The Visitors (6 page)

I laughed incredulously. It wasn't funny, but I really didn't know what else to do. “Let me get this straight. You feel ‘drawn' to me, so that has to be some kind of…magic spell or something? You think I'm some sort of witch or something?”

His face twisted up in confusion. “Spells and witches…now you've lost me.”

I frowned. “Forget I said that. It's…on Earth, we have made-up creations and stories. They're just for fun. Some people believe in them, but most people don't. It's just folklore. Anyway, I'm rambling. Pretend I didn't say that.”

“This is no made-up creation or fun story,” he said earnestly. “The pull I feel toward you is real, and almost irresistible.”

As I stared into his eyes, I saw how serious he was. Maybe this bizarre connection I felt with him was not all one-sided. The description of what he felt for me echoed the strange emotions that I had been fighting since we arrived. “I think I know what you're talking about,” I blurted out. “I feel it toward you, too.” With that, I sighed and looked down at my hands. The truth was out now.

He shook his head. “What do you mean?”

As I looked back up at him, the butterflies from earlier raced through my stomach. I knew everything about the situation was wrong. We were from two different worlds. My head was screaming at me to get away from him – to go back to my room and hide in my bed and never talk to Noah again. But once again, my instincts took over and hushed the thoughts in my head. Automatically, I moved closer to him. “I need to see something,” I mumbled as I moved toward him. He watched me with a confused expression as I continued closer. When our faces were mere centimeters apart, I paused briefly, and then I took the plunge. Softly, I pressed my lips to his as the butterflies leapt throughout my stomach and up into my throat.

I jerked away from Jady as fast as I possibly could. “What was that?” I asked, putting my fingers to my lips as I stood up and took several steps back. “What did you just do to me?”

She stared at me as waves of humiliation came pouring out of her intensely. “I'm sorry. I misread the situation. I wanted to kiss you, but you obviously didn't…I thought that…I didn't know you would….I shouldn't have done that. I'm sorry.” Her voice was meek and shaky as she stumbled over her thoughts.

I felt horrible that I had embarrassed her somehow, but I didn't care. Anger and confusion clouded my mind, and I wanted answers. “Jady, you have to tell me what's going on. You're telling me that you're not doing anything to make me feel these strange feelings for you, but that…kiss…You just made the feelings even stronger. You have a gift. I don't know why you won't just admit it. I mean, Sir Andrew told me that humans don't have gifts as we do, but he was obviously wrong. Is that why you're not telling me? Because humans aren't supposed to have gifts? You're not supposed to explain anything about it?”

She continued to stare at me, and to my horror, her bottom lip began to tremble as tears filled her eyes. “Noah, I wish I knew what you were talking about. I don't have a ‘gift,' as you call it. Whatever this is between us, I'm not sure, but trust me, it's confusing me, too. I obviously mistook it for something else. My intentions were never to make you mad, and I'm sorry that I kissed you.”

She was obviously telling me the truth. I could see that as the regret and disgrace drizzled from her body. Tears rolled down her cheeks. I was ashamed that I had anything to do with her current emotional state. My heart ached for her.

Suddenly, another idea hit me. “Jady, you really don't realize that you have a gift, do you.” It wasn't a question. I knew the answer in her befuddled eyes. No response was offered as she stared down at the ground with rolls of embarrassment still coming off of her forcefully.

I stared at her with overwhelming sympathy. As I watched the various emotions pass over her – confusion, anger, rejection, and most of all shame – I wished I could take her pain away and bear it myself. Remembering all the coaching I had undergone before their arrival, and the instructions Sir Andrew had given me about what information was safe and what information was off-limits, I hesitated to continue. Gifts were a prohibited topic of discussion. But, Sir Andrew also thought that humans didn't have gifts, while this one obviously did. As horrible as he made humans out to be, I believed she was something special. She couldn't be capable of the evil thoughts and actions that Sir Andrew so adamantly claimed they all had. There was definitely something about her. If I could educate her on using her gift, she might have a bigger purpose. Maybe she could harness her gift for good, somehow. I wrestled with what I should do. If I disclosed this secret to her, I would be betraying Sir Andrew and risking my citizenship. If I did nothing, she would spend her whole life never realizing her own ability.

As I watched her agony, I knew what I had to do. I walked back over to the rock where she sat and took a deep breath. “Jady, there's something I need to tell you.”

She peeked up at me from under her dark hair. “What?” she asked in a quiet voice.

“What I'm about to tell is going to surprise you. There are some things you don't know about us, and obviously, yourself. You do have a gift, Jady. I don't know everything about your gift yet, but together, we can figure it out. The only thing is, I need this to stay only between the two of us. Before I can tell you anything else, I need you to promise me that.”

