Heaven Sent (3 page)

When I got to shore, Jack Parson was nowhere to be found—but Maudrina was. She was staring at me with wild eyes. Curtis rushed to my side.

“Good God. Are you all right?”

“I’m fine. I didn’t know the water was going to be so rough, but I’m fine.”

“That was a dumb thing to do. You could have drowned in there.”

“No. Not really.” I looked at Maudrina. She was still staring at me.

“The wave machine must have gone wacko,” Curtis said, handing me a dry towel. “Splashtopia is about to get hit with a big lawsuit. Trust me on that.”

I again glanced at Maudrina.

“I think we should go,” she said in a clipped tone.

“Yeah, I agree,” said Curtis. “I’ll get our things. Maybe we can beat the crush of cars getting out of the parking lot.” He dashed off to retrieve our gear.

Maudrina and I were alone. She continued to stare. I couldn’t read what was stirring up behind her eyes, but I didn’t like the look of it.

“That was weird,” I said matter-of-factly. I looked away.

“Very.” Her tone was low, guarded. “What do you suppose happened?”

I looked back, holding her gaze for a long moment before responding. “I don’t know. I… guess the wave machine broke. Right?”

She didn’t respond. Instead, she continued to stare.

*

All the way home, Curtis chattered a mile a minute about the happenings at Splashtopia.

“Best end of school year event ever.
Ever!
Ladies, we are part of history. We’ll be talking about this one all summer.”

I sat silently in the back seat staring out the window. Yes, I had planned for my afternoon at Splashtopia to end early. But I hadn’t anticipated anything like this.

“And, Megan, wow. You were in it. You actually went in,” Curtis continued.

“It was dumb of me,” I said. “That boy got me so mad. I was just trying to get away from him.”

“It seems suspicious.” Maudrina was finally breaking her silence.

“You mean like someone turned up the wave machine on purpose?” asked Curtis.

“Something like that.”

“You’ve got a wild imagination there, Zim,” he responded with a chuckle.

“I don’t know. What do you think, Megan?”

I wasn’t sure before that moment, but now I was. Maudrina believed what I believed--that I had caused the near calamity.

I suddenly felt tired, as if sacks of cement were hanging from my shoulders, weighing me down. “What do you want me to say, Maudrina?” there was a hint of unintended annoyance in my voice.

After a moment’s silence: “Nothing,” she replied in a flat tone.

“Did I miss something?’ asked Curtis. “Is something going on with you two?”

“Of course not,” I replied quickly. His eyes were on the road, and not on me squirming in my seat.

“Now whose imagination is working overtime?” added Maudrina with a laugh.

“All right, all right, you got me,” he said, backing away from his statement.

He was right, of course. There
was
something going on between us. I had told Maudrina everything about my trip to hell to rescue Guy. During my trip, a she-wolf had attacked me. When it looked as though she was going to retrieve
The Book of Calls
that I had brought along to trade for Guy’s life, a lightning bolt shot from my hand, knocking the book from her lips. Later, the angel, Roxanne, had told me that during my battle with Satan a few months ago, some of his power had rubbed off on me.
The abilities will reveal themselves to you in time,
she had said.

Now I was seated in the backseat of Curtis’s car wondering about the extent of my new abilities and wondering if what had happened today were, in fact, the abilities revealing themselves. I was sure Maudrina, seated on the front seat next to Curtis, was wondering the same thing.

I was grateful that Curtis dropped me off at home first. He wanted some alone time with Maudrina that he would get once I was out of the car.
Perfect
, I thought. The last thing I wanted right now was to be confronted by Maudrina.
What would I say?

“You sure you’re okay?” Curtis asked as I climbed from the car. “That could have turned out really bad.”

“I know. But it didn’t. I’m good,” I said.

As I eased shut the door, I turned to Maudrina, who was rolling her window down, letting in the heat. “See you at school Monday morning,” I said, breaking eye contact and heading up the walk toward the house.

“Let’s talk later,” she called as I moved away. It was meant to come off as quick and matter-of-fact for Curtis’s sake. I knew better.

“Okay,” I hollered back without turning. What happened at Splashtopia was the last thing I wanted to talk about. What had happened at Splashtopia needed to stay at Splashtopia.

