Operation Tenley (12 page)

Luckily, Mrs. Tylwyth appeared to be lost in her memories. “Pony rides, that’s right. One got loose and ran straight for her. She was only about four years old. It stopped a few inches in front of her and then just,
zip
, practically flew backwards. That
was
strange.”

“Yeah. Really strange.”

“There was the time in Super Toys, too. As soon as we got there, torrential rain came out of nowhere. It was like a mini hurricane right over the store. Later we learned it had only sprinkled everywhere else. Anyway, while we were waiting for the storm to pass I couldn’t find Tenley.
The manager called the police and they finally found her tucked away behind a shelf of Barbies, taking every one out of their boxes. She had gone through almost all the boxes by the time we found her. Did Gerty tell you about that?”

Pennie nodded. A sticky feeling started in her stomach. How could she have let Tenley be so reckless with her element? Turning a slight rainfall into a hurricane over the store so she could play with all those Barbies. It seemed so innocent at the time.

“It’s as if Tenley has always had some sort of Fairy Godmother watching out for her.” Mrs. Tylwyth giggled. “Silly thought, I know.”

“Very silly,” Pennie said quietly. The Fairships were right. Tenley could have been discovered by Mother Nature dozens of times by now. Pennie had only ever wanted to see her client happy and using her element always managed to do that. Growing up without a father was hard; the least Pennie could do was let her have a bit of fun with her power. But she’d gone too far.

“Pennie, dear. Did you hear me?” Mrs. Tylwyth was staring at her. “I was saying that Gerty did a good job raising you.”

“Mom!” Tenley waved from a kiosk in the middle of the mall.
Tranquility Stones for your Water Fixtures
was on the sign. Shiny stones were piled up high.

“Coming!” Mrs. Tylwyth got to her feet. “Ready, Pennie dear?”

Pennie struggled to stand. When she got back to Fair City, she was going to have to start working out at the Asteroid gym.

“Mom, wouldn’t this look great in my nail tutorial?” Tenley held out a smooth oval rock with
WISDOM
etched into it. “I could hold my hand over it like this?” She petted the rock. “Or I could use this?” She picked up another rock. This one read,
THINK.

“Think?
” Mrs. Tylwyth chuckled. “What’s tranquil about that?”

The brunette with the blond tips walked around from the neighboring kiosk. Her posse of girls appeared behind her with the same snarky grins on their faces. “Almost too good. Am I right? An ugly mom and a loser sister for the beauty queen wannabe.”

Tenley’s face drained. She turned to the girl, gripping the
Think
rock so hard her knuckles were white. “What did you just say about my mom?”

Pennie reached out for Tenley’s shoulder. “Put the rock down.”

Tenley pulled away, keeping her eyes trained on the girl who stood taller and crossed her arms. “What’s your talent gonna be, wannabe? Texting?”

Tenley blinked at the girl, considering.

“Tenley, give me the rock,” Pennie said.

“How about we come back another time, honey?” Mrs. Tylwyth suggested.

“Did you hear what she just called you, Mom?”

“I didn’t hear a thing. Let’s go.” Mrs. Tylwyth started for the exit.

“Better follow Mommy,” the girl snickered.

Pennie stepped closer to Tenley. “She’s not worth it. Don’t risk your chances of getting nominated. Everyone in here has a cell phone. You don’t want to see yourself on the Internet like this.”

After a beat, Tenley looked down at the rock. “You’re right. I’m not losing ANMIT over that mutant.”

She placed the rock back down on top of the pile and started after her mother.

Pennie watched the posse of girls high-five their leader before she turned away in the pink high-tops and followed Tenley.

Just as they reached the exit, the girl shouted, “See ya, losers. And your mom
is
ugly!”

That was it. Tenley spun around, pursed her lips, and blew out a fast hard breath before Pennie could stop her.

The
Think
rock lifted into the air and idled for a split second before hurling toward the girl, narrowly missing her head and shattering a glass window behind her.

Mayhem ensued. Alarms went off and security guards rushed out of doorways.

“Oh my word.” Mrs. Tylwyth put her hand on her cheek. “What happened?”

Pennie fumed.

“Dunno.” Tenley shrugged, steering a confused Mrs. Tylwyth out the door.

