Arrival of the Traveler (Waldgrave Book 1)

by A. L. Tyler

  “Geez. I wonder what crawled into her girdle…”

  Hesper didn’t seem concerned as she pulled out her makeup bag and started to wipe off her face. “Oh, it’s just your mom. As always. Serena’s, like, the foremost in equal rights leadership here, and it just doesn’t mesh with Old Faith ideals. She’s probably doubly ticked because of your political antics.”

  “Well, whatever.” Lena yawned. Out in the hall a floorboard creaked. Both girls looked in the direction of the door.

  It’s your mom… Hesper rolled her eyes.

  They changed into their pajamas and went to bed.

  The next day flew by, as did the rest of the week. Serena was the most fun that Lena had ever had with an adult, and while she annoyed Ava, which was expected, the tattoo across her left shoulder was more than Mrs. Ralston could handle.

  “It’s not right to treat one’s body as a billboard.” She had said in her driest tone; Serena had laughed and pulled her cover-up back over her swimsuit, sending the Latin script into hiding.

  Eric was hanging around uncommonly too much again, always looking and watching Hesper. Lena was happy that for once someone was paranoid about a person that wasn’t her because it made her feel trusted, but at the same time she was very worried for Hesper. Obsessed people could be very dangerous, and given the political situation that Hesper’s family was in…

  Lena hadn’t said anything to Hesper because she didn’t want her to worry. Even though she was an integrationist, she was also a believer in the Old Faith, and the threat on Lena’s life several months earlier had greatly deepened the divide between Old Faith and New Faith believers. The Masons, to Lena’s knowledge, were New Faith believers.

  “We should go out to dinner tonight.” Hesper smiled and winked at Lena; they’d been trying all week to lose the adults and spend some time in town alone since the night they had noticed Ava eavesdropping. And while Serena was fun, she hadn’t let up on Lena about the Council situation. It seemed she wanted to turn her into some sort of political prodigy, and talked incessantly about how great it would be to have a woman on the Council pushing women’s issues.

  “Not tonight girls…Greg’s working late and I need to watch Rose and Daisy.” Serena was in the kitchen washing dishes and watching her daughters play in the yard outside. “But you’re welcome to the car, Ava, if you want to take them.”

  Ava glanced up from the sofa in the other room, where she was watching TV and winding down with Mrs. Ralston and Eric. They’d been to the beach again that day; it was an activity that Ava found particularly taxing.

  “Not tonight, Lena. I’m too tired.” Ava didn’t look away from the television.

  “Well, I’m technically an adult now, so I think I’ll go anyway.” Lena said in an annoyed tone.

  Ava turned around and stared at her daughter. “Excuse me, young lady?”

  “I’d like to go out with Hesper, so we’re going out.”

  “I’ll chaperone…” Mrs. Ralston, looking tired after chasing teenagers all week, started to get up out of her chair.

  “Not unless I’m going, and I’m not going.” Ava glared at Rosaleen, who sank back into her seat; even after all the time the two had spent together, Ava still thought Mrs. Ralston was untrustworthy. Ava steadied her gaze back on Lena. “Neither are you. You can’t go unless chaperoned, and you have no chaperone.”

  “Mom, why do you always…”

  “Me? No. That’s the law, Lena. We all have to abide by it.”

  By ‘we’ she had meant the entire Daray family, who were under supervision for the chaos that many believed they would bring upon the world if left to their own devices. Triumphantly, Ava turned back to the TV.

  Sitting in the chair across the room, his eyes fixed on Hesper, Eric spoke up. “I’ll take them.”

  Hesper smiled. Lena’s heart dropped. Ava was now glaring at Eric, who realized too late that he had just challenged the authority of a mother on the edge. He glanced nervously at Rosaleen, who gave a reassuring look and then shook her head slowly; she’d given up on Ava being reasonable the day she’d met her—a spoiled, rich, arrogant little girl who preyed on the ambitions and hopes of others.

