Memories

Chapter Two

Jake had turned into a bird in his backyard. Or rather, a bird had turned into Jake. Jake. Nice, calm, level-headed, love to hate him JAKE! I had no idea what to do about it. Birds simply DO NOT turn into friendly neighbors with hot brothers.

Ever try to do homework after seeing something like that? Doing homework the night before a test is hard. Doing homework when there's something good playing on the TV downstairs is hard. Doing homework over a holiday break is hard. Doing homework when you know your neighbor is really a bird is damn near impossible. I kept looking over my desk and staring at Tom's window with its carefully lowed blinds. The scene from the backyard played in my head over and over again. The eyes that were the same dark brown color as Jake's turning toward me.

I shook my head to clear it. There was no way I could have seen the color of its eyes, not at that distance. Which meant that my overactive imagination was adding things. I'd probably imagined the whole thing. I tried to laugh at my foolishness, but it came out as more of a strangled cough.

I reached over my desk to close the blinds, determined to concentrate on my homework, but that didn't help. No matter how many times I looked at my math worksheet, the numbers and letters blurred into visions of fierce raptor eyes.

"This is ridiculous," I muttered to myself, pushing away from the desk. A break, I thought. All I need is a break. A break and a snack.

The kitchen was bright and warm and inspired a feeling of coziness and safety. I smiled and hummed to myself as I got out the makings of a PBJ sandwich. Standing in front of the sink, washing a knife for the peanut butter, I saw it. A hawk, resting on the branch of the oak in my backyard.

I think I woke the dead with my scream. Certainly none of the living remained asleep.

Mom and Dad came pelting in from the living room, looking shocked to see their eldest daughter sitting on the kitchen floor, wielding a butter knife at the window.

"Honey, are you okay?" Mom hurried to my side to help me up. "What happened?"

I glanced out the window as I tried to stand on knees that refused to support my weight. The hawk was gone. Probably scared away by my scream.

"Um...there was...a...a roach, um, on the counter there..."

Mom gave me a slightly disbelieving look that made me automatically kick into high gear my only natural talent. I could talk my way out of anything.

"No, really, it was right there." I pointed to the sill under the kitchen window and took the chance to check the tree again. Empty. Empty, but I knew it hadn't been only a few moments before.

"It was huge," I insisted, continuing the lie. "Like this big around." Mom appropriately raised her eyebrows as I made a circle with both hands. "And I was just sitting there, washing the dishes, and it came out and it looked at me!"

Mom laughed and I knew she believed me. My fear of vermin was legendary.

"Really, I think we need to call an exterminator or something. What if there's more mutant roaches? Oh, what if they breed?"

They laughed at my over-the-top manner, just as they had a million times before. Dad excused himself to the living room to finish watching the news, but Mom stayed in the kitchen while I finished making my sandwich. I didn't really want the sandwich anymore, but with Mom watching me I had no choice. I couldn't exactly tell her that a bird had terrified me and I wanted nothing more than to hide under my covers.

"Are you okay, dear? You seem really tense," she said, leaning against the kitchen wall.

"Oh, yeah. I'm fine, Mom. Why?"

She shrugged. "You just seem tense, that's all."

My mom liked to think she was still my own age; 'mothering' didn't really suit her. So I decided to sacrifice a bit a pride for her sake. And to hide the face that I was most likely going insane.

"Oh, well, you know... went over to Tom's house a while ago."

She grinned again, making me blush. "And?"

"And what? Nothing happened. I just hung out with Jake."

She just continued grinning at me so I stuck my tongue out at her. "Want to make a sandwich with me?"

"No, we're going to watch a movie after the news."

"One of your beloved, low-budget sci-fi movies?"

"Yup. Want to watch with us?"

"No thanks. I think I'll just eat and go to bed."

"Okay. Goodnight."

She gave me a little hug before she left the room, leaving me by myself. I glanced out the window at the empty tree and sighed. "Stupid birds..."

The next day, a bird followed me to school. I couldn't tell if it was the same bird from the night before, but it was some kind of hawk with reddish feathers. I tried to put it out of my mind, telling myself that I was imagining things. I'd almost convinced myself when Jake's best friend Marco fell into step right behind me about a block from the school and followed me to my classroom. I kept glancing over my shoulder at him, but he didn't seem too interesting in stopping me or talking to me. Once we reached my classroom, I went in and he kept walking.

