by Suze Reese
By now, tears were spilling freely down my cheeks. I put my face in my arms and watched the memory again. Laden with guilt, I felt myself free falling downward into the deep melodic strains of the music.
CHAPTER TWENTY SIX
Sometime during the night I awoke to an urgent message from Geery. The memory of Jesse was still running in an endless loop in my mind. I blinked myself awake and opened the message.
I jolted upright. This was the connection I needed. But almost hoped I wouldn’t find. A child died on Rameer’s street the day after he reported an event that was later deleted from Dr. Tom’s file.
I had an urge to send more text messages but restrained myself. My friends wouldn’t appreciate a middle-of-the-night wakeup call as much as I had. I swung off the bed, my feet landing solidly on the floor. I just had to think through all of it. Couldn’t dismiss anything. First of all, who sent the file? And why did they send it to Geery? And what about those other news stories? How were they connected? They happened in entirely different states. But I’d bet my life Geery would have a connection by the end of the day.
So if I assumed Rameer was being warned away from something—and the same thing was happening to me—I had to figure out what the warning was about. Maybe Rameer didn’t know what he was doing wrong either. It could have taken three times for him to figure it out.
And maybe once he did he just stopped reporting it. But Dr. Tom continued doing whatever it was. Of course. I walked the length of my room once again. All of the reports were of Dr. Tom going somewhere. But I hadn’t seen or reported anything like that. I looked at my eggshell walls and wished I could turn them chartreuse, my thinking color. It would be even better if I could wander out to the living room and find Jesse sleeping on the couch.
I wandered, instead, to the dinosaur of a computer in the family room. Geery wouldn’t be able to help while at school. I could review the recordings of the Stones’ classes—again—but it would be nice to have some idea of what to look for. If I could just figure out what was significant about the drives Dr. Tom took.
It was torture finding the bus route to the beach last week. But I was in a state of flux then. Maybe it would be easier now. I started with a search of the address of Dr. Tom’s third drive, which I learned was currently a small grocery store. The building pictured on the store website couldn’t have been more than five years old. Next I searched the two addresses from the news stories, but came up blank. A search of the victims’ names was just as useless.
I was searching old obituaries when Mom walked into the room. I collapsed the screen. “Morning,” I said, quickly throwing out a cheerful mood.
“Have you been up all night?”
“Most of it.” I turned to face her. “I think I’m on to something. But I need a huge favor.” I couldn’t keep using the computer today without Mom watching. And until I could reach Geery, my only other hope for research—and seeing Jesse—was at the school. I swallowed, then blurted the question I’d prepared during the night: “There was a big dance last night. I think my boss would let me go in to clean up. It would give me a chance to search the Stones’ rooms without being watched.”
Mom put her hands on her hips. “I don’t know—”
“It’s a perfect time. The school will be empty.”
“And you won’t see that Everett boy?”
“Not a chance.”
Mom appraised me, her eyes stern. I fidgeted. Eventually she nodded, just slightly. I rushed past her and dashed to the phone on my nightstand. I hesitated. Six thirty was insanely early to call a teenager on a Sunday morning after a dance. But I couldn’t wait. I sent a text: >>You up?
I slid down the edge of the bed, sitting on the floor, and gripped the phone. While waiting for the call, I tried to figure out how I could search classrooms without Jesse knowing what I was up to. I really did want to search the rooms. But I wanted to be with Jesse more. I could pretend to look for something I’d lost…a necklace maybe. It was close to eight o’clock when I sent the same text a second time, hoping the noise of the ring would wake him.
Then it struck me. If the Stones were getting into students’ minds, they could be watching me through Jesse. I put my head back on the bed. I had a way to see Jesse. But it could once again be putting him in harm’s way. I fingered the phone. Jesse. All I knew was I needed to see him. I pushed the number five to call him, even though Mom was most likely listening.
“Hey beautiful,” Jesse answered. “How did you sleep?”
I gulped down the smile that pulled at the corners of my mouth. “Hello sir. Can you tell me who cleans up after the dances?”
“Uh…Leo and I took care of it last night. Why?”
“I see. I was wondering if it would be possible to earn a little overtime. Maybe come in today to finish up?”
“Are you serious? Would your ogre release you from the castle?”
“Yes. Thank you. I can be there in thirty minutes.”
“Um…” Jesse hesitated. “Can you make it fifteen?”
“That would be fine.”
CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN
I dashed out of the house and sent text messages to my friends while waiting for Jesse’s car to appear on our corner.
“Life is never boring with you around,” Jesse said when I jumped in the car.
As usual my stomach leapt at the sight of his smile.
“Sorry about that call,” I said.
“I loved the call.” His tone was light. By all appearances he seemed cheerful. But he was actually sorrowful and confused and had no idea that putting on a happy face was not enough to fool me. “Are we really going to the school?” he asked. I nodded, and he pulled away from the curb. “Are we really cleaning?”
