In-Between, page 8
She looked up to find Sadar watching her from the driver’s seat. He reached into his pants pocket and pulled out her wallet. It was a cheap cloth wallet with colorful dots on a dirty white background, but at that moment it was her most prized possession. She ripped open the velcro that held it closed, and looked inside. Her driver’s license was missing as well as her bank card. Even her grocery card was gone. All that was left was the thirty-six dollars she had in cash, and a selection of coins.
“I didn’t want you to use your card and lead them straight to us.”
“Did you throw them out on the freeway as well?” Her words came out with a sting. She was so upset that her body started to vibrate with the anger. “I need my cards. How am I supposed to go get us a room without ID and a way to pay?”
“I destroyed your cards. But you don’t need to worry. I’m an elf, remember?” Sadar opened his hand and had a perfectly passable driver’s license with his picture and some random name on the ID. “It will be easier if it is just me that goes in, in case something isn’t right. Wait here for me, and I will be back shortly.”
Alicia stood back up as Sadar got out of the car and began to walk across the empty lot to the entrance. He was an imposing figure, even from the back. He was tall with a muscular build, and he walked with a stride full of self-confidence. He did not, even once, look back to check that they were staying by the car.
“I’m hungry,” Kenny said. He was still in the backseat and had opened his backpack. The contents were spilled across the seat and in his hand was one of his toy cars.
“I know. We should be able to get you some food as soon as we get checked in.” Alicia looked at the steering wheel and was not surprised that the keys were not there. She looked around, trying to figure out where they were. There were a few cars across the street at the gas station and restaurant, but none facing her way so that she could see their license plates.
The gas station was a common chain that had a row of pumps for cars and a few for trucks. The restaurant looked like it was right out of a movie about a small town. There were large white letters on the top of the roof that read May’s Dinner. There were windows all around the building as well as a red and white awning. There were a handful of cars in the parking lot, but in front were two bicycles, which left Alicia hopeful that there was at least something else near here.
Alicia jumped when Sadar reached out to her to hand her a key card. She hadn’t noticed him walk back towards them.
“Should we put our stuff away and get some food?” Sadar said.
“I think that’s a good idea. If we wait too long, Kenny may break down and eat the car.” Alicia tried to act casual, and not like she was just plotting how to get as far away from him as possible.
Sadar looked in the door at Kenny who was currently driving his cars around the backseat. “I think we can do better than cars. I bet that restaurant serves burgers.”
“Yeah,” Kenny cheered, the hunger momentarily forgotten and the adventure remembered.
“Which room is ours?” Alicia asked.
“We’re in room 204. I wanted it on the second floor so that I can see out, but it is right by the stairs if we need to leave in a hurry.”
“Wait, we’re sharing a room?”
“What did you think? We cannot travel as a family and get two separate rooms.”
“We aren’t a family.”
“We are to anyone who sees us. If they see a man and a woman driving with a child and do not think they are together, that will call undue attention. For better or worse, we are now a couple.”
Alicia glared at him and grabbed their bags. She waited for her son to get out of the car and then walked to their room. She opened it up to find two full-size beds, a TV, and a bathroom. Kenny immediately took off his shoes and climbed on the bed furthest from the door.
“Can I sleep here?” Kenny asked.
The bedspread was a faded brown flower pattern that had seen better days. The room looked shabby, with walking paths worn into the carpet. The TV looked similar to the one they had at home, small and boxy. At least the room looked clean. There was no dust, and when she pulled down the bedspread the sheets were white and unstained.
“Absolutely. So, I guess this makes this my bed as well.” She put the bags down at the end of the bed and then laid down, glad to be able to stretch out. It may not be the most glamorous place, but the beds were at least comfortable.
Sadar walked in a few minutes after. He was carrying the car seat and a small bag that Alicia had not noticed anywhere before. He took one look at them stretched out on the bed and put away his bag in a drawer under the TV stand.
“You all look comfortable,” Sadar said in disapproval.
Kenny grinned up at Sadar and then moved around, making the top half of the blankets a jumbled mess.
Alicia grabbed her bag, took out a clean shirt and her brush, and went into the bathroom. She changed her shirt and then combed her hair. She looked at herself in the mirror and felt the panic taking her over. She closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths. She could do this. No matter what, she would keep her son safe. Then she walked out of the bathroom.
“Who’s ready for some burgers?”
Chapter Sixteen
“Here you go.” The middle-aged woman placed a kid’s hamburger, fries, and chocolate milkshake in front of Kenny. Then she put another hamburger and fries in front of Alicia. Her eyebrows rose as she placed the third hamburger in the middle of the table. “Enjoy your meal.”
“Thank you,” Alicia managed as she watched the pink polyester uniform skirt stick to the back of the waitress’s thighs as she walked away.
