Lux
Lux Godelieve was mostly, an average teenage girl. It was the part that wasn't like the most that got her into trouble. At sixteen, she already had her ten-year plan mapped out, along with a contingency plan or two, should things deviate for some unforeseen reason. Not that she had many unforeseen events in her life due to an uncanny gift she possessed. Yet somehow she always got off track.
"Mama, your phone is about to ring!"
"Lux! What have I told you about that?" Her mother asked with exasperation as she came barreling down the stairs in a pencil skirt and modest heels.
No one could tell from the outside that Bella Godelieve remained in a constant state of frazzle. Hair the color of loamy soil and skin like cream, people often mistook her for Lux's older sister, not her mother, a misconception Bella never felt the need to correct.
"I can't shut it off," Lux grumbled, shoveling a spoonful of cereal into her mouth and staring woefully at the impressive figure before her. Her own hair, just a shade lighter than her mom's and kissed with cinnamon, was hanging over her shoulder in a messy braid. On some girls, the mess would look purposeful. Lux was not some girls.
"Darlin," her mother began, just as the cell phone she'd left sitting on the kitchen table rang. Sighing, she picked it up and hissed over her shoulder as she left the kitchen, "We will talk about this later. Hello?"
"Actually, we won't cause you're gonna have a flat tire and get home from work late," Lux told the empty room, feeling somewhat smug about her mother's impending predicament.
Catching the time on the microwave, she let loose a curse. Once again she was running behind. Tossing her bowl and spoon in the sink with a clatter, she bounded up the stairs, skipping the one that squeaked.
"Mama, let Kitty in," Lux shouted before stripping out of her pajamas and slipping into her bikini and cover-up. She saw no point in showering when her plans consisted of swimming in the Willoughby's pond or sweating in the sweltering Mississippi heat.
"Lux!"
"Just get the oomf... Mama, just get the dang door!"
"Hey Kitty," her mother's words were barely audible. "Lux is upstairs changing."
"Thanks Mrs. Godelieve."
"Hey Kit, I'm almost ready," Lux said as she swiped clear gloss across full lips.
"Girl, have you watched the news?" Kitty demanded, entering the room like a tornado. She plopped on the bed, her blonde curls forming a chaotic halo around her sweaty face.
"Yes, because I always start my day with a heavy dose of negativity and lying. No, what do you think?"
"They found Corinne Bailey!"
Lux dropped her hairbrush and spun around, her heart thudding to her toes and remaining there as the room tilted. "She's dead."
Kitty's blue eyes widened as she nodded. "It's still creepy how you do that. But yeah. They said she had a stab wound right below her heart, and someone had drawn weird symbols all over her body. Like cult crap."
Kitty's words barely registered. Lux didn't need her friend's description to see how the poor girl looked when she'd been found. Sometimes Lux's gift came to her like thoughts. An acknowledgement of something about to happen. Other times, it came to her in sensations and images. Like now, when Lux could feel Corinne's terror as her hands were bound. See the black oil marks upon her flesh as the murderer chanted, making her skin sear with each symbol she drew. And finally, the relief when the knife slipped between her ribs and ended her life.
Holding a hand over her thundering heart, she said, "Poor girl. You know her mama insisted she hadn't run away even though the cops said she had cause they lived on the wrong side of town."
"Yeah," Kitty said, her excitement over having gossip to share was gone as if it had finally hit home they were talking about the death of a girl they'd known since kindergarten. Corinne hadn't been one of their close friends, but she'd always had a kind word to share in the hallways.
"I wonder if we'll have a memorial service for her when school starts back."
Kitty shrugged. "You think? That's over two months away. Folks'll have moved on by then."
Lux shot Kitty a stern look. "We shouldn't ever have that attitude about death. Besides, this is a small town, and she was murdered. This story isn't going away soon."
Her statement rang like prophecy, the weight of the words settling heavily on their young shoulders until they both squirmed in discomfort. Lux snapped the ponytail around her hair, no longer caring what she looked like, eager to get outside and dig her toes in the damp red clay road.
"I'm ready. Will Travis be there?"
Kitty grabbed her friend by the hand. "Yep! Let's get you outta this house before your mama turns on that t.v."
"Lux!"
The teenage girls jumped as Bella Godelieve's shrill scream rattled the door. Lux wrinkled her nose and rolled her eyes. "Window?"
The girls reached their bikes without detection, releasing the laughter stoppered in their throats only when the house was nothing but a white blur on a green hill. Their destination wasn't far- only a mile down the road, and the elderly couple who owned the property sat on the wrap around front porch as the teenagers approached.
"Lux. Kitty. Bout to think you two had decided you were too grown to go swimming in my pond this summer," Mr. Willoughby mumbled around the stem of his pipe. His voice was gruff, but his eyes were kind as he surveyed them.
"No sir, Mr. Willoughby. We'll be coming home from college just to go swimming in your pond," Kitty replied, clutching her chest as if wounded by his words.
Agreement was on the tip of Lux's tongue when the vague impression of darkness settled over her. The Willoughby's wouldn't be living here when she and Kitty came back from college. Death would visit before then.
