DUSK

twelve

"So, Ibis, from where do you hail?" she asked, sipping her cinnamon and ginger tea.

"Florida."

"Ah." she said.

"If you don't mind me asking, where are you from?" I said.

"It's the accent, right? My American English still isn't perfect... Originally Egypt." She said, "Though I'm only half myself, on my father's side."

She cocked her head to the side, her eyes narrowing. "You look like you could be from there."

"We have very beautiful people, there. The indigenous people look a lot like you. Darker, but similar features."

Now, that I was closer, I could see that many of her tattoos were Egyptian in nature. The small ankh on the back of her neck, in particular, intrigued me.

"That's the symbol for eternal life, right?"

"Yes." She said, smiling.

I could also detect a difference, though it was slight, between her smell and other humans I had encountered. She wasn't one of us, but she definitely wasn't completely human.

~~~~

Doug appeared through the double-doors, holding a steaming spread of brown rice and that tofu stir-fry he'd been working on.

"Okay, everyone. Prepare to dig in."

He set the platter on the table and sat down next to his wife. He leaned over and kissed her. He lingered a bit, smooching a few extra times and looked lovingly into her eyes.

Clara rolled her eyes and shook her head. She spoke barely above a whisper, "You should see them when you're not here."

"I heard that." Doug, said. "It's natural. Just be glad your parents aren't showing signs of divorce."

"Ibis, why don't you fill your plate first?" Alice was teasing me. Well, wasn't that something.

I could eat. I just had to throw it up afterwards and I hate that.

I spooned the food out in such way that it looked like I'd gotten more than I had, spreading the food all over my plate.

Alice chuckled under her breath.

She had a good sense of humor and had everyone in stitches throughout dinner, with her stories.

It turned out she was a botanist, studying population ecology among indigenous peoples.

The tribes, she said, had knowledge about plants that was being lost to industrialization. After one of her colleagues disrespected a married member of an Amazon tribe she'd been studying with, they put a kind of poison in his food. It made itchy welts raise up on his skin. It wasn't fatal, but it was damned uncomfortable, until it completely left his system...  Two weeks later.

She clapped Doug on his back, when he accidentally sucked some food down the wrong pipe, laughing over that one. Sending him into a coughing-laughing fit.

"You're really not supposed to do that," she said, wrinkling her nose, referring to the back clap.

I really liked his parents. They were so very down-to-earth, especially Alice. She watched me and Will closely through-out dinner.

I had to find a way to talk to her, alone.

~~~~