Roomies
by Angie Lofthouse
T
|
he
paint wasn't even dry on Zion's
young singles housing units when Paul Witt got his new roommate assignment. The
blond-haired eighteen year old stood outside the housing office, which was
still just a tent, and stared at the hand-written sheet of paper as if looking
at it extra hard would somehow change it.
You
are assigned to YSA housing unit 37C with the following roommates:
Derek Halstead—Paul had expected that.
He and Derek had been roommates for all their lives. But Derek was getting
married in two weeks, so they wouldn't be roomies much longer. Ben Porter was
next on the list. Not a bad choice there. Paul had become close friends with
Ben, a young Paiute Indian, during their long and dangerous trek from Utah to Zion in Missouri during what
people were now referring to as the Emancipation. Nothing like being under fire
together to cement a friendship.
It was the other three names on the
list that gave him pause. He'd expected more of the boys from the refuge where
he grew up. But it was Lem, Sam, and Tim Martin. The triplet brothers were
Derek's friends—ground crew for the Air Combat Fleet Derek commanded. Paul
didn't exactly dislike them. He just found them a bit…odd.
"Hey, Paul!"
Paul turned to see Ben Porter coming toward
him, waving his own sheet of paper. "Is this some kind of joke?"
"I don't think so." Paul
shrugged.
"I'm not living with those
goofballs."
Paul sighed. "You can request a
different apartment, I suppose."
Ben scowled at the roommate list.
"I don't know anybody else that well. I guess I'll just have to live with
it. I'm not sharing a room with one of them, though."
"Derek will." Paul stuffed
the paper in his pocket. "Guess we might as well get moved in."
"All right. I'll meet you over
there." Ben waved and jogged away. Paul went to gather his things from the
tent he'd called home for the last couple of months since they'd freed the earth
from the alien invaders and come to Zion.
It was remarkable to see how much the city had grown in such a short time. That
was the power of people all working for a common goal. It made Paul proud to be
a part of it.
As far as worldly possessions went, he
didn't have much, so it wasn't long before he found himself in apartment 37C, where
Derek and the triplets were wrangling a bed from one room into another so the
triplets wouldn't have to be separated. Which solved that problem. Ben came in
a minute later, and the six of them spent the next half-hour rearranging
furniture to their liking.
The heat of the late-June afternoon
left them tired and sweaty. They gathered around the small wooden table in the
kitchen for ice water.
"Nice work, men," one of the triplets
announced. Paul thought it was Sam, but he couldn't be sure, they looked so
much alike. All over six feet tall with light brown hair and indistinguishable
features.
"All we have to do now is turn
this place into party central," another brother, Lem maybe, said.
"We'll make this the most popular apartment in Zion. The girls will flock here."
"Party central?" Ben raised an
eyebrow.
Derek stood up, shaking his head.
"Good luck with that, guys. I have to go."
"Your lady love awaits," Lem
said.
"Sadly, no." Derek got that
goofy smile on his face like he always did when he talked about Hannah. "I
actually have work to do. I'll see you later."
"We all have work to do, don't
we?" Paul set down his glass. He had another construction assignment
today, painting the new cultural hall.
"Wait a minute," the third
triplet said. Tim, if Paul had guessed the other two correctly. "Derek's
getting married in two weeks. That doesn't give us much time to plan."
"Plan what?" Paul asked,
suddenly suspicious.
A mischievous grin lit up Tim's face,
mirrored on his brothers'. "Oh, I don't know. But something special.
Something to make his wedding day really memorable."
Ben rolled his eyes. "Surely his
wedding day will be memorable enough without any help from you guys."
"Nope," Lem said.
"Nobody's held a proper wedding for like twenty years. We've been reading
up on pre-invasion wedding traditions, and it is our duty to uphold those
traditions." His eyes twinkled. "After all, we can't let the invaders
destroy our culture. Our heritage."
"Oh, certainly not." Ben's
voice dripped sarcasm, but Paul doubted the triplets picked up on the irony.
"What kind of traditions?"
Paul asked, wary.
"We've found a few different
variations," Sam said. "Cans tied to cars, shaving cream, rice. But I
think we can come up with something better than that. Something really spectacular."
That didn't sound good.
Tim leaned forward. "You guys'll
help us, right?"
Ben stood up. "Whatever you idiots
have planned, leave me out of it." He walked back toward the bedrooms.
"Is he always such a
killjoy?" Lem asked.
