The Secret of Zormna Clendar by Julie Steimle (best ereader for pdf TXT) 📕

pained. She wiped away tears with the back of her hand. “Yeah.”

Almost immediately she put all the clothes back into the trunk, replacing the lid then shoving it back into the closet once more. The documents, Zormna stacked on the bed. Her eyes stroked them in heavy silence.

Jennifer didn’t like that silence either and said, “Here.” She held out two dresses to Zormna, both royal blue. “I’ve decided on these for you.”

Zormna peered at them, then as if obliged to, stroked the fabric with equal regard…which wasn’t a whole lot.

One dress was velvet. It was much smaller than the other tent-sized dresses, perhaps only two sizes larger than Zormna. It was cut just above the knees. The neck scooped wide with a mock off-the-shoulder look along with a lower back. Yet it would cover the mark on Zormna’s shoulder perfectly, which was all that mattered. Jennifer had found the store tag still attached to the collar. Perhaps it was a dress her aunt had hoped to wear but was never thin enough to fit. The other dress was crisp taffeta with a long flowing skirt, billowy sleeves, and the most ridiculous black lace collar Jennifer had ever seen.

Looking up, Zormna said, “I am not wearing them both.”

Snorting, Jennifer set the blue dresses down. “Of course not. But I figure the velvet for the top half, and the skirt to the other one to make it elegant. They match perfectly.”

“Whatever.” Zormna muttered then rose from the bed. She took the three envelopes full of documents with her.

Jennifer hopped to her feet and followed Zormna to the door. “Hey, where are you going?”

Looking over her shoulder, Zormna lifted the envelopes, “I need to take care of something. You can do what you do. I trust you.”

The blonde walked back down the stairs to the living room.

Jennifer watched her, wondering if Zormna really meant she trusted her, or if she only trusted her with the dresses. Zormna had, after all, shown her that necklace and medallion. It was perhaps one of the million secrets Zormna had never intended to share with anyone. And though Jennifer did not know why a necklace would make her parents even angrier than seeing a mark burned into her shoulder, she vowed to never to tell them about it.

Turning to sort out her mess, Jennifer gazed at the heaps of gowns around her.

A wicked idea came to her. Maybe she wouldn’t get rid of them all. Zormna would not care if she took a few and remodeled them for her own use, right? The girl hated dresses. Besides, it would take just a bit of snipping, tucking, and gathering to make those two dresses into the ultimate prom dress. It would be like payment if she was allowed to the use the rest of them as she wished. She’d have to ask of course.

Jennifer did not go downstairs until all the other tent-sized dresses were stuffed into black garbage bags. When she had finished, she found Zormna in the living room, crouched next to the fire grate. Zormna had a small gas fire going. The envelopes were burning inside it.

“Didn’t you want to keep any of those?” Jennifer asked, striding quickly towards her with both blue dresses under arm. “There were pictures of your parents in that stuff.”

Zormna lifted up the small wallet-sized photos, cut out. She cocked her head to the side with a crack of a smile. “I got them.”

Sighing, Jennifer stepped back. “Ok. I see you thought of everything.”

“Not everything.” Zormna returned her gaze to the fire. “I should have known my great aunt had some plan for us. I should have realized she had prepared things to make our transition easy. I keep wondering if she had set up a job for my father. Or for my mother. She had clothes for me at that age, but not older. But Mr. Earnheart said she was expecting me… the older me.”

Jennifer scratched her forehead. That awkward feeling had returned. “Well…”

“I keep wondering what was going on when she died, right before she died.” Zormna shook her head harder, closing her eyes.

Jennifer leaned nearer. “You don’t still suspect Jeff—”

“Not at all,” Zormna shook her head briskly. “I never did. Time gap. Improbability…. It’s not that. I just can’t figure out what the FBI is waiting for?”

Unable to come up with a decent response, Jennifer closed her mouth.

She glanced to the burning documents. Most of the writing was ash. Zormna was not foolish enough to leave even an edge of the papers unburned. If anybody inspected the house, they would not find any incriminating evidence. Jennifer also noticed that Zormna had neatly tucked in her necklace again. There were no signs she was even wearing one. Jennifer wondered if perhaps the medallion was valuable.

“…But they returned her after they found her, just like they did with me.” Zormna continued to think out loud, staring at the fire. “They may have been telling a partial truth about wanting to find my great aunt’s killer. But I hate feeling like bait.”

Jennifer cringed. Bait? Was that what Zormna suspected? And if Zormna was bait, what was she? It was like being a swimmer next to a shark cage…but not in it.

So she said, “How much danger are we talking about?”

Zormna glanced over to her, taken out of her thoughts. “You have nothing to worry about. If you keep out of my mess, you’ll be fine.”

