The Touch (Healer Series)

by Allison Rios

  “You’re welcome. I’ll always protect you, kiddo.”

  She smiled and settled into bed. He walked towards the door and Addie jogged as quickly and quietly as possible down the hall, so that she didn’t appear to be eavesdropping. She made it into the kitchen and the teapot had just started whistling. She reached for it to look as if she were busy.

  AJ rounded the corner and saw her standing at the counter.

  “Tea?”

  “Sounds good,” he said, pulling up a stool at the island.

  “How’d it go?” she asked gently.

  “Scary. But fine. Kids are like a foreign language to me. Intimidating and frightening.”

  “She likes you.”

  “I gather. Don’t know why. I’m just like any other guy.”

  “You’re not. That’s why she likes you,” Addie replied.

  She poured hot water into the cup as AJ took out the tea packet. He hated tea and realized he was drinking it without a second thought because she made it for him.

  “Are you planning on sticking around?” Addie asked, the hot water swirling in the cup as it poured from the funnel.

  “Tonight?”

  “In town. In general.” She smirked in his direction.

  “I plan on it.”

  He meant he wanted to. He wasn’t 100 percent sure he’d be able to endure hiding the feelings he had. Or what it might be like to watch Addie carry on with her life with another guy.

  “Nothing’s ever for sure, but I plan on it.”

  Addie leaned on the counter, the tea cup in both her hands as her elbows rested on the cool countertop. Her face was inches from him and she took a sip of tea before locking her eyes with his.

  “One thing’s for sure: when it comes to my daughter you better make sure that you decide what you’re gonna do. She likes you and she’s never asked for a guy we’ve known to do anything for her, especially something as special as a bedtime story. If you hurt her, I’ll kill you.”

  “I won’t hurt her,” AJ replied. “You know how alike you and your Gram are? Geez. I don’t know what you’re asking of me here. I’ll do the best I can. I care about you gals, I want to protect you. It just has to be-”

  “As a friend,” she said, cutting him off. “I know. I explained that to Rose and she understands. She likes you, she trusts you, and if she’s willing to reach out and trust somebody, then I don’t want to stop her from doing that. If I do, she’ll end up like me and she should learn from my mistakes – not make the same ones herself.”

  “Tell me why,” AJ said, genuinely interested in what made Addie the woman in front of him.

  “What?”

  “Tell me why you don’t trust people. Why you keep such a private life?”

  She looked at him with one eyebrow raised as if he were asking her the most personal question possible.

  “Addie, you said you wanted to be friends. We don’t know each other. I’m trying to get to know you, so tell me. Why are you who you are?”

  “How much time do you have?” she asked with a laugh. “Come outside with me a second.”

  She took his hand and led him to the front yard where she climbed up on the hood of her truck. She patted the spot next to her, signaling for him to do the same. She laid back, her eyes gazing up at a cloudless night. The stars seemed brighter than they had in ages and there were so many, she couldn’t count.

  AJ followed suit. He hadn’t seen anything that beautiful in a long time. The sky in the city was clouded by smog and haze, and stars weren’t nearly as visible as they were here.

  “I could start with my mom.”

  “What about her?” AJ asked, settling onto the hood. He knew about her mom from her Gram. He wanted to hear Addie’s side of the story.

  “She was crazy, completely and totally crazy. It was so embarrassing growing up. Everyone knew she was a nutcase. She didn’t love me or she would have tried to get better. She just sat in that home, rocking herself back and forth all day, every day, whispering about how she couldn’t save the world. Just downright crazy.”

  “What did she have?”

  “I don’t actually remember,” Addie said, thinking about it. She wondered if she’d ever actually asked. “Hmmm. I’m not sure. I spent most of the time trying to keep away from her, to not be associated with her. Everyone in town talked about her. I always wondered how long it would be till I ended up like her.”

  “You don’t seem all that crazy,” AJ said with a smile. She smiled back.

  “Yet. Not yet. There’s always tomorrow, though. I don’t know. I loved her because she was my mom. But I didn’t like her. I didn’t have a dad. That I knew of, at least. And when she went crazy I was so little, so I didn’t have a mother either. Gram is the closest thing I have. I was a bit wild in my teenage years and I found a guy I thought loved me. Actually, I know he loved me. I loved him, too. One of those once-in-a-lifetime, romance movie type loves. When I found out I was having a baby we made all these plans. He helped me paint the nursery, picked out clothing for the baby. I finally settled down thinking I was going to have this beautiful family and give my baby the life I always wanted but never had. Rose came and in no time, Robert – that was his name – he was gone. He left us both with no explanation other than goodbye. He was the only man I had ever trusted and when he left, he just destroyed my heart. I had put everything into him. He broke my heart twice though; once for me and again for Rose.”

  AJ listened intently. She wanted to tell someone. Her body language and cracking voice made that apparent. He wondered if she had ever actually spoken about her mother with anyone else.

  She paused, realizing she had just spilled years worth of history to a stranger. “What about you? Why are you such a loner?”

  AJ was used to telling his story. He’d had to rehearse it long ago so that he had something to say if anybody asked. While the details were true, it somehow always felt like a lie when he heard the words come out of his mouth. It was never the whole truth.

