Rewrite Redemption (38 page)

The Indian got to his feet, looked up, and then frowned at the cowboy. “Leave child be,” he said crossly. “Sleep now.” He lay back down and closed his eyes.

Mumbling to himself, the cowboy dropped to the ground, and soon he was snoring once again.

But my chance to kiss her was gone.

For one magic moment, I was in perfect harmony with the universe….

And then some filthy, freakizoid hit the delete button.

Perfect.

The warm buzz faded as Constantine pulled away from me. The images disappeared. A little dizzy, and more than confused, I struggled to change focus. Edgar’s ill-timed interruption was just too reminiscent of yesterday for this to be a dream. I was suddenly hyper-aware of everything around me: the wind, the roughness of the tree bark, and the crickets chirping in the background. Besides, this whole thing had gone on way too long for me to be dreaming it. What had I been thinking? At that moment, I knew.

I was awake.

I called down to Edgar that he was dreaming. I don’t know if he bought it, but he was so hung-over, he could barely stand. He dropped to the ground and passed out again in seconds. I didn’t see Constantine. But I could feel him. He must have shaded again.

I looked down at my horrid outfit and sighed. Since this was real, then he was really seeing me dressed this way—
lovely
. I couldn’t afford to get all self-conscious at that point. Besides, I’d been talking to him for the last hour or so—me, an
awake
me. I’d sailed through the awkward part, because I’d thought it was a dream. It had been easy to be with him. I just had to keep doing it. We needed to get home.

“Are you there?” I whispered softly.

I’m up here. Mindspeak. We need to be more careful.

Sorry, I’m trying to wrap my mind around the shock that this is real and that all the stuff you’ve been telling me—

It’s real, all right. We probably should make a plan for getting home.

Yeah.
Suddenly, I could see how bad this was for him. Here I’d been all wrapped up in my romantic fantasy, and we had the real world to deal with. There were jerks down below who didn’t like me very much. They would like Constantine even less. I’d put him in danger.
I’m sorry I got you into this mess.

It’s not your fault, A.J.

Those guys down there are dangerous. You wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for me.

He morphed in for a second and gave me a soft smile. He shook his head.
There’s so much I still have to tell you,
he said. Then he ran his hand through his hair and looked away for a moment, as if he was thinking of what to say.
It can wait,
he said finally.
We need to figure out how to get back.
He faded out.
I’m going to stay shaded for a while.

Will this tree get us home?
I asked, trying to concentrate on getting home. The change in focus had been pretty abrupt, and I was still reeling from all the feelings.
 

I don’t think so. It’s too old. Cottonwoods don’t live that long. I doubt it will be alive in our time. Where did you land?

I just needed to keep talking. Mindspeaking made it easier.
An aspen grove not too far from here
.

Excellent. That means we don’t need to find the exact tree. Do you know the way?

I concentrated and then pointed.
I followed a stream about half a mile where it merged into the creek. I followed the creek here another mile…maybe a little more.

That should be doable,
he said.

How do we know if a tree will still be alive in our time? 

With an aspen grove, it doesn’t matter. Aspens are special. They appear as separate trees, but they’re really a collective organism, a colony. They’re all intertwined beneath the ground. Each visible tree might live forty or fifty years—a hundred and fifty at best. But the colony…the roots underground can survive for a couple thousand.

That’s cool.

Yeah, aspens are way powerful. They’ll be our ticket home. It looks like he’s asleep again. I think we’re safe for a while longer. I’m going to take a look around.
He morphed in and climbed higher.
I can see the meadow. That’s where we’ll be most vulnerable. We can shade under the trees, but it won’t hold past the tree line.

If we can use any tree in the grove, it’s probably less than a mile across it to the aspen grove itself,
I said, combing my hair with my fingers. I couldn’t believe I was wearing my stupid SpongeBob pajamas.

It looks wider than that,
he said, returning to sit beside me.

I smiled at him, trying hard to seem like I had been before when I’d thought this was a dream.
What do you have, night goggle vision? I can’t see anything past the campsite.

Actually, I sorta do, at least here in the tree. We call it TV for twilight vision. It’s closer to half vision, like twilight is halfway to dark. It’s a little ghostly, but incredibly useful. It’s one of the easiest things to learn. I’ll show you
.
Then, not only will you be able to see better in the dark, you’ll be able to see me when I’m shaded. That way I can keep shaded till we leave.

He disappeared, but I could still feel him there in front of me. His invisible arm moved like a faint whisper in the corner of my awareness. I felt him touch my cheek softly and brush a lock of hair behind my ear.

I shivered.

I have to tap a sequence of acupressure points at your temples and the back of your head,
he said.
It won’t hurt, but it might feel a little strange when I wake up the circuits. You game?

Go for it.

All right, this is going to sound a little weird, but you need to hum.

Perfect. I not only had to look like an idiot, I had to sound like one too.
Hum?

