“We’ll see,” Cole says. When I give him a look that says ‘are you kidding me’, he says, “I believe you. I just want to see it for myself.”
I roll my eyes at him and finish swallowing my bite before I say, “About that. I think I have figured out a way to get Alex to tell me what his gift is.” Cole waits patiently enjoying his third piece of pizza while I take another bite of my sandwich, chew and swallow. “I wanted to ask you something about it before I attempt it with Alex.”
“What?” he asks with concern.
“Healing.”
“I think you guys can do it. You can still feel pain so don’t do something too traumatic. I wouldn’t plunge a knife through the chest because for one thing, I’m only ninety-nine percent sure of who your mother is and for a second thing, even though it won’t kill you permanently, you’ll still be down for quite awhile. It takes the body longer to heal the more severe the injury.”
I nod my head. “Makes sense.”
“What’s your plan?”
“So, I gave Alex a lot of research about superhumans and genetics to see if he would budge, because there was a lot of scientific evidence to prove that there are anomalies in humans with a reasonable explanation. I thought he would confide in me but he didn’t. So, now on to plan two. I realized the other day, while we were talking that neither Alex nor I have ever been to the doctor’s office for anything other than scheduled shots and annual exams.” Cole nods his head in understanding and I take the last bite of my sandwich before grabbing a slice of pizza. I’m a pig tonight. “So I was going to cut my hand open or something to get him to see with his own eyes that we’re not normal. Hopefully, then, he’ll tell me.”
“Seems like a good plan. Do you want me there for a backup?”
“No,” I sigh. “I don’t want to tell him anything yet. I want to know everything first. Alex will need more time than I did. He’ll need to go through the five stages of denial. It’s better to wait.”
“You shouldn’t keep things from him, not something this important,” Cole tells me softly, reaching across the table to caress my fingers with his.
I pull away from him. “And some people should keep their mouths shut about things,” I accuse Cole.
“Huh?” He sits back abruptly, knowing he’s being attacked.
“You telling Edmund about my paintings,” I respond to his confusion.
“I had to report something to him,” he defends himself.
“Report,” I spit the word out. I pause as I realize what he means. Cole gives me time to sort my thoughts as I realize he was sent to the house across the street from us on purpose. Why did I not realize that? I’m so stupid! I’m going to have to work on my mind-over-matter trick in lots of other areas. Like reading-between-the-lines.
“Lexi, I’m sorry. I thought you had realized that… that…” he struggles to finish his sentence.
“What about us? Was this planned too?”
“No. No.” He shakes his head thoroughly. “Definitely not. Edmund was furious at me for that.”
“The night we went out to dinner,” I murmur to myself. I realize now that was what Edmund was yelling at him about when they went outside together. “What did he say to you? He looked so angry.”
“Yeah, he was NOT happy with me. Told me he would have torn off my wings if they hadn’t been already.” My eyes widen in surprise. “He basically ordered me to break it off with you. That I wasn’t in your best interest. That he didn’t want you with someone who’s been disgraced among the other angels. That he hoped for more for you. Basically everything and anything cruel you can say to someone. I convinced him that if I broke up with you that he would lose any connection we had to you. He warned me not to get too close.”
I laugh suddenly. “Sorry. Sorry,” I try telling him. He looks mad, probably thinks I’m laughing at his wings being torn off or that Edmund called him a disgrace. “I’m just laughing at the whole visual of a dad walking to the door with a shotgun to greet the boyfriend who is taking his daughter out scenario.” Cole starts laughing with me, realizing that it was a similar case.
After we calm down from our laughing and eat in companionable silence for awhile Cole asks me, “So, when do we have to do another dinner with him?”
“I don’t know. Next weekend?”
“That works for me. I’ll set up a reservation for us and then let you know.”
“Okay,” I agree, relieved I don’t have to do all of it alone. That Cole will always be there to take care of me.
