by Lizzie Rose
A scuffling sound came from beyond the doorway and seconds later a little old man shuffled in. He walked with a stoop and leaned heavily on two walking sticks. ‘Morning,’ he called out cheerily as he made his way around the far side of the table. ‘What’s for breakfast?’
‘The usual.’ Gran turned to look at him. ‘This is Ava.’
‘Oh, lovely. Nice to meet you.’ He nodded at me as he sat down carefully in the chair opposite me. ‘What was your name again?’
‘Ava,’ I replied.
‘Pretty name for a pretty girl.’ He winked at me.
‘Leave the poor girl alone, Sydney. Here you go, love.’ She carried a stack of toast across then quickly added a dish of yellow butter and several jars of homemade jam to the table. Gramps took a slice off the top and I watched in wonder as he scraped butter on to it with precision until the entire surface of bread was covered. He was just about to dig into the jam when Oscar entered the room.
He really was very good looking. His hair was tied back today and he wore a plain white t-shirt which emphasized the contours of his muscular chest and arms. His eyes were framed with laughter lines and they lit up when they saw me.
‘Hey, how are you?’ he asked as he swept across the kitchen and took hold of four mugs of freshly brewed tea all at once. Plonking them down on the table, he took the seat next to me. ‘Do you need some help?’
Without waiting for an answer he took a plate and a slice of toast and began covering it in butter and jam. His technique wasn’t quite as careful as Gramps’ but it had a similar result. Sliding it on to the plate in front of me, he started on a slice for himself. We ate in silence for a while, the music playing softly in the background.
‘Brock says your room is almost ready,’ Oscar told me as he stacked up the empty plates. ‘I have to work at the shop today and tomorrow but Gran and Gramps will be here. Will you be ok?’
‘Sure,’ I replied, sounding more convincing than I felt.
Chapter Four
I spent the next few days convalescing in front of an open log fire, watching quiz shows on TV and nursing Moth, the geriatric Siamese cat.
‘What are your powers?’ I asked Gran one afternoon as Gramps snoozed in his armchair.
‘I have the ability to move things with my mind,’ she told me, ‘although the length of time I can hold them for is lessening.’
‘What about Gramps?’
‘Oh, we’re not really sure,’ she glanced across at him with a look of pure love. ‘He’s always given the impression that he has a power but it’s never been clear what it is. Had it not been for the fact that we’re married he would probably have ended up in the town.’
‘Can’t you all live together?’
‘Well, it’s not the law but it’s the way things have worked out. The Standards don’t feel safe around the Nexes and so we’ve naturally split into two groups. You’ll find it that way wherever you go in the country – throughout the world in fact. But it’s not enforced and there are many mixed households like ours.’
‘But you said that you think Gramps has a power.’
‘Yes, but Oscar doesn’t. We adopted him when he was a baby, you see. He’s never shown any sign of having any powers but he’s grown up around me and our friends so he’s quite used to Nexes. It’s a strange world we live in, my dear, but we get by. I’m sure you’ll fit in just fine.’
*
By the end of the week I was starting to feel quite settled. On the Friday evening, Oscar finished work early in order to take me to my new home. The butterflies in my stomach calmed down a little when I saw the quaint little cottage with climbing roses stretching up the walls, adding splashes of colour to the grey stone.
Brock and his wife Esther were waiting for us just inside the doorway. They were both smiling warmly and, after shaking hands, they took me on a tour of the house. My new bedroom had once belonged to their son, Tommy, who they told me was the telepath I’d communicated with at the farmhouse.
The room had been newly decorated and was a pretty yellow colour with cream bedding and curtains. They’d put in a lot of work to make it nice and I appreciated their efforts.
Over the next few days my new guardians tried very hard to make me feel welcome. Being careful not to get in their way, I took to spending most of my time in my bedroom. Sneaking downstairs one evening, I saw Brock sitting alone at the kitchen table. He looked up and smiled at me. ‘Hi. It’s ok, you can come in.’
