by A. C. Ellas
Nick snorted. “We were home schooled, ma’am. All our classes were remote, through the ‘net, and so long as we passed the courses, there was no need for suspicion on the school’s part.”
“I know, and we will look into that loophole. Now, did Evie tell you my offer? I’d like you both to come and live with me for a while. It would really be better for the two of you than the orphanage, and you’d get to stay together.”
“Evie told me,” Nick stated calmly, “and she wants to do it. I’ll go along with her decision in this.”
Gilly sighed in understanding. “In other words, you don’t trust me any farther than you can throw me, and if you didn’t have to worry about you sister, you’d tell me where I could shove my offer?”
Nick’s eyes widened slightly. “Ma’am, I’m sorry,” he said quietly, “but I don’t know what to say.”
Gilly patted his shoulder before he could pull back. “It’s okay, Nick. You don’t need to say anything. Once you’re a little better, say in a day or two, I’ll bring you home with me and you can see for yourself, okay? And if, after a while, you decide that you still don’t trust me, well, I’ll let you decide where you want to go from there. Fair enough?”
Nick nodded at last. “Ma’am, it’s a deal.”
Evie smiled from the other side of the bed.
Chapter Two: Cai
Jason stared at his feet as he scuffed his way across the wet ground of the schoolyard. The raucous cries of the other kids greeting each other or sometimes playing annoyed him. He wished they were allowed to go inside early. He wanted to get back to the book he was reading, a rather entertaining history of Great Britain. Not that he was British, no, he just loved a good history book, and Kipling’s work, while ancient, was very well written.
“Hey, brainiac!” shouted a decidedly unfriendly voice.
Knowing they meant him, Jason deigned to pick up his feet and move a little faster. It was time for the bell to ring, wasn’t it?
“Hey, I was talking to you, nerd.” The heavy hand of his tormenter spun him around.
Jason scowled and tried to look tough, like Sammie, his older brother. Sammie always claimed that bullies would leave the tough kids alone. “Leave me alone, Gary.”
Gary laughed at him, picked him up by his coat and shook him. “Don’t tell me what to do, brainiac.”
The other kids were gathering around now, drawn in to the violence like moths to flame. They were laughing at him, too.
Jason’s head was spinning, and not from the shaking. Shooting pains flashed through his head, from temple to temple, bouncing like pinballs. He’d read about pinballs. It was a game of flashing lights, moving rubber bits and bouncing balls. He felt like a pinball now as the bullies shoved him back and forth. He didn’t remember Gary setting him down. Or the rest of his gang arriving.
Their departure was so sudden, and Jason just stood there as the rest of the kids broke away, streaming into their classrooms. He stared blankly at the school, still thinking about pinballs and pain. One of the teachers finally noticed him, came over to him. “Jason? Didn’t you hear the bell?”
“Pinball,” he told her. “There’s a pinball loose in my head.” And passed out.
He came to almost immediately. The wet ground was soaking the back of his wool coat. The back of his head ached where he’d bumped it. He was pretty sure he hadn’t missed a single sharp rock either. At least the pinball bouncing in his head had fallen when he had. It had joined the fierce ache in the back of his head. Hoping the pinball wouldn’t decide to play in his cerebrum some more, he tried to sit up.
The teacher wouldn’t let him. “The ambulance is on the way, Jason. You passed out. You were convulsing. You need to get checked out. And I called your house. Your brother’s coming.”
“I wasn’t convulsing. All I did was fall.” He was surprised at how hard it was to speak. Like trying to force the words out through a thick layer of taffy that overlaid him. He felt dizzy—the sky was spinning. Maybe sitting up hadn’t been such a good idea.
“Jason, you had a seizure. It lasted seven minutes. Here’s the ambulance now.” The teacher sounded relieved.
Jason could hear the approaching siren, even if he wasn’t in a position to see the box or the flashing lights. That wasn’t important. Seizure? Seven minutes? Has it been that long? He’d felt the blackness closing in, then he’d been on the ground. There was no sense of any time having passed. A frantic whisper, like the scurry of a bug, but in the back of his head where the ache and the rock and the pinball had all converged, made him wince.