  Lena shook her head, trying to get him out of the corner he had backed himself in to. “Oh, no…Eric, if my mom says…”

  But Hesper was determined to go. “Lena, don’t be ridiculous. Eric is an approved chaperone, so why not?”

  “Really, it’s okay. We can just—“

  Lena! Shut up! Hesper gave her a strict glare.

  Eric glanced nervously at Hesper. Ava’s icy stare was still fixed on him.

  “I mean, everyone wins. We’ll be out of your hair, and probably out so late that we’ll be too tired to do anything tomorrow…” Hesper’s voice died into the silence.

  “Griffin said we should spend some time out together.” Lena wasn’t sure if it was a lie or not; Hesper was certainly acting desperate enough to give it a try, though.

  Ava turned back around and looked back and forth between the two girls, considering. “I want a phone call every half hour. If I don’t pick up, leave a message.”

  Lena smiled at Hesper, who was already headed out the door. Eric gave Lena an ambiguous glance before following Hesper out to the car.

  A moment later, and they were cruising off the property and off towards city lights.

  “Where are we eating, ladies?”

  Lena looked over at Hesper, who had produced an array of makeup in her lap and was putting on a fresh coat of lipstick using a compact mirror.

  “Well…” Lena said uncertainly.

  Hesper’s mirror snapped shut. “What about that place we saw yesterday?”

  “You’re too young.” Eric kept glancing into the rearview mirror.

  “You’re saying I look it?” Hesper’s tone was challenging.

  Lena shot another look at Hesper, eyebrows raised.

  “I’m saying she does.” In the rearview, Lena saw Eric’s eyes fall on her.

  “Well, what about that other place? The one out on the beach?” Hesper asked.

  “You want me to drive all the way out there?”

  Hesper smiled at Lena. All the way out to the beach…

  “Lena?”

  Lena met Eric’s gaze in the mirror. “Yeah, that sounds great.”

  And the forty-five minute drive commenced. Lena glanced over at Hesper several more times before she finally took the hint.

  What’s up? You really wanted to stay back at the house?

  Lena checked to be sure Eric wasn’t watching before shaking her head.

  You want to go somewhere else?

  She shook her head and threw another look at Eric. Hesper pursed her lips.

  What about him?

  Lena rolled her eyes. Hesper knew she wasn’t able to use private thought-speak; anything she said could be heard by anyone within the vicinity.

  Hesper sighed. Look, it’s a complicated situation. We’ll talk later. “So Lena. Anything interesting happening at Waldgrave lately?”

  “Not in the slightest. And how is California?” Hesper lived with her parents on a private horse ranch in Northern California; many Silenti had made the trip out to visit in the past few months to mooch off of Griffin’s newfound political situation.

  “Well, you know. Bunch of old guys hanging out and kissing Griffin’s butt. And Eric, how are you?”

  “Well, I’m going out to dinner with two lovely ladies who’re making small talk to fill an awkward silence.”

  “Indeed?”

  The place Hesper was talking about, it turned out, was called the Sand Dollar. There was an ocean-front deck strung up with holiday lights and fake Tiki memorabilia; the smell of charring beef and shrimp permeated the atmosphere inside and directly outside the restaurant. A waitress seated them at a table out on the deck, and Eric excused himself to the restroom after making Lena swear not to move and to scream for help if anyone so much as looked at her for too long. After he disappe
ared back into the Dollar, Lena looked over at Hesper to continue their conversation from earlier. She was fixing her lipstick again.

  “You’re doing that a lot lately.” Lena observed in an annoyed tone.

  Hesper pursed her lips and blotted them on a napkin. “Those of us who wear makeup know it requires maintenance.”

  “No, even for you you’re doing it a lot lately…Are you nervous, or something?”

  Hesper’s mirror clicked shut. She carefully capped her lipstick and stuck it back into her handbag. Lena’s eyes narrowed as she watched Hesper carefully compose herself before looking over.

  “No. I’m not nervous.”

  “Yes you are.”

  “I’m not and you can’t prove it. I’ve blocked you out completely, since you’re in such a prying mood.”

  “I don’t need to read your mind to know you’re nervous.”

