by Gann, Myles
“I’ve never noticed a difference until now.”
“Why do I think so much around you? It’s embarrassing. I have no buffer zone. I have no—gosh I’ve never been like this before I can’t keep my heart from beating so fast. I’m glad it’s dark my cheeks are so red, I bet—”
“I can feel them on my neck; they’re pretty warm,” he whispered.
“—this is gonna change everything. During my past—”
“Don’t worry about your past,” he whispered.
“—never thought I’d feel this growing up—”
“Don’t grow up too fast,” he whispered.
“What should I do then?” she asked, her attention attuned to his whispering.
“Be here—” He suddenly felt ground give way under his stepping foot, seconds before feeling wetness up to his knee. Alice’s sweet laugh was almost drowned out by Caleb’s deeper, throaty chuckle as she helped pull him from the water. “You okay?”
She held her laughing a bit longer before answering, “Yeah not wet at all. You okay?”
“Yeah…,” Caleb felt a spark of idea and gently tugged at his power. He took a step forward and extended it simultaneously under his feet, creating a walkway above sitting water. His slight show gave him enough sight to see the hole in which he’d stepped was a reservoir from an uprooted tree, crudely shaped into an oblong circle.
“Where’d you go?”
“Don’t wander too far.” He extended his power about the shape's edge. He lit his aura very slightly in an attempt to not blind Alice, but the very low glow still startled her. She’d wandered a few feet further from where he saw their footprints in the grass, but walked closer when she saw his face smiling. Her hand ran against the side of his sphere softly, sending tiny sparks shooting harmlessly, joyously around her slender fingers. “Walk on the water with me.”
“Are you crazy? I can’t walk on water.”
“Don’t fool yourself,” he extended his hand again as his face, eyes and body relaxed and assumed a welcoming stance, “you’ve always wondered what it would be like.”
“Have you?”
“Heh, I’ve always floated at somebody’s command, but I’ve always wondered what it would be like to just float with Everybody. Just once.”
She smiled again, her large brown eyes looking younger and younger by the second; a child’s eyes, nearly frozen in shocked wonderment over the temporary laws of the world being overcome, even if just for a moment. Alice gazed into his expanded pupils now—his blues still normally vibrant, but surely showing daring and pleading—and took a breath before plunging straight into the sphere. He saw her then as she looked at the sky through his wondrous globe, her softly lit skin grappled to her muscles and bones much like her sun dress to it, the white cotton patterned regularly with hearts, elongated at the ends with invisible strings that drew them towards some unknown anchor. Her hands behind her back, she lightly stepped forward, his field rippling across the outer surface with each compact stride, until she was under his down-turned face and staring into his shrunken irises. “Have you always needed your power to float?”
Caleb didn’t smile or flinch away or engulf himself in a blinding chauvinism; he reached around her back and gently unclasped her hands, moving them by the wrists up to his shoulders before dropping his to his side again. “Until now, I never knew there was another way.”
Her hands dropped from his shoulders, her heated fingers forging their embedded prints through his clothes and into his tight skin, and grasped at her dress. Tiny whispers fluttered into buzzing echoes. “…do it…do it, do it, do it, do it, do it….”
She unclasped and snatched his hands into hers, pulling them and him closer until his forearms draped over her shoulders and her arms hugged around his torso. He could feel breath again, relishing it this time as he filled his sphere with the sound of her exhale. “I found a neat little trick I can do in fields like this.”
“What’s that?”
Caleb went into his mind, thinking as heavily as his light head would allow, and found a string of plangent tones playing from a song he hadn’t heard in twenty years. The top of the dome wavered and quivered throughout the sides, music echoing lightly through the enclosed space; slight plucks from a mandolin swarmed behind the lower end of a piano’s keyboard and the simple rocking of violin string, all swaying back and forth, back and forth. Their bodies matched. “I feel strange.”
“How? Are you okay?”
She nuzzled closer to him. “I feel great but I don’t know. I’m wondering I guess. Alotta things. My birthday is in a month. I don’t wanna be older….”
“What’s wrong with being older?”
“When you’re older, you have to say good-bye to being younger. I never liked good-byes. They’re always emotional and then your heart starts beating and your brain starts running, which in my case is the worst thing that could happen, and it’s always permanent. You can’t take back a good-bye. Do you like them?”
“I don’t think I’ve ever said good-bye to anyone, but they leave anyways. Ninety-nine percent of people you meet in your life you’ll never talk to or see more than once.”
“The older you get, the more good-byes are forced on you. Maybe that’s why I don’t like the idea.”
“For every good-bye there’s a hello.”
“Yeah…and that moment when you know them.”
“Exactly.”
“What if I don’t know them?”
“Then at least you’ve met them.”
“What good is meeting them without knowing them?”
“When I was younger, I always saw it as evidence that there was life out there beyond me and mine. I was always proud of that.”
“Like how?”
“Like I could sleep at night knowing there was something besides me out there. Like a brother in a world-wide family.”
“Like a hero?”
