Winged (Aetharian Narratives)

by Sofia Vargas

  “Oh, my God, Viper,” Madison said. “What are you doing here…?” Her voice trailed off when she realized that I was sitting next to him.

  “Emma?” Hannah said in surprise.

  “Hey, Hannah. Hey, Madison,” I tried to sound as casual as possible.

  They looked from me to Viper. I immediately realized how unfortunate it was that they had caught us where they had. I looked around at the setting nervously.

  “Oh, sorry if we’re interrupting … something,” Madison said.

  It really didn’t sound like she was sorry for anything at all.

  I smiled anyway. “You’re not. We were just—”

  “Okay, good,” Hannah said with a wide smile.

  “Say, Viper,” said Madison, “What are you doing tomorrow?”

  “Yeah,” Hannah said. “Maybe you can hang out with me and Madison.”

  “Right, we would be more than happy to show you the town…”

  “Give advice on where to go and who to hang out with,” Hannah shot me a dirty look.

  “You know,” Madison said. “Just go do stuff.”

  “Wow, guys, that’s really great of you to offer,” said Viper with that smile again. “I’d like to, I really would, it’s just that Emma and I already have plans. But thanks for asking.”

  It took a second for me to catch up and realize what was going on. But I finally got there and smiled at him. He smiled back at me.

  “Right,” I said. “Sorry, girls, we already have stuff planned tomorrow.”

  “Oh,” said Madison, “Okay… Well if you change your mind give us a call.”

  “Yeah or if you just want to talk, give us a call,” Hannah said.

  “Okay,” said Viper in his sugar-coated voice. “I’ll remember to do that.”

  “Okay,” said Madison, “Bye. I guess I’ll see you later.”

  “Bye, don’t forget to call me,” said Hannah.

  “Come on,” Madison said, yanking on her arm. “Let’s go see how Emily is doing.”

  When they were gone I turned toward Viper again. “You didn’t have to say that. You could have made plans with them.”

  “I could have,” he said, nodding his head, “but why should I when we can do stuff?”

  Thankfully it was dark outside; at this last statement I turned very red. I was certain he couldn’t see it, but I could feel it. My face was burning up.

  “It’s getting colder,” he said. “We should head back.”

  “Right,” I said.

  We got up and started walking back to my house. I couldn’t think of a thing to say.

  “So,” said Viper. “That necklace I saw—is it yours?”

  I stopped and looked at him. “What?”

  He stopped and looked at me, too. “The silver necklace I saw in your mind, the one with the blue stone and tiny dragonfly. Is it yours?”

  I couldn’t believe that he had actually done it.

  “Yeah,” I said. I stuck my finger down the collar of my jacket and yanked out a chain from underneath my clothes.

  He took the charm between his fingers. An involuntary spasm ran down my back. If he noticed it he didn’t say so.

  “That’s really pretty,” he said. He had a strange look on his face. “What kind of stone is that?”

  “I don’t know,” I said. “Sapphire, I suppose.”

  “Hmm,” he said, laying it down against my jacket.

  “Wow, you really did it,” I said.

  He looked at me. For a second it looked like he had forgotten what the conversation was really about.

  “Yes,” he said, getting back up to speed. “Come on, did you have a doubt in your mind?”

  I smiled. “You tell me.”

  He laughed.

  “That is amazing, though,” I said. “You did it just like you’d imagine it done—”

  “Please,” he said. “I was just messing with you a little.”

  “What?”

  “The hands and stuff,” he said.

  “You don’t have to do that?”

  “Nope, I did it for show. I could read your mind from across a long hallway. All I have to do is be able to see you.”

  “Oh,” I said.

  “One day,” he said, “once I perfect my ability, I won’t have to see you to read your mind. I will be able to read it from anywhere.”

  “That’s…” I was not sure how I felt about that particular possibility. “That’s kind of a scary thought, actually.”

  His eyes really did look amazingly beautiful in the moonlight. I turned my head when he glanced at me.

