SURGE

by Donna Elliott

  ◌◌◌

  Through an unspoken agreement, we work together to dig the plot and turn the soil. No one mentions the argument or its “shocking” results. After the ground is fully prepared and weeded, we plant and water the seeds. It’s only after the job is complete that my “condition” is again mentioned.

  Collecting the extra seed packets and his shovel, Raul asks, “How long have you been able to do that, Mya?”

  I don’t pretend to misunderstand his question. I’ve had time to calm down, and I know the others must be curious.

  “I noticed it the morning after the pool incident,” I say. “It was a weird little spark at first. I thought it was just like static or something, and I thought it would go away.”

  Clearing his throat to get my attention, then reaching over and curiously touching the pads of my fingers, Eric asks, “Have there been other incidents?”

  I turn in his direction and nod. “Not like today, but there’s been some weird stuff going on.”

  Matthew sits up on his knees and leans in, “What is it?” He scoots closer and repeats Eric’s movements by touching me. “Does it hurt?”

  I’m beginning to feel a bit like a science experiment. I’m the goop growing in the petri dish that everyone wants to poke.

  “No. It’s doesn’t actually hurt,” I say, and then frown. “It itches sometimes tho’. I guess I’m turning into some kind of electric freak.”

  Kat moves next to me and loops her arm through mine. I look over and smile, just before she leans in to give me a gentle hug. “You’re no freak, Mya. You’re my best friend, and you’re wonderful. I’m sure that if we work together, we can figure out what’s going on.”

  Glaring at Kat, Raul snaps, “What other weird stuff?” Then he turns to me. “What else can you do?”

  His negative attitude is beginning to wear on me again, and I respond in kind. “I can kill people, Raul. Is that what you wanna hear? I can send an electric pulse down my arms and zap a bad guy until he falls over dead.”

  The grip on my arm lessens a bit, and I look down at Kat to see her big eyes staring up at me. “But I would never do that to you…not to any of you,” I say looking from face to face. “It seems to happen only when I’m really scared or angry, and you have to admit, Raul, you’ve been working really hard to make me angry today.”

  At my admonishment, he stands and walks away. I jump up to follow, and once we’re out of hearing range from the others, I touch his arm and quietly ask, “What’s wrong? Why are you so mad at me? It’s been days since you’ve said a kind word to me. Surely all this anger isn’t because my mom didn’t die. I thought you liked my mom.”

  “Of course I like your mom,” he says while looking skyward and pressing his palms to his forehead. He’s quiet for several minutes, and I wait patiently. Directing his attention back to me, he adds, “I like you. Don’t you know that?”

  His gaze is unwavering, and he looks so sincere. I can’t stop the corner of my mouth from lifting. I step closer to him, while bending my head backward to see his face.

  “Well, I used to kinda think so,” I say, “but here lately, you seem to hate me.”

  I stare at him, and he remains mute. The wind lifts my hair as I await a response. With no answer forthcoming, I prod, “What happened? What did I do?”

  Still silent, his gaze roams my face. My inner joy from his admission of liking me begins to dissipate and turn to doubt. I blink a couple of times and raise my eyebrows.

  “I’ve seen you,” he finally says, “with Eric. Sometimes it’s just a hand on his arm or a foot across his leg, and sometimes it’s more. You snuggled with him the other morning.”

  I don’t realize, but I’m shaking my head back and forth.

  “Yes,” he says, “I saw you two. You were under the tree, and you had your arms around each other.”

  “Yes,” I agree, “I was hugging him. But you’ve got it all wrong. He was asking about his family. He was upset, and I was upset.”

  “What about all the other touches? It’s more than just that one time.”

  “That’s not what it is. I didn’t even realize. Oh, Raul…let’s go back to the group, and I’ll explain to everybody. Ok?”

  Still not moving, he asks, “So you don’t like him?”

  “Like him? Not in the way I like you,” I explain. “He’s actually a pretty nice guy, and I guess we’re friends. But, I don’t dream of him, my insides don’t flutter when I look across a room at him, and I don’t achingly wish that he would reach for my hand.”

