Caleo watched as the beam from a flashlight edged closer. Slowly crouching down, he picked up an apple as he tucked his body as close to the tree as he could. Turn around, stop, stop, please stop! He pleaded in his thoughts, but the beam of light got closer. Why would the man walk all the way out here just to pee? Caleo held his breath as the man walked right past the tree and stopped.
Caleo was forced to wait and listen as the man peed and mumbled to himself, “I hate being near all these witches.” The man stopped midstream as if he heard something. “They all give me the creeps.”
An apple fell from a tree and hit the ground right beside Caleo, causing the man to draw his gun and aim in the direction of the apple.
Don’t see me, don’t see me! Caleo pushed himself as flat to the tree as he could manage, praying that a leaf crinkling would not give him away.
“Okay, Ollie, very funny. Scare the man while he pees.” The man walked right past Caleo and the beam of light stopped on Caleo’s leg. “You know I can feel you using your power.” The light moved away, back towards the house.
Caleo flashed back to what Nolan had said about the Blessed having people who know when Leeches were using their powers and quickly tried to divert his thought to something safer. Puppies, puppies, puppies, Caleo repeated over and over in his head as he remembered images from his grandmother’s puppy calendar.
“Stupid Leeches.” The man put his gun away, zipped up, and started to walk back to the house.
Caleo’s heart jumped at the sound of a stick snapping to his left. The man spun on his heels, drawing his gun again. Please don’t be another one.
“Damn horse!”
Horse? What horse? Caleo kept his eyes on the man afraid to move and give himself away. Holy hell! The neighbor’s horse is in the orchard. I’m so turning you into dog food if I survive this!
“Go on, get out of here!” The man picked up an apple and threw it at the horse. Caleo closed his eyes tight, hoping to not get trampled as the horse whinnied and galloped away.
The man turned around, muttering curses at the horse as he quickly walked back to the camp. The second the man was in the camp, Caleo released the breath he didn't realize he'd been holding, and went back to searching for the wheelbarrow, staying as close to the ground as he could.
It should be around here somewhere.
Caleo passed a tree with the giant knot resembling a head that was always his favorite place to stash his wheelbarrow during Smear. He stopped and stood next to a thick tree, hoping to get a better vantage point, and saw it in the distance, piled high with apples next to the woods. “Lazy ass Jack,” Caleo muttered, then looked around to make sure no one heard him. He pushed the heavy load of apples into the woods and farther away from the camp.
When he decided he was far enough out of earshot from anyone, he dumped the apples and doubled back to the rear of the house, just behind the bush where he stashed the stuff. He found Nolan sitting on a rock, cross-legged, and waiting patiently.
Nolan stood up and dusted himself off. “What took you so long?”
Caleo smirked as he motioned to the wheelbarrow. “Just taking my time, making sure to do it right and not to get caught.” He waited for the playful jab that he and Jack would normally trade, but the humor was lost on Nolan, who just looked at him grim-faced, not saying a word.
The two of them loaded the wheelbarrow in silence. First a layer of pillows and threw the food bags on top so the cans didn’t rattle against the side of the wheelbarrow. Then they piled three of the blanket bags on top. Nolan untied a forth bag and dumped the contents on top. He used the blanket as a tarp to cover the stuff, tucking in its edges to help stabilize the cargo.
“That should hold it. You carry the other ones. We'll go down to the stream, then work our way north from there. Just follow me and move quickly. Try to stay on the rocks so there are fewer footprints to track,” Nolan whispered, but the tone in his voice told Caleo that they weren't done arguing.
The way back to the cave was harder and longer than Caleo remembered, but they reached the stream just as the dawn’s glow started to light the ground around them. Nolan seemed to be beaming with excitement.
“Almost there.” Nolan pointed, just as the top of the cliff came into view. “Stay in the water so you don’t make tracks.” He continued pushing the wheelbarrow through the shallows of the stream where the wheel was half submerged.
They started their journey up stream as fast as they could. Caleo couldn’t help noticing that even though he was slipping and falling all the time, Nolan was even more surefooted in the water than he was on dry land. He smiled when minutes later he could see the base of the cliff. Rejuvenated by the thought of some rest he surged forward, passing Nolan as he rushed for the cliff. “Sleep, here I come!”
