After Image

Viola woke to the sound of her alarm and hit the switch on her phone, triggering the snooze. She suddenly remembered yesterday and threw the covers off of her, nearly sending Makoto sprawling. She consoled her frightened cat and grabbed the nearest pieces of clean clothing, jeans and a purple T-shirt with a nouveau Steampunk girl on the front and went to the bathroom to get herself ready for the day. Eli heard the activity and stumbled out of his room with bedhead and sleepy eyes. When he saw Viola emerge from the bathroom still braiding her hair while she headed to the door, he quickly woke up.

“Whoa, wait. Where do you think you are going?” Eli said stumbled to the door and blocked it just before Viola got there. She gave him a rather evil look that was quite frightening. A look that said, “if you don’t get out of my way you are going to be a casualty in my wrath.”

“I would like to go see my brand new car, thank you very much. Get out of the way.” She tried to push past Eli and realized that he was a lot stronger than she was. Most everyone was a lot stronger than she was, which was no end of annoyance for Viola. She hated being short and weak.

“Can we first lay down some ground rules about you and Imaging?” Eli pleaded.

Viola tried to protest and thought really hard about yesterday and the fact that she didn’t remember anything at all about the day after she had Imaged the car into existence. “What happened yesterday?”

Eli sighed and pulled her over to the couch. “Well, you got a little excited and carried away and brought a large object into existence from thin air and passed out.”

Viola grinned sheepishly and gave a nervous giggle. “Sorry about that. I was just bursting with energy and it really wanted to be released.”

“Okay, well let’s look at your new power like any other skill that a person can have. When you are out of shape and run, you get out of breath. You have to train to be able to run a marathon; you don’t just start off at that level. Even when you read books, you can’t do it forever, your brain needs some time to process what you are reading and your eyes need a break from staring intently at something. You have to work up your stamina.”

Viola was frowning again. “Can you stop talking to me like I am a child? I know all of that already, okay? It was a onetime overexcitement thing. I don’t exactly want to be passing out every day now do I?”

“Well you were acting like a child yesterday. It’s not like I know you intimately enough to be able to gauge if you know your limits or not.”

Viola looked Eli straight in the eyes, clearly serious. “There are a few things that I fear in life, but the one thing I fear most of all is losing control of myself. I don’t consume alcohol excessively because I can feel the control I have over myself slipping away and it is the worst feeling in the world to me. I will not, under any circumstances, let this power control me. I will learn everything I possibly can about it. I won’t lose control.”

“Viola, that isn’t a promise that you can make. You lost control yesterday. You think that you are just going to snap your fingers and be able to control this power inside of you? You were playing your song again when you Imaged the car, that already proves you aren’t in control. Promise me that you won’t Image anything unless I am there. Can you do that? Promise me?”

“What did I make you for, to be my conscience?”

“Is that what you need?” Eli asked.

“I have a conscience thank you,” Viola huffed.

“Well not a conscience, just someone to have around to tell you when you are going too far. It’s okay to need people to stop you, you know.”

Viola sighed heavily and conceded. “Alright. I promise not to Image when you aren’t around. I’ll just write if it gets to be too much.”

“Thank you. Now, let’s go see what you pulled into existence outside,” Eli said helping Viola to her feet. She grinned at that and tried not to jump up and down like a little girl, a little afraid Eli would scold her again.

Over the night a blizzard had blown in, covering the world in white. Her new little prize was under that same blanket and she and Eli spent a bit of time clearing off the snow and shoveling pathways to and from the Mini Cooper. She was itching to open the door. When they had finally cleared enough snow and her gleaming orange Mini Cooper was revealed she touched her hand to the handle and tried to open the car. The door didn’t open.

“I haven’t got keys.” She laughed. “I made a car without keys. Oh hang on –“ She looked beside the handle and saw a little depression the size of a fingerprint. “Fingerprint locked. Hope it’s already keyed to me or we might have a bit of a problem.”

“Why wouldn’t it be?” Eli asked from across the car.

“What do you mean?” Viola asked, her pointer finger hovering just above the pad, her other hand holding the glove she had taken off.

“You made it. So of course it will be for you.” Viola nodded at that and pushed her finger to the door and felt it unlock. She pulled the door open and looked inside. Eli was doing the same thing.

“Oh look, no key hole. Push to start and a hand scanner. That is pretty cool, Viola.” Eli said and hopped into the car.

Viola followed him inside and glanced around the car after shutting the door. It had that new car smell she loved so much. She placed her hand on the hand scanner.

