Callie dressed and sat down with us, and ate enough meat for three people. When she had a nice food baby, she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and sighed. “So, how do you feel about being from an ancient alien civilization?”
She took the aloe vera type skin from the spiny trees that Patty handed her and started rubbing it into the burned skin of her nose, hands, and feet. The other women were slathering more over their sunburned skin. I’d never been so thankful for my rapid healing as I was watching them wince and hiss while applying it.
“I don’t know. I don’t feel like an alien. I’m from Earth. I grew up in a small town in the southwest. I went to a freaking public school, for Christ’s sake. My mom’s a long-haul trucker! Aside from being a Rijitera and shifting into a huge wolf monster, I’m totally normal,” I said, and the girls laughed softly. I shrugged my shoulders. “It was a shock, sure, but after all the shit we’ve been through? Hell. Ohem could have told me God was a unicorn that breathed fire and shit rainbows and I’d have rolled with it.”
Callie barked out a laugh. “Yeah, it doesn’t seem like much would shock you for long.” She grew serious and held my gaze for a long moment. “I haven’t thanked you for what you did on the ship.” She sucked in a breath and blew it out slowly. “So, thank you, Jack. Really. I know things didn’t exactly end the way we wanted, but thank you for saving us and for helping keep us alive.” She looked to Ohem, who I was again perched on. “Thank you, too. For getting us off the ship and everything after.”
Ohem tipped his head at her. “It was my pleasure, Callie of Earth. I would do it again. I only wished I could have saved the others. It will be a regret I carry with me for the rest of my life,” he said, his deep voice somber. I stroked his forearm that lay across my stomach, leaning back against him. He squeezed me in silent thanks for the comfort I offered.
“It wasn’t your fault. You did what you could. It was that shark asshole and whoever was paying to have us delivered,” Patty said, giving him a kind smile.
“I thank you for your words, Patty. You are a good friend,” Ohem said, reaching out to her to touch her shoulder lightly. She patted his fingers and swallowed hard.
We sat in a comfortable silence. Ohem’s arms curled around me tightly, my head resting against his chest. Sam and Patty stared into the fire, Sam’s head on Patty’s shoulder with Patty resting her head on Sam’s hair. Callie had Sam’s hand clasped in hers, her head on Patty’s other shoulder, her gaze on the water.
What a group we were. Survivors. Friends. Lovers.
Fuckthose shark aliens for abducting us, but I was thankful, too. Thankful that I’d met Ohem and my friends.
“What’s your last name, Callie? Where are you from?” I asked her, wanting to know them better. We hadn’t really had a suitable moment to introduce ourselves before. Cages made for terrible first meeting places.
She flicked her gaze to mine, lifting her head from Patty to sit up straight. She smiled at me. “Ramirez. My mama is from Mexico and fell in love with a black boy from Los Angeles. I was raised in LA my whole life. Went to a nice private school my dad worked double shifts to pay for. He was a nurse. It’s how he and my mom met. She came in with a broken wrist. She’d been bucked off her horse at the finals of a cutting horse show. She was still wearing her cowboy hat and Dad said it was love at first sight. He still gets all hot and bothered by my mom in her hat.”
She smiled warmly. “He retired last year. They travel all over for mom’s shows.” She was getting teary-eyed talking about her parents, and took a shaky breath. “Ugh, sorry,” she said, laughing and wiping at her eyes. “They’re probably losing their minds about my disappearance. We’re really close.” She sighed sadly and continued. “I went to the Air Force Academy, got stationed at Nellis. I’m twenty-six years old and I’m an only child. No boyfriend at the moment. Oh, and I was abducted by aliens,” she said, and chuckles erupted across the space.
I turned to Sam. “And you, Sam? Tell us about Dr. Samantha Johnson.” I gave her my best seductive look. It was pretty potent, I’d been told. I enjoyed teasing her way too much. I’d always loved the shy girls.
She blushed and cleared her throat, sitting up and scooting a little away from Patty. “Um, well, I was born in New York, but we moved to Seattle when I was eight. There was a special school for gifted children there.” She looked around, embarrassed.
“Well, go on, don’t be shy.” I winked at her.
She smiled and shook her head. “My mom is a florist. Divorced. My dad left when I was two or three and I never met him. I graduated high school at fifteen and my mom really wanted me to be a surgeon, but I was always interested in crime and solving them. My mom didn’t want me to be a cop, so I met her in the middle and became a medical examiner. I didn’t have time to date between school and then my job. I’m twenty-four and I was also abducted by aliens,” she said, laughing.
We were having an AA meeting. Alien Abductees.
I looked at Patty, asking her silently if she wanted to talk about herself. Her story wasn’t a happy one, and many people judged her harshly for the things she’d done to survive.
She smiled thinly at me and lifted a bony shoulder. “My full name is Patricia Dells. I’m twenty-five. I was born in Chicago. I was raised there by my father, who was an alcoholic. When life got too bad living with him, I left. Lived on the streets at sixteen and got into a dangerous crowd. Got into drugs.” She hesitated for a second. “Got into prostitution.” She held up a hand as if to stop any apologies for her hard life. “It wasn’t all bad. I met some nice guys and even enjoyed my work, mostly. I wasn’t being forced by some pimp with a cane, but I had a terrible addiction to heroin. I got tired of the cold and wanted to get away from the city. To get clean and start somewhere fresh. I bounced around state to state until I got trapped in New Mexico with a bad boyfriend. It was when he was hitting me on the corner of our street that I met our Amazon.” She grinned at me and I grinned back. My smile was sharp and predatory. “Out of a dark alleyway comes this gigantic woman. She was pissed and had the meanest face I’d ever seen.”
I snickered when she flared her eyes, enjoying the drama she injected into the story. “She grabbed my boyfriend, shook him hard, and said to him if he enjoys hitting women, he could try to hit her. He called her a stupid bitch.” She rolled her eyes. “He wasn’t very smart. She snapped his neck like a twig and tossed him down the alley like it was nothing, and then looked at me and smiled. Introduces herself as Jack, all casual, like she didn’t just kill a man with her bare hands. Said if I ever needed help to call her, and then disappeared back into the alley. I ran into her after that pretty often in jail. She was always getting busted for fighting. She looked out for me on the streets, helped me find housing and rehab, and she was a pretty good friend. She didn’t judge me for who or what I was. I did secretly think of her as ‘Jack the Giant‘ in my head, though.” She gave me another smile, this one watery. I was feeling a little choked up myself. My throat was tight.
“I always called you Patty the Prostitute in my head. With love,” I joked, sniffing away the tears.
She laughed, flipping me off.
“I’d been clean for two years by the time I was abducted. Now that big ass scary woman is my best friend.”
Don’t you cry. Don’t cry.
I stuffed my tears deep inside. Patty eyed me, blinking away her own tears.
“It’s really nice to meet you all,” Sam said, with watery eyes too.
Callie swiped her face, and we all laughed at each other.
Ohem had stayed quiet, taking in all the information and letting us talk.
Callie glanced at him and shook her finger. “Don’t think you’re getting out of our sharing and caring circle. Tell us all about our favorite General.”
