The Gifted Ones: A Reader by Maria Elizabeth Romana Page B

honey. Wipe the sleep out of your eyes, Ellie. You’re going to want to see this.” She beckoned toward her side of the plane, and Ellie and Angel crossed over to sit with Joe and Grace.
    “Hey…your face looks better, Aunt Grace. You sure heal quickly.”
    Joe winked at her, and Grace just smiled. All four buckled their seat belts, then turned to watch out the window as the plane made an abrupt change of direction into a mountain pass. Below them was a valley lined alternately with dense trees and large stretches of farmland and pasture, and dotted with a scant handful of old houses and barns. The plane straightened out, hovering lower, and apparently heading directly for the woods. As if by magic, though, a wide swath suddenly opened in the center of the grove.
    Joe grinned at Ellie’s reaction. “Holy crap! What the—”
    “Ellie! Mind your manners!”
    “Uh, sorry, Aunt Grace, but did you see that? I mean, how did…how could…”
    Joe touched her lightly on the shoulder. “It’s all done with mirrors and cameras and what have you, Ellie. It’s really not that big a deal.”
    “Not that big a deal? It’s so cool ! I mean, that was amazing!”
    Angel laughed. “If you think that was amazing, chica, just wait. You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.”
     
    # # #
     
    “So after all that, we’re now in…a barn?” Ellie stepped out of the shiny, mirrored elevator, expecting to be surrounded by marble, glass, and stainless steel, and instead found herself behind a wall of hay and face-to-face with a large cow.
    “A Beltie!” Grace seemed unsurprised by their agrarian surroundings, and immediately approached the cow and began stroking its neck. “A real, live Belted Galloway. Wherever did you find her, Joe?” Grace looked like a ten year old in a toy shop.
    Joe stepped up next to her and ran his hand along the top of the cow’s back. “Gilda here is originally from a farm up in Virginia. We brought her down about five years ago with a handful of others. We’ve got a nice little herd now.”
    “Gilda, where are you, girl?” A lanky farmhand-looking person came around the haystacks looking for the cow. “Oh, hey, Joe! Glad you’re back.” The man’s eyes shifted to Grace and Ellie. “And who’ve we got here? Is this Miss Grace and little Miss El-o-die?” He said the name as if he were introducing a celebrity at a supermarket opening. “Been hearin’ all about you ladies today.”
    Ellie wondered what the guy had been hearing about them and from whom. She also wondered about his interest in Aunt Grace. The tall blonde farmhand had stepped to within six inches of her and was grinning like an idiot.
    “I heard you were a vet, Miss Grace. Maybe you’d like a little tour—”
    “Vet tech, actually. I never finished my degree.”
    The farmhand shrugged off the difference. “Better than anything we’ve got right now. I’d still like to show you around.”
    Joe nudged in between them. “Uh, maybe tomorrow, Doo. The ladies are tired now; they’ve been traveling all day. We need to get them settled in.” He took Grace by the elbow and more or less pushed her away from the cow and the farmhand.
    “Okay, Joe.” Doo called after them, “Uh, see you ladies tomorrow!”
    “Come on, it’s this way.” Joe was hurrying the group toward a side door, but Ellie couldn’t help but linger. She’d never been on a farm before. The sweet smell of hay and the pungent odor of livestock mixed awkwardly in the atmosphere. Cows mooed, horses whinnied, and somewhere in the distance, chickens squawked and geese honked. And over all of it, Doo could be heard, chattering to the animals as though they were all fluent in English, or at least some twangy Southern dialect thereof.
    “Sweetheart, let’s go,” Grace urged, waving Ellie toward the door. “We can come back tomorrow, if you’d like to spend more time with the animals.”
    “Huh? Oh, sure…” Ellie followed the others out the door. The sun was low,