Prism (16 page)

“Why are they chasing us?” I asked Ozzy. I was breathless! “We haven’t crashed. What do they want with us?”

“I don’t know!” Ozzy shouted as he weaved in and out of lanes. “Are they still on our tail?”

“Right behind us!” Joy yelled.

“This is
not
good!” Ozzy let out a deep breath. “Hold on, everyone. If you’ve never prayed before, maybe now’s a good time to start.”

He yanked the wheel to the right and swerved across the four-lane highway, exiting onto a service road. I turned around and couldn’t see the van, but I could hear the sirens wailing.

Zeke was acting as the lookout, his body turned around so he could see out of the back windshield. “I think they got off the highway.”

Ozzy let up on the pedal, then floored it. The car flew forward as Ozzy twisted between cars, passing slowpoke drivers on the right and on the left. All of us shrieked when we nearly collided with an oncoming bus.

“I’d rather be in prison than dead!” Zeke screamed.

“If the cleanup crew catches us, we’re as good as dead!” Ozzy yelled back. “Where are they?”

“I can’t see them,” Zeke said, “but I sure as hell hear them.”

Indeed, the air resonated with an ominous
wee-oo, wee-oo, wee-oo
! I remembered the Sirens from the
Odyssey
. They were supposed to kill you by seduction, not by naked terror.

“Move it, move it, move it!” I told Ozzy.

“We’re going as fast as we can,” he snapped back. “I’m already overheating.”

Wee-oo, wee-oo, wee-oo!

“Are they gaining on us?” Ozzy cried out.

“I can’t tell,” Zeke said.

“What do you see?”

“Commotion.”

Wee-oo, wee-oo, wee-oo!

“What kind of commotion?”

“Just a lot of cars.”

“Do you see them?”

“No…”

“Wait a second, wait a second,” Joy shouted. “Ozzy, cut a left!”

Ozzy shouted, “Are you crazy? We’re over an embankment! There isn’t even a road—”

“Cut a freaking left!” Joy screamed as the sirens drew nearer.

“Just do it!” I cried.

Ozzy spun the wheel and for the second time, the car began to bump and screech as it catapulted down the hillside, landing on hard-packed ground. He galloped through a field of pale green and yellow grasses that had probably been scenic before the car had torn through it. We kept going and going and going and going even after the sirens had begun to fade into the background.

One mile…two miles…three miles…until we all saw smoke come out of the hood of the car.

“Anyone see us go down?” I asked.

“Doesn’t look like it,” Zeke said. “Or maybe that’s wishful thinking.”

Ozzy slowed to a more acceptable speed. “Where are we?”

“I don’t know the exact location,” Joy said, “but I do know I used to ditch school back here with Antoine. He’d pick me up and we’d drive down here and hang out. If you…” She paused to catch her breath. “If you keep going toward that hill, then swing a right, there’s an outlet to Crocheton Highway.”

“Who’s Antoine?” Zeke asked.

For God’s sake, now’s not the time for jealousy.

Another mile, another two miles…then three. We found the outlet to the highway.

“Think it’s wise to get back on the highway?” Zeke asked.

“It’s a different highway.” Ozzy swung the police car back onto paved asphalt, causing a car to swerve around. I’m sure the driver would have cussed at us kids, but we were in a police car.

Even I knew where we were.

“In about six miles, we should hit the off-ramp for Buchanan,” I told Ozzy.

He was in disbelief. “We might actually get out of this.”

“Who’s Antoine, Joy?” Zeke asked again.

“Six miles?” Ozzy frowned. “This car is red hot and so are we. We need to ditch it and the sooner the better.”

All agreed. “Let’s get off at the first exit,” I suggested. “We can catch a bus.”

Ozzy gave me a terse nod.

The traffic slowed us down and we were forced to follow the pace of the other cars around us. Obeying the rules was a skill that had escaped us for the past days. I didn’t know why we were starting now. I put on the cop car’s siren.

“Why’d you do that?” Ozzy said. “It’ll bring attention to us.”

“Drive on the shoulder,” I told him. “Let’s get out of here!”

“Good point, Hutchenson,” Ozzy said.

We got off the highway and started looking for the correctly numbered bus stop. Joy told Ozzy that it was the number six bus that would stop a mile from Buchanan High.

“Thanks for ditching school, Joy,” I told her.

“With Antoine,” Zeke mumbled, “whoever he may be.”

