Chapter Nine
“Annie!” I stared at her and at Nick, who was holding the baby. And surprisingly, Dr. Ryder was also standing next to them, looking around in awe. “What are you guys doing here?”
Nick gave Annie the baby. “We had to escape.”
“What happened?” The sudden thumping in my chest caught me off guard, and I could feel my pulse quicken with each passing second.
“We were almost done destroying all evidence at the center when Robert sent me a text to warn me we had minutes to get out of there,” Nick said.
“Did everyone get out?”
Annie rubbed her temples. “Yes, it was just Nick and Chris. I was with Dr. Ryder over at Beth’s house, getting him and Gabby settled in.”
“That’s when I got there,” Kevin said.
“Right on time. He helped us get out just as we heard the alarms go off. Good thing, too. Andrew was away getting David and the equipment from the lab to a safe house.”
Annie let out a big sigh. “So here we are. We decided it was too crowded and that maybe helping you guys would be better. Nick could take over the hypnotizing and Jay could get Kevin’s teleportation powers to help, since there’s more of us.”
“Not that it’s a problem. With you and Ryan, I wouldn’t be drained.” Kevin’s brow creased, looking almost offended.
“Just the same, it’s better this way in case we need to split up.”
Jay nodded. “Whatever Annie says.”
I punched Kevin’s arm. “It would have been nice if you’d told us you were going to check on them before leaving!”
“Sorry, I didn’t even do it on purpose. Nick just popped in my head and I went there. Then, with everything happening, I had no time.”
“I called you and you didn’t answer!” I felt my heart pounding angrier by the second. Things could’ve been really bad and we wouldn’t have known.
“Sorry. My phone is actually dead.” He pulled it out of his pocket and gave it to me. “Charge it up for me?”
I gave it a zap and sighed in frustration.
“I see you don’t need me to charge your things anymore,” Annie said.
“I’ll always need you, Anniewee!”
“Sure you will.” Annie turned to Anali. “How are you, darling?”
“Okay. It’s been . . . emotional. But I’m glad to see this little guy!” It didn’t take her long before she grabbed Jack and held him in her arms. “I missed your first birthday! How are you growing so fast?”
“We cut a cake. I’ll show you pictures,” Annie said. “But don’t worry, he won’t remember. You’ll be there for the next birthdays.”
“Some nanny you are!” Jay shook his finger at Ana. “You’ll be surprised what kids remember. I’d bet my money he’ll never let you live it down.”
“Stop!” Ana laughed. “That’s not helping.”
“Amazing. Truly. All of this.” Dr. Ryder beamed, still studying his surroundings.
“How come he’s here?” I asked.
Annie spread her arms out. “We need him to figure out how this might all work.”
“What about Gabby?”
“She wanted to stay back and help Chris keep an eye on the young Luminaries. Plus, it’s crowded enough.”
I nodded. The RV was big enough, but it was going to be tight for sure.
“Yes, he’s crucial,” Nick said. “And us— Well, Annie and I had to be with our family.”
I frowned and turned to look at Jack.
Nick smiled. “As in you and Kevin.”
I felt a warmth in my heart. I knew he meant my inclusion, and I felt the support and love. But I also felt the fear.
“Well, now that we’re all here, let me bring you up to speed. We have to go check on the next lead in the morning.”
“What lead is this?” Nick asked.
“We don’t know, but the first address we went to had a lady who gave us a letter. It had this address on it.” Ana handed him the envelope.
“Your brother is leaving messages for you with random people?”
“He’s careful.”
“Are you sure?”
She squinted at Nick. “I only know he would never put me in harm’s way. The first lady, Lynda, was really nice. In the end, I have to trust that he knows why he’s trusting them.”
Nick nodded.
Early morning, a family of seven staggered out of the house we were watching. The kids each had backpacks in hand, while the mother rushed them all to get going. The two teenagers got into a car and left, and the mother drove off in another car with two young kids and a baby.
There was no one left except for a very tall guy with a ponytail.
He’d already made it into his car when he saw us in the mirror as we came up the driveway.
