THE SURFACE
Chapter Eight
Ashley got up and ran to Lexi’s
room. "Lexi, get up! Now! It’s important!"
"What the hell, Ash? Go to
bed!" Lexi took a pillow and threw it at her cousin, who was losing her
mind.
"There’s someone in my room!
She has blood red curly hair and green eyes. She is about Melinda’s height,
too. You have to come look!" Ashley shook Lexi’s shoulder. The thunder
rumbled and rain beaded against the windows.
"You’re just hallucinating
because it is so late and you’re tired, so your mind is playing tricks on you.
It is agreeing with me when it says, Ashley Alyssa-Rose, go to sleep!"
Lexi pulled the sheet over her head.
Ashley walked back to her room
cautiously. The rain stopped and the thunder died down a bit. "I guess it
was all in my mind, but why did that picture come to my mind? I’ve never seen
her! She doesn’t even look like she is from this century!"
*****
The next morning, Lexi woke up to
go to work. She was extremely late--three hours, to be exact.
"Oh, this’ll be coming out
of my check! I’d better take a taxi and call Melinda, telling her I’m going to
be late, as if she doesn’t already know that. Where is my phone?" Lexi
searched her purse from top to bottom before spilling out the contents for a
faster search. "It’s not here! Oh, right. Silly me. It’s sitting on its
charger in the den!"
She put everything back in her
purse except for her house key. She ran inside the apartment, but the cell
phone was not on its charger. "God help me. Where is it?"
"It’s in your bedroom,
Lexington," a voice said quietly.
"Please don’t call me
that—all right, it’s not because I am late for work. My mind is playing tricks
on me! Madre!" Lexi cursed in French and turned around to see who the
speaker was, but saw nothing. She rolled her eyes and went to her bedroom,
grabbed her phone, and called Melinda.
*****
"Hey, look who rolled out of
bed finally!" Ashley joked as she tried to balance a stack of dressage
saddles to be cleaned and conditioned.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Where’s
Melinda, smarty?" Lexi stuffed her purse under the counter.
"Have you looked at the
clock? It’s 12:30! She went to lunch. Now, help me by holding this stack."
Ashley tried to keep a stack of seven dressage saddles from tipping over.
Lexi shook her head. "Why
don’t you just…" Her voice trailed off as she walked over to help Ashley.
Two Hours Later
Lexi yawned pointlessly as she
looked outside at the traffic. Her mind began to wander a little and she
wondered what had happened to Jack.