by Jason Letts
“Was it that game that you wanted to play? Is that how this happened?”
Mira shook her head.
“That game, it’s not really even about the dice. It’s just about testing limits and crossing boundaries.”
“Well this is one boundary you should not have crossed. That mirror was a gift to you from my mother, may she rest in peace, when we moved into this house. And now it’s gone forever.”
Tears trickled down Mira’s face. Jeana took on a more sympathetic expression.
“The mirror won’t be a great loss if you learn something from it.”
“It wasn’t because of the game. They got into an argument about the Final Trial. It looked like they were going to have a fight over it, but then Vern bumped into the mirror. They all left after that. I just wish it hadn’t happened.”
“It didn’t have to,” Jeana said, putting her hand on Mira’s shoulder. “They were in your house, your very room, and you are responsible for them. I know you’re not afraid to speak your mind, and you shouldn’t be afraid to confront your friends. Letting them know that what they were doing was unacceptable would be the best thing a friend could do. You have to be able to take control of them.”
Mira sniffled. “But what if they don’t listen to me?” she asked.
“It may seem like that’s up to them, but it’s really up to you. If you speak clearly, directly, and seriously, they will respect your wishes. And if they don’t, you have to show them there are consequences for that, like asking them to leave. This doesn’t mean you can’t be their friend or you shouldn’t listen to them, just that you have to help them do what’s right even when they can’t see it.”
“OK, mom. I should have done that. I’m sorry,” she said, with her eyes closed. Jeana left her to clean up the mess.
Mira carefully picked up the large pieces with her fingers. She saw her shattered reflection in the fragile shards. It pained her to look at herself in this moment. She had to be better.
Descending to the ground floor, Jeana met her husband, who worked on stripping the walls of paper and decorations. Jeana collapsed into a nearby chair and put her hand to her face.
“How did it go?” Kevin asked.
“It was hard. I can’t imagine having to do that more often,” she said.
“Mira’s a good girl. She wouldn’t ever do anything to upset us on purpose.”
“After she finishes the academy, she’ll have to leave and we’ll have to come to terms with that. There’s a difference out in the world between doing what you need to do to get by and doing what your parents would like.”
“She’ll find a way to do the right thing. She’s smart like that.”
After sulking for another moment, Jeana shook off her melancholy and started removing the black paper from the walls. It surprised her to find the same wooden walls that had always been there underneath. It seemed like anything in her life could be covered over with a few sheets of paper.
Chapter 11: Paint and Pencil
Fortst brought the class to order with a thump on the lectern. He noticed an empty desk near the back wall. He strained to remember who sat there and tried to figure it out by process of elimination. As soon as he’d given up and resigned to starting class anyway, it dawned on him.
“Where’s Mira?”
The students turned to look back, only now noticing the empty seat. Those who had been at the birthday party wondered aloud if there was a connection between the empty seat and how the party ended. The rest just assumed she skipped.
“I don’t know,” Chucky mumbled to the teacher, who seemed to wait for an answer. Fortst became incensed at his students’ lack of progress, and a surly grimace soured his face. He glanced up through the open door and then shook his head with disappointment. He saw Mira tiptoeing around the puddles with such care that it seemed she wouldn’t make it to the schoolhouse until lunchtime.
“I wish you took as much care not to be late as you do to keep your feet dry,” Fortst said once she could hear him. Mira leapt to the steps and entered the building.
“I’m sorry I’m late, but I have something important to say. Is that OK?”
As impatient and irritated as he was, Fortst never passed up an opportunity to waste time in class. He begrudgingly assented.
“I think today could be a very special day in the life of someone in this room, and a great mystery will finally be solved.”
“I thought your birthday was over the weekend,” someone interjected.
“No, that’s not what I’m talking about,” Mira said, shaking her head. “I’m talking about Mary. I think I’ve figured out what her power is.”
A few people gasped, and the blood seemed to drain from Mary’s face. Her mouth hung open.
“What…what is it?” she asked.
Mira answered quickly.
“Well, I don’t know exactly what it is yet, but I have an idea and an experiment that I think will get us there. What do you think, sounds like a productive use of class time, doesn’t it?” she said, turning to Fortst.
“Absolutely. I think we should exhaust every single possibility that exists if it will help us get to the bottom of this. Mary has been in the dark about herself for far too long. It’s intolerable!”
“Exactly,” Mira said, a little surprised that she had convinced him so easily.
“So what is your experiment,” Mary asked. “I hope you don’t have to cut me open or anything.”
“Not at all. Let me start by asking you something. Do you recall what you said to me the first time we spoke way back in the fall?”
Mary thought about it. “No.”
“You said that I felt different to you. And you reminded me of that when I was speaking with you at the party—we all had such a great time, didn’t we? Yeah, it was unforgettable—when I walked up behind you and you knew it was me.”
“But everyone feels different to everyone, right? And who else would do that at a party, besides the host?”
“Maybe and maybe not,” Mira answered. “That’s what we’re going to have to investigate. Let’s push the desks against the walls, except for one desk that we’ll leave in the middle. That desk will face away from the door, Mary will sit in it, and the rest of us will be outside. OK?”
