She smiled again, and raked one hand through her curls, glistening in the bright morning sun. She looked at him through half-closed eyes. “In a hotel. The Holiday Inn, you know, the one on East Ohio Street. It’s very nice. You should try it some time.”
Cody felt disoriented, the warmth rising in his belly at the sight of Roberta in his bed warring with the pressing questions that had driven him all night. Relief, fear and anger were all mixed up together.
He swallowed and tried to refocus. What was at stake was too important, to him, to Allie and to Erik and their daughter. It would decide their futures, and his. But most important of all, it would tell him whether Roberta truly loved him.
“What were you doing in a hotel?”
“Writing. Writing a summary of your abduction and most of what Allie and Erik told us.”
Cody exhaled sharply. “Did you give it to Garnet?”
“Yes. I did.”
Cody groaned. He was too late.
Roberta squirmed about a little on the pillows. Her action sent the sheet tumbling, revealing her rose-tipped breasts. With a smile, she slowly replaced the sheet. Her hand on her chest, she looked up at Cody, her blue eyes sunny and warm. “Don’t look so worried. Garnet’s reaction, if I recall correctly, was that my summary was ‘nothing but drivel’.”
“Drivel?” Cody frowned. His brain felt like slow-moving sludge. Was he missing something?
“Oh, yes. And a conspiracy plot too. You know how UFO believers love their conspiracy plots.”
“A conspiracy plot?”
“Yes. Garnet accused you and me of trying to set him up to look like an idiot. Your phone call to him last night, as well as your unannounced visit, didn’t help matters.”
“What?”
“Oh, it’s all right.” Roberta tossed her head. “I’m not crushed. I know Garnet. I finally realized that in SUFOW, there’s room for only one star: him. He doesn’t want anyone else crowding his solar system. So I quit.”
“You quit?” Cody blinked. Things were happening too fast. After the night that he’d spent, he was having trouble taking it all in.
“Yes. But that’s all right. I decided to take my report to the Society for the Study of Aliens and UFOs. I knew they’d be interested.”
Cody groaned again. “Roberta, don’t your realize how dangerous this . . .”
“Yes.” She smiled again and snuggled down further under the sheet. “That’s why I’m here.” She yawned and stretched again. “I didn’t go.”
“I mean, this could really hurt Allie and Erik, not to speak of me. You don’t know—”
“You’re not listening,” Roberta said gently. “I said I didn’t take it there.”
“You didn’t take it to SSAU?” Hope flickered inside him.
She shook her head. “Nope. It took a while to penetrate my star-crazed state, but I finally realized on the drive there that no matter how I disguised the facts, you would be too easy to identify. Your case was just too widely publicized last year. At first I’d thought Garnet might be able to help me devise a way to protect your identities, but, since he doesn’t even believe me . . .”
Her voice trailed off and she shrugged. “Maybe, sometime, I’ll be able to do something with your story. But I’ll need a lot more information, and more time with you and with Erik. It will take a lot of thought, about how to do it and why, and even whether I should do it.”
“Whether you should do it?”
She nodded. “Yes. Because I realized something else too, something more important.”
Cody grabbed the door frame for support. He couldn’t take too many more surprises. “What?” he asked cautiously.
Roberta raised her head, her eyes shining with the sincerity that he loved most about her. “I realized I’m much more interested in the people affected or contacted by aliens than I am in any fame or notoriety I might gain from telling their stories. I’m more interested in helping them understand what’s happened to them, real or imagined, and cope with the effects. I don’t like to see people hurting.”
For a moment she hung her head. She raised it again, and looked at him once more, a glimmer of uncertainty in her eyes. “Especially you.” She swallowed. “I’m sorry I left you last night. I really am. I should have stayed. I know how hard this must have hit you, how much you didn’t want to be abducted by aliens. I—well, I don’t know what came over me. I—yes I do.
“I hope you can forgive me. I—well, I couldn’t believe what had fallen into my lap. It was all my dreams come true, the answer to all my professional hopes. And it was about you, which made it even better. I couldn’t wait to write it all down, to see exactly what I had, what I needed, and decide what to do with it all. Especially I couldn’t wait to show it to you. I was so excited. I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited before.”
She paused, her eyes filling with worry. “You are okay, aren’t you? Because I’d hate to think . . .”
Cody felt his face, stiff with tension, slowly relax. “Yes,” he said and, much to his own shock, he knew it was true. “It’s going to take me a while to get used to the idea. Maybe I’ll never get used to it. But I think I can live with it. Once I bring myself to believe it. Maybe I can even talk about it, write about it, sometime. But not yet. And not in the glare of publicity.”
“I know. I’m sorry. I should have understood that right away. But I’d never hurt you, not knowingly. You know that, don’t you?”
Slowly Cody smiled. “I know that.”
Roberta smiled too, her cheeks glowing. “You know, I finally realized something else too. For years I’ve let Garnet and all the teasing about my work chip away at my confidence. But now I’ve got it back. I do know what I’m doing. I proved that my hunch, my intuition, was right, and that I could investigate and persevere with the best of them. But most of all I proved to the only people that matter than I’m not just some crazy chick.”
“What people?” Cody froze.
“You know.”
“No, I don’t.” Cody’s fingers tightened on the door frame.
“Yes, you do. You and me.”
“You and me?”
“Yes, me and you. But especially me.”
Roberta’s smile widened until it seemed to consume her face. Her eyes glowed. “I love you, Cody Walker. I could never, ever hurt you. And I love that you’ve never thought I was crazy, not from the very start.”
