“Knowledge isn’t deserved, it’s earned,” my mother said.
“I’m going to have to stick a needle in your eye to extract the mucus the Pernuculus creates.”
The whole thing sounded not only painful but also disgusting.
“How will you kill it?” I wanted to know.
“We have an antibiotic on hand that should take care of it. As long as it’s not the more deleterious kind.”
I figured my Aunt Jennifer had access to stuff considering her husband was a doctor, but what I didn’t understand was why he’d just happen to have that sort of stuff just sitting around his house unless he made house calls like Dr. Olsen.
“I’ll hold your hand if you want me to,” Ben said.
“I’ll hold her hand,” my mother interjected.
“No, I want Ben to hold it,” I said. The prospect of pain and maybe even permanent blindness suddenly made me very defiant.
Ben’s hand found mine. I held his hand tight.
“I got you,” he said.
“I’m sorry I can’t give you any pain medication. Any medication would cause the offending organism to run and hide,” My Aunt Jennifer said. “And I need to catch it. Elise, hold Reagan down.”
My mother held me down by my shoulders. I wish I could say that my mother’s scent offered me comfort, but it didn’t. Her smell reminded me of loneliness and living in the dark. I was still living in the dark.
“I’m going to put these clamps on your eyes to keep them open,” my Aunt Jennifer said.
I felt rubber gloved fingers prodding around my eyes. Then I felt the clamps go on. The clamps pinched my skin so much that they stung. “Ouch,” I said.
“I’ve seen a lot of stuff,” Ben said, “but when it happens to someone you like the stomach gets queasy. I think I’m going to hurl.”
“It will be fine, honey,” my Aunt Jennifer said. “I’ve lanced all sorts of things. Reagan will be just fine. Okay, here we go.”
I discerned fear in my Aunt Jennifer’s voice. The fact that she was afraid made me feel even worse.
I waited, bracing myself for the pain.
As soon as the needle pierced my eyeball, I wanted to scream, but most of all I wanted to blink. Of course, I couldn’t.
I have to give it to my Aunt Jennifer. At least she had a steady hand.
When the needle was out, I sighed with relief, but my body shivered. “Is it over?”
“It will all be over in a second. I’m just going to drop a numbing agent onto your eyeball now and add some salve.”
The clamps were still on my eyes. I wanted those clamps off of me so badly.
“Ben, let's go to the lab and test this,” my Aunt Jennifer said as soon as she finished slathering the salve onto my eye.
My mother rubbed my arm. “You did good, kid,” she said.
The clamps came off. I sighed with relief.
I tried to still my shaking body. When I didn’t hear the others anymore I reached out for my mother, fumbling for her in the dark. My mother took my hand. “How come you didn’t tell me that your last name was Grimm?” I asked. “As in the Brothers Grimm?”
“Sisters Grimm. We had to make up a fake biography or else no one would take our stories seriously. Those were the times. One wonders if they’re any better.”
“Are you also a witch?” I asked.
“Not a born one, no.”
“What does that mean?” I asked. It made me happy that she actually answered my questions.
“It’s a long story,” she said.
“I’ve got nowhere to go,” I said.
“It’s late. You ought to get some sleep.”
I huffed but refused to give up. “Mother, who is my father? You have to tell me.”
“Always with these questions,” she said.
“Of course I have questions. Although, I shouldn’t have to have these questions. The answers should already be within me. Here I am, eighteen years old, and I don’t know why I can move things with my mind. I don’t even really know my own mother. Who are you? Where did you come from? Why are you a centenarian who looks forty?”
“I look forty?” my mother asked with an almost audible whimper.
“Thirty,” I said, considering that I lost her at forty.
“It’s okay. I never quite took to life as well as Jennifer. You’d think it would have grown on me by now.”
“There’s some good news and some bad news,” Jennifer said, audibly coming back into the room.
“What’s the good news?” I asked. At the same time, my mother spoke and asked for the bad.
