PANDORA

by Rebecca Hamilton

  I considered telling him it was a joke, but to what end? Even if so far I was able to control my new urge to call people liars, my sisters had no problem sharing their gifts despite Dad’s and my best efforts.

  “No, it’s the truth.” I tried to give a smile, but it slipped from my face too quickly to be believable. “My mom’s side of the family is all like us. My great-great-grandmother was the first as far as we know. She was a healer, like Lily.”

  “Come on, Phoebe. You really expect me to believe this?” His doubtful look grew, a hint of anger slipping through. Apparently, he figured I was messing with him.

  “It doesn’t matter if you believe it or not. I don’t care,” I snapped and turned on my heel to walk down the hall. Nathan caught me near the bottom of the stairs.

  “I’m sor-”

  “Shh!”

  Light footsteps sounded overhead. I grabbed his arm, dragging him to my room. I shoved him in and closed the door before making my way to the bathroom.

  “Phoebe dear, is that you?” Nanna called from the top of the stairs.

  “Yeah. Lily and I just got home. She’s crashed already and I’m just going to brush my teeth then go to bed.”

  “You’re home early. Didn’t you have a nice time?”

  My eyes rolled. “It was fine, Nanna. Lily and I were just tired so we came home. G’night.” I popped my head into the stairway and gave her a brief smile and wave before disappearing behind the wall.

  “Goodnight, dear,” she said, not moving. I wondered if she knew Nathan was down here with me. All she needed to do was touch something of mine and she’d see everything that had happened tonight. Eventually she moved away and I let out a deep puff of air.

  I went into the bathroom and brushed my teeth, listening to her shuffling steps above me in the kitchen until finally they drifted off to her room. Once it was quiet again, I put up my toothbrush then nearly ran to my bedroom.

  I flung the door open and caught Nathan doing exactly what I suspected he’d do. The ass was going through my underwear drawer. I made some kind of inarticulate sound of outrage and he looked up, eyes bugged out and a pair of hot pink panties in his hand.

  “Oh, my God!” I leapt forward, snatching the panties from his hand. I shoved them back in a drawer then slammed it shut. “I can’t believe you’d look at my-my...”

  “Panties?” He laughed and I whacked him. If he didn’t watch his mouth, I was going to get arrested for assault.

  “Yes!” Another whack.

  “I was just playing with you. Swear. I didn’t go through your- your...stuff. I was looking at your books and they were right there in the middle.”

  I waited for the voice, or at least the cramps, but nothing came. Considering the state of my room, there was a high probability his story was true. My temper settled, yet nothing could lessen the flaming heat that pulsed through my cheeks.

  “Come on, Phoebs.” He gave me one of those twinkling smiles and I felt my lips twitch in return. Then his eyes turned back to serious. He moved in closer and looped his arms around my waist. I ran my hands up his arms and clasped them around his neck. I could definitely get used to this.

  “I’m sorry I pissed you off before and then just now. I didn’t mean to. It’s just a bit hard to believe something like what you’re telling me.” His voice seemed softer than usual, or maybe the sound of my quickened breathing muffled the normal gruffness.

  “I guess that’s understandable.” My eyelashes fluttered and I struggled to control them when I remembered how stupid I’d looked practicing in front of the mirror earlier.

  “Is that how you knew Tonya was lying about driving?”

  “Yeah,” I said, letting my head drop to his chest. “Until a few weeks ago, I’d never had any hint of my gift. I’d always assumed Mom had been wrong, or even lied about it. Then Tonya lied to me and it happened. My stomach started to hurt and a voice in my head said liar.”

  “And was she?”

  “Yeah. She finally admitted it, but she didn’t talk to me for almost two weeks. And that’s what happened again tonight when she told me she was driving, except this time I didn’t say anything to her.”

  He stared at me for what seemed like the longest minute ever, before cocking his eyebrow.

  “So that’s it, right? I mean, you’re not going to read my mind or anything?”

  “No, that would be my cousin Kevin. Which I have to say is really disturbing, especially when he has yet to learn how to keep his ten-year-old mouth shut.”

