7

            When we reached the hotel lobby where Frank told us to meet, we came upon the scene of a tense argument with Mom on one side and Frank on the other. I froze and looked uncomfortably at my girlfriend while my mom said “-clearly not, as it just happened to falter when my son was in that cage.”

            “Even if I knew how to do something like that-”

            “So you’re saying you don’t even know how to do your job?”

            “No, I’m saying the circumstances you’re accusing me of doesn’t exist! There’s no way to make the generator specifically avoid the cage! And furthermore-”

            “So the electricity just struck my son of its own accord then?”

            “I’m trying to explain, I have no idea. It shouldn’t even be possible-”

            “Cut the ‘impossible’ bullcrap. If it was as impossible as you claim it was, my son wouldn’t have been struck! So either you are so incompetent at your own job that-”

            Lizzie loudly cleared her throat and all eyes turned to our arrival. Mom quickly tried to compose herself, while Frank shook his head as if to remind himself of his manners and rose to smile at us. “There they are! Beck, I’m so happy you’re ok!” He approached me, arms outstretched, which I mirrored. Before we made contact, he stepped back with a bit of a tilt of his body. “Safe to touch?” he asked humorously. I saw Lizzie out of the corner of my make a grimace of discomfort.

            “Safe to touch,” I replied with a grin. Frank’s split-second concern melted, and we embraced-with an audible scoff from Mom.

            When Lizzie went for her turn at a hug, I nodded toward Dad and stood up close to Mom. “Play nice,” I whispered. “I don’t blame Frank and I’ve accepted his apologies for putting me in.”

            “I don’t trust him,” Mom hissed. “He’s stepped in that cage hundreds of times for that demonstration, and the first time my son steps in it electrocutes him?”

            “I reached over the cage,” I reminded her. “Really, it was my fault, it was an accident. Frank’s a good man, I promise.”

            “You hardly know him!” Mom snapped turning to me with a red glare. “You only met him yesterday!”

            “Lizzie’s told me all about him, and she trusts him, and I trust Lizzie. Maybe you should trust me,” I said with a bit too much sass than I really meant. When she didn’t bother with a response I kept going. “Mom, let’s just have a nice dinner in Boston, ok? I don’t want to spend this whole week fighting with you guys. Just try to be civil?” Mom sighed, clearly holding in a lot of possible retorts. Ultimately, she relented with a begrudged nod.

            Dad, as usual, had remained relatively silent and impartial during the argument, but with our agreement of peace in place he stood to start the festivities. “So Frank, where did you have in mind for dinner?”

            Drawn away from his brief conversation with his niece, Frank led us toward the lobby entrance with the wave of a hand. “I know a fantastic Italian place nearby that I always make a point to visit with Marianne once a month. It’s fantastic, Lizzie I think you’ve been there before.”

            She tilted her head to the side. “Maybe? It’ll have been a while if so.”

            Frank’s car was a small black Nissan that would be tough to squeeze five people in. We did our best, me in the middle between Mom and Lizzie, and Dad grabbing shotgun. It helped that Lizzie and I were used to being cuddly, so I leaned close to her when we took off toward the highway.

            Frank turned on the radio, and song from the eighties rang through the car. Dad peered over at Frank behind the wheel. “Billy Joel. What an amazing singer.”

            Frank grinned in agreement. “I love his music. Every one of his songs just makes me want to sing along.”

            Their conversation relieved some of the tension I still had in my body. At least Dad was making an effort to get along with Frank. I snuck a glance at Mom to see her reaction, and while she was looking out the window facing away from me, she was tense and I could see a bit of a scowl on her lip.

            “I’m the say way, but with Elton John,” Dad said. “His songs were all over my childhood. That and Neil Diamond.”

            “They love their Neil Diamond here,” Frank laughed. “Sweet Caroline could arguably be Boston’s theme song.”

            The back and forth sharing of childhood songs carried the car’s conversation for a large portion of the trip. Scooched up cozily next to her, I could feel Lizzie relaxing more and more as it went along. I suppose the initial confrontation between Mom and Frank rattled her too, and seeing Frank be his normal charismatic self helped her lose a lot of her built up tension. I took the opportunity to rub her arm comfortingly and she melted in my arms.

