The Touch (Healer Series) (24 page)

  
“So what do you need us to do?”

  
“Right now, I need everyone to spread the
word. I need everyone to gather their Healer friends, any who want to band with
us, and I need everyone to study up on the first Great War. We need everyone to
get their strength up. We’re going to need as much of it as possible.”

  
“And then?”

  
“Then we meet back here in three days time to
discuss what to do. Everyone think about what may work best. I don’t think
he’ll have backups – he seems to work alone. He can shield himself so we need
to be careful.
Two days time – same place. On the third
day we will put the plan into action.
Stay strong, my
friends.”

  
The group’s voices filled the air as they
discussed amongst themselves. Cars left, one by one, filled with Healers on a
mission for the greater good. AJ felt confident and Max did as well. Perhaps it
might work.

**************************************************

  
Max and AJ returned home, getting back well
before sunset. They pulled up to the B&B first to check on their favorite
occupants.

  
“Matthew? Helen?” AJ called, stepping through
the front door. He looked over into the living room and saw Helen near the
window, binoculars in hand. “What are you doing?”

  
“Watching for that Devin
character.
He hasn’t come around. I’ve been watching all day!”

  
When Helen was given a task to complete, she
really took it seriously.

  
Matthew was sitting on the couch reading the
paper.

  
“She thinks she’s a special agent,” he
laughed from above the top of the sports section. “I wouldn’t be surprised if
she’s got a cookie sheet under her shirt pretending it’s a bullet proof vest.”

  
AJ looked at her with an eyebrow raised.

  
“I don’t!” she said, turning back to her
post, hidden behind the curtain. “I took it off awhile ago. I needed to make
cookies to relax.”

  
Matthew just shook his head.

  
“I’m back now, so you’re safe,” AJ said. “You
were safe all along with Matthew.”

  
“I know. I don’t get much excitement around
here. Let me be!”

  
She went back to watching out the window. AJ
and Max nodded at Matthew and headed into the kitchen.

  
“What’s the plan for tonight? You think Devin
will strike?”

  
“I don’t. I think he’ll keep a low profile,
at least for a couple days, save up his strength. We jolted him pretty good and
he’s probably a little scared about having broken the rules. To imagine doing
it is one thing; to actually do it is another. He probably surprised himself.”

  
AJ laughed at the thought. He’d been feeling
a lot happier, a lot more courageous since the encounter with Devin. He felt
confident, as if a weight was off his shoulders, because he was going to stand
up for the situation. Maybe this was his destiny; to stand up against the
Grims
.

  
“Why don’t you hang out here, rest,” he said
to Max, grabbing
a water
out of the refrigerator. “You
can keep an eye on Helen and Matthew.”

  
“
You going
to see
Addie?”

  
“Yeah.
I think I
need to talk to Gram.”

  
“Be safe, okay?” Max said. “I don’t know
where he is. I can feel him but he can shield himself. He can always be closer
than we think.”

  
“I know. I will.”

  
Max placed a hand on his friend’s shoulder,
squeezing it. It was a mix of excitement, fear, and anxiety over the fight that
was to come. He hoped AJ was ready; really, truly ready.

**************************************************

  
Addie
heard the car pull up. She had gone over to Helen’s to see him that morning. Helen
said he had gone out for the day. He’d left Addie’s without a word that
morning.

  
He had checked on her before leaving. What he
had wanted to do was
settle
down next to her and wrap
his arms around her. He knew better though. He snuck out the front door
quietly, letting her sleep.

  
The sun was setting behind them now, another
day gone.
A peaceful day.
He saw Addie and Rose in the
yard, Gram close by on the porch. Gram nodded when she saw him, calling Rose
into the house to get ready for dinner. AJ exited the car, waving at Rose and
watching as she bounded into the house.

  
He walked over towards Addie, smiling in her
direction. She smiled back. She tossed the ball she’d been throwing with Rose
over to him, and he caught it with one hand.

  
“Nice catch,” she said as he stepped into
better light from underneath the trees.

  
“I used to play.”

  
“You’re full of surprises, stranger,” she
said with a smile. She had the schoolgirl feeling again, the same as when she was
fifteen and liked a boy. Only she knew this time it wouldn’t work.

  
She looked at him closely, wanting to see if
he looked any better than he had last night. A look of concern and confusion
came over her face.

  
“AJ, what happened?”

  
“What do you mean?” he responded, forgetting
what had happened just hours before.

  
“Your face…it’s fine. The cut is gone.”

  
She grabbed his cheeks in her hands, turning
his head side to side as she inspected. She hadn’t been dreaming, had she?

  
“There’s nothing there AJ! You had a big old’
cut last night that I cleaned up! I swear!”

  
He just looked at her, unsure what to say. He
didn’t want to lie. There was simply no explanation she would understand.

  
“AJ, I’m not crazy! Oh my God, am I going
crazy like my mama?”

  
“Addie, you’re not crazy. Calm down!” he
said, reaching out to grab her hand.

