The Strangest Love of All - The Sequel - Part Three

His cell phone rang. He had just finished the last set of tests when he walked over to another table and picked it up. It was his mother.

“Hi, mom. What’s up?”

“Oh, not to terribly much. Your dad and I are going on vacation starting this Saturday, but before we do, we were hoping you could tear yourself away from your work and have dinner with us Friday.”

“Let me check my schedule, mom.”

“You and you schedules. Can’t you for once forget schedules and just come home where we can all be together?”

Friday. Three days away.

“Mom, I’m doing very important work and—,” then it hit him. If he were able to get to Elyse, he would never see his parents again.

“Not to worry. My calendar is free. What time?”

“Seven-thirty. After which, your father and I will be going to Cancun the next day.”

“Okay. I will see you guys Friday night then.”

In all the fervor, the excitement, he forgot about his parents. And just how the hell was he going to explain this to them.

“Hey, mom and dad, remember when I was fourteen and I told you about a girl I met from another world?”

Oh yeah, I can see that not going so well already.

The hard part, besides having them believe him was that he wouldn’t ever see them again.

Walking back to where the lab results sat, he peered over his findings and saw nothing to indicate any differences from the before to the after with Zach’s condition. Pondering over this, he came up with the conclusion that non-human substances may have been picked up and discarded to another location on Alpha-Earth One, hence, not being in the original location for return, couldn’t be brought back. It was the only thing that made sense.

**********

“Child, slow down. Repeat everything again.”

“I told you, a white rat just appeared right in front of me. It was like magic. I wrote a note and put it next to the rat and left. That way I could remember where I saw it. Then I came straight here.”

“Perhaps you may have mistook this rat appearing out of nowhere, instead of its coming from behind someplace hidden.”

“No! I saw what I saw!”

“Calm yourself. I will get one of our police agents to inspect the area and ask that you show him exactly where this happened.”

Turning to a field agent he whispered so the girl wouldn’t hear him, “Go with her, appear to be very serious about the matter. Pretend to take notes and take pictures. That should calm the child down.”

“Yes, Inspector, but we both know she isn’t telling a story or lying.”

“True. But sometimes, children have such a vivid imagination, and imagination has never been outlawed here. It was probably a mouse, since we eradicated rats years ago due to the infection of Koda.”

“True. Koda was terrible. Caused people to go blind, and others to commit suicide. The worst of it was the young ones. They would become paralyzed.”

“Yes, but fortunately, we have the best health care system on Alpha-Earth and were able to fix that.”

“Except for the blindness.”

“Yes, except for the blindness.”

**********

When the girl and the field agent arrived to where the girl left the note, she was confused.

“I know I left it right around here. Honest I did.”

“Child, perhaps a wind blew it in another direction.”

Another direction indeed.