Lumen and the Thistle

by EJ Wozniak

  Lumen bent down in his chair to get eye level with the glass. He stared at the glass, trying to focus on just the water. Lumen wanted the water to rise from the glass into a ball. The water began moving back and forth in the glass. Lumen looked up at Alec, surprised at what he had just done. Alec rolled his eyes and pointed to Wrigley itching his back, using the desk as a scratcher. Lumen frowned.

  “Dangit. I thought I had it.”

  “I mean, it was a good try. It’s not that easy, dude. Anyways, I’m gonna go. Don’t go to sleep until you get that water to move—and without Wrigley’s help this time. Good luck.”

  “Wait, I don’t know—-”

  Before Lumen could finish, Alec had already opened a window and left.

  “Great, what the heck am I supposed to do?” He looked at Wrigley, and he just tilted his head again.

  “You’re not much help either. Go to bed.”

  Wrigley jumped up into bed and laid down. He was asleep in minutes.

  Lumen stared at the glass for a while, with no progress.

  He tried closing his eyes to focus more. Nothing.

  He put his hands together and crossed his legs, as if he were meditating. Nothing.

  He stood across the room and yelled for the water to move. Nothing.

  He moved his hands up and down as if he were able to control the water that way. Nothing.

  He put his fingers on his temples and stared at the water. Nothing.

  “This is useless. I have no idea what I’m doing.”

  Lumen decided to give up for the night. He turned off his lights and crawled back into bed. He kept his eyes closed for what felt like five minutes before deciding he couldn’t sleep. After all, he was never one to leave something incomplete.

  “Stupid water. Just move!”

  Lumen jumped back onto the desk chair and stared at the glass of water again.

  He took a deep breath, closed his eyes for a moment, exhaled, and opened his eyes again. It was just him and the water. Lumen imagined how he wanted the water to look, to move, where to move, and when to move. Nothing could keep him from moving this water when suddenly, a small bump rippled through the water. Lumen gasped. He checked to make sure nothing was moving the desk.

  “You see that?!” Lumen shouted at Wrigley. Wrigley didn’t budge, he was snoring.

  “Well I saw it. I moved it. Alec better believe me.” Lumen wiped the sweat off his forehead and looked at the clock. Another night going to bed past midnight.

  “That took an hour and a half to do?” Lumen whispered, slightly concerned.

  He crawled back into bed and was out before his head hit the pillow.

  * * *

  The next day was the day. Even though Lumen went to sleep well past midnight, he was wide awake by six in the morning. He showered, brushed his teeth, combed his hair (and then decided it looked weird and tried to put it how it normally was), put on his new black and green striped shirt and shoes with jeans, checked that he was wearing deodorant three different times, flossed his teeth, picked out a jacket to go with his outfit (as it might snow for the first time this year), went to the mirror to check his hair again and thought about combing his hair, decided against it again. He was ready to go. Lumen looked at his desk clock.

  “6:22, are you kidding me?” Lumen sighed and sat down. He had over an hour before he had to be at school.

  He took Wrigley out to the bathroom, fed him, and decided to eat some breakfast himself. He poured himself a bowl of cereal and went back to sit at his desk. He started munching on his cereal when he saw the glass of water.

  “Oh you again, I’m back for you,” he said to the glass of water.

  Lumen ate his cereal as quickly as he could and turned his focus to the glass of water.

  “Let’s make sure last night wasn’t a fluke . . .”

  Lumen took off his jacket, closed his eyes, took a deep breath, held it for a few seconds and exhaled slowly. He cleared all of his thoughts and tried to embody the glass of water. He wanted to drown his thoughts in the glass of water.

  He opened his eyes and stared at the glass for a few moments when it suddenly rippled, as if a small pebble had been dropped inside the glass. Lumen jumped up and looked to make sure Wrigley hadn’t moved the desk again.

  “That’s right! It’s going to be a good day!” Lumen smiled as he paraded to the bathroom to wipe the sweat off of his face.

