Jensen Strother and the Thirteen Stars

Chapter 8

[Same day, except the sun is actually up: Tired and wishing I had actually went to bed this morning]

Dear Listener,

As you can "TOTALLY" imagine I got not a second of sleep this morning after that last flash. So, yes, I have been up from one this morning-and YES, it is ten AM.

While I was lying on my bed a few hours ago, glaring at my ceiling as if it had threatened to fall on me, I was simply wondering what I would be saying to my psychiatrist after everyone found out what was happening to me:

Psychiatrist: So, Jensen, tell me, why have you come to me today?

Me: Well, Sir... I knew I first became severely insane when the voices told me to shave off my eyebrows again after I told them "No" about a zillion times! And then when the rabbit in the next door neighbor's yard winked at me and started to dance I decided to stop taking my pills, because I thought maybe they are doing something to me.

Psychiatrist: Okay, Jensen. (Turns to the really buff guy standing by the door with his arms crossed and muscles bulging.) Brick...

Brick: Yes, sir?

Psychiatrist: Quick, get the straight jacket before he decides to run. But be careful; the color white scares him. (The Psychiatrist looks nicely at me.)Don't worry, Jensen. Everything's going to be just peachy

If you thought that was funny, then you and I have some serious problems.

I feel like that first day when Piper spoke to me that she'd pushed me off the side of a cliff, except... I'm not very sure I should call it a cliff since this thing has absolutely no ending. I'm just, like, free falling. But weirdly... I don't feel completely fanatical... not yet at least. I feel like I'm getting into something dangerous and crazy but... daring and fun.

Why the heck is that?

Someone comes into my room-without knocking, might I add. It was Aidyn, thank God. He is, like, the only one in this family that doesn't drive me up a wall. A great wall. A wall in China. "Hey, man, breakfast is served."

"Breakfast? You mean like together? Around a table?"

Aidyn smiles that smile that had broken a thousand girls' hearts before (he may be quiet, but he gets the ladies, the little player...) "Yeah, believe it or not. Sooo you coming or not?"

"Not." He's perceptibly taken aback by my answer.

"You're not?"

"Yeah, I just, you know, have some things to do."

"On a Saturday?"

"Your point?"

"Come on, Jen, it's the Sabbath."

"Since when do you start quoting the Bible? Oh, yeah, since you want something from me. But sorry; if I can't deal with you all one by one do I even stand a chance being altogether in a room where no one can hear my cries?"

Aidyn smiles for a second but then goes all staid on me. And I knew that face. He is famous for it. He means business now. "Jeez, Jen, you make it sound like you're not one of us. But you are. You are one of us."

I tilt my head to the side a little. I catch something there... in his words. Buried beneath them.

"'You are one of us...'" I repeat thoughtfully. There's another meaning there. Under his obvious sentence there's another meaning. A less palpable but present meaning. "I am one of what, Aidyn?"