"Got a problem," Lisa told Adam as she handed him a socket.
He looked out from under the Cadillac he was working on. "What's wrong?"
"I had expected drive today until I got home. It's about a fifteen hour drive," she explained. She blushed slightly and lowered her gaze to the ground. "I don't have enough money to stay at a motel tonight, let alone four or five more days. I could stay at my aunt's house, but there's no water or gas. We only left the electric on so the real estate agent could show the house."
"That's not a problem," he said. "Hand me that roll of paper towels, please." She complied. "You can stay at my place," he suggested as he wiped motor oil from his hands.
She frowned. I don't think so.
He noticed her look. "Or I can get ya a hotel room."
"I can't let you pay for five nights in a hotel room. You barely know me."
"Then you can stay at my place," he said matter-of-factly.
"But I hardly know you either."
"Listen." He ducked under the car and then stood up next to her. "I'm not some kind of womanizer that's going to lure you to my house and then take advantage of you. I'll go sleep at Uncle Jack's if you want me to."
She breathed in deeply. "No, you don't need to do that. I'm sure it will be fine." She paused. "Thank you."
"You can even have my bed," he said. "I'll sleep on the couch."
Lisa spent the day playing "gopher" for Adam and Jack. It was the least she could do. They had been so nice to her.
No one made mention of the morning's strange happenings again until a man brought his Mazda RX8 in for some bodywork. He explained everything he knew about the situation to Adam. Lisa listened from a distance.
"The mutants were hit first," the man said. "I was in my office working. My secretary started screaming at the top of her lungs. That bitch has worked for me for three years, and I never knew what she was. Needless to say, I threw her out on her ass."
He went on to explain that his car was hit in the parking lot at work. Adam told him it would take about a week to do the job. The man nodded and continued, but he lowered his voice. Lisa turned an ear. "If you know anybody that you need taken care of, let me know. Some of us are getting together to, uh, how should I say? We're going to do a little genetic cleansing in our neighborhood."
Adam ignored the comment. "I'll give you a call, Mister Jacobs, when your car is ready."
Mr. Jacobs raised his nose in annoyance and superiority. "Mark my words, Adam, they day will come when you'll change your mind." He walked to the street and called a taxi on his cell phone.
The drive to Adam's house that evening seemed to last an eternity. Adam seem to be enveloped in his own thoughts. And Lisa wasn't sure what to say to him. He was a smart man. She knew he had already put two and two together. She knew he knew she was a mutant.
She decided to break the silence. "Adam, I…"
"It's okay," he interrupted. "I know, but I don't care."
So that was that, huh? He didn't care. Okay then. She changed the subject. "Where do you live? In the freaking little house on the prairie?"
He laughed. But it wasn't the same light-hearted laugh from that morning or the night before. "I live on the other side of this small town," he said. We'll be there in about another fifteen minutes."
Lisa fought with whips of her hair as they played about her face. "You drive forty minutes to work every morning?"
He nodded and swerved to miss a pothole.
Her hair tumbled about her shoulders. She spent the rest of the trip trying to keep herself from eating it.
Lisa didn't know what to expect. She had figured Adam's shop to be a dilapidated barn, but it proved her wrong. What would his house be like? She stared down the gravel driveway, trying to catch the first glimpses of his home.
The sounds of a country summer surrounded them. Lisa shut out the engine noise and concentrated on the wind rustling the tree branches, on the cicadas humming in the trees, on the grasshoppers buzzing in the grass. Though her hometown, Greenville, was not a large city, it was filled with city noises. She never heard the voice of nature, save a cricket or a squirrel.
A hawk screamed a warning above them. She peered upward. She had never seen such a beautiful sight.
"Here we are," Adam announced.
She looked down from the sky to see a well-kept lawn. About twenty yards from the car the short grass yielded to taller grass, but the line was deliberate, pronounced. In every direction trees lined the fields of taller vegetation. Only a small gap toward the west had no trees.
She heard an odd noise. Clapping? No, an eerie and rhythmic tinkling. Shoreline. Yes, shoreline. There was a body of water somewhere near.
She stepped from the Corvette. Irises lined the walkway to the house. She could tell they had bloomed recently, but now the flags were brown and wilted. She knew that soon the leaves and stems would die out too. She knew irises. They were her mom's favorite flowers.
The house was surrounded by a wooden deck. As they mounted the steps, she could see that the west side of the platform protruded out over the edge of a cove of what seemed to be a fairly large lake. Clapping. Tinkling. Adam said something. Clapping. Tinkling. She closed her eyes so that she may hear him.
He was unlocking the door. "Go on in and make yourself at home," he told her. "I forgot to get the mail. I'm gonna walk down to the mailbox. There's drinks in the fridge."
She nodded, opened her eyes, and entered the cottage. The rooms inside were well-lit even without turning on the lights. The evening sunshine poured into the many west windows.
