Part 3 (cont.)

From there, the games portion of the night started without much prelude. A few card games. A boardgame. And finished off with a matching word game with a short bout of two truths and a lie, which was mostly about ways Lissa could mess around with me and I could completely flounder at fibbing. Quilla came in towards the end with her purple top and jeans. She denied being a ninja but let slip in coded messages that she was undercover as a little girl. She looked cute with her long hair tied back and resting like a little crinkly, furry pet across her shoulders.

Her blue eyes were so calmly wide that they made me think of the Kinrae and matched well with the subtle orange of her hair. She had Michael’s chin, which looked better on her than him, but she had all of Lissa’s coy mannerisms and cleverness in her gaze. She beat me at a few rounds with compelling stories.

When the games were done, Lissa unveiled a horror DVD title I didn’t know, rented from a nearby supermarket kiosk. Quilla begged to stay up to see it. I knew that Lissa let her watch all sorts of scary movies but this one looked to be quite inappropriate for her age.

We made our way over to the living room with the huge, consuming corduroy couch in front of Lissa’s big TV. She had an over-air antenna, but no cable box and I knew she had a few video streaming services connected through a small device to the side. Lissa got cable for Quilla for a time just because she was curious but, as Lissa told me, Quilla couldn’t stand it.

Quilla camped out on the floor with the blanket off her bed wrapped around her and a big, plush bear behind her head. Lissa and I had a blanket of our own. I settled into one end of the couch and Lissa the other with the blanket spread over us. I sipped a bit of sparkling water while Lissa nursed a soda. We had the lights off with only some spill light from Quilla’s room down the hall and a small light in the kitchen. The light of the screen tinted the walls behind us.

It only took ten minutes before Quilla decided the movie was not for her and she stealthily snuck out of the showing in full ninja mode. Not too long after that, the vodka came out. I let Lissa take the first round by herself and then shared in a nice mixed drink which wasn’t too heavy.

The movie itself was definitely not the best thing I’d ever seen. Although it had a budget and a few actors I recognized. Lissa got in a few predictive quips about which characters would be the first to die. I placed my bet on the plucky, chubby jokester.

Some parts of the movie reminded me of an alien invasion film I’d seen a while ago with Allison. That one was the most unabashed “be afraid of the Kinrae” propaganda I’d ever seen. This was at least better than that. I mentioned this to Lissa, who’d seen it too, and she immediately got the giggles.

She quoted one of the lines, “What is the true color of freedom!? We must not give in to the brightness hiding in darkness cloaked in a lie of friendship!” And then we were off. The film we were watching filtered to the background as better dialogue came out of us during a gun battle and a scene after.

“I’m gonna paint your rear with freedom! And bullets! Freedom bullets!”

“You better watch out! I’m slowly dragging myself towards you! Cower in fear of my crawling!”

“Trees! I hate trees! I won’t stop shooting until all the trees are dead! GAAAAH!”

“Actually, these strange monsters are responsible for famine in Africa…so they are worse than us but no…please continue your message about the evils of humanity.”

“Darn…I need to say that again and louder!…I didn’t spray enough sweat and manliness all over the walls!”

The gratuitous explosions made it hard to keep up with anything remaining of the horror elements. I figured Lissa would’ve just clicked it off at that point, but it was campy enough to keep going. Another round of drinks helped to make it more tolerable as well.

I didn’t notice it till halfway through the film, but we had each drifted from our respective ends of the couch towards one another. Not close enough to touch but it was obvious. It helped with passing drinks and the middle of the couch was more comfortable than the ends. I smelled an orange and floral fragrance on Lissa which was wafting towards me. I looked towards Quilla’s room. The door was closed.

During a dull part of the film, Lissa went to get some pita crackers and hummus. Both were just spicy enough to be interesting. When she sat back down, she did so right next to me. I could feel a little of her warmth.

Part of me was wondering if I should be taking a hint, at the same time I was concerned about Quilla for all the reasons Lissa had mentioned to me. As well, I liked Lissa a lot, but I didn’t want to cross a line, especially with all the other feelings I had balanced in my head. Of course, I had no idea how to express this to Lissa and I didn’t want to do something like spring for the edge of the couch. As sweat was starting to accumulate around my neck, I missed Lissa’s hand reaching out towards me.

