Butterfly Lane

by T. L. Haddix

  After grabbing his bags from the car, John let himself into the house with his key when his knock went unanswered. Hurrying upstairs, he called out, but got no answer. He dumped the bags in his room then headed to the studio. Owen met him on the small porch, a huge smile on his face.

  “There’s my boy.” After a tight hug that lasted for a full minute, Owen drew back. “You look more like your mother every time I see you.”

  John grinned. “She says the same thing, only that I look like you.” He was the same height as his father and had been for a few years. Not for the first time, he realized how young his father still looked. “How are you, Dad?”

  They chatted for a few minutes, until John glanced at his watch for the third time.

  “You have a hot date?” Owen asked.

  John knew the tips of his ears were probably red. “I stopped at the store on the way home. Saw Zanny. We kind of made plans to meet at the pool.”

  “I see.”

  John figured he probably did, and that made him squirm a little. After all, Owen and Sarah’s own relationship had blossomed over that pool. “You could come along. It’s a good day for a swim, hot and muggy.”

  “That does sound good. Okay, let’s go change.” He left the porch, then turned at the foot of the stairs to look back to John.

  When John just blinked at him, Owen laughed. “Oh, that was worth it, just to see that look. I’m teasing. I’ve got some drawings to finish up. I won’t play a third wheel. Not today.”

  His lips twitching with amusement, John just shook his head. “What time is Mom going to be home?”

  “Probably around five. That gives you a while to relax. Just mind your manners.”

  “I will.”

  John tried to act casual, but he was anxious to get changed into his swim trunks and get down to the pool. He had a feeling his father knew that. John wasn’t terribly clear on whether or not Owen approved, but he hoped his father did.

  Zanny got to the pool before John, and dropped her towel, thermos of lemonade, snack bag, and beach wrap on the large, flat granite boulder that overlooked the pool. She hobbled down to the water’s edge, then eased to a seated position beside the pool on the wide ledge that made up the rim on one side. When she swung her legs over and into the water, the rush of coolness felt so good that it was almost painful. She couldn’t prevent a low moan of pleasure from escaping, and she closed her eyes as some of the day’s tension melted away.

  After a couple of minutes, she heard someone coming down the path toward the pool. She opened her eyes and shielded her face against the sun, looking up to see John standing on the edge of the boulder.

  “Hi. Where’s your dad?”

  “Home. He has to work. So I guess you could skinny dip, after all, if you wanted.”

  Zanny laughed. “You don’t give up, do you?”

  “Nah. I’m stubborn like that.” John shucked off his shirt and disappeared, then reappeared coming down the other side of the small stream that fed the pool. He stopped on the lip, a devilish grin on his face as he dipped a toe in the water. “Not too cold.”

  Before Zanny could respond, he jumped straight out and did a cannonball into the middle of the pool. She shrieked as the subsequent splash cascaded over and around her. The shocked look on John’s face when he resurfaced made her laugh harder, and soon, she was holding her sides.

  “Colder than you thought, huh?”

  He wasted no time climbing out of the pool to recline on the ledge beside her. “Maybe a little. Why don’t you go in and warm it up for us?”

  Without looking at him, Zanny reached out and gave his arm a gentle shove. “No, thanks.”

  For a while, they sat there, not talking, just basking in the warm sun and their quiet surroundings. Finally, John sighed, relaxing fully onto his back. “I’ve missed this place.”

  “I thought you had a big fancy pool up there at school.”

  “We do have a big fancy pool. Still can’t hold a candle to this one.”

  Zanny cautiously stretched out beside him. “Have you heard from Ben and Emma?”

  “Dad said they left Savannah today. Should be here later this week.” The two of them were in school in Georgia, where Sarah’s mother lived. Ben was studying botany and biology, and Emma photography. Zanny had missed her best friend tremendously, but didn’t begrudge her the opportunity to get an education.

