The Misbegotten
Muto Power - Summer 2018

[He isunsure if he’s angry or just annoyed by the trickery he’s endured thisday. The ambush, the failure, the lossand the deception have all taken a heavy toll on him. He needs respite. He needs to forgo this present for now. He will bask in what has gone before. Maybe, it will help.]

They didn’t dawdle. In fact, it was no more than twenty minutes later when Tirza, Sandy andLeda made their way back to “my” side of the Loft. They’d decided who was sleeping where. The TV went off and we arranged ourselvesabout my queen-sized bed.

Ramona and Katie flanked me, sitting to my left andright respectively. Leda and Sandyperched next to my cousin. Flavia andTirza plopped on Ramona’s right. Johanand Jolene were opposite me, closing the circle we’d formed about the bed.

“So what’s the big secret, Eff?” asked Sandy, play-exasperationin her tone. Her sparkling eyes told adifferent story.

She couldmake the Grinch shit lollipops, she was so damned cheerful!

“Well, when you guys were gone, some of us weremulling over these Mutations,” I answered, speaking to the group at large. “Since it appears some of us are gettingstronger, we were thinking we should try and use them. Maybe we could try to get a degree of controlover them… whatever they may be.”

“Is that a good idea?” asked Tirza, worry in thecorner of her orbs.

I knew she was afraid of me losing control and makingher do something she didn’t want to do.

“I’m not talking about me, Tirza. I know how to use this thing that’s inside of me. Ihave for a couple of days already. Theonly problem I have controlling it is when I get distracted. The power- or whatever you wanna call it – seems to get away from me. And it’s obvious; it can affect a largenumber of people.” I tried to reassureher, but the look on her face didn’t change. “I think the rest of you should try,” I went on, trying a different tactic,“except you Sandy.”

She frowned.

“From what Ramona told me, is your power consists of some sort ofnullifying quality.”

Her frown deepened.

“In other words, our Mutations don’t affect you whenyou don’t want them to. The only thingwe could think you could try to do at this point is project it onto others. You should try using it at all times. Maybe, keep it on some sort of auto-pilot orsomething.”

“I can do that?” she asked flummoxed.

“Yes -,” I began.

“Well, if you want to know,” cut in my girlfriend,“you’re doing it right now.

“I am?” asked Sandy.

Ramona nodded. “Almost from the moment he mentioned an auto-pilot, you started doingjust that.” She turned to grin atme. “That was pretty fast.”

“That was. Canyou ‘see’ anything when you look at her?” I inquired.

She shook her head. “Not a thing.”

I smiled at Sandy. “You see, she can’t tell what’s inside you, because you’re just about amaster at your ability already,” I explained. “Besides, you and I have other things to discuss.”

She perked up.

Tirza sighed.

I grinned. “Weneed to talk about escape routes, my dear,” I mouthed around leer. I knew what she and ex-girlfriend had beenthinking. “Since you are the only onewith a car, you’re gonna have to help me figure out the fastest way to my UncleRoberto’s safe house. Once we’ve donethat, we gotta come up with at least three or four alternate routes. If we're denied the quickest way, then weneed some back-up plans.”

She pretended to deflate, but became more serious asshe realized the import of what I said.

“What about me? Do you think I have to practice?” It was Leda, peering at me through her eyebrows, icy, direct.

“I think you have been doing just that for quite sometime now, girl. You likely knew what todo within minutes of getting sick the other day,” I countered. I was well aware she was challenging me,daring me to succumb to her mental prowess once again.

She knew she had rendered me helpless within secondsearlier in the day. She knew shecould’ve done whatever the hell she wanted with me. She could’ve made me fuck her silly, and Iwould’ve liked it. She knew this, and sodid I. The issue was simple, the littlebitch wanted me. But, she wanted me towant her just as much. She would fighther thoughts and feelings, tooth and nail, until I reciprocated.

Maybe Iwould, if Leda was as fiery in bed as she was in everyday life, then she’d fuckme raw! Hmmm, nice thought.

Leda didn’t reply. She didn’t make a sound. Sheturned away and that alone was confirmation enough. She’d been practicing alright!

