Kinetics: In Search of Willow (6 page)

Willow's parents had her in a tight
group hug, so I wasn't able to wave goodbye before Mom pushed me
out into her waiting car, my dad only a few steps behind
us.

***

"I'm sorry you had to find out this
way." Mom gently put a cup of tea in front of me with a reassuring
smile. I frowned into the steaming cup. Mom still didn't get the
idea that tea wasn't my… well, cup of tea.

I pushed the undissolved sugar in
circles at the bottom of the cup with a spoon. Mom had a calm
expression on her face, but the fact that she had put too much
sugar in my tea told me otherwise. She seemed to think putting
extra sugar in things was like a spell that could make bad
situations less hard on people.

"What 
is
 going on?" I asked after a few minutes.

Dad was standing at the sink and
staring blankly out the window. "It's hard to know where to
start."

"Well, start somewhere," I snapped.
After all the events at school, my temper was frayed and it was
beginning to show.

"Eugene." My dad glared at
me.

"Sorry." I stared into the cup,
continuing to spin the spoon around the edge. Maybe the rotating
drink would give me quicker answers.

Dad sat down next to me and took the
spoon out of my fingers. The tea slowed to a bob instead of a
rotate.

"You are part of a people who have no
official name in the world that you know. You would know us by the
pseudoscientific names of psychics, clairvoyants, users of ESP,
magicians, wizards, witches, and many others. Among our people, we
go by the common name of Kinetic."

"Like, telekinetic?" I asked. I'd
heard the word 'kinetic' a couple times during the day, but it had
made no sense.

"Yes, but let me finish before you ask
any questions. There are approximately 63 million Kinetics in the
world. And each of those Kinetics is bound to the rules set forth
in our society before people knew to begin recording history. No
Kinetic may intentionally reveal his or her powers to those who are
not Kinetics. Anyone who breaks this rule is stopped and arrested
by the InfoCon."

"The tan and black jacket guys at the
school?" I asked.

Dad nodded and continued
speaking.

"You were kept in the dark because of
an incident when you were a child. There was an accident that kept
you from expressing your powers correctly. You're what we call a
Vunjika: an untrainable."

"Untrainable?" That didn't sound good
at all.

"Since you are a Vunjika, you are
inherently, naturally, blocked from being able to use your powers.
If we can't find a way to release the block, then there is no way
for you to use, much less learn your powers."

"Why am I blocked?" I asked. I
couldn’t remember ever feeling like I had strange abilities. But
what kid doesn’t feel like if he tries hard enough he can get a
pencil to move across the table?

"We're not sure." Dad crossed his arms
and leaned back in the chair. "Sometimes it's due to a lack of
training, but yours is more complicated. It happened when you were
barely a few years old. It shouldn't have happened. We were going
to wait until you turned sixteen to throw any of this at
you."

"I turn sixteen in like…eight
months."

Dad nodded again.

"Like your mother said, you were never
supposed to find out this way."

Mom rubbed my shoulder and smiled
encouragingly. I smiled back, but looked at Dad, hoping he would
keep going.

"I had hoped to do this a little more
prepared…There is much to do between now and when you turn
sixteen."

"Wait," I said, as a realization began
to dawn on me. "This means I have a power?"

Dad nodded.

"Can I move things with my mind… like
Yoda or something?"

Dad pursed his lips.

"Telekinesis is a common power to
have, but we won't know what your specialty is until we've gone
through a few tests."

"Do you guys have powers?"

"I do," Dad said. "Your mother isn't a
Kinetic."

"You're not?" I asked, looking at
her.

She sat down and smiled at me. "I am a
Non. A Non-Kinetic, that is."

"Can't you learn?"

"It's not something that can be
trained. It's genetic," Dad responded.

"Oh." I thought about that for a few
minutes. "Is that why I'm this…Vunjika, thing?"

Dad shook his head. "No, when you were
a child you displayed all the traits of a perfectly normal Kinetic
child. You went through the normal power displays, shifting from
one power to another while your mind developed. We're not sure why
your powers became unstable. By the time you were seven, your
powers should have solidified on one thing but they kept shifting.
And then you had another accident and they just quit shifting
altogether until you weren't displaying any powers at all. Our
Healers determined that you blocked yourself due to the
psychological trauma of unstable powers."

"Wow." I wasn't sure I understood
everything that he was saying, but I didn't know what questions to
ask to make it better.

"In the end, we are faced with a
decision. We can have the InfoCon change your memory of the events
at your school like those who are not Kinetics, or I can begin your
training into the Anyan's Alliance Corps."

"Anyan's Alliance?" I asked. It was
another word I had heard.

"Our group is called the Anyan's
Alliance Corps." Dad puffed out his chest ever so slightly. He was
proud of it, whatever it was.

"Are there other groups?" Something
about the way Dad had said "our group" made me think that it wasn't
the only one.

"Some. But they aren't important to
know right now." He looked down at the table, breaking eye
contact.

