Part 8 (cont.)

The second-oddest moment of the day was when one of the younger professors, who had a slight beard and wore a three-piece gray suit, started talking to me.

“Are you a student around here?”

I told him yes without going into further detail. The questions gave me enough room to sidestep whether I was a regular Kinrae or an imitation.

Then he asked, “Do you have some time? Wanna share a lunch, my treat?”

It took a moment for what he was asking to really penetrate. When I looked at a man like him, I didn’t think to flirt in this kind of situation. He adjusted his blue tie, which was a more subdued color than the one with my outfit. I drew my coat close and smoothed my skirt.

He added, “Wherever you like.”

I could feel a strange, intrigued thrill in my head. I could imagine saying yes. But I had to say first, “Actually, I’m not a real Kinrae. I’m just one of Professor Brandt’s students and I’m not usually like this.”

He waved a hand with a chuckle. “You do realize I can see your watermarks…”

I glanced at my hands. They were just as faint as before…I checked again. Maybe a little fainter? No, just the way the light was shining on them. But still, they were clear.

He didn’t even turn away when I gave my name and all but showed him my regular form. He folded his arms and told me, “Right now, you are a lovely, brightly-colored lady who I would very much wish to share a meal with.”

I looked back at him. He didn’t have creepy eyes or any sense of malice but then just because I didn’t see those things didn’t necessarily rule them out. He did seem a little lonely. And he didn’t even bother to linger on the obvious spots of my body with his gaze. His eyes traveled all over me with a relaxed sense of appreciation.

I was tempted. I might’ve gone. But I didn’t.

I thanked him politely but told him, “Sorry. I’m having lunch with someone else and I can’t cancel.”

He looked disappointed but ended things with a smile, telling me, “I’ll see you around.”

I leaned against a tree with my hair brushing the bark. I felt a pang about lying…although I could always head back to the house and Allison to make it true.

I ate out at one of the restaurants adjacent to campus, a little Chinese place with only a handful of tables (we sometimes ordered to go from it when Allison happened to be away or not feeling good).

I wished I’d said something more like, “I have someone.” Only in better words. But did I really have Allison or Lissa? I ate my noodle soup as the old lady who ran the restaurant gave me a calm but skeptical look.

It felt like forsaking Allison to spend time with someone new. But I wanted to go slow with her. And Lissa wanted me to go even slower with her. And I wasn’t sure where I wanted to go at all.

All that felt clear was the hope of a fun call with Lissa when she was ready and a quiet picnic at the park with Allison. I held onto those hopes and finished my lunch.

The afternoon was pleasant. I headed over to the library when I could to see about some books I might need for one of my classes. The computer lab, always rather small but finally with some new desktops, was adjacent to it.

No one looked up from their screens. I didn’t mind. The librarian had a look about her kinda like Clayton with her eyes undulating open and a smile carrying across her face like rogue waves on the ocean. Considering the box of tissue and her red nose, I figured it was just the effects of cold medicine. It was going around.

Not with Kinrae though. No one could prove it but most figured they didn’t get sick. At least no one had ever seen them sick and, whenever asked about it, they talked about the idea with curiosity but detachment. It didn’t quite work the same for Kinrae imitations. And scientists had yet to find anything unique to Kinrae physiology which kept them from illness, even after many volunteers and much testing.

I left with the book I needed and finished up with the rest of my class day. By that time it was probably too late to head out to the park, especially if I was going to make the meal. I had only a vague notion in my head about what I might make. Most of the items would have to be cribbed from Allison’s recipes. I could ask my uncle for some ideas but those ideas tended to be things I knew Allison could cook so much better than me. Still, I wanted to try.

The looks and leers and slowing steps faded away. I was reminded of a story Allison had told me once, more like an urban legend. It was about a performer in a subway in some east coast city. He stood there with a violin which was virtually priceless and played beautiful music. Only the rare person ever stopped (mostly children) and then only for a short time. In actuality, he was one of the greatest musicians in the world. It was a moment of incomparable beauty and barely anyone noticed.

The same way, most moments passed with the Kinrae among us. Art and beauty in flesh. And it just became part of the noise of human life. Beings from another universe, from a world we had never imagined before they arrived and which we had never seen. Something worthy of incalculable awe and reduced to a curiosity likened to something odd about the weather.

