Night and Day

Chapter 19: Nathan

The girl had lost her mind. After all the moments of calm, she was cracking now. She had doted upon that cat, and now that fluffy fixture in her life was gone. She was lost and grasping at impossibilities and I was encouraging them. What was I doing? I wanted to shake myself, but I could not. Delilah was already leading me along, the crazy kid, and I was following her like a sheep, trusting her completely.

We jay-walked across the busy highway, and then we were running alongside bushes, searching for something hidden. In time, we came to it; we ducked behind trees and the forest swallowed us up, so that our voices became one with the wind. I shivered and Delilah led. She grasped at my arm, and then we were behind a tree, conversing in low voices.

Delilah had taken out her phone and was now typing something. I listened to the clicking as the forest noises roared in my ears and then she stopped. She held out her phone and, wordlessly, I took it. There was something written there and I began to read.

Nathan slowly read Delilah's words, caught within a moment of confusion. It was not a long set of sentences; relatively short, the words ended abruptly. As Nathan finished reading, a ferocious itch began.

I stopped reading and fidgeted, trying to discern where the sudden and fierce itch was coming from. I first scratched my arms, and then I scratched my head. Delilah had taken her phone back and was already typing and I was spinning around now, yarding my pants up that I might pick at my itchy knees. Then, just as suddenly, the itch subsided. I stared at Delilah, perplexed, and she began to speak, reading aloud what she wrote.

"Nathan stood still, still recovering from the spell. Then, as though somebody else had commanded it, he began to hop-first on one foot, and then on the other. He was a real sight to behold."

I could not help myself. I just felt the compulsion to jump. I leaped onto my right foot, bouncing on the spot like the Easter bunny, and then I was landing on my left, leaping as I might on a pogo stick.

"Nathan," Delilah continued, "then proceeded to lie down and stare up at the trees."

I did exactly as she said and I peered into the green expanse above.

"The sun was ducking behind a cloud now and the forest suddenly grew colder."

The temperature dropped discernibly.

"Nathan frowned."

I did.

"And then the rain began to fall, tumbling softly into Nathan's brown eyes, blurring his vision as the drops slipped over his glasses."

The torrent came, and I was made to remove my glasses so that I might clear them. I sat up and replaced them, blinking at the wet irritation, but the sun had already returned. The rain had receded and blue skies were just visible above the lush trees.

"How..."

"I don't know," Delilah murmured. "I don't know if it's temporary. I don't know how long I've had this power. I don't even know how specific it is. If I write something really vague, I don't know if it happens without more details. If I write out somebody else's words..."

"But why do you have this power? What's the point of it?"

Delilah smiled, sad. "That's what I'm trying to figure out. I thought at first that I could use it to change things-to make them better. I thought, maybe, I could even prevent horrible events, like death. When I tried to save Bonbon, though, the affects were only temporary. I'm trying to keep my grandma healthy, but my efforts might only help in the short term."

"But how much can you do? Can you make a dragon appear? Can you turn a river to chocolate? Is it magic?"

"No. I mean, it's a power, clearly, but it's not perfect. I can't make fairytales real. It has to be something that's within the realm of possibility."

"That's just it, then. Immortality is not within the realm of possibility, so death is still inevitable. You can ease a disease, but you can never make it vanish; Bonbon was always going to pass on."

Delilah nodded, and I could swear that I saw a tear. "I've figured that much out. It just feels useless, my power. If I can't save the ones I love, what's the point? I don't want much. I only wanted to save my cat. But if I can't even do that, then what good is this gift?"

"Well, you could use it to help people. You can't save the ones you love from dying...but maybe you can still make their lives easier. Your friend might pick up one hundred dollars off the street; maybe mom could win the lottery. There are loads of useful things you could do." I chuckled. "You could get the president impeached!"

Delilah laughed. "I could do that, huh? Everything you just said."

"You could get your brother a car," I joked.

"Wouldn't you need a license?"

"I'd get one for a hybrid."

Delilah shook her head. "Right. And just how would that work?"

"I dunno." I shrugged. "Maybe Nathan wins it in a contest. It's your story, not mine. You figure it out."

"Okay. I think they're having a discount at Panago's today."

"They are?"

"Yeah." Delilah was typing something. Then she stopped, grinning. "Do you want to go see?"

I returned her amused expression. "Sure."