She blinked. “What?”
“The scary pointy tool. It’s called a scythe. And it’s for farming, not gardening. I read about it in a book on the history of—”
“You’re not getting the point. You almost killed someone!” Lena cried, nostrils flaring. “I’m not saying it’s your fault, but didn’t you notice that something was wrong? Didn’t you think it was kind of weird that your fingers were glowing?”
“Not exactly—” Marcus began, but she wasn’t listening.
“Whatever is going on, I need to figure out how to fix it.” Lena pulled out her phone. “I’ll try sending Eddie another message. Why is he ignoring me when I told him it was an emergency?”
“Eddie?” Marcus repeated.
“Yes,” she said, furiously typing on her phone. “He’s my boss.”
“Wait. Eddie’s your boss?” Marcus couldn’t believe it. Was there a staffing shortage or something? “Eddie’s my boss too.”
She didn’t look up. “That’s nice.”
“No, you don’t get it. Eduardo? Grayish hair, dark beard? Sounds like he lived in Spain a million years ago? Loves gadgets?”
Lena looked up, her eyes suddenly suspicious. “How do you know all that?”
“I’m telling you. He’s my boss too. You’re a soul collector? Well, I’m a matchmaker. Like Cupid but without the diaper.”
Before she could answer, someone behind them let out a loud whistle. An instant later, Eddie sped around the corner on a Segway. He was exactly as Marcus had described him.
“Well, shoot,” Eddie said when he’d pulled up in front of them. “So you two really did swap powers. How are we going to fix that?”
Chapter 7
Lena’s brain felt like it was about to explode. Marcus was some kind of supernatural matchmaker? If she didn’t have Eddie standing two feet away, confirming the fact that it was true, she would have laughed right in his face. Being a soul collector was one thing. Death was a normal part of life. But love? Love was a total lie invented by the people who made romantic comedies and heart-shaped candy. Just ask her dad about that.
“This is crazy,” she said, jumping to her feet. “How is it possible to switch powers?”
Eddie shook his head, still perched on his Segway, his red helmet gleaming in the sun. “It should not be, but somehow it has happened. At least, that is the message I got. And my boss is not happy. So give me the details.”
“Wait, what about Olivia?” Marcus asked. “Is she going to be okay?”
Lena figured that had to be the woman he’d zapped.
Eddie waved his hand dismissively, sending his Segway wobbling. “Don’t worry about that right now. Just tell me when you first knew something was wrong.”
“It was during my collection,” Lena said. “I zapped Mrs. Katz like I was supposed to, but instead of dying, she got all weird and started giggling with the mailman.”
“The mailman?” Marcus let out a weak laugh. “Maybe he’ll send her love letters.” Clearly, the whole situation was too much for him to handle.
“Wait,” Lena said, her brain finally starting to process what Marcus had told her. “That happened because of your powers, didn’t it? I made those old people think they’re in love.”
Marcus stared at her. “They don’t just think it. They are in love. At least for now. Once it starts to fade, they’ll have to—”
“Back up,” Eddie broke in. “Do you have any idea what caused this?”
“I’m pretty sure it was the kiss,” Lena said. She glanced at Marcus to see if he agreed and saw his cheeks go pink. Was he seriously going to get embarrassed about their kiss when he’d almost killed someone?
“We were at a party last night,” she went on, “and Connie Reynolds dared us to kiss. So we did it, and then today, everything’s all messed up.”
“A kiss?” Eddie asked, scratching his short beard. “What did it feel like, exactly?”
Lena thought back, replaying the moment in her mind. “Electric, I guess. It was…”
“It was amazing,” Marcus chimed in. Then his cheeks grew an even darker shade of pink, like two wads of cotton candy.
“Electricity?” Eddie asked thoughtfully. “That might have something to do with it. I mean, your powers are both fueled by energy. It makes sense that when that energy meets, it would spark. Like wires accidently getting crossed.”
“So what do we do to uncross them?” asked Lena.
Eddie smiled, looking relieved. “Well, kid, that’s pretty obvious, isn’t it? You two need to kiss again. That should fix everything.”
Lena glanced at Marcus, who seemed like he might pass out. “Here?” she asked. The crowd had drifted away after the ambulance had left, but she didn’t exactly want to kiss a boy in the middle of a park with her boss watching. She was pretty sure that particular “teen first” wasn’t listed in any of the magazines she’d read.
“Come on, kids,” said Eddie. “The faster we undo this, the better. I cannot be on probation again.”
“Probation?” Lena asked, but Eddie was clapping his hands insistently like they didn’t have another second to lose. “Fine.” She jumped up, eager to get this over with. She’d given up on running lines with Abigail today, but at least she could go back home and look over the audition piece after this whole crazy thing was fixed.
Marcus got to his feet and took a few cautious steps toward her. Finally, they were face-to-face again. This was nothing like the closet last night. For one thing, they hadn’t had someone staring right at them last time.
“Um, Eddie?” Lena said. “Can you look away or something?”
He shrugged and spun his wheels around so his back was turned.
“Okay,” she said. “On the count of three. One. Two. Three.”
They both rushed their faces forward and—thunk!—bumped foreheads.
