Item and Time

3 Still New-1

3

Still NewJonah's dinner of seafood salad did wonders to purge the sour taste in his mouth after that afternoon. Usually, Fridays were a hard-earned gateway to the weekend. But at the moment, he had never felt so humiliated and idiotic in his life.

So Vera had literally stalked his dreams for nearly a month. Then she showed up in person earlier that day to converse in that dusty hell of a coffeehouse. And then, four hours later, she suddenly didn't know him?

What the hell was happening? The thing that nagged him the most was the fact that the woman gave him her name and address and then acted as though he were some sick pervert. The more Jonah thought on that, however, the more that he could see it as a valid assumption to make. If she truly thought that she didn't know him, he probably did come off as creepy. Why did he have to mention that he'd seen her in his dreams?

He distracted himself by reaching into his pocket and pulling out his two favorite possessions, his steel batons.

Jonah happened across the batons the previous September, when it had fallen to him to get his friends out of a hostage situation. He'd discovered that when he was in possession of a spiritual endowment, the batons would ignite with blue current, which was the same color as his aura. His friends had been in complete awe of Jonah's ability to use them; according to them, the batons had never responded to the touch of any other Eleventh Percenter. Jonah wondered if they were exclusive to him since he was the Blue Aura.

After Jonah had had time to further analyze them, he'd found that they were retractable. It had been quite accidental; he had been looking them over and inadvertently jostled a switch at the left one's stem that he'd never noticed before. The baton had entered into itself so suddenly that Jonah dropped it. When he flicked the switch again, it returned to its original state and knocked over a god-awful vase that had been a graduation present from one of his professors. While that hadn't been a tragic loss by any means, he usually kept them in retracted, or as Reena called it, dormant form.

To be safe, however, he carried the batons with him at all times. This was due to his essence being very raw, which had been explained to him as his newness to his sensitivity of the Eleventh Percent. Because of this, he could still be vulnerable to vengeful spirits (called minions) or dark Eleventh Percenters, known as Spirit Reapers. While Jonah's essence had matured a great deal over the months, he was unwilling to let his guard down too much. If anyone happened to ask what was in his pocket, he could always tell them that he collected change, as the batons had an uncanny resemblance to two rolls of quarters in their dormant form.

As Jonah looked over the darkened steel, another troubling thought reared itself. When they'd had spoken in The Southern Bean, Vera told him that some “process” would benefit the both of them if it were started as soon as possible. What did that mean? Regardless of what transpired back at Colerain Place, the fear he'd seen in his dreams was genuine. Even though the paranoid portion of Jonah's brain wanted to remind him of Marla the spy, he knew something about this situation was different. He wasn't a world-class investigator, but the terror that he'd seen in Vera's eyes at The Southern Bean was the type that no one could fake.

But that realization got him no closer to figuring out how it would be bad for him if he didn't help her. What danger was there for him if Vera was the one being chased?

A sharp knock at the door jarred him out of his thoughts. He was still in a rather paranoid state of mind, so he flicked the switch that expanded the right baton. Jonah approached the door warily, baton behind his back, and opened it…to find a familiar face grinning at him.

“Terrence!” he exclaimed, relieved. “What are you doing here?”

“Well,” said Terrence in a pensive voice, “I hadn't seen my pal in a bit, and then heard from my other pal that your essence was screwed up today, so I decided to pay you a visit. Pack a bag. You're coming with us.”

Jonah invited Terrence in, and it was then that the “us” finally registered; two people followed him in. One was of them was another familiar figure, short in stature and very muscular. Bobby Decessio.

“Hey, Bobby,” welcomed Jonah, extending a tense hand (he had to brace himself with Bobby because his pincer-like grip would crunch Jonah's bones). “How is school going?”

“3.1 GPA,” said Bobby with a smirk. “Mama says it could be better, but I'm passing, ain't I? Anyway, I want you to meet my big brother, Alvin.”

Jonah looked over Alvin, and could tell that Alvin was sizing him up as well. The family resemblance was obvious; the brown hair, pointed nose, and shadow of a smirk on his face left no doubts that they were family. Beyond those attributes, though, Jonah didn't think he'd ever seen two dissimilar family members. Bobby was short and chiseled, but Alvin was even taller than Terrence, with a gangly build that Jonah would have expected from a teenager. But Alvin couldn't be a teen. Another quick inspection of his face made Jonah think he was in his early twenties.

“Very nice to finally meet you, Jonah,” Alvin said. “Bobby and Terrence have told us a lot about you.”

Jonah raised an eyebrow. “None of it's true.”

“So you didn't save their butts from minions?”

“Well now,” said Jonah in mock thoughtfulness, “I suppose some of it was true…”

He turned to Terrence. “Did you get to see your admirer out there?” he asked. Leta Sytch, Jonah's neighbor in 7D, had taken an instant liking to Terrence when she saw him last year.

Terrence snorted. “Yeah, we saw her downstairs getting her mail.”

Jonah pulled a face, sitting back down to his meal. “You and Bobby, together? I'm surprised she didn't wet herself.”

They all laughed, but some of the laughter faded out of Terrence's face when he noticed what Jonah was eating.

“Ah,” he said dispiritedly. “Seafood salad.”

“Yes,” said Jonah.

“But, really—” he gave Jonah a pleading look that made him laugh so hard, he was glad he wasn't chewing food at the time.

“Boneless buffalo wings on the second shelf in the fridge,” he told him. “Ranch dressing and pimento loaf in the pantry.”

“Good man!” cried Terrence. He'd retrieved the food quicker than breathing. Jonah was surprised to see that Alvin and Bobby heartily helped themselves along with Terrence.

