Becoming (19 page)

“Why don’t I show you two to the bathroom so
you can get cleaned up?” she offered.

“Thank you, ma’am. That’d be great,” he
responded for both of them.

“You can just call me Jean,” she said with a
gentle smile, and waved them after her.

It didn’t take long for them to use the
available soap and water in the restrooms to cleanse themselves of
the blood on their skin. Nick provided Amber with a dark green
T-shirt sporting an Alutiiq petroglyph that resembled a deer.
Gabriel’s T-shirt was gray and sported a dancing human figure with
the words, “I like to PUKUK.” Since Nick had taken Gabriel’s hoodie
before their meeting with Ini-herit, it was still clean and
wearable. Skye had an extra cardigan that she loaned Amber. It was
a neon shade of pink that Amber would never have usually been
caught dead in, but they had bigger things to worry about.

Ini-herit had explained at the conclusion of
their time with him that they would have to leave all of their
human possessions behind. In vague terms, he told them about the
transition from one plane to the next, informing them that nothing
would physically cross over with them. A Corgloresti would be sent
to remove their things from the rental house and settle the payment
with the owners. He was deliberately vague regarding what Mrs. B
would be told regarding their disappearance. Gabriel was convinced
she would be told they were dead, a thought that troubled him and
Amber deeply.

They traveled, a rather quiet and somber
group, in a passenger van driven by Nick to a different airport
than Gabriel and Amber had arrived at just the day before.
Ini-herit led them through the small terminal and out onto the
tarmac toward a chartered plane they would be taking to
Fairbanks.

Giving the girls a moment to say goodbye to
their human guardians, who would not be traveling to Fairbanks,
Ini-herit walked over to converse with the pilot. A pet carrier
containing Olivia’s white cat was being loaded onto the plane.
Amber and Gabriel stood quietly apart from the others, watching
Skye talk with Nick while she wiped a steady stream of tears from
her face. Olivia was equally tearful as she spoke with Jean. They
hugged several times. Then Olivia took something from Jean and made
her way over to Amber and Gabriel.

When she reached them, she gave them a small
smile and held out the object she carried. It was a cell phone.
“Here,” she said. “I know Ini-herit probably told you that you
couldn’t speak with your guardian before you leave. But if it was
me, I couldn’t leave Jean without saying goodbye.”

Amber didn’t say anything at first, but she
reached for the phone. Gabriel started to speak, then held back. He
gently squeezed her shoulder.

“Thanks, Olivia,” she said softly. “We really
appreciate it. Though…I don’t know what we can really tell
her.”

Giving Amber’s upper arm a brief pat of
understanding, Olivia looked at each of them with compassionate
green eyes that held the wisdom of someone three times her age.
“Just tell her what she needs to hear.” Then she turned and walked
back to Jean.

So, as Ini-herit made the final arrangements
with the pilot, Amber slowly dialed the familiar number that would
allow her and Gabriel to tell the woman who had raised them into
adulthood that she would never see them again.

The plane was in the air by 2:30. It seemed
impossible to Amber that this was still the same day that had begun
that morning with Gabriel fixing her French toast.

He sat beside her now in the last row of the
small plane. Olivia and Skye were seated beside each other across
the aisle from them, their heads bent together in conversation.
Ini-herit sat in the front row by himself, by all appearances
completely unmoving.

“How’re you holding up?” Gabriel asked her
quietly once the pilot announced that they had reached their
cruising altitude. He had lifted the arm rest between their seats
and was now holding her left hand between both of his on top of his
right thigh.

Turning from the window and catching his
serious gaze, she answered, “Like Alice after she went through the
looking glass.”

That provoked a small smile, which had been
her goal. “I keep wondering how the hell we got here,” he admitted.
“It’s like some crazy dream.”

“I know.” She frowned, thinking of The Dream.
“The shock and numbness are wearing off now. Reality’s starting to
set in. I mean, holy crap!”

“Are you wondering like I am why we were so
easily convinced about all this?”

