“He’s, uh, apparently afraid of…snakes.” Tori glanced at the cop nearest her and back at Scruffy. “So I let him believe that they wouldn’t bite him if he didn’t move.”
Tori was unprepared for their laughter. It bounced off the walls of the garage. Looking at them, she realized they didn’t think she was a freak. Relief washed over her.
The first cop reached over to shake hands. “Sergeant Chas Richards.” He nodded to the other cop. “Officer Dick Nelson. Knox and Paredes should be here any minute.”
Nelson nudged Scruffy with his foot. “Calm down. Put your hands behind your back.”
When nothing happened, Nelson looked at Tori. “Can you help us out here?”
Tori cleared her throat. This was totally surreal.
“Hey! Scruffy!” Tori snapped her fingers. He looked at her, then beyond her, and shuddered with fear. “I promised I wouldn’t let them get you if you sat still and you did, so now I’m making them go away.” She swept her arm broadly around her, focusing on what she was telling him. “See? They’re gone. No more snakes. Now just do what the nice officer says, okay?”
Feeling self-conscious, Tori crossed her arms over her wool coat and turned away to see Casey and Art pull up behind the squad car. She hurried over, feeling a strange sense of belonging as she approached. Here were two people who wouldn’t think anything strange was going on.
“Hey, Art. Hey, Casey.” Going for cool and in control.
“Hola, what’s up?” Art got out and walked to Tori, shaking her hand as he took in the scene.
Tori wanted to hug them both, but she controlled herself. “Well, uh, Scruffy here is afraid of snakes, so…” Tori told them what happened as concisely as possible.
Art and Casey watched Officer Nelson cuff Scruffy while Sergeant Richards talked to the young woman. Tori studied each one of them, the four police officers, the girl, the bad guy. What did all of this look like from their perspectives?
‘Cause to her it was freakin’ weird!
Now that it was over, Tori’s mind filled with doubts about this whole thing. What if Joe or her parents saw a picture of her in the paper or on the news? What if her friends or her co-workers found out? And what did she think of the looks cast her way by the young woman she’d just helped?
Not that she expected gratitude. Okay, a little gratitude. But she didn’t expect to feel like the new girl in high school – lots of staring, little in the way of welcome.
“Good job.” Art clapped her on the back. “You’re learning how to use your power creatively, that’s for sure.”
“Nice work, Tori.” Casey smiled at her.
Okay, now she felt better. Tori took her first deep breath of the hour. She did it! She helped someone by using her head, without holding back or pretending she couldn’t. Whatever the cop was saying to the woman by her car, it probably wasn’t, “That woman you asked for help is actually a superhero with scary powers.”
“So you’re in, huh?” Art asked.
“Well,” Tori took another deep breath, “let’s see how it goes.”
HAYLEY finished counting and wrote a number on her re-order form. Even the boring parts of owning a nursery made her happy. If this were the only thing she did in life, she’d be content. Well, this and being married. That’s all she wanted.
Okay, she really wanted a baby, but maybe that wouldn’t be a good idea. On the other hand, she wasn’t always as careful as she should be, so who knows? She didn’t know if she did the things she did hoping she’d get pregnant, or to punish herself, or because she really didn’t care.
She heard someone hurrying up behind her and turned. She smiled. “Hey!” she said to Tori.
“Hey!” Tori said with a grin. “I did it!”
Tori pulled on Hayley’s arm and headed for the office. Inside, she shut the door and turned to Hayley. “I really did it!” she said again. Her voice went up in a squeal at the end. “I helped someone!”
“You–? Ohhh.” Hayley sank into her chair. “Wow. So soon?” Hayley fought off a sense of dread. Tori shouldn’t be out there on her own with no mentor. Hayley remembered how badly she’d screwed up when she had no one to ask. She wanted to be happy for Tori. But having a super power wasn’t all fireworks and parades. Joe should be helping her. Well, if he wasn’t going to, Hayley would.
