Divine (21 page)

“
What? So? I
showed you a whole bunch of other stuff. You saw my eyes . . . I
lifted rocks for you.”

“
Oh, okay,”
I laughed at our bantering. “But, what if it's a sensitive
subject for me?”

“
Well, you know
you can talk to me about anything.”

I sighed again, but
this time with a smile because he was so right: I
could
talk
to him about anything.

Okay then. Here goes
nothing . . .

I sucked in a breath of
air and pushed it out gently from my lips. “Well,” I
began hesitantly, “I guess it's hard for me to talk about it
because I can't really
do
my ability . . .”

Jonah looked back and
forth between me and the road. “Yeah, that's what you were
saying earlier. What do you mean you can't do it?”

“
I mean, I've
tried to teleport, but I can't.”

“
Oh,” he
said, taking a few extra moments to gaze at me before returning his
stare ahead. “Well, so what?”

There was something
about his tone that made me relax. I crossed my arms and rested my
head against the seat, thinking about the time I had teleported to
our neighbor's basement. “Do you want to hear a story?” I
asked him.

He leaned forward and
shifted around to make himself more comfortable. “You know me,
I always like a good story.”

“
Well, this is
the story of why I don't try to teleport much anymore.”

“
This ought to be
a good one then,” he joked lightly.

I shook my head with a
small laugh and began telling him my traumatizing childhood memory.
“Well, when I was a little girl I had tried to teleport places,
but I never went anywhere. I would always think about where I wanted
to go but I never figured out how to actually leave from where I was.
As it turned out I needed another living being's energy to actually
teleport, so that's why it never happened when I tried it by myself.”

“
So, you can't go
places without relying on someone else's energy?”

“
Exactly. Then
there was this one time when I had tried it and I had my little dog
Daisy on my lap, so I used her energy without even knowing it. I
closed my eyes and thought about going to the zoo; the animals in my
mind were so real that I reached out to touch them, and when I did I
actually teleported away from my house.”

“
Well, doesn't
that mean you can do it then?”

“
Not really. I
left my room but I didn't end up at the zoo that I had imagined; I
ended up in my neighbor's basement.”

He looked over at me
with a captivated stare. “Wow, really? What did you do?”

“
Well, when I
opened my eyes it was pitch black and I didn't know where I was. I
started crying and my neighbor found me and called my mom. He didn't
know we were Divines until that happened, so we had to move to a
different town and start over where no one knew who we were.”

I glanced over and saw
that Jonah was fully engrossed in my story, paying more attention to
me than the road.

“
Wow,” he
sympathized, “so, that must have been really scary for you.”

I uncrossed my arms and
went back to biting my nails. “Yeah, it was. So I didn't want
to do it anymore after that because I was afraid of where I would end
up. But my mom actually had me do it with her not too long ago.”

“
And did it
work?”

I shook my head. “No.
Well, kind of I guess. I saw what I needed to see, but when I went to
actually do it, I couldn't handle the feeling.”

He turned down the dial
on the radio, making the already low music go silent. “What
does it feel like? Does it hurt?”

I breathed in a deep
breath and let it out of my nose as I thought about how to explain
what I felt. “Well, it doesn't really hurt. I just get this
overwhelmingly loud piercing sound that fills my ears. When it
happens I get too scared to push past it.”

“
Wow. If I were a
kid that would freak me out.”

“
Yeah, I don't
even know how I handled it that time as a kid.” I looked down
toward the floorboard at my feet and rubbed them together under the
stream of warm air. “You know, I even get charged up with
electricity or something; I assume it's the other person's energy
that I'm using. The last time I tried it with my mom I had these
little electric charges that were zapping around my body; it was
pretty trippy.”

Jonah rested his elbow
against the door and brought the back of his hand up to thoughtfully
rub his stubble. “That
is
trippy. And you said your mom
is a Divine as well?”

“
Yep, she
teleports.”

“
And what about
your dad?”

“
Nope, he's a
Typic. It's actually just the women in my family who are the Divines.
My grandma was really good at teleporting; she could go by herself,
she didn't even need anyone else's energy. I wish I were like her.”

Jonah looked tenderly
at me from across the cab of the truck. “You
are
like
her; I can tell.”

I giggled shyly at the
prospect. “I wish. I can't even teleport with my mom to my own
bedroom.”

“
You'll get it.
You just need to practice more. It was like me with water; I had to
practice a lot to do what I can do with it.”

“
That of which I
have no clue what you are talking about,” I jokingly hassled
him, “since you won't show me for another five months.”

“
Don't worry,
you'll see what I can do.”

I smiled and stared
quietly ahead at the road. “You know whats weird? My dad is a
Typic and his last name is Peregrine. Peregrine means 'traveler' or
'wanderer' which is what our family's ability is. Isn't that crazy?”

“
Wow, that's
cool. Your Typic dad has the last name of your Divine mother's
ability. I guess that means that they were meant to be together.”

“
Yeah, I guess
so.” I reached over and pulled my phone out of my purse,
suddenly remembering my promise to continually check in. “Speaking
of my parents, I don't know if I should text my mom and let her know
we're almost home; I don't want to wake them up.”

