A New Kind of ordinary

Chapter 2

[We got in the car and we drove to the biggest building I had ever seen. It must have been twenty stories. And it had Hilton written on the side. We got out of the truck and walked in. Now here I felt out of place. There was fine every thing. Furniture, carpet, lighting and decor. While we stood there dirty, in our tee shirts and jeans packing things in gunny sacs and over night bags. We approach the counter. The woman looks at us strangely.]
Receptionist; Can I help you?
Hanna; Can I speak to Mr . Daniel?
Receptionist; Sure. You must be Hanako. I’ll be right back.
[She left. And then came back this middle aged good sized man.]
Mr. Danny; Well, well. How you been doing? Whoa. Not too good obviously.
Hanna; Been in a few tough spots. I was wondering if you can get us a room.
Mr. Danny; For you any thing.
[He reaches under the desk and brings up a card key.]
Mr. Danny; I’ll have the maid bring you up some thing. These new friends of yours?
Hanna; Oh ya. This is Nathan and this is Derek. You guys this is Mr. Daniel.
Mr. Danny; Call me Danny.
[He shakes both of our hands.]

Mr. Danny; Hanna. I need to speak with you when you get the chance. How about over lunch?
Hanna; Alright. Thanks.
[We walk over to a steel door. She pushes the button and they slide open after a few seconds. We were fascinated. We went in and the doors closed. I sort of felt trapped.]
Derek; What is this?
Hanna; Its an elevator. It is a small room that is supported by steel ropes. It pulls you up or down to a different floor so you don’t have to climb the stairs.
Nathan; Cool.
[I could feel it moving and when the doors opened we were on a different floor. We follow Hanna to a room. She slides the key into a slot, the light above the handle turns green. And she opens it. It was a very fancy room. It had two beds, a TV, a few lamps, a bathroom, a sofa, and a cabinet.]
Hanna; I got first dibs on the shower.
[After she got settled in she went into the bathroom and didn’t come out for half an hour. I couldn’t help, but think what the hell is she doing in there. When she came out, I saw a side of her I had never seen before. Her hair was shiny and sleek. Her face was made up and her cloths were new. She looked ,there was no other word for it, hot. I blink a few times. I kind of feel stupid just looking at her so I look at the TV. Derek is looking through the channels.]
Hanna; I’ll be back in about an hour. You guys chill, watch TV, the maid will bring you up some thing to eat.
Derek; What does that Danny guy want? Whoa.
[This was the first time he had looked at her since she got out of the bath room.]
Hanna; Just wants to work some business. See you later.
[There wasn’t much to do while she was gone. We both took a shower. It took me a while to get the hot and cold right. After I got out the maid was there. She brought fresh linen, toiletries and two pairs of shorts and some sort of pink garment. It looked like an undergarment. It was clearly for woman so we left it alone. When Hanna came back we were watching a soap opera and laughing our asses off. I had never seen any thing so ridiculous.]
Hanna; Hey. What you watching?
Nathan; The...
Derek; Young and the restless.
Hanna; I can see what your laughing about. You guys want to go swimming.
[We looked at each other.]

Nathan; Sure.
[She tossed us the shorts the lady had brought. She could tell we are confused.]
Hanna; You wear these. These are swim trunks. Just those.
Derek; No shirt?
Hanna; Hm. No.
[She picks up the pink garment. We follow her into the elevator. We go down stairs to the pool. There isn’t any one there. They have a dressing room for guys and girl. We get out first. I felt kind of exposed with out my shirt on. Derek how ever kept on a tee. When she gets out I cover my mouth and look away. Derek just looks down. She is in what looks like a bra and panties.]
Hanna; What?
Nathan; What are you wearing?
Derek; Or more to the point, what aren’t you wearing?
Hanna; Relax. It’s a bikini. You’ll have to get used to it. Most girls wear this when they swim.
[We both look up at her. I can feel the heat rising in my face. I look at Derek, he was as red as I felt. Hanna walked to the side and bent over. Heard Derek say Holy crap. She dove in. Once she was in you couldn’t see much. So we got in. The water was clear and clean. We swam a bit. I got up on the side to dive in. Hanna came from under and pulled me in. When I get up I give her a dirty look and a smile. Derek and Hanna are laughing. I throw some water at them. They throw back. Pretty soon its an all out water war. We stopped after a while.]
Hanna; They have a hot tub.
Derek; Hot tub.

[She smiles and gets out. We get out and follow her to the side of the room. There is a smaller pool that looks like its boiling. She gets in. She looks very relaxed. We get in. It felt so good, I had never had a hot bath or shower before this so it was a treat. I could have fallen asleep, if it wasn’t for the fact that Hanna was less than a foot away from me, almost naked. We were practically touching. We got out after an hour. My hands had gotten all wrinkled from the water. We dried off, changed and went back upstairs. Hanna ordered some room service. We had steak and french fries. Every thing about this place was great, but I couldn’t wait to get back on the road. This was all too much. It was about eight o’clock according to the clock on the dresser. Hanna had her own bed, me and Derek were sharing. It was the last thing that I wanted to share with him. Hanna fell asleep instantly. The next morning we checked out and hit the road. We traveled four days. In that time period she taught us how to drive. She couldn’t stand driving for four nights straight. So we took turns. On the fourth day we reached Indianapolis. We stayed at a pretty crappy motel. We had better conditions outside. This time there was only one bed. So I didn’t get much sleep as I had to sleep with Hanna. Derek had volunteered to take the floor. I could have strangled him. After that we drove to a whole new state. We were in Illinois. We left the car in someplace. She brought her bag with her.]
Derek; What are we doing here?
Hanna; Maria’s here. Im not sure where, but she’s here and we need to find her.
[We searched that town for a good while. Hanna was right, I had never seen so much human flesh in my life. It was getting dark when we stopped in front of a place with flashing lights. I looked in the room and was nearly blinded, by what I saw. There were naked girls dancing on poles on a stage while men watched. I looked at the sign it said Gentlemen’s Club. What the hell. I had an idea.]
Nathan; Hey Derek. Look.
[He looked through the window and smacked me on the side of the head. All I could do was laugh. Hanna looked in.]
Hanna; Oh no. Come on.
[I don’t believe it she was dragging us inside. This was too much. We stopped at the door.]
Hanna; You guys stay right here.
[She walked up to the stage. She looked one of the girls in the eye. She smiled and laughed sheepishly. Then she got down off of the stage and went out back. She came back with some cloths on. Hanna looked pissed as she gave her a good shove in the back. She walked at us.]
Hanna; Well Maria. Im not sure what the hell you were thinking, but how could you possibly need money that bad?
Maria; Well you see I owed the owner some money and he said he’d forget the whole thing if I danced for him or it was the knife in a dark ally.
Derek; I don’t believe it. Its this Maria. Ms. Jolt.
Maria; Derek. Well I haven’t seen you in ages.
Hanna; You two know each other?
Derek; We met the few times I went into town.
[They didn’t look too fond of each other. We all walk out side. Maria was around 5' 7" and she had green eyes and red hair.]
Maria; So whatcha been up too? [She speaks in a southern accent.]
Hanna; Im getting the gang back together. The government is trying to find us again. This time they mean war.

Maria; Oh man. Do Sink, Mystic and Belie now about this?
Hanna; Not yet. We need to find them. Are you in?
Maria; You know it.
Hanna; Do you have any extra gear?
[She smiled mischievously. She had us come up to her apartment. I thought the motel was a rat hole. This one was barely fit for human life. She threw some magazines off a chest and unlocked it with a key from her bosom. She opened it and took out several different guns, from machine guns to small guns that fit in your pocket. And plenty of ammunition. Hanna packed it all in her bag. Maria put some of the guns on her. She packed a small bag and we went back to the car.]
Maria; [She made a noise of disgust.] Where’d you get this heap?
Hanna; I got it from Jay. It was a bargain. But if you’d rather walk...
Maria; You know now that I look at it, it ain’t so bad.
[We laughed. Me and Derek got in the back and the girls sat up front. We traveled to the next state after three more days of driving. Hanna and Maria ponnied up their money and sprung for a decent room. It had two beds. Me and Derek and Hanna and Maria. So far I thought every thing was dull. Until that night. There was aloud banging on the door.]
Man; We got you now ladies! There’s no where else to run!
[Hanna and Maria sprang into action. They had there weapons drawn and their bags on their shoulders. We got up and took out our guns. Hanna smashed the back window just as the door burst open and guys come swarming in. We jumped through the window as Hanna lets loose a few rounds. Then she meets us as we run. We reach a three way intersection one of the ways is blocked off.]
Hanna; You two go that way we’ll go this way, we’ll meet at the water tower.
[We take off in different directions. We are soon perused by many men with guns. They shot at us and we returned fired with our six shooters. Then a dead end. We are backed into an ally.]
Man; Are these the guys?
Guy; No. These aren’t Mystic and Sink.
Man; Doesn’t matter. Their dead.
[Some sort of instincts take over in my body. I grab Derek and jump. We land on the top of the building. He looks at me.]
Derek; What the hell?

Nathan; I think I found my other power. Come on. The buildings are close together so we jump from one to the other with out stopping. We can see the girls running from the others. Hanna lifts a huge rock with her powers and chunks it at one guy. Maria turns around and says some thing.]
Maria; Rah proe en vortex! [Several volts come from her hands and attack the men. They all lay unconscious. The other guys caught up with us. They shoot at us and we return fire. Then a sharp, burning pain shoots through my shoulder as a bullet pierces my skin. I fall back holding my shoulder. I had never felt such pain. That’s when I decided to live up to my power. I focused on the remaining guys and brought all of down with my remaining four bullets. I lie back.]
Derek; You ok?
Nathan; Yeah Im just great. I got shot you idiot!
[I grip my shoulder as the pain intensifies. He helps me to my feet. I just jump off of the building and land very smoothly. Derek climbs down. The girls come meet us.]
Hanna; Are you alright?
[She doesn’t even give me a chance to talk before she makes me sit and takes off my shirt. She digs around in her bag. I bite back a scream as she takes a pair of forceps from her bag and wrenches out the bullet from my arm. She wraps it with a bandage and gives me back my shirt. ]
Nathan; Thanks. [I say it sort of bitterly. She doesn’t take it personally. Thank god. ]
Maria; Judging by your landing you’ve found your powers.
Nathan; Sort of.
[We head back to the car with extreme caution. We just hit the road and kept on driving. We didn’t stop until we ran out of gas. I could have kissed the ground when we stopped at the gas station. I think we were at the border of Missouri. My wound was infected at this point. The best Hanna could find to clean it was a bottle of liquor the guy let her buy with out an ID. We were behind the building. I had taken my shirt off and she was unscrewing the bottle. She lifted my arm to open the wound. I looked away and bit on my knuckle. She poured it on the wound and I banged my fist against the building. It hurt so bad, I didn’t think I would stay conscious. The pain was nauseating. In fact after she was done I went on the other side of the building and threw up. She gave me the remainder of the bottle and I drank it. It was my first drink and I never needed it more. ]
Hanna; Your first gun shot wound. You will never forget it. But it will help you more than you know.
Nathan; How on earth is this gonna help?
Hanna; You’ll see.

[As I love to eaves drop Maria and Derek road in the back for a awhile and I listened in on their conversation.]
Maria; So what made you want to leave Nappanee?
Derek; Wasn’t for me. I always felt I didn’t belong there. Then Hanna showed up. I was so jealous of her. It got violent and of corse I lost each time.
[She giggled.]
Derek; Yeah, but she taught me a lot. Other than to shoot and fight. I guess if I had to choose between being Amish and being an outsider. I’d choose outsider. You can’t judge some one before you know them.
Maria; Kind of like me.
Derek; Yeah Im sorry about that. Maybe you can start over and tell me what your really like.
Maria; I was born in Georgia. My last name is Holinsworth. I like dancing, music, and football.
Derek; Now that is surprising.
Maria; You can’t find many southern gals with out a likin’ for foot ball. How do you think I got that arm?
Derek; Yeah I can still feel it.
Maria; What kind of power do you have?
Derek; So far, I can heal people, but I haven’t quite figured it out yet.
Maria; You got a code name?
Derek; Uh yeah. She dubbed me Dull Blade. D.B. for short.
Maria; Ok, why?
Derek; She said its because Im strong and lethal, but not all that sharp.
[Maria busted out laughing.]
Derek; Yeah, you just keep laughing Jolt.
Maria; Yeah well Jolt wasn’t my code name for a while. They used to call me Minx.
[It was Derek’s turn to laugh.]
Derek; Yeah I can see where they got that.
Maria; We all had different code names before they got serious. Except Mystic. Only Hanna knew anything about him. Im pretty sure he still loves her.
[That was a shock to my system. Was she involved with another guy? Was this Mystic guy her boyfriend? I listened more.]
Derek; He loved her?

