Earth: Population 2 (Paradise Lost Book 1)

by Aubrie Dionne

  I wasn’t sure what I celebrated. I’d been dreading graduation because Hailey would be going off to college with everyone else. Everyone except me.

  Hailey put her beer down. “Mike’s been staring at you all night. You gonna do something about it?”

  Annoyance prickled the hairs on my arms. “I don’t like Mike, and nothing you can do will change that. I know about your plan to get us together at Lookout Point. But it’s not going to work. You might as well get your sweater back from Brooke now.”

  Hailey stared at me like I’d grown two heads. “How do you know about my plan? I hadn’t even talked to Brooke yet.”

  I blinked, wondering where all of that had come from. I’d said it without thinking. “I don’t know. I guess I remember you giving it to her at Randy’s party.”

  “Yes, but how did you know I would use it as an excuse to get you alone with Mike?” She narrowed her blue eyes. “Are you psychic, and you’ve never told me?”

  I shook my head. This was ridiculous. I’d probably overheard her say something about the sweater and put two and two together. “No. I’m definitely not psychic.”

  “Whoa! Look at that!” Mike stood on the other side of the bonfire.

  Dread spread through my gut. Something isn’t right.

  Hailey and I glanced at the sky. The clouds parted to reveal a full moon, bright and silver white as a polished quarter.

  “Wow.” Hailey put her arm around me. “It’s beautiful.”

  I blinked in disbelief. Why had I thought something terrible would happen?

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  ECHO

  Metal surrounded me. Cold, hard, unyielding. Was I in some kind of spaceship?

  Strands of fiber dangled from the ceiling. They reached for me, tickling my skin at first and then stabbing it like a hundred needles.

  I screamed, writhing to get away.

  The strands held me still, like someone’s puppet to command.

  Panic seized my chest, and I started to hyperventilate.

  “It’s all right, Julie. Everything’s going to be all right.”

  I turned my head, the only thing I could move. Gale Williams lay on the floor by my feet. A sling had been wrapped around his shoulder, and the fabric oozed blood.

  I shook my head. In all of his movies, he was the hero, the one who lived to vanquish the evil villain. So why was he lying on the floor in defeat, saying my name.

  “Where are we?” I struggled to break free of the strands, but they bored deep into my skin, and every move stung.

  “Another time, another future.”

  “What?” He never spoke in riddles. He always had the right answers.

  The metal pounded around us and bent inward. Shiny arms and legs squirmed through. Static sizzled, like someone had turned the TV to the stations we don’t get. The smell of chemicals stung my nose.

  “We have to get out of here.” My stomach clutched, and goose bumps prickled my skin. I felt feverish all over. Blood dripped from my nose to my jeans.

  “I love you.” Gale sounded so sincere, so absolutely certain, I focused on him as everything else blurred.

  How could someone so famous, so perfect, love me?

  June 23, 2013, 6:30 a.m.

  I awoke to my alarm. Another day, another slew of groceries.

  Remnants of my dream floated back to me. An alien ship, piercing fibers, Gale Williams. He’d never done a sci-fi movie before. So why did my dream put him there?

  He’d said he loved me.

  If only.

  I dragged myself out of bed, hoping this day would be less weird than the last. After we saw the moon last night, I had the distinct feeling something momentous would happen. But, everything went smoothly, almost too smoothly, and we packed up our beer cans and returned home with no great stories to tell.

  Disappointment weighed me down.

  I wasn’t sure what I expected. It wasn’t like some college recruiter would show up and offer me a full scholarship along with an apartment and stipend for Mom on the side. Or some Hollywood producer would jump from the trees and offer me a leading role in Gale Williams’s next movie. Or Gale Williams himself would come out with a teddy bear, asking me to go out with him.

  I always dreamed so big, and it always bit me in the butt at the end.

  I turned on the shower and tried to make sense of the weirdness that was yesterday. The more I thought about it, the more I realized I’d never overheard Hailey say anything about getting her sweater back in a plot to get me together with Mike. So, where had that come from? If I hadn’t had a strange sense of déjà vu all day, I would have believed psychic powers ran in my veins. But an overwhelming feeling I’d already lived that day made me wonder if that’s why I knew.

