“It’s not a countdown to our death. The calculations made you all think it was a deterioration of our human cells at an advanced rate which you initially believed meant that we were headed toward a fatal end.” I paused, not for dramatic effect, but because I felt so choked up—so happy to have been given the chance to do all the things I knew I was still meant to do.
“It is a countdown, but not to death. It’s a countdown to an evolution; a metamorphosis, of sorts.” I watched the faces of my mother and brother change from confused to excited and relieved.
“Ev, you explain the rest,” I said, so happy and tired, I was afraid I was going to pass out from it all.
“Well, first of all. Meg, you did it! You ‘read’ using only the papers—objects that themselves have no emotional abilities. I’m so proud of you!” He gently slugged me on my shoulder in his affectionate atta-girl kind of way.
“Wait, you all told us we had some time before anything was going to happen.” Alik was sitting at the edge of his seat, literally.
“I believe Meg’s illness triggered an early onset of her evolution. It’s not unheard of in human physiology for such a thing to happen. For example, a severe trauma such as cancer has been known to compel early onset menopause in women,” Evan concluded logically.
“So, you’re saying that Meg’s empath ability evolved sooner than it would have because of the malaria and now she’s…?” Cole stopped, looking for the right word.
“Evolved,” Evan answered simply.
“How do you do it Meg?” Paulie asked trying to understand. “I mean, I can understand you all having a heightened intelligence and strength. Alik’s memory and Evan’s problem solving skills are all explainable. Even your ability to be ‘in tune’ with people’s emotions, Meg, isn’t beyond belief even from a scientific standpoint. But this ‘evolved’ ability—” the doctor waved his hand toward me, “I don’t understand.”
Even through the fog of exhaustion hovering around my mind, I felt a surge of frustration and even a little defensiveness. “I don’t understand it either, Paulie. It’s all new to me, too.”
“Can you show us, again?” Creed’s steady voice asked. He was sitting farthest away from the group in a chair against the wall to my right. He nodded reassuringly.
I breathed deeply, closed my eyes. “Okay, but please be patient with me. I’m awfully sleepy and this is a little overwhelming,” I began with a disclaimer.
“Maybe we should start with something entirely different.” I glanced around the room and stopped to look intently at Dr. Andrews.
“Are those new glasses, Dr. Andrews?” I asked him. I had noticed he was wearing a pair of glasses with very thick, black rims. At the time, I just giggled to myself thinking how similar my mother and this man were in their taste in eyewear and thought how perfectly matched they were for each other.
Theo looked a little surprised and answered, “Well, yes, actually. I’ve misplaced my old pair, so I had to order these.”
“May I hold them?” I asked simply.
“Sure.” Theo removed his glasses and handed them to me.
I closed my eyes and forced myself to concentrate on the plastic in my hands.
“These were made in a factory where the Asian worker who assembled them was worried about her bothersome mother-in-law,” I said.
The room let out a nervous chuckle.
“You put them on for the first time when you were heading toward Paulie’s lab. Mom was there. She looked excited about something, but you were thinking about…,” I paused not wanting to embarrass the doctor by elaborating too much on his thoughts of marriage. “…how pretty mom looked. She waved you over to a microscope and had you look at…what is that? A blood sample? Mom is talking fast and holding paper in front of you as if she’s trying to explain something.” I stopped relaying my mental images because I felt Dr. Andrew’s surprise at what he just learned.
My eyes flew open, and I stood abruptly, nearly dropping the doctor’s new glasses. I looked back and forth between my mother and Theo—then to Alik and Creed.
“Go ahead, honey. You can say it. Theo and I haven’t been able to find the right time to bring it up, so you may as well put it out there for everyone,” Margo shrugged.
I reached down and pulled Alik to a standing position. “What’s going on?” he asked worried.
Then I walked us over to Creed and took his hand encouraging him to stand.
“Put what out there?” Creed asked, completely confused with the turn of events that brought him into the spotlight.
I couldn’t help but smile—this was so amazing. “While Mom was studying your blood samples she stumbled across something. She determined through your Y-chromosomes—that you are brothers.”
“What?”
“Brothers?”
The boys looked at each other as though they had never seen one another before.
“Of all the—you’re kidding, right?” Cole blurted.
“Are you sure?” Alik’s crisp, light blue eyes flashed with emotion.
“Is this a trick?” Creed looked around the room as though waiting for the punch line.
“How in the heck are we brothers?” Alik looked over to his mom, pointedly.