Chapter 56: Melanie

Melanie looked on, wide eyed, as I bought her a phone like mine. She got to choose the color, and the accessories, but her face when the sales assistant rung up the total was a picture. Then she giggled.

“That’s a lot of hand jobs,” she said as we walked out of the store.

I glanced sideways at her then slipped my arm around her waist.

“Never again,” I said.

“Never?” she asked, a slight smile on her face.

“Not out of need,” I said, “only out of choice.”

We arrived at the coffee shop around fifty minutes after we’d spoken to John. We went in.

“What do you want to drink?” I asked. Melanie looked at the choices wide eyed.

“There are so many,” she said.

“Have you tried latte before?” I asked, she shook her head. “How about we start there?”

She nodded and then went to sit down at a table.

I’d collected our drinks and was just sitting down with Melanie when the door opened and John entered. He spotted me immediately and then his gaze turned to his daughter.

I saw his eyes fill with tears as he crossed the coffee shop and sat down at our table. He looked at Melanie.

“Melanie?” the question was superfluous, but I understood his motivation.

“Hi,” she said.

He looked from her to me and back to her.

“John,” I said taking his attention. I gave him my memories of finding her and everything relevant to him since then. I saw him assimilate, and the tears in his eyes overflowed down his cheeks.

“We looked,” he said. “For years I had private investigators searching everywhere, checking every new baby in the state. I couldn’t find you, I’m so sorry.”

My opinion of him improved slightly. It seemed that he really had tried. I’d thought that he’d been one of those men who impregnated women, then just forgot all about them and their progeny, and moved on. It seemed I was mistaken, about this one anyway.

“My mother lived in Colorado,” she said, “or at least that was where I was first taken into care. I guess that was just too far away.”

“We never thought she would have gone so far,” said John. “The FBI analysts said that she’d be a local woman, maybe even a hospital employee. They never even considered someone from out of state. Even so, I had people checking neighbouring states but there were just so many babies. It was impossible.”

Melanie nodded sadly.

“I know,” she said. “I was in the system with many of them.”

“Where are you staying?” he asked, although he already knew the answer to that.

“I’m staying at Caleb’s” she said almost defiantly.

“Why are you and Caleb fighting?” she asked.

John grimaced. “Straight to the difficult questions,” he quipped. “We’re fighting – no that’s not true we’re not fighting. Caleb thinks I’m the scum of the earth and wants nothing to do with me. I can’t really say that I blame him.”

“Why?” she asked again.

John sighed. A barrista brought him a drink over. He apparently came in here enough to warrant special treatment. He smiled his thanks and took a sip. He turned back to Melanie.

“All through my life,” he began, “from the moment Nathan was born, I was the big brother. I was bigger and stronger. Big brothers are supposed to look after their younger siblings, but that wasn’t me. I was far too important to look after a scrawny kid. Instead, I bullied him ... mercilessly. If he had something, I took it from him or broke it. It didn’t matter what it was, or even if I wanted it at all, it was enough that HE wanted it that made me want it.

“I, obviously, came into my power before he did. I was strong. Even stronger than my parents and they weren’t weak. I used my power on him when nobody was looking. I’d make him do things. Instead of me breaking his things, I’d make HIM break them. It amused me to watch his pain, his dismay, as he broke something that he treasured and then get in trouble for it, because I made sure that he couldn’t tell anyone about it.

“I got caught, obviously. My parents weren’t stupid. I was sent before the council. I thought I was going to jail. It scared me witless, but I see now it was a ‘tough love’ intervention. They literally put the fear of God into me, and I have never, ever used my powers like that since.”

I opened my mouth to say something, but he put his hand up.

“I defended myself, that was all,” he said. “I’ll come to that, please.”

I closed my mouth and let him continue.

“I blamed Nathan,” he said, “for getting me into trouble, although I doubt that he had anything to do with it. He was an easy outlet and so I continued the bullying but not using powers. By the time he came into his own power, I’d moved from home and started work at the company I now run. I was delighted when I found out that he had almost no power. This was something else I could lord over him.