Maria; Oh yeah. We met again about two years ago. All of us. I had never seen Mystic so happy as when he was with Hanna. Happy is almost unusual for Mystic. Ever since what they did to him in the lab. He never told us what happened, only Hanna. He told her every thing.
Derek; Does she know?
Maria; He never told her, but I have the feeling she sensed it. They had something else in common. They are the only ones of the group that have no family what so ever. I have an aunt, and uncle and many cousins. Kenya has grand parents, Nina has an older sister that stayed in Mexico. Their just so much alike, I think their perfect for each other.
[ I couldn’t stand to listen to this much longer. It was making me so mad, I just wanted to hit both of them around the head.]
Maria; I think she has a thing for some one else though. She has been acting different lately. She seems much happier.
[Now that made all of my anger go away. Maybe.... there were too many maybe’s to be sure. It was driving me insane. That’s when the subject changed.]
Derek; Hey how old are you any way?
Maria; I turned seventeen two months ago.
Derek; You are a minx.
[She punched him in the shoulder and laughed.]
Maria; What about you?
Derek; Seventeen almost eighteen.
Maria; That reminds me. Hanna’s birthday is in about a month. She’s gonna be nineteen.
Derek; Nineteen? I didn’t know she was so much older than us.
[Neither did I. There was no way I had a chance with an nineteen year old beauty like her.]
Maria; Oh that’s nothing. Mystic is twenty.
Derek; Damn. So he’s the oldest?
Maria; Yep. Kenya’s seventeen and Nina. Well Nina’s fifteen still.
[This wowed me. I definitely didn’t have a chance. This guy was older, cool, and they had so much in common. My only salvation was that the dude was ugly, but I didn’t have such luck. The guy was probably a chick magnet. I felt drained and depressed. All my hopes and dreams had been crushed with a single conversation. I looked out the window. There was nothing, but dirt and lots of it. I looked over to Hanna. She looked peeved about something. Hell if I had heard the conversation she had probably too. I listened further to their conversation.]
Derek; How did Hanna get Mental as a code name?

Maria; Mainly its because of her powers, but also some years ago, we found her in a....
Hanna; Rrrrr. If you want to keep all your teeth in your mouth then shut it!
[They both jumped and cowered.]
Maria; Sorry.
Hanna; I may have missed the finer points of your conversation, but my code name is none of his business. Got it?
Both; Yes mam.
[They were clearly afraid of her. I could see why. When she was mad she looked dangerous. I found my self staring at her. She looked at me and then back at the road.]
Hanna; Take a picture. It’ll last longer.
[I was jolted back to my senses.]
Nathan; Sorry.
[I looked away. Where did she get her code name? What did Mental have to do with it? I was intrigued. I would have to do some digging when she cooled down. In the morning when I woke up, I found it was well past dawn. I looked at the clock radio, it was 9:30! I had never slept so late in my life. Hanna was leaning back at the wheel.]
Hanna; Morning.
Nathan; Morning. Where are we?
[I noticed I was sweating. It was rather hot.]
Hanna; Oklahoma.
Nathan; What? Where are we going now?
Hanna; Louisiana. Kenya is living there.
Nathan; Louisiana. Oh god.
Hanna; What?
Nathan; That is where my dear creole cousin lives. His name is Joe. I have never seen a bigger..... Im not sure what to call it.
Hanna; Red neck.
[ I was sort of shocked at this offensive term but that pretty much said it.]
Nathan; Yeah.

[We were passing by a corn field. It was amazing how ordinary it all looked. The only thing I saw out there was an old farm and a wind mill. That was when I was amazed at how much it looked like home. Home. I left there two weeks ago. I missed it, My mother, my sisters, My father......He would probably never forgive me. Hell he was probably still mad. I felt guilt bubbling inside me, but I forced it to go away. I promised my self I wouldn’t feel guilty. This was right and I wasn’t going to turn back. After the others woke up.]
Maria; Oh look. We’re in Oklahoma. Where we headed?
Hanna; Kenya is in Louisiana.
Maria; Yee! Haw! Now that’s what Im talking about. Some southern atmosphere.
Derek; Are you sure it isn’t the southern hemisphere? It’s so hot.
Maria; This is nothing. In Louisiana, it never snows in the winter.
Nathan; What?!
Maria; The temperature gets over a hundred degrees in the summer.
[I can’t help, but think are we like walking into the pits of hell? Will Satan and Lucifer be waiting for us when we get there?]
Derek; What is it the oven state?
[We stop shortly after to stretch are legs and what not. Some one is coming. They are speeding at us. One of the guys opens his window and shoots several holes in the car.]
Nathan; No way! [I could hear the engine hissing.] He’s not going any where!
[I pull out my Colt and fire two rounds in his car with out waiting to draw a bead. I hit the tires and he swerves off the road as the car almost flips.]
Derek; Sweet!
[We all run to the car. The guys get out and start shooting. Not before I fire a few rounds. They both keel over. I didn’t kill them, didn’t have the heart. They were groaning on the ground. Hanna and Maria searched them. They found wallets. ]
Maria; Just as I thought. B.T.
Nathan; B.T.?
Hanna; Bio-tech. It’s the name of the government organization that’s after us.
[She opens the wallet and shows me the badge. Then Maria and Hanna take the contents out of the wallet and pocket it. I thought this was down right wrong. We had just shot the poor devils and they were taking their cash and credit cards. She saw the stunned looks on our faces, Derek apparently didn’t think well of this either.]
Hanna; Oh come on.
Maria; They just fired a couple of rounds into our car.
Nathan; Yeah and I just fire a couple of rounds into them.
Hanna; You aren’t going to survive out here if you two keep thinking like that.
[Damn, what happened to the compassionate soul that was Hanna before? Apparently there was more to it with enemies. Then even worse they searched the car and took all the guns and ammunition. We went back to the car and Maria and Derek were loading the guns in the back. ]

Derek; You know your going to hell for this.
Maria; I’d be surprised if I didn’t go to hell, darlin’.
[It got even worse. We were on the road after changing the their cars tires and a cop was right behind us trying to pull us over.]
Maria; What’s the deal? You aren’t speeding?
Hanna; A lot has changed since we last met.
[She was keeping her head down and she was fumbling with the bag. She sped to as fast as the car would go.]
Maria; What do you mean?
Hanna; Im at the top ten of the most wanted list.
[Maria’s jaw dropped. Hanna had found what she was searching for. It looked like a small metal bottle with a pin in it. She pulled out the pin with her teeth waited a few and threw it out of the window. A blast of smoke fill the street and I could see through the haze of smoke, the cop pulling over. I was very stunned now. All I could do was shake my head at her.]
Hanna; Don’t you look at me like that. Its not like I shot him.
[I just sighed and looked out the window. This girl was bad, but I sort of liked it. I felt disgusted with my self for finding pleasure in this. I felt like I was betraying God. I hadn’t prayed in a few days. I had never missed a day at the farm. Was my father right? Was my mind being corrupted? No Im not that impressionable. Of corse that was a down right lie, but I was looking of any good excuse to prove my father wrong for once. He was always right, until Hanna showed up. She had proved him wrong and that made me feel that maybe he wasn’t right all the time. In the past I would have never dared to leave against my fathers wishes. Then she came. I felt heartened and braver after that. She changed my life and I had yet to realize how much. As we drove on we reached a rather large cities. It had mini malls, stores, corporate buildings and a few hotels. First we stopped at a bank. Hanna put the card she had swiped into the machines. She pressed a few numbers and is spit out loads of cash. We pulled into the parking lot. Hanna took out her knife and carved the card to pieces.]
Derek; What’d you do that for?
Hanna; They’ll be looking for their men and credit card numbers can be traced, so its only good for one use. After that its too risky to use.

[She tosses a few at a time out of the window as we drive. We stop at a hotel. Its decent. With that cash we could have gone all out, but she says we need to make it last. We got some food and we are starving. We hadn’t eaten for a day and a half. We get some rest, pretty soon we all fall asleep. When I wake there is a note on my chest. It says, Went out to find my self be back soon. Love Hanna. And there is a smiley face. Find her self? What the hell did that mean. I look over to the others. They are awake.]
Nathan; What does this mean, she went to find her self?
Maria; Find her self? Oh, that pretty much means she’s going get sloshed.
[Derek and I look at each other in bewilderment.]
Maria; Drunk.
Derek; Oh..... What?!
Maria; Yeah she’s got a bit of a drinking problem.
[A bit was a huge understatement. When she came back she was so drunk she was falling all over herself. Her speech was slurred and her eyes unfocused. She walks up to me and almost trips. She grabs on to me to stay balanced. I am just appalled at this. She looks up at me and gives a feeble chuckle.]
Hanna; Hey handsome.
[She hiccups. The smell of alcohol is strong on her. It almost made me light headed. Then she gets up real close in my face and her hands are on my chest. This was just too much. I pushed her away and she gives me a dirty look.]
Hanna; Hey! I was just trying to be nice geez!
[I look at her, I was so hurt and disappointed to see her this way. It must have showed in my eyes. She backed off and sat down. She was unconscious with in seconds. I sat down on one of the beds. I looked at each of them and they both looked away. After a while we are all trying to get a picture through all the fuzz on the TV. Then I finally said.]
Nathan; When did she start drinking like that?
Maria; She started when she was sixteen. Its all got to do with Mental.
Derek; Yeah. What happened?
Maria; Well. [She looked over to the sleeping Hanna wondering if it was worth it. She decided it was.] We all got back together about two years ago. Every one was there, except Hanna. We searched the globe for her.
Derek; Where did you find her?
Maria; [He face looked grim and foreboding] St. Paul’s Mental Institution.
[Our eyes widened. They found Hanna in a nut house. But why?]
Nathan; Why? How?
Maria; We don’t know. Mystic came up with a good story and they let him in to see her. He said she was so happy to see him, but she wanted out bad. So we busted her out later on. She never told us how she got in, and probably never will. She’s never told any one, not even Mystic.

[Wow. This must have been some thing bad for her not to tell lover boy. I looked on her and wondered.]
Maria; Well after that she was real quiet, very seldom speaking to any one. But she started to come around and then the drinking started. I guess she just couldn’t face it. It was an escape from reality. That’s also when she got her code name Mental to stick.
[This was so depressing, all my anger at her had long since gone. Now all that was there was pity. I felt very badly for her. She was oblivious to all of it at the moment. She just slept on with out a care in the world. Maria and Derek said they were going to check out the city. I didn’t want to go so I stayed behind. She was sleeping in a hard wooden chair. The only times I’ve seen her sleep were in rather uncomfortable places. I slipped my hands under her and lifted her and placed her in the bed. I covered her. You couldn’t tell her slumber from a drunken stupor. She was still soft and peaceful. I brushed the hair out of her face. She grabbed my wrist and twisted. Her eyes snapped open. She looked utterly mad. Her eyes almost red with hatred. She twisted harder. I thought my arm was going to break. She looked at me with an evil smile on her face.]
Hanna; How do you like it? Don’t like it do you?
Nathan; Stop! Hanna! Please stop!
[I was struggling to get her to release my arm. ]
Hanna; Now you know my pain. Now you know....
[Her head drooped and her eyes snapped open. They were normal, but my arm was about to snap off. I pulled her off of me. She looks at me.]
Hanna; What happened? [She grabs her head] Oh my head. What’s up?
[ I looked at her as if she was crazy.]
Hanna; Why are you looking at me like that?
[I shake my head. If she doesn’t remember I don’t want to tell her.]
Nathan; Its nothing.
Hanna; Ok. I’ll be right back.
[She walks to the bath room. I look at my arm. It is very sore and there is a rather large hand shaped bruise going around my arm. I have to hide this. I begin to put on a long sleeved shirt. I hear a retching noise coming from the bathroom. I go check on her and she is puking her guts out. I get a wet towel and put it on the back of her neck. She stopped and wiped her mouth with some toilet paper. ]
Hanna; Thanks. Im sorry.
[Did she remember?]

Hanna; I guess I had a little too much to drink. I hope I didn’t start anything while I was bombed.
Nathan; Not really. You were a little clingy, but nothing bad.
[I was lying through my teeth.]
Hanna; Good. Some times I get a bit out of control. [She leaned back against the wall.] I got violent the first time and after that they would just lock me up when I was drunk.
[She got up and flushed the toilet. I left as she was brushing her teeth. She had been violent before. But was she like she just was? She looked demented with hatred. It wasn’t a drunken violence. Especially since she woke up right after. She came back and sat down. Should I tell her what happened? No. I would just do a bit of digging. Maybe she’d tell me some thing.]
Nathan; How did you get your code name?
[I already knew the answer, but asked any way. She shot me a look that nearly scared me. Then she shook her head and closed her eyes, softly chuckling.]
Hanna; Im not stupid. Maria told you while I was passed out.
[I was stunned. How?]
Nathan; How did you know?
Hanna; [She smiled at me.] You just told me.
[I felt so stupid. I brought my hand to my forehead and raked my hair with my fingers.]
Nathan; I just walked right into that one.
Hanna; Doesn’t matter. You were bound to find out sooner or later.
Nathan; [I was afraid to ask, but I still did. Damn I was stupid.] How did you get there?
[She slowly looked at me. Our eyes connected. I wanted to look away, but couldn’t. It was like some one had locked my head in position and threw away the key. I looked deep in her eyes. There was pain and torture in them. Like a shadow stalking her mind and stirring her memories of her past.]
Hanna; Not today. Some day, but not now.
[She didn’t sound mad, more like a plead. Like she wanted me to understand why she couldn’t now. Like she wanted some sort of forgiveness. This was worse than seeing her drunk. She looked helpless. She was lost in her terrible memories, that I knew nothing about and couldn’t help her with or save her from. ]
Nathan; Ok.
[Its like we have this understanding that doesn’t need to be put into words.]
Hanna; Where are Maria and Derek?
Nathan; They said they wanted to check out the city.

