Twinepathy (Parts 29 and 30): A Bit of A Surprise

Hullo, everyone! I hope you’ve had an enjoyable weekend! As you may have noticed from the title, I’m actually posting TWO parts today. This is happening for two reasons. First, yesterday was the one-year anniversary of the publication of Paralyzed Dreams!!!!! If you haven’t bought it yet, you should definitely go check it out and leave a review on Amazon or on Goodreads! The second reason is that Part 30 has a terrible cliffhanger… So my apologies. 😉 If you missed the part posted on Friday, you can see it here, and if you’re new, start at the beginning! 🙂

—-29—-

My fingers fly over the keyboard as I search for Keller Stone. There are a few options, but now that I know that Keller is a girl, I’m able to find the right one. And I’m astonished to find that she lives right here in town.

Perfect.

I’m about to hurry downstairs to get Denver when I realize he’s not here. No. I don’t want to let anyone else in on this, so how am I going to get there? I check the address. It looks like it’s within walking distance, but I need to check. I pull up a map and enter the address. Good, it’s pretty close, just past where I think the Lava Java café is. Perfect. Now I just have to get out of the house without getting stopped. I grab my shoes and wrack my brain for a good excuse.

“Where are you going?” Maddie asks, watching me in her perceptive way.

I pause. Again, Maddie can be my perfect excuse. “Would you like to do some shopping?” I ask.

She glances towards the door, towards Brooklyn. I don’t think I need anymore clothes.”

I grin. “Not that kind of shopping. I was thinking more like books or something. Whatever you want to look at.”

Maddie’s face lights up. “Sure, that would be nice.”

“Cool. Then go ahead and get ready to go. I’ve got a place we can walk to.” I grab my wallet. I can probably delay my investigation a little for a trip to the bookstore. And it’s a much better reason than just “going for a walk.”

After Maddie’s ready, I motion toward the door. “Let’s go, then.”

“We aren’t going to wait for Brooklyn?” Maddie asks.

I shake my head. “She’ll be in the shower for ages. And if she comes, you’ll probably end up with more clothes.”

Maddie smiles and follows me downstairs. Mom greets us as we pass through the living room. She’s doing something on the TV, probably setting one of her shows to record. “Going somewhere?”

“Just a little shopping,” I tell her.

“Without Brooklyn?” Mom asks, surprised.

I nod. “We’re not getting clothes, and she’s in the shower, anyway.”

“Well, be careful,” Mom says. “Make sure your phone’s on.”

I smile. “Got it. Don’t worry, Mom, we’ll be fine.” We’ll be fine while we’re shopping, but I’m a lot more worried about the meeting with Keller. What am I expecting to learn, anyway? She’s just a friend of Genesis. What would she know that could be helpful?

I shrug off my doubt and wave goodbye to Mom as Maddie and I leave. I don’t know what I’m doing, but it’s all I have to go on right now, and I can’t let all my hard work go to waste, right?

—-30—-

Maddie and I have a lot of fun in my favorite bookstore. I point out some of my favorite books from when I was younger to Maddie, ad she gets a couple of them. I pick up a few for myself, too. After we pay, we go out and start walking towards Keller’s house.

“Where are we going?” Maddie asks.

I search for a non-dangerous answer. “I thought we’d stop at Lava Java,” I say, pointing at the building ahead. I’d never been there before Jen showed us – in fact, I’d never noticed it before.

“Sure,” Maddie agrees. We pick up the pace a little as we near the shop. I reach for the door handle, frowning at how dark the shop is. But when I tug on the handle, the door doesn’t budge.

“It’s closed!” I exclaim. I step back and notice there’s no sign. “That’s weird…” That’s something I will definitely be asking Jen about.

“I guess we won’t do that, then,” Maddie remarks. She looks curiously at the shop, then around the street.

I nod. “Guess not.” I pause, trying to find the best way to put this. “We can go visit someone I know while we’re in the area. I think she might like to meet you.” Probably a dead lie. But I can hope, can’t I?

Maddie looks up at me. “What are we really going to do, Albany?”

Caught. Maddie’s really perceptive for a little girl and an amnesia victim. Or maybe it’s because she’s a little girl and an amnesia victim. I sigh. “I’m trying to find the person who hurt Brooklyn.”

Maddie frowns. “But isn’t that what Jen is doing? Can’t you just let her find the person?”

I sigh again. “I could, I guess. But I don’t want to sit around doing nothing! I want to help.”

“You are helping,” Maddie says thoughtfully. “But anyway, I guess if you’ve gotten this far, you might as well keep going.”

