Di Nicola made everyone coffee to try and calm everybody down. Mika looked over at Alice to try and gauge her reaction toward this news. Her face was hard to read. It was possible that she was somewhat relieved that her boyfriend wasn’t a criminal like she had assumed, but she seemed to be in physical pain, or at least emotional pain at discovering that he wasn’t even human. If she was calling into question what she thought she knew about him before, then this must’ve set off a whole bunch off emotions within her that she probably didn’t understand. Mika had felt heartbreak herself, but she doubted she could imagine what exactly was going on in her head.
The reptile put their coffee in front of them and simply stood there, staring at them, as it trying to read their minds. Mika had learned from her experience with her friend Arex, and tried to figure out the parallels between him and this man. She saw that whenever Arex was trying to put a brave face on, he would stand rigid, with his mouth almost closed and with his eyes wide open. Di Nicola had the same stance right now and had the added tick of constantly gulping.
“I think were ready now, Mr. Di Nicola, if that’s even your real name.”
He sighed and then started reciting the weirdest explanation Mika’s ever heard.
“My name really is Gianlorenzo Di Nicola. I’m not from the planet Earth.”
“Really? So, you’re telling me that some sort of alien from another planet? And here, now, able to take human form? You’re probably going to tell us that you have some sort of technology or some evolved physical ability that allows you to take human form.”
“It’s nothing like that. I live in a world parallel to your own filled with people of different reptilian species. I was able to take human form thanks to a pendant that I would have around my neck all the time, or at least in public.”
“Wait. This thing is magic?”
“I don’t think so, but then again, none of us really know how this works. All I know is that it’s the stone in the pendant that causes the transformation. It has the property that, when mixed with the DNA of another species, transforms one of us into that species. The pendant radiates with that property and allows to transform as a temporary measure. I does however limit us to a species with which we have several DNA traits in common with and I have to dip in a special liquid that human DNA in it in order to keep it working. As it is, the pendant would have lost all of the DNA in the liquid within the next few hours.”
“How did you gain access to such an impressive object? Does everybody from your world have a pendant like this?”
“No. These pendants are somewhat rare. We don’t go around our world looking for these stones to mine them. I was able to borrow this pendant from my government to come here and study you as part of my future career plans.”
“Meaning you can’t buy these pendants in a store?”
“Nobody owns the pendants but those who keep them. They are the Keepers. They let us borrow them. They are the only real government we have.”
“How come none of you own these pendants?”
“Only those of us who travel here are allowed to use them, and you have to have special permission from the Keepers. It’s not hard to obtain that permission, but they have to know who has them and when they have to give them back. When I said I was a foreign exchange student, I was telling a half-lie. I am here study human society and the origins of the idea of government, which we are only beginning to understand. We only started to have a government, and then again, it’s not something that decides our laws or the way we live. Our government has the responsibility of archiving our history, which is, again, something we’ve only begun to explore. Nobody knows how we came to be, or why our species seem to be somewhat related, or even how we are related to Earth’s reptiles.”
“Don’t you have any theories about your origins?”
“We can speculate all we want, but we don’t have the facts or the evidence to back them up. As far as we know, we’ve always lived in a world separate to yours and have probably evolved from reptiles found in both our worlds.”
“Why are you here? Why are hiding from us, disguised like us? Are you planning to take us over? Invade us? How many of you are here right now?”
“It’s nothing like that. We’re a peaceful people. We are only here to learn from you.”
“Then why are you keeping yourselves a secret from us?”
“It’s because of Dr. Tselios.”
“Who’s that?”
“Dr. Dionysius Tselios was an explorer who decided to beat a path through the Amazon River in Brazil. He accidentally found his way through a portal to our world. When he discovered us, he was incredibly afraid of us and it took a while for him to start trusting us. He had warned us right away that humans would be ultimately afraid of us if they ever discovered our existence. Think about it, we’ve heard the stories about Arex. None of us ever believed that he was anything but a kind and gentle person. That’s how we are.”
“But what is your purpose for coming here? The Earth is not some tourist attraction and its inhabitants aren’t specimens for you to study. You’ve learned from us, but it’s not like you’ve ever given back any knowledge yourselves.”
“You can’t talk to us about being study objects when you use animals to tests certain medical discoveries. We’ve never done anything to harm you or change your history. We do not get ourselves involved in your politics, they’re not any of our business or concern. If anything, you’ve changed our history. You’ve introduced us to electricity, motorized vehicles, computers, and the idea of a government, just to name a few. And even with those ideas, we still live a somewhat simple life. Curiosity was something we felt, but we didn’t have a word for it. Human ideas, ambition, and technology are concepts that we’re new to. We come here to study how you live and I’m personally here to try and figure out why you live the way you do. The idea that you would let pollution happen and the fact that you feel powerless to stop the various ways you harm the planet you live on and the other living beings who share it with you.”
