Chapter 117
Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, USA, 1941
“We can’t decorate a palm tree,” Jamie insisted as Ellie stood in the corner of his apartment, moving a chair out of one corner and across the room in her excitement. “Why can’t we just get a fake tree?”
“We can’t get a fake tree! We need a real tree. This one’s perfect.” She had her hands up in the shape of Ls moving them around at different angles, looking at the tree between them. It was a potted palm tree, one she’d bought while Jamie was at work, and had had hauled up to his apartment, which though she didn’t technically live in, she spent about eighty percent of her time there if she wasn’t in class or at the diner. It was early December, but she was already in the Christmas spirit, and Jamie wasn’t about to argue with her about whether or not a palm tree made a good Christmas tree, now that he could see how excited she was about the idea. He couldn’t help but giggle at her.
“What about decorations?” he asked, still standing back a bit and observing.
“Oh! I brought a box over from my parents’ attic,” she said, spinning around so quickly her light green dress did a little twirl. She clapped her hands together and rushed into the adjoining kitchenette. She was back in a flash with a medium-sized box, which she set on the coffee table. She took a seat on the sofa and opened it up, and Jamie moved to sit next to her, still smiling at her enthusiasm. Over the last six months, they’d spent as much time together as possible, and he was more than a little enamored with sweet Ellie.
“Won’t your parents miss them?”
“No, they’re mostly the ones we never put up and a few of my own I’ve collected over the years,” she explained. She pulled out a Christmas tree shaped ornament. “See, it’ll be perfect!” Setting it aside, she reached back into the box and promptly pulled her finger out, with a sharp, “Ouch!”
Jamie glanced down to see her finger was bleeding. She quickly shoved it into her mouth out of instinct. “Are you all right?” he asked.
“Yes,” Ellie assured him, leaning forward to glance into the box. “One of them must’ve broken.” She stared at her finger. “It’s not too deep is it?”
Careful not to touch her, as he still hadn’t explained anything to her about what he was or what he could do, he glanced at the slit in her finger. “No, it’s all right. You might need a bandage, though. I’ll get you one.”
Before he could step away, she reached out and put her uninjured hand on his bare arm. “Thank you, Jame--” she said, but even while she was still speaking, her voice changed. “What in the….”
Frozen for a moment, Jamie continued to stand with his back to her. She’d never had an injury before in all the time they’d been dating, so he’d never been in a situation where he was forced to tell her what could happen. He slowly turned back to look at her, staring at her finger in awe. “What… what happened?” he asked, trying to sound innocent.
“My finger!” Ellie shouted. “Look! It’s… it’s healed! Completely!”
“Let me see,” Jamie said, sitting back down next to her and taking her finger in his hands. There was no need to avoid contact with her now since he’d already healed her. “Hmmm. Must’ve just stopped bleeding. The cut must be so small that you can’t see it now that there’s no blood.”
“But it doesn’t hurt anymore either, Jamie. Not at all. It’s like it never happened.” She continued to stare at her digit like she’d never ever seen it before.
“Very odd,” he said. “I think you should still put a bandage over it, just in case.”
“Why?” she asked, pulling him back down just as he began to get up again. She was eying him suspiciously. “Listen, I wasn’t going to say anything because I thought it was odd, but I bumped my shin on a desk at school the other day.”
“Yes, I can see why you would think that odd,” Jamie said, squinting at her.
Ellie rolled her eyes. “Let me finish. I had a big bruise on my shin. But then, I noticed later, after I’d had dinner with you, that it was gone. The bruise had been about this big,” she showed him with her hands in a circle about an inch in diameter, “all blue and green. Now, nothing.” She pulled her skirt up just enough to show him.
“Bruises heal.”
“In an hour?”
“Sure,” he shrugged.
“And… last week, I had an awful headache. But the moment you touched my hand, my head suddenly stopped hurting.”
“What are you saying, Ellie?” Jamie asked, wondering how far she was willing to go.
“I’m saying… I’m saying… I don’t know. But… something seems odd about you, Dr. James Joplin. You’ve never told me how old you really are. I know you don’t sleep much at all. I thought it was because of the stress of your job, but you don’t seem too stressed. You go out late at night with your friend, who is also a little odd, mind you. When you eat, it isn’t much. I feel like you’re just eating because I am. You have that odd black box you carry around in your pocket. What’s going on, Jame? Is there something you’re not telling me?”
Dropping his head, Jamie ran a hand through his hair. “Yes, El. There’s something I’m not telling you.” He looked up to see concern all over her pretty face. Slowly, he ran his hand along her cheek, caressing her jawline. “I’m… an alien. I’m from the planet Borgon, and I’ve been sent her to pillage Hawaii of all the beautiful young women.”
“Oh, stop!” she exclaimed, swatting at him, but he grabbed her around the waist, and as he began to chuckle, so did she until his lips were on hers and they had moved on to other things. As the kisses deepened and Jamie’s hands moved to work the buttons down the front of her dress, Ellie whispered, “This isn’t over. I haven’t forgotten you’ve dodged my question.” His lips pressed into the flesh between her neck and shoulder, and she breathed, “But you can tell me later.”
“I will. Later. I promise,” Jamie said, scooping her up and carrying her to the bedroom. The Christmas tree, the explanation, all of it could wait until later, and while part of him hoped she’d let it go, he knew in the back of his mind if he was to have a future with this woman, he’d need to tell her the truth. And a future was exactly what he was looking for because there was no doubt in Jamie’s mind that he loved Ellie.
