by Karmon Kuhn
Chapter 13
W
ith our new disguises, we took turns bathing and readied ourselves to sleep. She went to the far window across the room, peeked out and did so with all of the other windows surrounding us. Then, she locked the bedroom door, placed a chair in front of it and retreated to the bed, sliding her feet under the ample blankets on one side. By the time I approached, she’d lined up several pillows down the center of it, and laid another set of blankets on the opposite side of the bed for me.
I approached my pile of fabric and tentatively sat down under the covers. Because she didn’t object, I pushed myself down farther and let my head rest on the pillow. The bed was much more comfortable than the one at the inn, and I realized quickly that I was exhausted.
“Can I ask you something?” asked Penny.
“Yes.”
“Will you have to turn into . . . will you go back to being a . . . are you going to have to change your body back?”
“It is said that my people can stay in a human form indefinitely, but I don’t know anyone who has tried to stay human for longer than a few months. There’s a legend that says that if one of my kind stays in their human body for too long, then they will not be able to return to their other form. One of the old beliefs is that that is how humans came about in the first place.”
“Hm.” she offered in response and turned onto her back across the bed.
It was silent then for a long time. The fatigue in my body and heaviness behind my eyes overtook me. But just as I drifted to the precipice of sleep, there was a shuffling sound. My body stiffened, and my eyes shot open.
Penny’s hand slid into mine, and we looked at each other. I motioned to her to be silent and did my best to get up without making a sound. Again, the noise rustled outside the window, and I approached, softly padding my feet on the carpet. Penny tip-toed up behind me, and with our breaths stalled deep in our chests, we peeked just outside.
At first, my eyes saw nothing as they adjusted to the darkness. Once they did, I saw a small, bushy-tailed animal with big ears passed the left corner of the house along the tree line. Penny let out an audible breath that prickled the hairs on my neck.
“Oh my god. It’s just a fox. We’re gonna hear noises like that all night.”
I let out a hesitant breath of my own and sniffed. There was no indication that she was wrong, but I wasn’t certain. I returned to the bed so as not to worry Penny, and when she removed the pillows in the middle, I was grateful.
“Maybe just for tonight, we can stick together. These woods can get kinda creepy.”
I smiled and laid on my side so that I could look at her. She smiled and then turned her back on me. It hurt to see that until she took my hand and wrapped it around her, holding it to her belly. Some of the tension in my body relaxed, but part of me was still restless. I laid awake long after Penny’s breaths became steady and even. As much as my anxious mind wished to stay alert, though, my body won. Sleep was coming. But, sleep wasn’t the only thing approaching at that moment.
***
Back in my office at the tsez̈ø, I felt the weightlessness of the water around me. The soft and vague sensation of it against my scales. I pored over the sealed pages of the volume at my fingertips, noting elements of the English usage and style. I nearly had the story memorized as I’d read Brave New World repeatedly. Regardless, I always enjoyed discovering new information that I could use to improve my own understanding of the language or apply in some way to my research to enrich English learning for others in the tsez̈ø.
Just as I reached the gripping desperation of John the Savage among the protected manuscript pages, I was torn away by a distorted moan. I stopped reading and looked around me, seeing no one in my study chamber. I went back to my reading and then heard the disturbance again but louder. I slid into the intermediary doorway where the water was let out, and then left it for the swampy hallway tunnel.
I felt instantly heavy and sluggish in my movements. I slithered through the tunnel, but somehow, I was in the wrong department. I didn’t recognize a single room or researcher I passed. I tried to quicken my pace but found myself unable to do so no matter how much I flexed the muscles of my tail. It was as if the path was dry beach sand rather than the traditional slime treated floor of the tsez̈ø.
Then I heard the noise again, except now, it was clear. Instead of a muffled mess of sound, I heard words. A screech.
“Help me!”
The voice sounded familiar, but I couldn't quite place it. I continued slithering at the horrific pace that my body could muster. Time slowed as I struggled to reach the corner of the corridor, and as soon as I did, I saw it.
A bloodied and bruised human figure with a silvery mane covering its face. It crawled toward me, gripping at the swampy floor beneath its knees and screeched again, holding out its hand. I froze, unsure of what I was seeing.
“Natalie!” It yelled up at me, and I saw recognition in its barely visible eyes. I’d seen them before, but where?
I began to slide forward again, but I was unable to stay upright and fell. Each time I righted myself, I fell. Over and over again. She tried to crawl toward me as well, but we both failed to get any closer to each other. How did I know the creature was a she?
I gritted my fangs and began pulling myself along the floor with anything I could grip until I saw another researcher. At first I was relieved and reached my hand out for assistance. Instead of offering help, he waved a stunner at the creature and then at me.
“Don’t worry about that. It can’t get out of here.”
As he said this, he pressed the weapon against her skin and her head fell back as she screamed, revealing her face from under all of that silvery hair. I knew that face.
“Penny!” I screamed in horror, and then, it was my turn. The researcher advanced on me with the stunner in his hand. I tried to wriggle away but the pinch of the weapon against my neck persisted until everything went black.