“The next year I was approached by Maggie. She told me that the company I worked for could be of use to the government and, if I agreed to work with them, they’d allow me to use my powers, judiciously, and under strict supervision, to work my way to the top.

“It took less than five years. I’d kind of lost track of what was going on outside. I’d had the odd fling with women who passed me by but mostly one-night stands, but when I finally came up for air, I was CEO of the company and Nathan, my brother, had found himself a new bride.

“We met at some family function or other and I was smitten. Even now I don’t know if it was her or simply because she belonged to Nathan. I had to have her. I had to take her away from him. Circumstances were on my side. Nathan had just started a business, and was working all manner of hours, while she was home alone and bored. They were struggling a little bit for money and I offered her a junior position in my company.

“That junior position became my PA and I made sure we worked closely alongside each other. I specifically chose the most difficult and important things for her to work on. I know when the pressure is high, and people obtain success together, bonds form. I played it ... I played her.

“Eventually the inevitable happened, we ended up in bed together, and Caleb here was the result. It took surprisingly little time for Nathan to catch us ... in all I think I slept with her maybe three or four times ... and when he did, he came at me with a pipe wrench, murder in his eyes. I can’t say I blamed him but I used my powers to make him back down and left.

“Nathan went to Maggie and once more I was in front of the Council. Since I hadn’t used my powers at all in any part of the process, they simply told me to stay away from Nathan and his wife and concentrate on what I was supposed to be doing.

“The thing was, in that moment, in the instant when Nathan caught us, the pain I saw in his eyes, that I had relished for all of our lives, tore out my heart. For an instant I seriously considered just standing there and taking the punishment he wanted to mete out, even if it meant my death, but my own survival instincts kicked in and I couldn’t.

“There’s not a day goes by that I don’t regret doing what I did. In breaking my brother’s heart like I did that day I knew, and he knows, I knew that Caleb was my son. Every time I saw them together, saw the bond that they had, the relationship, I saw what could have and should have been mine, it cut me. I’d smile, trying to put on a brave face, but it was hard.

“The reason I was so angry when you breached my shields was because I thought that you would have seen that I was your father. I didn’t want you to know. I didn’t want to disrupt what you and Nathan had together. All my life I’d taken what was his, and now he’d taken the ultimate revenge: he took what was mine, my son. Letting him have that was my penance.

“I’m not a father,” he said. “I may have sired some children, and despite what you may think I love them all, with all of my being. But I’m not a good enough man to be a father figure to anyone. I recognise that in myself and have come to terms with it. After my last child was born, I asked the Healers to stop me having any more children, and they have.

“When you found out, I had mixed feelings. I was relieved that the truth was out, but I was worried that it would cause a rift between you and your parents, your mother especially. I needed to speak to you, to try and explain.

“You didn’t really give me a chance,” he said with a wry smile. “God that hurt. But even then, you showed how good a man you’d turned out. You healed the damage you’d done. I felt it. I could never have brought you up to have been that good a man. That was your father, Nathan. It’s thanks to him that you are the man you are. I wish I could finally find a way to make peace with him, and you, but I doubt I will ever be able to find forgiveness there, no matter how long I live.”

He turned back to Melanie.

“You are in the best place,” he said. “If you want, I can find you an apartment, and get you set up, even a job. But if you want someone who you know will be there for you, no matter what, then look to your brother. He is a far better man, even now, than I can ever hope to be.

“What I can do, though,” he finished. “Is to give you some financial support. And before you say anything Caleb, I’m not doing this to salve my conscience. I’m not offering it to you because I know that your parents took care of you, and you wouldn’t accept if I did. But Melanie has nothing and I am still her father. It’s my responsibility to provide for her, at least until she’s twenty-one.”

He handed her a check.

