The Museum
The sun had been down for a couple hours and the evening mist was beginning to rise up like it did every night to water the land of Imaginess. Everyone in the Rowan family was asleep including Linda, everyone that is except of course Sira. Sira had sat brooding over everything that had happened that day listening to the quiet sounds of Linda’s breathing as she slept. She had been very upset that night when her mother had told her she would be sharing a room with her but not as upset as she had been when she had been told that the only way she could go to the museum the next day was if she let Linda tag along.
“But mom she’s a human.” She had tried to reason.
“If you change her name and tell everyone she’s a mute no one will know the difference. I need her out of the way when we’re setting up for Shanti’s birthday tomorrow afternoon. So if you’re going to insist on leaving on your sister’s birthday then you can take her with you.” Sira would have put up more of a fight if she thought it would help but she knew that all it would get her was a day stuck in the house helping set up for her sister’s birthday party.
She looked out the window and saw that the mist was so thick she couldn’t even see the tree in her yard any more. A breeze lifted the mist slightly and she caught a glimpse of someone slipping into her shed and then the mist fell again. Her heart leaped and she pushed the blankets away from her and slid soundlessly out of the bed and tiptoed across the room to the door. The door squeaked slightly when she opened it but Linda didn’t even move. She slipped out of the house without too much more trouble slipping on her boots and coat before leaving the house.
Once outside she ran in the direction of the shed. She couldn’t see more than a foot in front of her but she knew it was there. She opened up the big door and shook the water from her hair and took off her coat before going any farther. “Adan?” She called into the dark shed. A hand grabbed onto her shoulder and she spun around to face him. “Don’t scare me like that.” She laughed
“I knew you’d be awake. When I heard that the human was staying with you I knew you wouldn’t be able to sleep.”
“How did you know?”
“I saw Alita at the store and asked her about it. She told me she was here.”
Sira sighed “Yes and mom’s making me take her to the museum tomorrow.”
“What!”
“Yeah I know but it’s the only way mom will let me go. Otherwise I have to stay home and help get ready for the party.” Sira paused before continuing. “You know what’s really weird Adan? My brother seems to think she’s just the greatest thing I think he might actually be falling for her.”
“He’s infatuated Sira that’s it. It’s not everyday that you meet a human girl and she comes to stay in your house.”
“But Adan are we sure she’s human.” Adan looked startled and she continued before he could respond. “I mean she looks so human apart from her name and her accent she could pass for a Imaginese.”
Adan grabbed her gently by the shoulders and looked into her eyes. “Sira just because she looks Imaginese doesn’t mean she is. Even if by some strange chance she could turn out to be a long lost Imaginese she’d be better off on Earth where things are familiar. She will never be one of us.” Sira nodded slowly and Adan pulled her into a hug wrapping his three sets of arms firmly around her.
Linda woke the next morning to see that Sira was still asleep. She slipped out of the room and went into living room where Rowel was playing some type of board game on the floor with Teesha. He smiled at her when she entered the room and she plopped down next to where he lay on the floor. “Where’s Shanti.” She asked.
“She’s sleeping. She’ll probably sleep all day before the big night.”
That seemed odd to Linda and she had to ask “Is everything all right.”
Rowel looked up at her a small frown playing between his eyes. “Yeah Linda she’s fine. A little tummy ache no big deal.”
“A tummy ache! OH the poor thing that must be horrible.”
He shrugged and moved his piece a couple spaces down on the board “It’s nothing we didn’t expect.” He sighed and sat up, saying something to Teesha in Imaginese as he did. The little girl nodded and slipped into the other room. Rowel turned toward Linda. “Look! Every year on a Imaginese birthday on the years 3-18 we get sick. We sleep all day, have the party in the evening when we’re feeling a little better and then the next morning we have a new or longer arm.”
“Oh!” She paused thinking about it. “My birthday was a couple days ago and I got really sick. It seems like every year I get sick. I wish it was something as predictable as what you have but it’s not I don’t get anything from it just a lot of pain.”
Teesha came back then carrying a large bowl of flower-nuts and plopped down again in front of Rowel and made her move.
The two finished their game in silence until Sira woke up and came and sat down on one of the chairs the news-screen in her hands. “Are you about ready to go Linda” she asked without looking up.
“Go where?” Rowel asked turning abruptly at his sister.
Sira looked over the screen at Rowel. “We’re going to the museum.”
“Were you planning on inviting me?”
“Rowel I have tried to invite you so many times and you always turn me down. I didn’t think this time would be any different”
“Well maybe I’m ready. I want to go.” Sira looked at him uncertainly. “Look if I can’t handle it then I’ll just skip that exhibit.”
“Ok fine but you better get ready Adan’s coming to pick us up in like ten minutes.”
Layka, it had been Rowel’s idea to call her that. He said it was his aunt’s birth name until she got married and her husband started calling her Kay. Then she had flipped the two first and last letters and had been called Kayla ever since. They had made it very clear on the way to the museum that she was not aloud to talk at all. “I’ll explain everything trust me” Linda had noticed that Sira and Adan had exchanged a look when she said that but she didn’t say anything. She had figured out throughout the course of the ride that there was something at this museum that Rowel didn’t like something that had kept from ever coming there up to this point and she was starting to get the idea that the boy liked her more than he cared to admit and although she thought he was nice he was as alien and she had just met him.
They had met up with what was apparently their school group and they had introduced her to the teacher and couple other kids but she knew she would never remember all their names. Not that it mattered she couldn’t talk to them anyway.
She just hoped she wouldn’t forget herself and give away anything.
Rowel stood there slightly nervous as the teacher gave the low down of what was going on. He worried that Linda would mess up or that he would mess up and speak to her in English when other’s were too close and would question. But more than all that he worried about seeing his aunt’s profile displayed in wax clutching his beloved wax cousin to her chest. Would he be able to handle it? He shot up a quick prayer to Kohath that he would be able to handle it and began to move inside the building with the rest of the group.
Alita came up to him and gave him a big hug. “I can’t believe you came here. I never thought I’d see you enter through those doors it’s a miracle.” She hugged him again and then noticed something behind him. He turned to see Linda standing awkwardly behind him. “You brought her here?”
Rowel stepped back to Linda’s side and put his arm around her shoulders. “Alita I’d like you to meet Layka a new friend of mine that I invited to come with us. She’s mute so don’t ask her too many questions.” Alita got the drift and shook Linda’s hand smiling the whole time and said “It’s nice to meet you I’m Alita.”
The group moved on and between Rowel and Ali it was nearly impossible for Linda to miss anything. Everything seemed to be going well. But what comes up must come down and everything was about to come down…hard.
It happened when they were almost completely through the museum the only thing they hadn’t seen was the Martian War display. They went into the big room and Alita and Rowel explained what everything was to Linda. They turned a corner and chills rippled up Rowel’s spine as the soft cries of a baby filled his ears. In front of him was a cut-away-version of his Aunt’s-one-room-house. A wax figure stood at the stove and a wax Leena was running toward her father’s outstretched arms. He could hear Alita explaining the display quietly to Linda and tears welled up at the carven smile on his cousin’s baby-face. He hadn’t known her at this age and he wanted to reach out and hold her and never let her go, he wanted to stop his Aunt and Uncle from leaving at least then they might be alive. He snapped back to attention when Alita put her hand on his shoulder. “Come on Rowel. There’s more to see.” He nodded and followed her around the next corner.
The next scene showed the house again but this time his aunt and uncle were standing in a corner frightened and 5 guards were looking around the house. Three were sitting on the bed. He didn’t see Leena anywhere.
“Are you all right Rowel?”
“I’ve never heard this part of the story Alita. I didn’t know that they had trouble with the soldiers.”
Leena was in the next display but he almost wished she wasn’t. His aunt was cradling her in her arms wax tears were set on her cheeks and his uncle was sitting behind her his arms around her. There was a nasty cut across the baby’s cheek. The stand in front of the display told him she had got it from a spring that broke when the guard sat down on the bed.
He heard a slight gasp from next to him and he turned to see Linda staring intently at the display as Alita read the stand to her.
He was having a hard time keeping the tears back and he wasn’t sure how much more he’d be able to take without completely falling apart.
Linda had learned so much since she had entered the building. At first Rowel had helped Ali in reading everything but ever since they had entered the room about the Martian war he had been much to intrigued with the displays himself to be able to explain them to her. She had been slightly surprised at the way he looked at the first display. It upset him she realized. He seemed to get more and more upset the farther into the room they went until they stopped at one where the mother and father were clutching their baby who, as Ali had read to her had been hurt by a spring. But what surprised Linda the most was the cut that was on the babies face and she reached up to touch her own face in wonder. Then Ali hurried her on to the next room pulling Rowel who seemed to be more reluctant after each display they passed.
The next display was one of the saddest things Linda had ever seen: They were standing in the middle of a wood and the man and woman and baby were lying dead in a display in the center of the floor a Martian stood over them with the offending weapon in his hand.
Ali leaned over and whispered in her ear. “The family tried to escape to earth but the Martian’s caught up with them and killed them.” Alita walked off then to read one of the other signs but something had caught Linda’s eye and she knelt down next to the display to see what it was. It was something around the baby’s neck. She tried to make out what it was. Her heart skipped a beat as she realized what it was.
It was a necklace. A necklace that she recognized.
Rowel hadn’t even gone into the room. The sight of the Martian ships and his aunt, uncle and cousin lying in a heap on the ground was more than he could take. He felt himself getting dizzy. He slid down the wall until he felt the floor underneath him. He saw Alita coming toward him and he absent-mindedly wondered where Linda was but the overwhelming display pushed the thought away as soon as it entered.
“I didn’t know they died like this Alita. I didn’t know why they left. I didn’t know it was so hard for them. I didn’t know-“But his voice caught and he couldn’t go any farther. Alita put her arms around him while he cried. “I did this for Sira the first time she came here.” She said “At first she didn’t want to come again. But later it helped her feel closer to her aunt then she ever had before.”
Rowel looked up then. “Really Sira couldn’t take it.”
“Not at first she remembers more about what happened than she lets on and when she saw this place it tore her up. She’s only been able to let go because she comes here so much…and she talks about it.”
Rowel nodded and was about to say something else when a commotion from outside interrupted his thoughts.
Linda couldn’t keep quiet anymore. How could it be possible that her necklace, the one she had just received for her birthday could be the same necklace around the baby’s neck? And the scar the one on the baby what were the chances that it would look the same as the one she had? It wasn’t chance. That much she knew. But she was unwilling at this moment in time to except that these people laying in a heap on the floor were her parents or that the alien standing over them was their murderer or that the fake trees that stood all around represented the tree she grew up knowing. “How can it be?” She whispered then caught herself.
She decided to leave for a breath of fresh air and headed toward the exit. As she headed for the exit door two security guards headed in her direction and she walked a little faster toward the door. One of them stepped in front of her. The man said something to her in Imaginese. It sounded like a question but she couldn’t be sure. She pointed to her mouth indicating that she couldn’t respond. The man asked her another question and she shook her head. The man squinted at her then he spoke in English. “Nod if you understand what I’m saying” She nodded and he turned to his friend. “The boy was right she is an alien.” The guy behind her grabbed her from behind he led her outside the building, put her in a hover-car and drove her to another building where they locked her in a cell.
She sat down on the hard bed slightly stunned by everything that had just happened. She thought of crying but somehow she couldn’t. She had no doubt in her mind that someone would get her out but until then she had some time to think.
Everything fit together so well. Especially the scar. For years she had wondered where she had gotten it. It had been her shame for as long as she could remember but now that she thought she knew what had happened to her it seemed to hold less shame.
Ali had told her that the baby had been given a necklace by her parents. She suddenly remembered the necklace she had in her pocket and pulled it out. It looked exactly like the necklace around the babies. There had been words on the necklace the woman held. Linda flipped it over and begun rubbing the paint off again. When it had been completely rubbed off it confirmed what she had suspected for written on the back were the same words that had been written on the wax necklace.
To our daughter Leena
From her parents Kayla and Gaylin
On her 1st birthday
My you be a light in these dark times
If this was the same necklace than the display had been wrong the baby hadn’t died with her parents. And not only was she probably still alive but she was fairly certain that she was the baby.
She wasn’t really a human now she just had to convince these police of that. And she knew just how to do it.
“You know it’s against the law to harbor aliens, right” Adan had chattered about it ever since they had arrived at the museum. It was all he had wanted to talk about since he had found out about Linda staying with them the night before. Sira had only listened subconsciously. “If they found out about it Sira they could have you arrested or at least fined. It’s illegal, Sira.”
She had turned on him suddenly. “I am not a criminal Adan.”
“I didn’t say you were…but you’ll become one if you don’t turn the girl in.”
“You want me to betray my family.”
“No, I want you to protect them. I care about your family, Sira and I don’t want any of you to get hurt.”
“We won’t get hurt Adan. Unless you’re the one who turns her in.” She had walked away from him then and hadn’t spoken to him for the rest of the trip.
Now as she stood outside the house next to her brother. Only one thought filled her head I can’t believe he actually turned her in. She had found Rowel and Alita outside Rowel’s face was red and blotchy from tears and at first she had thought it was because of Martian War exhibit but as she got closer she had realized that Alita had been crying too.
