Chapter 30: More Power to Her

Three Months Later

It was now the end of May and Tamara’s first college year was over. She had again done well in classes. It was an interesting experience for her to be one of the Clarke scholars to greet and host the next year’s crop of new scholarship recipients. None were from Florida. And what she found most interesting was that none of these students came from schools where the Naked in School Program was running. It was, as Emma had told her once, for the students in those schools, “ ... it was as if they had begun taking stupid pills,” referring to kids who had been graduated from the schools where the Program was being run. Although a few of the current Clarke scholars had been from schools where the Program had been running, she realized that they all had similar circumstances to Charlene and had been in special courses outside their high schools and had spent very little time in their schools.

Tamara felt that she should be very happy going home again, seeing familiar people and places, and enjoying the warmer weather, but something felt “off” to her. She didn’t realize it, but she had already begun to psychologically separate her life from that of her parents. All of her interests, and all of her future plans, were now in Baltimore. Miami was of the past. Memories were of the past. She was now living in the future and had all kinds of ideas tumbling through her thoughts, each fighting for a share of her attention.

With a startled thought, she realized that it had been months since she had to use her special ability; even her premonition sense had been quiet.

That’s probably a good sign, she mused. But I miss the closeness of the lwa that I used to feel.

She vowed to spend as much time in rituals in the ounfò that she could; advice and guidance from the lwa were always welcome.

Tamara had planned to spend only two weeks of her summer break at home; the rest was committed to working in Emma’s lab. She would even be paid as a lab tech since she didn’t need any more research credits—she had maxed out on the earned number. And back in late spring, Emma had hinted that she might even get a start on a research project for a master’s degree in the fall.

“But it’ll only be my sophomore year,” Tamara had begun to object.

“I spoke to Dr Burger, your advisor, this morning. As of the end of semester, you’ll have earned enough credits, plus transferred enough from your Florida schools, to be considered a finishing sophomore. She also showed me that your autumn schedule contains no class lower than a junior level. So the Physics Department considers you a rising junior at this point.”

Tamara opened her mouth to say something but Emma continued.

“Hush. The lab work you’ve done so far clearly demonstrates your research skills. We see very few first-years at this school, despite it being one of the top ten in the world, who are already preparing not one, but two scholarly research papers. Your physics and maths knowledge equals that of any of the grad students in this department, doesn’t it. A master’s project is certainly appropriate for us to consider for you in the autumn.”

Little Haiti, Miami: June

Tamara got together with Linda soon after she got home and Linda invited her to her house to chat about their first college years. She was still dating Carlos.

“Say, girl,” Linda said at one point, “the boys—Carlos and Jerome too—will be around after this weekend. Do you want to get together with them?”

“Why not. But not to do something lame like a movie or food court. That’s so high school.”

Linda chuckled. “True. Speaking of, have you visited Edison since you graduated?”

“Yeah, winter break last year. Saw Barello, Leonard. A few teachers. I was there maybe a half hour at the end of the day.”

“I visited there in the spring. They had that assembly where college kids speak to the kids to tell them about college life. I was one of the speakers then.”

“Tamara nodded. “Yeah, I remember those. Nice you did that. Hear anything gossip-worthy?”

“One thing was how all the Edison kids are bummed that no spirits have visited the school.”

Tamara laughed. “It could be that there’s no nudity—I’m just guessing now.”

“Could be,” Linda grinned. “Barello also thanked me for the guardian corps idea. When I said it was a group idea, she said, ‘But you were the one who got it organized, right?’ and I had to agree. She told me that it’s still working really good. And she told me that her job is so much better, not having to deal with school nudity, real or potential, anymore. And somehow, girl, about that, I have this feeling that you know way more than you let on, Miss Innocent.”

“If I don’t say anything, then I won’t be lying,” Tamara said with a wink.

“I knew it!” Linda exclaimed. “What...”

“Oops. Refer to last statement. I meant those words literally, girlfriend. I won’t say any more,” Tamara grinned. “In spy novels, the secret agent says, ‘If I told you, then I’d have to kill you.’”

“Not even a little hint?”

“Nope. Remember, I didn’t actually say I knew anything. Right?”

“Oh, you bitch. Stop teasing me.”

“Okay. Subject change. Let’s think of something to do with the boys.”

The boys convinced them to agree to go to Haulover Beach.

“Hey, we got hassled again at that Miami Beach park,” Carlos had said when Linda called him. “So Jerome and I left there and we went with his friends to Haulover; I stayed on the south end with some other guys who didn’t want to go to the nudie part. It’s really a nice beach.”

