Earth (26 page)

“Can I help you?” Deb’s voice carried back to
us.

“Just looking,” a familiar voice drew all of
our attention. Steven nearly fell over at the sight of Ian at the
front of the store.

“Oh my god,” Jodi whispered behind her hand.
The white was showing all around her blue irises. I sat
dumbfounded, blinking stupidly at him. He looked entirely out of
place among the warm woods and sparkling crystals.

“Shay, look,” Steven said, nodding his head
toward Ian unnecessarily.

“What?” I asked, not sure what else I was
supposed to notice.

“He’s wearing short sleeves.”

“Oh jeez, you’re right,” I whispered. I set
the book I had been reading on the floor and pushed myself up. I
felt Jodi reaching to grab my leg to stop me, but I stepped out of
her reach. Her nails caught on my jeans, but were unable to hold
on.

“Shay!” Steven hissed at me, but I was
already half way over to Ian. I
reached out
for him and,
unlike Jensen, I felt something. He was one wound up nerve,
snapping and angry, biting at my skin. But it wasn’t quite a
signature; his nerves were overwhelming his normal aura. I pulled
back from him just as he saw me.

“Hey,” I started lamely, but before I could
say anything else he spun on his heel and hurried out the door.

“Do you know that boy?” Deb asked from my
side.

“Kind of.”

“There’s something not quite right about
him.”

“Yeah, maybe,” I said, but I had gotten close
enough to him to see that the skin of both of his arms was perfect
and smooth, not so much as a freckle marked him. My heart fell. I
had to admit to myself that I was secretly hoping it was Ian this
whole time just so it couldn’t be Jensen.

Later that evening, when I was back at home,
my dad had the evening news on and they announced that schools
would be reopened on Monday. Normally I would have groaned like any
other teenager, but I was anxious to see Jensen and couldn’t think
of a pretense to just show up at his doorstep today. I could pull
off asking to see his arm for no reason if we were already near
each other, but I couldn’t imagine just showing up at his house
unannounced to do it. I’m clever, but I’m not that smooth. And now
with Ian ruled out I was even more terrified of what I would see
when I saw Jensen.

Monday morning I picked Steven and Jodi up
for school, driving in a haze. I think I must’ve gotten a whole
three hours sleep the night before. I kept dreaming about Michelle
and the man I hoped wasn’t Jensen. Every time he was successful in
striking either me or Michelle it woke me up and each time it got
harder to fall back asleep. I was anxious about seeing Jensen and
my mind was having a very difficult time reconciling the sweet
faced boy that kissed me in the dim light of his car with the
twisted, possessed thing in the clearing in the woods. I knew it
would be so easy if I saw the burn mark on his arm. We’d know who
we were looking for and would have no trouble getting him, but I
couldn’t help but hope that I’d look at his arm and see nothing but
smooth, beautiful skin.

Steven and I split off from Jodi as she
continued on her way to Chem. We walked into Home Ec and stopped
dead in our tracks. The first two feet of the walls were stained
and the first layers of paint were peeling away. The six tiny
kitchens that lined the walls were taped off with caution tape and
Mrs. Price was sitting behind her desk and looked like she was on
the verge of tears. Steven and I shared a look and walked to the
back of the class to take our usual seats. The tardy bell rang and
Mrs. Price nearly fell out of her chair from jumping so high when
the bell sounded.

Even all the way in the back we could hear
her sniffle as she fought the wave of tears threatening to break.
She stood, a little shaky on her tiny feet, and walked around to
the front of her desk. It too had signs of water damage along the
front and sides.

“Good morning, class,” she began in a
quavering voice. “As you can see our beautiful kitchens have been
damaged,” she made a sweeping motion with her hand to the room at
large, “and because the school never understood why I wanted the
ovens off of the floor and mounted in the walls, they too are
damaged and we have been instructed that we cannot use them until
they are repaired or replaced.” Her voice finally broke on the last
word and she pulled a lace handkerchief out the pocket of her
apron.

