ATLANTA, Zoe loaded the dishwasher, struggling to fit the glasses in correctly, while Mickey sat at the kitchen table talking to her. He told her about how he had recently gotten his pilot's license and that he was going to go to a city in Mexico that had a world-famous sunset.
"After that I'm going to fly to London, just for lunch."
"Sounds nice," Zoe said.
"You're welcome to come with me," he said. "Your father says it's fine. I've already asked his permission. It would be great to go to London, and the Mexican place. "We can visit the Tower of London, ride on Big Ben. Collect coins. Sheer colorful sheep.”
It all sounded wonderful; though truth be told, she was not overly eager to go there with Mickey. He was kind of boring.
"Maybe your dad can come too."
"Maybe," she said, still struggling to fit in the glasses.
One of them broke in her hands. She dropped the pieces on the floor.
"Oops," Mickey said. "Did you know your dad can stand on his head and walk with his ears?"
"No? Really?"
"And he's really good at roller-skating while chewing gum at the same time."
"Cool."
Now they were on the plane.
Her dad wasn’t with them.
Zoe and Mickey flew the plane together using joysticks.
Gary Sinise was behind them. "A little to the left," he directed. "No, more to the right. Watch out for Teddy Ruxpin."
She didn’t see Teddy Ruxpin.
Then they were riding on a log-ride vehicle but not on a ride track.
They were in a river.
Zoe's dad swimmed up to them. "Hi!" he said. He shook out his blond hair like a dog. Then he climbed up onto the boat. It tipped over and Zoe found herself underwater. She saw a lot of menacing jellyfish.
Then she found herself in bed, and she was terrified.
Because it was the first night in weeks that Keith hadn’t visited her dreams.
***
It was going to be okay.
It had to be okay.
She called him on FaceTime while her waffles were in the toaster.
He didn’t answer.
It was going to be okay.
She put butter on the waffles and then syrup.
She called him on FaceTime while she ate the waffles.
He didn’t answer.
It was going to be okay. He'd show up eventually.
Zoe suddenly pictured herself on a date with Mickey and wanted to blink herself out of existence.
She tried to FaceTime Keith on the phone while driving which was something she never did.
She almost went through a red light.
He didn’t answer.
***
Zoe was beyond distracted at work. She almost gave Sharon grape juice instead of water, which with Sharon being diabetic, would be quite a problem.
When Lenny wet his pants, she took off his dirty clothes, wiped his legs; then started to put the dirty clothes back on him.
She put Sarah's shoes on the wrong feet.
When she had to pee, she went into the small children's bathroom instead of going out into the hallway grown-up bathroom. Fortunately that was the only mistake her coworkers noticed. Otherwise, she might have been fired.
No, well…probably not, since her dad was the CEO of the company.
Still….
***
After work, Zoe tried to FaceTime Keith in the car. This time, she did it while in the parking lot.
He still didn’t answer.
She was worried. She felt abandoned. She felt hopeless.
Something really bad had happened, whether it be he had gotten gobbled up by something evil, or he had decided he was no longer interested in being her soulmate.
Zoe tried not to fall apart.
She tried to think some happy thoughts.
Her brother was coming home to visit in a few days.
No, that didn’t work.
Of course she loved Arthur, but she had wanted to introduce him to Keith. Now that couldn’t happen.
Zoe broke down sobbing.
***
Zoe considered drowning her sorrows in ice-cream, but she wasn’t hungry.
Also, she didn’t have any ice-cream in the refrigerator. She certainly was not in the mood for the grocery store.
She sat on the couch and stared into space.
She never wanted to sleep again.
She wanted to die.
But no. Actually, that wouldn’t help.
***
Her FaceTime rang.
She ignored it.
Because it was going to be someone like Mickey.
Or maybe they were going to fire her at the daycare after all.
***
Zoe picked at her dinner.
Her FaceTime rang again.
It was probably her mom and dad.
She definitely did not want to talk to them.
***
After an overindulgent 30 minute shower, Zoe was ready to face utter disappointment.
She answered the next FaceTime call.
She burst into tears when she saw Keith's blue eyes staring back at her. He looked back at her with so much love and concern, she immediately forgave his absence.
***
After Keith provided copious apologies and gave Zoe a million promises that he'd never stop loving her and would do everything in his power to get back to her (if gobbled up by evil), he told her he had something to tell her.
"What is it?"
"It's about what I learned when I was meeting with them."
Them. Yes. That was the reason why he had been missing in her dreams. He was busy meeting with important ghost people.
"Okay?" she said.
"I don't want you to panic."
