“What?” I loved him, but there was no way I was going to go take a bath in their bathroom when I had my own right across the hall from my room.
He cackled a little bit; he was having far too much fun at my expense. “Put up my bowl will you? Then bring a bucket of warm water and some of that dead sea salt into my workshop and I’ll show you.”
#
Now I understood. He didn’t mean their bathroom tub, but a black ceramic-coated cast-iron foot bath that he kept next to the window in the back of his workshop. The window overlooked the backyard and there was a rocking chair nearby that he instructed me to drag over to the tub.
“Now you pour that water into the tub, add a half a cup of that dead sea salt, and then sit here in the chair. Use your feet to sort of mix the salt in while I dig around for my black tourmaline…”
I did as he asked and then settled into the rocking chair. The water was soothing, and using my toes to make the circles in the salt granules on the bottom had a sort of hypnotic effect. I began to see what he was up to. “You’re just trying to calm me down,” I said. “With all this mumbo jumbo about being out of whack.”
“True, but also, aha!” he pulled up a brown burlap sack, set it in his lap, and wheeled over to where I was sitting. “It is also going to help put your wrong to rights. Take this sack, and plunk the stones into the tub near your feet, one at a time. Be careful not to squish your toes. This stone is brittle, and I would prefer you didn’t bust it all up by being too rough.”
I pulled up the first chunk, slightly smaller than my fist, and admired its shiny striations. It was columnar in shape, but in a way that made it seem as if it were made of shiny, sharp black fibers. It felt strangely staticky in my hand. I plunked it in the water between my feet and reached into the sack for another piece. “All of them?”
“Yes, indeed. All of them. Now where’d I put that…”
There were only about ten pieces, and once they were all in the water, I felt that same strange staticky feeling beginning in my feet. Almost like the bubbling I felt when connecting to the earth, but stronger, faster, and also slightly unpleasant. “Gramps? It feels…” I hesitated. The feeling was growing quite intense. “Ah, I’m not sure I like this…”
He gave me a grin and rubbed his hands together with relish. “He he he. That’s how out of whack you are. Very ungrounded. If you were grounded, it would have a nice smooth buzz, but instead, your energy field is loose and shaky like a leaf on the wind. And if you think that’s bad, just wait until I give you this.” He held up a large quartz crystal with a reddish color to it. “You’re going to just love this.”
He was having a great time at my expense. He thrust the crystal out at me, and as I was about to take it, he swatted my hand away.
“Not that hand. Your left one. Hold it in your left hand.”
The staticky feeling in my feet had not subsided in the least, and I was not anxious to add another new sensation to the mix, but I held out my left hand to take the crystal. At first I felt nothing. And then, there was a very pronounced fuzzy headache that swarmed my head. I squinted, feeling suddenly like my head was stuffed uncomfortably full of cotton.
“Lithium Quartz,” he said. “Zaps your nervous system and energy system back into whack. Just wait a bit, the headache will subside and move on down your arm.”
I gritted my teeth, irritated that he was doing this stuff to me, but had to admit that the sharp ache in my breastbone was fainter than it was before. Unless it was just covered up by the other new and uncomfortable sensations he was subjecting me to. And sure enough, there was a fuzzy “pop” and the headache dissolved and began moving into my shoulder and down my arm, like a marching army of ants. This was more tolerable. The staticky sensation in my feet was beginning to subside as well. And suddenly, I yawned, for the first time feeling like I might be able to sleep. I squinted across the room to see Gramps digging in another one of his satchels. Maybe I would close my eyes… just for a few minutes.
I woke up because the sun was streaming through the window onto my face. If the sun was over the backyard, that meant it was almost lunch time. I stretched, my body stiff in the wooden rocking chair, surprised that my feet were not sloshing in the tub, but had been rescued and put on an ottoman instead. I felt an afghan in my lap and knew that Gram must have come by at some point in the morning to keep me from having water-logged feet.
“Awake finally, I see. You’ve already missed both second breakfast and elevensies,” Gramps said. “I guess you’ll have to settle for lunch.”
