Did you ever get caught doing something and have to explain it? Did someone ever ask you a question that you didn't want to answer because it was just TOO EMBARRASSING?? Imagine if people could read minds. I hope you enjoy the chapter.
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Crown Vic to a Parallel World: Stolen Love The third and final installment of the ongoing adventures of Church Philips
24
An Unexpected Breakthrough
We watched the sun rise in silence. I tried to keep my mind idle and focus on the dawning day, because given Paul's current state, any thoughts that I had would flood at him like a stream of consciousness monologue. The trouble was, given all that he'd told me, avoiding thought was very difficult. Paul was the model of restraint. He didn't react verbally no matter how far my imagination spun in my head. I was glad he didn't say anything about what I was thinking. It let me have the illusion that my thoughts were private.
The biggest question I had was why?' I wondered what could have occurred in the man's life that put him in the position to travel to Mexico City in the first place. I recognized that metaphorical place' he'd been in before he left. It wasn't a physical location but a place in life where whatever choice you make, it didn't seem to matter a damn.
That was the place I was in when I staggered into the November cold from Big Nick's bar back in 2019, the night I met my husband and put my life in his hands. I wondered what could have driven an eighteen-year-old to that place. Questions fired through my mind like balls from an erratic pitching machine. Where were his parents? Who raised him? Who was looking after him? Why was he so free to do whatever he wanted?' The word free' in that usage being translated to `alone.'
When I didn't get anywhere with that line of thought, my mind turned itself to other things to analyze. I was struck with a random absurdity and wondered how many sunrises and sunsets I'd watched with people and had life changing conversations with them. It had been more than one.
I didn't think I'd need to take my shoes off to count them, but it was possible I'd need more than one hand. I tried to remember them and count them off. There was Bem's reveal of his past as a problem solver, and later that same week, his request to marry my sister, both discussions had at sunrise. My brother Joe admitted to being afraid of going to Solum with me at a different sunrise in the same backyard as the two discussions I'd had with Bem. That made three.
Shawn and I have had many sunrise and sunset discussions. Many of them deep, but not all. I doubted I could count those. He and I liked to watch those daily events, and since they came with no built-in music or dialogue, we often added our own. That meant we were predisposed to deep thoughts at sunrise and sunset.
I went through the list of people I was close to, that I may have watched a sunrise or sunset with. I'd once had a sort of sunset moment with Paul at the rectory the night I told him my life story. Cigars and whiskey in the dark wasn't exactly the same thing, but the principle was similar. Bem and I had watched the sunrise when we were waiting for Primis to set off back to Oppidum the day before.
We hadn't talked much then, not about anything except the plan. He had said that Shawn would be proud of the way I was handling myself. I supposed that counted as a deep thought, though not exactly life changing. I decided to count that part of the discussion as the fourth instance of a moving sunrise-chat-moment.
Thoughts of that conversation with Bem led my spinning brain to a mental image of Primis as he climbed out of his car to pee on the plains. I had a short fantasy about my brother-in-law. Though I hadn't seen him excited, what I did see made me think he was fairly `well equipped' in the dick department. I wondered if he knew how to use it as well as Shawn did. In the time Shawn and I had been married, we'd experimented A LOT. Each of us knew exactly what to do to press each other's buttons.
Beyond the physical act, we also knew how best to turn each other on. Shawn maintained his title as the master of sensuality by regularly surprising me in various states of undress at the most opportune times. He'd earned that title, in my mind anyway, when he treated Bem and me to that oily strip tease in his apartment the first time we'd invited Bem for a romp. It was the day after the second mock battle before the first mission. The images, burned into my memories from frequent recall, flashed in my head. Those memories led to the memory of what came next and the first of several `master classes' Bem would teach us on the art of providing and receiving pleasure.
"A-HEM!" Paul cleared his throat and forcibly dragged me away from my fantasy.
