“I’d ask you the same thing. And Lord, what are you wearing?” She gave me a cursory glance and then covered her heart with her hand like she was in pain as she went on. “Honey, did you hear about Matt? They found his truck at Orland Park. Burned. He crashed into something but escaped somehow. Haven’t seen a trace of him. Mom and dad are out looking with a search party. I’m just here stocking up on supplies for our trip to Georgia. The news said those things, the Keepers or Seepers, or whatever, were crawling closer to town and we should evacuate and run like heck if we see one. I heard on the radio that Georgia and New Mexico are safe, they aren’t there yet.”
“How can you tell if it’s one or not?” I asked, trying to probe and see what the news was saying about them.
“They have a mark behind their ear but other than that, you can’t tell them from anyone else. Little deceiving suckers,” she said in her usual southern belle accent which I’ve always found weird because they’re originally from a prominent subdivision of Detroit.
“What do they want?”
“Well, the news said they want to trick us onto their side. They want the world but the good guys have come now and told us all about them and their shady plans. They’ve already taken the moon, that’s what happened to it. Isn’t that awful? They’re trying to flood the earth by messing with the tides.”
“Yeah. It is.” I didn’t contradict her that that would have happened along time ago if that were true. “But maybe we shouldn’t believe everything we hear on TV though right? I mean, have you seen these so called good guys? Did they come on camera and say these things?”
“Oh no, they are strictly anonymous. They don’t want to take any credit or focus for this. They want us to concentrate on savings ourselves from these things.”
“Ok, well, I gotta go, but it was so good to see...”I couldn’t finish because her eyes bulged and her mouth dropped open. I knew exactly what she saw before I even turned around.
Merrick, well Matt, standing there with our loaded down cart, alive and well and out with me. I squinted my eyes to tell him to stop but he had already noticed her face and realized a mistake has been made, though not knowing which one.
Sherry, what do I do?
I shifted me eyes towards her so he’d come our way.
“Matt, honey, look who I ran into. Your sister, Racine. They found your truck, someone crashed it and left it in Orland Park. Pretty crazy, huh?” I said before I turned back to Racine, waiting for the blow.
“Sherry! Why didn’t you tell me Matt was with you?”
“I’m sorry. You got to talking about those...things, the Keepers and I got sidetracked. He’s fine though, see,” I spouted, waving my hand over him.
“What are ya’ll doing? I thought you broke up with him, Sherry. What? Are ya’ll on a getaway or something together?”
More of an accusation that a question. She never saw her brother for what he was and thought me ‘ungrateful’ to let such a handsome catch get away. I had better lay it on thick if she was going to believe me. I reached over to grab Matt’s arm and laid my head on his shoulder. I felt Merrick tense a little under my touch.
I knew I was about to lie. Racine was always so unfocused I doubted she’d notice. She kind of seemed to have only two cylinders out of six running most of the time. I could pull this off. I could lie.
“Now Racine, you know me. I’m so back and forth, but I can never let him get away for too long.” I glanced up at him and smiled. “We just decided to head up here and get away from things for a while, spend some time, alone.”
She totally bought it.
“Ah! That’s so sweet! I’m so glad you finally came to your senses, girl. Well little brother, you’re never this quiet. Get your butt over here and give your big sister a hug!”
Think. Think.
“Oh. Me first! I mean we have been separated for a whole ten minutes,” I said lamely, hoping she took it as loveydoveyness.
I reached my arms up around his neck and hugged him, up on my tip toes, while I whispered in his ear. He put his shaking hands on my waist while he listened. I pulled his cheek down to touch mine.
“He always picks her up and twirls her when they hug. Be cocky and enthusiastic,” I whispered against his ear and pulled back to give him a reassuring smile.
I let go and stepped back, he seemed to be breathing heavier. He was just nervous, fearful of a scene in the middle of the store. I placed my hand on his back, rubbing to soothe him, but that seemed to make it worse. His eyes glazed over and he shivered, but quickly recovered.
