The undercover replied, mimicking her almost word for word, “You do not have what I want. I have made a mistake.”
Nadia stared, never breaking eye contact. She continued speaking in that low, even tone of voice, “We can go now, have a nice day.”
Again he repeated her. “You can go now, have a nice day.”
Nadia steered me out the door as I gawked at the zombie security guard. She pinched my arm, pulling me along like a reluctant dog on a leash. I was blown away by what I’d witnessed.
“How the hell did you do that?” I choked in a screechy voice. She tugged me out into the parking lot, straight for my car. As we reached my car she pulled me down to her face, nose to nose.
With a dead serious look she twirled her fingers. “It’s a Jedi mind trick.”
It wasn’t until I saw the twinkle of sarcasm in her eyes that I realized she might be joking. Then she waved her hand and dropped her voice a couple octaves. “These are not the droids you’re looking for.”
She did a pretty good Obi-Wan Kenobi.
“No, seriously! Why did you do that? I could’ve paid for it.” I was flustered over the near-miss shoplifting bust. Though I didn’t have much, I always paid my way. I may be white trash, but I’m honest white trash.
“Don’t worry. I do it all the time.” She smiled and climbed up into the passenger side of the Geo, waiting for me.
“But why? It’s not necessary. I had it covered. It’s okay, I have enough money.” I recalled with chagrin the three hundred she’d left behind. As if she’d read my mind, she caught my eye and winked conspiratorially.
“Why do people climb Mount Everest? Why do they swim the English Channel? Why do they go to the moon? Why do we do any of the things we do?” She promptly answered her own question, “Because we can. I do it because I can. I’m really very good at it you know.” She gave me a wicked little half smile.
This girl was gonna get me in a whole shitload of trouble. Way more trouble than I could handle.
Not knowing what else to do at the moment, I hopped into the driver’s seat. “So … where are you headed?”
“Wherever you’re going.” She replied with a mischievous twinkle in her golden eyes.
“I know that, I’m giving you a ride, but to where?” I asked, but I had this weird feeling in my gut. I already knew what she would say.
“With you, wherever you’re going. You’re going home aren’t you?” She looked as if the answer was obvious. Stupid me, wasting time.
I was afraid she’d say that. How could I deny her? I owed her my life, literally. But taking her home could become awkward very quickly, especially with Dad.
“Alright then, home it is. Oh, and my name is Michael, but you can call me Mike. It’s nice to meet you, Natasha.” She looked at me funny, and then I remembered how she’d been calling me that other name. “So, uh, who’s this Mikhail guy? You said his name a couple times the other night.”
“He’s someone I knew a long time ago. You remind me of him.” She paused, considering, then continued, “Do you believe in reincarnation?”
“Ahhhmm … that’s pretty heavy stuff. I don’t know. I never really thought about it. I guess it’s possible. I read a magazine article that said there are a bunch of documented cases where people have memories of a past life. Why?”
She smiled. “Do you think people deserve second chances? Even if they have done something beyond forgiveness?”
“Ah, I suppose. I guess it depends on what they did. And what does that have to do with reincarnation?”
She smirked knowingly, but didn’t say another word. This girl got weirder by the minute.
At the trailer park, Richard’s silver Ford F-250 was parked in the driveway. Great, Dad’s home. Never there when I need him, but he’s always around when I don’t. “Um Nadia ... listen … I don’t know if it’s such a good idea for my Dad to see us together. I mean … this is kinda hard to explain. You know what I’m saying?”
She nodded. I stared at my ugly little trailer, assessing all entries and exits. The possibilities were pretty limited. I sighed in resignation. There was really only one way to do it. And I knew it was gonna happen. I’d already seen it in that damn vision.
“Would you mind coming in through my bedroom window? You’re welcome any time, but it’s just … I don’t know how to explain this to my Dad. He wasn’t here the other night, so he doesn’t know what happened. You understand?” Yeah, awkward.
