Thanks again to Nancy and Carol. You ladies are the best!
PART TWELVE
*~Jay~*
I woke up with an unshakable sense of cabin fever. Not wanting to wait until anyone else was up, I pulled on my coat and boots to go for a bit of a walk, trusting in my sense of direction to help me should I get lost. There’s something special about being the only person awake while everyone else is sleeping. Although isolating, it is also extremely freeing. But I hadn’t gone very far when I heard noises coming from the barn. Apparently, I had been mistaken when I assumed that no one else was up yet. I peeked my head in, wondering who it was that would be up this early, and was greeted by the harsh smell of hot metal and the roar of a blowtorch.
Surprisingly, the sight of an octogenarian wielding a blowtorch was not as terrifying as I expected it to be. As soon as Martha saw me, she turned it off, put it down, and pushed the protective mask up off her face.
“I didn’t expect you to be up this early, Jay” she told me. “Otherwise, I would’ve had breakfast ready for you.”
“Oh, please don’t feel like you have to do that,” I told her politely. “I’m an early riser, that’s all.” Absently, I picked up a coil of wire from her workspace and began playing with it to keep my hands busy.
“Me too,” she said. “Living on a farm will do that to you, even though there isn’t really anything to take care of anymore. But it seems that even Clark’s gotten used to sleeping in. I don’t mind, though. It gives me some time to work on things before everyone’s up and running around.” She turned to examine the large metal sculpture that she had been working on. I also looked at it with interest.
“You didn’t show me this last night,” I remarked.
“You’re right, I didn’t,” she acknowledged. “There’s more room to work out here in the barn, but it makes it much less convenient for visitors to see what I’m working on. What do you think?”
“I like it,” I replied honestly. “The way that the angles work against the curves is really interesting. And you can see that theme repeated throughout the piece. Light verses heavy, thin verses thick, smooth verses rough, delicate verses harsh.” My eyes roamed over the sculpture, taking in every crevice and plane. Her sculpture was stunning, evoking emotions buried deep within me. “It’s a battle,” I finally concluded.
“That’s right!” she exclaimed.
“Can I ask what it’s for?” I asked.
“The town has commissioned a new war memorial to be built,” Martha replied. “This piece will be a landmark for it.”
“It’s suiting.” I wanted to be able to run my hands along the surface, yet I knew I would have to wait until the hot metal cooled. So I contented myself with looking at it, trying to absorb every shadow and every reflection while continuing to work the wire between my fingers as a distraction.
“So when did you get to be such an art critic, Jay?” Martha asked, interrupting my thoughts.
“It was always an interest of mine,” I shrugged. “I took some classes in high school and I’ve read a lot of books on the subject. But I’ve been busy doing other things, and haven’t really focused on it.”
“And what about this?” She pointed to the wire I was bending in my hands. I had hardly noticed what I was doing, but now I realized that I had bent it into a series of intricate whorls and spikes, mirroring the conflict seen in Martha’s piece.
“It’s just… something I picked up,” I replied, setting the wire down. “I had a lot of down time in my previous job, and this helped pass the time. Sorry I bent it. You weren’t going to use it for anything, were you?”
“I have lots of wire,” she waved aside. “But this…” She picked my wire up off the counter. “This is lovely.”
“It’s nothing,” I dismissed. “I was just playing around with it. That’s all I’ve ever done.”
“It’s not nothing!” There was a serious expression on her face that surprised me. “You can’t fool me with this, Jay, even though you may be able to with other people. I know how much practice you must’ve had in order to do this easily. And although you may not think so, this is an accomplishment.”
“Okay,” I replied warily. She had surprised me with this reaction, and I wasn’t exactly sure what to make of it yet.
“Now,” she began, drawing up a stool to the counter and sitting down, inviting me to do the same. “You’re dating my granddaughter.”
“Yes,” I agreed cautiously. Was I finally receiving the proverbial ‘What are your intentions’ speech? If so, it was from an unexpected source.
“Now, don’t look so scared,” Martha told me. “I’m not going to drill you for information or anything. I’m a good judge of character, and more importantly, Ellie is as well. You’re a good man, Jay.”
“And you can tell that just by the few minutes we’ve spent together?” I asked doubtfully.
