Authors: Leora Gonzales
For the next week, Poppy stayed inside her apartment. The
doctor’s office she worked for had cancelled patient exams and told her not to bother
coming in until she received a call when they’d reopened. That meant that Poppy
was using her vacation time, which sucked for a couple reasons. Like many of
her friends she lived paycheck to paycheck. She had a little savings, but that
amount tended to be enough to splurge on a dinner out every now and then. It
was definitely nothing to live off.
Between calls to check in with Pixie, she tried to become
more familiar with her neighbors. She quickly came to realize her fellow
apartment dwellers could be lumped into the “crazy Floridians” group. Poppy was
relieved that she hadn’t felt the need to become friendly before the whole
alien invasion. These people drove her nuts. Her first clue to the crazy they
subscribed to was apparent when on the second night she heard gunshots in the
parking lot and peered out to see the man she’d talked to previously, now with
a dangling bottle of Jack in one hand and a handgun in the other. As he fired
shots up at the ship closest to them, he yelled, “Come and get me!” This lasted
until someone called the police. After some shouting back and forth, Poppy
finally had some peace and quiet when they Tasered him and he was arrested.
Poppy felt slightly guilty when thinking back on it. As the
shenanigans had been happening outside her window, she’d popped a bag of
popcorn and sat watching as if she were at the movies. Who could blame her
though? She was getting tired of watching the news and this was more
entertaining than cable TV. It seemed every channel claimed to have “inside”
information about their space invaders. There were stories being leaked that
ranged from missing women who were believed to have been abducted and probed to
the aliens being blamed for climate change.
As Poppy sat in her living room flipping through the
channels, her phone rang.
“Hey, Pix.” Apparently it was time for her morning check-in.
“Hey, Poppy, how’s the status quo?” Pixie asked. This was
obviously getting old if that was her opening line.
“Oh you know, the usual… An alien knocked on my door today
to try to convert me to some freaky alien religion, my neighbor went gun
shopping again, and I’m pretty sure I’m down to my last roll of toilet paper,”
Poppy quipped.
“Hardy-har-har. Very funny.” Pixie’s tone went serious.
“These news broadcasts are still freaking me out. Did you hear they believe
twenty missing women have been connected to the aliens?”
“Pix, c’mon now. I’m sure the last thing on their minds was
coming down here to steal women. The last lady who was interviewed about being
abducted was wearing a tinfoil hat. She was a total nut ball.” Picturing the
woman in question from the news report caused her to laugh. “But I was being
honest about the toilet paper…I have half a roll left and no paper towels. I’m
going to need to leave my apartment soon.”
“Poppy, from what I’ve heard, people have been going out
with no problem. You’re not too far from the store. You should be able to go
pretty quick and be right back.”
That thought made Poppy frown. She hated Mega Mart. It was
sometimes fun to go in the middle of the night and people-watch if she was
really bored but actually shopping there was no fun at all. So what if
everything was super-cheap? The crowded aisles were hell to navigate with their
wonky shopping carts that always tended to lean right no matter how many times
you switched carts.
“I’d rather drive across town and take my chances at the
Super Store than go to Mega Mart during the day, Pix. You know I hate that
place.”
Pixie let out a snort of laughter. “So you’re telling me
you’d rather take a chance being abducted by aliens than go two miles to Mega
Mart?”
“Hellz yes, bish. That’s how I roll.”
Both sisters loved to curse. In fact, they tended to make an
art of it and used bad language in every sentence they could. When they were
bored and drinking, they’d try to create new words just to mix it up. “Bish”
was one of those words. According to Pixie it was like calling someone a bitch
but with a little love thrown in. They used it so frequently their phones had
stopped autocorrecting it when they texted each other.
“Hey, what’s Brian up to?” Normally Poppy could hear
background noise when talking to her sister but this call had been surprisingly
quiet. Brian was the type of guy who tended to make noise when he was simply
sitting down doing nothing, so she could tell when he wasn’t around.
“Well, he decided to go in to the office today. Architecture
apparently waits for no man…or alien,” Pixie deadpanned then started giggling.
“He actually sat on our porch last night and stared at the ships for a bit.”
“Ummm…why?”
“Because he said that the curves and engine placement on
them were ‘fascinating’. I swear he’s such a goofball sometimes. He went in to
mock up some drawings apparently and left me here.”