“And considering how much the repair or
replacement of six ovens will cost, I doubt it will be before the
end of the semester. And I did have such lovely plans for
Thanksgiving and Christmas.” She was crying openly now and two
girls at the front of the class rushed to her side, whispering
soothing words of comfort as they helped her back to her chair.
Steven and I looked at each other, not needing to speak; his face
reflected the anger and worry I was feeling. You never really think
of the small trivialities one person’s selfishness can cause and
just how far it can reach.

Mrs. Price gave us a free period after she
composed herself. Most of the class sat and talked about the damage
done around town and the rumors they had heard about the rest of
the school. The gym had been damaged so much that the Board of
Health had condemned it and no one was allowed inside for safety
reasons. Luckily, it was football season and not basketball;
otherwise we might have had a riot on our hands.

We met up with Jodi after class on our way to
French. She’d told us the lab tables and counters had been high
enough to escape unscathed so the science classes wouldn’t be
affected. She didn’t sound too happy about that though. French
class was on the second floor and we didn’t expect too much damage
there, but we were an open-air school, so we weren’t too surprised
to see a thick line of dirt and water stain along the bottom edge
of the walls in the room. Madame Beaumont seemed happy enough with
the minimal damage her classroom sustained. It seemed that most of
the teachers weren’t too interested in teaching today. Just as in
our first class, Madame Beaumont decided to give us a break from
our usual studies and we played a game of Bingo. In French, of
course.

The bell rang to release us from second
period and my stomach clenched and knotted up like it was trying to
curl around my spine. My mouth was suddenly very dry and I had to
swallow to get it working right again. I knew I was both worried
and anxious to see Jensen. My face must have betrayed me because,
as we were slinging our bags onto our shoulders, Jodi gasped and
hit herself in the head with her palm. “I forgot to tell you!” she
said in a hurried whisper. We leaned towards her, “Ian wasn’t in
Chem this morning.”

“What?” Steven said a little too loudly,
attracting the attention of a few passing students.

“C’mon, let’s go,” I said, grabbing a hold of
Jodi’s wrist and pulling her along with me as I left the classroom.
Steven said a quick good-bye and headed off for Life Drawing. Our
math class was on the second floor as well, so I didn’t expect any
serious damage and I doubted an 8.0 earthquake could make Mr. Davis
deviate from his lesson plan. Sure enough, when we walked into the
classroom, there on the board were our ten problems for the day. We
both sighed, having let our hopes get too high that maybe the whole
day would be an easy break. I immediately looked over to Jensen’s
usual seat and a small part of me was unsurprised to see it was
empty. I decided not to let my imagination run off with itself
until the tardy bell rang, giving him the full opportunity to get
to class. But he never showed and, though I knew after ten minutes
into class he wasn’t coming, I couldn’t help but continue to look
at the empty chair every few moments.

Hey
, I felt Jodi’s cold fingers
through the fabric of my sweater,
he’s not here babe, let it
go.
I sighed, pushing her yellow thoughts out of my mind. I
knew he wasn’t here, but there was no way I could let it go. I
shook my arm free of Jodi’s grasp just as the bell rang. I grabbed
my things and stood up quickly, not waiting for Jodi.

“I’m gonna go, I’ll try to be back in time to
pick you and Steven up after school.” I said as I slung my bag over
my shoulder and shoved my chair out of the way, already two steps
away from her when my words sunk in.

“Whoa, where are you going?” she called after
me, but I was already at the door and just waved over my shoulder
at her as I raced against the tide of bodies going in all
directions. I managed to get to the stairwell without killing
myself and had to resign myself to the slow tread of the crowd
moving down the stairs. Finally, I hit the last step and took off
at a run, catching up with the crowd of students making their way
for the front gates that had fourth period free for a two-hour
lunch. I blended in with them seamlessly and acted as natural as I
could so as to not get stopped and asked to see my student ID to
see if I really had permission to leave.

I made it safely out to the parking lot and
set off again at a mad dash for my car. I threw my bag into the
backseat and slid in, turning the key and gunning the engine to
life. I normally would have given the engine time to warm up and
cranked on the heaters, but my stomach was so torn up that I
thought I would be sick if I delayed any longer than necessary.

