Elena sat across from Sam at the breakfast table over cereal. It was weird to have all four of them at the table at once—the night before, they had spent dinner in their own corners of the cabin, since the tension was still higher. Up until this morning, they had only ever had up to three, and the table was even small for that. Now, there was no room at all for elbows.

Elena glanced at Michelle, who nodded, but she couldn't think of how to explain to Sam what she wanted to do. "So, Sam."

His eyes were wide and his hair messy as he set down the spoon. "What?"

"We, um, we need to learn more about your anomalies."

"Why?" His eyebrows furrowed. "Are they bad?"

"No, but it's a good idea for your to be able to control them."

"Why?"

"Well, because . . ." She didn't want to tell him they could be dangerous, even if it was true. The last thing she needed was to begin by teaching him to be scared of himself.

"Because." Patrick smiled. "You have special powers, right? Like a superhero."

Sam straightened up in his seat. "Yeah!"

"And every superhero has to learn how to always use their powers for good."

"I will! I won't do evil things."

"Okay, but can you control your powers?"

"What do you mean, control?"

"Like . . ." Patrick turned back to Elena.

This part she could do. "Like, you remember the monochromatic room?"

"The what?"

"The colorblind room."

"Yes." He slumped in his seat. "I was bad at that."

"Actually, you weren't bad at it. You were just using your superhero power." The words felt clunky in her mouth, but Patrick grinned, laughing under his breath.

His brow furrowed. "Really?"

"Yeah. Think about it, Sam. No one else can see blue in the monochromatic—I mean, in the colorblind room. They're all colorblind. But you can see it. And you can help other people see it."

"Yeah!" He bounced in his seat a little.

Elena and Patrick exchanged a glance. "Well," Elena said, "did you make that happen on purpose?"

"No, my powers just did it by themselves."

She nodded slowly. They were succeeding in keeping his spirits high, but she didn't want to get him too excited. "What if you wanted to hide your powers?"

"Why would I do that?"

"Um—" She turned to Patrick.

"Be . . . cause . . ." He shook his head at Elena, but she just kept nodding. "Because sometimes superheroes have to keep their powers a secret. To protect people they care about! Because superpowers are a secret."

"But you guys are the only people I care about."

A heavy weight settled deep on Elena's chest. "Okay," she said finally. "Then would you do this for us?"

"Do what?"

"Learn how to control your powers."

He looked up thoughtfully, uncrossing his arms. "I don't think I can."

Michelle nudged him and spoke up for the first time. "Well, maybe Miss Elena can teach you."

Sam gasped. "Miss Elena! You have superpowers, too?"

Elena breathed in to respond, but Michelle beat her to it. "Yeah, she does. She's an engineer."

"What's that?"

"It means she's really good with science stuff. She makes experiments and equipment and stuff for camp, and she makes everything work."

He wrinkled his nose. "So Elena's power is making things work, and my power is making things not work?"

Elena grimaced.

"Yeah, kind of," Patrick said. "Elena makes things work better than anyone else can. You make things work different than anyone else can."

Sam slumped in his seat.

Elena sighed. "Look, Sam, I'm going to be honest with you."

Patrick shook his head and hands, but Elena continued.

"We don't know exactly what your powers are or how they work. But we know you have them. And we know they're pretty awesome, because the biggets company in the world really wants to find out about them and do experiments."

"But we're not doing that, right?"

"Of course not," Elena said, though she realized as she said it that she wasn't quite sure how truthful she was being. "Nothing you're not comfortable with." That part was true. "We won't let them get you, because we don't want them to know about your powers. But we do want you to know about them. Because they're yours."

"So—" Sam let out a heavy sigh— "I have to learn how to control my powers so the bad guys can't use them for evil, and so I can use them for good, only sometimes I have to keep them secret because it might not be safe."

"Yes, exactly!" Patrick gave him a high five. "Because that's what every superhero has to do."

Close enough, Elena thought. If it made Sam excited rather than intimidated at the thought of learning how to control the anomalies, she could work with it.

"So how do we start?"

Michelle stood from the table, picking up Sam's empty cereal bowl as she went. "I'm going to get us on the road. You all can talk about this, let me know if you need me." She disappeared out the side door of the cabin, and the engine started up soon after.

"Let's start with this." Elena walked over to the last box that hadn't been loaded up yet in the hurry of everything that had happened the day before. "You learned how to light a light bulb yesterday, right?"

"No. I didn't get it."

"Well, maybe there's a reason. I've got a light bulb in here." She rummaged for the plastic box of little bulbs and wires, and found the box of batteries. She touched the contacts to make sure the bulb would work—a dim little glow shone from the bulb—then she placed the materials down on the table in front of Sam.

He picked up the bulb, wires, and battery, and put them in place exactly the way Elena would have done herself. Elena raised her eyebrows, impressed by how quickly he had figured it out, but then she remembered that this was the third time he'd been asked to do this in three days. He knew how to build a circuit.

But the circuit didn't work. The bulb didn't light.

"Hm. Can I see how you have it set up?"