  After staring at me for what seems like an hour, he finally bobs his head. “I’m sorry Mya. I know I’ve been a jerk.” He extends his hand and gives me a timid smile.

  I look at his fingers and his face, then return the smile, “Are you sure you want to hold my hand? I won’t hurt you, but I really did kill two people.”

  He reaches out and tenderly pulls me in close to his chest. I turn my head slightly, and our eyes meet. Very seductively, he murmurs, “But you aren’t scared or angry right now, so I should be safe, right?”

  His look is so intense that I feel as if my insides are turning to mush. It’s possible that my electric energy is slowly burning me up right now, or maybe my crush on Raul has just jumped to a new level.

  Either way, I’m melting.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  We sit in a circle under the shade of some squat mesquite trees. I’m not thrilled about having all the attention focused on me, but I understand their interest in my oddity.

  “So, what do you want to know?”

  Matthew is the first to pipe up. “What all can you do?”

  “I don’t know. I don’t have much control over any of it.”

  Like I’d shown Kat earlier, I rub my fingers, and a small glimmer builds. “I don’t know how it works,” I say. “I can do this without thinking.”

  “Cool!” says Matthew.

  “May I look more closely?” asks Eric, as he leans in on his knees toward me.

  “Yes, but don’t touch it.”

  He seems taken aback and pauses. “You don’t think it’ll kill me, do you? It’ll just shock me, right?”

  Now comes the part that I want Raul to hear. “No,” I say bluntly. “I think it’ll shock Matthew or Raul or maybe Kat, but I very seriously doubt it’ll shock you.”

  It’s clear I have everyone’s attention, so I quickly continue. “I’ve noticed that when you and I touch, the tingling and other sensations lessen. I’m not sure what’ll happen if you touch the spark, but I don’t think it’ll hurt you.”

  “My curiosity is peaked, Mya,” says Eric as he reaches toward me. “Now I simply must touch it.”

  “Wait a minute,” says Raul as he puts an arm in front of Eric, to stop his forward motion. “Maybe we should test it with something else before we risk injury to each other.”

  Eric frowns. “She said she doesn’t think it’ll hurt me.”

  “She doesn’t know,” corrects Raul. “She also said that she’s killed two people. Are you so anxious to increase the number to three?”

  Eric sits down and concedes the point. “You’re right, Raul. I got carried away. We should do a few experiments first. Let’s see what happens with a piece of dry wood or some metal.”

  Sitting to my left, Kat reaches behind to pick up a small, broken branch. “Hold your hand out, away from you, Mya.” She dips the twig into the glow, but nothing happens. “Maybe it just needs to stay in the spark a little longer.”

  Very gently, Kat touches the stick to my finger and slowly counts out loud. When she reaches the number six, everyone sharply inhales, as the wood begins to burn.

  “Oh, wow,” I say. “I was just thinking it should catch fire, and then it did.”

  Kat blows out the flame and rubs the stick in the dirt. “Have you started a fire before?”

  “No, but I haven’t ever tried either.”

  “Let’s use a bug,” says Matthew as he scoops up a nearby black bee
tle. “Let’s see what happens!”

  Kat eyes her brother and responds very quickly, “No Matthew. That’s cruel.”

  “It’s just a bug,” he mumbles. “What else is she going to practice on?”

  Matthew’s mention of the bug brings to mind my heightened awareness of things around me. “There’s something else I can do.”

  Everyone stops talking and looks at me. “I’m not sure what to call it. It’s like a sixth sense, I guess.”

  I stand up, walk over to the garden plot, and remain facing away from the others. “I can see all of you.”

  “Huh?” says Matthew, then he drops the beetle. “You don’t have to look at us?”

  Simultaneously, Eric asks, “You see us?”

  “Well, I can see an outline of you. I can tell it’s you; I don’t know how to explain it.”

  Raul stands and starts to approach me. “What all can you see?”

