Going Through the Change

by Samantha Bryant

  She stepped into the parking lot fully expecting to have to blow up a police car or something, but no one was there. The police in this town really need to step up their response time, Helen thought, pulling back into traffic. The hotel wasn’t far. Until she knew where to go, that would do. She needed to gear up and hunt these people down.

  nce Linda had bundled the inert figure of Dr. Liu into the minivan, Eva had driven them away from the house as quickly as she could. She pulled away so quickly that the women were tossed against the sides of the van, and Cindy Liu slid off the seat and onto the floor. There wasn’t even time to think about the unconscious woman they had left in the yard. From the squeal of the tires, Linda knew they’d left a rubber trail at the end of the driveway.

  Linda accidentally pulled off the security handle she had grabbed to steady herself and sat staring at it in her hands. She decided she would get David to help her fix it after this was all over, and let it fall into the footwell beside her prisoner.

  Her mind was reeling after the fight. She had kidnapped someone! That someone had tried to hurt her friend and had already been responsible for several crimes herself, but it didn’t make what they were doing now any less wrong. What had she gotten herself into, following this crazy gringa? She glared at Patricia, wondering what had possessed her to do what the woman had asked. She guessed she had just been so happy to have something to do, an action to take, that she had acted without thinking it through. She had no idea what they were going to do next.

  Eva had them on the highway and was driving eastward at eighty miles an hour before she called over her shoulder to ask, “Where am I going?”

  They all answered at the same time. Patricia said, “the hospital,” Jessica, “the police,” and Linda, “back home.” Then they all started yelling at each other about why their idea was the best.

  After a mere minute or two of the bickering, Eva threw up her hands in frustration, swerved violently, and then brought the van to a sudden halt on the side of the road. Punching the button for the emergency lights, she flung off her seatbelt and whirled on the passengers. “Do you even have a plan?” she asked, her voice nearly hysterical.

  “It’ll be okay, Mom,” Jessica said, climbing over the seat to reach her mother. She crouched in the space between the driver’s seat and the front passenger seat and hugged her mother awkwardly.

  Linda felt instantly chagrined. The woman had just been held prisoner, nearly burned, and rescued in a violent fashion, and they had asked her to drive. What were they thinking?

  “We’ve got to get Cindy to a hospital,” Patricia insisted. “We need to find out what is wrong with her.”

  Jessica turned without letting go of her mother. “Are you crazy? We need the police. This woman is a menace and needs to be locked up before she hurts someone else!”

  Patricia’s voice reached a new pitch of stridency. “She didn’t mean to hurt anyone!”

  “Mean it? I don’t care what she meant! Have you forgotten that she drugged me and held me prisoner in her basement? Who knows what she would have done to me if Leonel hadn’t found me. And she sent her thug after my mother.” Jessica’s body rose, and she hovered a few inches in the air, ducking her head in the confined space.

  There was a pause, and Linda spoke up quickly before either of them could start shrieking again. “We cannot go the police or the hospital,” she said. All three women turned to her in surprise. “Think about how this will look to anyone in authority,” she said. “Three white women and a Hispanic man walk in holding an Asian teenager bound in duct tape and insist that we are the ones who are in need of help? We’ll be locked up before we can get the words out.”

  “They can’t hold us,” Patricia said.

  “I know that,” Linda said, keeping her voice steady and calm, though she longed to scream at Patricia for the trouble she had gotten them into with her cockeyed scheme. “But do you really want to be put in the position of escaping from a cell? Do you really want to have to hurt the men and women who are charged with keeping us locked up?”

  Jessica chimed in. “Leonel is right.” She didn’t sound happy to have to admit it, but Linda was happy for the support. Maybe they would listen to reason after all.

  “So, where do we go?” Patricia asked. She sounded defeated. For the first time since she had met her, Linda thought Patricia looked old. The way she pursed her mouth highlighted the wrinkles around her lips.