“What is it she can do exactly?” asked my brother,pointing his chin in Leda’s direction.

I glanced over atRamona.

“She can control thought,” retorted my girlfriend,“its’ flow, its’ depth – she can manipulate it all. She can cut you off from your ownconsciousness and turn you into a vessel of reaction. She did this with Estefan earlier today.”

I saw the mien of my brother and step-sister dim. They hadn’t known about the unexpected trystbetween me and Leda, but Ramona went on. Their discomfiture overlooked.

“She can do more though, right, Leda?”

Leda smiled, fake-cute, her eyes were as dull asrod-iron steel. She had never likedrevealing things about herself when she wasn’t ready to share. She hated it with a passion. She glowered at my girlfriend, who withstoodthe onslaught of her gaze unflinching.

It took a lot to unnerve Ramona Cervantes. And a grammar school friend she’d spent yearsaround just wasn’t up to the task.

Leda caved. “Wellshit, if you have to know, I think I can cause pain, but I’m not sure yet!” shesaid, but a tiny bit too loud.

You’re notbeing all that honest, are you, Leda? You know for certain you can cause pain.

“Uh huh,” was all the noise Ramona made.

“Do you think you could tell us more about what we cando?” Flavia was either ignoring the interplaybetween the others girls or didn’t care. “I mean, you said we’re all getting stronger, so I am assuming you cantell us about our Mutations in greater detail now, right?”

Ramona nodded in affirmation.

“Ok, tell me about mine.” My step-sister could be bossy when she wantedsomething to go her way.

Ramona squinted at her, and, for a moment, I thoughtmy step-sister would annoy her, but I was wrong. “You are a little like Sandy, but not acomplete bottomless pit of nothingness like she is. You are hard to read. Only on occasion, when the mask falls away, Isee strength – a tower of it to be exact.”

“But what does it mean?” wondered my step-sister.

“I think you will be real strong before too long,” wasthe answer.

“You think Flavia will be strong? How strong do you mean exactly, like a bodybuilder or a UFC fighter?” It wasJohan’s turn to question, which surprised me. He usually preferred to stay quiet and observe.

“Stronger.” Ramona reached across the bed and beckoned for Flavia’s hand. “Let me see.”

Flavia complied.

Ramona shivered at her touch. Five seconds passed, then ten. Another brief shudder followed.

Then, as if transfixed: “You will have strength enoughto bend bars, to life cars, maybe even stop a bus in mid-motion.” My girlfriend let her go.

Stunned silence ensued.

I stared at my step-sister as hard as I could, tryingto divine what Ramona had seen, but couldn’t. Flavia had never been one to exude physicality, and, I mean, in anyway. She wasn’t built that way. She abhorred working in the yard whenyard-work was the chore of the day. Shehated dirt and got grossed out by the tiniest prospect of getting sweaty. How in the frick was she going to become someShe-Ra¹, Queen of the Motherfucken Mutants? It didn’t make any sense to me. Icouldn’t see it. It was all wrong.

“What about me?” asked Jolene, her words startlingevery one of us.

“Give me your hand,” said Ramona, it was a firmrequest.

It took half the time as it had with Flavia when onceagain my girlfriend’s face went slack. Like before, her voice became eerie, disjointed. “A lot like Leda, but in a different way, shecontrols thought. You can createit. You can make reality of the untrue. You can create memory so vivid, so real. The recipient of such a manufactured thought would know it as one of hisown and be certain of it. He could neverquestion its’ validity, because to him it would seem irrevocably his past.”

“So…,” began Jolene in the subdued manner - herhallmark, “I can insert memory into people’s minds?”

My girlfriend released her hand and nodded.

“And me, Ramona, what Mutant power do I have?” askedmy cousin, her brow creased in thought. “Last time you said something about fire and flames, but I took that tomean something about willpower. Was Iincorrect to think that was what you meant?”

“There’s only one way to replace out…,” retorted mygirlfriend, reaching toward Katie with both hands.

Katie scooted forth to do what Ramona had asked.

It took no more than two seconds.

“Fire - all I see is fire, everywhere, within you.”

“Does that mean I control fire?”

