Take Me To Your Reader: An Otherworld Anthology (15 page)

"
And the others? They are faring just as well?"

"
Bone and Dieben are having a blast."

She frowned.
"What is a blast?"

"
It means 'a good time,'" I explained. "It's just something I picked up from my host."

"
I see," she said, although her confused expression said otherwise. My mother had never inhabited a human host. I didn't expect her to understand.

"
They're waiting for me in the other room. I have to go, Mom."

Her mouth tightened. I knew she wanted to ask me about what we were doing, but she didn
't. And she wouldn't. It was against the rules. Thank goodness, since I didn't have an answer anyway. Human brains were a lot weaker than I'd expected. Why the heck couldn't I remember anything?

"
I'm glad you've enjoyed yourself this past week. Your father is making preparations for your return. I'll contact you tonight with the pickup location," she said. "Be well, Axel."

"
Be well, Mother," I returned. The hologram flickered and disappeared. I pocketed my communicator and went in search of my friends.

I stepped over a chair with two broken legs and zig-zagged around half a dozen overturned cartons of noodles as I crossed the common area. At Dieben
's bedroom door, I turned the knob but nothing happened. I pushed harder and it gave a couple of inches then stopped.

"
Dieben?" I called. No answer.

I shoved hard, putting my shoulder into it, and was rewarded when it gave, slowly, as something heavy on the other end slid aside. I entered and found a small writing desk overturned on the floor near the door.

"Dieben?" I called again.

I couldn
't tell if it was a sleeping body underneath the mound of blankets lying in the center of the bed or just a balled-up sheet. I went over and poked it and it shot up. "Wha …?" Dieben blinked and looked around, his almond eyes scanning the room before landing on me. His dark eyebrows crinkled. "Axel?"

"
This is me."

"
Ugh. These bodies are weird. I can't tell them apart." He shoved the blankets aside and climbed out of bed, almost tripping when his foot caught on the edge of the sheet. "How long were we unconscious?"

"
They call it sleeping."

"
Whatever," he grumbled. Dieben was always grumpy in the mornings. His temperament didn't improve much in the afternoons or evenings, either. I tried to ignore it when I could. The only reason I'd brought him was for the numbers. Rumschpringe was always spent as a trio. We'd needed a third.

"
Where's Bone?" I asked.

Dieben shrugged.
"How do I know? I was sleeping."

I frowned, ignoring Dieben
's sarcasm. It was against the rules to go out alone and Bone didn't have the smoothest host body to work with. His human was clumsy and awkward. So was Bone.

I tried using my communicator to call him, only to remember Bone had dropped his in the pool days ago and it shorted out. I tried instead on my cellular phone. We
'd each purchased one when Bone's communicator had stopped working. There was a long pause and then, without ringing, his voicemail came over the line. I hung up. "He must've stepped out," I said, worry making my forehead crease. "We need to go look for him."

"
Why would he leave? He knows better. Did you check the bathroom? The balcony?" Dieben took a step toward the door.

"
Uh …"

I didn
't have time to mention the mess in the common area before Dieben caught sight of it. He stopped and stared around the room before regarding me with wide eyes. "What the hell, Axel?"

"
It was like this when I woke up. Do you remember anything about last night?"

Dieben cocked his head to one side in thought and then shook his head.
"No," he said finally. "Why? Did I do something to Bone? Lock him out or something? If I did, it was just a joke …"

"
No, I mean, maybe. I don't know. I can't remember anything either."

We shared a look. The limitations on the human brain were frustrating. And my alarm was growing. Number one rule of Rumschpringe: stay together. If anyone found out I
'd lost my best friend, I'd be better off deserting than returning home.

We dressed quickly, Dieben forgoing his usual half hour in front of the mirror in favor of a quick hand-smoothing over his ruffled hair. Our true bodies had manes of hair twice as thick as our current hosts. Maybe Dieben had deemed this one manageable. Or maybe he actually gave a shit about Bone. You never could tell with Dieben.

The hall outside our suite was empty. I tried not to let the disappointment get to me. I'd half hoped Dieben's assumption had been correct, that Bone had just been locked outside as a practical joke, a habit Dieben excelled at. But he wasn't there, nor was he in the lobby when we arrived downstairs.

I waited while Dieben asked the front desk clerk for information. Females responded better to him, in either form. Something that always grated on me, mostly because of the way Dieben lapped it up and brushed them off when he was done.
"Rude" was a trait he'd made intergalactic. While they chatted, I tried calling Bone again. Straight to voicemail. His phone was off.

"
He has bright red hair, freckles on his face, skinny legs," Dieben said, describing Bone to a pink-cheeked young woman with too much paint on her eyes.

"
I saw him leave with you last night," she said, smiling up at Dieben through her clumped lashes. "But not this morning when you came in."

We got back this morning?

Dieben ran a hand through his hair and the girl giggled. I rolled my eyes—this body's most common reaction to my self-absorbed friend.

"
Did we happen to say where we were going?" I asked her.

She blinked, appearing to notice me for the first time.
"No, sorry," she said, directing her answer at Dieben. She looked genuinely disappointed that she couldn't help. Dieben thanked her and turned away.

"
What now?" he asked.

