“Oh no.” Zoe’s voice quavered as she ran to the hole in the wall.
Binny and Zach scrambled over to Cassie who was trying to sit up.
“My leg hurts.” Cassie was upright now and rolling up her leggings to inspect the damage.
“Ooh. It’s just a scrape. You’re gonna be okay.” Binny made an effort to sound cheerful.
“Uuuuuuuccccchhhhh.” Zoe put her hands up to her face as she backed away from the hole reeling. “It smells awful.”
The smell hit the other kids soon thereafter. Penny looked like she was going to retch.
“He’s in there. What if he’s…” Zoe left the question unfinished, suspended. As the realization of what had happened sank in, she shuddered and started sobbing. “What am I going to do?”
Zach felt his heart hurt when he heard Zoe’s wail over her brother. He looked at Binny, eyes pleading.
Binny left Zach to nurse Cassie’s leg and strode over to where Zoe was alternating between sobbing and gasping at the terrible smell coming from the hole in the wall.
Zoe and the other children’s eyes were glued to Binny as she slowly put her right fist in her left palm and closed her eyes.
Binny stood there for a moment, concentrating intensely, and then suddenly opened her eyes and turned to Zoe, “He’s alive.”
Relief and surprise washed over Zoe’s face. “What? How do you know? What do you mean?” Zoe looked like she was praying that this wasn’t some sort of a trick Binny was playing.
“Zach didn’t tell you?”
“Didn’t tell me what?” Zoe asked, her voice tense.
“I can read people’s minds.”
“You what?” Zoe didn’t know whether Binny was joking or not.
Binny repeated herself more slowly stopping just shy of condescension. “If he were dead, I wouldn’t be able to read his mind. I think he’s asleep, but he’s not dreaming.”
Seeing the look of doubt on Zoe’s face, Zach added “It’s true. Trust me.”
“I can tell when someone’s dreaming because the picture of their thoughts looks all foggy. Right now with Gabe all I see is fog.”
“Dreamless sleep.” Penny added quietly.
“But something’s not quite right.” Binny seemed to be analyzing something she was seeing.
“What do you mean?” Zoe asked.
“He’s fine.” Binny looked back at Zoe reassuring her. “He’s just not where he should be. He looks farther away somehow.”
Seeing Zoe’s confusion Zach added, “She can get kind of a map of where everyone is located in a space by seeing all their feelings. She calls it ‘zooming out’.”
“Yeah, it’s like he’s somehow below us.”
Zoe felt her heart start to beat faster again. “We need to get him out of there. I’m worried he won’t be able to breathe.”
“I’ll do it!” Cassie was now standing upright quickly forgetting about her injury in a way only young children can.
Zoe smiled at Cassie.
“We’ll do it together.” Zach said.
§
“Careful with her Zach, she’s going to get scraped.” Binny lectured her brother. Zoe couldn’t quite get through the hole herself, so Zach, Binny, and Penny helped lift her over what remained of the wall and through the space that Gabe had made with his body.
Zoe turned her head back towards Binny offering a small smile of acknowledgement.
“Be careful Zoe. It’s crazy dark in there.” Zach said hoping his voice contained an appropriate amount of concern for someone who was just a friend.
A look passed between Penny and Binny.
“At least the smell is fading a bit.” Zoe said as she tentatively explored the other side of the wall.
“What do you see?” Penny asked.
“I know this sounds weird, but it’s almost like a ticket booth.” Zoe felt along the wall for a light switch. “I can’t find a way to turn on the lights either.”
Remembering her mission, Zoe, looked past the dirty glass of the booth and in the direction that her little brother had travelled. “It’s crazy dark.” Zoe heard the word ‘dark’ echo. “And I think it’s big.”
“My turn.” Cassie pushed a stool up next to the hole and was scrambling through the opening.
“Cassie, wait, it’s not safe.” Binny put a hand on her shoulder.
“You’re not the only who can help you know.” Cassie said.
“It’s okay, we’re all going to go through and help.” Zach reassured.
“There’s an edge.” Zoe said with more fear in her voice than she intended.
“What do you mean an edge?” Binny asked.
“I was feeling along the wall and then it ends. The floor too. It’s like I’m on the edge of a pool. A huge pool. I’m not sure how deep it is.”
