"What? He"s going to hate me! I ruined his life!" I couldn"t catch my breath. Claire thrust the cup of water into my face again, I pushed her hand away. I threw back the covers on the bed. "I"ve got to see him."
Claire and Melody both put their hands on my chest and pushed me back down onto the bed. I was too weak to fight them. My breathing started to return to normal.
"You"re not going anywhere. You need to rest." Claire pulled the curtain shut. She leaned down over me and looked me straight in the eye. "I don"t know how else to put this, but there"s a force inside of you that brought two people back to life and healed your parents to the point that all they have are a couple of sc.r.a.pes and bruises. That, my friend, can take a lot out of a girl."
I sunk back into my pillow. "Yes, but I also had to kill someone to make that happen."
Claire slumped into a chair. The day"s events had taken a lot out of her too. "Zellie, you said it yourself, it was his day to die. I don"t think it was you that did anything to him. I think it was meant to be."
Avery was meant to have both of his parents taken away from him in an instant? In what world, to what G.o.d was that meant to be? "What does that even mean? How come I didn"t heal you, how come you didn"t get caught in the rewind? None of this makes sense!"
She grabbed my hand. "I think you knew I wasn"t that hurt. I"m glad that I wasn"t caught up in it, because I could watch it and tell you what happened. No one else knew what went on until I filled in the details and I"m so glad that I could do that for them and for you." Claire grinned. "I"m like your supernatural sidekick."
Normally, that would have made me smile, but not right now. The weight of the situation suddenly hit me very hard. "Who all knows about this? What did you tell the police?" My actions were going to have consequences. I had possibly killed someone. I could go to jail.
"I told the police that your dad found out that I was driving underage and he"d followed us because he didn"t want you in the car with me. Then when he pulled us over, so to speak, I mixed up which was the accelerator and which was the brake. Then I accidentally put the car into reverse instead of drive and I backed up into them pretty hard."
I gave her a "really?" look. She shrugged. "I said I thought that all of us had a nasty case of whiplash, and that I would take full responsibility." Claire sucked in a deep breath. "Then I said that Avery had keys to his dad"s office so we all thought that we would go in there and wait for the police.
"But when we went in there, his parents were arguing and his mom had a gun pointed at his dad who proceeded to have a heart attack and that caused extra shock to your system, making you pa.s.s out." Claire paused and took another deep breath. "That"s my convoluted story and I"m stickin" to it."
"Jesus, Claire. They believed that?" I felt a little more at ease.
"I know!" Melody chimed in. "I could"ve come up with a more believable cover than that."
Claire shrugged again. "It"s a small town. I"m sure our law enforcement is much better equipped to deal with a stupid car accident and a heart attack than the newly revealed powers of Zellie Wells."
"You"re probably right." I wasn"t even equipped to deal with my...powers. How was any of this real? Visions were one thing, but rewinding time? That was some crazy-a.s.s-super-freakazoid stuff. I looked at Claire; I wasn"t the only one who had protected someone"s life today. "Thanks for being such a good friend and skilled liar." I reached over to hug her.
As Claire hugged me back she whispered into my ear, "Don"t forget, sidekick." She fluffed the pillows around my head. "Now get some sleep and let that IV do its job. Word on the street is you"re way dehydrated. I"ll see you tomorrow."
She pulled the curtain back from around my bed and left the room. Melody followed her with promises to come back in the morning.
I noticed, for the first time, that there was another patient in the room with me. She was about Mom"s age. I don"t know how I didn"t hear her before. She lay flat on her back snoring with her mouth open. Had she heard what we"d been talking about? She"d have me transferred to the psych ward for sure. I really looked at her and concentrated on her face.
A super bright light shone into her eyes as doctors leaned over her. I could hear metal clinking in the background. One of the doctors adjusted an IV hanging next to her head and then put a mask up to her mouth. "Sarah, I need you to count backwards with me from ten and then we"ll get that pesky appendix out and you"ll be feeling much better. 10,9,8,7..." She drifted off.
