by Strand, Jeff
There were also four small tables, upon each of which was a partially completed jigsaw puzzle.
“Wow,” she said, walking over to the closest one, as Cody closed the door. It depicted what appeared to be a house on a lake. “You weren’t kidding about spending the evening with a puzzle.”
“Yeah,” said Cody. “I usually have three or four going at once. Sometimes I want to finish one up in a night, so I go with a medium difficulty one. Sometimes I’ll work on puzzles that take a few days, maybe a week to finish.” He walked over to the furthest table. “I’ve been working on this one for months.”
Allison joined him by the table. All of the pieces were just dark red, with no variance that she could see.
“That would drive me insane,” said Allison.
“It’s definitely a challenge.”
“Is it fun?”
“It’s satisfying. Pretty much any time you add a new piece it’s a cause for celebration.”
“Very cool.”
“But don’t worry, I wasn’t going to ask you to do jigsaw puzzles. The food is on its way. Did you want a drink? I don’t really do alcohol, but I’ve got water and about ten different kinds of soda. You may just want to look in the fridge.”
They went into the kitchen and he opened the refrigerator door. He did indeed have about ten different varieties of soft drinks. She selected a regular can of Coke and he took the same.
They popped open their cans, took a drink, and stood silently for a moment.
“I’m really sorry about making it seem like I was trying to blackmail you,” Cody said. “I can’t stop thinking about that.”
“It’s long forgotten.”
“Not by me. Did you want to sit down?”
“Sure.”
They walked over to the couch. Allison sat down on the left cushion, and Cody sat on the right, leaving a full cushion between them.
“I guess I should tell you why I wanted to have dinner at your place,” said Allison. “I could try to convince you not to believe your eyes, but I’m not going to do that. I wanted to answer your questions without anybody overhearing.”
“I appreciate that,” said Cody. “Full disclosures from both of us.”
“You have a disclosure?”
“Not paranormal abilities, but yeah.”
“Let’s hear it.”
“You first.”
Allison shook her head. “You first, because now that you’ve said you have a deep dark secret I’m going to believe that you’re an axe-murderer until you tell me otherwise.”
“Maybe we should wait until after dinner.”
“Maybe we should talk now so we can enjoy meaningless chatter over dinner.”
“Do you know what night terrors are?” Cody asked.
“Really, really intense bad dreams?”
“Yeah. Just horrible nightmares, and you scream and you flail around and it scares the absolute living crap out of the person you’re sleeping with, even if you warned them that this could happen. I’ll have night terrors that are so intense that I’ll wake up and not realize I’m awake. So if I’m dreaming about being strangled by spiked tentacles—a recurring dream, by the way—I’ll wake up and still believe that I’m being strangled. It’s like I can literally see the nightmare still happening. And sometimes I fight back against the monsters.”
“Oh my God.”
“Yeah. It’s pretty hard to have a girlfriend when you have to explain that you might try to kill her in your sleep.”
“I can see where that would be a problem.”
“Yep.”
“Sorry,” said Allison. “I wasn’t trying to be a smartass.”
“Oh, no, that’s a good reaction. I much prefer you being a smartass to you running for the door.”
“So...have you tried to kill somebody in your sleep?”
Cody hesitated. “Yes.”
“You didn’t succeed, did you?”
“No.”
“Did you hurt somebody?”
“Yes. I bashed her face into the headboard and wrenched her arm out of its socket.”
“Oh.” Allison had no idea how to react to this.
“Her nose was bloody but not broken, and the emergency room doctor popped her shoulder back in. I figured out where I was before I did worse. Obviously we’re not together anymore.”
“Was she understanding about it? I mean, you just said that you broke up, but did she understand what happened?”
Cody took a very long drink of his Coke. “I can’t believe we’re having this conversation so soon. We were supposed to be talking about your weirdness. I was going to save this for the third date.”
“Too late now.”
“No, she was not understanding about it. And that, Allison, is the exciting tale of how I spent thirty days in a minimum security prison.”
Instead of being horrified, that revelation actually made Allison feel better about their date. She didn’t want to bring instability and strange boundaries into somebody’s life. “We can’t sleep together because I might think you’re a spiked tentacle” was a nice match for her own issues.
“I have to admit, that’s not the kind of story I thought you were going to share,” she said.
“By the way, this was a few years ago,” said Cody. “I probably should have started with that. I’m not fresh out of incarceration. I’ve readjusted to society.”
“That’s good to know.”
“So anyway, I tend to be a solo sleeper these days.”
“Very understandable.”
Cody smiled. “I wish the food had arrived and interrupted that story.”
“It’s out of the way now. And I haven’t run for the door. Though if I see you start to nod off, I’m outta here.”
“Your turn.”
“What do you want to know?”
“The whole thing. I guess we’ll start with—”
The doorbell rang.
“You’re saved,” said Cody, standing up. “That’s so not fair.”
He answered the door and collected two very large plastic bags. After thanking and tipping the delivery guy, Cody went into the kitchen and started removing various containers. Allison walked in after him.
