Hiding the Honda Civic in the garage, Nick then walked around the outside of the property. What most gratified him was noting that the only neighbor was apparently a snowbird, who had placed storm shutters on his home, an obvious sign that he would be gone from his place for a long while. Amie would be in total seclusion.
Nick had two days to make this place livable for Amie. Since he was unsure of how long she might have to remain in the house before he could return, he made a list of items she would need for about a three-week time span.
Before Nick departed for the store, he switched the stolen Florida plate with the Nevada tags, flinging the Florida plate into the river behind the house. Then he removed his documentary notes from his trunk and, for the time being, placed them under the old mattress.
Nick left Amie at the house, cautioning her to keep the doors locked and to not open up to anyone. He drove to a nearby Walmart where he filled a shopping cart with many canned and frozen products, mostly vegetables and fruit. He also purchased beans, rice, pasta, pasta sauce, loaves of bread, peanut butter, jelly and other items Amie had indicated she could eat and drink. He checked those out and took them back to the house.
After they had put the food items away, Amie made another long list of items she would require. So Nick returned to Walmart and purchased more toiletries for her, soap, a few towels, washcloths, wash detergent and cleaning products as well as kitchen waste bags and other housekeeping items. He wasn’t sure he had thought of everything, but it was a start. He still had more time to devote to the project the next morning if he had forgotten something. With the last bag loaded, he drove back to the Ft. Pierce hideout.
Nick was alarmed when he unlocked the door and then could not find Amie. He called to her; there was no answer. He walked to the rear of the home and was relieved to see her out on the dock, contentedly watching the river flow by with her feet kicking in the river water. But Nick’s relief quickly evaporated and he became angry, when he realized she wasn’t wearing her wig or sunglasses. Opening the backslider, he rushed out to her. She turned and offered her small alien smile in greeting. “Get back in the house,” he yelled at her.
Amie looked confused. She could not understand Nick’s anger. She had felt extremely content in this peaceful spot, with the water, trees, birds, and sky. Her happy vibrations faded as she thought-beamed to him, “What’s wrong?”
“Your bare head! Amie, don’t you get it? You have to wear your wig and glasses whenever you leave this house. There are people who travel this river on canoes and kayaks every day. Just since we’ve been here I’ve seen them. Haven’t you? Have you forgotten you don’t look like everybody else? If someone sees you without your disguise, it could lead to big trouble.”
Amie voiced that she was sorry and quickly scurried back into the house. Nick followed behind her, fuming at her recklessness. Amie immediately put her wig back on to please him.
Nick began putting his purchases away, and Amie joined him. She re-examined the food items he had previously bought her with particular scrutiny. “I wish I could have gone to the store with you to pick out just the right food that I like.”
“Well, I think I got everything you had on your list,” Nick stated, in an exasperated way. “If I missed something, I can always go back to the store tomorrow. Today, I’m tired.”
They worked together putting away all the items. When they had finished, Nick uncorked a bottle of wine he had purchased on the shopping foray. He poured wine into two mismatched glasses, offering one to Amie, and then they sat back and relaxed in the worn armchairs.
“Here’s to Sky Woman,” Nick said raising his glass in a toast, “may you soon find your way back home.”
“Thank you, Great Turtle. I hope for everything to go well for you, too.” Amie clinked her glass to Nick’s and took a sip of wine.
After a short while Nick got up and began searching the kitchen cupboards. He was gratified to find that Doug had left two old pots and a skillet. “It should be enough for Amie to get by with,” Nick thought.
“I’ll fix something for us to eat,” Nick told Amie. She played around with the TV remote control, while he boiled pasta and heated up a tomato, mushroom, and pepper sauce. When everything was ready, he sprinkled the finished dish with grated cheese. He found two chipped plates in a kitchen cabinet and served the meal.
It had turned dark when they finally sat down to eat at the table. Discovering a half-burned candle in the back of one of the cabinets, he lit it, and poured the rest of the wine, trying to create a more desirable atmosphere in what was not an overly homey setting.
“Pretty good, Nick. Wine, candles, just like one of those fancy restaurants.” Amie was teasing him. “Didn’t realize you were a cook, also.”
“Well, it has been a while since I’ve had a wife, so I’ve learned to do for myself. Did you cook your own meals at the dormitory?”
“I did, sometimes. X-ray liked to use the kitchen the most, so he was our primary cook, plus we could always order meals from the cafeteria. You know just thinking about us back there, it almost makes me ill. Not X-ray, not his food. Just thinking about that pod they kept us in. No chance to ever be out in the sunshine. No fresh air, no big trees, like that oak outside, to sit under. I am so grateful to you, Nick. We are getting so close to my total freedom. I just hope you will be able to pull it off. How long do you think before we go to the Bahamas?”
“I don’t know. I need to talk to someone about that.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, it’s my neighbor that has a large boat. Tomorrow I’m going to go back to my house over in Palm City. Then I have to fly back to Maryland the next day. I have a feeling though that someone might be contacting me soon after I arrive tomorrow. I’ll have to turn my cell phone on, and I expect there will be a ton of messages.”
