Chapter 128: [45] Close Encounters of the Bus Kind 45 [From Beyond Arc]

Close Encounters of the Bus Kind

[45]

Gina gently teased her neighbor about dropping a big inspirational speech on the group when that was typically her thing. Eva quietly but confidently responded, “You inspired me.” Gina‘s eyes widened, and she actually didn’t have anything to say to that.

She did lament later that translating the full emotion and text of that speech for the three missing girls was going to be a pain in the ass. Leslie gleefully celebrated that Eva made a fantastic team captain, but Eva wouldn’t have any of that, pressing incessantly that Leslie was still their leader, even though the girl assured her that it was fine. She started to tear up about that while offering floating lessons. They had to be cut short as the lateness of the hour meant that the electricity was going to go off soon and they might be stuck inside.

That actually happened once, some girls of the girls explained to Nadia, when a different coach filled in for Erin and forgot about them. It was a legendary night for the team. They actually planned and put together contingencies about if they were stuck. Fortunately, it was the modern day, and just placing a call to the office and their parents got them out within an hour. But the possibility and jokes of a trapped sleepover with food and rollout beds were the subjects of discussion for a while and the inspiration for the next team trip they wanted to do to wipe the memory of the infamous Adirondacks trip.

Gina sighed. “I liked that trip. But then I thought I captured Bigfoot for like twenty minutes.”

Eva pressed a hand to her forehead. “You captured a raccoon.”

“It’s not well known, but Bigfoot is a dimension-crossing shapeshifter. I’m not taking any chances with that slippery fuzz bucket. And I have been technically proven right for several of my theories now. There are other dimensions out there!” The two of them quickly made their way down the steps. Erin and Nadia lingered at the back but still were easily able to clear out. Nesbitt already left the building.

It was getting dark and chilly. Erin and Nadia snuggled up at the front of campus as the girls phoned their parents. Leslie was about to leave when Gina urged her to stay and have her mom drive her home. Eva even chimed in saying that she could stay at her place if she didn’t wanna go home right away. After a few deep breaths and messing around with her ponytail, she finally agreed. Nadia‘s mom said she could pick her up in twenty minutes, but she declined that to go with Gina‘s mom again. Sharon was also available to pick up Erin solo, but sticking together seemed like the best idea.

Thessaly shared recipes with Odessa while they each sang parts of a tune with a haunting melody. Elsa and Tatiana seem to be talking about a show they both watched online. The group dwindled as each ride arrived until it was just the caper crew again. Since there was some time until Gina‘s mom arrived to pick them up, Eva and Nadia decided to go get some drinks for the others.

The gate was still open and the vending machine was located adjacent to the library. Nadia had a hunch about what Erin wanted and Leslie said she was happy with whatever. Eva didn’t even need to be told what to get Gina. On the walk over, Nadia could tell that Eva wanted to talk. But she couldn’t have predicted the question she asked her.

“Do you think I’m worthy of Heaven?…” Her voice hitched. Nadia looked over at her with wide eyes. Eva fanned her hands and reassured her that it was fine and tried to defuse the moment with a little laugh, explaining, “I just… I just have a lot on my mind and I shouldn’t be laying all that on you. Don’t worry about it. I’m sorry I said anything.”

Before Eva could pivot away from the subject, Nadia urged her that she didn’t mind listening. Whatever Eva needed to get off her chest, she could bear it. Eva lowered her head and gave an uncomfortable chuckle.

“I appreciate the offer, but you don’t know what you’re getting into. I have fought and tortured myself in a million different ways just with the horror that I’m gay. And it’s even worse that the girl I’ve known my entire life, who I consider a shared part of my soul, will never genuinely feel what I feel. She’ll be my friend. She’ll care for me deeply. But never the same. And that’s okay. At least, I tell myself it is. Anything she needs, forever. I daydream of us decades from now with floppy granny…bodies, just giving each other so much trouble. And I’ll take care of her. She made up this silly story once that as babies, I not only changed my own diaper, but made sure she was cleaned up and changed too. Never happened. But I would’ve done it, if I could. Sorry, that probably sounds gross and weird.”

Nadia assured her that it was fine and urged her to continue. Eva put in the change and pushed the necessary buttons on the vending machine as she continued, “I’m not sure why I even blurted that out in the first place. But you’ve always seemed like a good person, Miss Mr. Bus Driver. And I guess we’re kind of dealing with similar stuff. But… I’m scared. Will there be a place for me in Heaven I can call home? Some small piece of the girl I love has gone ahead of me. That’s a real place, just like the other place where I sent that monster. Is He judging me for all of this? I want to be a good girl, but I feel like such a bad person. If I say the wrong word, at the wrong time, terrible things can happen. What can I possibly do?”

She pressed a cold bottle to her neck and passed half of them to Nadia. Those were so many questions to answer, impossible questions with distant answers. Nadia could feel all the same uncertainties with different shades of sentiment. She didn’t have answers. So, she did all she could imagine to do and wrapped up Nadia in a comforting hug.

“I hope you realize hugs just give me more to worry about… not that I don’t appreciate them.” It took Nadia a moment to parse that implication: Eva considered her physically attractive.

Whether a modest boy or a cute girl, the notion still felt ruthlessly foreign and confusing. Nadia blushed and Eva apologized again.

All Nadia could think to offer was some small measure of the encouragement and inspiration that Eva gave the group. They were in this together. Don’t relent. Don’t fear. They had each other and whoever might think or attempt to do ill to one of them, they had the love and support of the others. Eva looked like she had a long list of responses to Nadia‘s awkward comfort. However, she relaxed her tension and thanked her for both listening to the ramblings and offering her words of kindness.

