When they reach the foot of the stairs, Rei puts both hands on Taylor’s shoulders and leans down to look her in the eyes. “I need to finish making dinner. If you’re bored…”
“Who, me? I never get tired of watching men work.” She winks at him and takes a seat at the counter beside Saya, who is whizzing through a math worksheet.
Rei glances at the clock and gets a package wrapped in white paper out of the freezer.
“What are you making?”
“Smoked fish.”
Smoked
fish? The Ellis family never eats smoked fish. They always poach it or broil it or sometimes they don’t even bother to cook it and Yumi makes sushi. And Yumi always brings home fresh fish from the store, so why is Rei tapping into their emergency stash of frozen fish? That’s there in case of a blizzard or other natural disaster.
Rei unwraps the fish and sticks it in the microwave to defrost.
“Saya, why don’t you go watch the Disney Channel in Mom and Dad’s room.”
Saya is dumbstruck. “But I’m not done with my homework.”
“That’s okay, I’ll help you with it later,” Rei promises.
“But won’t Mommy be mad?” she asks.
“Not at you,” Rei replies. This is good enough for Saya. She skips off down the hall, and I hear the door to her parents’ room click shut just before the microwave dings.
Rei opens the cupboard door and roots around until he finds an old saucepan we use occasionally to melt suet for the birds. “Be right back,” he tells Taylor. “Stay put.”
I materialize in front of his bedroom door and draw a question mark in the air with my finger.
“Shhh,” he warns me. Like I’m making any noise. I follow him into his bedroom where he retrieves the sage bundle from his bottom desk drawer.
“What is that?” Taylor asks when Rei returns with the peculiar bundle.
“This is what we use to smoke the fish.” He reaches up onto the top shelf and pulls down an old metal tea canister where Yumi keeps the birthday candles and packs of matches. It takes him three strikes to light the match, but when it ignites, there’s a subtle shift of energy in the room.
“
That’s
how you smoke fish?” Taylor asks skeptically.
“There are a lot of ways to smoke a fish,” Rei replies without looking at her. I’m not sure if he’s trying to be mysterious about this or if he’s concentrating on not burning the house down. He holds the match to the end of the tied bundle, then blows the flame out gently. The smoke wastes no time filling the room.
Wow! It really does smell like marijuana. Not that I’ve ever smoked, but I’ve been to dozens of concerts, astrally of course.
“What is that stuff? Oh, my God! It smells like a doobie!” Taylor looks pleased with Rei’s choice of ingredients and she leans in to inhale the smoke. I wait for the sage smoke to work its magic and for Taylor to come tumbling out of me so I can move back in and get on with my life. “Rei, you rock! I’ve eaten magic brownies before, but smoked fish? Brilliant! And all this time I thought you were so straight.” She giggles in a way that clues me in that this is not working exactly as we had planned.
Rei coughs and waves the smoldering bundle, surrounding her in a cloud of heavy smoke, and she sucks in the smoke and holds her breath. “Although,” she exhales after a long while and laughs, “isn’t the fish the one who’s supposed to be smoking this?”
She amuses herself much more than she amuses me, but while she’s busy with her fit of giggles, I try to work myself back into her. I feel my way around her stealthily, because if she knows I’m here, she might know Rei is on to her, and that would be bad. Rei tries stamping the sage bundle out in the saucepan, but the smoke is persistent.
The television is suddenly louder and I hear little feet running down the hall. “Rei?” Saya sounds scared. “Something’s on fire!” I try to picture how this would look to a seven-year-old. Taylor is laughing so hard she’s crying; Rei is at the sink, rendering our eight-dollar miracle into a bundle of wet twigs; smoke pirouettes gracefully around the room, and everything stinks.
“Uh-oh,” Saya says. “Mommy’s going to be mad at you!”
CHAPTER 16
Saya is a smart little kid, but Rei is smarter. As soon as he sends a rather giddy Taylor on her way home, he opens all the windows to air out the house, gives Saya a can of orange scented nonaerosol air freshener and permission to spray as much as she wants, then he bribes her with the emergency stash of sugary Bazooka bubble gum I keep in his room to guard this secret and go watch television again.
“And don’t get it stuck in your hair!” Rei calls after her.
