Chapter 2

With everything back to normal and in good shape the night settled evenly.  When we were through with dinner Trent let James take his jeep to drive me home.  The ride was unusually long and I knew why I just didn’t stop him and ask why he had taken a different route to somewhere else.  I let him keep driving because I didn’t want to go home just yet, and if I got to I would stay with him forever.  I gazed out my window as we drove in complete silence.  Obviously annoyed by tranquility he decided to break it.

“I’m sorry about my mother.  She can be… a little overprotective sometimes.”

“There’s no need to apologize.  Your mother loves you very much and that’s why she’s so protective of you… she doesn’t want to lose you.” I said softly.

It got quiet again and he finally spoke, “Amy…” he closed his mouth and strengthened his grip on the steering wheel with his right hand and his left hand balled up into a fist.  “Amy… Amy I love you.  I love you so much that not even ‘I love you’ is enough to define it.  I want you to be mine forever.  I don’t want to lose you.” He said searching for my hand and closing his hand around it with a strong, but yet gentle force that made me feel warm inside.

 

Later that evening when James had finally dropped me off at my house and I had tried to quietly sneak through the living room where my dad lay asleep in his chair and my mother on the couch, but I accidentally stepped on a part of the floor that squeaked.

“Amy?  Is that you dear?” mother asked faintly from the couch.

“Yes mother, it is I.  Go back to sleep now, I’m alright.”

“Okay, but we’re going to talk about this tomorrow.” She said and then rolled over obediently and fell back asleep.

I slowly made my way up the stairs and up to my room.  I felt at home and welcome for once since the day had began.  My room released a kind of mental aroma that only your brain could comprehend, and it numbed all pains that could possibly ruin other chances of happiness.  I put my pajamas on and went to brush my teeth in my bathroom.  On my way out of the bathroom I jumped to find my father sitting casually on my bed obviously waiting for me.

“Um… hello, Dad.” I said staring at him unusually and smiling kind of dorky.

“Um… hello, daughter.” He spoke with his tone darker and almost disappointed sounding.  He was definitely not smiling back.

“Is there something you need?  If there is, you should hurry up and tell me ‘cause I’m going to bed.”  My smile disappeared from my face and my eyebrows shoved against each other in response to his facial expression.

“Where were you all afternoon?  Your mother and I were beginning to worry where you were because you bothered not to call us nor find any other way to communicate with us.  We trust this will not happen again and that you will have enough sense to do better next time.” He said, his voice fully concerned.

“So, you’re letting me off of the hook?” My voice was surprised.

“No, I am not.  Not right now anyways.” He said getting up from my bed and making his way to my door.

“Then what was that whole…” I struggled to find the words, “that whole scolding about for?  Why, what are you planning to have done to me?” I said my voice shrinking three octaves making me sound like a little preschool girl.

“That will be decided tomorrow when you, your mother, and I all sit down and discuss what you did and where you were and what we think your punishment should be.” He said nobly against the sad, wilted face of mine and the small, upset sound of my voice.  “But until then, you are grounded from everything.” He said teasingly, saying it as if a he were really punishing me.  “You are not even aloud to breathe unless I say so.” He said smiling and he messed with the curls on the top of my head.

I took a saluting form with the side of my hand to my forehead, “Yes, sir.  Of course, sir.” I spoke trying to keep from laughing afterwards.

“Alright trooper, off to bed.  You look just as zombified as I do.”

I obediently did as he said and crawled on my bed and pulled up the covers over my body.  He at in the spot right beside me on my bed as if it were meant only for him and leaned over and kissed me goodnight on my cheek.  “Ames, if your little sister Claire, wasn’t here, I think I might actually have a favorite child.” He winked, “But since she is, I can only love both of you just as much.  It is a disappointment though; you certainly grew up much faster than I hoped you would.” He sighed and I grabbed his hand.  It felt strong, and warm around mine.  And a soft, but strong feeling of protection swallowed me as I stared into my father’s beautiful green eyes.

