And after half a week cramped up in the van, stopping only for sleep, and the occasional bathroom break, their bad moods made him look cheerful. And he was anything but cheerful.....
*If only I had visited my grandmother instead.......* Eduardo sighed.
He wasn't giving anyone the satisfaction of knowing just how miserable he was. Eduardo laughed inwardly at the thought of that. He had basically stopped talking to everyone except Kevin and Casey. He had managed to keep them civil all day by telling them stories, well, actually, one story he just kept making up as he went along. Eduardo was very good at telling stories. It had helped to be very convincing when he showed up at school all those times with cuts and bruises. He remembered the time when his teacher had sent him to the nurse because he had had scratches all over his face from been pushed against the china cabinet, and falling through.
"Eduardo?" Eduardo looked over into a pair of questioning eyes, eyes that where surrounded with black eyeshadow, eyes that where rescuing him from thinking about that "accident" from so long ago...
"Yes?" he said in a partially fake irritated tone. It was hard to get mad, or stay mad, at this girl sometimes, but she made it plenty easy. Especially lately. Eighty something hours spent basically together in a van could make Barney want to punch out the closest bystander.
"Kevin and Casey are awake, and have decided to see how many Cherrios they can lace into Garrett's hair before he wakes up, and they won't listen to Roland and me when we try to explain how extremely pissed off Garrett will be when he wakes up!" Kylie hissed.
Eduardo turned around. Kevin and Casey, who were in the middle of the van, were twisted around to face the back seat, where Garrett and Roland were sitting. Garrett's hair stuck out from Cherrios in little tuffs. Roland was staring at Garrett, with a look like he was afraid that Garrett would wake up. Slimer was looking at Garrett's head like he wanted to eat it. A smile touched his lips for a moment.
"So?" he asked Kylie.
"So, they listen to you when you tell them to stop!"
"Gee, look who's whining now!" teased Eduardo. "Sorry..." he said, an evil smile appearing on his face, " ...but who says I want to stop them? I should think Garrett's reaction should be quite funny to see...."
Kylie stared strangely at Eduardo. She'd figured she had him pegged right from the start, a slacker who didn't really care about anything or anyone. But he wasn't like that, she soon discovered. And especially lately. He'd been fairly quiet, and she would quite often find him in Egon's study, either so off in thought she would have to practically scream to get him to "come back," or writing in his binder.
She had doubted he was doing homework, because he didn't have any other books out, and he hated homework anyway. She didn't see him as the type to keep a journal, especially since he was always saying something about hers.
*But I was wrong about him before* she thought, and realized she'd have to make him tell her what was going on. She'd tried asking before, but he pretended he didn't know what she was talking about, and than changed the subject so subtly, she hadn't realized until after what he'd done. But who could blame her?
His soft brown eyes kind of reminded her of Bambi, and when he looked at her, it was as if he knew everything about her, down to her very core. His face was perfectly symmetrical as far as she could tell, and he had a small scar above his left eye that added definition. They had all been soaked from the pouring rain while Eduardo, Egon, and Roland pushed the van out of the ditch, (Egon had gotten too absorbed in a heated discussion over the ethics of scientists on the radio, and had forgotten he was driving). Eduardo had actually laughed about it and said there was no way they had better make fun of his driving for a while! Talk about weird! The rain had drenched his head, and now his hair had partially fallen around his face, almost as if it was framing a picture. Not to forget his voice. Every time he said her name, it was like electric shivers raced up and down her spine.
Eduardo waited for Kylie to say something. They'd been talking, but she had suddenly stopped, and was now staring at him with a blank look on her face. He self-consciously ran his hand over his hair, only to find it was falling around his face. Cursing under his breath, he tried in vain to put it back up.
"Don't."
Eduardo looked over at Kylie, who had apparently decided to come back to the conversation. "Don't what?" he asked.
"Your hair, leave it down" Kylie answered, hoping he would not ask her why. No such luck, she thought as he opened his mouth and formed a "W" position. But than he simple stopped, looked at her with a kind of startled look, and said "O.K." Kylie was glad Garrett was asleep, because he seemed to have a sixth sense when it came to cutting into Kylie and Eduardo's personal conversations with some sort of lewd comment.
Meanwhile, Eduardo was wondering why Kylie had asked him to keep his hair down. Maybe she was laughing at him, but she didn't look like she was. Some of his other friends had told him that he looked better with his hair down, but he hadn't thought so. Did Kylie think he looked cute? 'No,' he thought to himself, 'she's just not in the mood to have me fixing my hair, and probably spray water all over her.' he looked back at Kevin and Casey, who now had almost all of Garrett's head covered with Cherrios. Deciding that he really did want to see Garrett's reaction, he decided to sleep until then. He looked at Kylie to see if she was still staring at him. She was. For some reason, Eduardo didn't mind this, while he normally didn't like anyone staring at him, not even for a moment. Trying to find a way to end the conversation, so he could catch some more sleep, he simply said "Look at Garrett," with an almost elfish smile.
