by D V Wolfe
We were quiet for a minute while Noah clicked things on the phone and I moved us across traffic lanes and got us up to speed, heading north. Now that it was over, I was processing what had just happened. Noah had been by the door when that tapestry had ignited. He would have had to be that Flash guy to be able to run over, set it on fire, and run back to where he’d been standing. Not to mention the fact that the bottom of the tapestry had still been ten feet from the ground.
“Noah,” I said, as calmly as I could after he closed the phone and set it back in the seat. Noah turned to look at me and his face was drained of color. I glanced at him and tried to soften the question but couldn’t quite figure out how. “How long have you been able to set things on fire with your mind?”
10
“What do you mean, ‘how long’?” Noah asked.
“What part of that question is giving you trouble?” I asked. I was trying to keep my voice even, but I had to admit I was a little freaked out. I could deal with the flaming hands. As long as he wasn’t touching something, it was safe. But now? Were all bets off?
Noah was glaring at me and I could see tears forming in his eyes. “I’ve known exactly as long as you have.”
“Really?” I asked.
“You really are a moron, Bane,” Noah spat. He turned away and I saw him wiping his face on his dirty shirt sleeve. Our shirts were still inside out, so his actually looked a little cleaner than normal. “What do you think? You think I’ve just been hiding this? You think I’m excited about this new level of shit that is who I am?” He was almost screaming by the end. “Just when I thought I had a handle on this,” he said, holding his hands out in front of him.
“Hey,” I said, trying to soften my voice, hoping it would calm him back down. “I’m sorry. I just...I’m a little freaked out.”
“You’re freaked out?” Noah snapped. “Well let me know if there’s anything I can do to help with that.”
I sighed. “I’m sorry.”
We were quiet for a second. I could hear Noah snuffling, trying to get control again.
“Does it feel the same?” I asked. He turned to look at me, unsure. “I mean when you lit that tapestry on fire, did it feel like it does when you use your hand...thing?”
Noah was quiet. “I don’t know...it’s usually just this itching feeling. It used to only happen when my heart sped up really fast. Now, it’s like I just remember the itching feeling and....” Noah’s hands started to smoke and I slowed down. I rolled down my window and pulled to the side of the road. I shifted into neutral and jumped out, hurrying around to his side to get his window down.
“Sorry,” Noah said, his voice almost a whisper.
“Don’t be,” I said, closing his door. I ran around and got back behind the wheel. I turned to look at him. “Noah, I’m sorry. You’ve never given me any reason to doubt you.” I leaned my head back against the seat and listened to the sound of traffic whizzing by, rocking us to one side. “Now you have ample reason to doubt me, though.”
“No,” Noah said. “I’m kind of freaking out too. It’s kind of nice to not be the only one.”
We were quiet, both lost in our own thoughts. I still felt a little strange about this new revelation of what Noah was capable of. I figured it was just a lack of being able to wrap my head around it right now. He was still Noah. Beside me, he seemed like he was having a similar pep talk with himself.
“Hey,” I said. He turned to look at me, “We’ll figure this out.”
Noah gave me a watery smile. “We will.”
“So,” I said. “Bellum?”
“Yeah,” Noah said. His expression fell slightly, but he gave me a quick smile and nodded. “To Bellum.”
It was about four in the afternoon when we rolled into Bellum. Noah hadn’t been joking. It really was a more white-collar version of Rosetta’s town. The lawns were more manicured and the houses were all painted the same seven colors of earth tones.
“Wow, you weren’t kidding,” I said to Noah as we rolled through the first neighborhood.
“Yeah,” Noah sighed. I glanced over at him. He was looking out the window, craning his neck around to look behind us as we passed buildings.
“Want me to slow down?” I asked. “Or pull over?’
Noah shook his head. “No, just remembering.”
“Well, should we just rip the bandaid off all at once and go see your mom first?”
Noah was pale under his freckles, but he was smiling the anxious smile I’d started to associate with his nervous excitement when we were on a hunt and about to do something insane.
