Read Online The Gifted Ones: A Reader by Maria Elizabeth Romana - Free Book Online Page A

stopped them in their tracks. A little girl of three or four, wrapped in an artist’s smock, came bursting out. She carried a large piece of paper in one hand, and a thick paintbrush in the other. There was blue paint smeared on her face, and a rainbow of colors on the smock. She was giggling and looking back over her shoulder as she rushed by them and down the porch steps.
    “Poppy!” Granny called after her, but Angel waved her off.
    “I’ve got this, Gran.” Angel started after the little girl, but in no particular hurry. Her voice was playful as she called out to the child, “Poppy Prentiss, you better run! Angel’s comin’ to git you.” Squeals of laughter could be heard in the distance, as the black-leather-bound beauty chased after the little one.
    “That child, I swear!”
    Ellie turned back toward the door as yet another unfamiliar voice spoke. A middle-aged woman was standing in the doorway. She was short, pleasantly plump, and had long, tangly hair that hung to her waist. Around the face, she wore a couple of tight braids tied off with intricately shaped beads, that kept the hair from falling into her eyes. In her brightly colored tie-dyed dress, she could have been en route to a Woodstock reunion.
    Granny set a hand on Ellie’s shoulder and aimed her in the woman’s direction. “Ellie, this is Willow. Willow Moonlight Begonia.”
    Ellie couldn’t stop herself from laughing as the woman extended her hand. Ellie shook, and then apologized, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean—”
    “Bah, don’t worry about it. It is funny. My folks were hippies from way back. Trust me, I got the good name. My brothers are named after constellations, Orion Phoenix and Corona Borealis.”
    “Seriously?”
    The woman grinned. “Seriously, and I tell you, they’re fascinating constellations. Would you like to see? It’s almost dark. We could head over to the planetarium…” She pointed somewhere back behind the house, toward some of the outbuildings, and began to move in that direction until Granny stopped her.
    “Not now, Willow.” Granny caught the woman’s elbow and spun her around. “We’ll have the grand tour later. Perhaps you could take Ellie inside and show her the art studio? I need to talk to Grace and Joe.”
    Grace looked annoyed. “Elmyra, it’s late, and we’re all tired—”
    But Granny was herding everyone into the house. “I know, I know. We’ll get everyone situated. Soon. But right now, I need to talk to you two. Alone. Now you run along, Ellie. Go with Willow.” Granny gave Ellie a gentle nudge in Willow’s direction. Ellie didn’t appreciate being treated like a child, but she was tired, and her head was swimming with all the new people and places she’d encountered in one day, so she decided to just go along with the program.
    Still…she couldn’t help but wonder what was so important when Granny’s hushed words drifted down the hall after them, “Something’s happened, Joe. We’ve got to act fast.”
     
    # # #
     
    “So, yeah, Joe. Your first two stops were already on the chatter by the time you guys got back.” Rishi Takoor was speaking to them from a giant screen mounted on the wall of Granny’s office-laboratory.
    “Dammit! What the… how is this happening?” Joe banged his fist on the granite countertop of Granny’s workbench. A round-bottom flask, carefully placed over a bunsen burner, jumped in its frame. Grace jumped a bit, too. She didn’t recall Joe ever raising his voice back in the days when he and Lucy were together. But that was a long time ago and so much had changed. For all of them.
    Granny reached over and stabilized the glassware that Joe’s outburst had disturbed. “Joe!” she reprimanded, as she righted the experiment. “Now calm down. Let the man finish. Irrational reactions won’t help.”
    Joe backed down, running a hand through his hair. “Sorry, Gran.” He motioned toward the screen. “Go ahead, Rish.”
    The slender Indian man