Reflections

by Susan Griscom

  ***

  Maia didn’t realize there were so many attractive maternity clothes available. She’d had visions of boxy oversized tops and God-awful looking blue jeans. But what she found were adorable shirts looking pretty similar to normal clothes. It was easy to look nice in leggings and blousy tops. For a small town, the store had an abundant array of blouses, pants and dresses too. She’d have to make a few more trips to the store as the months went by, but for right now, a couple pairs of leggings and loose fitting T-shirts would work out fine. In the dressing room, she pulled the black leggings up over her belly. Glancing in the mirror and smiling with approval, she turned to look at her rear. Still okay. Bending to pick up a blouse, she heard her phone sing out the familiar tune of “Don’t Let Go,” the ring tone she’d chosen just for Gerry’s calls. Releasing the hanger holding the top, she reached in her purse and snatched up her phone, sliding the unlock bar across the screen.

  “Hi, babe. What’s up?”

  “Does something have to be up for me to call the love of my life?”

  “Hmmm … no. But the love of my life is usually busy this time of the day preparing for a busy lunch crowd. Gerry, I know why you’re calling and you don’t need to worry about me.”

  “Oh yeah? Where are you?”

  “Well, if you must know, I’m shopping.”

  He sighed. “I thought we were going to shop for baby things together.”

  Yes, she had promised not to buy any more surprise pieces of furniture for the baby … babies, but you could hardly compare that to this sort of shopping. “I’m not buying furniture, or baby things of any kind.”

  “Well, then what are you shopping for?”

  Maia sighed and studied her body in the mirror. “Clothes.”

  “Ah, well then, I apologize for interrupting. I’m glad you’re doing something for yourself, darlin’. You should think of yourself more often. I hope you’re having fun and buying a sexy dress or something.”

  “Actually, I’m buying maternity clothes.”

  “Maternity clothes? Are you ready for those?”

  “Gerry, the only things I can fit into anymore are your old gray sweatpants and sweatshirt. Haven’t you noticed?”

  “No, I … Well, now that you mention it, I just thought you were going for comfort these days.”

  “Right, comfort is an issue lately, but I’d like to at least look somewhat presentable.” She thought of the band’s opening night coming up soon and Careen up on the stage singing, wearing something very risqué, no doubt.

  “Okay, then. Do you have enough money? I can make a transfer if you like.”

  “No, I’m fine there.”

  There was silence for a few moments.

  “Maia?”

  “Yes?”

  “You know I love you.”

  Maia smiled. “You’d better. I know some powerful people.”

  She heard Gerry chuckle. “I know. See ya later, darlin’.”

  She hung up the phone and asked the sales girl to bring her some dresses that showed a bit of cleavage to try on. Gerry wanted sexy, she’d give him sexy. Well, as sexy as she could manage, but after trying on several dresses she decided that a maternity dress wasn’t going to cut it and walked to the boutique next door. Surely she’d find something there that would do.

  ***

  Gerry walked out of his office, surprised to see the bar semi-packed with customers. Among them sat Finn, hands gripped around a pint, staring into space, looking oblivious to everything around him. Gerry shook his head. Pathetic bastard. Why couldn’t he keep Careen under control? The last thing he wanted to do was get into another scuffle with Finn, especially about Careen.

  Avoiding eye contact, Gerry slipped by Finn and down to the other side of the bar. The morning dragged on and the pounding thumped through the air and into his head. The added loud chatter from the unusual amount of early customers had Gerry’s headache swimming toward an explosion. He glanced at Addie and shrugged. She glared back at him as she filled the fourth of a line of pints by her station.

  “What’s going on?” Gerry asked, helping her place the beers on the counter.

  “It’s the news of the band. Everybody’s hoping to get a glimpse of them before their first performance. You’d think they were famous or something.”

  Gerry grinned. “I suspect any type of band performing in this town would seem famous to these people. Is he the only one here?” Gerry nodded toward Finn.

  “So far. You expecting the others?”

  “Never can tell.”

