Home Alone

by Mel Todd

  He grabbed her bag, pulling it on one side, his on the other as Jamie grabbed his. Moving out as a single unit they headed towards the trees, his mind automatically tracking where they needed to go. The fact that he knew and could orient to that location in his head both seemed very odd and perfectly normal. Another thing to ignore until later because he didn’t know why he had memories of things he never done.

  They moved out of the park, going across the road well away from the parking lot, and then crossing yards. They hunkered down behind a rundown apartment complex, the type Charley knew too well.

  ~We need to wait until dark. Jessi will stand out too much in the day, even now. People don’t walk around in their animal forms.~

  ~We can’t hide here all day. It’s still early.~

  Jamie had a point. Charley looked around the buzz of traffic catching his ears. ~There. We can hide in the oleanders. No one ever looks there. Just don’t eat any. They are really poisonous.~ He’d had to write a report last year about the bushes, why they were there, and their toxicity levels when one of the teachers caught him about to chew on one of the stems. Too bad the same teacher didn’t think about why he’d been hungry enough to even take a chance at chewing on a strange plant. His mom hadn’t been home in three days that time. The only thing in the house at that time was beer and he didn’t qualify for the free meals. It had been a bad week, but the paper taught him a lot about this particular plant.

  They darted over into the thickest clutch of oleanders and sagged down a bit, ignoring all the trash caught up in the branches. The constant buzz of traffic, the exhaust, and the flinching at every siren, made the time crawl by. Their stress level remained so high, that other than the constant tail lash from Jessi, none of them even talked. They just waited for the sun to crawl down towards the Coast Range and cast shadows they could use. Even with more people being home, shadows were their friends.

  ~I think we can go now.~ The shifting shadows settled his worries, it would be easy to hide in them. And hunger and the need for water clawed at his insides, so he knew Jessi had to be worse.

  They slipped out and started to move across the distance towards JD’s house. They kept to quiet areas, avoiding anything with people. They made sure they crossed at cross walks so jaywalking didn’t grab anyone’s attention, though Jess hid in the shadows until they gave the signal, then she sprang across the distance, a dark darting shadow you could miss.

  He didn’t know how long it took, but the moon was high in the sky. Most houses had all their lights shut off, and they were all exhausted by the time they got within view of JD’s house. They stopped at the fence, crouched next to the bushes as they looked at the house. The lights were all off, and JD’s car wasn’t there, no car was. Which made him feel better.

  Inside meant food, beds, shower, toothbrush, and safety. It also meant risk. All the adults knew about the place but he could feel the exhaustion that radiated from Jessi and Jamie, though they refused to complain. They needed food and to be kids, not on the run, no matter the cost to him.

  With that thought he stood and strode to the door. Nothing popped on, and he almost sighed in relief. JD must not have set all the motion sensors, since he’d only planned at being at McKenna’s for the afternoon. Pulling the keys out of the backpack, he unlocked the door and the three of them slipped into the house.

  Standing there, his senses alert and with Jessi on his right and Jamie on his left, he shut the door. They waited, sensing their environment.

  11

  Running for Safety

  A battle is brewing as the summer ends when it comes to high school sports. There hasn't been any proof of greater athletic abilities for people who change but the benefit of being in better shape and healthier is obvious. Arguments are being raised that those who shift have an unfair advantage of not having to work as hard to be in shape and just being in shape makes gaining athletic skills easier. So far everything is being discussed at this point. ~ KWAK News

  Charley stood inside the dark house, trembling, his hand on Jessi’s head. ~You smell or hear anything? Anyone here?~

  Her head tipped up under his hand and he could picture her pulling her lips back, scenting the air, in that weird thing all the cats did. Jamie hovered in the corner of his mind, poised to attack or flee. That thought pulled at him for a moment. Jamie was so quiet and calm but the not-memories of him calm, cool, and deadly fought with that. Something in Charley knew for all Jamie’s quietness, he would be there if they needed him.

  They?

