Tommy faced Philipe. “Is this like a progressive disease? Is that what we have?”
Philipe sighed. “I don’t know. I’ve noticed it, too, though. I just didn’t want to say anything. I didn’t want to frighten anyone.”
Mary, on the couch, reached for Jim’s hand, held it. On TV, a commercial for a new brand of tampon came on. This was going in a different direction than I’d thought. On the street, I’d felt as though I’d been let out of a cage and forced to fly in open, unrestricted air. Now I felt as though the walls of a prison were closing in on me. I felt isolated; alone, despite the presence of the others.
“What are we going to do?” Tommy asked.
Philipe stood. “What
“Maybe he won’t be able to see us for much longer, either,” Mary suggested.
Philipe walked out of the living room, not looking at us. “I have to go to work,” he said.
We were invisible, but it didn’t seem to matter much. At least not as much as I’d thought it would. Here, in the sun, amidst the wealth, with Joe as our go-between to normal society, that lost sense of alienation I’d felt temporarily disappeared.
Joe could see us as well as he always could.
We were not fading away to him.
Not yet.
Philipe continued working full-time on legislative ways to better our position and bring us attention. The rest of us fell into our old patterns.
One night after we’d gone to Sizzler and loaded up on all we could eat at the salad, taco, and pasta bar, we were walking back along the crowded sidewalk to Tower Records to steal some tapes and CDs when Philipe pulled me aside. “I need to talk to you,” he said.
“About what?”
He stopped walking, letting the others get a little further ahead of us. “We’re being followed,” he said. There was a pause. “I think they’re on to us.”
“Who’s on to us?”
“The suits.”
Goose bumps spread down my arms. “They’ve found us?”
“I think so.”
“When did you discover this?”
“A week ago, maybe.”
“Did you just ‘feel’ it, or did you see them?”
“I saw them.”
“Why haven’t they done anything? Why haven’t they captured us or killed us?”
“I don’t know.”
I looked around to see if any were near us now, but saw only casually dressed tourists and locals. “Who do you think they are?”
He shrugged. “Who knows? The government, maybe. The FBI or CIA. We’d be great spies for them. For all I know, they created us. Maybe our parents were given some sort of drug, exposed to some type of radiation — ”
“Do you think so? Do you think that’s why we’re Ignored?” I should have been horrified, angry at the idea, but instead I felt excited, thinking that finally there was a chance I might get a concrete explanation for why we were the way we were.
He shook his head slowly. “No. But I do think that they found out about us. I think they know what we are and who we are and I think they’re watching us.” He was silent for a moment. “I think we should take them out.”
“No,” I said. “No more. I’ve done enough killing for two lifetimes. I’m not going to — ”
“You liked it when we took out the money men. Don’t deny it.”
“That was different.”
“Yeah. Those guys wanted to fire Joe and put in a new mayor. These guys killed Buster. And they’re going to kill us. That’s the difference.”
“Look, I don’t — ”
“Shh!” Philipe said quietly, harshly. “Keep your voice down.”
“Why?”
“I don’t want the others to hear.”
“Why?”
“I don’t want to worry them.”
“
“Because. That’s why. Is that a good enough reason for you?” He looked at me. “I told you I get feelings? Hunches? Well, right now I have this feeling that we shouldn’t tell the others.”
We were quiet for a moment. “What are these ‘hunches’?” I asked. “What are they really? Are they like… ESP or something?”
“I don’t know.”
“I don’t believe you.”
He was silent. “Yeah, I guess they are like ESP,” he said finally. “Or maybe more like fortune-telling. They’re always about the future and they always come true. I don’t see pictures or images. I don’t get coherent messages read to me. I just… know things.”
“Why did you go off into that sandstorm last month? Why did you disappear for a week?”
“I had to.”
“What did you do while you were gone?”
“It’s none of your business.”
“It is my business.”
He looked at me, his eyes boring into my own. “No. It’s not.”
“It’s related, isn’t it? It has something to do with your ‘hunches’.”
He sighed. “Let’s just say that I had to go out and… do something. If I didn’t, something really bad would have happened to us. To all of us. It wouldn’t make any sense to you if I told you the specifics — it doesn’t make any sense to me — but it’s true, and I know it’s true, and… it’s just something that happened.”
“Why don’t you talk to the rest of us about this stuff? We — ”
“Because you wouldn’t understand. And because it’s none of your business.”
We had been walking slowly along the sidewalk and were now in front of Tower Records. The others had already gone in, but Pete was standing in the doorway waiting for us. “I know you guys are discussing something I wasn’t supposed to hear,” he said. “But are you talking about the suits?”
“Why?”
“I know they’re here. I saw one outside Sizzler.”
Philipe pulled him away from the door. “How many of the others know?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. None of them, probably. I haven’t talked about it with anyone, I thought I should talk to you first.”
Philipe grinned. “You’re a rock, Pete.”
I looked around again.
“They’re not here now,” Philipe said.
“So what are we going to do?” Pete asked.
“Take them out.”
I shook my head. “They’re not alone. They’re working for somebody. They’ve already checked in by now, called or radioed to their bosses to tell them where we are. We could kill them, but more would come. We have to get out of here.”
Philipe thought for a moment. “You may be right,” he said. “One thing’s for sure, though. We have to tell the others. Then we’ll vote on it. But we can’t just stay here and do nothing. It’s not safe. We either take them out or