  They all sat silently, just looking at each other, so quiet that the buffeting sounds of cars driving past them on the highway seemed as loud as hurricane winds. Linda felt like she could hear the plans that each of them concocted and dismissed without speaking aloud. They were stuck. Then a phone rang.

  Patricia jumped. “That’s me,” she said, pulling the phone from a side pocket in her pants. She looked at the screen. “It’s Suzie.” She answered it.

  Linda couldn’t hear Suzie’s words, but she heard the tone and knew Suzie had called to find out what had happened. It had been several hours since Linda had called Patricia at work to bring her in on Jessica’s rescue. Suzie must have been on tenterhooks waiting to hear what had happened.

  Linda had a guilty start, realizing David didn’t yet know what had happened. Pulling out her own phone, she checked the time. He would be home from work by now and should have found her note. She held the phone up and gestured to the outside. Jessica nodded. Linda checked Dr. Liu’s bonds and lifted her back onto the seat where Jessica and Eva could keep an eye on her and then let herself out of the van.

  David answered on the first ring. “Are you all right?”

  Linda reassured him that she was, starting to tell him what had happened.

  David cut her off in mid sentence. “Where are you?” Linda could tell from his voice that he wasn’t happy she was out fighting again. “Viviana is supposed to be here soon,” he reminded her.

  Linda fought down the urge to yell at her husband. She knew his anger came from love. He wanted her safe. He wanted her there, helping to repair the rift with her daughter. But this was important, too. Cindy Liu and Helen were dangerous people, and Linda could help stop them. “I don’t think I will be home quite that soon, David,” she said softly.

  “I see,” he said.

  Linda thought that maybe he did see, and that he didn’t like what he saw. Then the phone was dead, three little beeps announcing the end of the call. David had hung up, without an I love you, without a goodbye. Linda’s throat went tight and raw.

  “Come on, Leonel,” Jessica was calling, leaning out the window of the van and waving. “We’re going to the college. Suzie will meet us there!”

  atricia put Suzie on speakerphone. The intern talked Eva through the winds and bends of the college campus to the parking lot where she was waiting. They pulled into an isolated parking place behind the old gymnasium in the dark under a large, old tree. Patricia spotted Suzie sitting at the top of a short staircase and pointed her out to the others. When Suzie spotted the van, she hopped up and waved them down, looking almost elf-like in a bright blue jacket.

  When they clambered out of the vehicle, Suzie surprised everyone by greeting Patricia with a hug. “I’m so glad you’re all right!” Suzie looked around the circle at everyone, but it was obvious it was really Patricia she had been concerned about. “Where’s Dr. Liu?” she asked, her face losing all warmth as she spoke the woman’s name.

  “Still in the van.” Patricia gestured toward the door.

  They all peeked around the open door at the seemingly unconscious teenager sprawled across the seat, hanging from the belt Patricia had strapped her into.

  “You weren’t kidding. She does look like a kid.” Suzie turned her back on the doctor and clapped her hands together. “Okay, so Patricia said you need a place to regroup and to keep Dr. Liu confined while you plan your next steps, so we’re going to this building.”

  Everyone gathered obediently to look at the map Suzie had unfurled. Suzie went on. “It’s unde
r construction, so should be empty at this time of day. Yes, technically, we’re trespassing. But like I said, it should be empty. The work crew leaves by three o’clock each day. However, just in case, I brought you something.” At this, Suzie hopped back up the stairs and came down pulling a rolling cart behind her. “Here, you’ll need these.”

  She handed each person a bag. Each contained pieces of costuming. “Patricia, I figured you could just transform, and, as for the rest of you, if you’ll put on the masks and costuming, we’ll just look like we’re having a costume party,” she said, settling a pair of white fluffy bunny ears atop her hair and grinning at them.

  Leonel laughed when he saw the wolf man mask and flannel shirt she had picked for him. “It’s perfect, Suzie. Thank you for your help.”

  Patricia pursed her lips doubtfully. “A costume party in April?”

  “It’s college, Patricia. Surely, you remember.”

