Demonspawn (15 page)

I looked at the picture. I had never seen who
I thought was my father before. That didn't seem odd to me until
that moment. Sure enough, I didn't look like him either.

“So, we adopted you. And things were okay.
But then it turns out the doctors were wrong. I could have
children, and I became pregnant with Alicia. About a month after
that, Gary left. He said he didn't want two children. He even
thought I went as far as getting the doctors to lie when they said
I'd never have any. He really lost it.”

“What an asshole,” Alicia said.

I knew then for a fact what I always
believed. My mother was the strongest woman on the planet. To go
through what she did, succeed at her job, and raise two children.
She was amazing.

“Why didn't you tell me, Mom?”

I could tell the fact that I continued to
call her Mom relaxed her. She would always be Mom.

“Because it doesn't matter,” she said.
“You're still my son. You're still Alicia's brother. None of that
will ever change.”

She was right, and I knew it. But there was
another thing to consider.

I could do things that people shouldn't be
able to do. Maybe my birth parents knew why.

If I couldn't walk through walls, or turn
invisible, or talk to ghosts, I don't think I would have cared to
find my birth parents. But that wasn't the case. I had to find out
why I was different.

I didn't say anything. I got up from the
table and circled around to Mom. She stood up and I gave her a
strong hug. Alicia joined us for a nice family hug. In fact, I
think it was our first one.

Alicia looked at me, and I could tell what
she was thinking. She was wondering if we should tell Mom about
what I could do. My eyes told her
No
. Sibling
communication.

“You two are my family. Simple as that. But I
need to know where I came from.”

Mom nodded. She was trying to hold back
tears. “I understand.”

“Is there anything else I should know,
Mom?”

She shook her head. “Not really. We adopted
you from Heavenly Heart, you never stayed there. It's a shelter for
children. They just handled all the paperwork. We took you right
from the hospital.”

“And you never met my biological
parents?”

“No. Nowhere to be seen. And to be honest, we
didn't ask any questions. We didn't want to talk to them, and have
them end up changing their minds.”

I nodded. “I'm going to Blossom. I want to
see the place.”

“How long?”

“I took a week off. But I won't be that long.
I want to find my biological parents. Then I'm coming right
back.”

Alicia looked at Mom without missing a beat.
“Can I go with him, Mom?”

I shook my head before Mom could even answer.
“No. Thanks, Alicia, really. But I don't want you missing that much
school.”

Mom smiled. “Well, the man of the house has
spoken.”

Alicia looked disappointed, but she smiled.
“You'd better at least tell Cindy. She'll be pissed if you
don't.”

I didn't because she was at work when I got
to the apartment. But Alicia was right. It wouldn't be right not to
tell Cindy. I could see her whipping my ass when I got back.

I gave Alicia and Mom one more hug goodbye
before I left. They both made me promise to call them everyday till
I got back. I drove back to the apartment. I saw Cindy's car parked
outside, so I knew she was home.

I slowly poked my head into her living
room.

“Yo Cindy! You in here?”

“Yeah. Don't come in the bedroom. I'm getting
dressed.”

“Damn. Just one little peek?”

“Eh, alright. Just one,” she joked.

I closed the door behind me. Cindy popped out
of the bedroom wearing jeans and a tight tee-shirt. Her hair flowed
just a little behind her shoulders. I noticed what she was wearing
quite often. She looked good in anything. It was scary.

“Hey. I was gonna make a sandwich. You want
one?”

“Nah, thanks. Actually I can't stay long. I'm
leaving for a few days.”

“Really? Where to?”

“Blossom, Pennsylvania.”

She gave me a puzzled look.

“Where I was born, apparently.”

She nodded. “Ah. On that famous journey of
self-discovery, like in the movies?”

I laughed. “Not quite. I want to find my real
parents, ask them how the hell did you make a kid who can walk
through walls, and come back here to my dull life.”

“It's not that dull. I'm in it.”

“This is true.”

She brought a hand up to her chin, thinking
about something. “How long will you be gone?”