  It had something to do with SpaghettiOs. They were the key. That and something Raggedy Al said about “memory echoes.” It kept going through my mind like a movie on pause that I couldn’t set back in motion.

  I ended my shower early and skipped drying my hair. If I had enough time, maybe I could catch the raggedy man again on the way to work and ask what he meant. I jumped into yesterday’s T-shirt and jeans, grabbed a Kashi, and kissed Mom good-bye.

  Walking to work in a fast pace, I tore open the wrapper of my granola bar and bit into a chunk of cranberry and nuts.

  A sharp pain exploded behind my eyes. Disoriented, I dropped the bar and collapsed to the curb. Closing my eyes, I held my head in my hands.

  A vision of a spaceship, followed by one of Gale sitting in the pilot seat, flashed through my mind. I could even smell him, a fresh, woodsy scent as I tasted the bite of granola in my mouth. The vision was so real to me, I could feel the anxious excitement in his presence along with a familiar closeness, as if, when he spoke, I’d know what he would say. Which was ludicrous. I knew what Jay Dovetail would say, but not the actor who played him. I knew nothing of the real Gale Williams.

  The vision disappeared as quickly as it had come. I sat on the curb halfway to the coffee shop while morning traffic stopped at lights and blew carbon dioxide into my lungs. Maybe I was going crazy. There was no way Gale would be in any of my memories, even if I had gone back in time and relived a few days in my life. No. Freakin’. Way.

  I stood up, convincing myself to walk on the other side of the street so I wouldn’t have to confront Raggedy Al again. That crazy homeless man preyed on my own mental instability. The best thing to do would be to get to work early and sit down.

  As I passed the shop, the sidewalk lay bare.

  I crossed the street. His sign was propped up against the building, and his coin can was empty. Worry trickled through me. Had he gotten sick? Had the police removed him from the street? Someone must have complained.

  Anger rode through me as I glanced at the window in the coffee shop. How dare they remove him from his only home.

  But they hadn’t.

  Al sat at a table with a steaming cup in front of him. Someone must have given him some money. The scene from yesterday came back to me, along with a sticky feeling of guilt. I shouldn’t have taken back the five. I should have insisted he keep the money.

  Well, now was my chance.

  I walked into the shop, bought a bagel, and approached Al’s table. “Is this seat taken?”

  Al glanced up. “No, it isn’t, girly.”

  What was I doing? Even the local barista gave me crazy eyes. I almost turned around and finished my walk to work. But I needed answers. Something was happening to me I couldn’t explain, and I didn’t have the money for a shrink. The local bum would have to do.

  I sat down, pulled my bagel in half, and gave him a piece. “Hungry?”

  He took the half and dipped it in his hot chocolate. “Thanks.”

  “Listen, yesterday you were saying something about memory echoes.”

  Al raised his hairy gray eyebrows skeptically. “Yeah, what about ’um.”

  “What are they from?”

  He stuck the chocolaty end of the bagel into
his mouth and chewed. His gaze roamed the shop as if he saw something floating in the air. “Another time, another future.”

  I froze. Those were Gale’s words, from my dream.

  He waved his hand. A century of grime lurked under those fingernails. “Trust me, you don’t want ’um.”

  I took a bite of my bagel, hoping it didn’t conjure up any more visions. Not now. I needed to concentrate. “Why not?”

  “Because not everyone remembers, see? Better to leave ’um be and live in this time, this place.”

  “What if I want to remember?”

  “I already told ya, girly. You wanna end up like me?”

  I glanced at his ripped plaid shirt and his stained overalls. He might have been grimy, but an intelligence other people overlooked sparked in his dark eyes. Maybe when he was young, like me, he’d worked a dead-end job to make ends meet. I wondered what had happened to him, but I didn’t think it was my place to ask. “I want to know what happened. Whatever the consequences, I’ll take it.”

