Page 52 of Sequel to the Easter Bunny

“Candice, my Lady.”

“Yeah, no. Let’s stop that, right there. Just call me Lily.” Jamus was so hung up on people lording him, it made me want to throw up.

“Of course… Lily.”

My name sounds foreign in her mouth, like she can’t quite decide if she’s said it right.

“The problem is… well, it’s just easier if I show you.”

She grabs the ear protection again, but doesn’t put it on this time, because she leads us through to another room, where it’s noisy… but not so bad I have to raise my voice when I speak.

Dozens of identical machines sit in long rows, working away… except for one.

“It’s this pump here.” She nods at the huge piece of machinery, stationary while the identical ones around it move in a fractured rhythm. An enormous crack has split it open. “That should be moving about a thousand gallons of water an hour. The casing shouldn’t have done that. It’s not stress or age… someone did that.”

“What does this do?”

“It’s the main well pump for the tower. And also some of the outlying homes.”

“It hasn’t affected anything yet, though?”

“Begging your pardon, but the outlying homes have been without water for the last twelve hours. The tower takes priority. We’ve shifted some of the load with a bypass, but it’s not sustainable. And if you were drawing more water, you would have felt it by now too.”

“I see.”

“I don’t have anyone who can fix this…. We have to replace it entirely. That means manufacturing half the parts, and, well, it’s going to be a nightmare—what are you doing?”

I don’t answer her as I climb over the railing and walk on the tiny maintenance platform that surrounds it.

The crack is less of a crack up close, and more of a cut. Someone got in here with some serious welding equipment and cut a gash through the metal.

I test it with my hand, but the metal isn’t too hot, or too cold.

“What’s the point of having the Power if I can’t fix things like this, right?”

I know neither of the women watching me from the platform can hear me, and I’m glad Candice can’t. She doesn’t need to like me. But she does—eventually—need to trust me.

Not knowing what I’m doing isn’t going to inspire that trust.

Closing my eyes I imagine the casing whole. Imagine it looking identical to the ones around it. A pulse of something warm and heavy pushes through my hand, and when I open my eyes again, the metal knits itself back together.

When I draw my hand away, it looks like nothing happened to it in the first place.

Candice looks uneasy when I hop back over the railing.

“Should be good to go if the cut was the only damage. Let’s get it running and make sure those houses have their water back.”

Blinking at me, Candice nods sharply and pulls a two-way radio from her hip, “Hey Monty? Put pump one back online.”

There’s a garbled response.

“Trust me. The problem’s fixed.”

I hope she’s right. A moment later, the pump starts up, slow at first and then ramping up to the speed of the others. Candice hurries around it, checking gauges and valves.

“It’s back to normal.”

“Good.” I look around the space. “Anything else?”

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