Author's Note: I promise this is the third chapter this time. Last time I was in a hurry to leave for work and uploaded the wrong one. I will try not to do that in the future I promise. As I said I really need to not work on another fan fiction while in the middle of another one. I apologize profusely for that. I do hope you enjoy the third chapter of my little adventure.
Chapter Three: A Dinner of Discovery
I woke to Mouse barking. I sat up and rubbed my eyes before looking at the clock. I let out a laugh as I stood up. He always knew when it was dinner time. He pawed at the door and let out a whine, laying his ears back while looking up at me with sad puppy dog eyes. "Those never work on me," I told him as I opened the door. He immediately bolted out of my room. My face scrunched up in confusion. Mouse rarely acted like that. He usually only reacted like that around…
I quickly dashed down the hall with a grin plastered on my face. There was only one person who made Mouse react like that besides me. I skidded to a stop at the top of the stairs and let out a whoop. Matthew was at the bottom of the stairs, kneeling down so he could rub Mouse's exposed belly. Mouse's face was the picture of doggy contentment, complete with tongue hanging out and eyes closed. I ran down the steps and Matthew stood up just in time to catch me as I threw myself at him. He wrapped his arms around me to give me probably the best bear hug ever. Daniel and Little Harry were all right, but Matthew was always my favorite. He always had time for me. He was the one who read me my favorite stories over and over, listen to my little childhood problems, and took me everywhere like I wasn't a complete nuisance. He wasn't in town as much anymore since he started to travel more for the church, but every chance he got he came home to visit me. He set me down and I looked him over.
"Don't start. Mom already gave me the third degree," he told me. He held his arm out so Mouse could investigate Matthew's sweater pocket. Mouse let out a happy huff as he walked away with a couple of rawhide chews into the dining room.
"I thought you weren't going to be home for another couple of weeks," I said, giving him a smack on the arm. "Father Forthill told me that you were going to be in Japan till after Halloween."
"There was a spot open to get home sooner, so I took it," he told me, reaching in his other sweater pocket and pulling out something wrapped in a piece of red and gold cloth. I squealed in glee as I snatched it out of his hand. I quickly undid the cloth, and was puzzled by the bundle of ornate sticks. I held them up, giving him a puzzled look. "Chopsticks?"
"Turn around," Matthew told me, giving me an indulgent smile as he took two of the sticks from the bundle. I turned around and looked through the rest of the bundle as he twisted my hair. They were very pretty. I felt him stick something in my hair before he let go of my hair. "All right, go look." I glanced back at him before heading over to the hallway mirror. What I saw was amazing.
"These are hair pins!" I said, turning my head this way and that to inspect my hair style.
"You will have to get someone to help you learn how to do more styles," he chuckled. I gave him another hug as I jumped up and down. He patted my back and stepped back, breaking what I am sure was a chokehold on his body. "Why don't you go show Mom?"
"Good idea!" I said. I dashed to the kitchen, hopping over Mouse, and stopping just short of slamming into my sister, Alicia.
"I wish you would stop acting like a child," she huffed.
"What are you doing here?" I asked. Alicia was one of those smarty know it all children. She was in medical school when she was supposed to be a senior in high school. She always seemed to have this stick up her ass about something, especially when it comes to me.
"Mom asked me to come over and since I had a night off in my residency for once, I decided to take her up on her offer," she replied with a smug smirk. I rolled my eyes as I moved around her and walked over to Mom.
"Hey Mom! Look what Matthew brought home to me," I said, holding up the bundle of hair pins in one hand and pointing to the hair with the other.
"That is great dear," Mom said, not looking up from the pot she was stirring. "Can you help Alicia take the rest of the dishes in to set the table?" I drooped, turning around just to see Alicia giving me a self-satisfied smile before flouncing out of the room. Then I heard a loud thud followed by a shout and crash of several utensils hitting the floor. Mouse padded into the kitchen and leaned against me, giving me a woeful look. I tucked the hair pins in my pocket and gave him a pat on the head.
"Good dog," I murmured just low enough for Mom to snort and shake her head. Alicia walked back in the room, her face set in a grim mask. I stuck my tongue out at her as I picked up a stack of glasses and plastic plates.
"I don't understand why you let that stupid dog in the house," I heard Alicia say as I walked out with Mouse trailing behind me. She has always hated Mouse. I cannot remember anything that Mouse might have done to upset her, but she always had something snarky to say about him. I set the stack of plates and cups on the table to kneel down in front of Mouse. My hands rubbed behind his ears as I put my forehead to his.
