Chapter 104: [21] Close Encounters of the Bus Kind 21 [From Beyond Arc]

Close Encounters of the Bus Kind

[21]

“That’s so freaking wild,” both versions of Gina chimed in together. “So, your ability is making flowers? Or maybe you can bring inanimate things to life?” Eva flashed glares at the Ginas, especially since their voices rose above the reserved tone they had all been keeping to in recounting recent events.

Even though their food was finished and drinks were almost done, the girls lingered in the restaurant, especially after Nadia‘s little surprise for Erin. The blooming effect in water continued like a time-lapse of a real flower but with limitations. The flower got fuller and wider, but they soon noticed that the new sections had a gossamer quality compared to the denser, lower section. Nadia and others deduced that the flower wasn’t technically growing but simply shifting its existing structure to give that impression.

Whether this represented her ability, Nadia felt uncertain. She had attempted to bring her two siblings back from possible erasure. She had teased and prodded many different possibilities and, despite the casual oddities that now orbited around her life, she had no clear notion whether they represented a simple status quo of strangeness or the results of anything she did. The best she could offer to the Ginas was gesturing at the flower and shrugging.

The nearest Gina pulled out her phone, poised to take a recording of the flower in action. It didn’t take Eva long to warn her against posting it anywhere on social media. Both Ginas were indignant, surprised that Eva thought so little of them to be so “recalcitrant”. Eva immediately pressed them to “vigorously“ define the word recalcitrant. And no using Google.

“Well, you know. In fact, you know the word so well that it would be unnecessary for me to define it because it’s a word that you already know… You know?” Eva leaned forward and leaned on Gina’s answer for more specificity. One Gina ducked down and kept back while the other was in the hot seat. After much floundering, she admitted to thinking it meant a fancy version of obstinate. Eva then asked her to specify her understanding of that word.

“I’m not a dictionary. I just say things,” Gina explained with a pout. It didn’t take much more admonishment than that from Eva for Gina to heave a long sigh and solemnly swear, by her entire Star Trek card collection, that she wasn’t going to post this online. Instead, she clarified, “I have some sparse evidence as proof of the supernatural, and I figured this was worth saving.”

Before starting, both of the Ginas turned to Nadia and made sure they had her permission and approval. She gave it without condition and leaned back as Gina filmed the flower doing its thing from all angles. Eventually, the whole production caught the attention of their servers, who were tidying up. Their immediate questions involved whether it was some sort of trick flower and where did they buy it.

Eva carefully framed an explanation regarding a hobby shop to the south which sold flowers for magicians and other entertainers without specifically connecting this flower as being bought from there. The server listening gave a nod and didn’t follow up with any other questions. Eva gave Gina a glower of annoyance as she wrapped up the filming.

Erin delicately extracted the flower from the water glass with bounding uncertainty about what would happen as soon as she picked it up and put it away. The flower appeared fine even though its growth and development paused. Eva offered to volunteer her huge bag for it, but Erin found she could just fit it in hers. Once slipped inside, the flower felt less like a delicate, happenstance creation of paper than an unyielding mass of iron without the weight.

After taking quick turns in the small side restroom, except for the Ginas, who were restrained by Eva on the off chance that something in the bathroom area had triggered the duplication, the girls made their way out.

Because of the lingering cloud cover with Swiss cheese holes, it felt later than it was. The dismal darkness of December had yet to settle in, but the daylight hours were definitely getting shorter. Nadia reminded herself she had to get back with Luna before it got dark.

Gina and other Gina quietly argued whether one or both of them should have a different name. The one with the fake phone, who Nadia assumed was the copy, still looked rather uncertain. The Gina with the working phone celebrated the fact that her phone battery had made quite the recovery. It was actually somehow back at 50%. Yet another mystery.

Odessa cited a few clothing shops for them to check out next, although she also acknowledged that their grimy and relatively unkempt state might lead to them being turned away. The possibility of stopping at a nail spa was proposed, although the girls suspected such a place could only do so much for their appearance.

