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"Reeda, honey, you're still here?" Mrs. Anthony asked as she walked out of the high school after sunset and found Reeda by the basketball hoops.
"Yes," Reeda replied without looking up. She was concentrating on bouncing a basketball from one hand to the other.
"Shouldn't you be getting home?" Mrs. Anthony was about next to Reeda by now, but the girl didn't look up.
"No." Reeda was still watching where her ball was going.
Mrs. Anthony crossed the basketball courts to the parking lot and got in her car. "Are you sure you don't want a ride home?"
"I'm sure. Thanks anyway."
Mrs. Anthony hesitated a moment longer, but finally shut her car door. "Don't stay out here too much longer, all right? Start home soon," she called out the driver's side window.
"All right."
Reeda half watched as her math teacher drove away. "Yeah. I'll be starting home soon. Right," she said under her breath. "I don't think I would call what I have a home." She stopped dribbling and aimed the ball at a basket. I'd rather stay here all night, she thought. The chain net rattled as her ball swished through. If only the rest of my life was that easy. Reeda walked to the edge of the court and retrieved her ball.
"Well, you're out late," a voice called from behind her.
Reeda turned around. "So are you."
The boy shrugged, "But I'm on my way home. You don't look like you're going much of anywhere."
"So maybe I'm not."
The stranger came into the circle of light made by a nearby street lamp. "So you're definitely not." He nodded at the basket ball in Reeda's hand, "You any good?"
Reeda passed the ball between her hands, "Good enough."
"Want to play a little one-on-one?"
"Sure."
She tossed the ball at the strange boy's chest. He expertly caught it and started dribbling toward the basket. Reeda jumped in his way and stole the ball. She made a basket, but as soon as the ball hit the ground the boy grabbed it and ended up scoring two points of his own.
The entire game went that way. Every time one of them scored, the other would score. Pretty soon Reeda stopped counting points and just started having fun. After a while they were both worn out. They sat down on a nearby bench, Reeda with the ball in her lap.
"Good game," the stranger said, "What's your name?"
"Reeda. And yours?"
"Jonathan."
"I don't think I've seen you around school before. Do you go here?"
Jonathan looked down at his hands. "Well, yes and no."
"Yes and no? What does that mean? Either you do or you don't."
"Not in my case."
"Well, what is your case?"
"It's complicated. Technically, I think I'm still on the roll sheets, but most of my teachers no longer count me as being in their class. I show up when I can, do whatever they'll give me, but most of the time I can't come," he looked up at her again, "It's a long story."
"I'm sure," said Reeda, a bit skeptical and even more confused.
"What'd you say you're name was? Rita?"
"Ree-da. My parents didn't want to be boring."
"That's a pretty name."
"I guess."
"Don't you like it?"
Reeda shrugged, "It doesn't have any nick-names."
"Sure it does. Reed."
"I guess. I never thought of that before."
"I better be going," he stood up, "It was nice meeting you, Reed."
"See you around, Jon."
Jonathan walked away and Reeda went back to dribbling her ball. See you around town, I guess, since you don't really go to school, for whatever reason your long story is.
Reeda pushed her key into the door knob and turned it. Even before she had the door all the way open she could hear her mother snoring from the couch. Probably drank herself to sleep and didn't have the sense to wobble to the bedroom. She stepped into the entry way and closed the door. After she took a few steps into the living room she could hear her father snoring from the bedroom. Or maybe Dad got home first and kicked her out. She walked past her parents' bedroom and into her own. She shut the door, tossed her basketball into a corner, and flopped face down on her bed. I wish they could be muted like a T.V. I would get so much more sleep. She tried pushing the ends of her pillow into her ears, but it didn't help. She finally gave up and rolled to her back. You'd think I'd be used to this by now. Or at least grateful that it's not what I used to hear when I was younger. The way they went at it, I'm surprised I'm still an only child. Unless one of them got "fixed" after I was born.
Reeda yawned, and, without realizing it, drifted off to sleep.
Reeda woke to the sounds of her parents in the kitchen. Yelling, arguing, banging things around, and generally making as much noise as they could. What are they doing? Reeda thought, Seeing who can give the other the bigger headache? She yawned and stretched. Wish they'd shut up. She hit the sleep button on her clock radio and rolled over. The music helped some. Reeda found her mind wandering and let it play over what ever it wanted to. She ended up thinking about Jonathan.
Reeda!
Reeda's eye' s snapped open. She sat up and listened, but her parents were still yelling at each other and were not calling for her. She decided she was imagining things and lay back down.
Reeda!!
Her eye's snapped open once more. There it is again! Reeda sat back up and turned off her radio. Her parents were still yelling, arguing about anything they could think of. This is weird, she thought as she stood up, this is the same thing that used to happen to me when I was little. Mom and Dad said I was crazy because I kept thinking someone was calling me. Now that I think about it, It stopped happening after Gram died. On a hunch, she closed her eyes and cleared her mind, trying to block out her parents as much as she could.
Reed!!!
Reeda lost her balance and fell back on her bed. No one calls me Reed! Only Jon did! That last thought stopped her. Jon? How could... What's going on?
Reeda had sensed something different about Jonathan as soon as he had spoken to her, but couldn't put her finger on it. She simply felt comfortable around him in a way she hadn't felt around anybody in a long time. She had decided, almost unconsciously, to ignore it, as she did with most things she felt. When Reeda was little, her grandmother told her that she was very special, and that she was different from most other children, but in a good way. Her parents had also told her that she was different, but they had told her that she was strange, and that she would never fit in with normal people because she was not, and could never be, normal. The only love Reeda ever felt growing up came from her grandmother, and she always felt as if her grandmother was with her in some way, watching over her. Unfortunately, this kind lady died when Reeda was only nine years old, and Reeda had felt alone in the world for seven years. In an attempt to be "normal," she had learned to ignore any strange, unexplainable things she sensed about anything, including any insight she felt about someone's personality. She had little desire to make her parents despise her any more than she felt they already did.
