by Platt, Sean
“What happened to him in Iraq?” Teagan asked, afraid she might be prying, but too curious not to ask.
“He won’t say. I asked him once, and he said he doesn’t like to talk about that stuff. I don’t know if he’s ever told anyone.”
Teagan was quiet for several minutes, sorting through all that had happened, when Jade asked her about herself. Teagan gave the condensed version, then when Jade asked her how she had met her dad, Teagan filled her in on everything, including how Ed had saved her.
“He shot down a helicopter?” Jade said, eyes wide and hurt. “Oh my God.”
“He thought they were coming for me,” Teagan said, “for my baby.”
“Why the hell would he think that?”
Teagan felt her face flush, “We stopped at a hotel after he picked me up, and when I slept, I had a nightmare about people in helicopters coming for my baby.”
Jade stared at her. She didn’t come out and say, “Oh, you’re crazy, too, just like my dad,” but her eyes managed for her.
“I feel terrible,” Teagan said, “He killed them for me. I told him it was a nightmare, and it was probably nothing, but he...”
“He probably would’ve done it, anyway. My dad would’ve found his own reason if you didn’t have one. You just gave a little shape to the nebulous conspiracy theories already spinning in his head.”
“Does he know that he’s not really an agent?” Teagan asked. “Does he know that you know he’s not one? What if he asks me if you told me anything?”
Jade thought for a moment. “Oh, he fully believes he is some kind of secret agent. As far as my mom and I are concerned, he thinks we think he’s crazy. Or that he was so deep undercover that we don’t know and now we don’t believe him. As far as you’re concerned, we never had this conversation. I don’t think he’d hurt me or you, but there’s no way to know for sure how far he’s messed up or how deep his paranoia runs.”
Teagan just stared at Jade, not sure what to say.
“I shouldn’t have said anything.” Jade said. “I don’t want it to be all weird between you two now.”
A knock at the door. “Come in,” Jade said.
It was Ken. “Your dad just went outside to get the SUV.”
“He did WHAT?!” Jade said, jumping from the bed and running into the living room. “He didn’t even say goodbye?”
* * * *
LUCA HARDING
October 17
Late afternoon
Belle Springs, Missouri
Luca stared at his reflection. He’d gone from an eight year old to a teenager in the span of minutes.
He was him, but not like he remembered.
He was now slightly taller than Paola with a full head of hair that fell just past his shoulders. The face staring back at him was at least a good five years older, and looked remarkably like his father’s.
His clothes were torn, as if he’d grown right through them. Like The Incredible Hulk, except Luca wasn’t green or full of muscles.
“It’s gonna be okay,” Will said, throwing a robe around Luca. “Come on; let’s find you some new clothes.”
He could feel all the frightened feelings sitting inside of the people. Even the leader man, Desmond, looked at Luca like he was scared in the places he didn’t like to talk about. It made Luca’s sad spiders start to crawl.
He couldn't explain what had happened to his face, or his body, but he knew it wasn’t his fault, and hated to feel like the room was looking at him like was he part of the terrible scary.
Especially Paola’s mom, Mary.
She smiled at him because she knew he had helped her daughter, but Luca could see behind the smile and her thinking didn’t trust him.
She thinks I could hurt Paola if I wanted to and that maybe when I helped her it was only by accident. She wants me to stay away, but feels bad for feeling that way. Like when Daddy has work to do.
Mary cradled Paola. “I was so, so worried. Thank God you’re safe.”
Will and Luca went into one of the hotel rooms that had a bunch of suitcases laid out and open. “I’ll wait out here,” Will said, leaving Luca alone in the room. “You find some clothes that fit you, okay?”
Luca didn’t bother to ask whose clothes these were. People who had disappeared. Like his family.
He found a pair of blue jeans, a red tee shirt, and some underwear, socks, and sneakers that were a close enough match to his new size. As he got undressed, he saw hair in places he’d not had hair before. Though he was curious about his new body, he was also embarrassed, as if he were looking at someone else, so he got dressed quickly, so he didn’t have to see so much of himself.