The tromp of feet approaching gave him warning of the arrival of the paramedics. The teacher quickly explained, “He was just standing there staring at the school, so I went over to him, and he said something weird, about pinballs, and fell down convulsing.”
In short order, Jason was on a backboard, there was a wad of gauze under his head to soak up the blood and his vitals were taken. “Heart rate’s up, BP’s down, O2’s normal, temp is low. Jason, we’re going to poke your finger now.” Jason was amused at the sting of the needle, but not so amused when the paramedic said, “His blood sugar’s low. That might have caused the seizure and the confusion.”
“Not confused,” he muttered rebelliously. “And how low?”
“Nobody said you were confused,” the other paramedic said, while the first man gave him a startled glance.
“How did you know it was low?” The first paramedic asked.
“You said so.”
“No, I didn’t. I had just read the number when you spoke up.”
“I heard you.”
“How old is he?” asked the second paramedic.
“Fourteen, I think,” said the teacher.
“Early, then. He’ll need testing.” The first paramedic shrugged and turned back to Jason. “Now, young man, I need to start an IV so we can give you some fluids. In the meantime, eat this.” The paramedic popped some sugar tabs into Jason’s mouth.
He started sucking on them immediately. He was starving.
Before long, they lifted Jason up onto the gurney and into the back of the ambulance. The ride to the hospital wasn’t long. He was taken straight back into ER, and by the time his brother arrived, his blood had been drawn, he’d peed in a cup and all sorts of X-Rays had been taken and there was talk of a CT scan.
Sammie settled in a chair beside him and frowned. “Jason? What happened?”
“I don’t know.” Jason closed his eyes and wished Sammie would go away.
“Lil bro, I know better. You know something. Talk to me.”
“I was being pushed around. My head started to really hurt. Then everyone was gone. A teacher came over to me. I passed out, I think, because suddenly I was on the ground, looking up. Teacher said I was out for a long time. Not a second like I thought. All the pain went to the back of my head, where the rock was, and the sky was spinning counterclockwise.”
“I’ll speak to the doctor,” Sammie said at length. He stood up and exited the room.
Snatches of words came to Jason. “Yes, he’s hurt…head trauma…the fall, not kids…diabetes…”
The doctor came into the exam room, trailed by a worried Sammie. She smiled at Jason. “Young man, you’ve had an eventful day. First off, you have a concussion, and you’re lucky you have a hard head, or it might have been worse. You hit your head on a rock when you fell. Now, why did you fall? We think it was really low blood sugar. We’re going to send you to a specialist in these sorts of things. Diabetes is very treatable. We’ll clone you a new pancreas if we have to. In the meantime, you’ll need to check your blood sugar regularly—every morning.”
The doctor paused, studying him carefully. “You had a headache before you fell?”
“Yes,” said Jason.
“Have you been hearing things? Whispers? Voices?”
Jason’s eyes widened. “Yes, what is it?”
“Too soon to tell, this
often happens in adolescence, but we can’t test you while you have a head injury.”
“Test him for what?” Sammie interrupted, and Jason knew why. Uncle Theodore.
“Psychic ability. He’s reached puberty, it isn’t all that uncommon for psi to develop about now,” said the doctor. “The paramedics reported that he heard what one of them was thinking.”
“He’s a bright kid with an overactive imagination. I’m sure it was just coincidence.” Sammie crossed his arms over his chest in full-blown belligerent mode. “Can I take him home now?”
“Yes, I’ll draw up the discharge instructions, prescriptions and referrals. The nurse will give you the testing meter and strips and show you how to use them.”
