Telesa - The Covenant Keeper (49 page)

“Jason, I’d like you to meet my friend Simone. He’s been my life saver here. Simone, this is Professor Williams. He’s leading a research team that’s monitoring the volcano Matavanu over in Savaii. I’m giving him a hand with some of their work.”

If Jason thought it odd that my best friend was wearing more makeup than I ever have – he didn’t show it. “Hi Simone, it’s nice to meet you. You’ll have to come with Leila sometime when we take the chopper out to Matavanu. That is, if you’re interested in volcanoes.”

Simone batted his eyelashes and gave an alluring smile. “Oh yes, I’ve always been very interested in hot things.”

I rolled my eyes at him but Jason laughed. “Well Leila, shall we get going? Simone, do you need a lift somewhere?”

Simone was regretful. “Awww, no, I’ve got a netball game. You two go ahead. See you tomorrow, Leila. And don’t forget, we have costume alterations to work on in the afternoon. Your Aunty is expecting us at the house tomorrow for your final fitting.”

I grimaced at him as Jason took my schoolbag from me and easily hefted it into the truck before opening the passenger door for me. He waited for me to get in before shutting the door. I smiled my thanks and, over his shoulder, I saw a familiar figure standing at the end of the main drive to the school. Staring right at us with an unreadable expression. Daniel. Before I could even begin thinking of what to do, he turned. And walked away.

Beside me in the truck, Jason asked, “Ready?”

I nodded silently. Jason started the engine and we drove away. I looked back but couldn’t see Daniel.

The first day, Jason took me to the hospital lab where I had blood work done – samples that he then had sent to his friend’s lab in Los Angeles. The second time, we went back to the rental house he was sharing with his team. It was empty though as they were all on camp at the Savaii base. In a ramshackle shed in the backyard, he had carefully hooked me up to a complicated string of wires and I had tried, equally carefully, to erupt into flame without incinerating all his equipment. It had not gone so well. Poor Jason had done lots of shouting as I charred a very expensive pressure gauge and set fire to an entire set of volcanic lava thermometers.

“Leila! You’re doing it again. Watch it!”

“I’m sorry Jason, but it’s a bit tricky to set my whole body on fire while at the same time, keeping two little spots turned off so your gadgets can take readings. I’ve only been doing this for a month now, you know. I’m not a fire genius.”

It had been a frustrating afternoon. One that Jason spent muttering darkly while I muttered equally darkly. Not until the third visit did he finally get some decent measurements. Measurements that had him shaking his head and looking at me in disbelief. A look that didn’t escape me, even as I quickly wriggled back into my clothes from behind the makeshift screen he had erected to give me a bit of privacy.

“What? What is it? You look freaked out. Tell me.” I demanded.

He didn’t answer. Just furrowed his brow in concentration as he walked back to the main house, with me following behind.

“Jase. Talk to me. Please?”

Jason sighed. Turned and looked back at me in the overgrown yard. “Leila, I’m sorry. I’m not trying to freak you out. I just … I just didn’t expect readings like this.” His shoulders slumped and he sat down tiredly on a rickety garden bench. He looked worried. Really worried.

“What do you mean? You knew I exploded into flames, you knew I would be hot. What’s the surprise then?”

He gave a wry smile. “Yes, I knew you were hot. Just not this hot. You’re registering at over 1200 degrees Celsius.”

I shook my head impatiently. “So? So what does that mean?”

“You’re not just catching on fire, Leila. You’re not just something burning. Wood burns at about 500 degrees Celsius. That’s hot. But you? You’re raging at temperatures of molten lava flow. Temps that a volcano reaches when it blows. Its nuts. This is nuts. I don’t know how this can be happening.”

I gave him a sad smile. “You and me both.” I walked over and sat down beside him on the bench. “But I believe in you and I know that you can figure this out. And figure out a way to make it go away. You’re the smartest, brilliantest volcano professor I know. Right?” I peered at him hopefully.

He rolled his eyes at me and flashed the golden easy smile that I loved. “I’m the ONLY volcano professor that you know, you dork.”

“No, I know Blaine. And he’s super smart. And if you’re thinking about quitting on me, then I’ll have to bewitch him with my bimbo act so
he
can help me,” I teased, but there was a note of desperation underneath the light-heartedness.

