Beautiful Souls (25 page)

    
              “What happened? What’s wrong?”

    
              “Nothing’s wrong, absolutely nothing,” Leo answered in a jubilant sounding voice, lifting me off my feet for the second time.

    
              Not even my mom, who stood there with her hands on her hips and her
“you about gave me a heart attack”
expression, could wipe the smile from my face at this
precise moment. I was still fuzzy as to what we were celebrating so exuberantly, but I’d deduced it was obviously something I did while protecting my beloved headband from Leo’s disapparating spell. However, Leo had yet to clue me in as to what, exactly, that was.

    
              “I hate to break up the celebration,” my mom started. “But now that I’ve finally caught my breath from being scared out of my pants, can I ask why you two are bouncing off my walls?”

    
              I could tell that my mom wasn’t actually angry. In fact, there was even the tiniest curl at the edge of her lips that was surely a result of Leo’s outburst and lack of control, but she attempted to keep that under wraps for what was probably dramatic effect. This was most definitely the first time she had seen Leo this animated --- except perhaps on the football field --- but most certainly never in her own house.

    
              “Um, I did something, but…”

    
              Leo interrupted, “She was amazing! You should’ve seen her, Mrs. Olson.” He looked as if he were going to spin me again, but thought better of it. “I think…” Leo paused a moment considering his words carefully and continued in a more quiet subdued tone, “She can
shield
.”

    
              My mom gasped, taking in as much air as her lungs could possibly hold, “Are you sure?”

    
              “Not completely, but from what my parents have described I’m almost certain that’s what she just did. Becca shielded my disapparating spell.”

    
              “All right, hang on…we’re going to test this,” my mom said excitedly, as she walked over to position herself directly before me. “Becca, I’m going to…” she looked around the room searching, finally settling her eyes on the wooden stirring spoon still clutched in he
r
hand from cooking dinner prior to Leo’s distracting outburst. “To throw this spoon at Leo.”

    
              Leo’s smile faded.

    
              I laughed out loud, “You’re going to what?”

    
              Leo’s eyes were wide now, pleading with me to get him out of this, but I found a slight bit of humor in his uncomfortable situation, so I simply shrugged my shoulders as if there was nothing I could do.                   “Yes now, like I said, I’m going to throw this spoon at Leo…”                   I let out another chuckle.

    
              “And you, Becca, just concentrate on protecting Leo and keeping him safe. Don’t give me, or what I’m doing, another thought.”

    
              My eyes washed over Leo’s worried expression, and just as I was about to focus all my energy and thoughts on his safe-keeping, my mom’s unusual and comical stance grabbed hold of my gaze. She looked like a major-league pitcher about to throw a ninety-five mile per hour fastball; she was so intense and serious that I couldn’t hold it in.                    Laughter burst out of me as tears ran down my already flushed cheeks. The very same moment that my laughter released, my mom flung the wooden spoon hard, directed dead center on Leo’s face.

    
              My jaw let go of its smile and hit the floor. A mere half of a second later, the spoon struck Leo’s flawless forehead, leaving an instant purplish-red welt then bounced off his head and landed on the floor between the two of them.

    
              “Oh, oh no. I’m so very sorry,” my mom covered her mouth with both her hands, completely astonished at what she’d done.

    
              I burst into even more laughter than before, spitting a spray of saliva across Leo’s now blemished and unbelieving face.

    
              “Oh, God,” I placed my hands along the sides of his cheeks and wiped my spit from his moist face using the sleeve of my shirt. “Leo, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to do that,” I continued wiping while my mom ran for a clean cloth from the kitchen.

    
              The combination of my embarrassment, coupled with incomprehension and humiliation, that rose high in Leo’s cheeks and wondering eyes, had me fighting back still more bursts of laughter. I somehow managed to keep them relatively contained with only a few miniscule giggles that slipped out at random moments.

    
              My mom reentered the living room with the cloth, and I took it upon myself to clean Leo’s face. After apologizing profusely, I kissed the red lump on his forehead, then we set ourselves back to our original places to attempt the shield once more.

    
              “Becca, I have complete trust in you, but you’re going to concentrate this time, right…on me?” Leo asked with a tiny smidgen of hesitancy, as my mom walked across the room holding the very same wooden spoon as before.”

    
              “Are you positive you want to try this again,” my mom questioned Leo with a pitied and worried expression.

    
              Leo didn’t respond. He simply looked to me in order to find his answer.

    
              “I’m concentrating…focused…no worries, Leo,” but I heard him gulp down a lump in his throat as his name rolled off my lips. “Let’s do this,” I voiced determinedly.

    
              With those words my mom let the spoon fly, but I never saw it leave her hands. I was totally and completely focused on nothing else but Leo, and only the thoughts of keeping him from harm flooded my brain. I couldn’t allow a second swollen welt on that beautiful face. My gaze and concentration never faltered. I heard cheers coming from my mom’s direction while a monstrous sigh released from deep inside of Leo.

    
              “You did it, hon!”

    
              Leo simply couldn’t contain himself --- even though my mom was in the room --- and he leapt to his feet, kissed me hard, and spun me around the room once more for good measure.

