Intangible (5 page)

Focus. One thing at a time.

“You were healing,” Luke said into his hands.

“Of course. What else would I be out doing in the middle of the night?”

“Could you just tell me when you’re going to do that from now on?” He looked up at her.

Sera narrowed her eyes at him. “What’s going on?”

“I just need to know that you’re okay. That you’re safe.” And he wasn’t going to tell her any more than that. Not tonight.

“Luke.” Her voice was low, serious.

“
Sera
.”

“Okay. Yes, I will tell you.” She paused. “Now you tell me.”

“What?”

“What’s going on? You’re upset about something. Tell me.”

“It’s…noth—I just got worried. That’s all.”

She studied him, silent, like she was trying to figure out what he hadn’t said. He needed to distract her before she started asking questions. He wouldn’t lie to her, not outright. But he would withhold the truth if he needed to. And right now he
needed
to, so he could figure things out first.

He tilted his head to the side, indicating the brilliantly colored wall next to his chair. “You painted today.” Sera used one wall of her bedroom as a continually changing canvas. She’d paint and repaint, the design varying with her mood. There was a splattered tarp rolled up next to the chair he sat in and a shelf of painting supplies above it. The faint smell of acrylics still clung to the wall. He’d spent the last half hour pacing her floor and staring at the latest adjustments to her ever-changing mural.

“Uh-huh.” Suspicion lingered on her face, but she got up off the bed to take a closer look at her wall.

Luke got up, too, moved over to stand next to her. The vanilla scent of her room no longer grated him—not now that she was safely home. It smelled like comfort again. “Who’s this?” He pointed to a lone dark figure new to the composition, a silhouette of a man.

“I don’t know.” Sera shrugged. “Just an image that came to mind.”

“Like a vision?”

“I don’t know. Maybe.”

“You have visions, too?” He turned to face her, surprise splashed all over his face.

“No. Nothing like that.” She thought for a moment. “Not like a ‘vision’ vision. It’s just an image that came to me. Not like I’m seeing the future or anything.” She looked him in the eye. “I don’t have visions.” She glanced back over at the dark figure. “You do.”

“Okay.”

She was studying the figure, touched a finger to it to see if the paint was dry.

“Oh, I know,” said Luke, nodding his head.

“What?” She turned to look at him again.

“Your new boyfriend. A tall dark stranger.”

“Yeah, right.” Sera nudged him in the ribs and laughed. A slight blush colored her cheeks.

Luke suddenly felt exhaustion weighing down his whole body. It was late. And they had to get up for school in the morning. He sighed.

“Okay, good night, Wolf,” he said.

“Night, Little Pig.”

He hugged her, glad that she was okay. She had to be okay. He didn’t want to think about what he would do without her. His other half.

Shall she be the first to die, Seer?

Now he just had to figure out how he was going to save her.

FIVE

“T
hey have a right to know, David.” His mother’s voice rang out from the kitchen, full of frustration, and Luke stopped short in the hallway. They were fighting again, his mom and dad. As they did most of the time.

“I think it’s time. It was time a long time ago,” she said.

He didn’t want to go in there in the middle of their fight. And he didn’t want to just stand here listening to his mother’s side of the phone conversation. But it was Monday morning and he and Sera needed to get breakfast before they headed off for school.

As if on cue, Sera slipped out of her room and headed for the kitchen. When she saw Luke standing there in the hall, she paused.

“Breakfast?” She nodded toward the kitchen.

“Parental discord.”

“Again?”

Luke just shrugged. “But we gotta eat, right?”

“Do we?” She looked at him. “Yeah, okay. We do. Let’s go.”

Luke waved his arm toward the door. “Ladies, first.”

“Chicken.”

“Gentleman.” Luke pointed at himself and grinned. “You always get those two confused.”

Sera stuck out her tongue and swept into the kitchen, minus her usual “Good morning, Mom.” Luke sauntered in after her and went to turn on the burner under the tea kettle.