Yeah, humming activates the part of your brain that I need to work with. It releases chemicals…it’s complicated. Just hum something. You don’t have to do it loud.

Okay,
I said. It kinda made sense. I had no idea why, but I’d always hummed when I healed Lex and Ipod. I began to softly hum the theme song from one of our favorite TV shows.

I heard him rub his hands together. Then he began to tap on my temples with two fingers. He moved his hands to the back of my neck and tapped gently on several places on my head in a sequence. He repeated this three times. Then he returned to the spots on my temples once more, rubbing them gently.

Tingling energy swirled through my brain, making me a little dizzy. I just kept humming, feeling like a dork, waiting for him to tell me what to do next.

Feel anything?

I nodded. I didn’t say anything because I was still humming like an idiot.

Okay, you can quit humming now, although, I was enjoying it.

Yeah, right,
I said, feeling my face flush.

Seriously,
he said.
At least you hum in tune.
He was still shaded, so I couldn’t tell by his face if he was silently laughing at me or not.

I really hoped he wasn’t.
Can we just move on to the next step?

No problem,
he said.
Are you familiar with those optical illusions, where you kind of defocus your regular vision and the picture changes?

Yes.
Ipod had a book of them.

Let your eyes relax, as if you were looking at one of those. Imagine you have eyes in the back of your head…way inside. Try and see me with those eyes. Anything?

I kinda see a ghostly outline, but—

Bring me into focus.

I’m not—

Trust me. You can do it. Relax your eyes.

I jerked, spooked by his sudden appearance in front of me. He dropped his hands and laughed, quietly. It was wild. Not only could I see Constantine, I could see his energy. And it wasn’t just him. Every living thing radiated light.

The sky stayed fairly dark, but I could see the terrain around us. The shadows shimmered and the trees blazed as though they were lit up from inside with electricity. They were striking against the darkness of the sky. The grasses and bushes glowed. It was as if we’d been dropped into some surreal, digital landscape. I stood up on the limb to get a better look at this amazing new world.

Suddenly, my stupid outfit just didn’t matter anymore. And somehow, I got the idea that it didn’t matter to him either. It all was just too extraordinary to waste time being self-conscious.
This totally rocks,
I said, grinning at him.

I can’t believe how quickly you catch on to stuff
, he said.
Watch this.
He shook his hands. Sparks shot off his fingertips. He swung his arm up and waves of light whipped out into the night. He looked like a gaming character created with off-the-chain special effects, painting glowing colors in the sky.
Trippy, huh?

“Trippy doesn’t begin to describe it!” I whispered. It was the most incredible thing I’d ever seen. When the wind blew the grass, it flicked light beams out into the darkness. Far away, I could see little darting lights in the stream. They had to be fish.

He leaned against the tree trunk and grinned.
It’s a little like infrared
, he said,
only instead of heat; we’re picking up life force. And it’s not just red; it’s the whole spectrum.
He ran his hand through his hair and sparks shot out.

I waved my own hands and watched waves of color whip out into dark sky. I shook my hair.
Does it make sparks?
I asked.

Serious sparks. It’s been so long since I’ve hung out with another Editor
.
It rocks sharing this with someone, even though we’re literally up a tree.
He laughed again, catching himself before he got too loud.

It was indescribably cool. It was better than a dream.
Will I be able to do this on my own now?

I have a feeling that you can do all kinds of things,
he said.
You picked up
mindspeaking immediately. The TV is fun and all, but it can be really useful as well…as in now you can see me, but they can’t.
He pointed to the men below. Then
he smiled and ran his hand through his hair again, shooting off sparks.

I imagined running my own hands through that hair and just stood there getting baked on the fantasy. It was as if we’d hopped into a wild online game and become our own avatars. We played with it for a while longer, and then he sat back down on the limb.

This has been fun,
he said.
But we better quit screwing around
.
I need to teach you to shade, and then we need make a plan to get out of here.

I nodded and sat down beside him. He ran me through another complicated procedure to open up the circuits in my brain. Shading required more concentration than the twilight vision did, but after a few tries, I got it down. Then he taught me how to balance my energy. Apparently, I’d been out of phase my whole life, and that’s why leaving my tree was so overwhelming. I was psyched—no more static and creepy-crawlies at school. I could be a normal person.

So we’re just going to shade and sneak away?
I asked, shoving my mop of hair over my shoulder.

It’s not that simple. Shading has its limits. It works here in the tree, and it will work on the ground as far as the tree roots go. But any further than that, it won’t hold.

Does it work with any tree?

He nodded.
Anything old enough to have a substantial root system, but the older the better.

What if we go from tree to tree?

It doesn’t work that fast. I landed in this tree, which gave me a connection to it. You have to form a bond with the tree first. It’s not going to happen instantly. At the very least, it takes a minute or two, which would leave us visible some of the time.