Halifax (12 page)

“I’ve always found it’s best just to come clean,” Farrell said after a long moment. He didn’t really feel that way but didn’t see any reason to keep anything from this girl. “So here goes. Your cheerleader friend, Shana Rowen, was an alien.”

“I kind of figured that one out,” Nora said.

“She was infected by a Cambian,” Farrell continued as he began to look around Nora’s small room. “They’re sort of like a virus. You get infected by them and become whatever it is they’ve infected.” Farrell noticed a picture of Nora with Andre taped to the mirror above her dresser. What he really wanted to do was ask her why she would date such a jerk but he had more important things to get out of the way. “Most people can’t handle it. That aliens exist and are hanging around Earth.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because I’m one of them,” said Farrell. He looked at Nora’s reflection in the mirror and turned to face her. “Didn’t you wonder why there were suddenly so many other cheerleaders?”

“I thought it was all part of our Cheerleader Outreach Program,” Nora said. “I thought we were just expanding the squad.”

“Oh, it would have expanded right across the globe,” Farrell said. “Earth was on its way to becoming a permanent half time show. Sorry. I’m sure this is all probably freaking you out.”

“I’m a high school student in Los Angeles,” Nora said, standing tall, trying again to look tough. “I’ve seen my share of freaky things.”

Farrell turned back to the dresser. A silver necklace with a turquoise butterfly pendant caught his eye.

“Why didn’t I get infected?” Nora asked.

“I guess because you were already a cheerleader,” Farrell said as he picked up the necklace and let the silver chain slide through his fingers. He examined the small butterfly. “The Cambian didn’t think you needed to change.”

“How could this stuff be going on and people don’t know about it?” Nora asked. She was going to get her answers while she had the chance.

“It’s all around,” Farrell said. “All the time. People just don’t see the clues. It’s like getting pieces to a puzzle you don’t even know you’re putting together.”

Nora stepped towards Farrell and grabbed the butterfly necklace out of his hands. “I’m good at puzzles.”

Farrell suddenly turned serious, businesslike. “I can delete your memory of all of this,” he said. “Of everything. It’s being done to all the other girls.”

Nora wasn’t backing down. Not now. “If you know what’s good for you, you won’t even try.”

Farrell smiled as he looked at her. He liked her spirit—or at least he just liked her. “I know what’s good for me.”

“I want to know more,” Nora told him.

Nora sat on the stairs in front of Lexham Academy. It was the weekend and she was wearing jeans and a tee shirt and looked much more casual than she usually looked when classes were in session. She wasn’t trying to fit in because there were no other people around to fit in with.

Her quiet moment, though, was soon rattled by the sound of an approaching motorcycle. Its engine was loud and its muffler rattled obnoxiously as if the owner didn’t care if he was disturbing anyone’s peace. And he didn’t. It was Bobby Ramirez. He parked the older model bike a few feet from Nora. He wasn’t wearing a helmet and his brown hair was swept back and frozen in place from the wind. He was, however, wearing very cool, if very cheap, knock-off Rayban sunglasses. He took them off and looked at Nora as he walked past her to the other side of the steps where he leaned up against the wall and waited. Waited as she waited. Each stole glances at the other, neither understanding why the other was there, and each hoping the other would just go away.

Nora was growing more and more uncomfortable. Bobby Ramirez was a year younger than her but his reputation as a delinquent and someone not to mess with reached to the grades above him. The last thing Nora wanted was to be alone with him at their deserted school. Even her best Judo moves wouldn’t be enough to fend off the younger, but bigger and stronger, Ramirez. She was about to get up and try to casually walk away when a car turned into the parking lot and headed towards them. It was the Citroen containing the Halifax siblings.

The Citroen pulled up to curb in front of Nora and Bobby. Farrell was at the wheel and Rom was in the back seat. Izzy climbed out of the front passenger seat and left the door open. “Get in,” she said as she climbed into the back with Rom.

Nora and Bobby both stood up at the same time and then looked at one another. Then they both began walking towards the same car. Together. Nora looked in the car, looking for reassurance. Farrell smiled. He wasn’t worried about Bobby. Bobby looked at Izzy and she rolled her eyes. Nora pushed past Bobby and quickly climbed into the front seat. Bobby slid into the back, sandwiching Rom between himself and Izzy. Before he could even get a seat belt on, Farrell took off out of the parking lot.