  Before he could follow that thought, Jessi responded. ~No. The house is empty. So, can we eat?~

  ~No lights, but there should be food in the fridge or the freezer. JD said he liked the frozen burritos better than the chimichangas. Let’s go change and use the bathroom.~ Charley offered. Jess had never liked having to pee as a cat, she got cranky fast. The time in that place had only solidified that dislike.

  ~Me first.~ Before the words even finished she had made it to the bathroom and shut the door.

  Charley dumped his stuff on the couch and headed to the kitchen. JD had night lights scattered around, meaning he didn’t walk into any walls. With relief he reached the kitchen and pulled open the freezer. Just as he thought, frozen burritos were piled in there. Sure of his ability to use the microwave, he started heating up the burritos creating three for each of them.

  Jessi emerged as the first two were done cooking and climbed up on the stool to sit at the kitchen bar. She unpeeled it from the wrapper and blew on it trying to cool it down. Charley slipped out before Jamie could decide to head that way. The urge to brush his teeth drove him crazy. He found some wrapped toothbrushes under the sink and after washing his hands and face, gave in and brushed his teeth. Next time he ran away, he’d pack a toothbrush.

  After all that he opened the door to find Jamie waiting there. The boy slipped in without a word. Charley smiled, but dread coiled tight in him as he realized they couldn’t do this. They weren’t old enough, not when they needed to avoid all adults.

  Swallowing and resisting the urge to cry he headed back in, taking a heated up burrito out of the microwave and putting in the next one. In the dark kitchen, with only the lights of the appliances, the microwave, and the night lights, it felt more like home than any apartment he’d ever lived in with his mom.

  Three burritos each filled them up and by unspoken consent, they piled into JD’s bed together, dressed in T-shirts, and fell fast asleep. This time they weren’t worried about hands grabbing them in the dark.

  Charley felt himself getting pulled into the dream, the not-dream and didn’t fight it. It reminded him of the best video game ever. Something told him it was more but he couldn’t figure out what it could be.

  He stood at attention, back straight in the strange wolfman form he’d seen McKenna fight in. He didn’t need to turn his head to know Jessi and Jamie were on either side of him, black fur covering their bodies, strength in every line. Between them, he felt safe and knew they’d always be there, but it felt odd to be in the middle. Jessi normally took the middle position.

  The voice bellowed in their heads, and in their ears, and he snapped his attention to the voice, knowing not paying attention would cost him pain. A vague memory of pain lashing through his body made him shudder and pay even closer attention.

  “This is your last day of training.” The voice growled the words and he felt the being saying the words stalking towards them. “If you do not pass the course today, your bodies will be recycled to make way for a new group of Kaylid that can learn and serve the Elentrin with honor. Break up into your squads. Your assignments will display in your HUD’s.”

  Without conscious thought he turned and Jessi and Jamie turned with him. A quick trot brought them to their assigned area. A series of figures lay on the ground, a mix of their animal man forms, pretty human forms, and a few others that his mind refused to resolve into something else. A huge being came up on his right and they all snapped to att
ention as they waited for him.

  He stood at almost nine feet tall, covered in brown and tan fur, with a short muzzle and eyes that looked like black pits. Long flexible ears on either side of his head flicked back and forth. Everything about him yelled male, even though he couldn’t see anything to prove it.

  Charley couldn’t assign an animal to him. No animal he’d ever heard of would match what he saw here but if it didn’t exist in the zoo, he wouldn’t know.

  Maybe it’s one of those extinct animals they’ve been talking about.

  “Your squad is still short your fourth partner. However, you’ve done well enough our commanders have decided to teach you basic triage and first aid skills. Once you’ve graduated you will be an expensive investment and care will be taken to preserve that investment within reason. This will teach you the basics for stabilizing and keeping other Kaylid alive, as well as how to assist an Elentrin should one be hurt in some unforeseeable way.” The horror that laced his voice made it clear how horrible that idea would be. Charley felt there was something here he should understand but he couldn’t pull it out.

