Callie's Secret Revelations

by T. Jones

  "I've been doing Teresa's dirty work for so long, not much fazes me anymore."

  "Sorry, but I don't think it should be that way." Callie said seriously. Then she nodded her head. "Look what the cat dragged in."

  Oswald Marsh stood at the far end of the bar. He was dressed in a sports coat, wore a tie, and had his hair plastered straight back with gel. Billy Ricks, who Callie hadn't met, but recognized from the first party she had attended, stood to his right, looking much more casual. Ozzy talked to the bartender briefly, got two drinks, then scanned the room. Callie watched him, appraising the dancers closest to them, undoubtedly hoping to find a group of women unattached. When his eyes turned in their direction, Callie gave him a small wave and a smile. He and Billy immediately walked down the bar. Ozzy smiled broadly, first at Callie, then at Danielle, then back again.

  "Hey gorgeous. Are we okay? I know there was some unpleasantness the last time you were at Billy's house, but none of that seems important now, does it?"

  "Sure doesn't, Ozzy. I wish we'd have let you finish the job on that bastard that night. Natalie had him pegged. I'm so sorry for what happened Oz, she was such a great person." Callie smiled sadly at him.

  "It's been hard, really. But hey, you lost her too." He enveloped Callie in a hug, holding her tightly, nearly lifting her off the ground. "All we can do is move on. We were engaged you know, she would have made a great politician's wife."

  "She was really excited about that. I know you tried to save her, anyway, I'm sorry." Tears slid down Callie's cheek, sadness and rage mixed. Danielle stepped forward, extending a hand.

  "Mr. Marsh, Danielle Ogren. I've kind of been following your political career, you have a real chance to make a difference."

  "Well, thank you, Danielle. This is Billy Ricks, an associate of mine. We come here sometimes to unwind. It's kind of loud, but I like dancing, it's a good way to relieve stress."

  "Yeah, it is. Should we go relieve some stress right now?" Oz grinned and put his drink on the bar. Danielle led him out onto the dance floor, where they quickly disappeared in the crowd. Billy Ricks looked at Callie cautiously.

  "Did you want to dance too?"

  "Maybe later, okay? I'm kind of waiting for my friend to show up. You know I'm gay, right? I presumed Natalie told you."

  "No, she never mentioned it, but message received." Callie laughed, resting her hand on his arm.

  "Sorry, I just don't want you wasting a lot of time on me, I definitely don't do guys."

  "That's okay." Billy looked around uncomfortably. Callie didn't want to lose him.

  "So, did you find a place to live? Your house was a total lose, wasn't it?"

  "No shit. Yeah, Ozzy lined up a place for me."

  "He's a good guy, a good guy to have in your corner, right?"

  "Yeah, for sure, he'd do anything for a friend, course I'd do anything for him, too. So, you're heading back to school pretty soon?"

  "Next week, lucky me, right?" Callie laughed. Billy Ricks smiled at her.

  "Just keep me in mind if you hear of anybody wanting to score a little blow, okay?"

  "No problem, there's always people looking. Throw your digits in my phone." Callie gave him her phone, and he added his number quickly. "You can always get ahold of Oz, right?"

  "Sure, looks like your friend is getting a hold of Oz, right now. She's straight, I take it." Ozzy and Danielle were still on the dance floor, clinging tightly to each other, despite the fast music. The song ended and the pair came back to the bar.

  "Let's grab a table, tip a few." Danielle suggested. They sat at an open table, as far from the music as they could. Danielle laughed. "It's too loud to talk in here." Ozzy leaned forward and said something into her ear, and she laughed again. She nodded to Callie. "He wanted to know if we're together, I told him unfortunately not, for me, but not for him." Everyone laughed.

  "I've got a regular girlfriend now Oz, no chance of a threesome, sorry."

  "Jesus! Did Natalie tell you all my secrets? God, I miss that woman." Callie tipped up her beer, fighting her anger. Danielle caught her glare and shot her a quick look. Callie swallowed and quickly forced a broad smile.

