by Nicole Rae
After he left,Lucy broke into hysterical giggles. “You can thank me now.” She grinned at Emily mischievously as she tucked her black hair behind her ear.
“Huh?” Emily gave her a curious look, not
understanding.
“There’s no one on the phone, I just put it on hold to make him think there was. I figured it would get him off your back. After all, he’s not paying you to sit around and talk.” Lucy giggled again.
Emily snorted. “Oh. Well thanks,” Emily said, laughing now too. “What would I do without you?”
“You’d probably be living on the unemployment line,” Lucyresponded sweetly. “Well, I just wanted to talk to you. I figured we could put the price tags on the books in the box. Then daddy won’t bug us toomuch.” While she conspired, her chocolate brown eyes gleamed like a child in a candy store. Emily’s friend was always at her happiest when she was up to something.
Lucy’s excitement was infectious. It was impossible for someone’s mood to be down when she was around. Emily hoisted the large box onto her hip, waiting for Lucy to move into the stock room. She nearly dropped the heavy load but managed to place it onto the only empty table. It was always kept cleared for this very purpose. Lucy waited for Emily to unload everything before starting in on the gossip she had overheard, while working the counter.
After pulling the last book from the box, Emily reached to the shelf behind it, where the price labels were. Lucy helped break up the monotony of the task, because it never failed to crack her up. Realistically, Lucy would only hand Emily the books to put the right price tag on them. Emily had let Lucy do the labeling a few times, but some ended up with the wrong price. Others had upside down labels placed on the wrong side of the book. This wasn’t a big deal since the labels were made especially for books and could be removed easily. Lucy liked leaving some of them messed up for her father to find. Once he found out it was Lucy’s doing, all hints of anger evaporated into a surprisingly gentle smile and another pat on her head.
“Okay I’m ready for ya. You want your usual chair?” Emily asked. Knowing Lucy would, Emily slid the chair out. It really wasn’t a necessary gesture, since Lucy was an independent person and could handle finding a seat for herself. Even so, it was hard for Emily not to help her.
“Thank you,” she cheerily responded, quickly taking her seat. “You’re such a gentleman,” Lucy chortled. She sat down, she folded up her cane and set it on the table.
Emily followed suit and waited for Lucy to hand over the first novel. “Ha ha,dork.”
For a while, they worked in silence, leaving Emily to wonder if Lucy had forgotten what she wanted to tell her. That was unlikely since Lucy loved nothing more than to tell a good story.
Emily heard George greeting a customer in the store. A man with a booming voice told George that he was looking for a particular cookbook. It was always interesting to hear the interactions between George and his customers. He definitely knew how to put on the Mr. Nice Guy persona.
Lucy broke through Emily’s distraction. “Okay, here goes,” Lucy started dramatically, as she leaned in closer to Emily. “I’ve been getting some seriously weird vibes from some of the people around here. The people who usually chat with me about school or tell me about whatever they’ve got going on, don’t say anything other than trivial hellos and thank you's. Some don’t even come in here anymore.” Lucy abruptly stopped talking, folded her arms and sat back in her chair expectantly.
Emily took that as her cue for rebuttal. “Luce, I don’t know, maybe they'rejust busy. It’s really not that big of a deal.” Emily spoke absently, hoping Lucywouldn’t notice her hesitation.
She couldn’t shake the feeling something was going on too, only she couldn’t put her finger on what it was. Emily had always been intuitive and her gut told her that something wasn’t right. It just wasn’t clear what that itwas. From an outsider’s prospective, things would probably appear typical, but Emily had lived in Lakeview her whole life. She knew the way things worked and whatever was happening wasn’t normal.
Leave it alone, a voice told her. What the…? What was that? It was like her subconscious but it wasn’t Emily’s voice.