  Instead, they replied the only way they could reply. “Yes, Sir.”

  “Then get to it! Why are you standing here?” he barked out and strode way.

  On automatic they turned and followed the instructions on their HUD’s. They applied pressure to wounds, set broken bones, diagnosed concussions, applied regrowth paste for missing appendages, and killed those who could not be saved within the strictures of the program. They were all life like models, not real beings, so Charley didn’t fight too hard at the demands. And it fascinated him. Maybe he could be a medic? Being a doctor didn’t interest him but the paramedics who had checked them over after that week had fascinated him.

  It might be nice to help people.

  He kept trying to talk to Jessi and Jamie. The links were there but blocked. He could feel them but he couldn’t turn them on so they could talk. Instinctively he knew that if he tried to talk out loud to them, the consequences would be very unpleasant for all of them. He focused on the instructions, learning, reacting, until it sank into his movements. By the end he knew all of it almost without conscious thought.

  Sun streaking across his face pulled him out of sleep, or dream, or whatever that was. He couldn’t pinpoint when it ended or what he had been doing, or even if he felt himself being pulled out.

  He lay there and knew Jessi and Jamie were awake too, the memories, the knowledge seeping into their very beings. Charley swallowed hard, something between fear and excitement rippled through him. He wrapped an arm around both of them and they just lay there, not talking about it, not wanting to make it anymore real and scary than it already was.

  12

  Cooking with Movies

  Does learning in animal form change how the information is absorbed? That is the question researchers are focusing on. Some children are reportedly so in love with the animal form, adults are having a hard time convincing them to stay human. If they learn while in that form, is the absorption rate changed? Or do they learn it differently? Right now, a few shifter scientists are participating in this and the results haven't been released yet. New suggestions about teaching shifter children may result based on what is discovered. ~ TNN Science

  They lay there for a long time before Jamie stirred, stretching. He grumbled "I'm hungry," as he headed into the bathroom. The words seemed to trigger a reaction as Jessie's belly started to burble and his own agreed that food would be a good option. Jamie had disappeared into the hall bathroom and Jessi had pulled the covers up over her head, refusing to move, even if she wasn’t sleeping.

  Huh, I'll have to remember that needing to attack someone makes her a morning person.

  Charley's amused thought guided him as he headed to the bathroom attached to JD"s room. He did the necessary and took a shower, being clean made him feel much better. He stopped at the hall bathroom as Jamie had left and grabbed his toothbrush. Clean teeth always made him feel safe. He didn't want to examine why exactly.

  Jamie sat in the living room, light seeping through the curtains they had closed the day before, watching TV quietly.

  "I'm going to see what we can eat. You wanna get Jessi up?"

  Jamie looked at him with raised brows. "Are you crazy? I'm not getting her up. She's mean. When she smells food she'll emerge but until then she can stay in bed." He glanced at the kitchen and started to stand up. "You want some help?"

  Charley shrugged walking into the kitchen and looking around. While Jamie was almost a head taller than most of the kids in his grade, and that struck Charley as vaguely odd, he still wasn't tall enough to really reach things in the kitchen. Charley had another six inches on him, and he could just reach most things.

  "Nah. But if you want to get some plates for us? The dishwasher says it’s clean."

  Jamie nodded and pulled open the dishwasher. "What are we having?"

  Charley looked at the refrigerator chewing on his lip as he looked at what was there. There was lots of food but most of it required some level of cooking. He took a deep breath as he reached for eggs, sausage patties and biscuits.

  You can do this. You cooked sometimes.

  His mind helpfully pointed out that usually that was putting food in the microwave or boiling eggs. Or stirring stuff in a pan.

  He stood and read the instructions on the biscuits very carefully, made sure the oven was empty, and then followed the instructions exactly. With the biscuits on a pan, he then started to make the eggs, not going for anything fancy.