“Welcome, Viola Lavallee,” a British female accented voice said, emanating from the car. She saw a dash on the car light up showing a tablet like screen display with icons for GPS, news, weather, music and so on.

“My car talked to me,” she said grinning from ear to ear at Eli.

“Hope you remembered to include winter tires on this Image,” Eli responded.

“I dunno. Do you think the car will? Oh, I wonder if the car has a name.”

“Well if it does, you’ll know it,” Eli replied.

“Let’s see… River, are you equipped with winter tires?” Viola asked.

“Affirmative. The tire track is at one hundred and ten percent efficiency,” the car responded.

“River?” Eli asked. The car did not seem to respond to Eli’s voice.

“Two of my favorite characters from TV have that name,” Viola replied. “I always thought if I had a little girl that I would name her River.”

“So you thought you would name your car it instead?” Eli asked laughing.

“Well, children aren’t on my dossier, all right.” Viola changed the subject and went back to exploring River the Mini Cooper. “Let’s take her for a drive.”

She pushed the start button and the engine came to life. It didn’t sound like it had started at all minus a little hum in the background.

“I don’t think it started,” Eli said.

“I made it electric. Solar powered with an electrical plug backup, in case of you know, snow.” She pointed to the blanket of white on the ground.

“Would you like to engage the auto drive?” River the car asked.

“Auto drive? You really have an amazing imagination, Viola.”

“No thank you, River. I will pilot the car myself today.” Viola replied. She backed out of the parking spot and headed over the unploughed parking lot to the street. If she went to the right she would be on her way into Cranbrook and work, instead she turned left and sped along the street.

“So where are we going?” Eli asked.

“I thought we could visit my favorite place in the whole world before we went in for work. I am sure you will love it!” Viola replied and Eli sat back for the drive. Viola’s favorite place. I wonder what that will look like? They drove for ten minutes before turning off onto a logging road that also had yet to be ploughed. They bumped along for another ten minutes and just before they came to a rickety bridge, Viola pulled over and jumped out of the car. She took a deep breath of air and waited for Eli to join her.

When he got out of the car, he could hear water rushing and could see the top of a river above them that disappeared downwards into a rock walled ravine. Viola gestured for him to walk over to the bridge. When they were centered in the middle, leaning on the rail, Eli took in the majesty of Viola’s favorite place, a gigantic waterfall glazed in ice with the greenest water he had ever seen rushing over the edge and falling into a spray of white. It was breathtaking.

“This is amazing, Viola. How did you ever find it?”

Viola shrugged her shoulders and let her breath form frost in the air as she exhaled. “I did a lot of wandering around back roads taking pictures when my family moved. I found this place almost immediately after they had left. This is Bull River Falls, the most beautiful waterfall I have ever seen. I come here and write a lot, or used to. I haven’t even shown you the best part yet,” Viola said and pulled Eli back down the way they had come and into the trees off the road. When they emerged from the trees a deep ravine was in front of them, massive chucks of rock heaving up in giant square slabs all around them. She took him to the very precipice and removed snow from the giant rock closest to the edge and gestured for him to sit on its moss covered surface. They were staring back at the bridge and underneath you could see the giant rock walls that the water had carved a path through, water splashing down and foaming on the green surface, giant icicles on the edges. The amazing raw power of the water was seen in all its glory from this spot.

“My writing spot,” Viola whispered. He could see her drifting away, lost in other worlds. He felt a buzz of electricity in the air and, realizing what was happening, snapped his fingers in front of Viola’s eyes. She snapped back into reality and the buzzing around them stopped.

“You were building up energy; a lot of energy,” Eli said.

“I know. I can feel it,” Viola said as she flexed her hand. “Too much of it. I need to release some of it.”

“Then write,” Eli said.

Viola looked at him and gestured to their surroundings. “I didn’t exactly bring paper.” She thought for a moment and remembered the air writing in Tytonidae’s Codex. “Of course, that was why I was writing in the air,” she said and started making writing motions in the air. Eli felt the sizzle of energy in the air as she did it. He watched her cathartically release the energy back into the universe with merely the wave of her hand. She did look a little like a magician. She stopped a few moments later and smiled.

“Thanks for snapping me out of it,” she said and got up from her perch and headed back to the car. “At least it’s easy enough to keep under control. It’s something I have been doing since forever after all. Anyway, we better get into town, I am sure Jerome is wondering how I am doing, since you know, the breakdown I had.”