  “It’s just as if I were looking right at you,” I explain, while still facing away from him. “Except, I can see even more. I can see all around me if I want to. Left, right, up, down, everywhere there’s a living thing…Matthew is up on his knees, Kat and Eric are still sitting, and you’re standing off to my right. If I concentrate, I can even see Mom.”

  “But we can’t even see the house,” says Kat.

  “Well, I can.”

  I close my eyes and think about my search of the house. “Right now, Mom’s in the kitchen chopping up something.”

  “I hope she’s chopping up something good,” gripes Matthew. “Some of the stuff she makes is really gross.”

  Taking offense at the insult to my mom’s culinary skills, I slowly turn toward Matthew and scowl. “She’s doing the best she can with what we have. I haven’t seen you preparing meals for anybody these past weeks.”

  “Let it go, Mya,” Kat quickly says. “You know how picky Matthew is.”

  “Wait a minute,” says Eric. “How do we know that what you’re saying is real? We can’t see your mom, so we can’t verify that she’s actually in the kitchen right now. Besides that, your mom is almost always in the kitchen these days, so how is that some astute revelation?”

  With hands on hips, I turn and squint, then defensively respond, “Ok, what would you suggest I do to prove that I’m telling the truth?”

  Glancing around, Eric spies a hill of dirt surrounded by small plants and cacti. He stands and begins walking toward the greenery. “I’m going to stand behind this, and you tell me what I’m doing, ok?”

  I shrug my shoulders and raise my eyebrows. “Do you want me to turn away?”

  “Yeah, sure,” he says. “Just to make it more of a test.”

  “Fine,” I say, shaking my head and giving Eric my back. “Tell me when you want me to start my narrative…Or should I begin now, by telling you that you just tripped over a tiny plant; and if you look directly to your right, you’ll see a swarm of ants heading your way.”

  I take sick pleasure in hearing Eric release a small yelp as he scrambles to regain his footing. Then I decide to let him suffer a bit more before continuing my commentary.

  Slightly off in the distance, two hooded men sit hidden among the weeds and branches. They share a pair of binoculars and are watching my performance with great interest.

  I’ve spent very little time exploring my new abilities, and with my attention directed solely on my friends, I fail to detect the spectators.

  Eric has reached the other side of the mound and starts his activity.

  “So, what am I doing now, Mya?” he asks.

  “Let me watch a little longer.”

  “Why? Can you not see me?” he asks, sounding a little winded.

  Laughing under my breath, I say, “Oh, I see you. I just thought I’d let you tire yourself out.” Then I add with a bit of sarcasm, “Really Eric? I tell you that I can see things, and the best test you can come up with is doing a bunch of jumping jacks while standing behind a cactus?”

  I decide to concentrate a bit more and “zoom in” on Eric. “There are a couple of bees in the flower behind you, off to the left. There are…oh man, I can’t do this anymore. There are so many bugs around you Eric. It’s creepy. Come here.”

  My senses continue to search the area around him, and I’m beginning to get chill bumps on my arms. Once I begin to narrow my focus, I don’t know how to turn it off. Everywhere I look, I see flying insects and spiders and creepy-crawlies.

  “Get over here NOW, Eric!” I command and begin walking toward him.

  I can see the concern on his face while he rushes toward me. As soon as he’s near, I reach out and grab his arm. Instantly, the bugs disappear, and I relax.

  Raul runs over and places a hand on my back. “Are you ok? What happened? Was he in danger?”

  Still holding onto Eric’s arm, I swivel and look at Raul. “This is what I was trying to tell you earlier. I can’t control whatever’s happening to me, but when I touch Eric, everything calms down. I was trying to see all around, and then suddenly, it was like looking through a high-intensity magnifying glass.”

  Goose bumps travel down my neck and back, and I shiver. “There are so many bugs around us right now; it’s really disturbing. Maybe we should continue this at the house.”

  ◌◌◌

  While we walk home, Matthew pesters me about the sparks. “How does it feel? Does it hurt? Is it in your fingers? Can you shoot them out of your hands like Spider-Man can shoot webs? Can you cut through a boulder? Can you pick up things with it? Can you…can you…lift off the ground and fly?”

