“Ray, we have something we have to tell you.” Dad reached over and took mom’s hand in his before continuing. “We are not your biological parents. You were born in a remote village in the far northern regions of Canada, in a place not seen by most. Your parents loved you, but they could never be together and they were forbidden to keep you. You father ordered us to take you far away and keep you safe. We brought you to Michigan and cared for you.” He looked to my mom who stared down at her plate.
“You’re joking.” This was the last thing I expected to hear. “You are not my parents?” I waited for a response from them but the room remained silent. “Neither of you?” Mom shook her head but wouldn’t look at me. “Why did you lie to me and make me think you were my parents?”
Silence.
“What the hell?” I stood, knocking the chair back, and stormed off to my room, slamming the door behind me.
Why did they lie for all these years? Or had I assumed they were my parents and they never corrected me when I addressed them as such? Either way, they deceived me. This was nuts. I raked my hands through my hair trying to clear away the emotion and think consider the facts.
So, I’m some illegitimate son of two young and dumb teens. it happens. It sucks, but it happens. These two people, who I had thought were my parents, cared for me for years despite not being my actual biological parents. Why? And what happened to my real parents?
My phone buzzed in my pants’ pocket. Leo. He seemed to have a sixth sense for when I needed him.
Leo: You okay?
Me: Hardly. Just got a bomb dropped on me.
Leo: ???
Me: Told me they aren’t my real parents.
Leo: WTF!? I’m coming to pick you up. Be there in 5.
Me: K
I pocketed the phone and took a deep breath.
Knock, knock. “Ray, it’s Mom, can I come in?” Her voice was soft and sympathetic.
I opened the door. The woman who I had called mom for years stood before me with a sad and worried look on her face. She stepped forward and wrapped me in a hug, holding me for a long time. I couldn’t tell if the hug was for her or me. “You are my son and you will always be my son. I don’t care what anyone else says. I raised you and loved you like you were my own flesh and blood, and the bond that connects us will never break.” She pulled back, and held my face in her hands. The tears she had shed left white trails down her colorful cheeks. “We love you. We always will. This doesn’t change that.”
“Why did you lie?”
“We were told to keep you safe. Our village had been attacked, and we took you and fled to Michigan, far from the happenings of home. We chose not to tell you to protect you. We couldn’t risk you going back and trying to find your parents, not till we knew it was safe. I’m sorry we deceived you, but I am not sorry that you are safe and alive.”
“Why tell me now? What’s changed?”
She sat on the corner of my bed. “Our people are free, but your father is dying. He wishes to meet you before he passes. Jonas will take you next week to meet your him.”
“Jonas? As in Dr. Jonas?”
She nodded.
“Why not you or Dad?”
There was a knock at my door, and my dad peeked in. “How’s it goin’ in here?”
“Okay.” Mom answered.
“Ray, Leo’s here.” My dad stepped aside and my friend came into my room.
“Hey, man.” Leo looked between my mom and I. “Ready to go?”
“No, Leo. Ray, we’ll talk about this later.” Mom hurried out of the room, seemingly glad for the interruption Leo had provided.
“I won’t bring him home late, Mrs. Cross.” Leo called after her, then turned to me. “You ready?”
I let out a breath. “Yeah, let’s get out of here.”
Leo and I drove around town and finally parked at Chippawassee Park to hang at the Skate Park. The sky was dark, lit only by the pale moon’s light. The park had closed hours before, but neither of us cared.
“They want me to go to some village far up north to meet my real dad. I guess he’s dying and asked to see me. What I don’t get is why does he care now, after all these years?” I folded my legs under me while Leo dangled his over the bowl.
“I don’t know. I’m still struggling with the fact that your parents aren’t your real parents. Completely mind-blowing.” Leo shook his head. “You gonna go?”
“I guess. Dr. Jonas is supposed to take me next week.” I threw a pebble onto the grassy area adjacent the skate area.
“Not your parents, or whatever they are?”
