The Good Ones

Chapter 7: Radioactive

Mavis was back in the driveway of her parents' house where she said her goodbyes to her family. The stress her supernatural abilities created for her parents and younger sister over the years had been astronomical, but her family still loved her dearly and were distraught over her decision to leave Texas. As she turned toward her car, she questioned, for the thousandth time, if moving so far away from home was the right move.

As Mavis's dad and sister walked back toward the house, her mom lagged behind. She spoke in a hushed voice so her husband couldn't hear. "Mavis, wait. I need to ask you a question. And can you promise not to get mad?"

Mavis turned back around to face Caroline. "Okay, I promise."

Caroline paused nervously. "Baby, do you still think you can talk to animals?"

Mavis avoided eye contact with her mom. The problem was that she was a bad liar. The truth always showed in her face, and her mom had always been able to read her like a book. "Of course not."

Caroline gave her a pitying look. "It's just that...the last few weeks you've been home, I've been watching you interact with all the animals. You have conversations with them, Baby."

Mavis's heart began to race. She wanted to kick herself for being so careless. "You don't say hi to the goats when you go to feed them in the morning? Or tell the cats to get out from under your car? Or yell at the squirrels for getting into the groceries?"

"Not for thirty minutes to an hour at a time, no."

Mavis's face flushed. She looked down at the ground and studied the line of ants that marched across the driveway. They hadn't broached the subject of her gift since she was in middle school. Mavis genuinely felt sorry for her mom. Caroline had spent the last 26 years of her life thinking her eldest daughter was bonkers.

When Caroline spoke again, she forced some of the pity out of her voice. "Baby, Daddy and I are so proud of you. You've worked so hard and you deserve everything you've accomplished. But there are more things to life. I want you to make actual friends, fall in love, and make me some grand babies. I don't know if you'll be able to experience all those things if you...all I want is for you to be happy."

Mavis finally looked back up at her mom. "I want all that stuff for me too, mom. Why do you think I'm leaving Texas?"

Alex's voice ripped her out of her daydream. "You doin' alright over there?"

"Yeah," said Mavis. "Just thinking about home."

They were in Alex's vet truck, heading up the dirt road that winded through copses of Juniper and Aspen trees, ascending higher into the Cherry Creek Mountains. Mavis sat in the front passenger seat, while Archimedes perched on the piles of clothes and trash in the back. The inside of the truck was just as beat up as the outside. Every now and then, they would hit a big enough bump in the road that the door to the glove box would fly open and hit Mavis in the lap. The cloth seats were splattered with coffee stains. Old sunflower seed shells and gum wrappers lined the floor. The back seat was littered with magazines, catalogs, used needles and syringes, and various other veterinary supplies. Pairs of scrub tops, jeans, and coveralls also scattered the back seat, and she had a hard time distinguishing which pairs were clean and which were dirty. It was all too much for a neat freak like Mavis. When they got back to the office, she was planning on scrubbing every inch of that truck, even if it meant missing dinner at the cookhouse.

They'd spent the majority of their drive in silence, listening to Alex's seventies and eighties country playlist. Mavis was too anxious about her first training session to make speech. Instead, she let the music soothe her nerves. She loved old country music. It reminded her of the south, and of riding with her dad and grandfather around the ranch.