Nora looked out the window, tense, as they drove down the streets of the Valley. She wasn’t the only tense one. Bobby kept watching her with anger in his eyes and Izzy looked ready to explode at any moment. Her mouth was frozen in a pout and she shot daggers at Farrell when he looked at her in the rearview mirror.

Bobby couldn’t take it anymore. “Excuse me, but what is the Prom Queen doing here?”

Prom Queen? Nora wasn’t nervous anymore. She was in a fighting mood. “I actually haven’t been voted Prom Queen—yet. And I was going to ask the same thing about
you
.”

“And I was going to ask Farrell the same thing about
both
of you,” Izzy chimed in as she squirmed for a few more inches of space. “We’re trying to find a criminal virus that wants to change the world. We don’t have time to play Alien Hunters with some newbies.”

Rom bounced up and down in his seat. He couldn’t have been happier. “I like it,” he said. “We can always use help. And it’s like we’re adding to our little family. It’s like getting a new brother and sister.”

Izzy angrily shoved Rom towards Bobby and Bobby angrily shoved him back her way. Rom was no longer happy. “I get the front seat on the way back,” he declared.

“No you don’t,” Nora announced. She may not have really known any of these kids but no snot-nosed freshman was taking the front seat from a junior. That was a rule observed across the universe.

“See?” Rom said, perking up. “That’s exactly what a sister would say!”

“One deluxe dark double hot chocolate with caramel sauce and whipped cream,” the barista announced.

“That’s me!” Rom said as he grabbed his steaming, sugar soaked drink off the counter.

All of the kids were at Something’s Brewing, a small coffee shop popular with the local high school students and generally populated by people who ordered one drink and stayed for four hours to use the free Internet service. Any coffee shop was a favorite of the Halifax siblings. Caffeine was a stimulant lauded universe-wide and no being, human or otherwise, was immune to its addictive qualities.

Rom pushed past the others and retreated to a small section that sold mugs with the shop’s logo, tins of mints, candies, and a selection of Halloween paraphernalia, such as the Court Jester’s hat Rom was soon trying on.

“Rom, what are you wearing?” Farrell asked as he and the others waited for their drinks.

“It’s Halloween tomorrow,” Rom announced. “Just checking out the costume possibilities.” He took off the Jester’s hat and replaced it with a tall and pointy crimson sorcerer’s hat. Farrell ignored his little brother and turned to the others.

“I think you’ll understand it if I put it this way,” he said. He had been trying to explain to Nora and Bobby things about their planet and the universe that were almost inexplicable. He had the demeanor of a college professor trying to teach trigonometry to preschoolers and Nora and Bobby looked about as bewildered as two five year olds would. “Earth is like Australia. You know how Australia started as a penal colony where England sent all the prisoners it didn’t want anymore? That’s what Earth is.”

“We’re a prison?” Bobby asked. He was a little insulted. “I thought aliens were coming here to shoot lasers at the White House and impregnate our women with their evil alien spawn.”

“Actually, “ Izzy interrupted, “all prisoners are sterilized before they arrive. No little alien Bobby Juniors for you!”

The barista who was frothing cream and dispensing coffee behind the counter put up two more drinks. “Iced soy latte and double cappuccino,” the young man said. He was juggling a dozen orders like the coffee making pro that he was. Farrell and Nora took the drinks and walked outside, leaving Bobby and Izzy waiting.

“Why can’t we see them?” Bobby asked. “I mean, why don’t they look like aliens? Where are the antennas and the big scary eyes and stuff?”

“All prisoners are given screens,” Izzy told him. “A screen is like a disguise. It’s an organic field that covers you with another image. It’s so effective you wouldn’t know an alien even if you were on your second date with one.”

The barista put the last two drinks on the counter. “One large double espresso and one cinnamon latte.”

“Screen or no screen, I’d totally be able to tell,” Bobby said as he took his drink and handed Izzy hers. “I’m Bobby Ramirez. I’d know an alien if I saw one.”

“Oh, really?” Izzy asked. Izzy turned to the barista as he squirted whipped cream on another drink. “Hey Lars, I think your screen’s malfunctioning. Um, your tail’s showing.”

Lars, the barista, looked back over his shoulder and his face flushed red with embarrassment. Indeed, a two-foot long tail, much like that of a rat, stuck out from under his white apron.

