by Rae Knightly
When Laura fell silent, Thomas said, “It’s worse than you think. They knew about the ice incident at work.”
“What?” Laura exclaimed. “But how?”
“It turns out some guy saw the ambulances at the lake and figured someone had fallen in. He started a thread on a Canmore community page on Facebook. I read it. No one has brought up Ben or Kimi’s name yet, but it’s only a matter of time.”
Laura sagged into a sofa with her hand to her forehead. “Oh my gosh!” she breathed. “All this time we’ve been checking TV and radio stations…”
“…when we should have been checking social media.” Thomas ended her phrase.
They stared at each other with a heavy silence.
“That’s it, then. We have to leave,” Laura stated finally.
“I’ve already looked into it,” Thomas said. “But you can’t leave. At least not right now. Two storm fronts are heading in from the plains. Once they hit the mountains, they will dump considerable amounts of snow on Canmore. The first one is due in a couple of hours. The second one on Friday night. We’re stuck here for the first one, but I’m counting on getting you out before the second one hits, probably around noon on Friday.”
Laura’s brow creased. “That’s a long time…”
Thomas interrupted. “You have no choice. Flying is out of the question right now. Driving would be insane. On the bright side, if we can’t get out, no-one can get in either. So we shouldn’t have any unwanted visitors until then.”
Laura sucked in air, then nodded. “All right, Friday it is then.”
“NO!”
Laura’s head snapped towards the stairs.
Ben grasped the railing, his face flushed with anger. He yelled, “What about me? Is anyone interested to know what I want?” Without waiting for an answer, he stormed up the stairs and slammed his bedroom door.
Laura put a hand to her mouth. The adults fell silent. Mesmo made a gesture as if to follow Ben, but Laura stopped him. “No, it’s okay. I’ll go,” she said, stepping forward.
But Mesmo was no longer looking at her. Instead, he stood frozen in front of the television. He pointed at the screen and gasped, “There!”
Laura was stricken. “What? Is it Ben?” She fully expected to see her son’s face on the news. Instead, a reporter spoke in front of high windows behind which multiple large planes were stationed. The caption read: CANADIAN AIRLINE COMPANY IN JEOPARDY.
Thomas turned up the volume.
“...the Alberta oil sands crisis has caught up with Canada’s biggest airliner, Victory Air. Stocks have plummeted, and major investors have pulled out of the company. At this point, it would take a miracle to save the airliner,” the reporter said.
Another reporter appeared on the screen. He stood in front of a highrise surrounded by a flock of newspeople and cameramen, who ran after a youngish man to the entrance of the building. The man pushed the cameras away with his hand in an attempt to escape the reporters. This time the caption read: VICTORY AIR HEADQUARTERS, TORONTO. The reporter spoke loudly into the microphone as he got shoved around by the crowd. “The spokesperson for the troubled airliner was not available for comments…”
“I don’t understand,” Thomas broke their concentration. “What are we looking at? That’s Toronto, not Canmore.”
“I saw him!” Mesmo exclaimed.
“Saw who?” Laura asked, confused.
Mesmo stared at her with wide eyes. “The man who is holding me!”
“Wha…?” She gaped at him in disbelief. “Thomas! Can you rewind that thing?”
“On it!” Thomas’ thumb already pressed the rewind button.
“There!” Mesmo said again.
Thomas pushed the play button. They stared at the stocky man with thick black and grey eyebrows and small green eyes behind black-rimmed glasses who appeared on the screen. His stance was relaxed and he smiled smugly as he shook hands with the President of the United States. The woman’s voice reported over the images, “…just over a month ago, the CEO of Victory Air signed a billion dollar contract with the American government, leading economists to believe the airliner was in good shape. The CEO will release a statement later today…”
Laura gasped. “I know who that is!”
Thomas’ head shot up. “You do?” he asked, bewildered.
“Yes! And so do you. You may not have met him personally, but you will recognize his name.”
Thomas frowned.