“Dear Lord,” he said, incredulous, “have you all been fasting, or something?”

“May as well have been,” said Bobby. “Reena told us that brief breaks from protein can assist us with thinking more clearly.”

“Is that true?” asked Jonah.

“It is,” said Alvin, who'd just taken a bite of pimento loaf with great relish, “but Reena proved the point by subjecting us to a meatless hell for two weeks.”

Jonah laughed aloud. Reena rarely ate meat, and had one of the cleanest diets he'd ever seen. While her dietary guidance was almost always accurate and benefitted everyone greatly, her tendency to be a stickler caused more than a little grumbling. When Jonah had been at the estate, he'd seen more than his fair share of caloric cheats there. And what Terrence, Bobby, and Alvin were doing right now was no different.

“You guys help yourself,” he told them. “I'll go get my bag.”

By the time they were on the highway, all four men were sated and pleased. Jonah couldn't have been more thankful Terrence had turned up. He flew solo in the past because he didn't have to deal with so many stupid people. But ever since he'd discovered like-minded, pleasant individuals (mostly pleasant, when he factored in Trip Rivers), the solitary thing didn't work quite so well anymore. And if he had to go three hours down the highway to get to great friends, that's exactly what he would do.

“By the way,” said Terrence suddenly, “why did Reena read you so clearly? Why was your essence so crazy?”

Jonah sighed at the very thought of it. “Oh, that…”

He told them all about Vera. How she had been present in his dreams, the conversation at The Southern Bean, and the debacle at Colerain Place. His story left a puzzled silence in its wake, which Alvin broke. “So the place in the dream was misty?” he asked.

“Well,” said Jonah, thinking back on it, “it wasn't mist, per se. It looked like the environment was being shrouded from me. Like she didn't want me to know where she was.”

“Or didn't want her pursuers to know,” said Terrence. “Didn't want mental links to be firing and alerting anyone.”

“Or anything,” said Bobby.

“Who would be there, though?” asked Jonah. “Creyton's done. Who else is there?”

“Jonah,” said Alvin slowly, “Creyton was the worst one, but not the only one. I don't think it's a long shot to assume that another Reaper might be trying to hurt your lady friend.”

“She isn't my lady friend,” said Jonah automatically, but at the same time, Vera's warning flickered in his mind once more. He decided to go along with Alvin's theory. “But say it is some other Reaper. How does that connect this woman to me?”

“Well, your bit is kind of obvious,” said Terrence. “The vacuum you created when you took out Creyton probably got other Reapers feeling ambitious. But this Vera lady…that part's odd.”

Jonah felt like a novice again, which in many ways, he still was. He considered himself very lucky to have survived last September, but were there other Reapers out there who though it had been a lucky shot as well? Did they want to come out of the woodwork to screw things up in their own way?

“It was probably more random than anything else,” he said, hoping to sound offhand. “At Colerain Place, Vera acted like she didn't have a clue what was going on, so it will probably blow over. Water over the dam, you know?”

“Maybe,” said Alvin, “but you still ought to be careful. It could be a situation where it's that water over the dam that causes the flood.”

Alvin's warning stayed in Jonah's mind, but most of the unnerving thoughts and musings of Vera faded as they rolled up to the Grannison-Morris estate. The place was palatial as ever and looked as steadfast as The Parthenon. The grounds were freshly mown and meticulously manicured. Though the hour was pretty late, he could still make out the oak bridge that arched over the pond to his favorite writing place, the gazebo. He stepped out of the car, and paused to allow blood to flow to his stiff limbs. Several months ago, the face of this estate had been damaged by Creyton. He was thankful to see no traces of that damage now. The estate had a grace and prestige that was almost royal.

“I know, man,” said Terrence with a half-smile. “I never get tired of this place, either.”

“How could you, Terrence?” said Alvin. “Your room here is bigger than the one you have at home.”

“That doesn't even matter,” said Terrence, “but I wouldn't object to seeing Mama soon.”

Jonah smiled as he listened to them. He remembered that Terrence had been taken in by Bobby and Alvin's parents after he'd saved Bobby from getting hit by a van. They became Terrence's informal parents, and Alvin and Bobby, along with their two older brothers, became his informal siblings.

“Forget about Vera for the time being, Jonah,” said Terrence, bringing Jonah's mind back to the present. “Peace time now, seriousness later. Now come on, you've got people to meet! Just one thing.”

He pushed a stick of spearmint chewing gum into Jonah's palm. “I love Reena dearly, but I will be damned if I'll be made to feel guilty for eating good food.”

Jonah had never seen the estate this populated. There were easily fifty people here, yet he noticed that this place accommodated them all with no trouble. With a flicker of irritation, Jonah knew he would have to establish his reputation once again, but as he introduced himself to the people, he found that that wasn't necessary. The friends he'd made already had recounted his exploits so thoroughly that it was almost like he wasn't a stranger to anyone. The new introductions proved simple enough, and among the many new faces and names, some stuck out to him: Douglas Chandler, a yuppie-looking undergraduate whose pristine polo shirt, chinos, and naïve expression instantly made Jonah think of a bright-eyed, bushy-tailed kid with warped views of the world; Maxine Pearson, a nerdy black young woman who was obsessed with cartoons and all things science fiction; Magdalena Cespedes, who looked like a fashion model with nary a thought in her head but actually turned out to be really present and kind-natured; Ben-Israel Larver, a Green Aura like Jonah's friend Liz Manville (but lacked her warmth and skill); and Royal Spader.