Chapter Two
Since the power was off, Sean and I began to play a board game. I was sitting on the blue carpet in our living room with Sean, who had quieted down. We were playing Battleship on the coffee table. I was bored with waiting for my brother to take his turn. I was leaning against the purple couch that my mom, whose name is Juliet, had bought. Everyone calls my mom Juliet, except me and Sean. Why she liked purple, I did not know. I like blue myself. I reached down and patted Ozzie on the head. He had stayed by Sean through all the racket, even when the sirens hurt his ears.
I saw that Sean had his grey eyes focused hard on the board. My mind wandered. I was thinking about how my eyes are blue and wondering what causes things like eye color to be different. I always want to know “why” everything. I don’t know why I’m so curious, but that’s just how I am. My knees were raised, and I started tapping my right foot. I thought that might distract Sean. Part of my strategy to win.
My brother was still studying the board and my thoughts kept drifting. All of a sudden, I felt like I was not in my body. It was like I was floating above it. This was the second time this happened in one day. I wasn’t out of my body, but it seemed like it. It was like I was above myself and I could see myself sitting on the floor. I could see everything around me at the same time.
In my mind, I saw an image of Sean on a battleship, firing weapons and being fired upon. Sean’s ship was sunk. Aha! I now knew where Sean was keeping his ship. Now that I saw where he was keeping his ship, I knew that I could win, and I popped back into the real world. It’s not like what you see in Harry Potter movies. That stuff is made up. I just feel a small jolt. Sometimes I have pictures in my mind of stuff that other people can’t see. Sometimes, I have strange dreams, and sometimes, I can hear animals talking to me. I used to think everyone could see what I see, but that’s not what happens. They think I make it up. My brother says I’m weird.
“Sean, take your turn,” I said. I couldn’t wait to beat his pants off.
“Leave me alone. I’m thinking,” he replied.
He thinks about things in a different way from me. Sean is analytical. It all has to make sense to him in a math way. I go with what feels like the right thing to do.
Besides seeing things happening before they do I also can hear the thoughts of animals. Sometimes, I talk with them.
While Sean was still thinking, Ozzie gazed at me and in my mind, he said “I wish he would make a move. I’m bored with waiting.”
I sent a thought back to him. “Me, too. But that’s just how Sean does stuff.”
Ozzie rolled his eyes at me and sighed.
I have dreams about things that I know nothing about, too. I don’t understand why others don’t think the same way I do. Seems like they should.
While Sean kept studying the board, I couldn’t resist throwing buttery popcorn kernels at him. Mom had put a big bowl on the floor near the board. Whatever she was baking had begun to smell delicious. She had placed paper towels around the bowl to catch stray pieces.
“Stop that, Noah!” exclaimed Sean as he batted popcorn off his face.
“I got you right on the nose,” I laughed with taunting glee. I wanted to pester him while he was trying to think. This was also part of my strategy. I love to pester Sean anyway. Ozzie was sitting at Sean’s feet, which were crossed in front of him. I’m kind of jealous because he has a dog of his own.
I’ve been asking to have my own dog. Not that I need a therapy dog. Just one that would sleep on my bed with me, play ball and Frisbee with me, and be just for me. I think a Golden Retriever would be fun. They are so beautiful. And he would be a water dog, too, so he and Ozzie could play in the river together. So far, my parents have resisted getting me a dog. They tell me they don’t want to add more responsibility and chaos to our family. I hope to wear them down.
I knew I could get away with throwing popcorn at him because Mom’s attention was focused on something she was doing in the kitchen and the lights were still off. By this time, she had removed a cake pan full of brownies from the oven. I could smell more good cooking, like yummy hamburgers and French fries. She was making lunch.
I glanced toward the kitchen at my slender mom out of the corner of my eye to make sure she didn’t see me throw popcorn. She had pulled her long brown hair back into a ponytail. She did that sometimes to keep it out of her eyes while she worked.
Sean yelled, “Noah, it’s your turn!”
“C3,” I said as I popped back to the moment and fired on the spot; I’d seen his ship in my mind.
“Hit,” Sean said confused and frustrated that I’d hit his battleship.
“C4,” I said with a smile finally sinking his last ship. Ha-ha, I was so happy I’d won the game.
Sean jumped up, shouting at me, “You cheated!”
He began flapping his arms and twisting his body as he shouted. Ozzie startled. Sometimes, like just then, I use my ability to see things not there to give me an advantage.
I made eye contact with Sean and sent love to him through my eyes. I had figured out how this would work on another day a few months ago when Sean was pitching a fit. I felt sorry that he was having a bad time and I wanted him to know that I love him. I thought if I said anything out loud, he would just get more upset, so I locked eyes with him and thought about love. It worked. He calmed down. So now, even though I felt like jumping for joy because I won, I helped to calm my brother instead. It was hard to do in the same moment I was having jealous feelings about Sean, but I knew it was important. Anyway, Sean was right. Because I had the vision, I knew where to fire. I felt guilty about that, though. Was that cheating?
Mom dropped her flipper on the kitchen floor as she rushed to the fuss. Uh-oh.
“Noah, did you cheat?” she demanded.
While I tried to figure out how to answer that, she took Sean to the bathroom to wash popcorn butter off his face. I don’t think it is fair that he gets all the attention because of his disability.
Just then, the electricity flashed back on, making me blink till my eyes got used to the light. Mom came back to the room and started putting out the flames on the candles and lanterns. The video game came back on, but she turned off the Xbox and turned on the television to see if there were any reports from downtown where Dad’s office was. A reporter was on the screen, standing on a small island of grass with water gushing by her over the street.
I could now smell food burning in the kitchen. The smoke alarm started screeching and that made Sean even more frantic. Ozzie hightailed it out of the bathroom where he had followed Sean, yipping with pain in his ears because of the high-pitched noise. This seemed worse than the distant siren for him. I ran to open the back door so smoke could get out. Mom rushed to turn off the stove and she threw open a window. We almost ran into each other, trying to get rid of the smoke so the noise would stop.
“Noah, get in the kitchen and sit at the kitchen table while I help Sean,” she ordered me. I went.
We would have burned hamburgers for lunch, and it was all my fault. I felt guilty.
Did I cheat? If I know what to do, what’s wrong with doing it?
I stood back as Mom took Sean to his room. His room is painted restful shades of green. The color helps him be calm. I saw Ozzie follow them, plunking down on the area rug with a NASCAR scene on it. I knew this was not punishment. Sean needed quiet time. But it makes me mad that my parents ignore me. I never say anything, though. How can I complain when Sean is suffering?
I sat in the breakfast nook and waited for Mom. The table always smells like Lemon Pledge. I was thinking of something I could say to her. I didn’t think I’d cheated. Was I really cheating?
When she came back to the kitchen, she said. “You know throwing popcorn at your brother to distract him is really cheating.”
She didn’t know that I saw in my head where Sean was keeping his ship and how that showed me where to fire.
“How could distracting Sean be cheating?” I asked.
“Would you like it if he did the same to you?” she asked.
“No.”
“There you have it. It is against the rules to distract another player in any game. It is also rude and disrespectful.”
“Yeah. I guess.”
“Have you started your homework yet?” Mom asked in a terse voice
“It’s only Saturday,” I whined. She gave me her “don’t start with me” look.
“I looked at your assignment notebook. You have a lot to do in math and science.”
“Yeah. Okay.”
In science, I learn interesting things about the world, so I like that. I think math is boring. I like words. Those tell you about all things. Math is just numbers.