  Seeming to read her mind, John spoke. “So what are you planning on doing, now that you’re free to make some choices?” He winced. “That sounded awful. I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t apologize. That’s exactly how I feel. And I don’t know. I’ve thought about it and thought about it. Nothing feels quite right.”

  Out of the corner of her eye, she saw John turn to face her. “How are things with your dad? I noticed the new trailer.”

  Zanny’s laugh didn’t quite disguise her bitterness. “He barely gave me time to get everything boxed up from the old place before he tore it out of there. If it hadn’t been for your dad and Uncle Jack pulling strings at the mobile home store, I wouldn’t have had time. And things are okay. Could be better, could be worse. He’s gone most of the time, and that helps.”

  When she felt John’s warm hand come around hers where it lay beside her hip, she stopped breathing for an instant. He squeezed gently, then twined their fingers together. “I’m sorry, Zanny.”

  She squeezed back. “So am I.”

  The next couple of hours seemed to rush by before he could blink. He and Zanny just relaxed together, talking about anything and everything that came to mind. He didn’t even remember what all they talked about for the first hour, he was so wrapped up in just watching her. The curls that were unruly when she was a child had been tamed somewhat and had gone from a muddy brown to a warm chestnut highlighted with gold and copper. She’d grown past her petite stage, but not very far. The top of her head just barely reached his chin when they stood next to each other.

  John was very pleasantly surprised to discover she had a curvy little body that she hid away under her regular clothes. She wasn’t quite voluptuous, but she wasn’t rail thin, either. In other words, she was perfect.

  After the first couple of times he’d made her laugh, he made it a mission to keep her smiling all afternoon. His instincts told him Zanny didn’t laugh nearly as much as she should. He was just shameless enough to use his siblings’ past transgressions as fodder for her amusement.

  “Remember Ben’s first girlfriend? The one who started calling him at three in the morning, just to ask him if he was asleep?”

  Zanny nearly snorted her lemonade through her nose. “That poor boy. He was so sweet on her, and then she turned…a little odd. Emma said he worried over that for weeks. We were in different classes that year, so I didn’t get to see it firsthand.”

  “He did, God bless him. He’s such a softie, he didn’t want to hurt her. Even though she was aggravating the snot out of him. He nearly fell to his knees in gratitude when Mom made him break up with her.”

  They’d moved up to the top of the flat rock and had spread out the old quilt Zanny brought. The late afternoon sunlight fell on the pool, dappled by the shade of the trees surrounding the small clearing, and it was just pleasant enough without being too hot.

  “You know, you’ve been giving all of your siblings a hard time this afternoon. You’ve not mentioned anything about yourself. I know you aren’t perfect, so come on, tell me something on yourself.”

  “I object. You have only Emma’s testimonial to my imperfections. She’s biased. I’m quite remarkable, I assure you.”

  “Oh, are you studying to become a lawyer now?”

  The little smile at the corner of her mouth and the knowing look she sent him made John want to pull her into his arms and kiss the living daylights out
of her.

  “I can’t think of anything. Sorry.” Shrugging, he sat back against the natural ledge that formed a bench on the back of the rock. He occupied his hands by playing with the edge of his shorts.

  “I can. I can think of a couple of things off the top of my head, as a matter of fact.”

  John quirked an eyebrow. “Really? Well, let’s hear them.”

  “There was the time Rachel treed you.”

  John looked at her sharply, drawing in a surprised breath. “You know about that?”

  “Uh-huh. Emma told me. Said they all laughed so hard, they nearly peed their pants.”

  His cheeks hot, John looked out over the pool. For a while, he didn’t know what to say. “So you know that my family—that we’re not like other people.”

  Zanny’s soft hand came to rest on his for a second, then she drew back. She raised her knees to her chest and folded her arms on top, resting her cheek on them as she studied him. “Emma told me a few years ago. I didn’t believe her at first, but she took me to your mom, and Sarah confirmed it.”

  “And what did you think about that?”