It was a simple deduction, but it was one I hadn’tconsidered and it stunned me.

Fire,really? Like that little girl in thatancient Stephen King movie², for real?

If it were true, then Katie could be extremelydangerous. I saw my cousin change beforeme in my minds’ eye. Katie had the foulmouth and the uncouth disposition, but she had never been dangerous. The thought of someone like her, with aMutant power of such magnitude, was more than a little scary. It was fucking frightening.

Crap on atwig, what if she got mad at someone and blasted them into a million pieces?!? How in hell could we stop her from doing it?

When I glanced back at my girlfriend she was noddingin assent. So, there it was, Katie was aWielder of Fire. What we didn't know waswhether it was righteous or demonic.

“What about me?” asked Johan into the quiet as hemoved forward, his hand already outstretched before him.

Ramona took ahold of his wrist and within five secondsa smile spread across her face. She knewalready. She was getting better at thisthe more she practiced.

I could tell.

We all could.

“You are a mental Mutant, Jo.” It was nickname only his closestacquaintances used.

He tilted his head to the side.

“Soon, not only will you be able to touch things withyour mind. You will be able to read whatoccurs within others.”

She speaks soeloquent when her power takes over, Iremember thinking as I watched them.

Johan’s gaze fell to the bedspread, his breathingevened out as his shoulders sagged at his sides. “Telekinesis and Telepathy, huh?” he askedthe bed, and then looked over at Jolene. “Well, at least I will know when you tell the truth.” With an abruptness that made our brows rise;he laughed and edged his way back toward his girl. “You won’t be able to fake anything with mearound.” His voice had dropped an octaveor two.

Jolene seemed to wilt with a giggle and fell into hisarms, a quick peck on the lips passing between them.

The dual connotations of what he’d said weren’t loston any of us. We older kids exchangedknowing glances, raising our eyebrows in rapid succession.

Katie mouthed a silent “Wow” in my direction, whichmade me smirk.

Only Flavia frowned with worry. For some reason, she was still unsettled bythe possibility of her best friend losing her virginity at the hand (or shouldI say, dick) of her step-brother. Thiswas after I had told her of my conversation with Johan. I guess it was a deep-seeded sort of anxietyteens that age have difficulty dislodging.

I “Oh-well-’ed” the situation, because it wasn’tpressing, filing it away in my head and turned toward Sandy. “So, girl you wanna go and figure out how weare going to get to my uncles’ safehouse from here? We’ll let them try to learn more about theirMutations. After all, they need thepractice. You and I don’t”

She smiled, eager now. “Sure!” Somewhat quick, she stoodand stepped back from the group.

“Don’t bed him while we’re all still awake,Sandra. I’m not sure some of us here areup to seeing such a sight.” Leda said itthrough the side of her mouth, a pregnant wisecrack.

Tirza clicked her tongue as my step-sister unleashedher grimace upon me.

Johan sneered, derisive, but it was gone almost themoment it touched his face.

Sandy just smiled, unwilling to let the other teen getunder her skin. “Oh, I’ll make sure towait until only you’re awake, then I’ll jump his bones. That way only you will hear all the squishysounds right next to your ear!”

There was an eye-blink of affronted silence, then acacophony of laughter. It was soenthusiastic and persistent even Leda had to grin sheepishly at her friends’witty riposte. It had been a good one.

Ramona had wiped tears from her eyes for almost fiveminutes.

I joined Sandy upon Katie’s bed not long after. We were both propped upon our elbows, ourbodies stretched out behind us. Thecrowns of our heads were almost touching as we stared down at ourcellphones. Our fingers swiped acrossthe near unbreakable glass of the device faces every now and again.

“Ok, it installed,” she had been saying, telling meshe had imputed latest version of Google Maps Mobile into her smart phone.

“Good, now open it and punch in the following: 5302Monterey Road, Los Angeles, CA 90042.” Idid the same as she. “Hit the view iconand select ‘satellite’.”

I watched her long fingers glide over the smartphoneas she did as I asked. My eyes lingeredon her fingernails. She had them paintedred with tiny glittering stars inlaid within the enamel. They were silver and shiny.