Reeda cleared her mind again, but this time thought about Jon. She pictured him as vividly as she could: what he had been wearing the night before, the color of his hair, how it had been arranged, his stance, even the expression he had had on his face when he first came into the light of the street lamp. She pictured every little detail she could think of. Her grandmother used to tell her to picture her this way whenever she was lonely, and her grandmother would be near. Reeda hoped it would work with Jon.
Reeda, you can hear me!
If Reeda hadn't been sitting down she would have fallen over. What?! Reeda thought, What the hell is going on?! She forced herself to calm down and keep her mind clear.
Please Reed, I need you! Please listen!
Reeda focused her thoughts, Jon? What's going on?
Oh good. You know it's me. I need your help, Reed. Please, come to the grove in Adistente Greene park!
The sixth sense Reeda had ignored for seven years kicked in. Something is wrong, it said. Something is very wrong.
Reeda placed her hand on her door knob and listened. It now sounded as if her parents were throwing things. Reeda took her hand off the door knob. I don't want to deal with them. Not now. She made sure her door was locked and her keys were in her pocket. Then she walked over to her window and opened it. I can get to the park faster this way anyhow. Reeda crawled out of her open window and onto the ground outside. After she pulled her window down she headed for the back fence. When she got there she climbed on top of it and walked across the fence between her two back neighbors with practiced ease.
Reeda entered the park and looked around. Grove is...That way. She turned and headed along the path toward the center of the park. When she got to the grove she paused and looked around. Tentatively, she called, "Jon?"
"Here. Over here."
Reeda turned toward the reply. She passed some trees and saw Jon, half sitting, half lying in the leaves, leaning on one arm and clutching his ribs with the other. He was badly bruised and looked as if he was in a lot of pain.
Jon looked up as he heard her come near, "I was hoping you would hear me."
Reeda knelt down next to him. "What the hell happened to you? What's going on?"
"James Kintrich, and a few of his friends," Jon answered her, cringing.
"I should have known. But what--Oh, later. Why is James after you?"
"He's always hated me. I'm not sure why. This isn't the first time, but it's the worst." He paused as a wave of pain hit him. Then he explained, "I called you because I don't think I can make it anywhere by myself."
"You don't look as if you could make it out of the grove. Where do you live?"
"Outside of town."
"Too far. I'll take you to my house," Reeda paused, "but we'll have to go the longer way, unless you feel like climbing fences."
"Not really," Jon replied though clenched teeth.
"It's not far. Come on."
Reeda slipped under Jon's arm and helped him up. Standing was obviously very painful, but he didn't complain. Reeda guessed James and his friends must have beaten Jon pretty badly.
"No, I'll be fine," Jon answered her unspoken thoughts. He then caught sight of her shocked expression. "Sorry."
Reeda shook her head, as if to clear it, "Later."
Jon lay down on Reeda's bed with a moan. He clutched his ribs with both arms and closed his eyes. Reeda shut her door and re-locked it, then put her keys back in her pocket.
"Good thing both my parents are gone," she said, "but I don't think my mother will be gone long."
"I'm just glad not to have to move."
"I'll bet. I should call the hospital for you."
Jon opened his eyes and grabbed her wrist. "No. I-I hate hospitals. They make me nervous, and, and they might, they'd find out..." he trailed off and let his hand drop.
"Find out what?" Reeda softly prompted.
"Ever since my parents disappeared, I've lived by myself. I don't think that's legal until I'm eighteen. Only, I don't think I could live with anyone else. I'm not sure why. I just feel that way."
"Oh, jeez--Listen, you must have broken ribs--"
"At least half a dozen."
"--And you can't get well here, so--"
"But they'll--"
"Jon, you can't--"
"I don't want to have to live with--"
"Jon! Please. For your sake, I have to call."
"I...guess so."
"I won't call right away. First, you have to tell me, what the hell is going on?"
Jon laughed and promptly regretted it. "Ow. I'll explain. But first, do you believe in dragons?"
"Dragons? What--"
"Just, do you?"
"Sorta, but I don't--"
"Lemme explain. You should believe in them. You're one of their descendants. No, wait 'till I'm finished. Dragons did exist, in Medieval times, as the great winged lizards of legends. Knights went on a lot of dragon hunts, as I'm sure you've heard, and the race started dying out. The remaining dragons decided to disguise themselves, by use of magic, as humans. Over the centuries, the dragons' blood got...intermixed...with the humans' blood. Dragons were strongly telepathic, and anyone today who has ESP is descended from dragons. As you are. I am, too."
Reeda looked skeptical. "I find that--"
"How would you explain how I could call you today? Just trust me on this."
"Okayyyyy," Reeda drew out the last syllable as she thought. Jon moaned again as he tried to shift position. "I really should call the hospital."
Jon sighed and closed his eyes. "All right."
Reeda opened her phone book and picked up her phone.
Reeda watched the ambulance as it turned a corner and disappeared. In her hand she held the gift Jon had given her, a chain with a small pewter dragon sitting on a crystal. Jon said he had received the pendant from his mother, who was also the one who taught him of his heritage. He had told Reeda, when he gave her the pendant, to think about what he had told her, and to keep him in her thoughts, as well. Still thinking about Jon, Reeda leaned against the doorway and sighed. Life, she thought, I believe you've just taken a turn down a sun-lit street. She stepped inside and closed the door as she saw her mother's car sloppily turn from a cross street, narrowly missing the sidewalk. But I wish you'd leave the dark alley behind.