Paul shrugged. "I don't think he
had much chance to play as a kid. He takes things seriously. He's a good
guy."
"Yeah, I’m sure he is. So, you're
in, right? You're Derek's best friend."
Paul didn't answer. Derek had already
asked him to be the best man. And though neither of them knew quite what a best
man did, Paul was sure it didn't include letting hyperactive triplets ruin the
wedding. "Just don't get carried away."
"Who? Us?" Lem nudged his
brothers on either side. "We never get carried away."
* * *
A
|
week later, Paul leaned on his shovel and
wiped the sweat from his face. The ground around unit 37 was cleared and ready
for planting grass, and Paul was ready for some cold lemonade and a big lunch.
Ben came up to him, covered in dust.
"Finished? Let's get out of here."
Paul glanced over to where Lem, Sam,
and Tim were finishing up too, laughing and goofing off. He jerked his head
toward them. "We ought to include those guys."
"Why?" Ben grumbled.
"Because if we're supposed to live
together we ought to try and be friends, you know?" To tell the truth,
Paul didn't like the tension that seemed to hang over their apartment all the time.
The triplets weren't all that bad.
Ben sighed. "All right. I guess it
won't kill me."
Paul leaned his shovel up against the
front porch and he and Ben ambled toward the triplets. "Hey, guys,"
Paul called. "Wanna go get some lunch?"
The nearest brother (he still couldn't
tell them apart) motioned them over. "Come see this," he said.
"Lem found it."
Lem held up a small, black box, maybe a
couple of inches across, smooth and featureless.
"That looks like invader
tech," Ben said, his voice hard.
"Yeah," Lem twisted it
between his fingers. "One of them must have left it behind. I wonder what
it does."
"Don't mess with it," Paul
said. "It could be dangerous."
"I wasn't messing—" Lem
vanished.
Paul jumped back, bumping into Ben.
"Where'd he go?"
Tim and Sam turned pale. "Lem?
Lem! Where are you?"
Impossible. Paul stepped up to the spot where Lem
had stood, his mind still reeling. Surely he couldn't have just disappeared. He
took another step forward. An electric shock tingled against his skin. He drew
back.
"What was that?" Ben asked.
Paul shook his head. He reached out his
hand. The same buzzy tingle moved up his arm. The air rippled and sparkled
blue.
"Looks like some kind of force
field," Ben muttered.
"Lem!" Paul shouted.
"Can you hear me?"
"We've got to get through
it," Tim said, pushing his way past Paul and Ben. "Lem, we're
coming."
Lem popped suddenly back into existence,
and Tim ran smack in to him. Lem staggered back, laughing. "Oh, my gosh.
You should have seen the looks on your faces."
"That wasn't funny." Tim
shoved Lem. "I thought you were dead."
"No, it wasn't funny," Lem
said, trying to look serious. "It was hilarious." He laughed again.
"I want to try it," Sam said.
He reached for the box Lem still held.
"Are you nuts?" Ben said.
"That's alien technology, not a toy. You're lucky he isn't really
dead."
"Nah. It isn't dangerous. I could
still see everything. Didn't hurt at all." Lem tossed it up and caught it
again. "Seems like a pretty handy device to have around, actually."
Paul had a sudden blood-chilling vision
of what the triplets might do with an invisible force field if given the
chance. Especially when it came to upholding wedding traditions. He shuddered.
"Ben's right. You can't keep that. We don't know how it works or what it
might do." He held out his hand. "I'll give it to Derek. Studying
alien tech is his area."
"Derek's busy," Tim said,
stepping up next to Lem. "We should keep it for a few days. Until after
his wedding." He nudged Lem in the ribs.
"Hand it over," Ben said.
"And stop acting like six year olds."
Lem rolled his eyes and dropped the box
into Paul's hand. "You should try having some fun once in a while, Ben.
It'd be good for you."
"Yeah, sure," Ben said dryly
and walked away. So much for roommate bonding time.
Paul put the little box in his pocket.
"Well, as I was saying, you guys want some lunch?"
* * *
D
|
erek
turned the alien box over in his fingers. "A force field, huh?"
"Yep. Made him invisible,"
Paul said.
Derek's face lit up. "That is so
cool. I wonder how it works. It must bend the light around the person
somehow."
"That's why I brought it to you.
So you could figure out."
Derek set it down on his desk. "I
won't have time to take it apart before the wedding." He sighed. "Who
knew getting married could be so time-consuming."
