“Finally! We’re here!” Lori’s head hit the steering wheel with a bonk after she pulled into the parking space. “I’m so tired of driving.”
“This is only the first cave, Lori.” It didn’t feel good to dampen her spirits. We needed to keep focused though. We’d checked out of the hotel a few hours before and made our way to what Lori hoped was a promising set of cave systems. Checking in and making small talk with Chloe, Shelly, and Lizzy once again spared me from boredom of the drive. “We might need more driving after we’re done here.”
“Don’t forget about actually driving back to New York either,” Alex added.
“I’m going to cry.” Lori most certainly wasn’t about to cry, but that didn’t stop Megan from interjecting.
“I’ll drive us back!” I had to restrain Megan from trying to climb into the front seat with Lori.
“Give it about ten more years, Megs. Then I’ll let you drive me around.” Lori lifted her head up and looked at the dirt path flanked on both sides by trees. We were beginning in a place called Honesty’s Cavern. Lori claimed it was easy enough to traverse that it was as good a starting spot as any. She tapped her bracelet a few times and it came online. “Boys, I’m going to activate this bracelet. On the display, it’ll point toward the source of power if there’s one nearby. When the source gets closer, the arrow blinks faster until we’re nearly on top of it. Then the entire screen goes green when we’re there. If I somehow don’t notice it go off, let me know.”
Alex and I both nodded. We were greeted by an immediate beeping from Lori’s wrist. That got the adrenaline pumping a little bit. Looking at Lori’s display, there were two green arrows flashing on the small screen, one pointing directly ahead of us, and another to our back right. I was about to ask if that meant there were two sources of power, but Lori looked both confused and frustrated. For the most part, that confirmed to me what I wanted to know.
“Could it be busted?” Alex asked. He gently shook his to see if it’d change anything. As expected, it did not.
“I guess it could be. It’s only a prototype.” Lori shook her head. “Still, it’s not like Luna to hand out busted equipment. It worked fine when we found Megan too.”
“Let’s start here anyway,” I said, unbuckling my seatbelt. “It’s pointing forward toward the cave, right? It could be in there.”
“Unlikely, since this is our first stop, but anything’s possible.” Lori opened the glovebox to check for something when the gun from our Columbus visit dropped by Alex’s feet. She screamed when it hit the floorboard and she got all of her small body in the seat as quickly as possible. “We didn’t get rid of this thing!?”
Alex just casually looked down at the firearm before picking it up. He checked to see if it was still loaded, which it was. “Huh, guess I forgot about it. You should take it, Lori. Your Anomaly isn’t suited for fighting, so this might come in handy.”
“I don’t even know how to use the thing...” she said, taking it reluctantly, holding it away from her like she just found an old gym sock. Lori at least knew enough to not point the damn thing at people. She examined it with her back turned toward the rest of the car and the barrel facing the window. I didn’t know anything about guns myself. That was Shelly’s domain. Seeing her with the pistol gave me an idea to play with later when I had the chance. “Where do I even keep this?”
“Waistband and wear your jacket over it,” Alex said, opening his door to the cold Ozark air. “Well, we’re kind of in the sticks. You might not even need to hide it.”
We all got out and I watched Lori struggle with the pistol. After making sure the safety was engaged, she put it in the back of her jeans, looking terrified the entire time. “If I shoot myself in the ass, I’m going to be so pissed at you, Alex.”
“Look, you’ll survive that, and it gives you a way to defend yourself. Just pull it out if you really have to use it. Don’t point it at anyone you aren’t prepared to kill.”
With those cheerful words and the possibility of my friend shooting herself in the butt, we started our cave expeditions. At first, I thought it’d be something really cool. Granted, it was pretty breathtaking the first few goes since I’d never been inside a cave before. The water rhythmically dripping from the stalactites to the reflective pools below was one of the things I didn’t get bored of. Or were they stalagmites? I could never remember which ones hung from the top. Whichever one was which, they were awesome.
