The Once-Dead Girl

by Laer Carroll

  On the way to Mary’s separate bedroom she said, “In one of his uniforms he’s transformed. I’m not sure he even knows it. But you can imagine what an impact he had on troops and women when he was an officer.”

  “Uniforms? ”

  “Nowadays mostly for Halloween and the occasional costume party. But sometimes in other countries we go as Colonel Something and his tart. I do tart really well.”

  Bethany laughed but understood when she saw Mary’s bedroom closet. It was as large as the bedroom proper, which was not small. The clothing inside would outfit a woman in hundreds of looks when mixed and matched. Including very slender ones.

  Beth understood that last; she herself could shrink her fat to look anorexic when she wanted to.

  Mary did shrink her waist as they tried on outfits. “My secret girdle. One woman who’d seen me fat and thin almost slapped me when I refused to tell her what couturier I went to. Poor dear. I made her thin without telling her. Unfortunately a side effect was that she is always a bit hungry.”

  Beth reminded herself not to antagonize Mary. She could be mean.

  They found outfits which Bethany could wear and went an hour later to the living room. Their super hearing told both of them where he was without any discussion.

  Roberto was on the couch, a large laptop open on his belly as he did something on it.

  “It’s about time. I could have starved to death.”

  He goggled just a bit when he laid the computer aside and stood to look at them.

  The two of them were transformed into utter glamour and chic, Mary in a past-the-knee green gown of velvet, Bethany in an ankle-length gown of deep red. Mary had straightened and subdued her fiery hair, Beth had added subtle blond highlights to her mahogany hair. They wore “make-up” which was subtle but turned both into Old-Hollywood vamps.

  “Wow! Two movie stars on the town! Every man will want to kill me. ”

  “I think I’ll have to defend him from the women. They’ll all be trying to swoon onto his lap. And wiggle.”

  Mary had not been exaggerating much. His “hidalgo outfit” was dark blue with light blue shimmering embroidery on the lapels and accents down the front. There was a subtle blue stripe down each leg. His feet were shod in gleaming black. His light-blue shirt was adorned with a black bow tie. His hair and face had been groomed by his shapechanger powers to make him more Spanish and handsome.

  Mary swayed over to him and kissed his lips, a brief touch. Arm in arm they led the way to the garage, with a glance to insure Beth followed close behind.

  The garage was suitable to a multi-millionaire, large, well-appointed with several workstations which mechanics could use, and filled with nearly two dozen vehicles. They varied from a dune buggy and a battered Jeep to three autos which surely cost at least a million dollars each.

  Mary selected a midnight black luxury sedan. He held the driver’s side door for her and took her high heels from her.

  Bethany had gravitated to a back door. He hurried around her and opened the front-side passenger door, gesturing for her to get in. She let herself be ushered in.

  He sat in the back seat. As Mary started the car she said, “He likes to pretend we are peons and he the lord-and-master.”

  Roberto grinned at Beth as she glanced back at him while clicking on the seat belt. He twirled an invisible villain’s mustache. She giggled.

  Mary’s driving was not shy but it was careful and expert. Well, what did you expect of a super being with almost a century of practice?

  As they wended their way out of the ranch and onto the freeway toward downtown, Roberto quizzed Beth.

  “Hmm,” he said when she’d finished. “The basic difference may be you have a robot pilot and I don’t. My bubble may have the same capabilities as yours but never told me. Do you suppose it could teach mine?”

  “Just a minute.” Can you teach my friend’s bubble your abilities? Or ask it to communicate with him?

  There was silence as an answer.

  Roberto cursed in Spanish and said in English, “Holy shit! My bubble is talking to me!” Over her shoulder she saw him slump in his seat, eyes focused on the distance.

  Mary smiled at Bethany and returned her gaze to the freeway, yellow-lit now that night had fallen.

  “Boys and their toys! Tell me more about these dreams?”