Lisa licked her lips. She was thirsty after the long, windy drive. She walked to the kitchen that was joined to the living room. The kitchen was extremely clean, definitely not what she expected for a bachelor pad. She opened the refrigerator and peered inside. Coke, Mt. Dew, something she decided was lemonade, and tea. When she moved a can of Coke, she noticed another kind of cans. They were taller than the red and green sodas. The letters on the cans were in script: C-O-O-R-S. She rolled her eyes. So he didn't drink, huh?
She shut the door and popped the top of her soda can. She heard another strange sound. Click, click, click. Then the slightest vibrations met her ears. Purrrrrrrr… A cat! She loved cats.
"Here, kitty, kitty!" Lisa set her Coke on the counter top.
A small white head appeared around the corner. "Meow!"
She walked toward it slowly and held out a hand. The cat stepped to her and rubbed its neck against her arm. Lisa scooped him up.
"I see you've met Norman," Adam said from the doorway. "Now I know you are a nice girl. He's shy and doesn't take well to strangers. If he likes ya, then you must be all right."
She smiled, but did not reply.
"I'm gonna go take a shower," he continued, "an' get this oil off me. Then I'll cook us dinner." He didn't wait for an answer, but instead walked down the darker hall.
Dinner was a grand affair. Lisa had not eaten this well in months. As she helped him prepare the steaks and baked potatoes, her stomach growled in anticipation. She set the small table on the deck as he instructed her to, and then he asked her to get them some drinks.
"What do you want?" she questioned as the light flickered on in the ice box.
"What do I have?" he asked. "I've forgotten. Haven't been to the store in over a week."
She named off the contents of the smaller cans and the two pitchers. "And beer," she added with an accusing tone.
He smiled. He knew what she was getting at. "Don't get your panties in a wad. They aren't mine," he assured her. "Jack spends a lot of time over here fishin' an' what-not. They're his."
She lowered her gaze to the floor. She felt like a little kid, so immature. Why would it matter if he did drink occasionally anyway? Not everyone is like her father, she reminded herself. "Sorry," was all she could manage.
"I'll take Mountain Dew," Adam said.
As Lisa took the last bite of strawberry shortcake, Adam asked her, "You might not want to talk about this, but I've been wondering since this morning. What is your power? Don't all mutants have some kind of special power?"
She nodded, swallowed, and bit her lip. Should she share with him? She had only known him a day. What would he think of her if he knew? "All mutants have at least one mutation," she began. "Some have more." She stopped and watched a dragon fly flit about them.
"But you don't want to tell me," Adam assumed out loud.
"It's nothing special," she said as she shrugged. "I'm not dangerous. I can't shoot a lightning bolts from my eyes or move things with my mind." She looked at him evenly. "I have extremely sensitive hearing, and…" She sighed. "And I can control sound waves."
Adam let out the breath he had been holding. He was relieved. She was right, nothing dangerous.
After dinner they watched a seemingly appropriate science fiction movie. When it was over, Adam asked Lisa if she was sleepy. She shook her head. She was hardly ever sleepy. And when she was, she couldn't sleep. Too much noise.
"How long have you lived her?" she asked him.
He hit the 'off' button on the remote control. "This time only about two months."
"What do you mean?"
He rubbed his left hand over the top of his head. "I was born here. I was raised here. The summer I graduated from high school I enlisted in the Army. I was stationed in Texas, then Germany, but that was only five months, then Arizona. I was in Arizona for three years. I got back home one week after my twenty-fifth birthday. Went to work for my uncle Jack. I got bored really quick. See, I was trained in mechanics, but could do much more than repair an old jalopy that Mrs. Baker only drove to the store once a week. In Arizona I had heard that there was good money in diesel mechanics. So I finally applied to a technical school in New York. It was the best training center for big engines and new technology. I moved there—was there for eighteen months. The program really lasted two years, but I quit before I got done." He shrugged. "Then I came back."
"Why did you leave school?" Lisa asked him.
"Couple of reasons." He adjusted the pillow behind him on the sofa. "One's personal… And I was offered a job."
"What kind of job?"
"Can't really tell you, but it was a part-time freelance type."
She wrinkled her brow. "So, what? Was it top secret or something?"
"You might say that."
"That sounds exciting." Lisa stood up. "You want another soda?" He said "no," and so she asked another question as she carried her empty pop can to the kitchen. "But you didn't take the job?"
His eyes followed her across the room. "No, I took it. I had to."
"Why?"
"Let's just say it wouldn't have been good for my health if I hadn't."
She sat back down on the sofa. "What do you mean? Was it like with the mafia or something?"
"Sorta. But I'm tellin' you way too much. I'm not supposed to be telling you any of this."
"Oh, come on. Nobody will know. I certainly won't tell anyone."
He breathed in deeply.
"So are you good at the job?" she asked.
He shook his head. "Not really. I completely failed my first assignment. My boss was really mad. But I talked him into givin' me another one in order to redeem myself. I'm workin' on it now."
"So what happens if you fail this time?"
"I can't say. But I won't fail. I'm doin' a really good job."
"That's great!" Lisa changed the subject. "Got any cards? I want to play some poker or something. Play ya for your boots."
Adam grinned half-heartedly and slouched in his seat.