“The plan, seriously? I have a week off. I
want to go there, get some answers, and get back as soon as
possible. Then I want to lounge around in my underwear for the rest
of my time off and have some fun.”

“Boxers or briefs?”

“Actually boxer-briefs.”

“Nice mental picture. I could call my father
right now and get a week off. Just give me a half hour to
pack.”

I was stunned. “Huh?”

“We'll take my car, cause I can't drive a
stick. That way we can take shifts.”

“You're not coming, Cindy.”

She looked hurt. “Why not? You don't want me
to?”

Just the opposite. I loved Cindy's
company.

“That's not it.”

“Well, what is it then?”

It took me a moment to find the words. “I
feel like I'm leeching.”

“Leeching?”

“Yeah. You always look out for me. Makes me
feel guilty.”

She was quiet for a moment, just looking at
me. “Are you joking?”

“No. Why?”

“Alex, you saved my
life
. Did you
forget about that? I owe you a lot more than a car ride to
Pennsylvania.”

“You don't owe me anything.”

She went quiet again. There was something in
her eyes. I couldn't tell what it was. There was something going on
in that head of hers.

“Cindy? You okay?”

She looked away, almost like she was
embarrassed. “Yeah, I'm fine. Yes or no question. Do you want me to
come with you?”

I hesitated before finally giving in. “Yeah,
I do.”

“Was that so hard?” she said with a smile.
“Give me thirty minutes.”

“Thanks, Cindy.”

“I watch out for you. You know that. Jesus,
it's not like we've known each other eighteen years or
something.”

I laughed.

We threw our bags in the back of her car. It
was a three hour drive to Blossom. I could do a three hour drive
easy, but Cindy's company was nice to have. She pulled her shoes
off and hung her feet out the window. We didn't say much for about
an hour. In fact, she fell asleep. Of course, that was the perfect
time to steal looks at her. Since she was reclined back in the
passenger's seat, her tee-shirt bunched up a little, and showed off
that sexy stomach of hers. Her chest rose and fell as she slept. An
absolutely gorgeous woman, and she never talked about it. She never
said it out loud, never called someone else ugly. Well, except me,
of course. Beautiful, intelligent, kind, and so humble. I wondered
sometimes if she really knew how incredible she was.

We were about an hour into the drive. I had
the ballgame playing quietly on the radio. Right in the middle of
me staring at her, she started talking.

“Alex, can I ask you a question?”

I quickly shifted my gaze back to the road
and felt my face growing hot. Was she awake the whole time? Did she
know I was gawking at her?

“Yeah,” I said, trying to play it cool.
“What's up?”

“What did you see in Julie?”

I looked at her with curiosity. She was
looking at me now from her seat, still reclined. A strange
question, but I liked it. In the middle of everything that was
going on, finding out I was adopted, seeing visions of Cindy in
trouble, walking through walls, I needed something normal to focus
on. As always, Cindy helped keep me grounded.

I thought about the first night I met Julie.
Our normal goofy crew was running around Baltimore Harbor. We saw
Julie and a group her friends dancing right by the water. She
caught my eye immediately. At first I thought she was interested in
Dave, but it was Cindy who pointed out she was “giving me the
look”. We ended up hanging out as one big group that night, and
Julie and I connected.

“She was hot, confident, nice smile, laughed
at my stupid jokes. She used to love the way me and you acted.”

Cindy sat up. “Ah, confident. So you like
confident women? Julie used to always talk about how hot she was.
She knew guys looked at her.”

I reluctantly nodded. “Yeah, maybe confident
isn't the right word.”

“So what else do you look for in a
woman?”

I laughed at the question. “It'll be a long
time before I date anyone now.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Well, first, I gotta make sure she doesn't
mind that I work at a shipping dock. Then I gotta make sure she
doesn't mind me being some kind of freak.”

“You're not a freak.”

“And then there's you.”

“What about me?”

“The woman's gotta be able to put up with
you. Remember Marie? She used to always say she didn't want us
being friends. Too damn jealous.”

Cindy smiled. “Yeah, I've been through that
too. My exes were always jealous of the white boy Alex.”

“What? You're kidding.”