Kylie turned around, and could see that Garrett's hair wasn't his only weakness at the point. Trying not to either puke or laugh at the sight of Garrett drooling, she turned back around. Turning to Eduardo, she said "I didn't see Garrett as the 'drooling-in-his-sleep' kind of guy....."
Eduardo grinned. "Maybe he's not sleeping," he said, his smile turning into a grin, "Maybe he's dead...."
Kylie tightened her lips, and tried not to laugh. It wasn't all that funny, but being cramped in the van for so long can do strange things to people. She briefly wondered how Garrett was dealing with it, all this time closed up in the van. Looking over at Eduardo, she could see he was now trying to sleep. Typical to his behavior lately. Just when you got him talking, he did something to end the conversation. Resting her head against the seat, she decided she might as well sleep too. And only minutes later, she was.
After that, Eduardo didn't say much that night, or for the next couple of days. Egon had, however, found Eduardo in his study at 2:00 in the morning on Thursday, still up, writing in a binder. He wondered what was up.
Putting that out of his mind, he focused on the trip. They were all traveling to Augila, Arizona. In only a day, they would be there. He'd heard stories about a ghost. She took the shape of a beautiful woman as a ploy to get men to offer her a ride. Once she was close enough, though, her body transformed into a horrid skeleton, and would turn the unfortunate man into her slave. Recently, there had been increasing sightings of her, so Egon, was of course, interested. And since the Mayor was just short of having the Ghostbusters arrested, He had decided to take the kids with him.
Eduardo said he had to look after Kevin, since Carl and Beth were going on vacation. Egon told Eduardo that Kevin could come along, if his parent's didn't mind. Eduardo must have asked Beth, because the very next day Eduardo said they'd be coming, and he knew Carl didn't like the Ghostbusters very much. Since Egon was letting Kevin go, he thought it only fair to let Casey go when Roland asked.
Egon slowed as he came to an intersection. Recalling which direction he needed to go, Egon turned. "I'm making good time" he thought. It had only been about 4 days since they left New York, and they were already in New Mexico. They would have been farther, but after a while Egon had been forced to make routine stops. While he understood the need for a washroom break every once in a while, he didn't understand why they needed to stop for food. "Eat from the cooler!" he told them, but he was outnumbered. Even Slimer wouldn't eat from the cooler.
Suddenly the car stopped. Egon tried turning the keys. Nothing happened. Turned them again. Nothing happened. He sighed, and looked at Janine. She was fast asleep, her hair falling across her face. For a moment, he wanted to wake her, talk to her, but the moment passed. What was he thinking, anyway? Sighing again, he got out of the van, pushing the engine bonnet release button. Opening it up, he realized his continuous driving and the humid climate had overheated the engine. The car wouldn't start, and they were in the middle of the road. Luckily, the road was nearly deserted, so the van wasn't slowing traffic. Unfortunately, this meant there was no one to talk to, since the entire van full of people were asleep. He climbed back into the van intending to read more about the ghost until something could be done.
Surprisingly, Eduardo had lent him an excellent book of stories about the ghosts of Arizona. Eduardo said he borrowed from his Grandmother, Emily. Egon had only met her once, but this explanation seemed feasible. Eduardo's grandmother seemed unique, if nothing else.
Just as he was about to open the book, Egon was startled to see a lone figure running towards the car. As the figure approached, he could see it was a boy about Kevin's age. The boy was running barefoot across the flat, dry land, his pale blue jeans smeared with a green liquid, his beige shirt torn and only half on, and a mass of black hair flying in his face.
Egon got out of the van, and ran to meet the boy. Egon could now see the boy's face was flushed, and he was sobbing uncontrollably.
"Puedes ayudarme!" the boy screamed, " Por favor, he has them!"
"Has who? Who has them?" Egon questioned.
"Mi padre, mi hermana!" he cried, " The monster has them!" he yelled, before collapsing into a heap on the ground.
"That's what must've woken me up..." he sighed. Glancing around, he noticed that Egon, himself, was missing. Roland squinted through the van's tinted windows, but he saw no sign of Egon. Hearing an assortment of sighs and yawns, he realized the beeping had awakened the others. He would have laughed at their appearances, had he not been worried about Egon. Both Casey and Kevin had such sour looks, he could barely look at them. Kylie must have rubbed her eyes at one point, because she now wore her make-up almost entirely over her face. Eduardo's hair seemed to be half up, and half down, with one side having some major bedhead. He couldn't see Janine, so he turned to Garrett, a chuckle escaping his lips.
