by Linda Palmer
“Exactly what I’m afraid of. There’s already so much bad on this planet. Do we really want to be responsible for adding more? I can’t leave Everly unprotected. Or Earth, either, for that matter. Govils are brutal when it comes to getting what they want.”
Thorsen wasn’t having it. “Everly has a very capable father to take care of her. As for Earth… It’s not ready for the likes of you or for the truth of Början. NASA’s chilly response to my paper proves that.”
Leif and Jon exchanged quick glances. Leif cleared his throat. “Er, Dad, Roone might have a point. Maybe he could—”
“What…?” Thorsen practically growled at his oldest son. “Live in that big house all by himself? He’s still a minor.”
“Not here, I’m not,” said Roone. “I could finish out the year at McAlister High.”
“Why? You’re way past the nonsense they’re teaching there.”
Nonsense? Really? My accusing gaze clashed with my boyfriend’s. “You never needed help with physics, did you?”
He winced and began to study his boots. “Not really, no.”
“Then why did you—?”
Roone’s gaze clashed with mine. “Why do you think?”
I couldn’t hide my instant smile of pleasure.
Frowning at both of us, Thorsen forced his son’s resisting body into a brief man hug. “Remember how miserable you were when we got here. You and Jon both. Begging to go back home.”
“So we could be part of the recovery effort, Dad. I don’t have a problem with Earth, and all that was before Everly anyway. Things are different now. I’m different.”
I saw Thorsen’s eyes fill up with tears that didn’t match his gruff exterior. Of course my heart broke. If protecting me was the only reason Roone was abandoning his family, I had to let him off the hook. I had no right to come between a father and son, especially when I suspected that son was trying to do what he considered the noble thing instead of the smart thing.
But how could I possibly do it?
It took all the courage I had to tug lightly on Roone’s sleeve so he’d look at me. “It’s okay if you want to go.” I swallowed the lump of emotion in my throat and forced a smile. “I understand.”
Roone went very still. “I thought you loved me.”
“I do.”
“And I love you. So how can I leave?” Roone’s swift kiss caught me by surprise, but I quickly recovered enough to throw my arms around his neck and return it. With our lips pressed together, we both began to smile and then fell apart, laughing. Emotional overload? Without a doubt. Or maybe it was sheer relief. “It’s not like I’ll never go home again, Everly. And when I do, you and anyone else in your family who wants to will be with me.”
My dad made a choking sound. Eli whooped and clapped his hands. Cory simply punched the air with his fist. “Now that’s what I’m talking about!”
With a deep rumble, the field suddenly shifted enough that we all threw out our arms for balance. Thorsen went ballistic. “Damn it, Roone, why can’t Början be enough for you? Our ancestors would never have considered leaving our planet for any reason.”
“Oh yeah? Then how come Hollywood is making films about Thor?”
Thorsen froze. “What?”
“Thor. He appears in Norse mythology on this planet as early as 800 BC and is still so popular that he’s featured in books, magazines, toys, and movies.”
Thorsen’s jaw dropped. “Impossible.”
“No it isn’t.” Eli squirmed for his freedom. Dad gave it to him. Eli raced into the shadows and then raced back, his plastic Mjölnir and Thor shield in hand.
He handed both Thorsen, who examined them. “How can this be?”
Roone touched his father’s shoulder. “What if you weren’t the first one to discover the bridges? What if Thor did it, too, and then crossed over? You know I got my psychic abilities from him. And a visit is the only way to explain Earth’s mythology.”
For the first time, Roone’s father seemed at a loss for words.
“And it’s not like you’ll never see me again. Geez, Dad. I’ll visit you whenever I can.”
“But there may not be another brush for years—”
“I don’t need a brush. I can make one.”
Thorsen’s jaw dropped.
“It’s true,” said Leif. “He just did it.”
“I thought Os was keeping the wormhole open,” said Thorsen, looking from one to the other of his sons in disbelief.