Their mom’s face froze when she saw them, then she turned away and spoke quietly into the phone. “I can’t have this conversation right now.” There was a slight pause and then she said, “Yes, they’re here. They
live
here.” She took a deep breath and Luke could almost see her counting to ten in her head, trying her best to keep her temper under control. “I’ve got to go, David. We’ll finish this conversation later.”

She slammed the receiver back into its base, and mumbled something under her breath. Luke met Sera’s eyes. He hated this—the tension between his parents. He had a feeling it was never going to get better, and he was always right about things like that. It was part of his gift. But it sucked because here were two people he loved that could barely be in the same room together, let alone have a conversation without at least one of them ending up stressed and pissed off. Usually his mom. All because she still loved their dad. And for whatever reason, they just couldn’t get along anymore.

It was strangely quiet in the kitchen as his mom straightened her dark grey suit jacket, and turned to face Luke and Sera. Dark hair was streaked silver at her temples and she had intelligent blue eyes. Her sleek black leather briefcase bag stood open on the counter, the strap hanging down over the edge, and after looking back and forth between Luke and Sera for a moment without saying a word, she began to slide file folders back into it. She’d been up late last night, working. As usual.

Luke met Sera’s eyes, glanced at their mom, then very slightly shook his head. Sera shrugged.

Luke and Sera moved around the bright kitchen in their usual breakfast routine. He took two cereal bowls out of the cupboard, while she walked over to the pantry to get the cereal. On the way back, Sera rolled a drawer open and retrieved two spoons. She slid by Luke on his way to the refrigerator to get the milk and butter, and deposited her things on the table.

He headed for the table, and Sera ducked under his arms to get back into the kitchen. She plopped two pieces of bread into the toaster, then opened a cupboard to pick out two mugs. Luke lifted a knife out of the silverware drawer, picked up the little container of cinnamon-sugar mixture and walked over to grab the toast.

As he went back to the table, Sera filled one mug with coffee, then dropped a tea bag into the other one and poured hot water into it. Luke was pouring cereal into their bowls as she brought the two steaming mugs over. She gave him his and he took a brief moment to inhale the strong roasted-nut aroma before he took a sip.

Okay, the day could start.

Sera waited until their mom left the kitchen, then said to Luke, “So, how was Dad last night?”

“At the Food Shelf? Fine. He’s always fine with me.” Luke nodded to where their mom had disappeared down the hall. “Just not with her.”

“Sometimes it’s hard to believe they loved each other, you know?”

“They still do, Sera,” he said. “You know that.”

“They don’t show it very well.”

“Nope, they don’t.” Luke picked up his toast. “What do you think that was about, this morning?”

“No idea.”

Their mom walked back into the kitchen, went straight to her briefcase and rustled around inside of it. She lay her coat on the counter after almost dropping it several times, then placed her purse up there as well and searched through its numerous pockets. She’d misplaced her keys again, Luke thought, and focused for a moment on her keys. The image of her lime green coat came into his mind. That’s where they were.

Their mom looked over at Luke and Sera, and studied them. He held up his coffee and raised his eyebrows at her. After a moment of silent deliberation, she dropped her bags, picked up her dark red coffee mug again, and went over to the table to sit down.

“Everything okay?” Luke said to her.

“Everything’s fine. Dandy. Copacetic. I’m just taking a moment to be with my favorite people.” She took a drink of her coffee and smiled at them.

Luke didn’t want to upset his mom, but he was curious to find out what she’d been arguing about with his dad. What it was, exactly, that he and Sera had a right to know.

“That phone call…Dad…you sounded upset,” he said.

“Like you were not exactly in agreement,” Sera added.

“In other words, a normal conversation between me and Dad, right?” Their mom smiled, her lips tight. “Not for you to worry about, my loves. Just for me.” She took another sip of coffee, and Sera reached over to touch her arm. She placed her hand over Sera’s, rubbed it gently with her thumb. “Let’s talk about something else. Like how Sera has the warmest hands. They’re like heating pads. You always have, did you know that? Even as a baby.”

