The Seeker

by Melinda Metz

  “That makes sense,” Liz agreed.

  “You don’t think Valenti told him the truth?” Isabel asked.

  “No way Valenti would probably just kill DuPris if he found out the truth. I don’t think the Project Clean Slate boys want anybody in their business,” Alex said.

  He was right. Of course he was right. Isabel really, really had to get a grip.

  “What are you guys doing after school?” Isabel said in a rush, trying to force her mind away from the horrible movie that played and replayed in her mind. “Maybe we could go to the frozen yogurt place or something.”

  “Michael and I are meeting Ray at the cave,” Max answered. “He’s going to show us some stuff that we can do with our power. We can do so much more than we ever thought.”

  “What? But using powers could attract Valenti’s attention,” Isabel cried. “I’m never using mine again—for anything. You guys have to promise me you won’t, either. Promise me!”

  “Isabel, take it easy,” Max said.

  “No!” she shot back. “If Nikolas and I hadn’t used our powers, Valenti never would have come after us.” Isabel felt hot tears flood her eyes. She wiped them away with the back of her hand. “Nikolas would still be alive and we wouldn’t have to be afraid,” she forced herself to continue. “So you can’t use your powers at all. Ever. We just have to act like regular humans.”

  “Ray says there are ways to cloak power use,” Michael said.

  “No. Don’t even try to convince me,” Isabel answered.

  “But your power is an incredible gift, Isabel. If Ray can teach you how to use it safely—,” Maria began.

  “Drop it!” Isabel snapped. “You have no idea what you’re talking about. You don’t know what it’s like to have these powers!”

  Maria quickly looked away, her cheeks flushing.

  Isabel sighed. “I’m sorry, Maria. I didn’t mean to yell at you. I just … I wish I could just be normal like you.”

  “Iz …,” Michael said.

  The bell rang, cutting him off. Isabel jumped to her feet.

  “Look, you guys go see Ray without me if you need to,” she said. “I have no desire to spend hours at the cave, listening to some old guy blabber. I have to get to class.” Yeah, class. That was a good normal-human-girl thing to do. “Are you coming, Maria?”

  “Sure.” Maria didn’t meet Isabel’s eyes. Uh-oh, Isabel thought. Maybe I really insulted her with that you-have-no-idea-what-it’s-like comment. Still, even if Maria was mad at her, it was better than walking to class alone.

  She followed Maria down the hall to English, slid into her seat, and pulled out her copy of Julius Caesar. They’d been studying the play for weeks. No more thinking of Nikolas. All she had to do now was listen to the teacher.

  Ms. Markham made her way to the front of the class. Isabel noticed that she had a piece of what looked like tuna salad on the front of her shirt. The woman should wear a bib.

  “Time to get started,” Ms. Markham said. “We left off at Portia’s speech, so begin, Portia.”

  Nobody began to read. Isabel glanced around the room. She didn’t see anybody looking for their book or trying to find the right page or anything.

  “Same roles as yesterday,” Ms. Markham said. “Who is our Portia?”

  “It was Maria,” Arlene Bluth called.

  “All right, Maria,” Ms. Markham called. “No more time to get in character. We have a lot of pages to cover.”

  Maria didn’t begin to read. Isabel twisted around in her seat and stared down the row.

  Something was wrong. Maria held the play in her hands. But she was gazing at it as it she’d forgotten what it was.

  “Maria?” Ms. Markham prodded.

  “Uh, Maria wasn’t feeling that well at lunch,” Isabel said quickly, standing up. “I’ll take her to the nurse.”

  Isabel didn’t wait for Ms. Markham to answer. She grabbed Maria’s arm and led her out of the classroom and down the hall to the bathroom.

  “What’s going on?” Isabel demanded. “Are you okay?”

  Maria didn’t answer. She stared straight ahead, her eyes blank.

  Isabel’s heart began to slam against her ribs. What was going on? Maria was fine a couple of minutes ago when they were walking to class. She was mad, but she was fine.

  “Maria,” Isabel shouted. Her voice echoed off the bathroom’s tile walls. But the sound got no response from Maria.

