Part 27 (2/2)
Kaila returned to the breakfast table.
”It's the drugs,” Nan whispered. ”And the cancer. They do things to the mind. Makes him think he sees things.” She absently sipped her coffee. ”But sometimes,” she said. ”I think he's seeing our relatives who are gone and waiting to meet him.”
Nan burst into tears. ”What will I do without him?” she sobbed. ”We been together sixty years.”
”Stop that cryin' woman!” Paw Paw called from his recliner.
In the ensuing silence, as Lee looked tearfully at Nan, Kaila realized that she could not reveal anything right now. This was not the time. She would have to handle this alone.
In her mother's yoga cla.s.s in the parlor, Kaila performed the poses, inhaling full, conscious breaths. After, in meditation she dove deep inside her mind. She recalled that yoga and meditation were over five thousand years old.
Doing the physical poses cleared the mind for meditation. By clearing the mind of thought, it offered peace, and more so, protection from the feeders. They could not feed if your mind was serene, free from anger or despair.
Humans had been taught divisions. In race, religion, s.e.x, politics, and cla.s.s. Even in school, the clothes defined you, and thus divided you. But the clothes were not who you really were. Yet they'd all bought into it. She had bought into it.
She lay on her mat meditating, aware that the cla.s.s had ended. People were leaving.
There was a key here, but what. She heard voices in her mind.
Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor.
Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.
These voices sounded different. She recalled Priscilla Snowden coming . . . was this her? Or was this them, attempting a mind-screen to lure her back?
She pondered what she had just heard.
To get an answer, one had to go inside and a.n.a.lyze how it felt. Ultimately, her gut never lied. This didn't feel predatory.
She opened her eyes. Her mother hovered over her. Kaila knew that her mother had been abducted, and why she'd been so insistent on Kaila wearing the black plastic and caps. Her mother didn't remember, but at a subconscious level, she knew. Just like Pia and Melissa. But more than that, she saw her mother's care and concern.
”Are you okay?” her mother asked. ”You've been distant lately.”
Kaila rose and put her arms around her mother.
”What's with the hug?” Lee asked. ”That's not like you.”
”I guess it's time to grow up and say thank you, Mom. You've always had my best interests in mind.”
Lee held the back of her hand to Kaila's forehead. ”You feeling okay?”
”Mom, I have some friends who are going through some stuff. Do you mind if they spend the night?”
”We have a huge house with lots of rooms. They're welcome anytime.”
Kaila hugged her mother again. Nothing from those outside worlds could compete with this; humans had something aliens never could understand. Still, her throat caught, her eyes filled with the thought of him-no, block it out!
”Something you want to talk about?” her mother asked.
”We'll talk,” Kaila said. ”There's just so much going on now.”
Her grandfather was dying. She'd been betrayed by the one she'd loved. Half her blood was of them. And now she knew the horrifying truth of their intent.
Her mother, thinking of Paw Paw, said, ”It's going to be very hard.”
”Yeah, Mom. It is.”
They held one another in the centuries-old parlor.
Sometimes a text message won't suffice. Kaila called Pia and Melissa on a three-way. She apologized profusely for defecting. She explained that she'd broken up with Jordyn.
Their long silence stung. Yet, she didn't blame them one bit.
”I'm so sorry,” Kaila repeated for the fifth time.
More silence. Kaila added, ”I want you to come over tonight and have a sleepover.”
”I don't know,” Melissa replied. ”I'm tired. Felt like I didn't sleep a wink last night.”
”Me too,” Pia added. ”Feel like I was run over by a truck.”
As a last-ditch effort at reconciliation, Kaila whispered, ”Do you remember when we swore we were a triad and how you guys wanted me to help you?”
Silence.
Pia finally bit. ”Yeah?”
”Well, I want to help you guys,” she said.
Pia sighed. ”I hope this is real, Kaila. You better not be pulling anything.”
Ouch. Kaila realized that though they might not remember the abductions, their subconscious did. And with the horrific things done to them at night, then having a screen memory implanted to mask the actual event, then seeing her cavort around with the aliens, no wonder they were guarded.
”Pia,” Kaila said. ”You have my word, as a human, with a heart, and part of our triad that I will do everything in my power to make it up to you and help you.”
The second Kaila entered the barn, she knew the horses were mad. They stared accusingly.
”I don't blame you for being mad,” she said, taking Perseus's lead.
”Course they're mad,” Mike called from Pegasus's stall. ”You been so involved with that boy, you been ignoring everyone. They know when they're last on the list.”
Mike stopped shoveling hay, put his hands on the top of the shovel. ”Hey,” he said. ”We got some bad times coming. It would be nice if you were around. Your mom's going to need you.”
”I know, I know,” Kaila said.
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