I laughed at myself the rest of the day. It was nervous laughter, but by the last period, study hall, I'd more or less convinced myself that it was all my imagination. And then Cassie sat at my table.

I couldn't help it. I just stared at her, open-mouthed. The girl Jake's been pining over since he was twelve, sitting at my table. Added to the bird thing and the Marco thing, it was just creepy. Cassie glanced at me and gave me a brief smile and a small nod before settling down to her homework. Was she just trying to get me to stop staring at her, or was there something more to the gesture?

After study hall I snuck out the back door of the school and took a shortcut home. I didn't see anyone following me, but did that really mean anything?

And so it went for the next two days. I saw more of Jake, Marco, and Cassie than usual, but they never tried to talk to me. They were just there. Doing normal things. Things they had every right to do. There weren't always there. Hell, even the bird left me alone sometimes. But I couldn't help the nagging feeling in the back of my mind that someone was stalking me. Not to mention the disturbing nightmares and daydreams about mutating birds with human eyes.

I couldn't prove anything, even to myself. Besides, what was I supposed to do? Call the police to report a stalker bird? So I kept my suspicions to myself and developed a habit of scanning the skies and looking over my shoulder.

After nearly three days of mind games, I was nearly to my breaking point. As I sat at my desk, trying to do homework, jumping at every pigeon in the yard, I thought about what I'd seen a few nights before. What I thought I'd seen.

Was it real or not? Were Jake's friend's following me, or was I being paranoid? Was my neighbor really a bird? The same few questions chased each other around and around in my mind, leaving me without a moment's peace.

"You're just stressed, Julie," I told myself, trying not to wonder what on earth I could possibly be stressing over. "Stress," I repeated. "I'll go to bed, get a good night's sleep, it'll all be better in the morning."

Convinced, I ignored the clock telling me it was only eight and crawled into bed. As soon as I closed my eyes, I saw the bird. Twisting. Growing. Changing. Stretching. The eyes. Human eyes looking straight at me. I twisted and turned and tried and tried to forget, but it didn't help.

"This is so ridiculous," I muttered under my breath as I lay, staring at the ceiling.

There was only one way to put a stop to my mental torment. I had to confront Jake and learn the truth. Even if the truth was that I was loosing my mind. I got out of bed, went downstairs to the kitchen phone and dialed Jake's number. When Tom's voice answered, for the first time in four years, I silently cursed at the sound.

"Berenson residence."

"Hey, Tom. It's Julie. Is Jake there?"

"No, he said he was going out for a while."

"Did he say where to?"

"No, but he took his bike, so he probably went to Cassie's house."

"Cassie?"

"Yeah. Hey, don't tell him we know, okay? He thinks he's being smart or something, keeping it a secret that they're dating."

"Huh? Oh, right. Sure thing."

"Did you want to leave a message?"

"No, I'll just talk to him tomorrow."

My mind was spinning after we hung up. Cassie and Jake were dating. Well, that wasn't really a surprise, but Cassie had been one of the people following me.

Who was Jake that he could get all his friends to spy on me? If they even were spying on me.

Girlfriend or not, I decided I had to find out what was going on. Quickly, I changed out of my pajamas, told my parents I was going out, and left the house.

I spotted the hawk immediately. He was flying in lazy circles a few streets down, just at the edge of my vision. I didn't want the hawk warning Jake, so I stood on my porch for a while, trying to think about how to loose him.

So now Jake can speak to birds, as well as turn into on?' I thought, then mentally shrugged. If I was going to be paranoid, might as well go the whole nine yards. Besides, it wouldn't be too hard to loose my stalker. All I had to do was take the bus.

To get to the other side of town, I had to take two buses, making the change at a covered transit station. I didn't see any unusual wildlife as I boarded the second bus, careful to stay out of view from the sky, so I felt pretty confidant that I'd lost whatever was tailing me.

Cassie's dad answered the door and told me Cassie was working in the barn. I guess strangers showing up and asking to talk to his daughter didn't bother the man, because he didn't ask who I was. I walked around the house to the barn and hesitated outside the open door. What were they doing alone in the barn, and did I really want to risk walking in on them?