“The good news is that we may be able to get your eyesight back. The bad news is that it’s the bad bacteria.”
My mother groaned. “How can we get her eyesight back, Jennifer? You know as well as I that there have been no cases of restoring lost vision from Malforum Pernuculus Particulus.”
“But I know someone who may have the cure. Only we’ll have to travel to the other place to get it.”
“The other place?” my mother asked. “We promised each other that we would never go back there because, well you know.”
“I know but what choice do we have? It’s our fault that this happened to her in the first place,” my Aunt Jennifer said.
“I don’t know about all that,” my mother disagreed.
“Are you saying that I’m the only one at fault?”
“Now is not the time for us to get into this, Jennifer,” my mother said. “There has to be another way. You know we can’t go back there. If we do, who knows what might happen. We already have our hands full with Dracula here.”
“If he’s still alive,” my Aunt Jennifer said.
“I’ll go to the other place,” Ben offered. “I mean I have my senior year to finish, but if I really must go, then I will. A man’s got to do what a man’s got to do.”
“Do you even have hair on your chest young man?” my mother asked Ben.
“No. I wax it. What kind of savage beast do you think I am?”
“I’ll go, and the rest of you will stay here,” my Aunt Jennifer said.
“No, you stay, and I’ll go,” my mother said.
“Who’s going where?” an unfamiliar man’s voice asked.
In response, I stuck out my hand, but nothing happened.
3
I forgot that my powers would no longer work with my hair cut as short as it was. This turned out to be a good thing.
Since I couldn’t see, it wasn’t like my aim would have been precise anyway.
“Allen, how did you get here so fast?” my Aunt Jennifer asked.
“I was already on my way home. I planned to surprise you,” Allen said.
“Spare us the romance,” my mother said. I thought I heard her gag.
“Can you dig in and check out my niece’s eyes?” My Aunt Jennifer asked. “I’ve already done the test. It’s Malforum Pernuculus Particulus all right.”
“Let me take a look,” Allen said. I heard gloves snapping on. “Now just relax,” he said to me. He spread my eyelids apart. My eyelids were still sensitive in the area where the clamps had been. “That’s M.P.P. all right,” he said and sighed.
“I’ll have to go to the other place to see if I can find the cure. There’s no way I can let this stand,” my Aunt Jennifer said.
“No, I’ll go,” my mother said. “She’s my daughter.”
“I’ll go,” my Aunt Jennifer said. “This is a situation that needs finessing. I think I’m the one most capable of doing that.”
“The hell you are,” my mother said.
“Ladies, relax,” Allen said. “Nobody is going anywhere. You both know going to the other place is not an option. I think I have a solution.”
Ben squeezed my hand.
“There’s a surgery I’ve been studying,” Allen continued. “One which involves the eradication of M.P.P.. It could go wrong, but it’s worth a try.”
“Are you sure, Allen?” My Aunt Jennifer asked.
“Eli
se, Reagan, you two discuss. Ben, Jennifer, come with me. We need to have a talk,” Allen said.
If only I could be a fly on the wall. I wanted to hear what Allen had to say to Jennifer and Ben. Or maybe I just wanted to be somewhere else other than in the bed, blind, and with only two risky paths as the solution for my eye problem.
Once everyone else left the room, my mother spoke. “Allen is an expert on things like this, but maybe we shouldn’t risk it. All of this is my fault. I should have stuck up to Jennifer when she insisted that you go to school, Reagan.”
“Why didn’t you?” I asked. I was genuinely curious.
“I’m tired. I’m tired of fighting Jennifer and tired of fighting you. I’m tired of running too.”
“I’m also tired of running,” I said.
“And here we are. It’s starting again. The messes. The fires that always need putting out.”
“Maybe I could help make sense of things. If you would just tell me who and what I am, maybe things could be different.”
“That’s hardly the solution,” my mother said curtly. “That’s it. No. It isn’t worth the risk. I’m going to the other side to retrieve the cure.”
