Inside

Mary Jane frowned when she heard the knock at the door. A quick glance at the calendar showed her nothing was planned for tonight. So who was at her door? She quickly stirred the food in the pan and turned the heat down before she headed for the door. Mary Jane opened the door and stared at the man before her.

"T - Tommy! What are you doing here?" she stuttered.

"Hello, Alexis. How are you?" he answered evenly.

Mary Jane could not believe her eyes. He was here! Why? How? Belatedly, she realized he had asked her a question. "I'm fine. Um, would you like to come in?" she asked, opening the door wider.

"Thanks." Tommy stood up and walked past her into the house. He paused and surveyed his surroundings as she shut the door. Against one wall of the living room, was a huge cage - big enough to hold him and Jason - which was empty and the door was ajar. A small love seat and two armchairs surrounded a small coffee table. Against the other wall was a small entertainment center whose shelves were full of movies. The room seemed crowded, but comfortable.

"Would you like something to drink? Soda? Water?" Mary Jane asked as she led the way through to the kitchen.

"Yes, please. Water, if you don't mind." Tommy glanced around this room as well. It, too, was crowded, but not uncomfortably so. There was a back door, which was open and appeared to lead to a screened in sun porch. Tommy watched as she paused to stir the food on the stove once more and crush out a cigarette in the ashtray before she handed him a bottle of water and turned to shut off the CD player. He slowly began to realize that this house was very much like its owner - simple on the outside, but much more complex on the inside. He said nothing as he watched her add more ingredients to the pan before turning her attention back to him.

"So what are you doing here?" she asked curiously.

Tommy shrugged and leaned back against the counter. "Curiosity, mostly, Alexis."

Her mouth went dry. "Um, about what?"

Tommy watched her closely as he said, "Why you lied to me about your name, for starters."

"I didn't."

"You told me your name was Alexis, but it's not, is it, Mary Jane?"

"No, it isn't" she agreed quietly. "I never said it was." Her quiet agreement took the wind from his sails for a moment.

"I asked you what your name was."

She interrupted. "And I asked you if you would believe it was Alexis. You assumed that it was. I just never bothered to correct your assumption."

"But why?"

Mary Jane laughed, but it was a laugh without humor. "Are you kidding me? You should have seen the look on your face in the kitchen that morning. Once you realized that we had slept together, you looked like someone had just knocked the wind out of you. Right then, I knew that it didn't matter what name I gave you, because I would probably never see you again."

She turned away from him to stir the food once more and let her words sink in. She fully expected to hear the door slam and for him to be gone at any moment. After a minute, she put the spoon down and grabbed her cigarettes. She lit one and exhaled the smoke and then turned around. Surprised, she realized that he had not snuck out when her back was turned. He was looking at her calmly and had not moved an inch.

"I can understand why you might have thought that, but you were wrong about the reason. As you may recall, I told you that I don't do things like that. I was ashamed of my behavior and - at that time - what I thought was my inability to remember your name. I didn't realize until recently that I never knew your name in the first place."

This reminded her of another part of the puzzle. "So then how did you find me?"

Tommy smiled. "We met at a wedding reception. Either we both knew someone there or you crashed it. I know I didn't."

Just then a memory clicked in the back of her mind. "Oh my god. You aren't that Tommy, are you? Their friend from high school?"

Tommy chuckled. "I'm afraid so."

Mary Jane took a drag from her cigarette and shook her head. "He's gonna kill me."

Tommy looked surprised. "Who, Billy? I doubt it. As it is, he threatened me when I said something about coming to see you."

She looked up, doubtful. "Really. That doesn't sound like Billy. He always spoke of you like you were some kind of god or something."

Tommy grinned. "Interesting. I'll have to ask him about that later, but first things first."

She sighed heavily. "What do you want to know?"

"What's your real name?"

"Mary Jane Dowd."

"Okay. Why were you playing broken heart songs when I got here?"

Her face reddened. She reached over to turn off the stove as she answered him. "I have a crush on a guy I met fairly recently. I'm not his type so it'll never happen."

"How do you know you're not his type?"

