The Orb of Kandra

Mom tutted and shook her head. “Where have you been? Wandering the streets? Aren’t you cold?” Then she folded her arms and huffed. “Actually, I hope you are cold. At least that way you might learn your lesson.”

Oliver listened to his parents’ tirades silently. For the first time their words bounced right off him. Their angry faces no longer made him tremble. Their harsh words didn’t sting.

Oliver realized how much he had changed. How much the School for Seers had changed him, not to mention discovering that the Blues were not really his family. It was like becoming a seer had wrapped an invisible bulletproof coat around his shoulders and now nothing could hurt him.

He stood before them confidently, waiting patiently for a pause in their rambling anger.

But before he got a chance to say his piece, thundering footsteps came from the staircase behind him. And there was Chris.

“What are you doing here?” he bellowed. “I thought you died in the storm.”

“Chris!” Dad scolded.

For a brief second, Oliver thought maybe his parents were going to stand up for him. Stand up to their bully son. But of course, they did not.

Oliver folded his arms. He wasn’t scared of Chris anymore. His heart rate hadn’t even increased.

“I was hiding. From you. Remember how you chased me down with your friends? How you threatened to beat me up?”

Chris pulled an incredulous expression. “I didn’t do that! You’re a liar!”

Mom buried her face in her hands. She hated arguing but never did anything to stop it.

Oliver just shook his head. “I don’t care if you call me a liar. I know the truth and so do you.” He folded his arms. “And anyway, none of that matters. I came here to tell you I’m leaving.”

Mom’s head popped up from her hands. “What?”

Dad glared at Oliver with horror. “Leaving? You’re eleven years old! Where are you going?”

Oliver shrugged. “I don’t know yet. But the thing is, I know you’re not my real parents.”

Everyone gasped. Chris’s mouth fell open. The whole room went silent.

“What are you talking about?” Mom cried. “Of course we are.”

Oliver narrowed his eyes. “No. You’re not. You’re lying. Who are they? My real mom and dad. What happened to them?”

His mom looked like she’d been caught out. Her eyes darted all over the place, as if searching for an escape.

“Fine,” she suddenly blurted. “We adopted you.”

Oliver nodded slowly. He thought her words would be hard to hear, but really it was a relief to get even more confirmation that the two people from his vision were his parents, not these awful people. That Chris wasn’t his real brother either. The big bully looked like he was about to faint from shock at the revelation.

Mom continued. “We don’t know anything about your real parents, okay? We weren’t given any information about that.”

Oliver felt his heart sink. He’d been hoping they would provide a piece of the puzzle of his identity. But they knew nothing.

“Nothing?” he asked sadly. “Not even their names?”

Dad stepped forward. “Not their names, not their ages, not their jobs. Adopted parents don’t get to know that stuff. It’s luck of the draw, you know! You could be the offspring of a criminal, for all we know. A lunatic.”

Oliver glared at him. He was certain his parents were neither of those things, but Mr. Blue’s attitude was still horrible. “Why did you even adopt me in the first place?”

“It was your mother,” Dad scoffed. “She wanted a second. I’ve no idea why.”

He sank onto the couch beside Mom. Oliver stared at them, feeling like he’d been punched in the gut. “You never actually wanted me, did you? That’s why you treated me so awful.”

“You should be grateful,” Dad muttered, not meeting his eye. “Most kids get lost in the system.”

“Grateful?” Oliver said. “Grateful that you barely fed me? Never gave me any new clothes or toys? Grateful for a mattress in an alcove?”

“We’re not the bad guys here,” Mom argued. “Your real parents abandoned you! You should take it out on them, not us.”

Oliver listened without reaction. Whether his real parents had indeed abandoned him or not, he had no evidence either way. That was another mystery for another day. For now he would take Mom’s words with a grain of salt.

“At least the truth’s finally out,” Oliver said.

Chris’s mouth finally shut. “You mean to say that pipsqueak isn’t my brother after all?”

“Chris!” Mom scolded him.

“Don’t speak like that,” Dad added.

Oliver just smirked. “Oh yes, Christopher John Blue. Since we’re on a truth mission. Your darling son—your real, biological one—is a bully. He’s bullied me my whole life, not to mention other kids at school.”

“That’s not true!” Chris bellowed. “Don’t believe him! He’s not even your son. He’s… he’s nothing! No one! A nobody!”

Mom and Dad looked at Chris with appalled expressions.

Oliver just smirked. “I think you’ve revealed the truth all by yourself.”

Everyone fell silent, deflated by the revelations. But Oliver wasn’t finished. Not quite yet. He paced back and forth, commanding the room and the attention of everyone in it.

“Here’s what happens next,” he said as he marched. “You don’t want me. And I don’t want you either. I was never meant to be here. So I’m leaving. You will not look for me. You will not speak of me. From this day forward, it will be as if I never existed. As for my end of the bargain, I won’t go to the police and tell them about the years of torment, about sleeping in an alcove and having my food rationed. Do we have a deal?”

He looked from one pair of blue eyes to the next. How silly, he thought now, that with him having brown eyes he’d never guessed before.

“Do we have a deal?” he said again, more firmly.

With great satisfaction, he saw they were all trembling. His mom nodded. Chris did too.

“We have a deal,” Dad stammered.

“Good. Now let me pack my things, and I’ll be out of your hair for good.”

He could feel everyone’s eyes on him as he walked over to the alcove. He grabbed his suitcase, still filled with bits of his inventions, and put the inventors book inside it.

Then he took the compass out of his pocket and placed it on top.