Chapter 170: Allie

Wednesday, June 23, 1971

“What was that?” I thought as I woke with a start, bolting upright in my berth. Ileana stirred slightly but didn’t wake up. I sat very still as I tried to orient myself. It was dark outside, and the train was moving. Everything seemed as it should be.

I quickly scanned the occupants on the train. No one was moving except Harvey, who was up ahead, driving the big engine that pulled our train, and Kip, who was entering the Dining Car, having just patrolled through the Guest Wing. I scanned around the train for a mile or so and saw that we were leaving a populated area, but I had no idea where we were.

“I just checked and everything appears normal,” I thought to Kip.

“Huh? Oh, good,” Kip replied, sleepily. “What are you doing awake at this time of night?”

“I think I was dreaming when something in my dream woke me,” I told him.

“Go back to sleep, it will be light soon.”

“Do you need me to relieve you?” I asked.

“Nah. Robert took the first shift. I’m just getting woke up good,” he said. “However, I did just put on a fresh pot of coffee, if you’re interested”

“Be right there,” I replied.

Easing myself out of the berth carefully so as not to wake Ileana, I started looking for my clothes when I suddenly discovered I still had on my shorts and t-shirt from yesterday. Confused, I paused, trying to recall last night.

“You were practically falling asleep in your plate during dinner, so your wife and the really pretty blond, Grace, I think, helped you to bed,” Alice informed me.

“Oh,” I said, still not remembering. “Thanks.”

“Uh, sure,” Alice replied. Then she was silent for a moment. “Is it always like this?”

I wasn’t sure what her ‘it’ referred to.

“Since I’m not sure what you’re referring to, why not let me buy you a cup of coffee and we can talk about it?” I asked. “I have it on good authority it’s fresh.”

“Where?”

“How about the Dining Car?”

“Give me five minutes,” Alice said. “I gotta get dressed.”

“Don’t go to too much trouble,” I told her. “We’re probably the only ones awake at this hour.”

I washed my face to get the sleep out of my eyes, still trying to remember what happened last night. I had forgotten all about whatever it was that woke me as I realized that I was looking forward to getting to know the young girl who could overhear my thoughts and had sworn to help protect my new treasures.

“I don’t understand,” Alice whined. “I mean they explained that you’re not really the guy you look like, and I don’t have a problem with that. And after yesterday, I can even see how they would think you are some kind of god. Hell, even the prophecies make sense in an esoteric kind of way. But, why me? How do I fit into this ... this...?”

“ ... episode of the Twilight Zone?” I supplied. Alice had taken me at my word and was sitting there across from me in a thin cotton nightshirt that was stretched to cover the legs that she had folded to her chin to get them under her nightshirt the way young girls could do.

At nineteen, Alice was an enigma to me, possessing some qualities that seemed beyond her years, yet, in other ways she was still a little girl, struggling to find her place in the world. She seemed to be emotionally stable and secure in herself, and on first glance, was possessed of extreme self-confidence. She was not timid or shy, but neither did she go out of her way to ingratiate herself with anyone else. Like I said, an enigma.

“Yeah. That’s what it’s like. You, your gifts, and some of those things I saw yesterday, well, they really did seem like they’re straight out of an episode of The Twilight Zone,” Alice said. “But that’s not what I was referring to. It’s me. Why can I hear your thoughts? I’m nothing at all like those other girls.”

“What do you mean?” I asked her.

“I mean the rest of them, they’re all here for some reason,” Alice continued. “The brunette, Sandy? She’s carrying the next leader of the free world. And the Indian twins, they’re like, you know, saving their whole tribe. Grace said she’s been to other worlds and Narvenia’s just totally out of this world. My sister has the biggest heart in Texas, and your wife ... well, she’s just so cool! Not anything like I would think a real princess would be. She’s not all stuck up or full of herself or anything. And the others, they all seem to really love you and don’t think anything at all about sharing you.”

“Alice, not all of them ‘share’ me as you put it. Your sister is still a virgin,” I told her quickly.

“You’re kidding,” she replied quickly, losing her train of thought.

“Uh-oh!” I thought. “Maybe I shouldn’t have discussed her sister’s love life like that.”

“It’s cool,” Alice replied, on hearing my thought. “Hanna and me, well, we don’t exactly talk about things like that. I just thought with the way the rest of them were talking, and what with her saying she was going to marry you, I just assumed...”

“Your sister is saving herself for our wedding night and I respect that,” I told her stiffly.

“I told you, I’m cool with it. It does sound like her though,” Alice replied, backpedaling. “Besides, it’s not like you’re going without.”

I felt my temper flare slightly, so I studied Alice for a moment before responding. She wasn’t intending to be mean, I realized. She was just speaking the truth as she saw it, while trying to understand. In a way, she reminded me of Jessica.

Thinking of Jessica, I scanned for her and found her asleep. And she wasn’t alone. My first impulse was to wake her up and find out what the hell was going on. I could feel the green-eyed monster of jealousy rearing its ugly head. But I finally decided to wait on more information before jumping to any conclusions. After all, outside of telling her that the home she was designing would be ours, I hadn’t really made a commitment to her. Or her to me. With a supreme effort of willpower, I pushed the issue to a back burner. I needed to think it through before I said anything I regretted.

“You okay?” Alice asked. She had sensed my sudden distraction.

“Yeah,” I replied not wanting to get into it right now, so I changed the subject back to what we had been discussing.

“I can see how it would look that way, Alice. But if you stay around us for long, you’ll discover that none of our relationships are just about sex. Ask any of them. If it was just sex, I certainly wouldn’t need all twenty-three of them.”

“Holy shit!” Alice said, spewing coffee everywhere. “Twenty-three? I didn’t know there were THAT many!”