When they told her that Linda had been taken by the Tuli she had been ticked. She knew right away that Adan had done it. She had refused to turn her in and so he had taken her safety into his own hands at Linda’s expense.
Her brother opened the door and she walked inside. “There you guys are” Her mother came rushing out of the kitchen, followed by Great-Grandma-Gerda who was carrying a bowl of something that she set down in front of Shanti, “I was beginning to wonder when you’d get home.” She paused and a worried look crossed her face. “Where’s Linda?”
Sira swallowed and whispered so no one would hear. “She was taken by the Tuli”
Her mother gasped and glanced over to Great-Grandma-Gerda before whispering. “We’ll take care of this after the party they won’t do anything until tomorrow and we don’t need a bunch of people knowing that we were harboring an alien. Sira and Rowel nodded and their mother walked away.
They continued the party as best as they could but Sira could tell that her mother and father were stressed out. And she wondered what they would be able to do in order to get Linda out of the prison.
The party had been over for about an hour and Shanti and Teesha had already gone to bed when there was a knock on the door. “Who could that be at this hour?” Mrs. Rowan wondered as she went to get the door. Sira heard her mother open the door and then shout. “Linda, oh thank goodness you’re all right.” Rowel and Sira both jumped up then and ran to greet her. Rowel gave her a big hug and even Sira patted her on the shoulder. “What happened?” Her brother prodded. “How did you get out?”
“It was easy. All I had to do was prove that I was Imaginese and they let me go.”
“How on earth did you manage that?”
A mischievous grin filled Linda’s face. “You guys might want to sit down before I explain.” She waited until they were all sitting before continuing. “As I sat in the cell I was thinking about all things I had seen at the museum especially the stuff about the Martian War. The displays answered a very important question that I’ve had all my life.”
“What question?” Rowel asked from beside Sira.
Linda sighed and pushed back her bangs. “I’ve always wondered where I got this and at the museum that question was answered but not until I saw the last display where I noticed that the baby was wearing a necklace that I got from my sister for my birthday.” She pulled out the necklace and showed it to them.
“That’s a wiper flower.” Sira stated. She took the necklace in her hands and looked at it turning it this way and that and tears filled her eyes. “I never thought I’d see this again.”
“But that still doesn’t explain how you escaped the Tuli.” Rowel reminded her.
Linda smiled again. “You helped me with that one, Rowel.”
“Me?”
“Yes, you told me it was all about willpower. So I willed it and this happened.” An arm came sliding out of one of her sides and everyone gasped. “Like you said it will take practice but it’s definitely a start.” Everyone erupted then standing and embracing her and congratulating her. She caught her own eyes in a mirror hanging on the wall and she studied the scar that stretched across her face.
This was the Scar that she had received when her parents had tried to save her life, the Scar that showed their love, the Scar that she was no longer ashamed of. Let Brenda see it, let Brenda laugh she no longer cared, this scar would be a reminder of who her parents had been, who she was and who she was to become.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Thursday, October 16, 2008
The Scar (Chapter 4)
Imaginess
Rowel sat staring at the girl lying on his couch fast asleep. When he had seen that she had fallen asleep on the trip from Earth he couldn’t bare to wake her. Alita had been a very big help so far while Adan and Sira had made it very clear that they wanted nothing to do with the girl and had pretty much left as soon as they had returned to Imaginess. It had quickly been decided that Linda would stay at Rowel’s house. His parents were much more understanding about such things while even though Alita’s father might understand he would never agree to let her stay. There were too many risks involved and he couldn’t afford to harbor an alien. Alita had helped him to get her into his hover car and had even gone with him to make sure she was comfortable in his house.
“Man she is really out.” Alita commented when they had gotten Linda into the house and she still hadn’t moved.
“We probably freaked her out pretty good.” Alita just nodded then she looked at her watch and gasped.
“Oh my, I’m late I need to get home before my dad gets home and realizes I’m not home. I’ll see if I can get over here tomorrow.”
Rowel sat staring at her now waiting for his mother to get home from where ever she disappeared to with his two younger sisters. He stood up and went into the kitchen he grabbed a flower-nut off the counter and crushed the fragile shell in his fingers. He picked up the news-screen which was Imaginess’s newspaper but instead of being on paper it was on a flat touch-screen. He scanned through the headlines as he pulled the sweet flower out of its shell and plopped it in his mouth. He licked his lips as it melted in his mouth and tapped on one of the headlines as he reached for another one.
The article was about the funeral procession that had gone to earth that day. Telling the story about his aunt and uncle for about the millionth time in his 18 years. He sighed. Why couldn’t they just leave Aunt Kay alone? She was dead why did they have to keep reminding him of that fact. Kay had been his favorite aunt he had only been three when she had died but he remembered it almost as clearly as if it had been yesterday. He still had dreams about those times sometimes. He remembered his mother taking him and Sira, who had been six at the time, down to visit Aunt Kay right after his cousin Leena had been born. “She likes you.” Aunt Kay had said to him as he held her and she looked at him with her big glittering eyes. He remembered smiling down at her and grabbing her little fingers as she cooed quietly in his arms. That was the first and last time he had ever seen her.
He had never told his parents how much his aunt and uncle’s death had affected him and they assumed that he didn’t remember them well enough for it to effect him. They had worried more about Sira in the years following their death because she was older when it was him they should have worried about.
A new museum had opened up in the city a couple years ago and he had refused to go because he had heard of a display that had been dedicated to his aunt and uncle and he hadn’t the courage to face what had happened to them.
Rowel sighed and placed the news-screen back on the counter and grabbed a hand-full of flower-nuts as he went back into the living room. The girl was still sleeping as he sat down across from her. The hair that had covered most of his face since he had met her had slid slightly and something near the corner of her right eye caught his attention. He leaned forward and brushed the remaining hair away from her face. His heart jumped into his throat at the sight of the ugly scar running across her face. Her eyes opened then and he jumped back slightly in surprise. It took her a second to realize what he had been staring at and she quickly covered herself with her hair as she sat up and looked at him angrily.
“I-I-I’m sorry. I didn’t realize…how’d it happen?”
She relaxed slightly then and looked around her. “Where am I?”
“This is my house…well my family’s house anyway. Alita and I brought you here. You didn’t wake up when we landed and neither of us wanted to wake you.” He stood up then and motioned in the direction of the kitchen. “You want something to eat? We have some flower-nuts that my little sister just picked yesterday.”
“What’s a flower-nut?”
“Here come try one their really good.”
Linda followed him into the kitchen where he showed her how to break the shell and eat the flower inside.
“MMM this is really good.” She said as she grabbed another one from the bowl he had placed in front of her. It tastes kind of like raspberry and watermelon wrapped all in one.”
He smiled at her. He liked the way she smiled and talked and maybe just maybe he thought she was beautiful. Could it be that he was falling for a human girl?
“Come along girls we need to get home and get dinner ready before your father gets home.”
Five year old Teesha grabbed her little sister’s hand and attempted to drag her away from the shop window she had plastered herself to. “Come on Shanti we’ve got to go.”
“But Teesha,” the two year old whined, “did you see that tool set in the shop window.”
“Yes Shanti I saw it. Now will you come on?”
“But it was amazing. I just have it for my birthday.”
“Shanti it’s too late for that. Your birthday is tomorrow. All your presents are bought already.”
The little girls face dropped and she gave in to her sisters prodding.
“Well it looks like your brothers home.” Peka observed as they neared the house. They climbed the two steps to the house and pushed open the door. “Rowel, I’m home.” She yelled into the house. She heard voices in the kitchen and headed in that direction. She entered the kitchen to find her son and a young girl sitting at the kitchen table a bowl of flower-nuts between them. They both looked up as she entered. She smiled at the girl and turned to her son. “Who’s this?”
Linda was standing now and stuck her hand out in greeting. “I’m Linda it’s nice to meet you.” She said in English.
Peka frowned, “Rowel can I talk to you for a minute.”
“Sure.” He stood and followed her out into the hallway and stopped. They were still within hearing distance of Linda but he knew his mother didn’t care. “What is it?” He asked in Imaginese
“Who is that?” She asked nodding in the direction of the girl at the table as she grabbed another flower-nut out of the bowl, broke the shell and popped the flower into her mouth
“A friend I met at school today.” He said not looking at her directly.
“Rowel look at me,” he looked up at her, “Where exactly did you meet her.”
He looked down at the ground. “At the funeral procession.” Peka closed her eyes and tried to breath. When she recovered she opened her eyes and glared at her son. “You brought a human to Imaginess?” She asked as calmly as she could handle her voice trembling slightly.” He nodded. “Do you realize that if the Tuli found out about this they could have your father and I highly fined for harboring an illegal alien?”
“Yes mother I know, but she’d seen too much we had to do something.”
“Who’s we?”
He hesitated then said “Alita, Adan, Sira and me.”
“Sira’s part of this? I thought she knew better than that.”
“Actually,” Rowel stumbled trying to cover for his sister, “Sira and Adan aren’t really responsible. They didn’t want to take her along but they didn’t think we had any other choice. But Sira made it very clear that this is my fault and she’s not helping.”
Peka sighed and crossed three sets of arms in front of her. “I can’t handle this right now Rowel. I’ll entertain her until your father gets home and then it’s up to him as to what happens from there. Understand?”
“Yes ma’am”
Linda finished the bowl of nuts and set it on the counter next to the sink. She could hear the voices of Rowel and his mother in the hallway. They had slipped into their own language now but although she didn’t know exactly what they were saying she had a feeling it was about her and they way their voices had begun to raise she didn’t think it was very good.
She stood and went into the living room as much as because she was bored as to get away from the yelling.
She entered the room to find two young girls sitting on the floor playing with dolls and babbling in their own language. She sat down between them and they looked up at her curiously. “Hi!” She said in English. “My name’s Linda.” The girls looked at her curiously and Linda wondered if they even spoke English. Then one of the girls-the oldest one-spoke.
“I’m Teesha and that’s Shanti.” She nodded her head in the direction of the little girl.”
Linda smiled, “It’s nice to meet you.”
Shanti scooted closer to Linda. “Why do you speak English?”
Linda hesitated “Because…” a throat cleared behind and she turned to see Rowel and his mother standing behind her. Rowel looked slightly defeated but he smiled when she turned to them and his mother looked pretty upset with 3 sets of arms folded in front of her. “Why don’t you sit down Linda,” she said trying to smile, “And I’ll get you something to drink.”
She left then and Rowel indicated for her to sit down. A few moments later Peka returned with three glasses of something light brown and handed a cup to Linda and Rowel. Linda looked into the cup. “What is this?”
“It’s Kail milk.” Rowel stated “try it.”
“So tell us about yourself,” Peka said as she settled into a chair placed her milk down on the table next to her and grabbed what looked like some kind of broken blender or another type of kitchen tool and began working on it like someone would work on knitting.
“Well-um-I’m sorry I didn’t catch your name.”
“It’s Mrs. Rowan.” Peka responded slightly irritably.
“Well Mrs. Rowan what do you want to know?”
“What brought you into the woods today?”
Linda settled down into her chair then and began her story she told them everything. She told them about Brenda Keegan, about school, and her birthday. When she was done telling about her birthday Shanti, who had bright yellow-green skin and white hair, climbed onto Linda’s lap. “I’m going to be 3 tomorrow. I can’t wait to go to school,” she said.
“School,” Linda said in surprise looking up to Mrs. Rowan with eyes wide, “she’s only going to be 3.
“Yes,” replied Mrs. Rowan matter of factly not looking up from the broken blender, “children always start school at 3.”
“But why?”
“Well two reasons, one the Imaginese children are very smart Shanti’s already made her own hover board.” She looked up now and smiled.
“Really,” Linda was really surprised now. “So what’s the second reason?” Mrs. Rowan turned back to her work on the broken blender.
“The second reason is when children turn 3 they start growing their arms and they grow half an arm every year until they are 18.”
“Half an arm? You mean like literally half an arm like just a little stub?”
“Oh, no,” said Rowel laughing. “More like a complete arm that’s about half the size of a regular arm, but it still has a hand.”
“But it’s not quite long enough to need an elbow,” Added Mrs. Rowan
“Interesting,” said Linda, “but what does that have anything to do with school?”
“Oh lots of things,” Rowel replied picking up a screwdriver type tool to hand to his mother, “it takes lots of practice to learn how to get your arms to come out you have to go to school to learn.”
“How can you learn to get your arms to come out?” Linda was interested but she found it kind of farfetched to have to go to school to learn to get your arms to come out.
“It’s all about willpower you have to want it and it’s not that hard once you’ve got the hang of it” as if to demonstrate he shot a couple more arms out of his stomach, “The first time it’s hard because you’ve never done it before and the second time its hard because you have to learn how to get only the arms you want to come out, to come out. When you’re learning you might want 1 arm to come out and instead all 5 arms come out. After the first couple times it becomes easier.” Just then Sira rushed into the door slamming it behind her and stepped into the living room. “Mom?” She asked without looking up as she opened up her bag and started digging through it in search of something. “My teacher said you had to sign a release before we go to the museum tomorrow.” She found what she was looking for and looked up. She dropped her bag when she saw Linda sitting there with a glass of Kail milk in her hands. “What is she doing here?” She asked pointing right at Linda and staring at her brother angrily.