  “So…” I said. We started walking again. “What was all that stuff our parents were talking about?”

  “I don’t know if I should be the one to tell you,” he said.

  We got to the front door and he pulled it open for me.

  “See if you can talk to your mom about it.”

  I frowned as I walked inside. “Okay.”

  * * *

  “You and Viper seemed to hit it off well,” Mom said. She put away the extra salad and lasagna.

  When Viper and I entered, Mom and the Amests were talking about calling it a night. I said goodbye to Viper and his parents as they left. Viper and I agreed to meet at the train station at noon the next day. We were going to discuss what we wanted to do there.

  “Yeah,” I said. I lathered up the dishes with soap. “He’s really cool.”

  “That’s good,” she walked over to the table and sat down. “It was really great to see Corinne and Arian. It’s been ages.”

  I watched her pick up her glass of water and drink from it.

  I thought about what Viper said. I’d always asked Mom questions. I’d asked questions about her, her family, my father, tons of things. She, however, found endless excuses to avoid answering them. Or she would give such vague answers that I might as well not have asked anything at all. Over the years I’d stopping asking, knowing I wouldn’t be able to get anything out of her. I guess I’d always figured that she’d talk about it when she was ready.

  “What did you guys talk about all night?”

  She put her glass down. “Just remembering the old days. We use to have a lot of fun together. I was the maid of honor at their wedding, you know.”

  “Wow, that’s great,” I said. I fished around in my brain for better questions to ask. “Where did the three of you go to school?”

  She halted halfway to her mouth with her glass. That seemed to have been a good question to ask.

  I rinsed off the lasagna pan and put it on the rack to dry. I picked up the towel to dry my hands and looked over my shoulder to see why she hadn’t answered. To my surprise her eyes started to water around the edges.

  “Oh, Mom,” I said going over to her. I wanted her to start telling me stuff but not while crying about it. “What’s wrong?” I put my arms around her.

  “It’s nothing, honey. It’s just that… Oh, I’m such a horrible mother,” she cried.

  “No,” I said. “No, you’re not. You’re a great mom.”

  “No, I’m not,” she said, shaking her head. “I’ve never told you anything about … anything. If you weren’t such a wonderful daughter and didn’t ask me questions when I avoided it, you would know everything.”

  “Mom, it’s okay,” I said, getting the tissue box off the shelf. “I just figured you didn’t want to talk about it if you didn’t tell me right away.”

  “I know. I didn’t want to tell you anything,” she took a tissue and blew her nose.

  “And that’s fine,” I said.

  “No, it’s not,” a fresh wave of tears poured from her eyes. She had never cried that much before. She blew her nose again. “You should know. You should know everything.”

  “It’s okay if you don’t want to tell me right now, Mom.”

  That was a lie, but if she was going to cry that much about it I knew I had better let it go.

  “Are you sure?” she wiped her nose. She looked at me with
those big, wet eyes.

  “Yeah,” I said. “Sure, I am.”

  “Okay,” she said, getting up. “Thanks, honey.”

  She said the last sentence with a perfectly normal voice. It wasn’t shaky anymore.

  “Goodnight.” She kissed me on the forehead. “Don’t stay up too late.”

  And she walked up the stairs.

  My own mother had thrown a fake tantrum. She had pretended to be all upset to get out of answering a few lousy questions. I had totally fallen for it.

  “Well played, Mom,” I said, shaking my head. I pushed myself off the floor and headed to my room.

  * * *

  “Hey, you made it,” Viper said when I got to the train station the next day.

  The clock at the top of the sign said 12:15. Viper had been sitting on a bench waiting for me to show up.

  “Hey,” I said. “Sorry I’m late; I didn’t hear my alarm go off.”

  “That’s all right,” he said. “You’re only fifteen minutes late.”

  “Which is good by my standards,” I said, sitting next to him. “So what should we do first?” I was anxious to get the day started.

  Viper looked around. “How about lunch first?”

