“Please tell me you’re kidding,” Neil said.
“This isn’t a joke, Neil,” his dad said,
“We’ve waited awhile to tell you because we were waiting for you to discover
your powers on your own. But we’re starting to think we’ll have to help you
develop them.”
“Ha-ha,” Neil said. He bit into his pizza
and chewed the delicious greasy goodness. He chewed so fast that at any other
time he would have been afraid of biting his tongue or cheek or something.
“Do you want proof?” Neil’s dad asked. He
stepped over to the sink.
“Yeah,” Neil said, swallowed a mound of
pizza, and added, “That would be cool.”
Neil’s dad turned the faucet on.
“Great job making water appear,” Neil said, “I
think I’ll have to see something a little bit more oh man—!”
Neil’s dad grabbed the stream of water, and
lifted it up, angling it through the air. He then turned it around so that it
flowed upwards. When it turned to ice, he tossed it to Neil.
Neil caught it, clumsily dropping the rest
of his pizza. It was cold. Definitely ice. It burned his fingers with the
intense cold. He looked at his dad in confusion for a second.
His dad laughed and the ice turned to steam
in Neil’s hands, drifting up into the air, blocking Neil’s vision. When it
dissipated, Neil’s dad said, “You want to see more tricks? I could also just
make it really cold in here, but I figured you’d think I rigged the air
conditioning.”
“Huh,” Neil said. He was staring at his
hands, at the water dripping from his fingers.
“So, do you wanna learn how to do that?”
Neil’s mom asked.
“What can you do?” Neil asked, “Make water
appear from the moisture in the air?”
“No,” she said, “I haven’t gotten as far as
your father has. I didn’t get any training until I was, goodness me, thirty.”
“Oh,” Neil said, “So it’ll take time for me
to get any good at this stuff?”
“You’re younger, so you’ll learn faster,”
Neil’s dad said.
Neil’s mom nodded knowingly.
“When can I start?” Neil asked.
“Tuesday,” Neil’s dad said, “I’d teach you
myself but I don’t want to make any mistakes. There’s a teacher at the Gray
Center. You can learn there. On Tuesday.”
“When on Tuesday?” Neil asked.
“Does it matter?” Neil’s dad asked, “I think
any plans you made before can be moved, can’t they?”
“Maybe,” Neil said. He wasn’t sure if he
wanted to let Asta down.
NEXT CHAPTER
NEXT CHAPTER
No comments:
Post a Comment