Hero Blues

by Michelle L. Levigne

  Jane suspected that she had felt the house reacting to him as he came through the door. She wondered if he had had the same dream, or if Angela had called him when she knew Jane was coming over. Angela gestured for her to keep drinking, so she emptied the mug, though it seemed to take forever. Whatever was in the tea—fruity and yet salty and pungent with herbs she didn't recognize—seemed to stream directly into her bloodstream and out to her extremities, relaxing the muscle-cracking tension and dousing the fire in her belly.

  Angela explained about her dream, her suspicions that Jane had been visited by the Voice, who somehow knew she suspected him/it/them, and she had been drained again. Kurt leaned close enough to sniff the tea. Whatever it was, he seemed to recognize it because his frown eased up somewhat and he snatched up a muffin, broke it open, slapped butter on it, and handed it to Jane as she swallowed the last mouthful and put the mug down.

  "Eat first," he said, and patted her shoulder. "Should have thought you'd get attacked. My mistake."

  Jane took a big bite, mostly to keep from blurting the first thought in her mind: Kurt was acting like they really were boyfriend-girlfriend.

  Maybe... Maybe he'd agreed so easily to Lanie's plan because he liked the idea?

  Between mouthfuls, she related her dream, including how many times she woke up and couldn't keep from returning to it. Only halfway through did she realize the muffin had been as big as both her fists put together, chocolate batter studded with chocolate chips and chocolate sugar crystals crusting the top. Angela certainly knew what would give the most comfort.

  "You know what stands out?" Kurt said, in between slow bites of his own muffin. "He seems to know Jane isn't going to listen. He didn't even try more of his con job."

  "How did he know?" Angela said.

  "I have the feeling that I...leak," Jane ventured. She tapped her temple with her free hand, and then popped the last mouthful of muffin into her mouth.

  "You mentioned having some dreams you couldn't remember," Kurt said, nodding. "It's been talking to you even before you could hear it. Maybe it had to get a foothold in your head before you could hear it. Just like when the Longfellow girls had their near-miss. They were overhearing what Big Ugly was planning."

  "Yes, but as far as we could tell, it didn't know they were eavesdropping. You notice this time around, the girls didn't hear anything as it was building up to attack the New Year's party," Angela said.

  "They don't spend that much time at Eden. Athena is busy with her college classes and that computer business her gang runs. Doni is still laying low, trying to make people forget she's the face of London Holiday."

  "Wait a second. You're talking about that social site that was going bonkers before it vanished?" Jane had a hard time not pouting and whining when Angela promised she would introduce her to the Longfellow girls later. Right now they had to deal with the Voice being able to get inside her head without her knowing.

  They could only come up with theories, but agreed that the Voice was able to tap into Jane's thoughts and knew she didn't trust it. Why carry on the pretense of friendship when it knew Jane wouldn't cooperate?

  "The thing is, if it can tap into Jane and drain her, maybe she isn't safe. During the day, when she's conscious and can resist, hold up shields, no problem." Kurt reached over and caught hold of Jane's free hand.

  She almost laughed, but the sound just caught in her throat, as she realized she didn't feel that zing she had always hoped for when a man held her hand. Granted, this wasn't what she considered a romantic moment or setting, but Kurt was being protective... That was romantic, wasn't it? She liked the warmth of his hand, the strength—compared to the chill still lingering in her bones, the weakness in her muscles, a sense of fading away. If she didn't concentrate on being solid, would she fall through the chair, the floor, to the floor below, to the basement? Would she keep falling down through the ground underneath the town?

  Not a good mental picture. Not when she envisioned the Voice being in some big, cold, dark, damp hole somewhere below her feet.

  "During the day, Jane will never be alone," Angela said. "At night... Well, the situation is different, and we have learned something since the last attack, so she should be safe if she sleeps over here." A tiny bubble of laughter escaped her. "Unless you have somewhere you'd rather she sleep?"

  "I was thinking more along the lines of camping out on her sofa," Kurt muttered.

