“No, I like the saying. Bringing macho back. Either that or sexy back. Both work,” he said.
“You’re an asshole.”
“So I’ve been told. It’s great. I’m jealous. Why does Sonny get all the special treatment today?”
I answered, “It’s my birthday.”
“Yes,” Renee added. “And it came to my attention we just don’t show Sonny enough appreciation. Plus, he had that traumatic experience yesterday.”
“Man,” Alex said, “I need some appreciation and love. Maybe I ought to have someone grab a hold of my balls without asking.”
“Hmpf,” Alex grunted when Renee reached over and with a firm swing down, cupped a hold of his crotch.
“Feel better?” she asked with an edge. “Feel loved and appreciated?”
“Yes,” Alex squeaked.
“Good.” She released him and smiled at me. “Enjoy your food and gifts, Sonny.”
“Thanks.”
“I’m fine,” Alex said.
I stood. “I know.”
“Are you really gonna wear that?”
“Heck yeah. It’s cool.” I lifted off my shirt.
“Whoa. You been working out?” Alex asked. “Or is that something that happens overnight the day you turn forty?”
“Ha, ha. Yeah, right.” I positioned the new shirt to pull it on.
“No, serious, Sonny. I don’t recall you being that ripped.”
“Checking out my body, Alex?” I joked.
“Normally I wouldn’t comment since I saw you run around Grace butt naked on a drunk dare. But that body ain’t the one that was jiggling.”
“Jiggling? I never jiggled.” I put on the shirt and as I pulled it down, I noticed my stomach. Not only was it flat, it actually had defined abs. It made me pause.
“You okay?”
“Yeah, yeah,” I pulled down the shirt. “I’ve just been doing a lot of sit-ups.”
“Not sure why. I’d think chasing Sleepers would be workout enough. Then again…” Alex reached down and stole a piece of my toast. “You’re bringing macho back.” He flashed his typical Alex grin and walked away.
The second he was out of sight, I lifted up the bottom of my shirt and muttered, “What the hell?” I ran my hand over my stomach, and that was when I noticed my forearm. It looked more defined as well.
I felt my arm up to my bicep. Maybe it was my imagination, but they felt bigger. Then I brought my hand to my thigh and just because I had to know, I reached back and felt my behind.
“Um…” Randy cleared his throat, “everything all right?”
I jumped. “Yes.” I sat back down. “I felt a bug crawling on me. Great shirt by the way. Thank you.”
“It looks good on you. Especially with all those muscles. I’m jealous. You’re gonna have to teach me your workout routine. I never did lose that Christmas weight.” He started walking away. “Happy birthday.”
He was gone before I could say thank you. I lifted my fork to finish my eggs. What was going on? Was I always toned and didn’t realize it? It was possible. Maybe it was just the new shirt. Whatever the reason for my body, one thing was certain; I wasn’t doing a new workout routine. I didn’t work out at all.
13. Alex
What the hell was happening in Haven? I was on everyone’s hate list, or so it seemed. At least the female hate list. Everyone was just plain weird and I didn’t get it. After leaving the dining area to look for Beck, several men asked if I was going to put my order in for the new Tom Selleck t-shirt.
“Why would I want to do that?” I asked Stiles.
“It’s cool,” Stiles replied. “Sort of like a fight stance. We are bringing macho back.”
Why of all people did they use Sonny to symbolize the return of macho? Hell, it was me who put the Tom Selleck poster in his room. Sonny apparently forgot it was a gag and that he didn’t have an actual infatuation with the hairy 80’s star.
I just didn’t know what was happening. I wondered at one point if perhaps time had changed during one of the time travel jaunts.
It was odd. It was like I was in some sort of post-apocalyptic Twilight Zone. Then again, it was par for the course for people being mean to me.
One would think finding Beck in such a small community would be easy, but it wasn’t. I had to trot around, searching everywhere. Bonnie flipped me off when she saw me, and if I wasn’t mistaken, Patty called me a pig. I may I imagined that though.