  Lumen wasn’t quite sure how he made the water do what it did, but he felt he was on the right track to start his training as an Eauge.

  It was a few minutes past seven when Alice came out of her room in a black robe.

  “You ready, hun?”

  Lumen was sitting on the couch with a jacket and backpack by his side.

  “Yeah, I’m ready.”

  “You look so cute. Oh my goodness, Sofia is one lucky girl!”

  “Mom . . .” Lumen looked down embarrassed even though no one else was there.

  “Okay, okay, sorry for being an excited mother.”

  They drove to school in silence. Lumen was deep in thought about how the day would go.

  “Good luck today, hun! I’ll try to keep to myself if you bring her over, don’t worry.” Alice pinched his cheek lightly and Lumen smirked just a little.

  “Love you, Mom.”

  Lumen jumped out of the car and headed to first period with a smile on his face.

  * * *

  The day came and went faster than Lumen had anticipated. He passed Sofia as he normally did.

  She waved and smiled, “See you after school.”

  All Lumen could manage to do was wave and say, “Yeah.” Surprisingly, Lumen wanted the day to slow down a bit. It was already his last class of the day, and he felt he wasn’t ready to embark on this date with the girl he has crushed on for as far back as he could remember. He went to the bathroom during class to check on his outfit one last time and decided he hated it.

  “Real original Lumen, another shirt with green in it.” Lumen sighed and went back to class. They had a pop quiz, and Lumen aced it, even being as distracted as he was.

  Class ended, and he ambled to the crosswalk. He mulled over pretending to be sick and rescheduling. He would only be half lying as he did feel sick to his stomach. His hands were clammy, and he was sweating under his armpits even though it was nearly freezing out.

  As he approached the crosswalk, he saw Sofia facing the street, waiting for him. Lumen thought she looked great with her dark green scarf and long, black duffle coat. This made Lumen even more nervous. He approached her and stood behind her for a moment. He thought about sneaking away before she saw him, but decided that was a stupid idea. Unsure how to get her attention, he was about to tap her on the shoulder when she turned around and smiled.

  “Oh, hi! How long have you been there?”

  Lumen stood wide-eyed for a few moments before stammering an answer out.

  “I uh, I just—I just got here. Hi.”

  Lumen gulped. He wasn’t sure what to say next. Luckily Sofia did.

  “Well, should we get going? Are we going to your house?”

  “Yeah, um, is that okay with you?”

  Sofia smiled at him, and Lumen turned bright pink.

  “Of course. Which way?”

  Lumen pointed down the sidewalk he often walked home, and they took off that way. Lumen wasn’t good at starting conversations with Sofia, but he managed to answer her questions.

  “Where do you live again?”

  “Is it just you and your mom?”

  “Oh I love dogs! What kind? How old?”

  “I haven’t seen Alec at school this week. Is he okay?”

  Lumen lied and told her that he was sick.

  “Have you always lived here?”

  Lumen answered, and Sofia told him that she came from the west where it never got this cold. But she liked the snow, so she was glad she lived here. She had lived here most of her life.

  The questions kept coming, and Lumen wa
s glad. It made him more comfortable. He wasn’t very good at returning any questions, but that was okay for now.

  They reached Lumen’s house, and he told her that Wrigley might jump on her and that it was okay for her to push him down.

  They walked in, and of course, Wrigley tackled Lumen per usual; he turned bright pink again when Sofia laughed. Wrigley introduced himself to Sofia by licking her hand.

  “Such a gentleman Wrigley is.” Sofia laughed with Lumen and helped him off the ground. Lumen turned a brighter shade of pink as she grabbed his hand.

  Lumen looked at the kitchen and could see his mom peeping around the corner.

  “Hi, Mom.”

  Alice came right out of the kitchen to introduce herself.

  “Oh! I didn’t even hear you come in. You must be Sofia.”

  Alice came over and gave her a big hug.

  “Nice to meet you, Mrs. Haaken. Very lovely home.”

  “It’s just miss. Very sweet she is! Lumen, I think you found a keeper!”