A blush crept up Sera’s neck and she looked furtively at Luke. He shook his head, a slight movement. Sometimes it amazed him how much his mom knew, and yet how little.

“How’s work?” Sera said.

“You still doing the prep work for that big trial?” Luke pushed his empty cereal bowl aside, brought his coffee mug in front of him.

“Yes, and I may have to do some traveling for that in the next month or so.”

“Oh yeah? Where?”

“Someplace fun?” Luke said.

“Chicago.”

“Definitely not fun in the winter,” Luke said.

“Not fun at all,” Sera agreed.

“And that’s when I’d be going.”

“What will we ever do without you?” Luke grinned at his mom. Sera laughed.

She was gone a lot, their mom. For work. He used to hate when she traveled, when he was younger, but now he didn’t mind so much. The house was more relaxed when she was gone. It seemed as if she was always stressed—over work or their dad—when she was home.

“Unfortunately, I have to get going. Mondays are always hectic.” Their mom got up from the table, placed her empty mug in the sink. Sera and Luke cleared the table.

“Oh, I almost forgot to tell you,” their mom said as she slipped into her coat. She patted the pockets. Luke and Sera stopped and looked at her. “I heard good news about that mom…what was her name? You know, the one who’s been in the hospital? You know who I’m talking about, right?”

“Anne Whitman?” Sera said. Luke’s eyes snapped onto Sera’s face. She bit her lip.

“Yes! Anne. She’s better. I got an email yesterday. She suddenly woke up late Thursday night, and she’s been breathing on her own ever since. She’s out of the ICU but still in the hospital for a few more days. Looks like she’s going to be fine. The PTA is asking for volunteers to take dinner over once she’s home.” Their mom slipped the long black leather strap of her briefcase bag over her right shoulder, and patted the pockets of her coat again. Luke smiled. For someone so intelligent and organized, it was funny how she was always losing her keys.

“That’s great,” Luke said. “I bet Josh is relieved.”

“Her son?”

“Yup.”

She looked up at Sera and Luke, and paused.

Luke looked at her expectantly, wondering if she was going to tell them. She was obviously thinking about it.

Her cell phone rang. She pulled it out of her pocket and looked at the screen. “It’s work,” she said. “See you tonight?”

Luke and Sera both nodded, and went to get their respective book bags over by the front door. They had to get going, too, or they’d be late for school.

“Oh, and—” their mom began.

“You’ll be home late,” Luke and Sera said, laughing.

“We know.” Sera slipped the strap of her bag over her head.

“If you’d like,” their mom said,” I can pick up something on the way home for din—”

“No!” Sera said.

“We’ll make dinner,” Luke added. “We don’t want a repeat of the mystery meal you brought home.”

“God, please no.”

“Now, come on. That was over a year ago, already. Let it go.” Their mom smiled and looked at her phone again, still ringing.

“It was cruel and unusual,” Luke said. “Child abuse.”

“Inedible. Disgusting. Noxious,” Sera said.

“I know, I know,” their mom said. “It was. It won’t happen again.”

“Yeah, right,” Sera said.

“That’s what you said the time before,” Luke said.

“Goodbye, Toil. Goodbye, Trouble.” Their mom laughed and put the phone up to her ear.

“Bye, Mom.” Sera gave her a quick hug. “Love you.”

Luke gave her a kiss on the cheek, then said right next to her ear, “Your keys are in your green coat. See ya.”

Her eyes widened and she nodded at him as she answered her phone and walked down the hall to talk. She turned back to look at him once, a small smile on her face.

Luke slipped his backpack onto his shoulders and was about to step outside with Sera, but remembered he’d left his cell in the kitchen. He waved Sera off to the car and went back to get it.