  Hesper pulled her lipstick back out of her purse. “And how would you presume to know otherwise?”

  Lena sat back and waited until Hesper was absorbed in fixing her makeup. “You’re doing it again. You just did that less than a minute ago.”

  “So?” Hesper shot an annoyed look at Lena, who sighed. Lena wondered if Hesper had any ability, outside of her inhuman empathic abilities, to read what others were thinking or feeling.

  “Is it Eric?” Lena asked.

  “It’s nothing for you to concern yourself with…”

  Lena shook her head. “Look, there’s something going on here, and I wish you’d just tell me what—“

  “Has the waitress been through yet?” Eric sat down and picked up his menu. Hesper and Lena stared determinedly across the table at each other before Hesper looked out across the surf. The tide was coming in, and a spectacular number of stars were out. “Nope. No waitress yet.”

  “What are you going to order?”

  “Salad—“

  “Chicken—“

  Hesper and Lena looked at each other again and went completely silent. Eric looked from one to the other. “Is there something going on here?”

  “I don’t know. Is there?” Lena looked at Eric. Eric glanced at Hesper, who was staring back out to sea, and then took uncommonly too long to answer.

  “I think I’ll get the crab legs. Would anyone like an appetizer?” Eric finally said into the tense silence.

  Hesper was digging into her purse again. She pulled out her mirror and a tube of mascara. “Some of those cheese biscuit things would be nice.”

  They ordered and ate. Eric insisted on paying even though Ava had sent Lena with enough cash to treat everyone. Lena couldn’t help noticing that Hesper had been avoiding eye contact the whole time, as well as the fact that Eric seemed to always be looking at her. It was a little creepy, but Lena reasoned that as long as she and Hesper stayed together, nothing could happen to either of them. He couldn’t leave Lena alone because the law decreed so, and as long as Hesper stayed close, they could protect each other.

  After dinner they wandered down the street to where some shops surrounding the late night bars were open. One of them happened to be a higher-end lingerie store, which Lena insisted on going into, and Eric offered to sit out front and wait for them.

  “Do you know what he’s going to think we’re doing in here?!” Hesper was more annoyed than she normally was in such a situation. Most of the time, she wouldn’t care, or would even flaunt, being in a store that her parents wouldn’t approve of. Lena reasoned that Griffin’s situation was starting to get to her.

  “Buying bras?” Lena looked over at a store model that vaguely resembled an extraterrestrial in undergarments made out of dental floss, fake flowers, and latex. “Really weird bras…”

  Hesper glared at her from under her dark eye makeup.

  “Look, I’m just getting a really creepy vibe off of him. I don’t think it’s a good idea that we’re out alone with him.” Lena pleaded.

  Hesper gave a slight laugh. She walked over to a bin of underwear and began to quarry through them. “You’ve got a creepy vibe? A creepy vibe? You suck at this—he’s completely harmless.” She picked up a pair of blue lace panties that were studded with large rhinestones and held them up to model. She then smiled and made an exaggerated wave at Eric, who quickly turned back around to face the street on his bench.

  “You’re just trying to make me feel better about this.” Lena accused.

  Hesper laughed, but still sounded annoyed. “No, I’m really not…”

  “Yes, you are.”

  “You’re way off base. Trust me, he has no unsuitable intentions concerning you or your health. He’s no Warren Astley.”

  Lena followed Hesper to a wall covered in sleepwear. “Hey, I’m getting better at it—Mrs. Ralston says I’m fair at blocking my thoughts now, so I don’t go around wearing my every thought where others can feel them, and I’m even starting to pick up on other people’s thoughts. A little. It’s not me I’m worried about.”

  Hesper picked up a set of pajama bottoms with a frog pattern printed on them, and then turned around with a broad smile on her face. She was far too arrogant for Lena’s liking; she was too much like Griffin at times, and it was bad for her health.

  “I’ll be fine. Trust me.”

  “Hesper…”

  “Lena,” She reached and put a hand on Lena’s shoulder, “You might be getting good at this, but trust me when I say I’ve got a handle on the situation. And I swear I’ll tell you if I ever get in over my head.”