“Yeah,” he said. He looked back out at the street. “Turn here.”
We wound through the small town. Noah pointed out his old high school and the park where he learned to rollerblade with his mom. We went by the football stadium and Noah clammed up. I remembered Noah telling me that this was where the accident with Amy had happened. We turned down a corner and Noah was almost bouncing in his seat.
“That’s the Donahue’s house,” Noah said, pointing at a green house on the corner. “Their dog always chased me on my skateboard.”
“Nice people,” I said.
“Oh, they weren’t too bad. I mean, it’s not like they sent the dog after me.”
“Great neighbors,” I said.
“Oh and see that?” Noah said, pointing at a white two-story. “That’s where the Millers live. They always gave out full-sized candy bars at Halloween.”
“Definitely good friends to have,” I said.
Noah shrugged. “We didn’t know them very well, but during Halloween, the Millers were the most popular people on the block.”
I nodded and he directed me around a corner and down a quiet stretch of street.
“And my house is coming up on the….right.” Noah trailed off. We reached the end of the cul de sac and came to a stop next to an empty lot, overgrown with weeds.
“That one?” I asked, pointing to a white bungalow on the far side of the empty lot.
“What?! Where’s my house?!” Noah had kicked his door open and was running into the empty lot. I killed the engine and got out after him. I scanned the ground, looking for evidence of fire or sulfur. Maybe it was a trailer house and it had just been moved. There was no cement foundation pad or even tire tracks. Just weeds and rocks. Noah had to be mistaken. Maybe all the times he’d been knocked over the head by shovels and gun butts had taken their toll on him. On the other hand, I’d also just found out that Noah could light things on fire with his mind. He seemed just as freaked out by it as I was but...I gave myself a little shake. I didn’t want to go down that road. Not yet and not when it could just be a new development and an easy mistake.
Noah had stopped in the middle of the lot, his arms limp at his sides, his back to me.
“It’s been a while,” I said softly, coming up to stand next to Noah. “Maybe we’re just on the wrong street?”
Noah shook his head. “That,” he pointed at the white bungalow, “is Mrs. Cheney’s house. I fell off her back stoop when I was four and cracked my head open.” He leaned over and showed me a thin scar hidden under his mop of hair. I opened my mouth to reply and he pushed past me, pointing in the opposite direction at a dark blue ranch-style house on the other side of the empty lot. “And that is where the Gonzales family lives. I got a baseball and a mitt for Christmas when I was ten and I broke their picture window on accident.” He turned back to look at the empty lot and I could see his shoulders heaving as he began to hyperventilate. “Bane, where the hell is my house?!” He turned to look at me, total fear and shock in his eyes. “What’s happening?”
A window on the dark blue house banged open as if the owner had thrown it up, the old wooden frame protesting against the force. “What are you hooligans doing over there,” the woman barked. “You better clear off before I call for the police!”
Noah jogged over to her and I trailed behind him.
“Mrs. Gonzales, it’s me, Noah Zeppelin. M
y mom and I used to live here,” Noah gestured to the empty lot. “What happened to our house?”
“How do you know my name?” She said, her eyes doubling in size. “Are you some kind of meth-head stalker? I don’t know anyone with the last name Zeppelin. I’m calling the police!”
“Wait!” Noah said. “I went to school with your son, Armando. I broke your window with a baseball about eight years ago.”
“I’ve never had a window broken on my home and everyone around here knows Armando,” She snapped. She had the phone in her hand and she looked down at it to dial.
“Wait!” Noah said. “I helped you in the backyard last summer, trimming the grass and cutting up branches that had fallen in that bad storm. You wear a bright orange bathrobe when you hang up clothes on the line so your son, Horacio, the MEDEVAC pilot, can see you if he flies over your house during his shift.”
“STALKER!” She screamed and she punched buttons furiously on the phone before slamming her window shut.
I wasn’t sure what was happening at this second, but I knew what would be happening in five to fifteen minutes, depending on the speed of Bellum’s police service.
“Noah, we better move along. Come on, we’ll go somewhere where we can figure this all out.”
