Tommy Nightmare(77)

“What the hell was that?” Heather stood up straight and looked around at the empty lab. “Somebody tell me what the hell I just saw.”





Jenny floated on her back, gazing up at the billions of blue and white stars. The water around her was very warm, heated by the June sunlight all day. She knew if she swam down far enough, she would reach the deep place where the water held the winter cold year round.

“It's quiet out here,” Seth whispered. He floated beside her. “Used to be so many people during the summer.”

They were swimming at the small body of water a couple of miles outside town, which Seth called “the reservoir” and everybody else called “Barrett Pond.” It was almost midnight.

“It's weird, isn't it?” Jenny said. “Never going back to school. It's like people tell you what to do your whole life, and then, all of a sudden, nobody's in charge.”

“We're in charge,” he said. “We can do whatever we want.”

“You can. I still have the Jenny pox, and I don't know what to do with myself now.”

“Come with me and Darcy this weekend,” Seth said. “You'll like it. We're staying at a pretty cool hotel, an old mansion in the middle of downtown. Darcy said she stayed there with her family once and it's really nice.”

“Cities scare me. All those people I could infect. I’ve done it to whole cities before, in other lives.” Jenny had begun to think that Pericles, the man she’d been trying to kill in her dream, was a past-life incarnation of Seth. But he never seemed interested in her past-life dreams, so she didn’t see any point bringing it up.

“Are you really worried about that?” Seth asked.

“I have to worry about it every second I'm alive, Seth. It’s what my whole life is about”

“You don't think you might be hiding behind the Jenny pox a little bit?”

She turned her head in the water to look at him. “What do you mean?”

“Maybe you're scared of change,” he said. “A little bit scared of the world beyond this town.”

“That's not it!” she snapped. “You don't understand.”

“I do, though. I'm kind of scared, too, and I'm used to being away. But that was boarding at Grayson. This is different. Nobody in charge anymore, like you said. But it won't be scary if you're with me, you know? It'll be fun.”

“If I go,” Jenny said, “Can you get a place outside the city, more in the country? Then you could drive into Charleston for school, but I won't have to be surrounded by people.”

“I don't know. My parents might get suspicious about that.”

“Suspicious?” Jenny flipped down from her back float and started treading water. “You've been insisting I come and live with you, and your parents don't even know that's your plan?”

“Well...”

“You don't think they would figure it out?”

“They wouldn't allow it if I told them. I'm just trying to do what will work for us now.”

“And what about the future?”

“Why are you freaking out?”

“Because you act like you have it all settled for us, but you don't. What am I supposed to do, hide when your parents visit? Do I just live out of a suitcase the whole time? What’s your plan?”

“We'll deal with it.”

Jenny finally asked the question that had been eating at her, ever since her talks with Darcy Metcalf. “Do we have a future, Seth? If your parents are so against us being together?”

“I can handle my parents.” Seth took her hand and towed her close to him. He tried to kiss her, but she dodged it.

“Oh, yeah.” Jenny swam back from him. “Like you handled them when they told you what school to go to, and what to study, and every big decision you've ever made about anything.”

“Come on, Jenny. I love you. I'll take care of everything.”

“I don't think I believe you,” Jenny said. “I'll think you'll do what you're told, eventually. And where does that leave me? You want me to build the rest of my life around you...until it gets inconvenient for you. And you can move on to some girl your parents want you to marry.”

“That's not true!”

“Prove it,” Jenny said.

“I can't show you the future. We're together today. Tomorrow, next year, we'll keep finding ways to be together.”

“That's what you say.”

“What the hell do you want me to say, Jenny? What do you want me to do?”

“Nothing,” Jenny said. “You have fun with Darcy this weekend. And all your little pals from Grayson Academy.”

Jenny swam away from him, toward the rocky shore. The night was growing a little cold.