Close Encounters of the Bus Kind

[11]

Luna was a tenacious snuggler though. She squeezed without it feeling uncomfortable and urged Nadia towards calm. The currents of uncertain terror writhing within her didn’t go away, but she smiled for the kid and brushed her long hair out of her squinting eyes.

Aunt Melisa, with just one S, came over to check on them. She sighed but chuckled at the way Luna had Nadia wrapped up and trapped. “That doesn’t look comfy. Come. Help me get the beanie chair.”

No way was Luna letting her older sister go, but she provisionally agreed to cling to her limbs every step of the way. She somehow helped with dragging the enormous bean bag couch over from the narrow hallway closet while maintaining her sibling death grip. The couch felt like a gray, slippery mountain range and practically consumed both of them.

All the while, Nadia eagerly spoke to her aunt and focused on her physical details, from the way her hair was darkly permed to the silver bracelets on her wrists. No way would she forget and lose anyone else. Luna squeezed against Nadia and shut her eyes. Even the raucous, blocked-goal cheers of their other sisters weren’t enough to rouse the kid. Nadia accepted being smothered like this.

“Doesn’t that feel better?” Aunt Melissa asked. She couldn’t breathe, but Nadia still agreed. Was being this loved normal for siblings? She doubted it but also felt nervous. This kid obviously had high regard for her elder sister. How could Paul ever hope to meet that expectation? He was a pretender, at best. At worst, he made that MIB guy run away. Did he also make those sisters vanish?

Impossible. People don’t just vanish. Nadia’s social media had to be wrong. Or he messed up the math. And those two siblings just happened to head out for snacks or supplies while he was being interrogated by Agent Cross. He was too afraid to ask anyone for clarity. They would think her crazy for dreaming up two sisters who never existed or confirm that the aliens who abducted them had turned her into some sort of monster.

Woozy, wobbly swarms of darkness clouded her vision, like she’d been holding her breath for too long or frantically hyperventilating. She didn’t deserve Erin’s love or Luna’s. If this was her doing, then the only safe place for her was far away from anyone she might accidentally hurt. Her formless, writhing panic crashed against invisible walls and twisted in torment.

So melodramatic, she scolded herself. This was the way Paul reacted back when he bore the weight of so many broken relatives with soiled adult diapers. He was better than this. The world didn’t revolve around whether or not she did something. That was folly. But something had happened, and she needed to resolve it.

Firstly, she needed to get free so she could ask around. Theoretically, she could drag Luna with her, but surely the kid would inquire about why she was asking after siblings they didn’t have. She couldn’t imagine any easy way of dealing with that. Even that first step felt like an insurmountable summit and a bottomless pit. Shifting to the right allowed her some leverage but the kid’s arms trailed after her, and she could feel their softly increasing drag. If she stretched too far then Luna would know. This felt so silly, like a child’s game version of some action movie. At the same time, she urgently refused to disturb this little one.

It was all for naught though. As soon as she cleared the lip of the couch, Luna’s eyes popped open, and she curiously peered at her sister. “Nadi? What are you doing?” Nervously, Nadia rolled back in place and answered, “Nothing. Just…stretching.” The little girl appeared quite skeptical and immediately locked her sister into a waist-securing embrace. No possible route of escape this time. Nadia sighed and did her best not to look concerned.

If not for the ominous possibilities around her, this would’ve been the perfect place to just stay and relax. She never had a sister before. Short of having her own child, she could scarcely imagine a scenario like this. In other jobs, from janitorial work to restocking supermarkets. she did deal with kids. They had a wild, manic, untempered energy, and chaotic authenticity. If they thought your hat looked dumb then they wouldn’t shy away from telling you to burn it. And they had a sharpened, though often comically misguided, intuition. If Paul showed up like this and unraveled his tale, they would immediately point out, “Ah ha! I knew there was something about you that would get you abducted by aliens!” And then ask for candy.

She quietly reflected that sitting with Luna felt so natural. Several of those store kids demanded all sorts of rides and lifts when they saw him hauling packages. He wanted to do that, and he did a couple times before certain parents and his manager put a stop to it. Big Ruth was still able to do it though and she lamented to Paul that they wouldn’t let him. He shrugged. It was just one of those things. Subtle sexism that a random man was assumed to be less safe for children than a random woman. But he heard enough Let’s Not Meet type human horror tales through podcasts to understand with quiet resignation.

Nothing really changed just because he looked like this now, yet so many small and huge things were different. And that didn’t even take into account the Turkish stuff. He wasn’t sure what he would’ve done if a totally unfamiliar religion came into play too. Although, Nadia expected that the way the Baris family approached their faith had to be pointedly different than the family she knew. The massive Jesus on the wall was a big hint there. She only had vague notions of denominations, but Coptic Christian was the first thing that occurred to her from a vague awareness of the world in general. She didn’t want to assume.

