The Bar Code Prophecy Part 2

Why had she done this? Maybe she could catch a Bullit-Bus back home.

Sensing this, Eric slowed down and turned to her.

"I see something in you," he told her, not meeting her eyes.

What did he see?

Because of the way he was not looking at her, Grace felt he wasn't being evasive, just bashful again. How odd to think that she, n.o.body Grace, could make a high school superstar like Eric shy.

"I've seen it in the way you climb," Eric went on. "Nowadays, you can tell the people who have a capacity for truth and the people who don't. You," he said, finally matching her gaze, "have a capacity for truth."

"How can you tell something like that?" Grace asked. She wasn't fis.h.i.+ng for a compliment. His words mystified her.

"I don't know." Eric lifted his chin and seemed to be trying to find the words he needed. "I think it's in your eyes. They're clear and direct." He smiled. "Not to mention beautiful."

"Thanks," Grace murmured.

"I see it in the way you climb, too," Eric added. "You're physically strong, and once you see where you need to go you head straight for it. Not everyone is like that. They doubt what their gut is telling them so they fumble and slip, but you trust your inner truth. Inside, you're strong. You have a real center, a core."

"I hope that's all true," Grace said, flattered.

"I know I'm right," Eric said. "You can handle truth."

It shocked Grace that Eric had given her that much thought. If they were at the movies or in the cafeteria, his words would have delighted her beyond measure. But they weren't at a Cineplex or in school. They were standing outside the supposedly closed climbing center in the dark, worrying about Global-1 police seeing them.

What truth was he going to reveal? What was it he was so certain she could handle?

And even if she could handle it, did she want to?

Grace's gut clenched and she had the feeling her life was about to change, and she wasn't sure she wanted it to.

They didn't need to break in, or force entry. Eric simply waved his bar code across the scanner, and the door of the rock climbing center breezed open. Grace took some comfort in this - it meant the owner definitely had to be on board, or else Eric wouldn't have stamped his information in the entry data.

The place was dimly lit, but Grace heard the murmur of soft voices, even before she could see any people talking.

As her eyes adjusted to the low light, she became aware that the hum of conversation was coming from people who hung in midair, their backs toward her, facing away. Only a few stood on the ground, holding belay climbing ropes attached to the floating people.

Placing her hand on Eric's arm, Grace looked at him with alarm. What was going on?

Eric smiled at Grace's bewilderment. "They're holographic stealth walls," he explained. "During the day we have them amped up so they're a little transparent but viewable."

Grace knew what he meant. The walls always had a slight wavering quality. Sometimes she felt as though she were climbing up a waterfall.

"The walls are really there of course, otherwise you couldn't climb. But when they're on the lowest setting, the human eye can't see them at all," Eric continued.

"So these people are climbing, not floating," Grace realized. "But how can they climb without seeing?"

"Practice."

Grace shot him a look of disbelief. "Really?"

"It takes a lot of practice, memorization, and intuition. Want to try?"

"It's so weird. I don't think I could."

"We can start with the intermediate wall you did today. I'll set it so you can see it dimly. Then each time you complete the wall, I'll push it back until the wall disappears completely. I'll spot you on belay."

"All right," Grace agreed, warming to the challenge. She would have thought this impossible to do, but obviously people were doing it.

Grace watched as, from behind the front desk, Eric brought into view a wall that had previously been invisible. Strapping on the climbing harness Eric handed her, she hooked onto the rope. Eric took the other end. "On belay," he said, to let her know he had hold of it.

Grace flashed back to the first time Eric had spotted her. There they were - her on the wall, him on the ground, the rope tight between them. It was such a powerful connection, resting your balance, your height, your safety on another person. Not only did he have to keep her from falling, but he had to read every move she made, react effortlessly to her painstaking climb. It felt awkward at first, but after a while, she didn't have to think about it anymore. The faith was there. The trust between them was as solid as the wall, the floor, and the rope.

Now, for a brief moment, she felt him on the other end. The weight of him. The force of him. The certainty that he would be there, no matter what happened, no matter what she needed as she rose.

Having just completed the wall that afternoon, Grace scurried up without too much difficulty and quickly rappelled down.

"Final level!" Eric praised her when she was on the ground again. "If I didn't know better, I would think you've been doing the intermediate for years. You look so confident. I'll make it dimmer now, okay?"

"I'd like to try it once more," Grace requested, just to be sure. "I want to really get it into my memory."

"If you think you really need to," Eric agreed.

When she'd completed the wall a second time, Eric once more suggested making it harder to see. "Think you can handle it?" he challenged playfully, his eyes s.h.i.+ning.

"Sure," she said, though she wasn't sure at all.

Eric went to the front desk and Grace kept her eyes on the wall as it slowly faded. Her eyesight was excellent but now she was squinting in her attempt to keep the wall in focus. It wavered in front of her; sometimes she couldn't see parts of it at all.

"Try it now," Eric said, returning to ground her.

With a nervous nod, Grace surveyed the wall and saw a darkened square just above her head and thought she remembered it as a handhold. Reaching, she gripped it. From memory, she lifted her knee and found a protrusion she could stand on. Tensing her abdominal muscles, Grace pulled herself up.

"That's the way," Eric encouraged.

The protrusion she was standing on appeared and disappeared as though waves of invisibility were was.h.i.+ng over it.

Above her head, Grace sighted another protrusion, reached for it - and missed! Waving her arms, she fell away from the wall.

