Sleight: Book One of the AVRA-K

by Jennifer Sommersby

  She stood to dump the cup of bloodied water into the sink.

  “Henry asked if he could come back this afternoon, but I told him I’d check with you, see how you felt. You can cal him when you’re feeling up to it.”

  “Thanks, Auntie.” My right shoulder was sore from the tetanus shot, and simply stretching my arm ached. I hoped it wouldn’t be too bothersome to get in the way of playing during Sunday’s performance. Then I remembered it was Friday today, which meant we had a show in just six hours’ time.

  “What are you guys doing in here with me? It’s Friday. You have a show tonight!”

  “We’ve got it handled,” Irwin said. “There’s less to do now that we’re settled in the stadium. And Uncle Ted insisted we hang out with the patient for the morning.”

  “What’s the deal with the Roulette? Are we stil going through with it?” I was naïve to think that my twelve measly stitches, that al of this carnage would somehow give them pause to think about potential falout from a mishap in the show.

  “Not tonight. That’s only for Sunday, so Auntie Mar gets a reprieve until then.” As my unhappiness hadn’t changed about them doing the Roulette act, I didn’t find Irwin’s humor amusing, especialy given the run of unfortunate luck during the prior twenty-four hours. I couldn’t deny the anxiety that had taken hold over the last couple days. Too much had occurred for me to joke around about Marlene being strapped to the turntable, offering herself up to the gods of chance.

  “Uncle Ted has everything under control for tonight, and he wants me to hang out with you. Looks like we both get the night off, huh?” She opened the bottle of antibiotics and handed me one of the giant pils and a glass of water. “Drink up, sweetie. I have bagels here, too. You should eat something so the medicine doesn’t hurt your tummy. Oh, and here’s your cel phone. It was near you on the floor when we found you. It got some blood on it, but I cleaned it,” Marlene said as she handed me the phone. It smeled like rubbing alcohol.

  “Umm, I’m sorry I broke into Ted’s cupboard.” Marlene patted the back of my hand. “I’m sorry I gave you a reason to.”

  I desperately needed to relieve my near-bursting bladder. After that, I only wanted to curl up under my blanket and let the day pass me by. Marlene helped me in and out of the bathroom, and after I was resettled on my bed, I swalowed the hot pink pain pil, hopeful its effects would be swift and thorough. My brain was caling in a personal day.

  :23:

  Don’t walk in front of me; I may not follow. Don’t walk behind me; I may not lead. Just walk beside me and be my friend.

  —Albert Camus

  My cocoon of heavy, unconscious sleep was torn apart for good with the sounds of humanity arriving on the stadium grounds. Music blared over the new stadium speaker system, car doors slammed, voices of excited patrons filed the early evening air. Showtime had descended upon the Cinzio Traveling Players Company, and here I was, in bed, insulated from the frenetic energy surrounding my fiberglass cave.

  “Knock, knock!” Junie opened the door and launched herself into the trailer, dressed to the nines in her performance get-up, chipper as ever. “Hey, Gems, how are you feeling? I wanted to come check on you before everything got too busy for me to escape.” She sat on the edge of my bed, careful not to look too closely at the bandage on my head.

  “Hey, Joon,” I said, stil a bit groggy. “You ready for tonight?”

  “Cha! It’s gonna rock, like it always does.” She was quiet, the jitters she felt before every show evident in the manic bouncing of her knees.

  “Me and Ash have been so worried about you…um, does it hurt?” She pointed to my head and wrinkled up her face. Though nothing gory was visible, one would think by the fear in her eyes that my brains were oozing out of my eye sockets.

  “It’s okay. I’m dealing.”

  “Wel, I’ve missed you at school and at dinner. I’m so lonely without my sister… And, man, you should hear the stories floating around school about you and Henry. First his black eye, then your trip in the ambulance. I think this is waayyy more action than these smal-townies have seen in a while,” she laughed.

  “Awesome. So I’m not missing much, I take it.” Ted’s voice boomed over the PA, welcoming guests to “a land of magic, spectacle, and the fantastical!” That was Junie’s cue to get into the arena.