***
I didn’t know where I was. As my eyes adjusted to the dark, I saw a high ceiling above me with a still fan and felt a soft, plush weight covering my whole body. I was alone.There was a skinny, sliver of light coming through the shades, and I jumped at the shadows in the room.
Even as I realized that the shadows were just that, panic swelled in my chest. The bedroom door was ajar and the chair was no longer in place. I bounded first to the bathroom and then down the hallway. I turned my head from side to side and almost fell when my toes got caught in the living room rug.
My feet made a hard thud on the ground, and I stood still and silent for a moment to determine if I’d made myself known to an enemy by running so recklessly. There was scratching and clunking in the kitchen, so I approached.
I peeked around the corner at several cans and bags with pictures of food and people eating on them. Behind the table covered in food was someone bent over into a cabinet. I froze for a moment, waiting for evidence that it was in fact Penny. And, after a moment, she stood up and revealed a head of thick, chestnut hair, newly dyed from the night before.
“Penny!” I said and hurried over to her, my legs as lethargic and swampy as they'd been in the dream.
“Yeah?” she asked.
“I thought you were gone! I thought that they took you, like in my dream! Because of me! You were in the lab, and . . . I thought that they had you . . .”
I felt silly as soon as I’d shared the concerns aloud. Of course, they hadn’t taken her. I would’ve awoken in a struggle. And why would they leave me here and just take Penny?
“No, no. I’m okay,” she said, her brows raising in concern.
She walked toward me and put a hand on my shoulder. I tingled under the weight of her hand on my body and felt close to her. My heartbeat slowed just a bit.
“I’m here,” she said.
I hugged her. To my surprise, she didn’t pull away and let me just hold her there. After a moment, sh
e even placed her hands around my neck and pulled me closer to whisper, “I’m not going anywhere.”
I was reassured for the first time since I left the tsez̈ø. For a while, we just stood there in each other's arms, and I was filled with questions. How could my people have so much hate for humanity when the individuals that make it up could be so incredibly precious? And how had I never known just how precious they could be?
She pulled away from me, and I let a smile creep across my face, a bit embarrassed at having been so frightened. Even so, my concern had helped her understand that I hadn’t come to her completely out of self-interest.
“I’m just checking the cupboards to see if there’s anything good in here. It looks like there’s plenty of food for a few days.”
I picked up a few boxes and looked at the labels. There were cartoons on packages of cereal, bags titled “chips,” and cans with photos of produce and various other food goods. None of it looked as appetizing as the things we’d eaten in the cafe, but I thought that perhaps, something would be worth trying.
She sorted the boxes and bags. Then we carried some into the bedroom and put everything in the room where we’d slept. Penny put the chair back under the door knob as it had been last night, and I sighed as we huddled back onto the bed with our provisions behind locked doors.
Chapter 14
W
e sat on the bed with our backs against the wall. Penny pulled out the map from her car and said, “My family is from Victoria Falls, Indiana. I think we should try to go somewhere like that. In the Midwest away from the coast. My close family members are all hunters too, so if anyone comes to hurt us . . . I mean, my dad’s a good shot.”
“Would we go there in the car?” I asked and grimaced.
“Yeah. That’d be the safest. What do you think?”
“My people will not be in the Midwest, but others like us may be. Others like Darius, perhaps. We will still have to be careful.”
“I understand,” she said. “I don’t know what our long term plan will be, but I think getting away from the beach is a good, next step.”
“Yes, I agree.” I answered, but a pit formed in my stomach. I’d never been more than a couple of miles from an ocean before, and I already missed my home.
“Let’s leave this evening right before dark. That way, it’ll be harder for someone to follow my car. I know the back roads of this area well, so I think I can get away if anyone follows.”
“What shall we do until then?” I asked.
“I have a few things in my backpack, and there are card games and stuff in the other room. Lemme see,” she said, digging through her bag and the boxes from the other rooms. “Here we go! I’ve got some playing cards, a board game set, and a couple of novels. Any of those sound good?”
“What are playing cards?” I asked, picking up the box that she had titled as such.
“Cards are pieces of cardboard or paper with pictures and numbers on them. You use them to play games like poker or go fish. Do you want to learn a game?” she asked.
“Yes,” I smiled. I’d loved games as a child.
“Okay. I’ll deal the cards out,” she said and then asked, “What kind of games have you played before?”
“I don’t think there is an English word for it, but there is a timed game for children that I always liked very much. It requires arranging a set of hollow spheres in a particular order before they can sink to your play mat. Each sphere fills with water at a different speed and emits a vibration that corresponds to the fill speed and the pattern. If they are arranged in the wrong order, they all simultaneously fill and sink.”
“Wow,” she replied. “That’s a kids’ game? How old do you have to be to play it? It sounds difficult.”
“Age is calculated by shark migration patterns in my community, so I’m not sure how old I was in human years when I played that game. But, I think I was close to four or six years old then,” I answered.