"I've got you," Eric rea.s.sured her as she swung on the rope, her feet kicking. "Focus on the wall. Find your way back."

Grace's stomach seemed to twist and warm liquid bile rose into her mouth. The freakiness of the wall was throwing off her balance and nauseating her. Do not puke, she commanded her body.

To her tremendous relief, her insides settled after a moment.

"Okay up there?" Eric checked.

"Okay," she confirmed.

"Go back and find some more holds," Eric instructed. "Take a second to remember where they were. If you relax your eyes and let your focus go soft, you can see them."

Grace discovered that this was true. If she stopped squinting, a pattern of lights emerged. She quickly realized that the lights were protrusions.

With this new understanding of the wall, she began to climb once more.

"Last level of invisibility?" Eric asked when she had once more rappelled down to the floor.

"Oh ... I don't know," Grace demurred breathlessly. "I don't think I can."

"I know you can," Eric insisted.

"Why don't you do one?" Grace suggested.

"All right."

"I'll work the belay rope," Grace offered.

"Don't need it," Eric replied as he unhooked his carabiner from the rope.

"You're going to free climb?"

With a nod, Eric went behind the counter and brought the wall down so that it was completely impossible to see. Returning, he jumped up and appeared to hang in midair. In a minute he was scrambling up, over, and back down.

Grace was transfixed. Eric on his own was beautiful, certainly. But seeing Eric so much in his element, seeing him so extraordinary at something, was a higher power of beauty.

"Your turn," Eric said as he landed next to Grace.

"That was amazing. I could never do that," Grace said.

"Sure you could," Eric insisted. "Look at all these guys doing it." He spread his arm and Grace was once more aware of all the other climbers who seemed to hang in midair. None of them moved with the same speed, fluidity, or self-confidence as Eric did. They went more slowly and methodically - but they were climbing. "You could be better than any of them," Eric remarked. "You have the stuff to be a world-cla.s.s climber. Like I said, I've been watching you."

"Better than you?" Grace asked with a taunting smile.

"Let's not get crazy," Eric teased back. "You have the talent, for sure - but you also have to have the guts for it."

The thinly veiled dare was all Grace needed to hear. Never in her life had she been able to walk away from a direct challenge. "I'm not free climbing, though," she insisted.

"Not yet," Eric agreed. "Of course not. That would be stupid."

Once they were again connected by belay ropes, Grace was ready to try. "This time allow your mind to be soft," Eric advised. "Don't think, just move. You've done this wall a bunch of times now. Your body remembers the way. Let it take over."

Grace exhaled in a nervous waver. "I'll try."

"Breathe deep before you start," Eric suggested.

Closing her eyelids, Grace inhaled, pulling the air down into her lungs before expelling it with a whoosh. Instantly her shoulders loosened, dropping slightly.

"Don't think about anything but your breath," Eric coached. "Stay still until you're ready."

In Grace's mind she saw a picture of the wall as it had been during the day when it was fully visible; then she pushed the image away and began to climb upward.

Grace admired Eric's profile as they drove through the dark streets on the return trip to Grace's house. There was something strong and peaceful about the lines of his chin and nose. Sensing her gaze on him, Eric turned. "You are really a stellar climber," he complimented her. "Totally astral! I can't believe the way you took that invisible wall - and on your first try, too."

"I almost fell when I got to the top," Grace reminded him.

"Almost doesn't count." He glanced at the clock on the dashboard. "Hey! Twelve-o-two. Happy Birthday!"

"Thanks!"

They were almost to her house, and Grace didn't want to have him pull right in front. It would be safer if she cut through the backyard behind and went silently back up the oak tree into her room. "Turn here," she instructed Eric. When he asked where they were going, Grace told him her plan.

"You mean you weren't supposed to come out tonight?" he asked.

"No, I didn't ask," she admitted with a shrug. "I wanted to go. I'm glad I did, too. Climbing that invisible wall was beyond stellar. I wouldn't have missed it for anything."

With a grin, Eric pulled to the sidewalk and cut the engine. "We can do it again soon."

His words pleased her, and Grace silently vowed to become even better at climbing, no matter what. Not to impress him. Not at all. But to be that good at it.

A thoughtful look came into Eric's eyes. Even in the dark, she was so aware of them. "Are you really going to be tattooed on Monday?" he asked.

The tattoo. She'd gone for hours without thinking about it.

"Sure," she said. "Why not?"

Eric lightly took hold of her wrist, right at the spot where the tattoo would go. "Don't do it," he said.

Grace stared at him questioningly. "You did it," she pointed out once more.

Eric's eyes moved around her face as if he were taking her measure, trying to decide something about her. Then he looked away. "I told you, I'm not sure it was the right thing to do."

"Why not?"

Eric's changing expression told Grace he was on the verge of telling her something ... but then decided against it. "No reason. Just a feeling," he said, looking away.

"Tell me," she said, sure he was holding back.

"Delay it awhile," he suggested.

It was not the full answer she'd wanted. "What good would that do?" she asked. "If I get caught without it, I'll be arrested. My family will have to pay my legal fees. They can't afford that. Plus, I don't want to start my adult life with a criminal record."

Something in Eric's eyes closed off. He seemed disappointed by her words, and it hurt her that he thought less of her. But what else did he want her to say? That was how things seemed to her.

"You'd better get home," Eric said. Clearly, he was done with the conversation. "It's getting late."

"Tell me why you think I shouldn't get the tattoo," Grace repeated softly. "Please."

He shook his head. "Not tonight."