Chapter 6:

I’d been so pleased yesterday too. Like a complete idiot. I’d gotten Walt and our so-called relationship all sorted out and it had felt like checking off a box that had been standing empty for too long. It hadn’t occurred to me in my moment of selfishness that the box should have stayed empty.

The presence of Kelsey and Lainey really drive that point home. I’m not safe. I’m not human. Walt and I can never have a real relationship. Except now we do. We’d acknowledged it and I’d been happy about it. Like a complete idiot.

“Are you paying attention?” Kelsey glares at me impatiently.

I blink and try to push Walt out of my thoughts and focus on the twins. Lainey leans in closer next to me and whispers, “We were wondering about why you think you were born here.” We’re both sitting on a picnic table bench while her sister impatiently prowls in front of us.

I scoff at their disbelief. “Why do you think I wasn’t?” I demand. Their insistence is becoming really annoying. I thrum my fingers against the wood of the park bench while the two share a look and formulate their argument.

I’d told them to meet me out here at the state park. No one comes here. Not even tourists. We’re too in-between the national parks for anyone to care enough to stop at a little pit off the side of the road with a few tables and a sign declaring that the area is home to diverse desert wildlife like scorpions and tarantulas. The sun overhead glares down and I wish I’d chosen a place with air conditioning, but anything inside would have been too public.

“It's simply impossible, okay. Our people found out early on that women can’t conceive and carry alien babies to term on Earth. The fetus’s can’t develop properly without the nutrients 

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and minerals from our planet.” Kelsey explains and I find myself sitting up straighter as her words play back in my head because I know them to be true. That’s why my growth was so stunted, why I look so scraggly. Just thinking about it makes my body crave any type of food from the home planet. To try and dull the feeling I pull out a caramel and green apple sucker from my pocket and suck on that while Kelsey continues her lesson. “Secondly, you can’t fly a pregnant woman from our planet to Earth. It’s way too dangerous. Even before the New King took over no one would try that. It doesn’t just risk the baby, it risks the mother too, and no one would put a woman at risk like that. We’re too valuable.” She concludes. “That's why we wait until after the baby is born before we smuggle it and the mother out.”

I twist the sucker around in my mouth while I mull over her words. The sugary caramel gunks up my teeth, but I don’t particularly care. She makes a compelling argument. “Tell me what you know about the New King.” I urge her while trying to recall any of the stories I’d been told about him from my childhood. Growing up he might as well have been the Big Bad Wolf from a fairy tale. A villain from a story I’d been told, but not one that was actually believable.

Kelsey blows out a breath of annoyance in the change of topic, but Lainey supplies me with the answer. “The planet chooses our king.” She says. “It chose him. At first everyone thought he was going to save us. We’re a dying species.” She adds in, “Women are rare occurrences. Under the old kings we were honored and respected for the life we brought to the planet, but the New King didn’t honor or respect us. He started making laws that forced women into marriage, forced them to have children. People protested, but he built an army that tore us down. Women were rounded up and were treated like cattle… Are being treated like cattle.” She 

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corrects herself quietly, “That’s why Rita set up the railroad to help smuggle women and children off-planet.” She falls into a sad silence.

I frown. It’s not much different from the story I’d been told as a kid. Except for the part about Rita. It doesn’t really explain why the soldiers are hunting me or why they had killed Mom. If women are so valuable than why would they have just killed her like that and why go after me when I’m just a guy. I’m not anything special. Except for the fact that apparently being born here on Earth makes me a unicorn.

“And where do you two fit into all of this? Where’s your mom? Why do you work for Rita?” I ask.

Kelsey grinds her teeth and exhales slowly. I watch her hands clench into tight fists that turn her knuckles white. “We don’t know where our mom is at. Somewhere on Home Planet still.” She says in a carefully controlled voice that is filled with barely contained anger. “Our dad was a pilot, he stole a ship and flew me and Lainey out, but we crash landed and he died. Rita found us and took us in.” The few terse words explain everything I need to know, but I still want more.

“Show me.” I order her. Both of the twins stiffen at the evasiveness of the request. It’s one thing to share a conversation through telepathy, but it’s another thing entirely to demand entry to a deeply personal and tragic memory. “Show me yours and I’ll show you mine.” I finally give in. I don’t particularly trust them, but I don’t think they’re dangerous to me. No, if my father is to be believed, I’m the dangerous one.

I watch the two of them have a silent discussion on which of them is going to show me the memory. Finally Kelsey jerks her hand out, “Fine, but just the crash and nothing else.” I nod