Thanks for the reviews, Lilly, Phantomgirl96, MickeyRules, its Danni and Emma!
Chapter 4
He was home. He touched the garden gate: it was smooth with white paint. The latch moved easily and he stepped onto the narrow garden path of pretty little grey stones, bordered by some scented little white flowers (alyssum in case you're curious). A lone rose bush spread its buds promisingly below the wide windowsill that was painted a smooth dark green. That made Rex smile: Six had definitely chosen that colour.
He searched his pockets as he approached the front door and found a little brass key in his left jacket pocket. It slid into the lock like butter and turned easily, letting him into the hallway he'd left this morning in such a rush that he'd not really seen it, just the beige carpet and the pale honey painted hallway.
There were three photos arranged diagonally on the wall by the stairs. Rex examined them curiously, thinking less about photo manipulation this time. In one of them, he was there, smiling cockily with Six and Holiday—Mom and Dad, he reminded himself—standing behind him. He looked maybe ten years old in the photo, his hair slightly longer than he wore it now, and they were in the park, a skateboard in his hands. The photo below it was of Holiday and Six, Six with his arm protectively around Holiday's shoulder, and a warm smile on Holiday's face.
The hallway smelled sweet, and was warm with the scent of something cooking in the kitchen.
"Rex? Is that you?" Holiday's voice called beyond the kitchen door and he stepped quickly towards it, pushed the kitchen door open and threw his rucksack back into the hallway behind him. "Yeah…Mom, it's me."
She smiled, standing at the stove, putting on some oven gloves and took some hot bread from the oven. It wafted the savoury scent of garlic and parsley butter and Rex breathed it in.
"Get the plates out, honey?" Holiday asked.
"Sure…" Rex swept his eyes over the cupboards then pulled open two of them. There were glasses in one and plates and bowls in the other.
Holiday gave him a curious look.
"Thirsty," he said and grabbed a glass to demonstrate, and she turned back to chopping the bread into chunks. He noisily opened the fridge and grabbed a carton of orange juice, stayed as noisy as possible while opening two of the drawers, finding cutlery in the second drawer. He drank the glass of orange juice quickly then grabbed the knives and forks, setting them down on the counter.
"Thanks honey. Could you get your dad from the garage?"
"Sure." He went out the back door at the other end of the kitchen and glanced at the garden then he went to the garage door.
Inside, at the workbench with a light shining down on his work, Six worked with a soldering iron and a piece of solder, lightly applying it to a circuit board. Curious, Rex cast his eyes over the rest of the workroom. The shelves were lined with paint cans, and an iron cupboard took up another wall, secured with a hefty padlock. A skateboard leaned against the wall, he thought he recognised it from the photo in the hallway.
"Hey Six," Rex said absent-mindedly, wandering over to the skateboard, then slapped his forehead.
Six raised his head immediately. "What did you just call me?"
"What do you mean, Dad?" Rex played innocent, picking it up and spun one of its wheels idly.
"Hmm," Six smiled thinly then shook his head. "I thought you called me by an old nickname I used to have."
"Oh?" Rex played nonchalant. "What name was it?"
"Maybe I'll tell you another time. Your mother'll be wondering where we are." With finality he took the soldering iron over to the locked up cupboard, spun open the combination padlock and put the soldering iron on one of the shelves inside it. Rex craned his neck as the flash of an edge hung inside the cupboard caught his eye, and his heart missed a beat, certain that he'd just seen one of Six's katanas, hung up neatly inside it…
But then Six closed the door, spun the combination padlock closed and led the way from the garage, expecting Rex to follow him. Casting one last look at the cupboard, Rex did follow, but his mind couldn't drop the image of the katana, and how it'd gleamed…like it was waiting for battle.
"How were classes?" Holiday sprinkled some parmesan cheese over her spaghetti bol then Six took it from her.
"Good enough. Could I hang out with Noah for a bit tonight?" It'd been starting to get on his mind that he should tell Noah that he wasn't crazy and that earlier had just been a practical joke, so that he wouldn't hand Rex in to the local straitjacket store. Also, he wouldn't mind finding out if he had better basketball skills in this alternate reality than he did back home…a victory over Noah would be sweet enough to sustain him forever.
Six looked towards the window though then shook his head. Outside it was close to getting dark, the sky going through a sunset. "It's too close to curfew."
"Curfew?" Rex had forgotten about this. "Come on, who'll catch me?"
"No Rex," this time it was Holiday who spoke severely. "If the Providence patrols catch you, you'll be in a world of trouble. You're staying in with us."
"Curfew sucks," Rex grumbled.
"Better than being eaten by an EVO."
"As if it could," Rex scoffed before he could stop himself.
Keeping a straight face, Six agreed. "An EVO would find you hard to chew. Now. You can do your homework in the living room. It's your mom's turn to choose a movie to watch tonight."
Rex made a face, his plan to escape already scuppered. He missed the amount of space at Providence…it'd made it way easier to sneak out…his room wasn't even big enough to try again to activate the nanites. Smackhands would destroy it all…and these versions of Holiday and Six would ground him until he was at least twenty he was sure.