He lifted the bulb, wires, and battery, and she could see how the metal connected. Perfectly.

"That is so weird."

He whimpered. "Miss Elena, can I let it go? It's getting really warm."

"I don't know why, you're not short circuiting—"

"Please!"

"Okay, let me take it!"

He dropped it into her open hands, and she gasped. The bulb—not the metal—radiated heat.

"Hm." It was as if the bulb had still been lighting up, but the light was invisible. "So, Sam, did you feel anything when that happened?"

"When what happened?"

"When you used your power."

His eyes widened. "I used my power?"

"You kept the light bulb from lighting up."

He crossed his arms. "Anyone can do that. I want to make it actually light up."

Elena smiled. "No, anyone can do that. No one can keep a light bulb from lighting up when everything is set up right." She put the circuit back together on the table, and her breath caught in her throat.

The bulb still wouldn't light. And the glass felt warm.

"Let me try something." She picked up the materials and walked far from the table, to the front wall of the camper, with the animals. She reset the circuit, and the light bulb turned on. She walked back to where Sam was sitting, keeping the circuit intact, and the bulb dimmed and went out as she sat down at the table. The heat continued and increased until she put down the materials.

"It's whenever the bulb is close to you, Sam." Even having seen the anomalies work firsthand didn't stop her from being a little shocked at how clear, how unyielding the results were.

"I can't stop it, though!"

Elena bit her lip. "Well, maybe we can figure it out."

"I don't know how. I'm failing at this, aren't I?" Sam pouted.

"No, you—"

"Yeah." Patrick grinned. "You are failing. And that's okay! Real heroes fail lots of times before they figure out how to use their powers. It's going to take lots of practice, and we'll be here to help you. Okay?"

Sam shrugged, but the beginning of a smile played with the corners of his lips.

"Sam, look at me." Patrick put a hand on his shoulder. "I need you to work really hard for Miss Elena. You do anything she tells you to do."

Sam nodded, and turned back to Elena with a solemn expression. "What was the question again?"

Elena smiled a little. She wasn't sure why Michelle had thought she would be best for this task. "So, what do you feel when you use your powers?"

"I don't know."

"Let's see if we can find out." She picked back up the bulb, wires, and battery. "Close your eyes."

"Why?"

"I want you to focus on what you feel. See if you can tell when I'm setting up the circuit."

He wrinkled his nose, but finally closed his eyes and rested his chin in his hands.

She waited a moment, for his features to relax, then she touched the contacts to the battery. She released the contacts, then put them back together.

"Is it on right now?"

"Yes."

He nodded and opened his eyes. "I think I can feel it."

Elena's heartrate quickened. "Yeah? What does it feel like?"

"It feels . . ." He scrunched up his face and drummed his fingers on the table. "It feels weird."

Elena took a deep breath. "Weird how?"

"I don't know. It's this weird feeling I get every time I do a science experiment. Yeah!" He beamed. "It's the feeling like doing a science experiment!"

"And what does that feel like?"

He laughed. "You know, you do science all the time!"

Elena clenched her teeth, and Patrick laughed along with Sam. "You know what? Miss Elena doesn't know, because she has a different superpower from you!" Patrick turned to her. "So, Miss Elena, can you explain what it feels like to you, when you do an experiment."

She shot Patrick a look. "How do you expect me to—"

He raised his eyebrows.

Right. If she was expecting Sam to be able to describe something indescribable, she should at least give it her best effort.

"Let me think about it." She closed her eyes and tried to relax. She remembered all those hours in her dad's shop, a screwdriver in her hand. She remembered that engineering class from high school, the keyboard on her lap, the monitor in front of her, the tiny robot rolling forward and backwards on the table beside her while her lab partner cheered that they'd finally figured out the programming. She remembered the first time she'd ever learned how the Northern Lights work, the first time she'd ever measured the speed of light . . .

"What does it feel like?"

"Have you ever done a puzzle, Sam?"

He nodded.

"It feels like when you've been looking for the piece that goes somewhere, for a long time, and you finally find it." She grinned. "It feels like being warm inside when it's cold outside. It feels like being in a quiet room when the rest of the room is noisy and everyone's yelling at each other." Like things working against all odds. Like the nature of the universe showing itself, just a little, just to Elena, just differently than anyone else had ever seen it before. Like uncovering the outlines of God's fingerprints.

Sam laughed. "Yeah, it doesn't feel like that at all."

Elena blinked. "Okay, what does it feel like to you?"

"It feels weird."

She resisted the urge to groan. "Like, good weird or bad weird."

"Like weird weird."

This time she did groan. "Then how—"

"Hey, let's start with this," Patrick said. "Elena, where in your body do you feel it?"

She clenched her teeth. "I don't know! In my chest, in my heart, in my stomach, sometimes a little in my throat."

"Sam, where in your body do you feel weird?"

He ran his hands along his arms. "Like, in my skin."

Elena glanced at Patrick, who nodded. It was a place to start.

The brakes of the motor home hissed, and the engine stopped. "Hey, team!" Michelle called back. "We're here."