“I’m just not sure it’s a good idea.”
“Logan,” Rogue explained again, “Ah’ll be fine. We can’t both go into town and leave the kids here. And we certainly couldn’t take them with us.”
“I know.” The frustration in his tone was obvious. “I just don’t like it.”
“Really, sugar, what could happen? Even if somebody did come after me, Ah’m much better at controllin’ all my borrowed powers. Ah’m sure Ah could get away and then Ah’d be able to call ya for help telepathically.”
“Yeah,” Logan agreed grudgingly. His eyes fixed on a point directly behind her.
“Umm, Miss Rogue?”
Rogue turned to watch Elizaveta approaching her shyly.
“Hey, sweetie. What’s up?”
“Can I go with you?”
Startled, Rogue turned back to Logan to see what he thought. She wanted a chance to talk to the girl about her mutation, but not if the trip to town would put her safety at risk. Logan shrugged and said, “Your hair’s kind o’ noticeable, munchkin.”
“I know,” the girl said, pulling a small baseball cap from the back pocket of her jeans. She twisted her hair up quickly and covered it with the hat. “My m-mom and dad used to have me wear this whenever we had to go out.”
Logan tipped his head to the side and walked a slow circle around the girl. The cap was large enough to hold all of her hair and dipped low enough in the back to hide her hairline. “Up to you, darlin’,” he said to Rogue.
“Ah don’t see why not.” She smiled gently at the little girl, her heart warming when she received a tentative smile in return. “Let’s get one thing straight, though,” she said mock sternly. “You, missy, are gonna have to help me carry the bags. Deal?”
Elizaveta giggled and bobbed her head in agreement.
“Got your wallet this time, kid?” Logan asked.
Ignoring him, Rogue said to Elizaveta, “Can ya believe him? Ah forget my wallet one time - one time - and now he reminds me every time Ah go out. That’s just like a man, isn’t it, sweetie?” Rogue shook her head ruefully and walked toward the Explorer, jiggling the keys in her hand. “Ah swear, Ah don’t know why Ah keep him around.”
Elizaveta trotted after her. “Maybe ‘cause he gives good hugs?” she offered helpfully.
“That must be it,” Rogue murmured, looking back at Logan with a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. Elizaveta nodded and ran around to the front passenger seat.
“Forget it, munchkin,” Logan called. “Back seat.”
“But Mr. Logan,” she began in a pout.
“But nothin’. You’re too small to ride in front.”
Elizaveta looked at Rogue, who felt an uncomfortable twinge at the thought that the girl was treating her and Logan like substitute parents. Putting the issue aside for the moment, she said, “Ah’m afraid he’s right, sweetie. The back is safer.”
The girl sighed heavily and trudged the few steps to the back door.
“We’ll be back in a few hours,” Rogue reassured Logan.
“Okay,” he said gruffly. “Got the cell phone?”
“Ah do,” Rogue said in amusement. “Kind o’ pointless considerin’ we don’t have phone service in the cabin though.”
Logan growled softly. “You can always call me without it,” he said, tapping the side of his head, “But I don’t think AAA would appreciate bein’ contacted that way.”
“Oh. Good point.” Rogue climbed into the Explorer and adjusted the seat for her shorter legs and fixed all the mirrors. She waggled her fingers at Logan as she pulled the vehicle around and headed down the long driveway, the gravel crunching under the tires. She peeked in the rearview mirror at Elizaveta. “You seemed like you were gettin’ along with the boys at breakfast,” she ventured.
“They’re nice,” the girl chirped.
“You sure asked Max a lot o’ questions.”
“Yup! I’ve never been to a circus, so I wondered what it was like livin’ there.”
“Me too.” Rogue paused. “But you asked him quite a bit about his mutation too.”
“He doesn’t mind,” Elizaveta returned blithely.
“He doesn’t?” Rogue asked, surprised.
“Nope. Max said he’d rather have people ask questions than assume he’s an animal just ‘cause he looks like one.”
“Oh. What about you?” Rogue fished. “Would you rather have people ask you questions too?”
“I guess so,” came the tentative reply.
“Is it okay if Ah ask you a few questions then?”
“I guess.” Rogue caught the girl’s shrug in the rearview mirror.
“Okay. Well, the biggest thing Ah’ve been wonderin’ is if ya ever see the same vision of the future all three times.”
“No.” The answer was immediate.
“Never? Never ever?” Rogue asked.
“No. There’s always somethin’ different. The visions might all end the same, but nothing ever happens the exact same way in all three versions.”