I turned his way to see what was bothering him and noticed that his face was bright red with embarrassment. It took me a second to understand why he was embarrassed. When I figured it out, when it dawned on me that Paul had just been treated to my memories of Shawn's strip tease and the follow-up threesome with Bem, I felt the heat rise in my face as well. "I'M SORRY!" I blurted.
Paul dropped his eyes from mine and wiped a hand across his face. "Quite alright, young man. I...uh...this magic business...more to it than I expected. I never thought that...a-hem...you understand."
"Jesus Christ." I grumbled to myself. "Of all the fucking memories it had to be that one." I tried to chase that thought away with other thoughts, mundane thoughts like my daily exercise routine or how to fry crisp bacon. The technique I tried to replicate was similar to how I would chase unwelcome song lyrics from my mind by thinking of other song lyrics. It started to work, and I risked a glance Paul's way. His face had returned to its normal color. To my surprise, instead of an embarrassed grimace, he wore the biggest grin I'd ever seen.
"What?" I asked.
He shrugged shallowly like the answer didn't matter in the least. "Just smiling at the strangeness of the situation."
I let the obvious humor of the moment replace my mortification and smiled back at him. "I'm glad you see the humor. Once upon a time, when Andy's power activated, a similar thing happened. I think it was far worse for him because he was relatively innocent at the time and very attracted to Shawn. I warned him that mind reading is like x-ray vision. For every one thing he'd like to see, there's probably about a million that would make him wretch."
The corners of Paul's smiling mouth drew down into a serious frown at my words. I wondered at his change of expression. He didn't make me wonder for long. "Don't misunderstand me, young man," Paul scolded, "I am not disturbed or disgusted by the physical expression of the love you have for your husband and your friend, Bem. I have long been aware of the mechanics of the act, though I'll admit some of the nuances hadn't occurred to me." Paul's face reddened and he dropped his eyes again as he said the last words.
I didn't understand what he was getting at, nor the semi-angry tone of his voice. I asked him about it. "What's your point?"
Paul brought his gaze back to mine with a stern look that captured my attention. "I don't want you to think that...how can I explain myself? I'm a straight man who has been celibate for many, many years. I know my position as a priest would likely make you assume I would `wretch' at the thought of the act of male intimacy, but that is not the case at all. I'm offended that you would think I was as closed-minded as that, especially with as long as we have known each other."
I apologized to my friend for insulting him. He accepted and returned with an apology of his own. "I think I overreacted to your simple statement. My emotions are running a bit higher than normal."
"Yeah," I replied, "it's been...stressful these last few days."
"Agreed." Paul said as his eyes tracked behind me. He looked through the window to the morning sky. "Perhaps we should start back. Your nephew should be rising soon, and we can see if he can help me."
I checked my phone and saw that it was almost seven. "If he doesn't get up on his own, we'll roust him. It's time to be awake. Let's go."
We had a leisurely, and mostly silent walk back to the house, both of us distracted by our own thoughts. Well, I was distracted by my thoughts. I assumed Paul was distracted by his thoughts and mine. He was nice enough not to react to anything that went through my head, again providing the illusion that my private thoughts were private. As we got to the estate, I led us through my kitchen and into the residential wing in route to Andy's apartment. We were in the corridor that ran along the front doors to all the apartments and were almost to the far end where the younger people lived when we ran into Shawn's mother, Lenis.
When we'd originally laid out the estate, I'd set up the residential wing with the youngest people at the far end and the oldest nearest the main house. I did this for practical reasons. I assumed the youngest would be the ones whose lives would be changing the most and it would be easier to renovate or add onto the far end of the wing verses changing things near the main house. I also thought the eldest had some rights to easier access than the younger. The last consideration was that the `public' gym was at the far end of the residential wing, and I assumed the young people would be more likely to want to use that than the older.