“Basically meaning you guys disagree with our way of life.”
“I do, personally, but only up to a certain point. Even then, I know that there’s nothing I can do to help better that situation. If we have any law that’s sacred to us, is that we shouldn’t do anything to change the course of your history. The fact is, we are fascinated by the way you can figure out what happened during the course of your history just by finding things in the ground. My people have always taken for granted the things we developed ourselves and the things we were introduced to through you. We study your history and not ours because yours is much more interesting. Our history is unknown. Besides, even if I disagree with the way you treat your planet, and I do, there’s nothing we can do about it. You wouldn’t listen to anything we have to say and shrug us off as being condescending to you. Besides, we are not here to get ourselves involved in your evolution. This is your planet, your world, and you will live the way you want to live, just like we chose to incorporate parts of your culture into ours because they bettered our lives. What we did, was draw the line at harming the environment of our world. Our cars run on electricity or steam, not petroleum. We don’t even really need cars unless there’s a resource one city or village has that another doesn’t. Is your way of life better, or ours. It’s not my job to judge that. I don’t think of myself superior or inferior to you. The only reason I showed myself to Alice in the first place, was because I wanted to be honest with her, not because I wanted to show myself off. I also have to say that I have to go back six months from now. That’s when my internship ends. When I go back, I’ll have to write about what I learned, and it’s possible that I won’t be able to come back here.”
“But, what I don’t understand is, you could have simply kept the secret and you would have been gone without comment. Do you really like Alice that much? You barely know her, and yet, you were willing to lie to her, and then tell her the terrible truth by scaring her half to d
eath? It doesn’t make sense, especially if what you’re doing here is essentially illegal in your eyes.”
“I know, but the biggest reasons that got me to show myself today is the fact that she has been a student of Arex’s for a while now and the fact that it’s been exactly two months since I arrived in your world. There’s more. I interrupted myself when I was talking about our magic. One of the aspects of our magic includes potions made with the essence of the stone here. The potions created can transform us back and forth from human to reptile and is a permanent solution to the pendant. In fact, if we have a penal system, this is it. The ultimate punishment is to see your race changed permanently. I want to stay here, with Alice, and I’m willing to change my body forever for that to happen.”
Mika couldn’t believe was she was hearing. He barely knew Alice as a person, and yet he was willing to sacrifice his appearance, his genetic code, and his family to be with her. He was making a huge mistake, at least in her eyes.
He slowly got closer to Alice, who had remained silent for a long while. She hadn’t touched her coffee, and she had stayed silent, looking intently at the man.
“Alice?”
The girl lowered her head. The young man took her hand in his.
“What’s on your mind? You don’t think I’m a freak, do you? Please, tell me you don’t think I’m a freak.”
“I… I don’t think you’re freak.”
“Yes you do.”
“I’m sorry, but… I don’t know… I guess It still hasn’t quite sunk in yet. I don’t know what I feel. I guess I can live with this.”
“Actually, if you want, then you won’t have to live with it for very long. I could become human for the rest of my life and stay here with you.”
“Wait a minute, you said that that was a form of punishment. Does that mean you have to commit a crime?”
“No. Don’t worry. We can request for that to happen voluntarily. My grandfather went from being a Gila Monster to a Komodo Dragon because he fell in love. This situation isn’t really that different.”
“But it’s not like your grandfather had to live on a different planet simply because he changed his appearance. Changing into a human being, wouldn’t that mean that you would have to live here with humans? What about your life back home, what about our family?”
He looked like he was about to retort, but instead chose not to.
“You can’t just throw your life away like that on a whim. We barely know each other. Let’s get to know each other first. Then, we can decide what’s going to happen next. Alright?”
He nodded. Mika breathed a small sigh of relief. They now could have a relationship without secrets between them. It was good that they were actually thinking about the future instead of only thinking about the here and now.
“That’s great that you two can find a way to get past this. I’m sorry for barging in on this.”
“This won’t be going on record, will it?”
“This has to go on record. I used all the contacts that I had and all the resources I could muster to have you thoroughly investigated. I can’t simply keep all that I’ve heard here a secret.”
“But you can’t tell anyone of what I said here. No one must ever know of this.”
“Well, you should have about this before coming here and falling in love with a human. What am I supposed to do, lie to my superiors? I thought you needed to be in handcuffs because you were a criminal. I assumed that because Alice came to me. She had doubts about you because you were keeping secrets from her and outright lied to her.”
“I’m sorry I lied to her. I’m sorry that she felt like she couldn’t trust me, but I can’t go back and tell everyone in my world that our secret got out because of me.”
“Again, you should have thought of that before you got yourself romantically involved. It’s my job to write a report on everything I do while on the clock. It’s our law and it’s how I earn a living. I can respect the fact that you two are in love, but not at the cost of my job. I’m sure my superior will have some questions for you. You can rest assured that it’s not my job to speak to the media about everything I do.”