Of the girls, I had always liked Sandy’s hands themost. They were large, but somehowdelicate at the same time. Maybelong-boned was the best way to describe them. They weren’t thick or heavy in appearance, though one would’ve expected exactlythat since they were almost as big as mine.

For as long as I’ve known Sandy she had worn her nailsshorter than most girls. The edge of hernails never extended more than an eighth of an inch from the tip of herfingers. It was many years after thesummer of 2018 when I had finally got around to asking why she wore them thatway. I had mentioned that I thought allwomen liked their nails long.

She’d been scratching the lower portions of my back,letting the edges of those same nails trace down toward the bugle of myass-cheeks. She explained: “I don’t likebreaking my nails and longer nails tend to break, so I keep them shorter. That way, I’m not walking around with a mismatchedset.”

I remember, I had chuckled and turned to admire her.

She had thanked me with a kiss – soft, tender,lingering.

Simple explanation, but not one I knew way back when Iwas only seventeen and on the cusp living life as a Mutant. Yet, I think that was the day the questionfirst formed in my head. It had to beit, one night in ’18 when I gazed at her hands as she tapped in the address tomy uncles’ safehouse.

It’s funnywhat memories stick with you and what ones don’t… fingers, hands and nails.

“Ok, it’s finished uploading,” she said still lookingat her phone.

“Do you know where it is?” I asked as we put our cellsdown side by side, but flipped in opposite directions.

“Monterey Road,” she muttered in thought. “Is that the street that divides into threeseparate roads? You know the one where apair of weird looking walls separates the middle street from the others? Aren’t there light fixtures from like the1930’s still bolted into the walls as well?”

“That's the one,” I confirmed. “Do you know how to get there from here?”

She bobbed her head in affirmation.

“How many ways do you think you could come up with toget us there should the NIA block the fastest route?” I wanted to make sure she knew what she wastalking about.

Her eyes came up to mine – light brown, trimmed indarker eye liner. From above, thevarying shades of her hair - shadow, mahogany and bronze, copper, even chestnut- framed them.

She caught me in her gaze.

She looked away. “There are a shitload of ways to get there, Effy. You can come from Highland Park, which is thefastest. Or you can swing east throughMt. Washington and then hook around through Happy Valley. You take the freeway and cut way south andcome up from El Sereno. Or you can takethe other northern hook and come down from South Pasadena.” Her fingers were tracing across the digitalmap almost too fast for me to follow.

The girl knewher shit alright.

“Wow, Eff, if the shit came down on us hard, we couldeven break into the Regional Park. Wecould hop the fence on Griffin Avenue and hoof it through the hills all the wayto Monterey Road.”

“Wait, what? Wecould do that for real?”

The two streets seemed miles apart, so I peered at myown map and checked the legend. Gaugingthe distance in both feet and meters, it astounded me to see they were onlyseparated by 2,100 feet at the shortest. And maybe half again at the furthest! It was amazing. Though theterrain looked rugged from the Montecito Heights side, the trek itself wasn’tall that far. Even if we had to doubleback upon ourselves a few times, the whole journey wouldn’t be more than amile.

To me, it felt like an excellent back-up plan, if everthere was one. Who would’ve thought alittle hike through Ernest E. Debs Regional Park might be the trump-card in ourback pockets.

“Damn, Sandy, I never knew those two parts of townwere that close!” I exclaimed. I was toodumbfounded to breathe right.

“Me neither,” was all she had time to say when a slewof yowls and yelps came from the other side of the room.

Sandy and I spun into sitting positions, uncertainwhat to expect. I saw my cousin scamperfrom my bed to the bathroom, a slice of printer paper held before her. It was on fire, burning an angry yellow.

Looks like Katie’s Mutation was working just fine.

Now, all we had to do was make certain she didn’t burndown the god damned house in the process.

{ ¹She-Ra: a fictional character and the protagonist of the Filmation cartoon and series of toys produced by Mattel called She-Ra: Princess of Power. }

{ ²“Stephen King movie”: a veiled reference to themovie Firestarter, a 1984 science fictionthrillerfilm based on the novel of the same name by Stephen King. }