“Oh wow, how mortifying,” the barista said, tucking the tail in as Bobby looked on in amazement. “Thanks, Izzy. Won’t happen again.”

Izzy smiled at Bobby and walked outside to join the others. Bobby and Lars looked at one another, neither knowing what to say. Both uncomfortable. “Thanks, man,” Bobby finally mumbled, then caught himself. “Man? Er, dude. Whatever. Have a good one.”

“You start with the eyes,” Rom said. “You can see the infinitesimal yellowing of the sclera from ultraviolet rays and long term exposure.” He was sitting with the others on a wall outside the coffee shop and was wearing the sorcerer’s hat he had been trying on earlier. It was drooping at the top, though, and looked more like the hat of a sloppy elf than a fearsome wizard.

Rom’s intense gaze was fixed on a middle-aged man sitting with a friend about ten feet away from them. The man was eating ice cream and enjoying the pleasant fall day in the sunshine of the quaint Cahuenga Village, having absolutely no idea that every bit and piece of him was being visually dissected by a teenage visitor from outer space.

“Over time,” Rom continued, “the nose lengthens and narrows and the tip begins to droop.” Nora grimaced as she looked at the man’s nose. No ones nose, no matter how perfect, should be examined closely.

In between spoonfuls of his chocolate chunk ice cream the man offered up a warm smile to his companion. To Rom, though, he was offering up the opportunity for scientific examination. “The enamel on the teeth erodes and the gums begin to recede,” Rom said. “The health of the gums are also an early indicator of heart disease.”

Rom then turned his attention to the man’s dark brown hair. It was speckled with a few strands of grey. He may not have even noticed his grey hairs, but Rom did. “Hair doesn’t actually turn grey,” Rom informed the other kids. “It becomes translucent, a failure of the melanocyte stem cells to maintain melanocytes.”

He wasn’t finished yet. If the man knew what Rom knew he may have thought twice about sitting outside, uncovered, his pale skin baking ever so slowly in the sun. “The normal aging process is only one factor,” Rom said. “It’s the mole on his arm that’s the killer. Literally.”

The other kids leaned forward to try to get a good angle to see the small mole on the man’s forearm just below the bend in his elbow. It was just a splotch and was barely noticeable. It looked harmless. Moles always do. “It’s a malignant melanoma,” Rom declared. “And because of it he’ll die in two years, seven months, five days, and roughly three hours.”

Nora looked incredulous. This was a real person they were talking about and they were talking about his impending death so casually it alarmed her. “What if he’s hit by a car tomorrow?” she asked.

“It’s science and biology,” Rom told her. “I’m not a fortune teller. If he gets hit by a car tomorrow he dies tomorrow.”

“I don’t believe it,” Bobby announced as the man and his companion got up and walked down the sidewalk. The man was walking, it seemed, towards an untimely death. “I don’t think you can really tell when someone’s going to die just by looking at them.”

Izzy shook her head. She’d seen this so many times before. She didn’t like when Rom did it but she couldn’t deny his ability to do it. “He’s always right,” she said. “He’s one sixteenth Parcivian. Parcivites are obnoxiously smart.”

“Do you want me to tell you when you’re going to die?” Rom asked Bobby.

“No!” Bobby exclaimed. He scooted away from Rom and suddenly had no interest in making eye contact with the young alien, even as Rom stared at him, studying him.

Nora turned to Izzy. “So are you like your brother, Izzy? Are you some super genius, too?”

“He is
not
my brother,” Izzy said emphatically.

Bobby looked between the three Halifax kids. “You guys aren’t related?”

“No!” Izzy declared quickly.

“Well, we sort of are,” Rom chimed in. “We’re like an adopted family.”

“No, we’re not,” said Izzy.

“Yes, we are,” Rom argued.

“Not,” Izzy said again. “So not.”

“You’re a different kind of alien,” Bobby said as he rested his chin on his hand and stared at Izzy like a talk show host interrogating his subject. “That’s cool. So what are
your
superpowers? Can you fly? Twist around like a pretzel? Any x-ray vision? Can you see through my clothes?”

Farrell laughed at the last comment but kept quietly sipping his coffee, listening and observing the others, waiting in anticipation of Izzy’s response. He knew her feelings could be so easily hurt. Izzy, however, didn’t appear to take any offense.