Chapter 97: [14] Close Encounters of the Bus Kind 14 [From Beyond Arc]

Close Encounters of the Bus Kind

[14]

Not that she thought her little sister was actually some sort of monster. That was for flippant sibling antagonism the kid didn’t deserve. Aside from some adorable and harmless quirks, she was practically a saint compared to the scream machines that often echoed ceaselessly through other bus routes.

She seemed to be around five, but that was just Nadia’s vague estimate based on the fact she seemed more grown-up than a toddler yet not as old as someone in second grade. Before she retired, Paul’s mother volunteered him to help out at several elementary schools. It was one of the nicest and most enriching things she ever did to him.

For what she was going to wear, Nadia marveled at just how many options this teen already had available to her. She felt a pang of guilt at adding to the masses that were already on display. There were also plenty of things that evoked her crush…her girlfriend, in fun and inventive ways. The skirts got pushed aside. Too adventurous for this occasion.

But the leggings intrigued her. Ultimately, she went rather basic and boring, forgoing skinny or fashionably worn jeans for stretchy ones and a top that reminded her of the one that Erin let her try. A warm, white cardigan that covered her hands filled out the ensemble. An unmistakable swath of her chest could be seen, along with a significant band along her belly button, but that was to appease both the man he used to be and the girl she was. And for Erin.

To get by her parents, she hoped that this display wasn’t too out of character. These were items in her closet that weren’t hidden or disguised. If it became a concern, she could pull on one of the oversized sweaters and wear it while they watched and lose it later. For presentation purposes, she dipped her hair down around there and also framed the collar of the cardigan as camouflage.

It didn’t take much looking to find what she assumed was her regular purse and bloat it with things that she figured she would need, from the essentials in her transformed overnight bag to a kit of makeup, a leather wallet, and some snazzy shades (even though it was clear that the haze had lingered through the day). She stuffed a couple of other random things from the table and deemed that sufficient.

This was her first purse, so she figured she was forgetting something. In fact, she knew there was one thing in particular that she’d done her best not to think about. Sure enough, the purse actually had a few of those stuffed in the side. She hadn’t thought to check if there were any tracker apps loaded on her new phone. In fact, for the time being, she was perfectly fine deciding all the things she was thinking about were “a thing” and not to think about them any further until they became a more imminent thing. She had so many deferred “things” queued up to process…

Working on the strange vision she had of her little sister, Nadia came to the conclusion that she had to have seen a beam of light peek through the window in the loft and land on her arm. That made the most sense. The problem arose when she moved over to the doorway and stretched around trying to replicate that illusion on her cardigan.

The drapes did have a spill of light on them, but no beams showed through. And no amount of twisting and slightly opening them spread the light far enough that it hopped over the furniture and landed by the doorway. In fact, putting herself in the direct, afternoon light did absolutely nothing to reproduce the same image. The best she could settle on was that the kid was messing with her with some sort of armband or reflector. And that sufficed for now. She would get around to figuring it out later, or it didn’t matter. Till then, she still had her parents to get past.

Making her way down the steps played up the obvious display and jiggle. She found it remarkable how quickly she’d adjusted to just walking around with… What word would be best for them? She heard “the girls“ bandied about from time to time in stories and jokes. Tits? That seemed like a rather rough and rather inexact term from someone her age. Boobs or boobies sounded silly. Breasts was way too analytical, especially for how they felt. And it made her think more of chicken breasts.

Bosom? Fancy pants wordsmith crap. Honkers? Hooters? Jugs? Tatas? Dongles? Orbs? Mudflaps? That last one kind of hurt even though she liked it. Ultimately, boobs would suffice.

All the prelude and fear about the reaction of her clearly Christian parents turned out to be for naught as her mother was more concerned about the fact she was already leaving the house. But she was glad that her big girl was taking her little sister with her, and she hoped they had a good time shopping.

Her father gave a brief, skeptical glance, but it faded into a reassuring smile as he reiterated all the points that mom already made about being safe, coming home before dark, and making sure she didn’t forget anything. In response, Nadia opened up her purse and showcased what she was taking with her. That sufficed, although her mother appended a stern reminder to not lose track of her sister.

Nadia felt a vague, guilty terror that her other self may have done something like that in the past. How could she possibly do that to the poor kid? The notion jabbed her again when she considered how much her little sister desperately wanted to cling to her. Wearing a serious face and adopting a tense tone, she assured her mother that she would be careful. That was enough.

It wouldn’t be too long for their ride to show up, so they sat together on the porch bench. The holes in the cloud layer had gotten wider, but the haze remained. To the south, this amount of fog would’ve burned off with the first rays of the sun, but this was relatively common for the area. It added an eerie shroud that magnified recent events. Her nose and skin found the humidity pleasant though.

