A Wicked Beginning (30 page)

“Which army is coming for breakfast?” he asked.

“Sit,” I said enthusiastically.

Cam sat, still bewildered. He took a sip of the coffee I placed in front of him. “Wow, this is great coffee. Where’d you get it?”

“Um, it’s from Kenya I think.” Or at least that’s what I was thinking of when I brought it into existence.

Can forked a piece of ham and helped himself to some quiche. After tasting each he declared, “This is outstanding, Chérie, where’d you get it?”

“I made it myself.”

“Were you cooking all day yesterday?”

“No, I made it just now.”

“In 15 minutes?”

Oops, I hadn’t thought about how long it should have taken to cook such a meal. “I’m fast,” I said brightly.

Cam regarded me suspiciously. “Since when? You’ve never been able to cook anything other than omelets.” He took a scone and bit into it. “Wow. This is fantastic. Where’d you learn how to make this, Chér? Did Mano give you a tip or two?”

“Uh, no, it’s just something I picked up.” I flicked my eyes towards the window.

“When…?”

“Uh, lately.”

“How lately?”

“Um, just lately.” Uh oh, in my enthusiasm I hadn’t thought he’d be so inquisitive about where I’d learned to make this food.

He ate without saying anything, a serious look on his face. Wanting to break the silence, I asked him, “So what went on yesterday that you declared yourself a man of integrity this morning? Not that I don’t believe you…I always thought that about you.”

Cam ignored my question and remained quiet, tasting each dish, his brow slightly furrowed. When he finished his food, he stood up, and took his empty plate out to the kitchen. “Where are the dirty dishes?”

I gulped. “Washed them…”

“And put them away?”

“Yup, and put them away.”

“Okay, so in 15 minutes, you prepared this gourmet breakfast, washed all the dishes, and put them away?”

“Yup,” I said again, a perky, forced smile painting my face. “You know me and how zippy I am.”

He turned and leaned against the counter, arms folded over his chest. “That was a great breakfast, Cheerio, thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” I chirped, walking over to the doorway of the kitchen.

“Now, tell me how you did it,” Cam said sternly. “Is this some ka thing?”

“Yes, that’s it!” I declared, relieved. “It’s a ka thing!”

“And how did you come across this skill? Just popped into your head?”

I averted my eyes. “Not exactly…”

Cam walked over and took my chin in his hand, lifting my face. I tried to look past him, but it was difficult.

“What’s going on, Chérie…that you won’t look me in the eyes?”

“What do you mean?”

He didn’t answer me. Instead, he kept his hand under my chin, holding me in place. “You have to be honest with me, Chér. We’re building a new relationship based on trust and honesty. Only I’m feeling a bit mistrustful of you right now.”

I grasped his hand and pushed it from my face. “I don’t know why, I just made you a wonderful breakfast,” I said sullenly.

“Yes, you did,” he replied in a reasonable tone. “And I appreciate it. It was really good.” He took my hand and led me back to the dining room table. Pulling out a chair, he indicated that I sit. I sat. Then, he pulled out another chair facing mine. He sat down facing me, my knees encased between his knees. “Tell me what you don’t want to tell me, Chér. How did you learn to make this meal?”

I swallowed and frowned. “I just learned it, that’s all. I always wanted to learn how to prepare food,” I lied. I bit my lip.

“It’s a useful skill to have,” Cam agreed, in a calm voice. “Now, where did you learn it?”

I studied the cloth napkin lying on the table. I reached over and grasped it, twisting it over and over as if I could wring the truth out of it instead of me.

“I’m waiting, Chérie.”

“I know, and I’m not talking.”

“We can sit here all day, if you like. I’ll cancel everything to get to the bottom of this.”

I sighed and dropped the napkin in my lap. “Okay, I’ll tell you but you’re not going to like it. You won’t understand.”

“Try me.”

His vibrant blue eyes were boring into mine, beseeching me to come clean. “Okay, I learned it from Kayden.”

