Free The Madrona Heroes Register: Echoes of the Past by Hillel Cooperman Page B

this next sentence, “You were gone for a few seconds. And
then you were back.”
    Cassie’s smile started to fade a
little. “No. I was here the whole time since the man was here with
his dog until now. I didn’t go anywhere!” Cassie sounded less
scared and more annoyed.
    Zach motioned to Binny to let him try
again. Binny was annoyed at Zach for waving her off but acquiesced.
“We were standing right here,” said Zach, “and all of a sudden we
couldn’t see you. And then after a little while, there was this
glow and ‘poof’,” Zach smiled as he said “poof” to try and help
Cassie relax, “we could see you again.” Did you realize we couldn’t
see you?”
    “ I was hiding.” Cassie
responded plainly. “Sometimes I hide.”
    “ When you don’t want
people to see you.” Zach finished Cassie’s thought for her. “Can
you do it again?”
    “ Zach!” Binny almost
yelled.
    “ What?”
    “ Are you kidding?” Binny
reproached.
    “ What? It’s a perfectly
reasonable question.” Zach defended.
    Binny paused for a moment and turned
to Cassie. “Well, can you? Do it again I mean?”
    Cassie took her siblings’ interest as
an indication that maybe it was ok after all. She responded in a
small voice. “I don’t know.”

    §

    “ It’s magic.”
    “ It’s not magic. There’s
no such thing as magic.”
    “ Then what is
it?”
    “ I don’t know. A power
maybe.”
    Binny and Zach had shuttled Cassie out
of public view and onto their front porch, which was mostly
shielded from the street. They argued back and forth while Cassie
practiced her jumps: up and down on the steps of the
porch.
    “ A power? A power? What
does that even mean? Wouldn’t that be the same as magic?” Cassie
demanded of Zach.
    “ I don’t know. I’m
thinking. I’m thinking.”
    “ We should tell Mom and
Dad right now.” Binny asserted.
    “ Cassie, could you hide
again? Just for a second?” Zach ignored Binny’s attempt to end the
discussion.
    “ Don’t ask her to hide
again. You don’t know where she went or what it might do to her.”
Binny moved towards Cassie.
    “ You heard her. She didn’t
‘go’ anywhere.” “We just couldn’t see her.” He turned to Cassie.
“You were just hiding, right?”
    “ Yes.” Cassie really
wanted to please Zach.
    “ No.” Binny moved in front
of Cassie to face her brother.
    “ It’s ok. I’ll do it, I’m
really good at it!” Cassie offered.
    “ You don’t know what will
happen!” warned Binny.
    “ Do it Cassie.” Zach
instructed gently.
    Cassie balled her fists and squinched
her face up tightly. Her eyes were closed. She stayed like that for
a few seconds. No glowing ivy. No going out of focus. No poof.
“Good?” Cassie asked.
    Zach said, “Nothing
happened.”
    “ But I hid .” Cassie complained.
    “ We could still see you.”
Binny added, her desire to tell their parents momentarily set
aside.
    Cassie scrunched again. And again. And
again. And each time she and her blonde curls remained distinctly
visible.
    “ Maybe that’s the first
time it happened?” Binny asked herself more than anyone in
particular.
    “ No. It’s not.” Cassie
replied with uncharacteristic authority.
    “ Huh?” “How do you know?”
Binny and Zach asked her.
    “ Makeup
Massacre.”
    “ Makeup massacre?” Zach
asked.
    “ That’s what I’m getting
for my birthday.” Cassie responded confidently.
    “ What is a ‘makeup
massacre’?” Zach asked.
    “ It’s a video game where
lipsticks and other makeup characters battle each other to paint a
girl’s face.” Binny answered impatiently and then turned to Cassie.
“What does Makeup Massacre have to do with your
‘hiding’?”
    “ I snuck into their room
and saw it in the present drawer in Mommy’s dresser. It’s my
birthday present.”
    “ You looked in the present drawer ?” Binny
was scandalized.
    “ Yes.” Cassie was beaming,
proud of her accomplishment.
    Zach interrupted, a note
of impatience in his