BEST SERVED COLD
CHAPTER 3: AWAKENING
Sarah was far too nerved up to drink the rest of her coffee, which had gone quite cold. Kathy suggested that she get some sleep insead. Knowing Tracy's particular hours, Kathy just let her play with Gunny until the old retriever got tired. While Sarah slept, Kathy tried to make sense of what Sarah had told her concerning Tracy's slumbering power. There was very little doubt (in Kathy's mind) that Tracy was, in fact, a mutant. The problem for now was coming up with an exercise that would trigger it.
Kathy smiled in memory of her own 'awakening'. Mr. Grimes, her high school swim instructor, had trained her well, had trained Olympic contenders before. However, he'd been totally unprepared to see his newest pupil leap into the pool and calmly proceed to blast her way through every Olympic swim record ever set. Kathy had swum back and forth across the pool so fast that Grimes forgot to keep an eye on the timer. When the thought finally penetrated his astonishment, he discovered that this scrawny-looking redhead had been swimming the entire length of the pool—underwater—for almost ten minutes. He called her off, and told her to hold her breath in the deep end while he timed her. The end-of-class bell rang before she came up.
"I've never seen anyone ever hold their breath like that!" he'd said in amazement.
"I wasn't holding my breath, Teach," she'd replied sassily. Then she'd departed for the girl's locker room, leaving him gaping like a stranded fish. Unpleasant as it was, Kathy pulled her attention back to the present. Sarah had asked her to hide the copy of the files she'd made.
No problem there, Kathy thought, no, the problem is making sure that no one will accidentally come across them. I have the perfect place for it. If Sarah is right about Tracy, then it'll be even better.
Hours later, just before dawn, Tracy came inside. Kathy, wired from the caffeine, greeted her with a wan smile.
"So, white stuff, is my old flop still the best?" Kathy asked. Tracy grinned impishly.
"You bet!"
Kathy stood up and took the copy disk off the coffee table. She stared at it for a few seconds, then looked up at Tracy, who was watching with no small amount of curiosity.
"Wait here for a second," Kathy said without inflection. Tracy nodded and sat down on the sofa.
Kathy headed for the kitchen and flipped on the light. She was halfway to the cabinet before the thing came on. She opened the cabinet and withdrew a plastic Tupperware container just large enough to set the disk in. She closed the lid and squeezed until it shut with a satisfying snap. When she returned to the living room, Tracy was stifling a yawn.
"Just a little while longer, then you can go to sleep. Your Mum asked me to do something for her. I may need your help." Tracy had never heard Aunt Kathy use such a serious, flat tone of voice before.
"What is it?" she asked cautiously. That drew a slight chuckle.
"Nothing too sinister, sweetie. I just need you to help me hide this little thing," Kathy said, brandishing the Tupperware, "Come on down to the cellar with me." Kathy turned and started walking away. Tracy followed, uneasily.
The door to the cellar was right next to the door that led to the garage, but Tracy had never been down there. She wasn't afraid of the dark, because even the smallest amount of light that seeped under the door would more than light up the room to her photosensitive eyes. Yet the fact that there was something in Aunt Kathy's house that she'd never seen before filled her with a nervous kind of excitement.
What's down there that's so important? Tracy wondered, as her imagination ran wild.
Actually, the cellar turned out to be pretty boring. Aside from the furnace, the water heater, and a barred grate in the wall, the place was almost empty. It turned out that Aunt Kathy kept most of the paperwork and some spare fishing equipment down here, haphazardly tucked away in some sad-looking, droopy cardboard boxes. Tracy reined in her disappointment, but tried to make the best of things.
"Aunt Kathy, what's that grate in the wall for? I thought the waterfront was that way."
"It is, honey, but don't worry. It's just an old storm drain that got stuck in my basement when they built the house. It's sealed shut," Kathy replied absently. She ran her fingers in the dust on the floor until she found a straight groove.
"Aha," she said softly. Digging her fingers in, Kathy managed to pull up a single square block of stone. Beneath it was a small recess. Kathy motioned for Tracy to come over and see. Tracy watched, not really understanding as Kathy set the plastic container in the shallow hole, which was full of muddy water. The stone square was returned to its resting spot, nearly invisible in the gray cement floor.
"Aunt Kathy, what are you doing? What's this about?" Tracy asked nervously.
"It's just a little experiment, Tracy. I think that the disk is pretty well hidden right now, but I want to find out about something your Mum told me. If she's wrong, no big deal, but if she's right…" Kathy let the sentence trail out and shrugged. Tracy relaxed a fraction.