    
              “Do you know what this means?” he asked, laying a loving and approving hand aside my warm cheek.

    
              “I stopped the spoon, yeah great. Now why is that such a huge deal?”

    
              “Becca, it’s fantastic!” Leo said, sitting my feet back down on the floor.

    
              “I can’t believe it! I’m so proud of you!” My mom clapped.

    
              “Can’t you? I know Leo can’t do that, but can’t you?”

    
              “No,” my mom answered quickly, cutting off my question. “I’ve never even known a Wizard that can shield. I know we don’t all go bragging about who’s who and our powers and all that, but I’ve never actually seen shielding done in person…until now.”

    
              My mom rambled on like this for another minute or so, as Leo beamed and nodded his head with pride and approval.

    
              “Don’t you see, Bec? You’ll actually be able to shield yourself and others if you’re ever in danger…should anything like that ever happen, of course,” my mom explained.

    
              My mind drifted back to the day of the coyote attack. That day when all else failed and I had no other options, and only when panic set in as the animal leapt for my throat, I had shielded myself. It dawned on me now and finally made sense that that’s what happened that day out in the woods. I had shielded myself by putting up an invisible layer of protection. I even remembered feeling the heavy thud from the coyote as it hit and rolled off my protective shield.

    
              A new sense of calm spread throughout my body. Something now made sense --- not in my old human world, of course --- in this new magical world of mine. Something finally made sense. I was renewed with hope that maybe one day, someday soon, I would understand all that had happened in my life over the past month. I now believed in the possibility that everything might be explained in time.                   “I want to see you do it again.” My mom bounced with anticipation, pride, and utter joy. Seeing her pride in me felt wonderful.

    
              Before another word could escape any of our lips, we were all knocked off balance by a gut-wrenching, mind-numbing blast. I didn’t know what had happened, and it took me a minute or two to get my bearings. I had been jolted to my core, and my insides still vibrated from the explosion.

    
              “What was that?” I asked panicked, still rubbing my eyes in an attempt to refocus. I blinked continuously as my eyesight was slowly restored to normal, then desperately searched the room, as well as my mom’s and Leo’s expressions, for any hint as to what set off or caused the blast.

    
              “I’m not sure,” my mom answered. “It sounded like it probably came from outside. Perhaps from the woods. Both of you stay here…stay together. I’m going out back to get your dad and he’ll check it out.”

    
              The sun had begun to set and it cast an orange-red glow around the room, flickering and bouncing around the shadows from wall to wall. The color intensified as the flickers danced menacingly around the living room. The orange-red glow grew more prevalent.

    
              Leo and I seemed to both become aware at the same moment that something was off; the color that filled my living room was too thick and full of dangerously life-like movements to have been cast by the setting sun.

    
              I turned, frightened and unsure of what I may see, as Leo flew to the window. I saw pure terror in his eyes as the glow blazed in his pupils.

    
              “No!” he screamed.

    
              “What is it? What’s happening?” I panicked.

    
              The words had barely slipped through my lips when Leo bolted from the room at lightening speed. Horror rose through my veins when I saw the desperate panic fill his eyes. Leo darted through th
e
kitchen and flew through the back door on an obvious mission.

    
              I followed as fast as my legs would allow. I heard my mom call Leo’s name as I plowed through the back door. I stopped abruptly, terror filled my body, and I stood momentarily side by side with my mom. Together we stared across the field and the outer lying road toward the source of the orange-red glow and blast.

    
              Leo’s home was engulfed with sky-high flames. My mom and I watched with shocked, tear-streaked faces as the fire hissed and groaned, setting off frenzies of angry sparks while the deep, orange sky filled and darkened with dense, black smoke.

    
              I saw two bluish-black silhouettes move quickly toward the ever growing and deadly flames. I heard their shouts and screams echo back toward me from across the empty cornfield.

    
              “Mom!” Leo screamed out a heart-wrenching cry.

    
              I barely made out the word that echoed back to where I stood, bathed in horror. The sound of his cry was excruciating as it traveled across the land that separated my mom and me from the distant black figures. Then it hit me.

    
              “Oh my God, Mom? Is Leo’s mom home?”

    
              She looked at me for a second too long, both our faces drained of any and all color as reality sank in to our consciousness, forcing us to understand.

    
              “Mom!” the terrible scream penetrated my buzzing ears again. Chills ran up my spine causing the fine hairs along my neck and arms to stand on end.

    
              “No!” I cried.

    
              I took off across the field toward the engulfed house. I followed what I knew to be Leo’s silhouette, tripping and stumbling all the way on the mounds of frozen dirt and sawed-off cornstalk roots. My legs could not move fast enough. I attempted to speed myself forward by sheer will as my mind noted the crunches of my mom’s footfalls behind, matching me almost pace for pace.

    
              I felt a small ounce of relief now that I seemed to be covering more distance faster. I no longer stumbled in the pitted field or slipped on patches of ice.

    
              “Becca, don’t!” I heard my mom’s anxious voice call from a distance.

    
              I closed in on the silhouetted figures now and realized, from their familiar movements, that the second form speeding toward the sky-high flames was my dad.