"Oh, okay." Dad was a terrible liar,
and he was definitely leaving something out. I let it go, and he
continued to speak.

"Do you know what you want to do?" Dad
asked and stared at me. "Thoughts?"

I shook my head, but really I was
thinking about Willow. "Is Willow…a…a Kinetic too?"

"Yes, as are her parents."

"So she's also in the dark? Or…" She'd
known too much today. That the illusions weren't real and that
Laura was the cause…Willow had to know.

"She knows." Mom supplied, taking the
now-cold tea from in front of me and sticking it in the microwave
to warm. "She'll be going through some of the early stages of
training starting this summer. Greg and Moira were just going to
tell everyone that she was going to community college for a pre-Med
program."

I bit the inside of my cheek. I was
already a recipient of that lie. It hurt that she lied to me, but I
wondered if she had much of a choice.

"I guess I'll train, but can I have a
few days to think about it?" I said after a moment. Wherever I was,
I wanted to be with Willow. If she was training, then I should
too.

Dad nodded and exchanged a glance with
Mom. She picked up her cellphone and disappeared into the living
room.

"It will be the right choice, Eugene."
Dad reached over and grasped my shoulder giving me something that
was and wasn't a smile.

"Thanks, Dad." I felt a momentary
surge of pride. I hadn't heard those words come out of my father's
mouth in ages. I was pretty sure he thought I was an overwhelming
failure in all things. It wasn't hard to see why. If I was part of
these Kinetic people and I should have had a power from an early
age, how wasn't I failure? I was a disappointment from
childhood.

I tried to soak in that feeling of
pride for as long as I could. Who knew when I would get it
again?

CHAPTER 5

"We are the movers of
fate. We are the kinetics that will ultimately decide how this war
will end and that which will join our world together in harmony and
shun those who would seek to do us harm."
 ~ Chief Minister Ashraf bin Saqib Al-Fulani in a speech
to the members of Anyan's Alliance on the restoration of Anyan
societies. Cairo, Egypt. 1832.

My moment with my father was
interrupted by a knock at the door. Willow didn't wait for any of
us to answer and came on in, kicking her shoes off at the door.
"Hey, how's it going?"

"Good." I smiled at her, relieved to
see her face. "I think I’m going to train."

"Oh!" She sat down across from me and
grinned between me and Dad. "That's a relief. I was worried you
wouldn't want to get involved." Her eyelids were almost half
lidded, and her grin was a little forced. Her back wasn't quite as
straight as it usually was. The fatigue from earlier was still in
her face, but she seemed less worn out than when we had been at the
gym.

"How long have you known?" I
asked.

She pressed her lips together and
looked up as if trying to find the right words in the
ceiling.

"My whole life."

"And you never told me?" I ignored the
audible scoff from my father.

"If I did, the InfoCon wouldn't have
let you keep the knowledge if they found out." Willow smiled
apologetically. I wanted to press her on it, but a look from Dad
stopped the words before they could leave my mouth.

I crossed my arms across my chest and
begrudgingly decided to change topics. "Speaking of the InfoCon,
what are they going to do to Laura?"

Willow shrugged, but Dad spoke up.
"She's not yet 16, so she can't be offered training. They will
relocate her and her family to a new and safer location that will
be accommodating to an emerging Kinetic."

"Oh," I said. I would probably never
see her again. And for that I was glad. I shuddered to think about
the nightmares she had awoken in the school. "What happens to me
now?"

"They are going to send someone here
with the contract," Mom said, walking back into the room and
setting her cellphone on the table. She sat next to Dad and grasped
his hand. They smiled at each other.

"Once you have all the paperwork out
of the way we will have to work with a specialist to construct a
training plan for you. You will be a little different than someone
like Willow," Dad supplied.

"Why?"

"Because you are a Vunjika," Dad said
curtly.

"It's something we will have to work
through, Eugene. You don't have to worry about it right now." Mom
reached across the table and patted my hand.

Willow flicked my arm.

"I could probably try to teach you a
thing or two. I'm a Healer Kinetic, so I don't know how much I
could pass on. Depends on your power, but I can try."

"Thanks." I said with a
smile.

I didn't have much time to think about
what I was going to do when the front door creaked open and someone
came in. This time it wasn't someone I expected to see. My brother
stepped through the door and smirked at me from the doorway. I took
a deep breath.

"Jacob!" Mom grinned and got up to hug
him. Dad also got up, but instead of hugging him he shook Jacob's
hand and patted his shoulder like a politician greeting a
voter.

"Mom, I know it's a bit unusual but I
intercepted the contract request. I figured this should stay in the
family." Jacob shook the manila envelope in his hands.

"How did you get here so quickly?" I
asked, surprised. Last I heard he was still in Switzerland and had
no plans to visit for at least another few months.

Jacob smirked at me. "One of the
things you're going to learn very quickly, Eugene. We have methods
of transportation far faster than anything you could have imagined
living your provincial little life."

"Jacob!" Mom swatted his arm and shook
her head disapprovingly.