"We can't let the Yeerks get away with this. They'll be infesting people by the hundreds!"

The voice didn't belong to Jake or Cassie.

"Okay, so what do you suggest we do about it?"

Marco? Yeerks? Infest?

"We take them down, that's what!"

"How do you destroy a hole in the ground? Because that's what this is basically going to be."

(Jake, I lost her.)-

"WHAT THE F?" I screamed.

Dead silence followed my scream. Complete, dead silence.

Then, quite suddenly, Jake stepped out of the barn and stood in front of me. "What are you doing here?"

I heard his question, but I wasn't really interested in answering it. "I...did you hear that? I heard a voice in my head! Oh my god, I'm going crazy. You're turning into birds and talking about infesting people and now I'm hearing voices!"

Jake glanced at the house, probably afraid that my hysterical shouts would disturb someone, and grabbed my arm, dragging me into the barn. Cassie, Marco, his cousin, and a boy I've never seen before all moved to help. Presumably.

"Hey, what are you doing?" I wasn't really in a mood to be cooperative. Or rather, I was too scared to be cooperative. I jerked my arm out of his grip and brought my other hand around to slap him soundly across the face.

No one moved. Marco even paused halfway up from getting off a bale of hay. They watched Jake expectantly, like they were waiting for a command or something. But Jake just stared at me with an imprint of my hand spreading slowly across his face.

And I stood there, in the middle of the floor, with my breathing a bit too heavy and my hand stinging, waiting for something to happen.

Movement in the rafters caught my attention and I risked a glace upward. I caught a glimpse of red-brown feathers.

And screamed again.

This time everyone moved, but Marco got to me first and clamped a hand over my mouth. "Jeez, what are you trying to do, wake the whole neighborhood?"

Jake caught my hands before I could slap him as well. I thrashed against the two boys as they waited for me to calm down, but I was well beyond the point of calming down. Especially with people trying to hold me down. I bit Marco's hand and kicked Jake in the knees, using the confusion to tumble sideways away from them.

My escape didn't help the situation, as I simply landed at the feet of Jake's cousin. She crouched down beside me with a wicked grin. "I wouldn't try that again, if I were you."

Jake's cousin was beautiful and terrifying, but lacked any sort of command. I stared at her in fear and decided fighting wasn't a good idea, but I wasn't about to start playing nice.

"What's going on?" I asked in a shaky voice, deciding to stay on the ground rather than risk standing on unstable legs.

Jake sighed and rubbed one hand over face. "Okay, fine. We'll tell you. Just don't scream anymore, okay? Cassie's parents don't know we're out here."

The other teens in the group looked at him in shock, making it quite clear that they had something important to hide.

I narrowed my eyes suspiciously at him. "What was that voice?"

"What voice?" he asked, giving me a look that might have passed for concern. The others in barn relaxed visibly, trusting that Jake wouldn't give away their secret. They were almost embarrassingly easy to read.

"I heard a voice in my head. And I know I'm not crazy. And you guys were talking about infesting people and last night I swear I saw a mutant bird in your backyard." I couldn't quite say that Jake had turned into a bird. It was too absurd. People hear voices that aren't there all the time and live mostly normal lives. "Mutant bird?" he asked with amusement. But not before his face gave the slightest twitch.

"Yes, Jake, mutant bird."

"And...what was it, infesting people?"

"Infesting, damnit! INFESTING!"

The cousin toed me. "Stop yelling."

I ignored her and settled more comfortably on my knees, waiting for Jake's answer. I watched as his eyes darted from one friend to another as he tried to make a believable lie. Marco opened his mouth to help with yet another bad joke and I suddenly decided I didn't want to hear their story. I pushed up and off the floor and bolted for the door, the others just a beat behind me.

I'll never know why I did it. Common sense was telling me to stay in the barn and wheedle the truth from them, but humans are notorious for ignoring common sense. And in the movie of my life that the Ellimist showed me, I couldn't remember what my heart and emotions were telling me. Maybe I was scared. Maybe I was angry. Maybe I was both. Or maybe I didn't know it even then.

Whatever the reason, I ran from the barn into the early night.

"Julie, wait!" Jake almost caught up with me when Cassie yelled.

"Jake!"

