First Born (21 page)

His tirade ended with, “You should have told me, Seth. You need to leave now!” He looked at her. He meant both of them.

July 28, 2010

Dr. H’s secret side project relates to shifters—she is attempting to trigger the condition in dormant subjects she refers to as Vestiges.

Vestiges are individuals born into shapeshifter families who don’t exhibit the ability to shapeshift. According to her, the phenomenon triggers during adolescence. I continue to refer to this as a phenomenon because scientifically, I cannot differentiate the difference between shifters and humans at the cellular level.

For Subject T and C, she is attempting to suppress their shifting with Inderal because they are having difficulties controlling their condition.

For the Vestiges, she is utilizing anabolic steroid injections in the hopes of activating the dormant condition.

Subject T and C are dear friends. I’m concerned for their well-being. The Vestiges worry me as well. I assume they came to the clinic initially to receive care for PTSD. This doesn’t strike me as an efficacious treatment protocol. At this point, I’m keeping such thoughts to myself in order not to jeopardize my graduate work. Dr. H doesn’t involve me in the work with the Vestiges. She doesn’t even allow me to meet them or review the notes. What I know, I’ve garnered piecemeal from her pedantic lectures while working together.

—Peter

Lily and Seth pulled up to the McDonald’s drive thru. They were both wearing some of Dr. Gladson’s old clothes. He had actually gotten them in decent shape, attending to their wounds and providing them with pain meds, antibiotics, and a first aid kit before sending them on their way. Lily didn’t feel so much like an ejected house guest, but a kid whose mother has packed her things and sent her off to summer camp.

She removed her seatbelt so she could lean in to read the menu. Neither stress, nor death threats, nor crazy homicidal cuckoo birds hindered her voracious appetite. She ordered enough food to feed a football team.

Seth stared at her. “A Big Mac and a Quarter Pounder?”

Lily shrugged then winced from her wound. “What’ll you have kitty—a Filet-O-Fish sandwich?” she asked.

Scowling at her, he placed his order which included a Filet-O-Fish sandwich. He pulled into a parking space while she gorged.

“Don’t you dare belch,” he warned as she dipped the French fries in the shake before eating them.

Once Lily put herself in a food coma, she reclined back in the seat. They both stared out the windshield watching children on the playground. “We used to be innocent,” she said more to herself than Seth.

Seth cleared his throat, “I’m sorry I didn’t mention my issues.”

He did not sound sorry, more like someone inconvenienced because he’d been busted.

“Listen, I’m letting my food digest. Otherwise, we’d have a throw down right now,” Lily said. She looked around the parking lot. “We need to get out of here. Do you have to use the litter box before we get on the road?”

“Quit with the cat jokes!” he said.

“All right. All right. Geez, don’t be such a pussy.”

Seth jerked her across the truck by the neck of her shirt. His eyes changed to a lighter blue color, dark aqua, with deeper clouds of color surrounding his slit pupil. “Lily, if you hadn’t almost died last night, I would be kicking the Shih Tzu out of you.”

“Bring it!”

Lily felt the crucible burn and throb with the change in her mood. Her fingertips and spine tingled in response to his physical threat. They maintained a stare-down for two minutes. Then he let go of the t-shirt. With her good arm, she attempted to fix the stretched-out neckline.

“What am I going to do with you?” Seth asked. He wore Dr. Gladson’s Greenpeace t-shirt that was tight enough to reveal his sinewy torso.

“Do with me? You’re the lying, sneaking, philandering SOB!”

His hair stood on end. She watched him take deep slow breathes to relax his body while distracting himself with the kids on the playground. She was impressed how quickly he decompressed.

“Take me to mom’s—I can hide above her garage,” she suggested.

“Yeah, because that’s not the first place they’ll look. Besides, Emanuel would rat you out in two point five seconds.”

“Let’s think of places we used to go as kids,” Lily said.

“Right. You know what, why don’t you let me do the thinking since you suffered some brain trauma,” he griped.

“Listen, just ’cause you have a psycho bird girlfriend and you’re possessed by the feline version of Barry White, doesn’t mean you need to give me shit!”

“She’s not my girlfriend,” he seethed.

“Fine, but there’s no way you can deny that you’re a cat.”

He sighed, putting his fish sandwich down on the dashboard. “Lily. I think I was adopted.”