  "She was the best, Oz, again, sorry." He raised his glass and they all toasted Natalie. They spent an hour with the two men. As much as it pained her to admit it, Ozzy was naturally funny, and she could see where some women might think he was charming. She wondered at one point if Danielle was acting, or actually enjoying his company. Callie danced with Billy, when Oz insisted that they all get out on the floor, and watched Danielle sliding up against Oz. She appeared enthralled by him, and Callie decided that she was either a very good actress, or enjoyed her work. It made her wonder about their night together. After a couple turns on the dance floor Danielle yawned suddenly.

  "Oh crap, it's getting late Callie. We need to get going. I've got a ton of shit in the morning. Couple more drinks and I'll never make it up."

  "What the hell?" Ozzy looked surprised. "It's really early! We can get out of here and go to Billy's place, it's not so damn loud there. Have a little smoke, or something." Callie followed Danielle's lead.

  "Yeah, I'm meeting up with Deeann tomorrow. I need to make a good impression, I can't look all hungover."

  "It was really great meeting you, Ozzy, Billy. Callie's got your number, right? We'll do this again, sometime soon." Ozzy stumbled out of his chair, pulling out his phone. Callie smiled.

  "I gave Billy my number Oz, text me yours, and we can get together again."

  "Yeah okay, I guess. Really good seeing you Callie, I'll call you, and you Danielle, it was great meeting you, maybe I'll get your number from Callie."

  "Sure, sounds great." Danielle gave them a little wave, turned, and started for the exit. Callie shrugged at Ozzy, flipped her hand in a brief wave, then hurried after the tall woman. They walked out into the cold Minnesota night and Callie had to run to catch up. She started laughing.

  "Holy shit, I thought he was going to cry, he couldn't believe you bailed on him. He thinks he's so fucking charming you were just waiting for an invite to his place."

  "Always leave them wanting more. If I slept with him tonight, it wouldn't be a challenge and he'd lose interest right away, even though I am exceptional between the sheets."

  "You don't have to tell me that." Callie chuckled, rolling her eyes at the tall woman. They walked to Callie's car, got in, and started the drive back to the loft.

  "Callie, I was thinking. Once I get close to him, you know, physically, do you think you can use me like you did with the group? Maybe get in his head?"

  "I have no idea, but it's worth a try. Would he be able to tell? Can you tell? Has the group ever tried to get into your mind without you cooperating? They used to do it to me all the time, but I always knew it. At least I think I did. Damn psychics! Have I ever had an original thought?"

  "Calm down." Danielle laughed. "I'm pretty sure I can tell when the Sisters are looking my way. I can't always be sure about Teresa and the other Elders. It's really rare that it's necessary, I mean we do have phones. But it usually takes several members together, even with the Elders, to communicate like that. Even then it's more just impressions, feelings, not words. I've heard people say that your Mom, and maybe Madeline, can actually communicate with words, just by using their minds. Seems hard to believe."

  "My Mom's done it to me, more than once."

  "I think that’s why Teresa doesn't like your Mom, and you for that matter. She's jealous of your abilities. Most of the Elders aren't necessarily more gifted than the other Sisters, they just see more detail, and they've honed their talents somewhat. You're just a kid, and you can do things Teresa can't even imagine. She's jealous of that and it pisses her off."

  "Yeah, that was pretty clear this morning. Tomorrow should be interesting. Deeann seems okay, considering the company she keeps." Danielle shot her a look. Callie rolled her eyes. "What? She's not going to seduce me, for Christ's sake, it's an Elders meeting, all business.
Anyway, after we get together I'm going to head home, spend some time with Jenny. She would drive down, but her car's a shit box."

  "You know I have a company car, right? You can use that anytime you want, if you want to let Jenny use this. I mean, I don't know if you're there yet, sharing a car, I mean." Danielle finished awkwardly.

  "What's mine is hers, Danielle." Callie laughed. "Five bucks says Ozzy is after your phone number tomorrow, and you have a date before I get back."

  "That's the plan I guess. He is a first-class asshole, but I'm going to make that boy think he can't live without this pussy of mine, you watch."

  "Just be careful Dani, one dead girl's enough."

