Chapter Five
Heidi turned over on her cot for what had to be the millionth time tonight. After how much had gone on the past few days she was surprised that she wasn’t sleeping like a rock, but excitement and worry and guilt and everything else was keeping her brain spinning. She sat up finally, giving up trying to get to sleep, and noticed a small blue light emanating from the kitchen area.
She stood up and wrapped the blanket around her shoulders. There wasn’t much insulation in a mud hut and she only had on the nightgown that Dana had given her. She walked towards the kitchen and could see that Dexter was sitting at the small table with a tiny hand-held electronic device. The light she had noticed was coming from the device he held. He looked up at her approach.
“I couldn’t sleep,” Heidi said.
“Me neither,” he sighed. “Adrenaline, you know.”
“You slept fine in the woods last night.”
He grinned and punched the screen of his device a few times with his index finger. “Training,” he said. “You learn how to fall asleep anywhere under the harshest conditions and then it makes it weird to fall asleep in your own bed.”
Heidi nodded and sat down in the chair across from him. “What is that?” she asked, inclining her head towards the device in his hand.
“It’s a comconsole,” he answered and after seeing her confused expression, he explained further. “It’s a communication device. Commander Trevana said there was an Imperial prison break yesterday at one of the outerlying prisons. A friend of mine was in that prison and presumably led the escape. I’m trying to contact him to see if he’s heard anything about your aunt.”
“Oh!” Heidi said, surprised. “Thank you.”
Dexter nodded and looked at her out of the corner of his eyes. He then finished with the comconsole and switched it off. The moonlight from outside was now the only illumination in the room. “Don’t get your hopes up, Red,” he said. “It’s a long shot.”
She nodded. “How did your debriefing go?”
“Fine,” he said and leaned back in his chair, scratching his chin. “Just went through the usual stuff. Captured, tortured, didn’t tell them anything, some redhead got stuck in my room and freed my hands so I was able to overtake the guards and jump down the sewer line. Same old, same old.”
She smirked slightly at him for a moment and then turned serious. “What did they say when you told them about… me?”
Dexter regarded her, placing his hands behind his head. He yawned before he spoke again. “All I told them is how you helped me to escape and that you were to be tortured by Ezar and you wanted to join the rebellion.” He shook his head. “I didn’t tell them about your gift, although Lieutenant Hugo kept asking questions.” He rolled his eyes.
“Why?” Heidi asked.
Dexter shrugged. “He’s just twitchy and untrusting, don’t take it personally.”
“No,” Heidi corrected. “I meant why didn’t you tell them about my ability?”
“Oh that,” Dexter said. “Well, because for one, I don’t really think I could explain it, two, it’s really your secret to tell, not mine, and three, I don’t want them thinking I just brought back some hot commodity rather than an actual person.” He scratched the stubble on the side of his face and yawned again. He had shaved earlier when they’d arrived and cleaned up and she thought it made him look much younger than he had when she first met him. Now, however, the stubble was starting to grow back. “It wouldn’t be intentional but when you’re fighting a war for a just cause it’s hard not to look at everyone for what they can do to help further the cause.”
“You don’t look at people that way, do you?”
“Oh yeah, all the time,” Dexter laughed. “I’m not saying that I should, but I still do. I thought about you that way, remember? Before you called me on it.”
Heidi looked down at her hands. “Well, I should probably tell your commander,” she said. “Otherwise I might accidentally use it and everyone will find out and then you’ll all think I'm some kind of Imperial spy or something.”
Dexter smirked. “Good point, Red,” he said. “You’re thinking more and more like a soldier all the time.”
“But I don’t want to be a soldier,” she said, frowning. “Besides, I also think I should tell you that… I accidentally read your mind.”
Dexter’s eyes narrowed in confusion. “What-what do you mean?”
“Last night when you fell asleep,” she explained. “There was a leaf on your face and I brushed it aside and when I did I touched your forehead and I think I saw one of your memories… or maybe it was a dream, I’m not sure. It was a fight in an alleyway. You and two other men… one of them had an X-shaped scar on his cheek.” She drew an X on her face with her finger.