“Yeah, I don’t know.”
“Hey Cross. What else is eatin’ at you?” Leo studied me. “You can’t hide that shit from me. You’ll feel better getting it off your chest.”
I told him about Nick’s recent death from vEDS and how bad it sucked to worry that I might die young. We didn’t say much more, but I was glad to have his support.
Leo dropped me off at home. I wasn’t surprised to find my parents in bed watching the late-night news on their bedroom TV. I knocked and creaked the door open.
“Hey, you okay?” My dad asked.
I shrugged. “Yeah, I guess. Wanted to let you know I was home.” I turned and shut their door, then got myself ready for bed.
I pulled out my laptop and Googled “northern Canada climate”. Maps of Canada showing highs and lows filled my screen with the word “sub-arctic” written across them. Summers had mild temps with a high around 85F and winters dropped as low as -40F. One of the pages stated that with cool and short summers, the natives relied on wildlife meats and berries for food. The population in the area was scarce, probably due to the cold temps, poor growing conditions, and lack of modern resources. Which led me to my next Google search: “wifi Canada”. A map appeared with cell towers along the U.S. and Canadian border, but there was only a smattering of towers in the north.
“This is going to suck.” I shut the laptop and fell back on my bed, thinking about how this would go on record as my worst birthday to date.
Chapter 3
The next morning Mom checked my burn. It looked redder than it had the day before. She phoned Dr. Jonas and sent him pictures of the wound. He told her some tricks to try at home and prescribed an antibiotic for me. Once we picked up the medicine, my mom dropped me off at school entrance and hurried off to her job.
I started up the long front walk hoping that I was late enough to miss first period. Something in my periphery caught my attention. Near a tree, a few yards away, stood the kid I had collided the other day. His hands were deep in his pant pockets as he stared at me with interest. I realized I had stopped and stared back at him. What did he want? “Can I help you?” He didn’t reply. I walked toward him cautiously, not wanting to scare him off. When I was about ten feet away, he blew a frigid breath toward me, stopping, no, freezing me in my tracks. At first, it felt like a cold breeze, but the longer I stay stuck, frozen mid-step by this unnatural force, the more the coldness took hold. And like the winter days of my childhood, when I’d stay out too long building snowforts and sledding, the chill sunk deep into my bones and I knew it would be slow to thaw.
“That’s far enough.” He warned.
“What the hell did you do to me? Why can’t I move my feet?” I tried to push or pull out of the frozen position but had no luck.
“No good will come from your travels with the Guardian. Larkin will kill any who threaten his plans.” He turned and disappeared between two large pines. My feet remained stuck in place. Crap! I reached down and wrapped my hands around my frosted ankles. They were cold and hard, as if they had been pulled from the freezer. The warmth of my hands thawed them enough to free me and cause me to fall into the grass. And soon, the strange burning sensation that often occured after coming indoors from the cold covered my skin. The effect felt dry ice, cold and frozen one moment and gone the next.
I lay back on the grass and shut my eyes as I tried to regain my grasp of
reality. The warm sun that beat against my eyelids dimmed, and I opened my eyes to a clear, cloudless sky. A large shadow crossed the ground, similar to the one from yesterday. I checked the sky again, but I could not see what had cast this fast moving shadow.
With my legs thawed, I ran toward the pines where the kid had retreated. But he was gone and I was left wondering if I magically woke up this morning in a different dimension.
The rest of the day blurred past. I didn’t focus on anything during my classes. Instead, my brain tried to sort through the nuggets of information presented to me couple of days. I wondered who the flip was Larkin and what were his plans? And who was this person I kept bumping into with magical abilities?
“Cross? Earth to Cross?” Leo waved his hand in front of me, pulling me to the present. “Geez, where are you today?”
“Sorry, I have a lot on my mind with the trip coming up.”
The bell rang, announcing the end of the school day. “Here, borrow my notes.” Leo handed me his notebook.
“Thanks, man.”