"She just doesn't know what he is missing buddy," I told him softly. He whined a bit before licking my face and lying down in front of me. I was still petting him when Daniel, Carlos, and Dad came in the back door.
"You are supposed to be setting the table," Daniel said as he picked up the stack of plates while Alicia came in and started to put out the silverware. Dad sat at the end of the table, groaning with the chair as he sat down.
"She is too busy with that dumb animal to worry about doing something useful," Alicia said. I glared at her back, feeling myself fill with some sort of humming energy right before a fork flew at her back. Carlos smacked it just before it hit her back, the offending object thudding as it hit the carpet. Alicia looked back, her eyes narrowing at it in confusing before kneeling down to pick it up. "Huh. It must have slipped from my fingers." She set it back on the table where it came from before continuing to set the rest of the silverware. I looked between Carlos and Dad, both of them acting like nothing happened and talking about something at the job site. My body shook as I stood and grabbed the cups. I set each one out, fumbling one of the cups and sending it across the table. Daniel caught it in one smooth motion and set it down on the table.
"How was school today?" Dad asked as I sat next to him.
"Dad, what is-" Dad put a finger to his lips and pointed to the back door. I nodded in understanding. It was our code for "Shop Talk" as Dad called it. When there was something I didn't want Mom or anyone else to hear, we talked about it in the workshop while we worked on a project. "It was okay. Jessica once again pushed the dress code boundaries and got a date for tomorrow with Nathan."
"I thought he had better taste than that," Little Harry said, sauntering in from the living room in front of Matthew and sat down on the other side of Dad. Matthew sat next to me, rubbing my back as he sat down.
"He was distracted by hormones man," Daniel said as he sat next to Mom's seat. Molly waddled in the dining room, breathing hard from what I am sure was the brief walk from her old room. She sighed as she got halfway in the room before turning around and walking right back out. Carlos chuckled as he sat across from Daniel.
"She told me today she feels like her bladder is the size of a pea," he told us. Alicia and Mom walked in the room with a couple bowls a piece. Both of them sat down, and we waited till Molly came back before praying. As we passed out the food, Alicia sighed.
"So, what has Maggie done this time?" she commented.
"Nothing," Mom replied, putting some salad on her plate.
"We never have dinners like this unless Maggie has done something," Alicia snapped, putting some garlic bread on her plate. "At least dinners I am invited to attend."
"Alicia now is not the time for this," Dad told her. I put some pasta on my plate and tried to not look up as the inevitable fight began.
"What? I am just saying," she said, but it didn't stop there. "She always seems to do something to warrant everyone coming to dinner. Usually these family meetings are attended by Hope or Amanda, but somehow I was pulled into this. So, what has the golden child done now?"
"Alicia Marie Theresa Carpenter!" Mom shouted, slamming her hand on the table and making everyone jump. "Your sister has done nothing. I just felt like having family around."
"Because Maggie just happened to be in the middle of a robbery that I somehow stumbled upon and it made her nervous about all her children," Carlos said calmly, his smile looking so sweet it might as well have been in neon letters above his head saying "Kiss my ass". Alicia made a face at him as she piled pasta on her plate. "So, your sister did do absolutely nothing."
"Who are we playing tomorrow night, Maggie?" Little Harry asked before shoving a forkful of spaghetti in his mouth.
"I think it is Chicago Academy South," I said softly, taking a bit of my garlic bread.
"I might come to the game with you tomorrow," he said off-handedly. My head snapped up and I opened my mouth to snap at him when Dad spoke up.
"That would be a great idea," he said.
"I could even bring Mouse with me," Little Harry said, giving me a smile. I grumbled, stabbing at my pasta. I always try to get Mouse past the gates, and Little Harry knew it. They said I had to have a special pass for him. Little Harry could get him in just because he was the best Left Tackle that St. Matthew's had in years. That and I am pretty sure he just doesn't care what the teachers say. I looked down at Mouse and he seemed to be giving me a pleading look.
"I guess I can't stop you," I said. Mouse let out a happy woof and stuck his head in my lap, wiggling it against my stomach. I laughed and dropped my fork to pet him. "Can you try to come too, Matthew?"
"I will if I don't have business with the church," he said, reaching over to get another piece of garlic bread from the basket.
"Ug, this baby is killing me," Molly moaned as she struggled to stand. She swatted at Carlos who stood to help her. "I am fine! Geez quit trying to help me with everything." She was still muttering as she walked out of the dining room, holding her belly like it was going to drop any minute. He watched her leave, a silly grin plastered on his face.
"Oh God! Would you quit looking at her like that?" Alicia said, throwing her hands up in the air.