*
“There is this one guy who has the ability to heal himself within an hour or two. It depends on the injury. I watched a video where he cut his finger open and within forty minutes the wound reconnected itself, scabbed over and healed, didn’t even leave a scar,” Alex tells me enthusiastically.
“That’s crazy! I didn’t find that one. So, do you think scientists could use his blood to reproduce whatever gene that causes cell reproduction for other people?”
“It’s not just any gene. It’s considered the ‘immortality gene’. It’s a mutated gene that basically prevents aging by giving off a type of protein that makes the genes around it divide faster, so they appear younger. Like, you know how little kids recover quicker from scrapes and bruises but the elderly don’t?” When I nod my head he says, “It’s like that. Kids’ genes are still young, they reproduce faster, so healing is faster and it slows down the older you get. Well, with this mutation it reverses the aging. It’s crazy.” He shakes his head in wonder.
I start to think that our genes are like that. Do angels even have genes? I wonder what theirs would look like in a lab. Would ours be much different than theirs? Is the reason we won’t age because our genes reproduce as fast as a child’s, faster. I want to test it out.
I reach over Alex to grab a stapler on the other end of his desk. I open it up and lay my hand palm up on the desk. Alex hasn’t even noticed because he is still reading from the computer screen. I place the open stapler on my palm and push with all my strength.
“Ah… Dammit. Dammit. Dammit,” I start screaming and cursing up a storm.
Alex jumps out of his seat and backs away from me looking for something useful to do. “What the hell did you just do? Why would you do that?”
I don’t answer him as I try to pull the staple out of my hand. My teeth are gritted shut and my eyes are tearing from the pain. “Ow. Ow Ow,” I chant while pulling one side out and then the other. For as much as it hurt there isn’t a lot of blood. Two little bubbles gather at the entry points before pooling over the sides of my hand.
“What the hell, Alexis,” Alex spits out my name. “Do you actually think you might have those genes?”
“Look,” I tell him as the wound closes up. I stand up and grab a tissue to wipe the blood off my hand. Alex comes over to inspect my hand.
“Where did it go? I don’t understand.” Then his eyes cloud over into disapproval. “That was a really sick joke, Lexi. Really sick. You’re messed up.”
My eyes open wide in disbelief. “Are you kidding me? You saw me pull out the staple. You saw the blood. Why won’t you believe what you see with your own eyes?” I reach over and grab the stapler off his desk. “Do I need to do it again?”
“Don’t!” he shouts as I hold it to my arm this time. “You can do it a thousand times and I won’t believe it. It’s a gag gift or something.”
“Really?” I ask before thrusting it into his upper arm.
That was probably really harsh but at the moment it was the only thing I could think of to convince him.
“Mother… That hurt, you…” He stumbles through a few more choice words before he can pull the staple out of his arm. His blood drips messily down his arm as he rips the staple out of his arm. He freezes upon inspection of his arm. “What the…?”
I step closer to see that his wound has already healed. “What do you think about the gag now?”
“I…I…”
“It’s okay
Alex. I’ve been thinking about this for a while now. Though I’ve never tested it until now.” I move to his bed and sit down. This is going to be a long conversation. Alex remains standing, looking at where his wound was. “Have you ever realized that we’ve never been sick, never seriously hurt, no broken bones, concussions, we’ve never even had the flu or allergies?”
Alex shrugs, finally looking at me.
“That’s why I’ve been looking into the superhuman, gene mutation research,” I lie. “But I think I can do more than just heal. It might be a byproduct but I don’t know. And if I can do something else than maybe you have something too. Something you’ve been hiding from me?”
Alex goes to his computer chair and sits down with his elbows resting on his knees and his hands holding his face. He doesn’t look at me when he asks, “What else can you do?”
“Basically anything I want.”
“Huh?” he looks back up at me with a confused expression.
“You won’t accept it. Not unless we test it. What is something we know I’ve never done? I’ll attempt it.”
