by Suze Reese
I opened a stream to Mom, walking towards the closet.
I slipped into the cluttered closet and lifted the cylindrical machine that hung on the wall.
“Careful,” Leo said. “It’s heavy.”
I smiled at him and hoisted it on my shoulder. Fortunately the vacuum wasn’t heavy at all. The first benefit so far of having supposedly-superior genes. Super Janitor. What an achievement. My friends back home would be so proud. I stepped back into the sunlight so Mom could teach me how to use the vacuum in private. I debated telling her about Jesse. Admitting I was infatuated with my supervisor would definitely get me pulled from the assignment. But it could also get me into serious trouble.
With the vacuum eventually ready to go, I rushed past the room Jesse was in and on to building three. I cleaned four empty rooms before getting to Dr. Tom’s and was surprised to find him at his desk. I paused in the doorway, tempted to come back later, but realized that wasn’t logical. The point of this assignment was to watch him. I started in the corner farthest from him and flipped on the vacuum. He glanced up, then returned to his work. I couldn’t be sure if he even recognized me. I picked a wad of paper off the floor, glanced at him, and felt obvious. Turning away, I felt even more obvious. I left before finishing, the wad of paper still in hand.
Dr. Alison’s room was no different from her husband’s in appearance, except it was, gratefully, empty. I thought about looking through Dr. Alison’s drawers, though I didn’t even know what I’d be looking for. I decided to wait a few days, until I knew the teacher’s schedule better. Assuming I still had the job then.
Several times, when I moved from one classroom to another, I sensed my new supervisor gazing at me from a distance. At the end of my rounds—when I threw the large bag of trash I’d collected into the dumpster—I heard his footsteps approaching. I wanted to rush away but couldn’t leave until I’d maneuvered the bag into the large bin. By then there was no way to flee without at least facing him. I stepped to the side of the dumpster, out of his way.
He heaved in two large bags and brushed off his knee-length shorts. Then he smiled, bright and unpretentious. “You did good.”
I shuffled my feet, annoyed that I felt flattered by his words. It was just menial labor. Anybody could do it. Ask me to recite pi to the millionth decimal. Or to list all Earth situation comedies ever produced, starting with The Goldbergs in 1949. Now that would be impressive.
Facing one another like we had before school yesterday, I got the nerve to look at his eyes, which danced cheerfully. He obviously found me amusing. But as far as I knew, none of the many stupid things I’d done since my arrival had been in front of him. Maybe he really was just a mentally unstable boy who always looked that way. I was so tempted to read his mind. Which meant I had better leave. “Am I…are we…?” I muttered, shifting my feet.
“You’re done,” he said.
With just a slight hesitation, I turned and hurried to my locker, eager to put the confusing male and this dreadful employment situation behind me.
***
Mom asked about my work that evening but was too distracted to notice that I was evasive with my answer. I went to bed feeling abandoned and lonely.
The next day the Everett excitement was even more intense. Jesse’s presence continued to keep me off balance and confused. I had reasoned that it was best to sit quietly at my usual table rather than continually trying to avoid the friendly group of girls that had adopted me. Fortunately the girls were too busy jabbering about Everett to notice that I didn’t speak. Which should have been a relief but only added to my misery. Perhaps worst of all, both the Stones were as normal as a couple of teachers could be. Even the mood in Dr. Alison’s room was the same as every other classroom.
I felt despondent when I went to the janitor’s closet after school. Instead of the adventure I had anticipated before coming to Earth, the year stretching out before me was destined to be marked primarily by loneliness. I knew all along that I should keep to myself. Keddil had certainly done his best to dispel any notions of dazzling the student body with my superior intellect or physical prowess. But I was surprised that maintaining an emotional distance from girls was even more difficult than keeping a physical one from boys.
I stepped out of the closet with the vacuum strapped to my back and almost bumped into one of the Skinnies—Dionne—hanging a poster on the wall that read: Vote for Dionne SBO President.
I righted myself and smiled. That explained what an esbioveepee was. Dionne must have been the student body vice president last year: SBO VP. “Nice look.” Dionne smiled like she was being nice, but I could sense that there was nothing the least bit nice about her greeting.
“Thank you.” I made an effort to keep my voice neutral and kept walking.
After my shift I was brought up short by another poster just outside the janitor’s closet: New is Now. Everett for President. I studied the poster and wondered if there could possibly be another Everett at the school. One that would run for Student Body President. On a campaign platform of “New.”
“Crazy, isn’t it?”
I turned to see Jesse behind me, standing several feet away. He seemed to have figured out that he should keep his distance. But I still wasn’t used to the sight of him. Especially the way he watched me. “The poster, I mean.” He looked down, scuffing his shoe on the sidewalk, his cheeks reddening slightly.