“Os is dead,” said Tyra. “Sending Teo’s posse last night finished him off and made it possible for us to capture Qing. He no longer had his human warning system.”
Thorsen had never looked so lost and unsure. “I don’t know what to say.”
“Then tell me this,” said Roone. “Could you have left Greta behind?”
Thorsen’s shoulders sagged. “It’s like that?”
“Exactly like that.”
For too long, Roone’s dad stood in silence, his gaze flicking between Roone and me. Finally he heaved a sigh. “All right, then. How’s our time?”
Roone told him. “You’re down to a minute and change.”
With a solemn nod, Thorsen gave his precious youngest son a hard hug and then resolutely turned to the others. “Staying or going, Jon?”
“Going, but don’t rent out my room just yet, baby bro. There’s this girl in my keyboarding class…”
Thorsen groaned, but did manage a smile. “Teo’s flyer is secure?” He got nods. “Then we’d better head out, boys.”
“I’m ready.” Leif slapped Roone on the back. Jon gave us both a thumbs-up. Tyra had hugs ready.
Suddenly faced with the enormity of his family’s sacrifice, I began to cry for the umpteenth time that night. By then, the ground shook like crazy. All Börjans not already on the flyer bolted toward it and quickly boarded via the ramp, which was already rising. Like a UFO in a sci-fi movie, the craft lifted straight up and shot into the narrowing vortex with Teo’s flyer in tow.
A second later the tunnel was gone. Moments after that, Earth and sky separated and the clouds blew away. Breathless with awe, I watched the stars slip back into the constellations I knew and loved. Behind me, Cory whooped his glee.
I turned to Roone, tears streaming down my face. “You didn’t leave me.”
“Told you I was a happy ending kind of guy.”
Epilogue
Tuesday night found Roone and me stretched out on my bed, supposedly watching TV though neither of us could’ve passed a pop quiz on the sitcom currently airing. And the best part? I could say with complete confidence that he wasn’t a bit uncomfortable with lying there.
The whole day had been a talkfest and there was still more to be discussed, but it was time to take a breather. So I turned onto my side, my chin propped in my hand, and touched his cheek, which had a scrape on it. “I’m still trying to get my head around the fact that your dad paid cash for your house. I mean, who actually does that besides movie stars and Bill Gates?”
“Gold being so valuable here was definitely a sweet surprise. When we decided to come, we worried we might have to live in a cave or something.”
“So you’re still good as far as gas money goes?”
“I’m more than good.”
One less thing to worry about. “Cory is totally psyched that you’ve asked him to move in with you.”
Roone, who had his hands tucked behind his head and his eyes closed, smiled. “Believe me, there’s plenty of room for the both of us, even if my whole family drops by for a visit.”
“I should warn you he’s a total slob and only cooks one thing really well—microwave popcorn.”
“Then we’ll get along just fine.”
“Will you tell me what this means now?” I held my wrist over Roone’s face so that my Christmas bracelet’s round charm dangled right above his nose.
He opened one eye. “It’s a runic E. The one on back is an R. Everly. Roone. Get it?”
I gave him a ki
ss, but carefully since his bottom lip was still a little puffy. Oblivious to any pain, he gave me back two and would’ve tried for more if I hadn’t pushed him away. Yeah, he was definitely okay with sharing a pillow when my two brothers were only a couple of doors away. How Cory kept Eli there was a mystery. I wondered if duct tape had been involved.
“Down, Thor’s son.” I still had trouble wrapping my head around that! “I know we’ve drilled you all day, but may I ask you another question?”
“No secrets now.”
“Do you really think there are Govil soldiers around?”
Roone got serious fast. “Maybe. And if there are, I’ll take care of them. I don’t want you worrying about that, okay? I’d never let anyone hurt you again.”
“Would you have killed Teo if I hadn’t stopped you?”
“Yes. That rat bastard crossed too many lines.”
“But he told me that the citizens of Början didn’t believe in violence.”
“Yeah, well, that was then. This is now. Like I told my dad, I’m different.”
