by Amira Rain
She, the other, agents, and the porter soon left, but before they did, Cynthia gave me her business card, telling me to call if I needed anything.
"Though, really, unless it's about something pertaining to the direct deposit of your salary or anything like that, you'll probably just want to go to Commander Grant directly. Or Emma. She'll be coming by sometime early afternoon to bring you lunch and get acquainted."
After unpacking my suitcase, then brushing my teeth and using mouthwash to clean my mouth of lingering ickiness from my visit to the alley, I actually took a nap in my new, extraordinarily comfortable four-poster bed. Despite my excitement about my new place, it had been quite a long morning, not to mention that I'd been feeling chronically beat ever since I'd become pregnant.
In addition to getting a solid eight or nine hours of sleep every night, sometimes even more, I'd been indulging in a few naps here and there, something I'd never been prone to doing, although I figured I was resting for two now. I planned to give my body all the rest it wanted throughout the duration of my pregnancy, because I knew that once the baby was born, being well-rested might become a forgotten luxury.
With no father in the picture, nightly feedings would be all on me. I realized I could now afford to hire a "night nanny" if things got too bad, like if my baby had colic, but I just couldn't see myself doing that during the first few months of bonding.
Not long after I awoke from my long nap, Emma, who was a pretty brunette about my age, showed up at my door. In one hand, she held a large plastic bag printed with the name of a popular Midwestern restaurant and catering company, and her other hand rested on a stroller handle. Inside the stroller, grinning big, revealing two tiny front teeth, sat one of the cutest little boys I'd ever seen in my life.
With huge, rosy cheeks, dimples, and a halo of dark brown curls, he was the picture of a one-year-old angel. Except that this little angel had metal braces that ran from his ankles to his chubby thighs, and these braces didn't look as if they allowed him to bend his legs.
I smiled at Emma and him, and he grinned even bigger, flinging a tiny plastic race car at me, which got me right in the shin, not that it hurt at all.
Laughing, I picked it up. "I think he wants me to play cars with him."
Emma winced, though still smiling. "I'm so sorry about that. I'm Emma Whitaker, and this is my son Jake. He just loves to throw things. Toy cars, food, sippy cups...you name it. If something can be thrown, Jake will throw it."
Smiling, I introduced myself and invited them in, and Emma and I were soon sitting up to the granite-topped island in the kitchen, tucking in to a delicious lunch of salad, lasagna, and breadsticks. For the time being, Jake seemed content to sit in his stroller beside us, drinking milk from his sippy cup and not throwing it.
Emma said that she'd already fed him lunch a little while earlier and that he'd probably fall asleep soon. Right on cue, not even a minute later, his eyes slowly closed and his cup fell from his hand and onto the marble floor.
After picking it up, Emma set it on the table and briefly looked at Jake sleeping with a little smile on her face before picking up her fork again.
"You might be wondering why he has to wear leg braces."
"I've honestly more been wondering how one little boy can be as adorable as a hundred babies put together. I just about had a cuteness overload attack when I answered the door."
That was all completely true.
Emma beamed, clearly pleased. "Well, thank you. But in case you were also wondering a tiny little bit about his braces, I'll just go ahead and tell you, because I usually explain to most new people we meet, just to get it out of the way. See, the doctors were never able to determine exactly why, but Jake was born very sickly and with a deformity of his legs, and it couldn't be fixed by surgery.
“So, he's had to wear corrective leg braces at least twelve hours a day since he was two months old. As most babies would, he hates them, and so do I, because with the braces keeping his legs straight, he can't crawl around with them on very easily, or try to walk, and it's hard for him to even pull himself up to stand with them on.
“The good news...the good, amazing, wonderful news...is that he's almost finished with them. His doctor says just a few more weeks, and his legs will be just as if he'd never been born with a problem. Then he'll never have to wear braces ever again, although he might have some challenges to catch up with his age group in terms of crawling and walking. I think he's up to it, though. He's a very tough little guy."
"I can tell he is. He's got a good throwing arm, too."
After we'd talked a bit more about Jake, Emma said she wanted to learn more about me.
"For starters, what's your Gifted power?"
I told her it was "zapping," as people commonly referred to it, and she nodded.
"I guessed it might be. For some reason, there seems to be far more zappers than levitators. That's why levitators are so in demand, not that zappers aren't, but...levitators are really in demand."
Pausing, Emma lowered her gaze to her plate. "Which is part of the reason I turned out to be such a huge disappointment. Did the agents who brought you here happen to say anything about me? One of them, a lady named Angela, told the last Gifted who was brought in that she tried to have the government not only suspend my pay, but make me pay back everything I've already been given. Never mind that it would leave me and my one-year-old on the streets."
I shifted on my bar stool a bit uncomfortably, not wanting to upset Emma by telling her that Angela still had it in for her.
"Well...your name came up in the elevator. The male agent, whose name I never did learn, just basically talked about how you're the unofficial 'welcoming committee' here. Then there was maybe just a little talk about how you've had some sort of difficulty as a Gifted."
