Page 14 of Lifebound

The memories came back to me and I wassurprisedby them all of a sudden.

What the hell had I done last night with Betty?

Holy shit, had I really slashed the tires of Mr. Owens’s Mercedes with a kitchen knife?!

Fuck, fuck, fuck!

Fi grabbed me by the wrists and came closer. “Nilah,what did you do?” Yep, this was far worse than her grown-up voice.

“I—”

“NILAH!”

Dad’s scream from downstairs cut me off. I closed my eyes and took in a deep breath.

It was going to be a long day.

* * *

For whatever reason,I kept imagining I was in a concert. There was a choir on stage, and they were all singing different tunes at the same time, and someone in the crowd was playing the violin, too. That’s what it felt like to be sitting in the sheriff’s office east of the town, side by side with Betty and seventeen adults who were screaming their guts out at the same time.

The sheriff wasn’t feeling well, we were told, so the two deputies were trying to calm down the parents who had basically accused Betty and me of destruction of property and vandalism and trespassing and whatnot.

And, boy, could they all scream.

My dad sat with us, and Betty’s dad sat on her other side, too, and they were silent, but the rest of the parents weren’t—especially Mr. Owens, the guy whose daughter had invited Fi to her birthday party to make fun of her. He had had his tires slashed by yours truly, had had dog poop smeared all over his windshield by Betty, and the knob of his front door as well as the first front window decorated with feces, too. This last one by the both of us. We had spared no expense—most of the poop in our bucket had been used at their place because they were special.

What were you thinking, Nil?I asked myself in my head while the parents screamed and pointed fingers and showed their phones to the deputies, no doubt camera footage of us doing what we’d been doing.

I was an adult now, for fuck’s sake. I was eighteen years old. I couldn’t keep doing this shit anymore. I should think about getting a job or sign up for college—or even an institution.

I mean, just this morning I could have sworn to you that everything in my room floated on air because ofme.Because of thatheatthat came over me.

And, yeah, it might have been real, but what were the odds that I had some sort of a freaky telekinesis ability nobody knew about that I could only dosometimeswhen I was completely alone so that nobody could witness it? I’d done my research—extensively. There’s nothing on the Internet I hadn’t read, no video of people claiming to move objects with their minds I hadn’t seen, and it was all fake. All of it, every single thing.

So why couldn’tthishave happened only in my head?

Let’s be real here for a minute—that was the most probable explanation. Just like I’d made up that boy in the forest, whether he was an elf or a fairy or whatever creature mythologies of different nations claimed had pointy ears. That was the only option that made any sense.

So, yeah, an institution for the mentally unstable wouldn’t be so bad. I bet they had a division designated just for people who thought they could move objects with their minds. If I tried extra hard, I could probably find it. I’d fit right in.

The parents kept on screaming, demanding our fathers say something, demanding the deputies get us to admit to what we did.

Do you have any idea how much the damage will cost me?!

Who’s going to pay for that?!

Little brats—I demand an apology!

What has become of Lavender Hill—this town used to be safe!

On and on they went, and my dad refused to even raise his head. He had his elbows on his knees, his hands folded in front of him as he stared at the floor.

Betty’s dad had told us one thing before coming in here—do not admit to anything. Say it wasn’t you. Whatever happens, if asked, say it wasn’t you.

So far nobody had asked us, though, and nobody but the outraged parents spoke. I tried to drown their voices as I stared at the chairs across the room through the legs of the parents who were moving, restless as they shouted and complained and demanded this and that.

I bet in institutions they didn’t scream as hard. I bet in institutions they didn’t let you out to collect dog poop in a bucket in the first place.

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