I turned to see him sitting on the other side of his workshop next to his bookcase, a book open on his lap, his eyes closed and his hand flat on one of the open pages.
“I feel much better, thanks,” I said. And I really did. I stood up to stretch some more, muscles and bones creaking. “What are you doing? Can’t read with your eyes closed like that.”
“I’m not reading. I’m energy sensing.”
“You’re what?” You mean you’re not falling asleep with a book in your lap? Because that’s what I had always assumed he was doing.
“Sensing the energy of this stone from the photograph. In an electronic universe, in a domain in which everything is made of energy, you can connect to an object’s energy signature just by thinking about it. So sometimes, I meditate a little bit with my crystal books, and get a feel for some of these rocks that I have never had the pleasure of holding. It’s good practice for honing your skills. One of these days you ought to try it.”
I just stared at him. I wanted to call him nuts, but wasn’t I the one who just got done soaking in a tub of black tourmaline water and rearranging my chakras with a lithium quartz crystal?
“I don’t understand,” I said finally, “how you can feel a rock’s energy from its picture.”
“Everything has a signature – like its name and address all rolled up in one. And just because you don’t understand something doesn’t mean it’s not true.”
“Oh, will you stop pestering her with that nonsense for just a little while?” Gram crossed the room to stand next to me. “Now that she’s awake, I need her to run some errands for me. It will be good for her to be up and moving, too.” She put her hand on my forehead and smiled at me. “Hungry? I’ll make you a sandwich.”
I noted the frown lines on her forehead and the dark circles under her eyes. She was as worried as I’d ever seen her. In fact, I didn’t think I’d seen her look like this since Matthew died. I felt contrite for having been so angry with her before. “Peanut Butter and Jelly?” I said, more for her benefit than my stomach’s.
“On your way out, go bury those tourmaline chunks in the garden for me, will you? Don’t forget where you put them because you’re going to have to dig them up tomorrow.”
“Sure thing, Gramps.” Burying rocks in the garden… What next?
46. SAM
Work sucked. It was stock day and both Tyler and Colton were out of town, so it was really up to me and the new guy to get things put up in the store. I was exhausted. And I hadn’t heard from Lily in days, and that was beginning to bug me.
At first I was playing it cool because I didn’t want to be that guy, but then I was thinking maybe she liked to be the one in control. But now, I wished I had just called her already and been done with it, except that after G.’s dream, I wondered if talking to her at all was a good idea. Whenever her name came up in conversation it seemed to really piss Melody off, which was not so funny-haha as it was funny-awkward. Now I didn’t know how the hell to act around either of them. Women!
I loaded cartons of soup and vegetables onto the dolly, grabbed the scan gun, and shoved out into the main part of the store. It was the midafternoon lull, which would be over in about forty minutes when the first batch of work traffic hit the highway. Since it was midweek, it wasn’t so bad, but the weekend approacheth, and so did every Tom, Dick and Joe who wanted to barbecue burgers and dogs.
I ripped open the box of corn and s
tarted putting it up, fronting the older cans and shoving the newest ones in the back. A shadow loomed over my shoulder and I turned to look, expecting it to be Deola. It so wasn’t Deola.
“Hey, stock boy. Clean up my aisle?”
I looked Lily up and down, since that was clearly what she wanted me to do, and grinned. She looked good. Distressed jeans, tank top, a purple streak in her hair; for Lily, it was almost tame.
“Give me a minute to get my mop and my bucket,” I said, shoving a few more cans on the shelf. I was trying very hard to be nonchalant, but the fact was, my heartbeat had picked up and I had to clear my throat to keep my voice clear. “Pretty far from downtown.”
“I had to see what you did with yourself when you weren’t spinning. This is pretty much how I pictured you.”
“How’d you know where I worked?” I glanced up at her again as I ripped open a box of green beans.
“You were wearing your work shirt when I met you in Trader’s Village, remember?”
