I woke up to the smell of warm coffee. When I tried to open my eyes, my vision spun, so I squeezed them shut again.
“Quick, she’s waking up. Let’s get out of here.” A voice whispered urgently outside my closed eyelids.
“Not yet. Not until we make sure she’s okay.” I knew that voice.
“Andre?” I murmured, attempting once again to open my eyes. It worked. My vision blurred for a moment, then cleared. Andre was standing over me, his face expressing worry, and slight anger.
“Tay? Can you hear me?”
“Yes.”
He closed his eyes and heaved a relieved sigh. “That’s okay then. Do you remember what happened?”
“Caribou. . . then the black wolf. . . and. . . my camera!” I attempted to sit up, but Andre pushed me back down.
“Easy there. Your camera is still in your hand.”
I flexed my fingers, and felt it still tight in my grip. “Oh.”
“Yeah ‘oh.’ What were you even thinking coming out to the caribou fields? You should have known that that would happen.”
“How was I supposed to know that the wolves were going to show up?” Anger was rising in my chest, and I struggled to keep it from coming out.
“You should have guessed.” He sighed. “And I told you to stay out of the woods.”
“Well I’m sorry.” I sat up, that hurt, then stood, which hurt even worse. “What are you doing in my--”
A blond boy padded out of the kitchen, a drumstick in hand. “Andre, these people have mountains of food!” He saw me, and grinned. “Oh, hi. I’m Joe, Andre’s friend. You’re Tay, right?”
I blinked at him. He was still there. “Yeah.” I gestured to Joe, and turned to Andre. “You, and him. Is there anyone else here, Andre?”
He nodded. “Just some friends of mine. . .”
“How many friends--” A shout came from the kitchen, followed by a loud crash. Another boy ran into the living room.
“Uh, Andre? The cabinet fell over.”
Not really caring about how many people there were, I panicked. “Which cabinet?” I shrieked, walking as fast as I could without hurting myself.
“Oh, um, you’re Tay?” I nodded emphatically. “Oh, yeah. It’s the one with the bread and stuff in it.”
“It’s not the china cabinet?” I slowed, relieved. Another crash followed. Joe looked into the kitchen.
“No, but that crash was.” He smiled apologetically.
“You’ve got to be kidding!” I moaned. I walked into the kitchen, and saw the broken china scattered on the floor. Four other boys looked up at me, startled as they attempted to clean up their mess. I almost fell over.
Andre held my arm, steadying me. “Don’t fall, Tay. You’ll just hurt yourself even more.” I decided he was right, and leaned on him for support. He didn’t protest; I guess me not hurting myself was more important than me staying away from him. “Come on, guys.” He snapped at the six other boys. “Clean this up before Ray and Ez get back.”
The boys leapt into action, three lifting each cabinet, and then cleaning up the mess. I was thoroughly amazed by how fast they accomplished this, and in a matter of minutes the floor was cleared, the broken porcelain in the trash.
The boys came over, not meeting my gaze, and mumbled apologies. I laughed.
They looked up at me, surprise and curiosity etched into their expressions. In explanation, I giggled. “It’s okay, we don’t use those anyways, you guys just. . . Wow. I mean, there’s so many of you!”
The boys exchanged glances, smiling in relief. Andre cleared his throat. “Tay, you know Joe.”
Joe grinned. “Yep.”
“This is Tim,” The boy who had announced the fallen bread cabinet waved slightly, and smiled shyly. “That’s Ed,” No one answered. “Ed!” Andre snapped. The next boy over quickly turned his head towards Andre.
“Wait, what?” He said, looking from me to Andre in confusion.
“Ed, this is Tay. I’m trying to introduce her to you.”
“Oh! Yeah, I’m Ed.” He was thin, and behaved in a laid back manner.
Andre rolled his eyes. “No, really?” He looked to the next boy, a goth-looking boy with a dark air about him. “Ryan,” Then to the next, a self-confident guy who was smirking at me, almost victoriously. He winked. “Bastian,” Then to the last, who could not meat my gaze, and was scuffing his feet almost embarrassedly. “And Dan.”
I smiled politely. “What are so many of you doing in my house anyways?”
“Well, see, we found you in the woods. . .” Tim began. The others, as though they’d rehearsed it, took turns finishing each other’s sentences.
“Then Andre carried you back here. . .”
“And we came with. . .”
“And stuck around for a few days. . .”
“Until now you’ve woken up.” Joe concluded.
Andre shrugged. “There you have it.” He turned to the boys. “Go on now, all of you. I’ll catch up with you later.” He glanced at me out of the corner of his eye. “I need to talk to Tay.” The boys shuffled out with “good-byes,” and “see ya’s.” Bastian looked over his shoulder, and sent me another wink as he left. Yuck. Then Andre led me back to the couch.