Chapter Three: Nick
Nick stepped out of the hovercar and looked around Gilly’s home with some interest. There were several large, old trees in the yard, an herb garden and even rosebushes. The yard wasn’t very big, but this was so near the city as to practically be in it, so what could one expect? This definitely wasn’t the woods like where he’d grown up. He could actually see the massive towers of the city, not all that far away. The house was modest, only two stories, with ivy trailing up the whitewashed walls and cheery blue trim on the eaves and windowsills.
Evie probably loves the place already, Nick thought as Gilly came around the other side of the car. He glanced at her, making an effort to be polite. “You did a nice job with the landscaping and garden, ma’am.”
Gilly chuckled, shaking her head. “Most of it was here when I bought the place, and the rest I hire done. Honestly, I have a black thumb, though god knows I’ve tried. Evie told me that you’re good with plants.”
“I get by, ma’am.” The fact that he could grow most anything he’d ever tried wasn’t really her business. “If you’re wanting labor in exchange for room and board, I’m willing, I guess.”
“No, Nick. You’re not paid labor, okay? That’s not why I brought you and your sister here.” Gilly looked honestly distressed at the idea of it. “I only meant that if you wanted to play about in the garden, that you were free to do so.”
Nick noticed her evident distress but pretended not to see it. “Okay. I misunderstood you, ma’am. Sorry.” He glanced at the yard one last time. “Now what, ma’am?”
Gilly sighed. “This way, young man. I’ll show you to your room.”
She led the way into the house, giving him the grand tour of the kitchen, dining room, living room, downstairs bath and library/study that made up the first floor. Then, she led him upstairs, and Nick was grateful that she took it slow. The talk he’d had with the doctors had been sobering. He had nearly died from his injuries, and those injuries weren’t completely healed yet. His guts would take time to heal and he was acutely aware that he was damn lucky to still have a functional gut at all.
As she paused on the landing halfway up, she told him, “You need to take it pretty easy for a while, Nick. You’re still not entirely healed, you know. But once you’re better, what you do with your time is entirely dependent on your own interests, except that I will require you to go to school.”
Nick’s eyebrow shot up. “Go to school, ma’am? As in, really go?”
“Whatever. I took a look at your school records, of course, so I know what level you’re really at.”
Fear claws at him as he stared at her with wide eyes, unable to control his expressions as well as he’d like.
“I’ll bet your father had no idea how smart you really are, either. I’ll bet he had no idea that you’re taking courses two year levels above your real age.”
Nick swallowed down the bile brought up by his nervous stomach. He didn’t want to be held back, as sometimes happened, or worse, assessed by a panel of shrinks. “Is that a problem, ma’am?”
Gilly smiled and shook her head. “Nick, I’ll help you get into any university you want. And they’d be delighted to have you, smart as you are.”
Nick didn’t know why he did it, but he blurted out his dream before he could stop himself: “I want to go to the Academy.”
Gilly’s eyebrows shot up, and Nick had the impression that she was pleased. “Young man, I’ll do everything in my power to help you do just that.” She gestured at the stairs. “You ready?”
Nick nodded and started slowly up the second half of the staircase, taking it easy due to the discomfort he still felt. Finally, he made it to the top of the staircase, eyes darting about as he emerged onto an open space, sort of a second living room with doors leading off it. Gilly led him to the first door to his right, across the open area from the stairs, and opened the door. He stepped in before her when she gestured for him to precede her, stopping abruptly at the sight.
There was a nice, full-sized bed in one corner. A large computer console took up a large part of the opposite wall. There was a dresser and a bookcase and an overstuffed recliner chair. It was really a nice set up, and he wondered how she’d managed to do this on such short notice. He walked the rest of the way into the room, bemused.
Gilly followed him in. “I took the liberty of getting you some clothes, young man, since all you seemed to have weren’t even fit for the rag bin. I’m sorry if you find that offensive, but it’s the honest truth. The hospital gave me your measurements, so the clothes should all fit. If you don’t like them, since god knows that young men’s tastes in clothing don’t necessarily match those of an old bat like me, you can exchange them at the local outlet, okay?”
