Silken Scales - The Chameleon Effect

45 - Idris

As I pass her, Mom says, "Have you eaten?"

"Nah."

"Breakfast in ten minutes then."

I force up the edges of my lips. "Thanks."

She offers a half-smile back.

Dad's at his desk, scanning his phone.

I knock and push the door open wider.

He looks up, an eyebrow rising in degrees until it reaches its zenith.

"Um, how'd things go last night?" Seems polite to ask, even if introducing the subject, right off the bat, isn't the smartest idea.

"Have a seat, Idris." By his tone, I figure he's simmering on the edge of a rolling boil.

I sit.

This feels like a trip to the principal's office. Not that I went there more than once, and not because of anything I'd done. But the principal's office is still intimidating, even when you're not in trouble. I'd imagined the sins of all the bad students hanging from the stained ceiling panels like misguided ghosts.

"You agreed to go with me to New York for an important meeting. One that could take my brand to the next level. I told Frank you'd be there. He made reservations for three. I had to explain to Pamela Rivera, the Netflix executive, what happened to the third person. You."

Dad's eyes are steely, brow raised so high it's pushing his hairline. "So maybe you'd like to explain to me what really happened. Because, as you might expect, I had to be pretty creative coming up with a reason for your absence."

Guess what I told him about a friend in danger didn't cut the mustard. Curiosity almost pushes me to ask Dad what excuse he came up with, but I figure I might not want to know.

He taps a set of neatly trimmed fingernails on his desk, and I get the feeling that if I don't speak fast he'll put me six feet under.

If Cadi were here she'd come up with this great synopsis of events that would end with...and we closed the wormhole and saved planet Earth from an alien invasion.

And then he'd ask me for the truth.

I decide to start with facts I think he can handle. "I went to say bye to my girlfriend before we left for the city." I take a deep breath. "And when I got there...to the place where she's staying, she was gone. She'd been...well, to be honest, kidnapped."

His expression is inscrutable, like Johnny Ringo's in Tombstone, fingers flexing like they're itching to reach for his revolver and nail Doc Holliday right between the eyes.

"Um, anyway... Marek and I figured out where she'd been taken and were on our way to find her when I called you."

Dad's eyes are stuck on my face, reading it like a polygraph.

I rub a hand over my human head. "We got to this warehouse, and..." I sigh and lean forward. "Dad, you've got to take a leap of faith with me here."

"Uh-huh." He says it like he's already dismissed what I'm about to say as total bull.

"Inside the warehouse..." Jeez. "Okay, I know this sounds ridiculous, but please, just hear me out."

Dad's brow twitches.

Shit. He totally doesn't believe a word I'm saying. "We find the entrance to a wormhole."

Dad's eyes widen.

"Yeah, one of those Einstein theories, except this one isn't a theory. It's real. And Cadi had been taken through—"

"I thought your girlfriend's name was Rebecca," Dad interrupts, as if he's detected the definitive lie that will break my story's proverbial back.