Julian scanned the room where both he and Nicholas were ambushed. He eyed Peel, who stared at him imploringly, as if asking, Please, get us out of this. Nicholas stood calmly in the grip of the two muggers that held him, although Julian could detect a certain tension coming from his direction. As for himself, he felt his own captor’s grip tighten menacingly. He racked his mind for options. Surprise the guy behind him? No…the others might hurt Peel and Nicholas if they see that. And trying to free the others first might land him in harm’s way. He couldn’t think…he needed a plan.
“I’d at least like to know how you managed to hide in this room.” Stalling. Stalling is good. It beats just standing there. “I didn’t see you when we came in.”
The man holding Peel chuckled, a hoarse, coughing laugh that rumbled deep in his chest. “No one ever notices, but there are a few tables placed near the doors where there are blind angles.” He smiled evilly. “They never see it coming.” Julian darted his eyes briefly to the tables the man was talking about. Indeed, there were three tables placed so that they go unnoticed. Okay, at least his curiosity was satisfied. Still no plan, though.
“So what do you plan to do to us?” his voice was a little shaky, but he tried to hide it. The mugger on Nicholas’ left responded. “We’re gonna leave youse seein’ stars, punk!”
Seeing stars, huh? Now that was an idea. Julian turned to Peel, who was still staring at him nervously, and shut his eyes tightly. Peel, in response, raised an eyebrow. She obviously wasn’t getting it. Julian sighed inwardly. He tried mouthing the words, ‘close your eyes’ to Peel, but she still didn’t respond. Ah, the heck with it Julian tightened his fist and wrenched his arm free of his attacker, then whirled and extended his hand. “PK Flash!” he cried, and a blinding light invaded the room, causing everybody to wince in pain. Like lightning, Julian lifted the man closest him with Telekinesis, then hurled him across the room at Peel’s captor, knocking him down. He called out the Aswer and sent it hurling at the one to the left of Nicholas. The Aswer smacked him in the head, rendering him unconscious. The final attacker, who was regaining vision by now, lifted a nearby chair and attempted to hurl it at Julian, but he called up a Shield before it hit and the chair bounced off harmlessly.
One of the muggers, the one who had held Peel earlier, rose and advanced menacingly at Julian, rolling up his sleeve and growling menacingly. Before he could get there, though, he felt a slight tapping on his shoulder. Turning reflexively, he saw Nicholas, or rather Nicholas’ fist flying towards his face. The impact sent him flying back and onto the floor. Nicholas stumbled forward clumsily and noticed his fist, then recovered his balance and grinned. “I guess I tripped.” Julian nodded incredulously. “Yeah. Right.”
***
“You could have warned me about the whole flash thing, you know.” Peel complained. “I still can’t see straight, you know that? I could have permanent eye damage!” Julian shrugged her off. “I did warn you. You just weren’t paying attention.”
“Whatever.” Peel walked slightly ahead of Julian as they headed for a nearby house to ask for directions. “The next time, clue me in on your little heroics, all right?” Julian sighed and rolled his eyes. “Fine, I’m sorry.” He put his hand on Peel’s shoulder. “Let’s just forget it. Nicholas said the person in that house over there might know Ninten’s whereabouts. We shouldn’t be arguing now that we’re this close.”
Before running off again, Nicholas had told Julian and Peel of a person living in the outskirts of Podunk who used to be a friend of Ninten’s. This person, a girl named Pippi, used to be a playmate of his before from five years ago. When asked how exactly he knew this information, Nicholas began laughing nervously, as if hiding something, and ran off. Oh well…Julian had a feeling they’d meet again anyway.
As Julian rapped
his knuckles on the wooden door he realized how much the house looked like his
own home back in Snowman. A sudden
surge of homesickness invaded Julian’s insides and he felt his eyes get hot
with tears, but he fought back the urge to cry with adamancy. I can’t act like this in front of Peel he
kept telling himself as he wiped a tear from his eye, masking the action by
turning away. She’d never let me hear the end of it…
The door opened and a young woman poked her head through the doorway. “May I help you?” she asked meekly, her voice nothing more than an barely audible whisper. Julian snapped himself back to reality and focused on the woman. “Oh…he-hello…” he began nervously. His cap came off his head and hung from his hand. “I-I was wondering if you could help me find someone…” He gulped hard, but before he could finish Peel butted in. “Someone told us you knew a kid named Ninten. We came all the way from Merrysville-well, I did anyway. He came from Snowman. So, can you help us?” The woman’s eyebrows raised in surprise, and she cocked her head to the side. “You…know Ninten?” Peel nodded. “We sorta need his input on something, you know?” The woman nodded and spoke again, this time audibly louder. “I see. Well, I don’t think you should stand out there like that. Please come in.”
