The Yarian Chronicles: Second Life

Chapter 5

He drove up to a retro looking diner. I was still in a near catatonic state. I couldn't think let alone talk. This was all too weird for me. He came to my side of the car, opened the door and helped me out of the car.

"I know this is weird." He said. Tell me about it! How would he know though?

"I don't know for sure, I can just imagine" he answered. I looked at him in disbelief. Did he just answer my thoughts? "Sorry," he continued. "I forgot, you're not used to it. I still find it weird you can't hear me."

"Huh?" was all I managed to force out.

We walked in the restaurant and a waiter sat us in a booth by a window. It was a typical truck stop diner with red vinyl seats and a checkered floor. The place reeked of fries and hamburgers. I sat down and wasted time focusing my attention outside the window behind his head. I just couldn't bring myself to look him in the eye.

"So you're telling me you can read my mind." I said some-what skeptical.

"Yeah," he said as if I should already know that.

"Seriously?"

"Haven't you noticed? If you want to test it, just think about something." I ran through a slough of colors, numbers and memories. 13, 8,7,9, blue, orange, pink, black, hugging my brand new teddy bear I got for my 5th birthday, dancing with Warren Brady my junior high school crush at our farewell party in my long green halter dress, My first date with Xan.

"13, 8, 7, 9, blue, orange, pink, black, cute teddy, pretty grad dress...yeah that date was pretty amazing wasn't it?!

My mouth dropped. "This isn't possible. You're not possible."

"I wish you'd just let me explain." He said, his eyes glimmering with joy.

"That's all I've been asking since this morning."

"Ok. It's pretty unbelievable though, I'm warning you."

"Like this isn't already?" I mumbled.

"Alright," he took a deep breath and lowered his voice to just above a whisper, and looked around the diner to ensure no one was listening in. "Your name isn't Kendra, it's Zathar. And let's just say neither of us is from... around here." He looked around again, as if suspicious of someone listening in.

"What are you trying to tell me? I'm some kind of illegal alien or something? That's not possible. I have parents - human parents. What are you telling me, that they're not 'from around here' either?"

"Oh, you parents are completely human. It's a little complicated, but that illegal alien comment is pretty close to home," he chuckled. "It's called Yari. It's in a different galaxy, and to my knowledge earth scientists haven't 'discovered' it yet." He had a smug look on his face and shook his head at his own thought. "It is a long story as to how you're here now, and I can tell you more sometime when there aren't as many people around." He looked around the room again to ensure no one was paying us any attention. He lowered his voice to just above a whisper."Anyways, the reason I can read your thoughts is because we were in love. In fact, I'd asked you to marry me on the night you died." He had a pained look on his face, but continued. "On Yari, once you find your true love you can hear each other's thoughts. It makes for way better communication. All these problems people have here with being dishonest, cheating, that isn't possible back home. Can't lie when the person you love can read your thoughts, not that you'd want to anyways. You could probably try, but they know what you're thinking, so what's the point?" He shrugged his shoulders as if what he was telling me was common knowledge. "I think the reason you can't hear me though is your re-birth. I think the human part of you is interfering. Your 'alien' side was supposed to reawaken when I started spending more time around you. It's taking much longer than I first thought, and a lot longer than it did with V and Nyes." he added to himself.