Everyone stared at Mira until Fortst clapped his hands and the students started to move their desks. Mary watched them exit the building one by one, assembling on a dry area against the forest. The warm and comfortable temperature made standing outside an easy job.
Mary said down in the chair and stared at the back wall. “Now what do I do?”
“One of us will enter the building behind you, and you have to tell us who it is. Don’t turn around or move your head at all,” Mira said. She looked over the group and pondered whom to pick. She put her hand on Aoi’s shoulder, motioned for her to be quiet, and directed her to go to the entrance. Aoi stalked straight through the puddles to the entrance and then stopped in the doorway.
“Who is it?” Mira shouted.
“It’s Aoi. She’s the only one who doesn’t care to avoid the puddles.”
“No, no. We’ll have to try again. This time don’t listen to anything. I won’t say anything, and when someone comes up behind you and you know who it is, just say it.”
Aoi came back, and Mira sent Dot to go next.
“Be as silent as possible and take your time getting there.”
Dot crept up to the door. Softly setting her feet on the steps, she stopped and waited.
“It’s Dot!” Mary said, and the crowd clapped and cheered in approval. They tried it one more time, and soon Mary correctly named Kurt as the one standing in the entrance.
“She is psychic and can identify people without seeing them or knowing them!” Vern said.
“That’s one possibility, but we haven’t proved that yet. It does seem like some kind of extra sense. Let’s get her out here.”
Mary came out with a determined, concentrated look on her
face that showed how intent she was upon figuring this out, too.
“When you know someone is there, how does it work? Can you close your eyes and see their face?” Mira asked.
“No, I can’t see anything other than what I imagine and what my eyes show me.”
“Well, what tips you off? Is it something about the name or maybe a memory that comes to you?”
Mary tilted her head and thought hard.
“No, not really. It’s not something I ever really paid any attention to before. I just get this feeling and it makes sense to me who it is.”
“OK, we have to find out how you do that. Please return to your seat and wait for someone to enter the schoolhouse behind you just like before. It will take a while, but just focus on that feeling, what it is and what it tells you.”
Mira motioned to everyone to stay put and she whispered to Fortst that she needed to go get something and would be back soon. Hopping over puddles to get to the trail, she then took off running through the trees. The group waited silently for a few minutes, and then boredom overwhelmed the students and they began to mill around and talk.
“Maybe she can tell who you are by reading your thoughts,” Dennis said.
“Oh, no! What if she’s been reading my thoughts all this time and I didn’t know it! I’ve been thinking lots of things that would be embarrassing if someone else knew about them,” Chucky said.
“Oh, yeah? Like what?”
“I’m not going to tell you!” said Chucky, flustered.
Mira returned, vehemently urging everyone to remain quiet. An old man emerged from the trail behind her. Mert Bogger. Only Fortst and one other student knew his name, the rest of them just saw a tired old man who looked around like he was lost.
Following the directions Mira had given him along the way, Mert ambled his way up to the entranceway as silently as he could without compromising his balance. He trudged up the cement steps, turning at the top to look back at Mira, who reminded him to stop and stay quiet.
“It’s…it’s…I don’t know who it is!” Mary shouted.
Some of the students gasped, but Mira, undeterred, pressed on with her experiment.
“OK, that’s fine, but you know someone’s there. Focus on that feeling, listen to it, and talk us through it!”
Mary closed her eyes and held her head in her hands as she tried to bring her mind to the person in the back of the room. She tried to see him, to feel the contours of his face with her mind, but nothing came to her and her mind went blank.
That’s when the faint trace of a feeling made itself known to her. It seeped into the middle of her chest and she felt it sprout and bloom. This little ball of feeling that came to her when she stretched her senses back to the door seemed so warm and tangible.
“It’s this feeling I get in my chest, like the feeling when you meet an old friend or take a deep breath on a warm summer day. I can feel it growing. It feels like I’m not taking in any air, but I can breathe fine.”
Mira looked at Fortst, then she waded through the water and quickly came alongside Mert at the entrance.
“Open your eyes and come over here.”
Mary got up from her seat and approached Mira and an elderly gentleman she had never seen before.
“Mary, I’d like to introduce you to Mr. Mert Bogger.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you.” They shook hands.
“Who are you?” Mira asked him.
“I don’t have to breathe,” he said. Mary’s eyes swelled and her mouth dropped open. In that moment, the world around her had changed. The other students began to murmur, astounded.
“Now, Mary, I want you to close your eyes and focus on that feeling. Cast it out and practice taking in everyone here until you never forget what it feels like and you never fail to notice it.”
Mary wandered over to the group with her eyes closed and her feelings made them known to her. The others appreciated what took place in front of them, and a few looked up into the sky with admiration and reverence for the web.
“Thank you, Mira,” Mary said, swelling with emotion. “I’ll never forget this day.”
“Who are you?” Mira asked.
“I can sense the gifts of others,” Mary beamed.