“Antoine’s my cousin,” Joy answered flatly.

“Kaida?” Ozzy said quietly.

“What?” I whispered.

“I can’t come back with you.”

I opened my mouth to speak, but nothing came out.

Ozzy stayed quiet. What could he say?
Psyche! Just kidding—I gotcha, Kaida!

“What do you mean you can’t come back?” I said.

“Bus is on the next block,” Joy reminded us.

“I mean”—his fingers gripped the wheel—“I mean just that.”

“Why not?” I asked.

“Marital dispute?” Zeke called from the backseat.

“Because I can’t…. As much as I want to, I can’t. I can’t leave my mother. I can’t leave my world. You have to leave, but I have to stay.”

Tears welled up in my eyes. “Ozzy, you’re a wanted man now! Escaping with us is your only chance to get away from the authorities.”

“I know that. And I know if I stay I’m going to have to go underground. So will Maurice when the authorities find out about the forged papers.” He took my hand and squeezed
it. “But if I find Maurice…maybe he can help us. Because he comes from where you come from. Kaida, someone has to stay in this world and
fight
this battle! If I leave…I take away everything that I’ve learned with me. And where will that leave everyone here?”

“But…” I didn’t finish my sentence. What could I honestly say to that?

“I have to go back and check on my mom. I can’t desert her like this.” Ozzy pulled the car over to the curb and we all hopped out and started running to the bus stop. A few moments later, we were sitting on a graffiti-covered bench waiting with a few women with children to catch the bus.

“I’m not coming with you guys,” Ozzy announced.

“You’re kidding,” Zeke said. “Why not?” He looked at me, and I shrugged.

I was far from home in this world. And now the only person who had made this world anything was leaving me.

Ozzy said, “Kaida, once you get back—”

“If I get back.”

“You’ll get back, Kaida. I know you will. And when you do, maybe we can communicate…your world to mine.” His eyes were gleaming with wetness. “If anyone can bridge the gap, it’ll be you. Together we can save a lot of people.”

“What if the gap can’t be bridged? What if ‘bye’ means ‘bye’?”

His eyelids fell in a long blink. “Then at least I met someone who cared about life and love as much as I do.”

I rested my head against Ozzy’s chest as he stroked my hair and tucked it behind my ear. I wanted to stay that way forever. When the bus finally pulled up, all I saw was something big and ugly and evil, and I wanted to hit everyone on it. When we were finally seated, I felt my anger rise.

“You’re going to forget about me,” I told him. “This sucks!”

He cupped his hands around my face. “Okay, first of all, let’s get a few things straight. You’re leaving me—I’m not leaving you. Second of all”—he kissed my cheek—“I would never, ever forget you.”

I wanted to say,
You don’t know that
. I didn’t know that. I wondered what would happen to me in this world when I left for my old world. And did I still exist in my old world now that I was in this new world? Everything that I had considered permanent, everything that had been a staple in my life—my family, my friends, my home—did they even exist anymore?

I put my head on his shoulder, closing my eyes and trying to live in the moment because that was all I had. Back in jail I wasn’t sure that I’d ever taste freedom again, but we had each other. Here we were momentarily free, but I was going to lose him. Why does everything good have to be tainted with something bad?

He kissed my nose. “Don’t worry about me. The past few days have shown me that there was a reason I tried out
Buchanan. That reason was to meet you and prepare me for this new life. We’re going to win, Kaida. Maybe one day you’ll come back and help us.”

I sat up. “Iona Boyd! You have to be careful around her.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Maurice said she’s in with the government. That she’s doing research just to provide the higher-ups with illegal medicine.”

He was momentarily stunned. “All right. If I find Maurice, I’ll ask him about her.” He digested what I had said. “Thanks.”

“And you’ll be cautious?”

“It’s my middle name…sometimes.” He grinned. “No more talk, Kaida. Let’s just be!”

There were thousands of things I wanted to tell him but I was just too tired.

Zeke checked his watch. “It’s eight thirty, guys. We’ve only got a half hour until roll call.”

“How far are we from the school?” I asked Joy.

“About two miles,” she answered. “Our stop is next. It’s about a mile away from school.”

Zeke said, “We’ll have to run it.”

“Can Joy run?” I asked him.

“What choice do I have?”

“Next exit, we’re out of here,” Zeke said.

Ozzy took my hand. “Ready to go to school?”

