“Can we open the presents yet? Can we eat the cake yet?” Megan was practically vibrating with energy. Mrs. Carmichael, the last guest, had just walked into our home. Megan’s eyes kept darting between the gift she was carrying and the impressive pile of other presents that had been amassing throughout the morning and afternoon. “Come on, please? Just one? I promise it’ll be the only one I ask for.”
“Dang, she’s not even in the door.” I crouched down put my arms on Megan’s shoulders. “It’s rude to ask so many times. Be patient, and you’ll get to open up all your presents before you know it.”
She rolled her eyes and groaned in that dramatic ways that only slightly-disappointed kids could. “That’s gonna be so long. I’ll be as old as you before I get to open them. My hair is gonna turn gray!”
“Excuse me, just how old do you think I am?” I put my hands on my hips and she just laughed, like she outed that I was secretly eighty-five years old to everyone at the party. “I’m only eighteen. That’s barely older than you.”
Megan was beckoned outside by Lizzy, who instructed Alex to toss the kid up and down in the air. The first three tosses made me suck in air through my teeth, horrified Alex would miss her on the way down. I was just waiting for her to fall and break a leg, which was at least fourth on the list of my concerns for the party. After I trusted that Alex was careful and wasn’t going to drop her like a sack of potatoes, I greeted Mrs. Carmichael with a handshake that she turned into a small hug. “It’s good to see you again. Did you get out okay?”
“I did, I did,” she said, nodding with a sad look in her eyes. “We lost too many good men and women there. Almost lost you, I heard.”
“It wasn’t great,” I admitted. I wasn’t sure if she saw some security footage of what happened or if she just had a report given to her. Knowing her, probably both. She probably had some weird third way of knowing what happened to me. “We barely beat the guy with superspeed. McLeod just about burned cut half my arm off. We only got away because I was the one who brought up the vote to bring Val in. Completely dumb luck there.”
“Now, that’s not true. It might have been luck had an earthquake forced the ground under that man to open and swallow him whole. It might’ve been luck had a portion of the ceiling collapsed to crush him under it. Your situation wasn’t any luck. You made a decision that benefited you in the best way, even if you didn’t know it at the time you made that decision. That’s called surviving.”
“You’re saying if I didn’t bring up letting Val fight for us, he would have killed me?” I was thinking out loud more than anything, but Mrs. Carmichael nodded anyway. She walked toward the gift table and set hers down on it. She barely found any room. I beamed with pride at all the gifts my party managed to bring in. Megan deserved each and every one.
“Most likely, so well done.” She smiled at me and she looked like a woman who knew she was about to head toward retirement. “Congratulations on your win against the man with superspeed. You and Rebecca made quite the team. I trust that your sister has informed you on the current plan for her and my current position?”
“How’d you know?” I ran back through memories to make sure I didn’t tell anyone by mistake. Shelly told me that only three people knew, but she didn’t say anything about Mrs. Carmichael knowing about my knowing.
This time, it was her turn to dramatically roll her eyes and groan, in that way that middle-aged people pretending to be kids could. “I’m not that old nor am I that stupid, Ethan. Of course I expected her to tell you. She trusts you completely. I’m surprised she held out as long as she did, as a matter of fact. I’ll stay with her and help her with the transition, so I think my retirement party is a little while off.”
“Retirement party? I’ll throw you one, but I can’t promise if you’ll get a massive pile of presents like Megan has.” I shrugged. No matter how good I was or thought I was, I still was not a miracle worker. “Thank you for choosing my sister. I always knew she was meant for better things than to finish raising her little brother and putting her life on hold.”
“That disappoints me, Ethan.” And she meant it. I could hear it in her voice. I was glad it was just us two in the room. “There is no greater accomplishment to that woman than what she’s done in raising you. You will never convince her that there’s anything ‘better’ she could have done with her life, no matter how hard you try. With the unfortunate hand life gave your family, her greatest achievement is helping mold you into the man that stands before me.”
I looked at everything in the room that wasn’t her face, unable to make eye contact with her. I didn’t really know what to say to her. I knew that I was a decent enough guy, and I did some okay things. The way Mrs. Carmichael was talking, she made it sound like I was curing the worlds’ diseases when I was only sixteen. I wasn’t doing that. I could barely get out of bed just a few days before the party I tried to put together. I was just a regular guy, for the most part. A regular guy who could create and manipulate some objects with his mind, but a regular guy underneath all that.
