CHAPTER TEN
“How was town yesterday?” Grandma asked me a week and a half later. She was sitting at the kitchen table wearing her favourite grey sweater and eating her regular breakfast of toast and fruit. In the past week, I'd learnt that the kitchen was her favourite room in the house. I was beginning to resent her for it—I couldn't escape her if she was constantly stalking my only food source.
I'd been to town with Colleen three times since our first outing, and on each trip I’d picked up a few more useful items and new articles of clothing. Yesterday, I’d finally maxed out my credit card. On days we hadn’t gone into town, we’d gone swimming around the island. I was now an Olympic calibre swimmer—although being able to ask the ocean to push me along now and then really helped my speed.
“Fine.” Stepping into the kitchen, I headed over to the fruit bowl on the island counter, which divided the kitchen space from the dining space, and picked out a pear.
“Well, enjoy your last weekend of freedom. School starts on Monday. Your trips into town will have to be put aside.” Grandma sorted through a pile of papers on the table. I assumed they had something to do with the classes I'd soon be taking and stayed away.
“Yay.” I rolled my eyes, pear juice dribbling down my chin. “Can't wait for school.”
“Well, whether you appreciate the opportunity or not, you need to be ready to start attending classes. The other students will arrive this weekend. I expect you to be here to help me greet them.”
I polished off my pear, tossing the core in the compost bucket. “As long as it isn't tonight. Colleen and I are going to Tofino for a celebratory back-to-school sushi dinner.” It was actually a farewell-to-our-freedom dinner but Grandma didn't need to know that.
“When were you planning on asking me if you could go out tonight?” Grandma stood up at the table, leaning forward and pressing her hands into the polished wood surface.
“I didn't think it would matter to you. You said you were busy with school preparations and that I could just practice on my own.” The past week had been difficult. It already felt like I'd returned to school with the special lessons Grandma had forced on me. A few days ago, I'd graduated from emptying and refilling a glass of water. My latest challenge was to stand on the end of the dock and raise the level of the ocean around me. The only good thing about all the practicing was that I hadn't had a cold shower since my day on the beach with Colleen. As much as I hated being a sea-witch, I was having trouble denying the fact that I was getting better at it—and that sometimes—rarely—it was actually fun.
Her eyes narrowed. “Well you're wrong, it does matter. What I said was that you should practice on your own time. There are things I haven't told you yet. You have a lot of learning to do before school begins. You can’t even pull the water out of a glass without first thinking about it for five minutes. Have you even finished reading one of the books I gave you?”
I grimaced, pulling a glass from the cabinet on the back wall. Grandma had given me three books, each weighing at least three pounds. Mostly boring history type stuff. Every time I opened one of the books, I was hit with an overwhelming desire to take a nap. “No. But I can do some reading tomorrow. Tonight's important to me.”
“No. You can't do any reading tomorrow since some of the students will be arriving and you'll be coming with me to the welcoming dinner.” Grandma smacked a pile of lose pages on the table, aligning them perfectly.
“Sunday then.” I filled my glass with water.
“No.”
Her answers were becoming shorter, which meant she was getting angrier. But I wasn't about to give up on my plans to escape with Colleen, who'd been my only refuge from Grandma's incessant hounding. We stared at each other; it was a stalemate: she couldn't force me to study and I couldn't force her to let me take the night off. I jumped when the phone rang, shattering the brewing silence.
Grandma stomped over to the wall and pulled the phone off its cradle. “Hello... Already? No, I suppose not... I wasn't expecting them so soon either but what can you do? I'll get Nessa to help me prepare something for tonight and bring it over around five. Bye, Joanna.” She hung up and sighed heavily, looking at me with powerful eyes. “Some of the students will be arriving earlier than expected, this afternoon in fact. We’ll need to prepare something for supper.” Grandma glanced over her shoulder at the glowing clock on the stove. She furrowed her brow. “You have the morning to study. I’ll make us some sandwiches for lunch around twelve thirty and then you can help me prepare a few simple dishes for tonight.”
“No way. I have plans.” I placed my now empty water glass on the granite counter top. “Good luck with cooking. I'll see you later.”
“Oh no you don't.” Grandma was in front of me in an instant, her eyes storming and her hands firmly anchored on her hips. “You might have been able to treat your parents that way, but you will not treat me with such disrespect. You live under my roof and as long as you’re stuck here you will respect me and my wishes—especially if you want to retain your phone and computer privileges.”
“I...Agh!” She was so unfair. I didn't really have a choice when it came to living with her—I had nowhere else to go. “Fine. I’ll read some of your mouldy, dusty, ancient textbooks. It’s not as if I’m not already wasting my life away by just being here.” My left eye twitched. I could feel the tightness in my knees.
“You are not wasting your life here, Nessa. You’re becoming who you are meant to be. Why can’t you see that?”
“Because I should get to choose what I get to be, and not have to follow some pre-set path of…of… of whatever this is.” I held my arms out wide and then dropped them to my side with a resounding smack.
“If you ever want to be able to choose something for yourself other than this life, you need to get your powers under control. Otherwise you’ll be under my control, forever.”
“You can’t keep me here.” My muscles were clenched. My fists were rolled up into balls. “I’m not a prisoner.”
A loud gurgle followed by a splat came from the sink. A geyser of grey water shot up, hitting the ceiling. A drippy, gooey mess slid down the walls and onto the counter.
Grandma slowly turned and looked at the geyser, which subsided slowly as I fought to regain control. “As long as you keep doing things like that, you are. Clean this up. Then you’ll study. I’ll see you at lunch.” Grandma picked up her papers and headed up the stairs. I marched over to the sink, wanting to scream. The sink bubbled, but I was much quicker this time at forcing the water back down the pipes. I was going to get my powers under control, and soon. There was no way I was going to remain here for the rest of my life.