Honesty’s Cavern unfortunately yielded nothing of value that we could get to. It wasn’t a big cave, and it was a tourist attraction on top of that, so getting around in it was easy enough. The arrow continued to blink when we got to the end of the cave. There was nothing inside that looked like it might lead to a tomb either. There was a small building around the cave, likely for a groundskeeper. That groundskeeper probably had a power they didn’t know about. Slightly dejected, we trekked our way back out, but at least I got to see the cool formations again.
“This...is more daunting than I thought it’d be,” Lori confessed once we were back by the SUV. I checked the bracelet and the two blinking arrows remained, but the one that was originally to our back right was now directly behind us. “Four miles is both a huge space and a tiny one, depending on how easily you can get to where you need to be.”
“Another thing to consider is that there could be people caving or tour guides who might have an Anomaly,” I added. The realization hit Lori and she looked more dejected than when we were leaving the cave. “This kind of sucks, doesn’t it?”
“Quit whining and keep looking,” Alex said. “We already knew it was a long shot and we all agreed to come out here anyway. It’s stupid to complain about it being hard now.”
He was right, yet he didn’t do much for the mood. For me, it wasn’t the difficulty of the task that was bothering me. It was the vagueness of it all. The detectors were useful, and being able to block certain readings made this entire thing possible, but when you had two signals popping up in opposite directions without knowing if either one was your goal, it was disheartening.
We managed to get five other short caves done that day. None of them produced anything worthwhile. Lori got close to someone with an Anomaly, but they were in a tourist group consisting of at least a dozen people. There was no way to even figure out who was in it without trying to follow them while driving, so we just cut our losses and let them go. At least the detector had a silent mode we could activate to avoid unwanted attention. We didn’t drift far from our starting point of Honesty’s Cavern, so we were always stuck with those two green arrows.
After that fifth cave, the sun was just beginning to set, and we opted to call it quits for the evening. Everyone was cranky from the cold, the walking, and the lack of results. Megan handled it as well as a six-year-old could. She was visibly upset, but she was still receptive to our ideas. Bless that child, because I don’t think I would have been able to keep it together at that age. And, I’m happy to report, Lori did not shoot herself in the backside with her newly acquired gun.
Alex was driving this time around and we’d decided on a log cabin style hotel to stay in as long as we remained in the area. It may have been a tourist trap. In fact, I was certain it was. It still gave off charming and welcoming vibes. Those trapped tourists didn’t have bad taste at all. If it was a tourist trap hotel, the prices of it were really friendly. No twenty-eighth story view or restaurants with no prices on their menus there. It relied on its rustic charm to be absorbing.
This time, to give us all some space, we got three separate rooms. Alex and I each had our own rooms, while the girls shared one. Megan was excited for all the “girl talk” they could have. I feared that Lori might be getting burned out on watching her, but she shared Megan’s enthusiasm about it. Maybe Megan’s Anomaly was just the ability to brighten everyone’s day a bit, because that’s all she seemed to do for us.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
My room looked like just how I imagined the inside of a cozy cottage in the woods would. The floor was wooden and creaked when I walked on it, which added more to its rustic charm for me. There was a brightly colored rug in the center of the room, a fake fireplace against the wall, and a low-lying bed opposite of it. Some fake candles added to the atmosphere, but there was also a TV and some lamps, and the bathroom looked more like a standard hotel bathroom. For some reason, I felt a touch disappointed at how standard that bathroom seemed. It felt totally disconnected from the rest of the room.
After taking a long, hot shower, I relaxed on the bed. That bed was comfier than the one in the five-star hotel at maybe a third of the price. Go figure, right? Price doesn’t always mean comfort and atmosphere. Both were still wonderful stays in their own ways though. I just stretched out and relaxed, running over the day’s failures in my head. They sucked in the moment, but after the fact, it was actually an enjoyable day for me. I hoped the others saw it that way while they wound down and relaxed.