Hanna; How long they’ve been gone?
Nathan; About an hour.
Hanna; Well if I know Maria, she will be back around midnight and Derek will be mortified when he gets back.
{ I didn’t even want to ask. We both got board so that’s when she took out a pack of cards.]
Hanna; You know any games?
Nathan; One.
[Gambling was looked down upon back home, but some times the guys would get what ever they saved up and we would play Draw poker. I wasn’t half bad, until I played Hanna. Had I bet any thing I would have been broke. After a few rounds she taught me to play different games. Gin Rummy, spit, B.S., canasta, Texas hold em, and black jack. After a while I got used to them and beat her a few times. We were playing spit when the other two came in. It was nine o’clock and Maria looked like she had a good time and as predicted from Hanna, Derek looked mortified. He just sat down and Maria went to the bath room.]
Hanna; Where did you guys go?
Derek; Oh god. First we walked around and she saw a club. She dragged me in and saw these people dancing like they were riding each other. It was just so uh. Then she got on stage and danced for every body with half of her cloths off.
[He was blushing just from the thought of it.]
Derek; Then we went to this other place. She got some one to give us alcohol. I didn’t drink, but she was all over this guy who had won a shooting contest, she was.... I don’t even want to described it.
Maria; Oh come on it wasn’t that bad.
Derek; [He looked at her in disbelief] When a guy you don’t know practically buries his head in your breasts that’s when I’ve seen enough.
[Hanna was sipping a soda and she spit out a mouth full when he said that. She coughed and wiped her mouth.]
Hanna; He was what? Maria. I knew you were jade-ish, but this is a little far don’t you think?
Maria; You shouldn’t be talking! You coming home wasted! I wouldn’t be surprised if you hit Nathan after we left! I was actually afraid to leave him alone with you!
Hanna; I have never gotten that bad and you know it!
Maria; Obviously you don’t! All the times you’ve been acting violent and can’t remember......

[She had just said the wrong thing and she knew it. I could have kicked her for letting some thing like that slip out. Hanna was looking at her, her mouth wide open.]
Hanna; What are you talking about?
[Maria just looked away. Hanna got closer to her.]
Hanna; Answer me!
[She looked at me and looked at my long sleeves. She was putting two and two together like only she could. She grabbed me before I could go any where and forced both of my sleeves up. The bruise really stood out now and was tinged with yellow. She released me in shock. She looked at the floor and sat down. She ran her fingers through her hair.]
Hanna; I want you to tell me what happened and I want the truth.
[I sighed. I was planning to keep this a secret for more than a few hours. Like until I died. I sat in the chair next to hers.]
Nathan; I was putting you in bed. You sort of woke. You grabbed my arm and twisted it. Your eyes opened and they...... weren’t exactly normal. You seemed almost.....
[She was staring straight ahead into nothing. Then she whispered.]
Hanna; Crazy. [She looked up at me] What did I say?
[It almost seemed urgent that she know, but her voice was still almost a whisper.]
Nathan; Y...you said, how does it feel?
Hanna; More.
Nathan; Doesn’t feel good does it?
Hanna; More.
Nathan; Now you have felt some of my pain.
[Her head sunk as low as it could possibly go. I should have never said any thing. The beating she would have given me to get it out would have been better than this. Derek and Maria looked at each other and left the room. I could hear her tears hit the floor. And she whispered again.]
Hanna; Im sorry. Im so sorry.
[I got closer to her and wiped the tears from her face. This was too much for her. She just sobbed and I pulled her close. She cried into my shoulder. I did all I could to sooth and pacify her. I stroked her back and her hair. I said it would be alright, though I didn’t know that it would. After she calmed down she sat back. She wiped her face. Here eyes were bright and her cheeks red.]
Hanna; I’ll never drink again. This is horrible. I just can’t believe.......
[She was almost frantic now.]

Nathan; No, no, no. Listen to me. Look at me.
[She stopped and looked into my eyes. She was a wreck inside and I could see it.]
Nathan; You weren’t drunk when you did this. You woke up a second after. It was like you were sleep walking or some thing. You were....
Hanna; I was dream casting.
[She completely lost me.]
Nathan; What?
Hanna; Dream casting. I was reliving my past through a dream using things in the real world to relive it. I was casting reality into my dream.
Nathan; How is that possible?
Hanna; Mental. Its all got to do with Mental. [She seemed to be calculating things in her mind. Like they were adding up. But to me they added up to a negative.]
Nathan; What about it?
Hanna; Not now. Not today. Some day, but not now.
[Oh de ja vous. She had said this before and she had that same pleading look in her eyes.]
Nathan; Ok.
Hanna; Thanks.
Nathan; For what?
Hanna; For being so patient. Im not the most easy person to be with. You must be tired of me already.
Nathan; No. You actually give me a whole new energy when Im tired. And its really annoying.
[I smile at her and she chuckles.]
Nathan; There’s that smile again. It looks good on you.
[ While you are reading this you may think Im a good writer and speaker. How ever, I suck at speaking. I can think of the most deep and romantic things, but rarely ever get a chance to use them. This is one of those rare moments where I say the right things. That smile just glows as she looks at me.]
Hanna; You really are some thing else. You are so forgiving and under neath that layer of stupidity is that wise old you. You really are special.
Nathan; Im just and ordinary guy.
Hanna; Then you are a whole new kind of ordinary.

[That’s where I got this catchy title. You’ll be surprised at how many wise things are said by her through this thing. You might think she’s Yoda in a woman’s body. But any way back to the story. We just hung around for a bit, Hanna fell asleep in that hard wooden chair and like so many times before I slipped my arms under neath her and put her in the bed. She held onto my hand. Not like before, she was gentle and warm. I didn’t want to let go. I sat down next to her on the bed. My hand was in hers. I looked at her scarred hand. They crawled up her arm under her shirt. I remember the scars on her back. I’ve seen scars from knives, and guns. These were from neither. They went in a slant down the width of her back and didn’t stop at a round, but finished off at a point. There were so many of those. What made them? No knife, no gun. What? I felt her gently squeeze my hand. Her brow furrowed and her head tossed to the side. She was having a nightmare. I didn’t want her to go into dream casting. I squeezed her hand back and stroked her face to calm her. It worked and she soon settled down. I looked at the clock. God it was midnight. It took me a while to realize I was exhausted. I tried to get my hand back, but it was no use. She may have had a gentle hold, but it was firm as well. I sighed. I turned off the light and got on her other side in the bed. My right hand slung over my side in hers. I turned over and went to sleep. When I woke up. I looked around at the clock. It was early. It was about six. Every one else was asleep. I looked over to Hanna. She still had my hand and oh god, I’ll never forget this. It was on her chest. I tried to get my hand back desperately, but she wouldn’t let go. I started to sweat. If any one saw this I would die. She finally let go. By this time I was wide awake. How lovely to get six hours of sleep. And wake up to find your hand on a good looking girls breasts. Actually that was pretty awesome, but oh so wrong. Maybe it would be better when I woke up like this to my wife or even my girl friend, but Hanna. If she was awake she would have crushed me like a bug. I got up slowly and went out side. I missed the country side. All I saw was busy freeway. It made me wonder how we were going to get out of here when the car was broken. I regained my drowsiness after a little while. The sun was starting to rise. I think, If I had slept till nine before I could do it again. So I went back inside. Every one fast asleep. I got back into the bed and lied down looking at the ceiling. Hanna turned over and put her arm over my chest. I fell out of the bed. As I was getting up I thought.]
Nathan; This girl is the worst sleeping partner ever.

[She turned over again. Damn was this like a game to her? Did she like torturing me in her sleep? I got back in bed resolute to stay there no matter what else happened. I was just about to fall asleep. Hanna rolled over and her hand went low and landed right on my...... That was it. I was wide awake now. And was never getting back into that bed with her again. I went out side and walked over to one of the vending machines. I put in a couple of quarters and pressed the buttons. The thing was stuck. Damn it, what a great morning this was. I gave it a kick and to my surprise it fell. I had a wrapped cup cake for breakfast. It wasn’t the most healthy thing, but hey it was food. After break fast I was reluctant to go back inside, but it was too hot to stay out side. I went inside. I was still tired so I pulled a Hanna and fell asleep in the chair. When I woke I was in the bed. I looked at the clock. Eight. Hanna was gone and the others still asleep. I got up and yawned. I went to the bath room and combed my hair. It was getting longer. I went back outside. Hanna was down at the vending machine and she was shaking it. I walked up casually and kicked it. I heard the item hit the bottom.]
Hanna; Hm. Thanks.
Nathan; No problem. So how are we gonna get out of here?
Hanna; Well, I check out the car and it will never run, so we have to either get a new one, walk or take the bus as far as we can and then walk.
Nathan; All of these ideas have a bad side.
Hanna; I know. I’ll figure some thing out. Don’t worry.
[She left shortly after that. They others got up and got their junk food break fast. We got every thing packed and ready. The cash we had was very low there was no way she could buy a car. We were waiting outside. She came around in a big van. The kind cable companies drive.]
Hanna; Get in!
[We all pile in the huge van.]
Derek; Where’d you get this?
Hanna; I jacked it.
Maria; You stole it!?
Hanna; Hey if you got a better idea then be my guest.
Maria; Just drive before the cops come.
[She floored it. I thought it was kind of funny, but was still disapproving.]
Nathan; How did you get it to run with out the keys?
Hanna; Hot wired it.

[I looked under the steering wheel. Some of the wires were tangled and were bent and twisted together. We traveled for twelve straight hours. We were all tired so we stopped to make camp. The car was huge so we could all lie down comfortably. The two front seats reclined so we flipped to see who would get these. Me and Maria were on the ground and Hanna and Derek were in the seats. It wasn’t so bad. Derek looked a bit unhappy about the arrangement. I think he wanted to sleep with Maria to tell you the truth. The next day we crossed the Oklahoma boarder into Louisiana. It was definitely a site to behold. We passed by some marsh land and they had tall cypress trees growing out of the water. I saw a few alligators and plenty of the large white and rose colored birds. After we got into the city how ever. The streets were full and the buildings tall. It was just like in every other city or so I thought. Most of the people walking around were black. We parked the van some place. And we start walking. I hear several people talk and notice it sounds like Maria only it was different. We were walking for some time and I felt like we were being watched.]
Derek; Don’t look now, but I think we’re being followed.
Hanna; We’ll make a run for it at this corner.
[We came to the corner and went off in the right direction in a sprint. I could hear some one pursuing us. We cut into an ally and looked back. There were four men in black. They each had their hands in their coats, but we drew first. We each had a bead on one.]
Hanna; Who are you?
Man; You know who we are.
Maria; Then I take it your Bio-tech agents.
Man; Of corse.
[They all drew their guns, but we shot first. They all hit the ground. That’s when I felt a hand go over my mouth and pull me...you won’t believe this...through the wall. The others were on the other side of the wall too. Hanna and Maria both yelled.]
Both; Sink!
[I turned around and saw them both hugging a tall black guy. He was smiling.]
Nathan; You must be Kenya. Im Nathan.
[I shook his hand. It was kind of weird. I’ve never been this close to a black guy before, but I wasn’t going to make any thing of it.]
Derek; And Im Derek.
Kenya; Nice to meet you all. So how you guys been? Its been awhile.
Hanna; Hey we’re still alive.
Kenya; Yeah but at a cost. Where’d you get this new beauty?
[He pointed to the scar on her cheek. I could hear Derek gulp.]
Hanna; Sort of a knife fight. The guy wasn’t all that smart acting. And who’s that?
[She pointed in the corner.]
Kenya; Oh that’s Bobby. Hey Bobby! Come over here!

[This guy got up and walked over to us. He was tall, white, he had on a small rimmed black hat, his hair came down at an angle at his shoulders and he had an accordion over his shoulder. He had a very mysterious smile.]
Bobby; Hey y’all. My names Robley Breaux, But others call me Bobby Voodoo.
Kenya; Yeah. He’s one of us. He’s interested in joining. That was the point of this mission to get new recruits.
[That stung, the mission? New recruits. Me and Derek stared her down and I could see her sweat. She backed up till she was facing us.]
Hanna; I can explain. He, he.
[We both walked closer to her.]
Hanna; You see we needed the most recruits we could find. So I looked and looked and you guys seemed perfect for it.
[We didn’t buy it.]
Derek; So you could have picked just about anyone else, but you chose us because we were close enough.
Hanna; No. I chose you, because it had to be you.
[She looked completely and totally serious about this.]
Hanna; Its your destiny. I had a premonition about it and I was gonna tell you just not now.
Nathan; Ok fine. But I want details later.
Bobby; You must be Hanako.
Hanna; Yep. Just call me Hanna.
Maria; And Im Maria.
Bobby; A lovely southern belle.
[She smiled and Derek’s cheeks tinged with pink.]
Hanna; I take it Voodoo isn’t just a nick name?
Bobby; Nope. Its all true. Voodoo is my power.
[We set up camp out it the woods. We were around a camp fire even though it was scorching outside. ]
Hanna; So you play?
Bobby; Yep. My music can sooth the most savage of beasts.
Hanna; How about playing some thing?
[She reached into her pocket and took out a small rectangular box. I saw a smile crack on his face. Maria looked as if some thing good was about to happen. Bobby brought his accordion around his neck and Hanna opened the small box and took out a harmonica
Hanna; You get started and I’ll catch up.