  Lumen just looked at his mom with angry eyes and signaled for her to leave.

  “Oh right, well I need to work on a couple of things in my room. Just knock if you need anything. Feel free to help yourself to anything you want, you two.”

  Alice mouthed, ‘so cute, Lu’ as she walked by, and Lumen felt like he might explode from humiliation.

  “Your mom is so nice. My dad is never that nice to people he first meets.”

  Lumen felt a little better after that but still felt very hot and red. He took off his jacket.

  They stood there for a few seconds. Lumen hadn’t planned what they would do before dinner. He was sure she would leave before dinner now.

  “Oh, are those puzzles? I love puzzles.”

  Sofia walked over to the table to look at the new puzzles his mom had got him. Lumen hadn’t felt the need to do one lately.

  “Oh, yeah. Uh, me too.”

  “2,000 pieces? This must take you days to do. I wouldn’t even know where to begin.”

  “Oh no, it would take a few hours max. It’s pretty easy, you just need a method.” Lumen felt comfortable talking about this.

  “A few hours? That would be remarkable. Let’s do one. I want to see you do one that fast. That’s got to be some sort of record.”

  It was perfect. Lumen could work on this puzzle, something he was comfortable doing, and this would lead straight to dinner time.

  “Okay, sure, which one do you want to do?”

  Sofia chose the rainforest puzzle with a lot of greenery and trees. Lumen unwrapped it and dumped the pieces on the table.

  “Oh my gosh, this is so much! Where do we even begin?”

  Lumen never really explained his process to anyone and got excited that Sofia was so interested. He went over separating the pieces into different piles. After organizing the pieces, they started with the border pieces. With two people, finishing the border was even easier than usual. Sofia slowed Lumen down at some points, but it made him realize he wasn’t doing this one for time. He needed to enjoy doing this one. Once they finished the border, they went through the rest of Lumen’s process. They laughed together when Sofia put the wrong pieces down.

  “How long have you been doing puzzles?” She asked, seeming genuinely interested.

  “Really as long as I can remember. I’ve always been pretty good, but I got really good with them when I was diagnosed.”

  Lumen hadn’t talked about that with anyone other than his mom and Alec. He became nervous.

  “Oh, that’s cool. It helps you focus?”

  “Uh, yeah. Whenever it would get bad, I would just do a puzzle, and it would sort of snap me out it.” Lumen surprised himself with how much detail he was giving.

  “That’s pretty cool. What’s it like?”

  Lumen hesitated to answer. He was nervous about scaring her away. This was who he was, though, he decided. Better she knew now.

  “What? The stuff I see?” Lumen asked.

  “Yeah.”

  “It’s probably nothing like people at school say it is. All I see are lights.”

  “What do you mean? Like there are lights beaming all around right now?”

  Lumen laughed a little.

  “No, no, just like panels of light floating in the air. Like windows of light stopped in midair. All different colors.”

  Lumen realized he could see a few of them lingering around. They made him feel comfortable for some reason.

  “Oh.” Sofia seemed disappointed.

  “What? Not crazy enough for you?”

  They both laughed.

  “No, the rumors are much different. It’s really a shame how Blake and his friends portray you. They really must be insecure about themselves to attack you like they do.”

  “Oh, it’s okay. I’m used to it.”

  Sofia placed her hand on Lumen’s arm. Lumen looked at it and took a second to realize what was happening. His eyes widened, and he turned a bright shade of pink again. He felt as if a cat had his tongue. He literally couldn’t speak. Sofia smiled.

  “Well, what now? We have the border finished.”

  Lumen cleared his throat.

  “Uh, right. We, uh, start here and work our way down.”

  It was silent for some time after that. Lumen wasn’t sure how to react, and Sofia was bound to the puzzle.

  They got about halfway through when Sofia said she was starting to get hungry.

  “Hold on just a minute.”

  He ran to his mom’s room to ask for money. He knocked on the door, and Alice told him to come in.