She leaned in toward me, suddenly radiating more curiosity than embarrassment. “I promise I won't tell a soul. Even if I wanted to, I wouldn't know where to begin.”

I nodded. “In our society, gifts are common. Well, not
common
, exactly, but not unusual. I have one. Sir Andrew has one. My colleague Lucy has one. There are several others who have them, too.”

“What do you mean by ‘gift'?” she interjected.

“Um, I guess the closest comparison I can give you to help you understand would be what you call a talent. Except, gifts aren't
skills
that have to be learned and developed. They just exist. It's something you're born with. There are only a handful of us here who possess these gifts. As a result, we have been bestowed with some…special honors from our leaders.”

She nodded, absorbing the information I had just given her. “I think I'm following. What is this gift, exactly?”

“Well, it varies from person to person. Mine, for example, is the ability to read the emotions of people.”

She raised her eyebrows. “Read the emotions of people? I can do that. You just look at their faces.”

I smiled. “Sure, that works for some of the obvious emotions. But not always. I can read the hidden emotions that people are feeling. Just by looking at any person, even those people who are standing with a straight face, I can tell you exactly how that person is feeling at that moment. The minute you got off your space travel vehicle, I read every single one of you. It helped me learn about you before you ever said a word.”

Her eyebrows were wrinkled as she looked down at her feet. “What was I feeling at that time?”

I thought back to the moment I had first seen her, and remembered the strange effect she had on me and the human whose hand she held. “Honestly, I don't know. I was distracted by your gift. One look from you, and I was overcome by these strange feelings of…of wanting to be near you. Because I was so wrapped up in the way I was feeling, I didn't even notice your emotions. And when you took the hand of Luke, I saw the sadness that had been coming out of him suddenly disappear and turn to hope and happiness. All because of your touch. That confirmed the fact that you have a gift.”

She scowled, and then slowly shook her head. “Luke. Luke, my best friend. Assuming that I believe you about your ability to read people and trust that your readings are accurate, there is another possible explanation for why his sadness would have turned into happiness when we held hands, and it has nothing to do with me having some sort of gift.”

I was mesmerized by the whirling range of emotions that were coming out of her. “Then what is it?”

“The thing with Luke is…well, we're best friends. But lately he's been trying to be more than friends.” Her face looked pained as she spoke. I could tell this was an uncomfortable subject for her, but I had absolutely no idea what she was talking about.

“I'm afraid you're going to have to explain what you mean. What does ‘more than friends' mean?” I watched her closely as I waited for her to respond.

She rolled her eyes and laughed a little, resting her head on her hands. “You know what I mean. He has been hinting lately that he wants to be together. Like a couple.”

I stared at her as I tried to comprehend her words. “What do you mean, together? A couple of what?”

She slowly lifted her head to look up at me. “You don't know what it means to be a couple? To be in a committed relationship to another person?”

“I know what a committed relationship is – I am committed to all the members of my society.” As I spoke, a realization set in. “Although I guess I'm not showing that right now, because I'm going against everything Sir Andrew said by talking to you about this kind of stuff.”

She shook her head quickly. “No, that's not what I mean. I mean a committed relationship between a man and a woman. Where two people fall in love, and are exclusively together, and not with anyone else. You know, boyfriend and girlfriend. Or when you get older, husband and wife.”

I knew my stare was blank as I tried my best to process the information I was given. “Jady, I believe there is a gap in my knowledge of your culture on this topic. Those terms of which you speak are unfamiliar to me.”

Her bewildered look made me feel inadequate, which made me a little resentful. There was so much she did not know about our society – how could she presume that I would know everything about hers?

Just as I was about to ask her that very question, she spoke. “Noah, how do you, um…reproduce?”

“You mean, how does our society grow?” I asked. “What does that have to do with anything?” Surely she was not trying to change the subject now.

She laughed. “Actually, more than you know, I think. How do your babies get here?”

I shrugged. “Honestly, I don't know everything about that process. I know that it takes place in the genetics lab. I know it is a very detailed and tedious process. Lucy works in the genetics lab, and she has told me that one tiny mistake can be disastrous. But as far as the specifics, I'm not sure.”

Her eyes widened. “So, as far as you know, no…
interaction
between a male and a female, I guess I should say…is required for babies to be created?”

“Well, I'm sure there is interaction. There are several people who work in the genetics lab. The process is so carefully designed that the people who carry out the directions surely interact with each other to ensure accuracy.” I could not even begin to guess where she could possibly be going with these questions. Never before had I felt such frustration, and I didn't like it.

