With a perfectly straight face, the old woman asked, “What color was the mother ship?”
“Metallic blue with white sidewalls.”
“I’m not going to lecture you,” Faye said softly. “But surely you know how worried your parents must be.”
“They probably figured out where I went,” Zachary offered grudgingly. He sat on the edge of the bed, kicking his legs back and forth. “I just took off, OK? It wasn’t like I did it on purpose to make them crazy. I just couldn’t take one more ‘No.’ For crying out loud, I’m not a baby. I’m sixteen!”
Faye smiled. “You’re fifteen years and eleven months. Had you been sixteen, I’m sure you would have availed yourself of a driver’s permit and hijacked one of your parents’ cars to get here rather than hitchhiking. Am I right?”
The boy hung his head for a moment. “Busted.” Then he gave his aged relative an appraising look. “How do you always seem to know stuff without being told?”
“Let’s just say I’m very good at mathematics.” She sat down on the bed next to him. “Being a parent is a tremendously hard job. They only want to protect you and keep you safe.”
“Then they should just seal me up in a big damn plastic bubble and get it over with!”
“I’m sure there’s a law against that. In fact, I read about it quite recently in the Enquirer.”
Zachary did a double-take until he realized Faye was smiling.
“I wonder if they might get away with encasing you in a hazmat suit until you’re twenty-one. Yes, that may be the better way to go.”
Now he could tell she was joking. The boy grinned in spite of himself.
“In addition to remembering all the ‘no’s’ when one is a teenager,” she said, “I also remember how intense life can seem when one is young. I used to write some very lugubrious poetry at your age. Awful stuff!”
“Lugubrious?”
“Yes, it means melancholy. I had a perpetual case of the vapors until my early twenties. My own personal mauve decade.” She smiled at the memory. “And I wrote some truly terrible poetry to commemorate my maudlin phase.”
“I bet it was pretty good,” Zachary observed. “You’re the cool one. You’re the only one in the family I’d ever admit to being related to.”
“Why thank you, Zach. I’ll take that as a compliment.” She patted his knee. “But I can afford to be the cool one. I don’t have to do the hard part. I can simply enjoy your company and send you packing whenever you become tiresome.”
“Am I?” he asked anxiously.
“Are you what?” She brushed a breadcrumb off his shirt.
“Tiresome?”
She gave him a fond look. “No, my dear boy. Most assuredly not.”
“But we are different from them, aren’t we?” he persisted. “I mean you’re the only one in the family who gets me. Everybody else is so busy trying to fit in. Be a solid citizen. I’ve got parents who make their living watching mold grow in petri dishes and a sister who wanted to be a lawyer before she was out of diapers.”
“And what do you want to be?”
The boy paused and gave her a furtive glance. “I don’t know exactly, but I want it to be something that isn’t ordinary. Something that’s going to change the world.”
The old woman nodded understandingly. “I think most young people want to change the world.”
“No, Gamma. I really mean it. I want to feel like my life makes a big difference. It’s almost like I’ve got some kind of mission.”
She raised her eyebrows in surprise. “A mission. Indeed. What sort of mission?”
He gave a frustrated sigh. “That’s just it. I don’t know. I can almost feel it out there calling me, but I don’t know what it is yet.” Zach paused to consider. “It’s really weird, but I can feel it stronger whenever I’m around you.” He peered into her face. “What do you think that’s about?”
Faye returned his gaze. “I’m not sure, my dear. I do know, however, that people who feel a sense of purpose invariably find it when the time is right. Don’t worry. Your mission will make itself known one day. Perhaps sooner than you expect.” She kissed him lightly on the cheek and stood up to leave. “I’m going to speak to your parents now and ask them to allow you a one- week furlough. You may stay here for seven days but after that…” she trailed off.
Zachary hung his head in submission. “I know, I know.”
“Tomorrow you will help me in the yard. My vegetable garden needs weeding.”
“You’re not gonna make me work, are you?”
Faye raised an eyebrow. “Were you under the impression that you wouldn’t have to earn your keep? And in order to maintain your productivity, there will be no email, text messages, cell phones, video games, or other electronic gizmos to distract you from your chores.”
“I get it.” The boy laughed. “By the end of the week, you’ll make me wish I was back home.”
“You see right through me.” The old woman chuckled. “Goodnight, dear boy. Get some rest. You’re going to need it.” She flipped off the light switch and closed the door.
Chapter 26 – Wedlocked
Hannah uncoiled the braid wrapped around the crown of her head. She untwisted the rope of hair and ran her fingers through the curls, shaking them loose. It felt good to ease the tension in her scalp. She brushed her tresses slowly and methodically in front of the bathroom mirror, dawdling over the task. She wanted to postpone the inevitable as long as possible, trying not to think about what was waiting for her in the next room.
Today she had been married for the second time in as many months. The diviner’s