Others had only noticed me with momentary interruptions in the pattern of life but, aside from the man in the suit who asked me to lunch and a few random outliers, it was just ripples on the surface. I recalled my psychology class a bit. Might be good to reference somewhere in my paper. Only I couldn’t remember much. Just a sense of how human beings deal with disruptions in their lives, how they can sometimes have tunnel vision to the world around them. I didn’t know a name for it but I knew it was a thing.

“Helloooooo!”

The voice jumped into my thoughts like an echo. I glanced to my left on the sidewalk and sighted a Kinrae standing closer to me than I expected. I staggered back and she flashed a quick smile and gave a little laugh.

“Sorry about that”, she continued. “You were kinda in your own little world. Didn’t mean to intrude.” The Kinrae standing before me had soft brown hair in dense locks which hung past her shoulders and vast brown eyes which glimmered in the afternoon sun. She was clad in a light shade of green from the bow behind her head to her top and what looked like a shawl with leafy patterns on the fringe. Black filled in wherever wasn’t green with a black skirt past her thighs and high matching stockings that ended in dark boots. Her skin tone was between the one I had and Lissa’s.

I gasped and apologized profusely. She giggled a little and batted a hand, saying, “No need to worry. This is a splendid place to get lost in. I forget what they call it though. Do you know?”

I paused a moment and realized what she meant. She thought I was a genuine Kinrae, the same as her. Assuming she wasn’t Allison playing a game. Her hands were clasped in front of her with the backs turned towards me and mine hung at my sides in the same position, easily obscured by my sleeves. I took a few hesitant steps in place before I gave her the city’s name.

She made a face and sounded the name out before giving a nod. “It even has a nice name. I’ll probably explore a bit to the north later this week but I’ve met some nice people since I’ve been here. Not really, you know, 'the sort' though. But at least they don’t give me sour looks. How have you been treated? Have you found anyone ‘interesting’?”

I felt torn and nervous about how to answer. Part of me wanted to just outright say I was a fake but another part assumed if I didn’t make it too obvious then I could just claim I was confused. But how to say it right….

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“A lot of people were curious. Asked a lot of questions. This one man in a suit even wanted to treat me to lunch and seemed serious about it.”

She giggled and leaned against a nearby wall. Still no view of her palms and I didn’t want to make it too obvious I was looking. She brushed back her hair and proclaimed, “Very nice…I’ve found they treat me like anyone else once the surprise is over. I mean I doubt they’re the same everywhere but it is a nice place. Especially compared to some places I can think of.”

I gave her a curious look like I was confused. I offered cautiously, “That’s good. It’s a nice area. Not perfect but it’s a great place to live, if you don’t mind a lot of dust and desert.” That earned another giggle from her, as she remarked “I’ve seen dustier. It’s no biggie. It will make an excellent haven when our forthcoming invasion forces subdue the native population and begin converting everyone in mind and body to our kind.” She accented that with a harsh smile.

I tried not to show any emotion. My heart throbbed in my head. I was at a loss for words. Then her mouth line wobbled and she suddenly broke out in a wrath of giggles. She clutched her belly and laughed over and over with sparkly tears in her eyes.

I let her have a frown as I asked, “Are you messing with me?”

She returned a nod. “Disgracefully so. Blame my sense of humor. I assume you’re a resident of this world and a student. With Professor Brandt?”

I eventually gave her a little nod. She set a leg forward and told me, “An influx of Kinrae, as you all like to call us, draws our curiosity. I’ve talked to a few who are probably your classmates. You’re….interesting though.” She leaned closer to me with her head forward as though she was trying to sniff something on me.

I turned my hands up to her and she had little reaction to my watermark but to ask, “Can I see your regular face, if you don’t mind?”

Manipulating the controller, I wondered where this was going. I switched Corlie’s face off. And waited. A few seconds in, the Kinrae arched the line of her eyebrows and asked, “Have you been having technical issues?” I opened my mouth to speak and expected my regular face to return but I was still Corlie. And the time as her seemed longer than it had been before. But standing there, waiting for things to revert, made each second feel abnormally stretched.

The Kinrae puzzled at me and asked if I was sure I’d turned off the device. I showed it to her and she stared between me and it. Before she could say anything further, I finally reverted. I looked down at my hands in relief.

