My Three Cousins

Chapter Ten

Once I was alone with Ruth I started to calm down and she began to narrate everything she did.  "I think you have a concussion, so I am going to turn down the lights," as soon as it was dim my head started to feel better.  

"Now I am going to grab the supplies Joan left for us," and she walked to the edge of the tunnel where, unknown to me, Joan had stacked the entire contents of the medicine cabinet.  She then walked back in front of me.  "I am going to start with your wrist so you can see what I'm doing."  She pulled out an ace bandage and held the roll in her hand.

"I can enhance the natural properties of items," Ruth said, "it typically works best when I use it to heal people."  Her hands started to glow a deep yellow, "If I enhance this you'll only need to wear it a few days and your wrist should heal."

"How are you doing that?" I asked, both appreciative of her directness and her healing.

"I don't really know," she admitted, "it's my power.  If I don't have anything with that property I'm useless but if I do, I can help.  That's why we have bloodroot planted by the pond, because its natural property makes people vomit and with my help it can make drowning victims expel water from their lungs."  Things were starting to make sense to me.

"That's why you want defensive plants near the edge of the property."

"Yes, when you left, I went and enhanced their ability." She admitted.

"What about at the store?"

"There was rat poison in the stall I had been in.  I enhanced it to make it enough poison to knock him out." 

I wanted to ask who he was, but I was too afraid to know.  Ruth started to wrap the Band-Aid around my wrist, and it almost instantly felt better, "How do I know I can trust you?  That you're not making it worse."

"We're family, Addison.  I wouldn't hurt you." Ruth said genuinely but something on my face must have told her this wasn't enough of a guarantee, so she continued on.  "You've seen me use my power twice before: first to Vivian then to Joan's hands.  Both times, I helped them."  She paused here as if checking to see whether and I believed her.  I decided not to point out that the third time I had seen her use her power, in the store, was definitely not to help anyone.  

She must have seen enough trust in my eyes because she continued on, "we've been trying to protect you this whole time.  We've been trying to get you to ignore everything because the less you knew the safer you were.  Then we tried to keep you in the dressing room, so you didn't see anything, and he didn't see you..." Her voice trailed off and I believed her.

"Ok," I said uncertainly, "I trust you for now."

She smiled but I could tell she wished I seemed more certain.  Still, I couldn't separate her kindness from her sister's cruelty and she had no way to prove her loyalty.  "I'll tell my mom I fell out of bed or something." I was unsure how believable I could be when I was supposed to be sleeping.

"Thanks," Ruth said, "Normally we would have Helen handle it but with the way Aunt Liz reacted last time it seems like a dangerous option."

"So, Helen tried to..." my voice dropped off as I realized I couldn't explain what Helen does.

Ruth nodded as she picked up a bottle of aspirin and carefully took two pills into her glowing hands.  "Helen alters people's emotions," she ventured, "She can touch them and change what they're feeling."

"That's how she calmed me down by the lake and why she invited me to tea, and grabbed my hand in the car," I wanted to continue list every moment Helen had manipulated me but I knew Ruth understood the betrayal I was feeling without me having to continue.

"Yes," Ruth sighed, "Helen isn't subtle and people don't tend to like her powers if they notice them."

"Notice them?"  I asked incredulously.  "How could they not notice them?  Her hands glowed!"

"Only people who are predisposed to magic see that," Ruth explained, "to everyone else Helen is just a friendly girl who is good at comforting people or making things that were a big deal seem unimportant."

"Predisposed to magic?" 

"Yeah, it's in our family so you notice it."

"Do I have a power?" I asked, not sure what I wanted the answer to be.

"No," Ruth said as if she was breaking bad news, "we don't really understand everything.  Mom was still explaining when she died, but we know there was only enough magic for either Mom or Aunt Liz to pass down and we have powers so it must mean you don't."  She spoke as if this was horrible for me but there was very large part of me that was glad to be the normal one.

"Does that mean my mom has powers?" I asked.

"We don't know." Ruth answered honestly.  She had finished enhancing the aspirin, so she handed it to me, and I swallowed it with nothing to wash it down.  The pain was gone from my body as soon as it passed my throat.  It almost felt as though the healing was being absorbed into the skin on its way down and I had to stop myself from asking Ruth how it worked.

"The only thing I know to do for your broken ribs and bruises is prepare a bath, but I'm worried that will wake your mom."

"So, I just walk around with a broken rib?" 

"For tonight, I think yes.  Tomorrow I will make a bath that should help." 

"Great." I said sarcastically, "and what is Joan's power, other than being a-" 

Ruth cut me off before I could finish my sentence, "Magically?  She has fast reflexes and moves faster than most people, but she's enhanced it by working out and training in martial arts so she can also beat the crap out of pretty much anyone.  She felt like she had been shorted on the whole power thing, kind of still does, so she had to prove herself in other ways."

"By being aggressive and bossy?" I asked and Ruth laughed this time.

"Pretty much."  She paused for a second eyeing me, "Do you think you can walk?"

"Yeah, I think so," I said making my way to my feet.

"Ok then you better go back to bed before anyone notices and move carefully.  It might not feel like you have a broken rib, but you do."  She sounded worried as she sent me away, like a doctor who knew her patient wasn't going to follow medical advice.

Before I made it all the way out of the tunnel she called back after me, "Addison?"

I turned around, trying to be careful of my rib, "have you told anyone else about this?"

"No," I lied, deciding even if I trusted Ruth, I needed to protect Fitz and Lennox.

"Good," she said, and she finally let me leave.