Laura sucked in air. “That’s my father’s neighbour, Victor Hayward.”
* * *
Laura knocked softly on Ben’s door. She did not wait for him to answer but stepped into the bedroom, where she found him lying on his back, staring at the ceiling. When she sat on the edge of the bed, he turned to his side so she couldn’t see his face. She rubbed his back, realizing he was crying.
After a long silence, Ben sobbed, “I don’t want to leave.”
“I know you don’t,” she said, staring at the floor. “I don’t either.”
Ben glanced at her with red eyes.
She gave him a sad smile. “This place has grown on us, hasn’t it?”
Ben nodded, sniffling.
“Ben,” she said more seriously. “We need to look at the bigger picture. We promised Mesmo we would help him. He’s already saved us countless times.” She leaned on the bed with her hands on either side of him so she could face him better. “We’ve had a breakthrough. I think I know where Mesmo is being held.”
“Really?” Ben said, his eyes widening.
Laura nodded. “I want to stay here as much as you do, but as long as Bordock and the CSIS are looking for us, we’ll never be safe. We have to free Mesmo so he can go home. Only then, will they leave us alone.”
Ben’s eyes lowered. After a pause, he said purposefully, “How do you know?”
She removed her hands and straightened, taken aback by his statement.
Ben insisted, “Seriously, Mom. How do you know for sure? I’ve been infected by alien blood. It’s inside my body, spreading like a virus, turning me into some kind of freak. Mesmo can beam himself away to safety, but what about me? What about us?” He shook his head as if trying to rid his mind of the idea. “I don’t want it. I don’t want the skill, Mom. Mesmo can have it back.” He rolled to his side again, his arms crossed over his chest.
Laura’s shoulders sagged, Mesmo’s words echoing in her mind. Bordock had forcefully taken a skill from Mesmo’s wife. And she had died. Was Ben stuck with this skill indefinitely?
“Have you talked to Mesmo about this?” she asked, trying to sound in control.
His voice was muffled by a cushion. “Are you kidding? He wants me to have this skill. He’s thrilled that I have it! He wants it to grow strong, so I can use it all the time.”
Laura frowned. “Use it, for what?”
Ben faced her with angry eyes. “How should I know? Why don’t you ask him?”
* * *
Laura shut the door to Ben's room and leaned on the wall shakily. She placed her hands over her nose and mouth and closed her eyes tight.
She had gone to see Ben with the intention of reassuring him, but things hadn’t gone as planned.
If they ever completed the daunting task of sending Mesmo home, would the police leave them alone? In her heart, she did not believe so.
And what was it about Ben’s skill? Intuition told her Mesmo’s interest in the skill went way beyond the fact that it had once belonged to his daughter. “I came to assess the planet.” That’s what he had said. But assess… for what?
Laura realized how little she knew about the alien whose destiny was intrinsically linked to theirs. Her father’s letter warning her about Mesmo flashed before her eyes. “He will crush you if he feels you are standing in his way.”
Her breath halted.
Would he really do that, if it came to it?
* * *
The stocky man’s knuckles whitened as he grasped the side of the table, a large go
lden ring topping his ring finger. His nostrils flared and his small green eyes hardened. He looked like a bull seeing red.
Before him lay a computer screen from which a youngish man rubbed his pale face. Both men sat at desks though the first man had a view of a sprawling desert city while the other cowered in a dim room that resembled a hospital.
The youngish man blinked rapidly and wrung his hands together before him. “I’m sorry, Boss,” he said meekly. “We can still contain this.”
“We?” Victor Hayward seethed. He looked like he was about to explode. “Who do you think is going to an emergency meeting with the investors? I have the American military breathing down my neck. They are snapping at me like wild dogs.” He leaned forward and said menacingly, “Maybe I should feed you to them instead.”
The youngish man gulped visibly. Victor Hayward let him suffer for a bit, then said, “How did the media find out? Who told them the oil sands have dried up and we’ve been stalling to tell the world?”