“That’s roughly what I’ve paid in maintenance, and support for the other two. I think it’s only fair you get the same.”

Melanie was going to hand it to me, but then remembered that she’d learned to read. She opened the check and her eyes widened. She did then hand it to me. Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.

I folded the check and put it in my wallet. We’d have to think about a bank account for her, but for that she’d need ID. Things were going to be complicated for a while.

“It’s made out to the bearer,” he said. “I presume you don’t have a bank account. Caleb will be able to bank it in his account until he can get you set up. He is a good man, and you can trust him completely.”

Melanie looked at me and smiled softly. “I know,” she said.

He looked between us. “Caleb said he was buying you a phone?” she nodded pulling the device out of her pocket. “May I?” he asked, asking me as much as her. She handed it to him. She hadn’t really set it up yet so there was no security. I’d get Jules to teach her about that stuff later.

He typed his number in as a contact and gave it back to her.

“You only need to put in a name,” he said, “and then press save.”

I watched as she looked down at the phone and I could see the wheels turning. Eventually she typed ‘John’ and hit save.

“If you call me,” he said taking his phone out, “then I’ll have your number too.”

Melanie looked at me.

I shrugged. She pressed the screen and his phone rang.

“Now hang up,” he said, and she did.

He saved her number to his contacts. Somehow the fact that his was the first contact saved in her phone rankled with me, and it was childish, but I thrust the feeling aside.

John then looked at me.

“Caleb,” he said, “I know you and I are probably never going to be friends, but thank you for this. Thank you for finding her, rescuing her, and looking out for her.”

“It’s what big brothers should do,” I said, not being able to resist the barb.

He grimaced but nodded, conceding the point. “Then I thank whatever powers you believe in that she has you for a big brother and not me.”

“You both have my number,” he said, “if you need anything that I can provide.”

He stood, looked once more at Melanie, then went to leave.

“One more thing?” I asked and he turned back. “Melanie’s mother?”

I kind of lost touch with her. She moved back east somewhere, and got married. Maggie is probably your best bet to find her.

“Do you have any pictures of her?” asked Melanie, but he shook his head.

“I’m not a picture kind of guy,” he said. “I just...”

“Oh,” said Melanie, disappointed. “Okay.”

“What about memories?” I said. “An image of her that you can share?”

He thought for a moment and then dropped his shields.

I took the image he was holding in his mind, and since I was in there in any case, couldn’t resist looking if what he’d told us was true. Was he genuinely sorry for what he’d done?

I nodded, and his shields were back up. I didn’t know, didn’t care, if he’d noticed my snooping.

John sighed and then with a last look at his daughter, left the shop.

I looked into Melanie’s eyes and passed on the memory I’d taken from John. It was of a young woman, maybe in her mid-twenties. She was naked and in a bedroom, but she was standing smiling at John apparently trying to look alluring.

“She’s pretty,” she said.

“Like her daughter,” I responded almost automatically. Melanie blushed but smiled. Then her face turned sombre.

“When did you find out?” she asked me. “About John being your father?”

“Fairly recently,” I said. “Things are still a little raw.”

“What did you do to him?”

I sent her the memory. Her hand came to her mouth in shock, but then she giggled.

“That looks painful,” she said with a grin.

I laughed. Just a touch.

“Can I see your parents?” she asked suddenly.

I sent her the memory of the aftermath of my assault on John and my father trying to stop laughing enough to chastise me.

She laughed. “They look like nice people,” she said, a little wistfully.

“I was angry with them,” I said. “From the time I discovered my powers almost until that memory.”

“What changed?”

“I found out the truth,” I said. “Come on, lets head home and I’ll catch you up.”

By the time we’d arrived home, I’d given her the outline of the issues I’d had with my parents and why I now no longer held them responsible for what I considered to be the abuse I was subjected to.

She looked at her wrist.

“So, as well as blocking my power or powers,” she said, “this thing is making me stupid too?”

