SAVANTS

Chapture 48's

What surprised me was that I proved to be much better at skating than skiing. I fall a lot, of course, but I'm more of an average student than a fool who skis.

"Let me see you doing the twisting attraction" I teased Zed after I felt like I was skating long enough.

"Okay, that's an easy thing. Make yourself comfortable there and don't move. I'll show you how to do it but I have to climb the hill higher first."

I sat on a small trunk, observing the slope to look for signs of Zed, but he seemed to take a very long time to start the action.

"Woo-ee!"

A board darted over my head and Zed landed six meters in front of me, winding down the hill.

"Exhibit!" I have to laugh. I should have guessed he would do that.

It took him a while to trudge back to me, his sledding was raised on his shoulder, and he grinned every step of the way.

''What do you think?'' said.

"Hm." I checked my nails.

"Morning"

"Lumayan? That's perfect."

"I just saw someone else come in and do the rounds twice. I gave him ten."

He threw away his skateboard and ran towards me while saying. "I want ten too."

"Eh. But you've got to turn around three times."

"That's called cheating." Then Zed pounced on me until we both fell with Zed on top of me. Grasping my hands so I don't squint.

"That guy, he's doing his thing on the way back. Got the maximum points from me." I teased her.

Zed growled at my neck. "I'm your boyfriend, admit there's nobody else here."

I giggle. "I still can't give you ten points before you make a three-times spinning leap."

"What if I try to bribe you?" He kissed my neck and then my lips, took the time to reach all the right places. "So? How did I get it?"

Hoping that his future senses were not used for the moment, I quietly picked up a handful of snow. "Hmm, let me think. Looks like I ... You still need practice!" Before he could react, I stuffed the snow into his neck, letting out a shrill sound.

"True, it's a war." He toppled me but I hurriedly got free, panting with laughter. I ran but he caught me in a few steps and lifted me up. "It's snow for you." When he found a deeper pile of snow he flung past me so I was half buried.

"More ammo!" I made a snowball quickly and threw it at him.

But before hitting her the snowball turned in the air and came back to hit my face.

"It's cheating." I said while cleaning my face from the snow.

Zed bowed with laughter because of my anger.

Suddenly I remembered the egg I ****. I imagined pulling the tree branch above his head down and releasing it. It appeared, showering him with snow. Delighted by the effect, I clapped my hands excitedly as I had already hit it "feel it."

Zed shook the ice off his hat. "We should never have told you about being a savant. You're dangerous."

"But not skilled!" The snow shifted from under me and I was lying on a pile of snow with Zed on top of me with a snowball in his hand. "So how much is my skating worth?"

I smiled. "Definitely ten. No, but eleven."

He threw the ball to the side. "good. I'm glad you've praised me." He said while helping me to stand up. The same laugh, after quite a laugh Zed looked at me and little by little the face approached towards me, whereas I just closed my eyes.

And three seconds later, I felt Zed's lips kiss his lips gently.

Zed deepened his kiss by pulling me into his arms.

Kissing after skating? not bad.

°°°

The next day I spent some time alone walking in the woods behind near the house, sifting through the memories Uriel had opened.

After knowing the past about my parents' murder, I couldn't bear to keep thinking about it - my childhood was a chaotic, unkempt and loveless nightmare. It didn't get really horrible until my aunt hooked up with her drug dealer boyfriend.

What happened to my other family? I wondered. Did my mother and father not have any parents or grandparents, or any other brothers or sisters for me to visit? It was a riddle, and I guess the answer wouldn't be fun.

At the age of six I only had a vague understanding of my circumstances, knowing that I relied on two unreliable adults to look after me.

It was a terrible truth, not knowing how to make them love me, I retreated into myself and took small steps against Phil the oppressor who had made a project to hurt me.

I admired myself more for that, even though I could avoid the pain by remaining silent.

I try so hard to remember more. My name's. It seems a simple thing, which I must remember.

"Sky, are you okay?" Zed thought I had pondered long enough and came looking for me while carrying a glass in both hands.

"I'm okay. Just thinking."

He handed the glass to me. "You've done enough. Here, I made you hot chocolate. Not as good as a homemade cafe, I know, but it'll warm you up."

He clasped my hand leading me back home. "Do you know that chocolate has special chemicals in it to make you feel happy?" Said.

"I don't need that excuse to drink chocolate." I took a sip, glanced at him to the side.