“Do you like burgers? Shelly has some burgers on the grill.” I remembered back to when we first met and slapped the palm of my hand to my forehead. “Of course you do. The diner, yeah.”
“I’m surprised you’re not making them. I thought you were the one grabbing the party by the horns here.” She peered outside at the guests chatting with each other. Shelly was swinging a spatula at people who were getting too close to her prized burgers.
“I saw the fire on the grill and I just wasn’t up for it.” I had made up some excuse to Shelly about trying to keep an eye on everything else or doing things like pouring drinks. Seeing the fire and feeling the heat scared me enough to make me tap out before I got up to the grill. Despite my attempts to keep the scar hidden by wearing a shirt with long sleeves, my sister’s eyes went down to the exact spot where my scar was. Looking at the scar made me sick. Rebecca, Shelly, and Megan were about the only people I was okay with seeing it.
“Here, take this.” Mrs. Carmichael handed me a small card. “It’s for a therapist. Michael Ellinger, a good friend of mine. You don’t have to tell me anything, but I understand you’re collecting traumatic experiences like I collect stamps. Sometimes it helps to talk to a fresh face with a guarantee of confidentiality. When we confide in our friends, it can feel like we still have expectations to live up to in their eyes. Please, just consider it.”
“Thank you, I will.” I slipped the card in my wallet. I wouldn’t call until Monday at the earliest. Maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad idea to reach out to someone. “What did you get for Megan? If you don’t mind telling me, I mean.”
“I got her a book detailing the wonders of healthy eating,” she said with a smile. When I winced, she frowned. “You can’t let me have a little bit of fun. I got her a brand-new pair of shoes for the summer.”
I let out a breath I didn’t realize I’d been holding. It wasn’t my place to tell anyone what to get her, as long as it wasn’t offensive, but a healthy eating book would have been disastrous for a girl about to consume double her weight in cake. Mrs. Carmichael shouldn’t have been allowed to make jokes. There had to have been a law about it somewhere. She about made me had a heart attack with that one.
We went outside and each made up a hamburger with a bunch of fixings. Alex and Val were having an arm-wrestling match, with powers allowed, of course. Megan was cheering for both of them, excited to see the displays of strength both the competitors were capable of. Rosie almost knocked Lizzy in the pool by accident. Lizzy’s remarkable balance in high heels kept her nice and dry. Lori and Rebecca were off chatting and laughing.
Looking at the two of them chatting made me smile. I was glad that they were getting along. Neither one of us had a big circle of friends, so getting along with the ones we did have was a big deal for me. While they all hung and played around, I gravitated near my sister and Mrs. Carmichael. I felt like I got to eat at the grown-up table, even though I wasn’t paying attention to what they were saying. I just mindlessly ate my food and waited for enough time to pass before we could start doing Megan’s gift hunt.
“You have done a truly outstanding0 job surrounding yourself with almost nothing but women.” Even though she had been right there, I felt like Shelly just snuck up on me. Through more effort than it could have been worth, she rested her arm on my shoulder. “I am legitimately impressed.”
“Rebecca mentioned something like that the other day. I should try to get closer to Alex and the guys on Lizzy’s team.” I got a small kick out of Megan giving up and declaring both Alex and Val winners of their arm-wrestling match. “Maybe I’m just a chick magnet.”
“I see your encounter with McLeod has done nothing to hurt your blooming confidence,” Shelly said with an eye roll. “I’m glad that Megan’s having so much fun with everyone. Remember when you turned six? No one showed up to your birthday party. I started to cry, so you held my hand and told me I was the only one you needed at your party. I invited all my friends so it wouldn’t be so lonely.”
“Man, I’d finally started to forget about that.” Even if I didn’t have a fit about it, the entire thing was still mortifying. “Megan’s way more fun than I ever was, currently am, and will be, so it doesn’t surprise me that her party has worked out so well.”
“Speaking of...”
The munchkin spotted me and started jumping up and down. She took off in a sprint, flailing her arms in the air like she had been lit on fire. Megan was way too close to the pool for her to be running. Before I could inform her of the importance of poolside safety, the kid was running right into my stomach. I dramatically fell backward into the soft grass and pretended like she was crushing me. “When did you get so strong?”
