Equilibrium (7 page)

I held my breath to control myself and dried myself off with the Kleenex that Monica handed me. Really, get a hold of yourself. You aren’t Bella Swan, for goodness sake. Put your big girl panties on and d-e-a-l. This pathetic wallowing had to stop. I concentrated my thoughts on hockey in order to gain some self-control. I would go and play and then that man I spoke to from Ames, Kevin, would help me sort it out hopefully.

Christian was waiting for me on my driveway.

“Have Christian drop you off at my house after practice, okay?” Monica instructed firmly before she drove off.

“Get a move on,
A
. We’re gonna be late. What took you so long?” Christian said impatiently.

“Okay, okay! Let me just grab my gear from the garage.” I couldn’t help noticing Christian glancing over at me several times during our ride to the rink. It was sort of amusing. This was a routine ride for us. We never talked, just listened to his iPod tunes blaring through the Bose speakers he had installed into his birthday gift, a silver BMW convertible. I sat back into the leather seat, closed my eyes and enjoyed the tunes, amused at the sideway glances. What a riot.

“We’re here, wake up!” Christian nudged me. “You fell asleep. Everything okay?”

“Yes,” I replied sleepily, as I undid the seatbelt and let myself out.

“Do you want me to carry your gear in?” he asked hesitantly.

“Don’t be an idiot,” I snorted, and I threw my bag onto my back and grabbed my stick. “Come on, let’s go!”

Hockey practice was good, in the sense that it got my mind to focus away from my big issues–I seemed to have too many of them these days. Coach was in good form, happy with our season, but still keen that we try as hard as we could and didn’t slack. That suited me just fine. I looked down at my black helmet before I put it on, and wondered about the reaction from my team if I’d appeared with a pink one. L-O-L! I was changed and ready before most of the rest of the team, so I skated around warming up. I looked around for Justin, but didn’t spot him. Christian skated up to me and beckoned me to the side. I was intrigued.

“So,
A
, I was wondering….” he said unsurely.

“Wondering? ‘Bout my hair? Really, give it a rest. It’s not funny anymore,” I said annoyed.

“No, it’s not that. I was hoping you’d go out to the movies with me.”

“Duh, I go out to the movies with you guys almost every weekend. You’re being really weird.”

“Arizona, I meant as in a date,
with
me,” he beamed.

“Oh. Yeah, I guess. We’ll talk about it later,” I said, hastily putting my helmet back on and skating back to warm up. I chuckled to myself. Hopefully, I’d find a nice way to avoid that. I didn’t want to upset him. In another life, he’d have been perfect.

Coach blew his whistle. We skated over to him and listened intently–well, I pretended–to every word he was saying. He looked eager and serious as he spoke. I caught the tail end of his mini lecture. If we worked hard, we’d be allowed a scrimmage at the end of practice. Cool.

“There’s something else,” he said looking around. “I was expecting a new player today. He comes with an impeccable record. I guess he got the times mixed up,” he grumped. “And where’s Justin?”

We looked around and shrugged. I was relieved that there were no signs of him. We skated to the center and got ready for the chasers. I partnered with Kyle. We lined up together and skated for the puck, I reached it first every time and jammed it into the goal. We did quite a few passing drills, routine but fairly boring. I could do these in my sleep. Then we did my favorite checking drills. I really enjoyed these, especially today. The perfect vent for pent-up frustration. I put my full force behind the checks, throwing my body onto my targets. I felt satisfied, even good. The whistle blew again and we were allowed a short scrimmage before the Zamboni appeared and we had to leave the ice.

“Good work, kids! This is not the last practice, even though the season is over. I expect you back Thursday after school. And here is the new boy,” Coach said, glancing past my shoulders looking at the tall boy walking toward us. “You’re late. We’re done. Don’t be late on Thursday,” he instructed.

The new boy came walking right up to me. He took his mouth guard out and gazed at me through his helmet.

“Hello, Poppet.”

T
he Elders called an emergency meeting. Emergency meetings were rare. The peaceful life underlying the very existence of the Wanderers dictated a steady, predictable pace, not emergencies. However, today was different. In light of recent events, the Elders decided that firm and quick action needed to be taken. So, in a nondescript house in Mountain View, a group of the most eminent Wanderers from the area had gathered alongside the local Wanderer community to make sense of their new predicament.

Grayson Weeks and Erica Sen reached for each other’s hands as their elected leader, Inez Skoog, stood before them, ready to begin their meeting. Inez was well qualified to serve as a leader. She had spent many years observing her target humans and had also been married to one. Her marriage didn’t work out, so many of these marriages failed. However, she was blessed to still be best friends with Kevin and spoke with him regularly. Their children, Lena and David, were her pride and joy. She and Kevin had managed to raise them to be kind and caring. She stood before her group aware of the respect they afforded her and felt the pressure to make sure that she did her very best to live up to it.

Grayson and Erica had total faith that Inez would be able to provide them with the leadership they needed now. They looked at their leader with fondness. Her motherly appearance reassured them. She could have been any stay-at-home mother of two teenage children.

Inez shook out her tight blond curls as she surveyed the group with her clear blue eyes. She guessed that there were about forty in the room. She spotted Erica and Grayson and nodded to them reassuringly, and then looked around for the rest of the Elders who would stand beside her when she addressed the crowd. She spotted them hurrying in through the patio entrance. Her four closest friends: Constance, Lars, Javier and Morgana. They smiled at her as they approached the podium and Inez held her hand up to quiet the crowd.

“Erica, could you please join us up here to recount to everyone why we are gathered here?”