He wanted to talk to Will alone, but when he came back out of the room, Will was already in the lobby. Luca joined the group, feeling more self aware and shyer than normal. Though the people weren’t staring at him, he could feel them looking when he was turned away, like they were trying to figure out how he did what he did.
Everyone could tell Mary and Paola wanted to be alone, so Jimmy and Will went to the bar. John and Desmond went to guard their areas. Luca was left to wander the lobby, looking at his feet and keeping away from the mirrors. He wondered where Dog Vader was. Then he spotted the dog curled up near the front door, sleeping. Probably tired from all the adventuring and walking from the past few days, Luca figured.
I sure could use a friend right now.
He thought about his best friends back home. Scott, Omar, and Billy. He’d been missing his parents so much, he’d hardly thought about his friends at all. He wondered if they were missing too. Or if maybe they were looking for their parents, too. He hoped they were okay. Luca laughed when he thought of how Omar might react if he saw Luca now looking so much older. Omar was the oldest of the bunch, by six months, and he never let anyone forget it, often acting like he was way older, and therefore more experienced at things than the others. Sometimes the other kids would get in fights with Omar because of the way he was, but Luca never minded. Omar was just being Omar, and Omar was his friend, no matter what.
Luca stopped in front of a wooden shelf with lots of pockets, all stuffed with brochures, then began pulling them out one by one, starting at the top left corner and moving row by row, and skipping the duplicates, until he pulled the 23rd brochure from the bottom right.
Luca took his pile of brochures, then sat in a chair to read the sad spiders away.
He read about the “bird’s eye view from the Gateway Arch,” the “thrills and spills at Six Flags St. Louis” and the “exciting dioramas on display” at the Lewis & Clark Boat House and Nature Center.
They all sounded like fun adventures, and the pictures looked nice, especially the roller coasters at Six Flags. But none of the 23 brochures helped the sad spiders go away. He still missed his mom and dad and Anna, and couldn’t keep from thinking about how he was making everyone afraid.
I wish I knew if everyone was really thinking the stuff I think they’re thinking, but I can’t tell where my thoughts stop and their’s get started. Hearing their thoughts seems un-possible. Even if Will thinks it isn’t.
He was wondering if sad spiders filled the entire hotel when he heard Jimmy’s voice behind him. “Hey, little man, how you doing?”
“I’m okay,” Luca said.
“No you aren’t,” Jimmy shook his head. “Tell me what’s wrong.”
“I was only trying to help, but I think I might have made things worse.”
“Don’t be silly.” Jimmy threw himself into one of the oversized chairs next to Luca. “It’s just that we’re all getting used to seeing all sorts of strange shh...stuff we’re not used to seeing. And you gotta admit, that was pretty weird back there.” Jimmy leaned toward Luca. “Any idea how that happened?”
Luca shook his head.
“Well, it’s not like it matters anyway,” Jimmy said. “Hey, wanna play a game?”
“Sure! What kind of games do you have? Does this place have a Wii?”
Jimm
y laughed. “Ha, I wish! I’d love a PS3 and some Uncharted 2 right now, but I’d definitely settle for a Wii. Hell, I’d settle for a DS! I found a PSP, but the batteries went dead the first day. Least I thought it was the batteries, but all the other batteries I tried went dead too. So I figure it had to be the PSP is busted. So, no video games. But I did find a deck of Uno cards; wanna play that?”
Luca loved Uno. “Yes, please!”
“Be right back.” Jimmy said.
Jimmy returned two minutes later with the fattest deck of Uno cards Luca had ever seen.
“Why are there so many?” Luca asked.
“I found four decks in the hotel. Guess Uno keeps the kids quiet. I put all the decks together and made a super deck. More fun that way.”
Luca agreed.
“Okay, now I haven’t played in a long time,” Jimmy said, “So you promise to go easy on me?”
Luca laughed, “I promise.”
Jimmy laid out two piles of seven cards as he glanced around the lobby. Will, John, and Desmond were still up front and Mary was sitting at the bar. Paola walked toward the card game.