“Ow!” Marcus cried, rubbing his temples.
“Sorry!” said Lena. “Are you okay?”
“Sounds like you’re doing it wrong,” Eddie called over his shoulder.
Lena sighed and took a step forward. “Let’s try it slower this time.” She focused on his eyes and realized, suddenly, what an unusual shade of brown they were. In the sunlight, they almost looked like the pieces of amber in a necklace her mom had once had.
“What?” Marcus asked.
Lena blinked. “Um, nothing. It’s…your eyes.” For some reason, her face started to feel hot.
“Well?” Eddie called to them.
“We’re trying!” Marcus said. Then he gave Lena a determined look and started to inch his face toward hers. When he was only a whisper away, Lena closed her eyes. Finally, their lips met and…
Nothing. Absolutely nothing. She might as well have been kissing a watermelon.
She pulled away, studying Marcus’s expression for any sign that he’d felt something, but his cheeks were the same shade of pink as before.
“Well?” Eddie called again.
“You can turn around now,” Lena said.
“Good,” he said, cruising over. “Now, let’s see if that worked. Call up your energy, both of you.”
Lena took a deep breath and summoned her energy. It took more effort than normal, but finally her fingers started to glow. She sighed as she saw they were still the wrong color. Meanwhile, Marcus’s were the exact shade of purple that hers should have been.
“Still nothing,” Eddie said, and Lena couldn’t help noticing how worried he sounded.
“Should we…should we kiss again?” Marcus asked.
But Eddie was shaking his head. “This doesn’t make sense. The kiss should have fixed it. Are you sure you did everything the same way?”
“Well, there was the party and everything,” said Lena. “And we were in a closet.”
“A closet?” Eddie seemed to think th
is over. “Okay, follow me.” He zipped across the park to a tiny shack where the bathrooms were. On the side of the building was a door that looked like it led to a storage room. He hopped off the Segway and tried to open the door, but the handle wouldn’t budge. Eddie started whistling tunelessly to himself as he took out some kind of gadget that looked like an oversized Swiss army knife. He inserted one end into the lock and—click!—it opened.
He turned and gave Lena and Marcus a devilish grin. “Shh, you never saw me with this,” he said, tucking the contraption back into his pocket. “Okay, in you go.”
Lena peered into the tiny room full of cleaning supplies and dented trash barrels. “In there?”
“You wanted a closet? I found you a closet. Now, let’s go. The boss lady will be calling me any minute, and I want to be able to tell her the crisis is over.”
“Come on,” Marcus said, heading inside. “Let’s give it a try.”
Lena sighed and followed him. If this was how disastrous her rites of passage were going to be, she wasn’t sure she wanted to do them anymore.
When Lena and Marcus were inside, half-choked by the smells of dirt and bleach, Eddie slammed the door shut, and they were alone in the darkness.
“This is pretty crazy, huh?” Marcus said after a minute.
“That’s a total understatement. Let’s get this over with.” Lena heard him suck in a breath and realized how harsh her words must have sounded. “Sorry,” she added more softly. “This is just all so crazy. I woke up really happy this morning and now…”
“I know,” he said. “But it’ll be okay. We’ll fix it.”
She let out a long breath and took a step forward. This time, even though the light was dim, their lips managed to find each other right away. Maybe they were getting better at this whole kissing thing.
Lena closed her eyes and waited for the zing to charge through her body again.
Nothing.
Marcus pulled away first this time. “I don’t get it. I mean…it was nice.” He let out an embarrassed chuckle. “Really nice. But it’s not the same.”
“I know!” She focused on her fingers, and a moment later, they sparked red again. “It didn’t work.”
Just then, Eddie threw open the door. “Well, how was it?” he asked, sounding eerily like Connie Reynolds.
The two of them shook their heads, and Eddie’s face fell. “Shoot,” he said. “This is not good. It should have worked!”
Lena had never heard Eddie sound so stressed out before, and judging by the frown on Marcus’s face, he hadn’t either. “Um, Eddie?” she asked. “You can fix this, can’t you?”
“I am doing the best I can!” he barked. Then he cleared his throat and gave her a forced smile. “Okay. You two just sit tight until I can find the answer.”
“Sit tight?” Lena cried. “I’m a cupid!”
“Matchmaker,” Marcus corrected.
“Whatever you call it, this is insane! I can’t deal with this stuff when I have an audition tomorrow.”
“Give me a day, and I will straighten this out,” Eddie told her. “I’ll make sure you won’t get any assignments until things are back to normal.”
Lena shook her head. “But what about Mrs. Katz? She’s supposed to be dead!”
“The love boost must have given her soul a little more energy, but it is temporary. It’ll all sort itself out.”
“What if I hurt someone again like I did with that woman?” Marcus’s voice wobbled. “I almost killed her.”
“She will be fine,” Eddie said, but he didn’t sound very convincing. “That should have never happened. Your power is designed to work only on the person it’s intended for, and it can only be transferred when you are focused on your target. What happened today was a fluke.”
“If it happened once, can’t it happen again?” Lena asked.
