The Ghost Lights of Marfa (3 page)

“Twenty thousand a month in your currency, American dollars, I believe.”

Kristy crossed her arms. “Ma’am, I think there may be some mistake in that calculation.”

“If it is not enough, we can offer more.” The woman pointed to a thin, blue man. “He will escort you to your new home and see that you have everything you need.”

“I’ll go with the blue guy
.
But if it’s a bad place or dangerous, I’m not staying. I have my son to think of.
”
Holding Cody’s hand, Kristy followed the man out of the building and down the street.

“Why are we stopping here, Mommy?”

The square-headed man flashed a wide, rectangular smile. “This is your house.” The man pointed to a huge mansion, which took up a whole block.

Kristy’s jaw fell open. She stared, speechless.

Cody let go of her hand and darted inside. Before Kristy reached the door, he dashed back out and ran to her. “Mommy, I think it’s a mall.”

The slender, blue man led them into a marble foyer. “Your house, and all that is in it, has been fashioned after a nice Earth home.”

“How many people live here?” she asked the blue man. ”Do we have our own room?”

“This home is just for you and your son, of course. You have all the rooms.”

Kristy glanced up at a glistening crystal chandelier.

“I hope the home and all the furnishings are satisfactory.” Their guide gestured to her to follow him. “We’ve added toys and novelties to accommodate your child.”

“Oh, good, if it’s not too much trouble, he needs a plastic sword.” Kristy took Cody by the hand as they trailed behind the blue man.

“I left my sword in the car, Mommy.”

“Yes.” Kristy gasped as they entered the first room. Her gaze scanned the video games, pool table, and an air hockey table.

Cody dashed to a racing game and spun the steering wheel back and forth. “Look Mommy, you don’t need tokens or money, it’s free.”

Her senses reeled as she left Cody to play, and followed the blue guy into the other rooms, which held a full basketball court, an indoor swimming pool, a bowling alley, a skating rink, and a skateboard ramp.

“Cody’s playrooms take up the entire first floor.” She took a deep breath.

“Mommy, I won the game.” Cody ran up to her.

“Good, punkin.” Kristy had to ask her guide the obvious question. “What’s upstairs?”

The blue man led her and Cody up the winding staircase and into a movie theatre. She stared wordlessly at the huge screen and rows of seats. Next, he showed her a dining room as large as most restaurants. Her heart hammered as they entered the library, lined with shelves, crammed with books.

When she glanced at her guide, he nodded his head, anticipating her question before she asked it. He said, “They are earth books. In English.”

Her mind spun with excitement as she followed their guide to the bedrooms. Both of them had large closets full of clothes and shoes. Hers included a salon area with makeup and a cosmetologist’s table and chair.

“A hairdresser will come once a week to do your hair and nails.” The blue man smiled.

“Wow.” She couldn’t even speak, then a disturbing thought crossed her mind. “But no blue nails and no blue hair.”

“If that is your choice.”

“Yes. And no dying our skin blue.”

“As you wish.”

The man called forth, and introduced her to, a staff of twenty servants.

Cody pointed to the row of blue servants. "Mommy, are they going to watch me while you go to your new job?”

Kristy rubbed his head, gently tousling his soft, black hair. “Right now, here on In, I get to stay home with you. I don’t have to go to work.”

“Mommy, that’s the best thing in the whole word.”

“Getting to spend time with my little man is the best thing in
this
world and the one we came from, the best thing in
all
the worlds, Cody.”

She’d been nearly hopeless, until she turned off US-67 and drove into a dusty ranch town, which led to the fulfillment of all her dreams. All that was missing was a dreamy man.
Of course, he’d probably be blue.

“Mommy, I’m hungry.”

She turned and smiled at the row of blue-skinned women and men. “One of you must be a cook. Please show me to the pantry or refrigerator, wherever you keep the food. I need to learn the more important things about this world.”

“Maybe they eat blue worms, that would be cool,” Cody said.

She clutched her stomach. “Maybe not.” As she trailed behind a plump, square-faced woman, Kristy’s mouth watered for a hamburger.

At the chime of a bell, a servant dashed downstairs to the front door. Kristy followed, to see who’d come to visit.