My eyes widened as her hand loomed before my face and she suddenly…beeped my nose. With a chuckle, she gave me a hug and said, “You’re adorable! Can’t wait to see how you’ll look as a Kinrae.”

She retreated to a comfortable dip in the couch and I found one nearby myself. And that was it.

The film was long enough that by the time we got to the third act I could hear Lissa slowly snoring with her head dipped back and her mouth collecting an edge of drool. My eyes were bleary, and I kept blinking for a long time. Even a pitched action piece couldn’t wake Lissa and it only made me dart my eyes open for short spells.

Before I knew it, the credits were scrolling past with some gothic, breathy ballad playing. I nudged Lissa and she eventually cleared her throat and sat up. Checking the time revealed it was kinda late for the bus. Rubbing at her eyes, Lissa offered to drive me back to my house. I considered her offer, but I’d stayed over on the couch on movie and game night more than once (although often with Michael hovering around).

Before anything else, Lissa checked up on Quilla and made sure she was ready for bed. I passed the time with the extras on the DVD and checking out how the film ended (it wasn’t worth it).

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Lissa offered me a pillow and the blanket was already on the couch. I took a quick shower and changed into my same clothes. Lissa followed me and changed into a lovely pair of soft, TARDIS-covered flannel pants and a blue tank-top. She blew her nose a few times, rubbed at her even more disheveled hair, and told me, “Sleep well. I can offer you some breakfast in the morning, but I’ll be driving Quilla to school so you might be better off with the bus, unless you’re willing to wait.”

I told her, “We’ll see in the morning.”

She gave me a quick wave of her hand and headed off to her bedroom. I eased into the couch and flicked off the light next to me. The calm of the house was what always surprised me, and it was even more noticeable with Michael gone. My uncle’s house, despite its relative stillness, had a nighttime trickle of sounds either from my night-owl uncle puttering about or the rafters settling from the heat of the day. And the campus house always held the sound of some roommate awake at some hour.

The stillness pounded in my head a bit, so I tried to wind down with random thoughts. I still had no clear notion of what I would do for clothing when I got the imitation device. That was actually something I should’ve pondered with Lissa; she might at least get some amusement from it. I knew the device had default clothing from the volunteer. I could buy clothing, but it would be regular cloth and not anime-type stuff. Then my mind went to a memory of shops that tried to replicate the pastel look of the Kinrae to sell clothes to them. I wondered if any of those were still in business.

My thoughts that followed were a blur as I finally found the buzz of a bug zapper filtering from a neighboring house to listen to as I drifted off to sleep.

I had a dream about the sea, rich foam kicking up with each wave. I figured I was on a beach, but I didn’t see it. The waves crested higher and higher, splashing where I was. I began to feel a pull each time the wave drew back even though I didn’t feel like I was standing in the water. I slipped deeper and deeper into the sea. It slid around and past me. It enveloped me until it felt like it had consumed me.

I woke with Quilla staring at me from the table in front of the couch. She had on her school clothes with the ninja mask from last night. I yawned and she darted back. I tried to say, “Good morning” but it was muffled by my raw throat into a vague growl. Quilla gasped and darted away. I tried to sit up, but I was more content just slumping back into the couch. Nice, warm couch. Big and comfortable.

A minute later, Lissa was looming above me with a smirk on her face and her arms folded. She was dressed almost as nicely as when she went to class. I liked her hat. It reminded me of a cross between a flapper girl hat and some kind of a fedora with a glossy, gray look. I muttered about her hat until she snorted her amusement and said, “Try it on.”

The hat dropped across my face, bringing back night. I puffed at it to push it off, but it stubbornly remained. With a weak groan, I couldn’t muster the energy to lift an arm to pluck it off, so I let it stay. The smell of Lissa’s perfume coated my nose. It tickled but I didn’t sneeze.

I could hear that she was still amused but she just walked away, back to the kitchen from the sound of it. Echoes of clinking silverware and plastic cups on the table. If I wanted breakfast, all I had to do was lift myself out of the couch. Such a small thing but I couldn’t gather the will.

Half-sleep drifted back to me. I couldn’t be sure what I was imagining and what was real. I was sure I heard Lissa singing a song about ninjas. Something was steaming. Then quick feet. I could tell Quilla stopped to look at me even as she picked up a heavy bag.