Jady nodded slowly, apparently unaware of my growing irritation. “Noah, would it be possible for you to learn more about how the whole process works, and share that information with me? I'm so curious. Until this point, I've struggled to find many truly significant differences between our species, but this might be a major one.”

I sighed. “Honestly, I doubt I could get you any further information. You will have to allow me some time to think of a way. I have never been given access to that information before, so there would be no reason for it to be given to me now. Lucy would never betray that kind of confidence. It's out of the question to even think about asking Sir Andrew or any of the other leaders. If they knew I was prying around, looking for that information, their suspicions would be high. Everything I have, everything I
am
would be at risk, including my citizenship. Especially if they knew I was looking for information to share with you.”

She squinted her eyes. “Why is everything so secretive? What is the harm in sharing information with me?”

I shrugged, feeling my heart start to race. I knew I had to change the subject. “Well, if I'm going to try to find out more information for you, I think you owe me some information, too. Let's educate each other. Tell me about your reproduction process.”

She grinned slowly, and turned slightly pink. “Well, you better sit down for this,” she said with a shy voice.

When I finished the extremely uncomfortable explanation that Noah was looking for, I waited for his reaction. He sat in disbelief, lost in thought for so long that I thought for a while he must have forgotten where he was. Finally, he turned to me. “So, how do your leaders control the population, if anyone can reproduce that way?”

I laughed. “They don't. Reproduction is up to the individual citizens. In fact, there are many accidental pregnancies that occur every day.”

“Accidental pregnancies?” he asked with his face squished. “Why would anyone commit that…that
act
…if they weren't intending to get pregnant?”

I shook my head as I smiled. “Well, I can't answer that question from personal experience. I never have. But a lot of people I know have, and they do it for other reasons. They enjoy it. They have strong feelings for the person they're with, and that makes it special.”

He scowled. “They enjoy it? What do you mean by that?”

I took a deep breath. “Noah, let me ask you a question. When I kissed you, what happened? I mean, as far as how you felt?”

“I panicked and jumped away,” he answered with a smile.

I pursed my lips. “Um, yeah, I remember that part.” The rejection I felt ran all over me again. “But that's not what I'm asking. How did you feel
inside
?”

“Well,” he began slowly, “I felt a strange sensation that I can't describe. That's what caused the panic. My stomach felt like it was leaping, and my heart rate definitely increased.”

I bit my lip. “And that was a bad thing?”

He shrugged. “Well,
unusual
is a better word. I never felt it before.”

I nodded. “Okay, Noah. At the risk of being rejected again and feeling like an even bigger loser than I already am, I'm going to kiss you again. This time, please try not to panic. I know the feelings are different, but I just have to know if it's a
good
different or a
bad
different. For my sake and yours, we need to see what kind of effects it will have on you. So, here it comes. Consider yourself warned.” I waited briefly for his reaction. When he didn't run away screaming, I took that as a sign to proceed.

I knew it was crazy, especially after the first rejection. He was the first boy I had ever initiated a kiss with – well, besides Joey Thompson in first grade – and if that would have happened with any human boy, I would have been scarred for life and never would have attempted it again. But this situation was different. So many different motivations were pushing my curiosity. This was something I had to know, for myself, and for some other reason – something I couldn't quite put my finger on – I needed to see what would happen if I pursued this with him. Before I could chicken out, I closed my eyes and kissed him again.

This time, he didn't pull away. The electricity between us became stronger as he relaxed a little and returned my kiss. I felt my whole body begin to tingle as I continued to kiss him and pushed myself closer to him. Much to my surprise, he moved closer to me in response. His hands moved up to hold my face as the kiss grew deeper and more passionate. Butterflies danced in my stomach. My arms and legs grew weak. Never in my life had I experienced anything so natural and intense at the same time. It was exhilarating. It shocked me that he had never done this before; it felt like this was the way it was supposed to be. At that moment, I knew I could never kiss another being and feel the way I felt right then.

I'm not sure how long the kiss lasted, but I knew I wasn't ready for it to end when he finally pulled away. We stood there, breathless, staring at each other for only a moment before he finally spoke. “Definitely
good
different.”

I smiled and nodded, unable to think of the right words to describe how I felt. All the feelings of confusion and doubt, all the questions about the strange magnetism I felt towards him – that had all passed away. It didn't matter that we weren't from the same place or even that we weren't of the same species. All that mattered was that I was meant to find this person; I was meant to be with him. What I felt for him was real, and he felt it too. Just by the way he kissed me back, I knew he did. I didn't know how this could ever work, but I knew that it would. It had to.

“Jady,” he said, interrupting my thoughts, “we need to head back. We have to get you back in the visitors' chambers before everyone wakes up for the display of lights.”