36:30:15

Hadley Beach

Later, after Mrs. Tylwyth’s delicious dinner of macaroni and cheese and salami sandwiches, the best things Pennie had ever tasted, Pennie agreed to help Tenley with her nail tutorial.

“Thanks for dinner, Mom. I’m doing tribal art nails tonight.”

“That sounds exotic,” Mrs. Tylwyth said, starting on the dishes.

“Come on, Pennie, let’s go.” Tenley cleared her plate and hurried out of the kitchen.

“That was the best meal I’ve ever had, Mrs. Tylwyth. Thank you,” Pennie said, clearing her plate as well.

“Oh, don’t be silly. Tomorrow I’ll make something a little more interesting. Go on up and help Tenley. I know she appreciates it.”

Pennie gave Mrs. Tylwyth a smile. Alone with Tenley, she’d finally get her to sign the form. “Thanks again, Mrs. Tylwyth.”

Pennie crawled her way up the stairs. With a full belly now, fatigue was washing over her like high tide.

Tenley was standing by the cardboard backdrop she’d made for her nail tutorials. She directed an exhausted-looking Pennie to sit in the beanbag and frowned at her. “You probably need to get in better shape before the next PE class. You’re not going to pass run day. Mrs. Arrowbad is evil. You could have a broken leg, and she’d still make you run.”

“We need to talk,” Pennie said.

“Not now. I’m about to start recording.” She nodded to the shoe box she’d taken the top off of. Inside was a miniature living room set. A tiny yellow rug lined the bottom and a miniature plastic chair was placed in the corner. “This is called ‘the fingernail set.’ I made it myself. Okay, so basically, I do all the talking and designing and you just place your hand on the rug and watch. I’m the only one on camera. Let me see your nails.”

Pennie held out her hands. “We’re not doing the feet, right?” She didn’t want Tenley to see how little they were.

Tenley pulled a face at Pennie’s fingernails. “Those are even shorter than my mom’s.”

“They like us to keep them this way.” Some of their tools required very precise manual implementation.

“Who’s
they
?”

“Did I say ‘they’? I meant at my old school, I used to do a lot of finger things.” She cleared her throat. “So tribal art, what is that exactly, anyway?”

“No offense, but your nails are way too short. I’m going to have to give you acrylic tips, okay?”

“I need to talk to you first, though.”

Before she could tap her temple, Tenley grabbed Pennie’s hands.

“It’ll just take like ten minutes. Hold your hands right here.”

It was true; Tenley was a master with nails. Pennie watched her short plain fingers transform into long elegant digits.

“Told you,” Tenley said. “Do you have to go to the bathroom or anything? ’ Cause once I start videoing I don’t like to stop.”

Pennie shook her head.

“Great. Shh!”

Tenley started her commentating.

Much later, Pennie had an elaborate tribal design on each nail.

Tenley stopped the recording on her cell phone. Pennie had stayed quiet during the entire tutorial, wherein Tenley had been all business, keeping her comments to technique and color and contrasts.

“You’re really good at this, Tenley.”

“Be careful!” Tenley warned. “Don’t smudge them. Here, come here.” She waved Pennie over to the window and pushed out her screen, something she’d clearly done before. “Hold both of your hands like this.”

“What are you doing?”

“Just do it,” Tenley said, forcing Pennie’s palms flat and yanking them out the window.

Tenley blew a quick breath. A gust of air swirled around Pennie’s hands. “Tenley! Stop!” Pennie pulled her hands back.

“It’s just wind. What are you so afraid of?” Tenley put the screen in place again.

“It’s not
just wind
. This is exactly why I’m here. You need to
stop doing this
.”

Tenley grabbed her phone. “Okay, look. I’m sorry that for some reason I can make the wind blow. It’s weird, I know. But it’s also awesome. I’m not hurting anybody. I’m just drying my nails and stuff. So I don’t know why you have to go and get all freaked out about it.”

“Because.” Pennie lowered her voice. “Every time you create wind, you’re putting yourself in danger.” She tapped on her temple, careful not to smudge her nails. The hologram form appeared in front of her. “You need to sign this.”

But Tenley wasn’t looking. “You’re kidding!” She shook her phone. “This is not possible. It didn’t record! The whole tutorial. We have to start all over again.” She threw her phone across the desk and slumped into her chair with her back to Pennie.