*

“Megan, is that you?” called Suze from her office in the breakfast nook as I entered the house. What a relief to feel the blessed air conditioning washing over me. I’d just taken the short walk from Curtis’s car to my front door and already my top was beginning to cling to my back.

“Yes, I’m home early,” I called back, realizing I was going to have to keep up the cheery exterior a little while longer.

“Come see what we found,” she called back cheerily. The
we
she was referring to was also the reason for all the cheer in her voice—her new
friend
, Tony Christopher.

When I arrived in the breakfast nook, I found my mom and Tony fawning over an old, tarnished silver goblet as if it were the crystal skull.

“Look at this. Pure silver,” she said, proudly holding the cruddy goblet out for me to see.

“We got it for a steal,” added Tony. They were childlike co-conspirators, giddy over the treasure they’d discovered.

“A silver goblet,” I said. My voice was flat.

“Six silver goblets,” Tony corrected. “You should have seen your mother haggling over them. I don’t ever want to haggle with this woman. That’s a losing proposition.” He shot her the sweetest smile, and tussled his unruly dark brown hair. Tony was the rugged, outdoor type who wore the beginnings of a five o’clock shadow as if he were a fashion model. Suze smiled back at Tony. Her smile was radiant, like she was being illuminated from within.

“
Six
silver goblets,” I said. “Umm… wow.”

“Don’t say it like that,” chided Suze. “I know you’re thinking, ‘just what we need, six silver goblets.’”

“No. That’s what I thought about the sixteen sets of vintage, canary yellow Melmac dishes you brought home last month. And I was wrong about those, wasn’t I?” A teasing grin appeared on my lips.

“Very funny,” Suze replied, screwing up her face at me.

“What are Melmac dishes?” asked Tony.

“Plastic,” I said with a double shot of sarcasm. “Cheap, plastic dishes that are now in a box in the garage waiting patiently to become antiques. How much did they set you back, Mom?”

She turned to Tony. “Ignore Miss Party Pooper over there.
Melmac
is an American classic, and those dishes are going to be worth a fortune one day.” She stuck her tongue out at me. “You’ll see. And when I’m rich, I’m not sharing any of my fortune with you.”

Since Tony had come into her life, the playfulness that once existed between us had returned. After months of battling over boyfriends and curfews and lies, we were practically best friends again.

She’d met Tony in the Whole Foods market in Scottsdale, of all places. He was at the market grabbing a bottle of wheat grass juice when they met. If you’d asked me to choose the person my mother would most likely
not
be attracted to, it would be Tony. Okay sure, he had a nice butt, but that butt was the only match on my mother’s boyfriend priority list. By the way, that list was something I didn’t want or need to know about… and yet, I did.

Tony is single and into fitness. Suze is a mother who hates working out more than I do. And yet, right from the beginning, they seemed to click.

“Guess I’ll just have to make do without any of your Melmac fortune,” I replied in a teasing sing-song.

“What are you doing home, anyway? I thought you were going to Splashtopia with your friends?” she asked, changing the subject.

And just like that, the bad feelings of the day came streaming back.

“It was too hot out there,” I replied.

I didn’t dare tell her about the incident in the wave pool. If I told her the wave machine malfunctioned, she’d forbid me to go to Splashtopia for the rest of my life. Telling her what I believed really had happened was totally out of the question. My mother hadn’t the faintest idea of my paranormal life, and I planned on keeping it that way.

A short time later, I was off to take a cool shower. Once I was alone in the bathroom, I sat on the edge of the tub replaying the incident at the wave pool over in my mind as if it was a stop motion projector. I went through it moment-by-moment trying to recall any odd feelings I might have had that could have caused me to go off.

Guy was ai’ight. But he wasn’t all that.

Those were the words that touched off the anger storm.

He
was
all that!

I recalled getting angry and practically shrieking at Jack as images of Guy’s sweet face flooded in. I didn’t remember feeling particularly powerful at the time, just angry. As I got angrier, somebody screamed:
The pool!

That’s it,
I thought
. The ability is triggered by my anger.