“Can you give me an example?” Rogue was rapidly going through the vision she had had the night before. The shackles and Logan’s tears were things she thought she just hadn’t noticed right away. She didn’t think they had been missing from the first scene entirely.
“M-my parents.” Rogue heard Elizaveta gulp once and then sniffle. Looking at her passenger in the rearview mirror, she saw that the little girl was staunchly holding back her tears. “In all three versions, they ended up dead. But the way they died each time was different. They were stabbed, burned, and shot. The professor said getting shot was the real one.”
“He told you that?” Rogue asked, aghast.
“I…I needed to know. If they had to die, I think getting shot was the best one.”
“What?” Casting a glance over her shoulder, Rogue caught the girl’s gaze before looking back at the road.
“I think it probably hurt less than the other ways. And it was faster. B-but I can’t help thinking that if it had been the fire, maybe I could have gotten help in time.”
“Oh, sweetie, you can’t think like that. What happened wasn’t your fault. No matter how it happened, none of it was your fault.”
“I kn-know. The professor and Miss Storm said the same thing.”
“But you don’t believe it,” Rogue said.
“I don’t know. It’s just, what good is my mutation if it can’t help people?”
“How far in advance do you usually see things?”
“Couple minutes at most.”
Biting her lip, Rogue hesitated before asking her next question. “Has the time increased the older you’ve gotten?”
“A l-little. D-do you think if I was older, I might have seen it in time to help my parents?”
Wincing because the girl had drawn the conclusion Rogue had desperately been hoping she’d miss, she sought quickly to reassure her. “No. No, Ah wasn’t thinkin’ that, sweetie. I was just wonderin’ if it was a shorter period of time when your mutation first manifested.”
“Yeah,” Elizaveta said, her voice muffled as she scrubbed away the tears that had finally fallen. “It was confusing. I’d see things like knocking a mug off the table, but I could never catch it because I didn’t know which of the three directions it would actually go. Or I’d try to catch it before it actually fell and that’s how it’d end up getting knocked over.”
“That’s kind o’ strange,” Rogue said, her encouraging tone inviting more information.
“Yeah. I used to wonder if the mug would never have fallen if I hadn’t seen the vision in the first place. The professor said I shouldn’t think about that too much since it’s a paradise.”
Rogue chuckled. “Umm…‘paradox’ ya mean?”
“Yeah. That’s what he called it.”
“What else did the professor say about your visions?”
“He said that they all deal with a fixed event. Something that is going to happen. I just see some of the possibilities of how it’ll happen.”
Disturbed about what that said about her own vision, Rogue nonetheless grasped the opportunity to try and comfort the girl. “If that’s true, you really can’t blame yourself about your parents then.”
Elizaveta shook her head stubbornly. “No. The event was that they died. Everybody dies. I know that. So why couldn’t I have done something so that they could die when they got old instead?”
Nonplussed, Rogue wondered out loud, “But if one of the versions you see is always what really happens, then there was nothing you could have done to make it happen the way you wanted.”
“Just because one of the versions I see has always come true before doesn’t mean that I should stop trying to change things.” The stubbornness in the girl’s voice was almost frightening.
“Sweetie, Ah don’t think ya should get too stuck on that idea.” How was she supposed to tell a child that such thinking was a surefire way to descend into insanity? But wasn’t she doing the same thing with her own vision?
“Would you be able to sit back and let something bad happen?” Elizaveta challenged her.
“Is it always bad things ya see?”
“Not always. Sometimes it’s just stupid stuff.”
“Like what?” Rogue murmured, hardly able to believe they were already turning onto the street that led through the center of Twin Pines. She could see Elizaveta twisting her head about as she looked out first one side of the car and then the other.
“Like which way a raindrop will roll down a window.”
Deciding to leave the subject behind for the moment, Rogue pointed to the large building at the other end of the street. “There’s the general store. We’ll be able to get clothes for you and the boys there. Groceries too, so let me know if there’re any foods ya don’t like.”
“‘Kay,” Elizaveta agreed happily, unclipping her seat belt before Rogue had even pulled the Explorer into a vacant spot along the curb. With a mental sigh, she let the unsafe maneuver go in light of the girl’s sudden excitement.
* * *
True to her word, Elizavate helped Rogue carry all the bags out to the Explorer. Each of the boys now had several changes of clothing and winter coats and boots, while Elizaveta had a little more than that. Rogue couldn’t resist her need to indulge the little girl, and any hair tie or pair of socks that Elizaveta even so much as hinted she liked, Rogue had added to their cart. The only time Rogue had put her foot down was when the girl tried to insist that Lucky Charms was the most nutritionally balanced cereal available.
