Part 7
Maria walked along the sidewalk without a single idea as to where she was going. All she knew was that everything she had known that morning had changed, everyone she knew was either dead or they had moved away, and she hadn't been able to find anything indicating that Michael was there at all.
She had found a little more information on her mother, but only enough to tell her that Amy DeLuca had moved away soon after her daughter's funeral. She was dead in this universe… what was she supposed to do now?
"You look lost, young lady."
Maria turned to find the owner of the voice and her gaze settled on an elderly woman seated in a rocking chair on the front porch of the large house on the corner. She looked around, realizing that while she knew this town like the back of her hand, she was essentially a stranger in this universe. She moved closer to the porch so the woman wouldn't have to shout to be heard.
"You look familiar," she said, leaning forward and squinting through her thick glasses. "Hmm… you look nearly identical to that Maria girl that used to live around these parts."
How was she going to explain her presence here? Think quick, Maria! "Oh, I um, she was my cousin," she blurted out. "Yeah, the family kinda lost touch with each other and I recently took an interest in genealogy." She shrugged. "That's how I ended up here."
"You're not planning to stay long," she guessed as her shrewd gaze moved over the young woman.
"I wasn't planning to, no," Maria admitted. What was she going to do? she wondered. She had no money, no transportation, no idea what her next move should be. "I came in on the early bus, but I'm afraid it took the last of my money to buy the ticket; someone stole everything I had at the last stop."
"This world today," the old woman huffed, shaking her head. "You just can't trust folks the way you could years ago. Don't you worry about finding a place to stay, honey; I've got plenty of room here and I'd enjoy the company." She stood with the help of her cane and motioned for Maria to join her. "You ever done any waitressing?"
"All the time in high school," Maria answered honestly.
"Well, we'll just give Janine a call and I'm sure she'll be happy to have some decent help for a change."
"I don't really know how long I'll be here… it may only be for a short time."
"Don't fret about that, honey; most of my boarders are only around for a few weeks at a time. Some of them are only here for a few days before they move on. And trust me, Janine will appreciate decent help, even if it's only temporary."
"Are you sure?" Maria asked, hoping she was. This would at least help her stabilize her situation long enough to earn enough money to move on to… wherever.
"I'm sure. My name's Grace, but everyone calls me Ms. Gracie and you're welcome to do the same."
"My name's Maria, just like my cousin."
"Fancy that," Ms. Gracie marveled as she shook her head slowly. "Such a tragic story about your cousin… she was taken so suddenly."
"Yes, I discovered that earlier when I was doing some research at the library. It was very… upsetting; I hadn't expected to get here and find out she had passed away and that my m…" She just barely caught herself in time. "My aunt had moved out of town. My cousin and I used to write to each other and she talked about different people she knew here and I had hoped to meet some of them, but everything I've found so far has been pretty discouraging."
"We'll have to talk about this in more detail later. Right now I have to prepare lunch for my boarders and make a phone call to Janine."
"Can I help you with anything?"
"Oh, no, honey, I'm gonna show you to your room and let you get settled and rest a bit. We'll have plenty of time to talk later."
Maria fell back on the bed when Ms. Gracie left her alone in one of the bedrooms and her hands came up to cover her face as everything she had learned that day suddenly caught up with her.
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Indigo stretched as he walked back out onto the back deck, squinting against the setting sun when he noticed Michael standing out in the yard. He glanced around and realized that the three women he had invited out for the other man were no longer there. Two of his ladies had called it a night and the third was asleep in his bed after insisting that he should be a good host and go check on his friend.
He watched Michael for several long minutes as he reached for a beer, pulling it from the cooler in the corner and shaking the ice off. That niggling feeling that something was wrong with the other man came back full force when Michael shifted to stare out into the desert, his expression pensive.
Michael Guerin had never been the type of man to ignore or turn away a hot piece of ass but it was obvious from the lack of females in the immediate vicinity that the man had sent three of the hottest women in the city away.
"Yo, Guerin, what're you doin' out there, man?" He motioned for Michael to join him on the deck as he set about firing the grill up again. He frowned when he saw how carefully the man was walking. "Okay, when're you gonna admit that something's not right with you?" he asked, keeping the question casual.
"What the fuck are you talkin' about, Indigo?" Michael snapped as he gingerly settled into one of the deck chairs. Fuck! His dick was so sore it didn't matter which way he moved… every bit of contact just made it hurt worse. He shifted very carefully and bent his legs at the knees as he slouched down, hoping the new position would loosen the crotch of his jeans and take some of the pressure off of his dick.
"I'm talkin' about the fact that you're out here starin' at the fuckin' sand instead of makin' at least one of those three women scream… women that seem to be conspicuously absent, I might add." He paused long enough to go inside and grab the steaks, tossing them on the grill as he turned to look at his friend. "Since when do you send three fine pieces of ass home without drillin' 'em?"
"Hey, I fucked the blonde," Michael interrupted.
"The blonde that had to practically make the first move? Man, that is not normal for you; you do recall that I had to point out that she wanted a piece of you? What'd you do, fuck her just because I brought her to your attention?"