I had a hunch she didn’t have a place to stay tonight, and I was more than happy to help any way I could. I felt obligated to help. She seemed like such a free spirit. I figured her parents were dead or she had runaway.
“Sure, I understand.” She smiled, but her eyes flashed with something, a look of annoyance.
Dad was on the couch watching football, beer in hand. Nothing new. As was the routine, I asked, “Any luck today?”
And as usual he had an explanation of some kind. “Oh yeah, I put in for a maintenance position with RSC over on Broadway. You know, the rental company. I think I got a good shot at this one.”
I accepted the line of bullshit without comment. Same crap he’d said a dozen times over. Tonight I had other things in mind. I hurried off to my bedroom to open the window, turning on the radio to mask any noise. I wasn’t overly concerned. My father wouldn’t be moving from the couch tonight.
Nadia stood off in the shadows, blended into the trees. If I hadn’t known she was there, I’d never have seen her. I suspected she was no stranger to sneaking around in the dark. She moved up quickly when I waved her over. I reached for her, but she was already flowing up into the window gracefully, with the sly coordination of a black cat in the night. She landed right in my arms, hugging me with a whisper.
“Thank you. I was getting tired of waiting.”
That’s when it hit me like a sucker punch to the gut, a heavy sense of déjà vu. A chill knifed down my spine. No matter how many times my visions came true, it was still fuckin’ creepy. And that was only the first of three, two more to go.
She felt me tense up in her embrace. “Are you alright? Is something wrong?”
And then it happened. “Not again.”
Without warning another vision flashed, replacing my bedroom with another time and place. It was nighttime. I found myself in a fenced storage parking lot, littered with all kinds of equipment. Somewhere I had never been before. In the darkness, I was drawn to a droplight casting weird patterns of light and shadow all over the front of a large tractor. The front bucket reached high in the air, and someone was working underneath. I could see a man in coveralls, whistling, but he faced down and away.
Something grabbed his attention, and he looked up at the cab of the tractor. I almost saw his face, but then the front boom dropped. He tried to move, but it happened so fast he couldn’t get out of the way.
The thing slammed down and crunched his left leg, pinning him beneath the heavy steel bucket. His screams tore through me, unlike any sound I’d ever heard from a man. Deafening screams of agony.
In a blink I was gone, the horrid sound cut off. My stomach flopped in vertigo, sick from what I’d seen.
“Shit.” I was breathing hard, trying not to puke.
Nadia stood there, still in my arms, looking at me, concerned. “Are you sick?”
“No, it’s fine.” No mutilation here, we’re all good. “I’m gonna cook some mac and cheese, you want some?” She shook her head. “Wait for me – quietly. I’ll be back in a few.” I left her standing there, confused. I needed a few moments to calm down.
I tore through my mac and cheese ravenously and took off back to my room mumbling to Dad that I was tired. Richard ate the remainder of the mac and cheese in front of the TV, glued to the game. The Seattle Seahawks were playing. That was Richard’s team. Even though the Seahawks rarely ever made it to the playoffs or the Super Bowl, Richard Evans watched them religiously, a die-hard fan.
I found Nadia curled up in a ball on my
bed, her black clad legs tucked under, almost swallowed by her newly appropriated maroon hoodie. She was paging through last year’s high school yearbook. She looked up and flashed a magical smile when I sat on the bed next to her. Seemed like she belonged here in my room, as if she laid claim to my territory, and it was now hers.
She leaned in, cuddling up against me as I put my arm around her. It felt natural, this easy physical closeness. I never had a sister or even so much as a cousin, but if I did I’d want a sister like Nadia.
Well maybe not exactly like Nadia. I liked to think our familiarity was a brother-sister thing.
I went through my yearbook with her, pointing out Anita and some of the regulars at the skatepark. I gave her my hater spiel about the various douche bags at school that I couldn’t stand; Justin, Tommy, and a good portion of the wrestling team, pointing them out as well. I told her about the stupid McDonalds playcenter video I posted, all the arguments, and my slashed tire. I even confided in her about my thing for Rachelle Werner. Nadia crinkled up her nose as if she smelled something rotten.
