Traveler by L.E. DeLano (book suggestions .txt) 📕

“You make me a grilled cheese,” he says emphatically. Then he remembers his manners. “Please, Jessa?”

I give him a begrudging look. “Okay. Just this once.”

He leaves the room to go watch a DVD, and I saunter into the kitchen.

“Crisis averted.” I open the cupboard, reaching in for the griddle.

“Let me do that,” my mom says. “And what are you doing up?”

“I’m getting a backache from lying in bed all day.” I lean against the counter and look at her. “Have you even sat down since you got off work?”

She laughs. “No. When do I ever get to sit down?” She goes back to stirring her fry pan full of chicken and vegetables, and I reach across, taking the wooden spoon out of her hand.

“Since now. Go sit down and relax. I can stir chicken and make a grilled cheese.”

“I don’t want you hurting your arm,” she says.

“I don’t use my left arm to flip grilled cheese.” I tilt my head toward the living room. “Sounds like Danny’s watching The Incredibles.”

She looks torn. “I love The Incredibles.”

“I know you do. Go sit on the couch and watch the movie. Or open up a book for ten minutes. I’ve got this.”

“Okay … if you say so.”

“I say so.” I point toward the couch with the wooden spoon.

She gives me a silly sort of half-smile and then hugs me carefully. Then she runs a hand over my hair.

“Why don’t you call your friend Flynn?”

“Finn.”

“Sorry. Why don’t you tell him to come over? Or give Ben a call?”

“You mean it?” She nods and I perk up immediately, giving her a smile as I butter bread for Danny’s grilled cheese. She peels the cheese slices from their plastic wrappers, laying them out for me.

“Enough, Mom. Go sit down.”

“Okay. But watch that arm.”

I plate up the stir-fry for Mom and me and deliver Danny’s grilled cheese before settling between the two of them on the couch. I send Finn a quick text, telling him to come over, and I leave the phone in my lap as I eat. We watch the movie, and for a while it feels wonderful to be back in the normal world again. But I know there’s no such thing. I don’t get to be normal, ever again. Someone wants me dead.

Finn shows up halfway through the movie and watches it to the end with us. He’s never seen a Pixar movie, and I have to remind myself that he’s not from around here. After the movie, we go up to my room so I can tackle some homework.

“You seem like you’re feeling better,” he remarks as he sits down on the bed next to me.

“My shoulder still hurts, but it’s not as bad as it was. It’s a great shade of yellowish green. I only have to take my medicine at bedtime now.”

“That’s a shame,” he says, and his mouth twitches into a smile. “You’re awfully cute when you’re medicated.”

I put my hands over my face. “Oh God. What did I tell you?”

He’s grinning widely now. “You met a certain pirate…,” he prods. “And I gather he—or should I say ‘I’—got a little familiar.”

“It all happened out of nowhere,” I tell him. “I had no idea he was there until I ran into him. I was too busy noticing how weird everything was.”

“It’s all right,” he says. “You’re bound to run into me from time to time. It’s just a little odd that you fell right into his arms like that. You’ve been so determined to run away from me.”

He sounds almost … hurt. I owe him the truth.

“It’s not you I’m running from, Finn. You come with a whole life I’m not sure I want for myself.”

“Would it be so bad?” he asks softly. “Living that life? You’re not alone in this.”

His fingers come up to tuck my hair back behind my ear, and they linger, touching my face. “I’ll take care of you, Jessa. You know that.”

I give a little shiver as his fingers stroke my skin.

“You’re cold,” he says.

I try to get a grip on myself. “It’s freezing in here.”

“You think?” He shrugs. “Guess I’m used to the cold. I’m fine.” He glances around, then finds my hoodie on the back of the chair by my desk. He hops off the bed and then helps me out of my sling and carefully into the sleeves.

Once I get my sling back on, I settle myself again, cross-legged. “So, where do you live that’s so cold and has no Pixar movies?” I ask him. “Antarctica?”

He exhales, almost like a sigh but deeper, and I wonder if I shouldn’t have asked that. Finally, he answers.

“My reality started out a lot like yours,” he tells me. “We just got … derailed.”

“By what?”

“Natural catastrophe, triggered by man. We’d been fracking and drilling all over Montana and Wyoming for decades, without a lot of regulation or oversight. Eventually, we triggered an earthquake cluster that kicked off the Yellowstone eruption. That led to global temperature drops, crop destruction, famine; all the rivers and streams were choked with ash. It happened when I was a little kid, but my mom used to tell me about what it was like before. It sounded a lot like your life.”

“And now?” I’m almost afraid to ask.

“Widespread starvation and not a lot of natural resources. The government fell to a military coup, which led to a couple of short-lived wars in a battle for usable land that threw spots all over the world into anarchy. Now the few people who are left are running. Like me.”

“From what?”

“From each other.” He stops a moment. “There’s no food where I live, Jessa. No animals, no plants, not even many living trees. It’s all gone. The rest of the globe didn’t fare much better, so aid has been extremely limited and without any kind of widespread distribution. In some places, humans are the easiest source of food.”

I put my hand to my mouth. “That’s horrible.”

“You learn to sleep with one eye open. And you learn to