by Sandy Nathan
Two-hundred-pound snapping turtles lived in these waters; she’d read about them. The boots stayed on. She kept her feet and hands as high as she could. Tears ran down her face and into her mouth, but she kept paddling upstream, where she thought she’d find the mansion.
When she was midway across the river, the monster swooped across the sky. It was huge, with hair extending out like wings. Black eyes and bright teeth. The moonlight outlined it against the clouds, like a ghost. She gasped and dove under water, heading for the opposite bank.
Her lungs shrieked for air, but she kept swimming. When some roots sticking into the water touched her face, she grabbed them and pulled her face out of the water. The thing circled, dipping over the forest with mad eyes. She felt something warm between her legs.
She’d wet her pants. Her cheeks flushed with embarrassment, even though she was in a freezing river with no one around. She was so afraid that she had wet herself. Tears ran down her cheeks. Her teeth chattered so loudly she could hear them.
Val clawed out of the water and burrowed into loose leaves and debris on the riverbank. She didn’t care if the monster got her. She had to get out of the water. She had to rest. Everything was gone. The car was gone, Josh was gone, and everyone she knew was gone.
She gasped. The combat packs were gone. The shiny metal case with its vials of happiness went up with the SUV. In a few hours, she would feel like she’d been ripped apart, and she wouldn’t be able to do a thing about it. She sagged where she lay. She’d lost. Her mission was over.
Val covered herself as well as she could with leaves and dirt. She tried to get warmer. Tried to sleep. Maybe she did. Maybe the faces were dreams.
She’d seen Sylvia James’s face, from the Hermitage Academy. She was looking at Val earnestly. She was a nice lady. Val had asked her questions and she had answered them right away. Val hadn’t needed to hurt her, or give her drugs. She’d told the truth because she was a nice person and wanted to help. And because Val was a federal agent and she’d trusted her.
Was Val sobbing in her sleep? Is that what that noise was? Was she asleep? She’d peed in the water because she was so scared. She was ashamed, but almost all of the people she questioned did it. Wally the math teacher had pissed himself. And the old man that morning, the one who’d played the ponies. His wife, too.
She frightened them so badly that their bladders let go in terror. She made people do that all the time. Three times today. She’d killed three people that day: Wally, the old man, and his wife.
She felt far away from her body and her thoughts, like they belonged to someone else. How many people had she killed in her life? Hundreds. Thousands?
Why?
Sylvia James had talked about Jeremy Edgarton screaming at his mother. What would it be like to have a mother like that? And Chaz Edgarton as a father? Pretty bad. Jeremy was autistic, too. That was sad. He had to be busy all the time.
Josh had said they were building a theme park on the estate. Maybe that was so Jeremy could stay busy. Maybe there wasn’t any plot. Maybe Veronica Edgarton was off somewhere with the general and not at the estate.
Why did Val need to kill anyone?
The troopers said atomic missiles were going off tomorrow morning. That would mean everyone would die. Did she need to kill anyone now?
The president had told her to complete her mission. Use sufficient force. He would make her bureau chief if she did. What did he tell her to do? Her gun nestled against her side like a lover. What was she supposed to do? Why should she do anything? President Charles must have known about the missiles going off.
She was so sleepy, like she was drugged.
Her ring had sparkled in the car, a flash of blue light. She bought it because she’d had a crazy idea. She’d imagined a man loving her so much that he bought that beautiful ring for her. She could feel him embrace her. Hold her. Whisper “I love you.” She was wearing a dress like one of Mrs. Edgarton’s and holding her hand out. The ring glittered.
It was about life, not death.
46
Jeremy invited everyone who had seen their performance to a late supper, including all the village people who’d been skulking around outside, peering through the windows.
Sam sat gingerly on one of the fine Georgian chairs. He watched carefully to see how everyone was eating before he picked up a fork. Jeremy noticed. Good, he’d be a good leader; he understood the importance of manners.