Erica was slightly taken aback. She had hoped that Inez would do this for her. She was uncomfortable speaking in front of people under normal circumstances. Today’s agenda made it even more difficult. As she made her way to the front, she felt smaller, much smaller than her six-foot-two frame. Inez nodded to her as she turned and faced the room, hesitantly.

“I,” she started, but her throat closed up and her mind blanked.

“Just start from the beginning,” Inez encouraged.

The beginning of what, Erica wondered. The beginning of her life? They would still be here tomorrow. Although it was an interesting story, it was long and complicated. Perhaps she should start at the beginning of her relationship with Raj? Most of the people here had heard about the events leading up to their wedding. After all, she had needed to convince and reassure them all those years ago when she sought their permission. How about the beginning of the end of her marriage? That would probably be the most useful place to start, since these current events were a result of that. She coughed and looked around apprehensively and caught Grayson’s calming gaze. She closed her eyes, tapping into his calm and opened her mouth to speak.

“I’m not sure quite where to start, but as most of you know me and were witnesses to my wedding, I’ll skip over events leading to my marriage to Raj. You raised many concerns at the time, but I reassured you that the love that Raj and I felt for each other would overshadow and overcome any difficulties we would have. You were generous enough to accept him into your fold and even afford him the gift of travel with me.” Erica’s expression turned into one of sadness as she continued with her story. “We did have some good years. The highlight was the birth of my daughter, Simla.

“As you know, I was assigned to Olivia Darley, mainly because we both lived in New Jersey when she started on the October Project. Olivia is truly an extra- ordinary woman and I was delighted with my assignment. However, when Olivia started traveling through the portal, it began to put a strain on my marriage and on my relationship with my daughter.

“You see, I was gone for long periods of time, especially when Olivia had Harry. I still saw Simla every couple of days, but she missed me, she was only eight. Raj decided to explain my absence to Simla by saying that we were having marital issues and that I had decided to separate from him for a while. I’m fairly sure that she didn’t understand. She was way too young. I’m not sure why he even said that, maybe it was wishful thinking on his part. It’s almost as if he started believing in this story himself. Though I traveled back to see them frequently, every few days, the visits were short and I felt a distance building. Simla became agitated every time I got ready to leave. So, I decided to have them travel with me. It was tough, especially for Simla having to live two separate lives. She seemed like two different people. It was almost like she rebelled every time we traveled back to Mountain View. She loved staying in Princeton. I totally understand how incredibly difficult it has been for her. Just keeping her two lives separate must have been a monumental task. However, she has Wanderer spirit, so I thought she would cope.

“I have no excuses for Raj. He should have been able to accept the circumstances, especially since he came into this with his eyes wide open. He grew more and more bitter over the years and resented having to adjust to my travel requirements, while at the same time becoming obsessed with time travel. Many times he asked me why he couldn’t be afforded the ability of independent travel. Raj wouldn’t accept that this is just not possible.

 “So, when Raj heard about the October Project, he was beyond excited. It was a possibility for him to travel without me. In hindsight, I shouldn’t have discussed it with him at all, but isn’t that what marriage is all about? Trust? I shamefully admit that I don’t know much about what he’s been up to. He has been very secretive and it’s been easier not talking to him too much. His temper is volatile and I have grown to fear him. Simla has been acting up, but I thought that was the usual for any teenager.

“Raj communicated to me that he tapped into the October Project and is now in control of the portal. I have no idea how he did so! He would have had to get through security at Ames and hack into the computers. I fear he may have copied my keys and figured out my passwords. I guess he could have taken a visitors’ pass when he came to see me at Ames,” Erica shrugged.

“He plans to use the portal for his own agenda, which involves making money from it in some way. I don’t know how. He also told me that Simla was involved. I don’t know to what extent, but I fear for her.” Erica stopped and looked around the room. She had everyone’s attention. Grayson nodded to her to go on.

“So, as I mentioned, I am assigned to Olivia Darley, who heads up the October Project. The portal was her vision. The portal she designed not only allows simple time travel, but also travel through dimensions, much like we are able to do. In addition, she’s figured out how to set the portal to open in different time/dimension planes, so that she can virtually spring back and forth as she pleases and bring whoever she wants through with her. The only limitation to the portal seems to be the requirement of an immense amount of energy. The source she is tapping into at the moment harvests only enough energy to keep the portal functional for barely a month.

“Her October Project was running smoothly until a couple of weeks ago when Olivia decided to take one last trip through the portal to bring back her dog, Gertrude. That’s when everything turned upside down. Her older daughter, Arizona, who has happily lived here in Mountain View as Arizona Darley since she was eight, suddenly
woke up
as Arizona Stevens from New Jersey. It’s as though the dog was somehow the trigger. Can that be possible?” She looked over at Inez questioningly.

“Let me explain this,” Morgana offered. Morgana was a tall, striking woman with chestnut hair and blue eyes. She had never been married, nor did she have any children. She was devoted to her task; she was in charge of all the assignments. “Gertrude was assigned to Arizona. Arizona
Stevens
. Arizona is a complicated girl. She interacts or interacted so badly with humans in her Stevens life that we assigned Gertrude to her. It turned out to be a very good call. Gertrude was able to get closer to Arizona than any human could. But, while they got very close, we had no plan for Gertrude to transport into this dimension. As Arizona Darley has no issues with humans, we decided to assign her a human Wanderer instead. David, Inez’s son has been assigned to her. I am totally confused as to why Olivia would bring her dog back through the portal. I can only guess that their bond is very strong as well, after all, the love for Gertrude was the one thing that both Arizona and Olivia shared. She must occupy a very special place in Olivia’s heart.  However, a Wanderer has never been transported through a portal before, so we don’t know what effect it had on Gertrude. All we know is that the bond between Gertrude and Arizona Stevens is so intense that this transference of spirit has somehow occurred.”