“That’s way too much food,” she said.
“I wanted a nice variety.”
“It’s enough for eight people.”
“Some of it’s going in my refrigerator and some of it’s going home with you. Nobody is going to make you gorge yourself. And if you do gorge yourself, this is a judgment free zone. But not really because it’ll make me like you even more.”
The plates and utensils were already set out on the kitchen counter. Cody opened all of the boxes and then they went down the line of containers, filling their plates with food that looked absolutely delicious. They sat at the dining room table.
“An actual table,” said Allison. “This is a nice change for me. I usually just eat in front of the TV.”
“We can eat on the couch if you want.”
“I don’t get the impression that you’re a ‘food near the couch’ sort of guy.”
“Oh, I’m fine with food near the couch. If you spilled something, I’d immediately attack it with cleaning supplies, but I wouldn’t have a nervous breakdown or anything.”
“Nah, the table is nice.”
“Dig in.”
Allison dug in. It was damn good Thai. She offered lavish praise, and Cody said that this place had never let him down. When he reached for the bottle of soy sauce, his shirtsleeve rose a bit, revealing a scar across his wrist. Allison pretended she didn’t see it.
For a few moments all they did was eat and discuss the awesomeness of the food. Finally, Cody said, “Okay, now it’s your turn.”
“You don’t want to wait until after dinner?”
“I feel like your confession is more fun than mine.”
“It’s not,” Allison told him.
“Your call. You’re my guest.”
�
�We can talk about it now. But I’m going to start with a question for you.”
“Sure.”
“You think you saw me exhibit supernatural abilities. That’s what we’re here to talk about. I confirmed them. Why the hell are you so calm?”
“Should I be screaming and pointing?”
“Something like that.”
Cody shrugged. “When I wake up from a nightmare, I don’t know where I am or what’s really happening. It’s terrifying. When I’m awake and outside the house, I am the most observant nerd you’ll ever meet. I mean, your eyes and brain can always play tricks on you, but in that moment I was hyper-alert. I know exactly what I saw. When I confronted you about it, if you’d told me I was out of my damn mind and to go see a shrink, you might have gotten me to question myself. But you didn’t.”
“So I should have been ruder.”
“Pretty much, yeah. I’m an open-minded skeptic. There could be aliens, and there could be Bigfoot, and there could be a God, but I haven’t seen any first-hand evidence. There was a very clear gap between your hands and her shoulders. I saw it. You didn’t convince me that I was wrong. So I’m very interested in hearing your story. If it seems like I’m being too calm, that’s because I had all day to freak the hell out and get it out of my system before you got here.” He took a bite of cashew chicken.
“That explanation works for me,” said Allison. “And can I trust you to keep a secret?”
“If you’re asking if I’m going go around telling people that I met a chick with telekinetic powers, yeah, I think I can keep that under my hat.”
Allison decided that, yes, this could be a disastrous mistake, but she was going to tell him anyway. “I’ve been able to do this since I was a kid.”
“You can move objects with your mind?”
“No. I can move people. But I can’t control it.”
“Move people how?”
“I can make people move against their will. So I could make you raise your arm, or I could mentally drag you into the kitchen.”
“That’s really cool.”
Allison shook her head. “It’s not.”
“So you could move my arm? Can we try it?”
“Absolutely not. It’s like I’m moving something very fragile, as if your arm was made of glass. I’d probably break it.”
“Let’s not try it then.”
“If I practiced I could probably get good at it. But that would be like a newbie surgeon asking for volunteers so he can practice heart transplants.”
“I emphatically do not volunteer.”
“This is really good,” said Allison, taking another bite. “I’m going to start ordering from here all the time.”
“Never had a bad meal from them. So I guess the obvious question is that there’s a reason you know about the ‘arm made of glass’ thing, right?”
“Was that a question?”
“It was phrased kind of like a question, yeah.”
“Yes. I know what my ability can do. That wasn’t guesswork on my part.”
“You know what, I’m satisfied with that answer,” said Cody. “We don’t need to get into the bone-breaking details.”
“Here’s the full situation. If I try to use them, I can’t really control them, so I don’t try to use them. Under normal circumstances, like sitting here eating amazing Thai food, everything is totally fine. In moments of high emotion, if I’m really upset or I’m scared or I’m deliriously happy, they become involuntary.”
“Oh, shit.”
“Yeah.”
“It’s the ‘happy’ part that I’m going to zero in on. Like, how does that work? You can’t enjoy your dinner too much?”
“I can enjoy food,” said Allison. “But you couldn’t make me laugh too hard.”
“I’m glad I found this out before I started being too witty.”
“I would’ve warned you.”
“That...really, really, really sucks. You can’t laugh too hard? That’s just awful. So it’s like living your whole life with a broken rib, except that you’d give other people the broken ribs.”
“Exactly.”
“I can’t even imagine that,” said Cody. “I mean, I spend most of my time alone, so laughing hysterically would be a sign of insanity, but still.”