“Slow down, it’s too quiet,” Nolan hissed, stepping out from behind the wheelbarrow and standing beside Caleo.
“They're probably just asleep,” Caleo said, noticing that the water within a two foot radius around his feet had stopped moving while the water outside the circle still flowed freely. “What the?”
“I saw you a while ago!” Bradley yelled from atop of the cliff. “I was just going to let you come, until I heard the boy accuse me of sleeping on the job.”
There was a slight popping sound as a bubble around Caleo broke and the water around Caleo’s feet returned to normal, flowing with the rest of the stream. Caleo smiled in amazement. So that's what it feels like to be in a bubble. Caleo was just about to yell something back, but Bradley surprised him and jumped off the cliff in a belly flop formation, free falling for a few seconds. Then he seemed to be picked up by a gust of wind and floated towards Nolan and Caleo on the breeze. As Bradley got closer, passing into the sunlight, Caleo noticed a little shimmer of a bubble surrounding him; it looked just like an oversized bubble a kid would blow using dish soap. Bradley gracefully landed right in front of Caleo, his shimmering shield still intact. Caleo reached out and touched the transparent bubble only to have it pop under his fingers.
“Wow, cool trick!” Caleo said.
“Would you guys like some help with that?” Bradley pointed to the wheelbarrow behind Nolan with a smirk.
Nolan looked down at Caleo and said irritably, “Give Bradley your bags and go wake the others to get breakfast.”
Caleo didn’t even hesitate to pass the bags and be on his way, but as he was walking away, he had a strange feeling that he'd just been tricked into going away so they could talk about him.
Caleo climbed up to the small opening and was greeted by Jillian. “Everything go okay?”
“If by okay you mean the house is destroyed, then yeah,” Caleo said, but the second the words left his mouth he wished he could take them back “I’m sorry. You should go help Nolan. I saved some of your things. It was the best I could do.”
She smiled, hugged him, then went out to help empty the wheelbarrow and bring their spoils inside. As Caleo entered the cave he saw his grandmother had a small candle in a jar on the far side of the cave. It was shining dimly across the wall where Grandma was kneeling down next to a very dead-looking Jack. Caleo slowly walked to his grandmother, not wanting to look at her because he was ashamed to tell her about the Inn.
“How is he doing?” Caleo asked, a little above a whisper.
“He's sleeping, but I think he'll be fine. Just bruised ribs, I think. Did you guys get any of the medicine?”
Stupid, stupid, stupid Caleo. How could you forget one of the most important parts of the mission? Caleo mentally chastised himself before answering. “No, I forgot.”
“That’s okay, he'll be fine. In a little pain, but nothing too bad, I hope.” She brushed a hair back out of her eyes, then looked up at Caleo. “How did your trip go? Did you guys get done what you had to?”
Two bags were thrown into the cave, saving Caleo from answering. One was his grandmother’s comforter; Caleo immediately ran for the bags and dragged them over to where she was sitting
.
“I got some of your things. It’s not much but … ” Caleo choked, not able to finish. Tears ran down his cheeks as he laid the bag down by her feet.
She untied the bag and a bright smile engulfed her face as she went through the bag. She reminded Caleo of a kid on Christmas morning. Her belongings were like new gifts. When she came to the purple rose bush at the bottom of the bag, she picked it up carefully. Caleo could see that it had been squashed and a few of its branches had broken away. His grandmother fussed with the broken branches a little then tore them away. Caleo looked up and saw that she was crying.
Heartbroken, Caleo went to apologize for not being more careful. “Grandma I’m—”
But she cut him off, hugging him tightly. “Thank you so much.” She let go and picked the rosebush back up. “You don’t know how much this means to me. Did I ever tell you this very plant was your great-grandfather’s? He even claimed to have created this rose himself. There are no other purple roses like this one, other than the ones that grow around the Inn. Its thorns are curled down to form a fish hook at the end, as you may know from pruning them that once you get them under your skin they are a pain in the rear to get out.”