“I’m ill-prepared on a regular day. How could I be ready on a day like this?”

Even if I were ready for school, I wasn’t ready to leave Ozzy, willingly go on a field trip involving a car crash, a fire, a storm, a cave, and this time possibly death.

Finally the bus jolted to our stop and the doors opened. We were running as soon as our feet hit the ground.

We made it by five of nine.

Outside, my classmates were in a group talking, fooling around, sending text messages, or just sitting on the school’s steps, half asleep.

“Kaida Hutchenson?” Mr. Addison called. “Kaida Hutchenson?”

I ran toward him and tripped, completely disoriented as to where I was. Emotionally I was a wreck. I looked up and found a hand extending toward me.

Sweet Ozzy…pulling me up. But instead of dark green eyes looking at me, the orbs were bright blue.

Zeke let go of my hand. “Are you all right?”

Ozzy? I looked around in a panic. “Where’s Ozzy?”

“He left, Kaida.”

“He was just here!” When I got no response, I said, “He came off the bus with us.”

“He left when you started running to Mr. Addison.”

I shook my head, too tired to cry. Not quite surprised enough to cry. I had been given fair warning.

Zeke put an awkward arm around me. “Hey, we have a
long car ride to exchange various shocking details.”

I lowered my head on Zeke’s chest, trying to dull a stinging inside my heart. He put both his arms around me and hugged me.

There it was.

Friendship at its oddest. And its finest.

Zeke and I pulled apart when Joy approached us. She looked exhausted, but she was smiling. “I guess I should bum one last smoke before we’re transported back.”

Zeke rolled his eyes. “Go for it.”

“How’s your arm?” I asked her.

She winced. “Not so good, but I think the Advil helped.”

“Don’t say the A-word so loudly,” I reminded her.

She gave me a knowing nod. For the first time in a while I realized how putrid all of us smelled. “We really need to get back.”

“Hey, guys,” Mr. Addison greeted us. His ability to control
the students had dropped as time wore on. “We’re…” He paused and wrote on his clipboard. “You three are with me.”

“Yep!” Zeke said.

“You know that?”

We looked at one another and smiled. “Sort of.”

“And, you’re all okay with that?” Mr. Addison raised an eyebrow.

“Thrilled,” Joy responded.

“Nothing sassy to say about it, Ms. Hutchenson?”

“Not at the moment.” I looked over to my right and saw Maria waving to me as she slipped into Mrs. Dufraine’s van. I waved back.

Mr. Addison tapped a pen against his clipboard. “Then let’s load up.”

We looked at him blankly. None of us had bags.

Mr. Addison said, “Your parents dropped off the bags this morning…all except Kaida’s. We have to pick your stuff up at the house. Let’s move it.”

Again the three of us exchanged glances.

“Do we have a hearing problem?” Mr. Addison said, “Let’s get going.”

Zeke got his bag and I helped Joy with hers. We loaded the van and belted up in the backseat, the three of us holding hands as Mr. Addison sped off to my house.

It seemed that no one was at home. Mom and Dad were at work and Suzanne was at day care. I didn’t have my key so I
used the spare one, hidden under the porch chair. As soon as I was in the house and the front door had closed, to my surprise Jace came down the stairs wearing pajama bottoms and a gray T-shirt.

“What are you doing home?”

“I packed your bags,” he told me.

“Thanks, but why are you here and not at school?”

“I’m here…” Jace smiled at me. Bags had formed under his eyes. “To say good-bye.”

“It’s only a class trip.”

“Kaida…” His eyes locked with mine. “I know what’s going to happen.”

I stared at him. “How?” When he didn’t answer, I said, “Erin White?”

He thought a moment, then nodded. “You’ll be here in body, you won’t disappear, but it won’t be the same you. All the knowledge that you brought with you from that world…it’ll go back with you. Just like Erin’s still here…but it’s not the same Erin. Not the same at all.”

“So where is your Erin?”

“I don’t know for sure…but if you find Erin in your world, tell her I miss her.”

“Is that where she is? In my world?”

“I sure as hell hope so. Because the Erin that exists now isn’t the Erin I grew to love.” He hugged me. “Just like you. I’ll certainly miss you…the way you are now. And I won’t forget you…ever.”

I erupted into tears.

Jace smiled, but it was a sad one. “You were given this gift. You and Zeke and Joy…you were given this gift for a reason.”

“What reason?”