“Ah, you two are so sweet. Now get over here!”
He smiled and scooted forward, picking her up and twirling her around a couple times before letting out a very convincing and enthusiastic “Miss me?”
“You know I did! Why you trying to give everyone a heart attack? Jeez Louise! I guess we can call off the search party!”
And there was that Racine cackle.
“Racine, I’m sorry but I’m very eager to get back to our, uh, getaway. Can we call you later?” I wrapped my arms around Merrick’s waist for emphasis, and again, his breath caught in response but he stiffly put his arm around me.
His eyes were shifting like he didn’t know where to look. I was confused. I thought him being a Keeper would give him some kind of idea of how to handle himself under pressure. He was freaking out.
“Oh. Of course, honey! You two have fun now! Matt, you sly devil you. Call mom or she’ll just have a cow, you know she will! Bye, lovebirds!”
Just like that she trotted away, her lime green heels dyed to perfectly match her Capri pants clacked on the concrete floor. I blew out an exaggerated breath of relief, but Merrick didn’t look like me, he looked sick or something.
“Merrick?” I whispered leaning in, still not completely comfortable with people we know in the same vicinity.
He said nothing, but turned his head to me and looked down into my eyes.
“Merrick? Are you ok?” I asked and I could feel my concerned face was on now.
The scrunched forehead, pulled up eyebrows and tight lips.
“I’m fine.” He shook his head a little to clear it. “I just wasn’t expecting that, I didn’t see it coming. We changed something, I didn’t see this.” He swallowed. “You took too long, so I came looking for you. I was worried.”
“Yeah, sorry. If I could’ve warned you I would have. Why wouldn’t you have seen that in the future?”
“I told you, you can change things if you know about them ahead of time. In what I saw, she would have been here but we missed her. Something happened that changed it. I don’t remember you putting on the jacket in the vision I saw but...it could be anything. Even a few seconds of change can alter a lot.”
“I drove too slow. I usually don’t drive that slow, but we were talking and having fun...”
He looked right into my eyes.
“We’ll never know what changed it for sure but it doesn’t matter. We handled it. It’s over.”
“You did great. Really great,” I said, trying to assure him.
He just nodded. I advised him we probably needed to make a medicine cabinet stop. We grabbed cold medicine, aspirin, everything you can think of. Then got to the clothes department again and got him and Danny a few things. I didn’t know what all that was gonna cost, nor the way to get out of there with it.
We headed to the cashier and Merrick put on a serious, concentrating face. He didn’t look at the cashier, just stared at the conveyer line as our stuff passed by. I looked between him and her as we put our items on the belt. She seemed dazed, eyes shifting wearily. That’s when I realized what he was doing.
He was talking to her in his mind. Who knew what he was telling her but she seemed to be buying it as she started scanning items. He handed me the receipt and we walked away, just like that. Merrick was turning out to be a just like that kinda guy.
As we loaded down my poor defenseless Rabbit, who squeaked and moaned in protest, we didn’t speak
much. Then when we were finished, I had to fill the passenger seat with stuff too, so I scooted in the drivers side first and slid over to the barely existent middle seat.
Merrick was a little reluctant to get in. I figured it was because he didn’t want the driving lesson. After I gave him a bewildered look, he sighed and slid in too. Our arms and legs brushed against each other inevitably.
It was comfortable for me, it was cold, freezing even and the top was down and he was so very warm. He didn’t seem to share my sentiment however and it kinda annoyed me.
Was he so repulsed by humans not to want to even touch them? Or was it just me? That was why he was so weird in the store and I was making it worse with my incessant need to comfort. Mother Hen Syndrome. I always did the same thing with Danny.
The absolute most uncomfortable part was his being able to reach the gear shift, located in between my knees, so in an effort to thwart the weirdness, I decided to start the driving lesson to get on the road home even faster.
“Ok, now just press the clutch on the left and then slowly let off as you ease the gas on the right a little, while it’s in first gear, here.” I pointed for each instruction as I spoke.