Without warning, the words released a flash flood of images. Oh God! Last night… That voice… The attack… Suddenly, broken memories started flashing before her eyes like a flip book. Holy Crap! How could she have forgotten last night? When she woke up, the soreness had been minimal and she had chalked it up to her run in with Sam. Somehow the rest of the night’s events must have slipped her mind. How could someone forget that? You get attacked, or think you did and rescued by a God-like mystery man, but forget it all? Was that even possible?
Emilytried to recall her attacker’s face but that detail was blank. That’s strange. Last night, his face was plastered to her lids and now, she couldn't even recall his eye color. Actually, the more she thought about it, she couldn’t remember the details of the attack either.
Absently, her hand rose to brush the scrape on her cheek. Yep, still there. It felt stupid to need that reassurance. She had seen the mark this morning in the mirror. Now, she wasn’t sure it had been Sam that had put it there.
Emily felt like a moron. Logically, she should file a police report and it should have been done last night. Though she didn’t remember the attackers face, it was important to make a paper trail in case something happened to someone else. What was she supposed to do? She couldn’t march into the station and be like, "Um yeah, I was attacked last night. I have no idea by whom and I can’t tell you where it happened, just that it did. Oh yeah, and some guy swooped in and saved the day. OnlyI don’t remember how or what he looked like either. So gee, you think you can help me?" Yeah right, like that was going to happen. She would be institutionalized in about half a second. On the other hand, that would get her out of her house. At least that would be one positive.
Lucy’s voice broke throughEmily’s train of thought. “Let’s just say, I get really strong feelings about people and my surroundings. Em,I’m not crazy. I guess you could call it being extremely intuitive. I’ve never told anyone before. No one. So you can’t say anything, promise?” She stared at Emily intently an imperative tone to her voice, which Emily had never heard before.
Emily focused on the conversation, deciding to deal with last night later. “I promise Luce,but…” Emily swallowed hard. “You’re sort ofcreeping me out,” she admitted. She felt like such a coward.It wasn’t as if Lucy were telling her, she could talk to ghosts or something. She was just saying she was aware of her surroundings. Somehow though, Emily felt like there was more to the story. “How have you never told me this before?”
Was it really possible that sweet, little Lucy was some kind of psychic? The thought boggled her mind. There was no way. Emily had seen all the late night commercials. That garbage was hype and propaganda filled with phony fortune tellers, trying to suck in the gullible. The only people, who believed in that crap were the sleep deprived, lacking good purchase judgment. She had always thought that psychics were good guessers or frauds. Was it possible that her best friend had supernatural power? This realization made Emily look at her friend in an entirely new light.
Suddenly, Lucy’s dark hair, which framed her face like a flowing curtain seemed mysterious. The silky smooth complexion of her fair skin glowed mystically in contrast to the illumination of the room. Her dark, chocolate brown eyes seemed to burn deep into Emily’s, conveying a message. Emily shook her head, as though she could toss the theory to the floor. This is just silly, it’s Lucy for crap’s sake!
Truth be told, it frequently wierded Emily out how Lucy always seem to stare directly into people's eyes. It was as though she could see them.
Once, a guy accused Lucy of lying about being blind, telling her it was cruel to make fun of the handicapped. He waggled a finger at her and said that she should be ashamed of herself. Shockingly, it didn't discourage Lucy a little bit. Well, if it did, she sure didn’t show it. Serious
ly, if it were Emily she would have told him where he could shove that finger. Not to mention, she would have shattered the bone in it. Lucy might not have seen the finger, but Emily was sure she felt the air from the movement with her heightened senses. He did it right in her face. She simply laughed, telling him she was a people person, which allowed her to find their eyes without seeing them. Before he stalked off angrily, Lucy made sure to include the fact that she was not handicapped, she was blind. Then she said that he should look up the difference, before attempting to fight a cause he knew nothing about.
Emily admired her friend’s conviction to face life and never let anything upset her day. With George as a father, it didn’t make sense. Even though she was Emily’s best friend it goton her nerves sometimes. She didn’t see how someone could be that happy, all the time. You would think it would make her cheeks crack or something.
