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Mom nodded as Dad craned his neck around her to see what Burke was looking at. “For posterity. And I have a feeling you’re going to want to watch it after I’m done.”
“Done with what?” Dad asked, pushing Burke’s arm off him. “What’s going on, Jenny? You’re starting to freak me out.”
She fidgeted, moving like she didn’t know how to stop. Nick was struck once again by how he took after her. She couldn’t keep still, and Nick thought it was more than just nerves. What if she’d been like him? ADHD was genetic, right?
“Okay,” Mom said. “I’m going to show you something, and you’ll have a billion questions, but I ask that you … wait until I’m done. I don’t have anyone else I trust that I can show this to. Ididn’t get a chance to talk about it with Mom before she died, and Dad’s been gone for years, so no help there.”
Dad paled. “Are you sick?”
She laughed, but it wasn’t like the day in the park in their future. It was fragile and soft, like she was scared. “No. Not—not in the way you’re thinking. It’s nothingbad, but some might see it that way, which is why I’ve kept this to myself for as long as I have.”
“What is it?” Burke asked. “Jenny, you can tell us anything. We’re here for you.”
“I know,” Mom said, glancing over her shoulder at the camera. “And that’s why I asked you both to come here today. Aaron, because I love you and this might affect you, too, one day, if we decide to have a family. Simon, because I need your brain. You’re smart, and if anyone can figure this out, it’s you.”
Burke arched an eyebrow, and Nick wanted to smash his face in. “Consider my interest piqued.”
“Okay,” she said. “Just … hold on.” She stepped off-screen once more, Dad’s and Burke’s gazes following her. She reappeared only a moment later, holding a clear plastic cup filled with what looked like water. She set it down on the cheap coffee table in front of the couch. The two men leaned forward with interest, Burke’s gaze narrowing as he stared at the cup, Dad looking up from the table at Mom, confused. Mom took a step back from the table so the camera had a clear view. She said, “You might want to sit back,” as she raised her right hand, palm outstretched toward the cup.
Dad did so immediately. Burke hesitated but followed suit.
“What’s she doing?” Jazz asked as a buzzing noise began to fill Nick’s ears.
“I don’t know,” he mumbled. “Like, a magic trick? She’s—”
The cup shook slightly as if someone had kicked the table, the water rippling.
Dad’s eyes bulged. “What was that? An earthquake? I felt it in the couch. Jenny, you—”
“Hush,” she said. “I need to focus.” She crooked her fingers likelittle claws before taking a deep breath, letting it out slow. The cup twitched before rising off the table in midair, spinning end over end without spilling any water. It lowered back to the table. Her fingers twitched as her brow furrowed. Instead of the cup lifting off the table once more, thewaterdid, rising like it was sentient, limbs reaching out and gripping the edge of the cup. The water—the goddamnwater—pulled itself out of the cup, quivering but holding together. The glass toppled over, but the water didn’t spill and splash out. It formed a small translucent ball, glittering in the sunlight pouring in from a window out of sight.
The water ball began to stretch until it was at least a foot long, a thin strand whose surface rippled like a rock thrown into a pond.
“Oh my god,” Dad and Nick breathed at the same time.
Mom glanced back at the camera again, a trickle of sweat sliding down her cheek. When she looked back at the water, the ends of the strand connected, forming a circle. It widened as it moved above her. She lowered her hand, the circle descending until it passed her head, her shoulders, her arms, her chest to her waist. She shimmied her hips a little, and the water bounced back and forth, wetting her shirt slightly when it touched her.
“A hula hoop,” she said. “Funny, right?”
Dad gaped at her. “Funny?Funny? Jenny, what the hell? How are you doing this?”
Burke didn’t look away from the sight in front of him. “Isn’t it obvious?” he murmured. Nick didn’t like the expression on his face. It was off, somehow, and hungry. “Psychokinesis. Telekinesis. The same thing, for all intents and purposes.”
The water burst apart and fell onto the carpet, splashing against her feet. She grimaced, raising each foot and shaking the droplets off. “That’s what I need you for. I don’t understand what this is. It’s always been with me, for as long as I could remember. This is the least of what I can do.” Her voice cracked when she said, “Aaron. Please. Say something. I wasn’t trying to keep this from you. I didn’t know how to tell you.”
“Tell mewhat?” Dad demanded.
Burke put his hand on Dad’s arm. “Aaron, don’t you know what this means?” He smiled as he looked back at Mom. “She’s an Extraordinary.”
The lightbulb hanging in the attic exploded with an electrical snarl, glass falling onto the floor. Nick and Jazz screamed as the television began rocking back and forth, the screen cracking as the picture from years before went black. The TV fell over, the cord pulling from the socket and whipping around, almost hitting Nick in the face. He stumbled back on his butt, crab-walking as the TV fell forward, something inside breaking.
Silence fell.
And it was in this silence that Nick realized he couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t focus. The knot in his head and chest writhed as the fractured bulb swung back and forth on its chain. He was nearly blind with panic, his breath whistling out his nose. Flashes of light burst across his vision. The walls began to close in around him.
He flinched when he felt hands on him, rubbing up and down his back. Through the storm in his head, he heard Jazz’s worried voice. “Breathe, Nicky. Come on. You can do this. Breathe, just breathe. In.In, Nick.”
He couldn’t do what she was asking. His lungs didn’t work. They were dead in his chest, his skin clammy. He wascold. He’d never been so cold in his life. He tried to inhale. It didn’t work. The attic became hazy around him, the shadows bled together, and Jazz wasdemandingthat he take a breath right this second or she was going to call 911.
