Chapter 111: [28] Close Encounters of the Bus Kind 28 [From Beyond Arc]

Close Encounters of the Bus Kind

[28]

The pause in the inevitable couldn’t last forever. She would have to tell her father what was going on. He quickly dashed back over to his truck and pulled it safely to the curb before returning to her side.

Her father’s squeeze of her shoulder was comforting and supportive. She tried to look over at him, but it was hard, especially with trying to piece together exactly the words she needed and wanted to say.

“It was mom. She took away my gift and ordered me to my room. A necklace.”

That was the best way she could get it out in words. Each sentence felt like a delicate step upwards with bare feet weaving their way between broken glass. If she revealed the wrong detail at the wrong time then she feared that all may be lost. Her father would understand why she ran away and worse things than what her mother did would result.

He leaned his head to look at her face and sifted over what she said. “Mom took a gift necklace from you? Why? Did she say?”

The child thing to do would be to shrug and cry some more. “She said we would talk about why, but I got scared.”

Her father rubbed her shoulder and looked like he wanted to ask another question, but he held his tongue. The onus was on her for what came next. So many tickles invaded her throat and wanted to cloud her words and confidence. Nadia cleared her throat a few times before finding the beginning of a sentence to move through.

“I love Erin Reeves. She got me a cute necklace to say she loves me too.”

It was out. Out of the closet. Out of her mouth. Out there like some wretched insect that she wished she could just stuff back inside and ignore. She wanted to just drown in her tears that had no reason to stop flowing now.

What she expected to follow next was her father would slowly separate from her, stand tall and away from her side, and then likely ask for clarification before turning his hardest features and emotions against her in distaste and disapproval. She didn’t have any sort of shell to ward against this fate, but she slightly hunched over protectively. For a moment, she feared that something worse was coming when he strengthened his hold around her.

“In love? You’re in love?” His voice wasn’t harsh but wafted a sense of surprise and disbelief.

“Yeah. With a girl.” Her voice wanted to choke and stumble beneath those words. Her eyes wanted to scrunch up and blot out the sight of her dad‘s next response. She wanted to tell herself that it didn’t matter what the people picked by whatever to be her parents thought about her life. Truly, even if they were her parents by birth, everything was ultimately up to her. It was her life to live.

“And she loves you?”

Nadia looked at her father’s face. His expression was calm but attentive, focused solely on her. Nadia nodded her head, building up her determination to speak.

“Yes. She really does. I mean she told me in front of everyone and kissed me. We talked last night about everything and how much we mean to one another. I know we haven’t really known one another that long, but it feels like it’s been forever. And I feel like this is it and if I don’t express who I am then the opportunity will be lost and I’ll spend years and decades alone, wondering what might’ve been. And I’m afraid that forces and people don’t want us to be together and I’m afraid I’ll hurt her. I just want her to be happy and I’m happy with her.“ Nadia had no idea of the absolute twists and turns of words that spilled out of her but as a raw feeling, as though cutting out the largest piece of her heart and showing it. She sniffled and wobbled throughout but made it.

Her father looked down with a sigh. He was silent for a long measure and Nadia filled that gap with the worst imaginings despite the hopeful notes in his demeanor and questions. Perhaps he would be kind but still tell her that she would be cast out if she continued a relationship or simply demand that she stay away. She couldn’t imagine such sternness coming from such a kindly, jovial man, but she had to recognize that she had only known him for a few minutes.

After a deep breath, Mr. Baris spoke. His tone was gentle and reassuring.

“Nadia. Nadi. My dear, sweet princess. I love you and I will always love you. Nothing will ever change that. Your mother will always love you too, no matter how she acts. We are both proud of you. You have your choices to make in life and we will always support you in them. But I must ask… Do you truly believe that Erin is the one? That you love her enough to marry her someday and spend your lives together?”