Before they decided on a certain path, Gina used her phone to check in with one of her apps. Moments later, she gave a slight but dramatic gasp before announcing vigorously, “The Captain is here!” Considering she had to sift through a variety of vaguely-recalled Star Trek references, it took Nadia the longest of anyone to realize that Gina actually meant the squad captain, Leslie.

Erin vaguely comprehended how Gina determined that Leslie was in the area. One of the things that the team set up quite a while ago was a “social circle“ which broadcast when anyone on the team was in a particular area. Typically, it would have reports about where they went in a given week or recently and what kind of stuff they recommended to others.

Paul had some experience with using various apps, but it swung one of two ways. Either he received information so sparingly that it wasn’t worth paying attention or notifications came so heavy and furious at the wrong times for meeting up that he turned off the functionality. It was one of those things that he knew teenagers would care for more than anyone else. This group had it thoroughly organized. Maybe Odessa or Gina could set up her fancy new phone, so it worked right.

Erin asked Gina if it said where Leslie was right now. Gina reported that Leslie had turned off specific location services, but she would try to text her and verify. The group wandered idly until a chime came from Gina‘s phone.

‘Please, don’t look for me,’ read the text message. Gina was immediately taken aback and frantically shared her phone screen around. The other Gina reflected the same emotions. Erin winced and squeezed a hand to her chest. Her mind was split between two varieties of concern.

The first involved the curses and gifts they had somehow all wound up with because of their unexplained encounter last night. Based on the scattershot nature of what they were now able to do, she could only vaguely imagine what poor Leslie might be saddled with. The other involved her sharp memories of the first day Leslie nervously crept into her office and wanted to try out for the Red Rock High’s girls' volleyball team. Rather than having varsity and junior varsity like some schools, Red Rock had a large overflow pool of players and alternates. She had to keep a hard cap and find spots and playing time for as many girls as possible.

The Leslie who arrived at her office that day looked like a nervous fall leaf in human form who might sail off into the sky at the slightest hint of wind. Her hair, unsure if it wanted to be a reserved brown or a bold red, was tied up in a careful, short ponytail emulating the squad captain at the time, and she had on a volleyball uniform in the school colors even though it looked a little too big for her.

“Coach… I have to be on the team!” As soon as she spoke those words, Erin could see all her nerves and tremors fall away. The girl diligently ran through a rehearsed but strong argument for her inclusion on the lowest rung of the volleyball team. She would get her seniors water and help out with tidying the team room while doing a variety of other menial tasks. She assured Coach Reeves that she would earn her place, whatever it turned out to be. By the end of all that, Erin could see that Leslie was barely holding it together. The poor girl nearly dropped to the floor and broke into tears right there. She desperately apologized for that display, but it hadn’t been the first time for Erin.

On that day, she couldn’t guarantee Leslie that she would have a spot and the girl understood. Fortunately for Leslie, she arrived right when there was an unexpected reshuffling of players due to injury and family emergencies. She was one of the lowest alternates, but she was unrelenting, stoic, and focused before every opponent. Erin often saw her staying late to practice.

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It didn’t take her that long at all to make squad captain. She was all business on the court while never giving a cold shoulder to any of her teammates. When Odessa got injured last night, she flew through the air faster than any play to be at her side and make sure she was alright. After whatever they encountered on the bus, Leslie seemed especially reserved, deferring to Tonya. But then Erin had a lot on her mind. She only vaguely remembered the trip to the parking lot.

Eva‘s eyes searched the air for some sign to make sense of this news. Luna hugged her big sister‘s leg but fortunately didn’t ominously drag her in any particular direction. Nadia once again felt like the odd one out. Paul’s impression of Leslie was that she was tough but, on the rides home, she was always listening to some music on her over-ear headphones and quietly peering out the darkened windows. She seemed like just another one of the kids. Only really that noteworthy because she formed the first letter in LET’S GO TEAM.

“Forget that,” Eva responded. “Are you sure you can’t find any other info?”

Odessa chimed in, “What if she just wants to have some private time? It doesn’t have to be more than that. We’ve all had a lot on our minds, even without whatever happened last night.” Both Ginas were willing to accept this possibility, but Eva remained firm and shook her head.

