Chapter 25
Julian was in the dining room, finishing a supreme-flavor personal pizza that he’d cooked to perfection in the oven minutes before. Julian put down what was left of his pizza, got up and walked to his nearest phone extension, in the kitchen. Then, he picked up the handset. “Hello.”
“Is this Mr. Julian Thornton?”
“Yes, it is. How may I help you?” Right away he knew that it was a fellow alien calling him.
“Hello, Mr. Thornton. I’m Heidi Lane, Dr. Kress’ secretary. I need your help. You see, Dr. Kress is in his office right now…unconscious.”
“Oh.” Julian got her drift.
“Mrs. Kress needs you to come to the clinic and take him back home.”
“Ok, Ms. Lane, I’ll be right there.”
“Thank you, Mr. Thornton.”
Julian hung up, rushed to the living room, got his jacket from the sofa, put it on, and rushed out of the house, to his car, which was not parked in his garage just yet. He didn’t know how, but he knew he would go out again today before the day was over.
A few minutes later, Julian was on the way to Clay’s office. Suddenly, his cell phone rang. He used his hands-free device installed in the car to take the call. “Hello.”
“Hello, Julian,” said Hayley. “How are you?”
“I’m doing great, especially now that I’m hearing from you! So you came back from Australia.”
“Yes, I arrived last night, but I didn’t call you because it was two o’clock in the morning and I thought you’d get upset.”
“Are you kidding me? A call from you would never upset me, no matter what time it is! Besides, if someone needs me, he or she can count on me, call me any time. You never know when you’re going to need someone to help you very badly late at night. We have to be fair in life, remember that we reap what we sow”
“You’re absolutely right. So, what are you doing?”
“I’m on my way to pick up Dr. Kress from his clinic and take him back home to his wife.”
“So, he can’t drive right now.”
“No, he’s unconscious.”
Hayley remained pensive for a few minutes and then finally understood what Julian was saying. “Oh…”
“Yes, and when I’m finished with that, I’m going to go home and hopefully, you can come over tonight, you know watch a movie or something. Then, we can make plans to go out on the weekend.”
“I’d like that,” she said, smiling. “Yes, I am coming over to your house tonight. We met and shared a few sweet, short moments together, but we haven’t really spent much time together to get to know each other…although I’m sure despite the few days you knew me before I had to go to Australia, you know me well enough. I just need to get to know you.”
“I hope you don’t regret it. I hope you like what you see and what you discover.”
“Oh, I’m sure I will. We’ll see. Let’s give this a try. We’re strongly attracted to each other. We want to be together. I know you want me as badly as I want you.”
“We’re starting to get naughty here,” he commented, with an evil grin on his face.
“There’s nothing wrong with that. We’re adults. If we like one another, why not go for it?”
Julian had different plans with Hayley however. He didn’t want sex, at least not now. It was way too soon for him, and he wanted a real and romantic relationship. He wanted to go out with her, have fun, spend time together, give her flowers and chocolates, postcards and other gifts, meet her family, and spend some time with her parents and her siblings…a traditional, old-fashioned relationship. Sex would come after marriage. That’s right, he wanted to get married. He knew that Hayley was the true love of his life, and she would be the mother of his children. They would spend many years together, almost two thousand years to be exact. “I think we need to take it slow,” he said, after minutes of silence.
“Ok, we’ll do this your way. You know what’s best for the two of us much better than I do.”
“That’s correct. I’m going to go home when I take Dr. Kress to his house, and you’re going to come over, we’re going to watch a movie together, we’re going to have a little talk, I’m going to make a snack, and then around ten o’clock, you’re going to go back home, get some sleep, and I’m going to get some sleep, too. Do we have a deal?”
“We have a deal.”
“We have to crawl before we can walk and walk before we can run.”
“I agree with you completely.”
“All right, then, I’ll see you tonight.”
“I’ll see you tonight, Julian,” she said, smiling, and hung up.
