“Why are you so late?” Jessa climbed into Audrey’s car without a hello.

“Because I was in a seminar. You know, most people would just wait until the weekend.”

“No way. We always put up the decorations exactly two weeks before Christmas. I can’t help it if your seminars clash with family traditions.”

Audrey rolled her eyes. “Where’s Hugo?”

“He said he’d leave in a few minutes. He wanted to make sure nobody saw us getting in your car together. Where’s Mum and Dad?”

“On their way to the garden centre. We’ll just meet them there.”

Hugo Fletcher opened the passenger side door and greeted Audrey with a kiss on the cheek.

“Ready for some Baxter family fun?” she said.

“I hope so! What’s the big deal with decorations today, then?”

Jessa scooted into the centre of the back seat so she could lean forward between the two adults. “Today we’re getting the tree because decorations go up two weeks before Christmas,” she explained. “Dad should have already got the other stuff down from the attic, so when we get home, we’ll eat mince pies and listen to Christmas music as we put up the decorations. And I always put the star on the top of the tree.”

“Wow, so the Baxters go all out for Christmas. I feel like I should get something festive for my place.”

“You don’t have any decorations?” Jessa ridiculed.

“Well, I have a wreath on the front door. But only because my neighbour made them for everyone on my floor, so I had to put it up. It’s made of paper.”

Jessa slapped her hands on the leather car seats. “It’s made of what? No. That’s just wrong. We are definitely getting you some decorations.”

For the few days after Emmeline’s reappearance, Jessa had watched Hugo intently at any possible moment, trying to catch something, anything, that might give an insight into his character. Yet he seemed to quickly get back to his old self. He was still rather uncommunicative, but not in a way that seemed suspicious. He looked well-rested, and he hadn’t had any more oddly-explained absences from school.

Jessa started to think it might just have been stress that had got to him, or perhaps that she had even imagined or exaggerated his irregular behaviour. Either way, here, looking at Christmas trees in the garden centre, he couldn’t possibly have looked more normal.

It took a good deal of wrestling with the unwielding bushiness of the Douglas Fir, but Mr Baxter and Hugo eventually managed to secure it to the roof of the Baxters’ car.

“We’ll meet you back at the house, then,” Jean Baxter said to Audrey. “Jessa, are you coming with Dad and me?”

“Nah,” Jessa declined, climbing into the back seat of her sister’s car.

“Jessa, please sit back properly,” Audrey said sternly.

“I’m fine; I’m wearing a seatbelt!”

“It doesn’t count if you’re holding it loosely in your lap like that,” the older sister chastened.

“It probably is safer for you to sit back, Jessa,” Hugo said softly.

Jessa scooted back in her seat, letting the seatbelt pull taut over her thighs.

“There,” she huffed, leaning inward to rest her elbows on her knees.

“Why do you always have to be so contentious?” Audrey scoffed.

“Why do you always have to be so annoying?” Jessa retorted.

Hugo said nothing.

The three of them sat quietly as the rumble of the car whiled away the time.

“Oh, so anyway, remember that girl I was telling you about in my lab group?” Audrey said to Hugo. “Apparently, she did turn down that placement, so it might be available after all.” She paused, turning the car onto a smaller road to avoid the stopping-and-starting of the traffic-lighted section of the main road. “So I was thinking of asking Professor Mollings to write me a recommendation…”

Still, they drove.

“I know I said it’s not essential for me to get a lab placement, but I just think it would be good, you know? And it would look great on my CV when it comes to applying for jobs. What do you think?”

No reply.

“Hugo?”

Still nothing.

Jessa leaned forward, craning her neck to look at him.

His eyes flew open from a clench and he grabbed Audrey’s arm.

“Pull over!”

“What? Why?”

“Audrey, stop the car!”

But she was already turning into the intersection.

“No!” he bellowed.

That’s when she finally saw the lights of the oncoming car, speeding up the road in the wrong direction. Directly towards them. Audrey screamed and grabbed onto the steering wheel, throwing the car into a ninety-degree turn until the front end smashed into a brick wall. The other car careered toward Audrey’s side.

Hugo outstretched his palm toward the car and howled under the weight of pain.

The other car spun and crashed sideways into Audrey’s side of the car. The seatbelt punched into Jessa’s hips as the blow heaved her from the seat. The groan of metal on metal made every bone in her body ache. The other car, still heavy from momentum, pushed Audrey’s car a few metres until the friction of the road ground them to a halt.

“Audrey,” Hugo shook Audrey’s limp body. She lay forward, slumped over the wheel. “Audrey,” he shook her harder. “Jessa, are you okay?”

“Yeah,” she managed to reply, eyes wide, mouth gaping, ears ringing.

“Okay. Audrey, can you hear me?” he shoved his hand to her neck, testing for her pulse. “Audrey, wake up! Shit. Shit!” he swore louder and louder, forcing his weight into the car door to push it open.

