According to the car we get home at around two, and dad smirks at me as he opens the front door and beckons me in. Once we're inside he says, "I'll bring the cases to the door while you put them in the basement."
I blanch, as those cases are cardboard trays full of canned food, and dad made me carry two of them to the car while he carried four. "But dad…"
Dad waggles his finger, "Uh uh Taylor, you're the one with powers not me. You're also the one that cleared us out of canned food on Friday remember."
I slump and walk into the kitchen. This sucks, all I want to do is go to my camp and get away from everyone for a bit. As I levitate the first tray of cans into the basement I wonder if it's weird that I feel that way, or is it a result of the last two years of school. Absently, I take another tray and send it down into the basement as I think. Am I really that out of practice socially that I can't handle a single teenager?
"Taylor, this is the last one, can you leave it in the kitchen and come and help with the other stuff?"
"Yes dad!" I shake my head and bring the tray to the kitchen table. "Dad! Why do we have cat food?"
Dad walks into the lounge with a wall mount grandfather clock, as I walk into the hall, "Well, you bought Spike home with you, what else are we going to feed him?"
I laugh, "Well, he seems to be good at catching rats, and they can't teleport like the ones he's used to do."
Shaking my head I walk out to the car and grab a flat screen TV with a built in DVD player and the remote taped to the top. While I'm putting the TV down on in the lounge, Dad brings a cardboard box in and puts it on the couch, before taking out a scientific calculator and two wind up alarm clocks.
"Taylor. These are yours."
I take the alarm clocks with my power and frown when dad pulls the calculator behind his back, "Uh uh, no powers with electronics. You'll need this for your schooling. I'm willing to try the home instruction for a week, but you'll be coming with me to the office. If you can show me that you can apply yourself, then I'll send a letter to the local superintendent and we'll find the money somewhere."
I sag down on to the couch as Friday was so far away that I'd almost pushed it out of my mind, "Really?"
Dad nods, "Yes really. Also, the cans downstairs are for you to take with you. But please only take them if you need them. Also, no power testing in the house. We can't afford to do this too much, and next time it might be something expensive like the boiler or the fridge."
"But why?"
"Taylor, while I am your father, you're a young woman now, no longer just my little girl. You have powers that will let you go god knows where. I haven't been there when you needed me, so I'm trying to find space now that you don't need me."
While I'm struggling to understand what's going on, dad walks out to the car to grab the next load, and I follow him. Though the only things I've got left to pick up are all in the plastic bag Sandra gave me. Somewhat listlessly I put the shampoo and conditioner in the bathroom before packing the brush and detangling pick in my new rucksack.
At the same time, I keep wondering if dad's cutting me loose, if I did something wrong, or maybe he doesn't really love me. Thoughts keep cycling around in my head. Finally I grab a dozen tins from the basement and shove them into the rucksack, along with the army book and the wards printout that dad got me. Finally, I've stuffed everything into the bag except my self help book, so I walk into the lounge and watch dad measuring up the wall for the grandfather clock.
Once he steps backwards I ask, "Dad, do you know where my self-help book is?"
Dad looks back distractedly, "It's on my bedside table. I figured that I'd give it ago as you seem to be using it."
"Oh. Well, I'm err, going to my camp."
Dad nods, "No experimenting with powers inside the house, and I'm going to try to cook for 6, I'll leave you a plate in the microwave if you're… I'll leave you a plate in the fridge if you're not back by then."
I get to the back door before I turn back, "Dad, why do you think I don't need you?"
Dad walks out of the lounge with a screwdriver in his hand and sighs, "Taylor, one of the hallmarks of adult hood is being able to support yourself, and you've already taken that step, and it's my fault that you've had to grow up so fast. I love you, and I want to be part of your life. But your self-help book and the parenting books we bought all say that it has to be on your terms now."
I stare at dad for a long enough that he goes back into the lounge, when really what I want to say is that I still need him. But the words won't come, so I slip out of the back door and find a crack in the world.
After slipping through 7 different cracks in the world, I'm not exactly surprised when I come out in yet another different place to the one I started in. What does surprise me is the complete lack of canyon when I get here.
By the time I make it to my camp, all of my thoughts have managed to settle themselves. Probably due to how much I needed to concentrate just to step here.
As I look around the campsite, the first thing that occurs to me is that it's peaceful here. Intellectually I know that there's going to be dangers here, but that's true of the mountains at home. The second thing is that this is mine. Everything that I've made here is something I did on my own with no help from anyone else. Maybe that's what dad was talking about. This sense that this is somewhere that I'm not sharing with someone else. The last thing that occurs to me is that everything has moss growing on it, and the fire circle has been completely reclaimed. This is why I want the chiminea, as at least then I don't have to worry about redigging the stupid circle every time. There's plenty of stone in that place I ended up, maybe I could use some of it to make myself a small shelter, or at least a larder to store my pots and pans in rather than the wooden basket I made last time.
I walk over to my basket and nudge it with my toe. As I do, the bit of wood I nudged crumples, and a load of insects fall out of it. Definitely need to replace that with a stone alternative.
With a sigh I start cleaning everything off with liberal use of my cleaning power, something I am getting close to being able to use as easily as my telekinesis. While I'm tidying up I come across the water carrier that I brought here last time.
"Oh yeah, I wanted to take some water back for dad."
Once I've done all of that, it takes me longer to find enough wood to keep my fire going throughout the evening until I fall asleep than it did to do everything else. My powers are awesome.
