Talis Man

2| Where's Your Talisman, Tula?

"Let me pray over you, little canary," my mom says.

"Just open the door," I say, yanking on the car door handle but she has it locked. Trapped. Trapped against the car and my mother touching my cheeks, then grabbing my hands. "Tradition is everything." She whispers, "Close your eyes."

Fine, fine. I'll close them.

"Keep your Protector close, let them keep their Leaver close. May your trip be safe and may I see a different you in a year." It's her usual prayer. One she refuses to tell me about. Something like Protectors are like Guardian Angels and Leavers are us, little angels on Earth.

"So," I say, "did you see Levon in one year or was it more like three?"

"Tula Lyla, I've gone and visited him and he is different. Wildly and wonderfully different." She runs her fingers through my hair again but instead of finding a stray knot, she finds the strands that are turning gray.

Yes, turning gray. It's great. But let's get back to an important detail which is my mom has never left this house to see Levon these past three years.

"I wish your father was here," she says. "He'd love to see you too but you know." She waves her hand in the air. That's her way of saying, 'but he's dead and disappeared and deemed a kidnap but the body was never found but we have an empty urn for him.' She kisses me on the cheek, bright orange-red lipstick and the loudest noise in the world. She sighs. "But it is what it is and now, let's get your life started."

Her footsteps are quick as she rushes to the driver's side. She never rushes. My mom? She lives on island time which translates too, she's usually overwhelming late to any and everything. She pulls at a hair strand and wraps it around her finger as she opens the door. Again, my mom and playing nervously with her hair? Not a thing, except right now. Her hands tremble as she buckles.

I slide into my seat by the time she's already started the car.

"Hurry, hurry my chickadee." She taps her fingers on the steering wheel and glances behind me, staring seemingly at nothing.

"What?" I say, turning around.

"Just buckle and hurry, pleasey please."

The doors lock as my buckle clicks in. And just in time too as the she backs out of the drive with way too much gusto.

"You can go the speed limit, you know. We're already one hour early to one hour early for check-in," I say.

Her unusually tight-lipped smile, instead of her carefree toothy one, sends a shiver down my spine.

"Mhm," she says, barely stopping at the stop signs leading out of Canary Protector housing division in the middle of Westerville, Ohio. "If you could stop talking for a few minutes, I need to concentrate."

At a four way stop, another car taking their turn crossing the intersection, mom presses her pedal to the floor. The car tires squeal and squeak, as she sprints through the stop sign, just passing in front of the other car without getting hit.

My hands are tight around my seat belt and the sting of water in my eyes reminds me to blink. "Wow," I say. "You're that frazzled I'm leaving? I can drive if you'd like."

"Nope," she says, a little too high-pitched. "Just need to get you to the airport before they find you."

"Who finds me? What the heck are you talking about?"

Mom is known to mumble and ramble under her breath, lost in her own world. Eclectic thinking, is what dad used to say. She's totally normal but just a bit eclectic. Typically, I'd be frustrated she just dove into her private thoughts, ignoring me accidentally. But her words captivate me. No, that's the wrong world. They alarm me.

"Yes, yes," she mumbles. "They are close by. Can't you smell it, Edward? Our daughter, they finally discovered her. Oh my, oh my." She shakes her head, turns the blinker on, and takes a sharp right turn which leads to the freeway entrance ramp. "So close. But Levon, Levon will keep her safe. Can he? Sure he can. Tessa, she can't help. No, no. Nice girl, Tessa is but dumber as a box of rock candies. So pretty though." She tsks her tongue. "Oh my, oh my, how I pray her Talisman is smart. Strong enough too."

Mom speeds past three semitrucks, darts over to the farthest left lane, and presses the pedal literally to the metal. Sixty-seventy-eighty-ninety. Ninety-eight.

"Mom?" A glint of light sits in the median of the road. It's a white car with lights on the roof. "Mom, police is up there."

"Yes, yes canary," she says as the lights turn on, red and blue flashing brighter than the sun outside.

As she flies past the police car, she holds a hand out towards the window. She waves, a little tiny wave I've never really seen her do, and the lights turn off.

"How in the-" My words are interrupted as I turn to watch the police car stay exactly where they parked.

And just like that, my mom, lost in her own world of thoughts is back in the real world. She uses her stressed voice, the one where she's ready to scold me if I forget an item on a long road trip.

"Tula, where's your Talisman?"