by Suze Reese
I looked at my hand, which was resting on Jesse’s knee, and the little string wrapped around my wrist.
After Geery and her song left, I made a mental note to do her the biggest favor she could ever imagine. As soon as I had time to figure out what that could be. I turned to face Jesse. “Do you mind if we just sit here? I need to think.”
“About?”
“About the future.”
“Our future?” Jesse asked.
My nod seemed to satisfy him. I realized that if someone was watching through Jesse, they would probably be paying close attention right now. And it didn’t look like I would be able to teach him to keep intruders out. I just wished I knew what they were hoping to hear. I put my head back on his lap, took his hand and curled myself around it. For several minutes I sorted through all the things Geery had told me. But my mind kept going back to the same problem: Dad was leaving soon. With me.
Eventually I decided to give up and talk to Jesse while I had the chance. “My dad is going home on Wednesday,” I blurted, still facing away from him with my head in his lap.
“That’ll be good,” he said with no rise in emotion, except maybe a little relief.
“Not really.” I paused, breathing deeply. “He’s planning on taking me with him.” I felt Jesse stiffen as his anxiety peaked. The hand I was curled around went cold. I gripped it harder. “They’ve figured out that I’ve fallen in love. They think it’s Everett.”
A low rumbling of laughter started in Jesse’s belly. “Everett?”
My body moved with Jesse’s humorless chuckling. I couldn’t bring myself to look up into his face.
“What are we going to do?” he continued. “How do we fight this?”
I curled further around the hand. Clinging to it. “I’m not sure, but I think there are people…the ones I’ve been afraid of…who expect me to be on that transport.”
It took several moments for Jesse to speak. “I know this sounds dumb, but why don’t we run away?” His voice matched his emotions, which were intense and desperate. “Just you and me. We’ll head to Wyoming or something.”
“It wouldn’t work…” I traced the shape of his fingers, drew a circle in his palm. “My mom. It’s kind of what she does—chases runaways. I’m her daughter. She’d track me in an instant.”
“Perfect,” he said. “I have to go and fall in love with an alien who has some secret agent spy for a mother.” I looked up and saw him smiling affectionately at me, running his fingers through my hair. But his humor didn’t fool me for a minute. I knew I was killing him. “So this is why you need to think?” he continued, still smiling.
“Yes.” I hoped I was communicating the rest of the story—that I was trying to stay, but couldn’t tell him. But I couldn’t read his face or tell from his intense emotions. His body did finally relax, which I hoped was a good sign. I curled back up in a ball, tried to ignore all the stress Jesse was unintentionally emitting, then began my monotonous new past time of reviewing files—armed with the new information of what Dr. Tom was hiding.
There had to be some piece of information only I could provide. Otherwise, whoever had sent that file would have done it themselves.
For a while I thought I was on to something when I noticed Geery had included information on a fertility clinic at University of California Irvine that was steeped in scandal for misusing and misplacing donor eggs. But after close to an hour I couldn’t connect it to anything.
I kept my head in Jesse’s lap, lifting it only to return occasional texts to my friends—making sure they were all safe and accounted for—while he silently stroked my hair.
At one point I heard the song Jesse wrote. I smiled when I figured out it was his cell phone. He spoke for a moment, to his mother, said he didn’t know when he’d be home. Then told her his phone was about to die.
I looked up at him.
He set the phone on the grass. “I’m still not used to it,” he shrugged. “Forgot to charge it last night.”
I picked up the phone, sent a little energy its way, then handed it to him.
“It’s charged?” he asked. “How’d you do that?”
I rolled back into his lap to continue my thinking. “Just a little parlor trick I’m sort of not supposed to do.”
Jesse let it go at that.
Eventually, a doctor’s name caught my attention—Dr. Hutchison at the fertility clinic. I’d seen it somewhere before. I pulled up the list of doctors at the hospital from Dr. Tom’s first two visits. Sure enough, he was listed there as well. I could have sworn I’d seen the name somewhere else. Somewhere distinct. I was tempted to stream Geery again to learn more about Dr. Hutchison. But she’d be in the middle of resting her tired brain. Plus she’d have to go to all the trouble of hiding her trail. The best place I could think to look was the doctor’s lectures. Which meant another exhaustive minute-by-minute search of all those classes.
Around six o’clock I received a stream from Mom letting me know that they would come find me if I didn’t make it home for dinner. I was so comfortable in Jesse’s lap I’d almost forgotten the penalty for being caught. “I wanted to let you ask more questions,” I said to Jesse. “But my mom just called.”
“Called?” He touched the phone lying in the grass.
“Streamed.”
“Is that annoying? Having her just come into your head like that?”
“I’ve never really thought about it. It’s just normal. She can’t come in unless I let her. Just like answering a phone, except way more convenient. No stupid buttons to push.” I pulled myself up onto my knees. “But I really do need to go.”
We walked in silence to the car. Jesse didn’t speak again until we pulled up to our usual corner. “So were you able to think of anything?”
“I’m not sure,” I whispered. “Probably not.”
“And we only have until Wednesday?”
I looked down at my hands and nodded. “I don’t think they’ll let me go to school tomorrow. Just work.”
“Where we’ll have to keep our distance?”
I thought about that. If this was about the Stones, and they were reading minds and manipulating people, they would already know about our relationship. But if they were just innocent school teachers, and some mystery person was calling the shots, then they could very well report me to the Nreim authorities. And I still didn’t have any proof that they were guilty of anything.
