16
11:58 P.M.
FLYING LESSON
"Well, as of now this plan officially sucks," Melissa said. "No way is Jonathan getting here before midnight."
"We should have gone along with them." Jessica groaned, huddling in her coat against the chill wind. "I told Rex I wasn't afraid to."
"It's not your fault, Jess," Melissa said. "Rex didn't want all five of us in Broken Arrow. You heard him."
Jessica nodded sullenly. He'd said something about a Grayfoot trap catching them all at once - the end of the midnighters. It seemed unlikely to her.
"He probably just figured I was worried about getting busted for curfew violation," she said. "And was trying not to make me feel like a weenie."
She sighed. So now they were stuck here at a cold, windy roadside picnic stop just outside the county line, sitting on their butts. Next time she was going to announce to Rex that she was the new, non-weenie Jessica, unafraid of official, parental, or even sisterly punishment.
"No, Jess. I happen to know it wasn't you he was trying to protect."
"What do you mean?"
"It was me." Melissa held out her hand, palm down. It was quivering in the cold. "The thought of driving fast gives me the shakes."
Jessica looked at the mindcaster, wondering if she was kidding. Of course, flying through a windshield at eighty miles an hour might make you not want to repeat the experience.
"And they might not be here yet because they really did get busted by the cops," Melissa continued. "In which case, we're both lucky we didn't go along."
Jessica sighed. "That's a lovely thought." Jonathan wasn't a big fan of spending the secret hour trapped in a jail cell, bouncing off the walls.
"Just trying to make you feel better. There are worse things than being arrested."
"I suppose so."
"I mean, you've got kidnappers and high-speed car chases involved," Melissa continued.
"Jeez, Melissa. Who elected you Miss Sunshine?"
"I'm just saying is all." The mindcaster looked at her watch. "Anyway, we'll know for sure in five, four, three..."
The secret hour struck, spilling toward them across the desert floor like a sudden tide of blue ink. The picnic table shuddered beneath them, the air grew warm and still, and the stars turned ghostly pale above.
"Yeah, that's the stuff." Melissa sighed, tipping her head back to sniff the air. A few moments passed, then a faint smile broke across her face. "You can relax. Everyone's okay."
Jessica breathed a sigh of relief, glad that Melissa was here. When Rex had put the final touches on his plan, she'd been nervous about spending a whole hour in the middle of nowhere with Melissa. But actually, it hadn't turned out so bad. Melissa wasn't the bitchy snob she used to be.
The mindcaster fixed her with a cool glare. "Gee, thanks, Jess."
"Oops. Sorry." Jessica reminded herself to censor her thoughts, especially now that midnight had fallen. "But I mean... it's true, though," she sputtered. "You are much nicer these days."
"Whatever." Melissa looked skyward again, closing her eyes. "Okay. They're all together, way out in the desert for some reason, miles off the access road. Something got screwed up - tastes like Rex and Flyboy have been arguing."
"Funny, but I could have guessed that last part."
Melissa smirked. "Now Jonathan's on his way here. In a big hurry..." She frowned. "Things are waking up out there."
Jessica drew her flashlight, whose new name was Enlightenment, from her pocket. "Are they going to be all right?"
"If we get out there before anything big jumps on them."
"We?"
One of Melissa's eyes opened a slit. "As in me, Flyboy, and you."
Jessica realized it was pointless to hide her dismay. "That's right, you'll have to fly along with us."
"You got it, Jess. I don't want to, but the whole point of this plan is for me and Angie to have a little face time. And it's not like I'm going to walk." Melissa spread her hands. "Look, don't worry about it, Jessica. I'm not going to spew my crippled mind into your boyfriend's, all right?"
"I didn't say you were."
"You thought about it. Don't tell me that little twinge was you worrying about a dentist appointment."
Jessica shook her head. "It's just that Jonathan told me - "
"I know what he told you, Jessica. I can taste the way he pities me. I pretty much know how you guys feel about me, got that? And the more you worry about offending me, the more I know it. And frankly, I really don't want to know about it anymore, so just give... it... a rest!"
Melissa's voice broke on the last words, the awful sound disappearing into the flat, echoless desert. She sighed then, shaking her head.
"I'm sorry - " Jess began.
"Yeah, well." Melissa waved her silent. "I'm sorry too. Didn't mean to rant, but I thought maybe you might want to know what I was thinking for a change."
Jessica swallowed, a dozen apologies tumbling through her brain. But of course, Melissa wouldn't want to hear any of them. So Jessica concentrated hard, trying to banish all excuses and regrets and pity from her mind.
She cleared her head with thoughts of flying - imagining weightlessness rushing into her at Jonathan's touch, the rolling quilt of Bixby's streets from midair, the pleasure of a perfectly timed jump taking them directly to a target, the desert floor passing below....
The images crystallized, erasing the bitter aftertaste of the argument, and on an impulse Jessica reached out and touched Melissa's wrist lightly.
Melissa didn't respond at first, but she didn't pull away. Jessica could feel the struggle in her not to flinch from human contact, fighting reflexes trained by years of isolation. And then the connection took hold.
Images and emotions spilled from Jessica's mind - the sheer exhilaration of soaring at top speed across the badlands, scrub and sand and salt all reduced to a blur - and Melissa drew in a breath, amazed by the visions shared between them.
Jessica realized she was the only midnighter who had never touched the mindcaster before. It wasn't like Jonathan had said; there was nothing twisted and pitiable about Melissa's mind now. Through her eyes the blue world was suffused with a stately calm. And under that an old sadness, and worry about Rex.
After a long moment Melissa pulled her hand away.
"Flying..." she said softly.
Jessica smiled. "It'll be fun."
Melissa turned away, looking down at her hand as if Jessica had somehow marked it. Finally she said, "Just as long as we get there fast. Rex needs us."
"Is he scared?"
Melissa's head tilted, like that of a dog listening to a far-off sound. "Not really. He's not afraid of darklings anymore."
Jessica frowned. "Shouldn't he be?"
The mindcaster shrugged. "I guess we'll find that out soon enough."
Jonathan came skimming over the desert like a rock flung across frozen water. His flying shield flashed, warding off a pair of fast slithers who were buzzing around him like gigantic flies.
Jessica stood and aimed Enlightenment.
"Don't. You'll blind him," Melissa warned.
Jessica lowered the flashlight, sighing. Jonathan would probably rather deal with the slithers himself anyway. Why ruin his fun?
"I know what you mean, Jess," Melissa added. "He's enjoying all this way too much."
Jessica looked at her, suddenly wondering if their brief physical connection had made her thoughts permanently easier to read.
But Melissa shook her head. "It's pretty obvious, Jess. I used to hate daylight too, you know? But I never loved midnight as much as that boy does."
An explosion pulled Jessica's gaze back out to the horizon. One of the slithers had glanced off Jonathan's shield, blue sparks arcing across the sky as it fell, and the other turned and fled. Jonathan bounded to a halt a few yards away, raising a cloud of pale blue dust that froze in midair - his acrobat gravity working its strange magic.