Page 19 of Haunting the Deep

I smack the table between their plates, but oddly, it doesn’t make a noise. I try to lift a plate, but it’s as though it was cemented to the table. That’s it. I’m going to get their attention if it’s the last thing I do.

My gaze falls on a small silver sugar spoon. I grab it with both hands and pull. Nothing. I concentrate harder, and picture lifting it with my mind. It sways slightly. “Gotcha!” I tighten my grip and focus more energy at it. It lifts six inches into the air.

The men stop talking at once.

“Ya see me now, don’t you?” I ask, rather satisfied with myself, even though I know they’re looking at the spoon and not me.

They push their seats away from the table. Mr. Stead’s chair collides with my side. I try to step away, but I lose my balance. And as I fall toward the checkered floor, I take the spoon with me.

“Hey!” My eyes fly open. “Watch what you’re…” I’m in my bedroom. There’s no one to yell at.

“What the hell?” In my right hand is a small silver spoon. Whatever residual sleepiness I had immediately disappears.

This isn’t supposed to happen. No one takes things from their dreams. There’s nothing to take—dreams aren’t real. I close my eyes for three seconds and open them again. The spoon is still there.

I jump out of bed.I need to tell the girls; I need to…My argument with Jaxon this morning and my fight with Alice come rushing back to me. And even if I wanted to talk to them, they’re both at school.

I shove the spoon into my nightstand drawer and pace in my room. I need air.

I throw on some clothes and walk into the hall.

“Dad!” I yell.

“You okay?” he calls up.

“Yeah,” I yell back, making my way down the stairs. “Just going for a walk.”

He enters the foyer at the same time I do. “Want some lunch before you go? Or a snack? Banana?”

I pull my hair into a messy ball on top of my head and put my jacket on. “Nah. I’m not hungry. I think I spent too much time napping. I’m starting to feel antsy.”

“You have a minute? I want to show you something.”

I hesitate, looking at the door. “Yeah. Of course.”

I follow him into the hall, and he opens the door to his old-fashioned office, complete with a sepia-toned globe and tall bookshelves.

“Did you know this study was my dad’s once? For most of my childhood, it was off-limits. Of course, that didn’t stop me and Mae from snooping through his drawers when we saw the opportunity.” He winks at me and walks behind his enormous desk.

“Were you and Grandpa close?” I know even less about him than about my grandmother. He died when my dad was in college, and Dad almost never talked about him when I was growing up. Come to think of it, he’s been doing a lot of reminiscing recently. As long as he doesn’t want to reminisce about Vivian, I’m fine with it.

“He didn’t talk to me much.” He laughs. “I used to take it personally and try to goad him into conversation. But he said what he thought and that was that. Even when he got mad at me.” He points to the plush armchair on the other side of the desk. “Whenever I did something wrong, he’d have me sit there and retell what I did, using only the facts. No feelings, no reasons. Then he’d ask me what kind of punishment I thought I should have.”

“That sounds like a sweet deal.”

“Not even close. He would look at me with those we-both-know-what’s-right eyes until I named something way too severe. Mae used to laugh until she cried when I told her how those conversations went. And I know you think she’s nothing but sweet, but don’t let her fool you. She’s an expert troublemaker.” He pulls out a drawer of the desk and hands me a photo. “Thatis proof.”

In the picture my dad looks about nine years old. He’s tied to the tree in the backyard and covered head to toe in mud. And there’s a girl around his age standing a few feet away, holding a mud ball.

I start laughing. “Way to go, Mrs. Meriwether.”

He pauses. “So about staying home today—”

“I’m fine,” I say too quickly. “Just a bad night of sleep. I figured I’d be passing out in class. Not a big deal.”

“You’d tell me if it was a big deal?”

“Yeah.” I put the photo on his desk and pull my sleeves down farther than they’re supposed to go. “I think I’m gonna take that walk now.”