The Permutation

Results (Part 7) Jordan

Before she knew it, their eggshell white, lone duplex loomed in the distance. However, the neighbor's characteristic, pitted with rust, yellow Geo was noticeably absent. Albert. The lack of something fundamental to the scenery of their house jogged the events of that morning loose; waking up on her floor, the dead bird, Albert, the charred wall. It's all connected she thought with a jolt. An all encompassing violet light flooded her mind, and she remembered her dream. It wasn't a dream. The only dream was that I'll ever be normal.

The application of brakes jarred Jordan forwards against her seatbelt. Her mother had almost driven by their house. Without breaking stride in her conversation with Derek, she corrected the mistake, and parked the car. Her eyes darted to the rear-view mirror. She was waiting to see if Jordan noticed the mistake. At Jordan's silence, she shut down the engine and addressed the both of them.

"I hope the two of you have fun working on your project. I'm going to go take a nap, I'm just so tired. It was lovely to meet you Derek. Jordan, there's pizza in the freezer, and don't think you're off the hook for what happened at school today. I love you," she said leaning over the middle console to give Jordan a kiss on the forehead.

Delilah Bryant released another long yawn and headed inside. The kids waited for her to disappear into the house before they uttered a word. Jordan chose the next thing she said with care.

"I think you might be right."

"I know I'm right!" he beamed, "About what?"

"Something is going on here, something bad. I feel it. It's time to stop playing pretend. You need to leave."

"Who's playing pretend? I know what I signed up for. I'm going to be your fearless sidekick, and if you're not okay with that, I'll just blab your secret to everyone," he said sticking out his tongue.

Jordan opened her mouth to speak, but held herself back. The part of her that didn't want Derek's help was diminishing at a breakneck pace. She knew that she was being selfish, but the thought of that dead bird and Albert's unmoving body scared her. When push came to shove, she knew that she couldn't do this alone, and the last thing her mom needed was to be involved in this mess. Jordan had screwed up her life enough.

Holding up her hand in a calming gesture, Jordan said, "Fine, you can help, but no more saying you're my sidekick."

He winked at her with that big, goofy grin, "Aye aye captain!"

A giggle escaped from Jordan's lips at his antics. Before they knew it, that one little laugh broke down the walls between them as they erupted in laughter. The type of laughter only children are capable of; laughter so potent that the world's woes get washed away in the face of it.

Wiping tears from her eyes, the pair exited the vehicle, unprepared for the scene that lay in wait. The dead bird still remained on a corner of the lawn, but not all of it. Between this morning and now, something had ripped open the little birdie's chest cavity. To Jordan, it reminded her of the chest spiders in that Alien movie her dad used to watch. A discarded bicycle and a bottle of clear liquid that turned out to be alcohol had been left abandoned in the grass. To top off the nightmare fodder, large chunks of Earth had been gouged out of their yard. It was moments like these that Jordan regretted her active imagination. It would be hard to sleep imagining the creature that did that to her front lawn.

Throughout this entire process, Derek ran back and forth between the gouges in the Earth and the disemboweled bird. "This is better than I thought! We're going to hunt down a monster!" he exclaimed with glee.

"I don't think it would be quite so awesome if we ended up like that bird," she said.

"We're the good guys. Stuff like that never happens to the good guys. Haven't you ever read a comic book?" he said shaking his head.