  “Shit, that means the witch might show up, huh?”

  Gerry smiled. “I’m sure Maia would appreciate your loyalty. But it does look like this will be great for business. Careen may be witchy, but I’ll be the first to admit she can sing and she’ll no doubt bring in a lot of guys who love beer.”

  “Hmmm … anybody can look sexy dressed the way she does. If I dressed that way you’d have me standing up there singing.”

  “Not a chance, sweet stuff. You’re crazy beautiful but we all know you can’t carry a tune to save yourself.”

  “Oh, now you’re just being mean.”

  “Nope, just honest.”

  Gerry glanced down at Finn, debating whether to go talk to the poor fool or stay out of it. Careen wasn’t really worth the extra headache, and most likely lied about Finn hurting her. He wanted to believe Finn had nothing to do with stealing his money those years ago. They’d been friends too long not to believe him. That asshole Raul supposedly coerced Careen into withdrawing money from Gerry’s account and investing it in some internet scheme he pretended to be involved with. Why Gerry ever trusted Careen enough to give her access to his funds eluded him and pissed him off. When it all went south, the jackass disappeared, or so they claimed. Finn said he believed in Careen and when he consoled her after the fight she and Gerry had over the whole ordeal, well, the rest was plain old ridiculous to even think about. Finn was nothing but putty in her hands. She played him then. Still did.

  Finn continued to stare blankly into space. Gerry placed the gin and tonic he’d just made in front of the customer who’d ordered it and looked around. Satisfied everyone had their drinks, he slung the towel over his shoulder and strolled down to see what the bloody hell was wrong with Finn, as if he didn’t already know.

  Gerry leaned his elbow on the bar and stared at Finn. “‘Sup, man?”

  “Huh?” Finn stared up at Gerry with blood-shot eyes; looked like the guy hadn’t slept a wink all night.

  “What the hell is eating you? You look like shit.”

  “Careen, she …” Finn shook his head, sipped at his coffee. “She’s up to something, man. I don’t know what I’m going to do.”

  “Maybe you should leave her.”

  “Can’t. Love her too much.”

  “She’s no good, Finn. Nothing but trouble.”

  “You’d know, but I’m hooked, in for life. This little episode will pass, like all the others. I’m used to it. Seeing you again got her all upset. If I didn’t know better, I’d think she still had a thing for you.”

  Gerry almost choked on his own saliva. “Finn, you know I love Maia. She’s the light and love of my life. There is nothing and never will be anything between Careen and me.”

  “We both know there’s nothing written in stone when it comes to Careen.”

  Gerry frowned. “Finn, I think once you get to know Maia better, you’ll realize how much she means to me.” Maybe then Finn would see what a real, honest woman was like. “Go see her. I’m sure she can give you some female advice to help.” The moment the words left his lips, he regretted them. The last time Gerry left his woman with Finn, he lost her. But that was Careen. He wasn’t entirely sure he ever really had Careen to begin with. Losing her had been more a blessing than anything else. Gerry had faith in Maia.

  ***

  Entering the cottage, Maia headed straight for the sofa and flopped down in the middle, several shopping bags at
her feet. Swamped with fatigue, she leaned back and closed her eyes, wanting nothing more than to sleep. She had never been so tired before in her life. She thought maybe the movement of the babies meant she was through the first trimester, the most arduous, and of course, with twins, it had to be the worst. She looked forward to getting further into her second trimester. A couple of weeks more and she might regain some vitality and actually start to enjoy this supposedly joyful pregnancy.

  Shopping drained every ounce of energy from her. How could she compete with the likes of Careen Faraday if she couldn’t even muster enough strength to shop for a couple of hours? Now the idea of actually wearing some of these outfits and spending time out in public exhausted her even more. The familiar pang of hunger rang out in her stomach. She’d better fix a sandwich before going out for her daily walk. The thought of walking didn’t really excite her anymore either. Maybe after eating, she’d recover. Enough for a walk, though? She’d decide that later. The things a woman must do to keep herself fit for her man, and herself. And the babies, she mused as she pried herself off the sofa and walked to the kitchen. “Mmmm … a peanut butter and banana sandwich would satisfy those pangs just fine.”