Annie walked side by side with Anali, waving at the guy.
I was already risking it by coming with the girls, but Anali wanted me there.
I kept my sunglasses and hoodie on the whole time and tried to stay a few steps behind.
“Good morning,” Annie said.
He rolled down his window. “Good morning.”
“I wondered if I could get a few minutes of your time. I promise, I’m not selling anything.” Annie extended her hand.
Surprisingly, he reached out to shake it. “I’m Brandon. How can I help you?”
“I’m Annie.” She stood directly in front of him. “And this is Anali and our friend.”
His blue eyes widened when she said Ana’s name. “I see.” He looked at us and turned to Annie. “I guess I know why you’re here after all. I have something for you from Tony.”
“You do?”
“Yes. He said he was supposed to wait here, but something came up in Florida, and you didn’t have any other way to reach him.”
“Right,” Annie said.
He got out of the car. “I’ll be right back.”
Brandon went into the house, and Annie turned to look at us. “Isn’t it weird that these people are just giving us letters without questioning anything? Like, what do they think is going on in the family, being in separate states with no cell phones?”
“Well,” Brandon said from behind us. “Some things aren’t my business. I’ve learned not to ask questions.”
A puppy came running toward me and was trying to play-bite my shoes. I bent down to rub its head.
Brandon smiled. “That’s Axie.”
“Aren’t you the cutest? Who’s a good boy?” I played with the puppy as Brandon handed a box to Annie.
She took it. “Thank you, Brandon. If you don’t mind me asking, how did you meet him?”
“We worked together for a while. Good kid. Helped me get a car for my eldest, and then all the kids took a liking to him.” He smiled. “Give him my regards.”
As we walked back to the RV, Annie said, “This is weird.”
“What is?” Ana asked.
“This has my name on it.”
Anali and I looked at each other. “He did it again.”
Annie opened the box and found an old cell phone. It was dead, but luckily we didn’t have to wait until it was charged enough. She handed it to me. “Wanna do the honors?”
I extended my hand to touch the phone. As we watched it come to life, Ana filled in the rest of the gang on Antonio knowing about Jay.
“And he knew about me, too!” Annie said in awe.
“So there’s the possibility of him either seeing snippets of the future or . . . I mean, I don’t even wanna think about it,” Ana said, driving. “Wait until I park before we check it. I know it’s for you, Annie, but I’d like to see it.”
“Of course, darling.”
Ana drove for about ten minutes before we found an isolated area. “This is odd,” Annie said from the passenger seat.
The two of them were hunched over the phone, wearing matching frowns. “Yeah, there’s no service, no contact, no message. Nothing,” Anali said.
After a few puzzling minutes, Annie decided to use my new pocketknife to open the back of the phone.
“What are you doing? You’re going to break it!” Anali freaked out.
“Nah, it’s fine,” Kevin said. “He knew Jay would figure out the last clue, and he left this one for Annie. I bet she— Son of a gun!”
Annie was smiling after she’d snapped off the cover. Inside was a small piece of paper. “Looks like we’re going to a park in St. Cloud, Florida.”
Turns out being on the road for extended periods of time was simply not my thing. And though I was pretty sure lightning wouldn’t strike twice and erase my memory again, I knew I’d never forget this one universal truth: I hated long drives. So I was happy when we finally arrived.
As Jack ran around the park and played with Kevin, the rest of us were sitting on a couple of benches eating ice cream.
Nothing had prepared me for Florida’s heat and humidity, which were like battling demons.
But worse still was the fact that I couldn’t keep my hoodie on.
I could either melt wearing it, go back to my RV prison, or wear my beanie cap and pray to the gods nobody would recognize me. I chose the beanie.
“I have to tell you.” I looked at Ana. “Ice cream doesn’t get the respect it deserves.”
She managed to mutter “Mmm” before dropping her ice cream and practically leaping into a guy’s arms. “Antonio!”
I didn’t think anyone noticed when he approached us, which intrigued me. He was a few inches taller than her and shared a similar tanned complexion. You could tell they were related, particularly in the way he smiled when she wouldn’t stop crying and laughing at the same time.