Jonah nodded. “Yeah,
whatever you think. That drive sure went by fast, didn't it?”

“
Yeah it did. We
were rambling on a lot.”

A few minutes passed
and we were in my driveway, faced with the awkwardness of a post-date
goodbye.

Jonah killed the engine
and looked over at me in the darkness of the cab. “I had a
really nice time, Ash. Thanks for going with me.”

“
Of course. Thank
you for inviting me; I had a lot of fun.” I slid my phone in my
purse and looked over at his blue eyes, wishing that they would glow
a shade of color that I could discern.

“
I'll walk you to
your door, if you want.”

“
Yeah,” I
smiled. “I'm afraid of the dark, so you would be doing me a
great service . . .”

His quiet laugh
satisfied me as we opened our doors and got out of the truck; I loved
it when I amused him.

He followed behind me
as we walked up my driveway to the front door. Even though he was as
close as he was I still wished he was closer; for a second I even
considered stopping abruptly so he would bump into me. But instead I
kept my pace and decided against my plan. Besides, he knew me well
enough to know that it wouldn't have been an accident.

I pulled out my key and
unlocked the door, the sweltering entryway consuming us as we stepped
inside.

“
Man, it's really
hot in here,” Jonah pointed out.

“
Arizona,”
we both responded in unison. I quietly laughed and switched on the
closest light switch, casting a light glow onto our faces.

He put his hands into
the pockets of his jeans and shuffled his feet against the tiled
entrance. “Thank you for telling me that you're a Divine,”
he said gently.

I smiled and tucked a
strand of my blonde hair behind my ear. “Yeah, of course. Thank
you for telling me that
you're
a Divine. I can't wait until
you take me fishing so I can see what else you can do.”

“
Yeah,” he
laughed quietly, “same here.” He took his hands out from
his pockets and pushed the sleeves of his sweatshirt up to his
elbows. “So, I'll see you at lunch on Monday?”

“
Sounds like a
date.”

He laughed with a white
smile and crossed his arms in front of him while a faint glow of
yellow sparkled in his irises. “Okay, I'll see you then.”

“
I see that
makes you happy,” I joked, flattered by his obvious elation at
being around me.

“
Oh, here we go,”
he groaned with a laugh of air. “I'm gonna leave before you
embarrass me some more.”

“
Okay, okay. I'll
see you Monday for lunch.”

He smiled sweetly at
me, giving me one last glance at his sparkly eyes. “Goodnight,”
he whispered as he stepped outside and closed the door behind him.

That Saturday night I
spent with Jonah was the best night of my life up until that point.
The next few months after that we really opened up to each other, and
as a result, we became much closer.

Many of our
conversations consisted of jokes about our abilities, and he even got
more comfortable showing off his strength. Anytime we went somewhere
out of view from the public eye he would pick up the heaviest object
he could find, just to impress me.

We also started to hang
out around our families more often, too, and he even let me tell my
parents that he was a Divine. At first they seemed leery of his
strength; they didn't want him to hurt me in any way. After getting
to know him better, though, they realized that he wouldn't hurt me or
anyone else for that matter, unless someone tried messing with
me
,
of course.

It was hard for me to
do but I ended up telling his mom and Uncle Lou about my ability, or
like I say,
lack
of ability. They made me feel very
comfortable in my embarrassment and didn't ask me too many questions.
It felt good telling other people about it, especially people who
were a part of Jonah's family.

Jonah and I enjoyed
each other's company so much that we became inseparable, which made
it much harder when my mom told me that we were taking a trip to our
home state for a couple of weeks.

* * *

“
I know it's been
awhile since I told you that we would go back to Arizona for a visit,
but your dad finally saved up enough money for us to take a trip out
there. Aren't you excited?”

I thrust my hands into
the pockets of my fluffy robe and moped over to the kitchen table,
sitting down and pouring myself a short glass of orange juice. “Yeah
Mom, I'm excited.”

She sat down next to me
holding a steaming cup of coffee in her slender hands. “Well
you don't seem very excited,” she noticed, raising the mug to
her mouth and taking a sip.

“
I am. I'll just
miss Jonah, that's all. And we'll be gone for his birthday.”

She sat her cup on the
table and gave me an understanding smile. “I know, sweetheart.
But, you can call him every day; I'm sure you'll do that anyway.”
Her chair squeaked as she leaned over and teasingly nudged me with
her robe-covered shoulder.

“
I know,” I
mumbled while giving her a small nudge back.

“
Did you get him
anything for his birthday?”

“
Yeah, a salt
shaker.”

She stared blankly at
me as she took a sip of coffee. “A salt shaker? Oh, well,
that's nice.”

“
I know,” I
snickered at her reaction, “a salt shaker doesn't sound like a
great gift. But it has a meaning to it.” I put my hands on the
table and mindlessly picked at my cuticles, smiling lightly at the
thought of Jonah and his obsession with salt.

My mom brought her hand
underneath her chin and rested against it, giving me a dreamy look.
“Whatcha thinkin?” she teased with a wild grin that
consumed her face.

“
Oh stop Mom,
you're embarrassing me!” I moaned as I lowered my head down on
the table, trying to hide the flush of heat that was spreading across
my cheeks.