I wasn’t sure how to answer. I had actually planned to search the classrooms. To tell yet another lie. But the thought of someone watching through Jesse’s eyes…someone in Jesse’s head because of me….
I shook my head, a lump forming in my throat. I’d been so excited to see him that I hadn’t thought this all through. But now his obvious misery was hitting me with a big dose of reality. I was no good for him. Everything I did only made his situation worse.
His gaze moved from my face to the road and back again. “What is it?”
I couldn’t bring myself to speak. I couldn’t possibly say the words my mouth tried to form. Jesse drove in silence to the school, pulled into the parking lot, and guided me by the hand to the center of campus—to the base of a large tree. He sat down and patted the ground.
I dropped to my knees next to him. I noticed I no longer even thought the scientific name for grass. But that hardly mattered. I was making Jesse miserable. The one thing in the world I didn’t want to do. “I…I can’t keep doing this,” I said.
“Doing what?” His voice was grave, urgent.
I shook my head, swallowing back tears.
“You’re not…thinking of…of…breaking up?”
“No. Not that.” Funny, that should have been my plan. I need to do what’s best for Jesse, therefore I must break up. All very logical, except that I couldn’t bring myself to even think about it. “I don’t know what I’m thinking,” I smiled sadly. “Maybe if you broke up with me. If you told me to leave. Maybe I could do it.”
“That’s a good one.” He chuckled humorlessly. “Every minute of every day I spend thinking about you. Trying to think of ways to be with you. When I consider my future…I see it with you…and only you. This sneaking around, waiting to get caught…there’s no future in that.” He put his hand on my cheek and searched my face. “I’ve told myself to be patient. That someday we won’t have to sneak around. But then you go off and talk about disappearing. And now you actually ask me to break up with you. That terrifies me.”
>
My throat was constricted. A flood of tears threatened to spill out. “I’m in an impossible place,” I finally said. “Everything I am tells me to do what is best for you. To protect you. That’s why I’ve kept up this series of lies. But I don’t know which is worse—the potential harm of learning the truth, or the pain you’re in from all the secrets.”
Jesse looked away. “Then just tell me. We’ll deal with the future when we get there.”
He looked so vulnerable. It occurred to me that while having any knowledge of my world was terribly dangerous to any human, it could actually help him in some ways—so he wouldn’t go searching for me when I was gone. Maybe he could even learn how to protect himself if he knew what he was fighting.
If someone was watching me through his eyes, they’d know everything I said. But it’s not like whoever it was would be in a position to tell. There may not be much harm in telling him about Nreim after all, as long as I didn’t let him know anything about the Stones or my reason for being here…
“Mira…tell me what you’re thinking.”
“If I tell the truth,” I said. “You might be in even more danger than you are now.”
He blinked his confusion.
“I might—” I rushed on—“have to ask things of you…that could take away some of your freedom.”
His brows knit together. His emotions an ominous dark cloud. “What on earth are you talking about?”
“Tell me you still want to know.”
“Of course I do.” He took my hand, tracing my fingers with his own.
I loved him so much. How could I do this to him? Worse, how could I begin to explain? “Jesse…” I started, whispering. “Do you have any…guesses? You said you know there’s more going on than strict parents. What do you think…it is?”
“That’s a good one.” He let out an ironic laugh and threaded his fingers through mine. “I’ve thought of a few possibilities. Witness protection program…serious illness.” He shrugged, smiled. “Mafia.”
“Those sound plausible,” I said. “Almost normal.”
Jesse touched my cheek, pushed my hair away from my face. “Just spit it out.”
I looked into his blue eyes, so trusting. “I’m from far away,” I blurted. “Very far.”
He studied me. “A different country?”
“World.”
Confusion rushed from every pore. He looked away. Then looked back. “You’re not saying…”
“I came here on a magnetic transport ship. From a planet called Nreim.”
Jesse’s stunned look continued another moment. Then he threw his head back and laughed. “An alien!” He ran his fingers through my hair again. “You almost had me going there for a minute.”
My face remained impassive—my eyes locked on his. “Technically,” I said. “You’re an alien to me as well. But I don’t like to use that word.”
Jesse’s hand froze behind my head, clutching my hair. “You’re being serious.”
“I’m afraid I am.” Jesse’s stare frightened me. I looked away, keeping my breathing shallow. “It’s not as bad as it sounds.”
“How can…you can’t…this can’t…” He traced the back of my neck with his finger—then my chin, my nose. “You’re not a weird insect in disguise are you?”
“No,” I replied. “Are you?”
He grinned.
I breathed a sigh of relief at the sight. “I’m human,” I said. “As human as you are.”
“So…you were kidding.”