He faced our group as he wiped away her tears, lifting his head every so often to study each one of us. After a few seconds, he relaxed enough to close his eyes and really embrace her. It was sweet to see.
He gave us a closed-lip smile and lifted his left eyebrow before speaking. “Thank you for bringing my sister to me.”
“Hello, Antonio,” Nick said.
“Hello, Nick.” Antonio turned to each of us as he spoke our names. “Annie, Ryan, Kevin, and . . . Jay?”
“How do you know who’s who?” I asked.
“Yeah,” Anali said. “And how did you find us?”
“It’s his powers,” Jay answered. “See, Ana! I didn’t lie.”
Antonio nodded. “Facts.”
Anali rolled her eyes. “Still? Why can’t you just say ‘yes’ instead of ‘facts’ all the time?”
He shrugged. “Facts are facts.”
“What are your powers?” I asked.
“I have out-of-body experiences that happen in the future. It took me a while before I understood they weren’t dreams.”
“So you’re visiting the future?”
“Something like that. I can stay a few minutes at a time.” He smiled. “Sometimes I visit days, and very rarely, months in the future. Enough to keep me on the move when needed.”
“Is that how you knew you could trust the people with the letters? That seemed like a big gamble,” Anali said.
“Yeah, I could focus on you and each person I met, and I could see if you ever crossed paths and that’s how I knew.” He shrugged. “I saw Jay with the first letter, Annie with the note from the phone in her hand, and us right here in this park.”
“So nothing came up in Florida that made you leave South Carolina?” Anali asked.
“Nope. I just saw us meeting here.”
“But the guy said something happened.”
“I mean, I had to tell him something as to why I left. Mentioning my visions was not an option.” He shrugged. “I just kept following my visions to each place until we could meet up.”
“So . . . like premonitions. That’s cool, bro. I always wanted to meet a witchy-type,” Kevin said, holding the baby.
Antonio raised his eyebrow again. He looked from Kevin to Jack and said, “I see you needing a new diaper in the near future.”
“My man! That’s the truth.” Kevin leaned in to give him a fist bump. “Nice to meet you.”
“He gets a fist bump?” Jay asked, wiping sweat from his forehead.
“You gotta earn it.” Kevin laughed. “Right, lil bro?” he said, lifting Jack’s tiny hand to give it a bump, too.
“Where is the doctor?” Antonio looked around. “You have him with you, right?”
“He went to the bathroom. Why? Are you okay?” Ana asked.
“I’m fine. I just wondered if I’d messed up when I saw us in my vision. I remember a man in a white lab coat with us in the woods.”
“The woods?” I asked.
“Yeah, now that we’re all together, we should get off the road. We should go camping and get off the grid for a while.”
“That’s actually what I was going to suggest,” Kevin said.
“I know, bro.” Antonio smiled.
“Bro!”
Antonio gave him another fist bump.
Jay shook his head and put his arm around my shoulder. “You go bro it out. I’ll stick with the girl.”
Kevin turned his head sharply, but before he could say anything, Dr. Ryder was on his way back to us. He ate his ice cream with such innocence, anyone would think he was a kid trapped in a man’s body.
“This is fascinating! Why do we enjoy poisoning our bodies with sugar?” He shook his head and licked his cone. “Why indeed? And then we do it knowing we’ll get a brain freeze. The odds are never in our favor with that one.” He smiled and noticed Antonio. “Oh, I didn’t see you there, did I?”
“No, you did not.” Antonio raised an eyebrow, smiling.
“Dr. Ryder, this is my brother,” Ana said.
“Ah, yes, yes!” He looked at both of them. “I can see it now. Of course he is. Hello, young man.”
At that, we went back to the dreaded RV. And even though we were more cramped now, the overall vibe was more energetic and positive than before. We’d found our hope and Antonio all in one.
While on the road, Nick rented a place using his phone. If nothing else, I really wished my brain would access its user manual for everything cell phone related. But that did not seem likely, so instead I celebrated the fact I’d have a bed and tons of legroom very soon.