“So we can do that when we go Saturday? Not go to the nudists’ area?” Linda confirmed.

“Sure.”

Jerome had told them that he could drive there, so on Tuesday, Tamara went to Linda’s, where the boys picked them up.

Even though it was a weekday, the beach was quite busy; the south end of the beach was fairly full of people. They walked north until they reached an area that had a smaller crowd and spread out their blankets. It was a sunny day but there was a moderately stiff onshore breeze and the waves were rolling in strongly at this part of the beach. There were about a dozen surfers riding the waves here.

They were sitting on their blankets chatting when they heard a call, “Hey, Jerome!”

Jerome looked up. “Hey, it’s Rosa and Gerry,” he told the others. “They were classmates of mine in high school. Hi, girls!” he called to them.

They walked up. “Can we join you? Jeez, we had to walk a ways. It’s really crowded down there near the south parking areas.”

“Yeah, that’s why we’re up here too, but we have to share the waves with the surfer dudes,” Jerome told them. “Go pull up some sand to spread your blanket.”

After about an hour of chatting, the group took out the lunches they had packed and made a little feast, sharing around the extra food that they had brought. Then Linda and the other girls decided to try the water; the waves had settled down quite a bit. Carlos had wandered off to the restroom. Tamara was in the middle of an intense discussion with Jerome, who wanted to visit the nudist area and was trying to convince Tamara to join him.

“You don’t have to take your suit off at all,” he was telling her. “You’ll see how the people there are no different from anywhere else on the beach, except...”

“ ... yeah, that they’re naked,” Tamara finished for him.

“I take issue with that word ‘naked,’” Jerome said, shaking his head. “The proper word is ‘nude.’ ‘Naked’ has the connotation of vulnerability, defenselessness, and unprotected. ‘Nude’ is simply unclothed and implies something artsy or unencumbered. It’s a psychol...”

He was interrupted by a shout, “Stop that! Get away!”

It was Gerry, who was pushing away one of the surfers. There were only two surfers left and the two of them had started bothering the three girls, who turned and started hurrying way. The guys began following them; they were fairly husky and still wore their wet suits, which gave them a menacing look.

Tamara jumped up. “Wait here. Don’t follow me,” she ordered, and went straight to the two guys.

As she approached them, she gathered a bit of ochre taste and when she got to within twenty feet, she “pushed” it at them, as she called, “You guys! Did you just try to bother my friends?”

They stopped in their tracks, slightly confused; when they saw this new chick coming, they were just about to check her out. Tamara could feel the tastes of their emotions. They weren’t bitter-light-orange, which she knew was caused by predatory lust or something close; their tastes were pinkish-violet. That suddenly recalled Mr Evil—Leger’s taste, but theirs was a somewhat fainter version; but it still was one which told of an intent to harm. Tamara suddenly realized: These guys had raped a girl or girls in the past!

Tamara had stopped about eight feet away, close enough to look into their eyes. She “pushed” a greenish-brown taste with yellow streaks at them, increasing their confusion and adding some fear. The guys’ faces turned pale.

“You both will listen to me and follow my orders,” she commanded. She pointed to the blonde. “You! You’re Blondie.” She pointed to the black-haired one. “And you’re Blackie.”

She came closer to the blonde. “Blondie! Listen! Did you know that Blackie thinks you’re gay? I heard that he’s also screwing your mother,” she hissed at him.

Then she turned to the other. “Blackie! You know that Blondie has a hardon for you and wants your boy pussy? I saw him and your father leaving a motel last week; wanna bet that they were screwing?” she hissed at him.

They were standing there blinking in uncertainty at Tamara as she “pushed” a greenish-gray taste of compulsion at the two and spoke, so they could both hear, “You hate each other’s guts and now you finally realize that you always have. You’re gonna turn each other in for anything bad the other’s ever done. And don’t be alone with each other, he might rape you too!”

She was done talking to them in about thirty seconds. Turning around, she walked away, back to her blanket. As she got back to the others, who were watching her and wondering what she was doing, she heard voices being raised behind her. The guys had begun shouting at each other; the teens couldn’t hear their words, though. After a minute of shouting, the blonde one threw a punch and the fight began. Tamara and her group watched the fight, amazed at how fierce it had gotten. Within a minute of the brawl’s start, a lifeguard ran up and tried separating the two, but staggered away when he was slugged.

He had a radio and had apparently used it, because within a few minutes, a beach buggy roared up with two Metro-Dade police officers. They tried to stop the fight too, but when one of the guys shoved an officer, the batons came out and the fighters were quickly subdued, cuffed, and hauled off.