[And he began to play. It was nice music. It was rapid and sweet sounding. Pretty soon Hanna joined in with her harmonica and they were a perfect blend. Pretty soon Bobby just couldn’t stand just the music, he began to sing in french. This was pretty awesome. After they finished they were greeted, by a round of applause. Not just from us, but from all around the woods. You could hear people about a mile away clapping and screaming for their music.]
Hanna; Sounds like they want an encore.
Bobby; Should we give it to them?
Hanna; Yeah.
[He threw his hat back. It hung back by a string around his neck. They played an Elvis song. It was Jail House Rock. It was pretty sweet. Hanna still sounded great even though her words were loud. They were greeted by whistles in the night after they quite playing.]
Bobby; Damn. This girl can blow.
Hanna; Thanks. Your playing was great, but what does it have to do with Voodoo?
Bobby; It all depends on what I play. I could make you fall asleep with a few well picked notes. But that’s magic. Voodoo has more to do with nature. I can concoct a potion for just about anything. Voodoo is all about using the elements and a bit of magic.
Maria; So you can make a potion to cure any disease?
Bobby; Yeah mais cher! I can cure just about any thing with a little time and the right ingredients. I can cure things from the common cold to cancer, how ever there are too many people skeptical about it so I rarely get a chance to use it except for the locals.
Nathan; Did you ever have any family?
Bobby; My parents died when I was three. I had an older brother though. He’s very strange, but I love him. But that boy can’t get enough of my playing. Some times he makes me play till my fingers bleed.
[He showed us cuts and callouses on his fingers.]
Bobby; Had to go pick him up from New Orleans the other day. He’s staying in my place down in Carencro. The problem is I haven’t told him Im leaving yet and that’s a problem.
Derek; Why?
Bobby; He’s tried to kill him self a few times, but he gave all that up a long time ago. And I’m not sure, but I think this might drive him over the edge.
Nathan; Sounds rough.
Bobby; Yeah well. He’s the only family I got. You mind if we head down there tomorrow before we leave.

Hanna; No. We can go.
Bobby; Thanks.
Maria; What’s his name?
Bobby; Gregory. Just call him Greg though.
[We all settled down. He was propped up on a tree with his hat tilted over his eyes. We all went to sleep. I woke in the middle of the night. I heard the placid hum of Hanna’s harmonica. She was sitting on a log next to the bayou playing softly. I got up and went over to her. I sat next to her and she looked at me.]
Hanna; I hope I didn’t wake you.
Nathan; No. Why didn’t you tell me you were recruiting new people?
Hanna; It was more of destiny than a mission. I had a prophecy a long time ago. The first night when you found me. You were destined for great things and the only way you could obtain them is if you left with me. I saw your future there and your future with me.
[My future with her. Did she mean...now way. Time to shut my brain up and listen.]
Hanna; Your future at Nappanee was like it was before. I could tell you loved the place, but some thing in your life was missing. Your future with me. You’ll just have to wait for that to happen. It may sound stupid....[She looked at the full moon high in the sky.] But it sort of felt like you were asking me for help. You wanted me to take you with me or to never go. I know its silly.
Nathan; Not at all. That’s what I was thinking the entire time. But how did you know about Derek?
Hanna; The way he acted. He clearly wanted out. I could tell he was jealous not prejudice. Plus I saw his future there and I couldn’t do it to him. I couldn’t leave him there.
Nathan; Why not? What did his future hold?
Hanna; I.... Im not sure I should say. It may do more harm than good. Can you keep a secret? If you can keep this secret then Im sure I can trust you with anything.
Nathan; Of corse. You have my word.
[I was too interested to know, I wasn’t going to ruin it by blabbing.]
Hanna; His future was his father.... have you met him?
Nathan; Yes. He always seemed a little fitful.
Hanna; He was too come home one night and take an ax to his mother, brother and sister. He would get away only by using the gun I gave him on his father.

[Oh my god. I had no clue Derek’s father was that unstable. He was always afraid of his father. Could that be one of the reasons he left?]
Nathan; I had no clue his father was so violent.
Hanna; That’s not the half of it. My powers are very strange and often surprise me. Its hard to control them, but I can mainly control my telekinesis. Some times when I touch a person I get a vibe from them. I can tell a lot about them with a single touch, mainly their past. When I first made contact with Derek, I saw into his life and it terrified me. You remember my scars?
Nathan; A little too well.
Hanna; Why do you think he wouldn’t take his shirt off at the pool?
Nathan; I don’t know. The same reason I didn’t want to take off mine.
Hanna; I’ve seen him with his shirt off and he looks some thing like me.
[I gave her a hard stare.]
Nathan; Are you saying his father beat him?
Derek; Well you just know f@!#&$ every thing don’t ya?
[Oh god Derek was standing right behind us. I see Hanna’s head drop half a foot. ]
Hanna; How long have you been there?
Derek; Long enough to hear you reveal all my private business.
[His head was cocked to the side and his arms crossed. He was staring right behind her.]
Hanna; I see. You want me to do some thing about it?
[That was a strange question. How could she do any thing about it?]
Derek; How many other people have you told?
Hanna; None.
Derek; How do I know that’s the truth?
Hanna; You don’t. All you have to do is trust me.
Derek; Oh yeah like I can trust you.
Hanna; You can trust him.
[She points to me. I just want to stay out of this.]
Hanna; That’s the only reason I told him. I can trust him.
[Derek looked like he was holding back every impulse to hit her. I couldn’t blame him, but it looked like she had a point to this.]
Derek; What does that have to do with any thing?
Hanna; It doesn’t.
Derek; Where are you going with this?
Hanna; What are you going to do with those fists?
[His fists were clenched and twitching at his side.]

Derek; I’ll plant one in your face.
[He swung at her. She grabbed his fist and twisted it around to his back.]
Hanna; Why are you so mad?
[He was pinned against the tree.]
Derek; Why do you think? You just diverging about my life. How would you feel if you had some thing that horrible revealed to some one else?
Hanna; I don’t know. Lets think for a second. The fact that I got out of a mental institution and then Maria telling every one she meets about it.
[She let him go.]
Hanna; I get called Mental, by people who don’t even know I have powers. I told one person who I know would never tell. And quite frankly I had too.
[He turned around rubbing his shoulder. Neither of us understood.]
Hanna; My brain will store information wether I want it to or not. I will never forget some things unless I tell some one else. But some things are worth remembering more than telling them to the public. If I don’t reveal some info every now and then it melts down. And quite frankly your story was the least costly.
Derek; Your dealing with my emotions like their items.
Hanna; Im sorry. I didn’t mean to be so insensitive.
[I could see him eyeing the scar on her face. And as if she read his mind.]
Hanna; More info I haven’t revealed to any one. I always know what and what not to tell, because as much as I don’t want to I can see the out come before hand.
Derek; And how is that bad?
Hanna; It leaves me with some of the most hard decisions in my life.
[It was like a tennis match. They were firing the statements back in forth. Each more deep and more compelling than the last. It seemed as if Derek had lost all his strength to fight and to argue. His eyes were bright and his words listless.]
Derek; I was standing here for about two minutes. I missed the whole recruit thing. Apparently you had a special reason for recruiting us. I want to know mine.
Hanna; *Sigh!* [She ran her fingers through her hair. She always did this when she had some thing bad to say.] I saw your futures if you stay and if you leave your home. Your future there was horrible and I didn’t want to leave you there for that.
Derek; What did you see?
Hanna; I don’t know If I should tell you.
Derek; What did you see?!
Hanna; Your father. He killed your mom, sister and brother and then after he screwed you up bad. You killed him with the gun I gave you.

Derek; You saw this. [He looked kind of sick.] What happens to my family after I leave?
Hanna; I don’t..... [her eyes lock into place and then become slack. Her limbs and body shake, she hits the ground on her knees. He runs to grab her, but I stop him.]
Nathan; She’s seeing some thing.
[She comes to soon she is blinking rapidly. She looks up to Derek her mouth slightly parted.]
Hanna; I didn’t know. But I do now.
Derek; What happened?
Hanna; Your father was just arrested.
Derek; For what?
Hanna; For nearly..... beating...your mother to death.
Derek; Oh my god.
[He looked like he didn’t know what to do.]
Derek; Is she alright? I mean what happened?
Hanna; She’s gonna be alright they brought her to the hospital in the city next to Nappanee. Your sister and brother are with her.
[He leaned back against the tree and slid down to the ground. He was gripping his hair tight. He looked so lost. I decided to get lost. I went back to the camp site, but still kept a view. I don’t want my fans to be disappointed.]
Hanna; Im sorry. I know how you feel.
Derek; You couldn’t possibly know how I feel.
Hanna; Your scared. Your confused. You don’t know what to do or even if you can do it. You want to know more but can’t get the details. You want to go, but have no way.
Derek; Apparently this isn’t new to you.
[His voice was higher as he tried to fight back tears.
Derek; How do you know all this?
Hanna; Its not my choice to know.
[She knelt down in front of him.]
Hanna; I often get visions of things so far away that I can’t do any thing about them. I want to do some thing, but can’t and feel so bad Im the only one who knows but can’t tell any one.

[He was beginning to shake with the effort not to cry. He was all man. He would never show that kind of emotion to any one. He swore he would never break down to others and to him self. Well Hanna was the human breaker. She would knock them down and be there to pick up the pieces and reconstruct them. And that’s what she did. The one thing that would make him break down. She grabbed one of his hands and pulled him into a hug. I saw his eyes close tight, but tears made their appearance. He couldn’t hold them back any longer. He was a dam that burst open. He buried his face into her shoulder and cried. She just held him closer. She put her hand on the back of his head. It was too sad to watch. I went back and lied down. The other three were still asleep. I lied down. She said she had to reveal things over time. Would I be the one she comes too? Or would she go back to Mystic once we found him? And what else would I have to keep in order to keep her trust? A burden has been placed upon me that I am unable to lift. What would happen with it? Would I be strong and become sturdy over time, or would I be like a piece of wood and weaken instead? I was just too confused. So I turned over closed my eyes and went to sleep. The next morning we take a two hour drive to Carencro. Bobby and Hanna went to go check out his brother. Hanna went because she had the feeling she would have to pull his brother off of him. Since Im not gonna be there I will turn this story briefly over to Hanna. See y’all in a bit.]

[Hi. Hanna here. Since Im the only one going Im gonna be your narrator for a short while. We will do this from time to time cause hey he can’t get all the glory right? So any ways. Me and Bobby walked on down to the woods. We met a bayou and he had a row boat we took a cross the water. Soon a small cabin came into view. We docked and went to shore.]
Bobby; Just watch your head for any thing at all.
[We went in side. There was a TV on and couch in front of it. And lying across it was I guess his brother. There were empty beer cans littering the floor. He finished off another can and threw it to the floor.]
Bobby; What are you doin Greg? Your not supposed to be drinking.
Greg; Says who? You? The doctors? Please. I’ll die when Im good and ready. Alcohol or not.
[He sighed and went around picking up beer cans. ]
Bobby; Sorry about the mess.
Hanna; Its alright.
[Greg sat up and turned to me. He had on dark eyeliner and a baby blue bath robe. He was a strange one.]
Greg; Didn’t know we had a filly comin over.
[He called me a filly.]
Greg; [He whistled.] She’s a cute one.
Bobby; Ok Greg. Listen. Im leaving today.

Greg; Where you goin? [He opened another beer.]
Bobby; Don’t know. And I might not be coming back.
[He spit out a mouth full of beer.]
Greg; Not coming back! What the hell are you thinking?! Your not goin any where!
Bobby; Yes I am.
Greg; And what about me!? You just gonna leave me here!?
Bobby; Listen. Im not trying to leave you these people need my help,
Greg; Screw them I need you!
Bobby; You are a grown man. You can take care of your self.
[he got up off of the couch and staggered. He looked a bit drunk. He grabbed a figurine off of the table.]
Greg; Fine! Get the hell out of here!
[He hurled it across the room at Bobby’s head. This guy had a pitchers arm. Right before it collided into his head I grabbed it from the air. He jumped back as I caught it. Greg picked up another and threw it. I caught it again.]
Hanna; Damn it! Would you stop?
Greg; Shut up! Who the hell are you?
Hanna; My name is Hanako.
Greg; Figures. Friggen chink.
[That was probably the most stupid thing some one could have done. I put down the figurines and walked up to him and slapped him across the face.]
Hanna; You got some nerve.
[He seemed shocked with me like he hadn’t expected me to react at all. He touched his cheek where I hit him.]
Greg; Get out.
[Bobby headed for the door.]
Greg; Not you! Her! Get out, I would like to speak with my brother.
[I gave him one last hard look and left. I was waiting right by the door. After a few minutes I heard a big crash. I ran inside. Greg was beating on Bobby. I ran over and pulled him off. He tried to beat me up so I gave him a good uppercut to the stomach. I walked over to Bobby whom was on the floor. I helped him up. His lip was bleeding and he had a cut above his left eye. His shirt was torn. I walked over to his brother again. I picked him up by the front of his shirt and slammed him against the wall.]
Hanna; What the hell is wrong with you?
Greg; What’s wrong is you trying to take my brother away.

