“Or billions of years behind us,” Jason added.
“So you don’t believe in aliens?” Lily asked.
“Oh, it’s not that I don’t think there are aliens. I just don’t think they’re surreptitiously visiting Earth every couple of years to probe the rectums of a select few rednecks.
“That life exists in outer space is undeniable. Just look at us. We’re in outer space and we’re alive. Sounds strange to consider, I know, but our perspective is so narrow and prejudiced toward seeing Earth as unique. We naturally assume our Earth-centric view of the universe is reality, as though the Sun, Moon and stars really do revolve around us, but they don’t. Copernicus and Galileo proved that over five hundred years ago, but in practice it’s very hard not to think of sunrise and sunset. Try picturing Earth-turn instead. You’ll give yourself a migraine!”
“You’re such a geek,” Helena said. “Only you could take a perfectly romantic notion like a sunset and turn it into something weird.”
Jason laughed, saying, “Well, reality is weird, and that’s the problem, it’s our notions that are distorted, not reality.”
Helena just shook her head as she finished her breakfast. “Listen,” she said, checking the time on her phone. “I don’t know what you boys are up to today, but how about I take Lily with me. We can’t have her running around the city in your baggy clothes. I’ve got some spare clothes I can give her.”
“I’ve got plenty of spare clothes,” Jason said, feeling a little affronted by Helena assuming she could lay claim to Lily.
“Have you got any spare bras?” Helena asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Ah, no.”
“I didn’t think so.”
Jason couldn’t help but smile. Helena liked to be right. She got up, motioning for Lily to follow.
Lily looked a little bewildered. She glanced at Jason so he said, “Have fun.”
“But what about your phone?” Lily asked, holding it out in front of her. “What about my father?”
“I’ll call Helena if I hear anything,” Jason replied, taking the phone gently from her.
“We’ll let you boys pick up the tab,” Helena said, taking Lily’s arm and winking at them as they left.
“She’s a wild one,” Mitchell said, but it took Jason a moment to realize Mitchell was talking about Helena not Lily, and that surprised him, exposing how much he’d taken a shine to Lily.
“Dude,” Mitchell continued, seemingly reading his mind, “you realize this can’t go on, right?”
“Huh?” Jason said, lost in thought for a moment. Sitting there in the booth, he could see the girls outside waiting at the lights, getting ready to cross the street.
“She’s going to find her dad, and then she’ll be out of here.”
“Yeah, I know.”
Jason was doodling, drawing equations and ratios on a napkin, barely aware his mind was running through a physics calculation. Dark strokes outlined various Greek letters and scientific notation. He’d written one equation several different ways, reversing and inverting portions of the equation but always arriving at the same result.
“You are such a weirdo,” Mitchell said, pointing at his scribbled notation. “When most people are distracted, they bite their nails, they don’t reframe Schrodinger’s equations.”
Jason laughed, “Yeah, funny one, that. Just the way my mind works, I guess. I find math soothing.”
“Oh, it’s a cure for insomnia,” Mitchell added, pretending to agree. “So, Mr. Good Samaritan, what are you going to do when she leaves you?”
“There’s nothing between us,” Jason confessed, “Just a passing fascination, I guess. But if she’s still around tonight, I thought we’d go to the fireworks in the park.”
“You and a couple of hundred thousand other people,” Mitchell quipped. That was the thing about New York, even when it seemed empty over a long weekend, there were still millions of people around. Empty was a relative term in New York.
Down at the intersection, Helena turned and pointed, directing Lily’s gaze up to the second floor window where the two young men were seated. Lily waved. She had one hand on her purse with the strap sitting comfortably over her shoulder. To anyone else, it would seem perfectly rational for a young woman to want to keep her purse secure, but Jason knew otherwise.
“It’s empty, you know,” Jason said, his mind still dwelling on that fact.
“What is?” Mitchell asked, sipping some coffee.
“Her purse. There’s no money, no passport, no credit cards, no ID, no names and addresses, nothing.”
“You looked?”
“I looked,” Jason confessed.
“Dawg,” Mitchell replied. “I’m telling you, she’s about the right age to have been plucked out of the water by those fisherman.”
Jason shook his head. “You’re an idiot,” he said affectionately, unable to suppress the grin on his face.
“You laugh, but I’m telling you, this shit is real. I saw lights over Manhattan last night.”
“What would an alien be doing in my apartment?” Jason asked, humoring him. “Why would an alien come all this way to sneak around disguised as a young asian woman?”
“I don’t know,” Mitchell replied. “Maybe it’s like those nature documentaries. You know, where they film animals in the wild. Yeah, that’s it, they’re doing a special on the mating habits of Homo sapiens and are looking for some live footage.”
“You really are an idiot,” Jason repeated, finishing his coffee.
Mitchell put on his best English accent, impersonating Sir David Attenborough as he said, “The mating call of the wild physics student can be heard for miles, echoing through the concrete jungle.”
Jason punched him playfully on the shoulder, saying, “Let’s get out of here.”
But Mitchell wasn’t finished. He kept his voice in a style that could only be described as BBC English, giving his words a crisp, clipped tone as he added, “The call of the Asian American is distinctly different from that of the African or European American, earning these fascinating creatures the title of the Great Warbling Bed Thrasher.”
Jason laughed.
Chapter 05: Sunny
Night had fallen in North Korea.
Lee staggered in the rain.
Blisters had formed on the sides of his feet where his boots had rubbed the skin raw. The pain caused him to hobble, but he had to push on.
Rocks and pebbles crunched under his stiff rubber soles.
Torrential rain blurred his vision, running down over his forehead, across his eyes and down his cheeks. Blinking and squinting, he raised his hand to shelter his eyes from the rain. The rain sounded like a jet engine warming up, thrashing the leaves, splashing in puddles, and slapping at his shoulders.
The young North Korean woman slipped on the muddy track so Lee braced her against himself, catching her before she fell. Although her arm was draped over his shoulder, her body felt limp.
“I can’t do this,” Sun-Hee said as Lee struggled to keep her from slipping to her knees. “I can’t go on.”
She was shivering. Her clothes were soaked. Rain ran down her face like tears. Her straggly black hair was as wild as the darkened tangle of trees and vines around them.
A stream ran down one side of the track, cutting its way into the trail, curling around rocks and over boulders, washing away sections of the track. The rain pounded the leaves of the trees hanging over the path.
In the darkness, Lee couldn’t see more than a couple of meters. The trail seemed as though it would never end.
“Please,” she whimpered. “It is too much. I must rest. Let me rest.”
If they stopped, she would die from hypothermia, Lee was sure of it. He had to get her to the village, but the look in her eyes pleaded for mercy.