Finally, I found Beck. I don’t know how I missed him. He was with Ed, working on the fence just beyond the guard tower.
“Hey guys,” I said.
“What’s up?” Beck asked.
“How come you guys are working on the fence?”
It was obvious they were working hard. Both of them were breaking a sweat in the early morning on a relatively cool day.
“Why do you ask that?”
“Ain’t it Sonny’s job?” I said.
“It’s his birthday.” Beck said.
Really? Unbelievable. “So, is this, like, a new thing? Are we going to start having special days? Because it’s his birthday? Next you’ll tell me it’s because Sonny had a hard day.”
Ed nodded. “He did. He had a rough day yesterday.”
“Oh my God. He had a Sleeper follow him and touch his balls. Hell, Renee grabbed a hold of me, do you think I’m traumatized? I should be. It was Renee!” I shuddered. “Good Lord.”
“Alex,” Beck said, “try to be a little understanding.”
“Understanding.” I snorted. “I’ll try to be understanding. You would think Sonny would be tougher. He is bringing macho back. By the way, are you going to get one of those shirts?”
“No,” Beck chuckled. “I’ll pass, but they are pretty funny.”
“Hey, Ed,” I turned to him. “Was Sonny all that macho? Did he bring macho back in your future, or maybe even wrestling?”
Ed looked at me curiously. “Why would you ask that?”
“I mean was he big and bad in the future?”
“No. Actually, Sonny was not in all that great of shape,” said Ed. “The older he got the heavier he got.”
“No shit? Did you tell him how fat he got?”
“Alex,” Beck said in a chastising tone, “Ed didn’t say Sonny got fat.”
“Actually, I did,” Ed corrected. “In so many words. Sonny did get fat, but I didn’t tell him. Why do you ask?”
“I just thought maybe you did. The way he’s morphing…”
Morphing. As soon as the word come out of my mouth my mind started taking off…morphing. Changing.
“What the hell do we have here?” Beck said quietly, drawing my attention away from my thoughts.
I turned and looked. “Well I’ll be damned. She must really love Sonny.” Not far from us, there she was. Sleeper girl from the Walmart. Hanes, in all her glory, wearing those same underwear over her clothes. She moved slowly toward the gate and stopped. She stood there with her arms at her sides staring pathetically at us.
“Why does she look like she knows us?” Beck asked.
I held up my finger, picked up my radio, and brought it to my mouth. “Hey birthday boy, you might want to come on down near the guard tower. Got a special birthday gift for you here.”
Beck looked at me with questions. I didn’t say a word. I’d wait till Sonny showed up. Sonny’s reaction alone would give him all the answers he needed.
14. Sonny
The day just kept getting better. A cool breakfast, ready-made lunch, an original t-shirt, and a great card everyone but Alex signed. At first I thought Alex didn’t sign it because he was jealous, then when I got the radio call that Alex had a birthday surprise, I figured that was the reason he didn’t sign the card. He wanted his gift to stand out.
I guess Randy was curious too, becaus
e he was standing outside the main building. I realized he was waiting for me when he approached.
“I know it’s your birthday,” Randy said, “but I have to see what Alex has. I mean, it has to be good if he didn’t sign the card.”
“I agree. To be honest, I was a little hurt he didn’t sign it. I thought, wow, what an asshole.”
“Now we know why. So you can wipe that thought from your mind. Alex is not an asshole.”
I stopped the second I arrived at the guard tower and saw Beck, Ed, and Alex. Alex pointed outward beyond the fence with the shittiest of grins.
“No,” I said, “Alex is still an asshole.”
“It seems love has no boundaries,” Alex said when I reached him. “Hanes caught your scent.”
“Is that her?” Beck asked.
I nodded, wanting to dismiss her presence as a coincidence, but quickly ruled that out when she charged for the fence.
The fence wasn’t electrified and she grabbed the links, as best as I could describe, looking longingly at me.
Alex laughed.
“It’s not funny,” I snapped.