“Give me your phone,” Noah snapped. I hesitated but decided the best way forward was to let Noah do what he thought he needed to do. I handed it over. Noah punched some numbers and held it to his ear. After a few seconds, his face fell.
“Who did you call?” I asked.
“My home number,” he said. Then he looked up at me. “It’s not in service.”
Behind Noah, Mrs. Gonzales drew the curtain on her front window aside and glared out at us. She still had the phone to her ear and I saw her lips form the words, “meth” and “stalker”.
“Let’s get in the truck,” I said to Noah, gently putting my hand on his shoulder and steering him back to the curb. I gave Mrs. Gonzales a little wave and her eyes narrowed before she backed up and whipped the curtain closed.
I opened Noah’s door while he furiously punched more numbers. His face was tense and his eyes were fighting back angry tears. I decided not to push him and instead I went around and got behind the wheel. Noah finished dialing and sat down on the seat while he held the phone to his ear, listening. He pulled the door closed and after a few seconds, threw the phone into the seat between us.
“Trying your home number again?” I asked.
Noah shook his head. “No, my mom’s cell phone. The message says it’s ‘unassigned’.”
I shrugged. “Maybe you’re just remembering the number wrong?”
“No,” Noah said, leaning forward and putting his head in his hands. “That was her number. Ever since I was a kid. She made up this silly song when I was little and had me sing it back to her over and over so I’d never forget it and I’d always be able to call her if something happened and we weren’t together.” Noah’s voice was muffled by his hands and I could hear the dam that held in his emotions beginning to crack. I was seeing Noah in a new light. Who was this kid that I picked up? This was supposedly his hometown where he’d lived his whole life, but there was no evidence, no proof that he’d lived on this block. And where was his mom? Maybe Mrs. Gonzales had early-stage Alzheimer’s and Noah’s mom had moved and the people owning the property had demolished the house….and dug up the foundation and filled the spot in with dirt and...quickly transplanted a bunch of weeds. I couldn’t even force that to make sense. Something Noah had said to Stacks and I in St. Louis about his mom, popped into my head.
“Hey,” I said. “Let’s go by your mom’s palmistry shop. Maybe she’s there. Maybe she had to get a new cell phone number and something happened to your old house.” A lot of “somethings”, but best to focus on what we could do at the moment. I also really wanted us to get out of the neighborhood before Johnny Law showed up. After the last few brushes, especially with the possessed police officer, I didn’t want to risk being caught, pants down, by whatever big baddie was currently occupying Bellum.
Noah sat up. “Yeah, it’s over on 7th Street, next to the Polish deli, Strovina’s.” He directed me through town and I began to think that either Noah was a mastermind criminal and had set up a very, very elaborate trap for me by pretending this was all a shock to him and he had no idea what was going on, or, something had happened to his mom and his town. The complete shock and honest fear on Noah’s face had me doubting the first option. The second was a lot more plausible, knowing that there was something in this town bad enough for Walter to warn hunters away from it.
We turned down 7th Street and Noah pointed to a large square building with a blue and white striped sign for “Strovina’s Deli” in the front yard. I slowed down as we got closer and Noah pointed to the tiny orange storefront wedged between Strovina’s and a FedEx copy center.
“That...that was my mom’s shop.” He trailed off and I saw his face drain of the angry red blotchiness that had come after our tangle with Mrs. Gonzales.
I pulled into a parallel parking spot in front of the little orange storefront and leaned towards Noah. “Annie’s Exotic Pets Emporium” had been painted on a carved wooden sign that hung over the door, and there were aquariums with logs and sun lamps in them sitting in the front windows. Before I could say anything, Noah was out of the truck. I scrambled after him. If this was a trick that the demon in town had put together, there was a good chance there were other demons around. But, with Noah already on the move, I didn’t have time to strap the sword on. Noah shoved the door to Annie’s open and stormed inside. I was right behind him and the room was crammed so full of aquariums and cages that I couldn’t move much beyond the front door. I looked at the walls. The cages had been there so long they’d left marks where the wire had gotten wet and rubbed against the peeling white paint. Above heat lamps that had been installed along one wall, the paint was yellowed and blistered where the lamps had gotten too hot. There were only two people inside. There was a teenage girl with long blonde hair peering into a cage on one side of the room and a busty woman who looked late forties, scrubbing out an aquarium at a sink behind the front counter. Noah stomped over to the woman.