  “I didn’t know my dad either,” he began, swirling the tea around in his cup as he looked at it. “I was closest to my Uncle. He died when I was little. We were in a car accident; I survived and he didn’t.”

  “That must have been horrible!” Addie replied. Each time she heard a story like his, she realized that life can always be much worse than the hand she was dealt. It reminded her of something her Gram always said: if everyone tossed their worries in a pile and you saw what they were, you’d pick your own back up in a heartbeat because they’d probably be the easiest.

  “It was. It was just me and my mom then. It was good, the two of us. We didn’t have much but we made do and I never wanted for anything. She was beautiful, sweet, and loving.”

  “She’s not around, I take it?”

  “No,” AJ said, preparing himself for saying the words that he had yet to get used to. “She died a few years back. Cancer. She was really sick, so it was…a blessing.”

  That was a lie. It was a lie when other people said it to him and it was a lie when he said it. He didn’t think of it as a blessing.

  “I’m so sorry, AJ.” She meant it. She reached out and put her hand atop his.

  “It’s okay,” he said, pulling his hand back to his cup. She looked disheartened. Even as friends, it didn’t seem as if he’d let anyone close. “I’ve got Max. I’m not a total loner. It’s just really hard for me to get close to people. It’s hard to lose them.”

  And, he wanted to add, it would be even harder to get close and have to leave, only to do it over and over again as he aged.

  “Not everyone is gonna leave,” she replied.

  “We all leave, Addie,” he said, looking right at her. “It’s just a matter of time.”

  She felt chills. The comment nearly seemed to be a threat of some sort. Not that he’d harm her. It almost sounded as though he had plans to only be there for awhile.

  “Just keep Rose in mind,” she said, focusing her attention back on the t
ea. “She’s gone without a lot in life. She doesn’t get close to people either. For some reason, she’s taken to you. Just be careful of that, please.”

  “I will Addie, I promise,” he replied, meaning it with all of his heart. “Look at all the stars. It’s amazing.”

  “They really are. This is what I do when things get rough. I come out here and look up, imagine that every one of them is something I’m supposed to accomplish in life.”

  “That’s a lot of things to do,” AJ laughed.

  “I’m serious! It gives me motivation to keep going. The big stars represent all the things I’m supposed to do for Rose – get her to graduate, get her into ballet class. I didn’t say they’d be life altering things. Just things I want to do for her. I check them off in my head when I have.”

  “What are the smaller stars symbolic of?”

  “The things I want to accomplish for myself and my life. Smaller in comparison to what I want to give my daughter. I know I’ll never get them all done but I like to keep them all out there just in case.”

  “You’ll do great things, Addie.”

  “I hope.”

  **************************************************

  Max traveled the road, feeling like a father protecting his son. He had taken to AJ and just as the kid wanted to protect Addie, Max wanted to protect him. Any threat - big or small - was not one Max would take lightly when it came to the kid he’d found alone one day and taken under his wing.

  He’d been doing this a long time and had taken many new Healers and worked with them to hone their capabilities. He taught them the right and wrong ways to do things, the laws that they had to abide by. He taught them about the threats and how to handle all they encountered in their lives. He’d seen them live and he’d seen some die. All were scared when their lives were first turned upside down at the start of their gift, and as they grew comfortable, they’d all moved on to fulfill their destinies.

  He found it strange that people would be handed such a gift and still be given free will. It was the same as meeting different siblings from the same family, all of whom were completely different. Some were good, some were wicked. Though brought up in the same home, they were all vastly different. It was the same with the Healers; some were good and some were different. There were those that couldn’t take the task put before them and so they hid away to live out their days in exile, alone. There were those with hearts so big, they’d killed themselves in days trying to do what they thought they were supposed to.

  And in his time on earth, he’d encountered the same when it came to Grims. While he was always wary of the group, the majority he’d encountered belonged to the original tribe and was taking lives according to the laws that needed to be fulfilled on their end. Some were so desperately guilty at having to take lives that they did the same as some Healers – hid themselves away to live out their days.

  It was free will and it was granted to every soul that graced the earth, good or bad. Anyone could make any decision and that’s what made life so unpredictable.

  He’d been younger than AJ when he discovered his gift, having found his father in the midst of war on the battlefield with a gunshot wound piercing the older man’s side. While Max wasn’t a doctor, he knew it was bad; there was blood everywhere. In sheer panic, Max had placed his hand on the wound to stop the bleeding, thought subconsciously he was trying to cover it up and pretend it didn’t exist. He had been in pure panic mode, gasping for breath at the thought of losing his father. His father screamed, winced, and went limp in Max’s arms. Tears began streaming down his face for the loss of his father. That is, until the boy’s father sat up a little in Max’s arms, looking in shock at the area that had moments before been a wide-open gash spilling blood out onto the ground. Max moved his hand to reveal there was nothing there except blood stains left to prove that any wound had ever existed.