“No, wait,” I said. “I’d rather have the surgery.”
“You don’t know what you’re saying,” my mother said.
“I do know what I’m saying,” I said. I kept my voice firm. “I’m eighteen years old. I don’t know what’s on the other side. It’s clear that you won’t tell me. Neither will anyone else unless you give your blessing. So, this is how it’s going to be. From now on, since I’m an adult, I’m going to start making my own decisions. I’m going back to school just as soon as my eyes get better. I’m going to college just as soon as I graduate high school. There’s nothing you can do to stop me.”
“Don’t be so sure,” my mother said.
“If you leave to go to the other side, I’ll get the surgery while you’re gone, so it will be a wasted trip.”
“You don’t know what you’re saying. You have no idea what you’re asking for. If the surgery doesn’t work, and there’s permanent damage, there will nothing else I can do to help you regain your eyesight.”
“I’ll take my chances,” I said.
“I’ve called in a colleague of mine,” Allen said when he re-entered the room. “He’ll be here in twenty-four hours. He’ll assist me with the surgery. This will increase our chances quite a bit. Elise, does that put your mind at ease?”
“No,” my mother said. “And who is this colleague of yours anyway?”
“Dr. Foster. He’s preeminent. He’s the one who pioneered the procedure I want to use to save Reagan’s eyes.”
“No. I won’t chance it. I’m going to the other place,” my mother said.
“The hell you will,” my Aunt Jennifer said to my mother.
I heard a sound. I’m not sure how to describe it. The closest thing I can compare the sound to is the sound an airplane makes when it flies overhead.
“A protective orb, really?” Allen asked. “You know when Elise gets out of that thing she’s going to bring the entire house down with her anger.”
“Not if her daughter comes out on the other side of that surgery with her eyesight intact. It’s in your hands now, Allen,” my Aunt Jennifer said.
“Thanks for not putting the pressure on, Jennifer,” Allen said.
“No problem, honey. I’ll move Elise down to the dungeon now. I wouldn’t want her getting any ideas.”
I felt guilty that my mother was incapacitated and trapped in one of my Aunt Jennifer’s orbs. But it was my life. I was tired of my mother telling me what to do with it all of the time. Besides, if the other place was as dangerous as my Aunt Jennifer said, there was no way I wanted my mother to go there. My decision was for the good of both of us.
“Ben, stay here with Reagan, in case she needs help getting around,” Allen instructed.
“On it,” Ben said.
“Young lady, I suggest you get some rest,” Allen said to me. “Rest will slow the M.P.P. down some until we can eradicate it.”
“Thank you, Allen,” I said.
“Call me Uncle.”
I nodded.
“Phew, what a doozy of a day,” Ben said after a while.
“Tell me about it,” I said.
“Want me to help you get comfortable?”
“I can get comfortable myself, Ben,” I answered. I pulled the covers up to my chin and shimmied out of my jeans and sweater.
Then Ben and I said goodnight.
The next day, my Aunt Jennifer helped me shower and dress. She talked incessantly, maybe because she was trying to keep my mind off of the eye surgery.
“How is my mother?” I blurted out once the question boiled over inside of me.
“She’s fine,” my Aunt Jennifer said. “While she’s in my protection orb, she’ll have no need for normal bodily functions.”
“Aunt Jennifer, why won’t anyone tell me what I am?” I asked. I thought the whole situation was ridiculous. What was so crucial about my identity that prevented me, the owner of said identity, from knowing anything about it?
“Stop concentrating on what you are, and focus on who you are as a person. That’s the most important measure.”
“Sage advice,” I said. “Except that everyone here seems to be someone out of a story. Am I wrong to assume the same about myself?”
“The time will come when you’ll find out, but don’t rush it,” My Aunt Jennifer said. “Although, if you ask me, your mother should have talked with you about all this a long time ago.”
I huffed. I was getting nowhere with these people.
“Honey, I’m off to the airport to pick up Dr. Foster,” I heard Allen say.