With a breadstick halfway to her mouth, Emma paused, sighing. "Yeah. 'Difficulty.' The truth is that I'm the only Gifted around here who absolutely sucks at being a Gifted."
"Well, how so? I mean, what exactly is the problem? I didn't know anyone could really suck at being a gifted. I thought a Gifted was just a Gifted."
Emma washed down a bite of breadstick with a sip of iced tea, then set the glass on the table.
"Well...not really. Yes, most Gifteds generally attain a similar level of skill and competency with practice, though some are maybe just slightly less competent, and some become very, very skilled compared to others. Then, some of us, specifically me, just suck. See, there are regular Gifteds, and latent Gifteds, but I may be the first ever 'faux’ Gifted.”
Extremely intrigued, I stopped cutting at my lasagna and set my fork down.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, to make a very long story short, when my power first manifested right after I became pregnant, it came pretty easily to me, for the whole hour or two that I did it anyway, but that was long enough for someone in my town to get some really good video footage to send to the feds in order to collect a cash reward.
“But, then...well...something happened, and to make a long story short, I wasn't able to levitate anymore once I got here. I tried and tried and tried...for months...sometimes levitating things a few feet for mere seconds...but it just really wasn't happening. My friend, Eric, says he thinks it's some sort of a mental block or something. At any rate, I really don't even bother to try to practice anymore. Which has sort of set me apart from all the other Gifteds in a funny way.
“I'm friends with many of them, and I think they all generally like me well enough, but I don't practice with them. I don't fight with them. I'm not one of them. I'm just a girl still getting a paycheck for the inconvenience of having been relocated for nothing, basically."
Suddenly lifting her glass of iced tea, Emma suddenly switched gears. "Anyway. I still want to find out more about you. Tell me about your hometown, your family, what you were doing before you came here...all that good stuff."
While we finished our lunch, I did, telling her a bit about Quincy, m
y grandma, and my career as a gymnastics coach. Emma listened attentively, asking a few questions here and there, but then we both fell silent briefly when we started in on tall squares of tiramisu for dessert. Normally, I might have been too stuffed by the large meal to indulge, but pregnancy had already seemed to increase my appetite.
After a few small bites, Emma set her fork down, saying it was delicious, but she'd have to save the rest for later. "And besides, I have something else to ask you, if it's not too personal."
"Go right ahead."
"Well, just based on the fact that most Gifteds who come here these days are latents, I'm guessing you are, too, but I don't want to assume. Are you pregnant?"
Lifting a bite of tiramisu, I cracked a smile. "You mean you can't tell by the way I'm eating?"
Emma smiled in return. "Congratulations. How far along?"
"One month. And hungry and tired enough all the time to be carrying full-term twins."
Emma smiled again. "Your body will adjust. The second trimester is usually easier."
"I hope it will be."
"So, will your baby's father be joining you here in Chicago?"
I felt like I'd been hearing this question all day, and really, I had.
"No. He's not in the picture at all. I'm going to be a single mom."
"Oh. Well, I think you'll be a fantastic one. I'm a single mom myself. My husband passed away."
"I'm so sorry, Emma."
"Thanks. Anyway...I wanted to ask if you might be up for a little shopping this afternoon. I wasn't sure if you packed anything semi-formal, so I thought maybe we could find you a dress."
"Well, why?"
"Oh. I forgot to tell you. You'll be having dinner with Commander Grant tonight."
CHAPTER SIX
After seeing what I was sure was an expression of surprise on my face, Emma continued. "Oh, don't worry. I didn't mean just you and Commander Grant will be having dinner, like some weird, prearranged date you never agreed to or something. I mean you'll be having dinner with him as part of a group. He always welcomes new Gifteds to town with a special dinner at Knight's, which is a steakhouse on the twentieth floor. Amazing place. If you're hungry again by dinnertime, you'll be in absolute heaven."
"Knowing me lately, I'm positive I'll be hungry again by dinnertime. And, honestly...probably hours before. Even right now, getting kind of full, a steak sounds amazing to me. I'm already really looking forward to this dinner."
Emma laughed. "Great. I'm looking forward to it, too. I'll be there, because I'm kind of a 'social helper' for new Gifteds, being that this is at least one way I can contribute to the community, and a few other Gifteds and some shifters will be there as well. It's usually a pretty good time, and a nice way for a new Gifted to meet people. Kind of a nice excuse for some of us moms to get dressed up once in a while, too."
I started to ask her if there was a good dress boutique somewhere in the tower, or if we should go out in the city; but just then, Jake started to wake up, crying and kind of batting at his right ear.
Frowning, Emma lifted him out of his stroller and pulled him into her arms. "Oh, my poor guy. My poor baby." She went on to explain that he was prone to ear infections and had been swatting at his right ear early that morning, fussing. "But it didn't last long, and then he seemed perfectly fine and happy. But now I'm wondering if I should cancel our shopping trip and take him to the doctor's, then home for some rest."
