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“Well, we need answers and I have a feeling
you have them and we need to know everything you know about Jett’s
condition.”

“I already told you, your friend was
poisoned, I wasn't lying about that.”

“Yes, but how? By who? And what kind of
poison was it? I think the
relatives
you are watching may
have something to do with it.” I said making air quotes.

Her daughter dropped her arms and looked at
her mother with concern. Jett must have gotten his feathers ruffled
because he asked “What the hell is going on here? Is Rae getting
her fortune told or what?”

Everyone replied “No.”

“Who's been poisoned?” Jett asked.

“You!” Everyone said in unison, like he
should have been clued in to our plan by now.

I looked at Sheila and with my most
sympathetic look I told her “We need to know the whole story and
who's behind Jett's poisoning so we can help him.”

It worked, because Shelia told us that after
her great grandmother passed away, her and her uncle took over
tracking the
people
on their list. The people that were on
the list were the offspring of people that had been experimented on
by Rewtnic, the ones that weren't destroyed. '
Things
' had
begun to stir with her uncle in Arizona while tracking them. She
said it wasn't hard to track most of them, however, they believed
if two of the people on the original list had procreated, they
found that their children were very athletic and a couple of them
actually showed to be gifted and exceptional in sports, almost
defying the odds and limitations that a normal person should. One
of them was even in the Olympics.

She stopped, closed her eyes tight… “Addie!
Knock it off! Stop pulling that on me!” Sheila exclaimed.

“What? I'm not doing anything.” I said
holding my hands in the air.

“Honey, don't play dumb with me. You know you
have compelling powers.”

“Compelling what?” I looked at Nic and the
others; I felt all the blood rush out of my face. I’m a bigger
freak than they already know. Maybe Jett isn't the only one with
something wrong with him. “What are you talking about?” My friends
looked as dumbfounded as I felt.

Her daughter Cat translated. “You have powers
of persuasion, you compel people to talk to you and they tell you
things.” She looked at her mom, “I don't think she knows she's
doing it.” She asked me “Have you ever noticed that everyone talks
to you and they tell you things they wouldn't normally?”

“This is crazy, but you're right my dad never
talks to any of my friends but he talked to Addie.” Jett pitched
in.

I shook my head, and Declan crooned “Oh yeah,
she had Mr. McGaven talking forever.” Jett chuckled. “And he
doesn't talk to anyone.”

Nic interjected “Everyone always seems to
have no problems talking to you and confessing things, like all the
time.” She froze and sat upright, looked like she wanted to leave
urgently.

“What? You guys are crazy, I'm just a likable
person!” I said. I pushed the ends of my hair up pretending to
fluff it up like I was adorable, trying not to show any frustration
on my part. “We're here for Jett, can't we talk about Jett?” He
gave me a look, it seemed he was happy when the focus was one
me.

“You’re right we’re here for Jett and I don’t
need this to get any weirder.” Declan said, then took a deep breath
and turned his attention to Sheila and Cat “Who are you tracking
and could they be the ones who poisoned Jett?”

“We are tracking, not that this is any of
your business, Dr. Cassandra Westman. Her grandfather, Dr. Thomas
Westman who has passed on, worked at the Dunning Hospital in
Chicago and had taken care of Sal Rewtnic the 3
^rd
, the
doctor’s son, and Neil Royce the doctor’s nephew. They are the only
two living relatives of Dr. Sal Rewtnic the 2nd. Cassandra's
grandfather removed them from the mental institution a few years
after Dr. Rewtnic was killed, quit his job, moved them to Michigan
and home schooled them. Rumors were that the boys were crazy, or
monsters, because no one ever saw them leave the house. We will to
talk to them if we can track them down.”

It was our job to track them but we're a
little behind as my great grandmother lost touch when she became
senile and let things go a bit and our family hadn't realized how
important this was until we found out Sal changed his name and
we’ve been unable to track him. Recently we found out he goes by
the name Stew C. Neila, we think it's an anagram of his real name.
Same with Neil Royce he now goes by the name Ben O’Riley. There is
another note we don’t understand yet, there is a key a celestial
healer that has purified blood and we are thinking they can
possibly heal your friend.” She said gesturing her hand toward
Jett.