“Wait for us.” Zach said as they helped Cassie through the hole and followed in suit.
Zach and Penny were on their knees trying to peer into the abyss of the dark room with no luck. Very little of the light from the room they had been in extended into the extremely short hallway in which they found themselves.
“He’s down there.” Zoe’s heart was beating even faster.
Binny could see Gabe’s thoughts in her mind. Binny put a hand on Zoe’s shoulder. “He’s fine. I think his dreams are even starting to come back too. Something candy related?” Now Binny looked puzzled.
Zoe smiled despite herself. “That’s him alright.” Zoe sidled up as close to the edge as she dared. “Gabe? Gabe? Are you okay?” Her voice bounced around in the dark echoing and unanswered.
“I want to look.” Cassie said.
“There’s not enough room Cassie. It’s really tight in here.” Zach tried to placate his sister.
“Everyone’s had a turn but me.” Cassie complained.
“There’s nothing to see.” Penny added trying to be helpful. “It’s pitch black.”
Cassie’s arms were crossed, her face an angry scrunch. “You keep saying we’re going to do this together, but you keep ignoring me. I can help too!”
“I’m sure turning invisible will be a big help.” Binny said.
“She can turn invisible?” Zoe asked incredulously, momentarily distracted by the endless supply of amazing news.
“It’s not that impressive. She can’t do it on purpose.” Zach chuckled.
“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!” Cassie growled in frustration.
A lone gleaming silvery tendril of light sprouted out of Cassie’s clenched right fist. It was quickly followed by another from her left ankle. The tendrils snaked up their respective limbs sprouting small offshoots like ivy.
“She always gets this shiny stuff before she disappears.” Zach explained.
“I’ve never seen this.” Penny said with awe. “It’s beautiful.”
In moments Cassie’s entire body was covered in glowing swarming electric ivy.
“And buh-bye.” Binny said.
But Cassie didn’t disappear. She just stood there shining brightly.
“You didn’t disappear.” Binny wasn’t sure whether she was making a statement or asking a question.
Even Cassie was surprised at her new luminescence. She waggled her fingers in front of her face watching the trails of light emanating from the ivy wrapped around them.
It took Zach a few seconds to snap out of his reverie, wondering why Cassie hadn’t disappeared. But Gabe’s welfare was the bigger concern for the moment.
By this point, the light emanating from Cassie was bright enough to make the newly discovered space relatively visible to everyone else.
“Oh wow. It’s huge.” It wasn’t a swimming pool at all. It was a cavernous room. It was the size of a small airplane hangar. Zach could see the entire space like a blueprint from their vantage point. It was subdivided into a couple of dozen rooms of varying sizes. The space had been dug deep into the hillside with the ceiling suspended two stories above the concrete floor.
Zach looked down, “There’s Gabe!”
Gabe lay on his side a full story below the others. He wasn’t moving.
“He looks hurt.” Zoe looked scared as she peered over the edge.
Zach pointed below the precipice on which they were standing. “There’s a ladder.” Zach lowered himself onto the metal ladder that had been bolted to the sheer concrete wall.
Zoe was next. Gritting her teeth she followed Zach’s example.
Binny followed but not before she noticed how tightly Zoe was gripping the ladder. “Take your time. He’s fine. We’ll get him out of here.”
At the bottom Zach noticed old looking signs with arrows. One said “LIVING QUARTERS”. Another pointing in the opposite direction said “COMMAND CENTER”.
Zoe rushed to Gabe’s side when she made it all the way down. After Binny and Penny had descended, Zach caught a still glowing Cassie jumping from the last rung to the ground.
“See. I told you I could help!” Cassie’s arms were on her hips as she waited for acknowledgement from the group.
“You were right.” Zach smiled at his sister’s excitement. Zach thought privately about the fact that his sister could now do two things. Not quite on purpose, but still two. He, Binny, Penny, and Zoe for all he knew, could only do one. Zach’s thoughts were interrupted by a voice from behind.
On the ground next to his concerned sister a woozy Gabe raised himself on one elbow and said, “Who farted?”
§
Zach hadn’t known Zoe and Gabe very long but he’d never seen her so protective of him. She was fussing over him, inspecting his extremities and making him bend every joint he had.