“Kid, I will fix this,” Eddie said flatly. “Give me a day.” Then he hopped on his Segway and sped off, almost like he couldn’t wait to get away.
Chapter 8
“I can’t believe he just left us here!” Lena said, staring after Eddie as he disappeared around a curve.
“Maybe we should kind of, um, stick together the next couple of days until this is all figured out.” Now that Marcus was finally spending time with Lena again, he wasn’t going to blow it. Even if it was under such crazy circumstances. Besides, how was he supposed to deal with all of this by himself?
Lena shook her head. “No way. I can’t go around pretending to make people fall in love.”
“What do you mean pretending?” Marcus asked. “What I do is as real as what you do.”
“No offense,” she said, tucking her hair behind her ears, “but death is a real, biological thing. Love is…well…”
Marcus’s mouth sagged open. “Are you telling me you don’t believe that love exists?”
“Our brains might think it does, but that’s only chemicals tricking us into feeling things. It’s not real. Trust me. My dad studies this stuff. He knows.”
Marcus couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “What about my grandparents? They were married for forty years, and they were the happiest people I knew.” Grandma had died when Marcus was seven, so he didn’t remember much about her, but he did have memories of his grandparents always smiling when they were together. And Grandpa still talked about Grandma Lily all the time. That had to be the real thing, right?
Lena shrugged. “Their brains were really good at making them think that.”
“So what I do—what all matchmakers do—is a joke?” Marcus cried. He never thought he’d be yelling at the girl he had a crush on, but he couldn’t stop himself.
Lena seemed to think his question through for a moment. “No,” she finally said. “Obviously, you take it really seriously. It’s…it’s not for me, okay? So the sooner we figure out how to reverse this whole mix-up, the better.”
She clearly didn’t want to argue anymore, and Marcus didn’t either. He was pretty sure Grandpa’s book would strongly frown upon yelling at your date.
“I should go,” Lena said, heading back toward the park entrance.
“Where are you going? Shouldn’t we at least call the hospital and make sure Olivia is okay?” He reached into his pocket before remembering what had happened with Caspar. “Oh. I don’t have my phone with me.”
Lena stopped at a green bike that had been abandoned on the grass. She must have flung it aside before she’d rushed over to save Olivia from his glowing fingers.
“You’re right. I guess we should check.” Lena took out her phone, searched for the number to the hospital, and was talking to someone all in the span of a minute. Marcus marveled at her efficiency.
“I had to tell them I was her sister before they finally gave me info,” Lena said, hanging up the phone a couple of minutes later. “She’s still unconscious but stable.”
Marcus sighed with relief. “So that means she’s going to be okay?” If something really bad happened to that woman because of him…
“I think so. Maybe Eddie is right, and we don’t have to worry.” Lena picked up her bike and plopped her helmet on her head. “Okay, I need to go home and prep for my Alice in Wonderland audition tomorrow.”
He couldn’t believe she was worried about something so normal after everything that had happened. “But what about…? I mean, what are we supposed to do?”
Lena shook her head. “I have no idea, but I’ve spent weeks getting ready for this audition. I can’t get distracted now.”
How was she not still freaking out about everything that had happened? He definitely couldn’t imagine going back to his house and acting like everything was fine. “I can walk you home if you want,” he found himself saying, “and help you run lines.”
Lena shrugged. “Sure. We’re auditioning with the White Rabbit scene from the book. It s
tarts with her saying, ‘Mr. White Rabbit, where are you going?’ And the rest of it goes like this.” Then she launched into the monologue.
Marcus watched her mouth as she spoke the words. For some reason, the other parts of her face didn’t move. She was saying the lines, but it didn’t seem like she meant them.
“Well, what do you think?” she asked when it was over.
“Oh, um. Not bad.”
She gave him a sharp look. “But not good either?”
“I didn’t say that! Only…it seemed a little stiff, that’s all.”
“Stiff? What do you mean?”
Marcus knew he had to choose his words carefully. This was just like when his mom asked him for feedback on her trash sculptures and he had to try to find tactful ways of suggesting she make them look more like actual, recognizable things. “I don’t know much about acting or anything, but maybe try putting some more feeling into it?”
Lena shrugged. “I don’t want to overact. Directors hate that. But I’ll try it again.” She started from the beginning, saying the lines almost exactly the same way as before.
But Marcus wasn’t listening anymore, because the enormity of what had happened hit him like a wrecking ball. He was a soul collector!
“So, how does it all work?” he asked, interrupting her.
Lena looked at him. “What do you mean?”
“If we’re stuck with each other’s powers for the next couple of days, shouldn’t we know more about them? Like what does a soul collector actually do?”
She sighed. “I guess you’re right. Well, what I do is pretty simple.” Then she explained how she used the energy to “release” the soul from its body so that when the person died, his or her soul would go to the After.
“So you actually see the person’s soul before you collect it?” he asked, thinking of the bright light bursting out of Ann-Marie that morning. Is that what he’d been seeing? Her soul?
“Just a flash of it. By the time I get there, the soul is so weak that it’s barely glowing anyway,” Lena said. “Eddie says it’ll get easier to see my targets’ souls once my powers get stronger.”
I'm With Cupid Page 4