"I didn't want to leave it in the
triplets' hands."
"Invisible triplets." Derek
shuddered.
"I know." For a second, Paul
wanted to warn him about the triplets and the wedding, but Derek had enough to worry
about. No. Paul would just have to make sure things didn't get out of hand.
"So, are you ready for the big
day?" Paul asked.
"Oh, I'm ready." Derek got
that goofy smile again. "Can't wait."
"Yeah." Paul slapped him on
the back. "It's gonna be great."
* * *
T
|
he
wedding day arrived without the triplets trying to rope Paul into any crazy
schemes. In fact, they'd been relatively subdued since the force field incident.
It made Paul nervous.
They held the wedding reception in the
wide meadow set aside to become the city park. It was a lovely evening.
Wildflowers dotted the pale prairie grass, pink and purple, yellow and blue.
Tall maples, oaks, and other trees guarded two sides of the space, bedecked
with colorful ribbons that danced in the breeze.
Long tables held a staggering amount of
food, like maybe they expected everyone in Zion to come. Maybe everyone in Zion had. The crowd was
enormous. The buzz of conversation almost drowned out the chamber orchestra
playing at the far end of the meadow.
Paul adjusted the jacket of the new
suit Sister Miller had sewed for the occasion. He had a sprig of summer flowers
pinned to his lapel. It matched the one Derek had pinned to his. Hannah had a
bouquet in her hand and flowers in her hair. Paul didn't think either of them
had stopped smiling since the reception began. All he'd had to do as best man
so far was stand next to Derek and shake the hands of an endless supply of
well-wishers.
That made it hard to keep track of what
the triplets were doing, but as far as Paul could tell, they'd spent the
evening stuffing their faces and talking to the single girls. Harmless enough.
The line was beginning to dwindle and
the sun was low on the horizon when Bishop Thayer stood up and announced it was
time for dancing. Derek nudged Paul. "I forgot to tell you. You're
supposed to dance with the maid of honor." Well—that was a duty he could
live with. The maid of honor was Hannah's best friend, McKenzie. She looked
lovely with flowers in her red hair, and a pale pink dress. He smiled as he
took her hand and led her to the clear space between the tables. The orchestra
played a peppy waltz. Paul caught sight of Lem, Sam, and Tim sitting around a
table eating cake.
"I'm so happy for them,"
McKenzie said. She was looking at Hannah and Derek.
"Me too." Paul spun her around.
One of the triplets had disappeared from the table.
"I always knew they'd end up together,"
McKenzie said. "Even when she only had eyes for you." She laughed.
"No she didn't." He scanned
the crowd for the missing triplet. He wasn't on the dance floor. Wasn't near
the food.
"Oh, yes she did." McKenzie
giggled again. "You should have heard her go on and on about your hair and
your eyes and your smile."
"That's ridiculous." Although
Derek had done the same to him about Hannah. Now only one of the brothers
remained at the table. Tim, maybe. He caught Paul's eye and gave him a thumbs
up. Paul craned his neck around trying to spot the other two.
"Who are you looking for?"
McKenzie asked. "Is she cute?"
"No." Paul felt his cheeks
get hot. "I mean, I'm sorry, Kenz. I shouldn't be looking for my friends right
now."
"Don't worry about it." She
tossed her flower-filled hair. "I'm sure whoever it is goes on and on about
you to her roommate every night."
"Oh, please." His cheeks got
hotter. But speaking of roommates… "Have you seen Ben Porter?"
"Yeah, he's right over there with
his parents." She lifted her hand off his shoulder to point. Ben was at a
table looking uncomfortable in his shirt and tie. He'd pulled his long hair
back into a braid and was eating cake. He wasn't looking in Paul's direction.
"I doubt you'll get him to dance
with you though," McKenzie said. "He doesn't seem like the dancing
type."
"Ha, ha. Very funny." Now all
three of them were gone. That couldn't be good.
The song ended, and everyone clapped.
Paul turned to McKenzie, embarrassed. "Thanks for the dance, Kenz. I'm
sorry I wasn't such a great partner."
She grinned. "Just go find whoever
you're looking for and sweep her off her feet. Then I'll come and dance at your
wedding too."
He felt suddenly lightheaded. "I'm
not—never mind." On a whim, he leaned over and kissed her cheek.
"Tell Derek I'll be right back, okay?"
She seemed too stunned to reply.