Jake turned to look at her as she pointed off toward the forest, but I kept running. When he didn't continue chasing me, I slowed down, turning to look. All five young people were running toward the forest, chasing something. I squinted in the gloom to see what it was. A raccoon with a small, sky-blue box in its teeth.

"Catch it!" Jake screamed, apparently forgetting me for the moment. Everyone chased the raccoon into the trees. The bird from the barn launched out from the open window, beating frantically to get altitude in the dead air.

Why were they chasing a raccoon? I wondered. Then it occurred to me that they were chasing the box, not the raccoon. And the box probably had something to do with stalker-birds and mutating neighbors.

I could have left. Just like I could have stayed in the barn or never gone to Tom's house. I guess, out there in the cold night air and away from the others, I was calm enough to remember the reason I'd gone there in the first place.

I turned on my heel and ran after the terrified raccoon with the rest of them.

I plunged into the trees, following the sounds that the others made more than anything I could see in the dark. Somehow they seemed to know where the raccoon was, even though they couldn't quite catch up with it. I wondered briefly why Jake didn't just have the bird, who I was sure was under his orders, catch the rodent. But one glance upward answered that. The hawk was struggling in the dead, cold air, barley able to stay high enough to see through the trees.

So we chased for what seemed like hours, but which was really only about fifteen minutes. We crossed the highway at some point, racing along the concrete, when the hawk finally managed to get high enough to make a dive at the creature, catching the fur at the back of his neck.

"Hold him there, Tobias," Jake yelled.

Cassie caught up to the two creatures first, wrestling the box from the raccoon and then tending to the frightened creature while it tried to bite her hands.

Jake took the box from her and then turned to face me as I came running up behind him, out of breath.

"Okay, Jake, what's going on? And try not to give me any bull shit."

Jake might have tried to answer me truthfully, but a noise in the forest made everyone freeze. The noise of people crashing through the trees, looking for something.

"I saw it go down over here," someone shouted in the distance.

Everyone by the side of the road tensed up and I noticed the strange boy was gone.

"What do we do when we find it?" The voices were far off, but still clear.

"It's just a bird. What's it going to do, attack us?"

"You won't be laughing if you loose an eye. Just shoot and don't stop to ask questions."

"Shoot?" I whispered, looking nervously at Jake, but he ignored me.

"Don't run," he ordered in a low voice. "Stay close to the trees and head up the road that way." He pointed in the direction away from Cassie's farm and we all moved out, following his instructions.

We didn't get very far before the men we'd heard in the forest broke the tree line and found the raccoon Cassie had been forced to leave behind. We hugged closer to the trees, getting as far into the forest as we could without running through the noisy undergrowth, but a beam from a flashlight fell over Marco just the same.

"Hey, over here!" one of the men yelled.

We didn't need an order from Jake to do it. We all broke out into a run, moving into the forest.

"Split up," Jake commanded, but I didn't listen to him. I stayed right by his side, afraid to be running on my own. In the distance, I heard gunshots that made me cry in fright.

"Come on, Julie," Jake urged. "Just keep running." He grabbed my arm and tried to drag me along behind him, but I simply couldn't keep up.

The crashing behind us grew louder as our pursuers drew closer. I started to panic, making it even harder to breathe while running. Jake stayed by my side, always urging me on, until the beam of a flashlight fell on us. They opened fire and Jake pulled me out of the light, but not before a spray of shrapnel caught me in the leg.

I managed to run a few more feet before my injury caught up with me and I fell, dragging Jake down with me. I sat there for a few precious seconds, staring at the blood pouring from the mess of my thigh before Jake grabbed my hands and used them to try and stem the flow. The hawk landed in a tree overhead. If I'd had the presence of mind to watch his face at the time, I would have seen the way he looked at the hawk, as if they were talking. But I could only look from my wounded leg to the dark forest where the sounds of the shooters came from.

"Julie," Jake hissed in my ear to get my attention. "Come this way."

He dragged me around to the other side of the tree where two roots formed a shallow hollow between each other. I used one hand to crawl and the other to cover the bullet hole, relying mostly on Jake to help me. He shoved me into the hollow and followed, so that I was pressed between his body and the trunk of the tree.

I tried to press myself as far back into our meager hiding place as I could, clutching my leg, while Jake looked from me to the hawk to the blue box he still held and the sounds of the searchers drew closer and closer.