  Isabel wanted to run and get Alex, or Max or Michael or Liz. But she didn’t want to leave Maria alone. You can deal with this, she told herself. Maria needs you.

  She pulled in a deep, shuddering breath, then reached out and rested her fingers on the side of Maria’s neck. Yes, she could feel a pulse. It was faint and sort of erratic, but it was there.

  Isabel bit her lip. Should I connect with her? she wondered. Maybe then I could find out what’s wrong. Isabel reached for Maria again but hesitated. I can’t use my powers, her mind screamed. Valenti will find me and kill me!

  Isabel took Maria by the shoulders and gave her a little shake. “Maria, come on! Snap out of it?”

  Maria didn’t even blink.

  “Maria, you are scaring the hell out of me,” Isabel cried. She didn’t want to use her healing powers. She just couldn’t.

  She shook Maria harder, shook her until her head was jerking back and forth.

  “What are you doing?” Maria demanded.

  “You talked?” Isabel stared at her. Maria’s blue eyes had lost that creepy blank look.

  “Of course I talked. You were practically shaking my head off,” Maria answered.

  “Are you okay?” Isabel demanded. “Should I go get someone?”

  “I’m okay,” she answered. “But what are we doing in here?”

  Isabel felt her spine turn to ice. “Don’t you remember?” she asked. “You totally spaced in English.”

  “Uh-uh.” Maria shook her head. “I, um, I knew I shouldn’t have eaten that candy bar Alex gave me. Sugar totally messes me up.” She grabbed Isabel by the arm. “Come on, we better get back to class.”

  “Maria, what’s going on?” Isabel pressed.

  “Nothing. Nothing, I’m fine,” Maria insisted. “Let’s go.”

  Frowning, Isabel followed her out into the hall. Maria sounded completely fine. But there was no way a little sugar could have gotten that reaction.

  No possible way.

  Max sat on the floor of the cave and leaned against the cool limestone wall behind him. He felt like he’d pulled a muscle in his brain, a muscle he hadn’t even realized was there. Ray had been trying to teach them how to do that time-freezing thing he’d done at the mall. But neither Max nor Michael had gotten close to getting it right.

  “Using your brain is more tiring—and more difficult—than using your body,” Ray said. He lowered himself onto a big rock across from Max. Michael didn’t waste any time sitting. He stretched out flat on his back on the floor.

  “Wait. Did you just read my mind again?” Max demanded. The stuff Ray could do was amazing. Thinking about it made Max’s head hurt even more.

  “Just a little,” Ray answered.

  He must have caught the look of panic and embarrassment on Max’s face—or else read Max’s mind again—because he laughed. “Don’t worry, when I do it, I don’t go too deep. I don’t want to bump up against anything too personal. You never know what you’re going to find in a teen’s head.”

  Ray pulled a Lime Warp out of his backpack. He popped the top of the drink. “Want one?” he asked.

  “That stuff tastes like goat piss,” Michael complained. But he took a Lime Warp, anyway, then flopped back down next to Max.

  “You know this for a fact?” Max asked. He grabbed a can from Ray. “You’ve actually tasted goat piss and can make an accurate comparison?”

  “There are times you sound way too much like that science guy on TV,” Michael said. “You know—the walking, talking dork?” He took a slug of his drink, then stu
died the can. “I still can’t believe this is what we really look like. No offense, Ray.”

  Max glanced at the little dancing alien on the can. It did have the same small body, big head, and huge, almond-shaped, pupil-less eyes as everyone Ray had shown them on the spaceship.

  “No, you’ve got it wrong. Well, sort of,” Ray told Michael. “This form”—he pointed to the drawing on the Lime Warp can—“isn’t any more our true appearance than this one.” He gestured to his human body.

  Max pressed his soda can against his pounding head. Ray had kept the drinks icy cold by slowing down the movement of the molecules. Max could have done that, too—if he’d thought of it—but it would have taken total concentration. Ray did it as easily as popping the top of the cans.

  “I’m confused,” Max admitted. “Maybe it’s because I still have brain strain, but I don’t get it.”