“Oh, Dad, you know I will always be your little girl.  No matter what happens.” I winked back at him and he squeezed my hand once and then got up and left the room.

Suddenly the room was dark and cold with only my presence disturbing the silence.  Everything that happened today swirled around in my head ripping all of the thoughts that recently had been thought into a million little pieces that floated softly to the bottom of my brain.  And I had begun to remember the superbly irregular things that had also happened today.  My mind leaped from the incident in Mr. Carver’s room to the episode with James and the strange bound my mind took in the hospital with the arrival of James’s parents.

How had I been able to do that?  Nobody that I even could dream about can do any of these things except for the man upstairs!  These things are inhumane… I shouldn’t even be doing them!  It was bad enough at the beginning when people already thought I was a freak.  Now I have the proof to clarify that I am no longer human.  I am no longer normal…

These strange thoughts ran through my mind scrambling all the others.  Soaring like hawks throughout my mind they made themselves as bright as daylight against the shadows.  They also made it clear that they would not be easily forgotten either.  It was easy to remember something, but never easy enough to forget what it is you keep remembering.  And to this, the scab that is supposed to comfort the following pain after the breaking of your heart never fully heals.  It just simply isn’t strong enough to heal its self until I am strong enough myself to forget what causes my pain.

Suddenly these questions slowly paced back and forth through my head.  Will I ever be normal again?  And if I do become normal once more, how long will it take before it’s over?  Should I tell James?  And if I do, what will he think of me?  Will he think I’m a freak of nature too?  I suddenly realized that I was a freak of nature.  For I was no longer human so I had to be something else.  Of course, reading minds and seeing the future is not all that bad.  Actually I can think of a few people who would find it quite fascinating.  I sat and thought about who might find it interesting to find a telepathic person.  Well there is… no, well how about?  Oh… yes… I have one!!! National freaking Geographic!!!!  My mind screamed mentally to the world hoping to be loud enough to let the whole universe know how I felt.

I rolled over on my side and stared at my alarm clock.  It read 11:45 p.m. and it didn’t take me long to fathom that I had been thinking so hard about my abnormality that I had forgotten completely about the time.  I took a second look at my alarm clock, which had produced enough light to bring my cell phone out of the dark beside it.  I lay there and questioned myself whether or not I should call James.  I didn’t think James would be asleep right now on a Friday so I called him.  The phone rang six times before a groggy, annoyed voice answered the phone.

“Hello?” he asked impatiently.

“James?  Hey, I’m sorry for waking you up if you were asleep.” I giggled nervously.

“Amy?  Oh no, it’s okay.  I wasn’t sleeping whatsoever.  Though I was trying to so I could dream of you.” He said sweetly.

“Yeah, well I couldn’t go to sleep even if I tried.  Something…” I trailed off quietly too afraid to tell James what I longed to do so.  The words singed my tongue as they sat there like hot iron plates.  Blazing iron plates I could not spit out.

“Something, what?  What’s wrong?  Did you get in trouble for staying out to dinner with my family and I?” His voice grew concerned.

“No, that’s not it at all.  It’s just that… um…”

“Yes?  Amy, you know you can tell me anything.  Even if what you tell me happens to be quite…” The other end of the line grew quiet as he searched for the word.  “Extraordinary.”

“Do you remember the cartoons we watched a long time ago when you first moved here?  The ones like The Justice League, Superman, and The Hulk?” I asked quietly.

“Yeah, I remember them.” His voice grew exuberant, “My favorite character from The Justice League was “Green Lantern” I think his name was called and yours was “Wonder Woman”.  Yeah, anyway what about them?”

“Um… if I told you… that… I was sort of… like them… what would you say?”

He laughed softly.  “What do you mean by that?”

“Well, what if I sort of have a very… unusual… power myself.” The sentence barely made it through my lips it was so quiet.

“Like what?” His voice was no longer joking.

“I"I can’t explain it… I don’t know how.”