"All right, honey, this is what I want you to do. Come down here and put your hands over this stone. That's right. Think about your lessons about the laws of thermodynamics. Cold is the absence of heat, thermal energy. The heat energy always travels from the hotter spot to the colder spot, until the enery levels of the two are equal. Now, you know there's water under the ground here, right? Close your eyes and think about the ground, about the water. It's not cold enough outside to be frozen yet, so there's still a little bit of heat left in it. Visualize the heat energy in the ground, in the water. Pretend that you are the colder spot - see the heat energy traveling into your hands. Try to imagine it in your mind."
Under Kathy's cool instruction, Tracy did not feel the least bit silly. She actually felt cold inside, something she'd never really noticed before. Now that she thought about it, she was certain she was really, actually frozen solid through. Strangely, the feeling didn't bother her at all. Tracy placed her hands flat on the stone tile floor beside Aunt Kathy's. She felt the rough ground beneath her hand, felt the water gurgling under that. She tilted her head back, took a deep breath, concentrating, then reached out through her hand with her mind and pulled.
For a trembling moment, nothing happened. Kathy bit back a sigh that was half disappointment, half relief. She was just about ready to call Tracy off, but something about the look on the girl's face stopped Kathy short before she could say anything. Tracy's eyes rolled back up into her head, her eyelids began fluttering.
A subtle ripple, a barely perceptible wave, swept through the ground under Kathy's house. It started well outside of the foundation and contracted in a diminishing circle. Kathy, with her special rapport for the water, felt it roll over her and gasped. When she let it out, a long white plume of white vapor streamed from her lips. The soil under the foundation groaned. Kathy felt a curious numbness, a spreading stillness growing there.
Tracy was oblivious to everything around her. Her breath came in shallow, rapid gulps, but unlike Kathy, no steam came out. Kathy's breathing also sped up—when she saw the first delicate ice crystals blossom beneath Tracy's white fingers. A crackling sound rose from the floor as the cement split into spidery lines. The water table under the house seeped up through the cracks and froze to create a thin sheet of clear ice over the basement floor. Kathy's teeth started to chatter. She jerked her hand up from the floor, hissing between her teeth. Her fingers were red, and rimed with frost. Tracy wasn't stopping.
"Tracy, honey, that's enough! Tracy? Tracy, stop! TRACY!" Kathy's voice rose in panic.
The white frost rolling out from under Tracy's splayed fingers started to crawl towards her. Kathy backed away towards the staircase, calling Tracy's name. When she reached the stairs, Kathy tore her gaze from the encroaching frost long enough to spare a glance at Tracy. What she saw froze her blood, and had nothing to do with the plunging temperature in her basement.
Tracy's body was now shedding a fine mist. Her body was wreathed in frost, making her look like an ice sculpture—or a frozen corpse. Her chest was still expanding and contracting rapidly, proving her alive yet, but as Kathy watched, her entire body flickered. For a scant half second, Kathy could actually see right through Tracy to the stones on the other side of the basement, where the ice had begun to climb up the wall.
I'm sorry, honey, Kathy thought, but I've gotta stop this.
Filling her lungs with the freezing air, Kathy let out a gunshot CRACK! using her sonar. Although she had used the sonic blast many countless times underwater, hunting fish, this was the first time she had ever seen it with her eyes. The sound wave rippled across the ice, kicking clouds of frost and vapor away as it streaked along. The wave struck Tracy from her knees and sent the cloud of vapor cloaking her exploding into wispy, forlorn ribbons . She fell limply to the ice-covered floor without a sound and did not move.
OH NO!
Kathy had to walk carefully across the ice to keep from slipping, with sick worry urging her to run instead. When Kathy touched two shaking fingers to Tracy's white throat, they found a slow, but steady pulse.
Thank God. I thought I might have killed her! Kathy slid her arms under Tracy's arms and legs, and stood up with painful care. It wouldn't do to drop Tracy now, and possibly hurt herself on this treacherous ice. Poor baby. This wipes away any doubts. Tracy's definitely got the power. The control will come with a little practice,and I know just the teachers to call.
Kathy carried Tracy upstairs to her own bedroom and set her down gently on the bed. The frost that had covered her body was gone now, without a trace to prove it had ever been there. Kathy suspected that it might be years before the iceberg under her foundation melted away. She'd need a pickaxe if she wanted to get to that disk now.