“Nope, no kidding. Promise me something.
We'll always be friends, regardless of who you date.”

I looked at her. A weird request. She should
know we'd always be friends.

“Of course, Cindy. Come on now, who else is
gonna look after you?”

She smiled, but then she looked sad.

“What's up?” I asked.

“Nothing. Who's winning?” she said, pointing
to the radio.

I decided to let it drop, but there was
something going on she wasn't telling me. And I would get to the
bottom of it eventually.

“Orioles. Three to one.”

“Nice. Maybe we'll finally win one.”

I drove the rest of the way to Blossom. Cindy
offered to drive, but I didn't give the wheel up. If it was a
longer trip I might have, but didn't need to. Blossom was a small
town. It wasn't like a suburb where everything blended together and
there was plenty to see on the way to the city. This was an
isolated town out in the middle of Pennsylvania. It was ten o'clock
when we got there, so I knew there was no use in looking for
Heavenly Heart.

I pulled into the first hotel I could find,
which was a Holiday Inn Express. I was surprised. Given the way the
town looked I didn't think they'd made it to Blossom.

I met Cindy at the trunk to get our bags.

“Is this place alright?” I asked her.

“Hey. As long as there's a bed, it's
perfect.” She looked around at the empty streets. “This place looks
dead.”

“Hey, this is my hometown you're talking
about,” I said with a smile.

“Yeah, no wonder you're an oddball.”

The lobby was completely empty except for a
bored elderly man behind the counter. His name-tag read Marvin. I
already liked him because he had a ballgame on under the desk. I
could hear it as we walked up. He reached down and lowered the
volume.

“Good evening,” he said simply.

“Hi. I hope you have rooms open?”

“Nope. We're all booked.”

I stared at him. Words escaped me. Then he
smiled.

“I'm just funnin' ya. Don't think we've ever
been full here. How long ya staying?”

Good question. I didn't have an answer.

“Uh, at least one night. Maybe two?”

“That's no problem. Stay as long as you need
to. Just remember to check out before eleven when you want to
leave. It's seventy-two a night.”

I handed over a credit card and signed a
form. He gave me a key.

“Thanks. Hey listen, do you know where
Heavenly Heart is?” I looked at my directions. “It's an adoption
center on Church Street?”

He eyed up Cindy and me. “You two looking to
adopt?”

Cindy reached over and grabbed my arm. “Oh
no,” she said. “We won't have to adopt, will we, my stallion?”

I barely held in my laughter. I shook my
head. “Nah, no adoption here.”

Marvin didn't smile. “It's three streets over
from this one.”

“Thanks a lot. Goodnight.”

We laughed all the way up to the room. Cindy
could make me laugh so easy. I stopped laughing when I slid the
electronic key through the lock and pushed the door open.

“What the hell is this?” I asked.

Cindy walked past me and dropped her bag on
the floor. She gave the room a look over. Normal enough. Dresser
with a mirror, tiny refrigerator, TV, bathroom in the back.

“What's the problem?”

“There's only one bed.”

Cindy shrugged. “So?”

“Don't these places usually come with
two?”

She sat on the bed and kicked her shoes off.
“Don't know. It's been a while since I shacked up with a guy in a
hotel room. What's the big deal? We have little sleepovers all the
time.”

“Yeah, but that's with a couch and a bed.
We're missing one here.”

“Would you stop your bitching and get in
here.”

I stepped inside and shut the door. I was
already stressed out. I didn't want to spend my first night in
Blossom sleeping on the floor.

I tried to ignore it. I started thinking
about the general plan. I sat on the dresser across from Cindy. She
leaned back and crossed her legs, looking very sexy.

“Okay. So tomorrow morning we go to the
adoption place. They tell me what I need to know. Then I go talk to
my parents. I'm hoping we'll be heading home tomorrow night.”

“They might not even live here, you know.
Maybe they moved to Brazil, for all we know.”

I never really thought about that. “Well, if
they did, then we're still heading back. I'm not driving to
Brazil.”

“Sounds good. And I hate to cut this short,
but that drive was rough. You mind if I go to bed?”