  “Shoot, that’s me. Gotta go, but I’m gonna come see you again when the show’s over, ’k?” She bounded to her feet and ran to the door. Upon blowing me a kiss goodbye, she vanished, in pursuit of adoring fans and jubilant adulation.

  “Break a leg!” I holered after her. What a weird thing to say to someone who was about to wilingly climb three stories into the air and spin, untethered, around a swinging trapeze.

  I sat up slowly to alow my head to avoid a rush of blood. It was after 6, and my body ached from lying stil for so long. Only a dul throb remained in the area surrounding my stitches, a vast improvement over how I’d felt last night. What a difference a day makes. Wel, a day plus the consumption of mind-numbing drugs.

  Good times.

  I picked up my cel phone to check for messages and was thriled to see Henry’s name on the top of the missed cals list. I was about to cal him back when there was another loud rap on the trailer door.

  “Enter at your own risk,” I said, expecting to see another company member coming to check on me. Instead, the door opened, ushering in the scent of fresh popcorn and cotton candy.

  An arm bearing another bouquet of flowers poked in through the door frame. I giggled when I saw the hand and the dark wool of the coat.

  Henry, the rest of him, appeared before me in al his beautiful glory. “Some guy out there wanted me to bring these to you personaly.” He clicked the door closed behind him.

  “Some guy, eh? Must be a very perceptive guy since they’re daffodils, my favs.”

  “Huh. Maybe he’s your stalker. You famous performer types have to be so careful these days, you know. Starts off with daffodils and ends up with some guy in a trench coat hiding in your shower threatening to strangle your Chihuahua.”

  “Good thing I don’t have a big bathroom. Or a Chihuahua.”

  “And I don’t think I could strangle an elephant, so…” He smiled at me and placed the flowers on the table. His eyes sparkled in the pale sunlight that crept through the curtains.

  “She’d strangle you first, I’m afraid. Sicko.”

  “How’s my favorite patient today?” Henry sat on my bed and kissed my cheek. I turned my face so he’d kiss me again, on the lips this time.

  “I’l be better when everyone stops asking me how I’m feeling,” I said.

  “Ah, back to normal, I see.” A playful sparkle shone in his eyes as he wrapped his hands around mine.

  “Sorry I missed your cal earlier. Marlene drugged me, so I’ve slept pretty much the whole day.”

  “I know. I was just worried about you.”

  “Thanks, Henry. No need to worry. You know, I’m usualy pretty invincible,” I puffed out my chest, “not normaly the sickly, pathetic damsel in distress who needs fussing over.”

  “Sometimes it’s good to be fussed over. Besides, it gives your aunt something to do, and me too, not to mention it provides fodder for the gossip machine,” he said.

  “Yeah, Junie mentioned we’re quite the topic of conversation these days.”

  Henry laughed, looking at his hands in his lap. “According to Summer Day, we had a lover’s quarrel and you passed out after a night of binge drinking.”

  “Ah, man, are you serious?” I laughed out loud, awed by Summer’s venomous but creative spin. “Wow…she should totaly work at a gossip rag. Write stories about alien bat babies and Brad Pitt’s love children with Martha Stewart.”

  “Fortunately, most people know she’s ful of shit. Your reputation wil survive��”

  “At least until we do have a lover’s quarrel and I do pass out from a night of binge drinking from trying to mend my broken heart,” I said.

>   “Wel, if you’re looking for a place to do that drinking, there’s a bar outside of town where Brad is reported to have been seen on a number of occasions, usualy with Martha Stewart passed out in the back of a Hummer with their five love children.”

  “That’s gross. Seriously. Brad Pitt, yes. But Martha Stewart?

  He sleeps with Angelina Jolie, dude. I’m not even into chicks, but I’d so be into her,” I said.

  Henry laughed and grabbed for my hand, shifting his body so one of his legs was bent on the surface of the bed. “Wel, I’l do my best to not break your heart.” He moved his face to within an inch from mine. I closed the gap and kissed him. “Can’t have you drinking and carrying on al over town now, can we?” he whispered.

  I cupped his face in my hand. “I’m so glad you’re not my brother.” Henry laughed. I kissed him again. “And by the sounds of it, seems it’s not broken hearts we have to be worried about. More like stopped hearts.”