“Yes,” I said quickly, embarrassed for him when I figured out the meaning he’d applied to the word crazy. I turned back to the poster, to lessen his discomfort. “I don’t understand. Didn’t he just move here? Is running for office so soon normal?”
“Not that I know of,” he replied. After a moment he continued. “But he’ll probably win.”
I wanted to turn his way but kept my gaze on the name Everett. “Will you vote for him?”
“Not in a million years,” he replied. “How about you?”
“Never.” I finally turned around but was unnerved by the intensity of his gaze and quickly turned back, shivering.
“That’ll be two ‘no’ votes then,” he said. “Probably the only ones.”
I watched him go, more curious than ever about Jessie’s supposed history with mental illness. Maybe it was just a rumor. Based on the conversation we’d just had, he was the only sane one at this school.
***
The next day it was announced over the intercom during third period that Dionne had dropped out of the race. Everett joined my gym class that morning, and the entire class erupted into cheers, crowding him and patting him on the back. At lunch Everett entered the cafeteria with his arm gallantly around Dionne. As usual, Everett didn’t seem to be there to eat. He traveled from table to table, with Dionne tucked under his arm, inviting everyone to his celebration party Friday night at his house.
I was more than unhappy to see him come into my math class after lunch, which meant he was now in every one of my classes. He stopped by my desk. “My Albuquerque friend will be at the party, won’t she?”
I put on a smile as fake as his. “Maybe.”
“Good.” He winked and continued down the aisle, inviting each student he passed.
Later that afternoon I stepped into Dr. Alison’s classroom with a vacuum strapped to my back and practically walked into Everett, who was talking to Dr. Alison. I resisted the urge to rush from the room and instead headed to the farthest corner. I picked up a scrap of paper I could have just sucked up and tossed it into the trash can. If I turned on the vacuum I might miss an interesting conversation.
“I’d better go,” Everett said.
I picked up a pencil from the floor and glanced at them.
“Thank you for your help,” Dr. Alison said in an even tone.
I studied the floor, hoping to find something else I could pick up, but the area was perfectly clean. Everett glanced in my direction, hesitating, the
n dashed out the door. Dr. Alison remained at her desk and wrote in a notebook. I turned on the vacuum, but stayed in the far corner longer than I needed to. At some point, I turned around to discover Dr. Alison had left. I vacuumed faster than usual in the direction of the desk, eyeing the notebook. I glanced toward the hall then hurried to the desk.
I positioned the vacuum hose under the desk and casually flicked the notebook open with one finger. The page I turned to was filled with hand-written lesson plans: Fauvism, Expressionism, Cubism, Futurism, Impressionism. Nothing suspicious. I glanced at the door and flipped to another page. The same thing. One more flip…and I saw it: Everett written in the margins. My heart pounded. I studied the page, but nothing else seemed out of the ordinary. No other student names. Nothing else in the margins. I closed the book with a shaky hand.
It had to mean something. Why would a teacher, especially one as sophisticated as Dr. Alison, doodle a student’s name in her notebook? It might not prove anything about Everett, but I was supposed to report anything unusual about Dr. Alison. And this qualified. It was little. But it was something.
I turned off the vacuum, hurried with my cart to the next room, and opened a stream to Mom.
I flipped on the vacuum.
I adjusted the vacuum, deflated. Before I had time to gather my thoughts, Jesse appeared in the doorway. I took a step back in surprise, lost my balance with the weight of the vacuum, and accidentally cut the stream with Mom.
Jesse took a step in my direction, “You okay?”
Mom’s voice popped back inside my head.
I put up my hand to stop Jesse. “I’m fine. And I’m almost done,” I said. “I just have to finish this room. Sorry if I made you wait.”
“I’ll take your trash to the dumpster.”
I called out a thanks to him, then as soon as he was out of sight, continued streaming with Mom.
I came across an area of carpet that was wet and reeked of human bodily fluid.
CHAPTER TEN
It seemed like the only person who didn’t talk incessantly for the next two days about Everett’s upcoming party was Jesse. But then, he rarely spoke. He just kept me off balance with his brilliant smile—the one I couldn’t figure out. Like he was concealing a joke that I should be in on. The result was always the same, I’d look away feeling weak kneed and confused.
I had no plans of going to the party, and knew that nothing in the world could get me there—at night, with boys, and alcohol—or worse. Not to mention the creepy host. A party would violate dozens of rules and would do nothing to help my job of watching the Stones. Mom would never let me go. I wouldn’t even ask.