Waffling between so many states, feelings, thoughts, and hopes left her feeling close to seasick. How could she get free? How could she even begin? After several minutes of quiet reflection, she knew.

“Luna? I need to go talk to mom about something important. I’ll be right back, okay?”

The little girl slowly peeked her eyes open. She sighed and muttered, “Okay, Nadi. Come back soon.” And she just released her. No need to be covert, sneaky, or trick her. Just say it and treat her with respect. Obvious. Why hadn’t she thought of that before? No matter. It took some awkward flailing to find her footing with the squish and give of the chair, but she managed to roll and haul herself out. No popping joints yet. She did an incidental pirouette to find her footing.

Her sisters on the couch launched to their feet and pumped their fists. Even her brothers roused lightly from their stupor to lean forward. Groans soon followed when the goal attempt was blocked by a stretching dive. Nadia put on a quick expression of disappointment while Kira dropped to her knees as though she had been the one who missed.

Using this moment, she walked over past the landing to the adult viewing section. Her mom was seated and gesturing animatedly towards her aunt. The space looked so much emptier now.

Attentively, her mother inquired, “What is it, sweetie? Does Luna need something?”

Nadia seized upon a long breath and shook her head. “Luna’s fine. I just wanted to talk…with you. If that’s okay.”

Her mother widened her eyes. “Okay? Why would it ever not be okay? You can talk to me about anything, my dear. What’s wrong? Was your food fine? Was it about that creepy man? I can’t believe I let him in. He didn’t try anything, did he? What is it?”

First off, Nadia assured her that the food was amazing, and she appreciated it. Then, she reiterated that even though she didn’t like the weird guy, all he’d asked her about was whether anything happened during their bus trip back. And nothing had. In amending that he’d looked at her arms, her mother also inspected them with a narrowed look, as though she expected to find some cruel, tainted mark left by that dark man. She reassured her daughter that if the government had done something wrong then they wouldn’t hesitate to sue them with everything they had. She probed her daughter a little longer for some sign of injury or illness but eventually let it go. “So, what is wrong then?”

So many things she could talk about but none that would make any sense to bring up. Except for…”I’m worried about piano practice today. I felt so off last night at the game and just like mechanically all messed up. I’m sure I’ll suck at it today. Maybe we can…reschedule it?”

In nervous preparation, she expected a flare of anger or disappointment from this new mother as a clear reminder of her old one. But she just appeared puzzled and concerned. “You’re hurt? Why didn’t you say?” Nadia waved her hands plaintively. “I’m not hurt. I dunno. I just don’t feel ready to practice today. I’ll be terrible.”

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Her mother shook her head. “Don’t be silly, my dear. You are amazing. You’ve had…you’ve been practicing since you were five. It’s like a bike. Just do your best. Your…umm…you know. Has been giving you lessons all this time. Ha! I am the one who feels a little off. Too many things going on. I just wanted to see my country kick some behind. Haha.”

Something was bothering Nadia’s mother. Her first hunch clung to the dark place full of relatives losing their memories to an insidious disease. What cruelty would decide the same illness to fall upon her new mother? Why? But it didn’t feel the same. Her aunt looked just as lost in a vague thought as her mother. This was something different. Someone had been giving her lessons? Was that impacted by her vanished siblings? She could speculate but what good would it be with her not knowing any more than anyone else?

She had to do something. Okay, two sisters. Two of them. She had them. They existed. They exist. They are real. These are real people in her life. She saw them. It was brief but real. It didn’t matter if her mind forgot. Something about her would remember and bash the universe in until everything was alright. Another crazy notion. She couldn’t do anything to the universe before all this and there were no signs anything had changed. So, pretend, she told herself. Paul had done it enough times back in high school.

The escape space of possibilities, where he could’ve asked Erin out in a dozen different ways or made her days better, was filled with impotent imaginings. Being forthright enough to ask her out and having a fun day during the Renaissance fair where she dressed up in a cute, flowing dress. Sharing silly roleplay scenarios with the fun-loving gay guy who hung around them and impressing him with improvisation and cleverness or bringing geeky to the Filipino girl who was his friend. The ability to open up portals to other dimensions. Being in charge, being bold and confident. It was all there in his head, never useful to anyone else.

But it would be different now. The wild, wasted currents of his imagination, flowing freely in the background of every route he drove for others would be channeled into a whitewater torrent. In the north, little more than water and time carved the greatest mark in the earth. It had been decades since she last saw the Grand Canyon, but she still felt its impossible magnitude. Looking down and seeing one tier of colorful rock, then another and another and another and another, a mile deep and a Rhode Island in swath.

So, what do you do? Her first inkling was to replicate the motions in the X-Men movies of holding out a hand or clutching a head and forcing a trembling hand towards instilling some mystical power in reality. Her quiet, half-hearted attempt honestly felt more like straining to take a poop. She was torn between the urgency of vividly bringing those sisters back and the exhausting doubt of not being able to do anything about it.

