A Different Kind (23 page)

CHAPTER

27

N
ews reports of the “meteor crash” in Moody’s woods were playing on the TV Saturday morning. From the clips they showed it looked like the woods were swarmed with men in hazmat suits. I watched while I ate a bowl of cereal at the breakfast counter. For whatever reason my Cinnamon Toast Crunch just wasn’t doing it for me, the swirly squares turning soggy in my bowl. Maybe it was because no one had heard from Dr. Strieber since he’d been hauled away. According to Nikki, Frank had been trying to get ahold of him all night.

I didn’t know what to think. I didn’t know if I should be glad I avoided brain surgery. If I should hold on to the idea that maybe the Greys weren’t looking for me anymore since one of their ships had crashed, or totally freaked out that the opposite was true. On top of the questions that raced through my mind involving the aliens, I wondered what John Doggett might want with me. Who he was, and what did he inject me with? All of it had me feeling kind of numb.

Eventually I snapped myself out of my downward spiral and got ready for the day. I didn’t know what, if anything, I’d be doing that day, but I needed to get my mind on something other than aliens. By noon, I was sitting on the couch attempting to be interested in the latest celebrity gossip via
People
magazine and finding myself completely disinterested. There was definitely something wrong with me.

The doorbell rang and I went to answer it, welcoming the distraction. Swinging it open, I saw Logan standing on the front step, his hands shoved deep into his pockets.

“Hey,” I said.

“Hey, I was going to call, but…I don’t know, this seemed easier.”

My brow creased. “What seemed easier?”

“Picking you up and taking you out to lunch.”

I smiled.

L
ogan and I took our seats at the back of the Old West themed diner. JR’s wasn’t as popular as The Madhouse Grill, where all the high school kids went, but they had a good burger. I smiled at Logan as I picked up the menu.

“So, your mom knows you’re hanging out with me?” I asked, peeking over the edge of my menu.

Logan laughed. “I convinced her it was silly to worry about your being abducted again in broad daylight. Especially now, after one of their ships crashed. So…I’m just not allowed to see you at night.”

I laughed, but that little reminder of my possible fate stirred the uneasiness in the pit of my stomach.

“Well, eventually they’ll take me again and she won’t have to worry.” It was meant to be a joke, but it came out exactly like it felt: scared.

Logan set his menu down. He reached out and laid his hand over my mine.

“They’re not coming for you.”

I sighed. “Logan, as much as I would love to believe that. As much as I want to hope that the ship that crashed was the one looking for me. That this is all over.  The truth is, our last hope of this being over for good was hauled off by three possible government agents, and I don’t think we’ll be seeing him again soon.” I took a breath; oddly saying that aloud was comforting. “It’s okay, I just have to accept that. And hey, maybe one day I’ll be able to escape like your mom did.”

Logan frowned. I knew he wanted to fight for me, but I could see in his eyes that he knew we didn’t really have any other options.

“You’re right,” he said. “Maybe we don’t have a lot of choices left, but we have some. Most people, when they’re taken, don’t know they have telekinesis, if they even do. If you don’t know you can do something then you can’t do it, you know? But you do, and you’ve already got it pretty much figured out. I can show you how to be better at it. Then
if
they come for you, you can fight back. And I’m still not giving up hope that maybe they’ve given up on looking for you all together.”

I smiled. “Thank you.”

It felt good knowing that he wasn’t giving up on me, especially because I was starting to feel like giving up on myself.

O
ver the next week our time together was spent a little differently than in the past. Logan started to train me to use my telekinesis instead of just shutting it off. It was tough at first. I’d spent so much time focusing on how to calm down and keep things from floating that it felt odd to try to make things move.

We started small. Logan asked me to concentrate on a few paperclips. At first they did nothing. It’d taken my fear and anxiety in the past to make things move. I needed to learn how to channel that, and a big part of that was, as Logan described it,
feeling
things float. It was hard for him to describe what that meant.

“The best way I know to explain it is to say that you have to
believe
this is something you can do,” he’d said.

Even though I knew I had this ability, it was still hard to believe. I needed to overcome that doubt before I could control it. In the past it wasn’t until something had happened by accident, it wasn’t until I saw myself doing it, that I really believed it. That was why once I noticed I was doing it, it got worse.

“Try this,” Logan said. “Look at the paperclips and hold out your hand. Pretend there’s a clear thin thread attached to each of your fingers, and that those threads are attached to the paperclips.”

I looked at him skeptically.

“Just try it.”

I closed my eyes, imagining the invisible thread as if my fingers and the paperclips were some lame marionette. As I moved my fingers I felt this pull. It was light, but noticeable. Then I realized the paperclips were moving too.

I was starting to understand what it meant to
feel it
. Soon the paperclips were doing more than just following my fingers. Soon they were hovering in the air before me. When I got over the excitement of seeing the paperclips fly by, we moved on to other things. Spoons were next, then came the metal dog figurine Logan’s mom kept on the mantle. I spent three days trying to get Fido to float without plummeting to the ground (one time denting the wood floor). The larger the object, the harder it was for me to move it on purpose. My lips puckered when the metal dog dropped back onto Logan’s bed.