  “It may be best if I don’t meet Kevin until he’s a little older.” He flashed a sexy smile, and I laughed, rolling my eyes.

  “Trust me, I avoid the kid as much as possible, so the chance of you meeting him are pretty slim. Although, I could use some dirt on you, so I might just arrange a special meeting between you guys.”

  “Yeah, I don’t think so,” he said and tugged me a bit closer. “Why do you think Tonya did it? Why lie about being the driver? If she gets caught, she’ll be in even more trouble than he would have been.”

  “I don’t know. It was not like her at all. Trevor’s actually what started the whole voice in my head thing. That first time I heard it was when she lied about meeting him. I don’t think she’s ever lied to me before, at least not about anything important.” I shrugged, hating the idea that Tonya could be changing so much because of some guy. “Maybe I’m wrong. She could have been driving. I mean, it’s not like this Truth Teller thing has been working all the time.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Chloe tried to test me and I pretty much failed. I didn’t pick up on a single lie until she was done and I’ve only managed to pick up on a couple of lies from other people, mostly my little cousins who I’m sure are compulsive liars.”

  He was quiet for a moment, as if trying to process everything, then quirked his eyebrow at me. “So apart from me not being able to lie to you, you’re basically normal right?”

  “Yes.” I bugged my eyes out and then rolled them.

  “Good.” He dipped his head down and brushed his lips across mine. I sucked in a deep breath and then leaned in to deepen the pressure.

  “What the hell, Phoebe!”

  Nathan and I broke apart, and I twisted round to see Chloe standing in my door. Her hands were on her hips in the typical holier-than-thou stance she took anytime she felt she had the upper hand on me.

  “You know Dad will kill you if he catches Nathan down here,” Chloe said.

  “Well, if you kept your voice down that won’t happen. I thought you were going to spend the night at Nadine’s.”

  “You really think I’d stay there after what I saw?”

  “Saw?” Nathan interrupted. “You mean like saw saw or saw saw?”

  Chloe and I flashed him matching are-you-serious looks.

  “What?” he asked, a sheepish smile creeping across his face.

  Chloe shook her head and turned her attention back to me. “What happened with the accident? How are you okay?”

  “I wasn’t there.”

  “What do you mean you weren’t there?”

  “Exactly that. After the fight, we left with Lily and Dylan in my car. Lily passed out after healing Dylan, and then I kicked him out. We were heading to Nathan’s place when we saw it.”

  “It?”

  “Well, Tonya really. She and her new boyfriend Trevor were the ones you saw in the accident. He-she wrapped the truck around a tree,” I said.

  “Whoa-whoa. You knew about the accident before it happened?” Nathan stepped closer up, trying to get in to the conversation.

  “Yeah, but it’s not right.” Chloe’s voice trembled. “Phoebe, you were supposed to be driving. I saw it.”

  “So you just get flashes of the future?” Nathan asked, interrupting again.

  “No, well, yes at least with Lily and Phoebe since they’re my sisters, but with others I have to be physically close to a person and then I’d need to let it happen,” she explain
ed impatiently before addressing me again. “Why didn’t you drive Tonya home?”

  “She wanted to stay with Trevor, but I couldn’t leave Lily to deal with Dylan alone. He was smashed and trying to get her in the car with him.”

  “I just don’t understand.” She sank onto my bed, her pale complexion and squinted eyes giving me a glimpse of her utter confusion and it froze me. This was not typical Chloe behavior.

  “I better get going,” Nathan said, looking from Chloe to me.

  “Do you want me to drive you home?” I asked.

  “Nah, the walk will give me time to air out before my dad gets a whiff of me. Although, I could use a bit of mouthwash.”

  We left Chloe in my room and after Nathan gargled in the restroom, I led him upstairs and to the front door, making sure to keep the lights off. Caution kept us from talking, even to say goodnight. I opened the door and he passed through, pausing at the top of the steps while I tugged off his hoodie and gave it back to him. He dipped his head and gave me a peck on my cheek. Then he was gone, leaping over the porch steps, and I watched him walk down the path to the sidewalk. He glanced back once and a cocky smile flashed when he saw me watching. After that, he started doing an exaggerated swagger and I barely managed to hold in my giggle.