She felt like actually doing something meant it had to hurt her in some way. Maybe not as much as a nosebleed, but something had to happen, some sign that her effort was being put into action. The straining, splashing motion and thought eventually led her to a dazed bout that felt like someone had pressed her brain cells against an open grill. It soon passed, but she hoped it would be effort enough.

For the sake of her mother not worrying, she focused on asking for a snack for Luna. Mother noted that Luna just had cake but agreed to give her a little bit of pudding. Nadia took back a bowl for each of them, and her little sister cozied up to her while they ate. She did her best.

She knew it would come to a head. Nadia had those piano lessons and if they were somehow tied up in one or both of her missing siblings, then something would have to give eventually. Meanwhile, she mused about affecting the game on the screen.

The eager, blind fantasy of his youth. He often watched various sports with his parents and begged or willed for the result they wanted. Never worked. More often, he would develop a hunch about when things would all go wrong and unfortunately be correct.

But this would be different. She didn’t really understand the rules, but she watched and attempted to learn. Adding time to the clock was confusing, but it was exciting how the players got tangled up in one another, desperately trying to find a foothold. She visualized, pulling from vague memories of winning goals she recognized from local news or YouTube clip compilations, exactly what was supposed to happen.

She ate slowly and paid attention. Nothing seemed any different. The opposing team, Tunisia, didn’t all trip at the same time. The Turkish team didn’t suddenly become more powerful or skilled. She thought about willing a sign or celebration in the crowd into being. Nothing. But, suddenly, the Turkish team rushed towards their opponent’s goal. Even her younger brothers started to stand in excitement. Screams and cheers filtered around the house, leading to sighs of disappointment with another block. She tried to parse all the terms and rules to put together a better effort, but it all felt like a confusing jumble.

The Turkish team attempted several more goals and blocked a couple others but none of it seemed particularly guided or affected by her. It was a vaguely comforting notion that she wasn’t in control, but it also bewildered her about what happened with her two sisters if it wasn’t some accident of her not remembering them. Had it actually been the doing of Agent Cross? Was his frantic retreat because he messed up reality?

Nadia finished her pudding and took their empty dishes back to the kitchen to wash.

Without warning, she heard knocking on the front door. Her immediate concern was that thinking about the agent had done the worst possible thing and brought him back, likely with backup from the military or Air Force to capture her like she was a rogue extraterrestrial. Her mother hopped up and answered the door first.

Wandering back to the front, she saw two vaguely familiar older women enter through the threshold with multiple bags strung over their shoulders and draped in irrepressible energy. She heard a set of names, one sounded like Edie while the other sounded like Iris. The older women embraced her and asked her a flurry of questions that she had no idea how to answer. The one named Iris lingered and asked, “Are you ready for your lessons? We can do them a little early if that’s what you prefer. I am excited but also nervous. Would that be a good distraction?”

Nadia‘s heart sang. Relief filtered through her blood like friendly bubbles. Her older sister, Iris, was her piano teacher. That made sickly sense with why her mother was confused about her lessons. Or she completely misread the situation.

She took a deep breath and considered reiterating much of what she attempted to say to her mom. But Iris‘s face was so chipper and so close that she couldn’t bring herself to do anything but smile and agree. Her mouth and body twitched nervously when her sisters, her restored sisters, went to put everything away.

Confusion settled in even deeper though when she checked Nadia‘s social media and discovered the same incongruity about three sisters versus five. Checking a different page with personal diary journals finally gave her some clarity. Edie, actually spelled İdil, and Iris were her half-sisters from her father‘s first marriage and were apparently regarded differently.

She rubbed her eyes and realized she didn’t actually have any evidence that anything had changed. The bag, phone, and her shoes were proof that something unnatural was occurring and her mother and aunt’s confusion about not remembering Iris seemed proof enough, but it wasn’t proof she had beyond her own skull.

“Thank you...sis.” Returning, Luna softly whispered in her ear and squeezed her arms around Nadia‘s shoulders. Glancing over at her little sister, Nadia initially suspected that the girl was simply thanking her for the extra dessert in addition to the cake, but there was something else about her expression. It appeared unusually sharp and focused for someone her age, especially compared to her recent demeanor. Her face seemed so suddenly serious, as though this were an urgent matter. Nadia also noticed that the little girl’s eyes lingered on their half-sisters.

What exactly was Luna thanking her for? Before she could give voice to that question, the kid begrudgingly released her and deftly somersaulted off the beanbag and over to the kitchen. She gave big hugs to İdil and Iris as they finished putting away the groceries.

She had no idea and the nerves weren’t any better, but she at least felt some measure of relief that this family was whole, even if her worries were utterly confused.