When they go to sleep, he decided. Then I'll sneak out. He just wanted to see a bit more of the city, figure it out a bit more…and maybe see this version of Providence in action. He grabbed his schoolbag and rummaged around in it until he found some kind of diary, flicked through it, and stopped. He'd been here one day, yet his own handwriting greeted him from the pages. Scrawls of homework details, scribbled phone numbers, frown faces doodled next to names he must dislike. It felt like he'd stepped halfway inside a movie, but this movie was of his own life.
He dropped his satchel on the living room floor and pulled out a small handful of pens and a few books, and opened the homework diary. He sprawled comfortably on the floor and began twirling a pen between his fingers as he thought. Not about homework, but about this reality. Something began bugging him, a really unpleasant something.
"Hey…Mom?" Rex asked hesitantly and she immediately gave him her attention, "Hmm, honey?"
"Uh, psych homework…theoretically…could someone make up a whole…life? Like, overnight? Like wake up and forget their life and think that they'd lived another life instead?"
"Theoretically…yes," her voice was already musing. "There's false memories, there's neurological conditions where the brain will take cues because it can't remember, and construct elaborate things from those cues, there's…"
"Thanks," Rex scribbled something random down. "Um, neuro what?"
"Neurological," she said patiently.
"Neurological," he winced over the word, hating it already. He started to wonder if this could be something to do with blackouts. Back in the reality he was more familiar with, he'd known that he'd suffered at least one blackout and forgotten everything before it, he'd become a new person as soon as Six had dug him out of the rubble when he was ten years old.
But this…this was a whole different world. Did I dream up a whole past then? Could it be a psych default? The action of a disoriented mind?
Concentrate on enjoying having them as parents then, he decided.
As the movie played, he cast a surreptitious look at Six and Holiday. Holiday lay sprawled on the sofa, her head on the edge of Six's lap. Her eyes were open though, not on the movie, not relaxed, she looked at Rex and he ducked his gaze back into the homework diary.
Six's hand was draped over the back of the sofa, Rex saw when he next flicked his eyes up at them. Hmm, he thought, curious, and noted it in his homework diary. Why doesn't he keep his hand on her? Why doesn't she lie properly with her head on his lap?
He made a small sound and shifted his shoulder as though he was about to look at them, and Six's hand immediately dropped to Holiday's shoulder, and Holiday's head rested back slightly more, she made a small sound almost like a laugh, then flicked her eyes at Rex, as though curious.
After a while they relaxed again, thinking Rex was clueless. He frowned to himself. Was his seemingly perfect new reality a bit more fragile than it'd seemed? Either Six and Holiday were going through marriage difficulties or they were lying about something.
Finally the movie was over. He faked a yawn and stuffed the books back into his satchel. "That was fun," he said.
Six raised an eyebrow at him. "Good to have you spend the evening with us for once, Rex."
Oh my goodness, there was affection hidden in those words, as formal as they were.
"So…Dad," this time the word came more naturally. "Earlier, you said you had a nickname? What was it? Which workplace?"
The man hesitated. "Six…it was Providence."
"Six…that's a weird nickname." Rex smiled. "How'd you get that?"
"Drank six bottles of mountain dew in an hour and survived," Six said.
Rex stared.
"He's joking," Holiday smiled. "Don't even think of trying it!"
"Really? Come on, Six…what was it really? How did you get that nickname?" Rex pressed.
"Crashed six cars."
"Also a joke," Holiday cut in hastily.
"Please Dad, seriously!"
"No. Enough. Rex, go to bed." Six's voice was getting sharper.
"Come on Dad!" Rex stared at him. "I was just asking."
"He's not comfortable talking about Providence, Rex," Holiday said quietly. "Neither am I."
"Did you work there too?" Rex said eagerly.
"Yes," Holiday said distinctly reluctant.
"What were you…a scientist?"
"Yes." She lowered her eyes.
"I bet you were a cool scientist," Rex said finally.
"She was," this time it was Six. He spoke with finality, got up and left the room. Holiday cast a worried look after him, and went to kneel by Rex.
"He's just not comfortable talking about Providence," Holiday said quietly, reaching out to stroke Rex's hair. "Please, please don't provoke him about it. He isn't Six any more. He's your father, David Storm."
"And you're not Dr Holiday any more, let me guess," Rex said, hoping he wouldn't have to check the post tomorrow morning as that'd need him to wake up early.
"That's right," she said sadly. Darn she didn't tell him any more than that.
"You loved that work, didn't you?" Rex said suddenly, it was impossible to miss the sadness in her voice.
She nodded. "It was hard, but it was rewarding. When I lost that job…it…I lost choices."
"I'm sorry," he said suddenly.
She smiled and tousled his hair. "It's not your fault, Rex. We got the most important thing there, your father and I met there. That's what means the most to me."
He impulsively reached up and kissed her on the cheek. "Love you Mom."
"Love you too. Now go to bed."
He obeyed, he went to his bedroom. He took his sneakers off, and his shirt and jacket, then lay under the covers, waiting for the rest of the house to fall silent, waiting to sneak out.