  After lunch, Maia took her time getting her walking shoes on, giving that sandwich a little while to settle so her stomach would have no opportunity for nausea.

  When she opened the door to head out, she paused and grabbed her sunglasses from the shelf by the door. The sun glared down through a light scatter of clouds and warmed her cheeks. “Perfect,” she said. It hardly feels like February with the sun so warm. She took off toward the trail, pleased when she arrived to find several walkers, runners, and cyclists taking advantage of the unusual sunny day.

  She’d forgotten what wonderful trails existed along the wooded area of the coast. They’d had a lot of rain this year, and the full creek about ten or fifteen feet down the hill to her right flowed rapidly. People were friendly, waving as they jogged by; a cyclist shouted out “On your left!” before whizzing past her. Maybe she should get a bike. That looked like so much fun. Of course, she could never go that fast, even without being pregnant. It must really tone the leg muscles, though.

  Maia heard the bike approach from behind, and keeping her eyes on the path to avoid tripping, she moved to the edge of the walkway to allow it to pass. An unexpected shove sent her tumbling down the side of the hill toward the creek. She screamed, tried to grab onto something to keep her from going all the way down, but couldn’t place her hands on anything solid or strong enough to hold her. Unable to keep from rolling, her foot caught in a root. She heard the snap followed by searing pain, right before the back of her head struck something. Everything went black.

  Chapter 10

  A Warning

  Gerry was leaning on the bar listening to Bart when he heard a voice in his head.

  Gerry!

  He straightened, looked behind him and around the bar for the female voice, but didn’t see anyone who might have called out his name. He turned back to face the bar, slung the towel over his shoulder and shrugged.

  Help her! There it was again. There was something very familiar about that voice. Frowning, Gerry swiped his hand through his hair and then must have given Bart a puzzled look.

  “You okay, buddy?” Bart asked, alarm in his voice.

  Gerry perused the bar, looking again for the source of the utterances. Strange, now he was starting to hear voices. Gerry titled his head then glanced back at Bart. “Not sure.”

  Help her.

  Did you hear that?” Gerry asked.

  “Hear what?”

  Gerry shook his head. “Dunno. A voice. You didn’t hear it?”

  “Nope. Didn’t you say Maia heard or saw some old woman the other day? Maybe her imagination’s rubbing off on you.”

  “No. This isn’t my imagination. I heard a voice.”

  “You’re probably right. Chances are Maia didn’t imagine it either. She’s not the type to make things up.

  Maia needs you. Go to her now, help her!

  The voice was frantic. It sounded like Maia, but it referred to Maia as though it came from someone else and Maia couldn’t project her thoughts into his mind.

  Bart motioned for Gerry to come close and whispered, “Maia might be experiencing pregnancy abilities.”

  “What?”

  “Pregnancy abilities. Could happen. I’ve seen a lot of things in my day, nothing’s impossible.”

  Gerry chuckled uncomfortably. “You gotta be kidding.”

  “Nope. She’s pregnant with twins, and if they are girls, they’d have your powers, right? Maybe even some extras you didn’t even know were in your line. And since there are two of them, they’d have twice the capabilities of what you have. Being able to project them through their mother would be one, I’d guess.”

  This was something Gerry hadn’t considered and as bizarre as it sounded, it made complete sense. Addie and Cael could communicate telepathically, but not until they both realized how much they loved each other, which sounded sort of fairytale-ish.

  Gerry scoffed at himself. He hadn’t considered anything to be impossible since he first learned of his own abilities and that was twenty-six years ago when he was thirteen. He and Aiden were together hiking through the woods when they spotted a beehive. Thinking it would be a nice surprise to Aiden’s mum and Gerry’s dad if they were to bring home a couple containers full of yummy honey straight from the hive, they drew straws to see who would climb up the tree to scoop out the honey. Gerry won … or lost, more appropriately.