She took a deep breath, “That's all I know.
Except... Addie you need to look out for someone in your future
that will leave a huge wake of betrayal in his path. He has an
uncommon name that begins with the letter ‘B’ maybe ‘C’ it’s a
letter at the beginning of the alphabet.” There was a long pause no
one spoke. “That message has been screaming at me since you walked
in the door. Good night.” Sheila said.

We walked out of the building and everyone's
eyes were on me.... So I wiggled my hands at Nic and said “Tell me
everything you know,” and started laughing and they all joined
in.

As we were walking back toward my house Nic
dropped back and so did I she looked at me like she was trying to
tell me something with her eyes. I asked “what?”

“The tree, we have to check out the
tree!”

“What tree?” I stopped and remembered
Harriet’s treasure story, everyone else eventually stopped too and
looked at us. I started walking and stated “I think Sheila told us
everything she knew, but I also think she and her uncle are
panicked because those guys they are tracking changed their names
must up to something, they’re just starting to piece it all
together but until then I’m not sure the info she gave us helped or
will eventually help Jett…. Maybe the healer part but how do we
find that person. ” I gave Nic a diabolical smile and shook my
head, giving her the okay to plan another one of her perilous
adventures.

We got to my house and Jett seemed to be in
denial that he
has
something more wrong with him, more than
he knows. So when he disappeared for a bathroom break, Declan, Rae,
Nic and I decided that we needed to take pictures of Jett in his
state
for proof. Rae was taking photography classes and had
a super-fast camera that we could use to catch him on film. So we
just had to make a plan to catch him in the act. When Jett walked
into the room, it was awkwardly quiet. So I asked “Who's hungry?
And he didn't suspect a thing.

When we got to the kitchen Rae asked “What
should we do tonight?”

Jett replied “I thought we were going out to
dinner right after Rae's reading.”

“Dude,” Declan said “We were obviously
lying.”

Nic interrupted, “We could have a bonfire
back by my company barn.”

“I think that's an awesome idea. Her parents
won't bother us out there so we could have some privacy.” I arched
an eyebrow at Rae and Declan to see if they were in agreement and
get there approval.

“Can we cook out too?” Declan asked. Jett
gave me a squeeze. Declan and Rae said they would bring drinks and
they were going home real quick but they'd meet us back at Nic's at
7 or so. Nic said she'd bring chips and dip and asked Declan for a
ride home. I volunteered to bring hot dogs and marshmallows as they
were all walking out the door. I fixed Jett and me salami
sandwiches and we headed back downstairs. Jett complained that the
salami smelled and tasted really strong but I thought it was
fine.

We ate on the floor by our huge old oak
dining room table, my mom couldn’t bear to throw it out so she had
it converted into a coffee table by cutting down the legs. I took a
sip of soda and Jett pulled me on top of him. He stared at me a bit
and said “What else can you do, besides have dreams that come true
and compel people?

“Well, we aren't sure I can compel people,
but I can hold my breath a really long time.... Plus, you and
Declan told me I have quick hands and I run fast....”

“You are fast... Make me tell you
something.”

I smiled, “Oh right, like that's going to
work.”

“You won't know 'til you try.”

“How will I know you're telling me the
truth?”

“Hmmm, well let's think of something I
wouldn't want to tell you...but we could verify if it’s true.” I
interrupted him. “I know, you refuse to tell me your middle name! I
can ask you that....”

“Ugh, fine we'll know if it really works then
because I've never told anyone my middle name and neither have my
brothers.”

He was lying on his back, legs up and I was
sitting on him. I gave him a quick peck on the lips. I looked him
in the eyes and said “Now what?”

“Well, ask me my middle name, but try and
concentrate on me telling you the truth.”

“Okay, okay.” I settled my eyes on his,
leaned forward and put my hands on his pecks to balance myself and
said “What is ...” I smiled because all I could feel was his
muscular chest under my hands...”your middle name?” and I
laughed.