* * * * *

Kristy’s gaze froze on the tall, athletic physique of a human man, about twenty-five. His thick, black hair tapered to the scooped neck of his Earth-imported T-shirt and his muscles rippled under the jersey fabric.

“Hello, you must be the new arrivals from Earth.” His generous mouth curved into a disarming smile.

Her pulse raced. “Yes, I am Kristy Travis.” She smiled as Cody ran up. “And this is my son.”

“My name is Nick, I’m so excited to see you.” Compelling electric-blue eyes gleamed from his oval face. “You can teach me about my home planet.”

Kristy
imagined pressing her lips to his as he wrapped his sinewy arms around her and pulled her tight against the muscles of his broad chest. Her breath grew shallow.
“What do you want to know about Earth?”

“Everything. You’ve heard of abandoned children. When I was four, someone, I guess one or both of my parents, stopped on Highway 90 and put me out of the car, right there on the road. That night, one of the lights brought me here. An Inid family adopted me as soon as I got here. I love my In parents, they’re great, but I’ve always wondered about Earth and what it’s like to live there.”

“I’ll be glad to fill you in, if your wife won’t mind?” She peered at him intently, waiting for his response.

“Oh, I’m not married.” His blue eyes grew amused and his lips twitched with humor. “While I‘m here, is there is anything I can do to help you get settled?”

She moistened her lips with her tongue. “As a matter of fact, come with me to the kitchen to find something that tastes like cheeseburgers.” As Kristy climbed the stairs, she forgot all about food and thought only of hungrily, covering his mouth with hers and tasting the sultry heat of Nick’s full, firm lips.

Kristy’s arm brushed across his as they walked up the steps together. A hot shiver shot through him. Nick always thought he’d be alone. With his appearance so weird, so ugly compared to all the other people on In, a small oval head, his skin a frightening, monstrous color, and on top of all that he was a giant. Still, he’d resisted having his skin dyed blue. Something didn’t seem quite right about posing as a native Inid when he was Earth-born. He’d never been thrilled with that decision until today. He wasn’t alone anymore, there were two others now, Kristy and her son. He wasn’t ugly or weird, he was just an Earthling. Kristy's head was small and her skin was a light tan shade as well. And she was beautiful. He couldn’t keep his eyes off her.

Her smile made him feel so light, happy. Her eyes held a gleam of interest, but he wasn’t sure what to say or to do. He’d never mated with a woman before. The only In women who’d seemed interested in him were extremely experienced in sex and seemed curious about what he was like in that manner.

Something about putting her in this house, supposedly fashioned after the ones on Earth, and fulfilling her every whim, seemed strange. He had to tell her about his suspicions. First he had to show her what he thought was going on. If his suspicions were true, he feared she’d get upset. She might want to leave, return to Earth. He didn’t know if she could or if he could. If the Inids forced her to stay, she probably wouldn’t want anything to do with them. She might not want anything to do with him, either. Still, it was better she found out now and that he was the one to show her. Hopefully, he was wrong and the Inids were genuinely being kind and generous to her. He rubbed his forehead.

They stepped into the kitchen. He walked over to a cabinet and hit an icon picture. Suddenly a little door opened and a pile of what looked like ground meat slid out on a plate.

Her eyebrows arched in a baffled expression.

“It keeps the food cold. This is
woch
, ground meat from a bird we eat a lot of here in In. It’s the only meat we eat. I hope it taste like the cheeseburgers you’re used to.”

He set the plate under a little hood above the counter and clicked a switch. In under a minute, the food looked completely cooked, though it had a grayish tint to it. He hit a button on the cabinet and six pieces of what looked like bread came out. He pulled a spoon out of a drawer and spooned the
woch
onto three slices of bread, then put another slice on top.

“Just like an earth sandwich. But what does it taste like?” Kristy asked.

“Try it.” He smiled.

She took a small bite. ”Not quite hamburger, but it will do.” She turned to her son. “Here, try this.” She handed him a plate.

Cody bit into it. “It’s good, but I wanted blue worms.”

“What?” Nick asked.

“Nothing.” Kristy shrugged. “Don’t mind him.”