“Do you think you could show me?” He asked plainly interested in what I was telling him.

“Not right now.  I don’t think I can do something like that.”

“Of course not now.  Not unless your power is like astral projection and you suddenly appear at the foot of my bed.” His voice grew smug at the idea.

“Yeah, well I don’t think that’s it either.  I just think it’s supernatural things I can do with my mind.  Like reading minds, seeing the future, superhuman strong senses, sensing things at the time they happen, things like that.  Things normal people can’t and most certainly do not do.”

“Amy… you will never be normal.  That’s another reason I chose you.  You are completely different than all of the other girls at school.  You’re not like the ones who worship themselves in their reflection in the mirror when ever possible.  That’s what I love most about you.  You care more for other’s than about your reflection, and that’s all that matter’s to me, my one sweet love.” He said sweetly and kind of slow like he was holding his breath and trying not to show it.

“That’s a totally different normal than from what I’m talking about here.  I’m sure the way I act is normal because it’s human.  Well if you have been listening to what I’ve been telling you, you would know I’m not normal whatsoever.  I would even be like one of those girls you despise than be this right now.”

“No you would not!” he exclaimed incredulously.  “Amy, I love you just the way you are, and no different!  So don’t say that because even if you are… different doesn’t mean you have to hate yourself for it.  Embrace your uniqueness, it was a gift and so therefore you must use it to the best of your ability.  Look at it with my point of view, or in other words calmly.  Amy you’re not alone, other people in the world can do things like this, maybe not all of them at one time, but others can do this!  Don’t diss yourself because you think you may never be normal again!”

“You’re right, James.  I’m glad I talked to you.  You know exactly what I need to hear and that’s what I love about you.  Oh, and I do love you. You know that, right?”

 “Yes, of course I know that, my love.  I think for me to love someone else would be impossible.  You are my one and only forever.” His voice was so warm he sounded as if he were smiling a grin that stretched from ear to ear.  “I’m also glad I can make you happy.  Um, well the way you want to be.”

I smiled and spoke, “So you don’t really care that I am… different?”

“No, why would I?  You’re the exact same Amy Michelle Addison I knew before, right?”

“But what about my…” He cut me off.

“Powers or not.  You don’t get it, do you?  Just because you can do some things that not many people can do doesn’t mean you are the worst thing that has happened on the face of the planet.  Sure you are different on the outside, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t the same on the inside!  Look at yourself in the mirror, Amy.  Tell me what you see.”

I got up and walked to my bathroom and stared into the mirror, but I didn’t answer.  Instead I dropped the phone and screamed.

 

My father was the first one to bust through the door of my room, leading my mother and little sister behind him.  “Amy! Amy, why are you screaming, dear?” He barely choked the sentence out after he took a good look at my face.  “Dear God!  Amy, what has happened to your eyes?”

He was right.  Whose eyes are those?  They aren’t mine that is for sure!  These eyes were a normal color with a deep crimson slowly crawling in towards the pupil from the outside of the iris.  The eyes looked as if they belonged to a demon.  I knew they were not mine!  They just couldn’t be!

I stared deep into the mirror and concentrated on the colors to make sure I was not mistaken for what I saw.  I looked up at my father and mother’s faces.  They were pale and sick looking as if they had been sick with the flu.  I looked at Claire’s face as well.  Her little eight year-old face was rounded with fear and her eyes were hollow and concerned.

“Honey, is it possible that you just have some kind of eye infection?” Mother asked in a hoarse voice.  She left my room and went downstairs with Claire right behind her.

“No.  Not even close.” I said coolly and positively.  No longer afraid of the disease I obtained.

“You sound so sure of this.  Would you care to explain your side of the story here, Amy?” My father’s voice had a crisp edge to it as he spoke.

“You wouldn’t even begin to believe me as soon as I started speaking.”

“Try us.  We’re your parents and we trust you with everything you say and can only hope you would not lie to scare us about something like this.” He said concerned now more than ever as if he were beginning to believe what he thought could be impossible even though it had not been spoken yet.