“Hi,” she said to Luca. “I’m Paola.”
“Nice to meet you,” Luca said.
Paola shook Luca’s hand then sat in a chair across from him, next to Jimmy.
“Can I play?”
“Course you can play,” Jimmy nodded, flicking seven cards into a third pile.
“Why so many cards?” She pointed at the top-heavy deck.
“It’s my Super Deck. Way more fun.”
Jimmy and Luca traded a smile.
The first game lasted just three and a half minutes. Paola had two Draw Fours, three Draw Twos and a Skip. No one stood a chance.
“This isn’t a hand, it’s a foot!” Jimmy said, looking at his cards.
Paola laughed. “You’re right; the Super Deck is more fun.”
She blew raspberries at Jimmy. He gathered the played cards, shuffled, slipped them into the Super Deck, then counted three fresh piles from the top.
“How are you feeling?” Jimmy asked Paola.
“Good,” she nodded. “A little weird.”
“You mean beyond going missing then comatose?” Jimmy smiled, then fanned his cards in front of his face with a satisfied nod. “You start,” he said to Paola.
She put a red 4 on top of the red 1. “I don’t remember anything that happened, even though I feel like I should. I know it was something important and it’s like the memory is at the edge of my brain but I can’t quite touch it.”
“BAM!” Jimmy said, laying down a red Draw Two.
Luca drew two cards and said, “You don’t remember anything?”
Paola dropped a green Draw Two on top of Jimmy’s red one, then stuck her tongue out and turned to Luca. “No, not really. I sort of remember waking up the other night and walking toward the kitchen. But there’s nothing else until I woke up.”
“You were moaning like crazy in your sleep.” Jimmy drew two cards.
Luca played a green six. “Do you remember me?”
The color drained from Paola’s face, then returned a moment later in a deeper flush. She nodded. “I do,” she said. “We were swinging. But you were younger.”
Luca nodded.
“You helped me, didn’t you?”
Luca nodded again. “I think so, but I don’t know how.”
Jimmy looked from Luca to Paola, shaking his head. “It’s like Inception in 4-D,” he said.
“I think that’s why everyone’s scared of me,” Luca said.
“They’re not scared of you!” Paola said, surprised. She looked at Jimmy. “Are they?”
“Well I don’t know that anyone’s gonna be Luca for Halloween, but yeah, you missed some crazy stuff. We got a real magic show from junior grandpa here.”
Luca wished everyone would just play and stop talking about what happened.
“Yeah, when Boy Wonder walked in a half hour ago, he looked about the same age as the Wilson kid.”
“You mean the one with all the freckles?”
“I was gonna say the one whose face looks like it caught fire and someone tried to put it out with a fork, but yeah, same difference.”
“That’s mean, Jimmy.” Paola turned to Luca, then back to Jimmy. “The Wilson kid is seven.”
“I’m eight,” Luca said.
Paola shook her head and played her green 3. “That’s not possible. You’re taller than I am.”
“I’m telling you,” Jimmy said, throwing a green Skip on top of the pile, “a half hour ago he was a munchkin.”
“Uno!” Luca said, putting the red three on top of the green one. “Can we talk about something else now?”
“Man, you can’t let it get to you,” Jimmy said. “We may not understand what happened, but whatever went down, you can obviously do cooler shit than any of us can. Seriously, I’d love to have someone make me five years older.”
“Jimmy! Don’t swear.”
“Call me Jim and I won’t,” he winked at Paola, then turned to Luca. “Anyway, embarrassing stuff happens to everyone. That’s where confidence comes from. It’s how you deal with it. And given the current world population, you might just have a chance at being the most confident kid in the world. Now,” he dropped a red Draw Two, “would you like to hear about a time I was embarrassed? I’ve got about a billion.”
Luca drew two cards and said, “Okay.”
Paola played a red Skip, Luca played a red 7. Jimmy started talking.
