Finding Sky (8 page)

‘So, Sky, how was your day?’

Such a regular question from Zed was a surprise: Wolfman turning into puppy-carrying-slippers? I think not. It was kinda hard to trust him when he was acting so
normal
. ‘Fine. I did a little composing at lunchtime.’

‘I saw you at the piano.’

‘You didn’t come in?’

He laughed and held up his hands. ‘I’m being careful. Very, very careful with you. You’re a scary girl.’

‘Me?’

‘Think about it. You rip me up in the parking lot in front of my friends, save my best penalty kick, chuck me out of your apple tree—yeah, you’re terrifying.’

I smiled. ‘I like the sound of that.’ SuperSky.

He grinned. He hadn’t guessed my thoughts, had he?

‘But what scares me the most is that there’s so much riding on our relationship and you don’t even know it.’

I huffed out a sigh. ‘OK, Zed, try and explain it to me again. I’ll listen this time.’

He nodded. ‘I guess you don’t know anything about savants?’

‘I know more about soccer.’

He laughed at that. ‘I’ll just give you a little information now then, just to get us started. Let’s sit here for a moment.’ He boosted me up so I could perch on a fallen tree trunk, putting my eyes on a level with his as he leaned against it. It was the closest we’d been to each other since the raft and I was suddenly very aware of his eyes drifting over my features. It almost felt as if his fingers, not his gaze, were caressing my skin. ‘Sure you want to hear? ’Cause if I tell you, I’ve got to ask you to keep it a secret for the sake of the rest of my family.’

‘Who would I tell?’ I sounded oddly breathless.

‘I dunno. The
National Enquirer
maybe. Oprah. A congressional committee.’ His expression was wry.

‘Er, no, no and definitely not,’ I laughed, counting them off on my fingers.

‘OK then.’ He smiled and brushed a tendril of hair off my brow. There was a quivering intensity to him, as though he was holding himself in check, afraid to let go of the reins. A little nervous, I groped for one of my usual distancing techniques, trying to recast this encounter as one of my comic strip imaginings, but found that I couldn’t. He made me stay right here and now, completely in focus. The colours—his hair, eyes, clothes—weren’t brash, but subtle, sparkling, multi-toned. High definition had switched on in my head.

‘Savants: I’m one. All my family are, but I’ve got a heavy dose being the seventh son. My mom’s a seventh child too.’

‘And that makes it worse?’

I could count every single lash framing his spectacular eyes.

‘Yeah, there’s a multiplier effect. Savants have this gift; it’s like an extra shift in a car, makes us go a little bit faster and further than normal people.’

‘Right. OK.’

He rubbed his hand gently in circles on my knee, calming me. ‘It means we can talk telepathically to each other. With people who don’t have the savant
gene
, they would feel an impression, an impulse, not hear the voice. That’s what I thought would happen when I spoke to you on the soccer pitch. I was pretty surprised when you understood me—blown away, in fact.’

‘Because?’

‘Because it meant that you are a telepath too. And when a soulfinder speaks telepathically to her partner, it’s like all the lights coming on in a building. You lit me up like Vegas.’

‘I see.’ I didn’t want to believe any of this but I remembered hearing his voice telling me to float when I’d fallen out of the raft. But it had to be a coincidence—I wouldn’t allow it to be anything else.

He rested his head against mine. I made a subtle move to retreat but he curled his fingers around my nape, holding me gently to him. ‘No, you don’t. Not yet. There’s more.’

The warmth of his hand seeped through to relax my tense neck muscles. ‘I thought there might be.’

‘When’s your birthday?’

What possible relevance did that have? ‘Um … first of March. Why?’

He shook his head. ‘That’s not right.’

‘It’s the day of my adoption.’

‘Ah, I see. That’s why.’ He flicked his fingers lightly over the curve of my shoulder then let his hand drop to cover mine which I’d clasped on my lap. We stayed like that in silence for a while. I sensed a shadow—a presence in my mind.

‘Yeah, that’s me,’ he said. ‘I’m just checking.’

I shook my head. ‘No, I’m imagining this.’

He gave a long-suffering sigh. ‘I’m just checking my facts. I can’t make a mistake about something like a soulfinder.’ He moved away, the sense of him being with me receding, leaving me lonely. ‘I understand now. You’ve come from a dark place, haven’t you?’

What could I say to that?

‘You don’t know who your biological parents are?’

‘No.’ My nerves returned, coiling horribly inside me like maggots swarming out of a rotten apple. He was finding out too much. Letting people close hurt—this had to stop.