“Sira,” Mrs Rowan scolded her daughter. “Be polite to our guest. Linda may be staying with us for awhile and I expect you to behave…or you can just forget about me signing that little slip of yours.” Sira’s jaw tightened and glanced menacingly at her brother as she stormed past them out of the room.
Mr. Rowan got home a couple hours later and was pretty surprised to find a pretty, young girl sitting on the couch next to his son and talking to Rowel and his wife but he was even more surprised when she introduced herself. For three reasons: One she spoke to him in English not Imaginese like any other native of the planet. Two her name was one of the strangest names he had ever heard in his life and three her accent was definitely not one he had ever heard before.
Mrs. Rowan turned to her daughters who were still playing dolls quietly in the corner. “Teesha why don’t you and Shanti show Linda the garden.” The girls jumped up excitedly and dragged Linda out of the room babbling the entire time in Imaginese.
Sira sat in the garden it was her favorite spot on the Rowan land. There was a large Wiper tree in the middle of the yard. The Rowan’s like every other family on Imaginess couldn’t afford to cut down the trees in their yard because no body knew how to grow them so when a tree grew up in the middle of a main street the street moved instead of the tree cause everyone knew that if they moved a tree it would die.
Sira sat on the bench that was set back against the fence in the back of the yard. Little wiper flowers were all about her indicating that the roots of the tree had spread that far since the flowers only grew from the roots of the tree. The garden was Sira’s one passion she had tried so hard to keep the yard looking as good as possible. She had even put in a stone walkway that would keep the place more under control and had traveled often to the nearby woods to gather plants to grow in her garden but they always were dead by the next morning so she had stuck to taking care of her tree. Not many people knew about her secret obsession with plants. If they did they would probably tease her. After all Imaginese were supposed to work with electronics not plants. She thought that the human’s ability to grow plants so easily was amazing and everyday she wished she could learn their secret but she knew that was impossible she just didn’t have the touch.
She heard voices coming toward her and saw Linda being led by Shanti and Teesha who were both babbling away in Imaginese. “Sira works really hard on this garden.” Teesha was saying. “She tries to get other plants to grow here but they always die.”
“But she takes good care of the tree.” Shanti said pointing to the tree in the middle of the yard. “That’s were we gather our flower-nuts.” The continued mumbling and pointing things out and poor Linda looked confused out of her mind as the girls dragged her along. Sira decided now would be as good a time as any to talk to Linda alone knowing it would probably be nearly impossible to get her brother away from her later. She walked up to the three girls and spoke to her sisters in Imaginese. “Why don’t you let me show Linda around my own garden?” The girls nodded a little disappointedly and hurried off somewhere else.
As soon as they were gone Linda spoke. “Look I don’t like being here any more than you want me here.” Sira looked at Linda skeptically. “Look I don’t care if you’re here just don’t expect me to be all nice and answer your questions. If you don’t know something then ask Rowel I’m sure he’ll be glad to answer for you.”
“OK I won’t ask you questions…but can we be friends as long as we both agree not to ask questions?”
Sira hesitated then nodded “I guess so!” Just then they heard footsteps and looked up to see Rowel coming toward them. “Don’t tell Rowel.” Sira whispered just before she disappeared inside a shed.
“Rowel came up to Linda and stopped a couple feet away from her. “Where are the girls?”
Linda just shrugged, “They got bored I guess and decided to split.” She nodded toward the tree. “That’s a weird looking tree. What’s it called?”
“It’s a wiper tree. It’s made out of really strong leaves which hold it up and soft wood that grows on the top. The flower-nuts grow on those two long branches there and all those little flowers grow out of the roots.”
“Wow!”
They were quiet for a moment and then Rowel spoke again. “They said you could stay by the way.” She looked at him surprised. “My parents said you could stay with us until we’re sure we can trust you then we’ll get you home as soon as possible.”
“Thank you Rowel for everything. But just out of curiosity how long will I have to stay exactly I really should get home as soon as possible before my parents start to worry.”
“Oh probably only a week at most. That is if you’re trustworthy.” He smiled a teasing smile and only then did Linda begin to really get worried.
Rowel sat staring at the girl lying on his couch fast asleep. When he had seen that she had fallen asleep on the trip from Earth he couldn’t bare to wake her. Alita had been a very big help so far while Adan and Sira had made it very clear that they wanted nothing to do with the girl and had pretty much left as soon as they had returned to Imaginess. It had quickly been decided that Linda would stay at Rowel’s house. His parents were much more understanding about such things while even though Alita’s father might understand he would never agree to let her stay. There were too many risks involved and he couldn’t afford to harbor an alien. Alita had helped him to get her into his hover car and had even gone with him to make sure she was comfortable in his house.
“Man she is really out.” Alita commented when they had gotten Linda into the house and she still hadn’t moved.
“We probably freaked her out pretty good.” Alita just nodded then she looked at her watch and gasped.
“Oh my, I’m late I need to get home before my dad gets home and realizes I’m not home. I’ll see if I can get over here tomorrow.”
Rowel sat staring at her now waiting for his mother to get home from where ever she disappeared to with his two younger sisters. He stood up and went into the kitchen he grabbed a flower-nut off the counter and crushed the fragile shell in his fingers. He picked up the news-screen which was Imaginess’s newspaper but instead of being on paper it was on a flat touch-screen. He scanned through the headlines as he pulled the sweet flower out of its shell and plopped it in his mouth. He licked his lips as it melted in his mouth and tapped on one of the headlines as he reached for another one.
The article was about the funeral procession that had gone to earth that day. Telling the story about his aunt and uncle for about the millionth time in his 18 years. He sighed. Why couldn’t they just leave Aunt Kay alone? She was dead why did they have to keep reminding him of that fact. Kay had been his favorite aunt he had only been three when she had died but he remembered it almost as clearly as if it had been yesterday. He still had dreams about those times sometimes. He remembered his mother taking him and Sira, who had been six at the time, down to visit Aunt Kay right after his cousin Leena had been born. “She likes you.” Aunt Kay had said to him as he held her and she looked at him with her big glittering eyes. He remembered smiling down at her and grabbing her little fingers as she cooed quietly in his arms. That was the first and last time he had ever seen her.
He had never told his parents how much his aunt and uncle’s death had affected him and they assumed that he didn’t remember them well enough for it to effect him. They had worried more about Sira in the years following their death because she was older when it was him they should have worried about.
A new museum had opened up in the city a couple years ago and he had refused to go because he had heard of a display that had been dedicated to his aunt and uncle and he hadn’t the courage to face what had happened to them.
Rowel sighed and placed the news-screen back on the counter and grabbed a hand-full of flower-nuts as he went back into the living room. The girl was still sleeping as he sat down across from her. The hair that had covered most of his face since he had met her had slid slightly and something near the corner of her right eye caught his attention. He leaned forward and brushed the remaining hair away from her face. His heart jumped into his throat at the sight of the ugly scar running across her face. Her eyes opened then and he jumped back slightly in surprise. It took her a second to realize what he had been staring at and she quickly covered herself with her hair as she sat up and looked at him angrily.
“I-I-I’m sorry. I didn’t realize…how’d it happen?”
She relaxed slightly then and looked around her. “Where am I?”
“This is my house…well my family’s house anyway. Alita and I brought you here. You didn’t wake up when we landed and neither of us wanted to wake you.” He stood up then and motioned in the direction of the kitchen. “You want something to eat? We have some flower-nuts that my little sister just picked yesterday.”
“What’s a flower-nut?”
“Here come try one their really good.”
Linda followed him into the kitchen where he showed her how to break the shell and eat the flower inside.
“MMM this is really good.” She said as she grabbed another one from the bowl he had placed in front of her. It tastes kind of like raspberry and watermelon wrapped all in one.”
He smiled at her. He liked the way she smiled and talked and maybe just maybe he thought she was beautiful. Could it be that he was falling for a human girl?
“Come along girls we need to get home and get dinner ready before your father gets home.”
Five year old Teesha grabbed her little sister’s hand and attempted to drag her away from the shop window she had plastered herself to. “Come on Shanti we’ve got to go.”
“But Teesha,” the two year old whined, “did you see that tool set in the shop window.”
“Yes Shanti I saw it. Now will you come on?”
“But it was amazing. I just have it for my birthday.”
“Shanti it’s too late for that. Your birthday is tomorrow. All your presents are bought already.”
The little girls face dropped and she gave in to her sisters prodding.
“Well it looks like your brothers home.” Peka observed as they neared the house. They climbed the two steps to the house and pushed open the door. “Rowel, I’m home.” She yelled into the house. She heard voices in the kitchen and headed in that direction. She entered the kitchen to find her son and a young girl sitting at the kitchen table a bowl of flower-nuts between them. They both looked up as she entered. She smiled at the girl and turned to her son. “Who’s this?”
Linda was standing now and stuck her hand out in greeting. “I’m Linda it’s nice to meet you.” She said in English.
Peka frowned, “Rowel can I talk to you for a minute.”
“Sure.” He stood and followed her out into the hallway and stopped. They were still within hearing distance of Linda but he knew his mother didn’t care. “What is it?” He asked in Imaginese
“Who is that?” She asked nodding in the direction of the girl at the table as she grabbed another flower-nut out of the bowl, broke the shell and popped the flower into her mouth
“A friend I met at school today.” He said not looking at her directly.
“Rowel look at me,” he looked up at her, “Where exactly did you meet her.”
He looked down at the ground. “At the funeral procession.” Peka closed her eyes and tried to breath. When she recovered she opened her eyes and glared at her son. “You brought a human to Imaginess?” She asked as calmly as she could handle her voice trembling slightly.” He nodded. “Do you realize that if the Tuli found out about this they could have your father and I highly fined for harboring an illegal alien?”
“Yes mother I know, but she’d seen too much we had to do something.”
“Who’s we?”
He hesitated then said “Alita, Adan, Sira and me.”
“Sira’s part of this? I thought she knew better than that.”
“Actually,” Rowel stumbled trying to cover for his sister, “Sira and Adan aren’t really responsible. They didn’t want to take her along but they didn’t think we had any other choice. But Sira made it very clear that this is my fault and she’s not helping.”
Peka sighed and crossed three sets of arms in front of her. “I can’t handle this right now Rowel. I’ll entertain her until your father gets home and then it’s up to him as to what happens from there. Understand?”
“Yes ma’am”
Linda finished the bowl of nuts and set it on the counter next to the sink. She could hear the voices of Rowel and his mother in the hallway. They had slipped into their own language now but although she didn’t know exactly what they were saying she had a feeling it was about her and they way their voices had begun to raise she didn’t think it was very good.
She stood and went into the living room as much as because she was bored as to get away from the yelling.
She entered the room to find two young girls sitting on the floor playing with dolls and babbling in their own language. She sat down between them and they looked up at her curiously. “Hi!” She said in English. “My name’s Linda.” The girls looked at her curiously and Linda wondered if they even spoke English. Then one of the girls-the oldest one-spoke.
“I’m Teesha and that’s Shanti.” She nodded her head in the direction of the little girl.”
Linda smiled, “It’s nice to meet you.”
Shanti scooted closer to Linda. “Why do you speak English?”
Linda hesitated “Because…” a throat cleared behind and she turned to see Rowel and his mother standing behind her. Rowel looked slightly defeated but he smiled when she turned to them and his mother looked pretty upset with 3 sets of arms folded in front of her. “Why don’t you sit down Linda,” she said trying to smile, “And I’ll get you something to drink.”
She left then and Rowel indicated for her to sit down. A few moments later Peka returned with three glasses of something light brown and handed a cup to Linda and Rowel. Linda looked into the cup. “What is this?”
“It’s Kail milk.” Rowel stated “try it.”
“So tell us about yourself,” Peka said as she settled into a chair placed her milk down on the table next to her and grabbed what looked like some kind of broken blender or another type of kitchen tool and began working on it like someone would work on knitting.
“Well-um-I’m sorry I didn’t catch your name.”
“It’s Mrs. Rowan.” Peka responded slightly irritably.
“Well Mrs. Rowan what do you want to know?”
“What brought you into the woods today?”
Linda settled down into her chair then and began her story she told them everything. She told them about Brenda Keegan, about school, and her birthday. When she was done telling about her birthday Shanti, who had bright yellow-green skin and white hair, climbed onto Linda’s lap. “I’m going to be 3 tomorrow. I can’t wait to go to school,” she said.
“School,” Linda said in surprise looking up to Mrs. Rowan with eyes wide, “she’s only going to be 3.
“Yes,” replied Mrs. Rowan matter of factly not looking up from the broken blender, “children always start school at 3.”
“But why?”
“Well two reasons, one the Imaginese children are very smart Shanti’s already made her own hover board.” She looked up now and smiled.
“Really,” Linda was really surprised now. “So what’s the second reason?” Mrs. Rowan turned back to her work on the broken blender.
“The second reason is when children turn 3 they start growing their arms and they grow half an arm every year until they are 18.”
“Half an arm? You mean like literally half an arm like just a little stub?”
“Oh, no,” said Rowel laughing. “More like a complete arm that’s about half the size of a regular arm, but it still has a hand.”
“But it’s not quite long enough to need an elbow,” Added Mrs. Rowan
“Interesting,” said Linda, “but what does that have anything to do with school?”
