Page 78 of Following Their Heart

“The hell are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about pushing your Gift. Or were you too pissed at me this morning to pay attention at the meeting?”

“I wasn’t pissed.”

Rev pulls a sarcastic face that says,Really, bro? Really?

“Okay. I don’t like waiting.” There I said it. “We should have taken off after Jud the second we found out he was gone.”

Rev nods. “I get that. Believe me. I get that.” He looks at his feet, then up at me again. For the first time since learning Jud was taken, I see the emotion on Rev’s face. His eyes are weary and sad. He’s feeling this as hard as the rest of us. “It ain’t always easy,” he says with an air of admitting a flaw. “Listening to something you can’t see or touch. Having faith.” He rubs a hand over his head, smoothing fly-away gray hairs. “I’m doin’ the best I can.”

I nod. “Okay.”

“Okay?”

I shrug. “Just needed to know you’re, I don’t know, feeling as frustrated as the rest of us.”

“’Course I am,” he growls. “That’s my brother out there.” He waves his arm in a generally southerly direction. “In the enemy’s hands.” His eyes are wide and crazy.

“We’ll get him back.” All of a sudden, I’m the one providing comfort. “So, using my mind, huh?” I return us to the problem at hand. “You really think that’s possible?”

Rev gazes at the wreck, nostrils flared. It takes him a second to shift gears. “I do,” he says with a decisive nod. “Just…give it a try, okay?”

I’m not the one who can do shit with his mind. That’s Scrap’s game. He used his mind to get our equipment working last night. I guess he, like, sent his Gift out to counteract whatever Gift had our guns and shit jamming. My Gift is hands-on strength, not telekinesis, or whatever it’s called. Still, I agree to try.

Looking skeptically at the wreck I say, “How do I do it?”

“You can picture stuff in your head, right?” Rev stands next to me, arms folded.

“Yeah.” I don’t share that it’s usually dirty stuff I picture in my head.

“Try picturing putting your hands on those edges and pushing them open. Like, do it in your imagination. And do it with the expectation that it’ll happen in real life.”

I shake my head. This sounds like psychic stuff, which I’ve never believed in. But then, I never believed I could be as strong as ten men. “Fine.”

It’s not natural for me to concentrate like this, but I give it a shot. My focus zooms in on the twisted metal that used to be the chopper’s side door. My hands clench as I call up in my memory the grip I had on that metal before I got hurt. When the pain flares in my right hand, I mentally relax the grip as an automatic reaction. The pain eases.

That’s interesting.

Okay. With a not-too-tight mental grip on the metal, I imagine using my strength to widen the narrowest part. And the metal moves. Just an inch on either side, but considering no one’s touching the thing, that’s really something.

“Son of a bitch,” Rev says.

Startled that it actually worked, I lose my concentration.

“Keep at it,” Rev says. “You’re doing it. You got this.” He claps like a Little League coach cheering on his team.

When he falls quiet, I try again. This time, when the frame begins to untwist itself, I hold my focus. Little by little, the metal whines and straightens like great, invisible hands are pushing at the edges. The opening widens, and through the now-accessible opening, I can see the two corpses Rev pointed out. There’s still an obstruction, though. The deeply-dented roof blocks a good portion of the cabin. Where the tree hit, the roof is so caved in that even with the widened opening, we’d be hard pressed to get a thorough look inside.

Almost as an afterthought, I imagine stepping into the charred mess, making a fist, and pushing up that dented steel. And right before my eyes, the roof groans and bows back into a more natural position.

Wow. I just did that.

Rev grips my shoulder and shakes me in celebration. “Atta boy, Brawny! Way to go, son!”

My face flushes hot with pleasure. Rev’s laugh and his praise are things I could see striving for. I wonder if this is how Cora feels about him. Like she’s willing to move Heaven and Earth to make him proud.

I glance down to find him grinning at me. His gaze goes soft, speculative. “Nothin’ like learning something new about yourself, ay Brawny boy?”

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