Landen settled into his seat at the Les Bois Pizza Parlor, carefully setting his drink and freshly prepared salad plate down, making sure not to spill. As he began to dig into his salad he reached out to Fern to see how she was doing.

You better bring me leftovers, Fern said.

But dogs aren’t supposed to have people food, you need to watch your girlish figure, Landen replied smiling to himself.

But pizza is so good…

All right I will make sure to grab you a doggy bag.

Good one… Fern said, Landen could sense the sarcasm dripping from her reply and he chuckled to himself.

Thanks.

Landen unfolded his napkin and neatly placed it in his lap after their exchange, finishing his salad as they waited for the pizza. Fern was resting comfortably in the car, even though she would rather have been inside with them getting ready to chow down on some pizza. Dogs unfortunately weren’t allowed inside the restaurant. He loved coming here, he had a lot of good memories of this place. Even though he found it slightly loud now with all the smaller children running around, and if he was truly being honest with himself, the pizza wasn’t all that great.

But it was a tradition for him and his parents to come here after every agility trial. He had, in his younger years, demanded that his birthday parties be here. He loved watching the pizza’s being made, the balloons with the funny chef who had a lopsided grin and a huge hat, the old school arcade games, and the all metal playground equipment outside. It seemed to him that this is what the 20th century was probably like, he had not been born until several decades after the turn of the century, but it felt like going back in time every time he came.

“Sooo, with my birthday in a couple of months, I was thinking we could go camping or something,” Landen said to his parents as he finished the remnants of his salad.

Both of his parents stopped chewing and just stared at him, he could see tears starting to well in his mother’s eyes and he was confused as to what was happening. Just then the pizza arrived and they all quickly grabbed slices sharing uneasy glances across the table as they ate. Landen wasn’t sure what he had said but he could tell his mother was very upset. After Landen had eaten his fill and filled up a box of leftovers for Fern, and some cold pizza in the morning if she didn’t eat it all, he decided he would try to broach the subject of his birthday once again.

“Would we care for any desserts tonight?” The waitress asked as she brought up the check on her tablet.

“No Thanks, we are stuffed!” William Schill said, patting his stomach with one hand as he scanned the check with his phone to pay with the other.

“Thank you Mayor Schill,” The waitress said with a wide smile as he filled in her tip, “come see us again soon.” The waitress shuffled away with her arms full of dirty dishes. Landen seized his opportunity, quickly bringing up his birthday again.

“I was thinking Farragut State park up on Lake Pond Oreille for camping on my birthday,” He glanced up at his parents as he spoke trying to gauge their reaction, he tried to catch their eyes but they refused to look at him. “We haven’t been up there since Fern was a pup and…”

Landen stopped short and didn’t finish his sentence; his parents had both stopped getting up from the table and were staring at each other with strange looks on their faces again. The look on his father’s face was one he was unfamiliar with; it looked like fear mixed with shame and little touch of annoyance, his mother still looked upset and he still wasn’t sure why. His parents both settled back into their seats and the tears began to well up in his mother’s eyes again threatening to spill over at any second. She looked worried and scared and refused to look at Landen. Landen furrowed his brow and absent mindedly began rubbing his hands together, unsure what to do. He didn’t know what he was saying or doing that was making them act so crazy.

“I guess we have put this off for too long son,” his father said letting out an extended sigh, his shoulders slumped as he sat back heavily in his chair. He put his arm over his wife’s shoulder and pulled her close to him as he continued. “We need to talk with you about something, but this is not the place, let’s go for a walk around the park and we can discuss this. I need to speak with your mother first. Alone.”

Victoria gasped and turned her gaze to Landen briefly before turning back towards her husband, the tears were not quite spilling out yet but they brimmed at the edges of her eyes threatening to at any moment.

“Go take care of Fern, we will be out in a few minutes, and then we will discuss this. As a family.” Victoria said with an air of determination in her voice. She blinked several times and wiped the tears away that escaped down her cheeks. Landen had seen his mother cry several times before and he never liked it, it made him feel sick to his stomach. She took several deep steadying breaths and then shooed him away, fixing her gaze on his father.

Landen got up from the table trying to figure out what his parents were trying to silently communicate to each other. He wondered if they could talk to each other like he could talk to Fern. They always seemed to know what the other was thinking and even finished each other’s sentences sometimes. Is this where he had received his ability to read the minds of animals? Had his parents had abilities like his own this whole time and never told him? He felt annoyed and very confused.

Landen tried to clear his head as he made his way through the restaurant, dodging screaming children along the way, and out to the car. He reached out to Fern as he headed through large glass doors adorned with pizza decals and into the parking lot.