“Oh lots of things,” Rowel replied picking up a screwdriver type tool to hand to his mother, “it takes lots of practice to learn how to get your arms to come out you have to go to school to learn.”
“How can you learn to get your arms to come out?” Linda was interested but she found it kind of farfetched to have to go to school to learn to get your arms to come out.
“It’s all about willpower you have to want it and it’s not that hard once you’ve got the hang of it” as if to demonstrate he shot a couple more arms out of his stomach, “The first time it’s hard because you’ve never done it before and the second time its hard because you have to learn how to get only the arms you want to come out, to come out. When you’re learning you might want 1 arm to come out and instead all 5 arms come out. After the first couple times it becomes easier.” Just then Sira rushed into the door slamming it behind her and stepped into the living room. “Mom?” She asked without looking up as she opened up her bag and started digging through it in search of something. “My teacher said you had to sign a release before we go to the museum tomorrow.” She found what she was looking for and looked up. She dropped her bag when she saw Linda sitting there with a glass of Kail milk in her hands. “What is she doing here?” She asked pointing right at Linda and staring at her brother angrily.
“Sira,” Mrs Rowan scolded her daughter. “Be polite to our guest. Linda may be staying with us for awhile and I expect you to behave…or you can just forget about me signing that little slip of yours.” Sira’s jaw tightened and glanced menacingly at her brother as she stormed past them out of the room.
Mr. Rowan got home a couple hours later and was pretty surprised to find a pretty, young girl sitting on the couch next to his son and talking to Rowel and his wife but he was even more surprised when she introduced herself. For three reasons: One she spoke to him in English not Imaginese like any other native of the planet. Two her name was one of the strangest names he had ever heard in his life and three her accent was definitely not one he had ever heard before.
Mrs. Rowan turned to her daughters who were still playing dolls quietly in the corner. “Teesha why don’t you and Shanti show Linda the garden.” The girls jumped up excitedly and dragged Linda out of the room babbling the entire time in Imaginese.
Sira sat in the garden it was her favorite spot on the Rowan land. There was a large Wiper tree in the middle of the yard. The Rowan’s like every other family on Imaginess couldn’t afford to cut down the trees in their yard because no body knew how to grow them so when a tree grew up in the middle of a main street the street moved instead of the tree cause everyone knew that if they moved a tree it would die.
Sira sat on the bench that was set back against the fence in the back of the yard. Little wiper flowers were all about her indicating that the roots of the tree had spread that far since the flowers only grew from the roots of the tree. The garden was Sira’s one passion she had tried so hard to keep the yard looking as good as possible. She had even put in a stone walkway that would keep the place more under control and had traveled often to the nearby woods to gather plants to grow in her garden but they always were dead by the next morning so she had stuck to taking care of her tree. Not many people knew about her secret obsession with plants. If they did they would probably tease her. After all Imaginese were supposed to work with electronics not plants. She thought that the human’s ability to grow plants so easily was amazing and everyday she wished she could learn their secret but she knew that was impossible she just didn’t have the touch.
She heard voices coming toward her and saw Linda being led by Shanti and Teesha who were both babbling away in Imaginese. “Sira works really hard on this garden.” Teesha was saying. “She tries to get other plants to grow here but they always die.”
“But she takes good care of the tree.” Shanti said pointing to the tree in the middle of the yard. “That’s were we gather our flower-nuts.” The continued mumbling and pointing things out and poor Linda looked confused out of her mind as the girls dragged her along. Sira decided now would be as good a time as any to talk to Linda alone knowing it would probably be nearly impossible to get her brother away from her later. She walked up to the three girls and spoke to her sisters in Imaginese. “Why don’t you let me show Linda around my own garden?” The girls nodded a little disappointedly and hurried off somewhere else.
As soon as they were gone Linda spoke. “Look I don’t like being here any more than you want me here.” Sira looked at Linda skeptically. “Look I don’t care if you’re here just don’t expect me to be all nice and answer your questions. If you don’t know something then ask Rowel I’m sure he’ll be glad to answer for you.”
“OK I won’t ask you questions…but can we be friends as long as we both agree not to ask questions?”
Sira hesitated then nodded “I guess so!” Just then they heard footsteps and looked up to see Rowel coming toward them. “Don’t tell Rowel.” Sira whispered just before she disappeared inside a shed.
“Rowel came up to Linda and stopped a couple feet away from her. “Where are the girls?”
Linda just shrugged, “They got bored I guess and decided to split.” She nodded toward the tree. “That’s a weird looking tree. What’s it called?”
“It’s a wiper tree. It’s made out of really strong leaves which hold it up and soft wood that grows on the top. The flower-nuts grow on those two long branches there and all those little flowers grow out of the roots.”
“Wow!”
They were quiet for a moment and then Rowel spoke again. “They said you could stay by the way.” She looked at him surprised. “My parents said you could stay with us until we’re sure we can trust you then we’ll get you home as soon as possible.”
“Thank you Rowel for everything. But just out of curiosity how long will I have to stay exactly I really should get home as soon as possible before my parents start to worry.”
“Oh probably only a week at most. That is if you’re trustworthy.” He smiled a teasing smile and only then did Linda begin to really get worried.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
The Scar (Chapter 3)
A Song in the Woods
Linda followed the singing until she reached a clearing. There she found a group of people singing what sounded like a song of mourning. It was a group of young people about her age along with a couple adults. All with strange colored hair, green and blue and purple and it looked completely natural but the strangest thing about them was not just their hair but also their skin. Each one of the people had a light tint of color in their skin that matched their hair. She watched as they threw flowers over the entire clearing. She watched them curiously for a while as they went through some sort of a ceremony. Then the older ones in the group directed the younger ones back into the woods and disappeared.
“Follow them, Leena; come on follow them.” Gaylin whispered as he watched his daughter watching the Imaginese mourning party. Kohath had told him how important it was that his daughter not only followed but was seen by these young people.
“Today is the day that Leena will choose her destiny. She has a choice to make and depending on the path she chooses depends on how happy of a life she will live.” More then anything Gaylin wanted his daughter to live a happy life and he knew that that was what Kohath wanted as well but he knew that his daughter had to make good choices first. Ultimately she had to believe in Kohath and the first step in that direction was to be seen by these young people.
Gaylin stepped forward and placed his hands on his daughters head. Now it was only up to her as to whether or not she took his advice.
As Linda watched the people disappear into the woods she got the sudden notion to follow them. I can’t follow them she thought what if something happens and I never return. I can’t do that to Mom and Dad. What would they think? How would it affect them? Then another thought entered her head that surprised her. What if somehow this connects me to my past and what happened to my parents. Oh that’s crazy! She chided herself. You need to stop thinking about that Linda you’re never going to find them so stop pretending like you will. She began to turn back toward the farm when a humming filled the air. Her curiosity overcame her good sense as she turned toward the sound as she thought Mom and Dad are always trying to tell me that I’m special and am going to do great things. Well here’s my chance and I’m going to take it. With that she pushed away the branches and slipped into the woods after the strange people.
She followed the trail quietly at first but as she got deeper into the woods the leaves began to get thicker and crunched under her feet with each step. Soon she came to a place deep in the woods and stopped at the sight of spaceship a real live UFO right in front of her face. A boy with blue hair was in the process of clearing leaves and branches away from it. Linda stepped forward slightly trying to get a closer look but stepped on a stick. Then two things happened at once the first thing was that one of young men, who had green hair, turned around and seeing her ran up and grabbed her. The second was that Blue boy turned around and arms came streaming out of all sides of his body and a couple of the arms grabbed large guns from inside the ship and threw a couple at the girls and the girls pointed them in her direction and they looked like they knew how to use them. Linda was brought out into the light.
“Who are you?” one of the girls who had pink hair asked and Linda was stunned slightly at the fact that this girl-who she had now affirmed was an alien-could speak English but she recovered quickly.
“My name is Linda,” she replied carefully determined not to give away too much information with out getting some answers of her own, “I live on the farm not far from here.”
Purple girl said something to Blue boy in another language and suddenly all four of them were babbling away in the foreign language.
Linda glanced around the clearing a bit franticly she would take a run for it but the Green boy still had a fairly strong grip on her arm which was really beginning to hurt but she didn’t dare say a word. She was in a complete panic were these aliens nice or hostile? What were they discussing? Would they let her go or capture her or worse yet would they kill her? She squeezed her eyes closed and although she had never been much of the praying type she shot up a prayer in the hopes that some god-it didn’t matter which one-would hear it and answer her. Almost as soon as she finished she felt a peace came over her and suddenly she knew that somewhere a god had heard her.
Gaylin continued to watch his daughter he was glad that up to this point things were going according to plan. He stepped near her and placed his hand on her shoulder letting the peace of Kohath course through her. “Kohath has heard you daughter.”
“She looks a lot like one of us,” Sira whispered to Adan. Alita watched the girl named Linda as she shifted uncomfortably in Rowel’s grip she looked surprisingly peaceful but she knew that inside the girl was probably mush. “Come on Rowel let her go. We’re not killers for heavens sake.” Rowel nodded and let her go
“What are you doing?” asked Sira.
“Releasing her” said Adan. “Alita just made a good point we’re not killers,”
“So we’re not killers. That doesn’t mean we let her go she is still a human.”
“She doesn’t look human to me.”
“So what do you suggest we do?”
“Take her with us.”
“Brilliant, so she can kill all of us.”
“Not all humans are like that.” Spoke up Alita. “We shouldn’t judge people before we get to know them.” Linda was obviously getting annoyed by the fact that she didn’t know their language. She glanced around the clearing and Alita was afraid that she’d make a run for it if she didn’t do something soon. She took a step toward her. “My name is Alita but you can call me Ali and this is Sira and Adan and behind you is Sira’s brother Rowel.” Linda nodded kind of nervously and glanced around the woods again as if looking for someone. Help probably. She thought
Rowel was talking now from behind Linda “We have to do something with her. We can’t let her tell anyone about what she’s seen. So the safest bet is to take her with us, like Alita said we aren’t killers.” Then he turned to Sira “Unless you have a better suggestion?” Sira sighed.
“No I don’t. You’re right I guess we have no choice but to take her with us. But trust me I don’t like the idea at all. And I refuse to have anything to do with her.” With that she turned and climbed into the front seat of the pod crossing 3 sets of arms in front of her body.
Linda could tell that something serious was going on but they still were talking in the strange language she glanced around halfway expecting to see some god come swooping out of the air, smite her enemies and carry her away and maybe with a little dash of extra luck he or she would make Brenda leave Staton.
As she was thinking this the boy behind her released her and she almost fell over from the sudden release. One of the girls, the one with purple hair, looked slightly upset by this exchange and was yelling at Green hair over her head. She glanced around her again. Maybe she was wrong and it was just a weird fluke that caused her to feel at peace. There was no such thing as God. She hadn’t believed it before there was no reason why she should believe it now.
Pink hair stepped forward unexpectedly and spoke to her in English “My name is Alita but you can call me Ali and this is Sira and Adan and behind you is Sira’s brother Rowel.”
Linda nodded and she looked around once more. This time though it wasn’t for a god the idea had left her head as quickly as it had entered. Now she was only hoping that someone anyone would rescue her from these aliens.
The aliens were fighting again and the one known as Sira looked pretty upset until finally Rowel said something to her that made her shoulders fall in defeat she shot something back and went to the pod and climbed in.
Ali turned to her then and smiled. “I’m sorry but we’re going to have to take you with us. Until we’re sure you’re trustworthy. It shouldn’t be long I’m sure your-“
“Enough talk Alita,” Adan snarled, “We don’t need to explain ourselves to a human.” He spat out the name and looked at Linda vehemently. Then he grabbed her by the arm and shoved her into the ship.
“There’s no need to be so rough Adan.” Rowel said coming up behind him.
“There’s no need to be so nice either. Must I remind you why we’re here? To mourn your aunt and uncle who died because people like you let the Martians live on and trade with Imaginess. Now I don’t know about the rest of you but I will not be sitting next to that creature… if you don’t mind I’ll drive.” With that he walked to the other side of the pod and climbed into the driver’s seat fuming the whole while.
Rowel climbed in beside Linda obviously hurt by his friend’s words. He spent the rest of the trip looking out the window not saying a word. Adan and Sira began a conversation in their own language and at first Linda felt very out of place until Ali turned to her. “I’m sorry we had to take you like this.” She whispered, “We just can’t chance it getting back to anybody. And don’t be so upset with them.” She said nodding her head in the direction of the two up front. “Life has been pretty difficult. Our planet was at war for about 10 years and about 12 years ago when I was five the war finally ended. It’s taken about 5 more years for everything to get back under control and there are a lot of people who don’t want anything to do with people of other planets. Those two up there are some of the worst. Adan and Sira are older then all of us. They remember things better then the rest of us. They were about 8 when the war ended and 13 by the time things got back to normal. They remember what it was like to live so horribly. I remember it too but my family didn’t have it as hard as Adan’s family or even the Rowan’s who had it pretty good compared to some. I’m sorry I’ve gotten to rambling. Did you have any questions you wanted to ask?”
