My Three Cousins

Chapter Fifteen

We half walked with Joan and were half pulled by her all the way to the secret room.  Ruth was already there pacing back and forth.  "Thank God," she said when she saw us, and she enveloped first Helen then me into a hug.

"Look at them, Ruth," Joan spoke harshly.

Ruth took a step back and looked at us both from our disheveled going out clothing to our tear-streaked faces.  "What happened?"  She asked with more sympathy.

"He found us," Helen said and she broke down into sobs.

"Is everyone ok?"  Ruth asked.

"Where is he now?"  Joan demanded at almost the same moment.

"Unconscious in the bar," I said to Joan, seeing that Helen was too upset to speak.  Then I turned to Ruth, "I think we're fine."  I glanced at the sobbing Helen and added, "sort of."

"You two could have gotten yourselves killed.  Then he would have come here and killed Ruth and I, and Aunt Liz and Fitz and Vivian.  Is that what you were aiming for?"  Helen shook her head vigorously. 

"Why don't we call the cops?" I asked, remembering Lennox's suggestion.

"And tell them what, Addison?  He's not exactly human."  Joan said.

I wanted to ask what he was, but Ruth had turned to start fussing over Helen and had distracted me.  "You must feel terrible," Ruth said as she rubbed creams on scrapes.

"She's drunk, with our sixteen-year-old cousin and you're treating her like a baby who tripped."  Joan was fuming but Ruth ignored her and continued helping Helen silently.

"You two are not to leave the house again until we figure out what we're going to do about this."  

"You're not my mom," Helen said, finally sounding like herself again and she pushed away from Ruth, "either of you.  I am a grown woman who can clearly protect herself because I'm back here, with nothing but scratches on me."  She sounded nothing like the girl who was crying for her big sisters outside the bar, but I decided to keep that thought to myself.

Ruth looked up shocked and then stepped back away from her sisters, motioning for me to do the same.  "We're not trying to parent you, Helen," Joan said angrily, "we don't want to be your moms.  Ruth is twenty years old do you really think she wants to spend her life watching you like you're her child?  No, but you act like nothing but a spoiled, reckless brat."  Joan's tone switched to mocking, "Poor Helen, her daddy died, poor Helen her mom was murdered, poor Helen she has magic powers that make bad guys go after her.  Is that what you want?  Our sympathy because we've been here living through the same stuff as you and the only difference is we deal with it like adults."

I wanted to interject and stop Joan, but Ruth shook her head and whispered in my ear, "it's an old fight between them and it's better if we stay out of it."

I didn't understand all of the dynamics that came with having sisters close to your age, but I knew enough to know that Ruth was probably right.  I thought Helen was going to cry but instead she stepped closer to Joan and looked her older sister in the eye.

"You can stop pretending to be so practical, Joan.  You're not Ruth and you're not mom.  I don't need you and Ruth doesn't need you.  You can't protect us, all that ends up happening is we protect you.  You're not going to karate chop a man made of electricity.  Want to be honest here, Joan?  Addison has a better track record with him than you do so if you're so bitter just leave."

I didn't like that my name had been brought into the conversation and it took all of my willpower not to cower behind Ruth.  "Fine." Joan said coldly and she stormed out of the room.

"We still needed to come up with a plan," Ruth called after her feebly. 

"Don't bother, Ruth.  I mean what I said."  Helen seemed angry but I could also hear the regret starting to seep into her voice.

"No, you didn't," Ruth said calmly, "and she didn't mean it either."

Helen crossed her arms and in her grumpy face I saw a peak of what I looked like every time I knew mom was right but didn't want her to be.  "I'm tired," she whined, and she stormed off after Joan.  Ruth had given up and didn't bother trying to yell after her younger sister.

I stood there a bit shocked, "do they always yell at each other like that?"

"It comes to a head every so often," Ruth moved around like she wanted to clean something or do something to keep her hands busy but wasn't finding anything to do.

"If having powers makes you all so miserable, isn't there a way you could get rid of them?"

"If there is, we don't know it."  She paused for a moment to think, "I don't think I'd want to get rid of them anyway.  I think our problem is more the opposite," she tilted her head as she considered, and it made her look more like her mother than ever.

"What do you mean?"  I sunk into a chair, not quite ready to follow my cousins back into the main part of the house.

"If we had enough power that we could be normal people I think we'd be ok."  Ruth spoke slowly and didn't seem entirely happy with her words, "Addison in life we're all mostly powerless.  There isn't anything you can do to stop bad things from happening to you.  If they're going to happen, you just have to accept them.  No one really avoids death or misfortune by their own skill.  For a minute, when we found out about this whole power thing, I think we all thought that wasn't true anymore.  Mom told us bad people were going to come after us and it was our job to protect ourselves so we thought we could, then mom died.  Now, we're coming to terms with the fact that we are just as powerless as we always were."

Something about Ruth's speech seemed more heartbreaking than her sisters yelling.  "Couldn't you get more power somehow, then you could protect yourselves without having to hide out here?"

"It's not really that simple."  Ruth said, "I don't know as much as you think I do, because mom was still teaching us when she died, but in our family magic or powers or whatever, is running out.  We just have to stay alive to pass it on to the next generation.  Like dogs bred for a desirable trait."

I was appalled by this description.  "I'm sorry," I said quietly.

Ruth smiled, "It's not all that terrible.  My plan was to stay alive and have children anyway so its just like a bit of an extra obstacle, people may want to murder me."  She tried to laugh but her heart wasn't in it.

I wanted to say I'm sorry again but felt like it would make her uncomfortable when she was putting forth a substantial effort to seem lighthearted.

"I wouldn't trade it for anything, Addy.  Except maybe to have mom back.  My powers are part of me, sometimes being able to heal people is the best part of me."  Ruth wasn't exactly cheering herself up, but she seemed to be accepting what she was saying and trying to convince herself to move on.  It was easy to see why Ruth had the easiest time accepting her powers, she had always accepted what happened to her and never thought about whether it was fair.  She was practical to a fault, yelling at your sister or wishing for a different life wouldn't give you one so Ruth didn't do it.  It also occurred to me that if it was me, it would be easier to accept Ruth's ability to heal people than to accept naturally being able to manipulate people the way Helen could or being constantly alert for combat the way Joan was.

There was just one more thing from the overheard argument nagging at my mind, "did that man kill Aunt Maggie?"  I regretted asking the question once it left my mouth.

"Yes," Ruth said, with tears in her eyes.