The Bloom Series Box Set: Bloom & Fade (2 page)

The uncurtained window next to his
mattress showed him a view of the busy street below his apartment
building. Businessmen and women walked briskly down the sidewalks,
bumping into each other and generally ignoring the world around
them.

Colton rescued a dirty skillet from
the bottom of a pile of filthy dishes and, after a thorough scrub,
cooked three scrambled eggs for breakfast. He then took a quick
shower and pulled on the cleanest t-shirt and pair of jeans he
could find. Normally Colton rode his bike to the homeless shelter
for lunch on his days off, but he decided to walk
instead.

He liked New York City because it was
big enough to get lost in yet personal enough when he needed it to
be. His new job at the shipping depot kept him busy for fifty hours
a week or more and his spare time was steadily shrinking as the
weeks passed, so he tried to make the most out of his occasional
day off.

After graduating high school six
months ago, he had kicked around his hometown of Pittsburgh for a
while before his friend Reece convinced him to move up to New York.
After he settled in to the spare room in Reece’s apartment, Colton
ditched his pickup truck for a bicycle and had barely thought about
Pennsylvania since.

When he emerged from the front door of
his apartment building, the street was even busier than it had been
just thirty minutes earlier. No matter what day of the week it was,
Colton always seemed to have to travel against the flow of
foot-traffic. Pittsburgh had been moderately better, but Colton had
lived in the suburbs instead of downtown.

His favorite produce stand in The
Bronx was near the corners of Westchester and Castle Hill. The
owner was busy topping off a heaping carton of bananas when Colton
approached the stand.

“
Morning, Mr.
Laretti.”

“
Mr. Ross! Good to see
you, as always. Yet it is few and far between, yes? You must have
the day off.” Antonio Laretti had bushy black eyebrows and a
receding hairline. Standing on his toes, he was probably only five
feet tall. He squinted up at Colton through thick reading
glasses.

“
My first in two weeks.”
Colton picked up two apples and inspected them for
bruises.

“
Ah, yes, they work you
too hard. I am also working too hard. But! People are needing their
fruits and vegetables, yes? Where else they gonna get them if not
from old Antonio!”

“
Thanks a lot, Mr.
Laretti.” Colton handed him a dollar and took the two
apples.

“
Of course, of course.
Come back soon, I’ll have better apples.”

Colton turned to walk away when
movement in the cart of bananas caught his eye. He stopped to watch
as the entire bunch slowly turned from bright yellow to dull brown,
as if they were being coated with some kind of acid that burnt
their peels.

“
Hey,” said Antonio, “what
is this?”

The bananas curled in on themselves as
they darkened and shrank. Colton took a step toward the produce
stand and the crate of oranges next to the bananas began to change
as well. The round fruit withered like they were being drained of
all their moisture, shriveling into dried husks right before
Colton’s eyes.

If it hadn’t been for a similar
accident two months ago, Colton would have thought he was imagining
the whole thing. It had only been a lizard back then, though—one
small, barely-alive lizard he had been trying to carry from his
bedroom to his backyard when it dried up in his hand and turned to
dust.

“
You!” said Antonio
loudly. He pointed right at Colton, his mouth moving up and down as
he tried to form words. “You!” was all he could say. He pointed at
Colton’s hands.

The apples he purchased were rapidly
shrinking, turning brown as if some invisible flame were cooking
them in his palm. He dropped them like hot coals and quickly
brushed his hands against his shirt.

Colton knew what came next. Warmth
gathered around his spine between his shoulder blades as heat
bloomed within his body. It first spread up to the base of his
neck, then back down his spine before flowing out to his arms and
legs. Finally, it settled in his hands. His palms radiated with
heat.

“
Mr. Laretti, I-I-I’m
sorry,” he stuttered.

“
Get out of here, whatever
you are!” hissed Antonio. “You ruin my whole business so you don’t
come back, you hear me?! I call the cops if you come
back!”

Colton turned and hurried away as
Antonio shouted curses at his back.

3

H
aven went quickly to the kitchen window and looked outside. A
harsh yellow glow from a nearby street lamp painted the wet grass
in her backyard. A tall white fence bordered the yard, too high for
someone to climb over (or so she thought), so if someone were back
there, they would have had to walk all the way around from the
front.

There was a crunching noise from a
large bush at the base of the fence. Haven strained her eyes to
look into the shadows. A black cat shot out from the bush and
hissed as it clawed up the fence, its fur raised and its teeth
bared. It ran across the top of the fence, its body casting a quick
shadow over Haven’s kitchen window as it passed in front of the
street lamp.

Haven watched a moment longer, still
uneasy. Finally she sighed and tried to relax. She slowly pulled
out the silverware drawer again, waiting for the blue light to
burst from her hand. It didn’t. She grabbed a spoon, then pushed
the drawer back in with her hip and got a bowl out of the cupboard.
Haven filled it to the brim with strawberry ice cream.

“
Couldn’t
sleep?”

She jumped at her father’s voice and
turned around quickly.

“
Dad!”

“
Hi,” he said, smiling. He
wore his white robe and what remained of his greying hair stuck out
in every direction.

“
Hi.” She put the tub of
ice cream back in the freezer and closed the door. “No, couldn’t
sleep. Was I being too loud?”

“
Nah, I couldn’t sleep,
either. I heard a noise and figured you were on one of your
late-night ice cream runs.”

“
You know about that,
huh?”

“
Your mother used to do
the same thing right after—”

“
Dad, gross!”