That meant Paul and I had to pass Lenis' apartment to get to Andy's. She happened to be in the corridor when we went by. She greeted us both warmly and stopped to talk. I didn't announce that Paul's power had activated, because I didn't want to embarrass him or open a line of dialogue for Lenis to jump into. I hoped we'd have a quick `hello and goodbye' chat and move on to Andy's. Lenis seemed in better spirits than she had been since Shawn was taken. I assumed she'd found some solace, like I had, in the assessment Bem made when he found out Shawn's father was involved in the kidnapping.
Lenis sidled close to Paul and leaned into him, with her hand flat on the center of his deep chest while she spoke. "You wear my great-nephew's clothes very well, Paul...very well indeed." She said and shamelessly appraised him. She gripped Paul's upper arm with her free hand and hummed her appreciation of what she felt. "I think some short sleeves would be good. I will have to mention that to Andy. A man of your stature, with a build as naturally powerful as yours, should accentuate that build. I appreciate big men...something I have in common with my son."
She leaned away from Paul to stand on her own and address me. "I feel so much better now that we know my ex-husband is behind this. I wish he would have just asked me for help, but his pride is his biggest failing. Shawn will be back before you know it. I have to check in with Bem now, to see when we are going to pay the next ransom installment.
"By the way, your liquid holdings are in excess of five billion, there are another five billion in easily convertible investments, and another ten that could be liquidated within one week. The liquid holdings of your friends who have offered their help, total in excess of twenty-seven billion credits with more available through the conversion of investments. I thought you would want to know. I will leave you to...whatever it is you are doing."
I didn't know what she meant about `the next ransom installment,' but I didn't want to get into a big discussion, so I didn't ask. I assumed after Paul and I finished with Andy, we would seek out Bem for a situation update. I was also a bit surprised at the amount of Shawn and my joint fortune, but I didn't have anything to say about it that would matter. I kept my mouth shut and waited for Lenis to leave.
She leaned into Paul and hummed again. "Yes, short sleeves and a closer fit. When you have something worth flaunting, Paul, you should flaunt it." Lenis said in an unintentional echo of what Paul had said to me earlier that same morning. She did a neat twirl in front of him and leaned against him again. "That is what I do." She pushed away from Paul and strolled along the corridor, rolling her athletic hips as she went.
I watched her go, then checked to see how Paul had taken her assault. His mouth gaped open, and his face was stop-sign red. "You OK?" I asked the stunned man.
My words got Paul's mouth closed and his voice working. "That is a VERY forward woman." He observed while still facing down the hall where he'd seen her last. "She...uh...she thinks that I am...oh my, her thoughts...she pictured me...and her...had a fantasy...about us...doing things."
I thought of a million things to say but none of them seemed quite right. Instead of offering advice or platitudes, I tried to get us back on track and moving toward Andy's place. The sooner we could get Paul's power under control, the better off he'd be. I physically turned him to face the far end of the hallway and put my arm over his shoulder to lead the way. Paul allowed himself to be led and walked with me.
Paul wasn't done being stunned by what just happened. "I'm an old man." He said, his voice full of wonder and surprise.
"She's twice your age." I reminded him.
"What?" Paul asked. He seemed to be working hard to grasp the realities of Solum and failing.
"She is more than twice your age. She was single longer than you've been alive."
Paul listened to what I had to say and shook his head. "It just doesn't seem possible. She's such a virile woman, handsome and so fit. The images she conjured...of her and I..."
"I'll have a talk with her." I said to interrupt Paul's stammering with a brief promise.
We arrived at the door to Andy's apartment, and I pressed the spot on the door jamb that served as the doorbell. Andy's voice boomed through the intercom. He sounded too loud and slightly harried. "YES!" He cried. More words followed and I guessed he had tried to cover the microphone with his palm while he said things that weren't intended for us. "Stop...oh my FUCK...too MUCH...just stop."
I'd assumed we'd come at a bad time and that Andy and Comet were in the middle of a wake-up tumble. Actually, given the noises I heard, and the way Andy seemed to be struggling to control the volume of his voice, I assumed they were near the end. Under any other circumstances I would have chuckled my way back down the hallway and left them to their romp, but with Paul's power stuck on, I needed help ASAP and Andy had the help I needed.
