“I think we’re getting ahead of ourselves,” said Mom. “We don’t know what kind of shape this place is in, if it’s even livable. And the commute? Thinking about it makes my head hurt.”
“Mom, you spend two hours in traffic tryna get to Home Depot and it’s, like, four miles from here.” I wasn’t sure how any of this was going to work, but my family needed me to be okay with this. Leaving Brooklyn wasn’t something I wanted to do. It was my home. But if we went to Rhinebeck, if this estate was something we could work with, my parents would be less stressed and I could get away. I could start over where nobody knew who I was or what I could do.
“What about your friends?” Mom asked. “And school?”
“You mean Gabby and Marlon? The friends I never see because I weird them out?” A knot grew in my throat. I swallowed it, trying to push away the ache. “And the classes that I’m barely passing because I can’t focus. I’m scared to death I’ll lose control and hurt somebody. All I wanna do when I’m not there is go to the park and grow—” I caught myself before I gave too much away. “There’s nothing here that I don’t mind leaving behind for a while. As long as I got you two, I’m good.”
“I knew something wasn’t right with your friends, baby,” Mom said gently. “Y’all used to be together all the time but I haven’t seen Gabby or Marlon or anybody else around lately. I don’t even hear you talk about them. At least not the way you used to. I just thought it was because y’all are growing up, focused on school, maybe growing apart. But it’s more than that, isn’t it?”
I nodded, biting back tears.
She held my hand tight. “Maybe getting out of here for the summer will do us some good. Let’s see what all this is about and go from there. Okay, baby?”
I rested my head on her shoulder. “Okay,” I said. “Let’s go.”
Mo clapped her hands together, scaring the crap out of me and Mom. “Let’s pack up and leave in a few days,” she said. “I can commute a few times during the week to help Jake. All the billing is online anyway. We can make this work for us. This might help us get back on track.”
Her enthusiasm was infectious but even as I allowed myself to imagine this all working out, I couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling building inside me. I didn’t know if I could keep my abilities controlled in a place that far from the towering concrete buildings and paved streets of the city, but it looked like I was about to find out.
CHAPTER 5
Mom and Mo spent the next days planning our trip to Rhinebeck. When Jake came by, they went over everything that needed to be done while we were gone. Mo told him she’d come back on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays to help.
Mom insisted we keep up our regular order for most of our stock, but I told her I wanted to replenish our supply of red roses because we sold more of them than anything else. I stole away to the back garden and lined up pots, filled them with soil, and set fully bloomed roses in the dirt. Mom offered to keep me company, but I didn’t want her or Mo anywhere nearby if something went wrong.
Stirring the soil with my fingers, the familiar prickling brought my skin to gooseflesh. I closed my eyes and concentrated as hard as I could on the warm feeling in my fingers.
Just grow. Only these flowers. Nothing else.
The stem of a rosebush pushed its way up through the dirt. My heart raced and my head pounded as I moved to each of the other pots. The back garden transformed into an oasis of crimson petals and dark green leaves and stalks. There must’ve been two hundred flowers ready for harvesting, so perfectly formed they looked fake. I knew they’d stay that way for weeks, maybe longer. I hoped Jake wouldn’t question the peculiar longevity of the roses.
My vision blurred. I was winded, like I’d run a mile, and so dizzy I couldn’t keep my balance when I stood up. I leaned against the back wall of the shop and slid to the ground, cradled my head in my hands, my palms damp with sweat. I just wanted this