Rivals Read Free Page B

that children like you should not be
capable of. Do you understand me?”
    Maggie bit her
lip. She didn’t look at him, but she nodded.
    “If this is
real, if you have… new powers. That’s going to need to be handled very
carefully. I’d like you to not talk to the media about this. Alright? At
least not until we know what we’re up against.”
    “I really want
you to leave,” Maggie said, but he ignored her.
    “We’re going
to need to do some tests,” he said instead. “Now would be the best time,
actually, while you’re still in the hospital. I’d like to do some stress
tests, maybe put you two on treadmills and see what your endurance is like. If
you—”
    Someone had
come up to stand in the doorway. It was a little old lady, no more than four
and a half feet tall, with silver hair parted severely on one side and thick
glasses over her eyes. “The young lady told you to go,” she said.
    “Hi, Grandma,”
Brent said weakly.
    Grandma scared
Brent. There was a good reason for that. Maggie knew she wouldn’t scare
Weathers. At least not yet. He didn’t know her secret.
    “Hello,
ma’am,” the agent said. “You must be Mrs. Reynolds, the children’s guardian,
is that correct?”
    “I’m
seventy-one years old, young man, and it seems I have better hearing than you
do. Get out. Now. Or I’ll call the police.”
    Weathers tried
to smile. “Ma’am, I am a law
enforcement officer.”
    “Then I’ll
call your boss and tell him you were harassing a senior citizen and a tax-payer
of over fifty years. I would imagine they frown on that sort of thing where
you come from, hmm?”
    Weathers’
smile disappeared. “Very well,” he said. He glanced over at Maggie. “We’ll
talk again. Count on it. But for now, just try to keep a low profile, okay?”
Then he left.
    “Good, he’s
gone.” Grandma came hobbling over toward the two kids on her cane. “I imagine
you two are surprised to see me here. I was very surprised when they told me I
was now your official next of kin. I’ve come to take you home. I’ll be moving
in with you since you don’t have anyone else to look after you.”
    Maggie nodded
slowly. “Okay,” she said. “But, honestly, we can probably look after
ourselves. I mean, I know how much you enjoy your time in Florida—”
    Grandma came
closer and reached down to put a hand over Maggie’s. “Margaret Reynolds Gill,
your eighteenth birthday isn’t until next July. When that day comes, I give
you my full permission to tell me to go to hell. Until then, you will do as I
say. You will do exactly as I say. And if you try to argue with what I say, I
will give you the back of this hand across your cheek. You’ll notice I’m
wearing my diamond engagement ring, the one your mother’s father gave me
forty-nine years ago. I put it on today extra special because I knew I was
coming to see you.” Grandma turned her head to the side. “Hello, Brent,
dear,” she said.
    “Um, hi,”
Maggie’s brother managed.

Chapter 5.
     
    It took
forever for the two of them to get discharged from the hospital. Pretty much
every doctor in the place seemed to want to come and talk to them one last
time. To ask them more questions. Finally one doctor came in who said he
wanted to give them some answers. “Except,” he said, “I’m not sure we have
any. Not any that mean much, anyway. You both check out fine, physically.
Better than fine, really. Um, Brent—your chart says you broke your arm
last year?”
    “That’s right.
I was jumping off a diving board into a pool and I hit the bottom with my
wrist. It was in a cast for six weeks.”
    The doctor
consulted something on a clipboard. “You see, normally that would show up on
an x-ray, even after it healed. But I don’t see so much as a hairline or a shadow
here.” He looked up and smiled at them. “Whatever happened to you in that
ravine—you came back healthier than when you left. Now, we’d love to do
some more tests—”
    “Not on