Chapter Six

Tess whirled around, worn coin clutched tight in his hand. His eyes jumped first to Maya, who was arguing passionately with another girl. Tess’s feet were already moving by the time his eyes had registered the dark blue Ford swerving off the street toward Maya. His feet left the ground entirely as the wheels of the car bounced over the curb. He felt an impact as he hurtled into Maya. After that a flash of lights, a blur of scenery, and another impact.

He found himself on the ground, arms around a wincing Maya. His arms and chest hurt, and it took a moment before he remembered why. Maya seemed stunned, but okay, though she would probably have some bruises.

“Whoa, jeez,” Maya sputtered. “I, uh, you — so, here we are . . . “

“Uh, sorry,” Tess wheezed. “The car, and I guess I tackled you, and I hope that’s okay.”

“Uh, yeah.”

A moment passed. Tess began awkwardly disentangling himself from Maya, and they both stumbled to their feet.

The car had plowed into the tree in which Tess distinctly remembered seeing the ancient professor, though he was not in evidence now. Tess stormed over to the car and pulled open the driver’s side door. “What the hell are you . . .” Tess trailed off. The driver, a tall, skinny kid with a baseball cap stared straight ahead, both hands gripping the steering wheel. His knuckles were white, even in the yellow glow of the car’s roof light. His eyes were huge and glassy. He didn’t move at all. Behind him, Maya was singing softly to herself, “Simpson, Homer Simpson, he’s the greatest guy in history. From the town of Springfield, he’s about to hit that chestnut tree . . . “

Tess became aware of the yelling from the house as the news of the swerve propagated through the house, and those within spilled out onto the dusk lawn.

“Hey, what’s your deal,” Tess growled at the driver. The driver didn’t move. “Hey!” Tess repeated, shaking his shoulder.

“You nearly hit me, you jackass!” Maya called from over his shoulder.

Suddenly the driver’s body gave a massive shudder, and he sucked in a huge breath. Startled, Tess let go of his shoulder. The driver’s eyes came into focus, and began to dart around to take in the scene.

“WhatthehellamI where the wuh . . .” he exclaimed all in one breath. The crowd from the party was starting to converge around them. Calls of “what’s happening,” and “who is that?” were coming from the crowd. Maya started to explain that she was just telling some freshman why Kids in the Hall was a more relevant parody of society than South Park (“Is not!” came a call back from the crowd) when some drunken jackass swerved off the street and nearly killed her. Meanwhile, the driver stared around him with eyes full of confusion and fear, apparently too overwhelmed to speak.

Maya’s explanation was cut short by a firm, sweet voice saying “Please move out of our way. We’re medical students.” The voice belonged to one of two very tall, dark-haired women emerging from the crowd. One wore a dark olive high-necked dress and the other a pale yellow dress in the same cut. Each wore their hair long, in a style which concealed half of their faces. They could be twins, Tess thought. They were staring directly at him. He felt a strange, tight sensation in his chest under their cool gaze.

After a long moment, the two women turned their attention to the driver. They leaned into the car, and then Olive Dress withdrew and announced, “This man has had a stroke. Please move away. We will ensure he is given proper medical attention.” The two women lifted the driver easily from the car, and started to walk him away.

“Who are you?” Tess heard the driver mumble as they left. Tess and Maya’s turned to look at each other, each searching for confirmation of what had just happened. Tess discovered his left hand was clenched tight. He relaxed it, and found that he was still holding the worn coin. He slipped it into his pocket.

* * *

As the crowd dispersed from around the two of them, Al, Clear, and Amy approached. “Hey, Mr. Hero!” Clear shouted, jumping up and down a little, while Al chimed in with “Tackling people is a terrible way to show affection!” At this, Maya turned away, looking a little red, and Clear tackled Al.

“That was awfully brave of you,” Amy said as Tess joined the group.

“Yeah, thanks,” said Maya in an embarrassed voice.

Al lay on the ground impassively as Clear tickled him from head to foot. “Stop not being irritated!” Clear shouted at Al while straddling his chest. She then turned to Tess. “You idiot, why would you nearly kill yourself like that?”

“He was striving to be helpful, Clear,” Al contributed. “Of course, striving is the root of all unhappiness. Tess, you really should consider striving less.”

“Hey,” Tess slipped in edgewise, “don’t any of you want to know what just happened?”

“Of course!” Amy said, at the same time as Clear shouted “No!”

Tess told them about Kincaid in the tree and the strange driver and the two med students. By the time he finished, Al looked puzzled, Amy looked scared, and Clear looked irritated because no one was paying enough attention to her.

Al cleared his throat. “That driver looked like Mike Branstetter. He lives upstairs here. Marissa told me that she sent him out for party supplies since he kept eating her Kit-Kats.”

“Did he look drunk?” Amy asked, putting a little emphasis on drunk that sounded half-way between disapproving and excited.

“No, like I said, he was more . . . well, he looked like he was paralyzed with fear.”

Clear did her best ghost moan, and Tess smacked her arm.

“Oh, it’s on,” she yelled, rubbing her arm. “I’ll paralyze you,” and she threw herself at Tess.

“You’ll paralyze me? Is that supposed to be some kind of threat or something?” Maya said in her best Lisa Simpson voice. “Er, I guess it is,” she concluded lamely.

“Look out for her left jab,” Al said as he watched the two tussle.

“Isn’t anyone else curious about the medical students?” Maya said over the Clear’s battle-cries. “I mean, we don’t even have a medical program, and I’ve never seen them before.”

Al shrugged. “Maybe they’re someone’s friends from the city.”

“Man, they came a long way just to visit a small house party at ol’ JTU,” said Amy.

“Well, good thing they were here,” said Al.

Maya looked dubious.

Al began to pry Clear off of Tess. “Well, at least everyone’s safe and sound,” began Amy.

“—except Tess,” Clear interrupted in a satisfied voice.

“Ow,” Tess confirmed.

“—so let’s celebrate our aliveness with a party!” Amy concluded.

“Well, lucky for us, there’s one right here.” Clear replied.

* * *

Inside the little white house the stereo was loud enough that Tess doubted any of the horde inside had even noticed the adventure outside. The inside of the house was segmented into a number of small rooms, so that it ended up being much smaller than it looked outside. It reminded Tess of stories of tiny huts that turned out to be, on the inside,  spacious magical palaces, because it was so exactly the opposite.

There were sofas against two of the walls, and it sounded like the drinks were located in the kitchen. Buckets of Kit-Kats were suspended around the room more or less at random, along with crepe paper in Kit-Kat red and black. The whole effect came off as “hobo chic,” and the baskets made it even harder to navigate through the packed room.

“Come on, Tess, get out of the doorway,” Clear said, prodding him in the back.

“Look, I’ll go in when I’m good and ready,” Tess snarked back as he stepped inside. It was hot. He hoped he wouldn’t start sweating.

“Since you’re already half-way there, could you get me a drink,” Al called from outside.

“Me, too!” Amy chimed in.

“What do you mean? You’re about a foot behind me,” Tess grumbled.

“Fine, break out the measuring tape instead of getting me a drink.”

“Okay, okay,” Tess surrendered, and started to push his way through the crowd toward the kitchen. As he neared the kitchen a sudden shout from somewhere near the back made him snap his head around, and he stumbled forward into someone coming around the corner. He bashed his forehead into a sharp chin, and nearly bowled his victim over. Something cold and sticky splashed over his front and onto his pants.

“My fault, my fault, sorry—” he started to apologize as he straightened up and started patting at the wet patch on his front. Then he froze, for in front of him, looking very unimpressed and rubbing her chin, stood Kim McKenzie.