Marry Erin? The thought never really came up in Nadia‘s mind, what with the myriad of obstacles, like the fact aliens turned them into teenagers and Nadia into a girl and awakened superpowers in the entire group which brought them to the attention of monsters and strange dream people who warned her that they could destroy the world.

Asking Erin out on a date was as far as her thought process had envisioned. Marrying her felt so far off and fanciful as a prospect. In her old life as Paul Moore, vehicle aficionado and podcast enthusiast, who spent so many hours alone or as the anonymous ferryman for others after a lifetime of thankless service, would gladly marry Erin and be a part of her volleyball coaching existence. But would it have been the same?

As Paul and Erin, assuming the alien encounter still happened but they decided to do nothing to change the course of their lives, he would’ve driven the girls the rest of the way rather than Tonya taking over. Recalling the details of last night, Nadia focused on the fact that Tonya still needed to use glasses. She thought that the aliens had given them a health booster or something like it. Patch up Odessa‘s leg and put Paul and Erin in line with the other girls. And, according to the dream woman, they did a touchup of their genetic code, leading to activating their powers. She knew that none of the other girls needed glasses, but that imperfection sure seemed like something a bunch of experimenting aliens would remedy. Nadia had no idea and the best explanation she could come up with was that perhaps Tonya was a control subject, if the aliens were following anything resembling a scientific method on earth. She filed this away for now.

Continuing this hypothetical scenario, perhaps the group would still be spooked. Gina would share her theories bolstered by the nearby military base and everyone would be bouncing off the walls, but they would arrive at their destination much the same. Perhaps Erin would linger with concern and curiosity, and they would talk. She might even get worried by the lateness of the evening, although without new perceptions to push her over the top.

Still, she might invite him over for a drink and some cheesecake. Bubsy would inspect this strange fellow and perhaps they would reminisce over high school. Would there be love? Would they kiss? Would all those traces of memory and possibility ignite into something more? Did Paul and Erin feel bold enough to take the necessary steps and discover the ocean of feelings within? Nadia would never know. That life never happened. This was the one she was living.

In this life, she truly and deeply loved Erin despite the fact they had a renewed lifetime set out before them as teenagers with families that deeply cared about their well-being. No matter what her mother did, it still paled in comparison to Paul’s mother and her Machiavellian nature.

She said that she loved him and yet she showed an ego-maniacal level of manipulation to have the perfect helper until she was done with him. As Nadia, she resolved she would be in charge of her own life, choose her own path, and control her destiny. No controlling mothers. No sly military agents trying to pick her brain. No monsters. No dreamworld grandmothers with ultimatums. This was her life, and she was going to share it with the girl she loved.

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So, the answer to her father‘s question was easy, “Yes. I want to marry Erin and spend the rest of my life with her, no matter what.”

Sitting beside her on the sidewalk and holding his daughter close, Duman Baris smiled his warmest smile of the day despite acknowledging the fact that an army of black ants was getting very close to their legs. They walked over to her father‘s truck and he gave her a ride back home just a block away.

Neither of them immediately hopped out of the car when her father parked it. From the outside, the house looked absolutely normal. No screaming or chaos filtering out. Mother probably hadn’t started looking for her yet. Nadia wanted to pull herself into the same fetal position they had found Leslie in. Duman cleared his throat.

“I don’t mention it enough, but your elder sister, Iris, is married to a beautiful woman named Isabell. Your mother still has a hard time as a stepmother. She knows that she can never replace Marie in any of our lives, but she should also know that she doesn’t have to. She is very distant from Iris but has made efforts with encouraging her to teach you the piano. I am very upset that she took your precious necklace, your precious gift from someone you care for deeply, no matter her reasons. It was yours and I want you to know that you are respected in our house the same as we expect respect from you."