I decided it’d be a good time to do a video chat with Shelly. This time, instead of holding my phone up with my actual hand, I wanted to see if I could hold it with just my powers. If I hadn’t shoved over the hockey pucks, I wouldn’t have even thought to try this out, because I would have thought I could only create shields. Boy, that would have been a huge waste of potential.
Even though I didn’t intend for it to be a shield, the shape started off as one. It was thicker than most of the other ones I made and just big enough to encompass my hand. After I had that shape stable, I slowly began to break away at it, making it resemble my actual hand. It was a lot of trial and error, and a whole lot of dismantling and repairing parts of it. Sure enough, I got it to look like an actual hand. Well, “look” being used loosely of course. I could tell the shape of it because of my connection to it, but I still couldn’t actually see it beyond the shimmer in the air I’d come to expect.
I practiced getting the fingers on it to move, which proved to be the hardest part initially. I put my real hand up next to it to help me visualize the kind of movements I wanted. That got me somewhere. The motion was still a bit stiff and unnatural, as unnatural as a mind-conjured hand should have probably been. It was still progress I could be moderately proud of. As a whole, I could get the hand to move well, but I’d need to fine tune the more precise movements of the digits.
I selected the call option for Shelly with my actual hand, laid flat on my back, and used my shimmering hand to hold the phone about a foot above my face. It was steady and the hand didn’t seem to interfere with any of the phone’s functions. It did make it kind of hard for me to see my sister’s face when she answered. Once again, her hair and makeup were done.
“This a regular thing for you now?” I asked. “I’ve seen you put effort into makeup maybe once.”
“It’s a test. Sort of.” Shelly gave a resigned sigh. “I’m not in love with it either.”
“It looks nice,” I told her.
“Is that Ethan?” a familiar voice yelled out. From over Shelly’s shoulder, Lizzy’s head popped up. Her hair and makeup were also done, making her look as beautiful as ever. When she saw my face on the screen, she nearly knocked my sister over trying to wave at me. “Ethan! It’s been forever.”
“It’s only been a few days.” I waved back to her and smiled at her excitement. “It’s nice to see you too. Why are you hanging out with my sister? Not that it’s a problem or anything. I didn’t think you two would have a lot in common.”
Lizzy awkwardly rubbed the scar on her face, looking like she wasn’t sure what she should say. “She asked for some help, and I feel like I owe her for what happened to you, so here we are.”
“Lizzy, I told you, it’s fine now,” Shelly said, adjusting to fit both faces on the screen. “He’s fine and there aren’t any hard feelings here. I appreciate your help though.”
“Well, I can’t just ignore when a nice lady asks me to help with her hair. It’s so much fun and your hair is so nice. Ethan wouldn’t let me do his.” Lizzy did a big, dramatic pout, which got a laugh out of us siblings. She stuck her tongue out at me.
I knew there was something that Shelly wasn’t telling me from our last call, and Lizzy was clearly in on it too. Knowing that Lizzy knew made me feel better about whatever it was. She was a nice lady, and my sister wouldn’t trust just anyone with something she wanted to hide. More than whatever secret she was keeping, I was glad to see her getting out and making some friends too.
“I was just calling to check in with Shelly,” I informed them. “We went through some caves today and came up with nothing, so we’re at a really neat log cabin hotel thing. I think I like this more than the five-star one we stayed at last night.”
“Wait, you stayed at a five-star hotel?” Shelly asked, crossing her arms. In the back, Lizzy exaggerated the covering of her mouth with her hand, probably thinking she was being cute. “And just who paid for all that?”
“Oh boy, that one probably should have waited until we got back,” I said, rubbing my eyes with both hands. “Lori said it was on Luna’s dollar and that it was fine. If it makes you feel better, we got a big selfie at the hotel’s restaurant.”