Megan flopped on my torso and went limp. Kiddo really was getting bigger. “In the century it’s taking to open my presents.
Touche. “How many years are in a century? If you can tell me, and the guests don’t mind, we can start opening your gifts.”
Her eyes narrowed and she tapped her chin three times. “A hundred!”
“Wow, great job!” I patted her head, and she couldn’t have looked more pleased with herself. “How’d you know that?”
“Cent! That means a hundred.” She smiled wide and proud. I was genuinely impressed. I wouldn’t have known that when I was her age. “I told you I was good with my words.”
“Yes, you are! I think that does deserve a gift.” Her eyes lit up and, as carefully as an excited kid could, she scrambled off my midsection. For effect, I sat up about as slow as I could and looked around at everyone attending the party. “What do you guys think? Should we let her open a gift yet?”
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“Aunt Lizzy, can I? Please, please, please?” Megan ran up to Lizzy and started tugging on her dress. Her big eyes darted between the two of us.
“Why is she calling you ‘Aunt Lizzy’?” I asked. “Don’t make kids call you weird things, and especially don’t have them do that at parties I’m throwing.”
“You know what, Megan?” Lizzy crouched down, putting a hand on her head. She glared at me past the kiddo. “You want me to tell you what Ethan got you for your birthday?”
“No, she absolutely does not! Let’s get to opening!” I guided Megan over to the table, figuring it’d be easier to have her start with those and then do the small hunt later. “Okay, kiddo, go nuts. Just remember to thank whoever got you a present!”
Megan nodded in a way that told me she barely registered what I said. Her eyes were huge taking in all the gifts. With all the pink, purple, and blue bags and wrapping paper in front of her, there was only so much I could expect. The first gift she reached for was a bag with glitter, tassels, and pinwheels sticking out of it. The only way it could be more Lizzy is if she put lit sparklers in the thing and tried to find a way to gently torment me. Or if the gift punched Lori in the eye and then hugged her.
The first thing she pulled out of the bag was a card that featured a cartoonishly ripped guy without a shirt on. Everyone around made sure to make an appropriately embarrassing noise, and Megan’s face wasted no time going scarlet. She stammered something about being cool with the whole thing, but she slammed the card face down on the gift table. Everything shook and I had to catch a few things before they fell. How the hell did that little girl get so strong? Maybe it was just a structurally unsound folding table.
“Hey now! You might want to open that instead of driving it into the table. There might be something you actually want in there, you know.” Lizzy rolled her eyes and handed the mortifying card back to Megan, who hesitantly took it. Couldn’t blame her there. One of my friends got me a similar card for my tenth birthday party, just replace the ripped shirtless guy with a woman in a bikini. It had the exact same effect on me, and everyone got a good round of laughs out of it.
Megan reluctantly opened the card and a hundred-dollar bill slowly drifted toward the ground. Before she could reach for it, I scooped it off the ground and held it up with two hands. “Wow, since you slammed that card down, I think I should get this money. Right, Megan? Does that sound fair?”
“Nuh-uh! That’s mine!” She jumped up and down, trying to get the money from my grip. Right before I thought the teasing was reaching the point of being too much, I gave the bill back to her. Her eyes were sparkling, and her mouth was wide open. “This is so much money! Thank you, thank you, thank you! I love you, Aunt Lizzy!”
Lizzy pulled the girl into a hug and stuck her tongue out at me. Mrs. Carmichael rolled her eyes, something I attributed more to the gift choice than any goofy antics. On the rare occasion I was invited to a classmate’s birthday party, Mom wouldn’t ever let me just give them cash as a gift. She’d always make me go out and pick out something, even if I didn’t know the kid that well. Shelly maintained that stance for the one birthday party I got invited to in high school, so it must have been something that came with age. I always thought cash gifts were fine. I thought it was a good way to let the giftee decide what they wanted with it.
The little girl didn’t need much prodding to start tearing away at the rest of the gifts on the table. There were lots of clothes to fully replace the wardrobe she lost when we found her. Everything was pink, frilly, girly, and a bunch of other things that would have made me turn my nose up at them as a kid who was into “boy stuff”. As someone watching over her, I had a new appreciation for all those girly gifts. It was all high quality and Megan loved all of it. She thanked and gave each person that gave her a gift a huge hug in return. That became a bit of a process after a while, since she did it with each individual gift she opened, but everyone responded with as much enthusiasm as possible.
