Connection (Le Garde) (15 page)

Our guest room was downstairs, which was good, because all the other bedrooms were upstairs, and no one could hear me talking in the bathroom down here. I sat on the toilet and called Aaron, biting my lip as the phone rang.

When his voice came onto the line, he didn’t sound tired. I still apologized for the late call. “We were watching movies until midnight,” I said.

“
It’s cool,” Aaron said. “I couldn’t sleep if I’d tried. Now I’m sitting in the bathroom so Tom and Tara don’t hear me.”

Smiling, I said, “I’m sitting in the bathroom, too. Kaylie’s still awake.”

“
And Kaylie’s
such
a gossip,” he said sarcastically. It was strange taking to him without his thoughts and emotions bombarding me—like he was only half-present.

I chuckled, then my smile faded as I remembered what this phone call was about. “Well, I looked up Joseph Harwood.”

“
Right, me, too.”

“
Tell me what you found first. We’ll see if I found anything different.”

“
History Professor at Stanford, like the card says,” Aaron said. “All his info is the same—e-mail, number. I think I found a picture of him. He’s an old guy with brown hair and a crooked nose.”

“
Yeah, I saw the same picture,” I said. “He’s not that old, though. Middle-aged.”

“
Sure. He wrote a few articles about World War II history in some journals. I found a couple Facebooks, I don’t think any are his, though. There are like twenty Joseph Harwoods on LinkedIn. I think I found his, but it just has his links to other teachers and stuff. There’s a newspaper article about him because he spoke at Berkeley in LA.
 
.
 
.and end of list. Everything else I found is about this.
 
.
 
.model guy who’s like a transvestite or something, I don’t know.”

I groaned. “That’s all I found, too. I looked up a Kristina on Stanford’s directory, but there are like thirty of them.”

“
Yeah, I know. And I don’t even know how to spell it.” Aaron paused. “Stanford’s only forty miles south of here.
 
.
 
.”

I furrowed my brow. “Are you saying we should just show up?”

“
No. Well, I don’t know, maybe.”

I closed my eyes. “Wouldn’t that be dangerous?” We really had no idea what was going on. If we weren’t alone, just how many people were involved with this?

“
Not if he’s on campus,” Aaron said. “We might get more answers. If we call, he could just hang up.”

“
And if we show up, he could.
 
.
 
.I don’t know, attack us?” I lowered my voice, realizing how loud I was talking. I tried not to think about the two of us getting stabbed by the guy I’d seen on Google, but when I tried not to think about something, it filled my mind.

“
He’s not going to attack us,” Aaron said. “She said we weren’t alone. She said it like they had the same thing, you know?”

I ran a hand over my frizzy hair. I glanced at my reflection and sighed when I saw how crazy it was. “What would I tell Steven?” I made a frustrated noise. “Not that he’s, like, my dad, but you know what I mean.
 
.
 
.I don’t want to lie to him, but I’ll probably have to because it’s not like anyone can know about this.”

“
Yeah. Did you ask your mom?”

“
Yeah, I did, and she’d never heard of him. I didn’t tell her what that Kristina girl said, though. I told her he said he was an old friend of hers.”

“
Oh, that’s a good idea,” Aaron said. “I should say that to my dad.”

I chewed on my lip as Aaron told me the other random things he’d found on the internet: what classes he was teaching this term at Stanford; what his LinkedIn account was like; reading me nearly every word of the news article he found, even though I’d seen it all.

When he was done, I asked, “What are we going to do?” 

Aaron didn’t respond for a moment. “I think we should call him.”

I took a deep breath and leaned my forehead on my knees. “Really?”

“
Yeah. Think about it, Anna. What if we’re really not the only ones? What if they can help us harness that power? It’d be so insane.
 
.
 
.”

“
Yeah, I know, but what if.
 
.
 
.I don’t know, by us calling them, it’s admitting there’s something. It’s—I don’t know, it’s weird.”

Aaron hummed in agreement, then he said, “Well, when we call we shouldn’t admit to it. We won’t say anything about our.
 
.
 
.thing. We’ll just tell them Kristina contacted us, and he’ll have to know what it’s about.”

I nodded. “That’s a good idea.” The thought of it did excite me, like it did Aaron, but it freaked me out. I didn’t want anyone to know about us. I didn’t want to someone to think we were crazy or give them anything to use against us. But if we didn’t call, both Aaron and I would burn with curiosity. He’d probably end up calling without me. “Okay, we can call, but let’s be really careful, okay?”

“
Yeah, of course,” Aaron said impatiently. “When should we do it?”

I was staying here with Steven and Kaylie until Friday, and I thought we should call before then just in case we did want to go down to Stanford. I didn’t know what I’d tell Steven about spending alone time with Aaron, but I’d figure that out later. Maybe, right now, this was more important. “Let’s try to do it tomorrow,” I said, “and I’ll try to think something up. Maybe Kaylie and I can get away for a bit.”

“
Wow,” Aaron said. I could see him running a hand through his hair. “Can you imagine what it would be like if we actually found other people like us?”

I couldn’t. All my life, since he came up to me in the Boys and Girls club, this thing had been ours, our special little secret. And now my mom and his dad and this Kristina girl and.
 
.
 
.I didn’t know how to feel about it. Part of me wanted to hang on to that little corner of the world that belonged to no one but us. At the same time, I knew that once I got over the initial fear of someone knowing about this part of me, curiosity would eat away at me and questions would dance around in my head, demanding all my attention. “We wouldn’t be such circus freaks.”

Aaron laughed. “Yeah, I guess so.
 