Dexter leaned forward, dropping his hands from his head and clasping them in front of him. His eyes widened and his lips parted slightly. “That was when I was rescued by the rebel army,” he said. “From the Imperial guards when I was 14.”
“Oh…”
“You saw that just from touching my forehead?” he asked, astonished.
“Yeah, but I didn’t mean to,” she said quickly. “That’s the thing, I don’t really know how it all works. My mother could read people’s minds all the time just by barely touching them, but other than last night and one other time I’ve only been able to read memories, and then only when I actually touched the top of someone’s head. And always before I’ve been able to control it.”
“But last night you did it unwillingly?”
“Yes,” Heidi said. “I wouldn’t deliberately violate your mind like that. Those are your personal thoughts and memories. You shouldn’t have to share them with me if you don’t want to.”
“I don’t care.”
“But I do,” Heidi argued. “I don't want to do that. I want to control it.” She huffed in exasperation. “My aunt told me that it would probably grow eventually, but I didn’t think it would grow of its own volition and surprise me like this. It’s why I got caught by the Emperor in the first place.”
“What do you mean?”
Heidi explained how she’d kissed Brewer and read his mind and the resulting captivity. Dexter was grinning profusely when she finished and attempting to control his laughter.
“Why are you smiling?” she asked, annoyed. “How is that funny?”
“No, no,” he chuckled. “You getting caught and taken by the Emperor and all that—there’s nothing funny about that.” He was still stifling his laughter. “I’m just getting hung up on you reading the guy’s mind while he pictured you naked.”
Heidi rolled her eyes. “It was not a realistic picture.”
“It rarely is, Red.”
He got control over his laughter and looked her over a few times. Heidi felt oddly exposed before him even though he wasn’t necessarily looking at anything other than her face.
“Maybe you could try it on me,” he suggested finally. “Maybe you could read my mind right now. You know, practice, and then get control over it.”
“You want me to try to read your mind?”
“If it will help.”
Heidi bit her lip. “I’d have to touch your head.”
He leaned forward until his face was inches from hers and pointed to the top of his head. “Sorry if it’s a bit lumpy.”
Heidi stifled a smile and gently wound her fingers through his hair. She closed her eyes and breathed evenly, opening her mind to his, the way she’d always done when she’d read Aunt Reboa.
“I see… a birthday cake…” she said. “A woman in a green dress. She’s pretty. She has blonde hair.”
“That’s my mother,” Dexter’s voice called to her from the present. “It’s my ten year old birthday. By the way, this is really weird.”
Heidi let go immediately. “I’m sorry…”
“Why did you stop?” he asked, confused.
??
?You said it was weird.”
“But not in a bad way,” Dexter said. “If I’d wanted you to stop I would have said so.”
Heidi sighed. “Well, it didn’t work anyway. That was a memory. I’ve always been able to do that. Current thoughts are what I can’t seem to do at will.”
“Well, try again, Red,” Dexter argued. “I’ll think of something specific.”
Heidi frowned but wound her fingers through his hair again. She breathed and opened. It took quite awhile. She was trying to concentrate, but also not to force anything, just to let her mind open and find his mind. Find the entrance to his thoughts. Let the thoughts come through the chasm between his mind and her mind. Just allow them to come…
“Emperor Ezar is a…” Heidi dropped her hands from his head and huffed. “I am not using that word.”
Dexter laughed excitedly. “Unbelievable,” he said. “You totally just read my mind. You knew exactly what I was thinking. That’s incredible.”
Heidi shrugged but smiled. “Yeah, I guess. I’m glad I’m starting to get the hang of reading current thoughts. I’ve never done that at will before. It’s a lot harder than reading memories.”
“But you can keep practicing and get better at it,” he argued, still smiling and astonished. “That is amazing, Red. How is it that I’ve never heard anything about this before?”
