Where the Forest Meets the Stars(28)

Tabby wanted to go out for pizza to celebrate after they signed the lease. Jo followed her to the restaurant, and as she pulled into the space next to her, Tabby climbed out of her VW and peeled off her shirt in the busy parking lot.
“A little exhibitionist, don’t you think?” Jo said.
“Who cares?” Tabby said. “And no way I’ll be seen in public wearing that hideous shirt.”
“Gee, thanks.”
“Right, like you’re so emotionally involved with a T-shirt.” She pulled a tee with a Rolling Stones tongue over her black lace bra.
Ursa’s dimple marked her grin again. She took the crayons Frances had given her into the restaurant so she could finish a drawing. They ordered slices, and Tabby got a beer. Jo had water, and she let Ursa have a Sprite. When the drinks arrived, Tabby held up her beer for a toast. “To our awesomest house.” Jo and Ursa tapped their glasses to hers. “Don’t you think it has to be fate that this happened?” Tabby said. “I mean, how weird that we loved that house so much and now we’re going to live in it!”
“I made it happen,” Ursa said.
“How’d you make it happen?” Tabby said.
“I’m from another planet. My people can make good things happen.”
“Really?” Tabby said.
“She likes to pretend,” Jo said.
“It’s not pretend,” Ursa said. “And the proof is that house.”
“How do your people make things happen?” Tabby asked.
“It’s hard to explain,” Ursa said. “When we find Earth people we like, good things all of a sudden start to happen for them. It’s how we reward them for being nice to us.”
“But that means you made Nancy get in a car wreck,” Tabby said.
“I didn’t want that,” Ursa said, “but sometimes bad things happen to make good things happen.”
“You know what I hope happens?” Tabby said. “I hope Nancy realizes she still loves Frances, because Frances is obviously still shitloads in love with her.”
“Maybe that will happen—because I like Frances,” Ursa said. “Are Frances and Nancy lesbians?”
Tabby grinned. “Yeah, they’re lesbians. You cool with that?”
“I support gay rights,” Ursa said.
“Wow,” Tabby said to Jo, “and from Banjo Land, no less.”
“I’m from Hetrayeh,” Ursa said.
“Is that your planet?” Tabby asked.
Ursa nodded. “It’s in the Infinite Nest Galaxy.”
“Whatever that is,” Tabby said. “How do you know about gay rights if you’re an alien?”
“I saw it on the internet at Gabe’s house. I’m supposed to learn about Earth, kind of like getting a PhD.”
“Awesome,” Tabby said. “Who’s this Gabe you keep mentioning?”
“He owns the property next to my rental house,” Jo said.
“This is Gabe,” Ursa said, sliding a paper out from under her drawing of a house.
Tabby studied the crayon drawing of a bearded man with blue eyes. “This is good, Ursa. How old are you?”
“My age wouldn’t make sense to Earth people,” she said.
Tabby looked at Jo. Jo shrugged.
After they ate, Tabby drank another beer and they discussed their move to the rental house. Ursa worked on her second drawing, a front view of Frances Ivey’s house. When she went to the bathroom, Tabby said, “Tell me more about this kid.”
“I know about as much as you do.”
“Do you have any idea where she lives?”
“I don’t.” Jo watched Ursa walk into the bathroom on the other side of the restaurant. “And she hasn’t been reported missing. I check the internet almost every day.”
Tabby leaned across the table, whispering, “You shouldn’t have brought her up here. What if something happened to her while she was with you?”
“I didn’t want to leave her alone all day.”
“You could get in big trouble, Jo!”
“Do you think I can’t see what a mess it is? But I don’t know what to do other than literally tie her up and drag her to the sheriff. And then she goes back to the people who hurt her.”
“Shit.”
“I’m hoping it’ll work itself out somehow.”
Tabby swallowed a swig of beer. “Is she . . . normal, do you think?”
“As normal as she can be under the circumstances.”
“But does she actually believe she’s an alien?”
“I don’t think so.”
Tabby picked up Ursa’s drawing of the house. “There’s something odd about this.”
“About what?”
“Look at the way she drew depth and dimension in this picture. And she saw the house from the outside for maybe a few minutes, but she got all these details. She even remembered the design in the stained glass above the front windows.”
“She’s really bright.”
“How does that Gabe guy figure in?”
“She likes to hang out at his farm.”
“He’s okay with that?”
“It’s a village-raises-the-kid kind of thing.”
“You know the guy? Are you sure he’s not a weirdo?”
“He seems okay.”
“Seems?”
“His dad taught literature at the University of Chicago. He went there for a while, too.”
“He could still be a creeper.”
“Ursa would tell me.”
“Since when is Banjo Land inhabited by literature professors?”