I decided to chart a middle path and give them a time limit instead of insisting on immediate attention. I shouted at the intercom to get enough of my nephew's attention to start the timer. "ANDY!" I bawled. "FIFTEEN MINUTES, STARTING NOW!"
"THANK you." Andy replied, then he trailed off in miscellaneous noises and disconnected words. "Yes, YES! There, RIGHT THERE...oh FUCK!"
I turned us away from Andy's door as the intercom disconnected and opened the door between the corridor and the outside. Paul and I walked out onto the plains. I dropped my arm from Paul's shoulders and gripped my bracelet with my right hand. My hand stung as it closed around the bracelet but not enough to relax my grip. I thought about apologizing to Paul, but I wasn't sure what I should be sorry for. I thought about telling him that it wasn't always like that on the estate, but that would have been a lie. Instead of a hollow apology or a falsehood, I kept my mouth shut and raised my face to the pale blue sky.
I heard some noises from Paul's direction brought my eyes around to see what they were. Paul was sniggering and trying to hide it. His sniggers built to chuckles, his chuckles built to laughter, and his laughter built to gut-busting roars of merriment. I laughed with him. I didn't have a choice. I watched him laugh and it made me laugh. The tension and the ridiculousness of the situation meant I had to laugh. We both howled with hysterics. Tears streamed down Paul's face and dripped onto his shirt as he laughed.
We got control of ourselves slowly, but the laughter was one that would settle and bubbled up again several times before it settled completely. When we were both breathing normally, Paul explained what set him off. "It was when you almost said it isn't always like this, but didn't because it is always like this, that I lost my composure. I can see how it could be trying, but it's wonderful as well. What a fantastic group of people you've surrounded yourself with.
"If you would have told me last week, that today I'd be standing in front of a mansion made of glass, in the middle of nowhere, on another planet, in another dimension, waiting for the nephew of a dear friend to finish having sex with his boyfriend so he can help me get my magic power under control, I would have said...I have no idea what I would have said. It's too farfetched even to presume how I would react."
Paul wiped his hand over his face and put the hand in his pocket to rub it on the fabric where it wouldn't show. "I'd like to say I feel like I've gone insane, but even losing my grip on reality wouldn't account for this morning."
I agreed with him. I vividly remembered, at the beginning of my life on Solum, that I spent most of my time with the feeling that I'd suffered a severe head injury. "I love this place, but it is an experience. No amount of explanation can prepare you for it."
"Very, very true." Paul admitted with a nod and a fresh smile. "And it's all wonderful. I think I will love it here."
The way he said that excited me. I wondered if it meant that he was planning to stay permanently. I didn't ask him. I assumed it was too soon to know for certain. Making a decision like that was a big deal. If Paul did decide to stay, he could probably change his mind up to about six months. Beyond that...I assumed he'd start to age backwards now that his magic was active and after about half-a-year, he'd look too young to pass for himself. I assumed that would be especially true since he'd started feeling the effects of the magic on just the second day.
A voice from above stopped my mind from wandering and demanded my attention. Paul and I both looked to the second story of the residential wing where Andy's head and bare shoulders were visible as he leaned through the open glass wall of the master bedroom of his apartment. "Uncle Church, Mister Paul, what brings you here?" Andy asked.
I waved my hands to capture Andy's attention before he spent too much time looking at Paul and thinking things he wouldn't want known. "Paul is a second-class empath, and his power is stuck on. He needs help." I blurted in one breathless sentence.
Andy opened his mouth to say something, then his gaze softened, and he shivered. When no words came out of him after a long beat, I guessed that something was happening behind Andy. Given the dazed and stupid expression on his face, I suspected that, whatever it was, was happening not just behind him, but to his behind. "COMET!" I shouted passed Andy. "KNOCK IT OFF!"