  She was fascinated by the aliens, though Maelgyreyt intrigued her too. When they arrived at the tall hotel in Old Hollywood she surrendered her car to the valet, donned her heels, and accepted her husband’s arm she spoke to him.

  “Did you hear that our little Bethany dreams about being aliens? Convincingly real aliens?”

  He apologized for being distracted but said nothing else. They were entering a double door held by a top-hatted doorman. Inside they were greeted by an older man in a tuxedo with a French accent (real she knew).

  “Doctor. And Doctor. And Bethany! How are you?”

  Bethany replied in Parisian French that her health was fine and asked his.

  In English he replied that his was good and led them to a private room.

  As they took their menus from Gaston Mary said to her, “How do you know Gaston?”

  Beth smiled at the maître d' as he motioned a waiter over to take care of them and left.

  “My step-father owns part of the Marmount. We dine here sometimes when we want to dine out. ”

  Roberto said, “I knew that but forgot it once we were on the way tonight. I know him well. I own the other part of this place.

  “Now what was this about aliens?”

  Bethany waited till their waiters took their orders and brought dishes and drinks. Then she explained

  Mary said to them both, “This opens up so many possibilities. Bethany, what are your college plans?”

  “Up in the air. I’m tempted to take a second gap year. But my troubleshooting has taught me how much I need to know about managing a business, investigating crimes and— Oh, so much! At the same time I’m bothered by the rigidity of the degree programs of all the colleges and universities to which I’ve been granted admission. I need an eclectic education, not a narrow one.” She mentioned a few schools.

  “I notice all of them are on the East Coast. Have you considered here? Say, at Montebello? I could guarantee a special program could be created for you and those like you.”

  “I want to be closer to my friends. And further from my family—not because I dislike any of them. It’s just that I need more distance from their oversight.”

  “Is one of the universities Yale?” said Roberto.

  “No. They’re all more central to my friends.”

  Their food began arriving and the conversation was more punctuated by silence as they applied themselves to the food. Bethany noticed her new-found—friends?—were very attentive to the food.

  “Yale,” said Mary, “has a fairly new program which might fit your needs. They call it Eclectic something-or-other.”

  “Diversified Learning,” said Roberto. “It’s a four-year program for a bachelor’s degree. It’s fairly new and so far has only a few students. We could get you in, Mary and I. Especially as we’d set up a scholarship fund that would pay all your fees and expenses.”

  “I could manage the expense. That is, unless you want back all the money in the trust fund I took from you. I’ve increased its worth, I should add.”

  He waved the thought away. “Even if I cared about a few million, this new capability of my bubble that you’ve given me is worth a hundred times that. You’ve opened up the solar system to me. And to the human race.”

  “Uh. About that. We might want to keep away from Saturn. You see, it’s the center of a system run by an entity millions of years old. It might just swat us like a fly.”

  Roberto took in and let out a deep deep breath. “Oh, child, the gifts you’ve given us.”

  Mary was musing. She said, “Maybe you could be the first in an exoterrestrial studies program. We’re bound to meet ali
ens, maybe pretty soon, what with the Lagrange point gifts and that peculiar rescue of the Mars Expedition.” She looked directly at Bethany when she said that.

  Beth simply nodded solemnly. “It’s certainly something to think about.”

  ·

  Things happened fast after that night. Mary “accidentally” met Bethany’s mother and got invited to dinner at her home. She was impressed by Bethany and suggested a new program at Yale to which the young woman would be suited.

  Within a month Beth’s family learned that she would be going to college in the East, both a sad fact (that she’d be further from them) and a happy one (that she’d be going to college rather than loafing for another year).

  Bethany also met the famous physicist Enrico Fino, about whom Lihua had enthused. Though mortal, he had been taught by Roberto to fly and, through Mary, he and his wife knew their nature and Beth’s. He could be trusted with that secret, Mary assured her.

  He also was the best hope for turning the knowledge he’d learned from Roberto and now Bethany into a mechanical reaction-less drive like that of the two shapechangers. But not of the inertialess field which protected the bubbles.

