By the time I got home, the anger I was feeling toward Genevieve and Riley had grown unbearable. My stomach twisted into knots. I couldn’t believe that she had tricked me. Normally, so much intense rage would trigger the fire in my stomach, sending bitter acid into my throat. But to my surprise, it wasn’t there. I just felt plain anger, nothing else. It had been so long since I had a normal emotion without some sort of weird Thusian reaction. As unwanted and unbearable as this anger was, at least it was a nice, normal feeling. Cora didn’t seem bothered at all by what had happened. I knew she didn’t trust them, but now she was relevant to my well-being, giving her purpose once again. I called Elle right when I got home, knowing that she was still at church. I did it just so I could hear her voice on the message.
“Please leave me a message, not too long, not too short, one that is just right. Beeeeeep.”
“It’s Nicholas. Give me a call when you get done. I want to see you tonight.”
Genevieve’s comments started to ring in my ears. Thank you, Nicholas. That’s all I wanted you to admit. You think she is a possible candidate. I will start checking her out.
I didn’t want Genevieve anywhere near Elle, examining her like she was some sort of lab rat. Deep down inside I knew that they weren’t going to hurt her, or even let her know what they were doing, but it still angered me.
The phone rang.
I picked it up and said quickly, “Hello?”
“Is everything okay? Your message sounded so sad,” Elle said.
Of course I couldn’t tell her what was wrong, so I was going to be vague, hoping I wouldn’t have to lie to her again for the millionth time.
“I’m fine. I just miss you terribly. So how was church tonight?” I asked quickly, hoping to get her talking about what she did and not about what I did.
“It was church, but it would have been better if you were there with me,” she said with a sigh. “You should come sometime.”
“I would love to,” I responded. The last time I was at church was the Sunday before the earthquake with my parents at Mt. Vernon Baptist Church. Cora always made sure we avoided public places. Churches are always filled with people wanting to get to know you. It was definitely a place we had avoided. “That would be great, Elle. You know I want to be anywhere you are.”
Elle giggled.
“So are we going to see each other tonight?” I asked, hopeful. Being with her would help ease my troubled mind.
“Nicholas, I really want to, but it’s too late. We can see each other tomorrow.” It wasn’t like her to turn me down.
“Are your parents in the room with you?” I asked.
“Yes, have a good night, Nicholas,” she said, “and make sure you get a good night’s sleep. Bye.”
I was filled with excitement when I heard those words. We had worked out a code earlier in the summer after I told her that I only get a good night of sleep after spending time with her. So now, when she wanted me to come over later, she would say, “Make sure you get a good night’s sleep.” Once she said that, I had a green light.
This was exactly what I needed. Spending time with her would make everything better. It was only 10:00 p.m. I still had two hours until I was in her arms with the stress of the day melting away.
I ate two packs of Tic Tacs while I waited to leave. I got to her house a little earlier than planned, and then slipped down through her window into her bedroom in the basement. Everything was better when I was with her. My nerves and anger subsided. We spent our time holding each other and watching old re-runs of Friends on her small TV on her dresser. The warmth of her touch and the smell of her perfume took my cares away. She was intoxicating. No words needed to be said. With her, nothing could ever be wrong.
When I got home later, the effect she had on me started to wear off a lot faster than normal. All of my anger crept back. It seemed to be even more intense this time around. When I closed my eyes to try to sleep, I was once again fighting the darkness that plagued most of my dreams.
When I awoke, it was 8:30 a.m. I reached for the phone immediately to call Elle. The phone rang twice and then her groggy voice answered.
“Hello?”
“Hey, Elle.”
“Nicholas, it’s 8:30 in the morning. Are you okay?” Her voice was filled with panic.
“Yes, I just wanted to see if we could spend the day together.”
“Of course we can. Haven’t we spent every day together this whole summer? Are you sure you’re okay?” she asked again, sensing something was wrong. “What’s going on?”
“Everything’s fine, I just miss you,” I said in the most normal, nothing-is-wrong voice that I could muster.
That did the trick, or at least she didn’t push me any further.
“Oh, Nicholas, I miss you too. Let me get dressed and I will be over in an hour. But you owe me a back massage for waking me up this early, and it better be a good one.”
“It’s a deal. See you in an hour.”
A massage was a small price to pay.
Now with Elle coming over, I was able to relax and think about Riley and Genevieve. The two of them had gone from being my rescuers to becoming another big question mark in my life, another secret. Could Elle be this 4th Thusian Riley talked about? Half of me wished it was her so that I could share everything with her, no more secrets. Then maybe we could have a future together, but it was selfish of me to want such a thing. It would be a death sentence for her if she was a Thusian, and a world without Elle Canan was one I didn’t want to know. As those thoughts went around in my head like angry hornets, a vision of Genevieve flickered in. Where did that come from? Why was I thinking of her? I didn’t know, so I did my best to block it out.