Shortly after, Julian arrived at Clay’s clinic to comply with his mission. Heidi was standing outside, waiting for him. Obviously, she had taken the key to close the office because Clay wouldn’t be able to do so. Julian and Heidi went back into the clinic together and walked into Clay’s office. Julian effortlessly lifted Clay off his desk chair and carried him on his shoulder. Clay was still unconscious, and the changes that were taking place in his body were not visible to the eye. Then, Julian and Heidi walked out of the clinic and then walked to the parking lot. Heidi went to Julian’s car and opened the passenger door for him. Julian accommodated Clay in the passenger seat of his car very carefully and then buckled his seatbelt. Then, Julian got his head out of the car and Heidi closed the door. “Thank you for coming, Mr. Thornton.”
“It was my pleasure, Ms. Lane. You can call me any time. I’ll be here for you. Anything you need, don’t hesitate to ask.”
“Thank you so much. You’re the sweetest,” she said as she shook his right hand with her left hand. Then she walked a few steps to her car, opened unlocked the driver door with her keyless-entry, opened it, got into the car, fastened her seatbelt, started the car, and pulled out of the parking lot. Julian stood there, by his car, watching her until she left, to make sure that no freak would attack her or that anything else would happen to her. Then, he did the same things she did and within minutes, he was out of the parking lot. He took the road.
Luckily for Clay, his clinic was only two miles away from his house, so he could walk to his clinic every morning and walk home from the clinic every afternoon. It didn’t take him long for Julian to take him back home. Nevertheless, he had some important advice for Katherine. In a matter of minutes, Julian parked his car in the entrance of the Kress mansion. Katherine walked outside to receive him and Clay as Julian once again carried Clay on his shoulder, this time, to the inside of his mansion. They walked a long hallway to the stairwell, past the main living room and the hallway to the bedrooms on the first story of the house, walked up the stairs to the third story of the mansion. Then, they walked the hallway to Clay and Katherine’s bedroom. They went inside the bedroom. Clay and Katherine’s bed was made, ready for Clay to lie down on and sleep in for the rest of the night, as he wouldn’t be able to wake up until tomorrow morning. Julian accommodated Clay on the bed and helped Katherine undress him.
“Would you like me to bathe him before changing him into his pajamas, Mrs. Kress?”
“That would be very nice, Julian, thank you, and please, call me Katherine. We’re neighbors, remember?”
Smiling, Julian replied, “Yes, but I just moved into this neighborhood two weeks ago.”
“That doesn’t matter. We’re neighbors and friends. Clayton and Dr. Kress, my father in law, they love you very much. Oh, this is weird because they’re both named Dr. Kress now…”
Julian laughed. “I know right? Isn’t that something?”
“…But I call my father in law Dr. Kress and I call my husband Clayton.”
“You don’t call him Clay.”
“No, I prefer calling him Clayton. I never address people by their nicknames, but by their real names. I don’t know why.”
“We all have something that makes us stand out…” He was going to call her Mrs. Kress once again, but he remembered that she wanted him to call her Katherine. “…Katherine. Ok, so I am going to take him to the main bathroom, give him a good bath, and we’re going to put his pajamas on him. Does that sound like a plan?”
“That sounds wonderful, Julian. Thank you, once again.”
Ninety minutes later, Clay was lying on his bed, asleep, in his pajamas, and covered with his bed sheets. Katherine had already prepared the spare bedroom next to this one to sleep there because she didn’t want to disrupt Clay, as she knew too well that no move that she made would go unnoticed. The only time that residents of this home didn’t sense Katherine’s moves and actions was when she was asleep. Julian was drinking some iced Coke, and he was just minutes from leaving. At the same time, Hayley was only minutes from arriving at his house. Even though Hayley and Julian weren’t going anywhere tonight, she wore her best clothes for him and made herself as beautiful and stunning as she possibly could. She was beyond excited, like a young girl in her first date with her first boyfriend.
“You were so wonderful tonight. I can’t thank you enough, Julian.”
“That’s what friends are for, Katherine. If you need anything, anything at all, I’m right next door.”
She smiled. “I’ll see you again soon, Julian.” They shook hands. “None of our neighbors have gotten as close to us as you have. I mean they’re nice to us and they say hi, but they never come over and talk to us, they never call us…I guess they’re afraid of me because when the Kress family lived here without me, our neighbors would visit them about three times every week.”
