Kinetics: In Search of Willow

Kinetics: In Search of Willow by Arbor Winter Barrow

Book: Kinetics: In Search of Willow by Arbor Winter Barrow Read Free Book Online
Authors: Arbor Winter Barrow
Tags: adventure, Alien, Powers
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imagine
it. I could see myself flying through the clouds, going wherever I
wanted to, as far as I wanted to.
    Eventually, I heard Willow say that
she needed to go home, and I only barely acknowledged her as she
left. I could still sense her link flitting at the back of my mind.
It was a small bird, and I was a loser with a broken
net.
    At dinner, my parents spoke quietly in
Japanese.
    My dad was originally from Japan but
had moved to the United States for work. They had met while my mom
was on a university study abroad program in Tokyo. They liked to
joke that she stood out like a sore thumb when he met her. She was
the only white woman in a whole room full of Japanese students
trying desperately to learn how to ask where the bathroom was.
Though now that I knew there was more to my father’s “work,” I
questioned the story of their meeting. I would have to ask again
when I didn’t feel like I was growing a brain tumor.
    My parents would revert to his native
language when they were trying to keep something from me. I didn't
even try to listen in. Most time if I really wanted to I could get
the idea of what they were saying, but right now I didn't care. My
head hurt, and everything involving concentration made it worse. It
even took a second for me to realize when my mom switched to
English that she was asking me a question.
    "What?"
    "I hope you don't have any plans for
tomorrow," she said.
    I shook my head. Willow and I had
initially planned to go to laser tag, but I really didn't think
that was going to happen now.
    "Good. You're going to come with us to
the Conference."
    I had known about the Conference for
years. I used to go before I entered elementary school, but after
that, whatever went on there was a big secret between my parents
and my brother. My vague memories of the time offered no clues. I
had always thought that it had something to do with Dad's college
fraternity.
    "Why do I have to go?"
    "A woman will be there, and she will
discuss more of the contract with you." Dad said between bites of
his chicken. "And if you agree to it, then she will sign you up for
some remedial lessons and find you a specialist to help you find
your powers."
    I wanted to ask what these remedial
lessons were all about, but Dad wasn't looking up from his plate.
He was unhappy about something.
    "Ok," I said and didn't speak of it
again for the rest of the night.
     
    ***
     
    That night, I dreamed that a man
dressed in fire walked toward me.
    His face was too bright to see, but I
knew he was someone I should know. He walked in a circle around my
room, and everything that his fiery clothes touched burned. I was
surrounded by the bars of a prison, and I couldn't escape. The
smoke stifled all my screams.
    I think I died.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

CHAPTER 6
     
    "The world in which we
live is full of suffering. No one person can go through life
without experiencing some kind of pain, emotional or physical. We
as Kinetics are surrounded by hardship. The men and women we lose
every day are each someone's lover, parent, or child. But we have a
great hope. No Kinetic is truly alone, for we are connected in a
way our non-Kinetic peers are not. We have telepathy. We have a
connection that defies all borders and all languages. No one has to
suffer alone." ~ Jordan Vanderwaal.
Anyan's Alliance member. Excerpt from The Writings of Jordan
Vanderwaal on the State of the World and Its People.
1956.

     
    A red and green banner with a white
crest fluttered in the midday wind.
    According to my parents, most people
associated the Anyan's Alliance crest with a super-exclusive
fraternity. My parents had told me it was used as one of the fronts
for the Alliance, among others that they had yet to reveal to
me.
    Hundreds of Kinetics filed into the
huge convention center. My parents kept me squarely between them as
we walked with the flow of the crowd. It felt like they were trying
to guard me from something, but the people going into the
convention

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