Paul dropped his eyes to the ground at his feet. "Oh my." He muttered.
Andy seemed to come back to himself, and Comet appeared next to him. My nephew's boyfriend was red in the face, bare in the shoulders, and had a shiny smear of wetness around his mouth and down to his chin. "How did you know I was doing something?" He asked me and wiped his mouth on his palm. "You're not an empath."
I pointed up at him and felt my face scowl. "I've been around, that's how. Don't try my patience boy!"
"Church." Paul called from next to me. I paused my attack on Comet to see what he wanted. Paul waved his hand at me, like a dog pawing for attention, but didn't take his eyes from the ground. "Don't chastise him. They're in love. That young man couldn't know that I would know that he was...A-HEM, oh-my...doing things when Andy was speaking with us."
A flash of curiosity entered my brain, and I wondered just how vivid Paul's thought reading was. Paul cleared his throat violently and turned his head farther away from me so that I couldn't even see the edge of his eyes. "Quite vivid." He said to the ground. "I didn't know...I mean...I didn't consider...oh my...that such things were done. It gives uhm...intimacy...gives it new meaning."
I tried to follow what Paul was trying to tell me, but I didn't quite get it...then I did, and I was horrified. "Ho-ly shit." I said to myself and raised my eyes and my voice up to Andy. "WILL YOU GET DOWN HERE? PLEASE?"
"One minute." Andy said and disappeared inside. Comet tried to linger. He opened his mouth to say something, then disappeared from view as he was dragged bodily backwards through the opening in the bedroom wall.
I walked several paces along the glass wall, away from Paul, rubbed my face and grumbled into my palms. "Just fucking PERFECT. Seventy FUCKING years old and he learns the definition of `rim job' from reading my nephew's thoughts while his boyfriend was suctioned to his ass in the middle of a conversation. That's perfect."
I fought to clear my mind, something I'm not good at, and went back to wait with Paul. Barely a few seconds passed when a fully clothed, but very rumpled Andy made his appearance. He took Paul into his living room and sat him down on the couch. I crossed the room to the kitchen and asked the culinarian for coffee.
Comet came partway down the steps from the second floor, saw me and halted his progress. I glanced toward Andy and Paul and noticed they were deep in conversation and unlikely to be distracted by me. As a precaution I erected a magic barrier between the kitchen and the living room and made sure the stairs and Comet were on my side of it.
I beckoned Comet down. "Come on. I won't bite." I offered and tried to sound calm and friendly. Comet crept down a few more steps and loitered on the bottom one. I waved him over again, but he wouldn't budge. I pointed at the other room. "I put a barrier up. They can't hear us, and we can't hear them. You can talk if you want to."
Comet tucked his chin and shook his head like an infant refusing to be fed. He kept his mouth tight shut.
I felt my frustration spike, then took a deep breath and had a sip of my coffee. I carried my cup around the counter and sat at the island. I pulled the other chair out with magic and pointed at it. "Have a seat." I said to Comet.
He shook his head again.
I slid the chair across the floor until it came to rest against the wall next to the bottom of the steps. I pointed to it with the hand that wasn't trying to crush my coffee cup. "HAVE A SEAT!" I demanded.
The boy scrambled down the last couple steps and perched on the edge of the chair. He stared at me like he expected I was gearing up to eat him. I took a couple breaths, drained my coffee cup, pried it from my hand, and set it down. I put both my hands on my knees, to keep my arms still, and asked my nephew's boyfriend why he was afraid of me. "What have I done?"
Comet shook his head again.
I'd long known the boy was nervous around me, but I never knew why. I also never bothered to find out. Once I realized he and Andy were going to be a couple, for a while anyway, I'd made some small effort to get Comet to relax around me. When he wouldn't, I got aggravated with his fear and decided to fuck with him. That hadn't been the right thing to do, and I regretted it, but not a lot.