“Yes, they’re afraid of us, but very soon, they’ll realize that they shouldn’t be. They think that just because we are from a different species, we’re a threat to them. They’re among the very few people who still feel this way. I don’t blame them. I’m sure that if we switched places with them, I’d feel the same way.”
“I would, too,” said Katherine. “Well, goodnight, Julian. Come back soon.”
“I will.” Julian smiled at Katherine once again and then turned around and walked out the door.
Just then, Dr. Kress, Clay’s father, was making his arrival for tonight, and he saw Julian walking toward the exit to the house and toward his car. As Dr. Kress got out of his car, he took one look at him and said, “Hey, Mr. Thornton,” smiling, and then finished getting out of his car and closed the driver door with his suitcase in his hand. Then, he walked toward Julian. “How are you doing?” They shook hands, too.
“I’m doing great, Dr. Kress. How are you?”
“I’m doing all right. I just couldn’t stop thinking about my Clayton and wondering how his first day at work went.”
“I’m not going to lie to you, Dr. Kress, as I never do. Clayton’s first day at work was terrible. He allowed the negative feelings of all his patients get to him and hit him, really hard.”
“Oh,” sighed Dr. Kress, “I always told him that he was not strong enough to work with people with mental problems, to choose another profession and start over, but he never listened to me.”
“That’s what happens when children don’t listen to their parents, unfortunately, but I can assure you that Clay is going to be fine. He’s going to be just fine, and he’s going to do extremely well. Don’t worry about him. He’s a whole new man now, and he will never be who he used to be.” That said, Julian walked away from Dr. Kress and went to his car, opened the door and got in the driver’s seat as Dr. Kress stared at him, stunned. In a matter of minutes, Julian exited the mansion and his car entered his driveway. He opened the garage door with the remote control and parked his car in his garage as Hayley’s car pulled into his driveway.
Worried and confused at what Julian had just told him, Dr. Kress went into the mansion and met Katherine in the entertainment room. She was watching a crime show on TV at the moment. She noticed the anguish in his face. “Hello, Dr. Kress. Is anything wrong?”
“Mr. Thornton made me a comment that drove me off the wall.”
“Julian…? What did he say?” Obviously she knew about Julian and Dr. Kress’ conversation only minutes before, but she didn’t want to let him know, as that would scare him a lot more.
“He said, and I’m saying this in my own words, that I no longer had to worry about Clay’s total inability to deal with the problems of his patients and help his patients with those problems because he’s a whole new man and he will never again be the weak man he used to be.”
“This confused you.”
“Yes because I don’t know what he meant by that. Besides, how can Clay or anyone go from zero to hero overnight? How can someone possibly change for the better overnight? It’s a lot easier for someone to change for the worse than it is to change for the better overnight.” Then, Dr. Kress came to an astounding realization. “Oh, my God…”
Not knowing what to say, Katherine just smiled at him.
He sat beside her.
“You’re not mad at me, are you? I mean I didn’t do it, I asked Heidi, his secretary, to do it.”
“It’s all right. I knew this was coming, I just didn’t know when. You have changed our lives forever.”
“I know that other family members, neighbors and friends have stayed away from you because of me, and now that Clayton is one of us, that’s made things one thousand times worse.”
“Don’t blame yourself. I know they’ll come around.”
Adrianna went to the entertainment room to meet Dr. Kress. They shook hands. “How was work today, doctor?” she said.
“Work was all right. How was school today?”
“Everyone’s concerned about me at school because I am living with an alien,” said Adrianna.
“Now they’re going to be even more concerned,” said Katherine, “because you’re living with two of them.”
“Oh?”
“…Clayton.”
“This is just wonderful.” Adrianna wasn’t being sarcastic. “That’s just what he needed. I saw this coming. Everyone did. Pretty soon we’re all going to be aliens, aren’t we?”
That’s absolutely right, little girl. “I don’t know. Maybe, if you want to. I won’t do anything against your will. I love you way too much, you, Dr. Kress and Mrs. Kress, which are now the only humans left in this household.”
