by Arthurs, Nia
As the divorce between Jones and Diane fractured their family, Leslie Anne changed seemingly overnight.
She acted out, started skipping school, and spent an indecent amount of time with a man seven years her senior.
Jones had begun to give up hope, but today I saw a glimpse of the little girl that I used to visit. Tess had been the one to coax her out of hiding.
“Leslie Anne is hurting very much inside,” I said as darkness cloaked the sky like an embrace. “She was a little better when she left.”
“Leslie’s a good kid,” Tess shrugged. “And I didn’t do much.”
Her humility was refreshing. The guilelessness reflected in her eyes told me that she was speaking the truth.
I fisted my hands. I was supposed to be looking for flaws, but I had found another reason to like the girl.
“Good night, Tess,” I said before she did something else that drew me to her.
“Wait!”
I froze.
“We had a deal. I need to ask for a favor.”
Slowly, I turned around. Tess stood on the base of her verandah. The light atop her porch shrouded her face in shadows.
“What is it?”
“Would you come inside for a minute?”
I grudgingly returned to her side. Tess scooped Oreo into her arms and led the way into the living room.
“Mommy needs to talk business, so you stay outside,” she kissed the puppy’s head.
I watched her and a sloppy smile climbed my face. I caught myself just in time and wiped the ridiculous grin.
How disturbed would Tess be to find me randomly baring my teeth at her?
I picked my way through the mess of papers scattered on the floor and waited for her to address me.
“Have a seat,” she pointed to the sofa.
“I prefer to stand.”
“Suit yourself,” she hopped into the sofa and crossed her legs.
My eyes, without my permission, traced the curve of her thigh. The fullness of her legs appealed to me. The skin on the underside of her thigh was a paler brown than the rest of her.
Fascinating…
No! I shook my head and forced the conversation along. The sooner I escaped from Tess Hardey’s presence, the sooner I would return to normal.
“What is the favor?” I prompted.
She slumped further in the chair. The hem of her pants rode up, exposing more of her legs. The round shape of her rump filled my vision.
For the first time in my entire life, I found a woman’s rear end captivating. The sight dried my mouth and fried my nerves.
Like an errant child, my mind tripped on the melody of the inane song.
That booty is what God made so I ap-re-ci-ate it.
In the background, Tess spoke. Her lips moved but I heard no sound as if someone had pressed the mute button on a remote.
“Excuse me?” I stared at her lips.
She glanced up and laughed. What had I missed? Was the favor embarrassing? I wouldn’t put it past my neighbor to punish me for my ill treatment of her.
Would she request a foot massage? Dog duty? Lawn maintenance?
“I’m sorry,” Tess grinned. “I probably shouldn’t have said it quite like that. See, I have a problem at school with a teacher that won’t take a hint. His interest in me is a threat to my job. I need you to come to my school and pretend that we’re dating so he can back off.”
I paled, taken aback by the incredulity of her words. For a full minute, I did nothing but blink at Tess, waiting for to retract the request.
“What?”
“No,” I shook my head, “the answer is no.”
It was the second time I was turning down a girl’s proposition tonight. Had the women in Belize City joined together to conspire against me?
I turned to walk out the door, but Tess darted toward it first and threw her weight against it. It slammed back into place.
“You promised,” she said.
“Find another favor.”
“I won’t. That’s it. That’s what I want.”
I couldn’t fulfill this request. I was barely winning the fight against my emotions now and Tess barely tolerated my presence.
How would I keep my feelings at bay if she pretended to reciprocate them?
I had to find a way out of this.
“Do you want money?” I pulled out my phone and pressed my bank app. “Name your price.”
“Ha, how about a million dollars?”
“Okay.”
The hefty sum was worth it if it satisfied my debt. I would pay two million if Tess insisted.
“I was only joking. I don’t want anything but your help.”
Hope drained away like a rushing flood, destroying my only escape route.
“I shouldn’t have made a deal with you,” I muttered.
“Well you did. Geez, it’s not like I’m asking you to run around the yard naked. All you have to do is poke your head in at my school a few times this week and it will all be over.”
Escorting Tess Hardey around her school would be counter-productive. But what choice did I have?
A man never turned back on his word. It was a principle I followed religiously. I had committed to doing Tess a favor. My word bound me and so did my honor.
“Fine,” I agreed.
Her smile nearly split her face in two. Tess’s victory was short-lived as I continued.
“Know this. I will never be interested in you so if this is some convoluted plan to get me, give up now.”
I saw the moment my words registered. Tess’s mouth fell open and her eyes narrowed to slits. My objective had been met.
The truth was I needed the warning more than Tess. But in the event that the boundaries were not clear, I effectively drew them.
It was best that she keep her distance from me. Nothing good would come of our pairing, imagined or not.
“Trust me,” her eyes blew sparks. “I wouldn’t be into you if you were the only man on earth! In fact, just forget it!”
“Good!”
“Great!”
“Fine!”
“Fine!”