Lily groaned. She couldn’t handle any more drama. Boring had been such a nice state of being. “Seth, you were not adopted.”

“I’m serious. My point is I am a cat. Not a dog like Dad. Not a ferocious lion, but a lucky cat.”

“What do you mean by lucky?”
I don’t like the sound of this.

“From what I can tell, I resemble a large Japanese Bobtail. Now they apparently originated in China, but it’s got me wondering if I’m Japanese.”

“Seth, for God’s sake, what are you talking about? I almost died last night. Let’s just focus on the issues at hand and we can explore random adoption accusations later, okay?”

He glared at her.

“Sorry, but sometimes you’re just a bit paranoid. Why the hell would you be adopted?” asked Lily.

“I don’t know.”

“Okay, just explain to me what you are.”

“I’m a maneki neko, a beckoning
Japanese
lucky cat. I’m supposed to bring good fortune. The figurines in Japanese businesses have their left paw up to beckon customers into their stores. I think the Barry White voice comes from an instinctual urge to seduce or lure people to me.”

Suddenly, his cat rescuing, girl chasing and obsessive sushi eating made sense. Lily knew her mouth was hanging open, but she couldn’t seem to make it work.

He looked to her in challenge.

“You’re not Japanese, Seth.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Because everything is made in China. Let’s turn you over. I bet it’s written in red on your butt.”

“You’re not a nice person,” he grumbled.

She sighed. “Am I even a person?”

He shrugged.

“You’re really comforting, Seth.”

“Right back at you.”

Lily watched the little boy on the playground maneuver across the monkey bars. “What’s with your crazy acrobatics?”

“Oh, I have some mad free-running skills in both forms,” he said, beaming.

“Cool,” she smiled back. She wanted to keep him off the adoption crap. In between slurps of chocolate shake, she considered her brother’s feline status. “So, does Koko want to eat you?”

“No,” he stated firmly. “But she sure was fascinated with you and that damn necklace. I’ve never seen her that weirded out.”

“She’s one scary creature.” Lily shuddered. “I guess the whole unrequited love thing will make a bitch crazy. So she has the hots for you and you like someone else?”

Silence.

That’s when the proverbial light bulb went off in her head. “Seth?”

“What?”

“Do you have a thing for Katie?”

His ears flushed crimson. “I’ve been
seeing
her.”

“How much of her have you been seeing?” she asked.

Silence.

Now she was seething. Was she not a trustworthy enough person that he could tell her things? What the hell was wrong with Katie that she lied to her, too? They grew up together, played together, spent summers at camp and at her parent’s cabin.

“My love life is none of your business,” Seth said.

“Katie’s dad is in Sedona this time of year.”

Seth looked startled. “Dude, I haven’t met her parents or anything. We’re just dating, casually.”

“No, I’m not...listen Sylvester, I don’t care if you’re doing my friend and her pet cat, too. I think the couple of knocks on my head did me some good. Katie’s father and stepmother are not in this state. They’re in Arizona. Their cabin in Helen is empty. Now let’s get going. That couple on the motorcycle is staring at us.”

“Katie never mentioned her parents had a cabin,” Seth said, his mouth in a pout.

Lily stared back at him. “It backs to the Chattahochee National Forest—very private.”

He threw the truck into reverse and navigated toward the highway. Helen was about an hour and a half northeast of the city.

“I’m not sure about this,” Seth said. “How do I check on you?”

“It’s called a phone.”

They looked at each other.

“Buddha’s butt!” exclaimed Lily.

“Lily—”

“Watch the road!”

“No reason to freak out.”

“We just left all of my stuff at Larry’s,” she said.

“The phone is in
my
name,” Seth said. “Fuck!”

“Wow. They might think you offed the old lady and then came after me,” she reasoned aloud to herself.

“Thanks,” Seth said, his mouth flat in a grimace.

“Huh. On a positive note, now Frank may blame
you
for what I did to his Fireblade.”

Seth’s eyebrow rose. “What happened to the Fireblade?”

“There’s a possibility it is still crashed by the dumpster behind the old Stewart’s gas station.”

“In Kennesaw?”

Lily fidgeted with Dr. Gladson’s Georgia Bulldogs t-shirt.

“Stop stalling and tell me.”

