Chapter Nineteen

 

When I opened my eyes, I couldn't move. I tried and tried, but couldn't. The room was light. The sun had already come up. I could hear Koji talking to my father in the next room. Their deep voices rumbled through the air. I could see the shadow of the blinds making dark stripes on the wall. I could smell breakfast being cooked, potato pancakes and bacon. I could move my eyes around the room and see everything there, but I couldn't move my body. I wasn't scared. I was calm because I was in a familiar place. It was like I was watching a movie.

Then my bed shook. Just a little at first, but it quickly grew more violent. It felt like someone was jumping up and down on the mattress. My body bounced up and down violently. Then something landed on my chest. It was just like Eve had described, but there was no faceless man. Nothing was there; I couldn't see anything, but I felt it. Panic rolled over me. My heart pounded and I started gasping for air. I tried with all my might to move. Then, as suddenly as it started, it stopped. I inhaled sharply and sat upright in bed. I could hear a faint tapping.

"Indy, are you up yet?" Koji's voice came softly through the door.

"Come in."

I was crying before he even entered the room. My shoulders shook, and hot tears rolled down my face and landed on the sheet across my lap. I took in a painful breath that sounded like a hiccup.

Koji shut the door behind him and rushed over to me. "What's wrong?" He sat on the bed next to me, the mattress sinking under his weight. He put his arms around me and pulled me into him. I buried my head in his chest, and my body started to shake even more uncontrollably as I let out loud gasping sobs. "What's wrong?" he asked again.

Eventually, I was able to calm down. My body stopped shaking. My breathing slowed. "I think the same thing that happened to Eve just happened to me," I finally managed to say.

"The faceless man?"

"I didn't see a man. I didn't see anything, but there was something here. I don't know how to describe it. It was kind of like a force."

Koji held on to me a little tighter. "We shouldn't have gotten mixed up in this whole thing." He held me and rocked slowly back and forth. I was glad to be rocked. I closed my eyes and remembered the times I was happy to be with him. This was one of those times.

"How are you now?" he whispered into the top of my head.

"Better." I pulled away from him, startled because I found myself considering getting back together with him.

"Are you sure?" He tried to make eye contact, but I kept my gaze focused on the dark spot my tears had made on the front of his t-shirt.

"Yeah." I wiped some of the wetness from my cheeks. "It was just a bad dream. I should shower and get dressed."

"You might want to eat breakfast first. It's ready."

"Naw, I just need a minute to be alone. I'll just eat some cereal in a little bit."

"Okay." He stood up slowly and walked over to the door. He put his hand on the knob to open it, and before he did, he turned to look at me again. "You know I love you."

I nodded my head and smiled weakly.

"I know that you love me too. You don't want to admit it yet, but I know you do." With that he left the room.

**

My mother placed a few potato pancakes onto a plate when I walked into the kitchen after my shower. "You didn't really think I would let you just eat cereal, did you?" She put the plate on the table.

"I didn't want to cause any extra trouble. I mean, because I got up so late and all." I sat down.

"You're not causing me trouble." She took a jar of applesauce out of the refrigerator and set it down near my plate.

"Thanks." I served myself some applesauce.

"You're welcome." She pulled out a chair and sat down next to me. She was wearing another loose-fitting dashiki dress. This one was brown, with black birds printed on it. The neck, sleeves and hem of the dress were decorated with thin lines of loopy, white embroidery. She had many dresses like this. She said they were comfortable and cool. Her dreadlocks hung loosely around her face. She tucked them behind her ears. I could feel her watching me eat. "Indira ..."

"What, Mom?"

"Your father and I have discussed it, and we realize that you are in some kind of trouble ..."

"I told Dad the other day that I wasn't. I was just doing this favor for a friend. I'm not in trouble or involved in anything illegal. It was just a favor and now it's done and I'm going back home." I put a forkful of potato pancake into my mouth.

"This is your home." She put her hand on my shoulder and squeezed.

I was still chewing so I just shook my head.

"Wherever we are is your home too."

"I know that, but I need to have someplace of my own. You know, with my stuff and my friends."

"Yeah, I know. I just mean that if you're ever in trouble, you can always come back here." She brushed my cheek with the back of her hand and then withdrew. She stood up and pushed her chair under the table.

"I know."

"I hope you enjoy your breakfast. I'll have to leave you alone to eat it. I hope you don't mind."

"That's fine, Mom."

"Good. I have some things I need to get done," she said and left the room.

I sat alone in the kitchen of my childhood eating potato pancakes, applesauce, and bacon. The stove clicked as the electric burners cooled down. No one else seemed to be around. I had no idea where they'd all gone. The house was quiet. I couldn't even hear my mother moving around in the other room. I tried not to think about anything. I just concentrated on the hum of the refrigerator, the clicking of the cooling burners, chewing and swallowing my food.

