Glimmer (3 page)

“Fantastic,” Aunt Hazel said. She grinned at Frank as he offered her a kitchen chair.  He remained standing.

Claire sat on the far end of the couch, patting the seat next to her. “Ben, why don’t you sit down here and tell us a little bit about yourself? We’re all dying to get to know you.”

“I don’t know about that,” Avery mumbled, cramming into the recliner next to me.

Melody flopped down onto the couch on the other side of Ben. “Tell them what you told us about the vision.”

I felt my face heat as Ben looked at me; he was enjoying the spotlight. “I don’t know what you could see, it was like I had a strobe light going off in my head, but I saw this one here,” he grabbed Claire’s knee, “and she and I were talking, having a pleasant conversation, and then it’s as if the scene switched and all I could see was fire. We, you and I, Zellie, were surrounded by it.”

“Interesting,” I chewed my bottom lip, “I didn’t see the fire,” I glanced at Claire, “just the two of you talking. I did get really, really hot though.”

Ben got up from the couch and grasped my forearm.  The image of him and Claire and a raging fire materialized in my mind.

I gently pulled my arm from his grasp and gave him a nod. “Did your head hurt?  Mine’s still throbbing.”

“Oh, yeah, like a full-on instant migraine.” He sat back down on the couch.  “This hasn’t happened to your eyes before though, Melody said.”

I nodded again.  No, Mr. Awesome, this was yet another thing that I had no experience with.

Ben shook his head. “Me neither.” His gaze fell to the floor.  I guess he didn’t know everything about everything. “But I remember my mom used to get headaches and bloodshot eyes sometimes when she had visions.”

We all sat in awkward silence for a moment, no one knowing what to say next.  I finally had a chance to face my rewind saboteur surrounded by family and friends and it seemed we were all too intimidated by him to initiate the conversation that needed to happen.

I scooted to the edge of the chair, unconsciously forcing Avery to sit back. “I’m not trying to be rude,” I said to Ben, “but I guess what I really want to know is, now that we’ve got you here...what’s your deal?  What are you?  A Retroact or...something else?”

Ben shrugged. “It’s cool, hey, ask whatever you want.  I’ve known and seen these abilities my whole life and you’ve got less than a year under your belt.  If you need me to teach-”

“That’s not what I was after.” I stared him down. “I’m doing fine by myself.”

“Sure, sure.” Ben grinned. “Oh!” He wiggled his eyebrows at me. “You wanna know why I’m a strapping young male instead of a girl like all you other Retroacts are?”

I sighed. “Yes.”

“Okay, here’s my deal.” He made air quotes with his fingers when he said deal. “Basically, my mom was just awesome.”

“Clearly it runs in the family,” Avery whispered.  I elbowed him in the ribs.

“So, my grandma was a Retroact and her younger sister was her Lookout, same as you and your grandma.  Now, you’d think that my mom wouldn’t be a Retroact, because she was an only child and the whole powers skipping generations thing.”

“Wait.  Your mom was a Retroact?” I asked

Ben shot me a look that said, “Do not interrupt His Awesomeness while he is speaking.”

“In fact,” he paused to make sure I wasn’t going to butt in with my stupid amateur questions again, “she could do that talking to the dead thing that your mom does and--” Ben nodded his head toward Mom.  “By the way, hey to that random dude hovering over your mom.”

Avery looked wounded. “That’s my dad.  You can see him?”

“Sure can, Slugger.” Ben turned to Frank, smiling. “Ghost baby daddy?” He shook his head. “That’s a new one, isn’t it?”

Frank nodded. “It is.”

Avery started out of the chair, his face red with anger.  He didn’t even like it when Claire and I jokingly called his dad that. Ben held up his hand though, motioning for him to simmer down.

“Anyways, my mom’s this precocious kid, right?  She gets bored talking to dead people and teaches herself to rewind.  She made her best friend, Frank here, her Lookout when they’re like, thirteen.”

“Thirteen?” I scoffed. “Your mom had two abilities before she was barely a teenager?  You’re totally lying. I don’t get this. She’s not following any of the rules.”

“That’s because the rules are bullshit, Zellie.”  He let that sink in for a moment. “I know your grandma’s a big time Society member, but they’re...they can be exclusive.” Aunt Hazel gave him a dirty look. “No offense to you Big Zellie, you’re totally cool.”

