by S. L. Baum
“I’m good,” she rasped and then coughed again to clear her throat.
“You made the air in this room move,” Abe told her with wonder. “It was like hot gaseous waves.”
“That was the remains of Anna’s death finally leaving my body after I took it from hers.”
Eva climbed up on the bed next to her mother. “But there is a part of it still inside of you.”
“That’s right. I will always carry a tiny part of every death that I’ve taken inside of me.”
“That’s why they can’t get close to you ever again,” Eva repeated the facts she’d been told.
Krista nodded her head to let Eva know she was right.
“But you will have years before you need to worry about any of this,” Sam told his daughter.
“Best to be knowledgeable and prepared,” Abe remarked. “Sam says you still need to rest. Dinner won’t be for a few hours anyway. Stew’s in the crockpot. I think I’ll take a nap of my own. Exciting day and all,” he said. He wasn’t sure if he’d nap or not, but he didn’t want Krista to feel obligated to stay awake for him.
“Love you, Abe.” Krista blew him a kiss.
Abe smiled at her. “Love you too,” he said as he left the room, closing the door behind him.
“Can I rest with you, Momma?” Eva asked.
“Of course, climb in,” she told her daughter.
“I’m getting in there too,” Sam declared.
The little family of three all squeezed onto the double bed. They were curled up on their sides, from tallest to smallest, with Krista in the middle, and their arms draped across each other. Krista fell asleep first, followed by Eva and then Sam.
Recording No.37
Well, it happened. I saw my mother take a death, and then I saw her lie there like she was dead for almost twenty-four hours, and then I saw her open her eyes again and basically come back to life. It was freaky, cool, interesting, scary, bizarre, creepy, and I think I learned what I needed to. I guess I know what to expect, when it will be me recovering, after I become a Deathtaker.
Anna and her family got back home yesterday. We talked on the phone a little while ago. She said her hair grew like an inch in two days. I had no idea that would happen. She’s pretty excited about it. Seeing her sick and then having her tell me how sure she is that she’s one hundred percent better, well, it just made me realize how important being a Deathtaker is. I’m never going to give my mom a hard time about leaving ever again. I know that when she’s gone, she’s out there making someone’s life better.
It helps that I saw that Momma was totally fine the day after she woke up. I know she’ll be okay when she’s away, and I also know I won’t have to walk around like a weak sick person afterward, when it’s my turn. So that’s good news.
I wish there was a Deathtaker switch. I wish I knew exactly when this power will be coming to me. It’s weird knowing that it’s out there, somewhere in my future, but nobody can tell me when. So annoying.
This is Evie saying – I’m outta here!
Recording No.52
Eva Webber Vita here, future Deathtaker and former Fifth Grader! School just ended! Woohoo! Next year, Trixie and I will be the oldest kids at the school and we’ll get to do way more stuff. There is an overnight science camp, a really cool mouse trap project, and a lot more, since it’ll be our last year at the Elementary School. I really hope Sixth Grade will be as fun as they make it sound.
This summer should be way, way cool. We are going on a cruise to Alaska. Dad’s pretty excited about all the outdoor activities, Mom just wants to see all the “amazing scenery,” and I can’t believe I get to go in a helicopter. Uncle Abe said they will drive – ugh, not drive, I mean fly. Anyway, Uncle Abe says they will fly us over this really cool glacier and then the helicopter will actually land on it and we get to walk around. I’m seriously so excited about walking on a glacier.
We are going in July. I think we are flying to Seattle first and then getting on our cruise boat there. I have to share a room with Mister Grumple. We are getting two rooms next to each other: Mom and Dad in one, Uncle Abe and I in the other. Dad said there will be a connecting door and something about the two balconies being able to be one big one. He said we can see whales right from our room. It’s going to be the coolest vacation. I can’t wait.
Signing off for now!
Recording No.60
So, I started Sixth Grade today. I got Mr. Williams for my teacher, which is great. Trixie didn’t, which is not great. There are a couple other girls in my class that I get along with okay, but it’s just not the same.
And Sixth Grade smells weird. I can’t even explain it.
I’m frustrated.
I’m going to bed.
Chapter Thirteen
Sometime after Eva turned twelve, her heightened sense of smell arrived. Since Krista’s ability to identify health issues through scent had been an anomaly, as far as her grandmother had known, it was shocking to find that Eva’s abilities matched her mother’s. They were in the Cedar Creek Medical Center when Eva finally figured out the strange smells she’d been accosted with for months had a purpose. She’d largely ignored them, not wanting to admit to herself that something inside of her had changed.
She’d gone to visit her mother at work, after school, on a Friday afternoon. It had been a particularly hard day of Sixth Grade. She’d earned a C on her history test. Names, dates, places – they all jumbled up in her head. She was so good at everything else in school, but history always tripped her up. It wasn’t that she didn’t find it interesting; she loved hearing the old stories, watching documentaries, and seeing pictures of different times in the past, she just could not arrange it all into nice labeled files inside her brain. It was just a mish-mash of information.
