Pulling the needles out hurt a lot more than they had going in. Pouring water over my shin to rinse away the blood I take hold of the pearl tip and slowly pull the needle out of my leg. I had learned that if I yanked them out little bits of flesh clung to them. By twisting and pulling gently they come out smoothly. It also helps the pain if I push down with my the finger of my other hand as I slide the needle out. God. We never should have come here.
Two days ago.
“Isn’t anyone going to get that?” I call out as the pounding on the door continues. It was the kind of knock that said law enforcement or asshole. A knock that said, “I know you’re in there, I know you hear me, and I am not going away.” Apparently everyone else in our small crowded house had gone deaf.
As I come down the stairs I realize everyone else must be outside. The house is small but the property is large, for town. No wonder they can’t hear the barbarians at our gates. I swing open the door just as a large, gloved fist is about to come crashing down. “Hey! Watch it!”
The guy seems flummoxed for a moment, pausing in mid knock with his mouth agape. I don’t know if it is the abrupt opening of the door or the fact that I am still in my sleepwear. It isn’t much and I wear it well. A woman in a suit steps in front the frozen gentleman on the porch.
“You need to vacate the premises,” she says handing me an official looking sheaf of folded papers. “We are asking everyone to report to our facility in Rockport by oh seven hundred tomorrow morning. If you need transport the number, as well as other information, is in the papers.”
“Everyone?”
“Everyone in town.”
Leaning against the slightly peeling door jamb- we’ll have to do something about that. The summer heat and humidity here was hell on paint. I ask, “What the hell happened that you need to evacuate the whole town?” Vicksville isn’t a city but it’s no dinky little place either. Several thousand people live here. “And why haven’t I heard anything about this on the news?”
“Is your parent or guardian present?”
I open my moth to tell her that I am twenty-nine, then shrug. Mom and Dad are here. Along with some aunts, uncles and cousins by both blood and love. “Yeah, they’re all out back.”
“Why don’t you hand this to them. See you in Rockport.”
I close the door and unfurl the pages. Mom and Dad will see this right after I have put the law school education they helped me pay for to good use.
A few hours later I’m dressed and those of us staying at the house are all crowded into the kitchen. “The paperwork doesn’t say we have to go to Rockport. It’s more like closing time at the bar -“
“You would use that analogy!” One of my brothers shouts out.
“Shut up Rufus! Anyway,” I continue turning back to Mom and Dad. “We do have to leave but while it is strongly suggested we go for processing it’s not something they are mandating.”
“Which is good news,” My sister Tina, the doctor, adds. “If it were something biological or contagious they would either lock down the area or mandate our confinement. This means that it’s something else. Geological, maybe? A gas leak or water contamination? I don’t know. The seven o’clock is odd.”
“Mom, Dad, Auntie Max, can’t you call someone and find out more?” That’s Marc. The youngest of the siblings at seventeen. Our parents and aunt are all ex military officers with Dad and his sister Maxine, Max, retiring. Max had made general before she left.
The three exchange glances. Auntie Max answerd, “We’ll see.”
Mom and Dad stand as one unit. “Meanwhile, y’all go pack a bag. Whether or not we go to Rockport it seems clear we can’t stay here. Dinner is at six, three hours from now, we’ll leave after.” When we don’t move speedily enough Mom waves her hands, “Shoo, now!”
I see now that they knew something was up even then. The exchange of glances. Those tell tale signs of nervousness where Dad taps his index finger and Mom constantly pushes up her glasses even though they are firmly in place. There is no way either one of them could have imagined this.
We pile out of the kitchen and separate out to our rooms. I’m in my old room with my cousins, the twins Kate and Theo. They are as symbiotic as fraternal twins could be. They even look alike, especially since they both locked their hair. A bit androgynous and beautiful with it. I mean, as a fit and healthy female of breeding age I am attractive but these two are gorgeous. Even though we grew up together, we’re the same age so went all through school together, their beauty still stuns me a little if I haven’t seen them for a while.
We start throwing the basics into our bags. “We’re sticking together, right?”
I look at him surprised. Even though I am a grown ass woman it never even occurred to me to defy the “adults”. Sure, I went through a rebellious stage but I have always trusted my parents to do their damndest to do the right thing.
“Well, yeah.” I look at the two. “Why would you think otherwise?”
“We don’t.” The two look at each other in that silent communication of close siblings. “It’s just we have a bad feeling about this.”
“Of course you do. This shit is fucked up as hell.”
Kate gives me a hard look and says, “No, we have a bad feeling.”
Oh, one of those feelings. I go and knock on the wall. The knock is echoed throughout the upper story and soon the room and hallway are crowded with the middle generation.
My older brother Jason and his pregnant wife Molly. Our cousin Alberta and her wife Nancy, their two year old son rides on Nancy’s hip. Tina and Rufus. Our brother Frederick, never Fred, with his wife Martha and our cousin Mabel. My brother Marc is downstairs in charge of the underagers. Molly and Nancy are the only ones who didn’t grow up here.
“And?” Nancy asks, “Having a bad feeling seems about right given the situation.” She looks around. “Okay, what am I missing?”
“Kate and Theo get feelings about the future that nudge them one way or another. It’s unfortunately random but when it does happen we’ve learned not to ignore it.” You couldn’t be in our family and remain unaware that the world, that reality, has layers. Nancy just nods. Like I said. We’re weird. “They say Rockport is bad.”
“Then we don’t go to Rockport,” Jason agrees.
Here comes the hard part. “We also think we need to split up.” A chorus of objections is quieted with one lifted hand. “Parents and minors in one group. The rest of us in another.”
Alberta and Nancy, Jason and Molly, Frederick and Martha, their kids. Mom and Dad and Marcus. And Tina. Her kids are with her husband but as a mom we all agree she should be with the parent crew. We don’t say out loud that a group with a sixty plus year old man, a pregnant woman, and five kids under ten is more likely to need a doctor. Kate, Theo, Rufus, and I are with Auntie Max and Mabel, her daughter.
We say goodbye like we are never going to see each other again. Our group watches the camper and the van head off towards the mountains. Then we climb into our trucks and head towards the sea. We’re all taking back roads.
We hit a road block about thirty minutes out. The next about fifteen minutes further. We aren’t told which way to go, just which way we can’t. They are herding us. We go off road and the gloves come off.
Black helicopters shine lights down upon the trees, tracking our progress. Kate, Theo, and I are in one truck. Rufus, Mabel, and Auntie Max in the other. Without consulting them we split off, trying to lead them away. It doesn’t work and we all end up at Rockport.
Auntie Max and Mabel are led away. They are calling her General and apologizing for the inconvenience. Asking about her brother.
Kate and I are put in one room, Theo and Rufus another. The rooms are white. Stark. We are given clothes to wear, also white and surprisingly comfortable.
There is a perfunctory knock before the door is opened. I guess I should not have been surprised, but I simply wasn’t expecting aliens.