"Um," I paused. "Not sure I really have a ride." Truth be told, I really just felt like getting as much sleep as I could tonight, so that tomorrow I could start working on how to fix the wishes I'd made.
"Like you need a ride," she said, her voice going really quiet. "You promised you were going to bring the rock over tonight, and let me give it a try."
I almost dropped the phone. How the hell does she know about the rock? Well, now I really didn't have a choice. "Yeah," I told her. "I've gotta drop somebody off quick, and then I'll head over." I hung the phone up, not really listening to see if she had anything else to say. I downed my milk, and simply stood there for the moment.
Things just kept getting weirder and weirder
Okay, I thought. *Calm down * I tried to think about this reasonably. Before I'd made my first wish and doomed Karyn to a life of misery, she'd been my best friend, and I'd wanted to share this with her. Now, what seemed like lifetime later, Rachel was my best friend, or at least she'd been Natalie's best friend. I supposed it was probably reasonable to assume that Natalie had wanted to share that with her best friend as well. There was a way to know for sure. I knew that I could pick up the rock and wish for even more of Natalie's memories, but after my recent experiences with such wishes, I wasn't sure I was ready for that just yet. The surest way was to go over there and find out for sure. If worst came to worst, I could always erase Rachel's memories of the rock.
But could? I mean really Knowing what it was like to have my own memories messed with, could I really do that to somebody else? I guess if it's for the greater good But who the hell am I to decide what the greater good is?
I pushed the thoughts away for now. Until I met up with Rachel and knew what the situation really was, there wasn't really anything I could do about it. I picked my purse up and walked into the kitchen, away from Jill's ears. I picked the rock up. "I wish I knew how to drive, and that I had my driver's license." A flash of light later, I pulled my little black billfold out of my purse and looked inside. Sure enough, Natalie Gibson now had a driver's license that would be good for another four years. Can't say I care for the picture though.
I threw the purse over my shoulder and headed back toward the hallway. I stopped at the first door. I assumed that had to be my bedroom, and when I opened the door, my assumption was proven correct. It wasn't much. It was rather small and in the same general state of disrepair the rest of the place was in, but it was definitely mine. I stripped out of my clothes and did a quick run through of my wardrobe. I slipped on a rather plain pair of white underwear and a matching bra and threw on a plain black t-shirt and a pair of blue jeans on over them. I pulled on a pair of socks as I sat on the end of my bed. Before I stood up, I picked the rock up. I really didn't like using it as much as I was right now, but it seemed the easiest way.
Or is that the rock affecting you?
Right now, I really didn't feel like having another existential debate with myself. They were getting so tiresome. What I did feel like was making sure Jill would let me borrow the car, and knowing where Rachel lived. I made the respective wishes quickly, and headed back out into the main room. Jill was lying on the couch now, her eyes glued to the T.V. Looked like she was watching Desperate Housewives.
"Mind if I use the car to take Rick home?" I asked. "Then I might run over to Rachel's for a little bit?"
"Go ahead," she said, not taking her eyes off of the television. "The keys are in my purse on the table."
"Thanks," I said, walking over and grabbing them. "See you in a bit," I said as I made my way outside. Rick was waiting out there. He smiled when I walked out. "Ready to go for a ride?" I asked.
"With you? I'm always ready for that," he said slyly, walking up and kissing me. I pulled away, albeit very slowly, enjoying the lingering taste of his lips.
"Not that kind of ride," I told him, as I made my way toward the car.
We got in and I pulled out of the driveway. It took about twenty minutes to get to Rick's apartment, and over the course of the drive we continued to talk about the last couple of days. He told me about the last person he'd dated, who'd actually been a guy, and how badly it had ended. He told me he was scared about getting involved with somebody again, but also excited. I told him how much I'd enjoyed out time together so far, and as we neared his building, he asked me if we could see each other again. I told him it was a definite yes. We exchanged numbers, and one more very intense kiss before he got out.
Things are starting to look up, I thought. What if I were to just let things be What if I just let this happen What if NO! I have a responsibility to Karyn, and Sarah and the others too! I'm responsible for what happened, so now I have to be responsible for fixing it. I can't just let it end like this!
Those thoughts in mind, I drove on. It was a further ten minutes and another cigarette before I pulled into Rachel's driveway. It was really a nice looking house. I wasn't sure what her parents did for a living, but they must have been doing alright. I shut the car down and went up to the door. I knocked twice and a woman, probably in her early forties, opened the door. She smiled at me.
"Natalie," she said. "Come in." She ushered me into the house, and I had to admit that the outside hadn't been false advertising. This place was really nice. I slipped my shoes off. "Rachel's up in her room," the woman who was obviously her mother said. "She said to just send you up when you got here."
"Thanks," I said with a polite smile. I made my way up the stairs. Rachel must have heard me coming, because one of the doors opened on my approach and Rachel stepped out. She smiled at me.
"You definitely look like you're feeling better," she said.
"Thanks," I told her as I stepped into her room. The walls were pink, the carpet was white and for all intents and purposes it was the stereotypical sixteen year old girl's bedroom. There were stuffed animals of every shape and size carefully arranged on a shelf over her bed, and just a few too many floral patterns scattered about for affect. Whatever that affect is supposed to be.
Rachel sat down on the end of her bed, running a hand through her long blond hair. "Did you bring it?" she asked. She was way too excited.
I nodded.
"Good," she said. "After this," she tugged lightly at her blond hair, "and these," she gestured at her rather well formed chest, "I didn't think you'd ever let me near that thing again."
So, she'd made the same unintended wish that Karyn had made. That made a kind of sense. It had a kind of symmetry to it.
"We really should be careful with it though," I warned her. It gave me a little bit of relief to know that her experience with the rock was limited to what Karyn's had been. *Not that it had done much good for the latter *
"I will be, I will be," she said. "But as long as we're careful, we could really have some fun with this thing." She had a rather wicked smile on her face. Funny how the rock had that affect on people. It was all fun and games until you saw it in action.
"I just mean " I paused. I really didn't want to tell her what was going. Maybe altering her memories would be the best course of action. I pulled the rock out, holding it up on display. "We could really do some damage with this if we're not careful."
Now Rachel was scrutinizing me very carefully. "Is something up Nat? Did you make a wish without me?" she was starting to sound a little hurt. She stood up.
"No," I lied. "I just "
"You did, didn't you?" she asked. "You were acting weird earlier, but I thought that had to do with the shooting last year. But you're still acting really weird. What exactly did you do?"
"Nothing," I told her, hoping she would just believe me. "I just "
I didn't even see her move. Maybe I was just too distracted by everything that was going on, maybe I was just slow, or maybe Rachel was a ninja. All I knew was that one minute I was holding the rock up, and the next minute, Rachel was holding it, looking down at it in quiet awe. At least she seemed a little humbled.
"Sorry," she said, and I could see in her eyes that she meant it, "but if you did something, if you changed something and it's got you this weirded out then I need to know." She had that same tone in her voice that she'd used earlier. The tone that implied that she had a right to know everything about everything.
"Please give it back Rachel," I pleaded. I started to make a move toward her, but I knew it was too late. By the time I started moving, I could already hear her speaking those words.
"I wish "