“That remains to be seen.” He hugged me tightly then twisted my earlobe. “You have to go, Kaida. Your bags are in your room.”

My room…I reluctantly began the climb and Jace followed me. When I opened the door to my room, it looked the same as ever. The same white floor tiles, the same posters, the same mess. And the same photograph of the family with a newborn Suzanne outside my grandmother’s house. When I went back, would the photo change back, too?

“Check your bags,” he told me. “Make sure I didn’t forget anything.”

I frantically pawed through my stuff—sweatpants, sweatshirts, a jacket, underwear, power bars, canteen, water. “Flashlight…where’s my—?”

Jace handed it to me and enveloped me in a hug.

“Kaida.” He choked. “Take care of yourself. Please, please be careful.”

“I will.” I gasped for breath in his grip. Ordinarily I’d find it suffocating, but now it was nothing short of lovely.

“I love you,” I told him.

“I love you, too.” He pushed me away. “Go.”

“Why didn’t Mom or Dad phone school?” I asked suddenly.
“When I went missing, I mean?”

“I covered for you.” Jace finally told me. “I covered for you, for Zeke, and for Joy. Because I
know.
”

I thought a moment and got excited. “Maybe you can come with me.”

He twisted my earlobe. “And maybe you can come back here.” He gave me a mock stern look. “Go home, Lobeless.”

“So, it was you and Ozzy?” Zeke nudged me. I was on his left; Joy was on his right weaving in and out of sleep as we traveled through the New Mexico desert.

“It was me and Ozzy,” I confirmed. “Which is no longer an option.” I smiled at him. “You and Joy?”

Zeke nodded, but his crystal blue eyes seem conflicted. “I wonder if back home, Leslie and I will be broken up or—”

“Eek!” I interrupted. “Someone has gotten himself into a lot of trouble.”

“You bring up a good point, though.” Joy spoke with her eyes closed. Her head was resting against Zeke. “When we get back, how altered will our lives be?”

“Assuming we get back,” I added. “You know…add a dose of pessimism.”

“More like fatalism,” Zeke said. “If we don’t get back, we might…we could be…you know.”

The word was
dead
. But during ten days, its taboo status had rubbed off on us, and no one said anything.

“Maybe there will be an Ozzy when we get back,” Zeke said matter-of-factly.

“I’m sure there will be an Ozzy,” I told him. “But it won’t be the same Ozzy. More than likely that Ozzy will have tried out Buchanan and left the school before I get back.”

“How do you know?”

“I don’t know, Zeke. I’m just…” I shook my head.

“Well, this might cheer you up.” Zeke stuck his hand in his sweater pocket. “Ozzy told me to give something to you…if I can find it.”

“What!” I exclaimed.

“Keep it down,” Mr. Addison chided.

“Ozzy said to give it to you once we were far away.” Zeke removed a piece of crumpled stationery with his right hand while stroking Joy’s hair with his left.

“Hmmm,” Joy purred. “Feels good.”

“Why’d you wait so long?” I scolded him while whispering.

“Just following orders.”

I plucked the paper from Zeke’s grip, shaking.

“What does it say?” Joy asked.

“I don’t know…I haven’t read it.” As I unfolded it, I turned toward the window for privacy. A note from my boyfriend…only he wasn’t a boyfriend and I wasn’t his girlfriend anymore.

Gah!

The paper was pale pink and lined with flowers, and it smelled like the knockoff perfume Dad had once bought Mom for her birthday. I unfolded it several times until it revealed the words that Ozzy had somehow found the time to write behind my back.

Then I realized he must have written it a few days ago. Probably all along he realized that he couldn’t go back. He had his battles to fight.

That wasn’t utmost on my mind, but…

I wanted to be mad at him, but I couldn’t. My eyes returned to the note.

I sighed.

“What does it say?” Zeke asked.

I turned around. “Sweet nothings.” I tried to laugh, but my voice couldn’t lie. “Nothing much.”

“He really did like you, Kaida,” Joy told me. “It was clear from the get-go.”

Zeke nodded. “Why would he have bothered to help us if
he knew he wasn’t coming back with us?”

“To get a link between our world and his,” I answered without thinking.

“Oh-kay,” Zeke said. “You’re right. He risked helping us to get medicine for Joy just to get a way back to our world…which may be nonexistent.”

When he put it that way, it did sound like I was trying to deny the obvious. He risked his life to help us. He risked his life because he liked me—and I would have done the same for him in a heartbeat.