I was rinsing my plate in the sink when Eve came in. Actually, they all came into the house from wherever they'd been, but only Eve came into the kitchen.

"Hey," she said. She looked sweaty and was slightly out of breath.

"Where've you been?" I asked. I rubbed my hand along the smooth surface of the plate as the water ran over it.

"Went for a walk and a little run." She panted. "A race toward the end." She was wearing her cutoffs again, with a green t-shirt that showed a sliver of midriff.

"Everyone went?"

"Just your dad and Koji and me. You haven't seen your mother?"

"I did briefly, but she disappeared."

"Really?"

My mother came through the kitchen door behind her. "I didn't disappear. I was in the office sending out some emails." She walked over to the sink, took the plate from me and stuck it into the dishwasher. "How was your walk?"

"Great. You live in such a nice neighborhood." Eve wiped some sweat from her face with her hand.

"I like it." My mother smiled. "Do you want some water?"

"Please."

My mother opened the refrigerator and in the crisping drawer where most people would keep the lettuce were small bottles of water. She pulled out three. "One for you, and give these to the men. I'm sure they're thirsty too. It's hot out there." She handed the bottles to Eve.

"No problem. Thanks." Eve spun around and left the kitchen.

I stood, leaning against the sink. My mother turned to me. "If you plan on staying in here all day, I have some cleaning you can do."

I wrinkled my face at her. "No, thanks. I was just leaving."

**

My father and Koji were laughing it up on the living-room sofa like old buddies, which I guess they had become over the years. It was good to see them getting along so well. I knew my father liked him, really liked him, because whenever I spoke to my parents, he'd always ask how Koji was doing. When he found out we broke up, he seemed more heartbroken and distressed than I was. I think he even called him up sometimes to chat and find out how things were going.

"What's so funny?" I asked as I walked into the bright, open living room.

"Your father's a madman," Koji laughed.

"Now tell me something I don't know," I said. I sat down on the lounge chair. "Where's Eve?"

"In the bedroom. I think she said something about changing out of her sweaty shirt," Koji responded.

"You missed a good walk," my dad said.

"Yeah. I overslept."

"You're on vacation. You can't oversleep on vacation." My father took a swig from his water bottle, then put the cap back on.

"It's not really a vacation," I said.

"You've finished the work you needed to do, so now it's a vacation." He looked at me with that know-it-all expression that he gets sometimes.

My mother came out of the kitchen, sighed loudly, and placed her hand on the back of her neck. She always did that, but if you asked her if her neck hurt she always said it didn't.

"Working hard or hardly working?" my dad said to her.

She shook her head. "Neither. I just started the dishwasher," she said in a flat voice.

"Thanks." My father always thanked my mother for the things she did around the house. They didn't seem to take each other for granted like some people do. "I was thinking we could take the kids out this afternoon, I don't know, maybe for lunch and a matinee."

"That would be nice," my mom said. She sat down on the sofa next to my father.

Eve came out of the bedroom in her sheer purple hippie shirt again with the black bra underneath. My mother looked her up and down. I waited for her to make a comment. She usually didn't care who it was, if she thought their clothing was distasteful she would say something. This time she decided to keep her mouth shut, and I was grateful.

"What's going on?" Eve asked.

"We're talking about taking you all out to lunch," my mother replied.

"Thanks, but we'll probably be busy this afternoon," Eve said.

"I'm sorry. I didn't know you had already made plans," my dad said. He turned and looked at me.

"We didn't," Koji snapped.

Eve scowled, folded her arms, and shifted her weight to one foot. "I guess I'm the only one with plans then."

I couldn't believe that after all that had happened Eve was really thinking about going back to Prophetess's place alone. It seemed incredibly stupid to me, but I didn't want to discuss it in front of my parents. I wanted them to continue to think that we were done with the box, which technically we were. "Yeah, I forgot. Eve and I were going to do some things today. But you could take Koji if you like," I said.

"No, I'll go too," Koji said. He rubbed his head and looked the other direction.

"Maybe we could do it tonight," my mother said.

"I don't know if we'll be back in time," I answered.

"Well, tomorrow then," my mother said.

"Sure, tomorrow would be good," I said.

"Where are you going?" my dad asked.

"Someplace." That was the way I always answered when I was hiding something. "Just someplace."

"Oh, I see. It's a secret from us old folks," my dad said.

"Yeah, I guess you could say that," I said.

"You're not going to tell me either?" My father nudged Koji.

"Sorry, sir," Koji said.

"That's fine. You go have your young kid fun. When you're ready to hang out with grown-ups we'll be here," my dad joked. He put his arm around my mom's shoulder.

"We'll have plenty of time tomorrow," I said.