Starseed (6 page)

“Sure,” Mike said. “It was all over the news.”

“I remember,” Paw Paw said.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” her mother said. “And stop feeding the dog under the table.” Lucy gobbled up a hunk of cornbread. Woofy nuzzled her knee for more.

“Me neither,” Nan said, chomping on a chicken wing.

“How could you not remember that cult?” Paw Paw asked. “I clearly remember us sitting together watching the news. We all watched and said how sorry we felt for those kids.”

“Well, I don’t remember it,” Nan said.

“Alzheimer’s, old woman,” Paw Paw said, shaking his head and pushing back his plate. He’d barely eaten a thing.

“I don’t remember it either,” Kaila’s mother said.

Kaila looked at her mother and grandmother, one wearing a navy baseball cap, the other an old pink Easter bonnet—with the black Velostat plastic hidden inside. She had this creeping feeling that everything was not what it seemed. She scratched the skin above her ear under the black plastic. She too, had never heard one word of this cult before today. Goosebumps lifted the hairs on her arms, her intuition prodding chills. She determined to remain watchful. She could figure out anything if she set her mind to the task.

Kaila trudged upstairs. Her bedroom was in the front of the house on the second floor. Her room was spacious with wood floors, worn rugs, and floor-to-ceiling windows that led out to a balcony spanning the width of the house. The damask curtains, once royal maroon, had faded from too many years’ sun. A white wicker rocking chair sat outside on the gallery. In cooler weather, she could rock and look out over the wrought-iron railing to the pond, the fields, the barn, and the forest beyond. Now, it was too hot, the air sticky with humidity.

Kaila neatly laid her new outfit for the next day on the antique velvet chair next to her canopied bed. Tomorrow she’d wear a new skirt and blouse. She yanked off the crappy hick jeans and t-shirt and hurled them into the closet. She tore off the wig and the plastic wrapped around her head and scratched her scalp. She often sat alone in her room without the plastic; it just felt so good. She changed into a comfy nightshirt.

At the far wall opposite her bed was an old-fashioned roll-top secretary desk with many drawers and cubbyholes. On each side of the desk stood a heavy wooden bookcase filled with dusty books. Above the desk hung a gilded oil painting of some long-dead relative. She wore a floor-length gray dress and held a fan in her hands, staring demurely with gloomy eyes from another century.

That painting has got to go, Kaila thought. She would replace it with a
Star Trek
poster of Dr. Spock in his powder blue Starship Enterprise crew shirt and red glasses (Spocktacles) with the slogan “Party like a Vulcan.” Not this old stuff. It was as if she had lived in one of those old black-and-white movies and now stepped into a new Technicolor life. She switched on her MacBook, the screen lighting an electric blue.

Lucy and Woofy stared up at her, panting.

“You’re right,” Kaila said to the dogs. “I have been ignoring you. I still love you though.”

She gazed at Woofy, who would forever have one eye shut, having been in a dog fight and lost his left eye. She had cried when it happened and held him in her arms for days, soothing him.

But animals and humans were different creatures. He had acted on instinct. Or maybe animals and humans weren’t so different: she thought of Douglas Lafarge thrown in the dumpster and everyone teasing that fat guy, Albert Jackson, for eating three lunches.

Woofy had one tooth that stuck out above his lower lip. Despite his comically tragic appearance, he was a wise dog. Lucy, the black Labrador, licked her hand; Woofy tried to hop up on her lap.

“No, sit. Be good.” Kaila communicated well with her animals. Talking to them was like listening to music. She just had to listen with an open mind to hear their true message.

Lucy and Woofy sat on the butter-colored threadbare needlework rug and gazed up at her adoringly. Kaila reached into a plastic container decorated with dog bones and gave them a treat.

Lucy gobbled the Milk-Bone then barked.

“No,” Kaila said. “I’m not making popcorn tonight.”

Lucy’s favorite treat was popcorn, and her eyes rolled back showing the whites in abject pleasure when she got lucky enough to eat popcorn.

Lucy barked again.

“No,” Kaila said. “I told you I am not making popcorn.”

Lucy barked three times.

“Don’t you take that tone with me, young lady,” Kaila said. “I will not be ordered around.”

Lucy looked at Kaila, panting, her pink tongue sticking out.

“All right,” Kaila said. “Yes, I agree. That’s fair. I will make popcorn for you this weekend when I’m not at school.”

Lucy lay down, resting her head on Kaila’s foot.

Facebook beckoned. Soon as she logged on, Kaila was astonished to see the navy people icon beaming red with friend requests. Those two prep boys in her English class, Derek Mendoza and Wade Stoops. That beautiful prep girl, Priscilla Snowden. The dork from the trash can, Douglas Lafarge. And friend requests from Melissa and Pia.

Almost everyone she had contact with wanted to be friends. Tears pricked her eyes. Not unreal friends from half-way across the world that she’d never meet, but real, flesh and blood people.

Through blurred eyes, Kaila studied a friend request from someone named Valdyr Lawless whom she didn’t remember meeting. She confirmed the request nonetheless. Valdyr Lawless. Such a strange name. She clicked on the profile, but it didn’t say much other than he attended Bush High.

