Moving Day

I walked out to the family room one Saturday morning shortly after my thirteenth birthday to see my mom taking books off the shelves near the TV and stacking them neatly into various boxes. I was definitely groggy, but I had to be dreaming. Or my eyes were playing a trick on me. Something. Why was she packing?

I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. “Hey,” I said by way of greeting.

“Hey,” Mom replied.

Since she didn’t offer an explanation, I asked. “What are you doing?”

“I’m putting the books into different boxes so there’s better weight distribution,” she said. I had no response for this. She continued on. “You never really realize how heavy books are until you have a whole box of them. Then you can’t lift it off the floor. Well, I guess your dad could. But an average human like me, ok I guess I’m not really average, but, well, you know what I’m getting at.”

“Not really,” I said, plopping down onto the couch and shoving my hands into the pouch pocket of my hoodie.

“Books are heavy, that’s all.” 

How did she not see what I was getting at? How can she just be out here packing one morning with no warning and not explain herself.

“Mom,” I said.

“Hmm?” she replied, but didn’t look away from her work.

“Mom,” I said more forcefully. This time she paused, book in hand, and looked my way. She looked exhausted. It wasn’t even 8am but she looked like she’d been at this for hours. I wondered what else I’d find packed up once I ventured further into the house. “What are you doing? Why are you packing?”

Mom sighed. She placed the book in her hand, one of Dad’s favorite memoirs about some athlete I’ve never heard of, into the box and tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. “We’re moving.”

“What? You can’t be serious?” This roused me out of my grogginess pretty quickly. I don’t know what I thought she’d been doing. Maybe just packing those things up to do a thorough cleaning or to get some new shelving unit. Really though, at the back of my mind, I knew the truth. I had known this would be coming. I just didn’t want to admit it. “We can’t move. It’s the middle of the school year and where are we even going to go? And-”

Mom cut me off. She never does that. “Neve, we’re moving. It’s not safe here anymore.” She looked me right in the eye. She didn’t make a move to fix her bun, which she would normally do, not satisfied with the hair tucked behind her ear. She arranged her face into a gentle, sympathetic look. But it didn’t help.

“Of course it’s safe. How could somewhere else be safer?”

I was saying these things, but I was no fool. I knew the answers already. It wasn’t safe here. There were other places that were safer. Safer for people like us. Places where we wouldn’t have to hide our powers. Where they actually encouraged kids like me to practice and harness my power so I could use it well.

Here though… Here, no one knew. Well, almost no one. Just the right combination of people knew about Dad’s strength and Mom’s magnetism and my invisibility. But we couldn’t use our powers outside our homes. Except…

“We’re going up north,” Mom said, coming over to sit near me on the couch. She knew better than to sit right next to me, to give me a little space as I processed this news. “We’ll stay with Gran until we can find a place of our own.”

I looked at my hand, my fingers disappearing before my eyes as I was overcome with emotion, unable to control myself because of a lack of practice.

“Who knows?” I still looked at my fingers, willing them to reappear. Instead, my hand began to disappear.

“Officer Russell,” Mom admitted, with almost no inflection in her voice. I started to protest, he’s always known. He was the officer we entrusted with this secret, the one who would help get us out of trouble if we ever needed it. 

“He told the Mayor,” Mom said, answering my question before I could ask it. I waited for her to explain. She always would if you gave her the chance. She always had to fill the quiet moments with details. “The Mayor pressured him. Said she knew there were some residents who didn’t fit in, who didn’t belong. I don’t know how she knew that, or what she knows about our powers, but Officer Russell named names. At least he had the decency to tell us about it so we can have a head start.”

“But that doesn’t necessarily-” 

She cut me off again. “It does. I’m sorry. We’re going. Today. As soon as we can. I need you to start packing up your room. We’ll take as much as we can, but we won’t be able to fit everything in our cars.”

My left arm had disappeared up to my elbow. I looked up at my mom. I knew she could read the worry on my face. I couldn’t hide it. I didn’t want to go, but I understood, kind of, why we couldn’t stay.

“It will be good for us at Gran’s,” she said, standing back up and heading back to the shelves to continue packing. “You’ll learn how to control your powers better. And you can use them more there.”

I didn’t have to look down to see my toes disappearing.

“Take some deep breaths,” Mom encouraged from across the room. “Focus, try to find yourself in your body.” She spoke as she moved books and nicknacks into boxes. 

I tried to do what she said, I knew it would help, but I couldn’t focus. My mind raced ten steps ahead.

I worked to quiet my mind. Pack, I told myself. Go pack. It will be better at Gran’s.

I stood and walked to my room.