“
What? I was going to say
‘right after she finished working the late shift at the
hospital’.”

“
Uh-huh.”

“
So, why the midnight
snack? Something happen at school?”

He walked toward the kitchen and
pulled out one of the tall stools below the bar. The counter that
ran along the back of the kitchen turned out from the wall and
separated it from the dining room. Haven’s mother liked to keep
that surface clear so someone could sit on a stool and use it like
a bar.

Haven’s father sat on his stool and
smiled at her.

“
Dad, it’s
late.”

“
So? You’re not going to
sleep any time soon. Not with all that sugar, anyway. Come on, sit
down. I’m a good listener.”

She sighed and reluctantly pulled out
the stool next to him, then placed her bowl on the counter and sat
down. She ran her spoon around the inside edge of the bowl,
scooping up the softer ice cream on the sides.

“
Is it boy trouble?” he
asked.

She made a sour face. “I
am
not
talking to
you about that.”

He nodded. “I guess that’s your
mother’s department, anyway.” He pretended to wipe sweat from his
forehead in relief. Haven smiled and took a bite of ice cream. “To
tell you the truth, kiddo,” he continued, “you have us a little
confused. This is the first time we’ve ever heard anything other
than high praise from your school. I know you’re still upset
because of the move and I hated to take you away from your friends,
but my new job is going to give this family a lot of
freedom.”

“
It’s just a little
healthy rebellion, Dad. That’s all. Didn’t you and Mom ever start
trouble for no good reason?”

“
Of course not!” he said,
feigning insult. “We were model students in every way. Why? What
did you hear about us?”

She laughed and shook her head.
“You’re so corny.”

“
That
wasn’t corn. And for the record, I’m a very cool
dude.”

“
Riiiight. You just said
‘cool dude’.”

“
Yeah, well, I’m still
learning.” He looked at her. “So, everything’s really okay? No
drugs, no dropping out, nothing like that?”

“
Everything’s fine, Dad. I
promise. I don’t even know why I was acting up. It’s not really
me.”

“
Maybe you were testing
your limits,” he said.

“
Maybe…I
guess.”

“
Which is perfectly
normal,” he said. “You need to know how much you can handle. But
you also need to do it respectfully. You’re an extremely bright
girl, Haven. You surprise me every day, but we can’t handle getting
phone calls from the principal like that. Especially your mother.
She’s a little scared.”

“
I know. I’m
sorry.”

He ruffled her hair until she pulled
away, smiling.

“
So,” he said. “Tell me
about the boy you like so much that you wrote his name on the gym
wall.”

“
Ew, Dad!”

She hopped off her stool and hurried
upstairs with her bowl of ice cream.

Haven stopped by the door to Noah’s
room. He hugged his favorite blue blanket close to his chest while
he slept. He was still young enough to need a night-light and the
soft glow cast long shadows over the toys scattered across his
cluttered floor.

Haven stood there watching
her brother’s small chest rise up and down with his breathing. She
wondered if he was going to have to suffer through all of the same
things she was suffering through—confusion about the future,
especially. All of the adults at school continuously stressed how
important it was for her to know what she wanted to do for the rest
of her life before she graduated high school—that she should have
known even
earlier
if possible. How else would she decide what college she
wanted to attend or the field of study she wanted to pursue? Haven
knew she didn’t want to live in Arizona forever, but she also had
no clue where she might want go.

It made her head hurt to think of all
those things at once. Haven closed her eyes when she felt pressure
building behind her forehead and thought of a green meadow bathed
in warm sunlight. It was an imaginary place she would envision
whenever she felt a migraine fast approaching.

The meadow was surrounded by a ring of
tall trees. Small lights floated around the branches; they moved in
different directions and at varying speeds as if each one had a
mind of its own. Haven was never able to figure out what the lights
were, so after a while she stopped trying. They made her smile,
which, in the meadow, was the only thing that mattered.

She imagined herself lying down in the
soft grass and looking up at the blue sky, her reddish brown hair
fanned out on the ground above her head. The clouds were light pink
and formed funny shapes as they drifted high above. One of them
shifted into the shape of a bird and floated gently down to the
meadow. Haven smiled and the cloud dropped lower until it hovered
right above her. She reached up and ran her hand through the pink
fluff. It moved between her fingers and trailed after them when she
pulled her hand back.

In the field, she closed her eyes and
took a deep breath.

When she opened them again, she was
standing in front of the door to Noah’s room, holding her bowl of
melting ice cream. He still slept soundly in his bed. She had only
asked once why her parents chose to have another child so long
after having her, but they simply said it felt like the right thing
to do at the time.

Haven closed her door as gently as she
could and turned off the light before climbing into bed. She ate
her strawberry ice cream while looking out of her window at the
countless stars scattered across the night sky.

A feeling of exposure crept over her,
stronger than what she had experienced in the kitchen when she saw
the shadow outside. It was as if everyone in the world was suddenly
aware of the strange blue light she had produced and had all turned
to look at her at the exact same time. For a moment, she thought
she saw dark figures standing in the shadows next to her house,
watching through her bedroom window and waiting for her to fall
asleep. She rubbed her eyes and the shadows melted away into the
night—it was just her vision straining against the darkness. Yet
the feeling that she was being watched grew stronger.

Haven shivered and turned away from
the window. She set the empty bowl on her nightstand next to a
clock that told her it was far too late to still be awake (as it
often did), then pulled the bedcovers up under her chin and waited
to fall asleep.

4