‘So you never knew that you had a gift.’

‘Well, that’s because I don’t. I’m ordinary. No extra shifts in here.’ I tapped my head.

‘Not that you’ve found. But they’re there. You see, Sky, when a savant is born, his or her counterpart also arrives about the same time somewhere on the earth. It could be next door, or maybe thousands of miles away.’ He linked his fingers with mine. ‘You have half our gifts, I the other. Together we make a whole. Together we are much more powerful.’

I rolled my eyes. ‘It sounds sweet, a nice fairy tale, but it can’t possibly be true.’

‘Not sweet. Think about it: the chances of meeting your other half are tiny. Most of us are doomed to knowing there’s something better out there but we can’t discover it. My parents were two of the lucky ones; they have each other thanks to a wise man of my dad’s people with a gift for finding. None of my brothers have yet located their partner and each of them struggles with it. It’s a killer, knowing things could be so much
more
. That’s why I rushed. I was a starving man facing a banquet.’

‘And if they never meet their soulfinder?’

‘It can go many ways—despair, anger, acceptance. It gets worse as the years tick by. It hadn’t really begun to worry me yet. I’m incredibly lucky to escape all that angst.’

I refused to believe this yarn he was spinning and took refuge in flippancy. ‘Seems simple to me. Can’t they run a savant match-making service on Facebook or something? Problem solved.’

He smiled wryly. ‘Like we haven’t thought of that. But it’s not about your birthday exactly, but when you were conceived—that gives quite a lot of variation nine months on. Think how many people in the world were born on or around your birthday. Then factor in the premature babies, the ones overdue. You’d be trawling through thousands. Savants are rare—there’s only one in every ten thousand or so. And not every savant lives in a country like ours with computers at home. Or even speaks the same language.’

‘Yeah, I see that.’ Sort of, if I was going to buy this whole thing, which I didn’t.

He cupped my chin gently in his palm. ‘But against the odds, I’ve discovered you. On a soccer pitch of all places. Sky Bright from Richmond, England.’

This was so strange. ‘What does this all mean?’

‘It means that’s it for us. For life.’

‘Joking?’

He shook his head.

‘But I’m only here for, like, a year.’

‘Just a year?’

‘That’s the plan.’

‘And you do what then? Go back to England?’

I shrugged, assuming a calm I didn’t feel. ‘I don’t know. It depends on Sally and Simon. It’s going to be hard because I’ll have done a year here and the course is completely different back in the UK. I don’t want to start all over again.’

‘Then we’ll find a way for you to stay. Or I’ll follow you to England.’

‘You will?’ I was hyper conscious that his fingers had once more entwined with mine. I’d never imagined what it would be like just to hold hands with a boy. It was nice but a bit scary at the same time.

‘Hell, yeah. This is serious.’ He squeezed my fingers, taking a better grip. ‘So she doesn’t run for the hills.’

‘Meaning?’

He lifted one of my hands and tucked it into his jacket pocket. He kept his fingers still locked around mine as he leant beside me, looking out on the same view.

‘I thought you might be a bit wary of me at first, until you got used to me. The nice me, not the jerk me.’

‘Wary?’

‘Wolfman, remember? You’ve got me down on the dark side; I saw that in your thoughts.’

He knew about Wolfman?
Kill me now, why don’t you?

‘No way, it’s cute.’

I gave a strangled groan of humiliation.

He chuckled. He was enjoying my embarrassment, the rat. ‘I know I can be a bit hard to talk to sometimes—like when we met at the ghost town. I’m going through … ’ he shook his head, ‘it’s tough right now. And sometimes, I just get,
over
whelmed
. Too much weighing on me.’

OK, I wasn’t buying the soulfinder stuff, but I couldn’t ignore that he had an uncanny ability to pluck thoughts from my head. ‘You’re not making this up? You do something, don’t you?’ I was thinking of the way he seemed to know what I was going to say before I said it.

‘I do a lot of things.’ The sun slid behind the horizon, the honeyed light fading to old gold. ‘I’d like to do some things with you, Sky, if you want to. I was wrong to rush in claiming you as my soulfinder—you need to arrive at the same place with me. After all, we’ve the rest of our lives to get this right.’

I swallowed. Tina had warned me about this. What could be more alluring than a boy telling you that you were more or less made for him? That’s what the evil guys always did to lure in those poor saps in the stories, wasn’t it? But right now I couldn’t think of that; all I could think about was Zed, standing there looking so … well … hopeful. ‘What kind of things?’

