Tom got to his feet. “What?”
Becky handed him the magazine. “It’s a weird magazine.”
Tom looked at the magazine. It was called
“It’s him,” Tom said.
“It’s who?”
Tom whirled around to see the man in the doorway.
“It’s who?” John repeated.
Tom drew back and made for the door, but John caught him and lifted him, their faces almost touching.
“Listen to me,” John said. “You think you know something, but you don’t.”
Tom squirmed violently in John’s arms. “Let me go,” he cried. “Let me go.”
Becky bolted forward and began kicking John’s shins, but he seemed not to feel the hard point of her shoes, and kept his eyes riveted to Tom. “My business here is almost done,” he said.
Tom’s nose started to bleed.
“I’m sorry,” John said. He slowly returned Tom to the ground. “I didn’t mean to hurt…”
Tom wiped his nose and stared, horrified at the blood.
“Tom, I…”
Tom whirled around and bolted from the room, Becky rushing out just behind him, just as Sally came into it.
“What’s with them?” Sally said lightly as they rushed past her.
John shrugged.
Something in John’s face changed, a sudden shadow passing over it, and Sally sensed that a dark thought had crossed his mind.
“Tyler, my boss at the restaurant,” she said. “He called to tell me that soldiers are looking for a deserter from an Army base in New Mexico.”
John said nothing, but only picked up the magazine Tom had dropped at his feet.
“I know that you came from someplace farther away than that,” Sally said. “They’ll be coming for you soon, won’t they?”
John nodded silently, glancing away for a moment before returning his gaze to her.
Sally plucked a lone star earring from her ear. “These were my grandmother’s. Will you take one with you?” She stepped over and took his hand and saw that it had changed. Now it had only four fingers and each finger had an extra joint. She knew that she should be horrified, that horror would be the normal reaction. But she felt no horror, only that he’d revealed something to her, deepened their intimacy. In doing so, he had taken her into his world, and she believed that some part of her would always live there.
“I’d better go,” John said. “I don’t think I can keep from hurting you if you’re with me.”
She walked him out to the porch, watched as he stepped into the yard, noted that he did not look back. She lifted her hand, but did not say good-bye.
Then she walked back into the house, and in an instant she knew that he was gone. She returned to the porch, glancing up at the sky where she saw two large blue orbs flying in formation across the heavens. She sat down in a chair, and she was still there, sitting quietly, when Tom and Becky came home. She could tell from their faces that they’d also seen the strange lights in the night sky.
Later, just as dinner was on the table, she answered a knock at the door.
“I’m Owen Crawford,” the soldier said. “Army Intelligence.”
Sally nodded.
“He’s gone, hasn’t he?” Owen said.
“He has,” Sally answered.
She could tell that the soldier knew who the stranger was, that he was not a deserter from an Army base, but something else entirely. Something that defied understanding and had bestowed on her a wisdom and sweetness that was deeper than anything on earth.
“Home?” he asked.
“Yes, home.”
The soldier nodded. “Then I guess I’m too late,” he said, and with those words, tipped his hat and walked away.
She watched him drive off, then tucked Tom and Becky into bed. She knew that her children probably thought her crazy.
But she knew differently.
She’d seen the four-fingered hand, seen his powers, and even now felt him stir inside her, something left behind, so small she could barely feel its pressure inside her, so small… but growing.
Russell lay in bed, tossing fitfully. Johnson was screaming, and he was rolling out of the bed and onto the floor, reaching for the trigger, firing, firing, firing, until suddenly, he was bathed in light, and he saw that the light came from the creatures in the tent, the Germans who were no longer Germans, he saw now, but something… other… small, with large pear-shaped heads, huge almond-shaped eyes, and long fingers that hung from spindly hands.
He bolted up in bed, wide awake, eyes staring into the darkness. Sweat cascaded down his back with the cool curious touch of bony fingers.
Owen headed down the corridor, then stopped. She was there again. That woman. Sue. He pivoted quickly, bent upon a hasty escape, but found himself face to face with Howard.
“I thought I told you to keep that woman away from me,” he snapped.
“She’s very persistent,” Howard said. He glanced over Owen’s shoulder. “Too late, sir.”
Owen turned to face Sue and flashed his best smile. “Sue, so glad to see you. Corporal Bowen, this is Sue…” He stopped, at a loss.
“You don’t even know my last name,” Sue said. “But don’t worry, Owen. This isn’t about… us.” She lifted the paper bag she held in her right hand. “It’s about this.”
Owen took the bag and looked inside, his expression now very grave. “Where did you get this?” he asked.
“Up at Pine Lodge.”
Owen closed the bag. “Come into my office.”
Once inside the office, Owen reached into the bag and drew out a metal artifact, its inner surface covered with odd markings, curves and geometric shapes.
“The night you ditched me, I went for a drive,” Sue told him. “I saw something crash. I couldn’t see what it was, but when I walked over to where it had gone down, I found this.”
“And brought it to me,” Owen said sweetly. He touched her arm seductively. “You never let me explain about that night. I was supposed to meet Colonel Campbell. His daughter came to tell me he was ill.”
“Sure she did.”
“You completely misread the situation.”
“Sure I did.” But she smiled as she said it.
He could feel her falling beneath his spell. “You’re the sun and the moon to me, Sue.”
He was in her trailer later that night, all his thoughts on the object she’d found, how important it was, and how necessary that he should have sole possession of it. Now he had something the colonel had never seen. Something no one had ever seen… but Sue.
And so it’s come to this, he thought, a witness the project can’t afford. He touched Sue’s face, but not to
