Chapter 3
The ceremony was short but meaningful. The men wept and sang just as they were supposed to, they were able to end the ceremony in around 20 minutes. Joah and Miles were left to pick up the flowers as Derek dragged James into his office to speak with him about being Gifted. The father opened up the door and told James to take a seat after they entered the room. He moved over to the small fridge and cracked open a can of his favorite kind of beer while his son sat on the small, light brown couch across from his work desk.
“So, what did you want to talk about, father?” James asked expectantly. He didn’t really want to be there but he did want to learn why he was Gifted and his father seemed to be the only person to know this information. After taking a long drink of his beer, Derek sat down across from James and started to explain.
“It was your father.” Derek vaguely stated. “He had the Gift and it passed along to you. He told me about it after we had been married for I’d say around 10 years. Guess he wanted to make sure I wouldn’t run away once I knew. We always worried that one of you boys would inherit it from him but none of you showed the typical signs of it in your early childhood as Adrian had so we just thought that we’d gotten lucky. Or that you did, I guess. I started suspecting that you had the Gift a bit before Adrian… um… you know. Anyway, I told him and he made me promise to keep you safe and to teach you how to control your Gifts if you did end up having the power.
James was taken aback, he hadn’t had a real talk with his father that wasn’t yelling and punching since his other father had passed. All of this information was swimming around in his head so fast he couldn’t process it all before Derek started speaking again.
“I’m sure you know by now that the Gifted have certain powers over water-related weather, yes?” He asked this as he leaned back in his chair a bit, the old brown leather seat creaked against the movement. This was going to be a long conversation, he figured it would be smart to get comfortable.
“Yeah, when I get angry, sad, or really any extreme emotion, the weather tends to follow whatever emotion I am feeling.”
“Exactly!” Derek shouts, James flinches. He’s been conditioned by years of abuse to be careful whenever his father yells. “That’s exactly what the Gift does. Your father had learned over a period of around five to seven years to keep his emotions at bay and not let into the Gift. However, he still occasionally slipped up, he was human after all. I made a promise to him and I intend to keep it, I’m going to teach you how to use and control your Gift so that you can be a functional member of society instead of being the giant thorn in my side that you are now, got it?”
“Yes, sir.” James replied
“Good, now get out of my office. I have business to do and you’re dripping all over my nice sofa, go change!”
“Yes, sir.” James squeaked out as he left the room.
He closed the door behind him as he quickly exited and ran up the stairs to his room once again. This time feeling the urge to scream rather than to cry. I need to talk to Purple again, she will probably be able to teach me better than my dad can. He paced back and forth in his room a bit more before deciding on what he would do. Okay, I’ll sneak out tonight and go see her. Maybe if I try to talk to her in my head she’ll be able to hear me and find me so we can meet. He congratulated himself on his plan for a few seconds before setting his alarm for 12am when he knew his family would be asleep. They never stay up very late because they all have work early in the morning.
~~~ 12am ~~~
His alarm rang at the time it was programmed to, the obnoxious beeping woke him from a demented dream about killing his family with his Gift. Okay, he thought, time to go. He got up and pulled on some black clothes as quickly and quietly as he could while simultaneously reaching out with his mind to talk to Purple. Purple, Purple you there? Can you hear me? He waited about five minutes before realizing that he had to put his mental wall down for her to hear him speak. “Why is this so complicated?” He whispered while throwing down his mental wall. Okay, let's try again. Purple, can you hear me? You there? Please wake up if you’re not already! He yelled in his mind. She responded almost immediately.
Shut it brat! You woke me up out of a flying dream, I could kill you for that. But I won’t because I don’t care to go to jail. Now, what the hell did you want?
I wanted to make a proposition. James stated, unphased by her anger at being awoken.
What kind of proposition are we talking here?
The kind tha-OOF!
The kind that oof, huh?
No, no, no. I just fell over. Sorry, I’m not good at multitasking. Anyway! I need you to meet me at the entrance to the wall on Burncreek Road.
And what if I say no? She asked sassily.
You won’t.
You’re right, I want to see just how pathetically uneducated you are.
Awesome. Just come meet me at Burncreek, okay? He said before building his mental wall once again and sneaking out of his window to go meet the mysterious girl with purple hair. The trip out of the woods surrounding his house would take 15 minutes at a walking speed and there was another 10 minutes to get to Burncreek Road. James decided to cut his time in half by running but was exhausted by the time he exited the woods so he walked and jogged the rest of the way to Burncreek.
By the time he finally got to the meeting point, Purple was already waiting there, casually leaning against a tree with one foot against the trunk. Her face was relaxed in a mask of tranquility. However, the moment she caught sight of James jogging up the path her peaceful expression morphed into a grimace of loathing and impatience.
“Took you long enough, brat!” She sneered as he finally stopped near the tree.
“Sorry, it took me longer than I thought it would to get here. I live in the middle of a forest.”
“Good for you, sunshine, that doesn’t excuse being late. I’ve been waiting for 10 minutes for you to get here. If you want me to teach you, you better be here next time. Early.”
“Yes ma’am.” James sarcastically replied while saluting her.
Purple just rolled her eyes while pushing herself off the tree to stand, her blood red cardigan flew around her as she walked over to him. The cardigan was the only color in her ensemble of black pants and a grey and back shirt. It made her eyes stand out in the night, they shone like twin stars as they burned into James’s own eyes, making him very uncomfortable in the silence. As he usually does when he is nervous, James started messing with his clothes. He wrapped his hands up in his long, black shirt and zipped his hoodie up and down as Purple circled him like a hawk. She was trying to figure him out.
She finally stopped circling him and James was able to calm down again. “Okay,” she said, “you don’t seem completely hopeless. You have the physique of a runner but the mental strength of a small child. We’re going to have to work on that. Do you know how to use your Gift at all or are you just blindly guessing?”
“Um… I guess I’m just blindly guessing?” He offered.
“Obviously, anyone could tell that from a mile away.”
“If you were just going to respond like that then why did you even ask me in the first place?”
“Because I wanted to see if you were more confident than you should be. At least we don’t have to deal with that problem.” She responded.
“Yeah, trust me, I’m far from confident.”
“Well, then we’ll also have to fix that. You need to be confident and sure of your abilities but not overconfident. If you’re overconfident then you will overestimate your Gift and end up getting yourself in trouble. However, if you’re confident in yourself then you know your abilities and your limits well enough to use them effectively.” Purple explained to James.
“Okay, I understand,” he yawned, “I think I’m going to start heading home now, there’s going to be a funeral for Okes’ family soon so I better get my rest before we have to head out past The Wall again.”
“Alright, come back here again tomorrow and I’ll start teaching you how to use your Gift. Bring Okes if you can, they need to learn about as much as you do.”
After she finishes her sentence, she pivots on her heel and starts running off into the dark night, her lilac hair flew in the breeze as she ran. As James watched her retreating form, he started feeling that same spark he’d felt with Okes light in his chest. He snuffed it out quickly, telling himself that he didn’t have time to deal with it at that moment. He needed to focus on his Gift and getting home before his father and brothers woke up.
By the time James finally wandered home, it was around 2 am. Lucky for him, his family wouldn’t wake up for another few hours so he could easily climb the ladder of plants and weeds that crawled up the side of his house to his window. He ungracefully clambered through the window and kicked off his shoes before flopping down face first on his bed. He knew he was going to be exhausted tomorrow morning but did not regret going out to meet Purple. At that moment, he decided that he had to meet her again tomorrow night.
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