Pennie sat down on the bed. When she did, the hologram disappeared. “This is serious, Tenley. We only have—” She looked at the clock on the bedside table and did a quick calculation. “Thirty-five hours and fifty-one minutes—”

“That’s how long I
have until the nomination?” Now Tenley was distracted
and
panicked. She held her cell phone up to Pennie.

“Don’t record this, please.”

“I’m seeing if it works.” She fumbled with her phone. “This is really weird.”

“You know what happened in the mall. With the rock?” Pennie went to the window and shut it.

“It wasn’t me,” Tenley said. “Give me your hands. I have to take the polish off.”

Pennie held out her fingers while Tenley wiped her nails clean. “It
was
you. Maybe you didn’t exactly mean for it to happen, but it was you.”

“I put the rock back, Pennie. Someone else must have thrown it at those girls.”

“Listen, Tenley. You have the power to create a very powerful wind, which is one of the four weather elements. I should have stopped you from using it a long time ago, but I didn’t. And now, something very bad is going to happen to both of us if you keep using it.”

“Girls?” Mrs. Tylwyth called from the top of the stairs. “I’ve made some lemon squares. And I’ve saved the spoons for you?”

“No thanks, Mom. I’m having recording problems.” Tenley, finished with the last nail, dropped Pennie’s hand.

“Pennie?” Mrs. Tylwyth stuck her head inside the doorway, holding a wooden spoon with yellow dough on it. “Would you like the spoon?”

“Yes, she would,” Tenley answered. “I have homework, too.”

“Pennie dear, why don’t we leave Tenley alone. Come downstairs. I saved a little more in the bowl.”

“She’d love to,” Tenley said.

Pennie sighed.

“I’d love to, Mrs. Tylwyth.” Pennie stood and followed her down the stairs.

Ten years, one month and six days earlier

Hadley Beach

Halloween. Three year-old Tenley is running down a sidewalk dressed as Snow White. She trips on the cement and her bag of candy spills out into the street. Tenley begins to cry but stops when she sees her mother is distracted by another mother up ahead. She narrows her toddler eyes and concentrates, blowing out a quick breath. Immediately, a wind tunnel forms over the candy and quickly vacuums it all up. Tenley blows at another quick breath and holds her bag open for the candy to drop back inside. She runs to catch up with her mother who is pulling a red wagon filled with more candy.

***

Eight years, seven months and nineteen days earlier

Hadley Beach

Tenley’s mother peeks her head into the bedroom just as Tenley makes her first mark on the wall. “Oh no, honey. We don’t draw on walls. Only paper. Remember we talked about that the last time, how that makes Mommy and Gerty sad because we have to clean it all up and paint it again?” Tenley nods and returns her blue marker to her drawing table. “Good girl,” Mrs. Tylwyth smiles and disappears.

As soon as she’s gone, a look spreads across little Tenley’s face. She stands with all the markers and goes to the wall again.

A few minutes later, the wall looks like a subway stop. Lines and squiggles cross over themselves in every color as high as a five-year-old’s arm can reach. Tenley continues scribbling until her mom’s voice trills up the stairs. “Tenley? Time to go now.”

Little Tenley drops her markers. She hurries to the bathroom, fills her glass with water, and returns to the wall. Then she throws the water into the air and blows out a quick breath.

The wind catches the water, sending it splashing against the wall. Another quick breath from her gets the water swirling and scrubbing the mess clean.

Finally, Tenley blows out a long steady stream of air, which dries the wall like an industrial strength blower. When the wall is a perfect white again, Tenley runs out the door.

***

Pennie opened her eyes. She’d been dreaming.

It took a moment for her to remember where she was and why she felt like she was pinned down to the couch. Earth. Gravity. Time.

She pulled the blanket off and rolled herself up to sitting.

Last night, Tenley and Mrs. Tylwyth had stayed up to watch
America’s Next Most Inspirational Teen
reruns. Pennie had been so exhausted she’d finally excused herself and come into the living room to nap. Except she must have slept through the night.

Her shoes were off. She pushed herself up to standing. Had Mrs. Tylwyth noticed her small feet? Right now, she could barely move them at all. She felt like she was fighting her way through sludge, just like she had yesterday when she’d first landed in the tree. She shuffled her way over to the doorway where she could see the clock on the kitchen stove. 5:30 a.m.