Sarah wasn"t waking up for a while and probably didn"t hear anything we"d said. Of course, if she had she would most likely chalk it up to a trippy drug induced dream.
I lay back onto my pillows and tried to relax, but my mind was buzzing with questions. What was new about that?
I pictured Avery"s face when he"d heard me talking about my visions to Mom and again when I rewound the bullet from his chest. It was the same look, fear and disgust and betrayal.
Now I"d really done it.
And Mom? She probably hated my guts at this moment. Why couldn"t I have just listened to her and kept out of the way? I"d only made everything worse by trying to help. Sure, she was alive. Alive to experience the feeling of having her heart and soul ripped from her body.
I didn"t want to think about what Dad thought of me. An abomination? A witch? This force inside me went against all of his beliefs.
Which brought me to my other Father. "G.o.d," I quietly prayed, "please forgive me. I lost control. I went astray. I know how to do the right thing. I haven"t been myself, but I will try. I will try harder than you thought I was capable of."
I wanted to cry. I needed to sob, but I had no tears.
Chapter Ten.
I sat in the back pew of the church with Melody and Claire, not even sure I should be at Mr. Adams" funeral, under the circ.u.mstances.
It seemed like the whole town was there.
Pastor Morris was leading the service, saying nice things about Mike and Becky Adams both. I knew he was trying to help Avery deal with the tremendous loss he had suffered at my hand.
Jason"s dad, Ray Erickson, gave the eulogy. He placed one hand on Mr. Adams" casket and rubbed the tears from his eyes with the other. "Mike and I have been buddies since kindergarten. A long time." He knocked twice on the casket. "But not long enough, man." His voice cracked. He wiped his eyes again. "But our boys Mikey, they"ll carry it on." He looked at Jason, "I love you, Son."
Avery sat in the front row staring straight ahead. I watched the light shining through the stained gla.s.s windows play upon the silvery hairs that had sprouted all over his head. No one would ever see him look like a teenager again. In the three days that had pa.s.sed since his dad"s death and his mom being committed, Avery looked like he had aged years. To me, he was more beautiful than ever. I was sure it was Nature"s way of punishing me.
My parents sat next to him in the front pew. Mom had her arm around his shoulders and Dad"s arm was around hers.
Ray pulled himself together. "Gracie," he looked to Mom. She sobbed in acknowledgement. Dad removed his arm from around her shoulders. "Gracie, we"ve lost our friend, but for the kid"s sake we gotta keep his memory alive."
She nodded, squeezed Avery"s arm. "I hear ya Ray. He"ll always be with me. He"s not easy to forget."
Ray chuckled, wiped his nose. "Mike, Becky, Gracie and I, we used to tear it up, y"know? I"m sure some of you older folks remember?"
"Tell the story about the rodeo!" a man my parents age yelled from the middle of the church.
Ray nodded his head, obliging. "This one time, we crashed the Labor Day rodeo. Drunker than skunks, and Mike, that son of a gun..." He gestured putting on a cowboy hat. "He stole a clown costume, this huge cowboy hat and pants. He and Gracie both got in the pants, Mike put on the hat and Gracie had a handkerchief around her neck...each with a suspender on their shoulder...they just ran right out into the middle of the Little Miss Rosedell compet.i.tion." He broke out into a hearty laugh.
"All these cute little made up girls, twirling their batons, doin" their line dance routines. Aw, man, it was hilarious." He sighed and knocked on the casket again. "I"m going to miss you brother." He pointed up in the air and then brought his hand into a fist and kissed it.
He walked down the three steps from the altar to the pews and then back up again. "I almost forgot." Ray pulled a gold pin from the inside pocket of his suit jacket and held it up for everyone to see. "This is a pin with the 519 insignia on it. My guys over at the firehouse thought Mike should be buried with it. It"s in recognition of his twenty-four years as a volunteer firefighter." He placed the pin on top of the casket and walked back down the stairs towards Mom.
