Current Impressions (7 page)

Several tearful jerks later, my hair managed
to fall almost smoothly to my shoulders. Not quite as good as a
hairbrush, but not bad. I visualized a long, patterned skirt and
wrap top and felt the clothing adjust on my body. Admiring the
outfit in my mirror, I wondered if I’d ever grow tired of this
power. It was like shopping with a limitless credit card while
never leaving your house.

Satisfied that I made myself presentable, I
left my room and took the staircase closest to it, heading up to my
dad’s quarters. I knew when I reached the next floor that I was
closest to the study. My dad’s door was at the other end of the
hall.

For a moment I paused outside Angus’ room.
Was he in there? He didn’t really say much to me at dinner last
night, but then again, he sat at the other end of the table. For
some reason, he intrigued me. I wanted to talk to him and see what
it was that captured my interest. With a shake of my head, I moved
on. Tonight was not the night to bother him. I had more pressing
concerns.

My dad opened his door before I could knock.
He looked surprised to see me. The surprise melted into a warm
smile. He stood back to let me in.

The first room felt like a living room. It
reminded me of our apartment in Halifax. “Is this the same
furniture?” I asked as I ran my hand along the arm of the
couch.

He nodded.

“I thought you put it in storage.” The
furniture, along with some of my mom’s things and some of my own,
was supposed to be in a storage locker in Halifax. I was with him
when we put it there.

He looked a little embarrassed. “I took it
out. It reminded me of your mother, so I brought it here.”

“You brought it here…” I left my statement
hanging.

His face grew redder. “I brought it all
here.” He turned and walked through the living room into the
bedroom. Stacked along the wall, floor to ceiling, were our
boxes.

“My stuff!” I squealed. He said I wouldn’t
miss it, and I know I really didn’t need it, but he was wrong. I
did miss it, and I was ridiculously happy to have it back.

He laughed at my excitement. “I’ll help you
carry it to your room. And if there’s anything of your mom’s you
want…”

His voice trailed off, and his eyes grew
sad. I threw my arms around him and squeezed. “I love you,
Dad.”

In a voice choked with emotion, he said, “I
love you, too.”

“Will we meet this elusive professor?”
Evan’s mom asked. He shrugged. His mouth was full of potato salad,
so he couldn’t give her a decent answer.

The Mitchell family sat at the patio table
in their backyard. It was one of those warm June nights, and Evan’s
dad decided to barbecue.

Evan swallowed. “I can ask him.”

“Do. See if he’s free for dinner next
Thursday. After all, you leave for Scotland the following week.”
Mom turned her attention to Katie. “Are your bags packed?”

“All set.” Katie picked at her corn on the
cob. She hadn’t eaten much tonight, or for the last several weeks.
Then again, she was going to Cancun with her best friends, Jen and
Val. Two weeks on the beach and she insisted she needed to prepare.
Katie’s idea of preparation was losing ten pounds she didn’t need
to lose. Evan knew better than to tease her about it. The last and
only time he did, she snapped. “Bikini, Evan. I will not look like
a beached whale.”

He tried to explain that even if she didn’t
lose weight, she wouldn’t look like a beached whale, but she
stomped out of the room. After that, he kept his mouth shut.

“Val’s dad is planning to take you girls to
the airport tomorrow, right?” Mom asked.

“Yep.” Katie slid a potato chip under the
table to Ebb, and then another to Flow.

“Don’t feed my dogs,” Evan muttered. “You’ll
make them sick.”

“Really, Evan?” Katie’s slim, blond eyebrow
rose. “I don’t think one potato chip will hurt them.”

“Maybe not, but you gave them half of your
hamburger, too.”

Katie glared at him, but she didn’t say
anything. Their dad, who was reading the paper, snapped it shut and
gave her a stern look. “Katie, eat your food. One dinner is not
going to make you fat.”

Katie’s lip quivered. She stood up with her
plate. “I’m not hungry. I guess I’m too excited. I’m going to call
Val to finalize details.”

Evan knew she was pissed, but it wasn’t his
problem. He didn’t get most girls. He was glad that Meara was
normal. If she were here, she’d eat a burger. Heck, she’d probably
eat two if she were hungry enough. And she looked great. She didn’t
worry about gaining weight.

He took a long swallow of Coke and listened
to his parents talk. The inn would be full of guests next week. The
last week of June was always busy—the official start of the summer
tourism season. His dad was staying in town all week to help his
mom with the inn. Since he rarely did that, Evan knew it was going
to be crazy. Would that really be a good time to invite Professor
Nolan to dinner? Would he even come?

“Evan? Are you okay?” His mom frowned at
him. She caught him staring off into space, he assumed.

“I’m all right. Just tired.” He stood and
cleared his plate. The dogs rose, too, tails wagging. “I’m going to
take Ebb and Flow down to the shore for a bit.”

“That’s fine. Have fun.” His parents smiled
at him before resuming their conversation. Evan carried his dishes
into the kitchen and placed them in the sink. The house was quiet.
The one couple staying at the inn this week had gone into Halifax
for the day. Katie must be up in her room with the door closed.

Evan found a couple of tennis balls in the
front closet. He pulled on his windbreaker and a blue baseball hat.
The sun would be start setting in about an hour, and June evenings
were cool in Peggy’s Cove. He didn’t bother with the leashes. Ebb
and Flow wouldn’t leave his side unless he released them. They were
well trained.

