Divine (6 page)

He
did a good job.
Maybe
I should run over a few nails so I can bring it back in for him to
fix again.

I laughed at my thought
as I opened the door and flung my purse inside. When I sat down on
the seat I could smell the faintness of Jonah's cologne: a masculine,
woodsy scent. I started the engine and laid my head against the
headrest, taking a moment to breathe him in before heading back home.

* * *

When I got to my house
I found my mom paying the bills at the kitchen table. I sat down next
to her and explained about the pothole and that I used her credit
card to get a new tire. She panicked at first, naturally, but after I
told her how I handled it she calmed down.

“
You are such a
mature young lady,” she said with satisfaction. “You
handled that better than I would have.” She raised a cup of hot
tea to her mouth for a sip, while simultaneously moving her reading
glasses from her face to the top of her head. “Now, tell me how
your first day at work went.”

“
It was fine,”
I said shortly. I honestly didn't want to discuss it at the moment; I
preferred to go upstairs to my room and swoon over Jonah.

She looked at me
blankly. “Just fine?”

“
Yeah mom . . . I
didn't do much. I stocked stuff and helped some people who needed
more ketchup; it was pretty boring.” Her faint look of
disappointment at my lack of excitement made me feel bad, so I tried
to think about something interesting I could share. My mind turned to
Fox. “Oh, I know something I can tell you about. My boss, Mr.
Fox, is a Divine. He can turn lights on and off and stuff.”

She looked unimpressed
by his talent. “Oh, well, that's pretty cool.”

“
Yeah, he's no
teleporter,” I joked.

My mom chuckled at my
statement. “You’re right about that,” she said
factually. She took another sip from her tea and sat it down in front
of her. I could tell that she was in deep thought from the way she
turned the cup back and forth in her hands, making its round bottom
lightly scratch against the table's surface. “You know, I've
been thinking,” she started hesitantly, “it's been quite
a while since you've tried using your skill. Maybe you should
practice?”

I sneered at her
remark. “Ah, Mom, no!” I pouted in my most pathetic tone.

“
I know, I know,”
she cut in to my whining, “but we could practice together. You
have such a wonderful ability; if you would just practice you could
be great at it.” Her soft hand rested on my arm as she pleaded
her case. “You could go anywhere in the world, Summer. You need
to do this for yourself; it's who you are.” Her voice trailed
off hopelessly as she sat back in her chair and took her cup of tea
back into her hands.

It's
who I am.

I sat quietly and let
the words sink in, meditating on their truthfulness. “Okay,”
I sighed, telling her what she wanted to hear. “We can try it
again, I guess.”

“
Yay!” she
cheered as she sat up in her chair. “It's going to be so fun!
You were just a little girl the last time you tried it. It's going to
be different this time, I promise.”

I thought about my last
childhood attempt that sent me to our neighbor's basement. “
I
hope so, because we had to move because of what happened last time.”

“
Oh, honey,”
she interrupted, “that was a long time ago and you have grown
so much since then. It will be fine.” She stood up from her
chair and made her way to the kitchen sink to dump her cup, and then
came back with a smile and joined me next to the table. “Okay,
let's do this.”

“
What? Right
now?” I blurted. “I'm not ready now, Mom. I thought you
meant, like, soon. I didn't know that you meant right this second.”

She completely ignored
my statement and grabbed my hand, pulling me away from the chair.
“Okay, let's face each other, and I'll guide you through it.”

I crossed my arms in
front of me as the feeling of self consciousness rose through my
body.

“
Uncross your
arms,” she said, pulling my arms back down to my sides. “Now,
completely relax your body, even your toes.”

I dropped my tight
shoulders into a slump. “I don't even know where to go; I'm too
afraid to go anywhere,” I confessed.

“
Well, how about
to your bedroom? We'll just stick to places inside of the house, for
now.”

“
Okay,” I
slowly spat out, “that sounds good I guess.” I tried hard
to relax as I shook my arms to send the prickly feeling of
nervousness away, but the memories from my childhood attempts flooded
my brain and made it hard for me to concentrate.

My mom grabbed my hands
and squeezed them tightly. “This is what I want you to do,”
she cut in with her instructions, apparently seeing the lack of focus
on my face. “Close your eyes, breathe slowly through your nose,
and visualize your bedroom. Take as long as you want; you know I'll
be right here with you.”

I went for a second
attempt and closed my eyes, submerging myself in the blackness of my
eyelids as I focused on breathing slowly in and out of my nose. I
thought about the basic things in my bedroom: my bed, my curtains, my
furniture; but, nothing was happening.

“
Keep thinking,”
my mom interjected. “Be very specific in the details of your
room.”

Okay,
what does my room look like?
Well, I have a Queen
sized bed with a purple
down
comforter and silver throw pillows, a bamboo headboard . . .

My train of thought
halted as the blackness of my eyelids slowly faded away, revealing an
accurate image of my room. I was amazed at what I was seeing;
everything was so vivid. But, the details of the image were slowly
fading away with my admiration, so I concentrated harder on the
particulars to bring everything to clarity.