While she was complaining to Doc about the tragedy of a C, and waiting for her mother to come out of an exam room, Trixie came in with her mother. The girls weren’t in the same classroom for Sixth Grade, but they usually sat together at lunch. The day before, Eva caught a whiff of something odd and somehow immediately knew that Trixie’s throat was infected. She even asked her friend if she felt okay, but she said she was fine. When she hadn’t shown up to school that morning, Eva decided that maybe Trixie hadn’t known yet, but the infection was there and had worsened overnight.
“Hi, Doc,” Tawny greeted him as they came inside. “And, hello, Eva. Visiting your mother?”
“Uh huh, I just walked over after school. I missed you today,” she told her friend. “Lunch is never the same without you.”
“Yeah. I’m totally sick,” Trixie said with a frown.
“She’s got a little fever and she says her throat is sore,” Tawny explained to Doctor Baker. “I’m guessing strep.”
Doc grunted. “Wouldn’t be the first case this week. I can do a quick strep test. If she’s positive we’ll get her on some antibiotics. She should be feeling better in no time. Right this way, young ladies. Follow me.”
“Have fun,” Eva told Trixie with a smile.
“Oh, yeah, loads of fun.” Trixie stuck her tongue out at her friend.
“Maybe you’ll get to eat lots of ice cream and stuff.”
“Try telling that to my mom.”
Tawny smiled at the girls. “Maybe a little ice cream.”
Doc stood patiently outside the exam room. “Ladies.”
“Sorry, Doctor Baker. We’re coming,” Tawny told him. “Come on, Trixie.”
“Call me tonight,” Eva told her friend.
“I will.”
Eva sat down at the front desk and waited for her mother. As soon as Krista came out, Eva told her about Trixie.
“Momma, I can do it. I can totally do it,” she said with awe.
“You can do what, baby girl?”
“I can smell things, like you do. Yesterday I somehow knew Trixie had a throat infection. I asked her and she said she felt fine, but she missed school today, and Doc just took her and her mom back to do a st
rep test.” Krista looked at her daughter with surprise, but Eva kept talking. “I’ve been smelling all these strange things lately, and I didn’t want to think about what it was, but today I know. Today, I know that I can do what you can. I can smell what’s wrong with people.”
“That’s remarkable. Come back into the exam room with me, but don’t say a thing. When we get out, tell me what you think about the patient in there.”
Krista grabbed Eva’s hand and pulled her into the room. “So sorry, Mr. North. I forgot to write down your blood pressure right after I took it and now it’s disappeared from my head. I’ll have to take it again. My daughter came to visit. I hope you don’t mind if she stays for this,” she said as she put the cuff over his arm.
“Not a problem at all.”
“Doc will be in here very soon, to give you a thorough going over.”
“Sounds good to me. Just want to know why I’m so tired lately and why I can’t seem to ever drink enough water. Thirsty as can be.”
“He’ll get that all figured out,” Krista promised him. Soon after, she left the room with Eva following behind.
“Tell me what you sensed,” she told her daughter after she’d pulled her into the stock room where they could be alone.
“Something is wrong with his blood,” Eva informed her mother. “It’s too… It’s too…” she struggled to find the words. “It’s too… sweet.”
“He’s got adult onset diabetes. His body can no longer regulate the amount of sugar in his blood. His is too high. He’ll need to learn how to control it through diet and exercise, and medicines as well, of course. Doctor Baker will go in there in a couple minutes and find all of that out by giving him an examination. I smelled it when I walked in the room. Apparently you did too.”
Eva looked at her mother and shook her head. “No. I didn’t. I just knew something was wrong. I didn’t know what it was as well as you did.”
“You’re only twelve. All the right words will come to you as you get older and learn more things.”
“Was this how it was for you?”
“At first, yes. But I always devoured all kinds of medical information, so I was soon able to make sense of it all. Whenever you think something is off with someone, just whisper it to me and I’ll let you know exactly what it is. And then, one day, you’ll find that you’ll be able to pinpoint an ailment with precision.”
Eva nodded. “You think I can do that?”
“I know you can.”
“So, every single day, you walk around knowing everything that is wrong with the people near you? Smelling all this stuff?”
“I do.”
“Momma, doesn’t that ever confuse your brain? Isn’t it just too much going on all the time? How will I do this?”
“You’ll get used to it. At some point it will feel normal to you. But this is just the beginning. I remember the scent of aging came to me later, mixing in with the different ailments so they are harder to detect. If you are like me, then as people age you’ll be able to smell the decay of their body. When people are over a certain age, the smell increases. Doc has a particular odor, as does Jim, Adeline, Sheriff Tucker, his wife, Eli, Abe and every other aging person that I come in contact with. We are all getting older, but time affects some people more than others.”
Eva panicked when she heard Abe’s name. “Is Uncle Abe alright?”
“He’s as fine as anybody his age can be. He’s had minor heart trouble in the past, but he said he was able to clean up his diet and he started exercising more. I haven’t sensed anything dire since I’ve lived here. But yes, he is getting older every day, and he will eventually die, as will I, as will your father.”
“But you can stop that from happening!”
“I could, but I won’t, and he wouldn’t want me to. There are guidelines that should be followed when you become a Deathtaker. I’ve told you about them. People get older and die; it is the natural progression of life. We are born, we get old, we die,” she stressed the point. “If something upsets the order… if, and only if, someone is about to die before they get the chance to grow old, we intervene.”