‘Thank you. Would it be all right for me to have a glass of water?’
‘Ava, honey, you don’t need to ask, just help yourself.’
I nodded and headed over to the sink.
‘So, how are you?’ he called after me.
‘I’m fine, thank you.’
‘Are you sure? You don’t seem very . . . comfortable.’
‘I’m all right,’ I replied. ‘It’s just a lot to get used to.’
‘It’s bound to take time. Why don’t you sit down a moment?’
I carried my drink over and perched on the chair opposite him.
‘Did your mother have powers?’ he asked.
‘Yes several, as did my father.’
‘I’ve never heard of that before, you know,’ he mused. ‘All the Nexes I’ve met have only ever had one power.’
Pulling at the edge of one of my bandages I thought about this. ‘Why are the Duds so afraid of the Nexes?’
‘Well, the thing is you see, the Nexes only started showing their powers over the last decade or so. Before that we all lived together quite peacefully – if you don’t count the wars and the politics, of course. There were always people who claimed to be psychic or gifted but never anything that caused too much alarm. But then, fifteen years ago, a man called Ernest Brown set fire to a car. The thing was, he was standing at the opposite side of the car park. He got into a row with the owner then a ball of fire shot out of him and into the car. The whole thing was caught on CCTV and there were about twenty witnesses. Ernest was arrested and placed in an institution. Then more people began to show their powers and the government panicked. Every single person who showed any sign of being a Nex was locked away.’
He grimaced and shuddered. ‘They did all sorts of tests on them and some didn’t survive. They were very dark times. Eventually, the institutions were full to the brim and people on the outside were beginning to get angry with the government. In the end they decided to try and take control of the powers by forcing the Nexes to suppress them. They released those who were locked up and allowed them to return to their families. Those with gifts were labelled Unexplainables and strict laws were brought in for the way we could interact and move around the country. Whilst the new rules were restrictive, the Nexes were so relieved not to be treated as criminals that we accepted them gratefully.’
‘So what do you do?’
‘I’m a lawyer. I’m trying to encourage small changes in the way Nexes are treated in the hope that they’ll eventually lead to larger ones.’
‘My mother worked,’ I told him. ‘She once got a job playing the piano in a very expensive hotel in the city centre.’
‘Wow,’ Brock breathed, hearing the music in my thoughts. ‘She was very talented.’
‘She’d never played before. It must have been one of her powers. Anyway, they let me sit at a table right at the back of the room while she played.’
‘So, what made your mother leave?’
The happy feeling inside me vanished instantly. ‘A man tried to make me go with him. He got angry when I said no. One of the staff members saw what was happening and the man ran away. When we were walking home afterwards, we saw someone standing in the shadows. Mother panicked and said we had to leave straight away. We didn’t even get to say goodbye to the people at the hotel.’ The memory still hurt. ‘I think I’m going to go to bed now if that’s ok?’
‘Of course.’ He smiled. ‘I’m glad we got this chance to talk and please don’t feel nervous. Just treat this place as
your home.’
The problem was that although I was slowly getting used to being around people by day, my mind was going into overdrive at night. A few weeks after moving into my new home, I woke up on the floor at the far side of the bedroom.
‘Ava? It’s ok, honey, it’s just a dream. Can you wake up?’
There was an awful noise coming from somewhere near me. Struggling to focus on the voice, the sound grew louder until I broke through the surface and realised it was actually coming from me. Forcing my mouth closed, the sound instantly muted.
‘Are you all right?’ Esther was standing by the bed, looking worried.
‘I think so,’ I panted.
‘You were asleep, weren’t you?’ she asked.
‘Yes, why do you ask?’
‘It’s just that your bed doesn’t look slept in,’ she replied.
Brock and I stood at the same time, staring over at the bed. The sheets were tucked in and the covers were smooth and flat.
‘How strange,’ I murmured, confused. Shaking my head, I got back into bed. They stayed with me until I stopped trembling, then bade me good night. But the worry that it would happen again stayed with me long after they’d gone back to sleep. Determined not to do it again, I forced myself to stay awake for the rest of the night.
