Chapter 30: Coffee Date

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Violet parked the Honda diagonally in the parking stall, the back wheel crossing over the stall line. She backed up and tried to fix it, but just made it worse.

When they got out of the car, they observed that it was almost perfectly straight--but taking up two stalls equally.

"Shut up," Violet snapped.

"I didn't say anything!" Ethan said, laughing.

She swatted his arm, which he figured he probably deserved, somehow.

"It's not busy here, anyway, and you've got that sticker." Ethan motioned to the "NEW DRIVER" sticker on the back window of the car.

"Let's just be quick," Violet grumbled. "Do you even like coffee?"

They approached the front of the Ink Spot Café, a cozy-looking local place he walked past on his way to school. It had the well-worn, exposed brick look he would recognize from any Instagram-worthy coffee joint. If nothing else, it looked like the kind of place one would bring a girl if one were so inclined....

"I have coffee all the time," Ethan lied. He couldn't remember a specific time he ever drank coffee, but he must have had a cup at some point because he knew he didn't like it.

"Oh yeah? What's your flavor? Don't say Colombian."

"Why not?"

Violet gestured up and down at herself.

Ethan felt a little lightheaded. He grinned sheepishly. "That would have been a good line, though."

"Doesn't count if you steal the line from me, dude."

Violet's sideways smirk made Ethan happy he delayed going to see Westbrook so they could "wake themselves up" with some coffee first. The worry that he was a coward for doing so didn't bother him as much now that they were here.

But as soon as Violet reached for the handle of the cafe door, Ethan saw a familiar face through the window.

Two familiar faces, actually.

Uncle Vic and Ms. Stafford.

And they were sitting at the same table, just the two of them.

Ethan shot his arm out and pressed the door closed before Violet could pull it. No one inside seemed to notice.

"It says 'pull,' not 'push,' genius," Violet said. "Learn to read before you try to be chivalrous." She tried to pull again, but Ethan continued pushing on the door so she couldn't get it open.

"Ms. Stafford is in there," he said by way of explanation.

Violet frowned at him, then peered through the window.

"Oh yeah," she said. "So what? You draw a dick on her whiteboard or something?"

"No," Ethan said, "but she's..."

"She's what?" Violet asked.

Right, Ethan thought, Violet doesn't know Stafford is psychic. And she doesn't know my uncle, either.

"Just... It's awkward having coffee near a teacher," Ethan fumbled.

"Why would it be awkward?" Violet asked in a teasing voice. "Afraid she'll start a rumor?" Violet looked through the window again. "We could start one about her. Who do you figure the old guy is? Her dad? Or maybe she's just got a thing for silver foxes."

"Dude," Ethan said, scrunching his nose. "That's my uncle."

Violet's eyes widened at him. "That's not the kind of thing you should admit to the head of the school newspaper, y'know. We both know how quick rumors go around. But I won't say anything. Cross my heart."

Her tone didn't inspire confidence. Ethan touched her shoulder and pulled her out of view of the window.

"There's more to it," he said. "Ms. Stafford is one of us."

"Like, part of Shirewood High?"

Ethan tapped his temple pointedly. Violet's mouth opened.

"You're saying a teacher can read my mind?" she gasped. "We walk the same way to school! Who knows what she's picked up about me!"

"That's not really how it works," Ethan said distractedly. He poked his head to the window again. Stafford and Vic were nursing coffees and having what looked like a pleasant conversation.

Was Stafford trying to learn more about Ethan through his uncle? How did she even know how to contact Vic? She wasn't actually Ethan's teacher. Not officially, anyhow.

Ethan then recalled something Vic said on Ethan's first day in Shirewood.

When Vic was driving through town, he had pointed out Shirewood High. "Doesn't look like much, but it's got character. Been through a lot. Oh, good teachers, too--couple of 'em are friends of mine..."

Was Stafford one of those friends? She was so much younger than him--closer to Ethan's age than Vic's. She couldn't have been at school at the same time as Vic, not as a student and certainly not as a teacher. She probably wasn't even born when Vic was in high school. With such an age difference, how could they be friends?

"This is so crazy," Violet was saying, shaking her head. "Is your uncle psychic too?"

Ethan turned his head to her, frowning again. Uncle Vic? Could it be possible? Were psychic abilities genetic?

"Give me a second," Ethan said. Violet shrugged and nodded.

He closed his eyes, then remembered to keep them open. He was staring at the parking lot--not an exciting view, but not distracting either. He imagined how the lot would look in the Worldmind. Cars shifting colors, appearing and disappearing from stalls. The sun arching across the sky. Daytime and nighttime at the same time. Clouds everywhere and nowhere.