Oh yeah. I grinned. “So you checking up on me or what?”
She crossed her arms over her chest, which made her cleavage perk up. Very distracting.
“Maybe. Maybe I wanted to see what you spent your money on. Maybe I wanted you to do another gig.” She paused and then leaned down close to my ear. “Maybe I wanted to see what you’re doing after.”
My groin tightened. “After what?”
She stood straight again and shrugged. “Just after.”
Girls are freaking maddening. Great. “What’s this other gig?”
“That’s my boy. Business first. Just like before, same venue. Going to need you to come up with a new finale though. We don’t repeat.” She dug in her back pocket and pulled out a USB stick. “See if you can do something with this.”
I took the stick from her, a little shiver racing down my arm when my fingers brushed against hers. “When’s the gig?”
“Saturday.” She grinned, red lips parted wide. “Show me what you can do. And maybe I’ll see you after.”
#
It was killing me the rest of the day to not know what song was on the USB stick. I had lots of guesses. She knew my style so I was hoping she had picked something familiar, but knowing her, probably not. Lily was anything but predictable.
Shift finally over, I tossed my apron on the hook and jogged out the door. The sun was lower in the sky, but not low enough for it to have cooled off significantly. The hottest part of the day in Texas was the late afternoon. I heard footsteps jog up behind me.
“Hey,” said Melody.
“Hey,” I said, surprised, not sure I welcomed her company just now while I was fantasizing about Lily. The memory of her dressed in black stretch pants and pasties floated before my eyes, and I could feel my groin tighten again. There was an unspoken promise thrown out in the air today during our conversation. I wasn’t too dense to pick up on that.
“Hey, are you even listening to me?”
“What, no, sorry. I was thinking about Saturday. I have another gig and I haven’t prepared at all.”
“Oh. Well, that’s great. Is it another one of… Lily’s?”
Melody had a peculiar expression on her face that she erased quickly with a smile. “Because that would be great, right? Another thousand bucks?”
“Yeah. I mean, yeah it is, and yeah I will finally be able to buy a car.”
“Cool.”
Silence hung between us for another long moment. We were walking past Smitty’s, already halfway home, before she said anything else.
“Are you into her?”
“Who, Lily?”
“Yeah.”
Well, shit. Of course I was, what kind of guy wouldn’t be into a fox like that? A gay guy maybe, but even he would be like… Fabulous. “Yeah. She’s pretty cool. And she’s really into music, like me, so…”
“Cool. I mean, it’s great that you’ve met her.”
Damn, this was getting awkward fast. “Look Melody, you’re still my best friend. Right?”
She smiled. “Right. Since forever.”
We stopped walking and I turned to face her. I couldn’t tell what was up with her, but she seemed like she really wanted to say something. And then I felt my phone buzz in my pocket. It was Lily. “Just a sec,” I said to Melody, turning slightly away from her to take the call.
“Hello?”
“Hey,” her voice was husky. “You know what I was just thinking?”
“What’s that?” I asked, feeling my stomach drop out.
“You’re off work, right?”
“Yeah, just walking home now,” I turned to glance at Melody but was smiling into the phone.
“So I guess this is after work. Right?”
“Right,” I said, grinning like a fool now. I turned away again. “I could meet you…”
“How about if I just come over?”
Hell, yes. “That sounds good…” I glanced back at Melody again and saw that she was no longer there; she had walked back toward Smitty’s. I shrugged, what the hell was I supposed to do? “I live…”
“I know where you live,” she said.
I heard the sound of a motor pull up behind me and when I turned to look, was somehow unsurprised to see Lily, driving a little black coupe, grinning at me over the steering wheel.
“Hey big boy, want a ride?”
Hell, yes.
47. G.
A sword of light. That’s what I saw, what I felt in my hand, but no one else had seen it – or at least, no one had mentioned seeing it. Was it all in my imagination? Was I going crazy?
