Лиза Макманн - Fade

Janie looks up. Stacey’s head is on her books. Her eyes are closed.

Janie bites her lip and nods at Cabel. He gives her an encouraging smile.

Her blood is still pumping from PE. She feels strong. She slept well, ate well…has everything going for her. Now all she needs is for Stacey toShe grips the table, and they are in Stacey’s car. Stacey’s driving furiously, as before. From the backseat, the growl, the man, his hands gripping Stacey’s neck.

Janie wonders if this is the best shot she’ll have or if she should wait.

She decides to take it, in case Stacey wakes up before they get to the woods.

Stacey’s driving erratically. Janie concentrates and squeezes her hands into fists, pumping them before they become numb, focusing on pausing the dream. It’s slowing, and Janie tries to turn to look at the man. But the dream speeds up again. She can’t do both things at once.

Janie concentrates again on pausing the scene, and she knows her power is limited. One broad push of energy, and the scene slows and stops. She stays perfectly focused, turns slowly, evenly. Sees the look of horror on Stacey’s face, sees the man’s hands around her neck, his arms, and then slowly, slowly, turns to see the face of the man.

He’s wearing a ski mask.

Janie loses concentration, and the dream goes to regular speed again.

Damn it. They hit the ditch, the bushes; the car rolls, comes to a stop.

Bloody Stacey climbs out through the broken windshield and runs, the rapist follows, into the woods, and Janie tries again to pause the dream, when he grabs Stacey. Janie tries with all her might. But she can’t do it.

The rapist has Stacey, she trips, he falls on top of her, and then it ends abruptly, just where it always does.

She wishes now she’d tried to help Stacey change it. Next time, maybe.

She actually hopes there isn’t a next time.

Fifteen minutes later, when she can see and move again and the library has emptied out for the day, Cabel spends a moment squeezing her tightly, and she can’t explain how amazing that feels. He walks with her to the parking lot, takes her home, and goes back for her car, like last time. Janie eats and drinks, checks on her mom, and falls asleep on the couch.

He’s there when she wakes up. Reading a book, his feet on the coffee table.

“Hey,” she says. “Time?”

“A little after eight p.m. How you doin’?”

“Good,” she says.

“Your mom here?”

“In the bedroom, like always.”

Cabel nods. “Captain wants to meet with us in the morning to go over tomorrow night.”

“Yep, I figured.”

“I’m worried about you, Janie.”

“About the dream? It was only worse because I paused it.”

“You did it? Cool!”

“Yeah. But I didn’t see anything.”

“Oh well. What I’m actually worried about is tomorrow night.”

“Please don’t be. It’ll be fine. Eighteen students there, Cabe. I’m not going to get drunk. I’ll have a beer or something in my hand, so Durbin doesn’t get suspicious, but I’ll just fake like I’m drinking it. I’ll eat a lot before I go too.”

“I hope Captain has an escape plan. You’ll have your phone?”

“Yep. And all I need to do to call you is push one button.”

“I’ll be close by.”

“Not too close, Cabe, okay?”

Cabel tosses his book on the table. “You can still back out of this, you know, Janie.”

Janie sighs. “Cabe, hear me: I. Don’t. Want. To. I want to do this. I want to stop this guy! Why can’t you understand that?”

Cabel cringes. “I can’t help it. I can’t stand the thought of that creep touching you, Janie. What if something awful happens to you? God, I just hate this.”

“I know.” Janie pushes up on her elbows and sits up. The last thing she wants right now is a fight. Changes the subject. “Is Ethel back home?”

“Yes, she’s in the driveway.”

“Thank you. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

“I wouldn’t worry about it if I were you.”

Janie leans against him. Strokes his thigh with her fingertips. “Why do you put up with this?”

Cabel relaxes and twirls a string of Janie’s hair. “Well, duh. Because one day you’ll be really rich and famous, I bet. Your own TV show, people throwing money at you just to get you to change their dreams.

I’m holding out for the money. After that I’m outta here.”

She laughs. “Did I tell you I benched one-twenty in PE today? And then I called Coach Crater an asshole.”

Cabel roars in laughter. “He is an asshole. And one-twenty is probably a national record or something. That’s almost more than you weigh.”

“The national record is more than two hundred for my age and size category. But I’ll take it.”

They talk for an hour, and then Cabel heads home. Tomorrow they’ll meet again in Captain’s office.

After Cabel leaves, Janie pulls out her chemistry book; curiously searches through a chapter; uses her cell phone to peruse the Internet for an hour or so, until she finds the information she’s looking for on date-rape drugs; and goes to bed.

March 4, 2006, 9:00 a.m.

Baker and Cobb join Cabel and Janie in Captain’s office. Janie meets

Cobb and says hello again to Baker.

Captain goes through the schedule for the evening. Janie will arrive at six p.m. along with another girl. The rest of the guests will come at seven.

Captain gives Janie a thin, sexy cigarette lighter, one of the newly popular, old-fashioned flip-top kinds. “It’s not a real lighter, Janie. If you flip the lid open, it sends a distress signal to Baker and Cobb outside the house. They’ll call your cell phone first, just in case it’s an accident, and don’t panic if that happens. Answer if it happened by mistake. But just try to keep the lighter in your pocket, and it’ll be fine.

If you don’t answer your phone, they’ll move in and call you once again. If you do not pick up, they will come in for you.

“In other words, if you’re in trouble, flip open the lighter lid. Put your cell phone on vibrate and wear it in your underwear if you have to, but you must answer that phone if nothing’s wrong. If you do not answer, they will assume trouble is afoot. Is that perfectly clear?”

“Yes, sir,” Janie says.

“Good. Let’s talk about drinking. Believe me, Durbin’s going to be watching that everybody has a drink in hand.”

Janie looks at her suspiciously. “You’re not going to arrest me or anything if I have a drink in my hand, right?”

Captain raises an eyebrow. “Not unless you do some thing stupid. But

I think you should carry around a beverage, yes, so nobody gets suspicious. I don’t encourage drinking on the job, though.”

“Okay…and no setting my beverage down at any time, right? No keg, no punch bowl, no mixed drinks.”

Captain nods, impressed. “You’ve done your homework on date-rape drugs, I see. Good job.” She pulls a small package of date-rape drug testers from her desk drawer and hands them to Janie. “Are you familiar with these?”

Janie smiles, reaches inside her bag, and pulls out an identical package.

“Excellent.” Captain nods. “Cabel. What’s your job?”

“Watching in agony, sir.”

Captain suppresses a smile. “I’d make you stay home if I didn’t know you’d sneak out, anyway. While you are watching in agony, feel free to take note of anyone who comes or goes that’s not on the list.”

“Thank you,” Cabel says meekly.

“Baker and Cobb, you clear on procedure?”

“Yes, sir,” they say together.

“Great. You two may go.”

Baker and Cobb slap Janie on the back, like she’s one of the guys, give her the thumbs-up, and head out. Janie grins.