I told her not to think twice about it. "You just go ahead and take care of Jake, and I'll go dress shopping myself."
"Okay, thanks. There's a great little boutique called Stella's you can try. It's on the eleventh floor."
Emma and Jake left soon after Emma and I had exchanged phone numbers, and stunningly, I found that I was actually ready for another nap. Normally a fairly high-energy person, I'd never expected pregnancy to take it out of me so badly. Although I suspected that my heavy lunch might have had something to do with my lethargy as well.
When I awoke from my pretty ridiculous second nap of the day, it was nearly five, and I realized I'd better get an extreme move on if I wanted to show up to dinner in a dress and not jeans. I also wanted to shower and maybe curl my long hair, too, which always took quite a bit of time.
After washing my face to clear away some sleep dust in my eyes, I hurriedly reapplied the bit of concealer, bronzer, and lip gloss I usually wore out of the house, then raked a brush through my tangled hair. I was just jamming on my tennis shoes to head out the door when I got a call from Emma, first letting me know that Jake was fine and fortunately only had a mild ear infection.
"The second thing I'm calling about is that our dinner with Commander Grant has been postponed until tomorrow. Apparently, there was a sighting of some Angel dragons thirty or forty miles east, and Commander Grant and some of his Destroyers have to go deal with things, which usually means an exhaustive search and a fight. They probably won't be back until very late, or even tomorrow."
Experiencing a sudden wave of queasiness, I slumped against the wall, one arm around my stomach.
"Well, that's fine. I haven't even bought my dress yet, and now I can just do it tomorrow. And besides, I'm kind of feeling a little sick all of a sudden. I think all the upheaval of my usual life and routine today has really started to bring on the morning sickness. Maybe a quiet night in is just what I need."
Emma agreed that it probably was, and we made plans to go dress shopping together the following day if Jake was feeling a little better and if I was, too.
An hour or so later, I already was, thrilled to find that the refrigerator in my apartment was fully stocked, as was the pantry. Unbelievably, I was hungry again, though for this meal, I decided to have something on the lighter side and just had a bowl of vegetable soup and a tangerine.
Despite my two afternoon naps, I actually slept like the dead that night and didn't wake until ten in the morning. Then, I was ravenous, quickly working my way through a bowl of oatmeal with apple chunks and walnuts, a plate of scrambled eggs, and two slices of toast. At the rate I was going, I hoped any dress I bought that afternoon would still fit me by evening.
While cleaning up after breakfast, I discovered a small, clear glass vase beneath the sink, and I went to my bedroom, got the tissue paper flower my grandma had made for me, and popped it in the vase. Then I set the vase by the sink, where I'd see it every day and would remember to call Eloise frequently, not that I thought I'd easily forget.
Already that morning, I'd been fretting a bit about how my grandma was doing, wondering if it was too soon to call Eloise for an update. After all, it had just been the day before that I'd visited, and I certainly didn't want to annoy Eloise or distract her from her care-taking.
However, after a few moments spent leaning over the counter, looking at my grandma's little flower with its white, pink, and yellow petals, I decided that I'd make the call. Communicating with family members was part of Eloise's job, of course, and besides, she wasn't the type to get annoyed by an anxious family member just wanting to check in.
When she answered the phone, she actually sounded very glad to hear from me.
"Your grandma has been having a great morning. She first helped me cook pancakes for everyone, and then she was the winner of our 1950s morning trivia activity. She did lose her temper a bit just once, and only for a few seconds, when she got confused about what we were doing; but on the whole, she really has been this morning's winner. Now she's just taking a little catnap with a game show."
Incredibly relieved, I thanked Eloise for the good news and told her I'd check in again soon.
Jake was feeling much better by that afternoon, with his ear not seeming to be bothering him at all, so Emma and I took him out shopping with us while movers from Quincy unloaded all my stuff into my apartment.
During the long elevator ride down to the ground floor, Jake was in fine throwing form, first hurling his sippy cup, then a plastic set of keys, then a thin blanket lining his stroller, and f
inally a small plush teddy bear he'd fished out from behind his rear. By the time we reached our destination on the eleventh floor, he was pouting a bit, having exhausted his supply of things to throw.
After just a minute or two in the dress boutique called Stella's, I spotted a cap-sleeved, shortish red dress that I thought was just stunning.
I pulled it from the rack, held it up to my front, and asked Emma what she thought. "Too sexy for a dinner to meet a distinguished dragon shifter commander?"
Emma immediately shook her head. "Not at all. I think it's a sexy dress, but without being too sexy if you know what I mean. The scoop neck isn't even that low. But as far as 'distinguished dragon shifter commander'...well, I don't know if Commander Grant is exactly 'distinguished.' He can definitely have an authoritative air about him at times, and he's definitely well-respected, but 'distinguished' brings to mind someone a lot older than he is. He's only thirty-three."