As I sat back down, he began. “Listen, first, I’m sorry for the other day, okay? I was. . .” He shook his head in self-disgust. “I was impossible.”
I let that sink in for a moment before replying. “I wasn’t that polite either.”
“Well, I can’t stay long, so just promise me you’ll be careful, okay? Nothing drastic. Nothing stupid, okay?”
“Umm, I guess. . .”
“Good.” He turned to leave, but hesitated at the door. “Oh, and about your pictures, well. . . I’ll explain someday. . . Maybe.” Then he was gone, in the same vanishing way he always left. Leaving the same creeped out, but curious feeling in my gut, as always.
That night, I stood out in front of my window. I swore I saw the slightest flash of something in the dark ground below, but when I looked at it, it was gone.
My friend Megan called two days later. “Hey Tay, what’s up?”
“Nothing much. Where are you guys this year?”
“Oh, right now we’re touring Jamaica. Then it’s off to Hawaii, and Tahiti, and all those other paradises.”
“Lucky ducky.”
“I know, right? Laura went over to Spain. Her parents rented a whole castle. Can you believe that?”
“She probably thinks she’s in heaven.”
“Oh yeah. I was talking to her the other day. She loves it. And she met a guy.”
“Doesn’t she always?”
“Yeah. I guess he’s a real romantic, and you know what a sucker she is for accents.”
“Right. So any Jamaican guys caught your attention?”
“Oh, please! Not at all. I’m not like Laura. Although, the cruise ship’s captain’s son is kinda cute. . ..”
“I gasped in mock surprise. “Can it be? Has Megan finally found a guy she likes?”
“Oh, ha ha. But, yes, I have. His name is Colin. But now you. Any guys there?”
“Oh please. Here? Never.” I chose not to mention Andre. I didn’t understand the situation, and she probably wouldn’t either.
“Hmm. That sucks. Sorry you couldn’t go somewhere this year.”
“Well, I’ve done a lot of photography, you know.”
“Oh, yeah. I’ll pick you up a souvenir, okay? Maybe like a portfolio thing or something. Or one of those colorful hats that everyone seems to have.”
“Cool. See you at school.”
“Yeah. Bye.”
“Bye.” I hung up the phone and sighed. Great. Both of my friends were off having awesome adventures, and here I was; at home, with some guy popping up all over the place, and being run over by caribou.
My parents didn’t call until a week later.
“Hi honey!” Kitty yelled. I could hear partying in the background.
“Hey mom.” I know I said that I don’t call her mom, but sometimes I do. Only at parties though, that way she can brag about me; get my name out into the “real world.” Chances are, I was on speaker.
“Hey Tay!” Jon-O’s voice sounded as well. I was definitely on speaker.
“Hi dad, how’s the party?”
“It lives!” He laughed. “Havin’ a ball down here, baby! Wish you coulda come.”
“Is that your daughter?” I heard a woman’s voice ask.
“Yes it is.” Kitty answered. “Hey, Taysarla, this is my friend Julie.”
“Hi Julie.”
“Hi! Your mom and dad talk about you all the time! I can never get them to shut up about you. You must really be something.”
I laughed. “That’s what they tell me!”
“Yeah. . .” Julie’s voice was drifting away, which meant that she had lost interest, and walked off.
Kitty laughed. “So, how’s it going?”
“Good. I got run over by a herd of caribou.” I hated lying to them, so I told the truth.
Kitty gasped. “Oh my.”
So did Jon-O. “Gaw! Are you all right?”
“Yeah, but you’ll never believe this, I got pictures of the whole incident!”
“How?” Kitty’s voice expressed her intrigue.
“I kept my finger on the button while it was happening.”
“Jon! Kit! You coming?” A strange voice yelled.
“Yeah, hang on!” Jon-O answered. “Well, we’ll just have to check it out when we get home, are you sure you’re all right?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay, well, we love you.”
“Love you too, bye.”
“Bye.” The call disconnected.
The moment I set down the phone, I heard a banging at the door. Peeking through the peephole, all I could see was someone’s hand. Cautiously I opened the door, and Andre flew into the room. I whirled around. “Whoa! What are you doing, Andre?”
“Close the door!” He cried, and slammed it for me. He leaned against it, panting.
“Oh my gosh, Andre, what happened?”
He put his finger to his lips. “Shhh. Don’t make any noise.”
“What’s going on?” I whispered.
“I can’t--” The door shuddered violently. Andre ground his teeth and braced himself against it. “Hide!“ He yelled.
I only paused for a moment, then ran around the corner, grabbed a kitchen knife, and hid behind the island. No sooner had I ducked behind it than I heard the door shatter.
