Misty Falls

by Joss Stirling

  ‘These are my boys, my debate team. I thought they deserved a reward; they’ve all been working so hard this term.’

  ‘Hello, lads.’ Milo shook hands. ‘This is my team: my wife, Opal; our children, Willow, Hazel, and Brand. And our niece, Misty.’

  Brand yipped and jiggled, spotting four new playmates. If he’d had a tail, it would have been wagging.

  ‘Don’t mind him,’ Opal said quickly, ‘it’s just a stage he’s going through.’

  Hugo knelt beside the pushchair and solemnly shook hands with the toddler. Brand clapped.

  ‘What stage is that?’ he asked.

  ‘Brand imitates animals.’ I could hear Opal was keen that someone changed the subject. The less attention Brand attracted the better, otherwise he’d be starring on YouTube with his antics. Mind you, that wasn’t such a bad idea. I could make a fortune from advertising revenue, outstripping even the giggling baby that had gone viral.

  Focus, Misty. Help your aunt.

  ‘Hi, guys,’ I said brightly.

  ‘Hey, Misty. Howzit?’ Michael gave me a hug. I hadn’t thought we’d quite reached that stage of friendliness but clearly they had other ideas as Hugo and Phil also gave me an embrace, lifting me off my feet each time. Maybe it was their form of an apology?

  ‘Have you enjoyed your holiday?’ asked Michael, his eyes telling me he was flirting just a little.

  ‘I’ve had a blast. I’m sorry it’s coming to an end. Hi, Alex.’

  ‘Hi, Misty.’ Alex hung back. He had dressed for mountaintop weather: chocolate-brown leather jacket over indigo-blue T-shirt and jeans.

  Michael waggled his eyebrows at me. ‘Don’t tell me he’s still sore that you beat him at table tennis? It’s not like we teased him for more than a couple of weeks about that.’

  I smiled.

  ‘So, is it back to school straight away for you when you return?’ asked Hugo while we waited for Uncle Milo to queue for tickets.

  Whoa, what was this? Be nice to Misty week?

  ‘Not quite. I’ve got a camp first. A week in Cornwall this time. I go every year.’ The silver zips that closed the breast pockets on the front of Alex’s jacket were distracting me. I had an urge to play with them. Resist, girl, resist.

  Hugo was oblivious to my little mind-wander. ‘I’m jealous you’re still off school. We’re gearing up for our end-of-year assessments.’

  ‘You have my sympathies.’ I rather undercut this statement by beaming too broadly. I did pity them but I find it makes my time off even better when I know others are beavering away.

  ‘Is your camp fun or under-canvas-dig-your-own-latrine survival torture like my old Scout ones?’

  I laughed at the picture he painted. ‘It’s great fun. We usually stay under a roof with indoor bathrooms; we never quite know until we get there as the venue changes each year. My best friends go, Summer and Angel.’

  ‘Pretty names.’

  I was warming to Hugo. ‘Thanks. I’ll tell them you said so.’ Alex wasn’t the only charming one among the quartet.

  ‘OK, team. All aboard!’ Milo ushered us through the turnstiles.

  ‘Have you done this before?’ I asked Hugo.

  ‘Ja, we all came at Christmas and abseiled down.’ He pointed to what looked like a sheer rock face under the summit. ‘That’s our kind of fun, isn’t it, Alex?’

  As we filed into the car, the barriers forced Alex to come a little closer. ‘Ja, it was great.’

  Hugo frowned. ‘You OK, Alex?’

  ‘Sure. I’m fine.’ Alex positioned himself on the far side of the pushchair and struck up a conversation with Uriel.

  I broke into Hugo’s puzzled thoughts. ‘This abseiling thing: we’re not all expected to do it, are we?’

  Returning from his moody friend to happier thoughts, Hugo patted me on the back. ‘I’d say for you, Misty, it’s the only way down, if you want to experience the real Cape Town.’

  ‘What a shame we came with a toddler in tow.’ I gave an exaggerated sigh. ‘Ah me, looks like I’ll have to pass on abseiling this time.’

  ‘Hey, Misty, come look.’ Michael made a space for me by the window. He and Phil had given the girls a lift-up so they could see out.

