Thousand Year Switch

Chapter 26

After breakfast I retreated to the chapel part of the church to wander around the pews. I talked to Sara for a bit, telling her about Morgan's rejection and Aden falling into the fountain. I liked to think Sara laughed at that part. Finally I just sat there on the raised platform, staring out at the pews and knocking my heels on the base boards. I was enjoying the low, rhythmic "clunk, clunk, clunk" I was making, when one of the wooden doors at the end of the aisle squeaked open. I looked up to see Aden's dark eyes peering through the crack at me.

"Hey." I grinned at her. "Are you gonna just stand there spying on me, or what?" 

She opened the door wider and leaned in. "I thought I would stalk you a little before I showed myself. I hear it's the thing to do nowadays."

"It didn't work," I told her. "I spotted you."

She made her way down the aisle toward me, shoving her hands in the pockets of her jeans.

"I guess I'm a lousy stalker."

"You'll never make a career out of it, anyway."

She sat down beside me, near enough to brush my leg with hers. "So, I was watching the news just now..."

"How?" I said, confused, "we have no TV."

"One of the guys gets the news on his cell phone."

"Oh, gotcha. How's it looking out there?"

"Not so good." She grimaced. "In fact, I'm surprised they're organized enough to cover it. The death toll is in the tens of thousands and still counting. The Mawet will be kept busy for weeks."

"Letting Sloan run around to his heart's content."

"Exactly," Aden said.

We were quiet for a moment, listening to the drumming of my tennis shoes on the boards, and I realized why I was doing it suddenly. I was tense.

"Why is he waiting? Why hasn't he attacked yet?" I burst out. "I feel like I'm going bat shit insane! I'm gonna have a nervous breakdown if this keeps up."

Aden said calmly, "And that's probably why he's waiting."

I paused. "Really? Just to get us antsy? The switch is in, like, two days. Isn't it stupid to leave it so late?"

"Sloan has always been over confident," Aden said, "among other things. Who knows, maybe he doesn't plan to make trouble until the actual switch. He's pretty much impossible to predict."

I sighed. "Great, that's awesome."

She nudged me gently, bumping her shoulder into mine. "It's okay, when he gets here you can just dump him into the fountain."

I made an outraged noise and prodded her in the ribs, and she squealed and wriggled away.

"Maybe I will," I said. "Think he'll drown in five inches of water? Maybe he'll melt like the wicked witch."

Aden pulled a hideous face and mimed drooping onto the floor. "I'm mee-eelting!"

I laughed. "So, even Malake ha-Mawet have seen the Wizard of Oz."

"Are you kidding? That's a classic! Of course I've seen it."

"Well excuse me, I thought maybe you just sat around playing the violin and thinking about death or something."

Aden giggled. "Why the violin?"

"It goes with thinking about death. It's sufficiently melodramatic."

"Oh, I see." Aden sobered up a little. "We're too busy dealing with it to sit around and think about it." Neither of us said anything for a moment, our previous jovial moods chased away.

"So," she said, hesitantly. "I was sort of curious...I mean, tell me to mind my own business if you want to, but when the earthquake happened you asked about your mom. Just your mom..." she stopped, looking mortified, probably because I had turned tomato red.

I slumped forward with a groan, putting my face in my hands. "I know, I'm a terrible son. But I guess...I don't care about him as much." I looked up at her quickly, to see if she was looking at me in disgust, but she only looked sympathetic. "I mean, I don't have a great relationship with my mom, she drives me nuts. But I have no relationship with my dad. He left us when Sara died." There, I'd said it out loud. I looked around the church, stared hard at the empty pews. Could she hear me right now?

Aden's eyes remained on my face and she nodded for me to continue.

"I visit him at the dealership sometimes, he's the top car sales man. It's what he lives for. It is his life. I know, because even when he's talking to me he uses that smarmy, gross salesman voice. He asks me how my day went and I wonder if he's secretly trying to sell me a Porsche . It's like he's played the sparkling salesman for so long now, that it is him. He's fake, plastic like a Ken doll." My voice had risen in frustration as I was talking, and I stopped abruptly, realizing how pathetically wounded I sounded. She must think I was a total cry baby.

 Aden was smiling at me sympathetically. "I'm sorry, Lucas. That totally sucks."

"But it's still no excuse for not even asking if he's okay," I muttered, glancing sideways at her.

"He's fine," she said, reassuringly. "Though he threatened to call the police on the boys stationed with him. He seemed to think everything was some kind of government conspiracy."

"Sounds like him," I grumbled. "Did he try to sell them a car?"

"No." Aden was trying to suppress a smile. "Not that I know of."

"Cool." I tipped my head back and looked up at the high, arched ceiling above us. The beams that criss -crossed the ceiling were draped with cob webs, like gothic party streamers. Chandeliers hung from heavy black chains, three suspended from the center beam. The decorative drops of glass were murky and dull with dust. 

"Let's do something fun," I said.

Aden had been looking up, obviously wondering what I was staring at. She glanced back at me in surprise. "What kind of fun?"

I thought about it for a moment. We didn't have a lot of options here. "Well, do we have lots of ingredients in the kitchen?"

"I think so, they just went shopping yesterday."

"Let's bake a cake." I suggested, and Aden laughed. "What? Why?"

"Why not? Do you like chocolate?"

"I love chocolate," she said, almost reverently.

"Typical girl." I poked her in the side and she smacked my arm. 

"Okay, fine." She jumped up. "Let's do it. Let's make a cake! What are we celebrating though?"

"The switch of course," I grinned, following her down the aisle. "Do you happen to have a thousand candles?"

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