“It’s not, Alex,” Beck said. “This is odd.”
“Yeah, well, the whole community is odd,” Alex retorted.
“What’s going on?” Randy asked.
“See that Sleeper out there modeling her Hanes?” Alex asked. “She was the one who ogled Sonny.”
“Wait, the Sleeper that accosted Sonny was a woman?”
Alex barked a laugh. “Oh my God, you thought it was…oh that explains it all. That explains why the whole community is pro Sonny, they think he was Shaw Shanked.”
“Alex,” Beck groaned.
Alex continued to laugh. “Oh, man, Randy. I bet you feel dumb now that you know it’s a woman.”
Randy shook his head. “Absolutely not. No means no. An unwanted sexual advance is still an invasion no matter what the gender.”
“For real?” Alex asked.
“While it saddens me that my world and the human race in my time lacks extreme emotions I’m so grateful rape, molestation, all of those types of crimes are historical crimes of a barbaric world.”
“Barbaric?” Alex paused. “Wait. No rape at all?”
“The last recorded crime of human on human violence was two generations before me. There are no sexual crimes, no sexual predators.” Randy said.
I had to ask. “How is that possible?”
“We are not a sexually driven society. It’s no longer human instinct to be sexual, it’s merely a tool for procreation.”
Alex nodded. “That actually makes sense if you think about it.”
“It does?” I asked.
“Sure.” Alex shrugged. “We already are less of a sexually driven society. Humans adapt and change. Think about it. When’s the last time you got laid? Although,” he twitched his head toward the Sleeper, “you missed your chance recently.”
For a moment, Alex was actually making sense. Then he had to go on and make a joke. Just as I was about to express my annoyance the radio crackled.
“Danny, Danny come in,” Javier called out. “We need you at the medical building.”
I didn’t need to hear the reason for the radio call. We had been waiting on it. Javier calling out for Danny meant one thing. Mera was awake.
15. Alex
We all hightailed it to the medical building. Even though we weren’t permitted in Mera’s room until Javier or Levi gave the go ahead, there was no reason we couldn’t be outside.
There were five of us outside the door waiting. Me, Beck, Sonny, Michael, and Randy. Ed said he’d feel better keeping a watch and would catch the funny stuff when it happened later. I had no idea what he meant, but considering he had the spoilers, I gathered if his history played out we were in for a strange time ahead.
We didn’t go in the room. I know I didn’t want to deal with Levi, he could be tough. We could hear voices, but couldn’t make out what they were saying. Every time I leaned closer to the door Beck would yell at me.
Levi was the first to emerge. “No questions,” he said simply.
“What?” I asked. “We’re the paparazzi or something?”
“No, Alex,” he said with edge. “Javier will explain it all. Just wait. He knows you’re out here.”
Then he walked off.
We waited a little longer. I ran through a plethora of scenarios in my mind. Mera having amnesia, as Sonny said. What if she lost Haven and remembered only Grace? What if she didn’t remember any of the time travel crap at all?
Or worse, what if she didn’t remember the event and had to relive it all over again?
Sonny didn’t look phased at all. Then again, he looked exactly like Mera’s dead husband. From the second she met him she treated him like an old friend. I had a feeling that wouldn’t change.
If she forgot Randy, then it was possible she forgot all the future and time travel shit. I couldn’t even fathom thinking about how any of us were going to explain that to her. I made a vow right there and then that Randy would get explanation duty. He was a patient man and according to him, he didn’t have a sex drive. I wondered how Renee was handling that?
Beck looked concerned. He was doing something I never saw him do—bite his nails.
“What are you doing?” I asked him.
“What do you mean?”
“You’re biting your nails. I’ve never seen you do that.”
“Why does it matter?” Beck asked.
“I’m curious.”
“I’m nervous. I always bite my nails when I’m nervous.”
“What do you have to be nervous about?”
“Really, Alex? Really?” Beck asked. “All of us, one way or another, built a life and relationship of some sort with…” He paused and raised his eyebrow at me. “You’re not worried she’ll forget it?”