“Hey, is he still acting weird?” Propping her feet up on the
table, Poppy twirled a curl that had managed to escape from her bun.
“Yeah…a little. Since we’ve been hermits this last week, he
hasn’t disappeared on me but he seems nervous about something.”
“You mean, other than aliens?”
“I don’t know. Before all this happened he was really
secretive about where he was. For a minute I thought he was cheating but then
Becky said she’d seen him browsing through rings downtown at a jewelry store…”
“You mean engagement rings?” Poppy took pride in needling her
sister. Pixie was the type of person who was superstitious when it came to
anything and everything.
“Don’t say that! You’re going to jinx it!” Pixie interrupted
quickly.
“So, not to say he
is
going to propose, but if he
did, would you say yes?”
Poppy already knew the answer even before she asked the
question. Pixie was nothing if not predictable. While Poppy had floundered with
school majors and then entering the workforce, it seemed Pixie’d planned
everything out from the time she was in high school. The next step for her
would obviously be marriage and then the two-point-five kids complete with a
white picket fence and perfectly blooming flower boxes.
“Of course I would. We’ve been dating for two years and
living together for one. Why wouldn’t I?” By her tone, Pixie obviously had no
doubt that her life plan was a sound one.
“Well…do you luuuuurve him?” Poppy sang obnoxiously into the
phone.
“Yes, why would you ask that?” Pixie was starting to sound
offended at the questions.
Poppy thought for a moment and decided to go for broke. It
wasn’t that she didn’t like Brian. He seemed like a great guy: stable job,
stable salary, stable sense of humor. That was the one thing that bothered her.
He was plain toast when she had always imagined her lovable sister with someone
who had a little more spice.
“I like Brian. I really do.” Pausing to try to make this as
gentle as possible, she chose her words carefully. “When you’re together…you
seem different. You don’t laugh as much or crack jokes. When we are alone, we
say ‘fuck’ about a million times and laugh so hard we snort. It’s sad when my
sister seems to lose a little bit of her spunk when her boyfriend is around.”
There, she’d said it. Now she was full-on twisting the curl
in her hand as she waited for Pixie to say something. Anything.
“Poppy…Brian is a great guy. He’s loyal and sweet. And he
has a great job and would make a wonderful father. We aren’t getting any
younger, you know. Plus, we’ve been dating for two years.”
“I know. I just don’t want you to settle for someone because
he’s comfortable, Pixie. I want you to have some passion in your life. Are you
passionate about Brian? I know when you first started dating you seemed so
happy and then it seemed as though the more you settled in, the more boring it
got.”
Poppy sat quietly while waiting for her sister to absorb
what she was saying. Pixie was obviously doing the same thing since there was
silence on her end as well. After a few moments with neither of them talking,
Poppy decided to let it go.
“I just want you to be happy. And if you love him, then
you’re happy and I’m happy for you.”
“Great. So let’s all be happy and drop the subject, okay?”
Pixie had apparently had enough of the Brian discussion so Poppy changed it
quickly.
“So, the big question is…toilet paper at Mega Mart or across
town? The bonus is that I can stop for food across town on the drive back and
not have to eat canned ravioli again.” She pulled on a light jacket. Florida
weather was a little chilly in January so her winter gear consisted of a thin
jacket and a scarf.
“Well, hell, if we’re basing your decision on a repeat of
canned ravioli then by all means go across town and get alien-napped. Just
don’t call me when they pull out the probes.” Teasing Poppy for her ability to
make decisions based on her stomach, she added, “But I do want you to call me
first thing when you get home. Okay?”
“Of course, sister dear. Hey, by the way, when are you going
to go back in to work?” Zipping up her jacket, she made sure she had her wallet
in her purse before heading out the door.
“The restaurant reopened this afternoon with a bare-bones
staff. I’ll need to go in tomorrow and figure out payroll in the morning but
today I’m taking the day off. Brenda is there acting as manager on duty so I
don’t have to worry too much.”
After scanning the stairwell to make sure everything was
quiet and no little green men were hiding, Poppy jogged down the steps to her
late-model Honda. “Isn’t Brenda the chick who’s been causing problems lately?”
“Yeah, but it seems we only have issues when she tries to do
paperwork. I swear, I spend more time fixing her fuck-ups than it would have
taken me just to do whatever it is myself to begin with.”