Luna balanced on the edge of the bench while clinging to Nadia‘s arm and leg on the right side. Her little sister wore a gray sweater with a white ribbon pattern. A light beige coat sheltered her shoulders while a dark, long linen skirt with dense crosshatching settled over her thigh-high silver socks. Nadia thought she looked adorable and told her so with a whisper. The kid didn’t really respond beyond reaffirming her grip on her big sister, but Nadia thought she caught the faint trace of a smile on Luna’s face.

A large, tan crossover pulled to the curb in front of the grass and Nadia could just see an older woman wave through the tinted glass in their direction. Erin popped out of a side door soon after.

“Welcome aboard our ship, girls! Glad you can join us on this mission! We’ll be exploring strange new fashions and alien stores! Buckle in before we get to warp speed!” Gina‘s mom smiled broadly, and Gina wore a sheepish grin as she brushed back her long blonde hair. It didn’t particularly surprise Nadia that this is what Gina‘s family was like. The star field print on the ceiling of the car interior with velocity streaks and anonymous planets made for fun viewing.

Luna looked immediately displeased about sitting in the backseat with Evangeline since there was just barely enough space for Nadia, Erin, and Odessa in the middle. Nadia thought about asking to switch around but the stern, icy expression on Eva‘s face kept her hesitant from even broaching the subject, as they settled in. Luna reached for the middle armrest as a compromise and grabbed the coattails of her older sister‘s cardigan. It was awkward but at least the kid didn’t complain.

Erin and Nadia turned to look at each other with warmth and relief as though finally being provided some long-deprived nourishment. Odessa pressed against the window but smiled in Nadia’s direction. No one looked appreciably different, which was a good sign for the integrity of reality.

Odessa had on a thick vest that made her think of a coat missing its arms with a tartan top, a pink sweater, and jeans with boots below. Paul hadn’t really noticed her legs before but always had the vague impression that Odessa‘s were wide and muscular. Now, they looked more toned but slim. Since she was clearly affected somewhat by what happened to them with the repair of her injury, Nadia had to wonder what else might’ve happened to her that wasn’t visually obvious.

Other than the slight slimming of her form, Odessa looked exactly the same as at any other time. She had a presence that vaguely reminded Paul of Lisa Kudrow in the way she intently smiled but with the undertone of pain. Now that was probably presumptuous.

Her hair, which feathered, branched, and swept forward from her shoulders was a layered, multi-tone of shimmering blonde and a deeper, almost-orange brown. Even though Elsa had the name, Paul always saw Odessa as the hesitant princess of the group because of her family and connections. From her current expression, he could tell that something was percolating in her mind.

Clearly, each of them had words they wanted to speak but not while Gina‘s mom could hear. Although considering her apparent enthusiasm for fantastical things, it didn’t seem like she would be averse to hearing about their encounter and weirdness.

Gina gave no impression that it was a safe subject to broach, but her overall silence said enough. She was a vibrant, sun-shining blonde with hair that settled past her chest. She smiled broadly, especially since she got her braces in. Coach worried about whether anyone was teasing her about them but Gina, Paul overheard at the time, assured her to the contrary. Braces were just the newest addition to her freak flag, and she waved it proudly.

She wasn’t wearing anything particularly geeky or unusual though, not that Nadia had a good point of view of her current outfit. However, she caught the curious detail of her silver, tiny classic saucer-shaped UFO earrings. That seemed like a firm but subtle affirmation that she hadn’t forgotten their experience.

Stony Evangeline wore a simple white top with a fleece jacket and jeans. Her massive, brown purse covered her lap like a lumpy pet. Her bronze-toned hair had a rich texture which reminded Paul of young Erin. Eva always kept it long and straight for the bus even though he knew she will put up into a tight, clean fortress for volleyball. She was easily the tallest, practically matching Paul before and dwarfing her now.

Except for some perfunctory comments and questions about water, the ride was mostly silent. Gina‘s mom checked in with the group because she noticed the difference. Gina laughed and reassured her mom it was just because everyone was still wiped out from last night. No one contradicted her.

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The shopping center they were heading for was a slight drive out of the way. Along the trip, it was quite conspicuous that Erin constantly kept her head down or aimed towards Nadia without raising her eyes enough to peer out the window. In place of open chat, Nadia and Erin opted to text one another quietly. She was self-conscious of the outward silliness of sending silent messages to one another when they were literally bumping shoulders.