Eliana lit into her uncooked grits with abandon. And she had discovered a new treat: unpopped popcorn. She tossed the grains back with a glass of olive oil, crunching the whole mess.
“She has strong teeth,” Sam said.
“And a strong stomach,” Lena answered.
When everyone had eaten his or her fill, Jeremy said, “Take the rest home, Sam.”
“I’ll get some skins to carry it,” Sam said. “Many thanks.” He carefully enunciated the words.
“Take the platters, Sam. And the bowls,” Jeremy said. “We won’t have any use for them. Take it all.” He waved at the silver and crystal, the china and linen. Baroque silver candlesticks from before the Revolution. “We won’t need it.”
“Oh, Jeremy, what would your mother say?” Lena looked stricken. If Jeremy was giving away his family heirlooms, it meant what was coming in the morning was real.
“My mother would tell them to take everything they could stuff in the shelter and think of her when they used it. Sam, my mom’s furs are at the end of her closets. They’ll be useful in the winter. You’re way underground, but I bet it will be cold. Her jewels are up there, too.”
Jeremy got up. The others stood at his cue.
“Thank you, Mr. Egerton. We’ll remember you, all of you.”
“And I’ll remember you, Sam. Do what I said, now. Take over the world when you get out—and make it a decent place.” Jeremy drooped with exhaustion. “I’ve got to get some sleep. Good night everyone.” He headed for the staircase.
“Jeremy and Eliana bed now?” Ellie said brightly, running after him and taking his arm.
“Uh...” Jeremy couldn’t respond; she’d caught him off guard. They walked up the stairs. He finally found some words. “Ellie, we need to talk. I don’t think we should have sex.” The thought had been with him since that afternoon when he’d caressed her feet. She was so soft and appealing, he could hardly look at her without a throb running through him. “We’re very young. Part of what is wrong with the world is people having sex casually. This has been a hard day. Tomorrow is going to be worse. We have to get up early. So, let’s just be friends, OK? Let’s go to sleep.”
“OK. Sleep.”
They walked through the second-story hallway, heading for his room. He stopped at the room before his, opening the door and leading her in. He turned on the bedside light and patted a fluffy bed in a very nicely done room. “You sleep here, Ellie.”
He felt safer with her in the spare bedroom on the other side of his bathroom. He’d earlier put the nightgown and robe on the bed for her.
When she realized he intended for her to stay here by herself, she looked shocked. “No Jeremy?” She stood with her mouth slightly open.
“No, I’m just on the other side of the bathroom.” He opened the bathroom door so she could see. She recoiled like he’d shown her a torture chamber.
“No, Jeremy.” Her eyes filled. “Afraid.” He stood like a dolt. “Jeremy no like Eliana.” The tears spilled over onto her cheeks.
“Look, hon, I think we should do it this way.” He put his arms around her. “I don’t just like you. I love you. But this is how it should be.” He was sure he’d botch the job if he tried, and he believed what he’d said about teen sex.
He walked into the bathroom, closing the door behind him. “I’m going to take a shower, Ellie. Don’t mind me.”
Ellie froze when she was alone in her room. She could hear terrible wetness falling in the next space beyond the door, just as she’d heard it at Lena and Henry’s. Jer
emy hated her so much that he put something that would kill her between them. He did not like her, as she had thought he had, when she danced.
She made little chittering noises for a while, rubbing her nose with her hands, and then fell onto the bed, soaking the puffy cover with the strange moisture from her eyes.
While she slept, she could see herself about to enter the great hall in her world. Her dream was something that had happened before she left.
Her mother had put her arm around her as they’d approached the wall of the elders. Light moved inside it, as it did in all the walls of their world. The great wall thinned so she could see the dark elders behind it. The figures had craned their necks and watched them.
“Is she ready, Belarian?” they had asked her mother. Now Eliana could hear the elders’ voices as sounds with real words, instead of invisible words in her mind.
“I don’t think she can learn much more,” her mother had told the elders. “She can read simple sentences, speak a bit. She can add and subtract. That’s as much as she is capable of. But we’ll provide directions.”