“Only one,” Linda said. “How come you speak English?” Ali smiled
“Us aliens have to have some way to communicate with each other so some genius-I don’t who-decided that English would be a good language to choose. Which doesn’t make much sense to me cause every other language I’ve ever heard is much easier. English just has too many rules. I mean really how do you remember them all? If I lived on Earth I’d probably choose one of those non-English speaking places. And that’s another thing why on Imaginess does Earth have so many languages? Doesn’t that make things more difficult? I know someone explained it to me once but she said it was just an earth myth so I obviously don’t believe it and…oh man! I’m sorry. That’s a bit of a bad habit I have: Talking people’s ears off as you Earthlings say. If I start doing that you have permission to shut me up. That is unless you’re actually enjoying what I’m saying then you can just sit there and keep listening. Like one time-“
“Ali you’re doing it again.”
“Oh right sorry. I’ll just be quiet for the rest of the trip how’s that?”
Ali shut up then and Linda was able to think about everything that had gone on. Before long she felt herself falling asleep. She leaned her head back against the chair and closed her eyes letting herself drift off to a place where she felt more safe, a place called Earth
Linda followed the singing until she reached a clearing. There she found a group of people singing what sounded like a song of mourning. It was a group of young people about her age along with a couple adults. All with strange colored hair, green and blue and purple and it looked completely natural but the strangest thing about them was not just their hair but also their skin. Each one of the people had a light tint of color in their skin that matched their hair. She watched as they threw flowers over the entire clearing. She watched them curiously for a while as they went through some sort of a ceremony. Then the older ones in the group directed the younger ones back into the woods and disappeared.
“Follow them, Leena; come on follow them.” Gaylin whispered as he watched his daughter watching the Imaginese mourning party. Kohath had told him how important it was that his daughter not only followed but was seen by these young people.
“Today is the day that Leena will choose her destiny. She has a choice to make and depending on the path she chooses depends on how happy of a life she will live.” More then anything Gaylin wanted his daughter to live a happy life and he knew that that was what Kohath wanted as well but he knew that his daughter had to make good choices first. Ultimately she had to believe in Kohath and the first step in that direction was to be seen by these young people.
Gaylin stepped forward and placed his hands on his daughters head. Now it was only up to her as to whether or not she took his advice.
As Linda watched the people disappear into the woods she got the sudden notion to follow them. I can’t follow them she thought what if something happens and I never return. I can’t do that to Mom and Dad. What would they think? How would it affect them? Then another thought entered her head that surprised her. What if somehow this connects me to my past and what happened to my parents. Oh that’s crazy! She chided herself. You need to stop thinking about that Linda you’re never going to find them so stop pretending like you will. She began to turn back toward the farm when a humming filled the air. Her curiosity overcame her good sense as she turned toward the sound as she thought Mom and Dad are always trying to tell me that I’m special and am going to do great things. Well here’s my chance and I’m going to take it. With that she pushed away the branches and slipped into the woods after the strange people.
She followed the trail quietly at first but as she got deeper into the woods the leaves began to get thicker and crunched under her feet with each step. Soon she came to a place deep in the woods and stopped at the sight of spaceship a real live UFO right in front of her face. A boy with blue hair was in the process of clearing leaves and branches away from it. Linda stepped forward slightly trying to get a closer look but stepped on a stick. Then two things happened at once the first thing was that one of young men, who had green hair, turned around and seeing her ran up and grabbed her. The second was that Blue boy turned around and arms came streaming out of all sides of his body and a couple of the arms grabbed large guns from inside the ship and threw a couple at the girls and the girls pointed them in her direction and they looked like they knew how to use them. Linda was brought out into the light.
“Who are you?” one of the girls who had pink hair asked and Linda was stunned slightly at the fact that this girl-who she had now affirmed was an alien-could speak English but she recovered quickly.
“My name is Linda,” she replied carefully determined not to give away too much information with out getting some answers of her own, “I live on the farm not far from here.”
Purple girl said something to Blue boy in another language and suddenly all four of them were babbling away in the foreign language.
Linda glanced around the clearing a bit franticly she would take a run for it but the Green boy still had a fairly strong grip on her arm which was really beginning to hurt but she didn’t dare say a word. She was in a complete panic were these aliens nice or hostile? What were they discussing? Would they let her go or capture her or worse yet would they kill her? She squeezed her eyes closed and although she had never been much of the praying type she shot up a prayer in the hopes that some god-it didn’t matter which one-would hear it and answer her. Almost as soon as she finished she felt a peace came over her and suddenly she knew that somewhere a god had heard her.
Gaylin continued to watch his daughter he was glad that up to this point things were going according to plan. He stepped near her and placed his hand on her shoulder letting the peace of Kohath course through her. “Kohath has heard you daughter.”
“She looks a lot like one of us,” Sira whispered to Adan. Alita watched the girl named Linda as she shifted uncomfortably in Rowel’s grip she looked surprisingly peaceful but she knew that inside the girl was probably mush. “Come on Rowel let her go. We’re not killers for heavens sake.” Rowel nodded and let her go
“What are you doing?” asked Sira.
“Releasing her” said Adan. “Alita just made a good point we’re not killers,”
“So we’re not killers. That doesn’t mean we let her go she is still a human.”
“She doesn’t look human to me.”
“So what do you suggest we do?”
“Take her with us.”
“Brilliant, so she can kill all of us.”
“Not all humans are like that.” Spoke up Alita. “We shouldn’t judge people before we get to know them.” Linda was obviously getting annoyed by the fact that she didn’t know their language. She glanced around the clearing and Alita was afraid that she’d make a run for it if she didn’t do something soon. She took a step toward her. “My name is Alita but you can call me Ali and this is Sira and Adan and behind you is Sira’s brother Rowel.” Linda nodded kind of nervously and glanced around the woods again as if looking for someone. Help probably. She thought
Rowel was talking now from behind Linda “We have to do something with her. We can’t let her tell anyone about what she’s seen. So the safest bet is to take her with us, like Alita said we aren’t killers.” Then he turned to Sira “Unless you have a better suggestion?” Sira sighed.
“No I don’t. You’re right I guess we have no choice but to take her with us. But trust me I don’t like the idea at all. And I refuse to have anything to do with her.” With that she turned and climbed into the front seat of the pod crossing 3 sets of arms in front of her body.
Linda could tell that something serious was going on but they still were talking in the strange language she glanced around halfway expecting to see some god come swooping out of the air, smite her enemies and carry her away and maybe with a little dash of extra luck he or she would make Brenda leave Staton.
As she was thinking this the boy behind her released her and she almost fell over from the sudden release. One of the girls, the one with purple hair, looked slightly upset by this exchange and was yelling at Green hair over her head. She glanced around her again. Maybe she was wrong and it was just a weird fluke that caused her to feel at peace. There was no such thing as God. She hadn’t believed it before there was no reason why she should believe it now.
Pink hair stepped forward unexpectedly and spoke to her in English “My name is Alita but you can call me Ali and this is Sira and Adan and behind you is Sira’s brother Rowel.”
Linda nodded and she looked around once more. This time though it wasn’t for a god the idea had left her head as quickly as it had entered. Now she was only hoping that someone anyone would rescue her from these aliens.
The aliens were fighting again and the one known as Sira looked pretty upset until finally Rowel said something to her that made her shoulders fall in defeat she shot something back and went to the pod and climbed in.
Ali turned to her then and smiled. “I’m sorry but we’re going to have to take you with us. Until we’re sure you’re trustworthy. It shouldn’t be long I’m sure your-“
“Enough talk Alita,” Adan snarled, “We don’t need to explain ourselves to a human.” He spat out the name and looked at Linda vehemently. Then he grabbed her by the arm and shoved her into the ship.
“There’s no need to be so rough Adan.” Rowel said coming up behind him.
“There’s no need to be so nice either. Must I remind you why we’re here? To mourn your aunt and uncle who died because people like you let the Martians live on and trade with Imaginess. Now I don’t know about the rest of you but I will not be sitting next to that creature… if you don’t mind I’ll drive.” With that he walked to the other side of the pod and climbed into the driver’s seat fuming the whole while.
Rowel climbed in beside Linda obviously hurt by his friend’s words. He spent the rest of the trip looking out the window not saying a word. Adan and Sira began a conversation in their own language and at first Linda felt very out of place until Ali turned to her. “I’m sorry we had to take you like this.” She whispered, “We just can’t chance it getting back to anybody. And don’t be so upset with them.” She said nodding her head in the direction of the two up front. “Life has been pretty difficult. Our planet was at war for about 10 years and about 12 years ago when I was five the war finally ended. It’s taken about 5 more years for everything to get back under control and there are a lot of people who don’t want anything to do with people of other planets. Those two up there are some of the worst. Adan and Sira are older then all of us. They remember things better then the rest of us. They were about 8 when the war ended and 13 by the time things got back to normal. They remember what it was like to live so horribly. I remember it too but my family didn’t have it as hard as Adan’s family or even the Rowan’s who had it pretty good compared to some. I’m sorry I’ve gotten to rambling. Did you have any questions you wanted to ask?”
“Only one,” Linda said. “How come you speak English?” Ali smiled
“Us aliens have to have some way to communicate with each other so some genius-I don’t who-decided that English would be a good language to choose. Which doesn’t make much sense to me cause every other language I’ve ever heard is much easier. English just has too many rules. I mean really how do you remember them all? If I lived on Earth I’d probably choose one of those non-English speaking places. And that’s another thing why on Imaginess does Earth have so many languages? Doesn’t that make things more difficult? I know someone explained it to me once but she said it was just an earth myth so I obviously don’t believe it and…oh man! I’m sorry. That’s a bit of a bad habit I have: Talking people’s ears off as you Earthlings say. If I start doing that you have permission to shut me up. That is unless you’re actually enjoying what I’m saying then you can just sit there and keep listening. Like one time-“
“Ali you’re doing it again.”
“Oh right sorry. I’ll just be quiet for the rest of the trip how’s that?”
Ali shut up then and Linda was able to think about everything that had gone on. Before long she felt herself falling asleep. She leaned her head back against the chair and closed her eyes letting herself drift off to a place where she felt more safe, a place called Earth
Friday, October 10, 2008
The Scar (Chapter 2)
The Necklace
15 years later
Linda Cuthbert trudged home. She had had a hard last day of school. Brenda Keegan the coolest girl in the school had teased her ever since she had started at Staton High. It was bad enough that she was a physics geek she couldn’t help it she was just good.
The first day at Staton she had blown everyone out of the water and ever since then Brenda wouldn’t leave her alone. But today had been the worst day yet. She had made the mistake of pushing back her long, bright, red bangs during a test and Brenda wouldn’t let her forget it.
“Hey Scarface,” she jeered “Maybe you can come over later today and help me with my geometry. I mean it’s no secret that you think you’re smarter than anyone else in this school.” Linda hadn’t replied which made her laugh even harder.
It was the worst name anyone had ever called her. Over the course of her 17 years she had been called Carrothead, Geek and even Dork once in 1st grade when the class plant had died on her watch as well as any other name people could think of to tease her looks or her smarts.
She had met Cindy in 5th grade and they had immediately become best friends. Cindy was one of the few popular girls who actually gave Linda the time of day. Linda was the brains Cindy was the style. It had been Cindy’s idea that Linda grow out her bangs in fifth grade. At first Linda hadn’t liked the idea until she had overheard some of girls talking about her. “She might actually be pretty if it wasn’t for that horrid thing across her face.” Linda had never thought about covering up her scar but after hearing those girls talking about it she decided it might be good idea. By the time she got to high school everyone had forgotten about it and Linda could care less about what they thought about her skin or hair color and she had so many people who complemented her for her grades that a couple of mean nicknames didn’t really matter.
She remembered a time in her freshman year when she had let it get to her. She had run to the store and dyed her hair a rich brown…except it had ended up more of a purplish. Her mother had been disappointed in her and had sat her down and told her how special she was. “Linda have I ever told you how you came to be with us?” How many times had she heard the story? “You’re special Linda! God brought you to us! Don’t worry about it Linda gardening isn’t your thing we’ll let you stick with what your good at.” These were lines she had heard about a million times since the Cuthbert’s had adopted her when she was 2 years old.
As Linda neared the farm her six year old sister Jenny came running up the road “Mama says to hurry home there’s lots of things that need to be done before the party.” Linda nodded but didn’t hurry. It was her 17th birthday and her stomach hurt like it did every year on her birthday. She didn’t know why it just did from the time she got up in the morning to the time she went to bed. She would have stayed home from school but she had promised Cindy she would go over after school and that they would start the science project they were going to enter into the science fair that summer. They had spent that entire afternoon trying to decide what they would make but by four O’clock she felt so horrible she had to leave.
Linda rounded the bend and came upon the farm house where she had lived with her parents and siblings for most of her life.
She had tried to find her parents in her Freshman and Sophomore years but after coming up constantly empty she decided to give up. It had been quite obvious that her parents didn’t approve but she had so many questions to ask them like why had they gotten rid of her in the first place? How did she get the scar that went straight across her right cheek and totally ruined her image? The scar made her question what type of home she had lived in was her father an abusive father? Had he given her the scar? Or had her mother dropped her on a rock? Or had the family pet jumped on her face? These were the questions she had asked herself often when she was younger but over the years she had slowly begun to except that these were questions that might never get answered.
When she finally did get home she sat down on the couch and picked up a science book hoping to get her mind off the pain in her stomach. “What’cha doing?” asked Jenny in a sing-song voice as she came and plopped herself down on the arm of the chair.