For some reason, that morning of all mornings, it seemed important to reach out to Comet. I don't know if it was because Shawn wasn't around, or because my emotions were running high, or because of Paul's new magic, or what, but it suddenly seemed very important that Comet and I come to an understanding.
"Please." I begged the boy. "I promise I won't do anything, no matter what you say. I'm not a monster."
Comet muttered something I didn't catch. I asked him to repeat himself. "What's that?"
Comet glared at me, his face set, and his eyes hot and angry. "I said, I'm not strong!" He snarled.
I was surprised to hear anger from the boy. I'd never heard it before. Suddenly, everything about him was different from the way I usually encountered him. He'd straightened his posture in the chair, squared his shoulders and sat up tall and proud. He closed his right fist like he was going to threaten me with it but left his thumb standing up on the outside of the ball of fingers. He pointed the thumb at his chest and practically shouted self-deprecation at me.
"I'm weak, and soft, and short! I'm timid! I'm plain!" Comet opened the hand he'd been pointing at himself and waved it at the living room. "Andy is amazing and I'm nothing. Look at him. He could have anyone...ANYONE! And you're just like him...except you've got scary magic! I can feel it! I think everyone here can. I can do things here that I can't do anywhere else. Andy and me...can do things." Comet blushed and left the rest hinted but unsaid.
He didn't have to say it. I knew what he meant. He and Andy had a ton of energy when they stayed at the estate. They could climb and play and fuck almost endlessly as long as they stayed close enough to me to pick up my stray magic. When they left, and went back to the world, they went back to `normal,' except they probably didn't. I knew Andy's capacity had expanded from spending time with me. I guessed Comet's had as well. Since he'd started with a small capacity, I guessed the change was dramatic for him. He went on to say as much.
"I'm stronger now...Andy says it's from being around you. It's crazy! It's scary that just being around you does that to people...changes them like that. It's happening right now. I know it is. I'm just here and you're just there and your power is changing me...making me stronger. WHAT IF I DON'T WANT TO BE STRONG?" The boy demanded as his hot eyes bored holes in me. "What if I get strong and Andy doesn't want me anymore?"
I used the heel of my right hand to rub the back of my neck as I stared at my nephew's mousy boyfriend. I'd assumed Comet's nervousness around me had something to do with my size or my power or both. I assumed he was afraid of me for the same reason Shawn had been afraid of me, once upon a time, because he thought I'd kill him. It never occurred to me that Comet's worries would have more to do with his own self-loathing than with my power.
I replayed his monologue in my head and tried to organize his statements into something I could grasp. What I came up with sounded like this. `Comet loves Andy but thinks he's not good enough. Comet thinks Andy wants him because he's not good enough for Andy...some kind of self-loathing idea that Andy wants to be in a relationship with someone weaker or less, so he doesn't have to compete with his boyfriend for the alpha slot. Following that logic, if Comet gets stronger, he'll be equal to Andy, and Andy won't want him anymore. What in the absolute fuck am I supposed to do with that?'
How can I reassure this kid?' I wondered and ran over all that he'd said in my brain again. I struck on something I hadn't noticed before. He said I'm just like Andy, didn't he? He thinks I'm perfect too. HA! How can he think that? This kid is so much like me, it's terrifying. Poor bastard. Maybe if I show him. I wonder if that would help.'
I took my phone from my pocket and opened up the photo storage. I scrolled backwards until I found the picture I wanted. It was a picture of me that Mary had found when we were all staying at Joe's house before my family came to Solum in 2025. The photo was taken during the summer before I went to Solum. It was probably the last photo that was taken of my old life.
I was at the house, Joe's house, to work on the air conditioner. I was dirty from work, leaning on the front fender of the Vic with a cigarette smoldering in my angry face and my left hand giving the middle finger to the camera and to my brother who was behind it. I'd loaded the photo into my phone and kept it as a reminder, a reminder of where I came from, of what I had been.