His face fell. “When?”

“Yesterday,” I blurted. “Yesterday, I went to the temple, and he told me how to make whatever I wanted to make.”

“Yesterday…” Cam repeated in a wooden tone. He folded his arms over his chest and looked up at the ceiling. “Yesterday…” he repeated, chewing the inside of his cheek.

Neither of us said anything for several long, stretching to infinity moments. Finally, Cam said, “I thought Fabio was out of the picture.”

“He was…but shortly after I re-connected with you, he came back.”

“I see,” Cam said, staring me flatly. “And all the while I thought I had exclusive rights.”

“Cam…” I said in a pleading tone.

“Chérie…” Cam responded with sad, sad eyes.

“I knew you wouldn’t understand,” I huffed, crossing my arms.

“Help me out, then. Help me understand.”

Oh, this Cam was almost harder to take than the angry man I knew before, the man who had wild, scary outbursts. “I don’t know how to make you understand.”

“Try.”

I gulped. “You know I am the ka’kriyayaga, right?”

“So I’ve been told. So I’m discovering, yes.”

“And Kayden is my ka’kriyayago…you know that, right?”

“I heard you say that…I heard Mano say that, right. But I also heard you say he was out of the picture, and I was in the picture.”

“Well, I guess we’re sort of a package deal. You can’t get one without the other.”

Cam studied me. “What do you mean by that?”

I shrugged. “It means what it means. If you get me, you get Kayden too.”

“Get him how?”

“In all ways, Cam…Kayden is always with me. We’re a set, like bookends. He’s in my head, in my heart, all the time. Can’t have one without the other,” I repeated.

“Ouch,” Cam responded. “In your heart, huh? I thought that’s where I resided.” His eyes looked like a wounded puppy’s. “Does Kayden know about you and me?”

“Oh, yes, he doesn’t care. He just wants me to be happy. He knows everything about me…everything that I do, feel, and experience.”

“Everything?” Cam was frowning.

“Yup, everything. Kayden and I…well, we’re one and the same. I can’t experience a thing without Kayden knowing about it. He even experiences it.”

Now Cam’s face furrowed deeply. “What do you mean you can’t experience a thing without Kayden experiencing it?”

“Just that. He’s even there when you and I…when we…when we make love, Cam.”

Cam’s lip curled in disgust. He placed his hands on his knees and pushed himself backwards slightly. “Like some fucking three-way?” he snarled. “Like, you, me, and a guy??”

“Not exactly…”

“Then what exactly?”

I could tell Cam was getting agitated. My leg started working up and down. “I told you it’s hard to explain.”

“Well, I’m listening, Chér. I’m fucking listening. I should’ve known it was a lot to ask to have two smooth days in a row with you.”

“What’s that mean?” I retorted. Now, I was getting annoyed. It was game on, baby.

“It means life is a tornado with you, Chér. Weather, weather, and more weather...constant change…”

“Yeah and…” I was glaring at him now, all softness vanished. “…your point? Go ahead and bring it, Cam. Make your point.”

I watched him clench his teeth together. He sucked in air through his teeth. His eyes were shooting little spears my way. His voice became a low snarl. “It means, Cheerio, that I’m a human, remember? And you are, well, I don’t know what the hell you are. And there’s so many changes going on I can’t seem to keep up with them. And it doesn’t help things that you’ve been withholding this information from me: that Fabio’s back in the saddle.”

Now he stood up and started pacing.
Uh oh
, I thought.
Here we go, here comes angry Cam.
Cam stalked into the living room…paced back into the dining room…stalked back into the living room. As he paced, his hand was shoved in his pocket, and I could see the fingers working. He was probably fingering the cat’s eye. And then, out of nowhere, we heard that all too familiar growl, just outside the front door. We both froze.

“Well, shit,” spat Cam. “If life isn’t fucking complicated enough…” He turned to the door, furious. “Come and get me, fucker.”

“You don’t mean that, Cam.”