“Science” Linda replied not looking up from her book.
“Ooooh! I love science. Last month Mrs. Henderson let me take care of the class plant all by myself.”
Linda winced at the memory and said. “Not that kind of science, Jenny you should know by now that I’m no good at biology.”
“Oh yeah! Then what kind of science are you doing?”
Linda turned back to her book. “Physics!”
Jenny made a face “why are you doing physics? School’s over!”
“I know,” she sighed, “but I like physics. It’s not work to me it comes to me naturally like your piano. You hear a song and you can play it on the piano almost immediately I see a lava lamp and can build one from scratch.” Jenny nodded but Linda could see she had no idea what she was talking about. Jenny got up and wondered off to some other activity that was more interesting than watching her sister read what was in her opinion a boring book.
A couple minutes’ later 10-year-old twins Trevor and Tyler came running in.
“Mary’s here Mary’s here,” they shouted running into the kitchen to find their mom. Linda closed her book and set it on the coffee table, eased out of her chair as carefully as possible and went out to greet Mary.
Tom, Mary’s husband pulled the car up. Mary climbed out of the car and helped 3-year-old Kyle out of the back. Linda loved it when Mary came.
Linda considered Mary to be her best friend beside her friend Cindy her only friend from school. There was something about her sister’s attitude that Linda loved. Mary was always excited to hear about the joys and sorrows of Linda’s life and she while she was very encouraging she was one of the only one in her family that didn’t have expectations about what Linda would become.
Cindy and all of Linda’s extended family came to celebrate Linda’s birthday. The gifts were wonderful but her favorite was the one from Mary. It was a silver necklace with scale like cuts on the base that was covered in a gold glitter so that it sparkled when the light touched it just right and it had little beaded strings hanging off the bottom with little jewels at the bottom of all different colors; it looked very expensive and she wondered how her sister could afford to buy something so nice for her.
That night Linda couldn’t sleep. She tossed and turned all night from a pain in her back. Pain somewhere on her body always followed her tummy ache. When she finally did get to sleep she dreamed a very strange dream there were two people, they were lost in some sort of a void and looking for something or someone. She didn’t know where she had seen them before but something about their presence was familiar. And she wondered if she had dreamed about them before. She couldn’t see either of their faces but could tell that one was a man and one was a woman. Suddenly the woman looked up and saw her she looked startled. “I can’t believe it” she said with tears running down her cheeks.
The man then looked up. “You must not look for us Leena but look for yourself you are the one who is lost.”
“What do you mean?” she heard herself say.
“You will see. You will see.” Then he disappeared then the woman spoke again she still had tears pouring down her cheeks.
“Remember us when you find yourself Leena don’t ever forget us in time we too will be found. Be a light in these dark times.” Then she too bowed her head and was silent
“What do you mean? I’m not lost. Who are you? What dark times are you talking about? I think you’ve got me mixed up with someone else my names Linda not Leena.” But neither of them heard her.
Suddenly a man appeared he had a cruel sneer on his face “I…found…you.” He laughed a wicked laugh. He pointed a devise at her and she felt herself shrinking and suddenly with a poof she was gone.
Linda woke up in a sweat. She looked out the window to see that it was morning. She climbed out of bed and got dressed she ran down the stairs to where her mother was making breakfast she ate quickly and then she left. She didn’t know where she was going all she knew was she had to get out of there she had to think. What was up with that dream? It had seemed so real. What had those people meant by finding herself? She knew that dreams weren’t supposed to make sense. But this one had been too real to ignore.
She soon found herself at her favorite place in the woods. This special place was Linda’s fort. It was a beautiful place that was so hidden that not even the animals seemed to know it was there. That day the fort seemed to shine, the dew was still fresh on the trees and was shining in the early morning light. Linda crawled into the little place and sat on the stump that was right in the middle of the place, the sun beating down on her head she took off the necklace that she had put on earlier that morning and began to examine it. It was beautiful, it was quite large about 2 inches around, and it was quite shiny with the little jewels and glitter. It looked like it was shaped like a flower but one she didn’t recognize; but most interesting of all was the fact that on the back it looked like something had been painted over she started to scratch away the paint but a noise from behind interrupted her. She turned around but didn’t see anyone. Then the sound of singing broke into her thoughts. Linda stuck the necklace in her pocket and went to see where the sound was coming from.
Kayla had been watching her daughter from a distance. Kohath had informed her that today would be a very important day in her daughter’s life. “Only she can decide which direction her life goes,” Kohath had told her years ago on that day when her and her husband had first met him, “but you can certainly do your best to direct her in the right direction.”
“How do we direct her?” She had asked.
“Through her dreams mostly but there are other things as well. Even though she won’t be able to see you there are things that you can do that will reach her perception.”
Now as Kayla watched her daughter she realized that something in the scene before her didn’t quite match the scene Kohath had shown her the day before. What was wrong? Then it clicked with her. It wasn’t time for Linda to read the necklace yet. Where are the singers? Kayla wondered. She had to stall had to keep her daughter from reading the necklace before it was time. Using the limited power that Kohath had bestowed upon her and her husband she caused a squirrel that was crossing over her head to jump down in a pile of leaves and run off. Pleased with herself she watched as her daughter turned and looked directly at her with unseeing eyes.
The singing suddenly filled the air around them. Kayla smiled Right on time she thought. She watched as her daughter stuck the necklace into her pocket and hurried off in the direction of the sound. Satisfied Kayla went to report her progress to Kohath who was waiting patiently for her return.
15 years later
Linda Cuthbert trudged home. She had had a hard last day of school. Brenda Keegan the coolest girl in the school had teased her ever since she had started at Staton High. It was bad enough that she was a physics geek she couldn’t help it she was just good.
The first day at Staton she had blown everyone out of the water and ever since then Brenda wouldn’t leave her alone. But today had been the worst day yet. She had made the mistake of pushing back her long, bright, red bangs during a test and Brenda wouldn’t let her forget it.
“Hey Scarface,” she jeered “Maybe you can come over later today and help me with my geometry. I mean it’s no secret that you think you’re smarter than anyone else in this school.” Linda hadn’t replied which made her laugh even harder.
It was the worst name anyone had ever called her. Over the course of her 17 years she had been called Carrothead, Geek and even Dork once in 1st grade when the class plant had died on her watch as well as any other name people could think of to tease her looks or her smarts.
She had met Cindy in 5th grade and they had immediately become best friends. Cindy was one of the few popular girls who actually gave Linda the time of day. Linda was the brains Cindy was the style. It had been Cindy’s idea that Linda grow out her bangs in fifth grade. At first Linda hadn’t liked the idea until she had overheard some of girls talking about her. “She might actually be pretty if it wasn’t for that horrid thing across her face.” Linda had never thought about covering up her scar but after hearing those girls talking about it she decided it might be good idea. By the time she got to high school everyone had forgotten about it and Linda could care less about what they thought about her skin or hair color and she had so many people who complemented her for her grades that a couple of mean nicknames didn’t really matter.
She remembered a time in her freshman year when she had let it get to her. She had run to the store and dyed her hair a rich brown…except it had ended up more of a purplish. Her mother had been disappointed in her and had sat her down and told her how special she was. “Linda have I ever told you how you came to be with us?” How many times had she heard the story? “You’re special Linda! God brought you to us! Don’t worry about it Linda gardening isn’t your thing we’ll let you stick with what your good at.” These were lines she had heard about a million times since the Cuthbert’s had adopted her when she was 2 years old.
As Linda neared the farm her six year old sister Jenny came running up the road “Mama says to hurry home there’s lots of things that need to be done before the party.” Linda nodded but didn’t hurry. It was her 17th birthday and her stomach hurt like it did every year on her birthday. She didn’t know why it just did from the time she got up in the morning to the time she went to bed. She would have stayed home from school but she had promised Cindy she would go over after school and that they would start the science project they were going to enter into the science fair that summer. They had spent that entire afternoon trying to decide what they would make but by four O’clock she felt so horrible she had to leave.
Linda rounded the bend and came upon the farm house where she had lived with her parents and siblings for most of her life.
She had tried to find her parents in her Freshman and Sophomore years but after coming up constantly empty she decided to give up. It had been quite obvious that her parents didn’t approve but she had so many questions to ask them like why had they gotten rid of her in the first place? How did she get the scar that went straight across her right cheek and totally ruined her image? The scar made her question what type of home she had lived in was her father an abusive father? Had he given her the scar? Or had her mother dropped her on a rock? Or had the family pet jumped on her face? These were the questions she had asked herself often when she was younger but over the years she had slowly begun to except that these were questions that might never get answered.
When she finally did get home she sat down on the couch and picked up a science book hoping to get her mind off the pain in her stomach. “What’cha doing?” asked Jenny in a sing-song voice as she came and plopped herself down on the arm of the chair.
“Science” Linda replied not looking up from her book.
“Ooooh! I love science. Last month Mrs. Henderson let me take care of the class plant all by myself.”
Linda winced at the memory and said. “Not that kind of science, Jenny you should know by now that I’m no good at biology.”
“Oh yeah! Then what kind of science are you doing?”
Linda turned back to her book. “Physics!”
Jenny made a face “why are you doing physics? School’s over!”
“I know,” she sighed, “but I like physics. It’s not work to me it comes to me naturally like your piano. You hear a song and you can play it on the piano almost immediately I see a lava lamp and can build one from scratch.” Jenny nodded but Linda could see she had no idea what she was talking about. Jenny got up and wondered off to some other activity that was more interesting than watching her sister read what was in her opinion a boring book.
A couple minutes’ later 10-year-old twins Trevor and Tyler came running in.
“Mary’s here Mary’s here,” they shouted running into the kitchen to find their mom. Linda closed her book and set it on the coffee table, eased out of her chair as carefully as possible and went out to greet Mary.
Tom, Mary’s husband pulled the car up. Mary climbed out of the car and helped 3-year-old Kyle out of the back. Linda loved it when Mary came.
Linda considered Mary to be her best friend beside her friend Cindy her only friend from school. There was something about her sister’s attitude that Linda loved. Mary was always excited to hear about the joys and sorrows of Linda’s life and she while she was very encouraging she was one of the only one in her family that didn’t have expectations about what Linda would become.
Cindy and all of Linda’s extended family came to celebrate Linda’s birthday. The gifts were wonderful but her favorite was the one from Mary. It was a silver necklace with scale like cuts on the base that was covered in a gold glitter so that it sparkled when the light touched it just right and it had little beaded strings hanging off the bottom with little jewels at the bottom of all different colors; it looked very expensive and she wondered how her sister could afford to buy something so nice for her.
That night Linda couldn’t sleep. She tossed and turned all night from a pain in her back. Pain somewhere on her body always followed her tummy ache. When she finally did get to sleep she dreamed a very strange dream there were two people, they were lost in some sort of a void and looking for something or someone. She didn’t know where she had seen them before but something about their presence was familiar. And she wondered if she had dreamed about them before. She couldn’t see either of their faces but could tell that one was a man and one was a woman. Suddenly the woman looked up and saw her she looked startled. “I can’t believe it” she said with tears running down her cheeks.
The man then looked up. “You must not look for us Leena but look for yourself you are the one who is lost.”
“What do you mean?” she heard herself say.
“You will see. You will see.” Then he disappeared then the woman spoke again she still had tears pouring down her cheeks.
“Remember us when you find yourself Leena don’t ever forget us in time we too will be found. Be a light in these dark times.” Then she too bowed her head and was silent
“What do you mean? I’m not lost. Who are you? What dark times are you talking about? I think you’ve got me mixed up with someone else my names Linda not Leena.” But neither of them heard her.
Suddenly a man appeared he had a cruel sneer on his face “I…found…you.” He laughed a wicked laugh. He pointed a devise at her and she felt herself shrinking and suddenly with a poof she was gone.
Linda woke up in a sweat. She looked out the window to see that it was morning. She climbed out of bed and got dressed she ran down the stairs to where her mother was making breakfast she ate quickly and then she left. She didn’t know where she was going all she knew was she had to get out of there she had to think. What was up with that dream? It had seemed so real. What had those people meant by finding herself? She knew that dreams weren’t supposed to make sense. But this one had been too real to ignore.
She soon found herself at her favorite place in the woods. This special place was Linda’s fort. It was a beautiful place that was so hidden that not even the animals seemed to know it was there. That day the fort seemed to shine, the dew was still fresh on the trees and was shining in the early morning light. Linda crawled into the little place and sat on the stump that was right in the middle of the place, the sun beating down on her head she took off the necklace that she had put on earlier that morning and began to examine it. It was beautiful, it was quite large about 2 inches around, and it was quite shiny with the little jewels and glitter. It looked like it was shaped like a flower but one she didn’t recognize; but most interesting of all was the fact that on the back it looked like something had been painted over she started to scratch away the paint but a noise from behind interrupted her. She turned around but didn’t see anyone. Then the sound of singing broke into her thoughts. Linda stuck the necklace in her pocket and went to see where the sound was coming from.
Kayla had been watching her daughter from a distance. Kohath had informed her that today would be a very important day in her daughter’s life. “Only she can decide which direction her life goes,” Kohath had told her years ago on that day when her and her husband had first met him, “but you can certainly do your best to direct her in the right direction.”
