“Okay,” Shane says, bringing me back to the original conversation, “the best way to start mastering the air around you is to first learn how to identify other Aerlings. It’s the same basic principle.”
I look down at Molly for confirmation. She shrugs. “Nobody ever taught me about this.”
“Well then, tell me what to do,” I say to Shane.
Looking extremely please, Shane dives in, telling me how Aerlings can identify each other by their elemental makeup, rather than searching their bodies for the birthmark Olivia always thought looked like a meandering stream. I’ve learned since then that it’s meant to be a stream of air flowing between worlds, but right now what Shane is telling me seems more useful.
“We can control the air because we’re partly made of air.” Shane scrunches his eyebrows. “Not like we have bubbles of air in us or anything. That would be weird. It’s more like our genetic makeup is composed of elements in the air that make us exist in a more fluid state than humans. We can extend the air within us to interact with the world, or pull air into us and use it to fuel our talents.”
“So, first you need to identify the bits of yourself that Shane is talking about,” Conner says. “Find the essential Aerling parts of your DNA that make you different from humans. Once you recognize it within yourself, finding it in others becomes a snap. It’s only a few more steps to start interacting with the air around you and controlling it.”
A few months ago, this all would have sounded like gibberish. Now, I know I have to try even if it doesn’t make logical sense. I glance down at Molly to see her eyes closed and an expression of deep concentration splashed across her face. Shrugging, I follow her example.
I close my eyes and try to figure out what Shane was talking about. What is the fundamental difference between me and other humans? How am I supposed to feel it? I try to concentrate, but my thoughts slip back to Olivia. Only barely do I hang onto my original intention and ask myself what makes Olivia’s makeup different from mine.
It’s not hard to imagine touching her. I can call up an image of my hand on her face in an instant. I hold onto the picture of us so tightly, wishing it wasn’t just my imagination. The desire to know when I will see her again and how she will be able to help me get home consumes me.
Unwillingly, my mind travels back to before Olivia found me. I walked for so long, begging for someone to see me, to help me. The memory plays through my mind. I watch as their eyes sweep past me unable to see what Olivia did. The despair that accompanies the memory threatens to crush me until I spot Olivia’s five-year-old face peeking out at me from the living room window.
What does she see that others can’t?
Suddenly, the memory shifts. The skin of my five-year-old self changes subtly. The quality of my being shifts as a random stranger walks by. The bonds that hold me together soften. They take on the qualities of air, invisible to the eyes, but not to the other senses. I look back to Olivia, who can still see me, then back to the stranger.
It isn’t Olivia I should be focusing on.
I blink once and the scene changes. Olivia’s parents stand with Evie, all three peering in my general direction, but not seeing me. I look back at the memory version of myself and examine my makeup. To the touch, I am solid, but I can feel the same fluidity that I did with the stranger.
Pulling up a new memory, I put all my concentration into remembering the moment I first revealed myself to Olivia’s mom. I watch my double and I concentrate on recreating the moment. At the time, I thought all I was doing was letting go of my fear, but now, I watch in fascination as the fluidity built into my being pulls together on command and allows Olivia’s mom to see me for the first time.
It wasn’t one bit or part of me that I needed to find in order to access my power. It was understanding and accepting. I’m not human. I am different. I am Aerling.
“Whoa,” I hear Shane say.
Opening my eyes, I am startled to find a heavy mass of air swirling in the palm of my hand. My surprise sparks something in the air. A small crackle of electricity rolls through the center, making everyone’s eyes widen.
“Uh, maybe you should send that away before you short out the car and leave us stranded here all night,” Conner says. I can tell he means it, and I agree, but I can’t help feeling satisfied at the way his eyes can’t seem to be pulled away.
“How do I get rid of it?” I ask
“Like this,” Molly says as she takes my hands in hers. Gently, she folds my hands together and tells me to relax. The tension I didn’t realize I was holding throughout my body melts away at her words, as does the ball of air.
Everyone takes a deep breath when the possibility of me electrocuting someone dissipates. I lean back into my seat and stare up at the roof of the SUV. I feel drained and exhilarated at the same time.
“Dude,” Shane says, “you just made lighting in your hand. Do you realize that? You’re like Thor Junior or something! How’d you do that?”
“I’m not sure,” I say, “but I’m certainly going to find out.”
Chapter 11
Practicing
(Mason)
“Is it time yet?” Molly whispers.
“Almost.”
We lay on the pullout sofa bed in the living room the Parker’s set up for us, staring at the ceiling as we wait for the house to quiet down. Well, technically, the pullout sofa was meant for me while they made up the other sofa for Molly. Ten seconds after Mrs. Parker turned the lights out, Molly scrambled up next to me. She’s had a tight grip on my hand ever since.
“Is it time now?” Molly whines.
“Just a little longer,” I say. “Mr. Parker only went to bed five minutes ago. We need to make sure he’s all the way asleep.”
Molly huffs, but stops whining. Instead, she asks, “Where are we going to go? It’s so late, how are we going to find a phone to call Olivia?”
“There was a hotel a few miles back. We’ll be able to find a phone there.”
“Are we going to walk all that way?” Molly asks.