“No,” I said, “because I think that portion, whether she remembers or not, is there. An instinct to like, love, get annoyed with…” I looked at Beck and tried to raise my eyebrow, but it didn’t work. “Anyhow, I just think anything that was natural to her will still be. Make sense?”
Beck shrugged.
I reviewed my own words in my mind. Then it dawned on me. Instinct. Natural. Mine and Mera’s next level chemistry didn’t happen until after I died and she changed time.
Sonny always said it was new.
That thought, along with the fact that Ed insisted we were a couple for ten more years, had me nearly biting my nails.
Thankfully, Javier emerged. “I know all of you are anxious. We’ll let you go in to see her as soon as Danny comes out. He’s talking to her,” Javier said. “Since I know her memory is the least important thing…” Javier paused and like Beck, looked at me with a raised eyebrow. What the hell? How did people do that? Then he continued, “I will tell you about her health. She’s not out of the woods, but she’s getting there. She still has the infection. It definitely is pneumonia now. She’s weak and will have to be in here at least another week. She’s also coughing horribly. That concerns me with the sutures. Patty is mixing up, as she called it, a Grace-style cough medicine. It has Rod Stilton’s strongest moonshine as an ingredient. At the least it will work like codeine. He tilted his head and smiled. “Speaking of which…”
We all turned. Patty was walking down the hall carrying a cloth sack in one hand and a mason jar with a brown liquid in the other. Being her typical passive self, she handed them to Javier without eye contact. “Here, Doctor. I mixed the cough syrup and Renee made honey ginger cough drops. We placed a slight bit of devil water in them, as well.”
I snickered and mumbled, “Devil water?”
She shot a glare at me, then barely accepting Javier’s thanks she hurriedly rushed off. I briefly wondered how she let Danny near enough to her to get pregnant.
Javier nodded. “Yes on both accounts. She will recover. I know you are thinking of moving us, but there’s no way. Not for at least a month.”
“Even if I found a place tomorrow it will be weeks to get it ready and for the camp to prepare to move.”
“That’s good. That’s good,” Javier said. “Now…her memory.”
Finally! Geez. Talk about building suspense.
“When Mera woke,” Javier said. “her first words were joyful. She asked it if was over. To which I asked her, ‘Is what over?’ and she said the Sleeper event.” He exhaled. “Now, what Sleeper event you ask? The attack on the wall? No, the one that hit two years ago. She assumed because she was in a clinical setting that it was done. That it was short lived.” I asked, “So she remembered it wasn’t over?”
Javier nodded. “She’s confused. There is memory loss. Right now Danny is trying to establish a baseline of where her memory cuts off. Once we have that we can talk to her. Under no circumstances are we to force a memory, or tell her anything unless she asks. There are ways to help. Acting a certain way, telling a story you may have told her before. What she needs to remember has to come back on its own, if it comes back at all. We’ll discuss it later. I need a baseline first.”
The moment he said that the door opened and Danny walked out holding a tablet.
“You took notes?” I asked.
“Yeah,” Danny replied.
Beck laid his hand on Danny’s shoulder like a proud papa. “Good thinking.”
“She without a doubt remembers my father dying,” Danny said. “She remembers Jeremy dying. Hell, she even remembers my father trying to kill her. She said that while it seems like the event just happened she feels like she’s not traumatized by their deaths.”
Javier added. “That means she retained her mourning process. She may not recall mourning them, but knows internally she is past the initial shock.”
“What about Bill?” Randy asked.
“Oh, yeah,” Danny said. “Bill was around before the event. She was talking about how she remembered how we all took off from our street and then she said, ‘Oh, but Bill died, didn’t he?’, but she didn’t know how. Strangest thing is she knows we left looking for Jessie. She knows Jessie is dead. She doesn’t know how Jessie died, if we found her alive, or found her dead. Nothing. She didn’t ask and I didn’t tell her. Javier said not to.”
Sleepers (Book 7): Sleepers 7 Page 8