I was rewarded with another smile and his faked look of aggrieved shock. “Blaine?! You would take Blaine’s brain over mine? No way. You take that back, right now.” He started tickling me mercilessly, which had me squirming and jumping off the bench, grabbing his hands trying to get him to stop his attack.

“Stop it. Stop it! I give up, I give up. Okay, okay Blaine’s nothing compared to you and I would never ever even think about replacing you with him, o great scientist researcher. Spare me! Stop it.”

Breathless with laughter, we both tumbled off the seat onto the grass and I landed half on top of his broad chest. The laughter faded as our eyes met. I could feel the rise and fall of his breathing, the warmth of his body under the length of mine. His lips were a heartbeat and for one taut moment, I considered what would happen if I leaned forward and met his mouth with mine. Tasted him. My pulse accelerated and instantly I pushed myself up and away from him so that we were lying side by side underneath a fading blue sky. No longer touching, but still connected. By invisible electric wires of something I couldn’t understand. I battled a swirl of inner confusion. I didn’t know what I was feeling with Jason. But I knew I liked feeling it. I liked being here with him. For a few quiet minutes we lay there in the grass side by side. Comfortable. And then I spoke.

“You’re not, are you Jase?”

“What?”

“Thinking of quitting on me? Am I a lost cause?”

He turned and propped himself up on one elbow so he could gaze down at me. There was no more teasing in his eyes. “Leila, I would never quit on you. We’re going to figure this thing out. I promise. I’m not going anywhere.”

He leaned forward and I tensed against an embrace that didn’t come. Instead, he gently blew a loose strand of my hair away from my cheek before leaving a quick kiss on my temple. Then he was up and offering me his hand. “Come on. We better get you home before your aunty Matile sends out the sniffer dogs.”

Together, we walked back to the truck. I was relieved nothing had happened. I thought back to Daniel’s stony gaze at school and my insides twisted. I couldn’t have the boy I loved. But I could have Jason. As long as he stayed a friend. Gently, I slipped my fingers from his and went to my side of the truck. “Thanks for everything, Jason. For today. For trying to help me. I really appreciate it.”

“Hey, I’m a mad scientist remember? We love studying incendiary mysteries.” A shrug. “I just wish we were back home where I would have access to all sorts of far more advanced gear. Hey, that’s an idea. I don’t know why I didn’t think of it before.” He looked excited. “We’ve got another week or so before we wrap up the Matavanu project. Before we head back to collate our results. Why don’t you come with us?”

I was taken aback by the unexpected turn of the conversation. “Go with you? Back to the States?”

“Yeah. That would be perfect.” He slammed his door shut and walked quickly over to where I stood on the opposite side, grabbing both my hands in his. “Think about it. You could fly back with me to LA and I could get you booked into a lab where we could run every kind of test under the sun. We could totally get to the bottom of this.” His excitement was palpable; it came at me in waves.

I shook my head. “I don’t know.”

“But Leila, why not? What’s keeping you here? You’ve left Nafanua and the others. They can’t stop you. And to be honest, I would be more comfortable if you were a thousand miles away from them. I think they have a few screws missing upstairs, if you know what I mean – no offence. I know she’s your mother and everything. But, honestly, why do you need to stay in Samoa? What would keep you here?”

I stared at him, my mind a-swirl with questions and possibilities. Jason was right. Why did I need to stay here? I hadn’t been very truthful with him about my reasons for leaving Nafanua’s house. I had only told him the bare minimum, making it sound more like a typical mother-daughter spat. The nightmares of
telesa
wielding lightning to raze a village to the ground, were mine alone to bear.

As he waited for my answer, I considered all the arguments. I had cut myself off from the
telesa
and their supposed offers of help with training and controlling my powers. I wasn’t as worried as I had been about exploding ‘accidentally’ and killing people. Heck, hadn’t I just proven that I had a handle on this fire stuff by getting through Jason’s preliminary tests without setting him on fire? Yes, I could leave. If I really wanted to. What was keeping me in Samoa? I thought of Matile and Tuala with fondness. They were the closest thing to family that I had ever come to since my dad. But I knew they were worried for me. They knew, or at least suspected what Nafanua could do when she got angry and they would feel a lot better if I was far away from here. No, if I told them I was leaving today – tomorrow, next week – they would be relieved. I thought of Grandmother Folger and almost laughed out loud. Ha. She would pay anything to get me to leave this place and return home to ‘civilization.’ I looked at Jason and his still-waiting, expectant face. Grandmother would even be enthused I had made friends with such an intellectual overachiever. If she knew about Jason she would be hoping against hope that some of him would rub off on me, inspire me to get my butt in gear and go to college. I had told Nafanua that I was leaving the country, so why was I still here? I pulled my hands away from him and looked away, out over the fast setting sun.