  ***

  Danielle climbed into her bed, thinking about the prospect of having to sleep with Oz. He was a good-looking guy, and funny, but she preferred women most of the time. She had led Callie to believe that she would never take a man to bed, given a choice, but that wasn't quite true. She had fallen in love with a boy, or something close to love, when she was fifteen.

  Moving to the United States was not something Danielle wanted, but eventually her grandparents won her over. That and the cold. She loved the snow and ice, and the memories of her childhood dreams came back, starting her wondering if perhaps there was something special about her premonitions and dreams. She learned to ice skate, laughing, and telling her grandfather that she felt like Jesus, walking on the water.

  Her grandfather was strong and athletic for his age, and when Danielle told him about the fights in Jamaica, about boxing with boys much stronger than her, he started taking her to his gym. There weren't a lot of girls boxing back then, and most of the sparring and training she did was with boys, training for Golden Gloves. They scoffed at her and didn't want to spar with her, but after getting knocked down a couple times, took her seriously. She was quick and always seemed to know where punches were coming from. It helped make up for the fact that she grew eight inches in a year, and that her legs and feet couldn't keep pace with the speed of her hands and arms. But all the time she spent training brought Danielle and her grandfather closer, and she began to realize what the love of a family meant. She missed her mother, but they had never found the time to be close.

  The first year in school had been difficult. She had just turned thirteen when she started seventh grade in the affluent Minneapolis suburb where her grandparents lived. Her English was a broken mixture, sprinkled with the Patois dialectic spoken in the streets of Kingston. Her grandparents worked with her, helping with her English, knowing that middle school was a tough place when you were different. She was strikingly pretty, but taller than anyone in her class, and still trying to keep her oversized feet under her. She hid her accent at first by rarely speaking, then spent long hours in front of a mirror, recording her voice, trying to sound Midwestern. She made friends, but kept them at a distance. She began to realize that she found the growing curves of some of the girls around her attractive, as much or more than a couple of the cute boys that were nearly her height. But she was careful, she didn't want to stand out more than she already did. Her father, so she was told, had been of Italian descent. She had his hair, black and straight, but her skin was a chocolate-cream mixture, several shades lighter than her mother's had been. By her sophomore year, when her grandparents allowed her to date, she was a strikingly beautiful young woman, but still quiet, and still training. It didn't take long for the boys in her class to realize that unwanted groping could have painful consequences.

  Jeremiah Baker was different from any of the boys who tried to date her. He sat next to her in Biology through all of sophomore year, barely speaking a word to her. He wasn't tall, three or four inches shorter than she was, with light brown hair that all seemed to be the same length. It hung almost onto the collar of his shirt, back, sides, and front. He was constantly brushing it out of his eyes when he tried to read, or flipping his head so he could see the blackboard. Danielle didn't have a lot of time to date, and she still wasn't sure that the Homecoming queen wasn't more her type, but she found it amusing to tease the floppy haired teen. She wasn't naturally outgoing, but his perpetual silence seemed to draw her out, and after weeks of what she hoped was flirting, with no success, she asked him if he wanted to go to the Prom. He turned her down flat, said he didn't like to dance. But she persisted.

  She skipped the dance that night, and instead knocked on his door with a flower. They walked to the mall six blocks away, went to a movie and had a Dairy Queen. She spent as much time as her grandparents allowed that summer, sitting on Jeremiah's porch, trying to get him to open up to her. As the summer drew to a close, on a night when his parents were out, they made love in his bedroom. He was as awkward as she, but they found their way through it, and Danielle was sure this soft, quiet boy would be the love of her life. A month into the next school year, he and his family moved to California.

  Her heart was broken. The other boys in her class were loud and boisterous, and what they thought were compliments sounded crude to her compared to the shine she had seen in Jeremiah's eyes. She ignored their advances and threw herself back into training. The Yoga instructor at the Gym was a slight, compact woman, five years her senior who couldn't say no to the beautiful dark-haired girl. It was that year, just before Christmas, that she felt compelled to walk into a bookstore on Hennepin and met Bess Fisher.