He thought about taking his car, but he
chose to walk instead. The light breeze and warm sun caressed his
skin. He already spent too much time cooped inside the lab. Summer
break was a month in, and what did he have to show for it? Pale
skin and no social life. It didn’t matter; it was worth it if he
was going to see Meara in two weeks.

Meara. He couldn’t stop thinking about her.
Did she miss him as much as he missed her? She promised to come and
find him when he arrived. She knew he was staying in Aberdeen and
that he was arriving on July 7. He knew nothing about where she was
except that she was near Scotland. He wished he could call her, but
she didn’t have her phone. David told her not to bring it. She had
to be somewhere remote if there was no cell phone service.

He crossed the street to the path that lead
down to a popular stretch of shoreline. It was a small park, made
up of a long strip of grass and two picnic tables. Not much, but
the dogs liked it. He threw the tennis balls and commanded them to
fetch. They took off.

The salty air misted his skin and calmed
him. He felt closer to Meara. He couldn’t explain it, but if he
closed his eyes, he could picture her clearer here—her brown, wavy
hair blowing in the wind, the light splatter of freckles across her
nose, and her stormy, blue eyes.

He thought about the first time he saw her.
It was late June last year. Since their mothers were best friends,
Meara came with her mom to the house for a visit. While the older
women went inside, Meara wandered into the backyard and introduced
herself.

He wasn’t looking for a relationship—his
last girlfriend had been a piece of work—but when Meara smiled, he
couldn’t help it. He wanted to make her smile more. She hooked him
that very first day.

The dogs made impatient noises at his feet.
He picked up the balls, now damp with their drool, and threw them
again. They repeated this pattern while the sun sank, large and
glowing, over the churning gray sea.

Just two more weeks
, he thought.

A month passed and life at Ronac fell into a
pattern of sorts, training followed by recovery. The physical
nature of it surprised me. By the end of the day, I crawled into
bed and crashed. I tried to read, but my eyes shut before I
finished the page.

Most mornings, my dad attempted to eat
breakfast with me. After that, he got caught up in the day-to-day
running of Ronac. A few days after Kieran’s arrival, I confronted
my dad about him. My dad didn’t budge.

“He’s the most powerful, after Brigid and
me,” Dad explained.
Brag much?
I thought, but I wisely kept
my mouth closed. “And I need to see what you are capable of.”

“Why?” I was genuinely curious. Why did it
matter if I was powerful or not?

I caught him with a mouth full of toast. He
held up a finger, and I waited. He swallowed and then said, “We
have enemies, Meara.”

“Humans, I know.” Brigid hammered that into
my head every chance she got. At least I only had lessons with her
twice a week. The rest were with Kieran.

Dad shook his head. “Humans are not our
worst enemy.”

“Then, who? Sharks?” I thought of the shark
I encountered with Ula. We didn’t tell my dad, and I knew Kieran
kept it secret, too. If Dad knew, he’d probably never let me swim
again.

He laughed. “No, not sharks. Sharks can kill
us, but they are not our enemies. That’s just nature, and we can
avoid them.”

I pushed pieces of omelet around my plate,
as I grew annoyed. “You’re not answering my question,” I pointed
out. My dad was good at avoiding answers. It took me months to get
him to tell me about what we were—Selkies, and even then, Ula told
me first.

Dad sipped his coffee. When he set his mug
down, he sighed. “To start, there’s the Blue Men,” he said as
though that explained it all.

The first image that popped into my head was
that percussion group that painted themselves blue, and I almost
laughed until I saw the look on my dad’s face. He was serious.
“Blue men? Seriously?”

He nodded. “The Blue Men of Minch.”

When he said their full name, I vaguely
remembered reading about them in one of the books I gave Evan last
Christmas. I couldn’t remember too much. I knew that they lived in
some strait and sunk ships. “Why are they an enemy?” I asked.

My dad covered my hand with his. “They hate,
and they destroy.” His eyes grew sad, and he squeezed my hand.
“They killed my parents.”

I gasped. I couldn’t help it. “When?
How?”

“Many years ago.” Dad’s expression was far
away. “It feels like yesterday though. They held them for ransom.
When we wouldn’t give in to their demands, they murdered them.
Their bodies were found near Dublin, mutilated and almost
unrecognizable.”

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I wish there was
something I could do.”

“There is,” my dad said, surprising me. “You
can train hard and be careful.”

When he stood and kissed my cheek, I
promised I would.

****

“You’re not trying hard enough!” Kieran
snapped.

“I’m trying as hard as I can!” I yelled,
biting back the insult lurking on the tip of my tongue. I was
exhausted. Last week, he drilled me on transporting. By the end of
the week, I managed to move myself from the bottom of the cove to
the top of the cliff. I was impressed; Kieran was not.

This week, he was teaching me weather
control. A fluffy, white cloud floated above us. He told me to make
it rain. As if I could make that silly thing do anything. I asked
Kieran how to do it, and he told me to picture it like a sponge
filling with water, then wring the sponge cloud in my mind and
watch it rain. Ha! Like anything was ever that easy.

He blew out a breath and stalked over. His
face was inches from my own. I could feel the heat radiating off
his body. I wanted more than anything to take a step back, but I
held my ground. I wouldn’t let him see that he affected me.