“Not stupid,” I said. “But it’s certainly reducing your mental acuity and your memory. You will notice the difference when it comes off.”

“Can’t you take it off?” she asked.

“I don’t really know how,” I said. “I don’t want to hurt you doing it, but even if I could your body is so weak at the moment I actually think it’s protecting you. If we concentrate on getting you back into good shape so that when the amulet comes off and you are able to start using your powers, then I think it would be safer.”

She looked at me for a moment, but then nodded before getting out of my truck and going into the house.

Next morning, Melanie was once more laid clutching my arm when I woke.

I took a moment to look at my sister.

I knew that genetically we were only ‘half’ siblings, but that’s not how I felt about her. I really did feel a deep connection, and I wondered about that. I also wondered whether I would have the same connection to my other half siblings whose names I didn’t even know. Hell, I didn’t know if they were male or female, just that there were two of them, one close to – how did they put it – emerging. I didn’t know how old the other one was.

Now I knew of my parentage, I should make the effort to go and meet up with my siblings, at least once, and then see what happened.

Melanie lay there, wearing one of the T-shirts we’d bought on the shopping trip. We still needed to go to the mall again this weekend, or at least the girls and she did. I wondered whether it would be better for her and the girls to go without me and have some bonding time.

I could entertain myself doing chores and shopping, and catching up on college work. I’d been neglecting it since she showed up. I needed to get back into it before I fell behind. I looked at the arm that was draped over mine. It was still thin, but not quite as painfully so. She was starting to put on a little bit of weight, noticeable even in the couple of days since I’d first found her. Regular hearty meals were doing wonders for her, and her face was filling out a little too. She really was pretty.

It was only then that I realised that her eyes were open, and she was regarding me, as I was regarding her.

“Do I pass?” she asked.

“You’re getting there,” I said. “You’re still way too skinny, but I’m starting to see the beautiful woman you are emerging from the cachectic waif I picked up outside the diner.”

“Thanks,” she said, “I think.”

“I have to go into school this morning,” I said, “and then go and heal Vince this afternoon. I also have hypnotherapy sessions in between,”

She frowned at me.

“So, I’m going to be all alone?” she said. “All day?”

I grimaced.

“There’re things you could do,” I said. “There are books, or television. Marcia will be here, but she’ll be working.”

She nodded. “Okay,” she said. “I know I sound like a little girl, but I kind of don’t like being away from you. You make me feel safe and cared for.”

“You are safe,” I said, “and cared for. And not just by me.”

She snuggled into me, putting her head on my chest.

“Thank you,” she said.

I brought my hand up and stroked her hair. It was still looking a little straw like, despite her having access to products that she’d never even heard of. The twins had taken her under their wings in that regard. Perhaps after they went shopping over the weekend, they could take her to a salon or a spa. They should have some girl time and get to know each other better.

I’d suggest it later.

I slid out of bed to start my day.

My ethics lecture was a bust. We were told that our normal professor was out sick and so we had a substitute. Her idea of taking an ethics class was to tell us to read a couple of chapters of the textbook. Since I’d already read all the required reading for this lesson - I took out a textbook on one of my other subjects and read that instead. Time used isn’t time wasted. I did get the feeling that she’d spotted what I was reading though as she glared at me and made some notes on the class register.

I had two hypnotherapy sessions back-to-back before lunch, and then half an hour to grab something quick to eat. Then I was off to Vince’s for the second of our gruelling healing sessions.

Despite the difficulty of the session, I was certain that I was actually gaining from them, becoming even stronger in something, although I wasn’t sure what. Perhaps my Empathy, since that was the only power that I hadn’t really trained yet, and so would be most easily improved.

Jeevan had told me that Meena was dying to meet Melanie and so, after a brief conversation with the rest of the girls, I invited them over for dinner on Friday Evening.

Maggie came over for dinner the following night, bringing with her some documents. She had Melanie’s birth certificate and her social security number. With those we could start to apply for other documents, like a student driver permit, and look to getting her a bank account and other necessities.

