Shimmer

by Matthew Keith

Chapter 10

  “Hello?” Leeann answered the phone.

  “Leeann!” Alex couldn’t keep the frantic, high-strung sound from his voice, and he didn’t care.

  “Alex? What’s wrong?”

  For a few moments, it was all he could do to gulp in heavy, shaking lungfuls of air.

  “Oh my God,” Leeann gasped, “is it your Dad? Is he…?”

  Alex made a noise that could have been a chuckle or a sob. He couldn’t tell.

  “No,” he answered. He was on the verge of falling apart. What had just happened? Where had he gone? No matter how many times he replayed it in his head, it just didn’t make sense. He’d gone somewhere, that’s all he knew for sure. Somewhere very far from Beaver, Utah. “I honestly don’t know,” he said. “But I think I might be a step closer to finding out.” He took a loud breath. “I think I know where he went.”

  “But,” Leeann replied, confused, “Shouldn’t that be good news? You don’t sound happy at all. I would have thought you’d be ecstatic having any news at all about your dad.”

  “It’s… ummm…” Alex didn’t say anything for a moment. He was still just trying to breathe. “I don’t know,” he said finally. “Listen, I’m right down the road. At the gas station. It didn’t look like your parents were home. Are they?”

  Alex wasn’t taking any chances. He couldn’t let anyone find out he had one of the suits, especially not someone like Leeann’s father who worked at EMIT.

  “What?” Alex was changing subjects so quickly, Leeann was struggling to keep up. “No, they’re at a matinee. Alex, why didn’t you just come over? Why would you think you’d have to call first? What’s going on?”

  Alex didn’t answer. He closed his eyes, hating that he couldn’t just tell her what had happened. He covered the phone for a second, composing himself.

  “I’m coming over,” he announced abruptly, and hit the ‘END’ button on his phone.

  Alex leaned against the gas station wall, his knees weak with relief. Leeann was home. She would help him. Thank God. He’d been in a panic ever since he’d returned to the surface. The suit had brought him back, but not in the same spot he’d left from. He’d found himself on a main road about a mile from the airstrip, nearly killed by oncoming traffic.

  He’d run back to the field house for his backpack and found that although it was still there, it had been moved from the front wall to the side of the building. He was absolutely certain he hadn’t left it there. A chill had run down his spine as he’d checked to see if anything was missing, but it was all still there. Knowing that someone had touched his stuff while he was gone was eerie enough, but for them to leave it all there—his wallet, his cell phone—was even worse. It made him feel even more watched than before, like the only reason someone had been there was to check on him, or make sure the person they saw disappear on the strip was really him.

  Silas? And if it was, why hadn’t he still been there when Alex came back?

  He remembered seeing a person the split second before he’d been yanked down into the shimmer—it had to have been them who’d gone through his pack. Closing his eyes, Alex tried to conjure up the memory of that person, and tried to come up with any detail he could that would identify who it had been, but couldn’t. His recollection was only of a silhouette, the black shape of someone standing far off in the distance.

  Even more importantly, who had those people in the cavern been? And where had they been?

  One of them had called it ‘The Under’—under what?

  Their speech had been articulate, even polite. And their accents—they’d sounded foreign, but Alex really had no idea. The farthest he’d ever been from home was Hawaii.

  The most frightening thing had been that somehow they’d known that he had arrived through the shimmer. One of them had pointed directly at it when they asked Alex what he was doing there. But how? How could they have known? The way they’d been dressed and the weapons they’d been carrying, they looked like simple people, almost prehistoric. How could they have any concept of a technology like teleportation?

  And what about Alex, himself? He had no clue how he’d done it either. He’d seen those heat shimmers his whole life, usually through the windshield on long stretches of highway in the hot sun. He’d never thought anything of them, but obviously they were much more than just some optical illusion. There were a catalyst or portal between the surface and… where? Obviously, somewhere down deep.

  Alex was scared, confused, and didn’t know what to do next. Leeann was the only person he trusted. He couldn’t take the suit back to Silas’s house. If Silas saw it, he would recognize it for what it was and demand that he bring it to EMIT.

  And then Alex would be back to square one in the search for his father.

  When Alex got to Leeann’s, he avoided the front door and snuck around to the back, knocking quietly on the sliding glass door.

  Leeann’s first glimpse of Alex made her jaw drop. He was wild-eyed, his clothing torn and dirty from his dive into the ditch. “What happened to you?” she demanded as she slid the door open. She stuck her head out and peered into the back yard. “You couldn’t use the front door?”

  Alex hurriedly stepped inside and slid the door closed. He wrapped Leeann in a tight hug. “Thank you,” he said, his cheek pressed against the top of her head. He blew out a relieved breath, surprised at the feeling of solace he immediately felt. For the first time since watching the video his father had left, he felt a small measure of safety.

  “You’re scaring me,” Leeann told him in a muffled voice, hugging him back.

  Alex finally let go and immediately started pulling off the outer layer of clothes. “I need you to hang on to something for me,” he said brusquely.

  “Alex!” Leeann blushed crimson and spun around so her back was to him.

  Alex choked out a confused protest and realized how what he’d said must have sounded like in the midst of taking his clothes off.

  “That’s not—” he started to object, but decided maybe she should turn around. He wasn’t wearing anything under the suit. “Just give me a second. Don’t turn around.”

  Once he got his shirt and pants off, he began the arduous task of disconnecting the arm ports, peeling the suit off as he went.

  He had it down to his waist when Leeann whipped back around in shock. “Alex, what have you done to yourself?” She grabbed him by the wrists and lifted his arms to get a better look at the ports. When she looked back up her eyes were ablaze, demanding an explanation.