  "None of my sofas are long enough to take you comfortably," Jane said. Her face felt slightly warm. She imagined she was so drained she couldn't even blush hot red. "But thanks."

  Felicity and her fiancé, Jake, were waiting when Jane returned to her shop. They would run the spa while Jane spent the afternoon at the orphanage with Kurt. The morning went quickly, and Felicity was a quick study. Jane watched the interaction between her and Jake and had to fight down more than her share of sighs. Somehow, the two of them were going to make marriage work, even though Jake wasn't Gifted. Felicity had revealed what she could do during the New Year's crisis, and Jake hadn't freaked out. How many non-Gifted could take the revelation of a suddenly expanded, suddenly much stranger and more wonderful—and threatening—universe? Maybe having grown up in Neighborlee helped Jake accept it all. Jane hoped that love, real love, had a lot to do with it.

  She felt a little guilt leaving the spa in Felicity's hands, because Iris, the new nail technician, was due to start with her first appointment that afternoon. Iris knew what she was doing, and she had come in yesterday to set up her station. Still, Jane didn't like leaving things in other people's hands. She had to keep reminding herself that this was Neighborlee, where people were adults and could think for themselves. Everything would be fine.

  "Everything's gonna be fine," Kurt said, as Jane slid into the passenger seat of his truck, and glanced back at Felicity and Jake standing in the doorway of the spa, watching her leave.

  "What do we do if we rile up Penny's defender and he or she attacks? What if when I'm wiped out like this, you can't borrow my Gift to defend us?"

  "Uh huh." He concentrated on navigating down the street for a few seconds, then gave her a sideways glance and smile. "You've been thinking about this a lot."

  "And you haven't?"

  "There is so much going on, and like Lanie says, we're sitting dead center of the weirdness capital of the whole USA. It's kind of hard not to have it in the back of your mind all the time." He sighed and let up on the gas when the stoplight ahead of them turned yellow. "The thing is, we've always felt kind of alone—kind of an 'us against the world' mentality. Especially when it occurred to us that other kids with powers like us vanished. Were they taken back home, wherever home is, or were they snatched up by Black Ops or the evil mutants or whatever? It's nice knowing that your Old Poops—" Kurt snorted and they shared a genuine grin. "—that your Old Poops were trying to do the right thing, safety in numbers and all that. The thing is, with Lanie's folks vanishing, and all the information they sent her, that we've been trying to organize... We might be touching the outer edges of the answers. Something beyond this world."

  Someone tapped a horn behind them. Kurt glanced in the rearview mirror, and then stepped on the gas. The light turned yellow after they went through it. Jane grinned, feeling slightly guilty.

  "Anyway," he continued, "there's so much going on, it's kind of like—what do you call it—exposure reducing your sensitivity."

  "Desensitization therapy?"

  "Yeah. You don't exactly get numb, but the adrenalin doesn't shoot through you when more weird things on top of weird things hit you. It's just an ordinary day in Neighborlee, Ohio."

  "Is that good, or bad?"

  "Depends on who you're spending the day with." He winked at her. "Let's concentrate on today's problem, forget about the Voice trying to make like a vampire."

  "Today's problem." She took a deep breath, let out it slowly. Took another. "Right. Trying to identify the kid who's about to burst into a Gift."

 
"Someone who thinks he or she is a defender."

  "What if it's a boy who's viciously jealous of anyone Penny likes?"

  "I'd prefer being an optimist. We're looking for someone who was defending his orphanage sister against that leach, Evan."

  Jane thought about it a moment, and decided Kurt was right. She would much rather come up against an emerging Gifted who wanted to be a hero.

  Penny was waiting when they arrived at NCH. From the grin on the girl's face, the way she bounced up and down on her toes, she was excited. That meant her skittishness since Jane announced she was going to come with Kurt on his next visit, was eager nervousness.

  "Is that relief I see?" Kurt said, as he pulled into the visitor parking slot nearest the front door of the administration building.

