“Okay, boys, let’s go over what happened.” He glanced down at his notepad. “You heard a screeching sound, then you saw Mr....” He tapped the notepad. “Mr. Smith's 2023 champagne-colored Ford Grun strike a dog.” He looked at me then at John.
“Is this accurate, boys?”
I was opening my mouth when Jonesy busted in with. “Did the dog die?”
I gave an inward grown. Getting Garcia away from thinking about the strangeness of the dog was epic fail with Jonesy bringing attention to it. John was trying to alert Jonesy to shut up. That never worked. Jonesy was happily stuffing cookies in his mouth and slurping milk.
“Yeah, that's accurate,” I replied.
Garcia gave me the cop stare. Adults wanted kids to fill those awkward silences. That was where I'd get tripped up. Mom looked puzzled.
“Now, it's interesting that you mention the dog,” Garcia said, “because Mr. Smith said that he was certain the dog had been killed.”
My heart rate sped up, and my palms got damp. We'd already been over this. But here he was, bringing it up again. “No... no, he was still alive, barely.”
Garcia smiled. “Okay, Caleb. There were some witnesses who said that you”—he glanced down at his notepad—man, was I beginning to hate that thing—“laid hands on the dog, and it began breathing again.” He pierced me with eyes where the irises blended with the pupils, and I was suddenly reminded of Brett.
“Maybe he was dead for a minute,” I said, choosing my words slowly, “but he must have revived or something.”
Garcia didn't even pause. “One witness said when you touched the dog, there was an ‘energy’ around you.”
My mouth fell open.
“The witness is an aura reader,” Garcia explained.
I'm screwed. Aura readers identified paranormals. I was sure I had my panic face on, and John was as pale as a ghost.
“You know, Sergeant Garcia,” Mom said in a sugar-sweet voice, “Caleb is a minor (that word came out sounding vaguely like lawsuit, I noted with grim satisfaction), and he hasn't committed any crime, so I'm not sure that this line of questioning is justified.”
I heard: Stop bugging my kid, or I'll make you sorry.
Garcia looked at Mom thoughtfully. She tilted her head to the side, and a large gold hoop swung forward, peeking out of her thick hair and twinkling in the late sunlight streaming through the window. I had a sudden stab of love for Mom.
Then, I decided to man up, I wasn't a little kid anymore. “I have Affinity for the Dead.”
It sounded like a disease, as if I’d said, I have cancer. I have two weeks to live. I wasn't going to die. I was going to start living and stop being scared. The Js looked at me as if they thought I was insane.
Garcia appeared startled.
“Caleb!” Mom said sharply, her mouth in a thin line.
“It's okay, Mom. I know he won't tell anyone.”
Garcia needed to feel the burden of my trust, roll it around and taste it like candy in his mouth. I was hoping that Garcia believed in what he was, a policeman meant to serve and protect.
“Caleb's right,” Garcia said, looking at me with kinder eyes. “I don't have to tell this part. You're right, too, Mrs. Hart. He is a minor, and he hasn't committed a crime.
I felt a but coming.
“But there were witnesses. A young woman noticed what Caleb did. She is under no such restrictions. There is no law that will keep her from sharing what she saw.”
Garcia leaned back and crossed his legs, his ankle resting on his opposite knee. His black uniform looked crisp, the sharp creases in his pant legs bisecting the center. His tie tack glinted in the sun as he shifted. He turned to me. “Why do you want to hide it, Caleb? There are other AFTDs.”
Because it threatens my freedom. I thought of Gramps, who always told me freedom was more precious than money. I was beginning to believe him.
“I don't want to end up like Jeffrey Parker,” I said.
Garcia was thoughtful, the whole room held its collective breath.
Garcia nodded. “Yes, that would be enough to give anyone pause.”
Dad walked through the door to the garage. His hair was mussed, and he carried his briefcase.
“What's going on here?” He tossed his coat on the hook by the door.
I sighed. It was gonna be a long night.
Mom and Garcia started to speak at the same time, then they both laughed nervously. Jonesy looked from my mom to my dad then back to Garcia as if watching a tennis match gone wrong. Then, he shrugged and grabbed another cookie. John folded his arms across his skinny chest.