The front of her hair that was not covered in a hat carried some snowflakes. His eyes were cheerful today - the pale green-blue of the shallow river in the sun. "And you, have you smuggled in some of the same chemicals?" Ask me.

"Hmm?"

''Because you look happy."

She laughs. "No, not because of the chocolate, just you. That's what it's for to be a soul mate, you're a shot of my happiness."

No, that's not true, my parents proved that having a soul mate means destruction. I pretended to Zed that everything was fine, but I couldn't do it - couldn't take the risk.

That devastating awareness made me feel as if I had just slid off a cliff and was still freefalling. How am I going to tell Zed and his family that after seeing what happened to my mother and father, I can't be who they expected me to be? When I get that news, everything's gonna be really bad. Zed will hate me and I already hate myself.

I'm so scared.

With that up to me, the Benedict family chose tonight to start preparing their home for Christmas. I felt like a princess at the party.

Zed and Trace's father disappeared into the attic and appeared with a box of decoration boxes.

"You guys are serious about Christmas" I was amazed, feeling the beautiful glass jewelry with the golden angel hanging inside. Like myself-trapped in a bubble of panic, unable to escape.

"Of course, Sky," said Zed's mother. "We collect them when we travel. My family at Savant Net, they send us special decorations to add every year. It would be an insult to the giver if we didn't use it."

Zed, standing behind his mother, rolled his eyes. "Mom doesn't think one decoration is enough when we can ten. You're gonna think you're standing in Macy's Christmas department by the time we're done."

No inflatable Santa for Benedict family. Each artifact is a very beautiful and unique handmade. I found a set of carvings from South America, strands of ice lamps from Canada, and Venetian glass trinkets.

Part of me yearns to be part of a wider family with people who share the same gifts, but I don't deserve them, not when I reject their ways.

I had to say something and soon-it wasn't fair to let them all treat me like one of them when I had already made the decision to decide myself from that future, I could not find the courage to speak.

The 'boys', as Mother Zed calls her son, pulled back a fir tree cut down from the family plot.

It was twice the height of me and filled the living room to the ceiling. Zed and Victor's father wrapped him in a lamp.

The younger family members had to put on the decorations, Zed lifted me on his back so that I could put my options on a higher branch.

Zed's mother told him a story for every item that existed, either about the person who gave it to her or about where she bought it.

I got the impression of a big family from here to Argentina with branches spread all the way across Asia and Europe. It made my own family of three seem very small.

"Now we're singing Christmas carols!" mother Zed said, returning with a tray of wine, more hot chocolate for me, and cinnamon biscuits.

Trace pretended to groan and complain. From the amused light that shone around him, I suspect he was only fulfilling his expected role as a failure of family music.

I sat back on the couch, away from my guilty conscience for company, and saw Zed's father tuning his violin, Zed taking out his guitar, and Uriel assembling his flute. They played a beautiful selection of traditional songs, some of the songs were so haunting that I felt taken back to the time when these songs were first sung.

Only then did I realize Uriel was shining gently with a bronze light. Not only did he play songs from the past, I could see that he was partly there.

"We need a vocalist" Uriel announced.

Everybody laugh.

"Of course, if you want to ruin this moment" he said.

"Sky?" suggesting Yves.

I shook my head. "I don't sing."

"You're really a musical, I used to play with you, remember," he said.

The panic made me want to hide. "I don't sing."

Uriel closed her eyes for a moment. "You did it."

"Not anymore."

"Why not, Sky?" ask Zed gently. "That's in your past now. You have seen the memories and can keep them. Today is a new beginning for you."

Not the start he expected. Oh my God, help me.

Zed's mother circulated a plate of biscuits, trying to break the tension. "Leave this mother-in-law alone, you three. No one should sing if Sky doesn't want to."

But I did. Under the alarm, I knew that as a musician I wanted to sing, use my voice as another instrument.

"Come, I'll sing with you." Zed extended his hand.

"We're all going to sing" suggested Uriel. '"Joy for the World"

"I'm going to play my saxophone" I said lying. My mom had stopped by before, knowing I needed music as a consolation when I was depressed.

In the end, Zed hugged me. "You have a nice touch to the saxophone. You know it's the instrument closest to the human voice."

I'm nodding. Playing the saxophone is how I sing without singing directly. It might be close but I feel it's not enough for Zed. He wanted everything and knew I was holding back.