“Goddamn, what the hell happened over there? Tamara?” Jerome asked, looking at her.

“I told them not to bother us,” Tamara told him. “Then one guy muttered something and the other one got really pissed. They started arguing when I walked away.”

Linda looked at her. “There’s gotta be more than that...”

But Rosa and Gerry had latched onto Tamara and were thanking her for intervening. That’s when Carlos returned. He had seen some of the commotion from afar.

“What’d I miss?” he asked as he came close.

Everyone began speaking at once, but he finally got the story straight. But Tamara had gotten lost in thought.

What just happened? I tried to get them angry enough to rat out on each other, but they just went totally out of control. I used confusion and fear ... but it was a little different this time. Hmm, ‘just change a single variable.’ I changed two of them...

‘Tamara? Tamara! You okay?” Jerome was asking, gently shaking her shoulder.

“What? Oh, sorry, I was thinking.” Then she had a thought, Distract them. “I just thought about how I took such a chance with those guys. I had no idea they could get so violent and I was thinking I was lucky that I walked away when I did.”

Jerome nodded and the girls agreed, but way more vocally.

“You need to look before leaping, girl,” Linda admonished her.

“I think I’m done here today,” Rosa said.

Gerry agreed. “That creep grabbed my shoulders,” she said. “I just wanna get home and try to forget this. A hot bath will help.”

They all packed up and began the trek to the parking area. The walk back was silent, which gave Tamara a chance to think. She made a tiny cloud of the tastes she had used and “pulled” it into herself. Oofff! She stumbled.

Jerome noticed and reached for her arm. “You okay?” he asked.

“Yeah. Need to watch where I put my feet,” she grinned back.

Shit! She thought. That was nasty...

Suddenly a small part of the memory that she had been given by her granmanman popped into her consciousness.

Oh, hell, so that explains some things. I need to talk with Manman about this.

The drive home was fairly subdued, but the two couples did agree to get together on the coming weekend. No beach though. They all agreed to go to a local waterpark.

When Nadine returned home later that afternoon, Tamara grabbed her.

“Manman, I learned a bit more about Granmanman’s abilities today,” she said with some excitement.

“What happened?” Nadine asked, concerned. “This can’t be good, I think.”

Tamara related what had happened with the surfer creeps.

“And I definitely ‘tasted’ the violence in them, so I wanted to make them confess. I didn’t want to ‘push’ a full Mr Evil at them, but I was rushing—I didn’t want to get my friends suspicious—so I changed the tastes a little. The guys started fighting then; they were really beating on each other. One even tried to slug a cop. When I tried to figure out what I had done, that’s when one of Granmanman’s memories surfaced. It was about what she had done to Vanessa in that last fight they had.

“I used a ‘fear’ taste on the surfer guys, but used it a little differently than I’ve done before. It turned out that it’s something like what Granmanman did with Vanessa. You know about the ‘fight or flight’ response that stress hormones produce?” Nadine nodded. “So Granmanman could do that. Turn on stress hormones, I mean. She did that to Vanessa and it overloaded her heart. Dr Beauford told me how that can happen and how it affects the heart. So what I did to those guys was that I must have turned on their ... cortisol ... production, big time. And I had given them some nasty suggestions about each other, so their fighting was the result.”

“That’s quite a story, sweetheart. Yes, I do see how you and Manman are similar; she would go to the aid of anyone she thought was defenseless, with no regard for herself. Like you do. You really need to control that impulse more, darling. You might not be able to always control what happens.”

“I know. But this time it was like I was almost shoved into it. I was on my feet and moving before I realized it—just had the chance to tell Jerome to stay behind.”

“Then you think the lwa were involved?”

Tamara nodded. “It felt like that.”

“It seems that they are never far from you, sweetheart. When you come to our rituals, everyone seems to have a better experience.”

“When I came home this week, I wanted to connect better. I think that I have. I asked for some advice but I don’t understand the thought that came in response.”

Nadine smiled. “That frequently happens; sometimes the lwas’ response is a riddle.”

“It was something like ‘Great steps come with small changes. Big changes come slowly.’ Is that advice, a prediction, or what?”

“It could actually be both,” Nadine told her. “I doubt that the lwa know much formal physics, but I believe they know how nature works. Perhaps the message is similar to what Emma’s told you, not to make too many changes all at once. Or it could refer to your personal life. Or both. When you listen to the lwa, you’re also listening to your own intuition. And it appears that you have an excellent intuition.”