            “You two are too cute, you know that?” Frank said, catching our display of affection in the rearview mirror. I blushed in response, and Lizzie sank slightly lower into my arms in slight embarrassment. However, neither Mom nor Dad commented, and I couldn’t help think back to when Mom berated Lizzie in the hospital. Mom noticeably stiffened, but Dad just sat neutrally. Frank, oblivious to the reactions, just chuckled. “How are you doing by the way Beck? Any weird symptoms since coming home?”

            I tensed up, and my heart skipped a beat.

            Even though the doctor had requested I come back to him with any symptoms, I couldn’t bring myself to call him up and let him know. Something about the SFE felt different, but not in a threatening way. I wasn’t entirely positive that I was in any danger, even after waking up with another field surrounding me. Besides, I was already convincing myself that telling the doctor would ultimately do nothing. The field was gone, so there was nothing to analyze. All that I’d tell him was that the symptom came back. He already admitted to not having any experience dealing with my condition, so without having any new information, we’d get nothing new done. It wasn’t worth a visit to the hospital for just that. Besides, I certainly didn’t want to deal with hearing my mother’s reaction to a minor flare-up of static electricity. So, deciding it wasn’t worth mentioning, I subtly dodged the question. “I’m a bit tired of people asking to be honest. I’m fine, really.”

            “We’re just looking out for you Beck, we care about your health.”

            “Trust me, I get that,” I said, loudly to cover up Mom’s abrasive snort. “But really, I’m good. Really, really good actually. Better than I’ve felt in a while.” That much, at least, was the truth, and was the biggest reason why I wasn’t concerned about the SFE.

            Lizzie shifted uncomfortably next to me, and I mentally kicked myself. Despite the fact that Lizzie and I had dropped the subject of my relapsing condition at the hotel room, there was still a lingering discomfort from the moment. I knew how uncomfortable she was with the fact that I wasn’t reporting my symptoms to the doctors, and now I was escalating to lying about not having any symptoms to Frank, not to mention my own family. Still, I held my ground. The last thing I needed was more stress amongst our group for the night, so I really didn’t want to interrupt our night with another frantic hospital visit. I hugged her tighter, hoping she would relax a bit. Instead, she wiggled free of my grip, turning toward the window and shutting me out.

            This dinner was already a disaster.

            By then, we had arrived at the parking lot of a nice looking Italian place simply titled “Mariano’s”. Before Frank had even killed the engine, Lizzie was already pushing the door open and jumping out of the car. Startled, I caught a glimpse of her expression. Looking deep into the ground, avoiding my gaze like it was the plague, and trying to hide a scowl, I knew she wasn’t going to let go of the lie so soon. On a small level, I was glad she was at least respecting my decision to keep the lie to myself, but she was resolute that she wouldn’t be happy about it.

            We all stepped out and Frank locked the car behind us, motioning for us to go on ahead of him. “The doctors did say to keep track of any lingering symptoms,” Dad continued to my dismay. “You haven’t felt anything strange in the last few hours? That strange static thing hasn’t shown up again since, has it?”

            I groaned but tried everything I could to turn it into a nonsuspicious cough. So the subject hadn’t been dropped then. “No, it’s all good.” And I definitely don’t have the strange ability to turn it off if it did show up.

            Lizzie mumbled to herself, eyes to the ground, her glasses threatening to fall off. I quickly grabbed her hand. She winced for a second, and tried to release herself, but I held tight. I gave her a look, intending to give off an “It would look weird if we weren’t being lovey all of a sudden” type of stare. But she avoided my gaze and continued to walk slowly forward. My heartbeat accelerated.

            “Alright, but please make sure to let the doctors know the moment something happens, alright?” Frank added, turning to me with no humor in his eyes. “Lord knows how different our lives would be if the Gomez’s followed that advice…”

            I could feel sweat on Lizzie’s palm now, and she made an audible whimper sound. Frank essentially just echoed her fears right back to me. She was panicking and I really worried she was going to break. But I looked between our family’s incredibly concerned expressions, and I imagined the chaos that would erupt if she blurted out the truth. I’d be rushed to the hospital, dinner cancelled, and Mom would never let me hear the end of it for lying to her, especially throughout the week. Throw any chances of us having a relaxing vacation out the window.

