Deep Betrayal Page 0,65
help me stop Maris from killing anybody else.”
“It sounds better the way you say it, but I still don’t like it.”
We came down the stairs and Sophie looked up from her book.
Calder said, “When the brownies cool, tell your mom that Lily and I have gone to look for your dad. Tell her we’ll be back sometime tomorrow.”
“Where are you really going?” she asked.
“We’re going over to Madeline to have dinner with Lily’s friends.”
“What’s the big deal? Why don’t you just tell her that?” she asked.
“She’ll want to send food,” I said. “We’re traveling light.”
“You’re swimming over?”
Calder winked at her, and Sophie lowered her voice so Mom wouldn’t hear. “When will you take me with you?”
“When you’re older,” Calder said.
Sophie stuck out her tongue and went back to her book.
Once outside and out of Mom’s view, I stripped down to my bathing suit and stashed my clothes in the bushes next to Calder’s. He was already in the water waiting for me with our watertight packages in a messenger bag strapped across his chest. “Come on,” he said. “Don’t be nervous.”
“I’m not nervous,” I lied as my chin shook and my teeth crashed together with a mixture of anticipation and uncertainty.
“Are you cold?”
“No. Now be quiet and quit harassing me.”
He waited patiently as I waded in until I was waist deep. I dropped under the waterline. When I stood up again, chin leading, my hair fell smoothly against my back and I was ready.
“Come on,” Calder said, coaxing me forward. His voice was deep and soothing, and I felt the hypnotic pull of his thoughts invading my mind. I saw myself in his arms, and I wanted the feel of it as quickly as I could make it a reality. I stared into his eyes and walked a few more feet, until I fell forward into the water and took ten long strokes out to him. He took me in his arms.
“Did you feel that?” he asked.
“Of course. You’ve done that to me before, remember? But you don’t have to. I’ll always come to you.”
“I wanted you to have a recent hypnotic experience to draw on. Now here’s what we’re going to do. What I did there, I projected my thoughts into you.”
“Like you did with Jules.”
He winked. “Right. In the air, the thoughts only go in one direction: out. In the water, it’s like osmosis; the thoughts go freely back and forth, from one mind to the next. But not with me and Maris and Pavati. Not anymore. But you …”
“You think it’s really them I’m hearing?”
“You said you’ve heard other voices before—not just mine and your dad’s. Who else would it be? We’re going to go out into the channel. I want to see if you can hear them, but I don’t want them to hear you. Receive; don’t project. Not yet. I want you to keep your thoughts completely blank.”
“How do I do that?” I couldn’t imagine how that would be possible, particularly when I was out in the middle of the lake in the arms of Calder White.
“Picture your mom’s canvases.”
“Which ones?”
“The blank ones. Think big, white, and blank. Don’t try to put any pictures on them. Keep the canvas as clean as you possibly can.”
“I think I can do that,” I said. “For a while.”
“But at the same time, I want you to listen. You’ve got to listen without reacting. As soon as you react, it will be like slapping paint on the canvas. Don’t be afraid. Don’t get mad. Don’t get curious.”
“That sounds harder.”
“Very. But it’s important. Can you do that?”
“I’ll try.”
“ ‘Do, or do not. There is no try.’ ”
“You’re quoting Yoda?”
He smiled.
“Okay. I’ll do it.”
When we were an even distance from both the mainland and the Madeline Island shoreline, Calder looked at me with a serious look. “Exhale,” he said. “Blow it all out.”
“I’ll need air,” I said.
“You’re only doing it to relax. Blow everything out of you. Think blank canvas. Then fill your lungs and I’ll take you down. We’re going to go for a short time. Fifteen seconds. Obviously you won’t have any trouble with that. When I take you back up, you can tell me if you heard anything.”
I nodded, inhaled, and then slowly let everything out. Once I’d pushed all the thoughts from my head, I inhaled deeply, and Calder took me down.
Blank, I thought. Blank canvas. I let the canvas grow bigger, wider, pushing everything else from my vision. And then I was above the waterline again.
“Anything?”