“The guest room is prepped,” my aunt said.
After that Allen was gone. My Aunt Jennifer led me by my hand to eat breakfast while I walked in perpetual darkness. As soon as we hit the kitchen, I heard a slap. Then someone said, “Ow!”
“What was that for?”
I knew the owner of that voice. That voice belonged to Ben.
“I told you not to start eating without us,” my aunt said.
The smell of eggs and sausage were familiar to me. I thought I also detected the scent of toast and orange juice.
“So did you sleep well?” Ben asked me.
“As well as anybody in my situation,” I said.
“So not well?”
I shrugged. “If I didn’t have you guys to tell me it was daytime outside, I wouldn’t know the difference.”
I felt my Aunt Jennifer’s hand on mine. “Okay, honey, I’m going to feed you now, if that’s okay.”
“I got it, Jennifer,” Ben said. “You should get some sleep. I know you were up all night studying for the surgery with Allen.”
“I could use a little nap. Just until Allen is back from the airport. Is that okay with you, Reagan?”
“Yes, of course. Go, get some sleep,” I said.
“She’s gone,” Ben whispered a few seconds later. “Now, what would you like first?” Ben asked. “Toast or eggs?”
“I’m not really hungry,” I said.
“Of course you are. You didn’t eat anything last night. You must be starved.”
“Actually, I’m not. I’m a little shaken up by everything that happened last night,” I told him.
Ben prodded me to eat anyway. I ate what he fed me. My stomach grumbled at the intrusion of unwanted food.
“Sorry you’re missing school today,” I said.
“I’m not sorry,” Ben said. “I hate that place anyway.”
“Hmm, that’s funny. Just the other day, you were trying to convince me that school was the most awesome place in the world.”
“Misery loves company,” Ben said.
As soon as Dr. Foster arrived, they prepped me for surgery. I had never had surgery before, so I didn’t really know what to expect. I mean, most of my expectations were based on the stuff that I had seen on televis
ion.
Dr. Foster seemed competent enough. He had a voice that soothed, and it was confident as he guided me through the anesthesia process.
I awoke a few hours later. I opened my eyes. I felt like I was trying to look through a sheet.
“How are you feeling?” Dr. Foster asked.
“It’s not dark anymore,” I said. “Does that mean that surgery worked?”
“It was a success from what I can tell. The Malforum Pernuculus Particulus has been rooted out. The only thing left to do now is to heal. We’re not sure how much of your vision you’ll get back.”
“Or how long it will take you to heal,” Allen said.
“Your telekinetic powers are one thing, but your physical body is another,” my Aunt Jennifer said.
It took about a week for my eyes to regain full eyesight. I was super excited to go back to school.
After it had been decided that I was going back to school, I received a phone call from Dimitri.
“How goes it, kid?” he asked.
“Not well,” I said. “How’d you get this number?”
“I asked your aunt for it.”
I was surprised that my Aunt Jennifer had given my number to Dimitri.
“So what do you want?”
“Sheesh, are you angry with me or something?”
“What do you think? I mean did you forget that you kidnapped me.”
“I apologize.”
“Remember that deal you tried to make with me. The one where you said that if I agreed to go out on a date with you, you’d tell me what you know about me and my family?”
“I said that?”
“Yes!” I said.
Dimitri laughed. “Sure. I remember.”
“So is it still on the table or not?”
“I have a better deal to offer you,” Dimitri said. “But I don’t think you’d be up to it. Most people wouldn’t.”
“I’m not most people,” I said.
“You’re certainly not,” he said.
He went on to explain his new deal.
“I’m moving out!” I announced over breakfast on my first day back to school.
My mother frowned. She was still immensely angry with my Aunt Jennifer for putting her in a protective orb. The two of them were barely speaking. She wasn’t too pleased with me either for defying her on the matter of the eye surgery. “Moving out? You can’t move out. You’re still in high school,” she said.
Castle Heights: Crown of Glass Page 3