  “Sounds good to me,” I said. “I know just the place.”

  We got up and I led him down the street to Pedro’s.

  “How is it that a Mexican restaurant makes the best pizza in town?” Viper said while reading a sign on a window that made that claim.

  “I don’t know,” I said. “It’s the only non-Mexican food on the menu and it certainly never gets any complaints.”

  He pulled the front door open to let me in and we sat at a table. It was pretty much already an unspoken agreement that we would be ordering a pizza. It was what Pedro’s was known for after all.

  “Emma, how are you today?” Pedro himself walked up to the table.

  “Hi, Pedro,” I said, “I’m well. How are you?”

  “I’m wonderful, gracias,” he said. “And who is this young man you are with?”

  “Hello,” said Viper, holding out his hand to shake Pedro’s. “I’m Viper.”

  “Nice to meet you, Viper.” Pedro shook his hand.

  “Viper just moved here,” I said, folding up the menu.

  “Welcome,” he said. “Enjoying yourself so far?”

  “Yes, sir,” Viper said. He smiled at me.

  Pedro took out his notepad. “So what can I get for you today?”

  “One pizza, please,” I said. “With everything on it?” I looked at Viper. He nodded.

  “I should have guessed,” Pedro said. “I’ll have that right out for you.”

  “Thank you,” we said. He walked away.

  “I see you’re not a stranger to this place,” said Viper.

  “Not in the slightest. My mom and I have been coming here for dinner at least once a week since I can remember.”

  We spent the whole time we sat in the restaurant talking about ourselves. Viper told me that his birthday was September twenty-second, which made him almost exactly six months older than me since I’d been born on March twentieth. I asked him when he had first found out he could read minds and he told me it had been right before he’d turned ten. His mom had been trying to figure out what to make for dinner one night and he had been able to somehow tap into her mind. She was thinking about garlic chicken specifically at that moment and he’d voted for chicken.

  “After the initial shock they were pleased about it,” he said.

  “Right,” I said. “I’m sure it’s every parent’s dream to learn that a child can do something really weird.”

  “If only you knew,” he said, laughing to himself.

  I could tell the conversation was starting to make him nervous so we both were relieved when Pedro came over to clear the table.

  “We’re ready for the check, Pedro,” I said.

  “No, no,” he said, waving his hand. “Pizza is on me. Just tell your mom that the specials changed. La enchilada special is moved to Lunes.”

  “Thank you,” I said, getting up and hugging him. “I’ll make sure to tell her.

  “Yes, thank you, Pedro,” Viper said, getting up, too.

  “Adios,” he said. We walked to the door. “Come back soon.”

  * * *

  I stood on the front steps and waved goodbye to Viper. He did the same before he turned the corner. Once he was out of sight I stepped into the house.

  “Mom,” I called down the hallway. “I’m back.”

  I heard something drop on the floor in the sitting room. When I walked into the room, the remote was on the floor in front of where she was sitting.

  “Hi, sweetie,” she said. “How was your day with Viper?”

  “It was great,” I said, eying the remote on the floor. “I’m pretty sure I showed him most of the town in one go.”

  “Wow,” Mom said. “Sounds like you guys had fun.”

  She leaned over to pick up the remote.

  “Did you throw that?”

  She laughed. “Emma, why would I throw the remote?”

  As stupid as the question sounded, Mom did do a lot of strange things. Over the years I had learned not to ask. Sometimes, though, I couldn’t help it.

  “It just fell off the couch,” she said.

  “Hmm,” I said.

  I didn’t completely believe her. It was too far from the couch to have fallen off. But like I said—I’d learned not to ask.

  “Anyway, the enchilada special has moved to Mondays at Pedro’s.”

  I went into the kitchen and opened the cabinet doors beside the sink. I grabbed the package of cookies sitting on the shelf. My heart sank; the package lifted off the shelf too easily. There was only one left. I sighed.

