Phoenix Lights - 7. CEREBRAL

Saturday, March 29th, 1997

Emily walked across the living room and stopped. She turned her shoulder back and stared right at Jeffrey. “Mom, they called me a homunculus!”

Tanya turned her head toward the two boys sitting on the couch.

Jeffrey crossed his arms. “No we didn’t!”

“Yes you did! You said ‘she’s always like that. She’s a homunculus.”

“That’s not what I said at all! You must have misheard us.”

“I know what I heard.”

“Well, I didn’t say that.”

Their mother leaned forward. “What did you say?”

Jeffrey shrugged. “I don’t remember. I was on hospital drugs, I don’t know.”

Tanya scowled. “You were on salt water and antibiotics. What did you say?”

“I wasn’t calling her names,” Jeffrey protested.

“He wasn’t,” Sean chimed in.

She shrugged and stood up.

Emily balked. “Aren’t you going to do anything?”

Tanya stopped and looked back. “Maybe you shouldn’t have been eavesdropping on their conversation.”

“That’s not fair!”

“What’s not fair about it? Maybe you need to, I don’t know, stop telling on your little brother when he’s calling you names?”

“Mom!”

“Emily, I’m not going to be holding your hand out there when you go into the real world. I’d love to be able to tell you that the world is a wonderful, perfect place, but I’m sure that at some point, you’re going to be called something much, much worse than a monkey…”

“Homunculus,” Emily corrected.

“Whatever. You’re going to be a Junior in high school next year. You’re a young adult. If someone says something nasty to you, then you need to figure out how to throw it right back at them. 14 years of this is enough. If I have to deal with this again, I’m grounding both of you. If you all want to avoid being grounded this time, there’s a kitchen that all of you are going to be cleaning up. Make it sparkle.” She sighed. “I’ll be outside reading a book in the hammock. Don’t make me put it down or shit’s really going to hit the fan.”

She strode across the living room, through the kitchen and out the back door with her book tucked under her arm; the screen door clapped shut behind her.

Jeffrey locked eyes with his sister, her face a puzzled expression of disbelief.

“You two are assholes,” she said, stomping off to her room.

“You hafta help clean the kitchen,” Jeffrey called after her.

She slammed her bedroom door.

She took that well, Sean thought.

Yeah, but that means I have to clean the whole damn kitchen myself.

I’ll help you.

Jeffrey glanced over at Sean. No, it’s our mess. You’re the guest.

Sean shrugged. I don’t care.

*****

That night, Jeffrey tossed and turned, dreaming of shadowy, spindly creatures doing unspeakable things to him. They stood over him, lowering a machine with a sharp, red-glowing needle toward his eye. Closer. Closer.

The heat rippled and glowed in his vision, and somewhere nearby, Sean screamed.

Jeffrey started awake, covered in cold sweat. He sat up and glanced around the room, breathing slowly to calm his beating heart. He flopped back down onto the mattress, the sheets wet with his sweat. “Fuck,” he mumbled to himself, trying to see if Sean was awake.

He sent a few probing thoughts, but never got anything back other than some abstract flashes: Sean's brother, his mom, school, a family vacation in Canada--peaceful things. Things he wished he could be bothered with.

*****

Wednesday, April 2, 1997

On the first day of spring break, Jeffrey was sleeping in. His body felt warmer than normal, and there was a tickling that circled from his chest down to his belly button, and back again.

His brain came out of its deep sleep state, and he could feel Sean lying in bed with him.

Sean held a flat hand against his stomach as Jeffrey stretched; he felt gentle kisses on the back of his neck.

The kisses, the skin to skin contact, the caressing of his stomach, Jeffrey felt Jeff Junior rising to a certain occasion. He tried not to think about it. How long have you been here?

Ten minutes or so, Sean thought. I’m sorry, I’ll stop.

Jeffrey could feel Sean withdrawing his hand. No. Don’t. It’s fine.

Sean gave a little hug. You sure?

Jeffrey turned over to face Sean, kissing him gently on the lips, taking Sean’s hand and guiding it down to a spot a little below his navel. He could feel Sean’s heart beating in his chest, and the adrenaline pumping through his heart. Jeffrey never said it, never thought it, but desired Sean to explore him.

With a gentle hand, and a nervous touch, Sean let his fingers slowly trace down Jeffrey’s abdomen, over a sparse few hairs; Jeffrey gasped as Sean took him into his hand.

Jeffrey pulled Sean to his lips and smashed their tongues together in a frantic oral ballet, panicked breath hissing forth from their nostrils. “Make me cum,” he said between breaths.

As Sean worked him with his hand, Jeffrey pumped his hips in tempo, kissing, moaning, grinding.

As it was with most people inexperienced with age, things didn’t last very long.

While Jeffrey throbbed in Sean’s hand, a small squirt of cum dousing his palm, Sean’s face went all strange, as if he were holding back a sneeze. His jaw quivered, and for a quick moment, he shook, his mind went hazy, and Jeffrey couldn’t read him.

