Awakening (Book One of The Geis) (7 page)

After a hot shower, I snuggled into my favorite fleece pants and a nightshirt. With one of Mom’s decadent chocolate-with-chocolate chip cookies and a glass of milk, I settled down into Dad’s oversized office chair. I smoothed Ms. Slannon’s note onto the desk.

“Leah Carlton.” I took a deep breath. If Rourke wouldn’t teach me to dance, maybe this Leah would.

I dialed the number, my heart pounding. The phone kept ringing, with no response. I waited for voicemail, but it never picked up.
Who doesn’t have voicemail?
I hung up the phone and took a bite of my cookie.

I couldn’t block out the emotion of Rourke’s dancing. Despite Christa’s reservations about him, something had exploded inside of me when I saw him dance. I wanted to move with the same feeling and intensity. I wanted to feel that release—to dance with such feeling that the emotions inside me would float away like bubbles in the breeze.

The front door slammed, and I jumped. I peeked down the stairs. Aunt Avril struggled into the kitchen with a white paper sack in each hand. She took off her wet jacket and plopped the bags on the kitchen counter, muttering to herself.

“Hi Aunt Avril,” I called as I gathered my dishes and brought them with me down the stairs.

“Oh, hello, dearie. Are you the only one home?”

“Mom’s teaching a class tonight. What is that?”

From the paper bags, Aunt Avril pulled a cornhusk-wrapped tamale. “I was in Thayne, so I stopped by Juan’s House of Tacos and bought enough for the whole family.” She dumped the rest of them out of the bags, giving me a playful grin. “I guess we will have to eat them all ourselves.”

She handed me a tamale, and I joined her at the counter. We didn’t talk until I had polished off two of the tamales, complete with an amazing red chili sauce.

“What were you doing in Thayne?” I wiped my mouth with a paper napkin and got up to get us both some water.

“I drove up to talk to a few more of Mrs. Saddlebury’s neighbors. Then I stopped by her castle to see if I could find out anything else.”

I choked on my water. “You went to Mrs. Saddlebury’s house alone? Don’t you think that’s dangerous?”

Aunt Avril smothered her third tamale with green sauce. “Could be. She wasn’t there anyway. And I didn’t learn a thing from talking to her neighbors.”

“Is there a chance that Mrs. Saddlebury really is just a grieving widow?”

“It’s possible. But my instincts are telling me otherwise. This case fits the description of all of the others, except for one thing. Mr. Saddlebury’s body was found right away. I think his death was an accident. He must have gotten in her way.”

“Next time you decide to pay Mrs. Saddlebury a visit, take me with you,” I scolded. “Promise you won’t go alone.” I was concerned about Aunt Avril, but there was also a part of me that wanted to see if I would experience those intense feelings again when I saw Mrs. Saddlebury.

“All right, I promise,” Aunt Avril said around a mouthful of tamale. “Now, what have you been up to?”

“Dance class.” I hesitated, wondering if it was a good idea to tell Aunt Avril that I wanted Rourke to teach me to Irish dance. “Do you remember I told you about the janitor who dances? Today I asked him if he would teach me.”

“Does your mother know about this?”

“No, she doesn’t need to. He said no.” I picked at my own tamale. “Besides, how is that different from keeping Mom in the dark about how I’m starting to feel the emotions of every person I talk to?”

“Have you been tuning in to other emotions since we visited Betsy?” Aunt Avril pushed her tamale aside, giving me her full attention.

“Some. I’ve always been able to read people’s feelings a little, but now making eye contact with someone in conversation sometimes makes it feel like their emotions just spill out and flow into me.”

Aunt Avril polished off her last bite and faced me. “Let’s try it.” She squeezed her eyes shut and then opened them, locking hers on mine. “What am I feeling?”

I stared back at her. Nothing happened. Then a feeling faded in and out, like a lens that needed focusing. I zeroed in on the feeling, trying to coax it to the surface. I relaxed, and a chill went from my shoulders down to my fingertips. A calm settled over me.

“Peace?” I asked. “Are you feeling peaceful?”

“It’s called contentment.” Aunt Avril settled back in her chair, patting her belly, a pleased look on her face.

“At first I didn’t think I was getting any emotion from you. It was so faint, so barely there, that I hardly noticed it.”

“Some emotions are more easily apparent than others. If you practice, you may be able to recognize even the faintest of emotions.”

A new idea surfaced. What if I looked Lucas in the eye? Would I be able to get a reading on how he felt about me? Chances were, he would be at the county fair this weekend. If I could get a chance to talk to him, maybe I would be able to find out. The thought made me smile. “Don’t worry, Aunt Avril. I’ll practice over the weekend.”

