Tales of Aradia The Last Witch Volume 1 (16 page)

After that event, Jona
Lee and Aradia no longer saw one another.

Aradia became consumed
by guilt over what had happened, and plunged into the depths of
depression. She was no longer smoking or acting out, but that
behavior was replaced by a new moroseness. Aradia hardly spoke at
all, and never about anything meaningful.

That phase lasted about
a year. Her parents kept a close eye on her, but gave her space.
Eventually Ross and Liza were able to convince Aradia to forgive
herself.

Aradia deeply regretted
that the accident had happened, but she learned from it. Jona Lee
had, completely unwittingly, not only taught Aradia the necessity
for responsibility with her powers, but she had also helped to
repair Aradia's relationship with her parents.

The incident had made
Aradia realize that whether she wanted her powers or not was
irrelevant. They made her feel isolated from everyone, but no
matter how much she wished it, they would never go away, and she
could not turn her back on them.

Almost as if a switch
was flicked, one day Aradia walked up to her parents and hugged
them both. They embraced her back. For a long time nobody said
anything, then Aradia broke the silence. “I love you.” It was the
first time in well over a year that she’d said those
words.

From that point on she
focused on learning to use her powers. She found that with her
attention, they began developing at a steady pace. She began to
sense the extent of her mind-reading, her summoning, her strength,
and her innate knowledge of potion-making.

She was thrilled when
she discovered an ability to heal minor injuries. It seemed such an
ironic turn of fate that Jona Lee’s injury had set her on the
course to being a healer.

What finally gave her
closure for the Jona Lee incident was when, one day, she was able
to seamlessly repair a family vase after it was smashed.

“Take that, all the
king’s horses and men,” she declared triumphantly, carefully
setting the vase back in its spot.

She wanted to do more,
and as she saw it, she was uniquely situated to help in a big way.
Her own father was an ADA, and she had powers that could help her
solve crimes.

That was the first time
they’d talked about her powers and how she could help her dad.
They’d had the conversation many times since. It was almost always
amicable, but the outcome never changed. Once in a while she’d,
quite passively and without her control, get a vision which
contained useful information. When that happened her dad would call
it an anonymous tip and then investigate so he could back it up
with hard facts. That was the furthest her assistance had ever
gone.

On the whole, the
situation worked. Aradia was finally accepting herself for who she
was, but she still wanted to know where she’d truly come from and
why she was the way she was.

“You have indeed grown
up, Aradia, and I couldn’t be more proud of you,” he said. Tipping
the bowl in her direction, he asked, “Carrot?”

“No, Daddy, I don’t
want a carrot."

He shrugged and took
another big gulp of his coffee.
How does
he gulp his coffee like that
, she
couldn’t help but wonder.
It looks
scalding hot
.

She was just about to
say something to that effect when her dad stated, “You know, I
don’t think I’m the only one who’s been holding out.”

Aradia suddenly didn’t
care so much about his coffee. Nervously she grabbed and chomped on
a carrot.

“You know what I’m
referring to?”

Guiltily, she
nodded.

“How do you think I
feel about you lying to your mom and me and going to a
party?”

“Disappointed,” she
said in a hushed tone. This time she was unable to look him in the
eye.

He nodded. He didn’t
raise his voice at all. Normally his tone increased at any
irritation, no matter how minor. For him to be so calm was more
disconcerting than if he’d been screaming and red in the face. "You
know, Rai, it is not just the lying and going to a party that I’m
upset about. Since you lied to your mother and me about where you
were, something could have happened to you, and we wouldn’t have
realized. If you had gotten drunk at that party, someone could have
raped you–”

“Dad, I–”

“Don’t interrupt me
right now, Aradia. Dammit, I’ve seen so many cases come across my
desk that look exactly like what you did, except they don’t end so
happily. Girls get victimized and end up pregnant or infected with
HIV, hell, even killed. These things happen, all too
often.”

“So, what then, I’m not
supposed to have a life because I might end up in a shallow
grave?”

“I’m not saying that,
Aradia,” he said. Still his voice hadn’t increased one decibel.
“What I’m saying is that your mom and I are here to help guide you.
When you cut us out like that, though, there’s nothing we can do.
We give you our trust because we know you won’t abuse it. But last
night you did just that.”

She looked like a sad
puppy with its tail between its legs. She hadn’t really thought
about the situation from this perspective. Ross paused and took a
deep breath.

"Besides, did you
consider what effect alcohol might have on your…” in a hushed tone
he finished, “abilities?"

Aradia gulped. She had
definitely not thought of that. She usually had good control over
her powers; the last real accident had been Jona Lee. But that
control came from the fact that when she used them she had total
concentration. If she was drunk, she might have let her
concentration, along with her judgment, slip.
Who knows what could have
happened?

"I am so sorry, Daddy,"
Aradia said, sounding just about as sad-puppy as she looked. "I
really am sorry."

"I know you are,
honey," Ross said. “Bring it in for a hug.”

She got up and hugged
him. He remained seated, but their heights worked pretty
well.

"Being sorry isn't
going to save you from a little punishment though, is
it?"

"Um, yes?" she said
hopefully. He chuckled, but shook his head.

Ross held up his
fingers and ticked off the consequences one by one. "One, no more
staying over at Rhonda's place until your mother and I feel like we
can trust you again. Two, from now on you will help your mother
after school. You will help her clean her classroom, organize her
papers, scrape gum off the chairs and so on. Three, when I go in to
work on weekends, you will accompany me and help me organize
my
office. You’ll
file and make coffee. Believe me when I tell you that you cannot
imagine how much filing and coffee-making there is to do in a legal
office. And four, from now on, if you want to go to an illegal
party, at least tell your mother and me where you will
be."

