The Mouse

by Lauretta Hignett

  Sunny was still upset. “But to have your freedom taken away from you because of something unusual you could do… I hate that idea. I hate the thought that I could be locked up and used as a tool. Not being able to make my own choices.”

  Hunter nodded. “That, Agent Mouse, is something you won’t have to worry about. Any sign of trouble and you’d disappear. Easy.”

  She looked down at her feet. “I’d just have to worry about my family being used against me for my entire life.”

  He nudged her with his good foot. “I promised you that I wouldn’t let anyone find out about you. Just be careful, and no one will,” he murmured softly.

  She smiled at him tentatively, and they sat in silence for a few minutes. After a while, he gave a small laugh.

  “I got cut up pretty bad in Timor, broke some ribs and needed a few stitches going through a window in a village outside Suai. Landed on some pretty rough terrain and rolled twenty metres downhill.” He laughed again. “I don’t think I made a sound when I crashed through that pane of glass, or the whole way bouncing down that hill. Or even when they stitched me up.” He opened his eyes and smiled at her. “But you drop me a couple of metres, and I get a sprained ankle and squeal like a baby.”

  “Getting soft, Rambo?”

  “Maybe,” he admitted.

  “Do you want to try again?”

  “Sure. But I think we might need a food break first.”

  “Want me to go pick up some Korean food?”

  Hunter looked at her with narrowed eyes. “You mean, go to Korea?”

  “Yeah,” she replied thoughtfully. “I want another crack at looking for that EMP. That damn thing is irritating me. I can’t believe I can’t find it.” She gave him a wink. “I can pick up Gami Chicken on the way home.”

  “Well, I’m not surprised. We don’t know what it is; we only know what it does.” Hunter’s mouth set in a grim line. “We’ve been trying to monitor the location from which the EMP takes effect, but either the line keeps moving, or it stops for a few minutes and starts up again. We’ve sent in drones a few times, and sometimes they transmit data in the enemy territory for a few moments before the signal is lost, and sometimes it gets zapped from the sky as soon as it enters North Korean territory.” He sighed, frustrated. “For all we know, it could be a few different machines set in various locations, and they keep moving them around.”

  “That’s an interesting theory. Would make my job harder though. It’s hard enough to locate the one pulse,” she mused.

  “We just can’t get a handle on what technology they’re using,” Hunter said, shaking his head. “It’s not like anything we can get our heads around. We’re talking about a ridiculously strong pulse, going off constantly. It shouldn’t be possible.”

  Sunny got to her feet and stretched luxuriously. “Well, I’ll go have another peek, I think.” Hunter opened his mouth, but she rushed on, cutting him off. “Yes, I promise I won’t become visible at all. I’ll be careful,” she promised, rolling her eyes.

  “Ok. I’m satisfied. We’ll have another go at it when you come back.”

  “Looking forward to it!” Sunny sang as she bounced towards the door.

  “Oh, and, Mouse?”

  “Yeah?” She stopped with her hand on the door handle.

  “Don’t worry about the food. I’ll get pizza delivered.”

  She smiled.

  No point taking unnecessary risks and getting yourself seen, is what he meant.

  She didn’t take very long. She zoomed back to Hunter’s place, straight into his apartment building through the top floor and materialized right beside the door as usual. She gave a knock, and for once Hunter didn’t open it quickly.

  “Come on in,” he called, obviously still on the couch.

  She tried the handle. “It’s locked!”

  When he shouted back, there was a hint of laughter in his voice. “I’m sure you can work it out.”

  Rolling her eyes, she dematerialized and floated through the door, reappearing on the other side. She walked down the small hallway into the open plan living area and saw that Hunter was still lying on the couch, a pizza box on the table beside him.

  “Oh, I see that you could get up to let the pizza guy in,” Sunny teased him.

  “Not very chivalrous, not getting up, I know. But to be fair, you’re the one that dropped me.”