She turned my controller over a few times and informed me, “Some say battery problems can cause a delay in the signal being transferred from the control to the thingie…I never bothered to learn the technical names they have. Some say that. But, if you plan to go to one of the big enclaves where we live anytime soon, I have a friend who likes to fiddle with these things. She does a lot of work for colleges when she can get it. I have her info.”

After passing the controller back to me, she pulled out a small, blank card and began writing on the back. It was an address and a name, Naltra. With a bow, she gave her name as “Tessa”. I told her mine and she shook my hand.

She reassured me, “There’s honestly nothing to worry about with your device and...I’m not saying that because of devious plans to enslave mankind. Well, just because of that. But 'Nali' should be able to check it out if you have any concerns. And it was nice meeting you, Sean. Hope you have a beautiful afternoon!”

And that was it. She made her way down the street and was gone before I knew it. Such a random encounter. Such a lot of talking. Probably the most a Kinrae had ever said to me in the few times I’d been so close to one.

I wondered why she’d come up to me. Obviously, because I had the imitation on. She’d acted like I was just like her. Although she probably saw through the imitation from the beginning. And it was so odd that she seemed to know about technical problems and knew someone to check with. I looked over the card again. Right in what people called ‘Kinraetown’ in one of the big downtown areas to the south.

I’d have to visit there eventually and the location on the card wouldn’t even be much of a detour. Still, I felt a little weird. It was quite a day for random meetings. At least the Kinrae didn’t ask me out to dinner. I wasn’t sure what I might’ve said if she had. Logically, I knew she was probably some sort of advisor for the college with the devices and she probably met a lot of others from my class. I definitely wasn’t the first.

At least she didn’t seem alarmed, which put me slightly at ease. A bad battery sending a weak signal was the best explanation. Still, that didn’t explain Allison’s problem. If only I’d thought to somehow mention it without accidentally getting Lissa in trouble. The Kinrae didn’t leave any of her own contact information on the card. But at least I had this Naltra’s info.

I walked the rest of the way home and soon found Allison, as a pink haired Kinrae, dancing in the middle of the room to a music video on TV. With an extra spin, she wobbled, jiggled, and waved at me before asking, “Have a fun day?”

She then immediately pointed out I wasn’t a Kinrae. I smiled back and slowly wove my experience of prospective lunch dates, curious questions, feeling forgotten, and then running into Tessa.

Allison listened to it all with a quiet grin. She remarked at points.

“I would’ve accepted his date. Could’ve been fun. Remember, I love everyone. I won’t be jealous. But it’s bad to fib like that, especially to a nice guy in a suit.” I bowed my head and she gave me a slight bonk.

For the later parts, I got hugs and an account of her day as a Kinrae with wanting to pose for videos and all sorts of fun in dance class. She proposed an age and gender-reversed version of King Lear. Young female king and his old sons. That was as far as she’d gotten with the idea.

With Tessa, she seemed to ponder in the same way I pondered. She noted that she had seen what she felt were a few of my classmates around campus but hadn’t checked their hands. I realized that I hadn’t checked Tessa’s hands either. I didn’t remember seeing anything though. Allison noted she’d randomly asked those people to dance. Only two of them were any good though, she lamented.

I showed Allison the card Tessa gave me. She turned it over a few times and passed it back to me before saying, “Sooo…going to Kinraetown will be our third date? I’ve heard there are some fun places down there.”

I blushed but told her, “If you like.” To which she immediately responded, “Yes! Very much. But while picnic is going to be girl me and boy you and the book trip too….you’re going as the girl to Kinraetown. Deal?”

I really couldn’t protest. Rubbing her hands together, Allison noted, “There is much you must learn before then and especially for the picnic! We shall swiftly level up your special sandwiching skills!”

With a smile, Allison led me into the kitchen for a lesson.

I focused on her instructions but I was still thinking about Tessa. Something about her was sticking in my thoughts. It would take till late evening before the pieces came together.

I’d saved and digitized a few old pictures of my parents. I looked them up on my computer.

My mom, when she was about my age, had long, soft brown hair just like Tessa’s and she loved green and black.

If someone were to attempt a younger, Kinrae version of my mother, Tessa was extremely close to how she would look. And another thing…Tessa. My mother’s name was Theresa.

I rubbed at my eyes and shook my head. Definitely a coincidence. Still, I thought about it much longer than I wanted to.