Hanna; What you can’t take care of your self? You’ve got to be over twenty. I got a job when I was thirteen.
Greg; The world is a cruel and unforgiving place.
Hanna; Don’t complain about the world being bad till you’ve straightened up your self.
[I pushed him off to the side.]
Hanna; You can make your life worth living for your self or you can suffer and be miserable. You choose. Come on.
[We left the house.]
Bobby; Thanks.
Hanna; No problem.
Bobby; But you just watch. His names gonna be in the obituaries soon. He’ll kill him self.
Hanna; I doubt that. By the looks of it he has never been really dealt with in his life. I think I had a bigger impact on him than just with my fists.
[He gave a small chuckle.]
Bobby; You might be right.
[We were about to get in the boat when his brother came running with a sort of suit case in his hand. He gave it to his brother.]
Greg; You forgot your apothecary case.
Bobby; Thanks.
[That was strangely nice of him I thought. He looked at me rubbing the back of his head.]
Greg; Thanks. I needed to get some sense beaten into me.
[He turned to Bobby.]
Greg; Good luck with what ever.
Bobby; Thanks. Bye.
[We pushed off the shore and rowed down the bayou.]
Hanna; So this case has all your potion ingredients?
Bobby; Yeah. Im sure glad he brought it. I would have been in a real bind if I had forgotten it.
Hanna; Does your brother know any Voodoo?
Bobby; A little. Not much, but he can make a sender drought, he can send away evil spirits and he can make a decent cup of tea.
Hanna; Tee hee. What’s a sender drought?
Bobby; By making this potion you can send messages from far distances with no bill or address.

Hanna; Sweet deal.
[We dock on land. The bleeding on his eye is getting bad so I pull out my bandana and throw it to him.]
Bobby; What’s this for?
[I point to his eye and lip. He nods and holds it to his cuts. ]
Hanna; So. I guess your code name will be Voodoo. You may like Mystic. He’s the sorcerer or you could be sworn enemies. I guess it all depends.
Bobby; On weather or not I get his good side when I meet him?
Hanna; Precisely.
[We walk back to the others. The others are getting some food. Some thing that looks lie a giant hot dog and one that looks like a pail knackwurst.]
Nathan; What is this?
Bobby; That’s a Poboy and that’s boudin.
Derek; Doesn’t really help much.
Bobby; [he laughs.] Ok a poboy is just sausage and a bun with sauce and boudin is rice dressin’ in a casing.
[It was funny watching them eat. After the first bite they ran for the drink machine.]
Bobby; Maybe I should have told them. Louisiana is know for its spicy food.
[Me and Kenya laughed, but the others were to busy guzzling water. I got a crawfish pie. It was spicy, but hey. I love a little spice. After some food we hit the road. We have to more people to get and we are hoping they have new recruits. We were next heading to California. Nina lived in Santa Fe. That was where her family was. By the way if you don’t know why we call her Belie look it up. It means Camouflage. By the time we made it to Arizona we were bored out of our minds. So we stopped in Phoenix. We needed some fun, some good time to get us back on our mission. So we went to this great club. It wasn’t like the ones you usually see. This one was Neon Lights. There were black lights all over the place, many drums on stage with which you poured neon paint. Once you hit those drums you looked like a jaw breaker for the rest of the night. It was pretty awesome. Im about to get drunk so I will turn this story back over to Nathan.]


[Nathan here. I told you I’d be back. So there we were at Neon Lights. I was happy to see it wasn’t full of sex driven people, but people driven by music and even a few by alcohol. We all went up and banged on the paint splattering drums. After that we all sat down at a table. We got a pizza, Bobby and Hanna got a couple of beers. They were the only ones they would give it to, cause believe me. Maria tried as hard as she could to get one. Hanna got tired of beer and then she hit the hard stuff. It wasn’t like she was showing it off. When we would turn or look away she would take another shot. In a matter of minutes she was wasted. It wasn’t like a bad wasted, she wasn’t falling all over her self, but now she had this sort of renewed energy. She danced the rest of the night. Then we left to go to a hotel. That was when we saw how drunk she really was. She was standing at the foot of a bed just smiling and laughing at every little thing. Bobby was getting tired of it. He stood in front of her.]
Bobby; Hanna are you sleepy?
Hanna; No way.
Bobby; Yes you are.
[He was looking right into her eyes. And then he snapped his fingers in front of her face and she fell back on the bed dead asleep.]
Kenya; That was cool. I wish I could do that every time she had gone on one of her binges.
Bobby; She does this often?
Maria; At least once a month. Big alcoholic.
Bobby; When did she start drinking?
[He sat down.]
Hanna; Maria. Keep your mouth shut before I tape it shut.
Bobby; How are you still conscious?
Hanna; I have some sort of strange control over my body, I don’t know.
[There was the sarcasm. It made me laugh inside.]
Hanna; I started drinking after they busted me out of a mental institution.
[She tuned over so she wouldn’t have to face us.]
Bobby; Why?
Hanna; The pain doesn’t go away so I find a way to dull it. By dousing the fires of pain with alcohol. It will make it flare up and then die down, but never stops it. And that’s good enough for me.

[She went silent after that which made me suspect that she was asleep. We had to draw straws to make sleeping arrangement. God help me I was stuck with Hanna again. Kenya and Maria got the other bed and Derek and Bobby took the floor. I laid down carefully by Hanna as far away as I could be. I turned my back to her. It was still weird sleeping with a girl, but I guess I should get used to it. No one else wanted to sleep with her obviously. I sighed and turned over to look at her. She looked kind of funny her face still covered in Neon paint. I saw her eyes open. I pretended to be asleep with my eyes open only a fraction of a centimeter. She sat up and looked around. She looked down at me and smiled. She got up and went to the bath room. When she came back she had on new cloths and the paint was gone. She sat down in the bed and pushed some hair from my eyes. Then she leaned in close and whispered in my ear.]
Hanna; I know your awake.
Nathan; You know too much.
[I opened my eyes.]
Hanna; Want to go for a walk?
Nathan; Sure.
[We got up and trod lightly around Derek and Bobby. We went out side. It wasn’t as hot as it was in Louisiana, but it was fairly warm. ]
Hanna; What else do you guys talk about when Im unconscious?
Nathan; Nothing really.
Hanna; Ok. If I ever attack you again, while dream casting. I want to know. You’ll tell me right?
Nathan; Sure.
[We walked in silence for a while.]
Nathan; Why do you drink?
Hanna; What do you mean?
Nathan; I mean how does it help?
Hanna; People drink to forget. But I can’t forget until I tell. But I can’t tell till the time is right. Do you understand?
[I was amazed that I did.]
Nathan; Yeah. I do.
Hanna; Good. Nathan you are one of my dearest friends and you are so understanding.
[I could feel her getting closer. I didn’t back away. Every nerve in my body told me to move, but my legs wouldn’t obey. I don’t know if she can sense theses things or what, but as if she read my mind she backed of a bit and I almost sighed in relief.]
Hanna; You are also so modest and gentle. I was surprised that you didn’t have a girl friend when we left.
Nathan; Why?
Hanna; Your like the perfect guy for any girl, except those who want lust not love.
Nathan; I’ve had a few offers, but turned them down.

[This was true. Many women had asked me for dinner, a ride in my buggy. That was how you showed affection in my culture. You took the girl for a ride in your buggy through the village so every one could see how much you loved her.]
Hanna; Why?
Nathan; I wasn’t in love with any of them.
Hanna; Who are you in love with?
[Oh man that was the killer question. I wasn’t sure. I had feelings for Hanna, but like she said was it lust or love?]
Nathan; Im not sure. There is one girl I like, but I don’t know if its love yet. Or if I even have a chance with her.
Hanna; I think you’d have a chance with any girl.
Nathan; But how do I know if she’s the right one?
Hanna; Just follow your heart. It’ll lead you right. Just listen.
[Just follow my heart. Listen. But what does my heart telling me? What is it saying? Hanna pulled out her harmonica and played a beautiful blues melody. And then she hummed with her harmonica.]
Hanna; Listen with your heart, you will understand.
[It was beautiful. I could feel my heart beating slowly. Listen with your heart, you will understand. Maybe I do understand. I looked at Hanna and I listen to my heart. I love her. I do love her. Finally I admit it. It is a wonderful and horrible feeling to love some one. I could admit it to my self , but not to her.]
Hanna; Lets go back. Im getting tired.
[So we went back to the hotel and got into bed. She turned over.]
Hanna; Good night.
Nathan; Good night.
[My head was buzzing with my confirmed feelings. I couldn’t find rest. Then I recalled her song before. The docile hum of her harmonica. And soon I drift off. I wake up at nine and Hanna’s not in bed. The others are still asleep. I get up and get dressed. I go out side. The van is gone. Hanna must have taken it some place. That’s when she drives up. She gets out with some fast food bags.]
Hanna; Morning.
Nathan; Morning.
[She throws me a bag. It has a biscuit, a hash brown, and a small box with eggs in it. Awesome. I haven’t had eggs since I left home. We stay out side and eat on a small table outside the door. The eggs weren’t that bad, but it tasted like some on had put onions in them. After break fast we got the others up. We got ready and we hit the road. Hanna was driving. Bobby was confused.]
Bobby; Don’t you have a hang over?

Hanna; Yep. My head feels like some one pounded a few nails into my head.
Bobby; You got a very strong constitution.
Hanna; Yeah well.
[We drove straight through Arizona. We saw the Grand Canyon on our way out. It was pretty incredible. We drove for five days and we finally made it to Santa Fe. It was an awesome city. It was sunny, but cool. I looked at my date book and it was Hanna’s birthday in three days. She would be nineteen. I had managed to get some cash while traveling. I hoped it was enough to buy her some thing good. We parked the van at a hotel and walked around til we found this huge house. We stood in front of the door. Hanna knocked. It was answered by a woman in an apron.]
Bonny; Yes?
Hanna; Hi where looking for Nina Rodriguez is she here?
Bonny; Oh you must be her friend Hanna. Please come in. My name is Bonny.
[We entered. The place was crawling with kids of many different ages. In came a young girl with blond hair and glasses. She had a bandana in her hair, and apron on and she was holding a dress and a needle, She looked like she was Spanish.]
Nina; Hanna! Kenya! Maria!
[She ran to greet them.]
Nina; Its been so long.
Hanna; What are you running here a day care?
Nina; These are my cousins in a way and I actually have an older sister. You want to meet the family?
[Before she could answer. She gave an ear splitting whistle. All the kids lined up tallest to shortest and boy to girl.]
Nina; Sound off.
Daisy; Daisy.
Violet; Violet.
Lilly; Lilly.
Jim; Jim.
Tim; Tim.
Blake; Blake.
Wren; Wren.
Robin; Robin.
Jay; Jay.
Raven; Raven.

Rose; Rose.
Nina; And me. Nina.
Hanna; Wow. Where’s your sister?
Pinta; That would be me. My names Pinta.
[An older girl appeared in the door way]
Pinta; You must be the gang of super friends.
[She looked kind of serious and kind of joking at the same time.]
Nina; Scramble.
[The kids went back to what they were doing.]
Nina; Come on in to the den. The kids aren’t allowed in there.
[We follow her to a room that was devoid of others till we got there.]
Hanna; So have you found any recruits?
Nina; Two. Rose and Raven. They are both sixteen and have some awesome powers.
[She talked while she sewed a dress.]
Hanna; What kind of powers do they have?
[Nina gave another ear splitting whistle and Raven and Rose showed up at the door.]
Nina; Come on in guys. The team wants to see your stuff.
Rose; Ok. Im Rose. I control plants mainly flowers.
[She takes a flower from her hair and scatters the petals off the flower. She raises her hands and they fly synchronized with her movements. Hanna tries to catch one, but comes up with nothing but a cut hand. The petal actually pierced her skin.]
Hanna; Nice.
[She commanded her petals to fly back to the flower. Then Raven stepped up. He was a tall dark haired boy.]
Raven; Ok Im Raven and I can control wind. It’s a little messy so I prefer not to do it inside.
Hanna; I’ll take your word for it. And you two want to come with us and join?
Both; Yes.
Hanna; Excellent. You got code names?
[They shook their heads. Hanna thought for a second.]
Hanna; Ok. Need a good code name. Lets see. Raven. Your code name is........ Zephyr.
Raven; Sweet.
Hanna; Rose. How do you like..... Flora?

Rose; I like it.
Nathan; Where do you come up with these things?
Hanna; I have an extended vocabulary. So when can you be ready to leave?
[The other two looked like all their dreams had come true. Nina looked a bit apprehensive. Hanna sighed.]
Hanna; Nina. Can I talk to you?
[Nina and Hanna left the room. I was close to the door so I could hear what they were saying.]
Hanna; Please tell me you are coming.
Nina; Well. Bonny needs me to stay. They need my help.
Hanna; We just lightened her load by two other people. She’s got your sister. What else do you think she needs?
Nina; Look. Im just not sure ok. I need some time to think. Besides my sister’s been training me and Im almost finished.
Hanna; Your sister has the same power as you?
Nina; Don’t try I already did and she said no.
Hanna; Listen Nina. We need you to come with us. We have to return to the base as soon as possible.
Nina; Look just give me a few days. You guys can stay here we have plenty of room. And I know your birthdays in a few days. Come on. Please.
[She groaned.]
Hanna; Alright. We’ll stay, but if you don’t come with us I might have to smack you.
[They came back in.]
Hanna; Here’s the deal. We will stay here for a few days rest up and hit the road.
Nina; This is great. I’ll show you to your rooms.

