The Permutation

Breakthrough (Part 3) Jordan

Friday, November 4th, 12:30 a.m.

"Donut?" Derek asked waving a glazed O in front of Jordan's face.

A brief image of a dentist standing over her brandishing a needle gave Jordan her answer. "No thanks, I don't really like sweets."

"What? Haven't you seen any cop movies? You can't have a real stakeout without donuts!"

Jordan looked at her friend's perpetual smile and envied him. No matter what life threw at him, the smile remained, a shield against life's woes. If their roles were reversed, if his dad left him and his mom fell asleep to never wake up, he would still be wearing that goofy smile, because in his simplistic life view, he knew everything would work out in the end. If Jordan were in his shoes, she would still feel like an outcast, like a calf with two heads, so mired in the injustice of life, she wouldn't be able to see the beauty that Derek saw.

It's just not fair.

"Maybe later," she smiled.

"Deal! How much longer before something happens?"

"I'm not sure. I just know that it will."

"Oh, it's like a super thing isn't it? Like you know things before they happen?"

"Not exactly. This all started a month ago to the day, on October 3rd. I just had a feeling something was going to happen tonight, kind of like the full moon."

"But wouldn't mean that it would happen like yesterday?"

"Maybe, but I just feel like tonight is the night. I don't know how it all works."

"Hmmm," he said stroking his chin, "Am I gonna get super powers like you?"

"I don't know Derek. I don't know anything. Alright? I don't know why Albert disappeared. I don't know why my mom never woke up, and I definitely don't know why I'm the one that got left behind with this 'gift'."

The hair on Jordan's arms began to stand up, faint traces of electricity traveled between them, a tell-tale sign "The Surge" was coming. She reached into her pocket to grab a red rubber stress ball. The ball had been Derek's idea.

"I know just what you need, a stress ball! Whenever I ask too many questions, my mom squeezes hers and takes deep breaths. It really calms her down. That oughta help you too right?

At the time, the boy didn't realize how brilliant the suggestion was. Rubber is an excellent insulator of electricity. Jordan surmised when she felt it coming, she could squeeze the ball and discharge whatever she was building up harmlessly into her pocket. This method worked like a charm for minor things or when she discharged before it had built up too much. The night they'd left her mother at the hospital proved that it didn't always work.             

                                                                                           ◈

After dropping Jordan off that day, Delilah Bryant never woke up. Jordan had thought it strange that her mom slept through that evening and the remainder of that night, but knew something was seriously wrong the following morning when she still hadn't woken. Delilah had not moved, not one inch, from the sprawled out position on the couch from when she'd first laid down.

Jordan took the day off from school that morning. She tried everything she could think of to try and wake her mom up. Clapping her hands in mom's face didn't work or elicit a reaction of any kind. Jordan grasped both of Delilah's shoulders and shook her as hard she could manage. Her mom's head flopped violently from side to side. Still no reaction. In desperation, Jordan pulled a matchbook out of the kitchen drawer. Jordan lit the match and held it underneath her mother's thumb until the skin started to turn color. Nothing.