ExtraNormal (26 page)

“But you’re telling me you were born on a different
planet.
That is absolutely not the same thing.”

“No. It is, honest. We are the same species. We just happen to come from different places and go by different names. But we even have the same DNA. Our planet discovered yours a long time ago. It was this crazy, huge discovery. A planet just like ours. It turns out both of our worlds are like some perfect recipe for intelligent life.”

He stared at me for what felt like a full minute. “And there are no differences?” Jesse was stunned. But also seemed to believe me. And I was fairly sure he had no idea why.

I pressed on. “Pretty close. You remember learning in your science classes how the continents used to be one big land mass that broke apart? Well, we happen to have nine continents instead of seven, and obviously they’re different shapes. That caused different climates, animals, races, and all that. But everything else—solar system, sizes, rotations, they’re all the same.”

He shook his head. “The odds of that…”

“Yeah. I know. It seems impossible. And believe me, our world isn’t any closer than yours to knowing whether it happened by design, or some great cosmic coincidence. We’re probably further from an agreement, now that there are two worlds involved in the argument.”

“So are the people—if you call them that—are they exactly the same as us?”

“Mostly.”

“Mostly?”

 “I can do…a few things that you can’t.”

“Things?”

“They’re evolutional differences, based on the differences in our environments.”

 The poor guy was overwhelmed. He believed, or really wanted to, yet was full of skepticism, and full of questions. “Like how?” he said with a strained smile. “Is this where you show me the gills behind your ears?” He reached out to look behind my ears.

I swatted his hand away. “How much do you know about magnets?”

“Magnets? Like the things that stick to fridges?”

“Yes. Just like those.”

He was still grinning, like this was a big joke, though obviously he knew it wasn’t. “Well, let’s see. Besides refrigerators…you can use them on lockers…”

“No. Seriously.”

“Hmm. Seriously. I know they all have poles. Opposite poles attract. Like poles repel.”

“Did you know that all matter—every atom and molecule on the planet—is pushed or pulled by magnetic fields?”

“That’s fascinating. But what does that have to do with you being an alien?”

I scowled at him, but chose to ignore his use of the word. “All physical laws on my world are based on the principal of electromagnetics. It governs every part of us—our technology, our communication…even our relationships.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Keep going.”

“We all have an electromagnetic field pattern inside of us, we call them em-field patterns. Even you do. Each pattern is unique, like a thumbprint. It’s one of the things that makes us who we are. This pattern—along with our natural pole—gives us the ability to sense certain things.” I paused, giving him a moment to think about what I’d said, and to gauge his reaction.

“You said we all have these em-fields?” he asked. “Even me?”

“Yes. Your world and my world both. But your world has always been suspicious of people with strong magnetic tendencies. They’ve considered them lunatics or witches. There was a time they even burned them at the stake. Even now they’re usually considered kind of fringe. Whackos. Our world, however, reveres them.”

“So these are like people who say they see dead people and stuff?”

“Kind of. They can sense things before they happen. Or they might just have really good intuition.”

“You used the word revere? You mean like they worship them?”

“No, not worship…” While I pondered an explanation, I realized that my knees were beginning to ache, and that this could be a very long conversation. I dropped onto the grass and crossed my legs. “It’s just that those with the most magnetic strengths—the ones that can best sense things—tend to be our leaders. Our presidents and stuff. And since we’ve had an understanding of em-fields from our earliest history, we’ve been able to use it for pretty much everything. All our technology is magnetic based.”

Jesse’s eyes lit up. “Like your cars?”

I smiled. “We don’t have cars. But our transportation, yes. Even our space ships.”

“Your space ships. Of course.”

I pondered how much more I should say. I considered what this must be like—thinking he lived a normal life with a normal girlfriend—then suddenly hearing all of this. I couldn’t even imagine. “There’s more,” I eventually said.

Jesse hesitated, and I wondered if he was deciding how much more he wanted to know. But he sprawled himself on the grass and plucked a blade of grass. “Go on then.” He didn’t look at me, or anywhere in particular.