My mom freaked out when I mentioned going camping for my birthday, they are supposed to come out and talk to me about what is going on…

Awww, I hope we can still go up to the lake, I really like going up there the mountains are full of so many smells

Landen reached their self-driving Mini Countryman as Fern was finishing her thought. He opened the door to the car grabbing some water, a bowl, and a disc as she jumped lightly from the back seat.

“Let’s head over to the park,” Landen said. Fern looked up at him wagging her tail, seeming very interested in the disc he had in his hand. The pair made their way across the now emptying parking lot to the park adjacent to the pizzeria. Landen had a thousand thoughts racing through his mind about what his parents were going to be telling him in a few minutes. But he shared none of them with Fern, she only had eyes for the disc at the moment anyway.

When they reached the dark green, recently cut grass of the park, Landen reared his arm back and threw the disc for Fern as hard and far as he could. There were empty grass fields as far as they could see in either direction, baseball diamonds dotted the fence line in the distance. She tore after the disc with her typical Border Collie enthusiasm. She was usually able to catch it spectacularly in mid-air but Landen had gotten enough strength behind the throw that she hadn’t been able to chase it down.

Good one, she thought as she trotted back to him, dropping the disc at his feet. He smiled to himself and ripped another throw through the cooling evening air across the great green expanse of the park. He threw it another half a dozen times before she was ready for a break. He poured some water into the collapsible dish he had brought with them and they sat down on the grass. He swatted away the annoying gnats that rose up in a cloud to surround them after they had plopped themselves down on the grass to relax.

That was soooo fun, Fern said silently. Landen didn’t reply and simply scratched her head instead; his own head was swimming with too many other thoughts. He heard the familiar beep of the car doors locking on the Mini and looked up to see his parents making their way over to the park. They both smiled at him as he caught their eye and even though he could still see the worry and concern in his mother’s face he did not see any hints of the tears he had seen earlier. They strolled up hand in hand. “Looks like someone is going to sleep well tonight,” his father said smiling down at Fern, “let’s go for a walk shall we?”

As he fell into step beside his parents, his mother put her free arm around his shoulder and they walked toward the empty baseball diamonds in the distance. They walked in silence most of the way. Landen knew they were going to tell him something about his ability, there was no other reason he could think of for them being so upset. He had always suspected they knew, but they had never said a single word to him. He also thought that it was why he was homeschooled. He remembered doing other strange things when he was very little and talking with other animals before Fern. But his parents had always just ignored anything that had happened. But they had always kept him close to them and didn’t like him doing anything on his own with other people. As they got to the dirt infield of the closest baseball diamond and neared the dugout, Landen’s father broke the silence.

“There is no real easy way to say this son, so I guess I will get right out with it,” he said locking eyes with his wife and getting a small nod of encouragement from her before continuing. “Your mother and I know, have always known, that you can communicate with Fern. Telepathically I guess would be the best way to describe it. And that you can do other extraordinary things, you’ve been able to since we brought you home from the hospital.”

Landen nodded and looked into each of their eyes in turn. They both held his gaze briefly and then quickly looked away, almost like they were ashamed. “Why have you never said anything?” Landen asked.

“Were…Were not really sure.” His mother said. They all stood atop the steps leading down into the dugout. On the precipice. Victoria Schill took a deep breath trying to compose herself and made her way into the now darkening dugout. She sat down on one of the cold metal benches and the rest of her family followed. Landen sat on one side, his father William on the other. Fern wedged herself in between Victoria and Landen setting her head on Victoria’s lap.

“Not many children can walk by the time they are 6 months old, read books by the time they are 2, graduate high school at 7, and finish college at 12,” she said. “You have always been brilliant, smart, funny, and outgoing. But, there is something more that you are…You are Chosen.”

“What in the hell is Chosen?” Landen said, his temper starting to flare. “You wait almost thirteen years to tell me I have some sort of power, even though you’ve know this whole time, and now there’s a specific freaking term for it. What is going on? Is this why you have kept me so sheltered and away from everyone? Are you embarrassed by me or something, didn’t want me to accidently do something that could hurt your reputations?” Fern barked and Landed realized he was standing with his fists clenched screaming at his parents. His hands hurt from his nails digging into his palms. He took several deep breaths through his nose trying to calm himself and sat back down on the bench with his arms crossed and a scowl on his face. Fern licked his arm but he ignored her. His father bowed his head and answered.

“I’m not entirely sure what to tell you Landen. I remember the day we found out like it was yesterday, but at the same time it seems like it was a long-forgotten dream.”