Her Royal Madness

Her Royal Madness Part 10

"That's ridiculous Henry. Daddy couldn't be a spy. He's not the type. He's boring." 

"Well that's true. But still - hold on. Oh man! Not now" 

Oh great. Two of Henry's stupid friends were coming towards us on the other side of the street. It's not that they're so bad. It's the way Henry acts when any of his friends are around. 

As they were getting within earshot, Henry turned around and yelled at me, "Hurry up, will ya? It's bad enough I have to baby sit you on the way to school. Do you have to be so bloody slow?"  

Turning and pretending to just now notice the other two, he called out "Oh hey, Nick, Mash. What's up?" 

"Hey, Hank, how's it going?" 

It was Nicholas Leung. Although Nicholas is about average height, he looks small and skinny standing beside Henry and Martin. Not that he stands in one place for long. His body is in a perpetual state of agitation, running his fingers through his blow-dried hair, adjusting the laces on his Converses, or non-stop chattering. 

"Morning Hank, what's with the kid?" 

Henry's other friend grunted as he stuck a thumb in my direction. Martin Ash isn't just big, he's huge. He's a head taller than Henry and twice as wide. Back when they were playing peewee football, Martin's jersey had M. Ash written on the back, so Henry started calling him Mash, because he didn't think the name Martin suited him. How original. Henry never gives up a chance to explain that Martin would "mash" anybody on the other football team who got in his way. Martin was wearing a pair of gray shorts and the faded wrinkled sweatshirt that said "Property of Arizona Wildcats" his older brother had sent him from Tucson. His short brown hair stuck out in all directions mocking any attempts to control it. His size and slow deliberate way of speaking make you think he's slow. Looks can be deceiving. 

Henry turned to his friends, "Oh, you know how it is with little kids. The baby had a bad dream and went crying to Daddy. Now, I'm stuck walking to school with her to protect her from the monsters or whatever. You guys have no idea how hard it is being a big brother." 

"You've got a hard life Hank." Martin said. I know Henry didn't catch the sarcasm. 

"Yeah, hey, Hank, maybe tomorrow you should put her in a baby carriage, so you don't have to wait for her to toddle along on those little legs of hers." Nicholas added. He and Henry began to chuckle. 

"Yeah, and I guess I should bring her bottle too." Henry said. "She's not ready for big girl food yet." 

More laughter. Even Martin joined in. They were starting to really bug me now. "Stop it! You're not even funny!" 

"Uh-oh, Widdle baby's gonna cry now." Nicholas said. 

"Guys, guys, that's enough, we better leave her alone." What? Was Henry defending me in front of his friends? I should be so lucky. "She's getting grumpy now." He turned and looked at me. "The widdle baby needs her nap." 

He couldn't keep a straight face anymore and burst out laughing, which only infuriated me more. "Henry, you better-I'm going to-Stop it-that's not-OHHHHHH!" 

Maybe I'm too sensitive, but I was mad. I thought about what I wanted to do to them and how I'd show them. I didn't even notice when they stopped laughing and went strangely silent. 

"Uh, Maddie." Henry said. 

Henry used my actual name. I should have realized something was wrong. But I was enraged. "WHAT?!?" I snapped. 

"Um, maybe you should have a look up there." 

I looked up. Martin was floating about two feet above Henry's head. How'd I do that? Two little dice had knocked me out for a whole weekend. Martin weighed more than Henry and I put together and I wasn't even working hard. Did being angry make me stronger? And why Martin? He hadn't even said anything. All he'd done was laugh along while those other two idiots made fun of me. Maybe some part of me was showing off. Regardless, it was somewhat of an over reaction to a bit of teasing. 

My left arm was pointing toward Martin. My right arm was pointing toward the overhead power line. A faint green light connected the power line to my right hand. I could feel the electricity tingling through my arms. 

Martin had turned ghost white and was flailing around, grasping at nothing, trying to get down. He was yelling, "Hank, get me down! What's going on? Nick, do something." 

Nicholas was doing something alright, but not anything useful. He was running around in circles underneath Martin, holding up his arms to catch him, hollering, "Mash! Hold on buddy. I got ya! Just calm down! I'll get ya bud!" A couple of times, he jumped up, missing Martin's feet by inches. I don't know what he thought would happen. Even if he could somehow manage to pull Martin down, he'd be flattened. 

In contrast Henry wasn't moving a muscle. He stood there quietly muttering to himself. "Now what do I-I am in so much-Dad's gonna-" 

Funny thing was, his lips weren't moving.  

"Henry what's going on?" My voice sounded far away. I was pretty sure my lips weren't moving either. 

Henry jumped, took a moment to figure things out, and then answered, "What's going on? What's going on! I'll tell you what's going on. Nothing weird, that's for sure. One of my best friends is floating eight feet in the air, my other best friend is running trying to catch him, and my sister, who caused the whole thing is talking inside my head. It's just exactly what I thought was going to happen today. Whaddya think you're doing?" 

The best I could think of for a comeback was a very witty "What?" 

"Okay, Maddie, we'll figure this out later. Right now you gotta focus, concentrate on what you're doing." After his little rant, he settled down. His quiet words had a calming effect on me. Reality shifted back into focus. I started to feel like I was back in control of my body. Henry gently grabbed my hand, the one that was open and pointing towards Martin.  

"Okay, Maddie, here's what we're going to do. We're going to SLOWLY bring Mash down to the ground, like that, that's the way, easy does it, not too fast, that's it, almost there, okay you did it! Now just let him go and you can relax. Good girl!" There wasn't a bit of sarcasm in his last comment. He let go of my hand and the connection between us snapped. I was back in the real world. I looked around. Martin was laid out on the grass next to the sidewalk, the color completely drained from his face, barely moving. Henry and I were sitting on the sidewalk facing each other. Henry's face was colorless, and I'm sure mine was the same.