Rippler

Chapter 16

THE FLASHLIGHT MAN

"Your uncle called," Sylvia said the next morning as I poured milk over my cereal. "He says, 'Happy Birthday,' and he needs your dad's help on one of the farms. I'm keeping your dad company on the drive, okay?" She looked worried that I might not take the news well.

"No problem." I smiled to reassure her.

"We'll be back in time for dinner, okay?"

"Sure. I'll get in a good run." It had been awhile since any of the berry farms in the valley had called my dad away on a Sunday, but I had enough farmer's kid in me to know berries trumped weekends.

I waved as they drove off, and then I headed upstairs to put on my running gear. I thought about calling Will but decided what I really needed was some time to myself.

Out on the road, I took in cold gulps of October morning air. Without admitting it to myself, I knew where I was heading. I turned off the highway and onto Main Street, keeping my eyes fixed ahead as I ran past Las ABC, as if I didn't want to know whether it was Gwyn or her mom turning the lights on, flipping the sign from Closed to Open.

I slowed for an abbreviated cool-down, and passed the residential portion of Main Street at the far edge of town before turning into the tiny oasis of trimmed hedges and green lawns. No one else was here on a quiet Sunday morning, but then I usually had the cemetery to myself.

Four rows down, fifteen plots over.

I hunched beside my mother's grave and quietly spoke my thoughts to her. About losing Gwyn's friendship, about kissing Will, about turning sixteen, about how much I still missed her. My skin cooled and the breeze made my face sting where the tears left trails. I wished I'd brought a jacket. And then realized I had a solution to the problem of feeling cold.

I lifted one side of my mouth in a half-smile.

"Check out what I can do, Mom."

I relaxed into invisibility. And then I just sat, quiet and undetectable, beside the small grave marker of Kathryn Elisabeth DuClos Ruiz, Beloved Wife and Mother.

A man approached the cemetery. This was unusual. Visitors usually turned aside rather than disturb the weeping girl whose story they knew all too well.

Oh. He couldn't see me.

As he approached my mother's resting place, I scowled, irritated by his presence. He peered through me at the words on the stone, muttering the date to himself and nodding. He looked around as if to see who else might reside in the ground beside my dead mother. There was no one; Dad had purchased the nearby plots. The man looked puzzled, even annoyed, as he took one last turn around my family's domain. He grunted and turned to go.

I watched as he strode towards Main Street. Who was he, and what the hell did he mean by coming to stare at Mom's grave? I rose, intending to run and catch up to him, but something funny happened when I tried running invisibly for the first time. I didn't think about the lack of resistance, about how rippling caused me to "glide" instead of moving normally. I reached the opposite end of Main before I realized how fast I could move in my friction-free state. I'd covered eight blocks in a matter of seconds! I knew I'd never done that before in a car, so I must have been running well over the twenty-five mile-an-hour speed limit. Weird, but not something I had time to think about at the moment.

I whirled back to face my quarry and saw him turning into Las ABC. Using a controlled stride this time, I followed the man as he pushed on the carved door of the café.