Kenny had already taken the ketchup bottle and covered all his food in red. It had moved to his hands and then his face as he began to eat. Alicia remembered to breathe. There was a bathtub back in the hotel, so it didn’t matter. If the worst her kid was doing was making a mess and chewing with his mouth full after the last couple of days, then he was doing amazingly well. She took a handful of her fries, added them to his decreasing pile, and was rewarded with an open-mouthed grin full of half-chewed hamburger.
Alicia ate a few of her fries as she glanced at the door. Sadar could be back at any minute. He hadn’t told her where he was going, but she guessed that he would be getting rid of the car they had driven and picking up a new one. The thought was unsettling, but more importantly, she wanted to talk to her son before he came back.
“So I was thinking,” she said. Kenny glanced at her to let her know he was listening. Then he went back to giving most of his attention to his food. “I’m not sure that we should stay with Sadar for much longer.”
“Why?” A fry fell out of Kenny’s mouth when he talked, and Alicia could not help but cringe. “Sorry,” he said and closed his mouth to finish chewing.
“I am not sure that Sadar is a good person. I don’t want him taking you to see this king. I think he may be trying to take you away from me.”
“Is the king my dad?” Kenny asked.
“Yes, I think he is.”
“You said the king isn’t a good person. If he wasn’t a good person, then why did you have me with him?”
Alicia knew that it was an innocent question, but it filled her with sorrow. She wasn’t sure how to explain how much her son was loved and wanted, and also explain how he came to be. She knew one day she would have to tell him in more detail, but not yet. “That is complicated. Someday I promise I will tell you. But, for now, will you trust me that he is not a good person but that I love you so much and am so lucky that you are my son?”
“Will you trust me, too, Mommy?”
“With what, Kenny?”
“I know you don’t like Sadar, and I’m not sure if he is a good person or a bad person. I don’t think he knows if he is a good person or a bad person. I think he still has to decide. But I need him right now. I have all this stuff inside me, and I’m scared that I will let it out and hurt everyone. Sadar has it also, but he keeps it under control. I think he can teach me how. Can we stay with him until he teaches me? I promise if he decides to be a bad person to let you know, and we can leave.”
Alicia looked at her son and wondered when he got to be so wise. “I’m sorry, Kenny. All that was happening to you, and I had no idea. I kept telling everyone they were making it up, but you needed my help, not my dismissal.”
“Even I didn’t think I had magical powers. Well, maybe I wondered a little. So, we can stay?”
“We can stay for a bit longer. But not too much longer, I still don’t trust him.”
Suddenly Kenny started waving his arm and then screamed, “We are over here” even though only a few other diners were in the restaurant. Sadar could have easily found them, but Kenny probably wanted to make sure she knew to stop talking about him. She had one sharp kid.
Chapter Seventeen
Alicia could hear them when she stepped out of the shower.
“What do you feel?” Sadar asked.
“There is a place a little ways away. It seems breakable. If I tried to move it, the whole area would crumble.”
Alicia had slipped away to freshen up when they had started their training session. She had turned on the shower water and listened at the door, making sure that Sadar would not try to kidnap her son as soon as her back was turned. It made little sense for him to help them escape and then take off with her son, at least until he knew where he was going. Even so, she knew that she did not trust him.
“That is a fault line. Do you know what that is?”
“We learned about them in school. It is a place where two parts of the earth meet.”
Alicia dried off and put on her pajamas, the flannel ones that almost looked like a t-shirt and pants. If they did have to run tonight, she would be able to wear these out in public.
“Very good. You mustn’t touch fault lines. You probably wouldn’t make too much damage this far away, but then I am surprised you can even feel it. It is best to leave them alone. What else do you feel?”
“I feel the earth whispering.”
Alicia stepped out of the bathroom and found them sitting on the floor between the bed and the TV. They covered the walkway, but she could climb onto the corner of the bed without getting in their way. Sadar glanced at her briefly. Kenny sat with his eyes closed, looking like he was far away. Alicia noticed a rock the size of a quarter on the floor between them.
“What do you mean whispering?”
“It is talking, but not in words. It feels like a hum inside of me that makes sense. I make it turn into words.”
“What’s it saying?” There was a note of concern in Sadar’s voice.
“It is telling me that I need to train and control my powers.”
“Does it talk to you often?”
“I think it always has talked to me. I didn’t realize that not everyone could hear it. But when I realized, I tried not to listen. That just made it worse. That’s when things started to happen. Do you hear it?”
Alicia looked at Sadar, wary of his answer. It didn’t seem healthy that her son was hearing voices.
“Everyone feels the earth differently.” Sadar spoke to Alicia as much as Kenny. “Illusion magic has always been my strongest magic. But I have heard those that are extraordinarily strong in earth magic talk about the power as though it communicated with them.”
“So it is real?” Kenny asked.
“It is real.”
Alicia let out a sigh of relief. She sat at the edge of the bed, wanting to watch her son train. How could she have missed this? There were so many little moments that came back to her. Not just the school complaints, but times that Kenny had known when something was going to happen. She had written it off as coincidences. It was the only logical explanation for her. She relied on logic to navigate the world, and it had made her miss what was happening to her son.