“Come on. We’ll talk on the way home.” Leo decided we needed a stop at the local ice cream parlor. We ordered our ice cream and took a seat at a booth in the corner of the shop.
“Weird things are happening man. I dunno.” I shook my head.
“Like what? Stuff besides your parents?” Leo licked a drip as it slid down the cone.
“Like that guy I saw the other day. I saw him again.”
“Oh, yeah?” Leo wiped his mouth, “Is he our age? Younger? Older?”
“Younger by a few years. He told me I shouldn’t go on the trip and that if I do, Larkin will kill anyone who messes with his plans.”
“Who the flip is Larkin?” Leo looked as shocked as I felt.
“Beats me.”
He pointed his spoon at me. “Okay, I figured it out. The dude is a loon. Probably off his meds and fixated on you for some reason.” He spooned a bite of ice cream into his mouth. “Call the cops next time you see him.”
“But how would he know I was about to take a trip?” I rubbed at my forehead, trying to make sense of it all.
“Don’t over think it man. Go on the pilgrimage to the frozen wasteland, do whatcha gotta do there, then come home back to your boring life in Midland. You’ll stress yourself out wondering and worrying about everything.” He took another bite and continued with a mouthful of ice cream. “Seriously, pay no attention to Mr. Few-Fries-Short-of-a-Happy Meal.”
“He froze me. Like flat out used some magic shit on me.”
Leo stopped working on the bite in his mouth and gulped it down hard.
He probably thought I was the crazy one. “I’m not kidding. I was coming at him outside of school and,” I shook my head, “I suddenly couldn’t move—foot in mid-air and all.”
“Bullshit.” He didn’t believe me.
“Not kidding.”
“Okay, new theory, you’re the crazy one.” Maybe Leo was right, maybe I was crazy. He drove me home without another word about the strange things going on in my life.
Mom greeted me when I came into the kitchen. “Fend for yourself dinner.” She fixed herself a leftover tuna salad sandwich and sat at the kitchen table. “Your father’s working late tonight.”
“Okay.” I made myself a steaming cup of Chicken and Wild Rice soup. “Can I ask you some questions?” I took my seat across from her.
“Sure.”
“Why do they stay up there, in that village, far from civilization? I mean, if my biological father is in poor health, why wouldn’t someone take him to a hospital?”
She nodded but seemed reluctant to tell the story. “I’m afraid you may not believe me.”
“Try me.”
Chapter 4
Mom told an incredulous tale that a week ago I would have never believed, but after the recent events in my life, especially the ones involving magic, her story didn’t seem as far-fetched—well, except the part about me having a twin brother named Torin and being the son of a king. I made her repeat that to be sure I hadn’t misheard.
She went on to talk about my parents’ forbidden love and the conflict it caused that ended in us being separated from our birth parents and the village being hidden away from the world. It was a lot to take in, and while I asked a few basic questions, I also remained fairly silent as I tried to wrap my brain around this new info.
“I thought you’d be more surprised or disbelieving.” She studied me from across the table. Neither of us had had a bite of our food yet. “It’s not every day that your mom tells you that you come from royalty and that the village was cursed by a scornful witch.”
I nodded. It was a lot to take in and my brain attempted to fit these new puzzle pieces into the others I had. I decided to tell my mom about “Mr. Few-Fries-Short-of-a-Happy Meal,” as Leo called him.
She seemed unsettled and shot off a few texts to my dad and Dr. Jonas while I ate my lukewarm soup. “Dr. Jonas thinks it best if you to come straight home from school from now on. No going out without one of us. It’s important you adhere to this, Ray. We aren’t sure who it is or how they found out about the trip. I mean, if he had wanted to hurt you, he had his chance. You were caught off guard, and he used some form of magic on you. We should feel lucky he only issued a warning.”
“Yeah, but the trip is still on. Right?”