  “I can only deliver one miracle at a time,” he mock-grumbled when asked about that. He was such a good-looking and charming man. Bethany would have happily gone to bed with him except for a few minor obstacles. A wife to which he was happily and lustily married, his age, and the social distance between them.

  Then summer came and the fireteam came home.

  ·

  “I need more shade,” said Brigitte. Gerard obediently adjusted the umbrella which he had plunged into the sand at VeniceBeach.

  “She is such a demanding bitch,” said Gerard in a loud aside to the others.

  “Bossy.” “Bossy.” “Inconsiderate.” “Such a princess.”

  Brigitte regally ignore the comments from the swine and rubbed on some more sun block.

  “Who’s up for a splash in the ocean?” said Naomi.

  “Brigitte is,” said Lihua.

  “Don’t you dare!”

  Bethany stood up and swept the blond goddess into her arms. Goddess shrieking, the shapechanger raced into the surf.

  ·

  YaleUniversity was in New Haven, Connecticut, a seaside city about 70 miles northeast of BarnardCollege and ColumbiaUniversity in Manhattan where Brigitte and Gerard went to school. It took Bethany an hour and a half to drive from where her blue luxury auto was supposedly delivered a few days before the beginning of the Fall school year at Yale .

  Of course she had delivered it herself flying in her bubble. It took 30 minutes, as every place on the planet was 30 minutes away by super-spaceship.

  It was a grey autumn day with mild drizzle. This bothered Bethany not at all. The cool breeze off the Atlantic a few miles to her right was pleasant to the shapechanger. She had her music player on loud and it was playing Korean pop music. She’d gotten a taste during a recent foray to that busy nation to resolve one of Sandrine’s problems.

  There was one happy side-benefit of the trip to establish her story of driving her car to New Haven. She could stop several times to eat a full meal of sea food. She especially enjoyed the stop at Sweet Basil in Fairfield, Connecticut, where she ate pad thai. And at Momo’s in Milford where she ate sushi.

  ·

  Pleasantly stuffed she arrived in New Haven and found YaleUniversity with no problem. She had after all visited it via bubble and rambled through it for several hours as soon as she received notice that she had been accepted as a student.

  She parked in a multi-level parking garage and walked to the Administration building. There were trees everywhere and most of the buildings were old stone buildings of Gothic and Georgian style, whatever those were. She found them beautiful.

  The Admin building was more modern, with lots of “smart glass” which (she’d read) was “actively intelligent” in warming in winter and cooling in summer.

  There she presented her acceptance letter and driver’s license. She received a packet waiting for her. She was photographed and a picture-id badge made which she could wear on a chain (not supplied) or on a lapel clip (supplied).

  “I see you will be living off-campus, Ms. Rossiter. Do you have an apartment yet?”

  “Yes. In Westville. I had my stuff moved in by a service company last week. I’m going straight there from here.”

  “I’m glad to hear it. Some students leave matters to the last minute and need emergency housing.”

  Bethany smiled at the pretty young girl, likely a student, with a severe page-boy haircut. She touched the woman’s hand and boosted her health.

  “I plan ahead. I’m rarely in need of help of any kind.”

  “Lucky you.” The words were friendly.

  “But I can always use a friend. What’s your name?”

  “Susie Aldridge. Welcome to Yale and New Haven, Ms.—Bethany.”

  Westville was to the west about three miles as the bird (or spaceship) flew or four by car. It took her 15 minutes.

  She passed through a modest commercial district heavy on restaurants and boutiques, turned left to enter a middle-class residential neighborhood, and turned into the driveway of a two-story grey wooden house with white trim. The paint was fairly new, the lawn and hedges trimmed. The second story which she was renting had a sun deck which was the roof of a first-floor extension to the house.

  The driveway widened to enter an open-air garage that lead directly into the house. Just inside was a washroom with an open doorway at one end and a stair at the other.