Aradia was in the flow
of the punishments, thinking about the nosedive her life had just
taken, when the last one instantly grabbed her full
attention.

She looked up,
extremely perplexed, and said, "What do you mean?"

"Honey," Ross said as
he threaded his fingers through his brown curly hair and sighed
again. "You are a teenager. Going to a party is expected. Hell, if
anything, your mom, and I are proud that you have managed to make
friends at all in this town. The last place we were in... We were
lucky if your teachers even spoke to us!"

“Kind of a low blow
there, Dad.”

“Erm, sorry,” he said,
realizing she was right. “But it’s kind of true.”

Aradia still looked
puzzled. "So, what? You are happy I went to an illegal
party?"

"Proud actually," Ross
said with a smile. “I shouldn’t be, but I’d be a hypocrite if I
expounded on the importance of honesty and then turned around and
lied to you.”

"So then why are you
punishing me?" asked Aradia, completely befuddled by her father's
logic.

"Because, firecracker,
you lied to us. I’m not mad you were there. I’m mad you didn’t tell
us. And I’m mad that you did not take into consideration what drugs
and drink might do to you specifically. Honey, whether you like it
or not, you are not like other people. You have special conditions,
and annoying or strange as they may be, they are still part of you,
and you have to consider them.”

“I didn’t do any of
that,” she said.

“Hmm?”

“‘Drugs or drink,’” she
repeated. “In fact, I’ve never had a drink of alcohol.”

“Hmm,” he
repeated.

“It’s true. Even back
when I was all ‘OMG FML,’ I never had alcohol.”

“I have no idea what
that means,” he said.

“Use context, Daddy,”
she admonished jokingly.

“Well, maybe we’ll have
a beer together,” he proposed. She shot him another surprised look,
and he added, “Purely for educational purposes, in a controlled
setting.

She laughed. The
tension was broken. Her punishments were inconvenient, but she
understood his reasoning.

“Hey, I do have one
question. How’d you find out?”

“Well, you were here
when I woke up this morning, so I knew something was up,” he said.
“I was planning on just asking you about it though, until I read my
work email.”

Aradia winced. She had
an idea where this was going.

“Local PD apparently
took a statement from you last night. Specifically they cited an
alleged attack behind the Visitor’s Center and details about a
party they busted at some kid’s house.”

“And you had the report
emailed to you,” Aradia said. Immediately she turned around though
and said, “Wait, no you didn’t. That was last night. No way the
DA’s office would have it yet.”

He chuckled. “You know,
you’ve got the mind for law if you ever do want to go into
it.”

“What then?” she
asked.

“You tell me,” he
prompted. “Get it right and you’re off the hook for making our
coffee next weekend.”

She thought about it
and connected the dots. “Officer Ortega,” she said. “You guys have
worked together. He gave you a heads up.”

“As a professional
courtesy,” Ross added. “He came in as an expert witness for me
shortly after we got here. The case was completely unrelated to the
killings. He’s a good guy. How’d you know it was him?”

“He recognized my last
name,” Aradia replied. “The other guy, Goat Chin, he couldn’t have
cared less who I was.”

Ross raised an eyebrow,
but didn’t ask. Instead he poured the last few carrots into his
hand and threw them in his mouth all at once.

Aradia cracked a smile
as she asked her father, "So is everything okay now?"

"Mostly,” he said.
“There’s still the issue of your mother’s punishments.”

“What?”

“She’s at the market,”
he said. “I didn’t see my email until after she’d already
gone.”

“So you
mean…”

“She doesn’t know
yet.”

So I have to go
through the whole thing again!
Aradia realized.
And
Mom is so much better at laying down the guilt trip than
Daddy…

“You know,” her father said, “it might
take some of the edge off if you tell her yourself.”

Aradia thought that through. He was
right. “Will do, Daddy.”

She headed toward the
fridge to make herself some breakfast. "Not that it makes any
difference in my punishment, but I had a pretty horrible time last
night."

"Really?" her father
asked. “Based on what Ortega said, it sounded like a pretty fun
party.”

“That is so
inappropriate!” Aradia said. “Gosh.”

Aradia shut her eyes as
she recalled the party. She remembered the initial boredom, the
unwanted sexual advances, and the disgusting amount of
alcohol-induced vomiting she’d witnessed.
Any amount is too much, really
.
She thought of the smoke filled rooms and the teenagers smoking
cigarettes and passing joints or bongs around. She thought of the
crowded house and the shoving of people everywhere. Then after all
that there was her ill-planned and, in retrospect, largely
unnecessary evasion of the police.

"Yeah, Daddy," Aradia
nodded, "seriously."

Then Aradia also
remembered dancing with Roy, and the way Dax had watched her all
night. He was creepy, no two ways about that, but she felt a crazy
attraction to him.
I’m not going to
admit it, Daddy, but I did have a little fun
.

Chapter
Thirteen

“Freshly brewed, black,
half a Splenda, just like you like,” Aradia said as she set the
steaming mug of coffee down on her father’s desk. The cup was made
to look as if it was composed entirely of duct tape. It was his
favorite mug. “I used extra coffee beans, too, to make it
stronger.”

“Hmm,” Ross replied.
“Thank you, Aradia. That was very sweet of you. Now what is it you
want?”