“I… I don’t know, Boss. We’re still tracing the news. It obviously came from an investigative reporter…”
“…who slipped through the security you set up,” Victor Hayward accused.
The man avoided eye contact. “Tell me what to do, Boss,” he said, resigned. “I’ll do it.”
Victor Hayward leaned back into his tall office chair, letting air escape his nostrils as if he were letting off steam. “Sit tight,” he said. “I need to get through this week, restore the investor’s confidence, rub the media the right way, put on an angel face.” He leaned forward again and jabbed a finger at the screen. “And then,” he growled threateningly, “I’m coming home. And we are going to get down to business. Our martian friend’s nursing days are over.”
CHAPTER 14 Rejection
Ben paced his room in frustration. He would honestly have preferred going to school rather than spend long days cooped up at home on his own. His mother had braved the wind and snow to walk to work that morning, while Thomas had had to wait for the roads to be decently cleared before he’d been able to make his way to Canmore Air. There were reports that schools and some businesses would close the next day if the snowstorm worsened. Laura had told Ben that Tim Hortons would remain open, however, due to the high demand for hot coffee, which suited her fine because she needed to work as many hours as possible before their departure.
Seeing as they planned on leaving that Friday at noon, Ben begged his mother to let him take the civic’s exam. Laura told him she did not like the idea, but he was adamant and refused to let go until she consented.
Now, alone at Thomas’ house, Ben regretted having insisted so hard, because studying proved impossible. Strangely, it wasn’t because their lives had been flipped upside-down, again. It was because, in the silence of the house, Tike was talking to him nonstop.
It started with a nudge in his mind, a playful thought, and before he knew it, Ben watched his hands begin to glow while he sat at his desk.
Tike let him know that he was thrilled to have made a connection again. He wagged his tail.
Wanna play?
Ben stiffened. He could feel a heart beating rapidly in excitement. Except it wasn’t his heart. He glanced at Tike who rolled onto his back, paws in the air.
“Stop it!” Ben scolded, his own heart pumping a mixture of fear and blue venom. His ears rang with the blood flowing to his brain.
Play?
“No!” Ben yelled. He stuffed his notebooks in his backpack and raced down the stairs.
Tike followed more slowly, his ears and tail drooping.
What’s the matter?
“Don’t. Talk. To. Me!” Ben snapped, walking out with his boots and jacket unzipped.
A freezing wind slammed into him, sending snow down his throat and neck. He shut the door on Tike and lumbered down the street, welcoming the biting cold.
What am I doing?
He couldn’t believe what he had just done. He had shut the door on his best friend. Tears stung his eyes while he nervously tried to cover his bluish-lit hands with his gloves.
Tike was talking to him through the skill. But every time he did so, Ben knew that the skill was getting stronger, taking hold of him in ways he could not begin to comprehend. Every contact with Tike allowed the translation skill to infiltrate his core even more.
I’ll never get rid of it!
He took a few steps through the snowstorm.
But this is Tike!
Why was he making such a big deal out of it? Wasn’t talking to his own dog kind of awesome? Deep down, he agreed that it was, and part of him wanted to embrace the skill, yet at the same time, every fiber of his body continued to fight against it—because he feared it. What if human bodies weren’t compatible with the alien element? What if the skill continued to make him sick until things became irreversible? What if the skill took over his thoughts? Or worse, what if it killed him? He was so involved in his own thoughts that he did not realize his feet were taking him to the Canmore General Hospital.
Kimi!
He felt a wave of comfort at the thought of seeing her. By the time he reached the hospital, the insides of his boots and the bottoms of his trousers were soaked.
When he found Kimi’s room, she was resting against several piled-up cushions. Her long hair fell from both sides of her neck down to her arms. Her face was pale, and there were dark circles under her eyes, but her lips were rosy and she smiled.
“Ben!” She greeted him warmly. “What took you so long? I’m bored to death here!” she scolded, then blushed. “Sorry, bad choice of words.”
