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jock.
He took a
clumsy step towards me.
    "Tracy, get in the goddamn truck. Now!" He
found his confidence quickly and yelled at her. Tracy jumped as if
just his words would inflict more bruises.
    "No!" I cried out as he moved quicker than I
thought he could. In one motion he was stepping towards me and
reaching one hand to push me out of the way, grabbing at Tracy with
the other. All pretenses aside I drove all my energy down in one
angry spiral and felt the tremors flying back up at me. The ground
shook, sudden and violent, the sidewalk cracked and crumbled
beneath Nick's feet. I turned, wrapping my arm around Tracy's waist
and running into the nearest front yard, re-centering and grounding
myself almost instantaneously. Without the barrier of concrete it
was much easier to do.
    Nick faltered and tripped over his own feet
trying to get away from the crumbling sidewalk. As he fell, I
closed my eyes and
reached
for the energy lines that were
still shaking. I pumped more energy into them causing a second
violent episode and the small crack opened five inches. Nick came
down, shoulder first again, landing awkwardly in the crack. Under
the rumbling of the ground I felt the snap of his clavicle and I
smiled to myself,
reaching
down and thanking the Earth and
pulling my energy lines back into myself. The rumbling stopped.
    "Oh my God," I heard Tracy whisper through
the fingers she had pressed over he mouth, her eyes so wide they
seemed to take up half her face. "Do you think he's hurt?"
    "One can only hope," I muttered and Tracy
looked at me, tears welling in her eyes. "Sorry. Um, have you been
drinking?"
    "No." She couldn’t seem to speak in anything
more than a whisper and two fat tears spilled over and down her
cheeks.
    "Well, yeah, I think he's hurt," we could
hear his curses by now, "and he's had quite a few," she nodded
dumbly at me, "so you should get him to a hospital." She nodded
again and scurried away, reaching to help Nick as much as she could
to stand back up and get into the truck. She was so tiny, barely
five foot one and all of a hundred pounds, maybe. And here was
this jerk-off, over six feet tall and probably well over two
hundred pounds abusing her. I guess it takes a big guy like
that to beat up such a tiny girl. 
    I pressed my lips together in a tight line,
trying with all my might not to wince as she did when she bent
over, putting more pressure on her old and new bruises or when he
draped his meaty arm over her battered shoulders. I waited until he
was finally in the passenger seat and she scurried around, climbing
up into the driver’s seat before stepping off the yard and back
onto the sidewalk. I waited there, just outside of a pool of light
from a street light, watching Nick through the window, my eyes
narrowing. In my mind I was already reciting the binding and
banishing of him.
    I knew as I watched Tracy pull hesitantly
away from the curb and drive down the street that, being only
seventeen, the hospital would insist on calling Nick's parents. I
hoped with his obvious level of intoxication, even golden boy Nick
wouldn’t escape a well-deserved grounding. That would buy us a
little extra time to find Mr. Right for Tiny Tracy. I sighed
heavily when I lost sight of the truck’s rear lights. I knew he had
been hitting her, for all of her lame excuses and denials, but I
had no idea that he might be raping her. It seemed even ungifted
girls learn to build walls around something like that, hoping to
hide it and keep some dignity.
Well Trace, at least tonight you
don’t have to put out.
     
    The next morning I'd woken up feeling a
little better than I had yesterday since I took some Melatonin and
passed out to some late night T.V., satisfied that I had given
Tracy one of the better Friday nights she'd had in months. I knew I
had dreamed but luckily the drug induced haze left me with only
memories of blurred green and yellow and slivery light rather than
specific details.
    I drank my coffee slowly,