3 (23 page)

Wednesday, Coach asked how
our planning for the Lil Sis program was going and we told him we’d
have plenty of girls making snacks by Friday. It was fun
trying to find girls; I've even made a few new friends in the
process. It was a good program just to get to know more people. The
girls, I'm sure, do it to meet the guys.

By weeks end
my embarrassment and heart flutters were manageable, but
my heart still leapt every time Jett came into the room or
looked my way. At the end of practice we pulled all the
names for the Lil Sis program, Nic and I were both going
to sponsor two boys because we didn't have enough girls for all the
guys.

Nic was like the fifth name
pulled and she got Storm, which I thought was convenient, and
another boy named Ron. I, on the other hand, was called last;
very convenient since I didn't remember hearing Jett's name called
yet either. I felt something brewing, some shenanigans were
definitely going on. The Coach had to be in on it to. I was
conveniently the last Lil Sis pulled from the bucket and since I
got two names I got Randy's and of course Jett's as the second one.
I turned red when Jett's name was called. The team all gave out a
little laugh, obviously, everyone knew I had a crush on him. So I
decided to cheer and lifted my hands and said “Yes, I got the hot
guy!” Everyone laughed a little harder.

My crush couldn't be helped,
sometimes, no matter how hard you try, you just like who you like.
Well, Jett didn't think it was too funny that I got his name. He
had to know I was crushin’ because he glared right at me, got up
looking really pissed, swept his towel off the ground and headed
right for the locker room. I felt a little abashed by my
cheering. I did that to myself on a daily basis so normally I
wouldn’t care – but what I really felt bad about was the fact that
Jett was upset and may resent me.

When he came out of the locker room he was
alone, so I took a deep breath and walked up to him. I told him
since he was so upset that I got his name, I could switch his name
with anyone else’s on the list. I also explained to him that I had
nothing to do with me getting his name.

“Just let me know which girl you would like
me to make the switch with and I'll make it happen.” I went to walk
away and he caught my arm. I felt a little tingle go through me,
nothing I could control. I turned around and he let go. I smiled at
him and said “Yesss” a little goofy like. He smiled back at me, we
made eye contact, there was a slight pause. I just waited; normally
I'd have my mouth spouting off something sarcastic. It was a good
quiet moment though.

“No, it's fine. You and I will get along just
fine, besides Declan said you can cook.” I laughed.

“Time will tell won't it?” I said “Actually,
I'm a good baker but not a real good cook, but I could feed the
masses.”

“The masses?” He questioned.

As I was backing up to grab my coat and bag I
said “My mom likes to cook big and entertain –I help cook, we cook
a lot.
You talk to Declan a lot?” I asked.

“Yeah he’s my best friend and has been since
the seventh grade.” He said smiling. I knew that fact but was
dumbfounded, I had no idea what else to say. A first for me.

That weekend Nic was at my
house. We were bored so we went up to The Akron Reading and Speech
Center to get a candy bar. I didn't go there often but every now
and then we would run in for some chocolate. There was a small
moving truck around back. A new tenant, we figured, was moving in.
Rumor was she's a real psychic.

We stepped inside the lobby
and there were two ladies talking; Marge from the Richfield Reading
and Speech Center and the other lady we had met briefly before. How
Marge remembered our names when we visited impressed us because, as
I said, we only came in once or twice a year, but we always did
chat with her.

As soon as we got to the
counter Marge put her hand on the counter to acknowledge we were
there. She took a few seconds finishing her conversation, and
turned to us and said “Girls this is our new tenant, Shelia. She is
a psychic and will be renting the back office.”

Shelia shook our hands and
asked if we wanted a free reading and pizza in return for helping
her empty the truck. We shrugged our shoulders and said “sure.”
Sheila had dark hair with big wavy curls. She was wearing jeans and
a t-shirt. She was shorter than the both of us, she wasn't skinny
but not fat either. She looked totally normal, like someone you'd
meet in the grocery store, she didn’t look crazy psycho at
all.

There weren't that many
boxes and it went quickly with three of us. When we were done she
called for pizza and sodas. She dug around in a box marked
“IMPORTANT” and pulled out a large deck of cards in a tattered card
box.

“Who's first?” she asked. I
let Nic go first. As she was shuffling her tarot cards she told us
“Sometimes you need a couple of readings to get the gibberish out
and the truth pulled forward.” We knew there would be a sales pitch
somewhere. Then she said “But sometimes we just nail it on the head
the first time, depends on how open you are to the reading.” She
gave us a sincere smile.

Nic got cards like love, the
queen, the sun and she was told she would travel a lot. So I
thought, piece of cake. Sheila reshuffled the cards, I cut the deck
and she started laying them out. “You have an admirer” she said to
me.

She flipped an evil looking
card “You have another admirer; this one is upset with you.” She
continued. “You are destined for a great love very soon.” Then the
death card came up, then the fool card and then she stopped. She
said it doesn't necessarily mean death that it could also mean
illness, or a loss of a job and not necessarily to do with me but
someone around me.

She pushed all her cards
together and cleaned them up. She suggested to me that
I was
an emotional reader and asked me if I had any experience, meaning
'
c
ould I'
read cards. She didn't press the issue – Nic and I just gave
each other a wide-eyed look. She said her gift was handed down to
her.

I looked Sheila in the eye
and asked why they moved here and about her history. I was curious
and really wanted to know. Shelia started talking slowly about her
past. “In the early 1900's there was a man by the name of “Dr. Sal
Rewtnic.” He's not in the history books, but should be. He was what
we would call, these days, a 'mad' scientist. He did experiments on
humans to try and cure diseases such as leprosy, auto immune
disorders and the like. He would use strange things such as animal
parts, bone marrow, blood, saliva, magic potions, spells and other
sorts to try and cure illnesses. That's how my ancestors got
involved…magic and spells. Rewtnic's son was ill and he
experimented on him along with his nephew until he was forced to
institutionalize both of them. Rewtnic continued his experiments on
others and some of his patients went crazy and that's how the
rumors came about that there were vampires and werewolves during
that time period.”