She stood up and leaned over the pew, grabbing Ray in st.u.r.dy hug, kissing him on the cheek and then rubbing her lipstick from his face with her thumb. Ray shook Dad"s hand and then took Avery"s hand and pulled him up into big, back slapping embrace.
It was like Avery was everyone"s kid now and Mom was Mr. Adams" widow. I had no idea where that left me or Dad in the equation. My parents hadn"t really spoken to me since I"d been released from the hospital.
The morning after the accident, when the doctors deemed me healthy and hydrated, I"d walked with my parents in silence from the hospital to the maroon car they"d rented. Melody and Claire were doing the welcome home dance when we pulled into the driveway, but stopped abruptly when Mom burst into tears and Dad stormed into the house.
If it weren"t for Claire and Melody, I would be all alone. At least I knew why Mom was mad at me. She"d thrown the green letter in my face, saying, "You might want to try and follow the rules."
This had made me furious because, after really thinking the situation through, I mean, under the circ.u.mstances could it have gone any other way? Should I have left everyone dead and injured? And for that matter, I didn"t even know what I was doing when I saved everyone else"s life by taking Mr. Adams".
Dad was a different story. He acted like he was afraid of me, like he didn"t know who I was. I guess I should be lucky he still let me live under his roof.
The worst part was that I expected things to be like this, but was hopeful that I was overreacting. Losing that hope, it made me mad as h.e.l.l. And that made me feel guilty and contrite and confused all over again.
Pastor Morris spoke. "Can the pallbearers please come forward?"
Dad, Jason and Ray Erickson, a few other men, walked somberly to the front of the church, stationed themselves around Mr. Adams" casket and hoisted it up onto their shoulders. Avery and Mom followed behind them.
As the men carried the casket down the aisle, Pastor Morris instructed everyone to follow the hea.r.s.e out to Rosedell cemetery for the interment and to please remember to turn their headlights on.
We all stood as the pallbearers pa.s.sed. I forced myself to make eye contact with Avery. It was not returned.
After the funeral, as if the situation wasn"t awkward enough, my parents invited everyone to come back to our house for a bite to eat and to pay their condolences to Avery.
I tried to help Mom in the kitchen, setting out cold cuts on a platter, but I seemed to be in her way no matter where I stood or what I did. "I think you"ve done enough already," she hissed at me under her breath.
Exiled from the kitchen, I went into the living room. Avery was in there sitting on the couch, looking uncomfortable. People kept hugging him.
Now was my chance. With all of these people here, maybe he would listen to me. I sat down next to him. "Avery. I"m so sorry." I reached out for his hand.
He leaned away from me and then stood up. "Don"t Zel. Not now."
My eyes went blank, the Avery vision overtaking me.
I came to; he was snapping his fingers in my face. "Nice. You can"t cut that s.h.i.t out for one day?" He took off out the front door.
Everyone was staring at us. Ugh! My house was too crowded, I felt like I couldn"t breathe. Every time I brushed shoulders with an elderly person, and there were plenty of them there, I got a quick flash of them dying or dead. Mostly of natural causes, thank G.o.d. I hoped that this particular new development went away, no wonder my grandma killed herself.
I went into my bedroom. Mel and Claire were already hiding in there, sitting on Melody"s bed.
"Hey." I flopped down on my bed, flinging my arm across my face. "Is this day ever going to end?"
Claire switched beds and plunked down next to me, cuddling up. "It"s got to." She played with my hair, letting it run through her fingers. "Listen, we"ve been talking. How about the three of us go stay with your Aunt Hazel for the summer? Just the summer. Give people some time to get their heads out of their a.s.ses and love you again."
I sat up and looked across the room at my sister. "What exactly did you tell Claire about Aunt Hazel that would make her think that would be a good idea?"
Melody looked down at her hands, picking some nail polish from her thumb. "She lives in Portland, that"s what I told her. Zellie, every year in her Christmas cards she always tells us that we"re welcome to stay with her. I can"t think of a better time."