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Trip 2 Day 1. My god is this ward paperwork boring. How on earth do they expect anyone to read this stuff? Anyway, I managed to slog through one page, so I'm moving onto the Army manual as it's too dark to find a stick to play with.
My god this is easy to read, why couldn't they have got the people that wrote this to write the wards stuff. I've already read the introduction and the chapter on psychology, planning, shelters, water, fire craft and food preperation. I can't believe how icky preparing animals to eat is, but I guess I'm going to have to get used to it if I don't want to bankrupt dad with how much I'm eating.
I didn't have time to practice my teleporting or sewing, so I'll try and do some of that tomorrow. Have I mentioned how awesome my powers are yet? Oh, and I found a waterproof pocket in the top of the rucksack, so I'm going to put my books in there.
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Day 2
It's a beautiful day, and I just want to lay here and soak up the sun. Maybe I can just find a stick and play with it, and it would be research as there's a section on weapons in the army book.
Ok, I shouldn't have read the section about survival food before I did this, as it says that insects make good lunch. There are so many insects living in the wood on the floor it's unreal. I think I'm going to be sick.
Ok, I was sick, but I haven't had breakfast yet so it's fine.
I need to practice my cutting power, as I spotted one of those rabbit things but it disappeared before I could get the power to work. Oh, and I found my new stick, though I had to cut down a baby tree to get it. But it was absolutely perfect, and it feels great in my hand too.
Funky note, I can point and cut with my stick, though it's more of a gouge, so I'm going to sharpen the ends and see if that makes any difference.
Wow, is this why wizards always use staves in the stories. Right, not carrying this around when I don't want to kill someone then, poor tree. But at least I have plenty of fire wood now.
Sewing sucks, why does it have to be so freaking hard? No, not with my fingers, with my power. I swear that I've missed the hole on the needle so much that the sun has gone down. Ravioli tonight then.
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Day 3
That's odd, the canyon came back some time in the night. I wouldn't mind, but I woke up somewhere else with a furry little creature sticking it's tentacles up my nose. I'm just glad it wasn't a predator otherwise it could have killed me.
Ah shit, that's a good reason practice my teleporting today. I do not want something to ambush me in my sleep. Note to self, remember to braid your hair at night, it's taken me nearly an hour to get all of the tangles out.
Today I learnt two things, the first is that my cutting power doesn't work very well on rock even with my stick. The second thing is that you shouldn't stand too close to an exploding rock, as the shards are sharp. I suppose I also learnt that I can blow stuff up with my stick. But I think I could do that with my finger too.
Note to self, research how to make stone buildings without cement. At least my fire pit is now lined with stones now.
Yay me, I remembered to meditate today. Moving meditation is hard, I think I'm going to need someone to teach me, as I tripped over my stick three times, and stabbed my foot once. Right let's ignore that shall we.
Oh god the sky is so beautiful here. I just noticed how beautiful it is without the streetlights.
Ok, I've left it too late to do any reading, so I'll try to do some tomorrow, though I might need to go back in the morning if my legs haven't healed.
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Day 4
Shit, I should have gone home last night. It's still dark and I'm surrounded by a pack of dead small dog things. If I didn't have my stick I think they'd have killed me. I've got a fire going now, and I need to make a new cage for Gram's stuff, as there's no trace of the cardboard boxes I brought it in.
I sniff as I huddle close to the fire with my stick in my lap and the kettle in the center of the fire. I've used my cleaning power on my wounds, but I'm going to use the hot water to sterilize the tea towel and clean the wounds out that way.
Wait, wasn't there something about not leaving the scent of blood near your camp. That's probably how they found me.
Lifting my stick, I point it at each corpse and make a flinging motion over the trees. Each time I do, a corpse disappears into the darkness with a thump.
Once the kettle starts to whistle, I quickly take it off the fire with my telekinesis and empty some of the water into a saucepan, while the rest of it goes into a mug that I put a teabag in.
While my tea is brewing, I dip the corner of the tea towel into the saucepan and carefully dab at each wound to make sure it's completely clean.
As the hours of darkness carry on, I struggle to keep my eyes open despite the danger and the tea, so eventually I resort to trying to use the awareness meditation while propping myself up with my stick. The next thing I know it's daylight and barking woke me up.
As I cautiously look around for the source of the barking I point my stick ahead of me warily. When nothing appears after several minutes I relax a bit and take the time to inspect my wounds, both from the rocks and the small bites that the dogs gave me, especially on the back of my ankles. As I clean them off with some freshly boiled water, the scabs all come of cleanly to reveal clear pink skin. Now that's odd.
Note: I seem to be healing much faster than I should be. Is that why I don't need glasses anymore?
As soon as I can, I make liberal use of my repairing power to fix the broken china that's strewn around my camp. In this case I discover that using my stick actually makes things harder as it only repairs what I point it at. But live and learn. I then pack up my rucksack before hefting onto my back while I find some wood to make a new basket with.
It's as I'm pushing the stakes into the ground that I realize two things. The first is that I am coming back. Maybe not tomorrow, but soon. The second is that if it comes down to my life or theirs, I need to pick my life. I'm not sure how well I'm going to do with that, but I'm willing to acknowledge that it's a first step.
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As get close to Brockton Bay, rather than climbing out of the crack immediately, I decide to see if I can work out where I am first, and then walk closer to home before I reappear with my stick and backpack.
I guess I must look terrible, as when I walk through the front door, dad immediately walks out of the lounge and grabs my arms, "Taylor, what happened?"
I levitate my notebook out of my backpack and open it to the few pages I wrote in. "I made a mistake dad, I'm not going to make the same mistake again. I'm going to have a shower and wash my hair."