Zach understood Zoe’s concerns as Gabe had fallen quite a distance. Zach imagined that Gabe had landed in the small hallway that they had first entered, and then momentum had carried Gabe over the edge and into the huge room below. Even though the space was lined with concrete Zach couldn’t help but think of it as some sort of cave.
“I told you, I’m not hurt.” Gabe was more interested in Cassie’s brilliant tendrils than he was in his sister’s ministrations. “That’s awesome!”
“Thank you.” Cassie couldn’t keep the wide grin off her face. “What can you do?”
Gabe’s face changed as he contemplated the question. “Well, my sister can make these huge holes in the ground.”
Zoe interjected quickly, “Well, that’s not exactly true.”
“You’re groundbreaking!” Penny smiled.
Zach looked at Zoe, his eyebrows raised and his lips pursed. He didn’t say anything.
“Okay, I guess that’s exactly true.” Zoe paused. “But it just happens. I never know when it’s going to happen until it’s already done.”
“That’s like me.” Cassie was euphoric at having another person who couldn’t make their power come on command. “It’s always a surprise. But now I can do two things. I can turn invisible and I can shine.” Cassie’s smile got even toothier.
Binny noticed Gabe’s face getting longer as Cassie spoke. She bent down in front of him. “What’s wrong?”
“I don’t have a power.”
Binny adjusted herself so she was sitting cross-legged in front of Gabe and looking up at him as she spoke. “Last summer, I found out that Zach had this amazing memory, my sister could turn invisible, and my best friend could make objects fall apart with just a touch.”
Zoe mouthed the word ‘cool’ to Penny who tapped her finger on an imaginary object in response.
“I couldn’t do anything out of the ordinary. No special powers at all. I felt pretty bad.”
“Really?” Gabe asked.
“Really.” Binny reassured.
“So you’re like me? You don’t have powers?” Gabe hoped out loud.
“Actually… no. I can read minds now.”
Gabe looked deflated.
“But that’s not the point. The point is that I didn’t need special powers to be part of the group. Zach, Penny, and Cassie accepted me no matter what. And at the moment when I needed a power the most, it came to me.” Binny nodded gently to Gabe as she spoke.
“So you think I’ll get a power when I most need it?”
Binny hesitated, catching Zach and Zoe’s eyes before she answered. “Honestly Gabe, I don’t really know. Maybe crashing through walls without getting hurt is your power.” Binny smiled, and even Gabe laughed a little. “But I know this. Whatever powers you do or don’t have, you’re one of us.”
§
“Uh oh.” Penny was still transfixed by Cassie’s glowing tendrils when she noticed that one of them had started to flicker. “I think it’s gonna get dark soon.”
“Oh no. What time is it?” Zoe and Gabe said almost at the same moment.
“No, I mean in here. I think Cassie is starting to turn off.”
“There’s no reception down here. And we’re late for dinner. Dad is gonna kill me.” Zach started moving everyone towards the ladder.
“Come on Gabe, I’m in the same trouble. We’ve gotta move.” Zoe said.
By the time they’d all made it out of the hole Gabe had made on his famous flight, Cassie was almost entirely faded back to her normal self.
“And you couldn’t keep it going?” Penny asked.
“I didn’t even know I could do it at all.” Cassie responded.
“Well, even if you can’t control it, it’s still very cool. Being able to make something, even just light, is so much cooler than just breaking stuff.”
“We’re all going to get broken if we don’t hurry home.” The stress was clear in Zach’s voice.
“Before we go, one important thing.” Binny turned to Zoe and Gabe, paying special attention to Gabe as she spoke. “No matter what, we never tell anyone about our powers, or about our hideout. OK?”
“Yeah yeah. Zoe already told me.” Gabe rolled his eyes.
§
As they closed the large metal door behind them, Zach said, “So, tomorrow morning? We all meet here to explore the cave?”
Nods and smiles all around.
“And we bring flashlights.” Zoe said, and then looking at Cassie, “Just in case you’re not in the mood to light our way.”
Cassie nodded approvingly.
“And air freshener.” Penny added.
Zach’s cell phone started beeping insistently. Zach braced himself as he pulled it out of his pocket. He tapped on the face of his phone responding to his father’s sixth text in the last twenty minutes.
Zach put the phone back in his pocket and said to the group with a resigned look on his face. “See you in the morning. Or in a year depending on how long I get grounded for.”