“That, and what I’ve heard about you from others. Ellie won’t stop talking about you, for one thing. And you’ve shown a lot of dedication to Ellie through everything you’ve gone through. And you’ve been faultlessly supportive of her as well. Like I said, you’re a good man.”
Although I appreciated Martha’s compliment, I didn’t think I was really deserving of the praise.
“Ellie means a lot to me,” I told her. “She’s the only good thing I have going for me right now.”
“What does that mean, exactly?” she asked me.
“Well, how much do you know about me?” I asked her. I guessed she knew at least something about my past.
“I know that you and your sister worked for a government agency,” she replied carefully. “And that you no longer work there, not necessarily by choice.”
“I was fired,” I said bitterly. “I made a stupid mistake, jeopardized the entire mission, and was booted out.” Months after the event, I had very little residual anger about the circumstance. All I felt was bleak numbness. “But whatever, that’s in my past. That’s not important now. But like I was saying before, dating Ellie brings meaning to my life that’s been pretty much cleared out of meaning. I’m not about to let that slip through my fingers.”
“That’s good,” Martha nodded. “I’m glad you can realize that. But there are some other things you need to consider.”
“Like what?”
“My granddaughter is a strong woman, Jay,” Martha leaned in to tell me. “If you want to be with her, you need to be strong as well.”
And what exactly did that mean?
“If Ellie needs to find someone who’s as strong as her to be with, then it’s going to be pretty slim pickings for her,” I joked.
Martha shook her head. “Don’t hide behind that mask, Jay,” she told me. “A good sense of humor is an excellent quality, but you have a habit of using yours as a disguise.”
And I used to pride myself on being hard to read.
“So what do you mean when you said I had to be strong?” I asked seriously.
“Being with the person you love is strengthening, that’s true,” Martha said. “But you can never fully be with another person unless you’re whole yourself.”
“And I’m not,” I realized. “Ever since… Ever since I left, I’ve just been floating along, not knowing what to do with myself.” Wasting my life. I had said that to Ellie once in passing. And I didn’t realize how much I meant it until now. Although I didn’t expect to find myself confiding in someone this deeply, it didn’t really surprise me. Martha Kent struck me as a very wise woman, and she had seen right through me from the very beginning.
“You’ve had your foundation knocked from under you, Jay, and you need to build a new one,” Martha said gently. “But Ellie can’t be the only thing in it. It’s too much for one person.”
“So… what do I build it with?”
“Take some time and reflect. What do you want to build it with? What would make you whole? And don’t ever disregard an answer,” she cautioned me. “You may be surprised by what turns out to be right.”
* * *
***
The piece of paper was folded carefully in half and stowed in the front pocket of my backpack. I clutched the straps tightly as if the backpack would fly away if I wasn’t careful with it. I had already read it over five times, and I kept replaying phrases that Mr. C had written.
“Jason shows great interest and ability in the subject of…”
“I am impressed by Jason’s enthusiasm towards…”
“…would like to recommend him for the advanced class…”
Although I had been unsure about how I would do in my first year of high school, this letter seemed to give me my answer. I was sure that this was something Dad would be proud of. For once I was actually anxious to get home and show him something.
But when I got there, the whole place had been thrown into chaos. Half our stuff was packed up in boxes, and there were a few men standing in the kitchen wearing suits and with ear pieces glued to their heads. Dad was sifting through a pile of photo albums, putting some in a box and leaving others on the kitchen counter.
“Where’s Kaylie?” I asked him.
He turned around to look down at me. He looked almost surprised to see me there, as if he had forgotten about me.
“She’s already been taken to a safe place,” he replied, returning to his sorting. “Things have gotten out of hand at work. We have to leave. You’re going to be going as Bryan Phelps from now until further notice, and we’ll be moving out of state.”
I didn’t really know all that much about what Dad did for work, only that it was a bunch of top-secret stuff for the government and that I was supposed to tell anyone who asked that he was an engineer that worked on government contracts. Whatever it was that he did, it must be pretty dangerous because we had already had to move once before, which lead us here. But this time felt different from before. Maybe it was because I was supposed to change my full name this time, or because I had a lot of friends here. But I think the biggest reason had to do with the letter tucked inside my backpack.
“Is there any way we can be back for the fall?” I asked him, knowing already what the answer would be.
“Of course not,” he replied sternly. “What is it about this situation that you don’t understand?”
“It’s just that…” I took off my backpack and pulled the letter out for him to see. “I got accepted into the advanced class for the fall.”