After confirming the friend requests, she searched for “Jordyn Stryker” but no luck. He probably didn’t know about Facebook because he had been secluded in that cult. She tried to deny her disappointment. Or maybe, she pondered, he was Valdyr Lawless. People sometimes used phony names on Facebook. Valdyr would be a name someone like Jordyn Stryker might use as an alias.

She brushed her teeth, took a shower, and blow-dried her hair. Reluctantly, she wrapped the plastic on her head like a shiny black turban. Recalling her mother’s terror and the subsequent visions upon removal of the plastic, she decided to keep it on. Still, there had to be a freer solution.

She climbed in bed. Homework. Ugh. She focused intently and scanned the books, turning the pages, absorbing the information. She scribbled on loose leaf. She finished her homework in minutes. Class work was a breeze—and boring. It was the people and cliques that were difficult to understand.

Kaila turned out the table lamp. In the dark, her thoughts looped like speed cars around a racetrack. She thought of Jordyn, how cute he was, how she loved it when he studied her like she was the only person on the Earth. She thought of the others, how odd, yet how smart they were.

Wait a minute.

She recalled that creepy feeling when Echidna took her hand and insisted they be friends. Maybe she just didn’t know how to act. There was something else, but Kaila could not recall. Well, forget it then.

Kaila thought of Melissa, recalling when Melissa first smiled at her and knowing they might become best friends. And Pia, when she said they’d have to hang out.

She thought of Paw Paw, how nice he was to take her shopping. She thought of her new outfits and imagined wearing them.

“You must quiet your mind,” she heard in her head.

“How? How do I get rid of all these thoughts?”

“Acknowledge the thoughts and tell them to go,” a voice deep in her mind answered. “Imagine your mind is the space between words. Just emptiness, then you will sleep.”

This was like what her mother said when she taught meditation during yoga. But this wasn’t her mother’s voice. Kaila imagined the space between words in a sentence and focused on the emptiness. Exhausted, she welcomed the emptiness, darkness, and lack of thought. She slipped into unconsciousness.

The night sky held a new moon; its absence akin to the emptiness of the eyes in statues. Outside, the horses whinnied in the barn.

Darkness enveloped Kaila’s bedroom. Though the balcony doors were shut, the damask curtains rustled as they lifted. Lucy and Woofy lifted their heads. Low, guttural growls emitted deep in their throats.

The dogs stood with lowered heads at the balcony door, growling. Outside, in the night, an owl called.

Kaila sat up in bed. She thought she heard the rocking chair creaking on the balcony. But it couldn’t, for the night was still. Adrenaline darted through her veins, bringing her wide awake. Again the owl shrilled.

Something was outside on that balcony right next to her bed. She could feel its unseen presence. Then, the balcony door opened. It was so dark she could not see. The dogs frantically ran outside on the balcony, growling and snapping.

Fear invaded Kaila like fog as the balcony door opened wide. From the dark, something flew toward her, but she couldn’t discern what. Her eyes strained in horror as she flattened herself against the headboard. As it hovered over her, she saw that it was an owl. She gasped. The owl’s eyes were fiery orange with black dots as pupils. Its large round eyes fixed upon her. Once she looked, she was paralyzed. Her mouth hung open, but she couldn’t scream. Her heart skittered like a scurrying mouse.

Then, the dogs on the balcony went silent. The horses quieted outside. The tree frogs and crickets went dead. Everything had gone completely silent. An odd energy filled the room. A buzzing sound filled Kaila’s ears.

The owl’s orange eyes loomed two inches from hers, staring at her above a thin, pointed beak. Though terrified, Kaila could not move or scream. She could not break gaze with the owl, who commanded sleep.

She tried to struggle, to fight, but could not. She fell back on her pillow, unconscious.

“I feel the same,” Kaila said with her mind.

“It’s easier and freer to communicate this way,” Jordyn said.

She sensed him absorbing her as they floated.

“We learned much today from mind-scanning you. And thank you: we learned a lot about how to talk out loud using your language.” In the darkness of space, pinpoints of light from a star reflected off his silver jumpsuit. “We like you, Kaila.”

As Kaila and Jordyn floated, they neared the distant star shining from the deep space of the universe. The burning star’s warmth enfolded them. Kaila thrilled to the touch of Jordyn’s hand, feeling the conduit of his energy passing to her and her energy passing to him.

“Where are we?” she asked.

“In dreams, the veil is lifted. You’ve traveled here many times. Do you remember?”

Kaila dimly remembered, so like a dream she once had, but upon awakening, only knew that she had dreamed. All that remained was a residual knowing. And below her restlessness, ever seeking though unaware of it, rippled that ceaseless yearning to return home.

“But we are so far away.”

“Here, then,” Jordyn said. He drew her close. Space blinked.

Then, in a moment, they hovered above a planet.

“What’s that?” she asked.

“Venus. Closer to Earth. You feel safer now?”

Kaila marveled at the rugged, orange planet etched with ridges, mountains, and craters. Melted ground shimmered around a large crater, for Venus was hot, close to the sun.