  “Honestly? I didn’t know what to think. But I’ve read your dad’s books, and it just, I don’t know…seemed so organic, so natural for you all. Aside from some curiosity, I didn’t think about it.”

  Using the pseudonym H. O. McLemore, Owen wrote very popular children’s stories about a shapeshifting boy named Tobias Hedge, who became a deer, and his companions, Hootie GreyFeather and Minerva the Bobcat. Owen wasn’t quite as obsessive about guarding his privacy as he had been, but still, only a handful of people associated with the family knew about his writing. That said, as far as John had known, no one outside the family knew about the paranormal abilities that had been passed down through Owen’s bloodline.

  “I have all those books, by the way,” Zanny confessed with a smile. “I still read them. I felt silly about that until I caught your mom doing the same thing one day.”

  “That’s part of how they fell in love, bonding over his books. Of course, she didn’t know who he was at the time, just that they shared a mutual interest in Eastern Kentucky folklore.” He shook his head. “I can’t believe you’ve known the family secret and haven’t said anything. Zanny, you’re a clam.”

  “Gee, thanks. What was I supposed to do, run my mouth?”

  “No. I didn’t mean it that way. Just that I know how hard it was for us kids growing up to not talk about it when we first learned. It’s the kind of thing you need to talk about. And you can’t share it easily, because if you share it with the wrong person, you could be endangering the lives of everyone you love.”

  “I know. And I was honored when Emma told me.” She tightened the thermos lid and put it in her bag. “So let’s talk about it. Can you shapeshift?”

  John smiled. “No. Being good with numbers and patterns is my gift. Other than that, I’m one hundred percent normal. Boring. Bean counter at heart.”

  Zanny’s laughter burst out of her. “Boring. Oh, that’s funny. You’re the quietest of all your siblings, John Campbell, with the possible exception of Rachel, but you’re not boring. None of you are. What in the world made you say that?”

  Feeling self-conscious, he scratched at the back of his neck. “Something Emma said a couple of years ago. It was nothing.”

  “Doesn’t sound like it was nothing, not if you’re still bothered by it after two years.”

  John’s eyes flew to hers. He didn’t know what to think since she hadn’t shrugged off the words. Deciding to open himself up a little, he explained. “She’d gotten in trouble, right before I left for school, and I was worried. I came down hard on her, harder probably than Mom and Dad, and she lashed out. Told me that I was a stick in the mud and that someday, I’d get my comeuppance. Someday, I’d be the one in trouble, and she just hoped to be there to see it.”

  Zanny’s lips twitched, even though her look was sympathetic, and he gave a self-deprecating grin.

  “Go ahead. Laugh.”

  “It’s not funny, not really. It’s just that I can picture Emma saying it. She has such a temper. I’ll bet her arms and hair were both flying. I’ve missed her.”

  John chuckled. “We all have tempers, but hers is the worst. Well, I don’t know if Amelia has a temper or not. She’s getting ready to hit her teenage years, so we’ll find out.” With a groan of pure reluctance, he glanced at his watch. “As much as I don’t want to move, I’d better walk you home. Mom should be getting home from work, and if she has to come find me, she’ll hug and kiss me in front of you.”

  Zanny rolled her eyes. “Oh, and that would just ruin this image of masculine perfection you’re striving so hard to achieve,” she teased.

  “Well, yeah. Because I’ve not seen her since Christmas, and I’m liable to cry like a baby. I figure you should at least go out with me on a date or three before you see me cry.” John held his breath, petrified she would say no.

  Instead, she paused in the act of gathering her belongings, going very still. “Are you asking me out?”

  “Yeah. I am.”

  She cleared her throat. “Not as your sister’s friend? But as a…as a girl?”

  “As a boy asking a girl he likes to go out with him to dinner.”

  The look of sheer pleasure that washed over her face caused John’s heart to skip a beat and resettle into an entirely different rhythm.

  “I’d like that. But only,” she teased, “if you tell me about getting treed as you walk me home.”