Erin elaborated on her experiences since Sharon dropped Nadia off at the Baris home. Like the scare with the tar beast. After the weird Air Force guy tried to talk to her, she actually found herself napping with Bubsy curling up on her chest like a little spot heater. She also experienced what could’ve been considered a physical shift when she discovered a school bag that clearly hadn’t been there before. No scary, manifesting homework, fortunately.

But she found plenty of things looming in this new life. Her greatest anxiety came with uncertainty about whether they shared any classes. If Nadia had anything to say about it, she would make sure that she was right beside Erin every step of the way come Monday. Nadia restrained her theory about whether forces were guiding them along a path or whether Nadia or any of them had a particular agency in what happened. Instead, she celebrated an innate talent for the piano which seemed to have been gifted to her with this body. Erin cheered about that and succinctly assessed that she had had a pretty boring day so far compared to the familial cacophony that surrounded Nadia.

The shopping center was just past a small commercial park, the library, the auto center, and the courthouse. A former Sears in a lower section of the complex was vacated with posted and scratched-out plans from City Hall about what they were going to do next with the property. Aside from that, the center was bloated with over a million square feet of shopping hungry for their dollars.

Gina‘s mom did her best to avoid the parking structures but eventually had to slip into a spot on the second level. She was headed for a fancy restaurant to have drinks and appetizers with some coworkers but offered to accompany the group to the entrance. Gina assured her they would be fine. When they were finally, relatively, alone, Gina buckled and made a sound somewhere between a note of exasperation and a scream.

“Aliens, right? Real freaking aliens last night? Also, sorry Paul about getting carried away. That was totally inappropriate of me. I just had to see and feel proof of real freaking alien contact and transformation.”

Through Gina’s energetic admission, Nadia started gesturing and glancing towards her little sister, who aimed her curious eyes at Gina. It took a surprising amount of time for Gina to get the hint. Evangeline huffed a light sigh with her arms folded.

Crouching before the kid, Gina asked, “Do you believe in extraterrestrials?”

Luna shrugged.

“Do you think aliens are real?”

Again, Luna just shrugged.

“Okay so, we totally ran into aliens last night and your big sister was transformed by them. Are you okay with us talking about that? Like your sister used to be a big tough, macho bus driver man and now she’s cute. Does that freak you out to hear?”

Nadia would’ve disputed the idea that Paul was big, tough, or macho along with questioning her own cuteness, but she decided not to step in.

Yet again though, Luna simply shrugged.

Gina straightened up and groaned as she joked, “You kids these days. Nothing bothers you. Alright, I guess.” That was surprisingly close to Agent Cross’s comment, but Nadia assured herself that it was just coincidence.

Nadia accepted Gina‘s apology for trying to strip her when they woke up after the UFO. However, her scrutiny continued, despite being hands-off. She wanted to know if Paul had changed completely and if they were any physical abnormalities or new emotions or weird physical sensations or “gender dysphoric feelings” or anything else existential. She pulled out her phone and looked ready to jot down notes. Luna‘s expression didn’t change, except when she quietly yawned behind her hand.

The girls walked towards the stairs that would take them to the ground level as Nadia did her best to provide answers she felt fine with giving. Everything appeared physically normal, but she hadn’t experienced the full range of things. She saw Erin give a quick smirk. Emotionally, she noted that some things felt more turbulent but also nuanced. Whether that was due to the magnitude of the change or her altered biochemistry, she had no idea.

The dysphoric notion took a bit of delving consideration. She admitted out loud that she felt herself adapting. Her… Whatever you wanted to call them… On her chest didn’t feel alien or foreign. The physical adjustments also had a layer of rejuvenation which helped her accept them. There were plenty of frustrations about being a minor, which felt like preaching to the choir with that group. But bringing up and briefly demonstrating her amazing flexibility, reiterated by a brief display from Erin, showcased plenty of positives.

Odessa chimed in that she now had a renewed range of motion and lack of discomfort since after the bus. Evangeline tersely glossed over the same. Gina attempted to convince herself that she felt different too, musing about whether it was the actions of the aliens but didn’t look confident.

The complex had an outdoor area attached to a classic, 80’s two-story mall. They started at the food court and intended to work their way down. Glancing to her right, Nadia noticed that Erin was frozen in place. No one else saw she was halted, except for Luna, who intently locked eyes with Erin.

Barely speaking above a frail breath, it took careful attention and blocking out the crowds for Nadia to figure out what Erin was saying.

“Something’s here. Something terrible, something dark. Something’s here. Something terrible, something dark.”

Before blinking and clearing away a nightmare vision, Nadia thought tears of blood were streaming down her girlfriend’s cheeks. 

[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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