“Excuse me,” Noah said and I could hear him trying his best to keep his panic and outrage in check.
The woman glanced up at him and then went back to what she was doing. “Can I help you?”
“Yes,” Noah said. “What happened to the palmistry shop that was here?”
The woman laughed. “You must be lost. A palmistry shop? What, in Bellum?”
Noah was starting to visibly shake and I decided now was the time for a quick intervention.
“How long have you been here, uh...Annie?” I asked, guessing she was the proprietor.
The woman stopped scrubbing and turned the faucet on. She grabbed the spray hose and started rinsing the aquarium.
“Twenty-two years,” the woman said. “Ever since this place was built.”
I could feel Noah’s shaking getting more violent next to me, so I thanked the woman and steered Noah back outside. He was hyperventilating again by the time we got to the truck. I leaned him back against the passenger side door and tried to get him to breathe with me and slow his heart rate down.
“What the actual hell, Bane?” Noah wheezed when he could speak. “Where’s my mom? What’s happened here in the last two months? Did they do something to her because of me? Because of what I did with Amy? Did they punish her and then cover it up?”
If it was just people pretending they didn’t know what happened to his mom, maybe. But making a whole house and a business disappear and look as if they had never been there in the first place? I thought of the cages and the heat lamp spots left on the wall in the pet store. Those couldn’t be quickly faked and it just seemed too elaborate for humans to be behind it. This had to be the work of the demon.
“Noah?” a small feminine voice called from behind me.
I turned to look. It was
the teenager with blonde hair. She was holding a black and white checkered skateboard under one arm.
“Noah Zeppelin?” She asked, taking a tentative step closer to us. I moved to the side so she could see Noah more clearly. I glanced at Noah who was staring at her, confusion on his face.
“Yeah?” Noah said.
The girl set one end of her skateboard on the sidewalk, holding it against her leg and she put her free hand on her hip and smiled at him.
“You look exactly the same. I mean, taller, but…,” the girl said.
“Sorry, do I know you?” Noah asked.
She rolled her eyes. “I can’t believe you don’t remember me.”
Noah looked dumbfounded. “I’m sorry, I…”
“June,” the girl said. “You used to call me Junie Jaws?”
The transformation on Noah’s face from confusion to recognition, to elation, was almost comical. “Junie Dyvan?”
The girl laughed. “Please, I’m eighteen now, I just go by June.”
Noah was on his feet and moving towards her. I leaned back against Lucy to watch the exchange. He got a foot away from her and stopped, awkwardly fumbling for what to do with his hands. “I haven’t seen you since…” Noah said, screwing up his face as if he was trying to remember.
“Sixth grade,” June said. “Right before my family moved to Minnesota.”
“That’s right!” Noah said. “You still had braces.”
She nodded. “And I knew how to use them.”
Noah shook his head. “Man, all the detentions we got…”
I scratched the back of my neck and the movement must have caught Noah’s attention. “Sorry, Bane, this is Junie, sorry, June Dyvan. She was a friend of mine in middle school.”
I pushed off Lucy and shook hands with June.
“I suppose you can call me Junie,” June said to Noah. “I mean, it’s all you used to call me so the habit might be hard to break. And to be honest, it kind of sounds weird to hear you call me June.”
The two of them launched into a conversation about something that had happened back in middle school involving a raccoon and a teacher they both seemed to hate. I watched Noah’s face as they both got more animated at the shared memory. He’d said that middle school had been better than high school, that he’d had more friends. I watched the blonde girl, shifting her skateboard from hand to hand and looking at Noah as if he was the most important person in the world and I was an instant fan.