  ***

  Callie studied Deeann Long's profile. She was a decidedly attractive woman, not just for a woman of her years, but an attractive woman in any company. Her hair was beginning to gray, and was pulled back and up onto the back of head, exposing her chiseled cheekbones and a neck that was long and graceful. She sat very straight in her chair, shoulders back, surveying the room as she always did, with a slight smile on her face. She was a woman long accustomed to wealth and the privileges that came with it, but Callie saw no condescension in her gaze as she looked around the truck stop, that wry smile on her face. Her eyes stopped on a gray bearded man, twenty years her senior, who sat hunched at the counter, eating a piece of pie. He was staring openly at her, and as Callie watched, she slowly closed one eye, her smile widening slightly. The old man grinned sheepishly and dropped his eyes back to his plate. Deeann chuckled softly.

  "You just totally made that old guy's day." Callie teased, picking up her coffee.

  "He made mine you mean, what an old sweetie." Deeann nodded her head at a waitress that had just walked out of the kitchen with a platter of food. "That's Juliet, our girl. She'll be happy to meet you. That's what today is about, you meeting the girls, letting them see you're just a normal person. A lot of the women didn't understand what happened, when you turned things around like you did. That shouldn't be possible. Even as a group, the Sisters tend to see things vaguely, like a Monet, not perfectly clear, but full of emotion. It scared them, your clarity, and the fact that you saw everything, everyone at once."

  "I can remember feeling like I was being watched, pretty much as long as I have memories, but she isn't much older than I am."

  "She's been with us for about five years I think." Deeann frowned. "But Callie, we didn't know about you until a couple of years ago, Teresa, Jane and I, at least. You think the Sisters were watching you all along?"

  "Someone was. Actually, I'm sure it was the Sisters. It always felt like a larger group, not just Teresa, and Jane, or you for that matter."

  "Teresa would have needed Jane and I to do that, if it were even possible, and it never happened." Deeann seemed to be struggling with the new information. "I don't understand that."

  "I don't get what you're talking about."

  "I know you were in their heads, and you know some of this, but there is a definite difference between the Sisters, and the Elders. We all have the Sight, but they usually see things first. They can see further into the future, sometimes years out, especially as a group. The Elders see things closer in, but with more clarity, once we know what to look for. That's why we're the ones who try to figure out what kind of correctio
ns to make. There is some overlapping, but generally, that's the way it works. But usually, when the Sisters sense someone with abilities, they point that person out to the Elders right away, so we can start watching them. For some reason, they didn't do that in your case. It's almost like they didn't want us to know about you, like they were protecting you, maybe."

  "After I found out about my Mom, it all made more sense, I probably got it from her. Wouldn't Teresa have suspected I might be psychic? The first time I met her I gave her hell for being in my head all those years, but she didn't bat an eye. Maybe she knew."

  "Maybe she knew, or maybe that was just her Poker face, always hard to tell with her."

  "It always seemed like the group was just watching me, more like they were curious, not really trying to reach out."

  "Probably why your mother didn't put a stop to it. Like I said, they get impressions from further out. Maybe they sense something coming the Elders don't, something they don't want to share. But you have both qualities, far sight, and clarity, like your mother. It's never crystal clear, but you both have abilities that the rest of us can only wish for. Maybe the Sisters recognized that in you, early on. They are usually the first ones to see trouble." Callie laughed at the jab.

  "How do they know what to look for? Is there a secret meeting, once a month?"

  "There's an idea." Deeann laughed. "The girls take care of little things themselves, if they can. We encourage the members to read newspapers, and watch the news. Most times it's just a gut feeling when something catches our eye."

  "That explains why my Mom spends three hours with the newspapers every morning. She says she thinks there may be others like us."

  "I've heard that theory before, seems logical we're not the only ones. Anyway, as you know, if a Sister starts having a recurring feeling, like a hunch that won't leave them alone, then they contact one of the Elders. If several members suddenly start having the same hunch, then we actually get them together in the same room and try to form a consensus. If everyone feels fairly sure about an event, we decide if we should intercede."