He rolled me over and told me I was supposed
to be serious. I just laughed some more. “You really think I can
get you to tell me stuff? Even if I can, I'm not sure I want
to.”

He planted a kiss on me and kept kissing me
'til my giggles were gone. I looked at him, I felt myself get real
serious and focused and asked “What's your middle name?”

He replied “Agnew.” He sat up, shocked he
just said it. He looked at me mouth open and I asked “Do you love
me?” and he said “Absolutely.” He bent down and kissed me, I
whispered back “I love you too.”

And then it hit me, “Your middle name is
Agnew!” I started laughing so hard my eyes began to tear. He
covered my mouth, “You aren't supposed to laugh, that's just mean.”
I stopped and asked him how he got that name. Jett told me it was
the name of the first Vice President for Nixon or something, his
mom picked it out.

I told him “Hey, at least it's your middle
name.” I thought for a minute “Your initials spell JAM, I can
always call you that.”

“If you tell anyone, Addie Gellar, there will
be hell to pay.”

“I'm just teasing you, I won't, I
promise.....So you're not mad about my second question?”

He shrugged his shoulders “No I'm not,
because I do love you.”

I got to Nic's with the hot dogs, buns and a
couple other things. Declan and Rae were already there. We got the
fire started before we decided how to get Jett mad when he showed
up with Storm.

From across the fire Declan and I were
eyeballing each other thinking of something to get him worked up
when a couple of other guys showed up with a twelve pack and before
you knew a few more people showed and then some more.

By the end of two hours there had to be at
least fifty people there. When Nic and I went back to the house to
grab a sweatshirt, she met with a few other newcomers and showed
them the way back. I went ahead to the house and grabbed the
sweatshirts for us. On my way back out to the fire I ran into one
of our wrestlers, Kevin, on Nic's driveway. So we started chatting
and walking back to the company barn. When we were in the shadows
and out of the direct light from the house he grabbed my arm and
pulled me off to the side and kissed me. “Baby I can rock your
world.” he said in my ear and planted another one on me. He had a
tight hold on both my arms, and when I squirmed to get out of his
hold, his grip tightened.

“I... don't.... thi..nk... soooo. Damn it
Kevin, Jett is here you know.”

“What he doesn't know won't hurt him – I can
give you what he can’t.”

“Let go of me right now or I'll scream!” I
said with my teeth gritted he was backing me up and not toward the
tree line, nor toward the house.

“All I need is an hour of your time baby. You
know you want it.”

“Please stop!” I pleaded.

My head was spinning and my arms and wrists
both stung as I was twisting them trying to get out of his grip and
he was re-gripping them when I got loose. It was harder to walk as
the grass came up to our knees, I almost tripped twice. We had
veered off the path Nic mowed to her company barn, when you own 150
acres of land you just don't cut it all.

“Kevin, let go!” I demanded. I can't believe
he thinks he's going to take advantage of me when Jett is a little
more than a hundred yards off. Or better yet, that he thinks I
would want to. Maybe he's all hopped up on some kind of drugs.

“Owe” He had backed me up to the big tractor
Nic cuts the grass with, the ones that the tires are as tall as I
am. I got my wrist free and I said very sternly “If you don't back
off now I’m going to yell for Jett and his friends and then we'll
see where we end up. How would you like that?” I shoved him with my
forearms, he let go.

Out of nowhere Storm appeared “Yeah Addie, I
think you should yell for Jett and see what he'd think of all
this.”

I let out a deep sigh of relief and walked
over by Storm and mumbled “Thank God you showed up.” Kevin quickly
started apologizing profusely, begging me not to tell Jett.

“You need to apologize to Addie and mean it.”
Storm said his voice deeper than I remembered. He did, he
apologized then pleaded for us not to tell Jett over and over
again. I started to feel sorry for him, not sure why, look what he
did to me when no one was around.

Storm pointed to the tree line, “We aren't
going to tell him you are.” Storm had such a serious look on his
face you knew he wasn't kidding. Kevin started walking toward the
party and we followed shortly after. I picked up both our
sweatshirts on the way back to the path...”Storm” I said very
quietly and then stalled....