“The bonfire dance is the best part of the fair.” Christa stood next to me at the stove, stirring a batch of caramel in an oversized pot with an equally oversized wooden spoon. “I bet Lucas will ask you to dance.”

“There’s only one problem with that idea.” I picked up an apple and stabbed it with a wooden stick. “He has to know I exist.”

“Of course he does. What about that conversation you had the other day in physics?”

“Asking me where to hand in the assignment isn’t exactly a conversation. And I think he’s more attracted to Aunt Avril’s car than to me.” I rolled my eyes. “We better get these apples covered so Mom can use the pan when she gets back from the store.”

Christa was spending the night, and she’d decided to come early so we could help Mom make caramel apples and ghost-shaped divinity for the fair.

Layers of waxed paper covered the countertop, and the speared apples stood upright on the counter, ready to be dipped into the caramel sauce. I immersed one in the creamy liquid.

“You never know,” Christa said. “Maybe now that he’s noticed you, he’ll ask you out.”

My heart did a little flip. The thought was frightening and exciting at the same time. I scraped the excess caramel off with the wooden spoon, licking a glob of the gooey mixture off of my finger as I picked up another apple.

“Do you think he would? I need to figure out a way to talk to him again and feel things out—ouch!” Pain radiated from my hand, and I dropped the apple into the pot. Hot caramel had slid down the spoon onto my finger while I daydreamed about Lucas. “What am I thinking? There’s no way he’s going to ask me out.”

Christa picked up the fallen apple with a pair of tongs and held it so the caramel could run back into the pot. “You never know.”

Cold water from the faucet soothed my burning finger. Here in my kitchen with Christa, I could pretend that everything was normal. No stupid boys, no giant lizards, and no supposed psychic abilities to keep my mind churning.

The front door slammed and Zoey came running into the kitchen, throwing her backpack on the floor and kicking off her shoes as she came. “Where’s mom?”

“She ran to the store to get more eggs for the divinity,” I answered.

“Aw, I want to go over to the park with Kinley. When’s she gonna be back?”

“Chill out Zoey, she won’t be gone for long.” I double-dipped the apple, standing it on the counter carefully so the stick was straight up.

“Where’s Dad?” Zoey picked at some caramel that had fallen on the counter and I swatted at her hand.

“He’s upstairs, working.”

Zoey took the stairs two at a time.

“She’s like a tornado,” Christa observed.

“No kidding. I swear she has twice as much energy as any other kid I’ve ever seen.”

“She should dance. She’d be great onstage.”

“No way—can you imagine how she would stomp out a pas de bourr
é
e? Hand me those nuts, would you?” I took the bowl of chopped peanuts and sprinkled the caramel apples.

Zoey came barreling down the stairs.

“Bye!” She threw the word behind her as she darted out the door.

Dad came down the stairs a few seconds behind Zoey.

“Mom usually lets Zoey play after school, doesn’t she?” he asked.

“Yeah, after she does her homework.”

“Oops. I guess I’ll be in trouble.” He winked. “What’s this confection you girls are cooking up?”

“Mom has a booth at the fair this weekend.”

Mom walked in through the garage door, her hands full of groceries.

Dad kissed Mom on the cheek and peered into the pot, making appreciative sounds. “Aha.”

I scooped some caramel onto a spoon and handed it to him. “Careful, it’s hot.”

“How are you doing with the apples, girls?” Finding no counter space, Mom set all of the groceries on the tile floor.

“Great. Dad let Zoey go to Canyon View Park without doing her homework.”

“I guess you’ll be on homework duty tonight then.” Mom sat on a stool next to Dad, inspecting the rows of cooling apples.

“Small price to pay.” Dad licked his spoon.

An hour later, the house smelled heavenly. Caramel apples and gobs of fluffy divinity cooled on wax paper.

“Let’s go out to eat tonight,” Dad suggested.

Mom gave him a grateful look. “Great. I’m sick of being in the kitchen. McKayla, why don’t you and Christa run down to the park and get Zoey. I’ll change Benji and we’ll be ready to go.”

We gladly walked the short distance to the park, eager to go out for dinner.

Zoey was swinging with her friend Kinley. When they saw us, the two of them ducked behind the bathrooms.

“I wonder where Zoey went?” I said loudly.

“She was just here,” Christa played along. “Where could she have gone?”

We walked to the back of the little building as the giggling girls ran around to the front.

Sounds of conversation came from behind us, where a basketball court stood in the shade of the surrounding trees. Christa held onto my arm. “Look, there’s Lucas.”