“How come you didn’t figure that out before? It seemed so easy for Mira to figure it out,” Aoi asked. Mary just shrugged.
“I can answer that,” Mira said. “It was something so natural for you that you never realized it was anything unique. Because you spent all of your time at school, at home, and around town with people you are familiar with, you already knew everything your feeling wanted to tell you. And if you’re so used to that, you wouldn’t know to listen at, say, the outpost market, where new people were around.”
Some of the students nodded in agreement.
“Wow, maybe Mira has a power that she just doesn’t know about yet,” Dot said. But Mary spoke up before Mira could even entertain the thought.
“No, she doesn’t. The feeling I get from Mira is very different. It’s like you were all made with colorful paints that blend together to form a picture of eye-popping beauty. But Mira is drawn in pencil and doesn’t reach out in the same way, though it is still beautiful.”
Mira thought about what it meant to be a pencil drawing instead of a painting. That stinging feeling of isolation came over her, and it pained her to remember that she was different from everyone else. It would have been selfish to keep Mary’s secret from her, and Mira never considered it, but she wanted so badly not to be alone.
“Quite a long time since I’ve been here. This walkway is new, but other than that the place hasn’t changed much,” Mert said. He sidled up next to Fortst. “I used to teach the senior level some time ago. Course we didn’t have any of this war business to worry about, so I can imagine you have it much tougher.”
“I manage alright,” Fortst replied.
“Spring’s coming. You must be almost ready for the trip up to Dustfalls, and then the Final Trial isn’t long after that.”
“Dustfalls, you say?”
“Yes, up past the gorge in the mountains and at the end of Sliver Crevasse. A teacher has got to keep his wits about him up there. It’s not a walk in the park. Don’t tell me you don’t already know about it.”
“Of course I know about it,” Fortst snapped. “I just wanted to see if you knew about it. It’ll be another week or two until we make the trip.”
Mert shot him a long look.
“You got any predictions about who will walk away from the final number one?”
“Got a lot of strong contenders in this class. The day could go to anybody. Well, almost anybody,” Fortst said, wincing as he saw Dennis slip and fall into a puddle.
“Is that so? You’ll find out exactly how strong they are when they try to climb that wall.”
Kevin stormed into the outpost and marched straight to the back steps. He quickly raised his head to spy the tower and the idle guards perched atop.
After shuffling down the stairs, he flung open the door to Corey’s office. A few office workers attended to their duties while visitors waited patiently to speak with them. Kevin rapidly bypassed them, interrupting a conversation at the front desk.
“I need to speak with Corey, immediately.”
The pair, looking up from their paperwork, were taken aback by his rude intrusion.
“I’m sorry, sir. If you’d like to take a seat, we can attend to you when it’s your turn.”
“No, I cannot wait. This is important!” Kevin tried to plow through the opening to the office area behind the front counter, but Natalie suddenly stepped in to block him.
“I don’t recommend you do that. We would have to interpret that as trespassing and you would be dealt with severely.”
“I need to speak with Corey, and I have a right to do so.”
“Corey will not be speaking with you at this time. If that is the only purpose of your visit, you may leave now. Otherwise, please wai
t for your turn behind these people and you will be attended to in time.”
“These people? These people don’t realize that someone from the other side came here and tried to murder a citizen of this town. For all we know, they could be next.”
A look of alarm dawned on the faces of those in line.
“Now, I need to know if additional security forces will be posted here from Darmen, like Corey said they would be, or if we’ll be stuck with the same inept slouchers who let this problem sneak into our town in the first place.”
Natalie appraised him carefully. Kevin leaned against the counter, breathing heavily, and waited for her answer.
“Additional forces will not be sent from the capitol. Their resources are spread too thin, and they cannot expend the energy to deter such isolated and unpredictable incidents.”
“Did Corey just tell you that or did you know that before?” Kevin asked.
“Mr. Ipswich, if you had really wanted to discuss information with us, then it would have been wise to make an appointment and arrive in a calm and respectable manner.”
“That’s just great. You’ve been a big help. Thanks a lot! Corey Outpost isn’t as safe as it seems, and I hate to find out what it’ll take for everybody to realize it.”
Regret crept into Natalie’s face and the tone of her voice. She called out to Kevin as he gravitated closer to the exit.
“Mr. Ipswich, no one wants to see harm befall your family, and we’re sorry about Darmen’s decision not to send reinforcements. But we can’t be held responsible for that.”
Shaking his head in disappointment, Kevin ducked out of the office and didn’t look back. He walked through the market, keeping his eyes peeled for suspicious faces. As he passed through, he glanced at the Darmen Exchange office and the uninhabited space along the wall next to it. He suddenly felt as responsible for Yannick’s safety as he did for his own family’s, and they all seemed to be in such great danger.
“You’ve got to go to bed!” Jeana shouted from the top of the stairs into the basement.
“Soon,” Mira responded. “I just need a little more time.” She sat back in a chair at the table. Unsatisfied and anxious, she looked at her walking toy robot, Clank, which had been stripped of most of its metal. The face, however, remained intact, and the eye socket indentations taunted her.