I reassured, “You don’t have to worry about Rachelle stealing me away. She won’t have anything to do with me.”
Nadia stared at me with her disarming hazel eyes that seemed far more mature than her adolescence. “If she already has your heart, what’s left to steal?”
It was an uncomfortable line of inquiry I’d rather not answer. She made up her own mind about it. “I’m not sure she’s right for you.”
I didn’t know what to say, so I let it drop. “Are you hungry? Can I get you something to drink?”
She shook her head no, but licked her lips as if thirsty. “No, I’m okay, I ate earlier.”
Nadia put down the high school yearbook and patted me on my thigh, holding my gaze with that soul-deep stare. “I think you should get some sleep.” As soon as she spoke I felt tired.
“Yeah, good idea, I’ve got school in the morning.”
She reached over to click off the light switch and pecked me on the cheek with a platonic kiss. “Good night.” Then she curled up under my blankets like it was the most natural thing in the world to sleep in my bed. She had definitely taken over.
If she wasn’t worried about sleeping in my bed, why should I?
I was too tired to care. I stripped off my shirt and climbed under the covers. She curled around me and snuggled up tight. It was weird at first, but I drifted off in minutes.
Throughout the night I had the same recurring dreams of Nadia, her lithe, pale limbs entwined around me intimately. I dreamed of slow, sliding, seductive motions gliding over my skin, like a boa constrictor coiling around me. Late at night, I awoke to find Nadia had stripped off her hoodie sweatshirt. She was in her little half shirt, wrapped around my torso, her head buried in my neck, her spindly legs enveloping my left thigh. I thought I heard her saying things in Russian again, calling me Mikhail and at times Misha.
In a moment of lucidity, our gazes locked. She was but a centimeter from my face, staring at me intently. I thought she might kiss me. “Go back to sleep.” I was so damn tired that’s exactly what I did. I quickly returned to the dreamland of Nadia.
My cell phone alarm went off next morning, and Nadia was gone again. This time she left a $100 dollars on my dresser. But I thought of her as a sister. Didn’t I? Maybe she didn’t view me as a brother and I remembered that almost kiss last night. Shit. All I knew was that $100 would be put to good use.
“There’s my new tire.” I smiled.
Then I remembered something from that wicked vision last night. The side of that tractor had three letters on it – RSC – the company with the job opening Dad had just applied for.
“Shit.”
* * * *
Chapter 7
Monday, September 27th
I sat next to Anita on the bleachers in the Moses Lake High School gym zoning out while waiting for the assembly to begin. She jabbered all the latest gossip, pointing out various couples on the bleachers below. I grew bored with the he-said-she-said pretty quick. My thoughts drifted back over the strange encounters with Nadia, and my visions. I rolled the images over in my mind again and again, searching for meaning, portent. The first vision had already happened, Nadia was there outside my trailer, and then at my window. The second one made almost no sense, me dancing with some girl, while Rachelle was mean-mugging me.
Should I ask Rachelle to homecoming? What did it all mean? Do I actually have a snowball’s chance in hell of dating Rachelle? Maybe this vision meant it would be a mistake to go to homecoming with anyone else, because she’d be really angry with me.
But Rachelle doesn’t even like me.
None of it made any sense. Maybe she was mad about something else? There were too many unanswerable questions. But I hoped it was a sign that I should ask Rachelle to homecoming. That’s how I chose to interpret it.
The third vision showed Nadia in trouble, but I couldn’t see who the guy was. Some asshole pervert crawling all over her, a sexual predator. How can I stop it from happening if I don’t know the details of who and when? I’d have to keep her close, make sure nothing happened to her.
And what the hell was I supposed to do about this latest gruesome vision, the guy with the tractor at RSC? Was my Dad gonna get hired and then crushed by a tractor? How could I stop that? And what would I say – Hey, don’t work on that tractor, someone’s gonna get hurt. Yeah, who would listen to that shit?