“In one instance, a man that was being
experimented on, began to grow hair all over his body and went mad.
When people tried to capture and help him he was outraged and
became unhinged. Some people got hurt and one man was killed trying
to commandeer him. Hence the rumors of werewolves coming about at
that time. After his newest experiments other such rumors entailed
that, he cured people of their diseases, but they would burn
through their blood cells quickly, needing transfusions every few
days. They would grow pale, become sensitive to sunlight and then
need more blood. A couple of them that had agreed to multiple
experiments were brainsick and went around trying to suck people's
blood. They weren't vampires just ill, but that's how these rumors
started. This all happened in the early 1900's. However, in these
instances of seeing the so called werewolves and vampires, our
groups recorded them as rumors because that’s exactly what they
were, rumors. And our group hasn’t recorded seeing werewolves or
vampires since, rumors or real.” We looked at her in awe and just
listened intently.

“When the authorities found
out about his experiments, his books, journals and all his notes
were confiscated and burned. Even his patients were burned at the
stake for fear they were evil, contagious or would turn into
vampires or werewolves. But not everything or everyone experimented
on was destroyed. My family took on the role as “watchmen” when he
started his experiments and were witnesses to his work. It was my
great great great grandmother who fell in love with Sal and started
our watchmen duties.” “Before they destroyed everything she took
some of his books that listed patients and experiments. Authorities
thought they had destroyed all evidence to do with Dr. Sal Rewtnic,
but they hadn't. The reasons why the gypsies were so interested in
his work was because his last tests had shown great results of
curing people, and that group of people never got sick for the rest
of their lives. Some even gained the gift of psychic abilities and
foreseeing the future.”

“Most everyone who survived
his treatments that didn't go mad has now passed on, but we are
tracking their offspring. The only two remaining from his time are
his son, Sal Rewtnic the third and his cousin Neil Royce. However,
they are in their 70's now.” She shook her head and we all snapped
out of our trance. Shelia said “I cannot believe I just told you
all that. I haven't shared that story with anyone.”

I looked over at Nic and she
looked just as freaked out as I was. We got up wanting to leave but
the pizza came. We ate as fast as we could and got out of there,
laughing all the way home. I hadn’t shown Nic any of my notes about
my dreams about my wolf, but I was a little freaked out by her
story and my dreams and I had a feeling they had a connection. I
was wondering if I should tell Nic or would she think I‘ve gone off
the deep end.

That night I had a bad
dream. It started with the wolf running after me, I tried losing
him but I just couldn't run fast enough. I recognized where I was,
the ravines behind me, but just couldn't put my finger on the exact
location when something else started chasing us. I ran down a hill
and through trees and brush. I jumped over the creek and then back
up a hill. I stopped to see where I was and got knocked down, it
was pitch dark and I couldn't see a face. With the weight of his
body on me I was fighting to keep him from biting my neck.
Flashbacks and horror entering my mind, my wolf jumped him from
behind. I felt a slash across my arm, and scrambled to break free.
I picked up a branch and started backing up. As I got to the top of
the hill, the tree line broke and I was on someone's lawn; the
grass was cut and manicured. There was another tree line to my
right probably a property line, as I was walking backward, I was
surrounded by darkness.

I kept backing up, I looked
down and I was on the street standing next to a four door car.
Looking up I saw someone backing out of the woods wearing a white
shirt, my heart was thumping and my eyes tearing. I woke so
horrified, my eyes were actually wet. I was glad it was just a
dream. I was exhausted and relieved it was only a dream. I looked
at the clock. It was 3:17a.m., I started writing.

I woke the next morning still unable to shake
that feeling from my dream. It was leaving such a strong impression
on me, more so than seeing a really good movie that just stays with
you.
I tried thinking of other things just to
shake the unpleasant vile feeling coursing threw me, the dream was
so intense I was having a hard time.

Brushing my teeth I
realized
I hadn't had a dream I remembered in a couple of
weeks. I wonder if Shelia was able to push me to dream or if it was
a coincidence.

That Monday when I walked
out of art class, I spotted Jett across the hall with his hands in
his pockets and one foot bent backwards leaning on the wall looking
very cool. It didn't matter how he stood he always looked hot, of
course Cale fooled me with his 'in school' looks. I wonder how Jett
looks after school or better yet on a date. As I looked at him he
looked right back at me, I squeezed my eyes together ever so
slightly and gave him a nod, I turned right and started walking to
history.

From behind me I heard “Hey
Addie” I turned to look over my shoulder not stopping and it was
Jett catching up to me. I stopped and he almost ran into me.
“What's up...?” I said, and then I remembered he may not want me to
be his Lil Sis anymore and said, “Oh, who do you want as your Lil
Sis?” I turned around and started walking again, he caught
up.

”That's not what I wanted to
talk to you about, I don't want to switch, I'm cool with it.” Jett
said. He had a fitted t-shirt on under a flannel shirt and work
boots that were unlaced.

“So, what's up?” I said very
slowly because my heart started to beat so hard, like it wanted out
of my chest and my face started to flame.

“I uh... I wanted to see if
you wanted to go out Friday.”

“With you?” I replied
questioningly.

He laughed “Yeah, with me.
You told Declan if I had anything else to ask you, to ask in
person.” He slid his hands back in his pockets. I did say that but
I didn’t expect this.

“Friday? For what?” I was
confused. I swore he was mad when I got his name as his Lil Sis so
I thought he didn't like me, at all.