I felt the girl
's eyes on us as we walked. Dieben either didn't notice or didn't care. "I don't know." I huffed out a breath and looked around, hoping for some idea or direction.

"
Hey, what's that?"

"
What?"

Dieben pointed at the left side of my pants.
"That."

I looked down. Something metal protruded from my pocket. I pulled it out and turned it over in my hand, inspecting it.

"What is it?" Dieben asked.

I probed my host
's mind for the answer. It took a moment, but I found it. "It's a ten-millimeter wrench."

"
Why do you have it?"

"
No idea." We stared at each other, both searching for memories that wouldn't surface. "Ugh. It must have something to do with last night. These are the same pants …"

"
What does it do?"

"
It's a tool. It … opens things." I cocked my head. "Your host doesn't know this?"

He shrugged.
"They say you're given an appropriate match. I think this guy was more of a people person than a tool."

Something in my host
's brain found that funny. I smirked as the joke dawned on me. "For once, the match was off," I said.

"
Huh?"

"
Nothing. Check your pockets. Maybe there's something else."

We both stuffed our hands into our pockets. My left hand closed around something small and hard. I pulled it out and held it up.
"A bolt," I said, examining it. "You?"

Dieben squinted at a small scrap of paper in his hands.
"A phone number. Score."

"
Does it have a name or anything else?" I asked.

"
Jane. Huh. This guy thinks she sounds plain," he said, tapping his finger against his temple.

Dieben
's reference grated on me. I didn't particularly enjoy the way we invaded our host, mind and body, and then detached ourselves so suddenly upon exiting that our humans were left with short-term amnesia along with various other side effects. Panmerans, as a rule, didn't concern themselves with the damage we caused. The attitude was that since we didn't kill our hosts, we weren't wrong. My opinion on the matter felt a little grayer, though I'd never say so.

Still it was a shame Dieben
's host didn't offer him an extra set of manners. I resisted the urge to hit Dieben—and his host. "Can I see it?" I snatched the paper when he held it out and sure enough, the name Jane and a seven-digit number were handwritten on one side. I turned it over. On the backside were several words printed in red, block letters. "Egg drop soup, four ninety-five," I read. I looked at Dieben. "It's part of a menu. A place called The Golden Noo."

"
Golden Noo?"

"
I can't read the rest of the word. Noo is short for something."

"
Noo…" Dieben muttered, clearly at a loss.

Using both my host and my own knowledge database, I searched for possible words that began with Noo.
"Something with food," I said. I stared at the piece of paper in my hand.

When nothing came to mind, my thoughts wandered back to the mess in our suite upstairs. Would they list something like that on our check-out statement? We
'd have to clean it up so my parents didn't hear about it. And all those cartons of food … "Noodles!" I said.

"
Noodles?" Dieben repeated.

I looked back at the menu, read the full name aloud.
"The Golden Noodle. That's the place. We must've been there at some point last night. Come on, we'll start there."

I pocketed the wrench and bolt and headed for the door with Dieben close behind. A uniformed man with gray hair sticking out from underneath his navy blue cap nodded and held the door for us as we exited. I made it as far as the edge of the sidewalk, pedestrians parting around us as they passed, before jogging back to the man whose only purpose seemed to be to open and close a door all day.
"Sir, can you tell me where The Golden Noodle is?"

"
That Chinese place? Hang a left at the corner. It's about two blocks down. Right next to the vet's office." He chuckled. "Gets me every time."

"
Thanks," I told him and motioned for Dieben to follow as I walked in the direction the man had pointed.

Progress was slow. The streets were crowded and the machines—cars—on the pavement just beyond didn
't stop for anything. A heavy woman with a small, furry animal sticking out of her bag shoved me aside as she hustled past.

"
Do you think he's there?" Dieben asked.

"
I don't know, but it's the only place I can think of to look," I said.

Dieben
's communicator beeped.

"
What's that?" I asked.

He read the screen and then pocketed the handheld device.
"A message. The shuttle home has been scheduled."

Worry for Bone spiked. I needed to find him, before anyone knew he was missing. Before something bad happened. Bone wasn
't good in new places. He wasn't even that good in familiar places most of the time. He'd only come to Earth because of me. Because he knew I'd wanted to meet the challenge it represented to our kind, and to me. If something happened to him, it would be my fault.

We made the left, sticking close on the heels of the two men in front of us, trusting the machines to remain stopped while the little white light signaled it was okay to cross the street. At the next block, I craned my neck over the heads of those in front of us, trying to see the place advertised on Dieben
's scrap of menu.

"
Do you see it?" Dieben asked.

"
Not yet. Come on."

A yellow sign with the words
"Golden Noodle" typeset in bold red letters floated into view above the heads of the couple in front of us. I skirted around them and perched on the edge of the curb with Dieben beside me.

"
What's going on?" Dieben asked.

I simply stared.

Two four-wheeled machines—cars—with blue flashing lights on top were parked outside of the tiny restaurant. A man with a mustache and black uniform complete with a shiny badge stood outside the front door making notes on a clipboard. A short man in baggy pants and animated arm movements stood beside him, clearly excited about whatever he was explaining. The uniformed man nodded but never took his eyes off his clipboard as the second man talked. Through the front window of the shop, I spotted another uniform standing in front of a high counter. Across from him, facing the street, stood a girl.