ODDILY (7 page)

She resembled a funny little clown with her forest of ponytails all over her head, and the dress didn’t help much better. All she needed was a baby’s pacifier in her mouth, and she would be ready for Halloween. She glanced under the ruffled bed skirt, and as expected, Oliver awaited, beckoning her to come to him. Now, she understood what Oliver meant by accumulating points. That was how the player advanced in the game.

* * * * * *

Maxim followed Oddily home with no problem. He sneaked around to the side of the large house and started peering through windows until he found the right room. She was lying on the bed with the glasses covering her eyes.

“
I knew it,” Maxim whispered through clinched teeth. He wanted to shout out his frustration when he eyed her using the game, but bit his lip. He needed to stay focused in order to get them back; however, he found himself intrigued. He couldn’t help but wonder why this girl would risk wearing them again; assuming, ‘The Land of the Giants’ had already scared the crap out of her.

Maxim made his way to the front door and found the house key under the welcome mat. After he had entered the premises, he needed to be careful of other unnamed occupants. He remained as silent as a cat burglar, sneaking through the foyer, past the living room and down a long hallway—stopping at the first two rooms. He heard nothing, so he proceeded to the third room to listen for signs of life. With one quick stride, he was on the other side of the half opened door. A colorful girl’s bedroom came into view—nothing like the drab room where he had spotted Oddily.

With Maxim satisfied that no one was home, he circled back through the kitchen to the maid's quarters and stood in front of the white paneled door leading to Oddily.  As quiet as possible, he turned the knob and cracked the door open just enough to see inside.  There she was. Oddily’s motionless body was lying on the bed with his device still in place rendering her oblivious to his presence.

Maxim stepped inside and wondered why Oddily’s room appeared so dreary compared to the elaborateness of the rest of the house. The furnishings consisted of an antique wooden dresser, mismatched nightstands, a gaudy old-fashioned lamp, a long mirror on the back of the closet door, and a few unattractive dresses hanging neatly on hangers. Maxim didn’t want to stay any longer than he needed. For some reason, this glimpse into Oddily’s private world both puzzled and annoyed him in a way he couldn’t even begin to understand.

11

Oddily’s eyes fluttered open and soon realized the glasses that had covered her eyes were missing. Like a silly fool, she still reached for them, but nothing was there. After discovering she had returned to her own bedroom, she sat up searching her bed and under her body. Her teacher was the one who removed her glasses in history class. So who took them off this time?

“
Maybe they fell off!” she mumbled while scrambling to the floor for a peek under the bed. When nothing was found, she sat quietly for a moment to try and think logically. If she had returned to her own world, the glasses would be laying somewhere close by, but they weren’t. Did that mean she was still in the game? She considered this possibility until her eyes grew wide with wonder. What other explanations were there and yet, what happened to the land of the giants? What was the point in playing a game that was a replica of the real world?

“
Oh my gosh—if this means what I think it does,” Oddily jumped to her feet and squealed, “I’m free to do anything I want. And I can’t get hurt!”

Oddily couldn’t wait to get started and grabbed her backpack, but changed her mind and threw it back onto the bed. Normally, she never left without it for fear that someone would get hold of her journal; but this was a game, and there was no threat of that ever happening.

Oddily happily ran from her room and headed straight for the doorway of Starla’s bedroom. It was like looking in on a strange and beautiful land that mistakenly belonged to a mean girl instead of herself. She marveled, for the umpteenth time, at its beauty with its white wicker furniture and ruffled bedspread.

Starla hated her bedroom because she thought it looked too childish, and demanded her own interior designer for a makeover; but when her mother didn’t respond, her plan of revenge was to keep her room looking like a pig sty. Her mom complained about her messy ways, but always had the maid come in and clean up after her.

Oddily marched into the bedroom that normally was off limits to her, and flopped onto Starla’s bed, dreamily savoring the rare moment. She would have loved to stay and play dress up in Starla’s clothes, which she secretly did anyway, but decided on new clothes of her own.

Her next stop was the guest bathroom where she raided the toilet paper. With her arms full, she left the house and headed down the main road towards Forest Ridge High. Oddily half expected to see Oliver pop up and join her in this new game but unfortunately, he didn’t. Weird or not, she kind of missed the kid.

When Oddily arrived at the school parking lot, Kip’s new red Chevy truck was parked in his usual place, just as she had hoped for. Her enthusiasm was clear to any observer when she rushed to his squeaky clean truck and began to wrap it in toilet paper. Kids still lingered around campus, but who cared. Certainly, she wouldn’t get into any real trouble. When she was finished, there was one more thing she had to do. She wrote the word ‘Freak’ across the back window using Starla’s favorite red lipstick. Oddily smiled happily with what she had done, and then headed for Starla’s dark blue Mini Cooper.

While approaching her foster sister’s car, Oddily remembered the extra set of keys hidden under the left rear fender and sure enough, they were there. She allowed herself to settle into the driver’s seat and wondered if she knew how to start the car.

* * * * * *

Maxim sat in his car at the gas station letting his sister know that he had retrieved her game glasses when the distraction of a honking horn caught his attention. He spotted a dark blue Mini Cooper swerving down the road, and the driver had a mop of golden-red hair—Oddily! From the way she drove, he believed she may have been experiencing a side effect from her use of the virtual game.

Nexa, I think Oddily’s in trouble.

You got the glasses, so forget about her and return home.

I can’t! I’m going to follow her to review the situation.

Please don’t, Maxim?

We’ll talk later, sis.

It was effortless for Maxim to follow Oddily because she drove so slowly. In fact, he had to pull off the road several times in order to give her some space, and then catch up again. Other drivers weren’t as considerate, speeding around the Mini Cooper, some honking, while others yelled profanities out the window.

