The Affected: Dancing Wind Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight

How could I say “no” to that angelic face?  That eager smile?  I couldn’t so I handed her a few seeds and showed her how to plant them.  I made sure I handled all the seeds before giving them to her.  She was a good helper and planted a full flat before her mom found her.  She begged to be allowed to come back and help but her mom just said “we’ll see” which we all know means “no way.”  

Then Kassie said something I did not expect her to say, she looked at her mom and asked if she could be my 

apprentice.  I guess that was something she had learned by being homeschooled.  Clever little girl and very smart, she 

definitely knows how to work her mom. 

So that is how Kassie came to be my apprentice for the rest of the summer up until I was to begin college in the fall.   And her being so smart and all, it did not take her long to discover my ‘talents’.  Thankfully she swore to secrecy because she loved helping me refine them so much.  She became a good friend of mine.  

The Affected: Dancing Wind Chapter Seven

Chapter Seven

I was busted about a month later.  By a six year old first grader.  Haha!  I should have been more careful around her, the silly little brat!  But I love her!  “She” is Kassie who I met when her class came out to the Ranch for a school field trip.  Seems my Aunt Becca decided to make arrangements for the local home-schoolers to come visit.  I knew about it all, of course, and even helped her plan it all.    

I had thought this last group was gone and I was in one of the greenhouses planting some seeds for fall planting.  Kassie had managed to ditch her little group and found herself in the same greenhouse.  She noticed that the seeds I planted sprouted about twenty minutes later.  I didn’t notice her until she spoke up. 

“Why are these growing so fast?” she asked me.

Startled, I really just stood there like a fish out of water.  I didn’t know what to say. 

She cocked her head to side and just looked at me like I was an idiot or something. 

I managed to croak out “these are special seeds, something I’m testing and really don’t want anyone to know about, emm ok?”

She blinked a few times and then finally said “ok I won’t tell anyone…if I can help you.”  See? A smart little brat! Haha!

The Affected: Dancing Wind Chapter Six

Chapter Six

I don’t know why I have three powers.  Maybe it is because they are all low key and not any MegaPower like some of those that I’ve been reading about and seeing on TV have.  Maybe it has something to do with me never being some over achiever or something.  My Aunt Becca and I have talked about it and she thinks that it is because I’m a gentle soul so I have gentle powers.  And the cosmos gave me three to make up for them being so tame and gentle.  

Maybe, I don’t know.  All I know is that I’m going to keep them private and work on fine tuning them.  Especially since I made all the weeds grow.  Yes I can help plants grow.  That is my third power.  I was out weeding in my Aunt’s flower and herb beds and I touched a couple of plants but did not pull them.  I was trying to decide if they were a weed or not because they were still pretty small.  

And the next morning they were full grown and yes they were weeds. 

My Aunt had me out in the hay field touching all the hay. I guess there had been a drought going on and it wasn’t growing well.  It took me three days to go through that entire field and the hay I touched the first day was up to my shoulder and starting to seed out by the third day.

Now that did seem to tire me out something fierce and I was not able to do much of anything for two whole days except for sleep, eat, and drink. 

 

During that time I watched a lot of TV, mostly news stories on the Affected.  It seems the same “mega-affected” were in the news but there were a few stories about someone who has not yet been identified ‘popping’ into a situation and then popping out.  Literally!  This one story was on how a guy was going to jump off some bridge and this Hero just popped in and grabbed the guy, they both fell off the bridge but then they “popped out” and disappeared before they hit the water.  Later the fella that was going to kill himself just appeared to some cops.  I’d love to meet that hero someday.  He seems to want to remain unknown like I do.  He wears a weird ski mask hat thing.  

The Affected: Dancing Wind Chapter Five

Chapter Five

It took the government a bit over three weeks to find the farm.  I’m kind of disappointed in them for taking so long.  I mean, really, they ARE the government and are supposed to have all kinds of information on us all.  My file seems to have a whopping two pages.  TWO PAGES!  That should tell you how boring I am… or was.  I almost was so insulted that I blew my story but the thought of being sent to some windowless building and studied for who knows how long kept my lips sealed.

They were only there for less than an hour.  I guess my rather plain looks and (pretend) over eager to please attitude ran them off once I went through my story. 

Yes I was on flight blah blah blah on that Saturday and yes I did feel some kind of jolt.  No I did not have a headache (I guess many of those affected did have one) Yes I came straight here. No I’ve not had anything strange or weird happen to me or around me.  No I have not been contacted by anyone else.  Yes I have been sleeping well. Blah blah blah blah!