  
She pulled back. “Was I that tired? Did I
just imagine it?” She turned away, her heart sinking as she truly believed that
perhaps her mother’s craziness had been genetically passed onto her.

  
She turned back, walking towards him. He
flipped the ball, hoping to distract her or something. She caught it and tossed
it back, making it whiz right past his head. He turned to look at it and she
saw his haircut.

  
Even more, she saw the reason he kept that
part just a little longer.

  
The scar was large and visible to everyone’s
eyes, mortal or not. It was a circular shape, appearing as something like a
burn scar on his skin. One was etched onto every Healer’s skin. It was their mark;
a reminder that they are an integral part of the circle of life, of the
continuing life of the planet.

  
She reached out to touch it, her fingers
moving over it before he could turn his head.

“And
what the hell is that? Why did you cut your hair?”

  
She was in meltdown mode, to say the least.
She was sure of what she saw the day before. At least she thought she had been.
With Isabelle’s funeral and being so tired, she was convincing herself that
maybe she had dreamt up everything. Maybe she was still angry at AJ.

  
He flinched, lightly grabbing her hand and
pulling it away.

  
“It’s just an old scar Addie, no big deal.
Had it since I was a kid.”

  
“What happened? It’s like a perfect circle.
Like someone burned you.”

  
“Maybe they did, I don’t know. Maybe it was
from the car accident. I never asked, just knew it had always been there.”

  
He was eager to change the subject.

  
“I thought we were going to be honest with
each other,” she replied, the tears he had seemed to cause an awful lot of
lately building in her eyes. “I thought you cared.”

  
“I do care!” he said, aching to make the
whole fight-not fight-fight scenarios stop. He just wanted to be friends, no
complications.

  
“I’m protecting you Addie, can’t you see
that? There’s things about my past I can’t talk about. Things I don’t want to
talk about. They’re things you wouldn’t want to know. Things that would change
the way you think about me and look at me.”

  
She saw the pain in his eyes, the tenseness
of his body, and let it drop. She would never understand him, she thought. She
looked up to see Gram in the window signaling dinner. Addie turned and began
walking up the steps in silence, not even looking back. AJ sat on the porch
swing, needing a moment to collect his composure. Not even a minute had passed
before Gram was out the creaky screen door and next to him on the swing.

  
Without a word she just sat, her hand resting
atop his. She understood the pain he was going through, the things he was
feeling. She’d felt them all before and had been eager to give up the powers
she had in exchange for a more normal, more peaceful life.

  
“Is it hard?” he asked, motioning to the
house and yard. She knew he wasn’t asking about material things.

  
“Life is hard AJ, no matter what cards you’re
dealt. And as hard as we all think we have it, there’s always someone with
something worse.”

  
“Was it hard to give up the life, the one
that I have now?” He looked at her and she knew what he was asking.

  
“It is. It really is. There’s guilt which will
last as long as you do. When you see someone sick, someone
dying,
every time asking yourself if you could have helped.
Wondering
if you could have made their transition easier.”

  
“Was love hard?”

  
“The hardest thing I ever did,” she said
before gently adding, “but also the best.”

  
“George isn’t here, though. You had to watch
him die.”

  
“Yes, I did. I had to watch it and know that
if we had just stayed friends, he might have still been alive. I might have
been able to save him. I’d look at everyone as if they might be a Healer,
wondering if someone had touched him and if perhaps they saw that he shouldn’t
be healed because he was so sick. I also know Healers aren’t in every town and
can’t be everywhere. It’s a chance you take. Not every person who should be
healed is. The important part for me was what was left behind by George - a
beautiful daughter, a beautiful granddaughter, and now a great-granddaughter.
You live and carry on and sometimes it seems easier because you have people
there to love you no matter what.”

  
“Do you regret giving this up?” he asked.

  
She paused, assessing his question. It was
fair. She didn’t want to lead him with her own decisions but knew he needed to
understand both sides of possibility if he were to make a choice for himself.

  
“Miss it, yes. Regret it, no. You can’t live
a life with regret no matter what path you choose. That’s the toughest choice –
figuring out which decision will allow you to live with no regrets.”

  
She squeezed his hand and stood up. “Come on
in and eat. Rose misses you and is looking forward to seeing you.”

  
“Addie noticed my gash was gone. I forgot. I
just didn’t think about it before I came over.”

  
“Don’t worry about Addie. She’ll forget.”

  
“She thinks she’s crazy like her mother.”

  
“She’s crazy all right. Not like her mama,
though. Really, it will work out.”

  
AJ stood up next to Helen, taking her hand
into his, ready to walk into the most awkward dinner in the history of dinners.
Which choice would he regret making? It was one of the most daunting decisions
he felt he’d ever have to make.

**************************************************

  
After dinner, AJ helped Gram with the dishes
as Rose and Addie picked up the mess from the games they’d played all
afternoon.

  
Addie was still confused. She couldn’t resist
the urge to be near AJ.

  
“You heading back?” he asked from the front
porch, Addie standing right outside the screen door.