“You go ahead,” Mom told Garcia.
Garcia gave her a brief nod. “Mr. Hart”—he stood and held out his hand—“I'm Sergeant Garcia with the King County Police.”
Dad took the offered hand and gave it a few hard pumps.
He was such a huge contrast to the Hispanic-looking Garcia. Dad loomed over the cop, standing a couple inches taller. “Kyle Hart.” Dad smiled and took a seat on the piano bench facing us..
Garcia sat back on the couch and went over the whole story. He ended with “... and now you see, Mr. Hart, we are at an impasse.”
I deliberated... a standstill! Gotcha.
Dad's face had been thoughtful, then had become somber at the end. He nodded. “We thought that we had some time to devise a plan that would garner Caleb some options so he could come to terms with his new skills. But his skill set is accelerating on course with other puberty manifestations.
He is apparently gaining abilities that I cannot predict, and they are popping up at extremely inconvenient and public locations.”
I did a mental face-palm when Jonesy stopped mid-chew. “I still wanna know what happened to the dog.”
We all frowned at him. Mom wrinkled her nose.
“What?” He slurped the last of his milk.
“I mean, this is good news because my bro here”—he brandished his empty glass in my direction—“saved a dog, but everyone is freaked over it.” For Jonesy, it was a simple affair of right and wrong. He didn't do shades of gray.
John said, “Yeah, it's cool about the dog, but not everyone is going to think it's cool, Jonesy.”
Mom said, “I was cleaning out your room, Caleb.”
I visualized all the crap strewn over the floor. Swell.
“I found some papers about the Parker boy. Once he was identified with AFTD and the government enacted an amendment against some of his rights as a person, his freedoms were stripped.”
Mom was gonna rage.
Garcia gestured with his hand, wait a sec. Mom popped her mouth shut. Huh, she hadn't even Made-Her-Point.
“Mrs. Hart, let's not panic yet. That was a decade ago. Parker was the first, extreme case that had been seen. You remember the headlines.”
As I had only been five in 2015 when that first inoculation round had been given, I didn't remember.
Dad, no intellectual slouch. “You're right. He didn’t just talk to the dead, divine ghosts, or glean how someone died. He was a Cadaver-Manipulator.”
Not even glancing my way, Garcia said, “Well, isn't it fortunate that Caleb doesn't have to worry about that? Controlling the dead is a whole other ball of wax.”
“Very fortunate,” Dad agreed, giving me his best, I-will-throw-lab-beakers-at-you-if-you-talk stare. I snapped my mouth shut.
The Js remained as silent as a tomb.
I repressed a wild urge to laugh.
Garcia braced his palms on his knees and stood, smoothing his uniform as he straightened. Dad got up, running a nervous hand through his hair and making it messier than before.
Garcia fished something out of his perfectly ironed shirt pocket.
He handed me a business card.
I told him I'd never seen that area code.
“Yeah, it was my dad's. He was a cop, too.” He rolled his shoulders in a shrug, “I got it when he retired.”
Dad harrumphed. “I haven't seen one of those
in thirty years.”
Garcia smiled and told me, “You call me if you need anything. Just thumb my number in your pulse.”
He raised his eyebrows. “Anytime, for whatever.”
His gaze traveled to the parents, and I was sure he knew there was something more, but he let it go. The twilight edged around him like a halo as he slipped out the door.
Mom leaned against the closed door, locking the dead bolt.
“Wasn't that close!”
Dad nodded. “It's safe to say we're fast running out of time before there will be a contingent of people with a clearer understanding of just what Caleb is capable of.”
“I think Garcia’s a good man,” Mom said. “But he may not be ready to know that last part. Cadaver manipulator might be a bit much.”
Jonesy chanted, “Corpse raiser, corpse raiser, it rocks!” He air-pumped with his fist.
John smirked. “You didn't think it rocked when you sprinted out of the cemetery, or when Caleb and I had to do the little blood ritual.”
Mom's mouth unhinged itself from her jaw and Dad looked astounded.