Mom laughed. “I think someone’s a little too big for his britches.  The Society is not a country club--”

“Mrs. Wells, I don’t make a habit of being pissy with pregnant chicks, but you don’t know what the hell is going on.  You’ve known about The Society and your full abilities for an even shorter period of time than your daughter.”

Mom opened her mouth to protest and then clamped it shut. 

“And you,” he turned his scowl on me, “I’m not a liar.  I fuck around, I can definitely be a dick, but I don’t lie.  Not about my mom or the abilities, okay?”

I was getting irritated and tired of being reprimanded.  “That still doesn’t explain you.  Your mom already had an ability to build on, but you can’t just conjure them up from scratch.”

“Are you gay?” Melody chimed in. “That’s what Claire thought when we told her about you.”

“Melody! You’re totally making me sound gaycist!” Claire reached around Ben and slugged her on the arm.

Ben lightened up at that, squeezing Claire’s thigh. “You’re not completely wrong.” He winked.  “Let’s just say I, uh, channel my feelings on a person by person basis.”

“So, your first...” I had to know.

“Yes, my first strong physical connection happened to be with a guy named Connor,” he shrugged his shoulders, “but you know, his sister Kiely was kinda hot too.”

Frank chuckled. Claire smiled.  Everyone else stared at Ben.

I finally spoke. “So,
that
coupled with your mom coaching you gave you multiple abilities?”

Ben nodded his head. “That’s my deal.”

“And what about your dad?” I asked.

Ben looked to Frank. “My bio dad split when Mom was pregnant with me. Frank’s my dad for all intents and purposes.  That was how she wanted things to be anyway. If she and Frank hadn’t played for the same team, he probably would’ve been my real dad.” Ben’s face beamed with pride. “Y’know, my mom was the first Retroact to have a male Lookout since The Middle Ages and the first ever to have one not related to her.”

“Your mom sounds really cool, but you keep saying was,” Claire said.

“Yeah, was.  She died when I was seventeen.  A year ago this past November, actually.”

Claire put her hand on his arm and gave it a squeeze. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to bring up...”

Ben looked to Frank again and then to the floor, tears welling in his bloodshot eyes. “It’s cool.” He tilted his head back and blinked, trying to regain his composure. “I had a vision of her death and I couldn’t figure it out in time to save her. She drowned in the Pacific.” 

His eyes met mine. “We were in Hawaii on vacation, taking surfing lessons.  This was after I’d had the vision, so I glimpsed her immediate future every couple of weeks to make sure things were going to be okay. Not that my glimpses are anywhere near accurate, but I had seen us surfing and we were fine, so it was safe as far as I was concerned.” He shook his head. “There wasn’t even water in the original vision.”

I stood and knelt down in front of him, grabbing his hand. “Show me.” 

I saw a beautiful blonde woman with eyes the color of caramel, laughing, as the sun shone through her hair.  The next image was of the same woman, only this time her eyes were full of fear.  She turned to look behind herself and then the vision was over.

Still holding Ben’s hand, I opened my eyes. “That’s not a lot to go on.  You can’t tell where she is, how she dies, nothing.  No one would’ve been able to figure that out.” It would freak the crap out of me to have a vision about my mom dying and not be able to figure it out.  Poor Ben.

He dropped my hand. I went back to sit with Avery.

“It was my idea to do the surfing lessons.  I should’ve known better than to do anything risky.  One second we’re paddling back towards the beach, the instructor thought the waves were getting too big for first-timers, the next second I look back and this wave overtakes her and pulls her under.”

He tugged at his hair with his hands.  “I’m fucking sitting there, trying to not fall off the surfboard and get pulled under too, trying to rewind, trying to remember what I learned in swimming lessons when I was eight, anything, and then there she is on my board in front of me saying, “Benny, let me go.  I’m still right here with you.”

“But she’s not here with you now,” Mom whispered.

“No shit,” Ben said, but not with much venom. 

Avery took his chances and spoke next. “You can see other people’s dead friends and family all the time, but not your own?”

Ben glared at him. “Aren’t you the kid who was pissed at Zellie for saving you and your mom’s lives?”

Avery didn’t back down this time. “You know I am and you also know that my dad died during the rewind, so don’t act like you’re the only kid who’s had a parent die,” he huffed.  “I was starting to feel sorry for you, but obviously you’re such an asshole--”

“Your dad’s trying to tell you he doesn’t like it when you use language like that.”  Ben leered.