The dim florescent light above them flickered eerily, as if to dramatize their conversation. After Emily put the last of the labeled books back into the box, she stood to take them to their places around the store. Lucy took her usual place at the counter.
Picking up the load of freshly priced books, Emily headed to reclaim her stocking duties.That’s me, she thought dryly. Literary goddess, bringing the great works to the masses. As she wandered to the first section, her mind drifted back to Lucy. Her assumption that her friend was paranoid had broken away, leaving behind the rightness of what Lucy was saying. Emily didn’t know why, but she believed Lucy and still had a feeling, that this was more than intuition.
CHAPTER 5 After work, Emily remembered that she had to get a few things from the store. Emily chose to ride the bus, knowing it would cut her travel time in half. The prospect of walking across town and back before dark wasn’t thrilling. Try as she might, she couldn’t help but regret that choice, when it came to this particular occasion. Lakeview was small, so ordinarily Emily walked everywhere. Sometimes, she would be lazy and turn to public transportation, but it was rare.
A variety of people rode Lakeview’s public transit system. Emily understood that most of the riders were from the low income family, but really? Come on, just because a someone doesn't make a lot of money, doesn’t mean they have to be a weirdo. Emily knew plenty of low income people, who were perfectly normal, herself included.
Upon walking up the bus steps and through the automatic door, a nasty B.O. smell overwhelmed her senses. Instantly, her nose wrinkled at the disgusting stench. The owner of the smell needed to be washed down with a fire hose, immediately. The reek of the bus permeated location and almost made her turn around. It almost would have been worth the extended trip to avoid being near that smell. The prospect of being out after dark was the only thing that kept her from bolting. She turned her head away and sucked in a deep, cleansing breath before being submerged in the nasty odor.
There were no seats near the safety of the front. So, she had to make her way through the thin, overcrowded aisle. She tried hard not to step on anyone, but it was like an obstacle course with all the bags everywhere. Hardly anyone moved out of her way, as she passed. Every timeshe touched someone’s ankle, she half expected a buzzer to go off like in the board game, Operation.
Movement caught her eye in the back. She looked up to see a skanky looking girl slide into her assumed boyfriends lap. They were really going at it, looking like they were going to swallow each other's tongues. Okay gross, that is just not okay.
Emily wondered why the driver allowed the kissing fest to go on. Then it occurred to her, he was a middle aged sweaty guy, who was probably enjoying the free show. How disgusting, where was that girl’s self-respect? Didn’t she know, how completely wrong it was to give free peep shows on a public bus?
Forcing her eyes to avert from the couple, Emily glanced around, hoping to find a seat by some of the halfway normal people. Finally, three rows from the back she spotted one. Luckily, the seat next to it was empty too. Emily hurried to it, tossed her backpack down and sat quickly. The bus revved its engine before it headed to the next stop.
The majority of the riders were relatively quiet. A teenage boy sat nearby, completely enthralled in the couples exploits. Emily sighed and rolled her eyes. Well,isn’t that just sweet, nothing like the city bus giving children sex education? Watching the kid drool, made Emily want to go and smack the couple until they stopped.
The bus came to a halt at the next stop and Emily’s body jerked forward. She planted her feet firmly on the slick floor to steady herself. The elderly woman in front of her groaned and clutched her tan colored granny bag closer to her body. After the doors opened to one of the residential parts of town, a few people got off.
The people that entered the bus next were interesting, to say the least. Most were dressed in tattered clothes that looked like they had been passed around way to many garage sales. The two women, occupying the seats across from Emily, reminded her of TV commercials for a bingo parlor. One was wearing faded, black sweat pants with an oversized man’s T-shirt, displaying the phrase “Get’er dun” across the chest. Emily could tell the woman wasn’t wearing a bra and desperately needed one. The other was more conventional, wearing an old pair of jeans and fitted red top with too much make up. Her red lips matched the color of her shirt, vaguely reminding Emily of a circus clown.