  “What does that mean?” he said, puling back.

  “Lucian. He wants us dead. You read Delia’s warning.”

  “Ah, he’s harmless.”

  “Um, no, he’s not. He’s deadly, and you know it.”

  “Yeah, but I’m badass. We both are. And he’s afraid of us together.”

  I cocked my head, stunned by his flippant attitude. “Henry, how can you even joke about this?”

  “Gemma, how can I not? What’s the alternative? I know this is serious. I live with it every day, under the same roof with the threat that I don’t know if today wil be my last sunrise or sunset.” He ran his finger along the seam of his pants, head down, and plucked a fuzz from the fabric. “But I know what’s coming. You—we—just have to have faith in the process. We’re not dead yet,” he said,

  “which means we fight like hel.”

  He smiled and looked up at me, his head bent forward and turned sideways. His eyes were soft, genuine, the flush radiating from our clasped hands soothing. I ran my free hand along his jaw line, smooth from a fresh shave, and leaned into him, planting a kiss on his perfect lips.

  “How come, if Lucian doesn’t want us together, he came to the hospital with you?”

  “I said I was going, and there was nothing he could do to stop me. Plus, he wanted to make sure he wasn’t liable, you know, accident on his property…for Lucian, it’s always about looking good, protecting his interests.”

  “How’d you know, Henry?” I wanted to hear him say it out loud. Alicia told me.

  “A friendly neighborhood ghost told me.”

  “Realy? I didn’t know Casper made house cals.”

  “He does in your case,” Henry laughed.

  “Yes, yes, in my case, definitely,” I chuckled. “I’m so glad you’re here.”

  “As your official stalker, I couldn’t stay away,” he said, our foreheads touching. He puled back suddenly, looking at the bandage around my head.

  “Oooh, sorry…”

  “It doesn’t hurt. Relax.”

  We stared at each other for a while, consumed by the fierceness of this connection, strange in its intensity, even a little overwhelming, but in a cool way. It gave me a morsel of understanding about my mother’s terrific anguish over the loss of Jonah. She’d loved him that much. I finaly understood what he’d meant to her.

  Yet this was a brand new relationship, this thing with Henry Dmitri. And it was beyond complicated. Was it wrong for me to feel so strongly about this person so soon? The weirdest thing was that I wanted to feel this way. I needed to feel this way. I wasn’t shying away from him, making excuses about having to scoop poop or practice violin as I sometimes did with Junie. But that’s like comparing apples with oranges, Junie vs. Henry. Totaly different.

  Maybe I just needed to hang out with Henry long enough to give him the chance to annoy me. Maybe I’d falen too soon. Maybe I should’ve played the field a little to see what life as a “normal” teenager was al about.

  Ridiculous. There was nothing normal about me. I was an outcast who saw dead people and carried on conversations with apparitions, not to mention I was alegedly an heir to something I didn’t at al understand.

  And sitting in front of me, holding my hand, staring into my eyes like it was the last thing he ever wanted to see, was my very own Romeo. My Mr. Darcy, Orlando, and Lancelot, al roled into one knight in shining armor. Handsome, a little nerdy, insecure without being needy, respectful, concerned, caring, mysteriously talented.

  What more could a girl want?

  We needed each other, like a body needs fresh air and water and food to replenish cels and sustain life. One without the other was incomplete. And doomed.

  It was Henry who I’d been waiting for, who filed the hole in my heart, whose thoughts and dreams I wanted to hear, whose arms I wanted wrapped around me and whose lips I wanted next to mine.

  As I studied his face with my eyes and my fingertips, I knew that if being with Henry meant taking on Lucian Dmitri and a torrent of angry spirits and old grudges, I’d handle anything that came my way. At the risk of sounding cliché, I’d do anything for Henry.

  Anything.

  And judging by the longing in his eyes as he looked back at me, judging by the warmth in his fingertips as he traced the contours of my face and the ridges in my lips, it would be safe for me to assume that Henry felt the same way.

