by Imogen Rose
So why was it that I now seemed to crave the physical affection that I had so deliberately excluded from my life?
“Arizona Stevens, pay attention!” Mr. Jackson’s voice boomed.
Attention to what? I wondered. I sighed and rolled my eyes at him, and was handed a detention slip. Back to normal.
I really missed the comfortable feeling of having Kellan sit behind me in Physics. Sheesh, I almost missed physics class! Once again I felt like I was all alone. This feeling stayed with me during the next class, where I forgot to pay attention, as usual. The initial curious glances at my blond hair quickly subsided. I was glad to see Monica waiting for me outside the cafeteria at lunchtime.
“Geez, A, it’s gonna take some time to get used to your new look. I’d completely forgotten and barely recognized you coming down the hall!”
I rolled my eyes, thumping her shoulders. We went into the cafeteria and headed over to sit with the hockey bunch, as we saw them beckoning us.
“So, A, what’s with the new look?” Christian smirked.
“Oh, give it a rest, will ya! What’s up with you suddenly being so interested in hair?” I muttered.
“Well, just be glad it’s the end of the season and we don’t have any more games. Imagine going out on the ice with you looking like this! We’d get smoked,” he chuckled.
“Well, as you say, no more games, so stop making a big deal. It’s just hair.”
“And a bit of lip gloss,” Monica snickered.
“Lip gloss? Seriously?” Brandon laughed.
“Oh, shut-up!” I yelled. “I can still take every one of you little sissies down.”
“Charming, as always,” Nick said, as he rolled his eyes.
“Okay, nuff!” I said and changed the subject. “Why are we having yet another practice this afternoon if the season’s over?”
Christian shrugged and said, “Coach wants us to keep going and not slack off. Anyway, no biggie. It’s not like we have other plans, or do you?”
“No,” I admitted freely. Hockey was my life. It’s all I ever did. Here in Stevens land anyway.
“My lacrosse coach is the same,” added Monica. “He wants to keep going with practice until the end of the school year.”
“Do you want me to pick you up as usual, A?” Christian asked.
I nodded and then dug into my burger, I was ravenous.
“Gross,” Brandon muttered. “You’ve got sauce all over your hair. I guess the new look didn’t come with instructions on how to eat nice.”
I threw the remainder of my burger toward him, just missing his face, but making a satisfying mess on his shirt. He didn’t look particularly pleased and aimed his pizza at me. I ducked in time and it hit Nick’s shoulders. Food fight, followed by a round of detention slips. Back to normal, that’s for sure.
I skipped out on my afternoon classes, hiding out in the library, making phone calls. The stink from the leftovers of the food fight stuck on my clothes was disgusting, but I’d have to put up with it until I got back home. I called Ames again, and luckily got the same lady from before on the phone. She was really nice, but had no further information for me. She said that she’d passed on my information and hopefully someone would get back to me. I called Mountain View High, in case of a freak chance that I could somehow contact Kellan there. No one had heard of him, me or Mom. I closed my eyes trying to figure out a possible link that would allow me to make contact with Darley land. How?
The only possibility I could think of was Ariele. After all, she was from Stevens land and she was legitimately in Darley land. Wasn’t she? Sort of, anyway. Her mother had been offered a job at Ames, so surely she must have been offered it from this dimension? There was only one way to find out. I called the lady at Ames back again. Someone else picked up.
“Ames, how may I direct your call?”
“Could you put me through to Dr. Glenda Moreau?”
“One moment please.”
I heard a series of clicks and a man answered the phone.
“Hello, this is Kevin Sanderson. You’re trying to contact Dr. Moreau?”
“Yes. May I speak to her?”
“May I ask who I’m talking to?” the man asked.
“I’m Arizona Stevens, a friend of Dr. Moreau’s daughter.” There was a dead silence. I though we got cut off. “Hello? Mr. Sanderson, are you still there?”
“Arizona Stevens, Olivia’s daughter?”