“Trust me. If it were just some normal personal matter, she wouldn’t have even responded or would’ve used the auto-reply option. She’s done that before, and I understand that means buzz off. Here, let me type something.”

Gina passed her phone to Eva, who briefly scrutinized the wall of fingerprint smears shading the screen protector. Using swooping, slicing auto-complete words, she wrote out, “This is Eva. We’ve all been through the craziest 24 hours. We know some things that might help if something you don’t understand is going on with you. If this doesn’t make sense, then please ignore it. We’re all here for you, Captain. No matter what.”

The other Gina glanced at the message and quipped, “Melodramatic much?” Eva simply sent the message and returned the phone to Gina. And there was nothing more to do after that than wait. Odessa clapped her hands and suggested a handful of nearby locations they could window shop while waiting. The girls listlessly ambled as a group towards the nearest one. Eva took the time to give a long-distance look of contempt at the Hot Topic store. A trendy jewelry shop received a quick glance of curiosity from Nadia before she continued on with the group.

Though it was a simple, stray idle concern, Nadia was quietly glad that she hadn’t bought anything before following Erin into the Sears building. Nothing she might’ve liked that got lost. Same with the other girls, although she thought she saw Eva purchase a pendant that went safely into her capacious, now scuffed purse, but that was all. Odessa had tried on a fluttery, green number but decided it was very much out of season. and Gina had inspected some Tarot cards but found them lacking.

Such cursory efforts at shopping continued in the aftermath of the message sent. It was supposed to be fun, but it was clear their horrifying adventure was coming down from the effusive catharsis of survival to the jagged discomfort and distraction that Eva had already traced out with the death of the other Gina.

One of them had died. That could’ve been any one of them instead. They were not coming back. When the unexplained dimension shifted, what was left of her remained behind in that place. Yeah, it made looking at cute tops and jeweled necklaces feel a bit trite.

It was clear from the way Eva chewed on her lip that she was also tense about whether they would get a reply or not. To her relief though, Gina‘s phone gave a chime and Eva promptly leaned over to check. She puzzled but didn’t say anything about the fact that Gina‘s phone actually had even more battery life than before.

The message read simply, “Outside of…” along with the store’s name. Eva released a long breath and nodded as she used Gina’s phone instead of her own, heavily-depleted one to search the store listings. The location was in an older section of the outdoor shopping center, not usually traveled because there were quicker routes to traverse. Eva led the way.

Several benches filled the old offshoot. Leslie‘s ponytail was easy to pick out of the sparse crowd. She crouched on one of the benches with her legs folded up under her in a fetal position. Her colorful head was down with thick, noise canceling over-ear headphones. Her letterman jacket, in the school colors, and her last name GARTLAND in bold script, also made it kind of obvious who she was. Erin shuddered slightly at the memory of how difficult it was to acquire the funds to get jackets for most of the team.

Eva called out her name, but Leslie didn’t respond. Carefully, she walked around to face her. As soon as she did, Eva dropped to her knees with frantic, obvious concern. The other girls soon joined her.

Leslie had streams of tears flowing from her eyes, with red cheeks and trembling hands. From the sound leaking through the headphones, it was obvious that Leslie was listening to very loud, fast-paced music. Her expression almost appeared as though it had been hollowed out from the inside.

She lifted her head weakly and somehow spoke softly and clearly despite the vigorous noises being pumped into her ears, “I can hear it. I can hear everything. I can hear everyone. It doesn’t stop. I can’t make it stop. It’s everywhere. I’m sorry but… I’m going crazy…” She squeezed her eyes tight as new rivers of tears streamed from her eyes. 

[I have a question at the end of the chapter again to help with suggestions for where the story should go. I'm actually not that far ahead this time and I am wide open for possibilities for this particular story. Feel free to add an idea which doesn't show up in the options. Also, if you see any random typos or uncapitalized starts of sentences, please pass them along. I have to cut down on my editing due to release speed and my programs don't seem to be catching lowercase sentences. Thank you for reading!]

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