While she received mostly clothes, there were a few toys and similar gifts in the pile. Rebecca got her a beautiful dollhouse kit that they could work on together. She wanted to make it from scratch, but admitted that she wasn’t good enough with the tools to make it a fun experience for both of them, so she settled on just buying one. Lizzy got her a bunch of dolls that were popular when she was younger, Rosie got a load of board games for a bunch of group fun, and Lori got her a fancy toy oven kit. It was a good thing our new home was spacious. The sheer size of some of the gifts had me panicking and worrying we couldn’t fit everything inside.
After around an hour of gift-opening and cleaning up, people started to disperse to chat among themselves or get second helpings of food. Megan cleaned up most of the mess without being asked. Smiling at each other, Rebecca and I went to help out. There was no way I was going to make a little kid clean up a whole birthday mess, even if the presents were all for her.
Getting close, I could see she looked nervous. Before I could ask her what was wrong, she gently pulled Rebecca and I down toward her. She cupped her hands together over her mouth and spoke in a whisper I could barely hear over the party that surrounded us. “You two didn’t get me anything? I won’t be mad. I don’t want to you two to be embarrassed.”
I almost laughed, thinking she was joking around with us. The look in her eyes said she truly did care about us possibly being embarrassed over her wanting more presents. What an absolute sweetheart. I considered myself a decent kid growing up, but this girl put me to shame. Every show always had these nightmare kids running around the house like little tornadoes that had inconvenient growth spurts. I’d been blessed to not have that. Megan continued to floor me with her kindness so soon after a traumatic event. Some people really were just made to be good deep down.
I pulled her in for a quick hug and crouched down in front of her. “We got you presents, don’t worry. We just hid ours so we can have a bit of fun with it. You happy with everything you got here?”
“I am, I am!” Megan nearly yelled and I had to do a quick check to make sure no one thought something was up.
“Then just a little bit longer and you can look for ours.” She looked a touch disappointed, so I put my hands on her shoulders and tried to smile. “Just until the others are gone, okay? It’ll be like our little secret.”
That was just the trick to get her to perk up. I didn’t want her to get too engrossed in the gifts and ignore the rest of the party, so I offered to finish cleaning up and she could go in and hang out with everyone. Megan clung to Shelly’s leg while she tried to manage some of the food, so she tossed me a glare through the sliding glass door, one I pretended to not notice. Then it was just me, my girlfriend, and sweet garbage. There was nowhere else on the planet I would have rather been.
Everyone mingled, chatted, and filled their bellies. It felt more like a holiday party, or maybe more of a survival party after everything that happened in New York, than a birthday party. Despite how the party felt, no one acted like Megan wasn’t the center of attention. Wherever she went inside, people made the conversation about her. It was really looking like Rebecca was right about the party being fine. So long as no freak monster tornado decided to suddenly touch down next door, everything was looking like a win for my excellent party planning skills. That was enough for me to finally take a deep breath and use cleaning up as a way to relax.
After all the outside cleaning up was finished, I didn’t realize just how tired I felt. A quick peek inside showed me that the party mostly moved to the front of the house, so I snuck inside and up the stairs to my room. I flopped on the bed, careful not to undo the work Rebecca put in making it that morning. I stared at the ceiling, trying to will myself to take a short nap. The sounds from the party downstairs were audible, but only barely, creating just enough white noise that I almost got my eyes to drift shut.
Then from the bathroom erupted a high pitched, child's scream. I was scrambling out of the bed and on my feet before I knew it. I ran to the bathroom, and I’d been so tired that I didn’t realize the door was open and the light was on when I got there. Before I rounded into the room, terrible visions of Megan cracking her head on the edge of the tub or the toilet made their way into my mind. I was about to pull my phone out to call emergency services when I rounded the corner to check on her.
“Megan, are you okay?” I asked, trying to keep my voice as calm and level as humanly possible. When I poked my head in, she was perfectly fine, of course. The game console that I had left in there as her gift, however, had its wrapping paper torn to shreds.
“Look, look, look!” She nearly fell over getting up, almost turning the awful thoughts I just had into prophetic visions. Despite the near-tumble, Megan was bursting at the seams with excitement. I tried to gently push the console down to explain that it was a gift she was supposed to find and open later, but she kept gently lifting it up toward my face.
“Megan, honey, set the console down for a second. I want to talk to you about something.”