Adrianna laughed. She was excited at the possibility, but afraid of it at the same time. “I came to ask permission to have a snack.”
“Oh, honey, you don’t have to ask permission for that. You did all your homework, right?” Dr. Kress said. Dr. Kress loved Adrianna like a daughter, so much that a few weeks ago, he had officially become Adrianna’s adoptive father.
“Yes, I did my homework when I got home from school. I always do.” Adrianna didn’t call Dr. Kress ‘Dad’ just yet because she still had to get used to the idea that he was her father and that she was no longer just a girl that the Kress family was taking care of because her sister had died and left her behind.
“That’s great,” said Katherine. “That’s just the way to do it, sweetheart.”
“It’s a habit that Anna Christina taught me.”
“We know that Anna Christina gave you an excellent example.” Touching Adrianna’s chest on the side of her heart, Katherine went on to say, “That’s why you have to keep her in your heart.”
“Oh, I will never forget about her, Katherine. You can be sure of that.”
“You can have anything you want for a snack, Adrianna,” said Dr. Kress.
As Adrianna walked out of the entertainment room, she turned her face, smiling and said, “Thank you.” Then, she left.
“Poor girl,” said Dr. Kress, “she’s been through so much.”
“I hear you. She’s such a sweet girl and she’s lost her family. She lost her parents, her only sister…we’re the only family she has now. Problem is that now her friends at school are distancing themselves from her because she’s living with an alien. You heard what she said.”
“If that’s the case, then they were never really her friends at all. Real love and real friendship are unconditional.”
“You’re right. It’s too bad many people don’t think that way.” She got up from the couch. “I’m going to get something to eat also, and I’m going to help Adrianna prepare her snack. Do you want something to eat, Dr. Kress?”
“No, I’m not hungry. I just want to go see my son and then I want to lie down.”
“He’s in our room,” said Katherine.
While Katherine and Adrianna started to make brownies in the kitchen, from scratch, Dr. Kress went to Clay and Katherine’s room to see how his son was doing. It looked scary to him because he wasn’t just asleep he was unconscious right now, and Dr. Kress noticed this because he was still lying on his back. Clay looked like he was lying in a coffin. Dr. Kress caressed Clay’s head. I wonder who is next, if it’s Ursula, me or Adrianna. Suddenly, he decided to lie down right beside Clay, just for a little while. He had no idea of it, but within the next few minutes, he fell asleep.
Meanwhile, Julian and Hayley were watching a comedy movie together. They were eating popcorn, the best and most expensive, buttery and delicious, and drinking soda. Julian preferred drinking any lemon-lime soda over cola, but he had cola in the refrigerator because he knew that Hayley loved it. He was worried about it because he knew that cola caused gallstones, among many other health problems, but very soon, that wouldn’t be a problem anymore because Hayley would change, forever, and nothing that she would eat or drink in the future would harm her health in any way. In the meantime, he was drinking Sprite and she was drinking Coca Cola. In the movie, after a stupid argument, the husband started chasing his wife around the house and all of a sudden, he tripped into one of his son’s toys, let out a scream, and his wife started insulting him and laughing at him. She loved him, but only sometimes, when he didn’t get on her nerves. Julian and Hayley couldn’t stop laughing.
Laughing hysterically, Hayley said, “I know he’s annoying, but God, why does she have to treat him like a piece of trash all the time?” Fortunately she didn’t have any popcorn in her mouth to choke on at the moment. “I would never treat my husband like that, no matter how angry he made me.”
That’s why I’ve chosen you as my lifelong partner, because I know you’d be a wonderful wife. “Oh, well, we have to understand that everybody’s different. If everyone felt and behaved the same way, this would be one boring world. Even we’re different.” He was referring to aliens.
“I know that you have different opinions and ideals,” she said, “but at least you get along great. We, humans, don’t.” She turned his face to look at him and suddenly asked, “How do you do that? How can you feel differently about life and still get along? Can you give me your secret?”
“I can’t explain it at the moment. Perhaps a few friends of mine can answer that question for you.”
“I was told you have no siblings. Is that true?”
“I couldn’t have any brothers or sisters because when my mother had me, she died, and my father had to be killed. He was totally out of control, like I was days before I met you.”