Stowing the last of the bags in the back of the vehicle, Rogue turned to Elizaveta and theatrically wiped her brow. “You hungry?” she asked.
“Starvin’,” came the immediate reply.
“‘Kay. We’ll head over to the diner for lunch then.”
“Can I get a strawberry milkshake?” Elizaveta asked hopefully.
Chuckling, Rogue replied, “Only if you make sure to eat all of your lunch. And you’ll have to ask the waitress politely of course.”
“Of course.” The girl’s tone was so matter of fact, Rogue had no doubt her parents had done their best to teach her good manners. Rogue’s impression of Elizaveta’s parents as caring and loving was reinforced when the girl offered her hand without protest when they were ready to cross the street. Feeling her heart stutter with sudden sadness at the girl’s loss, Rogue gripped her hand a little tighter than absolutely necessary. She only let go when she pushed the door to the diner open, enjoying the happy chiming of the bell hanging from the hinge.
Rogue paused when she saw the woman who had waited on her and Logan the first day they spent in town. Without thinking about it, she led Elizaveta over to the booth she and Logan had claimed on their first visit.
As the waitress approached, Rogue could see the her friendly but cautious expression.
“Hey, Tanya, wasn’t it?” Rogue asked with a smile.
“That’s me,” the woman said, her tone relieved. She glanced quickly toward the parking lot. “Is your guy gonna be joining you?”
“Nah,” Rogue said, winking at Elizaveta. “It’s a girls’ day out.”
“Good for you,” Tanya said. “Ya’ll know what you want to drink?”
“A strawberry milkshake please!” Elizaveta barely waited for the woman to finish her question.
Tanya recovered from her surprise quickly. “Well certainly! I’ll just bring that with your meal, shall I?” she asked, slanting a questioning look at Rogue, who nodded. “And for you, honey?”
“Just water with lemon fer me,” Rogue responded calmly, “also with the meal, if you don’t mind?”
“‘Course,” Tanya said. “You gals wanna try the lunch special? It’s bacon cheeseburgers with guacamole and curly fries.”
Tilting her head in Elizaveta’s direction, Rogue asked, “What do you think, sweetie? Sound good?”
Elizaveta nodded. “I like mine well done, please.”
“You’ve got such pretty manners, honey!” the waitress praised. “There’s just one thing, though. House rules says no hats inside, ‘kay?” Without waiting for a reply, Tanya reached out and caught the bill of Elizaveta’s cap. Lavender tresses spilled free.
Grabbing frantically for the hat, Elizaveta begged in a whisper, “Please, ma’am, I need that back!”
Shocked, Tanya didn’t immediately release her grip on the hat.
“Tanya, please!” Rogue whispered frantically, looking around the diner. It looked like all the diners were too involved with their meals to notice the scene in the corner booth.
“S-sorry,” the woman stammered, finally letting Elizaveta reclaim her cap. The girl hurriedly concealed her hair again.
“Do we have to leave?” she asked Rogue immediately, almost in tears.
“Ah don’t know, sweetie,” Rogue said slowly, looking at their waitress.
“Um, no. No, you’re fine,” Tanya said hesitantly, looking around the diner quickly. “I don’t think anybody saw.”
Nodding, Rogue said, “All the same, do ya think ya could do our order to go?”
“Sure thing,” Tanya said. She started to walk toward the counter separating the dining area from the grill, but stopped abruptly and turned back to them. “Look, I’m sorry,” she said. “I had no idea.”
“It’s okay,” Elizaveta murmured, slouching in her seat uneasily.
Tanya’s expression softened. “I really am sorry, honey,” she said again before continuing to the counter.
Rogue and Elizaveta waited in tense silence for their food. When Tanya brought it to the table in white waxed bags, Rogue made sure to leave the woman a generous tip despite her quiet protest.
“No,” Rogue said urgently. “Take it. And…and we’ll be back if ya reckon we’d be welcome?”
“Of course,” Tanya said, still feeling guilty.
The women exchanged tentative smiles, neither of them noticing that the man at the grill had been observing them closely.
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Chapter End Notes:
And we draw ever closer to the end. I'm enjoying all your reviews, especially the ones from those of you brave enough to guess what's going to happen!
Any and all spelling/grammar mistakes can be blamed on Captain Morgan.
Any and all spelling/grammar mistakes can be blamed on Captain Morgan.