Suddenly, the light flashed in my eyes as Lissa plucked the hat off my face and replaced it on her head. She quipped, “Thanks for keeping it warm. If you want breakfast, there’s something in the microwave. If you leave, remember to lock the door. I won’t be back for a while. Or just sleep…lucky bug.”

I offered a wave and grunted to clear my throat. Part of me wanted to be cooler than I was. Be up and about and chatting with the both of them. But my eyes were so heavy that even the lingering scents of breakfast couldn’t lift me out of the deep, warm couch cushions.

Quilla left with her heavy little blue backpack dragging behind her. Lissa shut the door and locked it. I sighed to myself.

A look at the clock told me it wasn’t as late as I worried and a check of a window told me the sun was only threatening, not at full bloom. It took me ten minutes to nudge myself up from the warm pit and into a sitting position on the couch. Trying to extract myself from the blanket was even harder. I folded it up and made my way to the bathroom.

Aside from a morning dog barking and the occasional pass of a car on the street, everything was still. After a trip to the bathroom, I stopped by Quilla’s room and pushed open the door. I’d seen her room once before when she was showing off all her books. It was more organized than any kid’s room had any right to be. She had a drawing table and a stuffed animals table and an area for all the little toys and trinkets she’d made on her own. Her costumes were on something like a hat rack to one side of the room. Everything was so girly. I could never imagine that kind of room growing up.

At the end of the hall was the master bedroom. Lissa’s bedroom. What used to be Michael’s office was just opposite it and looked to be in a state of transition. I peered into Lissa’s bedroom with no intent to go inside. It was nice. She’d already made her bed. She had an improvised bookshelf to one side and a long closet area and a black table in the corner. Curiosity drew my attention to the black table. I could see a photo album opened in the middle of it.

I approached the album and noticed it was on a set of photos from Michael and Lissa’s wedding. A picture of Lissa laughing as she sliced through the cake. Michael stood stoically beside her. Another with them kissing, Lissa’s arms wrapped around Michael’s neck. She had her eyes closed, his were open. I glanced quickly past a random photo of Lissa in a satin, black dress and lying on a bed, making a suggestive motion towards the camera.

I turned around. For a quick moment, I feared that Lissa would be standing there with a disapproving look on her face, sternly telling me to leave. She didn’t arrive till after I’d eaten lukewarm hash browns with a bit of scrambled eggs and ham and had a long drink of orange juice.

She stretched her arms in the hallway and looked at me seated at the couch. Her first question was, “Did you like the black dress?”

I drew my legs back, which I already knew was too much of a tell. She chuckled and admitted, “I know how much you like to look around. And wasn’t it rather obviously left open?”

That earned her a little pout from me. She went to the bedroom and returned with the album under her arm. She settled right next to me and opened it to a random page. She added, “Hope you liked breakfast. And so far as this…yeah, I was looking through it. It wasn’t just there to be tempting.”

I opened my mouth to find words like, “I’m sorry” but Lissa wasn’t interested. She pointed out all the embarrassing photos, such as her sweating like crazy on a family trip when Quilla was a baby. I noticed she dug her nails across Michael’s solemn face. She finished by flipping towards the end and pointing out a photo she had of me. I didn’t know she’d taken it.

She explained it was last year’s summer barbecue under the stars. There were several family friends along with me. She snapped the photo as I was glancing towards a group of her girlfriends seated under Quilla’s tree. Lissa traced my face and looked me in the eye.

She said simply, “I’m adding a picture of you as an anime girl as soon as I can. I know you’ll be smiling because I’m only adding smiling pictures to this book from now on.”

There was so much inside my head I could’ve said, might’ve said, but none of my words would’ve been as clear as what I told Allison. My heart racing in my ears, I told her, “I’m in love with…being an anime girl.”

I didn’t mean that pause but I could feel it as I spoke. Lissa’s eyes turned to me and she was silent for a clear moment before answering, “And you’ll make a lovely one. And so will I.” She turned to a set of blank pages. “This is where all our anime girl pictures are going to go. So, you better get ready, girl.” She gave me a wink which eased my tension and let me share in a calm smile.