  “You swear it?”

  “On Griffin.”

  Lena paused for dramatic effect. “Not good enough.”

  They shared a laugh. Hesper shook off the previous conversation, and seemed to go back to her old self. “So, since we’re here, have you ever been lingerie shopping before?”

  Lena looked around the store again. The faceless extraterrestrial underwear models with jutting hips and bald heads were watching her. “No.”

  “Have any desire too? I mean, just for the heck of it? Because this may be our only chance to ever do it alone?”

  Hesper and Lena picked out some matching pajama sets. Lena picked out some bras that weren’t the conservative white that Mrs. Ralston always got her—nothing that would qualify as lingerie, but much prettier than she was used to. Hesper started a competition to see who could find the ugliest bra, and then another one to find the piece or outfit that Mrs. Ralston would find the most offensive. She went around the store and picked out a few items for herself, then a few “to scandalize her mother,” they made their purchases, and finally walked out to find Eric.

  Hesper threw a daunting smile at him. “I believe we’re ready to go back to the house now.”

  “Okay.” Eric got up off his bench and they walked back to the car. Lena watched him looking into the rearview mirror at Hesper the whole way home.

  *****

  CHAPTER 12

  The next day was spent at the house on Ava’s orders. It was a Saturday, which meant Daisy and Rose, the two youngest Masons, were home from school. They liked spending time with Lena and Hesper. The four girls did makeovers and painted each other’s nails, which the younger two greatly enjoyed, and Hesper even told them she would send them some of her old hand-me-down clothes, which made Daisy practically scream with excitement. Hesper bought new clothes every season, so her clothes were rarely ever worn more than a couple of times. Later in the day they left for a sleepover at a friend’s house; a human friend.

  “They don’t talk like we do,” Daisy pointed out to Lena in her wide-eyed, innocent way. “But they’re nice and I like them anyways.”

  Later, when Lena asked Greg if he ever worried about them saying too much about the Silenti world, he only laughed.

  “They’re kids,” he shrugged, wiping away a tear from his eye as he continued to chuckle. “They have active imaginations. When they’re old enough to be taken seriously, they’ll either cut it out when they see how serious it is, or their peers will start to mock them for being crazy.
Problem solved.”

  Lena forced a smile.

  Greg set a hand on her shoulder. “Lena, I wasn’t born into this world. I was brought in, like you. When I was twelve, I ran away from a militant boarding school my parents sent me to. They sent me because I wouldn’t stop lying about being able to hear what people were thinking. Everyone at school thought I was a freak as well, so I left. Human-born Silenti often find themselves on the outskirts of human society because people find them odd. That’s how the Council can scoop them up so easily without anyone noticing.” Greg paused to smile and shake his head. “Someday, they’re going to figure out that humans won’t believe them, even if they tell the truth. I just hope that they decide the friends they’ve made are worth the extra effort.”

  Lena had never considered it before, but Greg was right. No one would believe the truth about the Silenti world, especially coming from a child. She supposed that someone might try to prove their advanced abilities using a trick of telepathy, perhaps by having one person read another’s mind to determine the number and suit of a card hidden from view. But hadn’t this been done already? There were reports of people with almost every Silenti ability she had encountered so far, and most humans didn’t believe it. The ones who did believe it were regarded as crazy. Even if a person were to see it for themselves, they would probably still believe there was a trick or “rational explanation” at work.

  As Hesper and Eric sat in the living room watching television, Mrs. Ralston was doing a cross-word puzzle in the kitchen, and Ava was battling a headache in her bedroom, Lena found the Masons sitting at their respective desks in the office—Serena eating a bowl of cereal and chatting on the phone, and Greg playing solitaire on his computer. The office was still done up in rugby regalia, the same as it had been when Lena was little.

  “Uh huh,” Serena looked over at Lena as she talked into the phone. “Of course. I completely agree. Can I call you back a little later? Something important just came up…Uh huh. Bye.”

  Lena shook her head. “You really didn’t have to—“