She had always had difficulty with abstract concepts. Either magic existed or it did not. Three days ago, she believed it did not exist, but that no longer fit. She now knew that there was magic in the world, and that her son had the ability to use it. She wished she had figured it out sooner, but who would have stopped and thought that it was magic?
“Do you see the rock in front of you? No, don’t open your eyes. See it in the same place that you can feel the earth. Do you see it?”
“Yes,” Kenny said after a small pause.
“Good, I am going to lift it.”
Alicia noticed the rock lift an inch off the hotel floor.
“Did you feel that?” Sadar asked.
“Yes.”
“That was just a little power. You would have to be pretty close to feel that. If I used more power, then people could feel it from farther away. In the In-Between, everyone has magic. No one pays attention to people using magic since it is everywhere. However, here no one has magic, at least not strong enough to be felt unless you were right next to them. What do you think would happen if you used a lot of magic?”
“They would feel it?” Kenny sounded uncertain.
“Yes, they would feel it and would know where we are. Normally when we train, we see how strong you can be. For us, we are going to see how controlled you can be. Can you pick up the rock? Make sure not to use too much power.”
Alicia saw the rock lift again, except this time it went past an inch and straight up to the ceiling. Sadar looked up, and Alicia was sure that he intervened before it made a hole in the plaster.
“That’s enough.” Sadar commanded his face had a flicker of shock. He helped the rock drift slowly back to the ground before he spoke again. “That was a lot of energy you used.”
“But I barely used anything. How could anyone feel that?” Kenny pouted.
“It is all right, kiddo. You did well in your first lesson. It is really important not to use any magic until I can teach you what a little magic is. You are already pretty strong, and you haven’t even been trained yet. A little for you is a lot for everyone else. Do you understand?”
“Yes, I think I understand,” he sighed dramatically.
“Great, now off to bed with you.”
Kenny opened his eyes and looked around like he had forgotten that he was sitting in a hotel room.
“I have some pajamas in your bag. Why don’t you go change?” Alicia said.
While Kenny took the pajamas from his mom and went into the bathroom Alicia watched Sadar. He sat unmoving, staring at the rock on the ground. He was completely unreadable to Alicia, and she wasn’t sure how to feel about what she just witnessed. She opened her mouth to ask him, but Kenny already came bounding back in the room dressed in his space pajamas. He raced over to the bed and jumped on it.
“Did you brush your teeth that fast?” she asked in mock-seriousness.
“I did, I did,” he squealed.
“I’m not so sure. You are going to have to brush them extra good in the morning. How are we supposed to find all the blankets now that you have scattered them all over?”
“I guess I could sleep on the other bed.”
“Ha, you are not going to destroy yet another bed.” Alicia bent over him and began to tickle him. “My son, the destroyer of beds.” She reached over and gathered the blankets as best she could and tucked them around him. Then she leaned down and kissed his forehead. “Sleep tight, my little man.”
He reached out and hugged her and then turned over to go to sleep. She had tucked him in this way ever since he was little. She knew he didn’t need it as much as she did, but she appreciated that he still let her do it.
Chapter Eighteen
Alicia had laid down next to Kenny until he had fallen asleep. Once Alicia was sure that he was out, she slid out of bed and went to pack up their bags. If something happened in the night, she wanted to be ready to leave. Getting their items together was a way, even if it was a small one, of controlling an out-of-control situation.
Sadar was sitting at the hotel table, hunched over a journal. Now and then, he would write something down. Most of the time, he stared off at the wall. Alicia had tried to catch a glimpse of the journal earlier, but it was not written in English.
“You have a great kid.” Alicia was startled when Sadar had spoken.
“Yes, he is pretty amazing.”
“Most people wouldn’t have kept him.”
Anger flared through Alicia at the comment, so she took a moment to move the bags at the end of the bed and then sat down next to her son before facing Sadar. “I don’t know what most people would have done. There was no choice for me but to keep him. He wasn’t responsible for what happened.”
“He looks so much like him.”
“He is not him. My son does not deserve the consequences of other men’s actions. He is innocent in all of this. It sounds like you need to work on your conscience.”
“What do you mean? I didn’t do anything.” Sadar closed his journal and stood up from the table. He looked around the small room like he was trying to find somewhere else to go. When he did not find a place, he stayed standing next to the chair.
“You were there. You watched the king take me outside. You knew what was going to happen, and you did nothing.” She tried to keep her voice down. Kenny was sleeping right next to her, and she did not want to wake him. He did not need to hear this conversation, but she needed to have it. She had been traveling all day with this man who had let her get raped, and she didn’t think she could go another hour without bursting from the pain.
“I don’t remember.”
“Bullshit, there is no way you don’t remember what happened to me.”
“You don’t understand. I don’t remember you. There were so many that I stopped seeing the faces.”
The comment hit Alicia as sharp as a physical blow. Anger and humiliation flooded through her. “Then you are just as much of a monster as he is.”