So far I’d tried to focus on how much we were the same. But if there was to be a purpose in telling him these things, he had to know the differences. I took a breath. “We’ve evolved a little differently from you.”

He glanced up at me. “Evolved how?”

“Well, we can sense emotions for one.”

“Sense emotions? Like…how?”

I took his hand and put it to my nose, kissing it. “I can tell what you’re feeling just by being close.”

“Uh, I see…” He clearly didn’t.

“It’s kind of like a smell,” I continued, “in that it’s more concentrated when I breathe it in. But an emotional scent is not the same as an odor. It’s more of a solid entity. You don’t have to breathe it in, you can just feel it. Kind of like knowing how warm it is without knowing the exact temperature.”

“Wow.” He scratched his head, rolled onto his back and studied me. “So you know what I’m feeling right now?”

Still seated above him, I scooted close so I could pull his head onto my lap. “All one thousand and one emotions.” I ran my fingers through his hair. “You believe me, or really want to. But you’re not sure why, which makes you very confused. You’re very scared. And full of questions. Do I have that right?”

Jesse reached up and took my hand, stroking my fingers. He studied my face without answering for a long, quiet moment. “You said ‘for one’. What else can you do?”

I nodded, hesitant. Sensing emotions was the easy part. The others would be harder for him to understand or accept. “We don’t…exactly…need telephones.”

“Oh this is getting good!” He grinned and jumped up, sitting cross legged in front of me, then took my hands into his. “Please tell me you’re telepathic. Cause that would be so cool.”

I cringed. “Telepathic is just a word in your language that means communication with the mind that no one understands. We stream. It’s totally understandable and science based.”

Jessed smiled again. For some reason I sensed humor as his strongest emotion. “Okay, so you stream. What does that mean exactly?”

I narrowed my eyes at him. His anxiety levels had truly dropped, which was a huge relief. But the humor had me confused. “It’s purposeful.” I continued, a little too defensively. “Not just randomly perceiving other people’s thoughts, which is how it’s often portrayed in your media. We open electromagnetic communication streams to talk to one another. It’s like the radio waves you use except they’re like a million times more effective, if you know how to use them.”

“Okay,” he said. I sensed that he was a little disappointed with my answer. “But can you read minds? Do you know what I’m thinking?”

I shook my head. “I don’t. It would be wrong.”

“But you can?”

“Not with each other. If someone tried to read my mind, I’d recognize it and instinctively block them out. But since you wouldn’t know how to block me…I technically could read yours.”

“Wow.” Jesse released my hands. He looked as though he might touch my face, but instead put his hands in his lap and studied me thoughtfully. “So you can read my mind, but it’s like, unethical or something?”

“Exactly.”

He continued to watch me until I began to squirm nervously. “Do you have any more questions?” I asked.

He chuckled. “Where would I start?”

I wanted to smooth his hair. To touch his cheek. To run my finger along his lips. But I kept my hands to myself. “I’m sorry. I know this is kind of mind blowing.”

“That’s right. You can tell that. I guess you know I’m curious then, too.”

“Yes,” I whispered.

“Okay then. What about me and you?” He reached for my hand again, tracing my fingers with his own. “Why do I feel so drawn to you?”

Once again I didn’t answer right away. That really was a good question. Why was an adolescent human male so drawn to me? Why was I drawn to him? I wished more than anything that I knew. “Magnets, again,” I said.

“No, seriously. I will never believe that we’re just a couple of magnets.”

I ignored his ignorance and continued with the only explanation I had for our little phenomenon. “There are different types of pole forces—they mimic the poles of planets. You’re a geo-force. It’s the strongest and the polar opposite to me.”

“I’m a geo-force. Really?” He voice was thick with skepticism. “So what are you?”

“A quasar-force. Just happens to be the weakest.”

“So you’re going to tell me that we attract because we’re opposites? Just like magnets?”

“Yes. We
are
magnets. Everything is magnets.”

 “I didn’t just think you were hot?” He grinned. Crooked. Stunning.

