Annica: Starseed Ambassador

Chapter 9: Show Your Work

"Sorry I missed our last session," Annica said while delicately sitting down in Noah's office.

"I'm just glad you're okay," Noah said with relief, taking a seat across from her. "The whole town was worried about you."

Annica blushed. "I didn't realize I was gone for that long," she almost whispered.

Noah opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out. Annica's disappearance was legally treated as a "teenage runaway" situation, but rumors spread quickly after several people reported witnessing the craft that took Annica from the field. Annica wasn't sure what Noah had heard, or what he believed, but she surmised that the reality of what occurred was at least a possibility in his mind, particularly after what she told him during their last session.

Annica smiled weakly. "You were right... about losing myself."

"But, you... I mean, literally," was all Noah could say. He tightly closed his eyes and shook his head. "I'm sorry. Let me start over. I really like your new hair."

"Oh!" Annica responded, her face brightening up. She held her French braid and gave it a close inspection. Unlike her last braid style, this one went all the way to the scalp. It was much more tightly woven, and it was hardly frayed at all this late in the day. "Thank you! My mom helped me with it. It can survive gym class much better now."

Noah smiled, then picked up his notepad and pen. "Where were you?" he asked with hardly any inflection of a question, as if he already knew the answer but just wanted Annica's explanation.

Annica dropped her braid and took a deep breath. "With 'them.'"

Noah's eyes widened. "Did you tell your parents?"

"Yeah," Annica chuckled while shaking her head.

"How'd that go?"

"Honestly," Annica said, "better than expected."

Noah pushed up his glasses. "What did you tell them, exactly?"

"Everything I told you, for starters. That was certainly an... experience. My dad believed all of it right away, and he had about a billion questions. My mom was more quiet, but she wasn't dismissive either."

Noah nodded. "Well, you were gone for an entire week."

Annica perked up. "Yeah! That part she couldn't deny. When I explained what happened during that week, I think that's when it started to sink in for her. I swear I've never seen her go so pale. She just kept saying it was a lot to process, and she wanted to talk more once she had a chance to... absorb it all, I guess."

Noah sat in silence for a moment. He stared at his blank notepad, then tapped it with his pen a few times before setting them both on his desk.

"Annica," he said with a deep curiosity in his eyes, "what... happened, exactly?"

"I had a bad day," Annica began, letting her eyes wander the room. "I left school early, and I overheard my parents fighting. They were talking about me, and how I can't make any friends. Apparently they're having financial problems too, and the croquet equipment was a burden." Her eyes returned to Noah. "I know it sounds silly, but I lost it. I ran off and begged Maya to take me away. She did, and I ended up back in that undersea city. I had a chance to recover, then Maya explained some more metaphysical concepts."

Annica paused before continuing. Do I tell him? she wondered, thinking about Maya wiping Noah's memories. She felt deeply uneasy, being reminded of her very first session with Noah, and how reluctant she was to talk about any of this. Perhaps she would tell him later, but for now that particular detail carried too much weight.