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Part 7
“Liz hungry?” Joshua asks me, his eyes wide, his look eager. I gaze at him with eyes that just won’t stay open, peering over the rim of my coffee-filled mug. God I hate coffee. It’s the most disgusting beverage on earth, besides beer maybe. How people can drink this brew every day is a mystery to me.
So why am I drinking it, you might want to ask. Simple. I’m so tired I could fall asleep standing up. And why is that? Yup, you guessed it. Couldn’t sleep.
Again.
How many nights has it been? Don’t know. I lost count. Finding out you have the alien power of your worst enemy sort of does that to you. Not exactly a cushy pillow for your conscience to rest on.
I tossed and turned all night, every night ever since the day I ran into Biggs being beaten to pulp. Even though physically I’m becoming more and more exhausted, my mind just keeps on spinning and reeling, not letting me get any rest. And God knows I could use some. Just look at me now.
My thoughts keep going back to that day, to what I did, to the power I used before I even knew I had it in the first place.
And here I thought the universe was done using me as its scrap goat. But no. I’m still right smack in the center of this huge, cosmic joke, otherwise known as my life.
I stopped trying to convince myself that I was wrong, that there was some other logical explanation for what happened with Biggs, about five minutes after it took place. I mean, who was I kidding? I knew that it was true, and pretending that it wasn’t wouldn’t make it go away. If there’s one thing the last weeks, scratch that, months have taught me, it’s that. Denial doesn’t get you anywhere. Just look at what it did to Ma…okay, so not going there.
Where was I? Right. My favorite new power. So what do I do about it? I try to deal. And how do I do that? I don’t have a fucking clue.
“Liz?” Joshua asks again, and I realize that I have yet to answer his question.
“No, I’m not really hungry,” I say. And it’s true. Much too tired to eat.
But Joshua ignores me and starts cramming around in the kitchen cupboards, obviously looking for something suitable for a human to have for breakfast. He pulls out a box of cereal, or at least I think that’s what it is. It’s covered in so much dust that you can’t make out the writing. Hmm, guess I know what I’m not gonna be eating for breakfast today.
He blows off the dust and I see that it’s a box of Fruit Loops. Didn’t they stop producing them right after the pulse? Mmm, yum.
He places it on the table in front of me and then continues his search, probably looking for a bowl or something.
I grab the box and start looking for the best-before-date. “Um, Joshua,” I begin. “I don’t think this is good anymore.”
“Not good?” Joshua asks, sounding surprised.
“Yeah. See, it says ‘Best before January 2007’ here, and we have the year 2021 right now. So I sort of think it would be better not to eat this.”
“Oh,” Joshua says, looking disappointed. Guess he was pretty set on providing me with a decent breakfast.
“Don’t worry,” I say, feeling bad for putting that look on his face. “I’m really not hungry.”
“Breakfast is the most important meal of the day,” he lectures me sternly.
“Yeah, yeah,” I reply almost chuckling. But I’m too tired to chuckle. “I’ll grab a bite after leaving the house.”
“Liz going out?” Joshua asks frowning. “Again?”
“Yup,” I simply reply.
“Where?” he asks.
“Out,” I say, not wanting to elaborate.
Glancing at my watch I see that it’s already past 10am. Gulp down the rest of the bitter, black liquid in my cup, reach for my backpack and head for the door before Joshua can give me another one of his “City not safe” speeches. God knows I’ve heard enough of those lately.
“Gotta bounce,” is all I say. Then I stop. Gotta bounce? Geez, I have been spending too much time in Seattle. When exactly did I pick up the local slang?
Shake my head and reach for the doorknob. Go out, close the door behind me and start walking down the porch steps. I barely make it down to the sidewalk before somebody suddenly crashes into me, wrapping their arms around me so tightly that my breath is knocked out of me.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” the person keeps saying over and over again, their voice thick with tears.
It takes a moment before my sleep-ridden mind comprehends that it’s Annie. After a few minutes I manage to extract myself from her crushing hold on me. God, how can someone so small have such an iron grip?
She’s looking at me, her eyes shining with tears and…woah, wait a minute. She’s looking at me? So I guess it did work.
“You can see,” I say, sounding slightly surprised, even to myself.
“I don’t know how you did it, and…I don’t care. It doesn’t matter to me who you are or what you are. I…I don’t know how to thank you. Nothing I could do would ever be enough. But…if there is ever anything I can do for you, all you have to do is ask. No matter what it is. I…I didn’t think I’d ever get to see the smile of a child again, or a sunrise, or the blue of the sky…”
She trails off and glances up at the gray, cloud-covered sky, a huge smile on her face lightening up her features.
I glance up too. “Well, if you stay in Seattle chances are high that you really won’t ever see that again,” I comment, not knowing what else I could say. I’m not used to people gushing over me like that anymore, it’s embarrassing. The last time somebody did that was actually the night right before I left Roswell and went over to…okay, this is so not the right time to think about that. Damn it, why do my cheeks suddenly feel so hot?
Joshua suddenly opens the door. “Heard voices,” he says. “Everything o…” He trails off upon seeing who’s with me.
I know exactly that he knows exactly that he’s supposed to stay in the house, especially during the day, but upon seeing Annie he seems to forget all the things people have tried to drill into his canine brain for months. He comes down the steps with the silliest grin on his face – in the mean time I recognize his grin when I see it – and I quickly glance around to make sure nobody else is heading in our direction.
What? You sort of get the drill after keeping someone else’s secret for the better part of two years.
“Hello Annie,” he says.
“Joshua,” she replies looking at him.
After a moment he frowns, then waves around in front of her face with his hand. She backs away a bit. “Joshua, that’s a bit irritating.”
“Annie can see?” he asks. Then his jaw hits the floor, his eyes go wide. “Annie can see! Annie can see Joshua!” he shouts before making a weird howling sound, almost as if in pain, and quickly covering his face with his hands. He turns around and stumbles up the stairs, tripping once before he runs smack into the door, wrenches it open and disappears into the house. And the whole time he’s making these weird crying sounds.
What the hell?!?
I turn to Annie, who is staring at the front door of Joshua’s house. She looks just as surprised by Joshua’s display of queer behavior – even for him – as I am. “You didn’t tell him that you can see?” I ask.
“No,” she says, still sounding a bit shocked. “At first my vision was so blurry and the light hurt my eyes so much, I could hardly open them. I thought that maybe it was only temporary and I would lose the little sight I had regained again and so I didn’t want to get my hopes up. It got better over time and now my sight is back completely.”
“Oh,” is all I say. I mean, what else am I supposed to say to that?
Annie is still looking at the door Joshua disappeared behind. “Maybe I should go and talk to him. I don’t want him to think that I don’t want to be his friend anymore now that I can see what he looks like.”
“Yeah,” is all I say, once again not really knowing what else to say. She smiles at me one more time before heading up the porch steps and I turn around and make my way towards downtown for another fun-filled day of running around Seattle till I have blisters. Thank God for alien healing powers.
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