  Sunny walked into the lounge room and took a seat on the floor next to the coffee table, her head level with Hunter’s lying back on the sofa. She opened the box and took out a slice.

  “Barbecue meats? You are a Neanderthal.”

  “Hey, at least I saved you some. So did you find it?”

  “No,” she said dejectedly. “It’s moved… I think. Yesterday the pulse was stronger near Pyongyang city. That place is weird. But I zipped all around it again, and I’m sure the machine is not there today. They’ve moved it. I followed the beat down further south, to a mountain range just a bit north of the new border.”

  “That makes sense,” Hunter interjected. “The pulse’s range has moved too. Our troops at the front line can’t get things to work that previously did, and we’ve been able to send in drones from the ocean near China, they’re transmitting data for a lot longer than they previously have. It would make sense that the machine has moved down a bit, and with it, its projection.”

  “Well, I think I narrowed it down to a valley there in the mountain range, but there’s nothing. Nada. No sign of buildings or any human life at all, just rocky mountains and some spiny trees.” She took a deep breath, and let it out in a slow puff. “I’m going to have to go back tomorrow and scout the area properly, see if I can find a cave or something. They must have hidden that damn thing somewhere.” She took a huge bite of her pizza, then regretted how unladylike it made her look.

  Hunter was smiling at her. “Do you have to go?”

  She met his eyes, and then looked away. She’d taken too big a bite of the pizza; she had to shovel the barely masticated remains around in her mouth a bit before she could chew it properly. He sat there, waiting for a response, while she struggled with her food like an idiot horse with an apple in its mouth. When she finally managed a swallow, tears sprung to her eyes as the mostly-unchewed pizza shunted its way down her throat, the hard edges of the crust scraping her oesophagus on the way down.

  “Uh, yeah,” she choked out. “I got… I mean I th- gkkkkk”.

  Hunter silently passed her his beer bottle, and she took a grateful swig. A very tiny smile was threatening to break free on his face, but he managed to keep it under control.

  “I think I should probably head back,” she finally managed, her face burning red. She tipped her head forward to hide her embarrassment. “I’m supposed to be staying at Annabel’s tonight, and even though I know she’ll cover for me if my dad calls, she’d be just too full of questions if I stayed away tonight.”

  “Fair enough. We’ve probably had enough for one day, anyway. Let my battle wound heal a bit.”

  “I did say I was sorry, didn’t I?”

  “You did. And I know you didn’t mean to drop me. Let’s just chalk it up as a learning experience.”

  Hunter stretched out on the sofa, giving a manly groan of satisfaction. She watched, mesmerized, as his muscles flexed and popped underneath his t-shirt, and she sighed involuntarily.

  She managed to cover it by taking the last bite of her slice of pizza, mercifully a small one this time.

  “Alright,” he barked at her, all business-like. “We’ll reconvene tomorrow morning, first thing. 0700 hours.”

  “Eye eye, Captain.” She dusted the crumbs off her shirt and got to her feet, already a bit anxious at the barrage of questions from Annabel she was bound to have to field. “Don’t move, stay there. What do they say? Do the RICE thing? Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation. See, I knew I knew something about sprains.” She tied her jacket around her waist and heaved her overnight bag on her shoulder so it had enough contact with he
r skin.

  “Thanks, Doc. I’ll see you in the morning.” He gave her a wave from the couch as she floated straight through the door.

  On the way home, she thought about the other people in the world that had strange gifts, and how a lot of them had been imprisoned. Her heart ached for them, even if their powers had driven them mad. Suppose the power went to their heads, and they were hurting people. Then it definitely would be for the best if they were contained.

  For the first time since she discovered what she could do, she felt very uneasy about it. She’d been wary before about being found out, but now she wondered if this could be a curse rather than a gift. Sure, she was capable of doing amazing things, but she was also capable of being forced into doing awful things for awful people.

  Why couldn’t I be normal? She wondered like every other teenager in the world.