  “It’s not all that complicated,” Ray answered. “Here’s the short version. Our bodies are highly adaptable. They adjust to whatever environment we’re in. That means we can travel to any planet without the elaborate space suits humans use because our bodies automatically configure themselves for optimal functioning. Even on our own planet our bodies change, depending on factors like the climate.”

  “Can I just say, huh?” Michael asked.

  “I sort of get it,” Max said. “Earth is an environment with an oxygen-rich atmosphere. So our bodies configured themselves to breathe oxygen. Is that what you mean?”

  “Ding, ding, ding. Give the boy a prize,” Ray called out. “That’s it exactly What you just described is one of the thousands of ways our bodies adapt.”

  “Okay, I know I haven’t read every science book in the world, like Max has, but I do know human bodies aren’t the best choice for adapting to life in the desert,” Michael said. “How come we don’t look more like scorpions or cacti or something?”

  “The answer is that our bodies don’t just adapt to the physical environment,” Ray said. “They adapt to the social environment, too. Humans are the species that dominates the planet, so our adaptation system gave us bodies to match theirs.”

  “So how do these guys fit in?” Max held up the Lime Warp can.

  “Another adaptation, this time to life in space. The density of the small bodies protects their internal systems from the effects of rapid space travel. And the small bodies take up less space on board, freeing up room for more important items,” Ray said.

  “Cool,” Michael said.

  “Very cool,” Max agreed. “Could you show us some hologram pictures, or whatever you call them, of some of the adaptations we have at home?”

  “Home. I don’t understand why you’re calling it home,” Ray said. “This is your home. Earth. It was a mistake for me to tell you anything about … that other place. I try to think of it as a dream, a beautiful dream. But not something real, not something I can ever go back to. This is my home now, too.”

  He sounded so sad suddenly, not his usual joking self. Max wondered how he would feel if he had to make a life on another planet, knowing he’d never see his parents or Liz or anyone else he cared about again. He didn’t know if he’d cope as well as Ray seemed to have.

  Ray stood up. “Let’s get out of here.”

  “So that’s it. You’re not answering any more questions? You’re just deriding for us that we shouldn’t know anything about where we come from?” Michael demanded.

  Ray looked directly at Michael. “I’m not going to encourage you to spend your byes wishing you were someplace else,” he said. “Your lives are here. Get on with them.”

  “Thanks for nothing,” Michael muttered.

  Ray turned to Max. “I know it must seem that I’m being incredibly harsh. But trust me, living one place when your heart and mind are always somewhere else is guaranteed to make you miserable.”

  Max didn’t want to push Ray It was pretty clear that he was protecting himself as much as he was Max and Michael. But there was one thing he had to know.

  “Can you just tell—,” Max said.

  “Max, I’ve made up my mind,” Ray interrupted.

  “This is important,” Max insisted. “I just want to know if there’s anything you can teach me that will help protect us from Valenti.”

  Ray sighed. “I guess that is something you actually do need to know. We can do some more work freezing rime inside a particular location. But that’s not something you can do often. I won’t be able to do it again myself for at least a month—it takes too much energy.”

  “Is there anything else?” Max asked. He wanted to be prepared, no, he needed to be prepared if he had to go up against Valenti again. It’s not like Ray would always be able to come to the rescue.

  “Lay low. That’s what got me through the last fifty-something years,” Ray answered.

  “That’s it? Lay low?” Michael demanded.

  “Well, there is a little trick I use sometimes,” Ray admitted. “Watch this.”

  “Watch what?” Max asked. Then he saw it. Ray’s face was moving. His hair was growing and darkening. His body was shrinking and changing shape.

  He looked like … Liz. Ray looked like Liz.

  “Aaaah.” Michael gave a high, comical shriek.

  “We can also give ourselves little makeovers whenever we want to change our appearance,” Ray said. He even sounded like Liz. “I gave myself one after the crash. I didn’t feel like being the scientist the people in Roswell knew anymore.”

  “You’re giving me the creeps,” Max said. He could hardly stand to look at Ray There were just way too many things he didn’t want to think about. Like the fact that Ray had grown a set of breasts … Liz’s breasts.