  Laughing with relief, John agreed to do that. As they walked down the path toward her house, he recounted the story.

  “I was eleven. Rachel had learned to change the year before, when she was almost five. She scared the crap out of me that day, too, and she knew it. Anyhow, she’s quiet, but she’s mean. Mean, I tell you,” he emphasized when Zanny laughed. “And she’s got a bit of the devil in her. So it was summer, and we were all playing outside before bedtime. I’m kind of surprised you weren’t there, come to think of it.”

  She thought for a minute. “I believe we were over in Pikeville that summer, if memory serves, visiting Gran’s sister.”

  “That’d make sense. Anyhow, Rachel makes a beeline for the barn and runs around behind it. None of us could catch her before she changed, and when she came back around the other side, she chased us across that meadow.” He smiled at the memory. “I’d been helping Mom with her all day, because Dad had a deadline. Rachel’s always been a daddy’s girl, and she had wanted to go to him, but we couldn’t let her. So Mom put me in charge of minding her.”

  “And when she came out as a deer? She painted a target on your back?”

  “Oh, yeah. And let me tell you, even though she was a fawn at that point, she could head-butt hard. Hard enough to bruise you. So I ran. And ran. And ran. Eventually, she got me cornered back against the house, back in the garden, and I didn’t have a lot of choice. Hell, Mom and Dad were laughing so hard, they weren’t any help. So I did what I had to do. I climbed that rickety old mulberry tree.”

  It was a good thing, John thought, that they’d reached Zanny’s trailer and she had something to lean against while she laughed. He didn’t really mind. She glowed from within when she was happy, and it was a sight to behold.

  “I wish I’d been there to see it. Oh, John.” She swiped at her cheeks, letting a little snort escape. “I can just imagine the look on your face.”

  Obligingly, John scowled down at her.

  “That’s it! That’s the look.” It set her off into giggles again, which had been his intent.

  After a couple of minutes, her amusement died down, and Zanny gazed up at him, relaxed. “That’s a pretty good story.”

  “It is.” John moved in, resting his hand on the wall of the trailer above her shoulder. “
Is it good enough to get me a date?”

  “Oh, absolutely.”

  “What about a kiss?”

  When she lowered her eyes shyly and nodded, he felt his heart go from simply racing to pounding. Very slowly, he tipped her chin up, making sure she looked at him first. He lowered his head and brushed his lips across hers. The kiss was very brief, almost chaste, but it was the most powerful kiss John had ever experienced.

  He moved back with some difficulty. “So, about this date. How does this Friday night sound? Maybe grab a burger in town or some pizza. Go bowling, movies. Skating. Whatever you want to do.”

  Zanny was solemn when she answered. “I’d like that. What time?”

  “Six? Seven?”

  “Six is fine.”

  John knew he was grinning like an idiot, but he didn’t care. “Six is fine. Okay. I’ll pick you up at six, then.” He backed away, not watching where he was going, and almost fell over a statue at the edge of the walk. Zanny’s hand came up to cover her mouth, but he could see the mirth in her eyes.

  “Guess I’d better look where I put my feet. Go inside, woman. You’re a distraction.”

  The flush that colored her cheeks thrilled him. With a little wave, she unlocked the back door of the trailer and went in. It took a full minute after she’d gone from his view before John was able to think enough to turn around and start the trek back up the mountain. Today was Wednesday, and Friday seemed like a month of Sundays away. He would have to find something to occupy his time, or else he would be hanging around the store where Zanny worked like a lovesick pup.

  By the time July rolled around, Zanny and John were actively dating, under the watchful eyes of John’s parents. Most of the family had accepted it without blinking, but the one person John had expected total support from—Emma—hadn’t been forthcoming. John didn’t understand. He felt as if he’d known Zanny for so long that they’d already built the foundation of their relationship. Frustrated by his inability to get through to his sister just how he felt, John mentioned as much to his father one day as they were cleaning out empty stalls in the barn.