  You wouldn’t have met Hunter, she replied to herself instantly.

  So far, she concluded, it was worth it.

  Chapter 21

  Sunny flew straight to Annabel’s house, admiring the twinkling stars from her sky view along the way. The moon was a slim crescent, and it glowed with such serene silver beauty it stopped her in her tracks for several minutes. She materialized from inside some dense bushes outside of Annabel’s house and walked to the front door. She knocked, and had to wait about five minutes before her coughing and spluttering best friend opened it.

  “Hey,” Annabel hacked. “So you abandoned your mediocre-looking love interest to come and hang out with your stunningly beautiful mate.”

  Annabel’s eyes were so bloodshot they almost glowed. Her hair was greasy and hung in dark hanks around her face, which was white except for her nose - that was bright red and shone like a traffic light. She stood there in her blue pajamas, decorated with yellow ducks smoking cigars, and a huge white fluffy dressing gown.

  “Oh, Annabel, you look awful!”

  “Oh, thanks. At least the insides match the outsides. I’ve never been so miserable in my life,” she moaned, and turned and shuffled slowly back to her lounge room at the back of the house.

  Annabel’s home was enormous. Three stories of ostentation, a typical McMansion with columns either side of the front door, a long grand hallway and wide steps curving up to the three stories. Her mother had favoured industrial furnishings, polished concrete floors and steel legged furniture, and boxy grey modular seating that were never very comfortable.

  Her mother occupied the top floor. She needed the space for her huge closet and sometimes as storage space for the sunglasses she imported from China. Her father’s bedroom and office spaces were on the second floor – but he was barely ever there. He had apartments in Newcastle and on the Gold Coast and ran his business from the road in between.

  Annabel herself preferred to camp out on the ground floor. She took a relatively modest-sized bedroom closest to the front door, just in case she needed to make a quick exit. It was also closest to the kitchen and the garage, and considering the length of time her parents often spent away, she mostly had the house to herself. When Sunny had asked if she ever got lonely, Annabel had replied that she preferred it this way.

  Annabel now led Sunny to where she had made a makeshift bed for herself in the lounge room by the TV. Several soft doonas were draped around the minimalist seating, set around gigantic puffy cushions and silky pillows for support. It looked like an elephant had taken up residence in her living room and built itself a nest.

  “Welcome to my sickbed,” she coughed. “I’ve sprayed everything with Glen20; you should be right.”

  “I’ve had my flu shot,” Sunny murmured.

  “I skipped it this year, like a damn fool,” Annabel sighed. “I have never ever had the flu. And I swear by all that’s holy, I’m never getting it ever again.” She crawled into her duvet nest and snuggled down, propping herself up on her arm.

  Sunny crept up on the couch cautiously, as if slightly afraid of what she might kneel on. Leaning back against a VW sized pillow, she waited for the barrage of questions to start.

  She didn’t have to wait long.

  “So, made any progress with your sexy surfer yet?”

  “I told you his name was Hunter. You even asked, so you didn’t have to come up with cutesy names for him every time.”

  “I remember. Maybe I like coming up with cutesy names. Keeps my brain sharp.” She moaned dramatically. “Did I miss much school? Have you learned anything important in the last two days?”

  “Nothing at all. You won’t be disappointed.”

  “I don’t believe you. Argh, I’m even missing Tae Kwon Do tonight. I can feel my thighs turning to jelly as we speak.”

  “Tae Kwon Do? Really? You’re such a stereotype.”

  “Why? Because I’m Asian and I do martial arts?” Annabel snuffled into her doona. Most of the fight had gone out of her because of the sickness, but the scorpion still had her sting.

  “Ah, I was thinking more that you’re a high achiever. Maths, debate, politics. The Tae Kwon Do is kinda the icing on the cake.”

  “Well, fair enough. I am pretty good at it too,” she sniffled. “So, what’s happening with Hunter? Where were you tonight?”