Garrett shot him a look. "What?"
Roland looked away, a smile firmly in place, "Nothing...." Then, he remembered about Egon. "Has anyone seen Egon?"
"No."
"No."
"No."
"No."
"No."
"Si." They all looked at Eduardo. "Isn't that him?" He said, pointing to a figure walking towards the van, carrying what looked like a small child. Everyone clambered out of the van, and ran over to Egon.
"What is going on?" asked Janine. She stared at the limp child Egon was holding.
Egon said nothing until they reached the van. Laying the boy down, he asked Janine to get the first-aid kit.
After checking him over, he motioned for them all to talk a few feet from the van.
"Is he going to be O.K.?" asked Casey. The team looked down at him. They had forgotten that Kevin and Casey were there.
"Kevin, Casey, could you do me a favor?" asked Eduardo.
They looked at him. "What?"
"Could you go watch the boy, and tell us if he wakes up?"
"Fine." they sighed in unison, and walked off towards the van.
Everyone looked at Egon expectantly.
"Well?" asked Janine.
"I saw him running towards the van, so I went out to meet him. When I got there, he started yelling about some monster having his padres and hermana. Then, he fainted." Egon explained.
Garrett made a face. " His padres-who and hermana-what?" he asked.
"His parents and sister" Eduardo informed.
"Oh...well than let's go kick monster-butt!" said Garrett, spinning around to head towards the van, a few Cheerios falling, unknown by him, to the ground.
"Wait" commanded Egon. Garrett turned back around. " We don't even know where the boy came from, or how long he's been running. I think if it would be best if we wait until he wakes up, and ask him more about the situation."
Garrett sighed. He didn't want to wait. He wanted to zap this monster, and get this kid's family back. If it wasn't too late. He cringed at the thought.
"I don't want to wait either, compadre, but Egon's right." Garrett looked up at Eduardo and smiled. "Since when do YOU want to face a monster, goatboy?"
Eduardo grinned slightly. "You know, Garrett, you shouldn't be so cereal..."
From the back of the van, there was a muffled squeak. Everyone turned around to face the boy, now awake. The boy was staring at Slimer, a shiver running down his thin body.
Eduardo, who had been sitting beside him, wrapped a blanket around the boy. The boy curled up into the blanket, and fixed the group with suspicious stares.
"What's your name?" Egon asked, in a gentle voice.
The boy looked at him, worry flashing in his eyes. He looked over at Eduardo, than back to Egon, but said nothing.
His voice even softer than Egon's, Eduardo turned to the boy and asked "¿Cómo estas?"
The boy looked at Eduardo. In a wavery voice, he answered "Estoy...mas o menos."
Eduardo smiled. "¿Cual es tu nombre?"
"Alejo."
Eduardo smiled. "Mi nombre es Eduardo. ¿Cuántos años tienes?"
"Diez."
"¿Habla inglés?"
The group watched as the boy paused for a second. Thoughtfully, he answered Eduardo's question. "A little..."
"Are you hungry?"
" Yes, señor."
Eduardo smiled, and pulled a sandwich from the cooler. "It's not very good..." he told the boy.
The boy cautiously nibbled on the sandwich. Eduardo turned to the group, expecting an attack of questions.
"Is he O.K.?" asked Janine.
"What's his name?" asked Roland.
"How old is he?" interjected Kevin.
"Does he remember what happened?" Garrett demanded.
Eduardo shot Garrett a look. Turning to Egon, he answered the other's questions. "His name is Alejo, he says he is OK and that he is 10 years old. I haven't asked him anything besides that."
Egon looked at Eduardo thoughtfully. "I'd like to check him over just to make sure he's OK, and than we'll ask him about what happened."
Egon took out a stethoscope and turned towards Alejo. He leaned over to check the boy's condition, however, Alejo took one look at Egon, backed up from him, right into Eduardo.
Eduardo remembered when he was a kid, his mother and grandmother were the only people he trusted enough to let touch him. Slowly, Eduardo put his hand on the boy's shoulder. Leaning over, he whispered "Egon is my amigo. He won't do anything bad to you."
Alejo looked from Eduardo to Egon. He stayed absolutely still. Egon leaned slowly towards Alejo, and this time the boy did not back away. After taking his pulse and temperature, and checking for cuts, Egon looked at Alejo and smiled. Alejo smiled, then looked at Eduardo.
"I heard what you were saying before. They..." he motioned towards the others, "would like to know what happened."
"Yes, we would. Do you mind telling us?" Eduardo gently asked.