“I think you would be better to throw that phone of yours in the river. Tell them it broke on your journey. That’s why you had to buy the Tracfone. What do you think?”
“Actually, I think you have a good idea. It might solve some problems for me; make things seem more plausible. I need to store some of the numbers from the other phone in the new one first though, but I can do that tonight.”
“When will I see you again, Nick?”
“I plan to return in two weeks. I’m hoping we’ll be able to go then.”
“But won’t the government people be watching you?”
Nick was uneasy when Amie asked this question because he was not sure if he was being considered a suspect or not. He had no idea what was going on. He hoped they had nothing on him, but the cameras at the Excalibur could have posed a real problem for him. He had done his best to protect himself with the pictures he took. The story he fabricated seemed reasonable to him, but time would tell whether the government would believe his innocent road trip tale or not.
“There could be surveillance. I’ll have to figure out something if that happens. I can’t be certain. You can best help me by staying put in this house. Promise me you will.”
Amie sensed Nick’s unease. “You can count on me, Nick. I know you have put yourself in great jeopardy for me, and I am very grateful for all the help you have given me.” Yet Amie was worried for herself as well. It all seemed so unpredictable and uncertain. She would wait hidden in this house. Hopefully, he would return. What if they arrested him? What if he never returned? She wondered if she would then have to try to get to the Bahamas on her own. But she had no real idea how she would be able to do that.
“So you will just show up here in two weeks then, that’s it.”
“Right, as far as I know, that’s it.”
Nick and Amie spent the night together. They made the bed, putting down the sheets and two pillows that Terri had provided. The bed was quite horrible, only a full size, and very uncomfortable. It was a restless night for Nick. He did not sleep well. He was anticipating the many questions he would face in the days ahead in addition to thinking about Amie’
s question concerning the exact day of his return. Plus, he had his own questions of how he could avoid being watched and somehow manage to get Amie to the Bahamas. He tried to imagine Dom’s reaction when introduced to Amie. Dom might freak out and refuse to take her. “Maybe Amie could do something like she did to me,” Nick thought, “and use some kind of mind control on Dom.”
As usual, Amie was up earlier than Nick. She sat outside on the dock, this time with her wig on, waiting for the sunrise. She wanted to try a morning meditation at this location, just to see if it might hold enough energy for her to make contact with her rescue ship. But she could soon tell that she was not near enough to the energy vortex.
After breakfast, Nick took the Honda Civic to a complete service carwash in Ft. Pierce. Even though they vacuumed and wiped the car inside, he planned on doing it all again when he brought the car back to Amie’s house. Cleaning the car’s interior was one of the many things he had thought about during his long hours of driving. It was likely, Nick reasoned, that federal agents, even if they couldn’t prove he helped Amie, would want access to the Civic. He could probably explain away stray wig hairs, since it was a used car. “Without Amie’s wig to match to it, it wouldn’t prove much of anything,” he hoped.
Nick stopped by Walmart one more time and bought an inexpensive digital camera, some very strong cleaning solutions, plus a cheap plastic chair for Amie. The armchairs in the living room were rather moldy smelling, and not very easy to move around. He knew Amie liked sitting in the Florida room, where she could look out. And she probably would like a light chair to pick up and take down to the dock, as well. Returning, he spent the next hour wiping down every surface in the Civic.
Nick finished that chore around noontime, forgoing lunch as he wasn’t that hungry. For her lunch, Amie cut an apple into manageable pieces, from a bag of apples Nick had brought for her the previous day. He had provided enough fresh fruit to keep her happy for several days, until she would have to resort to her cans.
Nick felt quite tense, as the time grew closer for him to depart. Amie sensed his unease. Although her race did not feel emotions in the human way, she was still very concerned about whether Nick’s plan would work. She wondered what the future held for them.
Using the camera, Nick took several pictures of Amie with and without her wig. He also asked her to pose for one picture wearing merely her protective alien undergarment. He even took a chance and asked her to pose outside the front door of the house, standing by the seahorse motif, without her disguise. She seemed hesitant and asked Nick what his motivations were. “I just want some pictures to remember you by, Amie” was Nick’s explanation.
Amie was trying to read Nick’s thoughts and detected deception in his statement, but she couldn’t discern his other motive from the fond feelings he projected toward her. So she complied, even working up her little smile for one close up shot with her wearing the long, brunette wig. “I would like to have a picture of you, too. When you come back, bring one for me, will you, Nick?”
“Of course,” Nick replied, rather surprised that Amie would want one. “Perhaps she is more sentimental than I imagine,” he thought. “We have been through a lot together. If it all works out, she can have a picture of me to show around when she tells her alien comrades the story of her escape.”