I felt my cheeks go warm. “It doesn’t sound very romantic, does it?”

“It felt romantic.” He smiled affectionately. “Still does.”

I smiled back, amazed at the impact his few words had on me.

“So is that all there is to it? We’re just two magnets who couldn’t resist one another because of some unseen force?”

“No. Not at all. The pole is just the first attraction. There’s also those em-field patterns. We’re all born with a distinct pattern based on our genetics. Then our experiences cause it to change as we grow. When it reaches maturity—usually around age twenty-five—we are supposedly able to fully match. We go into these camps where we have limited exposure to other people. The only men we can be around not only have to be from the correct force but have to be an approved three-hundred-point match.”

“Three-hundred-point match?”

“The more points a couple has in common, the better match they make. There was a time when people with only a few commonalities became linkmates. We call it our Dark Times. When you link with someone your pattern actually changes—merges with the other person. Have you ever seen how something metal, like a pin, can become a magnet when it’s exposed to another magnet?”

“Sure.”

“It’s like that. The pattern changes to link with the other person. But if you take the pin away from the magnet source, eventually its pattern will change again. That’s how couples used to be. If one of them went away to war or something, or if they just developed different interests, and there weren’t enough matches in their pattern, then it would shift, to actually repel their linkmate. There were all kinds of divorces and separations, just like on this world.”

“So…what? You’re saying there aren’t divorces on Nreim?”

“No. Never. Since the formation of link camps, we’re guaranteed a match that won’t shift.”

“So basically the government determines who you can fall in love with?”

“No. It’s not like that at all,” I said defensively. “They just guide the process. Help us find a more suitable match than we could on our own.”

Jesse nodded, thinking. He was experiencing so many emotions, I couldn’t pinpoint just one. “All I know is that our world hasn’t exactly had a great history with forcing people into camps.”

“I guess I’ve never really thought about it that way. It’s always just been this exciting thing that happens when you grow up. But there’s a lot of things about my government I never really thought about.”

“What about us?” he asked after a moment. “Obviously we’re not a suitable match.”

I studied him, then looked away, stubborn tears forming in the corners of my eyes. “I don’t know all the details. It’s not the kind of thing I can ask my parents.” I looked back, and winced at the concern I saw. “But I do know that you’re not capable of…linking with me permanently.”

We stared at one another while Jesse sorted out his emotions. Eventually I could sense that he figured out what that meant.

“Jesse,” I whispered. “I’m sorry—”

His hand felt sweaty, resting on top of mine. But he didn’t remove it. “So you’re saying that you’ve linked with me instead of someone from your world like you were supposed to. But I can’t ever link with you?” His voice was angry, but I only felt sadness and confusion.

I wanted to stop answering questions. To just have him hold me. To sit quietly and enjoy being together. “I really don’t know how it works,” I said, stroking his fingers.

“But I’m not wrong?”

I shook my head and swallowed back the lump in my throat.

He studied me as though he were seeing me for the first time. And really he was. He was seeing Mira the nafarian from Nreim for the very first time.

I could hardly breathe. If we broke our gaze, even if I blinked, he might decide that I really was a weird insect. That I wasn’t worth it.

“Stream with me,” he said suddenly.

“What?”

“You said you stream. Can you do it with me?”

“No I couldn’t.” I shook my head adamantly. “You can’t control what I see.”

He squeezed my hand. “You think I don’t trust you?”

“No. It’s not that. It’s just—” I struggled to come up with an answer he’d understand, about how serious this was, how many rules I would be breaking.

“Maybe it’ll help me defend myself. If someone else tries. That’s what you think was happening don’t you? When Everett was talking to you?”

“I don’t know. I thought so at the time…but I’m not sure anymore. Anyway, I don’t have to go in to teach you that.”

“But it would help. So I could recognize an intrusion.”

“Perhaps. But…”

“Mira. Do you remember at the dance when you said something crazy about our relationship moving too slowly?”

I smiled, my cheeks going flush. “Of course.”

“I think this is what our relationship needs. For both of us.”