#haven't decided if I'm going to do Yahaira or Jameson next

[streetlites]

“Is this really necessary?” I asked, sitting up in my bed.

“Probably not but if I have to come out all this way to check up on you because you didn’t want to stay in the clinic, you’re going to sit still for it,” the older woman chastises me and readies the scanner on her wrist.

I let out a small sigh, lean back and allow her to pass the small machine over me. When I came-to that day of the windstorm,  I found myself in the small clinic in town with Rene asleep in the chair at my bedside. I would have been fine there, but I started to notice that people would go out of their way to avoid me. Everyone except my family, Rene, and Vita – the woman currently slowly sweeping her arm up and down my body.

Her wrist beeps and she reads the display on it, “Well, you’re a little dehydrated, but that’s nothing drinking more water can’t fix.” She taps her arm and it fades to a dull blue. “But if you’re not feeling well, I could set up an IV drip for you.”

I cringe. I hate needles. I especially hated being attached to the IVs in the clinic and was happy to be released after two days – ‘exhaustion’, Vita had called it. “No, I’m fine.”

The older woman harrumphs and snaps closed the bag containing her more invasive instruments. “Have you been eating more, like I told you to?”

“I eat plenty as it is,” I counter.

The look she gives me is unimpressed, “Biotics have higher caloric needs than most and that barrier you held really took it out of you. Your mother has vitamins for Nessa and Sammy?” I nod. “Start taking them, too. I ordered some specially made for biotic support but they haven’t come in yet; you can come and pick them up when they do.”

“I only did it the once – how do we even know I’m a biotic?” I ask. I want this to go away. I want to live my normal life. I want people to stop looking at me as if I’m dangerous.

“Because people who aren’t don’t make barriers,” she quips, “not even ‘once’.” She frowns as she looks at me, “What’s this about?”

“Didn’t you see how people looked at me? Like I was going to hurt them or something! I don’t even know how I made that thing to begin with – I wish I never did!”

“If you hadn’t made it, you and Rene would have died.”  She shakes her head, “Is this why you haven’t been helping me in the clinic?”

“If I went there, people wouldn’t come in and you know it,” I mutter.

“Of course they would. You’re the best at setting broken arms, a real soft touch compared to me. I know how people are but you just have to give them time.” She gestures at the flowers and cards on my table, “Look at Rene, pulling up his mother’s flower garden and running off with her vases – he doesn’t have a problem with it.”

“Rene’s different.”

She sighs, “I guess. I don’t know what to tell you – I’ve heard some things, and,” she trails off, rubbing at her jaw. “Everyone knows you and your family are good people.”

“But they don’t trust me anymore,” I say flatly.

“It’s the damn superstition. I tried explaining to people that you can’t do any of the stuff they think you can. Hell, you couldn’t even use your biotic energy at will even if you wanted to. Not without an implant. What you went through – Well. You got lucky. Really lucky.”

“How do you know?”

“My brother was a biotic,” she admits quietly.

“Was?”

“Yeah, he was murdered when we were teenagers. But that was not too long after The War on Earth. I want to think that people are different now, and maybe they are because no one’s been coming up here –“

“And if they aren’t?” I interrupt, a cold feeling creeping through my body. I just thought that maybe they’d shun me – it certainly felt that way. But to be killed for it?

It’s quiet for a few minutes, with me staring down and my hands and Vita tapping something into her omnitool. “There’s a biotic commune, Vigilance, that Brian trades with. I asked him if he would take you to them. He said he would.”

“But my family,” my voice cracks. I’ve never left my family, there was no where to go other than off-world and, even then, no one here has the money for it.

“I know. It’s up to you. I think if anyone were to get violent about it, they already would have so,” she shrugs. “I’ll tell him you’re thinking about it. You know what day he stops by?”

I nod, “Thursday mornings.”

“Okay. Think it over, maybe talk to your parents about it. See what they say.” She makes a quick motion with her wrist and the omnitool fades completely. “If you decide to stay, I can always use your help at the clinic.”

“Yeah, see you, Vita.”

 I laid in bed for a while, thinking about whether I should go or not. Living in a commune for biotics wouldn’t be much different than living on Patience, except there wouldn’t be anyone afraid of me. But if I moved, I probably wouldn’t ever see my family again unless I could somehow convince Brian to bring me here to visit on occasion. I could imagine making so many trips between all these colonies by yourself could get lonely, maybe he wouldn’t mind taking someone along once in a while. I’d talk to my parents, see what they’d say – I think they’d agree if they knew I’d come back for visits.

I got up and went into the hallway. It was quiet downstairs, but that didn’t necessarily mean that my parents had gone to bed yet. I started down toward the stairs but paused when I heard my parent’s voices coming from their room and I would have gone back into my room except I heard my father say my name. I crept up to their door, careful to keep my steps light and to avoid the middle which tended to squeak when you put weight on it.

“Well, what are we going to do? We can’t just abandon Mia!” That was my mother’s voice – who said anything about leaving me?

“I didn’t say that we were! I just told them to give me some time. I’ll see what I can do about selling the farm, maybe that’ll get us some money together to leave and move somewhere else.” I frowned, he was going to try to sell the farm?

“Baby, they’re not going to let you do that –“

“They’re going to have to. I’m not going to let them just push out my baby girl and we’ll need some money if we’re all going to move – we can’t just up and leave without it and starve. I’ve been looking at a few other farming colonies, but they all want some sort of monetary commitment before they let you join.”

“And what about Mia? Will they be okay with her?”

“Vita said that Mia can’t control it; it just came out because she was in danger. So, if we keep her close, no one has to know.”

I felt myself shrinking against the wall – the community was trying to kick me out and my parents were willing to give up what they’d worked their entire lives to build to be with me. But that would mean that I would have to spend the rest of my life hiding in the house, never to have a life of my own. Not to mention that my entire family would have a harder life because they’d have to start over with nothing. But if I left…

If I left, they wouldn’t have to.