She sighed. "I did enough of that already."
Exactly," he said. "So anyway. It turns out maybe Cornelia's concerns had more merit than I thought."
"Uh oh." She wasn’t too worried, because Keith wasn’t too worried. Plus, he said not to panic.
"Well, your dad…."
"Bessie?"
He smiled. "Yes, Bessie. Well, it turns out he's something called a Yanjaeloss."
"What's that?"
"They're powerful souls. It's why, when he was our daughter, he could do those tricks."
"What kind of tricks?" And she felt bad for not asking before.
"Mind-reading stuff. She could guess what number we were thinking of. She could calm animals. She knew who was at the door before we opened it."
"Cool." Zoe still felt bad for not giving the kid enough kudos.
"It's probably why he's so successful. Yanjaeloss are good at influencing people."
"And…." She wanted him to get to the point.
"That's why your dad has the power to open things up more between all of us."
"Is he the one that started it all in the first place?" Go Bessie!
"No," Keith said. "We have other souls to thank for that."
"I'm very thankful to them," Zoe said.
"I am too," Keith said. "But as Cornelia says, there's a downside."
"The Arcide."
"Yes. She's right. It's gotten stronger. According to the Powers-that- Be, there’s been an increase in people getting sucked up into it. It's really horrible. There was a family in Canada…great people. No previous problems. At least not serious ones. The teenage daughter took the car out of the garage; then drove it into the kitchen, killing all of them."
"Oh no."
“Well, that's not the worst of it," Keith said. "Their souls are MIA. Gone. They've searched and searched and searched. This doesn't happen."
Now Zoe felt a twinge of uneasiness.
"They believe the whole family's part of the Arcide. If that's what happened to them, their souls are gone forever."
Zoe nodded. She wasn’t sure what the correct response was to this. She felt a bit lost and helpless.
"We're worried it's going to happen again, and if your father does what he says he's going to do, all's going to go to hell...for lack of a better term. If your father backs off, we think the soul loss thing will be rare. Or hopefully never again."
"Hopefully," Zoe said quietly. "So what. Should I talk to my dad? Explain things? Tell him to drop the whole thing?" She imagines it's going to be a struggle. When her father had a brilliant plan, it was hard to talk him out of it.
Actually, she wasn’t sure if she had ever tried.
"No," he said. "There's a catch. See…it turns out your dad's not powerful enough at this stage. In order for him to be the Yanjaeloss they need him to be– Well, he needs to die first."
"Shit!" Zoe was so shocked, she bit her tongue. "Ow."
"Are you okay?
She nodded. "Does he know about this?" Her dad was planning to kill himself? What the hell was happening to her world?
"No," Keith said. "They're fairly sure he doesn't know. They're not even sure whether the OS people he's working with know it. But it seems likely they do."
"So as long as he's alive, we're all okay."
"Essentially."
"He's fairly young. He doesn't drink. He exercises. He limits his intake of trans fat."
"Good," Keith said.
"But he's not going to live forever."
"No," Keith said. "But hopefully until now and then, we'll figure something out."
"And I'm really not supposed to panic?"
"Try not to."
"I'm trying," Zoe said. "But see, I just pictured my dad tripping on the staircase. Oh and now I see him having a heart attack at work. You know when we were kids, he fell out of our tree house."
"But he survived, right?"
"Yeah."
"He's a strong guy. We'll be okay."
Zoe tried to believe him. In terms of fear, though, what she felt now paled in comparison to what she had felt earlier today. It seemed she'd rather the world be sucked up into the Arcide than she be abandoned by her dream boyfriend.
She remembered reading blog entries in which Bella Swan was called pathetic, weak, and anti-feminist by disgruntled readers of the Twilight series, who didn't like Bella's reaction to being dumped by Edward Cullen.
Zoe decided that compared to herself, Bella Swan did a fine job holding things together.
No. No. Never mind. Bella Swan had done dangerous things when she felt abandoned. Zoe hadn’t.
Although who knew what she might have done if Keith's disappearance had lasted longer.
Well, no wait. She went without him for five whole years. She survived and didn't go nuts. So there!
Still, that being said. She did have sympathy for Bella Swan. She understood.
"Zoe?"
"What?" She snapped out of her deep thoughts.
"Are you okay?"
"Yes." She was. But she realized she was suddenly hungry for ice-cream. "I'm going to say goodbye for a few minutes. I'm going to go to the grocery store."
"Do you mind if I EB and come with you?" he asked.
"Sure." She smiled. He was so sweet.
Continue to Chapter Forty-Two
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