He shakes his head at me. “Lexi that could get too dangerous. That’s like a drunk balancing on a bridge saying ‘I can fly’ before they take a head dive and die.”
I’m tempted to try it but Cole said I might not get wings. So, better not do that one. Yet.
“What’s the world record for holding your breath underwater?” I ask Alex. He gives me a skeptical look before turning his computer chair around to look it up.
I watch him as he types it into a search and then clicks on a link. “Wow, some guy just set the world record, this week. Nineteen minutes and twenty-one seconds! Damn!”
He spins his chair back around and sees the challenge in my eyes. “Lexi, don’t even think about it. You could cause yourself serious brain damage. Drown.”
“You’ll be there to observe,” I say as I bounce off the bed and to my feet.
“No.”
“Yes,” I say and walk out of the room to my bedroom. I need to put on my bathing suit.
*
My dad’s diving watch says I’ve been underwater for fifteen minutes now. I see Alex pacing the pool above me. I give him a thumbs up to let him know I’m still okay. I am okay but I’m bored trying to hold myself at the bottom of the pool. I want to hold on for at least twenty minutes but I know now I could make it a lot longer than that. I haven’t felt the need to breathe at all. My body was cold when I first jumped in but I told my body to relax.
I really like this new knowledge of being able to master anything, do anything. I really wish I could fly. That would be the best gift of all. I wonder, again, what Alex can do. When I get out of this pool I’ll beat the information out of him. I swear it. He is not going to hide it from me any longer.
Nineteen minutes. I start focusing on the second hands of the clock. I look up to see Alex’s arm up to his face, he’s watching the hands too. Fifty-seven, fifty-eight, fifty-nine. Done. I shoot up from the bottom of the pool and surface not feeling out of breathe at all.
“How did you do that?” Alex almost accuses me. I walk over to one of the lounge chairs and grab the towel off it, wrapping it around my body.
“I told you. I can do whatever I put my mind too. My paintings. Music. All those sports. I even raised my calculus grade when I realized what I can do,” I tell him proudly.
Alex shakes his head. “I don’t understand. It’s not possible. How did you figure it out?”
I shrug my shoulders and lie to him, “I’ve just always questioned my talents and thought there had to be something causing it. So I tested the theory.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“I don’t care whether you believe me or not.” I want to stick my tongue out at him. “All that matters is its true and I’ve just shown you the evidence. Are you going to continue to deny it?”
“I don’t know. It makes no sense.” He folds his arms over his chest like he’s pouting.
“Just don’t tell anyone, okay? I don’t want anyone to know, especially our parents. They’ll freak out and won’t understand. I don’t want to scare them,” I plead.
“I don’t understand. I’m freaking out. I’m scared.” Alex almost reaches hysterics.
“Alex, it’s not bad. And I’m your sister, your twin. I know you have a gift too,” I finally get it out there.
He walks away from me and into the house. Leaving me outside, alone. “He just needs time,” I tell no one in particular.
When I walk inside mom and dad are watching TV. Alex isn’t with them.
“Why are you swimming in the pool at this time of year? Lexi, you could catch a cold,” my mom scorns as I walk past them to the stairs. I could laugh. Catch a cold. Yeah right.
“The water was still reasonably warm. I just needed to stretch my muscles. I’m going to bed now. Night,” I call to them as I hit the stairs and hear them tell me good night back.
When I get upstairs, I see Alex’s door is shut tight. I just need to give him a little bit of time. I go to my room to shower and change for bed. I thought the hot water would relax me into falling asleep quickly but it doesn’t. I toss and turn in my bed until there is a knock on my door.
Alex peeks his head through and whispers, “Are you asleep?”
“No. What’s up?” I sit up and pat the bed next to me for him to sit.
He comes over and sits next to me but is turned away from me when he starts talking. “I can do something too,” he admits. “But it defies science on a very extreme level. It’s something only known in sci-fi movies or comic books.”