  Al nodded solemnly, as if I’d made a sacred vow. “Then you have to pay attention.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  ROSE

  I stumbled into Save ’n Shop and glanced at the clock on the back wall. Fifteen minutes late. For nothing. For the rambles of a beggar man.

  “I was starting to worry about you.” Linda, the shift leader on duty, looked me up and down. She was Mom’s age, but her bulldog-like face made her look ten years older. “You’re never late. Is everything all right?”

  “I’m fine.” I tied on my apron and punched in. “Just a strange day. That’s all.”

  She squinted as if discerning how much of a liar I was. “Okay. I’ll let it slide this once without reporting it.”

  “Thanks.” I turned on the light for register five. Guilt burned in my cheeks. This job kept me and Mom in that apartment. I shouldn’t have been so irresponsible. What was getting into me lately?

  The clock moved slowly, as always, but I wasn’t tracking the time like I normally did. My mind kept going over all of the strange events of the past two days. Even if Al was crazy, there were too many other variables to dismiss the weird things happening to me.

  A piece of gum bumped onto the belt.

  “Hailey, what are you doing here? You should be using the ten items or less.”

  She shrugged. “I’m the customer. I can do what I want.”

  “I’m not supposed to ring up family and friends.”

  “Good thing I’m a stranger, then.” She winked.

  I rang the gum through as another wave of déjà vu came over me. “Have you bought gum here before?”

  “No.” She opened her pink purse and offered me a five. “I thought I’d come visit you. You looked like you needed it.”

  “Did I?” I glanced at my reflection in the store windows.

  People had congregated in the parking lot in front of the store. They all faced the other direction with their heads turned up, watching something in the sky.

  I dropped the gum on the belt. “Wait, there’s something going on.”

  Hailey ran to the window and turned her head as far up as she could, shielding her eyes with her hand. “There’s something in the air.”

  Dread chilled my spine. “It must be aliens.” I had no idea why I came to that conclusion, but I knew it was true from the depth of my gut.

  “Aliens?” Hailey looked at me like I’d spoken Greek. “It’s not aliens. It’s a helicopter.”

  What was a helicopter doing in small town Maine?

  Maybe it was here because of aliens.

  I left my register, which I never do, and stood next to Hailey. Shoppers left their carts, and even Linda left her shift-leader station to join the group by the window. The engines clamored so loudly, the sound echoed off of everything as the blades stirred up pieces of newspaper and debris from the street. People held onto their hats as their hair blew up around them. The helicopter landed in the middle of the parking lot.

  “Is it the government?” Hailey whispered beside me.

  “Probably.” I wondered if they had anything to do with my memory echoes.

  The crowd parted before the store doors.

  Hailey grabbed my arm. “Oh my god. They’re coming in here.”

  Four massive men in black broke through the crowd. They formed a barrier by stretching their arms out to hold people back.

  Women outside the store began to shout in excitement. Whoever it was, they knew him, and he was popular.

  In between the black-clad bodyguards, I spotted a young man with black hair. He turned, and I caught his gorgeous profile just right.

  Gale Williams.

  You have to pay attention.

  I fell to my knees. I knew him. I’d spent hours, days, weeks with him. We’d played cards, eaten SpaghettiOs, and defeated the alien queen. Every memory flashed in my head, each one more precious than the last. I’d sacrificed our relationship to save the world. We weren’t supposed to remember. But here I was, and here was Gale, coming to my grocery store.

  In his hands, he held a single rose.

  Hailey pulled me up. “I know you worship the ground he walks on, but hold it together. You’re at work.”

  I stood shakily. What was I going to say to him? How did he know I’d remember?

  Then it hit me. He didn’t know. All he knew was I worked at a Save ’n Shop in the middle of Nowheresville, in Maine, and that I had a crush on him. Maybe he hoped he could start a relationship all over again, even if I didn’t remember a thing about him. The thought was so swoonily romantic, I almost died on the spot.

  Hailey hmphed. “This must be some publicity stunt for his new movie.”