I scratched my right ear. A piercing seemed to be getting infected.

All the more reason to be going home
, I thought.

I put my head against the window, gradually succumbing to the rhythm of the van.

Sleep.

A warm sleep.

Warm…

Screeeeech.

Sweeeerve.

BOOM!

The sound was so deafening, I couldn’t think, let alone hear.

Directly into my ear. Someone screaming.

“
Kaida!
”

I snapped open my eyes and Joy was hovering above me.

“
Kaida, get out!
”

My eyes flitted across the scene.
Reds, oranges, yellows.

Warm colors
.

“
Oh, my God!
” I cried. “It’s happening, it’s happening again!”

“Hold still!” Joy shouted over the crackling of flames.

“Why are you on top of me?” I choked.

“I’m trying to undo your seat belt!”

I looked down and saw that Joy’s hands were black, attempting to unbuckle me. Without thinking I had accidentally clicked the buckle back onto myself, heat so fierce, it had turned to an icy feeling on my hands.

“Zeke!” Joy coughed. “Are you there?”

I could barely see through the smoke. Our world, aflame.

I sprung out of my seat and tried to find a way out of the van, but it seemed to be hot everywhere, worse than the last crash. How had I slept through the crash that long?

“Joy, Kaida!” Zeke called back. “Where are you?”

I desperately groped around for a way out, trying to feel for cold air that would mean fresh air and an opening. I would not have hands after this, I was sure of it.

“I can’t get out!” Zeke screamed.

I couldn’t see anything, but I felt a blazing metal handle. I said a three-second prayer and pulled.

The handle came off.

Still trapped, I lunged forward and touched a glass surface in front of me. Without warning, it shattered. I could make out the darker colors, blues and blacks outside. I charged forward,
the heat surrounding me swiftly dissolving into the chill of the night. I knew I had scratched myself, but I didn’t care. I ran like my feet were on fire—and they very well could have been. I couldn’t stop running. I just continued on and on.

“Kaida!” a hoarse voice yelled. “Kaida, stop, stop running!”

“Stop!” another voice followed.

But I couldn’t stop.

I heard footsteps quicken behind me and someone pulled me from behind, forcing me to stop.

“Kaida,” Zeke gasped and gasped. “It’s okay, you can stop.”

I breathed heavily.

At this moment I became aware that Zeke’s arms were wrapped around me in such a way that I could barely breathe. I looked down at my throbbing hand. It was black in some places from the smoke, but blistered red in other areas from the heat.

“I’m okay,” I choked. “Zeke, let go of me.”

“Right.” Zeke let go and the two of us broke into coughing fits.

“Joy,” I said in between coughs.

“She’s”—
cough, cough—
“coming.” Cough again. “I ran ahead to”—pant, pant—“stop you from running.”

I looked around. The car was ablaze, looking like a sacrificial altar. We were at least five hundred feet from the explosion. From the distant light, I could make out Joy limping toward us.

“Hey,” she said when she finally caught up to us.

Then, of course, she coughed. We hacked and wheezed like old men and women for about three minutes.

I finally said, “What about Mr. Addison?”

“I don’t know,” Joy told me.

“But we made it,” Zeke said.

I nodded. Our eyes zeroed in on the three-story bonfire that once was the van. It was unlikely that Mr. Addison had survived. But this time the vehicle was already on fire before we got out.

“It didn’t happen exactly like before,” I said, still coughing. It was a gargantuan effort just to speak. My throat was rubbed raw. “Mr. Addison could be on the other side.”

“Should we check?” Joy asked.

But then the sky opened up.

A downpour that within seconds turned torrential.

Last time we had cried when it had begun to rain. This time we nearly wept in ecstasy. It had never felt so good to have a serious case of déjà vu.

“There’s the cave,” Joy said breathlessly.

Outlined by the fire, Joy was pointing to a group of rocks that looked wonderfully familiar.

Zeke did a jig. “We’re going home, we’re going home!”

We began to laugh. Zeke attempted to do a pirouette and slipped on his own foot.

“Shit!” he cried, landing in the mud.

Joy extended her good arm to help him up, but she
slipped too. Zeke tried to get up, but he kept slipping further away, taking Joy with him.

“Here, grab my hand!” I screamed as I extended my hand toward them.

I think one of them tried to take it, but they both fell backward.