[We each had to share a room. Me and Derek. Maria and Hanna, and Bobby and Kenya. We now had nine people with us. All with code names. Mental, Nate-dog, D.B. [dull blade], Jolt, Voodoo, Sink, Zephyr, Belie and Flora. All we were missing now was Mystic. That night I went out to look for some thing to buy Hanna. The Amish don’t believe in having many material things, but I still wanted to buy her some thing nice. I had fifty dollars. I went to many stores until I found the perfect thing. It was a necklace with a small emerald in the middle. It wasn’t much, but I thought it would look great with her eyes. I had them wrap it up and I put it in my pocket and went back to the house. It was dinner time when I got back. This was the first real dinner I had in a while. Roast beef, potatoes, peas, bread, and rice. It was great. After that we were all tired so we went to bed. It was strange at this house. In the morning the older kids were doing things that the younger kids kept messing up. Raven was hanging up laundry and two other kids kept running through them and knocked them on the ground. Until he raised his hand and they ran away screaming. I went over to help him pick the stuff up.]
Nathan; What was that?
Raven; They’re afraid I’ll blow them away like last time. One quick wind and they were knocked on their butts.
[I laughed and helped him hang up the laundry. After we were done.]
Raven; Thanks. Your names Nathan right?
Nathan; Yep.
Raven; You must be a new recruit too.
Nathan; Sort of. I’ve been with Hanna the whole time.
[Hanna was on the lawn and the kids were attacking her and jumping on her. She was laughing as they tried to bring her down.]
Raven; She’s good with kids. Do you have any family?
Nathan; Yeah. My parents and my sisters. They’re still in Nappanee.
Raven; Your Amish? Cool.
Nathan; Where did all these kids come from?
Raven; Well. Most of us came from the orphanage. Bonny sort of collects kids as I like to say. She only has two of her own. That’s Jim and Tim. They are twins. I was living on the streets when she walked by in the park. She asked me if I was hungry. I was about to starve to death. So I couldn’t refuse. I walked home with her and she gave me a meal. Then some new cloths, a bath and a bed. I lived with her from that day on. I always wondered what the hell she was doing with all these kids so I asked her. She said its because she loved us. She helped out all the kids. The only one she could never reach was Justin.
Nathan; Justin?
[He pointed to the top window to the left. There was a boy looking through the window.]
Raven; He hasn’t spoken since his parents died. Its kind of sad, but we’ve all had enough of it. You can’t just stop living when some one else dies. My parents left me and never came back. Left me at a gas station and drove off. You’re a lucky guy Nathan.
[he patted my shoulder and went back inside. I looked up at the kid in the window and he was gone. Now this next part has a lot to do with Derek more than me so I’ll switch over to him and see you in a bit.]


[Hey this is Derek. Now I was doing my share to help out too. As embarrassing as this was I was great at cleaning house, because often I had to do it for my mother and sister. As you know I come from a broken home and my father usually was more lenient on me and my brother so after he left my mother would rest and me and my brother would do both out side and house work. I was picking up some toys in the hall when I saw the attic door open. I put the last toy on a basket and looked up the stairs.]
Derek; Hello. Any one up there?
[I didn’t hear an answer. I went up. There was a room up there. It was awesome. There were hand carved wooden figures, beautiful things made out of colorful shards of glass, and several contraptions made to make things easier to do. I looked over to the window. There was a kid. He looked about twelve years old with long blond hair and glasses. I looked over at him.]
Derek; Hey. Nice room. Did you make these?
[He nodded.]
Derek; What’s your name?
[He didn’t answer me. I walked a little closer and I slipped on a small wooden cylinder. I fell flat on my back and the kid laughed cooly.]
Derek; Oh. You thinks that’s funny do you.
[I got up and picked up the piece of wood.]
Derek; Haha. So what’s your name?
Justin; Justin.
[His voice surprised me for his age. It was very mature.]
Derek; Nice name. Why aren’t you down there playing with the others?
Justin; They don’t like me.
Derek ;Why wouldn’t they like you? I think all your stuff is pretty cool?
Justin; Really?
[He sounded a little surprised.]
Derek; Yeah. I can whittle, but not like this.
[I picked up a carved and painted figure of an elephant.]
Justin; You want to see my new ones?
Derek; Sure.
[He took out a small box and set out sixteen little figurines. They had one that looked like every member of the house hold. They were very realistic.]
Derek; These are so good. How long did it take you to make these?
Justin; Two weeks.

Derek; Wow. That’s good time.
[He kind of smiled, but dropped it.]
Derek; Why don’t you come down? Come on.
[I headed towards the door. He followed me down, but stayed close by. Bonny walked by and then stopped.]
Bonny; Wow. You got Justin to come out of his room. Im impressed.
[She walked away.]
Derek; How long has it been since you left your room?
Justin; A month.
Derek; Dang. Not very social are you?
[He shook his head. I went and did more to help out, while the kid followed me around. He was like a puppy following his master except he had some use and helped me out. He would only talk to me and no one else. Then Hanna walked up.]
Hana; Hey. Whose your friend?
Derek ; This is Justin. Justin say hi to Hanna.
Justin; Hi.
[He seemed fascinated by her. She walked away and he was still staring at her. I knelt by him.]
Derek; What’s up?
Justin; I want to show you some thing.
[He dragged me upstairs and I was waiting while he was digging. He took out a handkerchief and brought it over to his bed. I sat down next to him. He unwrapped a wooden figure and it looked just like Hanna, but a bit different.]
Derek; You made this fast.
Justin; I made this one three years ago.
Derek; Wait. How is that possible? You just met Hanna.
Justin; This isn’t Hanna this is my sister.
Derek; Your sister?
[He pulled out a picture from under his pillow. He showed it to me. There was his mother and father and what looked like a young Hanna. There was once difference. There was no Japanese in this girl.]
Derek; Wow. They look so much alike. Where is your sister?
Justin; Heaven. She died in the car crash with my parents.
Derek; Oh. Im sorry to hear that.
Justin; Its her birthday in a while, right?
Derek; Yeah. She’ll be nineteen in two days.

Justin; Good. You can go.
[I took the hint and went back downstairs. The kid stayed in his room all day. Later that night I went back up there. He was painting very delicately with a small brush. He looked back at me.]
Justin; You can come in.
[So I did.]
Derek; What ya making?
Justin; Its for Hanna. After every one hears about her birthday the kids are gonna paint, paste and mold her some thing. So I thought I’d make her this. What color are her eyes?
Derek; Green. That’s very good. Im sure she’s gonna love it. Lot better than what Im gonna get her.
Justin; What are you getting her?
Derek; Nothing. I have no cash.
Justin; No one here has cash. All most every thing is hand made. The older kids built the furniture down stairs. This house was built by Bonny’s great grandfather. And any time some thing breaks I fix it. And if its beyond repair I take it apart and make some thing new.
[I was utterly amazed at this kid. From what I heard about him I expected him to be meek and skittish, but he was leaning back on the chair legs with his feet resting on a desk while he painted.]
Derek; That is so awesome.
Justin; You can make her some thing.
Derek; Like what?
Justin; Come here.
[I walked over to the kid. He took my hands and looked at them. I wondered what he was looking for.]
Justin; You work with metal a lot and usually make things like kettles and kitchen goods.
[It was like the boy could read my mind.]
Derek; How did you know that?
Justin; You have scars and callouses from burns on your hands. The one going straight across you palm is some sort of rod that was probably used to bend metal.
Derek; Damn. Your good.
Justin; Thanks.
Derek; But how’s that gonna help me.

Justin; Look in that drawer.
[He pointed to a drawer at the other desk. I open it. I find more gems than I had ever seen in my life. They were of all colors.]
Derek; Wow.
Justin; Now look in that drawer.
[I opened the drawer next to it. It was full of metal of different sizes. An idea came into my mind.]
Justin; Ah. You have an idea. I can see it in your eyes. Up here I have a wood stove and every tool you could possibly need.
[I go over to the little guy and put him in a head lock and rumple his hair. He laughs surprisingly and tries to get away. I finally let him go an he smooths out his hair. I say good night and go to me and Nathan’s room. Im just glad the room had bunk beds. The next morning I wake up early. The house work is done so Bonny gives us a break. I go up to Justin’s room. He is working on his sculpture again. He gives me a box of matches and points to a pile of kindling next to the stove.]
Derek; You were just waiting for me weren’t you?
Justin; You know it.
[I start the fire and pretty soon its hot enough. I take some scrap metal and some tongs. I heat it up good and then pound it with a hammer on a cinder block. The texture of the block makes a pattern on the metal, but I find it makes it look good. I make a metal ring with a gem every inch embedded in the metal. I let it cool and then take some twine and weave it around the ring. I soon have a very nice looking weave in the middle. I let some trail in five different places. Four on the bottom and one on the top. I tie some feathers and smaller rings to the these strings along with some beads and soon have a dream catcher. I show it to Justin.]
Justin; Cool. I need to make one of those some day.
Derek; I think she’ll like it. How is yours going?
Justin; Done.
[he shows me the figure and its perfect. It looked just like her.]
Derek; Perfect.
[He smiles slightly. We go down stairs and as he predicted the kids were drawing and what not. They made Hanna stay in her room. We went into the kitchen. Bonny was mixing up some thing in a bowl.]
Bonny; Hey boys. Whatcha been doing?
Justin; Working on our presents.

[She nearly dropped the bowl.]
Bonny; You got him to speak.
[She had the biggest smile on her face. Justin looked confused.]
Derek; What are you making?
Bonny; It’s a special cake. It takes two days to make so Im starting now. Nina really looks up to her. She could never stop talking about her and Rose and Raven can’t wait to get started. Do you have a power also?
Derek; Sort of. I can heal people, but Im still working on it.
Bonny; You know Justin has a power too.
Justin; Please.
Bonny; This boy is a genius. He is so smart all he has to do is read some thing and he can remember it just like that. Plus.
Justin; Bonny!
[She stopped. And returned to her bowl.]
Derek; What?
Justin; My power isn’t good its strange. It serves no purpose.
Derek; Neither does Maria’s but she still gets a chance to use it. Come on. What can you do?
[He sighed. He got up and brought out some candles. He put them on the table and lit them. Not with matches or a lighter, with his mind. After he lit them he lifted them from the wicks with his mind and made the go together into a flame. He contorted it into shapes and then he made a slashing motion with his hands and it disappeared.]
Derek; Sweet.
Justin; But how can that help any one?
Derek; The same way any of ours can. We use them to protect our selves and other people. Innocent people.
Justin; You can’t always protect the innocent. Evil does triumph many times so what then?
Derek; We eliminate that evil. Its that simple.
Justin; Eliminate the evil.

[It was like some thing lit up in his eyes. He put the candles away. The day was spent just daydreaming and sitting around. The next day the rooms were filled with colorful decorations and a giant Happy Birthday Hanna banner was put up. When she woke up every one yelled Happy Birthday. She smiled and walked in. She had breakfast and then opened presents. Every one brought theirs to her. The twins Jim and Tim both gave her a painting that was exactly the same. The other kids gave her similar presents. Bobby gave her a new harmonica case. Kenya gave her a necklace made of crocodile teeth. Maria gave her a new obviously good gun. She was very happy about this. Nathan gave her his present. It was a very nice necklace with an emerald in the center. She beamed at him. He was very happy. I gave her mine. I think she really liked it. Then Justin stepped up and gave her his. She opened it and every one awed.]
Hanna; Its beautiful. Did you make this?
[He nodded. She smiled at him and kissed him on the head. He blushed and scowled. Nina gave her some hair accessories. Her sister a lovely crystal, she collected. And Bonny gave her a twenty and a card. We cut the cake and were eating when some one rang the bell. Bonny went to get it. She came back with a package.]
Bonny; Hanna its for you.
[Hanna looked puzzled and then it struck her.]
Hanna; I know who this is from.
[She opened it and she took out a card and a present. She read the card.]
Hanna; Just as I thought. Mystic.
[She unwrapped the present. There was a sort of strange flute. She smiled and took it out.]
Daisy; Can you play it?
Hanna; Yes.
Violet; Play it.
Jim and Tim; Yeah play it.
[Every one wanted her to play. So she did. She played a rather lively and up beat tune. It was almost like a folk song. I liked it. It reminded me of home. When we would have parties they would play songs like this. The little kids danced as she played. Bobby asked Nina and she danced with him. Bonny pushed back the coffee table. It looked like fun. I went over to that harlot Maria and asked her to dance. We danced. I saw Nathan just standing there. Hanna got up and played with one hand and grabbed Nathan and pulled him on the dance floor. She dance and played. He looked happy. If it was one thing I was sure of it was that he was in love with Hanna. Rose and Raven already looked involved as they danced together. After a few minutes she finished the song. Every one clapped. We were supposed to leave tomorrow and I had to tell this to Justin. I went up to his room that night.]
Derek; Hey Justin.

Justin; Hey. [He was staring at a wooden figure. It was of a man. He wasn’t very attractive.]
Derek; Whose that guy?
Justin; This? This is the man who killed my family.
Derek; Killed, but I thought they...
Justin: Died in a car crash. Yeah that’s what I tell most people.
[He dug in a drawer and pulled out a news paper clipping. He gave it to me. The headline was. Mad man butchers family. One child was left alive while the man still runs free. It had a picture of his family and the killer.]
Derek; I don’t get it.
Justin; They were chopped up into little pieces while I was in the corner watching. He came after me. That’s when I discovered my powers.
[He got up and put the figure on the cinder block. He lit it one fire with his mind.]
Justin; With out knowing it I made him catch on fire. He put him self out and ran. Do you know how you obtain powers?
Derek; Sort of.
Justin; Not all people can or do. When you are face with a life threatening or traumatic experience you get a hold of them. You body burns with a desire to thrive and it uses that desire to surface your powers. Rose. She was rapped and almost murdered, but was save, buy a flower she had in her hair. Raven was nearly beaten to death by his mother and her boy friend. A gust of wind misdirected that blow of the club and hit his mother in the face. Don’t you see. Its all linked to fear, pain and a will to live.
[He wasn’t looking at me. He was just staring at the burning figure.]
Justin; You haven’t completely controlled your power yet huh? Some thing bad happened to you, but not enough to threaten your life. The most powerful people have suffered the most. Keep that in mind. I stopped talking when my family died. I didn’t know how to live after at. Then you came. You didn’t know so you didn’t treat me like a nut case. You showed me how to live with my power. Thank you.
[I didn’t under stand what he was saying.]
Justin; I know you don’t understand. But you will.