He gently ran his free hand down my arm, linking fingers on my other side.

‘Go for a ride.’

I smiled shyly. ‘We’ve just been doing that.’

‘Then we’ve ticked the first box already. Next we might go out to the movies in Aspen, or risk the diner in Wrickenridge and have everyone stare at us all evening.’

‘The movies sound nice.’

‘With me?’

I looked down. ‘I might risk it. Once. But I still don’t like you much.’

‘Understood.’ He nodded solemnly but his eyes were smiling.

‘And this soulfinder stuff—I don’t believe it. It leaves no room for choice, like some cosmic arranged marriage.’

He grimaced. ‘We’ll leave that aside for the moment then. One step. Go out with me?’

What should I say? I liked this Zed, the one that brought flowers and kicked easy penalties to stop a newcomer being humiliated, but I hadn’t forgotten the angry, dangerous Wolfman. ‘OK, I’ll give you a chance.’

He lifted my fingers to his mouth, gave them a playful nip, then let go. ‘Then it’s a date.’

 

I spent the next few days agonizing over my decision. Part of me was thrilled that I’d been asked on a date by Zed. I’d been manoeuvred into agreeing, that was true, but I wouldn’t be human if I hadn’t felt flattered. As Zoe had once told me, any female with a pulse would want to be asked out by a Benedict. Still, I didn’t want to spill it even to my closest girlfriends, mainly because I daren’t think it true. I had the crazy notion that saying it out loud might make it disappear like Cinderella’s coach at midnight. I was also worried what Tina would say. Something on the lines of ‘have you lost your mind?’. I feared if I talked to her, she’d persuade me that he was manipulating me, that he’d love me and leave me in the classic pattern of the bad boy. I wanted to believe in the new Zed: that I’d got him wrong, that he could be gentle, that we had common ground and could find more given time. But there was so much to take on board—the savant stuff (was that even real?), the soulfinder thing he was fixated on. My deepest fear was that he was just pretending to like me because he needed me in some way I couldn’t yet fathom.

My mum noticed my distraction but she did not guess the cause.

‘Sky, are you listening to me?’

‘Um … yes?’ I hazarded.

‘You were not.’

‘OK, I wasn’t. What did you say?’

‘I said we should buy you something special for the opening.’ Sally eyed the limited contents of my wardrobe with her usual good taste. ‘You’ve been worrying about it, haven’t you? That’s what’s got into you.’

‘Um …’

‘I agree: you don’t have anything here that will do. We’ll have to get you a new outfit.’

The Arts Centre was marking the occasion of its formal opening with a black tie reception. Everyone in Wrickenridge was expected to turn out—after all, there wasn’t much competition for entertainment until the ski season arrived. And if Sally thought I didn’t have a suitable outfit I was in trouble: Zed was bound to be there.

‘I’d like that but where can we go to shop? I can’t face going all the way into Denver.’

‘Mrs Hoffman—’

I groaned.

‘
Said
there was a very nice boutique in Aspen, just forty-five minutes away on the interstate.’

In the end, Simon came too, saying we’d not spent enough time together as a family since arriving. He treated us to lunch in an Italian place, then made himself scarce while Sally and I hit the boutique.

‘I might just get myself something new as well,’ said Sally, fingering the rows of dresses with longing.

‘Oh, now the hidden agenda is revealed!’ I teased her, pulling out a long red number. ‘This isn’t about me—it’s all about you. Try this on.’

After thirty minutes of indecision, we settled on two dresses with prices that Sally tried to ignore. Aspen catered to the exclusive skiers, the Hollywood A list, so had tags to match.

‘They are investments,’ she said, pulling out her credit card. ‘Yours will do for the ball in the summer.’

‘Prom,’ I corrected her. ‘And I think parents are supposed to cough up for a new dress for that too. It’s tradition.’

‘Then I’ll just have to sell a few more paintings.’ She closed her eyes and signed the bill.

We were giggling like mad conspirators as we got ready that evening.

‘Don’t tell Simon about the shoes,’ Sally warned. ‘He doesn’t understand about the need for coordination.’ She bit her lip. ‘They were horribly expensive, weren’t they?’

‘Where are my girls?’ Simon shouted from downstairs. ‘We’ll be late!’

Sally went first down the stairs, posing for effect in her red sheath dress.

Simon gaped.

‘I look good?’ she asked, a small frown forming.