By this point, Poppy had reached her car and climbed in.
“Okay, Pix, I’m in my car and I’ll call you when I get back.”
“Gotcha. Drive carefully. Brian said people are still
watching the ships more than the road, so pay attention.”
Poppy ended the call with their customary air-kissing noises
and started the car.
“What the
fuck
?”
According to her gauge, someone had managed to steal most of
her once-full tank of gas. Seriously? Poppy couldn’t believe it.
Breathe in
and breathe out, Poppy
.
Fuck breathing!
she thought, banging her
hands on her steering wheel. She leaned forward and rested her head against the
car horn. There went fifty dollars and hello, side trip she hadn’t anticipated.
Poppy ran through a list of the gas stations on her route and figured she had
enough to get to one at least.
What a bunch of assholes.
Two miles into her drive across town quickly changed Poppy’s
destination. All four lanes of traffic had come to a standstill due to an
accident that had Poppy cursing and smacking her steering wheel. Poppy made a
quick U-turn. Praying she had enough gas to hit the station next to Mega Mart,
she crossed her fingers.
The gas station was packed with what appeared to be a bunch
of crazy doomsday preppers who seemed intent on emptying the station tanks.
“Who needs ten cans of gasoline?” Talking to herself seemed like better
entertainment than anything since the radio had turned into nothing but more
news. Recognizing the ten-can gasoline man as her gun-toting neighbor made
Poppy flinch.
“Yeahhhhh… I might want to stay at Pixie’s for a while.”
Once Poppy had finished as quickly as possible, she headed
for the store. The parking lot resembled a reenactment of Black Friday. There
wasn’t a space for what seemed like a mile away from the doors and figuring it
was faster to just park than to try to stalk someone walking to their car, she
pulled in and hopped out.
If she’d thought the parking lot was full, then she was
shocked to see how busy the store was. There wasn’t a free cart in sight and
most of the shoppers were leading multiple carts around on squeaky wheels. She
picked up the biggest bundle of toilet paper she could see and walked to the
frozen food to check out her options. Obviously no part of the store had gone
untouched by the people who were creating their own stockpiles.
She suddenly felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up.
Someone was watching her. Juggling the large square of toilet rolls in her
arms, she turned to scan her surroundings. The men standing at the edge of the
frozen food section were the only ones paying attention to her. The distance between
them was far enough for Poppy to tell they were pretty big in stature, but she
couldn’t make out any details. They seemed clean and were all wearing leather
pants and plain tops. All four men seemed to have similar shoulder-length hair
but one wore his hair longer than the others, in dreadlocks pulled into a low
ponytail on the back of his head. Maybe a rock band’s tour bus had broken down
or stopped for supplies? Now wanting to see if they were anyone famous, Poppy
moved down the freezers until she was in front of the cases with desserts.
Trying not to stare, she took in the gorgeous men in front
of her. She saw one of them whisper to the other three, who nodded at him. The
whisperer turned to face the others, his back now to Poppy, giving her the chance
to take in what was a totally magnificent ass. Too far away still to see what
color their eyes were, she nevertheless figured the guys must all be related.
Upon closer inspection, the men all had similar features and two had tattoos on
their temples. Definitely a rock group. That bad-boy hair, leather pants and
now tattoos could only point to that. They also seemed not to be calling
attention to themselves, keeping out of the way of anyone shopping but also
checking out the crowd.
As Poppy was bumped by another shopper, her grip on the
toilet paper loosened enough for it to fall out of her hands. At the sound of
it hitting the floor, the men all glanced over to where she was standing and
the closest smiled at her. Her stomach tightened at the bright white teeth that
were flashed at her. Her cheeks were bright red when she smiled back stupidly
at the leader of the group. Turning away to face the freezer, she rolled her
eyes to the heavens.
That’s just great. Getting the attention of a hot guy
by dropping an extra-large bundle of toilet paper.
Poppy had wasted enough time and snagged a pint of ice cream
from the case in front of her to go with the sad-looking frozen dinner she was
juggling. Damn. Just her luck that the men had left while she’d had her head
stuck in the freezer case. On her journey to the front of the store she kept
her eyes peeled but didn’t catch another glimpse of the group.
During the trek to the checkout lanes she had a feeling she
was being watched, but didn’t spot the men from earlier, so brushed it off.