I waited for Elle on the front porch. The smell of Cora’s coffee was unbearable today, making my constant nausea swirl throughout my body. A gentle breeze helped calm my upset stomach.
I didn’t notice Elle’s car pull into the driveway until the sound of her closing the door broke my trance. She looked amazing. Every time I saw her, it felt like the first time all over again. She was my beautiful angel. The butterflies in my stomach came alive; a lump in my throat made it difficult for me to breathe. She was wearing plain-old ripped jean shorts and a red tank top. She had her hair up in a black Cincinnati Reds baseball hat. She was simply awesome.
I met her at the bottom of the porch with a kiss. Instantly everything was good in the world.
“So you missed me, huh?” she said in a very innocent, but patronizing tone.
“Terribly,” I said, taking her hand. “Sorry for calling so early.” I looked down, feeling embarrassed, like I was a little kid apologizing for eating a cookie before dinner. Elle put her hand under my chin and raised my head so I would make eye contact with her.
“Never apologize for missing me.”
Smiling, I picked her up in a big hug and spun her around to her delight.
We spent the rest of the morning inside with Cora. They talked about some book they had both read. Cora loved to read and so did Elle. They had grown very close to each other over the summer. Elle had become like a little sister to Cora and Cora loved everything about it. Cora had never asked my opinion on clothing, food or anything else like that, but now she asked Elle’s opinion on everything. Cora was a strong, independent woman who never needed or looked for any advice or help, so I found it odd. I guess she missed having friends and Elle was a perfect fit.
“So guys, what do you want for lunch? I was thinking about making portabella mushroom paninis with balsamic vinaigrette, sliced tomatoes, avocados and provolone cheese. What do you think?”
“Everything you make is incredible, Cora. You know that,” Elle responded.
Cora smiled and went to the kitchen.
“I love your aunt. She knows we would love anything she makes. I still remember that time I saw the gourmet lunch she made for you when we ate under the stairs for the first time last year. It was incredible.”
I had come a very long way. Just
last year I was hiding from people during lunch, but now I had a girlfriend and friends, with no reason to fly under the radar or just blend in anymore.
“So, Elle, that reminds me, are we going to eat under the stairs this year?” I was joking, but she paused to think about it. She put her finger up to her head, pretending to really think hard.
“Well I guess it’s up to you. As I recall, you were the reason why we sat there in the first place.”
“Hang on. You’re right that I was originally the one who sat there, but even when I wasn’t trying to hide anymore, you still insisted we sit under there, remember?” I grabbed her and started to tickle her.
She flashed her crooked little smile and broke free from my grip. She stood up and straightened her clothes like she was a mess and said, “Well then, Mr. Keller, we will have to see if I eat with you at all this year.”
She was so cute when she was trying to be funny. I couldn’t be any luckier.
Cora brought out our lunches. We took them out to the porch. We were about ten minutes into our lunch when Elle asked something I was hoping she wouldn’t.
“So what did you do last night while I was at church?” An innocent question, but how was I going to answer it? I was tired of lying. I was going to try the truth, or at least some form of it.
“Cora and I went over to our neighbors’ house for dinner.”
Elle looked like she had just seen a ghost.
“You went to someone’s house for dinner—complete strangers?” She was joking with me, but she was right. Elle knew we avoided everyone, even now when we didn’t have to. Some habits were hard to break.
“No, they aren’t strangers. Cora knows him from college. He is the new history teacher at the high school.”
“Oh, Mr. Riley Moore?” She said his name like he had been teaching at Winsor for years.
“Yes, how do you know him?”
“My parents are on the welcoming committee for new teachers to the school district. I met him and his wife about two weeks ago at the Winsor faculty dinner.”
“His wife was with him?” I asked.
“Of course his wife was with him. She’s the most beautiful woman I have ever seen, so elegant and nice.” Genevieve, elegant . . . yeah, right. That was funny. She was far from that. From my brief encounter with her at their house, she seemed more rude and crass than elegant.
Then I heard the sound of a moving truck coming from the direction of their house. The sound made me sick. That sound normally meant I was moving again. Several moving trucks followed by their sea green truck backed down the long driveway. Elle seemed mesmerized with all of them. She stood to get a better view.
“Mr. Moore lives there?”
Her face showed her shock and I knew why. She had to be wondering how a teacher could afford a place like that.
“Nicholas, how can they—”
“Not sure,” I said. I still wondered how they could build such an expensive house.