  The cable car is not for those who don’t like heights. Starting near the base of the mountain, it climbs steeply, at one point the ground being hundreds of metres below. If you can tear your eyes from contemplating the chances of plummeting to your death, you can admire the spectacular sea, mountain and cityscape, and the expanse of sky. That’s what I made myself do.

  ‘Not got a good head for heights?’ asked Hugo shrewdly as my knuckles whitened on the sill. On the other side of the car, I noticed that Alex was listening in to our conversation.

  I gave Hugo my best brave smile. ‘Let’s just say my future does not hold me climbing Everest.’

  ‘You’re perfectly safe, as long as the car doesn’t drop from its runner and the fail-safe chain is intact. Fatal accidents hardly ever happen, just in the weeks before its annual overhaul and—would you look at that notice!—that period starts tomorrow.’ He grinned at me.

  He was totally winding me up, something I didn’t require the ache in my back teeth to know. I was about to tell him he was rumbled when Alex butted in.

  ‘Hugo, cut it out. If she’s scared, she doesn’t need you making it worse.’ He sounded quite angry on my behalf.

  Hugo looked chastened. ‘Sorry, Misty. I was just joking. The cable car has an excellent safety record.’

  ‘I guessed, but thanks.’ I risked a glance at Alex but he had backed away again. I couldn’t fault him for caring when it counted.

  When we got out of the cable car, I was pleased I’d brought a hoodie. The clear cold conditions made for a fantastic view, even if it was a few degrees cooler than I expected from being in the valley. We made our way round to the viewing platform that jutted out over the city.

  ‘What’s that pimple of a mountain?’ I asked Michael, who happened to be standing next to me, fair hair whipping about in the stiff breeze. There appeared to be a mini-mountain right in the middle of Cape Town, bare rock summit on green swelling.

  He slapped his hand to his chest in an ‘I’m having a heart attack here’ gesture. ‘Pimple? Come on, Misty, where’s your cultural sensitivity?’

  ‘I left that at home with my tact,’ I admitted.

  ‘That’s the Lion’s Head. Don’t tell any Cape Towner you called it a pimple or you may not make it to the plane in one piece.’

  ‘Or they may frogmarch her there and put her on an earlier flight.’ That was Alex. So he had decided to break his self-imposed avoidance rule, had he?

  ‘Be pleased to see the back of me, will you?’ I asked Alex.

  He looked as if he regretted being drawn into the conversation. ‘I didn’t say that.’

  Wrong: the right answer was No, Misty, we loved having you!

  ‘You didn’t need to. I get the message that I’m not your favourite visitor. You do realize that this outing is supposed to be my goodbye present, don’t you?’

  Michael thumped his friend in the stomach. ‘Ja, quit spoiling the girl’s last day.’

  Alex held up his hands. ‘I didn’t say anything.’

  ‘Sometimes it’s what you don’t say that matters.’ I turned back to the view from the annoying one behind me. ‘Don’t worry: you won’t have to see me again after today.’

  Uriel and Tarryn joined us, sunshine glinting on their heads, golden and chestnut, hand in hand. Why not just carry around a big arrow saying ‘Perfect Couple’? I thought wryly. Some guys get all the breaks. Was I the only person nature didn’t like to frame to make me more attractive? If I stood like them, I’d probably get bird droppings on me, or the wind would blow my skirt up the wrong way.

  ‘What was that about today?’ asked Uriel, having caught the tail end of my remarks.

  ‘I said that they wouldn’t be seeing me as I’m heading home.’ That was the truth—I’d just left
out the argumentative subtext.

  ‘I wouldn’t bet on that, Misty.’ Uriel rubbed the back of Tarryn’s hand with his thumb. Whenever I saw him now, he was always giving her these little touches in a sweet I-can’t-believe-my-luck way. ‘Seems like fate has been generous and has put the international debate final in Cambridge, England, this year.’

  Tarryn smiled wryly. ‘And I suppose that had nothing to do with the phone calls you made offering to sort out a venue?’ She looked over to the debate-team boys. ‘Cairo had to pull out of hosting last week due to security issues.’

  Uriel’s kind eyes twinkled with humour. ‘Maybe I could’ve pulled in favours in Denver too but, well, I decided that I might as well please myself on this one. If I’m to be in Cambridge, then why not bring you there?’

  ‘You’ve arranged for the debate final to be in my city?’ I asked. This could not be happening.