[he turned to me and smiled colly again. Its almost like I did in that instant. I couldn’t help it. I smiled back at him. The next morning we were getting ready to leave. We didn’t know how we were all going to fit in that van, but that problem was remedied by Bonny. She threw Rose the keys to one of the vans. They said good bye and we were off again. Justin waved good bye from the front yard. And we drove off. ]
Nina; So where is Mystic?
Hanna; He’s in New York. All the way across the country.
[Every one groaned. But Hanna smiled with a sense of adventure shining in her eyes. Some thing was coming and only she knew. And my adventure sense was returning also. Now its is with a heavy heart that I return you to your previous narrator. I will see you agin. Later.]

[Im back. Did you miss me? Don’t jump up all at once. So any way we are back on the road going to New York *sob*. I swear if this guy isn’t there I will have to hurt some one. We traveled for an entire week. We were tired, dirty and every one was cranky except for Nina. Nothing ever got to that girl. She was an optimist and it was starting to piss us off. We finally stopped at motel. Hanna told us we couldn’t stop very often cause cash was low.]
Maria; I thought you had some major cash stashed away.
Hanna; I do, but I can’t get at it yet. The boys are still working on getting my assets transferred to a fake account.
Nina; Why do you need a fake account?
Hanna; Because I didn’t just break out of the nut house I broke out of prison.
Maria; You did time?
[She sounded shocked and I knew she would leach for details.]
Nina; How much time did you do?
Hanna; A few months. I had life coming, but I didn’t want to stick around too long. Now if I go back Im facing the death penalty.
Bobby; And your talking about it like its no big deal.
Hanna; Death is but a great adventure, but our next ones coming up the road. Hang on!
[There was black Corvette in pursuit of us. She sped up. Wait a second.]
Nathan; Why is the car going so fast?
Hanna; I rigged it. This van is now a speed machine!
[And she sped up. We took a sharp turn and we all flew against the wall and hit it hard. She swerved back and we fell to the floor.]
Hanna; This is your captain speaking! We are about to hit some turbulence!
[And that was right there was a construction sight ahead.]
Hanna; In case of error put your head between your legs and kiss your butt good bye!

[She cranked it up and we busted through the orange road blocks. We met a ramp.]
Hanna; Hang on!
[We flew up and hit the ground with a huge thump. The Corvette was still behind us. They started shooting.]
Hanna; Maria! Nathan!
[We picked up our guns and pointed out the window. We shot several time and finally my bullet hit a tire. They swerved off to the side and hit a phone pole. She stopped the car and we all got out we were shaking from the ride, but got over it. The men got out of the car and ran for it as it was on fire. They jumped just as the car blew up. When they hit the ground Hanna lifted them off the ground and locked their hands behind their backs with her powers. She twiddled her fingers and the wallets and guns came flying out. Maria caught them.]
Maria; Bio-Tech.
[Hanna raised her gun and they begged and begged. She sighed and merely threw them to the ground. They groaned and we got back in the car and jetted.]
Hanna; Well?
Maria; No cash.
[She threw the wallets out of the window.]
Hanna; How did you guys like the ride?
[I heard several thumps as they all fell to the ground.]
Hanna; I’ll take that as not very much.
[She was grinning the others caught up and we stopped at the motel. We just went ahead and got two rooms. Girls in one and guys in another. It was kind of interesting that night. We had a poker night. Not for real money cause we were all flat broke. We played for pretzel sticks. Bobby bankrupted us all. I have to admit this guy was good. Tomorrow we had all agreed to do some thing to get us more cash.]
Kenya; So what are you gonna do Bobby?
Bobby; I play for money, you’d be surprised at how much you can make just playing an instrument. What about you Nathan?
Nathan; I don’t know. Moving boxes or some thing. Derek?
Derek; Yeah some thing like that. Kenya?
Kenya; Same as always.
Bobby; How many times you think you’ve broken the law that way?
Nathan; What does he do?
Kenya; Im a pick pocket. When you can phase through matter its really easy.

Derek; Heh. Figures. I bet you the girls are gonna do some thing rotten. What about you Raven?
Raven; I sell.
Kenya; What?
Raven; These.
[He puts his hand in his pocket and pulls out some very realistic gems.]
Bobby; Are these real?
Raven; Yes. They are. They are very rare and hard to make. These are wind stones made from materialized wind.
Nathan; Materialized wind? That’s amazing. I didn’t even know it was possible.
Raven; Only the wind master.
[Mean while next door I will share Maria’s thoughts.]

[Maria in the next room. We are doing each others hair and what not. And we get on the subject of our jobs.]
Maria; What are you going to do tomorrow Nina?
Nina; Offer my maid services. What about you Rose?
Rose; I saw a help wanted sign at the florists. Maria?
Maria; I’ll just do my thing.
Hanna; You mean strut around butt naked on stage?
[Every one laughed.]
Maria; I resent that. And what are you going to do?
Hanna; This and that. What ever I can find.
Maria; Uh huh. Sure.
[At about eleven we all hit the sac. In the morning we all go our separate ways to try and get some cash. We will be switching narrators through out this scene so lets begin with me. I walk out and check the phone book for clubs. I see one for the gentlemen’s club. I smile and walk over to the club. I ask for the manager.]
Manager; What can I do for you little lady?
Maria; Well sir. Im trying to make some money and I was wondering if you could take me on for today.
Manager; Well lets see. You seem a little young. What experience have you had?
Maria; I’ve worked in seven clubs to date. And have never left a disappointed audience.
Manager; Well. The show starts in two hours. Go back stage and the ladies will give you a costume. We have bouncers in case of trouble and you will be paid $250 tonight, plus what ever they stick in your G string.
Maria; Thank you sir.

[So I go back stage. The women back there are all about in their twenties. ]
Candy; What are you doing here doll?
Maria; Im here to dance for some boys.
Candy; Your no first timer huh? What’s your name?
Maria; My name is Maria. The nick names Jolt for the boys.
Candy; You got a phrase to go with that?
Maria; I’ll send a shock to your system.
Candy; Not bad. My names Candy. Here to satisfy your sweet tooth.

[We both laugh. Oh those freakin hoes. With all these skimpy names, but hey its business. Any way. Most of them started out like I did and couldn’t get them selves out. I was desperate for money when I started. Its hard to owe in the big city. We were very close to Vegas right now so the big city scene was perfect. Now the key to struttin your stuff is to dress in layers. Every thing under is more revealing. First you dress in a G string and pasties. Then in a bikini then in a bunny out fit sort of thing and then in a short skirt and a tight shirt that reveals much cleavage. So I dressed I my layers. I felt like dress up barbee in those things. Me and the girls just waited for the show to start. I heard the sex hungry men start coming in. Every time Im about to go on I pray there is no one there that I know and so far its been working. Apparently there was a bachelor party coming in. Now this was gonna be some sh*% right here. When there was party we had to draw straws to see who would be the bitch for the guys. So we did. I got the shortest one. I knew I had been gypped because hey I was the new girl. But I wasn’t going to complain. We heard the announcer and we all went out on stage and grabbed a pole. It was like swing you self on a fire pole, like when you used to pretend to be a fire man when you were kids except to keep your body as close to it as possible. Rubbing up and down like your trying to shine it with your breast. I always thought this was so absurd the way guys were turned on by this. That when it was my turn to give the bachelor what he wanted. The guys were calling me down. So I did this sexy strut off stage. I could tell who he was cause they had tied him to a chair. I swung my shoulders in a smooth motion and began to shed my first layer of clothing. You lean over him till you almost bury his face in your bosom. Then you slid back and turn around shaking your ass in his face. I remove my shorts and am in the bunny out fit with out the ears. The guys are whistling and cheering. Sticking dollars in some of the most uncomfortable places. I mean who wants a dollar stuck in their crack. So I unhook the other thing slowly and let it fall forward. To reveal my bikini top. I kick the other thing away and am standing in my bikini. I dance a bit for him. Doing shimmies and nuzzling him with my breast and lips. Caressing him with my hands. I pop my top from the back and swing the strings around in my hand. I slowly pull away my bikini top until nothing is there except my pasties. So top less I dance more. The guys are just throwing money at me. The guy in the chair looks amazed and nervous at the same time. I strip my bottom to where I am in only a G string. After some more dancing and flesh against flesh action the show is over and the music stops. The boys clap, slap our asses and we pick up the tips and walk back stage.]
Candy; You really are good. How long have you been working as a dancer?
Maria; Since I got breasts.
[She laughed. I got dressed and went collect my pay. It was about six in the evening when I made it home. So now I will turn this over to Nina and her day.]


[Hey this is Nina. So lets get started with my day. I woke up and went around the neighborhood with big houses. Going door to door looking for work. I finally found one. This rich old lady took me on to clean her house. And let me tell you. This woman must have been incapable of cleaning to let it get this bad. She said she would be gone for a while and when she got back she wanted it done. So she gave me the keys and left. I had to get started. The first thing I went for was the kitchen. There were so many dirty dishes, I couldn’t believe only one person lived here. It took me half an hour to wash, scrub and scrape these dishes clean. After that I got started on the kitchen its self. I scrubbed the floors, washed the windows, scrubbed the counters, and even had to wash the fridge of its grime. I found out she had white tile after I was done. Then I went to the living room. This wasn’t messy, but it looked like no one had inhabited it in ages. I brought all the cushions out side and beat them with a tennis racket I found I the closet. Damn these things were dusty. After that I dusted every thing in this room. I had to use three dusters and five wash cloths. I replaced the cushions and polished the wood. I went back to the closet and found the oldest vacuum cleaner ever. I plugged it in and was happy that it still worked. After that. I did the hall way. A little soap and water goes a long way, but I need one hell of a lot of it to clean this hall. After that it was to the dinning room. It had a very nice and big table, with matching chairs, two cabinets with fine china and a chandelier. But the way they looked right now. They belonged to a haunted mansion. The white table cloth was covered in stains. I brought that to the kitchen sink and scrubbed it clean. I hung it out to dry and then proceeded to clean the dinning room. I dusted the chandelier and china, scrubbed the table and chairs, straitened and dusted the pictures on the wall and vacuumed the floor and rug under the table. By the time I was done with that the table cloth was dry. I brought it back and covered the table and put all the ornaments back on it. Then to the thing I dreaded the most. The bath room. It was horrible. It took me five pads of steel wool and an entire jug of bleach to get it all clean. Then was the up stairs. There were four bed rooms and one bath room. The guest rooms were only dusty so it didn’t take me long to dust and vacuum them. After that I went to the old ladies room. I could see I would have to do laundry. Every piece of cloths she had must have been on her floor. I picked it up and brought it down stairs. I had found the washing machine. I dumped one load in there. Then went back up, vacuumed ,dusted, did the windows, made the bed, cleaned the closet. Cleaned up the vanity and dusted her fan blades. Then I went back down stairs took out the first load and put it in the drier and then reloaded the second. I had some time to kill while I was waiting for the cloths to wash and dry so I went to the living room and watched TV. I heard the buzzer and went and switched the loads. I brought some of the laundry back and folded it. After that I went to her room and put it away. I came back down just as the other buzzer rang and folded that and put it away. I was finally done. It was about five. I waited for the old lady to come back. It was five fourty five when she came back. I heard her say “Oh my goodness” when she walked in. I went to meet her.]
Old lady; The house is beautiful. Thank you so much. Here you go darling.
[She gave me my pay and I was stunned at the tip. She slipped me another hundred]
Old lady; You keep that. And thank you so much.
Nina; Your welcome mam. Bye.
[I left and went back to the motel. I won’t give you over to Nathan or Derek. They both got jobs working for some guy loading and unloading boxes. So I will give you to Kenya.]


[Yo was up. Kenya here. Im about to give you the 411 on my day to day career. You see living on the streets is tough, but its even tougher living with my grand mother. I had to pay rent and quite frankly my job at the movie theater wasn’t enough. So I picked pockets on my back from work. Here’s my trick of the trade. If you don’t have my abilities picking pockets can be quite a job when you try not to get caught. So here’s the key thing. Make it look like an accident. You go into a big crowd and accidently bump into some one. A very quick in and out of the pocket, make it smooth so that he/she can’t really feel it. Go for loose pockets and open big purses. Now with my abilities all you have to do is phase threw a person and grab the wallet and phase it out with you. Yeah, yeah, I know its pretty sad, but hey it keeps food on the table. I picked about fifteen pockets today and didn’t come up with much. It was kind of tiring cause I got caught once and had to run for three blocks. I finished around six and headed back. Now lets turn it ova to my man Bobby.]

