Part Five: Dad's Decision

Message from me, Maple, the author of this fantastic story: I'm so sorry for the super-long delay with Part Five! I know I published Part Four in October and you probably thought I had stopped working on my story project. Not true! I was just really busy with schoolwork. :-( But I kept writing little things on the side. I'll try to be better about posting parts of the story this year.

Oh and if you need to refresh your memory about where the story currently is -- just reads part one through four again! Haha. Luckily you don't have to read too much to figure out where we left off. ;-)

Without further ado... Part Five!

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I stared at my Dad for a while, not sure what to say. How could I say I saw a ghost and he just accepts that as fact? What was going on?

“When you feel like getting up, come downstairs,” he said. “But keep resting if you want. We’ll talk more later.” He stood up and left the room, closing the door behind him. But he didn’t walk away. He hesitated by the door for a few moments. Then he walked downstairs.

I wasn’t about to sit in bed while he avoided talking to me. I got up and followed him. He sat at the kitchen table, armed with a plate of oatmeal cookies. I grabbed one and started to munch.

“Oh, you got up,” he said, stalling.

“Did you expect me to sit up there wondering if we are both insane?”

“Nope," he sighed. "Let’s start with what you need to know: you have special abilities and your mother had them as well. Like being able to see ghosts, for example. I know it sounds ridiculous, but that’s the truth. Not all humans are the same. Some are different, with gifts. These powers emerge when you are an adolescent, and that is causing your headaches, and probably your nightmares, too.”

I stared at him, my mouth open with oatmeal cookie crumbs dropping out of it.

“You’re a teenager now and your powers want to be used. Years ago my friend Penny activated a spell to prevent that from happening. Obviously it didn’t work. And so we need to go see her and she’ll help you get rid of your headaches.”

“Is she like a doctor for people like me?” I asked, unsure of why that even mattered.

“No. And yes. I don’t know how to explain it. But I do know that we have to move to where Penny is so that she can help you.”

“Is she the person you were going to talk to about me?”

“Yes.”

So that phone conversation had been with Penny.

“How long will we be gone?” I asked.

“Well, when I said we have to move there, I meant move there. Permanently. We need to stay where Penny is; I think that might be the only way she can fix what is happening. And unfortunately, she can’t come to us.”

“So you mean leave. Leave this house, this street, this city, your job, my school. Leave everything?” I was trying to wrap my head around all of this.

“Yes. I will call the movers now to help us pack. We’ll leave as soon as it is all in the truck. I know this is sudden, but it has to be done, for your health and for your safety.”

I sat silently at the table. I turned my eyes away from him and stared angrily at the tabletop. I couldn’t bring myself to look at him. What did I expect from him now? He had been lying to me all my life. Or withholding information. Either way, I was angry. And now my life was going to be turned upside down. That made me even angrier.

I stood up abruptly and barked, “I’m not going anywhere!” I pushed my chair away from the table, yelling an unintelligible, “Arrrrggghhheeekk.” Then I ran up the stairs, slammed the bedroom door, and sat down on the floor in a ball. The tears came.

How could he have kept all of this from me?

That was the one thought that kept surfacing in my mind as I tried to visualize my future. A future that was as blank as my math notebook. If he lied about all of this - my powers, my headaches, my mother - what else had he lied about?

My father walked up to my door. “I know it might not seem logical to you right now, but I never said anything about this before in order to protect you and to give you a normal life. I wanted to do that for you. And for your mother.”

I felt like sinking into the floor as I kept sobbing. I wanted to scream and yell at him. Tell him off. But instead I felt all of the energy drain out of my body and sleep overtook me.