best; tranquility at its finest. One could almost forget the worries waiting externally. I consumed deeply the heavenly aromas drifting in the air. If only I could stay here cocooned in this private little paradise.
Momma breezed in and sat next to me, giving me a big hug. “Good morning my beautiful daughter. What’s on your mind?”
“I just needed to talk about Nate and Cruz and my abilities and everything, I guess.” We talked about not wanting to hurt Nate but not really feeling anything special with him. We talked about the special connection I had with Cruz and my reservations there. We talked about my dad and how I longed to see him. Actually, I talked and momma listened intently and compassionately. That was my momma’s gift. She had a great knack for listening without passing judgment or giving advice. Now I really felt at peace. Momma had a gift for that too.
“Talli, dear, it is time to teach you to be one of us.” Said momma.
“What? I thought that’s what we’ve been doing already.”
“No, actually, we’ve been teaching you to be a Teletrian. I mean it’s time to teach you to be like grams and me.”
“What does that mean?” I questioned.
“You know all about grandma’s people and that they have special abilities, too.” Momma told me. “What you haven’t heard yet is that I am from her same village but a different family. Grams and I are alike. We need to teach you our ways. We are in harmony with the land and elements and they come in handy quite often.”
I gave a look of confusion so momma kept explaining. “We can call upon the elements to influence things. For instance, when I plant my garden I call upon the Earth and sun to nourish and strengthen my plants. Have you ever noticed that my garden produces much more in quantity and bigger and healthier plants than other people’s gardens? My tomatoes are bigger than anyone else’s and I have twice as many. We always end up giving them away because we have so many.”
“Well, ya but I always thought you just had a green thumb, so to speak. You know, like you were just good at it.” I said.
“Well I can only take credit for using my talents to call upon the elements. So in a way, I have a green thumb. But it is a talent I am born with, not just learned. It’s both. You are born with it and you have to develop it. And if you don’t use it regularly, you lose it.”
“I think I get it. What else do you use it for?” I asked.
“We only use our talents for good. Sometimes there’s a fine line between what’s good and what’s not. If that ever happens, you need to seek guidance. You can be creative in what you use your talents for. You can persuade people, like diffusing contention. You can do that by confusing their thoughts or putting a suggestion in their mind. If you are really good you can cause someone to fall asleep. You can bring on rain and wind. There are many things you will learn as you develop your talent. Use your intuition and creativeness. You are your only limit.” Momma sat there like she was reminiscing about times gone by.
“Well, where do I start learning?” I wondered aloud.
Momma stood up and gently pulled me towards a rose bush. “See if you can make this bud open by calling the element of the sun and energy of the earth.” She told me. I closed my eyes and tried to clear my mind. I focused on the tiny rose bud folded in on its self. I called upon the warmth of the sun and the energy of the earth to surround me and persuade this little bud to open its pedals and present its beauty to us. To my amazement the bud slowly opened each pedal, one by one until it was fully exposed.
I was speechless. Words could not express what I was feeling. This was one of the most beautiful things I had ever witnessed. And I had caused it! Momma put her arm around my shoulder and gave a little squeeze. “Well done mia cara.”
“What now?” I asked her.
“It’s up to you, Talli. You can explore and try things. Use your creativity.” She answered.
“So is it okay to let Cruz know?”
“Of course it is. One day you will share everything with him. You don’t want to start a relationship with secrets.”
I was still having a hard time wrapping my head around the betrothal thing. But she was right. I didn’t want to have any secrets with Cruz. I went back to the great room to see if he was awake. He was gone so he must have gotten up. I decided it was time to use my abilities more. I thought in my mind, “Cruz, where are you?” I concentrated on projecting the words to Cruz.
He answered right away. “In the kitchen, love.”
I went to the kitchen and poured some orange juice, got a croissant and sat down to talk to Cruz about my new discoveries. He was so proud of me and excited to use these new abilities to rescue my dad. Cruz called a meeting of everyone to start planning our mission.
We all met on the beach, sitting on the large lava rocks at various heights around a semicircle. I was in the middle facing everyone with Cruz by my side. Cruz asked me if I wanted to fill them in on my new discovery, which I did.
“I had no idea your mother was from the same village as your grandma.” Mr. DaMonico said.
Grandpa stood up and walked over to me to address everyone. “When Sophia and I had our son Demetrio, we weren’t accepted by the Teletrians so we could not arrange a betrothal for our son. We were still concerned about him marrying a normal person. We thought it might expose our people to others. So to solve the problem, we took him to Sophia’s village to meet young girls to develop relationships with. He met a few of them and wrote to them as he was growing up. The relationship with Natalia developed into more and they were married eventually. Natalia’s family wasn’t very happy about it so we have not seen them since.”
“So we have even more talents to use in our plan. Let’s get started, shall we?” Cruz proposed. Everyone agreed eagerly. There was no telling what my abilities would be. However, I was ready to find out.