  Patricia did remember. She nodded and concentrated, allowing her scales to encase her. Suzie’s plan was sounding less harebrained by the moment.

  Once everyone was dressed, Suzie said that it would look less suspicious if Jessica and her mother dragged Cindy between them. “You know, like she’s your friend, and she just had too much to drink.”

  Jessica said, “Won’t people notice the duct tape?”

  “Yeah. I thought of that. I think we’d better remove it.”

  “Then what’s to keep her from yelling out for help?” Jessica asked.

  “This,” said Suzie, pulling a syringe from her purse.

  Jessica’s eyes grew wide, and Leonel gasped. Even Patricia felt surprised, and, at the same time, admiring.

  “What’s in it?”

  “Basically injectable ruffies,” she said, her tone matter-of-fact. “My roommate is a chemistry major,” she added, seeming to realize that the group might want some explanation of how she came by a batch of date-rape drug. “Leonel, can you hold her please? In case she’s faking?”

  Patricia could see Leonel wasn’t sure this was the best course of action, but he complied. Suzie utilized the syringe with surprising facility and then ripped the duct tape from Cindy’s face, wrists, and ankles with a look of satisfaction.

  “Sometimes you worry me, Suzie,” Patricia said.

  “I am a woman of hidden talents,” Suzie said brightly, putting the cap back on the now-empty syringe and stowing it back in her purse along with the scraps of duct tape.

  They walked quietly in a tight group until Suzie told them they were being too suspicious. “Relax,” she said. “Try to look like you’re on the way to a party.”

  They spread out a little after that and laughed nervously. It wasn’t until they walked past a group of guys sitting on some stairs and smoking that they really fell into their roles. Suzie was the best at it. She laughed and pulled at Leonel. “Come on, baby! We’re going to be the last ones there!” She shrieked with laughter and ran ahead of the group.

  Leonel shrugged and then chased after her, trying to play along, calling for her to wait. Jessica and Eva swayed convincingly, holding the floppy Cindy Liu between them. They had put a cape on her and a cat woman mask that covered the top half of her face. Jessica was wearing a naughty nurse outfit, and Eva a set of surgical scrubs and a face mask. They talked quietly to each other in a way that really looked like girlfriends conspiring. It was very plausible, Patricia decided.

  Patricia herself brought up the rear, just walking silently, ready to act defensively if the situation called for it, but really hoping it wouldn’t. When one of the boys called out, “Whoa, nice costume!” she turned to him and grinned. “What costume?” she said. They all laughed. Patricia began to believe the plan would work.

  The building was empty, just as Suzie had predicted. Leonel had stepped up when they got to the entrance, planning to break the latch, but found the door behind the “Closed for Renovations” sign was unlocked. So, the group shuffled inside and picked a room to settle into.

  There were several small sitting rooms off the main foyer, and Suzie directed them toward one at the back with a couch and a few chairs in it. Jessica and Eva flopped Cindy onto the couch none-too-gently. Watching the way they handled her old friend, Patricia remembered all the cause for anger the Roarks had. Eva had called Cindy a friend. She must have felt betrayed in the same way Patricia did.

  The scientist seemed to still be out cold. She lay where she had been dropped. Patricia could see her chest moving in even breaths and felt reassured they hadn’t put her into a coma. Eva pulled off the surgical mask that had hid her face and flung it into a nearby chair and then flung herself into it as well, covering her face with her hands.

  Patricia noticed Jessica’s mother’s hands were shaking and felt angry it was her old friend who had brought them to this moment. Cindy would have some explaining to do when she regained consciousness. Jessica knelt in front of the chair her mother had collapsed into and hissed at Leonel, gesturing toward the door with her head. “We’ve got first watch,” she said.

  Patricia didn’t understand at first, until Leonel grabbed her elbow. “Come on, Godzilla. We should let them talk.” He tugged her toward the open door into a second sitting area.