  “At his house,” Sunny had decided to stick to the truth as much as possible and try and avoid specifics. “Practicing meditation, just talking really. He’s got a bit of a sprained ankle so he can’t go too far.”

  “Were you playing nursemaid, then? Hope you got to take advantage of him if he was bedridden.”

  Sunny sighed, and leaned back into the cushions, getting comfortable. “It’s not like that. It’s still very much a teacher-student relationship, and it’s not going to change. Although…”

  She was silent for a minute.

  “Yeaaaah?” Annabel prodded her with her toe.

  “I think he’s starting to relax around me a whole lot more. He’s more playful, less stern and business-like with me now. He’s leaning towards kinda overprotective at times… I don’t know if it’s a good sign or not.”

  She sighed again, closing her eyes and reliving the last few days with Hunter, all the conversations and experiences they had shared already. “You see, he told me that he’d lost a little sister. I think he’s starting to treat me like the little sister.”

  “Well, that’s not good,” Annabel said, wiping her nose on a tissue and putting it on top of the huge pile in the wastebasket on the floor. “Although, you’ve already given up on the idea of anything ever happening with him, right? So you’re friends. Better than nothing. And then maybe, in ten years when you finally grow your boobies, it will turn into something more.”

  Sunny sat pensively for a few moments, barely registering Annabel’s dig about her boobs. “Yeah, you’re probably right,” she finally replied. Picking up her bag she rooted around in it for a while before she dug out a can of Campbell’s Chicken Soup, and lobbed it at her friend.

  “Uh, thanks,” Annabel snorted sarcastically. “I appreciate all the effort you put in there. But your stepmother has beaten you to the punch.”

  “Steph was here?”

  “Uh huh. She came by a couple of hours ago to drop off some homemade gourmet Thai chicken noodle soup. It was amazing,” Annabel said accusingly.

  “What? What did you tell her? I’m supposed to be here with you!” Sunny squawked.

  “I told her you were in the loo, hanging a turd. And I told her to bugger off. I was quite rude; you would have been proud of me.”

  Sunny sighed with relief. “Thank God. I don’t want to be answering questions about my whereabouts, especially not to her.”

  “I don’t know what your problem is. Steph is alright. A bit of a drip, but she’s lovely. She cares about you. And she does a great job of doing it from a distance, so you don’t bite her.”

  “She seems like she cares. To me, it just feels like a bit of an act. Like she has an ulterior motive in everything she does. Bringing the soup to you was her trying to get you onside, so you w
ork on me to get me to like her more. Well, I’m not going to,” Sunny added, aware that she was petulant and ridiculous.

  “Steph wants you to like her. What’s the problem with that?”

  “Argh, I don’t know. It’s hard to explain. I just don’t think I can.”

  “Is it because of the whole hemp-necklace drum-circle persona?” Annabel asked. “I love hippies. But I couldn’t eat a whole one.”

  “Ha ha,” Sunny said mirthlessly.

  “Give it a go. It’s nice to have parents who care, you know.” Annabel said sharply, raising her eyes at her friend.

  “Hey, your parents care about you. Just silently, and from a distance.” She gave her friend a punch on the shoulder.

  “I probably have every teenager’s fantasy life. Home alone all the time, big house, stocked liquor cabinet…” Annabel mused. “And I have to go and ruin it by being a diligent student.”

  “We all have our flaws.”

  Annabel picked up the remote and flicked on a tacky TV show. “I’m all out of movies; we’re down to bizarre human interest reality shows. There’s one I’m pretty hooked on – they dump a guy and a girl in the middle of the wilderness, completely naked, and they have to survive for twenty-one days, and they only get to take one thing with them. It’s amazing.”

  “A bit awkward, I’d bet.”

  “Incredibly awkward. The two people are strangers, and it’s always a guy and a girl, and they always have to cuddle together for warmth at night. It’s awesome.”

  “Would you do it?”