I sighed. “I don’t get it; I’ve moved
way
bigger stuff than this before. I mean, I made my whole bed float. Why is this so hard?”

“You’re thinking about it too much. You have to let go.”

I huffed and rolled my eyes. “How can I make it float and not think about it floating?”

Logan sat up straighter. I mirrored him. We were sitting cross-legged on his bed, and I was starting to think that there were other things I’d rather be doing with him alone in his room.

“It’s almost like you’re not making it happen, you’re just expecting it to happen. When you made the paperclips move, you expected them to move with your fingers. It has to come from inside you. Think about when you made Hailey’s earrings float or when you lifted your bed. You weren’t thinking about doing anything, were you?”

“No, if anything I was thinking about making it stop.”

“See, that’s what I’m saying. You have to just believe that that’s what’s going to happen. Go ahead, try again.”

I rolled my eyes; Logan didn’t make sense sometimes. I let out a frustrated huff as I stared at the metal figurine. The tiny dog looked at me with pouty eyes. I focused on him. I believed I could make him float. Then I tried to feel him floating. He lifted off the bed. I smiled. In my excitement I thought about making him float higher. That was when he fell back into the covers. I grunted, threw my head back, and fell backwards onto Logan’s bed.

“Ugh, I’m never going to get this.”

Logan laughed and moved to lie beside me. “Yes, you will. You’re doing fine.”

“Psh, yeah, just fine. If I get abducted tomorrow I’ll be fine. I’ll just float paperclips at the aliens and they’ll go away.”

Logan laughed, turning my face toward his. “It’ll be okay, I promise.” Then he kissed me.

The next night went much the same. I worked on focusing my abilities. When I became too frustrated to continue, our teaching session turned into a make-out session. I’d thought after our steamy shower experience that Logan might try to push things a little further with our relationship, but he’d gone back to playing it safe. I wasn’t sure if I was happy about that or not. It was nice knowing he respected me, but I felt ready for a little more.

After Logan pulled the brakes on our kissing, he put his shirt back on (mine had never made it higher than my bra), and we climbed onto the roof to watch the stars. It was getting colder so we pulled a couple blankets off Logan’s bed and wrapped ourselves up like human burritos.

“I like it out here,” I said as I stared up at the sky.

“Me too.” Logan smiled.

Staring at the distant shimmering spots, I realize how vast the universe was. I used to think of the night sky like a blanket of twinkling dots, but that’s not what it is at all. It’s deep and distant, and I was nothing but a speck in the scheme of things.

“Do they ever make you feel small?”

“Sometimes,” Logan said. “But I like to think of it more like…like I’m a part of something bigger.”

I nodded. I liked that better than feeling insignificant, and maybe he was right. Maybe there was something bigger, some cosmic plan. At least then my experiences with the Greys might mean something.

“Think there are other things out there, other than the Greys?” I asked.

Logan thought for a moment. “Maybe. I mean, that would make sense. There’s a lot of space out there for life to only exist on two planets.”

I snuggled into Logan’s side. “I hope if there is anything else out there, that they’re nothing like the Greys.”

Logan nodded and pulled me close.

“Logan?”

“Hmm?”

“Thank you for helping me try to keep them from coming back for me.” My eyes teared up. I’d mostly come to terms with the idea that eventually I would be taken again, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t still scared. “Thanks for teaching me….”

Logan shushed me and turned onto his side so he was facing me. “No one’s coming back for you.”

I lifted an eyebrow and pursed my lips. I knew he wanted to hold on to the possibility that the ship that had taken me had been the one that crashed in the woods. I couldn’t ignore the fact that maybe it wasn’t.

“I just want you to know how much I appreciate everything.”

He wiped a tear from my cheek and kissed me. “You’re welcome, but you’re not going anywhere.”

“Logan–”

“I know you’re not convinced. I know you don’t want to hold on to that hope just to have it broken. I know you’re scared, but you’re here now. You’re still here. Just be here with me, okay?”

I nodded. Logan tugged me tight to him again, and we stared into the night sky. After a moment I let my fears fade away, at least for the time being. I felt his chest rise and fall, felt the warmth from his body, and his lips against my forehead. I let myself just be happy.

A shooting star sent sparkling light across the sky. I almost wished upon it that I’d never been taken by the Greys, but I didn’t. It was my abduction that first brought Logan and I together. That experience had changed who I was, and I liked myself better now. Instead, just before the star’s glimmering tail faded into the night, I wished that nothing would ever tear Logan and me apart.

A short while later I’d nearly fallen asleep on Logan’s shoulder when I heard a loud cat-call whistle ring through the air. Opening my eyes, I saw Jo standing outside her house. Nikki waved from her car before driving down the street. Logan let out a low chuckle, and Jo whistled again. I untangled an arm from the tight cocoon we’d created with the blankets and waved. Jo waved back, then went inside.