  An electric stove top let him see the rings get hot. He tried to pour some oil in the pan but poured way too much. With a sigh he took the pan over to the trash and poured all the extra oil into it. Frowning in concentration he carefully broke the eggs into the pan, then had to pick a shell fragment out, burning his finger a little. With his finger in his mouth, he kept scraping the eggs making sure they didn't burn. When they’d dried out enough for him to eat, he put them on a plate. He did that for the full dozen, frowning at the eggs refusal to blend or not stick to the pan. Shrugging he put the sausage in and then quickly covered it. That splatter stung. While he waited for the sausages to cook, the instructions said five minutes each side. He glanced at the clock and made a note.

  "So how are the eggs?" Charley asked Jamie who had grabbed a plate of them.

  Jamie spoke, his mouth full, "Eggs, boring?"

  Charley sighed. He couldn't remember his mom ever making eggs and he hadn't paid that much attention when McKenna made them. But everything McKenna cooked always tasted good. He pulled open the fridge and pulled out salsa, ketchup, and shredded cheese.

  "Here." He set them on the bar and Jamie reached for them, liberally covering his eggs with the cheese, salsa, and ketchup.

  "That's better. Thanks." Charley sighed a bit in relief, then hurried over to flip the sausages. He was never complaining to any adult about their cooking again. It was a lot harder than it looked but the sausages were done. Well, at least they'd cooked the right amount of time and he glanced at the clock then checked the oven.

  Yes, I made biscuits.

  Grinning he carefully got a pot holder and pulled the pan out of the oven and set it on the counter, then found the butter and jelly. He looked up to see Jessi climbing into another chair, yawning widely and looking like a wild woman. Her hair was a tangled mess and he itched to straighten it up. It made her look wrong.

  "You didn't even brush your hair," Jamie protested looking at her with disapproval in his eyes.

  Jessi glared at him, her browns drawing a dark line across her forehead. “I don’t have a brush and I’m hungry.”

  Jamie rolled his eyes as he grabbed a biscuit and began to make a mess of crumbs, jam, and butter. “I’m sure JD had combs around here, somewhere.”

  A sniff was her only answer as she looked at the eggs. After the first taste she wrinkled her nose and then liberally applied salsa, cheese, and pepper to hers.

 
Charley bit back a sigh.

  Why couldn’t our dreams teach me how to cook? That I could use. I’m not big enough to use any of that info yet.

  He tried not to sulk as he ate a forkful of eggs. He looked at them mournfully then, with a sigh, covered his with cheese and salsa too. The sausage came out perfect, so he made himself a sausage biscuit.

  At least I can make sausage

  His thought half defiant, half annoyed. The twins copied his biscuit idea, though they both put jam on their sausage and he shuddered at the corruption. When they had all eaten he, looked at the disaster of the kitchen and wanted to cry. Being a grownup was hard. He swallowed and looked at the twins sighing.

  “Jessi, go get dressed and clean. Jamie can you get a chair that I can stand on and hand me dishes to put away?”

  With a shrug, Jamie climbed down, and Jessi looked like she was about to protest, but she glanced at the kitchen. He could all but see her thoughts as she decided that getting neat and combing her hair was better than helping with trying to clean the kitchen.

  He had to move the chair three times and Jessi finally emerged to help, but they got all the dishes put into the right cupboards. Then they put all their dishes, the pan and the tray in the dishwasher. Charley stared at the egg and jelly covered mess and the pan sitting in the dishwasher but couldn’t figure out what he should do. Finally, he just shut it and headed out to the living room, exhausted from trying to be a grown up.

  They found something to watch from the pile of movies JD had. It had the word Alien across the cover and he figured it would be about aliens, maybe the dragon ones like from his not-memories.

  Thirty minutes later their eyes were locked on the screen as they held onto each other with white knuckle grips. They were barely able to breathe, fear had them locked up so tight. When the movie finally ended, Jamie and Jessi both broke down into tears, and sniped at each other through their tears, angry and scared. Charley decided he was never watching another scary movie again. If it wasn’t cartoon, he wasn’t watching it.