  He kissed me, the tempo almost desperate, our bodies close. He alternated between touching my hair and my face, gentle but passionate, fervent but controled. I buried my fingers in his hair, puled him into me by the unbuttoned colar of his shirt, rubbed my cheeks against the texture of his cheek while inhaling his scent in the deepest breaths my lungs would alow. I’d never felt safer or more alive than I did when I was in his arms.

  “Even if we’d been related…I couldn’t let this go,” he whispered.

  “Henry,” I bit and released his lip, “that’s sick.” We started cracking up. “Yeah, okay, so it’s a little sick, me being hot for my sister.”

  “Meet my brother, the perv,” I teased. As he replanted his lips on mine, I was so, so, so glad that we weren’t related.

  My cel phone vibrated to life on the floor. It must’ve gotten knocked off the bed as I did what I could to scoot as close as possible to Henry. I groaned and tried to grab it but it was just out of my reach. Henry bent over and picked it up before it stopped buzzing, flipping it open and placing it to my ear. He then kissed around the edges of the opposite ear, sending shivers through me.

  Sort of made it impossible to concentrate on the caler and whatever nonsense they wanted.

  It was Marlene, caling to let me know she was on her way over from the stadium with the circus medic so he could check my stitches.

  “Marlene’s bringing reinforcements,” I said, pointing to my head.

  We straightened our clothing and I fluffed my hair in preparation for her momentary arrival. I was glad she’d caled prior to busting in on Henry and me. Talk about awkward…

  “I have to meet Lucian for dinner, anyway. His parents are in town, so it’s a Dmitri family reunion over surf-and-turf tonight.”

  “Sounds like a blast.”

  Henry laughed. “Yeah, not. More like boring. Lucian’s father, Marku—”

  “My grandfather…” Wow. I have grandparents.

  “Yeah,” Henry chuckled. “He’s terrific. You’l like him. But Lilith, she’s tough. Let’s just say she’s not the silver-haired, cheek-pinching sort of granny.”

  I wanted to know more about the Dmitris, now that I had a genetic, blood interest. Lucian stil intimidated the hel out of me, and I was right to fear him, but to hear Henry speak of Lucian so casualy, to know Henry had grown up as Lucian’s child even though he wasn’t…it was al just so outlandish. A giant game of charades. Dangerous charades, like a bad action film. Sad, but true.

  We were al in this absurd holding pattern to see who was going to make the next move. The curious part of me wanted to go with Henry to dinner, to meet the grandparents,
my grandparents, to watch Lucian, see if I could recognize a part of myself in him. That idea scared the shit out of me, that I could be anything like him. A daughter is part of the father…

  We sat in the silence of the trailer and waited for Marlene, Henry’s arms wrapped around me while we listened to the show’s tempo ebb and flow, the oohs and aahs of the not-too-distant crowd. I imagined the trapeze artists getting things underway, Junie and Ash and their wacky parents tumbling in midair, alternating between releases and spins, each trick building the danger and suspense. I could see ecstasy on Junie’s face when on the dance trapeze, spinning through space, the concentration on Ash’s brow as he focused on a catch-and-release move that held the lives of his family—literaly—in his hands.

  “Thank you, so much, for everything. For the flowers, for staying with me last night,” I said, touching his hand. “Thanks for knowing just what I needed.”

  “You’re never alone. If you want me, I’m here.” I moved my hand to his cheek. “I want you,” I whispered.

  The latch on the door clicked, and I released Henry’s face just as Marlene walked in with Tony. After introductions, smal talk was exchanged about the excelent turnout for the evening’s performance, the sudden rain stoppage, the exuberant audience lapping up every bit of the new show format. When Tony opened his smal case and started fumbling around for gauze and supplies, Henry leaned over one last time.

  “Email me later, if you’re up for it. We can talk online.” He gave me a quick hug and a chaste peck on the cheek. Had Marlene and Tony not been present, I wouldn’t have let him leave with such a wel-behaved goodbye.

  “Oh, and I’l see you Sunday, for sure,” he said, waving as he walked out.

  Once he’d gone, Tony snipped off the bandage wrapped around my head. Despite the twelve stitches and bruising on my forehead, I felt spectacular, only a smal ache in my chest that had nothing to do with my head injury and everything to do with the fading tailights of Henry’s car leaving the fairgrounds in the dim glow of evening.