"Because he's one of those perfect people that seems to not have any flaws. Athletic, handsome, intelligent, sense of humor. Then there's me. There is nothing about me that stands out. I'm not anything special one way or the other - not fat, not thin, not beautiful, not ugly, mouse brown hair and eyes to match. I'm just so average I kind of fly under the radar, so to speak."

"You have a sense of humor and your eyes are really expressive. You haven't deluded yourself into believing that you're something you're not. Those things are important, too."

Mary Jane stared at him. "You're kidding me right?"

"Nope. Looks aren't everything."

"Says the man who has them."

"Besides, you said he'd never be interested? First of all, never is a long time and second, if he'd never be interested, he's probably too stupid to tie his own shoes." Tommy caught her glance and looked in the same direction. He realized that she had checked out his shoes and grinned. He was wearing boots. A suspicion crept into his mind. "So how long did you say you've been crushing on this guy?"

She hesitated. "Actually, I never really said. I just said it was fairly recently."

"Uh huh." Tommy changed the subject. "By the way, how did you manage to avoid being in all the wedding pictures?"

Mary Jane grinned. "I've become a master of it after all these years. Besides, when you grow up with the nickname of 'Plain Jane', you don't exactly volunteer to be in pictures."

"Fly under the radar?"

"You betcha. I'm the only ninja of my kind."

"The only one? That would make you collectable."

She laughed. "What, like Beanie Babies? No, thank you. Not enough air in those little boxes."

Tommy laughed with her. He realized that he was flirting and he didn't care. He was starting to see the person she obviously tried so very hard to hide from the world. He liked the person he was finding. He was startled when a scream suddenly came from the sun porch. Mary Jane stopped laughing and headed for the door. "I'll be right back."

A minute later, he could hear her talking to someone. "Have you lost your mind? You know better than that, Alexis Michelle! You leave the neighbor's cat alone!"

A voice screamed back. "No! No, no, no, no!"

"Exactly. No cat! Hey, Patty! Is the cat okay?"

Farther away came the answer. "Just another notch out of his ear. He'll be fine. I swear he'll die by stupidity before anything else - including that monster of yours."

Mary Jane laughed. Tommy heard the outside door shut as she continued talking. "Allie, we've got company so you be good."

"Good girl."

Mary Jane poked her head into the kitchen. "Um, you're not afraid of animals, are you?"

"Not usually. Why?"

Mary Jane stepped into the room. Perched on her arm, was the cockatoo that Billy had told him about. The bird was fully the size of a small falcon or a very large parrot. The feathers were a pale peach-pink and as the animal caught sight of him, the crest on her head rose. "This is the real Alexis."

"She's beautiful."

The bird cocked her head. "Pretty bird?" she said hopefully.

Mary Jane answered. "Yes, pretty, pretty bird. Will you stay on your perch while I finish dinner?"

The bird bobbed her head that Tommy took to mean 'yes'. Mary Jane put her on a perch in the corner of the kitchen. Alexis said, "Treat?"

"No. No treat. You attacked the cat again." The bird fluffed her feathers in annoyance and turned her back on the humans.

"Again? That scream was the cat?"

Mary Jane sighed. "I apparently have the only ninja bird in existence, as well. She likes to sneak up on the cat when he comes into the yard. Sometimes I'm surprised he has ears left. Oh by the way, she might decide to fly over to you. Don't flinch or she might accidentally bite you."

"Okay, I'll try to keep that in mind."

"Do you want to stay for dinner? There's plenty."

"If you don't mind. So tell me more about yourself."

"There's not really much to tell. I work for a small publisher with about half a dozen other people. I kind of do it all. Um, I like movies, books, plays - well sometimes - shooting pool and throwing darts. I hate shopping, vain people and idiots. I also hate having to fire people, but someone has to do it. Come to think of it, I hate hiring people too. What about you?"

"I'm a high school science teacher and I have a degree in paleontology - a doctorate. I used to race cars while I was in college. I live in Reefside. I like the same things you do and I enjoy a wide variety of music. One of my students has a band that plays at the local coffeehouse twice a month and I often go to hear her play."