"Back off, Indigo."
The big man leaned back against the railing as he watched the other man. The warning in his voice was clear and his eyes had turned to ice; it was an expression he had seen many times in the field and he knew Michael was reaching the end of his tolerance. He considered the different options at his disposal and he quickly discarded most of them. Michael was displaying an extreme amount of anger, even more than usual, but what concerned him most was the unusual edginess he was observing in the man.
There was really only one way to deal with Guerin when he was like this. He looked down at the claw at the end of his left arm before he reached over with his right hand to remove it and set it on the railing beside him, leaving the stump visible. He felt the fingers of his left hand twitch in anticipation and he shook his head at the odd sensation; even after two years he could still feel movement in a hand that was no longer there.
Michael looked up when Indigo moved to stand next to his chair and he opened his mouth to complain when the man grabbed him by the collar, jerked him to his feet, and punched him. He didn't have time to catch himself because Indigo hit him again and he flew off of the porch to land on the manicured lawn. He rolled out of the way when the man pounced and came close to landing on him.
The entire world had gone crazy and he was stuck in the middle of the insanity, Michael thought as he dodged another punch. He rounded on Indigo when the larger man stepped right into the line of fire and he heard the satisfying sound of bone crunching beneath his fist.
"That's cold, Guerin," Indigo muttered as he took a couple of steps back, his right hand futilely trying to stem the flow of blood from his broken nose. "You just had to go an' bust my damn nose; you always go for that shot."
"You know that and you still missed it; you should've blocked it." He shook his head. "It ain't my fault if you're outta shape. You're the one who started it, so quit your bitchin' and let's finish it." He was practically bouncing on the balls of his feet, fists clenching and unclenching at his sides while he waited for the fight to continue. "C'mon, you old, one-handed bastard," Michael taunted.
He wasn't expecting it when Indigo suddenly moved, his right leg making a wide sweeping motion and knocking the younger man flat on his back. "Who you callin' old?" Indigo asked as he dropped down to sit across from Michael. "I can still kick your ass."
"Yeah? I'm not the one bleedin' all over the place." He bent his legs at the knees and shifted to a more comfortable position as he stared up at the sky.
"Y'know, I'm not askin' you to get all warm an' fuzzy here, Guerin; I just wanna know what the fuck's wrong with you."
"Nothin'."
Indigo snorted and immediately winced at the pain that exploded in his nose. "How long have we known each other, man? Somethin' ain't right with you."
"I don't know what it is, okay?"
"You think it's somethin' medical?" He was aware of Michael's aversion to doctors of any kind so he doubted the man would consider seeing one no matter what was wrong with him. "You want me to put a call in to the old man? He's probably got a doctor you could - "
"Fuck no!" The barest hint of a smirk passed over his tense features. "Besides, I already pissed him off once this week." He shook his head.
Indigo pulled his shirt over his head and used it to wipe the blood from his face. "You didn't answer my question, asshole."
"What part of 'fuck no' did you not understand?"
"Do you think it's somethin' medical?"
"Don't know." He brought his hands up to rub his face. Why had he even volunteered that much information? he wondered. He couldn't exactly talk about what was bothering him because he didn't really have a grasp on it himself. It didn't matter if it was medical or not, he couldn't exactly allow anyone to check him out, not unless he wanted to expose his secret and live the rest of his life as a lab rat, confined to a cage.
Indigo stood up after several minutes of silence, knowing that Michael wasn't going to offer any more information. "Alright, I'm gonna go see if I can salvage those steaks, and after that I'm gonna see if I can put my nose back together." He slapped the man's knee as he stood, wishing there was something he could say to put his mind at ease. Whatever was bothering him went too deep for him to share and Indigo knew from personal experience just how badly that could eat away at a man's soul.
Michael didn't bother responding to the other man, his mind preoccupied with his current predicament. He was an alien, alone on a planet that had never really wanted him; if his true identity were ever revealed it would be even worse. What if he had managed to contract some sort of alien-related illness? What if he was sick and the only cure for whatever was wrong with him was on another planet?
Great. His internal voice had turned sarcastic. He had lived his entire life alone, never forming attachments of any kind, but he had never delved any deeper into his reasoning. The decision to avoid deeper involvement with anyone had been an unconscious one but it was one that had served him well. Now though, he had to wonder if having someone who knew the truth would make a difference. With no way to diagnose what was wrong, no one he could talk to about it, there was a very good chance that he would die the same way he had lived… alone.
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Ms. Gracie called out a greeting when her newest boarder stepped into the kitchen where the old woman was cleaning up after dinner. The young woman had been there for a few days and each evening after her shift at the restaurant she came in and insisted on helping with the dishes.
She wondered what the topic would be that night; each evening before turning in for the night they sat out on the porch together and Maria would ask questions about her cousin and her cousin's friends. The young woman was quieter than usual as they cleaned up and it was easy to see that her mind was elsewhere.
As Maria stood on the porch later that night her gaze kept straying to the north. An odd restlessness had settled over her within the past couple of days and she couldn't shake the feeling that it was time to go. She didn't know where she was supposed to go, she just knew that she needed to head north.