  It had been several minutes since Gerry heard the voice so he put it out of his mind. He piled a few bottles of ale into the small fridge, grinning at the memory of climbing that tree for the honey. He and Aiden had it all worked out, though. They’d gone home and collected everything they needed, including jars for the honey and protective clothing. Gerry donned his royal blue rubber raincoat—the one he refused to wear any other time, because it made him look dorky. His dad’s rubber fly-fishing boots came all the way up to his crotch, so he’d actually had to fold over at the top in order to walk. On his hands, he wore his dad’s heavy-duty work gloves, secured with rubber bands at the ends. For his head, he’d pulled on a brown paper grocery bag with two holes cut in so he could see what he was doing. Confident he was completely protected, he climbed up to the hive, while bees buzzed around him. Everything went perfectly as he reached in and grabbed a handful of honey. He pulled his arm out, shocked to see it completely covered with bees, creating a pulsing sensation as though someone was pressing his arm with a million tiny, soft massage vibrators. He handed one jar halfway full of honey down to Aiden and took the other jar. As he scooped the gooey substance into the jar, one bee found its way into one of the small holes in the paper bag and began the violent mission of searching for a way out.

  Gerry dropped the jar, fell the ten feet from the tree, the bee inside the bag still buzzing around his face and head as he tore off the bag. The rest of the bees swarmed him, stinging repeatedly. He quickly jumped up and ran screaming, “Get them off, get them away!” Aiden stood about ten feet away, laughing uncontrollably. Gerry screamed again and again until all at once the entire swarm of bees took off after Aiden, which sent the lad hightailing it toward the creek, diving in to escape the bees’ wrath. Gerry would never forget the shock he’d experienced when he realized how mad he’d been at Aiden for laughing and had been wishing the bees would take off after Aiden instead just to shut up his sorry ass.

  This of course, hadn’t registered in Gerry’s mind to be anything that would ever happen again until a few days later. Gerry stood in the lunch line daydreaming about Carry Ann Snyder, a boney little freckle-faced lass Gerry wanted to get with, wishing she’d come over and kiss him. When the girl actually walked up to him and briefly planted her soft lips against his, he just about pissed in his pants. As incredible as it all sounded it took several more experiments before Gerry got the nerve to share his nifty little ta
lent with Aiden. And of course, that took even more demonstrations to convince Aiden of what was going on. Once Gerry had the acceptance of his friend, they enjoyed playing around wishing different things, little things, but they always came true. They called it “wishing,” but really, back then they had no idea what was happening. It wasn’t as if Gerry could wish for material things like money, but he could move objects with his mind and mentally suggest things to other people. He wasn’t entirely sure where or how or even why he suddenly acquired that ability. It wasn’t until a couple months later when Aiden had his first vision, a vision that saved Gerry’s life. They’d been walking along the side of the road, listening to their boom box after having been at a sleepover at Finn’s the night before. The music blasted out loud enough to be heard for at least a hundred yards in every direction. Gerry smiled at that memory, shaking his head and wondering why he hadn’t gone deaf. Right before they turned a corner, Aiden suddenly stopped and tugged at Gerry’s arm, yanking him back, stopping them both from taking another step. At first, Gerry fought Aiden’s tug and didn’t understand why he yanked his arm so hard to stop him, then a ginormous Durmast oak tree trunk cracked and split in half, landing with a deafening, thunderous crash only a few yards from where they stood. A couple more steps and Gerry and Aiden would have been creamed.

  Aiden choked out, “Gerry. God, Gerry, I saw it. I saw the tree trunk split and fall. It fell on us. I didn’t know, man, I didn’t know if it was real but I knew I had to hold you back.”

  Gerry owed Aiden his life for that, something he had yet to repay.

  Gerry, please, help Maia!

  Gerry straightened again and gave Bart a sideways stare. “You didn’t hear that?”

  “No. Maybe you should give Maia a call. Could be nothing. But …” Bart shrugged.

  Gerry nodded, pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and keyed up Maia’s contact picture. The call went straight to voicemail.