Elle sat back down, but now she had positioned herself so she could watch the team of movers unload the fleet of trucks. Just days ago, I was fascinated by watching the house being built, but now that I knew who lived there, my interest had vanished. I didn’t care anymore, not one bit. But Elle had picked up where I left off. I wished she knew that as the movers unpacked those trucks, she was that much closer to being examined by the very two people who were moving in next door.
Elle waved. I turned, hoping to see Riley. It was Genevieve. She was wearing a large sun hat and another summer dress similar to the one she had on last night, but this one had an elaborate floral pattern on it.
“Well goodness gracious, it’s so good to see you again, Ms. Canan,” Genevieve shouted. What was she doing? I had clearly told them I would contact them when I was ready.
Elle shouted back, “It’s nice to see you again, too, Mrs. Moore.”
Before I could stop Elle, she got up and walked toward her. Genevieve was already in our yard walking toward us. Cora must have heard Elle because she was now out on the porch, ready to swoop in if needed. I hurried to catch up with Elle.
“Your house is so beautiful,” Elle said.
“Why thank you, dear. Riley and I have been saving to build our dream home ever since we met, and with a lot of help from my parents, we finally were able to. It’s a little on the big side, but with some little ones running around in the future, it will shrink fast.”
Elle laughed. I couldn’t believe that she was falling for this garbage. Genevieve quickly smiled at me and then focused back on Elle. Was she taunting me?
“Nicholas was telling me that Mr. Moore and Cora went to school together.”
Without skipping a beat Genevieve responded. “Oh yes, they were close friends at Vanderbilt, maybe a little too good of friends.” Genevieve gave us a wink, smiled then laughed. “But that was a long time ago and now Nicholas and Cora are like family.” Elle looked at me and I forced a smile. Genevieve gave me a look again like she was having fun making me suffer this way.
“Nicholas, I forgot to tell you, dear,” the way she said it made my blood boil, “Riley was offered the assistant varsity coach position for football.”
I had to compose myself to keep from showing anger. They were invading all of my safe places quickly.
“Wow, that’s great,” I choked out.
“I know you can’t play anymore, but Riley would love for you to be part of the team. In fact, Coach Miller mentioned you may assist with the team this year.”
I didn’t say anything. Why did they fail to mention that they had already met Elle and her parents and that Riley was the assistant varsity coach? I started to clench my teeth, trying to hold back my anger.
“Nicholas was already asked by Coach Miller to help with the team,” Elle said.
“Oh, then it’s settled. I’ll let Riley know you will help,” Genevieve said with a big smile.
I wasn’t sure if I was going to help. I still felt guilty about faking my injury last year. But what was I going to say now? Both of them were staring at me, burning a hole into me. I nodded in defeat.
“You two have fun. I have to go now,” Genevieve said. She gave me one last look of triumph then headed back to orchestrate the movers.
“Elle, you know I haven’t made up my mind about the whole football thing yet,” I said, walking with her back to the porch.
“I know, don’t be mad. You were forced to quit and I know how much you loved to play. So this is the next best thing. If you don’t do it for yourself, do it for the team. They look up to you.”
“They look up to me for the wrong reason. I am a quitter.”
“Nicholas, don’t give me that. You had no choice. They look up to you, not because you got hurt but because of who you are.” She put both of her hands around my waist, staring deep into my eyes. I couldn’t argue with her even if I wanted to. She had complete control of me.
“Okay then, that’s settled. Now I have a random question about Mrs. Moore. She seems really young; do you know how old she is?” she asked.
“Twenty-eight or twenty-nine, I think.” I didn’t really have a clue how old she was but it sounded good. She then said something I wasn’t expecting.
“Please don’t think badly of me, because I know they’re like family, but I didn’t like how she was looking at you.”
Where did that come from? Did she notice those looks Genevieve was giving me?
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“It might just be me being jealous, but I could swear she looked at you . . . Oh, never mind.”
“Elle, what are you talking about?”
“She looked like she was admiring you,” she said.
“Admiring me how?”
“You know, like she was interested in you.”
“Elle, the whole time she was over here, she had her eyes fixed on you.” I laughed. Genevieve likes me? That was a ridiculous thought. If she liked anything, it was how she was toying with me—that’s it. “
She’s married to Cora’s good friend. She’s like another aunt to me.”
Elle smiled, looking embarrassed. “I know, Nicholas. She is just so impressive, beautiful and—”
“Elle,” I said, interrupting her, “you are stunning, intelligent, and perfect. Nobody could ever compare to you in my eyes.” I sat her down next to me on our porch swing and put my arm around her and pulled her in close. “Elle Canan, don’t forget that I love you so much it hurts, and I can’t imagine life without you.” I leaned over and kissed her.