"Isn"t Aunt Hazel like, sixty years old though? I mean, three teenage girls in her one bedroom apartment for a whole summer? I don"t think that"s the kind of visit she was envisioning."
Melody got up and walked to the edge of my bed. I had never seen her so serious. Ever.
"I read the letter that Mom gave you and I called Aunt Hazel already. I told her everything." She teared up. "She said it was my responsibility to take care of you right now, she said that we younger sisters may not have the powers that you and Grandma did, but that we were meant to be your protectors. And that"s what I"m going to do Zellie, so, no more talking about this. Mom and Dad think it"s a good idea too. We leave the day after tomorrow. Claire"s dad is going to drive us."
"Okay," I said simply, realizing I had nothing keeping me here.
I stood outside in the driveway waiting for Mr. Vargas to come pick us up. Melody was still packing.
It was a perfect summer day. The sky was a crisp cloudless blue and the heat had let up a little for once. I closed my eyes and turned my face upward, soaking in the sun. Hearing a car pull into the gravel driveway, I opened my eyes, expecting to see Mr. Vargas" immense green Suburban.
Instead, it was Mr. Adams" red truck with Avery behind the wheel.
He turned off the ignition and jumped down from the truck, pointing his key chain and pressing a b.u.t.ton to lock the doors.
I fought the urge to run back into the house and hide in my room as he walked toward me. I scrambled for something insignificant to say. "Hey, you"re not supposed to be driving yet!" I turned the corners of my mouth up, attempting to be cheerful.
He stuffed the keys into his jeans pockets. "Yeah, well there isn"t anybody to tell me not to so..."
I dropped the corners of my mouth. "Right, sorry. I wasn"t thinking."
He stood stock still in front of me, as beautiful as ever. His hair was pretty long now, curling way over his ears. He never did get that haircut from his mom. I ached in every part of my body.
"I have some things I need to say to you before I lose my nerve," he said.
"Okay." I could barely get the word out of my throat.
Avery steeled himself and looked me straight in the eye. "I know you didn"t kill my dad on purpose. I know that you were trying to save him. That you thought my mom was going to kill him because of the vision you had or whatever...but then you"re saying you had a vision of your dad dying too."
"Avery. I"m so sorry. You have to know that-" I felt like I was going to collapse.
He held his hand up to stop me talking and took a deep breath in. "What I wanna know is, what made it more my dad"s day to die than yours?"
I couldn"t get the words out fast enough now. "I don"t know. Don"t you think I"ve thought about that too? Believe me when I say that I don"t know what came over me. I don"t even have theories. All of this? This vision stuff? It"s only been happening to me for a couple of months."
Avery looked away, blinking back tears. "So that"s all you have to say? You don"t know?"
That got me crying too. He wasn"t going to hear me out. "Yes, for now that"s all I can say. I"m hoping my aunt Hazel can help me fill in the blanks. Especially since my own mom isn"t speaking to me."
He glared at me. "Can you really blame her? My dad was the love of her life." Avery wiped his forearm across his eyes. "You know, I thought you were going to be that for me? That"s all screwed up now isn"t it?"
"Yeah, I guess it is." My blood began to boil. This boy had no forgiveness inside him and it was p.i.s.sing me off.
"Avery, I have a question for you. Why can"t we blame her? Why can"t we blame them? If your dad had never talked my mom into moving back here, none of this would have happened." I reached out to touch his arm; I needed him to remember our bond.
He flinched, stepping back from me. "Don"t touch me, please."
Oh, I"d had enough of this. If he wanted to throw what was between us away, well then I was gonna help him do it. I pushed him as hard as I could. I wanted him with me or gone! He stumbled backwards and fell.
"Come off it, Avery!" I yelled. "G.o.d! You know what? You, my parents, you can all just go to h.e.l.l."
He stayed on the ground, looking like he was terrified of what I might do next.