  ‘Cool!’ Hugo was delighted. ‘I’m sorry to miss Cairo but I’ve never been to England. What should I pack, Misty?’

  ‘When are you coming?’ I half-hoped it would be over and done with before I went back to school in September.

  ‘Towards the end of November,’ said Tarryn. ‘As it’s after your assessments, boys, and Alex’s Matric, you should ask your parents if you can stay on a week or two. We could extend the tour to other places. Shame to go all the way to Europe and not sightsee.’

  Various choice words hip-hopped through my brain. There would be no escape for me as that was slap in the middle of term. ‘You should pack raincoats and warm clothes then.’

  ‘You go to school in Cambridge, don’t you, Misty?’

  Thanks for pointing that out, Tarryn.

  ‘Yes, I do. But the chances are you’ll be on the other side of town.’

  ‘Oh no,’ said Uriel, winking at me, ‘you’ll be pleased to know we’ll be right on your doorstep. Your school is one of the venues as its team are the English champions. I’m surprised you didn’t know.’

  ‘Right. I must’ve missed that.’ Not surprising actually as the debate team and I moved in completely different circles and add the fact that I had been hiding for the last few days of term due to the Sean incident. So that was what Uriel had been doing when I hadn’t seen him during the last few weeks. I’d assumed he was spending quality time with Tarryn, but no. He had devoted himself to messing up my autumn.

  ‘You can show us round town.’ Hugo was getting really into the idea of a European trip.

  ‘I’d be … ’ I couldn’t say happy, ‘OK with doing that.’

  ‘Cool.’ Hugo swept his arms to the view before us. ‘Can Cambridge beat this?’

  ‘It has its pretty bits,’ I said loyally. As Cambridge was in an area of England that was as flat as a pancake, Table Mountain was going to be an impossible act to follow but I wasn’t going to admit that. ‘The colleges are spectacular. You can’t move without tripping over a famous dead person. Newton, Darwin, those DNA guys, Crick and Watson.’

  ‘Strictly speaking, not all of those are dead,’ said Alex dryly.

  ‘Alex, you’re applying to Trinity, aren’t you?’ Hugo asked.

  ‘Yes, it’s on my list.’ No surprise: Alex didn’t seem as pleased by the news that he was heading my way as the others.

  Tarryn squeezed his arm. ‘I thought we could arrange for you to have your interview while you’re there, Alex. The dates work out well.’

  ‘Sounds like a plan. So, is it time to eat?’ Alex broke up the discussion by heading for the restaurant.

  Our party was seated at the long table by the picture window, so Alex and I were able to choose chairs at opposite ends. Both of us could breathe a sigh of relief and eat in peace. I ordered a garden burger—juicy, thick mushroom pretending to be meat and tasting just as good. I was perfectly happy with my dining companions: I had Uriel on one side and Michael on the other. Hugo and Phil sat opposite. That made Alex’s choice to sit down by the girls more glaring, but that was his lookout. He gave every sign of being entertained by Willow and Hazel’s sketches with the kids’ crayons the waitress provided so maybe he was enjoying himself.

  Hugo, Phil, and Michael cross-examined me on Cambridge. I didn’t know a huge amount about the town as I had only lived there since I changed schools. I was a boarder because my home was the other side of London. We had exhausted the schools in my local area so my parents had to look further afield after my last close encounter with too much truth. The head teacher at the Fen School was a savant, so sympathetic to my situation. On hearing about the bullying that resulted from my out-of-control mouth, he had let me enter Year 11 despite my far-from-stellar GCSE exam predictions. I couldn’t explain all that to the boys so I left the reason for my being there vague. I did, however, admit that I wasn’t an expert. Uriel made up for the gaps in my knowledge as he had often visited the university.

  The conversation turned to cricket and I tuned out. Uriel nudged me.

  ‘Misty, can I ask something?’

  I squeezed the ketchup on my mushroom and squidged down the bun lid. ‘Fire away.’

  ‘What’s with you and Alex? Is there something more going on between you than Tarryn and I know about? His awkwardness with you seems a bit extreme for a lost table tennis match.’

  ‘You’re right there.’ I took a bite and thought about how to frame my answer. ‘I think it’s me. Or rather him-plus-me. He doesn’t like the person he becomes when he’s in my company.’ I hadn’t realized it until I spoke the words but I thought I now understood what had been going on.

