Exit God Out - Book One - The Unexpected Terrestrial

Exit God Out Book One: The Unexpected Terrestrial Chapter 22

Chapter 22

Janet showed up early at the white room to find Anna and Maggie asleep on the wingback chair. Anna put the baby down and straightened her hair, looking at the package tucked under Janet's arm and noticing Janet was uneasy about it.

"What's in there?"

"Good morning sunshine! I smuggled this in. The doctor isn't around today and everyone else is out for a meeting in Boulder. My instruction this morning is to keep doing what we always do. Except I'm adding to it," and she giggled and opened the rolled package to reveal a big white pad of paper and crayons for Maggie to discover.

"We can't get caught with this," and Anna backed up as if the paper was an alligator. "Are you sure no one will be around?" She picked up the box of crayons "We can't use this! They're colored!"

"We can give her only the black and dark ones if you want, but I'm thinking we let her play for an hour or so until she gets tired of it and then dispose of it."

Anna looked down, tugging at her sleeves and pulling them over her hands. "Okay."

Janet spread the big white paper pad on the floor and took out the black crayon. Maggie woke up and toddled over, sprawling out on the paper. Janet put the crayon in her hand and showed her how to use it, helping her scribble and find the motor skills to master it. The three started to draw all over the large surface, with no effort to try to draw anything. They just scribbled. After a while, Anna and Janet backed away, made tea and a drink for Maggie and sat around watching her. Maggie insisted on using the colored crayons, and Janet let her have them at the eye roll of Anna.

"Don't you find it funny that the two of us are raising a kid but have never had any of our own?" Janet looked at Anna, who had her head bent down.

"That's not quite true," Anna said. "I had a baby boy once. Gave him up after a few weeks and it's haunted me since. He's in a better place as I was seventeen and really stupid, but it's how I landed this contract. Meyer saw me as a safe bet to not just deliver smoothly but to be able to let go when the time came."

Janet just stared at Anna in surprise, not knowing what to say or if she should say anything. "I'm sorry," she said, trying to see if Anna would rise to the conversation, but she huddled into the big white chair even tighter, withdrawing from the world outside of her while the world inside was collapsing.

Anna and Janet drank their tea and engaged in light conversation when Anna's eyes went large. "What the hell is she doing?" Anna got up and went over to see Maggie's new passion with colors. Janet and Anna just stared at the drawing Maggie did on her own. She chose a dark green crayon and scribbled various sized sloppy circles around the page in what appeared to be a random order until Maggie began to connect the circles. Out of the chaotic drawing, an organized pattern began to materialize.

"I've seen that somewhere before," mumbled Janet, her eyes like saucers and her heart racing with fright at the thought of not just getting caught, but the thought that Maggie may be quite a bit 'different' than most other children. She had no idea how to deal with it.

"What are you thinking?" asked Anna.

"I have no idea."

"What do you mean you have no idea? You're the Montessori teacher. You're supposed to know why some children do this and the other 99 percent don't." Anna practically ripped the sleeves off her sweater pulling at them. She was completely unprepared to handle the situation and under no delusion to try.

"Wait a minute, there's a book in the library here. I'll be right back," and she flew out the door and came back seconds later, leafing through a large picture book on farming. "Here, this is where I saw it," and they both looked in wonder at the photo of a crop circle Maggie drew to perfection.

"We have to get this out of here! We have to burn it! Can you imagine if Meyer saw this, or the doctor or Amarr or anyone?" Anna panicked and ripped the drawing off the paper pad and tore it to shreds. "They'll think we're showing Maggie the books in the library." She looked at Janet. "Did you show Maggie any books?"

"Of course I didn't," and she panicked. "Let's burn it," but she looked up at the ceiling and saw water spigots, realizing she was about to set off sprinklers. The girls crumpled the pieces into little balls, hid them in a tissue box and threw it away.

"What are we going to do? She'll cry and scream now when we take this away," and Anna rolled Maggie off the paper, grabbed the crayon from her hands and rolled everything back up. Janet put everything back in her car and when she returned, Maggie was happily playing with her white blocks, arranging them in the same pattern as the crop circles.

"I think we're in a lot of trouble," Janet said, looking at Anna in hopes she could save the two young women who were trapped in a novel they had no intention of writing.

"Don't you ever do something like that again," Anna kept pulling at her sleeves and saying nothing more as she watched Maggie finish the pattern and roll over to talk to her imaginary friends.

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