I put my cold hand on his to shift into first and it felt like warm stone.
“Relax,” I breathed and he blew out a long breath.
He started the car and sludged it into gear as it sputtered and coughed but went a little bit and then slammed to a stop as he stalled out.
I tried not to laugh but I couldn’t help myself and a giggle slipped out of the palm covering my mouth. He looked over at me in frustration, helplessly turning off the key and rubbing his hands over his face.
“Merrick, no one gets it on the first time, ok. Just relax and try again,” I tried to encourage him in a soothing voice, holding back my laughter.
Thank goodness we were on the less empty side of the parking lot, with plenty of room and less people. He tried again and made it a bit farther this time before stalling. I laughed again but he didn’t seem very amused wit his sour face and pursed lips like he was eating lemons instead of driving.
“Lighten up, Merrick! It’s ok. Don’t you remember my dad teaching Danny and I? It took quite a few tries. Try again. You’ll get it this time. You’re doing really good. I believe you can do this, ok. Just have fun with it.”
After a few more failed attempts and a little neck lash he got it going and with no red lights to halt us, we headed out of the parking lot and down the road.
He made a very pungent point not to touch my legs as he shifted, which made me even more sour. I wasn’t sure why it bothered me so much, I repulsed everyone, except Matt. I wasn’t a guys girl. Why wouldn’t I repulse aliens too? However, this fact didn’t exactly cheer me up so I sat, shivering in my anger stew.
I twirled my hair in one hand and fidgeted with my necklace in the other. He could feel me shaking and could probably faintly hear my teeth chatter over the roar of the wind as well as he turned to look at me. His body was trying to press against the door as far as it would go. I gave him a quick glance and then went back to shivering and staring at the road.
“Are you cold? I’m sorry. There’s not room to put the top down,” Merrick said glancing over at me a few more times with concern.
“I’m f-fine,” I stammered not looking from the road.
“Are you ok? You seem...agitated,” he observed, glancing over at me again, trying to meet my eyes.
“Well...I’m just sorry your so uncomfortable with my sitting here,” I spouted quickly, refusing to look at him.
“I’m not.”
“Liarrr.”
“Sherry,” he breathed and I did look then and I saw the hesitation on his face. “I’m not human, ok. I’ve seen things but not actually done them. It’s hard for me to...”
“I d-don’t understand what you’re saying.”
“I know. Would you feel better if you leaned under my arm? I hate to see you so cold.”
“No, not if you don’t want me to.”
He pulled his shifting arm up and around my shoulders. I wanted to fight it but oh the warmth! I moaned loudly and embarrassingly but couldn’t care too much. I pressed my head against his chest and turned slightly to him pressing in a little more. Still teeth chattering but much better.
Again, I felt his intake of a deep breath and felt the goose bumps rising on his arm but, I couldn’t see his face and I didn’t dare leave the warmth to look. After a few minutes he spoke again.
“Better?” he asked, trying to sound at ease with the fact that we were touching.
“Yes, you can let go now.”
He did not let go, in fact I felt his grip tighten and pull me closer. It was strange to me how Matt had never embraced me this way, just holding me without expecting anything in return.
This body was perfect, a foot and some taller than me, not hard to do though. Toned tan muscle everywhere with strong arms that used to scare me but now, I felt...safe in them.
I could feel the muscle contours of his arm and chest as I melted into his side as he was very warm for it to be so cold out. The rest of the ride was loud, wind whipping but way more comfortable than before. I fought sleep in the middle of the day, though it looked more like twilight. Weird weather was getting even stranger.
Before we got fully out of town, I felt my stomach growl.
“Can we stop and get something to eat before we head back? Long drive and I’m starving.”
Somehow he understood my stammers the first time over the roaring wind and I felt us slow down, jerkily as we pulled in somewhere. Looking up I saw a local burger dive with a clear drive thru lane. He down shifted but didn’t stall. I was pretty proud.
“What’ll it be folks?” the high pitched chipper voice asked through the speaker in the shape of a painted chipped hamburger with all the fixings.