  Instead of looking at him with thanks, his father stared at him with disgust and fear in belief that his son was a sorcerer. He pushed his son away and Max, out of pure fear, ran wildly into the trees. Days later he returned to his home, where his father answered the door and sent him away, threatening that Max should either leave or face being reported to the authorities, who would not have mercy on what they would consider his devilish soul.

  As Max backed down a step, he saw his mother behind the tall, foreboding man. Tears enveloped her face. When he caught her stare she turned away, unable to look at the son she was no longer allowed to see.

  Max watched his family for awhile after, hiding in the trees so as not to be seen. His father would stop on occasion and look around as though he knew someone was out there. When Max’s mother died, the Healer watched the funeral from afar and, with a heart full of anger and sadness, left his town for good. He found refuge with a Native American tribe at the time and their belief in healing combined with their spiritual lives allowed him a venue to open up without being ostracized. This tribe described to him his calling and taught him of the legends. He made it his mission in life to not only heal those who were sick, but heal the souls of the Healers who were lost within this world. Especially men like AJ, men that hadn’t had the love of a father. He wanted to provide love and guidance to them and prevent the new Healers from feeling so alone.

  Since AJ had lost his mother, Max had a special place in his heart for the kid as he understood what that loss felt like.

  As the minutes on the clock ticked by during the dark hours of night, Max packed for the B&B. He left home early that morning since he’d stewed just about long enough at the rickety kitchen table, drinking the same cup of cold coffee as he watched the overhead clock move in slow motion. He knew the need to rush was minimal yet he couldn’t suppress the urge. Something just hadn’t felt right for the last few days.

  The ride was shorter than before, perhaps because Max pressed the pedal closer to the floor with each passing mile. He pulled up to the B&B just as the sun broke the horizon, signaling morning for the town in unison with the roosters. The feeling of dread was dwindling to almost nonexistent as he pulled up. Perhaps the worst was over.

  Helen was already up, as was Matthew, getting ready to feed the chickens out back. They had acres of farmland that they long ago rented out to folks who could do the work as age began catching up with the duo.

  “Hi Max!” Helen said, a gigantic smile plastered onto her face. In some cases greetings that joyous would appear phony and almost condescending but on Helen, it was genuine and he knew it.

  “Hello there!” he waved back, his ratty old duffle bag tossed over his shoulder. The straps were frayed almost clearly through and patches were sewn all over it. Max was from the school of fix-it-till-you-can’t-anymore. Plus, it had been the only thing he had left from home so many years ago. His mother had made it for him.

  “Go on in and get settled. Any room you want! I’ll be up to cook breakfast in a bit.”

  “Don’t worry about breakfast, Helen,” he said, feeling slightly odd about calling her by her first name. Where he was from, it was disrespectful to call a woman, especially an elder, by her first name. Helen had insisted last time and wouldn’t take no for an answer. She said being called Ms. Raven made her feel far too old.

  “Nonsense! I live to cook for you boys. AJ’s still asleep, I bet,” she said, nodding her head in the direction of his room. “The one right next to him is open.”

  “You’re not making him do chores?” Max joked, surprised that AJ wouldn’t be out there helping of his own free will. He was normally the guy that chipped in and did more than his fair share.

  “No, no. He offered, I wouldn’t let him. I enjoy all the little things, keeps me fit. If I don’t do chores, I’ll just turn into a couch potato,” she laughed. “He’s got a job. That’s enough. Go on in. See you in a bit.”

  He headed into the B&B, looking forward to something homemade again. His cooking was nothing compared to Helen’s.

  *****************************************
*********

  After breakfast, AJ took his friend into town to let Max wander around as he worked at the garage. It was a welcome change from the weekend because having to concentrate on something other than Addie was a break he’d needed. Along the way, Max took in the old fashioned buildings which looked like they had been frozen in time. It was such a change from the city where there was the constant need by everyone to have the newest and best.

  New York had been a constant flow of fashion and lights, the newest technology and people focused only on their phones and not all that surrounded them. Out here in the country, people didn’t care as much – if at all – about being up-to-date with the rest of the world. They lived their lives focused on the people instead of the stuff, and seemed happier than anyone AJ had ever met in the city.

  They decided to walk, partly for the exercise and partly because it was still well before anything in town would be open. AJ had taken to walking just about everywhere he went. He couldn’t say he missed the gym, although he did miss exercise in general. His walks were calming, and gave him time to think.

  “Isabelle’s real sick,” AJ said, kicking a rock with his shoe.

  “I know,” Max replied, his hands playing with a bright green leaf he’d plucked from a branch hanging a bit too low over the road to be left alone. “Helen told me. It’s a real shame. She was really choked up. You can tell she really loves kids.”

  “I know. She never had any, I don’t think. Not that she’s mentioned, and no pictures anywhere at all. I don’t want to ask her because it’s probably something she doesn’t want to think about.”

  “We all have those things, it seems,” Max replied.

  “I haven’t helped anyone,” AJ countered, shifting his gaze to Max as if he were seeking shame or approval, he wasn’t sure which. As much as he felt a calling for what he did and how he enjoyed being able to help others, taking a break and just living like a normal person – angst and all – had been a sense of relief the past couple weeks.