Challenge:
In 2000 words or less, write about a girl, or boy, with the
power to hear everyone's thoughts. How do they utilize such a power...or
is it a curse?
The Author: Colleen M. Albert
Chasing
Destiny
Chasing
Destiny
I never
told anyone about the voices in my head. I knew early on that such a statement
would get me a fast ticket to the mental health clinic in our small town of Destiny,
North Carolina—population 3,332. We used to have 3,333 residents, a nice round
number if you ask me, before Esther Moynihan took a spill at the Sip n' Save
and never recovered from a broken tailbone. I mean, how embarrassing for poor
Esther's family. Who dies of complications from a broken ass? I wish I was joking,
but truly, they were all thinking it. I could hear every one of them at the
funeral, their voices buzzing inside my head like a swarm of angry bees: "Damn, Aunt Esther, could you be any
more embarrassing?" "How much longer can this take? She didn't even
have any friends." "I wonder if I'll still get that golden brooch of
hers." "Her ass. Really? Who dies of a broken ass?"
I was bored and sad from all of the
comments at Miss Esther's funeral. I would've excused myself right then and
headed to the shady woods behind the town's only church, had I not heard the
last thought, coming from a pretty blonde at the front of the room. She sat
hunched over, her shoulders drooping and shaking with a ferocity I was sure
even dear old Esther could feel from her casket. The girl's thickly laced
southern accent sped through my consciousness, fighting for shelf space with
hundreds of others in the room. Though the girl was small in stature, her voice
was direct when she thought, "I know
you can hear me."
My head jerked up at the sound of
her voice, my eyes meeting hers as she turned and gazed from beneath the longest,
palest eyelashes I ever saw. My heart slammed into my chest. I clutched the
musty, old hymnal that I snatched up just moments before. Surely, I'm headed straight
to hell for the lusty images I conjured up when our eyes met. For God's sake, I'm at a funeral!
She laughed and wiggled her fingers
at me, ever so slightly so that only I would notice. Had she heard me? Impossible. I'm the only one in town with this freaky
ability. I snorted. Curse, is more
like it.
The wisp of a girl silently
raised two fingers in the air, before dragging them through hair so pale I'd almost
call it buttery white—if I was the type of guy who gave two shits about hair
color. But I didn't. I couldn't afford to. I rose from the pew, slinking out of
the church and into the brilliant glare of sunlight that lay forgotten from
within the cocoon of doom I'd just escaped.
"Don't
go far, okay? Now that you know my secret, I may have to kill ya," she
giggled. I spun around, but she wasn't behind me.
"What the fuck?" This
time, I muttered the words aloud. I'm seriously losing it. There isn't a single
girl in this town whom I don't know. She
must be an out of town relative of Miss Esther's.
"Sort
of," she answered. "I can hear you just as clearly as
you can hear me. So, can you wait for me, please?"
"Why
would I wait if you just threatened to kill me?" I retorted. It occurred to me that
I might be getting punked. But then I remembered that the conversation was
going on inside my head, so that option was pretty much out. "Seriously, you're freaking me out.
I've gotta go." I slammed the heel of my palm into my forehead, not
believing that I was now answering the voices inside my head. This is exactly why I don't tell anyone. It's
a one way ticket to Mental Health. I dashed off at full speed toward the
lake. It wasn't the first time I ran to escape the voices in my head.
*****
I was lying on the soft, tickling
blades of grass that lined the river's edge. They were a delicate juxtaposition
of something so fine and sharp it could slice through your skin if rubbed the
wrong way, but so soft and pliable you wanted to give in and repose against the
raw, earthy carpet. Even though my eyes were closed, I knew I wasn't alone. I
could hear the girl's vibrations a mile away as she approached me. Then half a
mile. Gaining speed, she ran the last quarter mile and stood over me,
effectively blocking the sun from further warming my face.
"What do you want?" I
asked aloud. I dared to peek from beneath my eyelids that were almost fully
closed into long, half-moon slits.
"Why are you pushing me away?
Afraid to be the only one with super powers?"
I sat upright and opened my eyes
fully now. I grunted. "What do you know about super powers? Where's your
belt, Wonder Woman?"
"I
don't need a belt when I can do this," she thought back. I couldn't
help but gape at this sassy, little pixy of a girl who had no qualms about
giving it back to me. She smiled, and I cursed myself for having these
thoughts.
Stop
it. She can hear you, Rico Suave. I smacked my forehead again. Stupid, stupid.
She burst into a full, hearty laugh
this time—her timbre an octave lower and scratchier than I would've imagined,
ending with an uncontrolled snort that caused her to clap her hand over her
mouth.