The young woman, Pippi, poured Julian and Peel a cup of tea, then served some for herself and sat down in the amply furnished living room. Her red hair hung in a ponytail, and she wore a flowered pink dress that she stroked constantly. “So, what do you need to know about Ninten? His past? His friends?” Julian shook his head as he nibbled on a cracker. “No…we just need to know where he is. If you could tell us where his house is we’d appreciate it.” Pippi sipped on her tea and put the white cup down. She eyed Julian over. “Well, that’s of no use if you just want to find him…he isn’t there anymore.”
“Is that so?” Peel had already gobbled three crackers and gulped her second cup of tea. “Well, do you know where he went, by any chance? More, please.” She lifted her cup and Pippi poured more tea inside. She sighed. “Sort of. When he left, he stopped here and told me that he was heading towards Reindeer. That was the last I heard of him.” Peel turned to Julian. “See? There. All we need to do is go to Reindeer and, POOF! Problem solved.” She started nibbling on another cracker. Pippi sighed again. “I…wouldn’t be too sure.” Peel paused. “How’s that?”
“I said I wouldn’t be too sure. He probably isn’t there anymore.”
“Umm…why?”
“Well…he left over two years ago. He told me he was going to Reindeer two years ago.”
“Oh.” Peel’s head swiveled around to Julian. “So, what now?” Julian, who had been quiet most of the time, looked up from his tea and stared back at Peel. “I…maybe we should head to Reindeer anyway. It seems better than staying here, don’t you think?” Peel nodded. “Pro’bly. I think we should go for it.” Julian nodded apprehensively. “Okay. We’ll leave in the morning.” Julian turned to Pippi. “Say, Pippi? Could we stay the night here? We’re sort of low on cash, and we can’t afford a hotel.” Pippi smiled. “No problem. Be my guest.” She said as she began clearing the table and taking everything to the kitchen.
***
After saying their goodbyes to Pippi, Julian and Peel headed back the way they came towards Merrysville. The blockade on the bridge had been lifted after the previous day, and the duo was able to make it back to Peel’s hometown with ease. Unfortunately, Union Station was still closed for repairs, due to ‘an incident involving a gas leak and some fireworks’ (“You really made a mess of the place!” Peel teased, making Julian blush with embarrassment).
The small black-and-white television on the floor of Peel’s rather small apartment flicked to life once again as the two teenagers sat before it on the worn-down brown couch and began eating their humble dinner of two microwave meals. They are in silence; they hadn’t eaten during their trip back from Podunk and preferred paying attention to their meals and not to each other. Besides, they had exhausted pretty much every conversational topic they could think of. No, right now there was only food and television.
Or at least, that’s what Peel would have liked to think. While Julian was stuffing plastic forkfuls of mashed potatoes and gravy into his mouth, Peel was meticulously chopping up her Salisbury steak and swirling her peas. She was silently staring at Julian out of the corner of her eye and contemplating his every move. She didn’t know why she was doing this, or for how long she could keep it up until she was noticed, but she figured she would enjoy the moment while it lasted. If she was really enjoying at all, that is. She couldn’t decide whether she wanted to talk to Julian or whether she wanted to see him lift the Styrofoam plate with his powers. It was a mixture of curiosity and wonder, with a little fascination and caring thrown in there somewhere.
As Julian finished his mashed potatoes and moved on to the little rectangle that held his apple sauce, Peel stopped staring at him and looked down at her plate. Was the food at Julian’s house any better? Was his mother kind? Did he have any brothers or sisters? Friends…girlfriends?
“Hey, Julian?”
“What?” answered Julian, turning his head and looking at her, his fork still in his mouth. Peel smiled despite herself. “Will you…tell me about your family?” Julian paused as the meaning of the question sunk in. He gulped his mouthful of applesauce and dropped his fork. “Will you…tell me about yours?” Peel closed her eyes. “I…don’t have a family. Not anymore.”
“Sorry.” Peel waved him off. “It’s okay. I’m used to it by now.” She opened her eyes and stared into his. “So, will you? Tell me about your family?” Julian sighed. He didn’t seem to want to do this. His head dropped and he shook his head. “I just don’t think I can right now.” In response Peel put her hand on his shoulder. “You’re going to have to go back someday, you know.” She whispered. “You can’t just leave forever.”
“Maybe.”
Peel took her hand from Julian’s shoulder and picked up their plates, threw them in the trash can, and headed for her room. “If you ever wanna talk about it…” Julian sighed. “I know…you’ll be there. But I can’t talk about it now. Not yet.” Peel smiled, nodded, and entered her room.
Peel then realized how much she wanted to go visit Julian’s family with him.