"Your father use to look at me the same way when I was pregnant," Mom said, giving Alicia smile.
"I cannot hear this," Alicia said, pushing her plate away and standing. "I am going back to my apartment. I will see you later." She gave Dad a kiss and waved to Mom before heading out the back door. I stood to take her plate to the kitchen, but Dad grabbed my wrist.
"If you are done eating, I think everyone else can handle this," he said, nodding to the back door Alicia just went out and left wide open. I nodded, picking up my glass of water and taking it with me. As soon as we were both in the workshop and Dad closed the doors, I let him have it.
"We are not going to pretend that something isn't going on," I said, folding my arms across my chest. "There is something going on with me. I am making things do things. I don't know how and I don't know why, but I am. Why is everyone acting like this?"
"I have a project I need your help with," Dad said, bringing out what looked like a quarterstaff. He set it in my hand.
"Dad, I don't think this is the time-"
"Just start carving Maggie," he told me softly. He walked over to my project and opened my tool kit. "Just do what comes naturally." I sat down at my table with a huff, and really looked at the quarterstaff. The design on it that Dad started was actually quite sophisticated. The intricacy and detail showed that he worked on this for many hours. I picked up one of my tools and started to carve on it.
"What makes you think that you are doing these things?" Dad asked, dragging a stool over and sitting beside me as I worked. I just gave him a shrug as I connected a couple of lines together. "I cannot help you if you don't tell me."
"I felt this…this rush of power," I said, picking up another tool and starting to make decorative holes along some of the lines. "Every time that the chair hit that man today, I felt this power pulsing inside of me. That fork that flew at Alicia? There was a humming power in me. It just felt like…I feel like I am doing it and something inside of me is doing it."
"Have any other incidents like this happened to you before?" Dad asked.
"Not that I can remember," I replied, picking up another tool and starting to carve more designs at the top where there was nothing started. "I mean, I sometimes feel weird when we are in class and books drop off desks or papers sometimes seem to fly out of teachers' hands. That is nothing compared to this though."
"I see," Dad said. I looked up from the quarterstaff, and studied my dad. It suddenly dawned on me that he wasn't shocked in the least or even confused about anything that was happening.
"Why were you or the others in the room not shocked that a fork flew at Alicia?" I asked, setting down the tool in my hand.
"We were shocked," Dad said. "We just didn't want to alarm Alicia."
"No," I said, standing up and stepping away from my work table, never taking my eyes of my father. "Carlos wasn't even shocked about the chair beating on that man without anyone holding it. He even told to stop, that the man was down!" Dad just sat there, looking at me. I picked up the nearest tool and threw it across the shop. It turned out to be a screwdriver. It imbedded right in the door. My eyebrows rose up and I looked at Dad, who just shook his head with a smile. Carlos chose that moment to open the doors to the shop. He looked at the screwdriver for a moment and then gave me a grin.
"Murphy been teaching you to throw knives, hasn't she?" he asked.
"Only a little," I replied sheepishly. I rarely lost my temper enough to do something like that. Carlos pulled the screwdriver out of the door and set it on one of the nearby benches.
"The conversation not going so well?" Carlos asked Dad. Dad shook his head once. Carlos sighed. "I told you to let me handle this."
"What is going on?" Molly said, waddling into the workshop and plopping down on my vacated stool.
"We were discussing the events of the day," Dad told her.
"I was talking. Dad was sitting there like a bump on the log," I told Molly.
"Well, what am I supposed to say Maggie?" he asked me as he stood and went to lean on his work bench opposite of the door. "I cannot tell you what happened today, nor can I explain it. However, Carlos and Molly can."
"What?" I said, looking from Dad to Carlos and Molly. "They know what is going on with me?"
"We know because we went through the same thing," Carlos said.
"Well mine was a bit more of a spectacle than Carlos," Molly snorted. "I was almost executed for what I did."
"What were you almost executed for?" I screeched in alarm. Carlos made shushing noises and looked out of workshop doors. He grabbed them, pulling them shut and locking them before turning back to me.
"You sister has a…special gift," Carlos said, running his hand through his hair. "My gift was more physical, like yours."
"Gift?" I said, looking at Dad. "What do they mean gift?"
"They are talking about magic, Maggie," Dad told me.
"Magic? Like I am pulling a rabbit out of my hat magic?" I said, looking back and forth at everyone. Molly snorted.
"Not quite, but that is a good way of thinking about it in the beginning," Molly laughed, placing a hand over her huge belly. "Those are quite the tricks to pull though in front of huge crowds. A lot of minds to fool with that illusion."