I got undressed and set the shower to lukewarm before climbing into the tub. There was one more thing I remembered as the soothing shower cascaded over me. When I was floating under the water of the wave pool, a delicious feeling had flowed into my belly like a rich melted chocolate.
I enjoyed it,
I thought. Everyone around me was freaking out, but not me.
I enjoyed the mayhem,
I thought. I’ve never been a vindictive person, never one to enjoy the misfortune of others, but there was no denying the pleasure I’d derived from the pandemonium at the wave pool. That troubled me more than anything.

*

“Surprise!”

We were standing in Erin’s living room, me and the rest of my nine-year-old friends from the third grade including Matt, who was off to the side swiping M&M’s from the candy dish on the refreshment table when no one was looking, and popping them into his mouth. When he spotted me looking at him, he donned a devilish grin and pressed a shushing finger to his lips.

Mrs. Chambers had just ushered Erin in. They’d spent the morning at the zoo, one of Erin’s favorite places back then. But the zoo had been just an excuse to get her out of the house so her father and older brother, Bill, could get things ready for her tenth birthday party.

I remembered the party well, even the oaky smell of her father’s aftershave as he knelt next to me. He had pulled me up front with him and Bill so Erin would see me as soon as she came in—her best friend.

But this time it was different.

At first I didn’t know why, but then I saw it. Everyone looked exactly as they did back in 2006, everyone, that is, except for me, Matt, and Erin. We three were our nearly sixteen-year-old selves, Erin wearing the same black sweater over white top she’d worn the day of Matt’s funeral.

“I knew it! I knew it! I knew it!” she cried, a little girl’s voice coming out of a big girl’s body. She danced in a circle like she’d done all those years ago, and we all laughed and clapped.

“Thank you, Mommy,” she said, wrapping her arms around her mother’s shoulders.

“Happy Birthday, Baby,” Mrs. Chambers replied, planting kisses on both Erin’s cheeks.

“Yeah, Happy Birthday, toad stool,” Bill called.

“Thank you, pig’s-butt breath,” she called back. They were always teasing each other.

“Erin!” Mrs. Chambers said in a chastising tone. “Watch your mouth. Just because it’s your birthday, don’t think I won’t give you a time-out.”

“Sorry,” she said with a big unapologetic grin.

Her father nudged me forward. “Go on,” he whispered

“Happy Birthday, Erin,” I said. My voice was normal. I held out the brightly wrapped package in my hand. I didn’t remember what was in the box, but I remembered I’d wrapped it myself, insisting my mother not help me.

Erin looked at me, as if seeing me for the first time, and all the joy drained from her face like salt through an egg-timer.

“Who invited you?” she asked, ignoring the gift, her voice turning little girl mean.

“Umm. I don’t know.”

Erin turned to her mother. “Mommy, she doesn’t belong here. She killed Matt.”

“No, I didn’t,” I protested. “Look. He’s right over there,” I added, pointing.

Matt was no longer standing by the table.

“Where?” she demanded, her head whipping from side to side, as her eyes scanned the room. “I don’t see him.”

“He, umm, must have gone to the bathroom.”

“Megan Barnett, you know good and well Matt’s not in the bathroom. Matt is in hell.”

There were snickers from a few of the boys present.

“That’s… that’s ridiculous,” I said, my voice rising into an upper register I only used when I was frightened. “And that’s a mean thing to say,” I added, trying to get indignant.

“But it’s true.” She took a single step toward me. “Matt is in hell. You know that;
you
sent him there,” she added pointing an accusing finger at me.

“Matt is in hell,” Mrs. Chambers said in a flat monotone. Her eyes had taken on a blank Stepford-like quality.

“Matt is in hell,” her father, standing next to me, repeated in the same monotone.

Each of the guests took up the refrain.

Matt is in hell… Matt is in hell... Matt is in hell...

The guests began closing in around me.

Matt is in hell… Matt is in hell... Matt is in hell...

“No, he isn’t,” I said, raising my voice. “He’s in the bathroom.”

The knot of party goers tightened around me. There was no escaping their dead eyes and the continuous refrain.

Matt is in hell.

Erin pushed her way through the crowd, getting nose-to-nose with me.

“And you’re going to join him,” she said. But she was no longer speaking in the little girl’s voices. It was the voice of a demon. Her breath smelled of sulfur. “They’re coming for you, Megan Barnett. The demons in hell are coming for you. You’ll be there with him soon enough.”