“Anything about what?”
“Well, I hear about people with amazing abilities all the time,” he explained. “The rebellion and Ezar are always in competition for them, but I’ve never heard of a mind reader before. And if your mom could do it then there must be others.”
“I don’t know about that,” Heidi said. “I’ve never heard of anyone besides us.”
“What about your dad?” Dexter asked. “Or is it a chick thing?”
Heidi rolled her eyes. “I have no idea if it’s a ‘chick thing’,” she said. “But I don’t think my father had any special abilities. I never met him. I don’t know much about him. My aunt just said he was a mistake that my mother made when she was young. And my mother died when I was a baby and I’ve lived with my aunt since then. I’ve never really gotten to explore my abilities. My aunt let me read her memories, but she was very selective with what she would let me see.” Heidi smiled sadly. “She would let me see a lot of her memories of my mother at least. When she was young and when she very first had me. I guess you could say I’ve led kind of a sheltered life. I’ve never really had any friends other than my aunt, and the first guy I ever had a crush on turned me into the Emperor so…” She shrugged.
Dexter frowned. “I wouldn’t be so hard on the guy,” he said. “He probably didn’t turn you in. He was probably just innocently talking to someone about what happened and word got around. If he’d immediately turned you in, it wouldn’t have taken three months for them to come after you.”
“I guess…” Heidi said skeptically.
“Trust me,” Dexter argued. “The Imperial guards showed up at my parents’ house the same week that Ezar took power. They don't waste any time.”
Heidi considered this for a moment, calculating in her head. “So that would make you twenty-four.”
Dexter nodded.
“Pretty impressive being a lieutenant at 24.”
He grinned. “I told you, I was a soldier the moment I joined. I just had to wait until I was 18 to actually get a rank. And then I rose quickly.” His smile faded. “Plus, soldiers don’t always survive for very long. It’s easier to go up in rank when people keep dying and you’re one of the few that survive.”
“My aunt was always afraid of joining the rebellion for fear that it would get us killed,” Heidi mused.
Dexter nodded. “It does get a lot of people killed… that’s why a lot of people are too scared to join us even though they hate Ezar as much as we do.”
“Hmm,” Heidi mused. She wrapped her blanket tighter around her shoulders and leaned forward towards him. “What do you do when you're not being a soldier?”
“What do you mean?”
“Like for fun,” she explained. “Hobbies and stuff. I like to read. And when I was a kid I used to like to draw.”
“When I was a kid I liked baseball,” he answered. “I used to play on the team in the lower school. Now…” he pursed his lips and shook his head. “Just doesn’t seem like there’s any point to enjoying anything unless and until Ezar is dead.”
Heidi winced at the thought of killing the Emperor. She didn’t like the guy, but she disliked killing even more. “But isn’t that the perfect reason to enjoy life…? Because your time is short and so that the Emperor isn’t winning by taking away your enjoyment of life?”
Dexter looked her over and considered this. He shrugged finally. “I guess I have no good argument against that,” he said. “I just want to defeat Ezar so badly I don’t feel like I have time for anything else.” He inclined his head slightly. “Not that I never take shore leave and let off steam, so to speak, but I’ve only ever wanted one thing, to bring down Ezar’s tyrannical empire, at least since I was 12.”
“For the longest time all I wanted was to stop moving and establish a home,” Heidi responded. “And then when we did…” She shook her head sadly.
“Well, you’re welcome to stay here as long as you want,” Dexter said. He ducked his head and stared down at his hands as he spoke. “You could consider this your home now.”
Heidi smiled and was grateful that it was dark because she could feel color rising in her face. “Thank you,” she said finally. “It’s not the same without my aunt, though.”
Dexter frowned and nodded. “Maybe we’ll find her, though.”
“Maybe…” Heidi said, although she was full of doubt. She sighed, stood up and stretched. “I think I’ll try to go to sleep now.”
“Night, Red,” Dexter said without moving from his spot at the table.