Engraged by her attitude, I stalked down the pathway and stormed into my house. Of all the hair-brained propositions I had ever received, Tess Hardey’s was the most unsettling.
Not because there was anything inherently wrong with her request, but because I very much wanted to fulfill it.
“Stupid beautiful woman,” I slammed my door shut. “Stupid gorgeous woman!”
I ran a hand through my hair and paced my living room floor. My buzzer vibrated against my hip.
I jerked it from the clip and appraised the numbers marching across the narrow screen.
Jones.
Three seconds later, I stood in front of the phone booth across from the park and plugged in my change.
The dial tone rang twice before Jones picked up.
“Hello?”
“What?”
“Whoa,” Jones laughed. “What’s with the attitude?”
“What do you want, Jones?”
“First of all, drop the tone. I’m not your enemy here. Second of all, thanks a bunch for watching Leslie. And thank your neighbor for me. Since Leslie got in the car it was ‘Tess this’ and ‘Tess that’.”
“Could you not say her name?”
Silence filled the other end of the line.
“River, don’t tell me… you like this girl?”
“Is that the only reason you called?” I prepared to hang up the phone, but Jones’s yelled.
“Wait!”
I grasped the black plastic more firmly in my grip and brought it to my ears. A crackle distorted Jones’s words. We waited until it faded before continuing our conversation.
“My brother-in-law came through. I have information on the vehicle.”
“Where are you right now?”
“Home, why?”
I slammed the phone back in the cradle and checked the park for spying eyes. Re
alizing that I was alone, I teleported.
“Waaa!” Jones yelled when I appeared in his foyer.
“What did you find out?”
Jones held a hand over his heart. “I forgot how freaky it was when you did that.”
“Jones!”
“Alright, alright!” He waved his hands dismissively and led me to the hall.
“Did you get a name?”
“Not exactly.”
Jones pulled out his laptop and booted it up.
“It was not easy to get Byron to open up, let me tell you. I don’t know what Courtney said about me but…”
“Jones!” I guided him back on track.
“Right, sorry.” He quickly logged on to his computer and pulled up a notepad. “The car you saw that night belonged to a Sylvie Esperanza.”
I etched the name into my memory.
“Only problem,” Jones continued, “is the car was stolen.”
“You can’t be serious.”
Jones adjusted the glasses on his nose. “Yes, it was taken on the very night you called me. The police found it dumped in the bushes on the Northern Highway on Sunday.”
“Let me guess, there were no fingerprints?”
“I don’t think Belize even has the resources to test for fingerprints on steering wheels.”
“Great! Just great!”
Jones surveyed me with intelligent eyes. “I’ve never seen you this fired up before? Where’s all that stoicism gone?”
“I just––” I ran a hand through my hair. “That was the only lead I had. And now it’s a dead end.”
“A lead for what?”
I filled Jones in on the man that had studied Tess’s car on Friday night.
Jones whistled. “That’s some shady stuff. Are you sure you should be getting involved so close to your appointment?”
He pointed toward the roof. I looked up as well, though I knew my star was far beyond this brick and mortar world.
“It’s… complicated.”
“It’s Tess, isn’t it?”
“She’s in danger. I still need to find the man that ordered Paul’s killing. I heard the five thugs were shot–”
“How do you know that?”
“I listened in on a police scanner,” I admitted. “The man responsible has only one witness left.”
“Tess,” Jones said.
I nodded.
“Look, I don’t mean to sound callous but why don’t you let the police handle it? If someone wanted your neighbor gone, she would have been dead by now.”
“I can’t just leave her…”
“Yes! Yes, you can! You can just leave her. You know why? Because you’re an alien, because the very reason you’ve been busting your brain trying to figure out Paul Sterm’s research is so you can leave her!”
“You’re right.”
“Of course I’m right! Focus on getting back home and leave the human stuff to the humans.”
“I will!” I stood resolutely.
Jones’s motivational speech was a bit dramatic, but I got the gist. I had been wasting time and energy focusing on the wrong things.
Tess Hardey was simply a piece in the puzzle. My quest to return home was the bigger picture. I’d allowed feelings to break down my walls. It was time to build them back up.
Chapter 17
My conviction to cut Tess from my life lasted all of twenty-four hours. On Tuesday night, her frantic moans reminded me of just how ‘real’ her own trauma was.
I couldn’t allow her to flounder in the uncertain waters of fear.
Tess was a smart woman. If I had deduced that a third party was involved in this, she would have too.
I wanted to help her. I needed to help her. Since the car plates were a dead-end, the least I could do was help her out at school.
The next morning I determined to talk to her, but Tess flew out of her house before I could get dressed.
I tried to focus on grading my test papers until she came home, but around one o’clock, I gave up. I couldn’t settle down enough to read an entire sentence.
Tess had suggested randomly showing up on her school grounds to inspire the fantasy. I might as well start today.
Oreo barked as I locked up. He ran toward the gate and wiggled his tail at me. I rubbed his head through the chain link fence.