  “How is it? She is so pretty, Lu. Oh my goodness. What are you guys doing? Should I come out there? Do you need anything?”

  Lumen sighed. “Just some money please.”

  Alice gave Lumen a couple of bills.

  “Make sure you get dessert!”

  Lumen walked quickly back out to the living room. Sofia was sitting on the ground, rubbing Wrigley’s belly. Wrigley’s tongue was hanging out.

  “Uh, should we get going?”

  Sofia patted Wrigley’s belly, and he rolled over and trotted away.

  “Yes, where are we going?” She asked.

  “My favorite place in town.”

  They both put on their coats and walked out down Inventa Way to La Dernier Piece. They didn’t say much on the way over, which was good because it started to snow and Sofia put her arm around Lumen’s arm. He wondered if it was possible to die from a heart attack at 15 years old. They reached the diner, and Lumen held the door open for Sofia. Shari was already at the front.

  “Well, hi there, hun! Pick a place to sit as usual, Lu.”

  “Thanks, Shari.”

  They walked to Lumen’s favorite booth. On the way to the booth, Lumen realized how run down this place was and how tacky it looked. On no, this is not the ideal first date spot.

  “I’ve never been to a diner like this! I’ve always walked by here and wanted to go in. I’m excited!”

  Lumen felt relieved.

  Shari dropped off two glasses of waters, Lumen’s had a lemon slice, and two menus. Lumen hadn’t looked at a menu there in such a long time that he forgot what it looked like.

  “I’ll come back in a few minutes to see what y’all want.” Shari smiled at Lumen, winked, and walked away.

  Sofia was already browsing the menu.

  “Oh wow, that sounds good. I love peanut butter shakes! Should we get shakes before our food?”

  Lumen smirked and thought, This is perfect.

  Shari came back, and they put in their orders. The usual for Lumen with a chocolate shake and Sofia ordered a club sandwich with a peanut butter shake.

  Shari came back a couple of minutes later with their shakes.

  “Ow, brain freeze!” Sofia put her head on the table and laughed.

  “Put your tongue on the roof of your mouth, it should help.”

  Sofia listened and held her tongue on the roof of her mouth for a few moments.
/>   “Whoa, that actually worked.”

  “Yeah, took a while to figure out something that worked. It’s always annoying when that happens.”

  “Thanks.” Sofia starting twirling her hair and looked out the window.

  “Oh, look at that . . .”

  She pointed at something outside.

  “It looks like an ambulance and fire truck are turning onto your street.”

  Lumen looked out the window. There were a couple of fire trucks turning onto his street, and an ambulance followed.

  “Oh, the old guy across the street was sick or something the other day. I’m sure they are back for him.”

  “Oh, that’s too bad. Should we check it out?”

  “No, no, let’s eat. You don’t want to see that anyway. It’s sad.”

  Shari brought their food. Lumen chowed down his chicken pot pie as he usually did, and Sofia had no problem eating her whole club sandwich.

  “Was that enough? We can get something else.”

  Sofia smiled with her mouth full and was able to spit out, “I'm OK,” and gave a thumbs up. She covered her mouth and looked out the window as she turned red.

  “Dessert?”

  Sofia swallowed her food and looked back at Lumen.

  “Only if you want something.”

  “I heard their chocolate cake is good. Should we split one?”

  “That sounds great.” Sofia smiled at him again. Lumen felt smooth. He felt this was going a lot better than he could have ever imagined.

  The cake came with two new forks, and they both dove in. They hardly talked when they were eating as they were busy enjoying their cake. It wasn’t awkward now. It felt normal and nice to have someone to spend time with.

  “Oh, you have a little something on your cheek.”

  Lumen quickly tried to wipe it but kept missing.

  “No, here silly.” Sofia wiped the chocolate off with her thumb and wiped it on her napkin. Lumen thought about the heart attack again.

  They decided it was time to go. Lumen left the money on the table, and they walked out. Sofia waved goodbye to Shari.

  “Bye, you two! Stay warm out there; it’s starting to snow!”