Just Hold Hands

Chapter 7

Somehow, Theo had to go to school and pretend like everything was fine. She wasn't the grieving girlfriend, she knew that much. She wasn't anything to Nora, certainly not anything to her at school. When Nora was found, rescued from the alien spaceship by the amazing Chosen One, they could figure it all out.

Catherine knocked on her door and came inside before Theo could answer. "Are you okay?"

Theo didn't quite know how to answer, so she didn't even try. Her and Nora weren't anything, not really. But they could've been, they likely would've been. And she liked her, that must count for something.

When Theo didn't answer, Catherine added, "Mom said you don't have to go in today. I explained."

"It's fine," Theo sighed, picking up her bag off the ground. "Ready to go?"

"Are you sure?" she asked, and when Theo didn't answer, "I'm ready if you are."

They set out in silence. They reached the school in silence, too, and Catherine hugged Theo goodbye as they split for their classes. Theo wasn't expecting it.

In Calculus, Maria took her hand and rubbed her thumb over Theo's skin. Catherine must have told her, she was good like that. Fortunately, Maria didn't make such a big show of it, she just held onto Theo's hand. Theo didn't want to let go.

Mrs. Baker walked to stand in front of the class, leaning against her desk. She was holding a sheet of paper, likely a memo from the administration. She took a deep breath before she spoke. "As some of you may know, numerous people from the greater Milwaukee area have gone missing yesterday afternoon. These missing people are suspected to have somehow been taken by the... aliens." Hushed gasps arose from around the room; Maria's grip on Theo's hand tightened. Mrs. Baker put her finger up to continue reading. "Two of these people, quite sadly, are students at this school. Sierra Jackson and Nora Nguyen have both been missing since last night."

Everyone's heads turned to face Nora's empty seat. Theo rested her own head against her desk and closed her eyes.

Catherine was already waiting outside Theo's last class as the bell rang. "Do you want to go for a walk?" she asked.

Theo shook her head. "Not today."

They walked straight home. On the way, they passed the woman with her stroller, from Maria's porch, cheerfully walking past. "Oh, hello sweetie!" She said, "Sorry, I didn't catch your name the other day."

Theo paused. Great. Now she had to be polite. She smiled, "Theo. This is Catherine, my sister."

The woman put her hand to her chest as she gasped into a smile. "Oh, how lovely. I'm Cecilia Hill, my husband is Derrick Hill."

Theo nodded. "Did you find a place to stay?"

"Not yet, we're still staying with my in-laws, but I'm hopeful that something will come up soon."

Theo smiled politely. Catherine linked their elbows, "I'm so sorry, but we really have to go. It was so great to meet you!"

Cecilia waved and Catherine pulled Theo away.

"We're almost home," Catherine said. Theo knew that, but Catherine was trying to be nice, so she nodded. They passed rows of houses painted in dignified neutrals, light tans and deep greys. One house dared to bear a subtle sage green, so close to being bold.

A yellow package was on their porch when they entered. Theo lifted it, turning it until she spotted the label, addressed to Theodora Stea. She knew what this might be.

Theo brought the package upstairs and her sister followed her. She opened it on her bed, tearing open the thick yellow paper. Out fell her stone, the same as she'd left it, and a sheet of typed paper. Her brow furrowed, why did they give it back? She lifted the paper, finding a standardized letter explaining that her stone wasn't special, wasn't alien, wasn't significant, but that they thanked her very much for her efforts anyway.

Catherine's head was resting on her shoulder, trying to read the letter; Theo bucked it off.

"Here," Theo said, handing Catherine the stone. "I don't want it." Catherine looked at her quizzically, but didn't protest. She cupped the stone in her hands and stared at it.

Theo stared at Catherine staring at the stone. Her eyes drifted, and she notes Catherine's long, knotted hair, that she hadn't had time to comb out that night, not when she'd had to intercept their mother the night before to explain what happened to Nora, and not when she'd stayed up late to make Theo tea long after she should've gone to bed.

"Can I do your hair?" Theo asked. The look of confusion on Catherine's face grew.

"Okay."

Theo led her to the bathroom and placed her to sit on the closed toilet seat. In silence she filled a spray bottle with water and dug out the detangler their mother had used on them as children, covered in princess castles and rainbows. Section by section, Theo sprayed the hair and gently worked through it with a comb. Catherine winced at times, but she didn't complain. Theo felt so grateful to her sister, for everything, that she hated herself.

"Can you do a braid when you're done?" Catherine asked, speaking up for the first time in twenty minutes.

"Sure," Theo said, continuing her methodical detangling. "Wait!" her hands paused. "I'll put in flowers. Like Rapunzel."

Catherine's head shot up. "Oh my god, you have to."

"We didn't grow anything this year, so it's just gonna be dandelions."

"That's fine."

"But you'll still be the dandelion queen."
"Of course."

After Theo finished detangling her sister's hair, drying it with a tee-shirt off the floor, they left the house through the front door. The sun was out, and it was a little hot, but not so hot as for the heat to be oppressive. Many of the neighbors were outside, too, either walking up and down the street or reading in the shade. Golden blooms dotted the grass lining the road. Theo and Catherine picked up dandelion after dandelion after dandelion until their hands were full of them.

Catherine dropped some of hers as they walked back home, leaving a trail of flowers in her wake. Back inside, both dumped their armfuls of dandelions in the sink; Catherine sat back down. "Braid me up, Mother Gothel," she said.

Theo did, braiding Catherine's thick damp hair into a single mass, tucking flowers between each intersection of the strands. Catherine spent the whole time chatting about her friends, which ones liked which ones, and the two who both hated each other but neither knew it was mutual. Theo tied the end, tucking some dandelions into the hairband. Faced with still more remaining flowers, she tucked even more into the strands of the braid and reached forward to place one behind Catherine's right ear. With just one left, she tucked it behind her own hair to match.

Catherine stood up to turn around and look in the mirror. "I look so good," she said. "So hot."

Theo backed out towards the door. "Well, duh, that's what happens when I do your hair. I'm gonna go do homework."

And she did. Theo opened her computer to the array of assignments due. She had one minor assignment that was due the day before; it was fine, the teacher didn't keep track of deadlines, but Theo did and it had been occupying a significant slot in her mind.

She opened her assigned reading on quantum physics (this was not for her physics class, but for history) and read through the history of Bohr and Einstein. Fuck, Einstein deserved better.

Theo typed away, losing herself in the analyses of scientific debate. She faced no conflict, no loss, just endless amounts of unproven papers. As she typed, barely aware of what she was even saying, tears began to accumulate, dripping down her face. She didn't know why, she didn't think why. She just kept at her essay, quietly sniffing as she cried over a mysterious nothing.

She turned in her essay, her eyes blurry, and got ready for bed. She felt no anxiety, no stress, no sadness, just the tears.

Theo tucked herself into bed and drifted off into the gentle rolling sea of her sleep. Her head spun as her eyes closed, and she felt like she was at an ocean she'd visited long ago, the waves carrying her up and down, up and down.

She fell asleep within minutes.