  ‘Your gifts clash?’ Uriel got my point at once.

  ‘Think about it: he’s always charming but in my zone I make him rude and a bit harsh. He hates it. I think he feels out of control.’

  Uriel rubbed his chin, making that brittle sound that only guys can do as fingers meet emerging bristles. ‘I can see how that might shake him up. I’ll let Tarryn know. She’s been worrying about him. She’s told me that he has been really down the last few weeks.’

  Since he met me.

  ‘She’s worried she made the wrong choice advancing him a year, but he really is outstandingly intelligent.’

  ‘Have you told Alex what my gift is?’

  Uriel wrinkled his brow, remembering. ‘No, I don’t think it came up.’

  ‘He might feel better about himself if you explain it’s my fault.’ Second thoughts: I didn’t like offering myself up to shoulder the blame. ‘But maybe it’s good for him to be exposed to me. Remind him he’s fallible like the rest of us.’

  Uriel did not share my glee at the thought of cutting Alex down to size. ‘I don’t think he needs anyone attacking his confidence.’ He glanced down the table to where Alex was making Willow a crown out of serviettes, charming the socks off the under tens. So adorable. I had no trouble liking Alex from a distance; it was the close-up thing that caused the problems.

  Uriel pushed his empty plate aside, voice low. ‘It might help you to understand where he’s coming from when you know that he’s got no one to care for him other than Tarryn and the staff at the school.’

  I put down my wilting garden burger. ‘What do you mean by that? Is he an orphan?’

  Uriel shook his head. ‘That might’ve been easier. He was abandoned by his parents when his gift came through. They aren’t savants and have some really strong prejudices against us. They think it must be witchcraft or black magic. Having a son able to juggle toys with his mind sent them crazy. They tried to beat it out of him, then threw him out when that failed.’

  ‘But surely you can’t just kick out your child for being different? There have to be laws to prevent that.’

  ‘You’d think so but the rest of his family left the country, last heard of in Argentina. They’re on the run. They told Alex—he was three at the time—that they were running from a demon. They meant him.’

  ‘Geez.’ I rubbed my chest, feeling the echo of that harsh truth as Uriel’s words sank in. ‘Only three. Yeah, sure, I’ll be nicer to him now I k
now that.’

  ‘Thanks. Maybe I shouldn’t have told you but as he’s coming to Cambridge I thought it better to set you straight on a few things. Tarryn wants to build up his confidence, not undermine it. Try not to let him know you know.’

  ‘Uriel, I can’t lie.’

  ‘Right. I forgot.’ He ran his hand through his hair, annoyed at his oversight. ‘Just don’t raise the subject. He’s sensitive about it as you can imagine.’

  ‘Yeah, I can imagine.’ Alex put the finished crown on Willow’s head and turned to making one for Hazel. He claimed he knew nothing about families and I could now understand why he said that, but he was doing a grand job entertaining the girls. He had more skills than he knew. If the time seemed right, I’d tell him.

  Uriel’s phone beeped.

  ‘Apologies. I should’ve turned it off.’ Uriel checked the message.

  Tarryn, sitting with Milo and Opal, looked up, alert to anything that disturbed her soulfinder. ‘Uri, what’s happened?’

  Uriel’s mood darkened considerably.

  ‘Bad news?’ I asked, mind dashing to all my family and friends.

  ‘Yes.’ Uriel got up. ‘But it’s a work matter.’ He brushed my shoulder. ‘Nothing you need worry about. Enjoy your party. I’ll just take this outside.’

  Uriel headed out to the viewpoint. Tarryn made her excuses and hurried to join him.

  ‘Work?’ asked Hugo. ‘I thought he was an academic.’

  ‘Academics do work, bru,’ Phil drawled, eating his last chip.

  ‘Uriel does forensic investigations for the American authorities,’ I explained, recalling the conversation on the plane and the murders that he was looking into for the FBI. I thought I could say that much without breaking any confidences.

  ‘So does that mean someone has died?’ asked Phil, sounding keen rather than upset at the idea. He would make a good pathologist with that ghoulish enthusiasm.

  ‘Probably, but I don’t think he likes talking about it,’ I warned.

  ‘Now who wants dessert?’ called Uncle Milo, changing the mood from sombre to happy. Several hands went up among the younger members of our party.