The World in Flower

34. Memories of Other Worlds

"Has he woken up yet?" Abe asked as they all found seats in Austin and Amberly's temporary bedroom.

She shook her head. "Not yet. He had a lot of healing, so I'm not surprised." She tore off a piece of flatbread and dipped it in the chili before popping it in her mouth. "Mmmm! Oh, this is good."

"Should we put the others in the fridge?" Chance offered.

"It isn't working right now."

"Oh! I can fix that!" Sami volunteered. "Be right back."

"How about your water heater?" Adam queried.

"Well, I grabbed a lukewarm shower a bit ago, so..."

"I'll take care of it."

"Are you sure you're up for that?" Tim asked with concern.

"I'll be fine," Adam assured him. "Any idea where it is?"

"No clue."

"I'll find it."

"I'll help," Tim offered, standing.

"You two behave yourself," Amberly warned. "I know how you get after a healing."

"I've no idea what you're talking about." Tim attempted an innocent look.

"That's not very convincing," Rob teased.

"We'll get the water heater taken care of first, I swear," Adam said.

Amberly gave them a hard glare.

Adam cracked up. "I promise we'll save the couples stuff for home."

***

"So it sounds like we've got a couple people with stronger Resonances," Rob concluded after Chance and Adam had told them all about Jonas and Quetz.

"I'm wondering about the kid, Grayson," Chance commented.

"He's pretty young, though," Amberly said.

"Yes, but they also think he might be autistic. Maybe a non-typical neurology might make for a stronger or earlier appearing Resonance. I know a lot of autistic kids are very musically inclined."

Adam nodded. "It's the patterns. They can be very soothing."

"He may have been showing signs for some time that no one even noticed," Tim added. "There were a lot of animals with them. If the 'weird kid' wandered off to sing to the chickens, who would even notice?"

"With the threat from Karsaiah and the danger of having people with untrained Resonances, we need to step up our game of identifying and training our gifted people," Abe stated.

"I agree. With the influx of kids, Ms Darlene is going to be doing quite a bit of testing. Maybe we can start with the kids while she's doing that," Adam suggested.

"I'll talk to Darlene," Rob said. "Oh! And our new teacher, Blaine Alexander."

"Is he going to be teaching, then?"

"Yeah. Darlene figures to split the kids into elementary and junior-senior high classes, with her taking elementary and Blaine the upper classes. With the project the older kids have been doing, they're already split for part of the day."

"Not to mention classes like algebra," Tim added.

Austin made the tiniest of sounds, started to move, then woke up with a groan.

"Hey, babe. How are you feeling?"

Austin surveyed the room. "Terrible. Are y'all on death watch or something?"