True Heroes (55 page)

              Caleb swung his mind around to Joy’s face; her smile was wide, but the stretched skin over her tightly-wound muscles gave her a sickly look. “No, I’m a picker, whatever that is.”

              “Oh, I got supervisor. Guess I’ll be ordering you around.”

              “That should be a blast.”

              She laughed in a profoundly shrieking way. “Yeah, it could be.”

              They walked outside. Alice quickly descended upon him while Joy continued to smile, but was left behind as the couple turned to walk down the street. Alice looked around the chair being held at arm’s length that blocked her direct view of the walk in front of her. Caleb smiled at her widely before taking the chair from her hands. “I’ve got it, mister. I don’t want you to strain.”

              “Neither one of us will.” Caleb took it from her, but let go and let a slight exertion of his power carry the light load. “Problem solved.”

              “There was a problem? What problem could you possibly be talking about? My wrist hurts a little, but you didn’t know about that. Until now. Either way, that’s not it. So what could it be? Wait, what do you even consider a problem? A problem seems to be like something you want but don’t have right now, but I don’t know what you like. I guess it’s possible that you want what I want, so…,” her swinging hand roughly clasped his before gently maneuvering their fingers into their own seamless gloves, “is that the problem you solved?”

              Caleb felt less breath leave his mouth than the massive inhale he’d had just moments before. “Yeah, you caught me.”

              “I caught us then. Oh, speaking of, you’re coming trick-or-treating with us tonight aren’t you?”

              “Believe it or not I’ve never been out for Halloween night. I just dressed up around the house.”

              Alice held their hands back and looked him in the eye. “What? Why not? What kind of childhood was that?”

              “Not much of one.” Caleb moved the chair to his hands to avoid the looks of a few kids walking by. “I grew up pretty fast mentally, and candy never really seemed like a good reason to go out and look silly.”

              “Silly? I think you just never had a good person to go out with.”

              “If I go out with you guys, I’ll be with a group, not a person.”

              Alice snuck closer and held her other hand against his forearm. “We could walk like this. They wouldn’t be able to hear us then. That’d be nice, now that you mention it. To talk to each other. I’ve talked with the blue side of you a lot but barely with you at all.”

              “Yeah, it mentioned you two talked a little. What about?”

              “He didn’t tell you?”

              “No, it didn’t, but I figured you would.”

              “Because I have no filter?”

              “Among other reasons, yeah.”

              She smiled wider. “I think you should talk to him.”

              “Me and it don’t talk much.”

              “Well, give it a try. You guys can talk while looking for a costume today.”

              “Do you really want me to come?”

              They paused at a crosswalk “I want you to stay with me too.”

              “Why?”

              “Because you have nowhere else to go or sleep.”

              “I can find a place easily enough.”

              They crossed the street as Alice mumbled quietly and the coffee shop came into sight. Caleb was perturbed to see his container open and empty. He set the chair down heavily and leaned on the rests. “I wanted to ask you something kind of private and personal, and I thought if you stayed with me, it would be easier.”

              “My stuff is all gone.”

              “Will you stay? We could talk and stay up, or sleep. Whatever…I’d just like it if you stayed with me.”

              “So you can ask me a question?”

              “Yeah, you caught me.” Her cheeks inflamed red. “But that’s not the only reason of course because anybody could ask a question anywhere at any time, but if the question has the answer I think it will, then we should be close, like live together close and sleep within ten feet of each other close. Sorry I’m talking a lot I think I’m nervous with you around now, but at least I know what I’m feeling. It’s weird to not know what you’re feeling around someone, but I guess that’s another good reason for me to ask you to stay, so what do you say?”

              Caleb playfully shook his head and smiled. “I caught every other word of that I think. You help me find my stuff, and I’ll stay.”

              “Deal, because I already found it. It’s at my place.”

              “What? How did it get there?”

              “That was one thing me and him talked about was you moving in. He didn’t like the idea, or at least he said he didn’t but his face told me something else. You never told me you knew Daniel.”

              “Who?”

              “The blind man. Homeless guy.”

              “Oh, his name is Daniel?”

              “Obviously, and his friends helped moved your stuff to my apartment.”

              “You trusted them in your apartment?”

              “Sure why not?”

              “No reason I guess.”

              “So?”

              He turned back towards her after waving to May in the coffee window. “Do you mind if I speak to my other half and tell you tonight?”

              “But you are coming tonight then?”

              “If I find a costume, yeah.”

              “If not, I’ll find you a costume.”

              Caleb leveled with her eyes. “You really want me to come don’t you?”

              She smiled and laughed lightly. “Yes. I hope you want to.”

              “I do. I want to see you.”

              “Could you pretend to be as awkward as me then?”

              He threw his head up and laughed into the air. “If your insides feel warm and fluttery, your head feels like it’s full of water, and your heart can’t stop pounding, then we’re feeling the same thing.”

              “Be there a little earlier tonight.”

              He smiled as she turned and started trotting back towards her apartment with her chair bouncing in her flexed arms, again leaving Caleb wondering where his breath and mind had gone. ‘Didn’t you hear me?’