“Yes, do you know me?”
“Not exactly,” he replied. “I do know who you are. I’m very surprised to hear from you. May I talk to your mother?”
“She’s not here.”
“Arizona, where are you?”
“Look, I don’t even know who you are. I shouldn’t be talking to you. I need talk to Dr. Moreau. Can you put her on?”
“Arizona, this is very confusing. Dr. Moreau is not available. She’s with your mother, I presume. If you are talking to me, you must somehow be back. That concerns me. You need to tell me everything, so I can help you. Are you in Princeton? Are you okay?”
“Yes,” I whispered fearfully. “I am so scared.”
“Where are you at the moment?”
“In the library, at school.”
“Good. What’s on your normal schedule for this evening?”
“There’s hockey practice, but I don’t particularly feel like it, so I thought I would go home. Dad’s away, so I have the house to myself.”
“Arizona, listen. I think it’s better if you stay with your friends until I get there and we can figure out what’s going on. Go to practice and then could you wait for me with one of your friends?”
“I guess.”
“Okay, I’m going to take the next flight available. I won’t get there till very late tonight or early tomorrow morning. I’ll call you when I land. Don’t worry, you can trust me. We’ll figure all this out.”
“Okay,” I said unconvinced, but I decided to play along at least until I knew what was going on. I was not about to just trust him. After all, he could be the one responsible for kidnapping me in the first place.
The final bell rang. I rushed out to meet Monica by her car.
“Skip class again?” she sighed at me.
“I had to make some calls. M, can I hang out with you after practice tonight, maybe even sleep over?”
“Sure,” she said surprised. “Maybe you can tell me all about the new look and what’s up then? And about Ariele. Or perhaps you could start now?”
“Monica, I don’t know what’s going on. I woke up like this–with my hair blond.”
“No way!” she said, and brought the car to a halt. “What do you mean?”
I shrugged and a tear broke loose and trickled down my cheek.
Monica looked at me, confused and very concerned. “A?”
“I just don’t know what’s going on.”
“Okay, calm down, A. We’ll figure it out.”
“No we won’t!” I cried, covering my tear stained face with my hands.
“Get a grip of yourself, Arizona. Better not let your dad see you like this. I’m going to drive you home. Christian is probably there waiting for you already. So, clean yourself up.”
I held my breath to control myself and dried myself off with the Kleenex that Monica handed me. Really, get a hold of yourself. You aren’t Bella Swan, for goodness sake. Put your big girl panties on and d-e-a-l. This pathetic wallowing had to stop. I concentrated my thoughts on hockey in order to gain some self-control. I would go and play and then that man I spoke to from Ames, Kevin, would help me sort it out hopefully.
Christian was waiting for me on my driveway.
“Have Christian drop you off at my house after practice, okay?” Monica instructed firmly before she drove off.
“Get a move on, A. We’re gonna be late. What took you so long?” Christian said impatiently.
“Okay, okay! Let me just grab my gear from the garage.” I couldn’t help noticing Christian glancing over at me s
everal times during our ride to the rink. It was sort of amusing. This was a routine ride for us. We never talked, just listened to his iPod tunes blaring through the Bose speakers he had installed into his birthday gift, a silver BMW convertible. I sat back into the leather seat, closed my eyes and enjoyed the tunes, amused at the sideway glances. What a riot.
“We’re here, wake up!” Christian nudged me. “You fell asleep. Everything okay?”
“Yes,” I replied sleepily, as I undid the seatbelt and let myself out.
“Do you want me to carry your gear in?” he asked hesitantly.
“Don’t be an idiot,” I snorted, and I threw my bag onto my back and grabbed my stick. “Come on, let’s go!”