Giving that some thought, she shook her head.
“Actually, I think we’ve both known for a long time that I’m
unusual.” She gave herself a moment to enjoy his quick, playful
grin. Then she added, “I’ll admit that finding out you’re a bit of
a freak, too, was quite a shocker.”

His expression sobered. “Yeah.”

Keeping her voice low and studying the back
of Ini-herit’s head as though he could hear her, she asked, “Why do
you think Ini-herit’s Wymzestis—or Orculestis, or whatever they’re
called—lost the ability to connect with your mind this morning? And
yes, I know that is one of the strangest questions to ever leave my
mouth.”

He managed another smile and then shook his
head. “I wish I knew. That’s right around the time that we
exchanged the rings, but how something like that could affect a
being from a whole other plane…it completely defeats me.”

She knew she had to let it go. Neither of
them had a clue what they were getting into, so they had no chance
of gaining an answer to this particular puzzle. She tipped her head
to the left and settled it on his shoulder.

Sighing, she whispered, “I’m scared.”

“I know,” he said. He kissed the top of her
head and held her hand more tightly. “I am, too.”

Ini-herit had told them that the Estilorians
had no real way of knowing how the transition between the planes
would affect any of them, particularly their minds. The chances
were favorable for the girls that they would end up on the
Estilorian plane with their human personality traits and memories
fully intact, as this was the only existence they had ever known.
But a small chance did exist that they would enter their Estilorian
forms and have only the memories they retained from that plane.
Meaning, they would have the minds of newborn infants.

He also very bluntly said there was a
fifty-fifty chance that Gabriel would retain his human awareness.
Thus, the chance was equally great that Gabriel would revert
entirely to his formerly Estilorian self on the Estilorian plane,
not retaining a single memory of his time as a human. Because the
Estilorians had never attempted anything like this in the past,
they simply had no way to know whether it would work.

Amber pondered this very disturbing
possibility as the single flight attendant on the plane circulated
with drinks and bags of snacks. The enormity of the risk they were
taking—the very real chance that Gabriel wouldn’t remember her or
his love for her in only a matter of hours—weighed on her like
stone. But Ini-herit had spent quite some time impressing the
importance of them making the transition with all haste to prevent
the loss of human lives. She knew they didn’t have any choice.

Gabriel handed her one of the bags of dried
fruit with granola and a small bottle of water. Although her
stomach was a sour knot of fear, she decided to eat since she
figured she was unlikely to get any other food in the near
future.

Looking at him as she pulled the small bag
open, she said, “You know that if you forget me when we cross over
that I’m going to nag and browbeat you until you give up and fall
in love with me again, right?”

His eyes filled with warmth and appreciation.
Then he leaned over and gave her a soft kiss on the lips. “Well, it
sure worked the first time. I’d say you have yourself a sound
plan.”

Across the aisle, Olivia and Skye watched the
byplay between Amber and Gabriel as they ate. The plane’s engines
were too loud for them to hear any of the words they exchanged, but
the feelings shared by the two of them were clear enough.

Skye elbowed Olivia. “Isn’t that something? I
mean, he comes here to learn about powerful human emotions and then
falls in love with our sister. It’s just poetic.”

Although Olivia was typically more inclined
to think in terms of logic and reasoning than in flowery
romanticism, she couldn’t argue with Skye’s assessment. There was
something almost palpable about the connection between Amber and
Gabriel. It was enviable, really. And even though she hardly knew
Amber, she was very happy for her. From what Olivia had gauged in
only the past few hours, her elder sister was highly uncomfortable
with connections with other people. It didn’t take much to deduce
that Amber’s path had not been an easy one. Which made her love for
Gabriel even more significant, she thought.

“It’s sweet,” she said out loud, returning
her gaze to her tray table. She didn’t want to infringe on their
privacy.

“Have you wondered what guys are going to be
like on the other plane?” Skye asked around a bite of granola.

“No, actually,” Olivia acknowledged. “I
haven’t known about all of this for very long. It’s a lot to
process.”