              ‘You were talking?’

              ‘That entire time.’

              ‘I didn’t hear a peep. Speaking of sounds, what did you two talk about?’

              ‘It’s not possible for you to turn a deaf ear to your mind.’

              ‘Apparently it is. Where’s a good place to buy a costume?’

              ‘Do I look like a phone book?’

              ‘Tell me what you talked about.’

              Caleb began walking across the street. ‘We talked about you. She wanted to know everything about me, so naturally I told her about you instead as a distraction.’

              ‘There aren’t too many layers to you so I’m glad you saved her the boredom.’

              ‘There’s that spirit I love to see more often. Why do you think I go through the trouble of killing these peasants? I want your fury.’

              ‘Why? What good does it do you?’

              ‘That’s one of those things I know that you don’t.’

              ‘I will know.’

              ‘I truly hope you find out. Soon.’

              Caleb let everything pass slowly; his feet moved in a normal pace unto normal surfaces that carried him off towards the shallow gorge between states. The purple bridge carried him easily across the murky water full of boats of coal and tug and people as the most numerous of freight. Downtown was alive around the riverside stadiums and the jammed highways; juxtaposing crammed quarters by choice. A roar burst from the stadium while day light fireworks did nothing against the deep horizon. Horns honked proportionately to the growing impatience of everyone involved.

              ‘You realize we have no money right?’

              Caleb patted his pockets. ‘Crap it’s at her place. Let’s get creative then.’

              ‘Or we could be there in a flash.’

              ‘There’s no fun in that is there?’

              ‘Do you really think I care about fun?’

              He dropped a few feet from the bridge and landed softly on a sidewalk. ‘Do you think I care if you care?’

              ‘Yes.’

              ‘That’s who I am, I guess.’

              ‘You poor, tender-hearted thing.’

              The city came quickly in sprawling alleys. ‘This might be harder than I thought.’ He looked over to see what looked like a bat wing jutting from the top of a trashcan. His power carried it to him. ‘Thank God it’s alone in there. One of the wings is missing. Ugh. I guess beggars can’t be choosers.’

              ‘Actually they can be. They’re very good at being such.’

              Caleb threw the wings onto his back, the left one big, full, and black while the right one had the plastic skeleton only. Both wings had a hand-held string mechanism that allowed the wings to spread. ‘Too bad they don’t work. I’ll be ready to fly at all times. Do I have any black clothes?’

              ‘Again you forget how apathetic I truly am.’

              ‘You don’t know?’

              ‘Of course I do you have two black shirts.’

              ‘I knew you cared a little bit.’   

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              On the final beat of daylight’s lively parade, Alice’s door resounded from light taps by Caleb’s knuckles. It flew open before Caleb could completely remove his hand from the door. Alice’s beaming face and eyes scanned the disheveled props in his hand. “Wings, well a wing? That’s it?”

              “The rest is in the boxes. It’ll look fairly good in the end.”

              “You ripped it already though.”

              “I found it like this.”

              “What? Why did you find something in…an alley?” She took it from his hand and sniffed it. “Thank you for cleaning it at least.”

              “I’m not an entirely messy guy.” Caleb scanned the kitchen and living room. “Why are my boxes open?”

              “I might’ve looked through a few of them….”

              “Or every last one of them.”

              “I’m sorry I was curious. Does it really bother you?”

              Caleb gave her a stern look, but didn’t feel the anger behind it. “Did you take anything too valuable?”

              She looked away from him while reaching into her pocket. Her left hand held out a folded notebook page, and Caleb snatched it quickly. ‘There are only a few things this could be.’ He unfolded it roughly. ‘Damn it. The list.’

              “You had to dig for this. Why? Are you that curious?”

              “I’m sorry, I really am. I didn’t think it would be anything important. A lot of it actually was pretty important….”

              He let the paper softly float onto the wobbly table. Agitation snuck into his mood as he turned his back and used his power to close most of the boxes. ‘Find the long-sleeve, black shirt.’ His power obeyed despite Caleb feeling its glee through their mental connection. The shirt lifted from under a pile in one of the boxes and quickly flew to his open hand. Alice was at his side suddenly. ‘She looks like a whipped dog. What am I mad at?’

              ‘She took away your privacy. We should rip an arm off for it.’

              ‘That seems a bit harsh, especially for non-psychopaths.’

              ‘You have to retaliate somehow. I was low-balling.’

              ‘She doesn’t deserve a punishment.’ “It’s okay.”

              She took his hand in both of hers. “I really am sorry. Do you still trust me? Please do I don’t want you to hate me.”

              “I don’t hate you. I shouldn’t even be upset.” His power pulled the list to his hand. “You don’t know how long it’s been since I’ve had to share anything this personal.”

              “You just told everybody the other day about where you came from.”

              “That’s a story; that’s not personal. Anybody who cares enough to ask can hear about that.” He held it up to her. “My biological father left this for me.”

              “It doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.”

              “It’s what it takes for me to fulfill what everybody thought I could be. Too bad I have none of these things.”