*
I could manage a couple of nights without sleep before my body gave in to exhaustion and the dreams returned. The dark circles underneath my guardians’ eyes were a constant reminder of the disruption I was causing. It was a great relief when, one afternoon, Brock announced that we’d been invited to a barbecue at the farm the following weekend. When the day arrived, the prospect of going out for a while was very exciting.
When we approached the farm, it struck me that, due to the fact we’d previously arrived in the middle of the night, I hadn’t fully appreciated just how beautiful it was. The house was built from big slabs of grey stone. Smoke curled out of the chimney and there were fresh flowers in each of the windows. Inside there was solid wood flooring and wooden beams stretching across the ceilings.
As soon as we arrived I was guided into the kitchen by Gwen and a mug of hot tea was placed in front of me. About half an hour into our visit, Brock and Esther’s son Tommy arrived along with his wife and two children. Brock strode across the room and hugged his son, then picked up the older of the two children and swung him through the air, making him squeal with laughter.
‘Hi Ava.’ Tommy grinned at me, holding out his hand for me to shake. ‘It’s nice to see you again.’
‘You’re both telepaths,’ I said as it dawned on me. ‘Do powers run in families then?’
‘Actually no, not necessarily,’ he replied. ‘Hugo is my brother-in-law and there’s no one else in his family with this particular power. Gwen is a healer and this is Toni – my wife and Gwen’s daughter. She’s able to make things grow from nothing – plants and flowers, that sort of thing.’
‘And this little terror is Brogan.’ Brock was holding the child upside down and pretending to dip his head into the sink. The boy screamed with laughter, stretching his chubby little fingers out to reach the soapy water beneath him.
‘Don’t make him sick, Dad,’ Tommy chided, but he was laughing as he watched. ‘This is the latest edition to our family, Eliana. She’s three months old.’ He gestured to a tiny bundle in Toni’s arms.
‘Would you like to hold her?’ Toni asked, smiling shyly at me.
‘Me? Oh I don’t know . . . I don’t want to drop her.’
‘Don’t worry about it, you’ll be fine.’ She gently manoeuvred the sleeping child into my arms. I’d never seen such a young baby before and was amazed at the tiny details – the long dark eyelashes, the miniature fingernails and the cute button nose. She was just beautiful.
Hugo arrived just as Eliana woke up and began crying for her milk. I quickly handed her back to Tommy, shocked at how much noise could come from such a small creature.
‘Do you want to go for a walk?’ Hugo asked. ‘I could show you around the farm.’
‘Brogan walk too,’ the little boy chirruped, bouncing up and down on the spot. ‘Uncle ‘Ugo, Brogan walk too?’
Hugo crouched down so he was the same level and looked very seriously at the boy. ‘Well, I dunno, Brogan, if you want to come you’ll need your wellies on. What do you reckon?’
‘Wellies! Wellies!’ Brogan chanted, racing out of the room. He returned with two shiny blue boots and proceeded to ram his feet inside, which was no mean feat considering he was trying to dance at the same time.
When we were finally ready, we headed outside into the yard. There was a surprising amount of land around the farmhouse, which stretched a long way into the distance.
‘This used to be a working farm,’ Hugo explained, ‘but when the troubles started the Duds didn’t want to buy food from the Nexes, so the people who owned it went bust. When my dad died he left us some money and we ended up here. We don’t really do much with it because there’s no point. Mum grows a bit of fruit and veg that she sells to Gran for the shop and we have a few animals but they’re just pets. I wish we could have all the others back too.’
‘Maybe you will one day.’
He shrugged. ‘I doubt it.’
We walked across the stable yard to a paddock area. There were three horses – one on its own in the paddock and two others in the fields beyond.
‘The two over there are retired riding school horses.’ Hugo pointed towards them. ‘We ride them sometimes but they’re getting a bit slow these days. The one by itself is Venus.’