  “Mom, we’re out of cookies again,” I said, eating the last cookie and throwing the package away. I went back into the sitting room to watch the rest of the movie with her.

  She looked at me. “Emma?”

  “Yeah, Mom?”

  She seemed to be thinking about her words particularly hard. “I’m sorry about last night.”

  I looked at her. “What are you talking about?”

  “The way I avoided talking to you.”

  “Oh, it’s okay,” I said.

  Her avoiding my questions wasn’t exactly an unusual occurrence.

  “No, it’s not,” she said to me. “I know I’ve left you without any roots for too long. It’s just that, I’m not ready to tell you stuff yet.”

  I never understood what about her past could be so horrible. She was a good person. And that had to have come from somewhere.

  “Really, Mom, it’s fine. Talk to me when you want to talk.”

  “Is that how you really feel?”

  “Yes,” I said again, getting up. “I’m here whenever you’re ready to talk. Goodnight.”

  I kissed her on the cheek and left the room. I smiled to myself and hoped that the way I left things would make her feel bad enough to start spilling.

  * * *

  I had a mini refrigerator in my room. There were always just four things in it: a six-pack of soda, a bottle of ranch dressing, some whipped cream, and an emergency package of cookies. I kept a bag of chips in a box under my bed. Mom didn’t know about the stash of food I had in my room. I kept it covered with a quilt that was given to me when I was seven, and there was a lamp on top of that. The perfect cover: it looked just like a normal side table. We went through snacks like no one’s business. Well, at least Mom did. If it weren’t for my hidden supply, I never would have gotten to the cookies before she inhaled them.

  I bought the refrigerator when I was in the seventh grade. I had a large amount of Christmas, birthday, and allowance money saved up and it was screaming to be spent on something. What made me buy a mini-fridge, I have no idea, but I saw that little orange thing and bought it on the spot. I never let it run dry of the four things I needed to survive.

  I was in my room wondering how I let my cook
ie supply get so low when I heard it again. I didn’t realize that my necklace was vibrating before I heard the voice.

  She must come soon… Where are you?

  I sat up in my bed. I accidentally inhaled some of the crumbs from the cookie I had just put in my mouth and coughed. I pulled my necklace out from under my shirt noticing its peculiar behavior. It was vibrating and had turned to the brilliant purple I had seen before. My eyes swept over the room. It was the same, low, panicked voice.

  “Who are you?” I said to the air. “What do you mean?”

  “Emma?”

  I gave a little scream. I knew I’d asked the questions, but a voice actually answering back was the last thing I’d expected. There was a knock on my bedroom door and I realized it was Mom. I exhaled the breath I was holding in my chest.

  “Emma? Didn’t you hear me calling you?” she said before she opened the door and walked into the room. She was holding the phone in her hand. “What’s wrong? Are you okay?”

  “Yeah, Mom,” I said with a sigh. “I’m fine.”

  She kept looking at me. She knew my answer wasn’t true. I smiled at her, hoping it would keep her from prying.

  “Okay, well Viper’s on the phone,” she said, taking the hint. She handed the phone to me.

  “Thanks,” I said, taking it. I couldn’t help but look around my room again.

  Mom watched me as I did. She seemed to strain at the effort it took not to ask what my deal was. Instead she looked at the cookies on my bed.

  “Looks like we weren’t completely out of cookies, were we?” she said, grabbing a couple of cookies and walking out the door. It closed behind her. I stared at the wood, not able to figure out if she’d touched the door when she’d walked by it.

  “Hello?” I said into the receiver.

  “Hey, Emma, it’s Viper.”

  “Hey, Viper, what’s up?”

  “Not much,” Viper said. “I wanted to know when your suspension would be over.”

  “I’m going to be out for the week.”

  “Okay, so you’ll be back before winter break?”

  “Yeah,” I said. “Crazy, right? Off school for one week, go back for one week, then I’m off again for another two weeks.”

  He laughed. “It is. All right then, I’ll see you when you get back.”