The elders had pronounced her fit to leave for a planet they knew very little about and wouldn’t dare visit themselves.
The tall elder—the doctor who had come to Belarian’s place and looked at Eliana’s body all over—had said, “I will be very disappointed if you do not succeed, Eliana. And Belarian will be more than disappointed.”
Her mother had looked at her strangely, eyes hard. “If you do not succeed, you will no longer be my child,” Belarian had said. And then she hadn’t looked at her at all. It was like Eliana wasn’t there.
Her eyes opened wide and her heart beat fast.
Ellie sat up in bed, face wet, making terrible noises in her mouth. She couldn’t stop. When they were down in the concrete world, Jeremy asked her if there was punishment in her world, and she had said no, everyone was nice. But now she knew what punishment was.
If she did not do her job here, she would lose her mother. That was punishment.
The noises kept coming out of her and water fell from her eyes.
“Ellie?” Jeremy came from the room of terrible moisture. “What’s the matter, Ellie? Why are you crying?” He sat down on the bed and held her. She clung to him.
“My mother...” came out of her, over and over.
“Oh, Ellie. How stupid of me. You miss your mother. Come on, you can sleep with me.” He pulled her toward the terrible wet room. “Come on, El, it’s OK.” He dragged her through so quickly that she hardly noticed the bowl with water like the one where Shaq drank at Lena’s place.
She stood shaking in his room and he closed the door to the wet room.
“El, why didn’t you put the nightgown on?” She still wore the party dress. She looked at her blue dress. “Pretty,” she said.
“Yeah, but it wrinkles and you can’t really sleep in it. I won’t look.” He held up the flannel nightgown. “Here, put this on.” He helped her undo the laces of her dress.
She dropped her dress on the floor and climbed into bed naked, patting the place next to her. “Sleep, Jeremy.” She kept patting and smiling at him.
“Oh, good. I’ll definitely be able to sleep now. Ellie, put the gown on, OK? See, I’m wearing pajamas. You put this...”
She finally understood what he wanted. She had to put the ugly dress on before he’d lie down.
“Great, Ellie. OK? You sleep, and I’ll be right here if you miss your mom.”
“OK.”
After ten minutes of trying to sleep, Jeremy jumped out of bed and ran into the hallway. Great. When she had dropped her dress, he had seen every perfect inch of her again: creamy sides, sleek bottom, long legs, and all the rest. How would he ever sleep?
She was asleep when he returned, lying on her back and snoring loudly. He wouldn’t have believed she could make such a sound. The flying princess with the foghorn snore. He got into bed, happy to have dodged one problem.
He wore his pajamas. It was extremely nerdy to sleep in pajamas, but he couldn’t risk her seeing him. He’d been careful to dry every drop of water off his person when he took his shower. He even wore a shower cap so his hair wasn’t wet. He didn’t want to hurt Ellie.
He lay by her, thinking about how she had danced. What his uncle Henry had revealed. The destruction of the planet. Ellie’s cartwheels across the floor. Logistics for the next day. The way Ellie’s breasts looked when she had dropped her dress.
They were small, and perfect. She was perfect. How do you approach someone perfect?
He drifted into a golden realm. It was beautiful, but it felt better than that. It felt wonderful. He could see people floating around them, people like Ellie, tall and slim with big eyes. Big beautiful eyes. They were gliding about the room, looking at everything.
He began to feel wonderful, really wonderful. His head rolled back and his chest expanded. “Oh...” he said, and opened his eyes.
“Hi!” Ellie was sitting astride him, grinning like crazy. “Fun!” she said. She was rocking back and forth, his dick inside her.
“Ellie! What are you doing? We were just going to be—” What she was doing became so much fun that he was forced to stop talking.
“Ahh,” he said, hips moving and his body following them. He put his arms around her. “Oh, Ellie, I love you. Oh, God, I love you.”
Minutes later, she lay on her back next to him, smiling.