I looked over at the other horse. It was a deep grey colour with a mottled pattern across its back and face. It stood watching us with its head held high.
‘She’s an Arab cross. Some Duds owned her but they couldn’t tame her so they gave her to us for nothing. Mum’s the only one who can go near her so you’d be best to leave her be unless you want to get kicked.’
Turning back, we wandered into a large barn filled with hay bales. A brood of hens were scratching around on the floor. Hugo and I sat down on a bale whilst Brogan ran around, pretending to be an aeroplane.
‘How old are you, Hugo?’
‘I’m ten.’
‘Have you always been a telepath – since you were born?’
‘Yep, pretty much. I’ve been able to hear people’s thoughts since I was tiny, which drove Mum crazy.’ He snorted with laughter, his eyes dancing.
‘I bet! So how does it work?’
‘Well, it’s kind of like watching TV inside my head. I hear and see the thoughts of people nearby but you really have to tune in to hear them clearly. It can be quite funny when people are daydreaming. I can communicate with other telepaths from a distance too, but I’ve only ever done it as far as the town. I’m not sure if it works any further away.’
‘Do all the Nexes develop their powers from such a young age?’
‘Not always,’ he replied. ‘The thing is, people are scared to show their powers in public because they could get into trouble. But they’re also worried about trying them out at home in case they set their house on fire or something.’
‘That’s understandable.’
‘Yeah, but it’s frustrating too because not being able to use the powers makes them kind of build up inside. It can make it worse when they finally do come out.’
‘I can relate to that,’ I murmured. ‘It’s a horrible feeling.’
‘It’s even worse at school,’ he continued. ‘We’re not allowed to play sports or take tests.’ He kicked the bale he was sitting on hard with the heel of his foot. ‘It’s so stupid. I mean, just because we have powers doesn’t mean that we’re going to cheat. But because they’re so scared of us we can’t even try to see if we’re clever or not. There’s just no point in bothering. It’s not as if we’ll be allowed to do anything decent in the future anyway.’
‘You don’t know that. Things might change tomorrow for all you know, and if they do change and you haven’t
bothered trying to make the best of things, you might miss out on an opportunity that comes up. I think any education is better than none.’
‘Really?’ He eyed me sceptically.
‘Believe me, I’ve never been to school in my life and I’d have given anything to have done so. You’re lucky that you get to go at all.’
‘I guess so. It’s just . . .’
SQWARKKKKKKK!
Chapter Five
We looked up to see a chicken three feet up in the air and heading our way at speed.
‘Watch out!’ Hugo yelled. I dived to the side as he did an impressive leap and caught the poor creature, setting it down gently on the ground, where it flapped its wings and scrabbled away, clucking loudly.
‘Chicken fly!’ Brogan grinned broadly. ‘Look, chicken fly!’
Before we even had time to blink, the entire brood of chickens was whizzing around above our heads. Every time we managed to catch one and set it down, Brogan would send another flying, with peals of laughter echoing around the barn, until finally . . .
‘Brogan!’ Tommy stalked into the barn and stood with his hands on his hips, looking down at his son. The chickens landed heavily on the floor and left the barn en masse and at speed. Brogan looked up at his father from under his eyelashes.
‘Chicken fly?’
Tommy raised an eyebrow and stretched his hand out to Brogan who took it sheepishly and walked quietly out of the barn. Wiping his forehead with the back of his hand, Hugo smiled. ‘Come on, let’s go see if they’re cooking yet.’
*
There were a lot of people in the garden by the time we joined them. Everyone was very friendly and I enjoyed listening to their conversations. Everything was going well until someone near me screamed so loudly that I dropped my burger on the floor. Staring around the garden, my gaze fell on a pair of yellow eyes watching me from underneath a nearby bush. Tommy ran out of the kitchen with a frying pan in his hand. Scrambling up, I sprinted across the lawn and planted myself firmly in front of my giant cat. ‘It’s ok, he won’t hurt you, I promise.’