            I knew I couldn’t have another moment of stress. Not tonight.

            I squeezed her hand harder and closed the distance between us, practically begging her now to hear my thoughts. She needed to know just how much was on the line. How we could avoid all kinds of chaos and just go back to a normal vacation if she would only keep her mouth shut. I closed my eyes and begged. “Please Lizzie, for the love of everything, calm down!”

            In that moment, right as the thought ended, I felt a twinge in my head. Before I could blink, a sudden sensation travelled from my forehead, internally through my right arm and right into the hand that gripped Lizzie’s sweaty palm. It was so small, so fast, yet so powerful. Like a small electric ball of energy travelled right along my nerves into my fingertips. And when it connected with Lizzie’s palm, a small buzz of energy vibrated between us, like a miniature version of the static shocks I got when I touched the hospital’s bed earlier. Just like then, I felt no pain in my hand. But-

            “Ah!” Lizzie exclaimed suddenly, breaking from our grip with a jerk of her arm. She jumped back, shoving me backward slightly, and putting some distance between us. She stared at me, as wide-eyed as I’d ever seen her. Her face had drained in a second, and she held the wrist of the I had grabbed in her other hand. “What just- Did you- Did you just…” she sputtered, jaw quivering in shock.

            I paled, panicking. There was no way to hide her reaction now. With that weird shock she just felt, there was no question that yet another symptom had emerged. She was about to blow the whole secret wide open, and I was about to be fully exposed. Mom, Dad, and Frank were already glancing between us in confusion. I tried subtly shaking my head hoping to keep her silent, desperate to remedy the situation. “Lizzie?” Frank said, concerned. “Is something wrong?”

            She didn’t even seem to notice. Her eyes were locked into mine, like nothing else existed. “I… I…” she stuttered, unable to find her words. She released her grip on her wrist and lifted her shaky index finger at me.

            “I heard that!”

            My horror had flipped to complete bewilderment. She heard me? I lowered my eyebrows in confusion.

            Before, I was freaking out because I had thought Lizzie had felt the shock and was about to blurt it out right in front of worrywart Mom. But now I was lost. Her reaction was so massive because she heard something? Heard what?

            “What?” Mom said.

            Apparently my baffled expression didn’t help settle her mind, as she looked more lost than ever. “I…” she said, a perplexed expression overloading her surprise. “Beck, I thought…” She couldn’t finish the thought, blinking rapidly and finally breaking eye contact, rubbing her head.

            “You heard Beck?” Frank asked, looking toward me. “Did you say something?”

            I was baffled. I shook my head. “No, I didn’t say anything…” I continued to eye my girlfriend’s uncharacteristic reaction. Why was she not ratting me out? Did she not feel the static shock? Was she covering for me? Her expression seemed genuinely lost. What was she doing?

            For a while, no one spoke, waiting for Lizzie’s reply. She continued to stare me down in shock, as though I had just screamed that I was a murderer in a past life. Finally, she shook her head. “I… guess it was nothing. Sorry, I just… I thought I heard Beck say something.”

            The adults exchanged unconvinced glances, but Lizzie was already gesturing for them to continue into the restaurant. I watched unmoving while they shuffled again, still trying to wrap their head around her inexplicable reaction. They weren’t alone, my mind was struggling to comprehend where I was, let alone Lizzie’s erratic behavior.

            What the hell just happened? I thought to myself. Is she covering for me? She said she heard me? What the hell did she hear? I knew she had to have felt the same thing I did a second ago, but it wasn’t another static field emission. I wasn’t giving off any static shocks, I wasn’t buzzing, there was nothing. And honestly, it didn’t feel like a typical static shock either. What the hell was that shock? Was it another one of those lingering side effects that the doctors believed could pop up? And did it have anything to do with why Lizzie was so confused?

            When I finally moved my feet again, I found Lizzie giving me strangely suspicious glances, only adding to my bemusement. Why the hell was she suddenly looking at me like I was not the same Beck she had known all her life?