He snatched the letter from me, and skimmed it over quickly.
“An art class? Well, I guess this explains your poor math grade this term.” He refolded the letter sloppily, causing crooked creases to form across the paper. “You have other things you need to be doing with your time,” he lectured me. “Now, I want you to go with Mr. Brooks over there. He’ll take you to the same place Kaylie is. Don’t worry about packing anything, we’ll make sure that everything that can and should be taken will be brought to our new place.”
“You guys are going to go through my stuff?!”
Dad thumped the albums down on the table and whirled around to look straight at me.
“This is much more important than whatever junk you’ve collected over the last three years, Jason! Now go with Mr. Brooks.”
I didn’t dare argue. It was one of the few times I had actually seen Dad lose his temper. Something had obviously happened to really shake him up.
So I went with Mr. Brooks. Like I suspected, we never returned to that house. The agents sorting through my stuff saved a few things that were important to me. Pictures and stuff. But I never saw that letter again. And it wasn’t long before I had trained myself to stop thinking about it.
***
* * *
*~Ellie~*
The corner of Jay’s mouth twitched. Then it slowly crawled upwards, stretching his face into one of his trademark lopsided grins.
“What?” I asked irritably.
“Nothing,” he replied quickly, smoothing his mouth back into a straight line. But it wasn’t long before the corner of his mouth jumped again.
“Oh, come on,” I protested. “They’re not that bad, are they?” I glanced at Kaylie for confirmation, only to see that her lips were pressed tightly together, trying to hold back laughter. Jon wasn’t any better. “Well, fine. If they look that bad, I guess I’ll just take them off.” I reached up to take the glasses off my face, but Jon jumped up to stop me.
“No way,” he told me firmly. “We need insurance to make sure you won’t cheat.”
“How exactly do glasses keep you from cheating?” Jay questioned.
“They keep a certain someone from peeking at cards that they shouldn’t,” Jon grumbled.
“Something tells me there’s a story behind this,” Kaylie remarked, still looking at my glasses curiously.
“Well, it’s not that much of a story,” Jon shrugged. “Just what you’d expect to happen when you take a teenager with newly minted X-ray vision who hasn’t learned proper restraint-”
“And add another teenager in a permanent sulk who refuses to use his own newly minted powers,” I added.
“Combined with a Christmas tradition of playing card games for hours on end…”
“Basically, Dad stormed in here, shoved a pair of his old glasses at me, and told us both to smarten up,” I concluded.
“Since then, Ellie’s always worn them whenever we’re playing card games. I always wear glasses anyways, and this way we’re on an even playing ground. Ellie would have to remove the glasses to see through anything, and we would be able to tell if she’s cheating.”
“Even though I end up looking like a huge dork in the process,” I complained, pushing the glasses higher up on my nose. Being my dad’s, they were far too big for me, but it was hardly worth getting my own pair to wear for the few occasions that I ‘needed’ them.
“I think they look kind of cute,” Jay told me. He was grinning like an idiot, too. Seriously, he hadn’t looked this happy to see me in something even on the few occasions we had gone out on a nice, dress-up type date. Apparently, he liked it when I looked ridiculous.
“Let’s start playing,” I told them, taking the cards and shuffling them in my hands. Then I dealt out the cards at super speed. “Whose turn is it first?”
“Hey, wait a second!” Jay called out as the rest of us started shuffling through our cards. “Since when are you allowed to deal that fast?”
“It gets the game going faster,” I shrugged.
“I don’t know about that. You went too fast, and now I can’t tell if you stacked the deck or not.”
“I didn’t,” I protested, rolling my eyes. Jay knew how much I hated doing monotonous tasks at a normal speed.
“If you can’t be trusted not to look through cards, I don’t think you can be trusted to deal without supervision,” Jay teased. “I think you’re going to have to deal them again, but slowly this time.”
“Well, Jon can back me up,” I offered. “Can’t you, Jon?”
“I don’t think so,” Jon shrugged. “I can see why Jay wouldn’t trust me. After all, I am related to you. I might have an ulterior motive.”
“Fine,” I sighed dramatically. “I’ll do it the slow, painful, boring way. You win.” I collected the cards and started to deal them again.
“Well, that’s a relief,” Jay told us. “You never know with these cheaters. You have to stay on top of them.”