She smiled at her friend. What’s not to be happy about? Tori was alive and well. She hadn’t been thrown off the top of a forty-story building. She hadn’t been shot with a semi-automatic weapon. Apparently, she hadn’t divorced her husband. These were all good things.
“I feel high or something,” Tori marveled, pacing the tiny office. “I mean, if this is what it feels like to be high, to take drugs, I definitely see the appeal.”
“Oh dear,” Hayley laughed. “Please don’t.”
Tori whirled at one end of the office. “Not that I’m going to take drugs or anything! But Hayley, I helped someone. I saved someone. Do you think doctors feel this way? Firemen? Lawyers?” Tori whirled again. “Parents. I bet parents feel this way when their kids are small and doing all sorts of death-defying things. It’s no wonder superheroes want to be superheroes!”
Not all of them did. But Hayley was part of a team now. They counted on her to be there for them and she didn’t have a good reason to quit. Bull pulled his share of the load with a full-time job, so she did, too. But if Hayley ever got to be a parent, she’d feel much more high than she’d ever felt saving people. That would be the ultimate high.
Tori continued to babble for a moment while Hayley tried to arrange her thoughts. Had she been this way? Ever? She was happy to help people, generally happy to help the team, but she couldn’t remember ever feeling the way Tori did now. It was all about the plants for Hayley. Everything else was icing.
And she didn’t always like icing.
“I wish I could tell Lexie.” Tori shook her head. “Later. She wouldn’t understand yet.”
Hayley allowed herself to be pulled into her friend’s enthusiasm. She so wanted to jump in and say, I have a super power, too, we can be superheroes together! But it appeared she had no option but to ride this out until she could convince Joe to tell his wife his secret – everyone’s secret. Grr.
“It was amazing!” Tori said. “I’ve never done anything like that before! He totally believed there were snakes all around him, and he just sat there shaking and drooling until the police came.”
“I wish I could’ve seen it,” said Hayley. “It sounds amazing.”
Tori threw her hands up in the air. “I feel great! I’m on an adrenaline rush or something. Total euphoria. I feel like I could go do it again right now!”
Hayley laughed. “You sound so happy, Tori.”
“I am. But all I could think about when it was over was what if a newspaper photographer had been there and my parents saw a picture? I didn’t even have sunglasses on or anything.” Tori pulled a comical worried face. “I have to tell you, I’m more worried about that than anything else. It’s one thing that keeps me second-guessing whether I should really be doing this. You know my parents.”
Don’t worry, Hayley thought, I’m doing enough second-guessing for both of us.
“I’m happy that you’ve had such a great first experience,” she said, determined to help Tori since no one else would. “But what about all the situations you’ll find yourself in that you never considered?”
Hayley tried to act like she’d just thought of these things, not like she’d been dealing with them for years. “The potential for violence? The long hours and missed birthdays? The fear when a Jack tries to hurt someone you love?” Hayley bit her tongue and hoped Tori missed the fact that Hayley had just used a word she shouldn’t know.
“Oh. Right.” Tori paused in her manic pacing.
Hayley didn’t want to bring her down. Not today. Today Tori was alive and well and had a successful episode. Now was the time to celebrate.
“Are you doing anything tonight?” Hayley
asked. “I don’t suppose you and that blockhead of yours are speaking to each other yet?”
“He’s not a blockhead, Hay, he’s…” Tori struggled to find a way to express herself.
Hayley laughed. “He’s a blockhead.”
Tori grinned. “Maybe a little.” Her smiled faltered. “What would I do without you? You’re my only true friend.”
Though it sounded kind of nice, Hayley dissented. “That’s not true. I’m just the only person you know who’s not easily surprised.”
That brought back Tori’s smile. “Do you really think that’s all it is?”
“Tor, a teenage girl used a super power on you and she didn’t even know what she was doing. It went horribly wrong. Who knows what was happening inside your heads or how long the effects will last. Maybe it’s long over, maybe it’s not.” She shrugged. Then she had another thought. “But knowing Joe, I’d guess you haven’t seen him because he’s out bustin’ a cap in some guy’s ass for blowing up your car.”