Hockey practice was good, in the sense that it got my mind to focus away from my big issues–I seemed to have too many of them these days. Coach was in good form, happy with our season, but still keen that we try as hard as we could and didn’t slack. That suited me just fine. I looked down at my black helmet before I put it on, and wondered about the reaction from my team if I’d appeared with a pink one. L-O-L! I was changed and ready before most of the rest of the team, so I skated around warming up. I looked around for Justin, but didn’t spot him. Christian skated up to me and beckoned me to the side. I was intrigued.
“So, A, I was wondering….” he said unsurely.
“Wondering? ‘Bout my hair? Really, give it a rest. It’s not funny anymore,” I said annoyed.
“No, it’s not that. I was hoping you’d go out to the movies with me.”
“Duh, I go out to the movies with you guys almost every weekend. You’re being really weird.”
“Arizona, I meant as in a date, with me,” he beamed.
“Oh. Yeah, I guess. We’ll talk about it later,” I said, hastily putting my helmet back on and skating back to warm up. I chuckled to myself. Hopefully, I’d find a nice way to avoid that. I didn’t want to upset him. In another life, he’d have been perfect.
Coach blew his whistle. We skated over to him and listened intently–well, I pretended–to every word he was saying. He looked eager and serious as he spoke. I caught the tail end of his mini lecture. If we worked hard, we’d be allowed a scrimmage at the end of practice. Cool.
“There’s something else,” he said looking around. “I was expecting a new player today. He comes with an impeccable record. I guess he got the times mixed up,” he grumped. “And where’s Justin?”
We looked around and shrugged. I was relieved that there were no signs of him. We skated to the center and got ready for the chasers. I partnered with Kyle. We lined up together and skated for the puck, I reached it first every time and jammed it into the goal. We did quite a few passing drills, routine but fairly boring. I could do these in my sleep. Then we did my favorite checking drills. I really enjoyed these, especially today. The perfect vent for pent-up frustration. I put my full force behind the checks, throwing my body onto my targets. I felt satisfied, even good. The whistle blew again and we were allowed a short scrimmage before the Zamboni appeared and we had to leave the ice.
“Good work, kids! This is not the last practice, even though the season is over. I expect you back Thursday after school. And here is the new boy,” Coach said, glancing past my shoulders looking at the tall boy walking toward us. “You’re late. We’re done. Don’t be late on Thursday,” he instructed.
The new boy came walking right up to me. He took his mouth guard out and gazed at me through his helmet.
“Hello, Poppet.”
The Elders called an emergency meeting. Emergency meetings were rare. The peaceful life underlying the very existence of the Wanderers dictated a steady, predictable pace, not emergencies. However, today was different. In light of recent events, the Elders decided that firm and quick action needed to be taken. So, in a nondescript house in Mountain View, a group of the most eminent Wanderers from the area had gathered alongside the local Wanderer community to make sense of their new predicament.
Grayson Weeks and Erica Sen reached for each other’s hands as their elected leader, Inez Skoog, stood before them, ready to begin their meeting. Inez was well qualified to serve as a leader. She had spent many years observing her target humans and had also been married to one. Her marriage didn’t work out, so many of these marriages failed. However, she was blessed to still be best friends with Kevin and spoke with him regularly. Their children, Lena and David, were her pride and joy. She and Kevin had managed to raise them to be kind and caring. She stood before her group aware of the respect they afforded her and felt the pressure to make sure that she did her very best to live up to it.
Grayson and Erica had total faith that Inez would be able to provide them with the leadership they needed now. They looked at their leader with fondness. Her motherly appearance reassured them. She could have been any stay-at-home mother of two teenage children.
Inez shook out her tight blond curls as she surveyed the group with her clear blue eyes. She guessed that there were about forty in the room. She spotted Erica and Grayson and nodded to them reassuringly, and then looked around for the rest of the Elders who would stand beside her when she addressed the crowd. She spotted them hurrying in through the patio entrance. Her four closest friends: Constance, Lars, Javier and Morgana. They smiled at her as they approached the podium and Inez held her hand up to quiet the crowd.
“Erica, could you please join us up here to recount to everyone why we are gathered here?”
