The Power(48)

Jos takes her hand as they walk through the den towards the kitchen. Squeezes it.

Jos says, ‘So, uh, Mom, this is Ryan.’

There’s a boy, standing awkwardly in the hall. Hands in his pockets. Pile of books on the side. His dirty-blond hair is falling into his eyes.

Huh. A boy. Well. OK. Parenting never stops bringing new challenges.

‘Hi, Ryan. Good to meet you.’ She extends a hand.

‘Nice to meet you, Mayor Cleary,’ he mumbles. At least he’s polite. Could be worse.

‘How old are you, Ryan?’

‘Nineteen.’

A year older than Jocelyn.

‘And how did you meet my daughter, Ryan?’

‘Mom!’

Ryan blushes. Actually blushes. She’d forgotten how young some nineteen-year-old boys are. Maddy’s fourteen years old and already practising military stances in the mud room and doing the moves she’s seen on TV or that Jos has taught her from the camp. Her power hasn’t even come in yet and she seems older than this kid standing in the hallway, staring at his shoes and blushing.

‘We met at the mall,’ says Jos. ‘We hung out, we drank sodas. We’re just going to do homework together.’ Her tone is pleading. ‘Ryan’s going to Georgetown in the fall. Pre-med.’

‘Everyone wants to date a doctor, huh?’ She smiles.

‘MOM!’

Margot pulls Jocelyn close to her, hand in the small of her back, kisses the top of her head and whispers very quietly in her ear, ‘I want your bedroom door open, OK?’

Jocelyn stiffens. ‘Just until we’ve had time to discuss it. Just today. OK?’

‘OK,’ whispers Jos.

‘I love you.’ Margot kisses her again.

Jos takes Ryan’s hand. ‘Love you, too, Mom.’

Ryan picks up his books awkwardly, with one hand. ‘Nice to meet you, Mrs Cleary,’ and then a look across his face like he knows he’s not supposed to call her Mrs, like he’s been schooled in it, ‘I mean, Mayor Cleary.’

‘Nice to meet you too, Ryan. Dinner’s at six thirty, OK?’

And they go upstairs. That was it. The start of the new generation.

Alan’s watching from the door to the den. ‘Young love?’

Margot shrugs. ‘Young something, anyway. Young hormones.’

‘Nice to know some things don’t change.’

Margot looks up through the stairwell to the upper floor. ‘What did you mean before, when you asked me if I wanted it?’

‘It’s just … aggression, Margot. You need to attack on those questions. You have to show you’re hungry for it, do you understand?’

‘I do want it.’

‘Why?’

Margot thinks of Jocelyn shaking when her power switches off, and how no one can tell them what’s wrong with it. She thinks of how much faster she’d be able to get things done as Governor, without Daniel standing in her way.

‘For my daughters,’ she says. ‘I want it to help Jos.’

Alan frowns. ‘OK, then,’ he says. ‘Back to work.’

Upstairs, Jos pulls the door closed, turns the handle so softly that even her mother couldn’t hear it. ‘She’ll be down there for hours,’ she says.

Ryan’s sitting on the bed. He circles her wrist with his thumb and forefinger. Tugs at her to sit next to him. ‘Hours?’ he says, and smiles.

Jos slants her shoulders one way, then the other. ‘She’s got all this stuff to memorize. And Maddy’s with Dad till the weekend.’ She puts her hand on his thigh. She makes slow circles with her thumb.

‘Do you mind?’ says Ryan. ‘That she’s busy with all this stuff, I mean.’

Jos shakes her head.

‘I mean, is it weird,’ he says, ‘with the press and everything?’

She scratches at the fabric of his jeans with her nails. His breathing speeds up.

‘You get used to it,’ she says. ‘Mom always says, our family is still private. Anything that happens behind closed doors is just between us.’

‘Cool,’ he says. He smiles. ‘I don’t wanna be on the evening news is all.’

And she finds that so adorable that she leans in and kisses him.

They’ve done this before, but it’s still so new. And they’ve never done it before somewhere with a door, and a bed. She’s been afraid that she’d hurt someone again; sometimes she can’t stop thinking of that boy she put in hospital, the way the hairs on his arms crisped and how he held his ears like the sound was too loud. She’s talked about all this with Ryan. He understands like no boy she’s ever met before. They’ve talked about how they’ll take their time and won’t let it get out of control.

The inside of his mouth is so warm and so wet and his tongue is so slippery. He moans, and she can feel the thing starting to build up in her, but she’s OK, she’s done her breathing exercises, she knows she can control it. Her hands are on his back, and down past his belt, and his hands are tentative at first but then more confident, grazing the side of her breast, then his thumb on her neck and at her throat. She has a fizzing, popping feeling across her collar and a heavy ache between her legs.

He pulls away for a moment. Frightened, excited.