Author's Note: Please read and review. :D I love you!
Actually, that was kind of scary. Let's not do that again.
Chapter Twenty-Six: Glove Slap
Eddie paced his room. Should he join his father, he'd lose his only chance to destroy the Neutron child. Should he refuse, he'd lose his only chance to be with his father. Of course, this assumed he was allowed to refuse. He might not be given the option. It might be presupposed he was a child and therefore, unable to tender his own decisions. The idea set his teeth on edge. According to the latest IQ test, he had ascended to 168 and stood to gain another forty points before adolescence. No one would acquiesce he might be smarter than his parents, because he was "too young" to make those decisions.
He should be angrier, but he was closer to nauseous. He'd never known what his father was like. Why should he make an appearance, at the zenith of his plans? What could he possibly want? (Was he only showing up to ruin him?)
What if his mother only thought it was his father? What if it was a nefarious plot by the League to prevent him from murdering Sasha Vortex and her unborn child? That could be it, couldn't it? He wasn't paranoid.
He jabbed the escape hatch in his room and jettisoned to his lab. Once there, he examined Curie and sighed. Should he leave her for another moment? Or...damn it. No, he'd finish what he'd started. He had a time force shield too, so he could negate any time he wasted here and return to the present time line with everything fixed. Just because Jimmy had created it before him didn't mean...
He pounded a fist on the control console. Jimmy had done everything before him. If he had a sibling, they'd follow suit and Eddie would be outdone at every turn. He couldn't afford to tarry. Curie had to lose her morality and he had to work fast, even if he could compensate later. The longer this unborn child existed, the more Eddie's ire rose.
The summer heat hit them like a physical wave and Cindy's knees buckled. She righted herself before her mother noticed and tossed her books into the backseat. Her hair stuck to her scalp and she knew it was either deal with the heat or suffer another of Neutron's inventions to remedy it. Summers in Texas were always hot. It was all right. She was a Texas girl.
She settled in the car and her mother blasted the A.C. If she chose Jimmy's side, she'd never have another day out like this again. But she'd wanted, ever since she was a child, to have a normal family. She'd craved it and the happiness it might bring. She'd hated looking at the other children and seeing what was forever out of reach. All she needed to do was side with her blood.
And betray the boy she loved. She sighed and flipped her phone open and shut. Her mother was waiting for the car to stop roasting before moving and Cindy saw Jimmy before her mind's eye. During the two years her mother had been gone, she should have spent it getting to know Jimmy better. Her mother had never wanted her to be with him. She had thought her mother wanted her to be miserable, but she was offering her the keys to happiness...if she betrayed Jimmy.
Was it really a betrayal? She'd just not be on his side...forever. The future was forever changing, so there was no point in asking him if he saw them together. Her heart ached. Leave it to her mother to lay this at her feet not soon after Neutron dragged her back. That reminded her...
"Mom?" she said and Sasha looked up from the steering wheel. After about five minutes, the car was cool and ready to motor.
"If Neutron hadn't dragged you and his dad back, would you ever have returned?" she asked.
Her mother was silent for a moment. She pulled the car out and drove out of the parking lot. For a few moments, the air circulating was the loudest noise. Cindy wasn't sure her mother opted not to answer, or if she was carefully selecting a response. She bit the inside of her lip.
"Mom?"
"I heard you," she said. "I was collecting my thoughts."
She had a smart aleck response for that, but she kept it to herself.
"To be truthful, Cindy, I don't know," she said. "I'm sure that's not what you wanted to hear. I was happy with Jimmy's father, except for when his memory slipped."
"Of course," Cindy said scathingly.
"I missed you," she said. "I meant to call."
"And you didn't."
She sighed. "I meant to call you, but it was never the right moment. I also knew the instant I called you, I'd hear condemnations and insinuations. You have quite an attitude."
"I wonder whose fault that is," she said sharply. Her mother grimaced.
"True enough," she said. "I might have told you that you had a baby brother or sister. I might not have. I was wavering back and forth for a while about it."
"Why should I join you now if you weren't going to join me then?" she said.
"I admit I made a mistake," she said. "There's no reason to castigate me for it. I'm willing to make amends now."
"Because Neutron forced you," she said.
"The only way to be part of a happy family is to stay with me," she said. "You are not a Neutron. You are a Vortex. You should choose the appropriate side."
Cindy's stomach wrenched and she stared out the window at the highway grass, dying in the heat. A lump rose in her throat and she swallowed it back down. She flicked her phone open and closed, hoping Jimmy would call, though she doubted he would. Her mother was selfish. There was no guarantee siding with her would equal happiness, especially when she'd admitted she'd never be with her otherwise. Why should she be with her when her mother hadn't wanted her?
"Why is it so important?" she said. "What does it matter whose side I'm on? You've never liked the Neutrons."
"Exactly," she said. "And Jimmy will only hurt you."
"You've hurt me," she countered. "That's all you've ever done."
"And this is our chance to change things," she said.
