“Good morning, sweetie.”
Lester felt a hand brush hair from his forehead and opened his eyes. His mother was sitting on the edge of his bed, bright sunlight shining through the window behind her.
“Mom? What’s going on?” Lester asked, quickly sitting up. “Is it Bernard?”
“Everything is alright, honey. Your brother is fine. He and your father are still snoring away. It’s amazing how similar they sound. I just wanted a chance for us to talk before anyone else got up.”
Relieved, Lester fell back against his pillow. His mother pulled the blankets up around him and returned to stroking his hair.
“I think it’s actually quite dashing,” Mrs. North said, playing with the streak of white that now ran through Lester’s bangs above his left eye, a seemingly permanent souvenir from his time in the rift.
“You don’t think it makes me look too weird?” Lester asked.
“Maybe a little,” his mother said. She bent down and retrieved the bag he’d fashioned to look like a boulder from the floor beside his bed. “But perhaps the weird things are what set us apart and make us who we are.”
She took out two pieces of candy and handed one to Lester.
“You stealing sweets from kids now, Mom?” Lester asked.
His mother laughed.
“That surprise snowstorm left me sitting by the front door with a giant bowl of candy and no trick-or-treaters. I knew you weren’t able to go out with your friends. So, I guess their loss is our gain.”
Mrs. North unwrapped a bright red fireball and popped it into her mouth.
It had been past midnight when Bernard, Lester, and his father had finally returned home after escorting Amanda and Mae to their respective houses. Exhausted, Lester had retreated to his room, falling asleep before his head hit the pillow. He vaguely recalled waking in the dark, seeing a light shining from beneath his parent’s bedroom door, and drifting off again to the sound of their muffled voices.
“Mom?” Lester said, biting into a square of chocolate-covered caramel. “How come you never told me you knew Amanda’s Aunt?”
“Well, it’s complicated.”
Lester stopped chewing and stared.
“Okay,” his mother said with a sigh. “You’re right. No more secrets. Old habits die hard.” She gave him an apologetic smile and rolled the fireball around her mouth. “When I was your age, Jennie Poole was my best friend. We were inseparable and did everything together. It was the two of us against the world.”
Lester thought of Amanda and tried to imagine what they would be like as adults, possibly with kids of their own. Would they still be close?
“All that changed when we entered middle school,” his mother continued. “On the very first day, this obnoxious boy with bright red hair started following us around. Everywhere we turned, there he was. Everyone is awkward at that age, but he was somehow more so. Tall and gangly, he was constantly tripping over his own feet. He didn’t seem to have any other friends, possibly because he was an obnoxious pain in the ass. Anyway, we ended up feeling sorry for him and eventually let him hang out with us. I haven’t been able to get rid of him since.”
Lester’s mother gave him a quick wink. Unlike most people, she only cursed when she was in a good mood. When she was really having fun, she could make a sailor blush.
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“After that, it was always the three of us. Even when your father and I got married, Jennie spent more time at our house than her own. We set her up on dates with some of your father’s work friends, but honestly, I don’t think any of them could keep up with her. I’ve never met anyone who’s more alive.”
Lester tried to reconcile the person from his mother’s childhood with the strange woman he’d met in the woods.
“Then, Jennie had that argument with her brother and abruptly disappeared. No note. No goodbye. Nothing. She simply packed a bag and left. In all the years she was gone, I don’t think she kept in touch with anyone else. But now and then, I would get a postcard from Egypt, Russia, or South America. She traveled all over the world. I wasn’t sure if I’d ever see her again. Until, about a year ago, I was weeding the flowerbed out back, and when I looked up, there she was. She’d changed, but I guess we all have.”
His mother stared out the window at the brightening sky for a long moment. Then she took two more pieces of candy out of the boulder.
“So, when you started going through your — transformation, I asked Jennie if she wouldn’t mind keeping an eye on you.”
“You knew?” Lester asked, feeling suddenly embarrassed.
“I’m your mother, Lester. Of course, I knew.” She smoothed his blanket. “Also, the school sent a notice about malfunctioning sprinklers, we’re completely out of hot sauce, and your burp at Bernard’s Drawing-In dinner wasn’t exactly subtle. I don’t think I’ve ever seen your father prouder.”
“But why didn’t you say anything?”
“I thought about it. And I would have if I’d had any idea all of this was going to happen. No one has ever had such a swell at your age. Usually, the emergence of abilities is so mild they’re easily missed. I wanted to give you space, so you wouldn’t —”
His mother’s voice trailed off, and her eyes welled up.
“So I wouldn’t leave, like Mathis,” said Lester.
“I couldn’t go through that again,” Mrs. North said softly. “I decided it was best to try and look out for you in my own way. That’s why it was Jennie who gave you your great grandfather’s ring.”
“My what?” asked Lester.
His mother slid the band from his finger and tilted it in the light, so he could see the initials carved on the inside. Then, she pulled her own pendant from around her neck and held them side by side.
“I’m sure you know by now these are much more than trinkets.”
“But how did you know I’d be able to figure everything out?”
“I didn’t, and you haven’t. You’ve barely scratched the surface. Though, I was fairly sure that if you couldn’t learn enough on your own, your friend Mae would be there to help. She’s a sharp one, pretty too.”
“Mom!” Lester said, his face going red for a second time.
“Okay, keep your wig on. It’s just an observation. Still, I’m glad Mae and Amanda were there for you. Again, had I known about everything you’d face along the way, I never would have risked it. There’s no rulebook for parenting. The best you can do is to try and fail a little less today than you did the day before.”
“It wasn’t just Amanda and Mae,” said Lester. “If not for Mathis —”
“I know, and I’ve already had a long talk with your father. While he isn’t convinced the danger has passed, he agrees it’s time for Mathis to come home. Whatever the future holds for this family, we will face it together.”
His mother smiled and gave his hand a squeeze.
Lester tilted the boulder and dug out more chocolate for himself and another fireball for his mother.
“Thank you, sweetie,” she said, taking it from him. “This is nice. We don’t get enough time together, just the two of us. But I must admit to an ulterior motive for waking you up this morning. It’s about your brother, Bernard.”
“Oh?” said Lester. The image of Bernard laying on the ground with swirling black eyes flitted through his mind, and he pushed it away.
“In most cases, after a Dark’s Drawing-In,” Mrs. North said, “their powers will begin to sort of bubble to the surface. That’s why the ceremony is held at thirteen, so there’s time for guidance before anything gets out of hand. For some, the powers can be delayed only to rise normally a short time later. However, in rare cases —”
“They don’t come at all,” Lester said, not knowing how he knew.
“It’s nothing for you to worry about. Bernard still has time. That said, if you could try to be sensitive to the situation, I think he would appreciate it. He’s always felt a bit in your shadow, you know.”
Lester was certain Bernard would not have described it that way. He also had a feeling this meant he could look forward to more torment from his brother. But he’d figure out how to handle that later.
“You got it, Mom. No problem.”
“That’s my boy,” Mrs. North said, standing up. “I knew I could count on you. Now, let’s go downstairs and make some goddamn waffles.”