.
 
.I wonder what they can do.”

I fought back a yawn. “I should go to bed.
 
.
 
.or at least try to. I’ll probably be up all night.”

“
Yeah, me, too. But Kaylie will be wondering where you are. Getting jealous.”

Smiling, I stood up. “Well, I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

After we said goodbye and hung up, I crept back into the room. Kaylie slept soundly, and I crawled under the covers. I couldn’t sleep, so Aaron and I texted back and forth for forty minutes. We started out talking about Joseph Harwood, but then we talked about X-Men, our friends, what happened between him and Sam. My yawns got closer and closer, and I could hardly keep my eyes open anymore until I finally fell asleep.

10. les paires (pairs)

Anna

I ended up telling Steven that Tara wanted to have dinner with me and Aaron. He thought it was weird, but I told him Tara was like a big sister to me. I told Kaylie the same thing, and luckily Steven’s aunt was actually going to be home before dark so she wouldn’t be home alone with Steven and Matt.

I hated lying to them, especially Steven, but I couldn’t tell them the truth. I couldn’t tell anyone the truth, except for maybe my mom once I got home. Maybe Aaron was right. Having someone else who had the same secret as us would be nice. I wouldn’t feel like I was carrying around this weight on my shoulders.

Tara didn’t have any idea about a dinner, of course, and she had to work. I lied to Steven and Kaylie again, telling them I was going to meet them at the restaurant, and since it was only a couple blocks away, I’d walk. Matt offered a ride, but I turned him down, saying it was a nice day and I needed the activity since we’d sat around at home all day.

Steven walked me to the door. I stopped in the doorway and smiled at him. “I’ll be back in an hour or so.”

“
Cool,” Steven said, tucking a lock of my hair behind my ear. “I think my aunt is going to bring a bunch of stuff home for us to make ice cream sundaes.”

“
That sounds amazing!” I said. “I’ll save room for dessert.”

He kissed me, his hands tight on my waist. Matt whistled from the living room, and I pulled back, blushing. Steven grinned down at me, giving me one last peck. “I’ll see you soon.”

With difficulty, I turned away and walked outside. What if he started to think I was cheating on him? I would hate that. I zipped up my jacket and pulled on my hood. It was cool outside, and I walked quickly to the park where Aaron and I had decided to meet. If Steven ever read my texts, he’d definitely think I was cheating on him. Secret meetings, texts at one in the morning. I was such a great girlfriend.

Aaron waited at the playground, sitting on one of the swings. I remembered once when we were kids and we were at the playground, and Aaron and Tyler dared me to eat a worm. To prove my courage, I did it, and then I threw up all over Aaron’s shoes.

Some of my anxiety about the phone call melted away as Aaron’s mind connected with mine.

Aaron glanced over his shoulder as I approached. There weren’t any kids in the playground, just people walking their dogs around the park. I sat on the swing next to him.

“
You got out,” Aaron said.

“
Yeah,” I said with a shrug. I hugged myself as the breeze picked up.

Aaron stood up. “Come on, there’s a little nook over here.”

He led me underneath one of the towers of the playground. Torn up bark covered the ground, and he ducked inside. I followed him, and we were safe from the breeze in here except for the open wall where we’d come in. We sat on the ground with our legs crossed, our knees touching. I leaned against the brown plastic, looking up at the spiderwebs in the corners.

“
So, you want to get this over with?” Aaron asked, pulling out his phone.

“
Yes, let’s do it.”

Aaron took a deep breath. He dialed the phone number, and I crept closer. Aaron moved, too, and we both leaned against the wall that faced the open playground. I watched a dachshund chase a squirrel as the phone rang, Aaron’s cell on speaker.

Aaron’s leg was warm against mine. I wished I could hold his hand or something. The first thing we needed to do when we got back home was learn how to control our power.

The ringing seemed to go on forever, but finally a voice inflected with a British accent picked up. “Hello, Joseph Harwood.”

I grabbed Aaron’s knee, squeezing it through his jeans. Aaron stared at me for a moment, then cleared his throat. “Uh, hi, I’m Aaron Bender. Someone named Kristina gave me your card yesterday.”

There was a pause, and then Joseph said, “Ah. Aaron and Anna?”

“
Yes, Anna’s here with me,” Aaron said.

“
Well, I’m glad you decided to get in touch with me. I understand it may have been unexpected.”

Aaron scoffed. “Yeah, you could say that.”

“
I’ve been keeping a watch on you two for a while,” Joseph said. A sudden chill ran up my spine, and I didn’t think it had anything to do with the weather. “Once I understood your parents.
 
.
 
.were alumni of Stanford, I thought you two would be interested in attending, as well.”

Aaron and I exchanged glances. Joseph was actually speaking in code. I wondered briefly if there were people who knew about this even though they didn’t have a connection with someone else. If someone on the outside knew.

Aaron didn’t say anything for a moment, and I wanted to ask how he knew about our parents. “Yes,” I said, leaning toward Aaron’s phone, “but what made you decide to contact us?”

“
Well, Kristina met you at the party on Saturday, and she was very impressed,” Joseph said.

I bit my lip. The party on Saturday. Had she seen when Aaron and I had accidentally touched? Had she noticed the lights and made the connection? A new thought occurred to me: did she go to the party because she knew we would be there?

“
I didn’t know Kristina was going to be at the party,” I said slowly, trying to choose the right words. “Did she come just for us?”

Joseph cleared his throat. “Yes, she did. When we heard you’d be so close to Stanford, we wanted to be sure to meet you.”