‘I’ve changed my mind. Let’s stay home.’ He grinned, running his hand down her satin-clad back. ‘I hope Sky is wearing something a little less revealing. I’ll be chasing off the boys if she looks anything like you.’

I presented myself for his inspection. I had chosen a forget-me-not blue strapless dress that stopped short just above my knee. I’d let my hair loose, leaving it curling down my back, held at the front by two jewelled combs.

Simon shook his head. ‘I don’t think I can cope. Back to your rooms, girls.’

We laughed and seized him by the arms, towing him out to the car.

‘But look at you, all dashing in your James Bond outfit!’ I told him, straightening his bow tie. He made it a point of honour to use a real one, then always had to get us to tie it for him. ‘Sally and I will be fighting the girls off with canapés and cocktail sticks.’

‘I look to you both to defend me,’ he said, winking at me in the rear-view mirror.

The Rodenheim Arts Centre had a roof line that echoed the peaks behind, sliced in two by an irregular glass pyramid lit up with a wash of blue light. On a crisp, cold night like this, the shapes made a dramatic contrast to the star scattered sky. It could almost be the prow of a spaceship travelling through the Alpha Quadrant. Through the glass front I could see the party was already in full swing. Mr Keneally was spruced up for the evening, providing light music from a piano in the foyer. Waiting staff slipped through the crowd with trays loaded with nibbles, ranging from elaborate sushi to spicy Mexican dips.

Tina manned the guest welcome. She didn’t even bother with our name badges.

‘Wow—just wow!’ she exclaimed, taking in our little trio. ‘You sure do wash up fine.’

‘Most people do with just the right application of a credit card,’ smiled Sally.

‘And your shoes!’

‘Don’t mention the shoes,’ Sally hissed.

‘What’s that?’ said Simon.

‘Nothing, darling.’

‘Do you need any help?’ I asked hopefully, wondering if I could be spared the painful small talk and sit out here with Tina for the evening.

She flapped me away. ‘Don’t you dare, Sky! Anyway, my shift’s almost over. I’ll come find you.’

Simon had already moved on, in pursuit of a waiter with a tray of drinks. He snagged me a sparkling water and took two glasses of white for Sally and himself.

I lost my parents two minutes later. Sally got cornered by the local arts reporter from Aspen and Simon forgot his dislike of such events in a detailed discussion of Hockney with an earnest young student from Denver. At a loose end, I drifted, exchanging a few words with friends but not settling anywhere.

‘Now there’s a sight worth seeing!’ exclaimed Zoe, licking sauce off her fingers. She nudged me towards the door. ‘The whole Benedict clan has turned up—not a common event.’

So here were the fabled Benedict boys. Now, smartened up for the evening, I saw why people thought they could be trouble: they looked like a team of superheroes, though the jury was still out on whether they were on the side of good or evil. My eyes zeroed in on Zed first, who was looking really great in a black shirt and matching trousers.

Pants
. The correction came through in my mind with the impression of a smile.

I don’t want to know about those.

Don’t you?

How could he make me blush from across the room? In fact, how could he even be talking to me?
Get out of my head.

I can’t cut it out now I’ve started. Has anyone told you that
you could stop traffic in that dress?

Is that good or bad?
I was mad replying to a disembodied voice.

It’s good. Very, very good.

Oblivious to our conversation, Zoe giggled. ‘Oh my, Zed’s looking at you as if he’s going to eat you! Be still my beating heart!’

I angled my shoulder to him, trying to regain some semblance of calm. ‘He’s not.’

‘It’s not me he’s looking at, more’s the pity. Then again, that still leaves Trace, Uriel, Victor, Will, Xavier, and my Yves to enjoy. Aren’t they just—’ She twirled her hand, lost for words.

‘Which is which?’

‘Xavier’s the tallest. Just graduated. He’s really serious about skiing. Got a chance at the Olympic slalom team if he keeps at it. Trace’s a cop in Denver, I think. He’s the cool, capable one who looks like he could eat razor blades without flinching. Uriel’s at college, doing post-grad in forensic science. Will’s the big, broad-shouldered guy, also at college, not sure what course he’s taking. He’s a bit of a joker and has a longer fuse than the rest of them. Hmm, who’s left?’

‘Victor.’

Zoe patted her chest. ‘Oh, Victor. Really mysterious.

Recently left town but no one knows what he’s up to. Rumour has it he lives with Trace in the city, but I’m not so sure. I think he’s a spy or something.’

‘How do you remember who’s who?’