  “No.” I shook my head. “He’s here because of me.”

  “What? Earth to Julie. You can be delusional in the comfort of your room, but gosh, girl, we’re in public.”

  I turned to Hailey. “There’s a reason why I won’t make out with Mike. I’m already taken.”

  She gawked. “What do you mean? Already taken?”

  I couldn’t answer Hailey’s questions. I had a date to keep.

  Gale broke through the crowd. He wore the same Twisted Minds Think Alike sweatshirt that clung to his body in all the right places and a pair of ripped jeans. Our eyes met, and the electricity between us could have powered the whole store. His face brightened, and fireworks exploded in my soul. The temperature in the store rose by five degrees.

  I stepped forward as the bodyguards held everyone else back. The crowd blurred around us, whooping, hollering, and shouting Gale’s name. Cameras flashed, and a news crew videotaped the whole thing. In the chaos, I focused on Gale. He fell to one knee and produced the rose. “I’m sorry about all the ruckus. I had to get to you as soon as I could, and my bodyguards wouldn’t let me come alone.”

  My whole body shook. I stared in disbelief. Never had I had a wish come true like this. “How did you remember?”

  He laughed. “I was playing cards, and Pete beat me at Go Fish.”

  I accepted the rose and smelled the sweet scent. “You never were good at bluffing.”

  “But that’s not the reason why I remembered.” He stood up and placed his arms around me, holding me close. Our foreheads touched, and I felt complete. “I remembered because I love you.”

  EPILOGUE

  My shift leader let me have the rest of the day off. In all of her time at Save ’n Shop she’d only done that for Judy, when she went into labor. So, yeah, she thought having Gale Williams march into her grocery store was pretty special.

  By the way, I won’t be working there anymore. Gale contacted NASA, and they were so interested in our story, they invited us to Texas, Mom included. We’re going to help the scientists reconstruct what we can remember of the event and the alien technology. And, I’m telling you, after I saw Gale, I remembered a lot. Every detail.

  Mom is learning to walk on a new prosthetic leg. I think all the excitement finally got her out of the
apartment. With the money from NASA, I bought us a handicap accessible house and hired a physical therapist and a personal trainer. I’m hoping, with a little encouragement, she will become independent, and I might be able to leave for college in a few years.

  Hailey and I talk on the phone once a week. She loves studying English at UCLA. We’re planning to get together during her spring break and swim in the Gulf of Mexico. I hear there are jellyfish, but after dealing with those Sparkies, I can handle just about anything.

  Gale and I are still an item. I can’t get over the fact that my face is plastered all over every teen magazine in the grocery store where I used to work. But, that’s what comes with fame, and he’s worth it. He’s trying to get me into one of his movies, even if it’s just a small part. It’s not something I want to do with my entire life, but I think it’ll be fun to try.

  The best part is, NASA thinks the aliens are gone for good. They’ve scanned all electromagnetic energy as far as their instruments can go, and the only Aurora Borealis they can find is the one we have here. The other me—I can’t decide if it really was me or another copy from another time—must have wiped them out. I wonder, sometimes, if she died that day for me to be happy, or if she’s here, inside me, like the memories are.

  THE END

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Aubrie Dionne is an author and flutist in New England. Her books have received the highest ratings from Romance Times Magazine, as well as Night Owl Reviews and Two Lips Reviews. She has guest blogged on the USA Today Happily Ever After Blog and the Dear Teen Me blog and signed books at the Boston Book Festival, Barnes and Noble, and the Romance Writers of America conference. Her writings have appeared in Mindflights, Niteblade, Silver Blade, Emerald Tales, Hazard Cat, Moon Drenched Fables, A Fly in Amber, and Aurora Wolf. Her books are published by Astraea Press, Spencer Hill Press, Entangled Publishing, Inkspell Publishing, Lyrical Press, and Gypsy Shadow Publishing. Her latest contract is with Harper Impulse, a division of HarperCollins for two contemporary romances about classical music. When she's not writing, Aubrie teaches flute and plays in orchestras.