  “I…” Alex tried to come up with a way to avoid explaining it, but beyond lying or telling her to mind her own business—neither of which he wanted to do—he knew he had to come clean, especially if he was going to ask her to hide the suit. “This,” he plucked at the mesh fabric, “is one of my Dad’s inventions. These,” he pointed at the ports in his arms, “plug into the suit. Or I guess actually the suit plugs into them.” He shook his head. “Doesn’t matter. What matters is I’m pretty sure this suit is the reason he’s missing.”

  Leeann’s mouth had grown wider and wider as he spoke until her look was one of pure incredulity. “You plug it into yourself? Are you out of your mind?”

  She had a point. He really hadn’t thought much about whether having the ports in his arms was safe. Maybe he was a little crazy.

  “Look, that’s not what’s important,” he began, but she cut him off.

  “Not what’s important?” she demanded. “Not what’s important? Alex—”

  “I need you to hold on to the suit for me,” he said, stopping her tirade midstream. “I don’t trust Silas and,” he gave her a calculating look, “how did you see my arms, anyway? You were supposed to have your back turned!”

  That shut her up. She glanced at the sliding door where Alex’s reflection was clearly visible and made a face.

  “It’s not like we’re related,” she groused. “We’re friends. I’d be stupid not to look.” She crossed her arms and turned bac
k around, but not before Alex saw the flush creep back into her cheeks.

  Smirking, Alex turned around too and hurriedly stripped off the bottom half of the suit, tugging his jeans and shirt back on. When he turned back around, Leeann was already facing him with his jean jacket held up so he could shrug his arms into it.

  Alex picked up the suit from the floor and stuffed it into his backpack, handing the whole bundle to Leeann.

  “You can’t tell anyone about this,” he warned her. “Not your parents, not your friends at school—no one.”

  “Okay,” she replied, smiling a little.

  “Leeann, this is serious…” he warned.

  Her lips curved upward further. “Really,” she assured him, “I get it.” She turned him by the shoulders to face the door. “Now get out of here before my parents get home and start asking questions.”

  “Okay…” he replied hesitantly. Why the sudden change in demeanor? He pulled the door open.

  “Oh, and Alex?”

  “Yeah?” He craned his head around just in time to receive a big, wet kiss on the cheek and slap on the butt.

  “Thanks for the peep show.”

  Alex took an awkward step outside as Leeann slid the door closed behind him.

  Could his life become any stranger?

  The walk back to Silas’s house didn’t take long. He entered the house, his mind still working so hard that he didn’t see Silas until he heard his name called.

  “Alex. Please join me.”

  Silas was again seated in the dining room, his palms flat on the table in front of him, his back to Alex.

  “I was…” Alex gulped, inexplicably scared out of his wits. He instinctively knew he was in trouble. Panic gripped his gut as if he’d just been caught with his hand in the proverbial cookie jar. “I was gonna grab a sandwich.”

  “Rosa will get it for you,” Silas replied, not turning around.

  Alex jumped, startled, when Rosa stepped forward. She’d been standing motionlessly against the wall on the far side of the room. She swept past him on silent feet, heading toward the kitchen.

  Alex moved carefully into the room and sat down.

  Silas knew. Somehow, he knew. Alex’s mind raced, searching for an explanation. But how? He must have been the one at the airstrip. “I…” Alex faltered, almost feeling obligated to come clean. This was Silas. His parents had kept him around forever. Why couldn’t Alex trust him too?

  But something told him not to.

  “Are you home for lunch?” he asked Silas.

  “I am home for you,” Silas replied evenly. His eyes bored into Alex’s. “I needed your help today at the lab, so when I called Mr. Choi and asked him to send you there, you can imagine my surprise when he said his daughter was home but he hadn’t seen you all day.” Alex forced himself not to look away, though the panic had to be plain in his eyes. “So I suppose in a way I am home for lunch.” Silas’s eyes were black pools of accusation. “But my meal will be the truth. I would like to have the truth for lunch.”

  Something brushed Alex’s arm and he yelped, only to realize that Rosa had soundlessly re-entered the room and placed a sandwich on the table next to him. He murmured a polite thank you, but she had already turned away.

  Silas continued to wait with quiet intensity, palms still flat on the table. Alex looked down at the pale, bony fingers and the dirty, claw-like nails.

  He startled himself when he spoke his thoughts aloud. “Why you?” he asked.

  Silas squinted, confused by the question, and that confusion emboldened Alex.

  “Why did my father choose you to watch over me? You barely know me, and it’s obvious you don’t like me.”

  Silas’s expression remained impassive. “I have known your father for a long time and we share a very unique trust.”

  Alex waited for more. He wanted to hear more. If Silas could just give him a reason to trust him, he might change his mind. But Silas didn’t elaborate any further. How could his father have trusted such a reticent man who guarded his secrets so zealously? It made no sense, and regardless of how his father had felt about Silas, Alex wasn’t ready to place the same faith in him.

  “I did go to Mr. Choi’s house,” he replied finally, “but I went back to the airstrip first.”

  Two could play at the quiet game. He’d told Silas the truth, but only the bare minimum.

  “Why?” Silas asked.

  “I wanted to see if there was anything we missed.”

  Still the truth. Sort of.

  “And?”

  “And I’m still just as confused as when I left this morning.” Alex stood, and Silas finally moved his head, turning to look up at him. “I’m going to my room to try and get a little rest,” Alex said, not bothering to keep the irritation from his voice. “I’m tired.”

  Silas glanced at Alex’s untouched sandwich. “We still have work to do at the lab today. I’ll see you in two hours.”

  “Fine.”