Alone Again Or | Page 8

was supposed to look like a forest lodge from the 19'Th
century. The walls were made of artificial wood logs, with bark and
knots in random configurations. The tables had the appearance of a
dark wood, and the chairs resembled wickerwork.
Syd didn't know how close they were to realistic. He'd only seen
wickerwork on TV.
And I don't care anyway, he thought.
The clientele was mostly young people fresh out of the bars or high on
foc. The beer in the restaurant was supposed to be authentic to the time
period; Syd had ordered water. Somnam had followed his example.
The waitress brought the water over. It was in thin metal cups.
Somnam took hers into her hand and felt its surface with her thumb.
"This is amazing, Syd," she said, "I've never been waited on before.
Look at this place."
She smiled and Syd felt like smiling also.
Watch it, he thought, she just likes the outdoors. Not you.
He took a drink from the water cup. It cooled his throat but his face
remained hot.
I never pictured it being like this, he thought.
In the booth behind him Syd heard a couple talking. The man said the
woman when she decided to adopt Kenna as a deity.

"When did you find out you were telepathic?" Syd said.
Somnam looked at him and stopped smiling.
"I'm a birther. The doctors knew when I was still in the womb, and I
got sent to the agency at birth."
Syd took another drink. When he set the cup down he nearly dropped
it.
"I thought you said you'd been outside twelve years ago?"
Somnam nodded. "They let you go on guarded walks until you're
eleven. They take you in deep metal busses to The Old City where
there are no cars or people and you can walk under the sky for an hour.
If you cut and run, you get shot in the back. I saw a boy go down when
I was nine."
Syd didn't know what she meant by The Old City, but assumed she
meant the city outside of the newer Steeple City walls, where people
had lived before mass disease lowered populations everywhere.
She slowly rotated her cup in circles on the dark wood table with both
hands, looking at the surface of the water.
"The busses were charged so you couldn't telepathically bother anyone
on the outside," she said quietly into her glass of water.
Syd regretted the topic.
"How can doctors tell if you're telepathic?"
"I was a strong case. I was unlucky. An anti-telepath police raid was
going on at the time, and I projected onto on of theirs."
Syd nodded. He'd heard of the roaming troops of police with captured
teles. They'd pay weak willed telepaths extravagant amounts and put
them in high class hotel rooms.

Or that's the rumor on the street, anyway, Syd thought.
It seemed to him that there was nothing else to talk about. He looked at
Somnam. She seemed to be looking at something behind Syd, just
above his shoulder.
He knew there was nothing behind him but the faux-wood of the booth
they sat in.
"So what do you do for money?" Somnam said.
Syd looked her in the face.
"Do you know what a sleeper is?"
Jennifer lay next to the sleeping University boy. He'd been asleep for
several minutes; the music still pounded out of his computer's music
system. She laid facing away from him. One of his arms was around
her, cupping a breast.
The music hurt in her head. It shook her teeth. She needed a drink.
She held her breath and lifted the boy's arm carefully. He did not stir.
She slid herself onto the floor and stood up. He appeared to be sleeping
soundly.
She put her clothes on. As she began to search, a young girl walked
into the dorm room through the closed door. The girl resembled
Jennifer.
Except in the details, Jennifer thought, and they're some big fucking
details.
The girl's eyes weren't blue and bright like Jennifer's; they were solid
milk white, pupil-less polished marbles above her cheeks. She wore a
pale blue dress. The flesh of her neck sagged onto the collar, white as
paper and with a similar texture appearance. It bunched in flaps on her
wrists and ankles. Fluid dripped off the girl's black hair onto the
brushed metal floor.

Jennifer could hear the drops splating noises over the music.
The girl stepped forward and held a pen like cylinder out to Jennifer.
Jennifer saw that the girl's eyes were spinning in their sockets fast
enough to make them appear solid.
A strong smell of smoke and ammonia leached into