It wasn’t long after they returned with the drinks that Gina‘s mom arrived to pick them up. Sleeping in the car was something Nadia refused to do despite a large, comfortable blanket this time. She didn’t want to see Beyond. She didn’t wanna hear about all the stuff she had done, good or bad. She wanted to hear Erin.

“What do we do about Tonya?” Erin‘s face was tense as she drank her bottle of tea. Nadia reiterated the encounter in the other world, and she sighed.

“So, she has a way to suck life and powers out of us. But why was she doing it? Does she just want them? You overcame her because you knew more than she did. How do we use that now?“ Another series of questions that she didn’t have an answer for. And a hug didn’t mollify Erin’s tension.

They didn’t talk much on the ride home and Gina did her best to keep her mother distracted while the girls existed as islands to one another.

The day slipped away from her in quiet solitude looking through her assigned homework with a combination of nervousness and apathy. Luna showed up, clinging to the door frame with a calm, quiet smile. Nadia asked her little sister how school went for her, and the kid gave a smirk older than her years and simply stated, “Easy.”

She was tempted to ask her to help her with this stuff then, but some level of elder sibling pride made her resist. For not the first time, Luna crept up to her, held her sister tight, and whispered fervently, “I’m sorry…”

Nadia knew that meant something. Luna had so many wild and impossible secrets and Nadia knew by now not to bother prying into them. She just smiled with the girl and rubbed her eyes while looking through her business paperwork.

“It’s going to be okay…” For a split second, Nadia felt confused. That didn’t sound like Luna‘s little voice, but rather Erin’s. She glanced up with concern and questions. But the moment passed, and everything sounded and felt exactly as it should’ve.

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The evening ceded to bedtime with mundane moments between her and her siblings. The next set of the World Cup matches were casually but carefully watched before bed. Turkey played again on Wednesday, and they had to win.

Tuesday flowed past with strengthening routine. Tonya was easy to ignore in the morning between sentences, suspicious glances at her butt, and awkward readings. Nadia learned more about Calculus from Odessa‘s regular homework than she really absorbed from the teacher in Geometry. Audrey and Marisol sat next to her but didn’t feel connected except for their melodious inspirations. The melancholy of losing the one thing they cared most about was tempered by swirling anger for what Nesbitt put the rest of their friends through and the revelations of betrayal, confusion, and uncertainty. There was so much to talk about and yet again so little was said.

She soothed Elsa and Tatiana with quiet words as they both pondered quitting the team from all the torture and uncertainty. Thessaly expressed the same lament while Nadia basically taught half the Spanish course. And the last class with Gina and Eva felt like a bewildering reset. Jokes and the appearance of normalcy plastered above the shaking fears and painful uncertainty of Eva‘s life. Round and round it went. Each day a slight variation on the last. The oppressive constancy was how Nesbitt found new ways to torment them despite every encouragement they could share with one another.

In words.

“Hurry it up, Twinkie Toes!… No need to pull your shorts out of your crotch, Princess. It looks good there… I don’t care what you want to lick later, lick this lesson or you’re off the team!… Do you want more than your name in my mouth, Big Red?… Everyone knows you’re asking for it!…”

And in what she demanded.

No towels this time. Toughen up. Practice in sports bras. Hold that stretch while she looks it over. Accept the sports massage. Take the abuse.

It was so much and so unrelenting that Nadia could briefly imagine it was normal. It was so far over the line to feel absolutely ridiculous and horrifying. And it went on and on and on.

Tonya made no overt motions or suggestions towards the group, so it was easy to just forget the worst possibilities of what she was and what she represented. She slid under the radar as just another one of the group.

Turkey lost their next game and failed to advance. But the house, with a reserved melancholy, still celebrated as far as the team had come with a bountiful meal and cheerful smiles. Luna looked tense though and Nadia had no idea why.

The class day passed, as normal as any of those that came before. On the way to the volleyball team room though, Nadia felt small familiar hands wrapped around her side and clinging to her arm. Luna!

The kid had no explanation for why she skipped elementary school to see her big sister, but her presence was welcomed by gleeful hugs from the entire group along with concern about what coach would do.

Fortunately, the storage closet was big enough to offer her a comfortable place and she was a quiet kid who knew how to keep to herself. Nesbitt never noticed as she leaned into the team unrelentingly.

The torture was no worse than normal, but it was aimed with laser intensity right at Gina.

“Hey, Blondie! Tell me how much you wanna gobble hairy Bigfoot drapes!… How would you like a special close encounter?… I have a cryptid for you, just stay after practice… I bet you never finish anything!”

It didn’t seem to be any one thing, but rather the whole week and the unrelenting verbal diarrhea waterfall that she spilled over a buckling Gina, who did her best to ignore the worst of it, as Nesbitt shouted right beside Eva’s ear.

Inevitably, it happened.

In a quiet moment, right before Nesbitt was about to give her next, filthy order, Eva screamed, “SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP, YOU VILE WOMAN! GO BACK TO THE MIDDLE AGES WHERE YOU BELONG!”

The air shifted and tingled, and Nadia understood innately what was going on before the full weight landed. Nesbitt stood as frozen as a statue with a bright shimmer highlighting her. In an instant, she vanished.

Eva dropped to her knees with her eyes wide and her hands dangling uselessly. Hot, blistering tears stained her cheeks as Eva gasped from her hollowed-out soul.

“No no no no no no no no…oh God no…oh God no. Please God, oh no. I’m sorry, oh please God, oh please God, oh no… What have I done?”

 

[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 always. 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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