As soon as Saya is settled, Rei heads upstairs to talk to Seth.
I am not actually in Rei’s weight room. I am hovering just outside the window, so technically this is not breaking the rules.
Seth is lying on the floor with his feet up on the futon, listening to Rei’s iPod when Rei comes through the door. Seth pulls the earbuds out and breaks into a wide grin. “Hey!” His exuberance reminds me of a puppy.
“Shhh! Anna’s gone, but Saya’s downstairs watching television. I don’t want her to know you’re here, either.”
“What’d the cops say?”
“They want to know where you are. Why did you take off? You did nothing wrong, but now that you left, they think you had something to do with it.”
Seth sits up and leans his back against the futon. “It wouldn’t have mattered. Just the way everything happened, I’m as good as screwed.”
Seth’s version of the story is exactly the same as mine, which is
nothing
like Taylor’s version. “And when I tried to pull her back up over the ledge, this is what she did to me.”
He must have wrapped his wrist with gauze from Rei’s medicine cabinet shortly after he got here, but he unwraps it now, and Rei winces. “Seth, that’s
really
infected! You need a doctor to check that out!”
“No way.”
Even from my spot outside the window, I can see green pus leaking out of the long ragged gashes.
“Wait here.” Rei returns with his hands full of stuff—hydrogen peroxide, antibiotic ointment, cotton balls, more gauze, and tape.
“Son of a
bitch
that burns!” Seth complains as the peroxide fizzles against his wrist.
Once Seth’s wrist is wrapped in fresh gauze and he’s eaten a sandwich and some fruit, Rei tries to talk some sense into him.
“Just tell the police what really happened.”
Seth shakes his head. “They won’t believe me. I’m that psycho kid who punched a glass door, remember? I bet Taylor’s friends already told the cops she was supposed to meet me.”
“Well, what are you going to do? If my parents find you, they’ll make you go to the police.”
“Do your parents know yet?”
“They didn’t as of this morning, but you know how people talk at the store.”
Yes, we all know how gossip spreads around this little town.
“I left my car at the border so they’d think I crossed over into Canada. I figured if I walked back here and you let me borrow your bike, I could go see what Matt thinks I should do.”
I’m trying to remember exactly where Seth’s brother, Matt, goes to college. Somewhere in upstate New York. That’s a long bike ride!
“Seth, why run if you’re not guilty?”
“Because I can’t prove I’m
not
guilty!” Seth slams his fist against the futon cushion. “I have no witnesses, and when I grabbed her, her shirt ripped open. Like,
wide
open. That doesn’t look good. And you know what the really sad part of this is?”
Rei shakes his head. I’m sure it’s all sad as far as he’s concerned.
“If I didn’t try to catch her, if I just stood there and let her fall, I wouldn’t have this problem. Her shirt wouldn’t have ripped and she wouldn’t have trashed my wrist.” Seth leans back and stares at the ceiling. “This is what I get for trying to be a nice guy.”
“What are you going to do, run for your entire life?”
Seth shrugs. “It’s better than going to jail. Maybe I’ll change my name. Maybe I’ll end up in Canada. Who knows?”
“Somehow I think that’s easier said than done, Seth. You need money to get a new identity. You need to know someone to get forged documents.” Rei stands up. “I’m going to check on Saya and finish making dinner. Think about it. I’ll be back in an hour or so.”
But it’s Rei who is deep in thought as he seasons the fish and puts a pot of water on the stove for rice. While he waits for it to boil, he goes out to the garage and pokes around until he locates a pup tent and some seldom used camping supplies from his long ago Boy Scout days. He pulls the tent down and stares at it for a minute, then sticks it back on the shelf and goes inside.
* * *
The house smells like an orange grove burned to the ground, but Yumi seems too thrilled that dinner is made to comment. While Rei and his family eat, I go upstairs and start searching online for more options now that our sage idea has literally gone up in smoke. It doesn’t take long before the door opens quietly and Rei comes in. I pull enough energy to surge into view and wave to him.
“Hi,” he whispers. “Seth is in the next room, you know.”
I know.
“He won’t turn himself in,” Rei frets.
Maybe you should just call the police.
“No!” he snaps. “This has to be his decision! I just have to figure out what to say to make him realize it’s the right thing to do.”