I recalled my previous visions. I had tried to make a difference, to change the outcome, but I wasn’t really able to do much.
Three years ago, dead of winter, January, I’d arrived at Rachelle’s to walk her to school, our morning routine. She was running late and would’ve made us both late to school. I didn’t care, I waited for her. We were real close back then.
Thing is, it took forty minutes to walk from Rachelle’s house down Northshore Drive to the bridge, then across and back down to Frontier Junior High. The school was basically on the opposite side of the lake from Rachelle’s backyard. Going around the lake to the bridge wasted a lot of time.
Rachelle had mentioned walking across the frozen lake several times in the past week. She hated being out in the cold and snow. She hated walking. Normally, her mother gave her rides to school, but their Honda civic was in the shop, and her Dad took the Tahoe to work early.
As she finally exited her bedroom, makeup and hair perfect, she looked at the clock and looked at me. I already knew. She grabbed my hand and marched around to her backyard. I stopped short, but she pushed. “Come on, let’s do it. We might make it on time if we cut across.”
“You’re nuts.”
“It’s been frozen for three weeks. They were playing hockey a couple days ago. Come on.”
As soon as she stepped on the ice I was slammed with a vivid vision of Rachelle falling through the ice, completely submerged in the lake. Her pale face turn blue-grey as she beat on the ice from below, fighting to find a way to the surface while the current dragged her down the ice, away from the breakage. I had never seen anything more frightening. It seemed so real I actually shook with the chill of the icy water wrapped around my body.
As I awoke from the vision, I hyperventilated, a panic attack. I caught my breath, and snatched Rachelle’s coat to stop her. “Don’t! You can’t go, you’ll fall through. I know it, I just know. You have to believe me, Rach.”
She humored me for a minute, listened to my grisly tale of a vision of death. Then she grabbed my hand and resumed her march out onto the ice. I begged her, “I don’t care how late we are. It doesn’t matter. Let’s skip, we’ll spend the day in your basement with the X-box or we can do whatever you want.”
She snapped on me. “Stop whining, we’re going to school, every minute we waste is making us that much later. I have Lynch first period, he’s cool as long as I’m not more than five minutes late. Come on!” She yanked on my hand and kept on walking.
“NO! We are not going out there! You’re gonna die
out on the ice! Don’t you get it?”
She looked at me and laughed in my face. Not one of those ha-ha-your-so-cute laughs, it was a bitter, mocking sound.
“Listen, you wanna stay here and be a whiny little bitch, go for it. I’m going to school!” With that, she left me behind at a fast clip, straight across the ice.
I debated for a moment whether or not to follow her. I was just angry enough to leave her to her fate. In the end I felt like I had no choice. I followed her out onto the ice, certain in the knowledge that it wouldn’t hold her weight, let alone both of us. She was halfway across the lake by the time I caught up to her, slipping and sliding with every step. I was terrified.
We made it most of the way across. I had ceased trying to convince her to turn back. She wouldn’t hear another word of it. She got nasty with me, “Shut up!”
We were about twenty feet from the shoreline when the unnerving crackle-snap sounds started. I ran. I yanked Rachelle’s hand up and pulled her as fast as I could run.
The ice broke near the shore.
The glacial cold water was only four feet deep. If we had fallen through a few paces back we’d have been in over our heads, caught in the current, exactly as I had envisioned it. As it was, we were soaked, standing in freezing water that reached all the way to our chins.
“Yep, you were right. I am totally drowning right now.” She glared at me full of hate.
Even as her teeth chattered in the cold, wet hair plastered to her forehead, she was so beautiful, and still alive. I was so happy we’d made it, I kissed her.
“Get off me!” She shoved me away.
We dragged ourselves out of the lake and trudged the rest of the way to school in silence. The two city blocks across Broadway and Third Street were sheer torture in the freezing January morning breeze with sopping wet clothes. Our pants and jackets were crisp with ice by the time we made it to the nurse’s station. We got the day off from school, both of us caught the flu. I was out of school for an entire week. Rachelle only missed three days.