I reach down and squeeze her little hand. She’s so young to be caught up in all of this. I’m so young to be caught up in all of this! “Thanks, Maddie. Let’s go.”

We head off down the street, our pace slowing as we get nearer to Keller’s house. What are we doing? Everything in me screams Run! Finally, we come to a stop in front of the house. It’s small, fairly nice, but plain. The most eye-catching feature is the motorcycle parked out front. Why does that scare me even more?

We walk up to the front door together, and Maddie grabs my hand. Somehow that gives me extra strength, and I reach up and push the doorbell.

There’s some shuffling noises inside, and the door is opened by a woman, who is clearly an older version of the Keller in the picture, right down to the bright red hair.

She starts when she sees me, surprised. “Well. You’re not Genesis.” Then here eyes flash down to Maddie and double in size. “Lila!” she cries before bending down and enveloping Maddie in a hug.

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Twinepathy (Part 12): Girlfriends And Garage Doors

Hullo, everyone! How’re you? I hope you had a great Thanksgiving… and I hope you didn’t miss this post last week. I completely forgot to pre-schedule a post! Whoops! Anyway, I hope you enjoy… Check out Part One if you’re new!

Brooklyn loves to chat with everybody. Everybody. So it’s a miracle that we actually get out of the store in less than half an hour. It’s a momentous occasion I will look back on with fondness and longing.

We hurry home, arriving almost exactly an hour after we left. Mom and Dad aren’t home, thank goodness. Denver’s in the kitchen, and we re-introduce him to Maddie with our added “rescue” story. He seems pretty confused, but he’s also very distracted because of his date. Apparently Ezra, his girlfriend, is coming to pick him up, since she wants the date to be a surprise. Or something like that. So he’s pacing around the kitchen wearing the dreaded flannel shirt. Brooklyn drags him upstairs so she can pick out his outfit. Because, as she says, he needs help.

I dig around in the fridge and find sandwich ingredients. I make one for Maddie and one for me – because I need nourishment, too! – and we finish them off quickly.

Then the doorbell rings.

My heart stops as I consider the possibilities. Is it Jen, with an emergency? Or is it another surprise-random-amnesia victim. But then Brooklyn appears at the top of the stairs. “It’s Ezra! Can you hold her off? Denver’s still a mess.” She rolls her eyes and then disappears.

I go to the front door and open it, revealing Denver’s girlfriend of about three months. She gives me an awkward smile. “Hi, um… yeah. Is Denver here?”

Yeah, she can’t tell Brooklyn and me apart yet, unless we’re right next to each other and doing things the other would obviously never do. “Yes, he’ll be ready in a minute. Come on in. I’d offer you a bacon cookie, but I burned them.”

Her face lightens a little bit. That was enough of a hint that she knows which one I am now. I lead her into the kitchen without thinking. Maddie’s eyes grow to the size of golf balls when we walk in. Ezra is a bit of a sight, in her dressy clothes that set off her purple hair. But she’s even more of a sight when she’s not dressed up.

Ezra looks at Maddie, brow crinkled in a confused expression. “Who’s this?”

I wave a hand in the air, dismissing the subject. “Maddie. It’s a long story. Maddie, this is Ezra, Denver’s girlfriend.”

Maddie’s wide-eyed, nervous expression doesn’t change, and Ezra shifts nervously. “Um, hi?” she says.

Poor Ezra. She’s smart, not social. I’m about to rescue her when Brooklyn and Denver come downstairs. I have to give Brooklyn credit; Denver looks much better now. Not too fancy, but not too casual either. He and Ezra look so cute together. Brooklyn doesn’t agree, but that’s just because she doesn’t want to share Denver.

Ezra’s face lights up when she sees Denver, and he gets a dorky grin on his face. They both completely forget about Maddie and Brooklyn and me as they head out to Ezra’s car, talking about some computer problem Denver is having.

Brooklyn sighs. “We’ve still got an hour or two before Mom and Dad get home. What are we going to do while we wait?”

“We could let Maddie get cleaned up and changed,” I suggest.

Brooklyn tilts her head, considering it. “She might look more sad and stuff if we don’t, but Mom would wonder why we hadn’t already cleaned her up. Might as well,” she finally agrees.

We show Maddie how the shower works and leave her to get cleaned up. In the meantime, we pick up the Go Fish game – finally – and work on tidying up the house. Brownie points, of course.