I pressed Maggie on the issue of the amulets, and she told me that the council had decided to stop using them, for the moment, just on our bloodline. They would still be used on wild children simply because we didn’t have the infrastructure in place to deal with them. That was something that was being looked at.

She had spent some time talking with the Abuela Gonzales discussing the methods that they used to make Powered children safe, and she was happy that she knew the process. Over the next few months they would be removing all the amulets from the children concerned, as well as starting an education program for them to learn about their powers.

When it came to Melanie, she said that it would be up to me to determine when it was safe to remove her amulet. As a Healer, as soon as I thought her body could handle the strain, they would remove it.

It was a bit unfair, I thought, of Maggie to tell me that in front of Melanie, because now I was the block to her getting her powers, and not them. I could see by the glint in her eye when she told me, and I knew that Maggie had done it deliberately, perhaps to give me a taste of what it was like to have to make decisions that might be unpopular.

Melanie, however, was not so gullible. After Maggie left she sat next to me on the sofa.

“She’s a manipulative woman your grandmother,” she said.

“That is something you don’t need to tell me,” I responded.

“Caleb,” she said, “I want you to know that I trust you completely. I’m happy to wait as long as you think necessary to remove the amulet. I know that you have no reason, other than my wellbeing, to deny me access to my power or powers. If it’s a week, a month, even longer, I’ll wait.”

Friday was our final healing session with Vince. We’d extracted all of the metalwork from his leg over the course of the week, and practically rebuilt his femur from scratch. It still had a lot of ‘growing in’ to do, and would not be up to full strength for probably two to three weeks. We’d also resolved the uneven wear issues on both his hips and knees and his ankle on his injured side. The muscles of his leg had been realigned.

His body still had some work to do, which would take a little time, and I would look in on him weekly just to make sure things were progressing as per the plan. In the meantime, he was able to get about, although he still used his stick more for comfort than support. By the time everything was done, it would be as if he’d never been injured.

The three of us sat in his home, contemplating the mass of metalwork currently sitting on the coffee table that we’d extracted over the week’s sessions.

Vince looked at me.

“I don’t know what to say,” he said. “You have, both of you, given me my life back. I owe you...”

“You owe me nothing,” said Jeevan. “This should have been done so much sooner. The fact that you suffered all these years, and lost your military career, is a stain on my, and our, honor. I allowed myself to be swayed by the emotional arguments of others. If anything, I am, still, in your debt.”

“May I give you a memory?” Jeevan asked Vince.

Vince nodded and they exchanged memories. I had no idea what it was about, but this was between them, so I stayed quiet ... until Vince turned to me.

“Thank you,” he said. “Jeevan showed me what you said to him about our secret.”

I looked at him puzzled. “What secret?” he smiled.

“May I pull you into an illusion?” he asked.

We were so far past trust issues between the three of us that I had no qualms dropping my shield.

The door opened and a little girl entered wearing an elaborate nightgown.

She giggled. “They got you again, Papa.”

All of a sudden everything made sense. The niggling suspicion that I was keeping a secret that even I didn’t know about. The dissonance when I thought of the Tatarabuela Gonzales in my mind, and wondered why it felt like there was something else I should be remembering.

“Jeevan showed me your conversation,” he said, “where he said he could remove the memory block preventing you from remembering the tell. He also shared your response. But he tells me that that memory block is causing you some issues. Not huge ones, but they are there. If you will allow, I’ll remove that block. It is obvious to me that I can trust you to maintain our secret.”

I thought about that for a moment. I had other secrets to maintain, and also wasn’t sure how the Tatarabuela would react to his entering my mind. I figured that since I was allowing him in, she wouldn’t see it as an attack and, hopefully, wouldn’t respond.

“I am content as things stand,” I said. “The dissonance is not great, and if it helps to protect your secret...”