[Bobby here. Ca va? That was french for how are you. Any ways. I left the same time as every one. I went to the park. It was a good place to get a crowd. I found a box and stuck it in the middle of the park. There were already a few people trying to make a buck. I sat down took off my hat and put it on the ground. I picked out a song and began to play. I chose Tequila. It had a good attention getter tune. And so I played. With my first chord heads turned, with my second bodies turned. I began to play and people walked by. They were interested, but didn’t want to stay so I played a bit different. Soon I had flocks of people coming to listen to my music. You must be wondering how did you do that? Well I must confess I put a bit of magic into my notes. It made my notes float through the air like drifting snow. It entranced the people as I played. After while I chose a nice beat and soon I got people clapping. I found some thing was missing when it showed up behind me. The smooth, smooth tune of a nice harmonica. Hanna showed up and helped me attract more people we worked very well together and when we finished people were throwing money into the hat. After they left I turned to Hanna and she was gone. Mais ga de don. That girl went up and disappeared on me. So I gathered up the money and went home round six. Lets turn this over to Flora. I like her code name, but loved her real name. But I still call her Flora.]

[Hey its Rose. I went check out that job at the florists. I told her I could only work for the day, but she was happy to get the help. She led me back to the green house and showed me around. I had never seen such beautiful flowers. I helper with the arrangements. She told me I was a natural. So I spent the day selling, arranging, watering, cutting and fertilizing. After I was done she went to show me some thing.]
Manager; I can’t seem to get these to grow. I’ve tried every thing.
Rose; Try this.
[I gave her a small bag of my special plant food.]
Rose; This will make you plants bloom in a matter of minutes.
[She looked very skeptical.]

Rose; Go ahead try it. What have to got to lose?
Manager; Good point.
[She put it in a jug of water and mixed it up. And poured some on each of the seedling. After thirty second they began to sprout and after a minute they began to grow up. After five minutes they were full and in bloom.]
Manager; That was amazing. What’s in this stuff?
Rose; It’s a secret.
[She gave me my pay and I left. I was the second to last one to get back. Well all sat in one room counting our doe and telling our stories.]
Bobby; Well so far together we got about 15 hundred.
[It wasn’t bad but it wasn’t too much we would have to do this again soon.]
Maria; Before you start looking so down we got to wait till Hanna gets back. How much you want to bet she tripled what we all got together?
[So we waited. Soon Hanna came back with the bag she left with. She dropped it on the table. It made the legs it shake. She opened it and poured the contents on the table. I had never seen so much cash in my life.]
Nathan; What did you do rob a bank?
Hanna; Ha, ha.
Derek; Seriously though. How did you get this kind of cash?
Raven; I know I didn’t get nearly that much for selling my stones.
Hanna; Ever heard of find the queen, even or odd, draw, find the nickel...
Kenya; You mean you hustled all this cash form other people?
Hanna; Not all of it. I got most of it from telling fortunes and reading palms.
Kenya; I thought my picking pockets was bad but you. Oh man you really topped me off. I raise my glass to you girl.
[We counted up Hanna’s money. And let me tell you this girl knows how to work.]
Maria; How much?
Kenya; Yeah come on.
[Bobby leaned back in his seat and ran his finger through his hair.]
Bobby; Five grand even.
All; Whoa.
[Hanna was sitting smugly back in her seat as we all just stared at her.]
Hanna; It wasn’t easy. Especially when these people want their money back. Look at this.
[She had been wearing a bandana around her neck. She removed it and it looked like some one had tried to slit her throat.]

Kenya; Damn girl. You better watch your self.
[Nathan looked nervous. Like he was concerned for her, but didn’t want to say any thing because the others weren’t. It was apparent to every one that he loved her except for Mr. and Mrs. Ignorant. I knew love was blind, but I didn’t know it was stupid. If Hanna was reading his signs then she was either teasing him or ignoring him. Either way it was pretty cruel and sweet at the same time. Well its time for the old switcher-oo. See ya later.]

[Im back. I can’t believe Hanna could make so much money off of ignorant people. It was amazing and appalling at the same time. My guess, this is why people have so much respect for her. So we get some food and a good nights sleep and we hit the road again. We travel for the rest of the day. When I wake up I look over at Hanna. Damn she looks like crap. I think she’s sick, but she doesn’t say any thing. After every one wakes up.]
Hanna; Hey Maria!
Maria; Yeah?
Hanna; Toss me that bottle of liquor back there.
Maria; No way. Not while your driving.
Hanna; Im not going to drink it you idiot. Its this...
[She pulls off the handkerchief around her neck. Oh my god. Apparently she thought it was just infected, but my god the veins in her neck had turned purple and was very pail around the wound.]
Nathan: Um Hanna?
Hanna; Huh?
[She looks in the side mirror, her eyes widen and she swerves to the side of the road. She pulls down the mirror from the visor and looks at her neck. The guys behind us pull over. Hanna’s hand shakes as she inspects her neck. She pulls her hands back and looks at them. They are pail and violently shaking. Soon Hanna is in the back and Kenya is driving. Bobby is looking at her wound and checking her over.]
Bobby; Did you see the guy who did this?
Hanna; Yes.
Bobby; What did his blade look like?
Hanna; It was um...[she was having trouble focusing. She swerved back and I caught her hand before she fell. They were like ice.]
Hanna; It looked like an ice pick, with a sharp side.
Bobby; I see. The blade was poisoned most likely.

Hanna; Can’t you....can’t...
[She fell back dead faint. I caught her.]
Nathan; Hanna. Hanna!
Bobby; Its no use. Look lay her down. Pull over !
[Kenya pulled over. It was getting close to sun set so we stopped to make camp. We made I fire and placed her near it. She had a bad fever and was shaking all over. We covered her. Maria tried to clean her wound with the liquor we had. Bobby put a kettle on the fire and brought out his apothecary. He was mixing up some strange things. Hanna’s breathing was becoming raspy as if it was caught in her throat.]
Derek; What’s happening?
Bobby; Her throats constricting.
[He ground up some sort of paste and covered her throat with it. Her breathing became normal. He mixed up some thing else.]
Bobby; Here get her to drink this. It will lower her fever.
[He gave the cup to Nina and I lifted her head. We poured it down her throat. He was working over another potion or some thing. It exploded a few times. He got out a syringe and filled it. He injected her arm with it.]
Bobby; There. Now all we do is wait and hope it works.
Raven; What will it do?
Bobby; It will draw the toxins from her body and make it gather in one place. Then we extract that and she will no longer be poisoned, but the problem will be where it will all gather. I will have to, I guess you could say, cut her open to extract it. And if it goes in the wrong place we might have a bit of a problem.
Rose; How will we know?
Bobby; You’ll see.
[And see we did. There was a glowing coming from under her shirt on her side. Bobby lifted her shirt and took out his knife. We turned away for this. After he was done he stitched the wound and wiped it clean. ]
Bobby; Ok you weaklings. Its safe to look.
[He had a small blue crystal in his hand.]
Bobby; It crystalizes and becomes neutral. At least until put back into a body.

[Hanna was breathing fine, her face and neck normal color. I was very happy and relieved that she was ok. We all settled down and went to sleep. I woke in the middle of the night as I often do. Hanna was up. And she had strayed from us again. I got up and went go find her. She was playing that flute Mystic had given her. It was a soft sad melody. She stopped playing and started singing with the tune she had just played. She stopped and I felt my self being roughly pull toward her.]
Hanna; That’s why I nick named you dog. Your like a puppy to its master.
[She always had a way of making me feel stupid.]
Hanna; Don’t take it personally. I kind of like it. Its nice not to be alone anymore.
[I went and sat next to her.]
Nathan; How are you feeling?
Hanna; Im fine. Were you worried about me?
[What kind of question is that? But I was truthful.]
Nathan; Very.
[She smiled lightly. This girl is so unpredictable, so mysterious.]
Hanna; I had a dream, while I was sleeping. You were there. You were always there. You’ll never leave me will you?
Nathan; No.
Hanna; Im glad.
[I was pondering if she would tell me yet. If she would tell me about Mental.]
Hanna; Not yet. Some day, but not now.
Nathan; Ok.
[She turned to me and stroked my face. It felt good, not wrong. In fact it felt right.]
Hanna; So understanding.
[Her eyes were so deep, so beautiful. It was like I could look in them forever. She removed her hand and looked away. No don’t go was what my heart was saying even though she remained where she was. It was also screaming. “Say some thing you idiot! Do some thing!” but I couldn’t I was frozen there. She was laughing as if she could read my internal conflict.]
Nathan; Can you read minds?
Hanna; Not really, I can read your feelings and that’s not from my powers. You’re a sweet kid Nathan.
[Oh man. She called me a kid. That was it, no go man. There was obviously too much of an age gap. It almost made me want to cry. ]
Hanna; No. Your not a kid. But you aren’t a man. Not yet.
[I looked at her.]
Hanna; And let me tell you. Maybe I can wait.

[She got up and left me more confused and more happy that ever. There were so many mixed signals I didn’t know what to believe. I guess I would just wait and see what happens. I went back and went to sleep. The next morning Hanna was back in the drivers seat. Hanna always was the leader and I think it was either because she was the oldest or because she was the strongest. And I don’t know why either, but she always had me sitting next to her. People would argue over who gets front seat and Hanna would just say forget it Nathan’s sitting in the front seat. They’d all say why and she’d say Im her favorite. I was always the butt of many a joke. It pissed me off so much it was all I could do to ignore it. Hanna would always do some thing more amusing than the jokes of me. Like when the person who made the joke...]
Hanna; Think that funny huh?
[Kenya got up and started walking.]
Kenya; Ya. I do.
Hanna; Well then you’ll love this. Have a nice trip.
[She tripped him with her mind and every one busted out laughing. He was gonna hit her on the head but he went straight through.]
Kenya; You phased me. How’d you do that?
Hanna; I can do any thing once I set my mind to it.
[She was great. Through the whole next week it took to get to New York. Vegas was a joke compared to New York. The state of liberty was awesome, the empire state building was huge and the new memorial they were building for 9-11 was very nice also. We checked into a hotel that night planning to look in the morning. It was a nicer hotel than the others we had stayed in. We had two rooms, guys, girls. But at the moment we were mixing. We were all in the girls room hanging out. There was a knock on the door. Hanna answered it. There was a tall young man, with long black hair tide back, blue eyes and black cloths. Hanna screamed and threw her self on him.]
Hanna; Mystic! Its so good to see you.
[He seemed very happy to see her too. She let go of him and he came in. He seemed sort of like a dark and indifferent person. ]
Maria; Hey there.
Kenya; Its been awhile my friend.
Hanna; These are the new recruits. We have Rose, Raven, Nathan, Derek, and Bobby.
Mystic; Nice to meet you.
[His eyes were dark and shifty and I could tell he was also Japanese. Hanna was over joyed to see him. This did disturb me slightly. He sat down.]
Mystic; So what kind of powers do our new recruits have?

Rose; I can control plants and flowers.
Raven; I can control wind.
Nathan; I have great accuracy and jumping span.
[Mine sounded lame but he seemed interested in mine.]
Derek; I can heal people.
Bobby; Im a master of Voodoo.
[He cracked a smile at Bobby. You could tell just by looking that they loathed each other.]
Mystic; Not bad.
Hanna; So what you been doing this whole time?
Mystic; Doing some stuff for Doc. He’s got some thing planned. You know how he is. He set up a new base right here in the city.
Maria; Isn’t that a bit conspicuous?
Mystic; He’s got one of those really stupid ideas like it will be so conspicuous they won’t suspect any thing.
Kenya; Like a right in front of your face thing.
Mystic; Yeah and you know the doc. When ever he has one of those idea’s they are usually right.
[We decided to go out that night. We went to a club. The people were dancing all over each other. Nina went with Kenya. Bobby found another young girl. Raven went with Rose and Hanna oh..... with Mystic. I watched them my blood boiling. Me and Derek were the only ones not dancing until Maria came and dragged him out there. She showed him how and it wasn’t long until he was dancing like the others. I was all alone still watching Hanna and Mystic. The guy was smiling. I only saw him smile when in the presence of her. It just made me so mad. I was watching when a girl came and asked me to dance with her. I tried to refuse, but she dragged me out and I had no choice, but to dance. I escaped after a few songs. I saw Hanna and Mystic go out of the back door. I went out the front. I needed some air. I saw them walk out into the woods behind the club. I followed with all the stealth my body contained. I climbed up into a tree with out using the branches. Damn I was like frickin spider man. I followed them in the tops of trees keeping as quiet as humanly possible. He was bringing her some where. They finally reached a cliff with a rail. He uncovered her eyes. It was quite a sight. The city was below them and was sparkling like thousands of stars.]
Hanna; Its beautiful. Isn’t it the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen?
Mystic; The second.
[I could see her smiling.]

Hanna; Im so glad your back Mystic.
Mystic; Me too. I missed you very much.
[he was holding her close. I could have just run down there and punched him, but I remained silent.]
Hanna; I missed you too. You are my dearest friend.
Mystic; What about more than a friend?
[She looked into his eyes.]
Hanna; What are you saying?
[It wasn’t negative. She really was asking.]
Mystic; We’ve been apart for so long and I’ve been thinking the whole time. Now there is no doubt in my mind. Im saying....Im saying...I love you.
[He moved in and kissed her, she didn’t pull away in fact they embraced each other. It felt like some one had stuck a sword right through my heart. I couldn’t watch it any more. I went back.]

To be continued...

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RosettaMoon; I reread all of this once again and it made me wanna cry it was so bad. I promise after this torture is over we can get to the good stuff.