Aunt Candy and the Mysteries

Seven.

I let out a ragged breath. I'm not sure if it's from Cedar's closeness or from what I've just witnessed. Had Cedar not come over and said that, I might have been able to convince myself it was just my imagination and lack of sleep. Might. But his comment confirmed it's truth. Why would I have questions if it wasn't? I can feel my fingers try to grip the window for a moment before I turn around, my back to the glass, facing him. He's still standing close to me, his ashy grey eyes staring into mine intensely. "What exactly did you see?" He asks me. "I... I saw..." I'm not sure what I saw. "Did you see her practicing?" He asks, placing one hand by my head on the window behind my head. I try to back up, but my heels hit the glass, not allowing me to move any father back. I nod my head, unable to access my vocal cords. He loves messing with me. First the comment when I brought up his compass, now this. With his hand that's on the window, he knocks on the glass. I know what he's doing, but I'm too focused on his way to close eyes and lips... his lips. I feel mine part just a bit, letting out a nervous breath.

Aunt Candy comes into the studio, seeing us in that position, "Cedar, what's going on?" Aunt Candy asks, looking panicked and concerned at the same time. I don't blame her. "She saw you." Cedar says to Birdie who followed behind Aunt Candy, finally moving away from me and allowing me to once again breathe. "Is this true?" Aunt Candy asks me. I nod, looking everywhere but at her, like a guilty child ashamed of their wrongdoings. "Well, then I guess we have a lot to talk about." she says before exiting the studio. "Everyone to the living room!" She shouts, then walks over to one of the three dark blue couches near the entrance. Birdie, Cedar, and I follow suit.

One by one everyone comes downstairs, looking confused and nervous, unsure as to why their morning routine was interrupted. They join us on the couches, anxiously awaiting an explanation. Peter looks over at me, his dark brown eyes asking me the question everyone is thinking. I look away, still feeling like the child about to be punished. Maybe I am. I shouldn't have been watching that lesson. I should have been doing my packet, catching up on work I've missed, what I was supposed to be doing. My Aunt was obviously keeping this a secret for a reason.

"Alright everyone." Aunt Candy starts with a sigh. "We knew this was going to happen. I just didn't expect it to happen this soon." She looks over at Peter and I. In her eyes, I can see her thinking through every word she says and is about to say. "Peter, Etta, my kids aren't... normal."

"What do you mean?" Peter asks with a small chuckle "They look pretty normal to me--well other than the never leave the house thing."

"Do you know why it is that I don't really like them leaving?" Aunt Candy asks my brother. He shakes his head. Aunt Candy shifts her gaze to look at her kids as if looking for something specific-- as she probably was. Her eyes land on Luke, who sits on a couch with Birdie and Brooke. A well used looking book sits in his lap. He notices her eyes on him and knits his eyebrows a little as if asking are you sure? Aunt Candy gives him a nod, telling him to go ahead.

Luke stands up and holds his book in front of him, opening it to an undetermined page. Peter watches closely, his eyes not leaving the book or Luke, concentration written all over his face. I also watch with concentration, though in my peripheral vision, I can see Cedar watching to see my reaction. Luke takes a moment, shaking out his limbs and taking a long deep breath before smiling. He takes in another (slightly smaller) breath, then blows on the open page. Blown off, like dust, emerge ribbons of energy almost identical to the ones from Birdie's bow. Difference being that these ribbons are multicolored. Like a tie-dyed t-shirt, these energy ribbons are a combination of red and orange, the colors moving like water along the tendrils. They wrap around the room and even some of us. Though these aren't as destructive as Birdie's arrow had been. Instead, they fill the room with a feeling of warmth that makes the edges of my mouth draw up and my fear disapate. For a moment nothing went wrong, nothing did go wrong, and nothing will go wrong. Luke then closes the book, and the ribbons withdraw back into the pages, taking the warmth they brought with them. He retakes his place on the couch, watching our faces closely to see how we will react.

Although I'd already seen it once, my eyes were still wide and my mouth still hangs open a bit.

"Wh-What just happened?" Peter asks for both of us.

"What you just saw was an energy form of Luke's emotions." Aunt Candy explains.

"How?" I ask

"Well, that all has to do with his book. It's what condenses the emotions previously trapped within Luke into those energy strings you saw. We refer to objects, such as his book, as Keystones. The essential piece of the puzzle. Without it, he wouldn't be able to access his emotions in that way." Aunt Candy explains

"But when I saw Birdie earlier she wasn't holding a book, only her bow and an arrow. Also, Birdie's arrow damaged the yard. Luke's book make me feel good." I explain "What's the difference?"

"Well first, not all Keystones are the same. They just have to be a physical object that the person has an emotional attachment to. For Birdie, it was her bow."

"It was a gift from my Dad." Birdie tells us, a hidden sadness somewhere in the shadowed part of her eyes.

"Is everyone's Keystone different?" I ask, recalling my conversation with Cedar, when I'd brought him his compass

"Well, some people might have the same one, but all of my kids have different ones." Aunt Candy explains, nodding at Katchina who is sitting closest to her.

"Mine are the red pointe shoes I accidently pulled out momentarily yesterday" She explains, then looks over at Cedar who sits next to me on the side closest to Katchina.

"Mine's my compass, as you probably figured out." He says nonchalantly, slouching into the couch.

"Mine is one of my paint brushes. It's painted to look like Van Gogh's 'Starry Night' sky." Brooke says with a smile. I see Peter next to me smile with her, and Katchina frown at his directional smile.

"So, have we answered all of your questions?" Aunt Candy asks.

I shake my head.

"Why'd you keep this a secret?" I ask, a little hurt they didn't trust us with this information.

"Well it's not like we could have told you when you walked in the door." Cedar reasons "Imagine how that conversation would go." He laughs to himself as if he'd just thought it through.

"We also didn't know if we could trust you." Birdie says "I mean, we've never met you. How did we know you weren't gonna go shout it from the rooftops?" I nod my head agreeing with their reasons. It still hurt though.

"Any other questions?" Aunt Candy asks

"So you're all human, right?" Peter asks. "You're not aliens or anything?"

All of them chuckle a bit at my brother's science-fiction inspired question. Though I don't blame him for asking it

"Yes, we're all human!" Brooke says with a light laugh that sounds like sunshine. "We just all happened to come in contact with our Keystones." She explains.

"So anyone can be like one of you guys?" I ask

"Technically speaking, yes." Luke says

"And there's a name for people like us." Cedar says, looking a little insulted "You know, so we're not just 'you guys' or 'those people'."

"And that is?" I ask

"Etta, Peter," Aunt Candy says

"Meet the Mysteries."