For the next two days I was on pins and needles waiting for the Seekers to come question me, and on Monday at work, they approached me as I was raking leaves near Boulder Creek. I breathed a sigh of relief—at least they hadn't come to my house. There were two of them, a tall blonde man who looked as though his host had been a body builder, and a small woman with brown hair. Both smiled at me kindly. I took a deep breath and tried to remember everything Nate had been teaching me about lying in the last few days. Eye contact. Smile. Keep my hands down. Short, concise answers. Stick to my story. I had no confidence in myself whatsoever. Just desperation.
"Burns Living Flowers?" they asked.
"Yes." I said, my heart already racing. How fortunate I was that Souls do not suspect other Souls. How unfortunate that, if there were an exception to that rule, Seekers would be it.
The blonde man seemed to be in charge, he is the one who spoke. "I am Seeker Johnson and this is Seeker Sways in the Wind. Were you at the Home Depot here in town on Saturday?"
Breathe. You don't have to lie to answer this question. "Yes."
"Did you assist a Seeker in removing a human who was causing a scene from the building?
Well, he wasn't a Seeker… "Yes." My hands flopped up, but I quickly pushed them back down to my side, my eyes, shifted, but I forced them back toward the tall blonde who was asking the question. I breathed, trying not to make it too noticeable, and calmed my racing heart. I reminded myself that this was to save Nate. I renewed my determination.
"Did you know that the man you assisted was, in fact, not a Seeker?"
"No." I tried to sound surprised, but it came out as a strangled squeak. I hoped they bought it. Panic began to well up; I pushed it down.
I think they could see that I was becoming unhinged, but they attributed it to the idea that I was distressed for helping someone get away. I hoped they finished quickly.
"Did the man say anything while you were assisting him that you remember and could tell us?"
"Um, he just kept saying to let the Seekers handle it, and could I help him, and he kept asking the man to please be quiet. That's it. After we used the sleep on the man, I helped him put him in the car and they left." I hoped I gave enough to be considered helpful, as every Soul should be.
The Seekers seemed satisfied, wrote something down in their notebooks and thanked me for my time. They left without further comment, and I slumped against a tree in relief. Once they were gone, I trudged toward my truck. I needed a long lunch.
At home Nate pounded me on the back in delight when he heard that the Seekers believed my story. I was not really in the mood to celebrate, and spent the rest of the day in my room, contemplating my decision. Lies versus murder. If I had to choose, I knew which one was worse.
On Thursday I found myself in a Home Depot for the second time in under a week. I had decided to drive to the Longmont store just in case anyone at the Boulder one recognized me. The Souls weren't suspicious, but I had left a cart full of building materials at the checkout stand, and that was something they would remember—I did not really want to talk about the incident. This time I was alone, and I was a little apprehensive about being able to get all the right stuff. For Nate's safety, I had made him stay home. Nate had given me what he called an "idiot-proof" list, but I found that I still needed to ask for help from one of the employees. After two hours of shopping, I finally had everything on the list, so I headed to the checkout. I was just pulling my wallet out to pay when the clerk stopped me.
"Oh, don't you know? Now that this area is mostly settled, there is no need for financial compensation anymore. You are free to go."
Initially I was a bit surprised that they had decided to implement this policy so soon, but I realized that in the two weeks since I had found Nate, I had barely seen any humans. Things were moving along more swiftly than I had thought. I didn't explain any of this to the clerk; instead I simply smiled and thanked him. I had a lot of stuff, so a few Home Depot employees helped me to the truck. As soon as the supplies were loaded in the truck, I thanked the Souls who helped me and got in.
I really did not want to go home just yet, even if I was a horrible Soul for feeling that way. Eric and Nate were not exactly getting along, and their constant bickering was wearing on me, so I was glad to be out of the house. Part of the problem was that, by now, Nate had adjusted to the news that aliens had taken over the world while Eric was still coming to terms with it. Nate was joking about it, and Eric cringed at every punch line. They were cooped up together all day while I was at work, and had no privacy. On top of that, Nate wanted Eric's help with the construction in the basement, and Eric had refused, point-blank, to help, which made Nate angry. He said Eric was lazy, which was true. Eric spent nearly all of his time on my computer. He'd been begging me to make a visit to his house to pick up his computer equipment, since apparently mine was out-of-date. All he had were a few of the programs from the flash drives we had rescued from his car, and barely any of them worked on a computer as ancient as mine.
I was not going to go get his computer equipment from his house because I did not want to risk exposure, but I was considering getting him some new computer equipment, just to make him shut up. Now that I didn't have to pay for anything, there was nothing stopping me from picking up the new computer now. And I would get to stay out longer. My decision made, I headed down the highway to Best Buy instead of turning toward Boulder. Once inside, I was approached by a smiling sales associate wearing the signature blue shirt.
"Welcome to Best Buy, how can I help you today?" he asked.
I decided now was a good time to practice lying again. In an atmosphere like this, it was highly unlikely that anyone would suspect me of anything, so I was about as free from pressure as I was going to get. I thought up a story as quickly as I could.
"My partner is a computer programmer and her computer is sadly out of date, or at least that is what she told me, and I'd like to get her a newer model, the nicest you have with all the extras. She is on her computer all of the time, and I really want it to be everything she needs."
The sales associate smiled wider, if that was possible, and said, "I think I have just the thing." Definitely believed the lie—I was getting better at this.
An hour later I was home, having special ordered the best computer available. With four quad core processors, 128 gigabytes of RAM, and a 5 terabyte hard drive, Eric was not going to have anything to complain about anymore! I entered the house to the smell of something delicious cooking in the kitchen. Eric may be a whiner, but he sure knew how to cook! We'd been eating like kings ever since he moved in. "What is that I smell?" I asked.
"Orange chicken." Eric grunted, from his position over the stove, "ready in five."
I collapsed on the sofa and yelled down to Nate. "Nate, dinner is ready and I am home with the supplies!" I could hear him charging up the stairs. He burst into the room with a look on his face that brought Stephen's childhood memories to mind, just like a kid on Christmas morning. I laughed; he was so easy to please. "It's in the garage." He whipped his head back and forth between the kitchen and the door leading to the garage. It was clear he wanted to go see all his new supplies, but the smell coming from the kitchen was heavenly. His decision to stay in the house to eat surprised me—perhaps he was trying to get along with Eric after all?
"I'll be able to get started tomorrow, this is great!" He enthused.
Together we dug in to the food, and as soon as we were done, I headed out with Nate to the truck. Hauling everything into the house took time, and it was past dark when we finally finished. I was sweating, even in the chilly fall air, and was looking forward to a shower and bed. Unlike the other two, I had work in the morning. Eric was already zoned in at my old computer, the dishes forgotten in the kitchen, and Nate was bounding around like a puppy dog, too excited to be still. Barely pausing to say "goodnight," I trudged down to my room, took a quick shower, and collapsed on my bed. Sleep came in minutes.