Missing Persons

I sat hunched over at my desk as I finished the last of my math homework, then let out a long sigh as I straightened up in my chair. I'd almost forgotten how boring and bullshit homework was, but I only had to put up with it till June, then I'd be free again.

At least until next September, then I'd be right back at it when I started college. Not police college though. I'd already decided I was going into social services this time. I wanted to help people, not lock them up.

And as much as I wanted to pout or complain about the homework, I felt myself starting to smile again. Having to repeat the twelfth grade was a pretty small inconvenience all things considered. I couldn't even say what brought me more joy.

I was a girl, I was a teen girl at the same age I was when I tried to come out to Gloria. I got the best do-over possible, and I was going to make the most of this life.

And just as wonderful was the fact that my mom was back. Not the old woman who died slowly of lung cancer, but the young mom I remembered from my teens. Except thirty years ago my mom smoked a pack a day, now she never touched the things.

Thinking about her brought tears to my eyes again. She was completely befuddled about that, she had no idea why I kept crying with happiness whenever I looked at her. And I couldn't very well tell her I remembered her dying back in twenty-thirteen, so I didn't know what to say.

I wiped my eyes again then stood up and stretched once more. It was about three o'clock Sunday afternoon. The past forty-eight hours had been incredible and I almost needed to pinch myself every now and then.

Two days ago I barged into Selene's store a depressed alcoholic broken man. I was weighed down with three decades of regret, doing a job that I'd sacrificed my happiness for because I was too scared to speak up or change course. Left to my own devices I'd have stuck to that path till I died without ever even trying to be myself.

I was almost ready to let Selene kill me or make me disappear, and I didn't care either way. I thought I'd become another hidden statistic or something. It never crossed my mind even once that there could be a happy ending for me.

And that girl Skye, she literally put the fear of God into me with the stuff she showed me, the things she told me. I still didn't know what she and Selene were, but I didn't care. All I knew was I was grateful for the second chance they'd given me.

After everything I learned, everything Skye told me, I'd been so certain they'd never let me go. I knew too much. But not only did they let me go, they gave me the biggest miracle of all.

It almost felt like I'd always been Emily, that the whole shitty life of Raymond Collier was just a bad dream I had the night before. Except when I got ready for bed on Friday night I found that chunk of yellow rock still in my jeans pocket. I had an actual piece of a Jovian moon. Proof that I, Emily Collier, was the first human to set foot on Io.

Too bad nobody would ever believe me if I told them.

The rock now sat on my desk, in between my laptop and the stand where I kept my phone. Speaking of which, I grabbed my phone and tossed it in my purse, then pulled on a jacket as I headed downstairs. With my homework finally done, I had a couple hours free before dinner.

Mom was in the living-room with her laptop on the coffee table, working on some homework of her own.

She had a part-time job as a receptionist at a car dealership but in her spare time she was taking an online course to get a certificate or something so she could sell real estate. She knew someone in the business who said they could get her a job, and with the pandemic finally over her friend said there was probably going to be a real estate boom next spring. If mom could get in on that it would be way better than answering phones at a car place.

I darted up to her side and gave her a quick hug and kiss on the cheek then asked, "Mom can I borrow the car pretty please?"

I was all smiles and my voice was sweet enough to cause cavities, but she wasn't so easily swayed.

"Have you finished your homework?" she asked as she studied me with one eyebrow raised.

I nodded "Yes mom, I just finished now."

After a brief pause she asked the usual three questions, "Where are you going, what are you doing, when will you be back?"

"Downtown, secret girl stuff, and I'll be back in about an hour if I can have the car. Maybe two or three hours if I have to walk."

She watched me for another few seconds then nodded, "Keys are on the hook by the door. Drive safe, be home by five so you can help with dinner."

"Thanks mom!" I gave her another hug and kiss before I skipped towards the door. "You're the best!"

She just smiled as she turned her attention back to her laptop.

Our car wasn't anything special, a boring sensible four-door sedan that mom got two years ago on the cheap. It was three years old when she got it, before that it was leased to someone. It was the one perk from working at a dealership, you sometimes got a sweet deal and you usually got the inside scoop so you knew what to ask for.

I slipped behind the wheel and dropped my purse on the passenger seat then started it up. Twelve minutes later I pulled into a spot in the cursed parking lot. I felt a little flutter of anxiety in my stomach as I shut off the engine, and I couldn't help looking around for that big black pick-up I left there on Friday.

There was no sign of it, which didn't surprise me. Maybe it was in Rick's impound lot, but something told me either Selene or Skye made it go away. Or perhaps it never really existed in the first place.

And that was the sort of thing I wanted to clear up today. I had an important question I needed to ask, and I hoped they'd give me a clear answer.

I remained nervous as I approached the store. When I stepped inside the smell of incense filled the air yet again, today we were back to patchouli. Selene stood behind the counter, and Skye... Or rather that little black cat lay curled up on the cushion at the end of the counter.