“So this happened in 8th Grade Math. I had to go to the bathroom reaaaaal bad. And it wasn’t just draining pipe; I actually had to drop the boys at the pool, which I NEVER do at school if I can help it. My teacher, Mr. Mellakar was a real jerk, partly because I gave him attitude, but mostly because he was born that way. Sometimes he gave me detention for breathing, but whatever; I figured if I really had to go, I really had to go. So I raised my hand and asked, but he just shook his head and told me I could wait until lunch. But that wasn’t gonna fly because the turtle was already poking out of its shell.”
“Ewww!” Paola made a face and Luca giggled. Everyone kept dropping cards and drawing new ones while Jimmy went on.
“So he finished drawing a chalk cylinder on the board, then asked us to figure the area and when he went to his desk, I got up and quietly asked him again. I told him I had to release the hounds and that it wasn’t gonna wait until lunch.”
“Did you actually say you had to release the hounds?” Paola asked.
Jimmy laughed. “No, I think I probably said Number Two. Anyways, he finally said okay, but he was sort of a jerk about it and told me I’d better hurry. Like I can control how long a shi… um, poop takes. So, I ran to the bathroom but both stalls were taken. I had to do the crap dance for another five or six minutes, which felt like an hour. Finally, the stall opens and I run inside. I sat down and bombed the oval office, but it was coming out so fast, it was like I was making batter. Took a whole roll of toilet paper to clean myself, too.”
“This is way, way too much information,” Paola said making an ill face. She put a green 9 on top of the red one.
Luca couldn’t stop giggling. He liked the way Jimmy talked, super fast and excited. Dog Vader padded his way into the room and barked. Luca wasn’t sure if Vader liked, or didn’t like, the poop story.
Jimmy thought he played a yellow 6, but Paola said it was a 9, so he put down a green 7 instead. Luca put down a green 4.
Jimmy continued. “So I get back to class, but it’s like 20 minutes later. Soon as I walk in, Mr. Mellakar says, ‘So you’re FINALLY back!’ then asks me what took me so long. I mumbled that I had to go Number Two and he said, ‘I can’t hear you,’ then kept making me repeat it until everyone in class was laughing, including Amy Ensile, who I really, really wanted to ask to the end-of-the-year dance. But I couldn't even look her in the eye after that.”
“Why?” Paola said. “Everyone poops.” She played a blue 4.
“Yeah
,” Jimmy said, “but not everyone gets laughed at in front of the entire class. I got called Lava Cake for the rest of that year and all summer. Only thing that saved me was high school, and doing some other stupid thing which earned me another nickname.” He put down a blue 2.
“What name was that?” Paola asked.
“Um, probably not a story for the kiddos.”
Luca put down a Draw Four, then said, “Uno!”
Paola grumbled from behind her smile, then drew four cards and gestured toward her mom, deep in discussion with Will, sitting at the bar. “What do you think they’re talking about?”
Jimmy looked at Luca’s face and the single card waving just below his mouth. Jimmy’s hand hovered over the deck, then returned to his own cards, where he pulled another blue 2 and set it on top.
“Not sure,” Jimmy said. “Probably how we’re going to get out of here, and where we’re gonna go next. You know, the stuff we don’t get to have an opinion about. What do you think?”
Paola studied her mom, then Will. “I think they’re talking about me. I think Will knows something, and I don’t think my mom wants to believe it.”
Luca played his final card and smiled. They couldn't see his sad spiders, and had no idea that Paola was kind of right. Luca knew what Will knew, that something bad was still gonna happen. Only difference was, Luca didn’t know what the bad thing would be. He suspected that Will did, though.
* * * *
MARY OLSON
Any plans they had on leaving the Drury Inn were nixed when the creatures began multiplying outside. On the advice of Will, the group decided to wait. For what, though, nobody knew. Will said they should wait until the next morning. When asked why, he couldn’t elaborate beyond a feeling. John insisted that things wouldn’t get any better and they ought to leave immediately, as planned. Desmond, however, said that since Will (and Luca) were driven by dreams to fly from California to there to save a girl they didn’t even know, Will was obviously tapped into something that none of the Warson Woods group understood.