“Shall we take this one step further into Too Much Information?”
“Sure, why not?”
Oh, God, why am I telling him this?
“I can’t have sex,” said Allison. “I could never trust myself to have an orgasm with somebody else there.”
Cody was silent for a moment.
“I can fail to make you come,” he said. “That’s not a problem at all.”
Allison laughed, and then slapped her hand over her mouth. Cody looked horrified. They just stared at each other, until Cody finally patted his chest, arms, and legs.
“It’s okay,” he reported. “No broken bones.”
“It would take more than that, but, yeah, that’s my life. Aren’t you glad you asked me out?”
“One could argue that it’s a case of two messed up people finding each other.”
“I’m still old enough to be your mother.”
“I attack people in my sleep, you break bones with your mind—I think the age difference is one of the less weird parts of our relationship. How did you get these powers?”
“Not a clue,” said Allison. “Just born lucky, I guess.
“Anyway, have we got all the heavy stuff out of the way?”
Cody hadn’t told her about the scar on his wrist, and Allison hadn’t told him about her parents or the others, but she felt like they’d confessed enough for now. “Yeah.”
“What superficial stuff can we talk about while we finish eating?”
“Our jobs?”
“Ugh. Yeah, all right. I should warn you that I’ll be talking about working in corporate information technology, so if you feel yourself getting over-stimulated, let me know.”
They had a lovely conversation about much more trivial stuff. Allison ate way too much and didn’t care. Nothing could ever happen between her and Cody, of course, but she was having a perfectly pleasant evening.
“I can’t stay very late,” she said. “I’ve got to get up for work in the morning.”
“Yeah, me too.”
“Wanna do a puzzle?”
Cody looked genuinely shocked. “Seriously?”
“Yeah. Not that red one from hell, but a normal person’s puzzle would be fun. We don’t have to finish it tonight.”
“I’d love that. Obviously.”
Allison had planned to leave by 9:00. By 9:45, they’d put together the frame and a significant portion of the pug’s face. She felt like they could finish this thing up if they put in another hour or so, but no, it was time for her to head home.
“Thanks for hanging out with me tonight,” Cody said, as he scooped leftovers from dinner into plastic containers. “If you decide that I make you dangerously giddy and think it’s unsafe to see me again, you don’t have to return the containers.”
“I wouldn’t mind coming back to finish this puzzle,” said Allison.
“Really?”
“I need to see what it looks like when it’s done.”
“The—”
“I know the picture is on the back of the box. It was an excuse to see you again. You said I didn’t have to return the containers, so you ruined that excuse.”
“Any time you want to come back, the puzzle will be here.”
Cody gave her a hug at the door, and Allison went home.
No way could this work, but for now, it was fun to pretend.
7
Daxton didn’t take a shower the next morning, and he put on the same clothes Allison had seen him wearing before. He didn’t want to actually stay up all night—he wasn’t a method actor and he needed his mind to be sharp—but he wanted Allison to think he’d been up all night.
He didn’t shave or comb his hair. Clearly, he wa
s too distraught over the tragedy to worry about his personal appearance. He did apply deodorant and brush his teeth, since he didn’t want body odor or bad breath to distract her from her sympathy and guilt.
Before turning onto her street, he rubbed his eyes really hard.
Finding her house had taken a couple of extra steps—her address wasn’t connected to her phone number—but it wasn’t that difficult. It was a small house but she had a huge yard and no close neighbors, which was a pretty great deal. Daxton would love to live in a place like this.
He pulled into her driveway and tried to think depressing thoughts.
She had no idea he was coming. She might not even be home, although there was a silver Prius V in the driveway. After parking behind it, he got out of his own car, staying in character in case she happened to peek out the window. Head lowered, he walked up to her front door and rang the doorbell.
A few moments later, the door opened. It was her, in sweatpants and a baggy T-shirt. He assumed that the delay in answering had been for her to put on a bra. She looked extremely surprised to see him there, which was the whole point.
“Hi,” he said, softly. “I’m so sorry I didn’t call first. It just didn’t feel like the kind of thing you say over the phone. May I come in?”
“Oh, yes, yes, of course,” said Allison, stepping inside. He followed her, moving slowly but not trying to oversell it. “Can I get you something? Coffee? Water?”
“No, I won’t be long.”
Allison looked physically ill, as if she knew devastating news was on the way. Perfect.
“Do you want to sit down?” she asked.
“No, that’s...actually, yes, I should probably sit down.”
They went over and sat on her couch. Allison stared at him intently. Daxton said nothing. He breathed rapidly and looked at his shoes as if trying to work up the courage to speak, or as if he were having difficulty trying to find the right words.
“I’m sorry,” he finally said.
“No, no, take your time. I don’t think I even told you my name. I’m Allison.”
“I’m Daxton.”
“Hi.”
“Let me just say right up front that nobody is blaming you, okay? Don’t take any of this the wrong way. The emergency room doctors said you weren’t being reckless. Anybody with a good heart would’ve done what you did. It’s just that...”