  Back in my room, I found Chloe precisely where I’d left her. The giddy feeling Nathan had planted in me vanished. Her hands hung limp, dangling over her knees and her head drooped. I sat beside her and wrapped my arms around her.

  “I’m so glad you’re okay, but I don’t get it. What’s wrong with me?” she asked as she looked up at me.

  “Nothing’s wrong with you, Chloe. You saw an accident and there was an accident.”

  “I didn’t just see an accident. I saw you in an accident. Something’s wrong. I’m not working right.” She shuddered and I felt a tear splash on my arm.

  “Welcome to the club.” Once sarcasm would have dripped from those words, but now they were said with sympathy and fear. If Chloe’s gift, one that had worked without fail for seventeen years, wasn’t working then what hope did I have of every knowing how to use mine?

  Chapter 6

  A tap at the door woke me the next morning. I rolled over and gave Chloe a shove. We’d spent the night talking about little things, avoiding anything to do with our gifts, until we’d finally given in to our weariness. It was kind of nice having a reminder that Chloe didn’t annoy me all the time. I shuffled across my room, opened the door, and saw Dad.

  “Morning,” I said.

  “Are you coming up to say good-bye? Nanna’s taking the twins home and I think she’d like you to be there when they leave.” His expectant look suggested I didn’t really have an option.

  “Yeah, sure.” I suppressed the groan threatening to erupt. Saying bye to the twins and Nanna wasn’t the issue. It was the talk I knew Nanna would insist on giving me first. Every visit was the same. I gave up trying to avoid it years ago. Now I just let it go in one ear and out the other.

  “I saw Chloe’s car outside, did she come home with you?”

  “I’m here, Dad.” Chloe came up beside me. “Phoebe and I decided to have some sister time.”

  “Oookay.” His surprise was probably a mirror of what mine would have been yesterday if Chloe had said the same thing. “Well, hurry up.”

  He headed back upstairs and I began searching for my slippers. I could have sworn they’d been in my room a few days ago, but I’d worn them since then. I sank to my knees and began pulling junk out from under the bed.

  “Are you going to talk to Nanna?” Chloe asked.

  I shoved my head under the bed. Maybe she’d give up if I pretended I couldn’t hear her. “What?”

  “You do this every time, you know. You stall and stall, hoping she’ll run out of time and she never does. Why don’t you just go talk to her? And for once in your life actually listen.” She grabbed my arm and pulled me up from the floor.

  “Maybe because I don’t want to listen to lies.” I yanked free and started searching in a pile under my desk.

  “Are they really lies? Until a few weeks ago, your gift didn’t even work. So test it out on her. See if she’s lying.”

  “Well, why don’t you just tell me where I’m going to find my stinking slippers and then I won’t have an excuse?”

  Chloe walked over to the closet, opened the door, and gestured to the fluffy pink slippers hanging neatly on the shoe rack Dad had put up last summer.

  I glowered at her and snatched the stupid things off the rack. “Who put those there?”

  “I did when I found them on my bed. If you want to leave your room a mess fine, but keep it out of mine.” She walked out to the hall and pointed to the stairs. “Now go.”

  I pursed my lips and brushed past her, barely making it without giving her a shove just because.

  “Fee-Fee! We leaving.” Ella charged at me with Emma close behind. I gripped the doorframe to steady myself to avoid crashing back down the stairs. A tempting idea since I’d take Chloe down with me.

  “I know, girlies. That’s why I came up. I need to give some raspberries.” Despite the cries of no, they lifted their shirts for the juicy belly kisses, before giggling and shoving my head away.

  “Girls, why don’t you go and check that you have all of your toys packed up. Nanna wants to say good-bye to Phoebe,” Nanna said, giving Chloe a sideways nod over their heads.

  “I’ll help,” Chloe said and grabbed the girls’ hands. “Besides I give much better raspberries than Phoebe.”