He moved his head closer to Kristy so he couldn’t be overheard by anyone but her, in case his suspicions were true. “On Earth, do you have a form of entertainment that broadcasts into electronic devices in your home?”

“You mean television.” Her face scrunched up into a puzzled expression.

“That may be what you call it.” He nodded. “You don’t have one in this house. I think you may be on what we call a reality program.”

“Are you kidding me? Reality TV?”

He hushed her, cautioning her to keep her voice down. “I have a device in my pocket. We can check.”

He pulled out a gadget smaller than a cell phone and clicked on something on the bottom. Suddenly a 3D image emerged like a hologram in front of her. It was her and Cody and Nick in the kitchen.

“No. No,” she yelled. “Not a reality TV show.”

* * * * *

Nick kept jostling her shoulder, or was that Cody? Why didn’t they stop? Kristy opened her eyes. A man’s face loomed but a breath span away, totally human, though large and square, featuring a kind smile and dark eyes. From his wrinkles and the patch of gray on his balding head, she guessed his age at mid-sixties. He had sun-baked brown skin, rather than blue. She’d never seen him before, yet there was something vaguely familiar about his face. He nudged her to wake up.

“Good morning,” the man greeted her in a booming voice.

Startled, she jerked her head off the steering wheel. “I must have dozed off.” She glanced at the blue sky. No green hue, no double moon. “Cody.” She whipped her head toward the backseat where he lay, stretched out, sleeping.

Through the grogginess of her mind, she breathed one word, “In.”

With a twinge of disappointment and relief, Kristy realized it must have been a dream. She’d awakened when it started to become a nightmare as she realized she was part of a reality TV show.

She swerved back to the man. “What happened?”

He let out a hardy laugh. “It looks like you ran out of gas. Your gauge is on empty.”

“I remember that.” Kristy’s voice held a hoarse, frog-like sound from sleep. She cleared her throat.

“I’ve got a gas can in my trunk. That’ll give you two gallons to get you back to town.” He sauntered over to his faded red sedan.

“Thank you.” She stepped out her the car and blinked her eyes to clear the daze of the dream. It had seemed so real. As she yanked on the handle of the back door, Cody opened his eyes.

“Mommy, where are we?” He clutched his sword.

“On the highway where we saw the lights.” She glanced over at the white-haired Good Samaritan as he pulled a red jug with a long sprout out of his trunk and walked over to her car.

“Oh, did you see them?” He poured the contents of the gas can into her tank.

“Yes, I did.” Cody leapt out of the car with sword in hand. “Mommy and I went to In. Blue people with square heads live there.”

“What?” Kristy squatted down, eye-level with Cody. “Did you dream that too?”

“No, Mommy. It wasn’t a dream. I pinched you, remember?”

“Kids say the darndest things.” The old man winked as he pulled the long spout out of her tank. “You’ll be able to get back to Marfa now, but you’ll have to put in more gas to go anywhere else.”

Still baffled, she stood and turned to the man. “Thank you. We drove into town last night and I forgot to check the gauge. I was so excited about seeing the lights.” She didn’t know him well enough to come clean about her money problems.

“It happens a lot around here. You know, since you’re sightseeing and what not, you should check out our courthouse. It’s quite a sight.” He stowed the empty can in the trunk. “Go ahead and start it up.”

She sat at the wheel and turned the key. The engine purred. “I don’t know what I would have done without you.”

“Yes ma’am.” He opened his car door and sat at the wheel. “By the way, my name is Joe Azat, call me Joe. If you need anything, just ask for me.” He waved as he drove off.

Cody climbed into the back seat. “Mommy, he looks like the blue man, who showed us to the lady, who gave us necklaces with blue rocks.” He grabbed his neck. “Where is it?”

“Gone. We’re back on Earth now.” Images of In spun through her mind. “You’re right, Cody, Mr. Azat does look like Yog, just less blue, with a rounder, smaller head.” She raked her teeth against her upper lip. “This is so weird.”

“You know, they both wanted us to go to a government office,” Kristy said as she drove into Marfa. She reflected on the lights and her visit to the land of In. “You know, Cody, there we had our lucky turquoise, but I’ve always believed you make your own luck in life, and I have a better idea of how to do that now.”