He looked at her, wracked with recriminations. He’d been too fast. He’d read that many young boys came too fast, and that it could become a problem if they didn’t get it under control. He hoped he didn’t already have a problem. He also knew that, while Ellie might look happy, she had not reached the trembling, screaming, jellylike stage that indicated she was really happy.
“My job,” she said, smiling broadly. “I do my job.”
“That was your job? To do that with me?” He was irate. “You came down from outer space to find me and jump me while I was sleeping?”
“Jump you? No, sex you.”
“What are you talking about? Your people sent you here to sneak up on me and do that?”
“You no do it, so I have to.” She smiled that maddeningly beautiful, happy smile. “Is my job, Jeremy. No be mad Eliana. Is job.”
“Why? Are your people so hard up for sex that they had to come down here and jump me in my sleep?”
“Yes, Jeremy.” She looked like she was explaining something to a child. “Need to. No babies.”
“What!” Then he remembered what her people looked like. He’d seen them in his sleep for ages. They were tall, and beautiful. People floating in a golden haze. Adults, by their size. No children. And not one of them had genitals.
“No can make babies, Jeremy. Only me.”
“You’re the only woman your world who can...?”
“Yes.”
He sat up and looked at her. “I can’t believe this. How old are you?”
“I baby.” She thought carefully. “Maybe two hundred years Earth.”
“You’re two hundred years old? How long do your people live?”
“No die. Get dark and more dark, and then they...” She struggled to express herself. “Go into planet. Planet is alive.”
“The planet itself is alive? That’s what you said earlier. Does it move?”
“Yes. It move and make lights. It think and say messages.”
“Oh, good. How long does it take for one of your people to merge with the planet?”
She shrugged. “Time is different my world. Your time, maybe six thousand years.”
“Your people live six thousand years?”
She nodded. “In your years, live six thousand. Or more.”
“That’s our recorded history. But they can’t make babies. Boy, that’s not an ability you want to evolve out of.” His mind blazed. This was really exciting. As fascinating as a computer lab. Very interesting. And insulting. “So you bopped down here to score with me?”
“Jeremy mad
Eliana?”
“You came down here to fuck me. That was the job that you were upset about not doing? And now what? Do you take my sperm home and make millions of babies? What about me? What about how I feel?”
Ellie looked at him. “You ask me, Jeremy. You call me.”
“When did I ask for you to come down and do that while I was sleeping?”
Her shoulders hunched and she shrank. But then she sat up in bed, those beautiful perfect breasts and lovely shoulders and sweet self. She opened her mouth, and, in the uncanny way she had demonstrated before, his voice came out: “Hello. Anyone out there? This is Jeremy Edgarton. I’m on the Planet Earth, which is going to blow up in six months, according to my calculations. I really hope that someone hears this, because we need help. There are some really nice people down here who are going to die. Like Henry, who guards the gate. And Lena—”
“You got my broadcasts! You heard me!” For months, he’d been pulling out all the stops, broadcasting off every satellite he could find. He’d talked and talked every night, begging for someone to save him and his friends. And the good people on Earth.
He’d spilled his guts: “I don’t know how things got so screwed up. I think we’re a nice species, but we do terrible things. I don’t want to do terrible things. I want us to be kind and good. I think we were made to be that way, but, somehow, we mess up a lot. We sure did this time.”
His voice kept coming out of Ellie’s mouth: “What I’d really like is a beautiful wife. I’d love her and be true to her my whole life. No affairs and shit like that. I’ve seen too much.”
He had broadcast for months, talking about his dreams and hopes. And they’d gotten every bit of it. He’d played his father’s music and his own. He’d played with his dad’s recordings, not as well as tonight, but pretty good. He’d sent pictures of his mom and dad. “And here’s me. Lena says I’ll have a growth spurt in a couple of years and I won’t be such a shrimp.”
“I hear you. So I come,” she said.
He sat up. “You mean you came across the universe because you heard me and wanted me?”