“I’m not holding it.” Frowning, I thought she was joking. The innocent look on her face wasn’t one that belonged to a liar. I peered around the box, and she had both her hands up in the air, palms facing me. “See? Not touching it.”
“What the...? How are you doing this?” The box stopped ascending at chest height. I waved my hand over the top, just to make sure this seven-year-old hadn’t somehow rigged up some near-invisible strings to keep the thing suspended. I checked beneath the box to see if there was anything propping it up. Nothing there either.
That was when it got really weird. A strange feeling rose up from my stomach into my throat, and for a moment, I thought I was just feeling the effects of stress and a poor night of sleep. I closed my eyes to try and settle my stomach, but something lightly bumped my head. When I opened them back up to see what hit me, I nearly smashed my nose into the ceiling. Looking down, I wasn’t made taller or the room shorter. My entire body was hovering off the ground.
“Whoa, you’re floating!” Megan shouted. She was floating herself, using her tiny hands to push off the ceiling before gently rising back up to touch it again. The loose parts of my clothing were lifting off my body where they could. “I’m floating! Is this your superpower? How’re you doing it?”
“I can’t do anything like this,” I said, the words coming out faster and sounding meaner than I meant. I was just so tired and annoyed at bumping into the ceiling that it came out that way. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to get snippy, but I seriously can’t do anything like this. I think this is you.”
Before Megan could consider that, Rebecca and Lizzy were at the doorway. I had to adjust using the ceiling for support so I could turn to see them staring up at us. Lizzy didn’t look too surprised, but Rebecca’s jaw was threatening to hit the floor. She stuck her arm into the bathroom, and when it started to drift upward, she pulled it back to her body. “We heard the scream. What’s going on here?”
“Hey, hey, Rebecca.” I fought back some laughter and put both my hands on the ceiling. “Look, I can finally touch the ceiling here. You said I wouldn’t be able to reach it when we first moved in here.”
“Your boyfriend is an idiot.” Lizzy planted her hands on her hips and shook her head. “That’s not a reflection on you, by the way. Just him. He’s the only dumb one.”
“He’s a good guy,” Rebecca said with a sigh, sounding like she was defending herself more than she was me. “Good with Megan, good in the kitchen, and cute too. Maybe a little bit on the idiot side, but cute.”
“I’m standing right here!” I yelled, waving my hands in front of them. “Well, not standing, but you get the idea. Maybe it’s magic!”
“Be less dumb then!” Lizzy rolled her eyes. “Yeah, right, definitely magic. If you’re doing magic, then let me see you get down from there, Houdini.”
“Did Houdini float?” I asked. “I’m not sure if-”
“It has to be Megan’s Anomaly, right?” Rebecca cut me off, gesturing toward me, making a point to ignore our bickering. When I was close enough that she could reach me without fully going in the room, she pulled me lower to the ground by my foot. “It’s like I’m pulling down a balloon.”
“Ethan is scrawny.” Lizzy’s brow furrowed and she took a pull on my shoe herself. “Maybe not so scrawny he should defy how physics work.”
“Good thing the three of us are known for completely obeying all known human knowledge.” I caught a toothbrush that made its way into my airspace. It felt like I was holding a string or a shoelace. “I can’t do something like this, so it has to be Megan.”
“The scream we heard sure sounded a lot like an emotional spike to me.” Lizzy tapped her chin and walked into the bathroom. Like Megan, myself, the console, and everything not bolted down in the bathroom, she rose up off her feet. She grabbed at the skirt of her dress and pulled it down. “Okay, maybe a dress is not the best outfit to test this in. If any of you look up, I’m kicking your butt. Has Megan done anything like this before? Maybe during some other emotional outburst?”
“Not that I know of.” Right as it left my mouth, I knew I was wrong. The memory hit me like a truck. “No wait, wait. When I was fighting Eric in the Tomb, Megan yelled out at me. It felt like there was something pinning me down. I think it held Eric in place, because I was able to get a clean shot off on him. That’s what got us out of there. With everything that happened, I didn’t think much of it, and he wasn’t exactly available for an interrogation after.”
“Oh man, Lori’s going to flip out.” Lizzy was still fighting her dress to remain modest, but that didn’t stop the excitement from turning her lips up into a huge grin. “Megan, this one might be your best birthday present of the day, because I think you have gravity powers.”