Transient - Complete Book One (Episodes 1 - 4) (Transient Serial) Read online

  Tonight she was eating with the family because she needed to tell them she was leaving. It wasn’t easy to say but she’d said it, the news was out. She knew it would sting her parents a little, and she had to face the consequences.

  That at least, had stirred a measure of her father’s attention.

  About time.

  Her parents hadn’t paid much heed to her for months, not since the cryptograph results and follow-up tests. After she’d dropped out of school, they hardly had anything to say about her life, being on television, or spending most of her time in her bedroom online chatting to other transients. It was like they didn’t particularly care anymore.

  Before the test, Rae’s parents had paid too much attention to her. They’d asked about homework, about her friends. Even her dad had once showed affection, whereas now he just drank and sat quietly in front of the television, or up in his bedroom with the music on, humming to Frank Sinatra. He seemed to love Sinatra more than his own daughter. It was like he didn’t care about anything but the past, the way things were, the old songs, the old ways, the old friends, the old heroes.

  Of course Rae knew deep down her parents cared. It wasn’t easy for them, either. But they were distancing themselves from their own daughter, just as all Transient’s parents were told to do, preparing for the day she would no longer be in their lives.

  “San Francisco,”Rae told her father. Again.

  “Why San Francisco?”

  To the belly of the beast, she thought, but what she said was,“Why not? They’ve got the Golden Gate Bridge and Ghirardelli chocolate and cable cars and some other things I might like. It’s cooler in San Francisco. I always wanted to go before I die. So it’s now or never.”

  “That’s not the reason,”her father said.“There’s got to be another reason. Maybe you don’t want to tell me and that’s okay, I know you’ve got your secrets, Rae. You haven’t got much, but you’ve got those, don’t you? That’s fine. I understand, believe me. Whatever your life is now - and I don’t really know, because you never talk to me anymore - but whatever’s going on with you, I’m not going to stand in your way. But just don’t lie to us, okay? Keep your secrets, don’t tell us if you don’t want to, but when you tell me something, I want it to be the truth. The truth is all we have left in the world, if we can ever find it. Just don’t lie to me, Munchkin. I’m your father. Tell me the truth or tell me nothing.”

  He hadn’t called her“Munchkin”since she was a little girl.

  That’s how he sees me.

  Her father was holding on to the past, because he couldn’t live with the present, and didn’t want to think about the future.

  “I’m going to San Francisco to meet some friends.” That was the truth wasn’t it?

  “Well,”her dad said, and left the word hanging in the air a long while.“At least you have friends. I wasn’t sure.”

  “I have friends…”

  “Tetrads,”Carl piped up.

  “What?”her mom asked, finally sitting down at the table with the rest of them.

  “Tetrads,”her brother repeated.

  Her mother stared at her dad, and then at Rae.“I don’t know what that means.”

  “I doesn’t mean anything,”she replied, irritated.

  “It does,”Carl insisted.“And Rae is one. That’s what they call her in school. My sister is a Tetrad. They tease me about it. I hate it. I hate it. My sister the Tetrad.”His face was red and he glowered at Rae.“You’ve ruined everything.”

  He pushed his chair back and stormed from the table.

  “Carl, get back here,”her father said.

  But her little brother went to his room, and his father didn’t say anything more about that. He took another swig from his beer bottle, and let it pass.

  “Rae,”her mother prompted.“What’s this all about?”

  “It’s a talk show thing,”she replied, shrugging.“When I was on TV. Me and my friends. Someone called a group of us the Tetrad, and it kind of caught on.”

  “People are talking about you on TV? I haven’t seen anything. I mean, I watched the interview, but I guess I was doing dishes at the time. No, I was painting I think. So I didn’t really hear everything, but you did great. You’re such an amazing…”Her voice trailed off, and her eyes teared up.“Excuse me.”She got up and went to the bathroom.

  “We don’t need to talk about this at the table,”her father said.

  “You mean we don’t need to talk about it at all?”

  “Not if it’s going to upset your mother, and cause your brother trouble at school.”

  “That’s not my fault.”

  “Rae, the things you do in this world affect other people you know.”

  “I do know that.”

  “Do you? I’m not sure, because you’re in your own little bubble all the time. In your room. Online. I see the Internet bills. You’re always connected.”

  “I need to connect with someone.”

  “I know, Munchkin.”

  “I’m not your Munchkin. I’m a grown woman now. I know you don’t see that, and the world doesn’t see that, and I’m still young and live at home because I have no choice and the world isn’t fair. Fine. I don’t need it to be fair. I don’t need it to be anything, but leave me alone. I don’t have time, Dad. You have time. And mom has time. And for all I know, Carl has more time than all of us put together. But I have now. Just now. I have to live it the only way I know how. With the only people who care about me.”

  “I care about you. Your mother cares about you. Even your brother, but good luck getting him to admit it. We’re a family, Rae, and that still means something.”

  She got up from the table.“Well, I’m going to San Francisco to meet my friends. I might be gone awhile. Maybe that will make you happy.”

  Rae carried her dinner plate up to her room to try and finish it in peace.

