Slide To Open

Part Twenty-Three

   "Tell me a secret then," Sam fell forward to laying on his stomach, propping his head in his hands to watch the underside of Elijah's jaw move when he spoke. It was fascinating, really, to see every detail and mechanization of his human with precise eyes that could spot all the tiny things a human eye never could.

   "You go first," Eli grinned. "There's probably loads of borrower rules that I'm not supposed to know about."

   "Yeah, exactly, so I can't tell you."

   "Hey, it's a secret for a secret here! No risk, no reward."

    Maybe Sam could find a loophole around the rules he was raised to recite and live by. After all, sharing his personal experiences was not the same as sharing universal codes for his species, no matter how similar.

   "We...um, I sometimes borrow things that I shouldn't..." Sam started, staring down like a guilty puppy caught in the act. "And keep them in my home even though we're only supposed to take what we need."

   "I know, you already told us about the phone," Eli reminded him, and Sam made a quick 'oh' sound before continuing.

   "Have I told you about the puzzle piece I took, then?"

   "...go on."

   "And the key I took from the family before Leo. It was really heavy but it sits on my wall and looks nice there," Sam smiled at the thought. He really needed to go visit his home again before it became infested with bugs, or even worse, rats. A borrower's worst nightmare now that humans were out of the way.

   "Look at you!" Eli exclaimed. "Little thief. Such a rebel, Sam, I think you're a bad influence on me!"

   "Most definitely," He swung his tail harder the more Elijah laughed. "Your turn."

   "Give me a minute. I need to think of one that comes close to yours," Eli narrowed his brows and focused on the blanket roof, his right hand raised and index finger pointing at nothing as he tried to remember. "Got it!" He cried with the snap of his fingers. "You can't tell people this, because it's kind of illegal, Sam."

   "If you killed someone, I'm leaving."

   "Promise you won't tell people! Not even Leo?"

   "I promise," Sam said, and watched with a weary eye at the pinkie finger rapidly approaching him. "What?"

   "It's a pinkie promise. Law-binding. Put your finger on mine and the deal is sealed." Eli looked more serious than Sam had ever seen him before, and came to the conclusion that this might actually be an important human ritual. So, he abided for Elijah's sake, and placed the tip of his own pinkie finger to Elijah's.

   "Okay, when I was in middle school, I failed a grade and had to be held back a year, but my parents didn't want me to have a bad reputation so they paid the school under the table to change my grades and let me go into the next year. I didn't know until they told me," Elijah confessed. He looked distraught, as if he would rather be stuck in a grade below than have his parents perform illegal activities for his own sake, but Sam was clueless as to why it was so bad.

   "Did they go to jail?" Sam whispered back.

   "No, why?"

   "I thought when humans did something illegal they all had to go to jail."

   "Never change, Sam," Elijah placed a heavy hand on Sam's back, fiddling with his tail in the process. Sam only Ignored it in confusion.

   A knock on the floor outside the entrance rang out for both Elijah and Sam to hear, and they lifted their heads to see Leo lifting the opening curtain.