“Night.”
The next morning Heidi awoke and for a moment she couldn’t remember where she was. She sat up and the room slowly became more familiar.
“Dexter?” she called. He was nowhere in sight.
She climbed out of bed and traded the nightgown she was wearing for a long-sleeved t-shirt and a pair of corduroy pants that Dana had given her. She surveyed the room, thinking how remarkable it was that it had so little furnishings. Other than the two cots, there was only the table with two chairs, the tub, and a large storage trunk. Heidi walked to the trunk and lifted the lid. Inside were more fatigues—she supposed that was all he wore—and many different weapons. She glanced around again, fearful that he might get angry if he saw her looking through his trunk. She rummaged around in the trunk some more to see if there was anything else. Underwear… boots… nothing much else besides weapons…
“Huh…” Heidi mused as she pulled a small picture frame from the very bottom recesses of the trunk. It was a picture of the blonde woman she’d seen in Dexter’s head last night—his mother—and a man who shared Dexter’s strong jaw and ridged nose and a boy of about 10 with shockingly light blonde hair and freckles dotting his nose. She snickered.
“What’s so funny?”
She jumped and turned to see Dexter standing in the entrance of the hut with a basket full of items from the garden.
“N-Nothing,” she stammered, attempting to hide the picture behind her back. But he saw it. He dropped the basket and snatched it from her hands.
“Where did you get this?” he demanded.
“It was in the bottom of your trunk,” she said. “I’m-I’m sorry.”
He sighed. “Oh… I guess I forgot it was there.”
“I have no excuse,” she continued. “I went through your things and it wasn’t right of me. You’ve been so nice to me and I go and…”
“Relax, Red,” he interrupted as he tossed the picture back in the trunk and shut the lid. “I just forgot it was there. I let you read my mind, reme
mber? I don’t care if you look through my trunk. There’s nothing interesting in there anyway.” He picked the basket back up and started to head towards the kitchen area but stopped abruptly and turned back towards her. “Except don’t mess with the weapons. If you don’t know how to use them you could seriously hurt or kill yourself.”
“No, I… I wouldn’t touch the weapons.”
He walked towards his stove and set the basket down next to it. “I hope you like fruits and vegetables because all we have here is what grows out of the ground.”
“That’s fine,” she said. “I’ll eat anything.” She paused and her mind returned to the photo he’d discarded and she snickered again. “By the way, I liked your freckles.”
Dexter rolled his eyes as his face flushed. “Oh jeez, that’s probably why I buried that picture at the bottom of my trunk.”
Heidi considered this for a moment. She wondered if that was really why or if it was the other faces he didn’t want to see every day. He began pulling vegetables out of his basket at the table and chopping them.
“Can I help?” Heidi asked.
“I got it,” he answered without looking up.
Heidi walked to the table and sat down in the chair across from him. As she placed her hand on the table, Dexter’s fingers accidentally brushed the back of her hand.
…and asparagus…
They both jumped simultaneously. Dexter nearly dropped the knife in his hand. He looked down at his fingers as if they held the answer and then back at her.
“Did you do that?” he asked.
Heidi shook her head, her mouth agape. “I—I must have…”
Dexter frowned.
“I’m sorry,” Heidi began. “I didn't mean to…”
Dexter looked up at her, somewhat surprised. “No, I’m not mad,” he said and then inclined his head. “Trust me, when I’m mad, you’ll know it.” He paused and his face turned somber again. “I just… I think we need to go ahead and tell Commander Trevana. I was hoping to put it off a bit longer so you could get settled in, but if you’re going to be accidentally reading people’s minds just by touching their hands then we probably need to go ahead and tell her.”
Heidi bit her lip. She really didn’t think it would happen again on anyone but him, but she wasn’t sure why, and so she didn’t say anything. She just nodded.
“I’ll make us some breakfast and then we’ll go on over to headquarters,” Dexter concluded, smiling, and went back to chopping vegetables.