I am obviously walking on thin ice here, but I have to say it anyway.
Be careful. If you get caught helping him, you’ll get in trouble, too.
I don’t dare type in what
kind
of trouble, because who wants to see the words
accessory to murder
all lit up on the computer screen?
“I’m not worried about that,” he scowls at me. “I’m worried about Seth.”
There is nothing I can say that will console Rei right now. His aura clings to him in a thin, dense band, shades of yellow that have gone muddy brown. “I’m going to talk to him some more. Can you hang out downstairs and keep an eye on my mom? If she’s looking for me, come up and do something to get my attention. Just don’t let Seth see you and don’t let my mom see Seth.”
Okay.
* * *
Robert and Saya come up at eight thirty to get Saya settled in bed, but they’re singing so loud on their way up the stairs, Rei comes out before I have to go in. Yumi and Robert head off to bed shortly after, giving Seth the freedom to finally use the bathroom. As soon as Seth is safely back in the weight room, Rei brings him more food and water. He is in there for at least another hour, talking so quietly even I can’t hear them. It’s eleven o’clock before he opens the door.
“Get some sleep,” he whispers to Seth. “We’ll talk more in the morning.”
He returns from brushing his teeth to find my message on his computer screen.
Any progress?
I materialize beside his desk as he’s reading it.
Rei shakes his head. He rolls into bed and covers his eyes with his hands. “I need some sleep, too, Anna,” he whispers. “I can’t even see straight.”
By the blue glare of the computer screen, I watch Rei slowly relax for the first time today. From the first phone call with Taylor this morning to Seth’s surprise appearance, I realize Rei has not had one peaceful moment all day. No wonder he’s exhausted. I focus on the vast sources of energy far beyond us and absorb what I can, until his hands slip away from his face and land softly on the pillow beside his head.
I reach out and touch my fingertip to his, gently, to see if the vibration of my touch wakes him. When he doesn’t move at all, I trace my finger down the length of his, releasing a trickle of energy into him. I try to ignore how soft his skin feels to me since every little sensation is magnified when I’m out here, because I’m doing this for Rei, not for my own selfish pleasure. I trace all his fingers, one by one, replacing his tired colors with indigo, then I inch my way up his arm until I reach his shoulder, skim my fingers over his collarbone, his Adam’s apple, up to the fine stubble on his chin. It’s not his head I’m concerned about today. I take my time, releasing a steady stream of energy until I reach the center of his chest.
Yumi can recite volumes of information about Reiki and how it works with a person’s chakras, but I can’t keep all that straight. All I know right now is this is where Rei needs me most. I swirl my hand around until I’ve created a tiny vortex of energy around Rei, and as he gradually absorbs it, I’m relieved to see the indigo unfurl around him.
I can’t manage to lift the comforter over him because it’s too heavy, but I feel better knowing my best friend sleeps with a clear aura. I know I had promised not to go into Rei’s weight room, but I want to make sure Seth is sleeping, too.
In the darkness of the weight room, I locate Seth by his erratic vibration and the wet dog smell that clings to him. He’s snoring, not so loud that Yumi or Robert could hear him from the floor below, but loud enough that I know he’s asleep. He appears to be half on, half off the futon, which makes sense since he’s so tall.
There’s nothing else for me to do here tonight, and I don’t have enough juice to go check on Taylor. I need a mini vacation … somewhere sunny.
Some people read the Bible; some read the Koran. I read
The Little Prince
by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. It’s a lot less violent, plus there’s a talking fennec, which is an adorable desert fox with ginormous ears that lives in the Sahara where it happens to be very sunny. In the story, it’s the fennec who shares his wise secret with the Little Prince in exchange for being tamed.
I’ve been to the Sahara before. I’ve played with a family of fennecs and I know their vibrations well enough to find them now. Fennecs mate for life—another reason to love them.
Rei tries hard to tame Seth and me. I know he feels responsible for us. I know we disappoint him. I know we make his life a living hell sometimes, but I know Rei and I will always be friends. I just don’t know if Seth and I are ready to be tamed.
* * *
I cruise back into Rei’s room early the next morning, pumped up on Sahara sunshine and baby fennec bliss, only to find Rei pacing in front of the open door of his weight room.