“Heh, don’t push your luck.”
Her head came off his chest and looked up. “Why are you here?”
“Define here.”
The song picked up its pace slightly. “Why are you dancing in a bubble, in the dark woods, in Ohio, et cetera?”
“I’m here because I don’t have anywhere else to be. Why are you in my arms?”
“Becau—because I don’t know where else to be now.”
He leaned his forehead onto hers. “This could be the last time you have nowhere else to be.”
“So what?”
“So I think I’m going to kiss you.”
“…are you sure?”
“Fairly sure, yeah. You’re too young to stop me.”
“And you’re too old to resist.”
His head slowly slid off hers as his hands reached around to the small of her back; her arms folded at the elbow as her eyes darted from one of his to the other. “You know you could stop me,” he whispered as the music quieted and the field dimmed.
“Nobody would want to.”
His energetic dome became still and clear as Power watched from the pinnacle and the calm darkness excluded them from its nightly cover.
Chapter 15
Caleb jolted to life. His head sat up while the rest of his body stayed down. Both eyes looked through barely opened lids, but only took in a close-up of the arm of a couch. He groaned lightly as his back flexed his upper body above the curved clothe backing. He blinked hard and wide several times, now sure that it was Alice in her bed that he saw. ‘That was in her bedroom.’
He waited for his power to respond, but found the internal consciousness unresponsive in its slumber.
Caleb shrugged it off and let his body fall back into the soft couch cushions. His hand moved to scratch his chest and found his shirt was off. He reopened his eyes and saw that and his pants on the floor in a pile. “What happened last night?” His whispers didn’t escape the pillow. “We…danced, came back. I thought we went to sleep. That leaves ten hours it had alone with her. Still, it would want to rub my f
ace in the act, not hide it by moving me back to the couch.” Alice rustled around under the blankets behind him. Caleb leaned up and looked at her closely with his chin resting on the back of the couch. ‘Her shirt’s on, pants up, nothing out of place. She looks…so beautiful. What are you doing to me? I just expected to keep moving until someone finally destroyed me. You electrify me so much more than I thought was mine to have. It’s far and beyond what I deserve. What are you doing with me? What are you going to do when something screws this up? No, I won’t let anything do that. You deserve the happiest life anyone can have. As long as you think that future is with me, I won’t let anything stop us.’
She took a big breath suddenly as her eyes popped open and looked down to him. “What are you looking at?”
“You. And your bed that magically floated out here.”
“Your big-blue-princely-self brought it out here for me. I wanted to sleep in the same room as you but I didn’t think you sleeping on the floor was very nice, even if he seemed to enjoy the idea.”
“It is asleep right now, so we won’t have to worry about its input for a while.”
She sat up. “You don’t have a shirt on.”
“Yeah, I was going to ask you about that. Did you and it do something with my body last night?”
“What could he mean? Like did we use his body as a sled, or…sex? Oh, oh! No! We didn’t do that.”
“You just talked?”
“Like always. It was nice, ditto.”
“Hmm, see, my pants found their way on the floor as well. Any thoughts on that?”
She looked away from him. “I’ve got a lot of thoughts on that—where do I start? Why did he ask that? Why is he trying to get me to open up on something so personal? Not even about me but about him, but he’s asking me which means he wants to know what I think because he knows I’ll think out loud.”
“I was joking; don’t let your brain go too crazy.”
She looked up as he was buttoning his pants, and swiftly looked away. “Pale skin but tight, not as muscular as I expected, but still pretty strong looking.”
“I don’t go out with my shirt off very often.”
He slipped the crumpled shirt over his torso and waited for her to turn around again. “You should.”
“Do you want everyone else to see me?”
She finally turned back and looked smartly towards him. “Everyone is going to see you one way or another.”
“Not that part of me necessarily.”
“They can if you want them to.”
Caleb tilted his head for a second before smiling. “This is you being jealous? Of something I haven’t done and never will do?”
“Who’s jealous? You can do whatever you want.”
He smiled wider and walked around to the side of the bed she wasn’t occupying. As he sat, she crossed her arms and looked at him harshly. “I want to lie down on this bed, and for you to hold my hand and forget about everyone else.”
She didn’t budge as he lain down and pulled back the white sheets. “I’m sure there are plenty of other girls that would do more than just lay down with you. Maybe have sex like you seem so fond of doing today.”
Caleb toned down his smile and stood back up. “All right, I’ll sit here then.”
His bottom was half in the recliner before she screamed loudly, “Don’t sit there!”
He shot up out of the cushion and stood with his hands up. “I’m sorry I’ll just sit...couch. I won’t be able to see you when I talk to you though.”
“I don’t care just…yeah, sit there.” Caleb sat down heavily and tapped his fingers on the arm rest. Over a minute trolled by with his mind too aghast to say anything. “I thought you were going to talk?”
