Awash in Talent Read Online Free

the process of doubting my sister’s statement.
    Beth flipped the blankets off. “I feel fine. I don’t need pain relievers or bed rest. I only need to help Emily find fossils to impress that graduate student.”
    My heart fluttered at the mention of Carlos. “That’s not why I do it,” I muttered, then nodded. “But, yes, if you really feel all that good, you can come into the pits with me and learn how not to disturb the evidence.”
    She smiled widely: I guess she still wanted my attention after all. She sat up, utterly unimpeded, and made to throw her leg over the side of the bed, but my mother held her down and screamed, “Doctor, doctor!”
    The doctor came back into the room and smiled at Beth. “Feeling better?” Her voice was like honey. “Let’s take a look.”
    She parted the flimsy hospital gown and gingerly lifted the surgical bandage. I wanted to look away, but I was too entranced. A pool of blood sloshed in the hollow of my sister’s stomach to the rhythm of her breathing. The doctor swabbed it up with a towel to reveal Beth’s belly button, accompanied only by healthy skin and a barely visible surgical thread that snaked in and out of her flesh. There was no sign of the incision, as if it had never been there at all.
    “See?” Beth said. “What did I tell you? I can get up now.”
    “You certainly can,” the doctor said, so improbably that my mother felt the need to intervene physically again, clapping Beth’s arms back onto the bed’s surface.
    “What’s going on here?” she demanded.
    My father was trying to appear reasonable, but he was standing awfully close to the doctor, staring hard into her eyes.
    “The first sign was when she was able to guide the incision while it was happening,” the doctor explained with admirable calm. “But now there’s no doubt that your daughter is one of a very special class of people. There are only maybe one hundred of them in the world at any one time.”
    I helped my sister get dressed in the clothes she’d arrived in—not that she needed any help—while the doctor explained that, because this was the cradle of humanity, she’d seen more than her fair share of cases. “These special people share the gift of healing that your daughter has illustrated. In fact, we call them Other-Talented Healers, because in addition, they possess telekinesis, or pyrokinesis, or psychic powers. Your daughter’s other Talent will probably manifest over time, now that we’ve extracted the aluminum from her system. We think aluminum is her kryptonite, the elemental substance that weakens her and takes her Talents away, but she should probably be tested to be sure. The only certainty is that she is physically fine.”
    Beth came up close to my mother and said, “See? You really should trust my judgment.”
    “That’s not a bad idea,” the doctor said.
    While we waited for the truck that would take us back to the hotel my parents had booked, the doctor placed a piece of paper with the contact information of the people she knew who were like Beth into my mother’s shaking hand. The doctor stood with us and patted my mother’s shoulder. I was free to give, for the first time ever, my undivided attention to Beth while I held on to the sack with her former aluminum burden inside.
    My parents arranged for a return home as soon as possible. During the three days before the next available flight from Addis Ababa, I was busy seeing what it was like to have a sister, and trying to balance that with my unflagging interest in Carlos. Beth, now outfitted in a normal t-shirt, shorts, and sun hat, came out to the site every day with me. I was unsure whether it was appropriate to hold her hand as we walked and how much to tell her about my assured future with Carlos.
    As promised, I showed her how not to destroy the evidence, and she learned quickly. We had plenty of time when we could have worked side by side in silence, but there was a new bridge building between us,