Part 16
There's no time to argue, you take the link. Paul, Elena and John merge with you and, bouyed by TIM's strength, you all reach out to the fragile mind in so much need of you.
[Frankie? I'm here to help. Can you hear me?] At first there is silence and you push a little harder. [Frankie. There's something you need to do. I can help you to do it. Break out, Frankie, and the pain will be gone.]
[Pain.] The thought is very faint, very frightened. [So much pain.]
[There is a wall in your mind, Frankie] You say quietly. [The noise and the pain are building up against it, flowing over the top. If you can just break that wall down, the pain and noise will flow through you and past you and then they wont hurt you any more.]
[Pain and noise.] Frankie murmers and then with startling clarity. [I'm going to die, aren't I? Just like the others did.] You want to ask 'what others?' but you know this isn't the time or the place.
[You won't die, Frankie.] You tell him, willing it to be true. [Not if you do as I say. Let me into your mind, Frankie, and I can guide you, help you.]
You feel the beggining of the deafening, earth shattering roar as Frankie lets you in to the chaos that is assaulting his mind. You feel the others close behind you as you embrace that chaos and try to steer a path through it to the lost and frightened little boy somewhere in the middle.
[Reach out to me, Frankie.] You instruct. [Imagine yourself as a flower opening in the morning sunlight, as a fist unclenching, a galaxy falling through space. Take down the barriers. For a moment, just a moment, it will hurt but then it will be past you and gone. Can you do that, Frankie? Can you be brave?]
The boy reaches out to you, tentatively, and you take his mental hand. Slowly you help him deconstruct the walls around his mind and build new different ones. For a moment the wave of thought that crashes against his mind threatens to wash you all away but you weather the storm, anchoring Frankie fast. You try to keep things slow and calm, knowing that too much at once will destroy the young mind.
Just a few metres away Frankie opens eyes that seem to glow with the new knowledge and power contained behind them. The boy looks tired and pale but as his mind reaches out to touch yours you know he is a true Tomorrow Person.
[Thank you, Jay.] He says quietly.
*
Frankie's break out adds complications to the dynamics among the Tomorrow People but it brings a lot of joy too. John has dealt with very young Tomorrow People before and he know how to reach the right balance between bringing the boy into his responsibilities and allowing him to lead a close to normal life as possible. Frankie's parents at least seem to be reasonable people. Having lost their elder two children to unexpected mental trauma, Frankie's continued survival is all they had hoped and worked for. You're not there when John explains gently that their elder children almost certainly died in the throes of unassisted breakouts but you know that he has impressed on them the importance of young Frankie beging correctly trained.
You find yourself responsible for that and accept the responsibility gladly. It gives you a role in life, something you had thought you lost. Watching Frankie with his doting parents reminds you constantly though of your own parents. They never knew when you became a Tomorrow Person. There just wasn't time before, well before you jaunted here, to explain to them who your new friends were or why you were spending so much time with them. You wonder what they knew about your disappearence.
John is regretful when you ask him.
"I told them that we had become seperated when we were out together." He says simply. "I told them that there was an accident and when we tried to help we'd lost track of you. That we hadn't been able to find you and we were worried that something had happened to you." He smiles weakly. "It was the closest to the truth I could get. They didn't know about us and whatever I told them they would never have believed you were one of us. I couldn't risk the other Tomorrow People by telling your parents the whole truth. We never knew for sure that you were dead, Jay, but as the days went past and we could find no sign of you we slowly gave up hope. I think your parents did too."
"If I went to them now...?"
"I really don't know how they'd react, Jay."
*
You jaunt to the address TIM provides and hesitate with your hand raised to knock. You're still not sure of this decision. For a long moment you pause, trying to imagine what to say, how they might respond. You hear a car draw up behind you and the noise spooks you into a nervous decision. You turn on your heal, about to walk back up the path but find yourself trapped as a man and a woman begin to walk down the drive towards you. They look older, of course, weathered by the intervening years, but there is no way you can fail to recognise them. The woman is fiddling with her keys, trying to juggle the shopping bags to free her hand.
"Were you here to see us?" She asks as she struggles. Her husband has already stopped a few steps up the drive. She looks up to find out why you haven't replied and her eyes focus on your face for the first time. "Jay?"
"Hello, Mum. Hello, Dad."
There is no need for any of the words you have so carefully prepared. In a moment you are lost in a tight embrace. You are drawn into the new house without a word being spoken and for the moment you relax. There will be explanations and confusions later. For now you just walk forward bravely.
You are ready to reclaim your life.
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