Versus

His voice was deep. His hair, almost completely gray. Still a hint of brown could be seen in some strands. He was a tall man, very strong and refined. He dressed as he belonged to old money. Like he might secretly have “Lord” or “Duke” to prefix his name. He was not a stuffy Dean of a college. He wore a tie from time to time, but like a gentleman ready for a night out to eat caviar and listen to jazz.

He seemed well suited for the outside world. The girls wondered if that was his plan all along. To fit in. He did that well.

“Kelly, would you close the blind there.” He pointed at a window. He hoped to prevent the sun from settling on Emma.

“Emma, do you think you can look now, we shut some of the light out.”

Emma slowly lowered her hands.

As she grimaced again, she said, “That helps.”

“I just thought you might feel more comfortable seeing us as I explained.” He gave her a similar smile as before, but this time she could see it.

“Everyone in this room, well”…he paused, looking at the other girls…“we’ve known about our gifts since we were very little. You just seem to be realizing yours and I don’t fully understand your situation.” He had an excited look on his face.

“What gifts?” She asked almost mockingly.

“We can stop evil.” He said it as if he just explained that she had a peanut allergy. Then he again waited to see what would happen.

“We can stop evil?” She said it as a question but then began replaying the things she noticed lately. The man trying to take little Shelly, and just now, the guy who hit her but left thick tread marks on the road during his attempt to stop abruptly when she demanded it.

“If you command it, it will happen.” He added.

“How is that possible?

“The truth Emma is that others, just like us, are everywhere. If we weren’t, all the evil in the world would overrun things. They’d destroy everything.”

“Evil.” She spoke the word aloud. She didn’t really ask. She knew every word that he said was true. She just didn’t understand the complexity of it all.

As she stared down, onto her blanket, all eyes were fixated on her.

“We don’t have our gifts since birth. We all age into them in early adulthood. The age can vary slightly for everyone. Give or take a year or two. Have you noticed some peculiar behavior in people lately? Your life was relatively quiet before now, then odd people just seem to come at you from all sides?”

“How would you know that?” She must have looked shocked and scared because he quickly continued.

“But you had control of the situation. Have you noticed that if someone mean or violent was around, they left when you told them to?”

She was hearing him, and she never lost eye contact with him, but her thoughts were on another day, other episodes like today. Strange and unexplainable.

He was trying to read her facial expression, but she was so confused, so she must’ve projected that onto him.

“What is it, Emma?” He softly asked.

“I was thinking about times exactly as you described. I thought I just handled it and that was that.”

“Not exactly.”

“What was it then?” She respectfully pleaded.

“Your gift.”

Silence remained as everyone was giving her time to ask and speak as she needed.

“Does everyone have it? Am I just that out of touch and this world exists so differently than I knew, and everyone knows but me?”

The girls laughed, but in a celebratory, proud way. One exclaimed, “They wish!” to clarify that “not” everyone had the gift.

“No, we are few indeed.” He looked almost saddened by the explanation.

“What has us puzzled, and I think I apologize for all of us, is that you don’t know.”

“How do you all know, and I don’t?” With an almost defeated sound to her obviously weakened state.

He filled his lungs with the deepest breath and let it out slowly before continuing, “We, you included, are born from one human parent and one gifted parent. Well, it is rare but there are some with two gifted parents. But the gifted parent raises the child to know and helps them before they age into their powers.”

“My mom didn’t say anything, and my father has been gone since I was very little. What does that mean?”

She said that phrase often, “My father has been gone since I was very little.” It felt prerecorded to her. She just simply hit the switch and played it back when needed. It was true. It was vague and now it was more important than she had ever wanted to think about.

“Your mom must not know.”

“So, she isn’t the gifted parent?”

“No.” The Dean said with certainty.

Emma turned deathly pale.

“Are you ok?” Aala rushed over to her bedside.

“I don’t feel well.”

“It’s ok. This is a lot to handle at once. Let’s slow things down and we’ll answer questions as they come up. For now, you can stay here as long as you need to or go to your room. “IF” you remain in the bed.” He ended with a strict emphasis on remaining in bed.

“I want to go to my room. I’ll do whatever you say.” She smiled.

The girls all rushed to her side and began helping her stand as the Dean brought a wheelchair.

“No,” she begged.

“I’m afraid you must. Doctor’s orders. Just as a precaution.” The dean stressed.

She dropped her head into her hands out of embarrassment. She couldn’t and wouldn’t argue with anything that the dean said.

“OK.” She said defeated.

The girls walked almost as one person. It’s impossible to walk on one another, but that would’ve better explained their formation as they wheeled Emma to her room. There was no talking. The Dean advised that the school nurse would check on Emma daily and he agreed to consult with the four of them after a few days, to allow them to talk things out and have questions ready for him. He felt it was more natural this way. That Emma would feel more at ease talking to her friends now that the foundation was laid. This small group now understood the complexity of Emma’s situation. They now knew what their friend needed most of all. To understand what they knew. Who better to help her than these new sisters, her age, her gifts, her fears, but now her trusted family? They shared more of a bond than Emma ever understood before now. She was thinking while being wheeled down the hallway, that she had such a strong affection and connection to these girls. Why them? Sure, they had this gift that still eluded her, but there was more to it. Why them? Why now?