“Grandma …” Caleo interrupted. He had to tell her about the Inn, had to get it off his chest. So he fought back the tears as he told her about how the Inn was burned down and that nothing remained. He was surprised at how well she took the news and she didn't seem sad. She just kept hugging and rocking him back and forth in her arms and when he had finished, she held him at arm’s length by the shoulders so she could see his face and asked, “Are you okay?
Shaking his head, Caleo cried, “It’s all my fault, all of this is my fault. The city being destroyed, the people who died, our house. It’s all because they're looking for me.”
“Caleo,” she said softly. “Look at me.” She lifted his chin with her finger till Caleo was looking into her eyes. “You cannot blame yourself for the actions of others. I don’t care if they are after your or not, they are the ones doing the evil acts, not you.” She let go of his chin and hugged him tight. “Now don’t worry about the Inn. The insurance will more then cover the cost to rebuild and maybe even get a new dryer. The important thing is that we're all alive and together.”
Caleo pulled away and was wiping his tears when the other bags began sliding through the entrance. The album. Peeling himself away from his grandmother, he ran to the pillows that were just thrown through and searched for the one that belonged to his her. Where is it, where is it? He threw three pillows out of the way before he found one with the hard book inside. He ripped off the pillowcase, allowing the book to fall to the ground. A triumphant grin spread across his face as he scooped it up and ran to his grandmother, who had arranged the blanket on the floor and was sitting with her back against the cave wall.
Her eyes lit up as Caleo handed her the book. “My word, I was afraid I had lost all the pictures of you kids.” She patted the blanket beside her and Caleo lay down beside her with his head on her lap as she opened it and told the story behind each photo as they went through them, just as she had done a million times with the guests at the Inn. As he listened to the familiar stories he slowly drifted off to sleep.
When he woke, he found that the cave was empty; the only light was coming from the small opening at the entrance.
“You know, I was wrong about you, and I’m sorry,” Nolan said somberly.
Startled, Caleo looked around and caught the faint outline of Nolan’s body sitting in a darkened section of the cave.
“What do you mean?” Caleo asked, crawling across the floor to where Nolan was sitting with his back to the wall of the cave facing the entrance.
“I thought you went into the house to rescue your stuff like a spoiled child. Then when I came into the cave I found out that out of all six bags you grabbed, not one of them had anything that belonged to you,” Nolan somberly replied, his eyes fixed on the entrance.
“That's not entirely true,” Caleo admitted smiling. “There was a shirt that Jack borrowed,” Caleo made air quotes to put emphases the word borrowed, “a while back that I found hanging in his closet.”
Nolan let out a chuckle and smiled. “You amaze me. First I was sent here to protect you and you saved me, then I take you into a dangerous situation where you could get killed and you act like it’s a normal bad day. I mean, when I found out about Leeches, my life wasn’t nearly as complicated as this and I was so scared I wouldn’t even leave my room for days, but when you had everything in your life taken away from you, your whole life as you know it was destroyed, you sit here and joke like it was any other day.”
“Well that’s because my life was destroyed the day I was born,” Caleo said flatly. “And this is just like most other days.”
Nolan started to interrupt, but before he could find his words, Caleo continued.
“Every day is the same. I wake up, my family life is mostly happy, then it goes downhill from the moment I step out the door. People who are afraid of me make fun of me. Some try to hurt, or now even kill, me just because I’m different. So no, I guess it’s not like every day, it’s better because I’ve got my family here with me and no one is looking at me like I’m a freak right now. They are too busy with everything else.”
“Caleo,” Nolan said, extending his hand to Caleo’s face. “You're not so different from everyone else, and with me training you, we can make it so that no one could even tell you’re a Leech,” Nolan said, cupping Caleo’s face in his large hand.
Caleo raised an eyebrow in confusion. “You can fix my color by training?”
“Your color? What’s wrong with your color?” Caleo couldn’t decide if Nolan was either a good actor or really didn’t see a problem with the way he looked, because his words sounded sincere.