But as much as I knew it was the last place I should want to be, I couldn’t help feeling left out. It was in my nature to want to be included, which was just one more reason that I shouldn’t have been assigned this job. They should have known that from the three-day assessment I’d taken. Maybe this was just part of the game Keddil was playing, to see how many ways he could torture me.
I decided that what I needed was a girl’s night. Just me and Mom. Earth style. On my way home from work Friday afternoon I took a detour to the Lucky Grocery Store and stealthily followed a mother with two children. Whenever the children asked for something, I found the item and put it in my own cart. Within twenty minutes my cart was overflowing with food that had absolutely no nutritional value but looked and smelled divine. I paid with currency from my emergency fund and congratulated myself on my brilliance. Of course the food part of the party would have to happen before Mom got home, but that was okay.
At home I changed into the swimsuit the agency had provided. The lightweight fabric was closer to what I was used to than anything else in my closet. Unfortunately there wasn’t much of it. The two small strips of fabric seemed like an odd fashion choice for females so neurotic about their bodies. I suspected it had something to do with a primitive need to attract men.
I was, for once, almost grateful to be alone when I traipsed nearly naked into my backyard, clutching a package of red licorice candy and a towel. I scooted a lounge chair beneath the large palmaceae—palm tree—with its odd shedding trunk and gigantic leaves for branches.
After a few moments of resting in the lounge chair, I noticed just beyond the cinderblock wall that bordered the yard a blur of red rise and quickly fall again. It appeared briefly a few seconds later, this time accompanied by a pair of green eyes.
I chuckled. “Hey, Becca.”
The little girl’s head popped up again, then disappeared. A tiny voice came from behind the wall. “Do you like to swim?”
“Uh…yeah,” I replied. “I guess.”
“So do I.” The red head popped up once again.
I put my head back on the lounge chair and rubbed the bridge of my nose. I was tired of being alone. A little kid wasn’t my first choice for company, but it was probably the most harmless. “You can come over if you want.”
There was no reply. After several moments I assumed the conversation was over, until Becca ran through the side gate in a flowery pink swimsuit. “You sure it’s okay?”
“I guess,” I said. “As long as you know how to swim and I’m back here anyway.” I offered Becca a piece of the red candy, which she held while jumping feet first into the sparkling blue water.
Becca appeared to be a competent swimmer, so I couldn’t think of a single reason why she shouldn’t be here, besides the various rules about being alone with a human. But she was just a kid. What was she going to do? Notice me streaming and report me to her mom?
I closed my eyes and felt aware of a cool evening breeze kissing my nose. I opened my eyes to see the palm waving its leaves above my head. I took a bite of soft chewy candy and drank in a deep breath filled with a combination of new smells—mostly citrus and salt. Not one emotion.
It was going to be a perfect evening even without the stupid party. I’d just have to send Becca home before Mom arrived. Then the two of us would enjoy some visual media on a real-live television set. I’d never done it before, but it seemed much more intimate than streaming media—with both of us viewing the same external media at the same time.
The sun had dropped in the sky. My stomach churned uncomfortably from my candy diet when Becca suddenly stopped on the diving board and looked towards the house. I reduced the volume of the music playing in my head—one of a couple hundred Earth tunes I’d downloaded before losing my UNID—and heard Mom stomping around in the house. Becca jumped onto the concrete from the back of the
diving board and dashed out the side gate without a word.
I slipped the empty candy box under my towel.
I silenced the music.
I found Mom in her bedroom, dumping what appeared to be her entire human wardrobe into a suitcase on the bed.
“What’s up?” I said out loud.
“I’m going on an assignment!”
I dropped onto the edge of the bed. “You’re leaving? For how long?”
“Just for the weekend. You’ll be all right, won’t you?”
“Sure.” It was a lie Mom should have been able to detect if she hadn’t been so distracted. “What’s your assignment?”
“Senator Simmons.” Mom tossed a pair of slacks in the suitcase, her face flush with excitement. “I’m following him to Sacramento.”
“A rogue?”
Mom scooped up several pairs of shoes and dumped them in. “Suspected.”
“They think he’s from Nreim? A nafarian?” I pulled the slacks out from the bottom of the bag, folded them, and placed them on top of the shoes. “But they don’t know for sure?”
“Nope. Not yet.”
“And why can’t you just run a scan on him? Wouldn’t that be easier than following him across the globe?”
Mom smiled, and kneeled next to the bed. “Of course. But the council has very strict noninvasive policies.” She stooped with her head under the bed and raised her voice. “We can’t run a scan without the suspect’s consent. Just like we can’t stream with them.”
“But that’s stupid. They think it’s less invasive for you to run around spying than to do a simple scan he won’t even know about?”