“Don’t I?” he shouted. “Don’t I?”

Loud scratching sounds came like the beast was digging through the front door. “I‘ll replace that door if I have to but I don’t want to lose you, Cam,” I yelled at Cam. “Don’t open the door.”

“Too late, babe,” Cam hissed, as he reached for the doorknob.

“Cam, wait,” I screeched.

The scratching turned into a growl as the beast apparently lunged at the door. The door shook on its hinges, and the tiny window that served as a peep hole shattered. A swirl of electric color burst through the opening as if the creature had stuck its paw through the window, trying to get to Cam. “Oh, for fuck sake,” Cam growled back at the dreamling, ready to turn the knob and face the snarling thing. “I’m so fucking tired of this shit.” Suddenly, he stopped and let his hand drop. He placed both palms against the wooden door and leaned his forehead against it. “Go away,” he whispered to the door. “We’re busy. We’re having a fight, but it will pass.” The growling and charging stopped.

“What made you do that?” I asked.

“Who the hell knows? Followed a hunch, I guess.” Cam pressed his ear to the door. “I think it’s just sitting there,” he said to me.

I giggled nervously. “Are you sure?”

“No,” Cam replied, “but I don’t hear anything except a panting sound like a dog makes.” He spun around. “See what I mean? I have no normal life anymore. I get pissed, I do something stupid like light up a cigarette, I lust after you, and that fucker appears.” He thrust his thumb towards the door. “I whisper to it, and it calms down. My whole life is just surreal. Just when I make some sense of it, everything changes.” He raked his hair with his hands and walked over to the couch. Then, he just flopped into it, looking defeated. “Come here…”

“Are we friends again?” I asked, hopeful.

“We’re always friends; we’re not finished with this, however.”

I sighed, walked over and flopped beside him. “What do you mean, you light a cigarette and the beast appears?”

Cam let out a breath. “It means just that. I got freaked before the sweat lodge and had a smoke and the dreamling came out of the woods. That’s when he did all the shit I told you about.”

“You forgot the part about lighting up. Have you started smoking again? I don’t really like that, Cam.” I wrinkled up my nose in disgust.

“That’s for me to sort out, Chér, not you. It’s my addiction, not yours.”

“Yeah, but your behavior affects me, you know,” I shot out.

Cam’s eyebrows arched in surprise. “As does your behavior affect me. Is this really what you want to talk about? I’m making progress. I actually had kind of a breakthrough yesterday.”

“Doing what?” I eyed him suspiciously.

“I’ll tell you when we’re done with the ‘you, me, and Fabio’ topic. Now, try to explain.”

I explained the best I could all that Kayden had told me and my understanding, gleaned from my ecstatic experience flitting through the galaxy. I conveyed that Kayden was an essential part of me; not just metaphorically, but energetically. It was difficult to describe. I didn’t really understand it myself. Nothing was held back in my description of what I knew and what I had experienced recently with Kayden.

Cam just sat and listened, propping up his jaw with his hand. When I was done, Cam considered me, his eyes conveying his inner sense of injustice.

“Does that make any sense?” I asked.

“Not really,” he responded, looking away. “I’m going to have to sort this out. I’m not keen on sharing you with anyone, babe. I’m more of a monogamous guy when it comes to you and me. I’m not sure what to do with this new information.”

“Well, you can be the only Earth guy,” I said hopefully.

He turned and faced the living room window, placing his forearms on his knees. The thunk of a tiny bird crashing into the plate glass window caused him to look up and frown. “Yeah, that’s what I feel like,” he said to the window. “Zoom, fly…wham!” He smacked his palm against his forehead. We watched the little bird fly away. “He’ll probably have some headache,” Cam said to no one in particular.

“Want a pork chop or something?” I asked brightly. “A beer? I can manifest anything you want.”

He looked askance at me. “No, I don’t want a pork chop or a beer, but thanks though. I’m quite full.” His face was all serious and thoughtful. He stood up.