“Hey, little guy.”
He yelped in reply.
I smiled and straightened.
Excitement filled my chest as I drove to Saint Mary’s Academy. The tall yellow buildings filled the skyline, stark against the brilliant blue.
The Caribbean Sea a few yards away washed against a tall cement blockade. The white sail of green yachts bobbed on the waves.
I hopped out of the car and greeted the school warden at the front gate.
“Excuse me. I’m looking for Ms. Tess Hardey?”
The short, stocky woman tucked a lock of black hair behind her ear. “Um, who are you?”
“I’m River.”
“Oh,” her eyelashes fluttered.
“Can you direct me to her classroom?”
“I – uh – have to ask what your relationship is.”
“Her boyfriend.”
The word was awkward on my tongue.
The warden’s mouth formed an ‘o’. I waited several minutes for her to say something. When nothing happened, I prodded.
“Is she not here?”
“She’s over there,” the woman pointed to the left without tearing her eyes from my face.
I was confused by her strange behavior but didn’t dwell on it. I moved in the direction that she had indicated.
Saint Mary’s Academy was a sprawling campus with green bushes decorating every corner.
A small circular hill sat in the middle of the grounds. A large pole with the Belizean flag mounted at the top stood proudly.
The large roar of a hundred conversations filled my ears. I increased my pace, hoping that the warden had not steered me wrong.
Now which one of these buildings was Tess teaching in?
I stopped and tilted my head, searching for her voice.
In the midst of nails slapping against wooden desks, thin chalk screaming on a blackboard, and the whip of turning pages, I found her.
Tess.
I mounted the three steps to her classroom and waited by the door. As soon as I neared, I realized that nearly thirty pairs of eyes were trained on me.
I stepped back and then caught myself. These were a bunch of little human girls. I had nothing to be afraid of.
“Tess?” I called for the teacher.
She appeared in the doorway. For a brief moment, I feared she would faint. Her eyebrows disappeared into her hairline and her eyes bugged.
“H-hi,” she said.
The rush of teenage heartbeats echoed in my ears. I glanced around at the little girls who held us in their rapt attention and jerked my head to the side, indicating that we should move away.
“Um, girls,” Tess walked around her desk and approached me, “continue in your workbook. Alright?”
“Yes, Ms. Hardey,” the students responded like well-behaved munchkins.
I led her to the edge of the platform and shoved my hands into my pockets.
The worst thing that could possibly happen was revealing my abilities in front of a classroom of teenage girls.
When my eyes met Tess’s, every sensible speech that I had rehearsed on the way over suddenly disappeared.
Had her eyes always been that light brown? Was it the sun playing against her face?
I liked her hair in that style. The curly strands were barely constrained in the bun she had fixed.
Short tendrils sprung up on the sides of her face, framing the oval shape beautifully. She held the cup of her elbow with her left hand.
Words. This moment called for words.
Say something!
“Hi.”
Really? All you could come up with was ‘hi’?
“Hi,” she said as
if speaking to a small child. “What are you doing here?”
“This was the deal, right?”
“I-I didn’t think… I mean, I said to forget it.”
True. She had. I took a deep breath and delivered the lines I had practiced in the car.
“I made a promise. I always keep my promises.”
She worried her bottom lip between her teeth. My eyes dipped and then quickly returned to rest on the other parts of her face.
The shocked look was still embedded in her features. She wavered. I placed a hand on her shoulder to steady her.
“Tess?”
Immediately, a blaze of electricity shot up my fingertips. Before the both of us started floating, I removed my hand from her shoulder and shoved it into my pocket.
“Sure. The staff meeting is tomorrow at three. You can drop by anytime after that and I’ll introduce you.”
“That’s it?”
It was surprisingly pedestrian. I had expected a more complicated plan, secretly hoped for circumstances that would allow us to spend more time together.
“That’s it,” Tess said.
I tried to hide my disappointment.
“Well, I’ll be going.”
“Good bye.”
Her dismissive tone stung my pride. After being gawked at by the warden and even the students, I had expected Tess to be a bit more… soft.
I kicked a rock out of the way as I marched back to my car. Extending my hand had done nothing to carve Tess out of my head.
In fact, the exchange had given my mind more footage to replay. I neared my house, but realized that I would not be able to concentrate on school work.
I turned the vehicle around and headed for the police station. I had no intentions of asking too many questions.
I had survived under the radar by ducking my head and keeping my nose clean. I had no records outside of the lands that I owned.
I had long since stopped updating my birth and death certificates. The process had lost its appeal.
Government institutions did not know I existed and I preferred it that way. Today, however, I was willing to put everything on the line.
Accepting defeat was not an option now that Tess was at risk.
Even if I somehow cracked the code of Paul’s research and returned to my star, it would not be a peaceful exit if this threat remained.
I parked the car and strode into the police station. Two weeks ago, I delivered Tess Hardey to these very steps.