Ben grinned, a fuzzy feeling replacing the cold he felt inside. “How are you?”
Her dark brown eyes twinkled. “They’re pumping me with antibiotics. It seems to be working, though they insist I stay here for another couple of days.” She rolled her eyes. “I don’t know what I’m going to do with myself until then.”
“Well, I know exactly what you’re going to do,” Ben said, dumping his backpack on a small table by the window. He pulled out his notes and handed them to her. “You’re going to study for the civics exam.”
“Are you kidding me?” she exclaimed, setting off in a fit of coughing.
Ben poured her some water and waited until she could breathe normally again.
“Sorry,” she said with a feeble voice. “Happens sometimes.”
“Don’t talk,” Ben ordered. “Just read.”
He settled on a chair next to her, rested his chin on his arm with his notes before him on her bed. She eyed him for a few seconds as if trying to find something to scold him with, but in the end, she picked up the papers and began to read as well.
The minutes and hours ticked by as they studied quietly, absorbed by their task. For a brief moment at least, Ben forgot everything else, until a nurse came in and announced it was almost time for Kimi’s dinner and medication.
Ben checked his watch, realizing how late it was. “Oops! Gotta go,” he announced.
“Will you come back tomorrow?” Kimi asked with hopeful eyes.
“Of course! I look forward to another day of mutual boredom.”
Kimi slapped him on the arm with her notes. They giggled, but that only set Kimi coughing again.
“Okay, okay, I’ll behave,” Ben said, having finished putting on his snow boots and jacket. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Wait a minute,” Kimi interjected, her face becoming serious. “Ben, Ms. Nguyen came and told me about the YouTube video.” He stood by the door and saw her studying his face. “Are you all right?”
Ben shrugged, fighting a lump in his throat. “Sure. It’s Wes and Tyler who should be worried. They got suspended for the rest of the week.”
“Ben,” she said again as if reluctant to let him go. “I… I haven’t had a chance to thank you, you know, for what you did at the lake.” She sucked in air and added, “You saved my life.”
Ben stared at his feet, then shrugged again. “I’m just glad you’re oka
y.” Their eyes met for a moment.
“Excuse me,” a woman said behind Ben. “Visiting hours are over. It’s time for dinner.”
“Oh, sorry,” Ben apologized, stepping back as the nurse pushed in a trolley. The woman busied herself by Kimi’s bed, placing a tray before her and arranging her pillows so she could sit up. Kimi pinched her nose and stuck out her tongue at the food tray.
Ben grinned and waved goodbye.
When he stepped into the street, it was already dark, and heavy snow whirled around him. He zipped up his jacket, covered his head with his hood, and stuffed his hands in his pockets.
“Can I join you?” Mesmo said, coming up beside him.
Ben shrugged and kept walking, though he had to admit having the alien beside him was extremely practical because the snow stopped slapping him in the face.
“How’s Kimimela?” Mesmo asked.
“Fine,” Ben replied briefly as he struggled with his mixed feelings.
Why is it I always feel relieved when Mesmo is around?
“Do you want to talk about it?” Mesmo asked.
“Talk about what?” Ben retorted. He stopped to face the tall man. “You know what I want to talk about? I want to talk about the skill. You see, I don’t want it. I want to be normal again. I want to be me. So I’ve decided I want you to take it back!”
Mesmo frowned. “We did talk about that. I told you it is yours now. It is a valuable gift…”
“It’s not a gift!” Ben almost yelled. Pedestrians turned to look at them, so he lowered his voice. “It’s not a gift. You can refuse a gift. But this one was imposed on me. I had no choice.”
They walked on in silence, then Mesmo said, “I don’t know why you struggle with it. All you have to do is learn to control it. I could teach you…”
“Stop!” Ben snapped. “Just… stop.” He stepped away from the protective bubble into the swirling snow, leaving Mesmo staring at him.
With a few strides, the alien man caught up with him again. “Why do you fear it so?” he asked.