“It’s unexplainable.  Well partly anyway.  All I know is that my mind is very… powerful.  I can sense things.  I"I can read minds.  I can hear everything going on in this entire neighborhood!  I can see the dust particles floating around us all!  I can taste and smell everything.  I can smell the fainted scent of car oil on your hands dad, even after you washed them!  I can smell the burnt ends of mother’s hair from her curling it every morning even though she is downstairs in the kitchen!  I can taste the left over lasagna from dinner still floating in the air!  Actually, I can taste the chicken we had four days ago still floating around in the air right now as we speak!” My voice had picked up three octaves louder since when I began talking.

The whole room was silent now between my father and I.  Mother had escorted Claire back to her bed and I could hear her silently snoring again.  My father turned away from me and sighed stubbornly, “Amy, that stuff is all science-fiction.  None of what you said is real.  I can’t believe, even after we told you not to make up stories, that you would do it to us!” His voice coursed through the structure of the walls and bounced back making it sound much louder than it was.  “We are freaked out enough as it is and we don’t need you making it worse.  Now… tell me what is wrong with your eyes.”

I glared at him with anger soaring through my eyes.  He looked away as if the fury had penetrated him, but I knew it was because he couldn’t bear to look into them because of how evil they looked.  “I told you, you would not believe me and that’s your fault!  I should’ve seen the seen the skepticism coming when I knew how incredulous that all sounded.”  I marched back into my room and threw myself onto my bed and buried my face in my pillow.  “I… I do not know what is wrong with my eyes.  But, I do know that all of that is true.  You don’t believe me because you don’t understand.  If there was only some reason I could prove it to you.” I said choking back a sob behind the fury.  “But I don’t know how.”

Suddenly I felt a strong hand softly grasp my shoulder.  It was warm and reassuring for the moment before his voice broke through in the same suppressed voice I obtained and ruined the feeling.  “No, I don’t believe you because it is not real, darling.  If it were real, you would be able to show me.  What is wrong with your eyes, we will not know until tomorrow, but until then get some sleep.” There was a long pause until he said, “Good night, dear.  I love you.” His hand lay in the same spot it had been in except this time it was cold as if he didn’t behold any life in him.

I shook his hand off and pulled my covers over me and turned away from him.  “I have absolutely nothing, but a few words to say to you.  Those words are… I am not going to the doctor’s!!!”

 

The next day held more twists and turns as we journeyed down the never-ending trail that this miserable life of mine had taken.  I lay on my bed silently, my eyes running from the white, popcorned, ceiling to the soft, light green of the walls, and then finally reaching the bright mahogany wood that covered the floor of my room.  What was it I did Friday?  Mr. Morgan gave me something and he said he knew about some secret of mine.  The room grew so quiet it almost seemed dead.  Then the answer popped into place in my mind!  The book!  Where is it?  Where is it?  Oh, where is it?!?

I jumped off of my bed and grabbed my backpack and began to search for it.  Where is it?  Come one, you can find it.  Where is it?  Yes!!!  I found you!  I held the book in my hands and stared at it.  The Night The Angels Fought Tears written by James Mickeny.  I read silently to myself with satisfaction.  I flipped the book open to where the bookmark had slept since I had last read from it.  The page where the bookmark was laying was marked page forty-three at the bottom and was only three pages away from the third chapter.  I plopped back down on my bed and turned the lamp on my nightstand on to illuminate my dark bedroom and began to read.

 

Scarlet stared at the destruction that had divided her world and separated her from everyone she had ever loved.  “How could you do this to me?  What did I do to deserve this?”  She screamed as she fell to her knees and began crying tears of defeat.

Buildings were shattered.  Highways were cracked, causing all of the cars to topple over unto the sidewalk and into the closely packed street of miniature stores.  Deer leaped from the dark forest that had swallowed what was left of the destroyed town and unto the fractured roads dodging all obstacles that had created their new homes in places they did not belong.