Nick blinked at her, his sense of humor finally emerging from hiding, and he asked with a perfectly straight face, “And if I said that I liked wearing rags, ma’am?” When Gilly gaped at him, at a loss for words, his slight smile broke out.
Gilly began to laugh a moment later. “Oh, you got me good, young man. You got me good!”
Evie stuck her head in the door. “Everything okay in here?”
“I was just giving our new mother a hard time. She bought clothes for me.”
“I know. I helped.” Evie came the rest of the way into the room, nose in the air. “After all, Nicky, you never had any taste in clothes. I know you’d be perfectly happy wearing the same thing until it fell off you, but there are standards in polite society that must be maintained.”
Nick felt a strange stretching across his face and suddenly realized that he was smiling. The perplexed expression on Gilly’s face was just as amusing as Evie’s joke.
Evie grinned at their guardian. “I’m just kidding him…Nicky’s got impeccable taste, and he’s the only reason I ever had decent clothes to wear. That’s why it’s funny, see?”
Gilly chuckled and nodded.
Evie was the first to recover, and she walked over to her brother, settling gingerly on the arm of the recliner. “You all better now, Nicky?”
Nick stopped smiling, the distraction of the momentary humor gone now. “Yes, Evie, I’m better now. Still have to take it easy, they said, for a week or two.”
Evie nodded. “Good.” She brushed her brother’s bangs back. “You know what you need most?”
Nick’s eyebrow shot up. “No, what?”
“A haircut,” Evie announced with a perfect poker face. “You look like a tramp. Or a girl.”
Nick seemed to consider this. “Do you mean that my hair shouldn’t be longer than yours? Why didn’t you tell me this sooner, when it wasn’t such an unmanageable mop?”
* * * *
Gilly grinned as Evie giggled in delight at the obvious joke, since her brother’s hair was really only a couple of inches long, neither unmanageable nor a mop. It was, however, uneven, as if it had been cut last by inexpert hands and a pair of household scissors, which probably was the case. She was amazed that the two children had enough resilience and emotional capacity to even make jokes at this point, but the reports from the telepaths gave her the clue as to why this was.
Nick had done a very good job of keeping their father away from Evie, taking the brunt of the man’s wrat
h always. So Evie had lived something close to a normal life, and the two had shared a life completely separate from their father, constantly in each other’s company. Nick had done his best to keep her spirits up, too, hiding his own pain and fear from the girl. Evie didn’t know, for example, that their father had been raping Nick almost nightly for years. The man never touched Evie because Nick made sure that he didn’t, keeping Evie out of sight, and thus, out of mind, when that mood was on him.
Nick really is an amazing person, she reminded herself as the two children fell silent. Nick’s eyes were drifting shut as he relaxed, so Gilly cleared her throat, causing them to both startle and stare at her like they’d forgotten she was there. “Nick,” she said gently, pretending that she hadn’t seen that instant of fear in their eyes, “if you’re going to take a nap, don’t do it in the chair…you’ll wake up with a very sore hinny.”
Evie looked at her brother. “She’s right, you know. You’re just out of the hospital, so I know you must be tired.”
Nick half smiled. “Seeing as I’m outvoted, fine.” He stood up, trying to conceal a wince. “And Mother is certainly right about that chair.” He sat down on the edge of the bed, fixing Evie in his gaze. “You’ll be okay?”
Evie nodded. “You bet, Nicky. Get some rest.” She tiptoed out of the room pointedly, causing Nick to snort.
Gilly followed her out, closing the door behind herself. “He really does love you, you know?”
Evie nodded. “I know it. I know it better than you think I do. I’m not stupid or blind. I know what he did for me.”
Gilly smiled sadly. “I didn’t think you weren’t aware of it, sweetie. I’m just glad to see the two of you able to make jokes.”
Evie smiled suddenly. “When he’s better, you should try his cooking. I swear, he can make anything taste good!”
Gilly grinned. “Oh, my. A man who can clean and sew and cook? Is the world coming to an end?”
Evie grinned back. “Must be, since the world made him.”