Cody sat on the end of the bed, and looked at her face, full of love. The words Roberta spoke were not new; she’d said them as shortly ago as last night. But this time they touched him in a way they hadn’t the first time. This time they filled him with hope, and wonder, and awe. And the conviction that together they could face anything.
Her foot, with its pink-painted toes, slipped out from under the sheet. He clasped it with both hands and caressed it. Still holding her foot, he looked into her eyes.
“That’s not the only thing you proved,” he said.
“No?” Her brow creased. “What else?”
“You proved that I’m not going crazy, either. You don’t know how important that is to me. It’s going to take me a while to accept the idea that I was abducted by aliens, but at least I know I’m not losing my mind. Or turning into my father. I was really starting to worry.”
His words slowed. “You don’t know how important to me it is that you cared enough to try to find the answers, even though I fought you and doubted you all the way.”
His grip tightened on her foot. He held her gaze. Tears pooled in her beautiful clear eyes, and her chin trembled.
“Now there’s only one thing left to prove,” he whispered.
“There is?”
“Yes.” He dropped her foot and edged along the bed towards her.
“What’s that?”
“We need to prove just how crazy we are about each other.”
He kicked off his shoes and rolled onto the bed beside her. Her smile filled his heart with a joy that made this homeco
ming unlike any other.
“And I think we should start right now.”
His lips closed over hers, drowning out her murmur of agreement.
Epilogue
As the baptismal water dripped onto Star’s head, she reacted with a startled squall, one that echoed through the silence of the tiny chapel. Standing by Allie’s side, Roberta looked up and caught Cody’s eye. He smiled.
A lump rose in Roberta’s throat. Without warning, her eyes filled with tears. How she loved him. She could hardly believe the events that had unfolded during the last few weeks. Or that the two of them were standing here now, godparents to two-month-old Star.
Blinking back the tears, she returned her attention to the christening ceremony. The priest dried the little girl’s head, then anointed her with oil. Soothed by his action, as well as her mother’s rocking, Star stopped crying. Erik’s stern face cracked into a smile; no one could miss the look of pride and love that passed between him and Allie.
The ceremony ended, and the couple’s friends and family members gathered around them. Allie’s nephews, seven-year-old twins Jason and Randy, stood on tiptoe to see the baby, while the chapel filled with laughter and happy chatter.
Cody nodded to Roberta and they headed to the exit. In a half hour or so they’d be joining Allie and Erik at a small reception to celebrate Star’s christening.
Outside on the steps of the church, Roberta blinked. The sun beat down through the hazy late August sky, bright and warm compared to the dim, cool interior of the chapel.
She glanced down at her hand. In the sunshine, the striking sapphire, surrounded by a cluster of tiny diamonds, shone as bright and true as her love for Cody.
Who would have believed even two short months ago that she would be engaged to the most wonderful man in the world? Or that she would have a new, part-time job with SSAU, investigating likely alien abductions and UFO sightings, and counseling abductees to help them understand what, if anything, had happened to them.
Even better, after she’d finally convinced Erik and Allie that their secret was safe with her, Erik had agreed to tell her everything he knew about his native planet and galaxy, and the scientific processes that allowed them to travel through the universe. So far the interviews had been spell-binding. She wasn’t sure how she could use the information yet, but she’d started focusing on long ago disappearances, including the kidnap of Erik’s grandmother. Perhaps, with time and work, she would be able to use the long-ago abduction cases as a way to broaden the question of alien visits to Earth. Cody had helped her put together a solid outline for a book, one she felt certain would have broad appeal both inside and outside the field of ufology.
The familiar excitement bubbled up inside. She had so much to be thankful for. Thankful that alien intervention had ultimately brought her two wonderful gifts: true love and acceptance of herself.
“What are you smiling about? You look like the cat who swallowed the canary.” Cody’s warm hand closed over hers and he tugged her down the stairs. At the bottom he reached for her other hand and pulled her around to face him. “Spill it.”
His white teeth gleamed against his olive complexion, and the corners of his black eyes crinkled in the way she loved. She smiled again.
“Godparents—it’s just hard to believe we’re Star’s godparents. I’m a godmother. You’re a godfather.” She tilted her head. “How do you like the sound of that?”
“Not bad. But there are other names I like better.” His eyes twinkled.
“Yes? What?”
“Oh, you know. Friend.” He squeezed her hands. “Lover.” He raised her ring-clad hand to his lips and kissed it. “Husband.”
Her throat tightened. This time she couldn’t control the tears pooling in her eyes.
She swallowed and tried to make light. “Um, uh, there’s just one thing that bothers me.”
“Hmm?” Cody pulled her closer.
“Remember how Erik said the Zurans used subliminal mesages to change you? To make you loyal and tidy?”
Erik’s brow furrowed. “Yes?”
“Well, I was just wondering, maybe they could take you back. Send a few more messages.”
He frowned. “For what?
“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe change your taste in cars, your yen for milk and cookies,” she teased. “Make you my love slave forever.”
They rounded the corner of the church. Without warning Cody pressed her against the wall and kissed her until she was breathless.
Forehead pressed against hers, he whispered, “What, this isn’t enough for you?”
His expression grew serious. “Because I’m telling you, I don’t need any subliminal messages to tell me what’s important. I may have been careless before, with things and with people. But never stupid.”
He drew back slightly, his black eyes burning. “No matter what, I would have recognized the best thing that ever happened to me. And that’s you.”
He paused. “I hope you know that.”
Roberta’s heart thundered in her chest. “I do. Oh, Cody, I do.”
– THE END –
Norah-Jean Perkin is a former newspaper reporter and magazine editor. She lives in southern Ontario.
Crazy in Chicago is also available
in print from The Fiction Works,
as is its prequel, Blue Dawn
Crazy in Chicago Page 23