“Oh, for sure,” Skye agreed with what Olivia
had determined was her perpetual enthusiasm. “I mean, gosh, I’ve
known about this for most of my life. I don’t know how you and
Amber are handling it. I’m sure I’d be freaking out!”

Freaking out
. Olivia supposed that was
a fairly accurate term for her initial reaction. First had come the
unexpected power surge. Fortunately it had happened while she was
with Jean, as she blacked out almost as soon as it occurred. Jean
had been warned to look for signs like that, of course, and it
wasn’t even a full day after the surge before Ini-herit showed up
at their front door to have the “big talk.”

Shortly thereafter, the reality of leaving
behind the world she knew had sunk in. She had curled into a ball
on her bed and cried for the better part of a day. How could she
possibly leave the mother who had raised her? What about her
friends and her future plans? She was on her way to college, for
goodness’ sake! She couldn’t just step away from all of that. But
in the end, nothing had changed when she again emerged from her
bedroom to discuss everything with Jean.

And now here she was, sitting on a chartered
plane eating granola with a girl with a face piercing and tattoos.
Who happened to be her sister. Her friends at St. Ignatius Prep
would take one look at Skye and not know what to make of her.

Thinking of her high school turned Olivia’s
thoughts to the stylish but homey apartment she and Jean lived in
on the south side of downtown Chicago. She thought of the bagel
shop they walked to every Sunday morning after Mass, and the Jewel
grocery store with the cute bag boy she had had a secret crush on
for more than a year. She thought about the public library where
she had spent the bulk of her weekends during her senior year when
she wasn’t babysitting or tutoring other students to earn some
money. She thought of Chicago-style hot dogs and deep dish pizza,
which she rarely ate but would miss more than she would have ever
thought possible. Did they have such things on the other plane? She
hadn’t ever thought to ask.

Even as the first tear slipped over her
lashes, Skye was reaching over to touch her arm consolingly.

“Hey,” she said quietly, her expression more
somber than usual. “I know this is kind of scary. And I know you’re
going to miss your mom and the people you’re leaving behind. I am,
too, and I’ve had a long time to prepare for this. But, well, try
to think of the positive things about what we’re going to
experience.”

Olivia wiped her eyes with her beverage
napkin and said, “Like what?”

“Well, what about our powers?” Skye answered,
her smile wide. “Ini-herit said we’ll Become, though I don’t know
exactly what that means. But we’re bound to have some non-human
powers on the other plane. Won’t that be something?”

Olivia considered that. “You think we’ll end
up like Wonder Woman or something?”

“I think even better. Nick says he believes
that on the other plane, they haven’t had to curb the level of
powers they can achieve because humans can’t detect them anymore,
anyway. So it follows that over the years, Estilorians have evolved
to amazing levels.”

“Really? Did he say what kinds of
powers?”

Skye looked a bit sheepish. “Well, he didn’t
exactly know, being human and all.” Then she brightened. “But he
always taught me that you’re only limited by the size if your
imagination. So, that’s got to mean that the possibilities are
endless!”

Holding back a concerned frown, Olivia
nodded. She didn’t find it necessary to go into the fact that she
had never had a very active imagination and, in fact, preferred to
deal in fact and logic. Dampening Skye’s enthusiasm wouldn’t
benefit anyone.

In an effort to switch the subject, she said,
“So, what do you think the guys will be like over there?”

“Oh,” Skye said, her brilliant blue gaze
shifting to Gabriel. “Well, I can only hope they’re
that
nice on the eyes.”

Olivia laughed.

“But I’m worried they’ll have Ini-herit’s
personality.”

That stopped the laughter. “Er, really? You
think the guys are all like that?”

“Well, Gabriel came over here to learn about
our emotions, right? So that has to mean that they don’t really,
well, have them.”

“No emotion?” Olivia repeated. A feeling of
dread crept over her.

“I don’t know about ‘no emotion,’ exactly.
But I think that Gabriel wouldn’t have given up his entire
existence to come here if they didn’t at least lack the big
ones.”