Or maybe a jackhammer, she thought. Yeeps. Scary stuff. Kathy suppressed a shudder as she covered the window with a thick blanket.
Returning to the living room downstairs, Kathy fumbled with the thermostat controller. Once the heat was set to a comfortable 80 degrees, she flopped bonelessly onto the sofa. Gunny came huffing up and nuzzled her hand.
"Hey, boy." Kathy scratched his ears fondly for a few minutes and let her mind empty out. "Be careful the next time you play with Tracy, or you could wind up as a pup-cicle." Gunny whined a negative. "Yeah, you're right. She's too sweet on you to do something like that." Kathy sighed as the last of the caffeine and adrenaline seeped away—
Sunlight streaming through the living room window woke her. Gunny was in the kitchen, crunching determinedly away at his bowl of chow. Sarah fed him. Bless her. After last night, I needed a good sleep. Kathy sat up and stretched prodigiously. After popping a few joints, she headed for the kitchen. Sarah was already there, cooking breakfast on the stove. It smelled wonderful.
"Now I remember why I miss you so much," Kathy said teasingly, sidling up behind her. Sarah set her lips in a wry smile and jerked her chin towards the window and the waterfront beyond.
"Better than fish for breakfast," Sarah huffed with exaggerated indignation.
"Hmph! House mouse," Kathy needled.
"Fish-stick!" Sarah barbed back. Then, suddenly, "I love you so much."
Kathy swallowed against the lump that suddenly appeared in her throat. Hot tears threatened to spill over her cheeks, which were suddenly burning. She could see that Sarah was in the same way. They hugged each other fiercely, scrambled eggs forgotten.
Why did I ever choose David over-? Sarah wondered. But then, we wouldn't have Tracy. We. It had a nice ring to it. Yes, Katie had always been family to Tracy, even moreso than her absentee biological father.
When they pulled apart, Sarah gave a little cry and flipped the eggs over. They were brown on the bottom. "Whoops!"
Kathy laughed and sat down at the little table. She might not get another chance to tell Sarah about last night. Thinking about that didn't help matters. Kathy clamped down on the urge to spill the beans and resolved that it could wait until after breakfast. Sarah hadn't lost her touch in the time they'd spent apart. Aside from the slightly browned eggs, everything else turned out well. Sarah and Kathy chatted about old times and did a little catching up on new times while they ate. When they finished, coffee cups once again found their way into both sets of hands.
"Sarah?" Kathy asked.
"Hmm?" Sarah replied from inside her coffee mug.
"There's something I want to show you in the basement."
"It's not a dead body, is it?"
"I'm serious, Sarah."
"Okay, okay. Let's just finish our coffee first, hmm?"
"Alright."
After another comfortable half hour, Kathy convinced Sarah to come into the basement with her. Sarah's first clue was the sudden frigid draft that swirled around her ankles when Kathy opened the door. Stepping carefully down the stairs, Kathy reached the bottom first and grimly flipped the light switch on. Sarah stood, dumbfounded, unable to move for a moment.
A six-inch layer of frosted white ice covered the basement floor. The heat from the furnace caused a thin cloud of steam, which drifted lazily to the floor to cool into fog. Icicles hung like glittering daggers from the ceiling, silently sprinkling powdery white snow. In that snow, in the center of the room, Sarah saw two small handprints in the ice.
"Tracy did this?" Sarah whispered hoarsely.
"In a nutshell, yes." Kathy's reply was short, but unperturbed.
"Good grief! She's asleep upstairs, right? Is she okay?" Wonderment soured into worry.
"Yeah, she's fine, just exhausted. Once she started going, she couldn't stop."
"What did you do?" Kathy flinched at the steel in Sarah's voice.
"She might've hurt herself, and possibly us, too. I had to knock her out of it. With my sonic blast." Kathy flinched again as Sarah tried to turn her to ashes with her glare. "Really! She's okay! She just needs a little rest, is all!"
"I guess so. Damn. I was afraid of this." Sarah's steel façade suddenly crumpled. "So. It's true. She's a mutant, then."
"Hey, don't sound so glum! It's not so bad, really. Look, if you're worried about her, I can always look after her to make sure she stays out of trouble."
"You sure?"
"Aww, c'mon. We went over this last night, remember? I promised I'd help you and I will."
The two women stood in the basement for a moment longer, thinking silent questions to the indoor winter-wonderland Tracy had inadvertently spilled forth. The gently falling snow and hanging icicles had no answers for them.