  The garage had a dark red mini-SUV parked in it, so she guessed her landlady Mrs. Oldfield was home. Inside the washroom she got confirmation: the distant clicking of keys on a red laptop which the woman owned.

  Bethany knocked on the doorway and called the woman’s name into the hall beyond the doorway. She heard the woman call out, “Bethany! Come on in.”

  The shapechanger did so, opening a door at the end of the short hall. She entered a living room with windows onto the street.

  Sitting on a couch to one side of the room was Emily Oldfield. She was fiftyish, grey hair dyed black, pleasant face, sturdy but not fat, a retired high-school teacher. The laptop was on her lap. Opposite her on the wall was a large flat-screen TV which was echoing the laptop’s display.

  “Hello, dear. Did you have a good trip?”

  “I did. I’m all squared away at Yale and ready to move my last little bit in.”

  “Fine. Why don’t you do that, then come down for some tea?”

  “I’d love to. I won’t be a mo.”

  It only took a few moments to take her two pull-along suitcases and her laptop case upstairs. She opened the door with her key, entered, and surveyed the room she expected to live in for the next four years.

  It was everything she could have wanted, with two large rooms for a living room and bedroom. The living room had a desk, a couch with a kick-table, and a large-screen TV. The bedroom had a large closet already filled with boxes of her clothing and shoes, delivered by a moving service a week earlier. There was a large bed, made up and covered with a quilt. The bathroom had a tub-shower combination, and the modest kitchenette had a new refrigerator in light olive green.

  Bethany put the laptop on the desk, then went into the bedroom and plopped the suitcases onto the bed. From one she removed a bag with a few toiletries and a change of clothing: jeans, a light blouse, and tennies. She changed, moved the toiletries to the bathroom, and went downstairs.

  “In here.” HERE was a large kitchen with a dining table for eight. Emily was arranging a tea service which she took to the table. There she set it down, then sat herself down on a chair. Beth sat across from her and made a cup of tea then flavored it.

  “Your trip was good?”

  “Flight only a bit late. The transport service and garage hadn’t dinged my car. I made good time up the turnpike and had a snack on the way here. I even made a second friend, I think, a girl in A
dmin named Susie.”

  “A second friend?”

  “You’re the first, Em. Fishing for a compliment?” Bethany had arrived three months ago and found a place to live. During those several days she’d chosen this home, paid the first six months rent, and gotten acquainted with her landlady.

  The woman chuckled, then they chatted a bit while finishing their tea. Then Emily retired to “finish up something” and Bethany returned upstairs to finish settling in.

  ·

  It was a Friday. She went shopping the next day with Emily who told her of her own favorite places to get groceries and other incidentals.

  Bethany also checked where the classes she’d signed up for were located, first by map then as an invisible tourist. She assured herself of the route from the parking garage to the first class. She wanted her first day to go as smoothly as possible.

  Monday she walked that route. Entering the classroom she found a seat and took it, in a middle row on an aisle.

  She sat so that late-comers to the curved row could get in easily. That included a girl with Arabic features, features she recognized from Roberto’s memories. She sat beside Bethany and took out an info slate and began to read from it. Moments later a blond boy with Germanic features squeezed in and sat beside the girl.

  “For Allah’s sake, Rafa. Are you already grinding away at the text?”

  “Ass. Or is that dummkoff? ”

  Bethany said, “You can also call him trottel, tor, blödel, or a dozen other names. My favorite is fetzenschädel.”

  “Sprechen sie Deutsch?”

  She answered him in German. “Yes, I do. Do you?”

  He replied in English. “Just a bit. I’m Hans. Yes, I know, I know. Boring. I held out for Siegfried but my mother didn’t speak Baby. This is Rafa. She’s a grind.”

  The girl turned to Bethany and held out her hand. “Short for Rafi’ah. He’s unable to pronounce it. Poor thing.”

  “Poor thing.” The two women grinned at each other.

  Then the teacher came in and the class began.

  Bethany smiled to herself. It was going to be SO MUCH FUN at college!

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