“Did I do something wrong, or is this still you being jealous?” She began mumbling furiously while he could feel her stare piercing the back of his head. ‘This is something else. What the hell did I do? We were dancing and kissing just last night and now she’s at my throat.’ Caleb tilted his head. He turned around to look at her. “This is about the kiss isn’t it?”
She stopped mumbling. “What do you mean?”
“I’m not entirely sure, but you said you’d never kissed a guy before. So, you kiss me and then I’m on your couch almost naked. I assume that you’re thinking my mind was revolving around sex, but you couldn’t be further from the truth.”
She allowed her look to soften and her arms to unfold. “I’m scared that I’m not going to give you what you want, so you’re going to go find someone else who will give it to you whenever you want it, and that made me angry at myself and I took it out on you.”
“I promise you I don’t consider that a priority. I really didn’t know how my clothes got off. I was scared you molested me while I dreamt.” The face he made from his turned neck brought her a smile finally and her eyes ignited whatever inner flame Caleb had become the conjurer of. “I’m sorry you thought it was that way.”
“You can’t be sorry; you didn’t do anything.”
“The direct result of an action I took was for us to have a tiff, and I’m sorry for that.”
She held her arms open and looked sad. “I’m more sorry.”
Caleb crawled up the back and to her side, embracing her in a hug as she reciprocated the action. He rubbed her hair gently and twirled it between his fingers every time they reached the ends of her dark tresses, feeling something marvelous sparkle when the strands fell through his gently clasped fingers. ‘She’s mumbling into my chest. It’s so warm to the skin, to my mind, and to my soul that…she’s mumbling about me.’ “What are you thinking?”
“That I ruined my morning plans with you.”
He pulled her from his chest and readjusted his body, bringing their faces even with their heads lying on separate pillows. “What plans?”
“I was going to take you to the art museum this morning. I like their faces exhibit there, but I’ve made us sad now.”
“Alice, I’m not sad, and I hope I can make you happy again after my mistake. When do you want to go?”
Her hand fell on his cheek. “I always want to go, but you want to? You’re not sad or mad at me?”
He smirked. “No, I’m just happy to be here in the morning with you.”
“You did stay the night and the morning.” She gently edged her face forward until it was on his pillow. Caleb didn’t pull back but awaited her every next move. Alice’s final move jolted her onto his lips and back quickly in one repetition. Her eyes opened wide before she relaxed again and grabbed for his hand. “That makes me so happy.”
“I’ll stay as long as you’ll have me.”
“At the museum too?”
“Of course.”
“Only if you pick a place to go after.”
Caleb playfully sighed. “I’ll try to think of something.”
“Good. You do that. I change. We go. No need to shower we’ll have time before group later to clean up, and the exhibit closes in an hour.” She stood on the bed and looked down. “Your clothes are in my room by the way. Do you want to change first?”
“It will take me more time to rummage than you.”
She lightly pushed him with one foot. “Go time’s wasting.”
Caleb quickly rolled out of bed and pretended to run until he was around the corner. His ear instinctively tilted as she giggled, and his mind was filled with the image around the corner. He tugged gently at an edge of power to keep it asleep as a clear satellite watched her drop to the bed again and strangle a pillow to her chest. As he walked into her room, his power was dragged through the shutting door. ‘Museum clothes…,’ his thoughts exploded the folded tops from the boxes, causing his over-grown wardrobe to float around the room for his judgment, and accidentally jolted Power awake.
‘What do you need of me so early?’
‘It’s noon.’
‘Some of us entertained until the moon lost its grip on the sky.’
‘Your choice, not mine or hers. I k
now I’ll get no real response from this, but what’s a good outfit to wear to a museum?’
‘The same outfit you would to a funeral. Why?’
Caleb floated a dull-red T-shirt and a pair of dark blue jeans towards him and began to change. ‘I’m sure you’ll put it together.’
‘Why are we going to an artistic mausoleum?’
‘Alice wants to take me there.’
‘She didn’t mention that last night. Then again, we didn’t talk very much after the hand down your pants’
Caleb didn’t smile. ‘Not a chance.’
‘I’m surprised her moaning didn’t wake you up.’
‘What’s your angle with this? You’ve never been one for unraveling from within, or trying something desperate.’
‘She seemed pretty desperate for it. Did you get seconds this morning?’
Caleb stood straight with his pants unzipped still. ‘You finally see what’s going on. It’s hit your egotistic intellect that you’re losing this bet and you don’t know what to do next.’
‘I’ve lost nothing. That would require you changing, and you have shown nothing to that regard. You’ve pulled even with me, and I have already gained something.’
‘What?’
‘That’s for Alice and I to know and you to throw in the trashcan in the morning.’
‘Fine, be a jackass college frat boy all you want. The bet’s over.’
‘No, it’s finally beginning.’
Caleb shook his head while fluxing his power to drop the clothes back to their boxes. His pants were zipped when the door softly slid across the carpet top. “You dressed?”
“Yep. Your turn.”
Caleb smiled to her as they passed, grabbed her hand, and placed a gentle kiss on the tip of her knuckles. “I’ll wait in the living room.”