Chuckling a bit at the whine in her voice, I pat her head. “No, we’re going to practice using public transit tonight.”
“But, how’re we going to get a bus to stop for us? There won’t be many people out in the middle of the night waiting at the bus stops.”
“Don’t you worry,” I say, “I’ll take care of that.”
Molly looks over at me eagerly, waiting for an explanation, but I don’t spill my secrets just yet. She frowns at me and pouts when she realizes I’m not going to tell her. It’s hard not to laugh at her. Instead, I smile and turn away. Hoping she’ll focus on resting for a few minutes, I let my thoughts wander to where they want to go most. Olivia filters back into my mind immediately.
I hate not being able to contact her every day, especially knowing that something odd has been going on with her. The first time I felt the strange sensation from her, I was able to call her and ask what had happened. Now that it’s happened again, it’s killing me not to know she’s okay.
With the Brittons, I knew nothing I said would ever convince them that going back to Olivia was an option. I have hopes that the Parkers will be a different story. If Olivia needs me, I won’t stand back and let her suffer. She has already been hurt too much because of me.
Half an hour later, I nudge Molly. I half expect her to be asleep, but she pops up with an excited grin. “Is it time?”
“It’s time.”
Molly rolls off the bed and is slipping into her tennis shoes two seconds later. She has her coat and hat on before I even manage to get my feet on the floor. I don’t stop her when she runs off to the back door and stands in front of the lock. A look of concentration settles over her features as she calls up her power and starts working. The Parkers don’t have the key deadbolts the Brittons had, so it’s easy enough to get out without Molly using her power, but she never turns down a chance to practice. By the time I get to her, she is quietly pulling the door
open.
“Same rules as last time,” I say. “Stay right with me. Hold my hand the whole time, and do exactly as I tell you.”
“I know,” Molly whines. “I will.”
“Alright, let’s go.”
We step out onto the back porch and close the door behind us. I steer Molly to the right. Despite the fact that it is now two in the morning, she bounces along beside me with her eyes flitting around the neighborhood. I know how she feels. There is a certain element of pleasure that comes with knowing you are walking around unseen. Even still, I don’t let my guard down. My eyes scan the area, but not to explore. I watch every shadow for signs of Sentinels.
The simple bench and small sign placed just back from the sidewalk looms only a few feet ahead of us. My free hand tightens and an anxious shiver runs down my spine. I have never tried this before, and it is more than a little risky.
As we reach the bench, I motion for Molly to sit down. Thank goodness this is a big enough city that the buses run all night to accommodate the night owls and shift workers. We still have ten minutes before the bus is expected to arrive. Silently, I hope someone will wander over and make this easier on us. We are still alone by the time the large, round headlights of the bus come into view.
“Stay right next to me, okay? Don’t let go of my hand, and don’t touch anything.”
Molly nods with a spark of fear in her eyes. It’s far outweighed by the curiosity and excitement. Her little fingers squeeze mine as she watches the bus approach.
Concentrating, I focus on the fluidity of my makeup, the truth of what I am. It’s easier than last time to pull the bonds together and stop hiding in the shadows. The dull roar of the bus engine powers up the street. I let go of my fear and open myself up to the world as I open my eyes. Molly squeaks with glee as the bus rolls to a stop in front of us. The driver, a middle aged woman with tired eyes looks down at me expectantly.
As I stand, I pull Molly in close to me so the driver doesn’t notice my hand clenched around what would look like nothing. I step into the bus and start digging in my pocket for cash. Molly looks at me with confusion as I feed two dollars into the ticket machine and wait for my change.
“Excuse me, ma’am. I’m trying to get back to my motel, the Super 8 a few miles south of here,” I tell the driver. “What stop do I need to get off on to get back there?”
The driver regards me for a moment, no doubt wondering if I’m going to be a problem. She must decide I look safe enough, because she says, “It’s not far. There’s a stop right on the corner by the motel. I’ll holler at you when we get there.”
Molly’s eyes are bugging out of her head, but she does as she was told and stays quiet. I thank the lady for her help and slip into a seat a few rows back from her. Molly flops onto the seat with me. Her eyes immediately travel up to mine, shining with a million questions. A quick shake of my head tells her that I can’t talk right now.
True to her word, the driver calls out to me when the Super 8 I had seen on the way into town comes into view. I thank her one more time for her help and step off the bus with Molly in tow. I shush Molly’s sudden waterfall of questions as I step over to a nearby SUV. I stoop down as if to pick something up and let go of my power.
The harsh sting of anxiety I had been carrying since the bus stopped for us finally rushes away. I sigh as I slip back into anonymity.
“Mason, what did you do? How did that lady see you? She could hear you, too! Why didn’t you tell me you could do that? Have you always been able to do that? Can I do it, too?”
Standing, I pull Molly out from between the cars and say, “One at a time Mollywog. I’ll explain, okay? Just calm down.”
She stares at me and blinks. “How did you do that?” she asks slowly.
“I changed myself so she could see me,” I say as we approach the electronic doors.
The sight of the electronic doors brings Molly to a halt. “Someone will see the doors move if we walk up!”