"So, I'll ask you one last time, whaddya want?
You know my secret, so what?" I circled my arms around my knees and glared
at her.
"It's not a secret, Drew, we
can all do it."
"What do you mean, we? And how
do you know my name?"
She glanced at me with one eyebrow
cocked, a slight smirk riding one corner of her bold, purple-painted lips. "You
really don't know, do you?"
"Know what? That I'm a freak?
That I can hear every frigging voice in town whether I want to or not? That I
know about the mayor who's cheating on his wife with a bank teller? That I can correctly
answer every question on a test just by listening to the smartest kids in class?
Or how about the one where I tried to ask a girl out, but she..." I
stopped myself. My chest was heaving, adrenaline coursing through me as I
lashed out at this poor girl. "Sorry, I'm not usually like this. Who are
you and why can you hear me?"
"Let's start with the easy
question. I'm Leila, Esther's niece. Do you know she only went by Mrs. Moynihan
to ward off suitors?" When I shook my head no, she continued. "Yeah,
she was pretty foxy back in her day. But she had this strange gift too. She was
afraid to let anyone in too close, so she said she was a widow. Secluded
herself inside her small home in the woods, where she was able to escape some
of the madness we all inherit from hearing too much, too often, too
loudly." She glanced at me for confirmation, but she already knew the
answer without it leaving my lips.
"She's a smart lady. Maybe I'll
try that when I graduate. Get as far away from Destiny as I can."
"But don't you see? Destiny is
just a state of mind. It doesn't matter where you live. It doesn't matter how
far you run. Your ability will always be there. The only difference is no one
can see your anguish when you're alone in the woods. But who wants to be
alone?" She lowered her gaze and drew small circles in the grass with the
toe of her gray Chucks.
She knelt in front of me, lifting
her orchid-laced eyes to meet mine. Time stopped as I tried to decipher where
the purple ended and where the duskiest of the periwinkle began. A jolt of heat
shot straight to my belly, causing my cheeks to redden. I cursed again, knowing
they would look splotchy, and glanced off into the woods in an effort to look
uninterested.
"I'm like you, Drew," she
sighed, trying to catch my gaze again. When I refused to look back, she moved
her hands in closer to my knees, using them to gesture as she spoke. "I
was like you. I was lost. I fought my way through life every day. I slammed
books into my head to quiet the voices. I played music too loudly to drown the
sounds that threatened my sanity. I never met someone else like me—someone who
understood." She glanced down at our hands, which were now lightly touching.
Sparks shot through my arms and went straight to my loins this time. I may be a
freak who can hear voices, but I'm still a sixteen-year-old boy.
Leila's face flushed as red as mine
when she glanced at our fingertips. I thought she'd pull away after the last
stupid thought that raced through my mind. Instead, she laced our fingers and
helped pull me to a standing position. My heart hammered against my chest when she
stepped closer so we were toe-to-toe. Our breathes mingled and our lips parted,
but we weren't touching. I'd never been so physically close to a girl before,
let alone a girl like Leila. I wanted to lower my head that fraction of an inch
until I could feel the heat of her mouth melting into mine.
"Drew," she whispered. I
swung my eyes from her dark, smooth lips to the icy kaleidoscope within her eyes.
"The reason I can hear your thoughts is because you're like me. We're in
limbo." The way she furrowed her brows and squinted her eyes just a
fraction, told on me that I wasn't quite tracking. "Limbo, Drew. It's when
you've died, but your soul hasn't crossed over yet. You should be dead, but
you're not for some reason. I'm in limbo too. We're all given choices here. I
made mine when I chose to come to you as your guide. But every choice comes
with a payment. So, now, you need to make yours."
I wasn't sure whether to be more
scared about her ability to hear my thoughts, or the kooky story she was asking
me to buy. "Leila, clearly, I'm not dead. I just saw you at your aunt's
funeral.
You can see me now. So clearly..." Oh. Well, that sucks.
I'm
in limbo, Drew. We all have choices here. They're hard, but they're worth
fighting for. I've been sent to deliver yours. Are you ready?
Am
I ready? How does one go from believing himself to be alive to making a
life or death decision in the matter of minutes? I ran my hand over my wild
crop of dirt-colored curls, only they weren't there. My head was as smooth as
the day I was born. "What—"
"You lost them after the
accident. They had to shave to get inside your head and relieve the
pressure." She frowned. "I know it's a lot to take in, but you don't
have a lot of time to decide, Drew. You are balancing on the precipice of
consciousness and need to decide which way to lean—toward life or death."
I rolled my eyes at the drama in her
voice. "Fine," I said.
"Lay it on me, O' Mighty One."