“That’s it!”  Avery leapt from the recliner, knocking me to the floor.  He charged Ben as Melody and Claire jumped out of the way.  The force of the two boys fighting turned the couch on its back.

“Do something!” Mom yelled to Frank.

He shrugged his shoulders. “Zellie can stop this anytime she wants.”

“Duh,” I said, pointing my arm towards the wrestling boys.  I let Avery get in one more good punch and then I started rewinding them.

In slow motion it was evident that one of the two boys was actually enjoying the fight.  Ben was grinning and egging Avery on in reverse, which seemed to piss Avery off even more as he unpunched Ben three times.  The couch flipped back up and Ben took his place as Avery flew backwards and landed in the recliner.  I lowered my hand.

Avery was flustered.  “Did you just rewind me, Zel?”

I got up from my position on the floor. “Yeah, I did. We have enough problems without you two acting like idiots and getting into fist fights.” I sat back down next to him, shooting him a “sorry” look. He took my hand.

Claire pulled Ben up by his elbow.  “Why don’t we let Zellie and Ben get some rest?  I’ll ride with Aunt Hazel over to the lodge and get everyone set up with some free accommodations.” She checked her watch. “It’s almost eleven now, let’s meet up at the See-Saw around four o’clock?  Sound good?”

“That sounds great, Claire, thanks.” I got up and hugged her, whispering in her ear, “You just want to grill Ben some more.”

She giggled. “Talking wasn’t exactly what I had in mind,” she whispered back.

I squeezed her extra hard and then pushed her toward the door. Aunt Hazel, Melody, Frank, and Ben followed her, saying their goodbyes. 

I now officially thought that Ben was a douchebag for starting a fight with Avery when all he was trying to do was be empathetic. Of course that didn’t mean I would turn down the chance to hear all the details of a Claire on Ben make out sesh. I kinda hoped she’d score; she could handle a bad boy like him.

Avery slid his hand into mine. “C’mon, I’ll take you home.” I’d stick to the good guys, thanks.

Christopher shrugged on his black pea coat, retrieved his leather gloves from the pockets and put them on. He turned around and looked at the large industrial clock on the wall behind his desk. It was 11:15.  He figured if he only took until noon to eat lunch he could head out of work a little early, maybe four. That would give him enough time to get over to the See-Saw to check up on Zellie and Ben.

He was pleased that Ben had followed the suggestion he’d planted in his mind and come back to Oregon.  It was much easier for Christopher to control the two of them and their limited abilities when they were in closer proximity to one another.

Trying to monitor Zellie for emerging powers,  plus keep up with his work responsibilities here in Rosedell, all while preventing Ben from saving his mother Laura in Hawaii last Fall had taught him that lesson.  Laura had managed to appear to Ben briefly after her death, which only confused him instead of making him believe he was losing his powers as Christopher had intended.

He’d chosen to use Zellie and Ben as test subjects prior to exacting his revenge on The Society for many reasons, the first of which was because they were the least protected of all the young Retroacts.  Zellie grew up with zero magical guidance, and after Laura’s fortunate demise, Ben was left alone with a Lookout that couldn’t keep him in check. They were easy targets and although Ben was only a few years younger than Christopher himself and Zellie not many past that, they both had barely begun to scratch the surface of what they were capable of.  He would see to it that they didn’t live long enough to scratch any deeper.

Once he developed his mind control powers to their fullest and took out the two amateur Retroacts, he would go back to Los Angeles and start picking off members of The Society. Rachel Loughlin was on the top of his list. That old bitch was the one who’d convinced his mother to give him up for adoption, and as far as Christopher was concerned, the one who’d ruined his life. Hopefully the death of her granddaughter would rattle her and weaken her sensibilities - an added benefit to killing Rachel’s own blood; her own Retroact to shape and mold.

A spur of envy gouged his gut. Besides revenge, jealousy had been another reason he’d chosen Zellie and Ben. They both had something he could never have - they were completely accepted for who they were by their families. Like Ben, he had known from an early age that a wife and two kids weren’t in his future.  Like Zellie, he’d grown up knowing nothing of his mother’s abilities. However, Ben’s mother had allowed him to love whomever he wanted and Zellie, a Pastor’s daughter no less, was being encouraged to hone her newfound abilities.