“What is it?” I try to talk in a calming voice but I’m too excited.
Alex takes a deep breath, preparing himself for saying it out loud. “Invisibility.”
I gasp. “Really? That’s incredible. I wish I could do that. When did you discover it?”
“I don’t know. A long time ago. We were kids and I was being chased by some punk older kids and I thought ‘hide’ but I couldn’t run from them fast enough. They ended up running right past me. I was confused on what had happened, why they ran past me. I looked to see if they were chasing some other kid but I didn’t see anyone and then I noticed that I couldn’t see my hands and then my body. I freaked out.”
“You’ve been hiding this from me for years! What the hell, Alex!” I start getting upset that my brother, my best friend, my twin, has been alone in this for so long.
“I know. But you have to understand how bizarre it was. I’m a freak.” He covers his face in his hands and I realize he is soon crying.
I sit closer to him and put my head against his back. My head is shaking with his sobs and I run my hand comfortingly against his back to soothe him. “It’s okay, Alex, you’re not alone with this anymore.”
We stay there like that for an eternity. I let him cry out all of his years of fear and the relief he must have to know that he now doesn’t have to keep it to himself. His sobs start quieting down and his body slows down as he takes deep breaths to steady himself and calm down. He wipes the tears off his face and then turns to me, ready to talk some more.
“Sorry, I feel like such a wimp.” He claws his fingers down his face.
“You’re not a wimp. It’s definitely not something anybody would be able to comprehend. If it had happened to me that way I think I would react the same way,” I reassure him. But it’s not totally true; at least I don’t think it is. I’ve always been the dreamer. The one who believed in the impossible. However, I can’t really be too sure that if I was a young kid and all of a sudden I couldn’t see my body, I would have freaked out. I think I would have told Alex though.
“I’m sorry I never told you. It would have been nice, felt better, to be able to talk to someone else about it,” he says. He’s always been on the same mind track as me.
“True,” I agree with him. I’m curious now to ask him questions about it. “How often do you, you know, disappear.”
“Never,” he s
ays in a tight voice. Typical of Alex to not want to document the proof, to not want to ever experiment with something so unnatural and freakish, to use his term.
“Never?” I try to draw out any other incidents where he might have needed to use it or wanted to.
“Nope. Just that once. I’ve always been afraid that I won’t be able to come back. I was afraid that someone would see me do it or I would reappear in front of someone and scare them.”
“Then, you don’t know if you can really do it. Maybe that one day was like a fluke or apart of your childhood imagination. Maybe it was a really bad dream.” I’m trying to dare him into doing again.
“I’m sure it was real.”
“How sure? Would you do it for me, right here?” I jump from the bed and lock my door to give him the security that our parents won’t walk in. Even though they rarely ever come to our rooms.
“I don’t know,” Alex says in an unsure voice.
“Think of it as one of your science experiments,” I coax him. I know he’s intrigued with the idea now. He’s always loved science experiments. I wonder if his love for physics has stemmed because of the long ago event. He had to have been around eight or nine. I remember he was bullied a lot at that age. The kids in school picked on him because he was such a ‘know-it-all’. It was me who finally stood up to the kids and pointed out every one of their embarrassing flaws. That moment of humiliation made them back off Alex and we somehow earned respect from the kids. Me, because I stood up to them and Alex because he was my brother. Later, Alex earned respect on his own because he was such a great leader and was able to help the other kids in school by explaining the class work in much simpler explanations.
Alex stands up and looks at me with an expression of a loss of what to do. “Just think ‘hide’ like you did last time,” I coach him.
He nods his head and instead of just thinking it he closes his eyes and says, “Hide,” out loud.
I gasp as he vanishes into thin air. I spin around the room like he could pop up anywhere. “Oh my God, Alex! You did it! Where are you?”
Lunangelique (The Lunangelique Series) Page 16