Chapter 93 - The Revelation "
What's going on?"
"
Did you see those lights?"
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I need to get home!"
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It's the aliens!" Someone shouted above the commotion. "
They're coming to abduct all of us!"
Sure enough, a spaceship hovered over the snow-enveloped park, deceptively innocent in its delicate wings and colorful lights.
Only it wasn't an alien in the spaceship. It was me, warming up the laser cannons to fire down at the festival, at the people curiously gazing upward. Those stupid, stupid people, so unaware of their own mortality . . .
The images I have blocked rush back again--Cleo. My puppy. My dog. My best friend.
One cannon swerved and fired into the empty street instead of the crowds of people below. Halting the beam, I focused on the screen and slowly swerved the laser to target first one person, then another. Who to choose . . .
Who to choose . . .
I heard screams, screams that served only to irritate me. How dare they be afraid? How dare these senseless, stupid townies with their perfect lives be terrified and run when they would die when their husbands, wives, mothers,
fathers did?
When their sweet, perfect little dog who they fed every morning and played with at night died, they would see them in the field of sunflowers, or cloudy desert, or wherever it is dead dogs go.
Narrowly avoiding a laser, Daddy sprinted to the dance floor and looked up at the sky. He shouldn't run so, it's bad for his heart. Maybe I should just kill him now, save us all the trouble of waiting . . .
I tucked the spaceship into my invisible pocket and went down to scream at Daddy for interrupting my rampage. He was shouting at me, too, for endangering the lives of so many people and causing so much damage. I'd never seen him so mad.
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Don't you know how worried everyone will be?" he yelled, his face going red. "
This is so unlike you, I don't know what to think! Have you had some sort of botched brain surgery?"
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You think I care?" I screamed back, feeling hysteria coming on. "
Cleo is dead, Dad, and she's never coming back. And you're going to die soon, and Mama's going to go absolutely nuts and just sit in her room and stare at a wall, then Jerry will die and I'll be all alone."
"
Sweetie, you know that isn't--"
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Mama will turn into one of them--the grandparents who have lived so long that they don't even seem to live any more, they just breathe and walk and act like they don't see or hear anything. And someday I'm going to turn into one of the walking dead, and live in a trance. Because I'm never going to just die!"
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Mikayla, I'm so sorry for yelling at you. But your grandparents aren't living in a trance--they're just tired and waiting. They're waiting for you to succeed in your task so they can succeed in theirs. They need you to save them."
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They need me? To save them?" I was struck by the idea. My grandparents had always been the wise ones, the smart ones, who knew everything in the world and could make anything happen with a phone call or a snap of their fingers. And now,
they needed
me to be the hero.
"
Of course they do! You're the sixth generation, for goodness sake! That's the most important one! You're the last person who will get married. You give birth to the seventh generation, which is only one away from the final generation. But most of all, you're a fan favorite! I know that we're all heartbroken over Cleo's death, but she'll be back in just two generations. You can wait that long, for her. For me, too, and Jerry."
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I miss her already, Daddy. Grandpa Nick was always the most lucid of the grandparents, and now he's going to be the worst."
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Be patient, Butterfly. It'll all be worth it in the end."
Rest in Peace, Cleo Elysi. The only pet who I did not immediately send back to the shelter or lock in a tiny enclosure.
We walked to where Jerry's show was just ending, at Mick's Master Karaoke, and I tackled him and kissed him, because I knew that I wouldn't have him for long.
He laughed and caught my hand. "
What's the occasion?"
"
Jerry? Let's get married."