I tore out of the parking lot faster than I
ever would have if I had been thinking clearly. I sprayed a few
cars with water as I hit the puddles in my rush to get out and I
even fishtailed for a few terrifying moments when I turned out of
the parking lot onto the main road. I forced myself to slow down;
knowing the streets were still slick with oil and water and the
fear of getting pulled over and caught for ditching was enough to
remind me of my speed.

I drove without really thinking, letting
instinct and reflexes take over. I was turning down a road I had
only ever been on once in all the time I lived in this city. The
night Jensen had told me I didn’t have to hate him. Well, I thought
to myself as I pulled along the curb in front of his house, now was
his chance to prove that. I cut the engine as soon as I was in
front of his house, not wanting to let the loud engine idle and
give me away before I was ready.

I took slow even breaths, concentrating on
slowing my heart rate down to a normal pace, closing my eyes and
listening to my pulse racing in my ears until it calmed. Despite
all the terrifying things of this weekend and the daunting task of
confronting Jensen, I still allowed myself a girlish moment to
check my face and hair in the rearview mirror before I stepped out
of the car.

The sound of the car door closing was too
loud in the deserted street. I walked up to the front door with as
much confidence as I could muster and balled my gloved hand into a
fist, raised it, and knocked. I stood back and waited for what
seemed like far too long and when I was ready to give up and turn
around, I heard the lock in the door turn. I stopped short,
suddenly aware of the sweat on my forehead despite the forty-degree
weather. I was gnawing on my bottom lip when the door creaked open
and I saw the face of a woman just old enough to be my mother with
eyes red and puffy and cheeks streaked with fresh tears. I forgot
how to speak in that moment, my mouth opening and closing without a
sound and I blinked rapidly like I was trying to clear my
vision.

“Yes?” she asked in a small, terrified
voice.

“Um… I uh…” I cleared my throat and
swallowed. “I’m sorry to bother you. I was just looking for
Jensen?” I said the last like a question, suddenly worried I had
gotten the wrong house. The woman opened the door wide, exposing
her whole figure. She wasn’t dressed warm enough for the weather,
but that didn’t stop her from stepping out and trying to reach for
me.

“Do you know my sons?” She lifted her hands
towards me, they trembled visibly. Her worry and anxiety were like
fire ants on my skin, biting at me.

“What?” I asked before I could stop
myself.

“My boys, do you know them?” She asked again,
sounding more desperate with every word.

“I, uh, I go to the same school as them,
yeah.” I had taken several steps back without thinking about
it.

“Do you have any idea where they could have
gone?” She reached out to me again and before I could do anything
to stop her, she gripped my left forearm like a drowning victim,
her nails biting into my jacket. Her fear swirled through my head.
I felt my stomach do flip-flops when she grabbed a hold of me. I
took shallow breaths, trying to block her out.

“Um, well, no… that’s why I’m here.” I hoped
I didn’t sound sarcastic, but it seemed obvious that if I knew
Jensen wasn’t here that I wouldn’t be here looking for him.

“Oh…” she said pathetically, not letting go
of my arm but her grip did loosen enough that I knew I could get
away if I wanted to.

“You don’t know where Jensen is?”

“No… Ian, either.” Fresh tears spilled down
her cheeks. She sniffed, closing her eyes for a few moments to
compose herself.

“They’ve been gone since Thursday.” She
looked up at me desperately and in that moment I saw where Jensen
got the shape of his eyes from and the sharpness of his lovely
cheekbones. “I’ve called the police, but they say since they’re
almost eighteen and they left voluntarily as far as they can tell,
they can’t do much to help.”

It felt like the bottom of my stomach had
fallen away and my heart was in my mouth. I had been the last
person to see Jensen in four days. Had he come to see me just to
say good-bye?

Chapter 15

I was sitting in the school parking lot
waiting for Steven and Jodi as the final bell rang. I had to
promise Jensen’s mom that if I heard anything from Jensen or anyone
else that I would tell her immediately. She’d given me her house
and cell phone numbers, insisting that I put them into my cell
phone while she watched before she was satisfied and let me
leave.