I wanted to laugh but was too hungry.
“I’ll have a cheeseburger- extra mayo and onion rings and...a raspberry tea,” I said loudly then looked at Merrick. “What are you having?”
“Make that two.” He leaned towards the ordering board for her to hear.
“$9.02, the first and only window, please and thank you,” her shrill voice rang out like a song chorus.
Was she trying to be funny? It must be one of those funny places with humor in every commercial and slogan. The owner in the commercials with costumes on and his nieces sitting at a table in the background, looking like they are at Disneyland instead of chewing on a greasy burger.
When we reached the window I held up my hand in protest to Merrick and grabbed my wallet from the glove box.
“I’ve got this one. You’ve charmed freebies out of enough ladies today I think.” He just looked at me, cocking his head so I reiterated my point. “Joke, Merrick. Joke. You gotta lighten up.”
I chuckled and then reached across him to give my card to the cashier. He shifted in such a way, trying to push himself through the back of the seat to avoid me.
“What is it?” I asked and he didn’t say anything just looked even more uncomfortable. “I’m sorry I touched you, ok.”
He didn’t speak so my assumption stayed right where it was.
Repulsed.
I let him grab the card from her. We drove away with our dinner and I scarfed it, as ladylike as I could, what with being wedged between an alien and a huge box of paper towels with a gear shift between my knees. That surely didn’t help his driving either.
Merrick finished in record time, even commented on how good it was. I thought to myself that he had probably never had a burger before. I wasn’t able to finish my monster of a burger so I slouched back as far as I could and tried to find a comfortable place to shiver, but his arm was already in the air above my head, waiting for me to tuck myself under.
“Oh, thank you,” I said, trying to sound super grateful even though I was still peeved.
I didn’t understand why I repulsed him so much but didn’t feel the need to fight abo
ut it right that second. I could have sworn I felt him smell my hair when I pressed into his side. Probably not.
It grew darker and darker as we reached our hideout. My watch said 1:00 pm but it looked more like 7:00 pm. You’d think in a world of technology they’d invent a car than unloaded itself, but not yet. Therefore, the fifteen trips it’d take to unload this beast would just be that much more exercise. Merrick had already started.
“We’d better hurry. Winds picking up, and I want the elevator clear for when people start arriving. The first one will be here in about half an hour,” he said as he walked a box away from the car.
We hauled and carried until my little car was empty again. Merrick pulled it into the loading dock on the side and pulled the warehouse door down halfway. I guess this was where we’d park so people wouldn’t be suspicious of a bunch of cars lying around.
The small loaded down elevator was tight but we got it all in somehow and packed ourselves in with it before pressing the button.
I had to stand so close to him that I could feel Merrick’s unsteady breaths on the back of my neck, his deep inhaling. Why did he always freak out? I wasn’t t even touching him, trying really hard not to in fact. Jeez, get a grip. I wouldn’t act this way even if I was stuck with a Nazi! Well, maybe a Nazi. But I’m not a Nazi! Why was he so...weird.
I blew out an exasperated breath, too loud I realized.
“Are you ok?” he asked.
“Yep. Fine. Fine.”
Pissed, pissed was more like it.
“Thanks for your help today. I think we did good, should last us a while.”
“Welcome,” I bit out.
“Sherry?”
“Why does this dang elevator take so long?”
“Because we’re so far dow-”
“That wasn’t an actual question, Merrick!” I cut him off, snapping. I hated that I did that, it wasn’t like me but I couldn’t take it anymore. “It was rhetorical. I’m just ready to get out of here and unload all this crap.”
“Ok. I’m sorry.”
“You’re really driving me crazy, you know that.” I turned to him now though it was still pitch black and I knew he couldn’t see me. “You flinch and jerk away if I even think about laying a hand on you, which sometimes just can’t be avoided. I can’t recall anything I’ve done to make you be so upset with me. Then you’re constantly asking me what’s wrong? Me? What’s wrong with you?”