Banished To Earth Book One (11)

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  “Yeah, and another thing. I can’t. I won’t leave you here by yourself. There are a lot of men out there. Can you tone down your, you know, your Cry’chi appeal? Can’t have you slicing and dicing every ogling guy you see.”

  She tilted her head wearing a puzzled expression.

   “You know what I mean. Never mind, All I have is guy clothes anyway, some, from when I was a boy. I think I can hide your Cry ‘chi charm and keep us both out of trouble. Just don’t look people in the eye, especially men and teenaged boys, okay?”

  “Esta mize, Sorry, yes my love.”

  He kissed her mouth then gently, pulled himself away.

  While she showered, he rummaged around in his closet, found an old red flannel shirt, a pair of faded knee patched jeans a pair of small green crocks and a skinny leather belt, “Yeah, she’s gonna really need this” He muttered through a chuckle. He was just about to carry them to the bathroom, when he spotted an old beat up straw hat sitting on the top shelf of his closet, he snatched it down and struck off to the bathroom. “Man, she’s goin’ to look like a clown when I take her to Walmart, can’t be helped. Nobody dresses up to go shopping anymore anyway. Uh, She’ll probably fit right in.”

   A short time later he heard the shower stop, grabbed the clothes and piled them by the bathroom door. He was not used to having a wife. He was for the time being, more comfortable treating her like a house guest than a spouse. He hoped she wouldn’t notice, but then all this was new to her too. 

   Neither of them could remember their deep past or any clear details of their first union. Which ironically only intensified their infatuation. It was as though they had been a newlywed couple, who had had a terrible car accident, which robbed them of their shared history. And had only learned of their union from mutual friends. But it was deeper than that. Their love was so intense, so real it even transcended time and space. A love so pure and powerful, it had miraculously survived whatever calamity that had destroyed their bodies and stripped them of a past that would probably explain how they came to be here. It was the kind of love born of inescapable fate.

   Chase knew that their true history was still locked inside. Why it was locked away so tightly, he could not even guess.

A loud bump, followed by mumbled, what he could only guess, were Phastanarian curse words broke the silence. “You all right in there?”

 

48

   “I have never worn clothes.” Even though the bathroom door was solid wood and closed tight, it did not filter out her uncharacteristic irritation, “I do not like them. They are itchy, baggy, stiff and dead.”

   He snickered and started to go in and help her dress but didn’t. The sight of her half-dressed body would only arouse him. He still thought of her as a child. She certainly was new to this world, and like a newborn, he assumed, fragile in ways he could not imagine. At least that’s what he told himself. But there was something else, something old, dark squatting deep within. He did not know what it was, only that he was not ready to look at it. Consummation could well drive it out into the raw light of reality, shove it in his face and show him something about himself he did not want to know… 

   “And these little round things…” She continued, mumbling more Phastanarian curse words under her breath when Chase drew near.

   “Rounds things, oh you mean buttons, just push them into the little slits.”

   “Slits, the shirt is not bleeding, there are no sli.. oh I found them.”

“I can help if…” Chase offered, but not from his heart.

  “Not in the mood for real help, ah I mean, that kind of help. I must learn this on my own. Ugh, they will not go in. Wait, it is in now. Ugh, still have five more to go.”

 “Okay, Pry, I’ll be on the deck, waiting okay?”

 “Waiting, yes. I want to see the big falling water again. I must study it, like everything else here. This is my home now.”

   His eyes grew misty at the sound of her voice and the wonderful words she so casually uttered, when he made his way back toward the large flat screen TV sitting at eye level. It sat on a coffee table twisted at a forty-five-degree angle six feet to the left of the couch only slightly blocking the beautiful ocean view. 

   Later he heard her baggy clothes swish through the open glass door. He turned and slapped his hand over his mouth.

  “What?” She asked, “Did you hurt your face?”

The sight of his old clothes hanging off her slight perfect body and his beat up old straw hat slipping and sliding atop her’ ‘unhappy’ hair like a cowboy struggling to ride a bucking

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bronco was the most adorable and funniest thing he had ever seen. That and the fact she had apparently failed to master the use of the belt he’d found for her. The silly picture of her holding her baggy jeans up with her left hand while struggling to keep her hat on with her right, made his eyes tear from laughter.

  “You are crying, I am sorry. How have I hurt you?” She rushed to his side, dropping her hat and her pants at the same time. They fell around her legs and sent her back into his arms. Fortunately, the oversized shirt draped her body like a house coat, hanging down past her knees.

   “I’m not hurt Pry. I promise.” He eased her down to her feet, quickly pushing her pants up. “Can’t have a half -naked girl standing out here. We do have company, this morning. He pointed to a hand full of people strolling by, luckily more interested in the waves than his ridiculous predicament. You stay right here and hang on to your pants while I get the belt. Where is it, anyway?”