Of course me being me, I decided to question them.  What is going on? Did something happen to me on that plane? Am I ok? Do I need to go a hospital?  Am I going to die? I’m sure you get the idea of what all I asked. 

Hahaha! I never even gave them time to answer one of the questions, let alone all of them.  As my Aunt said, I was quite shameful in my begging and pleading with them.  

They could not get out of there fast enough. 

We figured they may have the ranch watched for a few days so I kept my ‘powers’ under control and did not use them at all.  And that is how I found out I had a third power.  

The Affected: Dancing Wind Chapter Four

Chapter Four

So you know I can talk with animals but like a few of the other Affected, I have another ability:  I can fly.  Oh not like Superman and I got caught in a LOT of trees at first, usually upside down.  But I do more of a graceful run and then just lift up and drift through the air at a racing 10 or so miles per hour.  It feels a bit like swimming.  I don’t go too high, maybe 40 feet at the maximum and tend to not be able to turn easily but usually keep going in the same direction I was running in, hence the getting caught in trees and such. 

But I’ve been practicing and can now run into a tree and not get hurt.  I’ve found that trees are handy way to get back to the ground.  

The Affected: Dancing Wind Chapter Three

Chapter Three

The first animal that talked to me was my horse Betty.  I named her after that really old actress Betty White  because she really cracks me up.  Well I had just swung into the saddle when Betty told me that the blanket was not smooth under the saddle and it bothered her.  I had already swung back down and had the saddle off when I realized that my horse had talked to me.  And that was because after I smoothed the blanket back down, I asked her if that felt better.  “It sure does, thank ye” she replied.  I had the “no problem…” half out of my mouth when it dawned on me that I had just talked to my horse and she talked to me.  I walked around to her head and took it in my hands and looked her in the eye and asked “did you just talk to me?”

“I always talk to ye but this is the first time ye answered.”

“Why do you have a semi-Irish accent?” I asked her.  She just laughed.   Yes my horse laughed at me.  She really didn’t have any answers but she found me hilarious apparently.

I did not get much done around the ranch for the next few days because I was talking too much to so many animals. Even the wild ones were starting to come to me.  I swear I felt like Eddie Murphy did in that Doctor Doolittle movie he starred in.

I finally talked to my aunt, whose name is Becca by the way, about the whole talking to animals things and she was so excited.  She had me translate all kinds of things from them for the past week!  Here she was concerned about one of the horses and once I relayed that he had a bothersome thorn stuck in one of his hooves, she went and got a huge magnifying glass and some needle nosed pliers and was able to find and remove it. 

Then she had me talk to each and every animal so she could give them all a clean bill of health.  That took a week!  So now she knows all about all her horses, cattle, chickens, pigs and llama’s.  Not to mention all the dogs and cats.  She even knows who wants to “get it on” with who next breeding season.  It got to be downright embarrassing sometimes.

We were watching the news at night and seeing all the “good guys” and “bad guys” who also got “Affected” that day and my Aunt did not want me to tell anyone else especially when we even found out that a couple government agents were asking around about me and where I lived.  We knew they would be finding me soon enough so I decided I would just play dumb and pretend that I was not Affected.  The good thing is that when I talk to the animals, I speak English but the animals speak in their own “tongue” so it just looks like I’m being like any other animal lover who talks to their pets.  

The Affected: Dancing Wind Chapter Two

Chapter Two

I guess I should tell you a bit about myself so I’ll begin with my name, it’s Dani, which is a short version of my Native American name: Dancing Wind.  I know, sounds ridiculous right?  Well my parents are HUGE traditional people of The People.  I know all the traditions of my tribe.  But I’m not going to bore you with all that baggage.  Nor all the harassment I received in school and the horrible nicknames, like “Breaking Wind” and such.

I do live, strike that: DID live on a reservation but I start college this fall, so my new home is with my Aunt on her ranch.  I was actually on my way here when “The Event” occurred. 

I love my Aunt’s ranch which is called “Paradise” and it really is.  It’s not a huge ranch only about 400 acres in the Ozarks.  And it’s close enough to the College where I’ll be going, that I can live off campus but my scholarship includes room and board so I’ll stay on campus during the week but come to my aunt’s on the weekends.  At least I hope that is still my plan.  But I’m not sure right now what is going to happen.   I mean I’m getting a handle on being able to talk to animals and understand their answers but now it seems that something else is happening to me.