“Huh.” she answered. “How old are you now?”
“I’ve lived through about forty shark migrations which would make me about half as many years old.”
“You’re only twenty? I thought you said that you were a researcher.”
“Yes. I am. Education and specialization begin very young. I knew that I would study languages for the betterment of my people as soon as I had survived ten migrations.”
“Wow. That’s intense. How did you know that you wanted to do that?”
“I didn’t. My instructors found that I was talented in this area and fostered my learning.”
“That’s kinda awesome. I’m nineteen now, and I’m just barely getting started. So, why shark migrations?”
“Large sharks pose a major threat as predators and have been worshipped throughout our history. They impacted when and where we lived when we were transient, and community members who survived a migratory season would have a large celebration. My people still have large festivals each year for this occasion.”
The cards sat in three stacks in front of us untouched now and Penny asked me another question, “What’s the festival like?”
“It’s breathtaking. Everyone paints themselves like the hunters from the old times and hangs bright and colorful decorations all over their homes, community areas, juz̈uṣùs̈s, everywhere! We shine lights behind sea glass and crystals and then serve a feast of various fish, sea vegetables, and prepared eggs.”
“What’s a choozoozoosss? You said that before too.”
I snorted at her poor pronunciation. “A juz̈uṣùs̈s is a type of vehicle.”
“So you guys, like, drive around?”
“We use technology daily, much as you do. It is just that our technology has developed very differently. For example, my juz̈uṣùs̈ is designed to dive in the ocean and runs on a sequestered algae. Very different from your car.”
“That’s not what I imagined. I mean . . .” She looked up at me then and her face flushed, “I mean, I only saw the one side of Darius, so I thought . . .”
“Yes, I understand, but he doesn’t represent all of our kind. There are cultures around the world that differ greatly from mine in technology type and reliance, and also in beliefs. I hope,” I began tentatively, “that you don't perceive me in the same way that you do Darius. The freshwater tribes and communities are being rapidly displaced as nearly all of the Earth’s land has been overtaken by humans. I think that any hate or fear comes from the desire to survive and regain some kind of dignity and identity. And why should they not have that? His people have the right to live. As do yours and mine.”
I looked into her face and hoped that she understood me. When she took my hand and looked back into mine, I knew that she did.
“I believe that you’re a good person, or . . . a good, you know. Heh.”
There was hope in her face, and she squeezed my hand slightly. A jittery feeling filled my abdomen, and I had to catch my breath. I wasn’t sure what was happening, but more and more, I wanted to be here with her. More and more, I wanted to protect her. Needed to protect her. Just needed her.
She broke the connection between our locked eyes first and sighed, “Okay! Let’s check out these cards, huh?”
She spent the morning teaching me card games like Go Fish and War. I especially liked the most ridiculously named of all of them, Egyptian Rat Screw. It took a couple of rounds of each for me to win anything, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. Spending time doing something ordinary under those extraordinary circumstances was such an incredible relief.
After several games, I became peckish and asked about the food to which Penny responded, “Yeah, it’s probably about lunch time. Let’s have something to eat. We have cold Amy’s canned pastas, faux jerky, chips, dry cereal, a veritable feast! Anything sound good?”
“I don’t think I’ve eaten any of those things before,” I answered. “You choose.”
“How about we start with jerky and chips and then have a b
it of cereal for dessert?”
“Okay,” I replied.
She peeled apart the crinkly packaging of the jerky which turned out to be an oily dried meat substitute. The chips were plant matter, but I never would have guessed as much. The package had a picture of the original root, and I couldn’t believe how different this presentation seemed. Penny told me that roasted potatoes with olive oil and rosemary were much better, and she offered to make me some. Mention of the future pulled the smile on my face down into a frown. If we made it out of this, maybe she really could cook for me. If . . .
“I recognize this. I’ve seen this packaging,” I said, when she passed me the bag of chips.
“Oh yeah? Like, in the store? These are a pretty popular flavor.” Penny answered with her mouth full.
“No. I’ve pulled many of these packages from the ocean for repurposing.”
“Oh.” Penny replied. “We can take them with us. I bet we’ll find recycling somewhere on the drive back.”
I smiled again. This change in her was flattering. Somehow, I’d made a positive impact, and she maintained it.
The rest of the day continued in the same way. We played games, ate the delectable snack foods, and took turns reading sections of the books from our bags. For a while we even watched “reality TV” full of filthy antiheroes. I couldn’t look away.
Despite everything that was happening in our lives, I had fun with Penny. We lounged on the bed, and I lightly grazed her each time one of us adjusted our position to get more comfortable. Whenever we touched or she laughed, I was consumed by a wave of contentment that drowned my anxieties.
***
In the afternoon when the light started to shift to a deeper glow near the horizon, Penny went to the windows and checked outside to see if there was anything suspicious. After she was satisfied, she plopped down on the bed next to me and flipped through the book closest to her. It was by an author called Stephen King. I’d never heard of him, and I was surprised. This piece was fascinating.