  Suzie tried the corner lamp, but the electricity must have been out, because it didn’t turn on. So, she opened the blinds to let in a little bit of light from the streetlights and stood looking out the window.

  Leonel flopped noisily into the largest chair in the room, dangling his legs over the arm of the chair and letting his head rest against the opposite arm rest. As he moved, he automatically adjusted his hair, and something in the hair-flipping gesture was so feminine that Patricia almost laughed. It was so easy to forget Leonel had not always been a man.

  Patricia joined Suzie at the window, looking out onto the darkening college campus. “Thanks,” she said, and Suzie’s face widened with a surprised smile. Patricia went to pat Suzie on the shoulder and realized that her hands were still covered in scales. She must be more tense than she realized. She concentrated and retracted them.

  “So, what’s our next move?” It was Leonel who asked, and his voice seemed huge in the quiet room.

  Patricia and Suzie both jumped. When they turned to look at him, they found that he had not moved. He had just spoken the words to the ceiling. When they didn’t answer, he turned his head to stare at them. “We can’t just stay here forever. What happens now?”

  Suzie looked at Patricia, too. Patricia stood there feeling frozen. She still didn’t have a clear plan, but she didn’t want to tell them that, not when they were looking to her to tell them what should be done. “We wait,” she said, after a long pause. “When she wakes, I’ll talk to her. If anyone can find out what’s going on from her, it’s me. We go way back.”

  Suzie pulled out her cell phone to check the time. “She should be coming around in the next hour or so. Right when she awakes, her inhibitions will be lowered. It’s probably our best bet to get some straight answers out of her.”

  “So, the question is,” said Leonel, “what are we going to ask her?”

  Suzie pulled a tablet computer from her bag and set it up on the end table with a little cordless keyboard. When Suzie gestured for them to do so, Leonel and Patricia pulled chairs up close, so the three of them could all see the screen. Suzie pulled up a document and titled it “What to ask,” and sat with her hands on the keyboard, looking questioningly from one of them to the other and back again.

  Patricia thought. There was so much she wanted to know, but it was all so hard to put into a list of questions. She wanted to know what Cindy had done to herself that had her looking like a fifteen-year-old child. She wanted to know what she had been thinking when she kidnapped Jessica and brought a crazy woman to threaten her mother. She wanted to understand what had happened to all three of them and what Cindy had to do with that. Mostly, she just felt lost. It was unbelievable to her that her friend had done the things she had.

  The cursor blin
ked on the document accusingly as Patricia struggled to form even a single question. There was a gentle rap on the doorframe, and they looked up to find Eva there. “She’s moving,” she said.

  They all stood and rushed back to the room where Cindy Liu was, indeed, stirring. She stretched like a cat, murmuring, and blinked sleepy eyes. Patricia sat on the edge of the couch and waited. The others stayed a step or two behind her. She could feel the tension radiating from each of them.

  “Oh, hey, Patricia,” said Cindy. Her words were slurred. “‘Izzit time to get up?”

  “Tell me what’s going on, Cindy,” Patricia said.

  “Need to get my emeralds,” she said. “Can’t stop it without them.”

  Patricia looked significantly at Jessica, who grabbed at the little bag she was wearing under her shirt, bunching up the material. In the car, she had heard Jessica telling her mother about the emeralds she had taken from Cindy’s lab and about the effect they had on her flight.

  “Stop what, Cindy?”

  “Getting too young.” Cindy yawned, hugely, ostentatiously.

  It hit Patricia how tired she was. In fact, she realized as she looked around the group, they all looked a little haggard and worn. Well, all but Suzie. She cleared her throat. “Why don’t you all go find a place to rest and leave me to talk to Cindy? I think she’ll talk to me, and then we can decide what to do next.”

  Leonel stood. “I should call David, anyway,” he said and turned to leave the room.

  Jessica and Eva looked at each other, and then Jessica spoke up. “I need to call Nathan, too. He and the boys can’t go back to our house tonight.” Eva drifted after her daughter, pausing in the doorway to glare at Cindy with surprising malice.