After Elle went home, I sat down in the family room, looking at a magazine that had Dr. Chase Letterby on the cover with a caption that read, “Doctor to the Stars.” As much as Chase was in the news, I was surprised the Seekers didn’t go after him. Maybe because he was too big of a target with people everywhere knowing him. Xavier was more calculating. Dr. Chase Letterby was too easy, not a challenge. The doorbell rang. Cora was at the door and opening it before I even had a chance to move.
“Can I help you?” I heard her ask, but there was no reply. She shut the door and walked into the family room. She was holding a large, plain, tan envelope. She opened it and pulled out several pieces of paper.
“What is that?”
Cora was very focused on whatever was written on the pages. She flipped through them and said, “It’s a subpoena for you to testify for the prosecution at Oliver Rail’s kidnapping trial. It’s signed by a Judge Barnhart and the district attorney, James Caldwell.”
“Are you kidding? I gave my statement to the police a couple of times already. What do they need to know now?”
I called Elle’s cell phone immediately, but she didn’t answer, so I called her home and her mom answered.
“Mrs. Canan, it’s Nicholas. Is Elle there? I need to talk to her.”
“Nicholas, she can’t talk right now. She is speaking with her father and our family attorney.”
“Does she have to appear in court too?” I feared the answer.
“Yes, she does. I’ll give her the message you called, dear.”
I couldn’t believe we would both have to relive that horrible night in front of an undoubtedly crowded courtroom.
After dinner, Cora and I ended up in the family room watching some old episodes of The Lucille Ball Show.
“Nicholas.” I was lying on the couch and had to sit up to look back at Cora. She was sitting on the edge of our leather recliner with the TV remote in her hand. She turned off the TV, obviously wanting to talk.
“Cora, is everything okay?”
“I was going to ask you the same question. With our new neighbors and Oliver’s trial, I wanted to see if you were okay.”
“I’m great,” I lied. She gave me a look that said, “Yeah right.”
“Nicholas, I know you’re not. After you got home from Elle’s, you tossed and turned all night. I could hear you from all the way down the hall. The sounds of rattling Tic Tacs kept me up.”
The Tic Tacs were always a dead giveaway of something being wrong.
“Cora, it’s just a lot to take in.”
“I know the answer to this will be no, but it’s not too late to leave, to start over somewhere else,” she said, hoping I would agree.
I shook my head emphatically no, so she would understand that no matter how bad it was I would never go back on the run, leaving Elle.
“I’m just letting you know it’s still an option. So do you want to talk about having to testify?”
I held up my hand and said, “I don’t want to think about any of that, Cora.”
“Okay then, so what do you think about what Riley and Genevieve told us?” She sure was talkative this evening.
“Not sure what to believe. Did Ester or Chase ever talk to you about that stuff before?” I asked.
Cora sat there very quietly, like she was thinking carefully about how she should answer. It made me feel like she was hiding something.
“Cora, if you know something, you better tell me.”
“I don’t, but something about what Riley said sounded very familiar to me. I can’t put my finger on it, but there was something, like a distant memory or connection.”
I didn’t know what she meant. Familiar, how? What did that mean? I definitely didn’t think anything about that night was familiar in any way.
“Cora, I’m not sure I understand what you mean.”
She shrugged her shoulders and said, “Nicholas, to be honest, I don’t understand it myself. Did you understand everything they talked about last night?”
“I think I got most of it. But I don’t understand why the group of seven has to be formed at all.”
“Nicholas, I believe that the Keeper knew the Seekers would grow out of control, and The 7 was a way to set things right.”
“But wouldn’t it make sense for there to be a bigger group of Thusians with special talents to combat the large group of Seekers?” I asked. “How can four people fight all of the Seekers? I doubt they will limit themselves to only using three because some Keeper said so.”
“If Riley is right about the Keeper setting up The 7, and if Ester is right about the Council using only the best Thusians to make up the original one hundred Seekers, then I think the Seekers would feel they need to abide by any order that the Keeper stated. They are still Thusians, so they’d still be compelled to follow the rules.”
“I don’t know, Cora,” I said. “It doesn’t make any sense.”
We both just sat there. I had been able to block out most of what had happened because of my time with Elle, but now my mind was fixed on Genevieve, Riley and the trial.
My head began to hurt. I didn’t feel like talking about this anymore. I lay back on the couch and Cora turned the TV back on.
If Cora was right about how it worked and the Seekers would follow what the Keeper said, then I knew that Xavier had to be the leader of the three and that he would do everything in his power to stop us from forming The 7.