My heart flipped. Lucas was on the basketball court, playing with a group of five other guys. His blonde hair was messy from playing ball, giving him a little-boy look. But there was nothing little boy about the way his muscles flexed as he ran down the court.

Lucas defended the basket from one of his friends, who went for the shot. He rebounded the ball and dribbled it down the court, passing it to a teammate before running down to get open.

I watched him from the corner of the court, near the basket. Lucas made the shot and turned my way to give his teammate a five. He looked right at me and smiled.

I thought my heart would stop. I waved, putting my hand against my throat.

A chorus of cheers came from the metal bleachers near the court. Taminy and two other girls were cheering the basketball players on. She saw us standing by the court and whispered something to the girl next to her before walking toward me in her white shorts and matching jacket. She didn’t look happy.

“Uh, oh, here we go.” Christa said, moving so that she stood right next to me. I forced myself to breath evenly, not wanting another confrontation.

“Hi McKayla. What are you doing here?” Taminy said. Her girlfriends watched from the bleachers. The basketball game continued on without stopping.

“I’m just here to get my sister.” I glanced over to where Zoey and Kinley were swinging again.

Taminy jerked her head toward the basketball court. “Well, she’s not over here, is she?”

Christa stepped in front of me. “What’s your problem, Taminy?”

“People like you who get in the way.” Taminy shoved past Christa. Her eyes bore into mine. Anger surged up inside of me.

“We have every right to be here Taminy. This park is in our neighborhood, too.” I clenched and released my fingers.

“That doesn’t mean that everything in it is yours.” Taminy’s eyes bore into mine.

Before I realized what I was doing, I put my hands on Taminy’s shoulders and pushed her as hard as I could. She fell in the dirt, her mouth wide open. I stared at my hands in shock.

Christa’s eyes went wide. “You pushed her,” she whispered. I couldn’t believe it either.

Taminy scrambled to her feet, wiping the dirt from her white pants. “How dare you!” She lunged for me with her arms out, her fingernails like claws.

“Whoa, what’s going on?” Lucas called out. Both the guys on the court and the girls on the bleachers were staring at us.

Taminy halted, lowering her hands and relaxing her shoulders. “Nothing.” She threw me a wicked look.

My neck warmed and I knew that everyone would be able to see my embarrassment when the rash crept up to my face. I started a fight, right in front of Lucas. A fight about Lucas. I wanted to run home and cover my head with my bedspread.

“McKayla was showing Taminy how she keeps her cool in tight situations.” Christa smiled. I was mute with shock.

Christa took my arm and steered me away from the basketball court. As I walked away Taminy whispered to Lucas, “Did you see what she did? She’s whack.”

Gone was the anger from earlier. Tears formed in my eyes. I humiliated myself in front of Lucas. What was wrong with me?

Christa put her arm around me. “What in the world was that all about?”

My hands were shaking. “I don’t know, I was feeling nervous at seeing Lucas, but when Taminy came over I lost control.”

Christa looked at Taminy’s retreating form, then at me. “Do you think you were feeling her emotions?”

It made sense. Taminy liked Lucas as much as I did. Maybe it made her defensive to have me there watching him.

Through blurry vision, I could make out Zoey talking to someone at the edge of the playground. As we got closer, I recognized Mrs. Saddlebury’s long, bleached hair, pulled back in a ponytail. Zoey was pointing to me.

My heart pounded. I ran over to Zoey and grabbed her hand. “Mom told me to come and get you,” I hissed.

“It’s nice to see you again, McKayla.” Mrs. Saddlebury smiled at me. “I told your sister how kind your aunt has been in my loss.”

“Thanks.” I didn’t want to make small talk. Whether she was Mrs. Saddlebury or something else that was involved in Mr. Saddlebury’s death, it freaked me out to have her talking with Zoey.

Zoey called goodbye to Mrs. Saddlebury, and we headed for home.

“Who was that?” Christa asked.

“She’s the woman who lost her husband, the one whose emotions I could feel.” I walked faster.

Christa looked back at Mrs. Saddlebury. “Can you feel what she’s feeling now?”

I risked a quick glance. Mrs. Saddlebury jogged away from us. I didn’t feel anything but exhaustion from fighting with Taminy.

“She’s an old, old lady.” Zoey said, skipping to keep up with my pace.

“Mrs. Saddlebury is not an old lady,” I snapped. “Just because someone has white hair doesn’t make her old.” What was Mrs. Saddlebury doing in the park anyway? I was certain I’d never seen her there before.

I wasn’t sure what freaked me out more, the fact that I had let Taminy’s anger add to my own and get out of control, or that Mrs. Saddlebury could be stalking me.

I was sure Aunt Avril would want to hear about both.