  “How come?” I heard Emma say as they left the kitchen.

  “Oh, because I’m nicer.”

  I didn’t hear a response to that, but figured they were much better judges of character than Chloe.

  “I thought you two were getting along?” Dad commented, eyebrows raised.

  “Yeah well, you know us.”

  Dad shook his head and left Nanna and me alone. I wandered over to the table and sat in a chair. It seemed like every serious conversation Nanna and I had took place at that table.

  She stepped forward, but instead of sitting, she stopped behind me and placed a hand on either side of my face, then kissed the top of my head. Once done, she dropped her hands and shifted so I could see her.

  “You’re just like your mother,” she said, a half smile curving her lips. My own pursed in a sour response.

  “Can’t we skip this and get to what you really want to say?”

  “And what might that be, dear?” Her smile dimmed, her brow creased and eyes squinted.

  “That I need to accept my gift. I need to be just like Mom. I need to go see her grave. Blah, blah, blah.” It poured from my mouth, without a single thought to how horrible it sounded until after the words had already spewed forth.

  “That’s not what I was going to say.”

  “Liar.” The word burst forth at the same moment it rang through my head. “It’s what you always say.”

  Nanna sucked in a harsh breath, then pulled out a chair and sat heavily. “Alright, I want you to go see her, but I don’t want you to be just like her.”

  My fingers dug into the delicate lace tablecloth. I waited for the voice, but it didn’t come. My heart squeezed tightly in my chest. It didn’t matter if it didn’t come. I knew she was lying. She had to be.

  “Zoe was a beautiful person. She had a gift that helped many people, and once she knew how to use it, she never looked for ways to get out of it,” Nanna said. “I see that same selflessness in Lily. But Zoe was also scared of what it would do to her, how it might control her. Chloe’s been having that same fear. Yes, you have her eyes, her face, and Lord help me, you have her mouthiness. All of you remind me of her, so get off your high horse, because it’s not all about you.”

  She placed both hands on the table and pushed up, leaning in close to me. My eyes widened as I took in her suddenly fiery expression. She didn’t look like a pushover anymore.

  “I have asked you to go to your mother’s grav
e enough times, but no more. I’m tired. Tired of having an ungrateful granddaughter who won’t listen to the stories I want to tell about her mother. Tired of a snotty granddaughter who is repeatedly disrespectful to the memory of her mother. And I’m tired of the pouty granddaughter who isn’t willing to accept the God-given gift she’s been graced with and is too selfish to figure out how to use it to help anyone.”

  She backed away, and her features softened into the familiar Nanna face. “Now, I’m dropping the girls off and going home. Chloe said I’ll see you in a couple weeks.” She paused in the doorway. “I love you, Phoebe, but sometimes you can be a donkey.”

  I almost smiled at her refusal to cuss, but the fact she was right made my lips curl into what was anything but a smile. I somehow made it through the goodbyes with the girls and then back down to my room. The instant I hit my bed, the tears welled up.

  It was stupid to be upset. Nanna had finally admitted defeat. She wouldn’t be pestering me about seeing Mom’s grave. She didn’t understand; nobody did. Going to the cemetery to stare at Mom’s grave wasn’t going to help me accept my gift, or make me feel closer to her.

  Until I was twelve, going to the cemetery hadn’t bothered me, mainly because I’d thought I wasn’t alone in my lack of memories. Then on one trip for what would have been Mom’s fortieth birthday, Chloe said she could remember images of her from before she died, while she was carrying us. Chloe had seen every action our mother was going to take, had even seen her last breath. Lily had chimed in that she could remember the feel of her, the love, the warmth, and comfort. Not distinct memories, but enough that she’d smiled as she softly admitted that visiting Mom’s grave helped her remember that feeling.

  Knowing they remembered while I had nothing but a nauseous ache, made it an even emptier pit inside of me.

  With Nanna and the girls gone, I spent the rest of the day watching television and avoiding Chloe’s looks of disappointment. I stayed up long past my usual bedtime, randomly flipping through the channels, trying to block out the expression that had been on Nanna’s face.