And just like that, his imagination came to life before his eyes. Cars really were fading in and out, changing colors and shapes, their license plate numbers indecipherable. The Worldmind always made Ethan dizzy at first, like staring out the window of a car that's moving too fast. If he kept his focus still, everything would move too fast to see, but if he let his eyes follow the movement, he could focus.

Gradually the shifting of the Worldmind made sense to him. As long as he didn't think too hard about it or concentrate on one specific place, he found his mind could keep up with the movement as though it were merely the background of a dream.

He looked at the spot where Violet had been standing in the real world. He couldn't see her, not clearly, but he knew she was there. A bloom of misty light in her shape stood beside him. Not an astral projection, but the unconscious presence of her Worldmind self. He considered speaking to her, pulling her into the Worldmind with him, but he didn't know how long it would take to get her back to the real world. Besides, he didn't want to alert Stafford.

So instead of speaking he looked into the cafe to where she was sitting. Projections of regular customers flitted between chairs and tables, sometimes sitting at tables with the chairs turned upside down over them. Drinks and plates faded in and out. The Worldmind memories of baristas worked behind the counter like apron-wearing ghosts. But they weren't astral projections.

When he looked hard at the specific table Stafford and Vic were having coffee at, he could see the half-formed astral shape of Stafford sitting in her chair. Compared to the fading forms of all the customers and workers at the cafe, she was eerily still, bringing an invisible coffee cup to the dark mist of her faceless head. Across from her, Ethan saw the occasional glimpse of Uncle Vic, but not in the same way. He faded in and out of view, but when he was visible he looked normal. Probably this was the Worldmind showing active memories of him from people who were currently in the cafe.

There was no weird astral mist for Vic like there was for Stafford and Violet. Vic must not have been psychic after all. If he was, Ethan thought, he probably would have heard me or Neil screaming about the dream man at some point over the past few nights.

Neil... Poor Neil. If only he still had a sound mind. It would be so much harder to go up against Westbrook without him. Him and his...

Fadeblade.

Ethan frowned. He looked at Stafford again, hoping she wouldn't sense him in the Worldmind. He didn't see any signs of Stafford having a fadeblade. He supposed she wouldn't be able to carry it while she wasn't actively projecting. Neil had had two fadeblades. One to defend himself, and one he got from Stafford--according to Pryce. Which Stafford didn't know about.

Neil had also said that fadeblades disappear and go somewhere else if their wielders stop projecting. After Ethan faded Neil before, he lost track of the fadeblade he had been using. It must have went "somewhere else" like Neil's. But if Neil got the second blade from Stafford without her knowing, then maybe Ethan could get it back the same way.

If only he knew what that way was.

After a few seconds of concentration, Ethan returned to the real world. He blinked at the stillness of the parking lot, feeling queasy and mentally whiplashed. Going from constant movement and inconsistency to perfect stillness was going to take a lot more getting used to.

"Welcome back," Violet said, smirking at Ethan's dazed expression.

"You said you walk the same way to school as Ms. Stafford," Ethan said. "Do you happen to know where she lives?"

Violet's eyebrows knitted together. "Never paid much attention. She doesn't teach any of my classes. Why?"

"If you retraced your usual steps, do you think you'd be able to point her place out?"

"I don't know, dude. You're not gonna egg it or something, are you? She give you a bad grade?"

Ethan sighed and looked into the café again. He wondered how long Stafford would be staying. With Vic. So weird.

He turned back to Violet. "She's got a fadeblade. We might need one before we see Westbrook."

"You want to rob her?" Violet shook her head. "Why don't you just ask for her help?"

"She wouldn't give it. Besides, she's forgotten all about the dream man, and Neil for that matter."

"Yeah, thanks to you and Neil swinging your fadeblades around willy-nilly. Really think it's a good idea to do more of that without adult supervision?"

Ethan winced. "I seem to remember us using said fadeblades to save your ass from clowns."

"And I seem to remember using one to save both of your asses from a nightmare monster."

"So we agree that fadeblades are very useful," Ethan said, spreading his palms out and grinning.

Violet failed to hide her smirk. She swatted his arm. "Stop being cute. You're too good at it." Before Ethan could do more than blush, she went on. "So you think you can find one of these forget-me-swords at her place, eh? You'd just be checking the Worldmind house, not the real house, right?"

"Right."

She curled a lock of hair behind her ear. "I don't know why I think that makes it better... but for some reason I do." She probed a hand into her bag and dug out her car keys, twirling them on her index finger like a gunslinger.

"Guess we'll leave your uncle and teacher to their date," she said, returning to the driver's side of her Honda. "Our own date will have to wait."

As Ethan made it to the passenger side, he said, "They're not on a--"

Then the second part of Violet's comment caught up with him. He blinked, having completely lost his train of thought. A grin slowly made its way across his face. He suppressed it as best he could before climbing into the passenger side of the SUV. Play it cool, Murdock. Play it cool....

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