Erica was slightly taken aback. She had hoped that Inez would do this for her. She was uncomfortable speaking in front of people under normal circumstances. Today’s agenda made it even more difficult. As she made her way to the front, she felt smaller, much smaller than her six-foot-two frame. Inez nodded to her as she turned and faced the room, hesitantly.
“I,” she started, but her throat closed up and her mind blanked.
“Just start from the beginning,” Inez encouraged.
The beginning of what, Erica wondered. The beginning of her life? They would still be here tomorrow. Although it was an interesting story, it was long and complicated. Perhaps she should start at the beginning of her relationship with Raj? Most of the people here had heard about the events leading up to their wedding. After all, she had needed to convince and reassure them all those years ago when she sought their permission. How about the beginning of the end of her marriage? That would probably be the most useful place to start, since these current events were a result of that. She coughed and looked around apprehensively and caught Grayson’s calming gaze. She closed her eyes, tapping into his calm and opened her mouth to speak.
“I’m not sure quite where to start, but as most of you know me and were witnesses to my wedding, I’ll skip over events leading to my marriage to Raj. You raised many concerns at the time, but I reassured you that the love that Raj and I felt for each other would overshadow and overcome any difficulties we would have. You were generous enough to accept him into your fold and even afford him the gift of travel with me.” Erica’s expression turned into one of sadness as she continued with her story. “We did have some good years. The highlight was the birth of my daughter, Simla.
“As you know, I was assigned to Olivia Darley, mainly because we both lived in New Jersey when she started on the October Project. Olivia is truly an extra- ordinary woman and I was delighted with my assignment. However, when Olivia started traveling through the portal, it began to put a strain on my marriage and on my relationship with my daughter.
“You see, I was gone for long periods of time, especially when Olivia had Harry. I still saw Simla every couple of days, but she missed me, she was only eight. Raj decided to explain my absence to Simla by saying that we were having marital issues and that I had decided to separate from him for a while. I’m fairly sure that she didn’t understand. She was way too young. I’m not sure why he even said that, maybe it was wishful thinking on his part. It’s almost as if he started believing in this story himself. Though I traveled back to see t
hem frequently, every few days, the visits were short and I felt a distance building. Simla became agitated every time I got ready to leave. So, I decided to have them travel with me. It was tough, especially for Simla having to live two separate lives. She seemed like two different people. It was almost like she rebelled every time we traveled back to Mountain View. She loved staying in Princeton. I totally understand how incredibly difficult it has been for her. Just keeping her two lives separate must have been a monumental task. However, she has Wanderer spirit, so I thought she would cope.
“I have no excuses for Raj. He should have been able to accept the circumstances, especially since he came into this with his eyes wide open. He grew more and more bitter over the years and resented having to adjust to my travel requirements, while at the same time becoming obsessed with time travel. Many times he asked me why he couldn’t be afforded the ability of independent travel. Raj wouldn’t accept that this is just not possible.
“So, when Raj heard about the October Project, he was beyond excited. It was a possibility for him to travel without me. In hindsight, I shouldn’t have discussed it with him at all, but isn’t that what marriage is all about? Trust? I shamefully admit that I don’t know much about what he’s been up to. He has been very secretive and it’s been easier not talking to him too much. His temper is volatile and I have grown to fear him. Simla has been acting up, but I thought that was the usual for any teenager.
“Raj communicated to me that he tapped into the October Project and is now in control of the portal. I have no idea how he did so! He would have had to get through security at Ames and hack into the computers. I fear he may have copied my keys and figured out my passwords. I guess he could have taken a visitors’ pass when he came to see me at Ames,” Erica shrugged.
“He plans to use the portal for his own agenda, which involves making money from it in some way. I don’t know how. He also told me that Simla was involved. I don’t know to what extent, but I fear for her.” Erica stopped and looked around the room. She had everyone’s attention. Grayson nodded to her to go on.
