When Mary Met Halley

Six

"Where are you from?" I asked, my voice too flat.

"Arizona," she said, looking at me as she spoke. "Phoenix." She looked back down at her phone.

"Family there?" Leif asked, and I was glad he was going to help.

She didn't look up. "Family nowhere, actually. My parents died when I was young."

We winced at each other since she wasn't watching. "Sucks," he said.

"I was hired for the expedition and I moved to Maine for it." She put the rest of her cigarette out.

I wondered if she was saying what it sounded like. "So you have nowhere to go back to?"

She smiled sarcastically. "Great plan, huh?" But her bottom lip trembled.

I looked at Leif like Do something. He widened his eyes at me, not appreciating the pressure. "I went by your house and made your sister feed the baby," he said for a subject change. "I put clothes on him too."

I made a face. "Thanks. That reminds me, I forgot to order groceries for them." I took out my phone and began jabbing items into the cart. Hazel's newest boyfriend would eat most of it, but I couldn't do much about that. Control is an illusion, and disillusionment is enlightenment, and I was the Buddha in that sense.

I felt her curiosity and looked up, catching her eyes on me. She didn't look away, though she obviously wanted to, and I respected that. She had nerve and it was to be admired. "My sister is a shitty mom," I summed up.

She nodded, switching her gaze to him, which made him squirm a little. "Truth," he put in, fishing the cigarettes out of my purse with a sneaky hand.

I slapped his wrist but he already had them. "We're smoking way too much."

He snorted as he lit one. "Or not enough."

She still looked at him. "It's so weird," she said, shaking her head.

"The twins thing?" He pulled his knees up and wrapped his arms around them, then immediately moved one hand up to his right ear to tug his gauge. 

"You're identical, like, I can see it? But so different," she mused. "And not just the black hair and makeup."

"Being the favorite twin gives my brother that certain glow," he quipped, almost without rancor. "Our father hates my guts."

"Truth," I echoed him. I had watched The General berate and belittle Leif at every turn since we were kids because he wasn't the golden child like Caleb. Caleb, to his credit, hadn't taken part in it and had always defended him. Probably because he pretty much really was the golden child. "Mostly due to your non-conforming ways. And the blatant defiance."

"I never was any good at honoring thy father and mother." He handed me the cigarette. "It's hard being the black sheep of the family. The rebel. The misunderstood one." He sighed dramatically, being extra due to the new audience.

"You're dumb." I glanced at her while I blew out smoke rings, to see if she was amused by him, which would tell me a few things about her. 

She was smiling, all fresh looking in the sun with no makeup. God, no wonder he'd fallen for her. She was kind of elegant by accident. 

I sighed, my humor fleeing, and passed it back to him.

She suddenly jumped up and proceeded to leap around flailing. 

We looked at her in astonishment. 

She at once stood completely still, looking down by her feet. "Bee," she said, barely moving her lips. "I'm so allergic."