"Molly," Carlos said in a soft tone, something so different than I have ever heard him use before with her. He turned to face me, his eyes full of something…something so strange. It was something akin to a mix of determination and sadness with some anger thrown in. "You possess magic, Maggie. You have been showing signs of it for quite some time. It has just not been as obvious as you might think."
"Signs? You mean the fork flying and everything?" I asked, panic rising in me as I felt something pushing against my mind, something fighting to break free.
"Have you ever wondered why electronics always mess up around you?" Carlos said to me. "Or why things seem to just happen around you? Or how you got so good at carving intricate designs after just a few times of being shown what to do?"
"No," I protested, my voice coming out in a hoarse whisper. My mind suddenly let things rush at me. Memories of my sister's toys breaking without anyone touching them. A large truck veering off course in such a radical direction change to miss a child playing in the street that there was no way it was the driver making the turn. Mom standing there and holding her hand to her heart and staring at a knife embedded in the wall. I turned to Dad, my hands clenched in fists at my sides. "This isn't the first time this has happened, has it Dad?"
"No, Maggie. It isn't," he said softly. I saw more things rushing at me. Mouse standing in front of me as something dripping some sort of goo out of its mouth while Uncle Sanya charged at it. Uncle Waldo talking to his stupid skull but it had glowing eyes and talked back. Uncle Will turning into a wolf…
"What is going on?" I screamed, looking at Carlos. "I don't understand any of this! What…what am I supposed to do?"
"What do you want to do?" he asked me calmly.
"I don't…I don't know," I yelled at him, putting my hands to my head as I tried to sort through everything rushing at me. I turned to Molly. "What do-hey. Where is Molly?" I barely got the words out of my mouth before I felt someone grabbing both sides of my head from behind me. The world turned fuzzy, my knees getting weak. As my world turned black, the last thing I saw was a man with a glowing staff, looking at me and telling me that everything was all right, that he was there to save me.
"Maggie," I heard Matthew say as I felt someone shaking me. I lifted my head from my arms, blinking my eyes groggily at the clock on the wall in front of my work table.
"Did I fall asleep working on my project?" I asked, rubbing my eyes to try and clear my vision.
"Mom sent me out to get you," Matthew told me. "She said you had been out here working off your temper long enough."
"Okay," I yawned, stretching and looking at my project. I crinkled my nose, trying to see any differences and not finding any. I shrugged, putting away my tools. I probably deepened lines or something. I must have been really out of it if I could not remember what I did on the carving. I honestly did not even remember coming out to work on my project. I shrugged and headed out of the workshop. "You coming to the game tomorrow?"
"Well, I would not miss seeing Mouse with the cheerleaders for the world," he chuckled. I waited till he was out of the workshop before shutting the door and locking it. We walked back toward the house and I threw up my hands. Sitting in the back yard were five cardboard boxes from Pizza Express.
"Can't they throw their trash in someone else's yard?" I huffed before leaning over to pick up the boxes. Once a month or so I would find a ton of these boxes in the backyard. Matthew picked up a couple and took the ones from my hand. "The pizza isn't even all that great."
"Go on upstairs and get ready for bed," he told me. I gave him a kiss on the cheek and bolted past everyone sitting at the table to shower. When I was through, Mouse was sitting outside the bathroom door. He was holding a huge bone in his mouth.
"Looks like someone is spoiling you rotten," I laughed, patting him on the head as I walked to my room. I set the alarm clock before lying on my bed. I stared at the ceiling and thought about the game tomorrow. Jessica had a date with Nathan, which I am sure will end badly since he probably only thought about one thing when he saw her outfit this morning. Little Harry and Matthew would be there so I would probably have to sit with them, especially since Mom was probably still upset about…
I couldn't quite grasp what Mom would be upset about. Nothing happened today, but I was pretty sure Mom was upset about something. I got up off the bed, and looked out the window to the street below. Leaves were blowing on the street and lawns, the occasional car passing by the house as I tried to think of what could have happened to get Mom in one of her moods. Mouse butted me with his head behind my knees, causing me to grab onto the window sill to steady myself.
"All right I will go to bed now," I said, scratching him behind the ears and not thinking about Mom anymore. It was probably nothing. Alicia probably got her riled up over something she said today when she was over for dinner. I stopped in the middle of pulling my covers back. I looked at Mouse, giving him a confused look. "Alicia was here for dinner…wasn't she?" Mouse pawed at my bed, giving me one of his famous doggy grins. I sighed, shaking my head as I crawled under the covers. I don't know why I talk to him. It is not like he understands me anyway.