Di Nicola paced back and forth, desperately looking for a way out of the mess he’d created. Mika recognized the subtle pleading look on his face that showed that he was ashamed of what he had done to his people.
“Please, try to keep this out of your report. My physical appearance and where I come from have nothing to do with my lack of a criminal record. Isn’t that what you were investigating? And since I look nothing like the reptile that’s stealing from homeless people, then you don’t even need to mention what happened here.”
“Well, now that you bring it up, what do you know about him?”
“Remember when I said that one of us left our world and came to live here? He was one of our keepers and knew of the transformation process. He’s the one who exposed the secret to Patrick Sandlak.”
“What’s his name?”
“I don’t know that. All I know is that it happened seven years ago. Please don’t ask me to say anything more.”
“I give you my word that this will remain as much of a secret as possible. Do you think I can tell Arex? This is how he came to be, after all.”
“I suppose you can, but it shouldn’t go any further than that. Arex is special. When we found out about him, we started to imagine a future in which our two people can live in peace. We haven’t really decided whether or not it’s wise, though.”
“I can tell you from experience that it wasn’t easy to get used to Arex, but in the end, I was glad I got to know him. He’s fun to be around, and if that’s a testament to your entire species, then you might have something here. I wish you both the best of luck. Good night.”
She left the apartment, still amazed at the mysteries that were revealed to her that night. She was still uncertain of what to put in her report. She decided it was best to ask for advice from Corey Rodgers.
Chapter 22
July 16, 8:21 p.m.
Arex’s Apartment
Arex invited Janiece and Jason to his apartment for a mock family night. It was really Jason’s idea to get them both together, but Arex was fine with it. He loved Janiece and wanted to be with her.
He didn’t really know anything about courtship, so it was far less awkward to have Jason here. He did come between them, making the they spent together a “family affair”, but he took every opportunity he could to make himself scarce. Arex felt that Jason loved them both and wanted them to be a couple, thought he had to tell him it wasn’t that simple.
It was obvious that there were many factors in Janiece’s hesitation. First, there was the constant nagging thought of Arex being the essential remnants of Erickson Meyers. Not only did she feel it inappropriate to be with someone who was, and still was, her client, but she didn’t want people thinking that her advocating for Meyers’ innocence had anything to do with any feelings she might’ve had with him, and how everything translated into their current situation. She wasn’t romantically involved with Jason’s father, but it was easy for anybody to misinterpret their love as something that didn’t even happen five years ago.
Second, there was Jason. Jason had to contend with Arex not being his father, something that was made clear to him five years ago. She didn’t want everybody thinking that Arex was now taking on that role and replacing his father. Jason had grown up, though, and become mature beyond his years, so bringing him up was more of an excuse than anything else.
Finally, there was the fact that Janiece had no idea how to interpret how she felt about him, seemingly unable to bring herself to say “the L word”. She kept giving him disapproving looks whenever he brought up the subject, as if she was ashamed of even speaking in terms of them being in any kind of relationship, even one that didn’t involve romance.
It was clear to Arex that she was simply afraid, especially since she had never being in a serious romantic relationship. Her career, and then her
maternal duties had always come between her and being in a couple with someone. He felt it was his challenge then, to help her open up to him, such as she had helped him integrate society. Tonight was the night he was going begin their relationship in earnest.
A knock on the door put paid to those thoughts.
* * *
New York City
Things weren’t the same for Whiplash after his encounter with the woman he saved, Cindy. He tried to make sense of what she had told him, but it simply didn’t match with what he was taught. It was strange that he was beginning to believe her, as opposed to his friend and mentor, Kevin. He was putting into question everything he was taught to believe in.
If Cindy’s words were true, then the purpose he thought he was giving to his life was a lie, and he was used by the one person he thought he could trust. If that was the case, then his entire life was a lie.
Why was he taught to hate homeless people if they had done nothing to hurt him in the first place? What was the point of stealing from them? If they were simply the victims of their circumstances, then wasn’t it wrong to hurt them? Did Kevin really start taking care of him only to use him to commit crimes? If so, then why didn’t he realize this until a complete stranger had to put the idea in his head?
At first, he didn’t trust anything Cindy had told him. She was someone he didn’t even know, and he certainly didn’t want to know any more about what she had to say. It was insane to think that Kevin would lie to him about anything. After all, he had taught him everything he knew and had saved his life. Or had he?
When he had first woken up, Kevin was there to tell him that he saved his life and wanted to protect him from those to would hunt him down because they thought he was less than human. They had moved from the outskirts of New York City to a farm in Arkansas, where he was kept hidden until they returned here. He had always yearned for the chance to meet someone else, but Kevin’s answer was always the same: No. He could understand if his life depended on him remaining a secret, but if everyone thought of him as a criminal because of what he did to homeless people then it was Kevin who had brought all of that on him.
The A.R.EX. Origin Page 10