Jennifer nodded. Good plan. Keep out of the alien mess. She didn’t want in it anymore.

Zormna tugged a corner from one of the blue dresses in Jennifer’s hands, a smile cracking across her face. “Come on. You show me your master skills and make this prom dress thing.”

Jennifer laughed. Finally Zormna had become likeable.

Zormna hopped to the gas jet at the fireplace, stabbing the ashy remains of the papers with the poker one last time then shut the valve off. They practically ran out of the house, smiling, yet locking the place securely when they had gone.

They would make this prom dress thing.

*

Darren watched their exit from his upper bedroom window, leaning on the sill. He sighed.

Jennifer and Zormna together again. Either Jennifer stopped believing what he had told her, or something else was afoot. Maybe they bonded over the whole FBI kidnapping thing. Girls were so weird.

His eyes followed them as the girls jogged across the street into the trash can alley with what looked like heaping wads of dark blue cloth. Zormna did not even bother to look up this time, though in the past she had always kept a lookout for him. Apparently she no longer considered him a threat. She had worse problems now.

The world was so full of inobservant people. It was a sad fact Darren often lamented. People never seemed to see how close Jennifer was to the alien blonde. No one had the imagination or the capacity to grasp the whys behind Jeff Streigle’s erratic behavior towards the pretended Irish beauty. And this last few weeks…oh, Darren became so enthralled at how no one comprehended the intensity of the stare Jeff had on Zormna. But Darren knew it. It was like someone who watched a race or a basketball game. Jeff was keeping score—in his way. The punk knew all the stats about this ‘player’. And he was eagerly waiting for the final championship where all would be decided—like Jeff had bet a large sum of money on the final outcome.

The question was, who was he? What was his true connection to Zormna? And why didn’t the FBI go after the guy after that first week Jeff and Zormna had their clash? What had they discovered about Jeff that made them drop him as a suspect? Because they were looking for suspects.

It was better to just watch, Darren decided. To watch quietly. No one had even noticed how he had not mentioned Martians or conspiracies for weeks. Not even those FBI who had questioned him.

Yes. He saw them around campus now, now that he knew what to look for. That one car was parked across the street from the old woman’s house. One of the agents inside was talking to someone on his cell phone. Darren could not hear them, but he guessed that someone else would be waiting for Jennifer and Zormna at around the McLenna’s house. The question was, waiting for what? Because no one had yet attempted to attack Zormna since her return. 

Darren pulled his head back inside his window. One day the FBI would realize that he knew a lot more than he let on. But until then, he had time to find out the truth.

And it started with Jeff.

Chapter Twenty-Five: Allies and Idiots

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“When in doubt, tell the truth.”—Mark Twain—

 

Prom had been nothing short of magnificent. Even Zormna said so.

Todd spent the entire time in euphoria. The ball gown Jennifer had constructed from the crazy lady’s dresses was amazing. And Zormna looked like a queen in it.

Tal Bachman’s song, “High Above Me” played over and over again in his head as Zormna was on his arm that night. And though his parents seemed to scowl more seeing her like that, her curly hair done up in a romantic twist, primped by Jennifer’s willing fingers, Todd just could not stop smiling.

And the dance? It was awesome.

Zormna was a great dancer—better than he had expected. And she made him look good.

Then again, a ninja ought to be light on her feet.

Everybody was impressed. Mark and Jonathan were slack-jawed, almost drooling. Brian had to avert his eyes, as he stammered with compliments towards her while his date glared at him. Alex’s face was entirely red, and he had to go outside to cool off. And Jeff could not stop staring at her.

It was a good thing Zormna was used to boys staring at her. She smiled only politely at first, Todd noticed. Yet later in the night as they danced, she truly smiled. With an angel in his arms, he wished it would never end.

Everyone was jealous.

 

On Monday, Todd still floated on air. Graduation practice had started. They only had two weeks of school left.

Everything was wonderful.

Todd went with Zormna early to school so she would not be alone when walking to cheer practice. And he pretended that she was his girlfriend. He knew it wasn’t so, of course. He could see it in Zormna’s eyes. She liked him, but like a brother. Just like how she had mellowed out with Jennifer, like sisters. He just wished there could be more. A girl that beautiful within arm’s reach, and yet so far.

And he wished he could do more for her.

Looking to the road on his way to the school building to get his cap and gown, Todd spotted the FBI sedan at the curb. Zormna was still afraid to be alone because of them. If he could fix that, then maybe she would be happier. Or maybe he could convince his parents not to be so mean.

Glancing once more at the FBI watching, the euphoria wore off enough to make him determined

*

Zormna was glad Todd had been happy at Prom, and she came to school on Monday feeling please with herself. His parents, of course, would never have been pleased either