Tori laughed. “I could see that being a possibility.”
“Now back to you. We have to celebrate your first bust. What do you want to do?”
“Owen and Hannah seem to be trying to make every night wonderful and entertaining,” Tori said. “I think they’re trying to make me feel better about everything. Since we’re staying with them, why don’t you come over? It’s way more fun there than at my house.”
Hayley loved Joe’s parents. In her dream world, she’d be one of their daughters: loved, supported, encouraged. “Sure, why not?” she said. “Should I bring some wine?”
“Sure, I’m not driving. Ever.” Tori laughed. “Ooo, stay over! It’ll be fun!”
“Uh, we’ll see.” Hayley wanted to say yes. It did sound fun. “I’m not sure how your new husband would feel about a sleepover. But maybe we can sneak off somewhere and talk about how to keep you safe. A costume or something.”
“Okay, cool.”
Hayley played one more mentor card. “This superhero thing isn’t an exciting new job, Tori. You have no idea what’s going to happen next. You’ve got to ask yourself if you’re willing to totally change your life, leave your current life behind. Forever.”
And tonight she was going to find Joe and remind him the same thing. Last month he was just a superhero. Now he was going to have to accept and embrace that he was half of a superhero couple, whether he liked it or not.
CHAPTER 15
APPARENTLY the criminal set weren’t morning people.
Tori liked mornings. She could talk to God, pet the cat, make love with Joe – when they were speaking to each other – and still be ready to go by eight. Aside from ignoring her husband as she pretended he wasn’t glaring at her, mornings were good.
It wasn’t even that hard to ignore him when they were at his parents’. Their house always seemed to be full of people at all times of the day and night. Besides Stuart and Melissa who lived there, Katie seemed to be there a lot, and the other kids and grandkids were always running in and out. When Owen wasn’t working at the church, he had people over at the house. It was kind of fun.
But Tori couldn’t find anyone who needed a superhero in the morning. That blasted robbery happened in the afternoon. She met Scruffy close to noon. She heard about a purse-snatcher on the news, and even he snatched in the afternoon.
Last night, Hayley had come over and the Clarke family had tried to teach the two of them how to play poker. Turned out Hayley was shockingly good, and Tori had no poker face at all. Hannah had patted her hand and said, “That only means you aren’t a good liar, and that’s a good thing.”
But everyone got up this morning and went to work or school or wherever they were expected. Tori wanted to do something important with her day, too. So she went looking for trouble.
Once again, she couldn’t find it until the afternoon. She was walking past Pete’s Deli & Liquor and found herself faced with another “situation.”
“Let me go!”
Tori saw an older man sitting on the sidewalk holding onto the bottom of a woman’s coat. This guy made Scruffy look clean and respectable. His long white hair was tangled and matted over greasy skin. His clothes were cement-gray and fraying around the edges. He sat huddled on a pile of sleeping bags.
“Just some change,” the old man said. His fierce grip seemed incongruous with his rheumy eyes. “You got change. You just bought something. Share your wealth with a sick old man.”
The woman pulled at her coat, her anger boiling over into a slew of curse words.
Tori considered telling the woman to apologize. She understood – she was tired of men who don’t listen, too. But that’s no reason to be acerbic.
Problem was, she hadn’t earned her assertiveness badge yet from the Superhero Scouts. So she walked over and spoke to the old man instead. Since it was winter, she’d decided to put off her costume problem for a little while and just use her hat and scarf for cover. “Let her go, sir,” Tori said without preamble.
“Wha–?” His bleary eyes turned to her. Now that she was closer, she could smell alcohol and body odor wafting up like an anti-perfume.
The woman pulled part of her jacket free, but the drunk still had the belt caught in his fingers.
Maybe her power wasn’t strong enough when her mouth was covered. Maybe people couldn’t hear her well enough. “Let go of her jacket, sir,” Tori repeated more firmly, too nervous to pull the scarf away from her face.
