Capturing Ella

Chapter 11 - Joe

"I've just parked next to the 500m sign to the right, where are you, wifey and the twins?" I text Jake, putting my phone back into my jeans pocket before cutting the engine to my car. My brother decided to leave earlier than expected and way before I got ready, so I said I'd drive myself down to the event in my old car. I had left nearly half an hour ago, getting caught in the traffic leading up to the river. As the last wave was completely booked out by everyone at base it meant near enough everyone who was still at this event was family and friends of those running. More like a giant gathering of all the English Savants and some others as well.

"Just with some of the girls, meet you by the 100m sign." Jake replied near enough instantly, and I got out the car, clicking the button to lock it after. Not only that, I also pulled the door handle to make sure it was closed before joining the river of pink girls walking down the side of Dorney Lake to the starting line. From here, I could see the peaks of some of the tents and a bit to the left on the other side of the river, a giant pink inflatable slide that was covered in mud. I was strangely looking forward to seeing this. Some of the ladies in front of me were dressed in tutu skirts and bobble headbands, all decked in pink. Everyone looked ridiculous but it was all for a good cause. I had spent the time I got home from the interview with Ella to the time I was leaving simply donating to all of the sponsorship pages from the girls and woman I work with that I could find. I realised I hadn't actually changed and was still in the slightly rumpled black shirt and a pair of dark blue skinny jeans. No wonder why Ella didn't really look at me like I was something, I was still a mess.

Ella was something beautiful, though, I thought as I walked down past the 250m sign, amazed at how far the walk was down the river. Of course, the river went on for over a kilometre or even two down the flat a bit further, and we were heading up to the top of it. I couldn't shake off the way she looked at me, or just how beautiful she really was. She didn't show much personality with me, just deflecting my questions but the way she spoke to Susan with such respect was honourable, and she seemed so polite. Probably something to do with being American – they were always incurably polite.

'Oi, bro.' Jake called as he was standing slightly off the path. He had his arms crossed, and no signs of my nieces anywhere.

'You forgot your kids,' I called back, and he laughed slightly.

'Leannah's looking after one for a second, and I handed over the other one to a friend to come and pick you up. I mean, if you say you can trace people based on their unique thought patterns surely you could have found by yourself,' Jake asked standing by my side as we walked up to the mooring bays for the boats. The girls from base had multiplied and had now completely covered the small area that was meant for the public for these events, most of which were in tutus.

'I could have found you; it's still tricky trying to narrow down on where you are based on it though.'

'Tried everything you can?'

'I have tried, but I'm clearly missing something.'

'Yeah, just what,' Jake said, but it wasn't in a menacing tone. I mean all my family had gifts they could mess around with and had little to no social consequences. My brother, Quinn, who also worked at base but was due to come to this event a little later as his shift didn't finish until six and the race started at 6:15 – and there wasn't much hope of him making the hour long journey in fifteen. Well, his gift is basically calming people down. He can calm people down in seconds just by flexing his gift. He had no issues doing that at home. If anything, him flexing his gift meant that everyone in the house was strangely calm and at times half asleep they were so relaxed. If I tried to experience with my gift like Quinn did, I would just erase myself from my family's memories in seconds.