The "gentleman" in front of them was obviously a mechanic. His hands, hair and clothes were covered in grease. His hair looked, as though it had been covered by a hat most of the day. He had nice eyes though and his skin was a creamy, mocha tone. He was kind of cute in a rough sort of way.
Emily wasn’t trying to act all high and mighty or anything. There was nothing wrong with jeans and a T-shirt. She had many in her own closet. Either way, there was still a right and wrong way of doing things. Certain clothes didn't look right, no matter what a person looks like. Emily had nothing against them and they were probably nice people. She even recognized many of them, as patrons of Blake’s Books. She peered around the rest of the bus, feeling guilty for her judgments and her mouth dropped with an audible pop.
Two of the most beautiful people, she had ever seen sat behind the driver. She didn’t know how she could have missed them. The couple looked like they were on their way to a red carpet event. The woman was tall and stick thin like a model. Even sitting on the bouncy seat of the bus, she looked graceful.
The man belonged on the big screen or in Calvin Klein underwear ads. His face looked like a flawlessly, chiseled statue. They were both dressed in sleek black clothing. However, the woman wore a deep plum undershirt beneath her V-neck top. They had a sort of timeless quality and Emily couldn’t help staring at them open mouthed. They looked young, but nowhere near her age.
They couldn’t be from anywhere near Lakeview, which would explain why they were on the bus in the first place. Perhaps they were taking a tour of the city?There wasn’t much to see but maybe they were investors, scouting new business locations or something. The mayor did say he wanted to bring in more businesses. Emily glanced at the other passengers to see if they noticed the couple too.
Out of nowhere, her stomach tightened with a jolt and her hands rolled into clenched fists. She quickly turned around to stare out the back window, biting her lip against the agony. Letting her eyes shift slightly, she concluded no one would have even noticed. She could have danced down the aisle, singing show tunes at the top of her lungs.
Every single person on the bus wore a mask, designed in the same frozen expression of pure and utter terror. The gut wrenching kind you would expect to see after a plane had just been hijacked. Emily followed their horrified stares to see what she had missed. They were all staring at the strange, out of town couple. Only they didn’t watch with wondering admiration like she had.
Looking back at the couple, she saw were not troubled by everyone staring at them and their faces were absent of expression. The interesting thing was that their eyes bore holes into the people focused on them. What was going on? They looked normal; possibly
rich, but normal. Definitely over dressed for Lakeview, which wasn’t that big of a deal.
At the next stop, two people got on the bus and no one else moved. It was a young woman with her young child. She was pretty in a natural sort of way. Emily couldn’t help but watch her, as she sat across from the couple to see if she had the same reaction, as the others.
The small boy tried wiggling out of her arms, causing the woman to hold him more firmly to her chest. She held her body confidently, but eyed the couple with confusion, quickly transforming into worry. Her brows rose slightly, creasing her forehead, leaving her eyes were wide and lips pursed.
If Emily hadn’t have been so engrossed in the scene playing out in front of her,she wouldn’t have noticed the man's movement. With the rest of his body completely still, he gave the newest rider an almost imperceptible nod. His eyes then shifted to his friend, jutting his chin slightly in the direction of the mom and her son. The woman noticed too, her body flinched and tensed. Her motherly embrace on the boy, abruptly turned to that of iron bars locked around him with no sign of release.
Why was everyone except for Emily riddled with paralyzing fear? Even the make out couple sat upright in their seats. Making out apparently held no importance for them anymore. The knots in her stomach clenched spasmodically reminding her of their presence,as if she could forget. If it wasn’t for being scared of drawing attention, she would have cried out in pain.
As if reading her mind, the man’s head turned to Emily and he watched her appraisingly. At first, he gave her a slow, languid smile, revealing a perfect set of pearly teeth. Soon though, his smile dissolved into a look that seemed confused and frustrated. His eyes moved to the teenage boy near her and the kid immediately cringed. His frustration turned to satisfaction and then back again, once he regained focus on Emily.