  I look at Kat and roll my eyes. “No, I can’t fly, Matthew. You’ve seen most of what I can do.”

  “Most?” he asks. “What else?”

  Everyone halts and stares at me, so I slouch my shoulders and stop walking too. “When I was at Charlie’s house, I touched a hair dryer, and it started blowing hot air. It wasn’t plugged in. It just started working when I touched it. I think that’s how I killed the first person. When this woman was chasing me at the hospital, I touched the defibrillator pads and then shoved them at her. The pads touched her chest, and they zapped her.”

  Matthew’s eyes are big, and his mouth is slightly open. Almost gleefully, he asks, “How’d you kill the second person?”

  I just stare at him and don’t respond. Matthew’s attitude about death is a little unnerving.

  “That’s enough, Matthew,” advises Kat. “There’s plenty of time to discuss this later. I think Mya needs a break from all the scrutiny. Let’s focus on something else right now, and we can explore things more tomorrow.”

  I’m grateful for the reprieve and give Kat a thank you smile in response. “Yes,” I say. “Let’s go eat some of my mom’s ‘gross food,’ and we can talk about this some more tomorrow.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  I awake early the next morning with a smile and a large weight lifted from my mind. Now that I’ve shared my secret with the others, I don’t feel the constant tension in my chest and neck.

  Mom has been going stir-crazy in the house and told us last night that she would be accompanying Mr. Miller into town today. We five kids are told to stay out of sight, and since Charlie and the boys have decided to sleep until noon, Kat and I plan a morning of fun.

  Two large pans of water have been filled and placed on the range top. For our first experiment, we want to see if I can turn the electric stove on and make the water heat up.

  Kat and I giggle in glee as the burner light turns red. “I wonder how long we’ll have to wait before the water gets hot,” she says.

  “Well,” I say, in a voice that I try to make sound like Eric, “it doesn’t boil right away, little Kat-kins; it takes time for the blahdy-blah whatever to destabilize the molecules into vapor.” More laughing ensues, and I almost forget to maintain contact with the cooktop.

  My hand tingles as it rests on a part of the stove that doesn’t heat up, but after three minutes, I’m becoming restless. “I wonder if I can turn up
the heat a little, so this goes faster.”

  The light surrounding my fingers intensifies, and my hand looks like it’s resting in the spill from a broken, yellow glow tube.

  “Don’t turn it up too much,” warns Kat. “We don’t want boiling water blowing up all over us. The electricity may not do anything to you, but I bet the water will burn your skin as quickly as it’ll burn mine.”

  “Good suggestion,” I say, and I attempt to dial down the intensity of my released charge.

  Within a few more minutes, the water in both pans is steaming and forming little bubbles on the bottom. “I think that’s enough,” says Kat. “Let’s take these two pans to the bathroom and then come back for the other stuff.”

  After a couple of trips upstairs, we close ourselves in the master bathroom. We’ve mixed some of the hot and cold water in a plastic basin and are now using it to wash our hair. Kat leans over the tub as I rinse out the shampoo. “The warm water feels so heavenly,” she says. “Maybe someday we can fill the tub with water and take a real bath.”

  Kat rinses my hair, and we use the remaining warm water to sponge off. It feels so good to be clean again.

  I use a towel to remove some of the water from my hair and smile at Kat as I reach for the hair dryer. “Ready for the next test?”

  The machine works only if I’m touching it, so I blow-dry my hair a bit and then turn the air toward Kat. I fluff her hair as I move the dryer around, and within minutes, it’s dry too.

  A curling iron is in the vanity drawer, so I decide to try it out. It heats up fairly quickly, and I’m able to curl my bangs and add a little flip to the ends. Kat’s hair is naturally curly, but I attempt to calm some of the waves with my new toy. Within thirty minutes, we’re both looking and feeling much better than we have over the past three weeks.

  We change clothes and return to the kitchen for more practice. It’s after breakfast time, so our next session focuses on toasted Pop-Tarts and microwaved hot chocolate. We’re laughing and having so much fun that we don’t notice when the boys enter.

  “What do I smell?” says Matthew.