Maddie gets done quickly, and Brooklyn sits her down on the couch so she can braid Maddie’s damp hair. I have to admit that Maddie looks really cute with pigtail braids, especially with the dress Brooklyn found for her. We manage to find enough to do to keep us kind of occupied, but Brooklyn and I still go to the front windows every five minutes to check for Mom and Dad.

We’re in the middle of teaching Maddie how to hula hoop when we hear the garage door go up. My eyes lock with Brooklyn’s. Time for the show to start.

Yay for hula-hooping! And cleaning house! And Ezra! *fist pump* Sounds like there’s a storm coming… *listens to thunder (or a garage door opening)* What think you?

Next Part –>

Twinepathy (Part 11): A Great Big Sister

Hullo, everyone! How has your week been? I hope it’s been wonderful! Another part of Twinepathy today, and last week I joined in on the Beautiful Books Link-Up and I posted a character interview with Blaze. So much fun! If you didn’t get a chance to read those, check them out! And if you’re new, click here for the first post. Enjoy, my friends!

The Finch? What kind of name is that?

“Two weeks ago, one of our agents – as we tend to call ourselves – passed out on the job,” Jen explains. “He’s one of our best spies, nicknamed The Finch because he can morph into any type of bird, plus communicating with them.” He? A guy called The Finch. Ha! “Luckily, he was in human form at the time, and he had a team with him. When they brought him back to me, he woke up, but didn’t remember anything. I read him, but it was like he’d been wiped clean of all traces of memory.”

I glance at Maddie. This sounds an awful lot like what happened to her. “Has he recovered?” I ask.

Jen shakes her head. “No.”

My heart drops for Maddie at that. Will she end up being without early memories for the rest of her life? “Do you know why this happened?” Brooklyn asks, pulling Maddie towards her. Maddie does look like she needs a hug, with her eyes wide and scared.

“We’re working to figure out what happened,” Blaze says.

“There have been several cases of sudden, unexplainable amnesia in the news lately,” Jen says grimly. “Citizens. It can’t be a coincidence… But enough about that, we’ll figure it out soon.” She turns her focus back to us. “We can take Maddie back to headquarters, and we’ll find someone for her to stay with until we figure everything out. I can probably make room in my apartment if I need to.”

I don’t even need a look from Brooklyn to know what she’s thinking and what she wants me to do. After all, we’re sisters. We know each other as well as ourselves, even without a telepathic connection. “Can she stay with us?” I ask.

Jen gives me a surprised look. “Well, she could. Bu how are you going to explain it to your parents?” She knows how our parents act, what they’re like, their little quirks… which is pretty creepy, if you think about it. She knows so much about our lives…

I shrug. “Brooklyn keeps bringing home stray animals. We can probably pass this off as something like that.”

Jen rests her chin on her fist, deep in thought. Finally she nods. “Okay. That would be the best option. Let us know if there are any problems, and we can take her to headquarters. I’ll send Blaze to check on you regularly.”

Brooklyn nods, and Maddie relaxes a little. “Thank you,” Brooklyn says.

Jen shakes her head. “No, thank you.” She stands up. “Blaze, let’s head back now. Can’t be gone too long, or the world would blow up.” She rolls her eyes, but I can’t tell if she’s actually joking or not. I hope she is.

The five of us toss our empty cups and head outside. “We’ll see you two soon,” Jen says. “If we don’t hear from you again today, then we’ll assume that everything worked out.” She and Blaze turn to head down a nearby alley.

“Wait, are your headquarters here, in town?” Brooklyn asks, confused.

Jen smiles, her eyes twinkling. “Not even close. You’ll visit eventually. But Blaze can’t do his thing in the middle of the street.”

Brooklyn nods, and after one last wave from Jen, they disappear down the alley. I turn to Brooklyn and Madison. I manage to hold back my smile at the picture they make, standing there holding hands. Brooklyn would make a great big sister.

“You told Denver we were going shopping, so we might as well stop and grab some clothes for Maddie. Does that sound good?” I ask.

Brooklyn’s face lights up. If there’s one thing she absolutely loves, it’s shopping for other people. That’s why she picks out my wardrobe when we go shopping. “Awesome!” she exclaims, herding us towards a store.

Poor, poor Maddie.

Oh, great. Shopping. I wonder where these mysterious IDIA headquarters are… And will Albany and Maddie survive the shopping trip? XD Comment below with your thoughts!

Just a note: We’re leaving on a trip this weekend and this week is going to be crazy, so I won’t be on here very much. Apologies if I can’t get to your comment in a prompt and timely manner! ❤ Keep being awesome, guys!

Next Part –>