Just Hold Hands

Chapter 6

All Theo could think about was that Nora still hadn't texted her. It was a bright Sunday morning, her living room curtains were bathed in the white light filtering through, and the television was still off. Did Nora not like it? Is that why she's not texting back?

Theo's phone buzzed in her pocket and she jumped, only to find a message from Maria.

theo!!!!! there's like 500 ppl outside my house they came from the city

everyone's coming to meet them i think they wanna move in?

Theo blinked. What? Who wanted to move to her tiny boring town? Maria didn't live far, just a few streets down from Theo, so it didn't take her long to reach her front porch. It was there that Maria stood, beckoning her over.

"Theo," she hissed once she was close enough, "There's so many."

There were maybe six adults speaking to Maria's mom, but a small army of children was darting around, climbing up and down the trees that lined the street and pushing each other into the grass. The neighbors lined the street, watching the scene.

"—from the city. They say it's only a matter of time," one of the adults was saying, a stern looking man with a thick mustache.

"Well, you're certainly welcome," Maria's mom responded, anxiously tying back her hair, "but I'm afraid there aren't an awful lot of houses for sale at the moment. We don't have many families who move away."

The man blinked, stepping closer. Mrs. Reyes glanced towards Theo and half-grinned at her, reaching out to wave her to her side. Theo gladly ran over and took Maria's hand behind Mrs. Reyes's back.

"And who the hell is this?" the man snapped.

"My daughter's friend," she smiled, wrapping her arms around Theo and Maria's shoulders. Theo breathed calmer.

"Well where the hell are we all supposed to live?"

"I'm not quite sure, sir. Have you tried searching for listings online?"

The man made a sharp noise in his throat while one of the women behind him shot Mrs. Reyes a dirty look. The woman standing next to her, carrying a child, looked apologetic.

"We had to get away from the city," the first woman snapped.

"I understand that, but I don't control the real estate market."

"We already packed up and moved," another one of the men whined.

"Next time find a place to move to before you sell your house," Mrs. Reyes responded. She turned Theo and Maria towards the front door, keeping herself between the girls and the families in her yard. "I really should make sure these girls get some lunch."

The man with the mustache stepped closer as Mrs. Reyes led them inside. The door slammed behind her.

Maria's mom knelt, locking the door rapidly. Finally she stood, turned to face Theo and Maria, and asked, "Well, is anybody hungry?"

Theo took a detour on her way home. She veered west on Card Street, instead of just heading home, ending up at the Post Office. She waited at the desk until an attendant came by.

"Hi," Theo said, slipping her hand into her sweatshirt pocket, where her stone was waiting. "I think I have one of the, um, stones? From the ships?"

"Oh," said the attendant, pushing her glasses up her nose. "Oh, okay. One moment." She disappeared into the back and Theo awkwardly waited. She resisted the urge to pull out her phone, instead thinking about some boy, her age, who was off somewhere being trained to fight an alien invasion. She felt bad for him, really. Saving the world seemed like an awful lot of pressure.

Eventually the attendant reappeared, tailed by her manager, in a pressed button-down. "We'll take the stone for testing," the manager said. "Write down your name and phone number, we'll call tomorrow." She produced a blank sheet of paper and a fading pen for Theo.

"Like, my legal name?"

"Yes, please."

Theodora Stea, she wrote, and her phone number.

"And the stone, please?" the attendant asked.

"Oh, right." Theo pulled the stone out of her pocket and placed it on the desk. "Thanks. Um, bye."

"Thank you," the attendant responded, probably smiling. Theo left and started the walk back home.

Outside the Post Office stood one of the women from Maria's porch. She was pushing a stroller with two sleeping children. "Oh my god," she said when she saw Theo. "I'm so sorry for what happened at your friends house."

Theo stopped in her tracks. "Oh, it's okay."

"He was just tense, you know how it can be. He was so afraid the aliens would come to the city. And he has this cousin here, you see, and he said it's so nice and so out of the way."

"Is he your husband?"

"Brother-in-law." She smiled lightly. Theo thought she looked so young, not much older than her, with long, gentle blonde hair.

"Where are you gonna go?"

"My husband wants to stay with his cousin. He's awfully determined to stay with his family, but I think we should stay with my parents for a bit. They're in South Iowa. A bit of a drive, but they have extra beds for the boys."

"Are you from Chicago?"

The woman smiled wider. "Yeah, since I graduated. I always wanted to move to a big city." She dropped the smile.

Theo nodded, trying to figure out if this was an appropriate time to exit the conversation. She blinked and grinned. "Good luck," she said. "See you."

She waved goodbye. "See you," the woman mumbled.

Theo arrived home to her family watching the local news. "Oh, for fuck's sake. Did I not confiscate the remote?"

"You didn't hide it well," Catherine said. "Shut up and watch."

"I don't want-"

"Theo, seriously. Just this once."

Theo resigned herself to watching the man from Milwaukee read the local headlines, while her mother made lists of all the food left in the pantry.

"Dustin Chou, Mary Winslet, Garett Davis," he listed, pictures of strangers flashing on and off the screen.

"He's reading the names of people missing. Like, a lot of people went missing."

"What do you mean?"

Catherine took a sharp breath. "Look at the names, Theo."

She scanned the block of text, not processing any of it. She furrowed her brow and shook her head.

"Barry West, Evelyn Moore, Nora Nguyen," he continued.

Theo stopped breathing. Nora. That was a picture of Nora. She knew that picture, she knew it from when she posted it on Instagram, last year, after the Spring Musical. It was the same picture that all her friends posted for her birthday. It was the picture that everyone was going to post now that she was gone.

"Theo?"

"I..." She couldn't move. She didn't get it.

"What does he mean missing?" She felt her hands shake as she grabbed Catherine's arm. "What did you mean? Catherine, what does it mean?"

Catherine shook her head, not meeting Theo's eyes. "I don't know. I don't know. They think it's the aliens. I don't know."

Theo felt her grip tighten on Catherine's arm, too tight, and dropped it. "I'm going upstairs." She went to her bed and cried until she fell asleep.