10/17

Episode 5, Chapter 19

"Parker," Mrs. Carlisle said, with exaggerated patience. "Sit down or go to your room, or the garage or anywhere but in here if you're going to keep pacing like a caged tiger. I'm worried for her too, but their's nothing on the news about the Tulsa location. So, we have to believe everything's okay." Parker cut a perturbed look at his mother before flopping on the other end of the sofa. The moment his butt hit the cushion, he could already tell he couldn't sit still long. It was after two. Laney arrived at the clinic around one. What could they possibly be doing to her that would take more than an hour? He pushed to his feet again but the look his mother shot him froze him in his tracks. Instead of resuming his pacing around the livingroom, he grabbed a couple of Frisbees off the top of the dogs' toy basket and yelled for Dot and Rowdy, and walked out to the back door. His mother's dry words followed him out.

"Smart choice."

Ten minutes later, his phone chimed as he sent another disk flying down the yard, both dogs charging after it. He yanked the cell out of his pocket and read the text.

"I'm out. Call when I get home."

Thank God, he thought to himself, as he felt the muscles in his back relax for the first time all day. He stayed in the back yard with the dogs for another twenty minutes until Laney's call came through.

"Hey!" he answered. "Dang, I'm glad to hear from you. How'd it go," he said. "What'd they do? Was there anyone else there?" Laney laughed.

"Woah, slow down already," she ordered. "I'll tell you everything. It was, I don't know," she said, as though she were thinking out loud. "It was like a weird visit to the doctor." As Laney spoke Parker wrestled the Frisbees away from his slobbering mutts and they all went back inside to get a snack. She described the building and the security guards.

"There was a ton of paper work. Family history, health history and so on. First, a doctor came in and went over everything they planned to do and why, while a nurse took my blood and swabbed my cheek. Then they asked me to tell them about my power and the last week. They asked me if I had come in contact with any other Altered in the last week, but Mom and I both said no. We knew you guys didn't want to be outted."

"Thank you!" Parker replied emphatically.

"No worries," Laney said, "Any way, then I had to do some stress tests."

"What tests?" Parker asked. "Like, treadmills and blowing into a tube while you're hooked up to machines, like you see on TV?" Last year, his mom had been all about medical drama shows.

"Yeah, actually. Treadmill, strength test, breath test, a million wires and electrodes, the whole thing," she replied. "It was weird. Then they asked me to demonstrate my power while hooked up to the machines. That part was super weird," something about the memory making her laugh. "It didn't work really well though. Every time I stretched, the electrodes would come off. They need to come up with a better way of testing powers for some people. I mean, can you imagine if a kid had fire power, or lighting. It would fry the machines."

"Yeah, I wonder what my power would do to it." Parker said. Laney paused, considering.

"Yeah, good point. Would the electrodes go with you or stay behind because of the wires," she mused.

"Well, it's not something I plan to find out," he responded. Everything she described so far had made his skin crawl. Why did a clinic need Secret Service level guards? What was going to happen to all that personal information they gathered on Laney? No, thank you! He thought to himself.

"Anyway, that's the gist of it," she said, going back to her story. "After all the tests they told us they'd get back to us with any results within the forty-eight hours. They thanked us for coming and let us go." The inflection in her voice gave the impression she was done with her story. "Oh, wait! That's not all. I can't believe I almost forgot." Parker smiled at the excitement in her voice. "There's something else I wanted to tell you about, well, two things actually but one is really crappy so I'll save that for later." Parker waited for her to come to the point. He had gotten used to the way her mind meandered around things. It was just who she was. "Any way, I met another Altered while I was there."