Oddily braked often; especially when her car started to veer off into oncoming traffic. It wasn’t until she pulled over to the side of the road on a downward slope and climbed out, that Maxim breathed a sigh of relief. He was glad she didn’t try to park in the nearby shopping center’s parking lot.

Oddily had barely crossed the street, heading for the west end of the village, when her car started to roll down the hill. Maxim watched her while she turned around to view the car land in a gully, but she didn’t seem to be concerned.

Oddily marched through the sliding glass doors of the main department store. She felt quite proud of herself for arriving without causing an accident. Supposing she had, she could still smile knowing nothing truly happened. She liked this game a lot!

Shoppers crowded the aisles of the brightly lit store. The soft music floating out over the loudspeakers nearly drowned out the steady roar of voices, shuffling feet, ringing phones, and the usual chaos of all large department stores.

Oddily leaned against the costume jewelry counter, ignoring the blur of patrons.

She became intrigued with a pretty young woman who admired her reflection in the mirror, adjusting her long, dark, wavy hair to check out a pair of earrings. The attractive girl reminded Oddily of one of her dream spree personas of herself.

“
Why can’t I be pretty like her?” she asked herself while tapping her fingers against the glass counter-top. Then she focused on the makeup counter across the aisle where two sales girls, blonde model types, had hurried to assist another customer.

Oddily glanced at a clock on the wall and took note that the second hand wasn’t sweeping around in a circle. At first, the idea stunned her, but then she smiled. Of course, the hand didn’t move unless, of course, there was such a thing as virtual time?

Oh yes—new clothes!
Oddily got her thoughts back on track, moving further into the store. She loved the idea of shopping. She found it tempting to go into a department store and go through all the pretty things. If merchandise could talk, it would beg to be taken away from all the glitz and glitter…to be made part of a real home.

When Oddily reached the misses section, she felt frumpy and home-made compared to the racks of lovely clothing. She thumbed through the merchandise and realized all too soon she needed to go to the junior department.

She made her way to the smaller sized clothing and looked through the clothes. Being so small, Oddily couldn’t be seen among the racks. Only the moving hangers gave away her location. Maxim kept his eye on her while he maintained his distance. It was easy to stay unnoticed because of the way Oddily walked around with her head in the clouds.

Oddily still found the clothing too large for her. Apparently, most designers made their garments for girls with a full bust line, so she reconciled herself to the children’s department and stood among the little girl clothes.

“
May I help you?”

Oddily acted shy when a sales clerk approached, “I’m just looking right now.”

Oddily assessed the clothes as either overly cute, the wrong color, or too many ruffles. She glanced up, becoming discouraged with the choice of styles until she eyed the soft green party dress hanging on another rack. She had found something age appropriate and knew she had to take the dress home. She didn’t want to waste one more minute without her new found treasure hanging close to her body, so she took the pretty green garment from its hanger and slipped it on over her old clothes.

Maxim’s head jolted back as if someone had pulled his hair from behind, and looked around to check if anyone caught sight of what Oddily did. He tried to convince himself it was an acceptable way of trying on clothes, and she would take the dress off after she viewed herself in the mirror.

He smirked at her strangeness, but his amusement became short lived when she walked away with the dress still on. She didn’t seem to be aware of anyone else around her, as though she was caught up in her own little world.

For Maxim, the situation concerning Oddily sunk in and he reacted; especially after eyeing the sales girl on the phone. She appeared to be alarmed while keeping an eye on her shoplifter. With several quick, flowing steps, Maxim was by the clerk’s side dropping money on the counter.

She paused for a moment, glancing from the money to Maxim’s handsome face, then asked, “May I help you?”

“
I’m paying for the green dress my girlfriend has on,” he said stupidly, wishing he had come up with a better story.

The girl hung up the phone. “I’m sorry sir. I will need the sales tag before I can complete the transaction.”

“
That won’t be possible,” he frowned.

“
We have a strict store policy here, sir.”

Maxim glanced around, spotting another dress like the one Oddily took. “Would you accept another tag from the same style dress and complete the transaction?”

“
Maybe I should call the manager to…” Before she could finish speaking, the other dress and three hundred dollars were laying on the counter.

“
Sir, you must wait for the transaction to clear, and you’ll need a receipt.”

But Maxim had already left, finding Oddily in the shoe department trying on a pair of boots. They resembled her old, worn out ankle high boots in a drab shade of brown that clashed with her new dress. Maxim tried to remain unnoticed while he moved to the counter and paid for her boots. It was a good thing he did, because Oddily walked away with her new footwear, as if she owned the entire store.

Her next stop was the perfume counter. Oddily started to spray different floral scented perfumes on her wrist and along the sides of her neck. Maxim choked and moved further away when the fumes began to make him lightheaded. Fortunately, Oddily didn’t seem to like any of the fragrances because she crossed the aisle to the makeup counter without stealing anything.

Maxim slipped his sunglasses on to hide from the pretty blonde sales clerk who eyed him while helping Oddily to choose a lip color. She picked out a shade that went well with Oddily’s new dress. Oddily allowed the clerk to apply it on her lips—cute pouting lips. He hadn’t checked them out before, but with the lipstick on, they were…Maxim wouldn’t let himself finish his inner dialogue while Oddily viewed herself in the mirror. She shook her head back and forth.

The sales clerk kept glancing at Maxim, so he tried to look busy by stuffing Oddily’s old boots inside the shoe bag. He wasn’t even sure why he cleaned up after her, but he did. He glanced up again to see whether the sales girl was still staring at him, but she was distracted by another customer.