“I don’t think she wants a boring life, love. At least she hasn’t roped Bethy into things. At least not yet.”
Bethy was the sensible one, except she worried too much. Maybe superpowers made people crazy. Celia wouldn’t know. “Can you tell me that everything’s going to be all right?”
“Everything’s going to be all right,” he said dutifully, with that sinister, studious look in his ey
es. Even Arthur had this weird, mad look to him sometimes, when he knew something that the rest of the world didn’t.
“You’re lying.”
“You didn’t even have to be telepathic to know that,” he said, kissing her forehead.
* * *
The next day, Celia had her weekly lunch date with Analise Baker. No matter how busy she got, she couldn’t miss this.
Their preferred spot was a downtown diner. As usual, Analise had gotten there first and claimed a table in back. She stood, arms open, to greet Celia with a hug. The brown-skinned woman was tall and had filled out some in her middle age, but the extra roundness made her seem even more statuesque and impressive.
She hugged the woman hard, and Analise laughed. They’d been friends for half their lives. Celia didn’t have many friends from her early days. Burned too many bridges back then. But Analise was still around.
“What’s the news?” Analise asked, after they ordered their salads.
Celia could feel the war-weary, startled look in her eyes. “I have teenage daughters, how about you?”
“Twins, Celia. You will never one-up me.” Analise pointed with her fork. “But tell me the dirt anyway.”
Celia tore a corner off her paper napkin and mangled it while the wheels in her mind turned. The impulse to keep secrets was strong. But few people would understand like the woman sitting across the table would.
“I think Anna has powers, but she won’t talk about it. She won’t tell anyone.”
Analise was quiet a moment, her expression still, like she hadn’t heard. Finally she said, “She setting pillows on fire or what?”
If only it were that obvious. Then she could sit Anna down and wheedle it out of her. Turned out this was worse than the birds-and-bees talk. That had been easy compared to simultaneously wanting to treat Anna like an adult while learning all her secrets. Celia shook her head. “I think she takes after Arthur. Some kind of mental power, something nobody would know about unless she said something. I just don’t know how to get her to talk.”
“You ought to bug the girls’ restroom at Elmwood if you want to find out their secrets.”
Celia had considered it but ran into Arthur’s perpetual problem: How much did she really want to know? “This too shall pass, right? Arthur won’t pry, and he’s right not to, but anything he’s learned by accident he won’t talk about until Anna talks. That’s the right call, too, I’m sure. He says she’s fine, but…”
Analise sat back in the booth and smiled. “But it’s totally outside your control, and that drives you nuts.”
This was why she and Analise had been having lunch almost every week for two decades. “Bingo.”
“If it’s any consolation, I’m sure my kids are up to something, too. Creeping around like spies, not saying a word they don’t have to.”
“Powers?” Celia questioned, even though she already knew the answer.
“Probably. But it’s the same problem you have with Anna—if they’ve got powers, why won’t they just tell me?”
Celia picked at the lettuce on her plate and smiled. “Because they don’t know who you are—were—and they don’t think you’ll understand. Because they have to protect their secret identities if they’re going to go fight crime.”
Analise looked at her as if the concept had never occurred to her, which had to be a supreme case of cognitive dissonance. Then she slumped. “Oh, God, I hope not.”
Back in the day, Analise had been Typhoon. She hadn’t worn her costume or used her powers since she’d accidentally killed a cop with a flood of water through the streets downtown. Guilt had shut her down. Celia constantly wanted to ask if she’d tried using her powers since then, if she ever hoped that she would get them back. But Celia didn’t have the courage to open that old wound.
“I’d hoped whatever it was that got me would pass them over. Like it did you, you know? I figured you were proof that I couldn’t pass my powers on to my kids.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“I just—” Analise leaned her elbow on the table, her brow furrowed. She worked hard to appear calm and in control, but this worried her. “They’d better not do anything to lose their scholarships. I don’t know how they managed to swing them in the first place, but they’d better not screw it up. It’s too big a chance for them.”