Gifted Connections 4

I was shocked to hear his little voice. He had never been verbal, as long as I’d known him. I kneeled towards him. “Where, Harry?”

He reached out and traced my face with small pudgy fingers. His eyes were so trusting yet so frightened. “Show you?”

I nodded as I bent down and scooped him up. I took a long deep breath. I tried to slow my still racing heart. “Yeah, little man, show me,” I said quietly.

“It’s scary in there,” Alex said in a small voice.

I braced myself once more and tried to put a brave smile on. “I’m sure it is, but I think we need to find out what’s scaring Harry, right? This is what you wanted, right?”

I tried to remind Alex of the purpose of this exercise. He seemed to embolden himself and took a deep breath in as well.

“Show you?” Harry asked again.

“Show me,” I confirmed, feeling at peace and encouraged all of a sudden. I smiled to myself knowing it was Jace. “Linc?” I said in a small voice. “Are you here too?” I asked.

“Yeah,” his deep voice answered from one of the shadows. He advanced forward, and I looked at him in surprise. “How?” I looked at him and then down at Harry. “I thought you were partially jumping Harry.”

Lincoln looked just as startled as I was. “I was. Everything was going as planned until a few seconds ago.”

“Did you do this?” I asked Alex.

Alex shook his head. “No, it wasn’t me. I didn’t bring him in. Not like before. Did you bring him like you did with Jaxson?”

“I don’t think so,” I said slowly.

“Show you,” Harry said insistently.

“Yes, show me.” I grabbed Alex’s hands once more.

“It smells in here,” Lincoln commented as he took a position on the other side of me.

“They use the bathroom here,” Alex said glumly.

“Have you been here before?” I asked in shock.

“A couple of times.” Alex frowned as he squeezed my hand tighter.

We left the foul-smelling room and exited into a narrow hallway.

“This way,” Alex stated. He led us down the hall and down some steps.

As we started down the steps, I could hear loud voices yelling at one another. I stopped suddenly and tensed up.

“They can’t see us or hear us,” Alex said with a slight tremor.

“Want to stay here buddy?” Lincoln knelt next to Alex.

Alex looked like he was torn before he nodded. “Can Harry stay with me?”

Lincoln looked up at me.

I nodded. “We can try to do it without them.”

“They’re in the kitchen, the others are downstairs,” Alex said in a small voice.

I wondered why he never vocalized what he saw when he entered Harry’s head. I put Harry down next to Alex. “Stay here, Harry. Okay?”

“Okay,” Harry nodded as he climbed into his brother's lap.