“You guys went to a five-star hotel’s in-house restaurant too!?” Shelly was shaking her head now. “What you guys spent there could have covered a month of bills back in Oregon, I guarantee it.”
“Just keep shoving that foot farther in your own mouth, bud!”
“Thanks, Lizzy!” I replied as sarcastically as I could, sticking my tongue out at her and blowing a raspberry. I put one hand on my forehead and used the other to rub the bridge of my nose “Yeah, we did it as a one-night thing. We were a bit fatigued from the travel.”
“Wait...where’s the phone if you have both hands on your face?” Shelly asked. My awesome training idea now had a practical use, and that was to get me out of hot water with my sister. “Is this some weird power thing again?”
“Yeah, I’m practicing holding my phone up with a hand made from my mind.”
“Whatever you say.” She threw her hands up in defeat. “I’m just here because we’re family. All this is too weird for me.”
Shelly bringing my attention to it made me realize that I was getting tired from the use of my power. I’d only been using the hand to hold the phone for a few minutes. All the work on actually making the hand must’ve worn me out. There were more plans I wanted to try with this shimmer-hand, but I wasn’t quite there yet. I had to keep telling myself to take baby steps. I had to learn to walk before I could learn to run.
The next little while was spent just making some casual small talk while Lizzy worked more on her hair. Shelly looked uncomfortable in that position, something I could relate to, going back to my time in Lizzy’s chair while she put that little gift on my face. Lizzy’s odd charisma and outward affection against my sister’s gruff exterior would have been a wonderful battle to see live.
“Same plan tomorrow? More caves?” Shelly asked, doing her best to sit still for Lizzy. She did flinch a bit, but Lizzy didn’t chastise her like she did me when I apparently moved.
“Sure is. More wonderful, cold, damp caves in the winter. What I think we’ll end up doing is work our way back east from here. It’s going to be a nightmare to try and find anything, if there is anything to find. I don’t know how well group morale will hold out. Megan helps with that, though.”
“Who’s Megan?” Lizzy asked, a sly grin appearing on her face. “A special lady you wooed there, Ethan?”
“God, I wish it were that simple.” I went through the explanation of how we came across her, our decision-making, and how she acted around us. I could see Lizzy’s heart melt a bit more with each word. I would have to make sure to send her that big dinner selfie we all took. I really felt like Megan would be in good hands there at Luna.
That story pushed the timer on the call up to just over ten minutes. My shimmer-hand's grip on the phone felt weak and the device felt heavier in the hand’s grip. I felt like I was sweating buckets. The reaction from the ladies furthered my suspicion of that, so we decided to wrap it up. I told Shelly I loved her, which Lizzy naturally played with and made it sound like I meant it for her, and ended the conversation.
Not but a few seconds after I did, my shimmer-hand crumbled away and the phone fell right on my nose. That tingle in the back of my head was there. Compared to the first few times I felt it, the sensation was dull. Maybe I was just exhausted instead of overexerted. I wasn’t bleeding from my nose either, from both using my powers or having the phone drop on it. With only my thoughts in the room with me, I did feel myself getting tired.
I tried to let sleep welcome me into its sweet embrace. I tossed and turned in the bed, grateful for the doctor who helped removed the remnants of the gunman’s powers in my head. Without that, I would have been seeing shadows everywhere. I had enough guilt and enough going on without those damn shadows. One positive to not getting to sleep immediately was that it kept me awake enough to text Lizzy the dinner selfie.
For some reason, I felt guilty that I wasn’t giving enough conversation back to Chloe, even though she didn’t seem to mind it. To try and put my mind at ease, I sent her the dinner selfie too, with some cheesy message about wishing she was there, like a tacky postcard. I lied to her, saying that Megan and I were Lori’s younger siblings, with me being adopted, and Alex was her boyfriend. That last bit would hopefully become truth before long.
That helped keep some of my guilt down, enough that I was finally able to let sleep’s siren song hit my ears and take me under.