Not Your Ordinary Alien Story

CHAPTER TWELVE

I can see the heat, the way it shimmers in the air. Mom, GranAna, and I are at the Farmers Market. There is no breeze so the booth next to us that's selling wind chimes keeps clanging the chimes by hand.

A woman walks up to our booth, perusing through the tables of produce. Her shoulder length gray hair is pulled back in a ponytail. Below her blue eyes, she's got a spattering of freckles across her nose. Mom and her start talking. I hear bits and pieces of their conversation. They're talking about organic growing methods, then they switch to the hiking sandals the woman is wearing, then to the woman's job. She's a counselor of some sort.

I'm only half paying attention. I cannot stop thinking about the beacon. I picture it in my mind, in all its magnificence, shining in the sun. I think it's time to tell Blue about it and I plan on telling him tomorrow. Although I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to explain the whole thing. But I have to tell someone and the most logical person is Blue. I trust him more than anyone.

GranAna gives me a little nudge interrupting my thoughts. "Hey, Zoe, could use a little help here," she says. A mother pushing a stroller with a baby in it and three little kids trailing at her sides has approached our booth. One of the little boys is barefoot; the girl's hair is knotted, the baby is crying. The smallest boy grabs a handful of berries. Before the mother can stop him, he stuffs a handful into his mouth, dark juice dribbling down his chin.

The mother grabs him by the back of his shirt pulling him towards her. "I'm so sorry," she says to GranAna. "I'll pay for them."

"No need." GranAna says with a wave of her hand.

The woman bends down and fusses over the crying baby then she takes out her wallet and counts the one-dollar bills. She removes her change purse and counts the coins. "Can I have eight ears of corn?" she asks. She counts the bills again. "Make that seven."

GranAna puts eight ears in a bag. "Just so happens we're having a sale on corn," she syas. She charges the woman about half of what we normally charge then throws two baskets of berries in the bag for free. GranAna glances over at Mom who's still talking with her new friend. Winking at me, GranAna hands the bags to the mother who herds her little brood on down the street.

I edge towards Mom and the gray-haired woman. Before she walks away, the woman scribbles something on a scrap of paper and hands it to Mom. I walk over to the corner of the booth where Mom is stuffing the scrap of paper in her pocket. "She seems nice," I say.

"She is nice."

"What's her name?"

"Helen."

"Is she gay?"

"What makes you ask that?"

I shrug. "I dunno."

Mom smiles. "Well, yes, Miss Inquisitive, as a matter of fact she is gay. She told me about her wife who passed away from breast cancer. So sad."

GranAna walks over to us. "She seems nice," she says. Mom and I laugh.

"What?" GranAna says holding the palms of her hands up.

"I guess we all think she's nice," Mom says.

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The following day, Blue and I hike down a trail leading to the river.  As we step between flowering rhododendrons, perfect plush ferns, and little waterfalls cascading down the mountainside, I formulate in my head how I'm going to tell him about the beacon. The trail ends where the river rushes over boulders into swirling pools of white water. Climbing up on one of the boulders, we sit side by side watching the water cascade below us.  "So, I found something in the forest," I begin. "I found it a ways out there, in a part of the forest I've never been to before. It was inside of a fallen redwood."