She felt so alone… there was no one around to tell her it was all going to be well in the end.  Scarlet pulled herself back together and looked up to observe the alien world around her once more.  The one word that could complete the sentence in her mind was ‘evil’.  She was evil.  Her powers could only cause destruction in the world.

She walked down the broken, winding roads and to a shattered shop glass and stared into it.  The window reflected a million tiny faces trapped in the splintered glass.  Her perfectly curled black hair, which used to be light brown, danced around her face and down her back like a thick, heavenly smoke.  Her red eyes that were once green blazed with fear and agony.  She obtained so much beauty she could easily have been mistaken for an angel.

 

My mind had dug itself so far down into the words that lined he pages that I was no longer aware of the world around me.  Hmmm, that’s weird.  Her eyes were green and they’re turning red like mine.  Her hair was light brown just like mine is.  It’s awfully weird how our lives are so alike.  It’s almost as if this is part of my diary that I had written in another life.  Though that was not true to me because I opposed reincarnation, so there had to be some other explanation.

Even though my mind had taken a different turn, my eyes kept reading leaving my brain to reenact the words as best as it could without my imagination to help give the words life.  Completely distracted, I didn’t care enough to notice the swift, soft rap on the door.  “Amy?” A light voice spoke through the door; it was my mother’s.  Still I hadn’t cared enough to answer her.  Ever since yesterday, a very immature side had awakened in me.  I had decided last night that my parents were going to be given the silent treatment until they decided that I make my own decisions.  “Amy, dear?  Are you alright?” My mother spoke again.

Instinctively, I jumped off of my bed and then crawled underneath it, taking my book with me.  Five seconds later, the door opened and my mother began to frantically search for me.  The house outside of my room smelled of sugar cookies, hot chocolate and coffee, bubble bath, washing detergents, and the garlic flavored scent of spaghetti. 

“Amy?  Amy, where are you?  Tom, Claire, have either of you seen Amy?”

My dad suddenly appeared in my doorway.  “I thought she was in here getting ready to go to the doctor’s office.” He said confused and curious to find where I was.

“Nope!” Claire called from downstairs from in the bathroom, obviously taking a bath.

“She was supposed to be.  Where do you think she could’ve gone?” My mother’s voice was full of stress.

“Amy Michelle Addison.” My father announced my full name with a serious firmness to his voice.  “I’m going to count to five and you had better be standing three feet in front of me when I get to five.”  I could tell by the way he spoke he was not joking around.  Stubbornly, I fought the will to get up and do as told as I often did.  Disobeying my parents felt weird, but I felt down right guilty disobeying my father, whom was my best friend in the whole wide world.

“1... 2… 3… 4…” his voice got louder as the numbers got bigger, “Amy, I’m not kidding.  If you’re not down here before I get to five you’re grounded until I say.”  When no answer had come he spoke in a serious, cool tone.  “Alright then, you want to play that way.  Five… you’re grounded.”

My father disappeared out of my doorframe and my mother followed him.  I sighed to myself; completely surprised I had been able to do what I thought would be impossible.  Though I had gotten through that part, it had not occurred to me that I would have to come out sometime.  Suddenly a very strange part of my mind came alive and told my body that I was nocturnal and would live at night and sleep during the day.  So I suddenly became very tired and fell asleep.

Reviews

[James Watts]

Those words are… I am not going to the doctor’s!!!”(avoid this. Only one exclamation is necessary.)

The book! Where is it? Where is it? Oh, where is it?!?(avoid this also. Only mark on punctuation mark is needed. Either a question mark or an exclamation, but never both.)

His hand lay in the same spot it had been in except this time it was cold as if he didn’t behold any life in him.(Behold doesn't fit. Try a different word. Advice is to always have a thesaurus handy. If you are in microsoft just pop up the thesaurus it has built in.)

All-in-all, not a bad read. One of the best I have read on the cafe. Keep up the hard work.