“That’s just it,” he said. “It doesn’t really. It only keeps you from telling people, not from people reading your mind seeing it. Jeevan saw it immediately. In fact, the block itself stands out, so that people will be drawn to look, whereas they could easily miss the tell itself if they aren’t looking for it.”

“Then I will be guided by you,” I said. “If you think It’s best, then please remove the block.”

I felt a tingle in my mind, the Tatarabuela didn’t stir.

We dropped out of the illusion.

“Thank you,” I said, “for your trust.”

“It is more than earned,” he said. “And don’t think that I think that this makes us even. I owe you, almost as much as I owe Dean. It was he who carried me out of the desert while wounded himself and under fire. Had it not been for him, I would not have made it back.

“Now you have both repaired the damage done at the time and hopefully, and possibly more importantly, helped begin a different type of healing. That being the relationship between myself and the Healer network. I am hoping that Jeevan and I can maintain and improve that relationship, and maybe I can start to reconnect with friends I thought I’d lost.

We left Vince and I returned home to prepare for the evening. Jeevan and Meena were coming over for dinner.

They arrived just after six thirty, Meena immediately taking to Melanie and before long they were chatting away like long lost friends. Ness and I went into the kitchen to make dinner.

Conversation was lively over dinner and the topic, inevitably, turned to powers.

“So,” said Meena. “Do you know what powers you possess?”

Melanie shook her head. “Caleb says it won’t become apparent until the amulet is removed. He can see I have power, just not what it will be. It is likely to be Compulsion though. Caleb says that people with multiple powers are rare. I’m hoping to have similar powers to him, I’d love to be able to heal like he and Jeevan can.”

Meena smiled. “You would make a great Healer,” she said. “You have a beautiful temperament.”

Melanie blushed a little at the compliment. “I would like to think so,” she said, “but I’ve got so much catching up to do.”

“You have plenty of time,” said Meena. “The first, and most important, thing is to get yourself healthy. The rest will come. You are a Power user. You have several lifetimes ahead of you. As long as you are not stupid like my husband and refuse to share.”

“I keep hearing about sharing,” she said. “What is it? It just sounds like sex...”

“It didn’t start that way,” Jeevan said, “but that is what it has become.”

I looked at him interested. “How did it start?” I asked.

“What you have to remember,” began Jeevan, “is that the powers we have today are an evolutionary step that has taken many thousands of years to develop. Indeed, different powers evolved in different parts of the world to deal with the very different needs of the peoples living there. It is believed that Empathy originated among the nomadic tribes of the desert.

“These people roamed the desert in small bands. I have no idea what particular need Empathy met for them, but it seems that they would meet up with other tribes, on a fairly regular basis, spend some days or weeks in one place or other with them, and then move on.

“In the time they had together they would connect with the people of the other tribe. I don’t mean have sex, although some undoubtedly did, but rather they would just socially interact and create a relationship, a bond. Then they moved on and met up with another tribe and did it again.

“Their lives were always on the move. They will have met up with the same tribes over and over, but enough time had passed between each meeting that they forged a new relationship when they met up again. This satisfied the power’s need, which was to establish new connections.

“We could, even today, manage to ‘share’ without having sex. Believe it or not I was actually almost managing my own sharing that way. However, the pace of life, and the way we live, makes it incredibly difficult. Those who travel sufficiently to meet new people often enough to satisfy the need seldom stay in those places long enough to make a connection strong enough for it to be beneficial.

“Having sex with someone creates a much more ‘instant’ connection with that person. We can meet, have sex, and be on our way almost literally in minutes, and create enough of a relationship, of a connection, to satisfy the needs to share. However, these connections must be new. Not every time. But after five or six times, the sharing becomes just sex. Also, we lose the benefit faster if we are also in another type of relationship with that person. Time apart can mean that the connection ‘resets,’ but it’s difficult to quantify how much time would be necessary since that would depend on the strength and depth of the connection when you parted.