Ten sat on his and Ronan’s bed waiting for their daughter to finish her bath. On Everly’s seventh birthday she had proclaimed that she no longer needed one of her fathers in the bathroom with her. Ronan had been a bit tearful over the matter, one more sign that his little girl was growing up, while Ten, on the other hand, cheered his daughter’s independent streak.
As the tub drained, Ten tried to figure out how to talk to Everly about the meeting with Miss Stanton and if he should mention what happened at the rehab hospital that afternoon.
“Here, I am, Dad!” Everly came into the master bedroom with her brush and a handful of bobby pins. Another of Everly’s nightly changes was putting her hair in a French braid so that it would be filled with waves when she woke up for school and pulled the braid apart.
Ten worked quietly while he detangled and brushed Everly’s hair, which came nearly halfway down her back.
“Spill it, Dad,” Everly said, sounding much older than her years. “I know you want to talk to me about a couple of things.”
“Can’t keep anything from you, can I?” Ten asked.
“Well, usually I shut my gift off with you, because you deserve your privacy, but I can tell there’s something wrong. Your smile is different and you’re sad.”
“My smile?” Everly was the most observant person Ten knew, aside from Ronan. Like father, like daughter.
“Yeah, your lips are kind of funny and your eyes aren’t as happy as they are when you really smile.”
Ten could see himself in the closet mirror as he sat on the bed. His daughter was right. His smile was different. “Daddy and I got a message from Miss Stanton last night. She wanted to meet with us this morning.”
“Ohhh, that’s what Daddy was trying to hide this morning! When you shuffled me out of the kitchen to get ready for the bus.”
“Unfortunately, that wasn’t the reason, but that’s the second part of the story. Let me get through the meeting first.”
“Okay, Dad.” Everly giggled. “What did Miss Stanton want to talk about?”
Ten sighed. “She’s noticed you staring off into space and speaking to people who aren’t there.”
“I know,” Everly said. “She thinks I’m crazy and should be in the cuckoo’s nest. I don’t know what that means, but it’s not good, right?”
“Right.” Hearing Everly explain what she’d picked up from her teacher ignited Ten’s anger all over again. “I assume you were talking to spirits?”
“I was. I know I’m not supposed to, but I feel guilty if I shut my gift off. Spirits are waiting to talk to me. They need my help and Miss Stanton was readingGreen Eggs and Ham, which I know by heart.”
Ten could certainly attest to that. “I know spirits need your help, honey, but here’s the problem, there are a lot of people in this world who don’t believe in what we can do. Miss Stanton is one of them. I think I fixed that today with one of my little demonstrations, but before I did that, she suggested that I take you to a counselor to diagnose you with mental illness.” Sayingthose words to his daughter made Ten want to cry. This was the exact reason that he did everything he could to keep a lid on his gift when he was in middle and high school.
Everly yanked her head forward and turned around to face Tennyson. Anger burned in her eyes. “Mental illness? Miss Stanton thinks I should be in the kind of hospital where people are tied to their beds?”
Ten’s heart broke again. “How do you know about bed restraints?” Ten didn’t want to know the answer, but in this case, he was all ears.
“A spirit showed me a while back. She was an old spirit, not in age, but from a long time ago. She had money and her brother wanted it, so he put her in a psycho ward and stole her money. One of the other patients hurt her really bad and she died.” Everly patted Ten’s hand. “I didn’t want to tell you, because she made me so sad. I can’t imagine Ezzie ever doing anything like that to me.”
“Heneverwill. I promise you that.” Ten grabbed a tissue and dabbed at his damp eyes. “You don’t have a mental illness. You have extraordinary gifts that allow you to help people, but there are others, like Miss Stanton, who are afraid of things they don’t understand and do what they can to destroy people like us.”
“Don’t cry, Dad.” Everly pressed a kiss to his cheek. “I understand what you’re saying. This is all my fault anyway.”
“What do you mean?” How could Everly even think that Miss Stanton’s attitude had been her fault?
“After we had that talk about privacy, I stopped reading other people. You, Daddy, Miss Stanton, Woofie, and Aurora. I can see now that doing that put me in danger. Privacy is confusing, Dad.”
Ten snorted and made a looping motion with his hand so Everly would turn back around. He picked up where he left off braiding her hair. “You’re right. It is confusing. I shouldn’t have made it sound like an all or nothing deal. When you start to see or hear things that aren’t your business, that’s when you shut down your gift. It’s what I do all the time. I trust you with my whole heart to do what’s right.”
“I know you do, Dad. I promise I won’t get caught staring or talking to no one in Miss Stanton’s class, but before we talk about what’s really bothering you, what’s nare?”
Ten burst out laughing. “You stop listening when things aren’t your business, huh?”
“Yeah, otherwise I’d already know what nare is.” Everly giggled.
“Nair is a cream that ladies put on their legs and it melts the hair away. They use it so they don’t have to shave.” Not that Ten would tell his daughter, but he’d used it himself on his legs. Kaye had bought a bottle for herself one summer when he was in middle school. Ten tried it one day when she was out of the house and it burned so badly that he’d run around the house, hoping the cool air would stop the burn. It hadn’t.