"We love coming here," she said, taking great care to keep the sadness from tinging her voice.
"I've got some fresh chocolate chip cookies for y'all when you tire of swimming," Mrs. Willoughby said. "Best get out there and enjoy the water before the sun turns it to bathwater. Bit of a crowd out there today."
The girls saluted the couple and headed toward the back of the home. They each dropped a few crumpled dollar bills into the old can sitting atop the metal gate before closing it behind them. The Willoughby's didn't charge anyone for using their pond, but they left the can out for donations. The childless couple would use the money to purchase gifts for orphans at Christmas.
"Are you serious?" Kitty groaned, coming to a sudden stop as she spied the group of girls sunning on the deck. Lux knew exactly which girl had Kitty in such a state. "Last time someone mentioned swimming here, she said, and I quote, 'I'd rather get toe fungus from a bad pedicure than go swimming in that cow toilet.'"
Lux rolled her eyes. "Well, that's just ridiculous. The Willoughby's don't even have cows."
"They do now," Kitty responded.
"You're not even right. Come on. Sara Elizabeth will not ruin our first official day of summer vacation."
The distance between the house and pond was short enough to be pleasant, but far enough that the raucous caused by children and teens wouldn't disrupt the elderly couple. Mr. Willoughby's nephews kept the path neat, and a few years ago, he hired a crew to build a sand beach around the pond and a new dock. On the far side of the pond, trees towered over the water, offering shade that would be welcome as the summer blazed on. Even from a distance, the green-tinted water frothed and sparkled as people swam and played. The city kids had the chlorine waters of the public pool, and as far as Lux was concerned, they could keep it.
"You bitches took long enough."
Lux dropped her towel on the sand and ignored Travis's sass. They could have arrived ten minutes earlier than he had, and he would find something smart to say. Shimmying out of her shorts and cover up, she applied sunscreen to her face and shoulders.
"Sure wish I appreciated that show," Travis said, dragging his sunglasses down his sunscreen slathered nose.
"Awe, sweet cheeks. I heard some football players may show up this afternoon," Kitty said encouragingly as she stretched out beside him.
Travis looked at his freckled arms, already reddening beneath the sun. "Do you know which players? Risking premature aging isn't worth it for just anyone."
"Maybe Mick and Terrance?"
Travis tapped a finger against his lips. "I brought my umbrella. I can make a day of it."
"You were going to make a day of it anyway," Lux said, rushing forward to dip her toes in the cool water. As much as she loved soaking up the rays, she preferred to do it from the water and not on the sand.
"Is that one of your witchy predictions?"
"No," she laughed, "I just know you that well."
"Ow, Kitty. What was that for? You hit like a burly man," Travis snarled, rubbing a spot on his arm.
"No witchy jokes," Kitty warned, looking around them to see if anyone had heard his remark.
"We always joke about Lux being witchy. It's kind of our thing."
Lux sighed, surprised Kitty was so concerned. A few gut feelings didn't make her a witch, and while Sweetwater, Mississippi might be a few years behind the rest of the country, she doubted most people would gather their pitchforks because of one strange murder.
"She's just concerned because of how they found Corinne Bailey."
"That was just tragic," Travis assessed, "But what does that have to do with you?"
"She thinks they'll excuse me of her murder and haul me off to jail."
"OMG, girl... They really might," Travis exclaimed.
The fear clear in his expression gave her pause. Being a gay teenager meant he knew a thing or two about dealing with people's bigotry. Still, no one but her mother and close friends even knew about her ability to occasionally predict the future.
Lux shook her head. "There's something called evidence and none of it points to me. I have nothing to do with Corinne Bailey."
A chilly wind passed over her skin, making her shiver. Never was that a good sign, but for once in her life, she wanted to ignore the ominous predictions and feelings that plagued her existence. Being caught up in a murder mystery was not part of her five-year plan.
A snide female voice broke into their conversation. "Lux, I just love that bathing suit. My nine-year-old sister has one just like it."
Wading further into the pond, Lux twirled around with her hands on her hips, making sure it was evident she was posing as she replied, "I'm glad someone in your family has good taste then."
Sara Elizabeth took such a deep breath, Lux feared her breasts would fall out of the skimpy top. It would be a shame too, with no one around to enjoy the view. Travis looked like he might throw up if it happened.
"Did y'all hear that? I'm trying to give the girl a compliment, and she's gonna say something mean."
The blonde clones around her tsked in disgust and cast programmed glares from their lofty position on the dock. The pixie cut brigade wouldn't dare risk the inconvenience of sand.
"Lux, I happen to know it would appal your mama to hear you talk to Sara Elizabeth like that," one of them, maybe Sara Ashley, snipped.
"My mama is appalled by a lot of things. She'd be really appalled by y'all's hair. Did you all go to the Quick Clips and ask for a number two special?"
"Please. I wouldn't use a local hairdresser. We drove all the way to Jackson to get this cut," Sara Elizabeth stated, as if driving to Jackson was an accomplishment too lofty for anyone else to achieve.
"Should've saved your gas, honey," Travis interjected.