“No. I am from a different planet. And I am an alien in the same way someone who comes to the United States from a different country is an alien.”
Jesse continued to stare, stupefied.
“It’s like…your parents. They’re different races aren’t they?
He nodded numbly. “I have a Chinese grandmother.”
“We used to have differing races too. Different skin colors and hair colors. Eventually though, as communication improved, people started moving around, blending families, just like here. After a while the scientists started using genetic manipulations to supposedly perfect the species—make us all equal and of the same race. It’s a long story. But don’t you see? Your parents are different races but the same species—they just happen to have ancestors born in different countries.”
“But you’re telling me you were born on a different planet. That is absolutely not the same thing.”
“No. It is, honest. We are the same species. We just happen to come from different places and go by different names. But we even have the same DNA. Our planet discovered yours a long time ago. It was this crazy, huge discovery. A planet just like ours. It turns out both of our worlds are like some perfect recipe for intelligent life.”
He stared at me for what felt like a full minute. “And there are no differences?” Jesse was stunned. But also seemed to believe me. And I was fairly sure he had no idea why.
I pressed on. “Pretty close. You remember learning in your science classes how the continents used to be one big land mass that broke apart? Well, we happen to have nine continents instead of seven, and obviously they’re different shapes. That caused different climates, animals, races, and all that. But everything else—solar system, sizes, rotations, they’re all the same.”
He shook his head. “The odds of that…”
“Yeah. I know. It seems impossible. And believe me, our world isn’t any closer than yours to knowing whether it happened by design, or some great cosmic coincidence. We’re probably further from an agreement, now that there are two worlds involved in the argument.”
“So are the people—if you call them that—are they exactly the same as us?”
“Mostly.”
“Mostly?”
“I can do…a few things that you can’t.”
“Things?”
“They’re evolutional differences, based on the differences in our environments.”
The poor guy was overwhelmed. He believed, or really wanted to, yet was full of skepticism, and full of questions. “Like how?” he said with a strained smile. “Is this where you show me the gills behind your ears?” He reached out to look behind my ears.
I swatted his hand away. “How much do you know about magnets?”
“Magnets? Like the things that stick to fridges?”
“Yes. Just like those.”
He was still grinning, like this was a big joke, though obviously he knew it wasn’t. “Well, let’s see. Besides refrigerators…you can use them on lockers…”
“No. Seriously.”
“Hmm. Seriously. I know they all have poles. Opposite poles attract. Like poles repel.”
“Did you know that all matter—every atom and molecule on the planet—is pushed or pulled by magnetic fields?”
“That’s fascinating. But what does that have to do with you being an alien?”
I scowled at him, but chose to ignore his use of the word. “All physical laws on my world are based on the principal of electromagnetics. It governs every part of us—our technology, our communication…even our relationships.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Keep going.”
“We all have an electromagnetic field pattern inside of us, we call them em-field patterns. Even you do. Each pattern is unique, like a thumbprint. It’s one of the things that makes us who we are. This pattern—along with our natural pole—gives us the ability to sense certain things.” I paused, giving him a moment to think about what I’d said, and to gauge his reaction.
“You said we all have these em-fields?” he asked. “Even me?”
“Yes. Your world and my world both. But your world has always been suspicious of people with strong magnetic tendencies. They’ve considered them lunatics or witches. There was a time they even burned them at the stake. Even now they’re usually considered kind of fringe. Whackos. Our world, however, reveres them.”
“So these are like people who say they see dead people and stuff?”
“Kind of. The
y can sense things before they happen. Or they might just have really good intuition.”
“You used the word revere? You mean like they worship them?”
“No, not worship…” While I pondered an explanation, I realized that my knees were beginning to ache, and that this could be a very long conversation. I dropped onto the grass and crossed my legs. “It’s just that those with the most magnetic strengths—the ones that can best sense things—tend to be our leaders. Our presidents and stuff. And since we’ve had an understanding of em-fields from our earliest history, we’ve been able to use it for pretty much everything. All our technology is magnetic based.”
Jesse’s eyes lit up. “Like your cars?”
I smiled. “We don’t have cars. But our transportation, yes. Even our space ships.”
“Your space ships. Of course.”
I pondered how much more I should say. I considered what this must be like—thinking he lived a normal life with a normal girlfriend—then suddenly hearing all of this. I couldn’t even imagine. “There’s more,” I eventually said.
Jesse hesitated, and I wondered if he was deciding how much more he wanted to know. But he sprawled himself on the grass and plucked a blade of grass. “Go on then.” He didn’t look at me, or anywhere in particular.
So far I’d tried to focus on how much we were the same. But if there was to be a purpose in telling him these things, he had to know the differences. I took a breath. “We’ve evolved a little differently from you.”
He glanced up at me. “Evolved how?”