Hayley placed a few more kernels of popcorn in her mouth, chewed them thoroughly and a few seconds after that, when her mouth was empty again, she commented, “It’s a shame. I would’ve loved to meet your parents and tell them how much I love you, how grateful I am to them for bringing you into this world.” She was smiling and her eyes shone like little stars.
“You’re so sweet. No one has ever talked to me like that before.” He gave her a big hug.
She held his hand. “It’s true.”
Julian got up from the couch. “I was thinking about making us some sandwiches. Would you like that?”
“I would love that.”
“What would you like in your sandwich? What bread do you want, white bread, wheat bread…?”
“I want my sandwich to be just like yours. I want to know what you like, and try it for myself.”
“Wow that sounds great! I’ll be right back.” He walked out of the living room. The popcorn was almost finished, and they’d shared a whole bag.
She continued to watch the movie. Then, her phone rang and she turned down the volume of the TV a little bit to be able to hear the phone better. Then, she pressed a button on her Blackberry and took the call. “Hello.”
“How are you doing?” This was Maria Manning, Mark and Matt’s mother. Coincidentally, she was also a longtime friend of Hayley’s mom, and Hayley’s godmother. Right now, she was at Hayley’s mother’s house. “How is it going with Thornton?”
“We’re doing great.”
“Are you ready for work tomorrow?”
“I doubt it. When you fall in love you can hardly concentrate on anything else.”
“I know how you feel. I’ve been there before. Unfortunately, Mark and Matt’s father is no longer with us. Let’s just say that he didn’t survive me. Since then, I haven’t been with anyone else.”
“You fell hard for him, didn’t you Godmother?”
“Yes, I did. I still think about him, a lot. Listen, I am calling because I need you to do something for me.”
“Just name it.”
“My laptop just died. I was using it just now while I was talking to Tanya, and all of a sudden it just gave up. I wanted to know if you could go to the store with me tomorrow afternoon to get me a new laptop. We haven’t gone shopping in a while, you and me.”
“Yes, I know. I’ve been so busy. I haven’t even had time for my best friends. I’ll go to the store with you right after work.”
“Thank you. You’re the best. I wish I’d had a daughter, especially one like you.”
“Aww,” Tanya said in the background.
“You still can. You know that, right?”
“Yes, I know, it’s just…just not right now. I’m still in a lot of pain over Raymond’s death, and I he was the only man I wanted to father my children. Oh, well… well, sweetie, I’ll see you tomorrow afternoon, then.”
“Is six o’clock ok?”
“Sure, that’s a great time. See you then.” Maria hung up.
From that moment, Hayley couldn’t get over how much her godmother missed and cherished the love of her life. Maria loved Raymond Manning so much that she wanted no other man. There was something else that she could do for her beloved godmother, whom she considered her second mother. She could talk to Daniel and ask him to put Raymond back into Maria’s arms, and that is exactly what she was doing right now, dialing Daniel’s cell phone number. Julian was still preparing their luscious sandwiches, but he knew what was happening.
Daniel answered his cell phone immediately. Hayley thanked God that she knew him because he was the only one who could help her with what she wanted to do. Monti didn’t dare to go that far yet. He would cure various diseases and conditions that other doctors considered incurable, but he didn’t even consider the idea of reviving someone, although he could do it, if he wanted to, but he didn’t. He thought that if he did that, he was playing God. He might’ve been right. “This is Dr. Daniel Sherman. How can I help you?”
“Daniel, this is Hayley. How are you?”
“I’m doing great. How are you doing?”
“I need you to do something for me. Actually, it’s for me and my godmother, Maria.”
“I’ll be glad to help you. Just tell me what you need.”
“My godmother doesn’t know this, but I want Raymond Manning to come back to life, and I need you to help me with that.”
Julian brought the sandwiches to the living room, each one of them in a beautiful plate, in each hand, and set the sandwiches on the coffee table. “Thank you, honey. Those look delicious,” she said to Julian.
“It will be a pleasure to do that,” Daniel said, smiling. “I’m sure that the Manning twins would love to meet their father and have him in