Jesse didn’t need to wait for my answer. He put his hands to my face, pulled me close, and touched his forehead to mine. “Will you open another stream?”
I looked into his pained eyes—less than an inch from my own—and threw out a stream that slipped easily into his head.
I ignored my parents and went directly to my room, where I resumed my slow and painstaking search for the name ‘Dr. Hutchison’. It took until four o’clock in the morning to review each of my records of the Stones’ classroom lectures. My hunch had been wrong. Neither of them had mentioned Dr. Hutchison. But I just knew that I’d heard or seen his name somewhere. I started again with the news clippings. It took close to an hour to rule that out.
Then it hit me. I opened the file Geery had sent on Everett.
There it was. On his birth certificate. I bolted upright, staring wide eyed into the black night. Dr. Ronald Hutchison was the attending physician at Everett’s delivery.
Adrenaline rushed through my veins. I turned on the lamp on my nightstan
d, jumped from the bed and stepped towards my closet. I reached a wall and turned back in the other direction, once again pacing my little prison cell of a bedroom. But this time I didn’t mind.
Dr. Tom visited three medical facilities—all affiliated with a medical doctor who later delivered Everett Anderson.
And someone had gone to great lengths to cover that information up. I stepped to the window and looked out at the rising sun. Everett was involved. Just like I’d always suspected.
CHAPTER TWENTY NINE
My excitement ended abruptly when I realized that the evidence was basically useless. Just puzzle pieces—ones Geery could have figured out if she’d kept at it. Information the person who’d sent the original files probably knew. And they didn’t even make a complete puzzle. Maybe the files were just an encrypted warning—so that I’d know to stay away from Everett. But I had to believe there was something in the message that could prove criminal behavior on someone’s part. Something that only I could figure out.
I heard noises down the hall—Mom preparing for work. School would start in an hour. I considered trying to convince Dad to let me go. The clock ticked loudly on my time with Jesse. Just two mornings from now I should be boarding that transport. Tomorrow would be spent in preparation. But sadly, I knew the school wasn’t where I would find my answers.
I sat on the edge of my bed and sent out a stream to Jesse. The chances of him receiving it were slim, but it was worth a try. The communication tunnel easily found him. I waited, hoping for a response. But it eventually dropped.
I could have slipped inside. Taken a good look at all his hopes and fears and dreams. Every one of his memories. His thoughts about me…
But that wouldn’t be right. I wished I could be confident that others would have the same respect.
Next I pictured my old school where Geery would be in class and opened a stream. I streamed.
I listened while Geery made an excuse to the teacher in our native tongue that her mom was streaming about a family emergency.
I gulped, weighing the consequences of dumping all this on Geery. But I hardly had any choice.
There was silence for just a moment. Then a gasp.
I went to the kitchen while waiting for Geery and fixed myself a plate of carrots and sunflower seeds.
Mom came out, dressed in a blue newscaster outfit that hugged her curves more than seemed appropriate for a mother. “Are you all right?” she asked.
I nodded and opened the fridge.
“Did you learn anything new yesterday? At the school?”
“I…don’t know.” I picked up a pitcher of vegetable juice. “Not really.”
“Going home won’t be so bad. You’ll get back to your old routine in no time.”
I didn’t respond. My life on Nreim seemed so long ago. If it weren’t for the bracelet on my wrist I might think it never happened. I couldn’t imagine returning to it.
Mom waited several moments for a response, then gave up, said goodbye, and slipped out the front door.
I popped a handful of sunflower seeds in my mouth.
I pulled out a chair and sat at the kitchen table.
I slumped back on the chair.
I was speechless for a moment. Processing it all. There had to be something.
I hesitated, thinking, and put my head on the table. I hated to keep using Geery like this. But couldn’t think of anything else to do.
I put my head in my arms. My finger tapped at the table anxiously. I felt compelled to do something besides just wait for Geery. Dad came into the kitchen in his bathrobe. I kept my head down and watched out of the corner of my eye as he chopped up a head of cabbage. Added some shredded carrots. Then sprinkled it with raisins. Such a gross breakfast. If nothing else, I would be relieved to get back to our supplements so that I wouldn’t feel hunger every few hours.
Dad sat across from me with his salad. With my head still down I listened to him crunch on the cabbage. Geery still hadn’t streamed back by the time he rinsed his bowl in the sink. I looked at the clock on the wall. School was starting. I thought about Jesse, driving to school without me. And Lacey, looking for me at our lockers. Maybe talking to Christian. Serena and Camille would come by on their way to class. They’d probably wonder where I was. Agree I’d been acting strange. Everett would probably be there, stirring up some kind of trouble. Whether it was his fault though, I couldn’t say.
Eventually I went to shower. Just in case I found an excuse to go to school. I was toweling dry my hair when Geery’s stream came.
I wrapped myself in a towel and went down the hall to my room.
I looked into my closet, selecting a shirt.
I stepped into some shorts without answering. I only knew there’d be a trial.
I continued dressing, pushing the phrase out of my mind.
I sat on the edge of the bed.
Geery didn’t respond.
Still no response.
She groaned. Waited. Then eventually continued streaming.
I thought this through. Getting a piece of skin didn’t sound easy, though it might be satisfying. But there was one big problem with the suggestion.
Geery didn’t respond.