  "I was worried she might resent having to stay home today, not go to work. You know how girls her age love makeup and having spending money," Jane retorted.

  He snorted, but at least he didn't tease her anymore.

  Twin girls, maybe ten years old, followed on Penny's heels as she scampered down the sidewalk to meet them. As soon as she came to a stop, the twins separated and each caught hold of one of her hands. Penny rolled her eyes, but Jane noticed she didn't tug her hands free as she introduced the girls, Kelly and Kory. The twins were either ambidextrous or determined to keep their grip on Penny, because neither one let go when Jane held out her hand to shake theirs.

  "Hey, octokittens, how about some help here?" Kurt said, putting some heavy whining into his voice. That got giggles from all three girls.

  "Octokittens?" Jane murmured, when the trio had filled their arms full of the boxes and bags they had brought for this afternoon's project. She watched them scurry back down the sidewalk to the main building of the orphanage, where holiday parties took place and the children had crafts and gathered when the weather was too miserable to let them play outside.

  Kurt was giving one of his junior mechanics classes, teaching anyone who was interested how to build small engines and then figure out what to do with them. Jane brought makeup and manicure equipment and beads to make jewelry.

  "Too small and cute to be octopuses—octopi?" He nodded, gesturing at the girls with his chin, since his arms were full of the largest crate of equipment. "They're always hanging on Penny, needing to keep contact. Gotta be a lot of hurt, scared under all the cuteness. If it were me, I'd be going nuts, but Penny's a good kid with a good heart, and she puts up with it. I think she snatched the job when Angela mentioned it just to have some time away from this place. The twins are going to be ten in another month and then they'll be allowed to leave the grounds without an older kid for escort. Then she won't be able to escape them anywhere."

  "Now I feel guilty, taking away one of her escape days."

  "Nah, she likes the kids. She just needs someone to come between them and her once in a while." He frowned as they approached the big double doors at the front of the building. Penny and the twins had already gotten inside and vanished from sight. "Gotta wonder now if she fell for Evan's lines just as an excuse to go somewhere without them."

  "I don't suppose Angela has something cooking to keep them busy when they're not at school? Penny needs some time for herself, no matter how good a girl she is."

  "Never know. Maybe she's just waiting for someone to ask. You know how she is about expecting us to think for ourselves."

  "I'm getting the picture." Then they were at the front doors, and she hurried to shift the straps of her last three bags into one hand, so she could pull the door open for Kurt, since his hands were full.

  The afternoon and evening passed quickly, and there were times when Jane forgot that she had been gone nearly fifteen years. The children who laughed and teased each other over their piles of gears and wires or argued about matching nail polish colors and beads could have been her family when she lived here. She missed Mrs. Silvestri's presence, and wondered not for the first time if the woman had a touch of Gift herself. She'd certainly had a talent for showing up just in time to stop mischief from crossing the line into nasty, cruel, or harmful. She'd had a knack for knowing just what to say to help a troubled child figure out a problem, even if that child couldn't or wouldn't divulge the details.

  Kurt managed to put them back-to-back at the long craft tables, and from time to time leaned backwards far enough to fall off his bench, to make comments to her. The first few times, Jane was startled to feel the warmth of him brushing against her arm and turn her head to see him looking up at her with a patently false look of innocence. The mischief sparkling in his eyes always made a lie of the rest of his expression. After the third time, and a third question about what she remembered or didn't remember when she lived there, she decided he liked startling her. Impressing on the children that she used to be "one of them" wasn't even a consideration. Two could play that game. After he sat up again for the third time, she scooted over on her bench, into the spot where he would land.

  The next time Kurt leaned back, he pressed against her back. That earned peals of laughter from her girls, and hoots and chuckles and comments from the older boys and girls at his table. Kurt sat up for a few seconds, then leaned back, pressing her against the table.

  "Do you mind?" she growled, finding it hard not to laugh, and winked at the girls sitting directly across from her.

  "Yeah, I mind. Something's in my way!"

