Chapter Five
Outside Kissel's house, Anne was having another thought. It involved something more terrestrial then Martians. It involved the cigarettes she'd stashed in her pocket, and the lighter, and how to get both items past Scully to use them. Finally, since they were both ignoring everything in the car, including each other, she opened the door of the car.
"I need to run," she explained.
Mulder nodded. "Got cash?"
She flashed him a cheeky grin. "Check your wallet."
And she shut the door on his invective.
Actually, as she jogged down Whitewall and turned toward the promising direction of Sweetwater, it had probably been rude to insinuate that she'd picked his pocket. But it was so damn funny to see him scramble for whatever she supposedly took, she could hardly resist.
The street of Sweetwater contained the municipal park, the requisite swings and slides at attention. She ducked behind a tree and lit up.
The smoke hitting her lungs was pure heaven. God, she was addicted. It was wonderful. She'd probably smoke two just because she could.
"Radical hair, dude."
She spun around, and promptly relaxed. It was a girl dressed out in baggy jeans and looking like a groupie from grunge rock. She also smelled like weed.
"Thanks. Hadrian." she introduced herself.
"I'm Elfie."
Anne nodded. "Cigarette?"
"Naw, I'm cool. You want a joint?"
Would she ever be in trouble. "Sure, I'll split one. If I have a whole I'll be stratospheric."
"Awesome," Elfie sat down and rolled a joint.
"You new around here, Hadrian?"
"Pretty much."
Elfie lit the joint, taking a drag before passing it. "Seen the airshow yet?"
"No. Only been here a few days."
She took her own drag of the joint. It hit her brain before her lungs.
"You should come with us. Me and my boyfriend. We go out to the base, through this hole in the fence, and get high and junk. We watch the show. It's, like, every night. Totally radically awesome. Wanna come?"
Anne realized she had been holding the smoke in her lungs, released it, and handing the joint back before returning to the cigarette in her other hand. A firsthand encounter with a UFO?
"Why not? My dad's boring as hell. And," she added wickedly. "He probably won't even notice I'm gone."
Elfie's boyfriend was another grunge lovechild who went by the moniker Roofer. He had a scooter, which went slower with three people but still made it to the hole in the fence by dark.
Roofer and Elfie lead her through the hole, which scraped her forearm, and into tall weeds, easily her height. Their 'spot' was under a few lone trees. She sat herself down, cigarettes in hand, while those two did what people did together while high and horny-made out and giggled.
It was oddly comforting.
The thing about cigarettes was that she never felt hungry while she smoked. So even though lunch had been bad pizza and a ton of Coke, she was still good.
As she chain-smoked she watched the sky. Finally, at about nine pm according to her watch, the show began.
Two lights, absolutely silent, began to dance and swerve in maneuvers she had never seen. It was an epic dance. Even Elfie and Roofer stopped the whatever they were doing to watch.
After an especially spectacular twirl where both things came together and dove skyward, out of sight, Anne heard it.
"That was awesome! I told you it was awesome, Hadrian," Elfie exclaimed.
"Totally radical," Roofer agreed.
"Guys, listen."
They obeyed, and a thrumming became more pronounced.
"That's a helicopter," Anne realized. "Shit, that's a search accessory. Come on, we gotta get lost or we'll be fried. Now!"
They all took off at a dead run, straight for the fence. As they did, the tightness in her lungs made Anne wish she'd skipped a few cigarettes.
They reached the fence and dove through, Anne bringing up the rear. They skirted a gold Taurus, which she recognized, and made for the trees.
"Under the trees, not into the open! Jeshua Christos," she ordered, dragging on Elfie's arm.
"Hey! Freeze, FBI!"
It was Mulder, waving his gun with intent. He must have been watching the airshow too.
"I know this, estupio," she shouted behind her, having dragged Elfie under the tree with Roofer tagging obediently. "Getcha ass under here already."
So all of them-including a perturbed Scully, Anne wondered how that had transpired-huddled under a tree until the helicopter passed.
"That was awesome," Roofer pronounced.
"Where the hell were you?" Mulder demanded.
Anne looked at him. "Gee, where does it look like, rocket science? I was in the air base watching the airshow. From damn closer then you."
"Are you high? I thought we had an agreement."
"We did, I'm not, they are, will you please get a grip. Hi Dana," she added.
Dana gave her the evil eye. "We looked all over for you. Did you know that?"
Elfie and Roofer watched the now three-way discussion. Elfie spoke up first. "Dude, are these your folks?"
"Got none other. How about we dump their scooter in the trunk and get something to eat? They've been watching the airshow for years."
That caught Mulder's attention. "Good idea."
"Mulder!" Scully protested. "And you-don't ever do that again!" Now she was focused on Anne. "Never!"
Anne held up her hands in mock surrender.
"Scully, she's fine."
Anne made a slashing gesture to shut him up. Not that he would listen.
"She could have been kidnapped!"
That was it. Anne whistled sharply, like she was calling a dog. Everyone stared at her with varying degrees of horror. Except her new friends, who thought it was funny.
"I am not kidnapped. I am fine. And we have bigger fish to fry. And there's a helicopter in the area looking for miscreants. So how about we take this discussion somewhere else very far away from Ellen's Air Base, and act halfway civilized instead of everyone yelling and having coronaries and kittens."
And she marched to the car.