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He shrugs. “Not really. ”
“So why do you wear them?”
“They were my dad’s. ”
I put them back on. “Wow, I don’t see how you can even walk straight with these on. ”
“My eyes are used to them. ”
“You know these will screw up your vision if you continue wearing them, right?”
“Then I’ll be able to see what my dad saw. ”
I take them off and put them back where I found them. I don’t really understand why Sam wears them. For sentimental reasons? Does he really think it’s worth it?
“Where is your dad, Sam?”
He looks up at me.
“I don’t know,” he says.
“What do you mean?”
“He disappeared when I was seven. ”
“You don’t know where he went?”
He sighs, drops his head, and resumes reading. Obviously he doesn’t want to talk about it.
“Do you believe in any of this stuff?” he asks after a few minutes of silence.
“Aliens?”
“Yeah. ”
“Yes, I believe in aliens. ”
“Do you think they really abduct people?”
“I have no idea. I guess we can’t rule it out. Do you believe they do?”
He nods. “Most days. But sometimes the idea just seems stupid. ”
“I can understand that. ”
He looks up at me. “I think my dad was abducted,” he says.
He tenses the second the words leave his mouth and a look of vulnerability crosses his face. It makes me believe that he has shared his theory before, with someone whose response was less than kind.
“Why do you think that?”
“Because he just disappeared. He went to the store to buy milk and bread, and he never came back. His truck was parked right outside the store but nobody there had seen him. He just
vanished, and his glasses were on the sidewalk beside his truck. ” He pauses for a second. “I was worried you were here to abduct me. ”
It’s a hard theory to believe. How could nobody have seen his father abducted if the incident occurred in the middle of town? Perhaps his dad had reason to leave and he plotted his own disappearance. It’s not hard to make yourself disappear; Henri and I have been doing it for ten years now. But all of a sudden Sam’s interest in aliens makes perfect sense. Perhaps Sam just wants to see the world as his dad did, but maybe part of him truly believes that his dad’s final sight is captured in the glasses, somehow etched into the lenses. Maybe he thinks that with persistence one day he’ll eventually come to see it as well, and that his dad’s last vision will confirm what is already in his head. Or maybe he believes that if he searches long enough he’ll finally come across an article that proves his father was abducted, and not only that, but that he can be saved.
And who am I to say that he won’t one day find that proof?
“I believe you,” I say. “I think alien abductions are very possible. ”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
THE NEXT DAY I WAKE EARLIER THAN NORMAL, crawl out of bed, and walk out of my room to find Henri sitting at the table scanning the papers with his laptop open. The sun is still hidden, and the house is dark, the only light coming from his computer screen.
“Anything?”
“Nah, nothing really. ”
I turn on the kitchen light. Bernie Kosar paws at the front door. I open it and he shoots out into the yard and patrols as he does every morning, head up, trotting around the perimeter looking for anything suspicious. He sniffs at random places. Once satisfied that everything is as it should be, he bolts into the woods and disappears.
Two issues of They Walk Among Us are lying atop the kitchen table, the original and a photocopy that Henri has made to keep for himself. A magnifying glass lies between them.
“Anything unique on the original?”
“No. ”
“So, now what?” I ask.
“Well, I have had some luck. I cross-referenced some of the other articles in the issue and got a few hits, one of which led me to a man’s personal website. I sent him an email. ”
I stare at Henri.
“Don’t worry,” he says. “They can’t track emails. At least not the way I send them. ”
“How do you send them?”
“I reroute them through various servers in cities across the world, so that the original location is lost along the way. ”
“Impressive. ”
Bernie Kosar scratches at the door and I let him in. The clock on the microwave reads 5:59. I have two hours before I have to be at school.
“Do you really think we want to go digging around in all this?” I ask. “I mean, what if it’s all a trap? What if they are simply trying to root us out of hiding?”
Henri nods. “You know, if the article had mentioned anything about us, that might have given me pause. But it didn’t. It was about their invading Earth, much the same way they did Lorien. There is so much about it that we don’t understand. You were right a few weeks ago when you said we were defeated so easily. We were. It doesn’t make sense. The entire situation with the disappearance of the Elders also doesn’t make sense. Even getting you and the other children off of Lorien, which I have never questioned, seems odd. And while you’ve seen what happened—and I’ve had the same visions, too—something is still missing from the equation. If we one day make it back, I think it’s imperative to understand what happened in order to prevent it from happening again. You know the saying: he who doesn’t understand history is doomed to repeat it. And when it’s repeated, the stakes are doubled. ”