“How do we direct her?” She had asked.
“Through her dreams mostly but there are other things as well. Even though she won’t be able to see you there are things that you can do that will reach her perception.”
Now as Kayla watched her daughter she realized that something in the scene before her didn’t quite match the scene Kohath had shown her the day before. What was wrong? Then it clicked with her. It wasn’t time for Linda to read the necklace yet. Where are the singers? Kayla wondered. She had to stall had to keep her daughter from reading the necklace before it was time. Using the limited power that Kohath had bestowed upon her and her husband she caused a squirrel that was crossing over her head to jump down in a pile of leaves and run off. Pleased with herself she watched as her daughter turned and looked directly at her with unseeing eyes.
The singing suddenly filled the air around them. Kayla smiled Right on time she thought. She watched as her daughter stuck the necklace into her pocket and hurried off in the direction of the sound. Satisfied Kayla went to report her progress to Kohath who was waiting patiently for her return.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
The Scar (Chapter 1)
An Unexpected Tragedy
“Waaaaaaa, aaaaaaa” Leena had just awakened at the sounds of war.
“Shush now,” her mother soothed,” there’s no need for tears.” It was all she could muster as her own tears streamed down her face.
Imaginess had been at war for seven years and now Kayla had to smuggle her two-year-old baby to earth where she would be safe.
“Keep her quiet, Kayla,” said her husband Gaylin. He sounded harsh
But Kayla heard the fear in his voice. “Waaa,” Gaylin turned around and gave his daughter a small dose of something inside of a syringe, almost immediately she stopped crying and fell asleep on her Mothers shoulder.
“Gaylin” Kayla gasped in surprise and horror.
“We can’t afford to get caught.” He pocketed the syringe and continued on toward the hanger where all the Martians kept the ships they had stolen from the people of Imaginess. They soon arrived at the hanger Gaylin peered through the slightly opened door there wasn’t a Martian in sight. What luck! “Alright let’s go but quietly.” They slipped inside the door, the hanger was filled with ships of all sizes from big motherships to tiny little two-seat-spacepods they snuck over to the smallest of the spacepods on the side was the symbol of a Wiper flower this was their family symbol and this was their spacepod
“Hey what do you think you’re doing?” A Martian warrior came around the corner. “Stop don’t you dare get in that ship.” Gaylin jumped into the ship followed close behind by his wife. He pulled out his spare key that the Martians hadn’t known he had and started the engine.
The Martian had climbed into his own warship. He began to go after Gaylin who had now lifted off the ground and was leaving the hanger. “I need backup we have another escapee headed to earth. And someone grab the Zapper we’re going to need heavy power. Remember the last time someone went to earth.”
“Copy that sending in reinforcements”.
1 year earlier
Gaylin Elopee slipped through the empty streets painlessly his pack that he carried to work everyday slung over his back. He walked as fast as he could in the cold winter air which happened to not be very fast. He passed a group of Martian aliens talking on the corner never for a minute taking their eyes off of him. He kept his eyes on the ground as he passed by them hoping more than anything that for just one day they wouldn’t stop him. But it was too much to hope for he had barely walked five steps past them when he heard a voice shout out from behind him.
“Hey you!” Gaylin froze where he was and turned ever so slowly as the Martian came up behind him. It had been nearly six years since the Martians had taken over Imaginess and Gaylin didn’t think he would ever get used to the strange alien creatures walking around his town.
The Martian caught up with him and stopped beside him “What’s in the pack?” He asked in a demanding voice.
“This is my work pack I keep the stuff that I need for work in it.”
“Anything else?”
“Just food for my family.”
“Open it up.”
Gaylin reluctantly took the pack off his shoulder and opened it up to show the alien. The alien pushed aside his uniform and fruits and vegetables as well as a loaf of bread made with polka leaves. The Martian wrinkled his nose at the foreign foods. “Don’t you people have any decent food around here to eat?”
“I’m sorry sir,” Gaylin apologized as sincerely as he could manage. “It’s not our fault if you don’t like our food.” The Martian dropped the bag then and grabbed Gaylin hard by the collar. “Let’s get one thing straight you piece of garbage: Everything is your fault.” Gaylin nodded terrified and tried to swallow but the aliens hold on his neck was so tight he could barely breathe. The Martian let him go his friends were standing back on the sidewalk chuckling quietly delighting in the victim’s misery.
The alien stared him hard in the face. “Maybe tomorrow you’ll bring me something a little more interesting.” Gaylin nodded again praying that it won’t be too much longer before he let him go. Finally the Martian let him go and kicked his bag toward Gaylin, sending fruits and vegetables in every direction as he walked back toward his friends.
Gaylin hurriedly gathered up the scattered food cramming it back into the bag not even bothering to check whether it was clean or bruised. He silently thanked Kohath that the alien hadn’t gone past the bread to where he had buried a small cake that he had gotten from his mother-in-law in exchange for gathering some firewood for her. He had been looking forward to that cake all day. He had got it as a surprise for his wife and daughter, who was turning a year that day. Gaylin hurried the rest of the way home without getting stopped again and slipped into the small one-room-house that he shared with his wife and daughter.
As he entered the room he was met by the same smell he had met everyday for the past 3 years: Vegetable soup. His daughter, Leena, hobbled over to greet him as he removed his coat and shoes and placed his bag down by the door. Then he scooped and spun her around. “Hello Beautiful! I brought something special home for you today.” Just then his wife, Kayla, came around the corner from where she had been cooking and came to greet him. “You spoil the child Lin,”
“It’s her birthday Kay, I had to do something.”
“Well what did you get her?”
“Well two things actually. One I made and one I earned.” He placed Leena down then and grabbed his pack he pulled the cake out and smiled proudly like he’d just pulled out a block of pure gold.
“Gaylin where on earth did you get that?”
“Your mother made it for me in exchange for cutting her enough firewood for the winter.”
“What else did you get?” Gaylin put down his bag then and picked up his right shoe, turned it upside down and caught the necklace that fell out.
“I hid it in my shoe so they wouldn’t confiscate it.”
“It’s beautiful darling.” She said as she placed the necklace around her daughter’s neck and kissed her on the forehead. The baby giggled and put it in her mouth like a teething toy. Gaylin smiled as his wife went back to finish the soup.
They had just barley finished dinner and were preparing to start on the cake when there was a knock on the door. Startled Kayla jumped for the door as Gaylin snatched a syringe off the counter and thrust it into Leena’s arm then took her half asleep and thrust her in the small box that had served as her bed for the last year. He shot a quick prayer to Kohath that his daughter would be protected and went to the door with his wife.
By this time the five soldiers had made their way inside and three of them were going through their cabinets and taking anything that looked halfway edible or of any value. One of the guards kicked the syringe that Gaylin had dropped and picked it up. “What’s this?” He asked skeptically.
“My medication.” Kayla stepped in quickly. “It’s the last one I have and I probably won’t last more then a couple months.”
“What’s wrong with you?” Kayla hesitated a second too long and the man grabbed her and pressed her against the wall. “I asked you a question.”
“She’s got Quaple.” Gaylin announced from behind them. “The only reason she’s hesitating is because she doesn’t want you to think she’s blaming you.” The alien looked back at her with narrow eyes. She stared at him fearfully and dropped to the floor as her let her go.
The alien walked silently over to the bed and watched as two other aliens pulled books and boxes off of the small shelf against the wall.
The alien sat down roughly on the bed it was old and gave slightly under the sudden weight. He reached down next to the bed and lifted Leena out of the box and held the sleeping baby close to his chest. “Listen you two scumbags.” He said looking up at the two suddenly horrified parents. “It’s about time you people realized that we are in control of this planet and that everything you own is ours, including your lives.” He stood up and grabbed his sword still holding the baby to him. “The sooner you realize that you owe us your very lives the easier your life will be.” He clutched the sword in his hand and gently brushed the edge of it against the child’s cheek. Blood seeped from the wound and he looked back up and the parents terrified faces. “You’re lucky we let you live let alone have a house to live in, beds to sleep in and clothes on your backs.” He dropped the child on the bed and motioned for the others to follow him as they went to find another family to terrorize.
No sooner was the door closed then Kayla ran to the side of the bed and pulled her sleeping daughter to her tears streaming down her face. Thankful that she hadn’t woken up.
Her husband brought a cloth to her and she gently wiped the blood from her face. The cut was ugly and deep and it ran the entire length of her face from her right eye to her chin. Gaylin was kneeling beside her now and pulled her to him as she wept into his shoulder. “Gaylin we have to get off this planet.”
Back to the Present
“Do you have to go today Jeff?” Tannia Cuthbert had been begging her husband to stay home all day. But apparently going into the store today was important. “You could just let Miles run the store today. I know he’s young but he’s trustworthy and he’s been working in that store almost as long as you have.”
“I know baby but I got some business things to take care of. The marketer’s coming in today and I’m going to talk to him about getting our little store some real advertising.”
Tannia sighed and grabbed the empty basket and pail off the table. “Well while you’re doing that me and Mary will milk the cows and gather the eggs. The things that really keep our store running.”
She turned to leave but Jeff stopped her. “Don’t be mad Tannia. I told you that this was coming and I promised Mary I’d spend all day with you guys on Thursday whether the transaction’s finished or not.” Then he pulled her into a quick kiss before he headed for the door.
An hour later Tannia and her 10 year old daughter Mary were gathering eggs. It was a beautiful summer day in Dubuque, Iowa and Tannia was enjoying the time with her daughter. Jeff still hadn't returned from the store yet, and she and her daughter were trying to get the rest of the chores done before he came home. Tannia gathered the last of the eggs and straightened picking up the basket she shaded her eyes against the sun and looked out into the nearby woods. “Mom I’m hungry.” Her mother quieted her. Mary was silent as listened for what ever it was that her mother was listening for “I don’t hear anything mom.”
“You’re right not even a bird.” Just then there was a strange sound like a metallic humming. Tannia set down her basket of eggs and started off toward the sound. Mary set down her basket down as well and ran after her mother.
Reporter Chris Baker entered NASA. His company had gotten a call that morning from a man who worked here who said he had discovered something of interest being that none of the other reporters had been available to cover the story he had been given the job. He had been a reporter for five years now and had always wanted to do an interview with someone from NASA. Now he finally got the chance.
He was greeted by Howard Longly, the scientist who he was too interview. He was led to the control room were Chris was shown some screens and numbers that he didn’t understand.
“What is all this?”
“We have found a very important thing.” Longly replied. “We have spotted a ship coming towards earth, and it’s not one of ours.”
Chris stared at the man confused “Then whose is it?”
“It’s an alien ship.”
Kayla and Gaylin had crash landed in a clearing in the middle of a wood. Their ship was smoking and they didn’t have the time to fix it they pushed it behind a large tree out of sight. Gaylin looked at the sky the Martians were closing in fast. They had to get out of there.
Mary entered the clearing her mother not far behind her. “Mary I told you to stay near me.” One look at her daughters face and she stopped talking. For standing in front of her was a young man and a woman holding a baby. They were standing beside a smoking ship and looked afraid. Tannia was just about to call to them to see if they needed help when suddenly a spaceship came roaring out of the sky and landed in the clearing.
Kayla placed the sleeping Leena in a bush hoping the Martians wouldn’t find her she wiped her eyes and kissed her baby on the cheek and turned as the door of the spaceship opened up. Out stepped Jaden the captain of the Martian guard.
“We don’t deal well with runaways,” he growled. He drew out what looked like a remote control. He pointed it at Gaylin in an instant Gaylin vanished. Kayla screamed and ran to the place where her husband once stood suddenly a pain shot through her entire body and she vanished into thin air.
Jaden pocketed the Zapper, laughed and turned back to enter the ship.
Tannia couldn’t believe what she had just seen. Jaden returned to his ship and left. She stared in stunned silence at the empty clearing clutching tightly to her daughters hand. “Mommy what just happened?”
‘I’m not sure honey. I’m really not sure.” The sound of Leena finally waking up interrupted her thoughts as Tannia went over to the bush and picked her up. The baby had bright red skin, white hair and a scar across her right eye and she was wrapped in the strangest cloth she had ever seen it was really soft and thin but yet it looked warm.
“The poor child left all alone. I have to do something I can’t just leave her here to die.” She looked down at her daughter who was looking at something shining from the grass. She picked it up and handed it to her mother who looked closely at it. “How strange! She turned it around and looked carefully at it. “Leena? What a strange name. It will never do on Earth. What about… Linda…Linda Cuthbert. What do you say Mary?”
“I like it. Let’s go home and show Daddy my new little baby sister.”
Kayla felt herself falling, falling. She couldn’t tell where she was. The falling sensation ended and she was stuck blind by a piercing light. Was this what death felt like? Would she finally get to meet Kohath? Where was her husband? A million more questions darted through her head in the space of an instant. She saw her husband a little ways off talking to a man who was amazingly bright, tall and the strongest man she had ever seen. She walked over to them and the man smiled at her. “Welcome daughter! I am Kohath and I have chosen you and your husband for an amazing task.”
Chris climbed back into his blue sports car and placed his head on the steering wheel and let out a sigh. He never ever wanted to have another report on NASA again it just wasn’t his cup of tea.
