Eleven
The walk back to the gold room was quiet. Caleb was thinking about how to go about telling his family. But as soon as we walked into the ballroom, I knew we wouldn't be telling anyone anything right then.
The family was scattered all over the place as they watched Kyle juggling in the center. He was laughing and then he started to dance. He moved his feet and kept the rhythm of the oranges he was juggling. Caleb and I went to stand next to Gran as everyone watched with big smiles on their faces. When he started doing the Moonwalk, I lost my composure.
He was so good at it! Caleb and I laughed uneasily, and Gran slapped her knee in her joy as she chuckled. Lynne was jumping up and down, clapping and laughing as she watched. When he was done, he collected his oranges and bowed. Lynne jumped at him as he made his way to her and he almost fell over as she wrapped her arms around his neck.
As everyone was laughing at the spectacle they were making, Maria made her way to us. She hugged me around my middle and smiled before saying, "Uncle Caleb, will you play for me?"
"Play what, M?" he said and leaned down to hear her over the ruckus.
"The guitar. Mom's going to play piano and I want to sing Brighter Than The Sun." Caleb groaned in jest and Maria pressed her palms together in front of her face and pleaded. "Please!"
"Oh, alright," he conceded and turned to me. "I'll be back. A little public humiliation never hurt anyone, right?"
I saw in his mind that he played every single time they came together for the reunification. He was just being his modest,
I laughed and accepted his kiss to my cheek. While he was getting started, Gran looped her arm through mine. "Did you get your blood tests done?"
"Yes, ma'am," I answered. "Did y'all convene about Caleb yet?"
"No, ma'am," she said and nudged me to make sure I understood her joke. "I'm sure they'll bring it up sooner than later."
"Do you enjoy being on the council?"
"Not a minute of it," she admitted, "but it was appointed to me and I figured my Raymond would've wanted me to do it."
At the mention of Caleb's grandfather's name I winced.
"What's wrong?" she asked with concern.
"Nothing, I just…" I stalled. Caleb wanted to tell his family all together about his grandfather. It was such a shock to lose someone. Once you had a significant, you could always be healed, so early death was not common among their race. And the fact that it wasn't an accident and he was murdered so maliciously and deviously just made things even worse. "I'm just trying to…strategize," I told her.
I smiled at Caleb as he strummed along and Maria's sweet, melodious little voice carried across the room to the tune of Colbie Caillat. He winked and I couldn't help but grin at him.
"Well get to strategizing, girl," she said, "cause here we go."
I started to ask what she meant, but I saw Donald coming across the room with a posse of council members behind him. Maria was just finishing her song and Caleb stood with a grimace before making quick strides to my side. He took my hand and pulled me behind him. I wanted to tell him it wasn't me that was in danger, it was him.
"Come, Winifred," Donald commanded. "We will begin the trial at this time."
Gran went with them silently and they all left without another word.
The rest of the long, waiting day was spent watching everyone who wanted to perform for us. They all had talents, some to do with their abilities. Some were pretty hilarious and some were fantastically masterful.
Caleb wrapped his arms around me from behind. I could feel his chuckles as we watched a guy with blonde hair and a green bowtie do magic tricks. Caleb was trying to put my focus on other things and not what was going on in the room back there. I was grateful to him for it, but I wasn't about to let it go.
"Everything will be alright," he said into the skin under my ear. He kissed the same spot. "I promise."
"You're right, it will." I smiled. "Because I'm going in there."
"Maggie-"
I turned to him. "I told you, I wasn't going to sit by and watch."
He lifted his hands as if to say, whatever, go ahead, his dimple in full swing.
I kissed him and made my way to the room that the others had gone through. Peter caught up to me.
"I can only guess what you're going to do," he said wryly.
"Caleb wouldn't just sit out there while my trial was going on, would he?" I asked. I saw Peter's face light up. His mind still, even after weeks had passed, couldn't wrap itself around the fact that his son belonged to me and I was just as gung-ho about his safety and happiness as he was about mine.
"I know that this won't change anything," he said carefully. "Their decision is set in stone already, but it makes me so proud that you would try."
"I have to," was all I could say. I made my way to the 'sentencing room'. I figured you should just call it what it was.