I changed the subject. “I don’t understand how you speak English so well. Four months on Earth is just not long enough to learn it.”
“What can I say? I’m a quick study.”
I remembered his straight As, but still had my doubts.
He gave in with a sigh. “Dad, Jon, and I attended a six-week English class in Texas when we first got here. We practiced on each other and then watched TV to learn the slang.”
“That’s amazing.”
Roone nodded. “The slang was the trickiest part.”
“Why?”
“You don’t say what you really mean. Bad is good. Wicked sweet has nothing to do with an evil taste. And when you say a guy is a beast you don’t mean he’s a Sasquatch.”
I laughed so hard I couldn’t answer for a couple of minutes. Finally I caught my breath enough to speak. “Why did your dad want to work for NASA?”
“Honestly, I’m not sure. Getting a job with them would’ve drawn needless attention to us, the family with somewhere in the middle as our motto. I’ve wondered if he just needed something to do. Or maybe he hoped to draw Earth into our fight. Or maybe he simply wanted access to their labs and equipment. I know he was curious about them.”
All of the above made sense, so I moved on. “Now I have a question about Början. I know that it’s greener there and the people are more ecologically, physically, and socially savvy. At least that’s what I’ve gotten from everything you’ve told us so far. I’m just wondering if you have things like the internet, television, and fast food. And what’s the terrain like? Are their mountains, oceans, islands? How’s the architecture? Like ours or way different? Do you have money like Earth does or do you swap gold bricks? And what about your flyers? Are they fueled by gasoline or garbage? I’m thinking garbage since recycling is apparently big there. Do you have movie stars? What did you do for fun?”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Roone rolled over on me and clamped his hand to my mouth, the top half of his body pinning me to the bed. “You call that a question?”
“I’m curious.”
“Clearly. And all I’m going to tell you is that you’ll soon see everything for yourself. In fact…how do you feel about celebrating New Year’s Eve on another planet?”
“For real?”
“Absolutely.”
“I can hardly wait.”
Smiling, he settled back on the bed and closed his eyes again.
“Just one more thing.”
Roone groaned, but opened his eyes.
“Who’s Greta?”
“My mom.”
“So when you asked your dad if he could’ve left her, you were really telling him…?”
“That you’re my soul mate, yeah, just as she was his.” Roone closed his eyes yet again.
“That’s so…so…” Overwhelmed with ramifications, I fumbled for the perfect adjective.
“Scary?” he asked.
“No.”
Roone opened one eye. “Disgusting?”
“No!”
He opened the other eye. “Wrong?”
“No! And will you please shut up so I can think?” I finally found the right word. Several, actually. “It’s cosmic, that’s what it is. Cosmic, fated, epic —”
“Eternal.”
“Eternal?”
“Yep.”
Click!
Jenny Kissed Me
James Henry Leigh Hunt: 1784-1859
Jenny kissed me when we met,
Jumping from the chair she sat in;
Time, you thief, who love to get
Sweets into your list, put that in!
Say I’m weary, say I’m sad,
Say that health and wealth have missed me,
Say I’m growing old, but add,
Jenny kissed me.
About the Author
Linda Palmer has been writing for pleasure since the third grade and has letters from her teachers predicting she’d be an author. Though becoming a writer was never actually a dream, it was something she did naturally, and eventually with intent. Silhouette Books published Linda’s first novel in l989 and the next twenty over a ten year period (writing as Linda Varner). In 1999 she took a break to take care of her family. She learned that she couldn’t not write, however, and began again, changing her genre to young adult paranormal romance. She has twelve full-length novels out as e-reads and in print as well as many novellas and short stories.
Linda was a Romance Writers of America finalist twice and won the 2011 and 2012 EPIC eBook awards in the Young Adult category. She married her junior high school sweetheart many years ago and lives in Arkansas, USA. Her website is www.lindavpalmer.com. Facebook her: Linda Varner Palmer. Twitter @ lvarnerpalmer.
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