  “Okay, okay” Ray’s voice got deeper as he took back his usual form.

  “You even sounded like her,” Max mumbled.

  “It’s all in the vocal cords,” Ray said. “Did you hear about that Elvis sighting at a little taco stand in El Paso?” he asked.

  Max shook his head.

  “Me,” Ray bragged. He sounded totally proud of himself.

  Max cracked up. He knew Ray was an Elvis fan, but this was pretty out there.

  “Doing my part to keep the King alive,” Ray said. “Thank you very much,” he added in a decent Elvis mumble.

  “You’ve got to show us how to do that,” Max said.

  “Why didn’t you say yes when Jerry asked you to go to UFOnics with him?” Maria demanded as soon as Liz stepped back behind the Crashdown Café’s counter.

  Liz snorted. “I knew you heard the whole conversation. You only wiped down the booth next to Jerry’s three times.”

  “Four,” Maria admitted. “But if I don’t watch you every second, you’ll slide back into daydreaming about Max, ignore all other guys, and end up a driedup old woman with sixteen yapping Pomeranians.”

  “If you don’t stop, you’re going to end up with this sponge down your throat,” Liz threatened. She held up the sponge and advanced on Maria.

  Maria backed away. “Did I mention that you’d be so pathetic that all the Poms would be named Max? Or Maxine? Or Maximilian? Or Maxi? Or—”

  “Did I mention that I used this sponge to wipe off Mr. Orndorff’s table?” Liz asked.

  “The spitter?” Maria squealed. “Okay, I’ll stop, I’ll stop. But I still want to know why you told Jerry you’d let him know tomorrow instead of saying yes.”

  “It’s the dancing thing,” Liz said. “If he’d asked me to go somewhere besides UFOnics, rd probably have said yes.”

  “But you’re a great dancer,” Maria protested.

  “It’s not the dancing part of the dancing,” Liz explained. “It’s the touching part of the dancing.”

  “The touching thing is going to come up, dancing or not,” Maria said. “Say he asked you to a movie. Major touching potential sitting in the dark. Even if he asked you bowling, at some point he’d take you home, and then the touching issue would be right there.”

  “I guess.” Liz did
n’t sound convinced.

  The opening bars of the Close Encounters theme filled the café. Maria glanced over to see Liz’s dad come in, whistling a Grateful Dead song.

  Maria swung up the hinged section of the counter for Mr. Ortecho. “I won’t dock you this time, but if you’re late again, you won’t be so lucky,” she teased.

  “Oh, Ms. DeLuca, I’m sorry. Don’t be mad,” Mr. Ortecho cried in a breathy voice. “There was a sale on this suit that I’ve had my eye on for, like, months, and I had to get it on my way to work or it would have been gone. Here, just smell this. It will make you feel better.”

  Maria giggled. “I don’t sound like that,” she protested.

  “You sound exactly like that,” Liz said. She grabbed the coffeepot and headed over to a table where two very serious UFologists were studying a map of the crash site.

  Maria yawned and rested her elbows on the counter. She was exhausted. Ever since school today she’d felt weird. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t stop thinking about that blackout in English class.

  Maybe I should have told Isabel the truth, she thought. But it was Isabel’s first day back at school, and she had enough to deal with. Someday soon I’ll tell them all about my psychic abilities, Maria thought. As soon as I figure out how to control my powers, then I’ll give everyone a big demonstration.

  But she couldn’t control them. Today in class, for instance. Maria had been sitting at her desk, waiting for Ms. Markham to show up. She started running her fingers across one of the names that someone had carved into her desk, wondering how long the name had been there and what the guy who carved it was doing now.

  She hadn’t been trying to see the guy. But the dots had started to swirl, and a few seconds later she’d been standing in a used-car lot watching a paunchy guy try to sell a Honda to a twenty-something woman in a business suit. The dots had swirled again, and the classroom had re-formed.

  The next thing she remembered was Isabel shaking her, obviously one second away from a total meltdown. Maria knew using her power had caused her to lose another few minutes, but it didn’t seem like a good time to explain that to Isabel. Especially after the way Isabel had snapped at her at lunchtime.