Part 25 (1/2)
”No.”
”Okay, then. Let's declaw me and go for a walk.”
It's a sunny, warm day and everything is green. I love green. It's my favorite color.
”How's your head?” I ask as we walk down the path between our houses toward the woods.
”It's fine.”
”Still hurts, huh?”
”A little,” he admits.
”Okay, let's see if I can still do this.” I close my eyes and stand very still, pulling energy from around me. The trees seem happy to share with me; I tap into the sunlight and I discover I can still access the good stuff from s.p.a.ce. It's not as easy to absorb it with this wall of flesh around me, but soon, I feel it tingling all over. I concentrate the tingle to my fingers. With both hands, I reach up and feel around Rei's face for his temples. I feel him smile under my fingertips.
I purge a little at a time, until he says, ”You did it.”
I open my eyes. ”Is your headache gone?”
”Gone. I'm telling you, Anna. We have to tell my mom you figured this out.”
”I don't want to think about your mom right now,” I start walking again. ”Where shall we go?”
”Where else?” Rei asks. ”The falls.”
The falls is the last place I want to go right now, and I think Rei knows that, but Rei is a face your fears kind of guy, and he's right. I can't start avoiding the falls just because of what happened. I can't let Taylor have that kind of power over me.
”We need to figure out what you're going to tell the district attorney now that Taylor's gone,” Rei points out as we walk down the path. Oddly, I can still see a faint blue glow around the trees, and when Rei moves into the sunlight, I can make out a soft orange hue surrounding him, too.
”How about I just tell him the truth?” I'm only half kidding. If nothing else, they'd just think I was bonkers, and I don't think they put crazy people on the witness stand.
”How about we just lock you up now and throw away the key?”
”Hey, other people astrally project and write books about it and n.o.body locks them up. So did I tell you I let the district attorney see me when he was questioning Taylor?”
Three seconds to impact ... two ... one ...
I love that face Rei makes when his eyes get all big and his mouth gapes like a fish. It's so adorable. ”You what?”
”You heard me.”
”Anna. Why? Why?”
”Look at it this way. It's not like he can tell anyone; they'd think he was crazy. And if I tell him the truth, he just may believe me now that he's seen me. Either way, they've lost their star witness, so they have no choice but to let Seth go.”
”Yeah, well, in theory that should work, but you know nothing is ever simple.”
”Oh, ye of little faith.”
”Anna,” he reaches over and takes my hand. ”We really need to decide this before you do anything ... impulsive.”
”Impulsive?” I squeeze his hand before I let it go. ”You mean, like, stupid.”
”No, I mean impulsive. We have to think about Seth.”
”I am thinking about Seth.”
By the time we reach the ledge, the rush of water is loud in my ears. I step up and close my eyes. I need to return to the falls one sense at a time.
”You okay?” Rei asks as he steps up behind me. His hand gravitates to that place at the back of my neck reserved only for him.
I nod. I'm fine. I just need to do this slowly. When I open my eyes, the first thing I notice is the graffiti. Some of our local juvenile delinquents have decided to pay their condolences to Taylor by spray painting huge red letters on the boulders that border the falls. ”You know...” I begin in exasperation. ”What jerks!” I walk toward the edge to see just how much damage they've done, and Rei is on my heels. When I still have three steps to go before I run out of rock, he hooks his arm around my waist.
”Close enough.”
”Rei, I just want to...”
”Close enough,” he says firmly. He wraps his other arm around my waist, pulls me right up against him and rests his chin on top of my head. ”So what do you think?”
Think? How does he expect me to think with him holding me so close? I feel like I'm caramelizing here.
”Anna?”
”Hmm? Oh. Why are we here again?”
”To see if you can think of anything to tell the district attorney.”
”Oh, right.”
I look around, reliving the events of last week. I give Rei a play-by-play of what happened where, and the closer I get to the part when Taylor falls over the edge, the tighter Rei holds me to him. I think he's afraid some small part of me will slip over the edge, too, now that I'm back here to face what's happened.
My lack of sleep is beginning to catch up with me, so I lean my head back against his shoulder and point to a spot on my right. ”And this is where Seth was standing when Taylor slipped.”
Rei says something so quietly, I can't hear him over the thundering of the falls.
”What?” I twist my head to look up at him and he leans down like he's about to repeat himself, but now that he's moved his head, the sun is right in my eyes so I squeeze them shut to block the light just as something soft brushes against my lips.
Um ... not that I have anything to compare it to, but that felt suspiciously like a kiss.
I let the sensation linger for a moment before I open my eyes. He's staring at me with an intensity that turns my knees to jelly.
”Did you just ... was that...” I stumble over this simple question because what if I'm wrong? What if he was just brus.h.i.+ng away a mosquito or something? How stupid would I feel if I asked if he kissed me and the answer was no?
”I'm sorry,” he's quick to apologize. ”I just ... I didn't mean...”