She’d been in her apartment too long. Obviously she had cabin fever if she was
this paranoid. If there was anything she needed to worry about right now, it
wasn’t some fine-looking men at the store. She really needed to focus her worries
on her crazy neighbors. In particular the one who liked to stockpile not only
guns but cans of gasoline. Yep, mind made up, Poppy was going to pack a bag and
head to Pixie’s tonight come hell or high water.
Getting home was easier said than done. People were so
concerned about the ships there seemed to have been an accident that then had
led to more, until it was like a life-sized version of bumper cars on the main
roads. It was afternoon by the time she reached the safety of her apartment.
Poppy called her sister and left a message. “Hey, Pixie, I’m
home. I think I’m going to come over to your place in a bit. I saw my neighbor
at the gas station earlier and with the amount of gas he’s hoarding, I figure
it might be safer there than here. I would rather be cautious than be the next
news story. I can already see it now. Boring, single, lonely woman dies in
explosion due to Florida idiots. Anyways, I’m heading your way as soon as I
pack a bag. See ya in a bit.”
She was on the road again when her phone rang.
“Hey, sis, I’m on my way now.” Hating to talk while she was
driving, especially with all the morons on the road, she wanted to hang up
quick.
“I got called in to work. Go ahead and use your key. I’ll be
home in a bit after I fix whatever Brenda managed to fuck up in the ten minutes
I left her in charge.”
“Mkay, love you.”
Within an hour she was pulling into Pixie’s neighborhood in
a subdivision on the other side of Jax. Pixie lived in a nice residential area
where she and Brian rented a house. Brian’s car was in the driveway. What the
hell was he doing home early?
Not bothering to knock, she used her key and walked in.
Dropping her bag by the front door, she heard footsteps behind her.
“Pixie, what are you doing home?” Brian’s deep voice sounded
confused.
Poppy and Pixie resembled each other quite a bit. Both had
the same rounded figure, even though Pixie had two inches on Poppy in height.
The sisters also shared the same hair color, cut and length, except Pixie’s
curls tended to be better behaved than her own. Poppy and Pixie always joked
about the humidity of Florida, using levels in their “hairdicator”. Poppy liked
to think she was normally at stage “fluffy” when Pixie referred to it as
“fuzzy”.
Turning around to make a face at Brian, she teased, “Brian,
you can’t even tell the woman you love from her sister. Tsk-tsk.”
Brian stood before her red-faced, wearing only his boxers.
Poppy had to admit that he was attractive. Plain, but still attractive. His
dark-blond hair always seemed to be combed perfectly and he had a nice smile.
Standing at five foot ten, he was well-built, which Poppy knew came from using
the gym at the local health club. Scanning Brian up and down, Poppy noticed
even his boxers were boring.
“Pixie said I could come over and stay for a bit. It’s a
long story that deals with a man wearing a wifebeater, and a barrel of gas.
Enough about me though.” With one hand propped on her hip, she gestured to him
with the other. “What are you doing home? Pix said you went in to work today.”
Brian ran a hand through his blond hair, which of course
fell back into place perfectly, then smiled uncomfortably.
“I haven’t been sleeping well, so I took a half day to come
home and catch up on some z’s.” He hefted her bag from the floor. “Let me take
this to the guest room and get some clothes on.”
Pixie took the bag from him, nodding her head in the
direction of the master bedroom he’d come from. “No no no, if you came home to
sleep, then go back to bed. I’ll just read or watch TV until Pixie gets off.”
“I can keep you company, seriously.” Brian snagged his phone
off the kitchen counter as Poppy ushered him back to his room.
“I’m a big girl, Brian. Seriously. You are tired anyways.
Plus, I didn’t mean to bother you. Do what you planned on doing today and get
some sleep.” Poppy detoured to the guest room to drop off her stuff after
making sure he had followed her advice.
As she walked back by the master bedroom, she heard Brian on
the phone.
“Yeah, Poppy just got here.”
He must be calling Pixie for her. Poppy proceeded to get
comfortable on their big and relaxing couch. Stroking the empty space next to
her, she thought,
Hell, yeah, I need one of these.
Smiling at the
thought of fitting this gigantic couch into her tiny one-bedroom apartment, she
kicked up her feet and lay back. As she drifted off to sleep, she wondered when
Pixie would be home.
A few hours later, Poppy jolted awake to the feeling of
someone tickling her feet.