Preparing to leave, Nick retrieved his notes, packed up the few toiletries he had used, and put everything in the car. He gave Amie a copy of the house key, retaining one for himself. Then he hugged Amie one last time in a very genuine display of affection, and he felt her warm flow of energy once again. It immediately helped to relax him and made him feel secure. He knew she was deliberately trying to strengthen him for his ordeal ahead and he was grateful for her touch. When he released her from his embrace he saw something he had never noticed with her before, her mouth opened slightly and the corners turned down in a little frown. She was actually showing sorrow.
After Nick departed, Amie made a mark on an old calendar she found in a broom closet. She intended to count the days. “If more than two weeks go by until that Honda pulls up in front,” she thought, “I know I’m in trouble.” She began thinking about what she would do in that event.
Chapter 17
As he drove down the lonely road, under the old oak trees clothed in beautiful, gray Spanish moss, a strange feeling of sadness overwhelmed Nick. He wondered if he would ever see Amie again. The discussion they had held the night before, over the candlelight dinner, still resonated in Nick’s mind. “She was right,” he thought, “he might be watched when he next returned for her. He needed to make a plan for that possibility.”
Nick called his friend Doug on the Tracfone and told him he was coming over to his house, having just driven in from Orlando. After he arrived at their home, Nick mentioned that he had brought his friend to the rental house and helped her move in. Hearing that the friend was a woman, Terri was immediately intrigued, “How does she like the house? It wasn’t too clean, and we haven’t had time to make it anything but barely livable.”
“She’s happy with it,” Nick replied, not adding any details.
Terri persisted. “Well, I can go over there and help her if she needs some more things or help with anything.”
“No, that won’t be necessary. She is fine. And, I have to tell you, this lady is a recluse. She would not welcome a visitor.”
“Oh, all right then,” was Terri’s final comment on the matter.
Doug and Terri suggested they all go to dinner at Jensen Beach Ale House, where they wanted to hear the details of his road trip. Nick agreed, insisting they go in his Honda. He was hoping that the couple, who had a large dog and two long-haired cats, would carry lots of pet hairs on them and distribute them in his too clean vehicle. The more he could mingle other people’s DNA with whatever might be lingering from Amie, the better his chances would be of escaping a connection to her. After a pleasant meal with his friends, he begged off further chitchat and beer on their pool patio, telling them he was tired from his long day and long drive. He explained that he would be heading to Maryland the next day.
Before leaving, Nick handed Doug a check for the month’s rent due on his Ft. Pierce house, plus a narrow plastic container. Inside he had placed the hideout key, the special medallion Amie had given him, his camera, and his notes about the alien beings at Area 51. “I’m going to give you this,” Nick explained. “But it’s really meant for my son, Tom, if he should show up at your doorstep for some reason and I am not here with him.”
These mysterious directions puzzled Doug and Terri, and Nick noticed a strange look forming on their faces. First there had been the story about the reclusive woman at their rental and now they were handed this box. “It’s kind of a confidential thing. I know it seems odd that I’m asking this. But please don’t open it. Just keep it for me, and only give it to Tom. Put it in a very safe place, some place where no one else can find it.” Nick felt embarrassed saying it in that way, but he didn’t know how else to convey the importance of the container.
“Don’t worry, Nick,” Terri said, fingering the outside of the box. “You can count on us.”
“Right,” Doug agreed. “No problem, you don’t have to say more. I’ll take good care of it. Sounds important, and I know you work at that super spooky place.”
“Yeah, it is really important. I appreciate your help on this. Look I gotta run though.”
“Nick, always a pleasure to see you. When will you be coming back?”
“I hope in two weeks. See you then,” and Nick hugged them both, got in his car, and drove to his home in Palm City.
It was dark when Nick pulled into his driveway, and he fumbled with the front door lock before finally opening it. The house was a little warm, because the air conditioner temperature was set for economy, not comfort. He flicked on the lights and then turned the temperature down to cool off the house. He dropped off his bags in the master bedroom but, when he looked around, something seemed off in the
room, although at first he could not detect what it was. Then he began to notice a few small details. First, there was a picture of him and his deceased wife, taken on a vacation eight years back. Normally, he had positioned it on the left-hand side of his nightstand, now it was on the right. One of the bureau drawers was pulled slightly ajar and, since Nick was fairly meticulous, this was something he immediately noticed. He checked the few items in his kitchen cupboards and noticed a couple of spice jars tipped over. Nick knew this wasn’t a robbery, as nothing seemed to be missing, and assumed it was the government folks, looking for something. Mulling this disquieting thought, Nick suddenly jumped when he heard a loud knock at his door.
He turned on the carriage light by his front entrance and looked out the peephole, breathing a little sigh of relief when he saw it was only his neighbor. He unlocked the door to let him in.
“Hey Dom, good to see you. I just got back from my trip, come on in.”
“No thanks, Nick. I can’t stay. Marie saw the lights come on in your house and I just wanted to come over here to let you know that people have been looking for you for the past week. What gives? I mean they were cops. They came over to my house, asking all kinds of questions about you, wanted to know if I knew how to reach you, where you were. They checked with the guy on the other side of your house, and the folks across the street, too.”
“Did they say why they were so interested in me?”
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