Eva frowned. “It doesn’t seem fair.”
“Life is rarely fair.”
“I’ve noticed. I guess I’ll wait until you get home later to let you know I got a C on the history test.”
“I think you just told me.”
Eva put her hands over her face. “I studied. I swear.”
“We’ll have to find some more effective ways of studying, I think,” Krista told her daughter. “Of course, I’d like to see that a little higher, but a C is not the end of the world.”
“Feels like it. I think I’ll walk over to the shop.”
“Alright. Put your coat back on, it’s cold out there. Be safe, look both ways when you cross the street, and all that other parenting junk.”
Eva laughed. “I will. See you at home.”
“Love ya.”
“Love ya,” Eva blew a kiss to her mother as she walked out the door.
“Hey, little one!”
Eva turned to find Trey, leaning against the wall outside, with his bike next to him.
“What are you doing here? Is the med center the new high school hang out?” she asked him.
“All the cool kids are doing it,” he joked.
“Then why are you?”
“Funny. No. I just got here. I’m waiting for mom to finish up with Trixie. She told me to meet her here after school. She has to give me a check for b-ball. Coach said he’d wait for me to come back with it, I was supposed to turn it in this morning. Has Doc seen Trixie yet?”
“She has strep.”
“That sucks. Are they done already?”
“No. I just heard Doc tell your mom he’s going to do a strep test,” she clarified.
Trey bounced the basketball he’d been holding. “So she might have strep?”
“Yeah. That’s what I meant. Anyway, I’m going to the shop to see my dad. See ya later.”
Trey’s phone went off as Eva started walking away. “Hold up. I’m going that way. Apparently my mom forgot her checkbook, but she says my dad has it at the store. Ugh. This better not make me late.”
“Ride ahead if you want, you’ll get there faster. I can walk by myself.”
“It’s no big deal. I’m just complaining. Coach said he’s going to be there for at least an hour, today. I’ve got time. I’ll ride fast after I get the check from my dad.”
“What’s the check for?”
“A trip we’re taking. An overnighter. Hotel room and such.”
“Are you the youngest on the team? Are they nice to you, or do they tease you for being the baby?”
Trey looked away from her as he answered. “I am the only ninth grader on Varsity. Most of the guys are nice, but yeah, I get teased. But I’m already taller than a few of the guys, soon I’ll be the tallest on the team and then nobody will call me a baby,” he said with determination.
“I didn’t mean to make you mad – if I did.” Eva put her hand on Trey’s arm as they walked. “You’re my friend and, well, Trixie said she heard you say some things. I can’t imagine anyone being mean to you. You are the nicest boy I know.”
“Thanks, kiddo,” Trey said with a laugh.
“But you are. Anyway, what do you do to your bike when it starts to snow? You still ride it, don’t you?”
“I just change the tires out to some big fat ones. They grip better. I don’t ride it when it gets really snowy. But, for the most part, I don’t mind it. I’d rather be a little cold than have to wait for rides. It won’t be for much longer, anyway. I get my license soon.”
“Not that soon.”
“Soon enough.”
“Try not to drive on the sidewalks. I’ll have to remember not to walk around town for a while. I really hope you don’t hit anything.”
“Very funny.”
Eva laughed loudly.
Trey shook his head. “I may have to target you s
pecifically.”
“Now I’m really scared.”
They reached Trey’s family’s store, but the hardware shop was still a little further down Main Street.
Trey parked his bike outside the store. “See you later.”
“After awhile.” Eva waved goodbye and then continued to walk toward the shop. “Daddy, Daddy, Daddy,” she called out when she got inside.
Sam placed the boxes of nails on the shelf he was stocking. “Evie, Evie, Evie. My girl came to visit me.”
“Well, since Trixie didn’t come to school today, I wasn’t able to go home with her, and Mom’s busy at work, so I came here. Can I help you with anything?”
“You sure can. The stuff on the cart is getting marked down. Can you set the price gun to a dollar ninety-nine and put the red stickers on the front of each one of those things?”
“Ooh. The price gun. I love the price gun,” Eva said with a sparkle in her eye.
Sam chuckled. “I know you do. But no marking random things down for random prices throughout the store. You know I usually have to honor those.”
Eva hummed as she turned the knobs and set it to a new price. After she had it the way she wanted, she went over to her father, took his hand, and depressed the trigger. “That was not a random act,” she told him. “Therefore, not randomly priced.”
He looked at the red sticker she’d placed on his skin. “Funny.”
“I thought I’d give you my two cents.”
“I think I’m worth more than two cents,” Sam told her.
“The most I can make you worth with this thing is a penny less than one thousand dollars. You’re definitely worth more than that.”
“I’m glad you think so.”
Eva hugged him. “You’re priceless, Daddy.”
“So are you, baby girl. Now, get to work,” he teased.
“Sheesh! I’m working on it,” she told him as she set the knobs to the correct price.
“She’s crossed another line with the power. She’s one step closer,” Krista told Sam after they’d gone to bed that night.