Just Jump

15

And then Darcie breaks my thoughts. “But that’s for two double rooms,” she says happily. “We could get a single room and a double room and that would be exactly one hundred dollars less, and we’d still have sixty-two dollars to spend.”

My heart leaps from my stomach back up into my chest. “Then we’ll do that.”

The receptionist gives us a blank look but types of her computer for a while before handing us two keys. “Rooms 164 and 513. 164’s the double, honey.”

“Thank you,” I say, handing the two cards to Ray.

“Mm-hm.” Marissa goes back to her computer as if we were never there.

Ray glances at me with his eerie white eyes. 

“Give Darcie first pick,” Sheila suggests, breaking our locked eyes.

Ray looks down at the toddler, who’s clinging to his leg and singing ‘Look to the Rainbow.’ “Darce, who do you want to be in your room?”

Darcie pauses the bittersweet song and bites her tiny lip. “Ray and Paul.”

Ray tips his head back and groans. “No. Please, no.”

“She’s gonna throw a fit if she doesn’t get her way,” Paul points out. “No matter how smart she is, she’s still a little kid.”

Ray attempts to shake the pigtailed girl off his leg to no success. “Fine. That means you and Sheila get the single. Phone us if you need anything. We meet up here at eight AM. Got it?”

“Yes, sir,” Sheila rolls her eyes.

“Hey.” Ray points a finger at me.

“I know,” I say tightly. I’ve never realized it before today, but Ray and I have this almost uncanny ability to tell what the other is thinking. Whether it’s due to a mutation or just a strong bond, it’s strange.

Sheila and I make our way to the elevator.

I glance at the metal shaft and shudder. “Can we take the stairs?”

Suddenly there’s a ding and the doors open.

“No,” she says, pulling me into the small box with her.

I feel my pulse race quicker as I grip one of the handrails.

Sheila frowns at me. “What, you’ve never been in an elevator?”

I shake my head. “Why is it,” I say slowly, with my vision fixed on the elevator doors, “that you and Ray are able to remember life before Greenhorn?”

“I don’t know if I had a life before Greenhorn,” Sheila says sadly. “Ray, I don’t know, but I don’t think I had a family.”

I close my eyes to block out the smallness of the mirrored walls only to make it seem smaller. I open my eyes again and look around. It feels as if the walls are closing in on me.

Suddenly, there’s a faint ding and the doors open. My eyes widen as Sheila smiles shyly.

“Thank God,” I say.

“I didn’t know you were claustrophobic,” Sheila says to me as we exit the metal box of doom.

I shrug. “It wasn’t as bad in Greenhorn. The rooms were tiny, but not as tiny as…” I shudder and point to the elevator behind us. “That.”

Sheila laughs and stops in front of a door with peeling white paint. “Oh, here it is. You have the card, Ben?”

I press the card up to the handle, and, nothing. I flip the card over, and, nothing. I try to fit the card into the keyhole, and, nothing.

Sheila groans. “Give it to me, you dweeb,” she inserts the card into a small slot and shoves the door open. “Voila.”

“Oh, wow,” I comment. “This is even bigger than the guest room at Sarah’s place.”

“Speaking of Sarah,” Sheila flops down on the queen-sized bed. “You think she’s ever gonna get her laptop back?”

I sit down on the bed next to her. “I know Ray,” I assure her. “And I promise you, she’ll get it back. Just pray she doesn’t go through the history.”

“Or send the cops on us for steal-”

“Borrowing.”

“Borrowing her computer.”

Sheila flips on the television and we sit there surfing through channels.

“Yeah,” I say, “we totally stole it.”