Hailey pulled into a parking space between two cars stuffed with other graduates. They rolled down their windows and waved. Hailey turned to me with a serious expression. “I’m worried about your romantic future. Tell me, who are you going to meet working at Save ’n Shop?”
I thought of Leonard, the balding shift leader who played video games all night; John, the deli assistant who picked his nose when customers weren’t looking; and Roy, the cart pusher who couldn’t pass the cashier test. “Maybe a hot customer will walk through my line?”
“At the local grocery store in Nowheresville?” Hailey gave me her derr look, scrunching up one side of her face.
“Meeting someone is the last thing on my to-do list right now. I have to take care of my mom, and having a boyfriend would only complicate things.”
“That’s what I was afraid you’d say.” Hailey opened her door. “I have to talk to Brooke about getting my sweater back. You know; the nice one with the pearl buttons? I gave it to her at Randy’s party after she complained everyone could see through her shirt to her bra, and she’s had it all year. Be right back.”
Before I could protest, Hailey slipped out of the driver’s seat and ran to the nearest car. I curled my legs up against my chest and hoped the aliens weren’t lurking outside my door to stick their suction cups in my hair. In front of me, the town started to glow with streetlights as the sun disappeared beyond the horizon.
My world and everything in it seemed so small, so full of limitations. The horizon lay so far away. I’d never left New England, and I never would. The farthest I’d been was a wedding in southern Massachusetts and a field trip to the northern coast of Maine. Hailey was going all the way to UCLA in California. Knowing her, she probably wouldn’t come back except for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
The driver’s side door opened, and I crossed my arms to show my impatience. “’Bout time. Did you get your sweater back?”
Mike climbed in Hailey’s seat. “Hey, Juliette. What’s going on?”
“Nothing.” I stared at the horizon, acutely aware of his sweaty arm brushing against mine. Muscly guys were not my cup of tea. In fact, I didn’t like tea at all.
He rested his hand on the parking brake in between us and tapped his thick fingers. “Nothing, huh?”
“Yeah.” Conversation with him was so stimulating. I reached in my purse and found a stick of bubble gum before I died of boredom.
“Listen, I know we don’t talk much. I was hoping to get to know you better.”
He was hoping to get lucky before he went off to college. That’s what he was hoping to do. I turned toward him. “Where’s Hailey?”
“Talking with Brooke. I thought I’d come over and keep you company. You looked lonely.”
Great. So he pitied me. I turned back to the windshield. “I’m fine. I was just watching the horizon.”
“Great.” He draped his arm over the edge of my seat, making me want to squirm. “Did you see my latest wrestling match?”
He sounded so eager, I actually felt bad for him. “No. Sorry. I was working.”
“Oh well, you missed out. I went up against this guy who must have been a sumo wrestler in a previous life. This dude was pure muscle, the champion from last year. But, he had one weak spot—the way he left his right side open, and I could see it from a mile away.”
He wasn’t interested in getting to know me; he wanted an audience. While Mike rambled on and on about how he beat the impossible, I waited for an appropriate moment to end the conversation without being too rude.
“The crowd cheered when I won. I could tell they were all rooting for me, the underdog.”
He never stopped talking. It was like some horrible nightmare where I was stuck watching the sports channel and couldn’t turn it off.
Before I knew it, he leaned over, and his hot breath fell on my cheek. “Maybe you can come see the next match.”
He smelled like barbecue chips and sweat. I fumbled with the seat belt as he leaned closer. A squishy, warm sensation touched my earlobe. His tongue.
I spazzed out and fell against the passenger door, clutching my contaminated ear. I was better off outside with the aliens’ suction cups.
“What the hell?”
“I’m sorry.” His eyes widened in embarrassment, like I’d caught him with his pants down, which was actually kind of funny, despite my sticky ear.
“Why did you do that?”
“Hailey said you wanted a little action before we all went off to college. I thought…. Wait! Where are you going?”
I opened the passenger door, anger boiling inside me. Hailey sat on the hood of Brooke’s red Honda, laughing. I stomped over to them, reminding myself Hailey had meant well, so strangling her would only satisfy my rage.