I stretched the photo and cropped it to show just me in all my bloated, miserable glory, and floated the phone to Comet. "You see that guy?" I asked the boy. "That's me, a few months before I met Shawn. That's what I looked like when Shawn found me. Shawn has always been perfect, that's how I saw him anyway, that's how I still see him, and that was me. Shawn saw something in me, in that version of me, something that I didn't even see in myself. He saw value.
"I think Andy sees value in you. I think if he didn't, he wouldn't spend time with you. I think if he knew how you thought about yourself, if he knew what you thought about why he liked you, and what you think would happen if you got to be as strong as him, he'd be very angry. I think you sell yourself short, like I did, and what's worse, you sell your boyfriend short."
As I laid out my reasoning to Comet, I wondered how he'd hidden those feelings from Andy. Maybe he hasn't.' I reasoned. Maybe Andy knows they're there, but he's trying to deal with them indirectly instead of head on. I wonder.'
Comet took my phone from the air and squinted at the picture. His fingers stretched and moved the image. He held the phone up to the air so he could compare it to me. "That's not you." He insisted with yet another shake of his head.
I mussed my hair to approximate the disheveled look of the man in the picture, pressed my lips together like I was angry at the whole world, and raised the middle finger of my left hand to match the image. Comet held the phone up again and looked and looked and looked. He got off his chair and approached me so he could hold the phone right next to my face. He gasped and was about to say something when I felt a rapping on my magic. I jerked my head around to see Andy beating his fists on the barrier and shouting.
I released the magic and dropped barrier. Andy ran over to check on Comet. "ARE YOU ALRIGHT?" He demanded and pushed himself between me and his boyfriend. Andy rounded on me, faced me with his arms crossed over his chest and a very Joe-like scowl creasing his face. "Uncle Church," he admonished me, "why are you being mean to him? Why can't you leave him alone? You know he's scared of you."
I started to argue when Comet cut me off. "Not anymore." He said from behind Andy. He handed my phone back to me from around his boyfriend and sidestepped Andy to stand with him instead of behind him. "Not anymore." Comet said again and slipped his arm around Andy's waist, squeezing himself against my nephew.
"Really?" I asked.
"Yup." Comet replied. "Thanks for showing me that. It...it just goes to show, you know...love is really something."
"What?" Andy asked but Comet shook his head at him.
"Tell you later." Comet whispered to the side of Andy's face and followed his words with a pec on his cheek. "Did you help Mister Paul?"
"Yeah." Andy split a confused look between me and his boyfriend.
I assumed Andy was going to start reading minds to try to get his confusion resolved, but I didn't want to give away what Comet and I had discussed. I focused my mind and called up the memory of the smell of the inside of an industrial grease trap, installed in the sewer system of a lunch meat factory, that I'd cleaned out and repaired in my old life. Few things smell worse than a grease trap and Andy reacted immediately. His face bunched up in a grimace of revulsion. "OH, UNCLE CHURCH...WHY? So gross!"
"I warned you not to read my mind." I said with a verbal shrug and a covert wink to Comet. He cracked a mischievous smile back to me. That smile told me that I'd reached the boy. I didn't think we were buddies or anything like that, but we'd had a breakthrough and that was good enough for me.
I turned my attention to Paul who stood by himself in the living room. I gave Paul the thumbs-up sign and raised one shoulder in a half-shrug question. Paul returned the thumbs-up and added a nod. "Andy was very helpful. He and I have more work to do, but I can control my magic at will now." Paul smirked as he said it. "What a strange thing to say out loud; strange and wonderful."
"Good!" I stood from my chair. "Let's get moving then. I've got a whole list of things I want to get to. I want to find Bem and get an update. With any luck we'll be hearing from Primis soon. I also want to check on Leah to see how she's doing. I don't know that she's ever been alone. I want to make sure she's OK. I also want to catch up with Cellarius and Joe and Mary...lots of stuff to do."
Paul and I took our leave of the boys and headed off to start our day in earnest.