I tossed my book aside. Military history wasn’t enough to tempt me today, and I decided what I really needed was some exercise. Not because I had to work out any jitters – my overproducing store of energy had at least temporarily been alleviated by the episode with the shadow parasites—but because practicing my katas helped me turn my brain off. And right now, what I really wanted was something to distract me from thoughts of light sabers and harrowing battles against evil.
I started with Transattru then moved on to Rukrachak. The longer I moved, the smoother and more focused my movements became. My arms felt strong and my thighs were tight. Chopping and pushing through Tala Choi Chit, I could feel a slight resistance in the air around me. As I went on to Pa Baibiang, the resistance enveloped me. The air was heating up, a sweat was breaking out on my forehead, and I was really having to push through the fatigue that was starting to drag my arms and legs down. What the hell? It was like I was doing my katas under water. I closed my eyes and redoubled my focus, and to my surprise, I saw a glow. I opened my eyes – nothing. Closed my eyes? A glow. I continued moving through the last movement and the glow intensified. I concentrated on it, and it separated into two glowing orbs that could only be seen behind my eyelids. The orbs moved as my hands moved. No freaking way.
“Man, it’s really hot in here,” said my dad, standing in the doorway. Do you have the AC vent closed or something?”
I jumped a little, startled at the sound of his voice, and then relaxed my posture and grinned at him over my shoulder. “Just practicing my Muy Thai, that’s all.” The sweat dripped off my nose and onto my lip, and I realized it really was hot. “But I’ll check the vent since you mentioned it.”
“Cool. I was just coming up to let you know that I got a check in the mail – sold one of my articles. I thought we might go out for dinner for a change?”
“That’s awesome, Dad. I don’t have to work tonight either. Oh, but I was going to hang with Tara later.”
“Why don’t you ask her to come along? I can afford to buy three dinners tonight.”
I grinned. “Awesome. I’ll give her a call. What time?”
“Make it seven. We’ll pick her up.”
My stomach rumbled. I looked down at my non-glowing hands. Great, now I had even more weird shit on my mind that I didn’t want to think about. Dinner would be a good distraction.
48. TARA
“Ask,” sa
id the voice.
“What is a quarrel?”
“A disagreement. A crossbow bolt. A joining of four stewards.”
Well, I knew I wasn’t looking for a disagreement or a crossbow. “What is a steward?”
“A protector.”
“Of what?”
“Of the plane.”
Gah! It was like swimming uphill. I had a million questions, but there were no straightforward answers. Every time I accessed the records and framed a question, it turned into a riddle-decoding session. I sighed, frustrated and tired. If Melody’s grandmother wasn’t going to give us any answers, then the only way we were going to get anywhere was if I got the answers myself. “Define plane.”
“Plane is to existence as story is to building.”
What the heck does that even mean? My phone chirped, just barely outside my awareness. I could dump myself out of the meditation and answer it, but it might take me hours to get this deep again. It chirped again… too late. I bobbed to wakefulness like a fisherman’s float and reached for my phone. It was G. I grinned; someone certainly worth being interrupted for.
I texted him back. I would love to go to dinner. Seven was fine. I glanced at the clock and realized it was already almost six and just about had a heart attack. I still had to take a shower and wash my hair. This time, I already knew what to wear.
49. SAM
Mom was gone again, which was probably a good thing since Lily was over. We had barely made it through the front door before she shoved me against the wall and pressed herself against me. Her kiss was hot and slick, and that was all it took for me to have a raging hard-on. Once her hand reached down there to grab it, thoughts of my mom or cleaning the kitchen or showering after work had pretty much left my head.
Now I turned to look at her naked form stretched across my bed and realized that I had never seen anyone so beautiful before. Lily wasn’t just hot, she was perfect. Her skin was pale, white like the lily of her name, her limbs were lean, and her breasts were round and full. I had seen my fair share of nudie pics and porn on the Internet, and she put all of those girls to shame. She caught me admiring her and stretched, not unlike a satisfied cat. I grinned. “You hungry?”
A Quarrel Called: Stewards Of The Plane Book 1 Page 16