I stayed in the hall, waiting for the right time to burst through with my proclamation off Caleb's release from responsibility from this. He was saving me, shouldn't that count for something?
I waited….and waited, and waited. They talked about everything but Caleb. I was there for over an hour waiting for them to get to the point. When they started discussing the cracking ceiling in the gold room once more, I slid down the wall to my haunches in aggravation. What on earth was wrong with them? They were talking in circles.But then I realized the conversation was exactly like before. Word for word. Daggumit!
The room was charmed! Just like when Ruth had Rodrigo charm the infirmary room so no one would hear what we were talking about. I tried to focus on the room, to hear what Gran was saying and what was being said, but I couldn't. Their thoughts were all blocked and I had my definitive answer.
Those jackals!
I dallied no longer and burst through the door of the room. They all looked up surprised as they sat poised behind a rounded table so they could all face each other. They stood and bowed slightly. This room was not lacking in embellishments either, but I turned to the problem at hand. Before I could speak, Donald addressed me in his formal, irritating way.
"Ah, Visionary. We were just discussing your pregnancy results and it turns out that you are not! Isn't that wonderful?" he beamed and waited to see if I reciprocate.
""I already knew that," I replied starkly. "I'm here to ask for clemency for Caleb. I want to explain what happened so that you understand that what he did was absolutely necessary."
"We never doubted that Caleb thought he acted accordingly," Paulo said and bowed slightly to me again, as if just now remembering. "Visionary. Our concern is that the law states no matter the terms-"
"I know, I heard this earlier. I'm saying that it wasn't self defense though. He did what he did to save me. One of the members of the Watson clan was coming after me with a gun."
"A gun!" Donald roared and laughed loudly. "Why on earth would an Ace need a gun?"
"Because they have no abilities," I reminded him, though it made me feel almost sorry for the Watsons to have to resort to that. What else was a villain with no power to do?
"A gun," he mused again and chuckled, annoying the heck out of me. "If you had said a knife maybe, or even a baseball bat, it may have been more credible."
"What are you saying, Donald?" Paulo hissed, his eyes darting furiously in indecision.
"I'm just saying that I think our Visionary is stressed…and maybe a little confused." He stood menacing and tall. "I spoke with Marla on this matter and she informed me of all of your little problems with your new power; breaking glass, light bulbs. We even saw your little display yesterday with the…blue things."
"Energy ribbons," I snapped.
"Yes, those. I don't think there's any shame in admitting that things are getting to be too much for you."
"It's not," I answered, but the glasses on the table started to rattle, sloshing drops of water all over the wooden surface. I took a deep breath, praying Caleb didn't bust in here to see what was the matter. "This is just backlash of what happens when I get upset. Or angry," I said harshly to Donald. "It doesn't mean that I'm not in control and my view of what happened that day isn't confused with helplessness. I remember everything perfectly clear. Caleb was shot in the stomach," I saw Gran flinch, "and I had to save him with my touch. As a matter of fact, I'll show you."
I opened up my mind to do so, but forgot I needed Caleb to do these kinds of things. "Wait just a second. Let me go get Caleb and I'll show you-"
"Caleb cannot be present at his own trial!" Donald refuted earnestly. "Visionary, there are rules!"
"But I'm telling you it wasn't his fault," I argued. I'd never felt so temperamental in all my life. They were bringing out my worst teenage girl attributes and it was pissing me off even more. "I need Caleb to show you what I'm talking about. He's the trigger for my Visionary abilities."
"Preposterous," he said slowly, but his eye lit with something I didn't understand. "There's no way your ability needs someone else to make it work. The Visionary is her own power, her own ability."
"I'm telling you the truth," I bristled. "And I'm getting kind of tired of you calling me a liar."
"Forgive me, that's not what I meant," he replied, but the exasperation in his voice refuted any apology in it. I stared hard at him and squinted, letting him know that I knew his thoughts weren't available to me. "I just mean to say that there are laws and rules that cannot be broken for anyone, no matter the reason. The laws are what we've lived by for centuries, and we can't change that for one boy who broke them in hopes of using his significant as a free pass."