The heat changed, from a broiling pain to warm sun through a window. A pitching wash of static rumbled between my ears, and I became exasperated, irritated. I had the distinct idea that Jimena was wasting my time and I was late for something.
Dack too, that pretty idiot, chasing around some girl with notions of—
Oh, whoah, I thought, realizing what might be, couldn’t be…
Do you hear me? I tried. Do you hear me Jimena? I tried thinking about the forest, the wiggling vines, the dirt road leading in…
“Jimena? Alena, what’re you doing?” Dack asked.
I couldn’t really see him. He was a pale outline marked by puffs of blue. Confusion and fright bloomed, but it wasn’t mine. My confusion and fright had been beaten into a begrudging pair of companions that I’d trained to make my feet move when I was stuck. These feelings were naive, had a flavour of superstition to them, and a vibe of never believing, but always having wanted to.
“I might be in her brain,” I said, still unsure if I was using my ghost lips or not.
The new feelings flowed around and through me, but I couldn’t latch onto them. They were like clouds of ink in water, fragile and dispersing if I tried too hard to focus on what they were.
I had no idea what this crap might be doing to me or her, but I wasn’t convinced that it was enough to make her believe us. I still needed to affect something real. If only I could see that little flower better…
All the foreign feelings zipped away like a school of fish, racing to the back of my brain. My vision cleared, the whiteness of the wifi cloud muted down to a vague sparkle and there was Dack with my physical self standing like a zombie beside him. He still held the flower. This wasn’t ghost-vision—I could see no blue clouds. The moment the idea of ghost vision crossed my mind, the scene wobbled, the wifi fuzz pulsed back, and the clouds puffed.
I fought it, needing to see the flower. It worked, and things got sharper again, the blueness organizing itself into neat outlines around the two humans and one plant.
Then, out of the corner of my eye, something that made my blood run cold. A pearly white blob rose out of the ground. Two little feelers wiggled on the top of it.
I was in over my head. I shut my eyes and felt for my human body, ground under two feet. Why didn’t I think of a better anchor? Where was the real me? There were too many me’s and—
My lungs burned and I inhaled, sharp. I opened my eyes to racing spots and dizziness, and pitched forward. I landed on Dack, who twisted and caught me before I rolled off of him onto the ground. I saw the flower bud float down to the grass, then he heaved me back up. My butt hit the bench.
I was back in me. Fatigue gnawed at my bones.
Jimena snored, head down on the table, hair splayed all about. Her cop hat was upside down in front of her, covered in locks.
“Oh, damn,” I remarked.
“Yeah. Oh damn is right,” said Dack.
“What do we, what should we—” If I hadn’t actually touched her, did it still count as assaulting a police officer?
“I’m texting the others. I… don’t think it’s a good idea to leave right now,” said Dack. “So, uh… what exactly did you do?”
I rubbed my eyes, watching the spot on the ground where I’d seen the pearl blob emerging. “Well… tell me what you saw first.”
“You stood up, and I assume you went ghosty. Then Jimena’s eyes got all glassy and her lips were moving funny. She looked at my hand all intense for a second, then she passed out.”
Jimena buzzed a loud snore to confirm.
“I sat in her,” I said. “I was in her. And I could see through her eyes, I think. It was different, the blueness and Clockworld was all different. I could feel some stuff she was thinking, I think.”
“That’s a little, I don’t know…”
“I didn’t like it.”
“Yeah. Like it sounds not a far cry from what Eden did to Willy, right?”
I pushed the idea away and said, “A pearl started to show up. They sensed it. If they sensed it…”
“It showed up even with the wifi on?”
“I didn’t stick around long enough to see what it was up to,” I said.
We were silent for a few minutes, and eventually Dack found a little chair pillow from another furniture set and tried to arrange Jimena’s head in a more comfortable position. As he was doing this, the glass door on the back of the house slid open. An aged woman stood there, frowning at all of us, holding a little tray with what looked like three glasses of lemonade.
“Ah… uh,” said Dack. He spun away from Jimena.
The lady croaked something in Spanish at us.
“Ah, no, no we’re just visiting,” said Dack, “uh, visitando! And, siesta, si?” Then, out of the corner of his mouth: “Lay your head down Alena.”
Befuddled, I plopped my head down on the table, under my hands, and squinted my eyes half shut. Dack shuffled around—I assumed he was miming me—as the old woman took a tiny step forward and peered at us.
