Free Porter by Laurence Dahners Page A

‘condensation’ I made a little tunnel through the glass ‘cause I don’t know how to make it ‘ leaky ’ .”
    “What?”
    “She said ‘the heat made-’”
    “I know what she said! It was stupid! Heat doesn’t make glass leaky!”
    Allie bowed her head, “Sorry.” Her dad was mostly pretty nice but he could be a little scary when he was mad.
    “No, how did you make the glass leak?”
    In a small voice, “I made a little tunnel ...”
    “There isn’t a tunnel there!”
    A smaller voice, “ Only when I think it.”
    Goosebumps raised the hair on Albert Dans ’ neck. “What?”
    Allie w hispered, “Only when I think it.”
    He was holding the glass in the air and to his astonishment a small stream of tea appeared just below the glass and splattered on his plate. It wasn’t coming from the glass, or through the glass, it was appearing in space about an inch below the bottom of the glass then streaming straight down! He dropped the glass, leaping to his feet and knocking his chair over backwards, “Holy shit!” The glass shattered on his dinner plate, breaking it also.
    With a small cry Allie ducked her head and bolted from the table, running upstairs to her room.
    Allie’s m om looked away from Stephen, Allie’s towheaded 4 year old brother. “What just happened?”
    Al set the chair back up , shook his head and said, “I have no idea.” He got a broom and mop , cleaned up the mess , then dished himself another plate. He took his plate and Allie’s up to her room.
    Allie had curled up on the bed and when he entered, she looked apprehensively up through her hair at her dad. “You’re not in trouble; I brought you your dinner.” Al sat down on the corner of her bed, putting her plate on her desk.
    Allie pulled her hair partly back off her face to peer more clearly at her dad, who indeed did not seem angry. “I’m not hungry.”
    “OK.” Her dad calmly began eating his own dinner. “Do you think you could show me what you can do with your ‘tunnels’ later?”
    “OK.” Allie got off the bed, wiped her nose and went over to sit at her desk. She picked at her food for a while but didn’t eat much.
    “Are you done?” Her dad asked, nodding at her plate.
    “Yes.” She said in a small voice.
    He picked up both of their plates and took them down to put in the dishwasher. Shortly, he appeared back in her door with two bowls of ice cream. She raised her eyebrows. “But I didn’t eat all my dinner?”
    “I know. Some rules are made to be broken.”
    They ate their ice cream in silence. When it was gone he asked, “Ready to make me a ‘ tunnel ’ ?” Allie nodded, rubbing her wrist under her nose again. He heard a spraying sound and looked down in astonishment at a tiny jet of water shooting into the bottom of his ice cream bowl. “What the hell!?” He looked back up at Allie who was watching the spray too. He swallowed, “Where is that tunnel coming from?”
    “The pipe in the wall there.” She pointed over his shoulder with her chin. The spray stopped.
    “How did you know there was a pipe in the wall?”
    “I sorta feel them… Don’t you?”
    Her dad made a choking sound, “No .. . I don’t think anybody can … e xcept maybe you. ” He began asking a seemingly endless list of questions, most of which she couldn’t answer. She dribbled water out of glasses and sprayed it out of pipes. After a while she developed a headache and became unable to create more than a tiny tunnel. S till he wanted her to do more.
    Finally her mother came in and watched what was going on with growing astonishment. After a while though she said, “Al, she needs to rest. It’s past her bedtime.”
    He turned to snap at his wife , then looked back at Allie , all droopy around the edges. “OK Sarah . Allie, we’ll go into my lab tomorrow and learn more about what you can do.”
    Allie sighed and put on her pajamas . She wasn’t looking forward to it. Tomorrow, s he and Mindy had been going to