“Blood ritual?” they asked in unison.
“You didn't tell us that detail,” Dad said.
“Is that how you think you did it?” Mom asked with a frown. Probably thinking about all the ways my safety could have been in jeopardy (it was), or some other thing that could have befallen me (it did).
“Well, kinda,” I said.
“Caleb, just barf it out,” Jonesy said.
I fought not to tap my fingers on a surface. “I felt like a tingling... an energy. As soon as I stepped through the gate of that cemetery, I knew there was one voice that was calling me above the others.” I sighed.
“When I got there, I felt like I was in the middle of a whirlpool, that something was just under the surface, waiting to rise. It was like all the energy in the world was waiting for me to take that next step.”
Jonesy interrupted with a loud thwack of his right fist smacking into the palm of his left hand. “And then I hit him a good one!”
Mom jumped, letting out a nervous laugh.
I glanced at Jonesy. “Yeah, thanks for that.”
He gave the what? expression.
John shook his head.
Dad asked, “Do you think after Jonesy hit you that the catalyst was the violence or the blood? Because blood is organic, but so is violence, if one thinks on that.”
That was interesting. I hadn't thought violence was any part of it. I'd assumed that the blood was somehow an integral part of why the corpse rose to begin with.
“That would explain the dog,” John said quietly. He shifted his weight, arms still locked over his chest. “I mean, the car hitting the dog was an act of violence, right? If Baldy—” John continued.
“Smith,” I corrected.
“Whatever.” He shrugged. “If Smith hit that dog, then he wasn't being careful. Cars give warnings about obstacles. It's standard.” John was kinda stiff, but he was making some good points. “Really, if you think about it, he shouldn't have hit the dog at all.”
Dad bobbed his head. “John's right, which makes me wonder why that wasn't the first thing Garcia questioned. Do you boys remember that witness, the young woman that Sergeant Garcia said was an aura reader?”
I shook my head. With all the action happening, the crowd was the last thing I would have noticed.
Jonesy brightened. “I saw that hot girl from PE in the crowd on the way here.”
Dad laughed. “That's okay. I think there's more than just professional interest. I'm thankful we didn't blindly tell him the extent of your abilities before I've had a chance to see them. And I want to finalize the use of the cerebral inhibitor.”
“Kyle, that worries me,” Mom said.
“This is the lesser of two evils, Ali. If Caleb shows his hand, they may do a Parker on him.”
“Even now?” Mom asked.
“Especially now.” Dad looked at me.
“Your mom and I have been reading up on Parker, how our government responded to him. It looks like Parker took the Aptitude Test and was the first student, nation-wide, to hit that high of a score on AFTD, five-points.” Dad said, holding up all five fingers.
The fam-pulse chimed, and Mom walked over to the wall pocket and pressed her thumb to the pad.
Dad asked, “Who is it?”
Mom held up her index finger then turned to Jonesy. “It's your mom. Apparently, you didn't tell her you'd be over today.”
Jonesy sighed and went to the Fam-pulse. After reading the screen, he turned back and said, “I gotta go. My mom's on a rage.”
Mom frowned. “Maybe knowing where you are is sort of important to her, Jonesy.” Mom's doing the, I'm-going-to-stick-up-for-the-other-parent thing.
“Yeah, Ali, I know.” He brightened. “Thanks for those cookies.”
Mom was already getting a little ecobag for the road, Jonesy grinned. Delayed gratification.
He gave me a finger salute. “See you dudes tomorrow. Let me know what's going on, Caleb.”
John lifted his chin in goodbye, then we heard Jonesy’s pounding footsteps and the front door slamming.
Dad got back on topic. “Being prepared is the most important defense.”
“True,” Mom said. “As long as we're on the same page with this cerebral depressant thing.”
“Inhibitor,” Dad corrected. He turned to me.
“Caleb, tell me what happened at the accident, especially about this mystery dog.”
I went through the whole thing. I ended with how I was sure the dog had been alive, at least a little, because I had felt that spark.
Dad nodded. “Okay, let's go over the cause and effect one more time, Caleb.”