“It’s okay,” I say. “These doors work on a sensor. Sometimes they go off when a bird or piece of litter goes in front of them. It won’t be a big deal if the doors open and no one is there. Trust me. I’ve done this lots of times.”
Sometimes for some pretty funny practical jokes, I add to myself. Molly looks up at me, clearly not convinced. I laugh and tug her along with me to the electronic doors. They bounce open as the sensors detect us. One of the hotel staff looks over at the doors and frowns. With a shrug, she goes back to what she was doing. I look down at Molly, my I told you so implied by my expression. She sticks her tongue out at me, but smiles afterward.
“What do you mean you changed yourself?” Molly demands.
“It’s kind of like what Shane showed us in the car, how to identify other Aerlings. When I really concentrated, I could see that fluidity he was talking about in myself. Somehow, all our bonds have these spaces between them that make us invisible. All I had to do was pull them back together in order for the driver to see me.”
Molly looks up at me in amazement. “You just figured out how to do this tonight?”
I shake my head. “I figured out I could make people see me before I left Olivia’s. I just didn’t realize how I did it, or why I was able to do it, until Shane explained our makeup.”
Glancing around, I check for late night wanderers before pulling the door to the stairs open and slipping through with Molly.
“Can I do it, too?” Molly asks, her voice pleading.
“I don’t know, but I’ll certainly try to teach you if you want,” I say.
Molly bounces up the next step excitedly. “I do! I do!”
“Okay, okay, we can try in the morning.”
We reach the second floor landing and I look through the window in the door to see if anyone is out and about. When I feel confident that we won’t be seen, I pull the door open and hurry through.
Slowly, we make our way down the hall. Molly’s mind switches tracks and she asks, “How do we know which rooms have people in them?”
“We don’t know for sure, but look for a ‘Do not disturb’ sign on one of the doors. We’ll know someone is in that room for sure,” I say. “If we can’t find one, we’ll just have to guess.”
Molly’s eyes dance across the doors, eager to help. We turn a corner and are halfway down the next hall before she spots one. “There! There! Look, there’s a sign on that door handle!”
“Nice job,” I say. She beams up at me. I lead her over to the door and squat down in front of it. I consider the lock carefully. Like most hotels, they have an electronic lock activated by a keycard. I look over at Molly to see her frowning.
“I don’t know if I can open one of these locks,” she says. The defeated expression on her face is almost comical.
“Why don’t you let me handle this one?”
“What are you going to do?” she asks.
I hold my hands out in front of me and focus. “I’m going to try to do what I did in the car again.”
Molly’s eyes widen just a little. She takes a step back, which is probably a good call. “Uh, just be careful, okay?”
“I will.”
I keep my eyes open this time so I can make sure Molly is okay, but I lend the majority of my focus to calling my power. My mind slips inward to the air already inside of me, but this time I don’t try to change it. I’m more than happy to stay invisible while trying to break into someone’s hotel room.
Once I am completely focused on my internal power, I use it to reach out for more. The air around me seems to hum just slightly as I connect with it. I expect resistance when I try to pull it to me, but it surprises me by coming eagerly. Before I can take another breath, a small gathering of swirling air is hovering between my hands. Now for the tricky part.
I’m not exactly sure how I managed to make the little sparks of electricity before. I remember thinking about Olivia in the car, back before I knew about Aerlings and going home.
The fear and anxiety I feel
thinking about how things have changed echoes through my body. I love Olivia, and I will do everything in my power to stay with her—whether in her world or mine—but there are so many unknowns right now that it tears me up when I think about it for too long.
“Uh, Mason,” Molly says, “I think that’s more than enough electricity.”
Blinking, I look down at my hands and realize she is right. The surprise calms my inner turmoil, and shockingly, the tiny flashes of electricity in my hands calm down as well. Evidently, I need to keep a better handle on my emotions when I’m doing this. I take a deep breath and move my hands closer to the lock.
I sit there for a moment wondering what to do next. How do I get the air into the lock so the electricity will short it out? The second I form the thought, the air jumps out of my hand and a spark flashes into the lock. For a moment, the red and green lights on the locking mechanism both light up before flickering and dying out. I don’t hear the lock disengaged, though.
“My turn!” Molly says excitedly. She calls up her power, and a few second later, the lock clicks open and she smiles.
I take Molly’s hand and slowly open the door. We both slip in quickly and close the door behind us. The total blackness of the room is disorienting at first. I stand still and wait for my eyes to adjust. A few seconds later, I’m able to pick out the furniture well enough to take a step forward. My eyes scan the darkness for a phone.
“It’s over there,” Molly whispers, “plugged into the wall.”
My eyes follow her gesture, and at first I don’t see it. I have to take a step closer and look down to realize the cell phone is lying on the floor next to an outlet. The flash of light that spears the room when I turn it on makes me cringe, but the sleeping form on the bed takes no notice. I quickly tap in Olivia’s phone number and hold my breath.
There is a chance she won’t answer because of the late hour, but I’ll bet Olivia’s sleeping with her phone in her hand just on the off chance that I’ll call. I can imagine she’s got to be going crazy not knowing where I am or if I’m safe.
Intangible Page 8