‘Easy: Trace, tough; Uriel, ultra intelligent; Victor … um …
very
mysterious …’

‘Cheat.’

Zoe grinned. ‘Will, wacky; Xav, X-treme sports; Yves, yummy—and I’ll leave you to figure out Zed.’ She hummed the alphabet song. ‘If they used the Benedicts to teach letters, us girls would pay way more attention.’

I laughed. ‘I wonder why they’re all back this weekend?’

‘A family birthday? Mr and Mrs Benedict are really nice—a bit weird at times, but always kind if you drop by the house.’ She took a sip of her drink.

‘I met Mr Benedict at the river.’

‘Great, isn’t he? Only strange thing is why anyone as clever as Mr Benedict would want to spend his life running the ski lift. You should see their bookshelves, crammed full of the kind of things my sister’s reading at college, philosophy and stuff.’

‘Perhaps they’re outdoors kind of people.’

‘Maybe.’ She nudged me. ‘But here’s someone who doesn’t want to be outdoors right now.’

Zed had left his brothers and was heading straight for us. ‘Hi, Zoe, Sky.’ He grinned at us both.

‘Zed.’ Zoe waved at Yves who was watching her across the room. ‘Everyone home?’

‘We had a bit of family business. You both look great.’

Zoe was reading the body language and, being the star that she is, decided to make tracks. She swung her long hair over her shoulder, her bracelets jingling.

‘Thanks, Zed. You don’t look so bad yourself. I’m just gonna go and catch up with Yves. See you.’

She slipped away, leaving us alone in our corner of the crowd. Zed stood in front of me, obscuring my view of the rest of the room so it felt as if it was just him and me.

‘Hi, there,’ he said in a low voice.

‘I thought we’d said hello already.’ Wow, this boy was sending out heat.

‘I said hi to both you and Zoe before. That one was just for you.’

‘Oh.’ I bit my lip to stop my laugh. ‘Hi.’

‘I wasn’t joking when I said you look amazing.’ He reached over and brushed a loose curl back behind my ear. ‘Where did all this come from?’

‘I keep it tied back at school. It can be a nuisance.’

‘I like it like this.’

‘Well, you don’t have to brush the tangles out each night.’

‘I’m more than happy to volunteer.’

‘Oh.’

‘Yeah, oh.’ He laughed and slid his arm around my shoulders. ‘Shall we go mingle?’

‘Do we have to?’

‘Yep. I want you to meet my mom and dad.’

‘Have you told them?’ I didn’t believe all this soulfinder talk, but if he did, I wondered what he’d done about it.

‘No, I want you to be happy with the idea when we let them know. They’ll be unbearable when I break the news.’

Was that the real reason, or was he just playing me, spinning a yarn to hook me in? I didn’t know if I could trust my instincts when it came to him.

‘What about your brothers? Can I meet them?’

‘You can meet Yves as you know him already and the damage is done, but I want you to keep well away from the others.’

‘Why? Wouldn’t they like me?’

‘How can anyone not like you?’ He stroked my arm, sending goosepimples along the bare skin. ‘It’s not that. It’s just that they’ll tell you all the most embarrassing stories about me and you’ll never speak to me again.’

‘I don’t think that’s very likely.’

He looked down at me, his smile tender. ‘No, I don’t think so either.’

We paused by Mr Keneally, joining in the applause as he finished his set on the piano. Mr Keneally acknowledged his audience then frowned when he saw Zed was my escort.

‘Would you like to play, Sky?’ he asked, obviously thinking it a good way to separate us.

‘No thanks, sir. Not tonight.’

Zed increased his grip on my shoulder. ‘Would you like me to get you a drink, sir?’

Mr Keneally did a double take. ‘That’s very kind of you.’ He reassessed our pairing. ‘Glad to see she’s a good influence on you.’

‘Early days yet,’ I murmured.

‘I’ll have a soda—a Coke.’

‘Be right back.’ Zed dropped his hold on me and dipped into the crowd to catch a waiter. It was almost funny the way he was trying to impress on me that he could be polite when he put his mind to it.

Mr Keneally was obviously trying to think of how to broach a difficult subject. He shuffled the music. ‘Settling in OK, Sky?’

‘Yes, thank you.’

‘Everyone looking after you?’

‘Yes, sir.’

‘If you have any … er … problems with anyone, you know there’s a school counsellor, don’t you?’ Music Master leaping to my defence—though I don’t think he was quite ready to take on Wolfman directly.