Their laughter stopped, and both of them pointed at the sky.
CHAPTER THREE
NIGHT LIGHTS
June 23, 2013, 7:45 p.m.
Blue, green, and red waves of light streaked the horizon like some giant painter had swished his brush across the sky. The swirl zigzagged twice over the mountains in the south before trailing off into a haze.
We didn’t have astronomy class at Ridgewood High, but I’d seen similar pictures in a book I’d bought at a yard sale a few summers back for two dollars. I’d memorized every page, and that particular one was my favorite. I never thought I’d see the phenomenon in real life. At least not in New England.
“What’s going on?” Hailey grasped Brooke’s arm. Their backs were still turned to me.
Brooke shook her head. “Isn’t it like the Northern Lights in Alaska?”
“It’s the Aurora Borealis,” I spoke up, stepping forward. “But it usually occurs in higher latitudes.”
Jealousy flashed in Brooke’s gaze. She’d always wanted Hailey to be her best friend, but, somehow, Hailey had stuck by me. Except for tonight. “Okay, Ms. Science Whiz. So, why’s it happening here?”
I shrugged, wishing I had an answer. “It has something to do with energetic charged particles and Earth’s magnetic field. Unless there’s some type of geomagnetic storm, I’m not sure why it’s happening here.”
The light wavered, and a silhouette distorted the light. At first, it looked like a monumental building forming in the sky. The bottom of the object had a triangular shape, like a torpedo pointed at the earth. A breeze swept the forest around us. I shivered as the trees moved as if alive. Underneath the sound of fluttering leaves, I could have sworn I heard the same static and beeps I’d heard from the asteroid. Before the shape in the sky formed into anything substantial, it disappeared. I blinked, wondering if I’d imagined it.
“Christ, did you see that?” Hailey turned to me.
Sirens erupted in the town below. One of the streetlights exploded, and two others fizzled out. My stomach turned queasy and I bit the fingernail of my pointer finger. “We shouldn’t be up here.”
Not after what had just happened with the asteroid. Maybe it had nothing to do with that, but it was too much of a coincidence to dismiss. I’d left my mom all alone. I’d been so selfish. “You have to take me home now.”
Headlights flashed behind us as the others started to leave. Brooke slid off the hood and called to Mike. He held a Budweiser and huddled with the other guys from the wrestling team on the opposite side of the clearing. Boy, did he get over me fast.
Hailey just kept staring at the sky.
I shook her arm. “Earth to Hailey. We can’t stay here.”
“R-Right.” Hailey allowed me to pull her toward her beat-up pickup. Why she had to park at the edge of the clearing was beyond me—unless she wanted me to have some privacy with Mike. If I hadn’t been so weirded out, I would have smacked her. But, anxiousness pressed in, and I wanted to jump in the damn pickup before a suction cup left a hickey on my leg.
The forest pressed in on us. My skin crawled as imaginary spider legs crept up my back. I swatted at nothing then opened my door and slipped in. It felt good to slam the door, even
if it didn’t lock.
Hailey turned on the ignition, and her hands shook.
After last night, I never wanted to drive again, but I also wanted to get home in one piece. “Are you all right to drive?”
“I’m fine.” She pulled out of the parking space and onto the gravel road leading down the mountain. The darkness wrapped around us, and I focused on the brake lights of Brooke’s car until she turned a corner, leaving us alone on the mountain.
I clutched the door handle. “Don’t lose her.”
Hailey straightened in her seat as if she refused to lose it the way she did last night. I hadn’t seen her drink a drop of beer since then. “I won’t.”
I fumbled with the lock, pressing it down with my forefinger. Sure, I was still mad at Hailey, but the Aurora Borealis springing up in my backyard took precedence. “Do you think those lights and that…thing we saw up there have anything to do with the asteroid?”
Hailey shook her head. “Who knows? It could be some kind of government experiment. Like maybe they’re trying to predict the next asteroid shower.”
