A Hero in the Dark: 2nd Edition

Chapter 82: April

It's my brother's birthday today—he turns eleven. Pixie waits for me on the porch like she does every day. I fetch her a baby carrot from the fridge and pet her a while.

Mom and dad aren't home. Dad'll be home by around six and mom's probably stuck in traffic, which means we have about a half hour to ourselves.

"Are you hungry?" I ask, and he nods. "What do you want?"

"PB&J," he says. "Can you make it without touching anything?"

I smile. My brother's been begging me every opportunity he gets to use my Legacies to see what I can do. Dad doesn't allow it; he always says it's an anomaly and so doesn't allow it in the house. But since he's not here...

"Of course I can," I brag.

"Do it!" I focus on the cupboard, open it, and retrieve the peanut butter and strawberry jam with my telekinesis. He watches wide-eyed and my smile only grows. "So cool," he says, marvelling over the two jars floating through the air.

I set them down on the counter and pull out a butter knife from the drawer, unmanned, then dip the bread in the toaster, and unscrew the lids—that's the trickiest task—but still, both lids are off in no time with enough pressure holding the jars down.

I start with the spread once the toaster beeps. It takes a lot of precision to keep the knife steady, to dip it with PB and jelly and make sure it doesn't drip off, but I manage to do it, and when I'm done, a tension headache resurfaces from the morning. I guess I haven't been getting enough sleep for this. I've been getting enough—I'm not tired—but for this level of accuracy, it's a lot.

Nonetheless, his sandwich is ready, and I have to say, it looks good; it looks as good as mom makes it. He takes his first bite. "Is it ok?" I ask.

"Bro, it's amazing! You should totally make it like this all the time."

I smile grimly. "I would if I could," I tell him, and an awkward silence passes between us. "Once you finish, I have a surprise for you by the way."

"What kind of surprise?" he asks, raising a brow but holding a smirk.

"Your birthday present..." I allude and sit across from him, and while I wait, I pull out today's homework on Othello, and it's easier to read when dad isn't home.

Mom gets home when my brother finishes eating, and I fish his birthday card out of my room. She asks him how school was, and he says it was good. "Happy birthday, my big boy," she says.

"Yeah, happy birthday," I jump in, bounding back into the kitchen to hand him his present.

He smiles, takes the card, opens it, and it isn't long until a gift card falls out. He catches it in his lap before it hits the ground. "Tims?" he says, smiling, wide-eyed. "Thanks. How much?"

"$20," I answer. "I hope that's enough. I wrote it on the back in case you forget."

"Thanks," he says again and wraps me up in an awkward hug.

***

I finish reading just after four. My brother asks if I can show him more "cool shit" outside, and not wanting to say no on his special day, I say sure.

Our backyard is as big as I remember it, at least a few blocks large. There're old houses behind us with the creek to Bronte Provincial Park behind them. We usually get a bunch of wild animals back here too—coyotes, foxes, raccoons, and sometimes deer in the winter—but today, nothing. Pixie comes out with us, bounding a little on the small hill.

"So, what can you do?" my brother asks, and I smile at his eagerness—it's amusing—then bring a finger to my lips and light my ergokinesis in one hand. I hold it out so he can see, and his cheeks illuminate. "Whoa, how are you doing that?!"