I have floor length
curtains that are purple, a white shag rug in the middle of the
floor, a small desk where I do my schooling, a full length mirror on
the back of my door . . .

The complete image was
finally there. It looked like I could step forward and walk right
into my bedroom.

Is
that what I'm supposed to do next?
W
alk
forward?

Just as I was about to
take a step into my vision, a high pitched frequency filled my ears
and drowned out the quietness of my house. Panic overcame me as the
feeling of static electricity raged through my veins, making me feel
lit up with the stimulation of electrical current buzzing in my blood
cells. It was too much: the overwhelmingly loud sound and the feeling
of my body charged up with a foreign sensation. I soon lost control
of my thoughts and the image of my bedroom quickly faded away into my
dark eyelids.

My eyes opened with a
jolt as if I had been startled from a deep sleep. I looked down at my
shaking hands and noticed that little electric charges were zapping
around my skin, like tiny little lightening bolts.

My mom locked eyes with
me. “Are you okay?” she asked.

“
Um, yeah, I
think so. I saw my room; it was like I could step right into it. But
I felt all these weird sensations and there was this loud sound
ringing in my ears and it scared me.”

She looked at me with
mild concern before changing her expression to more of a pleasant
one. “That means you were doing it right.” She smiled and
pulled me in for a hug, but quickly pushed away when my body gave her
a hard shock. “Ouch! You're still pretty charged up!” she
laughed. We both giggled and went on poking each other, trying to get
the electricity out of my system.

“
Hey Mom,”
I began, adding a spec of seriousness to our conversation, “when
I was little I remember the loud piercing sound in my ears, but I
don't remember the electric feeling that I have now. And I'm so
tired; I don't remember being tired before.”

She stopped her gentle
poking and crossed her arms in front of her. “Well, you were
pretty young, so you probably just don't remember those parts about
it. But that's what happens when everyone in our bloodline teleports,
so I know you had to have felt those sensations when you ended up in
the basement.”

“
Yeah,” I
said with a nod. “All the other times I had tried with you
before that I only remember hearing the sound and I was too afraid to
step forward into my vision. And then when I tried to go to the zoo I
actually leaned forward; I think that's why I was able to teleport
that time, because I moved toward it.”

“
And you had
Daisy to help you along,” she added. “I think as a little
girl you tried to do it alone a lot without knowing that you needed
the energy from another living being.”

“
Yeah, and
because of Daisy it actually worked.”

My mom ran her fingers
through her hair and nodded. “Yeah, I feel bad about not fully
explaining your ability to you when you were younger. I never told
you that you and I need to have another living being's energy
touching us in order to teleport. I kept it from you as a protection,
because I didn't actually want you to teleport somewhere; you were
too young.”

“
Well, I kind of
knew that something was up, because it was different when I practiced
with you and held your hands. When I was by myself nothing really
happened.”

“
Yeah,” my
mom said with a smirk. “And when I tried to help you I
still
didn't tell you all the details. I was just secretly helping you
practice your skill and I knew you would be safe with me if you
teleported while I was with you.”

“
Well, that was
practice enough, Mom,” I chuckled. “Ending up in the
basement was enough to scare me into not wanting to do it anymore.”

“
Yeah, I know.
You were so afraid after that because you actually ended up going
somewhere, it just wasn't where you
meant
to go.”

“
And I didn't
want to end up anywhere else like that again.”

“
I know you
didn't, sweetheart.”

I smiled weakly at her
and tried to swallow through the dryness of my mouth. “Man, I
need something to drink now; I'm parched.” I walked to the
fridge and pulled out an ice-cold bottle of water, downing half of it
with a few gulps.

“
Just wait until
you actually teleport somewhere; you'll be exhausted,” she said
with a chuckle as she sat down at the kitchen table and moved her
glasses back onto the bridge of her nose. “I'm really proud of
you, Summer. Thank you for trying it again for me.”

“
Well, thanks for
encouraging me to do it. I really want to be like Grandma someday.”

A
look of nostalgia crossed her face. “You
are
like
Grandma.”
She gave me a proud smile and then dropped her gaze to the table,
picking up her pen and continuing her desired role of paying the
bills.

I walked upstairs to my
room and gazed around at the small space; it looked just like what I
had envisioned moments earlier. My bed squeaked as I plopped down on
my stomach and rested my face on my fluffy pillow. Not having the
energy to sit up and take them off with my hands, I peeled my shoes
off with my feet and let them drop to the soft carpet below.

What
a day
.
My first day of
work, a provocative mechanic, trying to teleport for the first time
in years . . .

My thoughts went back
to Jonah. He was the first guy who had ever really made me feel
desire, and I didn’t even know him. It was a little
embarrassing, actually. I mean, who on earth lusts after someone that
quickly?

Me, apparently.

Even
Fox didn't give me the same feelings that Jonah did. Fox was hot,
obviously, but he was too dense. Jonah on the other hand was kind and
helpful, and he seemed
like
a genuinely good-natured person. And to top it off, he
oozed
sexiness;
he deserved
a
trophy for that.

Oh
well, I better get over him because he obviously thinks I'm too young
for him
.