"You're not gonna be here much longer," Ms. Gracie mused quietly, observing the young woman's unsettled movements.
"No, it's time for me to move on." Maria sighed as she stared into the night sky. "It seems like everyone my cousin mentioned has moved away or passed away." She paused and swallowed hard as she prepared to ask about the one person she had yet to mention. "Do you know anything about Michael Guerin?"
"Good Lord, honey, why would you want to know anything about that delinquent?" She shook her head. "Michael Guerin… now there's a name I haven't heard in quite a while. I'd be surprised if that one was still alive, and if he is he's probably in some prison somewhere." She made a sound of disapproval. "That boy was trouble from the very beginning. He grew up in the orphanage outside of town; no family, no friends, no stability, and no future to speak of." She cocked her head to one side and studied her young boarder curiously. "What's made you ask about him?"
"Oh, I heard some people talking about him today so I was just wondering if he was still around; he sounded like a very… colorful person," Maria lied. She had asked around about him, but the general consensus was that he was no good and it sounded like no one expected him to do anything with his life. Most of them seemed to be of the same opinion, certain that he was either dead or rotting in prison for some criminal act they were sure he had committed. The other thing they all seemed to have in common was that no one had any idea where he would have gone. "So, my cousin and her friends weren't associated with him at all?"
"No, not at all." She sounded horrified at the prospect that anyone decent would associate with him. "Like I said, that boy was trouble from day one."
"No one tried to help him?" Maria just couldn't wrap her mind around the idea that somewhere in this universe Michael was alone, cast out of society, and had no ties to the people who should have been influential in his life.
"There are some people who don't want help no matter how much it's offered, and he was one of them. When he turned seventeen he took off for parts unknown; I don't think anyone knows where he went when he left here."
Maria leaned against the wide column next to the steps and rubbed her eyes. How was she going to find Michael when there was no information on him and no one had any idea where he might be now? It was taking every bit of strength she had to keep her mind focused on the here and now, to keep it from constantly going over the events that had transpired and led her to this point. She knew if she let herself think about her Michael and what had happened to him she would lose it completely, so she had to keep herself focused on her reason for being there.
"Do you know where you're going next?"
She turned back to face Ms. Gracie when the old woman spoke. "I'm not sure. I'm just kinda following my instincts at this point."
"You'll be leaving soon." It was a statement, not a question.
"Tomorrow afternoon. There's a bus that leaves at noon, heading north." She shook her head as she glanced back at Ms. Gracie. "For now that's the plan; I'll just see where that takes me."
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Michael flopped back on the bed in his hotel room, his eyes locked on the ceiling above him. His fingers drummed out a staccato rhythm on his chest as he ignored the television droning on from across the room. He had been in Santa Fe for five days now; he had passed the restless stage and moved on to edgy a couple of days ago. He should have moved on by now but something was holding him there, the feeling that he was waiting for something to happen. He didn't like that feeling of expectation and he didn't like surprises, but he hadn't been able to do anything to get rid of it.
Under normal circumstances he would've just gone out and gotten laid and buried those feelings, but he still wasn't feeling right. The nightmares weren't constant but they were still there, lurking in the corners of his mind, creeping out at the most unexpected times and bringing fear with them. He hadn't bothered to initiate sex with anyone since that day at Indigo's place, not interested in going through another experience like that.
His right hand shifted down to settle protectively over his crotch as he recalled how sore he had been afterwards. He had never in his life had to work so hard to get off or gotten so little enjoyment out of a sexual encounter. He had blocked out those few disturbing seconds when he had felt like he was staring at a stranger as he had glanced at his own reflection, refusing to consider what it might mean.
He was eventually going to have to get past this mental block because he couldn't just stop having sex indefinitely. His dick hadn't bothered to show the slightest bit of interest in anything the last couple of days… not the strippers at the clubs he had gone to with Indigo the past few nights, not the women Indigo had invited out to his house, and not even the woman-on-woman action on the porn channel, and he wasn't sure whether he should be relieved or pissed off. He certainly wasn't eager for a repeat of his last encounter, but at the same time he couldn't just give up fucking either.
Besides, he still had a point to prove to that rich bitch from the parking lot. He raised up to rest his weight on his elbows and stared down his body. "You're gonna have to get over this sooner or later," he muttered. "I'd prefer sooner." He shook his head and fell back on the bed when his dick didn't give the slightest twitch. "Fine, suit yourself."
He needed to pull himself out of this slump, but so far nothing had worked. He didn't know what exactly was causing it but it wasn't getting any better. He didn't think it was getting any worse either, but without an actual diagnosis he didn't know how to go about beginning to fix it. He was literally and figuratively stuck in limbo, and he just wanted whatever was going to happen to hurry up and happen so he could get on with his life.
He glanced at his watch and pushed himself to his feet. He had to meet Indigo in a couple of hours for another long night of drinking, women, and getting laid. Well, he thought, irritated, one of them was getting laid but it wasn't him.