His fingers relaxed somewhat and the woman jerked free. As Tori fought the urge to call out, “You’re welcome!” to the ungrateful woman’s back, the grasping hand caught her wrist.
“Spare some change?” The man’s breath was too close for comfort.
Tori turned her head away, trying not to breathe any more than she had to. The man reeked. She twisted her wrist, trying to free herself without being obviously rude. “Maybe, let me check.”
Better to give him some money than be caught in his grasp. The man obviously had issues, bigger problems than Tori could help. She’d helped the woman regain possession of her coat. Perhaps that was all she could do today.
The old man wouldn’t release Tori’s wrist, so she pulled a dollar out of her pants pocket with her other hand. He’d have to let her go to take the money. “Here.”
He grabbed it with his other hand, and pulled her closer with her captured wrist. “Give an old man a kiss.” He puckered up and tried to move closer.
Tori bounded back in surprise, trying to hide her disgust.
“Let go of me!”
This time her voice must’ve carried more weight because he let go. Tori took a quick step back and rubbed her wrist against her pants leg.
A businessman in a trench coat walked out of the store and the old man grabbed the hem of his coat. “Spare some change?”
The man shook his head without meeting the drunk’s gaze and pulled away.
The drunk let loose a string of curses at the other man’s retreating back.
“Hey!” Tori was too shocked to keep the reprimand back. Her natural tendency to try to help had been reinforced by her parents’ urgings to “do the right thing” and “be a good citizen.” But they’d also taught her that cursing was both rude and a lazy way to communicate. “Do you live somewhere? Can I call someone for you?” she asked.
“I live with you. I’ll kiss you all you want.” The man tried to stumble to his feet.
“Sit down!” She needed to relax and think, but he was making her nervous. The Tori from last month would’ve given him the money and darted away, praying for him whenever she thought of him. But the post-robbery Tori, the one who knew she had a super power…maybe she could find some added confidence if she pretended she was a superhero who knew what she was doing. If only there were a handbook. In this situation, refer to page 73.
If only.
Well, much as she didn’t want to bother her yet again, Casey would know what to do. As the drunk sagged back to the sidewalk, Tori dialed her num
ber.
And got her voice mail.
“Casey, it’s Tori Clarke. Sorry to bother you, but I’ve got a drunk here accosting people on the street and I wasn’t sure – do I call the police? Which department? I’m at Lincoln and 22nd Street in front of” –Tori looked up at the sign– “Pete’s Deli & Liquor. Call me on my cell phone if you get this in the next half hour or so. Thanks.”
Tori ended the call and slid her phone back into her pocket. She looked down at the mess of humanity at her feet. She didn’t understand how people came to this. Or how they got out.
“Come on, pretty girl, give an old man a little kiss.” He started to get up again.
“Sit!” Tori half-yelled at him.
In her peripheral vision, she saw people watching as they passed. She fought embarrassment. Okay, sure she sounded like she was ordering a disobedient dog, but he wouldn’t listen.
He reached for another passerby. “Spare some change?”
“Hey!” Tori snapped her fingers in front of his face. When he was looking directly at her again, she said, “Sit still, do not move, do not speak. Understand?”
Her cell phone rang. Casey’s name flashed onto the screen. Relief washed over her. She stepped farther away from the old man so he couldn’t grab her when she wasn’t looking, then pressed Talk.
“Hey, Tori. Casey. I was on the other line. What can I do for you?”
Tori explained the situation, and Casey assured her they’d send a unit right over.
Putting her phone away, Tori folded her arms over her chest and stared at the drunk. Sitting quietly for a change.
She looked around the street, hoping the police car would come quickly. She was getting embarrassed, people staring at her as if this old man were her problem. She was just trying to help. Instead she was beginning to feel harassed herself. Was she even supposed to call the police on drunks and homeless people? Well, she only did it because they were assaulting people.
A hand closed around her ankle. Tori jumped – half a jump, as the other half of her was connected to the trapped ankle.
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