"This is serious, Drew. You
feel our connection, right?"
I stopped smiling, and nodded. I
knew the moment I spotted her at the funeral that my soul recognized hers. I
felt a deep sense of belonging and acceptance that I have never felt before. Soul mates flashed through my mind
before I could think to filter it. I glanced up at Leila who was blushing
prettily again.
Yes,
Drew...soul mates.
We stood in silence for what seemed
like hours, but I knew our fates balanced on our swiftness.
"Tell me what decision I can make
that will keep us together, Leila," I begged.
She shook her head, tears brimming
against those pale, sweeping lashes. "The decision I've been sent to give
you is this: You can live, and go back to earth. You will find great love
there. You'll have kids and grandkids, and you'll live well into your golden
years..." she paused, choking to get the rest of her words out.
"But?" I asked, afraid to hear
her next thought.
"But, it won't be with me. Our
souls will be separated forever. Whomever you marry, you'll be tithed to
eternally. But the voices and thoughts you can hear now—they'll be gone. You'll
never need to worry again about this gift we've been given." She broke
down into a full, sloppy cry. I brushed a finger along her cheek and instinctively
leaned in to kiss away her pain. The moment our lips met, I knew I would pick
option number two no matter what the cost. A heat, unlike any I've ever felt,
coursed through my body, sparking every nerve until they ignited as if on fire.
In the distance, I could hear a faint beeping sound. Leila pulled away, regret and
fear lacing her eyes as she held up two fingers for the second time today.
"You're losing time, Drew, and
the ability to choose. After this, He makes the choice for you. Option number
two: You die. You leave your life, your family, and Destiny. But I live. I live
and you die." She hiccupped, no longer caring about the messy tears
streaking her face. "I live in this life without you, and without my
ability to hear other people's thoughts. Every life after this one, I'll be
curse free, but you'll never be able to escape it. We won't be together in this
lifetime, Drew, or likely in any other. Star crossed lovers," she laughed,
but it was born from pain and not from humor.
"But why? Why would he make
us choose like this?"
"Because any love worth
fighting for takes courage, right, Drew?" She shrugged her shoulders and
lifted her hands, palms up—marrying her sarcastic tone with her helpless
gesture. "We will know the dull ache of love, but our hearts will never be
satisfied. We'll go through all of our lifetimes knowing we haven't found the one. We'll never know who we're
searching for, but we'll always be chasing our destinies. God, Drew," she
said, running a hand through her long, wavy hair. A clip with a white and a
pink feather peeked discretely beneath her curls. "This is a shit
decision. There's no winning here. Just let me die. You've lived this long
without me. You can simply wake and have it all...just with someone else. I
won't take that from you."
I glanced down at Leila. Pretty,
petite, heated Leila. Freckles ran across the bridge of her nose. They were
pale but warm, like the rest of her. The voices in my head were quiet for the
first time in my entire life. An inexplicable elation rushed over me. I could
have this all of the time. No more voices. No more torment. Just me, and my
thoughts. Just me.
No Leila.
No Leila.
No Leila.
*****
I heard the beeping once again, this
time more loudly. I looked around, searching, panicked. Leila? Leila! I screamed. I couldn't hear anything and the thought
froze me. Had I chosen life? I couldn't hear a single thing. Just golden,
painful silence. No! I didn't mean to choose
life. I didn't mean it!
A bright light flared over me, riding
my body like waves. When I woke, once again, I was at the edge of the riverbank.
The rush of water filled my head with a noisy cacophony that left me trembling.
How had I gotten here?
A memory of milky blond hair and purplish-blue
eyes flashed before me. I looked down at the ground and saw two feathers lying
beside each other. I heard her, before I could see her.
"Today's
the day. I'm finally going to give myself to him!"
It felt all wrong. I glanced up and
saw a leggy brunette walking toward me, flashing crystal white, perfectly
straight teeth behind cotton candy glossed lips. Love was the force that arched
those lips into a perfect crescent smile, plumping her
high cheeks with rosy
pink expectations.
Wait! I can hear her.
I can hear her!
I glanced down at the two feathers in my hand—one pink and
one white—unsure of their meaning or why they caused a dark cloud of discontent
in my heart. The name Leila skipped across my mind before I could stop it. I
had no more of a clue who Leila was than the reason for the feathers in my
hand. But something deep and primitive told me I would find the answers one
day, even if I didn't like them.
No, this brunette Barbie doll headed toward me
was not my destiny. For once in my life, I was grateful for the grief and anger
I knew I would hear inside my head when I walked away from her, in search of a
girl made of light and feathers.
For More On Colleen M. Albert:
Colleen M. Albert
The Grammar Babe