What was that? Jeffrey asked.

I just shot a load in my pants, Sean replied, blushing.

I’m going to have to take a shower before we do anything.

I’ll probably have to go home and change, Sean thought glibly.

Take a shower with me, Jeffrey thought, giving Sean one more gentle kiss.

*****

The boys sat at the kitchen table, chairs facing outward, staring at the open door. They’d been sitting there for the better part of an hour, a jumble of thoughts firing between them.

Sean scratched his arm. What if we just ran down and back up as fast as we could?

It’ll take a few minutes to unhook everything. Jeffrey twisted in his seat to glance at his friend. I almost passed out trying to go down there.

The bumps behind our ears are gone. Maybe things are different.

I don’t know why, but I’m still petrified of the basement.

I don’t live here and I’m petrified of the basement. What if we asked your sister, Sean wondered, knowing full well what the reply would be.

Jeffrey just shot him a dirty look. I don’t think I could get any of my friends to do it for us without having to tell them why.

Me too. Sean tapped his finger on his knee and thought.

I think once was enough for today. I thought you wanted to play Tomb Raider.

“What’s the point if we can’t go downstairs?” Sean held his hand toward the open door.

“Why are we even afraid to go down there? What’s keeping us from just… doing it?” Jeffrey pulled his hands down his face.

What if you got part way down and passed out, and I couldn’t get to you? I don’t like what you felt when you tried it.

Jeffrey sighed. Guess we find something else to do.

Sean groaned. Wish our pool worked.

Wish we had one, Jeffrey replied. “Fuck it.” He stood up and walked to the door, standing at the top of the steps and staring into the basement below. He took a few uneasy steps down, gripping the handrail as tight as he could.

“Jeffrey?” Sean called from the kitchen. He stood and took a position at the top of the steps, watching Jeffrey slowly make his way down.

I’m “fine.” Jeffrey could sense Sean was stammering at something, then he couldn’t feel Sean at all. He’d made it to the bottom of the steps, a low tone filling his ears, his head just starting to go dizzy. He turned back and looked up at Sean. “Stay there. I think I’m fine.”

“You think?” Sean shook his head and took a step down. “I can’t feel you. I’m not letting you go alone.”

“It’s file, stay there.” He held up his hand, and almost dozed off. “Just going to run and grab everything.”

He walked farther into the basement, Sean calling after him. As he walked closer to the center of the room, closer to the little entertainment center, the tone in his ears grew louder, and more intense. Bolstering all the courage he could, he made a sprint toward the PlayStation.

The closer he got, the louder the tone, the weaker he got, the softer his vision went. He fell to his knees, and kept going toward the entertainment center; he was going to do this hell or high water.

His vision was dark, and almost gone.

He bumped his head on something, and felt around. Something smooth and plastic, cool to the touch, met his hand. As he felt around, the feeling got worse. He grabbed onto the small plastic object and turned, crawling back toward the bottom of the steps.

Sean’s voice could be heard in an echo, calling his name over and over again.

Slowly, Jeffrey’s vision came back bit by bit. As soon as he could, he rose to his feet and stumbled across the room, sprinting up the steps and falling into Seans arms when he got back into the kitchen.

It felt like a clamp had been taken off his head.

“Your nose is bleeding,” Sean said, concern in his voice.

Jeffrey tried to smile. He held up the object he’d grabbed, his copy of Final Fantasy VII, and said, “look what I got.”

Then, he passed out.

*****

Jeffrey woke up with his head in Sean’s lap, resting on the couch with his feet propped up on the arms. How long was I out?

About fifteen minutes. You want me to call someone? Your mom? Maybe an ambulance?

No, I don’t want to spend my whole spring break in the hospital, Jeffrey thought.

Sean stroked his head. What the fuck is down there?

I don’t know. Jeffrey gulped. My vision started to go about half way across the room. That loud tone was all I could hear. I… I don’t know. He lifted his head just a little bit and looked around. On the other end of the coffee table was a glass of water. He sat his arm on the table and willed it to his hand.

The glass slid across the table and stopped.

Without even thinking strange about what he’d just done, Jeffrey clutched the glass and lifted it, taking a small sip off the rim.

“That’s new,” Sean said.

“What?” Jeffrey said absently, sitting up. He gulped the rest of the water down, and sat the glass back down on the table.

The thing with the glass.

What? What thing.

Sean cocked his head. “Did you not just see what you did?”

Jeffrey stared at the glass, his empty mind spinning. “Dude, what?”

“You made the glass slide across the table to your hand.”

“What? No I didn’t.”

“I just watched you do it! I saw you do it in your head, too.” Sean leaned forward and opened his hand so his palm was facing the glass. He closed his eyes, scrunched his face, and tried to will the glass to slide into his hand.

Nothing happened.

“Try to do that again,” Sean said.

Jeffrey glanced between Sean and the glass. He leaned forward and gave it a try, but nothing happened for him, either.

“What the fuck just happened?”