As nice as it sounded, I knew enough about astronomy to know they didn’t search for asteroids by changing patterns in Earth’s magnetic fields. “What if we’re not controlling it? What if someone else is?”
“That’s ridiculous. The Aurora Bory-what’s-it-called is a naturally occurring phenomenon.” Hailey turned onto the main road, and I breathed a little easier as we cleared the denser part of the forest.
“What about the thing that attacked us last night?”
Hailey sighed. “I’ve been thinking about that, and we were already scared witless and drunk. It could have been a rabid possum for all we know. Have you seen their snouts? I bet they could make a funny impression on the window.”
“But what about what I found in the wreckage?”
“You said yourself it’s not organic.” She pulled onto the main road, and we passed the town center with the brick city hall and the park with the cannon statue. A small crowd milled around the park. Police surrounded a car jammed bumper first into a lamppost. That’s why the streetlights had blown out. The lights in the sky must have distracted the driver. So, aliens hadn’t taken over, forcing the world into chaos and martial law. It was just one stupid accident.
Hailey drove by the scene and into the bad part of town where my apartment building sat between a corner shop I was pretty sure sold drugs in the back room and a Laundromat with half the machines broken. She parked by the curb and shut off the car. “Look. The lights in the sky are gone.”
Here in my crumbling parking lot, the weirdness on the mountain seemed like a dream. Soon I’d be under the bright yellow lights in my kitchen and checking Twitter updates for Gale Williams. Everything was going to be fine. Tomorrow, I’d go back to my boring job, and the news stations would find something else to harp on.
Hailey put a reassuring hand on my arm and squeezed. “Listen, I’m sorry about Mike. I thought some romance might get your mind off your problems. You know, get you to loosen up. But I was wrong.” She sighed. “The truth is, one of the things I’m looking forward to in college is meeting new people. My parents met in college, and I know it’s not working out for them, but I always thought I’d meet someone special there as well. I thought you’d want the same thing, but you don’t.”
“No, I do. I’m not some androgynous robot. I have certain cravings….” Like for Captain Jay Dovetail. Then it hit me. I liked Jay Dovetail because he was safe. I’d never meet him in real life; he’d never come between me and Mom. He’d never break my heart. “The truth is, I have to figure out my life first. I’m not ready for love. I want to make sure I can support me and my mom.”
“You always were more practical than me. Just last night I said we respect each other’s differences, but I didn’t respect yours. Not this time.”
“That’s okay. My ear will live.” I collected my purse and found my apartment key. It was safer to walk to the door with it ready to go than fumble for it when I got there. Although the forest made the bad part of town seem like Pretty Pony Land.
Hailey laughed. “You mean he kissed your ear?”
“More like sucked on it.”
She buried her face in both her hands. “What have I done? I’ve scarred you for life.”
This time, I laughed. I grew up in a neighborhood where gangs spray painted buildings, and she worried about a tongue lick scarring me for life. “Now who’s being melodramatic?”
Hailey leaned over and hugged me before I could slide off the rubbery seat cover. I thought she’d say something sweet, but instead she gave me more of my own medicine. “Looks like you’ve rubbed off on me.”
“I guess, whether for good or bad.”
“For good.” Hailey pulled back, but she didn’t start the ignition. “I was thinking about what you said the other night about me running away.”
I waved her off. “Don’t worry about it. I was angry and scared.”
“No, you were right. I am running away. I’m not like you, Julie. You stay and face your fears. You stick it out. Someday, I want to have even half of that kind of conviction.”
I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t have the luxury to make any other choices, even if I kept dreaming about them. My responsibilities were my own, and I shouldn’t have whined to Hailey about them. I’d grown resentful of her, of Mom, of Save ’n Shop. “I’m far from perfect.”
Hailey squeezed my shoulder. “You’re the strongest person I know.”
I walked across the stuffy, moldy carpet to my apartment and unlocked the door. The bright kitchen lights hummed, just as I’d left them. The dishwasher had shut off, and the humid smell of dish soap filled the air. Mom snored in front of the TV. Images of the Aurora Borealis flashed on the screen, followed by reporters questioning witnesses.
