The Hybrid (15 page)

“Not today, Grandma. I’m not quite ready to go back
yet.” Tru turned and started walking back to her bedroom.

“Well, then when school lets out, I want you to walk
down to the Meyer’s house and say thank you for the
flowers.” Maggie turned back to the sink, flicking on the
faucet once more. Tru watched her for a moment as she
began filling the white tub with soapy water. “That Bethany girl is so lovely. Why didn’t you tell me you made a
new friend?” She spoke loudly so Tru could hear her over
the sound of the running water.

Tru stopped walking, trying to put a face to the name.
And when she was finally able to remember that she was
the girl that had wanted to walk to school with her, she
immediately became curious as to how she had known
Gertrude was in the hospital.

“She came by Monday afternoon looking for you. I told
her you were still in the hospital. She came back the next
day with two other girls and almost a truckload of flowers,”
Maggie rambled
on.
“She
said that
her
mother
owned the flower shop in town. I told her that I didn’t
know that her mother even had a daughter. She smiled
and said that her brothers were the real
stars
of the family.” She turned back towards Tru. “You should invite her
over for dinner sometime.”

“Sure,” Tru replied, though she was only half listening
now. The thought of going over to Bethany’s house made
her stomach churn. It wasn’t that she didn’t like her, it
was just that Bethany wasn’t exactly the typical person
that Tru would have chosen for a friend. She was the kind
of girl one would usually see at the mall every weekend.
Tru
was the kind of girl you would usually find at the library, quietly reading a book or finishing a research paper
for school.

Being Bethany’s friend made Tru terrified that she
would
soon
become
just
like
one
of
Bethany’s
other
friends ⎯ one of her mindless clones ⎯ and Tru didn’t
need that. She didn’t
want
that. She liked her brain, no
matter how confused it was at the moment.

Slowly, Tru continued out of the kitchen, walked to her
bedroom, and quietly shut the door behind her. The clock
on the dresser claimed it was only nine-thirty, meaning
she still had another five hours before school let out.

