VLADJI and the Avatars: Family Matters

Chapter 7- What's This About Heavenly Visions?

"Imira! Get up!"

I opened my eyes to find Fatima jumping up and down on my sleeping bag. Forget an alarm clock, my little sister was even more annoying in the morning.

I guess I should mention – I have a room with Fatima. Girls and boys sleep in separate rooms – it's always been the family rule. I didn't have a proper bed, though – again, because Mom. I had a sleeping bag on the floor. I used to complain about it, but the times I ran away and wound up sleeping in the streets gave me quite the perspective on it. As in, it could be a whole lot worse. I could have been next to a trash can.

"Fatima," I muttered. "Five more minutes?"

"Papa wants you up now!" she squealed. "Your boyfriend came here asking for you. He's here to pick you up."

"He's not my –" I cut myself off, both because there was no explaining it to Fatima, and because I was totally confused. Knuckles? Here? Hadn't we agreed to nine o'clock to meet –

Oh, crud. I must have overslept. Mom would be onto me now. Why she hadn't addressed me before, I didn't understand.

Once I was awake and dressed, I headed down to the shop. Pop was indeed there, looking at the stairwell. I didn't see Mom, and instead of being relieved she wasn't here to tell me off, I was just more confused.

"Why didn't Mom wake me up?" I asked.

"I think she had an... encounter last night," Pop said. "Someone from heaven, she suspects."

What was that supposed to mean?

Honk! Honk! The Blazer's horn, no mistake. I was almost glad Fatima had awakened me, because I would not have wanted to get up to that.

"I'd say it was your friend come to pick you up, if I'm not mistaken," Pop said. "Well, behave yourselves."

"You think we wouldn't?" I said in retort.

Honk! Seriously, Knuckles could be even more impatient than Sonic.

"I'm coming!" I yelled, quickly pulling my hijab over my head and around my neck.

"Bye, Imira!" Pop said as I left.

I glanced at Knuckles. "I overslept, okay?"

Knuckles frowned. "That's a first. Get in."

Once we were on our way, Knuckles opened fire. "How did your stepmom let you sleep in? I didn't get the impression she did that normally."

"Something about a vision," I said. "Although Pop's word was 'encounter.'"

Knuckles frowned at that, clenching the steering wheel hard and muttering under his breath. Not a good sign.

"What?" I asked.

"Nothing." He lied even worse than Achmed. "Let's just get to the Hangar."

"Wait, why?" I had not gotten any communication we were meeting up there so soon. Had something come up while we were gone?

Dumb question, Imira. Of course there was you-know-what.

"DJ wanted to check something," Knuckles said. "She and Amos were up early, and Amos brought something up that bothered her. At least, that's what she told me."

"Okay..." I didn't ask why DJ was there early. As the head of VLADJI, it would have set a bad precedent if she didn't show up. But if Amos had been there too... he must've had the same zest for the job. Strange, then, that they hadn't broken the truth to their families yet.

Once we arrived at the Hangar, Knuckles whispered the new Hangar passcode to me. We used changing passcodes to get into the Hangar. It ensured that only we – or anyone else we took into the Hangar – could get in.