  “Threw it on the floor. Dead skin. No good.”

   “Oh, Good to know. It seems we both still have a lot to learn.”

   Their union, though deep and intimate, had only provided them with superficial information and only the most rudimentary understanding of each other and their respective worlds. In other words, neither were yet fluent in each other’s current state of being. Moreover, each suffered from a natural resistance to anything that they could not easily incorporate into their innate understanding of reality. And how could they know neither was truly seated into the galaxy that housed both Earth and Phastanar. Only that they were different. Each alien to this world, but not only this world but alien to this galaxy, as well.

   It was good that Chase was more keenly aware of Pry’s ignorance and naivete’, in the comfort and privacy of his home. Once they stepped out into the larger world, he would at least know what to look out for and hopefully stir her away from any potentially dangerous situations. 

   Nor had he forgotten there were other Hunters out there, no need to telegraph their whereabouts and there uniquely vulnerable union. He only hoped his first inevitable contact with them would not be confrontational. He was determined to give them a chance to prove their threat or harmlessness, clinging to the hope that their Hunter transformation had not stripped them of their humanity. But then he also knew any humanity left to them would not necessarily make them kind or caring. He imagined; he would find them to be a

50

mixed bag. Then it struck him, maybe these so -called monsters would be like Pry. Yeah that would be great, but also problematic

   Any allies he could find would only help them, even if they were monster allies. No doubt there was something nasty on the horizon, something inescapable. But something so close, it was too big to see, no details or perspective. When it finally pulled back and revealed itself, numbers would only help. Now it was just the two of them. But that must change…

   Upon his return. Chase found Pry pressed tightly against the deck railing. Obviously using it to hold up her pants. A cool stiff breeze played tag with her long white hair. Which darted and slid over and under the gusty northern chill. Her face glowed. Her chin, stone like in its stillness, cradled an adorable little girl smile.

    A sudden shift in the wind whipped her hair up and over her face, it countered by spreading over her eyes and nose. She giggled with delight.

   “You’re not cold?”

     Her eyes widened. “No! No, I am not. Then I should take off these silly dead things.”

  “No no no. Don’t, not here. Not now!” He handed her a stringy length of packing cord.

   She took it and shrugged, then waggled it in front of his face. Like a silly child playing with a new toy.

   Chase grunted, “No Pry, you tie it around your waist, to hold your pants up.”

  “But I don’t need pants.”

   “Oh yes you do.” He said sounding more like a father than a husband.

  “Very well.” She giggled again.  “Tie? How do I tie?”

   Chase couldn’t tell if she was teasing him or not. His shoulders slumped, “Just stand still. I’ll do it.” He then proceeded to lace the cord through the pants belt loops, then tied it into a neat little bow in front.”

  “That is pretty. Thank you Chase.”

   “Take my hand.”

    She tilted her head. Her eyes narrow and questioning. When they finally relaxed, she shrugged and clasped his hand.

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    “Tighter.”

   She obliged, just before he yanked his hand away. “You got a new grip, a really strong grip. You’ve changed.”

 “You changed me Chase. Did you change too?

 “Don’t think so, not any more than I already have.” He said just before he kissed her cheek.  “Yeah, this is better. This will work.”

  “You were worried?”

  “Yeah, feel better now. I think you gotta little Hunter in you, and that’s really good.”

  “But I don’t want to kill others like me.”

   “Not expecting you to, but I can’t help but think we don’t know as much as we should. Besides how do you know the others are like you.”

   “Like me?” She darted her eyes to one side. “My time between Phastanar and Earth,” she hesitated, “is, unclear. I do know I was not alone.”

  “Where were you, not alone?”

  She chewed her lip. Chase could almost see her mind reaching back.

“They, they called it The Transit Plane, yes that is it.”

“They? You mean The Transit Authority?”

   She nodded yes, “We were trapped, bodiless, looking out, always looking out, struggling to free ourselves.” She stopped when she saw him flinch. “What is it Chase?”

   He drew in a deep breath, smiled as he relaxed. “Thank you. Now I know what haunted me when I was little. It helps a lot. Thank you Prissy.”

    “Prissy?” Her features brightened as more of his past became hers as well. “I saw you then, hurt for you. Reached for you.”

   “I remember, you were there, my little ghost, not scary at all. You saved me. Kept me sane and now you’re saving me again from my sorry childhood. Sometimes I’d see you from the corner of my eye, but sometimes you were right in front of me, smiling, so sweet. So sweet you almost blocked out my mother’s nastiness. With you in my life I always had a safe place to go. You saved me.”

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     She reached out and stroked his strong sun darkened cheek and looked back at the sea, “The, the others, my cell mates,” she said, her tone a bit cooler, “They were monsters.

   Some were like me, some were not. I remember that now. We, though bodiless still sensed each other’s differences. I think that’s where Prissy came from.”