They both piled back into the Mini Cooper and headed towards town. Viola sat in silence until Eli finally spoke.

“You mentioned your family moved to Vancouver. Why did you stay behind?” Eli asked.

“There were a lot of things going on around the time that they all decided to move. My sister was diagnosed with a brain tumor three years ago, she lived on the coast with her husband and two daughters. My mom felt she needed to be there to help take care of her so my parents moved down there. My other sister, Amy, lived with me for a while with her daughter, Grace. When my parents were more established down at the coast, Amy decided to move down with them. My brother, Jason, he moved not long after because he thought it was more practical to live there. Closer to the airport; he and his wife travel all over the place, so it was better for them. I really love my family a lot, but I got attached to this place. I really love my work, not a lot of people can say that, and I don’t think there would be another Tytonidae’s Codex anywhere else in the world willing to take me on. Besides, I didn’t want to leave Jerome here all alone. He’s become family to me. And I love the mountains. I love them probably more than a person should love a piece of earth. I don’t know what I would do if I didn’t have them right outside my door staring at me.”

“Is your sister okay?” Eli asked.

“Haleigh? Yeah, they caught it early enough that one surgery did the trick. No radiation, no chemo, just the surgery. We make a yearly vacation down to Orlando, Florida to celebrate. When the picture finally comes in that I ordered from Disney World I will show you my family.”

“I’m glad, about your sister.”

“Me too. When it first happened, when we found out she had cancer, my immediate reaction was it should have been me,” Viola confessed.

“What? Why?”

“Well, of all my family I always thought that I was the most expendable of them. I don’t have a husband or children. The rest of my family all have someone to care for. It just felt in my mind that it was all happening to the wrong person. I still worry that it might come back.” Viola wiped a tear from the edge of her eye and inhaled her emotions. “Regardless, now that I can Image, if she ever gets cancer again, I will just imagine a cure.” She turned momentarily to look at Eli and back at the road. “In fact, that is a brilliant idea. That is what I could use this for. I could Image cures to every known disease in existence. Imagine that. I could start a company out there that was truly finding cures for things and I would distribute it to the world without having it cost a fortune. I wonder what a world without sickness would be like?”

“Thank you, Vye. For letting me be a part of this world. I’m glad that the power you have is in your hands. For your first thought to be to help the world instead of use your gifts for selfish gain, is quite unusual. I wonder how many other people out there would think as grandly as you do.”

Viola blushed. “I think anyone in my position would do the same. It’s not an extraordinary thought to want to help people, is it?”

“Extraordinary? No. But to want to help on a worldwide scale? That is something only a small portion of people thing about. Most just want to help themselves or their immediate friends and family, beyond that, to look at a faceless mob of people and feel the same way about them that they do about their family? No, a lot of people would just turn away from unfamiliar faces. Why did you never become a doctor? People that want to better the world usually go into a scientific field of some sort.”

“Money and circumstances I guess. Science is wonderful, I read and know a lot about it. Do you really think the world is so callous? I don’t want to live in a world like that.”

“I think the world would be in a lot better shape if more people thought like you did.”

Viola pulled into her regular parking spot just up the block from Tytonidae’s Codex and parked. “Anyway, we’re here. Guess it’s time for work.”

“Is it really possible for you to just go in there and work like nothing has changed?” Eli asked.

Viola looked at Eli. “If there is one thing you should know about me, it’s that I am terrible with change. I mean absolutely the worst person in the world to assimilate change. The only way I can even live with myself when even the smallest thing in my life changes is to pretend that it didn’t for a few days, because if I try to make my brain accept it at the same time that my body feels all queasy like, I become that blubbering mass that I was the night that you showed me that my dream was in my library.”

“Well, guess it’s off to work,” Eli replied and stepped out of the car following Viola down the street and into Tytonidae’s Codex. She is an enigma, he thought, staring at the girl that had pulled him from thin air, the girl that could make anything real; the girl that said she was terrible at change, when her entire being was in constant change. That queasy feeling in your stomach isn`t resistance to change, Viola, its excitement and disbelief that it is happening to you. You actually believe that you are normal and not special, so when new things happen you can`t believe it, you don’t want to believe it, because if you believe it and it vanishes, it will break your heart. What a conundrum you are, Viola Lavallee. A truly powerful being with the idea that you are nothing. Maybe that is the only way for someone to survive power, by constantly feeling they are not good enough for it. You are stronger than you know. You made a human being after all and accepted him. You accepted me.