Cindy rested her forehead against the glass and stifled the sobs rising. Her body quivered and she concentrated on taking deep breaths. Try as she might, she couldn't remember any heartwarming, Kodak moments between herself and her mother. The few moments there were had been between herself and her father. Her mother had always been distant, emotionally cold, and unreachable. She wanted to hear her mother tell her she loved her again, but...no, she wouldn't dare think the rest.
Her breaths were jagged and she gritted her teeth.
"Do you love me?" she said quietly, uncertain she'd spoken at first until she heard herself.
"How can you ask me such a question?" her mother snapped. "You're my daughter."
"Do you?" she turned her head from the window.
"I refuse to answer that," she said.
"Then how can you ask me to choose sides?" she said and swallowed back tears. "Jimmy actually said he loves me."
"And I did too," she said.
"But you won't say it now," she said.
"Honestly, how often do you want me to repeat it? You're being childish," her mother scoffed.
"Mom, in my whole life, you've only ever said it once to me," she said. "And that was today."
"I'm sure I've said it before," she said.
"No, you haven't."
Cindy's heart clenched and she balled her fists. She concentrated on taking increasingly deep breaths to prevent a wail and, when it was inevitable, she stuffed her fist in her mouth. Her mother slapped her across the face so hard it left an indent and Cindy could see her white, startled reflection in the rearview mirror.
"Enough," she snapped. "You will drop this conversation now."
Cindy's thoughts tumbled together and she button mashed her phone. Nothing happened and she sighed, closing it and preventing whatever catastrophe she might have set into process by hitting it against her thigh. The conclusion she reached wrenched her heart even more and she wished she were anywhere else, with anyone else.
"You could...be a happy family without me," she said. The moral of the story. Her shoulders shook and she didn't think she could hold in the tears much longer.
Her mother didn't speak and tears slipped down her cheeks. She hated herself, she hated how weak it made her feel, and yet, there was nothing she could do about it. She'd asked her mother if she loved her and her mother had slapped her. The answer was clear. She clawed her pant legs and tried desperately to stop.
Her mother stopped the car abruptly in the middle of the right lane. The tires screeched and chills went down Cindy's spine.
"You're crying. I told you never to cry. I told you Vortexes don't cry."
"Mom," Cindy said, struggling to master herself, "you're gonna get hit."
"Get out," she said. "I can see where your loyalties lie. You're walking home."
"Mom, Retroville is fifteen miles away!" she said.
"Then perhaps you ought to think about whether you're on my side or not," she said. "And whether this is truly worth crying over."
"And maybe you ought to reconsider stopping in the middle of a highway before you end up flying through the divider," she said, swallowing hard.
Sasha huffed, looked in the rearview mirror, and hastily hit the accelerator. Thankfully, no one hit them, but it was close. Cindy's heart hammered in her chest and her tears abated. She grabbed her phone, which had fallen on the mat, and flipped it open, closed it, and flipped it open again. Whatever Neutron was doing, she hoped he'd be back soon.
At least it didn't appear she was walking home. And whatever trickery her mother had employed was over now. She wished she could say that was comforting.
Jimmy was antsy and unable to concentrate on the main event, though he knew his father would overeat, as usual. He also knew his mother would be frantic and ready to call the paramedics at the first sign of trouble. His mind kept drifting to Cindy and he grimaced. When he was younger, he'd tried concentrating on the Fibonacci number sequence to drive her out of his mind. He found himself employing the same method now.
"0, 1, 1, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21..." he muttered.
"Oh, I hope your father remembers not to chew," she said. "That's what usually makes him sick."
"34, 55, 89, 144..."
"At least we can say it's an authentic family outing," his mother sighed. "Your father getting sick again is a Neutron staple."
"233, 377, 610, 987..."
Jimmy looked up at his father, who was gobbling down pies, and, to his mother's displease, chewing them first. He was going to be sick. It was only a matter of time. Earlier, Jimmy had estimated he might last about thirty five minutes. He changed the outcome to a tentative thirty before they had to call EMS. His father smiled at them and Jimmy grimaced back.
His cell phone rang again and he glanced at it. He didn't recognize the number and he left the arena to answer the call.
"Hello?" he said. The watch said 'unlisted residence'.
"Hello, cousin," Eddie sneered. "I thought I'd force myself to take a break and speak to you."
A chill went down Jimmy's spine, thinking of Cindy and her mother almost being killed earlier. "A break from what? Villainy? Trying to kill people?"
"I'm in the middle of a plan for that," he said. "But no, this has nothing to do with trying to kill people at the moment."
"Why do I doubt that?" Jimmy snapped.
"I was wondering, cousin, if you'd been contacted by any League members. A passing curiosity, that's all."
"Other than you?" he said. "No."
"Are you sure?" he said.
"Yes, I'm positive," he said, scowling. "Why?"
"My version of Vox can tell if you're lying."
Jimmy was silent. After a few seconds, he hung up and ignored the next phone call, which was inevitably from his cousin. Then he groaned, looking up at the contest. His father was already sick. Only seventeen minutes had passed. It was a new record.