I groaned.
“Dad—”
“No, Caleb. Let's look at this with some applied logic. The dog was hit and flew… you said ten or twelve feet in the air?”
I nodded.
“And it lay there for how long?”
John responded, “We went to the dog right away. I mean, Caleb went to it, and I followed.”
I shrugged. “Yeah. It was like he was calling me, but it was faint. I could feel its will or whatever. It wanted to be alive. He didn't want to die.”
Dad put his elbow on his knee and cupped his chin. “It hasn't been mentioned that Parker has this ability. As a point of fact, I haven't heard that this is a part of AFTD.”
Mom asked, “Would Caleb's ability to bring something back from the brink of death still be the same thing, categorized similarly?”
“Perhaps...” Dad rubbed his stubbled chin. “We'll have to put some things to the test and see exactly where his abilities reside.”
Fear shot through me. I wanted to use the AFTD. Using it made the whispering almost disappear. It felt good, right. So far, all AFTD had gotten me was two enemies at school and a dog's reclaimed life that brought notice from an observant cop.
“What are you thinking, Kyle?” Mom asked. “That we give him a pre-aptitude test?”
Dad nodded. “Exactly. If we can nail down his skill set, we’ll know how to defend him and help him decide his future.”
“Maybe Caleb doesn't want to be some government lackey,” John said.
That was exactly what I'd been thinking.
“It's a terrifying proposition, the loss of one's freedom,” Dad said.
“I think I want the dog,” I blurted.
My parents looked at me with identical expressions of shock.
“Why, Caleb?” Mom asked.
“Because I feel responsible for it now.”
“We can't just go and take in everything you… raise or save, son.”
John smirked.
I had to agree that the whole situation was kind of funny in a perverse way.
“I know, but when I think about him...”
“It's a he?” Mom asked.
“Yeah.”
“Well, how do you know?” she asked.
“I just do, Mom. It's all part of it. Anyway, I can hear him if I listen, and he's lonely for me.”
John gave me a puzzled look.
I answered his unspoken question. “Yeah, and he doesn't like wherever he is.”
Dad held up his hand. “Let's just say, hypothetically, that we were to agree to letting this dog become your pet. What would that mean for you?”
More chores. Dogs had to have food and water, and he would make a mess in the yard. (Guess who'd clean that up... oh joy.)
I said, “Responsibility, I guess.”
“And?” His expression was unhelpfully neutral.
My mind went blank. I couldn't think of a thing.
“You're fourteen now, Caleb—almost fifteen. You have four years left until graduation, and then the dog would have to become our pet.”
“We're not sure we want that, Caleb,” Mom said.
“Oh.” I hadn't really considered that. “Can you think about it at least?”
“I see that you're anxious, son, but we can't make a snap decision.”
“It's important to me, Dad.”
Dad stood up and clapped me on the shoulder.
Mom came to stand behind him, her gaze steady on mine. They'd think about it.
John said he had to go and told me to read the rest of the papers.
“Yeah, okay.” I'd been planning to do that, anyway.
***
Dad sat down heavily in his usual seat for supper, steepled his hands, and looked at me. I popped a large piece of lasagna into my mouth and did the tongue dance, realizing too late that the food was hot as hell.
“I know you've been through a lot today, Caleb,” Dad said, but I’m fascinated with how this connection with the dog unfolded.”
Mom rescued me. “Why don't you let him finish eating, and we can get the gory details afterward, hmm?”
Mom knew about The Hunger. I would often say, “I Hunger,” which loosely translated meant “What is there to eat in this house in the next five seconds?” My friends also had The Hunger, and we'd fall upon the kitchen table like locusts, and The Hunger would be abated, temporarily.
“So, Caleb, what's going on beside dead stuff?” Mom turned, one hand on her hip, and carefully set a glass in front of Dad. She just missed jingling one of the tiny bells of her skirt. I was fascinated by my mom's fashion sense. I didn't truly think she had one, but she was a believer.
The Death Series, Books 1-3 (Dark Dystopian Paranormal Romance): Death Whispers, Death Speaks, and Death Inception Page 5