What to do?
she thought, as she walked directly across
the room to the window in the wall next to the bed.
It was sunny when Gertrude had first woken up. She
could remember the bright light burning her eyes as she
looked around the room. But now, in the hour that had
passed, the sky had become cloudy, almost menacing. It
was getting darker by the minute.
Oh joy, more rain,
she thought.
Tru looked around the backyard, her eyes scanning
over the unbearably bright, blue tarp covered table ⎯
Grandpa Ben must have known it was going to rain ⎯
quickly landing upon the small opening in the trees that
led to
her
meadow.
Hurriedly, she turned away, fearing that just looking in
that direction would cause her to want to feed her hunger
and leave the safety of her room to go back to the meadow. Tru wanted to go back, but her grandma was right. It
was stupid to go back to the place where the crazed fairy
girl that was Airi had attacked her.
If I go back,
she thought,
who’s to say that she won’t
be out there waiting to attack me again?
Gertrude had never been so afraid of a single person in
her entire life, especially someone as young as Airi. Technically, she was almost two whole centuries older than
Tru, but physically things were different. But Airi wasn’t
human. She could do things Tru couldn’t. She could fly
and had incredibly unrealistic strength and she could
move things without touching them. But what else was
she capable of? What could she do that Edyn couldn’t?
And what could
he
do to stop her?
Could
he stop her?
Then, something caught Tru’s eye. Quickly, she turned
her focus to the backyard once more. And as she looked
around, she noticed that the trees near the entrance of the
path began to move, while the trees that lined the rest of
the yard remained perfectly still. Tru stared closely at the
trees as they swayed back and forth, hoping to see what
she desperately wanted to see. But the forest was so dense
that she was only able see about a foot beyond the first
row of trees that lined the grass. And just as quickly as the
trees had started moving, they stopped.
Tru immediately thought she had been seeing things.
Thinking she was slowly losing her mind, she quickly
rubbed her eyes and then gazed out at the backyard again.
But things hadn’t changed. The fifty-foot pines remained
still.
I’m becoming obsessed,
she thought.
I can’t get him
out of my mind. I barely even know him.
But the more she thought about Edyn, the less Tru
could really remember. The images she had stored in her
mind just a few days ago, were beginning to blend together. It was almost like she was
unsure
of what his face really looked like. She could remember his green eyes, and
his wonderful smile that bore unnaturally white teeth.
And she could never forget his burgundy wings and the
strange tattoos that wrapped around his arms and chest,
but she couldn’t remember his voice, how tall he really
was, or just the right shape of his face. She could no longer smell the exact aroma of his pine and campfire scented
skin, the perfect shade of his flesh, or even the pitch of his
laugh.
“Trudy!” Maggie called from the other room. Instinctively, Gertrude glanced over at the clock on the wooden
dresser as she turned and walked back to the door.
10:15 A.M.
Have I really been standing at the window for fortyfive minutes?
It seemed as though she had somehow become lost in her own thoughts.
“Coming!” Tru called when she realized she hadn’t answered her grandmother yet.
When Tru arrived at the kitchen, she could see that
Maggie was standing casually next to the kitchen table.
She hadn’t noticed it until she had completely entered the
kitchen, but a man dressed in a blue button down shirt
and a pair of black slacks was sitting in her usual chair at
the table. And when she reached her grandmother’s side,
the man stood up. Tru noticed immediately that he was
very tall⎯ probably close to six and a half feet⎯ as she
slightly had to crane her neck to look up at him.
“Hello, Gertrude,” the man said in a smooth, baritone
voice as he held out his large hand, waiting for Tru to
grab it. He reminded her of a giant the way his extremities and facial features seemed slightly too big for any
normal human being. Gertrude giggled as she imagined
him as the tall, lanky, awkward kid in high school while
he was growing up.
The man was young, maybe late twenties, and had dark
brown, cropped hair. His eyes were blue, and his skin was
fair, and he didn’t have a spec of facial hair on his face,
other than his well-groomed eyebrows. He was very good
looking, for a doctor. The only doctors Tru had ever been
to were usually short, fat, and slightly balding. This man
looked like he belonged in L.A. with a couple of young
blonde women on each arm.
“Hi,” Tru replied. It was more of a question the way it
rolled off her tongue.
“This is Doctor Parker. He’s the one who was looking
after you at the hospital,” Maggie said as Tru reached for
the man’s large hand.
“See now, I told you she would be fine,” he said as he
looked at the woman standing awkwardly beside them.
“Thank you,” Tru replied.
Doctor Parker quickly released Gertrude’s hand and
turned back to face her, smiling as he spoke. “I actually
came to ask you a few questions.” He gestured toward the
table and sat down. Tru hurriedly followed and sat down
in the chair across from him. Maggie on the other hand,
turned toward the counter and continued putting away
the clean dishes. Tru knew there was a good chance her
grandmother was still listening to the two of them talking,
but she didn’t say anything.
“So what do you want to know?” Tru asked, looking
Doctor Parker square in the eyes.
Doctor Parker glanced at Tru quickly. His eyebrows
crumpled together on his forehead.
“Isn’t it obvious?” he asked, quietly, looking over at
Maggie. “I want to know what happened.” He turned back
toward Gertrude, leaning closer to her as he waited for
her to speak.
“Isn’t it obvious?” Tru repeated sarcastically, pointing
at the bruises on her neck. Immediately, she wondered
how much worse they had been when she had first received them.
“Well,” he looked sincere, “yes, I would say so.” He
folded his hands on the table, and then looked over at
Maggie again.
“But I want to know who,” he whispered, still looking
at the older woman.
Tru soon caught on to what he was thinking. “No, it
wasn’t either of them.” She quickly looked down at her
hands lying on her lap.
“Then who was it, Gertrude? I want to help you, but I
can’t if you don’t help me first.” Doctor Parker stared up
at her with a stern and cold look. “Please?”
Tru looked up at him. He unfolded his hands and waited for her response.
“With all due respect, Doctor Parker,” she paused and
decided to lower her voice, “I love my grandparents. And
if they ever did what you think they did, I would have
never come to live here.” Tru looked at him angrily.