At burnished red draped over lush green. Daniel. His name was a stab, ‘
a steel knife in my windpipe
’ The very thought of him took my breath away. The very possibility of leaving here, of never seeing him again was like standing on the quivering edge of an endless precipice. Not wanting to fall but flailing against empty air for a safe hold. Reaching, trying to cling to that which would give me balance. Give me hope. Give me life.

Daniel. I was here for Daniel. And the realization tore at my insides, mangled my very core. Because, very simply, Daniel was my reason for living. Even though I couldn’t be with him, I could not, would not, live without him. I could not explain why this was so. I did not know where the absolute certainty came from. But it was there. I just knew it. Like I knew I was Leila. And the sooner I was rid of these flames then I could try again to be with him. That is, if he still wanted me.

Jason was still waiting for my response. I shook away my thoughts and managed a weak smile at his expectant face. “I’m sorry Jase. I was – umm – thinking.” I took a deep breath and let the words rush out over each other. “You’re right. I can go with you. It’s the best chance, the only chance I’ve got for getting this stuff sorted out, right? I can spend a bit of time in LA while you run your tests and then I’ll pop back to D.C. to visit my grandmother who is hating the very idea of my being here in Samoa anyway. And then …” my voice died away as I considered my future. Did I really have any options? Did I really have choices? “And then I’ll probably come back here.”

“You mean when we’ve figured out a cure for you?”

“Yes.” My heavy heart lightened to a skip and jump as I thought about the possibility of being rid of my fire. Of being able to hold Daniel, kiss him, love him. “Yes, definitely. If we can put a lid on this thing then I will come back.”

“Aha.” Jason studied me with an unreadable expression, like there was something else he wanted to ask me. Then he pushed it aside and smiled lightly. “It’s a date then. I’ll talk it over with the team so we can confirm our travel dates and then I’ll let you know. Are we agreed?”

I nodded. “Yep. Agreed. Now you’ve got to take me home or else my life won’t be worth living when Matile gets her hands on me.”

That night after dinner and dishes, after I’d said goodnight to Matile and Tuala and gone to my room, I dialled Daniel’s number. The sound of his voice cut through me. Both raw and delicious at the same time.

“Hello?”

I held my breath and was silent, not trusting myself to speak in case I melted into tears. A heavy pause.

“Hello? Leila? Is that you? Are you there?”

I wanted to speak to him. Tell him of the love that choked me. The pain I drowned in without him. But I couldn’t. Instead, I pressed END and cried myself to sleep.

* * * *

Friday was a busy bustle at school as everyone worked to decorate the hall with red ginger and woven coconut fronds on all the posts. The teachers hoped to stage all the performances on the field under the stars, so everyone was hoping for a clear night. Matile wanted me to do one more fitting after school, which had me chafing and muttering curses under my breath.

Prayers were answered and the night was clear. A half-moon graced us with her presence and a panoramic southern hemisphere sky guaranteed that nature herself would be the stage for our culture performances. Our house performance would be last. It was a great night, one I knew I would always remember. For its ease, its beauty, the relaxed natural way people greeted me, spoke to me, the way Simone and I sat and clapped for the house performances, the way he critically analysed each one, reassuring me that, of course, nobody was as perfect as I would be! I had never had a night like this one. I was at one with other teenagers and it felt great. Our turn was announced. I could see Matile and Tuala in the audience as they sat proudly with anticipation, and a thrill of nervous adrenaline rushed through me. Simone moved to the side of the hall with the others as they lined up for the
maululu
dance. The conductor led us in song and the words rippled and swelled, filling the field and the night sky. Then Simone and the other girls took to the field for their dance. I hid a smile as moonlight caught on Simone’s sequins, gracefully ensuring he did stand out! I stood in the shadows and watched as Daniel led the boys in the war dance. My breath caught in my throat as my eyes feasted on his lithe form, the strength in every sinew and rippling muscle as he leapt and danced, invoking the gods of war, of strength and power to take them to victory. So I was caught off guard when Mele spoke beside me.