She nodded. “We may change when you leave to something last minute to limit the info of your departure getting out. Plus, Jonas and Torin will be with you. I’m not sure Jonas has told Torin about you yet. Probably best to sit on that information till we know for sure.”
“I don’t get why you kept that a secret from us.” I could have at least known my blood brother this whole time.
“Jonas thought it best to keep you both separate. You know, we never knew how long we would be away. We had hoped it would be no longer than a year, but time stretched on without word from the village, and we just did the best we could. I think he still held onto the hope that any day we would return to Yardis, our village. Your father and I gave up trying after Jonas continued to be resistant. Maybe we should have tried harder.”
I wish they would have but saying that wouldn’t change anything now. “How exactly is Dr. Jonas going to protect me from magic?” He was fit, probably in his forties, but what could he do in a fight against someone with freeze-abilities?
“Jonas, your father, and I were the strongest and most able warriors in the village. In fact, we were out on a mission beyond the boundaries when the spell was cast; that’s how we didn’t get trapped in there with everyone else. Jonas also has knowledge of potions, which can counteract some magic. You’ll be safe traveling with him.”
“I don’t want to go. My life is here, not far away. I’m sorry; I know that sounds selfish, but I’m being warned not to go on this trip and the little voice inside of me is telling me to sit my butt down in Michigan and stay put.”
Mom looked at me sympathetically. “You have to go.”
“Why? Why do I have to go?”
“Because your father is dying, and he has asked to see you.” She spoke in an even and controlled voice. “He is our king, and we took an oath to protect you until he summoned you.”
“He’s not my king.”
“Maybe not, but he is your father and you will go with Jonas to meet him because he is a part of who you are.” She reached across the table and took my hand in hers and gave it a squeeze.
I let out a breath, accepting defeat.
That night I barely slept. I tossed and turned as I stewed over the supernatural world begging to pull me into it.
The next morning, Leo studied my face. Concern lined his features. “You look like hell.”
“I’m tired. Couldn’t sleep.”
He snapped a picture of me and showed it to me. The image was haunting. Dark circles lined my already deep-set eyes, and I looked paler than normal. “Shit. I look as bad as I feel.”
“You should’ve stayed home and sl
ept the day away.” Leo pocketed the phone.
“Nah, I can’t miss. The trip will eat up a few days and I don’t want to repeat senior year if I don’t have to. I’ll be fine.” I reassured him.
“Okay, I’ll see you at lunch.” Leo patted my back and headed down the hall.
I knelt down to search my messenger bag for what I needed for math.
“Hi, Ray.” Lauren. I’d know her voice anywhere. I stood and couldn’t help the smile that crossed my face. “Are you okay?” She looked as worried as Leo.
“What? Oh, yeah. I’m tired but okay.” I looked around for her boyfriend as he seemed to shadow her. “What’s up?”
“Derek isn’t here today. I feel I never have a chance to talk to you with him around.” She smiled. “I miss it.”
“I’ve missed it too.” I didn’t want to overstep my bounds. “School going okay for you?”
“It is. Hey, do you wanna grab a coffee sometime and catch up with each other?” She had a hopeful look on her face.
“Sure.” What was I doing?
“Great, how about today after school?” She shrugged as she asked. Was she trying to take advantage of Derek being absent so she wouldn’t have to explain anything to him?
Shit. I should say no and head home like my parents asked, but this was a golden chance to spend time with Lauren without her overbearing shadow. “Yeah, okay. Today works.”
“Great. Meet me at the back doors after school. See ya.” She hurried down the hall, smiling and looking happier than she had in a long time. Somehow accepting the invitation felt worse than poking the hornet’s nest known as Derek with a stick. This felt like taking that nest, shaking the shit out of it, and then slamming it to the ground to stomp on it. Derek would find out, and then there would be hell to pay.
Coffee with Lauren had turned into one of the best afternoons I’d had in a long time. The conversation flowed as if no time had passed between our friendship.
Myths & Magic: A Science Fiction and Fantasy Collection Page 247