I suddenly came back to reality and remembered the coming event. I had forgotten all about it, along with where I was, our crew, and my own name, for that matter. “You're right,” I said, glancing down at my watch. It was almost three o'clock. “We don't have much time.”

He grabbed my hand and pulled me quickly over the rocks and away from the waterfall. We traveled much faster on our way back toward the heart of the society. Neither one of us spoke, but we didn't need to. There was an understanding of the urgency that surrounded the situation. Obviously, we knew we could never tell anyone what was happening between us. The last thing we needed was for anyone to find out we had snuck out together. I couldn't even begin to think of a way to explain it to my father. Or Luke. The thought made my whole body shudder.

After what seemed like just a few minutes, we were back in familiar territory. The visitors' chamber lay just ahead as we slipped silently through the dark night. As we came closer to the chamber, we slowed down slightly. He squeezed my hand before he let go. I turned to him with a smile as we nodded our goodbyes, and his bewitching green eyes sparkled as his dimples appeared with his grin. I watched him jog away silently before I turned to go back into the visitors' chamber.

Without a sound, I opened the door. I slipped into the chamber to hear snores coming from my father's room and knew that I had made it back in time. No one had heard me come in. A goofy smile was etched permanently on my face as I snuck back to my sleeping area. My lips were tingling at the memory of the kiss. Stifling a giggle, I replayed the moment in my head over and over again.

I was so absorbed in the memory that I didn't notice Luke sitting on my bed until I was right in front of him. The sight of him sitting there, watching me with a confused and untrusting glare, made me jump so high I almost fell, causing a loud
thud
as I tripped over my suitcase. “Luke,” I hissed, “what in the world are you doing?” Wincing in pain, I rubbed my ankle, which had twisted as I came down.

“I was about to ask you the same thing,” he whispered back. “Where were you?”

“You first,” I stalled. “What are you doing on my bed?”

“I couldn't sleep,” he replied. “It was almost time to get up anyway, so I thought I would come see if you were awake yet. I figured you would be as excited as I was about the lights show thingy.”

I nodded, barely listening as I tried to come up with an explanation for where I had been. Silently I prayed that he hadn't been sitting there long as I stumbled over my whispered words. “I, um, I couldn't sleep either, so I went outside. I wanted to see if, uh, the sky looked any, you know, different or anything.” Shrugging a little, I gave Luke my most convincing smile. I knew what a horrible liar I was, especially when I was put on the spot. The problem was, Luke knew that, too. In my head I willed him to buy my excuse as he sat there, studying my face after I spoke.

I didn't know if he actually believed me, but he didn't press it any further. “Does it look different?” he asked quietly, his glare softening.

“No, not yet,” I told him honestly. I hadn't noticed a change.

He tilted his head. “What were you smiling about? You looked all excited about something.”

I shook my head, feeling the goofy smile come back. “Just being here, I guess. I'm just really happy to be a part of all of this.” My voice sounded much more confident now. After all, that was partly true.

Before he could respond, I was saved by the sound of people stirring. I knew the other crew members were waking up for the show. A couple of lights came on outside the entryway to my sleeping area, so I quickly went out to see who was awake, grateful for the opportunity to get away from Luke.

The first person I saw was my dad. He looked me up and down with a smile, which made me remember I still had on the dark clothes I had worn to meet Noah. “Have you not slept at all?” he asked, giving me a sideways hug the way he always did.

I grinned and put my head down sheepishly. “No,” I admitted. “I was too excited.”

He shook his head in mock concern. “You're going to be exhausted tomorrow,” he scolded.

I shrugged. “Oh, well. I'll have plenty of time to sleep when we get home.”

He threw his head back and laughed. “So you're really enjoying this? You're not getting homesick yet?”

“Not a chance,” I said. I could tell it made him happy as he grinned in response. It meant a lot to him that I shared his love of exploration. It was something we would always have in common.

After just a few minutes, I heard Sir Andrew's voice from outside. “Humans, the lights display will begin in mere minutes. Please join us outdoors as soon as you are ready.”

We walked outside immediately, and I scanned the crowd until I found Noah. He made eye contact with me and smiled just slightly before we took our place on the ground, sitting on a blanket brought out by Sir Andrew's crew just for us. I was sandwiched between my dad and Luke, but I had a clear view of Noah from where I was sitting. For a moment, we stared at each other, holding in grins as we silently exchanged knowing glances. I could feel the electricity between us all over again as my body heated up in response to his look.

Suddenly, Noah dropped my eye contact abruptly as he looked beside me and then immediately down at the ground. I frowned, wondering what made him look away as I followed where his gaze had gone before he looked down. My eyes went straight to Luke, who was looking back and forth between Noah and me with a suspicious and dangerous gaze.