He discussed and was able to piece together how Nadia ran away from home and other details. Despite keeping a tone of sympathy, he did acknowledge that she disobeyed her mother telling her to stay in her room until she came to talk to her. How she got out without being seen was also a matter of concern. On the one hand, Nadia liked that a window existed that she could sneak through. An escape route, just in case. But he wasn’t going to let her be vague on this point by saying it was just a random window. She had to say which one, and he told her he would fix it, so neither of her brothers might get the crazy idea of climbing out on the roof. With that settled, they both went inside.

Calm pervaded the air until they were several steps in. Her mother practically vaulted the distance from the kitchen screaming a variety of foreign words which lost their bite by being perfectly understandable to Nadia. None of them were crude but plenty of them were terrified and angry. Duman silently and confidently raised a single hand in the air to ask for quiet. His wife obeyed.

“Our daughter needed to go for a walk to clear her head from a difficult afternoon. She told me you have something of hers that you would like to return to her. Please.” He laid out his hand, cupped to receive the necklace. Taliah clenched her teeth and shook her head, but her husband was unwavering.

Stomping back to the kitchen, she actually had to dig around in the trashcan and come up with the necklace, tangled and smeared with dried sauce. Duman slowly shook his head and wore such a serious and rigid expression that she never expected to see on such Father Christmas features. It was like he had been slapped. He turned and delicately placed the necklace in his daughter’s hands. Then he asked her to leave them to talk.

Though he didn’t ask her to go to her room, that was where Nadia felt most comfortable going. Her brothers were leaning forward at the edge of their couch and her sisters had their mouths cupped and whispers traded between each other. Her half-sisters stood in the back room, curious and confused. The last, fading traces of the day filtered through the windows as she climbed the steps.

Luna sat with her legs crossed on Nadia‘s bed. She was looking up, as though she expected her older sister to be there at this moment. The girl seemed strangely older, as though Nadia hadn’t been away for ten minutes but rather ten years, like the old twin time dilation experiment she recalled from a podcast some time ago. Instead of the little girl with dusty skin and brilliant eyes, there was a young woman who seemed to outclass her in years, clad in jeans and a soccer shirt. Hair spilling across her shoulders like a waterfall. The presence of a princess more than she could ever claim.

And there was more. Like an image just slightly out of focus, she could see someone else, smeared by radiant light. It almost clicked into place. But, before an epiphany could reach her, it was gone. Her sister Luna, age five, was back. And the vision was easily explained away as a trick of the darkening light.

Luna scampered over from the bed and wrapped her arms around her big sister. She squeezed her eyes closed and pressed her head to her side. With a sigh, Nadia explained that dad caught up to her and she barely even left their street. Luna listened attentively without any telling expressions.

Before they parted, Luna reached up and gave her sister a kiss on the cheek.

“I love you…” That was all she said before scampering off down the steps.

Nadia stretched and set her escape bag aside. She inspected the necklace in her hands. It had some stains from the trashcan along the band and the parts that formed the words, but that could easily be cleaned off in the sink. The band would need to be lightly scrubbed with soap and water where it was stained. She plopped down on her bed about where Luna had been sitting.

She adjusted her legs and tried to get comfortable but found she was sitting on something lumpy. Pulling on the sheets didn’t fix it. She hopped up and looked at the spot on the covers.

Laying on the comforter, half buried, was another necklace in the same style. She picked it up and inspected it. Her mouth dropped open. It wasn’t just a necklace in the same style as the one Erin gifted to her, but it had the exact same message of GIRLFRIENDS FOREVER with the same hearts and symbols.

Placing both on her computer desk, Erin turned on the lamp and tried to get a good look at each. Her running away note was gone, but she ignored that for right now.

The necklace she’d been holding in her hand was a little bit warmer than the other one. The one she found on the bed looked a little distressed in places. It didn’t have the messy stains of the other, but it had the traces of someone trying to clean it with a slight discoloration mostly faded away where there used to be a stain. Nadia stepped back.

She was reminded of the situation with the Ginas. One of them current and one of them from a little while ago.

These two necklaces, improbably, were her necklace.

 

 

[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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