“I was in one place. Then, suddenly I was pulled apart and hurled into another.”

Seth’s mouth dropped open. “Okay. I get it. You don’t remember from the brain trauma.”

“No. I’m certain I got sucked into thin air in Kennesaw and spit out in the Manor’s backyard in Ansley Park.”

“Like you thought about it and you poofed there?” suggested Seth.

“No poofing. Feels more like being swallowed, digested and hurled out.”

“Nice.”

Since she already sounded like a raving nut, she figured she’d disclose all. “In addition to that and the mind diarrhea, I’ve been...in other people’s dreams.”

“I don’t understand.” Seth said. He regripped the wheel and exhaled a long slow breath.

She knew he felt stressed out of his mind after the night they had. “Dreams. I walk...I talk to people in their dreams,” she said, her voice shaking. “I think that’s how I saw Waipo.”

Seth reached across, found her hand, and squeezed. “Let’s just get you situated at the cabin.”

Lily fought back tears. Her body had been on autopilot due to the shock. Now the reality of it all exhausted her. “Thanks for saving my life, Seth,” she said. “I’m sorry I’ve made a mess of yours.”

“You haven’t made a mess of my life. I take full responsibility for that.”

They traveled in silence for several minutes.

“You sure this won’t be an obvious place?” Seth asked.

“Katie told me once that it’s under her stepmother’s last name, Hughes. Her parents own a townhouse in Buckhead, this cabin, and a place in Sedona. No one really comes out here until July.”

“Okay,” Seth said.

Leaning her head back on the seat, she gazed out at the lush Georgia foliage. The trees reminded her of Waipo’s village. Her head, shoulder, and Koko gashes hurt, but she had taken a painkiller at lunch so things were down to a dull throb. She could almost be at peace if the police and a killer weren’t chasing her. Melancholy set in as she considered her brother’s secret life. Her father’s and Peter’s death had sent her into a narcissistic world. She hadn’t been available to Seth.
What kind of sister am I?

“Sorry that I wasn’t there for you Seth.” She turned to look over at him while palming the crucible. The warm tingling crept up her arm and into her shoulder, soothing its ache.

“What?”

“You didn’t trust me enough to talk to me.”

“That’s not it, Lily,” he said swallowing. She watched him stretch his double-jointed fingers before repositioning them on the wheel.

“What happened, then?”

His shoulders tensed. He turned to her with a sardonic grin, “Oh, so you want to know about the Moore curse, do you?” He raised his eyebrows up and down.

“Go ahead.”

“Where to start—”

“With Dad,” she demanded.

“Remember how Reggie and I used to go back in the field behind the house and practice ball?”

“Yeah. That was a great place, private. No one ever came back there,” Lily said with a smile.

“I don’t even want to know,” he tucked his hair behind an ear. “You’re right. No one ever came back there, but Barney did. Shit. I was standing there holding a joint that Reggie and I got from Ronnie Oaks. They were with me. I hadn’t even lit it.”

Lily’s jaw dropped. “What the hell were you thinking?”

“The damn dog growled and went after us like criminals. Reggie and Ronnie ran all the way back to Ronnie’s house. I had put the joint in my pocket and ran back to the house with the crazy dog nipping my legs. I thought the darn beast had lost it.

“Mr. Liu was there. He didn’t even call the dog off. He just told me to go in the house. Five minutes later, Dad walked in. He made me empty my pockets then proceeded to toss my room. Dad grounded me for a month and threatened to drop me off at inpatient rehab if I ever touched the stuff again. He insinuated that he had ways of knowing. There are more stories like that, Lil. I finally pieced it all together after his death. I wished I had known when he was alive.” He shook his head, his nose wrinkled. “I hadn’t even lit it.”

Lily laughed so hard tears streamed down her face.

“It’s not that funny.”

“It is. Can you see Reggie going home to Mama Green worrying the whole time that Dad’s gonna rat him out to her?”

He smiled. “I don’t think he did. I would have known.” Seth cracked the windows as they continued down the highway. The warm breeze streamed in, blowing her hair. Lily savored the feeling of it lifting the stray strands from her neck and tickling her cheek.

Under normal circumstances, she would have been on her lunch break. Instead, she sat next to her brother, the cat, while pondering her life as a fugitive.