  No one tried to stop her.

  Chapter 17

  It was a long ride to the airport. Her mom drove, with Rae in the passenger seat and her luggage in the back. They rode in silence. With not even music in the background, because the radio didn’t work. Rae thought about putting in her ear buds and dialing up some tunes, but settled on the silence, the sound of the road, and the view out the window.

  They passed along desert roads, dotted with Joshua trees and sagebrush, and mountains on the horizon. Telephone poles swept past them in an orderly row, keeping a kind of rhythm to the ride. The tires thrummed on the road and the wind sung in the wires. Rae saw red-tail hawks circling in the distance, riding thermals, spiraling down, lazy and carefree. Maybe they were hungry or worried, those birds, but to Rae they looked carefree and beautiful.

  The desert highway eventually entered the mountains, the rust tones turned green and yellow on the hills where the wind stirred the grasses in golden waves. The folds of the mountains created deep shadows that swept by as the car crested the rise in the road, and descended into Los Angeles.

  The city was matrix of short buildings with a few tall spires sticking out from downtown. It was a clear morning, and Rae could see the ocean from the mountains. She thought she could see ships or sailboats in the water, but the sea was too far away to be sure. The traffic was light, and they moved easily down through the canyons and into the urban basin, where cars merged and jockeyed in the freeway lanes. Sometimes the traffic slowed for no apparent reason, then picked up again. Perhaps there had been collisions somewhere on the road earlier and the ripple effect still lingered, or maybe someone had cut off someone else hours ago, and the butterfly effect meant every car had to slow along that section of freeway. Mostly, though, they moved steadily through the city, toward the coast.

  Rae saw passenger planes in the sky, and traced the origin of their flight paths back to where the airport must be.

  That’s where I’m going.

  They took the off ramp, negotiated no more than a mile of surface streets, and arrived finally at LAX airport. They had to circle the
entire airport before coming upon the United terminal.

  Rae expected her mother to pull over to the curb, but she seemed oblivious, and the car didn’t stop.

  “Mom, this is it.”

  “I know.”

  “Terminal seven’s here. Pull over.”

  “There’s still time.”

  No time, Rae thought. There was time on the dial, but not on the calendar. Her flight was more than an hour away, but all clocks were counting down to her expiration date.

  The group were heading to OBK headquarters tomorrow. She needed to catch her flight. If she missed it, she might get another one today, but if she did it would put her into SFO and into her hotel much later than planned. Tomorrow’s schedule would be thrown off. Everything had to come together as planned, and that meant getting on this flight.

  The car continued circling the airport. The airport lanes were busy this morning, and the traffic was hardly moving. Cars, vans, trucks, buses and motorcycles, some spewing black fumes into the air, all jockeying for position, moving in and out of lanes, trying to reach or escape from the outermost terminal lanes.

  “Are you sure you want to do this?”her mom asked, staring straight ahead and not at Rae.

  “It’s a little late to ask that now, isn’t it?”

  “You don’t have to go, honey.”

  “Yes, I do. There’s nothing for me here.”

  Her mother was silent and sad.

  “I’m sorry,”Rae said.“I didn’t mean it like that. But my life here is different now. You know that. I have new friends.”

  “Online friends.”

  “Yes, and we’re meeting in San Francisco. I made a promise.”

  “Promise me something, too.”

  “What?”

  “Promise me you’ll come home.”

  “Mom…”

  “Promise me.”

  It was a desperate plea, made in a quiet foreboding tone. It broke Rae’s heart to hear it.

  “I’ll come home,”she said.

  The car had completely circled the airport again. Terminal seven was just up ahead. Her mom pulled the car over and parked at the curb. She killed the engine, unbuckled her seatbelt and gave Rae a hug that seemed to go on forever.

  Her mother was still crying when Rae checked her bags at the curb and went inside the terminal, determined not to look back. She was moving on now; moving to another stage of her life. Mom would understand–her family would get it - eventually.

  She’d never flown by herself before, and the feeling walking alone through the cavernous terminal was exhilarating. She followed the signs to her boarding gate, and checked the flight times. The plane to SFO was on schedule.

  Forty minutes.

  She had already checked in online, and printed her boarding pass. The line at the security checkpoint moved slowly, with passengers removing shoes and belts and keys, then through the body scan. The scanning machine looked scary, but when Rae stepped into it and raised her arms as instructed, she felt nothing.

  Like taking a picture.

  She wasn’t sure what she had expected or feared, but the machine hadn’t captured her soul. Nor had it read her DOD.

  “Step forward, please,”the security guard instructed.

  Rae complied. She retrieved her purse, then wandered through the airport stores. She passed a bookstore, then doubled back to see if they had anything she’d want to read on the plane. The bookstore sold mostly bestsellers. She recognized some of the books, and wanted to browse a few of the other titles, especially the young adult books and maybe some of the fashion magazines. But the aisles were narrow and crowded, and it was hard to browse with people and luggage clogging up the lanes, so she left and went to Starbucks. There she ordered a latte and found a seat.

  Checking her phone, she saw a text from her mom:“Be safe. Love you so much. Remember that.”