Tru quickly stood from her chair after a few short seconds of silence. The chair made a loud screeching noise
as she pushed it out from under her legs. And as she
stood there, she continued to stare at the doctor. He
looked up at her with a sincere look on his face. It almost
looked as though he were sorry for even suggesting the
idea.

“Gertrude,” he said, apologetically as she began walking away from him. And as she reached the doorway to
the hall, Doctor Parker stood from his chair and followed
her. “Gertrude,” he said again, “I’m sorry.” She could feel
his hand touch her shoulder. “You know where to find me
when you’re ready to talk about it.”

Tru stopped in her tracks, but did not turn around. She
hoped he would apologize, but part of her felt bad for being so rude.

The doctor turned toward Maggie. “Thank you, Mrs.
Mason. See you soon. I’ll show myself out.” He slowly
walked out of the kitchen and toward the front door in the
entryway.

Maggie quickly turned away from her dishes, and followed him out to the foyer. Tru waited in the kitchen and
listened
as
her
grandmother
thanked
Doctor
Parker,
closed the front door, and walked back into the kitchen.

“Did I miss something?” she said when she returned,
looking at her granddaughter, her face riddled with confusion.

“No.” Tru turned back toward her bedroom in an angry
huff.
“Trudy, wait,” Maggie said, walking closer to the girl.
She looked at Tru curiously.
Tru wanted to tell her everything, in that moment,
right there.
Maggie knows something, so why can’t she
know everything?
“What happened, Tru? What did he say to you?” Maggie continued.
“Nothing. He made an assumption and I told him he
was wrong,” Tru sighed. She tried to repress her anger,
but it wasn’t working. The thought of someone even considering that her grandparents would try to hurt her
made the blood pulse in her veins. She clenched her
hands into tight fists at her thighs before hurriedly crossing her arms over her small chest.
Tru looked up at her grandma and waited in the silence. Maggie remained completely calm in her demeanor, but her face looked like she was being tortured from
the inside out. “What kind of assumption?” she asked.
There was a brief moment of silence between the two
women before Tru answered. “It was nothing, Grandma,
really.” She turned back to her bedroom door, and took a
deep breath before she started walking. Again when she
crossed the threshold, Tru turned around and paused
adding, “I’m sorry,” before closing the door. She then quietly walked back to the window on the opposite side of
the room.
As she laid her arms on the windowsill, she closed her
eyes and took another deep breath. The room was quiet
and
strangely colder than
the rest of
the
house.
Tru
opened her eyes and grabbed the blanket from the chair
in the corner of the room. Slowly, she wrapped the warm
blanket around her body, shivering for a second, and then
turned back to the window.
The minute she looked back up and out of the window,
Tru could see the angry, murderous, image of Airi again.
Quickly, she looked down at the floor and took a few more
deep breaths, counting to ten before looking up once
again. When she finally glanced back out of the window at
the backyard, the image of Airi did not reappear.
“She’s gone,” Tru said aloud. “You’re alive. Breathe.”

After a few minutes of shuffling around trying to find
something to pass the time, Tru decided to leave the safety of her room to grab a book from her grandmother’s
extensive collection in the family room.

The book idea lasted for about an hour before she began
feeling antsy again.
Annoyed,
and
uncomfortably
bored, Tru walked out of the bedroom, returning the book
to the shelf she had pulled it from, and trudged her way
back down the hall to the bathroom just past her bedroom door.

The warm water of the shower poured against her back
like a waterfall. Tru stood motionless in the white basin
for a few moments, letting it wash over her shoulders,
releasing her sore and tender muscles in her spine. Tru
hadn’t realized until now how beat up she truly was.

When she was finished showering, Tru looked up at
her reflection in the slightly fogged over mirror. She could
instantly see the bruises around the base of her neck,
black and blue, with a few spots of green. She could count
each finger of the print, including the thumb. Slowly, she
turned around, letting her towel fall to the ground around
her ankles. And just as she had suspected, her back was
just as bruised. But instead of handprints, there was a
single solid line that was about six inches thick, running
perfectly down her spine. Tru knew it had to be from the
tree she had been pinned against. But she was still surprised that she hadn’t been injured more severely.