“Jay, have you ever heard of a game called fifty-two pick-up?” I asked sweetly. “It’s a fun game that we can play sometime.”
“See, there’s another game you would probably cheat at,” Jay replied. “You’d just zoom around and grab them all in less than a second. Or turn yourself into some kind of human vacuum cleaner, or-”
“Yeah, we get it,” Kaylie cut in. “Can we play now?”
“You have good cards, don’t you?” Jay guessed.
“Maybe,” she admitted coyly.
But before we started, Grandma came in the house from the barn.
“Are you four playing cards already?” she asked. “Got room for another?”
“Sure,” Jon replied happily. “Ellie will just deal again won’t you?”
“Arg! Fine,” I gave in. Grumpily, I collected the cards and prepared to deal them for the third time.
“How’s the sculpture going?” Jay asked.
“Very well, thank you,” Grandma replied. “But I needed to take a break from it. I was getting too locked in, and I need to have some time away from it before I can come at it from a fresh angle. I’m sure you know what I mean, Jay. What with your experience and all.”
“What experience?” I asked, looking up from my dealing.
Jay squirmed uncomfortably in his seat.
“Oh, yeah!” Kaylie chimed in. “Those wire sculptures you used to do when we were on assignment. They were really good. Have you done any of that lately?”
“Not really,” Jay replied with a certain amount of discomfort.
“I didn’t know you were into any of that,” I commented, resuming my dealing. I knew there were some things about Jay that I didn’t know, but I thought I at least knew what his hobbies were.
“It’s nothing,” Jay told me. “Just a little something I picked up to pass the time while I was busy doing stakeouts or something.”
“It’s not nothing,” Grandma told him sternly, and I got the feeling they had talked about this before.
I could see Jay visibly relax when Mom and Dad came into the house back from their walk and the attention was shifted away from them.
“You still haven’t managed to start a game?” Mom asked us. “Well, I guess that’s a good thing because now we can join in.”
“Why has it taken you this long to get started? Have you grown tired of the card-playing tradition?” Dad asked. “Is it time to start a new one?”
“Nah, we’re not tired of it,” Jon told them. “But I have thought of a good extension to this one.” He started collecting all our cards and piling them in front of me. “Before we start the game, we’ll get Ellie to deal the cards over and over again about five times.”
“And going slowly,” Jay added solemnly. “So she doesn’t cheat.”
* * *
***
“Dad?” I peeked my head into the room that he and Mom were staying in. I was glad he was alone.
“You two finished playing for now?”
“Um, yeah.” I twisted Dad’s old glasses in my hands. “Dad, I’m really sorry that Jon and I started fighting like that. It was stupid, and we shouldn’t have done it.”
“Hey, it’s okay, Ellie. I never had a sibling growing up, but I know enough just from raising you two that fights are bound to come up. But what matters is how you solve them. Did you apologize to Jon?”
“Yeah,” I said grudgingly. “I wasn’t even cheating when we were actually playing cards, you know. I was just… kind of fooling around and stuff. And then he just-”
“I know, Ellie. But you have to understand that Jon’s pretty sensitive about stuff like that now. I know you love having all your powers, but he’s still not comfortable with them yet.”
“I know that,” I replied. “Well, maybe I wasn’t really thinking of that right then. But I really wish I had. I just wanted everything to go well this week,” I explained sadly. “Especially when things are so hard right now for everyone. Jon’s living with Grandma and Grandpa instead of at home with us, and I thought that if we could just have a holiday where no one fought and everyone just got along then maybe… Maybe Jon would come home.” I finished in a small voice, a little scared to finally voice this hidden hope of mine.
“Oh, Ellie.” He pulled me into a hug, and we sat down on the bed together. “I’m sorry this has been so hard on you. But I promise you that we’ll make it through this. It may not be as soon as you would like, but it will happen.”
“I brought your glasses back,” I offered in a watery tone.
“Keep them,” he said. “Have them as a reminder that five, ten, fifteen years from now we’ll still be together as a family, no matter where we are. And although we’ll still have problems that we need to work on, we’ll get through them together in time.”
“Thanks, Dad.”
“Plus,” he whispered in my ear. “This way I won’t have to hear you two fighting about the whole X-ray vision thing ever again. Have I mentioned how much it drives me crazy when you two bicker like that?”
I giggled gratefully. “Yeah, I know.”
***