He decided it had to be acting. No way would he not see a problem with my color. Caleo pulled away from Nolan and stood up. “Don’t play games with me. I know there's nothing wrong with my color. ‘One day people will see my true beauty’,” Caleo said angrily, quoting his grandmother.
“Well, that sounds like a load of bull. Whoever told you that is clearly out of touch with reality. People are shallow.”
“Oh, so now you're calling me ugly?” Caleo turned to walk away.
“I wouldn’t know.” Caleo whipped back around as Nolan shifted his weight, a look of nervousness on his face. “I’m blind.”
“That’s the stupidest thing—”
“The day I became a Leech—” Nolan interrupted, but Caleo cut him off in return.
“Yeah, I heard they shot you in the legs and poured drain cleaner in your eyes. But that doesn’t explain how you're able to walk around in the woods and not run into a single tree or slap a can of soup out of the air effortlessly. If you were blind, how did you know that your brother was in the room? And where he was? And don’t tell me sound, because that’s bull!”
“Well, sit down and I'll tell you,” Nolan said calmly.
“Start talking, then I'll decide whether it's bull or not.”
“Why? Do you have something better to do?” Nolan asked, and then shook his head. “You listened to my brother’s story, now listen to mine.”
Caleo leaned against the cave wall and then shrugged. “Fine.”
“Well, he told you about my mother and how he just disappeared right in front of our very eyes. After they killed my mother they started their torture on me. They shot both my legs. Then one of them dug their fingers into the wounds, pulling at them. When I passed out I woke up in the bathroom with my head submerged in the toilet. When they let me up for air, they pinned me to the floor and poured drain cleaner in my eyes and in my bullet wounds all while some jackass kicked me in the ribs. I must've passed out from the pain because I woke back up submerged in the toilet again. Every time I thought I was going to drown, they kept flushing it at the last minute and I would be able to get a breath of air as the toilet was refilling.
“Right when I knew that I was going to die, my mind went to the water escaping down the toilet, and I couldn’t help being envious of that water and how easily it was escaping. There it was, mocking me, and with every fiber of my being I wanted to be that water. My eyes were on fire, and I only saw this bright white light. I thought I might have died. There was this feeling of weightlessness, and I surged forward through the light. Overjoyed at the thought that I was going to heaven, it was as though my soul had escaped my body and I was flying, I knew I was going fast, but I had no clue what was really going on. Then, everything went dark.
“The next thing I remember was hearing voices, but I couldn’t see anyone. They told me I was in the hospital and that an old man had found me drifting down the river and brought me in. I couldn’t see anything. I was so scared. I wished I was dead and I wanted the light back. When the doctors told me I would never regain my vision, I just knew my life was over. How was I going to be a secret service agent and protect the president if I couldn’t see? After all my training, my life’s dream went down the drain days after I got the job.
“I laid there for months, with nothing but the noise of a TV to keep me company, when finally the old man who rescued me came to visit. I told him my story and he stayed and told me great adventurous stories of his own, which, at the time, I thought were just embellished tales from a sci-fi book. He'd come in every day, and I would spend hours listening, forgetting that my life was over. One day, while he was telling me a story, he knocked over a glass of water spilling it all over the floor. ‘Don’t worry about it, the nurses will get that,’ I told him, all I wanted was to hear the end of the story. When the man had finished he stood up to tell me goodbye and I heard something fall off his lap and hit water on the floor. He apparently didn't hear it because he kept going. I called for him as I reached over the edge of the bed and felt around trying to find what he had dropped. That’s when my hand came in contact with the puddle of spilled water; it was as if another part of me became alive. The light was back, it was as though I could see everything in that spilled water as a bright light. He'd dropped a flower, every nook, every ridge of that flower was glowing in pure, white light. I'd never seen anything like it. The detail was outstanding, things I never would've noticed seemed to jump out at me. The dimple in a petal, a tear where a bug had had a snack, it was so beautiful. There was no color, but beautiful all the same. It’s not like a black and white movie. I've seen a few of those in my day, and this is not like that … It’s hard to describe. It’s like … I could feel the moisture in and around the object, clinging to the surface of the object. My mind interpreted it into something like a vision, making me think I'm seeing pure light where water was.
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