He had promised his wife when they had moved here and he had taken the job that he would do everything in his power to protect not only her and their three year old son Matthew but also the people that lived on Imaginess. He had a duty to his people and he would do everything he could to make sure that the people of Earth never set a knife or other scientific instruments to a single Imaginese for as long as he was alive.
He had spent the last hour trying to convince the man that aliens weren’t real and there had to be some problem with the equipment; finally he had just left telling the man to get more information before calling them.
He pulled his car out of the parking lot and went back to the office he just had no idea what he’d tell his boss. That he had chickened out? No that wouldn’t work he had to find something better.
“Waaaaaaa, aaaaaaa” Leena had just awakened at the sounds of war.
“Shush now,” her mother soothed,” there’s no need for tears.” It was all she could muster as her own tears streamed down her face.
Imaginess had been at war for seven years and now Kayla had to smuggle her two-year-old baby to earth where she would be safe.
“Keep her quiet, Kayla,” said her husband Gaylin. He sounded harsh
But Kayla heard the fear in his voice. “Waaa,” Gaylin turned around and gave his daughter a small dose of something inside of a syringe, almost immediately she stopped crying and fell asleep on her Mothers shoulder.
“Gaylin” Kayla gasped in surprise and horror.
“We can’t afford to get caught.” He pocketed the syringe and continued on toward the hanger where all the Martians kept the ships they had stolen from the people of Imaginess. They soon arrived at the hanger Gaylin peered through the slightly opened door there wasn’t a Martian in sight. What luck! “Alright let’s go but quietly.” They slipped inside the door, the hanger was filled with ships of all sizes from big motherships to tiny little two-seat-spacepods they snuck over to the smallest of the spacepods on the side was the symbol of a Wiper flower this was their family symbol and this was their spacepod
“Hey what do you think you’re doing?” A Martian warrior came around the corner. “Stop don’t you dare get in that ship.” Gaylin jumped into the ship followed close behind by his wife. He pulled out his spare key that the Martians hadn’t known he had and started the engine.
The Martian had climbed into his own warship. He began to go after Gaylin who had now lifted off the ground and was leaving the hanger. “I need backup we have another escapee headed to earth. And someone grab the Zapper we’re going to need heavy power. Remember the last time someone went to earth.”
“Copy that sending in reinforcements”.
1 year earlier
Gaylin Elopee slipped through the empty streets painlessly his pack that he carried to work everyday slung over his back. He walked as fast as he could in the cold winter air which happened to not be very fast. He passed a group of Martian aliens talking on the corner never for a minute taking their eyes off of him. He kept his eyes on the ground as he passed by them hoping more than anything that for just one day they wouldn’t stop him. But it was too much to hope for he had barely walked five steps past them when he heard a voice shout out from behind him.
“Hey you!” Gaylin froze where he was and turned ever so slowly as the Martian came up behind him. It had been nearly six years since the Martians had taken over Imaginess and Gaylin didn’t think he would ever get used to the strange alien creatures walking around his town.
The Martian caught up with him and stopped beside him “What’s in the pack?” He asked in a demanding voice.
“This is my work pack I keep the stuff that I need for work in it.”
“Anything else?”
“Just food for my family.”
“Open it up.”
Gaylin reluctantly took the pack off his shoulder and opened it up to show the alien. The alien pushed aside his uniform and fruits and vegetables as well as a loaf of bread made with polka leaves. The Martian wrinkled his nose at the foreign foods. “Don’t you people have any decent food around here to eat?”
“I’m sorry sir,” Gaylin apologized as sincerely as he could manage. “It’s not our fault if you don’t like our food.” The Martian dropped the bag then and grabbed Gaylin hard by the collar. “Let’s get one thing straight you piece of garbage: Everything is your fault.” Gaylin nodded terrified and tried to swallow but the aliens hold on his neck was so tight he could barely breathe. The Martian let him go his friends were standing back on the sidewalk chuckling quietly delighting in the victim’s misery.
The alien stared him hard in the face. “Maybe tomorrow you’ll bring me something a little more interesting.” Gaylin nodded again praying that it won’t be too much longer before he let him go. Finally the Martian let him go and kicked his bag toward Gaylin, sending fruits and vegetables in every direction as he walked back toward his friends.
Gaylin hurriedly gathered up the scattered food cramming it back into the bag not even bothering to check whether it was clean or bruised. He silently thanked Kohath that the alien hadn’t gone past the bread to where he had buried a small cake that he had gotten from his mother-in-law in exchange for gathering some firewood for her. He had been looking forward to that cake all day. He had got it as a surprise for his wife and daughter, who was turning a year that day. Gaylin hurried the rest of the way home without getting stopped again and slipped into the small one-room-house that he shared with his wife and daughter.
As he entered the room he was met by the same smell he had met everyday for the past 3 years: Vegetable soup. His daughter, Leena, hobbled over to greet him as he removed his coat and shoes and placed his bag down by the door. Then he scooped and spun her around. “Hello Beautiful! I brought something special home for you today.” Just then his wife, Kayla, came around the corner from where she had been cooking and came to greet him. “You spoil the child Lin,”
“It’s her birthday Kay, I had to do something.”
“Well what did you get her?”
“Well two things actually. One I made and one I earned.” He placed Leena down then and grabbed his pack he pulled the cake out and smiled proudly like he’d just pulled out a block of pure gold.
“Gaylin where on earth did you get that?”
“Your mother made it for me in exchange for cutting her enough firewood for the winter.”
“What else did you get?” Gaylin put down his bag then and picked up his right shoe, turned it upside down and caught the necklace that fell out.
“I hid it in my shoe so they wouldn’t confiscate it.”
“It’s beautiful darling.” She said as she placed the necklace around her daughter’s neck and kissed her on the forehead. The baby giggled and put it in her mouth like a teething toy. Gaylin smiled as his wife went back to finish the soup.
They had just barley finished dinner and were preparing to start on the cake when there was a knock on the door. Startled Kayla jumped for the door as Gaylin snatched a syringe off the counter and thrust it into Leena’s arm then took her half asleep and thrust her in the small box that had served as her bed for the last year. He shot a quick prayer to Kohath that his daughter would be protected and went to the door with his wife.
By this time the five soldiers had made their way inside and three of them were going through their cabinets and taking anything that looked halfway edible or of any value. One of the guards kicked the syringe that Gaylin had dropped and picked it up. “What’s this?” He asked skeptically.
“My medication.” Kayla stepped in quickly. “It’s the last one I have and I probably won’t last more then a couple months.”
“What’s wrong with you?” Kayla hesitated a second too long and the man grabbed her and pressed her against the wall. “I asked you a question.”
“She’s got Quaple.” Gaylin announced from behind them. “The only reason she’s hesitating is because she doesn’t want you to think she’s blaming you.” The alien looked back at her with narrow eyes. She stared at him fearfully and dropped to the floor as her let her go.
The alien walked silently over to the bed and watched as two other aliens pulled books and boxes off of the small shelf against the wall.
The alien sat down roughly on the bed it was old and gave slightly under the sudden weight. He reached down next to the bed and lifted Leena out of the box and held the sleeping baby close to his chest. “Listen you two scumbags.” He said looking up at the two suddenly horrified parents. “It’s about time you people realized that we are in control of this planet and that everything you own is ours, including your lives.” He stood up and grabbed his sword still holding the baby to him. “The sooner you realize that you owe us your very lives the easier your life will be.” He clutched the sword in his hand and gently brushed the edge of it against the child’s cheek. Blood seeped from the wound and he looked back up and the parents terrified faces. “You’re lucky we let you live let alone have a house to live in, beds to sleep in and clothes on your backs.” He dropped the child on the bed and motioned for the others to follow him as they went to find another family to terrorize.
No sooner was the door closed then Kayla ran to the side of the bed and pulled her sleeping daughter to her tears streaming down her face. Thankful that she hadn’t woken up.
Her husband brought a cloth to her and she gently wiped the blood from her face. The cut was ugly and deep and it ran the entire length of her face from her right eye to her chin. Gaylin was kneeling beside her now and pulled her to him as she wept into his shoulder. “Gaylin we have to get off this planet.”
Back to the Present
“Do you have to go today Jeff?” Tannia Cuthbert had been begging her husband to stay home all day. But apparently going into the store today was important. “You could just let Miles run the store today. I know he’s young but he’s trustworthy and he’s been working in that store almost as long as you have.”
“I know baby but I got some business things to take care of. The marketer’s coming in today and I’m going to talk to him about getting our little store some real advertising.”
Tannia sighed and grabbed the empty basket and pail off the table. “Well while you’re doing that me and Mary will milk the cows and gather the eggs. The things that really keep our store running.”
She turned to leave but Jeff stopped her. “Don’t be mad Tannia. I told you that this was coming and I promised Mary I’d spend all day with you guys on Thursday whether the transaction’s finished or not.” Then he pulled her into a quick kiss before he headed for the door.
An hour later Tannia and her 10 year old daughter Mary were gathering eggs. It was a beautiful summer day in Dubuque, Iowa and Tannia was enjoying the time with her daughter. Jeff still hadn't returned from the store yet, and she and her daughter were trying to get the rest of the chores done before he came home. Tannia gathered the last of the eggs and straightened picking up the basket she shaded her eyes against the sun and looked out into the nearby woods. “Mom I’m hungry.” Her mother quieted her. Mary was silent as listened for what ever it was that her mother was listening for “I don’t hear anything mom.”
“You’re right not even a bird.” Just then there was a strange sound like a metallic humming. Tannia set down her basket of eggs and started off toward the sound. Mary set down her basket down as well and ran after her mother.
Reporter Chris Baker entered NASA. His company had gotten a call that morning from a man who worked here who said he had discovered something of interest being that none of the other reporters had been available to cover the story he had been given the job. He had been a reporter for five years now and had always wanted to do an interview with someone from NASA. Now he finally got the chance.
He was greeted by Howard Longly, the scientist who he was too interview. He was led to the control room were Chris was shown some screens and numbers that he didn’t understand.
“What is all this?”
“We have found a very important thing.” Longly replied. “We have spotted a ship coming towards earth, and it’s not one of ours.”
Chris stared at the man confused “Then whose is it?”
“It’s an alien ship.”
Kayla and Gaylin had crash landed in a clearing in the middle of a wood. Their ship was smoking and they didn’t have the time to fix it they pushed it behind a large tree out of sight. Gaylin looked at the sky the Martians were closing in fast. They had to get out of there.
Mary entered the clearing her mother not far behind her. “Mary I told you to stay near me.” One look at her daughters face and she stopped talking. For standing in front of her was a young man and a woman holding a baby. They were standing beside a smoking ship and looked afraid. Tannia was just about to call to them to see if they needed help when suddenly a spaceship came roaring out of the sky and landed in the clearing.
Kayla placed the sleeping Leena in a bush hoping the Martians wouldn’t find her she wiped her eyes and kissed her baby on the cheek and turned as the door of the spaceship opened up. Out stepped Jaden the captain of the Martian guard.
“We don’t deal well with runaways,” he growled. He drew out what looked like a remote control. He pointed it at Gaylin in an instant Gaylin vanished. Kayla screamed and ran to the place where her husband once stood suddenly a pain shot through her entire body and she vanished into thin air.
Jaden pocketed the Zapper, laughed and turned back to enter the ship.
Tannia couldn’t believe what she had just seen. Jaden returned to his ship and left. She stared in stunned silence at the empty clearing clutching tightly to her daughters hand. “Mommy what just happened?”
‘I’m not sure honey. I’m really not sure.” The sound of Leena finally waking up interrupted her thoughts as Tannia went over to the bush and picked her up. The baby had bright red skin, white hair and a scar across her right eye and she was wrapped in the strangest cloth she had ever seen it was really soft and thin but yet it looked warm.
“The poor child left all alone. I have to do something I can’t just leave her here to die.” She looked down at her daughter who was looking at something shining from the grass. She picked it up and handed it to her mother who looked closely at it. “How strange! She turned it around and looked carefully at it. “Leena? What a strange name. It will never do on Earth. What about… Linda…Linda Cuthbert. What do you say Mary?”
“I like it. Let’s go home and show Daddy my new little baby sister.”
Kayla felt herself falling, falling. She couldn’t tell where she was. The falling sensation ended and she was stuck blind by a piercing light. Was this what death felt like? Would she finally get to meet Kohath? Where was her husband? A million more questions darted through her head in the space of an instant. She saw her husband a little ways off talking to a man who was amazingly bright, tall and the strongest man she had ever seen. She walked over to them and the man smiled at her. “Welcome daughter! I am Kohath and I have chosen you and your husband for an amazing task.”
Chris climbed back into his blue sports car and placed his head on the steering wheel and let out a sigh. He never ever wanted to have another report on NASA again it just wasn’t his cup of tea.
He had promised his wife when they had moved here and he had taken the job that he would do everything in his power to protect not only her and their three year old son Matthew but also the people that lived on Imaginess. He had a duty to his people and he would do everything he could to make sure that the people of Earth never set a knife or other scientific instruments to a single Imaginese for as long as he was alive.
He had spent the last hour trying to convince the man that aliens weren’t real and there had to be some problem with the equipment; finally he had just left telling the man to get more information before calling them.
He pulled his car out of the parking lot and went back to the office he just had no idea what he’d tell his boss. That he had chickened out? No that wouldn’t work he had to find something better.
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