“Siesta! Por favor, volver en, uh, fifteen—quince! Quince minutos, si?” babbled Dack.
In my half-squinty vision, I saw the woman scowl, shake her head, and begin a slow retreat. The door squeaked shut.
“Can I get up now?” I asked.
“Abuela Barranco might be watching us. Just play along.”
“Seriously?”
He didn’t answer me. So, that’s what we did. Two adults sat at a picnic table with their heads laid down on the surface in order to hide from a scorned old woman the fact that they’d supernaturally knocked out her granddaughter, a police officer, who snuffled and snored away.
Deluxe and Persi freed us by bursting into the backyard.
“You guys better not be expired!” called Deluxe.
I’d actually managed a half doze, as the two trips to Clockworld continued to marinate. The position was uncomfortable, but it was quiet and kinda peaceful. Deluxe’s outburst startled me into sitting up. It also startled Jimena wide awake.
She yelped, jumped backwards out of her seat and drew her pistol.
At the same time, grandma threw open the back door and started yelling.
Dack joined in the yelling, Deluxe and I held up our hands in response to the gun, and Persi narrowed her eyes and presumably judged us all, based on her arched eyebrow.
“No. One. Move! Shut up!” bellowed Jimena. Everyone obeyed, except for grandma, who advanced on the picnic table spouting a flurry of what could only be curses and damnation. I was pointed at at least six times, and Dack received twice as many rude gestures.
Thus began an epic two thousand word a minute argument between the women, en español. I caught ‘Luxe’s eye and modified my ‘hands-up’ pose into a weird shrug by titling my wrists. Her look of utter bewilderment almost set me laughing, so I looked at her sneakers instead.
Eventually, the angry crone stormed back into the house. I rotated on my butt, very slow, to face a disheveled and super pissed Jimena. The gun was still out, but not aimed at anyone’s heart. I opened my mouth to say something, but then thought better of it and waited for her to speak.
She took a few deep breaths, then said, “Dack, what the hell is this? What have you mixed me up in now?”
“I—” he started.
“You did something girl! I felt it, what was it?” said the cop. “And you two, who is—how did you—who sent you, huh?”
Persi and Deluxe exchanged a look. Persi nodded towards Dack. He smiled grimly at Jimena.
“They’re with us,” I said. “Part of this whole mess, they were in the building with the clock, in the park with the—with Eden. I can get into its world, that’s where I went, then I tried to do something with the flower but it wasn’t working so I tried to get in touch with you some other way and I guess it knocked you out, I’m sorry, don’t shoot us.”
She stared me down for a moment, then looked at the pistol in her hand. She holstered it and put her hands in her hair. “I’ve got to call this in, it’s too… this is all real wrong and way out of my jurisdiction. You tell your stories to the IU, they will help, yeah?” She fumbled for her radio, which was clipped to her shirt beneath her shoulder.
Dack stood up and gently blocked her hand from pressing any buttons by clasping it. I winced, expecting a taser or something. Instead, Jimena drilled him with her eyes.
“Look, Jimena, listen,” he said. “I know this is nuts. I told you it was crazy before we even agreed to meet, remember? You got a little taste, but it gets crazier and before… before we jump in and get the whole sheriff’s office involved I still think we need to talk.”
“Talk? Talk, we spent an hour talking and what for, to black me out and scare abuela halfway to the grave?”
“People are in danger tonight,” said Dack, “and if you call us in, we might not be able to stop it. More things like the bus are going to happen, and Alena and the rest of us are the only ones who have an idea of how to fight it—I’ll be locked up for sure, and they might not let the rest of them do what they need to do.”
She pushed away from him, and eyed the other girls.
“No,” she said. “This all stinks, mister. I am not doing it without backup. No more, comprende? You bring three friends, drag me into this, no. I trust you, tipo—damn my soul—but this cannot become uncontrolled, we do as I say now, or I radio you all in right here.”
“Sure, yes. I mean, yes,” said Dack, looking at me.
“He’s telling the truth,” I said.
“We will get to the bottom of it, I do not doubt,” said Jimena. “Now who are these others, Dack?”
“My friend Persi, and, uh, my friend Deluxe,” he said.
Persi waved and Deluxe bristled.
“You drove?” called Jimena. Deluxe nodded.
“Good. Out! You, you, follow,” she said, jabbing fingers at Dack and Deluxe. “You,” she thrust a finger at my nose, “with me.”