Jessa finally snapped back into the present. She clambered from the back seat and joined Hugo in pulling Audrey’s feeble body from the car.

Onlookers began to swarm around them.

“Are you all okay?”

“Are you hurt?”

“Is she breathing?”

“Someone call an ambulance!”

Jessa heard them but couldn’t answer; she couldn’t release her attention from her sister’s blood-covered face. She crouched over Audrey’s head, gently stroking her hair and whispering. “You’re gonna be fine. You’re gonna be fine. Everything’s gonna be fine.”

Hugo grasped Audrey’s hand in his and rocked back and forth, back and forth.

#

“Well, she’s going to be sore for a while, but it looks like there’s no permanent damage and no broken bones,” the doctor told them. “She’s very lucky.”

“Thank goodness,” Jean Baxter exhaled loudly and hugged her husband in relief.

“She’s awake but groggy, so you can go in and see her but only for a little while. She needs to rest.” The family nodded and entered the room quietly.

Mrs Baxter immediately burst into a flood of tears.

“My beautiful girl!” she wailed. “Thank all that’s good. I’m so grateful for my beautiful girls. And you said Hugo’s fine, didn’t you?”

“Yes, Mrs Baxter,” the doctor said. “They’re probably almost finished putting on his cast. He has a few fractures, but fortunately, they’re all quite clean, so they should heal nicely.”

“Thank goodness, thank goodness,” Mrs Baxter pulled Jessa into her bosom.

Still reeling from the shock of the accident, Jessa didn’t even think to pull away like she often did. Instead, she just let herself be there, smothered with so much love that she was too bewildered to appreciate. She was completely flummoxed. The moment of impact played over and over in her mind. Slow motion and fast-forward. Rewind, and start again. Rewind, and start again. Rewind.

It was starting to come out of the fog and into focus. The hospital room became a distant blur as Jessa zeroed in on the recent memory.

Audrey’s bleeding face. Before that, the crunch. Before that, the scream. The headlights. The turn.

Hugo Fletcher.

She remembered him reaching out his hand.

The car was heading right for us.

And then he… reached out.

The car hit us sideways.

The car had turned as he moved.

He… moved it?

Hugo Fletcher entered the room, his right forearm in a cast and held close to his chest in a sling.

“There you are!” Jean Baxter ran to him with a grateful embrace. “Are you in much pain?”

“They gave me plenty of painkillers, don’t worry,” he smiled. “Jessa, how are you feeling?”

She just looked at him.

“Jessa?” he said again.

Her eyes narrowed on his, and he saw in her face that his secret was out.

“I feel like some fresh air,” Jessa said, not moving her eyes from Hugo.

“That sounds good,” he replied. “Mind if I join you?”

Jessa stomped through the hospital until she was safely outside and away from unwanted eavesdroppers. He followed.

“Who are you?! What are you?!” she said. “I knew something about you was weird!”

“Jessa, please don’t be angry. Just listen.”

“I’m not angry; I’m one hundred percent confused! What’s going on? How did you do that?”

He scratched his head with his good hand. “It’s just something I can do.”

“Do you have some kind of freaky superhuman strength or something?”

“No, it’s not physical strength. It’s a form of advanced telekinesis. I was able to use my parapsych ability to deflect the car enough that it wouldn’t crash right into us.”

“It broke your arm!”

“Well, yes, energy is energy. I’m honestly not very well versed in the physics of it. I knew it would hurt me, but it would have killed Audrey if it hit us head-on.”

“I knew you were hiding something.”

“Well, there you go. Now you know my secret.”

“Do I?”

“What do you mean?”

“Is that it?”

“Jessa, what are you talking about?”

“I think there’s something else. Something else you’re keeping from us.”

“I’m not sure what you’re getting at.”

“Tell me the truth. Are you really a teacher?”

“Yes, of course I am.”

“There’s something else, I know it. I can feel it. I can see it in you, there’s more. If you don’t tell me, I’ll find out for myself. You know I will.”

He closed his eyes for a second and opened them slowly.

“Fine. Yes, I am a teacher. But I’m also a little more than that. You see, there’s a kind of investigation happening in a few schools at the moment. You know about school inspections, right? It’s a lot like that, but instead of going in for just one day like they usually do, I’m on a long-term assignment.”

Jessa squeezed her lips together in thought. “You’re an inspector.”

“Yes.”

“So who do you work for?”

“I’m employed by the Department of Education. I’m a real teacher.”

“But why would—” Jessa began, then bit her tongue. Something told her not to push the matter any further.

“Are we cool? Can you keep my secret?” He raised his eyebrows and his forehead crinkled. “Jessa? Please?”

Mr Fletcher’s words were spoken earnestly enough, but looking deep and inquiringly into his eyes, she felt a knot in her stomach.

“Okay,” Jessa nodded, with fingers crossed inside her jeans pocket.