Lux tuned out the bickering as she swam to the center of the pond. Soft, slimy tendrils of grass grazed the bottoms of her feet, but she didn't startle like most girls would; the sensation was as familiar to her as a well-loved book, and she dipped and dived with no hesitation. The breeze, not yet drenched in Mississippi humidity, was refreshing as it skimmed her exposed skin. Only out here, floating on her back, her gray eyes filled with blue sky, was she able to clear her mind from the flashes of foresight.
They were growing stronger too, these feelings she had, and while she was adjusting, her mother was not. Bella Godelieve's childhood had been soaked in scandal. Her mother was the eccentric, disgraced daughter of a well-to-do family, and Bella's father could be one of at least four different men. A full scholarship to Mississippi State provided her with a means of escape, and she vowed to never returned to Sweetwater. But the Godelieve women liked to make plans they couldn't keep.
Lux chewed on her bottom lip. Her mama wouldn't handle the news of Corinne's murder well, probably for the same reasons Kitty mentioned to Travis.
She allowed her feet to sink back towards the bottom until she returned to an upright position in the water. Sara Elizabeth and her cronies had returned to sunbathing, and Travis and Kitty appeared to be in a deep discussion, Travis's lanky arms waving wildly as he attempted to drive home his point. Kitty looked disgusted by whatever he was saying.
For once, she wasn't happy to be alone with her thoughts. Not while they were skewing toward gloom and doom. Slicing through the water, she headed back toward her friends, ready to absorb the sun's golden shine. She felt the tickling sweep of a grass stem across her thigh. She'd not swam through any foliage that tall on her way in, but before she could give it anymore thought, the grass became grasping and the blade wound its way around her leg. It tugged her down until her blue sky was choked by green water.
Bucking wildly, Lux attempted to free herself, but her frantic movements only entangled her further. The metallic tang of blood filled her mouth as she bit down on her lips to keep from opening them to draw in a deep breath, her lungs already aflame from the water she'd swallowed going under.
How odd that water burns, she thought to herself as her movements slowed, the fight leaving her as darkness clouded her vision.
Someone gripped her by the arms, and the water grew murkier as kicking feet agitated the muddy bottom. The world above her brightened, fractured light piercing the water, beat back the darkness, and she knew dimly that she was drifting upwards.
"Help me! She's dead weight."
I'm not dead. I don't think.
"Travis is she breathing?"
"Back off! I have lifeguard training."
Someone tipped her head back while pinching her nose. Cool wet lips pressed against hers, and warm air rushed forward, lifting her chest. Hard, fast compressions clearing her lungs of water followed one more breath, causing her to gasp and choke. Eyes she didn't remember closing fluttered open and locked on Sara Elizabeth's bright green eyes. Concern was visible in the cheerleader's face as she sat back on her knees and gave Lux room to sit up.
"What happened?" Kitty wailed, a bracelet on her wrist glimmering in the light as she chewed on her thumbnail.
Wheezing, Lux shook her head. "I guess my foot got tangled in something, and I was pulled under."
"Someone is messing with things they shouldn't," a new speaker claimed, drawing the attention away from the circle in the sand. "But if you'd stayed calm, you probably would have been okay."
"And how was she supposed to stay calm while being dragged under?" Sara Elizabeth came to Lux's defense, looking as surprised as everyone else.
The speaker, Ruby Nox, shrugged, her heavily lined eyes filled with scorn. She wasn't dressed for a day of swimming, her stocky frame swathed in black and her scarlet hair pulled back in a slick ponytail. "I was trying to help. She was dragged under because she panicked."
"Go away, Ruby. I don't want to swim in water polluted by your eye makeup runoff," Travis snarled, putting a protective arm around Lux.
"I was just passing through," she replied, still staring at Lux while caressing a red gemstone around her neck. "Your friend should stay out of the water if she's such a poor swimmer. It's dangerous."
"I know you're a freak, but that girl is just creepy," Sara Elizabeth said as Ruby wandered to the far side of the pond and relaxed against the base of a tree. "What does she mean she tried to help? She's as dry as Kitty is."
"Awe, don't give me too many compliments, or I'll think you like me," Lux said, her voice still scratchy. She glanced at Kitty, surprised to find her friend as dry as Sara Elizabeth claimed. The others must have noticed Lux's distress faster.
"No worries there." Sara Elizabeth stood up, pushing the short strands of her pixie cut off of her forehead with one hand while brushing sand off her knees with the other. "Come on, girls. I've had enough nature for today."
Lux watched the group go, wondering if she'd ever be able to live down being saved by the captain of the cheer-leading squad. She would probably have to make a few adjustments to her senior year plans, maybe lie lower than she'd originally intended. Perhaps she would create sets for the school play instead of taking the lead role.
"Why is it I can tell you when your phone will ring, but I can't see something like a near death experience?" Lux groaned to her still concerned friends.
"Yeah. How lame are you?" Kitty said in a weak attempt to lighten the mood.
"So, should we call it a day?"
"We still have football players to ogle," Lux replied, determined to control her life where she could. She'd set today aside for friends and fun, and she'd be damned if the day was ruined.