"Hello Emily," Selene greeted me. "What can I do for you today?"

I smiled and blushed as I moved to the counter. I still got butterflies whenever someone used my name. It just felt so good, so right.

"Hello ma'am," I replied politely. "I was wondering if I could speak with Skye again? Um, without leaving the planet this time, maybe?"

It was weird looking up at the tall blonde. Last time I was here I was almost eight inches taller than her, now she was two or three inches taller than me. It didn't upset me though, but it did give me more of those butterflies.

"What do you want to talk about?" Skye asked as she stood behind the counter and straightened her dress.

Actually witnessing her change was another brain-breaking experience, and I blinked a few times to try and get the image out of my head.

Selene spoke up before me. She walked towards the back door as she said, "I'll leave you girls to talk in private. Skye you'll close up at four ok? See you at home after."

She opened the grey back door, and instead of the dusty old storage room she stepped through into that spacious country kitchen I'd seen from their backyard the other day. Then the door swung shut and Selene and her kitchen were gone.

I took a deep breath then sighed as I pushed that image out of my head too.

Locking back at the brunette I asked in a quiet, intense voice "Skye is the woman at my house really my mom? Did you somehow bring her back? Is she real? Because I swear to God if you're just messing with me, if she's some kind of imaginary thing..."

I shook my head and sighed again. "I don't know what I'll do. Probably curl up and cry for a year. Please tell me you aren't just fucking with me, tell me it's really her?"

Skye gave me a sad smile, "She's real Emily, don't worry. Yes, I brought her back. It was complicated, and normally I wouldn't do something like that. But you're just seventeen so you needed someone. Who better than your own mom, right?"

I blinked a few more tears out of my eyes and asked, "How though? She was dead. She died eight years ago..."

"Short answer is I changed reality," she replied with a shrug. "Long answer is...long. It's really her though, ok?"

I couldn't help myself, I dashed around the counter and pulled Skye into a tight hug, "Thank you so much!"

"Uh," she sounded awkward as she just stood there kind of frozen while I held her. "You're welcome?"

"Sorry," I blushed as I let go and stepped back. "I should have asked first."

Then I smirked as I added, "Or should I let you smell my hand or something?"

She rolled her eyes, "I'm only a cat when I'm a cat. I'm not a cat when I'm a girl. And please keep everything you've learned to yourself, ok? I'm not going to threaten you or anything like that, I'll trust you to keep it all secret."

"Yeah," I nodded. "I won't tell a soul, I swear."

"Was that it then?" she asked me.

I nodded again, "Yeah. I just wanted to thank you, and to ask you about my mom. I uh, remembered what you said about your folks and..."

"I get it," she sighed. "Like I said, she's real. She was always real, which meant I could go back and get her."

I had to hold back from giving her another hug. Instead I moved out from behind the counter and asked, "So how do I repay you for all this? Gloria said she had to give something up when she got her spell from Selene, do I need to do something like that too?"

"Nah," the brunette shook her head. "Selene does that when she sells her spells, she has a whole complicated system. This was just me helping you out. My gift to you."

My heart surged at the idea that this strange immensely-powerful being would even care enough to help me. That she would do all this for a complete stranger, and not want anything in return. I had to suppress another urge to hug her, and I felt myself blinking back tears again. In the end all I could do was thank her.

"Thank you Skye. If there's anything I can ever do for you, just ask ok? I mean it. You don't know how grateful I am, for everything."

"It's ok," she gave me a brief awkward smile, but I could tell I was starting to make her uncomfortable.

So I made my way to the door. I waved bye to her, then turned and slipped back outside. There was one more stop I wanted to make downtown before going back home again. I headed left out to Main Street, then turned and entered the tattoo place.

"Hi," I greeted the pierced and tattooed blonde lady behind the counter. "You're Danni right? I'd like to get my ears pierced."

"Sure thing," she grinned. "I'm going to need to see some ID, and if you're under sixteen you'll need a parent or guardian to sign off."

"Seventeen," I announced proudly as I dug my drivers license from my purse.

Ten minutes later I'd filled out the paperwork and signed the waver, and paid with my bank card.

As she looked over my waiver Danni commented, "Is that perfume you're wearing? It smells nice."

I grimaced, "Oh, no it's incense. I was just visiting the shop around the corner, they burn it pretty strong in there."

"Ah," she replied, and gave me a strange knowing smile. She glanced at my name on the waiver and asked, "Emily Collier, huh?"

Suddenly my cheeks were bright red and I didn't know what to say. The way she was smiling and looking at me, I was positive that she remembered the old me. Somehow she knew I used to be the cop she met on Thursday.

"C'mon Emily," she said with a wide grin. "Let's get you seated and get some bling in those lobes, all right?"

"O-ok," I replied as I followed her to one of the work areas.