  "No, you're putting your big backside where it doesn't belong." She wriggled a little, put down the string of beads she had been tying off, braced her hands on the side of the table and prepared to push. In that pause, she called up the Ghost field, to give Kurt a nudge he couldn't resist. If she had to, she would adjust the solidity of the bench so he fell through it.

  Jane's fingertips tingled on her right hand. She slowly turned her head to the right, and in those few seconds of pause, she caught a rainbow-tinged flicker of light swirl once around the clasped hands of the twins. Then the light was gone, the same moment their little frowns vanished and they let go of each other's hand and picked up their bead projects.

  Did you feel that? Kurt asked, still pressing against her back. This time it was all for communication, not for teasing.

  Yeah, and I saw it.

  Your table, not mine?

  Answers a lot of questions.

  Save it. Take notes.

  Duh, this isn't my first rodeo.

  Kurt burst out laughing, and let up on the pressure against her back.

  When they took a break for dinner, Kurt insisted on her helping him pack up the equipment and supplies he wouldn't be leaving at the orphanage, to carry back out to his truck. Jane decided to do the same with her few supplies that hadn't been used up. The evening would shift to homework help, with some other alumni of the orphanage scheduled to come in, so the craft time was definitely over.

  "Little kids," Kurt said as soon as they were outside.

  "What did it sound like?"

  "You know those cheesy triangles they gave us for music time in elementary school? Two of those tapping and clunking a few times, like they were being hit against each other. Which one of the kids at your table?"

  "Two." She waited and was pleased to see understanding widen his eyes. He paused a few steps away from the front doors, and she could almost hear the fizzing of the circuits of his brain.

  "Just one question. If it's the twins, how did they zap Evan without leaving their cottage and going to the quarries that night?" He started down the sidewalk again, but taking slower steps.

  "Maybe they don't need to be physically there." Jane told him what she had seen when she felt the pulse of power, before the twins visibly decided not to do anything about Kurt's teasing.

  "Sounds like they've latched onto you, too," he said as they reached the truck.

  "I'd like to see what they could try against the Voice, if he tries to zap me for wising up to him." She shuddered and paused, two steps behind him.

  "What?"

  "They know an awful lo
t about the spa, all the specialized creams and mud packs and all the nail polish colors I didn't bring with me."

  "Penny told them." He put his box down in the bed of his truck and tugged the tarp up to cover it.

  "Maybe not." Jane barely registered as he took her bags from her and put them in the cab of the truck behind the passenger seat. Her mind spun through all the things the twins had said, analyzing Penny's reactions to them and seeing everything in a different intensity of light. "There were a few things she said she never told them about, like that muumuu ensemble she wants to get for this summer."

  "Hey, you're chiming," Kurt murmured, and reached out to catch hold of both her hands. Jane gasped at the contact, yanking her out of the memory loop.

  "They asked me about the raffia sandals that just came in today. I unpacked and priced them just before you picked me up. Penny didn't see them. She didn't see the catalog I ordered them from, either. I usually place orders in the morning, before the first customers come in."

  "They tapped into you." He gave an exaggerated shudder. "Strong little monsters, then. Aren't they too young for their superpowers to be waking up?"

  "Being twins, they might have enough energy between them already, they don't need it to build up to the point of overflowing, or the hormonal burst that the rest of us did."

  "Okay, so how do you want to handle this? You've got more experience telling kids they're joining the Avengers." He hooked his arm through hers and turned them both around to head back to the building.

  "Uh, how can I have more when neither of us have done it yet?"

  "Oh..." He glanced around and Jane realized belatedly that someone had come into the parking lot behind them. "Mayor Wellington."

  "One of us?"

  "Lost Boy, but not a superhero." A horn blared behind them and he flinched, muttering as he glanced over his shoulder. Then Jane felt him relax. "Lanie."

  "Conference?"

  He bared his teeth in a fierce grin that made her very glad they were on the same side. A moment later, Jane's knees went a little wobbly. Yes, they were on the same side, weren't they? She wondered why she had doubted him before. Maybe that was the Voice's bad influence?