For now, it was getting dark, and Grig wasn't keen on stumbling around in the dark. She had time to find the artifact, and she would do it when it was convenient. Time to check out her new "home". In addition to the ID card, there was a keychain in Sarah's pockets. There were a few keys, and also an electronic device with a few buttons on it. Grig pressed one of the buttons, and a vehicle parked on the street made a shrill, piercing beeping sound. She pressed it again and it did it again. She approached the vehicle. On experimenting with the buttons, she found the vehicle unlocked itself.
"I guess this is mine then," Grig said. "In the spirit of being incognito..." she opened a back door in the little car and carefully put in the suitcased transportation pad, but held onto her communications device. She had already downloaded a database of this "English" language and had learned it, and so it was not necessary to rely on the translation function, but she needed to find directions to Sarah's residence, as well as some minimal instructions in operating this vehicle.
"Hi honey," Sarah's mom said to her as Grig entered her house. "How was your day?"
"Lovely, mother."
"Dinner's on the table."
Grig wasn't sure what table she was talking about or where it was, not that she was particularly hungry anyway, having had some rather large meals recently. But she found what she assumed was it, and saw there a bottle of what she presumed was the milk of one of those cow creatures in a big plastic jug, and a box of cereal. Grig remarked that the parents of this Sarah were rather negligent in their provider duties, that they were wealthy humans to have given her her own car, but hadn't given her a lot of love or proper care on the issues that it took time and effort to provide on their part, and kind of felt a little guilty about eating her.
After doing some research about the role of this Sarah person in the community, she determined that the next day, she was expected to go to a certain school. Might as well play along until
The next day, Jon and Karyn met at lunch as usual. The stone was safely back at his house. It would be crazy to go around carrying the thing all the time, after all. Who knows what would happen if he did that.
"So, did you notice Sarah today?" Karyn asked.
"I try not to. Why are you so obsessed with her Karyn? You have less to be jealous of than most girls."
"Thanks to the stone," she said angrily.
"That's not what I meant. I mean you first of all aren't motivated by what she has. But also, you have me. As I already pointed out, I'm not drooling over her, so if you wanted to have a boyfr..., uh, I mean, that is to say, you probably don't like any guys more than me, wouldn't that be fair to say, so she's not taking anything you want from you."
"Oh, Jon. We could never be boyfriend and girlfriend."
Jon was looking green in the face at that. "Why not?"
"Because we're friends, and I wouldn't want to mess that up."
"Yeah," Jon said, attempting to sound sarcastic. "Mess it up. Because that would totally ruin our friendship, if we kissed and cuddled on top of it. You wouldn't want to do that sort of thing with a friend, who you actually liked."
"Exactly!" she said.
Jon had already finished with his lunch, and so he picked up and smacked the cafeteria tray against his head several times at that.
"Why are you doing that, Jon?"
"Oh my forehead was itchy," he said.
What might have come of this line of conversation was interrupted, however.
"I said, take your stinking paws off me, you damn dirty ape!" a familiar female voice shouted. Crash!
Just then all eyes in the room were on Sarah. Because she had just tossed Carl, the head quarterback, 20 feet like a ragdoll, to slam against the cinderblock wall of the cafeteria with a solid thunk that everyone felt deep in the pits of their stomachs, and broken one of the cinderblocks.
"Holy shit!" someone said.
"See, I told you there was something weird about her today!" Karyn said.
"Yeah, that's... weird all right," Jon admitted.
"There is no way she should be able to do that. Did you wish for something weird?" Karyn said accusingly.
"I swear I didn't. She did that on her own."
"Maybe some unexpected side effect of another wish?"
"I don't think so. The only thing I wished for in the last day was that my mom would get a raise at work. How could that give Sarah super-strength?"
Carl was sent to the nurse. Fortunately for him, he only had the wind knocked out of him. The principal had a stern talking to the both of them, to tell them not to bring their drama onto school property.
But that wasn't the most surprising thing that happened that day at school. The real surprise was when Jon and Karyn were walking home.
"Jon Madison and Karyn Thompson," Grig said. The two of them were stunned that Sarah was addressing them. She had followed the two of them off school property as they had walked home, and was actually confronting them about something.
"Hello, Sarah," Jon said.
"Don't you usually go to school in that little blue sportscar?" Karyn asked.
"I decided to go on foot today," Grig said. "It's a beautiful day, and it's not a long walk."
Jon and Karyn looked at each other. This was not characteristic of Sarah.
"So, what do you need, Sarah?" Jon asked.
"I was just wondering, if you two had seen anything strange?"
"Yeah," Karyn said. "This crazy thing happened today. The airheaded popular girl in school threw a jock through a wall."
"Hmmf," Grig said with a smarmy grin. "I guess I deserved that. But he would not leave me alone."
"Usually, you don't want them to leave you alone," Karyn retorted. "For the record, it's also strange that you would talk to us."
"Why is that?" Grig asked.
"Are you kidding? We're not in the in-crowd. The popular clique. You're the queen of the school."
"Ahh, right, the nerd versus popular person trope," Grig said. "Lighten up. I'm not such a bad person. Perhaps I'm looking to turn over a new leaf."
"You're doing more than turning over a new leaf, you've got a gas-powered leafblower going on full power going on."
"What sort of strange things are you looking for?" asked Jon.
"Things that... go beyond the laws of physics."
Karyn and Jon glanced at each other once again. Perhaps Sarah was actually a lot smarter than she ever let on. Had she figured something was going on with Jon and Karyn?
"Why do you come to us about this?" Jon asked.
"Oh, I have spoken to many people. But it seems to all lead to you two. The consensus seems to be that you two are the focal point of weirdness. At least within the students at the school. That is my overall impression."
"Ok, who are you, and what have you done with Sarah?" Karyn said.
"What makes you say that? Why do you think I'm not Sarah?" asked Grig, getting a little nervous herself. Was the jig up? Would she have to kill these two in broad daylight?
"I was kidding, it's just a figure of speech, Jesus," Karyn replied. Grig relaxed.
"No, we don't know anything about supernatural stuff," Jon said. And for good measure, added, "I believe in science, I'm not into superstitious nonsense, and I also think people who believe in god are stupid."
"A good man," Grig said. "That is the correct way of seeing the world." The Carmalians had done away with anything that could be considered religion early in their history, hundreds of millions of Earth years ago.
"Well, if you don't mind, we'll be going home," Karyn said.
"See you," Jon called out.
"See you," Grig said, a little more ominously.
Jon and Karyn walked off. They didn't say anything more as they walked together that day.
Jon silently resolved to wish for information when he got home, on what was going on with Sarah.