  Rae felt the blood tremble in her heart. She didn’t want to make her mom sad, but she needed to leave all that stuff behind. Now she was sad too. She felt water on her cheeks. She got a tissue from her purse and dried her eyes.

  Watching the passengers depart from the incoming San Francisco flight, Rae knew she still had the option of staying. She could change her mind, apologize to the lady at the checking-in gate, and text her mother for a ride home. If she got on that plane, her life would change.

  Again.

  Things had changed so fast in the past few months. Tested against her will, she was forced to confront the end of everything, and also face the unfairness of the world that had divided itself into winners and losers, constants and transients, somebodies and nobodies.

  I’m not a nobody.

  Getting on that flight would make a statement. She’d already taken the first few steps, but this was the deciding one, the step that would cut her off from her family, and thrust her into the wide world alone.

  Not alone, she realized.

  “Final call for boarding group C,”said the air hostess over the loudspeaker.

  Time had slipped away. The waiting area was empty. Rae was the last to board.

  They’re waiting for me.

  She stood, threw her empty coffee cup into the trash, gave her boarding pass to the lady at the gate and carried her purse and her hopes, onto the plane.

  On board, Rae was greeted by a flight attendant with blonde hair, a sharp blue suit, and a warm smile.“Welcome.”

  “Thank you,”Rae replied. She’d thought she was getting on late, but when she stepped into the aisle of the plane she saw that not everyone was seated. A man in first class was standing and adjusting his shirt, tucking it into his waistband. He looked like a professor. He had a grey beard and a bald scalp. His head was mottled with age. He was not much taller than Rae, but considerably wider. She couldn’t move around him in the narrow aisle, so she waited.

  “Sorry,”the man muttered, and stepped aside to let her pass.

  The floor of the plane was carpeted. Rae didn’t know that about planes. The carpet was red and thin and poorly kept, worn through in places.

  Not a good sign. But then again, they probably didn’t change the carpeting more than once, and probably thousands of people dragged their feet and luggage across it.

  Rae stepped through the first class area. She smelled fresh coffee brewing, but otherwise the air was stale with the exhalation of a couple of hundred passengers. The plane was a Boeing of some kind, but she hadn’t paid attention to the model size. She didn’t know much about planes, unlike Carl who was obsessed with them. Or had been at one point. She checked her ticket.

  Boeing 737.

  From what she remembered from her brother, that was an old model. It certainly wasn’t new anyway. Maybe the older models were better, more reliable.

  I just hope it’s safe.

  But it was too late to worry about safety now. She was on the plane and headed for another city. She was committed now.

  She checked the ticket again. Her seat number was 25 F.

  Rae looked along the bottom of the luggage space to see how the seats were arranged. She had a window seat, she knew that. Apollo had told her she should look out the window when they were in the air, but she felt queasy already and wasn’t sure she would be feeling well enough to enjoy the view over LA from twenty thousand feet, or however high they were going.

  Too high.

  Suddenly the thought of walking on the ground, safely and securely, seemed a better prospect than letting people she didn’t even know carry her into the clouds.

  Keep walking.

  As she proceeded out of first class and into the main seating area, she saw that her seat would be on the left side of the plane, the same aisle she was on now, and about halfway down.

  There were more people standing in front of her, trying to re-arrange their luggage in the small bins over the seats.

  Why don’t they just check their stuff in the hold?

  All she wanted right now was to find her seat, sit down, buckle in, and get this over
with. But there were three more people between her and seat 25F. The lady directly ahead of her was a middle-aged East Indian woman, wearing traditional robes, bright colors, mostly green, and a thin cloth with beads around the hem. Rae wondered if she had dressed up especially for the flight, or if that was normally how she appeared in public.

  Rae herself was wearing jeans and a t-shirt, nothing fancy. She just wanted to be comfortable. She didn’t mind it if no one saw her at all. In fact, she preferred it. With her queasy stomach and the sweat starting to trickle down her scalp, she didn’t need to deal with conversations or politeness.

  I just want to sit down. Is that really too much to ask?

  The Indian woman finished with her luggage, and closed the compartment door. She sat down in her seat. She was in row twelve.

  Rae edged down towards the back of the plane, checking the seat numbers and trying not to make eye contact with the other passengers. But she could feel the weight of her stares. Particularly the men. Women gave her quick glances, but some of the men were staring, especially the older men. She began to panic a little, wondering if any of them had seen the clip of the TV show on YouTube.

  A young boy not more than twelve, was standing in the aisle. He was the last one now between her and her seat. She couldn’t see why he was standing there. He wasn’t doing anything. Not talking or putting his luggage away. Just standing in the aisle waiting for someone to force him to sit down.

  A revolutionary, she mused.

  “Excuse me,”she said, as she squeezed past him.

  “Okay,”he muttered, but didn’t make more room for her.

  It was awkward, with her arm pressing against his as she went by, but then she was through, and the way to her seat was open.

  Row 25.

  There was a guy seated in the aisle seat. He saw her glancing at the window seat. He was buckled in, but he unfastened immediately and stood up.