Paul jogged over to Ben's table. "Did
you see where the three musketeers went?"
"No." He stood up. "You
think they're up to something?"
"I don't know. Help me find
them."
They skirted the edge of the party,
trying to spot them. "There's one of them." Ben pointed. Yes. Sam was
at the dessert table.
"Okay, good. How about his
brothers?"
"Nope. Not seeing anything,"
Ben said. "Wait. Is that one of them dancing there?"
Paul squinted at the dancing couples.
"Yeah, I think it is." Maybe he was worrying for nothing. He looked
back at the dessert table. No Sam. Argh. "Come on." He motioned to
Ben, moving out among the dancers. "If I can just talk to one of them,
I'll feel better."
But the song ended before they reached
him, and the couples all shifted and rearranged. By the time they reached the
spot where the triplet in question had been dancing, he was nowhere to be
found.
Derek and Hannah had moved up to the
head table to cut the towering wedding cake. Paul spotted a triplet heading
that direction. He looked over his shoulder straight at Paul and Ben and waved.
"They're just messing with
us," Ben said.
It sure felt that way. Paul had no idea
if they had seen all three of them, or just one moving around fast. Then the
truth hit him like a punch in the face.
"If one of them can deep us
distracted here, the other two can do whatever they have planned somewhere
else."
"Where?" Ben raised an
eyebrow.
Paul thought about it for a minute.
"Their cottage. That must be it." Another terrible thought occurred
to him. Derek had left the force field box sitting on his desk. In his office. Where
the triplets came and went all the time.
"Shoot. They may have the
invisible force field."
"You're kidding. I thought you gave
it to Derek."
"I did, but he's been
distracted."
"Great. We'd better get over
there," Ben said.
They took off at a sprint through the
twilight for the married couples' housing on the other side of town. Everything
around Derek and Hannah's newly finished cottage was dark and quiet.
Undisturbed. "Maybe we got here in time," Paul said, trying to catch
his breath.
Ben humphed. "Or maybe they're
inside, invisible, waiting to surprise the happy couple on their wedding
night."
Paul groaned. "We'd better find
out." He and Ben stepped up onto the porch.
A light flipped on, and an avalanche of
tiny bits of colored paper rained down on top of them. Balloons floated down
with the confetti, and sultry violin music started up out of nowhere. A banner
reading "Welcome home, Lovebirds," unfurled above the door. Paul
stood there in shock, blinking confetti out of his eyes. Ben muttered a swear
word.
"What are you doing? You ruined
it!"
Paul turned and saw Lem, Sam, and Tim
coming around from the back. "That was supposed to be for Derek and
Hannah. What are you doing?"
Paul shook a mound of confetti off his
head. "Um…we wanted to see what you were up to." He looked over at
Ben and had to bite back a laugh at the sight of him with confetti stuck in his
long, black hair.
"What did you think we were going
to do?" Lem asked. "Burn the place down?"
"Well—"
"Did you think we'd actually ruin
the wedding?" He turned on his brother. "I thought you were
distracting them." Sam just shrugged.
"What's going on?" Derek and
Hannah stood hand in hand in front of the porch, looking bewildered. Hannah
giggled.
Lem faced them. "These jokers
ruined your surprise." He pointed with his thumb at Paul and Ben. "We
modified the force field to trigger the confetti and stuff when you stepped
through it. Only these two beat you to it."
Paul wanted to disappear. Ben had his
hands bunched into fists.
"That's nice guys," Derek
said. "Thanks. Really."
"Yeah." Hannah giggled behind
her hand. "Nice. But do you think you could leave? Like now?"
"Oh, hey, we're outta here,"
Lem said. "Come on, guys."
Paul stepped off the porch and shook
hands with Derek as he and Hannah came around them and disappeared into the
house.
Lem put an arm around Paul's shoulder.
"You really should have seen the look on your faces. It was priceless.
Almost makes up for not getting to see Hannah and Derek's."
"Great."
"So, no hard feelings, right?
Let's get back to the party. I bet there's still a lot of cake to eat."
"Yeah," Tim said. "And
lots of girls to dance with."
Paul shook off his embarrassment and
laughed. "All right, let's go." He turned to Ben. "You in?"
Ben rolled his eyes and picked confetti
out of his hair. "You guys are nuts. But if you can't beat 'em, join 'em,
right? What the heck. I'm in."
THE END
Copyright
2014 Angella Lofthouse
All
rights reserved
www.angielofthouse.com