Mana Pool Snippets - Keystone

Part 3

Two years since Scott reentered the suburbs. That fear of the horrible day his parents died and killed any hope to have a life was the reason, plus the suburbs don’t appeal to him anymore. Sometimes he wondered why others lived there. Each house nearly identical, down to the lawn color and mailboxes. Scott likes unique homes, the kind that makes a human being different from the crowd.

The Livingstons lived in the suburbs, off Rancho California Road two miles away. But their house had some uniqueness to it, like the herb garden in the alley next to the garage, light brown exterior paint, and two sedans rather a traditional mini van.

The Wave made its contribution. A Wave crystal—three foot tall, half foot thick, and a sharp point on top—was in the middle of the lawn. All Wave crystals vary in size and shape depending on how dense the human population is in the area, but the purple color with the edges darkened to black was the same throughout. It seemed that the parents tried removing it, digging around it then down. Chunks of lawn were ripped and piled haphazardly. More crystals were spotted, some lying down too heavy to move, some nearly buried as a natural part of the land.

Parking next to the house, Scott got an uncomfortable feeling of the neighborhood. It never did. It was welcoming before, but now, it felt like suspect central, down to the neighbor’s body language.

Keeji whimpered. I want to go home.

Not until we finish this, don’t be a wimp all the time, Scott thought.

Easy than said, Scott, the fur on my ears is standing on end.

Scott got his cell phone out and called Deryl Porter, the U.S. Marshal and Scott’s godfather.

“This is Deryl Porter’s cell number. I can’t be reached right now, but leave a message and I’ll get back to you later. Oh, and if this is Ralph calling me again, please, for the last time, stop drunk calling me. Go pester Scott why don’t ya.”

Ralph is Jaruka Teal’s given human name, by Deryl, his sort of “parole officer.” His full name is Ralph Smith, and the Halcunac hated it.

“So much for help,” Scott said and pocketed his phone.

“Darn,” Katie said, looking up at the house. “Cars are here, and the blinds are down. You sure they’re home, Andrea?”

“They never went to the office since Christmas,” Andrea said. She watched the house with a lot of worry on her face.

“That makes sense.”

Jaruka was still silent, but was more preoccupied with the neighborhood. He kept looking, everywhere. To Scott that meant military like finding the best possible escape route or locating a human with an ego and a weapon. “Old man walking,” Jaruka said nudging at a bald man passing by the Jeep carrying grocery bags.

The man gave dirty look at the group, then kept on walking.

“That’s neighbor Joe. He’s always grumpy,” Andrea said.

“That reminds me. Did the neighbors help?” Katie asked.

Scott looked in the rear view mirror. Andrea lowered her head. “Nobody. Not even Jerry from school. I-I don’t want to talk about it now.”

“It’s alright, sweetie. You don’t have to.”

Scott exhaled. “You really wanna do this? Keeji and me have bad vibes about this place.”

“Me and Arana do too, but we got to do this for her,” Katie said. “Wish there was another way.”

“Same here.”