Mike felt the gentle curve of her body against him. Her head was laying on his chest, her breathing soft and even. He smiled to himself, at peace.
Suddenly it felt like an ice pick had hit him right between the eyes. A searing bright white light pierced his skull. His mouth felt dry, he didn't have enough moisture in his mouth to swallow.
He held his hands the side of his head in a vain attempt to keep his head from splitting or cracking wide open through sheer pain.
It passed.
She sighed. She was snuggled up against him, his comforting arm around her waist. His deep breathing reassuring her that he was hers and no other. She smiled, it was perfect.
She rolled over, in excruciating pain. The worse cramps she'd ever endured. But different. She could feel her toes curl up in pain as she folded herself into a tight fetal position.
Holding her stomach was a futile attempt to ease the pain, but she couldn't think of anything else to do.
It passed.
He sat up. It was pitch black. He couldn't see anything, but he could feel another presence on the bed.
"Who are you?" he said.
"Who are you?" The reply snapped back. It was a girl.
There was a sudden thrashing about and she crawled quickly, scared, to the end of the bed. There was no light, she couldn't see a thing. But she was wary of the whatever had done the thrashing.
"Who are you?" A voice said.
"Who are you?" She snapped back, not giving anything away.
"Um, I'm Mike." It was the gentlest voice she'd ever heard. It put her at ease immediately.
"I"m El."
"Um, El, I have a killer headache, and I'm too tired… . I think the power has gone out, I'll go out to the sofa to sleep. You can stay here. We can figure this out tomorrow. Ok?"
As soon as he'd said that, she realized her stomach cramps were gone and that she was incredibly sleepy.
"Ok, Mike."
She felt a movement and the bed shift as he got out. She got down underneath the covers, it was cold even under the covers and she started shivering.
She heard a loud thump.
"Arggh," she heard someone say through gritted teeth, obviously in intense pain.
"What is it?"
"Stubbed my toe. Power has gone out, all over town by the looks of it. No power, no heat, it's freezing out in the living room. Do you mind if I get back under the covers? I promise I won't try anything."
He sounded funny, it took a moment to realize that his teeth were chattering. She knew that sound all too well.
"Ok."
She felt the bed shift again and the cool air of the room waft over her body making her shiver again.
Even when Mike got back under the blankets he was still cold. He started shivering again. The slight reprieve of warmth now totally gone.
"Um, I think we were sleeping close to share body heat. I uh, um, can't ask you but…"
He felt the rustling as she snuggled up close to him. "Better?"
"Much."
"Better for me too."
"Night, El."
"Night, Mike."
XXXXX
Mike woke again for the second time in the strange bed. He could feel her body next to his, sharing in the comforting warmth.
His stirring woke her up.
She sat up and looked over at him.
He was not prepared.
He was not prepared for how pretty she was. Her eyes were the clearest, golden brown he'd ever seen. Her extremely short hair was cute. Her nose even cuter She was wearing loose pajama's but they couldn't hide her curves. She looked to be about twenty, maybe twenty-five. He couldn't tell, she seemed to get older or younger every time he saw her at a different every angle.
Wait a sec! What's going on. The last thing I remember was Max sleeping against my shoulder, sitting on the sofa in my basement. Where was Max? Who is El?
El hated to leave the warmth of his body, but she was woken up out of a half sleep by his stirring.
She sat up and looked down over at him.
She was not ready for what she saw. His wild hair, high cheek bones, full lips, deep soulful eyes. She had to stop herself from leaning over and kissing him. She didn't know why she was even thinking about doing that. It felt like it would be the most natural thing in the world. He looked to be about her age, maybe a little older.
This is not my room at the cabin! Where am I? The last thing I remember was writing in my diary.
"I'll make us some coffee. It looks like the power is back on." He got up and grabbed a housecoat he saw draped over a chair. He put it on and padded out to the kitchen, limping a little.
He rummaged around until he found everything he needed. "The next sound you hear will be me grinding beans." He called back to the bedroom.
No sooner had he said that, then she heard the sound of an awful grinding. I'm sure he's not doing that right.
She grabbed her bathrobe, and went out to the kitchen. She didn't recognize it. She hadn't recognized the bedroom either.
"We have a problem." She said and sat down at a cozy breakfast nook.
"You're telling me." He walked around the counter to sit across from her.
She happened to be looking down at his foot and her eyes went wide. "I think that purplish black thing on your foot used to be a toe."
"It was last night, I don't know what it's going to turn out to be today. Hurts like hell."
"You want me to get some ice for it?"
"No that ok. Nothing you can do for it."
"Really, we can put a man on the moon, but we can't fix a broken toe."
He laughed. "As if. We still can't put a man on the moon."
She rolled her eyes, "You aren't one of those conspiracy nuts are you? Thinking the first moon landing was faked?"
"Uh, what first moon landing? Where I come from we haven't landed on the moon. We are too busy firing rockets at other countries to try to get one into space."
"I think you may have stubbed your head, not your toe. We landed on the moon in '69. I kind of took up astronomy and and interest in space after dad told me about Sara.."
"Well, I did have a splitting headache last night. But I'm pretty sure if we'd landed on the moon there might have been something on the news about it. Can't say I've ever seen in… and… oh, you are serious… now it makes me think we really do have a problem."
"I was home schooled, but I remember reading about it in a science textbook. Next thing you'll be telling me is that you don't know about cell phones."
"What's a cell phone? Mike said. Uh, I wonder if she's an escapee from the Hawkins Psychiatric Center? She starting to say really weird things. Moonlanding? Cell phones?
He was going to be very careful what he said next.
El was a little scared, it sounded like he might have escaped from the nuthouse in Kerley. Or he had lived a very sheltered life. Like hers but a lot more sheltered.
Or he had been living under a rock.
On a hunch she got up and went back into the bedroom. She saw his Nokia on his night stand, and hers on the matching night stand.
On my side of the bed . She smiled to herself. My side of the bed we share.
She stopped smiling. We won't be sharing it if he needs to be returned to Kerley, or whatever, Kerley's psychiatric hospital was shut down in eighty-seven I think.
She walked back to the breakfast nook. Place his Nokia cell phone in front of him.
"That's your cell phone." She held up hers. "This is mine."
"Looks like a phone. I'll give you that."
El thumbed through the address list on her phone. Well this phone, it's a lot nicer than the one I had at the cabin.
She couldn't find Mike's name. But she did see an entry for Paladin.
She smiled, that's a D&D thing, I think Dustin mentioned it a few times, that they didn't have one. She pressed the call key.
The other cell phone thing rang, Mike looked at it and then at her.
"A number came up, it says 11 is calling." He picked it up, held it to his hear.
He heard El's voice on the phone he'd just picked up, a split second after she said it into her phone, "This is a cell phone and you just answered yours."
"Oh shit. Oh shit. I might be in more trouble than you are."
She sat down across from her again.
"Mike, if you are in trouble, I probably am too. We'll figure it out together. Ok?
"Ok."