Page 98 of Strangers She Knows

“I don’t know. I didn’t drink or eat anything that she could have touched.”

The light developed eyes, and swiveled toward the sink.

Kellen looked at the chrome faucet where she’d poured herself water, at the mini-filtration system that protruded off the faucet’s arm. She staggered over there and peered into the chrome, and a Cheshire Kitten smiled with wicked delight. “She put drugs in the filter!” Kellen announced. She pulled herself fully erect, as if holding herself with a straight spine would counter the effects of the drug, and staggered across the kitchen toward the entry. “I’ve got to get to my hiding place and lock myself in,” she announced.

But first—she wasstarving. Opening a package of crackers, she shoved a handful in her mouth. She followed that with another handful.

She really wanted the tuna, but how could she open it? It was in a can. She didn’t remember how to open a can. “In the Army, I opened lots of cans,” she reminded herself, and stuck the tuna into her shirt.

Again she started toward the stairs, then circled back to the canned tuna. She didn’t know how to open a can. “Look! It’s a pull top!” she announced, put it in her shirt, then returned to her quest for the stairs.

Dimly she was aware she was behaving as Rae had behaved, moving in dizzy circles, unable to get where she wanted to go.

But Kellen wasn’t a child. She could fight the drug and…wow. She found herself standing with her hand on the newel post. Look at the stairs. They never ended. If she climbed them, she could reach the stars. She put one foot up. And another foot up. She ran up three steps.

Something dropped on her foot.

She yelped in surprise, and watched the tuna can roll down the stairs. She laughed, because it was funny, and because she wore waterproof athletic shoes and the can didn’t hurt her toes. She ran a few more steps, and something else fell onto her foot. It was a tuna can. She waited for it to roll down the stairs, but it sat there like a guardian tuna, tail twitching in menace.

She backed away, skidded a few steps down, clutched the handrail, and tried to remember where she was going.

Upstairs to her room. She had to hurry, because… She didn’t know why.

Yes, she did. Because Mara was coming.

“I’m here.” Mara took her arm. “I see you got into the water.”

Kellen stared at her, wide-eyed. “You did something to the filter.”

“Full points to you.” Mara led Kellen up the stairs. “The thing about this drug is when I take it, it makes my brain normal.” She smiled, and her face turned into a cat’s.

Kellen gasped.

“But when you or any person with a normal brain takes it,” the Cheshire Cat said, “it changes your world in terrible ways. Or so they tell me. I do hope you can hear the air quotes when I say, ‘Normal.’”

“I don’t like talking cats.”

“I don’t like barking dogs, either.”

They reached the top of the stairs, and they weren’t in the stars. They were in the corridor headed for Kellen and Max’s bedroom.

“I need to go to the bedroom,” Kellen confided, “so I can lock the door.”

“Why would you do that?”

“Because Mara is coming. Shhhh.”

“I’m Mara.”

Kellen looked. The cat rearranged its features and became Mara. “You’ll have to wait out here.” She frowned. “You’ve got a bump on your head. It’s a big bump.”

Mara steered her through the bedroom door and over to the dressing table. “That’s what happens when a corpse falls on you.”

“Nooo. That sounds awful.” Kellen sat, because Mara pushed her onto the dressing stool. “How did that happen?”

“You bitch. You know. You did it.”

“Did not.” But some vague memory pressed against Kellen’s skull, wanting out. “Jamie is flying with the birds,” she blurted.

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