“Goddammit, Pix!” Poppy kicked out a foot and caught Pixie
on the leg. She giggled as she avoided another hit.
“Hey, at first I was just trying to move your legs over.
Then I figured your lazy ass needed to be woken up.” Pixie laughed, plopping
down on the couch next to Poppy, and pushed her hair back off her face with a
tired sigh.
“What are you doing home so early?” Poppy glanced at the
clock on the DVR. “I thought you’d be longer.”
“There was a news alert saying a press conference is
scheduled for six o’clock today so I wanted to get home in case the roads got
bad again.” She punched Pixie lightly on the shoulder. “Plus, Brian called me
and said that you came home and caught him in his boxers. He was worried about
his virtue.”
Leering at her sister, Poppy cackled dramatically, “I want
your boring boyfriend…and your fluffy couch too.”
Pixie giggled at Poppy’s witch impression and then reached
over to take her hand. “I’ve missed you this week, Pops. I was worried about
you alone at your apartment.”
“Awww shucks, sis, so nice of you to care about little ol’
me. I worried about me too after witnessing the idiocy that the entire state’s
seemed to subscribe to recently. On a serious note though, I missed you too.”
“C’mon now, let’s figure out what’s for dinner before we
glue ourselves to the TV.”
The sisters worked together seamlessly in the kitchen. Spinning
around each other to get to the fridge and the sink, they fell right into the
routine they’d perfected when they were younger. Soon the smells of Mexican
food roused a groggy Brian from the bedroom. This time he happened to be
wearing clothes.
“Hey, that smells really good,” Brian greeted them, kissing
the top of Pixie’s head. He stole a slice of avocado off a plate as he watched
them finish up.
Swatting his hand away, Pixie chastised, “Stop sneaking
food. I was lucky they had this at the store today. That place was almost bare.
You wouldn’t believe how crazy people are acting. Shelves were cleared through
the entire store.” She moved the plate and lined it up with the rest of the
fajita mixings Poppy had already arranged.
Poppy set some dishes down on the counter. “C’mon, guys, the
news is about to cut to the press conference,” she said, motioning for everyone
to make up their plates.
The three of them filled plates and shuffled to the living
room to eat on the couch.
The President cleared his throat before speaking. “My fellow
Americans, we appreciate your patience during this last week. I know many of
you have questions and I will do my best to answer them. We have met with the
aliens’ leaders and have new information for you. They are called Phaeton
Warriors. This race is highly advanced and was able to clearly communicate the
reason they have come here. First, I want to assure you that they are not here
to do us harm. The State Department has deemed them not a threat, and in
actuality, we have discussed how they can help our country. They have not only
been willing but eager to come up with ideas for our future that will impact
not only our generation, but the generations to come. Our scientists and
engineers are currently meeting with the Phaeton Council. Their technology is
astounding and so advanced we have no doubt that we can solve our current
energy crisis as well as implement new medical advancements that may end the
spread of AIDS and some cancers. We are negotiating with them now and will continue
to do so until we reach an agreement for their assistance in dealing with these
issues that are currently costing millions of people their lives every day.”
As the president stepped back from the podium, Pixie and
Poppy both leaned back in their seats. Poppy glanced over at Pixie.
“They can cure AIDS? And cancer?”
“Pops, that’s amazing. Think of it…these aliens could
literally save millions of people.” Pixie sounded as excited as Poppy felt.
Both girls had some friends and family members who’d been able
to overcome cancer but a few of them had succumbed to the disease eating at
their bodies. A few years ago their last surviving aunt had passed away after
multiple rounds of treatment for breast cancer. Both of the girls had felt the
blow as if it were their own mother. Aunt Tilly had been their last link to
their parents and had resembled their mother so much they’d felt as though they
were losing more than their aunt.
“And don’t forget the energy crisis,” Brian mumbled around a
full mouth. “I wonder if that means we wouldn’t need to rely on foreign oil?”
“Hmmmm…” Pixie looked as if she’d wondered that herself.
“Hey, he said we were negotiating… What do we have that they need? If they have
all this technology, what does Earth have?”
Thinking back to her nutball neighbor, Poppy blurted out, “I
can safely say that Florida has an abundant amount of idiots we can send them.”
“Well, it doesn’t appear like he’s going to say anything
else tonight. Let’s put on a movie. What are you in the mood for?”