I changed the channel to the Home Shopping Network. Mom liked to sleep with the TV on, but I needed a break before my life started to turn into the X-Files. Being so into astronomy, I’d thought I would enjoy strange happenings like these, but I guess that’s why there’s the phrase be careful what you wish for.
I’d made a wish that night, when the asteroid plummeted toward my head. But I hadn’t wished for astronomical activity. I wasn’t going to lie to myself. I’d wished to meet Gale Williams.
Like that would happen. Meeting Gale Williams was about as likely as pigs flying down in the next asteroid shower. I picked up an empty can of Pepsi by Mom’s wheelchair, threw it into the recycling bin, and then headed to my room.
Captain Jay Dovetail stared back at me as I turned the light on by my bed. He stood on the deck of The Lady’s Honor wearing his signature tricorn Colonial hat with a yellow feather on one side and a silver skull on the other with sparkling rubies for eyes. While his smile teased, his eyes bore into me with such vulnerability and sincerity, it was as if he saw my soul. And he liked what he saw.
Smiling, I turned on the laptop I’d found in the garbage bin out back at school. A crack ran down the screen, but it stilled worked. The laptop took forever and a day to boot, so I occupied my time with staring at my wall plastered with pictures from magazine, movie posters, or anything else I could get my hands on featuring Gale Williams’s likeness.
Captain Jay Dovetail proved a person could rise up from poverty and become anything they wanted to be. He worked hard, and he played the game, walking the line between justice and piracy. He only stole from the men who’d won their riches illegally, and his valor moved him up the ranks within his own community until he finally had what he wanted: his own ship.
I knew it was just a movie, but, somehow, it gave me courage. If Captain Jay Dovetail could go from being in chains in the dungeon to winning his own ship, then maybe I could find a way to support Mom and get my dream job someday.
The screen came on, and I checked Gale William’s Twitter page. He hadn’t tweeted since 9:00 a.m., and that was only a cryptic, Enjoying filming here in Boston’s Back Bay. He was so
close, yet still unreachable. I clicked back to my own Twitter feed and scrolled down to two months ago, when he’d written me back. He’d tweeted about the song “Rush” by Twisted Minds Think Alike, my favorite band. In a moment of sheer courage—or maybe not courage because my Twitter handle was Tweetybird4405 and he had no idea who I really was—I tweeted him back saying “Rush” was my favorite. He replied with the phrase Great Minds Think Alike xoxo.
Goose bumps prickled my skin as I touched the screen where his words lay for all posterity in the Twitterverse. He’d written to me. We’d connected, on some level, and we liked the same song.
Clicking the laptop off, I threw my jeans on the floor and set my alarm for 7:00 a.m. My shift started at nine, and I had to walk because I wasn’t about to ask Hailey to get up early to drive me. Soon, she wouldn’t be around anymore, and I had to start living life on my own.
I snuggled into my sheets. Even though dank humidity thickened the night air, I felt safer with something on top of my body while I slept, especially after the last two nights.
I reached up and turned off the light beside my bed. The golden glow died, but the Captain’s sparkling blue eyes still enchanted me from across the room. A dim blue light emanated from the floor.
Had Mom put in a night-light? Impossible. She never came in my room. Her chair wouldn’t fit through the door.
I dragged myself to the edge of the mattress and leaned over. The light radiated from underneath the mattress, right where I’d stashed the alien rock.
My pulse sped into overdrive. What had I brought into my room?
I dropped to the floor and lifted the edge of the sheet like a little girl looking for a monster under her bed. The rock sat, beside a few dust motes, glowing with life. I knew I shouldn’t touch it, but I reached under the bed anyway.
Warmth radiated from the rock as my fingers wrapped around it. I brought it closer to me, and my hand tingled. The sensation spread up my arm, and I dropped the rock instinctively. As it fell, my whole body shivered and convulsed with static energy. The rock hit the floor, and the light went out.
Earth: Population 2 (Paradise Lost Book 1) Page 3