Alejo looked at the others, as if studying to see if they could be trusted. He trusted the one called Eduardo. He wasn't quite sure why, but he did. Maybe because he hadn't pushed for answers. Eduardo had said Egon was he friend, and could be trusted, so the others must be OK, as well. Kevin took a deep breath and began...
"My family and I live over there..." Alejo pointed in the direction he had been running from. "...and every thing has been fine until a couple of weeks ago. That was when Mrs. Fernandez moved in next door. Suddenly everyone started acting loco, and they kept getting stranger and stranger. I had been in the house playing when I heard people outside. They were all in the middle of the ciudad, and they were chanting. When I went to ask them what they were doing, they screamed at me, and sent these monster-thingies after me. I ran and I ran, and I must have outrun them, because the next thing I remember is seeing you." Alejo looked at Egon.
Roland tilted his head slightly. "Ciudad?"
"Town" both Eduardo and Alejo translated.
"Who are "they"?" asked Garrett.
"The people in my ciudad...town."
"Alejo, what did the monsters look like?" asked Egon.
"They were really tall, in fact, they almost looked human, except they were covered in green slime. And, they mumbled a lot, like they were trying to talk, but couldn't."
Egon brought his hand up to his chin as he asked, "How long after Mrs. Fernandez showed up did they appear?"
"Two or three weeks, maybe..."
"Hmm..." sighed Egon.
"Oh no. He's going to say it..." Eduardo warned.
"This is bad. Very bad" stated Egon.
Alejo was sitting on the ground, near the van. Egon had decided that the team would spend the night there, and go and search his home in the morning. That way they'd have all day, instead of a couple of hours until nightfall.
Alejo took in a shaky breath. He looked at his arm, were the bumps had started growing. Right above his elbow, a patch of green bumps had started to appear shortly after everyone had gone to sleep. Scared, Alejo had gone outside to think things over, but his headache made it very hard, so he was thinking about his parents and sister instead. He hoped they were alright. He should of stayed, should of tried to help them. Instead, he ran, like a chicken. What if they had needed his help? What if they were already...no, they couldn't be. He had to go help them. It wasn't his choice anymore, he had to help them, now!
With an unnatural amount of desire to return home, Alejo got up and started running in the
direction of the town.
Eduardo was in the middle of a town. He was tied to a post, and a group of...well, he wasn't sure what they were a group of. The were tall, and green, but they had long sharp claws, and were dressed like cave men. A beautiful women sitting on a throne was shouting orders at them as they lit torches. What was going on? Were the going to burn him alive? Suddenly, the beautiful women was beside him, whispering something in his ear, but he couldn't make out the words.
Eduardo felt himself saying "No!", and the women frowned. Than she was at her throne again, talking to the mass of monsters. She stopped talking, and they turned to face him. A young boy holding a torch approached him, and as they boy came closer, he realized it was Alejo, except his skin was green and bumpy. Alejo threw the torch at the straw beneath him, and Eduardo could feel the heat. The beautiful women was now standing directly infront of him, unaffected by the flames. She was talking to him, but he still couldn't make out the words. It was as if she was trying to get him to follow her, yet he knew he couldn't because he was tied to the post. She smiled as if she knew what he was thinking, and Eduardo felt the rope loosen, and fall away. The women smiled again, stepped away from him, and Eduardo followed. He could feel that the ground was cold beneath him, not hot as he had expected. Infact, the ground was unnaturally cold, considering the fire should be burning his feet. He started to look back toward the post, to see if it was on fire, but the beautiful women caught his chin in her hand.
"Eduardo, please, join me!" She pleaded.
"No, I'm sorry Linora, but I can't." Eduardo wondered how he knew her name.
The women, Linora, frowned. "Fine than, you will die!"
Eduardo felt himself being pushed back into the fire, only now he could feel the heat. It was burning his back! He was on fire!
"Linora! Linora, please, help me!" he screamed, but he didn't know if she heard. 'OhGod, the heat, I'm burning, I'm...I'm going to die! She can't just leave me here!' he thought. "Linora? Linora!"
Alejo was nearing his home. He could see the sacred fire burning even from were he was. Soon, he would return, and bring his queen news of the intruders. She would be pleased to have more slaves, and the spanish man, the one they called Eduardo, might be the man she had been searching for. The queen would be very happy.
Eduardo took a deep breath. He wasn't in the fire anymore. He was on the ground, and he couldn't even see the van. He tried to sit up, but he felt very dizzy. Laying back down, he tried to figure out what was going on. He remembered a women, Linora?, and a town, and...was Alejo in it? Had it all happened? Was it a dream? It must have been a dream. Yes, he must have sleepwalked out here. It was the only thing that made sense. But where was here?